I am currently working with a person who wants desperately to quit his job and own his own business. He has his business up and running but at this point it is not bringing in the revenue he needs to quit his job. However, I wouldn’t bet against this guy. It’s not because he’s smarter or more disciplined than everyone else. It’s because his why is so strong that it motivates him to do the things he needs to do every day.  He is driven to get where he wants to go and he won’t let anything get in his way.  That is what a powerful why can do for you.

The question then becomes how do you make the shift from seeing obstacles as mountains to seeing them as what they really are; nothing more than short term obstacles. The answer is actually quite simple; practice seeing them as obstacles and not mountains and the rest is easy. If you are able to recognize in yourself how you are perceiving a challenge and can make a shift in your thinking than the solution may come much faster and easier than you thought possible. Here is a simple process to help you do just that.

1. Make a list of the 2-3 biggest challenges you are facing right now.
2. Think about how you are feeling about each challenge. Does it overwhelm you, or are you energized by it? If you are feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, powerless than you are most likely seeing it as a mountain.
3. Next to each challenge write down whether or not your current perception of this challenge is either as a mountain or an obstacle. (its good to actually write it down on paper) If it’s a mountain, cross out the word mountain and write down obstacle. Pay attention to any changes in your perception you may have just by writing down the word obstacle.
4. Once you feel a slight change in your thinking, brain storm on ways that you could get past this challenge. While you are doing this keep saying to yourself, this is nothing more than an obstacle. Write a list of everything you could do to solve this problem.
5. If you are still stuck try doing this with a friend, sometimes others can help us see solutions that we can’t.

By making the shift from mountain to obstacle you actually create a shift in your brain activity from your emotional brain to your logical brain. When you look at it as a mountain you get stuck in your emotional brain and have a hard time coming up with solutions. When you see it as an obstacle, you calm the emotional brain, and shift to themore logical part of the brain. When you do this you begin to access your logic and creativity which you will need to use to get past this issue. It is a simple shift but one that can have big implications. I use this quite a bit and it really does help.

One of their key concepts is that you should focus on tasks for a period of 90 minutes and then move onto something else. You should limit your multitasking, That means not checking emails every time you hear a beep. Checking email constantly will drain your energy, make you less productive, and more irritable. Their advice is to check email twice a day! What I noticed was that my email had taken control of my life. It even made me slightly anxious, always waiting for that next email. While it wasn’t easy to check email twice a day, after a few days I found myself feeling and thinking a little bit differently. I felt less controlled by email, and realized that I had gotten away from doing some of the things that I really enjoyed doing because I was always reacting to my emails. I also realized that rarely do I get an email that is urgent and needs immediate attention.

In the book the authors interview many top executives and find that the most productive don’t check email on a regular basis. The top executives have strict routines that they follow and many check email in the morning or the evening.

Are you ready to give up your email addiction? Here is a challenge. For one day try checking your email only once in the morning and once in the afternoon. You might be surprised by how much control email has on you. I can guarantee only one thing. You will survive.

George may seem a bit out of control but it shows exactly what happens to us when we become hijacked by our emotions. We all get hijacked from time to time. If you watch the video closely you’ll notice that it’s George’s thoughts that are hijacking his emotions.  He doesn’t have a girlfriend, his job is parking cars, and he lives at home with his parents. What really puts him over the edge is that Kramer, who’s never even had a job, gets a speaking part in a Woody Allen movie.

We all get hijacked by our emotions. Although hopefully not quite as bad as George. A highjacking occurs when the emotional part of your brain takes control and the logical or thinking part of your brain shutsdown.  One example of this is when someone sends you an email that sends you through the roof. Your emotions take over and the first thing you want to do is to respond with the most vicious combination of words you have ever been able to put in one sentence. Of course if you are smart you don’t send that email.

There is a logical way to help you calm down when you are feeling hijacked.  If you actually label how you are feeling it helps you calm down and get back into functioning from your logical brain. Ive tried it and it really does work. So the next time someone pushes you over the edge remember to say to yourself; “they make me feel _________. It might just keep you from acting like George.

GET OUT THERE!

Those were the words I heard from my coach about five years ago during a particularly tough period for my business.  I was in my comfort zone in my office on my computer looking for clients. It wasn’t working.  Here is what my coach had to say; “Get yourself out there and get exposure. You don’t have to have the perfect elevator speech, brochure, etc.”   He was right. There is a strong link in my business between getting out there and getting business. (What a surprise) This is true with those looking for a job. You will not find a job from your computer.  About 80% of jobs are never advertised. The only way you will find them is to network and tell everyone you know that you are looking for a job.  Don’t worry if your resume is not perfect, your elevator speech is the pits, or you don’t even know what you want to do.  If you wait until you figure it out you may never find a job.  I am an imperfect coach and yet people hire me all of the time. You are an imperfect job candidate but you will find someone will want you. Just get yourself out there!

What is your focus for 2009? What do you want to accomplish? How much money do you want to make? What are the best goals to set for 2009?

Here is a thought, it is my experience that one of the most important goals you can set for yourself is to improve the quality of relationships you have with those close with you.

In my work in organizations I can tell you that in almost 100% of the cases, when the company was struggling or stagnant it was because of struggling relationships at the top of the organization.    In one case the relationship with the GM and owner was so strained that it threatened to put the company out of business. It was one of my first clients and in the beginning I tried to ignore some of the relationship issues and focused on strategy and operational issues.  I quickly learned that until the two improved their relationship with each other the company was going to continue to struggle.  Over the next year we worked on improving how the two worked together. I am happy to say that years later the company is not only surviving but has tripled in size and the owner and GM are clearly responsible for the company’s growth. The company, which is in the construction industry, had it’s best year ever in 2008 and is poised to surpass this in 2009.  Yes, this is happening in a down economy where most of his competitors are struggling.  If you ask the owner what was the key to the company growing he will tell you it was the work that was done to improve how he and his GM worked together.

I will cover how we got there in future blog posts but for now I want to make it clear that in all the companies I have worked with the strength of relationships at the top was the number one reason for the company’s success or struggles.

1. Nothing important ever happens by chance. If you want to make a big impact in 2009 you’ve got to prepare for it.

2. Being focused also means letting go of ideas and plans that have been floating around in your head but you never take action on. These clutter your mind and keep you from doing what needs to be done

3. Most of the time we don’t spend enough time trying to figure out what we want.  I have found that most of us( including myself) don’t give the proper effort towards figuring out what we really want to accomplish. By doing this we tend to grab onto any opportunity that is placed in front of us.

Over the next month I’ll be adding articles and exercises to help you begin the planning that you will need to do to create the focus and energy to make a huge impact on your business in 2009

Most of us can probably relate to Plaxico in some way. If you work for a company you have to follow rules and do things that you don’t agree with or like to do. Most reasonable people make a choice to “put up” with things that they don’t want to do for the greater good of being successful. I have a friend who is much like Plaxico in that he hates to follow “the rules” He’s a highly successful business man in a fortune 500 company because as he says it; “sometimes you have to put up with stuff to be able to succeed.”

Plaxico has himself in big trouble and may end up in jail for it. However, lets not think that he is so different from the rest of us. Many who are like Plaxico end up starting their own businesses so they don’t have to take orders from others. ( I would bet that a few of my old bosses would put me in this catagory) Maybe Plaxico could start his own one man football team.

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