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Did you know that February was Time Management Month? If you’re like me, you had no idea …(who decides this stuff anyway?) Coincidently, I had already decided to talk about time because I often hear clients complain about it.

 In an earlier post, I talked about practical ways of managing time. The fact is that while practical tips help, time management, put simply…doesn’t work (kinda like diets)!! You can’t manage time, but you can manage your energy and yourself around time.

Taking back your time starts from within. What kind of relationship do you have with time? What thoughts do you have when it comes to time? How do these thoughts control how well you handle time? Who’s in control…you or time?

Here are a few tips to begin to change your relationship with time: (click here to read more)

1. Watch Your Mouth

   What are you saying about time? Are you constantly complaining about not having enough? Are you consistently saying, "I don’t have time" so that it has become your mantra? If so, STOP IT! The words you speak are powerful. Your subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between fantasy and reality; it only knows what you tell it. The more you say "I don’t have time", the more it becomes your world. How about saying instead, "I have more than enough time".

2. Don’t Be Afraid of the Word ‘NO’

   This is a very simply word, yet it seems to be the hardest for some of us to use. Using this simple word can keep you from over committing yourself. It can keep you from using "I don’t have time" as an excuse for when you really don’t want to do something. By the way, lying on time affects your relationship with it. Saying ‘no’ helps you keep your boundaries, which is paramount to self-care. Of course there are different ways of saying ‘no’, find one that’s comfortable for you and USE IT!!!!

3. Be Sure to Value Time
   

   I’m sure you’ve heard the expression "time is money"? If we really believed that, then why don’t we value it more? What if we could be better with spending time just like we can get better with spending money? The major difference between managing time and managing money is that once you spend time, you’ll never, ever get it back. We are all given the same 24-hours a day, but we have a different number of total days in each of our life spans. Since we don’t know exactly how many days we will have, doesn’t it make since to value and use them wisely? Think about how much time is spent arguing, gossiping, worrying, stressing and feeling guilty; these emotions put you in a negative energy which is an enemy to your time. I want you to be aware when you get into that state and make a conscious decision to use your time differently.

How often do you feel like you are burning valuable time during the day? Are you tired of it and ready to do something different? With these tips you can start to find ways to improve your relationship with time. Making just a few changes like these can immediately shift your energy around time. That new energy will help you to find more time so that you can focus on the things that are important to you.

“Master Time and Free Yourself:
A New Approach to Taking Control of Your Time
Once and For All.”

Find out how I can help you leverage your time to become more successful. Learn More…

Master Your Time and Free Yourself
How to Take Control of Your Time Once and For All
Teleseminar

Taught by certified small business and entrepreneur
success coach, Anita Kirkman.

Tuesday, February 9th at 7:00p CST

Register Now www.mastertimeandfreeyourself.com

Ever feel as though there are just not enough hours in the day to get all the things you want to do…done? Picture yourself with all the time you need every single day to meet your needs, and then some!
What a great feeling….and it’s within your grasp! The Master Your Time and Free Yourself teleseminar with Coach AnitaK will show you how to finally get control over your time so that you can not only make the most of your 24 hours but seemingly create more time!!

Anita will take you through simple steps to get clear about your relationship with time. You’ll learn:

    * Why time management alone, like diets, doesn’t work
    * How to expand your time
    * How your thoughts, beliefs and speech affect your time
    * How to replace those thoughts and beliefs with powerful  substitutes
    * How to honor your values in your time related decisions

Take a different approach to managing your time!

This 60 minute seminar may be just the lift you need to feel in control again and to reduce your stress.

Register Now At: www.mastertimeandfreeyourself.com

By Anita Kirkman

Once again it’s time to build a vision of our new year and get a clean slate. We know our intention is to make our "New Year’s Resolution" Doable and real.

So we began purposefully executing our vision, and we even do great for a while. Then by March (if not earlier)… what happens? The gyms are almost empty, we eat what’s not on the food list, we spend more than the allocated amounts on our spending plan, and that charge card we committed to paying off?… well now the balance has increased!! Hmm, how did we get off track? Did we really make a real resolution with a purpose that can be supported when times got tough? Or, did we make reso-lies?

What are reso-lies? Lies we tell ourselves at the beginning of the year calling them ‘resolutions’. Yes, we start out with the best of intentions… at first… then somewhere along the way we began to lose the vision.

So how do we make this year and decade different? How can we keep the purpose in our vision and resolve to win in 2010?
Here are some simple tips to turn the reso-lies into true resolutions.
 

1. Know the "why" behind the "what"
We like to say – know the purpose behind your vision. The vision is the what, the purpose is the why. The "what" may be "I want to lose weight”. The why is your purpose or reason for why you want to lose weight?

You want your purpose to be strong, real, and effective in order to keep the vision alive. Imagine how you will feel once you’ve lost the weight? What will losing weight mean for you? You may answer, "I want to lose weight so that I can be healthy". Okay, dig deeper, what else? Remember, you are going after a strong purpose to this plan. "I would have more energy", you say. What would more energy do for you? You get the picture.

This is something I love to help clients do, discover the "whys". The portrait or vision of you goes well beyond just a slimmer body. You’ll want to focus on this because your true motivation actually comes from your purpose, the "why", which in turn helps make your ‘what’ sustainable.

2. Measure your goals against your values compass
Creating a values compass is one of the first things I do with new clients. It is a mirror of your purpose and is paramount to starting any plan. The values compass helps to guide you when you are faced with problems, decisions, and especially when creating your vision, setting goals or making your resolutions.

If you aren’t honoring your values in your resolution, it is a reso-lie!

For example, your goal is weight loss (the what), for health reasons (the why) and integrity is important to you (a value).

Then, you do a crash liquid diet to fit into a size 8 dress for your friend’s wedding. What happened?

You dishonored an important value - integrity. Results? The weight comes back with friends and you’re miserable. If you had honored your value of integrity, you would have lost the weight in a healthy way because you said you wanted to lose weight for health reasons. Then you would have not compromised your integrity.

This is why your values compass is so important. If you don’t have a values compass or know how to use one, I am happy to work with you to create this priceless tool so that you use it regularly.

3. Run them through the S.M.A.R.T. filter
You may have heard of setting smart goals, which is what I’m referring to when I say SMART filter. When you’re making a resolution, make sure it meets the following criteria:

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Reasonable
T - Time oriented

Try these tips for this New Year and let’s see if you make your resolutions a reality that supports your vision, keeps you living within your purpose, and helps you to truly win in 2010!

The fear of failure does more than keep us from success. It prevents people from enjoying a huge part of life. Often, the fear of failure developed over a period of time and was most likely triggered by a need for acceptance and approval by those who are important to them.

People who were raised in a negative environment, where they received little praise for their efforts, are prime candidates. While striving for positive recognition and encouragement, they soon learned that no matter how hard they tried, it was not good enough.

The resulting low self esteem fed their negativity. In time, they developed a fear of failure and now are reluctant to try anything new. When this carries over into adulthood, they begin to lose any hope of succeeding.

Fortunately, there are keys to overcome the fear of failure.

1. Recognize the relationship between lack of success and fear of failure

It’s common to confuse lack of success with fear of failure. Lack of success: didn’t succeed for any number of reasons. Fear of failure: fear of failure leads to lack of success

Take a close look at the amount of effort you’ve applied to your endeavors. Try to spot the point when you stopped trying and see if you lost confidence. Chances are, you did. How long did it take for you to reach that point? If possible, try to capture the thoughts that went through your head when you did lose confidence.

2. Determine how much effort you apply before you give up

After a lifetime of failures (lack of success), people tend to lack patience and persistence. As a result, projects do not receive the attention necessary to make them succeed. Such people come to expect failure. Knowing your level of input reveals how easily you feel overwhelmed or stressed.

3. Set a relaxation schedule that corresponds to #2

Unrelieved stress leads to more stress and negativity, and an even stronger fear of failure. Find a fun activity that relaxes you and puts you in a positive frame of mind. Exercise this activity regularly to ease the tension. If you can only work for 30 minutes before feeling stressed, take a break every half hour. Pushing forward while under stress will lead to poor outcomes that reinforce your lack of success and give reason to your fear of failure.

4. Take small steps

Break projects into small, easily achievable steps, rather than tackling the entire project at once. Stop work when you begin to feel stressed and overwhelmed. Come back to it after your relaxation exercises. You will become re-energized, refocused and more positive.

5. Work on activities you know you are good at

People tend to feel more confident and self-assured while doing activities they know they are already good at. Venture into new areas of those activities to build even more confidence. Later, when your confidence is boosted, you can transfer that effort into the tasks that trigger your fear of failure.

6. Find ways to boost your self-esteem

Low self esteem is often at the root of fear of failure. As self esteem is improved, the fear of failure weakens. Rather than expecting approval and acceptance from others, learn to like yourself and your abilities. In essence, you end up approving of yourself and what you can do. The opinion of others loses its importance.

Focus on these six keys and in time, you will begin to see your confidence grow and your fear of failure disappear.

Napoleon Hill, one of the first great self help gurus, thought that persistence was so important that he devoted a chapter to it in his landmark book “Think And Grow Rich.” Chapter IX refers to persistence as “The sustained effort necessary to induce faith.” He called persistence the eighth step toward riches. However, another sentence on page one of this chapter really defines how important persistence is. That sentence is: “There may be no heroic connotation to the word “persistence,” but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel.” Persistence strengthens the character of a person so much that he can do whatever it takes to reach his goal or complete the task he has undertaken.

Throughout history, there have been many examples of this. Dr. Jonas Salk, who found the vaccine for polio, persisted with his research even though he failed 200 times before he found a vaccine that worked. Thomas Edison kept working at creating a light bulb even though he failed more than 10,000 times. His persistence paid off and we use his invention every night to light our homes after the sun goes down.

If you read autobiographies, you will learn that most famous and wealthy individuals failed numerous times before they were successful. Each time their persistence allowed them to gain what they were striving for. The power of persistence is that all individuals who persist long enough will eventually reach their goal. No other characteristic has that power. A persistent trickle of water running slowly over the same place on a rock for a long period of time will wear away the rock. Even though water is not as hard as stone, through persistence, water will always win. That is the power of persistence. Persistence at something will always win.

So, how can you make persistence a habit that you always use? These four little steps will create this valuable habit:

1. Have a specific goal and support it with a burning desire for fulfillment.

2. Have a definite plan you follow and take continual action on that plan.

3. Do not listen to any negative or discouraging suggestions. Also, do not let any negative occurrences dissuade you from continuing your action.

4. Find a mentor who will encourage you in your endeavors and who will push you when you slow down.

It doesn’t matter what it is you are trying to do, if you follow these four steps you will be successful in everything you do. These steps are what you can use to improve your wealth and obtain power, fame, recognition and freedom of thought. These steps will change your dreams into reality.