ADVANTAGE TRAINING GROUP

1/10/2023

Centenarian and the Reporter

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The Centenarian and the Reporter (First Step to Effective Time Management)

What is the first step to take in order to better manage your time both in your personal life and your professional life? Stephen Covey said it best... "Start with the end in mind."

Many people go on with their daily lives and focus on short term efforts to get through the day. By staying so busy with the daily problems, it may be a challenge to think about what the possible long-term results of our daily activities and habits will lead us to over time. Then they reach a time in their life when they feel that they are not where they want to be in their lives and are looking for a way to make some changes in order to create a more fulfilling and prosperous lifestyle.
The habits and skills of successful people have been analyzed and studied by several social psychologists… but two of the most popular are Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Successful People) and Charles Garfield (Peak Performance.)
To truly be successful, it is not always about how much money or the position you acquire in life….but have you accomplished the most important things in your life?
What is the most important thing? Both Stephen Covey and Charles Garfield identify the number one behavior of successful people is that they have a Mission and purpose for what they do. What is your passion? And they have an overall vision of who they want to be and what the end result of what they want to happen.
Then the next step It is about identifying and getting the activities in your schedule that will help you to reach your goals. It is about putting your priorities into your schedule rather than having your schedule dictate your time and activities.
In business we call these the IPA’s (income producing activities) or for our personal lives we can refer to them as the RPA’s (results producing activities) and getting them in your schedule.

Here is an activity I have used in Time Management workshops to help participants to begin to think about where they want to be and what actions they will need to take.
It’s called “The Centenarian and the Reporter.”
Find a partner. One person is the “reporter” and the other person is a Centenarian. The reporter will ask questions of the centenarian and write down what they say.
A second way to do this is to just write down your own thoughts to the questions and to visualize who you will be if you should live to 100 years old.
Projecting yourself to the age of 100 is not easy for some people, especially if they are in their 20’s or 30’s. So, here is another variation. Project yourself out 20 years from now, identify who you will be, and the activities you did to accomplish this.
Here are the specific instructions and questions.

The Centenarian and the Reporter
Project yourself to 100 years old. You are being interviewed by a reporter on what you did to be so successful in life after you took this time management class. (Only reflect from 100 years back to today’s date, do not focus on what you did before this date.)
Here are the basic questions to answer. You and your reporter may think of others.
1. Describe your successful accomplishments you had in your life.
2. What are some things that happened during this time?
3. What did you do that you are most proud of?
4. How did you maintain your health and energy?
5. What were your RPA’s (result producing activities.)
6. What advice would you give to others for planning their time and what they can do to
     have a happy, successful life?

Here is a variation for employees: Employees of the Year Award.
Project yourself out 1 year from now. You have just received the “employee of the year award!” Here are some questions:
1. Describe your accomplishments through the year that got you the reward.
2. What are the IPA’s or RPA’s that help you accomplish getting the award?
3. What advice would you give others for planning their time and to contributing to the
     success of the company?

Knowing where you want to be, who you want to be and what you want to accomplish is the first step. There are 3 more steps to managing your time… organizing, planning your schedule, and dealing with timewasters and interferences.

Learn more about how to identify priorities and the other key steps to effective time management in our online, self-paced course “Making the Most of Your Time.”

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5/25/2020

May 25th, 2020

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4/1/2020

5 Habits for A Healthy Immune System

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Today we are facing a unprecedented threat in our lifetime with the Corona Virus pandemic. I hope that you and your family are safe and healthy.
We have been encouraged to take preventative measures in order to have avoid contact with the virus. An important part of those measures is to keep a healthy immune system.
Here are 5 Habits that people with a Healthy Immune system do on a regular basis.
Which ones are you doing well? Which ones do you need to improve on?
1. Healthy eating
A well-balanced diet is so important. It is your first line of defense. It is not always easy to get all the healthy food we should. Supplements can also fill the gap when you are not able to get everything from the foods we are eating. However, not all supplements are the same! Shaklee products are guaranteed to be safe (no harmful ingredients) and they have been scientifically proven to work.
2. Exercise daily:
Walking at least 30 minutes a day improves your immune system and helps you manage your weight!
3. Get seven to nine hours of sleep!
In addition to our diet and walking or other exercise, simple stretching exercises such as yoga or progressive relaxation can help you sleep better.
4. Maintain a healthy weight
When on a low-calorie diet, it is difficult to get the balanced nutrition you need. Many diets are not “safe” or offset your metabolism thus causing what is referred to as the “yo-yo” effect (you gain the weight back.) Here is a safe, delicious and effective way to lose weight: Slim Up Be Healthy
5. Manage your stress and anxiety. Keeping a positive mental attitude is not easy, but there are some things you can do to keep from being depressed and/or anxious. For more tips and to help you develop a healthy plan of action, check out our course on Stress Management for Daily Living.

How well are you doing? What are some habits you will improve on to help you have a healthier immune system?

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11/27/2019

5 TIPS TO MANAGE HOLIDAY STRESS

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Holidays are meant to be happy times of celebration, a time for strengthening our relationship with God and our families, a time to relax…but instead we feel tired, irritable, and unable to have a good time.

Why? Because the Holidays bring on additional stressors in our lives and that is when we may be having a Holiday Stress Response!

But first, know your triggers. Holidays often have these added stressors:
...Time pressures (deadlines, too many things to do, extra
preparation activities)
...Congestion - long lines and slow moving traffic
...Loneliness
...Lack of finances

While we can’t change others or some of our circumstances, we can take some actions that will help us to better manage Holiday Stress and make our holidays more enjoyable and healthy.

Here are 5 suggestions:

1. Time Management can be one of your best skills for dealing with Holiday Stress. Some people overload their schedule and others need to add some activities to their schedule. It is important to Plan your time schedule in advance. Write your plan out on a calendar to make it a visual of when you can do what you need to do and create balance in your time.

2. Be grateful – count your blessings and be thankful. Then set new goals to move forward.

3. Reach out to others. Join a group to meet others. Meetup.com is a good place to start. Do something for at least one person to help them to balance their time or who may be less fortunate.

4. Creative Gift Giving – don’t feel pressured to go the traditional route with gift giving. Some families exchange names or agree to only give an edible present.

5. 10-Second Relaxation Response – Whether you are standing in a long check out line or waiting for traffic to move or some other situation when you feel you are about ready to lose it… try this little exercise to help you to remain more calm. Practice it in advance so you have this ready for the next time one of your stressors begins to get to you.
.Take a deep cleansing breath
.Think to yourself “My Body does not need this stress.”
.Take another deep cleansing breath and picture calmness coming
down over your head and moving into your body as you
breathe deep
.Exhale - Feel the tension leaving with your exhaled breath
.Continue to breathe and remaining in control while dealing with
the situation.

Don’t let Holiday Stress get the better of you this season. Plan now to implement one or two of these suggestions to help you to have a more enjoyable and healthy Holiday.

Want to learn more about and how to manage your stress? Check out my online self-paced courses: Stress Management for Daily Living and 6-Step Action Plan to Get Control of Your Stress and Making the Most of My Time

May all your Holidays be healthy and happy.

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7/9/2018

#1 Key to a Competitive Advantage

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Every business has two goals, get customers and keep customers. In today’s busy market place, competition for customers can be intense. Therefore, it is important to create a competitive advantage that will help you to stand out from your competitors!

What is a competitive advantage? It is what makes your potential customers chose you over your competition. In order to be successful, Entrepreneurs and Business Professionals need to think about what they can do to help customers make a decision to chose to use their products or service.

Here is an activity I have used in my business management classes and workshops. Please feel free to share this activity with others.

This activity is called the “Paper Clip Activity.”

Imagine you are starting your own paper clip company. Think about paper clips and then brainstorm ways you will create a competitive advantage over the "other" paperclip companies.

The activity is most effective when you can do this with another person or between small groups. However, as you are reading this pause for a moment to think about your responses and then complete the article.

There are two types of customers, those who are attracted to lower price and those who are attracted to quality. If quality is important to your customer and your product is perceived to be a higher quality, then a “reasonable” higher price is not an issue. If two products have the same quality, then price becomes most important.

Here is the interesting thing, while yes there is a difference in quality of some products in the same industry – but for many businesses, the quality is based on the perception of the consumer.

There are also two types of business strategies – low cost or differentiation. Some entrepreneurs and business professionals make the error of trying to compete on price rather than find a way to differentiate themselves from their competitor. This is why a small business can compete against large organizations, because they have found something they can do differently to meet the customer’s needs. They are then able to charge a fair price and make a fair profit.

Let’s go back to the Paper Clip company. Think about each of the responses you made. What were some of your immediate responses?
Color
Materials
Size and Shape
Packaging
Price
Promotional/ Marketing

While you may implement one of those ideas and gain a short-term lead on your competitor, they may also implement similar strategies. And your customers may switch to your competitor.

Again, the two goals of any business are to attract and retain customers. So, how do we build our competitive advantage in order to do that?

Yep, I am going to give you the #1 Key in just a little bit, but first let me have you think about one more thing.
Are you a long-term customer for someone else? What attracted you and why do you continue to do business with them?

Chances are you were attracted to their product or service but you stayed because you of good customer service. Customer service can be what creates the difference so you can better attract and maintain customers.

There was also a study was done to determine the reason why most customers leave or why an employee leaves an organization, at they found it is because of a negative attitude and the way they were treated by someone at that business.

So, the #1 Key to creating a competitive advantage? YOU.

And that is what Advantage Training Group is here to help you with … the knowledge, skills and abilities to improve your Professional and Personal skills that are important contributors to your success. Take the first course "Stress Management for Daily Living" for only $27 to get you started on your way. Let me know in the comments what skills you'd like to improve.

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