Tag Archives: do one thing

Speak up or Stand Up: Your Voice Matters

Last night I went to a late dinner with a group of college students as part of my volunteer work weekend. As we were sitting down at the sports restaurant, one of the female students leaned over and whispered, “Well that’s uncomfortable.”

I asked her to tell me more about her statement and it turns out that a guy (not part of our group) said some rude and inappropriate comments to his buddy about the student.

At that moment, I had a decision to make. I asked our group to stand up, got our severs attention and told her we needed to switch tables and move into another area of the restaurant – far away from our current table.

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Focus On What You Want Most

Lately, I’ve been focusing on what I want most.  It seems a little selfish at first blush, but it’s not.  This thought method helps align my focus with my values and makes me realize when I have a decision to make – I can think about what I want or what I want most.  I can’t always have both options, so I have to make decisions based on what is most important to me. It’s added incredible clarity and made me step out of my comfort zone even more.

I encourage you to stop and think about what you want most and let that guide you as you move forward.  Here is the organized strategy that has worked for me:

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How to make progress when you have zero time

I’ve been waking up at 4am regularly again.  This means that I don’t have enough time during the day and my mind wakes me up thinking of everything I need to get done. Our schedule is too packed, I’m too busy and I’ve noticed things are starting to pile up because I don’t have time to make the progress that I normally do.  I’m too busy, have zero time and it’s stressing me out.

I bet you’ve felt like this too – your schedule is full, your place is a mess and your stress level is rising.  I encourage you to take time to make necessary adjustments to continue making progress, even if you have zero time.  If you do this now, you’ll have a better chance of improving your schedule, your stress level and your sanity.

Remove things from your life.

When you look at your schedule, what do you see? I’ve got a packed work schedule and a packed free-time schedule. And it isn’t working for me.  I don’t have time to think if I’m running from one meeting to the next. It made me realize that I needed to start removing some things from my schedule, from my thoughts and from my life.  After taking a long look at what I’ve been doing, I started to make changes.  I’ve removed important, valuable things from my schedule.  Some of them weren’t easy to remove.  All of them were necessary to remove.  I could tell it made a difference as my stress level decreased with each removal.

I encourage you to look at your schedule right now.  How can you get others to help you? What can you remove? What adjustments can you make? The more you choose to focus on the most important things, the more you’ll start to realize how your schedule shouldn’t be filled up with the other things.

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You are not alone, be brave enough to find out why

I’ve had a few distinct situations in my life recently that vividly showed me that we aren’t alone.  I wish I’d been more vocal in expressing my frustration and my feelings because I would have saved myself quite a bit of trouble.

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Don’t wait for perfect: Why progress matters no matter what

Recently, I was traveling with a friend and she shared a bit of wisdom that has stayed with me.  It’s what I’ve been thinking about in my free time and helped me gain perspective on something I’ve been struggling with for a while. She was telling me about how she’s been burned out with an area of her life – a necessary area of her life – and she realized she had to make a plan to work on things a little each day.  She told me, “I knew it wasn’t my best work, I knew my heart wasn’t in it.  But I kept going because I knew I needed to.  And I’m glad I did, because now I’m in a much better place and my work has improved.”

I couldn’t believe it – it was exactly what I been struggling with too! I love spending time writing, but lately my results and readership have exploded (I know, #firstworldproblems) and I felt like I needed to share that perfect post with the world – I mean it’s what 10,000 people per month are expecting.  And it was overwhelming, I mean what do you say to a crowd that big?

You can’t wait for things to be perfect.  You have to start somewhere.

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Do One Thing: Create Your Own Positive Reality

This month I’m challenging you to do one thing every day. It doesn’t seem like much if you look at it on a daily basis, but a continued focus on doing one thing will lead to amazing results.

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Take a deep breath and count until you calm down. This is usually the opposite of what I want to do in any frustrating situation.  I want to let the other person have it good & immediately.  But I’ve noticed that when I wait until I calm down – usually after a deep breath, a walk or sleeping on it – I’m much more mature and graceful with my response and the result is much more constructive and helpful. It’s not usually worth it to give someone a piece of your mind. Instead focus on the positive outcome opportunity and let that direct your actions.

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Do One Thing: Maintain Your Focus

This month I’m challenging you to do one thing every day. It doesn’t seem like much if you look at it on a daily basis, but a continued focus on doing one thing will lead to amazing results.

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Set your priorities first. It’s easier to know what you want when you’ve thought about it in advance.  Take time now to think about upcoming and start to plan out these decisions now.  It could be simple like what to eat for dinner or more complex like what to do with your life.  Each of your decisions is important and should be given time and consideration.  Take time to invest in yourself, your decisions and your priorities. 

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