David Allen - Success Secrets

Full transcript: David Allen on London Real

0:00 Brian Rose: What’s something you do every day that’s just not negotiable? Something that keeps you where you want to be.

0:15 David Allen: I’ll eat my own dog food. I’m a man. I do GTD.

0:22 I could not not do that, you know, and still manage or maintain sort of a peaceful, you know, state of mind.

0:28 Brian Rose: You know, if you will, has your relationship changed with it over the years, because you’ve, you know, been eating this dog food for 30 years?

0:36 David Allen: Mmmm, not really. I mean, kind of like, why do you not take showers anymore? I will do what I did to do this for the same reason that I take showers, brush teeth, you know, take care of my health as best I can, because if I didn’t, the probably I wouldn’t, don’t pay the price.

0:52 Brian Rose: It’s a way of life that’s a way of life, right?

0:55 David Allen: Yeah. So I guess that’s pretty much it, and, you know, just to be as loving and caring a person as I can, you know, to not only to myself but anybody that I might talk to her. So you know, my life in a way has kind of become just a walking meditation, you know. So learning how to just get present.

1:14 It’s kind of nice to, you know, if you really do GTD, I think it’s pretty easy to just be present, you know. So just reminding myself about that. Sometimes I slip and fall off, but not for very long.

1:24 Brian Rose: If I were to ask some of your closest friends and colleagues from the years, from back in the day, and then even now, what’s David’s superpower? How is he able to do all this at once?

1:34 What would they say it is about you, personality?

1:36 David Allen: Yeah, that’s a great question. I’ve never asked them, and yeah, come to this summit and ask them.

1:41 Brian Rose: You’ll obviously care, though, about people, and they’re, you know, making these businesses better and making people better and making processes better yeah, that’s always been something about you, right? To care enough?

1:51 David Allen: Yeah, yeah. I think it probably as much an educator as as anything else, you know. And I care about people. I know, interestingly, I am an introvert. If you do any of those tests, I’m sort of a closeted introvert, because it looks like my lifestyle, it’s like I’m kind of out there and all of that, but, you know, sometimes if I’m out doing a teen, the seminar, whatever, and people come over in the break, and they think, God, you don’t like me anymore?

2:17 System, though, I’m just recharging, you know, because I don’t, that’s not necessarily how I get my juice. That’s fun to do, and I love that the change, and the you know, we’re coaching people, and being able to be with people, but, golly, I’ve been, God’s just graced me with the fact that I was able to come up with this methodology that does nothing but help people. You know, this is not running with scissors. There’s nothing you can do that I’m sharing with you that does any, you know, I do no harm you know, and that’s really blood lead, if they actually have built a career in at least a decent lifestyle, you know, I’ve been able to build that and to find and to have, you know, at last count, we were tracking at over three thousand people a month now.

2:55 We’re going through GTD trainings around the world,

2:58 Brian Rose: and all that early work you did early on, you know, by thinking about things and the paradigms and the spiritual work. I mean, that had a big impact on the path you took in life, right?

3:10 David Allen: Yeah, I think so, but a lot of it had to do with just stopping and listening to my inner voice. We all have that, that’s still small voice. So I think if we all just were able to come present, and that’s a whole lot of what that work is done for me.

3:26 It’s being able to listen. Hey, you know, what is what is the what are the higher powers that I trust, my partners, on the, you know, in the invisible realms, you know, what would they have me do? How would I do that? So learning to listen to that, learning to be quiet and listen, to pay attention to that, and then just following my heart. Thank you, you know, doing what I feel like doing, and then GTD helps you create that quietness.

3:47 Yeah, as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and, you know, probably, if I were independently wealthy, I’m, you know, I probably wouldn’t be learning the lessons I need to learn, so I still like to pay the rent, and, you know, have a decent lifestyle, so I still need to kind of focus on that. Like I’d given all that up, you know, but it’s nice to be able to do things that produce that kind of result without having to stress too hard about.

4:10 Brian Rose: Yeah. David always asked everyone a couple questions at the end.

4:13 I’m gonna ask you, if you could pick up a magic phone and ring the 20-year-old David Allen, who I guess is Berkeley at this point? No, maybe you’re still in Sarasota? No, it, and give that young man a bit of advice. Well, what would you tell him based on who you are now and who he was then?

4:33 David Allen: Relax, don’t be too concerned, you know, about what you need to do or whether it’s right or not or whatever.

4:40 Just, you know, keep going. The 20-year-old in me was pretty adventurous, anyway. And what would I tell me? You know, I yeah, I would relax in a bigger way. It’s like, just assume that the world is going to be fine, and you don’t have to have all the answers, you know, or be, you know, and be more of who you really are as opposed to what you think people want you to be.

5:14 Well, that was something that, you know, all my personal growth training and a lot of that stuff helped train me about later on, but that would be my advice. But I think I took that my own advice, you know, at least in doing that by getting involved in a lot of that stuff was that 20-year-old kind of anxious to get it happening faster. Not really. I was just pretty much involved in whatever it is I put in front of my face to do next, and, you know, and not really at my 20-year-old, but I certainly got a piece of advice from sort of my inner guides or counselor, you know, at some point.

5:55 One of those freeway aha moments, you know? Emily epiphanies. I kept back, I don’t know what I need to do with my life, and should I do this or should I do that? Should I do that? And there’s this still small voice, just popped into my head, said, David, do not worry about what you need to be doing in your life.

6:10 You have created so much in this life and many others that you don’t know about. All you need to do is deal with what’s in front of you presently, with as much elegance and excellence as you can, and the next thing will show up automatically. And I’ve never really gone back from that.

6:28 Brian Rose: When did you get that thought?

6:30 David Allen: Time that was probably in my mid to late 20s.

6:33 Brian Rose: That’s powerful. Yeah, very powerful.

6:35 David Allen: And that’s a lot of what GTD does for me. Let me just deal with this with elegance and finish this as much as possible, and not perfection, just excellent. Do that as best I can, and, you know, make this the best spaghetti I could make right now, make this the best painting I could make right now, not the best in the world, but the best I can do right now, and as long as I’m at that level of at my own best at whatever it is that I’m doing and just complete it, you know, as best I can or call it finish whenever I need to.

7:07 The next thing is getting sure and always has