From Setback to Comeback!

February 6, 2014 By

detourIn my last blog I shared with you The Secret Behind Big Success… are many smaller ones.  This time I would like to talk about what a “setback” can do for you—yes, do FOR you.

I used to get so upset when something went wrong.  I really did.  I was thrown off my pace, and felt frustrated and often angry.  There were so many things I started and then abandoned because they didn’t go the way I thought or wanted.  Do you ever feel that way?

It was about the time I decided to do a complete shift in my career path and became a coach that I finally learned that a setback is not an end-all.  It isn’t game over or give up time.  Instead, it is a chance for a comeback.  It was a time to review and revise; to do something different.  Maybe even something that was more to my liking and would lead me to what I wanted.  I found that so liberating and appealing!

So whenever you feel that you are stuck, you don’t have any choices (which by the way, you always do but that is a topic for another blog), or something isn’t going the way you want it to—take a second and a step back.  Ask yourself – what kind of comeback do you want to have?

Once you know your answer, take some time to sort out your strategy.  Write out a small plan and the steps you will take to get closer to reaching your goals.  While an extensive plan can be useful, for this keep it simple and short; say 3-5 tasks that you can start with.  I like to call it the Game Plan yet I have learned not attach myself to it!  Instead, I stay fluid and keep my options open.  It gives me a roadmap to follow so that I know what my comeback is going to give me.

Try it.  I’d love to hear from you how you make out.  From setback to comeback!  It’s a fabulous experience to have and once you have it, you want more of it!  And a funny thing happens… “setbacks” seem to disappear.

 

Filed Under: Reaching Goals Tagged With: , , ,

The Secret Behind Big Success

January 30, 2014 By

child with gold medal (428x640)What’s behind the big successes of our lives?  Do you know?  If you said “lots of little ones” then you are likely on the right track to your success.  Whoohoo to you!

There is an awesome commercial on television that features U.S. Olympian Snowboarder Louie Vito, the current Gold Medalist of the 2013 Winter X Games Europe. It runs videos of his life from winning medals backwards to when he was very little.  It ends with “Behind every big moment, there are lots of little ones.”  My point, exactly.

However, when we are running our businesses we tend to think of the next big thing.  The big client we sign that pays in full, selling out your latest awesome program in one day and so on.  I’d like to remind you that before every big success, there are lots and lots of little ones that happen first.  So all those little clients are preparing you for the big one and having any people in your first program is preparing you for the sell-out later on.

While we do not necessarily celebrate the small achievements, they are the backbone to us reaching our goals.  They have to be.  I have yet to meet or hear of someone who is successful who did not have any small accomplishments!

Along with those successes are some small and big struggles, too.  I live by the mantra, “There Are No Mistakes.”  One of my mentor’s says that no matter what happens, there are only opportunities for breakthroughs.  She says:  “You didn’t meet your goal, opportunity for a breakthrough.”  “You didn’t get the client, opportunity for a breakthrough.”  The lesson in that moment is I have the choice to look within and see what I can do differently to move forward toward my goal; I have the opportunity to do something different.  And let me tell you, it’s an amazing feeling to have.

Did Louie Vito get to where he is now by not taking advantage of the little moments, both successes and struggles?  Of course not!  He got there by taking advantage of the opportunities along the way – the good ones and the not so good ones.

I invite you to look at everything happens in your life as opportunity to learn and grow and to mold your life into exactly what you want.  Remember that you are the only one responsible for your successes and your struggles…because there are no mistakes.

Filed Under: Reaching Goals, Self Worth Tagged With: ,

How to Use Time to Your Advantage

January 2, 2014 By

hour glassHave you heard the saying, time is money?  It is true in one sense, but you can make more money, you cannot make more time.  Time is elusive and we can be masters at wasting it or maximizing it.

As a business owner, are you wasting time or maximizing it?  Are you like Goldilocks and using it ‘just right’?  I work with many clients who are trying to do everything themselves on time management because when you are a one-person show, you better use your time wisely.  Remember, time is not like money, there is no opportunity to get more of it or make more of it.  Once gone, it’s gone.

So how do you learn to use time to your advantage?

There are many time management books, articles, and tools out there but most of them miss the boat.  (I should know, I’ve tried more than I can name!)  But why?

Because I’ve learned that the single most important thing you need to use your time wisely is to know how you work.

  • Do you have energy in the morning, afternoon, or evening?
  • Do you like to work on the computer or handwrite your ideas?
  • Are you visual, auditory, kinetic or a blend?

Once you know this, then you can implement time management tools and tricks that make sense for you.  Stop trying so hard to fit a square peg into a round hole and maximize your time like you never imagined!

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Want to be productive? Understand your work style!

December 5, 2013 By

ClockAs an entrepreneur or small business owner it is important that you understand your work style.  If you work from home it is especially important to understand this as your day can easily be filled up with things that aren’t directly related to your business, but things that you want to get done.  Like the dishes, the laundry, sweeping the floor, reading the newspaper, making that one quick phone call, etc.

When I first started my business I fell prey to all of those things I felt I just had to do before I went into my office.  I admit, I still do many of those things but it’s because I realize that I need a neat environment in order to feel productive.   I know how important it is for me to get the dishes done and neaten up the house before beginning work…I just put a time limit on it now.

That being said, my work style today is far different from what it was when I started my business because in the beginning I didn’t have a style.  Now my style is to get up early, have my coffee and plan out my day.  I then like to get ready slow; I eat and get dressed at a leisurely pace and then I pick up my house before heading into my office.  No longer do I have the hour long commute to stress me out so I enjoy getting into my office calm and ready to be productive.

And just like my morning routine, I like to start my work day at a slow pace and then gear up to full production levels.  What I mean is that I have more energy at the end of my day than at the beginning.  I know I don’t have to be in my office at the crack of dawn and I can work until later in the day because that is when I am most productive (just ask my assistant when, at the end of the day her inbox is full and mine in empty).  This was a learning experience in my work style too!  I wanted to get in and get out, but it didn’t work for me and left me feeling frustrated.  Knowing my style makes it easier.

So you see, when you understand your work style—when and how you like to work—you become happier and more productive.  Just like your life style supports your life, your work style supports your work.

Filed Under: Personal Development, Reaching Goals Tagged With: , ,

3 Steps to Reach Your Outcomes

November 21, 2013 By

footsteps in sand

In my Be Clear on Your Outcomes blog post, I talked about having a specific outcome so that you can begin implementing a plan.  Hopefully you did that.  But did you create a plan including all of the steps that you need to follow in that plan?  If you did… great!  Congratulations!  I’m happy you took the initiative.  However, if you didn’t, no worries, because that’s what we’ll talk about here.

Let’s say you have your outcome: Make more money.  Now you need to lay out your step-by-step action plan of what you will do and when you will do it.  While this part could seem really tedious, it can also be fun and exhilarating and leave you with eager anticipation of what is to come.  Ahhh, doesn’t that feel better than “Ugh, this is going to be crummy”?  I think so!

Your goal of make more money is valid, so let’s just break it down just a bit.

How much money do you want to make and by when?  This is called being specific and time oriented.  Do that first. 

Okay, next ask yourself what do you want to do in order to reach that goal?  Notice I did not say what will you do – that’s because it must be something that you want to do.  Otherwise, and trust me on this one, you won’t do it.  Do you want to do one-on-one networking?  Join a weekly networking group?  Speak and make an offer from the stage?  Do you want to cut down on some expenses (that’s a fast way to make more money) or even raise your rates?

Once you know what it is you want to do, then think about how you will do that.  Where will you go to do your networking or speaking?  What expenses will you cut back?  By how much will you raise your rates?  Will you raise your rates with your current clients or only new clients?

This is not an exclusive list of what to do, obviously, just a small insight on how creating a step-by-step action plan will help you reach your outcomes and goals faster and with less frustration.

If you are finding you can’t seem to figure it out on your own and nail this step, I’m happy to help!

Filed Under: Reaching Goals Tagged With: , ,

Just What ARE Systems, Anyway?

October 31, 2013 By

Woman holding a skeleton key over white backgroundI’m sure you’ve heard other entrepreneurs talk about “systems”… but just what are systems anyway and how will they fit into your life and business?  To begin with, I love to use the Thesaurus and here are some alternative words:  organization, arrangement, structure, method, procedure, practice, usage, and approach.

My favorite words out of that bunch are procedure and approach.  Systems are a way for you to approach your business so that your procedures help you reach your goals.  With systems in place, you will build and lead a successful and profitable business.

Key systems for your life and business are time and money management.  They are crucial because if they are out of whack, it is really hard to be successful.   

What do I mean by a time management system?  Using a calendar to schedule appointments and tasks so that you know exactly when you need to do something.  A step up from that is time blocking.  Take a look at your schedule and block out several hours for important tasks.  Nothing else happens during this time.

Now on to money systems.  Remember, you want to manage it, not damage it… and in order to do that you must pay attention to it.  So often people bury their heads in the sand and ignore what is going on around them when it comes to money.  Look, in order to make it you must know where it comes from and where it goes.  Finding a great money system that works for your work style is essential to your personal and professional success.

There are many other systems you can (and should) put into place, but when you put time and money management in place up front, you are setting a solid foundation for leading a successful business.

Of course, if you want to know more… we should schedule a chat!

Filed Under: Reaching Goals Tagged With: , ,

What Type of Business Plan Do You Need?

October 17, 2013 By

Businesswoman standing on a ladder looking through binocularsWhen I went to business school, a business plan was a detailed manifesto stating exactly what you were going to do and how.  It was pages and pages (and pages) long.

Do you need one?  Yes, you do.  Do you need one that is pages and pages long?  It depends.  If you are a solopreneur (another word for sole proprietor) you may not need a business plan that’s as detailed as you think.  That’s great news because a lot of time the business plan will be what holds you back from actually starting your business!

What you need, though, is a business plan that makes sense for you.  I have worked with clients drawing up business plans that are long and lay out specifically what they will do and how they will do it.  I have also worked with clients and drawn up one-page business plans that concisely list their objectives.

The important thing to note is that even if you are “just a solopreneur”, in order to reach your goals you need to put your business plan on paper.  No, in your head does not count.  You need to make sure your plans are attainable and know what it is you will do in order to reach them.  It’s about writing down what you plan to do for and in your business.  That is its purpose; it’s really that simple.

I often do a year-long plan and then a quarterly plan and yet again another one monthly.  I like that system because it keeps me up to date and I can make changes without any stress or frustration.  It works for me and I’m all about making things work as easily as possible!

My suggestion for you is to determine exactly what type of business plan you need.  Then, spend an afternoon writing out a plan (or several) that makes sense to you.

Of course, if you’d like a little guidance… I’m here to help!

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Wonder Why You Can’t Reach Your Goals?

July 22, 2013 By

goalThere was a long period in my life where it seemed to me I wasn’t reaching my goals.  What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was out of alignment with my values, so reaching my goals was next to impossible.  And why I didn’t realize this was because I didn’t even know what a value was!  Oh sure, I knew the ‘value’ of something I was buying:  was I getting a good value on the new car or was that a good value for the dinner I wanted.  Stuff like that.  However, I had no idea that lacking my own personal values was causing me to be so unhappy and never attaining what I wanted (aka my goals).

OK, so what is a value?  Well you know me, I like to pull out the thesaurus.  When it comes to your personal values, some of the words that come up are: importance, worth, significant, and meaning.

A personal value can easily be defined as your preferences.  I have a very high value for freedom and fun and, yes, those are my preferences.  Maybe you can relate.  I like to have fun and when I have fun, I feel really good… and since I like to feel good, fun, therefore, is important to me.  I also like not being told to do things – one of the reasons I decided to quit working for someone else and go out on my own.  I get to create the freedom I want (and really, ultimately need).

If you are having a hard time getting results and reaching your goals, check in with your values.  Chances are your values are not being met… or, like I used to be, you really don’t even know what you value.

So to give you an idea of what values are, here is a short list:

  • Compassion
  • Comfort
  • Ease
  • Energy
  • Faith
  • Freedom
  • Fun
  • Intellect
  • Love
  • Mindfulness
  • Perfection
  • Professionalism
  • Respect
  • Sharing
  • Thoughtfulness

Personal values are internal and act as a reference for what is good, beneficial, important and useful for us… no one else.  They generate behavior.  For instance, let’s say your top three values are:  fun, ease and love.  You have decided you want to get in shape.  If you incorporate your top three values of fun, ease and love into your workout plan, you can bet your behavior is going to bring you success.  You would find something you really have fun doing like taking a dance class, that fits into your schedule with ease, and you show your love for yourself (yes, you can love yourself just like you love the others in your life) by committing to going regularly.

Another example: you are a new business owner and trying to figure out how to run your business.  You value compassion, professionalism and respect.  You would set up your business by creating systems that support your top three values.  To satisfy your value of compassion, you would speak kindly to your prospective and/or current clients.  Your value of professionalism would show up in being timely with invoices, paying bills and returning calls/emails.  Your value of respect shows your clients that you have a high opinion of them and you genuinely care and are authentic.  As a business owner, these all will lead to prospective clients getting to know, like and trust you.  Not only are you able to help more people, but you are able to generate more income all while honoring your values.  It’s a win/win situation all around.

Once you know your values, your life becomes simply the best with grace and ease and you find that you are in a flow.  You get what you want quickly and your goals get accomplished faster.  Everything comes easy.  And one other thing happens, you know what goals you want to work on and how you are going to reach them!

You know I love to hear your success stories, and this one is no different.  I would love for you to shoot me an email or share on my Facebook page.  I always love that because then you get to help others just by sharing your success!  Also, feel free to share your thoughts, insights and revelations below!

Filed Under: Personal Development, Reaching Goals Tagged With: , , ,

Want to Expand Time?

June 24, 2013 By

turn time backIs there a little voice in your head that seems to repeat “I don’t have enough time to get everything done” or “I wish I had more time to do other things”?  We always want and need additional time, yet if time is the one thing that is equal to all, why do other people seem to accomplish more?  Why can’t we get done what we want to in the time we have available?

Now first, I want to tell you that I struggled with time for years.  I was constantly late for everything (just ask my supervisors when I worked in corporate or my family).  I didn’t mean to be late; it just happened I never had enough time to get ready, to arrive on time, to be prepared.  Time was my enemy and we battled frequently.

I believe, as a whole, we think it takes too much time to get in shape, to live a healthy lifestyle, to work enough to support our families, or to sit down and plan for our future.  Shoot, it just takes too long to get through the grocery store once a week!  Right?

Well… no.  I have learned we actually have all the time that we need.

Here are three key lessons I want to share with you to release all the stress and overwhelm related to time.

Lesson #1:  Be clear about what you want to accomplish.  When you don’t know exactly what you want to accomplish, you can’t have a true idea about how long it will take.  However, knowing what your goal is gives you a starting point from which to plan what you need to do, assess how long it will take, and what you need to have in order to reach your goal in a timely manner.  So whether it’s to arrive on time somewhere, have more down-time or lose 10 pounds, know what you want.

Lesson #2:  Be realistic about how long a task will take.  How many times have you said something like “I’m going to quickly balance my checkbook” only to experience a string of problems that take far too long to fix?  Maybe you found a discrepancy in your accounting or realized you forgot to pay a bill.  When you are unrealistic (i.e. “quickly”) with how long something should take, time seems to shorten.  In order to expand time, you need to be practical. 

Lesson #3:  Plan your steps.  Here’s another one:  You found a great healthy recipe online and decide you are going to whip it together one evening for dinner.  When that evening arrives, however, you realize you don’t have all the ingredients on hand you thought you did.  Or by the time you dash into the kitchen and read the recipe again, you discover you were supposed to marinate something for a few hours first.  However, if you take the time to create action steps for this new recipe, you will have all the ingredients beforehand and allow the proper time to complete it.

In essence, once you take to heart the lessons I shared above, you will stop adding too much on your To Do list and putting undue pressure on yourself.   You’ll be much more at peace and find that you will have way more time than you thought.  I promise you will reach your goals and feel good about yourself again!

I’d love to hear your experiences.  As always, I invite you to write to me or feel free to share your thoughts, insights and revelations below.  You never know how they may help someone else!

Filed Under: Money Habits, Reaching Goals Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Do You Think Confidence Equals Success?

May 24, 2013 By

Thermometer - Confidence Level

If you said yes, you would be on the right path to your success.  Confidence plays a huge role in our personal and professional lives.  When we are confident and feel good about what we are doing and how we are doing it, we do more of it and that brings more success.

Take weight loss for example.  I have several clients who felt a lot of doubt about whether they could get in shape and be healthy.  (By the way, doubt is the antonym of confidence.)  What they learned was that their success was directly related to confidence.  And oh yeah, once they started to see that, boy did they get amazing results!

Don’t take my word for it.  Just ask 22-year-old Torey Krug a Boston Bruins defenseman who played most of the season in the minor league.  Inserted into the Bruins lineup during the playoffs due to injuries of veteran players, he scored two amazing goals in his first two games.  He was asked by a local broadcaster what he thought attributed to his success.  Torey’s answer:  confidence.  Keep in mind this kid was no Wayne Gretzky out of college.  He went undrafted.  Could he have felt doubt, sure, but he didn’t because he knows the road to success is paved with confidence.

“Ya but…” I can hear you saying.  It’s normal to feel doubt, uncertainty, hesitation and all the feelings of ‘I can’t’.  But really, what if you could?  What if you could feel confident right now no matter what?  How would that change your outlook?  What would you do?

Here are three tips to help you feel more confident so that what you want to achieve seems to simply appear.

Tip 1:  Think back to a time when you felt really great about accomplishing something.  Was it when you finally got off the couch and took a walk or got the courage up to join a group exercise class or began a weight loss program and lost weight right away?  Whatever it was, tap into those feelings.  Those are your touchstones for recalling a feeling confidence and ultimately success.  Write down those feelings and read them regularly – daily is a good idea and first thing in the morning and often last thing in the evening (and during the day if needed).  This helps you maintain a high level of confidence.

Tip 2:  Keep the reason you want to reach your goal top of mind.  When you know why you are doing something, it is much easier to stick to it.  If you decide you are finally getting off the seesaw of diet and exercise and making changes that are part of a healthy and fit lifestyle —write down your whys.  They might be because you want to:  look great, feel energized, join in family outings or participate in your life again rather than sit on the sidelines.  Write them all down and then—just like your feelings of confidence—review them often.

Tip 3:  Get the support you need.  Ask a trusted friend to hold you accountable to your actions and behaviors.  Don’t forget to have them help you though the rough points, too, when you aren’t feeling the confidence you want to reach your success.  Hire a coach.  A coach is someone who is completely on your side, they have your best interests at heart and they are not attached to the outcome which means they are solely there for you and your success.  A coach can help you through the doubts and to feeling and being confident faster.  My clients have reached their goals because they stepped up and worked with me.  I also have a coach, and I can personally attest to having way more confidence and success simply by having a coach on my side.

I challenge you this week to pay attention to when you are feeling doubt.  How and when does it appear… and what follows?  Can you turn it around and stride confidently toward your success?  I bet you can.  I’d love for you to share your thoughts, insights and revelations below!

Filed Under: Personal Development, Reaching Goals Tagged With: , , ,
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