Right now… someone has their head in their hands saying to themselves: “What did I achieve today? I did not get through even half of my to-do list! What happened?”

Sound familiar?

Question: How do I achieve what I want in any given day?
Answer: Focus ONLY on what’s MOST important each day…

Are You Ready To Design Your Day?

To achieve your dreams… to maintain balance in the heat of the battle… to know that you have done the best you could given the circumstances you faced… requires you to focus on the important, and not be consumed by the urgent. This is a major driver of success, both personally and professionally. It is not hard to focus, if you know what’s important to you, and what’s not.

For any task to be a priority, it must have more importance than something else. Importance comes from your values, goals and commitments.

Design your day around achieving your primary goals.

Here are 3 questions to get you focused and in the zone of designing your day right now…

1. What has been the focal point of your day so far?
2. Check your schedule today. Which tasks are designed to get you closer to your goals?
3. Tomorrow, when you schedule and prioritise your tasks, which task will you put in your most productive time slot?

Without question, the Results you actually GET in the TIME you have… will determine your ultimate success or failure.

Peace of mind comes from knowing you have done your very best. If you have, day-by-day, achieved the best that is in you, what more is there?

That’s right, nothing.

However, you owe it to your life to actually give your best—consistently.

You owe it to yourself, and everyone around you, to make absolutely certain that you are operating at peak performance… putting your God-given Champion gifts and talents to their highest and best use.

If you want to produce better results this week, you can.

Focus On The Important… Not The Urgent…

To achieve your dreams…

to maintain balance in the heat of the battle…

to know that you have done the best you could given the circumstances you faced…

requires you to focus on the important, and not be consumed by the urgent.

This is a major driver of success, both personally and professionally. It is not hard to focus, if you know what’s important to you, and what’s not.

Doing Your Champion Best Means… Focusing on First Things First.

Champion Action Time:
1. Set aside 30 minutes in your diary and title the task: DOING MY BEST FIRST!

2. Write out what you hope to accomplish next year. What will make you feel GREAT next year at this time, when you look back on the year that was?

3. Now set aside 30 minutes in your diary for tomorrow or a day that you can complete the following task: WHY DOING MY BEST IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME! I want you to explain to yourself WHY this is so IMPORTANT to you.

(i) My Hopes For 2012…FAMILY is Important because……………..
(ii) My Hopes for 2012 …FRIENDS is Important because…………..
(iii) My Hopes for 2012 …MYSELF is Important because……….

Look closely at what you have written down.

How are you going to move these hopes off this page and into your life?

The simple answer: By constantly remaining focused on the important, and not permit life’s urgencies to wear you down and wear you out.
Right now your list is only a list. It is a reflection of what you HOPE you will achieve.

The simple fact is, when you prioritise your life, you determine where your time will produce the most rewarding and satisfying results; based on your priorities on your personal list of values, goals and commitments.

Urgency is a quality given to something requiring immediate attention

…regardless of its relative value. You can spend years chasing down one urgency after another.

Or, you can focus on top priorities and ensure that what’s most important to you actually shows up in your life.

By choosing priorities over urgencies, you stop reacting to circumstances and start creating a life of power, passion and purpose.

Cheers to designing your day and year 2012
Head Coach Shelley

PS: Can’t get your head around focusing on you? Neglecting yourself Can’t put your best self first? You just need someone to get you focused on the things that matter.

Email Head Coach Shelley at champion@championmindset.com.au (or Tough Love Coach as her clients call her) and let her help you develop a clear plan to get your business, your career, your life… on track and keep it that way. And you’ll be kept accountable to ensure you stick to the plan and realise your business or objectives. (Sounds like a smart investment to me.)

When was the last time you did something truly vulnerable and shared it with your clients and prospects; even your family and friends?

I hope it was within the last week. You may think I’m crazy for saying this (or you may think it’s a no-brainer), but –

By being YOU is the perfect place to show a bit of your humanity… to let them in on some of your mistakes, as well as how you overcame them.

Yes it is a a risk. But it’s also good practice. Practice being vulnerable, that is. There is a connection between vulnerability, approachability and profitability. When you open yourself to the world, the world will opens its wallet to you. But only if you’re willing to strip away the superficialities and occupy your vulnerability.

There are two BIG reasons why you want to be vulnerable:
1. Showing that you’re vulnerable builds trust and understanding. People will like you better and want to connect if they get a sense of who you are under all that “expertise” or skill.
2. Being real is more fun and… well, more real!

Shelley with fellow FINA TOWSC member, Steven Munatones (USA) Director www.OpenWaterSource.com

And last week I did just that! I “stuffed-up” in my role as Technical Official at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Shanghai, China. I was told it is unacceptable to take photos whilst officiating on the feeding pontoon. Forget the fact that the photos were taken at a time when the race was happening 200m away and other officials were also violating this protocol, I had to “cop it on the chin” in front of forty-five international officials.

When I started writing the Champion Mindset Motivation ezine back in 2001, I had this idea that I needed to know more, seem perfect and be the “wise one” having achieved amazing feats as a 7-time World Champion with a proven track record of success.

Now in the Champion Mindset workshops and Mental Toughness coaching programs, I admit I have “stuffed-up” many times, even failed and then bounced back to go on and achieve higher heights due to my inner resilience; which has shown more of myself and relates to my clients.

So when I hear team managers, coaches and even small business owners say they don’t know enough to serve their niche market, it reminds me of me back then. But that’s just a lie we tell ourselves.

Of course, showing your vulnerability at 1on1 meetings educates your clients, colleagues and team mates. Some managers/team leaders/coaches will correct mistakes or take them step-by-step through how to do something. But your tips will land more deeply if you also share how you got there — which is almost always about fumbling into competency, right?

When I launched my Think Like A Champion blog in 2008, I started following some pro bloggers like Peter Godfrey, and I witnessed in his blog posts a kind of take-me-as-I-am transparency that really appealed to me. I noticed his posts attracted lots of comments.

So I shifted my approach by determining my target audience and developing strategies whilst redefining my own Champion Brand (the Business of Me) and as a result my motivational presentations and personal branding workshops are receiving rave reviews. I delivered the Champion Brand Promise and unleashed my inner winner sharing; “I’m comfortable in my own skin… and all its wobbly bits!” And it’s paying off.

Who knew? (You might be saying “Well duh, Shelley” but really, I’m not the only one this is a new paradigm for.)

This is the age of social networking. This is a time when having more fun and being more real is good business. The goal is to show more of who you are — just a regular Joe Blow or Jane Doe — while you also show your unique style, your extraordinary qualities and know how.

Believe me; you have a great story to tell. Everyone does. And stories rock! These stories are your Champion Brand Signature Style and knowing how to identify and present yourself by getting them into your marketing, your networking, your team meetings… everywhere where you connect with your people is the key to turning your know-how into profit or promotion.

Tell me what you think about this whole vulnerability thing and your brand signature style in the COMMENTS below. When you stuff-up what do you do and focus on to bounce back? If you’re hip to it, thanks for leading the way. If it’s new to you, I double dare you to share your vulnerability with your team/colleagues/family once a week!

And thanks for your loyalty with me through all the ways I keep learning to help you to get comfortable in your own skin, define, design and deliver your Champion Brand to dominate your marketplace / niche industry and achieve your goals better.

Cheers to you becoming the Champion of your own world!
Shelley Taylor-Smith

PS: following being reprimanded for my stuff-up in Shanghai, many officials offered their support saying they too have made errors and to not sweat the small stuff! Also I was reminded that I created history becoming the first female Chief Referee in a Men’s Open Water Swimming FINA World Championship event. (NB: achieved first for female Chief Referee in FINA World OWS Championships Roberval 2010) [read more...]

The BOMShell is happening around Australia! The Business of Me with Shelley Taylor-Smith: How to Use the Power of Personal Branding to Create Your Own Champion Brand workshops in Perth on Thursday, 11th August 2011. Sydney & Melbourne TBA September 2011.

The silly season is upon us and it is not even Summer here downunder… and many are feeling the heat.

With the warmer weather in the Wild Wild West in Perth, Western Australia comes early sun rises and the opportunity to get out there and energise yourself for the day ahead with your favourite exercise.

People come to me for coaching, whether to improve their athletic performance, eradicate self doubt or a self defeating attitude to boost their confidence and create the power of a Champion attitude and focus.

….and the one thing I remind myself about consistently, as I do my clients, is focusing on the things that count. Too often we beat ourselves up for all the things we should have done, rather than thinking about what do I need to do.

Do you find yourself focusing on the good times or bad?

Here is my suggestion for you.

Have a great memory of your achievements and forget all the things you should have done or could have done better. What is one achievement from your past you can focus on?

What I call your Gold Medal Moments…

1. Create a list of your personal achievements when you were standing on your dais and you were the Champion of your own world.
2. Separate the list into the following areas: strength, power, confidence, focus, energetic, calm, relaxed, in the zone and joy.
3. In each of the lists write your personal achievements when you felt those emotions that boost your energy levels, performance and productivity.

Practice the following…. when you find yourself focusing on the things you should have done or could have done better and with those thoughts come all those nasty feelings and emotions… turn and focus on what you want to feel instead and remember the times, that specific time, as if looking through your own eyes and see what you saw, feel what you felt, hear what you heard and what you may have been saying to yourself.

If you are training for your next competition whether an open water swim or triathlon; it is important to stack those gold medal moments in a special place so if you need them during training or a competition; you can access them easily.

Watch as your energy levels increase, your distractions disappear and your confidence soar!

Create A Champion Mindset and Be Totally Happy Being You!