Personal & Business Development  ABC’s

Where Are you? …ask yourself probing questions until it is clear you understand where you really are. What have you GOT?

Where do you want to Be?  …follow up with more demanding questions to clarify and solidify your WHY! What do you WANT?

What will be your Course of Action? What do you NEED to DO?

• Solid 4×4 Core Commitment
• I am here
• Developing Personally
• Plugged-in
• Working Consistently
  
• Strong Start (first phase 30 – 90 days)*
  
• Sustained Service (Phase 2 usually 90 days – 180 days or more)*
• Strategic Leadership (Maturing phase more than 180 days)*
  

* Days are just suggestions.  Actual progression through the phases depends on personal development and business development.

The education system that trained you for your job may be the very cause of your online business challenges!

Creativity and the ability to respond to the changes in the market place really are the skills needed for you and your business to have success online. It is likely your education taught you to color in the lines. It taught you to comply with the direction of you “supervisor” – the teacher. It taught you to work to their rules in their ways so you could get your reward – the grade. Consider the findings of Sir Ken Robinson as he shares what “education” has done for creativity.

We need creativity to operate a business. This is so different from the skills we were taught in our schools. Our education may not have given us the skills required for online business success. Online, you need sensitivity to the needs of your audience and the information, products and services you provided. You need to be creative in making the right match to the correct audience. You also need to get creative in the packaging of your offering to meet the needs of your customers.

You need to work smart to get the best use of your time. Every problem you face and every problem your customers face needs a creative solution better than the solutions provided by your competition.

Ever wonder what you can do to break out of the limitations of your education? Now you can apply all your creativity and unique skills in solutions. Solutions for you and your customers. You need to direct your own work and your own learning. As you do expand your experiences by the way you direct your own personal learning projects YOU and not your education pave the path to your online business success.

You and I will need to be prepared to be wrong. This attitude will will allow us to discover the creativity we need to operate your business. We indeed need to rediscover the creativity we loose as we get “educated”.

You and I need to get into our right brain. We need to approach learning in ways that are different from the way we were taught as we were educated.

You and I can take back our lives and the control of our online businesses by applying the skills of self-directed learning. We need to leverage the technology and communication tools as creatively as possible to deliver solutions for our customers. As we each take charge of our own learning we become capable of reinstating our creativity

Let’s work together to break out of our educational foundations to tackle the learning needed to build your online business success story.

Self-Directed Learning discussion with Kathy Hamilton on Blog Talk Radio went well.  Here is what was on the show.

Teach Jim from The Teach Jim Show (blogtalkradio.com/teachjim) just completed an investigation of Network Marketing Lead Generation Systems (inetin.com) using the principles and practices associated with “Syntopical Reading”.  This Self-Directed Learning skill coupled with other effective self-learning practices can help each of us be prepared to face the challenges change introduces into our lives.

Some of the questions to be addressed by Teach Jim:

• What is Self – Directed Learning?
• How is Self – Directed Learning is better than fishing!
• What you did not learn in school and why it is stopping you from becoming a “Self-Directed Learner”
• The empowering difference between you as a “Self-Learner” and you as a “Self-Directed Learner”.
• How to shine a light on your learning “Blind Spot” so you enjoy “enlightened” personal study.
• The place of a Mentor in Self-Directed Learning.
• Why Self-Directed Learning is more important than schooling today.
• How to become an expert in the unknown now!

Building your business is extremely hard work. Some of the hardest work you will ever to.  It is critical you protect your capacity to produce.  Maintaining balance in the four main areas of your life (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) provides you the power you need to face the challenges. You and I need daily fortification and strengthening in each area.

PREFSS Provide Protection

I have set for myself a minimum daily requirement I call my PREFSS.  PREFSS are the preferred activities of each day required for health, personal growth and overall well-being.  These activites provide the strength you and I need to perform the difficult and demanding duties of each day.You will want to find your own personal preferred activities to set as minimum daily requirements for you.

My Personal PREFSS Are:
Pray/Ponder – Morning and evening formally and throughout the day, informally, in our heart as I feel the need.
Rest Rise/Retire – Rest is vital for rejuvenation.  Too much sleep leaves me droggy.   Too little, I’m on edge or without strength.
Exercise -Brain over body through physical exercise for strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness. The exercise of control my actions (like eating the wrong stuff) adds strength of character.
Follow – Follow my gut, my intuition and my mentor in my daily actions. I strive to choose my course of action based on how I feel. Usually the cumulative results are amazing AND I “feel” good about my choices!
Study – I study the scriptures and sacred rite for strength, learning and edification. I also study “good books” for further development.  I try to spread my study between depth and breadth. Depth in our area of specialty. Breadth in the classics of good literature to make us whole, balanced and well rounded.
Service – Service with sacrifice is the way good works get done.  This action helps me get out of my selfish ways and consider the place of others.

These PREFSS are my preferred path for me each day.  Yours will likely be different.  Make sure your daily preferred actions touch each of the primary areas of YOU.

Track Daily Performance

I use a paper planner to track daily my performance in each of these areas.  While each day all these items may not get accomplished, I can quickly see if a few days are missed.  When this happens, I get focused and make sure the missed item is completed today.  The paper planner gives me a readily visible way to hold myself accountable.  Works for me.

You and I will protect our capacity to produce as we make our PREFSS the daily minimum standard for our activities.  Remember to assure your PREFSS cover each are of YOU (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual).

My PREFSS server me well in maintaining my health and personal development while I work hard to build the business of my dreams.  I hope you find the activities you need to maintain your capacity to perform and produce at effective levels.  Remember establish your preferred activities and make them the your daily minimum standard.  Track your actions make this the habit for your character development.  It makes the difference!

Master Networker, Bryan Robert of Personal Development Magazine and the Iology Movie shares his perspective  on personal development on The Teach Jim Show.

Bryan got involved in the “Personal Development” Industry while building a successful network marketing business at an early age.  At the time he was just doing what was necessary part of build his business.  This included reading books, listening to tapes and following the advice of his mentor.

Bryan discovered early on that  “you have success only as much as you develop as a person.”  In other words, “Success starts with yourself”.

Bryan also discovered success is a double edged sword.  It reveals the weaknesses you have.   If you have not developed personally to the level of success you achieve it is likely the success will be short lived.

When asked  why a magazine? Bryan suggested a magazine has the ability to feature many voices, experienced and upcoming wisdom.  Because the magazine comes out every other month it can adjust to changing times and needs of it’s audience.

The discussion covered the following questions.

• Beyond the magazine what forces are most effective in Developing Personally?
• What role does a mentor play in personal development?
• So far you have spoken about external forces helping with developing the individual, How much depends on the individual?
• Is personal development something an individual can be successful with on their own through these types of processes?
• What happens when you progress beyond the level of your mentor?
• How do you transition to a new mentor?

The biggest take away for me was that personal development goes on in cycles.  Typically a person will progress through self-learning activities to progress to a certain point. Progression beyond that point requires a mentor.  The mentor can fill the gaps  and point out the what to learn next and how.  Ongoing progression toward success requires a willingness to act on what mentors and study materials suggest.

Thanks to Bryan for sharing his experiences in personal development.

The Teach Jim Show …the place to teach, to learn, to grow.

Resources mentioned in the show:

• Personal Development Magazine
• Iology Movie
• How to Win Friends & Influence People
• BryanRobertOnline.com

You can listen to an archive of the show below:

Planning 4ME is my personal planning mechanism for excellence.  The 4 M’s are Mission, Movement, Maintenance and Mistakes.  The “E” in ME is for Excellence.  Through consistent planning and performance while learning from mistakes provides a pattern for my progress.  I hope this will help you stretch for excellence also.

Planning 4 ME – 4M’s for Excellence

Please help me improve my process. I look forward for your comments.

Best of success,

Jim

With our Mission in Mind, We are ready to plan the “movement” desired
for progress this week as we Ponder, Plan, Project and Perform.

It Looks like this:

1. Ponder: I initiate the movement phase of my planning by pondering where I’d like to see myself at the end of the week. I cycle through each of my roles and picture what the end of the week is like. Each project is also considered. What is the next step to move it forward.

2. Plan: With the desired results in mind I examine each Role in my life and establish or review the Goals I have for that role.  With each Role/Goal combination I record the ‘Next Action’ needed to make progress?”  That item is added to the to do list and prioritize highly.  Next I ask “Is there something needed in this role?  If there is I add it to the list but with a low priority. Each role can only have one or two High Priority items.

3. Project: Next, I look at all the high priority items and manage them as a project manager.  I look at their needs for resource and the best time and context for delivering on them within the performance periods of the day.

After looking at the priority items through the eyes of a project manager I try to foresee barriers and walls by projecting into the future the risks associated with each item.  Here I formulate plan “b” type actions or end around the walls or how to blast through the walls (barriers).  Additional action items, like communicating to additional stake holders or including additional players come into the to do list in this process.

I share my prioritize list of action items for the week with my accountability partner/weekly Game Plan Mentor.

4. Perform: The rest of the week I work off the prioritized list for each role while adjusting what I’m working on based on context. Context being the physical location, the time available, the energy level and timing for others involved.  At any given moment I tend to work on the prioritized list but only as it is effective in the context of the day.

At the end of the week and sometimes sooner I get with my accountability partner and assess how I am doing on the prioritized list of critical items. In some areas if the goals for that area are obtained easily and there is extra time for that role/goal the next items on the list are ready to be worked on.

The prioritized plan for the week in each Role/Goal area drive continual progress in each area.  It feels good to be doing so many worthy activities daily.  The feeling of increased control builds confidence in my ability to do the things that matter most.