Today is tax day in the USA.  I hope you got your taxes in on time.   Taxes are one of my least favorite things to do.  In this post, I want to discuss, least favorite things to do, as well as hard work and effort.

Outstanding performance is one of the key competencies to life and career success that make up my Career Success GPS System.  Outstanding performers are lifelong learners.  They manage their time and life well. They are organized for success. They live a healthy lifestyle.

In this post, I’d like to discuss the importance of hard work and effort in becoming an outstanding performer.  When I was a kid, I used to listen to Earl Nightingale on the radio.  I loved his stories and his deep resonant voice.  The other day, I came across one of his quotes.    “Successful people form the habit of doing what failures don’t like to do. They like the results they get by doing what they don’t necessarily enjoy.”

I know that this sounds like the Protestant work ethic in overdrive – doing what you don’t enjoy.  However, I think this is great common sense advice. 

Here’s an example.  I’ve run a career success coach business over 20 years.  Early on, I learned the importance of managing receivables.  I don’t like to generate invoices and follow up on them, but I do it because it’s necessary.  If I don’t generate and mail the invoices, I don’t get paid.  And, while I love what I do, I still need to get paid for doing it.

I have developed a system for helping me manage my receivables.  I send invoices twice a month – on the 15th and the last day of the month.  I keep a tickler file to remind me when to follow up – at 30, 45 and 60 days.  In this way, I am able to manage my cash flow.  I have forced myself to get into the habit of doing something I don’t enjoy — managing receivables; and I like the results – money in my checking account.

What parts of your job do you not like?  What do you do to make sure you excel at them?

The common sense point here is simple.  Outstanding performance is an important career success competency.  Outstanding performers do all parts of their job well – not just those parts they enjoy doing.  As a career success coach, I urge you do all parts of your job well.  This takes discipline and effort.  However, this discipline and effort will pay off in the long run.  You will become known as an outstanding performer – one who gets things done.  And outstanding performance is one of the five keys to a successful life and career.

Those are my thoughts on doing what is necessary, not just what you like to do.  What are yours?  I’m interested in your perspective on these thoughts.  Please take a minute to leave a comment.  I welcome and appreciate your comments.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

If you want to create the successful life and career that you want and deserve, you need to perform at a high level consistently.  High performance is one of the competencies in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I Want YOU…to Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success. 

High performers manage their time, life and stress well.  They pay particular attention to their health and well being.  It’s impossible to perform at a consistently high level if you don’t feel healthy and energized.  In this post, I’d like to discuss two issues when it comes to managing your stress and feeling healthy and energized – restoring energy and dealing with headaches.

We all get tired, run down and out of sorts occasionally.  That’s when it’s important to catch your second wind.  Here are my best ideas for getting your second wind.  These ideas work for me, and I think they’ll work for you – but remember, I am a Doctor of Education, not an MD.

Eat a healthy snack – something that is rich in fiber, like an apple, dried apricots, celery or a handful of pistachio nuts.

Take a few minutes and breathe deeply.  Relax and spend a couple minutes taking deep breaths.  Deep breathing always makes me feel calm, gives me more energy and helps me get focused better.

Visualize yourself in a relaxing place.  Close your eyes for a few minutes and imagine yourself in your special, peaceful and restful place.  This type of visualization helps rejuvenate my psyche.  My special place is Washington Park in Denver – not far from my home.  When the weather is nice, I just don’t picture myself there, I ride my bike to the park and sit on a bench for five or ten minutes.

Splash some cold water on your face – or pop a breath mint.  Mint flavors are stimulating.  You might want to begin your day by using some mint shampoo – it will help you wake up and get going.

Focus on what’s good.  At the end of every day take a few minutes to list the good things that happened to you that day.  You’ll be surprised at how many things went well.  Doing a good news inventory will help you relax, and you’ll sleep better.

Most of us get headaches too.  Headaches can be a real productivity robber.  Americans spend over $4 billion a year on over the counter pain relievers – most for headaches.  Here are the five most common causes of headaches and my best tips for preventing headaches before they start.

Stress – Exercise daily.  It helps reduce stress and tension.  Also, if you are so inclined meditate, daydream or just relax.  I have difficulty doing nothing, but I find that if I take the time to relax, I deal with the stress in my life better.

Eyestrain – When I’m not consulting or coaching, I spend a lot of time in front of my computer.  This can lead to headaches.  I try to work in five minutes of away time from my computer screen every hour.  I make a phone call or go for a short walk in the office.  I also have my vision checked every year.  I have found that deteriorating vision can cause headaches.  I keep my vision prescription up to date.

Food – Caffeine, processed foods, chocolate and MSG can give me headaches.  I always ask for no MSG when I am at an Asian restaurant.  Other people say that red wine, and some cheeses lead to headaches for them.  Figure out what foods cause you headaches and do your best to avoid them.

Sitting for an extended period of time – This is closely tied to spending your day in front of a computer.  Yes, you’ll get eyestrain that can cause headaches, but when you sit at a computer you often hunch over.  This tightens your muscles and leads to tension headaches.  Get up and move around.  Stand while you’re on the phone, take a walk around the office, or go for a longer one at lunch time.

Sleep – Too much or too little sleep can lead to headaches.  I suggest going to bed and getting up at the same time every day – even on weekends.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are high performers.  High performers maintain a reasonable level of health and fitness.  They manage their stress.  Here are a few simple steps you can take daily to increase your health and fitness and manage your daily dose of stress.  Snack on healthy foods when you begin to feel a little slow and low.  Take a few minutes in the afternoon to breathe deeply and relax.  Move around – don’t spend all day every day in front of your computer.  Exercise as often as possible.  Get the same amount of sleep every night.  If you follow these simple, common sense pieces of advice, you’ll be able to prevent a lot of stress related illnesses.

That’s my take on enhancing your job performance by managing your stress.  What’s yours?  Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Competence is one of the four keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I also discuss it in some detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Your Success GPS; and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  If you want to succeed you need to develop four basic, but important competencies: 1) creating positive personal impact; 2) becoming a consistently high performer; 3) dynamic communication skills; and 4) becoming interpersonally competent. 

There are four key competencies that will help you become a career and life success:

• You have to be able to create positive personal impact.
• You have to be become an outstanding performer.
• You have to be a dynamic communicator – in conversation, writing and presentations.
• You have to build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in your life.

I have done a couple of blog posts recently in which I mentioned the importance of having an abundance mentality.  You can see them here and here.  Dan Robey is an abundant kind of guy.  I am a subscriber to his Power of Positive Habits ezine.  Yesterday, he had a great article in the importance of raising your heart rate to build your fitness.  Fitness is key to becoming an outstanding performer.  You can perform at a consistently high level is you don’t maintain a reasonable level of physical fitness.

Dan was gracious enough to allow me to post his ideas on elevating your heart rate here.  Check them out.  They are great common sense…

Increase Your Heart Rate

Just 4 words but perhaps THE most important words you will every hear.

Why?

Why is it so important to elevate your heart rate on a regular basis? Before I answer that question I want to tell you a story.

As I travel the world and meet many people I hear a lot of complaints about health. People tell me about joint pain, arthritis, migraine headaches, lack of energy, the list goes on and on. Whenever someone tells me about their health problem I always ask them this simple question:

“How many times a week do you elevate your heart rate to 70% of its maximum?”

Do you know what their answer is 99% of the time?

Zero!

Why is it so important to elevate your heart rate?

Your blood vessels, the arteries and the veins, are a bit over 60,000 miles long (62,000 miles), or 96,500 kilometers.  When your heart rate is elevated it pumps blood at an accelerated pace through your body’s incredibly complicated system of veins and arteries.

This accelerated flow of blood through your body helps to provide increased oxygen to your cells and also helps to keep your veins and arteries clear of plaque that can build up.

Think of the plumbing in your house. After years of use, a drain can easily get clogged up with calcium, sludge and other materials.

If the pipes are too clogged it can shut down the flow of water in your house. A plumber will then have to come out and clear the pipes of the sludge. Your body can also get clogged up and many negative health issues can result.

If you are living a sedentary lifestyle then don’t complain when health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart problems, migraines, lack of energy suddenly appear in your life.

In many cases they are simply the result of the sedentary lifestyle you have chosen.

Change your lifestyle today and reap the rewards of improved health.

Here are the excuses I hear as to why people say they cannot change their lifestyles:

“I don’t have time.”

“I don’t have the money to join a gym”

“I am not strong enough”

Here are my answer to all of these lame excuses:

It only takes 10 min a day to elevate your heart rate and start achieving health benefits. I don’t care who you are, you can spare 10 min in the morning. So consider this
a cop-out excuse….you can make time.

You don’t need to join a gym, in fact you don’t need any gym equipment at all. Here are some examples. 

Do jumping jacks in the morning.

Jump rope in the morning for 5 minutes, then increase to 10 after time.

Walk briskly around your neighborhood or house.

Climb the stairs in your house or office for 10 minutes.

Do aerobics while watching an aerobics show on TV.

Age does not matter. Studies have shown that elderly people in their 80′s benefited from exercise programs.

You can figure 70% of your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220 then multiply that by 0.70 that is your target heart rate.

I’ll be elevating my heart rate a little later today.  We had our first big snow in Denver overnight.  It’s still snowing as a matter of fact.  Once it quits, I’ll be out there with a shovel.  Shoveling snow is one of the best ways I know to elevate your heart rate.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are consistently high performers.  It is easier to become a high performer – and maintain a high level of performance – when you are physically fit.  Increasing your heart rate is a great way to improve your level of fitness.  Dan Robey, author of The Power of Positive Habits says that most of the excuses he hears for not exercising to elevate your heart rate are pretty lame.  Day says that the biggest excuse he hears is that “I don’t have the time for exercise.”  And he’s right – that’s lame excuse.  All you have to do is get up a half hour earlier and you can find the time for a little aerobic exercise that will elevate your heart rate, improve your level of fitness and help you become a consistently high performer.

That’s my take on the relationship between aerobic exercise high performance and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud