In our busy lifestyle, which seems to get busier by the day, most of us wish to have more time, energy, or skills. A few more hours to build a passive income source or more energy to work on your personal finance goals.
Yet, there are many people who are thriving in their careers, managing multiple side hustles, while leading a fulfilling life at the same time. They do all this in the same 24 hours that you get!
So, the real question is – how are some people better at achieving things than others?
The answer is simple – Leverage!
They use the power of leverage to lead the life that they want.
Today, I will share some powerful tips that will help you use leverage in your life and turn it around for the better. Read on!
What Is Leverage?
“Leverage” is a word that you would have come across multiple times if you spend even a little time scrolling through the internet. But what does leverage mean exactly?
Well, if we go by the Cambridge Dictionary, leverage means – “the action of using a lever.”[1]
As a verb, leverage also means, “the art of using something that you already possess to achieve something new and better.” Leverage is also the power to influence results and turn them in your favor.
If you apply this definition to your daily life, you will understand that leverage helps you use your existing resources in a way to maximize results and achieve your dream outcome. The best thing about leverage is that it helps you activate your dream results and lead your dream life in less effort and time.
When it comes to life, there are several types of leverage that you can use to get desired results. Let’s have a look at the major types of leverage that can create a profound impact on your life.
1. Time Leverage
Time leverage is all about using other people’s time in the best way to accomplish your tasks. This frees up some of your time and allows you to do other important things.
One of the best ways to have more time leverage is by using technology to automate a variety of manual tasks or delegating your tasks to others (more on this below!)
2. Personal Life Leverage
Personal life leverage is all about using the power of leverage in your personal life and relationships to accomplish most of your goals. This can be achieved by surrounding yourself with like-minded and forging valuable connections and getting things done through them.
3. Skill Leverage
Skill leverage is all about using your skills or energy in such a way that you get more positive results with minimum effort. You can develop soft skills and they keep adding to them. For example, if you are a writer, you can learn the art of copywriting or email marketing to open doors to new opportunities.
Thus, if a lack of time, energy, or skills is preventing you from leading the life of your dreams, then using the power of leverage can be the smartest choice for you. It can help you turn your goals accomplishments and dreams into reality without spending a lot of time and energy.
How Does Leverage Work?
In life, leverage works by converting your little effort or time into huge positive outcomes. It either multiplies your abilities or enables you to use other people’s abilities to achieve your goals.
For example, if a person wants a job, they can do so by asking one of their connections to recommend them to their company. This enables them to get ahead of other candidates and possibly get the job if they are skilled enough. Here, the person did nothing but used personal leverage to get increased their chances of getting a job.
Consider the example of an investor. Investors have financial leverage. They use their investing and financial knowledge to invest in stocks and other financial instruments.
This helps them earn year-on-year returns on their investment and multiply their money while sitting back at their home. They are just using their financial knowledge and putting their money to work. Small efforts, but huge rewards!
An excellent real-life example of this is Warren Buffett.[2] The renowned investor and business magnate leveraged his financial knowledge and skills to invest in stocks. He went on to become the world’s most successful investor with a net worth of over 100 billion dollars!
This is the whole concept of leverage. It works on something you already own (a connection in a company/ money and financial knowledge) and expand it into something new and profitable ( a new job/return on investment).
The Power of Leverage
Now that we have discussed what leverage means and how it works, you would have got a pretty clear idea about the incredible power it holds. Any type of leverage, if used in the right way, can change the course of your life. After all, that’s what most successful people do, right?
From multi-billion dollar business owners to CEOs to politicians, most successful people harness the power of leverage to build skills, enhance their network, and get things done. They influence people and situations in the smartest and most productive way.
Harnessing the power of leverage can help you in the following ways:
Increase Your Productivity
By leveraging your time or the time of others, you can get things done faster in less time. Whether you do it through technology or hire people to work on your goals, you will be able to boost your productivity and become more efficient.
Help You Build Wealth
Similar to what I talked about in the example of Warren Buffett, leveraging skills and knowledge can help you maximize your investments. This in turn helps you build a lot of wealth along the way.
Help Enhance Your Personal Growth
Whether it is through building meaningful connections or learning from past experiences, leverage also helps in boosting your personal growth. It opens doors to possibilities that you didn’t know existed.
How to Leverage to Live Your Best Life
Leveraging different situations can enable you to lead the life of your dreams, there is no doubt about this. It can help you lead a productive and fulling life. However, before you start leveraging time or skill, or personal relationships, it is important to “read the room.”
You need to analyze how much power or influence you already possess before trying to leverage a situation. Not everyone can leverage in life in the same way.
For example, if you are a business owner, you have the power to leverage the time of your employees to get things done faster. However, you may not be able to do so if you are working as an intern, right? In such a case, you will have to leverage something else to boost your success and growth.
When it comes to leveraging in life, one thing is certain – everyone can do so. If you aren’t able to leverage other people’s time or skills yet, you can leverage yours.
In this section, I will discuss some actionable tips that will help you leverage in leading the life you always wanted.
1. Leverage Time And Energy
Almost every successful person leverages their time or the time of others to achieve their goals.
Take the example of any business owner, like Bill Gates or Elon Musk, etc. They hire talented and competent employees and leverage their time and skills to achieve business goals. They delegate tasks to them and empower them to make their own decisions. This gives the business owners more time to focus on other critical business matters.
When it comes to leverage, make sure you are spending time and energy only on the absolutely necessary things.
Here’s how you can do that:
Delegate Tasks
Delegating major tasks to your assistants, employees, or even family members help you get things done faster and free up your time.
Delegation also helps you empower your employees and subordinates. It increases their productivity and the overall efficiency of your business. In this way, you will also be able to dedicate your energy to things that require your skills and attention. It also reduces the chance of burnout and helps you enjoy a work-life balance.
Increase the Use of Technology And Automation
Using technology is an excellent way to leverage time and get things done faster. As per research, 70% of business leaders accept that they spend 45 minutes to 3 hours doing repetitive tasks.[3] A large portion of this time can be saved by automating manual tasks.
For example, there is email automation software that helps you schedule your emails and post them automatically. You can also use applications that can help you boost productivity and do more in less time.
Come Up With Clear Guidelines And Future Plans
Creating a simple guideline for a process or setting goals and plans for the coming month is an excellent way to leverage time.
A business owner or manager can create 1 handbook about the nitty-gritty of all the tasks and procedures. The entire team can use this handbook and perform accordingly. Doing so not only saves time in the long run but also helps your team members in executing their tasks quickly and efficiently.
For instance, front-line employees of Virgin America are empowered to solve customer problems within a wide outline built by managers. This is the main reason why the airline is always being rated as one of passengers’ favorites.
Setting clear guidelines and goals also empower the team members to do their tasks and make decisions without relying on their manager for every little thing.
Further, it ensures you and your team stay focused on the necessary things and don’t end up procrastinating or doing things that aren’t necessary.
2. Leverage Skills And Knowledge
Leveraging skills and knowledge is an excellent way to thrive in your professional and personal life. Skill, knowledge, or talent leverage is all about identifying your most powerful and unique skills and enhancing them
Here’s how you can leverage skills and knowledge:
Learn Soft Skills That Can Be Applied to Different Aspects
According to a study,[4] having well-developed soft skills is responsible for 85% of workplace success. Soft skills like decision-making, communication, and emotional intelligence are in high demand and can help you excel in various parts of life.
There are several soft skills that can help you achieve more success in less time. For example, if you are a negotiator, you can learn new communication and persuasion tactics to convince your customers quickly and get more success in less time.
Apply Your Knowledge to Different Scenarios
You can also have leverage in life by learning the art of applying your knowledge to different scenarios.
Ask yourself, how can you use your knowledge to achieve better results at your workplace. Are there any scenarios where you can apply your knowledge apart from your job and earn money, fame, or prestige?
Most successful social media influencers leverage knowledge to lead their best life. Let me give you a real-life example of this.
Jamie Oliver – a popular chef – has used his culinary knowledge to become an Instagram star. He has authored his own books, works with several popular brands, and is living a great life in general.
He leveraged his knowledge to build a second career and is thriving in it. You can do the same too!
3. Leverage Past Experiences And Achievements
Finally, leveraging past experiences and achievements can also help you attain the life you want. Let me show you how:
Leverage Your Past Mistakes And Experiences
Learning from your past mistakes can be a painful experience. After all, no one like to make mistakes in the first place, right? But making mistakes is unavoidable. So, the best thing to do is take them as a life lesson and leverage them.
This will enable you to grow and do avoid doing the same mistakes in the future. Let me share some best real-life examples of incredibly successful people who leveraged their past mistakes or painful experiences and changed their lives for the better:
- Steve Jobs was fired from the company he built with his sweat and blood. Yes, Apple fired Jobs in 1985 due to his clash with the CEO. But this didn’t deter him from working for his dream. He started various other projects from scratch and eventually came back to Apple and went on to become its CEO.
- J. K. Rowling’s pitch for Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishers. But J. K. Rowling leveraged these painful experiences, improved her pitches, and continued meeting with new publishers. Today, she is one of the wealthiest and most popular women in the world.
Leverage Achievements
Leveraging achievements is all about using your win in different areas of your life. This is what most celebrities and sports stars do. For example, the star football player, Lionel Messi leverages his football achievements by acquiring endorsement deals with brands like Adidas, OrCam, Pepsi, etc. His brand deals are worth more than $130 million per year.
Conclusion
We all have limited time, energy, and skills. And there’s only so much that you can do and achieve with them. However, harnessing the power of leverage empowers you to achieve more of your goals and lead your best life.
Here are the key takeaways that I want you to remember:
- To harness the power of leverage, you need to implement the right strategies and forge meaningful relationships.
- Ensure to keep on adding to your skills, and spend time on the important things only. For the rest, start delegating, automating, and using more technology to achieve more in less time.
- Improve your thinking and start using your past mistakes to improve your future.
- Find ways to apply your knowledge in different aspects of your life
- Use your achievements as leverage. For example, if you have won an award, see if you can use it to negotiate a higher salary.
Make sure to apply the above-mentioned tips in your professional and personal life, and I am sure you will be able to notice positive outcomes soon.
Featured photo credit: Vadym Alyekseyenko via unsplash.com
Reference
| [1] | ^ | Cambridge Dictionary: Leverage |
| [2] | ^ | Harvard Business Review: What I Learned from Warren Buffett |
| [3] | ^ | KRC Research: Work Market Report 2020 |
| [4] | ^ | National Soft Skills Association: The Soft Skills Disconnected |
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