Priorities really are a priority

I’m sure you are just like me in that you know people whose attitudes vary enormously when it comes to planning, organising, prioritising, scheduling, goal setting and the like. At one end of the scale there are those who plan everything, social life included, to the very n’th degree and for whom to not do so would be unthinkable. The polar opposite position is held by those for who everything is spontaneous, responsive, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants…

I’m sure you get the idea, and you, like me, are probably somewhere in between these two extremes. There is no escaping the fact though that some things ARE more important than others.

Some activities generate you income – others don’t.

Some activities empower, skill and motivate your team – others don’t.

Some activities help foster positive relationships – others don’t.

Success belongs to those who know their priorities, and continually prioritise their priorities, in order to give their best efforts to the most important things. This is massive in business, and perhaps greater still in life generally. Priorities really are a priority.

Yes, but WHY?

Great to get on with things and work hard and persevere…and great when others pull their weight and contribute to the team effort, but without a really strong ‘Why’, that effort and motivation and desire is always likely to wain sooner rather than later, and the job becomes a labour of love and it feels more like an obligation than a passion.

Having said that, it often doesn’t take long just to pause and remember the ‘why’ – the reason that you started out on this journey in the first place, the benefits of hitting that deadline, the impact of making it work – and thus invoke the motivation once again to continue with enthusiasm and energy.

I have small children and they love to ask ‘Why?’ Its easy to become frustrated, but we always get a better result in terms of desired response from them when we take a little time to explain the reason or purpose behind what we’re asking….or even better, to get them to!

Grown ups aren’t a whole lot different. Things can seem very different when we take a few moments to remember the why!

1% improvements

Have a great week everybody – and don’t forget to keep an eye out for those potential 1% improvements!

We can often look for massive change in things if we want to get better results, and we can be driven by emotional responses to current situations – “Its completely rubbish!”; “Everything’s got to be different!”

In reality, most of what you do is probably pretty good…but could be just a little bit better. When England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003, head coach Clive Woodward said,

“we didn’t improve one thing by 100%, we improved one hundred things by one per cent.”

The head of the GB cycling team that swept all before them at the Beijing Olympics said almost exactly the same thing.

What 1% changes can you make this week which, with cumulative effect, will make a massive impact?

Say it like it is

A few years ago I attended a leadership seminar at which a retired very senior manager from one of the world’s largest companies was asked what he thought was THE most important thing for leaders to learn in order to be effective. His answer has stayed with me ever since – “do everything you say that you’ll do.”

In a 15 year survey of hundreds of thousands of people on six continents, Kouzes & Posner asked what qualities people most admire in leaders. The top answer, by a distance, was honesty.

Do what you say; be honest. Is good leadership really that simple?

I’ve been talking recently with two different small business owners that are doing really, really well. Both shared with me that one of the reasons their clients tell them they keep coming back for more is that they love the honesty with which they are treated. They always know exactly where they stand, never feel ‘sold to’, and even when mistakes are made, admitted, and professionally rectified, they love that too!

In a world of so much distrust, dishonesty, cover-up,  blaming others and general lack of taking personal responsibility, people love honesty. Consistently practised over time, through good and not-so-good circumstances, its incredibly powerful!

The power of spaced repetition

In the LMI concepts presentation that kicks off every LMI program & workshop, we talk about how success comes from the results you get and results from behaviour. If we stop there, however, and only concentrate on changing behaviour, the effects of what we do will be only short-lived. That’s because what we do is shaped by our attitudes, our attitudes by conditioning, and conditioning is the result of exposure to small amounts of information or small activities repeatedly over time.

I’ve just started using a new email program and was very excited to discover that there is a whole list of keyboard shortcuts that will execute certain functions instead of clicking with the mouse. I love this kind of stuff!  Enthusiastically I set about learning some of these shortcuts, but kept forgetting what they were. Only one way to get these commands learnt and into my subconscious so that they actually start saving me time – spaced repetition!

Now I sit with the shortcuts list window open continually, and refer to it everytime I need to perform a function, and hey presto, some of them are starting to go in and become habit.

Whatever new skill you learn, or new attitude you wish to develop, you have to go through that early painful repetition process until it becomes natural. Only then do you begin to reap the benefits of the investment you made initially to aquire that new knowledge or skill.

Your time IS your life

We can talk a lot about time management, priorities and productivity – and they are great subjects that certainly need to be looked at – but something more fundamental should be considered before we can really get to grips with these things.

What is the master plan for your life?

Have you identified your purpose, both in your business / work, AND in your life as a whole?

I recall that for me the idea of having a personal mission statement for my life seemed a bit cheesy, something a bit unnecessary and perhaps a little over the top. Now, it’s something I wouldn’t be without!

I realised that unless my purpose is clearly defined, how can I make consistently good decisions about how I spend my time? The way that I use my time is, or at least should be, the best indicator of what’s most important to me…and yet I know that often this would not be the case. There can be massive discrepancies between what I think to be most important to me and how a time analysis of what I actually do bears out!

Quite literally ‘my time is my life’.

With this in mind I want to make two recommendations of things I believe have a huge, positive impact -

1.  Get your own personality profile done (my favourite of these is DISC) – this will give you a better understanding of how you are wired, what kind of things bring out the best in you and also how to understand and get on better with others to achieve success.

2. Take a Personal Leadership course (the LMI ‘Effective Personal Leadership’ program is fabulous) – a practical course that takes you through the process of identifying your dreams, clarifying personal goals and establishing important values, as well as helping to understand the process of developing positive attitude and habits.

With these in place, then the business of time management, priorities and productivity becomes a whole lot more effective because the end in mind is crystal clear!

Like riding a bike

I’ve spent a bit of time at my kids’ school this week as its been ‘Bike Week’. Part of that time I’ve been engaged in the age-old ritual that every parent knows…walking, jogging, then sprinting along behind your child desperately trying to hold on to them as they wobble and zig zag their way along until unceremoniously crashing to the ground, having a little cry, then starting again, and then again, and then ‘just one more time….you can do it’.

It seems like this is going to take months, maybe years, as progress seems so slow. Suddenly though, as if from nowhere, it seems the child has got their balance so you let go, just a little, and they keep going on their own for one, maybe two seconds before wobbling again and you grab hold. But progress – definitely progress.

From those first few seconds of going solo, in no time at all they are speeding around on their own as if its just like…like riding a bike!

New skills, attitudes or daily habits we attempt to develop only become cemented and bear fruit – increased productivity, more sales, happier staff etc – if we adopt the same tenacity as that child who keeps on trying, trying, trying until they get it.

And by the way, its always easier to keep going if you’ve got someone helping, encouraging, coaching to make sure you don’t give up until it works!

I’m bigger on the inside

I can’t remember where I heard this from or the particular person in question but it’s memorable none-the-less:

A famous speaker of the 19th Century who was not an especially large man received some kind of derogatory comment and replied something along the lines of:

“I may look small, but I’m a hundred times bigger on the inside.”

This is a great comment! Here are a few of the things I think help make us big on the inside:

- practicing thinking well of yourself

- don’t try and be great at everything

- develop a positive attitude towards mistakes & failures

- understand that you won’t get on great with everyone

- set out to enjoy every day, make friends and have fun

- remember to take pleasure in even very little victories

- give to others wherever possible. Generosity breeds happiness!

Just a few thoughts – sure you could add many more. As always, it takes practice, discipline and determination (with feedback) to embed these kinds of attitudes so they become habits – but boy is it worth the effort!

Real-ly positive

Much is said about how in order to be successful you must have a positive attitude – and I agree with this 100%.

I’m sure though that we’ve all had those experiences of meeting ‘hyper-positive’ people for whom everything is always ‘Amazing!’, ‘Couldn’t be better’, ‘On top of the world’, ‘Absolutely brilliant’, in a way that makes you feel that you never get to meet the real person and develop a meaningful relationship with them.

At the other end of the scale are those utterly negative people for whom the glass is always half empty, and listening to them you can tangibly feel the energy and inspiration draining away from inside you!

So what does a genuine positive attitude look like? What does it mean to be real-ly positive? I’ve been pondering these questions, and venture to share with you a few thoughts.

- it is possible to be genuinely positive on a consistent daily basis, maintaining our focus on successes, opportunities and possibilities with a cheerful, grateful outlook on life

- its equally important to speak with honesty about the challenges, obstacles and setbacks that we experience and that whilst we may not disclose these right away, or to everyone, its an essential element in building lasting relationships of any depth and trust.

- staying positive takes a lot of practice, and mastering self-motivation skills such as affirmation and visualisation, and building them into your daily routine, are hugely important, as is maintaining a genuine interest in other people rather than becoming too self-focussed.

Its just a few thoughts on the subject; I’m sure you could add plenty more.

Have a real-ly positive day!

 

Crystal Clear

“If you are not making the progress you want to make, it is simply because your goals aren’t clearly defined.” (Paul J Meyer)

We are all full of ideas, aspirations and intentions – things we’d live to have, become and achieve.

How many of these actually become reality, and how many remain merely as whims; noble thoughts that evaporate as quickly as they arrive?

This is why we believe so passionately in clearly defined written goals. Writing something down clarifies your thinking, engages your emotion and stimulates desire as you begin to picture in your mind what it would feel like to accomplish that goal.

What aim or desire do you have right now that would benefit from being planted and watered in the fertile soil that is a clearly defined written goal?