Are you burning out, do you have friends or family burning out, or do you fear burn out happening? Better question to start is probably, what are the symptoms?
Fatigue, withdrawal, depression, loss of appetite, missing deadlines, tension headaches, suddenly a normal workload feels heavy and yes escapist behaviors like drinking, drugs, smoking and overeating. If you have any of these, or know anyone that does, odds are you've failed to take care of yourself. So what can you do, or a better question why are you burning out? People who burnout haven't made it a priority to take care of themselves and they haven't found a passion to live. First, get some exercise, any exercise. You'll build energy, and energetic people are forward moving and don't burnout. You'll also build endorphins and they make you happy. Happy don't burnout. Next, drink lots of water. Drink half your body weight in ounces per day. Keep fueling your system with water and clean it out and the toxins. You'll also increase your energy level, and you guessed it - energetic people don't experience burnout. Stop taking yourself too seriously, and de-clutter your mind and space around you. Give yourself a spring-cleaning of sorts. Get around and hang out with anyone you feel has achieved a success you desire. They'll immediately make you feel better and cause you to raise your standards. Read a book and learn something new. When you learn, you grow, when you grow, it fills you up inside. The last item thing I'd recommend is find out what you're passionate about and start doing things related to that passion and incorporate them into your everyday professional life. Burnout is a symptom of a life without drive and a life without energy and health. Take responsibility. Find your passion, live your passion, and start treating your body as a temple. Burnout will disappear immediately.
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Roger Banister was the first person in human history to break the 4 minute mile. When they asked him how he did it, the answer surprised many. To this day it still surprises many.
He said that they key wasn't in all the training, nutrition and practice. While all of those are important, the biggest single factor was that he saw himself breaking the barrier over-and-over again in his mind. He visualized his success so often and frequently, that it already felt like he accomplished this feet. All the nutrition, training, and practice were not possible without the vision. He said he learned he couldn't create anything in reality until he first created it in his mind. So this begs the question, what are you creating in your mind? Most people are so focused on the demands of the moment, they never create a vision for what's truly possible. Once you do so though, that's when a whole world of possibilities opens for you. When I first heard this story of, Roger Banister, it resonated deep inside me. The most successful people I knew of all preached having a vision, but this story locked it down. I applied visualization to my goals and the results have been beyond what I thought were my wildest dreams. When you feel it deep in your core, your heart, mind and soul, anything is possible. Visualization is one of the 5 largest keys to all of my success. I challenge you to step up and start visualizing. The life of your dreams is within your reach if you first create the reality in your mind. Only then will you know what steps to take. How are you prioritizing your life, or are you letting someone else prioritize it for you?
Let's assume, for arguments sake, that you know exactly what you want out of your life for your health, finances, professional success, relationships, etc. How are you prioritizing the activities and projects? Most people don't prioritize effectively, or at all, and ultimately wind up working someone else's priorities. Yes you may work for someone other than yourself, but you can't let them control your ultimate destiny. How, what and when you spend your time on says everything about where you are going in life. There are many "prioritization methods" out there, and they all work if you use them. By far the simplest and easiest to implement is, the Pareto Principle, a.k.a., the 80/20 rule. This rule states that you will receive 80% of your success from 20% of your efforts. So you must focus your attention on the highest value items that give you the biggest return on your time, financial and effort investment. For example, if you have a project that has a 100 tasks required to achieve an outcome; odds are you really only need to focus on the roughly 20 items that give you the biggest return on your effort investment and you'll achieve your outcome without doing the remaining tasks. Those 20 items are worth more than all the rest combined, so put your focus and effort there. Usually, though, the highest value priorities tend to require the most effort and you end up procrastinating them because of the pain associated with taking action. To break free of this procrastination, success expert, Brian Tracy, says to "Eat Your Frog" first thing in the morning. If you eat your frog, your highest value priority, first thing in the morning, the rest of your day will be easy because you will have achieved your desired outcome. So get your priorities accomplished early, get your results early and then the balance of your days will fly by. One of the greatest keys to your success, is investing your time on the highest value priorities. So what and how are you prioritizing your life? Use the Pareto Principle to your advantage and then Eat Your Frog first thing in the morning. How you network and the strategies you use are incredibly important, but frankly, they have zero value unless you're networking in the right places. So for now, forget how. More importantly, "where" are you networking?
Are you making connections and building relationships in all the usual places that have netted modest results? Or, are you raising your standards of who you're willing to connect with and who you're not willing to settle for? Here's what I mean. I recently conducted a training at a very high-end hotel and conference center. This particular, and well-known hotel attracts high-profile celebrities and captains-of-industry. Without dropping names, I met 3 A-list movies stars filming a movie, and arguably the greatest men's tennis player of all time in the course of 2 hours. I didn't just see them, but rather had quality conversations with them. It was normal for them at a hotel such as this one. I'm not writing this to impress, but rather to impress upon you that while this was exciting for me, I also made connections and had meaningful conversations with a number of other high caliber professionals. These connections were far more important than any celebrity meetings, because they add value to my life and I certainly will add value to theirs and their businesses. These types of connections would not be possible at a traditional networking event as most know them. These new connections have already led to business discussions and new friendships. These people play life and business at a higher level and in higher places. So I put myself in proximity. What can you learn from this? The bottom line lesson is if you want more from your networking efforts than raise your standards of where you network. You can have all the best networking how-to's, but if you're not doing them in the absolute best locations, then they are worthless. So, where are you networking? One of the most frequently asked questions I'm asked is, "how do I get buy-in and motivate others to make a decision?"
The answer is more simple than you think, and part of the challenge is in the way the question is being asked. The question presuposes that you have to do the work, when in reality all the motivating factors and forces come from the other person or persons. What motivates me is not what motivates you and not what motivates your neighbor. Moitvation is something deep and personal and unique to each of us. Motivation, the real motivation, is the "why". So how do you get at the real "why's"? You must get to know who you're working with on a personal level. Who they are, what their interests and hobbies are, and activities the engage in outside of work will all have common elements. If you look deep you can easily find the common thread. Once you have that thread, their "why", then you have all the ammunition you need. Take their motivating force, their "why", and show them how they can get more of it and accomplish it by moving forward with your outcome. Once you associate their "why" to your outcome, the deal is done. When they see accomplishing their "why's" as a part of the deal, then there is no selling, there is no convincing, and buy-in becomes natural. The stock market is up, the economy is down, government temporary jobs are up and private sector jobs are down. All indications are we are headed toward another market dip as the economy still hasn't recovered from the last dip.
You have to ask yourself, is your business contracting with the economy or expanding regardless of the economy? In other words, are you making your own way or are you making excuses because the media, your customers and clients, and your colleagues are telling you how bad it is? It's simply too easy to cave into the negativity, because everyone around you is moaning how bad it is and how there's no jobs available. Well I'm here to call BS on those of you selling this garbage story. Everywhere I go, and in every industry I see people and businesses crushing it everyday and laughing at the rest of everyone who's complaining and whining. You see, they know a dirty little secret, and it really is as simple as this little secret. I see all the bad just like everyone else, and I also interact and see those making a difference and winning huge while everyone else is moaning. Wanna' know the secret? Here it is, stop complaining and blaming everyone else and the economy for your problems and start accepting 1000% responsibility for everything in your life. You're in control. Own what's happening, own your circumstances and take 100x's more action than everybody else. Am I joking? HELL NO! Winners don't blame, they look in the mirror to improve. Winners, and there are lots of them, are making their way expanding their businesses - not contracting like all the other whiners out there (not you and your company of course). As for my business, training is always the first budget item that gets cut when economic challenges arise. Summer time is also the slowest time of year in the training world. So how's my business? We had our busiest summer yet, on track for our busiest most productive and profitable year to date, and I'm HIRING - that's right, I'm expanding not contracting. My dirty little secret; I've accepted 1000% responsibility for everything in my life, and I'm busting my butt out-working my whining competitors. It's both an easy and hard secret to accept. The question is, do you want to expand are get owned? We must become the change we expect in others, or others will change what we expect of ourselves.
You can't possibly expect anyone to follow you or act differently if you're not already demonstrating the behaviors or lifestyle yourself. In other words, you must lead by example. If you don't, you will likely drop your own expectations or standards, and live to the expectations of others. This is easier said then done, because we have such an intense sense of belonging and connection. The moment we challenge the status quo, and live to a higher standard, is the moment we put ourselves at risk of isolation. We can rub those we care about the wrong way or potentially offend and risk losing relationships. This is when our need for connection becomes the strongest, and we start lowering our expectations; and therefore, our change in ourselves. So what can we do? The first step is always to write exactly what you expect of yourself and others and exactly why. the why is the determining factor. If your why isn't strong enough, you'll never follow through. Next create an action plan to keep you on target. The key to this action plan is setting "baby steps." If you really expect change in others, and know you must be a living example of what you expect, then make it easy on yourself and minimize any objection. Start by making small changes in yourself and ease into your full blown expectations. When you hit others all at once with everything, of course they will be put off and fight you. The easier you can make things on yourself and others, the quicker and less painful it will be for them to change. So live your expectations. If you're starting over, start small and gently transition your way into the change you expect in others. Don't fight the battle all at once, or others will influence you and change what you expect of yourself. When someone offers you criticism, whether it's constructive or not, do you take it as rejection or as a time to reflect?
Most people, myself included, if we're brutally honest take criticism as a form of rejection. We take painfully personal. It's an admission no one wants to make. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone tell me anything other than - I welcome criticism and don't take it personally. Every time I hear that, or whatever variation it comes in, I think exactly the same thought - Bull$#!+! Criticism, whether it's delivered the right way or not, is personal, it is painful to hear, and it is the very definition of someone rejecting what they're criticizing about us. So how can we be reflective and not feel rejected? First, accept the fact that you're human and it will feel like rejection. But just like me, once you get past the bruised ego, then and only then can you become reflective. Let me give you an example. I received some feedback recently that was different from my usual, "you're amazing" type of feedback at one of my events. At first I was shocked to hear the comment, then I felt hurt, and then I was kind of an egomaniac inside thinking - who do they think they are? I'm the expert at presenting. They're hear to learn, not judge. Fortunately that whole emotional sequence lasted about 5 minutes, and then I put my ego aside and started to reflect on what they had to offer. And you know what, they were spot on correct. Their perspective inspired me to change the way I delivered one section of my content. I went back to the creative phase, came up with a modified approach and the feedback has been 10x's better than I expected. This is all because I became reflective. Reflective means putting your ego and hurt feelings aside. If someone is offering yo criticism they're doing it to help you, and you must acknowledge, accept and apply it as such. You're going to have a bruised ego at first. So what! Put your feelings aside and ask a better question - how can I use this feedback to make an outstanding improvement in myself? Ask that question and I guarantee you'll improve for the better. Look criticism is rejection, but you can't have real reflection until you move past the rejection we all feel. So welcome criticism and it's unfortunate rejection, and apply what you learn. You'll earn their respect, and your own. Are there really only 5 forces affecting the rest of your year? No. Are there more important forces? No. So pay attention and take action.
There's only 4 months left until 2014, and it's time you stop putting off till tomorrow what you can change today. The road to tomorrow leads to a town called Nowhere if you keep making excuses. If, however, you make changes and course corrections immediately you can and will radically alter the rest of your year and the rest of your life. Force #1 - Your failure to challenge your status quo. Most people, not you of course, live in a comfort zone. They know exactly how much money they need to make it throughout the month, how many times to hit the snooze alarm in the morning before they've crossed the line to being late, and exactly how hard to work to just get by. This comfort zone is really a rut, because the quality of your life's success is a direct reflection of how uncomfortable you're willing to get. Start small with baby steps, and start pushing yourself each day to get up without the snooze alarm, or stay later at work, save and invest more aggressively, etc. Force #2 - Your failure to upgrade your skills. For every one person I meet who is committed and actually seeks out training, reads books, and attends seminars to improve their skills, I can show you 5,000 others who simply don't do anything. Most people think they have all the answers, don't have the time or money for training, or simply placed zero value on training. Ironically, those who seek out training and constant improvement are happier, healthier and wealthier than everyone else by leaps and bounds. Commit immediately to a self-improvement plan. Pull out a calendar and write down something you can do each week, month and quarter to improve your life skills. Write down books to read, seminars to attend and audio programs to invest in. Treat this as a marketing calendar for self-improvement. Schedule it and take action. Force #3 - Your failure to network. It's not what you know, and it's not who you know. The paradigm has shifted - its who knows you and how they know you. I'm constantly shocked by how few professionals are actively networking. The elite are always expanding their circles of influence by growing their networks. You can and will find your next winning opportunity, and you will find ways to help others grow. Helping others is the secret to networking. Join LinkedIn and get active, attend industry events and make new friends, and attend local business events and actively market yourself to help others succeed. Your relationships are everything. Be known as the go-to person for helping others win, and you will be rewarded millions of times over. Force #4 - Your failure to take outstanding care of your health. If you don't have energy to burn in excess to achieve your goals and take care of your loved ones, life will burn you. Most people, not you of course, drag through life looking for the next cup of coffee or energy boost. Winners have energy to burn in excess. Get some exercise, any exercise everyday. Make the majority of the food you put inside of you fruits and vegetables. You can eat the garbage too, but remember, garbage in garbage out. Get plenty of rest, and most importantly, drink tons of water. Drink half your body weight in ounces per day. Force #5 - Your failure to take action. This is the biggest problem area period. If the actions were easy everyone would follow through and be a winner. That's why there's so few winners and so many average people. Taking action is hard because people associate taking action with pain. It's similar to starting a new exercise program and quitting after 3 days. Why? Because your body hits a pain threshold or wall and you quit. Taking action is that wall and all the growth comes from breaking through that threshold. Once you do, the pain is gone. The easiest way to break through the pain threshold is taking baby steps. Don't go for the big actions until you build up some momentum with baby steps. There you have it. Those are the 5 biggest forces affecting the rest of your year and your life. Address them all immediately and your life will take a radically different course. Or… do what you've been doing and keep getting what you've always gotten. How many times, when you look back, have you let your attitude be affected by someone else. If you're honest with yourself, its more frequent than we want to admit.
Here's the deal though, our attitudes are entirely determined by ourselves. We choose how we view and interpret what happens to us. It's our own decision to either take what happens as positive, negative or neutral. If we choose to be positive and learn and find the good in any and every situation, then we certainly can come away with a positive attitude. That's our choice, and it's no different than if we choose to let circumstances adversely affect us. When we do, our attitudes just don't affect us, but those around us. So check your attitude, raise your standards and decide to find the good and positively impact your attitude. It's your choice and no one else's. |
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April 2018
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