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29 August 2010
How do you know you’ll have a powerful week this week?
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Because you had one last week? Because you haven’t had one in a while and you’re ‘due’?
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Because if you don’t have one, things are going to crash and you’ll be out of a job?
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Because you ‘feel’ it coming?
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Because you’ve just read ‘The Secret’ and will be wishing one in by dint of belief?
Well, any of those answers could be true and any one or all of them could work out and give you exactly what you want but wouldn’t it be nice to have a little more security and say so in the outcome of your week? I thought so . . .
First of all, depending on where you are in your life we need to look at the ‘length’ of your week. I’m still growing my business to the size I want, have both a practical and real face to face coaching with clients and an online ‘empire’ that’s growing and growing, and my usual other projects. Because of that, I know that I am kidding myself if I don’t plan a 40-60 hour week. Sure I’d love to make the same income in only 20 hours a week (or even in 4 Hours) but in this economy and with my agenda ‘to change the world for the better through coaching’ (no kidding!) I need to be able to put in the long hours it takes to play big.
Once we’ve determined the work week we need to look first at the ‘green events’. I call them green or ‘money events’ because they are events that will profit me, either I’ll get paid for them directly or they’re part of a project that has a definite timeline, milestones, deliverable and a purpose. They are times when I am directly rolling the stone up the hill and getting to the top.
I like to have about 3 of these events a week and I literally mark them with green in my Outlook calendar as well as marking out the task events, the personal, the marketing, etc. with their own colors so that I can sit back at any time and see, by the color-coding on my calendar, where I’m putting my energy and what is the ‘ratio’ of my schedule. The ‘Ratio’ is the division of events and categories of time spent according to where I am in my plan. In other words, if you’re growing a business you’ll probably have a lot of marketing and interview time in your schedule. If you don’t, that means you aren’t playing the numbers game to get more clients and that means not growing. If, however, you have a business that’s established, your marketing time doesn’t need to be the same percentage of your hours. It’s a question of how much time you have and how you’re going to apportion it. Make sense?
The idea here is that most people I talk to are expecting great results but planning ‘ho hum’ weeks. They’re not conscious, aware or purposeful in looking ahead, analyzing what they’ve set up and then getting on the phone, sending emails, etc.; doing the activities that will load the dice in your favor. Sure they have the desire to have a breakthrough but, since it’s been something that has either happened or not, influenced by either luck, chance, karma or support from others, they haven’t yet taken on 100% Responsibility for their results.
Now I know we’re not talking about you and your results: you’re doing fabulously. You don’t need to take a look at your best practices and become more mindful, aggressive and strategic about your breakthroughs, your results or your growth. You’ll just keep riding that wave of success and . . . Oooops! Did I see a gulp in your throat there? Has this economy or competition or some other factor put a spoke in the wheel of your intrinsic, natural and ‘seat of your pants’ ability to do great stuff? Well, whether or not it’s true or not, looking more consciously and purposefully will help you grow and that’s what I’m about. I love to see you get what you want and celebrate your success.
So tonight, take the time to look ahead at your next work week and outline in green all of the ‘money events’ you’ve got coming to you. Decide, considering the overall ‘big picture’ of your business or life, how many ‘greens’ you need, and try living a little more purposefully for a while. You’ll be surprised how much more ‘luck’ you’ll have if you actually schedule it in!
Note From the Author: If you’d like to ‘dig in’ to this topic a little deeper, I’ve put together an online video course called ‘Planning Your Week: Chaos and Awareness’. It reinforces the lessons of the article and adds a deeper level of action to it, including how to de-stress, the value of chaos, and a little more on awareness.
It is part of what I like to call ‘The Espresso Series’ because it will ‘caffeinate’ your results and also because each training costs about the same as a specialty cup of coffee. But decide for yourself, do you need the calories or can you use the motivation of a new idea to cause a breakthrough for about the same cost? Got 20 minutes to get a breakthrough for under $3? I thought so . . . Enjoy!