Tag Archives: change

Doing the hard things

Some things in life are just really hard.

Sometimes decisions have to be made that do not feel good and can cause a great deal of stress and strain for all those involved. These decisions can also have far-reaching implications and can change the whole course of your life and those you love and care for.

They might be decisions around work and careers. They might be decisions about where you live, who your friends are or how close to your friends you will be. They might also be around money, such as making a decision to make a life-changing purchase or commit to buying a property or a similarly huge spend.

Whatever the predicament that you find yourself in, you just have to do something about moving forwards from it and getting away from the darkness of the place you feel today. However bad today feels for you, whatever it is that you have to decide or deliver upon, you must remember a couple of things:

The sun will come up tomorrow, whatever decision you make today
There are many, many people in the world who have a lot more to deal with every day than you do and some reflection on this will do much more good than harm
The sooner you take some kind of positive action, however difficult it may seem, the sooner you can move on with your new plan and begin to execute it. Execution is what it’s all about.

Get into good habits

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If you can get into some good habits, they will provide you with a really solid foundation in everything you do.

I have some really bad ones and I think we all have them, somewhere. My worst is biting my fingernails. I do it ALL THE TIME and it causes great annoyance to both me and my wife. I stopped for a while with some NLP-style help a long time ago but I got back into it very quickly. Soooo annoying!

There is a phrase that I have heard quoted a few times – “habits over good intentions, every time” – and this is what I aim for. It takes work to make a habit stick, but if you can keep at it and it will pay you back over time.

Be ready for the call

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With a bit of luck in your life, at some point in time you will get the call to the big leagues. And when that call comes, you need to be ready for it.

The work will be hard and it will feel like it is never going to be done but it will be the thing that makes you. When this kind of lucky break appears you have got to do something with it and, if you have discipline and focus, you will be prepared.

Manage yourself the right way through preparation and repetition of lots of things in your life, such as your health and diet, getting enough exercise and sleep, etc. and you will be able to take full advantage of the opportunity.

Repeat the simple things to the point that they become automatic and the call will not be a surprise – you’ll be ready and waiting.

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Get over your fears in 2016

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It doesn’t matter what it is that you’re afraid of and it doesn’t matter how you do it, but if you can make 2016 the year that you get past your fears, you’ll have a fantastic year.

So, what’s holding you back? Ask yourself this question when you’re facing something tough and listen hard to your answers. I’m sure when you do this you’ll realise that your answers are nothing much beyond excuses, really and sound quite hollow in the open air.

Keep doing this whenever you feel anxious or are struggling to overcome something you find hard or difficult. You’ll see things much more clearly and start to break through these self-imposed barriers.

Try it and see what it can do for you.

What’s your next challenge?

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The daily grind can really get you down. Commuting followed by the same old faces in the office and the same old problems in your job leads us into the ‘living for the weekend’ mentality. Add some bigger personal goals to your life – challenges to your everyday existence of any kind, physical or mental – and use them to drive your life forwards and basically do more, live more.

My challenges are quite often related to sport. I have a challenge in April next year to ride 50 miles on my bike on a very hilly course in a race in West Wales. Now, I’m not a full-on rider so it’s going to take a lot of work to get fit enough for this. And I’m also not all that strong in the legs so hills just stop me stone dead, so the work is going to have to be really hard to make sure I can finish this thing.

The point I’m making here is that this bigger challenge – bigger than the everyday stuff we all have to do – is getting me focussed and making sure I train hard and put in the work to make the ride a success. It might also lead me to do more racing and get my legs strong enough to go up some bigger hills. Maybe even the French Alps one day. Who knows?

Set yourself a challenge and see where it takes you. Until you try, you’re never going to really know what you’re capable of. Use it to give you focus and create some energy and drive to achieve.

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Ian Mountford is a global recruitment expert and strategy coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Checklist – things to ask and consider when you’re looking for a new job

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Here’s a list of things that are worth finding out and thinking about as you go through the decision making process of deciding to take a new job or stay where you are. Got any additional ones? Please add them in the comments.

What’s the travel time and is it a decent commute.
Are there good facilities for staff in the office, eg kitchens, rest areas, car parking.
Is the salary competitive with similar roles at other local/national companies.
Is there a good benefits package – health care cover, pension provision, day off for your birthday, free snacks, etc.
Is there a solid training and development programme in place or a culture of learning in the company.
Do you get to work on any special projects outside of your role, or can you volunteer for additional work on projects that interest you.
Is there a glass ceiling or is there room to grow.
What are the skill levels and the experience of others in the team.
Is there a matrix management structure or is it a bureaucratic framework.
What’s the culture like – fun, whacky, structured, quiet, formal, etc.
What was the interview process like – really good reflection of the company in most cases.
How did the company communicate with you through the offer process – again, another great indicator to take note of.

Start sweating your own assets

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If you want to make progress and hit goals in life or business, you’ve got to work hard. This post is about being more focussed than just doing more of the same and expecting better results and it is geared towards making more of ourselves and operating more effectively within the rapidly changing world we live in today. Under each of the headings – points I see as important on any journey where you are looking to improve – I’ve listed a few points of relevance that should be helpful to consider.

Make more money –

Get performance related pay and then perform
Improve your skills
Stop adding and start multiplying
Change company for a big rise

Manage people –

Know what you need to achieve yourself
Set expectations from the start
Listen hard and proactively – get all of the facts
Acknowledge people’s feelings – they play a big part in daily work
Get solutions from those with problems
Stay calm and keep a sense of humour

Communicate effectively –

Tell it like it is
Listen before you think before you speak
Keep your message consistent
If it really matters, do it face to face.
Encourage feedback and act on it

Be relaxed about stress –

Stick to your own agenda
Don’t do it if it’s not necessary
Simplify everything you do
Be happy to say no thank you

Lead from the front –

Work harder than anyone else
Set the example
Keep your problems to yourself
Tell the team what you expect from them
Listen to the team and respect their skills
Explain clearly what you expect and ensure it happens

Be more efficient –

Start work earlier
Work in small chucks
Put time for you to think in your diary
Write the agenda and stick to it
Plan today and act tomorrow

Motivate your team –

Incentivise everyone
Be tough when necessary
Train people properly
Listen to the team and get to know them
Give them space and let them get on with it

Impress your boss –

Help them meet their key objectives
Give them solutions not problems
Listen to them and ask for the benefit of their experience
Get promoted above them

Stay a decent person –

Listen
Be generous with your time and talents
Don’t hurt other people
Say thank you
Give as much as you take
Keep your conscience clear

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Ian Mountford is a Strategy Coach providing motivation and guidance to entrepreneurs, wannabe or fully-fledged. He draws from his own experience of building businesses from the ground up and spending many years helping clients to consistently achieve their goals and aspirations. Ian works with clients face-to-face and internationally.

Take on some pain to get real gains

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The life we live today is very different to that of our elders. The lives they are able to lead is also very different to that of their elders, and so on. But there are a substantial number of factors in this generational change which are eroding our natural ability to overcome difficulties and endure a little bit of ‘pain’ in order to achieve some kind of gain in the future.

I’m not talking about overcoming illnesses or mental issues that can have a serious effect on how we live our daily lives here. This is different, very serious in many cases and can have a fundamental effect on every aspect of someone’s life. I’m talking about some basic things that you can do to avoid the ‘quick fix’ route and improve your life in a number of ways.

We have become hooked on quick fixes. We are more sedentary than ever before, stuck at desks sitting for long periods. The ready meal category has grown up around our desire to feed ourselves quickly, whatever long term damage the meal itself can do to us based on its ingredients. We get ‘stressed’ very quickly and see this as a negative thing that is purely destructive. We drive everywhere and rarely take a healthier option. We spend money, sometimes borrowed at crazy interest rates, on ‘looking good’ and everything that that entails. And we are online so much that we can have stronger online relationships than real ‘face-to-face’ ones. Today, we put more value on ‘chillin’ out’ than we do on achieving anything, learning something new or improving ourselves and the lives of those around us.

So, what else can we do? How else can we approach life in order to improve it?

Take on some stress and use it to fuel your drive to achieve more. Get out of your comfort zone and look for opportunities to push yourself – really, push yourself hard – into places where the good stuff happens. I think we quite often feel we are really doing everything we can to make changes or improve ourselves, but we haven’t tried as hard as we can if we are being honest with ourselves. We would have done those exercises every morning, or we would have made those calls or joined that group. We would have fully committed.

Nothing comes easy and it all requires hours and hours of effort. Don’t give up – be persistent and make a simple choice in every decision: stick where you are now or improve. Good things will happen as long as you stick at it and change can take a long time but it is definitely worth it.

I have a couple of examples that spur me on and maybe they can also help you. One is my friend Richard who runs marathons – check out the photo on his Twitter bio here and you will see why he is an inspiration to me and many. It can never be said that he has taken the easy route in life and his successes will always stand out. The Spartan way of life and the way they trained and educated their young is also worthy of some further research and their mentality has been adopted into everything from feature films to adventure races. But whatever you do or whatever you research, be sure to then act on it and make the changes in your own life that will have the biggest and best effect. You won’t regret it.

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What would you do if weren’t afraid?

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This was a quote I read recently (and forget where from and sadly cannot give the proper credit for – sorry). Lists are useless for a question like this, and the answers to the question are inside us all, but we are, in the majority of cases, too weak or frightened to look in the mirror and answer with the truth. The fear of knowing the truth takes us away from a great number of things, but the one time that we take the truth head-on, roll up our sleeves and start an all-in, testosterone-fuelled, no-holes-barred brawl with it is the time that everything begins to take shape. We feel a form of ‘release’, and we challenge what we knew and what we now know. The release is from the metaphorical anchor that we all have inside us that keeps us in the life to which we have become accustomed, but in the same way that a ship pulls it up to get moving, we need to do the same with ours, too. And right now…

I look at the answer as lying within a journey, with a start and an end, and a middle bit that takes us somewhere. Anywhere really. But the point is that it takes us somewhere new. We get to see a whole new world that, right now, we have no idea of what it’s like. Taste it, smell it, feel an atmospheric change when we step into it and open our eyes.

So, what can you do? What’s going to be your answer? Stop what you’re doing now for five minutes and think about it. Make some space in your world for just five minutes and really have a think about your plan of attack. It might be the most important thing you ever do.