How often have you heard yourself say, ”I’ve got so many balls in the air I don’t know how I can possibly keep track of them all”.

We may be managing to keep the balls in motion, but how good is our juggling performance really? Are our movements controlled and rhythmic? Or are we merely gritting our teeth and hoping to catch the next ball before it falls on the ground?

Recently I was speaking with a colleague (we’ll call him Craig) who is a high achievement-oriented and well-regarded senior manager. He was overwhelmed by how much was on his plate. In addition to handling his high-pressure career, he had begun pursuing a post-graduate degree while he was already enrolled in another certificate program.

Furthermore, several projects at home also competed for his attention. In the midst of all this, Craig said that he was hoping to be able to continue to stick it out with the post-graduate degree, even though the workload was much more than he’d anticipated. To do anything other than persevere would be so out of character that it was inconceivable to him. In Craig’s words, “it would mean giving up”.

As we talked, I asked Craig whether there might be a more positive way of viewing the choices facing him. Rather than seeing the decision NOT to do something as GIVING UP…how could the decision be re-framed as CHOOSING TO FULFILL other important goals? Such a decision might mean choosing successful completion of a few key goals, rather than struggling to keep all the balls in motion.

In Craig’s situation, family commitments were at the top of his priority list. Instead of “giving up”, postponing the post-graduate degree meant that he could choose to successfully meet his family priorities, while completing his certificate program and performing effectively at work.

In trying to do it all right now, we can run the risk of not meeting our most critical goals and being out of synch with our core values.

As with many challenges in the business world, useful analogies can be drawn from nature. For example, a slowly meandering brook that enters a more narrow passage will eventually transform into a surging current. By narrowing the path, the energy of the water is channelled and results in greater momentum and power. Focus can provide the same effect for us in our work and our everyday lives.

Coach’s Question #1:
How are you diluting your focus and compromising your impact?

Somehow it can be easier for us to recognize this challenge at the organization level. When organizations stray too far from their core competencies, all too often they flounder and fail.

At the personal level this dynamic seems more difficult to acknowledge. There is something in our business culture than has difficulty with “less is more”. There seems to be an unwritten competition for the longest job description and most extensive “to do” list. We need to take a hard look at how this serves our effectiveness.

In my Coaching practice, I’ve noticed that the importance of focus is particularly critical when someone first moves into a new job or joins a new organization. It is tempting to want to immediately meet the needs of all stakeholders and attend to as much of the long-list of demands as possible. Yet, it has been observed that failure to generate a small list of early successes is a leading contributor to derailment of executives soon after they join a new organization. In fact, some enlightened companies dedicate resources to ensuring that new leaders determine these priorities quickly, establishing their list of 3 key wins as a formal action plan during an Onboarding Coaching process.

So how do you narrow down what you are going to address? Clearly determining the needs of your organization, your manager and your team is a critical step. Equally, if not more important, is doing an honest self-assessment of where it makes most sense for you, given your individual strengths, to spend your time.

Like many entrepreneurs, in running my own business I am constantly facing this Focus challenge. Being your own Finance, IT, Purchasing and Sales departments, as well as administrative assistant, can greatly dilute one’s efforts. Aligning myself with a team of individuals whom I can relay on for specific support is critical to ensuring I can keep my eye on my core business. It is very alluring to fall-back on the old adage “if I do it myself, I know it will get done”, but this of course can be a very limiting belief to growing your business.

I was recently challenged by my Coach (yes, conscientious coaches ensure that they also benefit from the power of coaching!) to look at ways I could enhance my focus by maximizing the time spent leveraging my strengths. Attending to detailed administration, for example, does not tap into my core passions to say the least. The outcome? I took the plunge and have hired a Virtual Assistant, Cindy, (her real name) who is a whiz at areas that are an inordinate burden for me. I can’t tell you how my shoulders lifted when I received my first email outlining all the tasks that Cindy would be handling for me. The momentum created by this decision is invaluable for me!

Coach’s Question #2:
How could your strengths guide your decisions as to what to focus on?

So, I leave you with an assignment…

OVER TO YOU…
What one thing could you stop doing today and in doing so, enhance your impact?

I’m interested in hearing about your reactions and learning pertaining to Focus. What have you recently stopped doing at work and how has this impacted how you are viewed by others? Send me an email with your feedback or questions to the mailto:info@development-by-design.com info@development-by-design.com

Susan Edwards is President of Development by Design, a Business & Leadership Coaching and Human Resources Consulting form. Her Coaching clients are high potential leaders and profitable business owners who are redefining the terms of their success and taking their impact to a new level. She consults to Fortune 500 companies and smaller entrepreneurial organizations who are also committed to creating extraordinary impact with their customers, employees and shareholders. One of the niches of her practice is supporting new leaders and senior professionals in successfully transitioning into new organizations and “clearing the 90-day hurdle”. She is authoring a self-coaching workbook to support people in effectively navigating this transition. Visit Sue at development-by-design.com development-by-design.com

Success in life? What is it? If you’re making money doing something you enjoy, are you less successful than someone who happens to make more money? Of course not! Your life isn’t a competition against others, to be fought on their terms. Two businessmen can be compared for their success in business, but this doesn’t tell us about their entire lives, does it?

If you’ll be happier, wealthier and healthier sometime in the future, does this mean you are a failure now? No! Success in life is about the process, not about lists of accomplishments. A poor but happy person going to school to get a degree, or otherwise bettering his life, is more successful than a miserable rich man who is falling into destructive habits.

Success In Life Is Yours Right Now

Your personal success is in the actions of this moment. This may be a new idea to you, but doesn’t it make intuitive sense? If you fail at the specific goals you are currently working on, but the attempt is honest, and you’re willing to learn from your mistakes, isn’t this personal success?

The idea may be annoying for some. For some the thought of success being somewhere in the future is just a way to excuse the actions of the moment. They can continue “waiting for their ship to come in,” and delay taking the actions they need to take to fulfill themselves. They can keep that future in mind – and always push it a little further forward. If you think like this, you may not like the idea that you can be a success right now, because it reminds you that it is your responsibility.

On the other hand, the idea of success being in this moment can be a very liberating thought. You no longer have to wait for the future. Find your inspiration in the work of the moment, do it honestly and with acceptance of the need to continually correct course and enjoy the journey, and you are successful right now. Of course there is no guarantee that you won’t get lazy or discouraged, but the moment you begin again to work towards your true values, you are living a successful life.

Success Is A Personal Thing

What do you want out of life. To become wealthy? To help others? Have great relationships? Travel the world? Be healthier? All of the above? Success in life is personal and unique. Whatever your best course is in life is (and this is only for you to decide), when you start honestly in that direction, in that exact moment you are succeeding as a human being.

Outward manifestations of success are nice – money, things and opportunities. You’ll have some of these, but you will also fail at many things. We all do, and that’s okay. The important question is the moment-to-moment and day-to-day question: will you start again in the right direction? This internal process of courageously choosing the best path again and taking action is what defines success in life.

Steve Gillman writes on many topics including brainpower, weight loss, meditation, habits of mind, creative problem solving, generating luck and anything related to self improvement. Learn more and get FREE e-courses at selfimprovementnow.com SelfImprovementNow.com

A teacher is telling his Students how to solve a difficult problem with a proven formula. A clever yet rebellious student claims that what the teacher is teaching,that his way of solving the problem is wrong.
The student implies that the teacher is incapable, that the student insists that he knows a better way, an easier way.

There are some students in the class that believe the rebel student may be right, and so sides with the student also becoming rebellious.

Do you see the situation at hand?

What should the teacher do?
Should he throw the rebels out, is that wise you think? If the teacher was to throw the rebels out, what would be the effect? What would the other students, the other onlookers Think?

Do you not think that it would breed doubts in the other students, that the rebel student maybe right, and the teacher just doesn’t want to be proven wrong. Ultimately the teacher would lose the respect of his students.

I don’t know about anyone else, but it seems like common sense that you as the teacher, to keep all those concerned happy, you would only have one diplomatic way to go, and that is to let the student talk, to see what he has to say has any relevance, to allow the rebel to show the class how he would solve the problem.

If you can imagine the teacher as God and the rebel student as Satan. God has only done what the teacher does. Adam and Eve are not the only ones involved; Angels, millions of angels made up the rest of the class(Job 38:7;Daniel 7:10)

How God handled the rebellious situation greatly affects the angels and eventually all the intelligent life. God has allowed satan to show how he would rule mankind, along with allowing humans to govern themselves under satans guidance.

The teacher knows that the rebel and the students on his side are wrong. He knows that for the benefit of the class, he must allow the student to have the opportunity to try to prove their point. When the rebels fail. Those concerned will see that the teacher is the only one qualified to lead the class.
So when the teacher removes the rebel and his followers, the class will fully understand.

Honest-hearted humans and angels will benefit from seeing satans failures, and that “we as earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step”.(Jeremiah 10:23).

But why so long?

Why has God not prevented these bad things from happening. The teacher had to consider two things,first he would not stop the student from presenting his theory, second not to help the student make his case. God has to allow time to prove his case, and in the thousands of years of history, mankind has tried every form of self rule, or human government, to our own detriment.

Agreed there has been some advancement in science and other fields. But Poverty, crime, and war are ever prevalent, in fact its forever increasing.
If God was to prevent these crimes, and injustices, would he not, in affect be supporting the rebels cause. Would God in actual fact be making people think that perhaps humans can govern themselves without disastrous results?

If God was to act in that way, he would become a part of a lie. However its “impossible for God to lie”(Hebrews 6:18). Imagine the teacher gives the student a week to show his theory,is that fair?
Now know that one day to God is a thousand years to us.Seven Thousand years and the end will come.

When the week ends, God will finish that which he started, the very thing that he purposed for all mankind will come to pass.

Patric Kavetoa helps and mentors those looking to makemoneyonline with digital products.Start your own online business at the22ndfloor.com the22ndfloor.com

We live in a world filled with beliefs, values, and negative paradigms. We all grew up with defined set of family and cultural values; where we were raised to believe that what our parents and relatives said about us and our capabilities was “truth”. Often times, we never questioned those beliefs and paradigms.

Think back to your childhood days, do you remember hearing conversations from your parents about limited money, limited opportunities, and limited choices in life? Did those conversations make an impression upon you? How much of what your family said still lives inside your mind today?

Substantial research has been done to show that those beliefs, values, and negative paradigms we were raised with drastically influence how we function to this very day. Those values so frequently impressed upon your mind as a child reside deep within your consciousness,and it is these very same values that can corrode your thought processes and prevent you from achieving your dreams and living to your fullest potential.

It has been estimated that the mind takes in over 50,000 pieces of stimuli a day, but can only process about 5000 pieces of information. How much of that information that your mind processes is positive, life affirming, and promotes your greatest self?

Take a little test and find out what happens with your mind for one day: For an entire day, write down all of the thoughts that go through your mind. Do not leave out any thoughts, and be sure to document them all day. At the end of the day go down the list and mark them as positive and negative. How many of those hundreds of thoughts you wrote down, were actually truly positive, affirming, and promoted your greatest self?

This exercise is one of the most enlightening exercises on self awareness and the mind. How can you possibly achieve your highest potential when your mind constantly negates you and your life?

The journey to achieving your highest potential, and fulfilling your dreams begins with self awareness. Awareness of the constant barrage of mental “thoughts”, and an awareness of those long-held beliefs and values regarding you, your capabilities, and what the world has to offer you. When you begin to realize the falsity and negativity of many of your thoughts and beliefs, then you truly can begin to reach your greatest self.

Dr. Conner is the President and Director of the Maya Center for Integrated Medicine & Research in Shelburne Vermont; a health and wellness center focused on providing comprehensive traditional and complementary services while encouraging individual healing through self care. Dr. Conner is an Associate Professor of Clinical Research at Dartmouth Medical School, Department of Community & Family Medicine. Through the use of mind-body-spirit skills, techniques, and the power of the mind, she has taught others to heal their illnesses, achieve their optimum health, and to manifest their highest self. Dr. Conner is the author of the Dream Program: Achieving Your Highest Potential- a 16 week personal development program aimed at teaching the skills to create your most magnificent self.
For more information go on the Dream Program: Achieving Your Highest Potential go to: mayaintegratedmedicine.org mayaintegratedmedicine.org