Self Improvement Information

We are in the throes of a very busy holiday season.  Most of us are busy individuals, without the extra hustle and bustle of Christmas.  Before we know it, the new year, 2010, will be here.  Have you had an opportunity to sit down and decide what your 2010 is going to look  like, in all areas of your life?  Most of us will say “no”, I haven’t found the time to do that. To be honest with you, you will never “find” the time for developing your goals and action plan.  You will have to “make” the time for this important goal setting endeavor.

Making our famous New Years resolutions doesn’t hinge on something magical happening at the first of the year that helps us keep them, or break them.  Starting a new year with goals and an action plan is like looking out at a new field of snow, crisp and clean, where no one has walked before, and blazing your trail through it to what you want.  A clean slate, so to speak.  The magic happens any time we make compelling goals, develop a plan with lasting results that work, and take action on them!  This can be done any time of the year.  If it is done correctly, that’s when the magic happens, because as Tony Robbins would say, “Where focus goes, energy flows”.

I have a 7 minute video from Tony Robbins that I really enjoyed.  I plan to make some time in my busy schedule before January 1, 2010 to find out what I did in 2009 that worked and what didn’t work.  I want to have my goals for 2010 planned and ready to go to launch my best year ever!  I encourage you to do so, also.

Enjoy the video.  Feel free to share it with your network of family, friends and business associates!  Let’s all rock in 2010.  The world will be a better place for it.

Have you ever wondered what the secret is to manifest money?  Unless you are attracting all the money you want in your life, you might have ponder this question from time to time.  Why does it look so easy for some people to make money and it seems so hard for others?

I watched a 10 minute video today from Stephen Pierce.  For those of you that don’t know him, he is a super star when it comes to creating ways to make money.  I enjoy watching these videos because Stephen always gives me information that is valuable to me.  It is valuable to me in regards to my ability to develop an online presence.  It is also of true value to me in my personal quest for self improvement and making money.

Today, his video was very appropriate for these times of financial insecurity in the world.  He relayed that money, wealth, income, and cash flow are the lagging indicators, or the score cards, on what we are doing and how well we are doing it.  Right now you are probably saying, “but, Nan, I have a corporate job, or I am a teacher, etc.”  I would say to you, if you don’t add value to your company or school how long are they going to keep you around?  If you don’t provide value will you get raises?

Giving value to what you are doing to make money is like magnetizing steel.  When you magnetize steel, it will pick up far more than its own weight in metal.  Value is the magnetizer for money.  Value is the lead indicator of wealth.

How do you create value?  Value is created when you give goods or services that are relevant in the eyes of the market you working in.  To add value, it must fill the GAP, which stands for Goals, Activities and Priorities.  Value, in hindsight, is anything a person would do or action they would take to keep something they already have, or to get something they want.

Value, going forward, always balances between two things.  It is either increasing something they want more of, or it is decreasing something they want less of.  The question then becomes, “how does my product or service increase what my customers want or decrease what my customers don’t want?”

Stephen suggests, at this point, that you do the Ben Franklin diagram.  Take a sheet of paper, draw a big T on it.  On the one side of the T, write “increase”.  On the other side of the T write “decrease”.  Take your product or your service that you are offering the public and write what it is you provide on the appropriate side.  He calls this “mapping your value”.  When you can map out what your value is to others, it will help you to act on providing more of it.  You will become a master at increasing value to those that buy your products or services.  You will attract more money.  If you don’t master this, your money making abilities will suffer.

Doesn’t it make sense to ask yourself every day, “What ways do I specifically add value to individuals in my marketing niche?”  Fill the G.A.P. and you are on your way!

To watch this awesome video on your own click here!

Setting priorities can be one of the most misunderstood skill that can plaque your success in all areas of your life.  Whether you are going to school, starting your own business, or working for Corporate America, inadequate prioritizing skills will leave you ineffective.

The Pareto Principle states that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your productive work.  Let’s put it another way.  If you have 10 items on your “to do” list, 2 of those items will be more worthwhile than the other 8 put together.

To accomplish great things in your life and career you must concentrate on those 2 activities of best value.  That is where the interesting part begins.  How do we identify those high priority things?  There are several different methods you can use.  It is all a matter of personal preference.  What works best for you?  Let’s look at these different methods.

Stephen Covey’s Quadrants

Stephen Covey wrote a book called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  There are many things in this book that are important and one of them is his Quadrant Method of Prioritizing.  Divide your paper into 4 quadrants.  At the top of each square put QI, QII, QIII and QIV.  In square one labeled QI, put your important and urgent tasks.  In quadrant QII should be your tasks that are important but not urgent.  In quadrant QIII are the tasks that are not important but urgent and last but not least QIV you should put the tasks that are not important and not urgent.

Dr. Covey tells us that highly effective people make time for the QII activities, and by doing that can reduce the time spent in the other quadrants. 

The ABC Method

The Franklin Planner uses the ABC method.  A is your vital activities, B is for your important activities and C is for the easier tasks.  After you have divided up your activities they are further boiled down to A1, A2, A3 and B1, B2, B3 etc.  Franklin planner and Dr. Covey have a professional relationship and it shows in that A, B, and C are very similar to Dr. Covey’s QI, QII and QIII activities.

Electronic Methods

It should be mentioned here that there are electronic methods that can be used to prioritize.  They are available on electronic devices such as; computers with Microsoft Outlook, Palms, and Smart Phones.  They work in similar manners to each other.

Time Versus Payoff Method

This is quite simple.  Each task is weighed by the payoff you will receive from it versus the time it takes to accomplish it.  Tasks with the highest payoff and in the least amount of time would be done first.  Low payoff tasks that take the most amount of time should be left for last delegated to someone else, or not done at all.

Whether you decide to use one of the methods above or you decide on another method, the most important thing is to write down your tasks that need your attention.  All of them.  If they are written down, they are visual and concrete and you can go from there to decide your most important tasks.  Where most people fail is in writing them down.  That can be a recipe for poor performance.