JJ's (Jan 2014) Tips in this issue: 1. Reflect Back to Move Forward Use the following tips as training tools. Present this situation to your group and brainstorm solutions together, or submit your own situation question to be answered in an upcoming newsletter. SITUATION QUESTION: What are you going to do different in your business and personal life this year? What will bring you a different outcome in each of these areas? SOLUTIONS: Every year I ask myself and those I work with these two questions in latter January. It's impossible to answer without reflecting back over the previous year's activities, accomplishments, disappointments, surprises and serendipitous opportunities that occurred. Your last year played out according to the decisions you and others around you made. If they were good ones, you enjoyed the process and end result. If they were not well thought out with the big picture in mind, and you have regrets, what did you learn from the experiences? You may be noticing a pattern in your successes or failures. You are a creature of habit and these patterns will keep repeating themselves unless you make a conscious decision to stop them. If your pattern is negative to your well being, you must learn to recognize the signs along the way to short circuit it from happening again. An example at work would be letting your procrastination at crucial points in projects make you miss deadlines. Then you lose stature with your co-workers and possibly the raise or promotion you wanted. An example at home may be your weight gain or battle with the bulge. If you look back at your weight pattern over the last few years, you'll know when you sabotaged yourself. It might be a bad habit of putting off regular exercise or snacking too much in the evening watching television. Be honest with yourself! You probably know what you need to do and if not, talk to someone who knows you well and wants the best for you. Openly discuss what you would like to accomplish and brainstorm solutions together. After reflecting back and getting answers on what you would like to accomplish in this new year, it's time to write your "5-Year Plan." It is simple and easy to do. This January marks my twentieth year of using this process and I have reaped super rewards from it every year! On a pad of paper or on the computer write all your desires for the year and what you need to do to accomplish them personally and professionally. Leave space for afterthoughts you may want to add in the next few months. On the next page, list the following four years and what you want to accomplish in them. Four or five lines under each year is sufficient. The last step, an important one, is to mark your calendar to read your "5-Year Plan" ALOUD at the same time each month during the year. You'll be surprised how much you will accomplish and learn about yourself using this process. It will keep you on track. You may add to it anytime and when you have met a goal, cross it off with a notation. It will spur you on to greater accomplishments and even accelerate goals you wrote to happen in the following four years. When I write my new "5-Year Plan" this week, I will not look back at last year's plan until I have written the new one. Then I will look back to see what I accomplished last year, how my thinking has changed and what is important to me now! Reflect back to move forward! I challenge you to consistently use this process all year and you'll reap the rewards too! You can make it an extraordinary year! "Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering." "We all create the person we become by our choices as we go through life. In a real sense, by the time we are adults, we are the sum total of the choices we have made."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DO YOU WANT TO IMPROVE in an area? Service? Sales? Call for your FREE CONSULTATION now EVALUATION OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT Have you had an Evaluation of Your Environment lately so you could receive suggestions on improving it? (It's like the doctor's check up, you often don't know you need it, until after you've had it.) http://www.jjlauderbaugh.com/about.html **************************************** JJ Lauderbaugh, CMC JJ works with companies that want to give exceptional customer service to increase sales,
and with Directors and Call Center/Help Desk Managers who want to improve human
performance. ---------------------------------------------------------- Reprinted with permission
from JJ's Tips, a monthly internet newsletter. jj@jjlauderbaugh.com REFERRALS Requested: Please pass this newsletter on to friends and colleagues who would
also benefit from it. If you want to unsubscribe, reply Unsubscribe on the subject line.
Our database is "never-sold or shared." |