Take a look at your clock. Mark 10 minutes from now and let
me show you how to grab the gold from High Payoff sources
available to fuel your efforts.
We live in a world full of ideas and information. Some of
it's flung at us by the media, through ads and newscasters.
Other is sitting politely waiting for us to come calling at
its door.
Unless you set aside time every week to get your thinking
stirred up, you're just having the same conversations with
yourself and your team over and over. There's seldom
innovation in that habit.
Many of my clients are so immersed in their business, it's
industry and current practices that they don't realize how
myopic they've become. So I bring them articles that
provide ideas that break through their habitual thinking. I
include the really great ones in the programs I run as well.
They're brainstorming starters and full of information that
spins thinking into new patterns ' that's where innovation
and improvements are born!
Here are 3 ways you can use 5, 10 and 15-minute increments
to release the sparks to boost your results. On the
5-minute list is Reading Material that NOTHING to do with
your businesss. If you're scratching your head wondering
how so little time can really offer solutions, I'll tell
you ' it's all in the sources you use. I myself
deliberately set aside time to read weekly, bi-weekly and
monthly periodicals.
Take magazines like Fortune, Entrepreneur and Inc. They
carry such a wealth of examples of business techniques and
opportunities that others can borrow or even steal that
they amaze me.
To top off my reading I immerse myself in Discover
Magazine. It has ideas from as many as thirty other
disciplines that help me break through my habitual way of
seeing things.
The key here is that you'll find articles that run from
one-quarter page to four pages. That's a simple commitment
to make, very different than a book that might take you
hours over weeks to read through. On the 10-minute list is
Laser Brainstorming, leveraging the out-of-the-box thinking
of yourself and your team. Take one result you've been
getting in your business. List the first 10 assumptions you
hold about how it 'must' get done, and 'why' that way
particularly. Now pick just one of those assumptions and
pose the question: "How could we do this differently if
this assumption were off the table?"
Your goal is to make this a speedy process, not an
exhaustive discussion. List as many changes that could be
put on the table as a result of that single change. You'll
know when you have a gem ' it'll leap right off the page.
From there you can set aside solo time or team time to work
on the details. Several of my clients have unveiled ideas
that transformed their businesses with this focused
exercise. Then there's grabbing High Payoff gold from the
Video Sources that talk to you by your invitation in
15-minutes or less. The internet's a source I've started
using recently. One of my favorite 'teachers' right now is
Eban Pagon. He's built several million-dollar business in
the past ten years. He regularly records videos that are
mini-webinars chock full of ideas.
Recently Eban shared his morning routine. He commented that
he uses the 19 floors where he lives as his stairmaster
machine every day, and he's discovered that his great ideas
come to him when he's exercising. Somehow information gels
into new arrangements and "Ah Ha!"s come leaping out with
complete clarity.
That works for me as well! There I am on the gym treadmill
... trotting along and then hopping onto the sides so I can
scribble notes in the margins.
The fact is his video and webinars run from 15 to 120
minutes. The key to these recordings is that you can turn
them off and on, watch them in chunks and grab one idea at
a time to implement.
You may ask why I haven't mentioned listening to books or
tapes while I drive.
I've found I have to listen more than once to remember
ideas while driving. I'd rather read something once, or
watch a video in focused spans of time, find an idea,
decide how to use it, and then move forward to get value
from it.
So there you have it--reading, talking, watching. Ten
minutes. Three ways for you to break the through habits in
your thinking about how to create your success.
----------------------------------------------------
Management expert, consultant, and coach Linda Feinholz is
"Your High payoff Catalyst." Linda publishes the free
weekly newsletter The Spark! to subscribers world-wide and
delivers targeted solutions, practical skills and simple
ways to build your business. If you're ready to focus on
your High Payoff activities, accelerate your results and
have more fun at it, get your FREE tips like these visit
her site at http://www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com
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