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Ideas and advice to move you forward faster.
Never Have a Bad Day Again
AdviserBlast – Quick Tips to Accelerate Your Practice
In this issue: Don’t let an “off” day take you off track.
Although we’ve set goals for 2010 and we’d love to be “up” for every day, realistically, some days we’re just not going to feel like we can give 100%.
When these days happen, don’t worry, get frustrated with yourself, or decide to crawl back to bed. Instead, follow these simple steps to eliminate potential wasted days and learn how to focus your time, effort, and energy to quickly get back on track!
When I speak to groups, after I’ve recounted the hard work necessary to win an Olympic medal, someone will usually ask if there were days when I simply didn’t want to go to training, or if there were times when I was focused on my goal, but simply too tired to care on a particular day.
YES! There were days when I was in the pool, feeling exhausted and sore from the previous day’s workout, I really did not want to complete my practice.
When these feelings came up, I learned to break the workout into smaller increments. This kept me moving forward toward my over-arching goal. But by only needing to focus on one small element of the workout, I could keep from being overwhelmed by all the work that lay ahead, continue being productive, and get the boost of successfully completing the task at hand.
For instance, when I was super tired, instead of just going through the motions for two hours while I covered hundreds of laps, I’d focus on doing the next six turns excellently. Then I’d give myself a short mental breather before focusing on hitting another six turns perfectly again. All of a sudden, even though I felt weary, I was doing something really well. Then I’d make a game out of it and see how many perfect turns I could do consecutively.
By accomplishing a seemingly small objective, it didn’t take long before I was engaging with the rest of the workout and pushing myself harder than I originally expected.
You can do this in your office. If you arrive knowing that your head is just not in the game that day, take on some small objectives, focusing on doing those “little” things well, through to completion.
Spend 20 minutes clearing your desk, doing some filing, and getting organized. Or, complete some paperwork that you’ve been putting off. Pick up the phone and make that call to one client. Whatever you focus on, once you have accomplished it, mentally pat yourself on the back, and then determine to complete another small task.
So, even when it feels like an “off” day, you can leave your office in the evening acknowledging that while you weren’t functioning at 100% capacity, you still “dug in” and were productive, despite the circumstances.
When you have days where you just don’t feel fully focused:
- Consider several smaller tasks that you can do. Identify a few small activities which still move you toward your goal, but where allow you to forget about the big picture for a while.
- Begin just one activity. Don’t even plan to do or spend time thinking about the second task. Just focus on the first step to beginning the first task and take action to start.
- Complete it and congratulate yourself. No matter how small the task may seem in your overall plan for your practice, by completing it, you’ve taken control during a potentially unproductive time, focused on a specific task, and taken action to see it through.
By taking one small step at a time, you will have had a good, productive day, accomplishing some useful activities, even when you didn’t feel like it!
Copyright Paul Kingsman 2010
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As a motivational speaker and executive coach, Paul Kingsman provides financial services professionals practical tools to overcome distractions and stay focused so they can get the money they need, clients they want, and time to do what they love. Combining his experiences as an Olympic medalist and his background as an adviser for Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, Paul understands how to stay focused over the long haul, as well as the unique business challenges faced by advisers, and equips them to build the businesses they desire.
To find out more about how he can equip you or your team to achieve your own Split Second Success® through his presentations or executive coaching, visit paulkingsman.com/coaching or email him at Paul@PaulKingsman.com
© Paul Kingsman, Rights Reserved.
