How To Do Exactly What You Said you’d do

How To Do Exactly What You Said you’d do and more importantly when you said you would do it!

Peoples expectations is a funny one, it is often that people expect you to NOT do what you said you would do and then they enjoy the strange raking over of your lack of outcome and your lack of achievement. There is something very satisfying about the shock to your external world of doing what you said you would do … the look on their faces! Doing what you said you would do consistently will build your belief in yourself and your self confidence

Achieving success outcomes, in other words “doing what you said you would do” can easily be broken down into three steps. These are three things that you can do to “plan your work and work your plan” towards that end:

1/Make it specific and measurable. When you have had a business activity that requires a result or for that matter before going into any meeting or business building activity, you should define the goal you want to achieve. What will you get from this meeting and what will the person or group you are meeting get from it? Make sure you commit to something that is clear and concise. Rather than say “lets see where we end up after our discussion” go NO!! Better to say “the purpose of our meeting is to formulate the steps to progress our business relationship further” 

2/Assign a deadline to it that is memorable. Goals without deadlines are just dreams and a TO DO list without expiry dates is just another piece of paper cluttering up your desk. At the end of your meetings, you should commit to deadlines and commit them to your diary. “We will meet again to follow up on our action plans on” and set a date and at that date “we will produce steps a, b and c” If you have to contact this person again by telephone, set a time for the call and ring it at that time, 

3) Write it down in a place where you always see it. Whether it be on your computer screen, your laptop, your tablet or your notebook, even the back of an envelope, you must keep this note in front of you at all times. A notebook works for most people and it is simple to keep referring to it. Maybe you want to set up a dedicated notebook or journal to keep the daily activity of to do’s going. No matter where the commitment or to-do item began, it always finishes there in notes in front of you.

There have never been at any time more ways to distract yourself or lose track of where and how you ended up being over committed, both personally and professionally. Create the framework in which you can see all that you have ahead of you and you know exactly what completing each tasks looks like, you will find yourself getting  more done than everyone else, you will also earn the reputation of being someone that can consistently be relied on.

How do they get so much done!

Do you often wonder how some people get so much done, achieve their goals and have a wonderful personal life! While others still seem to pitch and roll from crisis to crisis like a ship with no power in a heavy sea.

Do you find yourself with overwhelming Procrastination? Do you sometimes get through the end of the day and think to yourself what on earth have I done today; in fact you may think that you could write the book on procrastination. Those that live in overwhelm and desperation are usually master procrastinators and procrastination is one of the most common barriers to success. The good news is that you can beat it and it starts with some very simple processes; let me give you a start that you can use today. And by the way, you are not alone and I would love to have your feed back a little later. I find myself having to regroup and re focus regularly. I believe where you work from and how you are set up to carry out your tasks is one of the starting points to eliminate procrastination.

Just now take a look at your desk, take a look around at your working space ….. I’m guessing that there may be some chaos! So let me suggest to you that you think about getting FAT! No I don’t mean lounge around all day, eat crisps, watch TV and get fat … I mean adopt this simple and effective plan File - Action - Trash

On your desk, in your briefcase, resting on a table in your office, in your car, in your pockets are all the “stuff” hat arrives in our loves on a daily basis. Let’s deal now with some of it and if we can lets start the principles to deal with all of it.

 Simply set up three boxes NOW! Mark one File, mark one Action and mark the other Trash. You will have realised by now that this is not difficult stuff! Now start to attack all the piles of paper that you have and with a cold ruthlessness go through it and action as laid out.

As you go through this massive and long accumulated pile you will find all the things to File, it doesn’t need to be on your desk as a constant reminder that you paid that bill six months ago, or that insurance was renewed last Christmas or that the credit card statement – which is on Direct Debit anyway is due …. You don’t need to be looking at this every day! This is the box you will File

From the emerging but by now shrinking pile of chaos you will find the; Crikey! I must deal with that now material. And there will be at this stage quite a lot; after all you are a recovering procrastinator. All of this must go into the Action box and I suggest that action is taken immediately. These will be a variety of things, the bill that is due to be paid today, a dentist appointment lurking in the chaos, put the appointment in your diary now and then dispatch the paper to Trash … do you begin to get it?

You are going to find things that you all never need. How many sales circulars are in there, offers for this and that, sign here and get another free calculator, is this materiel really moving you to your goal NO! It’s pulling you to someone else’s goal. This is all the things that go in Trash and there will be lots. What a feeling of clean you will get as you box the trash then shred it and then throw it away …. It’s Trash.

This system has worked for me over many years, simple and effective. If you find these tips and strategies useful and it’s helped you toady, I would love to hear how and to get some feed back in comments below.

Irish Stew For Supper!!

Some years ago I was told an interesting story and it went something like this: 

On a sunny afternoon in suburbia Sam looks over his neighbour’s fence and says: “Hi Neighbour! Can I borrow you lawn mower please? Mine has broken down.” He knew that his neighbour had just cut his grass and he knew the machine was in fine working order and not being used and he also got on quite well with his neighbour, they had been neighbours for a long time. The neighbour looked and said “No!” Now Sam was quite taken aback by this response as he had borrowed things in the past without problem. Sam asked his neighbour why? The neighbour responded by saying the reason that Sam couldn't borrow the mower was that his wife was making an Irish stew for supper! Now Sam was again flabbergasted at this reply and asked what on Earth his wife making an Irish Stew had to do with him being able to borrow the mower of not. His neighbour replied “Hey! If you need an excuse any excuse will do.” 

Now the moral of this short and quite amusing story is that really all that is stopping you from moving forward with your grand design on life today is an Irish stew! And your Irish stew is your excuse for not doing what you set out to do. What stopped you today? Will it stop you tomorrow? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Excuses are substitutions.

There are times when excuses override success. So many times an excuse will substitute a reason for achieving a goal, a goal for today and a goal for life, the “oh well I tried”-syndrome. It has to be a goal to make 100% use of your goal achieving mechanisms rather than 100% of your excuse achieving mechanisms.

To silence the negative talk is where it starts, close out the negative speak in your head. As a little experiment: Just go on and do it now for a moment! 

These are where excuses manifest themselves in your negative speak in your head.

Go now and read something positive. No, not a newspaper but something fulfilling, something positive, something up lifting. Not a readier – you ought to be! – In which case listen to some music to lift you to drive you. And then return to your goal list, you have just changed your state now change your future.

By doing this you are starting the process of taking control, taking what is rightfully yours.

Turn off the distractions

What a great thing this amazing world of the Internet! Where there is an abundance of "whys" and of course an abundance of "why not's"! In line with our quest to banish excuses, achieve your goals for the day, the week the month and your life …. 

The lesson for today is; when your doing it just do it … turn off the distractions, turn on the attractions … I'll get deeper on this tomorrow.