Enjoy Your Work

This is a great article if you are considering starting your own business. It is by Joel Garfinkle.

WORK HARD NO MORE
In a recent survey of 180,000 American workers, more than 80% indicated an intense dislike for their jobs. This is truly a sad reflection on an activity that absorbs a major portion of our lives.

Maybe it's time for a conscious reassessment of our philosophy towards work. It seems to me that many of us are simply working too hard with too little to show for our labor.
Why are we influenced to "work so hard?" One client recently related to me, "I've never been afraid to work hard in order to get the pie in the sky I've always dreamed of. I've always been focused on what I want from life and doing the things I think I need to do in order to get there. Thus, I believe putting in long hours now will help me obtain a level of financial security that will give me the freedom not to work so hard in the future."

As you can see, hard work is such a strong, deep-seated value in today's competitive workplace that it refuses to let go. Many of my clients enjoy the work they do, but deep down they think they need to work even harder in order to meet specific goals such as achieving financial security. Their entire universe revolves around working hard, rather than using work as a vehicle to achieve personal fulfillment from both their careers and personal lives.
For all of you who are working too hard, I have one important question: "What is your rate of return?" In the financial world, the annual rate of return is justified in terms of profits yielded on the initial amount of capital invested. Quite simply, if there is little rate of return then the money invested was wasted.

In gauging personal fulfillment on the job, rate of return translates into the amount of time you have to spend working hard to reach a projected outcome. Whether you want to spend more time with your family, take early retirement, or enjoy your dream vacation, if you're working more and still not achieving your most important objectives, then all your sweat is wasted.
For all of my clients looking to escape this dead end scenario, I ask them to evaluate their workday in terms of three words impacting them the most on a daily basis:
Active
Doing
Pursuing

When you work too hard your career is all about being active, doing, and pursuing your goals. You are constantly accumulating unnecessary baggage and reinforcing stale ideas. The key to positive change is to practice doing the exact opposite. The opposite of active, for example, is inactive For doing, it's being; and for pursuing, it's being comfortable with what you already have, rather than searching for something else.

So how do we move beyond feeling our only work enjoyment occurs at the morning coffee break, lunch, quitting time, happy hour, and payday? Will Rogers believed that in order to succeed, "You must know what you are doing, like what you are doing, and believe in what you are doing." His suggestions deserve a closer look.

KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING
All too many people approach their jobs like a mosquito in a nudist camp...they see lots of opportunity but can't decide where to start. Instead, place your primary emphasis on the most fulfilling parts of your job. Apply your talents. Become an expert. Excel.

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE DOING
What most of my coaching clients come to realize is that if they are participating in activities they really enjoy, then work doesn't seem so much like work. In other words, the secret to happiness, success, satisfaction, and fulfillment through our jobs is not doing what we like, but liking what we do.

BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
In general, successful people are not in a job looking for something to do. They choose their profession in order to accomplish something meaningful. This prerequisite is difficult to explain to those poor souls sitting back and watching the clock until it's "Miller time." But the fortunate individuals who are working to satisfy their deepest passions, rather than for an hourly wage, know exactly what it means. Any satisfaction, fun, and fulfillment you experience on the job are fringe benefits you give yourself.

The secret to transforming your daily "have-to-do's" into "want-to-do's" is to find answers to two very important questions: (1) What do I want from my life's work? and (2) What am I willing to do to make it happen? Therein rests the self-fulfilling formula we need to love our jobs and never have to work another day for the rest of our lives.

Copyright 2004, Joel Garfinkle, All Rights ReservedJoel Garfinkle leads managers and executives to higher levels of professional and personal achievement. Partial client list includes: BofA, HP, GAP, Citigroup, and Eli Lilly. Visit Joel on the web at Garfinkle Executive Coaching.

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

How to handle Business Calls

Phone Calls
How do you handle phone calls? Phone calls are important. They are your way of communicating. There may be customers calling. There may be vendors calling. If you let your calls go to voice mail then you may engage in phone tag. If you answer each call you may be interrupted and not get your work done.
I have friend that answers every call even if she is on a call. This works for her. It works for her because she trained herself to do this. She is the queen of multitasking. Multi tasking is doing many things at once. You can learn to multi task and it may work fine for you. If you do not loose your train of thought with constant interruptions then this is the way for you to go.
If multitasking is not your specialty then you will need to devise another way of handling calls. I had a business associate that devoted a time of day every day to handling calls. They blocked out three hours where they answered every call. During these there hours they made outgoing calls also. They placed a message on their voice mail that said they well be available for calls between the hours of 1pm to 3pm. This can be limiting and you can still end up playing phone tag.
Another idea is to divide your tasks by how much concentration they will require. You can send your calls to voice mail for the short period of time you are working on a high concentration task. Or you can do this high concentration task during off business hours. Perhaps you can wake up early a few days a week for these high concentration tasks. Or you can work on them in the evening.
If the high concentration task requires a large period of time perhaps you can divide it up so you can work on it for shorter periods of time.
There is also the option of using e mail for some of your communications. I want to caution you about e mail. It is written and permanent. Be careful with how you word your message. Make them short and polite. They are excellent for anything you want put in writing. Do not use them to avoid talking to someone. Use them is you have a brief communication such as an update. It is not advisable to use them to return a phone call. It is okay to use them if you are the initiator of the communication. E mails should not replace personal contact. They are in addition to personal contact.
No matter what strategy you use there are certain absolutes in business calls and calling. Try to keep your phone conversation brief. Keep it on point. These are business calls not personal calls. Business calls have a different etiquette than personal calls. Your time is valuable and so is the person's time you are talking with. Friendliness and politeness can be limited to , “Hi, how are you. Or Hi, Thanks for....” Keep it short and simple. Be clear and state your point quickly.
Phone contact is necessary. Valuable use of your time is also necessary. Devise a way to make the most of both.

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

BUSINESS CONFESSION

I am a believer in honesty and truth. The minute I saw this in writing I felt the need to qualify it. I am not the type of person to tell you my life story in detail. If you ask I will answer with discretion.

Some things are personal and I may not even discuss them with close friends.
I have a good reason for this. If this personal thing involves a third person that we both will be associating with in the future I will probably not discuss it. The reason being I will probably get over my problem with the third person. But will the friend I discuss it with get over it? If they don't when the three of us get together it could be a problem. Here is an example. I had a friend, Katie. She was married and she was not getting along with her husband. Actually she was quite angry with him. In her fit of anger she told me he was not the father of their child and he did not know it. That ruined our friendship. Every time we went out and I kept looking at her husband and thinking, “You are not the father of this child.” I could not get it out of my head. It was too big of a burden for me.

So here is my confession. I have just started a new business. You need to have a strong stomach to start a business. You need to stay level headed. You can not jump to conclusions. You need to access, watch and revamp.

Things were going well with my new business. Then things started to slow down. When things started to slow down I started to do more. I upgraded my work load to get things moving again. Unfortunately my upgrade was not producing the results I expected. I was puzzled. I believed that my upgrade was correct. I believed my upgrade would show results.
So what happened. I took a little time to think, plan and meditate. I checked in with some people I respect to get their take. This is always of value to me. I think this is of value to anyone. Sometimes you can get stuck in your thinking and planning and outsiders can be a breath of fresh air. The discouraging part was that the outsider check in did not stimulate any new ideas for me.

I do not like to be discouraged. I do not like to be stuck. But I was. So I went back to drawing board and started from the beginning. I did not want to do this but I knew I had to do this. I had to figure out where the problem was. I can become a detective when this happens. That is also something that can be of value to you. A problem is like a mystery. I f you pretend you are a detective you can get on with solving the mystery. It will not help to pretend you are a detective if you are not persistent Persistence is the cornerstone to having a business. You must be persistent You must stay on the case. You must find the solution.

Once I went back to the beginning it took me a couple of minutes to find the problem. It was a serious problem but one that could be easily fixed. So here is my confession. For one short moment I was discouraged. I doubted myself. I made an assumption. It was a false assumption. For that one short moment I was in agony. Does this happen to you? Please learn from my confession. Before you doubt yourself go back and do your homework. Do the research and find the solution. Don't be in agony. Do not react emotionally. Business and emotions do not mix well. Business takes a thinker, an analyzer. Business people need to keep a clear head.
Get clear. Stay clear. Don't jump to conclusions. Make your business rock.

Marcia, Your confidence Coach

PS For more help on this check out my links.

Money

I did a Google search on the word money. Today there were 682,000,000 searches. Must be an important topic.

Most people want money. Most people will tell you they want a lot of money. Most people will tell you they want a lot of money but do not actually believe they will earn a lot of money.

What are your thoughts on money? Are you concerned with actual dollars? Do you want to have a million dollars? Or are you concerned with what money can do for you? An example of what money can do for you is to buy you a house, maybe a BIG house. Or a fancy car. Perhaps money can help you feel secure. Feel less worrisome about paying your bills. Perhaps money has to do with power. With money you will be respected. With money you can hang with the "it" people. Perhaps money appeals to your dreams. The dreams you have of traveling, lounging, hiring people to do the things you do not like to do such as cleaning your house. Perhaps you want money to help others. Once you start to think about it the list could become endless.

So now your mind is racing. Then that ugly thought pops up. I don't have the money to do these things. I probably will not get the money to do these things. What is that about? It is about reality. It is about how you feel right this minute. You want money. You have dreams for money. You do not have the money.

So how do you get the money? If you think I have a secret to get rich quick you are mistaken. I do have a tool to start you on the way to obtaining money.

The quickest and easiest way to get money is to start your own business. Let me put a disclaimer in here. It is not quick and it is not easy. However, if you look at all the ways to get money this one is available to anyone.

Don't quit your day job. Just start thinking what type of business you can start. Think about your interests. Do some research on how you can turn what you like to do into a business. Brain storm with your friends. Find a partner. Perhaps there are things you do for free for people that you could start charging for. Perhaps there is a second job you could temporarily take to get some start up capital. Perhaps there is an investment you could make that could give you a quick turnaround to get some start up capital.

Put on your thinking cap and see what comes up. Maybe you will find out that this is not what you really want to do. Or maybe you will come up with a plan. Maybe you will see that this is within your grasp. You never will know until you think about this in a serious way.

So get thinking and see the power of you brain.

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Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

How do you Measure Success?

I bet when you were little your parents told you they wanted you to be successful. Perhaps your parents told you what they thought your success would look like.

I have a friend Jennifer. Her parents had her life picked out for her. Ever since she was little Jennifer's parents wanted her to be a doctor. Jennifer's parents had good reasons for this. They wanted Jennifer to be self supporting. They also thought medicine was a noble profession.

Jennifer was smart. She had the aptitude to be a doctor. When she was little she enjoyed the idea of being a doctor. However, as she got older the idea of being a doctor was losing it's appeal. Despite this nagging feeling Jennifer plugged on through college and medical school. She wanted to please her parents. She wanted her parents to be proud of her. She did not want to disappoint her parents. Jennifer wanted to be successful.

Jennifer worked as a doctor for a few years. But her heart was not in it. It was not what she wanted to do. It was not her idea of what being successful was.

At some point Jennifer stopped practicing medicine. She opened up her own business. Her idea of success was to educate people. She wanted to educate people so they could avoid visiting a doctor. She wanted to teach people about living a healthy life. This was her idea of success.

Before you embark on your long road to success take some time to think about what success means to you. Try to separate your ideas from the ideas of success you encounter every day. These ideas of success are everywhere. They are on TV, the news, in schools, almost any place you encounter. What about your friends, parents, counselors. They all have ideas about success and what it should be for you. It is okay to be open to what they have to say. They may spark an idea.

But you must make the final decision about what success means to you. Remember that is okay to change your mind about what success means to you. When you are young success can mean something different than when you are older. Your idea of success can be a living, evolving concept. You can pursue your idea of success and re work it if it is not what you expected. Whatever path you choose remember to respect yourself and your choices. Choose wisely but make the choice yours.

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

Successful Thinking

What traits do successful people share? I have been researching this and here is the list I came up with.

Successful people have a dream
Successful people have a plan
Successful people have specific knowledge and training
Successful people are willing to put the time in
Successful people are persistent
Successful people have ambition
Successful people are motivated
Successful want to succeed
Successful people get things done
Successful people know how to focus
Successful people make decisions
Successful people look for solutions
Successful people take responsibility for their actions
Successful people make mistakes and move forward
Successful people know how to work with others
Successful people have a passion
Successful people put things in the proper perspective

This list is a lot to digest. There is also a lot to learn. I just found a free report that will show you how to instill these traits into your thinking. If you want to be successful and have confidence you need to have the tools. You need to think like a success.

Please check out this free report. It will change the way you think.


http://www.therockefellerfiles.com/?download=457

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

Don't Be a Bobblehead

As you guessed this is not a photo of me. This is a photo of a bobble head doll. What does a bobble head doll have to do with confidence? A lot but you will have to give me a chance to explain. I am asking you NOT to be a bobble head.

A bobble head doll bounces their head up and down as if they are saying, yes, yes, yes, yes. Agreement is nice but it can also end up slowing you down. Do you surround yourself with people that you agree with and agree with you? If most of the people you associate with agree with you and you agree with them then you are a bobble head.

Success in business and life comes from creativity, imagination and new ideas. How can you stay creative if the people you associate with agree with your thinking? How can you stay imaginative if the people you associate with agree with your thinking? I am not telling you to abandon the people you associate with. What I am telling you is to start associating with more people that do not think like you. When you converse with people that you are not a bobble head with stay open. I know that it may be your natural instinct to turn them off and find their thinking jarring. Push yourself to listen to them and digest what they are saying. Observe how their train of thought is different than yours. Observe how their ideas can be translated into something you can do.

Learning from others is golden. People that do not think like you will stimulate your thought process. You will start to discover new things. So don’t be a bobble head. Be an explorer.

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

Making an Important Decision

My Friend Brittany

I have a friend named Brittany. She was going through a divorce. It was a messy divorce. This was Brittany’s second marriage. Naturally when she re married she and her beau were madly in love. Brittany had two children from her previous marriage. They were living with their dad. Her new husband wanted children. Brittany was employed as a nurse. She enjoyed nursing and liked the idea of being a working woman. In her former marriage she was a mom. Work and kids did not sit well with her former husband. He was the breadwinner and Brittany was the mom. Brittany was okay with this because nursing, kids and taking care of the household would have probably been too much for Brittany. Her former husband worked long hours so he was not going to make a large contribution to the kids and household responsibilities.

Brittany’s new husband wanted children. Brittany was uncertain if this was what she wanted. Since she was madly in love with her new husband she agreed to have more children. She really wanted to remain working as a nurse. However, this was her second marriage and she really wanted it to work. She did not want another divorce. So Brittany and her new husband pro created. They had two kids.

Now let’s fast forward to the messy divorce. Somewhere along the line Brittany and her new husband were no longer madly in love. They were arguing. Brittany was disappointed in how her second marriage turned out. She knew that divorce would end this misery. Unfortunately the divorce process was prolonging the misery. The divorce was messy and nasty.

Naturally Brittany hired a divorce attorney. She found a reputable attorney. This attorney had a reputation as being top notch. However, this attorney did not specialize in divorces. Brittany made mistake one when she selected this attorney. She chose a big wig. However, he was not a big wig when it came to divorces. From there her relationship with this attorney went down hill. For most of the court dates and legal filings this big wig attorney had an associate represent Brittany. This associate was not doing the job Brittany expected. There was poor communication between Brittany and the associate. This was the second mistake Brittany made.
Brittany confided in me about how distressed she was with her legal representation. I tried to help Brittany sort out the mess she was in. We had a long discussion. This is what we discovered and concluded. Brittany faced a very serious and important decision in choosing a divorce attorney. The way she made this decision was from an emotional perspective. She felt hurt, vulnerable, sad and angry. Her marriage failed and her soon to be ex was making her life miserable. She was also grieving for her failed marriage. She also blamed herself. She was not in the best emotional state to make a well thought out decision. However, this can be the emotional state we all experience when we have to make an important decision. This is not the emotional state that will lead to the best decision.

Do not make a decision based on your emotions. It will not be beneficial for you. So how do you make a decision when you are feeling like this?

Step One Recognize that you are in an emotional state.
Step Two Make a list of what you want to accomplish from your decision

If this list contains things like, “get revenge”, “ruin their life”, “make their life miserable” etc. you know you are making a decision based on wrong information. Cross these items out. See what you are left with. If your list is blank after doing this then you need a break. Go back to your list and start again until you have items on it that are not emotional. This story applies to all decisions you will make. Once this is done you will be able to make a decision that will help and benefit you.

I have great products that will keep you on the right path to being your personal best. Check them out.

Drop me a comment. I love to hear from you.

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

Time for your Check up and Check in

It is time for your check up. It is time for your check in. You are checking up on yourself. You are checking in with yourself. This is something you need to do on a schedule. You must check in and see how you are doing. You must check in and see how you are feeling.

How are you doing? Are you getting things done in a timely fashion? Are you moving forward? Do you have challenges? Do you have set backs where things did not work out as planned?

I know these are a lot of questions. Perhaps you are feeling annoyed that I am asking questions instead of giving you answers. Please don’t be irritated. A question leads to an answer. You must ask questions to get answers. Questions give you insight. Questions lead to progress. Questions lead to information. Remember how they said in school there are no stupid questions. They were right.

So go ahead and ask yourself the questions. Evaluate yourself. You may find out that the things that did not go as planned are things you need to educate yourself about. Perhaps you assumed something. Perhaps you expected something to happen. Now you know not to assume things. Now you know not to expect things to just happen. Now you have learned something. Now you can formulate a plan. Now you can take a different approach to your task. This is why you must check in with yourself. This is why you must check up on yourself. Perhaps this check up showed you that things are going better than you thought. You will never know unless you check in with yourself. You will never know unless you check up on yourself.

Next you need to check up on how you are feeling. Next you must check in with how you are feeling. How are you feeling? Tired, discouraged, stressed, hungry, great, excited, and confident? If you are feeling tired, discouraged, stressed, or hungry you need to tackle this. What can you do to not feel like this? Are you pushing yourself too hard? Are you expecting miracles instead of results? Are you being unrealistic in your expectations? More questions. More answers. More insights. Take a look at your feelings and give yourself a workable answer. A workable answer is not that you will feel better tomorrow. A workable answer is a solution or plan you can implement. A workable answer is something you can measure and evaluate.

If you are feeling great, excited and confident I must compliment you. You are taking an approach that is working for you. You are tackling your work at home business seriously and going for solutions. You are concentrating on being effective. You are on the path to success.

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

PS Please comment. Please send questions. I want to address what is important to you.

PPS Check out my products.

www.selfimprovementtoolshop.com

Confidence and Decisions

Confidence and Your Work
When you own your own business you must have confidence. You will be making many decisions. How will you know if you are making the right decisions? One way to start the decision process is to gain knowledge. You should research the topic you are going to make a decision on. However once you have this knowledge you may be confronted with two choices. Which one should you chose? Now you are at a cross road. You have to make a decision but how do you choose between the two options. This is where confidence comes in.

You have to be confident and go forward with one of the choices. You must decide. You can not be wishy washy once you decide. You must be confident with your decision. I once heard a famous CEO explain how he makes a decision. He said he makes the decision and then he makes it be the right decision. He is expressing that once he makes a decision he has the confidence to make that be the right decision.

Do your homework and then decide what option to follow. Then work on that option to make it work for you. Once you choose follow through. Give yourself some time to see how your new plan is working. You may have to modify your plan. Have the confidence to modify your plan. Have the confidence to know that you made a decision. Have the confidence to know that you have the skills to make that decision work for you.

Let me know your thoughts and questions.

http://www.selfimprovementtoolshop.com

Marcia, Your Confidence Coach

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