Successful entrepreneurs, the true rockstars of business, all share certain habits that set them apart.

The most significant of those habits is the way great entrepreneurs approach their work. There are two fundamental styles:

1. Flat out, fast paced and crazy
2. Zen-focused, thoughtful and introspective

Do you fit into one of these categories? Let’s find out why and how you’re conditioned to work (and what you can do about it).

Style one is suitable for entrepreneurs running rocket-ship businesses – especially in the crucial “start up” phase. This is where you need to be all over your business like white on rice. Taking action, ticking off (hundreds) of “to-do’s” and keeping the business alive.

Any entrepreneur who has successfully launched a start up is a master of this work style. Solopreneurs even more so (they have to be all over everything, all the time.)

The great thing about this style? Mastering it means that your actions will have an enormously wide impact. You can make crucial sales calls, follow up emails, attend meetings and make sure your business machine runs smoothly.

The entrepreneurs who master this get a kick out of running around like a headless chicken (they call it multitasking) and are incredibly effective at it.

The second entrepreneurial approach to work is totally different. This is a style that will enable you to do work that counts – the significant, game-changing stuff that sets you apart from every competitor. This is where you switch off to distractions and zoom your mental focus in on the one crucial project in front of you.

This style is for working on that book you’ve been excited about starting, or for planning your business strategy for the next 12 months… or maybe that exciting new marketing campaign.

When you master the zen-focus style, you’ll tap into your true potential to turn out fantastic ideas, products, strategy or “art”. It means focusing deeply on highly specific item.

Which style do you rock?

All business owners are (actually, everyone is) conditioned to be better at one style than the other.

I’ve seen startups that run on pure rocket-fuel… where the CEO is pouring in enormous energy and enthusiasm. They move quick (and often make great money) at the cost of burn-out for that individual.

Then, when it comes to doing work that counts and being a game-changer, the entrepreneur is so caught up in day-to-day operations that they find no time to give their creative work the attention it deserves. That work and ultimately the business, suffers as a result of this.

On the other end, there are the people who are natural born artists. These folks just love focusing on making things perfect and spend loads of time developing a genuinely awesome product.

Problem is, the tactical day to day side of their business is neglected, so while they’re off doing “work that counts,” vital tasks are procrastinated, existing customers are ignored or, even worse, no sales are coming in!

The psychological conditioning that makes each individual entrepreneur lean in one direction or another is pretty tough to overcome.

It’s also worth mentioning that the solution isn’t to simply “be somewhere in the middle”, but rather to know when it’s the most effective to be in either state. If you have both styles at your disposal and can consciously switch between the two, then you’re whole miles ahead of 90% of the wannabe business people out there.

So, what style are you preconditioned to?

For me, it has to be the first “all over things like dog-poop on velcro” style. Just like dog-pop, it’s real tough to get me off (every little task).

I’ve found changing my immediate environment and taking short “power breaks” are both effective techniques for when I want to “switch” and get more focused.

What about you? How do you ensure you get the best out of both work styles? Let me know via a comment…

All entrepreneurs experience a period of inconsistent and irregular financial performance. If you run or own a business, you’ll know exactly what it feels like.

One month, you’ll be on top of the world thinking “I’m rich!”. You’ll barely be able to resist the impulse to go out and eat at five-star restaurants, order leather furniture, cuban cigars and hire a full time clown… or is it just me who wants entertainment staff who juggle??

Next month, you’ll be on the bones of your ass, eating bread dipped in anything runnier than bread. Meals with two colors in will seem gourmet!

Ok, maybe I’m over exaggerating. It’s probably not that bad. And yet, all entrepreneurs experience a period of up and down financial performance.

So what is it inside our brains that makes this bull**** happen?

Why does your business have a profit statement that goes up and down like a yo-yo?

The answer is, because you’re an ass!

Don’t get offended – I don’t mean ass like “asshat”… I’m talking about this guy:

Yes, I’m calling you a donkey!

(By the way, including a cute animal pic auto-magically means this article will get 10,000 page views… right?)

Motivation is what makes entrepreneurs get off the couch and make dollars. As humans, we’re pretty similar to donkeys when it comes to motivation.

We’re driven and fired up by both the carrot and the stick. For entrepreneurs, the carrot is always “wealth, freedom & happiness” and the stick is “poverty and failure”.

We’re motivated to take action to avoid poverty, plus we’re driven to gain wealth. Towards what we want – away from what we don’t want. There’s a balance to our motivation… or is there?

Successful entrepreneurs have a slightly (but all important) psychological point-of-difference to all the wannabes.

The mega-stars of business focus on more carrot and forget about the stick.

The people who get stuck in a never ending cycle of “I’m rich… aaaand now I’m poor again” are the ones who are primarily driven by the stick.

Their financial performance looks like this:

Whenever income crosses over that comfort line of “enough”, it quickly dips back down again. Time and time again.

Why? Because this is the graph of someone who is only motivated by the stick. Once they’ve run further enough, they forget about it!

They may tell themselves they want the big success of a truly successful entrepreneur… but the reality? Once all the bills are paid and they have enough for a six-pack, they virtually check out. No more motivation – back to the couch!

To create an income graph with a smooth curve, upwards to 6 and 7 digits, an entrepreneur must be driven by the big carrot in the sky. Plus, they must never fear the stick.

Once you avoid the stick (not having “enough”), it’s easy to get complacent.

Having a clear vision of the huge, long term carrot…. that’s what makes the difference.

Escape the cycle! Chase the carrot!

What do you think? Have you ever caught yourself fleeing the stick like an ass? I know I’ve been there…

Beating procrastination starts and ends with your thinking. Let’s lose the intro and just get on with it:

1. Give yourself a real incentive

Working towards your ultimate business/life goals is tough going sometimes. Give your latest project a deadline and give yourself a tangible reward for achieving it. Anything from a snack to an overseas holiday works. Be strict.

2. Put a deadline on your procrastination

You’re already procrastinating so why not enjoy it?! Give yourself thirty minutes of messing around and then commit to work.

3. Brainstorm your “reasons why”

Ask yourself “Why must I finish [insert-task] today?” and “What will it cost me if I don’t?”. Write it down and make sure you feel the answers.

4. Advertise your deadline

Most people are more psychologically driven away from losing face than they are driven towards getting stuff done. Share your deadline with someone you really respect. Don’t let them down.

5. Turn off the internet

Takes Jedi levels of discipline but really REALLY works. Enough said.

6. Take more breaks than usual

Most procrastination and distraction is caused by people attempting unrealistic levels of productivity. Experiment with taking a ten minute break every forty-five minutes. You’ll know it’s working if you find the breaks boring.

7. Stop in the most exciting part

When you’re done for the day but have more work for tomorrow, leave your project incomplete in a really exciting (and disjointed) place. This guarantees it’ll be fun and easy to dive right back in when you need to.

This article written in 14 minutes using techniques 2, 3, 4 and 5. Spelling and grammar errors for entertainment purposes only.

Sometimes chunking huge goals down to microscope tasks does wonders for motivation.

I just finished up a session with a client’s Business Development Manager (sales rep).

We simply worked out that they could be well on track to an exciting six figure annual income – if they would just spend two hours a day making calls to new prospects.

Previously, the very thought of the 40 to 50 massive, business-to-business sales they’d have to make (over the year ) was absolutely overwhelming.

Conservatively connecting the dots between two hours on the phone and the pie-in-the-sky annual income goal is like a caffeine jolt to the motivation muscle.

How can you chunk your impossible goals into bite-sized fun?

I’m always pushing my clients and readers (and myself) to shorten the gap between actually doing stuff (important business activity)… and just thinking about it.

As entrepreneurs, it’s a psychological game that we struggle with. The more “intellectual” our background, the more we tend to “plan” and over-analyse things before taking action.

Here’s a new angle you might not have considered: This Thinking-Action Gap affects our customers too!

When we try and sell someone on an idea, product or service… they have to think things over before saying yes. As entrepreneurs (or sales people) we’re always looking for our prospects to take action with a quick decision.

So how do we shorten the Thinking-Action Gap?

Increase trust: Provide social proof that your solution works, present “real life” statistics or make sure the prospect knows you’ve been (successfully) in the game since the year dot.

Make the required action smaller: By asking for less, you make the decision easier. Be careful though – it’s easy to fall into the trap of “just emailing an overview” and extending the sales cycle out far too long. Ideally, ask for a small decision that opens the door for you to show huge value – then ask for the big decision straight away.

Offer true risk reversal: It becomes a no-brainer when you take all the danger out of the deal… but this trick has been around a while, so “just mail it back for a full refund” isn’t going to cut the mustard anymore. “Free” is special kind of zero-risk (just ask Google) but there are other approaches too.

Interestingly enough, all three of these approaches also works in the context of personal (psychological) development. Next time you’re procrastinating (because of lizard-brain fear) check to see if:

• You trust your plans will actually deliver
• You’re not being overwhelmed by unnecessarily huge steps
• You’ve protected yourself from every risk you can

Hmmm… what do you think?

I’ve got a fantastic idea for my business. I bet you’ve got a couple too.

My idea is a stroke of marketing genius that could help me have fun connecting with a bunch of new clients… and earn a pile of well-deserved cash, quickly and easily.

… So today I got started on it by checking all my favourite news sites, making a snack and catching up with an old friend on the phone. Then it felt like I deserved to watch a little television.

Suddenly, what’s left of the day has gone. Business hours are over. As I drove home, I told myself I’ll get stuck in tomorrow, after a relaxing evening and a good nights sleep.

The Self Sabotage monster strikes again!

This article uncovers the psychology of self sabotage and gives you practical tips on how best to overcome it…

Does this sound familiar?

If you’ve ever worked for yourself (or, let’s face it, for someone else) you probably know what it feels like to get stuck in a self sabotage cycle.

For me, it always meant coming to the end of the day feeling really fired up and motivated for tomorrow… but waking up only to procrastinate again.

At a psychological level, this kind of self sabotage could also be described as “motivation in hindsight”… since we struggle to take action in the moment, but also regretfully look back on all the wasted hours.

In my experience as a consultant (across different industries), it seems that this particular brand of motivational dysfunction is especially common among biz owners and the self employed.

The lizard brain explains it all

Outside of our conscious awareness, there is a mental program running which makes this illogical sabotage suddenly make sense.

As entrepreneurs, most of the activities we regularly procrastinate (via self sabotage) are the significant, high impact tasks… like my marketing idea… or any sales stuff you’ve been putting off.

The tasks are significant and high impact because they help our businesses grow in leaps and bounds. Successfully achieving these tasks is what makes us entrepreneurs and enables us to remain happily unemployable.

Taking action on these tasks means leaving our comfort zone. It’s scary – and our lizard brain understands this and makes sure we know it.

We ask questions like:

“But what if my attempt fails?”

“What if they laugh at me?”

“What if they hang up the phone in my face?”

It’s really fear that causes entrepreneurs to sabotage themselves with procrastination.

Employees don’t suffer from this as much, simply because the impact of failing is not so huge. Plus, few employees are required to complete tasks far outside their comfort zone.

Want the secret to winning big in business?

Overcoming self sabotage is what separates the mega-successful entrepreneurs from the wannabes.

Growing a business takes bravery and a commitment to action, in the face of fear and anxiety.

If everyone could take game-changing action (make the cold calls, do the presentation, publish the sales-letter etc) then everyone would be an entrepreneur.

Loads of people try to make it big with their own business, but the few who are truly successful (in terms of freedom, wealth and global impact) are the ones who overcome self sabotage by realising what it truly is:

Fear of failure

Here are a few tips for mentally reprogramming your lizard-brain to eliminate crippling fear.

These are all field tested on my real-world clients and are proven winners. Use any or all of these techniques to destroy the hidden fears that cause self sabotage.

1. Outcome clarity (like “The Secret” – only practical)

Create a clear, visual image in your mind of what “success” looks like for your procrastinated task.

Most self-sabotage begins by people unconsciously making images of failure in their mind (this is where the fear comes from).

Counter-act this useless mental habit by taking 5 minutes to visualise a sparkly, colourful image of success. Pick the exact moment in the future you’ll want to celebrate the most, then turn it into a gorgeous poster in your mind.

Feel the feelings and live the experience internally… then take immediate action to turn the vision into a reality.

2. Task chunking (baby steps… even a baby could do!)

Many of my previous clients got hung up trying to do everything perfectly, all at once. A project like launching a new website would quickly dissolve into an enormous, overwhelming mess.

Chunking tasks into minute, manageable steps enables you to commit to taking small actions. Importantly, you can also congratulate yourself for every completed step along the way.

“Build a website” turns into “Meet with a graphic designer, write the home page copy, pick a great hosting company” etc etc.

Less scary – more doable.

3. Disaster planning (know what failure REALLY means)

Ironically, this technique is the total opposite of my first suggestion. The contraction doesn’t bother me though, because I know that it’s possible to do both:

Give yourself a reality check by answering the question “Whats the worst thing that could happen here?”

Even if you’re gambling your children’s college fund on something, the worst case scenario is usually not even close to real apocalypse.

Work out what total failure would mean, then quickly brainstorm ideas to mitigate this.

By shedding light on the real risks involved in business, we destroy our brains ability to turn those risks into enormous bogeymen.

Use this technique once, then quickly move on to positive thinking and action.

What other techniques do you use to overcome self-sabotage? Let’s expand this list (with your help) in the comment section below…

I was recently invited to give a talk on the basics of leadership – at a closed door corporate event which one of my clients hosted for their retail management staff.

It was out in the mountains – I got to fly back to the city while the managers face three days of leadership/team metaphor… a.k.a. Gruelling physical challenge.

The very cool, diverse group of people helped me figure out (and apply real world examples to) the following psychological criteria for exceptional leadership.

Best of all, it’s a acronym (who needs another numbered list anyway?):

G – for “Great Beliefs”

Before you lead any group of people to do something extraordinary, it pays to equip them with a set of awesome, empowering beliefs that allow them to get the job done.

Inspiration and motivation are irrelevant here – before we start playing with those Jedi mind tricks, you must first instil the beliefs that make the job possible.

Great, useful beliefs include:

“It’s possible to change things”

“My actions can and will make a difference”

“I already have or can find the resources (resourcefulness) I need”

R – “Reasons to Act”

Basic rule of behaviour psychology: No one, not even someone already on salary, will take any action unless they have a sufficient “reason why” providing psychological leverage.

Equip your team with multiple “reasons” why they can, must and want… to take action. Scary asshole bosses traditionally go nuts with threats when it comes to “Reasons to act”… and they may even get results! However, the best (most consistent) results happen when there is healthy balance of carrot (cos positivity is cool) and stick (cos we live in “reality”).

Ask yourself and your team questions like:

“What is the cost of not doing this?” … and…

“What is to be gained by taking action now… as opposed to next month?”

O – Outcome Clarity

This gets included simply because most folks forget the important parts of goal setting. Tangible measurements of success… plus, total certainty of when, where and with whom (more important than you think) are what well-formed “outcomes” are all about.

This is the stuff that makes “The Secret” work.

Practical approaches to turning a lame “goal” into a laser-precise “outcome” include asking:

“What will it look like when I have this?”

“Where will I be/What will I be doing the moment I realise I’ve achieved my goal?”

The more vivid and emotionally compelling the better.

W – Wilful Action

Simultaneously the simplest and the most regularly overlooked “essential ingredient” in the recipe for leadership success. Wilful action is getting up and doing it – once you’ve got all the other stuff.

Many times, people with the right beliefs, reasons, outcomes and even skills (see below) will still sit around waiting for someone to go first!

This is where you, the one who doth utter “Simon says”, stands up and leads! It isn’t called leadership for nothing.

S – Skills

This is where the technical training and real life “school-of-hard-knocks” stuff comes into play. Don’t bother leading folks who are incompetent. Invest time (and money) in first giving your people all the know-how required.

They don’t need to be masters – that comes with the actual “doing” part.

The best leaders are always already masters – they lead with so much more integrity by being able to say:

“Come, follow me down this road… I know the way.”

Got a question? Think something is missing? Want to know how this could apply to your specific leadership situation? Reply in the comment section (just scroll down) and we’ll figure out the answers together…

I rarely find videos relevant and interesting enough to share with you. This one however, is out of this world.

Click to read the rest of this entry – you’ll enjoy a severe shake up of your world view:

This video was originally designed for entry into a “presentation award” competition.

The folks behind it are Jeff Brenman, karl Finch and Scott McLeod.

What do you think the answer to the final question is?

To be honest, viewing this leaves me feeling positive anticipation and gratitude for being alive to witness all this… mixed with more than a little despair. I’m not going to explain WHY I feel despair (why would that reasoning be worth knowing?)…

I want to know your perspective – reply in the comment section below

As a Master Practitioner of NLP I get to meet a lot of people who have jumped on board the self-development/human-potential movement. More often than not, these people are big believers in “the power of positive thinking”.

What they don’t know is that, at a psychological level, positive thinking and affirmations can cause major damage to your thinking and ability to get motivated. Ultimately, positivity can damage your results – in life and business.

Read on to find out the one technique that eliminates this problem – it’s roughly thirty times more effective than positivity…

The secret is simple: Instead of affirming positive “beliefs” try asking yourself questions that produce positive answers.

A huge number of people discover pop-psychology and start practicing the worst kind of positive-thinking.

They tell themselves they are healthy, wealthy and fulfilled. They repeat it as a mantra, over and over. The idea is, through repetition, to slowly drill the message into one’s unconscious in the hopes that results will be forthcoming. 

Problem is, while they’re busy affirming good stuff, they’re not actually doing anything. I’ve never known a single person who has been hit on the head by a bag of money while meditating.  

A nasty incongruency begins to develop: The unconscious mind receives repeated messages about how happy, healthy and wealth you are, but knows that it isn’t the truth.

Talk about internal conflict! Your unconscious mind isn’t stupid. All it’s going to do is learn to tune out the un-true affirmation chatter and get back to focusing on reality.

Second bad news: In the meantime, reality isn’t going so well. Positive thinkers bottle up their frustrations and sit around thinking happy thoughts. Smart go-getters use negative emotion as leverage to take immediate action.

Ask better questions!

By asking oneself clever mental questions, you can actually direct your unconscious mind to come up with clever, positive and empowering answers.

A mental dialogue of empowering, unconscious Q & A lends itself well to action and then results.  

Example:

By internally asking, every morning: “How much positive impact can I have on the bottom line of my business today?”

… you are forcing your unconscious mind to focus on positive, practical actions that will improve your results.

The secret is in the question and the presupposition it implies: By asking “how much” you force your unconscious mind to quantify… zero or “nothing at all” simply isn’t an option!

You could ask yourself:

How much fun can I have today?
How much have I got to be grateful about?

All questions like this will transform your state of mind and the results you produce. Rapidly. Positive thinking takes years of frustration to apply properly and doesn’t even come in close in terms of effectiveness.

Smart questions beat positivity every time. You heard it here first.

Here’s a very simple yet effective technique for narrowing the gap between planning and action.

Everyone makes plans, to-do lists and brainstorms… very few of us tick off as many tasks as we’d like. Personally, I scribbled massive to-do lists in my handy notebook for years without getting much action to happen.

I made a real big breakthrough when I learnt how to increase my instantly increase my action-taking abilities. Here’s how you can do it too…

The secret that bridges the gap between planning and action is simple: Plan to take action

What do I mean by that?

Most people make a really common mistake with their to-do lists: They write huge, significant tasks like “build a website” or “make 5 sales”. They do this because it feels good to “plan” for such big achievements.

The big (important) stuff seldom gets ticked off because huge goals appear overwhelming and become too easy to procrastinate.

The solution is to break your massive, important tasks into bite-sized, achieveable action steps.

I would take:

“Make 5 Sales”

and turn it into:

“Select 100 prospects from database”

“Make 100 calls”

“Set 20 Appointments”

“Make 5 Sales”

The secret, in this example, is the first task. Selecting names from a database is super easy for any sales person. It is an action step that can happen well within their comfort zone, at their desk. No effort required.

By beginning the list with something so simple and easy, it becomes easy and simple to take immediate action.

What easy, simple actions (that get you started on major goals) can you take today? Post your reply in the comment section below…