It appears as I look back through previous posts I throw in quite a few references to motivation and trying to stay positive. This ultimately stems from my endeavours to stay in a positive mindset and look towards all the positive things happening for us.
But I tell you, some days (and some weeks and some months) are harder than others are! Ultimately though, by staying more positively focused, people and companies can evolve into winners. Not to say this is true in all cases, as you cannot thrive and grow just on good intent or hopeful dreams, somewhere action is required as well. I believe it’s this action that helps separate the eventual winners and losers.
The problem with action though, is what action is required to make these strides forward? What makes winners stand out? It’s easy for many individuals to stay incredibly busy throughout their whole day, week and life, yet at the end of these terms, they have really accomplished nothing. As I reflect back, many former co-workers during my employee days actually turned this into an art. These individuals were always busy, yet never seemed to really accomplish anything.
So to be a winner you need action that moves you forward. It’s defining this forward moving action that causes the real issue. In the last couple of years I have dealt with several individuals who have once again turned the activity of staying busy into an art form, yet at the end of the day, no real forward momentum is ever gained, it’s just another day completed. What’s the point then?
Unfortunately, quite often as I look through my week, I too get caught in this trap of never ending tasks that need to be completed, yet never move me forward. A prime example for me is our collection of weekly rental properties. It seems I am continually coming and going from property to property signing in tenants, signing out tenants, showing rooms and cleaning up rooms.
While all these activities result in a steady flow of incoming cash and mange to keep me very busy, they typically don’t allow us to move forward. This week’s example was a potential tenant who wasted my time, but also incented me to write this post. The full story would bore you, the short story is he left a deposit and wasted my time because he found a cheaper place.
This ended up costing me about two hours of driving around, left me irritable and didn’t help move me forward, until the story evolved into this post. How many activities in your week create the same situation of just spinning your wheels or causing frustration, and what can you do to take these situations, turn them around and help them make a positive forward movement in your day, your business and your life?
The alternative is to stay focused on these roadblocks, waste time and energy and never win. Or if you do, it’s only short lived and at the expense of someone else. Winner or loser, the great thing is you really can be whatever you choose, so just make sure you make wise choices.
