Reaching a Goal Does Not Require Perfection by Eliz Greene

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

Are you having one of those days? Or maybe one of those weeks? Me too… 

Sometimes it seems that I get everything set up and I’m ready to take on the world—and then an unexpected challenge appears to knock me off my path. 

Sound familiar? 

When we set a goal—for our wellness, productivity, or sanity—it is easy to be derailed when things don’t go as we planned. Too often, a setback becomes a derailment—and our goal fizzles away. 

What do we do? How do we keep working toward a goal when we’ve stepped off the path to success? 

Here is something I say to myself most days: Life is not about perfection. It’s about moving in the right direction! 

Give yourself grace if you stepped off the past yesterday (or this morning)! Take a breath. Readjust your expectations. Celebrate something (any move toward your goal). And GET BACK ON!!  

• Take a breath. 

• Readjust your expectations. 

• Celebrate something (any move toward your goal). 

• GET BACK ON!! 

My new book, Stress-Proof Your Life, has strategies to treat stress management as a hard skill and make small changes that can make a big difference in your ability to perform under pressure, feel better, and enjoy life. 

Are you getting back on the path? What are you celebrating today? Please share it in a comment below. 

Engaging in person and virtually, Eliz Greene delivers data-driven insights on stress and leadership. Whether it is a webinar on coping with uncertainty or a day-long workshop to delve into stress caused by overwhelm, Eliz's humorous stories, energetic style, and implementable solutions deliver memorable content and motivation for change. Her most recent book, Stress-Proof Your Life: High Performance Under Pressure, is now available from Sound Wisdom. This article was originally published on ElizGreene.com.

The Jack-of-All-Trades by Jennifer Janechek

Trying to “do it all” is a form of procrastination that will delay your success. 

Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to success is the human tendency to juggle too many tasks at once. So often we pride ourselves on our ability to multitask and “do it all.” However, what we neglect to realize is that in “doing it all,” we are really doing nothing substantive. We are merely treading water—distributing effort across a multitude of tasks, expending energy just to stay afloat. If we pause for a moment to consider the reality of our situation, we discover that we have not, in actuality, moved forward. We have made no progress; and yet, we are completely exhausted from wasting our energy on divergent aims. 

We are all familiar with the ills of procrastination on a small scale. We know it is counterproductive to whittle away our time by mindlessly scrolling social media apps, daydreaming, watching television, and engaging in other activities that prevent us from making progress on our goals (though our awareness of this often doesn’t translate into action). But we are less familiar with this other form of procrastination, which might be considered more pernicious because it does not at first glance appear to be a method of wasting time; on the contrary, it clothes itself in the guise of productivity. Trying to do too many things at once—to be good at everything—makes us appear successful by virtue of our busyness: we juggle so much; surely, we must be getting somewhere! And yet, what of value are we accomplishing? In reality, we are delaying our success by wasting time and energy on efforts that do not support our primary goal—what Napoleon Hill called our “definite chief aim” or “definite major purpose.” 

Hill recognized how detrimental our inability to align our efforts with a definite chief aim is to our potential for success. After all, one of the thirty major causes of failure he identifies in Think and Grow Rich is attempting to be successful at too many different pursuits. As he writes, “The ‘jack-of-all-trades’ seldom is good at any. Concentrate your efforts on one DEFINITE CHIEF AIM.” In Napoleon Hill’s Power of Positive Action, we likewise are instructed to “direct our limited energies to what we want to achieve and not dissipate them on things of no consequence.… By focusing on what we want to achieve or do that will create a lasting impact, we are directing our energies to what is truly important to us.” 

How much more could we achieve if we evaluated all our commitments and weeded out those that are not moving us toward our definite chief aim? Of course, sometimes we must perform a role or task that is not directly related to our definite chief aim if it is necessary to the maintenance of health or security, e.g., working a job unrelated to our desired profession in order to support our family. However, even this should be reframed as supporting our progress because it is a means of ensuring that our basic needs are met. I am talking more about our tendency to overcommit ourselves, taking on roles and activities that do not align with our desired outcome. For example: Do you really need to volunteer for that board position? Does this freelancing opportunity support your professional goals or take away time that could be used for deepening your knowledge and skill set in the area you most want to pursue? Which “side hustle” could drive your success if you pursued it wholeheartedly, and which ones are serving as distractions from your chief desire? 

Hill explains in Napoleon Hill’s Gold Standard that “the man who controls his own mind may control everything else that gets in his way.” And as he acknowledges, no form of controlled attention is more important than that which is directed toward one’s definite major purpose. 

So today, take inventory of your commitments—everything that requires your time, energy, or attention. How do these tasks, roles, and responsibilities align with your definite chief aim? 

If they do not, or if you are unsure, the first step is to clearly define your definite chief aim. Without a thoroughly defined goal, you will continue to waste energy on pursuits that lack direction. In his speech “What I Learned from Analyzing Ten Thousand People,” transcribed and printed in Napoleon Hill’s Greatest Speeches, Hill recommends the following: 

Make a practice of concentrating upon matters pertaining to a single interest, and you will become absorbed in it as an ideal. You will acquire a standard by which to appraise the value to you of the facts of your life. 

Make a practice of concentrating upon a single interest, and you will acquire a constant and completely “possessing” and automatic inhibitory power. You will without thinking refrain from many useless activities. You will refrain from indulgence in pleasures and recreations that would interfere with the accomplishment of your main purpose. 

Clarify your definite major purpose, and begin today to consistently envision the realization of it so that all your thought processes align with your desired outcome. By doing so, you will be better equipped to discern which activities will bring you closer to your chief desire and which will only distract you from it, and you will be able to eliminate from your life those unnecessary commitments that drain your time, energy, and attention. Imagine what you will be able to accomplish when you have renewed these resources and redirected them toward a single interest!  

In his or her versatility and constant occupation, the jack-of-all-trades might appear to be successful, but it is better to be great at one thing than to be mediocre at many things. Do not limit your success by merely “keeping busy.” Invest all your actions with purpose, and you will be amazed at the momentum you gain toward attaining what you desire most in life. 

Jennifer Janechek is the director of content strategy for Sound Wisdom and the founder of Work–Home–Life, an online magazine and virtual community for remote and hybrid workers, freelancers, digital nomads, and entrepreneurs with home offices. 

For the latest from the Napoleon Hill Collection, including free book and audiobook samples, visit this webpage. The latest in this collection is Think and Grow Rich in Ten Minutes a Day, which is available for preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Books, and other fine retailers. This succinct, engaging summary extracts the key principles, instructions, and stories from Hill’s original, unedited masterpiece and provides updated, relevant examples—in modernized, easily accessible language—so that all readers, regardless of how busy they are, can benefit from the timeless wisdom found in Hill’s book. Action items added to the original text will help readers expertly apply each chapter’s lessons. This title will be released by Sound Wisdom on November 17, 2020. 

Urgent vs. Important by Jim Stovall

Photo by Cathryn on Unsplash 

Success in our personal and professional lives is not just a matter of doing things right but also doing the right things. It is very easy to get caught up in activity as opposed to engaging in productivity. There are so many thoughts, ideas, messages, and tasks competing for our attention that we must have a system to filter out the noise and focus on the true path to our destiny.  

My late, great friend and colleague, Dr. Stephen Covey, in his landmark book First Things First, introduced people around the world to his four-quadrant diagram. As often is the case with learned and prolific people, Dr. Covey’s wisdom captured and built upon the teaching of a proven leader. Dwight David Eisenhower is unique among U.S. presidents and world leaders in that the pinnacle of this power and productivity may not have been his presidency but, instead, may have been when he was General of the Allied Forces during World War II. General Eisenhower’s command required him to be precise, productive, and prolific at all times. The D-Day invasion probably required more management, oversight, and leadership than any project in recorded history. 

General Eisenhower divided all information and actions into the categories of “important” and “urgent” in a system that has become known as the Eisenhower Box. In this system, combining these two elements gives us four possible categories. First, there are the items that are both important and urgent. These are tasks that demand our immediate attention, and the consequences will greatly affect our outcome. Ideally, with the exception of true emergencies, we should deal with important items before they become urgent. It is important to keep gas in our car, but it is not urgent to fill the tank unless we put it off until we are in the danger zone.  

Second are the items that are important but not urgent. This category is where we should ideally focus the majority of our time, effort, and energy. President Eisenhower said, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” Having an estate plan for your family including a will and life insurance, or reviewing long-term goals and objectives within your professional life, or maintaining and cultivating great relationships with friends, colleagues, and loved ones are all vitally important to our success, but we should never allow these activities to become urgent.   

Third are the items that are urgent but not important. This category includes activities that are relatively insignificant which may be expiring quickly. For example, an offer or a coupon to save an insignificant amount of money on something you may not want or need is certainly not important, but if you’re not careful, you may think it’s urgent if you continue to focus on the fact that it expires at the end of the day today. 

 Fourth among Dr. Covey’s quadrants or President Eisenhower’s box are the items that are not important and not urgent. You may wonder why two of the greatest thinkers of the last century would even include this category. They understood that more time is wasted and procrastination justified by junk, clutter, and time wasters. Here in the 21st century, we are bombarded with unimportant, non-urgent things that threaten to flood the landscape of our minds. In order to succeed, we must identify and eliminate these items immediately. Only when we look through the lens of productivity using a system such as Dr. Covey’s quadrants or President Eisenhower’s box, can we focus our effort and energy on the most vital things that will move us toward our goals, dreams, and legacy. 

As you go through your day today, begin to control your activities through your own productivity system. 

 Today’s the day!

Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network, a columnist, a motivational speaker, as well as a published author of many books. His latest book, co-authored with Don Green of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, is The Gift of Giving: Living Your Legacy. It is available to purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Book Company, Google Play, Apple Books, and other fine retailers. Follow Jim on Twitter (@stovallauthor) or Facebook (@jimstovallauthor). And be sure to sign up to receive free samples of Jim Stovall’s books and audiobooks from Sound Wisdom! 

Returning to the Office after Remote Work? These Strategies Will Help Ease the Transition by Jennifer Janechek

Photo by Albert Chernogorov for StockSnap

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been working from home for the past couple of months. With restrictions loosening in many states, employees are beginning to return to the office. Although the office environment and team interactions will certainly be different, this article offers strategies not for coping with these changes but rather for making the most of the transition from remote work to in-office work. 

Whether you have loved or hated your recent foray into telecommuting, one thing is for certain: working from home requires a different set of strategies than traditional in-office work. Help ease the transition back to the office with these principles for success:  

1. Set your alarm early enough to protect your self-care time.   
   To be sure, the demands on many of us, especially parents, have been intense in these circumstances, dismissing any illusions of a purely fun-filled #coronacation. However, many of us have found a silver lining in remote work by repurposing our commute time into time to pursue activities that have been missing or underrepresented in our normal lives. Whether it’s spending more time reading, exercising, enjoying a hobby, or simply spending more time with our children, we have been able to engage in life-giving activities to help us cope with uncertainty as well as progress as individuals. Don’t let returning to work end the healthy habits you’ve created. Create protected time in your day for these behaviors by setting your alarm early enough that you can squeeze in a workout, drink your morning coffee while reading a book, etc., before you go to work. That way, you’ll feel refreshed and ready for the day instead of unhappy about being back at work.    

2. Meal prep on Sundays.  
   Part of what makes working in an office stressful is the hustle of actually getting there. Perpetually being in a rush impinges on our work experience, making it feel frenzied. Do as much advance work as you can to ensure you arrive at work with everything you need, including a nutritious lunch. By preparing all your lunches for the week in advance, you’ll feel less rushed, better prepared, and better fueled during your workdays.    

3. Establish a work schedule, but budget in flex time. 
   Remote workers often simultaneously celebrate and lament the fluidity and flexibility of their work arrangements: being able to work at any time can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you might have the ability to run an errand in the middle of the day; on the other hand, you might not want to do that because it means working later in the evening and feeling responsible for answering e-mails during non-business hours. Successful remote workers know the value of scheduling their work activities in uninterrupted blocks of time and allowing for short recovery periods to enjoy the perk of flexibility. Translate this tactic into the office setting by scheduling 90-minute chunks of work time followed by 15-minute relaxation periods, as possible (it might not always be). During the recovery periods, you could scroll social media, squeeze in a quick run or power walk session, make a personal call, or attend to other tasks that would help create a better work-life integration for your in-office job scenario.   

4. Connect with family. 
   Yes, it’s been hard to maintain the same productivity levels at home with kids, spouses, and other people and animals requiring our attention, but we’ve grown accustomed to the extra family time, making it an adjustment to go back to working outside the home full time. For many of us, it will be important to talk with family members periodically throughout the day to diminish feelings of loneliness and distance. Use a few of your recovery periods (see strategy #3 above) to call, video chat, or text your kids, spouse—whomever—to stay connected.  

This period of mass remote work has brought its challenges, but it has also brought opportunities for pivoting and reconfiguring our work strategies. As Alyson Van Hooser writes in her forthcoming book Level Up: Elevate Your Game & Crush Your Goals, “Your success depends on your willingness and ability to adapt effectively.” Adapt and thrive in whatever work environment you’re in—check out Sound Wisdom’s titles for personal development and business improvement at https://www.soundwisdom.com/publications. 

The Proven Secret to More Wealth and Happiness by Noah St. John

Most people focus on trying to make money and trying to be happier. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s just one teensy problem… 

It doesn’t work. 

Why not? Because both money and happiness are the RESULTS of other things. 

Therefore, rather than focusing on trying to make more money and trying to be happier (which are results or outcomes), the truth is that we need to focus on what causes money (income) and what causes happiness. 

As illustrated by the Income-Happiness Scale above, there are two main factors that cause Income and Happiness: Activities and Aptitude. Activities are the things you do every day—what you actually do with the minutes and hours of your day. There are two kinds of Activities you can do each day: Low-Value Activities and High-Value Activities. 

Aptitude means two things: how good you are at doing a certain Activity and how much you enjoy doing it. Therefore, there are two aspects of Aptitude: things you Suck At (and don’t enjoy doing) and things you’re Great At (and enjoy doing). 

The Hobby Quadrant 

Let’s start in the lower right-hand corner of the Income-Happiness Scale. When you have a Low-Value Activity that you’re Great At (and you enjoy), you have what’s called a Hobby. What’s the definition of a Hobby? It’s something you enjoy that you don’t get paid to do. Naturally, there’s nothing wrong with having hobbies. There is, however, one slight problem, and it comes when I ask my clients a simple yet profound question: Do you own a business, or do you own a hobby? 

How can you tell the difference? Simple. With a hobby, you’re having fun—see how it’s high on the Happiness axis—yet you’re not making much (or any) money—see how it’s low on the Income axis. As it relates to your business, that’s why it’s crucial to ask whether you own a business or whether you own a hobby.  

The Busywork Quadrant 

Moving to our lower left quadrant, we have Low-Value Activities that you Suck At (and don’t enjoy). That’s what I call Busywork. We live in a world of infinite distractions. You can watch cat videos on YouTube until the end of time. You can waste countless hours on social media. Or you can simply spend the days of your life doing Activities that don’t grow your business and don’t give you either the Income or the Happiness you want. 

Notice that in the Busywork quadrant, your Activities aren’t producing much money, and you’re not enjoying them either. So you don’t even get the benefit of having a Hobby. In fact, one of my clients told me on one of our coaching calls, “Noah, I own a Busywork!” 

Do YOU “own a Busywork”? Or are you just spending too much of your valuable time there? Why is this such an important question to ask? Because TIME is the one resource that can never be replaced. 

The Golden Handcuffs 

Moving to our upper left quadrant, we have High-Value Activities that you Suck At (and don’t enjoy). That’s what I call the Golden Handcuffs. This is where you hate the work you’re doing and feel unhappy and unfulfilled but make good money so feel like you can’t leave your job. It’s called the “Golden Handcuffs” because it’s awfully hard to leave a job that pays well, even if you hate it. 

Living Your Dream 

And finally, we get to the place where we all want to go: where you are doing High-Value Activities that you’re Great At (and that you enjoy doing). That’s where you’re in the quadrant I call Living Your Dream. Why do we call it Living Your Dream? Because when you’re doing High-Value Activities that you’re great at AND that you love doing, you’re not only living your dream… 

It’s like going to heaven without the inconvenience of dying!  

When you’re Living Your Dream, notice what’s happening to your Income. Your Income is going up, but your Happiness is going up too. In fact, there is no limit to the amount of Income you can create and no limit to the amount of Happiness you can experience. 

This article originally appeared on ValueWalk.com. 

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Intentional Living through Increased Productivity: An Interview with Author John Martin by Jennifer Janechek

On the heels of his very popular first book, Empower Yourself: 7 Steps to Personal Success, John Martin has released a new title that is sure to accelerate your timeline to personal and professional success. Increase Your Personal Productivity: Your Guide to Intentional Living & Doing More of What You Enjoy is a wonderfully helpful guide to implementing a personalized goal system—one that is actually sustainable and repeatable. If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching others live lives that you deem impossible for yourself, or if you just need some support in your current success journey, Increase Your Personal Productivity will provide you with the tools you need to define and achieve success on your own terms. I recently had the opportunity to chat with John about his latest book, and I learned a lot about his refreshing take on productivity.  

How do you define or measure productivity? 

It’s a very personal, individualized measurement. For me personally, I measure it by whether I hit my goals on a monthly, or even daily, basis. When I’m hitting my goals consistently on a daily basis, then I feel like I’m being productive.  

Some people swear by creating a daily agenda the night before, and others start each morning by writing their to-do list. What is your approach to creating a plan for the day? 

I keep a running to-do list for daily goals that I review each morning. I prefer to write it out on paper—things like a word count goal for writing, notes about work deadlines. I like to focus on major tasks that need to be accomplished that day.  

What are your thoughts on time-tracking software? Do you use it? 

No, I don’t. For me, it’s just one more thing to do—updating lists or software. I prefer to maintain a handwritten list; it keeps things simple and allows me to focus my energy on other tasks. I’m not opposed to the idea, though. I could see where it would be useful for people.  

What would you say is the biggest obstacle to productivity? 

Self-judgment. Mentally beating yourself up for not getting as much done as you intended or as you got done the day before. Focusing on shortcomings or allowing interruptions to dominate your attention causes you not to be present in the moment. The result is that you fail to move forward because you’re overthinking—thinking about the past instead of acting in the present. 

What is your best tip for increasing productivity?  

If I had to pick one, it would be to stop second-guessing yourself—to stop overthinking what you’re doing. A lot of it comes down to finishing a project, e.g., if you’re making a movie, don’t keep editing it. There’s a point that you just have to release the product to the world or else you’ll overedit it. Or there’s the failure-to-launch phenomenon—not being able to actually start on a project because you’re constantly planning it, never acting on it. These are major barriers to productivity. 

Why do you think people have such a hard time starting tasks? 

Well, it’s probably pretty primitive. It’s hardwired into us not to want to do things that are outside our comfort zone, and it’s difficult to switch gears mentally. Change is difficult; creating the momentum to go against our preference for stasis is difficult. That’s why it’s easier to sit on the couch instead of going for a run. Often it’s just a small mental shift that’s required to overcome our resistance to doing something difficult, and once we shift our mindset we can create positive momentum where doing the things we need to do for our health, success, and happiness becomes second nature. 

Speaking of working out, I’m always interested on people’s take on whether it’s best to work or workout first thing in the morning. Some people insist that the first 90 minutes of your day should be spent on your most creative, intensive tasks, while others note the benefits of starting your day with exercise. What are your thoughts on this? 

I think either is beneficial. Again, it comes down to knowing yourself. Productivity is such a personal metric, and improving it is about knowing what makes you the most productive and what you need to accomplish your goals. 

Going back to the question about difficulty starting tasks, what is your advice to people who struggle with this?  

Let go of your fear about your performance. Many people who have home-based businesses limit themselves because they’re afraid to take the first step and end up looking like a rookie. This creates a huge mental block that restricts their success. 

Also, have patience with yourself about procrastination. People work at different paces. If you struggle with procrastination, accept that about yourself and figure out how to create new habits that foster momentum. I like the Mel Robbins technique of counting down from five and then doing whatever it is you were reluctant to do. Implement little tricks to shift your mindset and overcome anxiety about starting tasks, whether big or small. 

So it sounds like you’re reframing the conversation around procrastination a bit? Most people treat procrastination as inherently negative, but your message about acceptance seems to go against the grain. Can you talk to me more about this?  

Yes, I would say so—because the idea is to avoid negative self-talk. If we’re constantly scolding ourselves for our tendency to procrastinate or are hyperfocused on it, we’re not going to be present and accomplishing the goals we’ve set for ourselves. We’re going to be living in the past rather than acting in the present. Now if you’re missing deadlines because of procrastination, that’s a different story. But if you’re simply delaying tasks as part of your work process, accept that about yourself and figure out how to shift your mentality to create more space for personal and professional success.  

Do you have any tips for managers for increasing their employees’ productivity? 

Encouragement over criticism. Model the behavior you expect. I think of the quote “The gang keeps pace with the leader.” If you’re productive, your people are more likely to be productive. 

What are you hoping is the major takeaway from your book? 

I’m hoping that readers learn organizational, time management, and mindset tips that help them set and achieve goals while staying true to the flow of their personality. Whether you’re wanting to start a home-based business or a side hustle, or whether you’re hoping to get more out of your current career, this book will help you learn more about what works for you and develop action plans that complement, rather than resist, your personality.