You’re going to die. In fact, every day that you get up brings you one day closer to your inevitable end. Talking or thinking about death is avoided at all costs and you waste your days like they’re never going to end. I’m guilty of this too. I’m reading a great book right now called Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy which is all about living a life of intention.

Going through life one day at a time creates a focus on the activities of the day while losing sight of impact you want your life to have. They and others have talked about living intentionally for many years. Michael Gerber talks about “COD or Cash Out Day” in his awesome book, The E-Myth. Stephen Covey references it in his great book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People when he talks about “Beginning with the end in mind”. The true currencies of life are relationships and experiences; they’re...

Please don’t judge me but I remember a Spice Girls song called Wannabe that had the following lyrics that I believe are a great lesson, “So tell me what you want, what you really really want”. I think this is a great lesson because you go through your day not being clear on what you really really want. You start the day unclear on your intention. You pick up the phone to talk to a customer unclear on your intention. You speak to an employee unclear on your intention. This is a real problem because if you’re not clear on your desired end result or your outcomes, then achieving success throughout your day is a crapshoot.

The reality is you do have expectations right now, they’re just not thought out and focused on. Right now your expectations have been formed by past experiences and circumstances, and you’re not really aware of them. Think of all the different interactions you have throughout your day that end up with you just...

There’s something I know about you right now and that’s you didn’t get everything done yesterday that you wanted to. You’re extremely busy and you run out of daylight before you run out of to-dos. The fact is you’ll always have more on your plate than you can handle. This isn’t about being negative, it’s about being honest. The cool thing is there’s still a way to accomplish your dreams even with all this noise in your life.

The saving grace in your hectic day is discerning between tasks that are important and tasks that are urgent. Important tasks are typically not deadline driven and yet are the tasks that when completed move you closer to achieving YOUR goals. Because there’s no sense of urgency, you tend to meet and deal with important tasks from a responsive mode allowing you to be creative and thoughtful. Urgent tasks are deadline driven and typically help others achieve THEIR goals. When completed,...

As you go through your day, are you aware of how you’re acting? No, I’m not talking about performing your favorite scene from Romeo and Juliet, I’m talking about how you’re coping with what happens to you and around you through the day. When something happens you have a choice to be reactive or proactive.

A lot of times, being reactive to a situation is the norm. When you react to something you’re not in control; the very act of reacting is the result of a stimulus in your life, cause and effect. When you’re reacting, you’re living your life through your emotions. You’re allowing circumstance to drive your decisions. This is where the seed of victim thinking is planted and springs to life. Your focus is on the problem, how it’s affecting you, and how unfair it is. Many times being reactive is caused by being so engrossed in doing things or being so checked out that you don’t see what’s happening around you....

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
  ...

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...

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 and then you'll be able to come up with...