Debra Kasowski

EPISODE 109 – Focus on Your Own Game

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ9O-6i8u6w[/embedyt]

“Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.” – Jack Canfield

Happy 1st Anniversary Episode! Grateful for our listeners and listeners for tuning and sharing this podcast. You are people step into their potential into the skin they are meant to be in! 

There are many opportunities to get sidetracked off your game. Your focus can be pulled in one direction by having one of your favorite songs come on the radio, a tragic news story, an invitation to the mall, or the latest gossip around the water cooler. You get distracted by economic times and the latest announcement in the office. It can get more challenging to stay focused and motivated when you get caught up in these distractions.

Internal and external barriers can be get the way too. The internal barriers are all the negative thoughts, past hurts, bad habits, and self-limiting beliefs that sabotage your success. The external barriers can be your social media and the news, environment, economical climate (to an extent), and influences such as family, friends, colleagues. When you learn to focus on your own game, you will push through any challenge or obstacle because you are not going to let it stop you from succeeding.

Get Clear on What It Is You are Wanting to Accomplish. The more focused you are, the clearer your path will be. You will start to make decisions with ease and conviction. There is no time for distractions to get you off your game plan.

Get Your Head in the Game. Your mindset is key. Pay attention to any of the negative thoughts or self-talk you are having – put them to an immediate stop! Cancel! Cancel! Cancel! Reframe! Napoleon Hill once something like you cannot afford a negative thought. You need to speak toward your success. I remember listening to a catchy song from High School Musical that was about getting your head in the game – FOCUS!!! GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME! Play baroque tunes for quiet background or some upbeat music when you are decluttering. Visualize your results 2-3 times per day. Let the vision get stronger and stronger.

Eliminate Distractions and Barriers. Take time to identify what distractions and barriers that may be influencing you. Brainstorm ways to eliminate them. You may choose to declutter your office space, eat some prepared meals and wear simple outfits to eliminate time wasted on decision-making efforts. Consider using a Pomodoro method – using a timer to keep you on task with structured break times. Set boundaries of office hours to ensure you are getting work done.

Plan and Prepare for The Big Picture – The END GAME! Start with the end in mind as per the late Stephen Covey. When you can visualize or have a clear idea of your end game, you can work backward and uncover the milestones that need to be reached along the way. Break down each milestone into smaller sections. Make you goals manageable instead of being overwhelmed.

Delegate! Delegate! Delegate! Whenever possible delegate tasks and actions to people who excel in a specific area. You do not need to be spending 6 hours figuring out something that could take a person with the expertise – 20 minutes! Your time is valuable. I know in the beginning you may not be able to delegate much. Start small. By learning everything along the way, you know when things go wrong and you know what points to catch that need to be fixed.

Ask questions and gather new information. Stay up to date gathering the latest information on your subject matter.

Don’t Wait for Perfection. Perfection is an illusion. It is a form of procrastination holding you back from getting what you want. Start by taking action and adjust the course along the way. Continuously evaluate!

Keep you head in the game and don’t let what others say steer you away from your end game! What others share is based on their experience and their fears and successes.

“Stay focused and stay determined. Don’t look to anyone else to be your determination – have self-determination. It will take you very far.”
Justice Smith 

Celebrate with us!!! Share, Rate, and Review this podcast on iTunes!

Reserve Your Copy of Let’s Be Curious at www. letsbecurious.ca

We would love to have you subscribe to the Success Secrets newsletter on my website at www.debrakasowski.com where you’re going to get us free MP3 download 10 Surefire Strategies to Power Up Your Productivity and Performance. I would love to hear about this podcast has impacted your life. E-mail me at Debra@DebraKasowski.com. Thank you for listening to The Millionaire Woman Show where we talk about leadership, business, and human potential to help you live rich from the inside out. Subscribe to The Millionaire Woman Show. Share it with Your Friends. Give us a 5-star rating!

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free mp3 download today! www.debrakasowski.com

Keywords: focus, productivity, mindset, delegation, strategic planning, goal setting, motivation, personal development 

 

EPISODE 107 – Reasons for Failure

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFRXfp3mwyI[/embedyt]

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill.

Recently, I went back to my old trusted and true resource of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill after completing a podcast with Nicola Grace – The Mission Mentor. We were talking about how “you cannot afford to have a negative thought.” Our thoughts are so powerful and can speak to your future. As I was flipping the pages, I came across 31 Reasons for Failure. Now, if you have not read this book, you must. I am not going to go through all thirty-one, however, I do want to touch on some significant ones I have seen in my coaching practice and people I interact with daily. I have overcome some of these too.

No Defined Purpose or Aim. One of the reasons for failure is that there are individuals who lack clarity. They have no idea what they want to do or what they are here to do. Without clarity, they wonder aimlessly through life and have no direction and hence no drive.

Lack of Ambition. Strive to Get By. There are so many opportunities available to excel. Too many people put in just enough effort to get by and settle for mediocrity. They do not put in the extra effort required to get to the next level. Effort cannot be taught; it must come from within. They lack the drive to succeed. If this is you, you need to tap into the “why” you do what you do perhaps your why is not strong enough.

Lack of Education. When faced with a challenge, I have heard people say, “I can’t do that. I do not know enough.” Today with the internet you have no excuses and even before the internet you could find a way to learn what you needed to. There are free courses offered by distinguished teachers and education institutions offered online 24/7 through websites like Coursera and Udemy. Then there is Google, type in the question you are asking and get the answer at your finger tips in moments. If you need to take some courses professionally, then do so. You can also interview people who have the education you are lacking to learn more. Don’t forget the libraries are full of books that can support you. You can overcome a lack of education. You need to push yourself to do it.

Lack of Self-Discipline. In my work with Emotional Intelligence, this is a hot topic as self- awareness is the key to transformational change. If you want to improve in any area, first work to improve yourself and your habits. You cannot control other people. You can only control yourself. When you develop self-mastery, then you can focus on how you interact with others. The biggest area of control for self-discipline is reining in the negativity and shifting and reframing into a positive mindset.

Procrastination. Some people work well under pressure and they find that procrastination serves them. Procrastination can quickly lead to missed deadlines and opportunities. People will avoid assigning projects or task to you because you are not reliable. Underlying procrastination is the need to have everything just perfect. Perfectionists are often waiting for everything to be “just right” – the timing must be right, the right people must be in place, or the right environment must be set up. The timing with never be just right. You need to get started and adjust the course as you go; better resources will appear as you start on your journey.

Lack of Persistence. My friend and colleague Lori Raudnask has a book called, Persistence Pays. She talks about how you can get what you want in life if you persist. It is way too easy to quit at the first sign of defeat whether you have been rejected by a publisher or the bank or getting your first sale. You have not failed if you discover the lesson. The lesson of how to improve. Failure cannot exist if you keep taking intentional action and stay determined to succeed.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas A. Edison

Indecisiveness. The inability to make a decision is making a decision. Opportunities only last so long before they are taken away. If you are unable to assess situations and information and decide, you will have your future determined by other others who do. You need to learn how to become more decisive. Being indecisive is not different than procrastinating and waiting for someone to rescue you or do the work for you. Get going – do the work and make the decision.

These are seven reasons for failure. There are several others. Think of the reasons you have failed in the past. What did you learn? What would you do differently now that you have learned this? Now that you have the awareness, there are no excuses! You need to take different actions to get different results.

We would love to have you subscribe to the Success Secrets newsletter on my website at www.debrakasowski.com where you’re going to get us free MP3 download 10 Surefire Strategies to Power Up Your Productivity and Performance. I would love to hear about this podcast has impacted your life. E-mail me at Debra@DebraKasowski.com. Thank you for listening to The Millionaire Woman Show where we talk about leadership, business, and human potential to help you live rich from the inside out. Subscribe to The Millionaire Woman Show. Share it with Your Friends. Give us a 5-star rating!

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free mp3 download today! www.debrakasowski.com

Keywords: persistence, persistence pays, reasons for failure, Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, getting what you want, procrastination

Episode 105 – Start Acting as If

by Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UEH3NYvVIg[/embedyt]

“Act as if! Act as if you’re a wealthy man [or woman], rich already, and then you’ll surely become rich. Act as if you have unmatched confidence and then people will surely have confidence in you. Act as if you have unmatched experience and then people will follow your advice. And act as if you are already a tremendous success, and as sure as I stand here today – you will become successful.” Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street

 You have heard all the catch phrases – Think Positive, Reach Big Goals, and Live Big. It is great to think these great thoughts but if you don’t believe that you will achieve what you are thinking positive or reaching for, you will take actions that will end up sabotaging your success. How you think and feel impacts the actions that you take and ultimately your results would it not make sense to put yourself in the frame of mind to think positive and feel that your goals are being achieved.

Several years ago, when I was introduced to this concept I was interviewing a guest for one of my products and she said that her grandmother told her that when she walked into a room where she did not know many people that she should “act as if” she did and soon enough she would. Now let’s say you walked into a networking event and knew no one, what would you do? Would you high tail it out of the room because you were afraid someone would learn your name? What does a person who knows others do? Chances are you would gradually work your way to a table of people or a group of individuals and introduce yourself and at least say. “Hello”. Once you do that you are no longer strangers. The person or people you are speaking with may even introduce you to others.

Think about who you want to be, what you want to do, and what you want to have. Who do you need to show up as to do so? What knowledge, skills, or abilities do you need to learn to step into the person you want to be? What experiences would prepare you for your role? You have probably heard the phrase, “to get what you never had, you need to do what you have never done.” Stretch out of your place of comfort. When you are in your comfort zone, you are coasting through life and going with the flow. The only intention you have is that you are not putting in any work than the basics because you do not want to disrupt anything. Therefore, that space is called the comfort zone – you are comfortable so why tip the scale.

Name a time you stepped out of your comfort zone to achieve a goal. What did it feel like when you reached the target? I am putting it out there that you were on cloud nine. Even though you were nervous and excited with anticipation, you took the leap of faith anyway. You trusted and believe in yourself. After all, what do you have to lose? Everything fell into place just as it should.

When you start to “act as if”, you need to first see yourself being, doing, or having what you are focused on achieving. Act as if it is currently happening in the present moment. What does it feel like. Describe what you are hear, seeing, or smelling, touching, or tasting (depending on what is you are doing) in detail. Be as specific with every detail. Start believing it. Practice doing this for 15-20 minutes daily – repeat until you have achieved your goal. Once you see it, feel it, and believe it, start taking the actions you need to move toward that goal. Positive thoughts alone without action are simply thoughts that make you feel good.

If you catch yourself in negative thought patterns or self-limiting beliefs, start by noticing the thought. By bringing the thought to your awareness, you can now determine if you will keep thought or reframe the thought into a positive. For instance, if you are repeatedly telling yourself that you are going to fail at delivering your presentation and you did not prepare for it, chances are you will be creating your reality. Now if you plan and prepare, as well as reassure yourself with positive words that you will deliver a great presentation, you will. The thoughts you think and word you say have a great impact in the actions you talk and the results you will get. Choose wisely.

“Act as if everything depended on you; trust as if everything depended on God.” St. Ignatius of Loyola

We would love to have you subscribe to the Success Secrets newsletter on my website at www.debrakasowski.com where you’re going to get us free MP3 download 10 Surefire Strategies to Power Up Your Productivity and Performance. I would love to hear about this podcast has impacted your life. E-mail me at Debra@DebraKasowski.com. Thank you for listening to The Millionaire Woman Show where we talk about leadership, business, and human potential to help you live rich from the inside out. Subscribe to The Millionaire Woman Show. Share it with Your Friends. Give us a 5-star rating!

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free mp3 download today! www.debrakasowski.com