Business Advice: Be an agent of change

A man walks into a psychiatrist’s office.  “Doc, every time I see nickels, dimes, and quarters, I have a panic attack!  What can the problem be?

“Oh that’s easy” the doctor answers. “You’re just afraid of change”.

How many of us go through life virtually paralyzed because we are afraid of change, to try something new or different.

This fear keeps us from expanding our growth, knowledge, and success and limits our lot in life.

To break out of this cycle of fear we need to understand what fear really is.

Here’s two explanations of what fear really stands for;

False

Expectations

Appearing

Real

So how do we change or how can we be a change agent for others?

If someone is satisfied with their lives, will they change?  No, because they are satisfied.

If someone is unfit, overweight, or unhealthy, but they are satisfied with that, they are still unlikely to change.

Many of us have the ability to change the instant we become unhappy with our lives.

Others of us have to wait for a stroke or another disaster before we realize the need to change.

We see that there are two ends of the scale.  Some wait until the end and some change right at the beginning and some change just for the sake of change. Somewhere in there, there is a happy medium for you.

There is a simple formula that will allow us to understand the process of change and what we can do to affect positive changes in ourselves and in others.

(D x V) +FS > R

The “R” stands for resistance.  To overcome the resistance to change, what needs to be greater?  What can tip the scale to overcome our fear of change?  Let’s take a closer look.

The “D” in the formula stands for Dissatisfaction. Before you can change you have to have a level of dissatisfaction…

What builds dissatisfaction more than anything else?  “V” for Vision.

Let’s say that you are a kid living in an impoverished neighborhood. You don’t know any better life than that.  Are you dissatisfied with your life?  Not necessarily, you may be satisfied because you don’t know any better.

Why is it that when you are in business you need to consistently improve your business education?

Why do people hire a business coach or have a mentor, to help push them thru their comfort zone and to help them grow their vision.  They need help to look at what their next level is supposed to be.

Dissatisfaction takes a belief that there is something else out there.

One of the things I do as a business coach is to help my clients feel a level of dissatisfaction or discomfort, if they don’t do the work required to change.  Without a coach or a mentor you stay in your comfort zone because people don’t like feeling dissatisfied.  Dissatisfaction comes first but then we have to have vision and a belief that the vision is possible.

Those kids living in the impoverished neighborhoods can watch television and they can see other places in the world, but most have no belief that a different life is possible for them.  However, some do get a belief that it is possible.  Some of you reading this article are where you are today, because of the vision and the belief you had of a better life.  You believed it was possible.  That is why you have worked to make a better life for yourself.

My question is, how do we raise the dissatisfaction level for where you are now and how do we raise the vision of where you want to go?  Most of us are not experiencing change.

One of the fastest ways that I have found to raise people’s dissatisfaction is by having them write a check into their own investment accounts at the first of the month.  This check is from your business into your own investment or profit account.  An investment or profit account is an account that you can’t get direct access to.  If you take out $10,000, $5,000, $1,000 or even $100 a month, you then have little or no money left to pay the bills.

Is there going to be a level of dissatisfaction going on?  Absolutely!  How much harder are you going to work to pay off your creditor that calls you every day?  You have to create a vacuum that needs to be filled.  You have to start stretching yourself and expanding out of your comfort zones.

The next step of the equation is “FS” which stands for First Steps.

We have dissatisfaction, we’ve created a vision of what we want, but we don’t know how to start.

This is where a mentor or a coach can help.

Don’t look at eating the whole elephant all at once, just take it on one bite at a time.  Lee Iaacoca, states that the discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.  Take the time to write out your plan and break it into bite size chunks and get into Action.

By doing so, you will begin to break through the barriers in your life and stretch your comfort zone to reach a level of success you’ve only dreamed of.  Use this formula not only to help facilitate change in your life but to be an agent of change in the life of others.  Help them to understand and qualify their dissatisfaction, help them to build their vision what they want to achieve, and finally give them the first steps to move toward that goal.

By following this simple formula you can truly become an agent of change in your life as well as the life of others.

In business, it is always the little things that get the big results. Our Business Health Check will give you invaluable insights into the many areas of your business. By completing our Business Health Check, you will receive a Free Report based on your answers, prepared by our team of highly skilled Business Coaches.

CLICK HERE to take your Business Health Check

5 Tips to Turn Overwhelmed into Productivity

I was once talking to a business owner who had lost his focus in his business.  He would come to work day in and day out, doing the same thing day in and day out and not really get anywhere.  He confided in me that he always has this overwhelmed feeling and he felt that his business was lost in the fog and he did not where he was at and he actually forgot where he was going.

The feeling of being overwhelmed gave his life a sense of not being balance.

Does this sound like you and your business?  Don’t panic, you are not alone.   Here are a few ideas to get you back on track.

First.... Realize that it's almost impossible to achieve a work-life balance.  Your focus is always going to pull you more in one direction than the other.  You can't achieve balance but you can achieve  harmony between your work life and personal life.   Remember, you can't physically and mentally be in two places at the same time.  If you are at home don't mentally be at work and visa-versa. 

Second... Realize what is going on.  You can't fix a problem until you admit you have one.  Stop pretending that you have everything together because eventually something is going to pop.  Once you start getting that feeling of being overwhelmed try to identify the triggers.  Then you can begin to work on being in charge of your attitude instead of letting something or someone trigger that negative feeling.

Third...  Identify your overwhelming triggers.  When we get the overwhelmed feeling, it's like our mind and body's circuitry goes into overload.  If we think about it and look back we'll be able to identify specific things or events that trigger that feeling.  Once we identify what these stressors are we can begin to take control back.

Fourth...Call time out.  The overwhelmed feeling hits us when we lose our focus.  Take 15 minutes and step back, maybe listen to your favorite music, go for a walk, or close your eyes and take a power nap.  You need to take some time to quickly recharge your batteries. 

 

Fifth... Find meaning in what you do. Write a list of what's most important to you both professionally and personally.  Now determine how doing what you need to do now will help the people that are most important to you.  We find meaning in our work when we can figure out how what we do helps others.  It's easy to let down ourselves but it's a lot more difficult to know that you are letting down people that are important to you.

Stress is NOT always positive but if managed correctly, stress can be enhancing to both our performance and overall well being.   

My Top 10 (time) Self-Management Tips to Achieve More

A wise man said that once you spent your money you can always make more, but once you spent your time it’s gone forever.

When I ask business owners what’s the #1 thing that they believe is holding them back from achieving more, the majority of them will say, being able to manage their time better.  The first thing they need to understand is that you can’t manage time.  Time is like a flow of energy, all you can do is manage yourself better to harness that energy.

Below are my top 10 tips on how to manage yourself better to achieve more….

1. Set personally motivating goals …Most of us know what we need to do to be successful but we procrastinate doing them for one reason or another.  Because we are not focused on a motivating goal, we will put off an important task for the next “shiny” item that looks interesting.  Having written, motivating, goals will help you align your task to your goals.
2. Don’t finish today until you plan tomorrow …If you wait for the morning to figure out what you need to do you are losing valuable time.  If at the end of each day you review your goals and write out your action items making sure they are moving you closer to your goals, you will find that you will increase your productivity by 15-20%.
3. Eat a Frog for Breakfast EVERY day …This comes from Brian Tracey’s book of the same name.  The idea is simple.  Each day pick the biggest, hairiest frog (task) you need to do and schedule to do it first thing.  If not you will push it off and you find that it keeps moving to the next day on your to do list.  Once accomplished your day will be filled with items you enjoy doing and you will feel more fulfilled and motivated at the end of the day.
4. Don’t Major in Minor things …This is tied to item #3.  If you focus on accomplishing the major items on your list you will find you will have room for the smaller items.  But, if you fill your day with the smaller items that will never be room for the big major items.
5. Create a default Diary / Stick to it …Most of us don’t get important tasks done because we don’t schedule a specific time to do them.  Create a calendar where you schedule default times to work on the major activities you need to get done on a weekly basis.
6. Invest time don’t spend it …Our biggest time waster is spending our time on doing busy work instead of important work.  We invest our time, by working on items that will affect our profits.
7. Have agendas for all meetings …You should not only have an agenda but have a goal for what is the desired outcome of the meeting.  Focus agenda items based on the goals of your meeting.  Don’t mix strategic meetings with tactical meetings.  When you do, you don’t accomplish as much.
8. Have conference calls to save time …Team communication is important but sometimes it’s inefficient to call in team members from the field to have a meeting.  Instead, conference in team members for tactical meetings.  This will help you keep your team focused and aligned to the overall goals of the company.
9. Learn to delegate to your team …The busy work we spend time on needs to be delegated to lower paid employees so you can invest your time on more profitable tasks.
10. Hire an ActionCOACH to keep you on track!Every business needs someone to help you see the forest through the trees.  That’s why I also have a coach.  I find that it is way too easy to miss the more important items I need to work on.  My coach helps me to keep focused on my goals.  I personally found that the more focused I am on my goals, the more productive I’ve become.

To learn more about how to make more and work less down load our Free E-Book 

CLICK HERE