Do you struggle between complete inertia to being really motivated? And does this depend on what the task is and how you are feeling? Do you struggle to be self-motivated or are you a great self-motivator?Do you find it easy to motivate others but difficult to be self-motivated? It’s interesting how we can all struggle with different things and usually these are related to the task or project we have in front of us, how we’re feeling, who or what it’s for and why we need to do it. This combination of these can cause us to be between complete inertia to being totally motivated. Recently I was at a group discussion where we were talking about this very subject and hearing how each of us were similar but different in that different things motivated us and different things de-motivated us creating lethargy, inactivity and apathy. It’s one thing being
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Do you have problems in your life or in your business right now? Do you feel positive and purposeful about solving those problems? Are you passionate about identifying the cause of the issue? Problems are just snags, glitches or hitches that create difficulties and complications. To enable us to look forwards and consider how we might solve those problems, we need to be purposeful about how we do this. Being purposeful is having drive, determination and resolve, persistently determined to achieve a result. If we focus on the problem rather that how we can solve it we don’t do ourselves any good, but we often let the issue roll over and over in our minds, not being able to let it go. We know we need to look at how we can fix the problem and find a solution but often we get stuck and lack that drive and purpose
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There is a Zig Ziglar quote which I read recently which reads “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” – Zig Ziglar I particularly liked this one because it focuses on how our attitude can affect how far we can progress. We know we can have a positive or negative attitude towards everything and everyone. This can often lead to the beliefs people have whether they be the proverbial optimist or the ongoing pessimist! Attitude is so difficult to define as it relates to our behaviour which if we have attitude means we can come across arrogant and even defiant. The effects of having a negative or bad attitude can and will alter the result. Often, we blame our attitude on someone or something that has happened to us. We get into the blame game wanting to point the finger and make excuses as to why we didn’t
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How far do your roots stretch in your networks? As a business-owners, particularly as a single person enterprise we can feel quite alone and lonely. We may struggle to connect properly with others in terms of gaining support and being honest about how we’re doing and where we might need help. We are social animals and function better in groups, gaining support, motivation and assistance from others. We learn every day both personally and professionally. Our growth is partly dependent upon others. Those we work for, with and those who might report to us. We rely on them and them on us in various ways. Some of these may be apparent and some less obvious. We may even discuss what support we need or want, whilst at other times someone might just notice we need some help and make the offer. Support provides us the sustenance to survive and thrive,
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What holds you back from achieving your goals? We often find this question easy to answer as we can find a heap of reasons, or excuses, why we haven’t achieved what we set out to achieve or complete what we set out to complete. Sometimes it’s US that holds us back. Our lack of self-belief or the limitations we put on ourselves creates a barrier which disables us before we even start! If you were totally honest with yourself, what REALLY holds you back from achieving your goals? If we track back to the source of our situation, we nearly always end up realising it’s a personal issue or reason that stops or prevents us from achieving, rather than the need to upskill or learn something new. If we honestly asked ourselves why we give up on goals or even why we don’t set goals, what might we say? I
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I’ve often reflected on this saying wondering if practice really does make perfect! We know the saying is that if you practice something often enough you will eventually do it perfectly! But will you? I would argue that unless we know HOW to do something, or we are shown how to do something we could just keep trying and continue to do it the ‘wrong’ way, or not the best way that will achieve the result or outcome we want. An example of this was year’s ago when I used to play in the pool team for the local pub in England. I took every opportunity to practice so my skill improved. One of these practice days, I lined up the white ball on the spot and the red ball with the aim of hitting the ball in the top left pocket. I hit the white onto the red repeatedly
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How do you plan? Do you plan? Do you take the easy or the hard option? Do you take risks or are you risk averse? Whether you plan or not, how you choose to do things will depend on whether you want an easy life staying in your comfort zone, with the ‘ease’ of not taking risks but staying in a lane that has comfort and a degree of certainty, or whether you are the type of person who is always thinking outside the square and looking for new ways of doing things, feeling content in taking yourself outside your comfort zone. If you are staying in your comfort zone, is it because you don’t have confidence in yourself to explore new avenues, or is it because you fear what might happen if you take chances? Taking risks or perhaps the hard option may be a sign of having steely
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I recently came across a quote which I wanted to share with you: “When you are resting because you are worn out, you need to remember you are not wasting time. You are doing exactly what you need to do. You are recovering.” Tiny budha This appealed to me for several reasons. The main one being that we all try and pack so much into every single day, otherwise we feel we are wasting time, and not being productive enough. Even if we’ve been busy for a period of time, taking time out to recover or rest still makes us feel guilty. Not only do we work to our full capacity each day, but we try and cram even more in, as inevitably more work comes in and what happens? We still don’t take that time out. It seems ingrained in us that we should always keep going full speed
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We all lead busy lives trying to pack everything into each day, it isn’t wonder that sometimes we fail to communicate with others the best way we can. Often this is because we didn’t hear or receive the information the way it was intended, or we didn’t impart the information as we intended to do. This can cause misunderstandings and friction within teams, between colleagues and even affect relationships with families and friends. It’s all about the send and receive, or transmission and reception. As we rely on so many means of communication nowadays, we have choices and often we make a choice on what means of communication is best only because of ease and speed rather than quality and value. In our busy days, if we took time out to determine how, when, where and what way to communicate with others, we could avoid a lot of grief and
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Slow down you’re going too fast! We all lead such busy lives and often the feeling we get when we’re busy isn’t just being tired or worn out, more of a feeling of being overwhelmed by just far too much to do and not enough time to do it in. All these feelings are everything we don’t want to feel when we want to enjoy the journey and not just the destination. Whichever path we’re taking we know there are challenges, obstacles and barriers along the way, but we hope they are manageable and achievable. But when we have so much to do, not enough time to do it in. When we have other commitments and priorities, whether it be children or other personal commitments, we still want to enjoy what we’re doing and not feel that our job or business is something to be rushed or squeezed in amongst
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