It’s interesting when we get to this time of year how we reflect on how our year has gone and divide these into what we did well and not so well. Our year is often based on what we achieved or didn’t achieve, however, we also need to balance this out by looking at what the circumstances were that helped us achieve and what the causes were that prevented us from achieving. When we look deeper into these events, we can find the root cause for perceived failure and / or the basis or reason for our success. There are various tools we can use to examine these; below are some examples of tools available for us to look at. The Five Whys is a root cause analysis – we repeatedly ask ourselves the ‘why’ question to dig deep into a problem or issue. The Five Ws also known as
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To enable us to make progress and achieve we know we need to get results and we know we need to set goals to do this, however, if it were that simple, we would all be achieving, and we don’t. We know if we want to get fit, we need to have a plan, make a decision i.e. join the gym, however, how many of us have joined a gym and never or hardly gone? Then we check our bank account statement and see the monthly subscription coming out every month and say, “I must get to the gym” and then we don’t! There’s a huge gap between knowing what we want and doing it, and it’s this huge gap we need to cover or close, but how? Perhaps you should follow the T-A-R-M-A-C steps to enable you to achieve. T – Triggers Sometimes before we move forward, we need
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I do love the quote below by Harvey Mackay “Time is free but it’s priceless You can’t own it, but you can use it You can’t keep it, but you can spend it Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back” It’s a well-known fact we can’t save time or make time, however we talk about time as if we could. We also talk about time as though it is something that’s outside our control. In other words, the clock never stops ticking and we are always trying to keep up. We almost act as if it’s controlling us! We also know that we can’t do anything with the past, the future but we can do something with the present. We know that “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst” William Penn. We feel time moves too fast and we wish we could stop
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Answer yes or no to the following SIX questions: Do you know what your values are and are they written down?Do you understand your values and what they mean to you and your work or business? Do you prioritise your time regularly / daily?Do you value your work or business, and understand how your work can specifically help your target market?Do you value your time, and is this reflected in your daily routine?Do you value yourself, and is this reflected in your personal life, work or business?   If you answered NO to 1 or more of the above questions, follow the Success Factor 10 SIMPLE STEPS What image do you want to project for you and your business? When feeling overwhelmed, what areas do you struggle with?What are the main problems you face in your business that use your valuable time and energy?What are the emotional pressure points you struggle with
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How Many ‘Ps’ do you have in your business? How Productive are you? Do you measure this? If you do measure this, are you taking steps to make positive changes? Problem – we know that if we aren’t productive, we have a problem, and if we have a problem, we can’t be productive Plan – to enable us to deal with the problem we need to have a plan with small steps and tasks to complete Prepare – before we tackle our plan, we need to prepare for any work that needs to be done beforehand, looking ahead for any anticipated problems Produce – by taking small steps and actions we know that we will be able to fulfil our actions enabling us to achieve Positive – we need to keep motivated and upbeat otherwise we won’t be able to fulfil our tasks each day Pessimistic – we need to
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Oh NO! Not Again! Why does this always happen to me? “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”. Winston Churchill Are you one of those people that think or even believe that everything always happens to them? If you are then maybe you might want to consider how those ‘other’ people manage to have everything in their lives going right! But is it right to say that it’s either one or the other, and what is fact and what is perception? If we want success then we should always strive to get their and never falter, trying to keep enthusiastic as best we can. Winston Churchill also said: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Often those people we perceive to have it all and are always lucky is often is our perception, their mindset and
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“No lion roars in the jungle for nothing Every lion roars just to remind the other animals of who is in charge What are you in charge of? When did you last roar like the lion? Stay in Charge!” David Akamagwuna I just love this quote above as it can help us really think about our own lives and who’s in charge of it! Do you control your habits or do your habits control you?Do you control your calendar or does your calendar control you?Do you control your work or does your work control you? We can tell ourselves all the time we are in control of our own destiny, and we pretty much are in charge of our own lives, however, life can get in the way, and before we know it, we are being controlled by outside influences and find we are no longer in charge anymore. When
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We talk often of success and failure, and there are many books on both, however, did you know both fear of success and fear of failure are phobias? This made me wonder which might be worse! Is it worse to fear success or is it worse to fear failure? Fear of success, or Achievemephobia, stems from feelings of guilt and self-doubt, avoiding any areas of responsibility that one may or will not succeed. Often people who are introverted are more likely to have this phobia preventing them from setting goals for fear of failing. Fear of success also often occurs within the most talented and gifted people who are those who probably would succeed if they would only try. On the other hand, we have the fear of failure, or Atychiphobia, which is also a phobia. This phobia causes many different indicators and can cause both emotional and physical symptoms
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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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