Gary Carpenter

4 Ways To Keep Yourself Focused

 

Here is an occurence you see too many times before – you start off your day by telling yourself that you will get (insert amount) of task done today. As determined as you are, you might end up having blunt conversation with your friends, replying and sending out e-mails and of course, get really busy on social outlets. 

 

So how do we avoid all these evil attention seeking, unnecessary task and make sure we accomplish what we should be accomplishing on the day itself? Our minds are easily wavered and affected and it becomes extremely hard to realign your focus with items that you need to get accomplished. Today I want to share with you 5 ways to improve your focus in Real Estate and how you can possibly discard activity that can divert your attention. Now these tips can be subjective but it may be effective for you!

 1. Work In Chunks

It’s a scientific fact that our brains can only be attentive on a limited amount of information for a limited amount of time. Making sure the appropriate information in mind is the one that lines up with our activities in Real Estate is where the difficulty is. To lighten the load on your brain, it is better to segment your work into small manageable pieces. The idea is you do not want to spend an entire day working on one task non-stop. Breaking it up allows your brain to ‘breathe’ and it will reward you later with effective work. So work in small portions then leave your desk and if your lucky go outside breathe in mother nature.

2. Reward Yourself For Your Determination

It’s not really a bad thing to visit sites like Facebook, Meebo, or Twitter to get your social updates, but it’s important to not spend huge amounts of time on them, especially when your activities for the day are not complete. What I tend to do is create a set of tasks that I need to complete before I can visit any of those sites or leave my desk. I will work awhile, complete a task, then reward myself with some time catching up with a friend. This strategy relies on sheer perseverance and strong will. If you cant stick to goals that you set try another one of these methods.

3. Go Incognito

If all else fails and you just cant seem to get away from the Facebook and pesky co-worker emails, you have to hide yourself. Go invisible on the instant message clients, set the away message to “BUSY, DON’T BOTHER ME”. And for those people who love to stop by your desk, throw on those head phones so they dont feel inclined to spark up a conversation. I often have to close my door and put up a Prospecting Sign so that I can get my work completed. It seems the moment one person starts talking to me that the floods of people come. I’ve learned to never put myself in conversational positions while trying to be focused or make sure that i’m in control if I am in those situations.

4. Be Interested/Passionate About Your Work.

Finally the best way to be productive is to truly enjoy and be passionate about what your working on. We go to great lengths and hours of work for things that interest us. Yet we lose focus instantaneously if what we are doing is not important. It might take sometime finding interest in the work you do, you might have to just think about the big picture.

 

"It's Never Too Late"

It is November 20th and I am working on setting my 2011 Goals and as usual one of my greatest mentors of all time is reinventing himself! Floyd has been a friend, father, mentor, advisor, and inspiration to me for most of my adult life! Knowing that at the age of 69 he still setting BIG GOALS inspires me to do the same! I am currently the CEO/TL of Keller Williams Realty in Omaha NE and my BIG GOAL for 2011 is to help change the lives of 100 real estate agents the same way that Floyd has changed mine! Enjoy this inspiring blog post from Floyd Wickman below!

I just set a new 5 year goal for myself.  Some may think it silly to be setting a 5 year goal at age 69.  What might be even sillier is that I have no doubt but that I will achieve it. 

On one hand I am humbled and blessed to think of all that I have achieved, and overcome, throughout my life. On the other hand, I believe there are some very specific ingredients that worked for me and will continue to work as I strive to achieve my next goal.  I share them with the hope that someone reading this can use these ingredients to achieve his or her goal, regardless of age.

1.  WORK HARD.  Nothing will ever replace hard work as a major force in taking one toward the goal.  Asking ones self "what can I accomplish during my workday?" rather than "what can I get out of doing during my workday?" is one noticeable difference between an achiever and a wanna-be.  Remember, if you wish to leave your footprints on the sands of time...wear work-shoes!

2. STRONG CORE VALUES.  Those traits that best describe a person and his or her ethics, guidelines or promises can often predict the outcome of ones efforts toward achieving the goal can be reduced to concise and clear core values.  A person needs only to look back upon a successful period of his life to discover his core values.  What traits obviously contributed to the successful outcome?  How would others describe the 'work ethics' or conspicuous characteristics he demonstrated. 

To help the reader understand what I mean by Core Values, I give you mine.  To Always...

...Live by the Get-by-Giving Philosophy.

...Make my clients number one goal, my number one goal.

...Live up to my standards despite temptations to lower them.

...Be willing to work toward a common good.

...Do what I say I will do.  Sometimes more, just never less.

Each person should ask themselves this question.  "Are my core values such that, if I adhere to them, I have the best chance to achieve my goal?

3. HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE.  This is a term my 'big brother' Zig has reminded me often of throughout the years.  Simply put, he says we cannot succeed to our full potential without the people in our life rooting for us.  Encouraging us to be our best.  Whether its our spouses, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers or just our closest friends, our odds of success soar when they are cheering us on and giving us our space to grow.  How do you get this?  You get by giving.  By encouraging the people closest to us; giving to our families the love and attention they want and need; and, putting their needs high on our 'to do' lists, we dramatically increase our odds of having that 'home court advantage". 

 Linda and I have been married for 46 years and I can tell you,  beyond the shadow of a doubt, without her encouragement, belief and support, I could never have achieved the success I have.  No one does it alone.  In my book "letters to Linda" www.floydwickman.com we share the 15 principles that has given each of us the 'Home Court Advantage'.

4.  TRUST GOD.  Believe that God wants the best for you.  Believe that He has a purpose for you to fulfill.  Believe that He is there in the toughest of times.  Believe that He wouldn't have given you the dreams you have if you weren't able to accomplish them.

Hope this helps.  Oh, by the way, my 5 year goal is to Speak to 100 separate 'general' audiences (other than real estate groups) on or before October 20th 2015.  Wish me success.

Love,

Floyd

Transparency By Zig Ziglar

Zig has been a Mentor of mine for 15 years and this artical is yet another inspiration that keeps me going in the right direction! Thank you Zig for all that you have done for me and my family!

On March 7, 2007, my life changed completely with one, simple, misplaced step and a fall down the stairs resulting in vertigo and brain injury induced short-term memory loss. Some would say it changed for the worse, and by human standards they would be entirely right. Fortunately, and I can assure you this is not by chance the one verse that I've written in the majority of books I've been asked to autograph, the verse that I believe encourages people most in the midst of their troubles, Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose" (KJV), is the verse that allows me to know that God will use this season of my life, difficult though it may be, for His glory and my ultimate benefit.

One day my daughter Julie asked me if it was upsetting to me to have short-term memory loss. I told her that I honestly did not ever feel upset because I could not remember what I had forgotten. My life today is entirely in the present. That kind of focus has its benefits, but I have to say that without my wife to tell me where we're supposed to be and when, well, I'd miss out on just about everything.

Some might call what I just told you "being candid." I call it "being transparent." There is no sense in trying to act or pretend like nothing unusual is going on with me. Just a few minutes of conversation on some days is enough to reveal my memory problem. Other days I have considerably more clarity, and if we met and visited for even up to thirty minutes, I might seem like my old, pre-fall self. At least that is what my family tells me. I can't remember all that happened yesterday or this morning, but I can tell you almost anything you want to know about stuff that happened before the fall, and that is why I'm still able to be on stage with the interview format.

But I have to be transparent with my audience. Julie tells me there are times I "get stuck in a loop" and keep going back to the same topic. She interrupts me, and I usually have a one-liner on hand to put the audience at ease…when you laugh at yourself the world laughs with you. If we hadn't told the audience in advance about my fall and about my memory loss, it could get very uncomfortable for them while they try to figure out what is going on. That's one reason I'm talking about transparency here. The other reason makes the bigger point.

The first person you have to be transparent with at all times is yourself. If you can't see what's going on with you, you can't see what needs to happen next. The alcoholic who doesn't think she has drinking problem won't seek help. The workaholic who denies that twelve-hour workdays are too long won't take time off to see his child's soccer game. The perfectionist can't and won't relax, the morbidly obese won't get healthy, and the people who think they present a perfect picture to the world take themselves way too seriously. The list is endless…add a few of your own…maybe you'll discover something that applies to you.

I've known many people who have been told by more than just a few friends that they had problems, but until they're willing to admit their problems, there was no convincing them they needed help. Reality can be pretty hard to take, especially when dealing with it might require gut-wrenching hard work. I come from a generation that didn't talk about personal problems. You sucked it up and went on with your life. If things weren't going well, it was your duty to hide it from anyone and everyone. Appearances were more important than getting help.

When I first started doing a lot of public speaking, I knew that what I said had to make a difference in people's lives or there was no sense in saying it. I instinctively knew that people needed to relate to what I had to say on an emotional and applicable level and that I had to be real myself if I wanted my material to make a "real" difference to the individuals who heard it.

Nothing, in my experience, has a stronger impact on individuals than hearing stories of how it was then, how it is now, and what happened in between. Those stories give hope to the hopeless. They say, "See, life can be hard but it will get better – if you do!" If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel you can't see where to go. Stories of hope inspire people to find their way out of bad situations. Like the parables in the Bible – they give direction.

I'm sure I could have gone my entire speaking career without telling anyone that I don't gamble or drink and why. I could have left out the truth about how many different jobs I've had in the course of my sales career; how many times I relocated my family in search of the pot-of-gold sales job. I could have skipped telling how my wife has cried with relief when I came with cash and we could pay bills and buy groceries. But I could never have convinced you that you can improve your attitude and your circumstances if I couldn't show you how I'd done it myself.

I was young, vigorous and healthy when all of the circumstances mentioned above happened. Now I have challenges that I may never entirely overcome, and I want you to know that having the right outlook, realistic expectations, and constant hope for something better will serve you and the people you love so much better than resigned acceptance of the status quo. Life is to be lived transparently, excitedly, with eager anticipation of the good things that still lie ahead, in spite of our circumstances.

 

Adapted from Embrace the Struggle: Living Life on Life's Terms by Zig Ziglar and Julie Ziglar Norman - © 2009, Zig Ziglar. Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Pastor’s Advice for Better Marriage: More Sex

I would Love to get your comments on the 7 days of Sex Challenge. Is it a Good idea or not?

GRAPEVINE, Tex. — And on the seventh day, there was no rest for married couples. A week after the Rev. Ed Young challenged husbands and wives among his flock of 20,000 to strengthen their unions through Seven Days of Sex, his advice was — keep it going.

Mr. Young, an author, a television host and the pastor of the evangelical Fellowship Church, issued his call for a week of “congregational copulation” among married couples on Nov. 16, while pacing in front of a large bed. Sometimes he reclined on the paisley coverlet while flipping through a Bible, emphasizing his point that it is time for the church to put God back in the bed.

“Today we’re beginning this sexperiment, seven days of sex,” he said, with his characteristic mix of humor, showmanship and Scripture. “How to move from whining about the economy to whoopee!”

On Sunday parishioners at the Grapevine branch watched a prerecorded sermon from Mr. Young and his wife, Lisa, on jumbo screens over a candlelit stage. “I know there’s been a lot of love going around this week, among the married couples,” one of the church musicians said, strumming on a guitar before a crowd of about 3,000.

Mrs. Young, dressed in knee-high black boots and jeans, said that after a week of having sex every day, or close to it, “some of us are smiling.” For others grappling with infidelities, addictions to pornography or other bitter hurts, “there’s been some pain; hopefully there’s been some forgiveness, too.”

Mr. Young advised the couples to “keep on doing what you’ve been doing this week. We should try to double up the amount of intimacy we have in marriage. And when I say intimacy, I don’t mean holding hands in the park or a back rub.”

Mr. Young, known simply as Ed to his parishioners, and his wife, both 47, have been married for 26 years and have four children, including twins. They have firsthand experience with some of the barriers to an intimate sex life in marriage, including careers, exhaustion, outside commitments, and “kids,” a word that Mr. Young told church members stands for “keeping intimacy at a distance successfully.”

But if you make the time to have sex, it will bring you closer to your spouse and to God, he has said. You will perform better at work, leave a loving legacy for your children to follow and may even prevent an extramarital affair.

“If you’ve said, ‘I do,’ do it,” he said. As for single people, “I don’t know, try eating chocolate cake,” he said.

The sex-starved marriage has been the topic of at least two recent books, “365 Nights” and “Just Do It.” But Mr. Young’s call from the pulpit gave the discussion an added charge.

It should not, in his view. This is not a gimmick or a publicity stunt, Mr. Young says. Just look at the sensuousness of the Song of Solomon, or Genesis: “two shall become one flesh,” or Corinthians: “do not deprive each other of sexual relations.”

“For some reason the church has not talked about it, but we need to,” he said, speaking by telephone Friday night on his way to South Africa for a mission trip. There is no shame in marital sex, he added, “God thought it up, it was his idea.”

Those who attend Fellowship’s location here or one of several satellite churches in the Dallas area and one in Miami are used to Mr. Young’s provocative style. (The real “f word” in the marital boudoir, he says, is “forgiveness.”) But the sex challenge was a bit much for some of his church members, who sat with arms crossed in uncomfortable silence, he recalls, while many in the audience gave him an enthusiastic applause.

One parishioner, Rob Hulsey, 25, said his Baptist relatives raised their eyebrows about it, but he summed up the reaction of many husbands at Fellowship Church when he first heard about the sex challenge — “Yay!”

A week later, he and his wife, who are expecting a baby and have two older children, could not stop holding hands during the sermon. His wife, Madeline Hulsey, 32, said she was just as thrilled to spend a week focusing on her husband. Usually, “we start to kiss, and it’s knock knock knock, Mom!” she said.

Others found that, like smiling when you are not particularly happy, having sex when they did not feel like it improved their mood. Just eight months into their marriage, Amy and Cody Waddell had not been very amorous since Cody admitted he had had an affair.

“Intimacy has been a struggle for us, working through all that,” Ms. Waddell said. “This week really brought us back together, physically and emotionally.”

It is not always easy to devote time for your spouse, Pastor Young admitted. Just three days into the sex challenge he said he was so tired after getting up before dawn to talk about the importance of having more sex in marriage that he crashed on the bed around 8 p.m. on Tuesday night.

Mrs. Young tried to shake him awake, telling her husband, “Come on, it’s the sex challenge.” But Mr. Young murmured, “Let’s just double up tomorrow,” and went back to sleep.

The rise of Craigslist and how you can use it to generate leads

By Laura Price, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Keller Williams Realty

“I’m persistent until prospects tell me to take a hike,” explained Bob Cenk, mega agent and Craigslist aficionado. “And I’m good at taking a hike,” the former mountain climber joked while on a panel discussing the best Internet strategies during Mega Agent Camp Wednesday morning. Just last year he made $700,000 off Craigslist alone and isn’t showing signs of slowing down – this year he’s projected to crest nearly $1 million in GCI.

After leaving mountain climbing to spend more time with his family, Cenk got into real estate and quickly realized he needed a free method to generate leads. So he jumped on Craigslist and started posting. Here are the lessons he’s learned and the strategies he’s currently implementing to stay on top of his game.

1. Capture their attention. Traditional thinking might tell you to describe the home, its price and the neighborhood in the title. Through trial and error, Cenk has found that those headlines actually send people away from your post. “Consumers usually go onto Craigslist only once, and they are automatically looking for ways to disqualify the home,” he says. The best headlines, he explains, are the non-traditional ones. Here are three that are proven to pull in leads. 

!!!! START PACKING … LET’S MAKE A DEAL!!!!

***** WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THIS JEM******

!!!! PINCH ME I MUST BE DREAMING!!!!

2. Simple is better. A lot of agents make the mistake of writing too much about a home. “That just gives the consumer another way to disqualify the home – which loses you a lead.” Cenk has found that the simple posts which merely describe his service are the ones that get the most attention. For a full explanation on how to post simple ads, watch the video below.

3. Consistency and persistency with marketing and messaging: “We’ve found that people typically don’t click to the second page.” The strategy: “continue to post throughout the day to stay at the top of the first page. As redundant as it seems, posting the same message over and over is effective.” Cenk was quick to remind the audience that once leads (hundreds a day in his case) start coming in, it’s important to leverage your time and add someone to your team to handle your posting, and follow-up for you.

4. Adapt. Through trial and error Cenk has successfully found his way to success on the site. Liking his adaptation to climbing a mountain, he said “when you climb and come to a rough patch, you go back down; train and then head back up a new way.”

““I just kept making those 200 phone calls every day!””

By Lisa Wahlgren, Communications Manager, KWRI

Recounting a deeply personal saga of growing up not knowing his father, and then holding to an undying commitment to be a daily presence in his son’s life despite a bitter divorce, a year of homelessness, 10 days in a maximum security prison for unpaid parking tickets, and an arduous upward climb to make it as a stock broker, Chris Gardner held Mega Camp attendees in rapt attention Tuesday morning. 

Gardner’s determination to hold onto his son despite all odds was every bit matched by his professional ambition. Starting out as an unpaid intern for a stock brokerage firm, and working his way into a commission plus a small base sales position, he said he had made a determination early on to “be world class at something.”  It was a determination that kept him focused on the one thing that he needed to do every day: “make 200 phone calls.” His focus and hard work led him to the highest ranks of his profession.

Gardner’s story caught the attention of the national news media and Hollywood movie producers who convinced him to participate in a major motion picture based on his life.  Starring Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness” ended up grossing more than $400 million. His book with the same title was a New York Times Bestseller for 25 weeks – three of them as No. 1 – and has been translated into 40 languages. 

“When one of the biggest movie stars in the world decides to do a movie based on your life, your life changes,” Gardner says, adding, “it took the movie producers $70 million to accomplish what I was able to do for nothing.”

Despite the international notoriety and financial success that he has achieved, he claims without question that the most important accomplishment of his life was “breaking the cycle of fathers not being there for his children.”

Bill Stewart - "Leave No Doubt" Speech

This is a great way to start every morning! have a great day!!!

"How to set a Goal by my Mentor Floyd Wickman"

Hey gang! This is a great blog post by real estate icon Floyd Wickman. We are over 1/2 way through the year and I constantly hear people say "Wow, this month went by fast", or "Man, where did the summer go?", and "Christmas will be here before we know it".  As a constant optimist, I am always asking my agents what is your "Big Why"?  Why are you doing what you are doing?  My agents that follow the steps pointed out by Floyd in his latest blog post never wonder where the time has gone but rather where the time will take them.  Each day brings them closer to their "Big Why", their goal. I would love to hear your comments about what you do to hit your short and long term goals.

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE

I just set a new 5 year goal for myself.  Some may think it silly to be setting a 5 year goal at age 69.  What 
might be even sillier is that I have no doubt but that I will achieve it. 

On one hand I am humbled and blessed to think of all that I have achieved, and overcome, throughout my life. On the other hand, I believe there are some very specific ingredients that worked for me and will continue to work as I strive to achieve my next goal.  I share them with the hope that someone reading this can use these ingredients to achieve his or her goal, regardless of age.

1.  WORK HARD.  Nothing will ever replace hard work as a major force in taking one toward the goal.  Asking ones self "what can I accomplish during my workday?" rather than "what can I get out of doing during my workday?" is one noticeable difference between an achiever and a wanna-be.  Remember, if you wish to leave your footprints on the sands of time...wear work-shoes!

2. STRONG CORE VALUES.  Those traits that best describe a person and his or her ethics, guidelines or promises can often predict the outcome of ones efforts toward achieving the goal can be reduced to concise and clear core values.  A person needs only to look back upon a successful period of his life to discover his core values.  What traits obviously contributed to the successful outcome?  How would others describe the 'work ethics' or conspicuous characteristics he demonstrated. 

To help the reader understand what I mean by Core Values, I give you mine.  To Always...

...Live by the Get-by-Giving Philosophy.

...Make my clients number one goal, my number one goal.

...Live up to my standards despite temptations to lower them.

...Be willing to work toward a common good.

...Do what I say I will do.  Sometimes more, just never less.

Each person should ask themselves this question.  "Are my core values such that, if I adhere to them, I have the best chance to achieve my goal?

3. HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE.  This is a term my 'big brother' Zig has reminded me often of throughout the years.  Simply put, he says we cannot succeed to our full potential without the people in our life rooting for us.  Encouraging us to be our best.  Whether its our spouses, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers or just our closest friends, our odds of success soar when they are cheering us on and giving us our space to grow.  How do you get this?  You get by giving.  By encouraging the people closest to us; giving to our families the love and attention they want and need; and, putting their needs high on our 'to do' lists, we dramatically increase our odds of having that 'home court advantage". 

 Linda and I have been married for 46 years and I can tell you,  beyond the shadow of a doubt, without her encouragement, belief and support, I could never have achieved the success I have.  No one does it alone.  In my book "letters to Linda" www.floydwickman.com we share the 15 principles that has given each of us the 'Home Court Advantage'.

4.  TRUST GOD.  Believe that God wants the best for you.  Believe that He has a purpose for you to fulfill.  Believe that He is there in the toughest of times.  Believe that He wouldn't have given you the dreams you have if you weren't able to accomplish them.

Hope this helps.  Oh, by the way, my 5 year goal is to Speak to 100 separate 'general' audiences (other than real estate groups) on or before October 20th 2015.  Wish me success.

Love,

Floyd

I just set a new 5 year goal for myself.  Some may think it silly to be setting a 5 year goal at age 69.  What 
might be even sillier is that I have no doubt but that I will achieve it. 

On one hand I am humbled and blessed to think of all that I have achieved, and overcome, throughout my life. On the other hand, I believe there are some very specific ingredients that worked for me and will continue to work as I strive to achieve my next goal.  I share them with the hope that someone reading this can use these ingredients to achieve his or her goal, regardless of age.

1.  WORK HARD.  Nothing will ever replace hard work as a major force in taking one toward the goal.  Asking ones self "what can I accomplish during my workday?" rather than "what can I get out of doing during my workday?" is one noticeable difference between an achiever and a wanna-be.  Remember, if you wish to leave your footprints on the sands of time...wear work-shoes!

2. STRONG CORE VALUES.  Those traits that best describe a person and his or her ethics, guidelines or promises can often predict the outcome of ones efforts toward achieving the goal can be reduced to concise and clear core values.  A person needs only to look back upon a successful period of his life to discover his core values.  What traits obviously contributed to the successful outcome?  How would others describe the 'work ethics' or conspicuous characteristics he demonstrated. 

To help the reader understand what I mean by Core Values, I give you mine.  To Always...

...Live by the Get-by-Giving Philosophy.

...Make my clients number one goal, my number one goal.

...Live up to my standards despite temptations to lower them.

...Be willing to work toward a common good.

...Do what I say I will do.  Sometimes more, just never less.

Each person should ask themselves this question.  "Are my core values such that, if I adhere to them, I have the best chance to achieve my goal?

3. HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE.  This is a term my 'big brother' Zig has reminded me often of throughout the years.  Simply put, he says we cannot succeed to our full potential without the people in our life rooting for us.  Encouraging us to be our best.  Whether its our spouses, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers or just our closest friends, our odds of success soar when they are cheering us on and giving us our space to grow.  How do you get this?  You get by giving.  By encouraging the people closest to us; giving to our families the love and attention they want and need; and, putting their needs high on our 'to do' lists, we dramatically increase our odds of having that 'home court advantage". 

 Linda and I have been married for 46 years and I can tell you,  beyond the shadow of a doubt, without her encouragement, belief and support, I could never have achieved the success I have.  No one does it alone.  In my book "letters to Linda" www.floydwickman.com we share the 15 principles that has given each of us the 'Home Court Advantage'.

4.  TRUST GOD.  Believe that God wants the best for you.  Believe that He has a purpose for you to fulfill.  Believe that He is there in the toughest of times.  Believe that He wouldn't have given you the dreams you have if you weren't able to accomplish them.

Hope this helps.  Oh, by the way, my 5 year goal is to Speak to 100 separate 'general' audiences (other than real estate groups) on or before October 20th 2015.  Wish me success.

Love,

Floyd

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Procrastination

This was a great Blog post written by Kris Kilber and I thought that is would be a great read for anyone who procrastinates (oh that's everyone!:0)! Please post your comments below.

No Stephen Covey didn’t write these. Kris W Kilber did. Here’s a few things procrastinators are good at

1. Procrastinators are great at blaming people. They have a “blame list”. Do you have a “blame list”? Most people do whether they realize it or not. A blame list contains all the reasons why they can’t do something. The blame list usually contains items completely out of your control such as blaming the government for your inability to save any money, or the food manufacturers for your size, shape and weight. Blaming others is easier than admitting it’s your fault for where you currently find yourself. Blaming others means you don’t have to take any responsibility for the results of your own actions.

2. Procrastinators are great at dreaming. They aren’t as good at goal setting. Goal setting is not difficult; goal achievement on the other hand takes us out of our comfort zones into the realms of true personal development. Most people are not willing to take the risks for fear of embarrassment or failure, preferring to live their lives in the dream world of if, buts, and maybes. Are you ready to kick the procrastination habit and set goals and not live your life in dream mode?

3. Procrastinators are great at being busy while really doing nothing. Most work their whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do. They check their email constantly during the day. They visit their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts and end up following a maze of links to other sites. By the time they realize it, they have succeeded in being busy at nothing. They are quick to rationalize that they spent 2 hours on the computer and got something done. Being busy going nowhere should be a crime. It’s robbing us of our time.

4. Procrastinators are scared. They fear many things that do not have a standing in reality yet they succumb to them. They rarely start anything new. They are especially afraid that there are people watching what they are doing, often from right under their own roof, and that they will fail. They are afraid of success. They are worried about how they will sustain it. Will it be too much work? They like predictability. They are hesitant to reach outside their comfort zone. Most procrastinators are afraid of all the things mentioned above. They are not truly living.

5. Procrastinators have habits, most of which are bad. They keep you stuck in the same place, doing the same thing. If we repeatedly do the same things in the same way, why then do we expect to get different results? To overcome the habit of procrastination – you do need to break the procrastination habit. Sounds obvious, but most of us don’t realize we have habits we need to break, until we try and stop doing something we’ve always done. Do you want to break the procrastination habit and get more out of life?

6. Procrastinators have “perfectionitis”. It’s used to as another excuse not to finish what they start. They say they want things to be “perfect” so they keep working till they are polished. However, there is another element to “perfectionism” that is beyond merely trying to get something to look perfect. Perfectionists can be afraid of the consequences of what will happen when they do finish? Fear can be a real and added element to this habit of procrastination.

7. Procrastinators are always finding things to fix and adjust. They are continually “Under Construction”. They don’t have a solid plan of action and jump from one thing to another quite easily. This easily dovetails into some of the other things they are good at. They can rationalize that they were busy, that “others” were at fault, that things weren’t perfect, and it was a part of their goals. It really is a symptom or manifestation of all the other things procrastinators are good at.

Well they say the first step to recovery is that you have to admit you may be following some of these effective habits. I know I certainly have to constantly work on them.

Enjoy! 

"Excuses are for Knuckleheads"

  
I could not have written this any better! Pattie Siebold is a good friend and mentor. She is the OP of one of the most successful Keller Williams market centers in the country.   When she talks, her associates in Vancouver, WA listen. July is a great time to re-evaluate your 2010 goals and if you are currently behind this article is a must read. You must not just read but implement as well because "Education without applications is worth less than worthless". Make it a great rest of the year! If you find yourself continually making excuses and need some accountability, please do not hesitate to give me a call. Gary Carpenter 402-680-7000 or [email protected].