Contrary to popular belief “FEAR” doesn’t mean “Forget Everything And Run”! But what are you supposed to do when negative thoughts creep in, force you to live in stress, and cancel out peace of mind?

If you’re like most sales pros, you’ll be tickled pink to know that fear can indeed be conquered. You can greet every single day with a sense of excitement at the thought of having “confidence on demand” and you can own every prospect that has the good fortune to meet with you!

Bottom line? Conquer fear and you’ll come out on top.

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Do you spend so much time working in your business that you never work on your business?

The corporate world knows the value of taking time out for a step back, taking time to assess what is going right, what is going wrong and what just plain isn’t going anywhere.  As a business owner (or as one who dreams of owning a business), it is critical to take time out to plan for the upcoming time period, be it a year, or even a long-term goal.  Otherwise, how can you get where you want to be if you don’t know where that is?

I usually plan my retreat in late summer – it’s late enough in the current year to have a good idea of how the year is progressing and yet still have enough time to make changes if necessary.  I take a few critical tools and go somewhere alone for a few days where I can sit and reflect on my business as a business – its successes and opportunities.  It is critical to build a roadmap of where you want to go…here are some of the steps I take:

1.  Bring your financial records…in whatever form they exist.  I use QuickBooks to track my finances – it allows me to track my income and expenses by any number of categories and dates.  With the click of a few buttons, I can tell when my peak times of year are, what services bring in the most income (and how that changes seasonally) and what my expenses are.

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Copyright © 2006 Donna Gunter

Yes, I’ll admit that this isn’t an original title.  In fact, it’s taken from one of my favorite books of the same name by Susan Jeffers.  It’s amazing how people react to fear.  Fear causes some to play ostrich and hide their heads to avoid what’s in front of them.  Fear acts as a catalyst to others, and propels them into action.  Fear causes a third set to be totally immobilized and unable to do anything at all.

One of the most common concerns I hear from clients is their inability to live the life that they truly want–a life that enables them to make a living, have meaningful connections with others, and nourishes their souls.  When I ask them what’s preventing them from creating that for themselves, the response I most often hear is one that is fear-based:  “I can’t do that — I have a mortgage to pay.”  “What will my wife/husband/family think?” “I’ll have time to do that after I retire.”  Any of these sound familiar?

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Copyright © 2006 The National Learning Institute

So, economics and statistics are the flavour of the month, or more specifically “Freakonomics” (Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Penquin Books 2006).  In a quote from Levitt’s website, “Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives - how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.”  And Levitt & Dubner do have many interesting, amusing and sometimes disturbing (at least to me) stories to tell.

For example, take the case of the child care centre that was having difficulty with a few parents picking up their children late.  It was decided to institute a late pick up fee of $3.  As you might have guessed, this did not stop the late parents and in fact their numbers increased from about 8 to 20!  By introducing the fee, late pick ups had just been legitimised and ameliorated the parents feeling of guilt.

Levitt and Dubner suggest that incentives, to be effective, need to have three components – economic, social and moral.  In the child care case, would increasing the late fee to $100, posting the names of the late parents on a public list and running discussion groups on the implications of late pick ups for children and parents, have changed the parent’s behaviour?  The answer is unequivocally, “Yes”.

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Copyright © 2006 Red Ladder, Inc.

When it comes to employee engagement and commitment to an organization, most companies would agree that they ‘have some, want more.’ Why? These companies have come to recognize that their organization’s long-term success relies on employee performance, which is directly impacted by the level of employee engagement and commitment to an organization.

How is employee engagement and commitment defined? According to a 2003 report by Towers Perrin, it is defined as “employees’ willingness and ability to contribute to company success.” What does that mean in real terms? It is the extent to which your employees are willing to put discretionary effort into their work in the form of “extra time, brainpower and energy.”

If you’re like most corporate leaders, you are probably thinking to yourself, ‘Wishful thinking.” Worse, some corporate leaders think that simply making people happy and paying them more money is the solution. Not so. These are certainly important considerations for any company that wants to attract and retain the most qualified individuals, however, they are less important when it comes to engaging employees in their work. Further, engagement requires both a rational and emotional commitment. And, as you might suspect, it is far more difficult to engage employees emotionally. You have to engage not only their minds but their hearts as well.

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Copyright © 2006 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

One of the strategies I teach to PULL your business forward, almost effortlessly, is to create a powerful vision for your business. My private clients have found this exercise to be both motivating and inspiring, and I’m certain you will too.

Once a year, I take a short retreat to work on revising my vision for my business (and my life). This is an annual break I take away from my business (but with my family, although some of my clients prefer to go it alone, which is perfectly fine) to really think about and decide what I want the next 1 to 3 years to look like. I write my vision and I create a whole bunch of goals for my business. I also use this time to talk with my husband about my vision and goals. He is a great sounding board for all the ideas I come up with… and we usually have this conversation while hanging out on the beach… :)

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Copyright © 2006 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

What’s a Niffler, you ask?

Well, if you’ve read Happy Potter and the Goblet of Fire, you might remember that a Niffler is a critter that hunts treasure. Once it finds one treasure, it moves on quickly in search of the next prize.

Do you do the same thing in your business? Meaning, are you a constant gatherer of the things that you think will move your business ahead, but not so much the implementer of them? Do you get distracted by anything and everything that’s new in your industry? Do you come up with one great idea after another, but you never fully commit to completely one of them?

Yes? I hate to break it to you, but there’s probably a bit of Niffler in you! You could also call it distractiblity-disorder or failure-to-follow-through or fear-of-success/failure, or focus-challenged… but personally, I like having a bit of Niffler in me. It means I’m still passionate about what I’m doing, I’m still excited about learning new things, and I’m still interested in what’s happening in my industry, which lends to my ultimate success.

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Copyright © 2006 Juanita Bellavance

There is a powerful energy that comes from interaction with others.  Have you ever been on a teleclass call where it was highly interactive?  The class almost takes on a life of it’s own in the midst of the high energy that occurs when so many minds come together.

Here are several ways to put a stop to your procrastination:

1. Start listening for when you hear others who are interested in a similar goal as yours.  For example:  If you want to start exercising more or want to run or walk a marathon, get involved with a group of people who are doing the same thing.  The human being has a natural tendency to want to “measure up” and prove to self they are “good enough.”  By putting yourself in a group, your natural desire can become a strength to get you in action.  Who wants to be left behind your peers?  Not me!!

2. Form your own group of people with similar goals.  Start letting people know you have a goal and keep putting if off and want to create an environment for yourself that pulls you toward your goal.

3. Create a vision of how your life will be once your goal is accomplished.  Experience the fabulous FEELING you will have once it is achieved.  That feeling is what will hold you in the game, not those goals!  Try it and see!  And for a FR.EEE Report about vision writing go here:  http://www.yourvisionreport.com

4. If you have all the above in place and find that you are still procrastinating, work on your BELIEF that what you want is possible.  The best way I know to do this is to find a mentor or coach who has accomplished what you desire to accomplish and take action on what that person tells you to do – in baby steps.  They have no reason to tell you something that they have not found to be so.  Trust them – once you have found someone you KNOW has accomplished what you desire.  Be as a child in this trust.  I refer you to a book by Wayne Dyer, You’ll See it WHEN You Believe It.

When you form a group of people to interact with who have similar goals as you (while non-competing goals with yours), you have formed a mastermind team.  Some describe the phenomenon that occurs during the conversations in a group like this as the presence of the “third mind.”

It’s in the “third mind” state of conversation that the most creative and magnificent ideas emerge.  Make sure someone is writing.  The ideas that emerge in this state of conversation disappear almost the instant they are spoken if not captured. The person who speaks the ideas at this stage of the interaction will seldom remember what it was exactly as they said it.  If no one is writing, then have a recorder running during the entire meeting.  You cannot predict when these amazing thoughts will appear.

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Juanita Bellavance, the author of this article, coaches people on achieving their goals, beginning with clear vision, and then developing the goals that will bring that vision to reality   If you don’t get coaching, your dreams can stay delayed indefinitely. Find out the difference coaching can make for you. To schedule your trial session, email your request to Juanita@AssureYourSuccess.com with  “Consult” in the subject line. Visit Juanita’s website at: http://www.assuredsuccesslifecoach.com .  What the heck is Brainspeak? Go here and see: http://www.assuredsuccesslifecoach.com/Brainspeak/

We all want to be associated with a winner, be it a winning person, a winning team, a worthwhile cause or a successful organisation.  We all have sports people, teams, actors or artists that we consider “ours”.  When they do well, we bask in their reflected glory.  It’s the same at work - we want to be associated with a worthwhile “winning” organisation.  Our greatest reward is receiving acknowledgment that we have contributed to making something meaningful happen.  More than anything else, people want to be valued for a job well done by those they hold in high regard.

A famous study by Lawrence Lindahl in the 1940’s came up with some surprising results.  When supervisors and their employees were asked to list “What motivates the employees?” . . .

- Employees listed “appreciation of a job well done” as number one and “feeling in on things” as number two.

- Supervisors, on the other hand, expected the employees would rank these two items as eighth and tenth respectively (supervisors thought employees would put wages as number one and promotion number two!).

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Copyright © 2006 HowToAll

Job promotions are not something that happens all of a sudden. Getting promoted is not only about your growth but it is equally proportional to the benefits an organization expects you to deliver for them. In short to expect a promotion one has to prove his abilities and capability as an individual or in other words be an efficient employee.

In order to achieve the status of an efficient employee one must keep the following things in mind:

· Ensure that you do your job well within the time and at desired quality levels. Meeting deadlines is one factor that determines you are capable and shows your competence for the role.

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