Tweet 96 in my latest career success book Success Tweets says, “Good truly is the enemy of great.  Don’t settle for good performance.  Today, good performance is mediocre.  Become a great performer.”

You have to be productive if you want to become a great performer and career success.  My friend Dr. Sharon Melnick has some great career advice on how to develop productivity mindset. 

She says that perfectionism – a disease with many of us are afflicted – is a mindset that will keep you from becoming productive, and will not facilitate your life and career success.  Sharon shows people “how to get out of their own way.”  She knows what she is talking about.  If you want to unleash your full potential I suggest that you check out her website at http://www.sharonmelnick.com.

Check out what Sharon has to say…

Being a perfectionist will keep you from getting work done, getting home earlier and becoming a career success. Why? There is the time you waste agonizing over every word in emails. Then there is the time wasted worrying over whether the finished product will be good enough. Finally, there is energy wasted procrastinating.
 
How can you keep high standards but not let perfectionism get in your way?

Try these shifts in your mindset to get control of your productivity:

Old mindset: “Perfect is the only way to get it done.”

Productivity Mindset: “Done is better than perfect”

Old mindset: Figure it all out in your head, worry what people will think of your ’smarts’, and deliver something that is perfect on the first go around.

Productivity Mindset: Put together a well thought out first draft, get feedback from your colleagues, clients and or customers. Then rapidly iterate a next ‘better’ version until your project or offering is highly responsive to its audience and has wide buy-in.

Old mindset (for corporate employees): Your work needs to be 100% perfect all of the time.

Productivity mindset (for corporate employees): Employ the “80-20″ rule to get work to the point of ‘good enough’ to be sent out (because you have 5 other projects you have to deliver by the end of the day!) Further, make decisions rather than putting them off, expect that your judgment will be correct 80% of the time (and learn from the 20% it’s not.)

Old mindset (for business owners): Everything I say and write will be scrutinized by prospects and clients to determine whether they want to work with me.

Productivity mindset (for business owners): Leave an impression on prospects and clients through your consistent presence, empathy, and provision of solutions to their problems. There will rarely be one particular memo or meeting that is a referendum on whether a client wants to work with you.

This mindset shift is just 1 of the 29 strategies Sharon has developed to end procrastination. She can also show you how to…

• Control the never-ending stream of tasks and prioritize when you have multiple competing projects.
• Eliminate 85% of interruptions and distractions.
• Overcome confidence blocks that get in the way of your productivity.

Sharon’s career advcie on personal productivity has some great benefits.  If you apply it in your life and career you  will gain: 1) Peace of mind –knowing you are keeping up and won’t let critical items fall through the cracks; 2) Balance — from gaining an extra hour of time with your family each day; 3) Income — expect more income each month or more recognition as a respected contributor to your organization because of your increased productivity; and  4) Control over your life  — rather than being stressed out and consumed by never-ending tasks.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Your personal productivity is very important to your level of performance and your life and career success.  If you want to increase your personal productivity you have to change your mindset.  Think “done is better than perfect.”  Get things done fast – review and revise as necessary.  A productivity mindset will help you put the career advice in tweet 96 in Success Tweets into play. “Good truly is the enemy of great.  Don’t settle for good performance.  Today, good performance is mediocre.  Become a great performer.”  Great performers have a productivity mindset that helps them create the life and career success they want and deserve.

That’s Sharon Melnick’s career advice on developing a productivity mindset.  What is your career advice for developing a productivity mindset?  Please take a few minutes and share it with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my career success musings.

Bud

I’m still writing about the career success coach advice in my latest book: Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.

Today’s career success coach post in on Tweet 48…

Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear and is a confidence killer.  Act – especially when you’re afraid.

As I’ve mentioned in several previous posts — especialy the posts on Tweet 45 and Tweet 46, fear is the enemy of self confidence and success.  Most people fear failure, criticism and rejection.  It’s only normal.  We all want to feel good about ourselves.  Failure, criticism and rejection are not pleasant experiences.  They lower our self esteem and make us feel bad about ourselves, so we often avoid doing things that we think might lead to failure, criticism or rejection.  As a career success coach, I advise my clients to have to have the courage to do things that might result in failure, criticism or rejection.

Failure, criticism and rejection provide you with the opportunity to grow and develop – to become a life and career success.   You can’t take failure, criticism and rejection personally.  Failure, criticism and rejection are outcomes.  They are a result of things you have done.   They are not who you are.  Remember this career advice.  We all make mistakes and fail on occasion.  We all do things that cause others to criticize or reject us.  This doesn’t mean that we are failures.  It means that we have made some poor choices and have done some dumb things.

Failure, criticism and rejection provide the opportunity to start over – hopefully a little smarter.  Buckminster Fuller once said, “Whatever humans have learned had to be learned as a consequence of trial and error experience.  Humans have learned only through mistakes.”  That’s great career advice.  I agree with it wholeheartedly.

Fear manifests itself as procrastination.  That’s why putting off things you want to do – and need to do — can really hurt your self confidence and career success.  If your fear of failure and criticism, and rejection paralyzes you to the point where you aren’t willing to take calculated risks, you’ll never learn anything or accomplish any of your goals.

Don’t be afraid to fail, or too hard on yourself when you fo fail — or when others criticize or reject you.  Instead, put your energy into figuring out why you failed and then do something different.  Here are my four career success coach questions to ask yourself the next time you fail, or get criticized or rejected.

1. Why did I fail?  Why did I get criticized or rejected?  What did I do to cause the failure, criticism or rejection?

2. What could I have done to prevent the failure, criticism or rejection?

3. What have I learned from this situation? 

4. What will I do differently the next time?

If you do this, you’ll be better able to face your fears and act; and you’ll be using failure, criticism and rejection to your advantage.  In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says…

“Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.” 

I know it’s hard to see the benefit or opportunity in failure, criticism and rejection.  But it’s there – you just have to look hard enough.  But it all begins by facing your fear and acting.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 48 in Success Tweets.  “Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear and is a confidence killer.  Act; especially when you’re afraid.”  Our most common fears are failure, criticism and rejection.  However, if you choose to find and use the learning opportunity in failure, criticism and rejection you will not only become more self confident, you will become more successful.   It’s sad but true – failure, criticism and rejection are the price you pay for becoming a personal and professional success.  Facing your fear of failure, criticism and rejection and acting will pay big dividends — and help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 48 in Success Tweets and the importance of facing your fears and acting.  What’s yours?  What have you learned from facing your fears?  How has it helped you become more self confident?  Please leave a comment sharing your story with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

I’m still writing about the ideas in my new career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I have about 100 more blog posts to go.  When I’m finished, you’ll have an in depth discussion on each of the 141 tweets in Success Tweets.  You can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.  Hard copies of the book are available on Amazon.com and your local bookstore.

Today’s career success coach post in on Tweet 45…

Everyone is afraid sometime.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  Look your fears in the eye and do something.

Fear is the enemy of self confidence.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  Procrastination is the manifestation of fear.   When I find myself procrastinating, I stop and ask myself “What are you afraid of here, Bud?”

Usually, the answer is on the 12 most common fears on the list below.  Which of these stop you from moving forward?   What are you doing about them?

1. Fear of failure – This type of fear has its roots in the misconception that everything you do has to be 100% successful.

Fear of success – This type of fear is based on the idea that success is likely to mean more responsibility and attention, coupled with pressure to continue to perform at a high level.

Fear of being judged – This type of fear comes from the need for approval that most people develop in childhood.

Fear of emotional pain – This type of fear is rooted in wanting to avoid potential negative consequences of your actions.

Fear of embarrassment – This type of fear is a result of empowering others to judge you when you demonstrate that you’re only human by making mistakes and having lapses of judgment.

Fear of being abandoned or being alone – This type of fear is related to rejection and low self esteem.

Fear of rejection – This type of fear comes from personalizing what others do and say.

Fear of expressing your true feelings – This type of fear holds you back from engaging in open, honest dialogue with the people in your life.

Fear of intimacy – This type of fear manifests itself by an unwillingness to let others get too close, less they discover the “real you.”

Fear of the unknown – This type of fear manifests itself as needless worry about all of the bad things that could happen if you decide to make a change in your life.

Fear of loss – This type of fear is related to the potential pain associated with no longer having something or someone of emotional significance to you.

Fear of death – The ultimate fear of the unknown.  What will happen once our spirits leave our bodies?

By identifying your fear, you are more than half way to conquering it.   In the next post, I will present my four step plan for dealing with fear.

But in the meantime, remember this career advice.  Action is the antidote to fear. In most cases, you’ll choose wisely and your fears won’t be realized. In the cases when you choose poorly, you’ll find that failure isn’t as catastrophic as you imagined. Successful people learn from their failures. By taking action on your fears, you win on both counts. You win if you make a good decision and things work out. You even win if you make a bad decision and things go poorly, because you have an opportunity to learn from your decision and the subsequent problems you faced.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 45 in Success Tweets.  “Everyone is afraid sometime.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  Look your fears in the eye and do something.”  Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear.  When you find yourself procrastinating, figure out what scares you about the situation.  Is it fear of failure?  Is it fear of success? Is it fear of rejection?  Is it fear of being embarrassed?  Is it fear of the unknown?  Once you’ve figured out why you are afraid, do three things; admit your fear to yourself, embrace your fear, take action.  Action is the antidote to fear. 

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 45 in Success Tweets – dealing with your fears.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud