Are you a multi-tasker? Are you constantly doing 3 or 4 things at a time? If you are, stop wasting time.
We all have had our times when we would answer yes to all the questions above. If you still do then you need to review your actions and get control of your focus. It's a known fact that our brains function better when focusing on one task at a time. I can hear all the multi-taskers saying "oh no, I am better when I multi-task." Well you might be capable and successful at multi-tasking but you are not as efficient. Try this little test for yourself and see how you do. Take out a sheet of paper and at the top write column 1 and column 2. Get a stop watch to time this exercise. Now fill in column 1 with the letters 1 to 26 and column 2 with a through z. The first time you will write a number in column 1 and the corresponding letter in column 2 (1 - a, 2 - b, etc.). Write down the time it took you to complete this. Now the second time you will complete each column separately starting with column 1 then column 2 (1,2,3....a,b,c). Write down the time for this part. Now compare the two times. You will have completed the second exercise much quicker. This is just a part of how the mind works and is why you should avoid multi-tasking as much as possible.
In the Focusing on Success program we work on learning how to put all of our focus into the task at hand. When you start working on your Critical Tasks you need to block out all interruptions and focus only on the action item. Once you complete an action item you can take care of all the emails and phone calls that need to be answered. Then move on to the second task and do the same thing. Once you get the habit of doing this you will see how much easier it is to get those action items complete.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Keeping the Faith
We all have to learn to deal with setbacks. They are part of the process of achieving success. Without setbacks and failures you never really grow and to be truly successful we must constantly grow and expand.
So how do you handle the times when it seems like nothing is working right and you get the feeling you are heading down the wrong path. The best way to handle these times is to go back and review the work you did in the beginning.
Look back at your values, goals and mission. Remember why you want the successes that you want. Renew the spirit within you to go after the success you want. We all have an inner genius that is waiting to shine, just let it lose.
Take some time and review your plans and write down some new reasons why. It can be just re-wording the why you already have. This exercise will help you reinforce the reasons in your mind and renew your energy. The struggles you are facing are just there to make you stronger and better prepared for your success.
The best wines are produced from distressed grapes. Wine producers have learned over the years that they can produce the best wines from grapes that have been stressed and taken almost to the point of wilting on the vines. They regulate the water supply to their grapes to cause the grapes to endure the stress of the dry climate and force them undergo enormous amounts of stress on the vine so they can produce their best wines.
We are just like the grapes and the universe is applying the stress to us so we can produce a better product. We must undergo these challenges so we can reinforce what it is we want and why. So keep your chin up and keep working on the constant improvement that make us all successful.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
So how do you handle the times when it seems like nothing is working right and you get the feeling you are heading down the wrong path. The best way to handle these times is to go back and review the work you did in the beginning.
Look back at your values, goals and mission. Remember why you want the successes that you want. Renew the spirit within you to go after the success you want. We all have an inner genius that is waiting to shine, just let it lose.
Take some time and review your plans and write down some new reasons why. It can be just re-wording the why you already have. This exercise will help you reinforce the reasons in your mind and renew your energy. The struggles you are facing are just there to make you stronger and better prepared for your success.
The best wines are produced from distressed grapes. Wine producers have learned over the years that they can produce the best wines from grapes that have been stressed and taken almost to the point of wilting on the vines. They regulate the water supply to their grapes to cause the grapes to endure the stress of the dry climate and force them undergo enormous amounts of stress on the vine so they can produce their best wines.
We are just like the grapes and the universe is applying the stress to us so we can produce a better product. We must undergo these challenges so we can reinforce what it is we want and why. So keep your chin up and keep working on the constant improvement that make us all successful.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
Friday, September 18, 2009
Goals Take Time
In the Focusing on Success program, our goals play an important role in our success. We have written goals, a mission statement, and all the intentions of making those goals a reality. Now if you are like many people, you get all these things together and start working on them. You work at it diligently for weeks, months, even years and nothing seems to be happening. You start wondering why is this not working? Am I wasting my time?
While these thoughts are common, you have to learn to disregard them. If you are constantly wondering why you have not met your goals, you will receive just that, not meeting your goals. You have to keep in mind that the universe takes time and getting to a high level of success takes time. This doesn't mean it won't happen or you have the wrong goals, it just means you are not ready yet. Many times the universe is giving you the experiences you need to be able to handle the success you dream of. Realize this and you will understand why it takes time.
Take for example the many professional athletes that get out of school and jump into a career earning millions of dollars at an early age. We all know athletes can't perform at the professional level for a very long time, maybe 5 to 10 years. These instant millionaires have a level of success and riches that many dream about. But where are they 15 years later? Well, an alarming amount of them are flat broke with no plans for their future. Why? When they became so successful at a young age, they were not ready to handle the success and once they could no longer compete in their profession they reverted right back to the level of success they had without their sport.
Don't let this happen to you. Be patient, be consistent. Remember the constant incremental improvements. Build your success for the long term.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
While these thoughts are common, you have to learn to disregard them. If you are constantly wondering why you have not met your goals, you will receive just that, not meeting your goals. You have to keep in mind that the universe takes time and getting to a high level of success takes time. This doesn't mean it won't happen or you have the wrong goals, it just means you are not ready yet. Many times the universe is giving you the experiences you need to be able to handle the success you dream of. Realize this and you will understand why it takes time.
Take for example the many professional athletes that get out of school and jump into a career earning millions of dollars at an early age. We all know athletes can't perform at the professional level for a very long time, maybe 5 to 10 years. These instant millionaires have a level of success and riches that many dream about. But where are they 15 years later? Well, an alarming amount of them are flat broke with no plans for their future. Why? When they became so successful at a young age, they were not ready to handle the success and once they could no longer compete in their profession they reverted right back to the level of success they had without their sport.
Don't let this happen to you. Be patient, be consistent. Remember the constant incremental improvements. Build your success for the long term.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Setting your Mission
A mission is a very important element in your path to success. In order to get there, you need to know where you are going. This applies to virtually every aspect of life and your personal mission is no different. You will never become the success you dream of without some type of mission.
Everyone needs to develop a vision of what their mission in life is. This vision needs to be converted into your mission and you need to develop a mission statement. Just like successful corporations develop a mission statement so that employees know what they are focused on, so should you. This mission statement will provide you with support and guidance as you progress through life. Your mission statement should be reviewed each morning when you are working on your Current Focus and Critical Action Items. This will help to reinforce the why in everything you do.
When writing a mission statement don't worry about getting too detailed, save that for your goals. You should keep you statement brief and to the point. I recommend a one to two sentence statement that provides an overview of who you are and what you do. One way to think about it is "What would I like people to say about me when I am gone?" Your mission statement can be an "I am" statement or if you prefer it can be in the third person. The main point is to develop your mission and write it down. Below are some examples of personal mission statements.
"I am a successful business person, loving family member, and respected member of the community that is extremely energetic and active, always helping others and creating successful businesses."
"Tom is well-known in the community for all the help he gives to others, respected by his co-workers for all his success in the computer programming field. Tom enjoys time with his family in their 5 acre ranch."
How you structure you mission statement is not what's important here. It's the substance that's important. Let your mission statement be something that inspires you each morning. Let your dreams go wild and write it down. You deserve to be anything you want and do all the amazing things you can dream of.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
Everyone needs to develop a vision of what their mission in life is. This vision needs to be converted into your mission and you need to develop a mission statement. Just like successful corporations develop a mission statement so that employees know what they are focused on, so should you. This mission statement will provide you with support and guidance as you progress through life. Your mission statement should be reviewed each morning when you are working on your Current Focus and Critical Action Items. This will help to reinforce the why in everything you do.
When writing a mission statement don't worry about getting too detailed, save that for your goals. You should keep you statement brief and to the point. I recommend a one to two sentence statement that provides an overview of who you are and what you do. One way to think about it is "What would I like people to say about me when I am gone?" Your mission statement can be an "I am" statement or if you prefer it can be in the third person. The main point is to develop your mission and write it down. Below are some examples of personal mission statements.
"I am a successful business person, loving family member, and respected member of the community that is extremely energetic and active, always helping others and creating successful businesses."
"Tom is well-known in the community for all the help he gives to others, respected by his co-workers for all his success in the computer programming field. Tom enjoys time with his family in their 5 acre ranch."
How you structure you mission statement is not what's important here. It's the substance that's important. Let your mission statement be something that inspires you each morning. Let your dreams go wild and write it down. You deserve to be anything you want and do all the amazing things you can dream of.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Believe In Your Goals
As we discuss often here, in order to be successful, you have to have goals. Not only do you need to have goals, they need to be written out and reviewed on a regular basis. What are your goals? Are they written and posted somewhere that you can see them often?
One of the biggest mistakes that I often see people make when writing and developing their goals is not making them believable. When you develop your goals they must be something that you look at and say "I can do that." If not there will always be that voice in the back of your mind saying "Yeah, Right." If you are currently working a 40 hour a week job making $50,000 per year and you write down a goal to be making $500,000 per year next year it's will be hard for you to believe it. Each time you review your goal, you will be thinking, "there's no way I will do that." And what about all of this Law of Attraction stuff? Didn't the secret say all I need to do is believe and it will come to me? Well that's partially true, the universe will provide you with what you desire. However, if you just go through the motions of writing out a goal and deep down inside you don't believe it won't happen.
Now if your working in a job making $50,000 per year and one of your goals is to make $500,000, that's fine. The part that would be hard to believe is that you are going to accomplish this in one year. Also, it will be hard to believe if you don't have some type of plan to make it happen. Let's look at it this way, here is an example. Let's say this person currently works at a printing shop taking orders and running the presses earning $20 per hour.
Bad Goal: I will earn a salary of $200,000 dollars in 2010.
Now-in his current situation, he will have to work a lot of hours to earn that kind of money
Better Goal: I will open my own printing business and earn a $200,000 salary by 2015.
Now this goal is easier to believe, it allows time for the drastic increase in salary and also tells how. Using a goal like this, we can now break the goal down into several smaller steps like:
In 2010 I will work extra hours and spend additional time working at the print shop so that I can learn about the business and earn an extra $6,000 dollars to put towards starting my own print shop.
In 2011 I will use the money I saved to start a printing business on the side while still working in my full time job, allowing me to earn an additional $1,500 per month.
In 2012 I will use the money I saved to open my own print shop with first year's sales of $300,000.
And the process continues on with details each year about how to improve the business. I know this example is a little stretched, but I hope you get the point.
Make sure that you goals are believable. We would have never reached the moon if we didn't believe we could do it.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
One of the biggest mistakes that I often see people make when writing and developing their goals is not making them believable. When you develop your goals they must be something that you look at and say "I can do that." If not there will always be that voice in the back of your mind saying "Yeah, Right." If you are currently working a 40 hour a week job making $50,000 per year and you write down a goal to be making $500,000 per year next year it's will be hard for you to believe it. Each time you review your goal, you will be thinking, "there's no way I will do that." And what about all of this Law of Attraction stuff? Didn't the secret say all I need to do is believe and it will come to me? Well that's partially true, the universe will provide you with what you desire. However, if you just go through the motions of writing out a goal and deep down inside you don't believe it won't happen.
Now if your working in a job making $50,000 per year and one of your goals is to make $500,000, that's fine. The part that would be hard to believe is that you are going to accomplish this in one year. Also, it will be hard to believe if you don't have some type of plan to make it happen. Let's look at it this way, here is an example. Let's say this person currently works at a printing shop taking orders and running the presses earning $20 per hour.
Bad Goal: I will earn a salary of $200,000 dollars in 2010.
Now-in his current situation, he will have to work a lot of hours to earn that kind of money
Better Goal: I will open my own printing business and earn a $200,000 salary by 2015.
Now this goal is easier to believe, it allows time for the drastic increase in salary and also tells how. Using a goal like this, we can now break the goal down into several smaller steps like:
In 2010 I will work extra hours and spend additional time working at the print shop so that I can learn about the business and earn an extra $6,000 dollars to put towards starting my own print shop.
In 2011 I will use the money I saved to start a printing business on the side while still working in my full time job, allowing me to earn an additional $1,500 per month.
In 2012 I will use the money I saved to open my own print shop with first year's sales of $300,000.
And the process continues on with details each year about how to improve the business. I know this example is a little stretched, but I hope you get the point.
Make sure that you goals are believable. We would have never reached the moon if we didn't believe we could do it.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
Friday, September 4, 2009
Understanding Your Values
As we have discussed several times, values are the underlying foundation on which we build. Our values control our minds which in turn controls everything else. In order to be successful, at least successful as we define it, you must clearly understand you core values and keep your wants and desires aligned with them.
So, today we are going to discuss just how you can understand that core values that make you tick. Today we are going to take some time and work through the following exercise to develop your core values.
We want to look at our values for each fundemental area of our lives. You will want to start with a clean sheet of paper or new page in your journal. At the top of the page write down the first area as listed below. Then under that heading, start writing all the things in that area that you value. Keep it to one or two word entries. Keep writing them down for five minutes for each heading. After you finish one area, writ ehte next heading and repeat the process.
Headings:
So, today we are going to discuss just how you can understand that core values that make you tick. Today we are going to take some time and work through the following exercise to develop your core values.
We want to look at our values for each fundemental area of our lives. You will want to start with a clean sheet of paper or new page in your journal. At the top of the page write down the first area as listed below. Then under that heading, start writing all the things in that area that you value. Keep it to one or two word entries. Keep writing them down for five minutes for each heading. After you finish one area, writ ehte next heading and repeat the process.
Headings:
- Wealth
- Health
- Mind
- Relationships
- Spirituality
Once you have completed writing all your values for each heading it's time to start prioritizing them. To do that, take some time to review each entry under a heading and circle the three most important ones. Then prioritize each one by writing a 1,2, or 3 next to them. Complete this step for each area. Now, turn to a fresh page and write the number one. Under this heading write down each of the number one values from each of the five areas. Now take the next 20 minutes to review the five number one values and prioritize them. Re-write these values in order. These are your key values.
Now that you have your core values, start working on the remaining values. Write out all the number two values and prioritize them then repeat with number three. List these out in order. These are your secondary values.
Now you have taken the first step in understanding and realizing your values. I recommend writing or typing these out neatly so that you can keep them handy to review on a regular basis. I have mine written on the second page of my journal so that I can reveiw them weekly.
If you need some help with this exercise, there is a great template at www.morningcoach.com. Get some help if you need adn while you are there check out some of the other great things they have to offer.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
Thursday, September 3, 2009
What is Focusing on Success
We all know that it is no secret that if you want to be successful at anything, you must have goals. Corporations provide them for employees, coaches provide them for their teams, and parents provide them for their kids. We all have them in various forms. Some have them written in detail and others just have them in their head. Well no matter what you goals are, the only way to reach them is by taking steps towards making them a reality. Focusing on Success is a system for helping people take those steps.
If we all have these goals, we does it often seem so hard to make them a reality? Why do we always put off doing the things we know we need to do? We try all the different time management techniques and systems but they just don't seem to work.
The main problem with all these systems and ideas is ourselves. Our own mind will work against us if we do not take the proper steps. If your goals are not aligned with your values you will always be finding reasons why something doesn't need to be done. When you are not truly clear on why you need to do something you will find yourself procrastinating and avoiding the task.
Focusing on Success is a process to clear all those things in your mind that are holding you back. The first step of the process is to truly understand your values. Then make sure that your goals are in agreement with those values. After your goals are clear, we determine and understand why these goals are important. Once you understand the why, it's time to start taking those small steps everyday that moves you closer to your goals. The FOS process provides insight into ways that these actions become second nature and easy to complete.
Imagine waking every morning beaming with excitement about the day ahead and charged to get started on your daily Critical Action Items. It is exhilarating and what's even better is in the evening when you sit and reflect on all that you accomplished during your day.
Follow my blog and you will get the details on how to make this system work for you. Once you do, you will be amazed at how easy it is to get things done. You will be able to have and achieve anything you ever wanted.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
If we all have these goals, we does it often seem so hard to make them a reality? Why do we always put off doing the things we know we need to do? We try all the different time management techniques and systems but they just don't seem to work.
The main problem with all these systems and ideas is ourselves. Our own mind will work against us if we do not take the proper steps. If your goals are not aligned with your values you will always be finding reasons why something doesn't need to be done. When you are not truly clear on why you need to do something you will find yourself procrastinating and avoiding the task.
Focusing on Success is a process to clear all those things in your mind that are holding you back. The first step of the process is to truly understand your values. Then make sure that your goals are in agreement with those values. After your goals are clear, we determine and understand why these goals are important. Once you understand the why, it's time to start taking those small steps everyday that moves you closer to your goals. The FOS process provides insight into ways that these actions become second nature and easy to complete.
Imagine waking every morning beaming with excitement about the day ahead and charged to get started on your daily Critical Action Items. It is exhilarating and what's even better is in the evening when you sit and reflect on all that you accomplished during your day.
Follow my blog and you will get the details on how to make this system work for you. Once you do, you will be amazed at how easy it is to get things done. You will be able to have and achieve anything you ever wanted.
Cheers to Success!
Tony Booth
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