Pick a Few "Big Rocks"
Focus only works once you've decided what to focus on. Here's how to choose the handful of things that actually deserve your attention — and let the rest go.
There's a classic demonstration you may have seen — Stephen Covey made it famous in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, under the heading of putting first things first. You take a glass jar and a pile of big rocks, and next to it a pile of gravel and sand. Fill the jar with the sand and gravel first, and when you try to add the big rocks, they won't fit. There's no room. But reverse the order — big rocks first — and the gravel and sand simply pour in around them and settle into the gaps. Everything fits, but only if the big things go in first.
The jar is your time. The sand and gravel are all the small, urgent, low-value things that will happily consume every hour you give them. And the big rocks are the handful of activities that actually matter. It's a simple picture, but it makes an uncomfortable point: if you don't place the big things first, on purpose, the small things will crowd them out every single time. They always do.
What your Big Rocks actually are
Let me put a finer point on it for our purposes, because “what matters” is too vague to act on. In this program, your Big Rocks are the three to five prospecting strategies that best fit your strengths, serve your clients, and move your business forward. Not ten. Not “all the good ones.” Three to five. These aren't just the activities that are important in some abstract sense — plenty of things are important. They're the ones that are essential for you specifically: the vital few that deserve to go into the jar before anything else gets a vote.
Notice that's a personal definition, not a universal one. My Big Rocks probably aren't yours. What earns a spot depends on who you are, what you're good at, and who you're trying to serve — which is why nobody can hand you the list. You have to choose it.
Your problem isn't too few options. It's too many.
Here's the trap almost everyone falls into, and I've watched it happen for thirty years. If you've been paying attention through this program — or frankly through any decent sales training — you haven't learned too few ways to prospect. You've learned too many. Cold calling. Referrals and introductions. Public speaking. Social media. Centers of influence. Email. Networking groups. Community visibility. The Wedge. The list goes on and on, and every one of them has genuine merit.
And that abundance is exactly the problem. Faced with dozens of legitimate options, most people do one of two things, both fatal. They try to do everything at once, spread themselves paper-thin, and burn out before any single approach has time to work. Or they freeze — so overwhelmed by the choices that they do nothing at all, which is just analysis paralysis wearing a thoughtful expression. Either way you end up with random acts of prospecting rather than a rhythm. The cure isn't another strategy. It's the discipline to choose a few and deliberately set the rest aside.
How to choose yours
Your Big Rocks are personal, but they aren't pulled from thin air. By this point you've encountered dozens of strategies, and the ones worth choosing are almost certainly already in front of you — you just need to select them honestly. I'd steer you by three questions.
First, where have you already seen a little traction? Look back over your notes and your history. The activities that have produced even small results for you before are telling you something worth listening to. Second, what energizes you rather than drains you? This matters more than people expect. Prospecting is a lot like exercise — you will only stick with the activities that actually suit you, and the ones you dread you'll quietly abandon no matter how “optimal” they look on paper. This is about alignment, not obligation. And third, does it genuinely serve the people you're trying to reach — and are they even the right people? Focus applies to your market as much as your methods; not everyone is a prospect, and getting precise about exactly who you serve will often make the choice of Big Rocks obvious.
Where those three overlap — traction, energy, and real service to the right people — that's where your Big Rocks live. Pick from that intersection, cap it at a handful, and you've done the hard part.
How Prospect & Flourish approaches this
Everything in this program has been quietly building toward this choice. The strategies you'll draw from were laid out in detail across the earlier modules; the foundations that give them meaning were set even before that. So when you select your three to five, do it with discernment — and then, crucially, protect them and start. Don't wait until you've found the perfect combination, because that day never comes; far better to take imperfect action on a good-enough set of rocks than to keep polishing a theoretical one. What this means to you is that the overwhelm you may have been feeling isn't a sign you're behind. It's a sign you're ready to choose. Put your big rocks in the jar first. Let the rest fall where it falls.
Frequently asked questions
How many Big Rocks is too many?
If you're asking, it's probably more than you think. Three to five is the working range, and I'd lean toward the low end when you're starting out. The whole power of the idea is concentration — the moment you're “focusing” on eight things, you're not focusing at all, you're just making a to-do list and calling it a strategy. It's better to fully commit to three activities you'll actually sustain than to half-commit to seven you won't. You can always add a rock later once the first few are running on rhythm. Start narrow.
What if I choose the wrong ones?
You might — and honestly, you probably will get at least one wrong, so let's take the pressure off that right now. Choosing Big Rocks isn't a lifetime vow carved in stone; it's a working decision you revisit. Give a chosen strategy enough consistent effort to actually test it — not one grudging try, but a fair, sustained run — and then judge it honestly. If it's genuinely not producing and not fitting you, swap it for another. The real mistake isn't picking a wrong rock. It's refusing to pick any because you're afraid of picking wrong.
Isn't it risky to rely on just a few strategies? What if one dries up?
It's a fair concern, but I'd gently reframe it. Spreading across many strategies feels safer, yet it usually produces a portfolio of things all done so shallowly that none of them work — which is the real risk. A few strategies done consistently and well are far more resilient than many done poorly, because they're actually generating results you can see and adjust. And nothing stops you from having a couple of different types of rocks — say, one referral-based and one visibility-based — so you're not dependent on a single channel. Diversify a little within your few. Just don't confuse being scattered with being safe.
Do my Big Rocks have to be prospecting activities specifically?
In this context, yes — here we're talking about your prospecting Big Rocks, the vital few activities that keep new relationships and opportunities flowing. That said, the same principle scales to your whole life, and later in this section we widen the lens to the rest of it — your relationships, your health, your interior life all have big rocks of their own that deserve to go in the jar first. For now, though, keep it focused: which three to five prospecting activities earn first claim on your working time? Answer that one well, and you've got plenty to build a rhythm on.
Illustration created with AI, art-directed by Keith F. Luscher
