Are You a Finisher?

In work and in life it is not always enough just to get started.  The first day of a diet, exercise plan, or resolve to change anything in one’s life is usually pretty easy.  You wake up, and “this is the first day of the rest of your life”, right!  Easy, you can do this, this time it will be different.  “I am in control.”  About mid way through the day, someone throws you a new dead line for a project, you lose a deal, something that you thought was a sure thing – isn’t.  But you are still okay, no need to turn to the old habit, you can handle this.  Life happens, no biggy, right?

After a few days and a few more disappointments, the vigor of the first day starts to wear a little thin.  Let’s face it, you lose, that is what you do, so why continue with the resolve to change.  Slowly you give in to your defeated feelings and by the end of the week it is all over, time to quit.

This same scenario can apply to something you are trying to achieve.  Maybe you are building a business, starting a charity, creating a new life for yourself.  You start strong, and the resolve lasts for a while and then you give up, “this can never work”, “what was I thinking?”  “I can’t achieve big things”.  And so the dream ends.

The difference between you and those that seem to “get lucky” and make it, is not that they are smarter, faster, have more money, or better connections.  The difference is that they just keep trying and ultimately they finish what they start.  Oh it may not look exactly as they thought it would in the beginning, but none-the-less they finish.  When they run into obstacles, they are just as disappointed as you, but instead of stopping, they just get up and go around, or over, or under the obstacle.

So how is such tenacity born?  Tenacity comes from inside of you.  It is learning to believe in what you are trying to accomplish and seeing yourself achieving it.  Tenacity comes from thinking positively and then speaking positively.  It comes from learning how to control your thinking, so that the urge to quit never enters your mind.

No mater what you are trying to accomplish, starting is not enough.  In order to live your dreams you must learn to become a finisher.  Start with the small stuff.  Finish that report, that book, or finish cleaning up the office.  Finish writing your resume, finish those phone calls.  Finishing is just as important as starting, and it feels even better.

Setting Goals

Goal Setting for the New Year
I  know that you have not really finished your Christmas shopping list yet and you are still struggling with either planning your Christmas dinner menu or how you are going to get everything done before you get to Mom’s house.  But, believe it or not, this is a great time of the year to begin thinking about how your next year will look.

Some people set New Year’s resolutions, but I would rather encourage people to set some goals for the new year instead of some wishes.  A resolution is often little more than a Christmas wish, where as a real goal is far more likely to get accomplished.  So how do you set meaningful goals?  Here are some thoughts.

1. Set some goals that get you excited!  Rather than the usual weight loss goals “I will lose 40 lbs” set a goal that says “I will buy a new smaller wardrobe this year”  Now that gets me excited!

2.  Write your goals down someplace where you will see them and read them often.  I know that seems stupid, but just try it, it really works!

3.  Give yourself a reasonable time limit for completion.  Obviously 40 lbs will not suddenly disappear in 30 days, so give yourself a break and make sure you give yourself time to get it done.

4.  Make sure that you can achieve your goal.  Let’s face it some things will never get done so face those facts and move on.  Don’t discourage yourself by creating goals that have been resolutions for the last fifteen years.  Writing the next great novel may fall into this category.

5.  Make sure your goals are specific with a time line for completion.  You want to start buying your new wardrobe by June 30th.  That is specific and measurable.  It can be accomplished.

6.  Count the cost.  If you put some lofty goals on your list, make sure you think through what accomplishment will cost you in time and resources.  Don’t set goals that will be limited by your resources and things that you can’t control.

7.  Find someone to be accountable to.  The reason that many goals fail is that no one is holding your feet to the fire and making you move forward with your goals. Lack of accountability is often the reason most goals and resolutions for that matter, never get accomplished.

So, sometime in the next two weeks, give yourself some time to think about what you want to change about your life, business or career.  Remember things will change this year, if you set some goals you will be in more control of that change.  Take control, set some goals.

A Little Extra Effort Wins the Race!

The difference in success and failure is often measured by very small increments.  In a horse race and winner can be determined by a nose.  So much so, that often film footage must be reviewed to see who the winner is.  Swimmer Michael Phelps won an Olympic Gold medal by finishing the race just one inch sooner than his closest opponent.  The line between success and failure is indeed quite thin.

When winning races those very small margins needed to win often represent many hours of work and sweat.  Constant and deliberate actions can create those very small margins that it takes to win the race.

So what are those constant and deliberate actions that make the difference for each of us.  You can well imagine that for Michael Phelps to gain the inch over his opponents, it required day after day of getting up at 5:00 a.m. and getting in the pool.  Not too exciting, but the reality is, the daily efforts you put into to your endeavors can have the a profound affect on your success.

Whether you are trying to get a promotion, start a business or raise children, daily doing what you know to do will pay big dividends and each day passes.  Sadly, because we can’t see how our daily disciplines make a difference, we often lose heart and decide that improving our education, exercising every day, eating better or starting a new business to help get us ahead really is just too much work.  Instead we turn the TV on in the evening and just check out of life.

Before you are tempted to “check out” and coast through life, consider how just a little effort each day can make the difference you need to push you to the success you are seeking.  Creating a focused approach to achieving your dreams can make them a reality.  So the next time you are ready to give up, just think of that a Gold Medal was won by one inch and get up and do what you need to do to make the difference in your life.

You Gotta Have a Plan!

So many people are out there right now Twittering their little hearts out hoping against hope that it will generate sales for their small business or MLM.  And I know that I keep preaching this, but it is very important that you be very purposeful about how you use social networking.

The more I learn about the process the more I realize that it is best to treat Twitter, Facebook and the like just like your face-to-face networking.  You need to go into it with a “give first” attitude and not just try to sell anything that has an electronic pulse.  And secondly, you have to build relationships that help you learn about other people. Customers will buy from the people they know, like and trust.  If you can learn the secret of becoming known, liked and trusted online, you will do well with your online business.  However, if all you do is tweet about your product or service, you will fall short.

It is also a good idea to link all your profiles so people see you and recognize you in all the places you have a profile.  Talk to people about your LinkedIn profile on Twitter and have a link to your twitter account on LinkedIn.  Let people know about your Facebook page, it will just help online people connect the dots and see you as an expert in your field.

All-in-all, social networking is here to stay, it is whether you can build those relationships with it, that will determine your success.  So happy tweeting!

Try Something New!

The other day my husband and I decided that instead of going to the gym to exercise we would take a walk around a local lake.  Since we are in Texas, in October it is still extremely pleasant to walk around the lake.  The sun was shining, and there was a light breeze and we paused often to look at the lake, and watch some fisherman sitting out on the boat waiting for the fish to bite.  It was a very pleasant experience and we both finished our exercise time feeling not only refreshed physically, but being out in nature lifted our spirits as well.

Since exercise is one of those things that we just have to keep doing, sometimes it is a good idea to take a fresh approach to it and make it just a little more interesting.  I am not sure we got the same vigorous, heart-pumping workout we would get on some machine at the gym, but we moved and we enjoyed nature a little, including the tarantula we noticed walking lazily across our trail.

There are lots of things in life that we must do.  Things like work, making dinner, picking up children from school, homework, studying and so on.  If you can think of a new twist on these things every once in a while, you will be surprised at how much better you will feel.  There are also things at work that must get done.  Perhaps adding new people to an old team will shake things up a little and create new ideas.  Or maybe having a “social meeting” with the staff once in a while to communicate new information will inject life into the organization, just because they feel involved.

Whatever your must do item is today, try to do it just a little differently.  Make an effort to sit someplace new, rearrange the furniture, take a new route to work, shake up your routine in some manner.  None of this is going to change any of the problems you are facing, or solve a critical issue, but it will give you a fresh perspective and that might lead to more energized thinking.  Try something new and see what changes you observe in your general attitude.  Go ahead, it won’t hurt at all!

Balance – The Elusive Necessity

Much is written today about finding balance, locating that level piece of ground that lets each of us work, play, enjoy family time, have hobbies and blissfully carry out our existence.  The trouble with all of the talk about balance is that becoming balanced is tremendously difficult.  I have to tell you, that even for those of us who preach it, balance can still be extremely elusive if we are not careful.

Most of us have lives that, to some degree, are governed by the whims and needs of other people.  We have jobs at which most of us work far more hours than the rest of the world and families that are booked with activities that we must attend.  On top of that many companies want us to be involved in community activities to make them look good to the press. Couple that with the need to exercise, because we sit all day, and pressure from rising gas prices, falling house prices and wars and rumors of wars.  We are a nation that is far from balanced.  So the talk of balance always seems a little esoteric to me and as I got to thinking about finding balance I thought about taking a new approach for myself.

As I have recently examined my own personal balance, I realized that there are just some things that I must do and as much as I would sometimes like to be on a mountain top in the lotus position, humming, that will simply not happen.  Which leads me to my first bit of wisdom about balance; realize that balance does not always mean that we have time to stop every single day and relax.  Sometimes we must, out of necessity run with the throttle wide open for short periods.  We can however, experience balance by giving ourselves permission to take a break between these bursts of activity and take a day or two for refreshing our spirits and minds.

A second bit of wisdom I have run across recently in my study of balance, is that there are just some things that actually help us stay balanced even though they cause us to strain a little.  One of these things is exercise and the other is good eating habits.  I am always interested to note that when people get busy, the first person they punish is themselves.  They quit exercising and use that time to work and they quit eating well, and use that time to eat on the run the kinds of food that dull the minds and fatten their bodies.  Eliminating these two habits actually contributes to an out of balance individual.  As counter-intuitive as it sounds, exercising and eating well will, in the long run, give you more balance simply because you will be sharper at work and have more energy to do the things that must be fit into your life, even though you are busy and don’t have the time for either.

Another wonderful thing that I have started letting myself do is to take a vacation from certain activities.  From time-to-time I will stop doing a piece of my job for a couple of days, or even  week.  I won’t replace that activity with anything else, I just use the time to read and relax.  Sometimes I will stop writing, or attending networking meetings or doing research for classes I want to create.  When I return to the activity, it is like I have been on vacation, meanwhile my clients have not suffered and I am more valuable to them in the long run.

And finally, about once a quarter I take a day off in the middle of the week.  I just play hooky.  I go out with a friend to a museum, shopping, antiquing or something completely unrelated to work.  I just simply have some fun.

Balance is so elusive and it is certainly not as easily achieved as many people would have us believe.  But we can come close to balance by just making some small changes in our lives.  Create a plan to help you find your island of balance and start refreshing you life today!

Just Do It!

I really do hate that phrase sometimes. I find it very easy to procrastinate things that I really hate doing, like exercise.  I find that I get on track with the disciplines of life and then something will happen to throw me off, such as getting ill or going on vacation and then I find it hard to make myself get started again.  Finally I have to “just do it”, whatever “it” happens to be.

Whether it is exercise, staying on a budget, watching what I eat, or networking for my business, I find that most of the time to be successful I have to “just do it”.  Fortunately, no one says I have to “just like it” while I “just do it”, so it is a little easier to get back on track and stay there most of the time.

To be successful in life we all have to find a way to keep on track.  We all have to find ways to make ourselves do the things everyday that contribute to our success in life and business.  Fortunately for most of us life sets up its own “just do it” plan.  If one shows up at work everyday, the boss rewards us with a paycheck.  That kind of reward makes it easy to get out of a warm bed,  look presentable, fight traffic and show up at work more or less on time.

But what about the things in life that really don’t compel us to do them.  Things like watching food intake, exercising, setting up sales calls, studying for an exam.  Although most of these things have their own rewards, they don’t  always compel us to do them.  They are easy to procrastinate because either they aren’t fun, or don’t present a compelling enough reward.

If one is a true professional procrastinator, there are all kinds of ways to avoid doing those unwanted tasks.  Procrastinators can avoid starting a project by checking email, phone messages and poring over extensive “to-do” lists.  But sooner or later one must  “just do” whatever that “it” maybe.

There are all kinds of strategies for combating procrastination in our everyday life.  My favorite is the “just do it” tact and it works for me when I find it hard to get something done.  Not everyone finds this method that easy, but I find if one is a true procrastinator, setting small “just do it” goals works very well.

There are all kinds of tactics to get us moving each day, the trick is to find one that resonates with you and “just do it”