The Accountability Minute:Business Acceleration|Productivity

Today we are talking about Tip #7 to help you boost your self-confidence, which is to be assertive rather than aggressive.   Being assertive is saying, “This is what I would like to have,” rather than, “This is what I want and I want it right now.” Self-confident people are considerate of other’s feelings and work to not to trample on toes. You can be professionally assertive, so everyone is clear...

Today we are talking about Tip #6 to help you boost your self-confidence, which is to learn from mistakes.   Accept that everyone makes mistakes. Learn from your mistakes, so that they don’t re-occur and don’t allow mistakes to override your life. Turn your mistakes into lessons where you learn to make adjustments to increase your success.   Tune in tomorrow for Tip #7 to help you boost your self-...

Today we are talking about Tip #5 to help you boost your self-confidence, which is to abandon ‘shoulds, musts, and ought tos’.   Allowing yourself to be dominated by “shoulds, musts, and ought tos” is setting yourself up for failure. Be more flexible in your approach and state what you WANT to achieve, not what you SHOULD achieve.  Just because you should do something doesn’t mean you will ever do...

Today we are talking about Tip #4 to help you boost your self-confidence, which is positive self-talk.   Become your own best friend. Don’t allow the voice in your head to berate or belittle you. Convert your thoughts into positive, constructive, and kind words of wisdom and understanding. You can choose to tune out that negative self-talk and just listen to the positive and empowering self-talk....

Today we are talking about Tip #3 to help you boost your self-confidence, which is to maintain balance.   People who are self-confident are balanced in their approach to their life and their business. How self-confident are you in each of these 2 areas?  What has to happen for you to increase your self-confidence in one or both of these areas? What impact would it have if you increased your self-c...

Today we are talking about Tip #2 to help you boost your self-confidence, which is to accept responsibility.   Self-confident people accept responsibility for their lives and actions, and don’t make excuses because excuses are a waste of time. Allowing yourself to constantly play the “victim” is self-defeating and limiting. Take control of your successes and failures. Learn from the failures and t...

Today we are talking about Tip #1 to help you boost your self-confidence, which is to Take Control .   Take control of your life rather than letting it control you. Self-confident people call the shots in their own lives and don’t allow minor set-backs to fill them with doubt. You want to be the leader and not the follower or people will take their business to someone who is confident in their abi...

We are not born with the self-confidence gene. It is a character trait we develop as we grow and mature.   Our level of self-confidence is related to our level of self-esteem. It is the difference between whether we soar like eagles or huddle like turkeys.   A healthy dose of self-confidence increases your opportunities for success, improves your relationships on a business level as well as a pers...

Rowena McEvoy, Fitness Educator (I believe from Australia) has a great quote. She says, “Discipline is doing what you know you should do at the time you should do it, even if you don’t feel like it.”     If you want something badly enough you will do whatever it takes to achieve it. (Notice, I didn’t say willing to do whatever it takes – I said will do whatever it takes.  Just because someone says...

One of the best lessons I know of to help you reduce low pay off activities and leave time for the High Payoff Activities (HPAs) is the four D formula for assessing the things in your life. You have too many activities to do and not enough time, so how do you decide. Consider ever action item in your life and apply the 4 D formula.   Drop . Does this activity really need to be done at all? The bes...

Do you have things you have in your head that keep you up at night?  When you take them out of your head and put them on your master task list and in your calendar, you can sleep better every night.     You will be more in control and you will feel a sense of relief. Don’t believe me, try this for yourself and you will be like the many people I coach who have that sigh of relief when they get all...

Applying the 4 D Formula for helping you focus on your high payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your goals is very important to your success. Just as a quick reminder, the 4 Ds are: Drop, Delegate, Delay, and Do.    Believe it or not, the ‘stuff’ in your head IS distracting you! Do you have things continually going on in your head of all you have to do tod...

Today we are talking about Tip #5 of the 5 tips to help you explore your life purpose, which is to Take Note of What Comes Easily.   When exploring your life purpose, pay special attention to the skills that come easily to you. Whether it’s calculating numbers, counseling a troubled soul, or mending a broken bone - those gifts are special clues to your life purpose.   The kicker here is that what...

Today we are talking about Tip #4 to help you explore your life purpose, which is to Observe Your Challenges.   Life is filled with many challenges, but each of us has a unique set of challenges which are often tied to our life purpose. Going back through your life, identify three challenges that seem to recur in your life. Perhaps you don’t face them any longer because you finally discovered the...

Today we are talking about Tip #3 to help you explore your life purpose, which is Prophesying a Legend.   At the end of your life, if you could leave a legend - a contribution to the human race - what would it be? In this exercise, imagine what you would like people to say about you, say in a eulogy? What would be the biggest gift you could pass on? What do you want to leave this world? Your respo...

Today we are talking about Tip #2 to help you explore your life purpose, which is to Play the What-If Game.   The “What-if” Game is where you ask a series of questions starting with “What if?”  What-if I didn’t have to work - how would I choose to spend my time? What-if I could make money any way I wanted - what would that look like? What-if I didn’t have to ________________ - what would I want to...

Today we are talking about Tip #1 to help you explore your life purpose, which is to think about What Fuels You?   What in your life gives you energy? Most of us know what it feels like to be drained (by personal dramas, professional conflicts, too many obligations, financial stress, etc.), but do you know what fuels you? Perhaps you already know, you just don’t have time for it. Pay attention to...

I’m all for fueling your passions, but I’m also a firm believer in smart and strategic business decisions. My advice is to take this process slowly. If you love what you do, find a way to work your life purpose into your career or business. If you don’t love what you do, then explore other avenues that support a solid business foundation and purpose.   Over the next 5 days we will discuss 5 tips t...

If you’ve ever wondered if there was more to life than what you’re currently experiencing, I think you’ll find the next 6 days of The Accountability Minute helpful. First, let’s clarify that identifying your life purpose isn’t the end all - you still have to find a way to integrate it into a life, that for most of us, has been built on necessity or security. Yes, we all have bills to pay; but sell...

I can’t stress enough the importance of time blocking your calendar and then honoring your calendar…. In other words, do what your calendar says to do – assuming you have the “right” high payoff activities on it.  You will find yourself more in control of your life and you will be even more time efficient.  You becoming very effective at time management will have a positive impact on your life – p...

Today we are talking about tip #5 of the 5 tips to help you be even more productive, which is to Interview, Interview, Interview!   Hiring competent employees and/or virtual help that you can rely upon to delegate tasks to is going to be critical to your success as your business continues to grow. You can’t be very productive if you don’t have good enough people to take mundane tasks off of your h...

Today we are talking about tip #4 to help you be even more productive, which is to Avoid Multitasking.   This might sound like an odd way to increase productivity, but it is actually pretty accurate. In most cases, multitasking just distracts you from doing your very best on one particular task at a time. Therefore, you can actually expect to get more done if you forgo multitasking and simply focu...

Today we are talking about tip #3 to help you be even more productive, which is to Skip Some Meetings.   As Mark Cuban has said, there are SO many ways to interact with people nowadays… is there REALLY a point to scheduling long and involved meetings?  Now, on the other hand, scheduling short meetings with a specific agenda of what you want to cover is actually very time efficient. This way you ca...

Today we are talking about tip #2 to help you be even more productive, which is to Plan When You Will Make Your High Payoff Phone Calls.   Making phone calls can eat up time, especially if you start dialing and leaving messages. Besides, you never know what might come up on short notice that could interrupt you. If you are trying to get two things done, plus being available to subordinates, PLUS t...

Today we are talking about tip #1 to help you be even more productive, which is to Keep Your Work Area Free of Clutter.   Believe it or not, clutter can definitely kill your workday. Having needless piles of paperwork or supplies covering your workspace will not only be problematic as you try to get things accomplished, but it can also psychologically cause your brain to wane in the productivity d...