Success-oriented people do whatever it takes and work on “holidays” when needed.  Some people use the company holiday as a day off, the snow day as a day to stay home and not work, and other various excuses to make themselves feel good about not doing what they know they need to do to achieve their goals.  With the 4^th of July being on Friday, and for many companies this is a holiday so their office is closed, how many people view this as a three day weekend and not consider working 2 or 3 hours early in the morning before their family gets up? How many people actually have Friday planned as a partial work day to get more done and make headway towards achievement of their goals for the year?

I’m not suggesting that you should work all the time and not have balance in your life. I am suggesting that for many who aren’t on track to achieving their goals for the year, that perhaps working 2-5 hours on a “holiday” that falls on a weekday could help them make progress on activities necessary for them to be on the path of goal achievement. You can work for a portion of your day and still spend quality time with you family doing something fun for the rest of the day. 

I guess it comes down to, how committed are you to achieving your goals this year. Are  you going to make the excuse at the end of the year that it was the economy and that is why you didn’t achieve what you said you wanted?  How badly do you really want to achieve your goals? Are your goals a ‘nice to have’ should you get lucky or are you serious about what you say you want to achieve?

Posted: July 1st, 2009 under Effective and Efficient Behavior, Excuses, High Pay-off Activities, Procrastination, Time Management.
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Here’s an example of leveraging resources as it relates to getting referrals.

A Financial Advisor who is on LinkedIn, found out that a client of his with whom he was having an upcoming meeting with was also on LinkedIn.  He noticed that this client had a LinkedIn community of approximately 30 or so people. The client came in to meet with the Financial Advisor to have their regular meeting.  At the conclusion of the meeting, he was prepared to ask for referrals.  He showed the client the LinkedIn community list he took off the computer and asked him if any of those people would be appropriate for referrals. 

To net it out, he got about 9 referrals from this idea.  I’d say this was a successful result.

There are many other social networking sources that you could apply to this strategy and potentially get even more referrals.

Posted: June 29th, 2009 under Effective and Efficient Behavior, Goal Setting, Leverage Resources.
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Recently I was asked to be an expert contributor to www.ProducersWeb.com.  This is a website for financial professionals. Feel free to check out their website and ‘Become a Fan’ of mine so you can receive new articles, blogs, and podcasts as they are posted.   Click the link below or cut and paste into your browser to check it out.

http://www.producersweb.com/r/pweb/d/subTopic?cT=f06b910978b7992cb2f41809d75ce4cd

Posted: June 26th, 2009 under Leverage Resources.
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Once you examine your motivation and desire, you may discover that self-control—even discipline—may be needed to improve your productivity.  Whether you are seeking improvement in your professional or personal life, you may have to make sacrifices in order to accomplish a greater good.  How do you begin?  The first step is to analyze what needs to be done.  Analyze your long-term objectives as well as your short-term goals.  Next, you have to focus in on what is preventing or slowing down your journey to success.  At this point, certain activities, attitudes and maybe even people will be labeled “No Longer Acceptables” (NLA).  The No Longer Acceptables are distractions to achieving your goals; they are things that you want to get rid of.  You don’t merely want to get rid of these no longer acceptables—you want to make sure they stay out of your life.

The problem is, so many people merely say they want to make changes in life, but don’t actually have the desire or self-control to see the operation through.  It’s too bad, because deciding to make these positive changes is a step in the right direction.  Adjusting your perspective and formulating a strategic plan could improve the quality of your life and those of others.  Why the hesitance to completely do away with the No Longer Acceptables?  You might think of these NLAs as addictive substances, even if they are not tangible properties.  Make a choice to get rid of the no longer acceptable and then take action on the things that produce the results you want.

Posted: June 25th, 2009 under Effective and Efficient Behavior, No Longer Acceptable, Tell the Truth, Time Management.
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Self-control is defined as “control of oneself” or the “ability to master one’s desires and impulses.  Most people assume that self-control is healthier than impulsiveness.  However, this has to be compared to each person’s value system.  For example, some communities may demand stringent behavior as regards sexual morality.  Other communities will hold that generosity and pacifism are more important than law.  Then some communities will stress that allegiance to a mission is what is truly righteous.  Which of the communities has the highest standard of morality?      

Self-Control for Self Improvement

Let’s say that you have a plan to become successful in your career.  This is the mission of your self-contained community.  Therefore, any thoughts or actions that run contrary to your mission must be extinguished.  When you are a self-starter, then you are in charge of all your faculties and must have them work for you, not independently of you.  Sometimes people do require rigid structure in their life in order to get things done.  If you are naturally inclined to take it easy, if you tend to procrastinate, or if you are easily distracted from completing a simple goal, then these are disruptive factors in your community.  You must work to maintain self-control to meet the standard that you have set for yourself.

Taking Back Control

If you find that procrastinating slows down your mission, or that watching television alters your set schedule, then you may have to use coercive techniques in order to train your body and mind.  You may have to exercise self-control, ensuring that you do not drift away to other time-consuming hobbies or even resort to shelving the project indefinitely.

Self-control doesn’t necessarily mean resisting something that is “wrong”; rather, it refers to taking steps to control one’s own tendencies if they are observed to be counterproductive.  Don’t underestimate the value of enlisting others to help you.  When you are accountable to someone else, it helps.  Once you determine to follow your goal through you must make necessary changes.  Last but not least, remember to analyze your results and find room for improvement. Celebrate your successes, no matter how small.  It is about making progress in life that brings us the success we want and deserve.

Posted: June 24th, 2009 under Effective and Efficient Behavior, Goal Setting.
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In creating an efficient machine, there would be no reason to deliberately hinder employee advancement as this would directly affect productivity and eventually profit.  Personally speaking, it makes sense to train new staff members according to the same criteria that you would live by.  When you teach by example and are helpful to new workers, they will remember this training in future years, considering you more of a personal mentor than just a boss. 

The Most Important Factor in Overseeing Progress

The single most important factor in overseeing progress is that of individuality.  You cannot assume that delegation or training can be lazily standardized and yet simultaneously help an entire staff progress rapidly.  Some people will progress faster than others, others slower, and still others will require special training because their perceptions are totally different from most of the other workers.  Some staff will be particularly hard working, convergent thinkers.  Others will be very good at “thinking outside the box.”  The key is to identify the skills of each particular team member and then individually hone those skills until every worker progresses at a comfortable pace.  It may also involve you identifying the weaknesses of some workers and coming up with ways to train them into becoming more efficient performers, or give those tasks to someone else who can be or is efficient at those tasks.  Leverage people inherent skills.

Employee training and delegating authority are part of overseeing a company’s progress.  It is a golden opportunity to advance your interests while helping others grow into their professional roles.  It is a great feeling to see others make progress with your training and mentoring and it makes everyone more effective and efficient which means people are more productive overall and that leads to goal achievement.

Posted: June 23rd, 2009 under Delegation, Effective and Efficient Behavior, Procedures Manual, Tell the Truth.
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How much time do you think you waste each day?  You get sucked into doing emails or surfing the internet, watching youtube videos someone sent you, getting interrupted by staff, clients, or friends, etc.  Think about this for a minute – how much time do you think you waste each day?  Remember it all adds up.  Five minutes here, 10 minutes, there 30 minutes on something fun but not productive. 

When we asked people how much time do they think they waste in a day, many of them said approx. 2 hours.  So we will use this as our example. Use can easily do the math for yourself depending on the number you came up with for yourself.  

Here’s an example of someone who said they ‘waste’ 2 hours per day.

2 hours per day

= 10 hours per week

= 1 week per month

= 12 weeks per year

Divide by 4 and you get a whopping 3 months per year that is spent in non-productive time. 

Now, let’s not dwell on the non-productive time that we waste. Let’s see what that is worth to us in revenue per year if we utilize that 2 hours per day on more high pay-off activities. 

What do you make per month on an average?  $5,000, $7,000, $10,000, $15,000

Multiply that number by 3 and that is how much more money you could make a year if you just focused your time more on high pay-off activities. 

Even if you start by being more effective and not letting time-wasters and distractions get in your way for 30 minutes per day, you will make even more money.  How can you apply this concept in your life so you can achieve your goals?

Posted: June 22nd, 2009 under Accountability, Effective and Efficient Behavior, Time Management, Time Wasters.
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Have you ever noticed how easy it is to avoid doing the very things we know will get us the results we say we want?  Have you ever avoided doing something you knew was absolutely necessary, but had no idea why you were avoiding it?  Me too.

In every endeavor, there are certain immutable requirements or “natural laws” of success.  Yet sometimes, in attempts to avoid discomfort or achieve our goals with less effort or anxiety, we spend too much time and energy hoping to flout those laws.  But it can’t, won’t, simply doesn’t work. That’s why they’re called laws.  Break them and you lose.

In December of 1997 my husband, Bill, began training for the 1998 Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, which was held on October 3, 1998.  Nine to 10 months is not a long time to prepare for a 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike ride (humid and very windy), and 26.2-mile marathon run.  But it’s achievable if you create a good plan and stick to it (which my husband did).

Swimming has never been his strength, and he hadn’t been in the pool in a decade. The rest of his training program started out pretty well.  He began running again by steadily building up his mileage.  He pulled his bike off the hooks in the garage where it had been hanging upside down for a long time, dusted it off, got it tuned up, and began riding.  He even started pumping iron twice a week to build his strength.  But the swimming…

December passed, then January, and by February, Bill knew he was behind in his swimming program. We’d heard that 70% of being a good swimmer is technique, so he bought a swimming technique book.  Next he bought the swimming video. (Could he really have been foolish enough to think he could read and watch his way through the Ironman swim?  Or was his judgment clouded by pure and simple denial?)  By the end of February, he had still managed to avoid getting wet and I was getting worried.  Bill enrolled in a swim clinic being held the last weekend in March.  I guess he thought there was no point getting in the water until he learned the proper technique!

With this twisted logic, we could say it’s too bad the clinic wasn’t even further off — or even after Ironman — maybe he could have gotten by with no swimming at all.  Yeah, right!  Are there activities you don’t enjoy or aren’t the best at, yet which are absolutely required for you to excel at a higher level?  And which you delude yourself into thinking you could put off altogether?

Fortunate for my husband, he has a friend in Mark Allen, the six-time Hawaii Ironman champion.  In the first week of March, Bill was helping Mark work on his presentation skills for his motivational speaking career when he asked about Bill’s training.  Bill gave him the full report about his running progress, cycling development, and weight training regimen.  He rambled on, hoping Mark wouldn’t notice that Bill had left out the swimming part.

But Mark’s question was inevitable: “So, how’s the swimming going?” he asked Bill.  So much for Bill’s fancy footwork (which my husband is known to do and is very good at).

Bill said (as he smiled weakly), “Uh, well … I’ve been reading this book and, uh, watching this video about proper technique.  And I’m signed up for a swim clinic.”

“Great. How’s it going in the pool?” Mark asked.

Caught, Bill gave it up. “I haven’t actually been in the pool yet,” Bill said.

“You know, Bill,” Mark said slowly and pointedly, “you really should get in the pool.”

Duh. The simple truth has amazing power.  Just hearing Mark utter those words shattered Bill’s avoidance behavior pattern.  Mark was right, of course.  Bill had to get in the pool.  Not in March.  Not next week.  Right now.  Today.

You may be putting yourself through mental gymnastics to avoid the very things that will take you where you want to go. The sooner you get in the pool, the sooner you will be on your way to your next level of success.

Posted: June 18th, 2009 under Accountability, Effective and Efficient Behavior, Excuses, High Pay-off Activities, Procrastination.
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Not only can you succeed by telling the truth, you can thrive telling the truth. The reason is that you will attract clients with lots of money who can handle the truth, and prefer the truth.

The question on the table is whether you really can succeed if you tell the truth. The answer is yes, absolutely you can. It can actually give you a competitive advantage in a market glutted by people full of hot air. Most people fear nobody wants to hear the truth, but of course they do! And the ones who want to hear the truth will be your best and most lucrative clients. Most successful people respond to bare-bald-buck-naked facts, because most successful people got that way by remaining grounded in reality.

Jack Welch, arguably the greatest CEO of our times, held the philosophy, “Tell me the truth, and tell me early.” If something happened and you knew and didn’t tell him about it, you were fired. But if you came to him early and told him, “You know what? This whole project is screwed up, and I don’t know what to do about it,” you’d go a long way with Jack Welch.

The truth isn’t always easy to say. The truth isn’t always easy to hear. However, I believe the truth is better for everyone. Plain and simple.

Truthfulness and believability always have appeal. If your claims aren’t inflated, if you trust your clients and sincerely believe they deserve the truth and can handle reality, they will trust you in return. As Emerson said, “Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” The truth has power. If you tell the truth, you begin to play in a new league; you walk away from the games of salesmanship and into the realm of reality being known as a Trusted Professional.

Posted: June 16th, 2009 under Accountability, Effective and Efficient Behavior, Tell the Truth.
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When Start Late, Finish Rich was released, David Bach was in the news. People still talk about that book and one of his newer books, The Automatic Millionaire. Maybe you’re tired of hearing about David. After all, what’s he got that you don’t?

He’s become an international celebrity of money management in the last 10 years. At 37 years old, he’s written a string of bestsellers, has appeared on Oprah twice, and has a standing appointment with CNN every Thursday morning as their resident expert on personal finances. How did this happen? Is it because he knows so much more about financial planning than anyone else?

David’s the first one to admit that it’s not that he knows more than other financial professionals. He’s built much of his success on one simple idea: pay yourself first. Ever heard that before? Probably a hundred times. So if David’s not reinventing the wheel, why are people flocking to him for advice?

It’s because of the way he shows up in the marketplace: “This is so cool! You can be a millionaire! People make it so complicated, and it doesn’t have to be. Simple: Pay yourself first.”

And Oprah leans forward to say, “That’s incredible, David, tell me more.”

“You know how you automatically pay your mortgage, your insurance premiums, your cable bill? You just write those checks without thinking about it or have the amounts automatically deducted from your account. You can set it up so the first one to get paid is you. Isn’t that great? Wouldn’t you like to get paid before anyone else?”

And the audience cheers, offering a collective, “Whoaaa! That would be incredible!”

David assures them, “That’s how simple this is!”

The bottom line is: What do you believe? I’ll tell you this: David fervently believes that if people will pay themselves first—that’s all they have to do over time—they can become millionaires. His goal is to help 10 million people become millionaires by 2030. He knows that even though a million dollars in 2030 will not be worth what it is today, most people will be better off if they have a million than if they don’t. So he’s showing up and letting people know that’s what he’s passionate about.

You’ve gotta figure out what you’re passionate about and then let people know it. Now, I don’t mean that you have to jump around and wave your arms. If you’ve ever seen David on CNN, you see that he has an understated enthusiasm. He shows that you can have your own personality, and if you also have conviction, you can produce incredible results.

You don’t have to share David’s goals to realize that this will work for you, too. Strive to be a celebrity in your own marketplace. Simply having even greater belief in what you are doing for people will inspire them to be more interested in you and what they need to do.

Posted: June 15th, 2009 under Belief, Effective and Efficient Behavior, Goal Setting.
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