Blank Keys

(4 minute read)

Keys are an old metaphor for life. Different keys open different doors in different places. Keys are cut with a level of precision that will allow one to open a particular door, or in the case of masters, many doors. We’re not born with a set of cut keys that open the doors we think should be opened for us.

Instead, we get blanks.

I used to carry a blank on my key ring to remind myself of the power of possibility and the gravity of my decisions. Every decision you make when you reach a critical crossroad in your life cuts another ridge in that key. That ridge inevitably bars access to one door, but at the same time gives access to another.

What doors are you trying to unlock?

The decisions you make are important. The priorities you set are important. Warren Buffet—third richest person on the planet—has a productivity principle that has been adapted and adopted by successful people in every discipline.

It’s called the 5/25 Rule. The way this principle works is you write down the top 25 goals you have for yourself, then circle the 5 that are most important to you. Everything you didn’t circle is to be avoided at all costs until you’ve achieved your top five goals. You can change the numbers and do this daily or weekly. 2/10, 3/15, etc which work well for shorter spans of time.

Pareto’s Principle

This rule is really just an adaptation of something called Pareto’s Principle or the ‘80-20’ rule. Essentially, 80% of your results are yielded by 20% of your activities; 5 out of 25 is 20% and 20/25 is 80%.

See the math?

Our lives are shaped by our decisions not by our conditions.

When you try to spread your energy over too many different things, very little gets accomplished, and that’s in part because of something called decision fatigue. You can only make so many good decisions in a day before the quality of your decisions degrades, so the idea is to focus your energy on the important ones—the ridges in your key.

🤔 How are you going to cut your blank key? 🤔

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