High-Achieving Women's Blogazine

In order to tell you what habits help me to be successful, I’ll have to share with you my idea of success. Success means living a purposeful life, where I experience radiant health, abundant prosperity and meaningful relationships.  Here are a few habits that I’m cultivating as I move from success to significance.

 

1. Meditation
2. Exercise
3. Journaling
4. Waking up between 5 am and 6 am
5. Keeping the important list to 3 items
6. Having a “fantastic” day
7. Reading daily
8. Less television time

8.5        Personal development at all times

It’s this simple – when your energy is high you can bring your best to every task you take on. When your energy is low, you can’t.  You must focus on raising and maintaining your own energy, keeping yourself strong and well, so that you can be focused and effective and brilliant while taking on the next steps for success.

What daily habits do you have that help you to be successful? Why not share them in the comment section of this Blog.

You can take action now and attend the upcoming Visioning Great to Successing Great™ Virtual Retreat of March 20, 2010. It’s your time to sparkle. ™ http://highachievingwomen.biz/?page_id=185

A vision without a plan is just a dream.
A plan without a vision is just drudgery.
But a vision with a plan can change the world. 

 

Greatness is about one’s day-in and day-out habits, character and core values. In other words, no matter what your past was like, you have the ability to achieve greatness—starting now. You just need to hone in on the small things you do every day—those tasks and chores that may seem trivial and unimportant—and start doing them based on your best, all the time. Here are some guidelines for greatness to help get you started:

1. Walk your talk.
2. If you make a promise, keep it.
3. Do sweat the small stuff. (Or at least pay attention to it.)
4. Align yourself with the other “greats” in your life.
5.  Always act as if someone is watching you.
6. Surround yourself with people who don’t think like you.
7. Be known for your integrity.
8. Know when to ask for help.
9. Read at least ten books a year.
10. Shape your life around your passions.
11. Talk to strangers. 

11.5    Expect Greatness to come.

Success doesn’t just happen by accident.  It also doesn’t happen just from working really, really hard.  It takes a great plan, a great strategy that you can work from.  And that takes the discipline to step back from the daily grind, to talk with other trusted and committed people and to create a plan and strategy that will take you where you want to go.

I would love to help you develop and expand your portfolio of success through discovering your purpose, unleashing your passion, helping you achieve next-level results and enjoying the realization of your result-oriented dreams.  You can take action now and attend the upcoming Visioning Great to Successing Great™ Virtual Retreat of March 20, 2010. It’s your time to sparkle. ™ http://bit.ly/9AA92z

The only way to fail is to quit” – Chris Widener.  Why not take this partial list of habits that drive business success and start to put each one into practice. By learning and instilling new habits in your daily business life, it will have a dramatic effect on your level of success.

 

1. Cultivate Inner Networks: Take the time to identify and build relationships with key peers, mentors, and advisors.
2. Practice Centerness: Focus away from business and profits toward what you can do to improve the life of your customers.
3. Be Humble and Honesty: Be open and honest about yourself and your business creates growth as an individual and as a company.
4. Embrace Adaptability: Be flexible allows us to respond to changes without being paralyzed with fear and uncertainty.
5. Be Opportunity Focused: Look at both sides of the coin. Every problem has an opportunity.
6. Find A Better Way: Productivity is the cornerstone of business success. Start by embracing technology, automation, outsourcing, and improving business systems and processes.
7. Maintained a Balanced Lifestyle: Business success requires the habit of balancing all aspects of your life; free time is a habit that will make your business and life more enjoyable.

     7.5. Love What You Do and Who You Are: Everything else follows.

Here my suggestion, review each of the 7 habits and choose one habit to focus on for a month or until you achieve mastery; then gradually incorporate each of the 7 habits of business success into your life and watch yourself attain your business dreams. Adopting these 7 habits will help you create a business or career that will give you not only success but also joy and fulfillment in your life. 

I would love to help you develop and expand your portfolio of success through discovering your purpose, unleashing your passion, helping you achieve next-level results and enjoying the realization of your result-oriented dreams.  You can take action now and attend the upcoming Visioning Great to Successing Great™ Virtual Retreat of March 20, 2010. It’s your time to sparkle. ™ http://bit.ly/9AA92z

One of my favorite books is Good to Great by Jim Collins. This book along with my 12 years entrepreneur experience got me to thinking a lot about greatness and what that really means. I have identified what I call the essential elements that must exist within a company to achieving lasting greatness.  They are Quality, Service, Leadership and Accountability.

Below is a list of business success rules from my Visioning Great to Successing Great™ Virtual Retreat. 

1. Be On Target: Decide on your niche–narrow your focus and broaden your appeal.
2. Be Different: If your competitors are doing it, then you don’t.
3. Be Diligent About Building a Team: Employ a person to be part of a team to build your business; you are not hiring an employee to fill a position.
4. Be Fast: Time is the most precious commodity.
5. Be Thankful: Tell your customers and employees how much you appreciate them; the old fashioned way work great… pen to paper and write them a note.
6. Be Consistent: Make sure your business has a consistent look and feel and the same flavor from everyone within your organization.
7. Be Smiles: Get rid of the notion that people buy from you because of price, product quality or your warranty. They buy because they like you and your product.
8. Be Optimism: Attitude will always win out in the end and infect all of those around you.
9. Be Soft: Don’t ever hard sell. Solve problems. Satisfy wants. Always do what is best for the customer.
10. Be Comfort Zone: Never accept the idea that this is the way you’ve always done it. Never accept that a new idea or technology could never work for you.

10.5.   Be the Best and Beyond™

Let’s face it, if you already had all the tools and information necessary to create all the success you want; you would already have created it, right?  The keys to lasting greatness are the missing link to help you get out of your own way and connect to that power and passion and consistent action that create success.

“Greatness is as greatness does” I would love to help you develop and expand your portfolio of success through discovering your purpose, unleashing your passion, helping you achieve next-level results and enjoying the realization of your result-oriented dreams.  You can take action now and attend the upcoming Visioning Great to Successing Great™ Virtual Retreat of March 20, 2010. It’s your time to sparkle. http://bit.ly/9AA92z

“If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived?  Find your passion, whatever it may be.  Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen for you, to you and because of you”. – T. Alan Armstrong

Here are my 5.5 tips for greatness:

1. Develop a Vision Plan for Greatness: Once you decide to commit, then create an action plan and take action.
2. Think Less, Do More:  Day dreaming has it place, but it is not the goal.  You must take proactive, powerful action to achieve your goals.
3. Small Steps: Plan tasks out in small manageable steps.
4. Surround Yourself with Mentors:  When you have someone you can look up to and model, you’re bringing yourself one step closer to greatness.
5. Survive Setbacks: When you hit a snag in the road, you need to pick yourself up, change course and forge on.

5.5.   3E Success Circle™:  This is part of my full-circle success wheel designed for greatness.  The E’s are: Engagement, Empowerment, and Expectation.

• Engagement: consistently seeking the right career relationships and business opportunities.
• Empowerment: constantly acquiring and applying knowledge and maintaining an impeccable presence and brand.   
• Expectation: confidently setting career plans and business goals to manifest even when the manifestation cannot be seen.

Consider this point:  Your life right now is perfectly structured to create what you already have, and is not structured to create that amazing vision of yours.  If it were, you would already have it!  After all, it doesn’t matter how hard you are working and how fast you are going if you are headed in the wrong direction with no vision!

You can take action now and attend the upcoming Visioning Great to Successing Great™ Virtual Retreat of March 20, 2010. It’s your time to sparkle. ™ For more, visit: http://bit.ly/9AA92z.

Proper telephone etiquette is more important than ever in today’s business environment. Proper phone techniques can make or break business deals or  personal relationships.  When talking with people face to face, there are natural and logical times to end a conversation.  On the telephone, however, we don’t have the visual cues that play a major role in how to end a conversation which is why we struggle for a smooth exit over the phone.

So here is what you can do to have a smooth transition.  You want the other party to feel that the conversation has come to a natural conclusion.  Plan ahead and make time for this transition.  It’s important to never hesitate.  Hesitation creates awkwardness and discomfort for both parties. Don’t forget to be professional, pleasant and friendly as you conclude a conversation. 

A great way to end the conversation is to summarize the call and focus on the conclusion by going over key points or steps that must be taken.  Reiterate each person’s responsibilities and always let the other person hang up first.

Also don’t forget to end the call on a positive note by thanking the other person for their time and express an interest in speaking with them again (if appropriate). If not, just let them know you appreciated speaking them and then end the call. A gracious good bye leaves the door open for further communication and in this day of mergers, acquisitions, partnership and joint ventures you never know with who you will be doing business with in the future, so burning any bridges (or telephone lines) would be unwise. Remember, in this global marketplace, some of the most powerful business relationships have been between people who have never seen each other, but because of a positive phone conversation, they have built a lasting professional or business relationship.

Did you know that most Americans speak at a rate of 180 words per minute and listen at a rate of 600 words per minute?  It’s easy to understand why our minds get bored waiting for someone to make a point. You can keep your mind focused on what someone says by doing the following:

• Take notes – this necessitates a slower listening speed and allow you to concentrate on what the person is saying.
• Ask questions – this is an effective technique for slowing the listening speed.  When combined with taking notes, it allows you to ask relevant questions which greatly enhance your ability to communicate effectively.
• Provide continual feedback – it means summarizing or paraphrasing key points the person made and it will trigger you to reference your notes.

Good listening skills involve not only hearing, but understanding, assimilating and giving feedback.  The common pitfalls of poor listeners are:

• Impatience
• Mental distractions
• Trying to do two things at once
• Making assumptions

In the Corporate world, good listening skills make workers more productive. The ability to listen carefully will allow you to better understand assignments and what is expected of you while building rapport with co-workers, your boss and clients. Here are 3 tips to be a better listener:

1. Exercise your listening muscles. Challenge yourself by listening to difficult material and by learning the meaning to new words. A steady diet of easy listening will not prepare you for difficult listening situations.
2. Focus on main points and key ideas. The best listeners focus on ideas rather than just the facts and details.
3. Follow the “Golden Rule.” Treat others the way you want to be treated. Ask, “How would I want others to listen to me?” That’s the way to be a good listener.

I hope that these points will help you become a better listener.  Good listening skills lead to better communication skills which are the stepping stone to effective leadership skills.