610-793-6609 michael@achievable.com

5 Ways to Eliminate Time Wasting

May 28, 2020 | Business Owners, CEOs, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning

5 Ways to Eliminate Time Wasting           

How often do we excuse unaccomplished goals with the statement “I don’t have time?” I believe that we all have the time to achieve everything we want in life and business if we focus more on what really matters most – high payoff activities. You want to spend time doing the right thing in the right way at the right time and for the right reasons. As business leaders some high payoff activities include personal development, building a high performing leadership team, providing strategic direction, goal setting and planning with your team, tracking results, and managing capital. The reality is that we get so caught up in daily operations and navigating through crises that we put off these high payoff activities for when we have time – and the time never comes.

You can apply the S.E.D.O test to all organizational tasks, activities and processes and refocus your attention on the high payoff activities. S.E.D.O. stands for Simplify – Eliminate – Delegate – Outsource. And 5th test, Automate, has been recently added to remind us that technology can help us handle repetitive tasks without wasting our time and energy.

Simplify  – What task, activity, or process can be simplified, streamlined, consolidated or rearranged?

Eliminate – What task, activity, or process that no longer has value to the organization can be eliminated?

Delegate – What task can be delegated to other team members?

Outsource – What task, process, or project are you currently doing that is not part of the core of your business? How can you outsource it?

Automate- Create systems and processes to handle repetitive tasks.

When you spend your time on high payoff activities, you will be more productive. You will have more energy. Your people will be more engaged, and you will increase your opportunities to achieve your overall vision and mission with less stress. Not only will you have time to do what you want in life and in business but you will be happier too!

Click here to download the S.E.D.O tool for free.

 

 

How Will You Emerge From This Crisis

May 6, 2020 | Business Growth, Business Owners, CEOs, Leadership, Leadership Development, Strategic Planning, Success

If you are waiting to get back to “business as usual” you will be grossly disappointed. The world has changed, is changing, and will continue to change. Those who are waiting to go back to “business as usual” will be left behind.

So what do we do to thrive in the “new normal”?

As business leaders, our number one priority is to stay focused on strategy and provide direction for our teams.

You might be wondering what an effective strategic plan even looks like right now. Dennis Carey, Ram Charan and Tierney Remick wrote an article  in The Executive outlining 5 critical “pivots” CEOs must make right now to stay in business and ensure a successful future.

Make employees a top priority.
Keep the organization lean and nimble.
Redefine what a “responsible” balance sheet looks like.
Adapt to consumers’ changing needs.
Step up to social responsibility.
If you want your business to thrive you have to be intentional in your actions and not just reactive. Intentionality requires planning. Ask yourself these questions: Is your current plan still applicable?

Are your goals aligned with the aforementioned criteria? Are you taking action to achieve those goals? Are you communicating openly with your team and are you listening to their feedback?

How you and your business emerge from this crisis depends entirely on what you are doing right now. Are you thinking strategically and acting intentionally? Creating a One Page Strategic Plan is a good first step to ensure that you are.

Click here  for more information and to download the One Page Plan Strategic Checklist and get a jumpstart today!

How to Develop Personal Leadership Mastery

Aug 6, 2019 | Goal Setting, Happiness, Leadership, Leadership Development, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning, Success

First, you need to define what “Best Year Ever” means to you; you have to know what you want in order to achieve it.

 

Step 1.  Know what you really want in life and in business. Know what goals and outcomes you would like to achieve by the end of 2020 and know exactly what you don’t want. Create a list of personal goals and business goals for the next 12 months. Start with what  you really want to accomplish for yourself by focusing on “what really matters most in your life” so that you can say yes to that list and no to everything that is going to try to derail you from you goals program.  Create goals for personal health and well-being. Spend more time on your most important relationships. Stay connected with your kids as they grow up and/or pursue their college or post-college adventures? Pursue that special hobby or interest you have been putting off. Block more vacation time in your planner right now? This is the most important time you will spend if you want next year to be your best ever. Take time out of your busy schedule before January rolls in to recharge, relax, and re-energize with powerful and meaningful goals for next year.  Get the pen to the paper right now and start mapping our your future. 

 

Step 2. After you create your goals schedule an appointment with yourself every week to work on the action steps to move your goals forward.  Our lives are built on the foundation of these six major areas: Family & Home, Financial & Career, Mental & Educational, Physical & Health, Social & Cultural, and Spiritual & Ethical.  These areas are the foundation, the pillars that you will build a totally integrated life on. So make sure you are spending at least  1 hour a week in your plan of action. Your personal plan of action is the master plan for the rest of your life. Your planner should contain a master list of priority business and personal goals.  Success in life is the result of progressive realization of your predetermined goals. The world is infested with distractions and noise designed to take us off our goals program and put us on someone else’s goals program which is why we have to continue to work in our personal plan of action weekly and continue to crystallize our thinking about what really matters most in our life. 

 

Step 3. Develop a relentless focus on what really matters most, what is most important and significant in your personal and professional life by setting up ironclad boundaries so you are not interrupted with the tyranny of the urgent which usually isn’t really important. Focus on what you want and not on what you don’t want. Everything that isn’t important figure out a way to simplify, eliminate, delegate or outsource the activity. Then take massive action on your goals, make this a daily habit and you will be guaranteed to achieve your goals. Continue next week…………..

Do You Want to Have a Great Life? Set Big Goals.

May 7, 2019 | Goal Setting, Happiness, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning, Success

In 1972, Life magazine published a story depicting the adventures of John Goddard. His story was one on enduring determination filled with personal passion. When John was 15, he heard his grandmother, aunts, and uncles say, “If only I had done this when I was young.”

John was determined not to spend his life playing the “if only” game, so he sat down with a yellow pad and wrote down what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. When he finished writing, 127 goals existed.

John decided there were 10 rivers he wanted to explore, along with 17 mountains he wanted to climb. He decided to become an Eagle Scout, visit every country in the world, learn to fly an airplane, and dive in a submarine. He wanted to retrace the travels of Marco Polo and ride a horse in the Rose Bowl parade. The list goes on and on.

By the time he was 47, he achieved 111 of his original 127 goals.

John’s story is a testament to the power of goal-setting. Setting goals and determining the best route to achieve them is the surest way to go.

Goal-setting is the precondition to success in every venture in life. It’s absolutely vital to succeeding in your career. Goal-setting forces you to focus on what is most important in your life.

Goal-setting is the foundation of all success in life. A builder cannot construct a home without first outlining a blueprint. A pilot cannot fly a plane without first submitting a flight plan. A minister cannot deliver his sermon without first framing his message. You cannot design an extraordinary life without a solid foundation comprised of goals.

Goal-setting provides a road map for people who want to choose their own route to success and shape the events that fill their lives. Creative goal-setting sets in motion the forces for high achievement and a rewarding, fulfilling life. No one ever becomes truly great by accident. Success requires constructive action and positive habits to maintain and sustain your goals program. Remember: Your past isn’t your future, and you can do whatever you want with your future.

Whatever brought you to where you are today isn’t going to take you into the future. Your life is like a blank sheet of paper that you can mold and shape and create into whatever you choose. Life belongs to the intentional and purposeful goal-setters.

High Achievers Take Time to Create Goals and Plans to Achieve Them.

Apr 30, 2019 | Goal Setting, Leadership, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning, Success

A Harvard University study and numerous other studies reveal that, of 100 people who retire at age 65, three are independently wealthy, 10 live comfortably with some excess income, 60 barely get by, and 27 are completely dependent on outside support.

What makes the difference in these groups?

The major difference is that the top three percent had set clearly defined goals and had placed them in writing. And this group accomplished 80 percent more than the rest of the survey. Consider what difference 80 percent more in results could mean for you and your business.

The next 10 percent have goals “in mind” but have no written plans for their accomplishment. The middle 60 percent sometimes wishes for something, but because they have no real meaningful goals, their wishes remain merely dreams. The bottom 27 percent have no goals except to exist. They spend a lifetime depending on outside help.

The conclusion is clear: A lifelong goals program is essential to success.

Study after study, book after book, validates this information. All high achievers take the time to plan and create clearly defined goals and action plans to achieve those goals. Effective planning and goal-setting take you more than halfway to execution and improves your results more than 80 percent.

I ask you: Is it worth it for you to become one of the top three percent of high achievers and dramatically improve your results?

Goal-setting and goal-achievement are about deciding to make a commitment to your own personal and professional success. Make a decision today to take control of your life. The rubber meets the road when you set goals and develop a basis for action.

Don’t wait another minute. You only get one chance at this life. Your life is not a dress rehearsal; it’s the real thing. It’s really about your commitment to your commitment.

Make no mistake about it: A life of meaning and purpose needs goals and specific plans of action to achieve them. Consider them the pulse of your life.

Creating a Crystal-clear Blueprint for Yourself and Your Future.

Apr 23, 2019 | Business Growth, Goal Setting, Leadership, Motivation, Productivity, Strategic Planning, Success

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to achieve so much more than other people? And do it over and over and over again?

In my work with thousands of entrepreneurs, business owners, and top salespeople over the years, I have found that they all have one thing in common: They have taken the time to sit down and create a crystal-clear blueprint for themselves and their future. They took to heart what management guru Peter Drucker said: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

The common fabric of all peak performers throughout history is their ability to set and achieve goals. Remember, your past isn’t your future, and you can do whatever you want with your future.

A consistent finding about successful people is that they put a significant amount of effort into planning and setting goals. They know what they want out of life because they are goal-directed.

They are long-term thinkers and take the long view with every endeavor. They are proactive, rather than reactive, and live their lives with positive expectancy. They know where they are going and how they are going to get there. Goal-setting is the most powerful force available for achieving success. In fact, Aristotle said, “The first step to achieving true success is to have a definite, clear, practical ideal – a goal.”

Anybody can set goals – just take out a piece of paper and start writing them down – but goal achievement is an entirely different challenge. The most successful people I work with are serious goal-achievers always creating bigger and bigger futures for themselves, their families, and their communities.

There is certainly no shortage of information on setting and achieving goals, yet so few people actually achieve their goals. Why?

The statistics overwhelmingly support goal-setting as a way to success, yet many people still today resist the process.