[Think As Inc.] December 2006 Newsletter http://ezezine.com Your life is a business. You have a: MISSION: the reasons you live your life; BRAND: the message you project to the world; PRODUCT LINE: the skills and qualities that are your unique assets; BOTTOM LINE: your financial picture; CLIENT BASE: professional, personal, and don’t forget, yourself. Your life is YOUR business, and you are its CEO. IN THIS ISSUE Something to Think About: START FROM WHERE YOU ARE Something to Do: PACE AND SPRINT Inspirational Quotes: GOETHE, MARIO ANDRETTI, AND MICHELANGELO News and Upcoming Events START FROM WHERE YOU ARE We’re coming up on the first week of the New Year, a common kick-off time for all sorts of projects. Maybe you want to lose weight, get a promotion or switch careers. Even when people share the same goal, different strategies will work for each person. Losing weight requires shedding 3,500 calories per pound. That equation doesn’t change. But the process for someone losing those last stubborn pounds versus someone just starting out is very different. Therefore, whatever your goal, start from where you are. If you are new to this goal, spend your first month just practicing discipline – maintaining a routine, keeping appointments. For example, if your first month is about getting to the gym two times a week, don’t worry about what to do there. Just get to the gym two times a week faithfully. Go, even if it’s too late for the class you want and you end up standing in the lobby reading the fitness bulletin the whole time. Go, even if you end up coming right back. You are practicing the routine of getting there. Once that’s down, you can worry about what you do there. If you are already good about sticking to a plan, make sure you have plans to stick to. It takes approximately 21 days to make a habit. What is your action step each 21-30 days? If month one is getting to the gym, is month two adding a nutrition piece to the exercise routine? Is month three adding additional exercise? What about months four, five, six, etc? You may have to adjust the plan if certain steps take longer or shorter than expected, but you should have some outline to follow. If you are in the final stretch, your focus is to keep the momentum and avoid plateaus. If you have been working on a goal for a while, you might be on auto-pilot and not pushing yourself to the next level. Hire a trainer for one or two sessions to draft a new routine. Try a different area within the goal – e.g., meditation, stretching, a team sport. Perhaps you need to switch your goal for a few months. Of course, maintain what good exercise and nutrition habits you have this far, but focus the next few months on a finance or career goal. Do what you need to do to keep it fresh. PACE AND SPRINT Goals require the ability to both pace and sprint. Pacing is required because goals occur over time. You can’t lose 20 pounds in one day. You need to spread it out over weeks. Your tactics may include elements of diet and exercise, so your focus and energy needs to spread accordingly. But a sprinting mentality is also helpful. As you near the last 15 minutes of a difficult workout, it is helpful to have the drive to push yourself and the energy resources to match. If proactive career management is a goal, pacing is required to build and properly maintain your network. You’ll be burned out and wear out your welcome if you try to solidify 100 contacts in a week. Pace yourself over the year, and it becomes just two lunches a week, with some time for phone and email correspondence in-between. At the same time, some career goals require a sprinter’s strategy. If you lose your job and need a new one quickly, you need to compress your activities in a short timeframe: increase your networking frequency; work longer at the computer to research industries and companies quickly; and hustle around the city on interviews and meetings. Financial goals require both pacing and sprinting. Barring a one-time windfall, you need to pace your savings to build a nest egg. You also need to pace your withdrawals to ensure that your nest egg lasts. However, if there is opportunity to take on some overtime for extra money or if you have a large amount of debt to repay, you might adopt a sprinter’s focus. Work the extra hours for a short period of time or cut expenses dramatically in the short-term, in order to make immediate headway in your financial goal. Therefore, as you outline your goals for the coming months or years, think about where you need to pace and where you need to sprint and allocate your time and energy accordingly. Knowing when to pace means you can conserve energy and be patient. Knowing when to sprint enables you to build on momentum and avoid plateaus. INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE The things that matter most can never be at the mercy of the things that matter least. -- Johann Wolfgang Goethe If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough. – Mario Andretti The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. -- Michelangelo NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS This past November, I started coaching training with CTI (Coaches Training Institute). It was intense, inspirational and fun. In order to solidify these new techniques into my current coaching approach, I am trying to coach as many different types of people as possible over the next three months. If you are interested in a free sample coaching, please email me at cenizalevine@yahoo.com. Sessions are 20-25 minutes and conducted over the phone. All information is copyright © Caroline Ceniza-Levine 2006 www.thinkasinc.com