Last week I suggested you use the Daily Goal enforcer questions to facilitate your progress:

In the morning ask yourself “what are three things I can do today to get to my optimistic monthly income goal of $ ___” (fill in your big, hairy  number.)

Next identify three specific activities that you can quantify. So for example you may answer “ Call four centers of influence, spend 20 minutes talking my coach about customer retention, register for the sales seminar at a cost of $797.” Everything should be quantified by time, quantity or dollar value.

Make your answers manageable activities, things you can accomplish five, ten or twenty minutes, leaving plenty of room in the day to do your normal stuff.  Make an appointment with yourself to budget the time necessary to complete these actions. Or better yet, do them immediately.

In the evening ask yourself “what did I do today to get to my optimistic monthly income goal of $ ___ .

The important thing you need to realize about this is that it is the asking of the question that will get you the results because it orients your brain in the direction you want to go. So even if you don’t complete the tasks you intended – you still need to ask the question. It’s the consistent focus question that directs your activity in the long run.

Questions have great power.

So what are you doing today to get to your bold, audacious, hairy income goals?

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

There are three fool-proof, proven strategies to raise your productivity, dramatically increase your income and zap away stress. Here is one:

The Daily Audacious Goal Enforcer

This is a search and rescue technique that gets you to find and take small, consistent, simple, baby steps toward big, hairy, courageous goals. The strategy consists of two questions: One you ask yourself in the morning. The other you ask yourself at the end of the day.

Obviously if you keep moving a specific direction, it is simply a matter of time before you get there. But first you have to decide where you want to go or what that optimistic income goal is for you.  Use your imagination. Think about what is it going to take to get you really excited –to give you the lifestyle you want and deserve?

Simplify your goal into a monthly number instead of an annual figure.

This is important because it:

1. Reduces the tendency to procrastinate
2. Provides a motivating scorecard to “see” improvement
3. Forms your goal into a smaller chunk that your psyche can more easily digest

Now for the questions:

You know how your computer has a search and find capability? That is because computers are modeled after the human brain. If you need a specific piece of information or an idea that you have somewhere on your hard drive – but you don’t know where it is? You ask your computer to do a search and it will run through you’re your programs and files to come up with the information. If you can narrow the search because you remember the type of document or the approximate date your created it, that makes it even easier for you to find.
Your brain is obviously a lot more sophisticated than your PC – and it knows how to run all kinds processes that you are not consciously aware – things that you don’t consciously know how to do – such as running the electrical impulses in your nervous system, regulating your metabolism, equalizing your temperature.  Just like your PC goes to work to find you answers your brain will too — but only if you ask it. And the more specific the question is the easier it is to find what you are looking for.

You may not always come up with the answers right away. But if you ask yourself the right questions consistently, your brain will automatically find the answers.

• Question 1 -In the morning ask yourself “what are three things I can do today to get to my optimistic monthly income goal of $ ___ “  (fill in your big, hairy  number.)
• Questions 2- At the end of the day ask yourself: “What did I do to get to my optimistic monthly income goal of $ ___ “  (fill in your big, hairy  number.)

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

The Buddha once told his followers that everything that they saw before them was dust. Histories are written in dust, entire civilizations are buried in dust. And whether it is gold dust, saw dust or the film that clouds much of our thinking, we must give some kind of attention to it.

A cluttered mind creates a sense of chaos and confusion.

Your physical environment has the same capacity. The weekly routine removes the clutter from your mind and your physical environment so you can stay relaxed, focused and in control.

Specifically you will:

1. Reduce the need for crises management because important things will no longer slip through the cracks
2. Sleep better because instead of your brain waking you up at 2AM to remind you to do something, you will have a system you can trust to remind you
3. Capture opportunities you may have forgotten about before
4. Spend less time looking for things and more time completing projects
5. Stay focused on your goals
6. Improve your follow through and reliability factor
7. You will make more, stress less and work smarter

Here is the 10 Step Routine to Stay-As-Calm-As-A-Zen-Monk-Even-Amidst-A-Whirl-of-Chaos.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

Here’s a little secret I’ll tell you about my coaching practice…

Often the first thing I do with clients is help them master their Focus.

Why?

Because you can’t improve what you don’t control.

How would it feel to drive your car on the highway and then – poof – all of a sudden your car had no steering
wheel?

That would be stressful and overwhelming.

Does your workday ever feel that way?

Maybe you are buried in email, or have a to-do list that is constantly growing longer?

Maybe your attention scatters when you try to concentrate?

You already know what this is costing you. The lost income, the lost sleep,
the frayed nerves.

Mastering focus means getting your steering wheel back.

I had a conversation with Dr. Valerie Young about this very topic, and I’ve posted it on my site for you.

Bring a pen and paper, this one is going to help you make some useful
changes.

SOME of what you will learn on this call…

• How to stay focused on what is important.
• How to end interruptions
• The difference between “big verb” and “small verb” activities, and why this makes a HUGE difference in your effectiveness and income.
• How projects REALLY get done. (Hint: Forget to-do lists.)
• How to complete things faster
• How to decide the best use of your time.
• Why my coaching clients make more money when I show them how to create Focus days
• Buried in paper or email? How to get out from underneath.
• What to do when you feel like a workaholic with no personal life. (This one is so simple you will be amazed.)
• Waking up in the middle of the night to catch up on work? You’re not alone. Find out what high-performance
  people do to prevent this.
• Putting your to-do’s on your calendar? Why this is keeping you stressed and unproductive, and what to do instead.
• How to deal with the “time-thieves” in your life. Some strategies you can use to set and KEEP boundaries.   – Much more

Here’s a link where you can go and listen in on this call.

Dr. Young Discusses Power of Focus
For self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs, nothing is more important than focus.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass
Priority Living Systems

The pareto priciple says 80% of your work is done in 20% of your time.

And my clients agree.

What if you could increase your productive time from 20% to 30%?

What could that 10% mean to you?

What if that 10% could get you a fifty percent increase in income?  Would you do it?

A client who is a financial services professional increased his income by over fifty percent in one year. This is how he did it:

In the prior year he made $99,438. Of the forty hours he worked a week, he spent 8 hours focused on income generation. He allocated one-and- a -half hours a day, four days a week to being on the phone calling clients and prospects with the specific intention of generating business.  The next year, he increased his focus time to 2 hours on all four days.   And despite the fact that the stock market was down the next year, he increased his income by $51,347 that’s more than a fifty percent increase in just one year.

He did not work any more hours than he had the year before. In fact he took three vacations that year. All he did was add thirty minutes a days four days a week to focused income generating activity.

With approximately half of his additional profits he hired an assistant to do the busy work that he was lousy at any way. He now plays golf one day a week and he still has more time for focused activity which will mean even greater income potential in the years to come.

I recommend you take a close look on how you have been spending your time right now. If the Pareto principle applies to you as it does to most people, I suggest you consider increasing your focus time. If you currently spend 20% of a forty hour work week or 8 hours on focused income generating activity, for example, work on increasing that to additional 10% of your time. The extra fours hours should translate into a fifty percent increase in income.

Put conscious thought into how you spend your moments so that you can leverage your time and accomplish your most important goals.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

This weekly routine is simply a time for you to reset, clean up, review and get organized. Think of it as restarting your computer to get all your systems operating the way they should.

Step one: Clean Sweep.

Most of the stuff that you keep in your workspace has probably been put there to remind you to do something.  But they are not very effective. The problem is that after a while your conscious mind simply stops noticing them and consequently you forget to follow through on the request of a prospect —or an important detail that would have taken two minutes to resolve, goes unattended and a client is lost. Or the great contact you unexpectedly met is forgotten.
So instead of a center of influence you now have a business card of an acquaintance you never called.
The solution?  A proper system for handling the stuff that clutters physical space and the stuff that clutters your thinking.
Begin by collecting everything:  scraps of paper, business cards, receipts, and miscellaneous paper. Put it all in a basket to process.

Step 2: Process Your Notes

Review meeting notes, and miscellaneous scribbles on notebook paper, scratch pads etc.
Add action items to your action list.  Categorize lists or folders into “Next actions (single step items you can complete), Projects (multiple action items) waiting-for’s,  and “Someday Maybe’s”etc. as appropriate. For more information on this system, I suggest you read David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done.
”
Step Three: Look Back

Look at your calendar from the previous week to bring to light action items,  reference data and other reminders and transfer them into your system

Step Four: Look Forward

Look to see what is coming up in your Calendar – long and short term. What actions need to be added to your list?

Step Five: Look inside (aka, Mental Download)

Most people rely much too heavily on their own memories for all the things they want and need to do. This clutters your brain, inhibits right brain functioning (creativity and decision-making) and wakes you up at 2AM to remind you to do things.
The only way to stop those memory alarms from going off and interrupting your focus or your sleep is to have effective work flow systems in place.
When you have effective systems in place that are you are comfortable with, your brain power can be totally focused on ways to finding solutions to problems and seeking out strategies and tactics that will help you reach your goals.
Take ten, fifteen or twenty minutes a week to get everything out of your mind and onto paper.

Step Six:  Look Right

Go over your goal oriented lists — business plan, strategic objectives, projects etc. Evaluate status of projects, goals and outcomes, one by one, ensuring that you have identified at least one action item on each that you have on your action list.

Step Seven: Look Left

Revisit “Next Action” list(s) & other frequently used folders or lists and mark off completed actions. Note further actions steps left to do.

Step Eight: Look for Efficiencies

Are you making lists of the same things over and over again? If so create checklists and add to your system.

Step Nine: Look at what you are doing

Review Pending & Support Files – Browse through all work-in-progress support material to trigger new actions/completions/waiting for’s.

Step Ten: Get in the flow

Imagine what could happen if you unleashed your full potential. Allow yourself to be creative, courageous and resourceful. Think about possibilities.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems

Thanks to a recently launched website, Free Speaker Match.com, it will be easier than ever for groups and organizations to get a quality free speaker for their event. FreeSpeakerMatch.com is a clean, easy to use, online portal that connects public speakers, “go-to” experts and high-level professionals with organizations in need of presenters who will speak to their group for free.

“Organizations don’t want FREE speakers, they want QUALITY presenters who will inform, educate and entertain their members.  The trouble is that many associations simply don’t have the budget to hire professional speakers for their monthly or weekly meetings. On the other hand there are many high-level professionals who deliver fabulous free presentations to groups as a means of showcasing their expertise or building their following. Thus, the idea for FreeSpeakerMatch.com was born.” said Mandy Bass, owner of FreeSpeakerMatch.com and herself an experienced public speaker.

The website itself is very simple to navigate and features two separate messages on the home page. One message is for organizations and associations looking for public speakers for their events and the other for speakers looking for audiences to speak to. When one is browsing for speakers, the job is made even simpler by the inclusion of a popup display that lists specific info about the speaker and what subjects they are qualified to speak about. When one of the pictures of the speakers is clicked, you are taken to that person’s unique profile. There, you will be able to see their video (if they have one posted), read reviews about the speaker, review them yourself, click a link to view the speaker’s website, or simply read the detailed profile info that will help an organization decide if this speaker is the right one for their event.

Mandy Bass, founder and CEO has stated that even though the website is still in their pre-launch phase, more than 500 speakers and organizations have signed up to the site and many have already made connections and filled dates on their calendars by utilizing this unique new web service. While membership will eventually have a fee associated with it, for a limited time, FreeSpeakerMatch.com is in Beta mode and is offering free lifetime memberships to both speakers and organizations who want to take advantage of this innovative service while it is still early in its development.

Those interested in learning more are encouraged to visit FreeSpeakerMatch.com, or call 800-373-1394

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To Your Success!

Mandy Bass
Priority Living Systems

Whew, what a relief!

There’s a big line at the restaurant and we need the French fries cooked. Go to the manual and follow the step-by-step solution.

The control arm on the space station is stuck in the extended position. Go to the manual and follow the step-by-step solution.

Wouldn’t it be great if YOU had a step-by-step manual?

Remember that new research I talked about a couple weeks ago? Click here for link to research.

Animals under stress fall back on habits, no matter if the habits are good or bad, useful or not.

Perhaps this impulse is nature’s version of referring to the “systems manual” written into your body.

In the thick of stress, you need something step by step, something you can carry out without thinking.

Just like a fast food franchise manual, or NASA’s crisis protocols, nature has instilled a way to revert to habits and by-pass conscious thought.

Well, what if there was a way to write the manual directly into your memory, so that the habits you “fall back on” are ones that you have directly put there?

Can you do this? Yes, it’s easy, and I’ll show you how…

The following exercise is great to change habits such as negative self-talk, procrastination, lateness, overeating, drinking too much and even smoking.

The keys to this process developed by Richard Bandler are imagination, visualization and repetition. By visualization I don’t necessarily mean seeing a picture in your mind. Some people feel or hear inner experiences more than they see them.

Because your unconscious mind does not know what is real and what is imaginary, a new habit can be formed by mental rehearsal and repetition. In fact most great athletes and entertainers use mental rehearsal to improve their performance. In the following process that new behavior becomes associated with a specific cue or trigger. The cue could be an object, such as a telephone, a thought or a feeling.

By repeatedly associating the cue with the new feeling or behavior, you’ll create a habitual response that will be stimulated whenever the trigger is present.

In between repetitions you are asked to imagine static fuzz on a TV screen, to say your phone backward, or the like, as a means of “disassociating.”  This is an important step for your unconscious mind to recognize each repetition as a different event rather than a continuous experience, a critical part of creating a new habit.

Switch Behavior Exercise

1. Identify an unwanted behavior, feeling and/ or attitude you want to change?
2. What specific cue is always there prior to the unwanted behavior? It could be an object, a symbol or a voice inside your head.
3. See an image of the cue that is there just before the unwanted behavior and set that image aside for a moment.
4. How would you look already having a new behavior? As you create a large, bright colorful image of yourself already having this new behavior, you will find that picture of yourself very appealing. Because you notice the posture of that “other you,” you can see that the behavior has changed. When you look into the other you’s face, you can see a sparkle in his/her eyes and a relaxed smile on his/her face. You know the other you feels really good about the change because you can hear his/her internal dialog. What is he/she saying?
5. Notice how attractive and pleasing that other you is.  You may not know if you would like to become that other you, yet– the appealing one over there.
6. Does any part of you object to this image? If yes, modify the image until it is appealing to you in such way that it resolves your objections.
7. Shrink that image. Make it smaller and smaller until it is a tiny dot.
8. Place that dot containing the other you that already has the new behavior in the center of the cue image you established earlier (Step 2)
9. Now rapidly exchange the two images, the cue image and the dot.
10. The cue image loses color and shrinks into the distance until it disappears. The new you blossoms out right in front of you, closer, bigger, brighter, filling your vision. Ssswwwwwoooooosh.
11. Now blank out the scene. There is static fuzz on the screen now.
12. We will now repeat the process faster. In the cue image of what you see just before the unwanted behavior, notice the dot that is the new you. And Swwwwoooooooosh. The dot expands and the new you is right in front of you, bright and alive, as the cue image disappears.
13. Blank screen.
14. Now again. Faster. You see the cue and the small dot with the new you inside. Ssswwwoooshhhhh. The image of the new you is bright and alive.
15. Can you say your phone number backward?
16. Now again. Faster. See the cue. Sssswwoooosh.
17. Fuzz balls on the screen.
18. Again. See the cue. Ssswooosh
19. Can you spell your name backward?
20. Again, faster. See the cue. Swoosh.
21. Blank the screen.
22. Cue. Swooosh.
23. Blank screen.

Repeat the last two steps 5 more times, faster. And then another 5 times, even faster.

Managing the contents of your mind is critical, but it’s not the ONLY thing.

You also need to have efficiency in your outer world.

One of the best ways to do this is through creating SYSTEMS.

It’s helpful to think of the word “System” as an acronym.  System stands for “Save YourSelf Time, Energy & Money.”

Kind of like an operations manual in a restaurant franchise.

You know how to make the burrito, turn on the cash register, brew the coffee – all according to the manual that itemizes step by step by step how it’s done.

The purpose of such specific instruction isn’t JUST to ensure uniform delivery of the product or service. (Although that IS part of it.) It’s also there to erase stress from your mind as you are delivering the product or service.

There’s no need to think about the action, it’s all spelled out for you.

In fact, experts on stress-situation performance consulted with NASA for their crisis protocols, and determined that the best strategy is to have ALL the actions specified and detailed step-by-step.

So when the team members at NASA are in a crisis, and consult the manual, it tells them EXACT steps to follow.

No thinking or stressing is needed. Just follow the steps.

It is why a lot of quite basic self-help books are more successful than others. And it is the basic premise, I used for developing the new website, FreeSpeakerMatch.com the way that I did.

Savvy professionals knew they should be out there showcasing their expertise by giving free talks to local organizations and groups, but were stressing over contacting people with no introduction — and imagining the worst possible outcome.

At the same time program chairs of local clubs and organizations were stressing over contacting potential presenters they had never witnessed in action — and they were imagining their speakers either not showing up, or boring their group to tears.

So we invented a way for speakers to systematically find and contact local organizations who would love to have them come in and speak.  And a way for organizations to review potential speakers, see their videos and read reviews from other groups whom they have spoken for in the past.

No thinking, no stressing, no vivid mental pictures of organization presidents rejecting you, the speaker, over the phone.

No incompetent presenters lulling your audience into a mindless fog, while you as the organizer, try to shrink into oblivion, cringing at the back of the room with a polite smile pasted on your face.

Instead you just follow the steps.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass
Priority Living Systems

Last week I wrote about new research on stress, behavior and learning, click here to see that article. There is more to it. A lot more.

Humans have bigger brains than rats, so they learn these reactions even faster

There is a BIG difference between rats and humans. (Okay, MOST humans, anyway.)

The difference is this: Humans don’t need to be physically exposed to the stress to feel it.

Yes, we do have physical pressures that show up – war, crime, traffic jams – but MOST of the ‘pressure’ is created on the INSIDE — in your imagination.

Like a coaching client of mine who was forever postponing completing her taxes.

Just the thought of her taxes triggered a whole series of mental pictures – of the frustration doing the forms, and the worry that they’re done properly, not to mention vivid pictures of an audit, and then being in jail, and seeing her family visit her at the jail, and her children crying as they look at her through the bullet proof glass of the prison visitation room.

Nooooooo…..

Sounds funny, right? It is, until you think about that brain research I mentioned before.

Our human brain’s stress-coping mechanism is identical to the rat’s, except with our bigger brains we can create the stress FASTER and STRONGER and continue the torment even while we are sleeping – visualizing things that are even more terrible.

Remember: Our stress is not limited to what is physically possible. It’s limited to anything imaginable.
If you could peek into the imagination of 100 random people, you’d probably find a 3-D horror show that makes the lab rat research look like a holiday.

There IS a way out of this

So – if relentless stress keeps your brain stuck in a bad-habit loop, and the deepest source of nonstop stress is the parade of images running through your imagination, then what should you do?

Two things:

1. Learn how to direct your imagination for relaxation and focus.
2. Put systems in place in your environment that make results  easier.

My clients and seminar attendees are often surprised when I teach them techniques of deep relaxation.

As if relaxation – and the skill of mastering your imagination – is somehow a distraction from the goal-driven tasks we cover in our work together.

It’s not a distraction. It’s the fuel that allows the results to happen.

When you start directing your imagination, and replacing the scary nightmare movies in your mind with their opposites, it’s inevitable that long-craved goals will start showing up in your world.

Being able to control the images that flow through your mind means being able to remove the internal stress triggers that hijack your attention.

Stress control is the ‘secret sauce’ in my coaching practice, and one of the main reasons why my more successful professional clients report breaking through their self-imposed income ceilings within a short time of our working together.

To Your Success,

Mandy Bass

Priority Living Systems