One of the best presentations I have heard in a very long time was given by Dan Coughlin on my monthly Arbonne “Learn and Burn” CD. Check out the following information, and see if you agree?
Accelerator Actions
1. Embrace simplicity. There should be no more than 2 – 7 steps to your business. Two to seven steps will be much easier to use, and you will be able to teach others faster – much more powerful. Look at every single part of your business and ask, “How can I simplify? What am I doing? How can I narrow down to 2 – 7 steps I can use over and over again?”
2. Schedule thinking time. Schedule one hour of thinking time per week – where you are alone, no phones, and no interruptions. Take a blank sheet of paper. At the top write one business outcome you really want to achieve, or one business issue you really want to resolve, in the next 90 days. Take that outcome and turn it into an open-ended question. Answer that question from a variety of perspectives: yours, those new in your business, the seasoned employees, the customer, competitors, prospects. Get as much perspective and ideas as you can for 35 minutes.
Then take 10 minutes. Look at all the ideas you have written, combine the ideas to make an even better idea, and at the end of 10 minutes, take the very best idea you have come up with and then take the last 15 minutes to develop an action plan on how you are going to use that idea to move results forward.
One quality hour will have a tremendous effect on the quality and output of all the other hours in that work week.
3. Schedule non-thinking time. Your brain needs a rest. No matter the economy, stop the 24/7 work.
Every morning, no matter how busy you are, take a walk for 10 minutes. Leave your phone on the counter.
Every week have three consecutive hours where you don’t do any work at all. No emails, no phone calls.
Every month take one full day where you don’t touch work/you don’t touch email.
Every quarter take at least two consecutive days and get away from your work.
Doing the above will give your mind a rest, and you will come up with much better ideas. Force yourself to get away from your work. You will increase the quality of your work.
In review, 1) One hour a week, really focus your thinking effort on one topic. 2) On a regular basis, intentionally get away from your work. Give yourself a break, and your mind will come up with even better ideas.
4. Review past successes; preview future successes. Self confidence is so important. Two ways to strengthen self confidence: 1) Review a past success story, and 2) Preview a future success story.
Review past successes where you overcame the odds. Re-live that story. Ask yourself five questions: 1) What was your goal you were trying to achieve? 2) What were the obstacles that stood in the way? 3) How did you persevere? 4) What did it feel like for you when you finally achieved that goal? What were the emotions you experienced? 5) What lessons did you learn from that experience that you can use right now, today, to improve your business momentum?
Preview future successes: 1) What is one high priority business outcome that you want to achieve in the next six months? Write it down as clearly as you can. 2) Why do you want to achieve it? What are all the benefits you can think of – to you as an individual, to other people in your successline, to your organization, family, suppliers, the community? Write down every single benefit. When you’ve got them all down, challenge yourself to do it for one more minute. If you have four or five goals and you do it for all, you will soon realize that some are more meaningful. 3) Why do you fully expect to achieve that outcome? What are all the reasons you can think of why you are going to achieve that outcome? What do you bring to the party? What do others in your successline bring to the party? What is it about the company that is going to increase your chances for success? What is it about your customers? What is every reason why you fully expect you will achieve that outcome? After you have written every single thing you can think of, challenge yourself for one minute to come up with more reasons.
Invest 15 minutes on these two exercises, and your confidence will go up significantly. Step off the train of activity and really think.
5. Sacrifice to accelerate. Let go of really good activities to have the time and energy to do a few really important activities that will matter the most in moving your business forward.
Three questions to consider, the “1-3-6 Exercise”
1) What’s the one most important business outcome you want to achieve or improve significantly in the next six months? Write down as clearly as you can so you know exactly what it is you are going after.
2) What are three things you can do that would have the greatest positive impact on achieving that outcome? If you could do only three things, what would they be?
3) (The hardest) What six things do you need to stop doing or spend a lot less time doing so you have the time and energy to do the three things that you know would have the greatest positive impact on improving that outcome? Everything you do is important, but something is more important than something else in achieving that desired business outcome.
Focus on one of the five Accelerator Actions. Use it for the next 30 days, then move on to one of the other Accelerator Actions.
Dan’s web site is www.businessacceleration.com. Check out his free resource center.
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