How to not give in to distractions

August 8, 2018 By

Distractions are just a part of our lives.

You probably didn’t want to hear that. I know I don’t! Yet, it is so true.

How then can we cope with them and even overcome them when they appear in our lives?

It’s important to first know that there are different types of distractions that we deal with. There are the small distractions. The telephone calls, text messages and social media bings and bongs. Heck, this blog post might be distracting you from something you should be doing instead.

There are medium sized distractions. If you work from home you might be distracted by your children or spouse or even your pet. Full disclosure, right now Bruin, my 8 month old Bernese Mountain Dog is bumping my elbow wanting his lovies.

And then we have the BIG sized distractions, a sick relative, looming deadlines, things you just have to do and do now or their will be grave consequences.

Oh and let’s not forget odd distractions like your street being paved (I’m raising my hand here as that is also happening right now as I write this). Or an accident that happened in front of your house or things along that nature.

There are always distractions, if you allow them. Tony La Russa

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No matter what the distraction is, don’t let it derail you,

Now that you know that there are different kinds of distractions, you can learn how to not let them derail you.

One of the things I help my clients with is to set up solid systems so that if and when (cause ya know it’s gonna happen) distractions hit, they’ll be prepared.

When you are prepared for things to happen they usually don’t have the power to pull you off course for long. Sure they may pull you off for a short time, but with your systems and tools you easily get back on track.

My friend and colleague Ann Rusnak once said to me, when I got distracted and didn’t finish what I wanted to, it’s like sometimes we play whack a mole. That has stuck with me because it made so much sense.

That’s when I set up those systems for myself and what I help my clients with and it made all the difference in the world!

How to not find yourself playing whack a mole in your life and business.

Here are several strategies to take so you don’t find yourself getting caught up in distractions:

  1. Plan for them. Not all distractions we can plan for but the small ones we can. Such as the telephone calls, emails and text messages (even the puppy dog wanting his lovies). Have set times when you will be “doing” what I like to call admin/communicating time. The big ones, if we know what they will be can be planned too.
  2. Follow a To Do and Projects List. Well-thought out lists can help you plan your time accordingly.
  3. Be Mindful. This one is a little less of a step. However, just as important. Do you know when you usually get distracted? When you are mindful of what is going on with your life and business, you’ll be able to avoid them in the first place.

Those are a few ways you can start using to not fall prey to the distractions around you.

Distractions can derail us faster than you can say the word. If you want more personalized help to be able to be productive no matter what is going on around you I can help you do that. Set up a free 30 minute session with me and we’ll work together to create a plan for you to feel good about your change. Click here to be on your way.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Business Planning, Empowerment, Environment, Health & Fitness, Personal Development, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Self Worth, Structure, Time Management, Wellness Tagged With: , , , , ,

Dream Big Because Life Is About A Dream

May 16, 2018 By

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.

“Life is but a dream” -Eliphalet Oram Lyte

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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.

 

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Business Planning, Empowerment, Environment, Productivity, Reaching Goals Tagged With: ,

How to create a supporting working environment

May 9, 2018 By

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”.

The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it does exist. Zig Ziglar

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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!

 

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Business Planning, Empowerment, Environment, Productivity, Reaching Goals Tagged With: , ,
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