You are here: Home / Archives for Control your life

Are you complacent?

April 13, 2011 By 4 Comments

Are you complacent?  Have you ever been complacent?  I have, and sometimes I still am.  I try to avoid it, though.

What is complacency?  Well, it is when you become satisfied with something.  You get satisfied, you are no longer critical, you just accept it as it is and really do nothing to improve on it any longer.  It’s not a good habit.

Generally, I find that when you get complacent with something, that things starts to slide.  Why?  Because you are no longer giving it your attention and improving on it.  Even though it may well have been great at the time you became complacent, it will inevitably begin to go downhill when you no longer strive to improve it.  There is not much choice in the matter, that’s just how it is.

Complacency will lead in only one direction

Complacency will lead in only one direction

Ever heard the saying that if something is not improving, it’s getting worse?  I have heard people say that kind of thing before, and it’s really true in many instances.  If you are not complacent, you are paying attention to what is going on.  You are striving for improvements.  You are working, or at least thinking about the project at hand, and that work helps improve the project.  Once you accept the project and become complacent, you stop working for improvement.  As time goes by, you not only stop trying to improve in it, but generally you will also tend to ignore it, and the lack of attention can accomplish only one thing really… the project slides in importance, and also slides in it’s quality.

I have been Complacent

I have been Complacent

I have had this problem with some projects in the past.  One in particular that comes to mind was a business that I still own.  The business was really a big money earner.  It had lots of customers, and it was an innovator compared to it’s competitors.  But, because it was flying so high, I got complacent and gave the business less of my personal attention.  No problem for a few years, the company kept doing well just through it’s own inertia.  But, after a few years, things started to slide.  At first, you don’t get concerned, you just figure that it’s an anomaly.  Things will get better next month.  Seven or eight months down the line, though, when things continue to slide, you know something is wrong.  A bit longer and you realize that you’ve been complacent, and it cost you dearly.

Projects, businesses or whatever it is that you have become complacent about can be recovered, if you don’t let them slip too far.  If you let them go for too long, though, and the slide proceeds too far, it will be difficult to recover, and take a long time and a lot of effort.

Perhaps my best advice to avoid complacency might sound a bit strange.  What I would say is that you should step back from the project more often.  But, for a short period of time.  Don’t just let the project go, but strategically step back to refresh your mind.  After being away from the project for a few weeks, when you return again you’ll have a fresh perspective, a new way to look at things.  You’ll see things differently than you did before, when you were deep in the project.  Stepping back for a refresher will allow you to refresh, see things differently, and innovate in ways that you couldn’t before, because you were too close to the project.

So, don’t get complacent.  But, do step back for a refresher.  That will help you sustain your interest, and do it through a new view.

Filed Under: Being Smart, Feature, Good Habits Tagged With: ,

Procrastination is a killer!

April 5, 2011 By 16 Comments

Are you a procrastinator?  Do you put off a lot of things until later, until tomorrow, or some other unspecified time or date?  If so, you are guilty of procrastinating.

We all procrastinate to some extent.  I suspect that we all procrastinate badly from time to time, and don’t do so at other times.

Although, I don’t procrastinate often, I do from time to time.  Sometimes I can’t figure out why I am procrastinating on certain projects.  It’s not like I am dreading them or anything, but on certain projects, I find myself really putting them off over and over again.

Procrastination

Procrastination

When I get into a situation like this, I will let it slide for a while to see if my mood improves and I am able to go forward with the project willingly.  However, if the procrastination continues for more than a few days, I have to force myself to get started on the project.  One thing that is interesting is that if I force myself to get started, once I have started, I am over the hump and usually I have a real desire to move forward and finish the project.  So, the procrastination was only a non-visible barrier and once I pushed through the barrier it completely dissolved.

I'll do it tomorrow

I'll do it tomorrow

Some people are perpetual procrastinators.  I am glad that I am not like that.  One area where I see a lot of procrastination among people is in the area of business and such things.  Often, when I talk to people, they lament how they had ideas for a business, or for a product, but they never did it.  They always say “if only” I had done x or y, I’d be rich.  Things like that.  But, over the years, they kept pushing the idea for a few more months, or until “next year.”  Let me tell you, friends, if you have what you think is a great idea, and you don’t pursue it, you will have regrets for the rest of your life, and you will end up being one of those people who is always wondering what would have come of it if you had only tried.

Remember, you will never be great if you do nothing.

Filed Under: Bad Habits, Being Smart, Feature Tagged With: ,

Focus on what you are good at

July 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

In all parts of our lives we need to focus on something.  If we don’t focus ourselves, our lives will be aimless, going on from one thing to another without any real effort to be the best we can be at any one thing.

Being the best that you can be is important for many reasons.  For one thing, it will make you feel really good, and thus even make it possible to improve on your best.  But, probably the most important thing when it comes to focusing is that it gives us purpose.  When we have something on which to focus our efforts, it gives us a purpose, it gives us more drive, and we tend to try harder when we know on what we are focusing.

 

Always chase your passion

Always chase your passion

For me, when it comes to my business, I have been working on focus lately.  I am an entrepreneur.  I like to start new businesses and get them up and running.  It is something that gives me joy when I see a new enterprise of mine start to take off and flourish.  Being an entrepreneur is good and enjoyable to me, but it is not always the best thing when it comes to putting money in your pocket.  Almost any entrepreneur would tell you that you have to come up with and try a lot of ideas before you get one that really pays off.  Oh, many will experience some success, but to really put serious bucks on the table, you need a really good idea, and you need to develop it properly.  Those kind of things don’t happen with every idea that comes to your mind.  Far from it.

I have businesses and activities in my life from a number of different areas or niches.  Most of my niches that I am involved with involve writing in one way or another.  Like this site, I write here, and I make a bit of money from it.  Well, it happens that many of my niches are relatively small niches that are not overly popular.  In today’s age of the Internet, though, even a very small niche can pay decent money, because the potential audience, although small in a percentage term, is still very large because you are drawing from a worldwide audience these days.  Gone are the days when your potential audience was either only near your base of operations, or was relatively expensive to reach because you had to use some kind of mass media marketing to reach a wider audience.  Now, with the Internet, you can reach people anywhere in the world for virtually nothing, if you know how to find them.

Two guys who are focusing on what they are good at - Bob Martin & Matt Mullenweg

Two guys who are focusing on what they are good at - Bob Martin & Matt Mullenweg

Over the years, I have had people… mentors and friends, who have encouraged me to widen my niches into bigger areas with a larger audience by moving into other things than where I am really the best.  I mean, I could choose to write about topics that have millions of potential readers.  Instead, I choose to focus on niches that have a smaller number of readers, but those are areas where I have much more knowledge and am also more comfortable.  In short, I like to focus in areas where I have a passion.

Lately, one of my niches, probably the one that I am most passionate about has begun to pay off for me much better than it has in the past.  Because of this increase in fortunes, it has caused me to think.  Instead of following the advice of changing into bigger niches, I am now thinking that it is better for me to focus in on the things that I am best at, the things that have my true passion.  I have always been a big believer in two things:

  1. When you do something that you are truly passionate about, the money will come.  There are other things you can substitute for money – fame, satisfaction, etc.
  2. You should focus in on things that you have knowledge about.

I believe that these two things are important, and when done in conjunction with each other you can really be successful.

So, with the moves I am seeing relative to one of my niches beginning to gel and really “pay off,” I am only having my original thinking reinforced.  I am realizing that my thinking was right all along, and that I need to hone in even more in those areas where I have a true passion.

For all of you smart people out there reading this, I really encourage you to focus your energy in areas where you are good already.  Hone your skills and your knowledge.  Always get better.  Oh, it’s always good to spread your wings a bit and explore new things… but always keep your eyes where your passion is too.

Filed Under: Feature, Good Habits Tagged With: , ,

Disturbed by disturbances

November 20, 2009 By 2 Comments

The world is a very busy place these days.  It seems like as each year passes, there are new things that create more pressure in our lives.  Think back before cellular phones, before the Internet, before all the technology that we have today.  In earlier days if people wanted to get in touch with us they could send you a letter in the mail, call you on your telephone or talk to you when they saw you in person.  There were no other ways.

Today, it’s a little different.  They can basically call you on the telephone no matter where you are, because most of us carry cellular phones wherever we go.  They can send you an e-mail, tweet you via Twitter, IM you through one of the many Instant Messaging services.  Basically, the way that the world is today, anybody can contact you any time, virtually 24/7.  We don’t really have any “personal time” or “alone time” any longer, it seems.  It’s bad enough that through the Internet you can get contacted by all these methods, but many of us also have these things connected to our cellular phones, so if somebody tweets you, you get the message instantly no matter where you are!

Do Not Disturb

disturbSome of these things are OK to receive instantly.  Some are annoying, though.  If a very good friend got a new job and tweets you to tell you about it, that’s great, and I am sure you are very happy for your friend!  However, we also get contacted by a lot of people that we barely know.  Through cyberspace, we all have a lot of “passing friends” – people that we don’t really know in real life, yet we have met them in passing on the Internet.  When a person like that tweets you to let you know what he just ate for dinner… well, sometimes it is nothing but an annoying disturbance in our lives.

So, how do you hang out the virtual “Do Not Disturb” sign in your life?

Well, it’s important to remember that it is your life, and you can control it.  If there is somebody who disturbs you with non-relevant stuff on a regular basis, you can make a few choices:

  1. “Un-friend” them. Cut them off.  If they are connected to you on Twitter or Facebook and they are using that connection to disturb you inappropriately, you can remove them as a friend, and they won’t be able to contact you any longer.
  2. Tell them that they are disturbing you and ask them to stop. I have a friend who has been forwarding e-mails to me for years now.  Whenever he gets an e-mail that he thinks is funny, he basically forwards it to everybody he knows.  Another problem is that other people that he forwards to also end up forwarding it to me as well, so I will get a half dozen or more copies of the same e-mail.  I’m not really interested in the e-mail anyway!  So, I wrote to my friend and told him that I am happy to hear from him if he has a personal message for me, but I would appreciate it if he could stop sending me the forwarded jokes and such.  He responded to me only minutes later and said “no problem.”  Easy to fix, the problem is stopped, and in the future the communications that I get from my friend will be something I know is important to me.
  3. Filter your e-mail. If you try #2 above, and it doesn’t work, your next step is to set up an e-mail filter to take care of the problem.  You can set up an e-mail rule that whenever you get any e-mail from that person, just send it to the trash, or delete it entirely.  You can set up this filter in your own e-mail program, or if you are using a web based e-mail service like Yahoo or Google, you can set it up right on their website.  Alternatively, if you own the domain that you use for e-mail, you can set up such filtering right on your server, and the e-mail will never reach you at all.  Remember, this is a sort of “last ditch” method, because even if the person is sending you an important e-mail, it still will never reach you.

So, if you are getting tired of constantly being disturbed and want to change it, you can.  Take control of your life again, and set up things to take stress out of your life and start enjoying living again.  Believe me, when you take control of your life and eliminate some disturbances you will be happier!

Filed Under: Feature, Good Habits Tagged With: ,