How to end a lifetime of procrastination

Let’s not re-invent the wheel, let’s change it completely.

When it comes to procrastination what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

Did you think about all the things that you still need to do? And then did you think to yourself “argh, I’m such a loser because I can’t seem to get anything done?” Or did you look off to the side with a sigh feeling defeated?

I’ve got such great news for you. There is no such thing as procrastination. It’s just a word! One that isn’t totally positive nor productive. It’s like a label on a jar that tells you your have Skippy peanut butter rather than Jif. That is ALL it is.

Now, how does that concept grab ya? My invitation to you today is for you to 1) stop using the word procrastination and 2) give it another meaning. As in let’s change it completely from here on out. What do you say, are you game?

Changing the way we look at procrastination.

Dr. Wayne Dyer is known to have said:  “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.”

A lot of my clients first arrive in my world because they want to change something that isn’t working or that they want to improve on. Many think that they are procrastinators and can’t seem to do what they need to do to get to where they want to get.

I’m going to introduce you to a word that I know you have heard before (probably many times) yet maybe haven’t thought about how it could be playing a major role in your life and in your business.

It’s AVOID. You know as in you are avoiding looking at your bills each month when they come in (and next thing you know you owe a late fee). Or you are in avoidance of taking an action that you said you wanted to do such as go to the gym, get more sleep or even go to a networking event.

When you can look at your procrastinating as really avoiding it makes it easier to actually move from sitting on your bed, looking at your phone, reading and having coffee (see I chose today’s photo for a purpose =). And it gets you into action. That action that you know deep down will get you to where you want to go!

Making the change, getting yourself to take action.

Well then, you are changing how you look at what you have been looking at. You are now going to look at all the things that are left undone and get them done. Now let’s move on to the meat of the matter so you can figure out why you may be avoiding getting things done.

First of all, you may not truly need to get those things done. You may really want to just let them go. You can do that you know.

Second, you may not even want to get them done and in that case, you can let those go too.

Are you ready…

Here are a few ways for you to begin to change how you look at where you have been so you can get to where you are going:

  • Make a list of all the undone tasks. List out everything you have left undone. A few examples may be:
    • washing your interior car windshield
    • updating your monthly finances
    • paying your bills
    • calling a prospect
    • empty the shredder
    • give the dog a bath
    • make a dentist appointment
  • Put a star next to those that you deem important. Then go back over those and ask yourself, 1) do I need to do this and 2) do I want to do this? If you say no – you can delete or delegate it. If you say yes (and for the record your reason why you feel it is important has no bearing here) your next step is to do it, but first…
  • Ask yourself why you think you are avoiding this task. This is where the beauty comes up. You will (more than likely) find that you immediately know the answer. Let’s take the example of washing the interior car windshield because it’s my challenge. I am avoiding this because it’s awkward to do, the windshield is pretty big and I can’t seem to get the bottom nor the sides well and end up seeing lots of streaks which I do not like.  Hence, I will drive around with a windshield that I can barely see out of (especially at night) because of my thoughts around it. Are you laughing yet? I can almost bet you that windshield will be clean by end of that day. Why?…
  • Once you know why you are avoiding a task, it’s no longer an obstacle. It’s the knowing why that can get us moving, in a small or big way. I won’t go into breaking steps down here yet it’s key to do that for you to be successful in moving forward. My first step would be to get the supplies to clean the windshield and then I can begin that action.

Don’t forget to give yourself a high five.

T. Harv Eker is a great proponent of giving yourself a high five. You’ll feel great completing what you had been putting off. And by celebrating you create a “get it done muscle” making it easier to keep going.

So what do you think? Are you ready to move out of procrastination, by look at what you are avoiding so that you get to what you want to do so you can get to where you want to be?

Sometimes the easiest thing is to have someone help you. I’d love to be that someone. You already know I’ve been there and I work with people just like you who have been there too so I know I can help you get out of being and feeling stuck.  Set up a free 30 minute session and you’ll be able to create the time for what’s important in your life! Click here to be on your way.

 

Creating Time For What’s Important In Your Life

Time is equal. What you give your attention to is not.

Think about that for a moment. In the last 24 hours what did you give your attention to?

I keep hearing from my clients and the people in my life that they are “so busy” and “stressed out”. In fact one person is having health issues due to stress. She feels pulled in many directions. Her work, her family, herself (you see who is last on this list, don’t you?).

When I ask the question “what are you busy doing” I get silence or a blank stare. If you are so busy, why can you not recite what you are busy doing? Because you are busy doing things that are not important.

On the other hand, one of my clients is busy creating a new program for her business. Though if you asked her if she was busy she would tell you that she is productively working on her next program. And she’s not stressed out over it. In fact, it is energizing her.

What ARE you giving your attention to?

You have probably heard it before, if everything is important then nothing is important. Everything cannot be important. It may be urgent, but is it important? See, a lot of my clients when they first start working with me tell me that everything is important. But the reason they want to work with me is that they can’t seem to reach their goals, build their business and have a great life. Their attention is given to everything. They, maybe like you, put their energy, effort and attention into everything and wonder why they aren’t where they want to be.

So right now, get out a piece of paper and write at the top:  Things I am giving my attention to right now. Draw a line down the center of the page and on one side write my business and the other write my life. Then list out everything that you have given your attention to in the last 24 hours. And if you want this exercise to be really impactful, write down everything in the last week.

Once you do it, take a short break. Next, look at your list through fresh eyes. What is on there that is truly important to you? Can you find it right away? Is it at the top? Now, don’t be surprised if it isn’t 1) on there or 2) near the end. Or perhaps you haven’t truly figured out what is important to you and that’s causing the problem.

How to give your attention to what truly matters.

Take a deep breath. No matter what you discovered from the exercise above, it is all good. You now have awareness. And awareness in my book is THE #1 key element to being able to create the changes you desire.

Here are several steps for you to find out what truly matters for you:

  • Rate your list. On a scale of 1-10 rate how satisfied you are with how you spent your time. 1 being very dissatisfied and 10 being completely satisfied.
  • Write down your 8 or higher items. Maybe it’s time with your family or onboarding new clients. Ask why those are important and write it down.
  • Review the less than 8 items. Ask why you feel you needed to do (or need to do) those activities/tasks. Begin thinking, who else can do these or do I even need to do them in the first place (think, alphabetizing your spices or re-arranging your office supplies).
  • Pick ONE area in each of your category of business and life to focus on. Choose the one that you know will give you the most satisfaction, that if you were to spend your time and energy here you’d receive the biggest results.
  • Create your step-by-step plan to spend time in those important areas. Enter the time in your schedule/calendar and hold yourself accountable to focusing on it regularly.

It’s important that you 1) know what is important to you and why, 2) to have your roadmap in front of you and 3) hold yourself accountable in order to experience less stress, more results and lots of satisfaction!

What if you took just one step toward your dream? Here is an article I wrote about recently about rowing your boat toward your dream. Let’s look at it this way. Just put one oar into the water. Once you do that, you can put the second one in. Then you can begin to row, gently. After that, you’ll be on your way. How great would that feel?

Oh, I know this isn’t as easy! I’ve been there and I work with people just like you who have been there too. I’m happy to help you get to what is important. Set up a free 30 minute session and you’ll be able to create the time for what’s important in your life! Click here to be on your way.

 

Dream Big Because Life Is About A Dream

Your life is meant to be so much more.

Life is but a dream! Did you read that and think “Yes! It is!” I hope so. That is my intent anyway. I’ve been so fortunate to work with some amazing business women over my coaching career. So many women who are doing great things in the world and in their lives. And it always amazes me how they struggle. Struggle with guilt, feeling bad and many other negative thoughts and feelings.

We are so much more than we believe we are. Just look at some women you admire. You know those you think are just awesome. Guess what? YOU are too! Your life IS meant to be so much more than you are allowing yourself to have.

It is time for you to acknowledge your greatness.

Usually I write about ways for you to be your best. I’ve been taking a sort of under the radar approach. And today I’d like to take an in your face approach. Recently, I’ve had several conversations with clients and some friends and the theme that surfaced was that they are all afraid to acknowledge that they are great.

Not great at what they do (though they are), just great at who they are.

Is that true of you? Do you have a hard time saying “I’m great”? If you do, I would love for you to remember that you are great. Just as you are. You do not need to make more money, be more successful, lose more weight, be more positive or whatever. You as you are right here, right now are great.

Life is bout a dream.

Oh but it is! I can hear you saying “NO IT IS NOT”. Let’s go back in time and remember the song, Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Here is a video in case you forgot how it went.

They lyrics are:

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream

Why then do you push and shove in your life and in your business and struggle to get to where you want to go? What if you were to remember these lyrics? Personally, I like the merrily merrily, merrily, merrily part as there have been times in my life and in my business that I wasn’t all that merrily! And looking back, if I were things may have been quite different.

Stepping into merrily rowing your boat down the stream.

Where in your life have you maybe forgotten about a dream? Given up on a dream? Were afraid to dream? What if you were to dream right now? What would your dream be? Is there something that you would love to do that you think “naw, I can’t do that”? Have you been contemplating making a change (even a small one) and saying to yourself that it would be too hard?

What if you took just one step toward your dream? Let’s look at it this way. Just put one oar into the water. Once you do that, you can put the second one in. Then you can begin to row, gently. After that, you’ll be on your way. How great would that feel?

So it isn’t always as easy as I’m making it out to be (but it is). And if it feels hard to you, I’m happy to help. Set up a free 30 minute session and we’ll get you in your boat and dipping your oar into the water and on your way to realizing your dream. Click here to be on your way.

 

How to create a supporting working environment

envrionment

Finding a winning formula to business success.

There are many things that go into creating success in your business. One of them isn’t something most people give a lot of thought to. Especially when they start their business. It’s your working environment.

In the past, I’ve written about creating best practices for your business. You can read about those here. Your best practices are also key to running a successful business. Recently, I’ve had a few client sessions and conversations with business owners who feel they are stuck.

After asking them some key questions, what came to light was that their environment wasn’t supporting them in achieving their goals. It’s easy to do. You have your list of things you do for your business and your routines. As a result, you are so busy doing those things that you fail to notice how the disorganization, (ahem, the mess) creeps in. Sooner or later things start to fall through the cracks. And at the same time, things aren’t happening as you planned. Surprisingly, you think “what is going on here”.

Look around at your environment.

Take a moment, yes right now. I’ll wait. Look up and look around. What do you see? Do you see a bunch of papers all over the place, are things on the floor (yes, I know that happens), and what about that floor? Does it need a good vacuum? What about your computer desktop and even the apps on your phone? Do you have your electronic files filed neatly so that you can easily find them?

Don’t beat yourself up here. It’s important to look at things as they are right now. Just look around and notice. That’s the first step to setting yourself up to have a winning environment.

My clients often tell me they need to work on their time management. And sometimes that is the case. But often, it isn’t. Often they need to clean up their environment. One client actually moved her office because she recognized that working in the basement with no windows wasn’t supporting her to be a successful business owner. [Side note: that year she increased her income by 80%!]

Steps to creating your supporting working environment.

Now, there are many ways we can do this. What I recommend is that you take the time to first see where you are, then decide how you want it to be and figure out the steps to take to do it. This creates ownership. You have a psychological vested interest in it and your success.

Here are a few ways for you to begin:

  • If you haven’t done it already, look around at your environment. What do you see? Is there anything that you are ignoring? What bugs you the most? Equally important is to make sure you take some notes especially around what just kind of gets ignored.
  • After you have looked around, pause and ask yourself “How does this make me feel?” Jot down your feelings. Are they negative such as unorganized, overwhelmed or frustrated? Then ask yourself “How do I want to feel?” Again, jot those feelings down. Do you want to feel organized, calm and peaceful?
  • Determine where to begin first. After you have taken stock of where you are, how you feel, how you want to feel you can determine where to begin. Maybe it is it vacuum the floor. It could be to clear off all the papers. Or it could be to first create a place for the things you have and begin putting them there. This is where getting help could benefit you. Though you want to make sure you hire someone who will ask the right questions, allow you to do the work yourself and be there for support.
  • Set aside time in your calendar to create your supporting working environment. The trick here is to do it and get it done relatively quickly. Momentum will help you. The challenge some people have is that they get overwhelmed. And if you know that may be the case for you, create a list of what you need to do and set 30-60 minutes a day in your calendar to work on it.

You can do this.

If you are reading and thinking that this is daunting for you. It probably is. Especially where you are today. The good news is that once you have your plan, you’ll easily execute it. Probably in a similar manner that you run the other operations of your business successfully.

It takes awareness to see where you are, a vision of where you want to go and your plan to get there.

Some of my clients set a whole weekend aside to just get it done and then tweaked it from there. One of my clients knew it would be a stretch for her so she opted to use several of her coaching sessions and a few Complete It NOW! Sessions so that she’d have my support while she did her work.

If you’d like some help, set up your own Complete It NOW! Session and we’ll work toward getting things completed for you!

 

Just who do you think you are?

Who do you think you are?

Did you have to think about who you are? Or were you able to shout out exactly who you are? Did you have to think who do I think I am?

Finish this statement “I am ______________”.

A previous blog I wrote about faking it touched a few nerves. I’m glad. It got people thinking. If we all truly stood in our truth of who we really are, no one would need to fake, come up with an excuse or dodge people. Authenticity is a big word in the coaching industry. And lots of clients want to be authentic.

While this is a great thing to aspire to, many can’t even answer who they are. It’s not unusual, our world makes us second guess ourselves. If you said I am sensitive, you may think that is a negative. In fact, it is a true gift. If you said I am strong, perhaps you feel that people will think you are full of yourself. See, often we don’t know (or want to admit) who we truly are because the outside world has given us a negative message about it. One that forces us to hide who we truly are.

Are you trying to be something or someone?

I so love Coco Chanel’s quote “How many cares one loses when one decided not to be something, but be someone.” When I first read it I had to give it some thought. I wasn’t sure exactly how to interpret it. Then I realized that she is talking about being you.

How many times have you struggled with something that wasn’t “you”? And you knew it! You even may have said “that wasn’t for me”. Yet, you were doing it (or are doing it). Maybe you were doing something you thought would make you successful or would bring you something you wanted. Perhaps you learned that you had to work hard to succeed and get ahead. Maybe you just felt like you had to attain a certain status.

By truly being who you are, you can let go of worrying about what others think and truly be who you are at your core. No excuses, no trying to be someone or something you are not. You are who you are and it feels good.

Just who are you really?

Go back to that I AM statement. Can you emphatically shout out who you are? Without excuse or apology? Can you stand it? If push comes to shove, will you be able to stand in that space and embrace it? It may take a little practice. Heck, everything takes practice. A champion isn’t born, a champion is made one practice at a time, one mindset shift at a time, one experience at a time.

My belief is that you truly do know who you are. You may just be afraid to embrace it. It may be scary to say it out loud. We do know who we are, we just feel vulnerable and afraid to embrace it for various reasons. Those fears are usually attached to what other people may say. We often have a fear of being ridiculed, being told “who do you think you are”, being belittled and so on. So we don’t speak up, we don’t embrace who we are. In my book, that is no way to live your life (I know, I’ve done it)!

You know who you are, now it’s time to show the world just who you KNOW you are!

Having been there myself, I know how hard it can be to own your own truth. Much less tell the world. You don’t need to suffer in silence, if you would like to step into who you truly are, and feel you need a little help, a little support, I’d love to help you. Set up your free private session with me to step into who you truly are (no excuses or apologies)!

3 Simple Steps to Double Your Income

Are you finding it hard to bring in more income?

It’s not. Easy for me to say? No, it isn’t. For a long time I found it hard to bring in more income. I’d have clients, then they would complete (aka reach their goals) and move on and then I’d have no clients and so on. It was in that phase of not having clients that I found it hard. Though truth be told, I was doing three things that set myself up for finding it hard to bring in more income.

And I’m going to share with you what to do so that you don’t have to struggle like I did. If you are a small or solo business owner these three things will make a big difference for you. You can even do them on your own. Meaning, they are very do-able without spending a lot of time on them. Which means, you’ll have lots of time to get out and make more income!

3 Simple Steps to Double Your Income

Before I share them with you, I want to first address “simple”. Things that are simple actually get done. The more complicated you make them, the less you’ll want to do them and so they won’t be able to work for you. So let’s just agree that you’ll keep things simple. Ok? Great, here they are:

  1. Take on a Powerful, Positive Mindset. Your mindset will make or break you. No matter what it is you are struggling with, getting new business in the door, networking, setting up appointments, etc, your mindset is to blame. When you have a struggle on the outside, you always have a struggle on the inside.
  2. Set Attainable Goals. In working with business owners like you, I notice a lot have pie in the sky goals. Things like I want to earn six figures this year. Yes, this is a great goal, in fact it can be powerful, but when I ask them how they are going to do that they tell me “I don’t know.” If you only have two clients who are paying you $250 a month and you have no one on the horizon and aren’t doing any marketing to get more, is six figures even possible?
  3. Measure Your Results. Another mistake I made and I see others making is that they don’t have any idea where they are in the cycle of their results. Take money for example. You say you want to make $10,000 a month. How will you know that you made that $10,000 if you aren’t measuring it. And do you want a net or a gross $10,000 (ah, did you forget to calculate your expenses)? Tracking your results is the only way to know if you have truly met your attainable goals and/or if you need to course correct.

How to put the 3 simple steps into practice

Having a powerful, positive mindset, setting attainable goals and measuring your results work simultaneously toward doubling your income. Next is your assignment to put the three into action:

  • Set time aside to create your own powerful, positive mindset. Take a look at your business closely. Determine how you want to show up in each aspect of it. From the actual marketing, service and/or product delivery, customer service, to your role as leader, use of time management and productivity and other key areas. If you aren’t sure what key areas you need to pay attention to download my OPTIMAL Business Success Free Assessment to get started.
  • Write out your goals to see if they are indeed attainable.  Do a little diligence. Write out a few ideas of how you will know when you have attained them. Make sure you are clear. Write about in detail the things you need in order to reach these goals. Such as hiring team, replacing equipment, getting help such as a trainer or coach to help you reach your goals.
  • Create tracking systems. This will by far keep you honest about where exactly you are in your success cycle. And out of the failure cycle. When you know where you are and what you need to do to get to where you want to be, you will find it’s easy to get there.

These steps will not take you long to put into place. The important thing is that you do them. Everything else you have been doing will fall into place. You may even see that things you have been doing aren’t working for you or you can do differently to get the results you desire.

Here is to your OPTIMAL Business Success! 😊

If you’ve download the OPTIMAL Business Success Free Assessment and discovered that you don’t want to do this alone, I’ve worked with a lot of business women who struggled with trying to double their income (in fact, one of my clients increased her income by 80% with these simple steps!), set up a free private session with me and we’ll get you started!

Are You Faking It Until You Make It Or Are You Being Authentic?

How to tell if you are faking it or being authentic.

Faking it or being authentic? I had an interesting conversation with a client the other day. She had heard someone say that you can’t fake it until you make it because then that meant you were being inauthentic. This bothered her. There were things she was doing to grow her business. And there were some she was doing things that she didn’t really love but knew brought her the results she wanted.

She had been going along working to reach the goals she set and was reaching them when all of sudden she was stopped in her tracks. This concept of being fake threw her for a loop. “I want to be authentic” she told me. So I asked her what made her think she wasn’t being authentic.

Her response was, “well, I’m not doing what I love to grow my business, I’m only doing it because it’s something that works.” I asked her if she felt she was being genuine in her actions, to herself and to her clients. She responded  “Oh, yes!” with enthusiasm.

What does authentic mean? If you Google it you’ll get this: something that is real, genuine. And if you are being real and genuine you can’t be faking it.

There are times I’m not totally genuine…, then what?

True, there may be times when you are less then genuine. Such as “I’d love to work with you, but now is not the right time.” when you truly are just saying that to get off the phone with whomever is asking for your business. A heartfelt, “No, thank you, this is not for me.” would be truly authentic.

I’m not going to get into little white lies here, so let’s just say only you know when you are being authentic or fake. Now, if you truly want to be authentic, it’s time you look yourself in the mirror (no matter how hard that is) and tell yourself that no matter what, you will be authentic in your life.

Let go of the times you weren’t, learn from them and move on. The “then what” is you’ll no longer have to fake anything, you can really be yourself. Now, what a novel idea that is, eh?!

What if I still need to do things that I don’t want to do.

Welcome to life! Will my client stop doing what has been getting her results? No. Not entirely. What she will do though is look at it differently to be more authentic in her actions and that may cause her to do things differently. There are times that you do have to do things you don’t like, exercise anyone?! 😉 Going to the dentist, need I go on? I don’t think so, you get my point.

What I propose you do is to look at it differently, how can you be authentic even when doing things or being in situations that you do not like or do not want to do? How can you find one thing in a situation that you can use to show up as your true authentic self. And guess what, that may be to admit “I don’t want to be here.” Rather than smiling, sucking it up and saying “I’m so glad to be here.”

I can see the look of horror on your face. I can hear you saying “I can’t do that.” But, you can! I’m not saying it’s easy, I struggle with it myself and the alternative is to be fake and unauthentic. So what it is you want to be?

I thought so.

What did you think as you read this? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If I pushed any buttons, what were they and would you like to do anything about them? Either reply below or email me privately at kim@kimravida.com

I’ve worked with a lot of women who struggled with feeling that they weren’t being as authentic as they would like to be and who wanted to change that. If you feel that you are doing more faking it than you’d like, set up a free private session with me to help you find your authentic self!

Is it time for a new mindset?

What causes you to feel stressed, overwhelmed or guilty?

So many women struggle with feeling stressed out, overwhelmed and guilty over everything they feel they have to do, but aren’t doing. And it’s not because they aren’t trying, they are, there just isn’t enough time for it all.

Many of my clients are women business owners who are taking care of their homes, families, running their businesses, and saying yes to just about every request asked of them. And not one of them have ever said “I’m so excited I have so much going on.” No, what I hear is “I’m so stressed out.” Or “I’m so overwhelmed I don’t know what to do first.” Or “I feel so guilty because I can’t seem to get things done.”

And the first thing I ask them is always this: “how do you want to feel?” Because you and I both know no one wants to feel stressed, overwhelmed or guilty. What I hear a lot of is “I’d love to feel peace of mind.” I just love that. And I also know, that they can get there. How do I know this? I’ve been in their shoes more than I’d like to admit. But admit it I will. It’s often something that helps others see that they can turn things around in their lives too.

Imagine that you can change how you feel.

Close your eyes and imagine what it would feel like if you could create the kind of life that you love, one that you can say “I’m so excited to have so much going on” and have it be amazing stuff that you truly want to have going on.

Do you have that picture? Can you see yourself in the place that you imagine? Great! Keep that in mind and take one thought that stresses, overwhelms you or makes you feel guilty and then let go of the stress, overwhelm and guilt.

Here’s how:

  • Close your eyes
  • Think of that one thought that stresses, overwhelms you or makes you feel guilty
  • Imagine yourself in a place that feels really great to you
  • Breathe in deeply
  • Breathe out and say “I let go

Notice how you feel in the moment. I bet you’ll feel better than you did before. It’s a matter of practice and remembering how you truly want to feel.

Good Vibes Only

It’s easy to keep saying “I’m so stressed”, “I’m so overwhelmed” and/or “I feel so guilty” and it takes some effort to remember to choose to take a breath and let go. However, when you think and feel good vibes you will find yourself in a better mindset more often than not!

Have you given this a try and are still struggling? Is there something that is stressing you out, overwhelming you or making you feel guilty? Schedule a private 1/1 complimentary session with me and we’ll create some good vibrations for you right away! =)

How to get what you want

Over compromising almost always leads to you not getting what you want.

Do you pride yourself on being accommodating to others? Are you someone who will go along to get along?

Well, it could be what is keeping you from getting what you truly want. When you accommodate others over what it is you want, what actually happens is you are compromising yourself.

Now, I’m not saying a compromise isn’t a good thing. It often is a mainstay in a negotiation. Though when you compromise on many things in your life and your business just to accommodate others you will never get what you want.

Ways you may be compromising yourself.

Let’s say you have a client who is always asking for an extension of time. Your policies are that clients must complete their service by a certain date and that no additional extensions will be granted. Yet, each time this client engages your services they always ask for more time. And you say yes.

You have laid out your policies that you require a non-refundable deposit to begin working with a new client and they ask if they could roll that into their payment plan. And you say yes.

In negotiating to work with a new client you know exactly what it is you will say yes to and what will say no to and they ask for something you don’t want to do. And you say yes.

In each of these circumstances you are compromising yourself and in that vain you can never get what you want.

How to stop compromising yourself so you get what you want.

If you have kids or even a dog, if you always say yes to them when you mean no, then when you try to enforce “the no” you find it won’t work. I know, I have a Bernese Mountain Dog and as long as I do what I plan to do he’s awesome to train. The second I don’t (hey, he’s really adorable), all heck breaks loose. He’s not inclined to come when he’s called if I keep going over to get him. It’s the same with kids, they will wear you down and you’ll never be able to get what you want. Such as a well-behaved child or pet.

It’s really a mindset on your part. You have to be the one to say this is what I want and this is how I’ll get it. So when a client asks for something that you have already told them they can’t have (so to speak) and then say yes, why would they not push (I mean ask) for more?

Here are several ways to stop compromising yourself:

  • Honor what it is you want. It’s perfectly ok for you to say this is what I want. You don’t even have to have any reasons and you don’t have to explain anything to anyone.
  • Practice saying no. And again, you do not need to offer any explanation for your reason. Though if you feel better doing so, create several phrases that you feel comfortable saying. Read this is you would like some suggestions on how to say no.
  • Listen to your intuition. When you are asked to compromise on what you already said you didn’t want (or wouldn’t do), your intuition pops up. You may feel it in your gut or a little voice will say “ya but…” listen to that.

By accommodating what you want first more often, you’ll be able to get what it is you want for yourself and your business. And just to be clear, it’s not that you’ll never compromise with others, or give in. You’ll be more in tune to how your behavior hinders what you want for yourself.

I know this can be challenging, especially if you have been compromising yourself to accommodate others. So, schedule a private 1/1 complimentary session with me and we’ll create as way for you to be able to easily honor what you want, say no and listen to your intuition.

How to make things count

Kim RavidaAre you a box checker?

Meaning, are you a checklist maker and do you love checking things off?

I do! It gives me a lot of satisfaction to check something off. Kind of like a jolt of the happy drug or something. I love to make lists, agendas, and To Dos and even better I love to check things off.

If you are like me, you probably know exactly what I am talking about.

But…are you checking the right boxes?

Last last year I came to realize that while I was a rock star at checking things off my list, I wasn’t actually checking a lot of things off that really mattered.

What I mean by that is that I had loads of things on my list and got loads of things done, but not what truly would help me get to where I wanted to be.

It occurred to me that while I was checking off the boxes, I wasn’t checking the right ones off. Are you doing the same thing? And are you wondering what that means for you? It means that you won’t ever reach your goals in the ways you probably want. It means that you are wasting time, perhaps avoiding and definitely not making things count.

You are great at counting down the days and the To Dos yet not great at making the days and the To Dos count.

Ways to make your days count!

Before we talk about applications let’s take a moment to accept where we are and look to where we want to go. Let’s not beat ourselves up over lost time or any of that. We’ll start where we are and go from here.

Ready? Here we go…

  • Begin with a visualization of what you want. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Ask yourself what it is you truly want in your business and in your life?
  • Jot down your vision on paper. By documenting what you want you have your end game and you can begin to break that down to actionable steps.
  • Create a timeline for each goal. Some goals will be short-term goals and some will be longer-term ones.
  • Determine where to start. After you have created your timeline, you will now work backward. Write down the very first step you need to do in order to make your days count.
  • Draft a monthly, weekly and daily agenda. By looking at the month, week, day view you’ll know exactly what it is you need to do and by when to work on making things count.
  • Get busyIt’s time to make your days count! You have your visualization in your mind and on paper along with a timeline, you know where to start and you have your list!

Make your days count.

One of the best ways to make your days count is to do a daily and weekly review. At the end of each day and each week, take a look at what you accomplished and what you need to move forward. This gives you a nice road map to be able to see where you are at a glance and it also serves as a way for you to make sure you aren’t being too quick to count things down and are really making things count. Another thing it does is to help you see all you have accomplished!

By putting these strategies into action, you’ll soon eliminate those activities that are time wasters and energy drainers in your day and make every day count!

Would you like personal help making your days count by doing the right things? I’ve helped many business owners get clarity over their days so let’s do it! Sign up for a private 1/1 complimentary session with me and you’ll be able to make every day count!