A Little Mistake That Cost $100,000 A Year

A Little Mistake That Cost $100,000 A Year - Don’t Fall Into The Same Trap!
By Michael Griffiths
www.thebusinessleader.blogspot.com
www.michael-griffiths.blogspot.com

What an amazing time December is, summer begins, the days are longer with sunlight, the hot days turn into mild nights, people are out and about having fun letting down their hair after a hard year with Christmas parties, lunches and dinners while catching up with old friends.

In business December, if not November, becomes a very important time. In fact without this time you and your business would not continue past March or April the following year without it becoming a struggle.

I was reading over the weekend that small to medium business owners that fail to set up their goals, plans and outcomes for the following year make $100,000 less than those that do spend the time, set goals, make Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and know the direction they should be heading.

I’ve always believed that any small to medium business needs to do nothing other than FOLLOW WHAT THE BIG DOGS DO! Take a look at what the corporate sector does, how do they set goals, how do they plan, how do they market, how do they network, how do they sell, how do they follow up; I think you get the picture. The only difference between a corporate big dog and everyone else is they have more employees and bigger budgets, BUT they can all teach us some valuable lessons to follow and model.

The majority of people have heard the saying “Failing To Plan is Planning to Fail” however all the words in the world are fine until YOU TAKE ACTION. We are now half way through December, do you have a 2010 dairy, wall planner, do you have a plan for January and February, if not for the first six months or even better the whole year. Have you set out some KPI’s to measure your business by, to measure the direction you are heading. Do you have a 5yr, 3yr and 1 yr plan in place? Can you break that down into a 90/60/30 day plan and even further do you know your weekly and daily activities to make it happen for you.

Goal setting and planning is all about knowing what you need to be focused on over that period of time. Through many sources we have learnt that “What we focus on is what we get, to the exclusion of everything else.”

Does this start to make some sense on how you could be missing out on an extra $100,000 in 2010? If your plans and goals aren’t in place then how do you know what to focus on, who are you marketing to, who are you selling to, who do you need to speak to, who are you building relationships with, how many clients can you be working with at any given time? Planning and setting goals allows the answers to all of those questions.

A great friend of mine even goes a step further with his business; he and his wife go away on a 5 day planning retreat. Now, I don’t think they plan for the whole 5 days; however they put aside TIME EVERY year time to reflect, monitor and adjust from the previous year and set out their plans, goals, outcome, KPI’s for the following year. This then allows them to focus on what they need to be successful.

So what are you going to do for the rest of December, Planning to Succeed or Planning to Fail?
I realise that you might have all the right intentions in the world BUT just don’t know where to start.

We’ll here’s what I’m going to do. Send me an email at support@michaelgriffiths.com.au with the subject heading ‘Goal Template Help’ and I will send to you the templates that I use with my business clients.

Remember - Keep Dreaming
Michael Griffiths

Why Don’t We Listen To Others

Question - Who is the most important person in the wolrd?

I’m sure you’ll come up with some different names, but deep down we all know the right answer. Don’t We! We all know who is #1, the best person around, the number one topic all the time, and YES it is ourself.

This is the case with EVERY single person, HOWEVER not everyone acts the same way or feels a need to justify their self worth through either talking over others, adding their own story or feeling a need to comment about their own experience in conversations.

When you are in a conversation with somone, what is your conscious telling you, where is your mind really at? Are you really paying attention, or thinking about what will be for dinner, or thinking about what comment or story you could tell to make the conversation about you.

How do you feel when a person listens to you 100%, when there actually interested asking questions and showing an interest in you. It’s a pretty awsome feeling.

I did a great exercise a week back with a group of leaders on listening. The task was to be in pairs and one member had to speak for 5 minutes non stop while their partner had to listen completely; no distractions, not taking their eyes of their partners eyes, no body langauage changes and at the end they swapped over.

The comments made after the task went generally along these lines;

The talker – It was amazing to have someones full attention for that period of time, to know that they were interested in my conversation.

The listener – That was the hardest thing that I have done. There were so many distractions that I wanted to look at.

So, if it feels so good when someone really listens to us, WHY do we not return the favour and ensure that we give 100% listening ability when others speak to us. Are we really that disinterested or have we formed such a bad habit that our time and self importance is worth more to us than listening to someone else?

I was speaking with a collegue last week and shared a story, I knew before I had finished, that as soon as I finished they were going to tell me a similar story that happened to them. This occurs probably 70% of the time. Why is my question? Are we really so insecure that we need to make ourself feel more important, by talking about our #1 topic.

The next time you’re in a conversation try this, look at the person in the eyes, the whole time that their speaking, ask some questions that shows that you have been listening, get curious about what they’re talking about and at the end say nothing about yourself and acknowledge them. It want be easy but trust me IT WILL BE A GREAT FEELING!

Until next time, take care and happy listening!
Michael Griffiths

Life Success Principle Part 3 – The Power Of Language

By Michael Griffiths
www.michaelgriffiths.com.au

I hope you really enjoyed part one and two of our journey through Life Success Principles. Today we are going to touch on an amazing topic and take a closer look at the power of language and how it is used. Everytime we speak the language we use is influencing others around us as well as ourselves, remember we model people from 8yrs of age onwards, so most of your language has probably come from your past.

I met a boy the other week, he was about 14 yrs old and we were talking about basketball and I was helping him with his shot. I would explain something to him and then he would generally reply or make a comment. Everything that was coming out of his mouth was so negative, not only about him not being able to do it, but about his circumstances in general. That got me really curious about meeting his parent(s), when mum came to pick him up I started asking some general questions about her son and playing basketball and the responses BLEW ME away. I don’t think I could have met a more negative person in the world. It was everyone else’s fault; nothing was ever good enough and on it went.

You see as an adult you have a choice and you can learn how to change things in your life if you’re not happy with it. Children however don’t have that realisation and model behaviour and language because they believe that is how it’s suppose to be done.

Your language will build on beliefs and habits which in turn allow you to have success or not. A person that uses the word ‘try’ a lot will usually always be ‘trying’ the whole life but never really succeeding. ‘I might’ is very different and will bring you very different results than a person who uses ‘I will’.

The great power of language is this - once you realise the downfalls that are preventing you in moving forward then you can move past the roadblock and remove or change that piece of language to something else. Remember in previous Life Success Principles we have spoken about cause and effect and how a person at cause is being 100% responsible for their thoughts, actions and behaviours.

Language is so subtle that we often don’t even realise what is coming out of are mouths and how it is effecting other circumstances in our lives.

Let’s look at a few recent examples of sentences that have been said to me over the past week and then let’s dissect them.

“You’re a better person than me, I could never do that”
A few things come up here; I could never do that (says who)
“Never” real strong negative word and means you probably won’t give it a go.
“Better than” in what context, says who, limiting belief

“I think I could achieve that”
It is amazing how many people use the word I think without even knowing it. It is similar to using the “try” I’ll try to do that. Both words aren’t terrible but your sub consious is very confused when you are either I might or might not. How about you replace them with ‘I am’ or ‘I will’ be definate in what you set out to do and finish it off!

The language we use every day is either preventing us or moving us forward towards our goals and dreams, what is your language doing for you?

Until next time have a wonderful time playing around with your langauage and becoming a positive person.

FREE Life Success Principles Report

What We Focus On Is what We Get
This is probably my favourite principle. This principle goes to the heart of the results that we experience in our lives. What we focus on is what we will find evidence of, to the exclusion of everything else.

We can only experience what we search for, because everything else is outside of our experience. This means we don’t see things as they are, but as we are. So, the external world that we see is through the filtering lens of our personality – of who we are.

That’s why two people can look upon the same world and see it differently, based on who they are, what they sort for and what they expect to find.

Someone who experiences poverty is experiencing what is within them now. People who experience abundance are experiencing what is whin them now. If you are bad at relationships I want to know about your relationship with yourself.

If we had a box which we called 'Your World', you notice in your box (your world) it captures and focuses on what is in your thoughts, actions, experiences, personality. Everything outside the box is excluded. It can’t pick up what it isn’t focused on. Our lives and how we experience our world is the same thing. We will simply not be aware of things beyond our focus (world)

This can be seen in a diagram when you get your FREE 'Life Success Principles Report' from www.michaelgriffiths.com.au

Life Success Principal Part 2 – The Map Is Not The Territory

Life Success Principal Part 2 – The Map Is Not The Territory
By Michael Griffiths
www.michaelgriffiths.com.au

I hope you really enjoyed part one of our journey through Life Success Principals and understanding your values. Today we are going to touch on an amazing topic and one that very few people can understand on their own. This is so powerful that it will change your outlook on yourself, your family, others around you and your life and that is ‘The Map Is Not The Territory.’

Everyone has their own map of the world and NO two maps are ever the same. A person’s map comes through their own thoughts, actions, experiences and what they hold as beliefs at the time. For example a man living in poverty on the street fighting everyday for survival is going to have a different map on ‘the benefits of welfare’, then an executive who is being paid $200,000 per year and half his income goes in taxes.

A person’s map can only come from what they have experienced and nothing more.

So why do we have ‘Maps’ and what do they do for us; A person’s map allows them to have an outlook of the world, it allows them to justify everything that is going for them and it allows them to belong.

How powerful is this; You cannot change another person’s map and you cannot put your map over theirs. A person’s map is what holds true to them, NOT YOU, and becoming curious around another person will be the only way you can find out about their map.

The same event that takes place in front of two people can have a completely different meaning for both. For example there are two children 13 years of age who are part of the soccer team they have been practicing and the coach yells out “Kick the ball harder” the tone is strong and firm. Child 1 hears this and puts meaning to it – I’m no good at soccer, I can’t even kick the ball hard. Child 2 hears exactly the same comment and puts meaning to it – I must be really advanced if I’m being asked to kick the ball harder.

Certainly I might have taken things to the extreme however it does show the point. You might actually remember a time when you were growing up where something was said, or done where you have placed meaning to it, that has stayed with you for ever.

I remember one event when holidaying on the Gold Coast with my family. I was barbequing with dad and thought I was doing a pretty good job, the hamburgers however started to fall apart as I hadn’t put them on the hot plate first, a comment was made and at that moment I placed my own meaning to that comment. “I was no good at cooking hamburgers on a bbq” I myself got over that fairly quickly but it shows a power of a comment or action and how we end up with limiting beliefs.


If you think of a time in which you thought something made so much sense, everyone should be able to see it ‘Your Way’, what’s wrong with these people. Can you see why it might not have been the case now? Your map, through your own experiences, thoughts and actions are completely different to the next person. Hence the world will always have different meanings for people on the same event.

A person can change their own map and become more aware of other peoples maps, but we can’t change another’s person map.

How to Boost Your Self-Esteem (and why it goes down!)

Have you ever noticed your self-esteem seems to go down, and you don’t even know why? Each time I hear someone share their story of low self-esteem and difficulty making a decision, I know how they feel.

Two years ago my self-esteem was at an all time low. I had no idea how I’d got myself into this place, and even less idea of how to get out of it!
It seemed the more I wished I felt better about myself, the worse I felt. I used to say to myself “I’ll make this decision when I feel better about myself.” Or “When my confidence is up, then I’ll act.”

I had no idea that those thoughts were actually perpetuating my feelings of inadequacy.
What I have learned since then is –
…the less decisions you make, the lower your self-esteem will become…
…the more you put something off, the lower your confidence becomes…
…the more you wait for the courage to act, the less it will appear…
…the more you wish you felt better about yourself, the worse you will feel…

Explains a lot, huh?

The ONLY way to boost your self-esteem is to –
1. Make more decisions, and start caring LESS about how it MUST work out!
2. Get over your need for absolute certainty that everything will be perfect.
3. Let go of not being allowed to make mistakes! It’s okay to make a mess, just learn from the mistake and MOVE ON!
4. Stop procrastinating, and telling yourself you’re waiting for “the right time”. Who are you kidding?
5. Stop waiting for courage to turn up – courage is only needed when you act. As long as you sit there waiting for it, it won’t show.
6. Stop focusing on yourself and what you think you lack… because what you focus on is what you get.
7. Focus on what you can do, today, even if it scares you. If it didn’t get your heart racing, it wasn’t that important to you!
8. Give yourself permission to have a go!

Finally…If… and ONLY if… you are genuinely committed to positive change in your life…

Make a decision and act TODAY.

Whatever it is you have been putting off because you didn’t feel good, you weren’t confident, you didn’t know if you could do it, you were worried it might not work out… whatever it is that you have been giving up on achieving to appease the self-doubt you have nurtured for… how long?!... WHATEVER it is that you have been giving up on achieving…
The time to act is NOW.
You will feel great about yourself.
Your friends will notice the difference.
You will start to like yourself.
You will meet different people who also like themselves.
You will experience new things that excite you.
You will finally feel awesome self-esteem!

Life Success Principal Part 1 – Understanding Your Values

Over the next month we will put together a range of Life Success Principals that will allow you to go through a self paced course in creating change.

Part 1 looks at ‘Understanding Your Own Values’. To make any change in your personal, family or business life you must understand and appreciate the values that you stand for each day. A value is something that creates a great feeling for you when it occurs. If your value is honesty and integrity then everytime you are honest you will feel fantatsic with the actions you have taken. If your value is love and connection then loving, caring and being there for the people special in your life will bring great joy and happiness to you.

It is very easy however to have values come from your head and not from your heart. Values that comes from your head are usually values that you wish or hope to have but really don’t bring you any emotional feeling and therefore you can’t attach yourself to them. Values play a huge part in a persons makeup and therefore have a huge effect on the way they think, act and go about their daily life.

Our vales can be our compass for our lives and ulimately our choices. Values guide our every decision. When a person knows what is most important to them, making a decision is effortless.

Values include but are not limited to;
• Passion
• Freedom
• Adventure
• Love
• Comfort
• Pride
• Honesty
• Safety
• Health
• Happiness
• Repsect

Remember when you know what is most important to you then making a decision is simple.

Most people live their lives in reaction to the events around them, hoping, wishing and waiting that it will all work out. Or worse, they know what they want to have; more time, money, love, health without ever knowing who they want to be or who they have to be to achieve it. All they know is they want more!

If you want to know what it feels like to not live congruently with who you are and what you believe in, make a decision that doesn’t keep your values intact. The secret to happiness... no matter how tought the going gets... live congruently with your values.


Activity:
What core feelings and emotional states must you feel on a regular basis so that you know you are being true to yourself?

How To Overcome Shyness

If you think or believe you are "shy" or "withdrawn" then it's time to get a new game plan...
Holding back because you think you are shy is another way of saying "not me".
Stop making the excuse of shyness for you not putting yourself forward into the thick of it...

It may comfort you to say it, but it can never get you the results you say you want. People want to work with others who are certain of themselves, because invariably it's a quality they want for themselves!

How to get the Assertiveness Bug:
1. Know your values and live by them - even when it isn't convenient
2. Be decisive - the more decisions you make, the more assertive you feel
3. Don't wait for assertiveness to show up - it's waiting for you to act!
4. Say no when you need to
5. Use good, clear communication skills - say what you mean with warmth, not fear
6. Be an attentive listener - listen to the other person's point of view completely
7. Say yes when you need to - if you say no because you are afraid, you are missing an opportunity to build your assertiveness muscle
8. Take responsibility for your own actions - act as if it down to you to create the level of confidence and assertiveness you choose
9. Ask for what you want - don't hope others will know, state what you prefer
10. Stand up for yourself

Becoming assertive in your daily life will open many more doors of opportunities, allow a greater influence of friends and colleagues and place you on the pathway to the success you deserve.

Changing your beliefs about being assertive or holding assertiveness is easy to change. Remember ‘beliefs are all just made up bull’ that we have told ourselves over and over again. How about you start telling yourself some of these new beliefs;
• I am wonderful at speaking in front of other people
• I am wonderful at listening and enjoying other peoples company
• I am wonderful at making decisions
• I am assertive when required

See if you notice a change in the next month.

Take care and look forward to next time.
Michael Griffiths

True Intentions

Let’s touch on True Intentions this week. What are True Intentions? ‘True’ meaning what is seen to be correct and ‘Intention’ meaning the act of determining mentally upon some action or result.

This meaning is interesting when we take a closer look. The word ‘mentally’ tells us that your Intention is something in your mind. Something you tell yourself through what I call your “mini-me” (your ego, yourself conscience.)

80% of the population struggle to control their mental thoughts and feelings. This is due to past experiences and habits which have been formed by them. Hence so many people struggle to follow through on their True Intentions.

We can overcome this in a few different ways.
1. Hold ourselves accountable to someone else that we hold in high esteem. It is human behaviour to not want to let someone down and therefore we take action.
2. Build a dream with so much desire that we are forced to take action daily.
3. Build a support team around us, a group of networks, and other successful people within your field. We breed success by watching success.

It is always easy to tell what someone’s true intentions are; we are all great at talking a good game, saying we are going to do something and not following through. A person’s true intention is what their actions do, it is results driven and quite often it can be harsh to realise that we don’t follow through on our true intentions a lot of the time.

A great business mind once said “Beliefs are all bullshit, they hold people back and stop them from following their true intentions by making excuses for them”

What are your true intentions and are you taking action daily to help follow your path and dreams.

Until next time please follow us through one of our other communication methods. We look forward to sharing more thoughts and personal development with you soon.
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Self Help - Part 1

Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be. "George Sheehan"

Complete this exercise;
Write out the following

* What do you want to accomplish in the next 12 months?
* In the next 2 years
* In the next 5 years
* What will it give you when you have achieved this? What will it allow you to do?

Read this statement every day

Have fun!