6 Tips to Turn Your Life Around

One of the most common complaints I hear from leaders is they report feeling “overwhelmed”. They don’t have the time, energy or capacity to handle more meetings, make more decisions, or take action on anything other than the most recent “fire” that needs to be put out.

Not only are they at their limit; they aren’t having fun. Leaders often begin meeting with me regarding a business problem; however, they end up admitting that what they really want is for people to be happy at work. They want less stress. They want work to be something that contributes to quality of life; not something that sucks life from everyone involved.

Does this sound familiar?

At one time, this described me. I once experienced so much stress that it impacted my health. In addition, it impacted my attitude and my decision-making. I felt resentful towards others who seemed to be doing well. I stalled on decisions, afraid that I’d make the wrong one. I knew I wasn’t getting enough done; but, I didn’t have any more time. I knew I needed help; but I couldn’t afford the resources.

I finally came to a point where I decided I need to make a change. The kind of “all in” change where either I won big; or lost so completely I’d have to accept utter defeat and find another career.

My “all in” strategy worked. I’ve doubled revenues each year for the least three years. I’m on target to double revenues again this year. Between my consulting work and the non-profit that I direct we are seeing more clients than ever before. More people than ever are being served. The quality and impact of our work has increased. We’re starting to create and publish resources that dramatically expand our ability to bring value to those we serve. And I’m working less. I’m working fewer hours per week and I take more time off to be with my family then ever before.

My “all in” strategy includes the following components:

• Hiring Coaches: Things really started to turn around when I dug deep and hired a coach. My first coach didn’t begin working with me in the areas I thought he would. Instead, he saw right away I was dealing with mindset issues that were holding me back. That’s where he hammered away. Since then, I’m rarely without a coach. In fact, I’ve discovered that all my best coaches have coaches themselves. A good coach helps me identify my priorities, challenges my assumptions and attitudes, helps hold me accountable, and makes unique skills or experiences available that I don’t have. I’ve hired coaches for both professional development and personal development.

• Cultivating a Whole-Life Vision: I once believed it was virtuous to bury myself in my work. I had no clearly-articulated desires or goals for my personal life, my financial future, my spiritual life, or anything else. As it turns out, health in one area supports health in the others. As I started to cultivate a clear picture with clear goals for my relationships, finances, spiritual life, marriage, emotional health, physical health and career goals, it became easier to pursue them all!

• Clearly Identifying and Narrowing My Priorities: I once spent most of my time focusing on vision. However, I didn’t place a high priority on those tasks I needed to do in order to achieve that vision. I just knew a lot of tasks needed completion. And I wasn’t getting them done. Once I began to regularly narrow my priorities, I started to gain consistent traction. Now, I usually have no more 1 or 2 key priorities for each year, quarter, month, week and day. I review them regularly and make adjustments as needed.

• Cutting Out the Noise and Distractions: I’ve stopped, or severely restricted, activity that divides my attention or clutters my mind. I’ve learned that multi-tasking is less effective and less efficient than focused work. I’ve learned I don’t need to be immediately responsive to e-mails, phone calls or texts. I’ve learned that anything that threatens to interrupt a priority, is not a priority.

• Investing in Top-Shelf Support: I hired a high-end virtual assistant. Most virtual assistant programs market their services based upon price. The service I went through asked me to invest in value. In exchange, I have an assistant who is highly educated, deeply experienced and functions more as a business partner willing to do the tedious work. She literally gets more done in 10 hours a week than what many paid staff could accomplish in 30. I couldn’t do it without Linda (and you wouldn’t be reading this without her!)

• Maintaining A Morning Routine: I’ve written about this before. My morning routine is one of the most powerful tools I use. Nearly every workday morning, I follow this routine (I’ve attached approximate times to it so you can see how reasonable it is to fit this into your schedule.)
  • Mediate and Pray – 15 minutes
  • Review my short-, medium-, and long-range priorities – 3 minutes
  • Write out three things I’m grateful for – 1 minute
  • Identify and describe one major accomplishment from yesterday – 1 minute
  • Identify the 1 or 2 priorities for today – 2 minutes
  • Identify one person who I appreciate and what I appreciate about them. Make a plan to communicate my appreciation to them that day – 2 minutes

Total time: Less than 25 minutes.

Total value: Priceless. I’m focused, calm, happier and nicer.

That’s my strategy. Most of these options are free and really aren’t that difficult to complete. Coaching and bringing on an assistant were significant financial investment; however, they’ve more than multiplied their value. (They’ve definitely out-performed the stock market!) Those were the “all in” investments I made.

What changes do you need to make? Are you content with how much you’re able to accomplish? Are you enjoying your work as much as you’d like? Are you enjoying ample family time? Are you happy with the amount of free time on your calendar?

Contact me if you’d like to explore how I can help you accomplish more, feel less stressed, and have more time for yourself.