Personal Development;Life Enhancement;Achievement
Posts tagged small business consulting
Deadlines
Jul 8th
“I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.” ~Douglas Adams, 03/11/1952 – 05/11/2001 – English humorist & science fiction novelist
I found out today that one of my favorite authors was dead – not just dead, but dead for more than 7 years already. Wow. The quote above is from Douglas Adams – dead at 49 from a heart attack while working out at a private gym in Santa Barbara. I think he would have appreciated the irony in that statement. If you aren’t familiar with his work and you like British humor, go buy some of his stuff. You will be in for a treat – I still smile when I think of the dolphins from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe series – “So long, and thanks for all the fish!”
I’m not sure why his death affected me so deeply tonight. I was thinking of the upcoming deadline for my first book, September 17th, 2008 to remind myself again, and I went searching for nice quotes about deadlines. I found this one from DNA, as he was known to many of his friends and attached to it was a date of death. Wowsers!
My entire idea for this blog entry changed and I started to think about deadlines in a different way. None of us knows the date of our personal life “deadline” but as my mother is known to say: “No one gets out alive, make the most of today.” I think that is good advice and maybe I’ll take it to heart.
Till next time…Jack
“A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.” ~Rita Mae Brown
Getting Leverage on Yourself to Achieve
Jun 3rd
“How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?” ~Anthony Robbins
Yesterday, I made a public commitment that I would have my first book for sale, in at least 2 formats, by 5pm Central Time on Wednesday September 17th, 2008. Why did I make that commitment here on this blog? I did it to get leverage on myself.
For me, and for most people that I know, it is easy to break promises that are made just to ourselves. When the promise is made to someone else however, someone that I like and respect, I feel terrible if I don’t fulfill that promise. Since I know this, if I am having an issue getting something done, then it is time to make a public commitment. This is exactly what I did on this blog yesterday and I can feel the power of this working already.
This is negative motivation and it is very powerful. I do most of my work, with myself and with others, from a place of positive motivation. There are times however, and this is one of them for me, when I also need the away from “push” of a strong negative motivator. I don’t want to feel the bad feelings that would be there for me should I not achieve my public goal; so I know I will take the actions that I have been putting off.
This power of the commitment to someone else, someone that you like and respect, is one of the reasons that coaching can be so effective. A good coach will be asking you to make well-planned and achievable commitments each and every time you work with them. What is well-planned and achievable? That is another conversation.
Till next time…Jack
“Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.” ~Isaac Asimov