The Best Ways to Beat Procrastination

The Best Ways to Beat Procrastination These two powerful principles foster productivity and perseverance, instead of passivity and procrastination. Perseverance is about as important to achievement as gasoline is to driving a car. Sure, there will be times when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, but you'll always get out of the rut with genuine perseverance. Without it, you won't even be able to start your engine. The opposite of perseverance is procrastination. Perseverance means you never quit. Procrastination usually means you never get started, although the inability to finish something is also a form of procrastination. Ask people why they procrastinate and you'll often hear something like this: "I'm a perfectionist. Everything has to be just right before I can get down to work. No distractions; not too much noise; and of course I have to be feeling well physically, too. I can't work when I have a headache." The other end of procrastination—being unable to finish—also has a perfectionist explanation: "I'm just never satisfied; I'm my own harshest critic; if all the i's aren't dotted and all the t's aren't crossed, I just can't consider that I'm done. That's just the way I am, and I'll probably never change." Do you see what's going on here? A fault is being turned into a virtue. The perfectionist is saying their standards are just too high for this world. This fault-into-virtue syndrome is a common defense when people are called upon to discuss their weaknesses, but in the end it's just a very pious kind of excuse-making. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with what's really behind procrastination. Remember, the basis of procrastination could be fear of failure. That's what perfectionism really is, once you take a hard look at it. What's the difference between being afraid of being less-than-perfect or afraid of anything else? You're still paralyzed by fear. What's the difference between never starting or never finishing? You're still stuck. You're still going nowhere. You're still overwhelmed by whatever task is before you. You’re still allowing yourself to be dominated by a negative vision of the future in which you see yourself being criticized, laughed at or punished. This negative vision of the future is really a mechanism that allows you to do nothing. It's a very convenient mental tool. I'm going to tell you how to beat procrastination. I'm going to show you how to turn procrastination into perseverance, and if you do what I suggest, the process will be virtually painless. It involves using two very powerful principles that foster productivity and perseverance instead of passivity and procrastination. 1. Break it down. No matter what you're trying to accomplish, whether it's writing a book, climbing a mountain or painting a house, the key to achievement is your ability to break down the task into manageable pieces and knock them off one at one time. Focus on accomplishing what's right in front of you at this moment. Ignore what's off in the distance someplace. Substitute real-time positive thinking for negative future visualization. Suppose I ask you if you could write a 400-page novel. Sounds impossible, right? But suppose I ask you a different question. Suppose I ask if you can write a page and a quarter a day for one year. Do you think you could do it? Now the task is starting to seem more manageable. We're breaking down the 400-page book into bite-size pieces. Even so, I suspect many people would still find the prospect intimidating. Do you know why? Writing a page and a quarter may not seem so bad, but you're being asked to look ahead one whole year. When people start to look that far ahead, many of them automatically go into a negative mode. So let me formulate the idea of writing a book in yet another way. Let me break it down even more. Suppose I ask you if you can fill up a page and a quarter with words—not for a year, not for a month, not even for a week, but just today? Don't look any further ahead than that. I believe most people would confidently declare that they could accomplish that. These are the same people who feel totally incapable of writing a whole book. If I said the same thing to those people tomorrow—if I told them, I don't want you to look back, and I don't want you to look ahead, I just want you to fill up a page and a quarter this very day—do you think they could do it? One day at a time. We've all heard that phrase. That's what we're doing here. We're breaking down the time required for a major task into one-day segments, and we're breaking down the work involved in writing a 400-page book into page-and-a-quarter increments. Keep this up for one year, and you'll write the book. Discipline yourself to look neither forward nor backward and you can accomplish things you never thought you could possibly do. And it all begins with those three words: Break it down. 2. Write it down. We know how important writing is to goal setting. The writing you'll do for beating procrastination is very similar. Instead of focusing on the future, you're going to be writing about the present just as you experience it every day. Instead of describing the things you want to do or the places you want to go, you're going to describe what you actually do with your time, and you're going to keep a written record of the places you actually go. In other words, you're going to keep a diary of your activities. And you're going to be amazed by the distractions, detours and downright wastes of time you engage in during the course of a day. All of these get in the way of achieving your goals. For many people, it's almost like they planned it that way, and maybe at some unconscious level they did. The great thing about keeping a time diary is that it brings all this out in the open. It forces you to see what you're actually doing—and what you're not doing. Your time diary doesn't have to be anything elaborate. Just buy a little spiral notebook that you can easily carry in your pocket. When you go to lunch, when you drive across town, when you go to the dry cleaners, when you spend some time shooting the breeze at the copying machine, make a quick note of the time you began the activity and the time it ends. Try to make this notation as soon as possible; if it's inconvenient to do it immediately, you can do it later. But you should make an entry in your time diary at least once every 30 minutes, and you should keep this up for at least a week. Break it down. Write it down. These two techniques are very straightforward. But don't let that fool you: These are powerful and effective productivity techniques. This is how you beat procrastination. This is how you get yourself started. - Jim Rohn

Keeping Sales People Energized

With commission-based employees, it’s not always about the money. Promising boatloads of cash for results doesn’t necessarily motivate, just as chastising someone for failing to make quota often has no effect. That’s because with salespeople, “the desire to be successful in their profession and among peers is extremely important,” says Dawn Brolin, an accountant who offers QuickBooks training and support to small businesses. As a result, recognizing top earners through sales contests (find out who’s top dog), incentive prizes (for reaching various milestones during a campaign) and peer recognition (a shout-out from the boss in a newsletter or meeting, your photo on the wall for best sales in a specific month) works well because the seller stands out from the rest of the team. For a fairness approach, set up different compensation plans for your salespeople based on their productivity. Don’t have your A-team compete against the C-team, or the C-team’s performers won’t bother trying. It’s like weight classes for wrestlers. Brolin suggests giving each salesperson a written list of objectives. Beside each goal indicate your expectations for completion, perhaps with a numeric system­—an 8 or 9 for those with a strong possibility of completion and a 10 for a certainly accomplishable goal. The tougher ones might be assigned a 3 or 4; doable goals that aren’t slam-dunks might be rated 5 to 7. “You’ll find your salesperson will not only achieve those goals but have the passion and desire to continue that success with the next set of goals,” she says. Above all, don’t view individuals who sell for you solely as moneymakers, Brolin says. “Find out what they love to do outside of the job and reward accomplishments with a set of tickets to see their favorite sports team play or a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant, whatever you can do to show appreciation in the short term will provide success for everyone in the long run.” Old sales models are broken in many ways, thanks to an uncertain economy that makes retailers wary of taking on new products. Wendy Krepak, founder of Card Cubby, a small organizer that stores loyalty and credit cards, says salespeople face additional challenges from retail websites and social media, which help businesses sell directly to customers. So just having sales reps in far-flung locations is no guarantee of success. “You need to stay in contact with [remote salespeople] and manage them, so they’re not discouraged by rejection,” Krepak says. Coach them, check in often, solicit their opinions and feedback, let them know what’s working in other regions, and share good news often. She adds that “you absolutely cannot rely on commissioned reps as your sole source for exposure in the retail market.” To move products in today’s marketplace, Krepak says you must market through multiple channels—social media, traditional print and broadcast marketing, networking and building word-of-mouth through speaking engagements, and by attending product fairs and selling them yourself.

3 Keys to Greatness

Three Keys to Greatness by Jim Rohn Years ago, Jim Rohn recorded a 56-minute video for teenagers called Three Keys to Greatness. Although his focus was on teenagers then, the principles he shared certainly apply to adults, too. Here, he lists the three things he believes can lead a person to greatness: 1. Setting Goals: I call it the view of the future. Most people, including kids, will pay the price if they can see the promise of the future. We need to help ourselves and our kids see a well-defined future so we will be motivated to pay the price today to attain the rewards of tomorrow. Goals help us do this. 2. Personal Development: Simply making consistent investments in our self-education and knowledge banks pays major dividends throughout our lives. I suggest having a minimum amount of time set aside for reading books, listening to audio, attending seminars, keeping a journal and spending time with other successful people. Charlie Tremendous Jones says in five years you will be the sum total of the books you read and the people you are around. 3. Financial Planning: I call it the 70/30 plan. After receiving your paycheck or paying yourself, simply set aside 10 percent for saving, 10 percent for investing and 10 percent for giving, and over time this will guarantee financial independence. If a young person, or for that matter an adult, focused on doing these three simple things over a long period of time, I believe they will be assured success!

Developing Discipline

Developing Discipline by Brian Tracy H.P. Liddon said, “What we do on some great occasions will probably depend upon what we already are, and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.” I believe that with all of my heart. Discipline is doing what you really do not want to do, so you can do what you really want to do. What makes it hard is that in our own human nature, we do not want to do certain things, and so therefore, what happens is we have a tendency to be undisciplined in the areas that we do not care to do. Three areas to develop discipline: 1. Disciplined Thinking. George Bernard Shaw said, “Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.” One of the major differences in this discipline of thinking is that people that think their way to the top have the ability to do what I call “sustained thinking.” They have the ability to think on an issue for a long period of time, until that issue becomes clear on the decision that should be made. People who do not think their way to the top have the unwillingness of discipline to master sustained thinking. They will think about something for a while, and then they will get off it and go on to something else. They have never learned how to discipline their thoughts by writing them down. I always keep a pad with me of things that I am thinking. I write thoughts down so that I can stay concentrated and disciplined in that area. 2. Disciplined Emotions. We have choices when it comes to our emotions –We can master them, or –They can master us. I was playing golf the other day at East Lake Country Club, a great golf course here in Atlanta. It is known for being the links where Bobby Jones played. As you may or may not know, he is a legendary golfer who won a major tournament at twenty-one. By age twenty-eight, he had already won the grand slam and retired. Jones had an uncle who said that by the time he was fourteen, Bobby was probably already the best golfer in the world. He certainly was popular. However, Jones was also known for his temper because he would throw his clubs when he got irritated. Jones's uncle sat down with him and said, “Bobby, your problem is you've mastered the game of golf, but you haven't mastered your emotions; and until you master your emotions, you'll never be a champion in golf.” 3. Disciplined Actions. I call the two actions of initiating and closing the “bookends of success” because I really think they are. I know some that can initiate but they can never close; I know some people that can close but they can never get it cranked up. You have to kick start them every time. When you can do both, initiate and close, you have the bookends to success. Allow me to leave you with this closing thought about developing discipline: you cannot give what you do not have, and self-improvement precedes team improvement. The only way that I can keep leading is to keep growing. The day I stop growing, somebody else takes the leadership baton. That is the way it always is.

Good Health - Good Business

Good Health = Good Business A company is only as healthy as its employees. Yet with healthcare costs at an all-time high, the impact of poor health on employee productivity and company profits is leaving many business owners struggling to find a solution. While many businesses have implemented internal wellness initiatives and begun educating their teams about the rising costs of healthcare, these small changes are not impacting the overall health of their workforce, says David Atkinson of Cooper Consulting Partners, a division of Dallas-based Cooper Aerobics. “To influence a true culture of wellness in a business, leadership must educate employees on rising healthcare costs and how an active lifestyle can contribute to the success of the company,” he says. Cooper, which has developed several employee wellness programs, offers these tips for encouraging healthy practices at work. Lead by example. Employees are more likely to participate in wellness programs if their executives and, more important, direct managers are already doing it. Encourage quick health sessions. This can be as simple as a 15-minute stretch break or daily meditation. Combine exercise and relationship building. Try a “Walk the Boss” program, where employees can connect with their bosses during short walks around the building or even stair climbing. Encourage use of the stairs. Give public recognition to employees who complete a certain level of flights each month. Even something as small as painting the walls a bright color can make the climb more enjoyable. Improve selections in the vending machines. Keep the foods and drinks that are better for increased energy and better for you. To manage vendor costs, price unhealthy options higher than the healthy ones.

I love reading inspirational quotes. I hope these pump you up as well. Even on the springboard of success, you have to bounce a little. Zig Ziglar

Thriving Through the Holidays by Jim Rohn

The holidays are upon us; a time of celebration and joy. I love the last days of November through the beginning of the New Year. The pure magic of the holidays is something that I anticipate and enjoy each and every year. For some though, the holidays have lost the joy and excitement they at other times have had. The pace of life has grown so fast—much faster than those first holidays I remember in my life—that some people don’t enjoy the times they get to spend with their family and friends during what is supposed to be days filled with joy and peace. Why is that? Probably a lot can be laid at the feet of how fast-paced our times are, but that isn’t all. I believe our holiday times should be wonderful and filled with lasting and enjoyable moments and memories. So how can we ensure that we come out of the holidays in January with great memories of the past month? Here are six thoughts that will help you experience the holidays the way they were intended to be experienced: Be Temperate Holidays can be days of excess for many—too much food, too many cookies and treats. Too much chocolate, schedules that are too busy. One thing that will help you enjoy the holidays is to be temperate. Enjoy the food. Enjoy the treats. Enjoy the busy schedule of activities and parties. But also be disciplined enough to know when to hold back, when to say, “No.” When we go overboard we regret it and lose the opportunity to fully experience that moment. But when we enjoy a little and refrain from going too far, then we can enjoy all that little piece of time has to offer. Lower Your Expectations Much of the frustration people experience from the holidays is from setting their expectations too high. They expect too much from friends or family, and when they don’t get what they want, they get frustrated. They expect presents to be perfect and when they aren’t, they get frustrated or disappointed. Instead of having huge expectations this holiday season, just take it as it comes and enjoy what you can. And this brings me to my next point. Enjoy What You Can and Ignore the Rest This holiday season, go with an attitude of knowing that things will be what they will be. You can’t control other people or their actions. If a family member pushes the limits of your patience, ignore that and instead focus on how much you can enjoy the time you have with other family members. If things don’t go perfectly—which they won’t—then enjoy what you can and let the rest slide. You will feel a lot better about life if you can take all things a little easier. Stay Out of Debt Debt is a killer. It will steal your enjoyment of life. Be sure to stay within your financial boundaries this holiday season. The last thing you want is to start the New Year with a deeper burden financially. Know where you are financially and stay within those limits. You don’t have to impress anyone, just buy gifts that you can afford and express your feelings in the giving of the gift. Take Time for Yourself Be sure that, no matter how busy you get, you take time for yourself. Take time to read. Take a long bath if that relaxes you. Take a walk. Spend some time of quiet in front of a fire. Don’t rush through the holidays and sap all of your energy. Your mind and body need to be reenergized, so be sure to take time to do so. Focus on Your Spiritual Life Ultimately, no matter what tradition you come from, the holidays are historically days in which we focus on the spiritual. Men and women are created with a natural draw toward spiritual life. However, our culture today tends to stay away from a focus on the spiritual, and that has even crept into our holidays. Be sure to place an emphasis on building your spiritual life and growing in that area. This will help keep you grounded and able to deal with anything that may come your way. Friends, this time of year is another chance to remember the important truths of life and to enjoy time with dear friends and family.