Newsletter for December 2004:
Positive Daily Action
Contents:
- This Months Thought
- Positive Daily Action
- Quotes of the Month
- Strictly Business: Your-End Tax Bargains
- Humor: Vocabulary for the New Work Place
This Months Thought
This month, do a few things differently. Make the phone calls you've been putting off. Commit to some daily exercise, to paying those nagging bills, or to reading a few minutes every day. Eat slightly healthier and go to bed a bit earlier. Read to the kids or go for a walk with your spouse. Do a few Positive Daily Actions every day this month. The power of PDA makes all the difference.
Positive Daily Action
Last month, I wrote about the power of Positive Self-Direction and mentioned the necessity for "Positive Daily Action". I teased that "Positive Daily Action" is the true meaning of PDA, even though some people mistakenly believe it refers to the little Palm Pilots(R) they carry around all the time. I was surprised by the number of emails asking for more information about "Positive Daily Action" and the extraordinary power it has to transform our lives!
(You can read last month’s Thought of the Month on my web site at: http://www.rodgerblaker.com)
PDA, and it's opposite, Negative Daily Actions, ultimately control every aspect of our lives. Everything we do either takes us forward and makes us happy, or in some small, seemingly unimportant way, it tears us down.
There is no escaping the power of small daily actions, and yet most of us try to ignore their impact, pretending that small daily decisions aren't "really" the source and substance of our lives. The fact is that "we are what we repeatedly do", and there is no escape.
Today, we all know that smoking kills, it just doesn't kill quickly. Its action is so subtle and takes so long that for many years people argued about whether cigarettes were harmful, and on a daily basis, it was easy to deny the statistical link. Today, almost no one questions it, but thousands of people died before the impact of cigarette smoking became clear.
In the same way - to pick one of my personal favorites – a little bowl of ice cream "can't hurt you". And, of course, one bowl usually doesn't. It's the "little" bowl that grows larger over time, and the "little" bowl every night, that creates a problem. It's the extra calories every day that becomes extra pounds, eventually leading to a life that looks and feels very different than we intended.
It's the little daily actions that count!
Over and over again I am amazed at how incredibly "average" most successful people are. They are NOT smarter or stronger, or taller, thinner or sexier, than the rest of us. They have no special knowledge and, embarrassingly often, they don't even have any special talent!
What they DO have is the discipline to take action EVERY DAY.
Call it self-discipline if you like, but it is definitely NOT a special gift. They do small, simple things, but they do the RIGHT things. Here is a short list of some of the things high achievers do LESS of than the rest of us:
They watch less TV. They eat fewer deserts. They spend slightly less than they earn. They run fewer errands. They gossip less and spend less time in pointless, fruitless relationships. They worry less, and feel less guilt, anger and resentment. They waste less time.
And, here are a few of the things highly successful people do MORE of.
They work more hours, and they are more productive. They save a small percentage of their income, every single month. They read more books. They get more sleep, and they get up slightly earlier. They have a wider circle of friends and associates, and they stay in touch. They take more time off, and are more likely to attend seminars or educational conferences.
Small Positive Daily Actions makes all the difference!
This month, do a few things differently. Do not try to change your whole life! That's not realistic and most of us are way beyond that. Instead, make the phone calls you've been putting off. Commit to a bit of daily exercise, to paying those nagging bills, or to reading a few pages every day.
Eat slightly healthier and go to bed a bit earlier. Read to the kids or go for a walk with your spouse. Do a few Positive Daily Actions every day this month. Then, if you like the results do them again next month. The power of PDA makes all the difference.
Quotes of the Week
"Success is neither magical or mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals." – Jim Rohn
"Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure." -- Edward Eggleston
"No man [or woman] is free until he learns to do his own thinking and gains the courage to act on his own personal initiative." -- Napoleon Hill
"Follow your dream...take one step at a time and don't settle for less, just continue to climb." -- Amanda Bradley
Strictly Business: Year-End Tax Bargains
Every year about this time, we go on a shopping spree because in the U.S. and many other countries the tax laws put office and business equipment "on sale". At the end of the year, it's vital to plan your purchases to enhance productivity and reduce the amount you'll pay the government next April.
The money you earn at the end of the year is taxed at your highest "marginal rate", that means the more you make this month, the more you'll pay in taxes. How to play by the rules and still reduce your taxes? Simple, spend all you reasonably can on legitimate business investment.
Clearly I am not qualified to give formal tax or accounting advice and a general newsletter like this is NOT the place to get your "final answer", so be sure to check with professionals and get expert advice for your particular situation, but here is the general rule: Invest it now, or give it to the government next spring.
Hear are some examples for reducing this years taxes. Order a new computer for your assistant, go shopping for new office furniture, schedule your annual office retreat, and pay for your year-end tax planning consultation. Why? Because those are legitimate business expenses and by spending the money now, you reduce your profits for the year, thus reducing our taxes next spring by several thousand dollars.
In this case, all of those things are about half-off because Uncle Sam is paying about 50%, and that is a great deal!
Look at your business plan. Look at your office, your advertising budget, your year-end bonuses, and other legitimate business expenses. Whatever you can spend now will, in general, reduce your taxes next April. Always check with your tax professional, but plan wisely. Since the government isn't shy about demanding its cut of your profits, work within the rules to let the government be your partner in investing for future profits.
Now is the time! Don't miss this once a year opportunity.
Humor: Vocabulary for the New Work Place
A dear friend of mine sent these to me, and I must say, I'm a bit surprised that such a "nice young lady" would pass them on, but then we all have a touch of mischief in us, don't we? They certainly made me smile, and in these stressful times, a bit of laughter in the work place is certainly a good thing. Enjoy them!
ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people obtain success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and deciding whose fault it was.
SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.
PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or makes a sudden noise in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.
MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.
STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiney.
XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies.
PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web "error message 404" meaning that the requested document could not be located.
OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake.
STRESS MASTER: A person who thrives on causing stress in their co-workers.
SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
Rodger Blaker is a Personal Business & Life Coach who partners with small business owners and professionals to help them bridge the gap between where they are today and where they want to be! For info on resources for your success, visit: http://www.rodgerblaker.com
GIVE A GIFT TO A FRIEND! Please forward this copy to your friends and colleagues! That's how I grow!