"Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty," as Napoleon Hill shared in Think & Grow Rich!
Showing posts with label results. Show all posts
Showing posts with label results. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Build Your Legacy
"Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty," as Napoleon Hill shared in Think & Grow Rich!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
What Are Your 3 Wishes?
Of course, there is one major stipulation: You have to hear Genie's opinion first before your wish is granted. After thinking through some crazy wishes about a person that frustrates you, your fantasy vacation ideas, shopping for luxury items, living a wild lifestyle, as well as making a huge difference in the world, learning from people you admire, and doing cool things for people you love...you start to hone in on what you might use for your three wishes.
You realize that what you REALLY want
Friday, June 14, 2013
Risk of Summer Plateau?
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Don't Be Resolution Roadkill
Following are 5 easy steps for achieving greater success. They are all important, but in this case they are counting down to the one most critical during times of multifaceted change:
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
POLL: What's Stopping You?
Which would you say is your primary obstacle to your desired level of business/career success?
Monday, March 26, 2012
Part 3: How Today's Leaders Are Like Successful Athletes
Part 3 of 3
3. When it counts, they show up and perform.
Leaders today must realize that greater success is created when employees are enticed to show up and perform, most certainly when it really counts, but also every day. Long-running success in business comes from creating a mission, vision, and culture that employees not only appreciate but WANT to be a part of.
3. When it counts, they show up and perform.
Leaders today must realize that greater success is created when employees are enticed to show up and perform, most certainly when it really counts, but also every day. Long-running success in business comes from creating a mission, vision, and culture that employees not only appreciate but WANT to be a part of.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Part 2: How Today's Leaders Are Like Successful Athletes
Part 2 of 3
2. They learn to work as a part of a team.
Everyone on the team understands and plays with the knowledge that every player has a clear role on the team, and yet when needed for team success, anyone steps in and does what is needed to win.
2. They learn to work as a part of a team.
Everyone on the team understands and plays with the knowledge that every player has a clear role on the team, and yet when needed for team success, anyone steps in and does what is needed to win.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Do I Have To Choose: Make Money or Do Good?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
9 Ways to Stay Motivated
So you've set your goals or intentions. Now what? From experience, we all know "life gets in the way" and often weeks and months can go by without much progress toward achievements. To change results, there must be a process or system for execution. In other words, you have to
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
5 Simple Steps to Achieving Your Goals
As I prepared for the coming year, helping my clients prepare their goals and objectives, and working on my own, I realized there is a plethora of resources available to us geared toward goal setting but there was a need for more information about goal ACHIEVING. I set out to create something - some easy worksheets and a few steps - so that anyone could take this document and be a goal achiever. Whether you 'do'
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Cultivating a Daily Success Mindset
What one skill do all successful people, all around the world, and all throughout time, have in common?
Whether they realize it or not, they all are masters at visualizing their success. They routinely envision successful outcomes--and most often expect nothing else. Their words likely match their thoughts, but they may have also mastered the art of not telling everyone how confident they are. If you could tap into the minds of the top tier of successful people, you would find
Whether they realize it or not, they all are masters at visualizing their success. They routinely envision successful outcomes--and most often expect nothing else. Their words likely match their thoughts, but they may have also mastered the art of not telling everyone how confident they are. If you could tap into the minds of the top tier of successful people, you would find
Friday, May 7, 2010
Partners in Business: from the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly –to Great!
How to profit from and enjoy each other’s personal and professional strengths in business.
Choosing a partner in business is just as important as choosing the right marriage partner, yet many people “fall into bed with” someone in business and "wake up" later wondering what happened. It starts innocently enough, as a fun idea over drinks after-hours, then suddenly it can take on a personality of its own and can overwhelm a friendship or other relationship with all the sticky details of running a business. The stress builds and soon the partners can hardly stand each other, from the varying ways they prioritize business activities, different approaches with clients or employees, and annoying personal habits they bring to the office.
We all know roughly the statistics on marriages that break up citing financial reasons…is it any wonder that most business partnerships end for similar reasons? However, most often financial problems are symptom of relationship problems or partnership “personality” challenges.
Creating Great Partnerships for Great Business:
I. Choose the right partner; this critical step is often flubbed up. Take time for discussions about many aspects of the business, go through what-if scenarios, and expectations.
II. Create the partnership business plan and agreement together before the business really takes off. Both of these are best when kept simple but usable. Hire an attorney familiar with partnership contracts, and actually go through the process of discussing and agreeing. (I believe this step alone could prevent as much as 50% of future partnership dissolution.)
III. Check to see if you have the same dream, as far as what the business provides. Are you assuming early retirement and moving to the Caribbean, when your partner is planning to work in the office daily until they pry his cold, dead fingers from the desk? What about the vision for the business? Maybe one partner is expecting to expand into new markets, while the other feels it ruins the integrity of the business to grow beyond one location. It takes conversation and brainstorming strategically (and sometimes a facilitator or coach) to be on the same page. And agreement; what may seem like a grudging compromise can grow into a solution where both partners are truly happy.
IV. Establish policies, guidelines, or protocols for doing business and handling common activities. What criteria do you use in decision-making? Do half your employees follow one partner’s guidelines, and half the other’s? Do your staff members feel they get caught in the crossfire? Consider how this affects the work environment, the clientele, the bottom line.
Many partnerships go through “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” phases and sadly most that get to this point break up. Some come to another end, hopefully with an arrangement that allows them to resume their former camaraderie without financial strain. Some partners buy the business, others agree to switch to silent/investor-only/limited partnerships and let the more business-talented partner act as business owner, and others form a custom arrangement that allows for win/win.
Then again, some partners (the few, the proud) work out their differences, get their purpose, mission, and goals aligned, and become Great Partnerships, running Great businesses. Yes, it is worth some consideration. After all, you were attracted to the idea of working together once upon a time…
ACTION: Answer the following questions separately, and then discuss together.
*What made the partnership such a great idea back then?
*What are the top 3 things your partner brings to the partnership?
*What do see as the top 3 things you bring to the partnership?
*How can you work together to create more positive business results?
SPECIAL OFFERS
Through the end of June 2010: SWOT Analysis for Business Owners. Up to three partners, same price as one owner. Only $350.
Also great for Partners: “Purpose, Mission, Goals” 3 month coaching program, only $1500. Focus is on where all the time, money, and effort goes, and specifically what long- and short-term results are expected. What results would you like to change first?
Choosing a partner in business is just as important as choosing the right marriage partner, yet many people “fall into bed with” someone in business and "wake up" later wondering what happened. It starts innocently enough, as a fun idea over drinks after-hours, then suddenly it can take on a personality of its own and can overwhelm a friendship or other relationship with all the sticky details of running a business. The stress builds and soon the partners can hardly stand each other, from the varying ways they prioritize business activities, different approaches with clients or employees, and annoying personal habits they bring to the office.
We all know roughly the statistics on marriages that break up citing financial reasons…is it any wonder that most business partnerships end for similar reasons? However, most often financial problems are symptom of relationship problems or partnership “personality” challenges.
Creating Great Partnerships for Great Business:
I. Choose the right partner; this critical step is often flubbed up. Take time for discussions about many aspects of the business, go through what-if scenarios, and expectations.
II. Create the partnership business plan and agreement together before the business really takes off. Both of these are best when kept simple but usable. Hire an attorney familiar with partnership contracts, and actually go through the process of discussing and agreeing. (I believe this step alone could prevent as much as 50% of future partnership dissolution.)
III. Check to see if you have the same dream, as far as what the business provides. Are you assuming early retirement and moving to the Caribbean, when your partner is planning to work in the office daily until they pry his cold, dead fingers from the desk? What about the vision for the business? Maybe one partner is expecting to expand into new markets, while the other feels it ruins the integrity of the business to grow beyond one location. It takes conversation and brainstorming strategically (and sometimes a facilitator or coach) to be on the same page. And agreement; what may seem like a grudging compromise can grow into a solution where both partners are truly happy.
IV. Establish policies, guidelines, or protocols for doing business and handling common activities. What criteria do you use in decision-making? Do half your employees follow one partner’s guidelines, and half the other’s? Do your staff members feel they get caught in the crossfire? Consider how this affects the work environment, the clientele, the bottom line.
Many partnerships go through “the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” phases and sadly most that get to this point break up. Some come to another end, hopefully with an arrangement that allows them to resume their former camaraderie without financial strain. Some partners buy the business, others agree to switch to silent/investor-only/limited partnerships and let the more business-talented partner act as business owner, and others form a custom arrangement that allows for win/win.
Then again, some partners (the few, the proud) work out their differences, get their purpose, mission, and goals aligned, and become Great Partnerships, running Great businesses. Yes, it is worth some consideration. After all, you were attracted to the idea of working together once upon a time…
ACTION: Answer the following questions separately, and then discuss together.
*What made the partnership such a great idea back then?
*What are the top 3 things your partner brings to the partnership?
*What do see as the top 3 things you bring to the partnership?
*How can you work together to create more positive business results?
SPECIAL OFFERS
Through the end of June 2010: SWOT Analysis for Business Owners. Up to three partners, same price as one owner. Only $350.
Also great for Partners: “Purpose, Mission, Goals” 3 month coaching program, only $1500. Focus is on where all the time, money, and effort goes, and specifically what long- and short-term results are expected. What results would you like to change first?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Are You Setting Goals, Uh-Hem, Properly?
Are you setting your goals with the idea that you will achieve them?
It may sound like a rhetorical question, yet it is not. Now I understand quite well that there a lot of people out there who prefer not to set goals or think about them. This post is for the rest of you.
It's absolutely flabbergasting how many people I run into daily that aren't setting the right goals, aren't setting goals with the idea they will actually achieve them, and aren't setting goals with the ability to measure their success (or failure)! This might be a lot to digest, so let's break it down:
Are you setting the right goals for YOU? Are you bending under the weight of others' expectations, or worrying about what everyone else thinks of your goals and achievements? Are you fully tuned into your own desires, needs, wants, preferences? In one of my MasterMind groups, we discussed one person's new goal- it was a specific salary goal, but the more he talked about it, the more everyone realized what he really wanted was a specific car, more time with his wife, some more travel, and professional recognition. Think about this as you are getting into the groove of your 2010 goal-achieving. There is more to come on this! Don't want to wait for "How Do You Know You've Set the Right Goals?"? Join the RESULTS forum now.)
Are you setting goals with an expectation that you will achieve them? Are you REALLY expecting to do it, or are you wishing things were different? There is a chasm between the two approaches. When you believe that you WILL perform, that you have the ability to stick with it and find the resources inside and out, even if things get difficult -- then you WILL do it. When you go into something doubting your ability to complete it, why do it at all? There are myriad reasons why people continually set goals and don't give it their all during the "do it" phase. Obviously, it's not about purposely causing a cycle of hope and failure.
Hopes up, hopes dashed, hopes up, hopes dashed again. Do you ever feel like this? How do you break the cycle? Set a goal that REALLY matters to you (see above). Your desire must be strong enough to carry you through the tough days, it must be personally relevant, and you must be emotionally attached to the outcome. This is precisely why burning one's own ships in battle to cut off option of retreat is so effective. This is precisely why when the chips are down, people pull through.
Don't take the easy way...set a stretch goal and GROW for it. Expect to both dislike and enjoy the ride, but fall in love with the expected outcome.
How will you know when you succeed or fail? If you tell me "I want more money," and I reach into my pocket, flick you a nickel, and say "OK, you have more money. Happy?," how will you feel? How much money do you want, by when, and what exactly are you going to do with it? Making a wish doesn't mean it will come true. But there is magic in spelling out all the details. Achieving goals requires specificity. In other words, if I don't set a specific goal, then I don't know when I hit the mark. I don't get to celebrate. This is bad; everyone needs to celebrate their successes!
Use the SMART framework every time you are acknowledging a goal: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. As an example, "I want to earn 20% more income by June 15, 2010 so that I can purchase a new blue truck with light grey leather seats, spend a week in Aruba, and invest another 5% of salary into my retirement funds during this calendar year."
TAKE ACTION:
1. Consider your current goals. Do they matter to you? Do they fire you up? What great things will occur once you've achieved them?
2. Re-evaluate and analyze your goals now. Do they take you out of your comfort zone, and are they attainable at the same time? Find ways to make sure you have some "skin in the game" and watch your performance rise.
3. Do your goals meet the SMART criteria? If not, rewrite them now. This will be difficult at first, but is very liberating because is clears up anxiety and uncertainty very quickly. You should also feel like some clear action items are ready to leap into your planner from this exercise!
Happy New Year! Make this one more personally meaningful than any year prior!
Learn more about Envision Success RESULTS programs.
It may sound like a rhetorical question, yet it is not. Now I understand quite well that there a lot of people out there who prefer not to set goals or think about them. This post is for the rest of you.
It's absolutely flabbergasting how many people I run into daily that aren't setting the right goals, aren't setting goals with the idea they will actually achieve them, and aren't setting goals with the ability to measure their success (or failure)! This might be a lot to digest, so let's break it down:
Are you setting the right goals for YOU? Are you bending under the weight of others' expectations, or worrying about what everyone else thinks of your goals and achievements? Are you fully tuned into your own desires, needs, wants, preferences? In one of my MasterMind groups, we discussed one person's new goal- it was a specific salary goal, but the more he talked about it, the more everyone realized what he really wanted was a specific car, more time with his wife, some more travel, and professional recognition. Think about this as you are getting into the groove of your 2010 goal-achieving. There is more to come on this! Don't want to wait for "How Do You Know You've Set the Right Goals?"? Join the RESULTS forum now.)
Are you setting goals with an expectation that you will achieve them? Are you REALLY expecting to do it, or are you wishing things were different? There is a chasm between the two approaches. When you believe that you WILL perform, that you have the ability to stick with it and find the resources inside and out, even if things get difficult -- then you WILL do it. When you go into something doubting your ability to complete it, why do it at all? There are myriad reasons why people continually set goals and don't give it their all during the "do it" phase. Obviously, it's not about purposely causing a cycle of hope and failure.
Hopes up, hopes dashed, hopes up, hopes dashed again. Do you ever feel like this? How do you break the cycle? Set a goal that REALLY matters to you (see above). Your desire must be strong enough to carry you through the tough days, it must be personally relevant, and you must be emotionally attached to the outcome. This is precisely why burning one's own ships in battle to cut off option of retreat is so effective. This is precisely why when the chips are down, people pull through.
Don't take the easy way...set a stretch goal and GROW for it. Expect to both dislike and enjoy the ride, but fall in love with the expected outcome.
How will you know when you succeed or fail? If you tell me "I want more money," and I reach into my pocket, flick you a nickel, and say "OK, you have more money. Happy?," how will you feel? How much money do you want, by when, and what exactly are you going to do with it? Making a wish doesn't mean it will come true. But there is magic in spelling out all the details. Achieving goals requires specificity. In other words, if I don't set a specific goal, then I don't know when I hit the mark. I don't get to celebrate. This is bad; everyone needs to celebrate their successes!
Use the SMART framework every time you are acknowledging a goal: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. As an example, "I want to earn 20% more income by June 15, 2010 so that I can purchase a new blue truck with light grey leather seats, spend a week in Aruba, and invest another 5% of salary into my retirement funds during this calendar year."
TAKE ACTION:
1. Consider your current goals. Do they matter to you? Do they fire you up? What great things will occur once you've achieved them?
2. Re-evaluate and analyze your goals now. Do they take you out of your comfort zone, and are they attainable at the same time? Find ways to make sure you have some "skin in the game" and watch your performance rise.
3. Do your goals meet the SMART criteria? If not, rewrite them now. This will be difficult at first, but is very liberating because is clears up anxiety and uncertainty very quickly. You should also feel like some clear action items are ready to leap into your planner from this exercise!
Happy New Year! Make this one more personally meaningful than any year prior!
Learn more about Envision Success RESULTS programs.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Coaching and Clogged Toilets?
I had a personal experience this week in my household, during the same few days I've been giving a lot of thought to a new coaching program debut for 2010 (Now LIVE!). I realized afterward that an interesting analogy formed.
I was dealing with a clogged toilet in my main bathroom.
If you've experienced a clogged toilet, you know that you can’t really ignore it. You can work around it by using a different toilet or other bathrooms for awhile. Ultimately you realize the problem won’t go away by itself, and you say, "Hey I am a perfectly capable person. I can fix this." And maybe you have successfully worked a plunger and triumphed over this kind of thing before, but this time it's different. So after struggling along, getting creative, making a mess, etc...the water is still not flowing. "Ugh, I don’t understand how the plunger doesn't seem to be getting the job done this time (and BTW why do they have a bright yellow handle? Weird.)"
Bottom line: I want it fixed and obviously I need to try another approach. I come to the realization that I have to call in someone with the skills to fix this. It’s embarrassing, I don’t want to admit that somehow little ole me clogged the toilet. However, I want it working again, so I'm going to have to swallow my pride and call in a professional. Let me just say..."WOW!" It was so easy, less expensive than I thought, and they got things flowing again...happy ending!
Well, that was just ridiculous. I am so glad that I was not going to let myself stand by and not fix the problem; I just needed to use my resources! Seriously, I could have continued using another bathroom in the house; although it was a total inconvenience, and what might have happened if I let it go on?
Sure, it's out of the way and a total inconvenience at first, but can you imagine that after awhile it would become a habit and a person soon wouldn't think anything of it. This could on, and on, and on.
The thought of letting it get too far shook me into action and I made the call. They came, they did their job, they were friendly about it, and I realized this is what they do. They fix toilets. There is NOTHING to be ashamed of. It’s something human beings living in our modern age have to deal with sometimes. No big deal. They got things flowing again so quickly it was amazing. I wondered why I didn't call sooner.
Coaching is like this. ALTHOUGH, a big difference is that coaching is not about fixing problems; it’s about breaking down hurdles and working around or through obstacles so that a person is able to grow and develop and achieve far more than they would on their own.
The better analogy here compares a person’s life habits to a household with a toilet out of order. What is at first an inconvenience becomes the norm, and other habits are built up around this new system over time, and pretty soon the person doesn’t even consciously think how much easier daily life would be with their [main bathroom] working again. Coaching helps a person identify the clogs, or tolerations, or hurdles, and partners with the person to determine the best options for them to create a state where things are working well. In addition, from this stronger foundation coaching helps a person to develop and grow further to achieve amazing things in line with their own unique definition of success.
ACTIONS:
Think about what tolerations you are putting up with...
Are there habits that started as workarounds in your life or work, that when addressed, will help you "get things flowing again?"
Here's to your success!
PS- Thanks to plumbers everywhere for the small miracles they perform every day!
Learn More about the newest Envision Success programs for working professionals...achieving more in 2010, with no more excuses. Are you IN?
I was dealing with a clogged toilet in my main bathroom.
If you've experienced a clogged toilet, you know that you can’t really ignore it. You can work around it by using a different toilet or other bathrooms for awhile. Ultimately you realize the problem won’t go away by itself, and you say, "Hey I am a perfectly capable person. I can fix this." And maybe you have successfully worked a plunger and triumphed over this kind of thing before, but this time it's different. So after struggling along, getting creative, making a mess, etc...the water is still not flowing. "Ugh, I don’t understand how the plunger doesn't seem to be getting the job done this time (and BTW why do they have a bright yellow handle? Weird.)"
Bottom line: I want it fixed and obviously I need to try another approach. I come to the realization that I have to call in someone with the skills to fix this. It’s embarrassing, I don’t want to admit that somehow little ole me clogged the toilet. However, I want it working again, so I'm going to have to swallow my pride and call in a professional. Let me just say..."WOW!" It was so easy, less expensive than I thought, and they got things flowing again...happy ending!
Well, that was just ridiculous. I am so glad that I was not going to let myself stand by and not fix the problem; I just needed to use my resources! Seriously, I could have continued using another bathroom in the house; although it was a total inconvenience, and what might have happened if I let it go on?
Sure, it's out of the way and a total inconvenience at first, but can you imagine that after awhile it would become a habit and a person soon wouldn't think anything of it. This could on, and on, and on.
The thought of letting it get too far shook me into action and I made the call. They came, they did their job, they were friendly about it, and I realized this is what they do. They fix toilets. There is NOTHING to be ashamed of. It’s something human beings living in our modern age have to deal with sometimes. No big deal. They got things flowing again so quickly it was amazing. I wondered why I didn't call sooner.
Coaching is like this. ALTHOUGH, a big difference is that coaching is not about fixing problems; it’s about breaking down hurdles and working around or through obstacles so that a person is able to grow and develop and achieve far more than they would on their own.
The better analogy here compares a person’s life habits to a household with a toilet out of order. What is at first an inconvenience becomes the norm, and other habits are built up around this new system over time, and pretty soon the person doesn’t even consciously think how much easier daily life would be with their [main bathroom] working again. Coaching helps a person identify the clogs, or tolerations, or hurdles, and partners with the person to determine the best options for them to create a state where things are working well. In addition, from this stronger foundation coaching helps a person to develop and grow further to achieve amazing things in line with their own unique definition of success.
ACTIONS:
Think about what tolerations you are putting up with...
Are there habits that started as workarounds in your life or work, that when addressed, will help you "get things flowing again?"
Here's to your success!
PS- Thanks to plumbers everywhere for the small miracles they perform every day!
Learn More about the newest Envision Success programs for working professionals...achieving more in 2010, with no more excuses. Are you IN?
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tackling Procrastination
It's Procrastination-Prevention month at Envision Success, Inc.
How much does procrastination get under your skin? If you're like most of my clients, we could spend a few sessions on it. Almost all working professionals suffer from procrastination at least sometimes, and some have a daily habit.
First, let's define it.
For the purposes of this post, procrastination simply means putting something off until another time instead of completing it on the originally intended timetable.
What it does for us and against us.
Although we tend to think of procrastination as negative because it is frequently accompanied by guilt, sometimes it is good to reprioritize things, shifting plans along the way. You need some down time on a regular basis. If you are chronically overscheduled or overcommitted, you are going to notice some procrastination, and you may want to embrace learning how to balance important tasks better.
As a result, most people are experienced procrastinators, and when we look for symptoms we can find them. Sometimes people are inefficient, ineffective, or just plain lazy. Usually, however, procrastination of important tasks happens only because people aren't being clear about what they NEED to get done each day. One simple change can make a world of difference!
What are you going to do about it?
Considering how procrastination affects your energy level, what's the value of changing your habits? I'm not talking about anything complicated or time-consuming here; IT CAN BE VERY SIMPLE. A significant chunk of procrastination comes from not having a task defined specifically enough. The mind cannot "do" when it doesn't understand what needs to be done. As an example, when you have something like "Sales Project" or "Marketing Plan" on your to-do list, you are much more likely to pracrastinate than if you have "Draft sales goals" or "Make list of sales growth ideas" or "brainstorm 15 marketing themes for next year." Do you see the difference? How can you apply it right now?
You own your life, you own how your time is used. Are you going to blunder through your day wasting 'unused minutes' or are you going to value opportunity? Ultimately, procrastination is a choice and when it brings bad feelings, then you need to question why you continue to tolerate it. Look for the root cause. Sheer discipline is NOT usually the answer...consider redesigning processes or elements or your physical environment to help support you to complete the most important tasks. (Ask your coach how.)
Follow-Up Actions:
1- Clear most distractions around you for the next 10 minutes.
Put the phone on silent, shut your door or plug your ears with earphones if necessary, close your email program, and stare into the corner or at the ceiling. Consider what's on your plate: what really HAS to be done versus what is NICE to do. Have a notebook and pen handly for this, and note down whatever comes to mind, but then add a star next to ONLY the most important THREE things you can do TODAY. You can draw another symbol next to other important ones, but pick ONLY 3 for this exercise. For each one, imagine what it would be like when the task is complete. If something pops into your head that seems helpful, write it down and act on it immediately after your 10 minutes is up.
2- Break bigger items on your to-do list into actionable tasks. Use action verbs and make them specific enough so you won't hestitate to consider what needs to be done.
Enjoy your increased productivity!
Contact Info
How much does procrastination get under your skin? If you're like most of my clients, we could spend a few sessions on it. Almost all working professionals suffer from procrastination at least sometimes, and some have a daily habit.
First, let's define it.
For the purposes of this post, procrastination simply means putting something off until another time instead of completing it on the originally intended timetable.
What it does for us and against us.
Although we tend to think of procrastination as negative because it is frequently accompanied by guilt, sometimes it is good to reprioritize things, shifting plans along the way. You need some down time on a regular basis. If you are chronically overscheduled or overcommitted, you are going to notice some procrastination, and you may want to embrace learning how to balance important tasks better.
As a result, most people are experienced procrastinators, and when we look for symptoms we can find them. Sometimes people are inefficient, ineffective, or just plain lazy. Usually, however, procrastination of important tasks happens only because people aren't being clear about what they NEED to get done each day. One simple change can make a world of difference!
What are you going to do about it?
Considering how procrastination affects your energy level, what's the value of changing your habits? I'm not talking about anything complicated or time-consuming here; IT CAN BE VERY SIMPLE. A significant chunk of procrastination comes from not having a task defined specifically enough. The mind cannot "do" when it doesn't understand what needs to be done. As an example, when you have something like "Sales Project" or "Marketing Plan" on your to-do list, you are much more likely to pracrastinate than if you have "Draft sales goals" or "Make list of sales growth ideas" or "brainstorm 15 marketing themes for next year." Do you see the difference? How can you apply it right now?
You own your life, you own how your time is used. Are you going to blunder through your day wasting 'unused minutes' or are you going to value opportunity? Ultimately, procrastination is a choice and when it brings bad feelings, then you need to question why you continue to tolerate it. Look for the root cause. Sheer discipline is NOT usually the answer...consider redesigning processes or elements or your physical environment to help support you to complete the most important tasks. (Ask your coach how.)
Follow-Up Actions:
1- Clear most distractions around you for the next 10 minutes.
Put the phone on silent, shut your door or plug your ears with earphones if necessary, close your email program, and stare into the corner or at the ceiling. Consider what's on your plate: what really HAS to be done versus what is NICE to do. Have a notebook and pen handly for this, and note down whatever comes to mind, but then add a star next to ONLY the most important THREE things you can do TODAY. You can draw another symbol next to other important ones, but pick ONLY 3 for this exercise. For each one, imagine what it would be like when the task is complete. If something pops into your head that seems helpful, write it down and act on it immediately after your 10 minutes is up.
2- Break bigger items on your to-do list into actionable tasks. Use action verbs and make them specific enough so you won't hestitate to consider what needs to be done.
Enjoy your increased productivity!
Contact Info
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