Lesson 1 - How to get Things Done (Author Unknown)
To reach the top in life you have to be well organised. To put it very simply, only by being organised will you be able to do all the many things that will bring you success.
No two days are the same so, setting a daily plan and expecting it to work every day is self-defeating. You can create a perfect day only on paper! With a life that is varied and unpredictable it can be a real challenge to find ways to be effective all the time. As in so many things, self-management methods work best if you keep them simple. Here I’ve condensed the best organisational (and timesaving) tips you’ll find anywhere. Make them part of your daily routine and you will start to enjoy more personal freedom in your daily life. Think of being organised not in the abstract, but as a set of 10 skills...
1. Have Clear Aims And Objectives – Long term goals require medium and short-term goals to prescribe daily activities. Keeping your most exciting goals constantly alive in your mind will ensure that you’ll always want to make the best use of every day. Time is your most valuable resource, but without clear aims it’s impossible to make profitable use of it.
2. Identify Priorities - List your tasks and activities. Some tasks are more important than others; some have greater urgency; some may not be necessary today or at all! Decide what is important. Re-evaluate for: urgency, by asking yourself WHEN tasks must be done. Using a simple system for assigning the order in which to do everything: A = Urgent; B = Important; C = Less Important.
3. Keep Order -Keep your surroundings tidy and functional. Put in systems that are efficient and easy to use. Simple is best. A tip for letter-writers and authors: write one word-prompts, decide on the sequence of your ideas, then write the letter.
4. Plan Tomorrow Today - Make brief notes to yourself as things happen (better still, buy yourself a Dictaphone). Then, at the end of each day, renew what happened and make a plan for tomorrow. As well as maintaining order, end-of-day organising gives your subconscious mind a chance to compute your suggested plan for tomorrow. In the morning you may see better or different means for achieving your plan. This is why so many people find that if they ‘sleep on problems’ a decision comes more easily the next day.
5. Do It Now - Putting things off that could be done not only today, but now, is one of the most common of all time-wasting habits. It’s usually the things we enjoy doing least that we put off; and the degree of dislike for the chore grows, the longer we delay taking action. When we finally get down to it, the task usually isn’t as awful as we originally thought. Get yourself off on the right foot by doing something today that you have been putting off. It might be: a letter, an apology, a confrontation, a phone call, some paperwork, a report. Whatever it is, demonstrate to yourself that you will take control over your life and do it now!
6. Expect The Unexpected - Unless we recognise the need to constantly revise and update our lists and plans, we shall always be frustrated by interruptions and changes. What doesn’t get done shouldn’t cause stress. If you expect the unexpected and are flexible enough to handle it calmly - it won’t get you down. If you have prioritised your day, the most urgent of the important tasks will get done, and anything delayed by change or interruptions can be rescheduled. Be prepared to go with the flow. Avoid becoming a fanatic! Don’t allow your goals and lists to become straitjackets! Where there are new ideas and information, reset your goal, or rewrite your list with the added insight to guide you, and adjust your plan of action accordingly. Don’t allow yourself to be warped by becoming a slave to the clock; make sure your lists are your assistants - not the other way round.
7. The 80/20 Rule - You are likely to achieve 80% of your results from 20% of your effort. This 80/2O ratio, which applies in many areas, has been refined from the work of the Italian economist Pareto, who said, ‘The significant items from a given group form a relatively small part of the total’. If you are aware of the significant 20% of your time- the high priority tasks - it makes sense to apply yourself with extra diligence in that area. Get good at the tasks directly related to achieving your goals.
8. Use "Pocket Time" - Sometimes, in the course of the day, lumps of time appear unexpectedly for you like surprise gifts. Instead of feeling frustrated and annoyed when your own timing gets changed by something outside your control, be prepared for these ‘pockets’ of time to occur. Waking up earlier than usual, finishing a task ahead of schedule, or waiting longer than expected for a client. Be creative ahead of time and develop a habit of always carrying with you special ‘extras’ on which to spend your unexpected pocket time. Books, journals, the less urgent but must-look-at-sometime post, letter-writing stuff, goal and affirmation cards -anything to help you capture the gift of extra time, and use it for something special.
9. Find "Quality Time" - People’s inner rhythms vary. There is a time of day that is more productive for you than other times. For example, you probably know if you are a morning person or not. Identify the time of day when you are at your best, and with that awareness try to schedule the most demanding tasks for that time of day. This less tangible, but equally useful, time tip means we not only choose to spend time wisely, but also wisely choose the time we spend. Sometimes it is true that those who work the longest hours are least efficient. With more thought, some tasks can be completed in a shorter time, and some in a better time.
10. Re-Charge In "No Time" - If success and reaching your goals is important, there is a time for thinking of time as money. But there is also a time for treating the minutes of our lives with an even greater respect. Clocks and all mechanical devices for measuring the passage of time are essential for our working life, but they are inappropriate to some of our deepest needs if we are never without them. Relieve some of the stress in your life by making time for some ‘no-time’. Take a day, remove your watch and turn the clocks to the wall. Make a decision to have one day regularly, perhaps monthly (weekly if you can do it), where time is not an issue. Do whatever you feel like doing for as long as you feel like doing it. All hours are not created equal. Passing quickly, dragging or standing still our perception of time varies according to our activities and how much we enjoy them. At first it feels strange to detach yourself from time. After you’ve tried it a couple of times you’ll discover a special serenity. It’s a wonderful way to recharge your batteries and it goes a long way to ensure that you, and not time, are the master of your life.
Lesson 2
Because there is no way to succeed in life without interacting with others to varying degrees, you need a basic understanding of human nature. So here's three fundamental truths to be going on with:
Most people are more negative than positive because they've spent their lives being exposed to more negatives than positives. They've heard over and over why they can't achieve certain things, why they shouldn't expect too much out of life, why they should just go to work every day, pay bills and raise their children to do the same.
People are motivated by the need to experience pleasure and avoid pain.
People love to talk about their problems, but they don't want to hear about yours. They might sound sympathetic as you talk, but they really don't want to hear it. More important, they probably don't care about your problems, so why bother telling them?
You must come to terms with this reality: When someone says, "How are you today?" they don't want a health report or a financial statement. So don't give them one. Instead. Say, "Great" no matter how things really are. They will usually be pleasantly surprised and may even allow some of your positive energy to rub off on them.
We all have problems, but wallowing in them won't make them go away. Of course, you can't ignore them, either, but resolve not to talk about them unless you are in a situation set up for problem solving.
If you do nothing else as a result of reading this article but change the way you respond to inquiries about your health and status, you will have made a major improvement in you life.
Before you decide that I'm just another motivational preacher, let me stress that positive thinking alone won't bring you success. You need strategies, plans and methods, and you're going to learn them from me in later issues on this site. But your attitude is a critical component of success.
After I started my business and had to hire people to work for me, I realized that my negativity affected my employee's productivity. I'd stop by the job site, scowling and snarling, and they'd slow down. Finally I decided that, since I found books that told me how to make money, maybe I could find some on how to have a better attitude. I bought one of those "rah rah" positive attitude books and hated every page of it. I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever read. Why? Because the author said that in order to become positive you had to go around saying things like "super" and "fantastic" words that were not in my everyday vocabulary Not only did the technique seem phony, but I wasn't about to embarrass myself or put my oversized ego on the line doing something I thought was silly.
But my desire to become a millionaire soon overcame my ego. And if being positive and saying dumb things would help me reach my goal, then I'd give it a try. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I began meeting with my employees and pumping them up by telling them how well things were what a great job they doing, and how they were going to benefit when we had the project complete. I used words like "Great!" I smiled and put plenty of positive energy in my voice and gestures. In short, I put on a terrific show. And when I was finished, I'd scurry around the corner, out of their sight, and breathe a deep sigh of relief that my performance was over. I could go back to scowling and being negative until it was time to talk to my employees again.
Two very interesting things happened. First, worker productivity increased significantly. I was delighted, because that meant more profits. Second, and even more important, I began liking myself when I was wearing my positive mask. Some of my own medicine was working on me. The more I pretended to be positive, the more I liked how I felt when I was doing it. The more I liked how I felt, the more I did it. Pretty soon, it wasn't uncomfortable anymore, and it wasn't long before I realized I had experienced a metamorphosis. I had unwillingly transformed myself from someone who was totally negative and abrasive to someone who was positive and happy.
People saw the change and thought it wouldn't last. In fact, my wife says that I did a complete attitude turnaround in just a few days, and she sometimes found my new optimism irritating. But eventually it grew on her. Today, being positive is an integral part of both our natures and has
helped me to build our personal fortune.
We are shaped by our environment, so if we are exposed more to negative attitudes than positive ones, we will tend to be negative.
You might feel a little uncomfortable when you first start saying "Great"' That's understandable, because it probably goes strongly against the grain of the habits you've acquired over a lifetime.
If you're thinking that it's easy to have a positive altitude once you've got a lot of money, you're right. But it's not easy to get wealthy without a positive attitude.
You'll find success comes much easier once you've developed a success attitude, and you do that through conscious change. To the casual observer, the results of your conscious change may look like magic, but there's nothing at all magical about the process.
Conscious change is simply the tool you use to adjust your attitude so you feel deserving of success.
How do you purge the negativity from your mind? I learned how to do it by accident, and confirmed it during a period when I was working on understanding just exactly how I managed to overcome my negative upbringing and become a millionaire. I needed to know how my attitude changed, how I
kept my marriage together, how I learned enough about business without much formal education
to make huge fortunes in several totally unrelated fields. Why me? Because I learned to feed my mind with positive material. And why not you.? There's absolutely no reason why you, too, cannot enjoy a life full of personal satisfaction and material comfort. You can begin by applying the process that will create the most dramatic change in the shortest time frame.
What do you get from reading most newspapers or watching television? Primarily wars, car crashes, and similar mental junk food. It's the mental equivalent of high-fat, high-calorie snacks they may taste good but they are ultimately harmful to your body. I'm not suggesting that you cancel your newspaper subscription and sell your television. What I am suggesting is that you become as careful about what you feed your mind as an athlete is about how they feed their body.
Belief is a powerful tool, and after I'd read a few good books, I became a believer. But I didn't stop reading. I continued to feed my mind with productive information.
I look for information on how to improve myself, and I want to learn how other people have done so. Then I take what I consider to be the best ideas and apply them in my own life and business.
This is not just a lot of psychological claptrap it's common sense. (and common sense existed a long time before psychology ever did). So give it a try, because the techniques I'm revealing to you really do work in the real world!
Lesson 3
We all want money and the niceties and freedoms that having money provides. But just fantasizing about a bigger house, a sleeker car, and a membership at the country club won't get you those things. There's got to be a reason for the wealth that's bigger much bigger than the money itself.
Let me share how, for me, the desire for wealth grew from a tiny spark of an idea to a powerhouse of energy, and the guts to get it done. Sure I wanted to be wealthy. I wanted to be a millionaire. But it wasn't for the Rolex watch, although today I have one. It wasn't for the nice homes or expensive cars, although I have those, too. It look me years to understand what was driving me and it wasn't positive thinking. For me, it was simply this: If I could become rich, it would make all the pain from the past go away. I would be somebody. I could show all the people, like my father, who said I would never amount to anything, that they were wrong. Most importantly, I could give my family all the security and safety that I had never had and I so badly wanted them to have. To build the desire necessary to achieve wealth, you must unleash the energy of your own pain, Maybe your pain comes from someone telling you that you wouldn't ever succeed. Maybe your pain comes from imagining your children in a mediocre, financially deprived life. Whatever it's source, you must find that pain, crystallize it, and understand what will make it go away.
Fortunately, somewhere along the way, my pain and animosity faded. I never gloated about my success to my father. By the time I began achieving my financial goals, it wasn't necessary.
And gradually the need to escape the pain of my unhappy childhood was replaced with the need to repeat the pleasure my achievements generated. The challenges and rewards of building wealth became my motivators. I am absolutely fascinated by wealthy people. I want to know how they got that way and what keeps them going. I found a study that tracked the fortunes and misfortunes of 12,000 wealthy people from across the United States. This study pointed out one significant common characteristic among people who are wealth builders: They love what they do! Have you ever wondered why wealthy people keep on working? Why did Sam Walton continue to be actively involved in the running of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., until his death- long after he had made more money than he would ever spend? Don't you think that Michael Eisner, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, made enough money while still in his 40s so that he could retire with a lifestyle most of us only dream about? Why does Bill Cosby keep doing television shows and Madonna keep recording music after they've become two of the richest entertainers in the world? The answer is simple: They love what they do. Work is not a chore for them. They're eager to get up in the morning, to tackle new projects, to reach new goals. And because they love what they do, they are willing to do what it takes to succeed.
Most people have a job for which they're paid just enough not to quit, and they work just hard enough not to get fired. Only a very few really love the work they do. That being true, we have unwittingly associated the process of making money with something that's painful or, at best, not pleasurable. Think about this. If for years you have associated making money with pain, your brain has built a wall between yourself and the pleasure wealth and prosperity brings. When you think about money, deep down you may be focusing on ideas like "not fun," "hard " "boring," "no future," "wasting Lime," - all things that are painful. And when you think about big money, your idea is "big pain." It's entirely possible that this thought process has caused you unknowingly to sabotage your dreams in the past. But it doesn't have to be that way in the future. Making money can be fun. Becoming wealthy does not have to be all trials and tribulations. Once you find the right vehicle-one that will make money and be enjoyable at the same time you'll see how this process works, and how it will keep on working for the rest of your life. A friend of mine makes this point quite clearly. He's successful and he likes what he does, but he doesn't love it, and here's how I know: He usually comes in to his office around nine or ten in the morning. He claims he's not a morning person, so he chooses to come in late, and then stay late if necessary. But this guy loves to fish. Fishing is a passion with him. If I were to call him at any time and suggest we go fishing the following morning, he'd be up at 4:30 am., and have coffee brewed and the boat ready to go by 5:00am. Interesting behavior from someone who claims he's not a "morning person." Business and making money can be extremely pleasurable, as pleasurable as fishing is for my friend. I love what I do. Simply put, it's fun for me. When the stories of wealthy people are told, over and over the common thread of loving what they do clearly shows through. It doesn't matter if they are Bill Gates of Microsoft, a computer whiz kid who became one of America's richest men, or Wally "Famous" Amos, a black man from a Harlem ghetto who made a fortune selling chocolate chip cookies. They all loved what they were doing.
When making money becomes your hobby, getting up early is no longer a chore. Staying late doesn't matter, because you're enjoying yourself. In fact, you'll be having so much fun that you'll toss out the time clock. You won't need it. When you find the right vehicle that lets making money become your hobby, you'll find yourself generating significantly more wealth in much less time than you're probably spending on your job right now.
Success ... To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
Bessie Stanley (adapted; erroneously attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson):
Tel: 08700-777535
email: admin@goldtrak.co.uk
Goldtrak Ltd. Huddersfield
Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved
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