When Life is Spiraling Out of Control

With the economy, the pressures of daily life and the impending holiday season, control teeters on a delicate balance. Demands for our time and energy press inward from all sides.
Stop! Breathe! Relax your shoulders! Calm the swarm of butterflies in your system! Right now is the time to collect your thoughts and set up priorities. One of the age-old examples is a jar of rocks. Sort your “to do” list into three sections: major and urgent tasks, major but not urgent tasks and minor duties. The major and urgent tasks are the largest rocks. The major but not urgent tasks are the pebbles and the grains of fine sand are the minor duties.
If you fill your jar with the fine sand first, all of your time will be consumed with minor tasks. You will not have any time available for major and urgent activities. It is easy to become distracted with minor personal emails and little daily interruptions. When you allow your mind to wander rather than focusing on the task at hand, you are filling your time jar with fine sand. Spending time with minor distractions consumes all of your time and accomplishes nothing to move your business or your life forward.
Schedule your time in manageable blocks. One hour blocks work the best for me for the major activities. For instance every business everywhere requires marketing. Without marketing, you do not have customers and without customers, you do not have a business. This rule holds true from major corporations to franchises to home based businesses. Marketing is a major activity for all businesses. Schedule time to work on lead generation. Whether you choose to use online marketing, print media, social network marketing or recruiting friends and family, you must perform marketing. Marketing represents the biggest rock in the jar. Without leads you do not have customers and without customers, you do not have a business.
Another major rock is mindset. Developing a mindset for success is imperative. Remember “The Little Engine That Could?” That was a book from my childhood. The little engine kept saying “I Think I Can.” Believing that you will be successful and visualizing that you already are successful is so important. Dr. Wayne Dyer talks about seeing it from the end. See your success in all of its glory as already achieved. Experience that success with all five senses. Know it, feel it and believe it. When your mind totally accepts the success as a reality, the subconscious mind goes to work on making it happen.
When you place top priority on placing the big rocks, the major activities, in the time jar first and blocking time for their accomplishment, you are more likely to complete those duties. Naming the big rocks and blocking time for them is still not enough. You absolutely must focus totally and completely on those tasks during their time slot and finish them. Making the decision alone is not sufficient.
There were 5 seagulls on a dock. Two decided to fly away. How many were still sitting on the dock? All five. Making the decision did nothing until they took action on the decision.
Name your priorities, allot time to each one, focus on task completion and finish the job.
Once the major rocks are in the jar, then add the major but not urgent tasks. Follow exactly the same method. Decide what must be done, set aside the time to do them, focus on the completion and do the necessary task.
There will always be time in the day to pour in the fine sand of minor details. No need for guilt when you have already completed all of the big rocks and then the medium size rocks and pebbles.
Life is all about priorities.

Head Games

Sometimes we unintentionally get in our own way of success. We allow the “monkey chatter” to instill doubts and hesitation. Our friends, family and co-workers add to that monkey chatter weakening our resolve to succeed.

I love my family dearly; however, they are not always on exactly the same success track as I have laid out for myself. For some strange reason because I have been successful in the past and I am 65, they seem to think I should retire and stay retired. Personally, I love stimulating conversations and new ventures to entice my mind to grow. The rocking chair and mindless coffee club chit chat is totally unappealing to me.

Co-workers who are set in the employee mindset simply do not understand that drive deep in your soul to create and grow your own business. If they are stuck in the “a job means security and a regular paycheck’ mentality, they resist stepping out of that comfort zone. Paul Zane Pilzer, economic adviser to 2 presidents declares that having a job is far more risk, especially in the current economy, than owning your own business. This is the age and time of the entrepreneur. More fortune 500 companies started during an economic downturn than at any other time in history. A job is risky. You have no control over how long it will exist or your future income.

Jim Rohn, noted business philosopher, reminds us that in order for things to change, we must change. In order for us to receive more, we must become more. Is that always easy, absolutely not. Is it worth the nervous butterflies right now in order to achieve your goals for the future? Speaking from personal experience – absolutely YES. I am psychologically unemployable. I am an entrepreneur. I seriously tried to be a good employee several times in my life and found that I was pushing at the corners and stretching the walls of the box that employment placed around me. I do not belong in a cubicle. I do not thrive in an atmosphere where I am being told what to do and when to do it. Do you relate to that feeling?

Entrepreneurs have a different mindset than employees. We just do. That is not a bad thing. In fact, that exact mindset is what created America in the first place. Our forefathers came to this country to remove themselves from control and build their businesses. When they did not get the freedom they wanted, they rebelled. That very act of standing up for their creative entrepreneurial desires created a great country and freedom for all of us.

Listen to your feelings and your instincts and dare to create the life you deserve. Jim Rohn, also said there are people you can spend an hour with, but not a day or a day but not a week. Respect your family, friends and co-workers but follow your heart and passion. Get in touch with your deep desires for your future. Put a gag on the monkey chatter and refuse to listen to it. You deserve succe4ss. You deserve to have it all.

Life is to be lived, loved and enjoyed. Why condemn yourself to mediocrity when you can step out of your comfort zone and reach for the moon. If you miss the moon and hit the stars, you are still ahead of being stuck in a mud puddle where you are miserable.

My mission is to improve the lives of everyone I touch – personally, professionally and financially. Reach for your dreams. I did and I am. I love my life. My desire is that you love your life as well.