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Today’s post (Day 15) in the Blogging Workshop is about finding a blog buddy, and in that post I wrote about synergy in business.  I liked the idea of Synergy so much that I’ve expanded it here for all SuperWAHM readers.

Firstly, what is Synergy in Business?

Synergy in business according to Wikipedia – Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.

When two people work together with the intention of helping each other then it’s not just 1 + 1 = 2.  It becomes 1 + 1 = 5 (this is Mel’s Maths by the way; do not try this at school).  Synergy is the combination of two or more minds that work together to be more creative, stronger, more motivated, more focussed, than each of those minds working individually in isolation.

There are a couple of ways that you can utilise the power of Synergy in business:

Blog Buddy

Remember in primary school, when the teacher would tell us all to find a buddy when the class was going somewhere?  And you’d hold your buddy’s hand, so you both always had support, someone to help you and keep you going in the right direction?  It’s the same here.

A Blog Buddy is someone you can talk to about your blog, bounce ideas off each other, promote each others blogs, discuss issues that you’re facing, all with someone who understands where you’re coming from.

Blogging Alliance

If you’re interested in taking the Blog Buddy relationship further, here’s an interesting article from Problogger on a Blogging Alliance.  A group of entrepreneurs in complementary markets – not directly competing with each other – who formalised an agreement to support, assist and promote each other.

It’s not a publicised alliance, just a group who work together in the background, promoting each other and contributing to the success of the group as a whole.

Mastermind Group

A Mastermind Group is similar to an Alliance in that there’s a formal agreement, not necessarily written but a clear understanding that all members contribute.  However Masterminds members are normally from very different fields, unlike an alliance.

For example, I’m a member of an online Mastermind Group.  In that group we have a Realtor, Film Director, Music Teacher, Physiotherapist, Coach, Programmer and a Wed Designer.

The benefit of such a diverse group is that their thinking and perspectives are so different.  When you’re in a Complementary Alliance you tend to have the same experiences and knowledge.  With the Mastermind group every member has a radically different approach.

Informal Synergy in Business

And then there’s the Synergy in Business you get informally.  From having a cup of coffee with a friend that turns into a brainstorming session.  Asking questions on a forum.  Meeting new people at networking events. IM’ing a friend and chatting about your top business ideas.

Today’s Question: How do you utilise Synergy in business?  Rather than working in isolation, do you formal ways to harness synergy for your business?  What about informal methods?  How do these work for you?

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I’ve received some emails lately and had a couple of discussions with clients on setting up passive income so they only have to work a couple of hours a week.  This is a topic that seems to keep rearing it’s head, and there’s a lot of myths, rumours and some truths floating around on what passive income is and what it does.

What is passive income

It’s where you create a product once and sell it forever.  Set it up on your website with your shopping cart and people buy it from you without you having to do any more work or spend any further time on it in the future.

Ebooks, e-courses, recordings, reports – they’re all forms of products that lend themselves well to passive income.

Affiliate sales is another form of passive income, however in this post I’m focussing just on the sale of information products as passive income.

What makes passive income passive?

Think Tim Ferriss and his Four Hour Work Week – he recommends outsourcing everything in your business to India, setting up some streams of passive income and living happily ever after without having to do any work.

It’s a great theory, and very attractive at that, after all, who doesn’t want to have money coming in with no effort? But when you really start looking at what’s involved in so-called ‘Passive Income’ it’s not the mecca of riches that it’s purported to be.

Yes, it works to a certain point.  But not as well as the get-rich-quick guru’s would have you believe.

It’s not really passive

You’re going to put a lot of work into the product to begin with.  A good product that will sell over time isn’t going to be thrown together as fast as a blog post.  Nor is it something that you can hand off to a VA or copywriter to produce 100% for you.  YOU are going to have to put time, effort, hours, blood, sweat and tears into creating a kick-ass product.

You’ve got to promote it.  Sure, there’s the initial launch and promotion that everyone expects to have.  But what’s after that?  Once you’ve launched it, how do people find out about it afterwards?  Google searches and adsense/adwords?  Not techniques that I’d want to be relying on exclusively.

Today’s product won’t work tomorrow

Information and products become redundant over time – often a very short time.  Technology and knowledge advances and a advice that worked well only a few months ago may now be totally useless.  You’re going to have to update your information and products and keep them current.  How often you update depends on the product.  The point is though; you can’t create a product and expect it to sell long term in a constantly changing world.

If you’re planning to make your main income from passive income then you’ll need to be constantly creating new products to sell and updating older products.

You can’t outsource everything

If you’re in a business for the long term then you’ll have to spend time building your business yourself.  You can’t outsource your knowledge and experience.  People who buy from you are paying for YOUR knowledge and experience, in a form that they can learn from.

It’s one thing to use a copywriter to turn a ho-hum piece of work into a great selling ebook.  It’s quite another to be paying someone from India a pittance to write an ebook for you with information gleaned from a google search.

If you’re looking to build a community, build long term trust and loyal clients who love your product, then you can’t outsource the substance of your work.  You’re the one who is going to have to put in the mental effort required to create the products to sell.

So am I for passive income or against it?

Yup, the tone of this post has been fairly negative hasn’t it?  Information products as passive income does work, however it’s not a way for you to sit back and take ten months holiday a year while the dollars pour in.  Anyone who tells you that it’s that easy is a snake oil salesman.

Heck, I have information products for sale on this site – that’s passive income like I’m talking about in this post.  I’ve also got thousands of dollars in information products on my computer and my ipod.  I’d be a real hypocrite if I said they didn’t work.

What I am saying is that information products aren’t a get rich quick scheme.  It’s a way – and a good one at that – to leverage your work and maximise the return on investment of your time.

If you’re going to do it well though, then you’re going to have to work at it.  It’s not set and forget, it’s continually tweak, upgrade, innovate and create.

What do you all think?  Do you sell information products?  Agree or disagree with what I’ve said?  Come and comment and let me know what you think.

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Hi, My name is ‘insert your name here’ and I’m an Info product addict

We’ve all done it.  Bought great info products – ebooks, audios, pdfs, ecourses etc – that are highly recommended and guaranteed to change our lives and send business through the roof.

We all have our favourite teachers, and if they recommend something as being great then we have to get it, right?  Because it will help us grow our business, right?  So we buy more products.  And more.  And we keep on buying.  And downloading and saving them to the hard drive.

You know that folder(s) on your hard drive that’s full of ebooks, video’s, downloads, pdf’s etc that you haven’t looked at since the day you bought them?  How do you feel when you look at that folder?  Guilty?  Upset? Overwhelmed? Waste of money?

Yeah, all of those feelings, right?  Let me tell you a secret – you’re not alone.  Really.  Many, many people have a stash of info products and have never looked at them.  I’m not going to tell you how much I’ve paid over the years for courses that I’ve never started, let alone finished.  And hopefully my hubby won’t ask either….  I used to be as guilty as anyone else on this one.

There ain’t no magic bullet

People buy information products in the hope that ‘this one’ will be the magic bullet that rockets them to instant stardom, money and orders pouring in, clients on waiting lists, kudos on the ‘net.  And it doesn’t happen.

No product is going to do this for your business.  None.  Not any.  Because all those info products, they’re just tools.  You have to use them, and use them in the right way.

So why buy information products?

Because they’re useful and will really help you grow your business.  If you use them properly.  The problem is that people often don’t use them properly, if at all.  They download them, save them, and plan to get to them soon.  Unfortunately ‘soon’ never arrives, the novelty fades and the lonely product sits there unused.

So you get stuck into them and start reading

Learning is good, yes?  The more you learn the better you’ll be at running your business, yes?  Sorry, but the answer to that is often a no.

Too much information is nearly as bad as no information.  When you do decide to get stuck in and work through the courses and ebooks you end up with a head full of ideas and no place to start.

Information overload is very real and paralysing.  When you’ve got a head full of ideas all bouncing around, and more information being packed in on top, it’s like being in a room crammed full of people all talking at the top of their voices.

Step outside with me

It’s time to get out of the room.

Turn off the noise.

Focus on just one thing.

Realise there is no magic bullet.

The answer to information overload is…

Taking action.

Give your mind a break – chances are that you’ve already read enough ebooks and know what you need to know.  See, we get so caught up in ‘learning’ that we stop ‘doing’.  We think we have to do things perfectly, and know everything about it, before we can start.

It’s true that we do need to have a certain level of knowledge in order to run a business.  It becomes a problem when we think that we have to know everything in order to run a business.

Focus on one thing and put it into action

So here you are – you’ve got a stack of info products, all useful, all highly recommended, and I’ve just told you to stop reading them. Here’s what you need to do to break out of the information overload and get your head right.

Firstly do a brain dump.  Every idea, every thought about your business, get it out of your head.  Write down the ideas.  Paper or on the computer, doesn’t matter.  Mind map if it helps.  Just get them out of your head.  Then save it somewhere so you can find it later.

Back to the information products.

Pick one.  Just one.  And work through it – do all the exercises or worksheets as you go.  Apply every technique in it to your business.  Set aside an hour a day to do this.  It’s not a race, take your time.

When you’re finished with the first info product, take a break for a couple of days.  Then pick another one and work through it the same way.  Every exercise, every technique.  Rinse and repeat.

Still don’t know where to start?

If you really can’t pick just one info product or you don’t know what you’re trying to do, I recommend starting with our Quick’n’Dirty Business Plan ebook.

Writing out a business plan will give clarity and direction – and from there you’ll have a better idea of what you need to do for your business.

Leave a comment and tell me what you decide to work on and how you’re going, ok?

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Today’s post is reprinted with permission from Psychotactics by Sean D’Souza.  This particular article is one I keep coming back to, otherwise I’d be rewriting, re-recording and editing for ever.  Enjoy!

The 70% Principle

Have you got eleven seconds to learn a simple principle? A principle that will radically change the way you do things?

You do, don’t you?
Ok, tick, tick, tick….here’s the principle.

It’s called..um…the 70% Principle

So what’s the 70% Principle?

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right.
You can always come back to do the 20% later.

Yes, read it again, and no, the math isn’t wrong.

If you’re going to build a website, a 70% effort is fine.
If you’re going to do a presentation a 70% effort is fine.
If you’re going to bake a cake, for that matter…do you need all the ingredients?

The perfect cake? With all the perfecto ingredients? Or the cake with ’70%’ of the ingredients?

The ‘perfect’ wording on a website? Or the ’70% perfect’ wording on the website?

And nope this isn’t a case for mediocrity

No one is telling you to do crappy stuff. No one’s saying that you need to keep your project unfinished. But in the quest for perfection, most of us never start.

The 70% principle is about getting your best effort out and into the hands of your clients. That you don’t need to start off with a 100%-kaboom-wow-start.

So let’s tell you about our ‘who pushed me?’ start in 2002

We started Psychotactics,in the year 2002, with a 16 page booklet. We called it the ‘Brain Audit.’ And indeedy-doo, it started with just 16 pages. Those 16 pages, we cheekily sold for $20 or thereabouts.

And you know what?

We weren’t trying to keep the pages down to 16 pages, but we certainly weren’t trying to pad up the contents of the book either.

The 16 pages of information were all we knew at the time. And yes, we could have made it 100% perfect, but decided to put our 70% effort out anyyay.

Did I say, put it out? I meant, I got ‘pushed’

You see, I wasn’t keen to sell the Brain Audit. I wanted to get the e-book just right. But I was forced into putting it on the market.

I was forced to putting it on a sales page, by another marketer who promised to promote the book to his audience.

And he never did promote the book

I reminded him. Gently. Then became a bit of a nag. But that promotion never, ever happened. What did happen was that the ‘Brain Audit’ began to sell.

And as it turned out, I was able to add the next 20%,
and the next 20%, and the next 20%.

And yes, the math still adds up

Because all along, that ‘so-called incomplete’ product was selling. And when you think about it, which product or service of yours is ever complete?

As your knowledge grows; as your customers ask more questions; as you apply the concepts in different ways, your product or service gets better all the time.

And today, the Brain Audit is a comprehensive document that not only helps you understand how the customer thinks, but is also the basis for being a member of 5000bc; for doing any of our courses like the copywriting course, product-creation course.

What started out as a ‘who pushed me?’ product, now helps us get thousands of customers. And helps us grow our business considerably from year to year.

Kinda like the iPod, you see

When the iPod came out at first, it was just 10GB (yeah, pathetic ten gigs).

Then it went up to 30GB. And hey, we got video too. Then whoopsy-doo, it was 60GB. And uppity up it keeps going, both in size, features and ease of use.

Where’s the market for the perfect iPod?

There’s no market for the perfect product or service. The product or service that your customers want, is the product or service you have now.

That 70%-perfect product/service, will do fine for your customer.

How can I be so sure?

Could this article have been at least 30% better?
Couldn’t I have found more examples? More case-studies? Put in more details, perhaps? Tweaked my words just so to make it richer, more vibrant?

Sure I could. But you’ve got the point, right?

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right. You can always fix the 20% later.

©2001-2010 Psychotactics Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Article written by Sean D’Souza.
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas. Find simple, yet electrifying ideas,on website strategy, marketing strategies, copywriting, public speaking, article marketing, sales conversion, psychological tactics and branding. Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

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This is something I’ve struggled with for a long time; obviously I’m a slow learner because the benefits of slowing down have been pointed out to me time and time again. I even wrote a post that touched on this earlier this year. So what is it that I’m struggling with? It’s the fact that when I slow down I get more done yet so often I fail to remember this and keep pushing to work longer and harder.

How does slowing down help you work better?

Not only am I more productive when I slow down – I finish my work faster – I’m also a lot more creative. You see, creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There needs to be life and activity to spark inspiration and creativity. However at the other end of the scale creativity doesn’t happen when your head is full of ideas, thoughts, things to do and remember, all bouncing around together and crammed in, overloaded.

You need to take time out for thinking, allow time for your thoughts to marinate, develop and mature. Your subconscious mind works in the background, constantly. However when you try and cram too many ideas in then it has to keep working on new ideas before the previous ideas are fully explored.

Allowing your subconscious to work effectively

British psychologist and author Guy Claxton wrote in his book “Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind. Why Intelligence Increases When You Think Less” that most of our everyday intelligence “belongs not to the screen of consciousness but to the invisible ‘motherboard’ behind it”. He talks about giving our brains time to pause, for our subconscious to ‘connect the dots’ and bring good, workable ideas to wholeness and fruition.

How often have you been doing something such as walking, housework, listening to music and you’ve suddenly had a brilliant ‘Aha!’ moment? An idea that bursts full-bodied into your mind? Inspiration that initiates an outpouring of a full-grown plan for growth, or the answer to a troubling problem?

That’s your subconscious at work, doing what it does best. Your subconscious loves structure and a dependable routing. It’s at it’s most creative when it knows when to work and on what.

Scheduling inspiration

The famous playwright and novelist Somerset Maughan said “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp”. His habit of sitting down to write at 9.00am every morning allowed his subconscious to prepare and be ready to produce ideas as soon as he sat. Do you do the same?

How many of us scorn routine as being a straitjacket that reduces creativity? How often do you brush off suggestions of writing out plans and ideas because it will take away the ‘inspiration’? What if these things actually enabled you to get more done and come up with better ideas? What then?

Take the Challenge…  I dare you!

Here’s a challenge for you, should you choose to accept it (and I hope you will). Pick something you’ve been thinking about doing or developing lately but have felt stuck on. Write it down, and then write down any suggestions, comments or anything relevant to it that you may have thought of. Then leave it. Give it a few hours and go for a walk. Take some time over the next day or two to slow down, smell the roses, walk in the rain (if you’re lucky enough to have some) and just take time to allow your brain to slow down.

Keep jotting down any ideas that come to you. Schedule a time to come back to your idea and work on it. When that time comes, take out your paper or computer doc and see what comes out for that idea that you wrote down.

And let me know how you go with it.

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I feel so alone

At some point, pretty much every single one of my coaching client says “I feel so alone”. This aloneness, this isolation, takes a few different forms but comes down to two different causes:

You’re trying to run your business all by yourself;

You alone.

You have no one to bounce ideas off and synergise with.

Brainstorming isn’t effective when it’s just you.

You’re trying to do every single task yourself, from your core business that only you can do to your bookkeeping to your filing. Every single task.

It’s easy to get stuck in a business problem and be unable to get your head around a solution

Or

You’re not looking after yourself

You’re always working, not taking time off for your kids or partner. You know you should, but there’s so much work to be done!

You’re a single parent, which means you’re mum, dad, breadwinner, business owner, everything. The last person you have time to look after is yourself.

You’re trying to look after young children and run a business at the same time. This is why you started a home based business, right? So you could be home and look after the kids and still contribute to the family budget.

Feeling guilty about taking time off when you ‘should’ be working. There’s work to be done, and you’re the one who has to do it. How can you take a break when you can see what you need to be doing?

When you’re trying to run your business all by yourself

If you’re in the first group then the solution is relatively easy. Do any or all of the following:

Get a Business Coach.

Join a Coaching Group.

Find an online Business forum, such as Business Mums Network.

Look for someone in your industry who is willing to mentor you.

Hire a real life assistant or a VA.

Take a break to clear your head.

Become part of an online group of work at home mums, such as Mom Entrepreneurs on google groups.

When you’re not looking after yourself

Getting out from the thought patterns of the second group can be a little harder, because the best answer is to get out of the house and around other people. That takes time and effort, also it’s time away from your business.  And it’s the best thing you can do for yourself.

Where do you find the time? Something has to give, and it’s better if it’s some part of your business rather than your sanity or family. So, decide what HAS to be done by you and do it.

Streamline everything you can.

Outsource where possible.

Look for faster ways to do things.

Become more organised and streamlined in your working.

‘Batch’ your work – do emails twice a day, paperwork once a day/week, group like tasks together.

But doesn’t that take time to set up?

Yes, all of this takes time initially. You have to invest that time in order to free up time. Any task we do will expand to fill the time we have. If you have only one hour to do something that normally takes two, then you’re likely to work your butt off and get it done – in one hour.

Give yourself time off and hold that time sacred. Take time out for yourself. It doesn’t have to be a day at the spa, it doesn’t have to cost anything in money. Go for a walk or a bike ride. Leave the kids with your partner or a babysitter for a couple of hours. Bake cookies and catch up with girlfriends at someone’s house.

Make a connection

As human beings we’re designed for connectedness. We were never intended to live and work in isolation, our psyches aren’t designed to work best alone. No matter what some people will say, we ALL work better when we’re connected to others, be that on a business or personal level.

As women especially, we’re designed to congregate and socialise. Whether that’s talking with other mums about your business or your child’s latest toilet training accident, we all need and crave that connection. Denying that need starves you of emotional oxygen and slows you down.

Go out. Make a connection. Grow. Work well and profitably.

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Well, it’s been school holidays here. We spent a week at the in-laws down in Victoria and the rest of the holidays staying at home. The kidlet and I spent a lot of our time doing ‘girl stuff’, cooking, sewing and really enjoying each others company.

In the middle of our visit to the in-laws I spoke at the Business Mums Network Pampering day. It was a really great day and kudos to Melissa for organising it. The talks will be available soon in downloadable and/or CD format, along with the notes.

Recently I discovered two fantastic tools that I’m loving using.

Timedriver

For quite a while now I’ve been looking for an online appointment maker that could work with different time zones and I finally found Timedriver – it does everything I wanted and at a lower price than I expected. How awesome is that?

The way it works is this: I enter in days and times that I’m available to take appointments, in my own local time. Each ‘appointment book’ is for a different type of appointment – I currently have set up appointment books for 45 minute coaching sessions, 15 minute Laser coaching sessions and 15 minutes quick consult timings.

When a client needs to book an appointment with me I send them the link to the appropriate appointment book. When they open the link, Timedriver detects their default time zone from their computer and so they see the available appointments based on their own local time zone.

Timedriver sends both the client and myself an email when an appointment has been booked and also syncs with my Outlook calendar to book them in. You have no idea how excited I was to find Timedriver. And the best part is that after the free 90 day trial it costs less than US$30 per year!

Dropbox

Dropbox was shown to me by Sean of Psychotactics when I took on managing a project for him. It’s a way to share files with other people without having to email them.

You download the Dropbox application and install it on your desktop. Anything you want to share you save to a folder inside dropbox.

To share a folder with someone you got to the online application and send the person an email invitation to the folder. That person can only see folders that they’ve been invited to – they can’t see anything else in your dropbox.

The other person can then add files to the folder, change and save files, all from their desktop. The first two Gb are free. Great for storing small backups, sharing files, photo’s and audio/video, working with your VA etc.

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Have you got a million ideas running around your head and need to get nail them down?

Do you know what you’re doing but have so much to do that you don’t know where to start?

Have you got several projects running at the same time and need to schedule your work so they all get the attention they deserve and none are forgotten or neglected?

Are you a Visual learner and need a way to track past, present and future tasks?

If any of these sound like you, then you need a Project Board.

So…. What’s a Project Board? It’s a large piece of cardboard, butchers paper, or similar that you use to plan and track the tasks and timeline for a project. I use Excel for mine, firstly because I find it easy to sort tasks; and secondly because my handwriting is so messy it’s the only way I can read what I have to do. I have clients who hand write it on butchers paper, whatever works best for you is great.

Once you start using a Project Board you’ll never look back. My only complaint with it is that I haven’t worked out a way to put it on my phone yet – but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

A Project Board is a simple tool to get your ideas out of your head, to provide structure and a logical sequence for all the tasks involved in a particular project. It provides an at-a-glance update on how something is going, what’s been done and what still needs to be done.

If more than one person is involved in the project then it can include Who is doing What and When.

I start with listing all the tasks required for a project on an Excel spreadsheet. It’s a huge brain dump, where everything you can think of that needs to be done is written down. Larger or complicated tasks need to be broken down into the smallest possible task. Then working backwards from the completion date, I put a date for the task to be done next to each item, and who is to complete it if that’s needed.

My spreadsheet is set out with a row at the top labelling the project and the required completion date, in very large letters.

Then the columns are organised into: Date (for the task to be done), Task, Who by, and Done (or Completed).

When I’ve listed all the tasks and put dates on them I like to leave it for a few days to think about it. There’s always something that I remember later that needs to be included, or a task that I realise has to be broken down into even smaller tasks.

When I’m ready, I use the ‘Sort Data’ function on the spreadsheet to sort the tasks in ascending date order. Have a look at them and make sure that everything is in a logical order. Check to see that there isn’t a task that HAS to have something else completed first. If there is, edit the dates, add in the task if needed, and re-sort the data.

When you’re happy with it, and certain everything is included in the correct order, print it out on the largest sheet of paper you can find. Put it on your wall where you can see it easily.

From here it’s easy to start at the top and work down through the tasks. The ‘Done’ column is there to be ticked off when the task is completed.

If you’ve got more than one project on the go then I prefer to use a separate sheet for each project. If you wanted to, you could include all the tasks together, different coloured fonts for each project, and then sort them all by date. I find this hard to tell how far a single project has progressed, although I know people who use this method.

An alternative to this would be to have a master list with the tasks for all projects and a separate sheet for each project and tick them both off as tasks are completed.

When you’ve completed the project, don’t throw away your Project Board. Add a page to it, or write on the side, how well it worked, feedback you received, what you learned and what you would do differently next time. File it away somewhere safe, and next time you need to do a similar project you have it already more than half planned.

If you’ve written it on a computer as I do, you can simply add your comments to the file and save it in a particular folder for ‘Completed Projects’. You may never use it again, but if you do then you won’t have to repeat all your work and you’ll have your feedback from the first time around.

This is my way of keeping track of tasks and projects, what do you use? What works best for you?

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“If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there”

The other day you worked out what it is that you want to achieve and you picked the five goals that will have the biggest effect on your business in the next year. Today we’re going to chunk them down to manageable steps, and look at ways to keep them strong in your mind.

Chunking Down the Goals

Firstly, just writing the goal isn’t going to make it happen. You need to take action, and you need to work out what has to happen first, then the next step, and the next, and so on.

Take your first goal and list out everything you have to do on the way to achieving that goal. Organise that list into a logical sequence, and then work out what has to be done on a month by month and then week by week basis to reach that goal.

Planning your goals this way makes them achievable. Instead of a huge goal in 12 months that looks enormous, now all you have to focus on is this weeks tasks. And then next weeks tasks. No task should be so large that it’s overwhelming – if you have any like that then you need to break it down to the smallest possible task.

Do this for all the goals on your list.

Keep the Dream Alive

So we’ve decided what we want, and we’ve chunked it down into easy tasks. Now what? Well, now we need to focus on the big picture – the end goal – while working on the everyday tasks. If we only focus on the small tasks, that weeks work, then we lose sight of what we’re aiming for and can find it hard to be motivated.

Every day, at least once a day and preferably a couple of times, I want you to sit down for five minutes and visualise yourself at the end of the 12 months, having achieved those five goals.

Two Parts of Visualisation

Firstly I want you to read your goals aloud. With excitement in your voice. Don’t whisper them so no-one else will hear, read them aloud in a strong voice. This uses three of your senses – eyes, mouth and ears – and implants those goals into your subconscious.

Secondly I want you to close your eyes and imagine you’ve achieved your goals:

SEE the end result of those goals, imagine you’re looking at your Sales figures printout and the $$$ at the bottom is the goal you set.

FEEL the pride in having achieved that. Allow yourself to feel the sense of achievement of having a great business.

SEE your business growing further, and being strong and successful. FEEL how that would feel for you.

Just Do It

The visualisation is the part that most people don’t do. They don’t see the point. Sadly, the visualisation is what really keeps them motivated and helps drive them forward towards the end goal. Don’t let this be you.

Practice it. Make the visualisation of your goals a habit. Trust me on this and Just Do It!

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Let’s pretend.  You’re going to build a house.  A big house.  Your dream house.  What’s the first thing you do?  Start digging the foundations?  Order the bricks?  Paint the walls?  No, the first thing you do is work out exactly what it’s going to look like when it’s finished and you write (or draw) the plans for how to achieve that.  Can you imagine what your house would look like if you simply started building without knowing exactly what you wanted it to be like when it was finished?  If you dug the footings and poured the foundation slab without mapping out the layout first?

It amazes me the number of people who run their business without clear-cut, written down goals.  They generally start with a vague notion of what it is they want to do – the dream house – but they never plan the specifics.  Setting goals for your business is one the most important things you can ever do in order to succeed.

Goals and visions are about what you want to BE, DO and HAVE. It’s who you are, what you do, and what you have – both tangible and intangible.

“If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there”

Plan to spend at least an hour, or more, on setting your goals. Take yourself away somewhere where you’ll be undisturbed and when you’re not trying to look after kids or be distracted by something else that’s going on around you.

Take a largish sheet of paper and do a huge brain dump. Write down everything you want to achieve in your life, both business-wise and personal. You should have around 50+ things written down before you stop. EVERYTHING you ever wanted to be, do or have.

Take another sheet of paper and divide it into four columns. Write the headings up the top: Either 6 month, 1 year, 3 year and Longer, or alternatively 1 year, 3 year, 8-10 year and Longer.

Now take every item you wrote on the first piece of paper and transfer it to the second under one of your headings. Every item should be classified under one of the time frames you’ve listed.

When you’ve finished that, choose the most important 3-5 items from each list. They’ll be the things that leap out at you, that you feel you MUST achieve.

Put your sheet of paper aside for a few days. Look at it occasionally and consider if those things you’re chosen are truly the most important for you. Think about why they’re important, and what they will do for you when you achieve them.

After you’ve considered your goals for a few days and are certain that the one’s you’ve chose are the most important for you, we need to write them in a way that is meaningful and motivational.

Take the paper with your final goals written on it, and a new sheet of paper. We’re going to write out a paragraph for each time frame.

Remember the previous post where we talked about the SMARTIE format? Just to remind you, SMARTIE stands for:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Timed

Inspirational

Emotional

So if I were writing out three goals for the next year, (they’re not my real goals by the way) I could write:

“It’s December 2010 and I’m earning $80,000 a year from my business. I’m loving helping work at home mums grow their business and it’s fantastic to see how happy my clients are when they see their great results. I have well over 2,000 subscribers on my email list and they buy from me regularly. We’re flying out in January for a month’s holiday in Fiji to relax and have fun as a family. I feel happy and fulfilled, knowing that as well as the business I’m strengthening my own family’s unity.”

There are the three goals in there, the earnings, the subscribers and the family holiday. I’ve included all the components of the SMARTIE goals, the paragraph tells me how I feel, what the benefits of these goals are. Family is VERY important to me, so the last sentence is a huge emotional motivator for me.

Your goals and how you write them will be different. You may have read that paragraph and said “So what?” That’s fine. Write your own goals out so they motivate and encourage you. Note that the holiday is still in the future, after the date at the beginning, however it has it’s own time on it.

Write a paragraph for all three time periods, the 1 yr, 3yr and 10yr goals (or 6 month, 1 yr and 3 yr). Rewrite them until they motivate you and make you want to have it RIGHT NOW (you can plant a tree later to replace all the paper you’re using). You should be smiling and feel great when you read them. If you’re not, then add in more emotion and more inspiration. It’s all about ‘why’ you want this goal, what it’s going to do for you.

These goals should be incorporated into your Business Plan.  They provide the basis for what action you take in the future – “Will doing xyz help me reach my goal or not?”  If not, don’t do it.  Ensure your actions support your goals.

Next week we’re going to be looking at how to keep these goals in the front of your mind and how to use your subconscious to work on autopilot to achieve them.

A New Appointment

I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve just been appointed President-Elect for the Canberra Chapter of the International Coach Federation (ICF). I’ve been a member of the ICF for about five years and have been on the Leadership Team for the Canberra Chapter as Events Leader and Membership Leader for the past year.

This appointment was a huge surprise to me, and is a real honour. I’ve got a fantastic group of people in the Leadership Team to work with, and a great President to understudy and learn from.

My learning curve at present is pretty much vertical, which is exciting, challenging and a little scary all at the same time. Good fun!