Ideas To Help You Power Your Vision From Passion To Profit

Consider two teams, both playing the same game of baseball. With one team, when the ball is hit, some players run towards the ball and others stand around and watch, sometimes not even thinking about the game.

Now look at the other team: when the ball is hit, every player reacts in a disciplined manner and his teammates know what the other is going to do. Depending on the situation, the pitcher may cover home plate, infielders set up for a double play, and outfielders prepare to back up their teammates.

Which team is going to deliver the most wins?

In any kind of business, what keeps you in business is whether or not you deliver the goods to your clients. You need to deliver quality results in a consistent manner. The good news is that to deliver quality results, you do not need tons of people or the most expensive tools: it's all about the quality of your systems.

What is a "system"? It is a set of activities, methods, practices, tools and transformations that you use to create a specific deliverable result. An effective set of systems brings together people, tools and methods into an integrated whole. The quality of your end result is determined by the quality of the systems used to produce it. Systems provide a measurable way to improve your ability to execute.

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Today I realized that I've been blogging quite steadily for five years now (since August 2005). It was a colleague of mine who urged me to explore what blogging is all about. As I saw what others had done, it seemed like a Herculean task. Where to find ideas to blog about?

Luckily for me I started one post at a time. Now, two blogs (this one in English and one in French) and a combined 558 posts later, I think I'm getting the hang of it.

I believe that every solopreneur needs to blog. The currency of the self-employed professional is ideas. Blogging is a powerful way to get ideas out of your head and into the world. Many of my thoughts are half-baked, sometimes the grammar is twisted or the post is not quite logical, that's okay. A blog is a workshop to prototype your ideas, to test them and see what sticks, both with you and with your readers. By demonstrating how you think and what you are thinking about, you help your prospects to build their trust in you.

My original intention with this post was to come up with my "Top Ten" favorites but as I went through my archives, there were just too many. Instead, here are ten posts (in no particular order) that I think represent my personality and my beliefs:   [Read more →]

I remember how happy I was on my graduation from the Royal Military College of Canada. The double-major I chose had the heaviest course load of any program at my college, so each fall and spring exam session was a gruelling non-stop blur. I was so happy to never endure another exam for the rest of my life!

As I transitioned to my new career, that hope was somewhat dashed, but it wasn't so bad. There were some tests, but nothing that really pushed me to my limits as did the exams I endured in college. And what tests I did have to take became fewer as I progressed in my career.

Our society is set up to minimize discomfort, but I'm not sure that it is necessarily a good thing. Without opportunities to measure our abilities, there is little incentive to further explore our potential. I'm grateful for not having to relive the pressure of test-taking like I had in college, but on the other hand, I miss the opportunity to measure my abilities and push myself to a new level of performance.

I believe it is important to proactively put challenges in front of oneself in order to provoke growth and development, before life imposes a test that one might not be ready to take.

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The media have this very annoying tendency to report business news as if they were baseball scores, as if the ups or downs of the Dow, TSX or FTSE are an accurate proxy for what millions of real entrepreneurs are doing.

The other day, out of curiosity, I watched BNN, the Canadian Business News Network. I usually avoid it because it gives me a headache, and this time was no different. It was a non-stop drone of talking heads recommending this stock or that stock on the flimsiest of cause-and-effect relationships. "I recommend you buy XYZ because it's summer and people like to eat ice cream." "Recent hail in Saskatchewan will depress demand for flivvers and sprockets so dump LMN." What bullcrap.

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Let's face it – you have to be insane to leave the world of the employed and choose the path of starting your own business. The uncertainty of where your next paycheck will come from. The constant marketing and self-promotion. Always sporting a happy face at 7am or 5pm, even if you don't want to be at that networking event. The paperwork, the financial risk, the lack of structure, support and security. How does one do it?

If there is one thing you can count on in these uncertain times is that you can count on nothing except yourself. I'm not saying to trust no one, what I mean is that we are living in a time of accelerating change. What you can count on is that the way things are now can change in an instant. I sensed this in my own life fifteen years ago when I stepped out of the career track and into self-employment, and I feel the pace of change accelerating exponentially from year to year. So how to move forward without losing your way?

Being self-employed means being able to let go of the orderliness of knowing what you are going to do today, this week, a month from now, five years from now. Because most likely something will pop up today that could have the ability to completely change your life: a new client, a new opportunity, or a new situation, bad or good, within your control or outside of it.

The responsible thing to do is to earn a living. There are far easier ways of doing so than being self-employed.

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What if, by making a small change in your perspective, you could make a big change in your happiness? This is the question discussed in "The Noticer", a book by motivational speaker Andy Andrews.

Set on the Gulf Shores of Alabama, Andrews tells the story of how he met his mentor, an old man that goes by the name of simply "Jones". Jones' ability to notice fine details and ask deep, thought-provoking questions becomes the catalyst for a big change in Andrews' life, one that brings him from a drifter's existence to become a successful public speaker and motivator.

The story continues, describing how Jones crosses paths with various other people who are experiencing their moments of crisis: a couple on the verge of divorce, a contractor who has compromised his principles too many times, a group of young people about to graduate, an elderly lady despairing that her life no longer has meaning…

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Effective immediately, I am unplugging from the world for an indefinite time.  Call it "gone fishin'" or "going dark", I'm outta here. No kidding.

Certain things have happened in the last few days which have led me to realize that I'm living the nasty side-effects of being constantly connected: a hypersensitivity to my thoughts and to my external environment. I have two emotions, either neutral/don't care, or five-alarm fear. My internal drive to perform no matter what has me cutting so many corners with my self-care, that there is very little me left to give to others.

A shock that happened to me just this morning has convinced me that trying to overhaul my engines in mid-flight is just plain stupid. Therefore I'm landing this baby so I can make the proper repairs and recharge my fuel cells.

What this means in real terms is that my program offers for June/July/August are currently on hold. I have also withdrawn my participation in all external activities "for an indefinite time", meaning I am making no commitments. Not making commitments is something that I'm committing to learn (tee hee)

My challenge during this time is to really unplug, literally and figuratively. No more Facebook, Twitter, blogging, e-mails, phone. To preserve what's left of my sanity, I must get out of the mental mode and rediscover my physical self. Good thing that it is the perfect time of year here to do just that.

During the next few days I am wrapping up what needs to be wrapped up. My phone will go to voice-mail, my e-mail will accumulate. I may or may not respond.

Yes, it's real scary stuff. I can fell the tingle of fear in every part of my being, my flight response is hyperactivated. If I don't hit the SCRAM button now, a meltdown would be just around the corner.

On a positive note, I know that what is happening to me right now is doing so for a reason, that there is an important message that I can communicate to you when I return.

I'll be back when I'll be back.

Salut. Peace be with you.

-davender

An illustrated talk by Dan Pink about what really motivates us (via Lifehacker)

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We talk a lot about "vision", but what is it really? Is it a description of a Promised Land, so tempting but so far away that we have no real chance of reaching it? Or is it cast in stone with no compromise, a Five-Year-Plan with fixed goals and performance objectives?

Vision is ever shifting, ever changing. It is a work in progress. Vision is rooted in purpose, and it evolves as one progresses forward on the journey of life. Vision puts our day-to-day activities in a context that inspires and motivates, but must evolve as we evolve through our experiences.

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I'm participating in EzineArticles.com Hundred Articles In Hundred Days (HAHD) challenge. My goal is to produce 101 articles between May 1 and August 8 2010, and post them on the article marketing site.

I will be updating older blog posts and articles to submit in this challenge, as well as produce lots of new material based on my coaching as well as personal experience.

You can follow my progress on my wiki at https://visinst-hahd4.pbworks.com or directly on the site at http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Davender_Gupta

It's still a good time to join me on this challenge. Whether you produce 2, 20 or 120 articles, you will be ahead of everyone else. After all, your certifications don't mean much to your prospects. It's only when you become an author that you become an authority!

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