Is Procrastination Sabotaging Your Business Success?

The other day when riding in my car I almost drove off the road. Here's why:

When driving in my car I usually listen to 1 of 2 things. Either its, 1) the Bruce Springsteen CD that fits my mood for the day, or the CD that will put me in the right frame of mind for the activity I'm soon going to be involved in, or 2) a personal or professional development educational CD to feed my mind with the fuel it needs to grow in areas where I feel I need growth, or to refine something I'm already good at.

The other day I was doing that latter. I was listening to a CD compilation of Napoleon Hill's "Science of Personal Achievement." During one of his workshops he was speaking about the three causes of failure and he listed them as:

1) The inability to get along with others;
2) Quitting right before you are about to have a breakthrough
3) Procrastination!

I've been preaching since opening my coaching practice how dangerous procrastination is, and now, here is one of the founders of the personal/professional development movement of the 20th century backing up my claim! How cool is that?

In my coaching I still find it as one of the key challenges people must overcome. And it rears its ugly head in ways many people don't even realize. Many members of The Achievement Gym come to me because they are not getting the results they want out of their business, but when I mention procrastination, they tell me that's not their problem as they are always moving forward and are active in their business.

And I find that to be true, as I also find to be true that they are not doing the things they MUST do to be successful. Oh, they're doing "things" alright, but they are not doing the things that are most important to creating their business in the most positive manner.

It may be that the owner of a small insurance agency is always out there beating the streets producing for his company, yet he continues to procrastinate on dealing with personnel issues back at the office.

It may be the real estate agent who is busy running all over the county with a prospective buyer, but does so to avoid doing the prospecting and the networking necessary to build the business on the listing side because its the path of least resistance.

Or it may be the small business owner to takes on a lot of major projects and tries to juggle them all and keep them all in the air, moving each one forward at a snail's pace, feeling stressed and burned out all the time, because that's how they get their feeling of "importance," instead of focusing on what's most important to build their business in a more effective manner.

Those are just a few examples of how the habit of procrastination sometimes acts below the surface and sabotages our business without us even knowing it. How might it be a problem for you? What do you want to do about it?

If you'd like help with your habit of procrastination check out - www.EndProcrastinationNOW.com . I'm here to help.

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

Meanings Make All the Difference in Your Success

Holocaust & Nazi concentration camp survivor Victor Frankl, a world reknowned psychologist, wrote a book titled "Man's Search for Meaning." His concentration camp experience transformed his life's work into studying the effect of the "meanings" human beings place on their circumstances, which he called "Logos Therapy." "Logos" being the latin word for "meaning."

It was the meaning Frankl placed on his experience while in the Nazi concenctration camps in World War II that allowed him to create survival mechanisms and actions, while millions of others gave up hope, and meaning, and ultimately perished.

I bring this up because what I'm learning in working with more and more people in my coaching practice is that "meaning" makes the difference in everything. What I've come to realize is that our "meanings" are the driving force behind just about everything we do, think, have and feel in our life, including:

- our overall Quality of Life
- our level of stress
- our level of happiness
- our communications with others (and ourselves)
- our ability or inability to overcome obstacles
- our ability to inability to overcome failures
- our ability to take action and move forward, or stay stuck

I returned to this concept recently in working with a client who was stuck (if he's reading this he will probably know who he is). He joined The Achievement Gym back in the late spring and we set some goals for bringing on new business, and seemed like we had some momentum with each coaching call, but nothing ever got accomplished.

He continued to be distracted and sabotage whatever commitment he made to himself on each call. In one of our most recent sessions, I was at a loss for where to go next, and knew I owed him something more than what he was getting from me. So, I asked him this question, "what does a new client mean to you and your business?"

Now, I'm no genius and I wasn't going anywhere special with that question except to try and get some leverage on him by having him express, in financially quantifiable terms, the impact of a new client. But what I got was golden.

He answer me with a laundry list of activities that immediately put me into overwhelm just listening to it (imagine what it was doing to him?). When he finished reciting the overwhelming list of stuff he immediately had to do for a new client, I said, "no wonder you don't want to bring in new business."

He wasn't focused on the positive things a new client could mean, such as a new long term business relationship, new income, a step closer to fulfilling his dreams for his personal and professional life, making a difference and helping someone make their business function more effectively, etc.

He was focused solely on immediately setting in motion all the "demands" this new client was going to place on him. Now, although I could say its easy to just change the meaning of that situation and focus on all the positives that come from the new client (what is called "reframing"), that's not enough in this situation.

It's not enough because he had developed a habit of responding immediately upon the demands of each new client on their terms (does this sound familiar to you?), in a way that did not support a shift in his meanings. Therefore we had to work on setting boundaries first (see Part 3 in our "Setting Boundaries" series).

Although it wasn't initially possible in this case, in many, many instances (as Victor Frankl has shown us) it is as easy as just deciding to change the meaning of the experience to something that supports our more desired outcome. You do this by asking yourself a couple of questions:

1) What meaning have I placed on this situation?
2) What else could this mean?
3) What is the most positive, powerful meaning I could place on this situation that would support my most desired outcomes?

Try it for yourself and let me know how it goes.

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

The 4 Risk Factors of Your Business

Whenever I facilitate my introductory workshops I always ask the attendees one question to focus their attention - "What is something you are not doing, that you should be doing, that if you did it would make the biggest difference in your business?"

Regardless of the niche market I'm working in, I receive very similar answers. I usually do these workshops in four primary niche markets, real estate agents, financial advisors, insurance agents and mortgage brokers. Here are the four categories of answers I get:

1) Managing my time
2) Prospecting, Networking & Marketing
3) Following up with prospects and current clients
4) Dealing with difficult prospects / clients

It's no wonder many business professionals in those fields are unfulfilled, stressed and overwhelmed. These four areas are the keys to running a successful, fulfilling and profitable business. Why is that:

1) Managing my time
Each of us is equal in just one area of our life. And that is we each have 24 hours in a day to choose how to use our time. Those that make effective decisions in how they use their time, and effectively set boundaries with themselves and others, will determine how they feel about themselves, and how effective they are in running their business.

2) Prospecting, Networking & Marketing
This is the life blood of any business. This is what fills the pipeline that will flow financial abundance into our business. You can never do enough of these three related activities. The more networking you do will bring you prospects to fill your marketing pipeline inexpensively, and is why one of the 8-Core Strategies of The Achievement Gym is "Creating a Low Cost Marketing Funnel." You are either working on your "Marketing Funnel" or you are working "in" your B.S. funnel (things that keep you busy, and distracted but create little in terms of opportunities to generate new business).

3) Follow up with Prospects and Customers
Once you have them in your sphere of influence you must treat them like gold, or you will lose 'em. Service them, Service them, Service them. When they call you, call them back in a timely fashion. If they ask for information, get it to them as soon as possible. If you don't have an answer, call them and give them a progress report. If you have bad news, deliver it sooner rather than later. There's too much competition out there, and it costs too much to obtain a prospect to let 'em get away because of the fear of an interaction.

4) Dealing with difficult prospects / clients
There is only one way to deal with difficult prospects, and that is to set the expectations up front as to how you run your business and what you expect from them, should they become clients of yours. Those expectations should be reiterated at the time those prospects turn into clients to ensure everyone understands and respects each other's boundaries. It is a good idea to occasionally evaluate you present client base and grade your clients A, B, C, D, and identify those you want to continue working with and those you would prefer to let go of. Keep the A's & B's, try converting the C's and let the D's go.

Simple solutions to four challenging business building issues. If you think about it, they all work well together. If you have an effective marketing funnel, you will be attracting more of the types of clients you want to work with, which will enhance your "time management" (if you set your business boundaries and parameters effectively, which a coach could help you with), and you will exciting to keep in touch with them all, regardless of what you need to communicate with them because you have built a quality, solid relationship with each of them.

Once you get it all flowing like that and these four factors working together, you will then be on an upward spiral towards creating the business you want to create. Good Luck, and let me know how I can help.

To learn more about The Achievement Gym - go here.

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

Sometimes You Just Have to Act "As If"

As an avid tennis player, like any athlete (and I use that term loosely in referring to myself), from time to time I get out of sync while in the heat of action. Real athletes call them slumps. For weekend athletes like me, its often just a lack of talent.

A couple of weeks ago, I was going through a real bad stretch. I really had felt uncomfortable since the fall season began in September. Finally, after four really bad matches of just getting overwhelmed by opponents, I was getting very frustrated with myself. The ball was going all over the place. I had no idea what was going to happen when I lined up to hit the ball, especially with my forehand. It was so bad I began to run around my forehand to hit my backhand. Then, in the middle of a match that was going particularly poorly, I decided to do something dramatically different.

After a particularly bad shot, I asked myself two questions, "What would happen if I just decided to act "as if" my forehand was working perfectly? "How would Andre Agassi be standing, breathing, moving?

And, the answer came to me, as I realized I was doing exactly the opposite of what I needed to be doing to hit a proper forehand tennis shot - I was off balance, hitting off my back foot, not preparing by getting my racquet back quick enough.

In that moment I decided to do just the opposite, and "Act As If" I was confidence in my forehand. The next opportunity, I stood tall, got my racquet back quickly, move forward into the ball, hit the ball in front of my body off my front foot and followed through. Amazingly, it worked. I hit a winning shot, and it totally turned my confidence around.

The last 3 matches over 2 weeks now I've been playing very well and my confidence is back, and I've won 5 of my last 6 sets against very competitive opponents.

So, the moral of that story is when you are in a slump, either physically or emotionally, just act "as if." Or another way to phrase would be "fake it until you make it." It works, I know, try it, and let me know you're results.

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

Public Speaking is a MUST

OK, I'm being told by my Program Manager, Jen Haver, that now that I have a blog I have to use it. So here goes...as my coach Chris Barrow says, sometimes you just have to take a leap into the dark...I just hope it's a soft landing...

This morning at my networking group, BNI (short for Business Network International -www.bni.com ), it was time for my 10-minute presentation, which comes up twice a year now that we have about 25 members and meet weekly.

Many people find public speaking, no matter the size of the room or the length of the talk, to be completely debilitating (paralizing). It used to be a huge challenge for me. Because a President/General Manager of 5 different minor league baseball teams, I was getting calls from Civic Clubs all year long to speak at their breakfast, lunches and dinners about their community's professional baseball team.

I found it relatively easy to get up and speak about what I knew about the team, the players, manager and our prospects for the upcoming season, or our performance during or after our season. But to me, it was just the same old stuff and I would just ramble on for 10-15 minutes then open it up to questions. And those, were the easiest for me, as they were always the same questions. But, when I would sit down after the talk, I just felt I didn't have an impact on the audience, and that feeling just continued to reinforce the belief that public speakers were born and not made in my mind. So, for that reason I never would bother preparing for the next talk, I'd get up do my boring song and dance, and leave with the same negative feelings and limited beliefs. That mindset and approach perpetuated for about 18 years, professionally.

Well, now, thanks to my Toastermasters training, and some other follow up coaching I've received, I now do prepare for my talks, and try to personalize them for the group I speak to. Well, it must have worked because after my 10-minute BNI presentation I received many accolades from the group, and had comments from those coming up in the next few weeks, that I had "set the bar real high for them."

While I still believe that some are naturally gifted in the area public speaking, because after all it is "entertainment," or can be in terms of "after dinner" speakers, I believe it is MUST if we are going to be successful in business, and encourage all my clients to improve in this area.

I got my start in public speaking at Toastmasters, and would encourage everyone who has the least bit of trepidation about it, go sample a Toastmasters chapter (www.Toastmasters.org) and get started on becoming comfortable speaking in front of groups, large and small. It's a great place to get your feet wet speaking in the company of others trying to do the same. It s a very safe environment.

It is now the foundation of building my business and attracting prospects for The Achievement Gym, and can do the same for your business. Get out there in a big way! Who knows? You may surprise even yourself and begin to enjoy it!

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

Communication Must Be Specific

When I'm asked what I believe the most important key to success is, I always answer "specific communication." Think about it. How can you achieve anything, if you don't communicate specifically what it is that you want?

I recently went to buy a new car, and I thought I knew exactly what I wanted. My wife and I were going to our local Toyota dealer to order one of the new Highlander SUV Hybrid vehicles. When we sat down with the salesman, he then brought out the order form, and began asking all sorts of questions - 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive?, what color exterior?, what color interior?, stereo with cassette player or CD, or both?, 6-cylinder or 8-cylinder?, sunroof or no sunroof?, cloth seats or heated leather seats?, etc...etc...etc.

I wasn't prepared for that conversation even though I knew what vehicle I wanted to order. Obviously, without that conversation I would be receiving a much different vehicle than I truly wanted, because I originally wasn't nearly specific enough in my mind to get the vehicle I wanted. And, after I left the dealership I realized that the salesman was acting as a "coach" through the ordering process.

So, even I, many times fall back into non-specific communications and have to catch myself. You've probably noticed in your own personal and professional life, how people talk in vague generalities, and wonder why they don't get the results they hope to.

Here's my advice -

If you don't clearly communicate what you want, you ain't gonna get it!

Have you noticed how many people expect you to be a "mind reader?" Begin noticing now how you communicate in delegating a task on the job, or a scheduling situation with your significant other, or maybe how you're communicating with yourself in looking into the future to set some goals to move toward your potential.

Most of the responses I get when I ask people about the outcomes they'd like to achieve is something like this - "well, I'd like to be more focused, and maybe get more things done, and not be as stressed." What people don't understand is that those three things are not specific results and outcomes; they are states of mind and they could have those three things right now if they would just begin to change their focus.

What I'm looking for is the specifics they will be able to achieve when they are more focused, get more things done and are less stressed. I'm looking for more quantifiable and measureable outcomes.

What presents us from communicating specifically? I believe it is FEAR. The fear of being held accountable. The fear of not fulfilling those specific numbers we proclaim. The fear of success if we do achieve those outcomes. The fear of being criticised by those who want to hold us back or don't believe we can do it.

So, remember when you next open your mouth to communicate with the important people in your business or personal life, or the next time you need to focus on the most important outcomes in your personal or professional life - Specifics Are Power!

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

The Key to Maintaining Motivation

One of the questions I get all the time from people is, "how can I stay motivated?" And another related question is "How can I motivate someone else?"

If you've ever known anyone "driven" to succeed at any endeavor, you know the passion at which they move toward their desired outcome. Some will stop at nothing, many times to the detriment of themselves and others in many ways. But, there is one thing you will find that is common within all those that are driven to succeed, and that is what I will discuss below.

The most important thing to understand about motivation is that external motivation never lasts. So, if we want to maintain our own motivation, and understand how to motivate others, we MUST understand where motivation comes from, and we can do this by again looking deeper into the word at its derivative.

Let's break down the word - MOTIVATION - Motivate - Motive

Notice that the main part of the word "motivation" is "motive." What is a motive? A motive is a reason.

So, the bottom line is if you want to stay motivated, you need to have a reason. A purpose. My friend, colleague, and mentor Paul Huff, creator of the Effortless Peak Performance™ program says, "The foundation of our desire lies in our "reasons" and our "whys."

Therefore, you must understand your reasons for what you are hoping to stay motivated to achieve. What's your reason for staying motivated? What is your purpose for achieving what you want to achieve. What are the most powerful reasons you can create that will guarantee you will stay on track?

Additionally, if you are in a leadership role, you can now begin motivating others, once you understand what motivates them. You must understand what they want in terms of what is most important to them, and why they want it. Then, give them a realistic opportunity to achieve it, and help hold them accountable along the way, and everyone WINS!

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

Embracing Responsibility

Remember the phrase "Sticks & stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me."? That is a statement I do not agree with. I believe that names, and/or words, are very powerful and do hurt us.

Time, and time again, words are at the core of our greatest successes and or our most devastating setbacks. So, from time to time I'm going to examine some words that have power if we use them properly and can be magnets for our momentum.

The first word I want to take a look at is - "Responsible." This is a very heavy word. Notice when you think of the word "responsible" how much weight is placed on our shoulders. Almost as soon as we realize we are "responsible" for something notice how and where the stress starts. Many people spend their entire lives avoiding being "responsible" for anything.

Now, one way to almost immediately change the meaning of words is to break them down into their derivative. When we do this with "responsible" we break it down into the two words that make it up. This automatically shifts the meaning of it and releases much, if not all of the weight, like this:

Responsible = Response Able - meaning that no matter what happens, or what is thrust upon you by others, or when life throws you one of its challenges, you are always "able to respond."

Embracing that meaning for being "responsible" will allow you to move forward and get out of that stuck state. In one recent coaching session, I made this point with a member of The Achievement Gym, and he responded this way: "Looking at being responsible in this way gives me the sense that I'm in control, and makes it an "action" as opposed to an "emotion."

Think of the emotion you have tied to being "responsible" and how it has a tendency to keep you stuck, then apply this new approach, and new meaning. Let me know how it works for you.

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

Not Enough Time? Set Better Boundaries - Part 3

The Power of Saying "NO"

It's time to close out this topic on setting boundaries. It was quite timely this week that members of The Achievement Gym Coaching program participated in workshops for the program's Strategy 2 - "Time Management & Finding the Time for It." You see, I believe much of our "Time Management" issues are due to a lack of "setting boundaries," with others, and most importantly with "ourselves."

It was "Poor Richard" of Poor Richard's Almanac, who many years ago said, "We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly."

"Poor Richard" was basically saying that if we could better say "no" and set better boundaries with ourselves we would have less idleness, and engage in less "folly," thus experiencing a less "taxing" life, both in terms of time and finances. Is this something you are willing to consider, and see value in? In Part 1 of this topic in the July 15th debut edition of Momentum™, I provided a series of questions to evaluate your present situation with setting boundaries. The last question had to do with setting boundaries with ourselves.

In the workshop this week that included 9 TAG members we entered a discussion as to the meaning of "setting boundaries with ourselves."

One member mentioned that he chose to set the boundary with himself of leaving his cell phone in the car, so he wouldn't be tempted and distracted by looking at it for messages.
I mentioned my continual struggle to set the boundary of turning my laptop off and keeping it off my lap when I'm home in the evenings or on the weekends (it's still a challenge as I'm writing some of this on a weekend, but I have a good reason you'll read about later.)

David Allen, the productivity guru, who wrote, "The Art of Stress Free Productivity" wrote an article for Fast Company a couple of years ago called, "You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything!" Which, the basic premise is, we have to begin making decisions and set some boundaries if we want to stop running ourselves senseless.

To get out of this rat race, and set better boundaries with ourselves and others, take a moment to identify the "most important" roles in your life at the moment, the top 6 at most, and decide how you could better fulfill those roles, if you said "no" to other things that are just "folly" and "distractions" that really don't add value to your life and business.

Subscribe to my newsletter...click here!

Good Luck!

Not Enough Time? Set Better Boundaries - Part 2

Place More Value on Your Time

Last year I had a client who was being run ragged by her business. She was in real estate and was relatively new to the field, less than a year. Like many newbies in the real estate field, she received most of her clients by being in the right place at the right time on her "office days" taking in-coming calls from prospective buyers.

One such prospective buyer was a business man from New Jersey interested in a summer home in the Hudson Valley region of New York, where we live. He was very demanding, and had a busy schedule and could only come look at homes on short notice, as he never knew when he'd have free time. So, many times he would call when he was ready to leave his home or office (about a 2-hour drive), and expect my client to be ready to show him some homes when he arrived.

When the call came, my client would drop everything and be ready to show him homes. Of course, many times, he showed up late with no apology and expected my client to serve him on his schedule. My client was stressed and frustrated, and dreaded meeting her client everytime. She called me wanting a solution.

I said, "you have to set boundaries with him."

"What do you mean?" - she asked

I said, "let's role play. I'll be your client and you be you, okay?"

She said, "Okay."

I said, "I'm coming up this weekend to look at homes and the only time I'm available is between 2am-4am on Sunday morning, I'll see you then, and I'm sure you'll have a few great options for me to look at, right?"

She said, "You're kidding, right?"

I said, "No, that's the only time I can make it and I need to do it this weekend, 'cause I'm away on business the next two weeks."

She said, "You're crazy!"

I said, "No, you're crazy! That is what you are basically allowing your client to do to you. Granted, you're not showing homes at 2am, yet, but he hasn't asked you yet either. In every other way you are doing exactly that. You have to take control of this relationship if you want to be successful."

She asked, "What do you mean?"

I said, "You do not value yourself enough to place a value on your time. You need to decide what your time is worth."

I coached her saying, "I want to you schedule only 3 days each week when you will show homes to prospects, and to pick in advance the 4-hour time slots on those days you will show homes. By taking control of your business you will automatically project professionalism, and confidence and this will do two things:

1) You're present and future clients will work around your schedule;

2) You will begin attracting more of the type of people you want to work with


Both things will begin to make you more successful.

She took my advice, doubled her production by the end of the year, and started this year by closing a deal on a home valued at $500,000. Before taking this new approach in setting boundaries, she wouldn't have come within a mile of even thinking she could list and close a deal on a home valued at half-million dollars!

What can you learn from that story about setting boundaries? How can you use it?

Sign up for my newsletter...click here!

Not Enough Time? Set Better Boundaries - Part 1

These 4 Questions Will Help
The number one issue I hear from my clients and members of the The Achievement Gym Community is they "just don't have enough hours in the day." I wish I had a dime for everyone that has asked me for help with "Time Management."

The number one issue in 99% of those situations can be directly related to setting clear boundaries with those that are creating the distractions, and with those the create the demands in your personal and/or professional life, including yourself.

I bet there are a lot of situations where you've committed to something, and almost as soon as the word "yes" or "sure, I can do that," are out of your mouth, you had an immediate feeling of, at best, unease, and at worst a serious sense of overwhelm, stress, frustration and resentment at yourself and the person you just committed to.

If this happens to you I've created a little questionnaire to help you evaluate those areas where you need to begin setting better boundaries in your life. I used this in one of our recent AYPN Group Coaching Tele-Conferences and got great feedback that it was a valuable exercise, and I figured I should share it with everyone in the community, so here it is:
The questions in the worksheet are below, the actual worksheet in .pdf file to the FREE RESOURCES area of the TAG website, to access it directly go - here.

Questions for Setting Better Boundaries & Saying "NO":

1) What situations are you involved with, or personal interactions with others, do you notice drain your energy?How many of these do you wish you had more control over?
2) In order to be involved in the situations above, which drain your energy, what do you have to believe about…
a) The Situation
b) The Other Person (People) Involved
c) Yourself
3) In order to not be able to say “no” what is the fear behind that behavior?
4) Where do you need to start setting boundaries with yourself?

Here's a quote from one member of The Achievement Gym who actually used the above to make some different decisions to set better boundaries:

"I had several opportunities to set boundaries this week involving some volunteer projects. I made a conscious effort to make myself unavailable. It was difficult to do; however, the reaction was extremely positive. I now know that I can decline these requests at my discretion and the world will not stop, and people will not think less of me."

Steve Owens, Field Agent, Knights of Columbus InsuranceGarden Grove, CA
Good luck! Answer the questions above and let me know what realizations and breakthroughs come to you. I can be reached at Info@TheAchievementGym.com

You can subscribe to my newsletter by clicking here!