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Apr 11
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Personal Challenges

By Attitude, Blogpost, challenges

We all have self-imposed limitations. We all hold certain beliefs that are limiting and keep us from achieving our business and personal goals:

● I can’t do something
● I can’t have something
● that goal is not achievable

And we rationalise them:

● I don’t have the skills or the knowledge
● I just don’t have the time or the money
● it’s not meant to be

What’s really sad is that if you think you can’t, then you’re absolutely correct. You can’t. So in order to achieve your goals, you have to start thinking in terms of “I can.” How can you shift the way you see yourself and your goals? How can you see them in the light of possibility and optimism instead of negativity and pessimism (often masked as “being realistic”)?

Challenge yourself!

Personal Challenges2

Set challenges with specific actions and deadlines. These don’t necessarily have anything directly to do with your goal (although they can). The point of personal challenges is to get you to see things differently and to build self-confidence.

If you procrastinate, challenge yourself to work on your goal for 10 minutes. That’s all. And by “work on your goal” I mean actually work on it, not just think about it or organize your desk. Then you can go back to whatever you were doing. Why this works: procrastination is based on fear, and action is the best way to overcome fear. Get in the habit of taking 10 minutes a day to do something proactive on your goal first thing in the morning. 10 minutes is nothing in terms of time, but if you focus ONLY on your goal during this time, you’ll accomplish a lot.

If you are overwhelmed with the big picture, multiple demands on your time and have trouble finding time to work on your goals, challenge yourself to say NO to anything that is not a priority. That means you have to know what your priorities are, and you have to be willing to honor those priorities. That doesn’t mean shirking responsibility; it just means delegating or saying no to taking on more than you can handle in the course of a day. Some things just have to wait while your priorities are taken care of!

And this is the most fun challenge of all: You can always challenge yourself to “five more.” Five more what?

● Pages read
● Emails written
● Calls made
● Pushups
● Minutes
● Steps

Once you do five, you can often do ten. And another five… or ten.

Challenges help build your self-esteem and confidence, in small incremental steps.

 

Inspired by a blog post by Pam Solberg-Tapper on www.managementhelp.org

 

Apr 03
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How Many Good Habits Do You Have?

By Attitude, Blogpost

When we talk about habits, we usually talk about the BAD ones. The nail biting, procrastinating, emotional eating, more procrastinating, being consistently late, procrastinating…

You know that procrastination is the worst habit anyone can have? It’s the one that can destroy your dreams before you even know what hit you.

But the great thing is, if you can automate some of your productive actions – in other words, make them as effortless and mindless as your bad habits – then you’ll streamline your road to success!

Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Most of us are not that great at sticking to things that we know are good for us – like exercising, journaling and so forth. We are easily distracted by the “shiny things” in life: new, exciting opportunities, anything new and interesting… we start off with the best of intentions and then somewhere down the road, we become bored with the new thing, or it becomes hard. That’s when we allow the siren song of tempting new-ness to distract us.

But… what if you developed a habit of NEVER procrastinating? What if you could just DO what you had to do, get it over and done with, and actually accomplish something productive?

Creating a good habit is just as easy as creating a bad habit. Now that we’re all setting New Year’s resolutions, why don’t you make the one resolution that will snowball into all areas of your life: the habit of TAKING ACTION NOW.

good habits

Bleh, that sounds hard, doesn’t it?

It’s not.

My challenge to you is this: commit to waking up a few minutes early every day – say 10 or 15 minutes (you’ll get used to it very quickly); and spend that first 10-15 minutes BEFORE you get dressed, have coffee or do anything else, and DO at least one thing you’ve been putting off, something that’s been on your to-do list and has been quietly sucking the energy out of you everytime you look at your list.

If your desk has a stack of bills you’ve been ignoring, pay one. Just one. Then the next day, pay another.

Or… if you have a stack of customer service emails that you need to get to but are dreading because the party on the other end is in a really foul mood and is probably demanding a refund… write one email. Just one. The next day, write another.

Or… if your bookkeeping is a dreadlocked mess and you need to make sense of it, commit to just 10-15 minutes of work on it, first thing in the morning. Slow progress is better than no progress, even when it comes to untangling messy finances!

(And if you get inspired and decide that maybe you can do more, then do it!)

Doing something very small is easy. Doing a very small thing consistently is easy. And that’s how habits are created. Pretty soon you’ll be so used to starting the day off with a productive action that you’ll feel weird when you don’t and perfectly happy and normal when you do.

Doesn’t it feel GOOD to be accomplishing what you so eagerly set out to do?

Inspired by a post by Roland at www.lifedev.net.

Mar 25
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Just Do It!

By Attitude, Blogpost

The EASIEST way to achieve any goal is to make action a habit. Taking daily action on your goal is weird and unfamiliar at first, and you might be tempted to skip a day or a month if you come up against an obstacle. But if you’re diligent about daily action for about a month or two, you will have created a habit of action that will make you unstoppable.

How do you create a habit? Persistent repetition.

Okay… but how do you make yourself do something until it becomes a habit?

start-wallpaper

Find a way to keep doing it! Find a way to START, every single day. Create a habit of starting.

Starting might mean opening up your journal and writing your short list of goals. It means reading a page in your textbook, not a whole chapter. It means dialing the first number on your list, not making the commitment to call every person on it. Create a habit of starting: a push in the beginning of each day to get the momentum rolling.

So what happens when you just don’t feel like doing it?

First, let’s identify why you might be facing resistance to taking action:
● You’re comfortable, and the action is uncomfortable or difficult.
● You’re not afraid, and the action is scary (because it’s uncomfortable or difficult).

Here are ways to make a habit of action MORE comfortable than a habit of not taking action:
● Prepare yourself. Lay out the necessary equipment beforehand. Then, your resources are right there and the excuses of having to find something will vanish.
● Break your actions into their smallest, easiest components. It’s easier to commit to reading one page than a chapter. Tell yourself, “I’ll just do this one little thing and then I can get back to something else.” Changes are great that once you get rolling, you’ll keep rolling. Rollling is easy once you start!
● Talk about it. The more people you tell about your goal, the more uncomfortable it is to NOT take action because you’ll risk having to explain why you’re not moving forward!
● Reward yourself. For example, if you start the day off with a cup of coffee, DO NOT have that coffee until you have accomplished some small task. Reward yourself with the coffee after you’re done.

Make it as easy as possible to start, and hard to not start. Just for 30-60 days, or until you wake up one morning and you automatically take action on your goal. Then you’ll know that you have created the daily action habit.

Inspired by Leo Babauta’s blog on www.zenhabits.com

Mar 19
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Are You Chasing Too Many Rabbits?

By Blogpost, Goals

When people are asked to list their top 10 or top 5 goals, it’s not uncommon to see a list of great, exciting goals, but they are not prioritized and so they remain wishes and dreams. With all of that marvelousness looming ahead, how do you choose? How do you decide which personal and business goals to fit into your life? While it’s really tempting to want it all, and to try to achieve multiple goals at once, you’ll have much better success if you only chase one rabbit at a time and if you make sure that rabbit is going in the same direction as your values.

whichwaynext

Look at your goals list and see how each one of them fits into your life (because right now, as you are living your current life, is when you are designing and working on your future life). For each goal, ask: What is the driving force behind this goal? What fires you up about it? What makes it worth fitting into your life?

Adding goals (the act of bringing new things and experiences into your life) to a busy schedule means you have to be ruthless about choosing only goals that are meaningful – the ones imbued with a sense of urgency and need; the ones that make you come alive when you think about them; the ones that feel non-negotiable. Goals mean a redirect of time and energy that can’t go to something else so don’t waste your personal resources on minor goals.

Your greatest goals (the “must-haves”) are closely aligned with your values and priorities. How do you know what your values and priorities are? Look at your life. If you value time, you probably chose a career that allows you the maximum amount of leisure time (and/or time spent doing what you love). If you value money, you probably focus on investing, savings and you avoid excess consumerism. If you value relationships, you spend as much time and energy as you can on your loved ones. Of course in reality, life is a soup of compromises and sometimes seemingly opposing values; but in general, you are what you repeatedly do. Your values are clearly represented in your lifestyle and your choices.

How do your top 10 or top 5 goals fit into that scenario? You won’t. But by examining your goals to see how aligned they are with your values, you’ll quickly cull the herd. Are there goals that will immediately get the axe because they don’t fit in with your values? Hopefully so! That will help narrow your focus to the one that mean the most to you. The rabbit that’s most worth the chase.

Inspired by Jill Koenig’s blog on www.goalguru.com

Mar 13
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The Components of Goal Sucess

By Blogpost, Success

Goal achievement is a very dynamic process. Sometimes you’re flying along; other times you’re wondering if all of your hard work is ever going to pay off. Sometimes you neglect your goal. There is doubt. There is confusion. There isn’t enough time. So how do you keep motivated when you’re in the thick of it? And how do you fit your goal into a busy life?

success2

These are the key elements of success:

1. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS! Narrow the list down to the top 5, so you don’t overwhelm yourself – and focus most of your energies on the #1 goal. Magic happens when you write what you want. It’s the first command you give to your brain: “This is what I want.”

2. GIVE YOURSELF DAILY COMMANDS. You’ll have moments of doubt and fear; or times when you focus on the problems and not the solutions. Create a daily habit of visualization and self-talk, imagining and speaking of your goal already achieved. The more detail and emotion you incorporate, the better. Now, I know that some people view this as silly new-age lala stuff. But think about it – anytime you’ve ever achieved something, you first pictured yourself doing it.

Even getting yourself a cup of tea requires an instant’s worth of visualizing yourself having a cup of tea. It is a command to your brain to help you take the physical actions required to make tea. Before you get out of your chair, walk to the kitchen and fill the teapot, you picture the goal (enjoying a cup of tea) as already accomplished. You don’t sit there and picture yourself not being able to turn on the faucet to fill the teapot, or spilling tea all over your desk! And you certainly don’t get up and make a cup of tea without first having the idea to do so!

You picture yourself HAVING TEA. Goal. Accomplished. Only then does your brain know what to do next! You have to give your brain a command so it knows what to look for in your environment (the people and resources to make your goal happen). Visualizations/affirmations create BELIEF that your goal can, and will, be achieved – and then you’ll take action. Without belief, you won’t get up and do a thing. If you believe that for some reason you can’t have a cup of tea, you’ll never get up and make one.

3. CREATE AN ACTION PLAN. How do you get from A to B? Look at the big picture and then break the whole thing down into TINY daily action steps. Unless you’re able to work a goal full-time, you will have to be realistic and fit it into your schedule. Finding 10-30 minutes every day to work your goals is realistic and manageable and eliminates the excuse of “I don’t have time.” Sorry- hate to take that excuse away, but there it goes!

10-30 minutes a day is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Make daily action a HABIT. Commit to working your goal every day. Just like you brush your teeth every day. Persistent and consistent action will get you there. Sporadic activity will not. Set aside a short scheduled chunk of time where you can focus on your goal (10-30 minutes a day), and DO something.

Persistent and consistent action is easier and creates more forward momentum than taking occasional huge leaps. It’s like spending 10 minutes a day cleaning the house (it’s nothing!), versus spending an entire weekend at it and resenting and hating every second because you’d much rather be playing or relaxing!

Track your progress. Milestones and deadlines are great motivators. Set milestones as part of your action plan, and you’ll feel great about how much you’ve already accomplished. Create a timeline or a chart and set deadlines for yourself. And reward yourself by celebrating the milestones you achieve!

4. GET SUPPORT. You might need help creating an action plan (most of us haven’t got a clue as to where and how to even start, let alone continue!); you might need help with skills and knowledge. Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Don’t be afraid to ask someone to mentor you!

Together, these steps will move you closer to your goal every day. Don’t let the big picture overwhelm you! Achieving any goal is easy, if you ‘see’ it, feel it and work it, every day.

Inspired by a blog written by Tracy Brinkmann on www.goalsontrack.com

Feb 28
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Self-Motivation for When the Going is Tough

By Attitude, Blogpost

when_the_going_gets_tough

We’ve all been there – that situation when, despite your best efforts, the road is rocky and you are increasingly worn out from the effort… and the light at the end of the tunnel is probably an oncoming train.

Many people enter a project or start working on a goal with an unconscious self-defeatist attitude! It’s not that they lack motivation, it’s that they’ve predestined failure by not having the self-esteem necessary to follow through on a goal. They say, “I’ll try” – which implies, “I will work until it’s too hard, or too uncomfortable, or too scary, or too whatever… and then I’ll say that I tried and it will be okay to quit.”

NO! Wrong attitude!!

How can you get past this slump to the success on the other side? No matter what your business or personal goals are, you CAN motivate yourself to keep going – and more importantly, to keep giving your best. You CAN learn to persevere even in the face of “obvious” defeat. Most goals are, in fact, abandoned just shy of success.

Success is in the mindset. We are, all of us, naturally lazy and prefer to take the path of least resistance. When an obstacle comes up, it’s easier to give in and say, “not this time” or “it wasn’t meant to be.” But is that going to move you toward your goals? Of course not.

 

The problem with writing an article on self-motivation is, there is no one perfect way to motivate everybody. Depending on how you perceive the world; your level of self-esteem; your beliefs about your goals and many other factors, you will have to come up with your own secret formula for motivational success. That said, here are some tools you can use. Try one, try them all, and NEVER GIVE UP.

 

1: Small steps are better than giant leaps.

Be realistic in your goals. Unrealistic expectations (usually related to rigid timelines) set you up for failure before you even start. Any business takes time to grow; and taking a business from zero to a million requires time and a plan. Set measurable, ever-increasing goals that you use as stepping-stones to success. Break your goals down into small, daily actions and stick to your plan. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” And then another, and another. One step at a time is all you need to focus on. Think about it: what would you rather do: be overwhelmed into inaction-paralysis by a huge goal, or have a small daily action to take care of? Which is more motivating?

 

2. Instead of a to-do list, make a “Daily Hit List”.

These are tasks that are important for your goals; and do these before you do anything else that day. Set aside 10-30 minutes of laser-focused activity and get these important things out of your hair. Feel the satisfaction of having moved another step forward. If there’s time to “do it all,” great. If not, at least the important things have been done.

 

3. Do not allow yourself to quit.

You’ve probably heard the old cliché, “winners never quit and quitters never win.” It’s true! But don’t keep banging your head against the wall using the same techniques to problem-solve, when they aren’t working. Be innovative! When you’re up against an obstacle, use meditation to help you visualize alternative outcomes and innovative solutions. When you attack a problem head-on using logic and reasoning, you may not come up with a solution – but if you engage your imagination and creativity, you’ll be absolutely astounded at how clever you really are.

 

4. Talk about your goals with supportive people.

They will hold you accountable, cheer you on, give you ideas and mentor you. The more you talk about your goals, the more real they become in YOUR mind, too, and the more valuable information you will get as people love to share their knowledge.

 

5. Hold yourself accountable.

And also expect 100% effort and dedication from yourself. Your goals are your dreams, right? Why wouldn’t you give 100% to yourself? Do not doubt yourself and do not fear. All it takes to vaporize fear and self-doubt is taking action! Having a plan with small, incremental steps makes it EASY to take action. Action leads to confidence, higher self-esteem, and forward momentum!

 

6. Intense visualization.

Use two or three intense visualization sessions every day to keep yourself fired up about your goal and to maintain a positive mindset. Take 2-3 minutes, find a quiet place to close your eyes and intensely visualize SUCCESS in your goal. That’s all it takes! Your mind will mobilize to find the “how” – that’s its job – and your only task in visualization is to give the command that this is what you want.

 

You are both your greatest ally and your worst enemy. When you think about your goals, which are you? Be your greatest ally and choose right now to take small steps forward every single day, rain or shine. As Albert Einstein said, “Nothing happens until something moves.”

 

 

Inspired by Wayne Hartzell’s blog on www.personal-goal-setting.com

 

 

Feb 18
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The Habit of Excellence

By Blogpost, habits

Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit”.

What is excellence? It is thinking, speaking and acting your best (without comparing yourself to others except to be inspired by them). Are you giving your best efforts to everything you do? If you adopt a habit of excellence, you will transform your professional and personal life in amazing ways.

Excellence

Creating any new habit takes about 30 days of DAILY repetition of just a few minutes a day. The hardest part is starting and sticking with it while it’s new, weird or uncomfortable. Are you willing to create excellence in 30 minutes or less a day? A few minutes a day is manageable! Think of the repercussions as you create excellence in your thoughts, speech and actions!

The following are excellence habits you can create in a month. Take on no more than one or two at a time, and start with the ones that:

  • give you the most return, in terms of accelerating your goals achievement
  • resonate with you (not all of these are habits you need; they’re intended to cover a broad range of needs)

Commit to them wholeheartedly. Practice them EVERY DAY without fail. Once the one or two habits you’ve chosen become automatic, pick another one or two. And watch your personal and business life transform before your eyes!

1. Try something new every day for 30 days. Constant learning is a form of excellence. Learning and using a new word a day is a great way to establish this habit. Have fun with this: try urbandictionary.com for some unexpected definitions and made-up words.

2. Give, to get what you want. Give, help and reach out with no thought of reward; selflessly and genuinely. Create a powerful OUT-flow of energy that has no choice but to come back to you as an IN-flow of what you want. Nature abhors a vacuum and the more positively you give, the more positively you’ll receive.

3. Smile. Smile at yourself in the mirror, smile at strangers, smile at everyone. Nothing opens doors faster than a warm, genuine smile. A smile changes your physiology – instantly lifting your mood! Encourage people to smile back by acts of kindness and an uplifting attitude.

4. Learn and practice a new skill daily. Can’t use a power tool? Trouble with technology? Can’t figure out a spreadsheet? Learn and practice until you feel comfortable and confident.

5. Teach what you know (or what you’re learning). Nothing cements a concept in your mind and accelerates your own mastery faster than teaching. You don’t have to wait until you’ve completely mastered a skill. You only have to be better at it than the person you’re teaching!

6. Control your response. Even if people are horribly rude to you, maintain your calm and remain in a state of grace. Don’t stoop to their level. Be respectful and compassionate, and watch how people’s attitudes change (especially as you become practiced in this).

7. See the lessons in every difficulty. Journaling helps you see beyond problems to the hidden positive and valuable lessons. Look at the bright side; the silver lining; the opportunity. Look for the best in people and situations.

8. Take time for your passions. Take at least 30 minutes a day to do something you love. Bring happiness and meaning into your life and positively influence people around you!

9. Simplify. Get rid of one thing every day for 30 days: unused books, clothing, household items, office equipment, etc… all the clutter that surrounds you. Everything you own requires energy: you must work for the money to purchase, store, insure, maintain, repair and even use the things you own. How much of them are useful NOW and bring you joy NOW? Keep them and simplify your life by getting rid of the rest.

10. Be absolutely truthful for 30 days. Most of us tell little white lies – even those count.

11. While you’re busy acquiring new habits, quit an equal number of unwanted habits. Just as you are creating new neural pathways by creating excellence, you can un-create destructive habits like procrastination. by giving yourself a REWARD for doing the opposite of an unwanted habit: with repetition, you’ll lose that habit forever.

12. Wake up 30 minutes early every day and spend them on meditation, journaling, feeling good, doing what you love, exercising, goal-setting, planning… anything that moves you in the right direction!

13. Work on your goals for 30 minutes a day. You will achieve your goals remarkably quickly through small but consistent daily actions!

14. Do something every day that makes you laugh.

15. Substitute reading for TV for 30 minutes a day.

16. Practice EXCELLENT self-care for 30 days. Exercise for 30 minutes every day (a brisk walk is excellent!); avoid or drastically cut back on alcohol, drugs, coffee, sugar, wheat and junk food. Get more sleep.

17. Live below your income for a month. That goes for businesses and individuals. Don’t create any more debt; pay cash for everything, and learn to say no to impulse purchases.

18. Tell a new story. Our lives are full of “I am…” and “I have…” statements. But are they positive and proactive, or are they painting a negative picture? Be very careful how you use these statements. Start telling a story of WHAT YOU WANT as though you already have it.

19. Do something scary or uncomfortable every day. Face your fears and take action anyway – small actions are fine. Just don’t allow fear to paralyze you.

20. Spend the last few waking moments of the day thinking about what went well, what you did right, and on gratitude for everything.

21. Write in your journal every day. Write about the highlights of the day; ideas; inspirations; mistakes; triumphs; lessons; conversations; regrets; actions; observations; delights; hurts. Be completely self-aware and honest as you describe your inner and outer life.

22. Take full responsibility for every action you take and every thought and interpretation you have. For 30 days, DO NOT: blame, complain, criticize, judge or condemn.

 

Inspired by a blog post on www.marcandangel.com

 

 

Oct 17
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A Positive Attitude and Success

By Attitude, Blogpost, Success

 

 

Surrounding yourself with positivity in your work environment might sound like a lot of New Age la-la stuff, and you might bristle at the thought of pasting motivational quotes in your office.

Good news. You don’t have to.

But maybe, after reading this, you’ll want to. At least one or two that will keep you accountable and on track.

If you’re a businessperson, you have goals and your time is precious and scarce. Frequently reading positive quotes actually create a more positive mindset that is more prone to taking action, interacting with people, and taking calculated business risks that move your business forward.

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”– Dale Carnegie

Everybody is wrapped up in their own lives. They don’t have a whole lot of time for your life story… they are too busy being focused on their own needs and wants. That includes your clients and your prospective clients. The more interested you become in them and their needs, the more sales you’ll generate because you’ll figure out a way to make your product or service meet those needs!

 

“Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.” – Benjamin Franklin

 

You KNOW procrastination is a dream-killer. So instead of a “to-do” list, make a “hit list” of the most important tasks and systematically take care of them immediately. Everything else can wait.

“I think that much of the advice given to young men about saving money is wrong. I never saved a cent until I was forty years old. I invested in myself – in study, in mastering my tools, in preparation. Many a man who is putting a few dollars a week into the bank would do much better to put it into himself.” – Henry Ford

How much time do you spend learning about your business, your product or service, and your market? Never stop learning. You will never become a master of anything because there is always more to learn; if you think you’ve learned it all, you’ll stagnate and get left behind. Be curious and look for more to learn, every day.

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

Business life is full of disappointments and obstacles. How do you cope? Do you take the lessons from your failures, or do you allow them to knock you down?

These quotes by some of the world’s greatest achievers will instill a sense of optimism and personal power in you. Watch your results increase as you change your mindset!

With thanks to www.goalsnaspirations.com for the inspiration for this post.

 

 

Oct 07
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Courage and Control

By Blogpost, challenges

How do you handle life’s monkey wrenches? Goals always come with unwanted, unexpected, unimaginable, uncontrollable aspects. You can count on that. Question is, how do you continue to manage your business when this happens?

It is our mission at GoalsTribe to give you the tools to succeed. One of those tools is teaching you to develop and maintain a courageous, indomitable spirit.

Indomitable spirit is not something taught in traditional business schools. It means you cannot – and WILL not – be overcome or conquered by any external OR internal events. It means you continue working toward your goals no matter the setbacks, obstacles and adversities you encounter. It means that you stubbornly refuse to take NO for an answer. It means that you still perform your role, with your greatest strength and enthusiasm, no matter what.

Does that sound like denial to you? It shouldn’t. Denial is a head-in-the-sand approach to life. Courage means you face problems and change head-on and maintain the indomitable mental toughness to persevere. Instead of allowing a situation to paralyze you, you use it to energize you into out-of-the-box creative problem solving. It doesn’t mean stubbornly clinging to methodology that doesn’t work (that’s denial); it means looking beyond your obstacles and reverse-engineering the ways to achieve the desired result.

This is a learned trait. It arises from one thing we all hate – practice. Developing the indomitable spirit that allows you to do anything you want means you have to learn to overcome being criticized, judged, opposed, attacked, ridiculed, rejected, ignored and even hated… takes time and extreme mental mastery. You can plan on falling – but will you rise again? You can expect to be pushed around – but will you push back?

Do you think that your finest moments come when you’re comfortably sitting at your desk… or during the worst adversity? You already know the answer.

How do you develop the courage and mental control that make or break your business goals?

1. Decide that courage is a choice.

2. Decide to be courageous for just 20 seconds today. You can do anything for 20 seconds…

3. Take a deep breath and DO SOMETHING BOLD for 20 seconds.

What can you do TODAY that takes 20 seconds? Now, don’t start protesting that you can’t do anything in 20 seconds. Oh, yes you can. You can dial that number you don’t want to dial and introduce yourself to the person you’re terrified of talking to (they will be much nicer than you expect); you can push SEND on an email that reminds your clients they are late in their payments to you or the proposal for the project you want to bid on. You can present your idea to the board at the meeting today, not by speaking but by using a visual aid that lets your idea speak for itself.

And you don’t have to limit yourself to one 20-second burst of courage, either. To develop your business and interpersonal skills, and master your mind and emotions so you can maximize your talents, contact GoalsTribe. Your success is our success, and to that end, we offer customized, in-depth business and personal goals coaching that will help you achieve all of your goals, even the ones that require the courage you think you don’t have – you can create it, and it’s our job to help you embody that courage!

 

Inspired by posts from Gary Ryan Blair at www.everythingcounts.com

 

Sep 27
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Finding Purpose in the Business World

By Blogpost, purpose

If your ideal life includes spending your days happily doing what you love, there’s no reason you can’t leverage that passion into some serious money.

You don’t have to settle for a business model that doesn’t suit your personality; you don’t have to provide products or services that don’t resonate with you just for the sake of a good paycheck. If you’re a little creative and you believe that what you love to do can help others, you can make serious bank doing what you love. Here’s how:

1. Know yourself. What’s your passion? What do you feel happiest doing and sharing? Look at your activities; find the common thread and clarify what you gravitate toward time and time again. You may be a natural artist; you may enjoy number-crunching; you may love to install tile or design closets. If you have several different passions that seem to be unrelated, you can still morph them together into a fantastic new business… but first, get clear on what you would love to spend your time doing.

2. Identify a need in the marketplace. Start with thinking about your ideal clients. Never mind what you think they “should” be like; imagine and define your IDEAL clients; the types of people you would WANT to interact with and provide a service to on a daily basis. Where do they live? What do they do? What’s their income level? Education level? What are their interests and passions? And most of all, what do they need? How can what you love to do, fill that need? Imagine what you want the ideal scenario to look like.

3. Perfect your elevator pitch. If you were in an elevator with someone and you had 30 seconds to tell them what you do, what would you say? REFINE your elevator pitch until it’s second nature. No “ummm….”! No hesitation, not hunting for the right words. First impressions count and you never know who you might meet: it could be the perfect client, and your perfect client has friends. And they have friends.

4. Think about how your service or product can benefit your clients over time as opposed to providing a one-time benefit. Create packages; programs; repeat sales; identify add-on sales opportunities. Think about how you will stay in your clients’ awareness and maintain your relationship with them over time.

5. Leverage your spheres of influence. How can you help people you know? How you can help the people they refer to you? In the process, you might identify even more needs that are not being met by your competitors.

6. Create a compelling offer based on your client’s needs.

  • If your offer is compelling, it won’t sound like this: “Hi, I’m Jessica. I make homemade beauty products. Want to buy some?”
  • It will sound like this: “Hi, I’m Jessica. I’ve developed a skin care product line that addresses your concerns about toxic additives and environmental impact. All of my products are hand-crafted out of 100% natural ingredients that don’t irritate the skin and they’re completely safe for babies. Do you have any skin problems that might benefit from a natural skin care product?”

7. Design a delivery system (the nuts and bolts of delivering a product or service). Map it out exactly. If you create tangible objects, how long does it take to create one for a client? If you provide services, how long do you schedule for each client?

You have certain talents and interests for a reason. They are there to be shared. So boldly take those passions and create a business plan and start making money doing what you love!

 

Inspired by a blog post by Ann Welch of www.ideallifevision.com