Kicking bad habits into touch

Everybody has bad habits. Everybody – I do, you do, we all do!

Now granted, some people have less than others and some people's bad habits are more grating than those of others, but we all have them. What is great is that we don't have to! Imagine a life where you couldn't change? What kind of life would that be? But we can, so let's!

There are two kinds of bad habits: Those you know you have that others may or may not know about, and those you don't know you have but everybody else knows you have! For the sake of everybody involved we ought to get rid of them all, right?

So how can you get rid of some of your bad habits? The answers simple, but hard. Ask somebody to be brutally honest with you! You might think, "But I'll be embarrassed." Would you rather everyone talk behind your back? Get up the courage and ask. Ask somebody who loves you and has your best interest in mind. Be gracious and don't defend your self. Just accept it and work on it.

What about the ones we know about - which are all of them once your good friend tells you the ones you were missing? Those are the tough ones. How do I know they are tough? They must be tough if you know about them and yet you still have them! If they weren't tough, they would be OLD bad habits! Am I right?

So how do you break a bad habit? How do you kick it into touch out of your life? Here are a few things that must be a part of the plan in order to see that stuff gone forever!

1. You must want them to go. That's right, some people want them to stick around. We have all seen dads choose alcohol over their grandchildren. I’m sure you have seen smokers continue smoking while watching their parents die of emphysema. They don't want them to go. The first thing is to go deep into the recesses of your heart and ask, "Do I really want to give this up?"

2. You do? Good. Step two: Make up a list of all of the reasons you want to quit your bad habits. Make them positive. Make the list long! Start with the really powerful and dramatic if you need to. Now memorise them. Put them in your mind. You are making connections between stopping the bad behaviour with what good things you will get from doing so. If you want to lose weight, then picture yourself slim and looking good in those skinny people clothes! If you want to stop smoking, picture your wife actually kissing you rather than sending you to the bathroom to brush your teeth!

3. Choose. That is right. Once you have the information, this comes down to one thing: It is an act of the will. Choose to do it. Say to yourself throughout the day, "I am choosing to..." Eisenhower rightly said, "The history of free men is written not by chance but by choice, their choice." It is your choice. You can write your history.

4. Take action! Point four is tricky because there are two philosophies about this. One theory is that you must take massive action. You must go all or nothing. Using the weight loss example, this person would go spend hundreds of pounds to join a gym, rework their daily routine and hit the treadmill everyday for a year. They will get rid of all fat in the house. They go all out! That works for some. Others would burn out on that, feel like failures and be worse off than before. They should start out slow, taking baby steps, but working diligently toward a planned goal. This person would decide to start walking three days a week. They would decide to limit dessert to two nights a week, down from seven. See how this works? Either way is okay as long as you get to the goal eventually. Which one am I? The first two people to email me with the correct guess will win four free coaching sessions to help them succeed.

5. Tell somebody. This is your accountability partner. Tell them your goal and tell them your plan. Write it down for them and have them ask you on regular intervals about your progress. This will prove invaluable!

6. Recover from failure. Inevitably most people will have setbacks. The key is to have them be setbacks and not turnbacks! Pick yourself up and get going again. Some people may want to lose 3 stone in weight and after losing two they eat a slap up takeaway. Then they feel bad and give up. Don't! Reset your goal for another two weeks and get going again. Chalk it off to experience! Say to yourself, "Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn."

7. Reward yourself. That's right. You should regularly congratulate yourself by rewarding yourself with some gift to yourself. Start small with small victories and plan a big one when you are finally and for sure over the habit.

Is it that simple? Most of the time, no it is definitely not. Habits are hard to break. There are so many intangibles that it would be hard to cover them all. But this is a simple and workable plan that will help you make great strides if you apply the principles.

For more information about coaching from the Enfys Acumen, why not get in touch today.

Success - creating a life that matters

Are you a successful person? That is a huge question isn’t it? What does success mean? Do you judge success by how much money you have in the bank? How many people you people you employ? Is it determined by the kind of car you drive or the type of house you live in? Success can mean different things to different people can’t it?

I came across a great book recently called Success built to last: creating a life that matters. It is written by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery and Mark Thompson. They have focused their work talking to over 200 people the world over who have achieved great personal success and fulfilment that will last their lifetime and beyond. Some of the people are famous some are not – just ordinary people who share powerful patterns of lifelong success. I don’t want to give the whole story away and thoroughly recommend that you read book yourself, but would like to share this quotation with you:

“Healthy, sustainable societies require the creation of healthy, sustainable organisations, and great organisations and societies can only be built by human beings who can grow and create meaningful success.”

The book talks about three simple pieces that must fit together for lasting success:

• Meaning

• Thought

• Action

The authors stress that putting these pieces together is not an easy process, but that is what the Enfys Acumen is all about isn’t it?

If you need support to develop your understanding of what the meaning of success is to you, to develop the kind of thought patterns that encourage you to be succesful and to plan the actions you need to take, then why not get in touch today.

Start shovelling for greater business success

Last week's snowfall made me think. While shovelling snow from my front drive to get the car our without sliding into the gate post, I remembered an article I read recently about leverage and organisation and business development.

Leverage is about using the resources you have available to make sure you get the best returns for your business or organisation. I think the concept is equally relevant whether you are looking to secure a better income, improve your personal performance or have a greater impact as a voluntary or community organisation.

Let's get back to those shovels:


Shovel 1: Projects

Start making much smarter choices about which projects and tasks are really worth your time, and which should be ditched. I look at every project from the perspective of not only immediate short-term rewards, but also how it will continue making a difference for months or years to come. Make a list today.

Shovel 2: Time

Don't obsess about not having enough time. You all have all the time in the world to make the kind of money you need or develop the quality of life you desire for yourself or community. You just need to choose the right projects and have a bigger vision! Sometimes you need time away from day-to-day business to be more creative and fresh. What is your vision? Take some time out to clarify it.

Shovel 3:Customers, Clients and Service Users

It is easy to think that any customer, client or service user is better than none at all. If you think about it though, it becomes painfully clear that you can't be all things to all people, so that it's essential to screen customers and clients carefully and to take only highly committed and well paying clients. This might be challenging to some VCOs or public services, but think about the value of a major success for one service user might have on raising expectations for others with similar needs.

Shovel 4: Products and Services

You might thrive on the creative energy of creating new ways of doing things, I know I do, but how much time is spent just talking about things and not achieving anything - remember a camel is a horse designed by a committee! Why not put more effort into thinking why you want to do something and then develop ways for having fewer products and services on the back burner and get smarter, quicker.

Shovel 5: Alliances

I am a great believer in the idea that together we are better, that's why I am such a great fan of networking and having alliances with people like Vivienne, Steve and Elena. Just think what you might be able to achieve by being commited to achieving results with other people, businesses and services. With whom can you form alliances?

Shovel 6: Technology

Just 12 years ago I worked in an open plan office with 20-30 other people in a wide variety of roles and where there were just two PCs. One was dominated by the team coordinator and the other was in a corner collecting dust. I soon became frustrated with handwriting letters and documents, giving them to someone else to type (and as I was quite junior, was far down the pecking order for getting things done!), correcting the typos and then waiting hours and sometimes days to get the final copy back - so I vowed to conquer Word Perfect. Oh, how times have changed! Now I communicate daily with people around the globe, have information when I need it, do most of my marketing online, create presentations, record speeches, update my website and break down so many barriers with emails, now that's leverage! I know by the very fact that you are reading this that I am probably preaching to the converted, but am still flabbergasted that there are so many people in leadership and management positions that are not making the best use of the technology so readily available. Why not print this off give them the article with my best wishes.

Shovel 7: My Coach

Who is your coach? I made a conscious decision to have a coach to help me grow my business and achieve my goals in life. By regularly working with a coach, I am helped to find find more and more "bigger shovels" in my business. If you are committed to a successful life and career, you must get yourself a coach.

Bigger Shovel 8: Goals

What are your goals for your business or organisation, your career and your home life? Are these goals little more than making sure the next contract comes in, getting through to the next grant round, carrying on working until your pension matures or to have another holiday in the same place you have been to for the last 10 years. If so, don't you think there may be more to life than that and you are without a doubt able to achieve a great deal more. Set yourself some clear goals, work out how you can achieve them.

As you can see, there are many ways to experience growth using leverage. If you are working harder than ever, and settling for less money, fewer customers or clients and less enjoyment, this is your lifetime opportunity to change it.

The Enfys Acumen can help, why not get in touch today?