Focus & Commitment

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” ~ Carlos Castaneda

The Anti-Hedge

The explorer Hernando Cortes landed on the shores of Veracruz, Mexico in 1519 with the intent of securing more land for Spain. Faced with the prospect of disease, a powerful and forbidding enemy, and resources which made the expedition look like a long shot ordered his officers to return to the beach and “Burn the Ships”... Confronting the overwhelming odds and the psyche of his men, he did the only logical thing possible, eliminate any alternative to victory. Retreat and a safe passage home was no longer an option.

Seneca the Younger, the Roman stoic philosopher said, “To Be Everywhere is to Be Nowhere”. In other

words, the mind and its incredible faculties won’t play ball at 99%, it knows 100% and will engage

accordingly.

You stuck at a plateau?

Burn the Ships

HOW MUCH IS YOUR TIME WORTH

Time is a fixed income and, as with any income, the real problem facing most of us is how to live successfully within our daily allotment. - Margaret B. Johnstone

We all know the old familiar phrase that "Time is money." Think about that for a minute (the time it will take you to read this) and consider how much money that minute may make you.

Whether you are a business owner, company manager, or entrepreneur, every minute of your day is spent performing either revenue producing activities or non-revenue producing activities.

A revenue producing activity is an activity that generates revenue from a fee charged for the sale of goods or services. A non-revenue producing activity is an activity that would be considered general and administrative.

Take an inventory of your day and you may be shocked to find how much potential income you are letting slip through the hourglass. There are many things you can do to leverage revenue producing activities and streamline non-revenue generating ones.

The first step is to identify all your daily activities, and assign them a degree of importance. There are many non-revenue producing activities that are essential, but that doesn't necessarily mean you need to be the one to do them. Or, that they can't be streamlined in some way.

Next, think outside the box. Brainstorm ways to increase your profitability by increasing the time spent on revenue producing activities in your day. Get perspective from your employees and a fresh set of eyes.

Third, implement a plan! To quote Henry Ford, "It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste time."

By the way, this doesn't apply to just business. Take the same inventory of your personal life and determine which activities are profiting you and your family and which ones are not. After all, no one at the end of his life, has ever wished they spent more time at work!

Wishing you an exponential return on your time in 2010!

The Things We See

"Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.” Meditations By Marcus Aurelius

We all know we are not supposed to be negative right? That if we are negative we’ll see negative. If we see the posItive, same thing. Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada, yada.

Here’s the science behind why (and the reason so many self help gurus have a made a fortune) - Its just simple science, folks.

The Reticular Activating System or (RAS) is the part of the reticular formation in your brain-stem. The purpose of this little miracle is to filter out the trillions of messages, signals and stimuli we encounter each and every day. In short, it prevents sensory overload. Too much stimuli and we melt down. Too little and were bored. This keeps us in check and has much to do with what we focus on.

How about a little Reticular Activating System experiment?

Think about one of your knees and focus on the little fibers from your clothing touching your knee? Feel it? Were you aware of it before? Try it with your arms, shoulders.....an amazing amount of stimuli at play.

Focus on everything that’s BROWN in your room/wherever you are. Lots of brown, huh? Now try it with RED. Same result?

In short, we see (and respond physically and emotionally) to what we focus our attention on.

Challenge this Week: For 24 hours, focus exclusively on the positive....see what happens. Oh and here is the good news, the Reticular Activating System, yeah, it can be trained.

Here’s to science....... *raises coffee cup*