Hard Work and Dedication

I have spent the last several days watching the Olympics.  Of course being a transplanted Canadian living in Texas, with an American citizenship, it is just a little difficult to figure out who to cheer for at times, but I have my favorites on both teams.  I was excited to see Bilodeau win the first gold medal on Canadian soil and equally excited to see Apollo Ono win silver.  I love the Olympics because it brings out the best and the brightest in all the world to compete for gold and make their dreams come true.

They all have one thing in common.  They worked extraordinarily hard to get to the games.  Whether they win a medal or not, they spent the last four years perfecting, planning, practicing, dreaming, doing, sacrificing and rehearsing until they are at the top of their sport.  They are the best they can be at this point.  They are ready to compete.  We all understand that.  We are astounded at the dedication these people have to their dream.  We hang on, and cry over, every personal story of the athletes as they tell us what it took to get to these Olympics.  And what it took was lots and lots of hard work and dedication.  The kind of hard work and dedication that many of us will never have to put forth in our lives.  The kind of hard work and dedication that it takes to be extraordinary.

So why is it that, while we fully acknowledge that hard work and dedication bring about great reward, most of us still think that there is a quick and easy way to get to the top and make lots of money.  Why do so many of us think that some internet scheme or affiliate program is going to make us millions.  Why, because most of us want to take a short cut to success.  We don’t want to believe that the people that make the money and have successful businesses, had to work hard at all.  We don’t want to believe that we have to sacrifice and work hard, we want it to be easy.

We all need to take a page out of the Olympian play book and realize that whatever we chose to do in this life will have its obstacles.  There will be days when we soar and other days when we are sore!  But through it all, if we keep our goals in front of us and keep working our plan, we will make it to whatever podium we are dreaming about.   The trick is to stay focused and not get distracted by all those people who want us to take an easier road.  Because in the end, all of life requires hard work and dedication to finish well.  Do you want to finish well?  Don’t be afraid of the work, it will make the podium seem even sweeter!

Attracting People

Have you ever been with someone that seem like they know everyone?  People love them, and want to be around them and they just seem magnetic?  So how can you become that kind of person?  Listen.  That’s right start listening to people and you will have no end to friends.

So how does one become an active participant in listening.  Listening is more than waiting for your turn to speak and you can improve your listening skills with just  a little effort.

1.  Pay attention.  Give the person you are engaged with your attention, look at them, put aside distractions, both internal and external.  Focus on the person speaking.  Don’t talk to others in the room while trying to listen, and don’t think about other things while listening.  Just listen.

2.  Show them you are listening by nodding and smiling occasionally.  Make sure your posture is open and inviting.

3.  Make sure you understand what they are saying.  Ask them to clarify points you may not understand.  Don’t be formulating your response while they are talking, but summarize what you just heard to make sure you heard correctly.  People love to be understood and they will love your attentiveness and be happy to clarify.

4.  Hold your judgement and comments until the speaker is finished.  DO NOT interrupt people when they are talking.

5.  Don’t attack the speaker, but give your opinions kindly and respectfully.  People don’t mind if you disagree with them, they just don’t want you to be rude about it!

Listening is a lost art in this age of quick phone calls, Facebook, Twitter and texting.  However, if you want or need to attract people into your life, learn to listen to them.  Remember people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Nothing Comes Easy!

Don’t you just get excited about those stories that you hear on the morning talk shows about those people who did something amazing?  Shows like the “Biggest Loser” and “The Amazing Race” are so popular because people achieve things that seem impossible.  We all wish we could achieve things that seem impossible.

We all have things in our lives that seem impossible.  Maybe right now you are out of a job and the chances of you getting one you want seem impossible.  Or perhaps you started a business and  it just seems like success is way out of your reach.  Have you been struggling with a weight problem or addiction and it just seems like you will never overcome?  What is the difference between you and the people we see on T.V.?  What makes them so special, why to they achieve the goal?  I have learned that the difference is that they DECIDED they were going to achieve their goal.  That’s right, in many cases a decision is what stands between you and achievement.  The people who reach their goals give themselves no other options, they make a decision to achieve.  They count the cost and they decide it is worth the effort.

The decision does not make the goal any easier.  The same obstacles are still there, you still have to do what it takes each day to get the job done.  The difference is that once you make the DECISION the exit doors have been closed.

So what are the things that you want to achieve today?.  Are they really hard?  Are you up for the challenge?  Can you make the decision?  All those folks we see on the morning shows faced many obstacles, got up early, hit the gym, ran the race, talked to one more person, what ever their goal required.  They sweat, they cried, and felt like quitting, but they got up every morning because they decided to do so.  And one day they woke up and they had achieved their goal.  What will you wake up to tomorrow?  Wake up a winner!

Are You Working For Nothing?

Most of us feel as though we are working very hard these days but with very little return.  For some it is because you work for someone else and feel you are not being paid nearly what you are worth.  Chances are you are likely correct but the people I am talking to today are the business owners who provide a service or product they have not priced correctly.

That’s right, I work with a lot of clients who fail to price their wares well and then work very, very hard for their clients and find that on an hourly basis they are making much less than they imagined.

So how does this happen? Well, when we start our businesses, we often fail to do the research necessary to make sure we are pricing ourselves competitively.  Another problem is that we don’t think through our working process very well.  As an example; if I charge $100/hour for coaching and coach for one hour with no other responsibilities around that client than that one hour, then I am probably doing okay.  But, if for that one hour of work, I then have to go and do five hours of work to provide additional help for the client, then that $100/hr just turned into less than $20/hour.  It also reduced the amount of time I can spend with other clients.

Many consultants suffer from this problem.  They often fail to take into account all the background work necessary to do the job for their clients and therefore price themselves too low.

As you look at your business profitability, really consider carefully the whole picture so that when you are with your clients you help them and yourself.

Focus, Focus, Focus!

I remember when I was in high school I had a teacher who always inspired me to do better.  It is always nice to have someone in your life who makes you feel like you can reach beyond what you think you can.  Mr. Ried was that person for me.

Mr. Reid always encouraged me to focus, even on the things I would rather not focus on.  It was easy to focus on literature, social studies, history, even geometry, physics and chemistry, but Algebra that was different.  I hated it, and the feeling was mutual.  I saw no reason for it and I did not want to waste my youth thinking about it.  But he taught me that focusing on the things I hated to do actually made them easier.  I always passed Algebra, and even though I did not develop a life-long love for the subject I can still think through it if I have to.  That is because I disciplined myself to focus on it.

That lesson is translated today into many things I really don’t enjoy doing but have to be done.  It also translates into my work.  I have learned the discpline of focus and how to decide what to focus on and it makes a big difference in my life.

Many of my clients often find focus very difficult.  For various reasons in our jobs it is often difficult to find the few things that will create change and focus on them.   Due in part to the busyness of life and the many options we have to create success, focus is difficult to come by.  Many things will produce results in business, few things will produce great results, and even fewer things will create the results we are looking for.  The trick is to find those things that will produce the best results and then stay focused on them no matter how shiney the other objects are around us.

Success comes to those who stay focused on the plan longer than anyone around them.  Are you that focused today?

Tenacity Rewarded

Remember Riley our little dachshund, well this weekend his tenacity was rewarded with the capture and successful destruction of a rat in the wood pile.  He is now hot on the trail of another one and we now believe him when he refuses to come when called or he digs around a building or fence line.  Something is either there or has been there.  He has earned his reputation as “Riley the Ratter Dog”.

So what is your reputation?  Do people see you as a “go getter” a “hard worker” or a “slacker”, someone that has to be supervised?  Whether you like it or not, your reputation is formed a little bit each day.  How you conduct yourself at your job, the way you talk to people, your demeanor, how you treat those whose job it is to serve you, how you treat your employees and those you supervise, all create a picture which ultimately builds your reputation.  So how is the construction coming?

What would you like people to believe about you?  Do you want them to like you or fear you?  Do you want to have close relationships or do you just want a bunch of casual, arm’s length friends?  You have the power to create your reputation.

Some of what you will create comes naturally, like our little dog.  It really is in his genes to chase small, furry creatures that move fast.  What is in your nature?  Maybe, like our little dog, some of what is in your nature you have to retrain and prune away.  But there are good characteristics that you just have to bring to the surface for others to see.

Whatever you want people to see in you is really up to you – but keep in mind, once you have created a reputation, you better like it because it will be hard to change!

Consistency

Have you ever thought about all the things you have accomplished, I mean really sat down and listed your accomplishments?  Have you looked at the great things you done in your life and even the little things, like getting up, getting to work on time, everyday  – for years?  Life can get so routine that we forget that all the things we do in a day, all the little things we accomplish have one thing in common – consistency.

If you take that thought one step further and apply it to the big things that you still want to accomplish, you will realize that consistency will play a big role in those accomplishments also.  So why do I bring up the obvious?  Well to many people consistency does not really exist.  They want to instantly achieve their goals.  They want to start a diet Monday and be thin by Friday or at the very least, the following Monday.   They want to start training for a marathon a week before the event.  They want instant relationships and they are not concerned about having life-long friends – they want someone to hang out with today.

In this age of instant messaging, push email, movies-on-demand and instant oatmeal, we have lost our perspective on the time it takes to build relationships, accomplish big dreams and create a life that our grandchildren can be proud of.  It seems we have lost our ability to do the same things everyday that create success for us.  We want to be stimulated and excited all the time.  Real accomplishment, the kind we read about in history books takes consistent effort, often doing boring things until we get it right.

So if you have big dreams, the best way to achieve them is create a plan, and work the plan and the work the plan some more.  From time-to-time you may want to tweak the plan, but you will always have to work the plan.  Consistency has always been and likely will always be part of the success equation for anyone who still wants to take that long journey to achievement.

No Free Lunch?

I have been bothered lately, by the inordinate number of email offers I get that say “claim your free…” .  Not to mention how annoying they are, if I follow the path to get the free item, I end up getting more mail with the same promise of something free.  Now these free offers are not just free subscriptions to magazines I will never read, but rather they are things like computers, washer and dryer combos, trips, flat screen TV’s; all very enticing.  Sadly, there is no one out there just wanting to bless my life with free stuff.  If you read the fine print, there are other items, obviously less interesting, that they want me to buy.  Some are selling insurance against everything except emails giving away free stuff, others are selling magazines, or tickets or what ever you can think of that you just would never think to buy unless there was a flat screen TV at the end of the trail.  I really dislike being spammed with email my computer junk mail can’t always decide is junk, but beyond that I resent being tricked to buy stuff I don’t want.

There is of course a lesson to all this and that is that there really is nothing free in life.  If we want a flat screen TV or a new computer or need a new washer and dryer, most of us must sacrifice and work to get the money to buy these items.

This principle is true in other areas of life too.  I have noted that I can’t keep my weight at a reasonable number if I don’t sacrifice some time and energy to diet and exercise.  I can’t become educated without studying, I can’t enjoy my pets without cleaning up the back yard.  Life is really about doing all the things necessary to get the things we want.

Changing were we are in life is like that too.  If we want greater success, we need to do the things we need to do to create greater rewards.  Whatever your dreams are, set you mind on the things you need to do to make them come true and don’t wait for someone else to come along with a magic formula to make them happen.  As the old adage goes in life there is “no free lunch”.  If we work hard for our goals, at the end of it we get to claim our prize and we have the satisfaction of knowing we stuck too a plan and made our own dreams come true.  What are you dreaming about, it’s your dream, make it happen don’t wait for a free lunch.