by Rex Richard | Dec 31, 2012 | Business, Personal Development
Whether you work for an employer, are self employed, or are simply looking for a way to get more productive and organized in 2013, here are my top three time-saving success tips:
- Take time to clean out your inbox. Opening your email and staring at hundreds or even thousands of unread emails is a stressor. Set aside a large chunk of time before year’s end to undertake this task then keep up with it by setting aside an hour a day to keep up with emails. Answer them or delete them; it’s that simple.
- Look at your to do list and see what you can get off of your plate. Look for items that are unnecessary to your career path and cross them off. Delegate projects to others. Look for tasks that you have made more complicated than they need to be and simplify them.
- Learn the power of saying both “yes” and “no.” When you’re asked to volunteer, take on a new task, attend a networking event… take a moment and ask yourself whether this task will enhance your career or your life; will it fulfill you or drain you; does it take you further toward your path of success or will it draw you away from it?
Make 2013 the year you take control of your time and your life and set boundaries. As a solopreneur you need to learn to take charge of your success; as an employee you need to be a valuable part of the team without taking on so much that you burn out.
by Rex Richard | Dec 24, 2012 | Personal Development, Spirituality
Attitude is everything — at the holidays and year round. Consider the phrase, “A person is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.” If you think about it, it’s true. If you’re unhappy, your negativity will follow you and impact those around you. If you project a positive attitude that will surround those around you and feed on itself.
Adopting an “attitude of gratitude” is about more than counting your blessings on the holidays, it is about starting the day with a round up of your blessings and stopping to count them during the day. Embracing an attitude of gratitude means that you recognize your blessings as they occur throughout the day, week, month and year. Keep your mind and heart open to those blessings and expect them to come to you as you go about your day.
Remember, your attitude is the spyglass through which you view your day and your world. Your attitude is something over which you have the power to choose — good or bad — it is no one’s choice but your own. Is the glass through which you view the world clean and shiny or streaky and dirty?
Take a few minutes now, when you wake up in the morning, and before you go to bed at night to write down the blessings with which you’ve been favored. Your blessings and your attitude define your character and help you become the person that you are and the attitude through which you view the world.
by Rex Richard | Dec 17, 2012 | Business, Personal Development
Did you reach your personal and professional goals for 2012? Do you have new goals to set for 2013? Now is the time to put them into place and put them in writing as 2013 is fast approaching. To improve the likelihood that your goals will come to fruition, they need to be clearly articulated, achievable and most importantly, written down and put in plain view.
Try this Who, What and How approach for goal setting:
WHAT is the goal(s) you want to achieve? What steps do you need to take to consider it a successful goal? If your goal is to increase productivity by five percent, what is that “five percent”? Is it an increase in clients? Revenue? Both? If it is measurable, you will more easily see if you’re reaching the goal you’ve set.
HOW will you implement the steps to make the WHAT an achievable goal? Do you need special training? Do you need to diversify your offerings? Work with a new client base? Are there small, incremental goals you need to take to reach the larger outcome?
WHO is accountable for the goal? Do you have the staff and/or bandwith to reach your planned goal? Is there a person in charge of the projects toward the ultimate goal? Is there a team champion?
It’s easy to let a day or a week or even a month slip by without having checked a goal off your to-do list. Make 2013 the most productive year for meeting your goals. Are you ready?
by Rex Richard | Dec 5, 2012 | Business, Social Marketing
It’s never easy to tell exactly when an opportunity will present itself. When it does though, you need to be present and in the correct mindset to not only receive it, but to capitalize on it. As entrepreneurs understand, identifying an opportunity is the first step, making the most of it, comes after.
Here are steps to help you make the most of the opportunities that present themselves to you:
- Define what an opportunity looks like for your business and your life. If you don’t have a sharp focus, you could take on more opportunities than you have time to devote to and you may take on opportunities that won’t benefit your overall business plan.
- Analyze the information you’ve been given and create a map of the process by which you need to embrace it to make it happen. Having a process flow is crucial to success.
- Communicate with the individual that presented the opportunity and begin its implementation. If you work with a team, involving them in the process will help it progress toward a fruitful end.
Improvement of processes and capturing of opportunities will propel you toward a successful outcome.
