3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines

3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines 3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines Article by Todd DuncanTime is yur greatest resource. If you struggle with managing it, you likely have not yet harnessed the power of daily disciplines.As the biblical book of Proverbs says, He who neglects discipline despises himself. The most powerful decision you will ever make for your productivity is the choice to build rhythm and routine around doing what matters most. When you do that, you feel good about yourself and can achieve at a higher level. Being a high performer is the result of your daily disciplines.Time Management Is a Waste of TimeFor most people, time management is like raking water lots of activity, limited results. We are limited not by time, but by how we use the time we have. Time management is life management. Time management is values management. Time management is activity management. You and I will never be clever enough to control our time, but we can choose the eventsto whic h we allocate our time. When those events are repeated through daily discipline, our productivity soars, our spirits are enlarged, and we develop unstoppable determination.3 Keys to Developing Daily Disciplines Key No. 1 Clarify Your ValuesIf you dont know what is important to you, you will spend time doing what is not.When you know what is important and commit to those things as must-dos, you create the ecosystem for a mora effective use of your time.When your activities are in alignment with what is significant to you, you suddenly know inner peace. High levels of inner peace reduce stress,calming you throughout your day. We all need a full grasp of those things that mean the most to us. I suggest we spend at least 15 minutes a day in a quiet state of mind to see how we can discover fulfillment in any of our important value areas.There is a saying, often attributed to Roy Disney, brother of Walt When values are clear, decisions are easy.Deciding what to do with your time should be easy if you are clear on your values and spend time reviewing them on a daily basis. Knowing your values also helps you frame what not to do, which may be even more critical to your performance. Once your value areas are clear, you can move from behavior to habit.Key No. 2 Block the TimeBefore a habit is formed, you must commit to repeated behavior. To create rhythm and routine is to decide in advance what your day and week will look like and then discipline yourself to live accordingly. The discipline comes from your values and living in accordance with them.Managing time is not about post-it notes. Its not scribbled to-do lists. Its definitely not being connected all day long with unvetted technology. Effective time blocking - and blocking interruptions that mess up those time blocks - is the key.Time blocks are planned segments of time that help you complete your most important predetermined activities. They are, at their core, disciplines that lead to achievement. They are no nnegotiables.For example, I have a Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday morning discipline of riding my bike 50 miles. My wife, Deb, and I have a Sunday night debrief where we get to tell each other what we did well over the previous week and plan accordingly for the upcoming week. Every day between 1000 a.m. and 1100 a.m., I call three decision-makers to connect, add value, and advance relationships.Key No. 3 Form the HabitsWhy arent people as productive as they might be? Mostly because they miss the difference between trying to be productive and committing to being productive. Habits are only formed when the behavior attempted becomes permanent.Here are some ideas to help you stay focused on forming the habit of honoring your daily disciplines Be proactiveEveryone who moves toward a more productive life does not wait for life to come at them. They go out and make it happen. They know that everything has a proactive solution. You can hope that life will get better for as long as you like, but unless you do something to back up those hopes, littlewill change. Change must come from within. Heres a great question If you continue on the path you are now on, will your life improve and take you to the level of your dreams? Life will give you what you tolerate and accept Fight multitasking Multitasking is the fast track to low performance. It gets in the way of your greatness No one has everhad amanager congratulate them for being busy. The key question is Busy doing what? High-performance people are not busy they are productive. Rather than multitasking, they master the art of one-thing thinking. According to a Harvard Business Review article, multitasking can cut productivity by as much as 40 percent and IQ by 10 points moraover, according to aUniversity of California, Irvine, study, it takes 23 minutes to get back on track following an interruption. Practice The Five-Minute Rule I learned an amazingly powerful discipline when I was 23 years old. I call it The Five-Minut e Rule. I was studying high-performance salespeople and was reading an article about an insurance agent who was makingmore than $1 million a year in sales commissions. He was asked, What is the best advice you could give any salesperson? He said, Spend five minutes every hour evaluating how the belastung 55 minutes went, and correct. Once I started using this rule, Iwas able to identify all the things getting in the way of my productivity. I learned how to fix and manage interruptions. I learned how to say no, which is the most powerful word when it comes to being productive. Within a year, I had increased my income by more than 400 percent.Whether you are doing business, living life, or both, the most important truth is your life will be defined by your daily disciplines. The choices you make,the impact you have, and the results you achieve - your entire destiny - itsall in your disciplines.A version of this article originally appeared on SUCCESS.com.Todd Duncan is a sales entrepr eneur and game-changing speaker withmore than 5 million students around the globe whom he has mentored and taught in life, time, and sales mastery. He is the author of 17 books, including The New York Times best-sellers Time Traps Proven Strategies for Swamped Sales People and High Trust Selling Make More Money in Less Time With Less Stress. Todd has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Seattle Times, Entrepreneur, SUCCESS, FOX, and CNN, among other media publications.

Adding the #8216;Human Touch#8217; to Your Job Search

Adding the 8216Human Touch8217 to Your Job Search Adding the 8216Human Touch8217 to Your Job Search Your whole career path will be full of emotions that run the gamut from celebratory toan almost grievous sense of loss. While you may have a support group in the form of family and friends, these well-meaning loved ones may not necessarily understand what it is like to be in your shoes, nor do they have the acumen to point you in the right direction.A Career MachineThe www is full of information about careers, and this information isbeneficial to a certain degree, butmuch of it is not in touch with the human side of working and career development. Instead, this self-serve content is essentially pre-packaged, and itcaters to a generic audience. It is not personalized in any way thatactually reflects your individual needs, skill set, and career aspirations.This one-size-fits-all career advicemay be useful incertain situations, but when you are in the midst of the roller coaster of emot ions that comes withcareer transitions and job searches, you really could use something more. You need to be supported by a professional.The Hard and Soft ApproachAcareer expert, like a career advisor, can offer that human-touch experience you need in these times. A career advisor can helpyou weather the storms of your career, condition you to go the distance, and is there to toast your success when it all works out.A career advisor can deliver the hard and soft approach, based on what each individual needs and what will best serve their career goals. They act almost like sports coaches, deliveringguidance through theright doses of listening and sympathy, encouragement and tough love, and objective advice and actionable tasks.A career advisor knows that each person has a different set of strengths and weaknesses that require a unique strategy plus, they have often worked with a sortiment of personalities and seen a variety of career experiences, so they know how to make each person feel like they are understood and accepted.The Benefits of a Human ConnectionThis personalized approach is especially reassuring if you are second-guessing yourself or if you lackthe confidence you need after facing some career hardship, like being unemployed for a period of time.Personal assistance from a career advisormay also help you feel as though you are accomplishing more. In a search that previously felt one-sided, you now have a guide you now have a listening ear, a supportive shoulder, and whole body and mind to help you get to the most appropriate destination youre seeking.A career coach will certainly offer understanding and emotional support when a client is nervous about a job interview or apprehensive about changing career paths, but this coach is also there to help you buck-up, and will be firm and offer constructive criticism when it is necessary.In order to best serve your needs and provide the human connection that helps smooth the bumps in yourcareer road, a care er coach should takethe time to get to know you as a person.Its about building a relationship, really, and taking the journey with you thats what often sets a career coach apartfrom any other source of career assistance.In fact, a career coach can often do muchmore than just sit next to you on that rollercoaster and figuratively hold your hand a career coach gets you off the emotional ride and helps you gainstrategic focus, showing you where you need to go and what you need to do in order to achieve your career goals.What You Want in a Career CoachIf youre looking for a career coach, you want someone who understands you personally and who is passionate about helping you succeed. You want to havesomeone on board who understands not only the emotions involved inyour career journey, but also the practical objective steps you need to take to reach your goals.Your perfect career coach shouldget you even more than you getyourself.While the Internet offers detached, often pre-packaged ad vice, and your friends and family feel for you, it is acareer coach that can feel for you, offer truly personal advice, and give you a kick in the pants when you need it most.

You Can Be Successful Without a Mentor - The Muse

You Can Be Successful Without a Mentor - The MuseYou Can Be Successful Without a Mentor You hear a lot of talk about the benefits of mentorship, particularly when it comes to your career. And, for good reason. I think that having a resource you can lean on when you need a little direction or a good, old-fashioned confidence boost can be a great thing.However, confession time I have never had an official mentor of my own. Thats right- I preach the value of having one all day long. But, its something Ive never actually put in practice myself.For a long time, this made me feel like I welches missing out on something- like I was only sort of doing this whole career thing, because I didnt have my very own Mr. Miyagi offering me insightful guidance and verifying my every work-related decision. One day, I thought, Ill finally cross paths with this one knowledgeable person, and the whole rest of my professional identity will fall into place.But, then I realized something important I dont wan t one. In fact, I dont even think I need one. Forgive my shameless gloating, but Ive managed to build a pretty decent career for myself without this all-knowing mastermind forging the path ahead of me. Now, thats not to say I dont need a little advice and encouragement every now and then (Im only human, after all). But, Ive learned that I dont need a guru up on a pedestal in order to get that. Ive actually found a few different tactics and strategies that help me to keep moving forward, without putting all of my faith in one particular person. So, heres how I managed to have a thriving career- without that special someone helping me along.1. I Built a Network of ResourcesLike I said, just because I dont want a mentor per se, doesnt mean I never need any advice or instruction. There are plenty of times (mora than Id care to admit, actually) when I just want to talk through my career problems or decisions with someone else.However, I quickly realized that there wasnt one singular pers on out there who could help me with every single roadblock I encountered. Were all different, with different skill sets and experiences. And, only looking to one particular person each and every time I needed help would only limit and frustrate me- and likely my mentor, as well.So, instead of selecting one individual to act as my career guide and weigh in on my career moves, I tapped into my network in order to build my own web of what Ill call mini mentors. If I encounter a glitch with one of my websites, I reach out to my old high school friend who now works as a developer. If I need some writing advice or tips for dealing with a difficult client, Ive learned to lean on my fellow writers and editors- like my team of co-workers here at The Muse. If Im feeling completely discouraged and disheartened? Lets face it- I call my mom. This diversified knowledge and expertise has been so helpful to me, and Im just not confident that I couldve gotten all of it with the help of just one pers on. Nobody can know absolutely everything. 2. I Was ProactiveHeres one big benefit I know that mentors provide They help to nudge you in the right direction. Even if something terrifies you, they can typically give you the encouragement- and ultimately, the push- you need to do it anyway. However, its important to realize that your advisor can really only push you so far. In the end, its up to you to take the leap, whether someone is encouraging you to do so or not.Needless to say, Ive learned the importance of grabbing the bull by the horns and being proactive in my own career. Ive taken online courses to beef up skills that were lacking. Ive read books and online articles to expand my knowledge of specific topics. Ive set up meetings with influencers in my career field. Ive chased raises and promotions. I quit my traditional, 9-to-5 job without a backup plan. These are all things a mentor wouldve likely eventually pushed me to do. And, admittedly, those nudges and words of affirma tion wouldve been appreciated at times. However, I counted on myself to determine what was important enough to accomplish- rather than looking to someone else to tell me which chess piece to move next. That self-reliance was terrifying most of the time, and it inspired a ridiculous amount of nail-biting. But, its served to make me more confident in my work, my capabilities, and my decisions. 3. I Trusted My GutIm someone who has the tendency to seek confirmation that Im doing things right. Even if its a small assignment or a completely minor detail, I thrive on those, Yep, youve got it verifications.Its for this very reason that I know having one specific mentor would be a bad thing for me. Im self-aware enough to know that Id look to that person to put his or her stamp of approval on every single decision I make. Id feel shaky and unsure without it. And, my hypothetical advisor would likely grow tired of my incessant requests for approval. Theres a big difference between guiding an d hand-holding, after all. Even if you have a mentor that you adore and admire, its crucial that you recognize that he or she doesnt have a crystal ball. Perhaps hes been in your exact situation before, but theres still no guarantee that your path will exactly mirror his. Youll have your own individual experience- even if you follow every single step he outlines for you.So, instead of looking to one person to give me a breakdown of how things might play out, Ive learned to trust my own gut when making career decisions. Your intuition and your conscience exist for a reason. If you experience that butterflies in your stomach feeling that tells you somethings not quite right, its up to you to trust your instincts- regardless of what anyone around you has to say about it. Learning to rely on my own intuition has helped me immensely throughout my career, and its a trait I wouldve undoubtedly squelched and stifled by having a mentor.I wont argue that mentorship comes with its fair share o f great benefits. And, if youre someone who needs and wants a trusted advisor in your career, then more power to youBut, if youre someone like me who has never felt a desire to look to that one expert mastermind to give you the go-ahead on every career-related decision you make? Well, dont get bent out of shape and trick yourself into thinking youre coming up short. Theres no rulebook that states you absolutely need one in order to attain success. Take it from me- you can still do alright for yourself without an official mentor in your corner. Do you have one person that you look to when you need a little guidance? Or, are you like me and avoid relying on one specific person? Let me know on Twitter