chrisg.com

Well? What do you want?

Sometimes when I work with my coaching clients, one of the things we have to do is really discuss what their actual goals are. Not what they think their goals are, what they really are.

It’s important because once you get going on a project you don’t want to be distracted, or worse taken off on tangents, because what you are working towards is at odds with your actual goals.

Here is one example. A business is there to make money, right? Seems obvious. Have you noticed how some CEOs crave publicity and fame? Daredevil stunts or dressing up in costumes for publicity. Constant interviews and media appearances. Could it be the stated goal is money but the activities are more in line with using the business as a vehicle to achieve fame?

On a smaller level this is the equivalent of saying you want to maintain a close relationship with your clients but then fixate about winning trade awards. Or perhaps you launch a blog for your own interest then obsess about getting linked by the A-List.

You can tell if your conscious and subconscious goals are out of whack by sitting down quietly and think about your actions and where they are leading.  Where is your focus? Are you always looking to your peers or do you listen to your customers and audience? Is it your own drives and ideas in charge or are you crowd-pleasing? Do your priorities reflect what you think is right or what you are told?

It could be the one greatest change you can make towards achieving your goals is to work out what they really are and start working towards them!

What would you do if you knew you could not fail? What goes through your mind, what are the words you tell yourself? How do you feel about yourself?

Quietly think that over to yourself right now.

Many people I speak to are constantly limiting their own performance through self doubt, lack of self respect and by choosing to believe the worst from others.

See if any of these thoughts are familiar:

• I will try but I will likely fail
• I am clumsy
• I am bad at ______. I can’t do ________. They are so much better than me.
• Just my luck. Knowing my luck ….
• I’ll give it a shot and if I am not good right away I will try something else.
• There are others so much more deserving.
• Money is bad.
• It’s greedy to want things for myself.
• I’m unattractive.
• People say bad things behind my back.
• They don’t really like me.
• They are laughing at me not with me.
• If I speak up I will look foolish, better to keep quiet.
• Oh no, don’t look this way, I will blush.
• I’m so dumb, any fool would know this stuff better than me.

I am happy to tell you that I have been there. Most of us will think badly of ourselves at some point. This is fine, providing we don’t make a habit of it.

The key is to manage your own thoughts the best you can.

Picture your subconscious mind as a super computer. It is extremely powerful, but programming it is simplistic. There are no error-correcting routines, what you put into it gets processed exactly as you command.

Think about it. Go over the programming you are feeding your brain.

What instructions have you been giving your super computer?

• Can’t?
• Dumb?
• Unattractive?
• Bad luck?
• No point?

Consider each negative as a hand-brake, or at worse as sabotage.

“I am going to consciously try to jump this chasm but here is a program I want you to run so that you will make me fall half way across thus confirming my worst self-assessment.”

Don’t think about elephants. Don’t think about the elephants big floppy ears and long trunk. Try very hard to not think about the elephant. Are you not thinking about the elephant? What about now, can you not imagine the elephant?

Our minds have trouble not thinking about a subject. The only way to defeat these self-limiting thoughts is to insert new programming. Positive, constructive thoughts.

• I can, I will, it is possible for me, I am lucky
• People say nice things about me, I am popular
• I’m worthy, I deserve good things, because I am a good person
• Anything is possible for me

While thinking about good things for yourself, consider the words you use when dealing with others. What do you say to your friends? Your children?

Are you offering support, encouragement, constructive and nurturing thoughts, or do you condemn, diminish and mock?

We are responsible for our words. By managing what we think and say we can achieve more for ourselves and cause less harm to others. Make it your mission just for today to think, say and write only constructively. See what positive difference you can make.

One thing I like to collect in my swipe file is quotes. Quotes make you look more intelligent than you really are because you can borrow someone elses smarts and make it look like they are agreeing with you

I saw these positive quotes in a comment over at the Dilbert Blog last year and just dug them out again.

“Whether you think you can or can’t, either way you are right.”
- Henry Ford

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
- Albert Einstein

“You create your own universe as you go along.”
- Winston Churchill

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought”
- Buddha

Do you have any favourite quotes we can all steal enjoy?

Liz and I just had a conversation that I had to write about. We were commenting how people sometimes sabotage their own efforts running after short term gains.

There are obviously unethical things people do to get ahead. Things like spamming. Shady black hat tactics. Affiliate cookie stuffing. Tricks. Attacks.

Then there are the less obvious things. Running after awards. Jumping on popularity contests and ranking lists. Begging for links. Digg baiting.

Why do all these things not only fail but actually cause your efforts harm?

Because when you focus on these things, you are not focusing on what really matters.

We have two eyes but only one focus. While you are focusing on instant gratification, you are not focusing on your audience. When your aim is anything other than providing value then your aim is off and you shoot your own feet. Rather than growing loyalty, credibility and trust you end up damaging your reputation.

Your first thought should always be “who is this going to help?”. Get the answer right and your long term growth is assured.

Three times yesterday I gave the same advice. Two of those times were to consulting clients with absolutely brilliant ideas for blogs. I wish I could tell you what those ideas are, I just know a ton of you would sign up right away.

What was the problem? What was my advice?

The problem is the same for both, their ideas are so good they want their designs or content to be absolutely perfect at launch.

I can understand the need to get things “just so”. But all three people I spoke to were holding back because of things that can be fixed later.

Sometimes we are better going ahead with “good enough”.

• Keep your momentum - Who knows if you will still have the enthusiasm down the line?
• Benefits now versus later - Get the benefits of launching earlier rather than later. When you see some early results you will be motivated to go the extra mile
• Strike while you are original - Head off a competitor entering the market first. It might be a brilliant idea (and they were, believe me), but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t have the same idea and get in there first
• Reduce opportunity cost - While you are fussing and tweaking you are not earning plus are spending time on something that is taking you away from something else

There will always be something that you can tweak or polish, that is the nature of things, as Sean D’Souza says,

“If you must do a job, do it 70% right. Then fix the 20% later.”

Tags: productivity, perfectionism, advice, tips, blogging

Andy has a thought-provoking post over at his Tropical SEO blog

The great entrepreneur-CEO is, at his/her core, smart and lazy.

Could you be working too hard?

Yes have commitment, energy, drive, ambition, but do not confuse those with “hard work”. Think of the old cliché “work smarter not harder”.

Many of the best programmers I have met have been lazy. They make good programmers because rather than do manual, tedious, grunt work they would rather get the computer to do it. Also because they want to avoid hard work they write elegant code that gets the job done in half the lines of a harder working programmers design. Of course there have been a bunch of coders who would just avoid work altogether, there is always going to be those who take things too far!

Rather than work you should focus on profitable systems.

When you have a good system then you will produce quality without so much effort and also without requiring specialist expertise in all areas of your business.

I once had a public blog debate with Seth Godin about this. His point was that you should hire the very best people at all levels. My argument was that you should only hire people good enough to perform your system faultlessly and make your systems as good as they possibly can be.

People are an expensive overhead, why hire a PHD to ad-lib when you could hire a teenager to work a brilliant system?

One of the reasons Google is so dominant is not because they hire PHDs it’s because they use all the brain power to use creating better and better automated systems.

Have a good look at your business. What can be done by others to free your time? Where can tasks be turned into systems to take out excessive thinking and discussion, and to increase quality consistency? What are you doing now that you don’t need to be doing? What can be automated?

You might find your profit goes up, your stress goes down and your output improves in quality.

People seem to have a magnified view of their own limitations. Recently I have been putting together a blogging course and coaching program which has put me in discussions with a lot of beginning bloggers. It has also put me in touch with a bunch of people who think they couldn’t blog no matter what encouragement I give.

• I’m too young
• I’m too old
• I can’t write
• I am not interesting
• My niche is not interesting
• Nobody will listen to what I have to say
• I have no credibility
• I will get fired
• I have no free time
• I tried once and wasn’t good right away

Here is what I tell them.

Have you tried?

I mean really tried.

If you are really in doubt that you can write then it would cost you absolutely nothing to actually try and see. In two minutes you can have a Wordpress.com personal blog. The more you write the better you get. As you gain readers you will gain confidence. As you learn any new skill remember what you found challenging then turn around and teach others what you have learned.

While people have been fired for blogging it has been for two reasons, 1) indiscretion, and 2) stealing from the company. If you give away company secrets or talk about customer names then of course you will get fired. Don’t blog on company hours. It’s just common sense. On the other hand if you do get fired for blogging then milk the story for all its worth! A better approach though would be to talk to your boss about becoming the company blogger.

There are teenage bloggers and bloggers in their 90’s. Age really isn’t an issue providing you can physically see and type (and even then if you are determined …). Youth is an advantage. Experience is an advantage. Younger people tend to have more energy, creativity, ambition and grasp of technology. Older people have more stories, wisdom, and hard-won lessons that can be turned into advice.

Being interesting, persuasive, informative, is all about effort. Some people make being interesting and entertaining seem effortless. People like Scott Adams just have a quirky and fascinating way of looking at the world. The rest of us were not born interesting so we have to work harder. But you know what? You will find you achieve your own goals much swifter by helping others achieve their own at the same time.

I’m a busy guy. I understand when people say they don’t have enough time. But really, as I have said before, people are actually saying they are prioritising other things. Rather than saying they don’t have enough time they are saying they would rather do something else. Like watch soaps, play computer games, look out of the bus window, drink beer, read the newspaper … By learning to better manage your time you learn valuable productivity skills. Time management. Organisation. Automation. Motivation. Self discipline. Focus. Creativity. All these things help you in the rest of your life.

Most limitations are self-imposed. In many cases you can find people who have succeeded despite the same limitations. You will never know unless you give it a try.

Another day, another memes (I invited anyone to tag me with a meme in return for a link and a free copy of my forthcoming ebook). Don’t worry, I am not going to tell my life story like yesterday, this one will be about you rather than me

Success is partly about good habits. Good habits help you get stuff done and fixing the bad habits removes self-constraining behaviour. All good, but how?

David asks “How do you make changes?”

if you wanted to improve your life by changing a habit - how would you set about it?

I’ll tell you how I have made changes. I’ve found the only way to get rid of bad habits is to form new good ones.

We pretty much always know what we ought to be doing instead of a bad habit. In most cases we cling on to the bad habit because of comfort, it is easier, more enjoyable. In addition, the downside feels distant. The consequences are normally not instant.

For example eating that extra donut. It feels good. Now. Being fat is forgotten for the moment. That heart attack might get you eventually but not likely right now.

Negotiating with yourself ain’t gonna work. If the alternative felt better we wouldn’t need to try to remove the habit. You have to engage your pleasure center not just your logic

Sometimes you can force yourself to form a new good habit. If your problem is being late to work then set your alarm for an earlier time and make sure you set the new pattern for 21 days straight (including weekends). Keep it up and you ought to have a new wake-up time. Of course slip and you go right back to where you started.

A lot of us can’t just decide on a new habit and ta-daa, there it is. The solution is “self binding”. I wrote an article a while ago about Self binding and willpower, see what you think.

Self-binding, in this context, means finding ways to commit yourself to a course of action where the consequences of not are out of your control. It could be as simple as a bet with a friend or at the extreme informing the police to arrest the driver of your car if found out after 10pm.

So what you do is give yourself a reward for good behaviour and/or an unpleasant consequence for bad behaviour. Continue with the good habit long enough and you should have imprinted a new pattern.

Have you ever managed to lose a bad habit? Let us know in the comments …

What is your productivity secret? Adam “monkatwork” Kayce has tagged me for the Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project. It’s a difficult question to answer.

On the one hand, I do get a lot done. People often say to me that they wish they could also do this or that but they don’t have time. Where do I find the time? That’s the thing, much of what people do to make them productive is subconscious.

My secret I think is “flow”.

Have you heard of that before? You almost certainly will have experienced it. It’s that mood/mode where you are in the zone, you are almost on automatic. It feels good and you do good. It’s not quite concentration, and it’s not meditation either, but you do seem to be able to ignore outside distractions. When you get into that flow “thing” creativity and productivity just pour out of you.

Getting into a flow state

I have not looked into this scientifically, it’s a state I drop into automatically when the conditions are right. Here are some tips for achieving this state.

• Clear a space, in your schedule, in your work area and in your head
• Know what you want to achieve and what it will be like when it is done so you know when to stop
• Do all your preparation first - like a good chef you want all your ingredients to hand
• Turn off the email, IM, twitter, and phone
• Practice - this will only come when you are not finding the actual process challenging, that is do not expect flow when trying out new software or an unfamiliar task. Even then you will need to practice.
• Don’t try to force it - when it doesn’t come there is usually a good reason

Read more about flow at Wikipedia.

Chris, you are losing it

I know some of you will be thinking this is all pseudo-mystical mumbo jumbo but really it is something very normal and common. Sports people especially know what it is like, but it is difficult to describe all the same. My recommendation is to look out for it, you probably go into flow without noticing. If you get into your work and look up and wonder where the time went, you probably have just experienced it.

Who are my victims?

I am going to tag

• Darren
• Liz
• Aaron
• Brian
• Sean

Tags: concentration, creativity, productivity, tips, flow

I tried Twitter. I really did give it a go. More than I anticipated I would. But it’s not for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be pulling my account, just won’t be using Twitterific and apart from once or twice a day will not be checking messages.

While it is fun, I don’t know how anyone can get any work done while it is on. Far too distracting.

For those who say it is the next big thing? Not convinced. I haven’t seen a single worthwhile message, not a single scoop, not any content of note that I couldn’t get through another channel with more context and depth.

I’ll keep one eye on progress but if I want to chat with friends I will do it through Skype and IM.

Have you tried Twitter? Am I wrong? Let me know in the comments …

Tags: blogging, productivity, twitter, web2.0, news, tips