Happy New Year!

In just a few short weeks, another year will begin. It’s time to start thinking about those New Year’s resolutions. Do any of these resolutions sound familiar? “I will lose weight.” “I will exercise more.” “I will save more money.” “I will leave this dead end job and start my own business.” “I will look for more opportunities to volunteer for worthy causes.”

Here is my New Year’s resolution. I will not make New Year’s resolutions! Instead, I have a few specific, realistic, attainable, and measurable goals for my life and my business. These goals are set in several areas - financial, health, business, family/social, personal development, spiritual, and fun/recreation. Be aware of where you are currently in each of these areas and decide where you want to be in 30 days, one year, three years, and five years.

How can you improve your chances for success this year? Here are five tips that will help you end 2010 with a better business and a better life:

1. Set aside a few hours in the next three days and write down your goals. Just get it done. There is no other way to get the clarity and focus needed to reach your goals other than simply doing the work and putting in the time. Don’t procrastinate on this because you think you are not clear enough on what you want. It is important to be clear on what you want but it is more important to just get started. Remember your goals are not set in stone. They can change or be adjusted as your business and your life changes.

2. Writing down your goals will dramatically increase your chances of success. Write your goals on 3 x 5 index cards that you can keep on your desk within easy reach so you can review them every day first thing in the morning. For each goal, also write down the steps you must take to reach your goal. Write down any hurdles or challenges you may have to overcome to attain your goal.

3. Have a strong “why” for attaining your goal. Having a strong “why” will give you the determination and perseverance you will need to reach your goal in addition to giving you more focus. Ask yourself what drives you. What makes you get up in the morning? It is very important to determine your motivation for achieving a specific goal.

4. Don’t set yourself up for failure before you even get started. Make sure the goals you are setting are realistic and attainable. This is not to say you shouldn’t dream big but at the same time make sure this is something you will do and something you can do.

5. Set a specific and realistic date for accomplishing your goal. Without a specific date, it is highly unlikely you will ever reach your goal.

Is where you are now where you thought you would be at the beginning of this year? Will you end 2010 with regret because you didn’t accomplish what you set out to do at the beginning of the year or will you make the decision now to make a change? It’s time to start living your life on purpose. Write down your goals and start taking steps today to reach them. Align your goals with you core values, core beliefs, and passion. Visualize yourself at the end of 2010 with a feeling of success, accomplishment, and elation. Have fun, relax, and enjoy the journey.

Where Is Your Focus?

When we get out of bed in the morning, we get to choose what we will focus on for the day. What we choose to focus on for the day will determine if we have a great day or a stressful, unproductive day. What will you focus on? Will you choose to focus on what’s wrong or will you choose to focus on what’s right?

All of us have stressors in our lives. For some people it may be a relationship that’s not exactly where they want it to be. Others may be going through a challenging time in their business or facing the prospect of losing their job. Regardless of the challenges you may be facing, you do have a choice as to whether or not you dwell on them. You do have a choice as to whether or not you let these things affect your productivity in your business, your daily life, or your mental stability. I’m not saying it will be easy. It may require a little effort on your part to change your thinking and to change your mindset. But I can assure you it will be well worth the effort.

For example, consider the 80/20 rule. Generally, you get about 80% of what you want and need in both personal and business relationships. Then there is the other 20%. This is the part of the relationship that’s not working. If you choose to focus on the part that is not working, then the relationship is doomed to failure. On the other hand, if you choose to focus on the 80% that is working, eventually the part that’s not working will seem like not such a big deal. This doesn’t mean you totally ignore the 20% because you still need to be aware and working on this part. But it won’t be your main point of focus. The result of choosing to focus on the 80% will be a longer, healthier life and a life filled with thankfulness and gratitude.

This Thursday, many families will be coming together over Thanksgiving dinner. It’s a time of reflection and possibly gaining a new perspective on your life. A time to think about where you’ve been and where you are going. A time to stop and take stock of what you are thankful for such as your loved ones, your significant other, and to be living in a country that allows you to actually make choices, even though they sometimes may be difficult. This is also a great time to decide where you choose to place your focus. This may be the time to start focusing on the 80% that is working in your business and in your life.

One day this week, take five minutes either first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed and make a list of everything in your life and in your business you are thankful for. Just meditate on this thought for five minutes and you may be surprised how large the list is that contains the 80% that’s working and how small the list is for the 20% that is not working. Think about where you want to place your focus. Happy Thanksgiving!

In Pursuit Of Excellence

Are you pursuing excellence or are you a perfectionist? To clarify here, I want to distinguish the difference between a perfectionist and someone who is in pursuit of excellence.

Perfectionists are not concerned with the quest for excellence. They generally set unrealistic expectations, have a fear of failure, and are very critical in their self-talk. It is difficult for a perfectionist to finish anything. There is no such thing as perfect, so they are in a never-ending quest to find something that does not exist. Perfectionists never reinforce the positive things they do because they are too busy beating themselves up for their failures.

On the other hand, someone in pursuit of excellence is not hindered by critical self-talk and their self-worth is not dependent on their achievements. Fear of failure does not cripple their efforts or stop them from completing tasks. If something doesn’t work as planned, they will find another way of doing it without all the critical self-talk of the self-absorbed perfectionist.

Being in a constant pursuit of excellence in your business is essential to your success. In business, if you are not performing every day to the utmost of your ability, there is someone out there who has equal ability that is in pursuit of excellence every day who will take your place.

You can’t afford to get trapped in the perfectionist attitude. Tasks must be completed without delay. Your self-talk becomes more important than ever when you are a small business owner. Positive reinforcement of your accomplishments without focusing and getting stuck in your failures is crucial to your success. You want to assess your failures and learn from them, but you do not want to obsess over them.

Here are five tips to help you in your pursuit of excellence:

1. Set higher standards and raise expectations for yourself and those around you. When did “good enough” become the standard? When did it become okay to just “get by”?

2. Set goals and create a vision for where you want to go. Know what you want. Don’t settle for anything less than the vision you have for your business and for your life.

3. Hold yourself accountable in all areas of your life – finances, work/family balance, health, personal development, your spiritual life, your personal character.

4. Do what you say you will do. NO EXCUSES!

5. Have passion for what you are doing. If you are not passionate about what you are doing, stop doing it.

Are you willing to settle for less than your best or do you want to pursue excellence in both your business and in your life? Pursuing excellence is not for the faint of heart. It requires work and dedication. Do not accept mediocrity in anything. Do not accept anything less than your best. And if you are honest with yourself, you know exactly what that is.

Positive Thinking Doesn't Work!

Working in the corporate world for over 15 years taught me one thing. Positive thinking does not work. Okay, before you blast an email to me about my bad attitude, let me clarify this a little further. Positive thinking WITHOUT ACTION does not work.

I can't tell you how many projects I've worked on where everything was falling apart. Inevitably there was always one positive thinker on the team that would say "Let's just think positive and everything will be OK." Have you ever come in contact with this person? They never do anything but they are thinking positive. Guess what. Nothing changed and the project continued falling apart because nobody did anything to change the situation.

I was speaking with a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. Business is slowing down and she is struggling with getting new business. When I asked what her next steps were to save her failing business, her reply was, "Well I'll just think positive and I know everything will work out." NO IT WILL NOT! She had no plan of action and no idea what her next step was going to be to fix the problem. She also had no intention of changing anything in the way she was doing business. Get the idea.

To survive in a small business, you definitely need a good attitude. You can't survive without a positive attitude,emotional strength, and perseverance but you have to take action if you want anything to change.

Assess the situation you are dealing with, come up with a plan of action, and find a solution to the problem. Don't just think positive and hope it goes away. If you want positive thinking to work, you must combine it with taking action.

Gratitude

Waking up every morning with a sense of gratitude and thankfulness in your heart will take you a long way towards becoming more successful in your business and in your life. It is so easy to get caught up in the events of the day and forget all the things we have to be thankful for. Take a few minutes and just make a list of all the things in your life that are right. What do you have to be thankful for? You will be surprised at how long this list may be.

Can you think of a better way to start your day? Turning on the morning news with all the talk about the bad economy, falling financial markets, and on and on is not the way to start your day. Wouldn't you rather spend time reflecting on everything in your life that is going right and everything in your life that you have to be thankful for?

Once this practice of gratitude and thankfulness becomes a habit, you will create more success in your life, and you will start to attract like-minded people into your circle of influence. Would you rather be surrounded by people who are happy and excited about life or people who will drag you down to their level? It is a choice. You can choose to be happy living life with a sense of gratitude and seeking new opportunities every day. Or you can choose to be miserable, believe the garbage the media is shoving down our throats, and miss opportunities that may be right in front of you. It's your choice.

2010 is just around the corner. Do you want to be more successful in 2010? Develop the habit NOW of waking up with a sense of gratitude and thankfulness.