Masterful Mindsets

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”  ~Steve Jobs

The longer version if the above quote by Steve Jobs, is this:

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.

So, what about you? Do you love what you do? Are you passionately performing at mastery level doing your life’s work or just going through the motions at a job that does nothing more than pay the bills? The time you spend working really is a large part of your life. So why spend a lifetime any other way then doing great work that you love?

Whether you are an employee, an entrepreneur, the CEO of a multi-million-dollar company or a stay-at-home parent (And don’t kid yourself – that is a full-time job!) – I want you to get honest with yourself...

"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." ~Paul J. Meyer

Over the last several weeks I’ve shared with you that productivity is a key component to success so today, let’s review and get you ready to win!

Your level of productivity and success can be directly affected by your level of clarity, your level of energy and your level of courage.

Clarity - Setting yourself up for success when it comes to productivity starts with making sure you have a clear vision for what your goals and dreams are. Knowing what you want and why you want it. The deeper connection you have to why you want it, the more it will help you stay motivated.

Then preparing and creating a clear plan is extremely helpful for keeping yourself on track. Make sure you have a timeline for completion of the project as well as the tasks/actions necessary to move you in the direction you want to go to get you to the goal. (Note: ...

“You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear.” ~ Sammy Davis, Jr.

You commit to a project or goal… maybe you’re excited about it or maybe it’s just one of those must do kind of things. Either way, as you get started, you feel something shift inside. Fear starts to creep in. Can I do this? Do I know what I’m doing? Am I good enough? And suddenly, every little excuse and distraction seems to work to keep you from making progress. You no longer know what your next action should be. You aren’t even clear anymore on the goal or how to get there. You procrastinate and you’re tired even thinking about it… Sound familiar?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve shared that if you want to be highly productive, it’s important to have clarity about what your goal is plus the plan for reaching it. As well as how important your mental and physical energy are to being productive. But if you don’t have courage to get going and to keep going when doubt, fear and failure get in your way ...

“Without gas in your car, it doesn’t matter if you know where you’re going. You won’t reach your destination. Likewise, without mental and physical energy, you probably won’t reach your goals either.” ~MW

Let’s face it, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. But some people manage to get so much more done than others. You look at them and wonder how they do it. Or more specifically, you may wonder how they have the energy to do it all!

See the reality is, often it’s not that we need more time to get things done but rather, more energy.

Do you have enough energy to get everything you want accomplished each day or do you find that you are so tired by mid-day that it’s hard to focus and finish the day strong?  

The best laid plans will not come to fruition if you don’t have the mental and physical energy needed to take action toward achieving them. That’s why high levels of energy are a key element to high levels of productivity and success.

So if you find that you often lose st...

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.”  ~Steven Covey

Prioritizing clarity is a crucial first step if you want to increase your productivity and reach your goals! When you have clarity about what your goals are, you have a detailed plan for what needs to be done to complete them and in what timeframe, plus you know why these goals or dreams are truly important to you; you will have a laser focused vision for your journey to success.  

Ask Yourself:

• Do you have a clear vision of your goals and dreams?
• Do you have a plan and know what you need to do daily, weekly, monthly to keep yourself on track?
• Do you stay focused and in action on the priority tasks necessary to achieve success in your personal and professional life?
• Do you know exactly why reaching these goals are important to you?

Having clarity and focus helps you eliminate distractions. Think “bright shiny object syndrome” here. You no longer get distracted by every ...

“Each minute is a little thing, and yet, with respect to our personal productivity, to manage the minute is the secret of success.” ~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

How successful you are, can often be equated to how productive you are. It certainly isn’t the only factor to success. But let’s be real here… if you aren’t productive, you probably aren’t going to get far in your quest for success and you’re definitely not going to get there very fast. Of course, it’s important to remember that just being busy, marking things off a to-do list, isn’t enough.

The tasks and actions you choose to focus on need to be in alignment with your ultimate goals in order for that productivity to really be of value. Anything otherwise, is just a distraction or detour from your true path to your desired life.

Sadly though, most people struggle with consistent, high levels of productivity. (And remember if we are making the parallel here that means they are likely struggling to have consistent, high levels of ...

“Through discipline comes freedom.”  ~ Aristotle

Summertime is the perfect time for taking vacations. And having free time is important to your overall well-being and happiness. I take a lot of time off in the summer with my family. But the one thing I know is that if I’m not disciplined enough to get my work done, it’s not only hard to get away but also hard to enjoy my time off, knowing that I have pressing projects or to-do’s hanging over my head. Not to mention the fact that if I don’t have discipline in getting things done, I will never achieve or be successful with anything. As Jim Rohn says, “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

That’s why this week’s quote, although so simple, is so very profound. It has been a complete game changer for me. Although, I will admit that when I first heard the concept that discipline equals freedom, I had a twinge of dislike because the stigma of the word discipline caught my attention first. Discipline in general tend...

“Whatever goal you give to your subconscious mind, it will work night and day to achieve it.”  ~Jack Canfield

Last week I challenged you to begin the practice of visualization to be able to clearly create your future identity because without having a clear vision for your future, it can be difficult to create it. Did you give it a try? What? You forgot. It was hard to start. You got busy. You just didn’t have time. Hmmm…

Sure, I’ve heard all those reasons (aka excuses)😉 before.

But what if I told you that research shows, you can dramatically increase your odds of creating your ideal future by practicing visualization in as little as 10 minutes a day? Do you have 10 minutes to spare for the sake of making your dreams a reality?

That’s right… While in order to get the best results, it is vital to be consistent with a daily visualization practice, you don’t need to spend all day thinking about your goals for visualization to be effective. In fact, I don’t actually recommend spen...

“As I unclutter my life, I free myself to answer the callings of my soul.” ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

Spring is well in bloom here and before we know it, summer will be shining down on us. This past weekend, having been Mother’s Day, I was able to get my family to do something that probably wouldn’t have happened had they not been wanting to do something nice for me. 😉

See every year for Mother’s Day, they ask me what they can do for me. They know that my Love Language is “Acts of Service”. So this year, I told them I wanted the storage room clean. Oh, the groans! But they were accommodating nonetheless.

What I don’t think they realized was just how important that was to me… And why clearing the clutter is important for you too!

Here's the deal, clutter really bothers me because when you allow too much clutter to fill up a space it can actually cause you to become distracted, lose focus and become less productive. Not to mention the negative energy that piles of clutter can create. So, i...

"I’m a great believer in luck, I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”   ~ Thomas Jefferson

What are your beliefs around luck? Do you believe that having good luck is out of your control and only the lucky ones can really have a life they love? Or do you believe that you are in complete control and that your beliefs, attitude, and actions determine the kind of luck you have?

My daughters were both highly competitive athletes. For years you could usually find me at a field or court, watching them play soccer or basketball, year around. As a matter of fact, my youngest daughter is in her first year playing college soccer, so I am still at games all the time.

And like most parents, I would always have a few pre-game words for them that almost always include these three phrases, “Play Hard! Have Fun! And Good Luck!”

So with St. Patrick’s Day being earlier this week, I thought it would be fun to discuss the concept of “luck” for this week’s Masterful Mindset. I mean, what ...