July 31, 2010
Secrets to Getting Out of A Rut and Finding Your Purpose
I love email, just as long as it isn’t spam. It can be so rewarding and uplifting. It can either build a person up or tear a person apart. I try to make my emails as uplifting and rewarding as possible. Only possible thoughts and solutions are made available to be in my inbox. Anything else has together. Garbage in, Garbage out. So to keep the garbage out, you can’t first let the garbage in. One of the many resources that I find rewarding and insightful is DaniJohnson.com. Dani Johnson is one of the premier life/business/success coaches in the country. She has some really good material that is creative, educational, uplifting, and inspiring. She has some very good insights into what makes a great salesperson and ultimately what makes a great business. Because ultimately, you can’t have a great business without being a great salesperson. You have to sell someone on the viability of your product or service. It comes with the territory. And even though I haven’t attended any of her seminars (I’m waiting for a Columbia, SC seminar.), Dani Johnson’s messages are clear, concise, and to the point, and is considered vital material to anyone in business. The material that I’m going to present is this post is taken directly from a podcast that Dani Johnson conducted on her website, affably named DaniJohnson.com. This information can be used for personal and professional development. It would really be of great use in a staff development training. I’m going to briefly describe the ten (10) secrets to getting out of a rut and finding your purpose as outlined by Dani Johnson. I will make the link to the podcast available at the end of this post.
1. Have Hope. Be grateful that you live in a country where you are free to engage in capitalism and have a chance to change your life and its circumstances. Choose to believe in something you cannot see. Hope is the precondition for faith. The Bible describes faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV). Without hope and believe in yourself to be able to change your circumstances, you’re got going to be able to get out of whatever circumstances your life might be in. To have hope, though, one must change his/her thinking. One must change his/her thoughts from one of negativity and despair to one of positivity and possibility.
2. Find Purpose in What You Do. When you lose sense of your purpose, you lose your excitement for what you do. When you lose the excitement for what you do, you become lazy and apathetic. Always ask yourself, “What can you do to help others gain from you? There’s a much bigger purpose than just you. There’s a bigger plan for you than what you can imagine on your own. There is a great purpose in what you do. You have to find that purpose. This statement encompasses what ever you do in life. If you have a purpose for what you do, then you’re passionate about that thing. You’re completed devoted to it. You have a burning desire, as Napoleon Hill would say, to accomplish the very purpose that you have in your heart. Learn to scrutinize yourself. Ask yourself the hard questions. What is your purpose in life? What is your calling? What would you do for a living if money where no object? Find your purpose and walk in it.
3. Prosper Where You’re Planted. Psalms 1:1 states that a blessed man is “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit in his season; his leaf shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (KJV). Whatever we find purpose in, we should pursue it to the fullest of our capabilities. Dani Johnson states that security is a “lie.” “We buy into the lie of security. There is no such thing as security on this planet,” she states. Change is the only thing that is certain, inevitable, a virtual guarantee. Nothing in this world lasts forever. Security is a facade, it’s a security blanket. Security allows you to become stagnant, complacent. You stop taking risks; you accept mediocrity. You stop progressing. I like to say, “When you stop progressing, you start regressing.” Dani Johnson states that “being in a comfort zone leads only to destruction or death.” What is in your heart for you to do? Go out there and do it. She also states that “nothing in life becomes dynamic until in becomes specific.” So be specific about your goals and aspirations. Make plans. Break those plans down into accomplishable tasks. Assign milestones or points of references. Assign deadlines to those tasks. Until you know specifically where you want to go and where you’re starting from, you cannot hope to be the person that you want to be.
4. Log What You Do. One of the best tools on the planet for determining your website success of failure is Google Analytics. Google Analytics allows the webmaster to assess what his website(s) is/are doing using a set of metrics. In other words, it’s important that you measure your progress. Keep track of your strengths and weaknesses, personally and professionally. Regardless of what your goal is, track your progress. See where you need to make improvements, then make the necessary adjustments. See what improvements you have already made.
5. Challenge Yourself. Go beyond what you’re believe you’re capable of. Break through the limits you have set for yourself. We all have beliefs that limit our possibilities. It is only by challenging those limiting beliefs that we can hope to move past them. Dani states that we should “challenge [ourselves] beyond where [we] are and to think outside of [our] current circumstances and abilities.” We need to progress and move on to the next step.
6. Don’t deny yourself the help you need. John Donne said in his famous Meditation XVII that “no man is an island..” And while he was speaking to one self being inextricably tied to the lives of all others (“…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind..”), this saying fits well here. Business experts world wide have trumpeted the mantra that one of the keys to any successful business, for profit or nonprofit, is to hire the best people. Don’t feel like you have to go at it alone. It doesn’t have to be you against the world. (As is the case in many Western and action films, where the hero goes at it alone, defeating the antagonist and overcoming them with his overwhelming will and perseverance.) You must free yourself from the need to do everything. You must learn to delegate responsibility to capable people.
7. Pace yourself. As the saying goes, “stop and smell the roses.” (I know that I’m using a lot of axioms/proverbs in this post but they all seem to fit very well. I just put them in where they fit in.) Take your time and make sure things are done correctly. Life is a marathon; not a sprint and so is your business.
8. Relax. Stress is one of the biggest factors for health problems. American workers work long, often, with little compensation because the prices of goods are rising; utilities are rising; education is rising. With all of these factors in play, stress related problems are at an all time high. It is only by taking time for oneself can you break out of this stress cycle. Take a break. Recharge your batteries. And bring that energy and creativity back to your business.
9. Be thankful, grateful, and vocal. Always be grateful and thankful for the things that you have. Show appreciation for the things and people who are near and dear to your hearts. Vocalize those feelings of gratitude. Make them known.
10. Do whatever it takes to keep your faith, keep your attitude high, and keep your focus strong so you can finish with strong results. This statement is really just an amalgamation of all the other statements above.
Now the onus is on you to take this list and run with it. Complete this steps for every stage of your life. Copy them down. Complete them once, then rinse and repeat. Because the web address is kinda long, I used bit.ly to shorten it. Here’s the Dani Johnson podcast I gleaned most of this information of it. Feel free to listen to it. You won’t be disappointed.
Dani Johnson’s Discover the 10 Secrets To Getting Out of A Rut And Finding Your Purpose
