I often talk in my seminars about the importance of time andtime management -- how rich people and poor people both havethe same amount of time every day - 24 hours (which by theway, I find fascinating).
I want to share with you four great time management ideas that were excerpted from the 2004 Weekend Event, Speaker Round Table Session - Enjoy!
Brian Tracy: I always give the principle of: Begin the day by "Eating That Frog".
It basically says that if the firstthing you do in the morning is eat a live frog, then youwill have the satisfaction of knowing it is probably theworst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.
And your "live frog" is your most important task. Nowthere's two corollaries to that. The first one is if youhave two frogs to eat, eat the ugliest one first and thesecond corollary to that is if you have to eat a frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it too long.
So the key to high performance is to plan every day thenight before, in advance, and set priorities for it. Andthen say, "if I can only complete one task on this list before I was to be called out of town for a month, which one task would it be?"
And whatever that is, it becomes your frog and the next morning discipline yourself to start in on that task, the most important thing on your list, and do only that until it is complete.
If you can develop that habit, you can double and tripleyour productivity, you'll take full control of your life,you will eventually become wealthy, and the personal feelingof pride, accomplishment, discipline and achievement you getwill be absolutely extraordinary. It is one of the most important of all lessons to learn, and one of the hardest things to implement if anybody has tried to do it.
Denis Waitley: Stop watching in prime time and start living in prime time. Prime time is 7-11 pm EST, when all ofAmerica is watching other people making money and having fun in their professions. So if you want to watch other people making money, having fun in their professions, which gets their ratings up so they make more money, go ahead and do things that are tension relieving, instead of goal achieving.
But if you truly want to live your life in prime time, then write in prime time, have intimacy in prime time, talk with your children in prime time, live and do in prime time instead of unhooking and engaging in tension relievingactivities.
Every book I've written, all seventeen, have been written 7-11 pm weekly and on Saturdays. And why? Because I am earning money the rest of the time, and I don't have time to write a book except in prime time. So stop watching and use the television set as an appliance. It has doors on it. Close the doors and use like an iron,when you need to iron your clothes, bring out the TV set.
Jim Rohn: Regarding the television, I knew a guy who wasn'tdoing too well and he wanted some advice from me. I knew hehad a television set and knew he watched a lot of television, so I asked, "How much did that television cost you?"
He said, "about $400."
I said, "No, you're mistaken."
He said, "No, this television set cost me $400."
I said,"Well that's to buy it. To watch it, I am sure it is costing you about $40,000 a year to watch."
He finally got themessage and he called his brother-in-law, who had a pick-up, and he and his brother-in-law hauled his television out ofthe house. His brother-in-law did say, "Well, you can just shut it off." And he said, "No, for now I don't trust myself, Jim Rohn is right. I'm not going to let this television set cost me $40,000 a year anymore."
Vic Johnson: My biggest tip would be in an area that I struggle a lot. About 15 years ago I heard someone say to never handle the items in your inbox more than one time.So I adopted that for email.
Now I get over 300 emails everyday even though I have all kinds of filters, some ofthem going to other people, etc. My biggest challenge is totouch that email only one time. Either I forward the email, I return the email and delete itor drag it to a folder for action by someone else or deleteit.
If you continue to have to go back and revisit that emailover and over trying to make a decision that's time --that's wasted time -- plus it's on your mind until you get rid of it.So if you are in a profession and you handle a lot of emails and you're still getting a lot of items in your inbox, only touch them one time.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Goal Setting Success - 7 Steps to Getting Unstuck
By Valerie Hayes
So there you are, parked on the couch, feeling like it's time to make a change, making an abstract list of goals for a new you. You’re determined not to let opportunity pass you by, but honestly you’re feeling a little stuck. Here are seven simple steps to help you get unstuck and on the way to success.
1. Pick a goal you’re passionate about. Identify something that would make you happier or your life easier every single day. Maybe it’s something you’ve always dreamed of doing or something that really annoys you on a daily basis. If you’re really passionate about your resolution you’re more likely to stick to that goal for the long haul.
2. Take action today. Right now, absolutely right now, write down three actions you can take to help you meet your new goal. Taking immediate action will not only get you off the couch, but it will help you feel in control of your destiny.
3. Get yourself an expert. Find a coach, buy a book, research the Internet, get an instructional CD, or ask a friend. Find someone who knows more about the topic of your goal than you do and learn as much as you can. Information really is power.
4. Take baby steps. Often we are so anxious to get to our goal that we have unrealistic expectations. Most people overestimate what they can get done in a week, but underestimate what they can accomplish in a year. Break your goal down into baby steps and get started. Just like learning to walk, once you get your footing your confidence will increase and you will naturally gain speed.
5. Do your best impression of a tortoise. Not only should you take baby steps, but just keep taking them over, and over, and over. There are moments when you’ll be discouraged; hang in there. Always keep moving towards your goal. When it comes to getting unstuck, slow and steady really does win the race.
6. Keep your goals visible and visualize your goals. Write down you new goal and put it somewhere where you can see it on a regular basis. (I print my goals out in a caligraphy font and put them in a beautiful gold frame in my office.) Every time you read the note, visualize yourself in a specific situation having achieved your goal. Imagine how excited you will feel when you’ve finally arrived. It’s no coincidence that 90% of medal-winning Olympic athletes practice visualization of their goals. If it works for them, it can work for you too.
7. Surround yourself with a support network. Tell family and friends about your new goal. Make sure you only tell people that you think will be supportive, not “doomsday” friends. Successful people surround themselves with other successful people. It’s a positive cycle you can use to your advantage.
Okay, so back away from the computer, pry yourself off the chair, get started with #1 and just keep on going. Just keep on chipping away and don't stop until you've accomplished your goals and created your own personal vision of success!
Valerie Hayes is an entrepreneur who survived a corporate layoff by starting her own consulting practice using only cash on hand, her laptop computer, and readily available resources. Within two years she had matched her corporate salary, was writing for national magazines, and was featured on MTV. She accomplished all this while working a part-time schedule from her home office! Now she offers her simple strategies to others looking to create their own vision of success. Please visit her website at HayesSuccess.com.
Back to MAIN
.
.
So there you are, parked on the couch, feeling like it's time to make a change, making an abstract list of goals for a new you. You’re determined not to let opportunity pass you by, but honestly you’re feeling a little stuck. Here are seven simple steps to help you get unstuck and on the way to success.
1. Pick a goal you’re passionate about. Identify something that would make you happier or your life easier every single day. Maybe it’s something you’ve always dreamed of doing or something that really annoys you on a daily basis. If you’re really passionate about your resolution you’re more likely to stick to that goal for the long haul.
2. Take action today. Right now, absolutely right now, write down three actions you can take to help you meet your new goal. Taking immediate action will not only get you off the couch, but it will help you feel in control of your destiny.
3. Get yourself an expert. Find a coach, buy a book, research the Internet, get an instructional CD, or ask a friend. Find someone who knows more about the topic of your goal than you do and learn as much as you can. Information really is power.
4. Take baby steps. Often we are so anxious to get to our goal that we have unrealistic expectations. Most people overestimate what they can get done in a week, but underestimate what they can accomplish in a year. Break your goal down into baby steps and get started. Just like learning to walk, once you get your footing your confidence will increase and you will naturally gain speed.
5. Do your best impression of a tortoise. Not only should you take baby steps, but just keep taking them over, and over, and over. There are moments when you’ll be discouraged; hang in there. Always keep moving towards your goal. When it comes to getting unstuck, slow and steady really does win the race.
6. Keep your goals visible and visualize your goals. Write down you new goal and put it somewhere where you can see it on a regular basis. (I print my goals out in a caligraphy font and put them in a beautiful gold frame in my office.) Every time you read the note, visualize yourself in a specific situation having achieved your goal. Imagine how excited you will feel when you’ve finally arrived. It’s no coincidence that 90% of medal-winning Olympic athletes practice visualization of their goals. If it works for them, it can work for you too.
7. Surround yourself with a support network. Tell family and friends about your new goal. Make sure you only tell people that you think will be supportive, not “doomsday” friends. Successful people surround themselves with other successful people. It’s a positive cycle you can use to your advantage.
Okay, so back away from the computer, pry yourself off the chair, get started with #1 and just keep on going. Just keep on chipping away and don't stop until you've accomplished your goals and created your own personal vision of success!
Valerie Hayes is an entrepreneur who survived a corporate layoff by starting her own consulting practice using only cash on hand, her laptop computer, and readily available resources. Within two years she had matched her corporate salary, was writing for national magazines, and was featured on MTV. She accomplished all this while working a part-time schedule from her home office! Now she offers her simple strategies to others looking to create their own vision of success. Please visit her website at HayesSuccess.com.
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Seeing is Believing, or Is It?
(excerpted from The Seeds of Greatness Treasury)
When your eyes are open, you see the world that lies outside yourself. You see the items of the room you're in, the people, and the view of the landscape through the window. You take for granted that the objects are real and separate from yourself.
However, successful individuals see the act of achieving in advance -- vivid, multidimensional, clear. Champions know that "What you see, is who you'll be."
When you close your eyes, images and thoughts flow through your mind. You may review memories of past events, or preview future possibilities. You can daydream about what may be or what might have been, and your imagination will take you beyond the limits of space and time.
Most people attach little importance to these inner visions. They may seem pleasantly irrelevant, or uncomfortably at odds with the accepted external reality.
If you're like most people, you grew up with the idea that "Seeing is Believing." In other words, you need tophysically see something with your own eyes to believe that it's real.
I know many successful individuals who live this way.
But there's an attitude that suggests, "Before you can see it, you have to believe it." This premise holds that ourbelief system is so powerful that thoughts can actually cause things to happen in the physical world.
I also know many successful individuals who live according to this notion of reality.
So which concept is nearer the truth? Do you have to see it before you believe it, or believe before you can see it? The answer is: both are basically true.
If you can see something in your mind's eye, and you imagine it over and over again, you will begin to believe it is really there in substance. As a result, your actions, both physical and mental, will move to bring about in reality the image you are visualizing.
During my university years at the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, I underwent training in aircraft recognition. All of us midshipmen sat at one end of a hall while silhouettes of American and foreign military aircraft were flashed on a screen at speeds similar to combat situations.
We were supposed to write down the numerical designations and names of the planes, such as A-4, F-ll-F, F-4, MIG-21, and so forth. But the task became more difficult each week, because they kept adding more planes, scrambling the order, and speeding up the projection.
Finally, it got ridiculous, because the images were going by faster than an MTV music video so that most of us saw only a blur, and some didn't see anything. I began to see planes that weren't even invented yet.
When it came time for the final exam, I didn't know for certain which planes I was seeing. I wrote down hunches, intuitions, and reflex responses. But when the test results were announced, virtually everyone had scored a perfect 100 percent.
We had seen the planes, even if we didn't necessarily believe it. For me, that test proved that images can bestored and retained, unconsciously, at incredible speeds. And those stored images, when recalled, can enhanceperformance.
What about the thousands of flickering images we see on a TV, computer or movie screen? What about commercials? Do we have to believe the products really do all those amazing things before we buy them?
Do viewers have to think that violent scenes in movies and TV are actually occurring in real life for there to be anegative effect on their behavior? Many people believe that violent fantasy has no impact on their lives whatsoever, because they think they're too intelligent to be swayed by it.
Well, I've got news for them. Whatever you see or experience, real or imagined, consciously or subliminally,when repeated vividly over and over, does affect your behavior, and definitely can influence you to buy a product or buy into a lifestyle, good or bad.
Your attitude and beliefs are, quite simply, functions of what you see day in and day out. Information can be taken in almost unnoticed. You won't react to it until later, and you still won't be aware of what lies behind your response. In other words, what you see really is what you get, regardless of whether you know it or not.
You don't need to be watching slides of airplanes, or TV shows, or music videos, video games, or commercials. You can be just lying down, or commuting to work, or walking through a park, and by seeing from within, in your mind's eye, you can change your life.
By rehashing fears and problems, you can make yourself depressed. As a result you can botch a business deal, hurt a relationship, or lower your performance. By forecasting a gloomy outcome in your mind's eye, you can act as your own witch doctor and practice a modern-day kind of voodoo that will fulfill your negative prediction with uncanny accuracy.
On the other hand, by replaying in your mind's eye the best game you ever played, you can repeat that best game again, when the stakes are even higher and the pressure is on. And by mentally pre-playing the best game you've ever imagined, you can set the stage for a world-class performance.
This "instant replay" and "instant pre-play" applies to anything from a successful sales call or athletic event tothe effective motivation of your teammates and children.
Choose your role models and inputs carefully. Your attitudes and beliefs are the software programs driving you every day on life's journey.
Written by Denis Waitley. To receive Denis Waitley's Weekly Ezine, and to learn about his new program The Platinum Collection - Healthy, Wealthy & Wise visit http://www.getmotivation.com/qk.cgi/denis-waitley
Back To MAIN
.
.
When your eyes are open, you see the world that lies outside yourself. You see the items of the room you're in, the people, and the view of the landscape through the window. You take for granted that the objects are real and separate from yourself.
However, successful individuals see the act of achieving in advance -- vivid, multidimensional, clear. Champions know that "What you see, is who you'll be."
When you close your eyes, images and thoughts flow through your mind. You may review memories of past events, or preview future possibilities. You can daydream about what may be or what might have been, and your imagination will take you beyond the limits of space and time.
Most people attach little importance to these inner visions. They may seem pleasantly irrelevant, or uncomfortably at odds with the accepted external reality.
If you're like most people, you grew up with the idea that "Seeing is Believing." In other words, you need tophysically see something with your own eyes to believe that it's real.
I know many successful individuals who live this way.
But there's an attitude that suggests, "Before you can see it, you have to believe it." This premise holds that ourbelief system is so powerful that thoughts can actually cause things to happen in the physical world.
I also know many successful individuals who live according to this notion of reality.
So which concept is nearer the truth? Do you have to see it before you believe it, or believe before you can see it? The answer is: both are basically true.
If you can see something in your mind's eye, and you imagine it over and over again, you will begin to believe it is really there in substance. As a result, your actions, both physical and mental, will move to bring about in reality the image you are visualizing.
During my university years at the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, I underwent training in aircraft recognition. All of us midshipmen sat at one end of a hall while silhouettes of American and foreign military aircraft were flashed on a screen at speeds similar to combat situations.
We were supposed to write down the numerical designations and names of the planes, such as A-4, F-ll-F, F-4, MIG-21, and so forth. But the task became more difficult each week, because they kept adding more planes, scrambling the order, and speeding up the projection.
Finally, it got ridiculous, because the images were going by faster than an MTV music video so that most of us saw only a blur, and some didn't see anything. I began to see planes that weren't even invented yet.
When it came time for the final exam, I didn't know for certain which planes I was seeing. I wrote down hunches, intuitions, and reflex responses. But when the test results were announced, virtually everyone had scored a perfect 100 percent.
We had seen the planes, even if we didn't necessarily believe it. For me, that test proved that images can bestored and retained, unconsciously, at incredible speeds. And those stored images, when recalled, can enhanceperformance.
What about the thousands of flickering images we see on a TV, computer or movie screen? What about commercials? Do we have to believe the products really do all those amazing things before we buy them?
Do viewers have to think that violent scenes in movies and TV are actually occurring in real life for there to be anegative effect on their behavior? Many people believe that violent fantasy has no impact on their lives whatsoever, because they think they're too intelligent to be swayed by it.
Well, I've got news for them. Whatever you see or experience, real or imagined, consciously or subliminally,when repeated vividly over and over, does affect your behavior, and definitely can influence you to buy a product or buy into a lifestyle, good or bad.
Your attitude and beliefs are, quite simply, functions of what you see day in and day out. Information can be taken in almost unnoticed. You won't react to it until later, and you still won't be aware of what lies behind your response. In other words, what you see really is what you get, regardless of whether you know it or not.
You don't need to be watching slides of airplanes, or TV shows, or music videos, video games, or commercials. You can be just lying down, or commuting to work, or walking through a park, and by seeing from within, in your mind's eye, you can change your life.
By rehashing fears and problems, you can make yourself depressed. As a result you can botch a business deal, hurt a relationship, or lower your performance. By forecasting a gloomy outcome in your mind's eye, you can act as your own witch doctor and practice a modern-day kind of voodoo that will fulfill your negative prediction with uncanny accuracy.
On the other hand, by replaying in your mind's eye the best game you ever played, you can repeat that best game again, when the stakes are even higher and the pressure is on. And by mentally pre-playing the best game you've ever imagined, you can set the stage for a world-class performance.
This "instant replay" and "instant pre-play" applies to anything from a successful sales call or athletic event tothe effective motivation of your teammates and children.
Choose your role models and inputs carefully. Your attitudes and beliefs are the software programs driving you every day on life's journey.
Written by Denis Waitley. To receive Denis Waitley's Weekly Ezine, and to learn about his new program The Platinum Collection - Healthy, Wealthy & Wise visit http://www.getmotivation.com/qk.cgi/denis-waitley
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