Positioning Systems Blog

Think about all the things you have going on. The deadlines, priorities, personal and professional obligations you have to do. It’s not just the things you have to do that you know about that cause you stress, it’s all the items you have to do that you don’t remember that are also causing undue stress. David Allen, author of Getting Things Done and Making it All Work indicates that, “to really get things off your mind you must put them on your mind appropriately.” That’s why it’s so important to put all of your to do’s somewhere [list] so your mind can let them go. 

 

Allen will be speaking at the Fortune Small Business Growth Summit in Dallas on October 20-21^st and if you can make this event you’re sure to learn a great deal on how to get organized and relieve stress. I highly recommend his book Getting Things Done and his most recent work Making it All Work. 

 

The authority on stress is Jim Loehr, who wrote Stress for Success and with Tony Schwartz wrote the Power of Full Engagement. Stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As they point out for our body’s to build muscle it has to be exposed to stress to break down and rebuild muscle into greater mass.   The key here is to have time for rest and recovery. The problem is most of us aren’t taking the time for rest and recovery and so we are constantly working at the same degree of energy. Over time that takes its toll and eventually our ability to work at peak performance erodes.

 

In our Rockefeller Habits two day workshop we discuss the importance of determining your priorities each day. We teach the importance of knowing the ONE THING that can impact your business and then focusing your full attention on it.   The mind requires 26 minutes to get up to speed on what you are concentrating on. That’s when you really get into a grove and feel peak performance. The problem is that on average we’re interrupted every 11 minutes. That’s not just a phone call or fellow employee asking us a question or making a comment, it’s our own mind wandering or remembering to do something. We lose focus. 

 

Each day, once you’ve determined your One Thing, you need to dedicate a minimum of an hour to work on it. One hour a day, 5 days a week, 20+ days a month and in no time you’ll get your One Thing done, move on to the next and make real progress.

 

You complete unfinished business! Your reduce stress. What’s your ONE THING? Do you set your top six priorities every day? Do you schedule time to work on your ONE THING? It takes 21 days to start a new habit. Do you have the discipline to begin now and make a major change in your business and life?

 

Jim Collins spoke about the importance of creating a BHAG [Big Hairy Audacious Goal] for your business. How do you know if you have a good BHAG? How did a company like Starbucks create there BHAG? Does a BHAG apply to your business? Is it possible to translate that to a meaningful definition for every business? We’ll discuss this in my next blog.   

Need help implementing these ideas?

Positioning Systems helps business owners and entrepreneurs transform their business.   We provide the tools and coaching to help you take control of your business -- rather then having your business control you.