Prozac for angels

Copyright (c) 2008 Curtis Bingham

Procrastination can be painful. When I recently noticed the flashing light on my car’s dashboard telling me that it was time service my brakes, I thought that perhaps I would get to it tomorrow. Tomorrow turned into next month… and then the most horrible noise could be heard from the rear brakes. When I finally got them repaired, I ended up paying more than four times what I would have if I had taken the car in when I first noticed the warning.

Business leaders often procrastinate establishing or updating their business strategy. Refining strategy is uncomfortable because you have to acknowledge the goals that weren’t met, or the activities that slipped by the wayside. It is sometimes hard to tear yourself away from the tangible, immediate issues at hand. For many busy executives, it seems impossible to take the time away from a hectic schedule filled to overflowing with customer fires, internal crises, delivering for customers, or closing new business. But what are the consequences of NOT stepping off the runaway train and spending time preparing for the future?

1. Customers grow tired of inadequate service and take their business elsewhere. Hopefully they don’t take some of your other customers with them.

2. You are so busy serving existing customers that you don’t have the capacity to bring in new customers, forestalling growth

3. Without new customers, you have no way to compensate for inevitable customer churn

4. Your employees are ineffective at best, and at worst, begin to burn out and leave. How much would it cost you if 50% of your employees were ineffective 10% of the time? For 200 employees, you may be losing a minimum of $1.5M each year!

5. Your competitors pass you by

6. Worst of all, you suffer from burnout.

Postponing the development of strategy may be a short-term strategy in and of itself, but it is ineffective. Unfortunately, the treadmill you’re on keeps running, dragging you with it, until you choose to get off and readjust.

For your business to succeed, you need to allocate time each year to evaluate and update your long-term strategy. In addition, you also need to set aside a smaller amount of time each month to test & refine it. By ensuring that you are regularly evaluating and refining your strategy, you ensure that your customers, competitors, or the market don’t leave you behind.

The time you set aside for strategy must be sacred; otherwise, it gets put off like my brakes until the penalty is much greater than the prevention. December is typically a good time to evaluate your business strategy because many customers are unavailable. Schedule the time and “Just Do It!”

These days in the corporate world there is so much of pressure in and around it is important to understand that the employers need to understand the fact that they need to motivate their employees at each and every step. So here arises the need for the motivational speakers wherein the employers seek the help of the motivational speaker so as to identify the problems of the employees and grant them job satisfaction. Basically there are two kinds of motivational speakers namely the self motivator and leadership motivators. The self motivators are referred as the people that have motivated themselves so as to achieve the desired results. The self motivators are the motivators that have a background in sports, adventure. Further they are referred as the true winners as they have emerged as winners after overcoming an obstacle or difficulty in their lives. They are the people who have emerged victorious after facing many obstacles.

The second category of the motivational speakers are referred as leadership motivator, they usually have a background in business, military or in a sports not just as mere players but they have also held posts of a coach or a manager rather than just a player.

While you are selecting the motivational speakers for the event it is important to understand the needs and the wants of the audience. It is also essential to understand the goals and aspirations of the audience you are going to address. While choosing the motivational speakers it is important to understand the message you are intending to impart to the audience targeted. Unless you are not clear about the message you are intending to impart the motivational speaker will not understand the aim of the speech and there will not be any use for the speech and the message which you were intending to deliver. Hence it is important that you understand the nature of the speech so that you are satisfied with the basic nature of the speech and let it be a fruitful event.

In case you are aiming at the need of getting the individuals to re-assess and re-examine the personal circumstances both for their personal and the professional lives, then in such instances the self motivator speaker will be the apt choice.

In case you are intending to target on the values of group dynamics, team work, trust, empathy, leadership, shared vision and values as the most important factors then it is important to remember the fact that you hire a leadership motivator. He is the person who can drive these feelings in the employees to a great extent.

Further when you are intending to hire the motivational speakers it is important to understand the fact that you need to beware of the speakers who have not achieved anything in particular but they have an in depth knowledge of text book matter. However they are very easy to identify as they tend to hide their lack of depth and experience behind the fact of high performance areas. The effect of their speeches rarely lasts outside the venue in which they have delivered the speech.

Finding motivation to achieve your goals could be the bridge that link towards its realization. Most of us have goals that we aspire to reach. It enables you to strive harder and do better in what you are currently doing, whether at home, school, or work. And when faced with obstacles, some people readily admit defeat and give up on their goals. Motivation is what keeps you from quitting and overcoming hurdles to keep your eye on the goal.

What is Motivation?

Goals are as diverse as people’s personalities are. Goals can either be simple or complex such as a job promotion, vacation to a foreign country, buying a new car, or acquiring a scholarship. The same also goes with people’s motivational needs. Hence, aiming towards your goals is no good without enough motivation that serves as your driving force to realizing them.

Despite constant planning and efforts to moving forward in your goal, failures or unexpected results could happen. Without enough motivation, you could easily give up. Therefore, motivation plays a crucial role in the process. Aside from focusing on the goal itself, think about what there is to you once you have achieved the goal. Is it personal achievement or rewards that you aim to reach? Then, you can devise ways to address your motivational needs.

How to Stay Motivated?

Here are ways to motivate yourself towards achieving your goals:

1.Think of the past and future. This might seem confusing to others but you need to balance between your past achievements and what you intend to achieve in the future. Reminding yourself of previous accomplishments will give you the boost you need to double your efforts. After all, you have done it before and there is no way you cannot accomplish it this time.

2.Break it down to smaller goals. When you have one major goal, better break them down into smaller and more accessible goals. Then, these smaller goals will serve as steps you take until you reach that major goal.

3.Change perspectives. Whatever successes or failures you’ve encountered in the past, take lessons from out of it and motivate yourself to do better each time. Then, you would be able to focus on whatever it takes to get to your desired goal. If you find something isn’t working in your efforts toward the goal, evaluate and change them if necessary.

4.Share your goals to others. Letting others know about your goal works two-ways: it gives you that extra push to work on your goal and you can be assured that there are people that are willing to remind you in case you lose track of your goals.

Increasing Motivation

The best way to start with increasing your motivation is making a personal change. You will be amazed at how much power your mind holds over what you can do. To start that change, ask yourself a series of questions:

-What is my goal?
-What do I need to achieve it?
-What am I looking to achieve by realizing this goal?

These are just basic questions and you can add up the list if you want. The way you speak or act, and your priorities reflect your belief system. Hence, by reprogramming your belief system in such a way that it will facilitate towards working on your goal will make you more effective and motivated.

Finding the right motivation to achieve your goals might be that one thing that stands between its realization.