Most professionals will agree that their lives often lack the benefit of the very service they provide to others: the attorney without a will; the doctor who hasn’t had a physical in years; the accountant who files his own return at the very last minute (extensions included!). Even the farrier who cares for my horse’s hooves admits that his own horses often go quite some time without a trim. A recently released report from the …
“The One Thing” starts with one of my favorite movie scenes. It is from the movie City Slickers, featuring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance, and it is the scene about the meaning of life. I wrote about it several years ago in this message. If you have never seen the movie, it is great for the whole family. Given that Gary Keller and Jay Papasan started off their book with one of my favorite stories, …
Ring. Buzz. “Do you have 5 minutes?” The common sounds of our days – interruptions, distractions, emergencies and urgencies. It is a wonder we get anything accomplished at all! Yet we make it through the day, collapsing into bed just as we finished off the one thing we had to get done. Ring. Buzz. It starts all-over again. Ever wonder why you feel frustrated? Not at the constant interruptions. No, the frustration you …
Goal-setting has been the theme in recent weeks in this newsletter, as well as the Expert Series Call. Download a recording of the call here, if you did not register to attend. Now that you have set your goals, how do you set yourself up for success in reaching those goals? One of the steps we discussed was creating an action plan. This is a challenging step if you have not taken the first four …
You are armed and prepared, ready to do battle against your greatest enemy. The tension in the air increases as your foe enters the arena. Of course, you know the tactics she will deploy. She is you. I often hear from clients the lament of needing more willpower or discipline. These are noble attributes to strive for, yet they are not the key to ensuring our success in realizing our goals. Here’s why… Willpower is …
In his book, “Start with Why” author Simon Sinek challenges us to redefine why we do anything and everything. Our simple rote answers of “to make money” or “to lose weight” are obvious in their intention, yet far from inspiring. As we are in the season for resolutions and goal-setting, I want to share this book recommendation with you. If in the past you have struggled to set meaningful goals, forgotten about your goals or …
We are well into the New Year, yes, three weeks and a day. According to the “Internet,” 21 days is the time needed to successfully integrate a new habit. If you have set New Year’s resolutions or other goals, how are you doing? Yep, change is difficult. Period. If you dig deeper in the Internet you will find other sources that say 66 days are required for a new habit to become ingrained. Let’s stop …
You’ve likely heard this adage at some point: “How you do anything is how you do everything.” As I worked on my goals and plans for 2014, I heard this quote again and this time it gave me pause. Be Bold is my theme for 2014 (read here to learn how this came about) and when I heard the quote, I realized how important, “how you do anything is how you do everything.” I can …
Welcome to the New Year! I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful time with friends and family. Perhaps some travel or sleeping in was part of your celebration. Maybe you also found some time for reflection and planning for the year ahead. Regular readers of this message will know that I have been working on reflection and planning since November. The end of the year provided the finishing touches on reflection and prepared me for …
That is a bit of a strange title for a Top 10 list, I admit. Yet as I looked back on the year, these tools had the most profound effect on my work and personal life, with the exception of one. As we come to the end of the year and gift giving season, some of these may make planning for next year simpler or provide that last minute gift idea. iPhone 5s and Siri: …
Leaving a breakfast meeting earlier this week, I passed the office of a gentleman I had seen just over one week ago. We had spent extensive time together visiting with each other and our spouses over meals on the Thanksgiving Day holiday, as we were guests at the same duck hunting camp (in case you missed last week’s message). As I passed by his office, I was struck by the fact that as much time …
So many of us look forward to the day when we finally get caught up and can focus on the future, near and longer-term. Once we get that to-do list done, we will be able to do just that! Stop kidding yourself! We know that it will never happen that way. Yet it is easier to tease ourselves with this possibility than to do something about it. Doing something about it is hard. It requires …
Thanksgiving week provided the opportunity to review the year (not quite complete but almost!) and begin laying plans for the next. The first draft of the review was completed on Monday and planning for the year ahead was begun on Tuesday. Late Tuesday, I added the necessary files to my cloud service so I could easily access all that I needed while we celebrated the holiday and duck-hunted along the Texas Gulf Coast. While I …
Fourth Article in the Series: Pulling It All Together If you look back at last week’s post on Designing Your Day, you will notice that I did nothing administrative that day. Everything was client or marketing/prospect-oriented and played to my strengths. I run a small business, just like many of you reading this. There are bills to pay, emails to answer and manage, continuing education, technology challenges, blogs to write, websites to update and so …
Sometimes an idea or project we would like to achieve seems nearly impossible. Yet once we open ourselves to the possibility, that we embrace it rather than dismiss it, incredible things can happen. A few weeks back my trainer, Marie Morgan, opened my eyes to the possibility that my horse and I were ready to learn an upper-level movement in our dressage training. That was step one in the process of preparing for the possibility. …
Third Article in the Series: Pulling It All Together Early in the year, we focused on understanding your Strengths and what you do best. When we design our days so that 75% of our time is spent working in our Strengths, we accomplish much more and are energized, not depleted, at the end of our day. Would you like to know how? Begin by reviewing your Strengths. If you haven’t done this work, see the …
In a recent coaching session, a client shared that she felt she should be lying on a couch, like in a therapist’s office, as she shared her hopes and fears, frustrations and challenges. It might surprise you to know that I hear this quite often. I am not a therapist and have not studied therapy, so therefore I could not be practicing therapy as I am not quite sure I would know how — given …
Second Article in the Series: Pulling It All Together As we move toward the close of the year, many of us begin planning for the next year. If you haven’t already, set aside some time on your calendar preferably away from the office, to reflect on this year and plan for the next. This series will walk you through some of the key steps for strategizing the upcoming year. With your Ideal Client in mind, …
As we quickly move toward the holiday season, our thoughts turn to making sure we close out the year strong, particularly for business. At the same time, we also begin thinking about the next year. Many of you have plans for off-site strategy sessions to chart the course for the year ahead. I encourage you to include time to reflect on the current year. This is the place to grow. Sometimes we don’t want to …
First Article in the Series: Pulling It All Together If you have followed these messages from the first of the year and taken action on the steps provided, you now know: Your Passions: The people, things and activities that reflect your highest aspirations Your Strengths: What you do best with ease and grace Your Values: How you do what you do Your Ideal Client: Who you serve best who values and appreciates what you do …