Get Out of the Trunk

When you get yourself in a rut and can't escape, you tend to get so down on yourself.  You want to be the best you can be, the person you were just last week who was closing deals and seeing the future by creating it.

Now look at yourself in this situation.  You are the same person that you were last week with the same skills, the same drive the same successes and failures.  You just need to get out of the trunk and back into the drivers seat. 

Start this by evaluating where you are going by envisioning the future for yourself.  Then get to work creating the goals on paper to get you to where you need to be.  Each goal will need a set of tasks.  Each task will need a due date and a set of steps.

When you have this, you are going to be out of the trunk.

My AH-HA! Moment

Every life has its Ah Ha moments. And these are really big milestones in one's life.  They are those moments of clarity on a certain subject when a really big curtain has been lifted.

For years I have struggled with getting the most out of my work day and started to work extra hours to get every thing done.  I still had piles of tasks left over and not enough time in the day. I've never been able to really work hard on my goals.

Saturday morning, after 4x4ing with my 2 year old, I made it into work and while the engravers were happily cutting out name tags, I researched goals, tasks and distractions.

Then it hit me.  My Ah-Ha! moment had arrived.  Now I am changed.

All my life I have been putting my goals (and the tasks assigned to reach them) in a list that would never get done.  I would make a ABC list and put my goals in the C list (along with watch TV, Wash my Jeep, etc...)

These task need to be put into the A list.  Your A list needs to be done first everyday so don't make your A list too big or take too long because you actually do need to get urgent tasks done too.

Remember:  NOTHING IS MORE URGENT THAN PUSHING YOUR GOALS AHEAD. When you remember this, your goals will get completed.  For sure!

This may seem like an obvious thing to some of you, but I believe it is the only thing holding me back from my success.

Task list is a garden

My task lists aren't getting me anywhere so I decided to do some research on what works for successful time managers.  I was reading this morning about my ABCDE list and I'm doing it all wrong.

I am filling my:

A list with stuff that has to get done today no matter what (my A list is packed every day)
B list with stuff that has to get done
C list with Plans and Goals to move the business ahead
D for Delegate (rarely used)
E for eliminate (stuff I shouldn't do)

This is how really successful people do it:

A is for moving plans and goals ahead. (there should only be one or two A list Items)
B is for Urgent tasks
C is for stuff that is fun or nice to do
D is for Delegate (use it more)
E is for Eliminate (things you must never do ever ever ever)

Only by using this method will your plans and goal get moved ahead.  I liken it to being so religious about weeding the garden that you never get a chance to plant any seeds.  This method suggests that you plant the seeds in a weedy garden and the weeds will get pulled while the veggies are growing...

Name Tags to the Rescue!

On Friday I had to do some really important banking. Life-or-death style banking. All weekend, using online banking, I noticed that the actions that were supposedly done, were not! So I marched into the bank this morning and they had no record of the payment. OH OH! They asked me who did the transaction.

I said "Stan Jenkins" (not the real name) because I saw it on his name tag.

They found all the work Stan did on Friday and traced the problem and resolved it very quickly. Otherwise it could have been an hour at the bank.

Name tags saved me like $100.00!!! I love you Name Tags!

Ways to change that bad attitude problem!

Hard work brings good luck. Its so true. Attitude is the number one cause for joy. As I always say "Thought becomes emotion becomes action becomes results" This is specifically true for great attitude. So work hard on attitude first!

Well what is attitude?

Google says:

at·ti·tude Noun/ˈatiˌt(y)o͞od/

A settled way of thinking or feeling, typically reflected in a person's behaviour

Well behaviour is an action. So there must be two steps above that. To have the great attitude, one must first start gaining the happy, motivated thoughts. You can look for them anywhere!

1.) Have you ever asked a good friend or a loved one why they like you? You will get back (after an uncomfortable "umm-ahh...") a minute or more of great thoughts you can keep thinking. Try asking your mom what is awesome about you... she is the font of nice things to say (for some of us).

2.) Try reading your old (or current) high school annual. It is usually filled with writing from friends. through all the silliness, there are some gems of real heartfelt affirmation for you. They are a treasure.

3.) Write affirmations when you are feeling your best. When you get that feeling like you are on top of the world, quickly write a little card full of everything that makes you awesome. It's like a time-machine-you telling yourself it will be alright!

4.) Do something you are good at! This, of course could be anything, as long as you are good at it. Build a house, play video games, do your taxes, blow your nose... I don't care! As long as you are thinking "Yea! I'm awesome!"

5.) Exercise! This Is the best way to feel great! The great part about it is its free! Now, a word of warning: You must say to yourself "I am going to exercise and its going to be AWESOME!!" If you don't you won't gain a lot of the good-thought-building that comes with exercise. You don't have to exercise till your dead, only till you feel you have satisfied your "initial" craving for any of these exercise benefits:

• Relieving Stress
• Better sleep
• Squash your anxiety
• Build a better mood
• Decreases depression
• Build your confidence
• Improves circulation (feel refreshed)
• Improved social life (meet others who workout at your gym, etc.)
• Look better

6.) Fake it! You can fake a great attitude. This is one of my personal favourites! When at the grocery store, and you have had a hard day and don't feel great. Try this: when the grocery clerk says "how are you doing today?" say (with excitement) "Fantastic!!!" they are sure to be taken back and smile and treat you a lot happier. faking it will bounce a great attitude back at you, and help you actually FEEL the attitude change!

You can see that there are just a few of many ways to improve your attitude. Attitude is catching too! Your attitude will affect your friend's attitude and your friends new attitude will affect yours! So if you come into any situation with a great attitude, you will be given the chance to feed off of that same attitude!

The Chain of Command for Your Mind.

Thought creates emotion. Emotion creates action. Action creates results.

Good or bad, the chain starts with your thoughts and runs your life automatically. Your thoughts will filter through your mind and give you results. Here's how!

Your mind is a a perfectly programmed computer. There is only one real user friendly terminal to this computer. It's thought.

THOUGHT
Thought is the data entry terminal to the system. You have complete power over these thoughts. Any thoughts that go through our mind are instantly entered into the computer and run through this program. Stressing over a performance review is just translated by your brain/computer to say

ThisMonth = LowSales;
if Attendance = LateAgain + 1
Terminated else
Boss = monitoring me;

This program gets entered into your THOUGHT terminal and sent directly to the EMOTION module of your brain.

You can type your own thought program. Sometimes after I loose a sale, I think about my lost sales then I wonder if I'm going to make all my bills, then I think what would happen if my electricity was cut off.... STOP TYPING!!!! I suddenly realise I'm writing a program for my life and I have to turn it around. I start injecting lines of positive, happy thought into the program.

Rewriting could look like this:

I lost that sale!
Wow, that's too bad.
What did I do wrong? (here's where you realise the program's being written badly)
I guess he didn't like my close.
I'll go make it better.
This will help me for next time.
I'll sell more to his competition.
Awesome! I'll get on the phone now!


EMOTION
Now, once the program is written, the thought goes directly to the EMOTION module of our brain/computer where it gets processed by high level brain function. This is not controlable by you. This module runs completely on its own. Emotion reads thoughts and writes action. The process looks like this:

THOUGHT: "I hate My Job"; [PROCESS THROUGH EMOTION] EMOTION=Depressed; Engage ACTION: "Moping, distracted";

You can't fiddle with the emotion part of our brain. When we think - it runs - it outputs actions. Be careful what thoughts you feed it, because it turns thought into action.

ACTION
Action is what we do. We actually have a lot of control over our major actions. Since we don't steal things we want and can't afford (or we shouldn't), and we don't smash into people who cut us off on the highway, we have a filter for our conscious actions (called MORALS).

Its the little or subconscious actions that don't get filtered properly. And this is where the EMOTION module wreaks havok or does great things to our lives.

Thought: I am really great a business networking!
Emotion: Happy, Proud
Action: smiling more, giving compliments, having more positive thoughts

Thought: Network marketing is scary
Emotion: fear, anxiety
Action: shyness, poor communication, lack of confidence, more negative thoughts.

So you can see that you create a feedback loop to your thoughts through your actions. Again, actions are somewhat controllable, but its the SUBCONSCIOUS actions that I'm talking about here. Your actions will always be met with results.

RESULTS
Every action is met with reaction. The reactions to your actions are the RESULTS of your THOUGHTS. Simple and easy to follow. A salesman can have a smile on his face when he comes into my office to sell copiers. He can be dressed nice. He can have a great presentation and a good product. If I don't belive him, I'm not going to let him get past his opening speech. I'll cut him off for sure.

Why don't I believe him? Because his ACTIONS aren't true, he faking. That's all he can do! Because he came to my door with THOUGHTS of "not selling the copier", "being a bad salesman", "why didn't he go to college", his EMOTION module activated the proper ACTION (depression, no confidence, sad) and he masked it with a smile and a practised pitch. The RESULT was that I sent him home without a sale.

Simple. Change your thoughts and the actions will follow.

Blogging again for the first time!

Hey Folks! Thanks for following me!

This blog is aimed at folks who want to get more out of interactions with other business people. Whether you are an employee at a big bank, a one-man operation building web sites, or a songwriter wanting to get heard, I have some small tidbits of information you many not have already heard.

I have seen and talked to a bunch of people who are freaked out about walking up to a person and starting up a conversation. They don't know what to say! I can help with that too. I'm no expert! I'm just a friendly guy who wants to share tips on being friendly enough to have people WANT to talk to you.

I will keep entries short and try to entertain when possible. Your comments will mean a lot to where this gets headed.

And when you need a name tag, use the Name Tag People!