Tense situations with

unpredictable outcomes

not just in sports and politics!

“Coming down to the wire” (an expression that originated, with apologies to Neil Young’s song, in horse-racing) in the completion of a major event or decision to be made, is clearly a hate/love situation.

It can often be so stressful that we tend to become consumed with the impending results and implications, to the point of ignoring the present moment… in business, as well as sports and politics.

It’s understandable if you’ve run a marathon –mental or physical– that thoughts of the finish line might flood your consciousness in the last mile or two. A winning run, goal, set, knockout punch, or touchdown being within reach can likewise dominate one’s mind to the exclusion of other awareness’s… in business, as well as sports and politics. 

Yet, it is in these final days, hours, minutes, and ticks of the clock, that most victories are lost to the shifting sands of one’s mind . . .

The doctor’s report. A sales closing? Membership acceptance. The monthly cash flow analysis? The stock market bell. The punchline of your presentation? Test results. A loan application? The required signature. News coverage? The merger. Union demands? Graduation. An industry award? Tough new customer specs. Add your own here _____. You get the idea.  

HOW to avoid last-minute meltdowns, and rise above the temptations to think too far ahead (which may be less than one minute’s worth of time!) at the exact point when we need most to pay close attention?

# # #

BREATHE IN THE PRESENT. You’ve heard this from me incessantly–because it works! I’ll spare you the details if you’re an elite athlete or are taking yoga. But, for everyone else, please follow this link and please take some deep breaths. 

Many hundreds of former college and university students and management training program participants have reported (voluntarily) that this was the single most valuable skill they ever learned in their lives!

It’s free and it will take only one minute of your time to put it to work. It will soothe your neurological system, enhance your performance, increase your self-control, and make you feel better. You could ask for anything more?

# # #

FOCUS ON THE PRESENT. Pinch yourself! Quietly reach for your heart or check your pulse as a reminder of the most immediate thing happening in your life right this very minute (in addition to breathing, of course).

Have you a watch or mobile device you can set to chime at appropriate reminder times when you might ordinarily drift off? If you turn your wristwatch inward, you’ll need to make more of a conscious effort to check the time. Devise your own ways to trick yourself. A miniature reminder sticker on your watch or mobile device can be a mental face slap.

# # #

SELF-TALK THE PRESENT. Send messages from your brain to your body to keep your hands flat on the table and your feet from jittering. Remind yourself to stop playing with hair, moustache, paperclips, pens, pencils, cellphone, rubber bands …remind yourself to smile and be attentive, to listen more and talk less, to take notes even though you don’t think you need them. The act alone of taking notes will keep you tuned in.

             ~~~~~~~~~~~~               

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY. . . Support those who endorse free market competition healthcare and REAL job creation tax incentives for America’s entrepreneurs! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 The “Inner Game”

of Covering Butts

There are three levels of political “game” playing in every business.

LEVEL I.  –WHOLESOME 

Most productive and well-intentioned among these three levels of business politics are what I call the WHOLESOME game players. Their agendas are comprised of earnest pursuits.

They are passionate about their lives and invested in making the most of their roles to nurture, enhance and grow the businesses that support them. They stimulate innovative thinking and healthy competition. They seek to make a difference.

They are leaders and team-players both. These are invigorating people who enjoy the daily challenges and opportunities of their lives and careers, who share and sweat and sacrifice to make a business work.

LEVEL II. –MANIPULATIVE  

On the flip side of business politics are the MANIPULATIVE game players. These are crafty, strategic-minded, self-indulgent “hallway hoverers” and “meeting Marxists.” They carry hidden agendas.

When they’re not busy disrupting or fostering disruption, they lurk in the shadows, watching and listening and figuring out how to fold what they learn into what they can use for themselves. Government and quasi-government agencies are–like tape-edged mattresses to bedbugs–breeding grounds for manipulative games and players

These are insecure people who do everything possible to undermine and inhibit others, who never hesitate to cut quality and value corners, who expend inordinate amounts of time and energy covering their butts, and raising their own flags.

LEVEL III. –MALLEABLE 

The word of choice here is malleable. It means easily taught or managed (also, easily hammered, which is significant). The MALLEABLE game players are really non-gamers, but will go with the wind as it best seems to suit them on any given day.

They aim to please, but not make waves. In a room full of foul language, off-color stories, sexist or racist remarks, they will quietly nod and smile just enough to not stand out. They will also work their tails off when motivated by a WHOLESOME game player. 

These are the people who comprise the majority of America’s workforce.

Like following the motivational applications of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (by rewarding others at the place in time, and at the level of personal needs that they will most respond to), you –as the business owner or manager– must be a detective to be an effective leader. You need to ferret out those whose self-serving behaviors are threatening to flush away your hard-earned business success.

And, by the way, if your business is still alive and kicking through this pathetic economy, it IS a “success”!

How to get started? If you are in the LEVEL I group above, you are already well on the way.

You would do well though to refresh your brain with some Google or Bing searches of Maslow’s Hierarchy and dig into the structure and meaning of it. Measure what you know about each person involved with you, and decide current need levels for each. Reward their efforts accordingly. Often, a news release or car servicing works better than cash! (And remember that need levels can change daily, even hourly!) 

As you stumble into individuals who appear unaffected by your efforts, spend talk time with them to confirm or deny the evidence. If the investment in getting a person on track is worthwhile, go FOR it. If not, let go OF it!

[If you want a little coaching with this, or have a particularly sticky staff issue, give me a call.]

You can save the economy by helping to move small business forward . . . Support those who support free market competition healthcare and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST!

•  Gutless, Incompetent, Greedy: The US Postal Service  

•  Having grown up a mailman’s son

•  Not just tech triumphs, the PO is a self-fulfilling sinking

•  Stuff Always Gets Worse Before it Gets Worse

And NEWSMAX reported this week . . . 

          “The U.S. Postal Service is close to maxing out its $15 billion line of credit with the Treasury and could run out of operating cash by the end of the year. But its contract with the postal unions is preventing the USPS from implementing the cost reductions it needs to get its finances under control.

          “Labor accounts for 80 percent of the USPS’s costs— the Service has the second largest civilian workforce in the nation, behind only Wal-Mart — and 85 percent of workers are protected by the collective bargaining agreement. “The unions have become a giant anchor on an already sinking ship,” Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute, wrote in an article appearing on The Daily Caller.

          “Last year the average postal worker received about $79,000 in total compensation, compared to $61,000 for the average private sector employee. But the union contracts “inhibit the flexibility required to efficiently manage the USPS workforce,” according to DeHaven. He cited the “no-layoff” provisions that protect most workers, which forces the USPS to lay off lower-cost part-time and temporary workers before it can fire a full-time employee.

          “Union contracts also make it difficult for the USPS to hire part-time workers, which could result in savings and give managers flexibility in dealing with fluctuations in workload. Only 13 percent of USPS employees are part-time, compared to 53 percent for UPS and 40 percent for FedEx.

          “Despite the USPS’s difficulties, the American Postal Workers Union — which represents more than 200,000 workers — is in contract negotiations with the Service and union chief William Burrus insists a pay increase for his members is an “entitlement.” He said the union wants “more money, better benefits.” DeHaven concludes: “The postal unions are likely betting that in a worst case financial scenario for the USPS, policymakers will tap taxpayers for a bailout. Unfortunately, if recent history is a guide, they’re probably correct.”

You gotta be kidding!

If you own or operate a small business, if you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re an entrepreneurship student, if you’re anyone in business with half a brain, your bowels should be in an uproar about the five paragraphs above.

It’s not only over-the-top insulting to all American businesspeople that –in an economy where business survival is more talked about than business profits, where unemployment, bankruptcies and foreclosures continue to plummet– that ANYone could think like this.

Why haven’t the postal unions stepped up to the plate and taken a responsible attitude and a leadership role in fixing the problem instead of trying to launch it into a death spiral, which will inevitably defeat their own existences as well as others?

And because of  self-serving greed, we stand on the doorstep of incompetence feeding the incompetent with still more government bailouts using tax dollars to save yet another catastrophic failed government business effort.                                                                      

Please remember    

to vote Tuesday, November 6, 2012 

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Does YOUR business

fit this definition:

Agility: being marked by ready ability to move with quick, easy grace . . . having a quick, resourceful and adaptable character 

???????????

How does it fit or not fit?

No, this isn’t a quiz. No, you don’t have to turn in any papers. Yes, the two questions represent an important self-inventory that should help you determine the ability of your business to survive the next coming wave of lousy economy.

What? More is coming? Yes, and it will be worse than the last one, and yes (Don’t shoot the messenger!):  It is on the way now! 

Like forcing the captain to own up to his miscalculations, and make a rapid course correction to keep the ship from running straight into the cliffs rising up out of the fog, November 2nd gives America’s small business owners a window of opportunity for a mid-course correction.

It’s a chance to adjust the sails of business ignorance that have led our rudderless tax-and-spend economy deeper (almost to the point of no return) into this unemployment-earmarked deficit since November, 2008. 

Oh, excuse me, The Washington Post –alongside it’s recent full page’s worth of attention to Tiger Woods visiting the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School Learning Center he just donated (Imagine that!) and another full page’s worth of photos devoted to a new Supreme Court portrait (Say “Cheese!”)–continues to overtly underplay our near-catestrophic economy.

Juxtaposed with all their Tiger and The Supreme Court (sounds like a hip-hop group)fanfare, the paper devoted only small insignificant attention to “The U.S. shedded 95,000 jobs in September”  (“Shedded”?) and that “Foreclosed properties now comprise 1 in 4 homes sold in the U.S.”

But then, who could expect anything else from such an accomplished, erudite, award-winning editorial staff? Yet, priorities do seem a bit confused, you think?

The point is that the only way to fix the economy is with new jobs created by new entrepreneurial enterprises that have genuine tax incentives (not more meaningless, token, convoluted, SBA-channeled government gobbidly-gook “programs”).

Neither do we need any more bailout billions to be poured into giant self-serving, top-heavy corporations that create near-zero new jobs. 

Ah, and there’s all those wonderful government agencies sucking up taxpayer dollars for politically-inspired nonsense “jobs” that simply serve to compound and expand the deficit even more. Nothing productive is achieved, and none of it helps small business to help the economy.

So the worst case scenario is that November 2nd brings in RE-election of a Congress and Senate and State Governorships, and we suffer through another two years of record unemployment, hardship, bankruptcies, bad credit, and steadily declining dollar value.

Best case scenario for November 2nd, brings in a new wave of government (which will reverse the small-business-destructive Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda that advances ill-conceived initiatives for healthcare, cap and trade, immigration and more, which will literally cripple small business growth and job creation nationwide) . . . to restore balance to both our economy and our lives.

Even with that, it will be two more years of financial struggle to dig back out.

So hunker down. Foster and nurture agility! Exercise inspired leadership that promotes trust and takes action. Innovate. Innovate. Innovate. And focus every business breath on your customers. 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

8-Week-Old BREEZY

Here’s the BIG little news… After 9 hours of driving, this little guy (an entrepreneur for sure) has joined TheWriterWorks family. Locating his birthplace (Shade Mountain in Beaver Creek, PA) and meeting his parents (Bichon Frise “Susie” and Sir Charles Cavalier Spaniel “Pogo”), plus sharing the holiday weekend with the world’s three greatest grandchildren took precedent over blog posts.

I decided to give up my dedicated blog-writing time, which interrupted Saturday, Sunday and Monday night posts. Sorry ’bout that, but delighted with the choice I made of how to spend that precious time.

First off, the drive was great, and so was the colorful leaf scenery. Plus guess what? The inspiration that comes with spending quality time with children and with taking some time off from work: priceless.

You know the song, “There is nothing like the real thing, Baby…”? Well, there is also nothing like a “TIME OUT!”

The business of managing personal pursuits is to get the most out of your time away from work. And, in the end, how that time is spent will put you a step ahead of every other entrepreneur who chooses instead to bury her or his self in work, while never lifting his or her ostrich head up out of the sand.

Taking TIME OUT puts control back in your hands and deeply increases your odds for achievement.

True entrepreneurs play

as hard as they work.

But few business owners and managers like the idea of taking that time off. After all, it takes planning. And entrepreneurs hate planning. And trust. It’s hard leaving your business in someone else’s hands — even when you know that person is capable, and reliable, and responsible, because that person is not you, and because it’s your baby. No one else can do stuff the way you can, right?

But there comes a time for

trusting the babysitter.

(And there definitely comes a time to rest and rejuvenate.)

For corporate moguls and mindless government employees who have no greater responsibility beyond earning  enough recognition to justify paychecks, this discussion must feel as useless as a mosquito invasion. But entrepreneurs know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s called resting your brain. And a rested brain innovates like no other.  

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

A Little Applause Please 

for GOIN’ POSTAL

Moving off the beaten path for this post, I’m going (goin’) to comment on a GOOGLE Alert response phone call I received today from GOIN’ POSTAL General Manager James Hall, who oversees 300 franchise operations across the U.S.

First, GM Hall was contacting me to let me know the circumstances involved with my blog post critique last night of one of their signs. http://bit.ly/bZrolF.

I reported that an old franchise sign which emphasized “Your Friendly Neighborhood Shipping Center” as a branding theme line, had been replaced with a new one which emphasized “Our Friendly Neighborhood Shipping Center.”

The single letter difference between “Your” and “Our” is a big one! 

The old sign/new sign references I made suggested that GOIN’ POSTAL had apparently elected to take the spotlight off their customers and put it on themselves.  

While Mr. Hall acknowledged that my observations were undoubtedly correct –and noted that the thrust of my comments about what I had observed were indeed ones he “totally agreed with”–  he convinced me that the company had, in fact, not in any way abandoned its customer-centric business focus.

It turns out that the sign I saw was, Mr. Hall said, “…our typo error. All of our locations use Your.”

Last night’s blog post also pointed out that the old sign included three major corporate logos which were not on the new sign. I raised the question if GOIN’ POSTAL felt it saw no value in being partnered up with the big boys? Mr. Hall owned up quickly that the logos should not have been on the original sign to begin with because they were not legally permitted to be used.

Presumably, this is the issue that prompted a new sign to begin with.

At any rate, General Manager Hall was both the perfect gentleman and the perfect example of leadership diplomacy policy. http://bit.ly/aaNS9u.

He took the time and trouble to respond quickly and professionally. His attitude was conscientious and considerate. He expressed appreciation for bringing the issue to public attention. He owned up to the error. He explained how and why it occurred. He offered assurance that the sign would be promptly corrected. http://bit.ly/ds34iq

What more could anyone ask? A little applause, please, for GOIN’ POSTAL for being a good example of how to deal with a “bad press” issue. James Hall, you’re a credit to your company! 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Tough or Tender?

You know what 100% of meat-eaters prefer, and what most lovers prefer, but when it comes to running a successful business in a near catastrophic economy, there’s little room for being tender. Is it like reaching the point with a drug addict to abandon “Tough Love” tactics?

Killer economy business owners have to be tough to hold on.

They also have to be tough to let go.

Either way–unlike government and corporate life or professional sports– there’s no one else to blame.

There’s no one else to step in and take over, and nobody else to pick you up.

Gloomy, huh?

Sure, there’s always the lottery, but real entrepreneurs don’t gamble because the risk is not reasonable. So what’s a struggling business owner to do, fire yourself? Maybe. Maybe not.

You probably won’t accomplish much by firing yourself, but you might accomplish a great deal by –instead– taking stock in yourself. Start with the assumption that you have what it takes to make things work. After all, you’ve already gotten this far, right?

1. Take back that attitude you had when you first started your business. Remember, that one where you relied on your SELF? You did whatever it took to nurture your ingenuity, persistence, gumption, stick-to-itiveness, determination…and all those other qualities?
2. Realize and accept that you can only rely on your SELF when you keep yourself in touch, day-to-day, with your own personal strengths and weaknesses. Be constantly on the alert to what they are and how they change. Adjust them and your SELF to fit changing times and situations, and to prompt opportunities to rise to the surface.
3. Remember that you have an important responsibility on Election Day to vote — and before that, to promote others to vote — for the kinds of sweeping changes nationwide that are clearly required and called for to recognize small business as the key to economic survival.

The current Congress and Administration most assuredly do not have your best interests or those of our national economy at heart. It does not require brain surgery expertise to see that small business creates probably close to 90% of all new jobs in the U.S.

Collectively, however, our political leaders lack business experience at every level, and have recklessly misspent and misappropriated billions of tax dollars in attempting to shore up misguided corporate entities, and bolster a social agenda that’s frivolous at best considering the continued plunge of unemployment, bankruptcy and foreclosure rates.

These destructive measures have been at the expense of a balanced budget, at the expense of the vast majority of Americans, and in the face of small business owners’ attempts to make things work. We need to get back on track –swiftly– with REAL tax incentives to small business for job creation (not SBA tokenism buried under reams of complex paperwork).

Your role in this is much more important than you may have thought.

Exert your influence to bring people into office –regardless of party affiliation– who will stop the tax and spend mentality in its tracks.

America needs representatives who will appreciate the sacrifices and values of small business ownership, and use that appreciation to see that jobs are created  . . . to begin to own up to the realities of what needs to be done to turn the tide of this devastating economy.

# # #

 931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

A business wallowing

in its own culture is 

rapidly irrelevant, and  

moving toward extinction.

(Yet corporate giants need it to survive!) 

I just read somewhere (Twitter?) that “Company culture is the priority” for some business organization whose name I’ll withhold to spare them embarrassment. I never heard of the company, but no doubt it is either part of some corporate giant sprawl or, sadly, some idealistic young tech business that is tripping over its own inexperience.

Any company that devotes its priorities to promoting, maintaining, nurturing, and protecting its own culture is totally out of touch with the realities of doing business in 2010. Admittedly, “never forgetting where you came from” is a healthy, driving energy force for every business owner, but dwelling on it is exactly what is wrong with the ways corporate giants conduct business today.

If your business is not customer-centric in every application possible, it is headed toward the great business burial grounds up in the clouds. Developing pie-in-the-sky programs to attract and keep top industry performers is a waste of time and money unless you totally lack the leadership it takes to foster and cultivate top performance from within.

The short solution:

Stop wasting so much energy on trying to inbreed specific employee characteristics and allegiances at a time when the only ROI you’ll realize will be major deficits (you remember him?).

If you’re not running some incompetent government agency, heavily subsidized corporate entity, or dreamy-eyed inexperienced new venture, don’t think of a culture focus as your bailout.

Here’s the bottom line: You cannot focus on your company’s culture AND on serving your customers exceptionally enough to earn ongoing profits AT THE SAME TIME. There’s simply not enough hours in the day to devote your concerted efforts in both directions simultaneously. If you haven’t a treasure chest in the closet, stick to pleasing your customers.

What was it Abe Lincoln said about not being able to please all of the people all of the time? Yes, some self-absorbed employees will jump ship who are not catered to, but do employees who come to work with a daily “what’s in it for me” attitude do your business any good to start with?

Did you go into business to cater to employees or to cater to customers? Sure, employee recognition and motivational performance incentives are nice, warm, fuzzy actions. But don’t let them get in the way. If you do a good enough job of pleasing customers, you will automatically please employees as well…at least those who matter to your business.

Those employees who are intrinsically challenged to be outstanding performers, who want to build their careers on achievement will rise to the opportunities you provide when you set the example.

Teach them how to embrace your customer base, instead of constantly pandering to their requests for more social activities.  

Is that a thin line? Perhaps. Yet, business owners who understand communications, and who practice leadership by example, and management by wandering around, can substantially reduce the need for many employee recruitment and reward devices because they create an environment all by themselves that make others gravitate to serve their pursuits. Voila! “Counter Culture”!

Put the spotlight on the customer and teach employees how to focus it, how to keep it shining and how to change the bulb when necessary, then reward them for how well they do what they do instead of for the promises of their smiles behind their resumes.

We need only look briefly at the complete financial losses attached to professional sports team owners who buy into promises of greatness vs. those who make the long term investments of cultivating from within. A great team culture doesn’t matter if you can’t perform in the clutch.

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Seeing Yourself Win

At Business,

Makes It Happen!

(And when you can make it happen, you can make a difference!)

Yes, business is a game.And let’s face it, there’s probably never been a more exasperating, more struggling time in American history than right now to try and launch or rocket-boost a business. The economy is in shambles and continues to sink daily.

It is unfortunately only going to continue to get worse until something more substantial than lip-service is paid to the stimulation of small business job creation. This will take real and significant tax incentives extended to entrepreneurs. Small businesses that have been laying around for years are the economy’s engines, but new entrepreneurial enterprises are the fuel!

New businesses create jobs. Job creation is (for the zillionth time on this blog site) the ONLY solution to our ever-sinking economy.

The Administration lacks business experience and knowhow to the point of patheticness (even if there’s no such word, that’s what it is). 

To have even thought that “stimulus” (tax dollar) money for corporate giants was the answer, is both naive and dumb.

To think that the nonstop reckless spending patterns being flaunted by government, and that politically-motivated tax increase and ill-conceived healthcare proposals represent an answer, is pure lunacy. They simply serve to compound the financial collapse of those very businesses that hold the key to revitalization.

How does an entrepreneur with a new venture face employee healthcare requirements and increased taxes with every innovation that has the potential to create jobs?

Competitive businesses (are there any other kind?) are beating each other’s brains in. Strategic alliances and collaborative efforts have made valiant efforts to rise above the fray — trying to cooperate, lock arms, hold hands, and march shoulder-to-shoulder was a nice diversion as times got tighter, but those are just new game applications. They don’t change the basic free-market-enterprise-doing-business-to-make-a-profit game!

And what else is business for but to innovate, create jobs, and make a profit?

Social reform? Sure, that’s great when it’s affordable.

History has proven at every turn that social causes underwritten by businesses that stand solidly on strong financial foundations are more successful than those causes underwritten from a position of weakness.

How can you truly help less fortunate people and causes when you are struggling to pay your own bills? Charity must come from the heart, but effective large-scale charity must also come from financial strength.

The bottom line remains that it takes sales to produce revenues and it takes revenues to pay overhead and open the door to profits. The problem with all this is that government controls strangle business sales initiatives. And corporate bailouts were a failure-ready-to-happen before they ever happened. Their sole accomplishment was to increase the deficit by adding more debt.

What options are left? If you own or run a new business (since 2001), your best option is to make a winner of your business by seeing it be a winner every day and every night, every waking hour possible (after personal, family, spiritual and community time).

That means closing your eyes and “seeing” the customers you want coming in your door or to your site. It means imagining each growth step taking place, including employee loyalty and leadership development, bank deposits being made, bill payments becoming a minor event, investments in operations and job creation zooming. Then, fully supporting the charity of your choice.

Every great athlete and sports psychologist will tell you that seeing yourself in your mind as a winner, doing winning things in winning ways, produces victory. It’s no different for business owners, except there may be more diversions to deal with. But when all is said and done, you become what you think about, and so does your business!

Try it. Be Tenacious. You’ll like it. It works. 

# # #

931.854.0474     Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Daily Notes or Recordings

Work Wonders With

Business Pursuits 

They heal damaged ventures and egos. They explore new ideas and avenues of strategic planning. They reveal new awarenesses and cultivate creativity. They stimulate innovation and fuel productive relationships.

They save time, money and effort. They reduce stress and soothe neurological systems.They need never be shared with anyone. They don’t take more than 3-5 minutes a day.

No, “They” are not vitamin supplements or exercises or illusionist tricks. “They” are journals. When you keep a journal, you open yourself up to all of the above opportunities.  

Do they REALLY work? Yes. I have dozens of business (and personal) journals on my shelf. Referring to them and the notes I’ve made has accomplished everything noted in the opening paragraph, and more.

A great many college and management training session students I’ve prescribed journaling to, have told me it was the single most valuable tool they ever learned about and used. It can be a combination savior and rocket booster for any entrepreneur or small business owner or manager. It can be a major career and personal/professional development tool for anyone, regardless of business attachments. 

The best part of keeping track of my daily thoughts in writing –besides teaching me more about myself and my life and business choices– is that once thoughts leave my brain and travel down my arm and into my fingers and through my pen and onto paper, I no longer need to carry them around in my brain.

Once my thoughts are sitting in a notebook that I can pick up and look at anytime I want; there’s more room in my brain for focusing on what’s important that’s going on here and now (instead of recreating and resurrecting past experiences or worrying about or planning for or fantasizing about stuff that’s in the future, and that may never happen or show up anyway).

I can tell you firsthand that there’s no better investment of time you can make, over time. And your potential ROI paybacks can be staggering. On top of all that, it’s free!

Getting started . . .

1) Make the commitment to yourself that you will try it faithfully for 21 days in a row.

2) On every left-hand page, put the date. Across the top write “WHAT HAPPENED” and proceed to jot down an objective, rational, report of some incident(s) that occurred or thoughts or ideas you had.

3) On every facing right-hand page, write across the top “HOW I FELT” and proceed to editorialize, offer opinions, be biased, express your “take” on whatever is represented on the left-hand page.

What kinds of entries work best . . .

An idea. A thought. An observation. A word. A sentence. A paragraph. A diagram. An example. A poem. A drawing. Scribble. Your goals. Goal progress. A doodle. Spit. A coffee stain. Whatever is taking up valuable think space that you don’t want to forget, but that’s getting in the way of immediacy.

Does it have to be in writing? Can’t a laptop serve the purpose? Historically, writing stuff down on paper has always worked best. Tape recordings are next best. Laptops do not offer the same impact value. I really recommend to put it in writing on paper in a (preferably) bound blank book or (second best) bound notebook. (“Bound” because removable pages encourage time-wasting second thoughts, and nurture perfectionism, which is not productive.)

Stop worrying about how pages will look and put stuff down. Something (literally any thing) every day is better that writing volumes once or twice a week.

Keeping track of your daily thoughts may feel awkward at first, but reviews over time will prove that you have created true value from nothing, and serve to demonstrate how really smart you always thought you were but never had a way to back up your convictions. And who knows? Maybe it will end up a best-seller or full-length movie! :<)

Serious: Do it. Start today.

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

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