Far from being touchy-feely concepts touted by motivational speakers, purpose and values have been identified as key drivers of high-performing organisations.

• In Built to Last, James Collins and Jerry Porras reveal that purpose- and values-driven organisations outperformed the general market and comparison companies by 15:1 and 6:1, respectively.
• In Corporate Culture and Performance, Harvard professors John Kotter and James Heskett found that firms with shared-values–based cultures enjoyed 400% higher revenues, 700% greater job growth, 1,200% higher stock prices and significantly faster profit performance, as compared to companies in similar industries.
• In Firms of Endearment, marketing professor Rajendra Sisodia and his coauthors explain how companies that put employees’ and customers’ needs ahead of shareholders’ desires outperform conventional competitors in stock-market performance by 8:1.

Leaders who have a clearly articulated purpose and are driven to make a difference can inspire people to overcome insurmountable odds, writes Roy M. Spence Jr. in It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand for.

“Life is short, so live it out doing something that you care about,” he writes. “Try to make a difference the best way you can. There’s an enormous satisfaction in seeing the cultural transformation that happens when an organisation is turned on to purpose.”

While a well-designed strategy and its effective implementation are required for business success, neither inspires followers to maintain engagement during troubled times. Purpose must tap into people’s hearts and help them give their best when the chips are down.

Don’t ever take a job— join a crusade! Find a cause that you can believe in and give yourself to it completely. ~ Colleen Barrett, president emerita of Southwest Airlines

In a company without purpose, people have only a vague idea of what they’re supposed to do. There’s always activity and busyness, but it’s often frenetic, disorganised and focused solely on short-term goals. There’s a lack of direction and commitment to purpose.

Top executives erroneously look to the competition when making decisions, rather than making up their own minds about what really matters. This lack of clarity leads to poor business decisions and failed product launches. Employees who work without purpose experience the consequences.

“Across organisations, nearly every survey suggests that the vast majority of employees don’t feel fully engaged at work, valued for their contributions, or freed and trusted to do what they do best,” reports Tony Schwartz in a recent  HBR.org blog post. “Instead, they feel weighed down by multiple demands and distractions, and they often don’t derive much meaning or satisfaction from their work. That’s a tragedy for millions of people and a huge lost opportunity for organisations.”

Lack of Full Engagement

Put simply, satisfied and engaged employees perform better. In a Towers Watson study of roughly 90,000 employees across 18 countries, companies with the most engaged employees reported a 19% increase in operating income and 28% growth in earnings per share. Companies whose employees had the lowest level of engagement had a 32% decline in operating income and an 11% drop in earnings.

People enjoy being engaged in meaningful work. Humans, by nature, are a passionate species, and most of us seek out stimulating experiences. Companies that recognise this and actively cultivate and communicate a worthwhile corporate purpose become employers of choice.

A major Gallup Organisation research study identified 12 critical elements for creating highly engaged employees. About half deal with employees’ sense of belonging. One of the key criteria is captured in the following statement: “The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.”

After basic needs are fulfilled, an employee searches for meaning in a job. People seek a higher purpose, something in which to believe. If, in your role as a leader, you aren’t articulating what you care about and how you plan to make a difference, then you probably aren’t inspiring full engagement.

Energy and Creative Flow

Having a purpose provides context for all of one’s efforts, and it’s a chief criterion for “flow”—the energy state that occurs when one’s mind, body and entire being are committed to the task at hand. Flow turns mundane work into completely absorbing experiences, allowing us to push the limits of skills and talents.

Flow and commitment also create healthier, happier employees, while driving innovative thinking. To tap into full engagement, leaders must clearly identify and articulate what truly matters to the company:

• Why are we in business?
• What difference do we want to make in the world?
• What’s our most important purpose?

On some level, everyone wants to live a purposeful life, yet we are distracted by societal pressures to achieve wealth and prestige. There are indications, however, that this is changing. Just as GNP fails to reflect the well-being and satisfaction of a country’s citizens, a person’s net worth actually has little to do with personal fulfillment.

It is difficult to impossible to truly inspire the creators of customer happiness — the employees —  with the ethic of profit maximization…It is my experience that employees can get very excited and inspired by a business that has an important business purpose. ~ John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market

Leadership starts on a personal level and permeates one’s function in a company, community and society. While countless books address the importance of finding personal purpose, how does it play out within an organisational context? How do you link your personal purpose and values to those of your company?

Finding a Business Purpose

As work evolves in the 21st century, separating our professional and personal lives proves to be an artificial divide. Your personal purpose influences your work purpose, and vice versa.

A company’s purpose starts with its leaders and works its way through the organisation. It shows up in products, services, and employee and customer experiences.

An inspirational purpose often lies hidden within an organisation. The following suggestions will help you identify and articulate key elements:

1. Revisit your organisation’s heritage (past history).
2. Review successes. At what does the business excel?
3. Start asking “why?”
4. What won’t your organisation do? Review false starts and failures.
5. Talk to employees.
6. Talk to top leaders.
7.  Talk to high performers.
8.  Talk to customers.
9. Follow your heart.

Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your calling. ~ Aristotle

A purpose is informed by the world’s needs. When you build an organisation with a concrete purpose in mind — one that fills a real need in the marketplace — performance will follow.

Ask the following questions:

• Why does your organisation do what it does?
• Why is this important to the people you serve?
• Why does your organisation’s existence matter?
• What is its functional benefit to customers and constituents?
• What is the emotional benefit to them?
• What is the ultimate value to your customer?
• What are you deeply passionate about?
• At what can you excel?
• What drives your economic engine?

Mission statements used to have a purpose. The purpose was to force management to make hard decisions about what the company stood for. A hard decision means giving up one thing to get another.  ~ Seth Godin, marketing expert

When a mission statement is well written, it serves as a declaration of purpose. But corporate mission statements are often little more than a descriptive sentence about products, aspirations or desired public perceptions. They’re more powerful when they clearly and specifically articulate the difference your business strives to make in the world.

Leaders who want to succeed should straightforwardly communicate what they believe in and why they’re so passionate about their cause, according to business consultant Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (Portfolio, 2010). He further articulates how great leaders inspire action in the following video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qp0HIF3SfI4

Most people know what they do and how they do it, Sinek says, but few communicate why they’re doing it.

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy into why you do it,” he emphasises.

If you don’t know and cannot communicate why you take specific actions, how can you expect employees to become loyal followers who support your mission?

The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in. ~ James Baldwin, author

The Bridge to What Matters

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. ~ Helen Keller

Great leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Walt Disney always communicated their “why”—the reasons they acted, why they cared and their future hopes. Great business leaders follow suit:

• Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines, believed air travel should be fun and accessible to everyone.
• Apple’s Steve Wozniak thought everyone should have a computer and, along with Steve Jobs, set out to challenge established corporations’ status quo.
• Wal-Mart’s Sam Walton believed all people should have access to low-cost goods.
• Starbucks’ Howard Schultz wanted to create social experiences in cafés resembling those in Italy.

Once company leaders have identified and clearly articulated what they stand for, it’s up to you to build a bridge between the business’ purpose and your own values:

• In what way can you make a difference through company products and services?
• How can you express what truly matters in the work you do?
• In what ways can you make a difference in the world through the people you work for and with?

Making a Difference

When you share your greater cause and higher purpose, listeners filter the message and decide to trust you (or not). When listeners’ values and purpose resonate with your own, they are primed to become followers who will favorably perceive subsequent messages.

You cannot gain a foothold in someone’s brain by leading with what you want them to do. You must first communicate why it’s important.

Strive to be like the leaders who never lose sight of why they do what they do and why people should care. Only then will you inspire your people to attain sustainable success.

Leaders are the stewards of organisational energy. They recruit, direct, channel, renew, focus and invest energy from all the individual contributors in the service of the corporate mission. The energy of each individual contributor in the corporation must be actively recruited. This requires aligning individual and organisational purpose. ~ Authors James Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement

As any fan of The Office can attest, negative managerial behaviour severely affects employees’ work lives.

Managers’ day-to-day and moment-to-moment actions also create a ripple effect, directly facilitating or impeding the organisation’s ability to function.

The best managers recognise their power to influence and strive to build teams with great inner work lives.

In The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work (Harvard Business Press, 2011), Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer describe how people with great inner work lives have:

• Consistently positive emotions
• Strong motivation
• Favorable perceptions of the organisation, their work and their colleagues

The worst managers undermine others’ inner work lives, often unwittingly. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees at seven companies, Amabile and Kramer found surprising results on the factors that affect performance.

What matters most is forward momentum in meaningful work—in a word, progress. Managers who recognise the need for even small wins set the stage for high performance.

But surveys of CEOs and project leaders reveal that 95 percent fundamentally misunderstand the need for this critical motivator.

What Really Motivates Us?

If you lead knowledge workers, you likely employ these conventional management practices:

• Recruit the best talent.
• Provide appropriate incentives.
• Give stretch assignments to develop talent.
• Use emotional intelligence to connect with each individual.
• Review performance carefully.

Unfortunately, you may miss the most fundamental source of leverage: managing for progress. Recognising even the smallest win has a more powerful impact than virtually anything else.

In a survey by Amabile and Kramer, 669 managers ranked five factors that could influence motivation and emotions at work:

1. Recognition
2. Incentives
3. Interpersonal support
4. Clear goals
5. Support for making progress in the work

Managers incorrectly ranked “support for making progress” dead last, with most citing “recognition for good work” as the most important motivator.

Your ability to focus on progress is paramount. Video-game designers excel at this mission, hooking players on the steady pace of progress bars.

Facilitating Progress

When you focus on small wins and facilitate progress, your employees will find the energy and drive required to perform optimally.

Two key forces enable progress:

• Catalysts—Events that directly advance project work, such as:
  • Clear goals
  • Autonomy
  • Resources, including time
  • Reviewing lessons from errors and succes
• Nourishers—Interpersonal events that uplift workers, including:
  • Encouragement and support
  • Demonstrations of respect
  • Collegiality

Dealing with Setbacks

Three events undermine people’s inner work lives:

1. Setbacks—The biggest downer, yet inevitable in any sort of meaningful work
2. Inhibitors—Events that directly hinder project work
3. Toxins—Interpersonal events that undermine the people doing the work

Negative events carry a greater impact than positive ones. We pay more attention to them, remember them, and spend more time thinking and talking about them.

Example 1:

Catalyst  - Did I discuss lessons from today’s successes and problems with my team? or

Inhibitor – Did I “punish” failure, or neglect to find lessons and/or opportunities in problems and successes?

Example 2:

Nourisher – Is there a sense of personal and professional affiliation and camaraderie within the team? or

Toxin – Is there tension or antagonism among members of the team or between a team member and me?

Source: T. Amabile & S. Kramer, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work (Harvard Business Press, 2011)

That’s why it’s so important for managers and team leaders to counteract negative events with positive perceptions and comments. Research shows it takes three positive messages to balance a negative one.

To better manage your people:

1. Focus first on the day’s progress and setbacks.
2. Next, think about specific events: the catalysts and nourishers that affected progress.
3. Finally, prepare for action: What’s the one step you can take to best facilitate progress?

Recognising small wins is the best way to motivate your team—the key principle revealed through rigorous analysis of daily journal entries by Amabile and Kramer.

Every day events affect our inner work lives, and managers are certainly not exempt. As a leader, you must tend to your staff’s inner work lives by providing support each day. You, too, will perform best when your inner work life is positive and strong.

Review each day’s events and how much you’ve accomplished—no matter how difficult or disappointing. Even if gains seem relatively miniscule, you’ll benefit from an honest assessment. Remember: Setbacks are inevitable, but they serve as learning opportunities.

 Progress triggers a positive inner work life. To boost yours, focus on providing your people with catalysts and nourishers. Buffer them, as much as possible, from inhibitors and toxins. This sets the sta

What’s needed, specifically?

Hire more executive coaches, step up sessions, and implement more training and development programs.

In tough times, you cannot rely on talent and luck. Even when you have a talented team at the top, people need help in stretching their capabilities to meet the overwhelming demands of a 21^st century marketplace.

 Scientific research on great performance has persuasively shown that key abilities are developed. They don’t occur naturally. Great leaders aren’t born; they’re made—and the research to support this is overwhelming. What we previously thought of as innate can often be taught. Leadership capabilities are acquired through constructive practice and developmental opportunities, and today’s business volatility calls for both.

“The key to this development is pushing people—or people pushing themselves—just beyond their current abilities, forcing them to do things that they can’t quite do,” according to Fortune Senior  Editor Geoff Colvin, author of Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else (Portfolio, 2008).

In studies of accomplished individuals, researchers have found few signs of precocious achievement before their subjects began intensive training. Similar findings have turned up in studies of musicians, tennis players, artists, swimmers, mathematicians and chess players.

Is Talent Irrelevant?

In studies of accomplished individuals, researchers have found few signs of precocious achievement before their subjects began intensive training. Similar findings have turned up in studies of musicians, tennis players, artists, swimmers, mathematicians and chess players.

Such findings do not prove that talent doesn’t exist, but they do suggest it may be irrelevant.

The concept of talent is especially troublesome in business. We label people and then assign expectations, some of which are unrealistic. When people are fast-tracked or deemed executive material, we assume they have special gifts. Worse, we fail to adequately emphasise the importance of continuous training and coaching. Instead, we rely on their “natural gifts.”

Identifying these gifts has been extremely elusive. In fact, some business giants actually gave little early indication that they would become great.

Jack Welch, named by Fortune as the 20th century’s manager of the century, showed no particular passion for business, even into his mid-20s.

Steve Ballmer and Jeffrey Immelt were average employees at Procter & Gamble in the 1970s, with little evidence they would go on to become CEOs of Microsoft and GE before age 50.

In this age of genomic research, there should no longer be any question as to what is—and isn’t—innate. If a talent is innate, scientists should be able to identify the gene for it, and no progress has been made on this front.

Talent or Hard Work?

We can safely draw the conclusion that there’s plenty of opportunity for everyone. Many high-performing executives will tell you they don’t rely on their innate talents as much as their hard-earned skills. 

CEOs like A.G. Lafley of P&G and GE’s Immelt have said that being forced to manage through crises early in their careers enhanced their abilities in ways that were critical to becoming CEOs. They wouldn’t have achieved their status without surviving the storms that gave them hands-on practice.

Certain practices can make our experiences especially productive:

• Coaching helps.
• Receiving feedback allows us to fine-tune our skills.
• Working in a safe learning environment is essential.
• A work environment which is closely aligned with our professional goals, personal preferences and values is conducive to greater personal achievement.

Workplaces that encourage practice and development, and mistakes should be viewed as learning opportunities. You also need to clearly define and develop a plan for achieving the abilities you wish to hone, including a measurable time frame. This will turbo-charge your performance and improve your chances of success.

10,000 Hours or 10 Years

Malcolm Gladwell makes the case for 10,000 hours of practice to attain expertise in his book Outliers (Little, Brown & Co., 2008):

“The 10,000-hours rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field, from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon, we see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours, which is roughly 10 years, if you think about four hours a day.”

Almost all child prodigies in music, sports, chess and the arts seem to put in 10,000 hours before they attain expertise and produce significant results.

The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, edited by Anders Ericsson, Charness and Feltovich, et al, compiles scientific studies to prove the point in a wide variety of fields. The trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers “whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming” are nearly always made, not born.

Many of us have already put in more than a decade of doing what we do. The question is whether we’re practicing the right things, in the right way. Practice does not make perfect. Rather, perfect practice make perfect.

What Is Deliberate Practice?

Anders Ericsson and his scientific colleagues emphasise the importance of deliberate practice, which is characterised by several elements:

• It is an activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with the help of a teacher, coach or expert.
• It can be repeated frequently.
• Feedback on results is continuously available.
• It’s highly demanding mentally.
• It isn’t much fun and entails hard work.

If you think you’ve outgrown the need for a teacher or coach, it’s time to challenge this assumption. A business coach can see things a manager cannot and is trained to deliver feedback in a way that’s inaccessible to most managers.

Without a clear, unbiased view of your performance, you cannot choose the best practice activities.  Hire a coach who can properly stretch you beyond your current abilities and help you move out of your comfort zones. Otherwise, human nature dictates that you’re likely to spend your time practicing what you already know how to do instead of new behaviours which are difficult and uncomfortable.

According to Noel Tichy, PhD, a professor of organizational  behaviour and human resources management at the University of Michigan School of Business, our progress depends on leaving our comfort zone to enter the learning zone, where skills and abilities are just out of reach.

What About Passion?

Talent is not the overarching driver of successfully developing high level capabilities. Those who care the most will rise to the top. Exceptional performance depends on what we decide to do with our lives and the passion that drives us.

One of the most purchased articles from the Harvard Business Review is a 1968 piece on motivation that explains our three main drives:

1. Achievement
2. Power
3. A sense of community and desire to help others

No matter your driving force, you have to care deeply enough to work hard to become exceptional.

Nothing can make you endure the pain and sacrifice of deliberate practice for decades unless you’re carried by an intrinsic compulsion to do so.

Talent Is Never Enough

In Talent Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will Take You Beyond Your Talent, (Thomas Nelson, 2007), leadership expert John C. Maxwell suggests talent is “often overrated and frequently misunderstood.” He advises readers to build their strengths to become a “talent-plus person,” defined by the following tenets:

• Belief lifts your talent.
• Initiative activates your talent.
• Focus directs your talent.
• Preparation positions your talent.
• Practice sharpens your talent.
• Perseverance sustains your talent.
• Character protects your talent.

Even if you hold onto the notion that you’ll always survive because of your innate talent, you must still prepare, practice and persist. The scientific research is in, and it’s conclusive. Hard work—not talent—contributes to high performance.

Start change in the right way, and you’ll enjoy a snowball effect that helps your team, direct reports and even family members implement change.

Business school professors Chip and Dan Heath cover the patterns all successful change efforts have in common in Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (2010).

The Heaths avoid looking at the history of failed changes. Instead, they share stories of spectacular changes that worked because execution built upon prior achievements.

In researching significant social, educational, governmental, marital and organisational changes, the professors came up with a framework that anyone can apply in real-world business situations.

First Steps

In many ways, the first small steps you take to change your behaviour are the most important. Once you initiate change, it seems to feed on itself, as two psychological triggers are at work:

1. The mere exposure effect: The more you’re exposed to something, the more you like it. Initially unwelcome change efforts will gradually be perceived more favorably as people get used to them.
2. Cognitive dissonance: Once people take small steps, it’s increasingly difficult for them to dislike how they act. We don’t like to act in one way and think in another. And once we begin to behave differently, our self-perception changes and our identity evolves, which  reinforces our new approach.

The Snowball Effect

Such changes aren’t the result of “small wins.” Rather, they are automatic forces that kick in as time passes. It’s therefore essential to start as soon as possible and take advantage of the momentum.

While inertia and the status quo may exert an irresistible pull, at this point you need to muster the courage and just do it. Just get it started. Your first attempt doesn’t have to be perfect or complete. At some point, inertia will shift from resisting change to supporting it, and small changes will snowball into big changes.

Recognise up front that it’s human nature to focus on the negative. As you review the behaviour you wish to change, it’s only natural to think of what’s not working. When competing for brain space, bad thoughts easily beat out good ones.

In an exhaustive study of 558 words that represent emotions, 62 percent were negative versus 38 percent positive. When we learn something bad about someone, we pay closer attention to it and remember it longer. The negative receives greater weight when we assess a person.

In another analysis, researchers examined 17 studies concerning how people explained events in their lives. Across all domains—work, politics, sports, personal—people were more likely to spontaneously bring up negative events versus positive ones.

The Problem with Problems

Focus on what’s broken, and you’ll come up with a long list of things that need to be fixed. In reality, you can’t always fix everything. Sometimes there’s simply no time, budget or realistic deadline for a major overhaul.

Some things may never be completely fixed, and you’ll have to tolerate them — but this doesn’t exclude picking one key behavioural change that can vastly improve both short- and long-term results.

Marcus Buckingham, author of Go Find Your Strengths, urges readers to make the most of their strengths, rather than obsessing over their weaknesses. Despite our natural human tendency to focus on the negative, we can make an effort to override it.

Do More of What’s Working

Start by identifying what is working, and do more of it.  Replicate the behaviours that get optimum results, and set new goals that continue to up the ante.

Many people believe change is hard and must be complicated. Psychotherapy, as originally designed, involved three to five weekly sessions, during which people discussed their thoughts over several years. But people rarely made behavioural changes; they just began to understand why they behaved in certain ways.

More recently, coaching techniques focus more on people defining their key strengths, identifying what’s working and following action plans.

By doing more of the little things that work, they create better relationships and successful behavioural changes. When you ask, “What’s working, and how can you do more of it?” you enjoy better results in less time.

Start with the Beginning in Mind

Perhaps the famous Stephen Covey maxim, “Begin with the end in mind,” needs to be revised: Start with the beginning and the end in mind.

Both are important. Without a destination goal, it’s harder to stay motivated and on track.

In researching their classic business book Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras discovered that solid companies with sustained success had BHAGs: big, hairy, audacious goals.

Goals need to be specific and evoke emotions. Use both your rational and emotional brain when setting goals so they make sense and connect to strong desires.

Unleash the Snowball Effect

1. Identify which behaviours work better than others.
2. Investigate and then replicate successes.
3. Start with a small change, and make it specific.
4. Give yourself direction by providing your start and finish.
5. Energise yourself by identifying the feelings of the finish.
6. Cultivate a sense of identity that reflects your new growth.
7. Change your situation; tweak your environment, as needed.
8. Build habits. When something works, repeat it.
9. Get support. Behaviour is contagious, so help it spread.

Have you ever experienced one of those exceptional states of blissful, yet effortless focus and concentration called “flow”?

Perhaps, like me, you have been inspired by an idea which compels you to write. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a crowded café or in a quiet room; everything disappears from your consciousness, except for the idea and its expression. Once the “flow” takes hold, your full attention is on the transition of the idea from your mind to the page.  Hours can pass where you are in a state of bliss, unaware of the passage of time, of any physical sensations or egocentric distractions, until the experience is concluded and you are jolted back into reality. I often delight in reflecting on the work I produce when I’m “in the zone”. The quality is exceptional, the ideas new and fresh, the quantity of pages phenomenal, and the structure near word-perfect.

Around one in five people claim to experience “flow” several times a day, while 15% report that they have never had the experience (1997, Psychology Today). Writing may not do it for you, but there are many other pursuits in which you may experience your “authentic” self, such as a sport you love, a religious experience, creating art, producing music, or solving mathematical problems. 

Flow is not happiness. We can experience happiness basking in the warmth of the sun or a comfortable relationship. This kind of happiness is dependent on favourable external factors. Flow is of our own making, occurring when we apply our talent and skills 100% to an activity which we find inherently engaging, and with enough complexity to keep it interesting.

Flow at work

People at all levels report a need for challenges that create flow at work, according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1997). Mihaly’s research has found that for flow to occur, challenges must stretch our capacity, without being overwhelming.

If we have optimal work experiences, we’re more motivated to do good work, which also benefits the organisation and our coworkers. Our satisfaction is energising and self-perpetuating, and it carries over into our home life because we’re in a positive frame of mind.

To improve the quality of life through work, two complementary strategies are necessary:

1. Jobs should be redesigned so skills levels and challenges are high. This contributes to a more cheerful and active workforce, improved concentration, and greater creativity and satisfaction.
2. Workers must define and develop self-directing, intrinsic goals. When we learn to recognize opportunities for action, hone our skills, set reachable goals, and immerse our concentration and focus in the present, we become more engaged at work and experience a state of “flow.”

Without these strategies, it’s easy to multitask on autopilot and miss opportunities to excel.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified nine main elements that define the experience of flow at work:

1. Clear goals every step of the way
2. Immediate feedback on one’s actions
3. Balance between challenges and skills
4. A merging of action and awareness, with concentration focused on what we’re doing
5. Exclusion of other dimensions from consciousness to eliminate distraction
6. No fear of failure, as we’re focused on what has to be done
7. No self-consciousness or over-concern with ego
8. A distorted sense of time
9. Activity that becomes inherently enjoyable

How to Create Flow Experiences

All jobs have routine components that can become boring and unexciting. The key is to remain alert for opportunities to make them interesting.

Flow: Challenge vs Skill - Wikipedia

To develop flow experiences at work, be mindful of these four elements:

1.       Set clear goals: Self-directing people choose goals and directions that fit their purpose.

Although some work goals are allocated to us, we can always choose to adopt them personally. This feeling of ownership means you’re more strongly dedicated to your goals.  

2.       Become immersed in your activities: Once our goals are clearly defined and we’ve decided on a plan of action, the door is then open to become deeply focused on whatever we have chosen to do. Improve your capacity to maintain focus by avoiding goals which are unrealistic or unattainable, nor should they be trivial and without complexity.

Consider developing your ability to concentrate and focus by limiting possible distractions. Avoid the temptation of multitasking, which has proved to be fallible and unreliable. Only by taking the necessary time to focus on one thing at a time, with deliberation, can we achieve the flow experience.

Most of us will not face an athletic field or operating room at work, but we do have spreadsheets, computer screens, flow charts and other data on which to focus. Our own minds may be the greatest source of distraction, with self-consciousness looming as a perpetual trap.

The moment we shift our attention from the task at hand and allow our minds to wander to our egos — how we’re doing, how we’re perceived by others — we lose focus and cease to enjoy natural flow. Work becomes harder and less spontaneous. 

4.       Learn to enjoy immediate experiences: Focus on the present, and be “in the moment.” Avoid worrying about others’ reactions or future outcomes. Only then can you do your best work.

Taking Control of Flow at Work

Being in control of your thoughts, powers of concentration and goals means anything that happens can become a source of joy and flow at work.

Achieving control, however, requires determination and discipline.  To be able to transform random events into flow experiences, we must accept challenges; stretch to develop skill sets and try to experience our authentic self. 

D. Worrall (2010)

Resources:

TED Video of M. Csikszentmihalyi on Flow (19 mins):

http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow.html

References:

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1997)

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (Jul 1, 1997) Finding Flow.  http://www.psychologytoday.com 

Just as Agent 86 had his heart and mind focused on a specific intention, it is equally crucial that you motivate both your mind (what you think you should do) and your heart (what you value). It is difficult to examine your values, beliefs, and true purpose without a trusted partner such as a coach. Once you have explored with your coach what is really important to you in your life (career, family, community, your values and purpose), it should become clear what you need to do. Setting  goals then becomes a natural extension of your values.

Goals are very exciting and energizing. They drive us to achieve beyond our expectations. They make it easier for us to focus and concentrate, and give us permission to say “no” to distractions. Then dreams really do come true. But unless you spend time to explore, plan and prioritise, setting the wrong goals can lead to disappointment and disillusion. This saps your energy and motivation.

3 is a Magic Number

 If you have prioritised 3 areas or values in your life, you are ready to set your goals. Three is an ideal number, as more than that can disperse your focus and concentration. You should be prepared to spend time, money and energy on achieving these goals. Remember, goal setting is not for sissies! It requires sacrifice. You have to really want to achieve them and be willing to say “no” to distractions.  

If you find yourself resisting the process of committing to specific goals, then it’s highly likely you have an underlying fear of failure – or of success.  A coach can help you work through this obstacle.

“Out deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

 Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

Marianne Williamson

Once your priorities are clear, saying “no” to activities which distract you, become far more important than saying “yes” to the myriad of distractions we are bombarded with on a daily basis. Clear priorities also make it more difficult for the “procrastinator” in you to take hold and sabotage your potential to succeed to the level you’re really capable of.

At this point you’re ready to cast those ideas into the form of a SMART goal. A SMART goal is:

S—specific

M—measurable

A—action-oriented

R—realistic

T—time framed

1. Be Specific

Be specific when you write down a goal. Narrow your focus. “Getting fit” is not a goal, but an outcome. “Exercising regularly” is not specific enough. Write down things like, “I am so happy and grateful that I feel energized, fit and vibrant as I ride my bike for 40 minutes four times a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday).” Notice 3 things about how this goal is described that make it specific:  

1. It is stated in the present tense, as though you are already in possession of the goal.
2. It brings the goal to life by tapping into the positive senses of what it is like to be experiencing the goal.
3. It reinforces the feeling of gratitude which is an attitude known to greatly enhance the speed at which we attain and maintain goal- achievement

Don’t try to be all inclusive. Focus on making progress on two or three goals before expanding them. The more you can refine and define, the more specific you are, the easier it is to stay focused. Don’t forget to ask for the help of your coach. Your coach can send you email reminders and hold you accountable.

2. Be Measurable 

Write down your goals and their measures. You will need to track the minutes, the days or the number of times you engage in your goal behavior. If you don’t complete the originally defined time or measure, write down and acknowledge what you did complete. This will track your efforts and help sustain and encourage you when you lack energy or motivation.

3. Be Action-Oriented

Make sure the goal you write down is action-oriented. Simply, this means that your goals need to contain a verb, or action-oriented statement. For example, “I ride my bike X times per week… I save “x” $$$ per month… I attract x new clients per month

4. Be Realistic

Select goals that are realistic and motivational. If you know that 40 minutes on the bike or treadmill will exhaust you, or create stress because of the time involved in showering, changing, or other inconveniences, then change the goal to something easier and more attainable and pleasurable – like running with a friend. Make sure your goal is something you like to do. When you create pleasurable memories while you are engaged in the activity, then you increase your chances of doing it more often.

Some people find it useful to reward themselves after goal activity, as long as the reward doesn’t sabotage your goals.

“No pain, no gain” is also true in many areas of goal setting. However, if there is too much pain, you will not gain your goal. Make sure you are willing to pay the price of achieving your goal. By the same token, you need to evaluate and review your goals so that they are not too easy. If you are well on your way to achieving your goals, then you may have set them too low. Try stretching them 10 or 20 percent. If you are not on track, give yourself permission to reduce your measures by 10 percent.

Review your goals regularly and look at issues of alignment with your values. If you are not achieving your goals, you may have picked the wrong goals. People usually do what they want to do, and if you are choosing not to follow your goals, there is a reason that needs to be further examined.

5. Be Time-Framed 

Your goals need to be time-framed. There needs to be a beginning and an end. This would look something like: Have a fifteen percent increase in sales by the end of the year by increasing the quantity of pre-qualified client leads by “x”.   This should be tracked at regular intervals.

As you track your progress, ask for someone to hold you accountable. Research shows that it is easier to stay on track when you have support and reminders.  Executive coaches are trained and have expertise in this area. Ask for help. You don’t have to do this alone.

Reframe Failure as Feedback

The secret to dealing with incomplete goals is to reframe “failure” as “feedback”.

There are no failures. With the help of your coach, you can review without judgement and analyse where you have fallen short of your goals. This is where the real learning about yourself or your business takes place. The self-awareness that can be gained when you set a goal that you do not achieve is worth the price of admission.

But if falling short of a goal is a particularly negative experience for you, it can be difficult to see past the negativity and appreciate the real prize – which is the lessons to be learned from the experience. This is where a good coach can be an important part of helping you repair your bruised self-esteem and re-frame the experience of “failure” into a precious and vital opportunity to grow and improve.  With a coach, reviewing the reasons for incompletion tells us something about our true values, competing commitments, real priorities and gives us invaluable information about what really matters to us.

If  self-sabotage is the culprit behind a failed goal, therein is an opportunity to revise some of your “old tapes” or outdated assumptions and beliefs that are limiting the full expression of your capabilities and gifts. But rather than giving in to them, use your coach to explore them and to revise them into empowering beliefs.

Choosing and planning your goals is hard work. It takes time and commitment. The rewards, however, are great. By aligning your head with your heart you will set meaningful, attainable goals that will help you make progress toward what you truly value in your life. In the words of Earl Nightingale, the greater success lies not in the achievement of the goal itself, but rather…

“Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal”

 D Worrall (2010)

References:

Cairo, J. (1998). Motivation and Goals: How to Set and Achieve Goals and Inspire Others. Career Press.

Mollicone-Long, G. (2007) The Secret of Successful Failing, Pathfinders Publishing.

Proctor, B. (2007) The Goal Achiever. Life Success Publishing.

Tracy, B. (2003). Goals! How to Get Everything You Want —Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible. Berrett-Koehler.

Worrall, D. (2009) A Climate for Change, Life Success Publishing.

Further Resources:

For more on goal setting, values and SMART goals see A Climate for Change (2009), D Worrall at www.aclimateforchangebook.com

For further information on Executive Coaching and Business Consulting for Leaders of Change, contact Di at Worrall Assoc. on enquiry@humanresourceschange.com.au

 

Corporations spend billions every year on strategic planning. They align their business goals and operations with their mission and values – their core reasons for being in business. Corporations may complete this exercise in-house or engage the services of an external Consultant who has specialized skills in areas like values alignment, cultural and business analysis,  and strategic planning. .

Executives and Small Business Owners  also involve themselves in similar planning sessions with their executive coaches. They examine their strengths and weaknesses with their coach, they look at their career and personal goals, and make strategic decisions about where and how to spend their time and energy.

Some coaches straddle the field of “executive coaching” as well as “life” coaching.. Life coaches do the same thing with individuals. They explore and clarify with you your identity, your values, and your true purpose in life. How can you know what you need to do, where you need to spend your time and energy, if you don’t know what is most important to you? This is difficult and important work. And it is hard to do alone. Taking the time to make personal definitions for yourself will make the process of goal setting and staying on track much easier.

Regardless of whether your goals are to finish a university degree, get a better job, start a business, buy a home, or lose weight, the process is the same. The aspirational goals you set must be consistent with your c ore values and true identity if you want to sustain your motivation over time. 2.

Here are three essential elements you must consider before writing down your goals:

1.            Examine your identity: Quite simply, who are you? Self-awareness is the cornerstone to emotional intelligence and so important that this one feature will do more for your success in life than any other social competency. If you know yourself well, you can choose a path aligned with your strengths and weaknesses. You will not get distracted by people, places and things that are not congruent with your true self.

How do you improve your self-awareness? Through working with your coach, doing assessments, examining your attitude, your passions, your self-image, examining your assumptions and beliefs and being willing to ask for and receive feedback.

Avoid defining yourself in terms of external things (job titles, education, family roles, etc.) and look at your personal integrity, ethics, and things that are important to you.

There are  a range of behaviour styles, leadership, team, values, wealth creation and personality type assessments available through your coach. Gaining a deeper understanding of your own preferred, natural way of behaving and thinking can greatly improve your understanding of yourself. As a side benefit, it also improves your understanding of others different from yourself. Ask your coach about the assessment tools they offer.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to gain clarity about your identity:

• When thinking about myself, what am I most proud of?
• How would my friends describe me?
• How would my co-workers describe me?
• What does my family say about me?
• What are the three most important areas in my personal life?
• How have I changed over my adult years?
• What are my strengths?
• What do I avoid or dislike doing?

2.            Define your values: What are your most fundamental beliefs? Identify three important moral values that are important to you. The more clearly defined your values are, the more energy and focus you will have for your goals. Values provide the basic structure you need to build your personal life, your career, your business and any other aspect of your life.

Consider your attitude towards other people. Think about your current obligations to your community, family and friends. Reflect on the core beliefs you have that you would want to pass on to the younger generation. If you were to mentor someone, what values would you project as being most important in the world?

Here are two exercises to help define your values. Look over the following list of values and rank each from 1 to 10 (with 1 representing values most important to you).  Be sure to add any that are important to you but not on this list.

Values Identification Exercise 1.0

What are the five values you ranked the highest? Those five values should be receiving 80% of your time and energy. Write down your five most important values on a separate sheet of paper and post them somewhere you will see them every day. This will drive your actions and keep you focused on what is most important.

Values Identification Exercise 2.0

Your highest values are nearly always reflected in how you spend your time. The things highest on your list inspire you to action. The things lowest on your list are where you find yourself procrastinating. _2.

Answer the following questions. Then list your top 3 things in order of importance.

• How do you fill the space where you live?
• What do you spend your time doing?
• What do you spend your money on?
• What do you think about and talk about?
• Where are you the most disciplined? _3.

 The values you have identified are the foundation of your success. They help you prioritise the goals you set for yourself. Without values clearly defined and prioritised, it is difficult to prioritise goals. This makes it easier to make a choice when commitments compete for your attention.

3.      Establish your goals: Goal setting is not easy. It is hard work requiring time and thought. It means soul searching. Fear of failure – and fear of success – can stop people from setting clear goals and interferes with the process of actually putting them into writing.

If you have completed steps one and two – you have examined your identity and clarified your values  –  then you have already done the hard work. The goal setting should be a natural extension of your values.

For example, if you value good health, then your goals of eating well and exercising regularly follow naturally. Focus on only three goals at a time, in order to be focused. Break each goal down to two or three components, along with specific, measurable, realistic time-frames..

D Worrall  (2010)

References:

Covey, S (1989 ) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon & Shuster.

Worrall, D (2009) A Climate for Change, Life Success Publishing.

Demartini, J (2002) from Worrall D( 2009)  A Climate for Change, Life Success Publishing..

Resources

For more on goal setting, values and SMART goals see A Climate for Change (2009), D Worrall at www.aclimateforchangebook.com

For further information on Executive Coaching and Business Consulting for Leaders of Change, contact Di at Worrall Assoc. on enquiry@humanresourceschange.com.au

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How do you make New Year’s Resolutions and goals that last the distance?

The first and most important question to ask yourself is: Do you have clearly defined written goals? Or are they just in your head? Research shows that those people who actually sit down and write out their goals not only end up achieving them, but have higher incomes and ratings for overall success and life satisfaction.

According to Brian Tracy in his book Goals!, there is a study that reveals just how effective written goals can be. Here is what Tracy reports:

Mark McCormack, in his book What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School, tells of a Harvard study conducted between 1979 and 1989. In 1979, the graduates of the MBA program were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” It turned out that only 3 percent of the graduates had written goals and plans. Thirteen percent had goals, but not in writing. Fully 84 percent had no specific goals at all.

Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers interviewed the members of that same class again. They found that the 13 percent who had goals that were not in writing were earning twice as much as the 84 percent of students who had no goals at all. And most surprisingly, they found that the 3 percent of graduates who had clear, written goals when they left Harvard were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97 percent of graduates all together. The only difference between the groups was the clarity of the goals they had for themselves when they graduated.

Yes, you read that correctly. The 3 percent who had clear, written goals earned ten times as much as the 97 percent who didn’t have clear, written goals.

Brian Tracy, Mark McCormack, Zig Ziglar, Anthony Robbins, and many other motivational gurus have used various versions of this story. Almost all successful people have goals, and outstanding high achievers have clearly defined written goals. That said, how come so few people actually write out their goals?

Why Not Set Goals

There are four main reasons people don’t set clear goals and write them out. Many people say they can’t be bothered to take the time to sit and write them out, preferring to keep them in their heads. But no one is really that busy, as it only takes a few minutes. The real reasons are probably deeper, involving the fact that if they are kept in “the head,” it is easy to change, revise and ignore them. This avoids accountability issues and facing failure. Looking further into the psychological reasons, we find the following four factors:

1. First, most people don’t realize the importance of goals. If you grow up in a home where no one has goals or you socialise with a group where goals are neither discussed nor valued, you can very easily reach adulthood without knowing that your ability to set and achieve goals will have more of an effect on your life than any other skill. Look around you. How many of your friends or family members are clear and committed to their goals? Successful people are all committed to action plans. They set goals out in writing and follow them.
2. They don’t know how to set goals. Some people confuse goals with wishes and fantasies. They think in terms of “having a lot of money,” “getting a great job,” “having a nice family,” “getting fit,” without breaking these wishes down into their component parts and the action steps it would take. These aren’t goals but wishes and fantasies common to everyone. A goal is different. It is clear, specific and measurable. You know when you have achieved it or not.
3. They have a fear of failure. If goals aren’t written down, we can change them to match what is actually achieved without having to face any feelings of failure. Furthermore, many people make the mistake of setting goals that are easily attained in order to avoid failing. This is a form of unconscious self-sabotage. They end up going through life functioning at sub-optimal levels rather than at the level they are truly capable.
4. They have a fear of rejection. The fourth reason people don’t set clear, written goals, is that they fear they will be seen by others as ridiculous if they fail. They don’t want to face criticism be seen as not capable or worthy. This is one reason to keep goals confidential when you begin to start out with goal setting, other than sharing with your coach, mentor or a trusted peer.

3 Reasons Your Goals May not Work

Knowing the barriers to successful goal-setting, you are ready to learn how to set goals that will help you succeed and find the satisfaction you deserve. You may already have in mind three important goals for yourself that you’ve been wanting to achieve for a while. Go ahead and write them down now; save them for review later. Before you can set effective goals, however, you need to consider the three elements listed below:

There are four reasons why your goals may fail to inspire and motivate change_.

1. The goal isn’t aligned with your highest values— if the goal you set, is not aligned with your highest values, or is really something someone else thinks you should do, or, it may compete with other values you find more important.
2. Your goal isn’t specific—it’s too broad and overwhelming. While “getting fit” is admirable, it really isn’t a goal—rather the outcome of attaining the more specific goals of working out regularly, doing sports and eating less junk food.
3. Your goal isn’t supported—you don’t have a supportive environment to focus your intentions and reinforce your progress, like a coach or mentor to cheer you on in your little successes, or to help you come back after a setback.
4. Your goal is focused on what you don’t want— the subconscious is designed to do exactly as it is told, so a negative goal like “get out of debt” is more effectively replaced with a positive goal like” earn [specific $] by [specific date]. 

A Climate for Change (2009)  Di Worrall

Each of these elements must be carefully considered in creating goals that you can achieve. Once you have aligned your goals with your true identity, values and life purpose, you will find them easier to accomplish. The energy will flow, because the goals are an expression of your true self. Then, when you have written down your goals in a specific, clear, measurable way that is time-framed, the small steps along the way will become evident. This also keeps the energy flowing, and helps you to remain focused on the goal.

The best way to get support for your goals is from a coach. Friends and family members may be helpful, or not. A professionally trained coach is an expert at helping you to achieve what you want. He or she can also help you with the goal setting process to ensure that your goals are aligned with your values.

Di Worrall (2010)

Sources:

Cairo, J. (1998) Motivation and Goals: How to Set and Achieve Goals and Inspire Others. Career Press.

Tracy, B. (2003) Goals! How to Get Everything You Want —Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible. Berrett-Koehler.

Worrall, D (2009) A Climate for Change, Life Success Publishing.

Spend some time planning what you want 2010 to look like for you and your business with the help of an Executive Coach.   Book a Complimentary 30 minute Zero Cost “Jump Start 2010” Consultation now. 

Email enquiry@humanresourceschange.com.au or Tel 61 2 9599 6791

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So, why isn’t there enough time to juggle our work, home and health responsibilities? We have an enhanced quality of life, but we’re also adding to our stress levels by taking on more tasks than we have resources to handle.

 There’s a tremendous need for new methods, systems and, above all, habits to keep us on track.

Information Fatigue

You’ve probably already discovered that whichever system or calendar you’re using to track projects and priorities is important, but limited. As management guru Peter Drucker explains:

“In knowledge work…the task is not given; it has to be determined. ‘What are the expected results from this work?’…is the key question in making knowledge workers productive.”

We haven’t been taught to think deeply about our work before we undertake it. Thinking in a concentrated manner to define desired outcomes is something few people do. But outcome thinking is one of the most effective methods available for creating successful realities.

Brain Clutter

Many of us have experienced working in the “zone,” where creative processes flowed and we lost all sense of time. This happens when we use our right brain hemisphere. Right-brain thinking is essential for innovation. It functions like an artist, concerned only with the present moment.

In contrast, the left brain supplies logic and linear thinking; it’s concerned with time and numbers. It reminds us of tasks left undone, prior experiences we need to consider and future deadlines. It functions more like a banker.

Instead of allowing our minds to perform optimally, many of us fill our brains with daily life’s mundane details and rules. Worse, we spend endless hours repeating the tasks and projects we’re trying to juggle.

You need a functional system to hold these details until the appropriate time, when you can systematically tick off as many tasks as possible to clear your mind again. Writing things down on a to-do list is a good first step, but it’s not enough.

What’s Wrong With To-Do Lists?

As we struggle to multitask, we find there are too any things that are out of alignment with our current sense of reality. To cope, we put them on “the list,” which can grow to gargantuan proportions. Often, this list is nothing more than names of pressing projects written on numerous pieces of papers, often kept in several discrete places.

Here’s what’s missing from our lists:

• A clearly identified intended outcome
• A specific next-action step to be taken
• Reminders of outcomes and action steps in a reliable system

Some people keep multiple to-do lists of undone tasks. There are notes in their Day-Timers, computer calendars, PDAs, iPhones and all of the other common organising tools to which we cling. When we write something down and place it on a list, we assume we have a surefire way to remember it.

The Myth of Multitasking

Leading internet marketer, Alex Mandossian is all too familiar with the myth of multitasking in his complex industry. In his April 2009 blog post Why Multitasking Destroys Your Productivity, he observes that many people pride themselves of how they can manage the volume of their “to do” lists via “multitasking”. However, what they fail to realise is how much multitasking is actually eroding their productivity and undermining their results.

Wikipedia defines “human multitasking… (as) the performance by an individual of  “appearing” to handle more than one task at the same time”.  In this definition, the word “appearance” suggests that multitasking gives an illusion of producing tasks simultaneously. Author of The Myth of MultitaskingDave Crenshaw argues that multi-tasking is not so much about performing multiple activities simultaneously; but rather that we are switching between those tasks. It is that switching activity that reduces efficiency and effectiveness and increases the prevalence of errors, because mental focus is constantly interrupted.

Multi-tasking is a mis-guided habit pattern many of us have grown used to:

• Reading the paper while listening to the news
• Having a conversation while watching TV
• Checking voice mail, blackberries while speaking to someone
• Speaking on the telephone while drafting emails
• And a more controversial one: Driving while talking on a mobile phone!!

There is an alternative – Stacking.

Stacking is a like multi-tasking, except that only one of the “multiple activities” demands mental effort. Stacking does boost productivity and efficiency. For example:

• Reading while having a cup of coffee
• Exercising while listening to music
• Eating a meal while watching TV

Stacking boosts productivity; Multi-tasking doesn’t.

Open Loops

But the challenge of achieving productivity is more complex than the decision to stack or not to stack the items  on our multiple “to do”  lists. The left brain keeps its own list and tends to be untrusting. It will continually issue reminders and incessantly interrupt your most creative moments. In response, you will write down the task yet again, blocking your mind from thinking clearly.

All of the tasks for which you haven’t formulated desired outcomes and decisions remain active in what scientists call “open loops.” They will haunt you, sapping your energy and creative powers.

Manage the Mind to Manage Action

The answer lies in managing your actions: what you do with your time, your information, and your mind, body and focus. You must decide how to allocate your limited resources.

Most people haven’t adequately determined next actions in their commitments and projects. They leave key steps undecided and vague, or they try to tackle productivity from the top down:

1. Uncover personal and corporate missions.
2. Define critical objectives.
3. Focus on implementation details.

But productivity expert David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, believes otherwise:

“…The trouble is that most people are so embroiled in commitments on a day-to-day level that their ability to focus successfully on the larger horizon is seriously impaired. Consequently, a bottom-up approach is usually more effective.”

Start with the most mundane activities and commitments. Catch up by taking control of your in-basket and your mind—right now. You will unleash creative, buoyant energy that supports your attempt to reach new heights.

You will experience an immediate sense of freedom, release and inspiration. These rewards come naturally to those who roll up their sleeves, dig in and take care of the little things.

Basic Requirements for Managing Commitments

Here are some basic activities and behaviors you can implement to free up your mind and be more productive:

1. Empty your mind. Anything you consider unfinished must be captured in a trusted external system. This “collection bucket” must be reliable, and you must return to it regularly to sort through it.
2. Clarify exactly what your commitment entails, its desired outcome and what you have to do to make progress toward fulfilling it.
3. Once you’ve pinpointed all of the next-action steps you need to take, keep reminders of them organised in a system you can review regularly.

Employing next-action decision-making results in clarity, productivity, accountability and empowerment. When you hold yourself to the discipline of identifying the real results you want, you will obtain them.

Things that have your attention need your intention. Here are some questions to regularly ask as you go over your list:

• What does this mean to me?
• Why is it here?
• What do I want to be true about this?
• What’s the successful outcome?
• How do I make this happen?
• Which resources must I allocate to make it happen?
• What’s the next action?

When your newly adopted behaviors help you organise everything that comes your way, a deep alignment will occur. Wondrous things will emerge. You will become highly productive, achieving your desired outcomes with minimal stress and maximum results.

Di Worrall

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Now that I have ventured into the world of publishing, I frequently have the opportunity to get an advanced look at new information products.

From time to time, new titles grab my attention, like this one I’d like to share with you.

Best selling author and success coach Peggy McColl has a refreshing new take on attracting success and abundance into your life.

Don’t work any harder.

…Chill out and relax.

Peg says most people who struggle with Law of Attraction are simply too uptight about making more money, enjoying better health, finding that ‘one-and-only’ true love …

And this ‘up-tightness’ actually creates a wall of negative energy between you and the Universe, effectively cutting off your lines of communication.

Her advice to turn things around, and begin manifesting all the amazing things you’d REALLY like to see in your life:

CHILL OUT!

Of course, she knows that’s one of those classic ‘easier-said-than-done’ bits of advice for most people. And that’s precisely why Peggy created her “Relax Your Way Wealth” audio program.

It’s simple to use … priced VERY attractively (in fact you can use the link below to snap it up right now at almost HALF-OFF) … and it is GUARANTEED to work for you!

Relax Your Way to Wealth

I must warn you though …

This special pricing is a limited-time introductory offer … because although the technique is proven-effective (Peggy’s used it for a long, L-O-N-G time herself!) this audio program is brand new.

So I wouldn’t expect this deal to last long.

And I won’t try to explain in a brief email what she does a much better job of on her website … so please, if you are even the least bit serious about your dreams and goals, then check out Peggy’s site using the link below:

Relax Your Way to Wealth

(If that link doesn’t work for you, just copy-and-paste it into your browser.)

P.S. Aside from Peggy’s generous introductory pricing, she also offers a 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee (request a refund and still KEEP the entire program)

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