ONE fundamental exists for how to be successful.

And I know that you know it already. But there are TWO distinctions that perhaps you do not balance.
Time management and getting organized and goal setting and all the rest, relies on this. Whether it’s for personal or business interests of any kind.

Let’s start at the beginning of what we see a successful person being in general. No matter your starting point, you can become that person. A person of achievement, satisfaction, balance, progress, power, application, control, etc. (very Western values I admit).

Here comes a mind scrambler. Get this and you’ll be way ahead of the success and achievement game.

Before the question… There are 2 parts required for how to be successful. One is ‘being success’ (an internal ‘zen-like’ state, your ‘inner game’ if you will) And the other is the outer game of being successful

‘Being success’ refers to the inner quality of readiness, ableness, acceptance. This is different to ‘being successful’ – meaning an outer quality of accomplishment in physical reality. But which do you need first?

To ‘be success’ like some meditative mantra, or to just get out there and make things happen, like an pumped up self-improvement junkie? Well actually there’s a balance. As well as thinking about how to be successful (in the outer reality of being successful), you also control your ‘inner game’ of ‘being success’.

And with that, here is the fundamental key of how to be successful: Efficiency. Not ‘getting organized’. Not ‘time management’. Efficiency. Which includes the entire gamut of personal effectiveness. Goal setting? Nah, chuck it. Getting organized? Nah, chuck that too.

Personal Success and Efficiency

How to be successful comes from reaching efficiency. Being efficient is the best indicator I know of a person on the path of success. But most people flee from the notion of efficiency. Why? Because efficiency is first and foremost an ‘inner game’.

Because whilst you can have all manner of tools, technologies, systems, processes, goals, and plans, what you can never ever get rid of, is the moment to moment self-questioning decision making between what to do next. And that is the edge of efficiency.

So many people reject the idea of efficiency as the route of how to be successful. “Hard work and effort from inside my own rationality, honesty, discipline? Yuck! I’d rather eat ice cream, get fat, earn peanuts, die easy.”

The only difference between those who achieve their goals and those who don’t is the way they live each day.

As important as goal setting is, goals alone do not ensure that you will achieve the success you desire. A written goal is not some kind of magic talisman whereby whatever you set your heart on manifests in your life out of thin air. That being the case, what is it that makes the difference between a person who achieves their goals and a person who doesn’t? The answer can be summarised in a single word: lifestyle. The only difference between those who achieve their goals and those who don’t is the way they live each day. Destiny does not determine your lifestyle. Your lifestyle determines your destiny!

The vast majority of people who aspire to success in life aspire to a particular kind of result. They see successful people on TV, at the movies or in their neighbourhoods and they think, I want that.They look at the wealth, the fame, the physique, the career success, the fulfilling relationships and all the other results of success, but they don’t look at the kind of lifestyle which led to that success. If they did, they would realise that these successful results can all be had, but not apart from the successful lifestyle which precedes them.

Get this point clear in your mind right now:

You can have any kind of success you desire if you are willing to adopt the kind of lifestyle which precedes that success.

I meet many people who, on discovering that I am a writer as well as a life coach, tell me that they too have always wanted to write. I have a great idea for a book, they say. And I’d love to have my name in print… and receive those royalty cheques. It must be absolutely wonderful!

If you put my life in those terms, then I have to agree. It would be absolutely wonderful to spend my life getting ideas, having my name put in print and collecting royalty cheques.

Unfortunately for the dreamers, there is a lifestyle which precedes all of those results. For example, at five o’clock this morning when everyone else was cosily tucked up in bed, I was in the shower. At five fifteen I was eating a bowl of breakfast cereal. And at five thirty I was sitting at my desk, putting words on paper. And because I have clients to coach today (and most days) I’ll be here for a while yet.

I don’t want this to sound as though I dislike my work. The fact is that I love writing and coaching. I actually enjoy getting out of bed early in the morning and spending almost all of my day helping people to achieve their dreams. The point I am trying to make is that if you want success as a writer, you have to live the lifestyle of a writer. That means writing, day in and day out.

The same applies to any other form of success. If you want to achieve the goal of being fit and healthy, you need to adopt the kind of lifestyle which places importance on regular exercise and eating habits. If you want to achieve the goal of having strong family relationships, you need to adopt the kind of lifestyle which places importance on regular family gatherings and good communication skills.

Once again, let me put it this way:

Destiny does not determine your lifestyle.

Your lifestyle determines your destiny.

Now compare this strategy with the ones contained in the vast majority of self-help titles and you will find their fatal flaw: Most self-help systems claim that the lifestyle is the goal, the end result of having achieved success. Wrong! The adoption of a properly planned lifestyle is the route to achieving success in the first place. If you still need convincing then consider this: How do you think most currently mega-successful people lived before they achieved the success they now enjoy?

Did Bruce Willis spend five hours every evening watching soap operas or the latest action movies on video? Was Anthony Robbins a regular at his local bar, content to happily watch the evenings pass by with just a few drinking pals and beers close by to keep him awake? Did Meg Ryan spend all day watching daytime television and eating cheese puffs? Was Nicole Kidman content to work in a dead-end job for little money? Did Stephen King spend every spare afternoon at the race track or bumming around with a group of loser friends?

Of course, the answer to all of these questions is no. But aren’t these exactly the kind of things that unsuccessful people do all the time? And aren’t these the kind of things that unsuccessful people actually defend when challenged about their lifestyles? Yes!

And that’s the only real difference between the people who achieve their goals and those that don’t – the things that they do day after day, week after week and month after month.

I realise that all of this sounds incredibly simple, but the fact is that personal success is simple. It may not be easy, but it certainly isn’t complicated.

I could do it if I could just set my mind to it.

Have you ever heard someone say, I could do it if I could just set my mind to it. Have you ever uttered these words, even just to yourself?

You can you know. And me too. I really can achieve what I set my mind to. This belief has pulled me out many times from difficult situations, and for anyone discovering this feeling, you cannot describe the power inside. No bragging, just quiet confidence.

Have you heard about the story of mothers pulling great weights off their sons or daughters in order to save their lives. And then find out that the weight they lifted was virtually impossible! Tell that to a mother who is trying to save her children. There is no impossible in her mind. There is no other acceptable alternative other than total and complete success.

You can use this principle! We will move heaven and earth when we feel it is important to do so. You really can get anything you want in life if you set your mind to it. The timing and strategy may change, but the result is in the bank, ‘if you set your mind to it.’

OK. You have my curiosity stoked, you say. Now you ask, how do you set your mind to it? Ahhhh. There’s the rub. The question of the ages rears it ugly head once again.

I have written a success story of mine below. I am not proud of where I was, I am proud of how I handled it and came back.

1987 – This period of my life was both the worst time of my life and the best time of my life. Anyone hitting rock bottom can relate.

That year 1987, my life was in the “crapper”. I was in a downward spiral, and couldn’t seem to stop myself from ruining not only my life but my family’s too. I was drifting away from the very people who were most important to me.

It’s funny that even when you know that you are screwing up, you sometimes can’t seem to make change. That’s when you sometimes get lucky. At least I was.

I was drinking heavily, an alcoholic by definition, not by belief. I was up late drinking myself into a stupor and fell asleep with a lit cigarette in the ash tray. When I woke up the next morning, the cigarette had burned down, fell out of the ash tray onto the coffee table and burned a thin streak into the wood.

Now you would think that this would shake anybody up, but, this wasn’t the catalyst! No.

When our little girl Sheri came down this particular morning, she remarked, horrified, that I could have burned the house down! I could have died just from the look on her face. Well, I would move mountains for my family so it was enough of a picture that I gave up smoking right then and there. March 5, 1987 My focus was laser concentrated, quitting smoking was the most important thing to do in my life at this time.

If you notice, I never said that I gave up drinking there. No. Not enough leverage for that one yet.

Later that year we were at a friend’s wedding, and I still was drinking heavily. Probably more heavily if that could be possible. It’s a wonder that I didn’t get alcohol poisoning, I had no problem downing whole cases of beer, and requesting more. (24 packs in Ontario, where we were living at the time.)

When we came home that night, my wife and I got into an argument, and after verbally abusing her, the argument elevated. I HIT HER.

I struck my wife, a little more than 115-120 lbs soaking wet! What a big man I was. The argument continued for another few minutes, but she picked up the kids and left the house for her mothers.

At that instant, I realized even through my drunkenness that I had crossed the line.

When the next morning came, and I had sobered up a little, I could have cut my right arm off. In my life, I had swore that I would never become one who would beat on their wife. And I had hit her physically.

I have never had another alcoholic drink since that time. July 18, 1987. Quit cold turkey, with leverage that few people get to feel. Thank God for that. And of course I never hit her again. She is absolutely the most important person in my life, and I try to demonstrate that daily.

Change took on a whole new importance to me. I had tremendous leverage on myself. I had crossed a line in my mind, a threshold, that gave me absolute power over my actions. That is where we have to be when we expect change to last.

The results? That year, I quit smoking in the spring, and I quit drinking that summer. I started jogging at this same time and started out going around a little park behind our house, probably a 5 minute run but took me 11 minutes, pumping and puffing. During the next 3 months I worked up to 5 miles a day, and dropped weight from 245 to 185. My focus was concentrated solely on the fact that I knew I was better than this and I must change my life now. For myself and for my family.

I felt tremendous urgency. I felt better then than at any other time in my life. My mind was clear on the objective. Sure there were distractions, but my purpose was enough to get me through and manage them.

In 1988, I led my team at work to a company wide contest win, great recognition for me. And I took my wife Anne on her dream trip, a trip for 2 weeks to Hawaii. We took everything in we could, and took 33 rolls of film to sit together and look at later.

I journalled my thoughts and feelings at that time, but alas, I did not journal in a hard bound book, just a three ring binder. The pages tossed away sometime ago. Therefore, I have only my memory to serve me. (Journalling regularly is a great way to measure how much one has grown. I recommend it heartily.)

What really pulled me out was the realization that, not only was I completely fouling up my life and my family’s, but that I was not creating anything for them or myself. I was not being who I was supposed to me. My idea of who I am, was completely in direct contradiction to what I was acting out.

Now. Back to the Present.

So, how do you set your mind to it? How do you make what you want, the most important thing in your life for the time period needed to achieve?

How do you give it importance over those things you most value already?

Connect them up. Use what is already important in your life and connect it to what you want to have, with stronger, more powerful reasons associating the fact that one gets stronger and more potent with the other.

How do you take something you have doing for years and stop ‘cold turkey’, and turn it around to give you terrific momentum for the positive?

How do you take something that you have been trying to do for years, and failing, and turn it around so that you are successful at it immediately?

You must make it the most important thing to do in your life for the time period necessary to ingrain it into your life. And you must make it a MUST! Just like in the story of the mother saving her child. There is no other acceptable alternative other than total and complete success.

Connect it to something you feel is already critically important and merge them. Make one depend on the other and you will be pulled to success. Look forward to your new future!

My guess is that at some time in your life you have ‘set your mind’ to something and cruised to victory. This is the feeling you want to remember and practice.

Think back, pull the memories of successful changes you have already made and you will have your own personal strategy that you know works for you. You just have to consciously remember and practice it.

There are many ways to change. You probably already know these but are you using them? I have found them absolutely critical to habit development and change. The degree of success you have will be directly proportionate to the degree you apply these principles.

They create a ‘pull’ instead of you having to ‘push’. Logical reasons will help, but emotional reasons have the most power. Here are 5 strategies that I feel are critical.

1. Decision to Commit – Pure resolve that I am doing it. No matter what, whatever it takes. There is no option acceptable other than to do it.

2. Great Reasons that move me to ACTION! Strong Empowering Emotional Reasons WHY I must do this.

3. Connection to what’s already important. Anchoring positive thoughts over negative to control focus. Look forward to your new future.

4. Associating with people who have done it or are doing it. Immerse myself.

5. Change My Identity, to a Self Image that is consistent with what I want.

I use these strategies in conjunction with each other. It does however depend on the habit you want to create or replace.

More later at another time, this will give you a great place to start. Go for it!

Prosperity is a matter of choice, not chance.

Some may think that the change from paucity or ‘the norm’ to abundant prosperity is a mysterious and miraculous leap brought on by fate or fortune. It is not. It is, in 99% of the cases, a step-by-step and conscious following of an envisioned and intentional path; it is a proven formula.

The formula is repeated on almost every page of the Prosperity Paradigm Website. It is stated simply as Purpose + Passion + Persistence = Prosperity. It may sound simple. It may even, for most, be something too simple to seem real. It is, however, the path that all those who achieve the prosperity they dream and desire, walk step-by-step.

The lover of math in me likes to define it as 3p=P.

If you critically examine the lives of most people, you will see that they wander through life without (a defined) purpose. It is the rare individual who can tell you in a short paragraph immediately when asked, What is the purpose of your life? Even amongst those who can answer, the response most give is usually some vague and hollow repetition of some assumed or inherited survival, societal or spiritual meme. It is meaningless drivel.

It is the truly rare and almost inevitably successful and happy individual who will be able to state succinctly and definitely what the real and tangible purpose of their life is. Their defined purpose may not seem all that important to you. That matters not a whit. It only matters to that person that it has value; more, that it has an all-consuming importance.

If you do not know what your real (self-assigned) purpose is, then the first and most critical step on your path to real and lasting prosperity (and happiness) is to define your purpose. Only you can do that for yourself. Any purpose assigned to your by parents, peers or societal expectations is false. It will not, therefore, bear the fruit you desire success and fulfillment, i.e. prosperity, which is the having of an abundance of ALL things held ideal in mind and dear in heart.

It may take some critical self-examination and a great deal of personal honesty to arrive at a real, defined sense of purpose for your life. So what? What else are you doing with your life? Are you tired of being just average or unhappy; weary of merely surviving?

Figure out with what purpose you journey through these few short years on planet earth. It is step one in your quest for having a meaningful and purposeful life. You, and only you, must decide and define your purpose. Then go about living your each and every day to fulfill that purpose. It is aptly called being on purpose.

Ah, passion. How we soar when we have it! Remember falling in love and lusting after being with that one truly special person? Passion! How wondrous! How consuming! How addictive! How enlivening! How intense! How fulfilling! How passionate!

The next step in your path to real and lasting prosperity is to become PASSIONATE about your purpose and your moment-by-moment existence.

It is often called a lust for life, but it is more than that. It is a lust for the self-decided purpose of your life, AND, it is an immense gratitude for being blessed with being able to pursue that purpose.

Get passionate or stay home. Without passion, life is mediocre. You have already learned that lesson, even if you deny or forget it in order to tolerate some normality or compromise. you have made to get through each day without passion.

Now, here is the tough part for many, many people life will throw you curves, put up road blocks, appear to resist your journey and generally test your resolve. The majority will take these ‘obstacles’ as proof that they are mistaken in their choice of purpose and passion or that they were not destined to have the level of prosperity they desire. Those who take these ‘messages’ as lessons or as opportunities to garner more strength will be the ones who succeed. Persistence pays dividends. Huge dividends. Invest in a little persistence.

Although I would like to find a way to say it better, there is no greater quote than that spoken by Calvin Coolidge, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

So there we have it. The simply stated, but not so simply applied, formula for achieving the prosperity you desire 3p=P.

So now you know. The only thing holding you back from having your heart’s desire is your lack of application of this one formula.

It is your choice. You are totally free to choose a purpose for your life (or not). You are totally free to become passionate about life and your purpose (or not). You are totally free to desist (give up/compromise/take the easy way out) or persist.

Prosperity is a matter of choice, not chance.

Photographs are clearer when they are in focus.

When they are out of focus, they are blurry, indistinct. How many times have you been disappointed by the result when the focus was off? Faces or objects are blurred, maybe even unrecognizable. Toss that one away a poor quality picture that does not meet the ideal you had in mind when you took it. Scratch it up to experience. Maybe blame it on the camera.

The quality of the reality pictures that show up in your life are also largely due to proper focus.

In the first place, the ideal must be clearly held in mind. The result you desire to out-picture or manifest in your life must first be clearly and distinctly created in your imagination. It must be ‘in focus’; that is, the components must be defined, clearly seen, envisioned.

In the second place, as you go about the ‘doing’ necessary to effectuate the picture, you must remain focused on your goal and not allow yourself to get distracted by what is going on around you.

Simple really, but it always amazes me how unfocused people are. Ask someone to describe their heart’s desire and 90% of the time, you cannot get a clear description from them. It is blurry and indistinct. Generalities but no specifics. Or a description of the picture by what’s not in it.

“I want health, wealth and happiness”

“So what does health mean to you?”

“Well, you know, to not be sick.”

“So what does wealth mean to you?”

“Well, you know, to not be lacking.”

“So what does happiness mean to you?”

“To not be sad, dissatisfied.”

“I want peace.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, you know no more war.”

Not this, not that; defining the picture, the ideal by what is not in it, instead of what is in it. The trouble with focusing on ‘no more war’ is that you are still focusing on war. The trouble with focusing on not being unwell is that you are still focusing on un-wellness, not wellness. The focus is on lack and limitation and not on abundance and potentiality.

As Mark Twain once said, “I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.”

All most people seem to know is what they do NOT want. Focus your attentions and intentions on those ideals that you want, desire, long for, lust after. Make that focus clear and distinct.

You get the picture you have focused on. “Prosperity is the abundance of all things held ideal in mind and dear in heart.” How clear and exact are your ideals? How much desire, longing, passion is attached to them? How focused is the image in your mind? How focused is your desire to have that ideal be out-pictured in your life?

The complex thing about life is that it is wonderfully full of distractions. Here you are, focused on some purpose or goal and then this incredibly intrusive thing occurs.

Perhaps, you are in medical school, totally focused on becoming a doctor. Then this great guy shows up, beds you and before you know it, you are at home practicing motherhood instead of medicine and taking your child to the pediatrician you could have been had you not allowed yourself to be distracted, to lose focus.

Or perhaps, you are busy going about the business of creating a business and some seemingly major obstacle presents itself, so you change your mind, change your plan, change your focus to the next great business idea and the next one after that.

Life is full of distractions making it easy to lose focus. Winners stay focused. Sometimes they are so focused that you cannot even get their attention.

Funny how that is.

How does Serena win Wimbledon? Focus.

How does Lance win the Tour de France? Focus.

How does Tiger win so many tournaments? Focus.

Do you want to win the game of life? Get focused. Stay focused.

One fundamental exists for how to be successful.

And I know that you know it already. But there are 2 distinctions that perhaps you do not balance.

Time management and getting organized and goal setting and all the rest, relies on this. Whether it’s for personal or business interests of any kind.

Let’s start at the beginning of what we see a successful person being in general. No matter your starting point, you can become that person. A person of achievement, satisfaction, balance, progress, power, application, control, etc. (very Western values I admit).

Here comes a mind scrambler. Get this and you’ll be way ahead of the success and achievement game.

Before the question… There are 2 parts required for how to be successful. One is ‘being success’ (an internal ‘zen-like’ state, your ‘inner game’ if you will) And the other is the outer game of being successful

‘Being success’ refers to the inner quality of readiness, ableness, acceptance. This is different to ‘being successful’ – meaning an outer quality of accomplishment in physical reality. But which do you need first?

To ‘be success’ like some meditative mantra, or to just get out there and make things happen, like an pumped up self-improvement junkie? Well actually there’s a balance. As well as thinking about how to be successful (in the outer reality of being successful), you also control your ‘inner game’ of ‘being success’.

And with that, here is the fundamental key of how to be successful: Efficiency. Not ‘getting organized’. Not ‘time management’. Efficiency. Which includes the entire gamut of personal effectiveness. Goal setting? Nah, chuck it. Getting organized? Nah, chuck that too.

Personal Success and Efficiency

How to be successful comes from reaching efficiency. Being efficient is the best indicator I know of a person on the path of success. But most people flee from the notion of efficiency. Why? Because efficiency is first and foremost an ‘inner game’.

Because whilst you can have all manner of tools, technologies, systems, processes, goals, and plans, what you can never ever get rid of, is the moment to moment self-questioning decision making between what to do next. And that is the edge of efficiency.

So many people reject the idea of efficiency as the route of how to be successful. “Hard work and effort from inside my own rationality, honesty, discipline? Yuck! I’d rather eat ice cream, get fat, earn peanuts, die easy.”

About the Author:

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Learn more about organizing and natural time management skills at Nathan F Shaw’s website.

Many people have trouble fitting everything they would like to do into each day.

Modern life can be pretty demanding when it comes to keeping up with our professional and personal commitments, never mind putting some hours aside for leisure time.

However, with a little forethought and a little structure you can make much better use of your time. The secret is to identify what really needs to be done in each day. If you look closely at how you spend your days you will probably find that there are many things that aren’t really that important. You need to do whatever it takes to ensure that these never get in the way of the things that really need to be done.

So, at the beginning of each day or even the night before you need to sit down and think about what needs to be achieved from your day. I encourage you to write down the things that must be achieved and you could also make a list of things of lesser importance that maybe you would like to do, but aren’t essential.

You need to prioritize the most important things you need to do and schedule them in as the first things you need to do in the day. This is a good idea for two reasons. First, it is good to get the important things done first. Second, you are likely to be more focused and energetic first thing in the day.

The important thing is that you do not allow any interruptions to get in the way of what really needs to be done. Once these tasks have been completed you can then think about other things you may want to do with your remaining time in a more relaxed manner.

About the Author:

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Discover how to get more done in less time, the top 7 “time management” truths uncovered in this free report, by clicking here now => time management Wendy works with business owners to be more effective and successful, achieving a more profitable business in less time using time management strategies

The trouble with working online is that your email is always just a click or two away at any time during your working day. If you were running an offline business from home, your day would be centered away from your computer and you would have to make a conscious decision about when and how often to check your email. When you are already sitting at your pc and connected to the Internet, it is just too easy to forget all about time management techniques and develop bad email habits. If you use the following time management strategy, you will maintain control of your working hours and find that you can easily get more done in less time.

1. Set an email schedule for yourself. Make it a rule only to check your inbox two or three times a day and set a strict time limit (ten or fifteen minutes per session is about right) on how long you spend dealing with email.

2. Don’t check your email as soon as you power up your computer at the start of any work session. You will be at your most alert and creative during the first hour of work. Use this time to complete more complicated or difficult tasks.

3. Don’t have your email alert permanently on to notify you as soon as an email hits your mailbox. This will serve to distract you while you are working and tempt you to abandon the schedule you have planned.

4. Deal with each email as soon as you read it. Flagging an email and going back to it to send your reply makes double the work. The only time you should permit yourself to do this is if you need to do some research before you reply.

5. Use your bookmark function. You are bound to get emails that contain a link to a website. Maybe you have subscribed to interesting online news letters or they could be offers of useful ebooks or tools. The time you have allocated to your email session should be used solely for reading and replying to emails. Bookmark any of the sites that appear worthy of further investigation and schedule time for a visit. This is the most dangerous part of dealing with emails: all commercial emails will have a “hook” with which to catch you, drag you into a black hole and make your time disappear. You must be alert to this so that you can unhook yourself and visit these websites at a time you decide is best for your schedule.

Developing good time management techniques is not difficult. You do, however, need to be constantly on your guard against temptations which might make you forget your time management strategy. Developing good habits and curing bad ones is the foundation of effective time management techniques.

About the Author:

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Elaine Currie is an author and the owner of the Best Free Work At Home Directory for work at home ideas.

Read This And Make Sure You Do The Opposite

Become the Manager Who is a Failure at Managing Meetings

Meetings have become an inevitable part of doing business for almost every department owner. There are meetings with clients, meetings with employees and meetings with peers or associates. Almost everyone has suffered through too many meetings that take up too much time and accomplish too little. In fact, you may find that you yourself have now become numb to the fact that your meetings aren’t as good as they could be. And everywhere you look, it seems as if somebody has another idea about how to fix your meetings, and make them more focused, more productive, and – dare I say it? More fun! So what can you do about it? Relax and keep reading, because you’re about to find the information that can help you maintain the status quo – a list of tips and ideas for meeting planning – the wrong way!

1. Schedule your meetings at bad times – (for example, how about setting up a “must attend” meeting late on Friday afternoon?).

2. Make sure your meetings all start late and run overtime – (and whenever possible, scheduling meetings when someone is up against a deadline, or on a tight schedule).

3. Maintain a consistent lack of focus on what topics will be covered – (don’t use an agenda).

4. Ensure there is a poor level of rapport in the group – (people don’t talk to each other, or they complain, or engage in other unsuitable behaviour).

5. Don’t arrive at a decision – (find new ways to keep covering the same ground, or continue asking for input rather than creating a plan of action.)

6. Choose a poor location and environment for your meetings – (for example, trying to fit 15 people into a closet-sized room that doesn’t have windows or a proper ventilation system.)

7. Schedule meetings to go over routine topics – (instead of sending a memo or email.)

8. Don’t talk to your group, or make your meetings interactive – (talking “at” them, lecturing or going off on wild tangents.)

9. Never asking for feedback from participants, or allowing others to present ideas or get involved.

There you have it! Just follow those nine simple tips, and you’re guaranteed to instil fear, loathing and boredom into even the most intrepid of meeting participants! You will be known as the manager who knows how NOT to manage meetings.

Andrew Rondeau is a leading Management & Leadership Strategist and offers Management/Leadership Mentoring and Coaching Services.

About the Author:

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Andrew Rondeau is a leading Management strategist. He is the author of the ground breaking management e-Books ‘Accelerate Your Management Effectiveness’, ‘How To Get A Standing Ovation Every Time You Publicly Present’ and ‘Learn The Secrets Of Time Management’. www.andrewrondeau.co.uk

Opportunities abound in the small home business world. Many times finding such an opportunity requires just a little bit of research and a keen eye. Many of those who have succeeded in the small home business arena saw the needs of those around them and then created a business which helped fill those needs. Some create their small home business from scratch, from the business name to the product they sold. They started it all from the ground up. Others find a small home business opportunity which already exists, and they grab a hold of it before others saturate their local market. Businesses such as Tupperware, Mary Kay, and even Pampered Chef, household names for decades, have given many a person a start at their own small home business. In all of these cases, however, the successful home business operator saw a need that he or she could fulfill. That person took the necessary steps to starting his or her own business, and then simply worked hard to make the business work. 

Those seeking a small business opportunity should not jump into just any opportunity that presents itself. They should consider the business itself as well as the bottom line of what they will make from the business. A small home business will never succeed if the person running it does not believe in his product. So the one who is seeking this opportunity should not just take it while it presents itself, but he should take some time to seek wise counsel. Those who know him best will give him the best advice. Wise counsel does not include the one who may be trying to convince that individual to buy into a small business. Instead, this would consist of his closest friends and family members, along with successful people he may know. 

Finally, the average employee should consider if he needs to further his education in the process of beginning a small home business. The average Joe may have decent business instincts, but classes on how to run a small business will help him succeed even more. Consider specific classes instead of just obtaining a business degree. The degree will only help a person if he plans on seeking employment with a larger company. If he is simply seeking to start his own small home business, then he should take courses specific to his business. 

Dissatisfied employees should not have to bow down to the boss that many refer to as “the man.” They do not have to stay chained to the desk at an office that they hate. Instead with some inquiry, wisdom, and old-fashioned hard work, he can be his own boss by beginning his own small home business.

About the Author:

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Jim Biscardi is owner of Dynamic Wealth Systems, LLC and writes on a variety of subjects. To learn more about this topic Jim recommends you visit:www.DynamicWealthSystems.com