The best time to do it is now

January 24, 2018 By

 

The best time to do it is now.

There is one thing I took a long time to get through my head and that was, just do it.

Yes, the Nike slogan that is as motivating as it is popular. Those three little words:

JUST DO IT.

And doing so can make such an impact to your business. I know it did to mine.

Truly, the best time to do what you want and need to do is now. As a former procrastinator, I know if can be hard to just do it. So her are a few tips to help you get going.

How to just do it.

First, what is it you need to do? Second, go do it. Easy, right? It is so you have no excuses. Comment below on what you just completed.

But…if you don’t know what it is you need to do here are your starting steps:

  • Do a brain dump. Make a list of all of the things you have in your head. Just start writing, do not worry about priority or order. The goal is to get it on paper or on an electronic list.
  • Classify business or personal. Go through and put a “B” or a “P” next to each item so you can easily see whether it is business or personal.
  • Delete as you go. You may realize as you classify your tasks that things you wrote out you either do not want to do or do not need to do. That’s awesome, just put a line through it.
  • Re-write your list. Get two pieces of paper or open a new window and mark one business and one personal and begin to write down your business tasks and your personal tasks on their own designated spots. Again, deleting as you go (yes, you will start to notice that lots of what you wrote doesn’t need to be done).
  • Prioritize your lists. This is where the just do it begins. I like to use $ for tasks that will help me make money (I am in business after all) so I go through and put a dollar sign next to the actions that will bring money into my business. Then I use the 1, 2, 3 system to help me see what is next. I also estimate as best as I can how long I think something will take – will it take me 30 minutes or less, 60 minutes or 90 minutes (I like to work in those 3 time blocks).
  • Schedule your tasks into your calendar. Once you know what you need to do and how long it will take you, you can easily schedule them to get done and then, you guessed it, JUST DO IT! =)
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” ~ David Allen

Click To Tweet

Use the motto: If not now, when?

I like to ask myself “if I am not going to do this now, when will I do it?” It gives me time to pause and to be honest, will I have time to do it and if not, perhaps it’s time to let it go.

You may gasp at that, a lot of my clients do. It’s hard to give things up, especially if we have talked ourselves into thinking we have to do it. Yet, when you do, guess what happens? You actually have more time to just do those things that will make the biggest impact to you.

So let me ask you, if not now, when?

Tell me the task that you have been putting off and what your next step for it is, is it to just do it or to let it go?

I’ve been where you may be, having a hard time just doing things and even being ok with letting things go. If you would like help here, schedule a 30-minute complimentary Productive Planning For Success Strategy Session with me. You’ll walk away with a prioritized list, a clear schedule of getting things done and peace of mind about letting things go!

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Business Planning, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , ,

Why it is so easy to pile things to do on our plates?

January 17, 2018 By

kim ravida

 

Have enough?

As business owners, it’s easy to have loads on our plates (er…desks). We all have enough things to do, places to go, and items to manage.

And why is it so easy to end up with our proverbial plates piled higher than we even stand? Well, lots of things and one stands out among them all…the inability to say no.

No is a single and complete sentence. Yet, so many business owners feel they have to offer more and more specifically, they have to say why they can’t or don’t want to do something.

So they end up saying yes, hence the high piles of things to do, places to go and items to manage. And no time for doing what they truly want.

Saying no to something is actually much more powerful than saying yes. Tom Hanks

Click To Tweet

How to say no.

If you found yourself saying “yup, that’s me, I just can’t say no.” Let me tell you that 1) it’s ok for no to escape your lips often and 2) no one will die if you do (not even you =).

True you might feel bad, but you’ll get over it and it gets easier. I was a serial YESer. I’d say yes to everything. I did it because I wanted people to like me and think I was helpful. Only a funny thing happened, I ended up not liking myself and I certainly wasn’t as much help as I could have been to those I said yes to because I resented saying yes.

That’s no way to be respectful of yourself or others. I discovered my reason for yes after working with my own business coach and the second I did, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I felt freer than I ever had.

How to say no easily is simple, p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e! You need to practice saying no. Here are a few for you to practice with:

  • Short response: No.
  • Feeling the need to say more: No, thank you.
  • Wanting to expand it a bit: No, I won’t be able to help you (do that for you) with that.
  • Said succinctly: No.

There is no reason for you to be sorry.

You will notice that no where in your practice material are the words I’m sorry. Because I’m sorry has no place here. We are accustomed to using “I’m sorry” as a habit. If you really, really, really want to offer a reason for your no, be honest and to the point. Here is the thing, you either DO want to say yes or you DON’T and when you don’t the respectful response is no (full sentence, end of conversation).

If you do feel sorry, why is that? What is it you feel you need to do or be for yourself to feel good about your saying no? Give some thought to that. My guess is you’ll discover what it is I discovered which for me was I wanted to be liked, ultimately that lead to a fear of not wanting to be rejected. Once I discovered that and knew that truly no one can reject me (that only happens because of how I feel), saying no became easy.

The result of saying no.

There are many benefits to saying no to things that are not for you to do, you have more time, you get more things done, you feel better, you truly enjoy what you are doing, you no longer need to complain, you no longer need to feel bad about yourself and not getting to the things that are most important to you. You get so many benefits.

What is one thing you need to say no to right now? Go and do it. And here’s a tip, you can say no even if you already said yes. It’s called “I changed my mind.” And like with no, it’s a complete sentence. and yes, in this case, you can say “I’m sorry, I changed my mind.” Because here it fits. Though you certainly do not have to say I’m sorry ever in these instances.

Give this a shot and I’d love to hear from you about how it goes, if you would like to share your experience here, post in the comment section below.

Are you having a hard time saying no? Let’s practice together, schedule a 30-minute complimentary Productive Planning For Success Strategy Session with me. You’ll walk away feeling confident about saying No without any guilt!

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Business Planning, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , ,

How do you and your time get along?

January 10, 2018 By

 

Being purposeful with your time.

You and your time not getting along? Time can either draaaaaag or it can go like a snap of the fingers.

Are you among the many business owners that it just goes like a snap of the fingers? Do you often end your day thinking “wow, I never got to do everything I wanted to do? If you are there is a way to overcome that.

One of the most important things you need to do is to be purposeful with your time. In my last blog I talked about being purposeful in order to reach your success and how to stay on target when the going gets tough.

The next thing you need to do is be purposeful with your time.

How to make time stand still (or seem like it).

Let’s say you have 7 working hours and you have 10 things to do. How often do you take the time to write out how long each task will take? Probably not very often (for many of my clients, until they start working with me, it’s never).

If you were to take 5-10 minutes to give some thought to how long each task will take you, you will soon know if you’ll have time for all of them. And an added benefit to you is that you more than likely will decide that a couple of things don’t even need to be done now.

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today. H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Click To Tweet

It’s time to make time stand still for you!

Do a time assessment of how long everything you do takes you. This may take about a week or so. Don’t despair, it is time well invested. Once you know how long things take to do and how many hours you have in a particular day or week, you can now easily schedule them to be done.

Give this a shot and I’d love to hear from you about how it goes, if you would like to share your experience here, post in the comment section below.

Still finding that time disappears on you? Schedule a 30-minute complimentary Productive Planning For Success Strategy Session with me. You’ll walk away with a clear picture of how to be purposeful with your time to begin using it purposefully now!

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Business Planning, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Time Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Learn how to Design Your Success with Purpose

January 3, 2018 By

 

Being purposeful when planning for your success.

If you are looking to make this year the year for yourself and your business, there are several things you need to know. You need to purposely plan for it. In other words, you need to design your success. In other, other words, what is it you will do in order to get the results you want?

Three things that I consider important for a success formula are:

  1. Intentions
  2. Plans
  3. Actions

Each of them, if executed properly will always equal results. See it’s not the results that people struggle with, you more than likely already know what you want. It’s setting the intentions, creating the plan and then taking the steps to get them that is often the problem.

Staying on target when the going gets tough.

So often my clients tell me that they didn’t take an action or do something they said they wanted to do. It usually is because they got scared, didn’t know what to do or got caught up in “other things”.

When this happens, remembering your purpose for doing what you are doing will go a long way. Some people call it their “big why” and asking one of the following questions of yourself can help get you back on track:

  • Why did I go into business for myself?
  • What is my purpose for doing this?
  • What is my WHY for being in business?

Look, it’s easy to get pulled off target, especially running a business and having a life! It’s not that it won’t happen and what’s important for you is to go back to your purpose so you can get back on track. That’s how you design your success.

“The beauty of owning your own business is that you get to design your success with purpose!” Kim Ravida

Click To Tweet

No one is going to give you anything, you have to go and get it.

One thing I know for sure is that no one will knock on your door or phone you up and say “hey, here is your success!”

You have to go and get it. You have to make it happen.

Here a several steps for you to take to help you design your success with purpose:

  • Write down your 3-5 business results you want for the year. This will be your purpose for the year. And it will be your guide so that you stay on target.
  • Set your intentions for the year. What is your purpose or attitude toward what it is you want to accomplish? Write it down. You could say this is your mission statement.
  • What is the plan for you to reach those results? Create a list of steps that you will use to achieve your goals. Make sure you put a timeline on each of the steps and then put that into your calendar so you stay on target. This is your business plan.
  • List out and schedule your daily, weekly and monthly actions. What is it you will actually be doing that will, in the end, mean you have accomplished what you set out to do? It’s key for you to schedule these in your calendar so that you actively see where you are and where you are going.

It’s time to make your success happen!

Now all you need do it take the actions! And as you do that, new information will come to you and maybe from that new actions. Keep moving forward with your plan and adjust as you need to. Remember, you are the one who is designing your success and since it’s with purpose, you get to course correct anytime you need to.

Give this a try and I’d love to hear from you about how it goes, if you would like to share your experience feel free to post in the comment section below.

And if you are pulling your hair out trying to put this success formula in place and would like help, schedule a 30-minute complimentary Productive Planning For Success Strategy Session with me. You’ll walk away with a plan (with immediate actions =) for you to get to started!

Bonus:  Watch my recent Facebook Live class on Design Your Success with Purpose for more tips and help with designing your success for 2018.

We respect your email privacy.

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

Success is planned, are you ready for it?

December 21, 2017 By

 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

No, I don’t mean holiday time. I mean, in regards to being in business.

As small business owners it’s the best time to plan for success for the upcoming year.

Too many times I’ve worked with new clients who when asked what their plan is they tell me “I don’t have one.” or “I don’t know.”

Sometimes after I’ve asked the question, I don’t hear anything, just silence. And when that happens I think to myself (to quote Han Solo) “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”.

In order to succeed in any area of your life, you have to plan!

In order to succeed in any area of your life, you have to plan! – Kim Ravida

Click To Tweet

Why planning is important and why you need to do it.

I talk a lot about planning, knowing what to do and then organizing your time to get it done. And this is no different.

Planning is important because if you don’t know what you are going to be doing, how on earth can you do it? Well, you know the answer! You can’t. Planning is integral in business. If you want to succeed, you need to plan to succeed.

As a process person, my goal is to help my clients create their plan for the year (or maybe just one month), get clear on what it is they are doing and then get it into their schedule so that they do it.

Give yourself the gift of clarity.

Here are several ways that you can use right now to get yourself set up for next year:

  • Look at the big picture. What is it that you want to have happen in the upcoming year? What is it that you want to move forward from this year to next. Be honest with yourself, no pie in the sky ideas, just what you truly want to succeed at.
  • Take a look at what worked well this year. Review where things worked out well and where you could perhaps implement that moving into next year.
  • Look at what didn’t work well this year. Review where things didn’t work out so well and note down what you want to let go of.
  • Create step-by-step plans of action. From your answers above, you’ll create your plan of action and come the 1st of January you’ll be ready to go!
Clarity gives you the gift of creating a plan that works for you! -Kim Ravida

Click To Tweet

Clarity gives you the gift of creating a plan that works for you! What better gift could you ask for?!

I’d love to hear from you, what is one thing that you will commit to doing in the upcoming year that will set you up for the success you want? Please post below.

If you would like some assistance setting up your success for next year, schedule a 30-minute complimentary Productive Planning For Success Strategy Session with me. You’ll walk away with a productivity plan for you to get to doing the right things at the right time!

Bonus:  Watch my recent Facebook Live Design Your Success with Purpose Class for more tips and help with designing your success for 2018.

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Time Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Are you on target to reaching your goals for the year?

December 7, 2017 By

 

How would you rate your success so far?

As we head into the last several weeks of the year, how would you say you have done so far?

  • Have you reached or are you close to reaching the goals you set for yourself?
  • Are you feeling great about what you have accomplished so far?
  • Will you be doing the Snoopy Dance by the end of the month?

OR

  • Are you not even close to reaching the goals you set for yourself?
  • Not feeling so good about where you are in regards to what you wanted to accomplish this year?
  • Hanging your head and wondering how the heck this happened?

If you are on target to reach your goals, congratulations! I’d love for you to tell me what worked for you. And if you’d be inclined to post here on my blog so others can learn that would be awesome.

Ways to get closer to hitting your goals.

If you aren’t on target and are feeling less than successful with where you are at this point with your goals, don’t despair.

I have a few tips for you to end the year on a high note and set yourself up for an amazing new year. Are you ready? Good!

  • Review what it is you wanted to accomplish.
  • For each one of your goals, rate on a scale of 1-10 where you feel you are. 1 = nothing, 10 = near the end.
  • List out what still needs to be accomplished.
  • Look at the time you have left in the year and determine what you can realistically complete by the end of the year.
  • Schedule time in your calendar to do it.
By taking the time to review where you are, you’ll know what you need to do to accomplish it -Kim Ravida

Click To Tweet

Give yourself permission to hit reset.

One thing I know from working with my clients and in my own business is that it’s ok (more than actually) to hit the reset button. Sometimes in order to reach your success what you truly need is to just start again.

Be willing to do that for yourself!

Your turn, where can you hit reset and have the type of December you truly want? Where can you take a look at where you are and get started again to move yourself forward to what you want?

If you would like some assistance with creating realistic action steps to accomplish what you want by the end of the year, schedule a 30-minute complimentary Productive Planning For Success Strategy Session with me. You’ll walk away with a productivity plan for you to get to doing the right things at the right time!

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Time Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Want a simple method to have more time?

November 16, 2017 By

 

Time IS on your side!

You may remember the Rolling Stones song, Time Is On My Side

Do you remember the last line in the song? It says “Time is our closest friend”.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty awesome concept. Yet, why is it everyone runs around like the Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland?! I’ve even written about it before because it’s so prominent in the lives of many business owners.

Make Time Your Closet Friend.

Yes, there are many strategies and tactics that we can apply and I teach a great many of them. Yet, what I’m talking about is creating a positive relationship to time.

Presently, I’m participating in Deepak Chopra’s free meditation and guess what the focus is? TIME!

Perfect right? You bet! I’m only on Day 3 but basically it’s teaching us how to live in the now. And from experience, it’s only in the now that we can truly live. You are probably saying “yes, Kim, I get that, but how do I do it?” Believe it or not, it’s pretty easy.

As Eckhart Tolle says: Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Eckhart Tolle

Click To Tweet

Learning To BE In The Now.

See, here is the deal, when you are thinking about the future or the past, you are physically in the now yet your mind isn’t. You hear me talk a lot about mindset and how that basically all of our successes happen because of how we perceive them.

So if your perception of time is that you never have enough, feel overwhelmed with all you have to do and can’t fit it all in or constantly fall short of completing what you want then that’s what you’ll get. As well, if you are constantly worried about the future, reliving the past you pretty much as throwing the time you have in the here and now away. I call that being a time waster.

Now if your perception of time is that you can expand it, you have plenty of it or that you have all you need to do what you want then that is what you’ll get.

Steps To BE IN The Now.

You already know I love to give you steps, I’m a application kind of person! So here you are:

  • Breathe. Sit or stand (stand works wonders) with your back erect and your hands resting in your lap (sit) or beside your body (stand). Inhale steadily through the nose feeling your chest rise and maybe your shoulders widen and exhale through your mouth steadily as if you are blowing up a balloon. Try to make your in breath and your out breath equal. Notice how present you feel.
  • Say out loud “I am in the present moment, all I have is now.” This helps remind you to be in the present. Your mind can only focus on one thing at at time (yes that’s right) so by focusing on the present you can’t be in the past or the future. Extra credit: say this while you practice breathing 😉
  • Focus on ONE thing right now. If you are doing this and that at the same time your attention is diverted. Remember, you can only focus on one thing at a time, use that to your advantage. Go and do one thing, take a pause (maybe breathe) and then choose the next thing you’ll do.

That’s it! That’s your method to expand time, get more done and be in the present so you can create your phenomenal future!

How can you use the above tips to expand your time and how you feel about it?

If you need help with any of the above steps or would like help creating a day-to-day structure that will work for you, schedule a 30-minute complimentary Productive Planning For Success Strategy Session with me. You’ll walk away with a productivity plan for you to get to doing the right things at the right time!

We respect your email privacy.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Productivity, Reaching Goals, Time Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Success and Strategy

May 26, 2016 By

BLOG letters on corkboardIn this blog, I’d like to share with you a couple of ways for you to bring about accomplishment and success.

A startling opportunity to your monumental success
Early on in my business I had no idea what I was doing so I tried doing what other “successful” business owners were doing. I was pretty good at copying what they were doing, but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted (or that they had). It was only after much ado (lots of frustration, overwhelm and tears) that I knew why I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted. I wasn’t them. Click to read more…

 

There is more to getting things accomplished than just having a strategy
Do you like to strategize? To plan? I love to do both, it’s the execution I can get stuck on. What I have come to realize is that sometimes I don’t have the right tactics or the step by step action map that I need in order to execute to completion. And in business execution is paramount to having things completed. Click to read more…

Did one of these blogs resonate with you?  If so, I’d love to hear from you. Post to one of the blogs above or email me personally!

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

How to choose what to do first

December 10, 2015 By

determine your destiny (1)In business, as a solo or small business owner it’s hard to know what to do first.  There are so many things to do, how do you know where to start?

Do you spend time finding clients or putting your ducks in a row?  Do you go out to networking events or build your website first?  It’s truly a quandary for some business owners.

It’s enough of a challenge to know what to do first in your business, never mind the how.

Click To Tweet

Then, of course, there is the dilemma of the how to do it once you finally figure out what to do.  Business owners sometimes forget about that.

Being in that uncertain space creates a lot of stress, frustration and overwhelm, not to mention all those fears that show up.  It can cause you to come to a screeching halt in your business.

One amazing way I know to combat those problems is to be a part of a Mastermind.  You get access to others who can assist you out of that place I call “no-man’s-land” (well, in many cases it’s “no woman’s-land”) and into the place of knowing exactly what to do first.  This puts you into action, which leads to getting results, which leads to feeling really great about yourself.

A Mastermind is a group of biz owners who support each other in all aspects of their businesses.

Click To Tweet

A Mastermind is a collective brain. It’s a group of like-minded business owners who support each other in all aspects of their business.  It is usually run by a coach, who has similar business experience, to help the members through trainings, laser coaching and facilitating the group.

I believe a Mastermind is a key component in any business.  Comprised of individuals who are not directly related to your business, they hear and see things differently and therefore can offer a new perspective.  In addition, mastermind members are available to support you when you run into areas in which you need help.

In a recent Mastermind that I run, one of the business owners was struggling with making a decision.  When she brought this to the group, another member spoke up and said “It sounds like you aren’t really on board with this idea” and that allowed the struggling member to truly see what she already knew… but was ignoring. It gave her the confidence to make the decision to say ‘no’ in quick time and move on to something else she would be on board with.

Afterward, she told me that without the support from the group, too much time and money would have been spent trying to figure out what to do.

If you are interested in joining a Mastermind, there are still spots available in my 2016 Prosperous Business Mastery Group.  Click here to learn more or simply email me and I’ll be happy to talk with you about how being a part in the Mastermind can benefit you.

Filed Under: Business Mastery Tagged With: , ,
« Previous Page