Life and Business Suggestions

I'm including these common sense life and business suggestions
on my website. Why? Remember what "they" say about
common sense? It's not so common!

The purpose of this executive coaching website is to discuss some of the many ways to improve one's professional and personal life. For additional information or questions not answered on this website, please feel free to contact me.

Links to Business Ideas, Suggestions and Analogies Pages
List of Small Business Ideas
Green Business Ideas
Business Suggestions
Business Analogies
Low Hanging Fruit Analogy
Car TuneUp

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Please Note: There are quite a few life and business suggestions below. Although it's been relatively easy to write them down concisely, and will be pretty easy to read them, each one of them can be difficult to master.

Anyone really serious about working on some of them can benefit by getting assistance from people that have experience helping others in these skills, such as a professional business coach or consultant.

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Life and Business Suggestions

•  Know one's self and one's preferences Do you have the business, career or life you want? If not, are you willing to work to make positive changes? The more you know yourself (your strengths, what you want, what you like to do), the more you are likely to achieve what you want.

•  Know your Weaker Areas Are you shy about asking for help, learning new skills, and/or delegating certain things to others, when appropriate? If so, I bet you're holding yourself back! Business Suggestion: No one, even the heads of big organizations, is skilled at everything. I'm convinced we can all become more productive and happier if we choose some weaker areas to work on!

•  Be Open and Honest, especially with people you're close to and trust. Explain to them how they can be more helpful to you, perhaps talking faster or slower, giving more or less explanations, focusing on different topics, etc. In general, do you give enough feedback? Remember: People aren't mind-readers. Don't ASSUME they can just tell what is going on with you and will automatically help you, especially if not asked!

•  Look Your Best! Are you proud of how you look? Don't neglect your 'visual resume'. First impressions are largely built on appearance. Even more important, knowing you look put-together and professional boosts your confidence and allows you to give your full attention to the task at hand. Business Suggestion: Image consultant Anne Morgan can help you make choices that best suit you and your career.

•  Do Your Best! There are two general types of people: those that do the minimum to "get by" and those that try to do their best. Obviously this latter group will be given many more good opportunities than the former. If you know you're not doing your best, figure out why, and if possible, try to change your mindset, your situation, or whatever or whoever is holding you back.

•  Less is More Some people have a tendency to take on too many projects/businesses, thinking this will get them ahead. In reality, they aren't able to manage anything well, being overloaded with too much to do; they often "drop the ball", losing time, money and energy in the process. Business Suggestion: Eliminate things that have the least potential and are energy-intensive; this will give more time to do well on the remaining responsibilities. You can earn more by doing the most important things well, and have less stress along the way!

•  Have Passion for What You Do! Do you know that many people don't love or even like what they do for a living, as well as many other aspects of their lives? Perhaps some people just aren't "built" that way. But I believe that many have either picked the wrong job/career, etc., or haven't figured out how to make their situations much more enjoyable and interesting. Business Suggestion: With some careful thought and action, finding a career that "fits you better" may be one of the best things you've ever done!

•  Focus, Focus, FOCUS How focused are you? It's important to pay close attention to what is going on around you, and how it's affecting you. Trying to see the "big picture" AND the specific details is often difficult to do on one's own. This is where some additional "eyes and ears" can really help.

•  Learn New Things Do you LIKE to learn? Do you consciously spend time at it? Everything we do and observe is an opportunity to learn and grow. This process makes us smarter, more productive and richer in many ways. And, we're never too old to learn! Like to learn more about business? Consider getting this complimentary subscription to ThinkBusiness Magazine! You'll get more good business suggestions there!

•  Write things down Do you put your thoughts down, either on paper or in your computer? This is a good way to help you to get organized. Seeing/reviewing thoughts on paper (or a computer screen) makes it easier to remember them, learn them, focus, commit and take necessary action to improve your business and your life.

•  Be a Good Coach How do you deal with people? Whether you are running an organization or not, you benefit by having great working relationships with the people you are surrounded by. The better they know what their goals and responsibilities are, the better they will likely help. Business Suggestion: Using methods of encouragement rather than "acting like a boss" often gets better results. Encourage people around you to make business suggestions, and follow that up with thought-out feedback about their ideas.

More Life and Business Suggestions

•  Take ACTION! Are you more pro-active or reactive? Do you come up with lots of business suggestions, or let others do that? Opportunities abound everywhere. In this recession we are now in, many people have more needs than ever. This creates new opportunities for those that recognize them and are ready, willing and able to act.

•  Caution about Business Cliches! Do you often take them at face value? Cliches can be helpful, but don't take them too literally; there ARE often exceptions to the rule! Here are some Business Cliches that illustrate my point.

•  Make Good Use of Time: Do you have good ideas but you keep thinking "I never have enough time"? I hear this all the time. Many of us could be much more productive if/when we decide to take the time to improve our time-management skills. It's so ironic that so many people feel they don't have the time to learn how to make better use of time! You could have an extra day a week. Sound impossible? It's not, if you learn some new time management principles!

•  Be Committed When we are not truly committed, things tend not to get done. When we are committed, we will spend the time and resources necessary to achieve our goals. Some goals have no payback until every step is completed; therefore, procrastinating is often quite costly.

•  Communicate! How well does your organization communicate? This is where ALL organizations drop the ball, to some degree - some much more than others. We see this all the time. Poor communications can destroy businesses, marriages, any time of relationship. I suggest it's much better to OVERcommunicate than UNDERcommunicate.

•  Attitude! Having a good attitude can be one of the biggest keys to success. Attitudes are contagious; a person with a good attitude can help others' attitudes and vice versa. People tend to be much more productive when they have a good attitude.

Diana Covell first asks, "What is attitude?" Through her study of the human potential, Diana notes that "attitude is a composite of three things: thoughts (conscious mind), feelings (subconscious mind), and the actions that subsequently follows. The most reliable way to change one's attitude, and thus improve their results, is learn how the mind works and go through a structured process of reprogramming it". LifeSuccess Consultant Diana Covell, is a LifeSuccess coach, author, and motivational speaker. She helps clients see their potential, connect to it, and achieve their highest purpose, vision, and goals.

•  Be able to say "NO"! People give us "good opportunities" very frequently, but most of them are not right for us. Why? Here's just a few reasons: wrong timing, don't have the resources to do it properly, it's a lot harder to succeed than it appears, etc. The key is to know WHEN and HOW to say "Thanks, but no thanks."

•  Be careful when you say "YES"! This refers to taking on new opportunities and commitments. Most of us are real busy handling more than we really can already. It's soooo easy to say "yes" to something new that seems exciting (at first), or seems potentially real profitable (at first). We all can have those "rose color glasses". Business suggestions: 1) Make sure you REALLY know what you're signing up for before you say "yes". And even then, 2) see if you can easily cut your losses if it doesn't work out as you hope.

•  Speaking of HOPE! When I hear the word "hope" used in conjunction with business, it raises lots of flags. Why? Because too often people run their business based on hope or, in other words, by the seat of your pants. I suggest you really think things through so that the odds of success are really stacked in your favor, and very little (ideally NOTHING) is left to chance. This is called "planning".

•  Speaking of PLANNING! To many people, "planning" is something that isn't well understood. To others, it's something to avoid as long as you can. Business Suggestions: If you really want to have a very successful business, careful planning is virtually essential. In simplistic terms, it's a thinking process that's put into writing. You figure out what you and other resources will be doing to try to succeed in your market; but it should be flexible to take into account market changes and things that are learned along the way.

•  Have Love and Compassion Have you noticed that there are a small number of people that have sincere love, compassion and interest for everyone? Aren't these the people you would prefer to be with and do things for? This illustrates how the "Golden Rule" is something to really strive for and live by.

•  Have a Great Love Life! Are you prepared for what's next in your life? Professional Life Coach Amy Schoen, MBA, CPCC has her many areas of personal coaching including: dating and relationships for singles, couples coaching (pre-marital and established couples), new moms coaching, working moms coaching, family creation coaching (fertility decisions & adoption), 20-something coaching, business relationships and new business and established business owners coaching and consulting. She will explore what you truly want for your life and creative strategies to achieve your goals.

•  Mind, Body & Soul You know what they say about "All work and no play....". We are not robots nor machines. We must keep our minds active by thinking and doing a variety of healthy activities. It starts with the basics: good nutrition and enough solid sleep. We must make sure we get enough physical activities because "if you don't use it, you lose it". And yoga, meditation, etc. are good for the mind, body and soul.

•  Stay Centered and Balanced It's so easy to get out of balance, focusing too much on things we like to do and avoiding things we don't. It's not good for ourselves or for those that we're close to. We're busy people with lots of responsibilities. So we need to make sure we take care of ourselves and those that depend on us as well as those we depend on. Keep a list of things (tasks, people, hobbies, etc.) that are important to you and periodically make sure you've got them all covered.

•  Enjoy the Ride! Do you usually enjoy what you do? People often do what they WANT to do and what they HAVE to do. When I plan for needed changes in ways that are FUN and enjoyable, I'm more likely to do them. If you use the suggestions on this page and still enjoy the ride, I think you're in a very "good place". Are you like me? If so, you may enjoy watching this short video called "Enjoy The Ride", too.

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Were Reading These Business Suggestions Helpful?

I hope you felt it was helpful to read these life and business suggestions. If you think you might like to discuss this in more detail, or something related, feel free to contact me, or fill out the form below.

But reading these once won't likely have much an impact. Like most things,
you must review and practice them over and over until they become
"ingrained". This is where a business coach can really help!

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