The ‘stuff’ in your head is distracting you!
Do you have things continually going on in your head of all you have to do today, tomorrow, next week, etc? Those are distractions! When you effectively use your calendar and master task list on a consistent basis you don’t have to have all these things going on in your head thinking you have to remember them and being afraid you are going to forget to do something.
Do some of these things you have in your head keep you up at night? When you take them out of your head and put them on your master task list and on your calendar, you can sleep better every night.
You will be more in control and you will feel a sense of relief. Don’t believe me, try this for yourself and you will be like the many people I coach who have that sigh of relief when they get all these distractions out of their head and in the proper place (that you review and honor – did I forget to mention this part…).
Stop distracting yourself with all your thoughts. Do it today. Let me know how I can help you.
5 Tips for Making Better Choices
Life is all about choices. Look around you. You have chosen everything. Your life is the resulting compilation of all of your choices. The neighborhood you live in, your job, the level of success you have achieved in your career, the number of children you have, your spouse, the car you drive…are all the result of your choices.
Now, take a moment to think about the things in your life that you’re not happy with. It may be hard to swallow, but what you have is a result of your choices as well.
Here are 5 Tips for Making Better Choices
If you are not completely happy with your life and the choices you’ve made, it’s not too late to turn things around. All it takes is a change in the way you think about things and the determination to make better choices for yourself.
- Think about the long term. Most people focus on instant gratification. They want to know what they will earn immediately from making a certain decision. Unfortunately, many pass up on good opportunities because the immediate payoff isn’t that great.
- Consider your priorities. Every choice you make should be weighed against your priorities. If you want to put the rearing of your family before everything else, your choices should reflect this.
- Bring in the family. Before making any major decision, you might consider asking for feedback from your family and friends. Talking things over with others will help you see things clearly. They may even be able to give you ideas or open up your mind to possibilities that you wouldn’t have otherwise considered.
- Adopt a mentor. Find someone who is everything you want to be and form a friendship with them. Not only will they be able to give you tips, tricks and the formula for their success, they will help keep you motivated and focused.
- Surround yourself with the types of people that you want to be. Bad associations ruin good habits. If you want to be successful in your career, you should hang out with like-minded people. Even though we enjoy certain people, they may not be the best people for us to be around. Sometimes people hold us back without realizing what they are doing and this does affect you achieving your goals at the pace you would prefer.
Success and happiness are not luck. It’s all about choices. So, if you are not happy with your life, you have not made the right choices. And sitting around moaning about it isn’t going to help.
If you want to be happy…If you want to be even more successful…If you want to live the life of your dreams, choose to do so. It’s that simple. Sit down today and think about how your choices have shaped your life. Do not wait any longer to live the life you want! Start making the choices today that will lead you to the life you really want and you will enjoy the benefits of these new choices.
Review all the audio learning programs on goal setting, time management, and many other personal and professional development topics that will help you to be even more successful. Go to: AccountabilityCoach.com/coaching-store/audio-store/ and choose the topics that will benefit you the most.
16 Ways to Get More "Stuff" Done
In a perfect world, we would all like to work less and play more. The slogan “work smarter, not harder” is splattered across memo boards, sidewalks and bumper stickers across the nation, yet how many of us can truly say we practice working smarter every day of our working lives?
Although “work smarter, not harder” seems to have become the daily mantra for 21st century working people, most of them will tell you it’s a whole lot easier to say it than it is to do it!
Nevertheless, to operate effectively in the current fast-paced business environment, working smarter is a necessity. We’ve made a list of 16 of the most valuable techniques to help you work smarter, not harder.
1. Set daily goals
2. Cull your to-do list
3. Create mini goal posts
4. Worst tasks first
5. Pick up the pace
6. Necessities rather than neatness
7. Tame your In Tray/Basket (on your desk)
8. Organize your office
9. Enthusiasm equals energy
10. Prioritize to plan
11. Make promises not excuses
12. Even out the playing field
13. Deadline decisions
14. The power of punctuality
15. Get in tune with your intuition
16. Improve your processes
Choose 2-4 of these concepts to immediately implement into your life in the next 30 days so you can achieve your goals. Make a decision today that you are going to “work smarter, not harder so you can be even more successful and enjoy a more balanced life.
Eliminate the No Longer Acceptables in Your Life
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.
Is your revenue and profit up compared to last year?
In working with one of my clients today, he mentioned to me that his revenue as of the end of April is up 25% over last year at the same time. His company profits are up 240%.
The financial situation last year at this time was not as bad as it was at the end of the year, as you may recall. This is just another example of someone who is focused and works on their highest payoff activities in order to put himself in the highest probability position to achieve his goals. He did mention to me that the one idea I pushed a little hard on last year was one of the main reasons that their business is doing so well now. It was his execution of this idea that created his success.
Sometimes things may not happen as quickly as you would like them to. Sometimes you have to plant a lot of seeds to reap the rewards. It is the continual planting of the seeds that will set you above the rest. There are still so many people whining and moaning and doing nothing. Those who are planting the seeds are the ones making things happen – now and into the future. Keep planting those seeds and they will grow. Do it today, and every day.
Review the educational tele-seminar topics and choose those that you think would be of the most value for you and help you focus on your highest payoff activities so you can achieve your goals. Listen to them over and over again. Complete the exercises and reap the rewards. http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/bw/resources_teleseminars.php
10 Tips to Break Bad Habits – So you Can Achieve Your Goals
Bad habits can be difficult to break. Bad habits are a repetitive form of behavior that becomes so enmeshed in your psyche, they quickly become instinctual and involuntary.
Each year people spend thousands of hours and dollars attempting to break free of a pattern of bad behavior, but the majority fails.
Why?
Because there is no magical solution. Breaking a bad habit requires hard work and there are no shortcuts.
To effectively change a bad habit, you need to firstly recognize that the habit exists, and then make a conscious decision to overcome it.
10 Step Action Plan to Break Bad Habits
1. Affirm Your Conviction
If you don’t consider the price you pay for repeating the bad habit worthwhile, then it’s likely you won’t break the habit.
Be honest with yourself and take into account not only how the habit impacts on your life, but also how it impacts on those around you.
Make a decisive choice to become a better human being by breaking the repetitive behavior.
2. Focus on the Benefits
Make a list of all the positive changes that will occur once you have broken the bad habit. Include the improved health factors, the opportunity to improve your personal relationships, or the emotional benefits.
Refer to this list every time you believe your resolve is under threat.
3. Take Action
The time to start your new behavioral pattern is NOW. The right opportunity is NOT going to present itself in a few days or at the start of a new week.
Once you have resolved to change the bad habit, put your action plan into top gear straight away.
4. No Excuses!
Provide yourself with a safe haven in which to activate your plan for change. As an example, if you decide to give up smoking, get rid of any leftover cigarette packets, remove ashtrays, lighters, matches or anything else that reminds you of smoking.
Bad habits are often triggered by stressful situations, so work on a plan of attack to counter your lowered resistance during times of stress.
5. Plot your Progress
Take note of your daily/weekly/monthly progress in your diary or on a calendar in full view. Nothing is an inspirational as seeing how far you’ve come and what it would cost if you had to begin the process all over again.
6. Maintain Motivation
After the initial novelty of making a life altering change begins, boredom can set in. Continually challenge yourself to stay on target, and focus on the good things you will achieve once you’ve broken the back of your bad habit.
If necessary, practice a daily affirmation like “Every day in every way I am becoming a better person.”
7. Set Up a Support Structure
Keeping your action plan to yourself is a great excuse if you fail. You figure: “Nobody knows about what you I’m aiming to achieve, therefore nobody will know when I fail.”
Tell your friends, colleagues and family about what you are proposing to do and enlist their support and encouragement.
They can often foresee your trigger points or notice your behavior slipping into dangerous territory. Their feedback may not always be welcome, but their support will keep you accountable.
8. Falling Off The Wagon
Failure only turns into reality when you stop trying. Don’t allow one small slip up to be reason enough for failure. Accept that your action plan had a slight “bump” and then get straight back on the wagon and continue the journey.
9. Acknowledge and Reward Yourself
Daily or weekly achievements are an acknowledgment of your success. Take the time to stop, think and give yourself a pat on the back in acknowledgment of how far you’ve come.
Reward yourself. Let’s say you’ve gone an entire month without eating one junk food meal; so it’s time to congratulate yourself by taking in a movie, or going to the park to play with the kids. Better still, go to the park and do a 20 minute brisk walk!
10. Maintain Your Focus
Bad habits can take years to develop into subconscious behaviors. So it’s unrealistic to expect that after one or two months of altering your behavioral pattern, those bad habits will be eliminated altogether.
Be aware that it’s easy to re-establish old, practiced forms of behavior.
When you feel your resolve slipping, recount the journey you’ve been on to get to where you are now and focus on all the positive changes you’ve made.
Remember: bad habits may be hard to break, but new habits can transform your life.
Go to www.AccountabilityCoach.com and review the resources available to help you apply new habits so you can achieve your goals.
The Opportunities Are Out There – You Have to Find Them!
A friend of mine was laid off at the end of last year. She was obviously very upset and concerned how she would make ends meet if she couldn’t get another job within 6 months. She had her ‘poor me’ pity party and after about 30 days, put her ‘big girl pants’ on and got focused. She found some consulting work and just got hired for a job that is paying her $13,000 per month. WOW! This is more money than she has ever made in her career. When times are tough, things are still very possible.
This is just one more example of people out there doing well and making money. I know people are getting raises at work, entrepreneurs who are having a better year, this year, than they did the first part of last year in their business.
Yes, some companies are trimming the ‘fat.’ In many cases this was necessary – it was ‘fat.’
When I look around, I still see people drinking their (what I call) expensive Starbucks coffees, taking vacations, and living their life.
What do you have to do to get even more laser Focused on the high pay-off activities that will put you in the highest probability position to achieve your goals for this year? What do you have to do to enhance your belief in yourself and what you can truly achieve this year? How much better do you have to get at time management and honoring your calendar? Don’t be part of the people who are ‘getting ready to get ready’. Get focused and get busy. You have lots of opportunities when you get focused and believe. You can do anything you set your mind to achieving.
Apply Coaching to Your Life and Realize Your True Potential
Coaching is a form of teaching, with the directive of instructing and training a person to develop a specific ability. There are various ways to approach coaching since every coach brings a unique perspective to learning.
Life coaching helps clients to organize their life and pursue their life’s ambitions – professional and personal. Life coaches use a variety of methods to help give their clients confidence and guide them to take initiative that leads to action and results. Life coaches do not treat psychological disorders nor do they serve as therapists or special consultants. They train people for the pursuit of life and happiness, and to help bring balance in people’s lives. Their programs usually center on positive thinking, behavior modification, setting goals, and some form of belief practice.
The most common forms of coaching programs are self-coaching, peer (or group) coaching, seminars, and one-on-one coaching. There are advantages and disadvantages to each style. You can review various coaching methods at http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/bw/coaching.php. Review them and pick the one that you think will have the biggest impact on your life – personally and professionally.
What is the best method of coaching for you? What is the best way to train your staff and team members to be more efficient and effective in their performance? The answer is: whatever works. You may have to try one or more methods in order to find a system that is helpful. Research and review the options that are best for you to achieve your goals in the time frame you desire. Pick one and implement that system as it is designed and it will make a difference in your life.
Go to http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/bw/coaching.php and review the various options available to you.
Understanding the Psychology of Procrastination and Overcoming It
Procrastination is defined as the act of “putting off or delaying an action to a later time.” Most people know the term procrastination and have been guilty of this behavior at some point. Unfortunately, procrastination is not an effective coping behavior. The most severe cases of procrastination can result in strong feelings of guilt, compromised productivity, anxiety, disapproval from others, and in the end, much more stress. Of course the idea of all this negativity is worrisome to the anxious personality—in fact, it may drive he or she into even further procrastination.
What can be done about procrastination? It largely depends on whether it is considered a temporary defense, a self-limiting condition or even a behavioral disorder. Everyone does experience some episodes of procrastination. Thankfully, they are able to identify this behavior and overcome it by setting some goals, and some even might incorporate others in the mix to help them follow-through.
What really prevents you from taking action and making necessary changes in your life? Do you have a bit of a perfectionist streak? This is a common cause of procrastination, and is not a reason for concern. Do you tend to negatively evaluate your own performance as well as the outcome of an endeavor? Examine your surroundings…are you surrounded by hobbies, personal achievement records and completed books? Doesn’t this evidence prove that you can accomplish something if you set your mind to it? All most people need is a little help to get moving in the “right” direction.
Overcoming procrastination will always involve taking action—whether it is action coming from you, or from the help of others. Take action now, and start living, and enjoying the life that you really want. You can do almost anything you set your mind to achieve.
10 Principles to Eliminate Distractions and Encourage Success
We’re all guilty of allowing the little things to distract us from what we should be doing.
Take a moment and ask yourself where you truly want to be? Now tell me how many things you did today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday that directly contributed to the future results you want. And then tell me how many things you did today that did not contribute to your success. Those things probably distracted you from what you knew you should have been doing.
Minimize distractions and you’ll reach your goals faster – plain and simple. You must minimize distractions and focus on the tasks that have a positive effect on your success.
Here are 10 principles can be applied to reduce and eliminate distractions.
1. Stay off the internet. Set a time that you honor – say, anytime after 4pm and don’t get on it before then, unless you absolutely have to.
2. Remove computer desktop icons.
3. Remove desktop clutter.
4. Eliminate noises.
5. Discourage walk-in traffic (unless you have a business that you need walk-in traffic).
6. Screen your calls.
7. Ask for what you want.
8. Learn how to wrangle in excessive conversation.
9. Work when no one else is around.
10. Use and honor your calendar and task list. .
Remind yourself that those little distractions offer little return, if any at all, for the time you’ve invested. Instead, stick to the productive tasks that build your success. Eliminate distractions and you have an even better chance of acting on your good intentions and achieving amazing results!
