Develop a Culture of Winning

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First, I have to apologize for my regular readers. I have not posted in the last couple of days. With the Christmas Season coming upon us and a busy lifestyle, sometimes you have to say NO to certain tasks to ensure that you are staying on track with your BIG goals. I have had to do that this last few days. For more about learning to say NO, check out this post.

Now, back to it!

Living in Alberta, Canada, and being a huge fan of hockey, I have been the witness to a couple of NHL teams that, even though they are a three hour drive apart, couldn’t be further apart when it comes to results and attitudes. Now I know that I have written about the importance of having the right attitude in everything you do, but when you see it in the culture of a team or even a company, it is a great reminder as to you importance of keeping the lessons fresh in our minds.

In Edmonton, Alberta, the Oilers have been a team that has had major troubles over the past few seasons. They have been in a rebuilding mode and in the last 6 seasons have drafted in the top ten. Three of those seasons they have drafted number one overall. For those who are not fans of hockey, the worst team in the league gets their pick of the top young talent of that year. So with that type of young talent on the team, you figure that they would have improved and dramatically improve over the last few seasons. Well, they haven’t. In fact this season they have the worst record in the NHL (as of the date of this post). They have tried everything including firing their head coaches. In fact since the 2000-01 season, they have had six head coaches and have lost more games overall than won. This team has had an attitude of losing. You see it in the players on a consistent manner. They look helpless and lost on the ice. They lack hustle and are just flat. In fact, they have a culture of losing and this once great franchise has allowed an attitude of losing to creep into the dressing room. They have lost their leadership.

One the other hand, the Calgary Flames is a team that, on paper, is much less talented and has less potential than Edmonton. Their head coach, Bob Hartley, has managed this team to a winning record (as of the date of this post) and has managed to instill in his players an attitude of winning and a positive culture in the dressing room. This team never gives up on any game even when it looks hopeless. They concentrate on the basics of the game and focuses on the principles of solid hockey. Sure, they don’t win every game – in fact they are currently on a six game losing streak, but in watching this team, they never abandon the basics.

You see, when a team loses, they tend to ‘grab the stick too hard’. That means that they get desperate and will try to force things to happen. They abandon the basics and tend to make huge mistakes. That means that they will continue to lose which sours their attitudes, cause them to make more mistakes which causes them to lose some more – it becomes a downward spiral.

This is the same in every aspect of our lives. Whether you are in sales, playing sports, in relationships, no matter what it is, if you continue to focus on your history of losing or poor results, you will continue down that spiral. A ‘death spiral’ that you will have a very hard time to overcome. So how do you overcome a ‘culture of losing’?

1) Change Your Focus: Focus on the positives that you can take out of every set back. Look at the positives and the little things that can make a huge difference.

2) Watch What Winners Do: Who is the best in the discipline that you want to improve? What are they doing and how are they doing it? Read everything that they are doing and learn from it. Does that mean you are going to be the best just like them? No. But watching and learning what they do will go a long way to improving yourself. Which leads to the next point…

3) Stick To The Basics: It may seem simple, however you really need to focus on the little things that lead to success. Bob Hartley spends hours with his players on the ice focusing on the basics that the team needs to improve. Whether it is the angle of a player’s stick on the ice or the way they are skating, he knows that if you improve on the basics, winning will follow.

4) Surround Yourself With Leaders: One thing that is missing in the Edmonton Oilers’ dressing room is solid leadership. With such a young team, they do not have a strong, solid leader that will stand up and take them to task. You need to find a leader that you can look up to and that will hold you accountable. Someone that will listen to you but will not allow you to make excuses nor will accept excuses. Someone that will give you that ‘kick in the ass’ when you need it. We all need that leader in our life. Find that mentor and learn all you can from them – but make sure that they are a positive influence and not a negative one. That they lead by example.

5) Work Hard: Never give up. Put in a solid work ethic and keep at it. When others give up, kick it into a higher gear. Be the first one in and the last one out. Keep practicing your discipline until you get it right, then keep practicing until you CAN’T get it wrong! Winners spend hours concentrating on improving the basics of their craft. That is what you need to do. Once you conquer the basics, you will be unstoppable and back on your winning ways.

6) Never Stop Having Fun: Sure, it’s easy to be frustrated when things are not going your way. You need to loosen up an discover the fun in your life and in anything that you do! Approach it like a kid who is playing. Find that love that you may have once had. When you have fun, you do things out of habit. You tend to stop thinking too much and you just DO.

By following these points, will you instantly have success? No. But these are great starts in getting back into the win column. With each small victory, you will build on it and begin to put the pieces together. You will begin to lift yourself out of the negative death spiral and will build a foundation for success. Success breeds success. With each win you will get that belief back and eventually you will build a solid culture of success and of winning. You will begin to believe that nothing will stop you – and nothing will as long as you have belief in yourself.

Have an amazing day and keep at it. You got this!

The Secret to Reaching All Your Goals

Here we go folks. I’m going to give you all the secret to reaching every goal that you have. Give you success beyond what you would ever thought you would have. It is so amazing, it is a surprise that many more people don’t take advantage of it!

It is a secret that has been passed down from generation to generation. All successful people use this secret and continue to use this secret. Are you read to hear it?

Sure you can handle it?

It’s a little thing called…

Sure you want to know?

O.K., I’ll tell you. But you are not going to like it! It’s a little thing called WORK!

Holy cow, stop the presses! This is revolutionary!! No, not really revolutionary. It is pretty simple in fact. If you are like me, you read a lot of things out there. YouTube is filled with the latest videos of the ‘Secret’. Some people will turn and say that if ‘you only think it, you will be it’. The ‘Law of Attraction’, blah blah blah. While it is true that you need to maintain your focus on the things that you want to achieve, if you are thinking about being a success but then sitting on the couch not doing anything about it, nothing is going to come your way. Success won’t be ‘attracted’ to you. You have to go out and get it! 

So many people today refuse to do the work necessary to get the job done. To reach their goals and be successful. We all know these people. Heck, it may even be us! We sit and watch TV instead of educating ourselves, working our connections and doing the work necessary to succeed. We watch the reality shows showing successful people and wishing we had their lifestyle. But have you noticed anything? Have you noticed that they aren’t sitting on the couch watching TV? WOW! Mind blown!

Yes, I am using a lot of sarcasm in today’s post because I hear these messages in the media all the time. The next ‘get rich quick’ scheme. The ads that tell you that you can be the next real estate investor using other people’s money, the secret strategies that made these people rich. You can spend all your money going to these seminars, reading the books and writing done all the tips and tricks that you see plastered all over the internet…

Or…

I’ll just fill you in right now and save you a ton of money. Get moving. Start working. Stop Dreaming and start DOING.

I can hear it now… But Dave, I don’t know where to start! What do I do?

Well, here are just a couple of things that can get you moving in the right direction:

1) Set your goals – how will you know what to aim for if you do not have a clear destination? Set you goal. Take an hour or so and sit down with a pad of paper and write down what you want to achieve. Set ‘sign post’ goals along the way. ‘Sign post’ goals are those that you will achieve on your way to reaching your ultimate goal. Don’t write down “earn six figures”. This is too vague. You want to write down specific goals on what you want to achieve.

2) Search out people who are already successful – There are people in your geographical area that are already doing what you want to do. Who have already achieved the lifestyle that you want. Talk to them. Seek them out and ask them what they did to be where they are. When you meet with them, have a plan. Have a list of questions that you want answered. Come prepared. No one wants to have their time wasted, so have a set of objectives that you want from the meeting. Want to get into real estate sales? Then find the most successful realtor or real estate investor in your area and simply ask them what they did to make it.

3) Turn off the distractions – Turn off the TV. Don’t open up your Facebook account. Limit your internet use on things that will not move you to where you want to be. Turning off those things that do not get you closer to your goal will give you more time and energy to reach your goal.

4) Put into Action Everything you learn – NOW – Yes. NOW. Start working. Starting doing. The more work you put into something the more successful you will be. Start looking for solutions and put them into practice.

There. Now you have all the tools needed to push you in the right direction. That is it. Simple isn’t it? Why are more people not reaching their goals and the success that they want? Well, simply put, they don’t want to work for it.

I believe that Thomas Edison said it best:

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

‘Tis the Season

Ahh Christmas is in the air! With just over 2 weeks left until Christmas, the air is filled with Christmas music, kids are eagerly awaiting Christmas day and…

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The malls and parking lots are filled with anxious shoppers looking for the greatest deals. People are going deeper into debt looking to one-up last year’s gifts. The stress of the Christmas season is upon us and people fight and struggle for the best deals – with Black Friday and the upcoming post-Christmas shopping deals, we have really lost the true nature and splendor of what Christmas is all about!

So what is Christmas all about? It is about celebrating the original Christmas gift. A little

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baby born in a manger. It is about celebrating life and a renewed hope in times of crisis. I can go on and on about the importance of this season and the spiritual side of things here and I know not everyone who reads my blog is a Christian or believes in Jesus – and that is fine. I’m not here to ‘jam’ Christianity down your throats. I’m simply stating my beliefs and the lessons that I learn from my perspective. It just seems so amazing to me how we have taken such a holy event and bastardized it into the spectacle that it is today. Everyone is so wrapped up into giving and getting the ‘perfect gift’ when the real perfect gift was given over 2000 years ago.

Christmas is a time to celebrate life, not to grab the best deal on the latest electronics, or this season’s hottest toy (that is simply going to be cast off and forgotten within a couple of months). It is not about fighting traffic, standing in lines, dealing with miserable people and getting deeper into debt to buy things. It is about happiness, about family. It is about spending time with those that you love. It is about giving hope to those that do not have hope. It is something that should be celebrated all year long – not just for a few weeks (or in retail terms a month and a half).

Luckily enough, I have an amazing wife who re-enforces that belief in our family. Sure, we have a Christmas tree and she goes all out decorating the house. I love seeing the joy in her eyes and the lights come on the tree. I love the fact that, as a family we can sit down and share the love that we have for each other and spending time with good friends – just enjoying each other’s company. Away from the hustle and bustle of frantic shoppers who are spending time to buy things that are simply going to break, wear out or become outdated in a month. Kids don’t remember what you bought for them on a certain Christmas Day. They remember and cherish the times spent. They remember the little traditions of reading the Christmas story or sitting down as a family to watch the yearly Christmas movie that you must watch every year. They remember the times of family coming and they remember the times where, as a family, you gave to another family in need who wouldn’t have a Christmas. They remember the love. They remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas.

It’s not all about the presents and the money spent. It is about the times spent. Try to remember that as Christmas is fast approaching. Take the time with friends and loved ones. Create magical moments that is not about money, but about time spent.

Be Willing to Forgive

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Are you human? Congratulations! You have been wronged in some way shape or form! There are two ways that you can deal with being slighted or wronged. You can forgive, or hold onto it and never forgive the person that has wronged you. The choice is yours, but your decision can affect you as long as you live.

When people feel that they have been wronged (especially when it is not justified), they can continue to live in bitterness and pain. They can choose to let that bitterness turn into pure hatred which consumes every fiber of their being. That hatred causes them to forget all else – and everyone else – around them and will cause them to be paralyzed with so much intense feelings that nothing else matters. The huge issue here is that it affects YOU. It doesn’t affect the person you choose not to forgive. Heck, they probably forgot what they did, or, don’t even care. But you… you let it consume every part of your being to the point of despising that person. Your very thoughts are on that person that what they did and you want to be avenged! Now, I’m not saying you are going to go out there are look for revenge or physically harm the person, but you want to be acknowledged and want that person to admit their wrong-doing.

I know what I am going to say next is going to be hard to take and do. You may even hate me for saying this. You really have to GET OVER IT! Stop letting this bitterness consume you. It really hold you back and will eventually harm you in more ways than you can ever imagine. There is a study released in 2010 that links unforgiveness (or holding grudges) to higher rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, ulcers, headaches, chronic pain and even arthritis! Not to mention the affects on our mental state as well. Bitterness associated with unforgiveness will make us angry, resentful and outright distrustful of anyone and everyone around us. It can affect our personal relationships and future relationships – we refuse to trust anyone.

I’m not going into a whole “forgive and forget” post here. You can forgive someone (or in this case let it go) without forgetting. You shouldn’t forget – you can learn so much from the situation. You can choose to forgive and move on. Stop focusing on the past and choose instead to move on with your life. By letting go of the situation and circumstances, you choose to not let it cripple you with bitterness and hatred.

What if the person that you need to forgive doesn’t want forgiveness or worse yet DOESN’T CARE what they did? Then they have moved on – why can’t you? You need to forgive anyway and move on with your life. Be thankful that you have let that person go and you choose to remove any part of that person from your life. You see, if you choose to hold on to unforgiveness, you are giving that person power over your life. Is that what you want? Of course not. Move on. Be the better person and let go of the hatred inside. It is harder than it looks, depending on the circumstance, however you will be much better for it as you take the lesson you learned and move onward and forward in your life. Don’t focus on what has happened in the past. Choose to focus on the present and future. Your well-being and your life may depend on it!

So choose to forgive. Embrace life and move on. You got this! Keep moving towards your goals and towards a better, more positive you.

Seek First to Understand

One of the things that we learn in sales is to clarify what the client or prospect is saying. To truly understand and ensure that what the client or prospect is saying is what we are hearing is so very important. Nothing more frustrating than misunderstanding and presenting the wrong solution for a client – trust me. It can be incredibly embarrassing as well!

I think about my personal relationships and all the times that I have not asked for clarification when my wife or friends say something. How many arguments/disagreements and issues that pop up when we assume what they are saying. It can even be something as simple as the tone in someone’s voice that can make a world of difference in what they are saying and how we hear what they are saying.

A classic example of this is what I have dealt with several months ago with a certain client. They called me up asking about recording a “jingle” on our radio station. Through the conversation, I began asking questions about the type of singers they want and music for their jingle. The conversation was then full of confusion. You see, to me a jingle means a catchy musical advertisement. So when he asked for a 30 second jingle, I was pricing out the cost of finding a composer and singers to create a 30 second song for him. I came to find out that, to him, a jingle was simply a 30 second advertisement. No singing, just a simple advertisement to promote his business!  After coming to an understanding of what he was looking for, I was able to properly provide him with what he wanted.

How many times in life have we misunderstood things that people have said? In today’s busy life, it is so easy to be distracted with things and, instead of asking for clarification in some form or another we take the words at face value – without truly understanding. With texting and email, it can be even more confusing! To really understand someone, we should really take the time to truly talk and listen. This may sacrifice a couple of more minutes (God forbid!). Imagine how many disagreements or misunderstandings will be avoided if we just clarified what we said or heard? Maybe, just maybe life would go a little smoother.

The Final Push. Never Stop!

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The Calgary Flames (an NHL Hockey team for those who are not sports fans), is a young team that I have come to be a huge fan of since moving to the Calgary area over a year ago. As a life long Detroit Red Wings fan, I found it hard to like another team, however since they are in separate conferences, I figured I am allowed a favourite Western Conference team and that is the Flames. The Flames have captivated the hearts of many because of their ability to come together as a team. No matter what adversities that come their way, their leadership and the team as a whole refuses to give up.

The Flames are one of the best come-from-behind teams in the NHL. When down 2 goals, they fight back and never give up. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose, but they NEVER give up. They overwhelm teams that, on paper, should annihilate them. But the team doesn’t back down from the challenge. Currently they are among the top teams in the Western Conference – because they never give up.

As we are nearing the end of the year, many people take the time to evaluate what has happened over the past year. We look at the victories and also the things that we have not accomplished through the year. We get upset and think that all the chances to accomplish our goals are gone. We just simply give up. Never give up.

As we are nearing the end of the year, this is not the time to let up on the gas. It is time to kick it in high gear. Kick it into overdrive. It is time to find that inner strength and push towards the goals that we have set for ourselves. Now is the time to put all your energy into achieving your goals for 2014 and to set yourself up for an even better and stronger 2015. Like the Calgary Flames who were down 2 goals going into the last period earlier this week against a much tougher opponent (the Flames came back and won the game!), it is time to make that last push. It is time to say ‘enough is enough, I got this!’ Win or Lose, you will be known as the one who will never give up and will keep going until the final buzzer sounds.

Let’s make the last 5 weeks (or so) of 2014 the best of the year. Find that inner strength and refuse to give in. Keep moving and finish strong. You got this!

 

It Was a Learning Weekend

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Driving to a client’s location on Thursday, I received THE call. It was Paul, the president of my daughter’s minor football association. After the pleasantries, the call went a little something like this:

Paul: Dave, you and your family are going to the end of year banquet Friday night, right?
Me: Yeah, absolutely, we’ll be there!
Paul: Great. Look, I was wondering if you would be the Master of Ceremonies.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I DO NOT speak in public in front of large groups. Some may think this is surprising (as Paul did) since I am in sales and have to make presentations all the time, but that is in front of small groups of no more than 5. I have turned down many opportunities to present in front of large groups. I’m more comfortable being the behind the scenes guy in the sound booth! Speaking in front of large groups is my biggest fear (by far). I would rather sit in a bathtub of snakes and spiders for 10 hours than to speak in front of people for 10 minutes. I, of course, said no to Paul at first. Then he kept pushing.

Paul: Nothing to worry about. I’ll have a full script for you to follow. It will be really easy.

Then he said something that got me. I’m not sure if Paul has read my blog at all, but he hit me right between the eyes with his next comment:

Paul: Besides, it will be a great learning experience for you. Will give you the opportunity to get out of your comfort zone!

There it was. “Ah crap”, I thought to myself, “if I say no, I’m going to be going against everything I say on this blog and tell others when I speak with them” (on one on one’s). So, after agreeing to it (reluctantly), I hung up with Paul. Then the worrying and the sweating began.

When I have spoken in front of large groups, I stammer (a lot – every second word is either um or ahhh), I get REALLY red (as red as Santa’s red suit), and sweat. It’s not a pretty sight. My wife and kids were really supportive. Giving me some great encouragement. I still had the worry about what was going to happen. I may never show my face in public around my small town again if this went south! No I had to speak in front of 120 plus people.

Well, I am pleased to say that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Yes I turned red. Yes I was a wee bit warm, but all in all I faced my fear and lived through it. Now will I be setting up speaking arrangements for 2015? Absolutely not! But I have proven to myself that it wasn’t that bad – well at least according to some of the people that came up to me after, but they may have been kind!

It was a great learning experience for me. I have looked at fear a lot of different ways and have had the privilege of being able to stretch myself many times through opportunities that have come my way. Most of the fears that I have dealt with however have been about dealing with working hard and the sacrifices involved in reaching goals. I have never had to deal with this kind on fear before (well, as long as I can remember). I’m glad that Paul called me out (even if it wasn’t his intention) and made me face my fear.

Another learning experience that I had this weekend was learning the game of Curling. For those who are not familiar with curling, it is basically ‘shuffleboard on ice’. It is a game that I have ridiculed for years. Teased those that have played it and have invited me to play. Late last week the radio station that I work for needed to put a team together. We were missing a person so I decided, what the heck. Surprisingly enough, it was a lot of fun. I can see how people can like the game. As a complete newbie to the game, I had to quickly learn that there is a lot more involved than just throwing the ‘rock’ down the ice to the other end. There is a lot of strategy behind it.

So, this weekend as really a huge learning weekend for me. By facing my fear of speaking in public, it allowed me to learn a little more about myself and begin to remove another fear that I have refused to face and create a belief that I can do it without passing out! By trying a new game, I learned that something that I have ridiculed so much in the past is actually very fun. That I should never judge something before trying it out first.

What are some of the lessons that you have learned over the last little while? I’d love to hear about them!

Day 40: The End is Here – But It’s Only the Beginning!

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Today is day 40 of my 40 Day Challenge. The 40 Day Challenge is a personal challenge to work on improving a key area in life by replacing bad habits with good ones. Making little steps along the way that will lead to long-lasting, life changing results.

Well, this is day 40 of my personal 40 Day Challenge. For new readers, I personally challenged myself in two major areas of my life; Health and Finances. It has been my goal to change certain negative habits by replacing them with new, positive ones. I chose 40 days for the challenge because if you stick to something for 40 days, it becomes ingrained in us. Today is the last day of my challenge, but it really is only the beginning!

When I set out on this challenge, I had a number of things to improve in a a few key areas of my life – after all, everyone can improve something right? My major issue was my health and a minor one was my finances. These are two areas that needed to be improved ASAP. I had some pretty bad habits. I was eating out all the time (junk food) and that affected my health AND my finances. I was spending money on silly things, and I needed to increase my savings. When I started, I wanted to hit a couple of milestones. For my health, I needed to have an increase in energy and lose around 18 pounds to start. For my finances, I needed in increase my income by 25% and to pay off 20% of my debt (not including auto/home). I am pleased to say that I have reached those goals at this time. I’m not writing this to say “look at me!”, but to say that if I can do it, well, anyone can do it. All I did was simply change what I was doing and the habits that I allowed to take control.

Health – For this, all I did was change the way I viewed food. I simply began to eat more regularly and more healthy food. eating 4 to 5 times a day in smaller doses meant that I was keeping my energy level up throughout the day instead of stuffing my face a couple times a day (sometimes only once a day – at dinner). I also began to increase my movement! I began walking up flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. I also went to the gym. Now, this is still something I need to get into more often (hitting the gym), but I have begun to work on the other habits to give me the energy to attack my next challenge – actually going to the gym regularly (maybe for the next 40 days!)

Finances – Since I stopped stopping in at fast food places, I ended up saving a TON of money. I was actually shocked at the amount of money that I have saved from not eating out. I also logged the money that I was spending. This made me very conscious of what I was spending on. I also began to think, “do I REALLY need to spend money on this?”. As far as increasing my income, the last 40 days has been very good. I am in sales, so my income is dependent on what I sell. I made a conscious effort to concentrate on more money making activities. Because of that, I was able to really concentrate on bringing in more sales and because I had more energy, I was able to be more upbeat – which can be effective when speaking with clients! I have also been more focused – which lead to making more sales!

All this to say that when I look back at the last 40 days, I am surprised at how far along I have come. Enough about me though! I am very surprised how much changing just a couple of small habits can lead to such amazing results. Sure, they may be considered small steps at first, but they definitely add up. The same can be said for anyone looking to make long lasting changes in their lives. To be honest, I was really skeptical at first when beginning this challenge. I didn’t think that these goals would be reached at first, but I decided to suspend my disbelief and work to make it happen. My results have been surprising. So surprising in fact that I am beginning another 40 day challenge in other areas of my life.

The habits that I have put into practice here are habits that I am going to be continuing and through that, am going to be improving on every day. My old, destructive habits are gone. As mentioned, if I can do this, anyone can really do it – it all involves small steps.

If you participated in your own 40 day challenge, I would love to hear about your results! What were you looking to change and how did you do? Feel free to contact me using the contact page or simply add your comments below. I’d love to hear from you.

Keep going! You got this! Every little step counts – as long as you keep going!

Day 39: Stop Finger Pointing

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Today is day 39 of my 40 Day Challenge. The 40 Day Challenge is a personal challenge to work on improving a key area in life by replacing bad habits with good ones. Making little steps along the way that will lead to long-lasting, life changing results.

Today I am going to go on a mini-rant here. This is something that has been bothering me for some time and, although I want to help, sometimes I just want to slap people who bring up excuses or blame others.

In my sales career, I have seen it all. I have also trained a number of people in different roles. I have been a trainer, a mentor, a sounding board… well, you get the idea. I have heard all the excuses and heard of people playing the blame game far too often. We all know the kind of people that play these games. The person that blames their parents, or that they didn’t receive a fair ‘shake’ or didn’t receive the tools needed to get the job done. Basically, it is everyone else’s fault that they are not succeeding.

I find that people like this fall into a couple of categories:

1) They are Lazy – to be perfectly blunt, these kinds of people do not want to put the work in to be successful or to reach their goals. They go through the day not looking for help, but looking for someone to DO the work FOR them.

2) They Just Don’t Listen (or want to learn) – this is the kind of person that I run into way too often. They will do the work and activities, but they don’t do the RIGHT activities to reach their goals. They also refuse to listen or follow advice. For example, I worked with someone who was very new in sales. He was given a set of tasks to achieve to get him off to a quick start. He hit the ground running. Was making call after call and setting up meeting after meeting, but nothing was coming from it. No real results. After going with him to a couple of meetings, it was clear pretty early on that this person wasn’t truly listening to the needs of the people that he was talking to. He wanted to talk over them and was instead pushing them too much. After the meeting we sat down and I gave him some pointers on what I saw. Every time I brought up something to improve on, my suggestions were met with ‘yeah, but…’ and some excuse. No matter what was brought to his attention, he refused to listen. After 6 months, he was let go from the company. A month or so later, I read a post on a social media site of this person ranting that he wasn’t given a chance, how the company didn’t help him and how he never had a chance. He was basically ‘thrown to the wolves’. This drove me NUTS! Everyone at our company worked with him to give him the best opportunity to succeed. He just refused to listen to the advice given – he just didn’t want to learn.

I see this all the time. People that just do not want to take responsibility for their actions, or lack of action. They will blame their upbringing (their parents didn’t give them the support they needed), they blame their education (their teachers didn’t help enough), they blame their company (didn’t receive the tools they needed), they blame… EVERYONE! It is ridiculous the things that people do to receive attention. Others will come up to them and try to console them. Others fall into the trap of being sympathetic to their plights. Until one day realizing that this is a pattern and no matter what help this person receives, they are not willing to take responsibility for themselves.

If you feel that you are falling into the pattern that my former co-worker is in currently, I want to say congrats! You have realized that it is a pattern that you have fallen into. Patterns can be changed and broken.

During this 40 day challenge, I have realized that all the excuses don’t mean a thing. You can sit there and feel sorry for yourself and blame everyone else, but until you make a conscious decision to change and take personal responsibility – well, nothing will change.

I would like to encourage you to STOP POINTING FINGERS!! Stop pointing fingers at everyone else and anything else. Take responsibility and you will be surprised at how many barriers will suddenly disappear.

You got this! Keep moving toward your goals and STOP POINTING FINGERS!

 

Day 36: Staying Productive

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Today is day 36 of my 40 Day Challenge. The 40 Day Challenge is a personal challenge to work on improving a key area in life by replacing bad habits with good ones. Making little steps along the way that will lead to long-lasting, life changing results.

Life has been very hectic the last couple of days. On Saturday morning at 5:16 am, my daughter gave birth to a health baby boy. He decided to come a couple of weeks early – couldn’t wait to come out! I’m officially a grandpa. Thinking that my getting up several times during the night was done (after all I have 6 kids), with my daughter a single mom, she relies on my wife and I to help through all of this. So, back to the getting up every few hours to help can get tiring.

As mentioned in an earlier post, things happen and it all depends on how we react to it. We can choose to make it better or it can make us bitter. I now have a beautiful grandson that I have the joy of seeing grow up during his early years. Now the challenge REALLY begins! Adding all this on to an already busy life can seem overwhelming. Our lives can seem so swamped that we can seem to get off track on the goals and the things that we need to do to accomplish our goals. Sometimes all we need to do is to shift our priorities just a little to remove some of the remaining time wasters out of our routines. Times like these just means that we need to find more ways to be productive

One of my favourite productivity secrets is to do things in blocks of time. Every day I have people surprised that how much I seem to work. I’m going to give you a little inside news here – I don’t work as much as some people think I do! I have to schedule everything and STICK to that schedule. I put my tasks in time blocks and really only work 90 minutes at a time. Then take a break or rest and relax to change my focus. I found this out through reading productivity books and trying out new techniques to find one that works. You see, you never know what works for you until you try it.

With 6 kids, a full time job, running around and getting all the things that are associated with a sales position, kid’s activities and my volunteer work the day can fly by. I get asked all the time, “how do you do it all?” The answer is simple – PRIORITIZE, DIVIDE, DO IT.

Let’s look at these three steps. By all means, this is not the be all and end all and this is simplifying it, but you will get the idea:

PRIORITIZE:
This is so very important. Take some time and list all your roles and goals. Roles are the responsibilities that you have in life – like being a husband, father, employee, friend, son, volunteer, now grandfather… well , you get the idea. Write down your roles in life and the goals that you wish to achieve in each of those goals. Then prioritize them in order of importance to you. You can do this for the year, month, week, and day. Break it down and set up timelines along the way. This is important to stay on track.

DIVIDE:
Divide your goals into small chunks. There are key times that I do this. In mid-December (to prepare for the year to come), the last day/first day of the month (to prepare for the month) Sunday morning (to prepare for the week) and of course first thing EVERY morning (to prepare for the day ahead). This is something that I have stuck to for quite a while now and find that my days are more productive.
During these planning times, I divide my tasks and goals up. For my daily planning, I split my day into time blocks. Depending on the tasks, I split them up in blocks of 30 minutes to as much as 90 minutes. I take plenty of breaks to refocus and also schedule fun time in there. These time blocks are put in my calendar throughout the work day. After dinner time, I have family time where it isn’t really scheduled out because we like to have some spontaneous time together. I find it very important to allow a lot of spontaneous time – can’t plan EVERYTHING!
Dividing up my day allows me to remain focused. It also keeps me in line to ensure that the habits I instill will be done, that I stick to my routine that I need to achieve my goals. It also ensures that nothing gets ‘dropped’. It also holds me accountable.

DO IT:
This is such an important part of everything. You can make all the plans you want, you can schedule everything out but it all comes down to actually DOING IT. Putting everything into action. That is so vital. Nothing more needs to be said. You just need to DO IT.

When all is said and done, you need to find what makes you productive. What works for me won’t necessarily work for you. The key is to find something that works and stick to it. Most people worry so much about following steadfast productivity ‘rules’ then get frustrated when it doesn’t work for them. You may need to try several different techniques or take a little out of each different technique to make it your – but make it YOURS.

Keep going folks! You got this! Keep moving forward.