Bret Michaels on Season 8, The Apprentice

I don’t watch very much TV, but I do enjoy a few shows, one of them is The Apprentice with Donald Trump.

He’s a bit over the top at times and not everyone likes him but what I respect about him is that he’s clear on who he is and what he wants to accomplish.

This season he’s assembled 16 celebrities who are working to raise money for their favorite charities. These people are highly focused and driven and showed a serious determination to win for their cause.

The men’s team name “ROCK SOLID” (thanks in part to Rocker Bret Michaels) and the women’s is “TENACITY” – great names, huh?

As I watched them maneuver through the task they were assigned (running a diner during lunch) I observed how they handled the obstacles and attitudes, delays and disappointments they were faced with.

It reminded me of my business (and yours) in SO many ways!

When I am clear about my Plan and my Purpose then inevitable obstacles are not nearly as overwhelming as when I’m uncertain of my Path.

In your business, until you are ROCK SOLID certain WHY you are pursuing your goals and dreams; then every obstacle will seem impossible to overcome. Every roadblock will make  you
question your commitment. Every bump in the road will shake your confidence.

When you have clarity on the WHAT and WHY (i.e. generating a set amount per month passively, homeschooling your kids, becoming a full-time entrepreneur) then obstacles, attitudes, delays
and disappointments cannot get between you and your dreams.

• Get Clear.
• Develop the Cou-rage.
• Have the Confidence.
• Make the Commitment.

You will be unstoppable.

Make This Your Best Year Yet!
Sanyika

If you’re getting wound up as the year winds down, chill out and change your approach before the clock strikes midnight.

My end of year goal to plan my ENTIRE 2010 calender was inspired by my fantastically supportive husband, cheerleader, and friend Darrell.

He challenged me to treat 2010 like an important assignment or a big project, rather than an event (which comes and goes, and is often less exciting than you’d imagined)

Time and money are “measuring sticks” worthy of being acknowledged and respected, however as the calendar turns I encourage you to embrace the New Year more practically than emotionally

Break it down into manageable pieces (HINT: Post It Notes help…)

Long lists of things-to-do scribbled out on large legal pads are a sure recipe for stress. Assigning each goal, task, idea it’s own “space” (i.e. Post It Note) allows you to see things as they are, rather than how you’d ideally like them to be.

This exercise has helped me to do 2 things (I hope it’ll do the same for you):

1) It forces me to “discover the truth” about how much I can really expect to effectively and efficiently get done even with advance planning, and in the best case scenario a team to support me.

It’s a completely humbling experience to see ALL your New Year’s goals written out INDIVIDUALLY as you realize you’d have to work 18 hour days and try to squeeze whatever is left of your life in the remaining 6 hours in order to complete every task.

BUT, it’s much better to know this UPFRONT and manage your expectations than to get to the end of yet ANOTHER YEAR and wonder what in the heck happened?!

2) Empowers me to create real results rather than wishful resolutions, by actively addressing the things  I need to focus on rather than getting distracted by “bright shiny objects” I get predictable outcomes and start to see progress throughout the year.

It might seem easier said than done, but you already know the alternative – at least I do…

You have a choice.

You can either…

a) Get hopped up on hope that 2010 is going to be different/better and continue to list out ALL the things that are left over from 2009 that you’ll tackle in 2010 – which probably won’t get done.

OR

b) Individually list your desired goals (I chose different color Post It’s for each category) then determine what REALLY needs to happen to bring that goal to life.

The best way to do this is to:

1. Identify the type of goal it is (i.e. business or personal is a good barometer)

2. Determine the specific steps that need to be taken to achieve the goal (i.e. do you need to learn a new skill, will you hire someone to do it for you)

3. Estimate how long each step will take to complete (i.e. while you can write a book in 17 days -  you have to get clear about what amount of time do you need allocate for the cover designer, editor and printer!)

It’ll probably take more than a day to do this (it took me several), but don’t be governed by clocks and calendars, remember this is a practical approach to planning for a true win in 2010.

What you’re likely to discover is many of the things will fall away simply because you will see that they are either not that important, or have more parts and pieces than you are prepared to coordinate.

Don’t wimp out, be sure to choose goals that will stretch you. But also be honest with yourself and be OK with moving things from your “someday” list to the “never gonna happen” file (aka the trash)

Once you’ve chosen the goals you are committed to completing and are clear on the actions you need to take – you can approach every opportunity, offer, or obstacle that comes your way with the question, “Is this getting me closer to or further away from what I want to be?”

Knowing immediately whether something will support you in reaching your goals or serve as a distraction will allow you to resist the “bright shiny objects” syndrome that sidelines you from success.

That’s how to get a true win in 2010.

Finish strong!
Sanyika

I don’t want to alarm you, or cause a panic but I do want to ask you a very serious question,

“How do you plan to make this year better than the last?”

Your answer to that question is deeply rooted in how you’ve set your goals.

While it might be your intention to do something different, it will take more than hope and positive thinking for what you want to match what you get out of the passing days, weeks and months remaining in the year.

Quite simply, you need a plan. Both for your business and your life.

A set of action steps that will propel you to the next level when you’re feeling confident and pull you forward when you’re feeling weak, tired and scared.

If it’s undeniable that you MUST have an action plan to achieve your desired outcomes, than how do you convert your goals into a step-by-step action plan that will help you make this your best year yet?

There are three simple things that you can do to turn your goals into reality:

1. You must recognize that your goals need to be S-M-A-R-T

2. You need to write them down or document them in some way

3. You need to get someone or something to which you can be accountable

I’ll focus on the S-M-A-R-T acronym because it spells things out in very plain language that makes goal setting easy to do – and most important- easy to follow. Here’s what I mean:

The ‘S’ stands for “Specific” – Whenever you take the time to make something specific – especially a goal – it has a much greater chance of coming to life.

One surefire way to set a specific goal is to answer these six “W” questions:

• Who:      Who (or what) is involved in reaching the goal successfully?
• What:     What exactly do I want to accomplish?
• When:     When will I accomplish this goal (set a date, day and time)
• Why:      Why is this goal important to me? (Give specific reasons or benefits)

The ‘M’ stands for “Measurable” – Determine the benchmarks and milestones you’ll establish to measure your progress toward the achievement of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you are better able to stay on track, reach your deadlines, and best of all gain the momentum and confidence necessary to reach your goals.

To make your goals measurable, ask yourself:

• How much? - As in, how much do I need to make or do, to know that I’m going in the direction of my goal?
  
• How many? – As in, how many do I need to sell or use, to know that I’m going in the direction of my goal?
  
• How will I know when it is accomplished? – As in, what will achievement look like, feel like, be like?

The ‘A’ stands for “Attainable” – Before setting goals, it’s important that you first figure out what it’s honesty going to take to reach them. This is not the time to be Pollyanna or pie-in-the-sky. You must take note of any limitations, deficiencies or self-sabotaging habits you have that could cause a serious threat to your goals. It might even be necessary to make a goal of working on what’s likely to hold you back.

Your goals can be as BIG as you’d like them to be. Just make sure that you break them down into manageable steps that will allow you to see and celebrate the progress you’re making along the way. The bigger the goal, the smaller the steps you’ll need to reach it.

The ‘R’ stands for “Realistic”  - To check on how realistic your goal is, ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal. Then determine if you are truly willing to make the adjustments and sacrifices to create the conditions necessary.

The size of the goal has nothting to do with how realistic it is, on the contrary – it should be a large goal. Just understand that a large goal will cause you to stretch. It’s the need for growth that will often challenge your perception of how realistic it is to achieve it.   

The ‘T’ stands for “Timely” - Goals need set time frames and parameters in which to be achieved. Without them there’s no sense of urgency, no real reason to get it done – in that case, ”Someday” will do…

However, if you want to make your first sale, book for your TV appearance, or pay off your credit card debt – by when do you want to do it? You need to choose a date in the future and work backwards toward it.

Making the declaration, “I will do ______ by July 31st” gives you something to which you can be accountable and a way to measure with each day that goes by if you are getting closer to where you want to be. Plus, it will allow your unconscious mind (which is where we operate from) know what you’re going after so that a plan can be set in motion to reach the goal.

If you haven’t set yourself up for success in reaching your goals, I strongly suggest that you use the SMART model of goal setting so that you can get closer to reaching your desired destination.

The feelings of time passing at lightening speed without you knowing where the day went and being overwhelmed by all the things you have to do will be greatly reduced when you know where you want to go, and you have a specific plan for how to get there.

You’d be SMART to set your goals this way.

http://www.Sanyika.com

At first glance they are useful, necessary, and even temporary – but crutches can be obstacles to your success.

Crutches can be obstacles to your success

Little  by little they rob you, deplete you, and leave you for dead. Ok, that last one might be a bit of an exaggeration. What’s true is that crutches can become an enemy of growth by blocking us from moving forward with any type of momentum or consistency.

Technology has always been something I’ve convinced myself that I don’t particularly like learning about. Nor do I  want to be bothered with the particulars of figuring it out. However I thoroughly enjoy the benefits of it and even like to use gadgets once they’re all set up for me.

I’m the person that the phrase “plug and play” was created for. Beyond pressing the “ON” button I don’t want to have to do anything else. If it is not blatantly obvious to me at first glance how to make something technical work, then my usual response would  be to instantly  wait for someone else to do it.

 
Now I am the first acknowledge the necessity of outsourcing, Virtual Assistants, and even having a person proficient in IT on your team – but what I’ve come to discover in business and in life is that; if you don’t have a basic understanding of the thing that you pass off to someone else to do for you, you create a “crutch” scenario and in some cases a hostage situation.

The concept of a crutch is a very useful one, the idea that you can lean on something (or in some cases someone) to support you in being mobile until you can fully function on your own is a comforting and often necessary reassurance.

But when the very thing that was supposed to be a temporary support on your way to self sufficiency becomes the thing that stunts your growth it is not a good thing. When the word crutch is used as an excuse not to engage in normal business building and life enhancing activities then it’s a problem that you’ll have to address if you ever want to grow.

Over the 5+ years that I’ve been a full time entrepreneur, I’ve had ample opportunities to slowly learn some of the basic things I need to know to be more knowledgeable regarding technology but instead I chose not to, shrugging it off as something that I’d do “later,” or figuring I’d just get someone on my team to help me the moment I needed it if I had a problem.

This mindset and behavior seemed to be working very well for me until the other day when I had an idea that I wanted to implement immediately, but I had no one to help me bring it to life. I knew what I wanted to do. I just didn’t know how to do it.

To make matters worse (or so I thought) I had been informed at the beginning of the year that all technical requests would take at least 24 hours to be reviewed or addressed – so much for immediate. 

While I understood it practically, I hated these new restraints because they were inconvient to me and reminded me of my deficiency which made me hate even more the feeling of being helpless. How frustrating it was to “know” the thing I needed done was something basic that most savvy business owners knew how to do – just not me.

I called a friend who I admire for her ability to absorb technical things and got her help with what I wanted done. Still I was unsettled by the thought that if she were not available, I couldn’t move forward with my plan. So I asked her, “How is it that you learned and retained all of this tech stuff on top of all the other things you’ve got to juggle?”

She said, “It’s funny because most people think that I love technology. The truth is I’m more a pencil and paper kind of person. But what I love is the end result so I take the time to learn the most efficient way to get the results I want – even if I’m not always the one doing the thing that needs to be done.”

Being restricted from moving forward in this way made me realize that the crutch I’d been holding on to was no longer serving or supporting me, instead it had stunted my growth.

After this experience, I can assure you that I have no intention of becoming the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. But what I have committed to becoming is more knowledgeable of this aspect of my business. So, one of the things I did over the past weekend was to learn a few basic HTML codes that will empower me to make small changes to my website, create a squeeze page, or adjust the size of an opt-in box whenever I want.

This may not even be a big deal to someone who can read their newspaper in code, and yes someone else can do it for me. However what this situation taught me was the power that I unwillingly gave away by not having the basic knowledge for myself.

What's your crutch?

What’s your crutch?

Maybe technology is your “thing,” but accounting and bookkeeping are the things that get pushed off to someone else without you really understanding the basics of how they work.

You don’t have to change your likes or dislikes about a particular aspect of your business, but what must change – that is if it’s an area you want to grow in – is your understanding of it. We tend to shy away from the things we fear and that fear has a tremendous power to hold us hostage.

Right now, choose one aspect of your business that you know in your gut you need to better understand. Next define the best way to learn just a bit more than you currently know about it. Your goal may not be to master the topic, but rather to have more control over your rate of progress and success.

Go ahead, get rid of the crutches – it’s time for you to exercise your business building muscles!

http://www.Sanyika.com

Twitter is a wonderful place for wit and wisdom and often when I take a “Twitter break” (I have designated times which I spend there – no open checkbooks here!) I first reply to anyone whose directly contacted me and than catch up on the tweets I missed from some of my favorites.

@rickbutts recently posted this short but profound message that sums up how to attract your target audience  “Stop worrying about your target market and focus instead on being in alignment with yourself – that is the best way to attract your target.”

So what can you do to get in alignment with yourself so that you can attract your target audience?

Here are a couple of things that I’m working on to do just that:

1. Clear off your mental and physical desk top

Clutter = chaos. If you “lose” things on your desk just moments after you put them down, or forget information just moments after you’ve put it into your brain than it’s a good chance that you could stand to clear off your mental and physical desk top.

The best way to “clear the decks” is by setting a timer for 15 minutes and writing down all of the things that are currently causing you to worry, fret or regret. Once you have gotten them all out then review the list honestly and put a * beside everything on the list that is in your control – meaning YOU have the power to do something about it.

Than put a X beside everything that is out of your control. If you honestly acknowledge that thinking about it won’t change it, and that there is nothing that you can actively do to alter the outcome than it’s time to let it go.

Once you’ve got a * or X beside each item on your list you need to choose no more than 10 things that you will move to a priority list and work on addressing them.

Make the commitment that if its not on the list, you won’t give it your time or attention. You’ll notice fairly quickly how any things will actually take care of themselves when you focus only on the things that you can alter or control.

2. Complete your incompletes

One of the quickest ways to become out of alignment is having too many tasks, projects and things left undone. Each time you walk by the picture that needs to be hung on the wall, or you open the document with the article that needs to be written – you chip away at your energy. Incompletes drain you, and soon you go out of your way to avoid them rather than just take care of them.

Here’s a quick way to complete or delete the things that are sucking your time, draining your energy, and keeping you being in alignment so you can attract more of what and who you want.

Again it starts with making a list (there’s just something powerful about writing things down) this time categorize the list into the 4 major areas of your life (you could have more but beware of overwhelm):

• Business/career
• Family/friends
• Finances
• Home

Identify at least  3 things (but no more than 5) that you have not finished and need to either complete or do away with.

Once you have your list choose which of the things you must/need to bring to completion and get clear about which of the things you can actually do away with.

If you started a project that you were super excited about a month ago but just aren’t that into now. Don’t keep torturing yourself over it – get rid of it.

Now that you have the list of the things you need to bring closure to, get to work. Schedule at least one of the items to be addressed each day until it’s complete. You will notice a few things when you do this:

a. It really didn’t take that long to complete the project – you made it a bigger task than it really was

b. You actually like starting something and knowing that you will see it through

c. You feel good about yourself all day long

The payoff for being in alignment isn’t just attracting your target audience, it’s reconnect with the part of you that you love, like, and admire.

When you can get those good vibrations going about yourself, imagine how much more others will come to know, like, and trust you.

Thanks Rick for your simple and profound remider.

http://www.Sanyika.com