You can achieve more, easily.

Start with your values and end with achievement!  Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder among others maintain that passion is a crucial ingredient to entrepreneurial success.  So what role does passion play?  Most achievement requires focus and energy but it is difficult to sustain them without passion. Passion is however not enough when it is at odds with other matters that are really important to you.  For instance, you are passionate about robotics and want to spend all your waking hours working on inventions but your family is also very important to you …

So it is crucial to set up your goals, projects, job properly to ensure you have the fuel to stay the course.  The greatest effort goes in at the start.  After a good set-up, it take much less effort to maintain, just a quiet moment or two before you start off.

Knowing what is important to you as a person, what must be present for you to feel fulfilled, is important to effective performance.  These are often not the values we would describe to ourselves and others, but those that are consistently evident in our day-to-day actions. For example, if fairness is really important to me, there will be evidence of fairness in my daily actions.  When I have been fair, I will feel fulfilled, even if I have suffered an inconvenience or loss in the process.

A vivid vision of what achievement will look, feel, smell is also crucial to achievement. Such a description of the end goal proposes that one clearly focuses on the future and enables all parts of the person to move in synch towards one destination.

When the person anticipates that this vision will be achieved by behaving in line with values, a considerable amount of energy is released from within, energy which can sustain the journey towards the goal, project or task. I, personally have found that with alignment of vision and values, this journey usually feels easier than without such alignment. Success is more certain.

Leave a voicemail for a valued customer

I can only say what works for me, combined with inspiration from Derek Pilcher of The Ladders. Remember that having to chase-up suggests you are not top of the priority list and this may be an “amber warning” for you to address outstanding issues. Having to leave a message could itself hold a message to you about the timing of your call. So leave a message that nurtures the relationship.

Decide how important this person is to your long term interests and consider how willing you are to lose their custom. Make it easy for your listener by taking a minute to plan the message.

  • Your Name when you start and last thing when you finish.
  • Your phone number, twice, the 1st at normal speed, the 2nd slowly enough for writing it down.
  • A reminder of your relationship and how you have previously interacted
  • An upbeat message about why you are calling and a benefit for them. People do not like associating with guillt feelings, so do not say they have not returned your call
  • A pleasant reiteration of your interest and request an action.