Personal And Professional Development With Dr Seuss

The older I get the more wisdom I read in Dr Seuss books. Those funny, quirky tales designed for children really pack a lot of punch for adults, too.

• Only you can control your future.
• Teeth are always in style.
• Today I shall behave as if this is the day I will be remembered.

They are just three of the pearls of wisdom Dr Seuss wrote into his magical stories.

Today there is not a lot I need to say to you because Dr Seuss has said it all for me. Have a look through these quotes and see the wisdom in them. There will be a quote that really resonates with you. Remember it and follow it.

Me? My quote is “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

That’s the quote I live by. I care and I make things better.

The Lesson of Letting Go

All of our lives, we are each encouraged by well-meaning friends, family members, mentors, educators and coaches to never give up or give in. We just need to “hang tough” and “get it done.” That we each need to keep on giving everything that we have to a project, a goal, and our dreams and eventually, miraculously, things will work out and we will achieve our objective through sheer persistence. Many times, determination and will power will see us through difficult times, and help us to reach our aspirations, but what do you do if everything you’ve got just isn’t enough?

While patience and perseverance are good traits that we should cultivate, there are times when instead of continuing to beat our head against the wall that we should take a moment to stop what we are doing and reassess the situation. It is true that some situations do not have easy or win-win solutions, but there are also times when the situation or expected results have changed. When this happens, we need to stop a moment and ask ourselves, what am I really trying to achieve here? Is my original goal still worth pursuing? What is it that I really want or need? Is there a better way to go about achieving my objective? Rather than blindly sticking to an allegiance to a goal that we once made, if, over time the information that we have received significantly changes the circumstances, we should take the time to reevaluate our goal and see if what we were trying to achieve can be gained through a different strategy, a different path.

We’ve each been conditioned to think of this as a failure, a retreat; it is in fact an act of regrouping, of taking stock of one’s situation and resources and improvising and adapting in order to survive and thrive.

Learning the subtle art of when to hang tough and persist and when to let go and change course is a lesson that is necessary for survival in every aspect of our lives, from our personal to our professional lives. This lesson of letting go is one that we must each master in order to achieve balance, stability and progress towards the goals and developments that truly matter. It is a lesson that requires skills that take time to develop and hone, and is a lesson that we each must repeat throughout our lives. Have you been giving it all and somehow you just can’t seem to get there on a particular goal? Maybe it’s not that your effort is lacking, maybe it’s just time to pause and take stock of things and even let go.

Honing Your Skills With Online Education

As technology changes, the skill sets needed to be successful in any given field or industry also change. In order to be successful in many jobs, it is important that our skills grow with these changes, or we face becoming obsolete.

As a business owner or other professional, it can be hard to juggle the demands of our personal and professional lives without throwing continuing education into the mix. The rise of online learning is helping to make it easier for busy individuals to take the courses that they need on a flexible basis to keep their skills sharp or even acquire new skills to help them advance their position or even change fields entirely.

There are several providers of online learning courses. Coursera, Udemy and creative LIVE are three of the largest and most well-known providers of online education. Select individual colleges and universities also often offer online courses and seminars directly to the public for free or a reduced price.

Coursera

Coursera features free online classes in a wide range of disciplines and fields from some of the most prestigious college, universities and institutions from around the world. Anyone can enroll in these classes and many of the classes offer certificates for completion of the course. For a small fee, some classes are eligible to be taken under the signature track program, which provides a verified credit of the coursework that can be shown to employers and others to prove one’s proficiency in the course.

Udemy

Udemy brings together educators and experts from a wide variety of fields to provide educational programs on numerous topics. The company provides a platform where instructors can create their own courses and easily upload content and interact with their students. While some classes are free to take, other courses are offered with a price range that is highly variable. The company also allows employers to create their own educational pathways taught by their own experts to ensure that their employees obtain training and certifications in various fields.

creativeLIVE

creativeLIVE connects creative individuals and with some of the world’s leading experts and professionals from the world of the arts, design, photography, marketing, computer programming and more via live seminars. There is no charge for the courses, and students can ask the instructor a question or interact with participants through Twitter. While Coursera offers classes whose video components can be reviewed at a later date, creative LIVE offers the seminars that are broadcast live on the site and according to the production calendar. Individuals can also purchase recordings of the seminars at a later date.

While these three websites are among the best known for providing easy access to top-notch courses and training, others are certainly available, either for free or at a reduced rate. If you have a busy lifestyle, online education can certainly make it easier to juggle your other personal and professional commitments while also helping  you to obtain new skills or sharpen the ones you already possess.

How To Motivate Yourself Right Now

We all start out driven with excitement or enthusiasm towards our hopes and dreams but somewhere along the way the excitement fades and enthusiasm disappears.  What happens then?

Absolutely nothing.

You might come up with some creative excuses or even some pathetic ones to cover up your inaction but eventually you have to make a choice.  Do you want it or not?

Keeping yourself motivated is not always easy but luckily Tony Robbins has the answer.  This video is only short but he packs a lot of information into it.  He talks about clarity, tools and keeping your head facing the right direction.  He introduces you to the three pillars of motivation and how they support you.

Could you do with some motivation?

Getting Down To Business

How did you go with your self-assessment last week?  Were you making any of those critical mistakes in your business?

Today I have some more tips to share which will help you build a successful business and career.

Plan Your Time and Focus

To get serious about your work, keep a record of what you do and do not do each day for a week, and see how you are spending your time. The results will surprise you.

You need to plan to complete at least three to six key tasks each day, and then get rid of everything that you do during the day that isn’t leading towards accomplishing those goals. Some people may have 10 or 20 things to do on their list each day, but really, you need to focus on quality, rather than quantity. Break big goals into smaller ones, and then focus on what you need to do to reach them. This is one area where it pays to put your blinkers on and not be distracted by the noise or busy work. Mind how you are spending your time and be consistent in your efforts and direction.

It is going to take a lot of time to master the art of focus: it is an art that takes a lot of practice. Don’t expect to be perfect straight away.  Just keep trying.

Have Passion and Let it Show

Are you in love with your business? Does at least some aspect of it involve something that you truly love, that you truly enjoy? If not, you are wasting your time.  It’s quite likely that your business will fail because your lack of interest will show and sabotage all of your efforts. Long before you take the first step, open your business or start your career, make certain that at least part of its core involves an area that interests you and that you are passionate about. Having passion can help to sustain you during the first few lean years as you master your skills, and your business establishes its footing and begins to develop and grow.

By making careful plans, choosing a business or career that interests you and that are passionate about, by being focused and committed and staying the course as you begin your business, you can weather the difficult periods as they arise. In time, your success will grow and you can be very proud of yourself.

Getting Down To Business – How To Get Serious About Your Work And Why It’s Critical To Your Success

Many people dream of starting their own business, and some will take a leap of faith and try to pursue their dream. Despite their good intentions though, many of those businesses will fail during their first two years. Why do you suppose that is? Maybe it’s bad decisions, a bad economy, or simply not understanding enough about one’s core business. Yet still there are examples of some businesses taking off despite those reasons, while others seem to languish and ultimately fail.

Why are some successful and some not? There is an old saying that is very true in business – you reap what you sow – you get back what you put in.

When you first start your own business, it’s easy to become discouraged, especially during the first or second year. It’s important to realise that you aren’t likely to make a profit or even cover your operating expenses during your first year or so. Being successful at business is much harder than it looks, and it requires a lot of work, determination and patience.

There are some things though that you can do to make it more likely that your business will weather the storm, and grow and prosper. In this post and the following I will share some tips to make the survival and the success of your business more likely.

Be Committed And Stay The Course

One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is that they don’t stay committed to the course. They start out strong, and then they get bored and distracted. They either close their business outright, or they change up their business model, and go with a new product or concept before they gave their original plan a chance to work. The biggest part of being successful in business is making a plan before you jump in. Do your due diligence in whatever field it is that you are entering and make some plans before you start. Once you’ve made those plans and have a product and core concepts about your business, make a commitment and stick to them. Don’t jump from one business idea to the next, take the time to learn and master your core business areas.

Get Serious About Your Work

Are you not as successful as you thought you would be or as you planned to be? Have you taken an honest look at how much actual effort you are placing into your work? Are you really focussing on the core areas of your business or are you just getting caught up in “busy work” that isn’t actually the work that’s critical to the success of your business? One of the keys to being successful is knowing what is actually work and what is not, and getting serious and focussing your energy to those tasks that are really work. Here is a big hint, spending your days reading email, going to meetings, holding meetings, looking for excuses to change things up when you haven’t even given them a chance to work or not, that really isn’t working, but spinning your wheels. Anything that doesn’t advance your core goals, no matter how much time or effort it costs is not true work.

Assess yourself against these two tips. Next week I will share some more tips to help you build a sustainable and profitable business.

How To Eliminate Distractions When You Are Working From Home Part 2

In our last post we looked at some of the distractions that bother us when we work from home.  As you probably know we have just scratched the top of the iceberg.

Let’s scratch some more.

A Little Separation Goes a Long Way

If possible, try to have a separate phone line for your business and personal calls, or check with your telephone company and find out if they can issue two numbers for the same line but with each having a special, identifying ring. This way, you can screen your calls by sound rather than having to look away from your work and check caller ID. Leave your personal calls until you are done working for the day. Only answer your business line during the time that you have set aside for work hours while you are at home.

Additional Strategies

While most of these suggestions deal with the physical work at home environment, they apply to the online environment as well. Email, social media and other online sites can also interrupt the flow of your work day.

• Make a point to turn off your email notifications. Break bad habits before they start, and resolve to not get into the habit of checking your Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram or other social media sites multiple times a day.
• While it’s okay to take a break once in a while, make a routine where you will only take a short break to check your email or social sites once a day. Absolutely do not leave these programs up and running in the background, or the 10 minutes that you set aside for a quick message or post can easily turn into lost time.

Work out which are your key distractions and do something about them.  Your stress levels will keep building until you do.