Are You Ready to March Forth?

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
-Albert Schweitzer

About ten years ago I was talking with someone at a business luncheon, and at the end of our conversation he wished me a Happy March Forth. I considered this to be a bit odd at the time, but I didn't give it much more thought. A couple days later -- on March 4th -- I received a homemade card from him. The cover of the card contained a picture of a beautiful waterfall. The inside of the card read, "Thunderous and powerful, yet oh so beautiful! May your power within thunder out, as you MARCH FORTH and realize all your dreams. Happy MARCH 4th." It wasn't until I received his card that I caught the literary ploy.

Although you do not need to wait until March 4th to march forth and realize your dreams, it serves as a good reminder to get you moving with whatever you care about most in your life that is not getting the attention it deserves. In this issue, I'll share some concrete and practical tips to help get you unstuck so you can march forth in your personal and work life.

If you are not living the life of your dreams, which of these five reasons do you most relate to?

1. You don’t really know what you want, so you just “get by” each day, doing whatever is necessary to pay the bills. If you are living for your time off (evenings, weekends, holidays), this may be you. People who do what they love look forward to going to work, as well as having free time.

2. You are operating under someone else’s definition of success, which does not match yours. Most often, this is a result of something that was passed down from a parent or another close relative whom we don’t want to disappoint. I am reminded of a friend who went to medical school because his father was a doctor and he expected his son to follow in his footsteps. Although he has been a competent doctor for 25 years, he has never felt fulfilled by his work.  Once he spent the time and money to complete his medical education, he decided there was no turning back.

3. You know what you want, but limiting beliefs hold you back or create obstacles to your success. I know so many people who have opted for career tracks because they did not believe they could support themselves doing what they truly love. Some have found ways to do what they love AND make a living. Others have found ways to express their passions through hobbies or volunteer work.

4. You know what you want, but you don’t know how to get it. You aren’t sure what steps to take, so you do nothing. If you ask yourself how to get from here to there, and you don’t know the answer, it can stop you dead in your tracks. The key here is this:  instead of asking HOW, ask WHAT.  “WHAT is one thing I can do today that will help me move in the direction I want to go?” The answer may be in the form of doing some Internet research or having a conversation with someone who can offer good advice about next steps to take. 

5. You know what you need to do, but you don’t have enough time to fit one more thing into your busy life. This is a very common excuse for staying stuck. If time is an issue, ask yourself what you can say no to that is not as important. For example, the average person in Western culture spends several hours a day watching TV. What would happen if you devoted one hour a day working toward what you want, in lieu of watching TV for that hour? There’s seven hours a week that you can repurpose!  I know someone who loves to watch TV to unwind, and she also wants to improve her cardio and lose weight.  She has made an agreement with herself that she can watch TV only when she is walking or running on the treadmill.

Once you’ve identified the primary obstacle above, there’s another key ingredient to your success.

Our environments play a huge role in our success and failure. The late Thomas Leonard (the grandfather of the coaching movement), created The Nine Environments of You model below.

Copyright 2004 CoachVille, LLC

Are your Nine Environments designed to support you in achieving your goals and living the life you desire? In order to make long-term changes, you’ll need to design your environments to support you.

Let’s go through the Nine Environments of You and take a closer look at what this means and how they work together.

1. Memetics: your thoughts, beliefs, ideas, paradigms, cultural norms, and frameworks control your reality. As they say, “perception is reality.” Although your memetics are intangible, they touch each of the other eight environments and have a profound effect on all other environments in our lives. Memetics are typically passed down from generation to generation. Your memetics are what makes you feel safe or not safe, feel like you’re living in scarcity or abundance, etc.

2. Body: Includes your energy, health, and all physical body parts. Are you eating regular, healthy and balanced foods? Are you staying hydrated? Are cardio, strength training and stretching part of your regular exercises regimen? Are you under the care of a trusted professional who is monitoring your health?

3. Self: This environment is intangible. It includes your natural gifts, strengths, talents, personality, passions, emotions, skills and unique assets.

4. Spiritual: This is your connection to a higher source, love, and the non-physical part of who you are.

5. Relationships: This includes family, close friends and colleagues you work closely with.

6. Network: This includes the broader community, strategic partners, customers, social networks, mastermind groups, etc. Influential people generally have large networks. Those who are easily influenced by others generally have small networks. Surround yourself with people who are masters in their field, and they will pull you forward into what you want to become. Who you spend time with is who you become.

7. Financial: This represents income, investments, budgeting, and insurance. The way you utilize all of your resources (tangible and non-tangible) will have a profound effect on this part of your life.

8. Physical: This relates to all the tangible aspects of our lives -- home, office, furnishings, lighting, temperature, sounds, equipment, technology, cars, and other possessions.

9. Nature: This includes the outdoors, beauty, seasons, cycles of life, parks, beaches, mountains, etc.

Three things that these environments affect are your thoughts, feelings and actions. You can't change one environment without it affecting other environments.  Design your environments, then delegate your success to your environments!  By doing so, you will be setting up systems that will pay off great dividends for a lifetime.

Many of my clients contact me initially because they want to upgrade their PHYSICAL environment. How would that affect the other environments? Here’s an example of how it all works together. I’ll call this client Martha.

Physical environment: Martha is a business owner who works from a very cluttered home office. Her desk is piled high with papers, and she does not have a good filing system to manage the flow and storage of important information. Her paper piles have recently gotten out of control and Martha cannot find some important documents she needs to complete work for several of her clients. These clients are frustrated because things are slipping through the cracks and deadlines are not being met. (If it sounds like I just described your office, please register for my free Buried in Paper webinar and learn how to overcome the paper pile-up.)

Financial: Some of Martha’s best clients have taken their business elsewhere, because they don’t feel like she values their work enough to manage it carefully. Her revenues are dropping, and she is beginning to panic. (If you can relate, you're invited to my free Attract More Business webinar, where you'll learn how to capture money you've been leaving on the table in less time than you ever thought possible.)

Network: Martha’s last client to leave her was also a great referral source. He has already started referring others to the new person he is working with. Although she needs to keep referrals up, she has missed the last five networking meetings that she used to attend weekly.

Relationships: In an effort to “clean up” the office and find some important information that has been lost in a pile, Martha has moved some things out of her home office and onto the kitchen table. Now there’s no place for the family to have dinner together. She has also lined the hallway with some boxes and bags of papers. Martha’s husband has been grumpy and short-fused with her recently. Although he has not directly addressed the issue, Martha can tell that he is annoyed with the way that her papers have metastasized into the family living quarters.

Spiritual: Martha is feeling a great disconnect with almost all of her relationships and she doesn’t understand why.  (One of the best ways to feel reconnected is to express gratitude daily.  Please read my story about how I overcame a deep depression by doing just that.)

Self: Martha is really good at what she does and she usually enjoys her work. But lately she has been feeling depressed and discouraged, and she has no energy for doing what used to come naturally to her.

Body: Now that there is added pressure to work harder (to replace the clients Martha has lost), she has not been taking time to go to the gym. She is skipping meals and then overeating late at night. She’s having trouble sleeping because she is worried about finances, as well as the growing discord between her and her husband.

Nature: Martha used to enjoy feasting her eyes on their beautiful back yard from her desk, but lately she has kept her nose to the grindstone and hardly notices what’s going on outside.

Memetic: Here’s a snapshot of Martha’s self-talk: “I can’t do anything right. I’ll never be organized. How can I run a successful business in this mess! In this economy, I’ll never be able to attract more clients.”

If Martha were to upgrade just ONE environment, what effect might that have on the others?

As you review your nine environments, do the following:

1. Identify which environments are causing the greatest discomfort for you right now.

2. What specific actions will you take to upgrade those environments?

3. Schedule time to follow through with the actions that you’ve just identified.

If you need help with learning a great system for managing your ever-growing paper pile-up, come to my free webinar, Buried in Paper (information below).

Would you like some tips on how you can turn your business around, even in a down economy? You are invited to attend my free webinar, Attract More Business! My goal is for you to leave saying to yourself, “This is exactly what I've been looking for!”