Morning Motivator - Where is Your Comfort Zone?

"Step out of your comfort zone once more each week and create over 50 additional opportunities for excitement, challenge and possibility each year.  This is what life's about."
- Sam Parker

Are you interested in finding the best ways to GROW and ACHIEVE?  Are you SEEKING opportunities to create a better future for yourself as soon as possible?  Do you ever notice that others around you have decided that what they are doing is the MAXIMUM success that they can attain?

One of the CHALLENGES of most people is the need to BREAK OUT if the mental block that limits their ABILITY to achieve.  Often people make comments, such as "I am not able to make my financial goals here because our programs don't do blah blah blah..." or "I would love to move up the ladder, but until I get my degree, they won't promote me.". Here is a REALITY - NO ONE IS LIMITING YOUR LIFE... JUST YOU!

Your income potential is UNLIMITED.  From any role, you can make more money if you NEGOTIATE the proper arrangements and are able to CLEARLY identify the areas that you add value.  You can move up the ladder as HIGH as you desire, once you are ABLE to DEMONSTRATE your ability to execute effectively.  Its up to YOU!

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
In order to BREAKTHROUGH and achieve at the high levels you are seeking... You must take a chance on YOURSELF!

IDENTIFY the "risks" you need to take to accomplish your goals:
- Ask for more responsibility at work
- Negotiate new agreements for your job role
- Call new clients for opportunity
- Start your own business

Once IDENTIFIED, take a chance - schedule the appointment - ask for what YOU want!  You have nothing to lose... And EVERYTHING to gain!

Cheers,
Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication. The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.

Morning Motivator – Follow Up, then Do It Again…

"The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come."
- James Whitcomb Riley

Business is a tough gig.  We all have to find the RIGHT potential clients and then convince them that we are right for THEM. 

Contacts are EASY to make.  Meetings, clubs, organizations, charity functions, etc allow us access to LOTS of people.  What you DO with those people is what matters!

Do you send EACH person an email noting how nice it was to meet them?  Do you make notes on their cards as you are talking about people they know that you SHOULD know?  After the first contact, are you CONTINUING to make efforts to stay in touch?

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
FOLLOW UP is the one factor that you have the MOST control over that yields the greatest returns. 

You will never KNOW someone longer than an old friend.  You will never become their sisters' husbands' child.  You have to meet and "one up" with what you CAN control.

FOLLOW UP after an initial meeting.  Do it again in a week.  Again 4 weeks later.  Again every 10 weeks after that.  Continue to contact and communicate with that person until they tell you to STOP!

Sure, it will take time and effort… but remember that only a certain FEW people are doing that now.  Oh yeah, those are the people that are WINNING all the clients!

Cheers,

Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication.  The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.

Morning Motivator – Wait, I’m Not Ready

"Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don't count."
-Dr. Robert Anthony

I am almost used yesterday's quote about the enemy of good being great (actually, I guess I just did use it), however, I want to DRIVE home the idea that waiting until you are "ready" is a DANGEROUS game.

Often, ideas are generated that are "half baked."  They are full of INSPIRATION and MOTIVATION, even though they lack ORGANIZATION.  As control freaks, we all want every idea to have a GUARANTEE of success on it.  (We cannot afford to FAIL, right?)  We want all the answers about who, what, when, where, why and mostly, HOW MUCH!

REALITY is this:  Organization and structure can be added on methodically day in and day out.  MOTIVATION and INSPIRATION are rare, extremely valuable commodities.  It does not ARRIVE often and when it does, it is FLEETING.  Simply put, you can always make an idea better… but RARELY can you build motivation, later on.

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
When someone tells you WAIT, you are forced to do a "GUT CHECK."  This is the same gut check that told you to play your back up QB in fantasy football when all the others say no.  The same gut check that told you to go on just one more date with that person (that you later married).

If YOUR motivation, inspiration, passion, resolve, interest, focus, etc is HIGH enough and your gut says "GO!," then take a chance on yourself.  A strong resolve and the proper amount of passion can OVERCOME almost any deficiency in planning and execution.

Build with INSPIRATION, organize with INTELLECT.  And NEVER let a good jolt of motivation go wasted…

Cheers,

Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication.  The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.

Morning Motivator – Now Hiring

"A perfectionist is someone that uses their inability to be complete a project as a badge of honor."
- Zachary Barker

Job postings are a FAILURE from the beginning as they recruit the most FLEXIBLE and least EFFECTIVE person for the job.  Pick up a paper and you will see what I mean, as they ask for long-term success oriented people (for an entry-level job), multi tasking, detail oriented, and self-starters.  Blah, blah, blah…

If I were to write a job posting, I would right it something like this:

"Seeking laser-focused and short-term goal driven professionals.  Experience desired, effectiveness required.  Must not multi task – ever!  Prefer individuals seeking to work as few hours per week as possible.  Social life required.  Perfectionists need not apply."

How is that for ANTI-CORPORATE?  Actually, its intent is to be everything we REALLY want in someone, but will not say as we have adopted "success buzz words" such as dynamic, detail oriented and multi-tasking.  BLAH!!

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
Let us analyze what we really want in a worker:

-  FOCUSED:   having the ability to execute on one task until completion without deviation
-  SHORT TERM DRIVEN:  has a plan for where they are going and understands how to execute
-  EFFECTIVE:  experience is fine, but effective is better.  Sitting on a job for 6 years does not make you better than the new person that won all of last year's awards
-  NON MULTI-TASKING:  see FOCUSED.  Multi tasking is an exercise in the inability to prioritize
-  WORK AS FEW HOURS AS POSSIBLE:  You always accomplish more the day before vacation.  Focus has a way of doing that.  ENCOURAGE it!
-  SOCIAL LIFE REQUIRED:  The quickest way to burn out is 15-hour days and 80-hour weeks.  Don't do i
-  NO PERFECTIONISTS WANTED:  Good is good enough.  Perfect is a waste of time and a crutch for those who wear that label.  Get on with it already!!

Next time you think about who you work with or where you want to work.  Consider the CULTURE.  Does it ENCOURAGE traditional ineffective behavior or supports EXECUTION with reward?

Cheers,

Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication.  The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.

Morning Motivator – Mice Don’t Work on Sunday?

"Thank you for your call.  You are very important to us.  Call back during our regular business hours."
- Unnamed Extermination Company in Nashville, TN

I love being told how IMPORTANT I am to someone's business as I am being told I cannot be helped.  What a joy!!

I have a tenant in my beloved Nashville home that called me yesterday to note that she has a few MICE that had made their way into the house during the recent cold spell.  She asked for my help in RIDDING them.  I am happy to oblige.

As I called more than TEN (10) local exterminators in the Nashville area, I consistently received a voice message noting my IMPORTANCE to their business, then was promptly asked to call back tomorrow during regular hours.   Is there not an "after-hours" number or something?  On the other hand, does my tenant have the only mice that WORK on Sunday?

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
My issue is NOT with the fact these businesses are not open to serve my needs.  It is that they express this FALSE EXPRESSION of my importance to their livelihood.  I am so IMPORTANT that I cannot receive services – even emergency options – when I need it.

LOYALTY from service is not made by being available all the time, just the time I need you.  My dentist in Nashville, Dr. Matt Gorham, Jr., earned business not by having a nice office or kind staff, rather by making special after-hour arrangements to refit a broken crown just before my wedding.  WOW!

HONESTY is what matters in business.  If you say you are "always" available – you had better be!  If you tell people, they are the LIFEBLOOD of your business – treat them as if they literally pumped oxygen through your body!

Otherwise, say, "Thank you for your call.  I am unable to speak.  Please leave a message."  At least then, I know that someone OTHER than the mice is SUPPOSED to be off on Sunday.

Cheers,

Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication.  The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.