How Does Avoidance and Procrastination Hurt Us?

2021-05-16 ~ adminlife

You know that you should do that one thing you’ve meant to do for a while, but getting up off the couch is just so, well, challenging. Believe it or not, even though you may think you are simply leaving a task uncompleted, what you are doing is procrastination, and it may be hurting you.

You’re Wasting Time

Anytime you leave a task uncompleted and spend time lounging around instead (or doing something meaningless), you are wasting time that you will never get back. And although you may think it’s just a few hours, once you are in this dangerous thought pattern, you will find yourself putting activities off more and more frequently, and next thing you know, you’ve wasted years of your life.

Ruining Opportunities

Maybe you saw an excellent job posting, and you meant to apply. You did, but you got home and found your resume wasn’t updated. And you never got around to updating it or submitting it. Now you will never know what sort of opportunity you had missed. And even if the job hadn’t panned out, maybe you would’ve made valuable connections that could’ve taken you far in life.

Damaging Your Reputation

A late assignment once is one thing, but the minute you are known as habitually late or that your turn in work incomplete—this can start to damage your reputation. And a reputation is essential in the work world, especially when it comes to furthering your career and establishing connections that positively impact your life. This can also affect your personal life, such as meeting the person of your dreams, but your reputation as someone who never accomplishes anything precedes you. The individual of your dreams finds themselves not wanting to take a chance on you.

Health Risks

You meant to make a doctor’s appointment to get that lump checked out, but you just kept putting it off. And in doing so, you may have put yourself at a serious health risk. This is because many medical conditions if caught early, can be treated quickly and easily. If left to escalate, several conditions can turn into something worse, which may be challenging to treat and subsequently risk your life.

Although putting off that one small thing may seem like the thing to do at the time, procrastination is never the answer. This is because when you avoid a particular task, you are wasting time, opportunities and causing possible damage to your future.

We all procrastinate at some time in our lives and sometimes around certain tasks that we know we need to do. However, as pointed out, avoiding or procrastinating can lead to lost opportunities and possible health issues.

Book a “Get to know you” call now

and we can start to work on how you can stop procrastinating and get control over your life and move forward to living the best year of your life now.

To your success

Michael

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Projecting Confidence – Even if You Don’t Feel It

2021-05-09 ~ adminlife

That old saying, “Fake it ‘til you make it,” has never been more meaningful than when dealing with confidence issues. Confidence is the most important personality trait you can develop in order to better deal with life’s transitions – both personal and professional – and to take risks to ensure your continued success. Some ways to project confidence, even if you don’t feel it, include:

Be optimistic – Do you see the glass as half-empty or half-full? If you see the glass as half-empty, you’re likely not an optimist and could experience feelings of low self-worth and doubts. Seeing the glass as half-full places you in the “optimist” category and shows that you look for opportunity rather than failure.
Don’t take yourself too seriously – When you allow yourself to loosen up and enjoy life, you’re more relaxed in demeanour and most people find that refreshing. Most of us have to deal with stress and intense situations every day, so to be around someone who can relax is a real pleasure and can garner admiration.
Pay attention to others – Making eye contact and listening intently to those you’re engaged with is a must when attempting to project confidence. If you constantly look around the room or up at the ceiling when you’re conversing, you seem less trustworthy and less like someone who demands admiration.
Dress the part – Whatever you want to succeed at in life requires a certain look. Want to rise to a CEO level in your company? Stop dressing in jeans and t-shirts. Show others – with your looks – that you’re ready to step into the position, even if you’re much lower on the ladder.
Watch your language – When you speak, speak clearly and watch your own language to be sure you’re not using buzz words or contradictory language or interject phrases such as “you know…” That’s referred to as “conversational clutter” and should be avoided at all cost.
Accept and give compliments – Accept compliments about your accomplishments gracefully and give compliments to others when warranted. Accepting compliments show that you realize the value in what you’ve done and giving compliments show that you consider yourself a good judge of character.

Projecting a certain amount of confidence, even when you don’t feel it, shows that you’re ready to meet challenges head-on. Sometimes, we don’t yet have the knowledge or skills it takes to perform at the top of the game, but you can project determination and enthusiasm to meet the challenge.

While you can fake confidence, you are still not confident. Sometime this facade will fall and you will be in a worse mental state.

You need to actually build-up your confidence level so that displaying confidence in all situations comes naturally.

Book a “Get to know you call” now

to discuss your existing confidence level and how we can work together to build your confidence level to a naturally higher level.

To your success

Michael

Photo by Daniel Minárik on Unsplash

Behaviour vs. Outcome-Based Goals

2021-05-02 ~ adminlife

We all know that goal-oriented people are more successful, happier, and more productive. But setting and keeping goals is a skill, and like any skill, there’s a right way to do it. One thing you might find helpful is separating your goals into behaviour-based and outcome-based models. There are a few differences between the two, and knowing which is which can be key.

Behaviour-Based Goals

Behaviour-based goals are typically changes you make to how you act. For instance, handling stress better, being nicer to others, and spending less time procrastinating are all examples of behaviour-based goals. They focus on how you personally feel and behave, rather than just looking purely at the outcome of your actions.

Behaviour-based goals play into outcome-based goals, but they aren’t the same. When you change how you think and feel, often you’ll notice a change in results. But that’s not the focus, it’s just a pleasant side-effect.

In order to make behaviour-based goals, you’ll need to reflect on how you feel when you’re completing a certain task. Do you get snippy with coworkers in the mornings, or feel tired when you’re trying to meet a deadline? Focusing on the way you feel when you aren’t performing well, then making a concrete effort to change can help to make you more pleasant and productive.

Outcome-Based Goals

Outcome-based goals are changes you make to your performance. For instance, answering your emails faster, reducing the number of errors you make, and getting projects done on time are all outcome-based goals. They focus on the outcome of your actions, rather than how you feel about performing your tasks.

Outcome-based goals tend to be easier to quantify. You can count the number of emails you respond to before lunch, and you can keep track of the amount of time you spend on a certain project. For this reason, most people focus on making outcome-based goals. After all, your progress is so much simpler to quantify.

Making Them Work Together

The real key to success is melding behaviour-based goals with outcome-based goals. Often you can get to the root of a problem by changing your behaviour, and then watch as your outcomes change. Sometimes it’s hard to separate the two, and that’s okay. Just don’t lose sight of the fact that your performance is a mix of both. Having the right mindset is just as important as working hard if you want to succeed.

Goals need to be set and you have to believe fully in them. Whether they are behaviour based or outcome based, you can’t achieve them if you don’t believe in them.

Book a 15-minute “Get to know you” call now

and start discussing what goals you want to set and how to set goals them as well as other areas of success.

To your success

Michael

Photo by Ronnie Overgoor on Unsplash

Adjust Your Sails to the Future

2021-04-27 ~ adminlife

“When you can’t change the direction of the wind – adjust your sails,” is a quote from inspirational writer, H. Jackson Brown, Jr, is one that has depth and meaning if there are things going on in your life that you can’t control.

The only things you can change are those which you have control over. Therefore, you need to find a way to get on with your life (adjust your sails) and look to the future rather than spending more time on what’s not working.

If a sailor knows a storm is coming from a certain direction, he or she will adjust the sails and let the wind blow them in the opposite direction. Remaining on the same course might mean being caught up in a disaster that could sink the boat.

It’s the same with your life. Continuing on a course where disaster is looming and just waiting to take you down might make it impossible for you to ever get out of the “storm,” and head on to safe passage.

It may be difficult to change a course that you’ve been on for a long time. That route is familiar and even though filled with turmoil, it can be strangely comfortable.

Taking an unknown course of action may be scary, but necessary if you’re to get on with your life and take action to make changes that will bring you success and happiness.

The first thing you must do to rid yourself of fear for the uncharted course is to stop worrying. Practice replacing negative thoughts with positive ones and soon it will become automatic.

Mentally prepare yourself by gathering knowledge about your new course of action, visualizing yourself in your new role in the future. You may still run into situations you’re unprepared for – and you may make some wrong decisions on the path – but, perseverance will get you through the dark and stormy times and guide you to safety.

Next, remove the negative elements from your life. It may be difficult, because some of the negative elements might be friends, family and others, but it’s a necessary action that must happen before you can get through the present storm in your life.

Set goals, take action on them and stay the course. You’ll soon realize your dreams and desires for the future.

Many people stay stuck in their comfort zone and live the same day over and over again because they are afraid to make any changes. Setting new goals that stretch you can be daunting but if you want to grow you need to make changes in your life situation.

Book a 15-minute “Get to know you call” with me to discuss removing limiting beliefs, setting goals and becoming more successful in your life.

To your success

Michael

Image by Renan Brun from Pixabay

Fear of Failure: The Greatest Threat to Your Success

2021-04-18 ~ adminlife

The fear of failure has killed more dreams than all other fears combined. The fear of failure is insidious, because it’s largely in your imagination. It can also prevent you from even trying in the first place, which guarantees failure.

It’s interesting that very small children have no concept of failure. They couldn’t care less if they fail to do something. They just try again. There are no negative thoughts or emotions involved. They just keep on going.

But it doesn’t take long before children learn to fear the opinions of others. It’s usually around the time they start school. After that first day of school, we’re all changed forever.

It might not be possible to go recapture the mentality of a toddler, but you can come close. The fear of failure doesn’t have to impact your life significantly.

Consider these facts:

Failure is temporary – unless you quit. Failure isn’t final unless you give up. All the most successful people have experienced a lot of failure. But they ended up being successful precisely because they didn’t quit. Failure is just a temporary state that means nothing, because it’s only temporary.
Failure is common. You’ve failed thousands of times and managed to survive. Consider how many times you failed to walk or to talk well. Babies have constant failure.
- Successful people fail all of the time. It’s a huge part of how human beings learn. We realize that our approach didn’t work, we adjust, and we try again.
Failure is educational. You can learn something from every single one of your failures. Failure makes you more knowledgeable and capable. The more you fail, the stronger you become.
Others are far less concerned about your failure than you think. A few people might notice your failure, but they quickly turn their attention back on themselves and their own challenges.
- There’s nothing to worry about. Feel free to fail as much as necessary. Fail enough and you’ll quickly see that no one relevant cares.
Focus on how great it will be when you succeed. Instead of worrying about possible failure, consider possible success. Make yourself feel excited and positive about taking action.
- With high enough expectations, you’ll do just about anything without worrying about failure.
Redirect your thoughts. Put your attention on what you’re doing. If a negative outcome isn’t going to cause any real harm, forget about the outcome. Stay focused on your actions or something positive. Thinking about failing will freeze you in your tracks.
Consider the cost of doing nothing. Taking action might be a little scary, but what will happen if you do nothing?
- What will you feel about failing to take action?
- What if you’re stuck in your current life for the next decade or more?
- Maybe taking a risk is far more attractive than remaining where you are.

What would you do if you weren’t afraid of failing? Probably a lot more than you’re currently doing! How much has the fear of failure limited your life?

We’ve all allowed the fear of failure to influence our decisions. We’ve allowed this fear to stop us from trying new things or taking risks. We all have smaller lives than we could because we’re too concerned with what others think.

Rejecting the fear of failure is one of the greatest things you can do for your future!

You can start today. What are you going to do today that you’ve been afraid to try?

Failure is something that you should embrace. If you are not failing at things then you are not moving forward. You will not be as successful as you can be because you will only accept non-risk opportunities into your life.

As long as you learn from your failures you can be successful. A failure is not final, quitting is final.

To talk about how you can become more successful, confident and empowered, book a 15-minute “Get to know you” call now.

To your success

Michael

Photo by the blowup on Unsplash