You may not be aware of it, but sometimes that age-old adage is true: you are your own worst enemy. We all do it, float through life, plodding along and going with the flow of daily activities.

It’s easy to see that so many of our great ideas simply stay as great ideas because we focus on tasks that steal valuable time away, such as answering our emails or updating our status on Facebook.

However, it’s often harder to see the subtle negative “mind chatter” that causes our focus to shift to such tasks by cluttering our thinking and preventing us from seeing who we really are – and what we can truly accomplish. Thinking like this gets in the way of the path we choose in life and we risk thinking more about the infinite variables (the “what ifs”) in life rather than remembering we are in control of our destiny.

Life can be stressful, especially at times when we are bombarded with so many needs and responsibilities. It feels like if we don’t address these issues in a timely and efficient manner that the world will just fall apart at the seams. Think about situations you allow to plague you – mounting debt, a strained friendship or relationship, your job not being what you want it to be – and then take a good hard objective look at your thought patterns. It can be tricky to catch what your mind is up to but when you do can be incredibly revealing and empowering.

However, excessively thinking about all the hypotheticals can also lead itself to obsession that can impede on every aspect of your life, causing harm to your relationships and reducing your overall happiness and productivity. This doesn’t help anyone, least of all you!

If you’re self-critical or struggling to regain control of your vision, there’s no point beating yourself up about it. Simply try imagining something more positive – it will lift your mood. Think about how easy it is to rise to an occasion when you have a positive outlook.

Perfectionists (and I include myself in that term) – I’m sorry to break the news to you like this, but we’re not perfect. Our self-worth is not dependent on getting that “Grade A”. Remember, you only need a 51% share in a business to have overriding control!

Setting yourself up for long-term success depends on focusing on a vision you love and taking action that supports you in moving towards that vision.  Sometimes things won’t go the way you want them to go…and that’s fine as long as they go the way you want them to go 51% of the time. Reaching out to others helps us develop new ways of achieving today what we would otherwise put off until tomorrow.

Transformational Adventures is about empowering you to make choices that support you in your business, and your life.

I’d love you to join us on this webinar and experience the essence and energy of what we are about so that you can make an informed decision to connect with us. So I invite you to become part of this Transformational Adventure and look forward to sharing the journey with you!

Funnily enough, these were known as Milestones.

The idea of using stone markers when we are travelling may seem a little outdated now we have Sat Nav systems that can pinpoint where we are right now, but milestones are still an incredibly effective tool to guide us on our business adventures, marking out where we would love to be in 30 days, 6 months or a year’s time.

So here are the 5 things to consider when putting milestones in place

1. Keep it Simple

Avoid spending hours, days or even weeks putting a project plan together just so you can be certain of the exact date you intend to reach every milestone over the next two years!

Instead, focus on your vision and then spend 10 minutes in total writing down 7 things you would love to achieve in the next 30 days, 3 things you would love to achieve in 6 months, and 1 thing you would love to achieve in 12 months.

2. Be Specific

Make sure you add a date for each milestone.  Remember, this is your best guess, not an accurate plan

3. Make it Visual

Visual is memorable! So write your milestones on some coloured card or paper and stick them where you will see them every day.

4. Review Regularly

Every day you will be able to see whether you are still on track simply by looking at the milestones around your office.

When you first start using milestones you will probably over or under estimate how long it will take to reach each one.  That’s fine.

The milestones act as a guide. So take stock of how far you have travelled, how long it took you to get there, how much further you have to go, and most importantly whether you are still on the path that will take you to your destination.

When you complete a milestone, write a new one that builds on the last!

5. Celebrate Your Successes

When you complete a milestone take time to acknowledge what you have achieved.

Put a big tick on the milestone on your wall and leave it up there for a couple of days to reinforce what you have accomplished.

Then make sure you do something to celebrate.

If you are part of a team that reaches that milestone then celebrate together as a team or at least make sure every member of that team gets to celebrate in a way that they love.

If you achieve a milestone on your own then do something you love. This could be as simple as giving yourself time to read that book you never have time to read, watching your favourite film or making that phone call to arrange a meeting with old friends.

The important thing is to do it and to do it now.

Leave a comment below and let others know how you use milestones effectively in your business…

Climbing Mount Everest?  White water rafting down the Zambezi?  Skydiving from 50,000ft?

Or maybe it’s just the image of Indiana Jones throwing his hat under a closing door whilst a giant boulder comes rolling to crush him!

Pretty big adventures, right?

But what about that little adventure that you are on right now?  You know, the one we get so used to being on that most of the time we forget all about it.

When we cruise through our days assuming we know what is going to happen next it can feel as though we are just going through the same old routine (especially in business) day in, day out.  Our life can become “predictable”.

But is it really THAT predictable?

Do you REALLY know…

• what your client is going to say when you call them up?
• what letters the postman is going to deliver?
• how many sales you are going to make today?
• how your team are feeling?

How would your business be different if you approached each moment with eyes wide open and a spirit of adventure?  I’d love to know…

So, if you’re going to spend all that time working, why not make it a pleasure?

Too many of us see work as separate to the rest of our “personal” lives. We see business as serious because it brings in the money that pays the bills.  And life outside the business is when we get to do the fun stuff, the stuff we really enjoy.

But life needn’t be like that.

Imagine if you woke up every morning with the same level of enthusiasm for your business as if you were going to meet your favourite celebrity, or were going to buy a new car, or were going on holiday with your family…or whatever it is that would fill you with enthusiasm.

Here are two simple steps to bring the two supposedly separate areas of your life together….

Step 1 – Imagine how you would love your life to be

Step 2 – Imagine how you would love your business to be as part of what you imagined in Step 1.

Remember, when you started your business you started with a dream.  It’s time to reconnect with that dream and make it part of your daily life.

Then at some point, that you can’t quite put your finger, on the excitement started to wear off.  You weren’t quite as excited about the phone calls.  You went longer without seeing each other. You started seeing little things in the other person that made you think they weren’t quite as perfect as you first thought.

Now, for some people that is where the relationship ends. They decide to cut their losses and look for someone else so they can recapture the excitement of the initial attraction.

Other people stay in the relationship, (maybe even for life), but they are always pining for the excitement they once had and they focus on why the relationship is no longer exciting.

However, others see past that initial excitement as just the first phase of the relationship.  They connect with the other person at a much deeper level.  They imagine being together in the future and make plans for things that lie ahead.  They know that whatever happens along the way they will overcome the challenges by sticking together.

In short, they are truly “in” love.

So, do you love your business or are you just excited about it?

“A big thank you to Christine Seymour of KTS Computers, Blake Henegan of Optimus Sourcing and Martin Straus of House of Straus for really entering into the spirit of things and making the presentation so much fun!”

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Many thanks