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Do you walk into your office armed with an ambitious to-do list then watch the day fade away with your having not completed the tasks you’d set forth? Why aren’t you more productive? There are a myriad of reasons you’re not achieving the goals you’d set for yourself and I’m going to help you explore some of them. Before you can determine why you’re not more productive you need to measure your productivity if it was where you believe it should be and why and where you think you may be missing the mark. What does productivity mean to you? Does it mean: 1. Checking off items on a to-do list? 2. Getting out of the office “on time”? 3. Bringing in X number of new clients per week/day? 4. Generating X amount of revenue each month? To truly measure your productivity is to look at the larger picture when it comes to your personal productivity. Determine what productivity means to you and your business goals. Are you focusing on those items that are necessary to grow the business or are you more focused on checking items off a to-do list? For some entrepreneurs, the feeling of satisfaction that comes from having completed a plethora of tasks is more fulfilling than having tackled a large project that may not have an immediate pay off of ticking it off your task list. If that’s the case with you, take your large project and put it on your list – if checking off an item makes you feel productive and keeps you motivated, then don’t deny that internal feeling. Track which items are necessary to your business growth. If you spend your time on a myriad of administrative tasks to the detriment of the large business growth tasks, you need to concentrate on your highest payoff activities and not pursuing activities that will not produce results in your business. Always Prioritize Your Tasks Write down all the tasks you need to complete to grow your business. These tasks include the mundane (order office supplies) to the necessary (meet with potential clients, find speaking engagements, perform follow up calls, ask existing clients for referrals, send proposals). Once you’ve written down all of the tasks you need to perform in your business on a daily, weekly, or monthly timeframe you need to prioritize them. To prioritize you need to determine which are tasks: 1. Only you can do and nobody else can do. 2. Those you could delegate. Download my Free Delegation Exercise to help you identify more activities to delegate, by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/delegation-list-sample/. 3. Those that are money-making items. 4. Those that are urgent, but not important. 5. Those that are important but not urgent. Color code or label or otherwise denote the tasks that only you have the skills or experience or knowledge to do. Do the same with the other items on the list. You may find overlap; for example, there will be tasks that only you can do that may be important, but not urgent. Let’s explore some habits that productive entrepreneurs have, and you can implement (or implement better): 1. They cut their to-do list in half. If you’re faced with a to-do list that is overwhelming, from the start, procrastination is sure to follow. Do you truly need twenty items on your to do list in order to feel productive? Look at those items that will propel your business forward and work on those. Focus on items that truly matter to growing your business to the next level. 2. Keep the 80/20 rule in mind. This is the “rule” that 20% of the tasks you complete daily will produce 80% of your results. Take your large project, break it down into smaller tasks, then remove those tasks one-by-one until you’re at the level of the 20% of the remaining tasks that will produce your highest result. 3. Take a break. It has been scientifically proven that taking a break will refresh your brain and restart your efficiency and energy. 4. Know when your energy is at its highest and focus on your most challenging tasks at that point. 5. Determine which tasks you will work on the next day before you leave the office. Walking into the office with your day laid out ahead of you alleviates the risk of procrastination because you simply don’t know where to begin. 6. Apply effective time management principles and time block your calendar, so all your time is accounted for, for what you need to do every day to make progress on the achievement of your goals. What are your challenges to higher productivity? Do you struggle to even put your finger on why you didn’t complete what you’d had set before you? Do you find you’re focusing your energy on nonessential tasks and leaving deadline-driven and more challenging tasks until the last moment? Take time today and reach inside yourself to gain an understanding as to your productivity challenges and you will be better able to change them. You may find you simply are overwhelmed with tasks and can’t find a way to truly prioritize them. If that’s the case, you may need to find an accountability coach who can help you prioritize and regain your sense of productivity and complete those necessary activities to grow your business. Get my free audio training, Focus on Your High Pay-off Activities and Achieve Your Goals Using Effective Time Management, by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/landing/. For more help with being even more productive, so you can grow your business and accelerate your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Want more from me? Subscribe to my business success tips and resources blog by going to www.acountabilitycoach.com/blog. Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

I think you will find my guest to be helpful in helping us with our mindset, so you can break through any barriers that are holding us back from reaching our next level of success (and we all have a next level). Dr. Vic Manzo is a former Certified Pediatric Chiropractor who has become a business mindset coach. He is the author of 3 books, with his most recent being "Decoding The Matrix: Powerful Tips for Unleashing Your Potential and Accelerating Your Spiritual Awakening.” Dr. Vic helps people become aware of their limiting beliefs, habits, standards, and the stories they tell themselves. Once you are aware, he helps you reframe, change, and create beliefs that support your dream life. Here are a few questions I asked Dr. Vic that you will benefit from by listening to his interview: • First, let’s start with, how do we become aware of limiting beliefs and habits that are holding us back from reaching our true potential? • Once we are aware, what are some specific actions or steps we can take to change those limiting beliefs? • I believe strongly in the power of visualization. Talk about why and how to use the power of visualization, as you see it, please. • In your book, Decoding the Matrix, what is the matrix and why do we need to be aware of it? • Why do you think the darkness our greatest ally? You can find my interview with Vic Manzo at https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/, https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/accountabilitycoach.com/id290547573, https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id305208343, and on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe and get notified every time a new episode is released. To claim your free eBook on the Power of Visualization + 1 Week Free Practice of Mindfulness from Dr. Vic, go to www.EmpowerYourReality.com/links. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get a daily Accountability Minute single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot", by subscribing to The Accountability Minute at https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ or you can find The Accountability Minute on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. - Subscribe to my high-value short business success tips and resources Blog (https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in thttps://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) I’m author of 5 books, including Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

As a successful business owner, you probably realize how difficult it can be to make time for yourself. After all, you did start a successful business from the ground up! You are also needed to oversee the day to day functions of your business, which can really cut into personal time. You might not mind working long hours and never getting time to yourself, but there are a few ways in which such a schedule can really impact you… and one of these is in the realm of fitness and physical health. There are a number of good reasons to stay physically active, fit, and healthy… and I’m going to talk about five of them. There may be more good reasons (many more, actually), but these are probably five of the most important. Taking these five reasons into account will DEFINITELY help you to see that it is in your own best interest to stay in good physical condition. 1… You Will Improve Your Overall Health Eating right and exercising helps you in a lot of ways, and keeping you healthy is at the top of them! If you don’t eat right and naturally replenish your body’s energy and rebuild your immune system, you are going to have far less energy and be far more susceptible to diseases and sicknesses then you would otherwise. By exercising, you will get your body up and moving, which will decrease your odds of developing conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Three of the most IMPORTANT things that you can give your body to ensure that you will be as healthy as possible are… 1. Adequate sleep 2. Nutritious foods 3. Daily physical exercise 2… You Will Lose Weight and Keep it Off Exercise and a healthy diet will also help you to shed those unwanted pounds that you have wanted to get rid of. Losing weight is important if you are overweight, but even if you aren’t, it is important to remember that sitting at a desk all day (as a lot of business owners do) can quickly work against your natural metabolism and cause you to gain weight. Getting at least 20 minutes of exercise per day, and eating sensible with well-rounded meals (most of the time) can greatly reduce the risks of you gaining more weight than is healthy or beneficial. 3… You Will Have More Energy Another great reason to take care of your body through exercise and a healthy diet is that you will have a lot more energy when you do so. Do you drink a lot of soda? Do you drink enough water every day? Do you fail to exercise on a daily basis? Just cutting out sugary drinks and adding 15-20 minutes of exercise will make a WORLD of difference for your energy level! You will not BELIEVE how much better you will feel when you can make consistently healthy choices for yourself. 4… You Will be Able to Focus Better Do you ever have trouble focusing on your work? Adding healthy foods to your diet (especially fresh greens, nuts, and berries) can dramatically improve your ability to perform on a mental level. Plus, throwing in a workout 2 to 3 times per week can make these improvements even more pronounced. Don’t feel like you have time to work out? Even a brief walk around the block on your lunch break can help you to clear your head, so you can think more clearly and maybe even differently! Getting fresh air is good for you, and the exercise will get your brain chemicals flowing differently than they were before. Consider having organic nuts, an apple, and healthy snacks at your desk so you can eat some in between meals. Doing this can increase your metabolism. 5… You Will be More Confident Confidence is incredibly important to any entrepreneur, which is why it is definitely a good reason to start eating better and exercising more frequently! The better you feel about your body, the more confident you will be… and exercising definitely plays a role in this process. When you exercise, you will automatically be improving how you look in your own eyes, which can be a very valuable experience if you usually have trouble feeling good about yourself. You will feel better, more likeable, and happier when you take time to take care of yourself during the week. Eating right and staying active are INCREDIBLY important to your overall health! Don’t skip out on them! Make sure that you give yourself at least a little bit of time every day to exercise and grab a granola bar instead of a donut in the morning. Little choices often make the biggest differences, and you OWE it to yourself to see the benefits of healthy and positive life choices that have to do with your health and physical well-being. All my clients have a health and fitness goal; however, they weren’t really tracking their fitness to know what they actually have done so they can measure their progress. At the time there were no fancy online tracking systems, so many years ago I created a very simple tracking spreadsheet that they could use to monitor their activity toward their goals. If you would like a simple system to help you track your actual activity, download my complimentary exercise to help you be even more focused so you can achieve your goals by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/fitness-health-training-activity-tracking/. When I created this simple tracking spreadsheet there weren’t any online health and fitness programs. Today, there are many online programs for you to use if you prefer these instead of my simple excel spreadsheet, Some online programs you can check out, if you want to enhance your fitness and health are: https://www.sparkpeople.com/, https://www.loseit.com/, https://www.fitday.com/, https://www.myfitnesspal.com/, https://fitness4.me, https://www.absdietonline.com. Of course, there are many other options, if you want more. Pick the one that works best for you and consistently use it. For more help with growing your business and accelerating your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Want more from me? Subscribe to my business success tips and resources blog by going to www.acountabilitycoach.com/blog. Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

The most successful entrepreneurs have a foundation of creating good habits or setting up a system to make tiny changes that deliver big results. With everything you have to do each day, your time is very precious, and it’s incredibly important for you to be intentional with each minute that you have. Creating daily habits will not only help your efficiency, it will also help you to grow and become a better person over time. Here are ten habits of successful entrepreneurs that you can implement into your daily life or implement even better. 1. Create a Routine When you have a set routine, you know what comes next and don’t need to spend time figuring out how to make the most of your day. Start with a set morning routine, whether that’s exercising in the morning, taking the dog for a walk, enjoying breakfast with your family, or going straight into your workday. If you’re a morning person, your routine might start with a 6am jog, breakfast, and coffee while you read a motivational blog or watch a YouTube video. Whatever your routine, stick to it for success that lasts. 2. Use Time Blocking for Ultimate Productivity Time blocking is the act of scheduling out each moment of your day on your calendar (https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/how-to-increase-your-business-efficiency-with-calendar-time-blocks/). You can set aside time for your morning workout, a time for emails (which I strongly recommend is not first thing in the morning), or a time to work on the vision for your company. By focusing on each activity during a specific time block, you can and will increase your productivity, rather than being pulled in many directions. Did you know that some of the most productive people in the world swear by time blocking? Ever heard of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Michael Hyatt, or Cal Newport? Yep – all time-blockers. They’re squeezing every drop of productivity from their days, and so can you. 3. Push Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone The most successful entrepreneurs are constantly pushing themselves out of their comfort zones. Make a habit of going out of your comfort zone, whether it’s saying yes to things you normally wouldn’t, or taking something just one step farther. Do something that scares you—if you have a healthy relationship with fear, you will grow as both an individual and a successful entrepreneur. 4. Break Down Large Goals into Smaller Goals When you create habits for yourself, you want to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success. You can do so by breaking down large goals into smaller, more achievable ones. In fact, sometimes even the smallest changes lead to the biggest results. Bigger goals can be intimidating, but setting and reaching smaller goals can give you a sense of accomplishment that propels you forward. Track your progress along the way, and tweak your goals from a micro-level as you learn from the process. 5. Practice Daily Gratitude Practicing gratitude should be a part of your daily routine as a successful entrepreneur. It can have a positive effect on your energy, your resilience, and ultimately, your business. Studies have shown that practicing gratitude can lead to positive emotional and physical health, which can lead to greater productivity. It is a mindset that needs to be cultivated regularly, and you can do so by keeping a gratitude journal, expressing gratitude daily to team members, clients, family, friends, or peers, and appreciating the people that have helped get you to where you are today. To download my complimentary Gratitude Journal Exercise, go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/gratitude/. 6. Set Boundaries Setting boundaries is a habit that may take more time for some more than others to practice. It’s not always easy, but it can show you where your energy is best spent. Your boundaries may range from not checking your phone too often, to deciding how much time to speed on one task versus others. Once your boundaries are defined and set, you can more clearly see the priorities and goals needed for your success. 7. Invest in Your Team While investing in your team financially is a great practice, it’s even more important to invest in the well-being of your team. Take time to check in on your team members each day and be transparent about what you’re working on, especially if providing context will help set them up for success. A truly motivated team is one that knows with absolute certainty that their leader is behind them 100 percent. 8. Set Aside Time for Creative Thinking A great habit to practice is setting aside time for creative thinking. One of the best things you can do for yourself and your business is to allow space and time to innovate, without taking immediate action. When you’re blocking time on your calendar, set aside a few hours each week to think about your vision for your business, other companies you can collaborate with, and the initiatives you think will lead to greater success. 9. Stay Physically Active Studies show that regular exercise can increase happiness and improve your energy levels and overall mental health. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs, including Sir Richard Branson and Tim Cook, include exercise among their daily habits. Exercising can also increase creativity and give you the energy needed to tackle the mountains of tasks you have throughout the day. 10. Never Stop Learning Curiosity is an underrated key to success, and it’s important to never stop learning. When you’re learning new things, you’re constantly generating new ideas or innovative solutions to problems. Having a growth mindset allows you to find success by learning from your mistakes and improving upon them. It also helps you to welcome new challenges and increases your resilience to failure. When you never stop learning, you increase your own potential for growth and increased success. Start simple and don’t try to change your life overnight. Choose several of these habits and commit to doing them daily (or doing them even better than you are doing them now), and then increase the length of time you are practicing them. When you make the habits easier to achieve in the beginning, you may experience a rush of dopamine as you accomplish them each day, which will lead to a cycle of continuing to do them until they actually become habits you incorporate naturally into your life. For more help with growing your business and accelerating your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Want more from me? Subscribe to my business success tips and resources blog by going to www.acountabilitycoach.com/blog. Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

I think you will find my guest to be a great resource in helping you to be an even better communicator, so you can be even more successful and be on the path to having your ideal business and ideal life. Brenden Kumarasamy is the founder of MasterTalk. He coaches ambitious executives and entrepreneurs to become great communicators in their industry and in their life. He has a popular YouTube channel called MasterTalk, with the goal of providing free access to communication tools everyone can use. Here are just a few of the questions I asked Brenden that you will benefit from by listening to his interview: • Communication is critical if we want to get anywhere in business and in life. So, what do world class communicators do to be world class? • What should we start practicing tomorrow for being even better communicators? • What daily exercises can we use to practice effective communication? • If we have call reluctance, what would we need to know to be better at communicating with prospective clients? • I have clients who say they don’t want to be salesy in how they communicate. How do we communicate in a way that isn’t salesy when we feel this way, even though we might not be salesy? • How can we communicate even better in a virtual situation or environment to a few people and to a group of people in a live environment? • How would our written communication be different than our verbal communication to be effective? • Any advice on how to communicate even better if you're introverted? • There is I focused language and YOU focused language when communicating. For example, when someone asks you what you do, most people say, I do this, We do that, Our firm does this, etc. You focused language would say something like, When you work with us, you will experience ____, You will enjoy having ____, People who work with us experience ____, In order for you to get the best experience in our time together ____, The next logical step for you is to ____. Any thoughts on what language (I, We, You) is better to use and when? You can find my interview with Brenden at https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/, https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/accountabilitycoach.com/id290547573, https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id305208343, and on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe and get new episodes as they are released. Take advantage of Brenden’s free 90-minute training on effective communication over Zoom every few weeks. It's LIVE and interactive, it is not a webinar. Brenden coaches a number of people for free on the call directly. Here are some topics that he covers: 1. How to Present Succinctly 2. How to Run Effective Meetings 3. How to Master Presentation Confidence 4. How to Present Yourself Effectively in Any Setting To participate in Brenden’s FREE session, go to https://www.rockstarcommunicator.com/. Subscribe and get notified every time a new episode is released. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get a daily Accountability Minute single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot", by subscribing to The Accountability Minute at https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ or you can find The Accountability Minute on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. - Subscribe to my high-value short business success tips and resources Blog (https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in thttps://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) I’m author of 5 books, including Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

Making sure your business has systems in place to withstand cyberattacks is one of the most important actions you need to do. As a business owner, you have an obligation to protect your company’s sensitive information, as well as your clients’ information. The Equifax data breach of 2017 exposed the personal data of millions of people. As a result, Equifax had to pay $700 million in settlement fees. This is just one of many unfortunate examples. Smaller businesses may be even easier targets, which is why it’s very important to have a solid cybersecurity strategy in place. If you’re not sure where to start, let’s review 6 tips to help you increase your company’s cybersecurity to protect your business. 1. Use Secure Passwords and Multi-factor Authentication Not only should you have a strong password to sign into the various platforms and software that your business uses, it’s also good practice to change those passwords regularly and use multi-factor authentication. Longer passwords are better—at least 8 characters, with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Passwords can be hacked with automated software that tries every possible combination, so the longer your password is, the more combinations it has to try. Multi-factor authentication is when you need a password and an additional step. It’s also called two-step verification. This reduces the likelihood of a successful attack because there is additional information needed. Typically, this is a code sent to the user’s cell phone, or a code generated by a two-factor authentication (2FA) app such as Authy. You can use a password manager to manage the various passwords for your accounts, so you’re not reusing the same one, or having to try and remember all the passwords you have for all your accounts. If one account gets hacked, then any other account using the same password can also more easily get hacked. And whatever you do, avoid using the word “password” as your password at all costs. There are many password manger options. Some are: • Dashlane • LastPass • LogMeOnce • Keeper • NordPass • Bitwarden • RememBear • 1Password • PasswordBoss • Enpass • RoboForm • ZohoVault • TrueKey 2. Secure Your Wi-Fi Network Make sure your Wi-Fi is secure and hidden. While your router typically comes with a pre-set password, make sure to change it immediately to something more secure. Additionally, if you offer free Wi-Fi to your guests, create a separate guest network with a different password, so they don’t have access to your company’s network. You’re ultimately responsible for what people do on your network. By securing your guest network with a password, you can control who has access to it and make sure you’re not opening up your business to considerable risks. Also check that encryption is enabled on your router. Encryption provides data security for sensitive information, and enabling it scrambles plain text that’s sent or stored on the web into unreadable, or “cipher text.” Once it’s sent to the end user, the text is unscrambled, or decrypted. If you’re out of the office or in a public area, avoid using the free Wi-Fi network. As tempting as it may be to check your email at the airport, there are a lot of potential risks that come with a free public network, such as opening yourself up to hackers. Look for a network that’s secured with a strong password, and if you can’t find one and absolutely need to hop online, use your phone as a temporarily private hotspot. 3. Backup Your Data Regularly If your system gets hacked, not only will others gain access to sensitive information, but you may lose access to your own data. Backing up your data regularly to the cloud will still give you access to it if anything happens. Ransomware attacks happen by locking you out of your data and preventing access until you pay a ransom fee. If you have a recent copy of your data, you don’t need to worry about getting that information back. How often you backup your data depends on your business and how much information you’re storing. At the very least, you should back it up after any important task has been completed. Some backup service options are: • https://www.carbonite.com/en/ • https://mozy.com/ • www.mypcbackup.com • www.justcloud.com • www.backupgenie.com • www.zipcloud.com • www5.ibackup.com • www.crashplan.com • www.sosonlinebackup.com • https://www.idrive.com/index.html 4. Create Separate User Accounts for Each Team Member As much as you’d love to retain your team members for as long as possible, the time will sometimes come for them to move on. Hopefully that’s on good terms, but in case it’s not, it’s always safer to make sure you can easily delete their individual user accounts. Having separate user accounts also helps keep track of version history, or who makes changes to what. If anything ever happens to your files or data, you’ll be able to track who the last person to make the changes was so you can restore the files. Make sure that when your employees are setting up their user accounts, they understand how to set up a strong password. 5. Encrypt Any Data Sent Via Email Cybersecurity training should be part of any new employee onboarding. This includes training employees on the types of data to send or not to send through email. Any sensitive information, such as login information and passwords, credit card information, or social security information, should never be sent through email. Tools such as Enigmail are useful security tools to encrypt your email. Never email any confidential information to anyone via email. Passwords can be sent through software such as LastPass. The same way you wouldn’t want to send sensitive information on a postcard for everyone to see, you should be cautious about what you send through email in case you get hacked. 6. Implement Anti-Virus Software and Firewalls Anti-virus software and firewalls block malicious software from getting into and infecting your computer. They guard your system from any suspicious activity or users trying to make contact with it. It’s like a security guard, making sure only the people on your approved list are let in. VPNs mask your identity on the internet and protect your location and online activities. A VPN is like a middleman—when you go to a site, the site sees the VPN’s IP address, not your own personal IP address. You get what you pay for, so it’s a good idea to pay for a VPN service instead of going with a free one. A decent VPN can cost you between $5-$12 per month, which is a small price to pay for added security. Anti-virus software can protect your computer from things like spyware, adware, or trojan horses. Firewalls, on the other hand, protect your network from suspicious traffic. Together, you have the best chance of fighting cyberattacks from various angles. A few anti-virus software options are: • McAfee • Norton • Total AV • Surfshark • Kaspersky • Bitdefender • AURA • Panda • Avira If you don’t already have a cybersecurity strategy in place, now’s the time to implement one. Take a look at the systems you have and get a sense of what needs to be done to protect them from all angles, whether that’s using two-factor authentication, backing up your data regularly, using a VPN, implementing anti-virus software, or encrypting any sensitive information sent over email. It’s your job as a business owner to protect your company and its assets from cyberattacks. Putting in the work now and having the proper tools to build resilience to threats will definitely pay off. For more help with growing your business and accelerating your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

It's Friday afternoon, the clock is ticking, and your fingers are jumping from one key to the other. You're working furiously, your five o'clock deadline is nearing, and the weekend is just around the corner. But you've still got so much to do and less than an hour to finish. You silently curse yourself for not starting sooner. So, what happened? How did you end up running out of time? Well, there were hours you spent scrolling through social media, your multiple coffee breaks, re-reading emails, and completing tasks that you could've started later. Procrastination haunts all of us. We're all guilty of procrastinating and saying, 'I'll do it later,' or 'I'll start in a while.' But the negative impacts of procrastinating can steal dreams, cause missed opportunities, and even destroy lives. Some people are lucky enough to pinpoint their tendency to procrastinate and how much it holds them back. Let’s discuss how procrastination can wreck your dreams and how you can combat it. The Origins of the Procrastination is the Thief of Time Often, Charles Dickens gets the credit for coining the term 'procrastination is the thief of time.' However, the truth is that Dickens popularized the proverb by putting it into the mouth of Mr. Micawber. In 1850, Mr. Micawber said, 'My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.' While Mr. Micawber became a widely quoted character for pronouncing the proverb' procrastination is the thief of time,' he was hardly original. In reality, the phrase is an adage created by English writer Edward Young. Young wrote a 10,000-line poem known as 'The Complaint' or 'Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality or simply 'Night-Thoughts.' In this extensive poem, the poet muses over death over the courses of nine' nights,' i.e., nine sections. Young's use of the proverb 'procrastination is the thief of time' goes beyond caution against putting things off. Instead, the poet suggests that time wasted procrastinating one thing is time wasted doing nothing of any consequence. It goes to say that if we delay filling our taxes by arranging our spices alphabetically, the fact remains that we should have done something of far more importance. How Does the Proverb Describe 'Procrastination'? Edward Young describes a procrastinator as someone who procrastinates in doing things at the right time and finds themselves in situations where they had little time to complete the task. Typically, people procrastinate because: • The task is long and complicated. • The activity is tedious and not important. • They prefer doing their pleasurable activities. • They have a careless attitude and believe that nothing wrong will happen if they miss their deadline. • They are over-confident and think that they have enough time/competency to complete the task. • They do it as a result of peer pressure and fear mockery or ridicule if they hand in work early. • They do it due to pure laziness. Why is Procrastination the Thief of Time? 'Procrastination,' deferring a task or putting something off, is the 'thief of time' because you waste time by delaying tasks. This hypothesis potentially embraces two meanings: you are wasting time when you could have accomplished what you need to achieve. And that all procrastination is time-wasting. Let's discuss the top common examples of procrastination: • Someone who spends several days thinking about starting an essential assignment, thus they have to rush to finish work in a hasty and stressful manner. • A person who wastes months before approaching the person they're romantically interested in, thus missing their chance to enter a relationship with them. • Someone who wastes years before starting a project they're passionate about, thus struggling with guilt and shame. • A student who wastes the whole year not studying. According to an insightful study, up to 95% of all people procrastinate to some degree. And with approximately 25% of adults considering procrastination as a defining personality trait, it's no wonder it can be a thief of time that causes various other issues. Another study encompassing over 22,000 employees found that workers in different jobs have different procrastinating habits: ● High Procrastination Jobs- Legal secretaries, library assistants, food servers, sales representatives, and customer service administrators tend to procrastinate the most ● Moderate Procrastination Jobs- Photographers, lawyers, general operation managers, and creative writers often procrastinate ● Low Procrastination Jobs- Chief executives, loan officers, librarians, and economists procrastinate the least Why is Procrastination Bad? Let’s take a Closer Look at the Downsides. Procrastination can lead to you missing out on incredible opportunities due to temporary enjoyment. In general, procrastination affects some sectors of your life, such as: • Employment and financial issues • Interpersonal issues • Reduced wellbeing • Worsening of mental and physical health • Delay in getting help • Increased future procrastination • Academic issues Now let's discuss the negative side-effects of procrastination. It can cause: Loss of Time Procrastination makes you realize that you've lost valuable time you could've spent chasing your dreams and achieving your goals. What about Lost Opportunities? Every person I know regretted not taking advantage of an opportunity when it was relevant. In most cases, the underlying cause is procrastination. And the harsh truth is that most opportunities only come by once. Putting Off What Needs to be Done Likely Results in a Poor Product Some people believe that procrastinating motivates them to perform the best. Although it is true for some people, it isn't always the outcome. Completing your essential project at the last minute will probably cause poorer results. What about You Adding Tasks to Other People's Workload No one enjoys getting extra work dumped on them due to another employee's failures. It results in resentment, adds to an employee's workload, and even causes feelings of anxiety. Let's discuss some ways you can stop procrastinating: 1. Make your environment clutter-free and remove distractions to increase your productivity. 2. Arrange some immediate reward you'll receive when you manage to start work. 3. Identify the steps you can take to get started. 4. Figure out what's causing you to procrastinate, think through the causes, and work to resolve them. 5. Keep a prioritized to-do list to avoid forgetting important tasks. 6. Tackle the most challenging task during peak productivity hours. The Bottom Line Procrastination can lead to various academic, employment, financial, and interpersonal issues. Not just this, but procrastination can cause decreased wellbeing, worsen mental health, and make it difficult for you to get appropriate help. Avoid procrastinating and be proactive. For more help on reducing procrastination, so you can create your ideal business and ideal life, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

Time management skills and external obligations have been known to be directly linked to productivity. What many professionals don’t know is that your habits also have a direct impact on your productivity. Regardless of how well you plan out your long-term and short-term goals, ensuring that every activity is carried out effectively and efficiently while rejecting distractions and intrusions, is an important step. When running a business, it is easy to ignore the small habits that bite into your time. The assumption that taking a few minutes every day to indulge in these small habits won’t affect your general productivity is a dangerous notion for busy business professionals and entrepreneurs. The value of these negligible minutes adds up to a significant number of hours that can be felt weekly, monthly, and even yearly. When studying the efficiency and productivity of the year, the collective minutes or hours allocated to these small habits could have been utilized effectively to improve your business’ performance. Let’s explore 5 small habits that secretly affect your productivity. 1. Failing to Plan Your Day Many times, you may want to wing it. Take the day as it comes. When thinking of facing your daily challenges by writing it out and planning ahead with specific time blocks, you may choose to forgo this part of your day and attend to activities as they come. This small habit has a much larger impact on your productivity than you can even begin to fathom. This is because by failing to plan your day ahead, you cannot organize and prioritize your daily activities; therefore, not being as productive as you can and need to be. This leads to overwhelm, postponed tasks, lack of focus, multiple intrusions, and distractions that greatly affect your productivity and overall efficiency. 2. Continuously Checking Your Emails Emailing is one of the preferred choices of communication amongst businesses and their clients, partners, and suppliers alike. Due to its ability to instantly search and receive messages, emails remain a trusted mode of communication to keep you informed at all times. The challenge business professionals face with emails is that continuously checking emails has become a habit that chews away at a lot of your very valuable time. Sometimes, you can spend hours searching and refreshing your emails and responding to emails and messages. Doing this continuously has a negative impact on your productivity. Though it is important to be informed, utilize an important time management skill like time blocking to help you check your emails and function at an optimal level. Section an hour or a few minutes of your day to check your emails. This can be done either once in the morning, around 11:00, is what I recommend, and then around 4:00pm to be on top of your inbox. Doing this helps you focus on more important tasks and significantly improves your productivity. 3. Checking Social Media Social media is now more than a way to view memes, gifs, and videos. It has transformed into a platform that benefits businesses at every turn, when managed properly. As an entrepreneur, you may be handling your social media by yourself. The only challenge with this is that checking your social media can be a slippery slope, as you might already know. You may open any of your platforms to reply to a message or just to take a look at your insights or performance for a minute. This can quickly devolve into hours of watching funny videos, liking posts, and jumping from page to page, and one attraction to another. Instead of doing this, simply turn off all your social media notifications and put your phone out of sight. When you do this, you can focus on the most important high payoff tasks you have to handle to move your business forward. Strictly follow the allotted time block when you handle your social media services. Once the time allotted is up, put your device away or close the apps or tabs and turn your focus to other tasks. This will help you improve your productivity. If you are the only one to do social media marketing, time block when you will do this activity. I recommend not during prime time, of course. Ideally, you can hire this activity to someone else who is an expert. 4. Planning Without Time Blocks Time blocking is revered as one of the essential time management skills due to its efficiency and ease of use. Time blocking deals with scheduling tasks in specific hours of the day and undertaking them only during their scheduled time frames. When you plan without time blocks, there is a higher chance that your one task may not get done or may extend through hours of the day which will cause delayed tasks and outright cancellations of important decisions that may affect your business. Planning without time blocks strictly affects your organization and time management skills that negatively impact your business’ performance. Everyone in your firm needs to be good at time blocking their tasks and activities and it will make everyone even more productive. 5. Planning Long Meetings To improve productivity and keep your eyes on your goals, it is important to plan meetings to understand each team’s activities towards achieving the overall organization’s goals. Meetings also help you inform your employees of new decisions, update them on important notices and changes that affect their activities, and keep you updated on other items. The challenges businesses face with planning long meetings are that: • Most of the items can be attended to in one email • It leaves employees feeling drained and uninterested • Simply planning long meeting takes valuable time • Long meetings consume valuable time and have a huge impact on productivity Optimize your time by utilizing short, stand-up huddles to inform your employees and receive crucial feedback. People can’t get too comfortable when they are standing up. It will help to make the meetings short and to the point. Come to each meeting with a very specific agenda and have team members bring an agenda, so time is utilized effectively. To download my complimentary meeting agenda and action item worksheet template, go to https://bit.ly/MeetingAgendaActionsTemplate. Getting rid of these small habits that negatively impact your productivity can set you on a path to success faster and at an accelerated pace. Cut out one habit every week to see its impact on your productivity and the team’s productivity in a short time. For more help on increasing your productivity and your firm’s productivity, reach out to me today to schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

I think you will find my guest to be a person who loves to help people get RESULTS, and knows which habits bring success and results. Blaine Oelkers is a TEDx Speaker and leading authority in personal implementation and consistency. He is America’s only Chief Results Officer®. He’s a habit master with documented streaks of 1,485 days in a row and counting! Blaine graduated from Purdue University and Stanford University’s Social Entrepreneurship Program. He co-authored 3 books. He is powered by Selfluence, which is a personal development and training company. He is excited to share with you ways you can take control of your life by taking control of yourself. Here are a few of the questions I asked Blaine that you will benefit from by listening to his interview: • You are called the Chief Results Officer. What are the specific habits we need to implement that will consistently bring us successful results? • The different types of Results Machines™ - Making your results automatic. • You talk about a 30 Minute Hour. Is it really possible to get an hour's worth of important activities done in just 30 minutes? If so, tell us how to do this please! • I believe we can change a habit the first time we decide to and it doesn’t have to take 21 days. How do you suggest we create new habits in 21 seconds instead of 21 days? • If you could distill all of personal development down to a single sentence what would that be? • Share with us the secrets to unlock the full power of our mind. WYTAYBA™ - What You Think About You Bring About • Most of us who have been around the business world for a minute, have read or at least heard of the book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. If you haven’t, you need to read this book. Blaine, you have your own version Think and Grow Rich – how is that different than other versions? Watch Blaine's TEDx talk and learn one simple and elegant results technique which activates your mind with your top goal over 100 times a day! Watch it now by going to https://blainetedx.com/. You can find my interview with Blaine Oelkers at https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/, https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/accountabilitycoach.com/id290547573, https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id305208343, and on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe and get notified every time a new episode is released. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get a daily Accountability Minute single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot", by subscribing to The Accountability Minute at https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ or you can find The Accountability Minute on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. - Subscribe to my high-value short business success tips and resources Blog (https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in thttps://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) I’m author of 5 books, including Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

Every businessperson typically follows some kind of routine. Whether this routine means getting out of bed at the same time every day, taking a hike every weekend, or simply going to the same place for their coffee. Routines are created to give order in a disorganized world. It brings clarity and focus to your daily life. It also provides the absolute satisfaction of having laid-out steps and processes to follow every day. Routines feel like a planned-out day where everything is scheduled to go ahead without a hitch. Successful entrepreneurs make use of routines in their lives. This has helped them organize their activities, improve their productivity, and give them a clear and uncluttered focus of their life and business goals. To align your business goals with your daily activities and tasks, these are 6 routines of highly successful entrepreneurs you can emulate. 1. Morning Routine Do you have a morning routine? Do you wake up early in the morning, or do you sleep late into the morning? Most successful entrepreneurs wake up very early in the morning and have a morning routine. It can be meditating, exercising, or having a leisurely breakfast. A routine can be responding to emails, or reading business memos and industry updates, which I don’t recommend you do first thing after waking up. It can also be reviewing and planning their time blocks and scheduling other activities for the day. When you get up early, you have the advantage of being aware of an unencumbered peace and quiet. This can allow you to focus on personal or business activities without interruption. It also allows you to be available and ahead of demands. Having a morning routine also helps you feel confident and focused on the challenges the day may bring. 2. No Limit on Workdays Though it is very important to have rest days, successful entrepreneurs are known to work when they don’t have to. Weekends blur into holidays and vacation days blur into workdays for many successful businesspeople. This shows that they are highly focused and committed to the tasks that they are ready to achieve. They have no set limitation on a day and are set to work whenever inspiration strikes. Carry a notepad and a pen to jot down innovative ideas that may strike when you are doing something unrelated to work, or take notes on your phone (whichever works the best for you). The best ideas cannot be controlled and confined to a specific time slot. 3. Challenging Tasks are Handled First Successful entrepreneurs typically handle more challenging tasks first. Unlike most business professionals who procrastinate on the important tasks and handle all the easy tasks first, high achievers understand the benefits of handling challenging tasks first. Most people start the day with smaller tasks such as emails, messages, memos, easy client service tasks, etc. However, the mornings are when the brain is at its peak for most people. When they decide to handle the more challenging tasks, the brain is working at a less optimal rate which easily causes exhaustion and lesser quality results. Handle your challenging tasks when your brain is working at its peak. By doing this, you can formulate better plans, make better decisions, solve complex problems, and generate creative ideas to set your business on its path to even greater success. Brian Tracy wrote a book called Eat That Frog. “Eat that frog!” basically means to start your day with the biggest, most important, and most dreaded task. It's also the task you are most likely to procrastinate on. Brian Tracy is also about disciplining yourself to eat that frog first thing in the morning every single day. 4. Calendar Time Blocking Practice Instead of planning your personal and business activities in different calendars, successful entrepreneurs make use of calendar time blocking practices that comprise planning all their activities in one place. Online planners and calendar schedulers make it easy to practice this routine. Since they can be easily accessed from multiple devices, this type of scheduling is the preferred choice for successful entrepreneurs and allows them to be as productive as possible. Did you know that some of the most productive people in the world swear by time blocking? Ever heard of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Michael Hyatt, or Cal Newport? Yep – all time-blockers. They’re squeezing every drop of productivity from their days, and you can do the same. 5. Rest after Tasks are Completed It is one thing to have tasks to complete. It is another when you can take a break after these tasks are completed. Successful entrepreneurs understand the benefits of resting after tasks are completed. They understand that the brain needs to rest and refuel. There is also the satisfaction and motivation of completing tasks efficiently and successfully. If you are challenged and often feel overwhelmed by all the work you have to do, set a small reward at the end of each completed task or every 90 minutes. This can help increase focus knowing that you get a break. The break can be meditation, a short walk around the building, a power nap, or whatever will give your brain a quick rest to rejuvenate. 6. They Value Teamwork Successful entrepreneurs understand the value of teamwork. They understand that different people have different strengths and weaknesses, and the right team can make up for each other’s flaws. When you understand that you cannot go at it alone and achieve your goals, you gain important teamwork skills such as active listening, delegating, and compromise. Successful entrepreneurs understand that being successful has little to do with being independent but harmoniously utilizing valuable skills from different people. Modify or change your routines today by adopting these routines from successful entrepreneurs that are sure to change your life and your business, so you can more quickly be even more successful. If you want to be even more successful, reach out to me today to schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

It’s all about perspective. Whether you’re facing a business challenge or a physical one, having the right mindset can determine how successful you are. In fact, studies by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck have shown that the power of mindset lies in whether you have a fixed or growth mindset. A fixed mindset is the belief that you are who you are, and nothing can change that. This encompasses a level of intelligence, talents, and creative abilities. When you have a fixed mindset, it may lead to feelings of failure if you don’t think you are smart enough or capable enough to handle the obstacles that you will inevitably face as a business owner. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is the perspective that you can continue to learn and adapt to different situations that may arise. Even if you fail, you tend to learn from those failures and turn them into future successes. People with growth mindsets are curious and actively seek to keep learning, a characteristic that is necessary for success. While a growth mindset is more conducive to a successful business, it’s not always easy to change your mindset. The first step in changing how you view yourself and the world around you is identifying what limiting beliefs you may have that are holding you back. What is a limiting belief? A limiting belief is a false belief that something is impossible based on one’s own limitations and abilities. Limiting beliefs often keep you from pursuing or setting bigger goals for your business and is a mindset that can hold you back from reaching your potential. Here are five examples of limiting beliefs that you can identify and overcome. 1. “I can’t compete with [INSERT a COMPETITOR for you].” Maybe your product or service isn’t the first of its kind. There may be hundreds or thousands of competitors out there. But guess what—none of those are founded by YOU. When you focus on how to do something better than your competitors in the same way they’re doing them, you lose out on the potential to be uniquely you and attract clients who connect with your voice and brand. There’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition. But take a step back and ask yourself, are you motivated by your competitors, or do you feel defeated by them before you’ve even started? If it’s the latter, here are some strategies for fostering healthy competition and using it as fuel: • Delegate competitor research to someone on your team. Let a team member analyze the competition and deliver insights that are useful to your business. That way, you can benefit from the end results without feeling discouraged and without comparing yourself to others. • Ignore the competition. Maybe not the most common business advice, but by ignoring what others are doing, you’re creating a space for yourself to truly focus on how you want to grow your business, your way. • Compete with yourself instead. The healthiest competition is one with yourself. Set incremental goals for your business, and once you reach them, celebrate, and then set higher goals! 2. “I’m not an expert in that field.” Imposter syndrome is something that everybody faces at some point in their lives, usually more than once. Who are you to speak about your industry when you don’t know everything there is to know about it? And yet, you may know more than you think in any given scenario! The trick is to adapt to a growth mindset and never stop learning. If you learn something new that contradicts what you’ve said in the past, be transparent and share what you’ve learned. It doesn’t make you any less respectable—in fact, many people have increased respect for people willing to admit they were wrong. 3. “I should be able to figure this out by myself.” Delegating tasks can be scary because that means relinquishing some control of your business. As you grow, however, it’s necessary to learn how to delegate to others, and your business will be better off for it. Take stock of your strengths and weaknesses. Use your strengths to push your business forward, and delegate areas of weakness to someone else who sees it as a strength. Your time will be better spent on things you are good at, and you definitely don’t need to be good at everything. Download my Free Delegation List Sample Exercise to help you identify more activities to delegate, by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/delegation-list-sample/. 4. “My product/service needs to be perfect before launch.” As Winston Churchill said, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” The more time you take to perfect your product or service before launching it, the less confident you may feel in launching it at all. Other negative effects may include lower team morale overall and more pressure felt to attain perfection because of the boss’ example. Once you’re aware of your perfectionist tendencies, you can reframe your mindset and approach it with a learning mindset. Learn from the imperfections and make some adjustments based on feedback. Your business will be more successful for it. 5. “I can’t show weakness to my team members.” Being vulnerable is not considered a weakness—it’s what makes us human. While you may feel the need to put on a front of overconfidence and knowing everything, it can actually create a company culture of dissatisfaction and toxic hierarchy between you and the rest of your team. Demonstrating vulnerability increases the approachability of a leader and can create more engagement across your business. A good leader knows that they can’t succeed alone and knows when to ask for help. Limiting beliefs do just that—they limit your potential, your company’s success, your ability to grow as an individual and as a leader. What are your limiting beliefs? How do they hold you back? Write down what your own limiting beliefs are, so you can be empowered to break them down and cultivate a growth mindset that will propel your company forward to your next level of success. For help with overcoming limiting beliefs, you can always reach out to me and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

I think you will find my two guests to be inspirational to you on your goal achievement journey to creating the kind of business and life you truly want. John and Mark Cronin are the father-son team who founded John’s Crazy Socks. John is an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, a speaker, an athlete, and a dancer, who just happens to have Down syndrome. John was the first person with Down syndrome to be named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year. You may know them because John became “Sock Buddies” with President George H.W. Bush. Or you may know them for having grown a bootstrapped start up into a multi-million-dollar social enterprise where they have reached more than $12 million in revenue and are the world’s largest sock store. John’s Crazy Socks is an internationally recognized social enterprise with a mission to spread happiness and show what people with differing abilities can do. John’s Crazy Socks has shipped over 375,000 orders to 88 different countries. You will love their socks, but the socks are just the physical manifestation of the happiness they share. Here are just a few of the questions I asked Mark and John that you will benefit from by listening to their interview: • Tell us how you came up with the idea for socks and how you went about building John's Crazy Socks. • How is that a father and a son, who has Down syndrome, could build a $12+ million business? • You have very happy clients and a high repurchase rate, how do you do that? • Tell us about your relationship with former President George H.W. Bush? • John’s Crazy Socks are built on 5 Pillars: Inspiration and Hope, Giving Back, Socks You Will Love, Making It Personal, and Make it A Great Place to Work. How did you come up with these 5 pillars? • John, what are your favorite pair of socks, and why? • How do you feel about working with your father? Buy from John’s Crazy Socks at https://johnscrazysocks.com/. When you do, you’ll receive great socks, you’ll help us employ people with differing abilities, you’ll help us Give Back and most of all, you’ll help us spread happiness. Buy from John’s Crazy Socks at https://johnscrazysocks.com/. Use the coupon code of GOAL22 for a 10% discount on johnscrazysocks.com website. TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnscrazysocks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnscrazysocks Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnsCrazySocks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnscrazysocks/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Johnscrazysocks/ You can find my interview with John and Mark Cronin at https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/, https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/accountabilitycoach.com/id290547573, https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id305208343, and on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe and get new episodes as they are released. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. For more help with growing your business and accelerating your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a break, but you know procrastination when you see it. Let’s talk about how to recognize the signs of procrastination and stop the cycle of excuses and delays, so you can achieve more success in life and in business. If you have ever been a leader, manager, or business owner with employees, you’ve experienced what it’s like delegating an important task under deadline. From experience, you’ve probably learned who you can trust to complete the task well, and on time, when others fall short. Have you ever delegated a time-sensitive task to an employee only to find them making excuses, waiting until the last minute, or wasting time when they should be working on your project? It probably got you fired up. So, here’s a question for you: If you don’t tolerate procrastination from others, why would you ever tolerate procrastination from yourself? First, let’s establish that no one is perfect, and no one is completely procrastination-free, every moment of every day. However, you can spot a habitual procrastinator anywhere. Listen closely as I share seven common signs of a procrastinator. 1. Procrastinators are often overly optimistic about completing complex tasks in little time 2. Thinks and says they work best under pressure 3. Easily distracted and loses focus when there is no urgency 4. Delayed start (because they have a false sense that everything is under control, so there’s no need to jump into it immediately) 5. When no progress has been made, they offer reassurance that everything is under control 6. Action driven by panic (the realization that everything is not under control) 7. Scrambles last minute, working hours on end to complete a project minutes before the deadline. Taking what I just mentioned about a procrastinator into consideration, answer these 3 questions I’m about to ask you. Question #1 Do you recognize any of these signs in employees or coworkers? Yes No Question #2 How many of the seven characteristics I mentioned have you experienced at any time in your personal or professional life? 0-1 2-4 5-7 Question #3 How often do you find yourself exhibiting these habits? Rarely Sometimes Frequently There’s no right or wrong answer to Question #1 – procrastination is a common characteristic and often encountered in the workplace. If you answered 0-1 in Question #2 – you probably tackle every day and professional tasks head on without delay. If you answered 2-4, you may procrastinate sometimes. If you answered 5-7, definitely keep listening! If you answered rarely to Question 3, that’s good – you’re probably not a habitual procrastinator. If you answered sometimes, there’s room for improvement. However, if you answered frequently – we have some work to do. The key is to discover the root cause of your procrastination, so you can correct it. Most procrastination is commonly rooted in one or more of the issues I’m about to share with you. 1. Low self-confidence: When you’re feeling insecure about your ability to complete a task, (forget about completing it well), you probably delay it to avoid feeling “stupid.” Truth be told, you have more than enough smarts to figure it out. The good news is that the more times you tackle a task head on – and are successful – the easier it is to stop procrastinating. 2. Perfectionist: You’re a perfectionist and nothing less than stellar is acceptable. Give yourself a break and let go of trying to be perfect. Given your high standards your best is probably far above par. 3. Rebellion: Procrastination may be your way of expressing your rebellion. A sort of “You can’t tell me what to do, I’ll do it when I’m good and ready.” This probably didn’t work when you tried to use it with your parents (or it did work and that’s why you use it as an adult), but it definitely will NOT work with your boss. If you’re an entrepreneur – well, you’re just shooting your own foot. 4. Manipulation: This is a common characteristic of an insecure coworker or manager. “They can’t start without me. This project is nothing without my talent.” This takes some personal growth to overcome and the realization that discounting the ability of others does not increase your own. If you’re feeling insecure, go back to school or take additional training. When you expand your skill set, you can stop feeling insecure about your value. 5. Coping with Pressure: Procrastination may be a coping skill to dealing with feeling overwhelmed. They delay until they have the mental stability to perform the task or wait until the very last minute to start. While this may certainly be the case some days, the important thing to remember is not to make a habit of it. Delegate tasks temporarily or permanently to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Will you choose to begin reducing procrastinating in your life, so you can enjoy even greater successes, or will you continue to let procrastination hold you back from reaching your true potential? What has to happen next for you to stop letting procrastination be your excuse? It’s easy to make excuses and it’s even easier to use those excuses to procrastinate. With a little insight into why procrastination occurs, you may be able to reduce or completely eliminate it from your personal and professional life. For more help on reducing your procrastination, so you can create your ideal business and ideal life, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

Rarely is anything an overnight success. It can take years of hard work before it pays off, and that can be a hard truth to accept. But there are tips and tricks, or habits really, that you can implement into your daily life to pave the way to a successful future for you and your company. These tricks, that I’m about to share, are a mix of productivity hacks as well as personal life hacks to help you perform at your best and build an extraordinary legacy. With practice, they’ll become second nature, and allow you to free up your mental bandwidth to tackle the tasks that will grow your business exponentially. 1. Prioritize Taking Accountability As a business owner, you’re responsible not only for your own outcomes, but the outcomes of the people you hire. A great leader has insight into the day-to-day operations of their business and has the ability to empower their team as well as step in when needed. Additionally, you can’t expect your team to take accountability for their actions and decisions if you don’t set an example first. Taking accountability in everyday situations helps you to learn how to take responsibility for your destiny overall. You are in charge of your success, and when you get into the practice of taking action instead of making excuses, you’ll go further than ever. 2. Take Care of Yourself Greatness can’t be achieved when your body and your mental health aren’t performing optimally. The idea of hustling 24/7 and wearing burnout as a badge of honor is outdated. In order to succeed, you need to take care of your body. That might mean incorporating a consistent workout routine into your day, whether that’s early in the morning or later in the afternoon. Some people prefer to start their day by getting their body moving, which may actually promote greater productivity. Pay attention to how your body feels throughout the day. Are you getting enough sleep? Or are you powering through on a bad night’s sleep? According to a 2016 business school study, leaders who prioritized sleep were perceived as more charismatic. 3. Turn Off as Many Notifications as You Can Phones can be the primary way in which you do your work, but they can also be incredibly distracting. Turning off notifications to the apps that you don’t need to be looking at can help you focus and be more productive. Even if you use social media for your business, block off some time each day on your calendar as the designated time to engage with your social media audience. That way, your train of thought and workflow aren’t interrupted each time your phone pings with a new like or comment. You can even check out some apps that help limit your screen time, so you can spend your time building your ideal business. One trick to avoiding distractions is putting your phone face down, turn off sounds and vibrations, or even put the phone in another room, while you work on the task at hand. 4. Never Stop Learning The true secret to greatness is not being someone who knows everything, but being someone who is curious about everything. When you acknowledge what you don’t know and ask questions to learn more, you have the potential to increase your knowledge exponentially. Being open to learning helps you stay relevant to current trends. Not sure why you should use a specific platform for your business? Instead of writing it off because you don’t know how to use it, spend some time diving into the opportunities to reach your audience on a new platform, or grow your audience base into a newer demographic. Being able to admit you don’t know something is a strength, and it frees you of the fear that people will think you don’t know everything because by your own words, you don’t. 5. Block Off Your Time It can be hard to hop from one task to another, or deal with multiple people asking you questions. Take control of your own schedule and block off time for the various tasks you need to do. That way, you can streamline your workflow and free up mental bandwidth to deal with whatever’s in front of you during that time block. If you’re more productive in the mornings, set aside a couple of hours to work on bigger tasks. Include blocking off time for things like visionary strategizing. Being able to brainstorm and have the space to read, listen to podcasts, or just let inspiration strike you in general, is hugely beneficial to the growth and success of your business. An example of time blocking on your calendar could be exercising from 7am to 8am, working on the next quarter’s strategy from 8am to 10am, responding to emails from 10am to 10:30am, answering team questions from 10:30am to 11am, and so forth for the rest of your day. Blocking off time also gets you into the practice of setting boundaries, which are necessary for making sure you get the time or support you need to achieve greatness. Some of the most productive people in the world swear by time blocking. Ever heard of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Michael Hyatt, or Cal Newport? Yep – they are all time-blockers. They’re squeezing every drop of productivity from their days, and so can you. 6. Surround Yourself with People Who Inspire You When you surround yourself with people who inspire you, you create an atmosphere for growth. A successful mindset is contagious, and you will learn more from people who have strengths to complement your weaknesses. Running a business can be isolating at times, which is why it’s important to connect with other business owners and entrepreneurs. Not only will they understand what you go through with your business, they’ll be able to support you as you inevitably face challenges while building your legacy. Together, you can continue to inspire and motivate one another. 7. Keep a Notepad By Your Bed You never know when a great idea is going to hit you. The most practical tip of this list is to keep a notepad by your bed, or just near you at all times. Maybe it’s easier for you to track ideas on your phone, though that could undermine tip #3 if your phone just serves to distract you further. Entrepreneurs tend to struggle with perfectionism, so make sure that doesn’t happen when you jot down ideas. They don’t need to be fully fleshed out—just get them down, physically on paper, so you can revisit them and think through them later on. Writing things down, instead of thinking them or even typing them out, can enable a higher level of thinking. 8. Embrace Making Mistakes As cliché as it sounds, making mistakes is a part of life. But what can be debilitating is letting a fear of making mistakes limit your ability to grow. Instead of fearing mistakes, embrace them! When you fear mistakes, it makes you unable and unwilling to try new things. Instead, when you embrace failure, it takes away its power over you. So, you might fail….so what? You’ll learn from it and get even stronger. By following these eight tips, you’ll find yourself even stronger as a leader and as an individual. You may not notice the changes overnight, but they’ll be there. Stop being stagnant in your growth and take actionable steps to hack your way to greatness. For more help on creating your ideal business and ideal life, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

I think you will find my guest to be extremely knowledgeable about relationships as it relates to getting and keeping clients as well as in our personal life, so you can be on the path to accelerate your business results and ultimately enjoy having the kind of business and life you truly want. For over 20 years Dr. Alexandra Stockwell has shown men and women how to communicate with clarity, vulnerability, and power, in order to create meaningful collaborative relationships in both professional and personal contexts. She is the bestselling author of “Uncompromising Intimacy” and host of The Intimate Marriage Podcast. Dr. Alexandra has been featured in the Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Business Insider, FOX NEWS NYC, just to name a few. Disruptors Magazine recently named her one of “30 Inspiring Women to Watch in 2022.” Here are just a few of the questions I asked Alexandra that you will benefit from by listening to her interview: • What are some of the important differences in how we engage in business relationships vs personal relationships? • How do we become even better listeners? • What is the most important thing to make relationships with clients successful? • What is the high performer’s key to a successful relationship in business and in their personal life? • Why is compromise the worst relationship advice ever? • What can a business owner or leader do when a staff member doesn’t want to be held accountable, seems to be unhappy, or not performing to your standards? Download the first chapter of her book, Uncompromising Intimacy, that will help you with business and personal relationships by going to https://www.alexandrastockwell.com/book/. Subscribe and get new episodes as they are released. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. For more help with growing your business and accelerating your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

Managing a team is not an easy feat. People aren’t plug and play templates—there’s no formula for the best way to do it. The best managers lead with empathy and kindness, communicate clearly, and empower their team members. As a team leader, it’s your job to inspire people and help them reach their goals and their potential. Continue listening to learn how to improve your team management skills and reach success together using one of all the six tips I’m about to share with you. 1. Lead with Empathy In Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Twelve and a Half, he talks about how empathy is a central part of how he operates. When you leverage empathy, he argues, it “makes you a better business person, CEO, manager, or leader.” To motivate your team, you need to understand them, and to understand them, you need to lead with empathy. If someone on your team makes a mistake, instilling fear in them and being angry with them immediately can lead to more mistakes. They lose the ability to learn from their failures and will approach future challenges with trepidation, not from a problem-solving perspective. Instead, take the time to understand what happened and where they were coming from. As a business owner, you’re ultimately accountable for anything that happens under your watch, so understanding your team can help you to better understand how to guide them to better outcomes. 2. Clearly Communicate Goals and Expectations Effective communication includes clearly communicating things like deadlines, tasks, and deliverables. When your employees know exactly what’s expected of them, they have a better chance of success. The goal for you is to set them up for that success. Don’t assume that someone knows what their role entails. You may have a different picture in your mind than they do of what needs to be done. To avoid any confusion, write out a clear job description, but here’s the trick—check in regularly and continue to communicate what your expectations of them are. Have an ongoing process to reassess performance and make sure you’re both aligned. Once you can clearly communicate these goals, it’ll lead to the next tip, which is to provide honest feedback. 3. Provide Honest Feedback Providing feedback, especially negative feedback, is not an easy task for any manager or business owner. But it’s much more beneficial to both you and your team member for you to provide honest feedback that’s delivered with kindness, than to dance around the subject and leave room for misinterpretation. If an employee isn’t performing their duties or achieving the goals you’ve set together, they deserve to know! Be specific in your feedback and in how they can improve. The biggest thing to keep in mind, as well, is to offer your support. As their manager, it’s not your job to set it and forget it—as much as your team’s successes are your own, so are their failures, and it’s up to you to change things up if something’s not working. 4. Be Transparent About When You Need Your Team’s Support Leading a team doesn’t mean you don’t need support as well. The most successful managers and business owners lead with humility and self-awareness. They understand where their weaknesses are and how to delegate where others are strong. Transparency is a strength. It makes you a better leader and allows for your team to trust in you more. Being transparent promotes creativity, teamwork, and loyalty. Oftentimes when you are willing to be vulnerable and open up to your team, they will feel safe enough to open up to you as well. Additionally, when you are transparent about any challenges you’re facing, it can encourage collaboration as your team works with you to figure out solutions together. It will strengthen your team’s trust in you and lead to higher levels of performance. 5. Create a Framework for Growth Having a well-defined framework for growth helps set expectations both for your employees and for yourself. When you have regular check-ins, such as quarterly or monthly check-ins, your team will know what to expect and what goals they need to hit. What does your review process look like? Do you have annual reviews or bi-annual reviews? Documenting these check-ins and reviews helps you to look back on the progress of each team member and see if they’re getting the support they need from you to reach their goals. Create a performance review template that includes a self-assessment and feedback from other team members. The review should be a conversation, not a confrontation. There should be a section to revisit goals from the last review and a conversation around the status of those goals, as well as a section for goals for the upcoming year. When you put effort into creating this framework, your team will have more confidence in you and trust that you care about their growth and helping them reach their own personal and professional goals. 6. Trust and empower your team members As a business owner, you may find yourself taking on a lot of responsibilities yourself. It’s hard to trust others to care about your business the way that you do. But the role of a team leader is to figure out how to motivate your employees and empower them to partner with you to make your company successful. Learn how to delegate tasks and trust your employees to get the job done. Continue to communicate with and check in with them to stay in the loop, but don’t micromanage them. Trust in yourself that you’ve hired a competent team and give them the freedom to approach tasks their way. Managing a team is not easy, but it can be incredibly rewarding. If you don’t have a system for feedback already in place, now’s the time to create one! Most importantly, remember that when you lead with empathy and provide a framework for growth, you will build a team that is motivated to work with you and grow your business alongside you. Many simple and effective resources get created when I'm coaching my one-on-one clients. An issue or situation comes up and I create a resource tool to help them get an even better result. In this example, my business owner coaching client wanted to better hold his support team accountable, so I created a performance assessment tool. This enhances regular communication with each team member about their specific performance of what they are responsible for (whether internal or virtual). It lets the team member feel good about their progress and it helps the business owner feel more confident about what is being done and at what level of performance. You will benefit, just as my clients have, from utilizing this simple and effective performance assessment for every member of your team. Customize it for each person on your team based on their job description. More specifically, each team member should customize it for themselves, and you approve it. Schedule a meeting every 90 days to review progress in each area you are measuring. To download my complimentary support team performance assessment, so you can customize it for each of your team members, go to: https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/support-team-member-progress-assessment/. It is a great communication tool. To help you be even more effective and efficient, so you can achieve your goals at an accelerated rate, you can delegate more to your team members than you have or might think possible. Stop holding on to things that can be done by someone else and do only those activities that you can do and can’t be done by anyone else. Stop doing revenue generation / business development avoidance activities and delegate more! Successful people are excellent delegators, so work at being an even better delegator and be even more successful. Download my Free Delegation Exercise to help you identify more activities to delegate, by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/delegation-list-sample/. For more help on creating your ideal business and ideal life, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

We are all looking for ways to streamline our efforts at work – after all, who doesn’t want to get more done in less time? The idea of working smarter and not necessarily harder is not a new concept. It is one that the business and self-help industries have spent years tackling through thought leadership and research. Unfortunately, many people falsely assume that smart work can completely override the need for hard work, which simply isn’t true. It takes hard work to learn how to work in a smarter fashion. It takes hard work and discipline to implement new business strategies and perspectives. It is only when working hard and working smart find a symbiotic relationship that true power in business productivity and effectiveness are found. With that said, I’m going to talk about 3 principles that you need to implement in order to strike a beautiful balance between the two. 1. Delegate Non-Essential Tasks This one should be a no-brainer, but time and time again people get stuck in the rut of doing things that aren’t the best use of their time or their talents. Outsourcing mind-numbing or repetitive tasks can be an immediately effective and a smart way to free up your workday time, so that you don’t have to work so hard to complete everything on your, probably lengthy, to-do list. If you could cut that list of daily obligations from 10 things to 6, would you find yourself less stressed and with more bandwidth to truly pour your heart and soul into your day’s workload? Chances are good that that answer to that question is a solid, “yes!” But yet so many people refuse to let go of those things that someone else could easily handle. Perhaps it is because of a need to feel in control, or worry that the person handling those tasks would not do it properly. Regardless, if you put in the hard work upfront of hiring the right person for the job the first time around, you will be saving yourself an incredible amount of time down the line. Download a Free Delegation List Sample Exercise to help you identify more activities to delegate, by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/delegation-list-sample/. 2. Avoid the Siren Call of Multi-Tasking While multi-tasking tricks our minds into believing we are getting more things done at one time, we are actually just taking longer to accomplish small tasks, while simultaneously overloading our brains and producing subtle levels of stress that our bodies struggle to release. Scientifically speaking, our brains are not even wired to do multiple things at once; they are just really, really good at switching back and forth quickly, fooling us into thinking we’re being hyper-productive. If your goal is to work smarter and not harder, then you will need to re-evaluate how you look at the effectiveness of single tasking. By focusing solely on one activity at a time, you will not only be more likely to do the task with excellence, but your brain will become less burned out and you will have less stress built up in your system by the end of the day. 3. Limit Yourself To A Few Top-Tier Tasks Per Day We’ve all been there – staring down the barrel of a task list that is laughably long. The trick to harnessing a work-smarter attitude is to structure your week such that you are only taking on a few top-level projects each day. For example, don’t schedule back-to-back meetings on the same day you also schedule an important client presentation and have a looming project deadline. This is setting yourself up for failure at worst, and unnecessary stress at best. You are the only person in control of your schedule, so make it work for you and not against you! By looking at your week or your month and then evenly spacing out your big-ticket items, you are using wisdom to set you up for success. Depending on the type of work you do, you may even be able to find a pattern in your weekly tasks, and then streamline or eliminate them altogether. Why have three meetings a week when one long one could suffice? Why send out 4 client emails when a single Skype call could get everyone on the same page much faster? When you take the time to honestly evaluate your schedule, chances are good you will find pockets of wasted time that you can turn into opportunities for working smarter or for recharging, so you are even better equipped to take on whatever is next on your to do list. To download my complimentary Time Log Exercise and help you be even more time efficient, so you are in a higher probability position to achieve your goals, go to: https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/time-log/. Simple instructions come with the exercise to help you know how to complete the time log. For more help with working smarter and not harder, so you can grow your business and accelerate your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

I think you will find this guest to be a wealth of information related to helping you be as healthy as possible, so you can perform at 100% and be on the path to having your ideal business and ideal life. Olly Wood has worked with world leading experts in exercise, nutrition, and biochemistry to develop a more holistic, scientific, and sustainable approach to health and performance. Olly got his start in the trenches of the health world as a Physical Therapist in a big box gym. After 7 years of working with primarily high-performing business owners, he saw the extent to which stress, inflammation, and lack of focus on recovery was ruining any progress they were making. Olly’s goal is to help professionals on the pursuit of growth and improvement, to make sure they don’t leave their body and energy behind. Here are just a few of the questions I asked Olly that you will benefit from by listening to his interview: • How can busy professionals integrate healthy habits into their lives? • How does a healthy body help prevent burnout? • Why does most health advice get it so wrong? • What are people doing wrong with exercise as they get older? • How do stress and mindset come into personal health? Join Olly’s 5-Day Challenge today by going to https://themetaproject.co/. Women: Upgrade Your Gut Health to Drop 5-10kg, Elevate Mood & Get Back Your 20yr Old Energy for Good. A full 5 day "mini-series" walk-through to elevate your body, energy, and overall health in a smarter, more sustainable way. Men: Upgrade Your "Second Brain" To Drop 5-10kg, Elevate Mood & Get Back Your 20yr Old Energy for Good. The full 5 day "mini-series" walk-through to beat andropause and elevate your body, energy, and overall health in a smarter, more sustainable way. You can find my interview with Olly Wood at https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/, https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/accountabilitycoach.com/id290547573, https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id305208343, and on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe and get new episodes as they are released. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. For more help with growing your business and accelerating your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

One of the most difficult challenges of sticking to your goals personally and professionally is changing your behavior. Goals like improving your health, reaching a milestone, or revising daily routines aren’t easy. In fact, studies show that our brains don’t like change, are wired for laziness, and have a limited capacity. Ouch! And we often fail because we don’t practice the correct steps. As with any process, there’s an order to follow. For example, when administering first aid, it’s vital to work sequentially. Before caring for an injured or ill person, you should call for help. Then you check for breathing and a pulse to determine if CPR is needed. Next, if a wound is present, you must attempt to protect yourself from bloodborne pathogens before trying to stop bleeding. Or let’s say you’re painting a room in your house. Obviously, you need to choose your paint color (will it be Arizona Dust? Blissful Blue? Soft Candlelight? Gallery Gray?) and purchase the proper amount. You should then prep the area. You’ll likely move furniture, tape off the trim, and cover the floor with a drop cloth. After all, you wouldn’t want to open that fresh can of paint on unprotected carpet! Putting in the time for preparation saves you a big headache (and extensive clean-up) later on. Likewise, there are steps to changing behavior in order to successfully reach your goals. Let’s take a closer look at what’s required. Awareness in Changing Your Behavior To make any significant changes, you’ll first want to understand what’s going on in your brain when trying to stick with your goals. There are six possible stages that you’ll go through: 1. Pre-contemplation. At this point, you’re not interested in making any changes. In fact, you don’t consider your actions as problematic or lacking, and you’ll likely continue in your normal everyday behavior. You’d probably feel defensive if someone approached you and suggested change. 2. Contemplation. By now, you’ve contemplated, or thought about, making changes. You’re open to suggestions but a bit ambivalent. And you may not be entirely sure that you want to move forward. Often, this stage lasts the longest because spurring yourself to action can feel like an overwhelming battle. 3. Preparation. Here, you’ve committed to change. You’re researching resources and strategies to be successful. You’re preparing to move forward with changes. You actually take the needed steps to reach your goal. I should point out that many people try to skip this stage and go straight to action, but they’ll often fail because they lack the required knowledge for success. Lesson learned—do your preparation. 4. Action. This is where the action happens…your behavior changes with focused effort. Transformation occurs at this stage, and while it can feel a bit stressful, it’s also an exciting, motivating time that opens new doors. You’ll exercise the proper restraint and willpower needed to move toward your goal. And remember—action breeds motivation to keep going. Unfortunately, this is often the shortest stage because slips are possible depending on your motivation. 5. Maintenance. Maintaining means you’re dedicated to staying on track, but the truth is, this stage is challenging. You had good intentions when you started, but the focus on meeting your goals has lessened in intensity. So this is also the stage where you’re most likely to relapse even though you know what you’re striving for is meaningful and worthwhile. 6. Relapse. At the last step, maintenance is over. You’ve lost the battle. You could call this the fall from grace. You’ve not successfully followed through, so you’ll want to identify the trigger that caused your relapse, and possibly start again if you want to reach your next level of success. By recognizing where you are in the change process, you’ll be better equipped to alter your behavior and reach your goals. Honestly examine the six stages I just talked about and evaluate your current condition. After all, as Louise Hay, best-selling author, speaker, model, and actress said, “If we want to change our reality, then it’s time for us to change our minds”. Once you know which stage you’re in and which one is likely to give you the most trouble, you’re more prepared to stick with your goals. My advice, more than anything, is to take the time to invest in yourself. Surround yourself with motivators. And beyond that, don’t let falling off track discourage you. Pick yourself up, learn from your mistakes, and get back in the game. Once you’ve determined where your mentality is getting stuck, you can then pick up the proper goal setting steps. By doing so, you’ll be headed in the direction of reaching your dreams. For more help with your goal setting and achievement plans, you can always reach out to me. I’d love to offer my assistance on your journey to success. Contact to me today to schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.

Running your own business is not always easy, as you already know. There are challenges from the start, and you’re constantly being faced with fires to put out. Developing a success-oriented mindset can help you change your perspective and take your business to the next level! You can accomplish a lot more when you feel like you can do anything you put your mind to. Having confidence in yourself changes your mindset from “I’m not sure I can do this” to “I know I can do this; I just have to figure out how.” Perspective is everything, and when we can control our outlook towards challenging situations, we can harness a positive mindset and unwavering determination to accomplish goals that we set for ourselves. Let’s explore six tips for how to develop a success-oriented mindset. 1. Regularly Take Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone One of the ways to gain confidence and to grow is by regularly taking yourself out of your comfort zone. Do one thing each day that makes you uncomfortable, whether that’s eating something new, trying a new workout, or testing out a new marketing initiative. Taking yourself out of your comfort zone could also mean delegating more tasks to employees that you would normally take on yourself! To develop a success-oriented mindset, you need to be able to let go of some aspects of your business, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel. I believe successful people are comfortable with being uncomfortable all the time. That is how they got to be successful. You too can learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable; however, you might have to initially get outside your comfort zone a bit. 2. Never Stop Learning A success-oriented mindset is synonymous with a growth mindset. The determination that drives you towards success is also one that pushes you to learn along the way. When you run into things you’ve never faced before, having a growth mindset allows you to ask questions and explore, so you can discover new solutions, and this, in turn, helps you on the path to even greater success. Learning new things doesn’t need to be restricted to business topics—it could be learning a new skill, learning how to navigate through a new city, or learning how to focus on and solve a challenging situation. 3. Set Smaller, More Achievable Goals If you start by trying to tackle larger goals, you may get discouraged if you don’t reach them as soon as you’d like. By setting smaller, more achievable goals, you can boost your self-esteem and confidence when you achieve those goals. Think of it as taking baby steps up a ladder rather than trying to jump straight to the top from the ground floor. You’ll still get there when you take one step at a time, and with each step you take, you’ll have the confidence to reach for the next one. It also helps to make the smaller goals more actionable and specific, so you know exactly what needs to be done in order to reach that goal. For example, instead of saying you want to exercise before you start working each morning, you can set a goal of running one mile before you start working, or even more specifically, running a mile in a certain time frame. 4. Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People Create an environment of success-oriented individuals around you. By hiring top talent and working with people smarter than you are, you’ll grow as an individual and as a business. Surrounding yourself with talented people will also motivate you to learn new things and increase your own knowledge and experience. While it may be uncomfortable surrounding yourself with people at a higher level than you are, you will ultimately benefit from learning from them and pushing yourself further because of them. 5. Create a Success-Oriented Routine Start your day off strong with a routine that sets you up for success. For example, you may feel more productive if you wake up earlier, start your day with a workout, write down 3 things you are grateful for, focus on the outcomes you want to have for the day, and accomplish several tasks before many people even get out of bed. That feeling of productivity can carry over throughout your day, and you may find that you get more done when you’ve had time to focus on yourself at the start of the day. Have a list prepared of what you need to do that day even before you get up, so that you can hit the ground running as soon as your eyes open. You can prepare your to-do’s either the day before, or even at the end of the week before. 6. Take Responsibility for Your Success Change your mindset so that you are in control of your success. Instead of blaming others when things go wrong, take some time to be introspective and think about what you could have done differently. When you take responsibility for your own success, it’s no longer dependent on others. It’s your life and you are in control. There is a sense of empowerment that comes from recognizing that we are responsible for both our successes and failures, and we can change the outcome of the challenges we are faced with. To develop a success-oriented mindset, take yourself out of your comfort zone regularly, never stop learning, set smaller and more achievable goals, surround yourself with like-minded people, create a success-oriented routine, and take responsibility for your success. It can take time, but when you practice an intentional mindset in challenging situations and continue to learn new skills, you will become more resilient and ready to achieve even higher goals. For more help on creating your ideal business and ideal life, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary consultation. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability Coach™ The Results Accelerator™ Go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com to check out for yourself how I, as your Accountability Coach™, can help you get and stay focused on you highest payoff activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your professional and personal goals, so you can enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want and deserve. For more help with growing your business and accelerating your results, reach out to me today and schedule your complimentary 30-minute consultation. Get your daily Accountability Minute shot of a single, simple, doable idea, so you can start your day off on the "right foot". You can find The Accountability Minute on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/my-podcast/ as well as on most podcast platforms and in most English-speaking countries. Take advantage of all the complimentary business tips and tools by joining the Free Silver Membership on https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/. If you are getting value from any of Podcasts, please take a minute to leave me a short rating and review. I would really appreciate it, and love to hear from you. To help you stay focused and on track to achieving your goals, check out these other high-value resources. Subscribe to my high-value business success tips and resources Blog https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/) - Subscribe to my YouTube channel with business success principles (https://www.youtube.com/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheAccountabilityCoach) - Connect with me on Linked-in (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebachrach) - Connect with me on Pinterest (https://pinterest.com/resultsrule/) - Connect with me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/annebachrach/) As an experienced accountability coach and author of 5 books, I help business professionals make more money, work less, and enjoy even better work life balance. Check out my proven business accelerator resources by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/. Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule, Live Life with No Regrets, No Excuses, and the Work Life Balance Emergency Kit, The Roadmap To Success with Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, and more.