Are You Setting Yourself Up For Success or Failure?

You may have heard of someone who was set up to fail. Have you ever thought about setting yourself up for success? Lets go back to the first guy. In my opinion if they were set up to fail it is most likely they were not taking personal responsibility for their life. Most of the time we are not set up to fail. We set ourselves up to fail in one way or another. Just like you can set yourself up to fail you can set yourself up to succeed.

How can you set yourself up for success?
Here's a very simple but powerful concept from marketing guru Eben Pagan. My day is twice as productive after applying this principle in both my business and personal life.

Cleaning the Grill
Think of a restaurant. At the end of the day the grill is cleaned so it's ready for the next day, otherwise, it would become very dirty and mucky and impossible to get clean. If you clean it everyday it keeps the grill in great shape.

How would you apply this concept to your business? At the end of the day or at the end of working on a project you close out all the programs you had open, save files and clear your desk of paperwork. When you come back the next day you're ready to sit down and focus on the next project. You won't be spending the most critical hours of your work day shuffling papers, getting distracted and finding yourself multi-tasking. Which by the way is the biggest time waster we have. More on that in another article.

Another example of "cleaning the grill" is to get enough sleep each night. Ideally, 7 to 8 hours to give your body and mind a chance to recover and restore so you're sharp and ready to go the next day.

Where can you "clean the grill" in your business and personal life? You may want to focus on just one area in each group. For me after I finished a session of high focused activity on a project I would close out the programs, shut the files and clear my desk. When I came back to start another project I was ready to focus on the next activity.

In my personal life it was starting a morning ritual that set me up for success each day by getting my daily exercise, healthy breakfast and meditation and prayer completed the first thing each morning. When I start my day out like this the whole day goes smoother. As Stephen Covey would say it, "I've sharpened my saw" and I'm more focused, productive and prepared for the days tasks.

Take a few minutes to think about where you need to "clean the grill" in your life so you can be more productive and achieve the success you want.

Happy Cleaning :)
Ruth
www.HomeBizLeadsOnABudget.com