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Archives for August 2011

Indecision

August 27, 2011

IndecisionHave you ever had a hard time making a decision?  Has the delay in making one cost you something (time, money, job promotion, etc)?  In my job I have seen it cost all of these things to people and it was simply because they could not make up their mind.

Indecision can effect you and your loved ones, cost you opportunities in your home and work life, and keep your mind occupied so you cannot focus on tasks.  No matter whether your need to make a career decision or what to eat for dinner a delay can cost you.

Dan Miller in his book “48 Days to the Work You Love” says that he and his wife limit themselves to a two week window to make any kind of decision.  To help make their decisions they have a 5 step process:

  1. State the problem.
  2. Get the advice and opinions of others.
  3. List the alternatives.
  4. Choose the best alternative.
  5. Act.

And just like your third grade teacher telling you during those standardized tests that if you don’t know the answer 100% to take the first one that came to your mind, that can be good advice here.  In many instances your first thought of the right answer is going to be what is good for you.  Don’t make your decision based on your first assumption but look at that as a really good starting point and work from there.

Being able to make a decision is just as important as having goals and dreams.  If you have a dream and cannot decide whether or not to act upon it then where does that leave you?

Photo courtesy of spaceamoeba.

Filed Under: Life Coaching, Time Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Failure Is An Event Not A Person

August 20, 2011

Walt Disney

“Remember that failure is an event, not a person” – Zig Ziglar

Everyone fails at one time or another and it can often feel like you will not recover.  How many times have you had the wind knocked out of you because of a “failure” only to discover a little ways down the road it wasn’t so bad?

Would you consider Walt Disney a failure?  Why would you not?  He was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”  He went bankrupt several times.  So why do you say he is not a failure?

Walt Disney took the failures and built on them and now we have the largest media conglomerate in the world based on his visions.  When you have a “failure” in your life see how you can learn from it and get back on your feet.  You never know what is waiting for you just around the corner.

Filed Under: Life Coaching Tagged With: , , ,

Is it that hard to care?

August 13, 2011

Argue & TwistHave you ever had a problem with the service in any kind of establishment?  Sure, we all have at one time or another.

Have you ever asked to speak with the manager only to ind that though they are not arguing back you know you are going to walk out unsatisfied?

Any industry that has a customer needs to have customer service skills.  This means ALL businesses need customer service skills.  But how many times do you find the office manager who just doesn’t have the time to talk to you or in my case a dentist that can’t make himself apologize?

This past week my daughter went in to see the dentist.  She was getting a little work done which she has had previously with little issue.  She told the dentist twice that she was hurting and rather than take a moment to explain to my wife what the problem was he turned to his hygienist and told her to make an appointment where she could be sedated, tossed down the drill, and walked out.  Of course, my wife was upset by the lack of care so I called and talked to him to find out was going on.

After several minutes of explaining to him that the problem was not that he felt that he could not perform the work but that he didn’t take the time to explain what the problem was when my wife was sitting in the same room he continued to say “I assumed she knew what the problem was.” and “If she had a question she should have spoken up.”

Really?

The average person can see where the flaw in basic customer service is here.  All I wanted was to find out the problem and a simple apology for acting the way he did.  I really got neither since he didn’t care.  He didn’t even bother to argue his point.  It was simply our fault for not asking.

Your customers should not have to ask.  You should be out seeking their problems and finding solutions to them.  This is what keeps your customers happy and keeps them coming back to you.

If you are at a grocery store and there are no carts available at the door you have the option to go out and get one yourself.  It is your problem since you are the one wanting to shop.  How would you feel if his was the response you got at that store?

At Walt Disney World guests were forgetting where their cars were in the parking lot all the time.  The tram operators took it upon themselves to start writing down where they were in the parking lot at a certain time and this list of times is handed to cast members at the end of the day.  If you can not find your car but know what time you parked they can help you get in the general area of where you were picked up.  Where your car is parked is not their problem but they saw an opportunity to help their guests and did so.  By doing this you have less frustrated people who see their visit to your location as pleasant.  Was this a hard thing to do?  Absolutely not.

Now you have a decision to make.  Are you going to be like the dentist who will no longer be getting our business (he lost two patients with one unapologetic attitude) or are you going to be the tram operator who took the initiative?

Photo courtesy of Fimb.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Life Coaching Tagged With: , , , ,

Not Enough Time?

August 6, 2011

clockIf you are like many people I know you never have enough time to do everything you need to do. I see it all the time on social media that there just isn’t enough time to do _____________.  Why is it so many people feel this way?  It is because not enough people plan their time.

Everyone in the world has the same amount of time in a week.  168 hours in fact.  Now, if you are working full time deduct 40 hours from that and it leaves you 128 hours.  Remove 8 hours per night for sleeping (if in fact you sleep that much) and that gives you 72 waking hours during the week to do what you want to do.

If you are working a 5 day work week that means you have two days off.  Minus time for sleep that gives you 32 hours on your off days for the week.  How do you make the most of this time?  Try the “Rule of 3.”

The”Rule of 3″ is simple but you’ll have to make an effort to plan for it until it becomes habit.  Laura Vanderkam describes her rules in this way:

So here’s the rule of three for weekends: plan three meaningful, enjoyable things, beyond life maintenance, that you intend to do on the weekend. There will be different for everyone, but could look like this:

  • Go for a run, have date night dinner, go to church
  • Volunteer at food bank, meet friend for coffee, go for a family hike
  • Visit an art museum, take kid bowling, go for bike ride
  • Go to a birthday party, have a picnic, do weight-lifting session

That sounds incredibly simple right?  Simple doesn’t mean easy but if you plan your time, set the goal, and make it a habit then the simply becomes easy.

In This Post: Laura Vanderkam is the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think and writes a blog at my168Hours.com

Filed Under: Time Management Tagged With: , ,