If you’d like to learn how to become more productive so you can accomplish more on a daily basis, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown. Last night, a friend of mine (let’s call him Jameel) took me to his mentor. He was going to get some business advice and wanted someone to tag along for the ride. Having nothing to do for the rest of the day, I decided to go. After waiting for about an hour at his office, we finally got that chance to meet him: A simple looking guy (supposed to be a guru in his field) with a twitchy left eye. Jameel and his mentor talked for about half an hour or so, and I sat there quietly nodding my head. To be honest, the entire discourse was quite engrossing and truly inspiring to say the least. But if there is one thing that clicked (and that I’d like to share it with you guys) is his reply to my friend’s doubts of failure. “I am doing everything right,” asked the now vulnerable Jameel, “but there is this looming fear, this doubt that is eating me alive. What should I do about it?” “I am not the kind of person you should be asking this question,” was the reply. “I have never had the fear of failure so I don’t know what to say to you. All I have ever done in my life is done each day’s work to the best of my abilities. That’s it, and I would advise you to do the same.” “Will you succeed?” He went on. “Will you fail? No one can guarantee that. That is something out of your jurisdiction. Even if you do everything right, there is still a chance that you might fail. And even if you do fail, then what? Will the Earth shatter? Or will the skies fall over? Businesses fail, that’s the fact of life and you should be strong enough to take that bet. Either you do everything right, one step a time, one task a day and trust the journey and increase your chances of success. Or you keep on obsessing about the future, fretting about failure, instead of doing the actual work and increasing your chances of failure. Your best bet is to do each task to the best of your abilities and leave the rest to God.” The reason this mini-speech hit me is because that is exactly what I did to become a better person than I was a couple of years ago. And even if you’re not a proponent of fate or a believer in God, there’s a practical truth to what the mentor said. In fact, the great stoics also had a similar approach to life.
What did the ancient stoics say?Stoics are proponents of Stoicism, a philosophical school of thought that believes human virtue lies in knowledge, and the wise are the ones that are at peace with providence (good or bad). The great stoic Epictetus put forth his “dichotomy of control” illustrating that the world is divided into things that are in our control (thoughts, emotions, and actions) and things that are out of our control (possessions, looks, or privilege). If you carefully differentiate the things that are in your control from the things that are not, you influence the things that are in your control to make your life the way you visualize it. You also stop worrying about things that are not under your control. You come to realize how pointless it is and that saves you a great deal of time and energy. Putting the philosophy into practiceWhat’s the point to philosophy when there is little to no practicality when it comes to actual meaningful changes in your life? That is exactly why I am a strong proponent of Stoicism as it is the most practical of all philosophies. Still, being stuck in a place for too long tends to make it difficult to get out and one needs a little more than philosophy to get one out of the mess. Here are a few practical steps that I took to make my life a little bit better:1. Write down your goalsI know how big of a cliché this is, but there’s a reason why it is such a big cliché, it works. Take out a pen and a paper, and write down all of the things you want to achieve. Think of something that you want to do or need to do. It can be anything from your homework to an art project or maybe as trivial as cleaning up your room. List out as many things as possible.
2. Prioritize your goalsDivide them based on priorities. An assignment due this week should be at the top, an art project, a bit lower. 3. Break them downBreak down each goal into little ones that you know you can easily accomplish. Make sure to also spread them across a few weeks or months (depending upon the estimated time for the project). For example, if your goal is to read a book. Don’t force yourself to read a hundred pages in one go because that’s plain stupid. Think about it this way, if you want to become a swimmer, would you simply dive into a sea or would you first start learning in a pool? Start by reading 10 pages a day. After a week, turn it up to 12 or 15 a day and keep on increasing each week until you have reached your goal of reading 100 pages a day. 4. Become accountableThe ultimate goal is to live a better life and to do that we have to take one step at a time and for that we require consistency. How do you ensure consistency in productivity? Here’s how I did it:At the start of my freelancing career, I only took projects when I felt like it. Some months I’d earn more while on others I’d be asking for financial help. After months of going nowhere and almost sabotaging my career, I decided to do a simple thing that changed everything for the better. I committed myself to writing 1000 words a day, except weekends, for the entire month. This was an easy goal because there were days when I wrote 2500-3000 words a day when one of my deadlines was tight. The idea was to become consistent. To keep track of it, I decided to create a simple spreadsheet on google docs. The first couple of days were easy because I was feeling motivated. The third day was a bit difficult because I was losing motivation. The magic happened on the fourth day when I didn’t feel like doing the work but ended up doing it because of the sheer fact that I had to report it on my spreadsheet. At the end of this little experiment, I had earned more than I had ever earned in a month. If there is anything that I would like you to take away from all this is to set yourself a goal every night and complete it every day without fearing the outcome. Do you have any tactics on how to become more productive? Share them with us below!from https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/4-steps-you-should-take-to-become-more-productive/
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If you’d like to learn how to live each moment to the fullest and succeed in all aspects of your life so you can be happy, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown. To some people, life is unfair. To some, life is good. And to others, life is great. It all depends on your perspective and how much responsibility you take for your personal development and income. But regardless of how we see life, we all want the same thing – to live each moment to the fullest. It doesn’t matter if you are the richest person alive or the poorest. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the happiest person on earth or the saddest, we all want to enjoy life to the fullest. The problem is – there are some things hindering us from this goal that our mind is hiding from us. It might be difficult to discover these things on your own, but if you don’t just want to exit, but also live; if you don’t just want to survive, but also thrive, you must get rid of these things. Today we will examine the 7 things that are preventing you from living each moment to the fullest and how to break free from them:1. Trying to Please EveryoneThere are many reasons this is futile. The dominant one is that you’ll never be happy being someone else because you’ll put yourself under immense pressure trying to pull it off. And when it’s all been said and done, you still won’t be able to please everybody because different people want different things for you. The question is – what do you want for yourself? The second reason is even worse for life-changing decisions like career, business, or marriage. The people you’re trying to please won’t suffer the consequences with you daily. They won’t be the ones going about with the burden of that poor decision. In fact, you might end up resenting them for the poor decisions you made to please them. If you always try to please everyone, you will never, ever enjoy life to the fullest. 2. Waiting for PermissionIf you think someone won’t give you their blessing to do what is really important to you, don’t go to them to ask for permission. Just do it anyway and apologize later if need be. If it is so important to you, then do it. You have to be bold enough to stand up for yourself.
3. Waiting for the Right TimeThe problem with waiting for the right time is – it never comes. Weeks will pass, then months, and even years, and you will always find an excuse to procrastinate. Then you will regret not starting now. The right time is now; when you have the motivation. Happiness isn’t something you can find, you have to create it. And if you do that, years will pass by and you would be happy that you started now. Sure it might not go as expected, but as Mark Twain Said, “Twenty years from now, you will be disappointed more by the things you didn’t do than by the things you do.” 4. Comparing Yourself to OthersThe danger of comparing yourself to others is that you might think you’re doing so well that you’ll relax too much. Or you might find out that the people you’re comparing yourself to are miles ahead of you and you might get discouraged. Sure, you should be competing with someone; but that person isn’t your someone else rather than the person you were yesterday. As long as you do better today than you did yesterday, and you do that every day, you are already successful.
5. Taking Self-Education LightlyA wise man, Jim Rohn, once said, “formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.” and there’s a lot of truth in that. They don’t teach you the concept of lifestyle design for absolute freedom in school. You can only learn that by reading books (or listening to audiobooks) like the 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferriss. In school, they don’t teach you the life-changing concept of goal setting. But you can learn from books like Goals! By Brian Tracy; that shows you how to achieve everything you want faster than you ever thought possible. Your parents might not teach you how to achieve financial freedom (maybe they aren’t financially independent themselves); but you can learn something like that in Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. The point is, it doesn’t matter whether you are a doctor who also wants to do better; a businessman who wants to get ahead faster; or a person who just wants to live happier, there are blogs, books, podcasts, and other things out there that can save you years of hard work and learning the hard way. As the popular saying goes, knowledge is power. 6. Being Afraid of FailureMany people are afraid of failure because they think it’s a bad thing. But failure gives you experience, which they say, is the best teacher. It teaches you everything you need to succeed. Plus, you can use Tim Ferriss’ fear setting to master it. You can also avoid failure easily if you love self-education – aka learning from history. And finally, you can overcome it if you are willing to live with the possibility of failure and you plan to learn from it to become smarter. 7. Missing out on the Benefits of MeditationSome people think they don’t have time for meditation. But given the fact that it literally increases focus and attention, reduces stress, preserves the aging brain, physically changes the brain structure for the better, reduces anxiety and depression, helps overcome addictions, and has a bunch of other benefits; I think it is safe to say that you don’t have the time not to meditate. And Don’t Forget to do ThisDefine what success means to you. To some people, it means becoming rich and living the billionaire lifestyle. Some people just want to climb to the top of the corporate ladder, have a wonderful family, and live happily ever after. Some people would love to join or create their own NGO to achieve a higher purpose. But all that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you know exactly what it is you want to do with your life. You need to define success in your own terms. What does success mean to you? Use your answer to devise a plan to make it happen. It will make your life a lot easier and your decision making swift every time. So the next time you have a big decision to make, you can ask yourself, does it take me closer to my goal? Or farther from it? What activity makes you enjoy your life to the fullest? Share your thoughts with us below!from https://addicted2success.com/life/the-7-things-that-are-preventing-you-from-enjoying-life-to-the-fullest/ If you’d like to learn how to care for your money so you can make it grow exponentially over time, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown. Airports are a strange place. Time feels like it does not exist, massage places occur right next to restaurants, and strangers will talk to anyone within sight. It only seems fitting then that I got one of the best pieces of advice from this place where water is worth its weight in gold. I was waiting at the terminal in one of the eternally sticky polyester chairs, and I set my purse on the floor. Immediately, a woman looked up from her magazine at me and said, “Don’t put your purse on the ground.” Initially, I thought it was for safety reasons, like making it an easy target for pickpockets. This woman proceeded to tell me that by putting my money on the ground, I am disrespecting the value of the work that went into obtaining it. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. When I put my money on the ground, I showed less pride in it by failing to keep it in a safe place. I was neglecting it, leading to the possibility that it could be stolen or lost. If we don’t want to leave our money in a state of disarray in our purse or wallet on the floor, then why would we have the same mentality toward the organization of our budgets and business accounts? Show Your Money Its WorthMoney’s worth may be determined by the markets on any given day, but it’s true value differs for each individual. In your budgets, you want to make sure you have employees that augment your understanding of what your services are worth. Look for people who will work well with your company by fitting into one of two categories. In business, it is a common error to think one person can do multiple roles and save you more money as a result. Realistically, you cannot get everything out of one person, and it is more cost effective to have two people do more specific jobs for less hours. Also make sure your employees respect the resources you decide merit your money. If they do not see what a program or campaign costs, there is greater the possibility of misusing or misunderstanding the materials. Showing pricing saves you money, because by attaching a value to a service, there is less likelihood of overspending on a project.
Don’t Take Your Money for GrantedLike the purse on the ground scenario, when you let your money out of your hands, you lose control over it. Automatic payment systems are both a blessing and a curse with how easily money can be transferred for services. If there are non-essential or necessary autopay systems you have set up, monitor it monthly so you are keeping track of where money is going in your budget. Check your accounts to ensure it is not being used for an unnecessary expense that you may be unaware of. Also, contact your vendor to see if there are promotions you may be missing. If you do have to keep an automatic payment system, make sure to set up alerts, so you have a realistic grasp of your finances. Ask About Your MoneyIf I had never questioned the woman in the airport, I would have never had that life-changing lesson about managing my budgets in business. This questioning mindset for your finances particularly benefits your assets when negotiating. When bargaining, there are two ideas to keep in mind to save costs. The first is when working with another party in a deal, know there are more options than just money. The goal is creating an exchange that accommodates both parties’ demands, trading resources like people or time. By substituting these other options in a negotiation, you allow for your money to be spent on other important items in your budget. When dialoguing with another company, it is important to focus on more than just making an exemplary agreement with them..Oftentimes, we want to offer a bargain, so we cut down the price of our services or product. By doing so, we devalue our company, because we now accept less money for a service and a smaller amount of revenue. When negotiating, we must not lose sight of the goal just for the sake of possibly gaining a sale.
If I had never put my purse on the floor of that airport, I would have lost an opportunity to learn one of the most important tips about money I have experienced in my life. Money is portrayed as being most powerful when spent, but there is often more success in saving. By valuing and caring for your money through budgeting with these mindsets, you are creating a legacy for a prosperous business. So as you visualize your life, take today to organize your dollars and, please, learn from my mistake of never putting your money on the ground. What’s the most important money lesson you’ve ever learned? Share it with us below!from https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/the-most-important-money-lesson-ive-ever-learned/ We all want to manifest success in our lives. It fuels our desires to attain something. People perceive success differently as we have different desires. Some go after enriching themselves with material things to get financial freedom. Others study further to advance to the next level in their academic career. Nevertheless, it’s necessary to identify clearly what we truly desire to achieve in life. This will give you a clear vision of which path you should go and what steps to take. Bill Gates’s top secrets in achieving success includes starting as early as you can. He was only 13 years old when he started working with computers and looked how successful and influential he has become. Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerburg built up his now multi-billion dollar company while he was still a student at Harvard University. Facebook has become one of the most popular and widely used social media platforms around the globe. These people proved that age is not a determining factor of success. Therefore, we don’t need to wait until we are old and stable enough to launch our start-up business.
The Key Elements to Achieving Success: Learning from the BestContrary to what we believe our elders have told us about hard work being the key to achieving success in life, Vishen Lakhiani, the Founder of Mindvalley said otherwise. He said that “Hard work has very, very, very little to do with success”. According to his theory, there are four levels of consciousness that we need to achieve so that we can attain success in life: first, you need hard work; secondly, [you need to] learn how to do more with less work; thirdly, you need to [tap into your consciousness] and lastly, “Flow” “MOJO” and “Becoming Limitless”. Vishen’s theory of success drops the binary ideas of success being a result of hard work or surrender alone. He believes that to be able to succeed in life, one must go through four different levels of consciousness stated above. How to Attain Success in life?We usually look after successful businessmen and personalities, hoping that we can use the same strategies they use to attain our own success. However, we must carefully consider which among their strategies are applicable to us. That being said, the following steps are guaranteed to help you attain success in your stat-up. Step one: Have a clear vision of your goals in lifeThe title pretty much explains itself. For you to be able to achieve success in life, you must have a vivid vision of your goals in life. Ask yourself, “What is it that I truly want to achieve?” If you desire to achieve a lot of things in your life, listing them chronologically according to the degree or intensity of your desire pertaining to each goal will help you identify which among them are you going to prioritize and which comes next. Step two: Find motivationYour goal/s should be enough motivation for you already however, sometimes when our goal/s takes a lot of time to materialize or even seem impossible to happen as we planned—we lost our hope. In times like these, we need to motivate ourselves to remind us that giving up on our dreams would lead us nowhere, rather, we need to assess what we’ve been doing wrong and analyse if everything else is still in alignment with our goals. Step three: Create a timelineTime is of the essence. It is important to have a timeline in achieving your goals. This prevents you from procrastinating and helps you control loss at worst case scenario. If your goal is time-bound, you will be forced to do everything just to achieve it within the time frame you set for yourself. Step four: Make your plan of actionsThis pertains to your course of actions. What are the things that you need to do to enable your goals to materialize? Planning without taking the necessary actions to make it happen is merely dreaming. Likewise, doing things without a plan is futile and just a waste of time and resources. Hence, planning and taking actions are equally important in achieving success. Using your timeline, create a list of the necessary course of actions that you’ll take in every stage to ultimately achieve your end goals. Step five: Create a contingency planChange is constant thus it is only natural to create your plans and goals flexible enough to deal with inevitable changes. However, it is also important to have a contingency plan so that if things go south, you are well-prepared to change course. Oftentimes, having something to fallback with gives us the assurance that there is still another way to achieve our goals. It also helps us cut further losses and refocus our actions to our vision even though it might be totally different from what we originally planned.
Step six: Have faithYou already followed every step diligently, now the next step would be to simply believe that luck is on your side and that everything will unfold the way you envisioned it. Step seven: Share your blessingsIt’s always a great practice to share your blessings with other people. This is not only a form of giving back to the community or to the people who have helped you to become who you are now, it also brings you closer to God and lessen your enemies. Sharing your blessings helps you build a more positive environment where people are collaborating and working harmoniously, helping one another to succeed in life. from https://addicted2success.com/startups/how-to-launch-your-startup-in-7-easy-steps/ Does your story resonate with what follows? You want a successful, non-mediocre life, but even after watching hundreds of motivational videos, reading thousands of self-improvement blogs and applying various productivity techniques, you can’t make a significant difference in your life. I know it can be demotivating. But fortunately, nothing is forever and you can soon be on the greener side. You can change your life for the better. These 4 proactive ways can bring you closer to your dreams:1. AwarenessImagine you are planning to make something different, texture filled for today’s dinner. You go to a supermarket and suddenly realise that you haven’t actually decided what you are making. Can you be successful? No. And that is why being aware of what you want in your life is important. If you don’t know what you want, you surely aren’t getting it. So, first and foremost decide what you want. Is it peace, money, status, a healthy body or anything else? Let’s assume you have decided you are making a cheese pizza. But, do you know how big? Or with what toppings? If this isn’t specified, you won’t know how much and what to buy. So, knowing how it would be like when you achieve your goals is important. For example, if you want to achieve peace, you know that you’ll be happier, able to control your emotions, etc. If you want money you know that you’ll have 3 Lamborghinis, 1 beachside mansion, and likewise.
2. Self AssessmentYou decided on making a large cheese pizza with toppings of capsicum and onion. Now, the most important part is do you have the skills to make it? Can you cut or bake? Half of us are stuck here. We know what we want, we know how it will be but we don’t know whether we have what it takes. However, the good part is you can always figure out and this is how:
3. BeliefMaybe you are self-aware and you know what you have to do. Great! But do you certainly and firmly believe you can achieve your goals? Case 1: Yes, I do! Good! Because you think you can, you will do things which make it possible for you. No matter what happens, you stick to your commitments to yourself and get things done. You stay away from excuses. You are ready to prioritize because you know you can achieve your goals and nothing comes without a price. Case 2: I don’t know! Maybe or maybe not! Red Alert! Because you don’t believe you can, you take things lightly. You justify when you are unable to stick to your commitments. You love excuses. You start thinking of Plan B more than Plan A. Slowly, plan B starts turning into plan A. You feel demotivated and shortly give up plan A completely. Bitter as a pill but “If you don’t believe you can, you can’t”
4. How LONG?You are self-aware and you believe you can, but still, it isn’t happening? “Keep trying until you don’t get there”, I won’t say that. Every goal must have a wisely calculated deadline. It isn’t practical if you don’t know how long you can keep trying. It is possible that even after many efforts you don’t see your goals being accomplished. With all due respect for your hard work and dedication, maybe it’s time to explore new possibilities. Tweaks and changes in plans can become your turning points. So, don’t hesitate to give a second thought, if at all necessary. But, how will you decide if you should give a second thought or not? Would it actually kill you to keep going? This means, do you have the resources to keep going? By resources, I mean physical, mental and emotional capabilities. So, if you think you aren’t making the 20 million dollars you aimed for and you are wondering whether you should continue working towards it. See if you have the physical resources, which can be further loan taking capacity for your business plans. See if you have the mental and emotional resources, which can be working with the same motivation and optimism you had earlier. So, “Do you have the resources?” Yes. Then pause! Resume! No. Then stop! Recalculate! These aren’t some hard and fast rules and you can make changes and learn from your experience. Just make sure you are working towards your goals and not away from them. Hope you are feeling powered up and if you wish to keep feeling that way, make sure your thoughts turn into actions. from https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/4-proactive-ways-to-get-terrifically-closer-to-the-success-youre-striving-for/ If you’d like to learn how to close consistent sales in your business so you can make money and be successful, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown. Heart pounding. Skin prickling. Unsure of what the outcome will be. Reminding myself to focus and breathe. Sales and competitive basketball have more in common than you’d think. The same tenacity, drive, and commitment that were required for success in my athletic career were the same things I needed to become successful in sales. When I became a mortgage loan officer, I was surprised to find that my adrenaline and nerves would spike as I picked up the phone to talk to a prospect, similar to when I was waiting for the ref’s whistle to blow to start a make or break play. If you’re new to making sales or haven’t quite found your footing yet, these transferable lessons can help you strengthen your skills:1. Intentional Reps Equal SuccessIntention plus action creates momentum. You can be good at anything if you get the reps in and focus on getting better with every set. Taking action for the sake of taking action can exacerbate poor habits, and make you feel like selling just isn’t your thing. The truth is that you need intentional practice so you consistently get better. Athletes are taught to focus on their form while executing different drills and exercises so that they can get the results they want. For example, in basketball, if you wanted to dribble better with your left hand, you would do everything with your left hand for 30 days to increase your coordination and familiarity with your non-dominant side. In sales, if you’re nervous about talking to people on the phone, you want to talk to five people minimum on the phone every day for 30 days. By pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone, you’re able to grow. This is what differentiates the people who just get by and the people who consistently close.
2. Little Actions Yield Big ResultsSmall things can make a big difference, especially over time. If you can commit to doing the little things that make you better, you’ll see bigger results. For example, by putting yourself in more sales situations, you have increased your number of leads and chances for closing a sale. Likewise, if you increase your successful lead generating activities (the ones that you know work) by 20%, you now have more opportunities to sell to the right prospects. The same goes for implementing a 30-minute reach out session each week to existing and potential referral partners. When you put effort into small, important actions, you can actually yield big results in your closing numbers. 3. Learn How To PrioritizeYou constantly hear about time management, but how often do you receive help understanding how to manage your time? Time management, in a nutshell, is valuing your time to make sure that you’re taking action in a way that actually moves you forward instead of digging you deeper. For example, doing paperwork and administrative tasks may be an important part of your duties, but if you get lost in those activities, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to make more sales. The truth is that time management is actually priority management. When you think about time management like that, it’s easier to see what activities are actually at the top of the list. Here’s an exercise that can help you develop a time and priority management system for yourself:
If you realized you’ve been focusing on needs that are lower priority, it’s okay. Most people find out that’s what has been happening the first time they do this exercise. The goal is to recognize it and put a system in place that will help you focus on your needs in the proper priority hierarchy.
4. Discipline MattersThere are things that you’re not going to want to do that are central to achieving your goals. Discipline is about not giving up and sticking with the plan, even when you don’t feel like it. You can see this easily in sports. For example, there was a difference between the athletes who slacked on offseason and those who stuck to their workout and practice regimens. There was a significant difference between showing up for my workouts consistently or taking a week off, only to feel like I was starting at the beginning again. It’s in the consistency of pushing your boundaries, being willing to be uncomfortable, and taking intentional action that you grow your skill set. This approach increases your mental toughness and makes it easier for you to handle the ups and downs of sales. Discipline gives you the power of process, so there’s always something meaningful to do whenever an unexpected stressor hits. 5. Learn To Win & Lose ProperlyIn sales, you’ll often hear about overcoming objections or turning a “no” into a “yes.” This advice is a little different. If a prospect gives you a genuine “no,” you have to learn how to take that loss as a good sport. Their answer does not automatically mean you did something bad or wrong, nor is it a reflection on how they feel about you as a person. Sometimes, an offer will not fit the needs of a prospect or for some reason, they’re not ready to move forward. Keep in mind that every interaction you have with a prospect is either a relationship-building experience or a relationship-detracting experience, and healthy relationships require you to know how to win and lose with grace. Where Will You Start?Your sales journey is going to be full of hills and valleys. There will be moments where you feel like you’re treading water and moments where you feel invincible. The key to making that ratio more wins than losses is in how you approach your sales game. Which of the above lessons will you focus on first to improve your sales game? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!from https://addicted2success.com/entrepreneur-profile/5-basketball-lessons-that-taught-me-how-to-close-consistent-sales/ If you’d like to learn how to avoid burning out so you can have a long and successful career, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown. Burnout affects professionals in every industry, but it can be particularly problematic being an entrepreneur because when it’s their own business, it can be on their mind all day, every day. It is more than just a sense of being tired. It is the state of being overwhelmed emotionally, mentally and physically, to the point that you need a break in order to keep functioning. Burnout is easy to find but difficult to avoid for entrepreneurs. There are, however, 6 things that entrepreneurs can do to minimize burnout:1. Set a ‘Normal’ ScheduleOne of the worst things an entrepreneur can do is be available all the time. Sometimes, when we start a new business, we want to be available all the time to make sure that things are being done correctly. While this is a noble idea, it is not practical at all. We need to be able to stop, rest and spend time with friends and family from time to time. You can be “on-call” for emergencies only but allow your employees to handle the running of day-today tasks. Be sure that you train them to understand what to do in typical situations and provide guidance on how you make difficult decisions. If you own a retail business, consider being there some days for opening schedules and on other days closing schedules. Don’t forget to schedule days off too. Especially try to avoid the “clopen” if you own a retail business that is open late and opens early by staying late and then being in very early the following morning. Encourage your employees to avoid doing this as often as possible, as well. Of course, sometimes this may be necessary, but don’t make a habit of it. 2. Hire Good PeopleThis one sounds like a no brainer, but sometimes people do not often realize how important it really is. If you hire people who can do their jobs effectively, you can focus on the important things and be much less stressed. Remember as well that good doesn’t mean average, they need to be really good for you to relax.
3. PlanThis is different from your schedule and you must plan what to do with your schedule. Your schedule is the hours you work and the plan is what to do with those hours. For example, you could have Meeting Monday, Business Building Tuesday, Work from Home Wednesday, Training Thursdays and Free Fridays. These may be the extent of your planned agenda, but you should also have a plan for each day. If you know Mondays are your days to plan meetings, don’t schedule one while you are training an employee on Thursday. You could also plan blocks of time. For instance, 8-10 Meetings, 10-2 Training and Lunch, 2-5 Business building phone calls, 5-6 Free Hour. Nothing has to be uniform either. You could schedule in 10-minute blocks or 2-hour ones. You might even schedule some of each. 4. Schedule Catch Up TimeSometimes we get behind on work. Things go wrong at home, work, or in our personal lives that command our attention. Without a time to work on catching up, we can begin to feel perpetually behind. Give yourself a day here and there to do nothing but catch up. Do not schedule anything on these days.
5. SleepSleep is good. Schedule one day a week to start later and sleep in if you can. If you have children to get ready for their day, consider leaving early one day and going to bed earlier or plan a midday nap. Sleep is important and can increase productivity as well. The more tired our brains are, the slower we are and the more mistakes we make. Get some rest! Even if it is not sleep, relax. You need to be able to rest. 6. Let GoMistakes will happen, things will go wrong and ideas will fail. These are just simple truths of life. Let them go. If your favorite worker quits, do not beat yourself up. You can certainly ask them if there was something more you could have done, but try not to let it get you down. On the other hand, if they quit because they felt underappreciated and overworked, consider what you might do differently with the next employee. Keep in mind, some people will leave and there is no changing that. Do not let everything be the end of the world. Make peace with the way things are and change what you can. Let everything else go. Burnout is easier to avoid than you realize but you may need to work at it a little. It’s very easy to recommend taking breaks, sticking to a schedule and letting things go but putting the advice into action can be difficult. You owe it to yourself and your business to learn to avoid the triggers of burnout. Own your time, mistakes and plans. Could you still wind up feeling burnt out? Sure, but these steps will minimize the risk of it happening. How do you make sure you avoid burning out in your career? Share your thoughts with us below!from https://addicted2success.com/entrepreneur-profile/6-simple-but-important-ways-for-entrepreneurs-to-avoid-burnout/ If you’d like to learn how to harness your own unique personality traits so you can be successful in pursuing your passions, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown. No two people are exactly alike. Yet, we were all created in God’s image. Each one of us has their own preferences when it comes to things that they hold dear to their heart and things that do not matter to them. The small things that bring you joy and the unique things that you find fascinating are the most beautiful things about you. They are unique to you and there can never be the exact same duplicate of you elsewhere on the face of the Earth. Even identical twins have certain aspects of their life or persona that make them different. Unfortunately, we all have a tendency of comparing ourselves to others. We think that by using people we admire in some way as a standard, we will improve who we are and make ourselves better people. We believe that by doing that we will be happier; instead what this does is trick our feelings and our imagination into thinking we are not good enough. It makes us want to change several aspects of our lives including the unchangeable ones.
Where we go wrongWhen we compare ourselves to someone else, we are pursuing an unattainable ideal. We often tend to think if I could have that car, that house, that dress, or that job then I would be happy but then this is futile. These external changes only bring momentary happiness at best. The only thing that results is that when we get that car, that house, that dress and that job, we just want something else. If only I had a better nose, bigger hips, were thinner, more muscular, a size 0, then I will be happy, be loved and love myself. What standards do we use to measure the ideal situation or the ideal life? When is bigger or thinner ever big or thin enough? All these standards that we try to fit ourselves into are things that our minds have been conditioned to believe are ideal. God created us different and when he did that he knew the reason why. If he had wanted us to be the same in any way, it wouldn’t be a problem for him to make it happen. He created us differently on purpose. The elusive goalEach of us is unique in our own way. When God created us, He made us beautiful and wonderful. Trying to compare ourselves to others squashes our uniqueness. It takes away our creativity to make the world a better place to live in. What we really need to know is that comparison is a moving target. It will never give us what we need. At some point, each person we compare ourselves to is revealed as flawed, not as perfect as we thought. Then we turn to another ideal but it too will remain elusive. Years pass as we keep pursuing ideals that keep changing because we are disappointed time and time again. We become disappointed in ourselves and unhappy because there is no achievement to show for as the goals keep changing. Every time you try to be like someone else, a piece of the best part of you dies.
ConclusionIt is time to embrace your uniqueness, face the world with boldness and bring out the best in you. The world is waiting on the uniqueness that you have. Look inside you and bring out that which you have been trying to hold on for the longest time because you think it is not good enough for the world to see. Martha Graham famously said, “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.” Those who dared to dream have seen major changes in their lives at a time when they least expected. If you read most success stories, you will notice that those people were nowhere close to perfect. It is their zeal and their willingness to work and show the world their uniqueness that placed them in front of the rest. Today could be your day to shine, but that will not find you seated on a couch in your house chilling on Netflix. You have to get up and work. Put some work and genuine effort in those ideas that you have been pushing aside for so long. The world awaits to embrace your uniqueness. How do you practice self-love and embrace your own uniqueness? Share your thoughts with us below!from https://addicted2success.com/life/how-to-harness-your-own-uniqueness/ If you’d like to learn how to build strong and consistent habits so you can achieve your goals, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown. You are the main factor limiting the growth of your business because of your fears, limiting beliefs, inability to focus, and inconsistency. Three years into running my first business, one thought sits deeply with me: I might have the best strategies, yet nothing would work until my habits (or the lack of those) stand in the way. On a journey of teaching myself consistency, I wanted to share a few of my findings:1. How many things are you trying to be consistent with?I’m trying to test new digital networking strategies in addition to dedicating time regularly to building products, keeping up with social media games, and more. About 15 times during my workday I say to myself: “This is it, now I just need to do this ONE thing EVERY DAY and the result won’t take long to show up.” I create spreadsheets for tracking this new process I came up with. The issue is I’ll probably never open most of those spreadsheets ever again. You can’t start exercising, eating healthy, reading before bed, and dedicating time to your passions all in one day. Consistency is friends with focus and best friends with priorities.
2. Make a decisionOne day, almost 5 years ago, I decided to train for a marathon. It took me 8 months and 9 days from the day the decision was made until I crossed the finish line. For 8 months and 9 days, I did not care about any external conditions. I trained through pouring tropical rains until the point I was running in water up to my ankles. I kept the schedule during family vacations halfway across the world. I left every party at 11pm, even If I just got there at 10pm. I organized my eating, sleeping, and working schedules around running. The day I decided to train, I also decided on how I would do it and set a schedule. I calculated what time I needed to wake up to do all that and set alarms. There was no rethinking and adjusting the plan to weather family vacations or any other factors. Many times, when trying to develop consistent habits, our good intentions are compromised with the complexity of execution. That’s why the first point of this list is still really important: you gotta know what the habit you are trying to be consistent with is so you can organize your life around it. 3. Willpower is limited, don’t waste in on “how to’s”We covered the schedule – you do it once. Same with all the other aspects of your new habit. Decide once and for all where you are doing it, what you are wearing while doing it, and how long you are doing it for. Have everything ready for yourself at the scheduled hour. If it’s a new business process you are working on, how about blocking time off in your calendar and switching off the distractions. If you are practicing daily writing, close all tabs except for your text editor the night before. 4. Have a planIn today’s reality, consistent content is one of the key elements of any online brand presence. Suddenly, even if you are an IT founder, you’re faced with a need to also be a writer. And to do it consistently, you must share your ideas on various channels. Amy Blaschka is a social media ghostwriter and storyteller who’s started every morning for the last nine years with her trusty MacBook Air and a cup of almond milk latte. She shares some hacks that helped her to maintain consistency: “I’ve found that carving out dedicated time to write and create content is crucial. For me, morning is best for my deep creative work, so as much as possible, and always write my Forbes articles on Sunday morning. I also tend to batch my content, creating more than one piece at a time, and map out my content for the month ahead.”
5. Stack the habitsJanice Wald who runs her blogging business together with her husband, shared how he brought a new sense of discipline into the business when she “hired” him to help her grow. She states, “My husband and I have both problem and solution hours each day. The idea is quite domestic. Over breakfast at 10:00 am, we review the problems our business will seek to tackle that day. During dog walking time at 6:00 pm, we review how we handled the day’s problems.” Many experts recommend habit stacking, as it’s often easier to add something to an existing daily routine, rather than creating a completely new one. How do you maintain consistency in your daily life? Share your ideas below!from https://addicted2success.com/life/read-this-if-you-are-tired-of-finding-excuses-for-your-inconsistency/ If you’d like to learn how to make strategic decisions so you can be successful, sign up for the free 90-Day Master Class hosted by the founder of Addicted2Success.com, Joel Brown. A number of years ago, I was struggling with a big decision. I was a full time instructor at a local college. I was in charge of their multimedia program – training students on fun things like video editing and web design and graphic design. Students came to class motivated. They enjoyed it as much as I did! It was a great setting! Yet, I noticed the longer I was there, the more extracurricular activities I was expected to take part in – review other academic programs, fill out a great amount of paperwork about interviews and classes and proposed courses, be a part of improvement-process teams, etc. It began to feel like the ‘other stuff’ was keeping me away from what I enjoyed most – being in the classroom and helping the students. Then there was this other unique opportunity that was growing. Since I was the main contact within the community for knowing web design and graphic design, the local businesses started calling me. They wondered about getting a website, a logo, a flyer, or a video. Some of the projects were ideal projects for students, and the local business was ok with that. Other projects were either beyond the scope of a student project or the business wanted me to do it. Since I had always had an entrepreneurial spirit, I began to wonder if these opportunities were more than just a side hustle. After a few years of balancing out the full time instructor position with the ‘side’ projects, I realized I had a decision to make. The OptionsI could continue as is – although one of my ‘jobs’ would ‘suffer’ and it would likely be the ‘side hustle.’ I tend to be loyal to my commitments and I wasn’t willing for my full-time job to suffer if I was taking projects on the side. If I chose the full time instructor option, the projects on the side would suffer. Not suffer in quality, but suffer in quantity. Maybe it was more that I would ‘suffer’ because I wouldn’t be able to do as many of them as I would like. Or, I could just choose one of the options. I could forget the side hustle and focus on being an instructor at the college, along with the other commitments that were expected of me. Although, even with this option, I knew I would continue doing at least 1-2 side projects. It was part of my philosophy of being an instructor. I needed to stay in touch with the real world to be of most benefit for my students. The other option would be to walk away from the instructor position, even though I knew I’d miss the student interaction. Instead, I’d go full time into doing my own business. Both of these had similar pros and cons list. One’s pro list was the other con’s list and vice versa. It wasn’t that one was necessarily better than the other, although there was one that was probably right for me. As I struggled with the decision, there was one question that kept coming up, and it was the answer to this question that showed me the right decision for me.
The One QuestionThe question to ask: Will you regret not taking this opportunity if you were to look back at this moment in 5, 10, or 20 years from now? Back to my situation of choosing between staying a full-time instructor or doing my own business full time. I knew I would not regret not staying a full-time instructor. I could always find a similar position elsewhere. But, I did know that I would regret not taking this opportunity to go full time into my own business. Yes, I could go full time into my business at any time, but the stars seemed to be aligned at that moment. I could not not take the opportunity to grow my own business. I knew that in the future I would regret not taking advantage of the opportunity that was kind of being handed to me. I knew my next step. The answer to the question, ‘Would you regret…?’ told me the right decision for me. It’s Not Without RisksYes, it meant missing the classroom – although I had ideas on how I could do that within my business and not have to get involved in the politics of being an instructor at a college. By the way, that happened to work out just like I had hoped! Yes, it meant taking a bigger risk of not having a regular paycheck, not having benefits, having a lot more unknowns – but doing something I’ve always dreamed of doing – having my own business. Knowing what I would regret if I was to look back at this moment in the future, helped me make the decision I needed to make at that time. And, in hindsight, nearly 20 years later, I’m so glad I did!
Would you regret …?What is the decision you are facing? More importantly, what is it you would regret in the future if you were not to make this move, or take this job, or …? What would you regret not doing, if you were to look back 10 or 20 years from now, or maybe even 1 year or 5 years from now? The one thing you hear most from people nearing the end of their life on earth are the words ‘I regret.’ Let that stark reality be the motivator and inspiration when it comes to making decisions about your life. Next time you are faced with a decision and are not sure what to do, ask yourself, “Would I regret not doing ….?” If the answer is yes, you know the right decision for you. What strategic ways do you use to make a decision you’re struggling with? Share it with us below!from https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/the-one-question-to-ask-if-you-are-struggling-with-a-decision/ |
ABOUT USHi I am Stacy Klein. I like swimming and i enjoy being organized and strive to become more efficient every day. Archives
November 2020
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