My newly purchased watch from rewindjewelry.com was spectacular. It was a freshly restored gold railroad pocket watch converted in to a wristwatch. Stunning. But there was a problem. It stopped running about every hour or so. I panicked. How could this be?

Here’s what I discovered. The beautiful pocket/wrist watch wasn’t flawed. It was all my fault. This is really embarrassing to admit. The problem was me. I wasn’t winding it tight enough. All I had to do was exert more pressure and wind it a little tighter. Good grief. I wrote to the designer/artist Carlos and confessed my personal stupidity.

But I am not so stupid that I failed to learn a lesson. I began to wonder how many people, including myself, could immediately improve personal results by just applying more pressure? A little more effort?

It seems so obvious: put out more effort and see more results. But that’s why it is easily overlooked as a way to quickly improve your results in all areas of your life. Wind yourself a little more tightly.

The personal improvement field is crammed with books on techniques or sure fire ways to improve your results. I have the feeling many have gotten the idea that we can achieve our dreams and goals without a putting out much effort. (Example: read The 4-Hour Workweek.)

Sure, some people really do work hard. And for some people actually need to slow down. But I suspect many of us need to get wound a little tighter. We need to try harder. We need to embrace the work and dreams in our field of vision. If we are going to realize our full potential we need to get wound up.

Recently, I’ve decided I was going to start writing on a regular basis. But where would I find the time? Where would the energy and insight to bang out something with my two-finger typing methodology come from? In spite of those doubts, I wound myself a little tighter. Now, at least four mornings a week, I am in my mobile office at McDonald’s by 6:30 in the morning. And that’s exactly how I wrote this post.

Why not wind yourself a little tighter? You might be surprised out how your will improve your results. What? Tic Toc. Still reading? Tic Toc. Time is ticking away.

What ideas to you have to get wound a little tighter?