This Time I Mean It

Getting Past What Holds You Back with Baby Boomer Weight Loss Expert Scott 'Q' Marcus

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You’re Finished! Congratulations.

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What have you finished today?

success attitude productivityWhat will you finish this week? This month? This year?

What are you waiting for?

Look around your office. How many projects are on your desk at present? Which ones have taken up permanent occupancy? I consider my desk to be a high rent district. Squatters aren’t welcome. If it stays, it pays.

After coaching from colleague John Tenza I now awake each morning and ask myself: “What am I going to finish today?”

There’s great satisfaction in completing projects, of shipping orders, of finishing manuscripts and closing deals. Conversely there’s negative energy that surrounds projects with no end in sight, ones that just seem to hang on. Liberate yourself from these energy drainers. Commit to complete!

Just as the best time to make a sales call is right after you’ve just made a sale, so too will you feel fantastic about existing projects when you complete one of them today.

Become a Master of Time and Space

According to Tenza, a multidimensional sales trainer, “clutter is a killer. When you put things in their rightful place, toss or give away items, you clear your mind as well as your desk and office.” The key is to get into action. You must decide to do it!

Completions Not Just for Quarterbacks and Receivers

Strive for completions. Coach Tenza knows: “completions give you freedom from that gnawing stress that something needs to be done. Each time you complete an existing project you create new space and new energy for yourself.” John and I concur: your brain and body will thank you or the successes you will realize through completions.

On Becoming A Terminator

Here are some tips to complete more projects.

[Read more…]

Want to Really Change? Keep Track of the Numbers

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When my children were young, I registered their growth on the hallway doorjamb with pencil marks and knife notches.

Next to each was inscribed a date and name. Since those statistics are most likely meaningless to the latter owners, I assume sandpaper and lacquer have removed that chronicle; yet I wonder if they left those markings intact, pondering periodically where went “Daniel, January 28, 1988” or “Brandon, April 7, 1989.”

diet health fitness tracking inspirationNumbers are the language by which lives are recorded; history is kept; and even how the universe communicates. This does not denigrate the clout of intuition, emotion, nor hunches; yet, the bottom line — quite literally — is what the numbers say. Whether checking the weight of a newborn; success of a business; leadership of a country; or the future of our planet; it’s “in the numbers.”

Our language is strewn with numeric references. We hope no one “does a number on us,” or that our “number is up.” We “dress to the nines” for elegant receptions, but refrain from becoming “three sheets to the wind.” There are “no two ways about it;” numbers count (um, pardon the pun).

It therefore stands to reason that that which we monitor expands our awareness, affording concern or confidence. So logically, if we want to change something about us, we must establish a baseline and “keep score.”

This process starts before we can count, as illustrated by how the amount of gold stars on a refrigerator can be extremely effective in fine-tuning a child’s behavior. As adults, step one in altering our lifestyles might involve tracking our accumulation of wealth (or lack thereof), or when we anticipate joyful occasions, “counting the days.”

Of course, that means should better health be the objective, we must track the behaviors associated with those goals. A smoker can become an ex-smoker by paying attention to how often he lights up and setting targets to lower that count over time. If physical fitness is the desired outcome, we can write down how often — or how far — we walk or run. We record our blood pressure. We check our weight. We can even monitor our attitude.

All this has been a preamble to one question: “If we agree that keeping track can make our lives better, why don’t we do it more often?” What’s the resistance? [Read more…]

Benchmarking is Better Than a Resolution and Gets Better Results, Too!

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Guest Writer: Terri Langhans, CSP

Let’s put this behind us.

Benchmarks are better than resolutions and get better results!

Just days after New Year’s, my daughter and I were talking about making and breaking resolutions. She said hers would be easy to keep. She wanted to cook-in more. Kelsey is in her last semester of graduate school and races between school, internship, work and the gym, eating or munching on the run, or standing at the kitchen counter in her apartment.

I took a deep breath, pondering whether I should just say, “That’s a good one, sweetie,” wearing my Mommy Hat, or tell her what I really thought, wearing my Business Hat.

I managed both. “That’s a good one, sweetie. You’re such a good cook, and you’ll probably save money, too.” Pause. “And, you know what I tell people in my audiences–to put a number on it and create a benchmark. Otherwise it’s not going to happen.”

“It’s cooking, Mom, not accounting,” she sighed. “But what’s a benchmark, again?”

I told her this, essentially.

Fancy definition: it’s a number that measures an activity or result. Real world example: whether you want to cook-in, play tennis, exercise, read, write, walk, run, dance, speak, consult, sell or save more, put a number on it. How many times a MONTH will you make it happen? 1? 4? 8? 16? 20? 30?

Don’t say 10. I mean, you could say you’re going to do something 10 times a month, but it gives me a brain cramp. Yoga 10 times a month? Is that 2 times one week, 3 times the next week, then 2 and 3 again? Make the math easily divisible by 4, as in weeks in a month. Dial it down to 8 or crank it up to 12.

Forget the annual goal.

[Read more…]

Weight Watchers PowerStart Works Well: Lessons on Productivity

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Weight Watchers just introduced PointsPlus 2012.

The program has not changed a great deal. They’ve made some minor Points Plus target changes, giving some people the ability to go to a Points Plus Value as low as 26 (it used to be 29). They’ve instituted a range. In effect, they’ve made a flexible program even more flexible, which I think is good.

However, the biggest change (at least in my opinion)  is how it’s explained to the new members (as well as returning members who would like to have it refreshed). It’s called PowerStart.

What is PowerStart?

Previously, new members would stay for a single “Getting Started Session,” where the concept of points (or points plus values) were explained. The weekly points plus allowance and activity points were also outlined, as well as the concept behind the Weight Watchers program in general. It took about 30 minutes, but was necessary if you wanted to be successful – as I’m sure people do when they join. However, one thing they found out is that in trying to take in that much information, especially while being a bit emotional at the time, people were overwhelmed.

Why emotional?

Think about it. Most people who join Weight Watchers – or any diet plan – are not in a good mood when they begin. They tend to be sad, feel guilty for putting on that much weight, or scared. After all, no one wakes up one morning and says,

“Yay! I finally put on enough weight that I can go to Weight Watchers!”

By the time they show up, they’ve tried everything; nothing has worked; so they broke through the veil of denial and decided to do something about their weight. But let’s face it, when you finally admit to yourself that you’ve “let yourself go,” you don’t feel so good about yourself.  Therefore, when somebody starts a diet program, she usually feels bad about herself. Add to that feeling that they’re absorbing a lot of information and, well, what happens is they get distracted; they don’t learn it, and their heads explode.

What to do?

Weight Watchers has changed the game, so instead of one” getting started session,” they have introduced three PowerStart sessions; each one focuses on the basics of the program for just a few minutes but spends a lot of the time focusing on three different skills that will help the members actually make some helpful and healthy changes – and begin without delay.

[Read more…]

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Scott "Q" Marcus
707 834.4090
scottq@thistimeimeanit.com
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