CLONE YOURSELF FOR FUN AND PROFIT

One of the key distinctions between creating your own job
and building a business, is the ability to have other
people do your work for you. This isn’t actually about
"cloning" in the scientific sense, but about building a
team to run your business, serve your customers and help
you (and themselves) make more money.
Most professionals run their practice as a small business
for tax and accounting reasons, but in fact they have a job
they created for themselves.  They may enjoy not working for
a corporation, but they still have to show up and do the
work every day in order to get paid. If they take a week
off, the income stops.
Fortunately, more and more professionals are training
others to do much of what they used to do themselves. 
Attorneys use legal assistants, and physicians and dentists
use more (and more highly trained) assistants all the time.
The most successful sales professional I’ve coached is a
real estate agent with a personal staff of 4 people who
work for HER, not for her broker.  In many cases, her staff
can close sales, even if she is on vacation!
Successful business people learn to delegate. They hire
experts who can strengthen and diversify the office. They
understand that training and leading a team will always be
more profitable than doing it by yourself.
Learn to delegate. The key to building your business is
almost never "doing" more; it’s hiring and supporting great
people. Sometimes the key is working with a great coach who
can help you see the road ahead and smooth out the "bumpy
sections."

LET THE TREND BE YOUR FRIEND

This week I heard a radio interview with a "Futurist" named
Burris. I'm not sure how to spell his name, but his main
point has echoed in my mind ever since. He noted that we
don't need a crystal ball or special powers to predict the
future if we have the courage to track, and the skill to
read, a few key trends.
He noted that "human beings tend, or trend, to gain weight.
If you've gained a pound a year for several years, it's not
difficult to predict your future waistline." He also noted
that there are trends in birth rates, and the population is
"trending" to live longer. Most things in life change along
observable and predictable trend-lines.
Coincidentally, I recently talked with a friend about how
reluctant many of us are to track the key data-points in
our lives. Years ago, the famed management expert, Edward
Demming, noted, "What gets measured, gets done." Most of us
know how true this is, even in our own lives. When we track
our exercise or savings, or pretty much anything else, and
put the graph where we will see it everyday, things
improve. When we "wish" or "hope" or "try" to change
things, but refuse to document the data, our results seldom
live up to our desires.
"What gets measured, get's done."
And when the graph begins to show a trend--either upward or
downward--we begin to predict the future.
If month by month, a graph of your savings shows a steady
upward climb, you can pretty much predict your future
wealth. Unfortunately, this is also true if the graph shows
a slow but steady decline, and that's why few people have
the courage to track the data.
The "truth of the trend" applies to just about anything we
can measure. It applies to our blood pressure, our weight,
and exercise; it applies to family time, reading time, and
it applies to sales, profits, and broad economic patterns
like home ownership, employment or inflation. Unless
something unexpected happens, we can expect trends to
continue and give us a preview of our own future.
This gives us incredible power. By tracking our results
over time, we can see what works, and what doesn't. We gain
insight to our values and priorities. For example, most of
us say we value time as a family, but many studies show
most parents spend only a few minutes a day with their
children. If that trend applies in your home, and if it
continues, where would you predict it to lead?
If there are things you want to increase or build in your
life, begin by tracking the data. How much time, precisely,
do you currently spend on sales or exercise, or talking
with your spouse? If you track it, and if the trend is
moving in the direction you desire, I would predict a
satisfying result. But, if the trend is in the wrong
direction, I suggest you either change your goals or your
behavior, or that you make plans for a bumpy landing.
This is an incredibly powerful concept. Applied to the
"big" things in life, it gives us amazing insight to
society and culture. Charles Murray has tracked trends in
income distribution, education, and even the neighborhoods
where groups of people live, down to their zip code. Trends
give us insight to the growth of government, the cost of
health care or education, and the aging of the population.
On a personal level it also applies to anything you want
more of, or less of in your life. Want more time for your
hobbies? Watch the trend. Want more income or more savings?
Watch the trend. Or, if you want the ever-popular "more and
better sex," watch the trend! 
Over my years as a coach, I've observed that "direction and
momentum are more important than goals." That's another way
of saying that the trend is a more powerful predictor of
the future than our wishes, hopes or desires. A goal is a
picture linked to our emotions, but by itself, it is static
and has little predictive value. A trend, however, is
dynamic and is always moving us in a specific direction.
Study the trend and you control your future.

GETTING THINGS DONE

     

Have you ever heard anyone say "There's just not enough time to get everything done?" "The world is just going so fast." "Technology is making life so hard." "The faster I go the behinder I get." The rate of change we are experiencing today does make it seem like the world is going faster. But we can deal with this and get things done if we will set some priorities.

A priority is a choice. Every time you choose to do one thing before another in your life you're establishing priorities. One activity has been assigned greater importance than another activity. Your priorities should be to do those things that will lead you to the accomplishment of your goals. Many people do a lot of things, work hard, and still don't accomplish their goals. They don't have an objective, organized, common sense understanding of how what we do today relates to tomorrow, next week, next year or what they want in life. If you want to be sure to achieve your goals, you must work backward from the desired achievement. In order to do this, I will first have to do that. Before I do that, I must do this. Go all the way back to where you are right now. What do you need to do now?

What we do or don't get done is a result of our habits...many of which began in childhood and have carried on with us throughout the rest of our lives. Some are beneficial; others are destructive.

If you are going to get things done, you must uncover your bad habits, break them, and replace them with success habits. Some of the questions you might want to ask yourself are:

• What are my bad habits? For the next few days, keep your eyes open for those repeated activities that waste time and are unproductive. When you identify these, you are one step closer to breaking them.

• Why do I do it? The answer is usually obvious. Look for reasons like convenience, the social aspect of it, or just because you've always done it that way.

• Why do I want to change? You may need more time to accomplish something. You may want to have more time to do other things or participate in more important activities.

Remind yourself that destructive activities are keeping you from doing what you want to do. Also, remind yourself why you're doing it and why you'd like to change.

Once you know what the problem is, it's time to form new productive habits. There are three similar questions that are the key:

• What good habits do I want to develop? Whatever the desired activity, it should be placed in the center of your consciousness.

• Why do I want to do it? Will it lead to greater productivity, more efficiency, a healthier, stronger body, or more leisure time?

• Why do I want to change? Are there things you would like to do or learn? Would you like to go somewhere that you haven't been? Would you like more quality time with your family and friends?

Repeating these three good habit questions every day could convince you that it's time to take action and get things done!       

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES: 4 TIPS TO CLEAR THE "HOW HURDLE".

As a coach, I'm privileged to be part of a process where my clients create a new and exciting vision for their lives and take action towards it. The excitement is palpable as they connect with what's truly important to them. But often they'll hit what I call, the "How Hurdle." "How will I do that?" or "How can I get myself from here to there?" The excitement starts to deflate as they focus on not knowing the clear answers to the "How" Hurdle.

Think of a hurdler, about to take off from the starting blocks. Looking up from their hurdler stance, the finish line is not even visible. What do they see? Nothing but a line of tall, solid ominous hurdles blocking their way to their goal.

It's the same for us in our lives. We want to get somewhere but we don't know "how" to get there. Many head for the dressing room before the race to the finish line even starts. I'd like to share simple ways to overcome this phenomenon of the "How Hurdle".

1. "How?" isn't as important as "Where" and "Why?"
Part of our mind likes to solve problems, so it will naturally prompt that "how" question. Asking "How" first is like putting the cart before the horse. Ghandi didn't ask himself how he'd get the British to leave India. Instead he held steadfastly and articulately to his vision and then followed a course of action that revealed itself as he went along.

The more important and empowering questions to ask yourself are "Where?" and "Why?". Where do you want to go? Why do you want to reach that new goal? Why is it important for you to learn how to solve that problem? The answers to the "where" and "why" will give you the motivation and energy to find the "how" as you take action.

2. Building a Big "Why"
If your "why" is big enough, you'll figure out the how. You just hunker down and start doing whatever it takes to get the job done. If a family member required urgent medical treatment and you didn't know anything about the medical system or how it works, it wouldn't take long for you to take action, would it? You're motivated, so you'd ask a lot of questions of the doctor or others, go online to research, or pick up the yellow pages to look for support groups.

Connecting to your "why" will commit you to action. Commitment is the key to knocking those "How Hurdles" down. The "how" will appear once you make that commitment to your "why". In the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred ... unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way."

3. "I Don't Know How" as an Excuse
Have you ever used the phrase "I don't know how" as an excuse for inaction? What would you say to a young child who said "I don't know how" in the face of having to try something new? You'd most likely let them know that it's OK to make mistakes and learn from them.

But perhaps you really meant, "I'm not ready to move forward" or "My goal isn't really clear or important enough to me". It's more empowering and accurate to be honest about it, especially with ourselves, than stand behind an excuse.

4. Nevermind the Naysayers
Have you ever decided to try something new, despite your own questions about how you'll succeed, and then the moment you share your new goal with someone they turn into a dream-stealer. They'll pepper you with questions like, "So how exactly are you going to do that?" Unfortunately, some of those naysayers are people who are the closest to us. They have a great skill for putting more "How Hurdles" up on the track.

Don't let the naysayers stop you! Take a moment to share your "why" with them and how it's going to look at feel for you to accomplish that goal. Invite them to support you by brainstorming how you could accomplish the goal. Share your commitment to doing whatever it will take to cross the finish line.