How To Stop Doing What You Have Always Done

“The secret to breaking a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit that lines up with your goals.”

You may be familiar with the following quote: “If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten.” I disagree with this statement. I believe that if you continue to do the same things, you will end up with less than what you originally had. 

For example, if your customers look for businesses using the Internet and you continue to run ads in the yellow pages, you will have fewer customers as a result of doing what you have always done. Or, if instead of making those cold calls, you continued the habit of randomly surfing the Internet, you would end up with less money in the bank. 

This is why successful people have systems in place to track what they are doing and how they spend their time. I define a bad habit as anything that you do repeatedly that does not support your goals. Time that is spent on such activities is wasted time. You are where you are today based on your daily habits. Where you end up five years from now will be determined by your habits. 

As you read on, you will discover how to use a simple tool to keep you trending towards your goals.

The Twiggs Time Tracker will allow you to track how you are spending your time each day. Here is how it works. First, use a document like the one above to account for each hour of your day. At the end of each hour, take a few minutes to reflect on how you spent your time. If you spent the hour wisely, there is no need to write anything. 

If you feel that you wasted time, write the specific time wasting activity next to the hour. For example, if at 11:00 am you wasted time surfing the Internet, you would write "Surfing the Internet" next to 11:00 am. By doing this, you will start to notice patterns. 

At the end of the week review each of the activities that you wrote down. Your awareness of how you spend your time will increase and so will your productivity. You can create this tracking document with pen and paper or you can e-mail me and I can send you an electronic copy. 

Sincerely,
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner

PS. For additional information on making the most of your time, download my latest ebook, One Moment in Time. 

How to Avoid the Al Bundy Syndrome

In 1987, The Fox network launched a popular sitcom called Married with Children. This was a show about a dysfunctional family of four living in a Chicago suburb led by patriarch Al Bundy. 

Al had an unfulfilling career as a seller of women’s shoes and was always down on his luck. He was constantly disrespected by his wife and kids, and seemed resigned to his fate of being unhappy. A constant theme on the show was Al’s recollection of his high school glory days. 

He was always remembering this time in his life when he was the big man on campus. His favorite story to tell was the one where he scored four touchdowns in one game to help his football team win the state championship. Al spent more time reflecting on the past than he did planning for the future. I call this habit the “Al Bundy Syndrome”. 

Where's your focus? If you spend most of your time dwelling on a past result or relationship, then you are just like Al. Without a plan for the future, you end up with a present reality that leaves you unhappy. So where should your focus be? 

1. Your Passions
How would you spend your time if money was not an issue? If you woke up tomorrow morning with $50 million dollars in the bank and had the luxury of only doing what you loved, how would that change your schedule? 

For example, I am passionate about public speaking. With this in mind, I started to make future plans that gave me opportunities to practice my passion. I joined Toastmasters and taught classes at my local church. The more time I devoted to public speaking, the more doors opened to allow me to speak at a higher level. Using my passion as a starting point allowed me to move from speaking for free to speaking for a fee. 

2. Your Purpose
A member of my church just celebrated his 90th birthday. His sons threw him a surprise party where hundreds of people got together and said all of these great things about him and his life. He then took a moment to speak to everyone and told the audience about the accomplishments that made him most proud. 

Imagine that you can fast forward to your 90th birthday celebration. Who would be there and what would they say about you? What would you tell the audience about your life? Completing this exercise will help you to gain clarity on your life’s purpose. 

Al Bundy lacked a plan for the future, so past glory is all he had left. Even if you are married with children, knowing your passions and purpose will allow you to avoid the Al Bundy Syndrome. 

Sincerely,
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner

PS. If you would like more strategies on pursuing your passion, download my ebook, One Moment in Time. 

Get in the Fast Lane to Achieve Your Goals in Life

“If you can see it, you can be it. If you can view it, you can do it. Vision is the first step to victory”

The ultimate goal of every college basketball team is to win the NCAA championship. When a team accomplishes its goal, players celebrate by cutting down the basketball nets. This is a tradition that has become symbolic of success. In 1983, Coach Jim Valvano of North Carolina State put a different twist on this trend. 

At the beginning of his tenure, NC State was a struggling program that had never won the big prize. There was no reason for the players to believe that they could do it. During his very first practice, Valvano told his team that they would win the championship that year. This idea seemed so ridiculous that several of the players laughed to themselves. 

After practice was over, Valvano did something that seemed to take ridiculous to a new level. He had his players cut down the nets in there own gym, so that they could see and feel what it was like to celebrate a championship victory. They continued this habit throughout the ‘83 season, which ended with NC State shocking the world by winning the NCAA championship! 

During the post game interviews, the players admitted that the exercise of practicing their victory celebration made them believe that they could do it. In their minds, they saw themselves succeeding, so when it happened it was like deja vu! Now, what does this have to do with you? 

Is Your Glass Half Full?
Like the 83’ team, your present condition is a direct result of your past thoughts.  Studies show that with all things being equal, and optimist will out perform a pessimist in a job or business situation by as much as 50%. The reason for this is the fact that the thoughts that you dwell on become your reality. 

In other words, having habitual thoughts of fear and doubt is the equivalent of praying for what you don’t want! The question becomes, how can you use the power of visualization to put you in the fast lane to achieving your goals in life? 

Write Out Your Perfect Day
Writing out your perfect day in detail will help to create a strong visual picture in your mind. The following outline will assist you in putting your perfect day on paper:

1. Who is present?
2. What specific goal do you accomplish?
3. How Do You Feel?
4. What do you do to celebrate the accomplishment of this goal?

The goal should be achievable, but at the same time, cause you to stretch beyond your current grasp. If you commit to this exercise, you will wake up in your prefect day and put yourself in the fast lane to the achievement of your goals. I congratulate you in advance as you cut down the nets! 

Sincerely,
Eric M Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner

PS. For additional information on how to achieve you goals in life, download my ebook, One Moment in Time. 

Your Failure is Not Fatal

“Failure is not fatal, but a failure to change might be.”

John Wooden

Years ago, there was a young man named Ron who graduated from College with the goal of becoming the manager of a major department store in his home town. He was a successful college athlete, so he figured that he would apply for the open Sporting Goods Department Manager position. He left the interview with a good feeling about his chances of getting hired. 

Later that week he received a call from the hiring manager letting him know that he did not get the job. Ron was devastated. He told his mother what happened and she said, “Well son, maybe there is another plan for your life.” 

As it turns out, the plan was bigger than either of them could have imagined. The young man in the story is Ronald Reagan and many historians believe that, had he gotten the position he was seeking, he many have never become President. His failure was not fatal. 

“The faster you let it go, the faster you grow.”
Are you still holding on to a failure from your past? As your Procrastination Prevention Partner, I have discovered that an incorrect perspective on failure is one of the main causes of procrastination. Selling professionals with a goal of making six figures delay making their sales calls because a previous transaction did not go as planned. 

Business owners, who complain about not having any free time, refuse to hire their replacement because they remember the bad hiring decision they made in the past. The selling professional and business owner have one thing in common: their actions do not align with their aspirations because of how they view their failures. So how do you move forward and achieve your goals in spite of your painful past? 

Lessons Learned List
I have developed a habit of making a “lessons learned list” whenever I experience a setback. I use the memo app on my phone to list everything that I learned from the experience. The list of positive benefits is always longer than I expect. I can attribute many of my current successes to this process. 

For example, after some of my keynote speeches, people come up to me and say, “Eric, I am terrified at the thought of public speaking, but you are a natural.” The only reason I appear to be a natural is because of what I have learned from my many failures. The engagements that did not go as planned gave me the necessary experience for future achievement. Failure is the secret to my success! 

Just like Ronald Regan, you can use failure as a stepping stone to greatness. If you commit to making a lessons learned list, you will have the right perspective on your pain. You may not get an airport named after you, but you can still fly to the next level! 

Sincerely, 
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner

PS. For additional information on how to overcome procrastination, download my ebook.

The Timesaving “Key” To Your Success

“What got you here won’t get you there.”

- Marshall Goldsmith

I have a habit that drives my wife crazy. When traveling, I accidentally keep the room keys to the hotels. Being the creature of habit that I am, I tend to stay at the Hampton Inn whenever possible. On a recent trip I decided to conduct an experiment. 

I attempted to use the Hampton Inn key from my previous stay in the door of my current hotel. I slid the key and was disappointed that it did not work. The problem was that I was trying to go through a new door with an old key! If you have ever tried to get to the next level by doing what got you to where you are, you can relate to this experience. What then is the key to your success that will save time? 

Who, Why, What
Whenever I get to a new level, I ask myself three questions:

1. Who is currently on that level that has the results that I want?
2. Why are they successful?
3. What do they do that I can duplicate to get the same results?

For example, early in my career I received a promotion to District Manager of a national automotive chain with responsibility over 16 stores. The district assigned had a history of poor customer satisfaction and always ranked at the bottom of the organization in this category. 

Initially, I attempted to solve the problem by doing what made me successful as single unit manager. This resulted in several weeks of frustration and embarrassment as our customer service scores ranked last in the company! I was so frustrated that I scheduled a meeting with my boss to ask him what he thought I could do to improve. 

Instead of answering my questions, my boss asked me the following: “Who has the best customer service results in the company? Why is he successful? What does he do that you could duplicate in your District?" 

After this conversation, I contacted the top performing district manager and discovered that we were doing many of the same things to improve customer service. However, there was one method of communication that he was using with his team that I had been neglecting. Although it seemed minor, I decided to give it a try. Once I implemented his strategy, my district went from dead last, to well above the national average in customer service results within three weeks! 

Asking the Who-Why-What questions were the keys that took me to the next level. Remember, what got you here won’t get you there! If you know of someone that needs the “key”, please forward this post using the share buttons at the bottom of this post. 

Sincerely,
Eric M. Twiggs
Your Procrastination Prevention Partner

PS. For more information that will help you to save time, download my ebook.