Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Keeping the Faith
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
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Believe In Your Goals
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
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
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
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Why Values Matter
No matter how good your system is you will still find yourself putting things off or skipping them if you don't have a clear understanding of your values. Our deep seated values are what makes us move. Everyone always acts in their own perceived best interest, including you. So as you are looking at the things that you know you need to do to be successful but find yourself always finding a reason not to do them, you need to look at your key values and how you define them. Value conflicts cause infinite problems in the normal time management schemes.
When I was working in my corporate job, I loved my job and wanted to move up the ladder. My goals were to be in a senior management position and be a respected leader. Great goals, certainly within my capabilities and reach. I knew what I had to do to achieve my goals and I would lay it all out and put together the plan. As many know, the way to the top in a large corporate structure is to work hard and out-shine those around you. So I would lay out my plan and start working at it. As time went on, I would find myself slacking off on my plan and not following through. Time and time again, I would procrastinate and not give it my all. Not knowing exactly why, I would end up telling myself, "oh you are just better suited to be a follower, not a leader." Finally, one day, I said "that's not true, you are a great leader. There is something deeper holding you back." So I started looking at my core values. Obviously success was one of my top goals. One of my other top goals was family. So after digging deeper into my values I found that in order for me to be successful in my current world I would need to put in 70 to 80 hours per week at work. This meant that I would have limited time for my family and I would not get to spend enough time with them. So deep down inside me I was purposely sabotaging my efforts to become successful in order to protect my family values. Can you see how this value conflict would wreak havoc on my efforts? My definition of success required countless hours away from my family which was in direct conflict with another of my core values.
After realizing my conflict, I knew I had to make some changes. I reviewed my values and their definitions and determined the correct course for me to have all the success I wanted. Notice, I didn't say, "well I guess you can't have it all." I knew better, I knew there had to be a way to have it all. Other people have it all and so should I. So I re-wrote my definition of success and eliminated the conflict. Now completing things related to my success are easy and I am excited to do them. It just took some understanding of my desires and some changes in my definitions.
With this little change, I now find it easy to keep moving forward. Here is my previous definition and my new definition of one of my core values, Success.
Old:
Success = Hold a senior management position in a large corporation; receive a six figure salary; be a respected leader; and work hard to get my rewards.
New:
Success = Have a career that allows me the flexibility and freedom to spend time enjoying life and family; earn enough income to do and have the things I want (which is currently 3X what I had expected before); serve a greater purpose.
With that simple change I now start each day excited about what I want to accomplish and do. My days flow easily from task to task and I can't wait to get on to the next step.
So, when you find yourself stuck and not getting things complete, take some time to look at your values and find those conflicts. I will talk more about how to accomplish in future posts. Until then.
Cheers to Success
Tony Booth
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Develop the Why
For instance, you might set a goal to earn $200,000 per year. You can set your goals up with the proper action steps and follow all the best practices but you goal will always be out of reach without a “why”. You need to set the reason why you want to earn $200,000 per year. What will that income provide you, what will you do with the money, why should the universe provide you with that income?
By defining the “why” we want to obtain certain goals we give the goals real meaning. This is what changes dreams into goals. Any goal set without a why remains a dream, a target that you really will not reach for. When you know the reasons for obtaining a goal you will be committed to seeing that through and taking the necessary steps to make it a reality.
So as you review what it is you want to accomplish be sure to incorporate the reasons why you want to accomplish it. Take some time to determine why you want to achieve the things you want to achieve. Take time now to go back to the targets that you set and develop the “WHY”.
Cheers to Success!
Tony
Define Targets
· Specific: Be sure the goals you write are specific. Your goal should not read “I want to live in a large house”, it need to be specific like “I want to live in a 2,500SF home set on 5 acres of property.”
· Measurable: Make sure the goal is measureable. Similar to the example above, the 2,500SF now becomes the measuring stick by which you will compare your results.
· Attainable: Make sure that your goals are something that is reachable. For instance, if you are a 5’-6” tall, 40 year old male and you set a goal to become the starting center for the New York Knicks; that is an un-attainable goal. That doesn’t mean that you should not set a goal to be part of the New York Knicks franchise, it just means you need to set your goal for a different affiliation. You might determine that you want to be a talent scout for the New York Knicks.
· Realistic: You goal must be realistic. That can mean many different things depending on your goal and your current situation. The main thing to keep in mind here is, is you goal believable? Do you truly believe you can accomplish this goal?
· Timely: When setting your goals you will always need to set a timeline for reaching those goals. The timing can range from days to years, but you need to have a timeframe. Keep things in the relative near future for best results. I recommend having long term goals (5-10years) as broad objectives and more detailed goals set in 90 day time frames. These short-term goals can be sub-goals of your long term goals.
The goals you set are what will guide your actions in the future so don’t take this step lightly. The goal setting process is a must if you want to achieve a high level of success. Now, go have some fun, dream big, and write out some amazing goals.
Cheers to Success!
Tony
Monday, August 10, 2009
Determine Values
The first key to focusing on success is to properly determine and set your values. The deep seated values that we hold have a profound effect on our actions. Our subconscious mind holds our values as truths and will use those values to steer our actions. Have you ever had something that you decided you needed to do but always found yourself putting it off or avoiding it? Chances are there was an underlying value conflict with the action or the potential outcome.
In order for the Focusing on Success system to work efficiently we need to dig in and define our values. Take some time to review your values and make a list of all your values. It is best to start with a blank sheet of paper and write down 20 values that are important to you. After you have your list of 20, take some time to think about them and meditate on them. Really get a feel for which ones mean the most to you and consolidate the list to 5 primary values and 5 secondary values. I recommend putting these 10 values into a chart or on an index card so that you can refer to them often. Future posts will have more information on setting and monitoring values along with some useful tools to help you. The more you are aware of your values, the easier it will be to focus on the things that will make you successful. You should review your values daily for the first week to commit them to memory and after that refer to them at least twice a week.
Take the time this week to get you values in order and work on them. This will build the foundation on which the rest of the Focusing on Success program will work. With our values in place and clearly understood it will be easy to develop your why and keep your focus.
Cheers to Success!
Tony
Friday, July 31, 2009
Focusing on Success
Focusing on success is about the process of focus management. By getting your focus zeroed in, you can eliminate wasted time and stress the overcomes your days. When you have your focus dialed in, you no longer need all those gadgets to help you plan your time and success efforts.
The process involves 6 simple yet complex steps. Many have heard the virtues of each of these steps before but very few practice them. You can bet, the uber-successful people we all read about practice these principles in some form or another. Ask Donald Trump or Sir Richard Bronson and you can be sure they have a defined plan and take action every day to accomplish that plan. That is really all we are talking about here.
Focusing on success breaks down into these 6 steps; Determine Values, Define Tragets, Develop the Why, Set Intentions, Manage Actions, and Focusing on Success. Each of these steps must be followed in order to get your mindset right for focusing on success. The steps build upon each other to get you in the proper frame of mind that allows you to work effortlessly in achieving all your life long desires.
Don't believe all those things you've heard in the past about how success is hard and riches are reserved for the few. Follow me through this journey to learn how you can change your focus and change your world. The possibilities are endless and results are easy.
Cheers to Success
Tony