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Three “A’s” to Total Success

Guest post by: Dave Ferguson

Article Overview: While personally I don’t see our economy changing much at all this year, any of you who read my column on a regular basis know how I feel about the economy helping us with our business lives. If you wait for the economy to help your business, chances are your business won’t be around; if and when the economy rebounds. So what can and should you do? Adopting these three habits will get you off to a strong start toward changing your business and your life:

Three “A’s” to Total Success

I’m hearing a lot of people really excited about rebounding their business and personal lives in 2011 and it really excites me. I hear them talking and I see their postings on Facebook and Twitter. I’m not sure I recall seeing this much enthusiasm in awhile, but then again I’ve added 900 friends to my Facebook account in the past six months.

While personally I don’t see our economy changing much at all this year, any of you who read my column on a regular basis, know how I feel about the economy helping us with our business lives. If you wait for the economy to help your business, chances are your business won’t be around; if and when the economy rebounds. So what can and should you do? Adopting these three habits will get you off to a strong start toward changing your business and your life:

1. Attitude of positivity is a critical first step towards changing where you are in business and life. If you’ve got a bad attitude you can change it in one second….if you want to. We have the power to change our “state” that quickly. All you have to do is get in a positive state of mind as soon as you get up in the morning. Choose to be positive and see how quickly things change for you. Run out the door with passion, positive beliefs, and persistence. Can you do that? Sure you can, but it has to become a habit.

2. Activities that are effective ones. When I first begin coaching with many clients, I am amazed about how little time they spend on activities that are the highest and best use of their time and talents. You know, these are the activities that usually earn revenue for your company and you. They are the most important and highest-valued activities, yet so few spend anywhere close to enough time doing them. What they spend most of their time on is the other stuff. You know the stuff that makes you feel like you accomplished a lot during the day, though no sales were made. These are the activities that are a waste of your time and talents, yet many people spend in excess of 50% of their time doing these low-value activities. Simply put, its “clutter” and that’s exactly what I call it. Just ask any of the folks that have benefited from my coaching. We start working on your clutter the first day we’re together. Over time, we chip away at it until you’re doing nothing but high-valued activities. If you want to make this change and adopt the habit of being effective, I can help you develop this habit. Just ask my clients.

3. Accountability is something we all need. The problem is who do you have in your business or personal life that holds you accountable? The mirror can assist you but how many people look in the mirror for purposes other than vanity? Let me answer that for you, very few. I often ask prospective clients who they have in their life that is completely objective? Rarely, do I get an answer that could possibly be accurate. If someone has “skin in your game” there is no way they can be objective and give you the follow-up and feedback you need. When I assist clients in creating goals, building strategies, and developing action plans, we always have a large accountability piece. If it’s a one-on-one coaching situation, I hold them accountable. In my “Winning Strategies for Business & Life” workshops, you will be assigned an accountability partner. Now that’s a habit that not only can you develop but you may even create a new business relationship and help each other grow. Nice!

If you want to make these habits permanent, contact me and let’s talk!

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Article Tags: accountability, business growth, economy, finances, leadership, personal growth, success



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