How to Beat Procrastination and Self Doubt

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Fear of failure (or success) and a lack of energy leads to procrastination. People who procrastinate become frustrated and generally accomplish nothing. To change this negative behavior, you must first identify the things that cause you to procrastinate in the first place. Feelings of fear, rejection, and unworthiness take a real toll on your self-esteem. Taking steps to improve your self-esteem will make a huge difference in your energy level and will motivate you to make other positive changes in your life.

Human beings are motivated by two things: pleasure and pain. Make a list of the things you would like to accomplish and how you will reward yourself when you do reach your goals. When you are making your list, be sure to include the consequences you will suffer by procrastinating.

Keeping the reward in mind will make it easier to stay motivated. Overcoming irrational fears and phobias are crucial to your self-esteem and energy level. The act of procrastinating itself creates self-esteem issues. Guilt, stress, and anxiety are results of low self esteem and lack of motivation.

Procrastination is a habitual behavior. You can break the

cycle of self doubt and procrastination if you make the decision to do so. Keep a list of the things you need to accomplish, both long and short term goals, and reward yourself for each thing you cross off your list. It is not easy to break old habits, but it can be done and soon you will find that the new behavior is second nature.

Keep in mind that your emotional health is closely related to your physical health. A sensible diet and exercise will do wonders for your self-image.

You will find that when you make an effort to change your negative behavior you will have more energy and your self-esteem will soar. Procrastination will no longer control your life and you will be motivated to accomplish your goals. You can change your self-image and become a highly motivated individual if you take the time to find out why you lack motivation and take steps to improve your self-esteem.

About the author:

Simon Weaver can help YOUstart your own profitable business on the Internet within the next 24 hours! To learn more, visit:http://www.YourOwnFreeBusiness.com/pips.html

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Ahead of the Curve to be on Top

Monday, January 30th, 2012

I once heard a statement that no matter how good you think you are, there is always someone else who is better. This appears to be a pessimistic view even to a point of degrading one’s self-worth. However, this saying provides a starting point to understanding one’s gifts or setbacks, one’s strengths or weaknesses in comparison to potential counterparts.

Do you remember in your school band when you were the third chair among all the clarinet players? Do you recall your high school student council campaign? Who was voted in as the president and who were the runner-ups that year? Who was the starting quarterback and who was the 2nd string quarterback for the college football team? Who won the role of Juliet and who was her understudy for the community play?

While being first or second was prevalent in school, it is inevitable in a work force setting and even in everyday occurrences. You might have been a candidate for a lucrative job offer, but was disappointed because the job went to someone else. You might have rushed to a music store to buy an artist’s greatest hits collection only to find out that someone else bought the last CD five minutes before you came in.

Being first or second may be inescapable, but you can take your placement in life’s occurrences as a positive factor to help move you towards the top. Think about these motivating characteristics that can help move leaders ahead of the curve.

Innovation: Many people associate the term innovative with the act of invention, but we think of innovation as looking at opportunities in a new way or “thinking out of the box.” The fast food industry provides us with an example of one such man. No one will argue that McDonalds’ Ray Croc was “ahead of the curve” in this industry. McDonalds was not the first hamburger chain in America; other chains can claim that fame. Finding a way to turn burgers and fires into a mass market enterprise set McDonalds “ahead” and apart from the other chains

in the 1950’s and 1960’s. However, Ray Kroc’s innovative foresight was to standardize menus and restaurants and to make the meals affordable that led to the popularity of McDonalds’s today.

Looking around corners: One of the most celebrated basketball players of all-time was cut from the varsity basketball team when he was just a sophomore. In his book, Can’t Accept Not Trying, Michael Jordan, recounts instead of giving up basketball he set achievable goals, working on one after another until he dominated the game. He strategically focused on and worked towards being “ahead of the curve” to become one of the best basketball players of all time.

Plan ahead: When Thomas Edison set about reinventing the incandescent electric light bulb, he proposed to connect his lights in a parallel circuit so that the failure of one light bulb would not cause the whole circuit to fail. Eminent scientists predict that such a circuit would never be feasible. And while at times it seemed that the bulb might never materialize, Edison continued his work on his reverse action generator and the development of electrical wires, still in use today. His planning, work and tenacity placed the first permanent, working commercial central power system in lower Manhattan in September 1882. His sight was always “ahead of the curve” and on the central power system that would light the world.

These are just three of the strategic processes described in Dr. Steven J. Stowell and Stephanie Mead’s new book Ahead of the Curve, A Guide to Applied Strategic Thinking and their workshop, Applied Strategic Thinking. The workshop is a practical look at what it means to be strategic and demonstrates a hands-on process in developing workable strategic plans that will take companies into the future. For more information regarding the workshop, please call (801) 569-3444.

Stephanie Tuia and the CMOE Development team have collaborated in content writing for CMOE.

If you would like to purchase a copy of “Ahead of the Curve”, you can place an order by visiting their online bookstore or by calling 888-262-2499.

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Discipline – Part III; Focus

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

We often hear stories of overnight successes. Men and women who seemingly take a meteoric rise to fame, fortune and high achievement. Their stories, it would appear, are the stuff that fairy tales are made of. They wished it, and abracadabra! Everything that they wanted to be; have, or do was manifested in their lives. I am sure however, that if we were to interview any of them they would tell you of the many years of toil, sacrifice and painstaking hard work it took for them to achieve their goals. They would tell you of the many hours of toiling in the back office, sweating in the gym, driving those lonely miles between sales calls, and burning the midnight oil. Cumulative effort that overtime eventually paid off.

Today we live in a microwave society. We have become accustomed to having everything at our fingertips. Fast food, quick cash and instant gratification quickly becoming a way of life and more and more, I’ve noticed that so many of us are seeking the kind of success that is served up like the latest offering of our microwave dinners. The dilemma for those microwave dream chasers is that success continues to elude them and will continue to do so until they acknowledge that in the same way it takes time to prepare a good meal, it takes time to create successful results. It does not necessarily have to be an inordinately long time but it does take time and through focus we are able to pay the price up front in the form of the hard currency of time and effort.

Focus is paying the price

The highly disciplined person is focused. They understand that there is a price to be paid to live the life of their dreams and achieve their goals. They also understand that that price is represented by the intensity of their focus and so they don’t allow themselves to be caught up in the “What”…the things they need to do but rather they concentrate on the “Why”…the benefits they will derive from doing the “what”. The Olympic athlete knows that total and complete fixation on the goal is what is absolutely necessary if he or she is going have the opportunity to march in the Opening Ceremony let alone make it up on the medal podium. They do not focus on the “What”…. the sore aching muscles, the hot sweaty gym, the numerous drills; they focus on the “Why”…. the elation of marching in the opening ceremony…the jubilation of standing on the podium, the personal satisfaction of achievement through SUSTAINED effort.

John Naber, the famous US Olympian puts it this way “The Olympian views each day of practice, each party unattended, each distraction withstood or temptation resisted as part of the price gladly paid to experience that wonderful feeling when the national anthem is played. The Olympics require a concrete investment of effort prior to the weeks leading up to the actual competition. You can’t cram for the Olympics during the three weeks leading to the opening ceremony the way you study for college midterm anymore than you can rescue a business relationship after months of neglect with one phone call. There is an understanding that the prize must be paid for in advance.”

I know this doesn’t apply to you but I am sure that that there is someone you knew, who, while in college deferred studying for an exam until the night before. Maybe it became a habit for them and although they may have ended up with a degree, chances are they may not have received an education. They shortchanged themselves, failing to truly reap the full benefits of their college experience. How many times, because of a lack of focus have you shortchanged yourself

in life because you deferred the hard work that was necessary? How often have you chosen to focus on stress relieving activities, committing those six or so daily errors in judgment that we discussed in the last issue instead of practicing those six or so goal achieving activities?

Focus is keeping track of your time and activities

In order to get to the Olympic Games the athlete knows that he or she must work out everyday. They have made that commitment and they have a tool that helps them to determine and track what is that they need to do and when it should be done. It is called a training program and it tells them exactly what it is that they need to do, whether it is general conditioning work, weight training, running doing or what have you. Not only does it tell them what to do but it helps them keep track of their progress towards their goals and focused on the commitment they have made to achieve them.The successful person has a habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do. Although they don’t necessary like doing them either because they are disciplined they do them any way. When we are focused we become quite adept at managing ourselves, prioritizing our tasks so that in the end we are truly pursuing goal achieving activities.

In the Olympics of life, you have many tools available today, ranging from computers to palm pilots, to daily planners to a simple sheet of paper. Whichever one you chose it will be of no use to you unless you write your training program…your list of things to do in it. As I have heard it said, “Never start the day until it’s done.” In other words plan your day the night before. Ideally plan your schedule at least a week in advance and like the athlete who measures his or her progress by how fast they run jump or throw, track and measure your progress based on the number of goals achieving things you are able to accomplish each week.

Focus is keeping track of your thoughts

As important as it is to focus on our actions, it is even more important to focus on our thoughts. A wise man once said thoughts are things and we tend to become that which we think about all day long. Psychologists have determined that the average person thinks between 20K and 60K thoughts everyday and each and every one of them either move us towards or away from our goals. Thomas Fuller(1710-790) an African slave and mathematician was quoted as saying “A strong will, a settled purpose and an invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the distinction between great men and little men.” When you allow yourself to focus on those kinds of thoughts, you start to act in a more empowering way and thus enjoy more positive results

As Norman Vincent Peal said “more gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has ever been taken from the earth”. Make a commitment from this point forward to take frequent inventory of your thoughts and Since you tend to move towards your dominant thoughts make it a habit to only think of the things that you want instead of thinking of the things you do not want.

Over the next few weeks improve your level of discipline by becoming more focused. Next issue we will discuss the final aspect of discipline-ATTITUDE.

Keep On Pushing!

Copyright (C) 2005 Devon Harris

All rights reserved worldwide

www.devonharrislive.com

The contents of this E-zine may be copied, reproduced, or freely distributed for all nonprofit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author’s name, copyright notice, and contact information are included.

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Self-Motivation Through Music When Feeling Burned Out

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Often life takes turns we are not prepared for and our motivation takes a big hit. This can an event impacting our personal life or a situation at work that makes us feel miserable and takes away our motivation. Staying motivated in such situations is important to avoid burnout syndrome or depression. But how do people stay motivated and continue to look forward when all around them seems to turn dark?

Music can have very positive influence to people – especially when feeling down. Me personally I am able to get a lot of motivational power from music and I consider this possible for almost everyone else, too. What do you need to look for when trying to get motivational energy from music? Different personalities require different type of music. In general I recommend staying away from any slow or depressing when feeling down. Nothing is worse than to listen to your favorite love song when you just broke up with someone you really loved.

Songs should be inspiring and eventually have a meaning and some real lyrics. Reading song lyrics while playing the song is a good approach as the words from the singer’s voice and from reading get combined. What else is important? The song should be sounding happy and motivating from begin with. A classic example is Van Morrison’s “Brown eyed Girl”. The sound of Van Morrison’s voice, the rhythm

and the lyrics do sound extremely happy and motivating. If this song is played with the right volume it is almost impossible to sit still and cry. The song just wants you to get up and dance. Other very motivating songs are Bruce Springsteen’s “Cadillac Ranch” or “Raise your Hand” – both songs should preferable be played from his live album collection. ACDC’s “You shook me all night long” is also a rocking invitation to let go of those dark feelings – followed by “Twist and Shout” – the old Beatles song. All these songs should be played with enough volume to give those dark thoughts no chance. The rhythm and energy that these songs represent should help you to blow away depression for a while and to collect necessary energy to look up again.

I find it very useful to have a collection of motivating and inspiring songs at hand at all times. Burning those favorite songs to a single CD might be a good idea as it comes in handy quick when in need of some motivation. A ready to go song play list on your favorite MP3 player can also be a good idea.

About the Author

Christoph Puetz is a successful entrepreneur and international book author. Christoph lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. His small business blog can be found at The Web Hosting Report.

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A NEW View Of You: Stop Denying Your Truth And Start Doing What You Know You Must!

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

“Oh, uhh, this outfit I bought a few weeks ago feels very tight ‘all of the sudden’; it’s nothing–probably just some temporary bloating.”

“Oh — I’ll just wear a little larger size for a while, in darker colors, and accessorize so it’s as if no one will notice, and I’ll look as I always have. Gee, ya know, even the mirror is deceiving me lately. Hey, it’s alright, I’m still the way I’ve always been, and this weight increase is a temporary thing…yeah?it’s just a temporary thing.”

Well, well, well…let’s see here. Let’s have you choose one from the following “what I’m really doing” factors regarding the above person’s state of mind.

A.) She really is just going through a temporary weight increase, that will, of course, miraculously reverse itself.

B.) She sees a change in her outer self, but because she still sees her inner self in a positive, sparkling way, the inner will “automatically” rectify the outer.

C.) She’s denying she’s gotten fat, and is using every possible justification/ rationalization in the book to avoid having to accept and deal with the now of her life.

C. you say. Hey–you’re right!

Look, you can either put

on rose colored glasses and see only what you want to see. Or, you can choose to look through the eyes of truth and see truly what is.

Don’t beat yourself up because you’ve slipped. No–acknowledge it, determine to do something about it, and then do it — until you’ve accomplished the change and/or improvement you’ve set out to.

Remember, you’re not an ostrich who can just stick your head in the sand and play make believe. You’re a capable, creative, intelligent person who can literally strengthen her self respect and self esteem through being honest with yourself, and then taking targeted measures to either re-establish or recreate the context you want.

It’s always your choice; you can either window dress, sugar coat or deny. Or, you can say “OK, here’s my truth,” and then learn how wonderful you are through acting to change or improve.

The former choice will ensure fear, ignorance and despair continue administering their self debasing, indeed, self constricting hold upon you. The latter choice will ensure you find parts of yourself you never before knew. Yes, parts which will serve to enrich and empower you immeasurably!

Author, clinician, and national TV therapist, Pete Siegel is America’s foremost peak performance hypnotherapist. Go ahead now and review his highly acclaimed confidence building and life changing success programs at http://www.incrediblechange.com

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Discipline – Part I

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

We know that without a clearly defined goal we stand little chance of succeeding. However having well defined goals is only the starting point on our long journey to success. Intelligence, talent, good communication skills, a supportive team, the ability to persist are a few of the other essential tools that we will need along he way.

However, we take a detailed inventory of these attributes, few of us could deny that we possess them in sufficient amounts and yet somehow we have found ourselves nowhere near where we want to be in our lives. Discipline it would seem is the missing component that dogs us every step of the way. They say that if you could kick the person responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for weeks. Personally, I know that to be a fact. The lack of discipline, the inability to work methodically and steadily toward a desired outcome until it is realized has proven to be the downfall of many would be super successful person. Complemented by the right mix of talent and skills developed over time, discipline is undoubtedly the master key to success

Although discipline plays such a key role in achieving worthwhile and complex goals in both our personal and professional lives it is a tough thing for us as human beings because it is not an innate characteristic but rather something we must work on daily. The lack of discipline has relegated even the most talented and ambitious of us into wannna be’s and could have been’s.

As Theodore Roosevelt aptly puts it; ”The one quality which sets one apart from another-the key which lifts one to every aspiration while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity-is not talent, formal education, nor intellectual brightness; it is self discipline. With discipline all things are possible. Without it, even the simplest goal can seem like the impossible dream”

Over the next few weeks I will spend some time discussing what I consider to be the key aspects of discipline, namely, commitment, focus and a positive attitude. My goal is that by the end of the series, you would have gained some insight into how you can be more disciplined and more importantly apply them so that you can be more effective in the pursuit of your goals.

Maybe because as we grew up we were often “disciplined” by our parents and teachers subconsciously we associate discipline with punishment, lack, denial and self-sacrifice.

The truth is that being disciplined does not confine a person to a life void of fun, continuous self-punishment and never ending sacrifice. And while I agree that we must forgo the immediate pleasure in pursuit of the long-term aim the sacrifices pale considerably to the experience of joy, sense of accomplishment and elation that flows from achieving a worthy goal. Have you ever noticed the smiles on the face

of the athletes as they marching the opening ceremony or the college grad walking across the stage to receive her diploma? It is one of sheer exhilaration.

The undisciplined, on the other hand, lose sight of the intended prize and quickly rack up a litany of pleasures but little else. They are the first to accuse those who succeeded because they were disciplined as being lucky. Little do they know that had they exhibited some restraint in a few key areas they would have been just as lucky.

Here are a few more rewards from bring disciplined

Higher productivity

The good news is that we all have to the potential to succeed at whatever we chose to do. The bad news is that the rewards in life do not come from potential; it comes from performance and peak performance comes from self-discipline.

Harvard business school conducted a study to determine the common characteristics of top performing sales-people and found that most salespeople can be top sellers if they are willing to study concentrate on and focus on their performance. The disciplined will always achieve more in everything they do as well as achieve a greater sense of satisfaction from getting the extraordinary done

Enhances reliability

Discipline and reliability are inextricably linked because the disciplined person focuses on the tasks and the deadlines and do everything in their power to ensure that they meet them. Simply put discipline people are reliable and as a result develop a reputation of reliability and credibility. It is the reliable employee that gets the promotion, the reliable sales person that eventually gets the order and the reliable businessperson that gets the contract.

Improved problem solving

People have a general tendency to avoid challenges until they fester and become worse. Partly because of a lack of discipline we arrive at a superficial solution in odder to save time and energy. The disciplined person will invariably focus on the problem, spending the necessary time and energy to make find a solution.

Additionally, it is important to note that every opportunity comes with challenges. Some people see these stepping-stones to their goals not as challenges but as problems. The disciplined person will work through these challenges with a positive attitude, eventually becoming comfortable with the challenges that inevitably lie in the way of us achieving our goals, The undisciplined engages in what I call stinking thinking. Their negative attitude causes them to shut out the opportunities because all they can see are problems that are too daunting to surmount.

Start today. Evaluate your level of discipline and get ready to reach higher levels of effectiveness and bigger and bigger goals faster.

Keep ON Pushing!!

Copyright (C) 2005 Devon Harris

All rights reserved worldwide

www.devonharrislive.com

The contents of this E-zine may be copied, reproduced, or freely distributed for all nonprofit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author’s name, copyright notice, and contact information are included.

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Motivate Your Team To Top Performance

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

For many years in the mid 20th century, it was believed that the key to improving the contributions of workers was motivation. Motivating people – what you need to do to get others to do what you want – became the holy grail of management.

The motivational psychologist, Victor Vroom, studied 500 companies in search of one universal theory of motivation. But to no avail. Nobody, it seems, knows precisely what motivates people and what doesn’t. Nevertheless, much of our management of people relies on motivational techniques of one sort or another. Here are the top 7 in use today.

1. Carrot And Stick. The most basic form of human motivation is pleasure and pain. We seek those courses of action that we believe will result in pleasure and avoid those that we believe will end in pain.

This simple instinctive theory suggests why many average performers dislike the thought of change. They believe it will be uncomfortable, require too much effort and involve painful self-awareness.

The “carrot and stick” is the practical application of the instinctive theory of pleasure and pain. In these cases, we are offered the prospect of something pleasurable as a carrot (money, praise, kind words, a happy workplace, security…) and the prospect of something painful as a stick (loss of money, loss of job, bad feelings, unhappiness, a dismal cv, a poor reference…)

2. Money. F.W. Taylor and the early management theorists were in no doubt that money was the only true motivator. Their simple management theories were built around the concept that, to get a person to perform and continue to perform, you only needed to pay him enough. Taylor proved this by showing how people responded to incentive schemes.

But money is not a simple motivator. Its motivational effects may last only a short time and when it is given disproportionately and unfairly or in place of things people would rather have, it may even act as a disincentive.

3. Recognition. Recognition and non-recognition are the emotional equivalents of the carrot and the stick: recognition of ourselves and our work makes us feel good; non-recognition and being taken for granted makes us feel bad.

While seeking their own theory of motivation, a team of psychologists led by Elton Mayo carried out a series of experiments at the GEC Hawthorne plant in Chicago in the 1930′s.

In one renowned study, they experimented with different levels of lighting. To their amazement, productivity went up when conditions deteriorated. The experimenters concluded that it was their own presence and the recognition given by them to the workers that made all the difference to how well people worked.

4. Meeting Our Needs. Needs motivation theory argues that we are more motivated by what we don’t yet have and need, than what we do have and no longer need. This is the motivation that drives both rich and poor to work: the rich, perhaps, to

meet a need for achievement, the poor to meet a need to survive.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow identified five recurring and ever-present needs that motivate us…

the need for basic requirements such as money and what money can buy

the need for security, both psychological and real

the need for social contact

the need for recognition from others

the need for self-fulfilment.

5. Goal Motivation. Research shows that goals which are clear, specific and reachable produce a higher level of motivation than goals which are vague, unspecific and out of reach. Desired goals that are just outside our reach have an almost magnetic effect on us. Research by Leavitt and Mueller found that when a group was given specific goals, 62% of the targets were met as against only 27% when the goals were not specified. Motivational goals need to be more than specific: they should also be ones that people feel strongly about, should be worthwhile and should fit in with other things that the person wants.

6. Meaningfulness. When people see little or no connection between what they do and why they are doing it, there is usually a low level of motivation. People are merely going through the motions. This can happen when there is distance between the producers and consumers. Bridging the gap through information, education and feedback can turn meaninglessness into meaningfulness. Wyatt describes how during the Second World War the output of British armament factories rose by three times after the factory workers met and spoke to the air crews who were to use their products.

7. Personal Motivators. Personal motivators are those things that fire up individuals and are always more powerful than using standard motivators, such as money and status. Good managers recognise the value of finding out the things people want to do because they want to do them. Here are the top 9 things that people will do without too much effort on your part:

the chance to excel at something

the chance to work with others

the chance to do something high-profile

the chance to be creative

the chance to do research

the chance to serve others

the chance to do new and exciting things

the chance to take charge

the chance to do things in our own way.

“The more I want to do something, the less I call it work.” (Richard Bach)

While there is no single, simple theory of motivation that works in every case with everybody, you can still use these 7 theories as the basis of working with different members of your team and produce the productivity results – and more – that your team are capable of.

© Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com

For instant solutions to all your management training needs, visit ManageTrainLearn and download amazing FREE training software. And while you’re there, make sure you try out our prize quiz, get your surprise bonus gift, and subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter. Go and get the ManageTrainLearn experience now!

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Ten Techniques for Motivating Others Through Chaos

Friday, January 27th, 2012

The work environment has changed. Change has becomethe norm. Also the truth level of employees has decreased.This can lead to increased dissatisfaction and decreasedproductivity.

Here are ten techniques for motivating your employees tosucceed during chaos:

1. Take Care of the Little Things

Doing the little things well will show that your respect youremployees. Making sure you are on time for meetings,saying “good morning” and “thank-you,” and returningphone calls and e-mails in a timely manner goes a long wayto showing your employees that you care during chaotictimes.

2. Be an Active Listener

Recent research stated that the average supervisor ormanager only invests two hours per year applying “purelistening” skills. Pure listening is when you are listening toyour employee you are not:

* Multitasking

* Ordering your lunch

* Watching people walk by your office.

* Answering telephone calls

* Setting up appointments

To be a pure listener you must be an active listener. Goodmanagers do more than pay attention. They genuinely careabout people and never talk down to them. They ask theiremployees about their goals and dreams, their pastachievement, their concerns and challenges during thischaotic time. They listen with their hearts and minds. Theyrespect the employee’s thoughts and opinions. They realizethat the employees sometimes have the best answer forachieving more through chaos.

3. Walk your Talk

If you expect your employees to arrive early, then you arriveearly. If you expect your employees to keep their promises,you keep your promises. If you want your employees tokeep to high standards, you keep to high standards.Your employees are watching you even when you don’tthink they are watching you. So set the tone. Once youwalk through the doors of your organization make sure youare positive and upbeat if you expect your employees to bepositive and upbeat.

4. Let People Know They Make a Difference

At the top of many lists of what motivates employees, morethan money, is knowing that they make a difference at work.One of the most powerful methods of letting your employeesknow they make is difference is…praise (Go to articleAppreciate to Motivate to learn how). The praise shouldrelate to how the employee helps achieve the overall missionof the organization.

5. Communicate Clearly

Communicate so that others understand what you want toachieve. Adapt your communication to the audience you arespeaking. Constantly communicate your vision and goals sothat there are no misunderstandings. The clearer

the vision,the clearer the communication, the clearer the opportunity forsuccess.

6. Help Employees Succeed

People go to work to succeed, not fail. It is your job tounderstand your employee’s strengths and weaknesses sothat you can put them in the best position to succeed. If, forexample, you find out that an employee is lacking in a certainskill set to succeed during a change then provide thecoaching and training to make them and your organizationsuccessful. The best managers minimize or eliminate theiremployees weaknesses and while building on theirstrengths. Remove any and all barriers to success.

7. Focus Your Team on the Goal.

Focus your employees on the end result, the overall teamgoal. Once you successful communicate this your team willband together to defeat any obstacles that get in the way.

8. Create High Standards

High-performance organizations set high standards for theirpeople. Employees want to know what is expected of them,how their performance is measured, and what rewards theycan expect when they exceed the standard. Make sure thestandards are consistently applied to each employee. Makesure each employee understands how the standards aremeasured so that they know how to reach it. As eachplateau is reached, set new goals.

9. Help Your Employees Compete and Win

Develop goals that help all your employees excel. Makeyour goals inclusive not exclusive. This means thateverybody is working together and wins together. Have youremployees complete against the goal, not each other.

10. Reward Outstanding Achievement

Find ways to recognize your achievers in a public way. Themore you reward employees for excellent achievement, themore you receive more of the same behavior. Make sure youare consistent with the way you contribute rewards to youremployees. Very important, make use you communicateexactly why the employee is being rewarded. And last,reward as soon as possible to the action.

Some of the ways you can show recognition are:

* Idea board

* Initiative Board

* Star Spotlight

* Certificates

* Gift cards

* Say thank-you

* Lunch

Apply these techniques and you will achieve your goalsduring the most challenging of times.

Ed Sykes is a professional speaker, author, and successcoach in the areas of leadership, motivation, stressmanagement, customer service, and team building. You cane-mail him at mailto:esykes@thesykesgrp.com, or call him at(757) 427-7032. Go to his web site,http://www.thesykesgrp.com, and signup for the newsletter,OnPoint, and receive the free ebook, “Empowerment andStress Secrets for the Busy Professional.”

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How to Keep Your Dreams Alive

Friday, January 27th, 2012

How do we turn our dreams into reality? How do we step outside the circle of influence that constantly directs us? Our minds are so strongly influenced by our environment that it is easy to lose touch with our own passion.

The word “dreamer” and “visionary” are often used in a derogative way to describe people who are not in touch with the way things are.

Everyone is under a subtle pressure to conform to a limited consensual reality. For most people, it is easy to follow the path of least resistance and just work on surviving and dealing with the demands placed on you.

However, our passion, and our dreams, and our vision, is who we are, and when we refuse to give them the space to expand in our minds and hearts, something dies inside us.

The most important thing you can do is to keep your dream alive.

Here are some simple steps to take:

One, fully expand on your dream. Write it out in detail. You can make a list of what you want. You can write out your ideal scene. Or you can collect pictures and paste them up on a board.

Two, review your graphic representation of your dream every morning as soon as you wake up and every night just before you go to bed. This simple ritual makes a strong impression upon your subconscious mind, and activates it to start looking for ways to make your dream real.

Three, spend at least 15 minutes running a mental movie in your mind of what it would be like to actually be experiencing your dream.

Four, write up a simple plan. Even if you have no idea how to achieve your dream, begin with a simple step. If, for example, you wish to be a millionaire, but work in a dull job and have absolutely no idea how to make

more money…begin by reading a biography of a millionaire.

The importance of your first step is that you are telling your subconscious mind that you are serious. It will then give you a suggestion as to the next step to take after that one. Insights will come once you take a step. Begin the journey with your first step.

Five, create a daily ritual, in which you are taking a step forward. It might be reading inspiring material. It might be writing in your journal. It might be learning a new skill.

Again, you are reinforcing the power of your dream upon your own mind. You are saying, “This is what I want!”

Finally, refuse to partake in things that drain you…things that limit your dream, that make it seem unimportant. Set aside those habits that get in the way of your dream…whether the bad habits simple lower your self-esteem or fatigue or distract you, they must go.

Once you seize the courage to dream, the next step is to keep your dream alive. These five suggestions will then make your dream more vivid in your mind. Once this happens, you will start to have new insights and develop more and more ways to make your dream more and more possible.

In the beginning, most dreams appear to be impossible dreams, but once you engage the imagination, the will, and move forward with simple plans, you begin the journey towards actualizing your power in ways that you cannot presently even envision. The impossible slowly becomes possible. It does take courage and effort…but what could be more rewarding than moving in the direction of your fondest aspiration?

Saleem Rana is a psychotherapist in Denver, Colorado. If you would like to find out more ways to make your dreams come true, you can access his F.R.E.E. book here: http://theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html

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Why You Must Stay On Course

Friday, January 27th, 2012

I believe that all of us want to express something: an idea, a theory, an opinion or a statement. I also believe that the majority of human beings would love to be creative in the expression of these ideas, theories and statements. Creativity permeates in everything our mind does and is challenged to do. I am certain that if given the chance, most or all of us would love a career in the creative and entertainment industry because it is there where we can express ourselves in the most creative of ways.

Thus, there are many of us who are into art, acting, music, photography, modeling, writing, designing or crafts. We enjoy doing these for many unique combinations of reasons and it would be ideal if we could do it for a living for the rest of our lives. Why do we need to go to work every day, doing something we do not really like as opposed to something that we do enjoy?

So if one has something: a talent, an innate skill, or even simply years of knowledge and experience in one of the arts of expression, it would seem to be a waste if all of a sudden, that person decides to stop dreaming and hoping altogether.

At any point in time, an individual in the creative and entertainment industry can be categorized into one of the three groups described below:

1) Those who have given up on the idea: This group may have already conceded that being say, a rock star was just their teenage dream and that their hours of singing and songwriting had its purpose. However, for it to be a career now would already be too late: now that they are married or now that they have children, etc… etc. If we are not careful, we may stay in this phase for the rest of our lives and always wonder what might have been and perhaps even become bitter because of it without even knowing why.

2) Those who are still hopeful but are not doing anything about their goals presently but would like to get back to them later on: They are doing something else now, like selling, working in a call center, or maybe even managing a manufacturing plant, however they are not setting aside time, money and effort to their goal of being able to create music or take photographs for a living. They can always go back to it later, I suppose, ‘when there’s a bit more time’. Perhaps after they get married, after the first child, after the second child, after they get promoted or after they pay their debts, whatever their unique circumstances may be.

3) Those who are willing and able to allocate time, effort and money to progress their art and talents: The people in this group are doing something with their art and talents. They still believe in the idea that they can become who they want to be — that

life can be the way they once saw it, not withstanding all the years of ‘reality checks’ that ensued. They may have actually finished a painting, or have just sold one. They maybe strutting on a catwalk or maybe they are designing a client’s logo this very minute. Or perhaps, it could be something preparatory like preparing the first exhibit in their portfolio or reading a book to learn how to protect their copyright. Regardless of what the effort is, big or small, as long as they are taking active steps, a person will belong to this group.

In the first phase, we experience a very frustrating and demoralizing event in our ‘careers’. We cannot help but feel defeated when our work does not get the reaction we have hoped for or expected and perhaps we begin to believe that we are only fooling ourselves and that we should give up our foolish hopes and dreams.

However, doesn’t it turn out that eventually, you start taking action again (in the 3rd stage) after you have been brooding, perhaps even making tons of excuses for a while (in the 2nd stage)? You come to realize, time and time again, that no matter what, ‘it’ is still what you want to do regardless of what has happened in the past and what may happen or not happen in the future.

After years of experiencing this cycle, I have decided years ago that regardless of what I was doing, and regardless of whatever ‘career’ decisions I may have to make, it must be to advance or support my creative endeavors. It makes more sense because every time I have tried to suppress it, tried to ignore it and tried to pretend that the urge is not there, all I ended up doing was wasting my time. I have learnt to embrace my urge to express myself in creative ways and have accepted that it is part of me and the less time I spend defeated, the sooner I could get to work towards what really matters. Perhaps you can use something from my experience and if what you are experiencing is the same, hopefully you would not spend too much of your life thinking that your ‘passion’ is not really what you want to do. Because honestly, what would be better than doing things to make your life happen the way you dream it?

Marquez Comelab is the author of the book: The Part-Time Currency Trader. It is a guide for working men and women interested in trading currencies in the forex market. It explains everything you need to know to create your own trading methodology; touching on the basics and preparation before expanding onto the topics of market analysis, tools, trading systems, risk management strategies, discipline and psychology. See: http://marquezcomelab.com His other articles can also be found at http://thefreedomtochoose.com; along with other helpful trading, business, investing and self-improvement articles.

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