Tag: motivation

Measure your side-project: Are you an Apple or an Orange?

Measure yourself in the right way every day for success
Measure yourself in the right way every day for success

I saw this quote and it got me thinking about how many of us are silently measuring ourselves each day against a yardstick that isn’t the right fit for ‘us’.

It is unavoidable, you will judge yourself on some level against something. I recall the Olympic sprinter, Michael Johnson once stating in an interview that he didn’t care what times the other athletes posted, his focus was always on his own times because that was what he could influence.

I really loved that outloook, it meant that he had laser focus on the things he could change and work on. For Michael that worked out very well and lead to Olympic Gold.

Einstein’s quote above applies ever more so to my audience here. There are a lot of people who are working away at the ‘day job’ and in the 5pm-9pm hours, weekends and any spare time are working away at building their side-projects or side-businesses to make them real.

So what measure do these guys apply?

So what do you measure yourself against?

There’s the daily measure of the ‘day job’. This doesn’t go away and might be a fantastic job that you’re really great at and love.

OR….it might be the pits and you can’t wait to do something better with your life.

It matters not which because at some level you need to measure your success at the day job, if for no other reason than to ensure you’re still in it to help fund your side-work!

Measuring your side-business

There is also the measure of the ‘side-project’ or ‘side-business’ to consider.

It’s not ‘really’ a job yet, and it’s yours to push along and make happen. So in effect – you’re the boss!! YAY!

STOP – it’s not a YAY for everyone.

The danger with the ‘side-anything’ is that you continually treat it as a ‘side-thing’ and that usually means it’s the poor cousin when it comes to being measured and monitored for progress.

How many of you have ‘side-stuff’ that has been a side-thing for more than 6months…..12months……24months…!!!

The measuring of your side-projects is MORE IMPORTANT than your day job if you want to make it happen.

So…

To make sure you’re MEASURING THE RIGHT THING for you and are able to bring your idea to business faster you need to get practical with yourself.

Practical Measurement

Because the side-projects don’t always have finely tuned project work breakdowns and plans I’m going to propose the simple tool of ‘journaling’ to help you focus and keep track of where you’re going each week.

I recently wrote a post called Use Journal Power-how looking back will power you ahead that talks about the power of the Journal, so I’m not going to repeat myself here – go take a read.

But the Value in this approach is…

The value comes from taking a look at what you want to achieve with your ‘side’ thing over the next 7 days, the next week is your biggest hurdle to your future success – it always is! Without making stuff happen in the ‘next week’ you’ll NEVER get where you want to go.

So very simply, the idea is to:

  1. Write down the top 5 things that you will achieve this next week to get you towards your goal.
  2. Each morning take a look at your list and review what you’re focussing on this week.
  3. Each night – wrote down what you have done towards achieving these TOP 5 PRIORITIES for the week.

SIMPLE!

Then at the end of the 7 days, read through what you achieved against what you set out to achieve and take 5 mins to assess what worked, what didn’t and what you can do next week to make better progress.

Doing this consistently sharpens your priority setting muscle, and keeps you laser focussed on what you can do EVERY day to get you closer to your goal.

End of Practical Session – just go do it 🙂

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Use Journal Power-how looking back will power you ahead

Journal PowerSo I studied quite a bit…

I got a Diploma, a BSc Degree, a Certificate and Diploma in Management (only ‘cos I was too young to do the MBA) and finally a Masters.

So when I first came across a journal it was in the context of shelves and shelves of a library with little cardboard racks filled with volumes of journals from obscure Organisations and Bodies.

These things contained articles written by distinguished and interesting people. One particular assignment on ‘Can an Artificial Intelligence have Ethics’  led me spend a whole afternoon in the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) volumes of journals on Computer Ethics….!!

…anyway I digress.

The point is that my early feelings towards ‘journals’ was boring, dusty and little stinky – old paper doesn’t keep fresh!

Your own Journal Power

Fortunately Journal Power does not require the use of old dusty papers.

It also will not require you to visit anywhere with lots of books and papers on many shelves.

No! The Journal Power I am going to share with you is something you

…already have…

…can do anywhere that works for you…

…and…

…you can start using this new power today!

How does Journal Power work?

As enterpreneurs, wannapreneurs, sidepreneurs or just cube-monkeys we all get through a ton of “stuff” every day of every week of every year.

Now granted for some us the “stuff” can be of higher value than others. Rocking the XBox for 30hrs a week is possibly of less value to your average Sidepreneur than putting in those hours getting their eCommerce site up and working.

The point is that there’s a whole lot of time spent doing things that ‘could’ be moving you towards your goals and success.

Looking ahead while looking back

Yes, that’s a weird headline and I’m not talking about having eyes in the back of your head (although a recent R&D innovation client – Mark – can give you that in the shape of a motorcycle helmet with a rearview camera built in – see REEVU for more details).

What I’m talking about is having the ability to look forward and ahead at what you’re going to do with your time setting actions and goals for the week ahead…

…and then at the end of each day looking back at how you’ve spent the day, the achievements you’ve made and the challenges you’ve faced.

How does Looking Back power you Ahead?

Fair question…and looking back at how you’ve spent your hours is, believe it or not, a really powerful way to ensure that when you look ahead you get greater success out of the hours ahead of you.

Related article: How to get more time for your idea

Believe me when I say that when you start to take the time each day to look back at what “stuff” you’ve done and what you’ve achieved it will REALLY open your eyes.

Now, for some of us it won’t open our eyes in a good way, we’ll see how we’ve spent all those hours and realise that they weren’t really spent moving us towards our goals in any meaningful way.

For others it will be a motivational boost to realise that actually, they’ve got through more than they thought they did in those hours and with it will bring the realisation that they can do more than they thought they could.

Writing it Down – your extended memory

A crucial piece of the jigsaw is to take the time to write the things down that you’ve achieved each day in your ‘journal’ so that you can come back to them at the end of the week / month.

Taking a leaf out of the Dave Allen GTD book, taking stuff out of your brain and putting it down somewhere (i.e. in your Journal) so that you don’t need to keep it in your brain clouding it from the focused activities you need it to work on…is a good thing. It’s like having a second memory!

Now your journal doesn’t need to be leather-bound and come from the pages of Harry Potter. It can be anything you’re comfortable keeping to hand so that you can write in it every day. It can be a Word Document on a computer or an app on your Mac, iPad or Tablet (Day One is particularly good).

It just needs to be something that is with you and on-hand when you’re ready to record your progress – frictionless and available.

Successes Every Week

After you’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks you’ll start to see how your successes add up. The magic happens through applying these practical steps:

  1. You ‘write ahead’ in your journal at the start of the week setting out the top 5 things you want to get done
  2. At the end of each day you ‘look back’ at how you’ve spent those hours and what achievements or blockers you’ve had
  3. At the end of the week you take-stock of what you said you would look to get done, and what you’ve actually got done
  4. You learn what worked and what didn’t this week and use that to make next week better

Simples eh! I said building your future was Simple but Hard right here didn’t I 🙂

JUST TEN MINUTES A DAY of practical action is all it takes to get this JOURNAL POWER working for you.

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How to Choose to DO IT

Flex your Choosing MuscleIt’s a Monday, it’s dark, miserable….

Been there, done that and know it’s coming again.

The alarm sounds and you’re in that nice warm bed, enjoying the comfort and not looking forwards to the trip outside that front door.

YOU have a choice:

  1. Press the ‘SNOOZE’ button and have another few ZZZZzzzzzzs
  2. Seize the day and get right into the FIGHT

There’s a lot more of us that go for option 1 over option 2 for sure.

Only YOU Choose

Now the thing about choice is that it’s down to you – YOU! It’s only you that makes choices – no-one else!

The circumstances around you can stack up anyway they like, but it’s in your head that the decision gets played out. Whether it’s a decision about answering the alarm clock, heading out into the cold Monday morning, making that cold-call to get a new client or how to react to the client in front of you that isn’t seeing things quite your way. It’s ALL YOU – You are master of you!!

Tough Love huh! Sorry about that, but get over it.

ACTION versus REACTION

The choice of how you react to things is always in your hands, it’s just not always easy to do the ‘right’ thing when you’re in the moment.

I’ve already told you that the decision is yours, and yours alone – right.

Well now let me explain how you can make that decision always count in your favour, regardless of how the scene is set.

There is a ‘golden gap’ that gives you the opportunity to think through the choices and your decision on which to choose. It’s the gap between ‘ACTION’ (the thing that’s happened to force a choice) and the ‘REACTION’ (which of those choices you go for).

You don’t have to ‘knee-jerk’ your decision on which of those choices you go for.

LIVE IN THE GAP

It was a revelation to me that this gap between my reactions to actions existed, I had to make a lot of wrong choices before I caught on.believe me

I now ‘LIVE in the GAP’ whenever I can. It’s not easy but I try and spot each and every opportunity to get into that gap and use it for my benefit.

When something happens that forces me to make a choice, I stop myself and just take a moment to consider and play back in my own mind what is before me.

  • The Choices – those that I am presented with by the scene
  • The Causes – what has made this situation happen
  • The Factors – what’s limiting my options and therefore what decision I can make

Now this doesn’t need to take a long time – I’ve even raced through this process within 60 secs when I’ve had to – “the GAP” can be minutes, days or weeks. Either way knowing it exists is the important part.

And then – I make my decision!!

Yep – in my head with the choices I have (and the new ones I may come up with in the GAP) and I then take action.

TAKING ACTION

Heading back to the alarm clock on Monday morning…

Knowing about ‘the GAP’ and ‘your ability to make a choice your own’ and DECIDE is not necessarily going to give you that bed of roses. You see, armed with this you can still take that decision to ‘PRESS SNOOZE’.

No, the last piece of the puzzle is for you to ALWAYS want to and strive to TAKE ACTION.

You see, whatever it is that you’re aiming for whether it’s a new job, a new personal best, a new idea or invention or nailing that great new client…

…YOU NEED TO TAKE POSITIVE ACTION TOWARDS IT EACH AND EVERY DAY.

So the puzzle piece missing is to face the choices before you and DECIDE to go with the choice that makes you TAKE ACTION and move closer to your goal and success.

THAT’S IT – JUST DO IT!

P.S. Sometimes it’s just not that easy to see the choices that will move you towards your goal because it’s just too big and you can’t figure out how to get there! Well small-steps lead to HUGE things, check out this piece on motivation to keep you going.

 

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Practical Perseverance and how to develop it

Challenge yourself to Persevere
PERSEVERANCE – Persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success

I have studied many books around success and achieving your goals in business, I have listened to lots of authors and success coaches in audio books and podcasts explain how success can be yours….if only you keep  at it.

The word ‘PERSEVERANCE’ is used time and again as a key trait that has helped many achieve success in their lives. The example that sticks out for me is Anthony Robbins when he mentions Colonel Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe. At age 65 he decided he would add more value to the World and he started selling his recipe. He pitched the recipe to 1,009 restaurant owners before he got a ‘YES’, and the rest is history.  He had perseverance to keep going.

Practical Perseverance

I once shared a house in my University days with a guy who sold aerial photos to homeowners. It’s not the easiest sell to walk up and knock on people’s homes and tell them you’ve flown over and photographed their property and would they like a framed photo of it. I asked him how he kept going after getting many NOs each day – his answer was that each no was one closer to the next YES.

The example above illustrates that It’s finding the motivation that keeps you going is key to perseverance. He could have looked at each NO as evidence that the business model does not work, but instead he saw it as an indicator that he was getting closer to his next sale instead.

So what do you do to develop PERSEVERANCE?

The best solution I’ve come up with is to target the goal you want to achieve and then identify the individual tasks you need to complete to move you towards that goal.

If you’re a Sales guy and your goal is to be Top of the sales list of 100 team members this month, then a key task might be to make 20 prospect calls each day before 10am.

If you’re an author and your goal is to complete your 200 page book, then a key task might be to write 2 pages a day.

These examples illustrate some key tasks that break down the larger goal into real, tangible things you can take action on EACH DAY to move you towards your goal.

Taking ACTION enables PERSEVERANCE

The secret to perseverance is doing the small things EVERY DAY that keep you moving towards your goal. Don’t see the GOAL as a big scary thing that you can’t get your head around and it takes you too long to even consider taking action against. See it as a series of small tasks that you CAN take action on EVERY DAY that moves you forwards.

FOCUS – use the power of focus every day until you achieve success:

Follow
One
Course
Until
Success

Thanks to John Lee Dumas at Entrepreneur on Fire for the FOCUS acronym.

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If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly to start with

Just Start
Just Start

 

I have just listened to a great interview with Adam Urbanksi of TheMarketingMentors.com. He’s really down to earth and has gone through building a company and making it a huge success to falling flat on his face and having to pick himself up again.

He had a great motivational quote that is the title of this post:

“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly to start with”

Now what Adam is saying is that a lot of people don’t actually get off the couch and go make that thing that’s really worth doing happen. This is because they’re scared that they won’t get it good enough or perfect to publish and risk looking stupid.

Adam’s point is that it’s more important to do that thing and get it out there, you can work on tidying and perfecting it later – but your audience will help you shape it into what’s perfect for them (not just your own isolated view which could be wrong).

So please bear this in mind as you enter a new year and make sure you make those things that are worth doing happen! Rough and ready or good enough are the buzzwords to heed.

For practical tools and motivation for marketing then Adam Urbanski  can help and give great advice.

To listen to the interview head on over to Entrepreneur on Fire and episode #433.

If you liked what you read then please go on and leave a comment or subscribe.

Jan 1st – isn’t it time you made that change?

Why 2014 is the year you change

20140102-064549.jpg
It’s a new year and traditionally this is the time that many people get that extra shove to attack their situation and make a change.

I came across this great article that walks through the effects making a large scale change has on you.

I hope it gives you the courage to step up and make your change.

Geordie’s Story – How to take an idea to business

The Foundation | Geordie Wardman sketch
The Foundation | Geordie Wardman sketch

This is a fantastic short video where Geordie Wardman gives us his story of one guy’s experience in starting with an idea and trying to build it up into a business that can sustain him.

Geordie talks of his experience at the well established course offered by Dane Maxwell called The Foundation.

He goes through his emotions of getting the idea up, the first customer, the gap between any more customers and Sales and then the elation of a steady 2-3 customers a week.

This isn’t a big scale, large volume success story. This is the warts and all gradual slog that is involved in seeing through on your idea and executing to get it from idea to business.

Geordie talks about how he became a lot more comfortable with dealing with ‘extreme uncertainty’ which, when he started was a huge part of the journey. He talks publicly of his first sales attempts and hit rate of less than 3%, and how he’s progressed in a very short time to a closer to 95% hit rate.

Have a listen and check out his very practical approach to the hand-drawn infographic sharing his experience.