Up Market |
- My New Year’s Resolution: Do Less
- Why Goals Will Only Get You Part Way There — and How to Bridge the Gap
- The Efficiency in Being Inefficient
- Taking the Time to Teach
| My New Year’s Resolution: Do Less Posted: 17 Jan 2012 08:30 AM PST For my entire adult life, this is how I have started my work week:
And I end most weeks feeling dissatisfied with what I’ve accomplished. When my schedule is jam-packed with more stuff than I can do, I end up doing the stuff that is familiar and skip the stuff that is scary and hard. So stuff like: “do laundry” and “write blog post" gets done. Stuff like “reach out to [new contact]” doesn’t. And it's the hard scary things that are usually the most important to-do’s. It’s almost like having an over-packed schedule is a devious form of procrastination. This year, I really want to establish habits that enable me to focus on important tasks. And declutter my schedule by removing the less important tasks. So here are my resolutions for 2012:
So in the end I will end up doing less stuff, but it will be the important stuff. After all, if I can’t do it all, I should focus on doing what’s most important. Photo Credit: Rob Warde  |
| Why Goals Will Only Get You Part Way There — and How to Bridge the Gap Posted: 17 Jan 2012 04:30 AM PST Each year, as December gives way to January, we instinctively feel the opportunity and invitation to begin anew. One year is over and another has begun, bringing with it the sweetness of infinite possibility. One way of giving form to these possibilities is to create New Year's Resolutions. While it is traditional to make these resolutions at the beginning of the year, the truth is that we can start anytime, anywhere. It all begins with a desire — sometimes an aspiration to reach higher by beginning something new, and other times a determination to go to the next level of effectiveness with things we’re already doing. To create powerful resolutions that are aligned with our highest good, we need to find a way to pull ourselves out of the daily grind and into a space that is big enough for our hearts and minds to roam freely. It requires that we carve out time to be alone for awhile, so that we can reacquaint ourselves with what's most important in our lives and tune into what is beckoning to be discovered or unearthed. In these moments, we can reflect, inquire, and dream. And we can reconnect with the inner wisdom we all possess that provides the guidance we need to transform vision into reality. I've always found that for some reason, being in an airplane allows me to find clarity. As the ground gets further and further away, the little things that consumed my attention before I left seem to get smaller and smaller just like the cars and buildings that slowly disappear out of view. And then I am flying. Suddenly I feel as though it is easier to see a bigger picture. Things fall into place in my mind and I feel energized and optimistic. I have discovered that climbing mountains and retreating into nature can have a similar effect. With intention and conscious effort, I believe we can create this experience anywhere, anytime. The key is to allow our minds to rise above the clamor we are usually surrounded by so that we can get a broader view of our lives and from that perspective see things we may have previously missed. And this is exactly what we need to do before we can rise above anything else. Albert Einstein said we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking with which they were created. When we allow ourselves to get this higher perspective, we can go beyond looking at things to examine the very lens through which we are looking — and make any necessary adjustments. Our mindsets are like giant projectors. What we see and do in our lives is based on the movies we are playing and the roles in those movies that we have cast ourselves in. You can’t expect to be the hero in your adventure if the movie in your mind is a horror flick or tear jerker that has you playing the victim. So when we set goals, it is not enough to commit ourselves to acting in new ways. We must also think in new ways. The other day I heard someone refer to New Year's resolutions as the opportunity to resolve — or re-solve anything that is holding us back. And this is exactly what we must do. It comes down to whatever we identify most with. If you want to use your time more effectively but you identify with the experience of running late and feeling anxious as you rush from one thing to another, it is only a matter of time before your actions will mirror your mindset. Despite your time management system, you will likely continue to over-commit yourself, try to squeeze too many things in, or make more efficient things that really shouldn’t be done at all. However, if you begin to experience what it would feel like to think from the mindset of someone who always seems to get the most important things done and have ample time to enjoy life and everything in it, you will make different decisions, know intuitively what you must let go of and come up with actions and habits that support your new way of thinking. And you are far more likely to have lasting success. Upon reflection, I realized that I long for more simplicity and peace in my life, as well as the ability to boldly tackle new endeavors without making them into huge feats that leave me exhausted and overwhelmed. I have noticed that I have a tendency to complicate and resist some of the things that I know are good for me, but that I am scared of for one reason or another. In the past I’ve allowed my fear to make things much harder than they need to be — probably so that I can rationalize my resistance to them. It will not be enough for me to set a goal to simplify more, complicate less, and take bolder action. I need to change my mindset from someone who is overwhelmed and overly cautious and fearful about big, bold endeavors to someone who has clear resolve, determination and a lightness that allows me to take myself and everything I do less seriously. The other day a handyman came over to fix a dozen or so things that I have been procrastinating for months. Every time I looked at that list, I felt weighed down. I never intended to actually fix them all myself, but for whatever reason even thinking about it felt heavy (similar to how some of my major projects have felt.) As I watched this man spring into action, easily taking care of one thing after another in a matter of minutes and cheerfully coming back to the list to see what was next, I realized that he has the mindset that I need. What would it be like to see from that perspective? What would it feel like to power through important projects and new endeavors with such lightness? That is what I need to get my head around and into in order for my new behavior to take root. As we go about our resolutions and goals, we would do well to ask ourselves what achieving those things would give us. How will they make us feel? When we can create the feeling of having achieved them, we begin to embody the mindset we need to project the movie we really want to see. It is important to word goals in the present tense, because these goals are really not so much about what we want to create in the future as what we want to embody and take pleasure in now. The results have a way of catching up to us. When we can already enjoy the feeling of having what we seek and see through the eyes of someone who has already arrived, we can go about achieving our goals with much more lightness, ease and joy. And from that place, we can inspire others to do the same. "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. ~ Marcel Proust Photo Credit: kevindean  |
| The Efficiency in Being Inefficient Posted: 16 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST As salespeople try to become more efficient during economic upturns — i.e. handle more sales using more efficient means — buyers do something similar, but in the opposite direction, during economic downturns. They become efficient at being inefficient. At first this may seem a play on words or it makes no sense, however I'll assure that not only is it true, but it can be a powerful way companies, families, or just about anyone can use when they don't want to commit to purchase, invest, change, etc. A great example of this was identified in a recent corporate earnings release from Oracle®. As I was listening to a financial network give highlights on the report I heard what deemed as a throwaway line for most. But to my ears it wasn't. One of the reasons they asserted for sales being pushed back into latter quarters was (I'm paraphrasing) "Companies have added more management layers to the decision-making process hence increasing the time in the purchasing approval process." That line is very telling if you're truly listening. The way most salespeople react to this type of information will also distinguish the average from the superstars. In today's economic climate many salespeople will end up spinning their wheels more than ever because buyers have greased the tracks. What buyers of every stripe will do when implementing this technique is to give salespeople just enough hope that what is actually a no sale can possibly turn into a sale once the right person approves the purchase order, or the budget gets allocated, or their boss signs off, and on, and on. This also allows the possible buyer to keep all their options open while continually dragging along the resources of the salesperson’s time in endless negotiations with other levels of management. Deals that were assumed to be agreed upon suddenly find themselves undercut by some competitor while they were waiting for the approval that was "promised" to be any time now. The only efficient way of dealing with it is to get back to the fundamentals so many forget or disregard. Is the person you are in front of the one who can authorize the sale or write the check if an agreement is made today. Anyone that can not perform that task is a gate-keeper not a true buyer. The time you'll spend spinning your wheels in front of gate-keepers is time lost not searching out a true economic buyer. You must qualify, qualify, qualify. Only when you are in front of the person responsible for cutting the check or giving the final approval should you be giving your real sales pitch for them to buy. All other talking should be directed at getting you there. If you can't get in front of the real buyer, then stop wasting your breath, time, or resources and move onto looking for another prospect because one thing is for sure. An efficient sales process is only valid once the check has been cashed and cleared the bank. As of this writing "Sounds good, I'll get purchasing to take a look at it." or " Send me a proposal so I can show it to my boss." or "I'm waiting to hear what they think." is not accepted anywhere as legal tender. © 2012 Mark St.Cyr, All Rights Reserved Photo Credit: dannyman  |
| Posted: 16 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST
Smoking a pack a day for twenty years is a great way to be sure you’ll die early. Far more likely, in fact, than getting hit by a car. And yet it’s so easy to talk to our kids about cars… Delivering out of the box remarkability day after day counts for far more than one hit or one misstep. When we teach people about our story or our industry or about making connections, the teaching lasts. Teaching people not only impacts the market, it changes the world. Teaching about connection and community and science, a little bit at a time, can heal our world in the long run. It doesn’t happen as fast as we might like, but it works. Emergencies fade, and in the long run our teaching lasts. The challenge is in responding with education, not reacting with anger. Photo Credit: World Bank Photo Collection  |
What we do in the long run, over time, drip by drip, affects the market so much more than an angry reaction or urgent event.| You are subscribed to email updates from Upmarket To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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