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Learning (7)
“We accomplish more by concentration than by fitness; the man that is apparently best suited for a place does not always fill it best. It is
the man that concentrates on its every possibility that makes an art of
both his work and his life.”
–Theron Q. Dumont
As a writer, blogger and online entrepreneur, I find that one of my biggest challenges is to remain focused. I will candidly share with you the fact that I have both ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and Dyslexia, which is a learning disability related to reading decoding, comprehension and fluency. I was fortunate enough to have an observant mother who noticed my quirky reading and ‘inventive’ writing when I was in Kindergarten, so I was tested and given special resources to help me to overcome these challenges and accommodate my peculiar learning style in the classroom.
Because I have been blessed with the gift of a dyslexic brain, I have been forced to learn how to focus my attention and to constantly course-correct when I get easily distracted. My special learning style has taught me to be very organized in my work. I create lists and spreadsheets for everything to keep all of my concurrent projects on track. Without lists to work from and keep me on task, my ADD brain would go sailing off to find something completely unrelated to occupy herself and I lose valuable time.
With that being said, many of us approach developing and running a business with our own unique set of challenges, but the ability to focus on the task at hand and bring it to a successful conclusion is a skill
that can be learned. By the time you have finished reading this blog post, you will have learned some new strategies for improving your focus so that you can increase your productivity regardless of what you are
pursuing.
Your time is your most valuable asset. Everyone on earth is given the same amount of time each day. The power is in your hands as to how you will leverage your time to create the things and the life that you
desire. The ability to focus on your goals will help you to manifest your desires.
Ask yourself these questions to help sharpen your focus:
What is distracting you from focusing on your daily tasks and goals?
From the moment you wake up in the morning your brain is filled with chatter about a million things. The power of concentration allows you to shut out those distractions that are vying for your attention so that
you can focus on the task that you have before you.
Take a look at your work environment and eliminate things that can distract you. For instance, is your desk facing a window? Do you ever find yourself staring out the window when you should be working? Move
your desk so that you are facing a wall if the window presents a distraction.
Are you distracted by the Internet when you should be focusing your attention on a particular task? If you are working on a writing project, unplug from the Internet so that you can focus on your work. If you need the Internet for a particular task open just one browser window at a time, work through that task until it complete; check it off your list and then move on to the next task.
What habits are contributing to your lack of focus?
How can you tighten up your overall work and productivity habits? Make a list of everything you must accomplish each day and create daily rituals. Create a morning routine, a framework for a workday routine and
an evening routine.
What should you be focusing on?
Every business has basic tasks that must be done to keep in running, and then there is the actual area of expertise that requires attention.
Focus on practicing and honing your area of expertise and get help with the other necessary tasks that can be done by anyone.
How to leverage your time by outsourcing so you can focus on your high value tasks.
Outsourcing or hiring someone outside of your company–typically an independent contractor–is a great way to get those essential tasks such as record keeping, email, marketing and advertising, etc. done for you so that you have more time to focus on your core strengths.
If your business is not bringing in enough money to hire a full-time person, start with hiring out just a specific task and see how much time and energy that frees up for you.
Another option is bartering services. What do you have or do that other people in your network want or need?
What can they do for you in return?
All of this leads back to the area of focusing your attention efficiently so that you can accomplish more in less time.
productivity and efficiency.
Today is the end of my 4th month of working my business online and I must say I have learnt a lot.
Meeting new people online has turned to be the most incredible thing for me. I decided to network online rather than offline because of 3 reasons.
a) I had a baby boy 5 months ago and no way no how was I WILLING to miss any single minute of him. (Just like I left Corporate America 5 yrs ago at 22 to work for myself and NEVER looked back and oh yeah..I intend to KEEP it that way). Working together with our son daily has created such great energy and drive for both myself and fiance who is also home and we are doing INCREDIBLE things online.
b) I wanted a change, no more parties for me, I had enough of the driving and out with the old in with the new.
c) Everyone is HOME and ONLINE now. Can you imagine that we have millions of people connecting online every minute? WE now have jobless people looking for online businesses...So WHY would I not take this opportunity to deliver to the people?
So far.. so new.. so good.
My first 4 months have been great. I was and still am in a learning mode, getting to know how the online world works and also the interaction process.
I have learnt that everyone HAS something they want to SELL. I also know WE ARE ALL SHOPPERS. ( Almost everyday we buy something may it be groceries, fast food, gas..we are buyers period!! whether we have to buy them, need to buy them or just buy them)
NOW HERE IS MY POINT--What I found out after those 4 months is:
a) CREATE AN ONLINE PRESENCE...you know where if someone mentions Jessica they say "Oh yeah I know her the Free Biz Networking Chat lady, the one that sells those Health and Wellness products that so and so used and got great results, felt better, no more pain, slept better, got off her meds" You know what I am saying? I have a list of about 10 women I can say I have built a relationship with (without the desire to sell to them or them to sell to me..purely and sincerely relationship building) and these women ARE definitely part of my shopping MALL since I have decided to support WAHM..no more buying from other retailers the things I can buy online from WAHM.
b) PUT OTHERS FIRST--BECOME A SERVANT-Help others without thinking of the money. Serve the community, be the first to run to help the online community. If someone is needing help with ideas and you have one, share it. I remember Luella Mills giving me a link to 10,000 Free Leads... now guys...this blew me right off the water ( I know some people who would just keep those to themselves in FEAR that if they gave them out those people would buy from the other person)..people share share share..I remember sharing the same leads that I took time to organize with others and GUESS what... and not saying it was the leads but hey one is a client and the other a team member...go out and support without thinking about YOURSELF FIRST.
c) TEAM WORK WORKS--YOU CANNOT DO IT ON YOUR OWN!--Now I am big in creating groups that gear towards the same cause. Lenisa Cooper is a perfect example. She should be applauded for her continuous efforts to REMIND PEOPLE that WE NEED TOGETHERNESS especially at this time. Many times she speaks and blogs about people getting together and getting to know each other AND that in the future leads to CREATING a big ONLINE MALL where you know FROM WHOM TO GET tupperware, candles, dish gardens, business cards, greeting cards, home decor and so forth but wait...if I never met you or even got to hear a presentation from you how will I find you? Day in day out WE MUST allow others to KNOW what we do ( Of course there is a better approach to that lol don't just invade them and bombard them with ALL YOUR SALES AND PROMOS). It is your responsibility.
d) IT TAKES TIME TO BUILD A NAME--Well one time hitting obviously has not worked for MOST of us. Mhhhhhh think about this with me. I meet 10 new people today, pitch my sale and if they don't buy they never hear from me again! What IF maybe at that time those same people, the people or person who needed you was offline on the phone and MISSED your presentation, what if that person DID NOT HAVE MONEY AT that time? Time is critical yes but we need time to build trust, we need time to get to know you so we can be comfortable enough to spend and invest in your product/service or business opportunity. I had to hear a few Send Out Cards presentations by Kim before I embarked on using them, first trying the FREE CARD and oh my WONDERS!!! I am now sold to the service. Invest the TIME to participate in the online world, blogs, comments, biz networking chats, groups and so forth. Be active don't just join to have so many on your belts.
e) LEARN THE SYSTEM--Plain and simple. The online world is easy. Just connect the dots. You can have your site displayed at many different locations in various ways. Some are FREE like backlinks that you can use in your signatures or blogs. You can also place banners in a high traffic site make sure that the pages have a ranking before paying for 10 visitors a day. I mean if you are paying then there better be some eyes right?
f) BE PATIENT---I know..I know sometimes it seems as if the one week campaign is not working and we run off to another campaign failing to realize that we need to assess each individual campaign and see which works and which doesn't and most of the time, TIME will help you determine if that campaign is a go or a drop. Don't get me wrong here sometimes you have had patience and it's still not working, and if this is the case where you have done something over and over again for a substantial amount of time which for me is 6 months (it depends on your perception of substantial amount of time) and it is not working, drop it, change it, fix it, or find a new thing.
Focusing on these 5 things for the last 4 months ONLINE have personally increased my sales and team growth by 50% I am now looking forward to an INCREDIBLE close of the year!
Well, it's 4.09 in the morning..enough of my recollection of what I learnt the last 4 months..
Wishing you success and growth in your business...
See You At The Top!
Jessica
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