Why Your 2014 Business Goals Flopped and How to Prevent a Repeat

Tags

exhaustion, failure, goals, peace within, stress, success, your mission

© 2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

Looking Backwards Through 2014

 

 

For several days, we’ve been talking about New Year’s Resolutions. Those are great, if you follow the wisdom in the last 3 articles. On New Year’s Day, I recommended you wait to make resolutions, and just gently transition into the New Year (http://wp.me/pw4HM-kV). On January 2d, I shared the biggest secret roadblock to resolutions working (http://wp.me/pw4HM-l0). Yesterday, I covered resolutions that will work powerfully for you, and why they will (http://wp.me/pw4HM-l5).

 

Today, it’s time to really look backward at our recent failures. Let’s see why some of your previous business goals FLOPPED. After all, why waste time pushing yourself toward a goal, if it’s a non-starter? So get out your paper and pen, your iPad or the like, your iPhone Notes app or something similar, and let’s rock!

 

This is the hard part: look backward through your 2014 and list your attempts that failed, starting with December, because it’s freshest in your mind. No one will see your notes, so be honest. You can burn them or delete them, right after we cover this, if you like. Now, what do those failures have in common? I’ll wait. Ready with your list? Then consider if the following examples ring familiar chimes.

 

 

Goals are simply tools to focus your energy in positive directions. These can be changed as your priorities change, new ones added, and others dropped.

 ~ Christopher Columbus

 

The biggest reason for your business goals flopping are that they were the wrong goals—for you. Striving to meet someone else’s goals is a major waste of time and energy. So you took up product sales with a company that has great products, great customer service online and by phone, and even a training system. But you stalled out after a few weeks, exhausted and fog-brained. Exhaustion is your biggest gift: it tells you you’ve been on the wrong track.

 

Selling product and a sales system involves many hundreds of interactions with people. Maintaining others’ interest in your team requires incredible amounts of energy. So whose idea was it for you to take up multilevel sales? Who are you trying to please, Uncle Louie, who said he really needed you on his team? But maybe you are a true introvert and you’re drained by sales meetings and hundreds of emails and calls trying to line people up and get those sales and maintain that team. Getting more and more tired and foggy is a sure sign you’re in the wrong business or wrong business structure. Look for something with a different structure, or a different role in supporting Uncle Louie, like doing all his bookkeeping, inventory, and scheduling. Louie comes back from those meetings all jazzed. He’s the extrovert and he’s the one suited to it.

 

Maybe you got yourself into medical school, and you hate the material and sick people, but you feel obligated to become a doctor and “make good money”. What about moving sideways into medical research, where it’s quiet, or into medical device design? Now set your financial goal for the year. Or maybe you’ve become an accountant, because your whole family are accountants, but you are going insane sitting at the keyboard all day. You can’t wait to go to group lunches, birthday happy hours, and professional conferences—and actually see some people! What about taking over the marketing for your family’s business, and going out to give lively and popular talks to different groups about healthy money management? A true extrovert will wither in a quiet environment. There’s no point in setting “audacious goals” for financial success when you really don’t even want to be there.

 

This pointer is for those of you who are people of faith. Maybe you’ve never really felt you were in your groove, professionally—yet. Maybe you’re not yet in your life’s mission? Maybe you haven’t yet heard your Call? I know a couple who were successful by others’ standards, when they realized they were called to devote their lives to furniture ministry. They heard the Call to sell almost everything they had and create a new nonprofit, collecting furniture for veterans moving into newly provided housing. They are one of the happiest couples I know. Ask yourself now if you have been hearing guidance to shift what you are doing. Pray for direction and clarity, and be open to what you may hear. It may not involve any dramatic changes like moving to a different continent. But being on track with your life’s mission will certainly bring you satisfaction and peace within.

 

So check in with yourself as you think backward through the last year. Do you need to dump some activities, goals, or Board positions you thought you “should” have? Do you need to downsize or rightsize or move sideways in some of your activities? Once you’ve corrected your compass bearings for this year, then it’s time to actually set your goals. And prevent a repeat of last year’s flops.  This year, I wish you the greatest joy, satisfaction, and success!

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office. Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: bookings@kebba.com .

 

Resolutions That Powerfully Work for You

Tags

goals, Kebba Buckley Button, New Year's Resolutions, resolutions, stress, Stress Management, success

© 2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

© vencav-Fotolia

So how is your New Year going so far? Did you go ahead and make those resolutions? On New Year’s Day, I recommended you wait, and just gently transition into the New Year (http://wp.me/pw4HM-kV). Yesterday, I shared the biggest secret of resolutions that can’t work (http://wp.me/pw4HM-l0). Finally, today, I’m talking about resolutions that can actually work for you, and work powerfully.

 

Making resolutions each New Year’s is one of the most popular traditions we have. What can that mean, except that people are not happy with the conditions or qualities or achievements of their lives and lifestyles? And that they believe they can and should take steps to make things better?   Americans most often resolve to : spend more time with loved ones, get fit, lose weight, quiet smoking, enjoy life more, quit drinking, get out of debt, learn something new, help others, and get organized.

 

“And now we welcome the new year , full of things that have never been.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

So what happens to all these well-meant resolutions? Do your last for at least 2 weeks? Are they forgotten within a month? What happened to your resolutions from a year ago?  Some people make commitments to complete their resolutions and some are more in wishcraft.  One study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, found that people who make explicit resolutions succeed at 10 times the rate of people who have an idea that they would like to make a change later.  People with explicit resolutions held onto their resolve with surprising success:   after 6 months, 46% were still on track.  Whereas, after 6 months, only 4% of those who did not make explicit resolutions were still on track.  Which group would you like to be in?

Experts say there are three components of goals that actually work:

1. Write them down.
2. Be specific.
3. Track your progress in some measurable way.

Ramp up your success by posting reminders on your mirrors and refrigerator, even inside your wallet.  Some people get a success boost with an accountability partner, perhaps a friend who shares the goal and will be supportive over a multimonth period.  Some people succeed with a mastermind group.

How long will it take to meet your goal?  Be sure your resolution includes completing the goal in a reasonable period of time.  What if your desire is, for example, to lose 20 pounds, and never have it find you again?   Write down what you will do to achieve this goal, in, for example, a three-month framework.  Will you switch what you swallow (“diet”)?  Will you start taking great multivitamin and mineral supplements?  Will you exercise?  Where will you exercise, and what times and days?  If you are an extrovert, plan on classes or fitness center programs.  If you are an introvert, perhaps workout videos are for you.  After the three months, what will your maintenance program include?  Write it out and post it.  Do you get the pattern here?  Yes, work out the details of your resolution, and recognize that this is your success plan for this resolution.

Your life is a creative process, your greatest experiment.  What tools will you choose, as you craft it into the most joyous, healthy, and fulfilling life you can possibly have?  It’s up to you. I wish you great success and happiness!

_____________________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office. Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: bookings@kebba.com .

 

 

UpBeat Living: Diana Nyad Realized Her Dream, and You Can Realize Yours

Tags

achieving goals, Diana Nyad, effort, passion, stress, Stress Management, success

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

 

CBS News

Diana Nyad not only chased her dream, she caught it.  On Monday, September 2, 2013, Nyad, age 64, walked up on the beach of Key West, Florida, smiling and pumping her fists in the air, victoriously greeting a delighted crowd gathered there to welcome her.  For Nyad, the fifth time was the charm.  She had tried to swim from Cuba to Florida previously, but currents, jellyfish, and weather forced her to give up, four times.

This time, Nyad fulfilled her dream.  She swam for 53 hours, covering 110 miles, from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida without a shark cage.  A shark cage would not only have kept away the sharks, but would also have created drag that would have made Nyad’s swim easier.  Now she holds the historic record of being the first to swim this route without a shark cage.

And how did this one woman, Diana Nyad, get to this culmination and this triumph?  There are 4 key elements to her success.

1.           Passion.  She got in touch with her passion for endurance swimming decades ago.
2.           Goals.  She set increasingly high goals and worked to meet each in turn.  For example, an intermediate goal to this week’s achievement was to swim around Manhattan Island, at age 26–and that’s 28 miles.  She worked for it, organized it, achieved it.
3.           Effort.  She kept identifying what it would take to get to each goal, pulled together the elements, stayed fit enough to excel in endurance swimming.  She put in the effort.
4.           Support.  She developed the right circle of support people and resources to help lift her to her goals.  This week, a team attended her departure from Havana.  A flotilla accompanied her along the swim, keeping her on the correct alignment, watching for sharks, assuring she took nourishment, and otherwise looking out for her safety.  PR people got the word out of her try for the historic record, resulting in media coverage and many non-swimmer supporters showing up in Key West, to cheer her victory.

Are you thinking about your own dreams, now?  And where you are on the timeline and achievement line?  How would you score yourself in passion, goals, effort, and support?  What would you need to shift to actually realize your dreams?

As she walked up on the beach at Key West, Nyad offered 2 key messages to all of us.  These are so timeless that we should all post them on our office walls:  “Never, ever give up!”  and “You’re never too old to chase your dreams!”  Now ask yourself:   where will you be with your dreams, when you are 64?

Start fresh in chasing yours.  Start again, today.

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• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 

 

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UpBeat Living: Integrity and a Story of Seeds

Tags

Effective living, integrity, stress, Stress Management, success, truth

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

 

I found this story long ago, circulating the Internet.  The author is unknown.  Enjoy!

 

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Photo by Fotolia

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.  Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.

He said, “It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you. “The young executives were Shocked, but the boss continued. “I am going to give each one of you a SEED today – one very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO.”

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.  Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing.  By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn’t have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by — still nothing in Jim’s pot. He just knew he had killed his seed.
Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing Jim didn’t say anything to his colleagues, however, he just kept watering and fertilizing the soil – he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection.

Jim told his wife that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room.

When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful – in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back. “My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown,” said the CEO. “Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!”

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified.  He thought, “The CEO knows I’m a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!”

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed, Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, “This is your next Chief Executive Officer!  His name is Jim!” Jim couldn’t believe it. Jim couldn’t even grow his seed.  “How could he be the new CEO?” the others said.

Then the CEO said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.  I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today.  But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead – it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you.  Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it.  Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!”

* If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
* If you plant goodness, you will reap friends
* If you plant humility, you will reap greatness
* If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

* If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective
* If you plant hard work, you will reap success
* If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation

So be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

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● If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column.  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a Master’s Degree scientist, a minister, and the award-winning author of  the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr), and also Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br).  She also has a natural healing and stress management practice and is a celebrated public speaker.

 

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: 5 Keys for Websites That Sell, a ReBlog from Colleen Wietmarschen

Tags

Business blog, Financial abundance, success, The life you want

Photo by iStockphoto

Yesterday, I wrote about increasing circulation to your blog, which is great, but once you have people to your site wouldn’t it be great if they “hung out” to see what else you had to offer? Today I’m going to talk about “5 Components for Creating Websites that Sell.”  Whether you design your website yourself or if you are looking for a website designer, remember your website is literally your storefront, your business card, and most significant marketing piece rolled into one.  How it affects your visitors and customers is essential to your success.  Provide a memorable experience and customers are sure to return time and time again.

Below are 5 components you want to make sure you include in your website to keep people coming back:

1.    Make your website interactive.

As the internet continues to grow and evolve it’s becoming more important to create a community around your business. To accomplish this you want to engage your visitors and customers.  This can be accomplished a number of ways.  You can:

• Provide a forum.
• Post surveys or polls.
• Enable visitors and customers to review or rank items.  For example, a “How valuable was this article?” question and a scale of 1 to 5 stars or a ranking from 1-10.
• Offer a blog and inspire comments and feedback.

• Host contests and sweepstakes.
• Publish video and audio content as well as written content.  This gives users another way to access you and your personality.

2.    Make sure your website provides value.

People go online for a number of reasons.  They go online to research a potential purchase, to seek solutions for a problem they’re having, and to be entertained.  If your website provides all three; products, information, and entertainment then you’re in tip-top shape.  The best news is your content can provide both the information and the entertainment and when written well, can also inspire purchases.  Here are a few ideas to provide value for your customers and prospects:

• How to articles, videos, and audio.
• Tips articles, videos, and audio.
• Case studies.
• Workbooks and reports.
• Interviews with experts.
• Product reviews.

3.    Make sure your website is easy to navigate.

It takes a visitor about 20 seconds to make a decision about whether they’re going to stay on your website or click away. If your site is laid out nicely, with products and services, information, prices, FAQs, and content easy to find then people are more likely to hang out – the longer they stay on your site the more likely they are to make a purchase or return again.

To make your site easy to navigate consider:

• Keeping your site simple.
• Keeping your pages uniform with the same options and appearance.
• If you have a lot of content, great!  Use drop-down menus and organize your content by topic for easier access.
• Offering a search function where users can search for products, services, or content topics quickly and easily.
• Providing a way for users to easily go back to previous pages.  A back key is an option; however, if every page has the same options and drop-down menus, including the ability to quickly return to the Home page, a visitor will always be able to find what they need.
• Testing your website’s appearance on different browsers to make sure every visitor has a nice experience.

4.    Make your website easy on the eyes.

Ever visit a website and the text was so small or the colors so incompatible that you couldn’t read a word?  Readability is critical to a selling website.  Make sure:

• Your colors are easy on the eyes.
• Your graphics aren’t distracting.
• You keep formatting like underlining, bold and italics to a minimum.
• Your spacing between sentences and paragraphs is adequate and consistent.
• Your font size is large enough for people to read and font is easy to read.

5.    Give them a soft sell.

People expect to be sold to and they’re looking for it.  Instead of hitting website visitors with a hard sell, provide information, solve their problems, and show them the benefits of your products or services.  They’ll be much more receptive and appreciative.

Creating a website that sells requires a structured approach and a desire to create the best experience possible for your visitors.  Once you’ve created your website, consider testing it and asking associates, friends and family for their opinion.

There you have it; along with increasing circulation to your blog, now you have five suggestions to consider when creating your website or to discuss with your website designer to make sure it sells and keeps people interested once they come and visit. Have you considered any of these before? I’d love to hear your thoughts.  –Colleen

Learn more about Colleen Wietmarschen, business coaching and support, and find the original post at:

http://www.clericalplusva.net/5-components-for-creating-websites-that-sell/

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley), and the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .