The 21st-century world can be a dangerous place. The wide reach of the Internet and other technological developments makes people more interconnected than ever before. Though this interconnectedness can oftentimes be a positive thing, it opens the doors for identity thieves, child predators, and scam artists to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.

Furthermore, when news headlines are filled with stories of morally bankrupt business leaders and dishonest politicians, it makes the path to righteousness seem like an uphill battle. However, you can start the climb and hopefully have an effect on others by buckling down and beginning to live right.

Know Your Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai are often referenced when people cite their personal rules for living. Whether or not you use the Bible as your ethical measuring tape, it is important to have your own code of ethics to live by.

Survey your life and the world around you. What do you believe is right or wrong? Subjects such as abortion and the death penalty are hotly contested moral issues in the public eye, but when it comes to how you live on a daily basis, attempt to formulate guidelines that you feel comfortable with and then put them into action.

Find Your Purpose

If you work full-time, you likely spend over 2,000 hours at your place of employment in one year. Sure, some of those hours are spent eating lunch and chatting with colleagues around the water cooler, but the bulk of your time spent at work is used to contribute to your company’s purpose. When you spend such a huge amount of time on something, isn’t it only natural that you should feel useful in your position?

If you don’t feel fulfilled and like you have a purpose at work, it could be time to seek out a change that will allow you to feel more satisfied. Think of your personal code of ethics and what you value. Do you see these values coming into play in your work week? Having a job that helps you feel constructive and effective in the broader sense of things will certainly help you on your way to living right.

Do Unto Others…

Everyone knows the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” but not everyone lives by it. It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind and let stress rule your attitude and the way you treat others, but living right requires a determination to override negative feelings and focus on treating others with respect.

So, the next time your server at a restaurant brings you a hamburger cooked medium-well instead of the rare you asked for, or a newly licensed teenager rear-ends you at a traffic light, think back to a time when you got yourself into a situation that required a little grace and channel that energy.

Give Back

Anyone who has spent time volunteering can tell you that to give is better than to receive. No matter what stage of life you are in – rich or poor, young or old – opportunities abound in your community to help those in need. Volunteering can be a one-day, one-year, or even one-hour commitment, but its impact is sure to last much longer.

If you have plenty to give but don’t know where to allocate your resources, try searching the VolunteerMatch website. VolunteerMatch allows you to search by location and also by keyword. You can even search for virtual volunteering opportunities! Whether you choose to donate blood, tutor a child, or build a home, giving back to your community is a surefire way to start living right.

Buckling down and living right is not a fast process, but it certainly is a life-changing one. Don’t underestimate the power of your own resolve and the changes you can make in the world. Begin by analyzing your personal code of ethics and finding a purpose in your work, but continue the process by treating others how you would like to be treated and giving back to your community.

In the end, you will find your own life has been changed and the positive ripples that flow outward from your actions will in turn change the lives of others.

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~ Aristotle

I was shocked to read a recent study that reported less than 30% of people interviewed said they were deeply happy, and that 25% of Americans and 27% of Europeans claimed they are depressed. As a naturally happy person, I was amazed at how many unhappy people there are. Generally when I work with my coaching clients, they are not unhappy about everything in their life; they usually just have one area they are working on or one challenge to overcome.

So why are so many people unhappy? And why are so many people just going through the motions, appearing to be happy, pretending to be happy, when they’re really not?

The first step in determining if you’re happy or how happy you are is to define happiness. To some, it means doing what they want, having what they want, and being who they want, that is, fulfilling their dreams and desires. To others, it’s a state of mind that is not dependent on the outside world, but more on an inner contentment. And to still others, it’s about being responsible for their choices and accepting responsibility for whatever shows up in their lives, even if it didn’t seem like a conscious choice.

Ultimately, happiness can be defined as an emotional state, a feeling of peace, contentment, well being, joy, and connection. Most people have felt happy at some point in their lives, maybe under certain circumstances. They started a new relationship, won a valuable gift, or reached a worthwhile goal. The secret to continuing and lasting happiness I have found, is in knowing you can CHOOSE to be happy–in any circumstance, for any reason, and for no reason.

Have you ever taken a “time out” to check in with yourself to see if you’re really happy or just going through the motions? You know what I mean. People ask you every day, “Hi. How are you?” and you unconsciously say, “Fine,” when that may not be the case at all. Or you “put on a happy face” at work or with your family, just to “keep the peace,” to avoid conflicts or explanations. Or to avoid looking inside to figure out why you’re not really all that happy–at least not as happy as you appear to be. What I notice with people who are just going through the motions, is that they’ve become disconnected from their feelings. For whatever reason–traumas, upsets, frustrations–they’ve shut down and are walking zombies, the living dead.

Once you’ve shut down your feelings, it will take awareness and desire to reignite them and reconnect to your feelings. So how can you determine if you’re really happy or just going through the motions? And how can you choose more happiness in your life? Here are some ideas that I’ve used successfully with my clients.

1. Define happiness for yourself:

Knowing your own definition of happiness can help you assess your level of happiness. Some people have described happiness as lightness, aliveness, flow, love, passion, gratitude, being present, being responsible, open, accepting, optimistic, free, and connected. Until you establish your own definition, it will be difficult to determine how happy you are.

2. Examine your lifestyle:

Are you doing what you love, living where you want, hanging around people you enjoy? If not, why not? Although happiness starts from within, a lot of people gauge their level of happiness on what satisfactions they receive from the outside world. If you’re not enjoying the work you do five days a week, it’s no wonder you’re not happy! If you hate the city where you live, the house you live in, or your neighbors, you have good cause for unhappiness. And if you’re surrounded by a lot of negative people, that will drain anyone’s ability to be happy. Change the circumstances of your life that you can, so you can start bringing in more reasons to be happy.

3. Check your attitude:

Although the nice things in life bring us happiness, like our home, car, clothing, job, and people, if we have a negative attitude in general, we won’t even find happiness in the things we love. The happiest people are loving, accepting, giving, positive, optimistic, and live in the present rather than the past or future. Happiness is a moment-by-moment choice, which can only be made in the present. And yes, happiness can be a choice. I’ve seen some of my clients turn their attitudes around once they decided they could and they would choose to be happy–regardless of life circumstances. I know that sounds like a big leap, but just know it is possible.

4. Look at your relationships:

Relationships are one of the most common sources for our happiest times. Intimate relationships especially provide us with a deep connection that in most cases allows us to feel loved and appreciated. We can also have satisfying relationships that add to our happiness with our family, friends, associates, pets, and most importantly ourselves. I also notice that people who give to others, especially through charity work, are deeply happy.

5. Set happiness goals:

Are you committed to being happier? Do you want to get to the bottom of why you’re just going through the motions, why you’ve buried your feelings? Then it’s time to take action. Read some books, take some classes, work with a coach, meditate, journal, spend time in contemplation. Create your action plan for building a happier life. It’s your choice!

What Does Happiness Mean to You? 

Explore the possibilities with the Happiness Trilogy from Slow Down Fast. Self-Coaching in electronic format. Includes tons of tips, tricks and exercises designed to help you become the master of your own destiny and orchestrator of your personal well being!

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“This isn’t my dream job, but it pays the bills and it’s close to my house.”

“I’ve been here for ten years and the company is good to me. While things aren’t always great, I should stick it out when times are tough.”

If these statements sound like something you’ve said or what the voice in your head is saying, now is the time to take a serious look at whether or not you’re suffering from job complacency. Especially in rough economic times, like the ones we’re experiencing now, you’ve got to be hyper-alert to what is going on with your job, your company, and the job market in general. Complacency doesn’t mean it’s time to switch jobs. It may or may not be that you need a new job. It may be as simple as correcting what you need to while sticking it out with the same company.

3 ways complacency in the workplace can negatively affect you:

Loss of ambition.

If you get too comfortable in your job, it can mean a loss of your ambitions. Maybe you landed your job a couple years ago, and man was it your dream job. Your dream job because you knew that you could get promoted in a few years to your ultra dream job. Now, however, the few years “later” has arrived and you’re kicking your feet. You’ve got it easy in the position you’re in. Do you really want to rock the boat and ask for that promotion now?

Sirens should be going off in your head! This is a sign of complacency.

Lack of experience.

If you’ve been at the same boring company forever, doing the same boring job all this time, you start to lose your marketability. And in an economy where layoffs are a reality, how great is your resume going to look if you’ve only had one job duty your whole life. Even if you stay in the same role, make sure that you take on projects that broaden your experience so that when you choose to look for another job or you are forced to look for a new one, you have the skills and experience that are attractive to companies–attractive enough to land you a new job (a better job).

Kills your quality of life.

Even though you try to keep your work life separate from your personal life, the reality is that these lives trickle into each other. If you’re just going through the motions everyday at work, then you’re probably feeling unmotivated and unhappy. This affects your personal life too. If you’re not happy at work and you’re not happy at home, you’re in trouble.

3 ways to deal with complacency in the workplace:

Dust off your resume.

A good business person always has their resume updated and is open to good opportunities that may come their way. Sometimes a job opportunity presents itself, even when you’re not looking for one. Be prepared. Dust off your resume, update it, freshen it up, and do some spring cleaning (no matter what time of year it is).

Get training.

Whether it’s taking a training class in your company or taking a class at a local community college, take training courses that’ll expand your horizons and open doors to new opportunities. If you’re a graphic designer and don’t know the latest in Web 2.0, then now is the time to sharpen your knowledge. It can advance you in your current company or it’ll help you to obtain new opportunities outside your company.

Move up or move on.

It’s time to decide whether there is a place for you to advance your career in your current company or if it is time to move on to another job at another company. Explore open positions in your own company to see if there is anything you’d be interested in. Also, check out what jobs are open at other companies. It’s like window shopping, it doesn’t hurt to look, it doesn’t mean you have to buy, and you never know what you’ll find.

As I love to remind my coaching clients… complacency is not a good trait for any part of your life… relationships, personal life, or at work. Avoid complacency by keeping yourself and your skills up-to-date and marketable. Keep yourself in the game even if you’re not actively looking to make a change. You never know when the perfect opportunity for you may appear and you want to be ready to grab on with both hands when the time comes.

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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

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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:

1. Be the best you can be:

Always strive for excellence in all that you do. Others will look up to you so set an example and serve as a guide, coach, and mentor. Real leadership is about leading yourself first, then leading others. When you’re at your best, you will attract the best to you–whether clients or team members. Your ideal clients and your top level team players will help you build a strong organization. When you know yourself and strive to be the best, you also know how to ask for and expect it of others. When you know how to lead yourself–by staying true to your values and ideals, by setting clear objections, actions, and accountability, and by taking responsibility for your choices and actions–you will be better equipped to lead others. You are the team leader: your clients look to you for exemplary service and products; your employees look to you for motivation, guidance, and fair and honest treatment.

2. Keep up your skills:

Good leaders never stop learning. As a leader in your field, you want to sharpen your skills to keep providing excellent service and expert leadership. Thousands of books and seminars are available to continue to hone your skills. Whether it’s in your field such as accounting, marketing, or manufacturing, or in business and leadership training, there’s plenty of options to keep learning and building your skills. Many leaders also rely on mentors, colleagues, and coaches. A mentor or coach can help you work through any challenges that come up as you emerge as a leader in your field.

3. Stay current in your industry:

Being a leader in your field means you are among the most knowledgeable since you are leading others and providing expertise. In today’s world everything changes so quickly, and leaders must know what is going on in their field at all times. Attend industry conventions, subscribe to industry periodicals, and join an industry organization or mastermind. Keep abreast of your competition to see what new services or products they are introducing and what market segments they are targeting.

4. Get known and know people:

How do people find you? What do they know about you? What are you doing to get known? Is your brand recognition strong enough to position yourself as a leader? If not, get going on your marketing campaign. You must get known by the people in your industry to build your leadership platform. You must build brand recognition to attract your ideal customers. Who do you know in your industry that is influential? Who do you know that can help you grow as a leader through joint venturing and partnering? Where do you go to network so you can get known and know the people who will help you grow your business? Attend trade shows in your industry and meet key people. Attend organization meetings in your target market’s industry.

5. Develop excellent communication skills:

This more than almost anything else is the mark of a true leader. A leader must communicate in many different ways with many different people. You will be communicating through e-mails, direct mail, over the phone, in person, as a speaker, as a writer, and as a presenter at events and seminars. You may do some or all of these. You will be communicating with colleagues in your field, with prospects and clients, with vendors, with contractors and employees, and with other leaders, coaches, teachers, and mentors. Each situation and each person requires unique communication skills. Let this be a priority in your education as you emerge as a leader in your field.

6. Identify your strengths, your niche, your target:

All leaders possess unique strengths and capabilities. What are yours? You need to identify them so you can lead with them as you develop your weaknesses. Are you a great speaker, a prolific writer, an organizational whiz? Once you’re clear on your strongest assets, you need to identify the your strongest niche area and your ideal target market. For example, if you are emerging as a leader in publishing, your niche may be electronic rather than traditional publishing. And your ideal customer may be accountants and financial planners who want to create educational e-books and digital recordings to expand their service-based business.

Become the Leader You’ve Always Known You Were on the Inside. Personal Coach David Bohl offers leadership and personal development coaching with his Intensive Empowerment System – now available in both in-person or virtual formats!

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Are you aware that you are at choice in every area of your life?

When I ask that question of my personal coaching clients they sometimes get very quiet, then say, “No. I don’t feel like I make all my own choices.” That’s a very common response. Many people feel like other people make choices for them, dictate what they “should” do, how they should do it, when they should do it, what they should eat, what they should wear, etc.

It begins, of course, with our parents. Until we’re at an age where they can trust us to make our own, correct decisions, they make our choices for us. If they were controlling, over-protective parents, they may not have instilled in us the opportunity to develop our ability to make our own wise decisions. Thus, we may have grown into adults still looking to others to choose our life situations. Or they may have taught us how to choose and take responsibility for our choices and we became confident, self-assured adults.

After parents, we had our teachers make choices for us. They taught us what and how to think, and hopefully the better teachers, taught us how to think for ourselves. During school peer pressure was at its height, so we dressed like our friends or the most popular kids in school, we hung out where the crowds hung out, and if we succumbed to peer pressure we may have taken up smoking or even worse!

As adults, we’re constantly bombarded with society’s messages through the media. TV, newspapers, and magazines shout at us to buy this product, eat or drink this, wear this, do that. It’s no wonder so many of us forget we have the ability to choose for ourselves. It’s just that we’ve forgotten how because so many others have been doing it for us for so long.

If you are ready to say “YES” to personal choice, great! It’s time to sit down and take an honest look at your life and see what areas are working for you, and what areas are ones that you have chosen and are happy with. And then look and see where you are living someone else’s choices–maybe for your work, your home, your lifestyle. You may still be living your parent’s choices, or your spouse’s choices, or your community’s.

If you are ready to say “YES” to personal choice, here are some actions you can take:

1. KNOW that you have free will and personal choice.

Yes, we all have free will and we can all make our own choices. If this is something new for you, it may take a while to get used to it. If you live in an oppressive environment, perhaps with a spouse who “tries” to make your choices, you will have more of a challenge breaking free. But as you come to believe this, begin with small choices. Notice when you eat something, or do something, or go somewhere and it’s not your choice. Ask yourself, “What would be my choice in this situation?” Then order the meal YOU want to eat, or choose the movie YOU want to see, and notice how that feels. As you practice making your own choices, you will get better at it and feel more comfortable.

2. GIVE UP victimhood and become the victor.

If you have been playing victim for years, under the thumb of a controlling parent or spouse or other, it’s time to break free. Your first step is to acknowledge your situation, then make a decision that you will no longer put up with it. You may choose to work with a life coach who can help you make new choices on your own. No one should ever stay in the victim role when through personal choice you can switch your role to victor.

3. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for everything in your life.

If you’ve always thought others were responsible for your life, you can change that belief. We are all responsible for our lives, for our choices, for our results–for everything. You are even responsible for giving up responsibility and turning it over to another person. You may have felt that abdicating responsibility felt safer because being responsible is too much power and not everyone wants that. But it’s also a place of great freedom. You no longer have to blame others for your circumstances–you are free to choose your own. When you take responsibility for everything in your life, if you don’t like the outcome, you can change the choices you made and create a different outcome.

4. TAKE RISKS, step outside all that’s safe and familiar.

When you say YES to personal choice, you can exercise your freedom to say and do and be and have whatever you want. If you’ve always eaten spaghetti and meatballs at an Italian restaurant, next time try lasagna or eggplant parmesan. If you’ve always vacationed at your time share in Hawaii, next year go to Paris. As you step more and more into personal choice and get comfortable with it, test yourself by doing new, exciting things with your life.

5. MONITOR YOUR THOUGHTS, they are your power of creation.

Personal choice begins with knowing yourself, knowing what you like, who you are. If you’ve never been introspective, start to listen to your thoughts. Take five minutes every day and sit quietly and listen. Ask yourself questions and listen for the answers. Write in a journal. As you get more comfortable listening to your inner dialogue, keep your thoughts positive and supportive. As you step into your power and exercise your personal choice, your positive thoughts will support you in creating positive outcomes.

Enjoy your life to the fullest as you say YES to personal choice.

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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.

In order to assess your progress and make the adjustments, you need to review your goals from time to time. When I ask my coaching clients how they’re doing on certain goals they sometimes tell me they forgot about that goal. Sure they had good intentions when they said they would exercise three days per week, and then they got bogged down at work and exercise fell to a low priority.

So if you want to know how you are doing with those plans you made when you set up your goals, you need to schedule periodic check ups. Reading your goals every day is optimum. Once a month would be great, every three months would be fine, once a year is not enough! What you will do is to take out your list of goals and action steps that you’ve written out, and look at where you are with each goal. Check off the ones you’ve accomplished first. Decide if you want to set up new goals to replace them. For example, if you set a goal to lose 10 pounds and reached that goal, you might set a new goal to tone up your body.

For the goals you haven’t achieved, examine why you haven’t reached them. Are you doing the actions you said you would do? If not, why not? Did you take the actions, but they didn’t help you to reach the goal? What action can you take instead? Did you get stuck in figuring out what action to take, or in knowing the next step? Ask for some support to get unstuck.

Can you see how a quick periodic review can really help you stay current with your goals and become much more effective? Here’s a summary of how to establish your goal setting checkpoint:

1. Review goals periodically.

Many successful coaches, consultants, authors, and speakers advise people to review their goals every day. An ideal situation would be to awake each day and read your list of goals. Then do a visualization where you see your goals achieved. You can do this again at night. You can work on one goal at a time or several. By doing your visualization at night, you implant your desire in your subconscious mind which will help you attract what you want. Reading your goals each day keeps them forefront in your mind. Reviewing them monthly or quarterly allows you to make necessary adjustments as needed.

2. Make adjustments.

After you’ve reviewed your goals, you need to assess your progress. How are you doing? Are you consistent with the actions you need to take for each goal? Are you using your time wisely so you have time each day to work toward your goals? Is this goal still important to you? Is it consistent with your values? Does it conflict with any other goal? I know these seem like hard questions, but if you’re not reaching your goals, you have to ask yourself why? These types of questions will help you reveal your patterns of avoidance, resistance, procrastination, or other actions that are not supporting the achievement of your goals.

You’re the best one to find out what’s going on and then make the necessary adjustments. You may have to revise a goal as circumstances change or your needs and desires shift. Don’t consider it a failure, just an alteration or a change in direction. If you’re not exercising three times a week, is it really because you’re too busy, or is it actually because you don’t enjoy exercise? Great. Now you can look for a form of physical activity you will enjoy, and therefore, you will do it! Also make sure that for balance, you have goals in all areas of your life that are important to you (family, spiritual, financial, physical, social, mental…). This way you won’t feel like you’re leaving anything out.

3. Get feedback from others and ask for support.

I always believe in following in the footsteps of those who’ve come before me. If you know someone who has been successful in accomplishing a goal you’ve set for yourself, find out how they did it. Ask them what you can do differently. Get a goal buddy and check in with each other once a week. Work with a coach who will support you in committing to the actions necessary to achieve your goals and will provide accountability for your goal setting check-ins. Do whatever it takes to make your goals happen!

4. Celebrate successes, appreciate efforts.

I love to celebrate. Too many people I know check off the goals they achieve, then move on to the next one. If you’re going to take the time to review your goals periodically, then start congratulating yourself, not just for your successes but also for your efforts. So many people do not do what they say they will, so if you are at least making the effort, you should celebrate! The more you offer yourself positive reinforcement, the quicker you will reach your goals!

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Personal Coach David Bohl is the author of The Goal Book, which is Part 3 of his Slow Down Fast Happiness Trilogy. The entire trilogy is now available in instant downloadable format. Visit this page for more details!

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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.

 Common Pitfalls of Managing Your Own Business:

1. Not having a business plan and a marketing plan.

A business plan is a roadmap for success and a marketing plan is a schematic for every day marketing activities. Many entrepreneurs believe they can get away without a business plan if they’re not seeking outside funding, but business plans are not just for investors. They guide you to where you want to go in your business. If you don’t have a plan, find a business consultant or SCORE counselor to help you write one. You can work with a marketing consultant or SCORE counselor to develop quarterly marketing plans to track what marketing activities give you the greatest results.

2. Not doing financial projections and monthly reports.

Most business owners are only concerned with how much money is coming in. But that’s only gross profit, and your business success is based on net profit–how much is left after expenses. A major pitfall of business owners is not doing financial projections. You need to chart out for one year what income you expect and your estimated expenses, both fixed and variable. Use an Excel spreadsheet or have your accountant do it in QuickBooks. When they run your monthly profit and loss statement, make sure they explain what the numbers mean. You must know your bottom line each month to manage your business successfully.

3. Not having enough capital or reserves.

Some businesses need an infusion of capital when they start out. You may need to borrow funds for renting your location, purchasing inventory, or outfitting your office. If you were unable to borrow, you might have gotten personal loans or you started on a shoestring. With little capital, you probably don’t have much in reserve. Business advisors suggest having at least six month’s to a year’s worth of expenses in the bank. This pitfall causes the demise of many businesses. Build up your reserves whenever you have any surplus.

4. Not being knowledgeable in your field or about business.

Do you have formal training in your industry? Have you studied how to run a business? Not having enough knowledge, skill, or training in your specialty or in business is a major pitfall. How will you compete against more skilled practitioners? How will you know the best quality products to buy and the best prices? You can open a business and then get more training and education as you go along, because ongoing training will keep your skills sharp and current. And you’ll want to get educated in all the nuances of managing a business from financials, to customer service, to employee relations, and more.

5. Not checking the competition or staying current with industry trends.

You can’t ignore the competition or pretend you don’t have any. It’s not spying, but you must know who your competition is and what they are up to. Can you provide better, faster, or a different service? Can you offer deeper discounts, better quality, or follow-up support? Find out what your competition is doing and offer something more. Read industry journals and stay current with what is going on in your industry. You have to be the best to stay on top, and it only takes a little time each week to do your homework.

6. Not tracking, measuring, following up, or following through.

How can you know how successful you are if you don’t track your results? Did this marketing campaign attract more visitors to my website? If not, what can I do to improve my results? Learn how to track and measure your business and marketing activities. Also, make sure you follow up and follow through. If you send out postcards and offer a free 30-minute consultation, make sure you provide it to those who respond. If you advertise an open house for client appreciation day, follow through and hold the event. Clients and prospects will lose faith in you if you don’t keep your word.

7. Poor customer service.

Have you heard the expression, the customer is always right? I have some coaching clients who run retail operations and they say that they train their staff to give 110% when it comes to customer service. Satisfied customers provide additional revenue in the form of return business and referrals. However, dissatisfied customers can do a lot of damage by spreading the word about your poor service. See the long-term value of happy customers and do everything in your power to make this a top priority. Without customers, you have no revenue!!!

8. Burnout from overworking and doing everything yourself.

Enthusiastic entrepreneurs wear a big “S” on their chests thinking they are Super Business Owner! I can do everything myself. If I want it done right, I have to do it. That works fine until you find yourself getting about five hours of sleep a night and making errors during the work day. Start looking at what you can delegate and find top quality, affordable contractors or employees to take some of the load off. After all, all work and no play makes for a very unhappy business owner. If you’re so stressed out, how can you enjoy the fruits of your labor?

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As I watch the U.S. Presidential campaigns — complete with polls, interviews, focus groups, and pundits — it occurs to me that each candidate’s basic message has been lost.

When you’re starting out in business, or in sales, you’re taught to focus on one solid message, and to share this message time and time again… often for a year or more before moving onto anything else.

The Presidential candidates haven’t done this. Each may have started off strong, but with the field day that the media is having, they’ve since been diverted by other peoples’ expectations.

They hear that one group of people is affected, and they tailor a TV add to try to sway that group. One candidate attacks the other, so the attacked candidate films a rebuttal. This goes on in a never-ending digression until the candidate’s message: his/her values, beliefs, and visions — are totally lost and covered up by all the extraneous bull.

This is the exact type of thing that we’re taught to avoid. Remember the advice: don’t be petty, take the high road, turn the other cheek, don’t let other people bring you down?

Sadly, the Presidential candidates are too busy playing media ping-pong to remember what they stand for and share that message with the American people.

Life is very much like that.

• What’s YOUR basic message?
• Do you know what you stand for?
• Do you know what your values are?

In life… are you ACTING with intention, or are you REACTING to what others around you are doing and saying?

Are you basing your decisions and actions on what YOU believe?

Or are you just going along, trying to be a crowd pleaser?

There are all kinds of people out there offering you advice: short-cuts to success. “Prescriptions” to happiness.

But success doesn’t often come easily, and happiness is individual.

What you need to do, time and time again as your life and the world around you changes, is to focus on your values. Bring more of the things you treasure into your life and get rid of the things that don’t work for you.

When you find out what success means to you and how to go about getting it… happiness follows.

What are you campaigning for?

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Thanks to Rich Life Carnival for featuring this post, to Effortless Abundance for including this post in the Effortless Abundance, and to 24 Hour Paradigm for publishing this post in the Day and Shifting Paradigm Carnival.

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