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How can you get an extra hour out of each day? For many small business owners this is a daily challenge.

I myself have often wished that there were 27 hours in the day. I’ll even settle for 25.

Here are some tips to help you squeeze those extra minutes out of your day. Of course, you can adapt these so that they will fit in with your situation. I hope these are helpful to you.

1. Get up earlier

2. Watch less TV (I mean how many Law & Order spinoffs does one need to watch?)

3. Avoid allowing others to waste your time

4. If you don’t have to drive to work, use that time to study or plan. If you do drive to work listen to a motivational tape on the way to work instead of that mindless dj talk.

5. Organize your work; do it systematically.

6. Make creative use of lunchtime.

7. Delegate authority if possible.

8. Spend less time on unimportant phone calls.

9. Think first, then do the task.

10. Do what you dream about doing, instead of just dreaming about it.

11. Work hardest when you’re the most mentally alert

12. Eliminate activities that make the smallest contributions to your life.

13. Always do the toughest jobs first.

14. Before each major act ask, “Is this really necessary?”

15. Choose interesting and constructive literature for spare time reading.

16. Learn how to sleep. Sleep soundly, then work refreshed.

17. Skip desserts.

18. Stop smoking.

19. Write notes or letters while waiting for others.

20. Always carry an envelope with paper in it and a few stamps.

21. Combine tasks that are done in the same area.

22. Be prompt for all appointments.

23. Lay out your clothes the night before.(I need to remember this myself)

24. Call on specialists to do work that you cannot do efficiently

25. Learn to read more rapidly.

26. Take a nap after dinner. Then take a shower. Begin the evening hours relaxed and refreshed.

27. Avoid interruptions.

28. Avoid making a big production out of tiny tasks.

29. Search out job shortcuts.

30. Know your limitations.

31. Work to your full capacity. I know it’s tough to break bad habits. However, it is necessary to make sacrifices so that your business can be successful. Don’t try to implement all of these ideas at once. Implement them one at a time and repeat them until they become a part of your daily routine.

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Leaders need to:

1. Have a vision to which they are committed

Leaders arrive with a vision: a deeply thought out view of what to do to make a difference in the complex, competitive world of today.

The qualities of their commitment and their vision set them apart.

They may not know all the steps to deliver their vision but they know what it will look like when they arrive, and, they are committed to that point and beyond. This level of commitment to a vision, that no one else may share, is either craziness or powerful beyond measure. Time is often the factor that enables us to differentiate.

Galileo and Copernicus were socially ostracized, persecuted and one of them executed for their interpretation of their observations (vision) that the earth revolved around the sun. Facing death for your vision is quite a commitment!

Mother Teresa felt moved to go to the slums of India and represent the needs of ‘her people’. She was not averse to taking advantage of the invitations of powerful leaders, to ask for help.

The engineers who conceive of huge projects have it. Often the technologies to deliver the results are not available yet. The huge new airbus with two layers of 747 sized seating, if built with current technologies would weigh twice as much per passenger, creating fuel costs that would be non-commercial.

To find the technologies to make it weigh less per passenger, when we may not know what they are, then make them safe, cost them and deliver requires an amazing commitment to the vision with the financiers breathing down your neck!

What vision do you have? What is the contribution you wish to make in the world?

What level of commitment do you have to your vision? These people showed us what it is about. It is at a level that we are willing to discard our illusions about ourselves, our personality and find out what is real in us. Not by standing on the sidelines and planning it, but by doing it and making it work! Many of us work at this level each day but justify it in other ways and lose the generic insight to be gained.

2. Have the ability to communicate the vision to others.

We need to be able to communicate our vision to others so that they can bring their expertise to enable the delivery of it!

This has two parts. They want to see our level of commitment and excitement about it - to know we are really in this. This is not difficult, not many leaders stumble here.

Secondly, they want to understand the incremental edge or quantum leap it will provide in the market place so that they can understand which part they might ‘own’ and why their expertise is needed in the delivery.

To have a vision, understand the current market place, and understand what to break, to do something different is great. To communicate what this means to others, such that they begin to share your excitement is rarer.

It requires us to know what assumptions are made by most people, see beyond this to another truth and take advantage of that niche.

Toy’r'us was one of the first category breakers. Mum’s and Dad’s toy stores folded as they could not compete against the Toy’r'us offering, the prices and the buzz within the store.

The internet provided massive opportunities to change the face of many businesses. The need to have a shop front for a real estate business in a busy area, has now been superceded by a virtual tour, or simple presentation of the property on the web.

Richard Branson’s debonair nose-thumbing of conventional models of corporate control and the success of his businesses have opened our eyes to some of our assumptions.

Can you see your assumptions about the corporate model? Can you see the assumptions of others? Can you communicate the difference that others can join you in your understanding? (a tool of deep appreciation of individual motive is useful here: the Enneagram provides much insight.)

3. Attract others to join and follow with them

A leader with a vision and a level of commitment is great, that they can communicate what they have is wonderful. Now what the high potential people, who can transform this spark into reality, are saying is, “Great commitment and great idea but not for me… or not now.’

What the leader needs are key people to join them - the vision will take a very long time to deliver, or it will arrive in a very small package without this.

Magnetism is the word for this powerful, yet subtle energy. The ability to magnetize themselves such that others are subtly attracted to them, the vision and the transformational process such that they want to join in.

To be magnetic, is to turn heads when you walk into a room. People aren’t sure why but they are interested in some subtle energy you command.

Without this, the communication looses it power and does not gain the support of the levels of expertise it requires to be delivered.

McDonalds is a wonderful business based on young people running a well thought out structure. Yet the expertise to run a real estate business, based on hamburger profits, with a great system required much expertise to be attracted and retained.

Most companies have high potential staff identified, and being developed. Many are beginning to understand the complexity of retaining them. These high potentials often have the communication skills and the magnetism, they are just seeking the passionate project to join and commit to. If it isn’t provided by their current role, in their time frame, they move on in their quest for it.

To be a leader requires some serious and non-linear development to enable these qualities within you to be identified, developed, polished and delivered.

With these three attributes, we have the fire of commitment, the command of ourselves, and the tools to enroll significant talent to deliver. Our leadership has the wings to deliver results.

This article may be reproduced in printed or web format, provided the resource box below is included.

Rosemary Johnston is a professional corporate and personal coach. Working with executives from some of Australia’s largest and most successful companies for over 15 years.

Rosemary’s new book, “How To Develop Your Leadership Style and Skills to Take Charge of Your Career and Life” is now available to download at her web site. Read about how you can share some of the success Rosemary has had coaching leaders in Australian blue chip companies. http://www.leadershipfirst.com.au

Perhaps the greatest single problem that people have today is “time poverty.” Working people have too much to do and too little time. Most people feel overwhelmed with responsibilities and activities, and the harder they work, the further behind they fall. This sense of being on a never-ending treadmill can cause you to fall into the “reactive/responsive” mode of living. That is, instead of clearly deciding what you want to do, you continually react to what is happening around you. Pretty soon, you lose all sense of control. You feel that your life is running you, rather than that you are running your life.

On a regular basis, take stock of yourself and what you are doing. You have to stop the clock and do some serious thinking about who you are and where you are going. You have to evaluate your activities in the light of what is really important to you. You must master your time instead of becoming a slave to the constant flow of events and demands on your time. And you must organize your life to achieve balance, harmony, and inner peace.

Sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book titled The Unheavenly City, in which he described one of the most profound studies on success and priority setting ever conducted.

Banfield’s goal was to find out how and why some people became financially independent during the course of their working lifetime and others did not. He started off convinced that the answer to the question would be influential contacts or some other concrete factor. What he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind.

Banfield called this attitude “long time perspective.” He said that men and women who were the most successful in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took the future into consideration with every decision they made in the present. He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration while planning and acting, the more likely it was that he or she would achieve greatness during his or her career.

The key to success in setting priorities is having a long time perspective. You can tell how important something is today by measuring its potential future impact on your life.

Economists say the inability to delay gratification - that is, the natural tendency of individuals to spend everything they earn plus a little bit more, and the mindset of doing what is fun, easy, or enjoyable right now - is the primary cause of economic and personal failure in life. On the other hand, disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the high road to pride, selfesteem, and personal satisfaction.

So setting priorities begins with deciding what you want most in life and then organizing your time and activities so everything you do is the most valuable use of your time in achieving those objectives.

With your larger long-term priorities in order, you can much more easily decide upon your short-term priorities.

The process of setting short-term priorities begins with a pad of paper and a pen. Whenever you feel overwhelmed by too many things to do and too little time in which to do them, sit down, take a deep breath, and list all those tasks you need to accomplish. Although there is never enough time to do everything, there is always enough time to do the most important things, and to stay with them until they are done right.

Peter Drucker once said, “Efficiency is doing things right, but effectiveness is doing the right things.” And this requires thought.

Once you have listed your tasks, ask yourself this question: “If I were to be called out of town for a month, and I could finish only one thing on this list, which one thing would it be?” Think it through and circle that one item on your list. Then ask yourself: “If I could do only one more thing before I was called out of town for a month, what would it be?” This is the second thing you circle on your list.

Perform this exercise five or six times until you have sorted out the highest priorities on your list. Then number each priority according to its importance. With these priorities, you are now ready to begin working toward the achievement of your major goals.

Once you can clearly see the one or two things that you should be doing, above all others, just say no to all diversions and distractions and focus single-mindedly on accomplishing those priorities.

Much stress that people experience in their work lives comes from working on low-priority tasks. The amazing thing is that as soon as you start working on your highest-level activity, all your stress disappears. You begin to feel a continuous stream of energy and enthusiasm. As you work toward the completion of something that is really important, you feel an increased sense of personal value and inner satisfaction. You experience a sensation of self-mastery and self-control. You feel calm, confident, and capable.

Here are six ideas that you can use, every day, to help you set priorities and keep you working at your best:

1. Take the time to be clear about your goals or objectives so that the priorities you set are moving you in the direction of something of value to you. Remember that many people scramble frantically to climb the ladder of success, only to find that it is leaning against the wrong building.

2. Develop a long time perspective and work on those things in the present that can have the greatest positive impact on your future. Maintain your balance in life by setting priorities in the areas of your health, your personal relationships, and your financial goals.

3. Make the commitment to improve those aspects of your life that are most important to you. If you’re in sales, learn how to be an excellent salesperson. If you’re a parent, learn how to be an outstanding mother or father. The power is always on the side of the person with the best practical knowledge.

4. Be sure to take the time to do your work right the first time. The fewer mistakes you make, the less time you will waste going back and doing it over.

5. Remember, what counts is not the amount of time that you put in overall; rather it’s the amount of time that you spend working on high-priority tasks. You will always be paid for the results that you obtain, not merely the hours that you spend on the job.

6. Understand that the most important factor in setting priorities is your ability to make wise choices. You are always free to choose to engage in one activity or another, but once you have chosen, you must accept the consequences of your choice.

Resolve today to set clear priorities in every area of your life, and always choose the activities that will assure you the greatest health, happiness, and prosperity in the long term. The long term comes soon enough, and every sacrifice that you make today will be rewarded with compound interest in the great future that lies ahead for you.

In order to get your personal time under control, you must decide very clearly on your priorities, but at the same time you must also establish “posteriorities” as well. Just as priorities are things that you do more of sooner, “posteriorities” are the things that you do less of. It is just as important to know what to focus on as it is to know what not to focus on.

Some think that time management is only a business tool, like a calculator or cellular phone. It is something that you use so that you can get more done in a shorter period of time. In reality, it is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is a core skill upon which everything else in life depends.

The fact is, your calendar is full. You have no spare time. Every moment is extremely valuable. Therefore, to do anything new, you will have to stop doing something old. In order to get into something, you will have to get out of something else. In order to pick up something, you will have to put something down. Before you make any new commitment of your time, you must firmly decide what activities you are going to discontinue.

Time is your most precious resource. It is the most valuable thing you have. It is perishable, it is irreplaceable, and it cannot be saved. It can only be reallocated from activities of lower value to activities of higher value. The very act of taking a moment to think about your time before you spend it will begin to improve your personal time management immediately.

Personal time management and proper prioritization enables you to choose what to do first, what to do second, and what not to do at all. It enables you to organize every aspect of your life so that you can get the greatest joy, happiness, and satisfaction out of everything that you do.

Brian Tracy is one of the world’s leading authorities on personal and business success. His fast-moving talks and seminars on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness, and business strategy are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that people can immediately apply to get better results in every area.

Brian Tracy’s audio programs are available at Nightingale Conant — title include: Psychology of Achievement, The Ultimate Goals Program, The Power of Clarity, The Psychology of Selling and other Other audio books available at Nightingale Conant include authors such as Dr. Wayne Dyer, Zig Ziglar, Deepak Chopra and many, many more.

Most people think of negotiating as the verbal give and take that takes people from their different wants and needs to a point of agreement. That, of course, is the heart of negotiating but just as important is the transition to the written contract that formalizes the verbal agreement. Here are the things that Power Negotiators look for as they move toward the written contract:

Don’t Let the Other Side Write the Contract

In a typical negotiation, you verbally negotiate the details, then put it into writing later for both parties to review and approve. I’ve yet to run across a situation where we covered every detail in the verbal negotiation. There are always points that we overlooked when we were verbally negotiating that we must detail in writing. Then we have to get the other side to approve or negotiate the points when we sit down to sign the written agreement-that’s when the side that writes the contract has a tremendous advantage over the side that doesn’t. Chances are that the person writing the agreement will think of at least half-dozen things that did not come up during the verbal negotiations. That person can then write the clarification of that point to his or her advantage, leaving the other side to negotiate a change in the agreement when asked to sign it.
Don’t let the other side write the contract because it puts you at a disadvantage.

This applies to brief counter proposals just as much as it does to agreements that are hundreds of pages long. For example, a real estate agent may be presenting an offer to the sellers of an apartment building. The seller agrees to the general terms of the offer, but wants the price to be $5,000 higher. At that point either the listing agent who represents the seller or the selling agent who represents the buyer could pull a counter-proposal form out of his or her briefcase and write out a brief counter-offer for the seller to sign. Then the selling agent will present to the buyer for approval. It doesn’t have to be complicated: “Offer accepted except that price is to be $598,000,” will suffice.

If the listing agent writes the counter-offer, however, he or she might think of some things that would benefit her seller. She might write, “Offer accepted except that price to be $598,000. Additional $5,000 to be deposited in escrow upon acceptance. Counter-offer to be accepted upon presentation and within 24 hours.”

If the selling agent were to write the counter-offer, he might write, “Offer accepted except that price is to be $598,000. Additional $5,000 to be added to the note that the seller is carrying back.”

These additions are probably not big enough to be challenged by either a seller or a buyer who is eager to complete the transaction; however, they substantially benefit the side who wrote the brief counter-offer. If the person who writes a one-paragraph counter-offer can affect it so much, think how much that person could affect a multi-page contract.

Remember that this may not just be a matter of taking advantage of the other side. Both sides may genuinely think that they had reached agreement on a point whereas their interpretations may be substantially different when they write it out. A classic example of this is the Camp David accord, signed by President Carter, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel. After 13 frustrating days of negotiating at Camp David where they all felt until the last moment that their efforts were futile, they reached what they thought was a breakthrough to agreement. Excitedly they flew helicopters to Washington and with massive publicity signed the accord. In the East Room, the normally unemotional Menachem Begin turned to his wife and said, “Mama, we’ll go down in the history books tonight.” That may be so, but the truth is that many years later, hardly any of the elements of the agreement had gone into effect. Their enthusiasm led each of them to think that they had reached agreement when they really hadn’t.

If you are to be the one writing the contract, it’s a good idea to keep notes throughout the negotiation and put a check mark in the margin against any point that will be part of the final agreement. This does two things:

1. It reminds you to include all the points that you wanted.

2. When you write the contract, you may be reluctant to include a point in the agreement unless you can specifically recall the other side agreeing to it. Your notes will give you the confidence to include it even if you don’t remember it clearly.

If you have been team negotiating, be sure to have all the other members of your team review the contract before you present it to the other side. You may have overlooked a point that you should have included or you may have misinterpreted a point. It’s common for the lead negotiator to let her enthusiasm overwhelm her to a point that she feels that the other side agreed to something when it was less than clear to more independent observers.

I’m not a big believer in having attorneys conduct a negotiation for you because so few of them are good negotiators. They tend to be confrontational negotiators because they’re used to threatening the other side into submission, and they are seldom open to creative solutions because their first obligation is to keep you out of trouble, not make you money. Remember that in law school, they are not taught how to make deals, only how to break deals. In our litigious society there isn’t much point in making an agreement that won’t hold up in court, however, so it’s a good idea to have the agreement approved by your attorney before you have it signed. In a complicated agreement what you prepare and have the other side sign may be no more than a letter of intent. Have the attorneys work on it later to make it a legal document. It’s better that you devote your energy to reaching agreement.

If you have prepared an agreement that you think the other side may be reluctant to sign, you may be smart to include the expression “Subject to your attorney’s approval,” to encourage them to sign it.

Once the verbal negotiations are over, get a memorandum of agreement signed as quickly as possible. The longer you give them before they see it in writing, the greater the chances that they’ll forget what they agreed to and question what you’ve prepared.

Also, make sure they understand the agreement. Don’t be tempted to have them sign something when you know they’re not clear on the implications. If they don’t understand and something goes wrong, they will always blame you. They will never accept responsibility.

I find it helpful to write out the agreement I want before I go into the negotiations. I don’t show it to the other side, but I find it helpful to compare it to the agreement that we eventually reach, so that I can see how well I did. Sometimes it’s easy to get excited because the other side is making concessions that you didn’t expect to get. Then your enthusiasm carries you forward and you agree to what you feel is a fantastic deal. It may be a good deal, but unless you have clearly established your criteria up front, it may not be the deal that you hoped to get.

Power Negotiators know that you should always try to be the one that writes the contract. When the verbal negotiations are over, it’s time for someone to put everything in writing, and the person who gets to put it in writing has definite power in the negotiations. There are bound to be little details that you didn’t think of when you were verbally negotiating that need to be specified in the written contract.

If you’re the one who gets to write the contract, you can write those to your favor. Then it’s up to the other person to negotiate them out when it comes to signing the contract. So, try to be the one who writes the contract.

I’ll say to the other people, “Look, we need to put this down in writing. But let’s not go to a lot of expense on this. I have an attorney on retainer, it won’t cost either one of us anything for me to have my attorney do it.” Even if I had to pay the attorney to do it, I still think I’d be better off to be the one who is writing the contract.

Read the Contract Every Time

In this age of computer-generated contracts, it’s a sad fact that you have to reread a contract every time it comes across your desk.

In the old days, when contracts were typewritten, both sides would go through it and write in any changes, and then each negotiator would initial the change. You could glance through the contract and quickly review any change that you had made or to which you had agreed. Nowadays with computer generated contracts we’re more likely to go back to the computer, make the change, and print out a new contract.

Here’s the danger. You may have refused to sign a clause in a contract. The other side agrees to change it and says they’ll send you a corrected contract for your signature. When it comes across your desk, you’re busy, so you quickly review it to see that they made the change you wanted and then turn to the back page and sign it. Unfortunately, because you didn’t take the time to reread the entire contract, you didn’t realize that they had also changed something else. Perhaps it was something blatant such as changing “F.O.B. factory” to “F.O.B. job site.” Or it may be such a minor change in wording that you don’t discover it until years later when something goes wrong, and you need the contract to enforce some action. By then, you may not even remember what you agreed to, and you can only assume that because you signed it you must have agreed to it.

Yes, I agree with you-you have a wonderful case for a lawsuit that the other side defrauded you-but why expose yourself to that kind of trouble? In this age of computer-generated contracts, you should read the contract all the way through, every time it comes across your desk for signature.

People Believe What They See In Writing

The printed word has great power over people. Most people believe what they see in writing, even if they won’t believe it when they just hear about it.
The Candid Camera people did a stunt to prove that a number of years ago — you may remember seeing it on television. They posted a sign on a road next to a golf course in Delaware that said, “Delaware Closed.” Allen Fount stood by the sign in a rented trooper’s uniform. He wasn’t allowed to speak to the people as they came up, only point up at the sign.

What happened amazed me. People were coming to a screeching halt and saying things like, “How long is it going to be closed for? My wife and kids are inside.”

People believe what they see in writing. That’s why I’m such a big believer in presentation binders. When you sit down with someone, you open the presentation binder, and it says, “My company is the greatest widget manufacturer in the world.” Then you turn another page and it says, “Our workers are the greatest craftsmen in the business.” You turn another page and start showing them reference letters from all your previous jobs.
They find it believable even when they know you just came from the print shop with it.

This is how hotels are able to get people to check out of the rooms on time. Holiday Inns used to have a terrible time getting people to check out of their rooms at 12 noon, until they learned the art of the printed word and posted those little signs on the back of the door. Now 97 percent of the guests check out of their rooms on time, without any question at all, because the written word is so believable.

Recognize this when you’re negotiating with people. In our litigious society, it’s essential to eventually get your agreement into writing. As regrettable as it may seen, it doesn’t make much sense to verbally negotiate an agreement unless the other side is willing to attest to it in writing somewhere down the line. Power negotiators know that it’s important to wean the other side onto seeing in writing what they are agreeing to verbally.

So every chance you get put things in writing. Take the time during the verbal negotiations to say, “Let me be sure that I understand what you’re proposing.” Then stop to write down your understanding of the point that you were discussing. Show it to the other side, but you don’t have to have them sign it at this point. All you’re doing is getting them used to seeing it in writing. This subliminally confirms what, up to that point, has only bee a verbal understanding. If you don this at intervals during the discussion, you’ll have much less trouble getting them to sign the final written contract.

It’s important to realize that, at every point of the negotiation, the other side is more persuaded by what they see in writing. For example, if you have salespeople selling for you and you have to put a price change into effect, be sure that they have it in writing. Because there’s a world of difference between them sitting with a potential customer and saying, “We’re having a price increase at the start of next month, so you should make a commitment now,” and them saying, “Look at this letter I just got from my boss. It indicates that we’re having a price increase on July 1st.” Always show it to people in writing whenever you can. If you’re negotiating by telephone, back up what you’re saying by also faxing them the information.

If you sell big-ticket items and don’t have a method of creating computer-generated proposals, I’d suggest that you stop everything and go get a computer system right now. It’ll pay for itself on the first job. Many years ago I was in Australia on a lecture tour and a fire broke out on the second floor of my home in California. When I returned I had three contractors bid on repairing the damage. Two of them scrawled out bids by hand. They both bid around $24,000. The third contractor prepared a very comprehensive bid by computer. Every little detail was spelled out in detail. But his bid was $49,000-more than twice as much. I accepted the higher bid because the Power of the Printed Word was so great that I just didn’t trust the hand-written bids.

What’s the bottom line? Because people don’t question what they see in writing, you should always present written backup evidence to support your proposal. If the negotiation includes expectations that the other side will meet certain requirements, it also helps to confirm those requirements in writing.

The transition from a verbal negotiation to a written contract can be a delicate one, but Power Negotiators known how to set it up so that it doesn’t become a traumatic experience.

Roger Dawson

Founder of the Power Negotiating Institute

800-932-9766

RogDawson@aol.com

http://www.rdawson.com

Roger Dawson is the author of two of Nightingale-Conant’s best selling audiocassette programs, Secrets of Power Negotiating and Secrets of Power Negotiating for Salespeople. This article is excerpted in part from Roger Dawson’s new book - “Secrets of Power Negotiating”, published by Career Press and on sale in bookstores everywhere for $24.99.

“Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage.” -Anais Nin

Anais Nin is one of those marvelous characters of the twentieth century who were scandalous in their day, but almost tame by current standards. She was born in 1903 into an artistic family whose economic fortunes did quite a bit of shrinking and expanding during her childhood. She ran with the surrealist set following WW I and her written work explored the nature of the creative individual, psychoanalysis, the public and private self, and sexuality. When her circle (which included Henry Miller) was hard pressed for cash, they wrote erotica for a dollar a page—she called it sexual caricature. When they couldn’t find a publisher for their work, they started their own publishing house—Siana Editions. An obscure figure, she was discovered only in the last ten years of her life. She was a woman who knew a lot about the courage of daily living.

Much has been written about courage, but Nin is pointing to something slightly different—she asks us to consider the consequences of courage. Courage is the strength to confront, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or adversity. The word itself comes from the Latin for heart—the organ most associated with life. Thus, to demonstrate courage is to show heart. It’s to show that what we believe is important. Courage is about our life and how we choose to live it.

Now, most of us don’t live in a world where we have to stare down Grizzly bears, or pluck a child from a burning building or foil bank robbers on a daily basis. But, we are regularly called to dozens of small acts of courage. One of the most courageous—and difficult—of these small acts is making the decision not to play. This means not only doing what you believe is right, but not participating in the bad behavior of others. If you let the office bully goad you into an angry outburst, you’ve lost. You’ve surrendered your dignity to someone who taunts for sport. If you hold a grudge against someone who has offended you and spend your days thinking of devastating come-backs and plotting subtle snubs, you’ve lost. You’ve surrendered irreplaceable time to someone who’s entertained by your seething. If you look away when someone else is being treated badly, you’ve lost. You’ve lost because you’ve surrendered your moral strength to someone who thrives on draining the strength of the helpless.

Deciding not to play takes real courage. It requires heart to confront, persevere and withstand the thousands of small assaults on your character. These aren’t dramatic moments. They’re the challenges of everyday living. But the consequences are disproportionately large. Surrender brings resentment, bitterness, anger and often as not, indifference. These form like walls around us and sap the pleasure out of life. Yet even small acts of courage can bring large rewards. Maintaining control in the face of adversity is liberating in and of itself. Knowing that your actions are aligned with your values and expressed in a spirit of good will eliminates barriers and opens you to new possibilities.

Nin was right. The consequences are real. Even small acts of courage expand your life, while small acts of cowardice shrink it. Over time the valence of either courage or cowardice will come to dominate. This is a new day. Is your life shrinking or is it expanding? Do you have heart?

About the Author:

George Ebert is the President of Trinity River Seminars and Consulting, a firm specializing in the custom design and delivery of team building, personal growth and ethical development programs. Mr. Ebert is a highly sought after speaker, educator, and consultant with over thirty years experience in both the public and private sectors. He has presented widely throughout the Unites States. George is the author of the management cult classic, “Climbing From the Fifth Station: A guide to building teams that work!”

Some days I feel like a plate of scrambled eggs. All messed up and with the strange feeling that despite my best efforts nothing really got accomplished. I felt like time was not on my side at all. Despite working 14 hours a day I was making very little money and was exhausted.

I needed a change so I implement these five simple steps to give me more personal time:

1. Simplify Your Schedule

Things that can be done less or things that can be done once instead of twice are those things that will help us save a lot of time. Clean your house once every ten days instead of every 7 days – you can do that, it’s normal and the house won’t get dirty in those three extra days. Make a work report every six week not every four weeks if possible. Keep meetings to inform yourself on ongoing projects twice a month not every week. And the list of things that can be done fewer times can go on forever.

2. Challenge yourself!

Watch the clock and settle to finish an activity by a certain hour. Focus, get rod of anything that could distract you and work more efficiently. Work to accomplish one thing at a time, and finish the project 100%.

3. Ask more out of 15 minutes.

Can you find 15 minutes a day that you could use more efficiently? Is there lost time in your activities? Or maybe a less important activity you can give up on? If you manage to save 15 minutes every day, you will win in fact 91 hours every year!

4. Do a list of little activities that don’t take you more than a couple of minutes.

Of course, we usually want to deal with the important problems first. But when we feel tired, stressed, in a bad mood, we find it hard to concentrate and we lose our time forcing ourselves. A list of simple activities will help you finalize something and push up your productivity. And obviously it is always better to know you did something, even is it is small, than to realize you haven’t even started anything. Sometimes even a small task done completely will set you sailing through the rest of your more complicated activities.

5. Make Large projects more time manageable.

On LARGE projects, it is better to tell yourself: “I will work on this for 2 hours and see how much I can get done during this interval”. Focus and try to do all you can during that two hours. This is excellent advice to solve problems, and make progress on projects you avoided lately.

These are some simple steps that help me prioritize my day and get more done. I now have a more profitable day and spend more time with my family.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Learning Effective Time Management Skills and Living Inside Yourself. Both sites are dedicate to providing useful information about life and self improvement.

“Can you find four extra hours in your day?” a voice came over the speaker on my office phone, first telemarketer call of the day. I chuckled and answered, “Not this week.”

“But Mom, you aren’t VERY busy.” My daughter adlibs as I turn back to the project at hand. A business plan due the next day, and I’m just at that moment formating the design and working on the font choices for the final print out. I click on the last button and look at the final layout, her comment is favorable, and I accept the selections. “I’m making dinner.” She turns away from the computer and walks to the kitchen, pulling pasta and sauce from the shelf, and chicken planks from the fridge. The salad I made earlier will serve well as a vegetable, and desert is the yogurt pops we bought at the grocery. Life is working well, for the moment. I finish up my project, and go help finish dinner.

“Mom, what would you do with four extra hours a day?” She asks as we sit down to dinner.

“I think I’d spend some of it just sitting on the porch with you and the boys. It would be a nice change to just sit and watch the world go by.” I answered considering the options. “What would you do with four extra hours in your day?” I asked her, as she sprinkled cheese on the pasta.

“I think I’d learn something new.” She answered, thoughtfully. “Just spend the time doing something new, like putting some new project together.”

“What kind of project?” I asked watching her sort through the meal she was eating on her plate.

“I think I’d learn to crochet or something like that.” She answered.

I thought about it for a bit, and decided it was time to teach her that new something. We finished dinner and I asked if she wanted to go to the store. We picked out rich blues and purples and some pale aqua greens and a pattern with variations of stars on a mellow striped background. It was going to be an afghan to remember. I picked pastels in the same color tones, and selected needles to work with. There were some nice large baskets in the aisle, and I chose two of them, one for her project and one for mine.

We grabbed some bottles of soda for drinking later, a few boxes of flavored teas, some cream, and a selection of delicate cookies for eating when we took a break later and left the store to start our craft projects. An adventure that was bound to make memories was about to start, and we were both excited about starting it.

Once at home, we turned on a movie and settled on opposite ends of the couch start our projects. She already knew the basics, so I wouldn’t need to teach her much for the first several rows. We chattered about the movie, listened to the songs playing in the bacground, discussed each stitch as we came to it, and hummed along our own pleasant tunes during any lulls in the noise level. I watched the world go by, while I enjoyed the company of my daughter. Several hours later, long after we should have been in bed, we stopped stitching and prepared our tea with cream and delicate cookies. The night was more than pleasant, and we had an adventure I hope to have again.

Copyright (c) 2005 - Jan Verhoeff - Printed in the USA

Jan Verhoeff’s perpetual desire to learn originally focused her writing in the Business Industries, where she writes motivational and marketing articles for a variety of publications. Her first book publication, self-published in 1991, sold more than a thousand copies in a local business market. Later publications include: “Stories for the Trail” (with other Authors), “Words To Ponder – One Woman’s Thoughts”, “Prickly Points of Life”, “Recipes from Jan’s Kitchen”, “Focus on Function”, and “Put Your Thoughts In Print”.

You may contact Jan at janverhoeff@yahoo.com

Or you may visit her website at http://wordstoponder.tripod.com

When a good friend asked me to contribute a little something for her newsletter it seemed like a great idea. When I cleared the decks and sat down to write it seemed a great time to color-code my closet or whip up a crab casserole. As an enthusiastic writer, who has nevertheless had writing blocks which have lasted longer than some World Wars, this business of avoiding doing something that I really want to do has always mystified me.

As a Life Coach I learned that the classic coaching take on this was that I have an agenda other than actually writing and finishing a piece. I am avoiding doing something I think I want to do because I don’t really want to do it. This is often the explanation I give to my clients when they ‘fess up to not taking actions which are so clearly needed in their lives.

“What do you really want?” I ask them.
“What would happen if you didn’t take the action?” And the biggie. “What is your expected outcome?”

Because it’s occurred to me more than once that my foot-dragging over an activity directly correlates to the attachment I have to its outcome. If I don’t have much energy invested in how something turns out I can either do it or not do it. If something is important to me, especially if it reflects something about me or gives an impression of myself to the world (like writing or keeping a sparkling clean house), I’ll create avoidance or stress around it.

So the lesson for today is this. When you find yourself putting something off notice what you are doing. Awareness is key. Many of us aren’t even aware of our lack of awareness. If you’re procrastinating be aware that you are working with something which is important to you.

Be grateful that you have things to do in your life which are important to you. Put all else aside and do it immediately to the best of your ability. Be aware of what the doing of the task has taught you.

Then you can go back to matching your socks and alphabetizing your recipes.

Mary Rosendale is a Life Coach who works on a large canvas. Her clients are people in change in many ways. She specializes in life and career transitions and loves working with people who are moving out of their comfort zone to take on new perspectives, transitions and lifestyles.

Visit http://www.theconstructedlife.com

GOALS SHOULD BE QUANTIFIABLE: It should be possible to analyze every goal in terms of specific quantifiable objectives. Naturally, for certain tasks, measurement of objectives will be more difficult to attain; the key is to make every effort to reduce each goal to its most quantifiable form. For example, a customer service department might have the following general goals: 1. To increase output on customer acknowledgments. 2. To boost the number of customer telephone inquiries that are handled. 3. To distribute mail in a timely manner. As described, the above goals are completely immeasurable. It is almost certain that the manager’s expectations will not be met. The solution: Quantify these goals in a realistic, feasible fashion that will also insure departmental productivity: 1. To type 10 customer acknowledgment letters per hour. 2. Handle a minimum of 15 telephone customer inquiries per each two hour shift. 3. Open, sort, and distribute all mail for the third floor before 10 a.m. each working day.

GOALS MUST BE SET IN A PROPER CLIMATE: A conducive climate (where the employees do not feel threatened and are encouraged to ask for clarification) provides the possibility of two-way feedback. Such a setting insures that a transmitted goal or objective will leave no room for doubt as to what is required. Consider this example: the department head of inventory-control specialists who approaches all the specialists at once. She presents a department goal and in front of all the specialists, identifies how each will participate in the goal. Unless this is followed up with individual meetings with each specialist to discuss his or her role, it is likely that none of the specialists will approach the department head for any sort of discussion and, consequently, the goal will never reach fruition.

AVOID THE VAGUE AND AMBIGUOUS: Objective: “To increase the output of sales training programs for international personnel.” To almost any listener, some or all of the following questions may come to mind in response to this goal. “What does output mean?” If there is no room for measurement, how will we know when the goal is met? What is the time period involved? In addition, there is the vagueness of the term “international personnel.” Does it mean all personnel now based overseas, or could it include home office people based in the United States who are responsible for overseas operations? Ambiguous wording leads to such confusion, jeopardizing the success of what might be an otherwise reasonable, attainable goal.

Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium

CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.

A great way of attuning yourself daily to what your deepest dreams and wants are is to create yourself a DREAM WALL.

Use books and magazines or search online for images of the things that you want in your life. These should be images of the materialistic achievements you wish to experience in reality in the not to distant future.

Once you have located these pictures cut them out and place them in a place where you can easily view them in all of their glory each day. This is to become your DREAM WALL. The place where you come to look at your dreams.

Position your dreams in any order you choose.

Visit this wall at least twice a day, spending around 5-minutes per visit visualising what you want in the future. Look deeply at each image and visualise yourself living inside the picture. The more detailed you can make the images on your DREAM WALL the more real these images will become and the easier it will become for you to visualise yourself actually being apart of these images in reality.

What’s the significance?

Each time you visit your DREAM WALL you are imprinting upon your brain a positive and clear message of what you want from life. Through repetition this positive habit actually programs the brain with a positive expectation and a clear vision of what you expect from yourself. The brain then goes to work on seeking out and providing you with solutions and strategy’s for achieving what you want. The more you want it, the quicker your brain will find a solution for attainment.

Practice this daily and you’ll amaze yourself at how quickly and easily you can actually achieve your dreams in the REALITY.

The quickest and most direct route to achieving success is to know what you want out of life and just as importantly when you want it? The DREAM WALL emphasises this and helps keep you focused, true and determined to achieve your deepest and dearest needs in life.

TRY IT, you’ll be amazed!

These ideas have been taken from Jay Ball’s brilliant ’10 simple seeds to success’ 334 page paperback book, 12- hour CD course, and 334-page e-book.

About The Author

Jay Ball is a recognised Success Mentor in the UK. His visions and inspirations have helped many accomplish amazing results. Jay Ball is the author of ‘10 simple seeds to success’ and ‘Believe & Achieve’ Check out his website and downlod over 8 hours of FREE self-development seminars! www.successacademy.co.uk

info@successacademy.co.uk