Being Realistic

People and companies want instant gratification. We have little patience. That is why employees feel as if everything is the flavor of the month. Earlier we discussed how a company starts an initiative. This same scenario works when it comes to patience. We want things to happen now, and set unrealistic timeframes. I am just as guilty. As CCG grows I want things to happen fast. Sometimes I need to consciously remind myself of my expected timeframes. Remember my analogy about how a company starts an initiative, and the plan on paper is a great plan? What most companies underestimate is how long the plan will take to work. We used a football field earlier so let’s stay on the same field. A company starts on the 5 yard line with the goal being; get to the other end zone 95 yards away. The initiative gets to the 50 yard line and the company begins to ask why aren’t things working (i.e. why aren’t we in the end zone yet)? We lose patience, scrap that plan and start with a new plan back at the five yard line (new flavor). What companies should look at is the progress that has been made, and what needs to happen to move progress along faster. Once again, it is about mindset. Choosing to look at things in a different way allows us to see things through different eyes. Even the slightest change in the way we look at something and giving it the proper patience can have a huge impact on the outcomes.

To see something from start to finish these days is rare, but when done right the results can be unbelievable. I see that all the time. Companies want instant gratification and at first their excitement level for change is very high, but over time something happens. Their excitement level begins to fade and people forget about their commitments to “changing the culture/ fabric/DNA”, and amazingly when this happens things go right back to normal. Again, you have flavor of the month! Remember we discussed Jim Winner’s four phases of attitude? People get bored quickly and begin the looking phase. Stay the course and be patient. Good things will begin to happen when we build good habits and create profitable action. When we want true change, we must stay focused on the prize or goal and not the price. It takes very strong leadership from within an organization to allow change to happen over time and without strong leadership; it becomes almost impossible for change to happen.

Patience is a quality most great leaders possess, and we must possess it too. We must stay lock step with the end goal and “center the needle” daily reminding ourselves of the prize. Setting and resetting the vision and crystal clear expectations must be an ongoing “to do” daily, weekly and monthly to get the true change we are looking for. Most people and companies truly underestimate what it takes to be world class.

Patience

Patience is something we all struggle with, instant gratification is what we expect, and when it doesn’t happen we get frustrated. We expect our sales people to understand how to sell better after a one day sales workshop, our leaders to take a two day leadership workshop and have their people figured out. We expect to go to the gym for two weeks and see a big transformation. Patience is a huge part to any successful project. To be able to stay patient, we must keep our eyes on the progress of the project, not the results. Also when it comes to results, they come in many different forms. It might be bottom line impact, positive atmosphere, better attendance, higher customer sat scores, etc… On the personal side, it could be saving money, losing weight, spending more time with your family, carving out more time to spend on hobbies, etc… We must remained laser focused on progress moving forward. Also, we must remind everyone why we are doing the things we are doing and keep the end goal in mind.

Staying consciously aware of our long term goals can help us from getting frustrated by short term obstacles. We shouldn’t measure results too early, but, we should stay focused overall on what we are trying to accomplish. For example, Sarah, my wife, is training for a half-marathon that is coming up in 3 months. When you train for a marathon you start by knowing and understanding what the final goal is, which is to be able to complete the race. You must keep your eyes on the long term goal of finishing the race, and at the same time be able to look at the daily positive movement. Sarah actually began her training schedule three months before the race. This is vital to staying patient. It’s also important to know what the long term goals are. By knowing our long term goals in any area of our life; we don’t have to ask “why are we doing this?” We know why, because it ultimately takes us to our long term vision.

P.E.P.P. Preparation Execution Persistence and Patience: A Rulebook To Achieving Success In Any Area Of Your life!

This Blog has been put together with the intention to help you see the process of success as manageable and realistic. In anything we do in life these four key elements play a very important role. We must prepare before we go into battle. We must execute our plan, or our plan is worthless. Action is required along with having a positive outlook that good things will happen. We must persist! We must not let little obstacles stand in our way. Finally we must have patience. Things take time to work. We live in a world of instant gratification, where people want things and they want them now. People want to become the best, the "Michael Jordan's or the Warren Buffett's", yet they are not willing to go through what the best go through to become the best. These examples can go on forever. We must be willing to have patience as we prepare, execute, and persist!

I want to help everyone reading this to see success as a fun journey. People must have fun in life or things become stale. These next few paragraphs will help you with a step by step process, you will understand the formula to have success in life, both personally and professionally, however you define success. By the way, that is the very first step! You must define what success means to you. To many times we are living life inside someone else's plan for success. Define success for you personally and professionally and then put a plan together that is right for you! Finally you must execute your plan.

For someone who cares about helping people set themselves up for success by helping people change the way they look at life, I have been fighting this battle for the past 12 years and continue to fight everyday to help more and more people set themselves up for success in their personal and professionals lives. I have had the privilege to work with over 100,000 people all across the globe helping them get on the right path to success (however they define the word "success"). Working with people through self-help, motivation, financial planning, career planning, business planning, leadership and sales development, and building self-confidence, I have seen a lot of people and companies who are truly searching for answers about themselves and their very own lives. I have decided to find continued ways to help as many people as possible with the power of P.E.P.P. The P.E.P.P. Formula can and will help you improve your life if you actually take action with these suggestions.

Improving one's life is a two-way street. First, one must know what do to and how to do it, and second one must take action! I have run across a lot of people who hear but don't listen, others who listen but don't understand, others who understand but don't agree, others who agree, but don't think they have the ability to accomplish, and finally those who have the ability to accomplish but don't execute (no action).

It is my goal to get you to actually execute, take action, and improve your life to reach your definition of success in many different areas of your life. As you read about P.E.P.P., think about ways you can take immediate action that will move you in the right direction towards your dreams, goals, and desires, in any area of your life. Taking the first step is sometimes the hardest, but once you do and you create momentum it is amazing what results you can and will produce. Remember to always be moving forward in a positive direction! Get out of the "rocking chair" mode. A rocking chair never moves forward, and we always want to be moving forward. Whether you move forward an inch or a mile, that doesn't matter, as long as you are moving in a positive direction. I challenge you to write your thoughts down and then execute your plan. Who knows, you just might come up with ideas that can change your life.

Use P.E.P.P. to improve you life! Prepare, execute, persist and be patience and watch your dreams become a reality.

Spend More Time Reviewing Your Finances

Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen teamed up to write a book called The One-Minute Millionaire. It’s a fantastic book written in two parts, so it’s great for people who are more creative and want to read a story, and for people who are more analytical who just want the facts. One of the points they make in the book is that millionaires spend an extra few minutes on their finances every day. Some people say they don’t have time to focus on their finances, but we’re not talking about hours and hours of reconciling bank statements. It’s an extra couple of minutes deciding whether or not you really need that pair of shoes you just picked up. It’s an extra couple of minutes figuring out what you have left in your checkbook. If you really want to get serious about monitoring your progress, spend a few minutes a day on Quicken or some other financial software that helps you track you’re spending, saving, and investing. Just spend a little extra time every day and see the progress you’re making.

In order to monitor your financial progress, obviously you need to have some defined money goals. For some, this may mean sticking within a budget and monitoring that closely. For others, it may mean determining by what day they want to have their debt paid. You may have a desired income goal for the month – or maybe you’ve been eyeing something in a store for some time and you’re saving the money to pay cash for it. Whatever your money goals are, you must determine how long it will take you to reach those goals and strive every day/week/ month to achieve them.

Finally, make a commitment to yourself that you want to WIN The Money Game. Make a commitment to stick to your budget, to pay off your credit cards, to live within your means, and to pay cash for everything. If you need help staying accountable, ask a friend, family member, or co-worker to keep you on track. Sometimes it’s nice to have someone checking in on your progress. If you should happen to falter or take a couple of steps back on your progress, re-commit to yourself that you WILL accomplish what you set out to do: WIN The Money Game!

Block Out The “Noise”

There is so much “noise” going on right now in the world. The economy, job losses, a new “stimulus” package, tax cuts, retirement accounts moving in the wrong direction (including mine), housing troubles, etc… Wow! If we get caught up in all the “noise”, it would be very easy to become depressed and have a completely negative outlook on life as a whole. So what we must do is shrink our “universe” down to our biggest asset; which is ourselves! You are your biggest asset to make changes in your life, to help resolve issues you are going through, to find a job, to make money, to build a better relationship with a loved one, and the list can go on and on. Plus, you can’t control the stock market, the government, what happens to your home price, the price of oil, but you can and must control you. Too many people rely on others (where they work, their families, their church, the government) to support them, or to tell them what to do next. This type of thinking shrinks one’s own ability for “free or critical thinking”. If we allow others to think for us and make decisions for us we are not growing our biggest asset, we are actually shrinking that asset, and making it a liability. We can’t change the past, but we can influence the future by taking steps today towards a better life. What are you doing today to grow your biggest asset?

There are three uses of our time. We can invest our time, spend our time, or waste our time. When you invest your time you are growing your biggest asset. Focus on ways to invest your time. How? You can:

• Read a book
• Spend quality time with a loved one
• Find your true calling in life and begin the proper steps to find a new career or job
• Work on your resume
• Network to find other avenues of business
• Go to the gym and get a workout in
• Pick up the phone and make that call you have wanted to make
• Take some quiet time to gather your thoughts
• Take the first step in making a situation better

The list could go on and on, but by investing your time you are growing your biggest asset....YOU. Take time to do at least three things that will truly help you grow your biggest asset. Have you taken action? What progress have you seen? What seems to be working? What changes might need to be made? What have you learned by creating action in your life? Write down thoughts about your progress and/or your thoughts about where you are going. Take 15 minutes right now to begin.

If you haven’t created any to do lists or taken any action, I suggest one of two things at this point. Either get serious about getting serious and start doing something NOW, or forget about change and just be happy with where you are in your life. Sound harsh? Only you can change yourself, and if you haven’t started yet, either do so or stop kidding yourself.

Execution Is A Funny Thing

Execution is a funny thing. Most people know what to do, but actually doing it and taking action is a completely different game. In the execution phase an organization must focus on giving everyone necessary the proper training and development to be successful! Everyone must flawlessly execute their roles and responsibilities! The right skills and tools must be given to people inside the organization to execute the plan of attack!

There must be time given to learn the new skills and tools and everyone must not waiver and execution must be encouraged from day one! The organization must coach people along the way to help them get comfortable with all the skills, behaviors, tools, and changes. It works the same with individuals. Let’s look at driving a stick shift again. When learning how to really execute we go through different stages of learning. All of us have a comfort zone and we must work hard at expanding our comfort zone if we want to improve. Remember the first time you drove a stick shift? Let me take you back one step prior, remember when you sat in the passenger’s seat, before you knew how to drive a stick shift and watched somebody drive the stick shift that knew how? You probably said what I said at the time, “that looks easy”. At that point with driving a stick shift I was in what I call unconscious incompetent. In other words I did not know I was stupid. Not calling anyone stupid, just want to make the point. Now you get behind the wheel and the car dies, you restart the car 12 times, and someone is yelling, “push in the clutch”. Now I became conscious incompetent, or now I knew that I was, yes, stupid. But something happens after you practice over and over and over again. I finally reached the point to where I could drive the car, but I still had to think about it. This is the conscious competent stage. Good yet still must think about things as you go. You probably won’t admit it, but we would talk to ourselves and say things such as, “easy on the clutch” or “make sure to get in reverse not fourth gear”, or we would be stopped on a hill and someone was right behind us in our rearview mirror. We would say “&^%$” and then burn out the clutch to move forward. Now at some point you reach the stage where you are so good that you don’t even think about it anymore. You just start the car and off you go. This is the unconscious competent stage. It becomes second nature. This takes time and lots of practice to be able to execute on an unconscious level. As people go through these levels of learning we must encourage even the slightest of positive improvement or movement in the right direction!

First we must help people realize what they don’t know and help them create a learning gap, or they will think that they already know “how to do it”. If we shatter confidence when someone is in the conscious incompetent stage, it’s likely they will never expand their comfort zone. Remember when we talked about justification. People can justify why they never learned to drive a stick shift, or talk themselves into believing that an automatic is better. They do this when they feel discouraged when learning anything new. Justification is the mask when there is little confidence.

Once the execution phase is coming in for a landing and people are in the conscious competent stage mid-course adjustments must be made if needed. Getting everyone executing the fundamentals and principles of the plan of attack should be the number one focus. Results should be on the back burner with faith that executing on the right activities will provide the right results. Results are the end zone; executing on the right activities is each first down along the way.

Action Eliminates “Quiet Desperation”

Hopefully by now you have thought about and written down all the things you want to accomplish, both personally and professionally, and you are beginning to take action and move in the right direction. This is where we have to make it clear that we are not a “motivational speaking” company. The Chad Carden Group is a consulting organization that believes in getting results by execution and not by spending a lot of time discussing theory. Now to do that, we have to be realists. We tell you like we see it, and either you like it or you don’t. That being said we are not writing this to make you mad, but to make you think. Most people will never accomplish what they want to accomplish this year or next year or in their lifetime because they do not put their plan into action.

Having a vision, goals, and a plan on how to achieve these things is important and the first step, but without action it is 100% useless. We believe in writing down goals, visions, plans, and thinking positive, and at CCG we do all these things. But positive thinking alone won’t change anything. If you want to get in shape, just having a positive attitude for thirty days won’t do it. You have to have a great attitude along with taking action, such as going to the gym, eating healthy, exercising, and doing the things that you probably don’t want to always do. You could have the best workout plan, but without actually getting on the machine, lifting weights, doing pushups and sit ups, or running, the workout plan is 100% useless.

We all have heard or read that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you want things to be different you have to change what you do. Simple, period, that’s the way that it is. It reminds me of a story I once heard about a bear in a cage. The zoo put this bear in a cage that was ten feet long. They put the bear at one end, and put the food at the other end. Every day the bear would walk ten feet and eat, then go back over and lay down. Walk ten feet and eat, then go back over and lay down; he did this for ten years in the zoo. Everybody would watch him. They removed the cage one day, ten feet forward the bear would go over and eat, and then go back without bars….ten feet forward the bear would go over and eat, and then go back without bars. Now here is what’s scary, they moved the food fifteen feet away from the bear, and the bear went ten feet and stopped.

So many people in life get comfortable with what they have. They are ten feet forward and ten feet back. They get up and do the same things over and over and over again expecting different results. Then when the game of life is over, a lot of them look over their shoulder and say, “what happened?” Now the beautiful thing about living in a free society is that you don’t have to change or do anything differently. I believe that most people are living lives of what is called “quiet desperation.” Quiet desperation is where people have enough that it is not worth doing anything different, but they always ask the question: “Isn’t there more to life than this?”

So if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired with some area or areas in your life, change your actions, which in-turn, will change your results. What can you do today that will help you accomplish whatever it is you want to accomplish this year? Maybe you need to change careers, maybe you need to save some money, and maybe you need to move a relationship forward (or get out of one). Whatever it is, we suggest you do it and you do it today. Like the Nike slogan: “Just Do It”.