The Right Way To Bring In Revenue
I was at my mastermind retreat in California. Being that I live in New Jersey I found myself very awake and productive at 5:00 in the morning and went to the gym at 5:45.
After my workout, I was standing by the water cooler and looked out the window. There was a beautiful 
sunrise. One of the hotel attendants was next to me and I said, “Look at the beautiful sunrise.” She was courteous to me, but yet I could see in her eyes that she assumed that I wanted something from her or was complaining about something. I said, “Everything is okay, I just don’t want you to miss the good stuff.”
So often in our day-to-day lives we end up focused on the things that are not going well, on what we still have to do or more often, what we think we’ll never get around to doing. We spend our day beating ourselves up instead of paying attention to what is going right.
These past couple of months I’ve been in a bit of a rut. Sure things are going okay. I have great clients and I enjoy what I’m doing. Technically things were going well, yet I kept thinking about what wasn’t going well, the things I wasn’t doing or hadn’t summoned up my energy to do. In my own rut I lost sight of the all the wonderful things going on in my life…the beautiful sunrise that exists around me every day.
Improve Productivity by Keeping the Chaos Out
I’m always amazed at how easily we grow accustomed to things. Years ago my husband and I removed an air conditioner from a window. We didn’t have anywhere to put it, so we stowed it under a clear glass table in our living room. Even though it was completely visible we didn’t see it and amazingly, neither did our guests.
I was at the chiropractor the other day, he touched my shoulder and I winced in pain. I hadn’t realized anything hurt until he touched it.
My neighbor had a new roof installed a few weeks ago. All day long the contractors were running generators and banging right outside my office window. I knew it was loud but didn’t realize just how much it bothered me until they shut down the generator and my whole body noticeably relaxed.
In many ways it’s a good thing that we acclimate so easily. I forgot the word my chiropractor used to describe what was going on but the way he described it was that, being constantly aware of every single sensation we feel, see or hear would overwhelm us. All of the sensations we would have to process would make it completely impossible for us to do or think about anything else.
It’s wonderful that our brains are great at compartmentalizing like this but these stimuli have an effect on the way you function and how you run your business and life.
In your daily business you are exposed to tons of input. There’s the constant barrage of email, phones ringing and things that “must get done.” Then there are the ideas that you’ve already started working on and want to follow up on or finish. Of course there are also ideas that have come across your desk which look interesting or promising. Read more
So Much To Do…So Little Time
I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news is that we live in a world with endless possibilities and opportunities. The bad news is that all of these possibilities and opportunities can get overwhelming and you may find yourself not accomplishing anything.
Often as I speak with my clients or (to be completely transparent here) even as I look at my own desk, I get the sensation of drowning in a pool of options and to-do’s.
Different people have different reactions to all of the options. Some people end up freezing and doing nothing, while other people may jump from one thing to another in an effort to get everything done. The end result is the same…at the end of the day you wonder where the day has gone and marvel at how little you’ve accomplished and how much more there is to do.
Since there are so many things that my clients and I either want to do or feel that we “should” do, we sometimes create one of those “brain dump” lists to get everything out of our brains and into one spot. I wish I could simply wave a wand and accomplish everything on my “brain dump” list but I can’t because the reality is that we only have 24 hours a day.
Maybe it would be different if the list was stagnant but it isn’t. Somehow the universal law of to-do lists seems to be to always add more than you can possibly cross off. If you try to do everything all you’ll manage to do is engage in a race against the clock that you will never win and you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and in the end, unproductive.
When I see this happening either for myself or my clients it means it’s time to Read more
One client’s biggest takeaway from private coaching
You know what it’s like. You’re sitting at your desk totally involved in a project that you are working on and suddenly you hear “DING” and get a notification that “You’ve got mail”. The result…you stop what you’re doing, look at the email, which might be important to you but usually is not and often lose track of what you were doing.
When this happens the things that you were focusing on and that you had prioritized for your day get relegated to lower positions. Sometimes you get back to them, oftentimes you don’t as other people and other things pull your attention away from the projects that will grow your business and your life.
Chaos to Cash Strategy:
Avoid distraction and take charge of your email inbox by turning off the audio notification in your email settings.
Very few things truly need to be read immediately. Read more
Crossing The Finish Line
Confession time…I decided to run a 5K for all the wrong reasons. My daughter’s boyfriend is a jock, my daughter isn’t. He wanted to run with her and she couldn’t. When I saw a sign at our gym for the new class “How to Train and Eat for a 5K” I saw it as an opportunity for her to start running. Sammi wouldn’t do it alone so to help her we both joined the class.
This was a huge step for me because, although I work out regularly, I’ve always been a firm believer that I could not run. I knew it was painful and horrible. Besides, just running to the corner would leave me breathless. It’s amazing what you do for your kids or so I said at the time.
The class was great because it gave us a coach and gave us a plan to teach us how to run so that we could make continual progress without getting hurt. But the most important piece was that we had each other.
Day by day our runs got longer. I found that the more we ran the more it became my personal goal and I was not doing this just for Sammi. I started to feel an immense sense of satisfaction with every mile I ran.
Action 911
Free Teleseminar!
It’s the end of May…we’re five months into 2011. Are you on track to meet your 2011 goals?
If not…
Join Carrie for a revealing 30-minute Take Action Teleseminar
Action 911: The Immediate Steps You Must Take to Stop Planning and Start Profiting in 2011.
*** Fill in the SHORT form below to register for this FREE program! ***
I keep hearing the same story over and over…
- The first five months of 2011 are over. I haven’t implemented any of my ideas and I’m not making money.
- I’ve been waiting to get all my ducks in a row but I’m not sure I’ll ever get there.
- I’ve been planning and planning…actually I’ve been planning to plan … I don’t have enough clients, I’m not making money…I just don’t know what to do.
- I’m afraid I’ll be looking at these same plans at the end of December!
This has got to end.
It’s time to stop planning and start doing. The bottom line is that unless you act nothing will happen. You and your business will not grow. You will continue to be frustrated. You will keep running around in circles. You will continue under-earning. Everything will stay exactly the way it is.
During this FREE presentation there will be no-hype and no sales. Just 30-minutes of pure content delivered quickly so that you can immediately stop spinning and put your plans into action.
You will learn how to…
- Take the plans you already have and act on them so that you can quickly monetize on the work you’ve already done.
- Focus your attention on the actions that will give you the biggest return on your investment.
- Let go of perfectionism and “just do it” so that you can get the clients you want.
And this is just a small part of what you’ll discover.
There’s nothing to stop you!
Go ahead and complete this SHORT form and register now!
Your coach,
Carrie
P.S. Do you know someone else who would benefit from this program? Go ahead and forward them the link to this page but make sure to reserve your spot first!
Improve Your Productivity with What I Learned Shoveling Snow.
It snowed overnight and the snow turned into sleet and icy rain. If you know anything about shoveling snow you understand that this is trouble. The snow on the ground gets incredibly heavy, if you leave it on the ground it will freeze solid and there’s no way a snow blower is going to be of any help. Shoveling the driveway was now the number one thing on my to-do list for the day.
As I worked shoveling in the sleet, I saw a connection to what many of us in business — tasks that we have to do that we’d rather not. As I shoveled I realized that I was applying the same ten strategies I use in my business every day to get the more difficult projects done. Hope they help you as much as they helped me! Read more
A Lesson From A Cereal Box
The other morning I was having breakfast with my children. We’re not an overly talkative bunch at 7:00 am but there was some conversation. Things like, what is going on at school today? What are you taking for lunch? Do you have any after school plans? Just idle chit chat.
Then my son Josh finished his bowl of cereal. He was still hungry and wanted more. He got up, went into the kitchen, got the cereal and brought the box with him to the table. He poured himself more cereal and put the box down on the table.
As soon as he put the box down Read more
Good News/Bad news…it’ll never be perfect but it can be done!
I decided to write an article about getting things done and not worrying about perfection and found myself in need of my own advice…
I like to think that I subscribe to the idea that “good enough” is good enough. Sure it’s important to do a good job and make sure there are no major mistakes or omissions but for the most part get it done and get it out.
The topic of “done is better than perfect” came up during one of my 3C’s boot camp group calls. It really hit a nerve for a lot of the participants so I decided to write an article about it. I wrote two paragraphs and said to myself, “Never mind, I’m not feeling inspired and am not happy with this.” I proceeded to close the document I was working in without saving my work.
Almost immediately I realized how hypocritical I was being…
The message I suddenly heard was…Stop waiting for the perfect mix of inspiration, time and energy. Because when you wait for perfection whatever you are working on will never get done. DUH!
So, if done is better than perfect why not send out an imperfect article? Here it goes…
The quest for perfection will freeze you. Read more
Are you an information hoarder?
Have you seen the show Hoarders, Buried Alive? Many people are entranced by it. It’s reminds me of when you drive down the road and pass an accident… it’s hard to turn away. I’ve heard people say that they are amazed at how “those people” live. Can’t “they” understand the difference between what’s junk and what’s not? How can “they” save all that stuff? What were “they” thinking as they accumulated all of it? Did “they” really think they would use it? How can “they” live that way? Don’t “they” know when enough’s enough?
It’s easy to see how things can physically block your path and get in your way but it’s not just about physical things. Information can do that too.
This may be dating me but, I remember when getting information about a topic was difficult. If you wanted to learn about a topic you’d have to spend hours in a library, use card catalogs, read books and ultimately consolidate all the information.
Times have changed. For the most part information is easily accessible. When something interests us we just “google it” and like magic, information appears. Then, instead of selectively reading the information that appeared, if anything is of even the remotest of interest you read it or simply hit print.
Here’s what you end up with… Read more
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