It’s All About Me: Making ME Better

Many of us strive to improve and make our lives generally more enjoyable. As I work with individuals and organizations I find there are a few areas that most people seem to struggle with consistently. If we could improve in any one of these areas, we’d find some of the relief we are seeking in our day-to-day lives.

Learning more effective time management. The millions of books and programs on this subject attest to the fact that using time well is a struggle for most of the population. What’s the problem? We know going into each day how many minutes, hours and daylight we will have there are no surprised. So why don’t we seem to use our time effectively and feelaccomplished at the end each day? One key reason is that we haven’t determined our priorities. What really matters to us? Without knowing this, we can’t discern one good situation from another and we’re thrown all about by the different demands that come our way. Today commit you will take some of your precious time and write down your goals and priorities, in order of importance.

Being more effective in communication. This one impacts our ability to sell, to provide good client service, to get along with our spouse or children, to find harmony in our sibling relationships. Why is it so hard to have easy-going relationships? One key reason is that we refuse to identify our role in any given difficulty, and then practice new behavior to approach the other person from a different place. We want toblame the situation on the other, or assume we aren’t ever going to make a difference. Today commit you will become an Interested Observer in just one relationship. See what sets you off and how you most often react. Determine to STOP! and not respond as you always do. Watch what happens to the other person.

Making and keeping more money. No matter how much we make, it never seems to be enough and many of us truly don’t have much to start with. We feel so frustrated ashamsters on the wheel in our daily lives. Of course, the little secret is that hamsters are happy on the wheel!! We, however, are not. One key reason we struggle financially is that we don’t take the time to set our priorities and confirm our goals. Is it saving for retirement? Buying a house? Paying down debt? Whatever is most important should be written down in order of importance and referred to every morning. Today commit to record what you really care about financially write it where you can view it several times a day. Most importantly, every morning stop and review what you’ve written. As you go throughout your day, maybe the item you wanted to buy becomes less interesting if it means sacrificing what you care about.

Improving one’s self takes time and many baby steps to get to the greater goal. Today, give yourself a break but also take a break and commit you’ll start to make some changes toward a better you!