5 STEPS TO MAKE MONDAYS FUN AGAIN – STEP 4

On 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by the Union stating that “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL”. This is an indisputable affirmation. However, why are some people successful and others aren’t? Why have people without a formal education achieved a high degree of success? Why do successful people do things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do?

ATTITUDE is the answer: and if you develop the right one you will open the door to a better quality of life and a world full of personal and professional achievement. Most importantly, you will make “Mondays fun again”.

Step 4 – Develop the Right Attitude

Become your future, not your past

The first word we teach our children is NO. That’s very positive, isn’t it? They are the raw material ready to be conditioned by an already negatively conditioned adult. For example, during our school years we are told not to talk in class. Suddenly we are requested to give a presentation in an auditorium in front of 100 people feeling the strong desire of disappearing from the face of the earth. If you have experienced this situation, don’t worry, 70% of presenters experience butterflies and pre-speech jitters.

A positive attitude will attract positive things to your life and will help you create rapport and solid relationships for your business and personal life. Remember, when someone tells you “I like you” what they are really saying is “I am like you”.

"The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives." William James, father of American Psychology

Action Steps:

How can I change my inner attitudes?

Dream a lot
“Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.” James Dean, Actor.

Have a passion
“All the passions are nothing else than different degrees of heat and cold of the blood.” Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Gain Courage to take action
“All your dreams come true, if you have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney

Smile
“People do not smile because their happy, they are happy because they smile” Unknown

Keep life simple
“If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.” Albert Einstein

Always expect the best
“We usually get what we anticipate.” Claude M. Bristol

Love
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” Martin Luther King Jr.

As an Executive Coach, I help individuals and organizations develop better attitudes more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. I work with my clients in all areas, including business, career, finances, time management, productivity and relationships. As a result of coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths.

Stay tuned for our next edition of “Room For Improvement” when you will learn the last Step To Make Mondays Fun Again and find more tips and suggestions on how to accelerate the performance of your business and your career faster and with less effort.

If you wish to explore deeper into the subjects contained in this article, please call Activate Group at (305)722-7215 or send an e-mail to pjperez@activategroupinc.com.

5 STEPS TO MAKE MONDAYS FUN AGAIN – STEP 3

It’s Monday morning again, but she feels different from other Mondays. While she was brushing her teeth, she looked deep into the mirror and saw a familiar face, but this time with a big smile and shining eyes. Even though the rest of the family was sleeping, she filled her lungs with air and screamed out loud YES! I CAN HAVE FUN ON MONDAYS AGAIN.

Did she win the lottery? Did she reach her life goals? The answer is no, but she found a treasure in her interior backyard. She found the reason to wake up every day with a smile, full of energy and power to conquer the world. She defined a purpose for her life.

Now that she knows her destination, where all her desires and wants should land, the next step is to create a solid plan to build the dashboard to control the journey.

Step 3 – Create a Solid Plan

Yogi Berra, the famous baseball player and the most quoted figure in the sports world said, “If you don't know where you're going, chances are you will end up somewhere else.”

Would you drive from Miami to California without a roadmap? Would you go to the supermarket to buy groceries without a pre-defined list of what you need? Would you take two weeks vacation without any previous planning? Of course not. You don’t want to lose a second of your precious time. You want to get to California as soon as possible, taking the shortest way and the best roads. You want to buy just what you need from the supermarket, and you want to enjoy every single moment of your vacation with your family and friends. The question is: do you have a solid plan for the rest of your life?

The following 5 steps will help you create a solid plan, but first you have to be sure you have defined your ultimate goal, your purpose in life and have explored your full potential. (Refer to Step 1 and Step 2 of “5 Steps to Make Mondays Fun Again.”)

Action Steps:

1. Analyze and develop goals in the main areas of your life.
Setting goals in the main areas of life will ensure a more balanced life, creating a high energy environment where your thoughts and desires are in alignment with your purpose.

The areas to be analyzed are:
• Family and Home
• Finance and Career
• Spiritual and Ethical Growth
• Health Matters
• Social and Cultural Expansion
• Mental and Educational Improvement

2. Make sure the goals you are setting are important to YOU and not to the world around you.

Motivation comes from within. In order to take real and strong action toward each goal, there should be a strong benefit to YOU if you achieve it and strong consequences if you don’t.

When setting goals, it is very important to remember that your goals must be consistent with your values.

3. Be a YES person with your goals.
Thinking positively in everyday life will also help in your growth as a human being. Don't limit it to goal setting. Your positive thinking about achieving your goals will create the feeling you already have what you want. If we leave it to your subconscious mind, probably your past behaviors will take charge and will create obstacles such as fear or doubts.

4. Your goal should be low enough to be reached and high enough to be a challenge.
You can't buy a $1,000,000 house if your income goal is only $50,000 per year. This type of thinking will create frustration and un-balance in your life. Goals should be realistic and attainable, but on the other hand, should be high enough to be a challenge.

5. Believe in the power of writing (typing sometimes is also acceptable).
You don't write because you want to say something; you write because you've got something to say.~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
When you write your goal, be as specific as possible. Create the details of what you want, include dates, time of the day, where you will be. Visualize your written testimonial and feel it as if you were already there. If you can feel it, you will keep it in your subconscious mind until you get it.
Remember, the more focused you are on your goals the more likely you are to accomplish them.
Once you have created a solid and balanced plan for your life, you are ready for the next rung of the ladder toward having fun on Mondays again. Stay tuned for our next edition of “Room For Improvement” when you will learn how to “Develop the Right Attitude” and find more tips and suggestions on how to accelerate the performance of your business and your career faster and with less effort.

As an Executive Coach, I help individuals and organizations develop better attitudes more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. I work with my clients in all areas, including business, career, finances, time management, productivity, employee motivation and relationships. As a result of coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths.

If you wish to explore deeper into the subjects contained in this article, please call Activate Group at (305)722-7215 or send an e-mail to pjperez@activategroupinc.com.

A goal properly set is halfway reached. Abraham Lincoln

5 STEPS TO MAKE MONDAYS FUN AGAIN – STEP 2

The first step, covered in our last newsletter, referred to having a defined purpose.
This allows you to perform in the face of danger, and to move firmly towards your goals. It gives you the necessary motivation to overcome the obstacles you will encounter in your journey to success and happiness.

Now you are ready to jump to the next step in the ladder to fun and enjoyment: Explore your potential.

Step 2 – Explore your potential

There is a power inside you; an energy which makes you wakes up every morning; that triggers the starter of your internal engine and executes whatever you plan for the day. Are you using this power? Are you living your life to your maximum level of energy?

You should be wondering, “How can I tell if my power or energy is high or low? How can I be aware if I have room for improvement?”

The answer is simple; you gauge your life. You will feel when this power is high or low and will create the necessary awareness to take action. Look at your life in the family, mental, social, financial, physical, and ethical areas. Whenever you have a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment as a consequence of your actions your power lever is high and you are using a good level of your potential. On the contrary, if you have a feeling of dissatisfaction, sadness or frustration in one of the areas mentioned before, your level of power is low.

Imagine for a moment that you can do anything you want in any aspect of your life without the fear of failing, with the assurance that you will succeed. It feels good doesn’t it? In this situation, you are full of power and energy and you are using 100% of your potential. You are taking action without fear of failing and your thoughts are aligned with your purpose. Your might be thinking, “Yeah right! I am not in the Twilight Zone!” However, if your mind can conceive it and your heart can accept it, you can do it.

Action Steps:
1. List your achievements in the different areas of your life: family, mental, social, financial, physical, and ethical.
2. Ask yourself the following questions for each area: “Am I happy? Do I want to achieve more? If I pass away today, what would be my eulogy?”
3. Using your imagination, draw a picture of the “future you” and show it to a friend or your spouse and ask them what you should change in order be the person in the picture.

Once you have identified the areas of your life where you can have a bigger use of your power and energy, you are ready for the next step in the ladder to have fun on Mondays again. Stay tuned for our next edition of “Room For Improvement” when you will learn how to “Create a Solid Plan” and find more tips and suggestions on how to accelerate the performance of your business and your career with less effort and faster.

As an Executive Coach, I help individuals and organizations develop better attitudes more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. I work with my clients in all areas, including business, career, finances, time management, productivity, employee motivation and relationships. As a result of coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths.

If you wish to explore deeper into the subjects contained in this article, please call Activate Group at (305)722-7215 or send an e-mail to pjperez@activategroupinc.com.

5 STEPS TO MAKE MONDAYS FUN AGAIN – STEP 1

Do you remember when you used to wake-up early on Monday mornings and were excited to go to work? Probably not! But surely you remember the last time you said “Thank God it is Friday.” If you are like many people, you no longer look forward to going to work and dread Mondays. After all, the weekly routine will absorb your time and give little, if any, space to be creative and have fun.

The following are five steps to make Mondays fun again. Think about it as a ladder where you should take one step at a time. Make sure you have one foot firmly in place before proceeding to the next step. Missing one step could cause you to fall to the bottom of the ladder. However, unlike other ladders, the reward of having fun at the top step is enough motivation to stand up and try again.

Each of the following steps will be discussed in separate newsletter articles:
1. Define your purpose
2. Explore your potential
3. Create a solid plan
4. Develop the right attitude
5. Have fun

Now buckle up and let’s start the journey to your future Monday’s that are filled with motivation, fun and achievement.

Step 1: Define your Purpose

Purpose is the core of all actions. Living without a pre-defined purpose is like traveling ten thousand miles without a roadmap. You will advance without knowing where you are going. As Yogi Berra the famous ballplayer said “you've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."

Just for a few seconds close your eyes and imagine how your life will be 40 years from now. Imagine your achievements and feel the moment. Think about your achievements and disappointments. Think about the actions that you undertook that made you feel happy and those that you shouldn’t have done. Now, open your eyes and take out a piece of paper. Make a list of what was important and not so important in your life. This list will help you to identify which are the key values that generate those actions. You can only develop a strong purpose in life once you a firm grasp of vision and values to provide the inspiration.

A defined purpose will allow you to perform in the face of danger, move firmly towards your goals, and give you the necessary motivation to overcome the obstacles you will encounter in your journey to success and happiness.

Action Steps:
1. Write a list of your five most important values (ex. balance, family, fitness, integrity, money, power, stability, wealth, wisdom, accountable, etc).
2. Write a vision of your life using at least three of your most important values developed in step one.
“Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.", Helen Keller
Once you have crystallized your focus, you are ready for the next step in the ladder to have fun on Mondays again. Stay tuned for our next Activate newsletter when you will learn how to “Explore your Potential” and find more tips and suggestions on how to accelerate the performance of your business and your career with less effort and faster.

As an Executive Coach, I help individuals and organizations develop better business plans more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. I work with my clients in all areas, including business, career, finances, time management, productivity and relationships. As a result of coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths.

If you wish to explore deeper into the subjects contained in this article, please call Activate Group at (305)722-7215 or send an e-mail to pjperez@activategroupinc.com.

HAVE YOU EVER WASHED A RENTAL CAR? By Pablo J Perez

During the last 6 months I have been asking this question “Have you ever washed a rental car?” to my clients, prospects and friends. The reactions are varied but the answer is always the same, “never!’ My immediate next questions is ”Why not?” Just like a synchronized chorus, the answer is: “It is not mine.”

What is the difference between the rental car and any organization where the employees are not shareholders? Is the division you lead a rental car? Do you work for an organization where washing the rental car is completely out of the question?

The key point is that the person’s sense of ownership is closely linked to their sense of commitment. So, in other words, if you want to motivate your employees to stop treating their jobs as rental cars, you need to earn their commitment.

To start, let’s agree on a definition of commitment. Commitment means to pledge to something or someone. Earning the commitment of others to “wash the rental car”, or in others words, “helping you to achieve your goals” is complex and simple at the same time. It is simple because there are 3 steps to earn commitment and complex because these two steps are hard to execute. We have identified 4 steps to earning commitment and that is what the majority of this article is all about.

Step 1 - Create a Strategy
Knowing where the company, division or department is going and why it is going in that direction is the foundation of success. Once a compelling strategy is chosen and action plans are aligned to it you are ready to move to step 2.

Step 2 - Gaining Commitment

There are four elements that have to be present in the “gaining commitment process”: motivation, setting expectations, rewards and incentives, and confidence in the process.

Motivation
Motivation is the desire or want that energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior.

If you don't have motivation, you won't get far. Think about this analogy. You have a car with a full tank of gas, a well-tuned engine, good set of tires, quadraphonic CD system, and a polished exterior. However, until a driver sits behind the wheel, puts the key in the ignition, and cranks it up, the car doesn't function. You guessed it; the KEY is MOTIVATION. Even having a great car as the one just described, if you do not have enough motivation to drive it, I can bet you will never wash it. Now, you can imagine how difficult it would be to wash a rental car.

As leaders of an organization, providing the tools to help individuals to gain self-motivation is providing the key to goal achievement and success.

Setting Expectations
It sounds simple, but how do you implement a strategy to motivate people in your organization to do whatever it takes to make the strategy works successfully.

First, identify your top performers.

Second, find out what it makes them top performers. What are they doing and how are they doing it? Understand the key responsibilities of their position. What contributes to their success? What are their obstacles? What should be changed to make them better? Use the answers to these questions to identify the best practices and create the basic model of the perfect clone. What do they do? What do they know better than the others? Do they build better rapport with prospects? Are they doing something different in their buy/sale process? Do they have a different skill set than the rest? Is the value system different than middle and bottom performers?

Third, establish in writing precisely what you need in terms results and the behaviors values, and skills required to make them happen.

Fourth, communicate the program effectively so everybody has a consistent understanding.

Fifth, reward people as soon as they achieve the result, not at the end of the quarter or fiscal year.

Rewards and Incentives
On you have established what is expected from a person you next have to align it with your rewards and incentive systems. It is not unusual to under invest in linking what you want with how you reward and incentify people. Incentive systems require a lot of thought and planning and when you get it right the results follow quickly.

There are different ways to reward behaviors and provide incentives for the top performers to continue their top performance. The real opportunity in companies is the other 90% of employees who fill the middle and bottom tiers of performance. This is where you will see the largest increase in productivity. The most common and easy way to reward people is with additional money. However, there are other methods that are equal to or potentially more effective than a raise, quarterly bonus, or additional stock options in the company. Promotions, recognitions, constructive criticism, career pathing, exciting assignments, extra time off, more or less responsibility, opportunity for personal development and satisfaction, are some of the different forms of rewards that can be used.

Step 3 - Confidence in the process

Doug DeCarlo, in "Extreme Project Management” defines Commitment this way:
Commitment = Desire + Confidence

The first two elements mentioned before, motivation and reward, will generate the desire to perform at a higher level, but “confidence” can be a little more difficult to achieve. Doug DeCarlo has a good recipe for confidence in the early going of any project:"People need to experience short-term success with you and your process in order to give their commitment"
You are building their confidence in “you” in order to gain their commitment. This creates a pool of energy that will lead the strategy to a successful achievement.

As you can see, the “gaining commitment process” or “How to make people wash a rental car” is a very stimulating journey that will make people excel and will lead the organization to a new level of performance. It is a simple and complex process that when executed well leads to extraordinary results.

As an Executive Coach, I help individuals and organizations develop better attitudes more rapidly and produce more satisfying results. I work with my clients in all areas, including business, career, finances, time management, productivity and relationships. As a result of coaching, clients set better goals, take more action, make better decisions, and more fully use their natural strengths.

If you wish to explore deeper into the subjects contained in this article, please call Activate Group at (305)722-7215 or send an e-mail to pjperez@activategroupinc.com.