Your "Sweet Spot"

If you want to be successful in life, you need to stay in a state of mind that creates an emotional resonance with what you are doing.

There is a common misconception that simply working harder will allow you to achieve more results. However, even though a more concerted effort will net more results, you are still swimming against the current unless you can find a way to do your work in a manner that pleases you.

You will accomplish far more in an hour of hard work when you are "in the groove" than that same hour of hard work whenever you are unable enjoy your work or to stay focused on your tasks.

Ask yourself the who, what, why, when, and where questions about your environment, and make any changes necessary so that the answers to those questions will create an environment that allows you to work easily and effortlessly.

WHO: Who are you doing the work for? If you are working for an employer, the obvious answer would be that you are doing the work for them. However, that is totally false.

You chose to work there, and you continue to choose to remain there day after day. You keep that job because it brings you something that you want, not something that your employer wants. By realizing that your job is something that you have for yourself, one of two things will happen:

* You will start to enjoy your work more because you realize that you go to that job every day because you choose to, or
* You will realize that you are unable to enjoy the fact that you are working for someone else, and you will find a way to make your own money.

WHAT: What are you doing? Did you ever stop to think about that? Oh sure, there are plenty of tasks in front of you that need to be accomplished, but do you ever stop to think about what it is that you are actually working towards?

Do you even care about the big picture that is related to whatever it is that you are working towards? For that matter, do you even know what you are working towards, or are you just mindlessly doing the work without really thinking about what it is that you are trying to accomplish in the long-term?

If you are aware of and actually care about the results of your efforts, then you will resonate with the work that is required to attain those results. Whether the outcome in question is weight loss, child rearing, or corporate minutia, knowing what you are working towards gives you the opportunity to decide if you care enough about it to actually enjoy the work.

WHY: Once you know what it is that you are doing, now it is time to ask yourself why you are doing it to begin with. This is the tricky part that trips a lot of people up.

Your "why" reasons are almost never what you think they are at first. Most "why" reasons go much deeper than the surface answers that come to mind when people ask themselves why they are doing any particular thing.

People who want to lose weight tend to cite reasons such as looking good in a bikini, being healthy, having more energy, etc. However, by digging deeper, reasons such as low self-esteem, lack of confidence, bad past experiences, etc., are usually the real "why" reasons.

Most people who are looking for financial success will cite reasons such wanting a nice house, a secure future for their family, a sense of accomplishment, etc. However, when it comes down to it, a lot of people are actually battling self-limiting beliefs about money, they are looking for the freedom that money can buy, they want to prove to themselves or others that they can do it, etc.

Trying to get a nice house, a nice car, or a large college fund for your children is not nearly as motivational as knowing why you truly want those things.

WHEN: This is Goal Setting 101: When do you want to accomplish your goal by?

Even if you work for someone else, you need to have a target date for whenever you want to accomplish some very specific goal. Maybe it is to reach a certain level in the company, maybe it is a certain sales goal, or maybe it is a salary level that you are after. Either way, if you leave the target date open to "some point in the future," there will never be the sense of urgency that is needed in order to push yourself hard to accomplish your goal by that certain date.

If you own your own business or have some other self-employed status, when do you want to attain a certain level of security? When will your business be solid enough to allow you more time for yourself? When will you be able to start delegating work to others?

Again, the idea here is not to set up some mindless productivity calendar, but rather to motivate yourself to succeed by knowing when it is that you want to accomplish your goal. By working towards a goal that you have personally set for yourself, you will enjoy the work because you are doing it for you, not for someone else.

WHERE: Your work environment can play a huge role in the emotional state that you have whenever you are working on your tasks. If you do not enjoy being in your work environment, it will be very difficult for you to remain mentally sharp, to enjoy your work, and to keep up a high level of productivity.

If you work for someone else, then do everything that you are allowed to do in order to make your environment an enjoyable place for you to spend a lot of your time. This could include any or all of the following: decorate your environment, put up motivational reminders where you will see them frequently, make the environment physically comfortable with proper furnishings and accessories, play music that helps you to focus on your work.

If you work for yourself at home or in an office, then use the freedom that self-employment brings and pull out all the stops in order to make your work environment exactly what you want to be. Also, if you work at home, be sure to keep your work environment separate from the rest of the house. That is your space - keep it free from the negative or stressful vibrations that sometimes permeate other areas of the house.

Also, if you work on a laptop computer, don't be afraid to simply leave any environment that does not resonate with you. If you are more comfortable working in a local coffee shop, at the library, or outside on your deck, then go there! Don't feel that in order to run a professional business that you must work in an office. Your professionalism will come from you working in your natural state of flow, not from sitting in an office that makes you uncomfortable.

The bottom line to maximizing your productivity is that you need to remain in an environment and a state of mind that you actually enjoy being in - your own personal circle of Light.

Ask yourself the who, what, why, when, and where questions about your working circumstances, and find answers that resonate with you. If you fail to do so, you'll just keep swimming upstream, fighting the current rather than letting it carry you easily along.

Time! Using or wasting?

A fundamental aspect of successful time management in business is knowing which activities constitute work. In other words, what is your job description? What tasks do you have to perform to get the job done? It is helpful to divide these tasks into two categories: Pay and no-pay.

As a salesperson you visit prospects with the goal of spending as much time as possible with them in order to help grow their businesses.

Pay time: Basic time management requires that pay activities be performed during pay time. These are the hours during which customer/client is most likely to be available to do business. Pay time for a salesperson is defined as the time the prospect is open for business, usually 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The responsibilities and actions the salesperson has during pay time are those directly related to the generation of income.

No-pay time: No-pay time is any time outside the boundaries of your normal working schedule. This is the time for reading up on product materials, making sure the car is clean and has plenty of marketing materials, new marketing promotions and customer surveys; for completing reports and paperwork and planning goals. These activities must be done in order to be effective but are non-income generating tasks.

Wanna make a change?

I hope this post finds you well. I just wanted to thank you all for all of your hard work and remind you of the difference you make in many peoples lives everyday. That is so important to understand.

You may or may not be a Michael Jackson fan and you may or may not have watched any of his memorial service. But either way, I found some very inspiring themes throughout the coverage and more importantly from his words and music.

Although it’s very difficult at times, I choose to live my life with one primary focus. I want the world around me to be better today than it was yesterday. And, if I can help influence that, then I feel completely fulfilled. I ask myself regularly what I need to do to influence that change or help make the world around me better. The only answer I keep hearing is that the change I seek has to start with me.

Why the Michael Jackson reference you ask? Well these lyrics from Man in the Mirror really struck me and I thought I’d share them..

..If you wanna make the world a better place take a look at yourself and then make a change.

Pretty powerful statement. Change on any level is very hard to do. But true change in oneself, as hard as it may be, can be so incredibly inspiring and moving. Sometimes the hardest step to take if you want to change is the first one. It takes courage. It takes commitment. It takes trust in yourself. It might hurt along the way but I’ll bet you find that it’s well worth it.