My friend Jo was reading this book and kept sending me her reflections on it. It sounded interesting, so I told her to wait while I caught up. I quickly bought the book and started reading it on the plane to Cairns for a family holiday. I loved the book and it helped me to reshape some of my 2024 goals. My word for 2024 was originally “restore” – I was feeling burnt out and wanted to reignite my passion and motivation for work. By time I finished reading this book, my passion was well and truly reignited and I just wanted to get on with bringing some of my ideas to life!
So, what is 10X?
10 is about 10x-ing your time, money, relationships and purpose by 10x-ing your results, not doubling your effort.
Most people reach for just a little bit more – 2x – but 2x is “exhausting and soul-defeating”. When you 2x, you do more of the same, just faster and harder. 10x isn’t about more, it’s about less: “Going 10x is the simplification of your focus down to the core essential. Then you remove everything else.”
I love this concept because it aligns with the Goldilocks principle, a philosophy I live by, of “as much as necessary, as little as possible.” I already try to simplify my work, home life and family responsibilities to make sure that I do the things that really need me; the things that only I can do. This book has helped me to amplify that.
There are three main points I took from 10x:
- 10x is easier than 2x
- To 10x, you need to do less
- My own limiting beliefs are holding me back.
1. 10x is easier than 2x
You’d hope this was something I learnt from this book, seeing as it is the title, after all!
How is 10x easier?
When you expand your vision to 10x goals instead of 2x goals, you’re forced to completely rethink your strategy. If you’re aiming for 2x (the same, but more of it); you might need to tweak things here and there; but small tweaks aren’t going to get you to 10x.
Setting goals that seem impossible help you to focus your attention and guide you towards the changes and actions that have the biggest gain.
Maybe you won’t quite achieve 10x results, but you are very likely to achieve greater results than you’d get just doing more of the same.
“Impossible goals help you identify the ONE or FEW conditions that have the highest possible upside. Those are the areas to focus your scarcest resource – your limited attention on.”
2. To 10x, you need to do less
10x is about focusing your attention – you focus on far less, but it’s so much more powerful because you’re not spread thin. To do this, you have to let go of 80% of your current activities, clients, roles, behaviours, and mindsets. This 80% is holding you back. Instead, you need to focus on your 20%, which consists of your unique abilities and highest leverage opportunities.
This 80-20 rule (also known as the pareto principle) is not new. The 80-20 rule says that 80% of outcomes result from 20% of inputs. The rule is used to help identify which inputs have the most valuable outcomes, and therefore where a company should focus.
I’m familiar with the 80-20 rule and I am conscious of where I focus my effort when at work, but reading about it again in the context of the idea of 10x goals helped me recalibrate my 20%. In fact, I sat down with my business partners and told them that we all needed to figure out what our 20% was and how we could make changes to our business structure so that we each only worked in our 20%.
Effort alone isn’t what produces results; it’s focusing that effort in the right places that makes the difference. If we want to 10x, we have to get rid of 80% of our efforts that produce minimal results, and instead concentrate on the critical 20% that push us forward.
3. My own limiting beliefs are holding me back
One of the main reasons I loved 10x is that it shone a light on my own limiting beliefs. When I read 10x I was pulling myself out of a burnout phase that had left me feeling fed up and uninspired. Maybe that was caused in part by my lack of a vision for the future. I didn’t have a “big goal” to work towards.
Getting pregnant, managing pregnancy and life with newborn babies has been my focus for the last 9 years, but we don’t plan to have any more children. Our youngest baby is now two and I’ve got some independence back again. We’re happy and comfortable in our home, we’re not planning on moving or carrying out a big renovation. I’m now a co-owner of the business I’ve worked in for the last 14 years, and things are going great! There’s nothing I need; things are good; I should just keep doing more of the same.
To a 10x-er; this represents a scarcity mindset. 10x isn’t about needs, it’s about wants. 10x says you should be specific and clear in setting a vision of your future that isn’t limited by your current circumstances. This abundance mindset isn’t about greed, but about freeing you from the constraints of your scarcity mindset and helping you set a truly 10x goal.
After reading 10x I made a new vision board that now sits in my wardrobe so I can see it every day. The vision board includes a new “posh house” (that we definitely don’t need, but I realise it is ok to want!)
“The most fundamental qualitative change is internal, your vision and identity. By changing these, everything else you’re doing simultaneously changes as well.”
If you’re into goal setting, manifesting or just want to achieve more, I highly recommend you read this book.
