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| Motivation Information |
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Procrastination
Allow me to start this with a quote: To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing. ~Eva Young "I'll do it tomorrow". Does this sound familiar? Getting something done is easy when it is something we enjoy. Unfortunately, we all have lots of tasks that we don't particularly enjoy. Even when a thing simply must be done, almost all of us are pretty good at coming up with excuses for putting them off: · So I'm getting a little over-weight! Who isn't? · I'm just not in the mood right now. · I'll go for a run tomorrow, the weather isn't that good today. · I've got plenty of time to get it done. · What's the point, I'll just have to do it all over again in two days. · It's not like they can't do it without me. · I'll leave it until the day before. I work better under pressure. Do any of the above points sound familiar? I'll bet you can add a few to the list without too much trouble! I know it sounds funny when you look at the issue like this but the trouble is procrastination wreaks havoc in most of our lives. Why do we procrastinate? Some reasons are easy to spot but others are not so obvious: · some things just aren't fun! · we are uncomfortable about doing some things (e.g. preparing a speech) · we don't feel up to the job · we are angry that we have to do it in the first place · we have had a bad experience in the past What can we do to procrastinate less? Okay, this is a tough one to kick-start because the first inclination of most of us is to put it off. That's my idea of a joke J. Procrastination is simply a habit. Like most habits, we tend not to notice them (our own at least) most of the time. One way to break the habit is to replace it with another one. A good habit to replace it with is to examine your reasons for putting things off when you catch yourself doing it. Most of the time the excuse you were using to procrastinate just won't stand up under examination. If you have to, make a list of the pros and cons of doing vs. not doing the thing you are procrastinating on. I'd be willing to bet that a good percentage of the time you will just get on with the task. There is a trap here! Try not to put yourself down when you are examining why you procrastinate. Negative reinforcement is depressing and leads to bad self-image. There is nothing to be gained by telling yourself you are lazy or you are stupid or you aren't capable of doing something. It is self-defeating. Instead, list the positive things about getting it done straight away. Look at how it will make you feel if you get the job done. Examine how others will see you in a more positive light. Consider how much more you will enjoy your leisure time when you know you have your jobs done. Realize how much grief you will save yourself by being proactive. In short, focusing on the positive aspects will have a much more motivating impact on you. How can we make things easier? Don't expect yourself to be perfect. Perfection is difficult to achieve at the best of times. Most often it is not only unnecessary, but counter productive. The law of diminishing returns comes into play here. Do the job well and get the result. Don't shoot for perfect unless there is a reward equal to the effort. Get you goals and priorities straight Be clear about what is the most important thing to get done and do that first. Leave the less important stuff for last. It is far more motivating to know you have the hard or important things completed. Once you have the job broken down it is easy to prioritize. Break the job down Tackle the job in bite-sized pieces. Don't take on more than you can get done in the time you allocate. This guarantees that you feel good at the end of the task because you have completed it. Reward Yourself Make sure that when you get a job done you give yourself a pat on the back. Reward yourself in some way for accomplishing what you set out to do. It gives you something to look forward to. Let me generalize a bit. The thing is, we are all built pretty much the same way. A carrot is better than a stick even though they can both accomplish the same thing. But what is more motivating? What make you more likely to tackle the job at hand? If you like carrots and you associate the jobs at hand with getting a carrot at the end, you are less likely to procrastinate. I started with a quote so let's finish with one I really like: Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow. ~Gerald Vaughan Ron Hughes is CEO of Adapt Information Technology, one of the longest standing Internet businesses in the world. He is also a public speaker and frequent contributor of articles on a variety of subjects. Ron welcomes your comments at mailto:74129@mailin.wowgroups.com. Visit http://www.wowdesk.com for information on how to have your own secure, personal office on the Internet. The Hughes Boys http://www.getexperts.com
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Business Management Do You have a Dream? Do you find yourself sitting at work longing to be somewhere else and doing something you have always wanted to do? Action Rules - Just Get Started! 'Action Rules!' in the Getting Goals Game. It is the number one most important step to achieving your greatness. Hey Me, Get Out Of My Way Hey Me! Get Out Of My Way By David Stoddard How often it is we give up wanting to do something even before we give ourselves an honest chance of succeeding. Perhaps, we begin writing our autobiography. We get the table of contents and the introduction written, then we let it sit because we don't think anyone will care. We begin a diet over a weekend. Within a couple of days, we are back to our normal habits because we did not see any immediate results. Maybe we want to start a desktop publishing business. We get it started and the clients start coming in sooner than we expected. Because of our past experiences where we have been so good at what we did, we only remember getting bombarded with more and more work when we wish we could have taken a break. We may see how this can end up, so we slack off and let the business of our dreams fade away. Or maybe we have this idea of having our own place on the Internet. We create a page, then we have different ideas to put on it. Then we think of starting a business with it. Then we also want to have a newsletter for people. Then we want to do web pages for others. Then we go back and work on ways to get people to read our newsletter. But we need a better web site. So we start from scratch and the circle continues. Having too many things we would like to do can stop us as well. Personally, I've become an expert at getting out of my own way when it comes to doing things. After all, I have gotten in my own way over and over and over again for years. I still fit the last one. So many different areas that interest me, I have jumped from one thing to another to another. Like many of the books on the bookshelf at home, I don't think I have ever finished one of them all the way through. We stop ourselves in any number of ways. - I'm not good enough: Well, on Monday, a group of students will be given a lecture by the worst teacher. The worst actor will star in a made-for-television movie. And the worst boy band will put on a mini show for friends and family in their garage. - No one will be interested: Just look around at some of the things you see on television or read in newspapers or books or magazines. It is amazing some things have lasted this long. - I'm too old/young: Colonel Sanders was in his eighties when he began his Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Anne Frank was a young girl when she wrote her diary which is still published and read to this very day throughout the world. - I don't know what I want to do: You may not know exactly what you want to do, but there is something in the back of your mind that is important. Especially if you know you are not happy in what you are doing now, you know there is more you want out of life. - I want to do too much: No one says you can't do a little of everything. Just have to pick one that will set the groundwork for the others. Find what is the common thread in the things you would like, and start there. You can branch off once that foundation is in place. - The universe is out to get me: Ummmmm. Not at all. Once you make up your mind and begin heading in some direction, the universe will open up in ways you can't see right now. People will come into your life, events will take place, and you will begin to see a bit further each day. But you have to make the first moves. Motivational speaker Les Brown in his book "It's Not Over Until You Win," tells a story of a keynote speaker at a National Speakers Association conference he attended. The speaker was perhaps the worst speaker Les had ever heard. The man spoke in a monotone voice and was dull as a butter knife. By the end of his presentation, more than two-thirds of the audience had walked out. The speaker, noticing this said something that pretty much sums up this column. "The reason I am up here (Doing) and you are sitting down there (watching) is because I represent the thoughts you have rejected for yourself." Give yourself a chance and get out of your own way. 5 Fun & Easy Ways to Get Out of the Rut I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel less than great. Low, grouchy, fed-up and bored are all words you could use to describe what I'm like on those days. Thing is, days like those are part of the deal with being human it's not an elective. There will always be off days, and that's okay. Life Doesnt Have A Sell By Date Or does it? Storytelling - The Great Motivator of People In a data-driven world, facts and figures are the order of the day in sales calls, employee meetings, board rooms, and political assemblies. Traditionally, when a person is trying to convince someone else to do something they use the logic of benefits and features - long the sacred domain of anyone in sales. The Seven Keys to Motivation Motivation. It's a complicated subject that is studied by many and understood by few. Virtually every aspect of human life -- from the mundane to the life-changing -- is guided, swayed and altered by motivating factors. After the Storm...... Have you ever wondered why is it that after we go through a bad phase in life we seem to come out better for it? It use to puzzle me too until recently after I stared down a gunman's nozzle I realized why. Creativity and Innovation Management - Motivation Motivation in creativity and innovation is more important than personality traits. This is like possessing high intelligence one must be motivated to improve and apply it. Gremlins! Time to Take Control It is a wonder we can function at all. Each of us has multiple personality types all crying for attention. Most of us think one way, work another, and feel in a personality style different from either working or thinking styles! And you question why you are sometimes confused? Employee Motivation Checklist - Ten Measures of Success In the form of a simple easy to use checklist, you can score how well you are doing out of 10. Better still, ask them. It's like what they describe as a mini-360o, where your people get the chance to give you feedback. Only here it is a lot easier and far far cheaper! But then it's how you handle the results of feedback that counts the most. Prime That Pump! Part 3 How healthy is your vision of yourself? How does your mental image of yourself stack up against that of, say, some hero of yours? Let's find out. All Talk And No Action; So Let It Be Written; So Let It Be Done! It is so important to know how to motivate ourselves in an effective manner and in a desirable direction. Throughout life we continually struggle between the dual forces of what we say and what we do. So, I ask you, what would you pay for a personal formula that would turn all your words into action? Context-Free Living ... Living Without Boundaries! I know by now that you've heard the terms Debt-Free Living, Disease-Free Living, or an overabundance of other such coined terms for various marketing ploys to sell products and services. However, I'm not here to sell you anything, as what I'm offering, you already have! You just don't know it yet! How to Take Your Stalled Projects to the Finish Line Q. I have several projects going at once -- but I never seem to finish them! I'm pulled in so many different directions -- and I end up with nothing to show for my efforts! 4 Barriers to Overcome For Growth As we begin a new year, it's natural to reflect a bit on what we really want out of the next 12 months. Have you made some resolutions? Have you decided to get in shape? Go for a promotion? Quit smoking? Get your finances in order? Spend more time with your family? All of the above? Whatever your resolutions are, they all boil down to one thing- you want GROWTH! Congratulations! You've taken the first step towards seeing positive results. The material you'll find in the newsletter this year will help your growth journey be swifter and more fun. Prime That Pump! Part 2 In Part 1 of this article, we talked about reaching our goals as largely a matter of following through on desire, vision and action. The difficulty for most of us lies in continuing to believe that our efforts will ever bear fruit when these fruits have not yet begun to materialize. Have You Ever Not Done Something Because Someone Said You Couldnt? "Every truly great accomplishment is at first impossible." Decide Where do you want to be in a year? In five years? In ten years? Is what you are doing now -- the way you are living, your friends, your habits, your focus -- Are all of these things moving you in the direction of your goals? How does it look? Everything Going Against You "When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." Henry Ford
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