Here are the 12 Most-Read Numbered Posts in 2008 at Slow Down FAST:

12.    5 Tips for Becoming a Better Listener
11.    5 Qualities of Successful Relationships
10.    6 Ways for Effecting Change in Your Life
9.      6 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Busting Out of the Rat Race
8.      5 Signs It’s Time to Slow Down Fast
7.      6 Ways to Be a Friend Without Involving Money, Gifts or Obligation
6.      5 Ways to Reconnect to Your Inner Child
5.      10 Great Productivity Web Sites
4.      5 Signs You’re a Pleaser and What to Do About It
3.      5 Simple Tricks To Make You Smarter
2.      8 Essential Ingredients to Master Your Time
1.      The Causes and Cures of Procrastination

Thank you all for your support throughout the year, and best wishes in all your future endeavors.

I know it isn’t year-end yet, but experience and observation have shown that not many people want to begin the heavy lifting of reflection and self-assessment near the Holidays.

So, after 700+ posts in 2008, I’m publishing the 12 Most Read Posts at Slow Down FAST so we can all get a jump on the new year.

Thank you all for your support throughout the year.

Here they are:

1. The Causes and Cures of Procrastination
2. Mindhacks: 5 Ways to Increase Creativity, Productivity and Intelligence
3. How to Overcome the #1 Fear: Public Speaking
4. 8 Essential Ingredients to Master Your Time
5. Do Not Wage Psychological Warfare
6. Stuck in a Rut? Fire Up Your Creativity with These 7 Steps
7. What Are You Passionate About?
8. See How Easily You Can Handle Change
9. How to Maintain Professional Boundaries
10. 5 Simple Tricks To Make You Smarter
11. 5 Signs You’re a Pleaser and What to Do About It
12. From Greedy to Grateful - Appreciating What You Have

Please subscribe to the Slow Down FAST RSS feed:   

by David Bohl

Being a leader in your field is a way for you to stand out from the pack, differentiate yourself from your competition, and create a bigger following for your business. You may be a leader of many or a leader of few. As a leader, you are expected to be knowledgeable in your field and demonstrate your expertise and credibility so people will believe what you say and have faith in you–whether you are selling a service or product.

Leadership means taking a position of authority where people look to you for direction– including your clients or a team of contractors or employees, and also including people in your industry who my be fans or students of yours. It means being an innovator, staying on the cutting edge, and initiating change. It means taking risks, speaking your beliefs, and leading and motivating people. You will need to make choices and decisions and take responsibility for each one.

Leaders are born but they also can be developed. In either case there’s a lot you can do to emerge as a leader in your field. Here are some tips:

Read Post

by David Bohl

Setting your goals on January 1 is a great way to start your new year with direction and motivation. Of course, you can set goals any time of year. However, after you set goals, your next step is to take action. And, then you need a goal setting checkpoint to monitor your results.

As you take action on your goals, you will most likely encounter obstacles, resistance, and detours, as well as small and large successes. The challenges will force you to make adjustments, and maybe even change the goal or take new actions. The successes need to be celebrated and new goals established to replace the ones achieved.

Read Post

From my article Can You Improve Meetings with Right-Brained Thinking? at Dumb Little Man:

“If you want to spur creativity, capture and hold attention, and promote innovation and interaction, you need to create a space that stimulates the creative, social side of the brain - the right side”

Read the rest of Can You Improve Meetings with Right-Brained Thinking?

What an exciting venture– to start, run, and manage your own business!

Maybe you have a talent that you are offering as a service to clients such as massage, consulting, or financial planning. Or maybe your business is selling a product like clothing, wines, or information products. Whatever your plan involves–services or products–managing your own business takes certain skills beyond the specialized knowledge that makes you good at what you do.

If you don’t learn the skills of running and managing your business, you may find yourself experiencing some of these common pitfalls. If you do experience them, acknowledge where you are, then take measures to overcome them.

Read Post

“I finally learned that you cannot help people unless they really need help, are willing to be helped, want you to help them and ask you to help them. Even then, you can only help them to help themselves.” ~ Vincent Collins

Please subscribe to my RSS feed:

WHAKATE - Life Design Matters blog has picked Slow Down FAST as its #3 Personal Effectiveness blog.  Thank you!

Please subscribe to my RSS feed:

by David Bohl

Do single people really have goals that are different from married couples?

Certainly they do when it comes to relationships. Yet, their career goals may be similar, as are their personal and health goals.

However, because of their single status, unmarried folks have more time to focus on building a future that might indeed include not being single. Or on building a fulfilling lifestyle as a single person, whether or not they remain that way or change their status.

When I coach singles, I encourage them not to put any part of their life on hold, waiting for the day they are not single any more–if indeed that day ever comes. Since none of us is really in control of whether or not we get married, if you are single, set goals for what you want now and in the near future, being realistic about the unknown status of your relationship future.

Here are some realistic goals that make sense for happy, successful, single people to strive for……..

Read Post

from Personal Coach David Bohl

There’s a saying in recovery/treatment/12-step programs that goes: “TREAT THE DISEASE, not the symptoms.” What are the diseases causing your stress? The current economic “crisis”? The political race? The politics in your office? Your son’s report card? Making your next credit card payment? You hold the power. Once you get clear in your mind, you have the opportunity and ability to deal with the anxiety and stress of today’s world by keeping your side of the street clean.

Financially Speaking

No, you didn’t singlehandedly cause the current financial crisis. So don’t take the blame for it, don’t feel guilty about it, and, by all means, don’t think that you have to fix it. Just look out for you and your family. Your only job as a responsible consumer is keeping your end of the bargain.

Read Post