Source: mammoth-strategy

Let limitations guide you to creative solutions
There’s never enough to go around. Not enough time. Not enough money. Not enough people.

That’s a good thing.

Instead of freaking out about these constraints, embrace them. Let them guide you. Constraints drive innovation and force focus. Instead of trying to remove them, use them to your advantage.

This is a timely reminder for me. I am working at growing my own coaching business, Key Coaching, and I at times think along the lines of “there’s not enough of….”. After reading the text above I shall embrace these limitations and start working with what I have.

The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant – talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great. It’s nice to believe that if you find the field where you’re naturally gifted, you’ll be great from day one, but it doesn’t happen. There’s no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.

They conclude that practice makes perfect but it has to be practice that is focused on improving performance – challenge your comfort zone in that area – and gives you feedback:

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call “deliberate practice.” It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

The article then goes to the business side:

How do you practice business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements – you can practice them all.

Still, they aren’t the essence of great managerial performance. That requires making judgments and decisions with imperfect information in an uncertain environment, interacting with people, seeking information – can you practice those things too?

The key according to the article is to change your mindset: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it. It is about constant improvements, Kaizen, and seeking feedback and ways to measure your progress.

In summary, change your mindset – aim to get better at what you do – and then practice to make you great.

Marketers must adopt an entirely new strategy — more than that, an entirely new mindset. They must get away from trying to create new desires in people, trying to push and force themselves on people, trying to control people.

Instead, find a more natural way. Find out what people want, and then give it to them. Offer them value, and they will appreciate that. Be a resource. Give things away. Don’t force — let them come to you, because of all the value you offer.

Leo lists these points, each explained more in his blog post:
• Accept things as they are.
• Don’t control.
• Don’t force.
• Do less.
• Do small things.
• Be valuable.
• Attract, don’t smother.

I hate your job has an interesting post about Personal Mission Statements: Way Cool where it says something well worth to remember and consider:

Do you realize that the average person spends more time planning a vacation than they spend planning their life?

In another post, An Explosion of Purpose and Fulfillment, comes good advice:

Avoid putting in fluff and buzzwords unless you’re a corporation–try to create a document that really focuses on actions that you can perform each day and that are meaningful to you.

I work as a coach and am working on some pitches for that:
• I make the world a better place, one person at a time.
• I help people change their life for the better.
• I help people find and attain their goals.

Here are some interesting openings from The Life Coaching Handbook
• Call me only if you are serious abut making the changes you have always wanted to make.
• I am a magician. I reawaken dreams and make them come true.
• I am in show business – I show you how to achieve the life you want.

I avoid using the word coach because then people already have a label for me and stop listening. My intention is to make them interested enough to ask more.

See also:
Elevator pitch – Networking pitch
Hook, line and sinker
Mission Statement Builder

The authors post about the e-book at their blog, ChangeThis Manifesto “I Am The Walrus” Released!.

The possibility of finding and spreading remarkable ideas, creating great things, and sharing them with others represents a wealth of opportunity (largely untapped). We hope that reading our manifesto helps you figure out your brand; that it encourages you to take some risks and be extraordinary. It’s easy to stay put and avoid change, but when you look back will you wish you’d said yes to do something different? We chose to say yes and we are doing something different…with a little help from our friends.

There is a series of “I Me Mine” that continue the process from the e-book.

Never leap without a safety net, and at the same time, always be ready to seize the opportunities you have and take the plunge. There’s no such thing as failure – there is only learning experiences.

Tastefully Driven has a post with 10 Tips to Improve Your Problem Solving Skills.

Freelance Switch has a post by Skellie with 30+ Ways to Create an Incredible Client Experience.

Freelance Folders has a Massive List Of Killer Freelancing Tips By and For Our Readers.

WOWNDADI writes about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Pitchers.

Moolanomy has a post titled Seven Traits of Successful People.

Freelance Switch has a post with 18 Travel Tips for International Freelancers.

Mary Jaksch from Goodlife Zen has a guest post at ProBlogger with The Comprehensive Paint-by-numbers Guide to Writing and Publishing Your Ebook.

Get this and other articles from the source at fortyplustwo.

Lisa Spahr has a post about Don’t Volunteer Your Business Away.

DailyWritingTips gives us Useful Stock Phrases for Your Business Emails.

Freelance Folders lists 10 Things To Keep In Mind When Starting Out As A Freelancer.

Daily Blog Tips brings up an interesting discussion – Does a Degree Improve Your Chances of Succeeding Online?

Dumb Little Man has a post about 8 Ways to Avoid Unproductive Meetings.

Their courses are reasonably priced and there are some that interest me, like Introduction to Starting a Blog Network with Wendy Piersall & Easton Ellsworth.

The SparkplugU Internet Business Guide is a free report on 18 different internet business models suitable for work at home business. Coaching is one of the ideas, I will check that out. I am a professional coach and I am interested in if/how I can use internet to leverage that.