People! It’s a new year. Come on! Stop with the overworking. If you can’t get your work done during the workday, you are in the wrong job, the wrong market, or the wrong model.

It is unreasonable to work 45/60/80 hours a week. I know you think you have to and part of you might think that others will revel in your commitment. News flash. It isn’t impressive. It’s sad. It shows that you don’t have the systems, support, or know how to get things done. You work hard, not smart and that’s nothing to aspire for. Let me guess. You like to churn your own butter, sew your own clothes, and do your own woodwork. It doesn’t have to be hard!

If you are tired through the day, you are dragging ass, operating at 50% which means things will take you 2x as long as they would take if you were rested, clear, and sharp. Take some time, look at what you are doing, and think, “Am I working smart or hard.” If it’s the latter, there needs to be a change. Things will correct, but if you aren’t in control, you’ll have to live with the consequences.

Listen to your friend, virtual coach, designated A-Hole… take a good look at what you are doing and make the necessary adjustments. I know this post is a bit gruff, but sometimes it takes a snap for you to get the point. As one of my mentors used to say, “If you want a friend, buy a dog; if you want a guarantee, but a toaster!”

Cheers,

Chris.

www.GhostCEO.com

Selfishly selfless – what does that mean exactly? Well, for starters it means taking care of all your personal needs before anything else. Yeah, I know, sounds great eh? But the question I get over and over again, how? How exactly do I ‘do’ that?

Not unlike making any change, you have to begin with an audit, in this case of yourself. Do you even know what you would need to change in your life to be selfishly selfless? For me, I need a lot, but here’s a sample:

1. Food – I don’t know about you, but, if I’m hungry, I don’t cope well.

2. Sleep – unlike Tiger Woods, 5 hours doesn’t do it for me – I need 7-8 hrs

3. Exercise – I LOVE working out (I know, I know, you can punch me in the face now), but, I’m serious, I really do. For my entire life I’ve been an athlete. Athletics and working out my body is so much more to me than just staying in-shape. I’m the first to admit, I like the side effects, but moreso, I like the adrenalin rush, the connection with my body, feeling powerful and the confidence that comes as a result of exercising and challenging my body.

4. Music – it’s a constant for me, can’t live without it.

5. Money – I have a certain lifestyle that I enjoy, and that often requires a monetary exchange. Managing mine (both in my business and personal life) is a must.

I could go on and on, but you get the point.  Now it’s your turn.  This week I want you to identify what your non-negotiable needs are. Write them all down.  Then…

Tune in next week for the next step: Communicating Your New Rules

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

Being a professional is about making decisions. We are in a world where you can have the work life you want if only you ask for it. You can work a four day week, you can work with only certain clientele, hell you can decide on one model and shift it months later if it isn’t working for you. Some of you might not think you can drop from five days to four. Really? Are you so enslaved by your business model, that you can’t have the life you want and the work you want? Rather than thinking why you can’t have something, think of how you can have something. How could you work four days? New company, new position? 4 x 10 hours rather than 5 x 8? It is much easier to stick with what you have and bitch about it then it is to take steps to have what you want…the way you want it. This is the year for you to flex your mental muscles and make magic happen. What if you made the same as you did last year, but with 80% of the effort What if you Took Mondays off? What if you only worked until 3PM each day? Life is far too short for you to piss around with old beliefs. With a new year comes a new start, a fresh page. What will you do with the next 12 months, 365 days, 8,760 hours, or 525,000 minutes. The decision you make in one of those moments (you have 525,000 of them) can change the direction of your career and the quality of your life.

What will you commit to this year? For me, I’m going to double my revenues in half the time and blog about it 3-4 times a week on www.chrisflett.com I will be your guinea pig for 2010 and show you how leverage (the power to influence a situation to achieve a particular outcome) more with less effort. Of course, my strategies will continue to appear here every Monday morning to start your week.

Best,

Chris.

We all have bad habits that hold us back in our business and personal lives. But habits don’t have to be permanent. And if you’re serious about changing your ways, don’t be intimidated by thinking it’s a matter of willpower (in case you don’t think you’ve got it). It’s more about simply replacing your bad habits with new, better habits.

First, choose just one habit you want to change. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew. The habit can and often will be a habit of omission – for instance, you often lost your access key card, miss appointment or neglect your paperwork.

Next, tell yourself how you’re going to replace your habit. Tell others. The more of your colleagues who know you’re trying to change your habit, the easier it will be. Write it down.

Every day, take a few minutes to think about the habit you are changing, and repeat to yourself (out loud, if you’ve got some privacy) your commitment to change your ways. You can also use this time to actually undertake the replacement habit. For instance, if you’ve resolved to improve your filing of paperwork so it becomes a regular process, doing this on a daily basis at a regularly scheduled time is ideal. If the problem was missed meetings, then taking a few minutes to check your calendar at the beginning of every day just before your prioritized tasks is essential.

Remind your colleagues about your habit change so they can help keep you on the right path.

Consistency is key. In 30 days, you can replace your bad habits with better ones. Remember, it’s not about willpower. It’s about routines.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

There’s a visionary that lives inside all of us. Some of us honour the visionary, others squander it. For those who live the life of the visionary, you know that it’s not always easy. For those who refuse to give it a voice, you know this can be just as hard. There are hopes and dreams that live within each and every one  of us, and whether you attempt to bring them to fruition or hide behind your fears, they never just ‘go away’. Whether you devote your life to living your dream, or put all your energy in to making excuses for why ‘it never worked out’ your life will always be consumed by your dreams. Dreams are what get you out of bed everyday. Dreams are what history is built on. Dreams are what change the world. But nothing happens until we take the first step. Nothing grows until we plant the first seed. Do your part in planting your seeds and together we will build a field of dreams.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit – Aristotle

Human beings in and of themselves operate on autopilot for much of their day. We complete daily activities like, showering, brushing our teeth, drinking coffee, reading the paper, with little or almost no thought about what it is that we are actually doing. These habitual behaviours add up throughout the day and by the time we go to bed, somewhere between 75-80% of our activities were exactly the same as yesterday and will be exactly the same as tomorrow. This can’t be possible you think – take stock – I guarantee you’ll find what I’m saying to be true.

This month we’ve been writing on ways you can automate your business so that you don’t have to be the one doing all the work in order to be successful. Today, I want to draw your attention to your own personal autopilot mechanism, known as your ‘habits’, because, as positive as all the tools are that we’ve been sharing with you all month, your own personal habits can be equally as detrimental to your success.

For example…

Almost every person that I know, with the exception of a few, and especially entrepreneurs, complain that they don’t have enough time. It’s become somewhat of an epidemic. Stock answer to the question ‘how are you doing’ has become ‘busy!’. People are running around like mad men, always in a hurry and rushing. Not to mention what these raised levels of cortizol and adrenalin are doing to your body, how is this ‘habitual way of operating’ affecting the success of your business?

Being in a habitual state of ‘busyness’ is doing nothing for your health personally or professionally and if this describes you in any way, it’s time to take a step back and reevaluate. There is no way, at least that I’m aware of, to add hours to the day, so the 24 that you’re working with, is all you have. How you spend those 24 hours, however, is directly reflected in the results you are achieving in your life.

Go back to you goals for 2009 and read them over. Are you getting closer to accomplishing? If not, it’s time for you to take a look at your habits. What are you doing everyday and how is that contributing to the achievement of your goals? If you’re doing things that are not contributing, time to ditch those activities. Getting what YOU want in business and in life is 100% up to you, if you’re willing to take responsibility for your own success. The actions you take in your life are producing your current results. If you don’t like what you see, time to change your actions.

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.

On the West Coast, in Vancouver BC, summer is well upon us and even though the sun has been shining 5 days out of 7 for the past 2 months, there is still a looming knowledge of what is coming…rain, maybe snow, grey, cold damp…yuck! We live here for the summer: sun, blue sky, outdoor activities galore, beautiful beaches, scenic mountains for hiking and biking, golf, water sports. And yet, entrepreneurs everywhere are glued to their laptops and pda’s unable to peel themselves away from their business. The very reason they left the corporate world is holding them hostage to the same habits. Working 8, 10, sometimes 12 or 14 hours a day. A slave to their business. And worse yet, the summer is passing quickly by. How can we change this? And quick?

Cease all multitasking immediately. Instead, do 1 thing at a time, focus your attention on the task at hand until it’s complete.

Start this week by shaving 2 hours a day off of your work schedule. If you normally work from 9 – 5, for the rest of this week, leave at 3pm. 

Starting next week, take one whole day a week off to enjoy the summer weather and accompanying activities.

Tasks will expand to the amount of time we give them. If you give yourself 6 hours to get done what you normally would in 8, trust me, you can get it all done. If you give yourself 4 days to get what you’d normally complete in 5, this too can be done. Think back to the last time you went on holidays. Did you accomplish an insane amount of work in your last week, especially on your last day? Take this ’sense of urgency’ approach to your work this summer and enjoy more days by the beach, on the water, on the golf course, or wherever it is that you’d rather be then in front of your computer.

Enjoy some fun in the sun!

All the best,

Heather White, CEO 2020 Communications Inc.

With the theme of New Beginnings and the spirit of the New Year in the air there’s no question that this is a time of change. The local gym that I go to is always a total gong show in January as everyone who’s ever thought about working out is there trying to start fresh and give themselves the healthy body they desire. What so many people miss however is that whenever you make change in your life, it’s not like flicking a light switch. You will not wake up, having not exercised for the past 5, 10, 15 years and begin a five day a week work-out regime from now to forever. You will be enthused and energetic in the short term, and then something will inevitably happen and you’ll miss a day, then you’ll miss two, then three, then you’ll think – ahh, screw this work out thing – I’m too busy to keep this up.

What I see happening too often when women try to make healthy change in their life is they take the ‘all or nothing approach’. You’re either leading the aerobics class, or, you never go to the gym. You have great intentions of a healthy diet, have two oreo cookies, beat yourself up, figure you’ve lost the battle and eat the whole box. This ‘all or nothing” b.s. doesn’t work. Here’s some tips on ensuring success for whatever changes you want to make this year.

1. Be gentle and kind to yourself as you attempt to change. You are going to fall off the wagon – it’s a given – and when you do, don’t beat yourself up, see it for what it is, a slip up, and get right back on the wagon. Don’t use a blip on the radar to give up all together.

2. Keep a record of your progress. It’s too easy for your ego to get you all wrapped up in keeping you dissatisfied with your progress. By keeping a record you can silence your ego and it’s ridiculous banter by looking back to how far you’ve come.

3. Get an accountability partner. If you can’t afford to hire a personal coach, business coach, personal trainer, wellness facilitator (depending on what changes you are making this year) get yourself an accountability partner.- click here to read an extended post on how to get a great partner.

4. Set a goal. It’s important for your sub-conscious mind, your ego and your motivation to ensure you know exactly what you’re working towards. Click here to read more about how to set effective goals.

Wishing you a successful, healthy 2009!

Heather White, CEO, 2020 Communications Inc.