Staying organized and focusing on tasks at hand can be very tough. I know for me that is one of the things I struggle with often. Things can get really messy if you have tasks that are not arranged by high priority to low or even worse no tasks at all.

Shooting from the hip is an old Cowboy saying that symbolizes the Wild West, Shoot first ask questions later.

At work this may seem true, we are all rushing to finish the day regardless of how sloppy we get the job done. Of course our clients or employers may not like our tactic but it seems like just like in life, we worry about rushing to get things done without slowing down and making sure we do it the right way with no lazy short cuts.

I just recently moved to the DC Metro area from Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is such a laid back Podunk town while DC is a fast paced business oriented city. It seems like everyone in this area has to drive 80 miles just to reach their destination everyday even if its less than 2 miles away. Back in Virginia Beach, I see people “cruising” all the time just enjoying the ride, in DC I don’t think I have yet to see 1 person just “cruise” otherwise they will get yelled at for going to slow.

So the point is sometimes you have to take a step back and re-evaluate things. Stop worrying about reaching your destination so quickly, take a step back and re-focus espeically if you want to improve or change your life or business.

Effective Activities and Behavior

In Business or in Life there are times when we do things redundantly or ineffectively that doesn’t make sense in doing.  For Business for example, there are many activities that are more detrimental to our success than it is to make money.  Many people waste time doing useless tasks and activities that are not helping the overall goal of making money.

As a Loan Officer, I was always caught up in doing paperwork during the day that was very time consuming and left me little time to effectively prospect.  Prospecting is how I get business and if I don’t get any business then I don’t make any money.  I had to re-arrange my priorities and spent less time doing paperwork at work and brought most of the work load home or delegated to an assistant.

The same time consuming activities can also apply in life.  My brother was an avid poker player at the local bars where they would hold tournaments almost every couple days.  In the past his Girlfriend would always get mad at him because he would spend too much time at the bars and never enough time with her.  This is an obvious poor priority management.  The solution to this problem is that he could make work out a deal by going once or twice a month depending on how comfortable his Girlfriend would be and to shift over some of his poker playing maybe at the house or on computer.  Whatever the solution was going to be the point is to re-prioritize and ask what will it take to make it work.

A few key points to remember when re-arranging your priorities to work towards your goal or end result.

Is this productive?

1.)  Ask Yourself is this productive? Keep asking yourself this very important question over and over through out the day.  I recently came across a survey with the top producers in a sales industry and almost every single one of them had this strategy down as one of the tips to being a successful top producer.  Get your priorities is straight, if its something not making you money or helping you out with your business in the long run, then change up your game.

2.)  Write down your priorites – I have always been a big promoter of this strategy.  Most people in this world are visual thinkers and sometimes in order to get organized we need to lay our objectives and priorities down.  Start with the most important priority and work your way down to the least important.  This work wonders.

3.) Change it – They say a person is truly crazy if they keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  If things are not working the way you want it to be, don’t just wait for change, go out and make things happen.  Go out and change your habits or priorities in to making things a success.  You control your own destiny is what I always say.

Keep Asking Yourself Is What I Am Doing Now Productive? is a post from: Self Confidence | Positive Thinking | Personal Development - Justified Lions

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The Power of Smiling

A recent study written by the New York Times researched Predictive Smiles.  The study researched smiles from a college yearbook rating smiles by by coding muscle movements around the mouth and the eyes.  The recent study showcased that the less people smiled, the more likely they were to later divorce.

This may sound astonishing at first but in reality a Smile is a powerful emotional affect.  A Smile is contagious and infectious.

Have you ever noticed how you pronounce the word “Smile” that you form a smile right after, interesting huh?  The same token can apply with grin or grouch, it’s like these words were mean to take shape of the meaning of the word.

A Smile is a positive emotional energy that majority of people tend to attract to when seen.  The simplest form of the Law of Attraction can be expressed with a simple smile.  A great example is children and babies, you can’t help yourself whenever a child or baby smiles it seems like 2nd nature that you must smile back.

People feed off of each other’s energy every day and all day long, even if you don’t realize it, you are.  Surrounding yourself with negative behavior all the time can dampen your morale and attitude however surrounding yourself with upbeat and positive people in your will greatly improve your outlook in life.

Reverse the Poison

Let’s face it Negativity and Bad Moods are a poison in your life.  Nobody wants to be around a Negative Nancy or a Debbie Downer.  The same way Smiling can be infectious, so can Negativity.

Your best arsenal you have for fighting against Negativity is a simple smile, whether you are talking with someone or alone.  A Quick fix smile can boost an amazing positive vibe that will help you battle negativity.

• If you start out in a bad mood or something just irritated you, flash a quick smile to start clearing away the bad mojo

• If a person is just plain being mean and rude to you, as much as you want to retaliate and become mean back.  Step back, take a breather and calmly smile while engaging.  Ever heard the saying:

You catch more flies with Honey than Vinegar

So go ahead and reverse the poison!  Don’t let negativity and bad moods ruin your day, start by practicing to smile more often.

Reverse Negative Poison by Smiling More Often is a post from: Self Confidence | Positive Thinking | Personal Development - Justified Lions

Cocky vs Confidence

More often than not, people mistake being “Cocky” in place of “Confidence”.  Cockiness in people’s eyes is a self indulgent snob who can care less about the people around them.

However, the dictionary labels Cockiness as:

“very self-confident or self-assertive”

We often jump to conclusions and mindlessly self-judge people without notice.  Majority of times, people who seem Cocky to us makes us feel inferior in someway through jealousy or  judging too quickly.  Unless that person is a total jerk to people around them, I encourage you next time to stop and open your minds for a second to look at a different point of view of that person.

Lil Wayne Theory

Rap artist Lil Wayne calls himself the greatest rapper alive.  Now most people may disagree and some people may actually agree on that statement, we may never know if he’s the greatest rapper alive but he is already achieved that status without even proving it.  Read his exact quote below:

“I don’t think I’m better than anybody personally. I don’t think I’m better than anybody spiritually. I don’t think I’m better than anybody in any way or form or fashion. But as far as this rap thing, I think I am better than everybody. I’m a competitor and I hope everybody feels the same way about their craft.“

Lil Wayne has just shown that his state of mind is that already he is the best and in order to be the best you have to first think that you are the best before you do anything else.

The first step is getting your head in the game, getting in that mental state to prepare you for your end line goal and status.  Going back to proverb 23:7 What a man thinketh, so is he just signifies that whatever you believe, you become.  Think like a winner, you are a winner.  Think like you might fail, then you will fail.

Confidence

It’s okay to be Confident.  It’s okay to show that you are assertive and you know your stuff.  People will always judge and critique on the sidelines, it’s up to you to be the forefront and stand out from the rest.  Be Bold, Be a Leader, Show that whatever you do you do it with a Rockstar confidence.  Own your strengths and don’t focus on your weakness, everyone has them but focus more on improving your strengths.

The people who don’t succeed spends majority of their time blending in and judging everyone while they sit back and watch everyone surpass them in life.  Do you want to be that person who just feeds into negative energy? Sure call me Cocky but it’s my confidence in my ability to do whatever in life is what’s going to make me successful, how about you?

It’s Not Being Cocky, It’s Showing Confidence is a post from: Self Confidence | Positive Thinking | Personal Development - Justified Lions