I read many books and listen to a lot of cds as part of my life long education. For years, I have embraced many of Jim Rohn’s teachings. One that has given me great clarity is his getting me to understand that we all must have a philosophy. You may call it something else, but I choose his word.
You cannot do this by yourself, you are not an island. Someone to help them stay grounded, ask the tough questions, not tell them what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. Someone to challenge them, encourage and support them. Someone to help with their education. Warren Buffet has them, Donald Trump has them, and the President has them. They might be called something else, but they serve the same function.
Until you are crystal clear on where you want to go, what you envision with your life, your business, your relationship, you will vacillate and achieve less than you are capable. We live in an incredible world and it is yours to enjoy.
You need to have targets to get where you are going. As Yogi Berra once said, if you don’t know where you are going you will probably end someplace else.
Once you have the goals you need to write down how you are going to achieve them? Long term, 5 year, 3 year, 1 year, Quarterly goals must be written. After all a plan is not a plan unless it is written. This plan includes the strategies on how you are going to achieve the goals and the steps you need to take.
I truly believe that whatever we focus on we achieve.
Darren Hardy wrote an excellent book (The Compound Effect) about this. Your life is a result of the choices you made and make as well as the disciplines/habits you have.
It works. I could go on for hours giving you examples. Read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.
The past is past. You can learn from History, however, you cannot change it. Today truly is the first day of the rest of your life.
I cannot control or do anything about what is going on in the Washington or the Middle East. I have my vote and use it wisely to elect who can best represent my interests and empower them with that vote. I avoid getting caught up in the sensationalist news media. I endeavor to focus on what I control. When I had Cancer eight years ago, a secretary asked me how I was able to come back to work as quickly as I did with the energy I displayed. I thought about it a minute and answered that I believe it was the positive attitude that I had. Yes, I would have my moments of despondency, who wouldn’t with 5 surgeries and 37 radiation treatments in a year. But I did not let it engulf me. I took one evening a night to get over it and move forward.
Education does not end with college, high school, trade school. Many industries require continuing education. Everyone needs to understand that to grow you need to seek out additional education in the form or a mentor/coach/consultant, classes, workshops, seminars, books, dvd, cds. As Jim Rohn has stated, where you will be in five years will be determined by the people you meet and the books you read.
If you say you are going to do something, do it. This one is not the easiest due to life, time, etc. But it does say a lot about a person. My brother, who is now retired, had one rule that he absolutely lived by, and that was that if he told someone he would call them today, he made sure he called them.
To have what I want, I need to do things that will produce/enable me to get the have. And to do this, I need to be the person that does these things.
Budgets make sense. You cannot just wing it like the government seems to be doing. Plan your sales, plan your expenses, plan your profits. Do not spend what you cannot not afford, unless you have a credit line (which is important) to handle emergencies and the deals of the century. Test things, processes, systems, strategies. Track the results. Measure the results. Analyze the results to determine what is working and what is not.
Where are you on the accountability scale? Are you unaware and unconscious, waiting and hoping it gets better, blaming others, coming up with excuses, or denying? Or are you acknowledging the situation and taking action, taking responsibility, being accountable, owning it. I discovered many, many years ago that the best posture is to own it. It defuses the situation and then you can get on and productively move forward to find a solution.
It is imperative that you strive to finish today's work today and not carry it over until tomorrow. Many tasks, assignments, to-dos take longer than a day. Life happens and gets in the way of finishing. However, the goal is to plan effectively, avoid distractions, plan for emergencies and endeavor to finish it and then it is off your plate. Writing a plan for tomorrow, today will help you hit the ground running and make tomorrow more productive
Life is too short to not enjoy your work and have fun with it. Yes, there are parts of the "job", "business" that are necessary that I may not enjoy - that is what is leveraged and/or handled as quickly as possible. Follow the concept of Eat the Frog. It is critically important to have fun. If you are not having fun at with your work, why do it? Plus if you are not having fun, you are probably not doing it right. Do not take yourself too seriously. Yes be serious about results, but have fun.
