Happy New Year — now about those resolutions . . .

(c) 2021 Ann Babiarz & Associates LLC

Happy New Year!

This time of year we all make New Year’s resolutions. How many of them do we keep barely two or three weeks later? I bet not many.

Nevertheless, the beginning of a new year, or really any day of the year, is a good time to write a list of 3 to 10 items that you believe will improve your life. Whether it’s losing weight, exercising more, securing a promotion at work, or tangible ways to improve your relationship with your significant other, there is no time like today — whether January 1 or March 16 — to write a list of goals for yourself.

But most of these goals or resolutions are unmet.  Are there ways to increase your odds of success?  Here are 10 hints for keeping your resolutions:

  • Be realistic. If you’re 55 years old and you haven’t exercised in a while, you’re not going to do 60 minutes of aerobics six days a week. And moreover, you’re going to talk to your doctor before you even attempt exercising. Setting realistic goals is an important element to success.
  • Be patient. Understand that it takes 28 days to create a habit.
  • Be mindful. No matter what you do as your resolution, understand that with goals, the journey is more important than the end. Enjoy the ride; remain in the present moment.
  • Be rewarding. Set small but attainable benchmarks along the way and reward yourself when you reach them. If your goal is to exercise three times a week, put five dollars in a jar every time you do so. Use that money towards a new outfit which you’re going to fit into once you’ve been exercising for a while.
  • Be less radical. Giving up Diet Coke entirely may not be achievable; limiting yourself to two cans a day might be.
  • Be less media savvy. Watching TV, reading the ads, or surfing the web will show you idealistic examples of life in these United States. Either cut your media exposure or remain vigilant as you are bombarded with these “photo-shopped” images.
  • Be educated. If your goal involves tangible things such as fitness, dieting, etc., understand the numbers — the metrics — in your quest, such as the number of calories in the ice cream cone you just had at McDonald’s.
  • Be social. Maybe there is a social media site where you can share thoughts with others who have similar goals.
  • Be persistent. Keep asking yourself the question, “how can I enjoy the process towards reaching this goal?” You never need to find the answer; simply asking the question over and over again in itself helps you achieve your goal.
  • Be normal. Understand that all of us set goals and fail to reach them. This makes you a normal human being. Don’t be discouraged and don’t give up!

Here’s to a 2021 that finds all of us more healthy, more wealthy, and more wise!

Five Procrastination Hacks

(c) 2020 Ann Babiarz and Associates LLC

Are you awesome at creating to-do lists but a miserable failure at attaining them?

Are you avoiding tasks that will move you ahead in your career or business or simply keep your abode nice and tidy?

Are you great at accomplishing everything except what you need to do?

You are likely a procrastinator.  Not to worry as you have lots of company.  And it’s a curable disease.  But if you want to build your business to greater heights of success, take your career to the next level, be the best friend/parent/spouse and yes, simply have a cleaner house, fear not.  I have five tips that can help you discipline the dawdling demon.

  1. Trim your tasks.  Are there items on this list that don’t belong or don’t fit as they are set forth?  Consider the three “d”s:
    1. Divide the task into sub-tasks that you can accomplish more easily.  When you are checking off these bit-sized to-dos it motivates you to keep going.
    1. Delegate the task to someone else.  This is especially important if you are an entrepreneur with a growing business.  I’ve been guilty of being a bad delegator as like most businesspersons, I don’t believe anyone can do any job in my business as well as I can.
    1. Delete the task.  Is this really something you need to do?  Does it make you money, make you happy or are you compelled to do it?  If not, why do you want to?
  2. Trick your brain.  Post your list somewhere you can see it: your bathroom mirror, the wall across from the couch, by your coffee pot.  When you finish something on your list, erase it or cross it off. 
  3. Treat yourself.  Have a reward, even a small one, for completing something.  Watch that short cat video, grab a soda or a glass of wine, or take a ten-minute walk.
  4. Track your time.  Look at what you did instead of a task you had planned.  Was it a total bust-out of 2 hours watching blather on TV or surfing social media?
  5. Tempt yourself .  .  .  NOT!  The biggest tip here is to complete a task with a digital fast.  Put your phone away, don’t have social media windows open on your computer as you work on it, and turn the TV off – it isn’t simple background noise.

Procrastination is a powerful enemy of progress.  But like many limitations in life, it can be conquered by taking some small steps.  Can you see one or more of these five hacks helping you?

Belief it or not

Belief it or NOT!  

Limiting beliefs are your personal, general beliefs about the world, your environment and your situation, and the people around you that you perceive as standing in your way.   Newsflash! These beliefs will hold you back from success. Why and how so?  Simply because if you do not believe something is possible, you are not likely to attempt it or if you do attempt it, you won’t devote much energy to achieving it.

The great news is that once you become aware of and overcome limiting beliefs, they can no longer hold you back. And by shattering your limiting beliefs, you may light the way for others to do the same.

How can you challenge your limiting beliefs?

[Read more…]

The Road to Perdition is Paved with What?

(c) 2009 and revised (c) 2020 by Ann Babiarz & Associates LLC

We’re more than halfway through our summer and of our year 2020. Which, if any, of your New Years’ resolutions are still pending? What changes do you still want to make? How can you make this year better than last? Yes, I am aware that this is a most unusual year, due to circumstances beyond our control.  Nonetheless, with respect to much of how you view your journey through life, there is still a lot that you can shape, create and achieve, moment by precious moment. The choice is yours.

In his song, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, Jimmy Buffet sings “Yesterday is over my shoulder, so I can’t look back for too long, there’s too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just can’t go wrong.”  To me, these words are powerful because they reflect a forward-looking and positive perspective.  According to Brian Tracy in his Personal Success program, successful people think about what they want, most of the time.  What are you thinking about most of the time?

[Read more…]

Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Success

Life After the Box episode first aired June 17, 2020, and features special guest Eric Jackier. (c) 2020 by Ann Babiarz & Associates LLC

Segment 1
Segment 2 featuring special guest Eric Jackier
Segment 3
Segment 4

Seven Levels of Energy and the Self-Directed Trader

By Ann M. Babiarz © 2017 & 2020 all rights reserved

Your level of success in life can be raised with awareness, understanding, and knowledge of how to apply the various energy levels available to you for any purpose you choose. Your level of energy (consciousness) creates your world in each moment. By altering your perceptions of yourself, your work, and those around you, you can create a more powerful, fulfilling, and rewarding life.   This same theory can lend itself to greater understanding and success in trading and investing.

[Read more…]

Luck, Skills, Smart Work & Your Success

 

Here are seven principles to follow for continued success in your life:

[Read more…]

Support, resistance, and personal achievement

People who trade securities often look at technical indicators to try to predict the performance of a particular stock. This involves examining charts of the past actions of the issue, looking at the high and low prices at which it traded. Those who study charts can find prices of support and resistance. Support is a price level from which analysts believe the stock will not fall lower. Resistance is the price point that the security may rise to, but will have difficulty exceeding. Sometimes, certain stocks tend to trade within the range created by these two levels, cycling between them with patterns that can be predicted. These are commonly referred to as channeling, wave, oscillating or cycling stocks. [Read more…]

Turn that frown upside down?

We are all familiar with the author who writes the chilling horror story, the musician who pens the brooding, introspective song, or the video whose photographer, rather than an presenting uplifting images, displays for us distressing ones. We need look no further than the typical evening news to see negative situations seemingly all around us. To top it off, most psychologists believe that even for the healthiest, non-pathological individuals, seventy percent of a our internal self-talk is negative. [Read more…]

The three fundamentals of work-life balance

This post is courtesy of Lynn Nagora, a Virtual Assistant whose services I use and heartily recommend.  For more information about Lynn, her company and her services, please visit: High Caliber VA.

Many an author has penned an article about work-life balance. Yet, this oft-mysterious foundation remains an elusive goal for most of us. Nonetheless, if you are able to achieve that proper mix between career/business and your spiritual/social/personal side, you will achieve better success in your work and so much more satisfaction in your life. [Read more…]

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