People live in the present, the future and the past. Living in the present focuses energy on current tasks and enjoyment of the moment. Focusing on the task at hand always proves far more effective. Flitting around from one thing to another seldom accomplishes anything. Use the “one touch” policy. Pick a task and complete it before moving on to another task. Picking things up and putting them down over and over wastes time and energy. The “pick it up and put it down” method consumes all of your time without any accomplishment.
With your bills either pay them as soon as they come in the mail or put them in a folder out of sight and pay at the end of the week or on pay day. Avoid all unnecessary distractions. Bills staring you in the face all the time you are attempting to work only distracts you. Distractions do not make money for you or accomplish tasks. Distractions simply waste time.
Focus on the job at hand and complete it. Stay in the present.
Other folks live in the future. They are members of the “what if” and “when” club. Daydreaming and wistful thinking about the future does not accomplish anything in the present. Plan for the future, absolutely, but live in the present. Write out your goals of exactly what you choose to accomplish by what date. Be very specific. Be SMART about your goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Write them out for one day, one week, one month, three months, six months, a year, five years, and ten years. Post them where they are highly visible. Check your progress to be certain you are staying on track to accomplish each step in your success goal.
Live in the present and plan for the future. Only by working diligently in the present will you reach your future goals. Daydreaming about the future without working in the present to bring those dreams into reality is foolhardy. Visualize your goals as already completed in your meditation time. Once meditation time concludes, get busy bringing those goals and plans into existence. Dreaming alone does not achieve goals. Action achieves goals. The dream and the plan to reach the goal simply direct your present action.
One of the worst things you can do involves living in the past. Living in the past frequently involves regret, blame and feeling sorry for yourself. None of these are productive.
In John C. Maxwell’s book Failing Forward, John speaks about turning mistakes into stepping stones for success. Learning from the past is wise. Living in the past is mentally, emotionally and financially destructive.
Some signs of living in the past:
1. Comparing how much harder it was for you than it is for others.
2. Justifying why you have a right to hold on to past problems.
3. Withdrawing from life as a form of self protection.
4. Regret over past mistakes drains the very life out of you.
5. Living in the pain of the past and becoming bitter against life.
“I booked my reservation of Wish I Had airlines. I didn’t check my bags—everyone carries their baggage on this airline—and had to drag it for what seemed miles in the Regret City airport. And I could see that people from all over the world were there with me, limping along under the weight of bags they had packed themselves.”
I caught a cab to Last Resort Hotel where they held the Annual Pity Party. The guest list included the Done family – Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda; Missed and Lost Opportunities; Shattered Dreams and Broken Promises; Don’t Blame Me and Couldn’t Help It as well as the entire Yesterday group. Hours and hours of entertainment by It’s Their Fault. (Paraphrased from John C, Maxwell.)
Living in the past not only destroys your present but also your future. Even worse, it destroys the present and future of everyone who cares about you.
Plan for the future but live in the present. You will be happier, more productive and much better company for those whose lives you touch.
For more inspiration and insight, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.
Showing posts with label failing forward. Show all posts
Showing posts with label failing forward. Show all posts
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Motivation to Succeed
Football stimulates many emotions. Fans maintain almost fanatical loyalty. As evidenced by the massive team jerseys, bumper stickers, and ever imaginable item in the team colors or team logo sold on a daily basis. Game day in Denver seems to turn orange and blue. I even knew a man who was so an avid fan that he decorated his Christmas tree in the team colors.
Football teaches teamwork, sportsmanship (hopefully) and strategic planning. Another unexpected motivation appeared in the story of a college quarterback. I applaud his initiative both before and after the play.
The two minute warning had recently been issued indicating that the game was nearing completion. Before the team returned to the field to take possession of the ball, the coach instructed the quarterback to “play it safe.” His team led the scoring by 6 points. Being conservative at this point in the game with possession of the ball should result in a victory. This particular quarterback possessed an excellent throwing arm but he was not known for his speed on the field.
Being an innovative and daring young man, this quarterback took charge of the pre-play huddle with the statement, “The other team expects us to be conservative and so does coach. Let’s surprise both of them and add one more score. Billy, you go long and I’m going to throw a pass to you. We’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”
The quarterback indeed threw a long pass. When the quarterback dropped back and launched the ball into the air, the opposing cornerback (a champion sprinter) sprung into motion. The cornerback intercepted the pass and raced for the end zone. The quarterback immediately raced after the cornerback and tackled him on the five yard line as the clock ticked to a close. After the game the losing coach spoke to the winning coach, “I thought you said your quarterback was not a runner. He just ran down my best sprinter.” The winning coach grinned and said, “Your cornerback was running for 6 points, but my quarterback was running for his life.”
Motivation comes in many forms.
Are you highly talented and running for six points or less talented but extremely motivated?
Motivation plays a major role in every decision we make. When the stakes are high, we take more risks. Playing it safe in life and business yields very small results. In “Failing Forward” by John C. Maxwell, he wrote,” Risk must be evaluated not by the fear it generates in you or the probability of your success, but by the value of the goal.” The quarterback of the winning team placed a very high value on the goal of catching the opposing sprinter.
How badly do you desire to change your life? How important is it to you to achieve financial freedom for yourself and your family? What value do you place on your internal feeling of security and accomplishment? Most of us place an extremely high value on the well being of our family. We say we want the best for our family. We give lip service to being a great provider, not just getting by but really providing for our loved ones.
How motivated are you to put those feelings into action? When are you ready and willing to bring those words to reality? Sometimes being able to bring those feeling into reality becomes more a matter of excuses than reasons.
Motivation is the key. How motivated are you to make success a reality for you?
When do you plan to start?
For more thoughts and articles to improve your life, visit me at Elaine4Success.com.
Football teaches teamwork, sportsmanship (hopefully) and strategic planning. Another unexpected motivation appeared in the story of a college quarterback. I applaud his initiative both before and after the play.
The two minute warning had recently been issued indicating that the game was nearing completion. Before the team returned to the field to take possession of the ball, the coach instructed the quarterback to “play it safe.” His team led the scoring by 6 points. Being conservative at this point in the game with possession of the ball should result in a victory. This particular quarterback possessed an excellent throwing arm but he was not known for his speed on the field.
Being an innovative and daring young man, this quarterback took charge of the pre-play huddle with the statement, “The other team expects us to be conservative and so does coach. Let’s surprise both of them and add one more score. Billy, you go long and I’m going to throw a pass to you. We’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”
The quarterback indeed threw a long pass. When the quarterback dropped back and launched the ball into the air, the opposing cornerback (a champion sprinter) sprung into motion. The cornerback intercepted the pass and raced for the end zone. The quarterback immediately raced after the cornerback and tackled him on the five yard line as the clock ticked to a close. After the game the losing coach spoke to the winning coach, “I thought you said your quarterback was not a runner. He just ran down my best sprinter.” The winning coach grinned and said, “Your cornerback was running for 6 points, but my quarterback was running for his life.”
Motivation comes in many forms.
Are you highly talented and running for six points or less talented but extremely motivated?
Motivation plays a major role in every decision we make. When the stakes are high, we take more risks. Playing it safe in life and business yields very small results. In “Failing Forward” by John C. Maxwell, he wrote,” Risk must be evaluated not by the fear it generates in you or the probability of your success, but by the value of the goal.” The quarterback of the winning team placed a very high value on the goal of catching the opposing sprinter.
How badly do you desire to change your life? How important is it to you to achieve financial freedom for yourself and your family? What value do you place on your internal feeling of security and accomplishment? Most of us place an extremely high value on the well being of our family. We say we want the best for our family. We give lip service to being a great provider, not just getting by but really providing for our loved ones.
How motivated are you to put those feelings into action? When are you ready and willing to bring those words to reality? Sometimes being able to bring those feeling into reality becomes more a matter of excuses than reasons.
Motivation is the key. How motivated are you to make success a reality for you?
When do you plan to start?
For more thoughts and articles to improve your life, visit me at Elaine4Success.com.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Success is Failing Forward
In John C. Maxwell’s book “Failing Forward” he dispels the myth that failure is a bad thing. The man who has never made a mistake is taking orders from the one who made several mistakes. Sometimes what appears to be a failure at the moment is simply success trying to be born in a bigger and better way. When I have failed, and yes I have many failures, it generally meant that I was not thinking big enough. I simply needed to tweak my thinking and action.
There is the story of a man who made a fortune in oil by going back to wells others had abandoned and drilling just a little deeper. There is the story of a man who stopped just three feet short of one of the biggest gold mines ever discovered. Edison, one of the world’s greatest inventors, successfully identified 10,000 ways that the electric light bulb would NOT work before he discovered the one that did work.
Major league baseball players expect to be out every two out of three or three out of four times at bat. Pro football quarterbacks know that some passes will be dropped or intercepted or even caught out of bounds, but they don’t stop throwing. The pass that results in a first down or a touchdown makes up for the ones that were not successful.
In my own home based business I have reinvented my strategy many times. Not every Google campaign worked. Not every web page design attracted leads. Not every print ad resulted in sales. Did I stop marketing and give up? Absolutely not. When my pay per click campaigns with Google were costing more than the sales they were generating, did I say Google does not work? Of course not. I decided to change my landing page, change my ad or change my keywords. Sometimes I changed all three. The secret there is to only change one at a time. Otherwise you will not know which change made the profitable difference.
When Google changed their rules, and they do change their rules ever four to six weeks, I added article writing to my marketing arsenal.
I am a hiker. Sometimes when I am making a long climb and my legs are complaining, do I turn around and quit? No because I know I am closer to the top than I think. We have a winding road in Steamboat which we lovingly call the “run of the false summit.” Every time we come around a corner, we think this must be the top. Unfortunately, there is another switchback and then another before the top. It is not a point to stop, but a reminder to keep pushing forward just a little longer.
Remember, whether you are an inventor, a major league ball player, a hiker, a runner, or a marketer, one monumental success makes up for several temporary setbacks. The key is always to learn from your failures. When you use mistakes or failures as learning and growing experience rather than a defeat, you actually progress forward.
Notice I said learn from each temporary setback. When you view them as learning experiences on your way to small successes, and even greater success, the temporary defeat does not faze you. Or at least not for long. When you view every experience as a learning experience, it becomes a college classroom on life. When you view a failure as a failure, it becomes a failure.
Sports, business and even our personal life presents us with challenges. Some of those challenges become victories and some become learning experiences. It all depends on your attitude and how you view your present and your future.
My college professor told me something I have never forgotten. Even though that was 40 years ago, the message is still valid today. “You can have ten years experience or one year’s experience ten times.” Use every situation as a learning experience and you will have ten years experience.
The attitude of a winner, the attitude of a professional, is to continually learn and grow. Developing a learning mindset rather than a failure mindset will propel you through life in an upward spiral toward success. Any other choice but learning and growing and you will defeat yourself. Do an attitude check on yourself right now. Are you failing forward toward success?
Come visit me at Elaine4Success.com and together we will propel you toward success.
There is the story of a man who made a fortune in oil by going back to wells others had abandoned and drilling just a little deeper. There is the story of a man who stopped just three feet short of one of the biggest gold mines ever discovered. Edison, one of the world’s greatest inventors, successfully identified 10,000 ways that the electric light bulb would NOT work before he discovered the one that did work.
Major league baseball players expect to be out every two out of three or three out of four times at bat. Pro football quarterbacks know that some passes will be dropped or intercepted or even caught out of bounds, but they don’t stop throwing. The pass that results in a first down or a touchdown makes up for the ones that were not successful.
In my own home based business I have reinvented my strategy many times. Not every Google campaign worked. Not every web page design attracted leads. Not every print ad resulted in sales. Did I stop marketing and give up? Absolutely not. When my pay per click campaigns with Google were costing more than the sales they were generating, did I say Google does not work? Of course not. I decided to change my landing page, change my ad or change my keywords. Sometimes I changed all three. The secret there is to only change one at a time. Otherwise you will not know which change made the profitable difference.
When Google changed their rules, and they do change their rules ever four to six weeks, I added article writing to my marketing arsenal.
I am a hiker. Sometimes when I am making a long climb and my legs are complaining, do I turn around and quit? No because I know I am closer to the top than I think. We have a winding road in Steamboat which we lovingly call the “run of the false summit.” Every time we come around a corner, we think this must be the top. Unfortunately, there is another switchback and then another before the top. It is not a point to stop, but a reminder to keep pushing forward just a little longer.
Remember, whether you are an inventor, a major league ball player, a hiker, a runner, or a marketer, one monumental success makes up for several temporary setbacks. The key is always to learn from your failures. When you use mistakes or failures as learning and growing experience rather than a defeat, you actually progress forward.
Notice I said learn from each temporary setback. When you view them as learning experiences on your way to small successes, and even greater success, the temporary defeat does not faze you. Or at least not for long. When you view every experience as a learning experience, it becomes a college classroom on life. When you view a failure as a failure, it becomes a failure.
Sports, business and even our personal life presents us with challenges. Some of those challenges become victories and some become learning experiences. It all depends on your attitude and how you view your present and your future.
My college professor told me something I have never forgotten. Even though that was 40 years ago, the message is still valid today. “You can have ten years experience or one year’s experience ten times.” Use every situation as a learning experience and you will have ten years experience.
The attitude of a winner, the attitude of a professional, is to continually learn and grow. Developing a learning mindset rather than a failure mindset will propel you through life in an upward spiral toward success. Any other choice but learning and growing and you will defeat yourself. Do an attitude check on yourself right now. Are you failing forward toward success?
Come visit me at Elaine4Success.com and together we will propel you toward success.
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