Are You Too Busy To Make Money?

It is amazing how busy we are and how little we really get done. There are just so many things to do, laundry, house keeping, get gas in the car, buy dog food and the list goes on and on. It is a wonder any of us have any time for our work. We start our morning with the shave-shower-shine routine and for those with long hair, there is some coiffing to do.

Next there is the whole breakfast ritual with coffee or tea, and some quick bite because there just isn't time for breakfast any more. How did people ever survive before cars sped us off to work, and cell phones brought the office right to our pockets? By the time most of us get to work, at least a couple hours of the day are already gone. The start of the office day is usually slowed down by clearing out all of the spam in our inbox that made it past the filters and reading a couple of jokes from our friends so we start the day with a smile.

Jeeez, where has the time gone, now it is already time to start planning the lunch run to squeeze in a couple of errands while grabbing a sandwich and a soda. We just have to much to do. Have you ever heard anyone say something like “I am just too busy to make any money.”

They are probably right, and probably blaming the wrong person. If you truly wanted to be hyper successful, it is your choice. All of this “busyness” is due to a lack of focus and preparedness. People are confusing “busy” activities with “achievement” activities. There is only one way to get things done, and that as the Nike slogan says is to “Just do it.”

I meet people that are managers and business owners who are stuck in a rut and can't figure out why. The why is clear to everyone around them. The why should be very clear to them and it isn't until someone just puts it right in front of them. The why is a simple problem of setting priorities.

When people have a clear set of “achievement” goals for every day, every week and every month they are more likely to actually achieve something. When the choice is write the article that is due or stop and dry cleaners, the choice becomes simple. When the choice is call three clients or go to the ball game, the choice is simple. When you set your goals and stick to them your priorities stay in the right order automatically. Only you can change them.

Achievement, no matter how small leads to success of an equal magnitude. Like investing, if you only achieve 7% more each year than your peers, in 10 years you will have achieved twice as much due to the effects of compounding growth. Before you go to bed to night, write out a list of 3-5 goals for tomorrow, two or three slightly larger goals for the rest of the week. Then tomorrow, get started on your goals first. Skip the water cooler chatter and facebook time, get your goals done and see how much better you feel at the end of the day.

Real achievements give you energy and focus to achieve more. Start small and work bigger a little each day. The sky is the limit if you just put your mind to it.

Buying A Home In Todays Market, Crisis or Opportunity?

It has been said many times that the Chinese have one word that means both opportunity and crisis. Since I don't speak Chinese, I don't have any idea if this is true. Having read about the balance of the yin and the yan, it makes sense that the Chinese would think this way.
The current economic climate is really both an opportunity and a crisis.

If you are in the market to buy a business, commercial real estate, rental properties or just a great deal on a house, there are plenty of deals out there. I found it funny just yesterday when I ran into a guy who wasn't at all happy with his “deal”. He bought a foreclosure house and had no idea how the process worked or what he was getting into, and thought he got ripped off.

In some cases, when a family is experiencing a crisis and is losing their home, they will “strip” the house. A home that was recently foreclosed in my area had a very interesting yard sale the week before the homeowners were escorted out by the sheriff. I later found out they had no where to go and that is why they didn't “walk away” as some homeowners did in the same area.

Attach Rewards to Your Goals And Achieve Higher Success

As the old saying goes, “physician heal thyself”. Business and life coaching isn't any different. It is funny that sometimes we forget to look in the mirror and judge ourselves. While talking with a client today I realized something I have been overlooking in my own life for some time now.

I had been confusing goals and rewards. Actually, I was skipping the goals and listing the rewards. Years ago when I first started creating goal sheets with my wife, the sheets listed real goals. Recently my wife and I had a discussion about our goals in the previous year and for the next year. She had accomplished significantly more of her goals than I had. I chalked my lack of accomplishment up to the fact that I was focused on a different area and obviously the goals were not as important as I had thought a year before when we created the goal sheets.

Use The Nine Hit Method To Relieve Stress

There are a couple of rules of success which all high achievers will consider universal. One of those is simply you cannot do it yourself, and another is we all need a sounding board. Sometimes we get lucky and find someone who is both our sounding board and a person who helps us move towards our goals. We need a sounding board to bounce off ideas, think through problems and confess our mistakes.

Recently I was having lunch with a friend of mine. He is someone I trust completely, and therefore one of my sounding boards and confidants for confessions. Since I value his opinion we talk about some things that I don't talk about with other people. He is one of those people to which I can confess my mistakes and not worry about it coming back to me in a month. A couple of weeks prior to our lunch, I had made a very inappropriate comment to a flight attendant regarding some military people on the flight. Since I am a retired military officer, it made the comments even worse in my mind.