WORK LESS, MAKE MORE, BE HAPPY

Unfortunately, we have been encouraged to believe we can
"have it all." We should be able to earn more, work less,
live better, travel more, relax often, enjoy our kids and
achieve success. Why should anyone settle for less? It's
not fair! We shouldn't have to choose!
Well. I have bad news. Life is not fair. And I think that's
why the Spanish philosopher, Ortega, observed that, "Life
is fired at us point-blank, and we must choose."
Sure, we admire the rich and famous who appear to have it
all. We hear about the Oprah’s or the Bill Gates or others
who seem to be rich, famous, successful and happy, and
perhaps they are. Although, I do notice that even these
seemingly blessed individuals periodically file for
divorce, get sick, or experience loss. Life is not fair!
So I come back to Ortega’s observation that "we must
choose." It seems to me that truly successful people are
clear about their priorities and choices. They commit to
pursuing a few key goals, and devote their lives to them.
Here are two principles I believe are true and helpful:
1.  We can have anything we choose, but not everything we
want. Our appetites will always exceed our grasp. If you
can read this and have internet access, you have all the
tools you need to change careers, travel, achieve wealth or
fame or power. But it's unlikely that you can do all of
them at once. We "must choose."
2.  He who finishes happiest, wins. I don't think finishing
life with lots of toys or frequent flier miles, or a big
house, or several cars, or a yacht, guarantees happiness.
But, spending our lives doing something important,
investing ourselves in things that bring meaning and
fulfillment and joy, can bring happiness. The man or woman
who finishes happiest, wins. And happiness rarely comes
simply from having more stuff.
This does not mean accumulating wealth is wrong or bad. Of
course not! Enjoy all the stuff you can honestly and fairly
get! We are the richest people in history. We are blessed!
We enjoy lots of stuff! Go for it! But, also be honest and
maintain some humility.
Happiness comes from clarity. It comes from deciding who we
are, what we value, and how we will spend our lives. And,
in turn, all of that comes from taking time to think
clearly, make smart choices, and plan wisely.

STUDY YOUR DATA!

I’m often called in to consult or coach with business
leaders who are confused, even terrified by what they
perceive to be a terrible business situation. Maybe sales
are down even though they’ve added more sales people.
Perhaps production costs are up and profits are plummeting.
Sometimes key people are leaving, and they don’t know why.
Granted, sometimes the answers are hard to find and we have
work to do, but often the answers are readily available.
Often the answers are sitting right on their desk in the
form of numbers they haven’t bothered to analyze.
Every business has a small number of critical
"measurables." For a therapist, these include the number of
clients, the average length of treatment, and the number of
new referrals per month. With those three numbers, you can
pretty well predict the future of any clinical practice.
Obviously, the cost of rent, staffing and many other
numbers are also helpful, but those three tell you most of
what you need to know.
In other businesses, the variables will be different, but
they ALL need to be studied.
I once worked with a large, regional landscaping company.
For them, the key variable was the ratio of total monthly
revenue divided by total payroll. That single number said
volumes about the over-all health of the company.
Whatever your key variables, study them! Too often managers
and CEO’s get so caught up in planning for the future and
putting out daily fires that they forget to crunch the
numbers. I believe in numbers! Study them. You can learn a
lot from a few key numbers, and make adjustments
accordingly.

ON VALENTINE'S DAY THE CORE VALUES OF LOVE MATTERS

Valentine’s Day is today. Commit to the seven core values of successful love and marriage and you can make your Valentine’s Day the best ever.
Here they are in a nutshell.
1. The couple in love is committed to always putting each other first in their relationship with each other.
The first thing you notice in all highly successful loving relationships is that those who purport to be in love recognize that their relationship is not about you and me, it is about US. Discovering that YOU are not the center of the universe is the hallmark of a great relationship. Actually putting another human being number one is a powerful indication that you are truly in love.
2. The couple in love is committed to democracy in their relationship.
Always remember, successful loving relationships are egalitarian. Namely, the best relationships understand that theirs is a shared relationship. If one person has all the power and makes all the decisions, it is NOT love! True love is a very democratic thing!
3. The couple in love is committed to ensuring their mutual happiness.
Remember, true love is not just about ensuring your happiness. More importantly, and often for the first time in your life, you actually enjoy and are motivated by ensuring the happiness of someone other than yourself. It is a good feeling!
4. The couple in love values absolute trustworthiness and integrity in their relationship with each other.
If you cannot trust the one you love, then it is not true love! Trust us on that. The most successful loving relationships report that they trust their mate unequivocally and without hesitation. To violate that trust is to undermine and, ultimately destroy, the relationship with the one you say you love.
5. The couple in love is committed to caring and unconditional love for each other.
When you truly love someone you do so without conditions. It is not about loving you IF . . . True love is unconditional.
6. The couple in love is committed to being mutually respectful towards each other.
There is a Golden Rule in true love and it is like the one you learned early in your life – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Do not expect to be treated with respect when you are disrespectful to the one you love. Respectfulness is at the heart of all great loving relationships.
7. The couple in love values their mutual sense of responsibility for each other.
People in love care for each other in ways that they have never cared for another human being. They feel a sense of responsibility for another person that they have never felt before. It feels so good to put another’s needs above your own. To do so is to love deeply.
The Core Values of all successful loving relationships are at the heart of the matter. If you and your mate master these values, your love will, in all probability, last a lifetime. What a Valentine’s Day gift that would be!

DO WHAT YOU DO BEST

This week the old adage to focus on what you do best and
hire someone to do everything else came home loud and
clear. 
I have a client who's business requires extensive
bookkeeping and accounting functions. He used to have a
full-time bookkeeper to support his real-estate and
investment interests, but last year, he decided "it cost
too much, and I thought I could do it cheaper on my own."
Well.
As you might guess, now it's tax season and his books are a
mess. The truth is that he's not a detail person. He does
not enjoy data entry on the computer, and he kept "putting
it off until later. I always thought I’d catch up on the
weekend, or next week."
Unfortunately, that never happened.
My client is extremely good at investing, and his passion,
talents and interests are in the creative, entrepreneurial
side of his business. Ironically, he is very good at
reading financial statements to evaluate a possible
investment. But as a bookkeeper, he needs to fire himself!
We all have our areas of expertise and passion. In our
areas of strength, we are geniuses! Outside those areas,
however, we are doomed to frustration, exasperation, and
sometimes outright failure.
Do what you love. Do what you do best. Emphasize your
talents and give your customers the extras that only you
can give them. But for goodness sake, hire someone else to
do the things you can't do, won't do, or do badly. You
can't afford to spend your life being inefficient, wearing
yourself out, and being cranky.
Go with your strengths! You'll make more money, have more
fun, and be much more successful!

THE MISSING PIECES FOR THE BEST RESULTS

Last week I spoke to a group of professionals about
achieving their goals and making more sales in 2014.
Afterward, in the Q&A session, they wanted to focus on the
"missing links" that prevent them from achieving the
success they desire in business, and in life.
It was a challenging presentation because these are not
ordinary people! They know about written goals. They know
about motivational seminars and using competition and
accountability to increase performance. And yet, like most
people, they were frustrated. Like most of us, they have
"worked hard." They have done the "right things" and yet
they often fail to cross the finish line. What are the
missing pieces?
After briefly reviewing the fundamentals of having written
goals, a clear strategy and intermediate benchmarks or
"baby-steps" to move forward, I gave them three suggestions
to fill in the missing links and achieve their dreams:
1.  Focus on personal development. I love Jim Rohn’s quote
that "everything changes when you change!" And I also noted
the corollary: "nothing changes until you change." To live
a different life requires that you become a different
person.
If you want different results, it’s not enough to focus
only on the mechanics! We all know stories of people who
win the lottery or have other huge changes in external
circumstances, but within a short time their lives look
remarkably the same. To achieve your goals, you must become
the person you want to be!
High achievers read different books. They watch different
shows. They use their time differently. They walk and talk
and think differently. And so should you.
2.  Change your environment. To a remarkable degree, we are
all creatures of our surroundings. It may sound odd, but
our lives reflect our furniture! We all know our behavior
changes in a fancy restaurant, or when visiting the boss,
or our in-law’s. We become a different person at a funeral
compared to a ball game. Our behaviors always reflect our
environment.
To achieve your dreams, create a world that supports you.
Whether it's your office, your car or your kitchen, live in
a world that reminds you of your priorities, a world that
energizes you and pulls you forward. This doesn't
necessarily require a major investment, but it does require
attention to detail.
3.  Choose mentors wisely. Over time, we become like our
friends. Unconsciously, we model our behavior after the
people we admire and respect.
The way to learn any skill is to work with someone who can
teach you! Learn from your friends, from colleagues, from
competitors. By reading biographies, you can even learn
from dead people! Winners hang out with and learn from
winners. Surround yourself with wise and accomplished
mentors!
Thousands of books have been written on goal-setting,
motivation and achievement, but most of them focus on the
easy mechanics--developing written goals, setting deadlines
and so forth. Too often, they neglect the more critical
elements of personal development, supportive environments
and the need for mentors. Don't do that to yourself!

15 POWERFUL WAYS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS THIS YEAR

Here are the 15 ways you can grow your business this year.

1. Notice more. Grow your awareness (of money, needs, expenses, what's coming, what's working, where gaps are...) Know where you stand. 

2. Give more than you have to. Practice up-serving not just "up-selling," (exceed your customer's expectations). Grow your impact on customers. The quickest way to get a raise is to give your customers and your company a raise through your performance. 

3. Grow your profit per sale/account. Provide more value to the customer at an even lower cost to your company. Customers are assets, invest in them constantly. 

4. Grow your ability to deliver value. Increase your possibilities (available credit, experts, investors, colleagues, partners, advisors, connections and ways to connect). 

5. Grow your technology. The better your tools, the better your results. Seek resources which can speed or refine your ability to deliver value. 

6. Grow your freedom and flexibility (low inventory of materials, high availability to deliver, high inventory of sales to come). Stay financially light on your feet. Grow your savings and investments. 

7. Grow your existing markets. Do more business with current customers and further penetrate each market. 

8. Grow your image and market presence. Gain more share of mind. Improve and enhance your reputation as a true professional.

9. Grow your pipeline. Build a larger and better reservoir of future customers. Do next year's prospecting now. Identify more qualified buyers.

10. Grow your inner circle (your closest contacts). Take extra good care of the primary people in your career. Help them grow. Acknowledge them often. They'll become even better resources for you. 

11. Grow your virtual work force. Find talent that can expand your capabilities without increasing your payroll expenses. Form strategic alliances and connect with expert vendors and colleagues. 

12. Grow new markets. Get outside your usual channels. Ask, "who else could benefit from what we do?" Expand your thinking. 

13. Let others sell for you. Grow your referrals. Seek new testimonials and endorsements. Capture examples of how others have benefited from what you do. 

14. Serve your community. Be a responsible citizen. Make the places where you live and work better because you and your business are there. 

15. Grow your industry. Advance the craft in what you do. Join your industry association. Write articles, teach others, and support your profession. 

 

Grow your caring, compassion and sensitivity. Become known as someone who genuinely cares about making a difference. If you don't care about others why should they care about or listen to you?  

INSTANT GUIDE TO GETTING MORE DONE

It's rare that I find something that is both "instant" and
the "ultimate" guide to anything. In general, I find the
important things in life take some time, some effort and a
bit of skill, and that while "instant" fixes may be fast,
they seldom last.
Recently, however, my MasterMind group helped me clarify
something that is so powerful, I want to share it with you.
This group meets on the phone each week for an hour to
clarify our goals, develop powerful strategies and GET
THINGS DONE. In the end, it's what we achieve or do that
endures. It's not what we intend, or who we know. In the
end, it's what we get done that matters.
So, with that premise, we focused on productivity and asked
the key question: Under what conditions do we accomplish
the most, with the least effort and the most fun? What
creates those special days when everything goes just right?
Here are five key steps we sorted out:
1. Time Management.  This is the most common and typically
the least effective way to manage our lives. Time
management focuses on something we don't own and that
fundamentally cannot be managed or changed. Time management
is simply a non-starter and if you aren't managing your
priorities, physical space, and personal Eco-System well,
other people will certainly try to "help" you, with
frustrating results.
2.  Activity Management.  This at least has the virtue of
being "do-able." We can choose our priorities and manage
our actions through the day. Practice "single handling." Do
one thing at a time and do it well. Avoid dead-end busy-
work at all costs! Use a daily calendar and a weekly
planner. Plan your activities and stick to your plan!
3.  Energy Management.  This is what most people are
actually hoping for when they talk about time management.
They want to get more done with less effort and have
something left for "me" or "we" at the end of the day.
Manage your energy. Sleep well, rest often, be efficient.
Do your most important work when you are most awake. Put
your "best stuff" into your most important priorities and
let things of secondary importance get secondary effort.
It's not the quickest or easiest path to the good life, but
it's a reasonable start.
4.  Space Management.  Now things get interesting! Manage
your environment so it's hard for people and things to
interrupt you. Close the door and hide! Eliminate
distractions and fix, replace or eliminate anything that
annoys or frustrates you. Make your office, car, kitchen,
bedroom and bathroom "perfect!" Paint the walls, get new
tools or a desk chair that fits! Make everything around you
more functional, more comfortable and more inspiring.
You'll get more done and have more fun doing it.
5.  Eco-System Design(tm).  This is what we're looking for!
Who wants to "get by" or "survive" when you can create the
life of your dreams! The key is developing systems that
effortlessly and automatically "pull" you toward your
goals. Why "push" when you can let systems do the hard work
for you?
Surround yourself with things and people that inspire you,
that make you laugh, that GIVE you energy and "lure" you to
be your best, your most productive and most joyful. Fill
your life with things and people that pull you forward. No
distractions! No annoyances, no break-downs, no crises. Use
preventive, pro-active maintenance in every area of life so
you live well and can do the work you are called to do!
Fortunately, this is not hard! People say they can't have a
perfect eco-system because they can't afford it or don’t
have time, or their family or friends won't allow it.
Nonsense! Creating a great life is not hard--it's certainly
easier than living with frustration! A perfect life may
involve learning some new habits, but living well is not
nearly as hard as living with problems!