This guest post from Werner Rogers

My boss told me to go to small business xo to look into what solutions would work for the store and when I told him about my findings he told me I didn’t do a thorough enough job. I was so mad at him – that interaction is so typical for us and it’s really created a hostile work environment for me to go into everyday.

I wish I could say I had a good working relationship with my boss but you know, I really just wish a lot of the time that I owned this place instead of him so that things could really run the way I know they’d run best. It’s like he doesn’t trust any of my advice and he’s so hands-on he’s really bad at delegating – sometimes I feel more in his way than I do helpful and that’s not a good feeling to have!

I like getting a paycheck but I don’t want to work here for much longer if I can help it. This working relationship is less than ideal.

Success. Is any one word more desired, more fraught with meaning or more ellusive to the majority of mankind? What exactly is success? How does one achieve it? How can one retain it? These questions have interested, and troubled, mankind for centuries. Suffice it to say that there are as many different answers to these questions as there are people asking them.

One definition of success is money or possessions. Material wealth has always been used by society both as a measuring stick and a barrier. This condition persists to this day. In fact, some may argue that at no time in history has materiality been as important as in modern day America. Whether or not this is true is beside the point. What is true is that the cult of “things” is an ingrained way for we, as humans, to judge and ctagorize strangers and aquaintences. Even more, it is one of the main way we judge ourselves.

The problem with using wealth as a definition of success is that wealth is not always a true indicator. There a great many people who possess enough, and more than enough, physical possession but are morally or spiritually unsuccessful. One only needs to look at Orson Welles stellar performance as Charles Foster Kane, in the classic film “Citizen Kane”, to see a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Kane is a man who has every material thing he could desire. He is rich, He is powerful. He can, and does, make and break lives. Yet, at the moment of his death, what is the one thing he remembers? A simple wooden sled from his childhood. A sled that his parents gave him. A sled that represents the unconditional love that has always elluded him and which no amount of money could ever buy.

An interesting example there. Perhaps wealth is, at best, an innacurate indicator of true success. Perhaps, true success means something simultaneously much cheaper and much more precious.

As a small business owner you might be forgiven for thinking that there are not enough hours in the day—sleep is over-rated anyway!—but the key to the problem is simply  improving your time management skills by utilizing some time management training tips.

• Use a planning tool—for example software like Outlook, or similar. These are great for scheduling any appointments or key meetings with clients. They can even send you reminders if necessary.
• Be honest about where you are wasting time during your day. Most of us idle some time away reading the news or checking email—if this is you, decide how much free-time you can afford and then be firm with yourself about unnecessary procrastination.
• Be ruthless about your priorities. Make a list of all your tasks at the beginning of the day and then prioritize them in order of importance. Anything that can wait, drop it to the bottom of the list. Tick of all the others as you complete them—this will remind you how well you are doing!
• Learn to delegate—no man is an island after all. Presumably you have competent employees at your disposal—so use them! If you can’t delegate, consider outsourcing some tasks.
• Establish regular routines for the way you run your office. If certain jobs are done on specific days, then if unexpected chaos suddenly reigns, it will be easier to quickly find some semblance of order again.
• Set time limits on certain tasks. Some jobs like answering email can take over your life if you let them. So don’t.
• Make sure your admin systems are in good shape. If your filing is so archaic that it takes you three days to locate a client file, you know it needs an overhaul.
• If you have dead time in your day—for example a long train journey to meet a client, or perhaps your client is late for a meeting with you—make sure you have something to fill that time usefully. Always take some work with you, for example a report to read.

Thankfully, technology is a great asset these days and hand held devices like Blackberry’s are great for aiding your time management skills. Even if your flight is delayed and you are stuck at the airport, you now have no excuses not to answer emails. All is not lost—with some effective time management training, you will soon be back in charge of your day.

We can all use a little help when it comes to our self-confidence and a healthy self-image. Self hypnosis is a great tool to assist you with understanding yourself and becoming a balanced and successful adult.

Self-confidence is the way that we view ourselves and also how we relate to others and the world around us. If we have low self-esteem it is near impossible to live a healthy and productive life. Self hypnosis for self-confidence can equip you with the tools needed to improve your self-esteem. Read the rest of this entry

Nowadays, people are starting to believe a lot more in the usefulness of the process known as cosmic ordering. It’s like placing a food order at the drive through at a restaurant and getting your food, except you place this order for your desires directly with the universe to get it. There have been plenty of celebrities that speak of this as being responsible for the great success in their lives. Read the rest of this entry

The Blarney Stone is a historical stone, or actually part of the Blarney Castle in Ireland where it was believed that kissing the stone can grant you the gift of gab. Yeah, it seems strange in this day and age, but who are we to question tradition? It’s not like I’m saying that Santa Claus doesn’t exist (OOPS!).

There is so much to know about conversation that anyone, even I, could ever realize. You can go though watching talk shows; radio programs; clubs dedicated to public speaking; ordinary conversations; certain rules still apply when it comes to interaction through words. It may sound tedious, I know, but even though it’s your mouth that’s doing the work, your brain works twice as hard to churn out a lot of things you know. So what better way to start learning to be an effective communicator is to know the very person closest to you: yourself. Read the rest of this entry

Be all you can be, but it’s not always in the Army. I often see myself as somewhat contented with my life the way things are, but of course it’s hard to think of anything else when where are real issues to be discussed.

Still I aspire for something deeper and more meaningful.

So we’re all pelted with problems. Honestly it shouldn’t even bother or even hinder us to becoming all we ought to be. Aspirations as kids should continue to live within us, even though it would be short-lived or as long as we could hold on to the dream. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks… or can they? Read the rest of this entry

“The power of intention is the power to manifest, to create, to live a life of unlimited abundance, and to attract into your life the right people at the right moments.” Wayne Dyer (Spiritual Guru)

This is the hope that allows us to continue on with our lives, a purpose by which we explain our existence. The difficulties and darkness of this world does not affect our abundance even though they potentially hide it for a while. Our abundance is how our faith is affirmed. It assures us that there is goodness in our lives despite all the hardships of the world.

Read the rest of this entry

What do you want to be when you grow up?  That is a question we often think of children asking.  Unfortunately, there are many adults who are still asking themselves this question.

Very often in life, we allow life to lead us around instead of us leading ourselves around.  Many people today are stuck in jobs that they hate.  They get up in the morning dreading to go to work and manage to get through the day.  They anxiously await quitting time so they can go home.  They covet weekends and holidays. Read the rest of this entry

How many times have you tried to convey to someone your deepest fears in life?  Often the reaction you’ll get won’t be the one you’re looking for or expecting.  Instead of a sympathetic shoulder, you often get a confused look and a response like, “It’s mind over matter,” or “You have to get over it.”

Unfortunately, it isn’t always as easy as shutting off your fears like you would turn off the stove.  Fears are deeply embedded in our conscious and subconscious mind.  After a time, and with repetition, they become established as a formal belief system that you hold. Read the rest of this entry