goals

Taking One Action…just one!

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

– Mark Victor Hansen, was co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul”.

I spend a lot of time with a lot of people that have a litany of things they say they want to do, accomplish, get to, learn, start doing, stop doing etc. It’s the environment of the coaching business. I’m no exception to this and have my own lists I keep. This list often includes products I want to create, classes I want to teach, and workshops I have ideas about.

Recently on my list was to become physically more fit. Not only losing a few pounds, but becoming more physically fit. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and for a variety of reasons have been putting it off and putting it off. Intellectually, I knew for me, it was about smaller portions, more exercise and less wine and cheese, but I wasn’t able to start making the changes I knew I needed.

I realize this is a pretty common goal for people, but for me, as a coach and motivator for people to get to where they want to be-I was frustrated with myself, for not being able to get myself unstuck! I spent endless amounts of energy thinking about it, planning for just the right time to start, and figuring out how I was going to do it.

Then duh! The business coach finally realized what she needed to do.

Take one action-just one action. Take that first step. So I hired a health coach to help get me on the right track. This included reading a book and using an app called Lose It! (Note: I have absolutely nothing to gain from promoting this book and app). This app requires listing all of the food you eat and the exercise you do each and every day. This felt like a lot of work to me and I had a hundred excuses in my head about why this wouldn’t work for me. But then I said to myself, “Take one action, just start it and do it for one day”. One day turned into two days, which turned into three days!

Then for my birthday, my husband gave me a Fitbit. I was even surer I wasn’t going to be into this new gadget and was ready to return it, when I said to myself, “Take one action, and just start using it for today.” Now, I must admit, I love seeing how many miles I walk a day, how many steps I take, the quality of my sleep, etc. (Note: I have absolutely nothing to gain by promoting this product) I realized that by turning off the “can’t learn this, can’t do this, it’s too hard,” tapes in my head and just taking the first step in trying it-makes ALL the difference. I’m now totally into it!

Here’s the learnings.

-Taking one action towards your goal, no matter how small the step is the ONLY place to start in moving forward.
-Don’t expect to be good at it or an expert in the first day, or even in the first week or month.
-Shut off the negative tapes in your head and just keep taking one step a day and moving forward on whatever it you are wanting to achieve.

Assignment: What’s the one thing you really want to accomplish between now and the end of 2013? What’s the first step you can take towards that goal TODAY? What’s the second step you’ll take tomorrow?

I guarantee, if you take 15-20 minutes to do this assignment, you will be well on your way to accomplishing great things in 2013! And for extra credit, list in the comment section below, the step you will be taking today to move you forward. Because putting your intention out there for others to see, gives you a 50% increase in the likelihood that you will actually do it!

What’s yours?

Mandy works with talented, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. Mandy’s client’s receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own. Sign up for her free Cd “7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs” right down below.

Dramatically Improve Your Business in Just Four Days

by Administrator Leave a Comment

I am often asked by clients, “how do you keep engaged with, and on top of, the plans and goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year?” This is a great question, because for many of us, even with the best intentions, we tend to fall off, or stop focusing on our goals about the middle of March.

So what can we do?

I urge my clients to make four dates with themselves: One in mid-March, one in mid-June, one in mid-September and one in mid-December. These are dates with yourself that CANNOT be broken. You must treat them like they were a date in stone with your most important client! They are your four strategic planning days for your business. They can be a half day or a full day, however, I recommend nothing less than three hours.

This is the time you review your goals for the year and ask yourself, what’s working, what needs tweaking, what are my specific goals and action steps in the next three months. For example, in mid-March it would be the time to look at your first quarter earnings, goal attainment, what worked, what didn’t? Then an opportunity to look ahead at the 2^nd quarter (April, May, June) and develop the specific plans of actions you will be taking in the next three months to continue to move yourself towards your big goals.

As solopreneurs, it’s difficult if not nearly impossible to take ourselves 30,000 feet up and take a strategic look at our businesses. We’re too close to them and usually we’re smack dab in the middle of them. By scheduling these four dates this year, it offers us the opportunity to look strategically at our businesses and make sure we’re headed in the right direction!

So, I strongly urge you to make those four dates with yourself right now. Put them on your calendar, be true to them, show up for them and I guarantee you will see the results of your efforts in your year end results! Really, go ahead right now and schedule them!!!

You Must Be Clear On What You Want

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In a conversation this week with a new client, I asked, “If you could wave a magic wand, where would your business be 12 months from now?” He spoke about wanting to transition his work from acrylic to oil paints (he’s an artist), hopefully get into a state museum, and get into a couple of galleries outside of New England. I asked him if he had an income goal in mind and he had to stop and think a minute and said, “It would be great if I could get to $60,000”. When I asked him how he was doing towards that number…he didn’t know.

I must say, I am consistently surprised how many entrepreneurs I speak with aren’t clear on how much they want to make. It’s almost like they are afraid of drawing that line in the sand, because it then means that they have to commit to making it…or not.

It’s important to be absolutely clear on what you want for, and from, your business. In my experience of working with entrepreneurs the past ten years, I can tell you that those clients that knew where they wanted to be in their businesses 12 months, three years, five years and ten years down the road, have hands down been more successful than those that weren’t clear on what they wanted or where they wanted to go.

And the clearer you are with yourself about what you want to accomplish, the more clear it will be to the Universe to help support you in the effort. So if you have not written down what you want to make in the next twelve months, I would request that you do it today. Write the number down, in pen and put it somewhere where you can see it once a week or so. I am confident that in twelve months, you will be pleasantly surprised with the results!

goals

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