Organize and Maximize for 2016

“An end-of-the-year checklist to help get things in order for the upcoming year.”

It's the end of the fiscal year for most, but this isn’t the time to rest on your laurels and wait for the New Year clients to come in. By maximizing this time, the beginning of the new year, you can set yourself up to be more productive in the coming months.

Here are some things that you can do that will help you hit the ground running in 2016.

1.       Evaluate the virtual assistants that are in your arsenal.

If you are not aware of what a virtual assistant is, it’s anyone that doesn’t directly work under you, but takes over tasks that you can’t do, don’t want to do, and shouldn’t be doing. These are the administrative duties keeping you from actually doing your business. There are companies that can do your administrative jobs for you. Your virtual team includes tax attorneys, website wizards, marketing firms, PR agencies; the list goes on and on—anyone who takes on parts of your workload, whether part time or full time, in order for you to get focused on the business at hand which is actually working on your business.

2.       Show appreciation to your clients.

Whether you are sending holiday cards, thank-you notes or even having a giveaway, this is a good practice to get going in your business. Showing appreciation tells the clients that they are not just a dollar sign.

3.       Finalize all of your “C” priorities.

Your “C” priorities are those things that aren’t very pressing, but still need to be done at some point; why not now? The unanswered e-mails, follow up calls, un-filed or misfiled information.  After reading an email, if it is something that is worth keeping, have a folder system set up to transfer it to, do not simply leave it floating in your inbox. By setting up email folders, you keep yourself more organized. If it is something that is of no importance, delete it immediately, clutter causes chaos.

4.       Maximize your website.

Hopefully you are utilizing a service for keeping your website current, but even if you are, go though it anyway and determine if any changes need to be made. By keeping up on it yourself, you keep your techs on their toes and have less site errors. Make sure that your website is not just an online brochure for your business, but is actually gaining clients.

5.       Create or review your email campaigns and contact lists.

If you are not utilizing contact lists and keeping in touch with your client base through e-zine or newsletters, you are leaving a large sum of money on the table. It’s all about effective marketing and effective marketing is all about the relationships. Eluding back to number one, people want to feel remembered and appreciated.

6.       Upgrade, update and clean up that computer.

If your system is bogged down, obsolete or just full of junk that makes finding documents difficult, you need to fix it now. End of the year sales makes for some great deals on new systems, new programs, etc. Your computer generally holds most of your important information, so make sure to take care of it. Upgrade the OS if necessary, make sure that all programs, apps, and system updates are all up-to-date. Get rid of unnecessary files, archive old files to an external hard drive, add more memory and Ram if possible, and defragment your harddrive. This will help keep your computer from crashing.

7.       Clean, clean, clean.

When was the last time you tackled your filing cabinet?  When was the last time you saw the top of your desk? It is now a good time to organize and clean the workspace. Trust me, when you decllutter, you will find that it relieves stress and helps you focus when you are in a clean, clutter free environment. Knowing where everything is will also maximize your time. Spending 15 minutes looking for a lost file is a waste of 15 minutes that you could have gotten one or two new clients, you could have used that time to draw up a new product, you could have even used that time to make some of those return calls and emails that have been piling up. Dusting will help your health also, just saying.

8.       Where did you drop the ball?

Very simple exercise that has the potential of being extremely powerful. Get rid of any distractions, set down with a pen and paper. Now think about and write down the top 10 to 15 things that didn’t go to well for you this past year. Then, before you have time to get depressed, go over each and write down what could have been done to change that situation for the better. By doing this, you are addressing the problem and creating a solution, so the next time a similar situation occurs, you jump right into the solution and, therefore create a better outcome.

9.       Where did you score?

Now, on another piece of paper, write down the top 10 to 15 things that went right for you in the past year. Get as detailed as you can about it. Don’t be embarrassed to show a little pride in yourself. Concentrate on each one and try to come up with a way to do it better. There is always room for improvement. For these accomplishments, did you reward yourself? Very important that you reward yourself for jobs well done.

10.   Set your goals

Decide what you want to do in this upcoming year and write them down, start figuring out how to accomplish them. Goals are like a road map; they get you focused on where you need to go. If you have already set goals, re-evaluate them. Sometimes goals change as our circumstances change. Keep your goals updated and fresh on your mind.

 

Now relax, make a cup of hot chocolate, kick back and enjoy the rest of the holiday season knowing that you are ready for 2016.

 

Law Of Success: Part I

 

The last few months, I have been immersing myself in the teachings of Napoleon Hill and would like to share with you a summary of the main principles that I have learned from his book, “Law of Success: The 21st-Century Edition.”

 

Unless you are new to learning success strategies, then you know the name Napoleon Hill. But for the benefit of those who are new to this and just now starting to purposefully work on making their lives more successful and don’t know the name; Mr. Hill is quite arguably the author of the world’s first practical philosophy of human achievement. Many NLP theories came from him before there was even a name for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. 

 

Commissioned back in 1908 by the great steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie, Hill spent well over 25 years researching the lives of over 500 of the most successful people on the planet to find out what actually made them so successful.

 

What makes his findings so amazing is that most of Hill’s work didn’t come from second-hand research but first-hand knowledge from personal, direct contact with some of the greatest names of the day including people like Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, and US Presidents Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.

 

While “Think and Grow Rich” is certainly Hill’s most popular book based on the results of his exhaustive research and I would suggest that it be in the personal library of anyone who wants to learn about success, the “Law of Success” (which was first published in a set of eight volumes) is Hill’s most comprehensive work of achievement, I’d almost say that it is the world’s first and foremost encyclopedia of success.

 

I would rank Napoleon Hill’s “Law of Success: The21st-Century Edition” as the foundational book for developing a practical success philosophy that anyone can easily apply to their lives. The fully revised and updated 21st-Century Edition comes in at 1035 pages containing Hill’s deep analysis of the 17 proven principles of success, many personal examples and stories from his own life experiences, and new commentary from the editors providing modern parallels with contemporary events and the latest management theories.

 

In this special three part series, I will attempt to give you a brief summary of each of Napoleon Hill’s 17 Principles from his classic bestseller; master these principles and you will master your destiny!

 

Principle # 1: The Master Mind

 

The mastermind is basically a friendly alliance of two or more people working together in full cooperation towards achieving one goal. It’s used for creative problem solving, the mastermind group is created from a combined group’s spirit, which can accomplish far more than any individual member could possibly hope to achieve independently.

 

The way Mr. Hill recommends forming a workable mastermind group is with ideally six to twelve like-minded individuals who will support the chief aim of the group, who are generally like-minded, and who are willing to meet with you regularly to help you accomplish the aim of the group by everyone helping each other and holding each other accountable. You must offer each group member something in return that will reward his or her participation in your mastermind group.

 

Whether you choose to develop a formal alliance or not, the Master Mind principle will still have a powerful influence over your life – for better or worse. It is said you are the average sum total of the people you spend the most time with which will either help or hinder you. Choose your friends and associates carefully.

 

Principle # 2: A Definite Aim

 

Without a definite purpose backed by a definite plan, it could be said, is like a rudderless ship in the middle of the Atlantic. Good intentions and hard work are not enough. You need a purpose, you need a plan, and you need a whole lot of perseverance backed with a burning desire to achieve your goals in life.

 

To realize your direction and main goals, Hill suggests writing out your WWWH and reviewing it daily: “know what you want, when you want it, why you want it, and how you intend to get it.” Also include what you plan to give in return for reaching your dream.

 

Note: I have found that the what, when and how are important, but the most important is the why. If your why is big enough, all of the other answers will come.

 

By reviewing this manifesto (if you want to call it that) on a daily basis (I suggest first thing every morning), with intense feeling, you will begin attracting the people and circumstances in your life to make your wildest dreams come true.

 

It may sound a little “woo-woo” but you do find that you attract that which you spend most of your time concentrating on. Try it for a week.

 

Principle # 3: Self-Confidence

 

To be self-confidant you must know yourself and know your business. Know your strengths and weaknesses, your greatest fears and deepest desires. Those who do not know live in constant fear and anxiety. A leader must know.

 

Keep a log of all your accomplishments and all the praise you receive and review it frequently. Tell yourself daily about how successful you are becoming.

 

Fill your mind with positive, inspiring thoughts. Surround yourself with people who will empower you. Have faith in others and see the good in people because how you view others is a reflection of yourself.

 

Principle # 4: The Habit of Saving

 

Pay yourself first by developing the habit of consistently saving a portion of your income. Hill and many others suggest saving at least 10% of your earnings.

 

Tip: if you’ve accumulated high-interest debts such as credit card debt, student loans, etc. it’s a good idea to use the 80/20 rule and allocate 80% of your savings to paying down the debt in order to avoid that debt from growing faster than the rate of return you’re getting on your savings.

 

Note: After my wife and I lost our house, one car, facing bankruptcy and about to lose our other vehicle, we found ourselves over $100,000 in debt and used Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University to start getting back on track.

 

Those who have will be given more. Having even a modest savings account will increase your self-confidence and will attract many opportunities that would normally not come your way without that extra cushion.

 

Successful people will be more willing to back your idea or promote you within their enterprise if they see that you yourself have developed the self-discipline of saving.

 

Hill recounts several instances in his book where people who had built up a little savings account were able to invest in new business opportunities, attract financing for their ideas, or enter into partnerships that would later result into untold millions.

 

Principle # 5: Initiative and Leadership

 

“Do the thing and you shall have the power.” – Emerson

 

According to Hill, leadership is “doing the right thing without being told.” Leadership is ultimately about taking initiative and getting things done. Bottom line is that successful leaders get paid for results not warming an office chair.

 

By always providing additional service without any expectation for pay, you will build your initiative muscles. Make it a point to go above and beyond.

 

Leadership requires self-sacrifice. Leaders are givers. Inspire and help others and you will be rewarded in direct proportion to your efforts. Zig Ziglar, likes to say, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

 

I hope you enjoyed Part I of this “Law of Success” series. For Law of Success Part II, it will be posted shortly.

 

In the meantime, take this week to follow these 5 principles, share these principles with your peers, discuss the concepts and teach other people what you’ve learned. There’s no better way to learn than by teaching others.

 

To get your copy of Napoleon Hill’s “Law of Success: The 21st Century Edition” Click here. It's worth the investment.

 

 

Learn to Lean

 

As the phrase goes, “no man is an island.” There are times on this road to success that we have to lean on others for support.

 

Ask for assistance and let yourself be helped and contributed to. Get those around you involved in your journey of success--work together as a team. Recruit acquaintances, loved ones, neighbors, bosses, fellow employees, and so forth and invite their support.

 

There are few things as useful in life as a solid support network. In the great times you have someone there to share them and in the bad you have someone there to help you through it; a support network provides you a feeling of stability as well as a safety net. A support network, however, does call for time, lots of dedication and a right approach to correctly build and maintain. Follow these steps to establish and keep a solid support network around you.

 

Make the time. A support network takes time to build and develop in a stable, organic way. Likewise, allowing a support network to grow will give you a clue of whom you are able to trust, for what reason and to what degree. Trusting someone in one area doesn’t necessarily mean that you could or even should trust him or her in another; take the time to grow slow and know for sure who has your back. Deliberately build your network to be diverse. Diversity commonly promotes force in a system. Cultivate a lot of different meaningful relationships so that dissimilar parts of your emerging support network may help you deal with different sorts of issues.

 

Keep in touch. On a regular basis connect with the individuals in your support network. Making a fast phone call or writing an e-mail just to say "hello", or even a personal message on social media lets individuals in your support network know that you're there for them even as much as they are there for you.

 

Utilize the Golden Rule as your guide. You will get as much out of your support network as you place into it. Zig Ziglar always said, “you will get everything in life that you want, if you help enough people get what they want.” If you want a good friend, you must first be a good friend, this holds true in any type of support group whether it is professional or personal. A Component of constructing a support network is giving up your time and energy to assist other people, even if they claim not to need the help or if you are busy. To construct a really strong support network, offer other people as much as, or even more than, you expect in return.

 

Power Question:

What one change would help propel you forward?

Lean toward your success

Let Go of the Guilt

 

I know, you are probably looking at the title and wondering how this has anything to do with success, but trust me, we all grow up with levels of guilt when it comes to having more or being better than someone else. In today’s society, there seems to be a rule of thought that everyone should be equal and no one should be better off than someone else. That is, of course, “stinin’ thinking” as Zig Ziglar used to put it. It also plays into the scarcity mindset which so many of us grow up with that keeps us bound in the golden handcuffs of a paycheck to paycheck mentality.

 

Now you are probably saying to yourself, “Huh? What is he talking about?” I know, trust me, all too well. I didn’t think I had any guilt about success until I looked back and saw so many times that there were areas that I sabotaged my success subconsciously.

 

Guilt is among the biggest wastes of our emotional energy. It causes us to get trapped in the present by over-concentrating on the past. Guilt, at times, can be very draining. By introducing logic to help counter-balance the guilt, you are able to avoid undermining your efforts toward a successful life and stay on course.

 

Feelings of guilt may not be gotten rid of over night, but they don't have to command your life. By following the steps provided, you can work towards freeing yourself from the guilt in your life that may be holding you back.

 

Pinpoint precisely what you feel guilty about. Your guilt might be telling you that there's something you need to alter in your life. For example, if you are trying to lose weight and know that if you go to a buffet you won’t control yourself and then a friend invites you to a buffet. You may feel guilty about saying no to the invitation, and then you end up going, overeating and then feeling bad about ‘ruining’ your diet. You may find that silly, but that actually happened to me. Or maybe your child wants that latest toy/videogame/whatever, but you have set yourself up on a specific budget in order to pay down debt; the child ‘guilts’ you into foregoing the budget for their newest whatever only to not play with it once they have it. Again (with hand held high) that was something that I dealt with.

 

Guilt comes in many subtle and not-so-subtle packages. The point is to see them, and do what it takes to overcome these guilts. As in the two examples above, most of those types of situations can be handled with a few boundaries that we will get into on a later blog, but for now, lets work on some steps to help you identify and work toward eliminating guilt in your life.

 

Look intimately at your priorities. Make a list of what is all-important for the health and happiness of you, your loved ones and your business. For example, what is significant to your loved ones might not matter to other families and the other way around. It holds true in every aspect of your life. Be strong with your priorities.

 

Construct more time for your priorities. First thing is to know and acknowledge that you can't do everything, so if it is not on your success list then get in the habit of saying "No." The word No can, and will, be your biggest ally. At first you will feel guilty about saying it, but in moderation a little guilt now can save a lot of guilt later.

 

Live in the here and now; any errors in judgment made in the past because of guilt are over and done with. Sometimes, the guilt we feel now that keeps up from moving forward is guilt of the past. Forgive yourself for your errors, learn from them and leave them in the past tense.

 

Determine limits. As a parent you're responsible for the well-being of your children and you set boundaries for them, but you need to do the same for every aspect of your life if you are to be successful.

 

One final thought that is important is to adopt time for yourself. Even though it might seem inconceivable to find the time, if you're debilitated emotionally or physically then you have nothing to give to those around you. Don’t feel guilty for taking some time out for yourself because in the long run, when you have time to recharge, you have that energy to invest in those around you.

 

Guilt is usually subtle, so you have to really look for it sometimes, but when you recognize it and deal with it, you find that success is usually just on the other side of that guilt.

 

An action step for you to take is to do some internal dialog with yourself and see if there are any issues that you feel guilt over. Then analyze why you feel guilty about it. Sometimes the guilt is rational, but the initial reasons for the guilt aren’t.

 

From guilt to success, Click Here!

Power Question:

On a scale from 1 to 10, how excited are you about change?

Keep a record of all your past successes

Confidence Building for Gaining a Million dollar mindset.

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”
― Bernard M. Baruch

Being confident in one’s self is one of the keys to becoming a successful. Reread the quote above and see the confidence exuded by Baruch when he expresses this quote. Today’s question is, how do we build up our confidence level to propel us to our goals of success?

Start at the beginning

Start by setting smaller, more achievable goals for yourself at the beginning of your path to sucess. No, I am not saying to thing small, but rather start small, learn to walk before you run. The point of doing this is so that you can achieve all your initial goals. Imagine deciding that you want to me a millionaire and you are going to do it in six months. What happens if you profit ends up lower than that? 

Your confidence would probably tank and you would hit rock bottom. It would take you some time to recover your confidence. It would be more practical to set your target profit at say 5,000 within the first few months and add to that once that smaller goal is met, a goal that you are more likely to hit. After all it could be your first venture and you might have no prior experience running such numbers in your business. Your confidence grows as your hit progressively growing targets. As your continuously hit higher and higher goals, your confidence will skyrocket.

Side note: No matter how old you are now. You are never too young or too old for success.

Here’s a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages…
 
Mozart was already competent on keyboard & violin, he composed from the age of 5

Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13 years

Nadia Comăneci At age 14, gymnast of Romania scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics

Pele soccer superstar was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil

Elvis was a Superstar by age 19

Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936

Beethoven was a Piano virtuoso by age 23

Roger Bannister was 25 When he broke the 4 minute mile record

Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity

Michelangelo created the two of the greatest sculptures “David” and “Pieta” by age 28

Alexander the Great by age 29, had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world

Amelia Earhart was 31 years old when she became the first woman 2 fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean 

 
Martin Luther King jr was 34 When he did the speech “I have a dream”

The Wright brothers, Orville (was 32 ) & Wilbur (was 36) when they invented & built the world's first successful airplane & making the first controlled, powered & sustained heavier-than-air human flight

Vincent Van Gogh was 37 when he died & virtually unknown yet his paintings today are worth millions

Neil Armstrong was 38 when he became the first man to set foot on the moon

Mark Twain was 40 when he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and 49 years old for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Christopher Columbus was 41 when he discovered the Americas

Henry Ford Was 45 when the Ford T came out

Leonardo Da Vinci was 51 years old when he painted the Mona Lisa

Abraham Lincoln was 52 when he became president

Ray Kroc Was 53 when he bought the McDonalds Franchise and took it to unprecedented levels

Dr. Seuss was 54 when he wrote “the cat in the hat”

Colonel Harland Sanders was 61 when he started the KFC Franchise

J R R Tolkien was 62 when the lord of the ring books came out

Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became President of the United States

Jack Lalane at age 70 handcuffed, shackled, towed 70 rowboats

Nelson Mandela was 76 When he Became President
 

One way you can do this is by keeping a journal. Put all the inspiring stories, any accomplishments, testimonials, etc. Record all of your successes daily, regardless of how big or small they may be. Go through your journal when you need motivation because we all have a tendency in times of stress and distress to forget how far we have come. The journal becomes proof.
 

 “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

Hang with the right crowd

Associate with like-minded people who are also working to achieve their success goals. It is essential to put ourselves in an environment conducive to grow our confidence levels and to keep us motivated. There is no better place to achieve this than by deliberately placing ourselves among those who are also trying to achieve the same things that we are– to become successful and build a legacy. Join social and networking events to meet more people like you. Not only will you be able to exchange ideas, you will also be able to motivate each other and keep each other accountable.

On the adverse, we need to limit our associations with those who are counterintuitive to our goals. Those who will hold us down and keep us from success are the ones we need to avoid as much as possible.

Confidence comes with growth and success growth doesn’t just happen, it is deliberate.

Power Question:

 Who is your mentor when it comes to accomplishing your goal(s)? Seeking out those who have already accomplished that which you are aiming to accomplish will help you learn from their mistakes instead of making your own.

If you are like me, you don't really have time to read. I found that the best way for me to digest a book is by, what Zig Ziglar referred to as, automobile university.

This book tells a story. It is short, but contains so much information on mindset. One of the pillars of success is the topic of today's post. Here is a link to an audio version that you can listen to while driving.

Organize, Organize, Organize!

When you go on a diet, are you “good” every single day?  If you blow your diet by going out one night, do you give up on your goal?  The answer (hopefully) is ‘no.’ Likewise, if your goal is to get a master’s degree in theology and you haven’t done anything about it today, do you give up on your goal?  The answer (again, hopefully) is ‘no.’ Most people focus too much on the long-term goals or too much time on the day-to-day tasks and ignoring the long term all together. They expect the long term things in their life to work themselves out.  The truth is that you must focus most of your concentrations on the in-between, look past the day-to-day tasks, but not get overwhelmed with the long-term goal. Concentrate on the intermediate goals that need to take place in order to accomplish the long-term goals.

 

Think about how you walk.  If you can physically do this exercise, then try it. If not, then just imagine yourself walking. Only walk by looking down at each step you take.  You have been walking for so long now that you may not stumble, but you will certainly lose track of exactly where you’re headed.  Now, try to walk by looking at a destination far off; you might reach your goal if you don’t fall down the stairs or get hit by a car as you cross the street!  To walk effectively, you must look forward – not a mile forward, but just a few steps ahead. It is vital that you treat your goals and the effective use of your time the same way that you walk.

 

To effectively achieve your long-term goals, you must first break them down into intermediate goals, goals that can be reasonably achieved in a week, couple of weeks, a month, etc.

 

You will want to keep a detailed monthly calendar. This will allow you to see your goals in print. Day Timer has a two page calendar system that you can get that allows you to keep track of goals, journal your progress and break down tasks. I like physically applying my goals to paper; something about writing it down makes it more solid in my mind. I also can physically mark a line through it, so that I can still see it, but I know it is finished, which gives me a since of accomplishment. If you are, however, so inclined to be a part of the modern world and take things digital, there are numerous digital calendars out there. I personally like Google Calendar myself. You will also want to keep track of appointments, meetings, and other business action items on this monthly calendar as well; this will enable you to quickly see how packed or free any specific week will be.

 

Daily Planning

 

Having long-term and intermediate goals are the first two steps to “managing time.”  The third step is to ACT!  As the saying goes, “The longest journey begins with the first step.”

 

Many people – all with good intentions – ignore the realities of the day when they first start integrating their intermediate goals in their daily regimen.  They forget that they have meetings they’re supposed to attend, job commitments they’re expected to fulfill, and other things that pull at their available time.  As a result, they become frustrated with their lack of progress on their goals and become angry about the things like work and/or family obligations that are taking up all their time.

 

Here are 3 steps to take that will help you to organize your schedule better, so take a few minutes each morning to plan your day like this:

 

1. Identify your appointments, meetings, and other business action items.

 

Your first step in planning your day is to transfer appointments and other business action items from the monthly calendar into the daily calendar (most digital calendars will do this for you automatically).  These are the non-discretionary things that  you have already made commitments to do. 

 

2. Plan your daily duties.

 

Your second step is to plan your daily duties such as phone calls, mail, inbox items, etc.  These are activities that are less defined than action items but still require a portion of your day.  By planning these duties, you allot time for them without letting them drive your entire day. Many people find themselves answering emails up to 4 and 5 times a day. Let’s not even get to how much time is sucked away by social media sites.

 

3. Make appointments with yourself.

 

Your third step is to ‘make appointments with yourself’ by identifying which intermediate steps you wish to tackle today.  Transfer these discretionary activities (intermediate steps) from your Goal Planning page.  This makes discretionary items non-discretionary by the simple act of recording the item in the daily plan.  You move the future into the present so you can act upon it now!

 

By simply taking more control of your daily schedule, you will find that you have gained more control over your time. Here are just a few more tips to help you “manage time” and achieve long-term success:

 

• Limit the number of activities you plan for a day.  Commit to, and complete, a few activities rather than over committing yourself. This will lead to frustration, irritation, and self-deprecation when you miss a targeted goal.

 

• Make a habit of planning for 15 minutes every day. I generally suggest that you take 15 minutes the night before to plan the next day’s activities.

 

• Do your priority items first.  Period.  Include a quiet time with absolutely no distractions in order to accomplish your top priority for the day.

 

• Take a long-range view of your commitments.  Does your calendar fill up quickly?  Should it?  Space your non-discretionary time carefully week to week. Just because you can squeeze another project in, doesn’t always mean that you should.

 

• Take a medium-range view when planning time for your intermediate steps. “What is the number one thing that I can do THIS WEEK that would have significant and positive results in my department, career, and/or personal life?”

 

• Use your time management system to keep important information such as your department, career, and personal goals and intermediate steps; your appointments, business action items, and other commitments; as well as your contacts; this will give you your entire day at your fingertips.

 

Next time I want to discuss Pareto’s law (the 80/20 rule) as it applies to time management. Talk to you then.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

What are three things that you are doing regularly that doesn’t support or serve you? In other words, what are three things that you selflessly do for others on a regular basis?

Time is a Unique Resource

 

Time management is not about squeezing more into a day or eliminating distractions.  It’s about managing activities to achieve goals.  This article shows you how.

How many times have you thought or said, “There just isn’t enough time in the day.”  Reality is that when we say this, we are actually saying, “I just don’t have the ability to organize my time wisely enough to account for all I need to do.” 

 

By taking a brief look at time, you will see that I am correct in what I am saying.

 

Time is a unique resource.  It cannot be saved, stopped, or replaced.  In fact, it is the only resource that can never be regained once it is spent.  This then makes it interesting to see that not very many people actually organize their day out better..  Some people seem to be able to manage the time they are given better than others and are subsequently able to make better use time.

 

The real fact of the matter is, these people cannot ‘find time’ or even manage time any more than the rest of us.  Time cannot be “managed” or “found”.  We all have the same amount of time in a day, a week, a month, and a year.

 

24 hours in a day

168 hours in a week

8,736 hours in a year

 

With the current average life expectancy for a man being 76 and women being around 81, figure out how many hours you approximately have left in your life?  Take a minute to calculate the time.  Now look back at your life spent so far and compare the amount of accomplishments you have achieved in the time you’ve already lived with the goals you want to achieve in the time you have left.  Are you pleased with where you are? What about the time you have left, are you focused on how you will spend your remaining years? What are your goals and how have you planned the achievement of those goals?

 

Ask yourself how you can use the remaining time to accomplish job, career, and personal goals that are meaningful for you.  Ask yourself, “What is the one thing I can do TODAY that would have significant and positive results in my department, career, or personal life?”

 

Truth… managing time isn’t about time at all; it’s about managing priorities.  It’s about those achievements that are most important to you when all is said and done.  It’s about setting achievable goals and using a set and proven methodology for achieving those goals amidst the many forces out there vying for your time each and every hour of each and every day.

 

Align Your Goals With Outside Forces

 

Have you ever started a diet around the holidays?  Unless you opted to go to a health camp for the holidays, you probably succumbed to the many temptations of holiday treats and foods that seem to show up and stick around during these times.  The fact that no one else around you seemed to be on a diet didn’t help matters much either!  In short, your goal of losing weight wasn’t aligned with the realities of the time frame in which you started.

 

The same is true of any goals or objectives.  Goals are easier to achieve if they are aligned with ‘outside forces’ or what’s going on around you.  As an example, if your professional goal is to organize a missions trip to another country but that particular country is looking at reducing or halting the amount of missions-based groups it is giving visas to, your goal is not aligned with the outside forces of the country and you will have a challenge meeting your goal.

 

Furthermore, if your goals ARE NOT aligned with that country’s goal and you try to force the issue, you may be seen as a malcontent or a troublemaker and not only guarantee your visa application revoked, but others as well.  If your goals ARE aligned with country’s goals, you are seen as being in support of their decision and your team is seen as a contributing force willing to work within their guidelines and you are more likely to have your visa go through at a later date.

 

Ask yourself, “Will the achievement of my goals help others achieve their goals?”  If your goals MIGHT NOT align with the goals of those around you, you may wish to revisit your goal.

 

Anchor Your Goals to Inside Forces

 

It’s also important that you have your goals anchored to your inner forces or values.  If you don’t value the achievement of your goal, or the achievement of your goal goes against your core values and principles, your goal will be difficult to achieve because self-sabotage will kick in.

Ask yourself, “Will the achievement of this goal reinforce who I am as a person, leader, minister, or person?”  If your goal does not reinforce who you are, you may need to revise your goal or change it all together.

 

Link Your Goals With Other(s’) Goals

 

As alluded to earlier, achieving a goal is easier if it is linked to another goal that you have or to another person’s goal. You may find that several of your goals may link together nicely; by working on one, you can easily work on several.  Even more powerful is linking your goal to another person’s goal.

 

Ask yourself, “Who else might benefit from the achievement of this goal?”  Discuss your goal with this person to see if there’s a possibility of working on mutually beneficial goals (win/win situations).

 

By aligning, anchoring, and linking our goals, they become easier to achieve.

To quote Zig Ziglar, “You can get everything out of life you want, if you help enough people get what they want.

 

Next time I will discuss in more detail, ways to better organize your day to help eliminate wasted minutes, which add up to, wasted hours. Join me.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

In a previous post I asked about what you wanted more of in life, so now I am asking, What do you want less of in life?