The Point Of Impact: A Simple Framework To Move The Needle

_{[Read time: 5 minutes]}

There is a downside to forward-thinking.

You get stuck looking at the destination, forgetting that the point of impact is right in front of you.

Today, I’ll explain (or, more like, remind you) the mental framework of the point of impact, why it moves the needle, and what it means for business.

You know what feels good?

When nuggets of wisdom find you precisely when you need them.

Last week, I was re-reading Tim Ferris’s 600-page book, Tribe of Mentors. It’s not a book you must read front to back — it’s a compilation of short advice from the world’s greatest achievers.

In the closing thoughts, Tim shares a short story about his experience learning to play tennis.

Spoiler: His takeaways have nothing to do with tennis but rather the importance of where to focus.

Tim realized that when you stop fixating on the destination and focus on what’s right in front of you, you get the desired result.

The point of impact.

The point of impact is the split second in which your intention collides with the outside world.

Here’s the excerpt from Tim (with his coach, Lorenzo).

Out on the court we walked.

Two hours into practice, Lorenzo stood up a broom up in the middle of the net and put a towel on top. My job was to aim for the towel.

I proceeded to hit a seemingly endless streak of balls into the net. There was zero accuracy and constant shooting pain in my arm.

Lorenzo stopped the action and walked around the net. He spoke quietly: “When I was a young player in Italy, nine or ten years old…my coach gave me a rule: I could make mistakes, but I couldn’t make the same mistake twice. If I was hitting balls into the net, he would say, “I don’t care if you hit balls over the fence or anywhere else, but you’re not allowed to hit any more balls into the net. That’s the only rule.”

Lorenzo then changed the focus of the drill entirely. Instead of compulsively looking at my target, the towel, I would only focus on what was directly in front of me.

The point of impact.

The point of impact is where the ball makes contact with the racket. It’s the split section in which your intention collides with the outside world. If you look at freeze-frames of top professional players in this critical moment, you will most often see their eyes on the ball as it smashes into their strings.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Ready.”

He fed me the first ball and…it worked like magic.

As soon as I stopped fixating on the destination – where I wanted to hit the ball - and instead focused on what was in front of me – the point of impact – everything began to work.

To find the point of impact, answer: “Where does my thinking meet action?”

There are many variations to this question:

• Where idea meets execution

• Where vision becomes reality

• Where planning meets doing

But they all get to the same point → There is a time for thinking and a time for action. When you try to do them simultaneously, the results simply don’t happen (the way you want them to).

“Think big, act small” is well-known for a reason.

That “act small” part? That’s your point of impact.

How does the point of impact apply to business?

Find the small action. The one you can control. The one you can finish.

That will move the needle.

Here are 4 examples:

Do you want to bring a new product to market? The point of impact may be working on the prototype so you can test it with a small group of users and gather feedback to refine your offering.

Do you want to build a loyal customer base? The point of impact may be responding to a customer's complaint with respect, empathy, and promptness so you can improve your services (and show customers that their opinions matter).

Do you want to maintain profitability? The point of impact may be reviewing this week’s financial metrics so you can make informed decisions to enhance the economic health for next week.

Do you want to increase sales through email marketing? The point of impact may be sitting down to write the first draft so you can start to measure what resonates with your audience.

The smart move has always been the simple move.

We sometimes forget that to get to the destination, we need to focus on the point of impact.

If you missed last week’s post:

Last week, I wrote:

9 Thoughts On Entrepreneurship (After Five Years Of Owning A Business)

It’s your reminder that reflection is a catalyst for progress. Next month will mark five years since I started running a business full-time. I will apply These nine thoughts (and lessons learned) to the next five years.

See if you feel the same way.

Please tell me what you think in just one click.

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If you want to make a dent in the universe, hit reply and share your thoughts.

Thank you for taking 5 minutes to read this post — I know your time is valuable. See you next week.

— Peter

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