3 D's to a more balanced life (Borrowed from Mary Tribby)

(simple but very wise advice for all you plate spinners out there)


On any given day, most of us dedicate time to our children, spouses, careers, friends, charities, churches, parents, siblings, clients, household activities, and, oh yeah, if there is a little extra time left in the day, ourselves. 

So why is it that only a select few of us can make it look easy... while so many look like they have been run over by a tractor trailer? 

The answer is simple. 

Most busy people don't evaluate the project or the task at hand before they begin. This holds true whether they are working on their business lives or on their personal/family lives. 

Instead of taking a hard look at the task or project, they simply try to get it done. They do whatever it takes. 

But unfortunately, the price they pay is very high. 

They sacrifice special moments and milestones with their kids. They risk losing the closeness and tenderness of their spouses. They even jeopardize their own health. They take on all these hardships in order to prove that they are "superparents". And to add insult to injury, in the end, they often miss their deadlines, fail to properly complete the project, and neglect their spouses and children. 

Why do they do this to themselves? 

Because all of our lives we have been told they have to multitask. You have heard the old mantra, "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself" about a million times. And you don't want to appear inferior. 

If this sounds remotely familiar, I need for you to make yourself and me a significant promise. 

You need to vow here and now that you are ready to read this issue in its entirety and apply my Triple D Strategy to your life starting today. 

This strategy is so powerful that you will have an immediate sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. 

When done correctly, it will allow you to have more free time and make more money in your business. Your friends and family will notice immediately that you are not stressed and moody. But most importantly, your "happiness meter" will be heading in the right direction – up. 

And here's the really beautiful part – it is so simple! 

Allow me to introduce my Triple D Strategy. 

Ditch, Delegate, and Duplicate 

When you start to evaluate every project or task that you THINKhas to be done and done by you every day, you will soon find that the task could fall into three possible categories: 

1) Ditch: This is extremely important if you have a hard time with simply saying "no." Most are unable or unwilling to say that a task is not important enough for their time or anyone else's. Look: we all have the same 24 hours in a day – no more, no less. So why is it that we sometimes feel that we should accomplish 28 hours' worth of tasks in a single day? 

In order to turn down a task, just ask yourself the following question: "What will the result be if nothing is done about this project?" This makes your decision very easy. And when you are completely honest with yourself, you will find that 20% to 30% of the things you spend time on don't need to be done at all! 

2) Delegate: The art of delegating relies on finding the right person whose strengths are YOUR weaknesses. You need to do what you do best. Not spend time and energy on tasks that you are not particularly good at or that don't excite you. Your time and energy should be spent on your natural gifts; things that are innate and that you love doing. You should apply this rule at home and at the office. For example, I'm not particularly good at building websites; this is something I delegate to team members. At home, I don't enjoy cleaning my house. This is a task I delegate to a cleaning woman who comes to my home and – believe it or not – loves to clean. 

Because I do not spend my time on tasks like these, I get to devote that time to tasks that play to my strengths. At the office, my strengths are marketing and content creation. At home, one of my strengths is helping my kids with their homework. These are things that I am very good at and I love doing. 

3) Duplicate: Have you ever wished you had a clone? I sure used to! Now I have several. Being able to make more money and have more free time comes down to doubling, tripling, and quadrupling your output without YOU doing the actual work. 

The reason so many people don't duplicate is because they don't understand the correct way to do so. Most people think, "I will never find anyone as good as I am." Here is the beautiful part – you don't have to. 

You see, you must simply find different people who can do specific tasks as well as you can. So perhaps you need to find three or four people. These people need to share some of your qualities. You need to check your ego at the door and strive to find people who have the ability to be as good as and even better than you are. 

If you write all of your promotional copy, make all the affiliate deals, and develop all your products, you need to find three duplicates: One person to write the copy better than you do now while maintaining your voice and style. One person to cultivate new affiliate deals. This person should have your vivacious personality and be extremely outgoing (if these are your personality traits). And one person to develop products – someone who has even bigger ideas and the ability to get the products completed faster. 

The most thought provoking video of 2011? You decide.

A Curiously Spontaneous Note on Wealth.

One of the key concepts to creating wealth is to understand that money is not the goal.
 

Frequently you hear people tell you that they want to make money. However, it's not money they are really after. It is the things that money can buy and the freedom of time to do what they really want. While you may think this is an insignificant difference, it is actually the reason so many people never become wealthy.

Most of us were taught throughout our childhood that the whole point of making money is to sock it away and build our own 'nest egg'. We think of this as a type of insurance against bad fortune, accidents or old age when we can no longer work. The wealthy know that money only works when it is in motion - not when it's sitting in a bank account. We must understand that wealth is an ongoing journey of growth and circulation and if that circulation is stopped, then the flow of money will cease.

While it may seem that there are many roadblocks on the journey to wealth, the only real obstacle is what you believe, think, and feel about money. Most of us were raised with the cliché "Seeing is Believing" which is a skeptical and negative view of life. Still, we hear it our whole lives until it becomes a part of our thought process without our even realizing it. Wealthy people understand that this cliché is exactly backward - you must believe in what you can achieve before you will see it happen in your life. They know that "Believing is Seeing." The only thing that separates a millionaire from you right now is a wealthy mindset, and the foundation of that mindset is belief.

Does this mean that the wealthy have some special skill or knowledge? No - but they do possess some key characteristics that help them become wealthy.

The first of these characteristics is a willingness to listen to their own intuition. If you could become wealthy by listening to the masses, then the masses would be wealthy and they are not. It is a natural tendency to ask the opinions of those we love or respect. Unfortunately, we listen to their comments and biases not taking into account the results in their own lives. We make a decision to listen based on our emotional attachment rather than by looking at what they have achieved. How can anyone who has not accumulated wealth advise you on how to do it? They can't.

A second characteristic of the wealthy is the ability to act when opportunities present themselves. Opportunity is often imagined to be something that you can't miss or pass up. However, I know from personal experience that opportunity is often only a whisper that comes during some of the most trying times of life. If you read the life stories of very wealthy and successful people, you will frequently find they were fired from jobs, kicked out of school or dealt with significant personal tragedies that other people would view as devastating. Instead, they viewed the challenges as opportunities and prospered.

The wealthy also understand that wealth is an ongoing process. It is not a destination you arrive at one day and then stop. It is also rarely accomplished overnight - although it can occur in a short period of time. However, if you gain wealth before you have gained a wealthy mindset then you are in danger of losing that wealth forever. We have all heard of those that win the lottery only to be near penniless a few years later. Since they were never taught to think wealthy, they have very little chance of achieving wealth that lasts and ultimately they lose what money they have.

Those with a wealthy mindset do what they love - and make money at it. Often I see individuals who are seeking wealth like it's something outside that they have to search for. In reality, wealth exists within you. You have activities and hobbies that you love and you can make these into your business if you choose to. Those who are successful and create a great deal of wealth do so because they are doing something they love. The money follows and is just a logical result of them realizing their dream. 

Money is not the dream.

Whether you grow up in the worst circumstance or have every advantage, you have the exact same potential inside of you to create the life you want. No matter how many times you read or hear someone talk about how to become wealthy, your life will never change until you believe that it can - Believing is Seeing.

Simple wisdom for an epic New Year.

In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in ourselves and in our private world, improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of mankind so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. What we do to serve life automatically benefits all of us because we're all included in that which is life. We are life. It's a scientific fact that "what is good for you is good for me".

Simple kindness to one's self and all that lives is the most powerful transformational force of all. So as we march on through 2011, let's carry this small but powerful sentiment with us, to keep us looking up and out for one another, as we go about doing the best we can.

Good things and Happy New Year.

CB 
@confluence