Students Of Success

There are many factors which need to be considered when selecting what kind of flooring to install. Getting new flooring put in in your home can breathe new life into it and can be a great way to reinvigorate your living environment. It may not be as expensive as you think either.

A big consideration on what flooring to choose is the function of the room it will go in. Flooring which makes sense for the front room may not be appropriate for the kitchen for example. Some of the most widely used types of flooring are carpet, vinyl, wood, and laminate.

Laminate flooring can be a great alternative to solid wood floors if you are looking for a wood effect floor at a lower cost. Laminate flooring is made from a sheet of MDF with a wood-effect plastic surface fixed to it. One pitfall of laminate flooring is that whilst it is resistant to sctratches once it is scratched it is extremely difficult to repair. Apart from that it can still be an ideal choice for a kitchen, where the plastic coating provides an easy to clean surface. On the other hand a solid wood flooring would not be a good idea in a bathroom, or indeed any room which is likely to get very wet. Some woods are more vulnerable to the wet than others.

If you are looking to fit a wooden floor, it’s important you have a suitable surface to fit it on. Ideally your existing floor needs to be flat, and dry. There are options however to counter uneven flooring problems, such as laying ply throughout, or employing an underlay to create a ‘floating floor’.

More often than not laminate flooring is sold as a product you can assemble without help which is another useful way of keeping costs down. Solid wood flooring requires however a higher degree of DIY skills, so it can sometimes be advisable to get solid wooden floors fitted professionally which on the downside can add a considerable cost.

Something many people do not realise when they measure their room to work out how much flooring they will need to buy - is that it is crucial to include a 10mm gap around the edge of the room for the wooden flooring to expand and contract.

As a fundamental part of any interior design strategy, it is vital to choose the right flooring. Whilst wooden or laminate floors can be ideal - often for a more chic minimalist look; carpet can be a better option if you are trying to achieve a more traditional home feel. The important thing is you take into account the various factors you need to consider before ordering new flooring.

Searching for a cracking deal on a great new flat screen LCD television? The John Lewis site is a fantastic resource for a wide plethora of hi tech items and accessories. John Lewis keep in stock a substantial array of products, e.g. plasma televisions, LCD flat screen TVs, iPods, Samsung digital cameras, laptops, etc. It can be assumed that every single one of the LCD TVs John Lewis have in stock are from class leading brands like; Samsung, Panasonic and Sony.

So you’re looking around for a great new Sony TV and don’t know which place to commence looking. Unsurprising given the mystifying mishmash of TVs available in the market; LCD, plasma, flat screen, HD, Freeview etc. a really convenient resource for navigating your way through all of the confusing jargon is the John Lewis consumers web guide - this neutral page will help guide you through the terminology and help you choose the television that is appropriate for your home. It’s key not to gloss over the extras as well! Finally settling on the right TV stand and cabinet, that will help complement your room as well as hold your brand new Sony Bravia television is certainly a frequently ignored element.

Your next inquiry might well be at which web-site to shop online for your brand new Sony television? There certainly are quite a lot of websites out there claiming to offer fantastic deals on TVs, but how do you know which retailer you can really count on? With John Lewis you and your family may purchase in full confidence, and here’s the reasons; Free national delivery service on every last one of your orders - no need to fret about that ‘fantastic price’ you think you’ve found suddenly not seeming very good when you factor in the extra cost of postage. In addition, if you and your family need any item in a rush, next day delivery is 3 for virtually every one of their products. One other marvellous thing is, if you’re not entirely satisfied with your great new LCD flat screen TV then returns are free. However, saving the very best for the end - The John Lewis website offers you a free 5 year guarantee for all TVs, which is a feature you would pay a substantial premium for at most other sites. Flat screen TVs represent the panicle of design and functionality - have a look at the great selection on the John Lewis website.

With a television in your sights you might well presently be prepared to browse the wide range of LCD TVs on offer on the John Lewis site. Their website is wonderfully easy to navigate and making your way to the appropriate category and product will require very little time at all. So why not give John Lewis a try for your new plasma television Happy shopping!

Are you aware of what a powerful creator you are? Do you know that everything that is happening to you or has ever happened to you is, without exception, in full response to your thoughts - and more importantly - the emotions behind those thoughts? Take a look at your life. There are probably some areas you’re really happy with and some areas you’re not so happy with. You may even believe you are a victim of your circumstances. I’m here to tell you, you are not a victim! It’s simply a matter of understanding how to play the Game (of Life) by understanding the rules…the Laws that define the Game.

Would you agree that whether you believe in the law of gravity or not, it exists? It is the same with Universal Laws. They exist and affect you whether you are aware of them or not. However, Universal Laws are far more powerful than gravity. Gravity affects earth. Universal Laws are infinite and beyond all boundaries.

Of all the Laws, the single most powerful law is the Law of Attraction which says: “That which is likened unto itself is drawn” or more simply put, “Like attracts like”. This means that what you are focused on, you draw to you. Here’s how it works. When you are focused on what you want, you are attracting to you what you want. When you are focused on what you do not want, you are attracting to you what you do not want.

Okay, I can sense you rumbling out there and your thoughts are probably going something like “So if it’s that simple and clear, why haven’t we known this before?” Or, “I’ve been focused on wanting more money for years, so why hasn’t it come to me?”

The Law is that simple. However, our thoughts are usually very unfocused and running in many directions at once. For example, you may say “I want a sleek new sports car.” In that moment, the Universe is orchestrating circumstances and events to bring it to you. And yet, usually, in the same sentence, we sabotage ourselves by saying something like, “but I can’t afford it.” So, in essence, the Universal forces say, “Wait a minute. Now he says he can’t afford it.” And you stop the energy flow.

So, take it a step further. When you are thinking about wanting a new sports car, but feeling you can’t afford it, where are your emotions vibrating? In most cases, they are vibrating in feelings of lack; feelings that you want something you really cannot have. Can you see how, by not understanding this Law - that our thoughts and emotions are our attraction base - we hold things away from us we could otherwise have?

Let’s take the example of money. You say you’ve wanted more money for as long as you’ve been alive. When you think of wanting more money, how do you feel about it? Happy? Elated? Or frustrated? Angry? Sad? Maybe, jealous of those who do have money? In my experience, this particular subject has more people on an emotional roller-coaster than all other subjects combined. The good news is that it doesn’t matter how long you’ve felt this way or how deeply…you can literally turn it around and begin flowing money to you by consciously and deliberately practicing the Law of Attraction through your thoughts and feelings.

Anything in your life you want to change, you can - simply by understanding the Law of Attraction, and choosing to deliberately change your thoughts and constantly reach for the thought that feels better. The way you predominantly feel about any given subject is your barometer for knowing what your balance of thought is on that subject. The circumstances of your life is another indicator. If you’re ever wondering which end of the barometer your thoughts are on, check in with your emotions. Your emotions never lie about the way you are flowing your energy.

Eva Gregory is the author of The Feel Good Guide to Prosperity.
All rights reserved.

Currency exchange is one of the most important sectors in today’s ever-connected globe. With each country buying and selling, foreign currency presently has a good worth on the global market and there are now even a good number of people who decide to make foreign currency trading their chosen profession to acquire foreign currency.

Have you heard of foreign currency trading? Just like stocks buying and selling, foreign currency trading is the securing and selling of currency positions and individuals might well make a profit as particular currencies have various positions on the international market-place. Obviously, if you are unfortunate enough to be trading in United States dollars, then you will probably not feel the benefit, however, this specific enterprise works at its very best if you choose to opt for exchanging, say, Cayman Islands Dollars for Hungary Forint.

Currency trading moreover has a lot to do with trade of goods. Companies, which export their services overseas, are always paid foreign currency, which, unfortunately, they might not be permitted to utilise in their own country, and as a result they eventually get the currency converted. This aside, the costs on the world wide market are dictated because of currency exchange, and as a result individuals could lose revenue should their country’s currency has an undesirable position compared to the stronger currencies, for instance the United States dollar and Euro. Currencys all have different values - learn how to exploit this and you could be well on your way to significant profit.

Currency trading is also important during travel and holidays. Patently, should you travel to Europe, then you very much need to have a bit of money exchanged to Euros so that you might well acquire more products. Of course, the United States dollar is accepted nearly anywhere in the world, however, there are a number of countries where they need the exact amount in payment for services. Buying services with American dollars when you are overseas will probably only cause a headache to other individuals because they too, will need to get it exchanged. This is establishing itself as the reason why most airports already have currency exchange services therefore, consequently you won’t find it a requirement to hunt all over the land searching for vendors or people whom acquire overseas currency. Quite obviously, there are also online websites, that will purchase foreign currency, and so, consequently you can get all your currency exchanged on the net and also withdraw the cash in local currency wherever and whenever you are located on the globe.

You’re probably familiar with the idea of setting priorities. You look at your list of goals or projects or tasks and sort them in order of most important to least important. Then you focus your attention on the most important ones before you tackle the less important ones. Nothing too surprising there…

But let’s say you have a new priority come into your life, and it’s one that requires a nontrivial time investment. Maybe you want to start an exercise program, and you want to devote a few hours a week to it. You don’t feel like you have any free time where you can just insert your exercise routine. The whole idea of free time is a bit silly anyway. You’re always using time for something, even if it’s purely for leisure activities or rest.

So the only way you can insert something new into your life is to delete something old. You’re already filling each 24-hour day with 24 hours of habitual actions, whether this be sleep or work or rest or even just being lazy. You can’t just stuff an extra hour in there and create a 25-hour day. (Well… I suppose you could if you have a very flexible schedule, but then you’ll lose about 2 weeks at the end of the year.)

A problem happens when you try to do this 25-hours-into-24-hours shove. That hour will have to be stolen from somewhere else. Most of the time people don’t choose where this hour will actually come from. They may assign it a time, but they won’t consciously think about what’s going to be displaced from that time slot. This can result in feeling stressed or overwhelmed for no apparent reason, which often leads to procrastination. Maybe the displaced activities were more important than you realized.

The idea of setting posteriorities means that you consciously and deliberately choose what to delete whenever you start doing something new. So if you want to add 30 minutes of exercise to each day, where will this 30 minutes come from? Will it be stolen from sleep time, family time, lazy time, fun time, thinking and reflecting time, etc.?

Ideally whenever you add a new priority to your life, you want to delete a posteriority. Just as you make a list of what’s most important to you in life, you can also make a list of what’s least important to you. Take note of what you do each day that just isn’t that important. Where can you steal time from unimportant activities to be reassigned to more important ones? Can you delete watching some TV to add some extra reading? Can you delete superfluous web surfing to add more thinking time?

Sometimes setting posteriorities is very challenging. Once you’ve achieved a nicely balanced life, and then you want to start a big new project, you may find it difficult to steal time from other activities because now everything seems important. I had this problem when I started writing my book. This is a big project, and I’m presently investing about 40 hours/week on it. That’s 40 hours I have to displace every week in order to complete this project a huge amount of time. In the beginning I naively just tried to squeeze it into my already busy schedule without consciously deciding what 40 hours I would delete. I dropped maybe 10 hours consciously, so I was trying to squeeze 70 hours of activity into those 40 hours. Obviously that didn’t work too well. I had to consciously pick out another 30 hours to drop, and that required making some hard sacrifices. Some of it came from sleep, some from family time, but most of it came from other work activities. I had to start passing up a lot of business opportunities that I would normally have taken advantage of. I had to start saying no a lot more often. Now virtually every week I have to say no to at least two or three tempting business offers. In the short run most would be successful, but in the long run I’d never finish my book if I said yes too many times. And ultimately the book project is much more important than the sum total of all these smaller projects, as tempting as they seem.

It can take a bit of careful reflection to know what’s important to you and what isn’t. For example, suppose you’re currently working a full-time job and decide to start your own business. Many people will try to do this by starting the business in their… ahem… spare time while keeping their full-time job. And this certainly works for some people. Spare time doesn’t really exist though, so what’s being displaced? Often it’s family time, leisure time, or exercise time. So if you work on your new business an extra 2 hours a day, you’ve not only increased your total work time by 2 hours, but you’ve also reduced your recovery time by 2 hours. And this often throws life out of balance and can lead to physical and emotional overwhelm. I confess to being rather intimately familiar with this situation at times.

An alternative way of handling this situation is to steal that extra time for your new business from your existing work time. Depending on what options are available to you, you may be able to scale back your hours, switch to a part-time job, quit completely and work on your new business full-time, use accrued vacation time and sick days to take off one day each week, steal small blocks of time during your regular workday for your new business, etc. Obvious some of these options will displace some income, but for many people that is a better choice than displacing too much leisure time.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

In 75 years time almost every person reading these words will probably be dead. Some, like me, will be long gone before that time - unless, of course, some scientist creates a miraculous anti-aging pill. Scary huh?

The way that so many people keep putting off significant life goals you would think that they had thousands of years to live. “Ah, I’ll leave it till tomorrow / next week / next month / next year / whenever…” These words are thought and uttered by millions every minute of every day.

Life is short. It’s shorter than most people realize.

When it comes to time everybody gets treated the same way. It doesn’t matter whether you are a pauper or a king. Time does not discriminate. No matter how much money you have you will never be able to purchase any units of time. Time does not care what you look like or how talented you are. It doesn’t care where you were born or who your parents are or what nationality you are.

Apart from the air we breathe, water, food and shelter, it is our most precious commodity. From the moment we are born we begin to use it up.

Why then are so many people prepared to waste time? You know that you are not going to live forever. You know that every passing day just reduces the amount of time you have to fulfil your life goals. Set a date. Make a promise to yourself. Put some checkpoints in place. Measure your progress on a consistent basis.

How important are your goals? Are they significant enough for you to expend the required time on bringing them to fruition? Well? How just important are they to you?

Father time will not wait for you. Make a start today. Write yourself a plan. Stick to it. Spend your time wisely. You will never get it back. Become inspired.

This article comes with reprint rights providing no changes are made and the resource box below accompanies it.

Become inspired: Click here to receive Gary Simpson’s short “zenspirational” weekly message PLUS an immediate FREE copy of his inspirational e-book “The Power of Choice.” Read this and you will NEVER waste time again - guaranteed!

BHA - Be Held Accountable: If no one else knows what your goal is, it’s all too easy to rationalize (rational lies) why you are not making progress toward what you want. When you tell someone else what you are shooting for, you have added two very important benefits to the mix - someone to hold your hand and encourage you, and someone to hold your feet to the fire when you need it.

SRA - Start Right Now: One of the best small predictors of goal success is to do something toward your goal the same day you set a goal, before your head hits the pillow that night. So start right now, by doing one small thing toward your goal. Strong momentum is necessary to see you through, and doing something right now begins to build momentum.

SED - Something Each Day: Doing something each day toward your goal, whether big or small, continues to build momentum, creates a firm new habit in your life, and makes large goals manageable a piece at a time.

WYW- What You Want: “Discipline is remembering what you want.” - David Campbell. It takes a sustained effort to meet most worthwhile goals. A sustained effort always takes discipline, and remembering what it is that you want helps keep you disciplined and on track.

Visit The Article Guy for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscirbe to our monthly Article Empire Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.

Most marathons provide more than their fair share of heroes and heroines who provide great examples. The London Marathon in April 2005 provided one or two especially heroic examples. The competitors have much to teach about achieving goals.

On Sunday 17th April 2005, Paula Radcliffe was running in the London Marathon and had to stop for a call of nature. Instead of running off the course and possibly losing the race, she decided to answer the call close to a drinks table at the side of the road.

She knew that this might well be filmed and broadcast to millions but was determined not to stop for longer than necessary. I am more impressed by her answering the call of nature in public than by the fact that she won the marathon. Her priority was to win and not to save herself embarrassment. Her sheer guts and determination have never been more obvious.

Some really ignorant person wrote in to complain that Paula’s behaviour was disgusting. She clearly had no idea what running a marathon can do to your body. The organiser offered the critic a place in next year’s marathon to provide a chance to find out!

Paula stopped 5 miles from the end of the race and squatted on the ground. She had endured stomach cramps for several miles before that and was losing 10 seconds every time her stomach cramped up.

Later, after she had won the Flora London Marathon in 2hrs 17 min 42 sec, a world record for a women-only race, she apologized for having to relieve herself in the street. She was embarrassed but was also smiling because she had achieved her goal of winning the race.

She commented: “I’ve got to apologize to the nation for having to stop but I was losing 10 seconds every time my stomach cramped up. I didn’t know how far I was ahead but I felt I just had to stop.”

In fact, Paula had more than a two-minute lead over Constantina Dita, of Romania. Paula had joked about finding one of the 950 Portaloos. “That would have been OK but I would probably have had to fight my way through the crowd and then sign a couple of autographs on the way out.” That could have taken at least two minutes and stopped her achieving her goal.

“I was annoyed because I was feeling good and looking forward to running faster in the second half of the race,” she said. “But my stomach got so bad I thought, why not stop, and then I would be able to concentrate on running properly again.”

In 1985, another top runner had felt compelled to take a toilet stop in London. Steve Jones relieved himself behind a sentry box at the Tower of London before going on to beat Charlie Spedding in the 1985 race.

However, he at least had some decent cover available and so I would not rate him in the same class as Paula!

Paula’s mind was focused firmly on the goal of winning:

“The main thing was to win the race - when you are in a race all you think about is getting to the line first and that’s what I had to do. Everyone is paranoid about it. You try to eat as plain food as possible but you can’t get much plainer than plain pasta. It’s the first time it has happened to me in a race.”

The organizer tried to shed light on the loo situation: “We had every single Portaloo in the country around the start, finish and along the way. The route is lined with houses and pubs so for the average person it’s not going to be a problem but there is no way that’s an answer for someone running at the speed of Paula.”

Paula’s call of nature has provided the world with an inspiring example of the kind of determination that might be necessary to achieve a big goal.

Clare Forbes, 10 years younger than Paula at the age of 21, provided another example of ferocious determination. She took 19 hrs and 10 mins together with a 3 hour break to cross the finishing line.

She was moving on artificial legs. 4 years ago she had suffered from meningitis. It was uncertain whether she would ever walk again. She entered the marathon on behalf of the Meningitis Trust to raise money to help sufferers. She must also have inspired many other people with artificial limbs to realize what can be achieved with courage and determination.

About the author

John Watson is an award winning teacher and martial arts instructor. He has recently written two books about achieving your goals and dreams.

They can both be found on his website http://www.motivationtoday.com along with a daily motivational message.

The title of the first book is “36 Laws To Ignite Your Inner Power And Realize Your Dreams Now! - Acronyms, Stories, And Pictures…Easy To Remember And Use Everyday To Grab Your Life And Soar With The Eagles”

The book can be found at this URL

http://www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.php

The book uses acronyms, stories and pictures to help readers remember 36 laws that can gradually transform your life if you apply them.

Ezine editors / Site owners.
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include my resource box as listed above.

Recently, I spoke with a client who wanted me to do a workshop at an upcoming conference. I offer a number of different talks, so I asked her what the focus of the meeting was in order to be able to suggest a relevant topic. She said that although the committee members had already picked several programs, they had not yet identified a focus for the conference. My first thought in response to this was, “If you don’t know what you want, then how are you going to get it?” However, I am savvy enough not to insult people, so we spoke a little longer and we came up with a program that she wanted me to present.

It never ceases to amaze me that people do not identify outcomes they wish to achieve. While the above example is related to a conference, it is by no means limited to that area. Many people engage in activities in their careers and businesses, but they haven’t defined what they want to attain. They are completing tasks, but they aren’t focused on accomplishing clear-cut results.

When I was a human resources executive, I often worked with people to determine the appropriate jobs that were needed in their groups. Many department heads would complete job descriptions for key jobs, which described all of the tasks that the employees would be required to do. It took a great deal of effort for me to get these individuals to realize that employees in key positions are not paid to perform tasks, they are paid to produce results. Through much coaching on my part, we were able to identify the outcomes that the individuals were expected to achieve in the various positions.

Why is it so critical to determine outcomes for a job, a meeting, a department, or any other situation? Because if you don’t know what your outcome is, the odds are that you will spend a lot of unnecessary time and money trying to reach a fuzzy target. And there is a very strong chance that the target will not even be reached. Outcomes let you know where you are going. They give you important information about how to use your resources - time, money, and employees. When you know your outcome, you can continually make important decisions - is this going to help me reach my goal or will this take me further away from my objective?

Clearly defined outcomes can also be very motivating. I worked with a coaching client who had an idea about a new business that she wanted to start. When she first got the idea, she was very excited about it, however, she never took action to get the business moving. She continually came up with excuses about why she wasn’t doing anything to make the business a reality. I finally got her to sit down and write a detailed description of what the outcome was that she wanted to achieve with the business. That was the missing key. As soon as she wrote down the detailed outcome, she began to do the things that were necessary to get the business started. For her, defining the outcome spurred the action that is required in any business. Five years later, she has a very successful business that she absolutely loves.

Some people have a great deal of difficulty in trying to determine outcomes. It is because they are looking into a future that isn’t certain and they can’t identify what it is they want. An easy way to get around this is to imagine that the outcome has already been achieved and then to describe what it looks like. Going back to the situation with the meeting planner, the question that I asked her was, “Let’s assume it is six months after the conference and you know that it was a huge success. What would have happened to let you know that it was successful?” People are much more able to describe the past then they are to identify an unknown future. By asking the question this way, I was able to find out that according to the planner, the criterion for a successful meeting was that the attendees would have the tools they needed to be able to more easily and effectively handle the many changes that were going on in their industry. When I discovered this outcome, I was able to suggest a program that would help the organization achieve this desired result.

Before you take action (small or large), you need to identify what your outcome is - what do you want to achieve? When you do that, you will cut down your time, streamline your efforts, accelerate your progress, and reach your desired goal. When you know where you are going, there is a good chance that you will end up getting there.

Della Menechella is a speaker, author, and trainer who helps organizations achieve greater success by improving the performance of their people. She is a contributing author to Thriving in the Midst of Change and the author of the videotape The Twelve Commandments of Goal Setting. She can be reached at della@dellamenechella.com. Subscribe to free Peak Performance Pointers ezine - send blank e-mail to subscribe@dellamenechella.com.

Everyone - particularly business coaches like me - talks about goal-setting, and so it is surprising that surveys indicate 97 percent of businesspeople do not set them. Of the people who do set them, 97 percent set reactive goals, 2 percent set proactive goals and 1 percent set intention-oriented goals. Guess which ones create the biggest results?

Most people don’t set goals because they have tried before and failed. They set goals to fix today’s problems for a better morning tomorrow. They didn’t ask the question: Why do I want to achieve this goal? If they had, their goal would have been different, achievable and achieved.

A friend of mine said she wanted to lose 10 pounds. Now, there’s a goal designed for failure. I asked her why. She said so she could fit into her clothes well again. That - not losing the weight - is the goal.

You may have been taught to set SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Trackable. These are proactive goals like growing your income by 10 percent over last year’s. Again, the question of why is left unasked and unanswered. And another goal is unfulfilled.

Let’s get to intention-oriented goals. These are the goals I want you to set; goals that are visionary, that have a purpose and which look beyond the incremental steps and say where we intend to be at some point in the future.

Instead of growing your income 10 percent, let’s discover why you want the extra money. Perhaps it would allow you to take a three-week trip to Belize, or pay for long-neglected guitar lessons, or help your daughter buy her first home. Those goals are not about the money, they are about what the money will allow you to do. These are intention-oriented goals. You may not know right now how you are going to get there but you know where you want to end up.

Now, you’re going to set up a priority system to help you achieve these goals. This priority system - a sort of “to-do” list on steroids - is based on two questions:
1. What is the best use of my time right now?
2. Will this activity help me achieve one of my goals?

Activities unrelated to your goals need to be delegated, delayed or somehow eliminated from your list. Activities which will help you achieve your goals now can be divided into “A” and “B” categories. You should set your “B” list first. Ask, “can I postpone taking action on this activity?” If the answer is no, then the activity automatically is on the “A” priority list. If the answer is yes, you must ask three more questions to determine if it becomes a “B”.

1. Is this an activity that leads to the accomplishment of a goal?

2. Is this a commitment or a promise?

3. Is this a vital, critical, life-threatening “must do”?

A “yes” to any of these questions and the item goes on the “A” list.

Finally, you rank your “As” and “Bs” 1 through 10. If you have more than 10, you need to find something else to eliminate or delegate. Now, attack the “As”.

Once you make this system a habit, your “to-do” list becomes shorter and you’ll be more effective. And you’ll be on your way to achieving your goals and not just crossing things off your list. It’s all possible, you just have to ask “why?”

Brent Dees, president of Brent Dees Financial, is a small business coach and financial planner who teaches the Focus Four system. He helps business owners in the Carolinas set business and personal goals so they can work less and make more. Brent Dees Financial can be found on the web at http://www.brentdees.com.