What are you doing each day? I think this is a great question that every manager, leader, and owner needs to ask themselves many times throughout their day. Why? Because it’s so easy to fall into the trap of getting the work of the day completed that you get stuck in doing it mode. Doing it is a focus on what’s happening right now, getting the work out, making it to the end of the day. This is a trap because doing business doesn’t grow business.

Are your sales down? Is your schedule full? What are you doing to prospect for new business? Not comfortable prospecting? What about marketing your business? How are you differentiating what you do from others? How about finding great help? Feel like they aren’t out there? The standard response to each of these issues is the same; you complain about customers not buying, being slow, being the same as everyone else, and about the lack of quality help. The problem isn’t any of these; the problem is you.

These...

Occasionally I’m asked why I write about the subjects I do on this blog. “Rick, you’re a business coach. Why don’t you write about business issues on your blog?” That is exactly what I am doing, let me explain why. There has been a secret around for thousands of years that seems to pop its little head up every once in a while. This secret is so astoundingly simple and yet effective that you’d think everyone would know about it and be using it. But that’s not the case. I think because it’s so simple, this secret is dismissed as mumbo jumbo. Do that at your own risk though. The secret is there is more power in your thoughts than you can conceive.

There are quotes throughout the ages that support this secret.

• Watch your thoughts; they become your words
  Watch your words; they become your actions
  Watch your actions; they become your habits
  Watch your habits; they become your character
  Watch your character; it becomes your destiny
  ...

Your imagination is such a gift. Besides your thumbs, it’s what separates you from every other species on this planet. Every other living animal is hard-wired to react to their environment. You, however, have the ability to create your environment and it all starts with your imagination. What you dream about, desire, and think about eventually becomes your reality.

For many, the word imagination is centered around children. “Oh, he has such a vivid imagination!” or “What do you mean you’re bored? You have a room full of toys, now go and use your imagination and have some fun!”. But then something funny happens. As you grew up, the joy of imagining morphed into daydreaming, which became fantasizing and matured into wishful thinking. How many times did you hear, “Get your head out of the clouds! You’re an adult now, you don’t have time to indulge in childlike activities.”?

I’m here to tell you...

The steps to success are really very simple. You need to know where you’re going, you have to know where you are, and you need to know how you’re going to get there. While some people get hung up on not being sure of where they want to go, that isn’t the major stumbling block. The issue most people have is their level of honesty they have with themselves regarding their current condition.

Let’s say you’re going on a trip to California (you know where you’re going), you tell yourself you’re in Michigan (where you are), and you come up with a map route that will get you there. Everything’s good, right? Wrong! Because you’re not really in Michigan, you’re in Massachusetts. Can you see how all your dreaming and planning are wasted because you’re not where you think you are?

What I’m talking about is called bias and each of us has this to some degree. Bias is a self-serving prejudice; it’s seeing...

For the first time since I started writing this blog, for the first time yesterday I realized there are two buttons at the top of the Add New Post window in the software I use to write this blog from my iPad, a Create button, and a Cancel button. I’ve used the Create button numerous times but just noticed the Cancel button yesterday. Every week I’ve made a choice to click on the Create button and share my thoughts and outlook with you. And then it struck me that this is how life is too.

Every day you get up you make a choice. You choose whether to click create and make your day or you click cancel and let your day be made for you. And as you combine these days, you end up with your life. Whether that life is a great life or a mediocre one is completely up to you. It’s your choice. You either drive ahead or drift around.

You’ve been given a gift that is unique to you that is meant to bless this world and make it a better place. You’ll never see your...

Remember when you were younger and thought you could do anything you wanted? You know what I’m talking about, where you were a rock star and the world was your stage. You loved life and were going to do great things regardless of what others told you because you knew you were infallible and invincible. Over time though something’s changed.

When did your thrill of adventure get replaced with your fear of losing what you have?

When did your love of everything new and exciting get replaced with comfort and routine?

Instead of being the rockstar you saw yourself as taking the world by storm, you’re now singing at weddings and bar mitzvahs. What happened? Life did. You allowed the defeats, obstacles, and challenges you ran into to limit what you believed you’re capable of. Now instead of waking up excited and ready to seize the day and make it yours, you get up and do what you did yesterday hoping that everything will stay the same just one more day. There’s...

It’s amazing just how important spelling is to achieve success. It’s important because when you misspell a word, you can end up with a completely different outcome. Let me explain what I mean.

Whenever you’re working towards achieving a goal that’s important to you, you’re inevitably going to run into unforeseen roadblocks and obstacles. And some of them are going to get the best of you; you’re going to fail. That’s what failing means right? To go for something and miss it. You feel like a loser, unworthy and undeserving of your goal. Now, depending on how badly you want the goal, you typically give up thinking it was stupid to shoot for.

Sounds typical, right? Watch this, though. What if you took the word fail and change just one letter in it? What if you changed the letter “i” to the letter “l”? You would end up with the word fall instead of fail! Let’s revisit the scenario above with...

Any time you talk about business and customers, it isn’t too long before someone is pontificating about exceeding your customer’s needs. Before you can do that though you need to know what they expect. And while each customer will have varying expectations, you can be sure of these four:

• Product – They expect a perfect product. Simply put your customer wants what they believe they’re paying for. “What they believe” is the key phrase here. It’s a really good idea to make sure that you’re both on the same page with this one. The biggest disconnect I see constantly is you talk about what you’re going to do when you’re customer wants to know what they’re going to get. Make sure you’re talking their language by understanding what’s important to them and showing them that’s what they’ll get.
• People – They expect to deal with friendly, caring people. Your customer...

When it comes to focus, there are two typical types I commonly see. You’re focusing on your activity or on what you’re trying to avoid. When your attention is on your activity, you’re in do it mode to the exclusion of everything else. All that matters is getting the task at hand completed so you can move on to the next. Making what you want to avoid the center of your universe seems like a good idea. You want to stay as far away from the negative consequences of what keeps you up at night. Both of these should be avoided at all costs because neither will help you achieve all that you can and want to have.

What you want to focus on instead is the desired outcome you want for yourself, your business, and ultimately your life. You need to be crystal clear on where you’re going. Once you know where you’re going, you’ll be able to determine the best way to get there. Activity on its own doesn’t equal achievement. You need to know your destination...

There are things you know you should be doing and yet you’re not doing them. There are things you need to do and yet you’re not doing them. Why? Because your brain tries to avoid what it perceives as a risk at all times to keep you safe. Your brain’s main function is survival. That’s why there’s a comfort zone. But do you want to survive or do you want to thrive?

There’s a great success law called the Law of Diminishing Intent which simply states that longer you put off something you should do now, the less likely you are going to do it at all. When you start thinking about what you want, should, or need to do, your brain kicks in and that little voice in your head tries to talk you out of doing it using fear, doubt, and procrastination as its weapons. This is your brain in pure survival mode which worked twenty thousand years ago when we lived in caves but not so much now. Survival mode will give you a life of mediocrity and just get...