Solutions to Rejuvenate Yourself and Business

 

How’s business? Are profits meeting your expectations? In reading this column, you probably feel chained to a heavy weight.

If profits or cash flow are subpar, chances are you also have these symptoms and stress factors:

• Boredom – you’re tired of the same tedious routine.
• Clutter — your office and home need cleaning and organization.
• Disappointment – perhaps you lost a bid, a customer or a major client.
• Emptiness – you’ve successfully reached a threshold or acquired a major piece of business only to feel let down.
• Fear – you fear some challenges. You feel paralyzed.
• Personal problems – a troublesome, prodigal child or lack of support from your mate.
• Reading — you haven’t read an inspirational book or article lately.
• Sense of betrayal — an employee embezzles money or your spouse starts drinking or finds a lover.
• Tired – you’re demoralized when you fail to make progress in being overworked.
• Too few options – you can’t find enough customers or projects.

By the way, FEAR (an acronym for frantic effort to avoid responsibility) is the root-cause of all the symptoms.

Whether it’s a personal situation or professional, there are solutions.

My friend, you need to develop some hope. That’s what you get from developing options.

This means you need to take time for reflection or some deep strategic planning. Yes, I know — lack of time is one of the biggest complaints of businesspeople – they’re too busy putting out fires. So, that’s why it’s vital to budget the time whether you plan a big block of time for reflection or just an hour a day. But you can do it.

If you’re a small-business owner, yes, it’s difficult to set aside the time. To paraphrase Reggie Jackson when he was hitting homeruns for the New York Yankees, you’re the straw that stirs the drink. You’re the sparkplug.

However, you can’t afford not to get the job done. Your work suffers from stagnation. Clients and customers become resentful. Your income will drop.

Do you have employees? Your employees need your leadership. They look to you as the role model. You can influence their performance simply by being energetic and positive.

But what to do?

Here’s a business principle to remember: “No matter what there are no big deals. No matter what.” Remember this axiom to take the emotional sting out of your problems. You’ll be better prepared to deal with issues.

Here’s another: Budget your time so you can better understand your problems.

Here’s how to get going:

1. Write about your situation. Analyze your problem with a piece of paper and pencil
2. Get help from an outside participant. Find a consultant or coach.
3.  If you can’t afford help, and don’t have a mentor, find one. Even in college, I’d call a successful person in my chosen field and ask for a brief appointment. Once, as a junior I was offered a job as a TV announcer in a Top 50 market. After my career was underway but I was laid off, I called the founder of a major broadcasting company. He met with me three times and provided outstanding counsel.
4. Clean and organize. Refrain from using post-it-notes and put things away.
5. Create a vision – some goals. One page will work.
6. Then, develop a balance sheet – pros and cons of the possible solutions.
7. Can’t get things done? Start a to-do list. Do the most-challenging project the first hour of your day. You’ll start experiencing some energy.
8. Take other actions. Even if it’s only going for a walk, take baby steps. Then, accelerate your footwork.
9. Start reading — something helpful each day.
10. Periodically review your goals. Do you want to remain an entrepreneur? Do you need more money? Do you need more time?

Especially during the holidays, excessive drinking is a pressing problem — whether it’s an employee or spouse.

The best-known, least-expensive solutions for problem drinking:

• For friends, relatives or associates of drinkers, Al-Anon (www.al-anon.org) provides free tools. There’s even a program for youngsters. It’s called Alateen.
• For the alcoholic, Alcoholics Anonymous (www.aa.org) is the proven free solution.

Don’t be discouraged. Alchoholics will be hesitant to consider AA until they’re sick and tired of being sick and tired…or until a judge requires AA attendance after a drunk-driving incident.

If you’re the boss, but still don’t feel like working, perhaps you’re burned out. It can happen to anybody – whether it’s procrastinating on difficult decisions, paying bills, or dealing with difficult employees and customers.

So, take some time off. If you can’t get away for 10 to 21 days, then plan a series of mini-vacations. Get some exercise.

Remember: You can’t afford not to relax and exercise.

Good luck in your rejuvenation!

From the Coach’s Corner, you might want to read 30 Time Management, Stress Reducing Skills.

30 Time Management, Stress Reducing Skills

 

You might not be convinced the U.S. is embarking on an economic recovery. Many economists have called it a jobless recovery, but with respect for their opinions, the phrase is actually an oxymoron. How can it be characterized as a true recovery with so many people out of work?

Further, despite the unemployment rate decreasing, there are many indicators that show the unemployment is inaccurate. Record numbers of baby boomers have been forced to accept early Social Security payments at age 62 because they can’t get a family wage job. Forty-six million Americans are food stamps — a record high. Millions of workers don’t show up in the data because they can’t get work and their unemployment payments have expired.

The economy will continue to be difficult with many economic stress factors.

They include:

• Tight credit
• Layoffs
• Rapacious behavior by many credit card companies
• Natural disasters
• Home foreclosures
• Bankruptcies
• Healthcare costs
• Declining profit
• College tuition costs

And such factors make businesses reluctant to take bold measures to invest in their future with needed equipment, marketing and training their workers. It’s time for performance solutions.

Start by reducing stress and saving time. Why?

Executives and workers, alike, feel powerless over most of stress factors. Indeed, the 2007 American Psychological Association study, “Stress in America,” had some startling conclusions. The study is relevant years later.

For example, 74 percent cited work stress, 73 percent had money worries and 66 percent complained about their workloads.

Pressure turns into stress for many.

Trauma in your personal life can affect your business and career. Short of psychotherapy or meditation, time-management skills are a solution.

Here are 30 ways to reduce stress:

1. Identify your stress factors and take steps to eliminate them. Whether it is nasty surprise letter from the IRS, credit-card company predatory behavior, or a complaint from your best customer, do what you can to solve the problem quickly so you can move forward.  Paraphrasing a philosophy of former President Gerald Ford, clear the table and move forward.
2. Know your capabilities and limitations. Don’t take on too much.
3. Find a trustworthy person with whom you can vent and give you empathetic feedback when asked.
4. Understand when you need to say “no.”
5. Get refreshed by taking regular breaks, vacations, recreation and exercise. And when you can, a simple walk will work wonders.
6. Set time limits and goals for meetings.
7. Review your long range goals. Frequently during your work day, ask yourself: “Is this helping me to reach my goals?”
8. Record and analyze how you spend your time.
9. Make sure the first hour of every day is the most productive. Tackle the hardest task first. The rest of the day will seem like a walk in the park.
10. Practice excellence in every responsibility. Do the very best you can and you will prevent regrets.
11. Do everything gently. As famed entertainer Hoagy Carmichael once said, “Slower motion gets you there faster.”
12. Remember:  If you don’t take the time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
13. Instead of “post-it notes”, put all the necessary folders away in the appropriate file drawers. Once the clutter is off your desk, the “to do” list serves as the master organizer.
14. Look for progress – not perfection.
15. Plan your time. Make your “to do” list by Friday for the following week. If you’re in sales, have your list ready by Thursday.
16. Review the next day’s schedule before going home each night.
17. Prioritize your work: A, B, or C. Your A duties get done first – immediately.
18. Learn how to structure your e-mail system for maximum efficiency.
19. Eat the right foods for sustained energy.
20. Get enough sleep. If you feel tired by mid-day, ask your doctor for a sleep study. Insomnia and sleep apnea routinely lead to high blood pressure and even strokes.
21. Make your work fun.
22. Learn from baseball player Ichiro and do stretching exercises.
23. Listen to the right music. For many successful people that means classical music.
24. Look around to help someone who is less fortunate. Volunteerism is gratifying.
25. Learn breathing techniques.
26. If you commute to work, consider mass transit and take a good book to read.
27. Review inspiring thoughts, such as “No matter what, there are no big deals.” Taking the emotional sting out of your reactions to events will help. Learn to respond, not react.
28. Develop positive affirmations about yourself, keep your notes handy, frequently review them and rehearse them in front of the mirror.
29. Remember, the remedy for depression is action.
30. Become more active socially. Yes, that’s a time management skill. If you are not alone, you are not lonely. Loneliness contributes to stress.

Get busy and you’ll soon feel ready to take on the world and head toward to profits. Start investing in your future with needed equipment, marketing and training of workers. And talk with your public officials about policies that will improve the nation’s economic health and create jobs.

From the Coach’s Corner, for related career tips, here is another Biz Column: 10 Strategies to Overcome Stress and Energize Your Career

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.”

-Ovid

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?