It’s the Labor Day long week-end for most people in Canada and United States so if today is a day-off than…
WHY do they call it “Labor” Day???
I’m not doing much work today so this is all I got for you today…
Have a great long week-end!
“A good goal is like a strenuous exercise – it makes you stretch.”
~ Mary Kay Ash, cosmetics pioneer ~
How realistic is the concept that we will achieve our wildest financial goals and dreams by being comfortable, doing only what we already are good at and only doing what we want to when we want to do it?
Uhhh… yup… not very realistic is it?
If you want your goals met badly enough you will more than likely need to stretch to reach them. This means learning, growing and taking a chance here or there.
Often a little stretch on a regular basis is sufficient as a little bit everyday adds up to a whole bunch over a lifetime.
Don’t pull a muscle but where would be a good place to start stretching today?
“You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and
build your wings on the way down.”
~ Ray Bradbury: American author ~
With the pace of today’s society and technology if you aren’t moving forward then you’re falling behind.
If you want to achieve your life’s financial goals and dreams you need to be continually learning, growing and “jumping of cliffs” to attain them.
These cliffs don’t need to be huge risks or do-or-die decisions necessarily, it can simply be reading a new book, taking a night course or challenging yourself to go to the next step in a particular area of your career or finances.
Go jump off a cliff…
Procrastination can be a great thing if you procrastinate the right things.
Where procrastination is a problem is when you put off the important things and spend your time doing the non-essentials.
However by simply flipping it around if you procrastinate doing the non-essentials and focus your efforts on the things that will help you achieve your goals and dreams than procrastination now becomes your friend.
What can you procrastinate on today to help you achieve greatness?
Wilma Rudolph, an Olympic runner said; “I believe in me more than anything in this world”
It’s hard to go wrong with the pursuit of your life’s goals and dreams with an attitude like this.
Believing in yourself and knowing yourself including your gifts, talents, abilities as well as your shortcomings and needs makes you a force to be reckoned with and one that won’t easily be swayed by outside influences.
Begin today to learn the power of believing in yourself.
“You must do the things today that others will not do so that you can have the things tomorrow that others will not have.”
~ Anonymous ~
Your actions (or lack thereof) today will dictate the way your tomorrows will look, so the more you put off the required actions necessary to accomplish your financial dreams and goals the more days you also delay enjoying them.
What will you do today to move you toward your dreams for tomorrow?
Edgar Howe and American author and editor said “Every successful man I have heard of has done the best he could with conditions as he found them, and not waited until the next year for better.”
Don’t you love those cheery, positive thinking posts I often do?
Me too…unfortunately this isn’t one of them.
Every now and again at the risk of losing the odd follower I need to talk about the more difficult things too if I want to truly say I am looking out for your best.
Brian Tracy uses something called the Efficiency Curve that helps you monitor how effective and efficient you are at accomplishing your most important tasks. The faster and more thoroughly you cross important things off the list the more successful, skilled and valuable you will be in your area of expertise.
In order to move down on the efficiency curve you need to implement the dreaded “Discipline” word.
The more you are able to discipline yourself to remain focused on a single task until it is complete the further down the curve you go
Every time you get distracted from completing your task you break your cycle and move back up the curve making your task more difficult and time consuming.
“The ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.” Elbert Hubbard
We can talk about natural ability, gift sets, mastery and other personal characteristics but without the skill of discipline to drive those qualities to your desired destination they will not do you much good.
Whether your goals/tasks are personal, business, career or otherwise related begin today practicing to be more disciplined in pursuing those goals than you were yesterday.
What is one important task you can discipline yourself to focus on and cross of your list today?
A good friend of mine sends out a thought of the day and today he sent me this…
Just as there are two teachers in life, so are there two pains.
Both can cause suffering, but one moves you forward while the other sets you back.
The two pains have names.
They are Discipline and Regret.
The pain of discipline costs far less than the pain of regret.
“It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action,
and discipline that enabled us to follow through” ~ Zig Ziglar ~
We all experience pain, disappointment and hardship but make sure you turn yours into Discipline and not let it become Regret…this alone will serve you well in achieving your life’s goals and dreams.
One of the most common reasons for stress in business today comes from feeling overwhelmed with too much to do and not enough time to do it in.
Since I haven’t figured out how to have more time in a given day the next best solution is to become more effective with the time we already have.
The best solution I have for this is becoming an expert on time management.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking you don’t have enough time to learn about time management or you already know all there is on the subject.
Picking up one simple tip you previously didn’t know could increase your productivity considerably for the rest of your life and the cost could be as little as a few hours to read a book or a few minutes to read an article on the internet.
There are 2 widely used keys to time management:
1. developing the ability to set priorities
2. master the skill of focusing solely on one priority at a time.
Always begin by working on your most important tasks first as they are the most valuable use of your all too precious time.
Make a goal to seek out some new information on being a time management expert this week and begin setting clear goals each day at work and discipline yourself to begin with the most important task first and continue with it until it is complete.
Doing these 2 small steps alone with relieve considerable stress from your work life and catapult you to more quickly achieving your goals and dreams.
