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Do you get pushed to the side because you get caught up doing things not related to your purpose and goals? Don’t lose your voice by getting caught up learning or doing items not related to your calling and gifts.

When I say, “Your Voice” I mean your influence and creativity in your area of expertise. Yes it is nice to be well-rounded, but don’t think you must know everything or do everything. Here are some helpful tips to maintain your voice.

1. Focus on sharpening the skills you are good at. Don’t work on what you are weak at all the time. Improve what you are already good at to become great in that area. Once you are an expert then people will seek you out in that niche environment. Spend at least one; preferably two hour’s minimum reading, listening to tapes or just creating in your niche area. This will greatly improve your voice when people are looking for an expert in your field.

2. Find someone to do the day-to-day stuff. No, I am not saying to hire out all the other aspects of life if you are not fiscally sound. What I am saying is, if you have a friend that is an accountant or ad writer or graphic artist; or whatever your needs are maybe he or she can help you if you are not good in one certain area. You could also find very reliable people to work 1 hour per day for you in larger cities and especially online. This could add time to your efforts to become an expert.

3. Listen to your voice. If you are starting to lose sight of where you were or where you want to be then you are not focusing on what you do well. You know in your heart what it feels like when you are on the creative edge and you know what it feels like when you are dull. Stay sharp and focus on what you do best.

I know it sounds like I am telling you to neglect the business “Stuff” that we all must do. There are items only you can do, but if you are worrying about answering the phone and not developing your gifts don’t answer the phone.  They will either leave a message or call back. Do what you do best and find others to come around you who are the best at what they do and you will  see your gifts take off.

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We all have full schedules, learning how to determine what is truly important can free us up to enjoy time together with loved ones. A close friend of mine is studying 6-Sigma, which means by default I am studying 6-Sigma. One of the items I have taken away is the “5 why’s.” The basic principle is to ask why five times to find the real reason you are performing a certain task. When we ask our selves why we really do something we can start to move into a direction of balance.

When something new comes across your desk ask why you must be the one to do it. If it can be delegated; delegate it. I know this sounds simple and you have heard this a thousand times but I bet like people I talk to every day you do things just because you; “Want them done right the first time,” or “Done your way,” or some other reason you must be the one to do the task. If you are a sole proprietor; skip to the next paragraph. If you run a business with employees then train one of them to be a substitute you. You need some one you can rely on to handle the task so you can cast the vision and lead the team. If you are running a business and you are the only one who knows how it runs-you will never be able to relax or take a vacation. If you have to be on 24/7 then you are not getting the rest your body needs and it will catch you sometime.

If you are like me and have no one to delegate to then you need a list of things to-do. I use no Day-Timer or calendar system I just lay out on a spiral notebook all the things I need to accomplish that week. Each night I list the thing to-do the next day in order from most important down. If something new comes in I put it on the list, and it may or may not get done that day depending on priority. I check and write email for thirty-minutes in the morning and evening. This gives me the freedom to do all email on my terms. I understand that phone calls come in from customers but do you really have to answer every phone call that comes in, can you get an answering service? I want you to look at all aspects of balancing your time. If you look you can find ways to free yourself up, I promise.

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One of the most important things that you can commit to memory is the value of your time. Your time is the most important asset you have, and it is the only asset you can not get back. If you are self-employed you have more of a sense for the value of your time but if you are a paid employee you may not value your time as much. Either way you need to know what the true value of your time is so when trivial items arise you can manage them more effectively thereby not spending your important time on them.

First, you must make a commitment today to know the value of your time. You can write it out to help remember it or just commit it to memory but commit today to know its value so you can take control of your time usage.

Now that you are committed, make a list. Make a list of everything you need to do. I use a flip notebook but any notebook will do, just do it. This list will include household items, business items, family items, social items, and any other items that I do not have here. This process may take several hours, which is o.k.

Once you have the list finished, for now, you can see what you need to accomplish. If your list is like my first list it looks enormous, but don’t worry about that, it has taken you years to procrastinate all of this on to the list so it may take two to three months to get rid of the majority. I guarantee you; now that you have your master list, items will get done faster than you think because with a list you can prioritize. For example, you are reading this article because me writing it is the most important thing on my list to do now.

Go through and decide what is important and you can use an; a, b, c, or 1, 2, 3 it does not matter just get them in some order. If you use a day-planner great if you are like me and do not great, this method is useful to either type. If you use a day-planner then you can put your most important item at the top of the planner to start first thing in the morning. If you do not use a planner then you will make a list of things to do tomorrow and list them in the order they are to be done. Your first project is the most important so work on it and only it until it is completed or to a point where you can go no further with it. Then you will move on to item number 2 and so forth. What is not done today gets moved to tomorrow and so on.

Two things you need to realize are; first, the list does not stop growing. As new items come up they go on the list. Second, don’t stop. If you just keep going in a positive direction you will make progress. I know everyone gets off track but get back on when you do get off and keep moving forward.

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Each of us is created with certain gifts that we are to use in the time we are here on earth. What I would like for you to see is that no matter who you are, what you put into life is exactly what you get out.

Jesus tells us that a good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree gives bad fruit. Beyond that your attitude will determine how many friends you have and your level of relationships with these people. Your attitude at work will depend on whether or not you are advanced at work or whether you work at all. Your attitude toward learning will determine whether you spend time learning or not.

We are very fortunate in America to live in a free society. We can chose to take advantage of the freedom we have and make a life that we were designed to live in the job we were designed to do. Or we can sit on the sidelines and complain about the lot we were cast and become miserable old curmudgeons who have no true friends and die mostly alone.

Life is uncertain in that we do not know what tomorrow holds, but if you knew you would die on a certain day at a certain time would you choose to live a miserable unfulfilled life or one where you choose to use the talents you were given by God and live a joyful life doing what you were designed to do. Well here is some news, you are going to die someday so why not use the gifts God gave you and make something of what you are.

If you let life happen to you; you will probably lose. Sitting around and waiting to hit the lottery is not a long term goal. You have to start paying attention to the calling that is in your heart, start setting goals, and start reading books to help you see beyond tomorrow when you realize you control your future and you start making better choices, then you will start to see changes in your life that you never thought would happen.

Here is the stuff you do not hear in goal-setting seminars. There will be times when you think you have failed. These time of doubt come into every persons life. Unless you quit you have not failed. Mistakes and setbacks happen but they are not failures and you need to see them for what they are, setbacks. If you keep going you will see success.

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If you have never been to northeast Florida we do not have seasons, just hot and not hot, that’s it. Growing up in a rural town in Arkansas and being around farmers until I left there at twenty to join the Navy I had a sense for what season it was. I knew it was planting season or harvest or when it was time to prepare the ground or leave it alone. Each of us have seasons in our lives and we need to know what season it is and when they change we need to know how to plant seeds, cultivate the ground or harvest our reward.

Yes if you know anything about the Bible you know that Jesus told the parable of the sower and the author of Ecclesiastes told us there is a time for all things. Have you ever stopped to think about those times and what they mean to you?

1. Cultivating – This is a time to make the ground ready. When you cultivate your mind you are reading books and listening to CD’s (MP3’s) and filling your mind with good information to set a solid foundation for what is ahead. Cultivating also has an aspect that makes it the most important area for success. You must cultivate before you plant. You need to study the area you are going to start your endeavor in but also begin to establish personal growth habits by learning to set goals and make lists of important tasks to handle.

This is also the only season that never ends. Steven Covey calls it “sharpening the saw.” You must always be renewing your mind and thought process in order to move forward with what you are called to do. I have put the cart before the horse and tried to reap while I should have been cultivating.

2. Planting – Planting is the time for making contacts adding to lists and developing relationships. This is the time to increase your productivity. Hit the street if you are a sales person, put your book on the internet if you are an infopreneur, or gather names for your list if you are a network marketer. You must increase your output during the planting phase to reap the payoff of the gathering phase.

3. Gathering – This is the time to reap your rewards. Unlike the seasons of planting and sowing; spring and fall, this gathering also coincides with continual planting and cultivating in order to gather in at another time. During this time knowing when to speed up and when to slow down is very important. Keeping a balance is crucial or you will end up off track of your goals or worse burnt out. Know your priorities and know when to just refocus on cultivating and when to start sowing again to reap later.

Stay focused on the big picture and what is really the most important things of all.

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