Success In Life!

If you want to learn from the best and at your own time and own pace, here is what Brian Tracy has to recommend.  Click here to view the video.

To Your Financial Freedom,
Peck Ling

Recently, I had an opportunity to join some friends  for a team building game.

During the briefing at the start of the game, the facilitator spent some time describing the game.   I thought it was a pretty straightforward game and did not pay much attention to it.   I noticed that the game facilitator did stress on certain things but I just let them pass. 

It was a hostage rescue game and the objective was to bring the hostage safely back to the facilitator.

The area was criss-crossed with  €œelectric wires € and certain areas required bridges to be built to cross them.

Team members have to assist a “blind” member to search for the hostage.   The position of the hostage could be changed during the game and the rest of the members are to guide the “blind” to reach the hostage and to guard the “bridges” so that they were not  stolen.

Our group discussed and came up with a very good strategy which would work very well up to the point when the “blind” had to venture on his own to save the hostage.

As you can predict, time was lost while trying to shout the instructions against the loud blast of the background music.   The result is we lost  the first round and had to compete in the second round.   This gave us another chance and  we managed to shorten the time considerably during the second round.   We were elated!

However, during the debrief, the facilitator revealed many ways we could have used to achieve our goal quickly.   He emphasized that the objective of the game is to save and bring the hostage to him.   This is a really big hint and we conveniently forgot this.

Well, I will not spoil the game for you by revealing everything.   What I have learnt is that we should know our objective clearly and hence know what to focus on and work on it.   Don’t just follow the instructions.   Be creative and think out of the box. 

In real life,  very often, we just stick to the rules and most often than not, do things that others do  so as  to be on the safe side.   We also make ourselves busy by doing a lot of non-impactful stuff that takes up a lot of our time and resources. In addition, we tend to work and think within the box and not out of the box.   What could be done is to get ourselves out of the picture and look at the problem from a third party’s viewpoint and to leverage on technology.

Brian Tracy said that our mind is our most precious asset. We must be continually working to increase the quality of our thinking. These two years have been a great learning time for me.   I attend courses, seminars and listen to audios and watch videos.

Travelling time is the best learning time

Whenever possible, I will listen to audio recordings or read books while travelling in the train or bus. 

Attend Seminars

I attended seminars, workshops and previews for personal and professional development to learn ideas, techniques and methods that can save me hours, days, even months of hard work and research on my own.

Learn More, Earn More

I do not believe that money drops from the sky. Even if you strike lottery, you must first place a bet.   Some hardwork and sacrifice are needed to prepare oneself for success.   Remember continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.   And you should choose your gurus wisely.

What’s  Next

Without further ado, purchase an audio program that can help you.   Check out my recommendation here.

Begin listening to it immediately.   When you are driving, instead of  listening to music in your car, resolve to turn  driving time into learning time.

Next, seek out seminars and training programs given by experts in your field.   Click here for an alternative if you have not much time or resources.   Take careful notes, and apply the best ideas that you learn immediately.

To Your Success,

Peck Ling

Check out the movie below to find out more about a Earn While You Learn Program.

As a project manager in the government sector, I used to juggle numerous IT projects at any one time.   Multitasking was the norm of the day. You could imagine how much time was spent on overheads when switching from one project to another, be it big or small.

Most of the time, all tasks appeared to be urgent and important.   I realized that time was spent on many tasks that were small, time-consuming, insignificant but must-do mundane activities.   Sometimes, disruption came in the form of requests from the boss or the need to attend numerous unproductive meetings.

I knew I should be paying attention to major tasks but, instead I wanted to finish all my work. I concentrated on clearing small tasks first in the hope of putting them away as fast as possible so that I could have more time for the larger tasks.   However, this did not happen the way I had wanted it and the end results were disastrous - major projects were not given enough time, thought and focus.

What I should have done is to follow Brian Tracy €™s time management strategy to carve out large chunks of time to spend on major tasks. 

The following are the steps that could help you to achieve better time management whether you are working for someone or having your small business, or working from home doing internet marketing.

Step 1
Be committed to set aside time for large tasks.

This is really important as important task requires large portions of high value, highly productive continuous time to complete.   Our ability to do so will contribute positively and significantly to our performance at work and to our life.

I find this absolutely true.   I have been doing internet marketing and a few other things concurrently.   Whenever I allocated more continuous quality time to a particular area, the results were good.   I also noticed that if I spent small snippets of time on various tasks, I got nowhere.

Step 2
Take action on Step 1 immediately.

Successful people set aside a specific time period each day to concentrate on major tasks. They resolve to do what is important rather than procrastinate or delay a task.   This requires discipline to follow through their resolutions.   For people who are doing home based business or own network business, it is always a challenge to overcome procrastination or delaying on a task that they do not particularly like.
 
Step 3
Plan your day in advance and create preplanned periods.

The saying goes,  €œIf we fail to plan, we plan to fail. € Hence, I believe the key to success is to plan our day in advance, preferably the night before.

Schedule a fixed and specific time period for a particular activity or task. Set aside thirty, sixty and ninety minute time segments to work on and complete important tasks.

Create schedule for specific activities in preplanned time slots all day long.
Then, work our lives around accomplishing key tasks one at a time. As a result, we can become more and more productive and eventually produce two times, three times and five times as much as the average person.

My Resolutions

I am currently doing a home based mlm business and time is really flexible.  I mind my own business as advised by Robert Kiyosaki. The problem is how to manage my time effectively and efficiently as I always feel that I do not have enough time to complete all my tasks.

Well, I shall resolve to do the following for the next few weeks:

1) Plan my day in advance and organize each day to create large chunks of time that I can use for key task completion.

2) Be committed to work on a key task at a specific time.

To better time management,
Peck Ling

I am always facing this problem of having no time, previously at work and now, even though I have left my job one and a half years ago.

After reading Brian Tracy’s article on Dealing With Overwhelm, it struck me that I did not set my priorities right. I realized too that I am doing too many things at one time and hence, losing my focus.

In addition, I tend to complete small and unimportant tasks first as it is easier to accomplish and hence gives me a false sense of achievement and satisfaction.

I think this is a natural tendency for people to leave the most difficult tasks to the end. This also corresponds to the way we sit for our examinations in schools. Because of time constraints, we were often told to skip tough questions and go for the easier ones. Somehow, unknowingly, this habit stuck to us for life!

Learning how to manage our time is a very essential skill as most of us are doing more than one person’s job.

Become An Expert In Time Management

To resolve the problem of work overload, Brian Tracy said that we have to become an expert on time management. There is probably no other skill that we can learn that will give us a “bigger bang for the buck” than to become extremely knowledgeable and experienced in using time management practices.

The Keys to Time Management

The two indispensable keys to time management are: 1) the ability to set priorities; and 2) the ability to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing at a time.

I must say we do consciously and unconsciously set priorities. Just that it is not so obvious that we are going through such a process. However, we could be adjusting our priorities according to what we like to do at that instance in time without thinking of whether it is the most valuable use of our time then.In order to be successful, I feel that it is absolutely necessary that we continually set our priorities right as there is never enough time to do everything. We should know what actions would bring us value and then do them first.

The Best Question of All

This question, “what is the most valuable use of my time right now?” will do more to keep us on track every time, than any other single question in the list of time management strategies. We should always memorize and repeat it, over and over again.

Start With Our Top Tasks

The natural tendency for all of us is to give in to the temptation of doing what we fancy and very often, we start to clear up small things first. Well, small things are easier to accomplish, and they are often more fun than the big, important things that represent the most valuable use of our time.

However, remember that self-discipline of organizing our work and focusing on our highest value tasks will help us get our time under control and lowering our stress levels.

What’s Next?

There are two things that could get our time and stress level under control. They are:

1) Become an expert on time management. Read the books, listen to the audio programs, and you may want to take a time management course. Then, practise and practise again every day until we master time management skills.

2) Before the start of the day, set clear priorities. Then, discipline ourself to start on our most important task and stay at that until it is complete. This will relieve much of our stress immediately.

I know it is definitely difficult to overcome this die-hard habit of doing small easy tasks first. I truly agree that discipline is really needed to start our day right by reviewing our goals and start doing important tasks first until they are completed. We must make it a habit.

To Your Success,

Peck Ling

How Network Marketers Get Rich Without Working or Contacting People.

You often hear people say that they are so busy that they have no time for exercise, self improvement, leisure or family or to look for new opportunities.

Sometimes, you just wonder why? Is it just an excuse to be lazy? Of course, there are genuine cases where one has to shoulder 3 or more persons’s work in order to stay in the job. But you then wonder how their bosses manage their time given the heavier responsilbilty and greater scope of work. Some may say that the boss delegates. Well, it may not be the boss whom we are talking about. It could be a fellow colleague!

Time management is an important skill. As the saying goes: Time and tide waits for no man!

In order to do well in life, we should manage our time to do the task or activity that are important to us. How do we determine whether something is important or not? The answer lies in the potential consequences of any task or activity.

According to Brian Tracy, this way of evaluating the significance of a task is how you determine what your next frog really is.

Our attitude towards time, our “time horizon,” has an enormous impact on our behavior and our choices. People who take the long view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future. It was found that people with long time perspective tend to be more successful in life and at work.

Think About Our Future
Successful people have a clear vision of their future. They think five, ten and twenty years ahead. To achieve their long-term goals, their actions, choices and behaviours will be consistent with what they desire in the future.
We should also have a clear idea of what is really important in our work in the long-term
so that it is easier for us to make better decision about the priorities in the short-term. This also applies to every aspect of our lives.

Determine the Consequences
We should always ask yourself before we begin, “What are the potential consequences of doing or not doing this task?”
As long as our intentions are clear, we will have greater influence on what we do in the moment. We will be capable of evaluating whether what we are doing now is consistent with what we truly want to end up with and we can be assured that we are going the right direction.

Make It A Top Priority
Always get started immediately on task or activity that has large potential positive consequences. Make it a top priority!
The same can be said of something that has large potential negative consequences. We need to give it top priority as well.

Keep Motivated
In order to be motivated, we need motive. When we are motivated, we will overcome procrastination and get the task or activity done quickly. This is because of the positive potential consquence the task or activity has on us.

Thinking continually about the potential consequences of your choices, decisions and behaviors is one of the very best ways to determine you true priorities in your work and personal life.

What’s Next
Always review our list of tasks, activities and projects and continually ask ourself, “Which one project or activity, if I did it in an excellent and timely fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my life?”

Go to work on whatever it is that can help us the most. Set it as a goal, make a plan to achieve it and go to work on your plan immediately.

Quote from the wonderful words of Goethe, “Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!”

Start from now, set our priorities right, remove procrastination and embark on a successful life.

Warmly
Peck Ling

“You can laugh at money worries - if you follow this plan.”