How to Be Your Own Bailout

Photo credit: myeye on flickr

Are you as tired as I am of hearing about individuals and organizations – really large organizations – looking for someone else to get them out of the mess they’re in?By the way, most of it is of their own doing( with a little help from Uncle Sam). I’ll bet you are. Let’s you and I conduct a series of reality checks to make sure we’re putting things in the proper perspective. Let’s take responsibility for our own bailout of the mess we find ourselves in. Let’s conduct a little reality check.

Reality #1 - If you don’t have a vision for who you are and where you’re going this year, you’re in trouble!

“A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock pile when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind.” (St. Exupery)

Success and achievement begin with a clear vision of what could be. Seeing in your mind’s eye what you will become or what you’ll accomplish will drive your strategies, objectives and actions. No vision = No focus = No progress!

Reality #2 – If you want a better life – create it!

“When an archer misses the mark he looks for the fault within himself. Failure to hit the bull’s-eye is never the fault of the target. If you want to improve your aim, you have to improve yourself.” (Gilbert Orland)

The life you’re living right now is the result of the decisions you have made up to this point. If you don’t like the way things are going, change the way you make decisions and change your habits. Jim Rohn reminds us that failure is the result of a few errors in judgment – repeated every day – and that success is the result of a few simple disciplines (habits) practiced every day.

Reality #3 – Your progress for improving your performance and productivity will only be as good as your process.

“If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” (W. Edwards Deming)

Make plans for the progress you want to make. Write them down and refer to them regularly.

Prioritize your daily activities – do the most important things first.

Create systems to automate your most productive activities.

Say “no” to those things that will deter you from doing those things that are most important.

Reality #4 – Activity and Productivity are not the same thing.

“The secret of effectiveness lies in the concentration of effort. You must make decisions that determine what matters most and, as a result, what comes first.” (Peter Drucker)

Success and achievement are about doing – not dreaming. But , it’s not about quantity – it’s about the quality of work you accomplish that really counts. Doing a lot of little things, just to appear busy, won’t improve your performance and productivity.

You have much more control of your life and your time than you give yourself credit for. Time is precious and life is very short. Don’t waste time on trivia. Stay focused on those things that produce real results.

Jack Welch, the legendary Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001, had a reputation for his uncanny business acumen. He was also known for facing challenges by asking the question: “What’s the reality here?” By determining the reality of a given situation, Welch and his team were able to not only solve GE’s most pressing problems, but also to grow a company that still sets the standard for excellence in it’s industry.

The “reality” for improving your performance and productivity begins by taking personal responsibility, requires a vision for what could be, means taking charge of your time, and understanding that efforts and results are not the same thing. Make 2009 a year of success and achievement. Do those things that matter most – and do them every day.

Why Don’t We Set Goals?

Take Charge of Your Life, or Someone Else Will!

In reviewing some of my favorite reading material, I was reminded of one of the fundamental truths of self improvement. If I don’t take responsibility of my own growth and development, no one else will. And, frankly, no one else should.

Almost everyone agrees with this but interestingly, we still tend to fall back on a few old reliable excuses for not taking charge and doing those things we need to do to make tomorrow better than today.

Here are a few of the reasons we either give up on getting better or at least don’t make the progress we should.

Allowing negative circumstances to justify a bad attitude

Hey, bad things do happen to good people. Get over it. Everyone suffers setbacks of one kind or the other. That’s a given. That’s reality. How we respond to those setbacks is what really matters. We can have a pity party and invite lots of friends or, we can get up, dust ourselves off and get back after what it is we want.

Rationalizing away your personal culpability

It’s so much easier to make somebody else the bad guy or blame our own shortcomings on the boss, the spouse, the kids, the car…whatever. We love being the victim. Fact is, most of what happens to us is our fault. We were late for work, we started the argument, we exasperated the child, we didn’t take care of the car and it broke down.

Oversensitive to the way others feel about us

Here’s a malady everyone shares. Psychologists say that almost everything we do is to earn the favorable opinion of others or, at least not to lose that favorable opinion. I think you see the danger of this. If our personal self-worth or personal value come from what others feel about us, we’ll find ourselves only acting like or doing those things others seem to want.

Listen, life’s too short to major on the minors. Accept the fact that setbacks are a part of life. We’re often our own worst enemy, and having a good reputation is important, but having great character is better. Take charge of your life by taking responsibility for your actions. That’s the way to make THIS YEAR a terrific year!