What is the Flow State

Are you in the flow state?

Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person's capacity to act. Mihly Cskszentmihlyi

To live a life that provides a sense of purpose and achievement it is essential to know how to create it. You can create the life you desire by harnessing the power of your mind and taking action.

Research by positive psychologist, Mihly Cskszentmihlyi, has shown that achieving and using a state known as the 'flow' or 'zone' increases achievement, creativity and happiness.

The flow state is similar to hyper focus but it has none of the negative impact or emotions. While in the flow state you are totally absorbed by a task that is meaningful and challenging.

You have an end goal and know what actions you need to take to achieve it. You are so focused and immersed that there is no room for self-analysis or doubts. Time seems to fly past without you noticing as you are totally absorbed by what you are doing.

Being in the flow means that you are taking action constantly instead of stopping and thinking. By taking action and not stopping to think you prevent any negative emotions such as worry or self-doubt from blocking your progress.

When you are in the 'zone' you are totally immersed in the activity in hand, losing all sense of time and self-consciousness.

Engagement and enjoyment are crucial. You've heard the saying, 'Time flies when you're having fun!' This is what it is like when you're in the zone. You are focused and your productivity levels increase.

Your total immersion in what you are doing means that you are not clock watching. You're so engrossed in taking action that you don't have time for anything else.

You will feel energized, challenged, totally aligned with the task and positive. The flow state is a positive state of mind and being. The activity is one that is well matched to your skills but contains a level of challenge that will help you grow.

This matching of challenge and skills will ensure that you feel positive about the task and while completing it you are not suffering from any doubts or fears.
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Without goals or dreams life will seem boring and without purpose. Being in a state of flow is engaging and allows you to achieve peak performance. You are so immersed in what you are doing that you don't register anything else.

Creativity and problem solving are enhanced while in the zone. Identifying your goals will help you create a plan to achieve the life you desire. Taking action using the flow state can help you to make them a reality.

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Assess Your Lead Generation Strategies

Having a Lead Generation Plan that Works, Makes Growing Your Business Exciting (and Predictable)

Generating new leads is a focus of most business owners.  But do you ever stop to evaluate where your leads are coming from and how your lead generation methods are working? It is important to have systems in place to track new leads and evaluate each lead strategy. You have to KNOW your numbers in order to have a system that is really working for you.

Many business owners miss this key metric. Marketing numbers or conversion points can dramatically impact your revenue and even small changes to those conversion metrics can make a BIG difference.

So what numbers do you need to be looking at?? There are a couple of ways that you can do this.

1.  Website –

If you have a website then it should be one of your lead generation strategies.  Your website has to be set up to work for you!!

You want to have your subscription form on your site for your free gift.  If you don’t, you will not be able to keep in touch with folks that visit your site.  Take a look at your website statistics to see what kind of traffic your site receives and where the traffic is coming from. A free gift is a free report or tip sheet or video or.... that provides YOUR prospect with valuable information. You are working to

If your web host does not provide statistics you should set up a Google Analytics account and add the code to your web pages in order to track your traffic.  You want to know who is visiting, how long they are staying on your site, what pages they are visiting and where they came from to get there.  Did they do a search?  If so, what keyword were they searching that landed them with you?  Once they are there are they interacting with you and your site: subscribing to your newsletter, taking surveys, leaving feedback on your guestbook or forums? All of this detail is great information for you.

2.  Lead Generation

Do you receive leads from referrals, lead boxes, listings in directories, yellow pages?  When a new person contacts you it is a good idea to ask where they got their information from. Recently several business owners have asked whether the Yellow Pages is a good place for them to spend their money. As a business coach I really don’t know the answer to that because it is different for each business.  It depends if YOUR business is receiving calls as a result of the ad.  That is why asking about where the lead came from is so very important. With the Internet, the effectiveness of Yellow Pages is definitely diminished. But if you have a marketing strategy that is working, you need to KNOW which one it is!!

It's essential that you know where your leads are coming in and what isn't working. It's not cost effective or wise to use mediums that aren't working. They should be changed so that there are more leads generated, in the case of a website, or done away with altogether, in the case of a newspaper advertisement.

The medium that you dispose of right now can always be revisited in the future.

A down economy is a great time to evaluate everything that you are doing, but it is not a time to eliminate advertising and marketing.  You have to continue to market or you won’t have new leads and referrals.  Do your marketing wisely, track it all and evaluate relevant pieces each month.

So take the time to do a marketing evaluation and understand your marketing metrics. Need help? Schedule a Business Breakthrough Strategy Session.

Lead generation is a foundation of building your business. Without an effective lead generation system it is hard to predictably build. When you have a lead generation system that is working for you, then your business is growing consistently and that decreases stress, enables better sleep and so much more!!

It can be frustrating to get the system right and understand all of the numbers.

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Entrepreneurial Myths that Will Hurt Your Business

Is Your Business Impacted by E-Myths?

We are going to embark upon a journey through the world of e-myths and debunk them to help you avoid falling into the e-myth trap.

First, let’s take a minute to talk about what an e-myth is. An entrepreneurial myth, or e-myth, is an assumption that anyone can succeed at business with:

·       Desire

·       Some capital

·       Projected a targeted profit

This sounds great, but it just not realistic. Think of starting a business as a marathon. Sure, everyone starts out of the gate at record pace, but after a few miles people start slowing and some drop out entirely. Building a successful business takes stamina and agility.

The reality is that there are many different facets to a successful business and none of them can be ignored if you plan to find success.

Let’s take a minute to talk about entrepreneurial seizure. This defines the roller coaster of emotions that comes with starting, nurturing and the potential failure of a business.

The emotions that occur, in order, are:

·       Exhilaration

·       Exhaustion

·       Despair

·       Sense of self-loss

This is usually cause by the e-myths and assumptions we talked about. You can get your hopes so high on instant success that even the smallest lag and you are sent into an emotional tailspin. This is also brought on by the stark realization that you can’t do it all and will need help in the areas where you don’t have the knowledge. Now, faced with limited choices you may feel like you need to back out and hide, but don’t do this.

Pick up a copy of the Visionary Womenpreneur's Field Guide to learn how to create your strategy effectively.

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How To Stay Committed To Reaching Your Goals

Make the Commitment to your goals!!

Let's admit it, we all have that one goal we've been trying to set yet failed to achieve. Think about countless New Years resolution attempts, broken piggy banks, a planned vacation that remains a plan.

So how exactly do we go about having a goal and then actually achieve it?

The key to success is an overly used word, yet only followed by a few commitment. Yes, the word does not only apply to relationships. It also applies to everything else in life that one wishes to achieve. It could be with regard to your first million dollars, your weight-loss program, your love life, or simply beating your early-morning alarm.

Commitment is the key.

The only problem is that not everyone stays committed. The word itself is associated with fear, distraction, procrastination, and whatnots. You are in luck though, because below are a set of tricks you can carry up your sleeve should you plan to tackle your goals head-on.

Set a Clear and Definite Goal

Another clich, but this actually is a herculean task for most of us. You must set a realistic goal first, one that you think is worth your efforts if you intend to achieve a result.

Its not enough that you know what you want to achieve. You also should have a detailed plan before you make that first step. As soon as the path has been carved, it will only be a matter of time (and willpower) before you reach the destination.

Focus

We all fall victim to pitfalls and unexpected turns. In fact, a lot of people would stop after the first fall or wrong turn. When challenges come up and emotions cloud your judgment, you need to focus on what your real purpose is and go on with your journey.

Keep Moving

This is the reason why goals are planned ahead in detail, so you will not have to analyze (or overanalyze) when you are already midway through your journey. Sacrifices are expected and you will fall a few times. Just get up and keep moving until you reach your destination. Stopping in your tracks, giving up, and turning back are no longer options at this point.

Enjoy

Take it from Mary Poppins (she is one of my absolute favorites!!), Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Don't think of your goal as a task, but a game.

After all, its in the journey that we learn the most lessons - not the destination.

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5 Warning Signs That Your Project is Going to Be Derailed

Make Sure Your Project Does Not Get Derailed

When we get derailed or experience a major setback or failure, it always takes us by surprise. Sure, the going was a little rough but we just didn't see it coming. At least, that's what we think.

Getting derailed is serious. It could mean having to start all over again or worse, ditch a project altogether. It’s one of the main causes of not finishing what we start and if this happens often enough, our whole life course can be impacted.

But you can avoid derailment by being alert to the warning signs. That's right, a derailment shouldn’t come as a surprise because there are always red flags that indicate you're heading for big trouble.

Here are 5 key warning signs to be on the lookout for:

You're procrastinating too much

If you're constantly procrastinating rather than acting, it's a sure sign that something's wrong. Your loss of motivation causes you to procrastinate and this could be due to many reasons.

It's your job to quickly find out what they are.

Usually, a quick review of your goals and timeframes to ensure that they're realistic can resolve the issue. Make any modifications you need to, roll up your sleeves and get to work!

Take a look back at your vision. What are you building, why are you building it?? Vision can often get us back on track. If you don't have a vision, (the Vision Board Project is a great resource!!) it may be time to do some visioning. Write it down, make an image for it, revisit it every day. Vision can help re-inspire you and motivate you out of procrastination!

Work has to be redone

When work results are poor and have to be redone (whether you're responsible or others are to blame), this is a big red flag. It means you could be headed for that one big, irrevocable error that could completely derail you.

Usually, the reason is poor communication of task requirements or poor skills. Pinpoint what the problem is and take quick measures to fix it, and closely monitor work outcomes.

You're falling back on deadlines

Whether you're working to your own deadlines or have an assigned one, it doesn’t matter. Consistently falling behind is the biggest motivation-zapper of all. It could simply be due to unrealistic deadlines or goals, and these should be modified. Of course, if the goals are NOT unrealistic then modifying them is not the answer -- accountability and follow through may be needed.

It's important to assess what could be going on. Pinpointing the problem will allow you to quickly get back on track with your deadlines.

You lack motivation

The loss of motivation means mediocre or poor work outcomes, or even finding an excuse to quit altogether. Reflect on why you find the work at hand boring or frustrating.

Sometimes, injecting some enjoyment into a task or project can reignite your motivation. You can do this by mixing up your routine, changing your surroundings and finding new and creative ways to do things. Setting up a reward for work done each day and a bigger reward for the complete project. We do this in Accountability Coaching with daily rewards and bigger rewards.

You're making excuses to quit

When things get difficult, it's easy to find a dozen excuses for quitting – and having to admit defeat and failure is the worst kind of derailment because it destroys your self-confidence and self-discipline.

Learning to see obstacles as exciting challenges that you're totally capable of overcoming will kill your thoughts about quitting and keep you fired up. Shifting your mindset to seeing these as challenges puts you in a better place to finish what you start and overcome the challenges.

Stay Alert

Don't let derailment take you by surprise again and empower yourself to finish what you start with success and outstanding results. Stay alert to these 5 signs that you're getting derailed.

Recognizing the signs of derailment early on and addressing them can effectively keep you moving forward with your project.

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Are You Dreading Year End Performance Appraisals?

Do you  sit in your office dreading the conversation with employees around performance an their annual performance appraisal?



Do you wish the performance appraisal would just be over with?

Have you ever procrastinated the employee performance appraisal so long it was almost the next year?

These are just a few of the comments we hear from managers and business leaders about the annual employee performance appraisal.  Many feel the same about their own, personal performance appraisal and dread it equally.  What makes them so difficult?

It's the direct conversation with another person that makes it hard, AND the fact that the conversation has NOT been ongoing.  When the performance appraisal is used as an effective tool for enhancing employee performance improvement the conversation is happening throughout the year and the employee and the supervisor are both engaged and committed to the plan.

Shifting to a performance improvement system that is positive, focused on producing results and success shifts the entire year end experience.  In addition, the workplace culture shifts to one of results oriented and skill mastery.  Employees are engaged in the top goals for success and they know that they have the support of their managers and team.

What does it take to make this shift?

First, it takes a new paradigm -- one that is focused and positive.

The manager has to make the first shift.

The next step is to use a planning process that engages the employee.  We use the Best Year Yet® system of transformation.  It is a powerful system of moving employees into a results focused paradigm and taking a moment to look at their limiting beliefs as well.  By doing this the manager can help them to overcome limitations and be successful.  The plan sets the top goals for the employee for the year, in collaboration with the manager or leader.  The plan is simple and focused.

The plan is then reviewed with the employee each month.  It is not the manager leading the conversation but rather the employee.  The employee comes to the meeting prepared to discuss their goals and how they did on each goal for the previous month.  Using an online system for tracking goals, employees actually login into their plan and SCORE their goals.  This is a powerful shift in how appraisals are done.  It is empowering to employees and more fully engages them in the plan and its outcomes.  It is not a plan that has been handed to them and is negatively focused, it is a plan that they have developed to create their "best year yet", and as a result the company results are improved.

When managers are engaged with employees then they are more clued into what is interfering with success. They are having regular conversations with staff and know what is happening through out their area of responsibility.  In addition, they know just how their team is performing.

When it comes time to review the plan again at year end the experience is no longer dreaded but is anticipated with enthusiasm.  Relationships between managers and employees are shifted to collaborative rather than controlling and confrontational.

Workplaces that develop a system of performance improvement see greater team work, greater company results and more collaborative behavior on their team.

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