Motivational Quote
Tools
How to Find Success: Hack Yourself First
If you muddle up your vision you run the risk of ineffectiveness. As entrepreneurs, we all strive to reach some level of success, whether in our businesses, personal lives, or community involvement. We yearn to realize our visions of greatness. Yet, year after year, idea after idea, there is are great deal of failures we will face on our journey. I’ve read that success rate of the first product is about ten percent, which means on average we have a ninety percent failure rate for our first go at creating something meaningful successfully. It’s human.
Luckily our average goes up as we attempt to create new iterations or products. So what does it take to continuously fail so that you can unearth your success? How do we tap into the source of inner drive that pushes us to a success rate that brings us satisfaction?
Finding that answer will be a long journey for you, but luckily we have observed some simple hacks to help over the time span of human history.
The best place to start is with your thoughts.
What are thoughts made of?
A lot of us believe that our thoughts come from the brain, but the truth is our entire body do you remember stubbing your toe and feeling the pain there. When we consider the body’s role in thought production we can no longer deny that our health and well being add or subtract from how we reach success in our lives. So Think and Grow rich delves much deeper into our minds. Furthermore, when we analyze Think and Grow rich we realize that focus and faith are what truly help us realize the states of being we see ahead of us. Finding your burning desire to achieve whatever state of being you clearly envision for yourself. It is very important that your state of being is clear. If you muddle up your vision you run the risk of ineffectiveness. So if you have a vague vision, will cause a lack of clarity and inefficiencies. So every time you refine your vision make it clearer and clearer and you will be more productive towards finding your success.
If you muddle up your vision you run the risk of ineffectiveness.
Then comes focus, once your vision is clear, you need to focus on it every single day. Whether it is 20 minutes, 50 minutes, or 2 hours a day, whatever it takes to ensure you are building on the work you’ve done so far will ensure you reach your goals. Your vision will be realized but it’s going to take a length of time, and delaying how much effort you put into shortening the distance between where you are now and where you want to be only further delays your journey to success. Whatever it takes whenever you can you need to call your vision every day and check in on how you are doing. It can be so easy to slip away.
So after focus comes faith. Now, I am not one to be religious, but I do believe we are a unified and, therefore, a semi-mystical universe. Even science ties us to a common denominator among all living and nonliving things. Furthermore, whether you believe in a being watching over your shoulder or not, the truth is the watchful eye is within us. That voice that lies behind all the voices that fill your head over the years with different beliefs, the one voice that stills questions back and answers back is who you want to hack into a find. Me my voice tells me to write and tells me to uplift the prosperity of people. I know to rely on these skills and desires and as long as I fulfill this calling I have found success. Have faith that you have the ability to do whatever your voice requires of you. What do you have faith in your ability to do? Start now. You will grow trust over time and you will cultivate faith over time, and your path forms into your destiny. It’s a wild road ahead for anybody who reaches success. Especially entrepreneurs because now you are tapping into the public world and bring the public goods and services, which comes with a larger network and larger scope of self.
What do you have faith in your ability to do? Start now. You will grow trust over time and you will cultivate faith over time, and your path forms into your destiny. It’s a wild road ahead for anybody who reaches success. Especially entrepreneurs because now you are tapping into the public world and bring the public goods and services, which comes with a larger network and larger scope of self.
Start now. You will grow trust over time and you will cultivate faith over time, and your path forms into your destiny. It’s a wild road ahead for anybody who reaches success. Especially entrepreneurs because now you are tapping into the public world and bring the public goods and services, which comes with a larger network and larger scope of self.
You will grow trust over time and you will cultivate faith over time, and your path forms into your destiny. It’s a wild road ahead for anybody who reaches success. Especially entrepreneurs because now you are tapping into the public world and bring the public goods and services, which comes with a larger network and larger scope of self.
Last point, faith, focus, and sense of self. One of the things that held back Ayn Rand’s philosophy is that it was too focused. Coming into the postmodern world we realize that there is a lot of gray area between right and wrong. When it comes to making successful decisions we need to realize that our Self, not the capital, is greater than our self. Our scope of self includes our friends, family, and communities, so feel comfortable placing them within your success journey. Soon you will unearth a pattern that is the destiny of YOU.
7 Micro-Moves To Focus Fast w/ 3 Free Bonuses
Do you get off track easily?
From time to time, you may find that distraction is winning a lot of battles in your fight to stay motivated and push towards your success. Whether it is building your personal brand, building a business, or achieving any other goal, there is a key to staying focused and persistent.
From time to time, you may find that distraction is winning a lot of battles in your fight to stay motivated and push towards your success. Whether it is building your personal brand, building a business, or achieving any other goal, there is a key to staying focused and persistent.
Luckily, there are simple, and free, ways to quickly get back on the priority task at hand instead of logging another hour mindlessly scrolling Facebook to do…”research” . While these moves can be done alone, they also work together in a sequence. Use them as a quick routine when you realize that your are avoiding your valuable tasks for an unproductive ones.
MicroMove #1 Take a deep breath
If you are losing focus on a task you know you have to finish, then there is probably something about that task that causes you stress. This stress triggers your “fight/flight” response which turns you to your coping mechanism: distraction. This subtle behavior is rewarded with the removal of the stress, which is a positive outcome and so you are not easily persuaded away from your flappy bird marathon because it feels better than writing a 10-page marketing piece or presentation for your big pitch night. Whatever it may be, struggling through the cumbersome and complicated process that is reaching long-term success comes with no guarantees. Meanwhile, your favorite reality show comes with a very real and very now satisfaction.
That is why taking a deep, and I mean, deep breath is a micro behavior to first take when you truly want to disrupt the pleasure vortex. According to a Harvard Family Health report, deep breathing triggers us to relax, which releases the stress sensations that were eliciting the fight/flight response in the first place. So, if you wanted only one more move to help you get focused fast then you can stop here. If not, keep going…
MicroMove # 2 Check the Time
Sometimes a project is really stressful…
Honestly, you just know it is going to take forever and you have an entire to-do list to get through, plus the day is just etching away…
These are thoughts that definitely run through my mind if I feel as though I am distracted through the day. How are we supposed to fit so many priorities into such an infinite amount of waking day?
Often, when this happens, I find I really don’t know the exact time. How much day do you really have ahead of you?
By checking the time you afford yourself an opportunity to make a rough sketch of how all of what you want to do can play out, and if you are short you are forced to prioritize to the essentials. This helps focus you in relationship to your present situation.
Once you know how much day you have ahead of you, pick a priority for every 1-2 hours left.
MicroMove # 3 Set a Timer
So you are feeling less stressed and prioritized, but stiiiillllll…..getting started on that project isn’t any more motivating. No matter how calm you are or how important you rationalize it to be, the energy to get you going just isn’t sparked. So what to do next?
Set a 10 or 20-minute timer to complete the first priority. Set the timer before you are even sure what you want to do next. This creates an external incentive to commit a small amount of time to devote from the time you have left.
By incrementing time even further, you’ve placed bite-sized boundaries on this once insurmountable project.
MicroMove #4 Check Your Goal or Write a Goal
Next if you don’t already have one, set a goal or check a goal. For example, I have a command center that I created a while ago, which lists my major priorities. Helping grow a non-profit, developing my business, and contributing to the higher education profession are the top three. From there I would pick one for the next hour or two and I would work on one goal.
For someone writing it may be to write a chapter, edit a chapter, research 10 sources. Whatever it may be, make sure your goal contributes to advancing your priority.
MicroMove #5 Make sure your goal is SMART
One of the things that trips me up, is sometimes the goals I write are not easily processed by my mind. I teach this in many goal setting workshops. Our minds are very much like programs processing lines of code and interpreting it into action.
If I set a goal that is something like : “Create packet”
When I return to complete the goal, I can be completely oblivious to exactly what the parameters of packet creation will be. Furthermore, if it is an older goal , I may complete lose why and what I wanted when I wrote “Create packet”.
So it helps to make goals as specific as possible, and the SMART acronym is a tool used to refine your goals into a way that we can process easily.
“Create packet” becomes “Make a rough draft of a 3-page marketing packet for our latest workshop offering on MeetUp within the next 17-minutes (your timer is still going).
MicroMove #6 Say an affirmation
Affirmations are a simple way to promote positive thinking around your priority project.
Great affirmations for focus:
- I have all the time I need.
- My work is a priority and I work my priorities.
- Staying focused is easy.
Here are some more great affirmations for focus. Just pick one though and move on to your final move.
MicroMove #7 Do it
Jump in there! You have reduced stress, prioritized, specified, and affirmed! There’s nothing left to it but to do it no matter how unpretty it may be. Get in there and get it done. The clock is ticking.
Bonus moves
- Always be aware of your triggers – Brainstorm a list of triggers and build your awareness by noting when you are engaging in a trigger. Playing Call of Duty when you know there are chores to complete or diving into an hour-long debate to avoid finishing that first draft. Gently note this times and realize you can take the micro moves above to get back on track.
- Write if-then statements and keep it nearby – If then statements are great tools to use with your awareness of distraction triggers. For instance at an old job my boss had us all say the motto “If there is time to lean there is time to clean” – plug in your trigger with your priorities and use it as a verbal reminder to refocus using some of the moves above.
- Have a reward system handy – When you do get back on track and finish your work in the time you devoted know of 1 or 2 rewards you can give yourself a positive experience and reinforce the satisfaction of being focused.
The smallest steps lead us toward success. When you recognize that the small moves that you take contribute toward your overall achievements your destiny becomes much richer and simpler. You can relish in every note you write and every goal you set which will keep you motivated in the long run. Appreciate your micro moves and use them to keep them keep you focused today.
For more moves toward your success visit zingahart.com or email me at zingahart@gmail.com to discuss a personalized strategy for you.
Starting an International Food Business With Founder & CEO of Micah Specialty Foods [Video]
Being an entrepreneur can be exciting for people who are comfortable risks. Starting Career Champs has been a major learning curve, but it is inspiring hearing from other entrepreneurs building their visions into realities. Nana and Natasha, are the respectively the founder and CEO team that runs Micah Specialty Foods
Nana and Natasha, are the respectively the founder and CEO team that runs Micah Specialty Foods. Their signature dish the Supreme Sauce has been appetizing pallets across Northeast Ohio with its international Ghanian flare.
Hear all about how they take risks in their business, work together across international lines, and use their past experiences to get their business right.
Thanks for viewing! If you are interested in being on career champs, email me at zingahart@gmail.com
One More Move: Sustain Your Momentum
Agendas, fundraisers, programs, networking and this is just the volunteer work?!?! As a passionate creator that presides over a startup non-profit, #LimitlessAmbition, 2 businesses, a higher ed profession, and a beautiful growing-so-fast family surfing the wave that is seeking success could easily crash, but when we do what we love…love finds a way. As entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves swimming deep in a variety of projects, responsibilities, deadlines, and commitments that could easily have us feeling burned out, overwhelmed or just swamped. Our ambition won’t let us give up and the people we serve rely on us to be leaders, mentors, and overall figures of what our purpose stands for. So how can we ensure we sustain ourselves while completing complex projects and timelines?
Here a three key factors to take into account:
- Honesty is a winning policy: Before you embark on any ambitious journey, you need to honestly assess the progress you and your team can capably commit to weekly. If you are already in your journey and are starting to feel buried, share that with your team as well. Voicing frustrations, delays, and setbacks with everyone allows for many minds (including your own) to create a solution. Journal, set up a meeting or group chat to discuss a strategy for success that works for everyone!
- Create and celebrate easy wins in your project, early and often: *Secret Alert* I have a little happy dance EVERY TIME I release a post by the end of Monday. I started it in an effort to share what I learned helps individuals craft their own success, so they can contribute to and grow a thriving community! Although it takes some time to complete, it is still a small step towards ensuring that someone will be inspired to boldly take any small step towards building their own success journey.
- Harness the power of your tribe! Being held accountable to our goals boosts our sense of commitment. There is something special about someone else knowing about what you want to do and then checking in on you to make sure you completed it! Schedule lunch dates, send a FB msg or text, connect in a Group chat, etc. etc. Find an accountability partner/group and share your goals and progress with them. Need someone to hold you accountable?
What goals are you sustaining in March? Share them in the comments below.
Strive to Build Trust With Social Media
I joined the Kent Young Professionals leadership council’s marketing committee recently. Of course, having the chance to lend my expertise to building something from start-up phase is an experience I hold dear. What do you jump at the chance to experience?
Knowing what I’ve acquired after many years of promoting, managing, and strategizing for social media growth, I would strongly advise, anyone travelling into the social media marketing journey to put building trust at the center of the strategy.
Social media is like the force, while powerful, when it is used for good it is good, but when it is used for devious purposes it can cast a shadowy, ugly spirit-crushing light for anyone who dared to trust an appealing link or headline. Customers are aware of the stalker-like practices of ads and the false promises of online shopping and services. The quantity available to them is like a tidal wave, and many of us are cutting off our engagement to keep from drowning. On the business end, our potential audience reach is too as rich as the ocean with cohorts of diverse people, personalities, and personas that we can try to attract. Like two waves, a general strategy will only cause a crash of chaos.
So how do you build an online relationship, especially when you are starting from the bottom?
Start with trust.
Like any relationship, we open ourselves up to be vulnerable by relying on someone or something else to provide the value we need. On both the client and business end, we need to be able to identify the value, while validating reliability. Social media benefits when you focus on providing those two metrics.
As a move to incorporate into your trust into your social media success strategy, reflect on these questions:
- How is building trust a part of your social media strategy?
- What ways are you ensuring people can learn to rely on you (or your business)?
- What guarantee can you commit to providing?
Have you ever been burned or betrayed by an online promise? What could they have done to make the exchange go right? (Comment below 🙂
5 Steps to Use Your Affirmation Daily [Infographic]
This is an infographic to support a post I wrote earlier. Affirmations can be a powerful tool for staying positive and focused on moving towards your greatest success.
Rest Works Wonders For Your Leadership
I run social media for our graduate students on Facebook. From asking our students about their content needs I’ve discovered missing a balance between work, family, school, and other human activities can make them feel over-stressed, overworked, and under-satisfied. While, finding balance goes beyond one remedy or another, there are proactive activitiesthat take us towards our core center of being.
One activity is to balance is our active mind. We’re constantly learning, applying knowledge, and making decisions that can draw away our energy from our core being. While our purpose can fuel our passion, it requires us to expend energy, which can only be balanced out with the other end of the spectrum: rest.
How do you measure a good rest?
Now, you may say, Zinga that’s a bit fluffy. It’s not serious enough to help me achieve success. Or…I’ll rest when I’m dead.
I get it. We feel like more stuff gets done when we’re awake. It’s like a leaders version of FOMO. Yet, if you are feeling low and groggy from a lack of rest, you may find more mistakes are made, relationships take a toll, and your zest for creativity and innovation is dulled. While we make be able to function when we are sleep deprived, we lose focus more often, which takes away our attention from essential tasks.
Finding rest keeps us focused and when we align our focus with our vision we move towards success.
What’s one way you fit rest into your routine?
As a higher ed professional, non-profit leader, entrepreneur, coach and mom, how I stay calm and rested seems like a mystery to some of my friends and colleagues. Sometimes, I’ve wondered what has sustained me for so long? Especially since at the height of my activities, I was also pursuing my master’s degree full-time. Were there days and nights when I was tired? Yes, but for the majority of the time, I was at ease.
Why?
My reliable secret: Taking a daily nap on my lunch breaks in my car. It would range from 5-20 minutes depending on my lunch activities. To wake up I set a really, loud and obnoxious rooster alarm.
It did take some practice to nap well. I did it by starting off with just napping for a minute or two and getting used to getting up and going back to work as soon as the alarm went off. Then the build up to 20 minutes, which took about a week and a half to get used to doing. Now, I nap like a pro.
For me, the obnoxious rooster alarm is a necessity.
If you can wake up to ringing fairy whispers, go for it.
So that’s one more move towards your success. Take some rest.
Simple Moves for Personal Brand Consistency
Who’s focusing on their personal brand this year?
I definitely am!
Hanging out with women’s empowerment groups, a new network of fabulous friends and potential partnerships, as well as facing anything that feels like fear head on and with gusto! The energy of my personal brand building focus contagious and like I discussed at my recent workshop, From Passion to Process, where your passion is your energy! It is a colorful word for describing the feeling that arises when we are doing something delightfully desirable.
One part of facing my fears was doing starting my YouTube channel! Cheers to all the vloggers out there, creating video content is an intensive activity! Although, I create content and help small businesses’ build their brand strategy, putting myself right in the center of of building my personal brand still comes with an edge of awkwardness. Yet, I know confidence comes with time, and I look forward to learning and growing by following this new avenue in my life.
How are you growing your personal goals?
If building your brand means incorporating a new strategy, tactic, or method, how do you ensure that you stay authentic to your core values and vision, while treading across new lines?
Tying your vision to your brand means taking control and ownership of every bit of it. From your colors to your fonts, from your values to your guarantee, you need to ensure that you consistently apply your brand across your communication channels, so that you are easily recognized and familiar to your ideal audience.
So what are the major components of your brand that you need to think about? This awesome slide show by Jarkko Sjöman covers some basic features of a personal brand with the sage advice of Will Ferrell.
Below are some free or low cost moves you can take to improve and align your personal brand today!
Google Yourself (Or Your Business)
I just did it! Wow, one year ago it my LinkedIn popped up and that’s about it. Now my content, websites, and many other streams of how I want to represent myself on the web comes to the top of the list. How is your Search Engine presence? Is Google linking you to the content that you are most passionate about? If you are not showing up in the ranks you may want to consider if it’s time to focus on your online brand. Offline method: Do a personal SWOT analysis.
Update your LinkedIn profile
LinkedIn is the place to be if you want to have a voice in the professional sphere of our economy. Since I enjoy working with small businesses, start-up entrepreneurs, and non-profit directors, I make it my mission to meet, connect, and learn with the best that LinkedIn can offer. Updating your LinkedIn profile to include your personal vision or mission statement and the specific values you bring to employers, gives your general audience an anchor to who you are.
Create a piece of content (write a blog post, share a video, make a flyer for you local bulletin board)
Notice I didn’t say start a blog. You no longer have to have a blog to post articles. LinkedIn Pulse is a great platform for sharing content articles, while aligning to your personal and professional brand at the same time. Is this advice to not start a blog, far from it, but if you are not ready to dig into building your own blog yet then a small step forward would be to post there. That goes for other content as well, find ways to collaborate if running the entire content marketing enterprise is too much to manage right now. You should always strive towards having your own platform for hosting and controlling your content, but not having one is no excuse for not participating.
These small steps are only a beginning! If you checked out the SlideShare above you will see your business card, resume, website, and everything you create or is associated with you is a part of your personal brand. Checking on your brand’s bits and pieces means spending time combing through who you are and how you come across to your audience. Building your brand is about ensuring you are authentically projecting your core value, purpose, and passion with the world, which is no small feat! Keep striving because your end vision is definitely worth it.
From Passion to Process: 1st Workshop of the New Year!
I had a ton of fun today at Scribbles in Kent, OH. I hosted a workshop titled from Passion to Process where we reflected on our passions and then set aside time to build a system towards enacting our passions on an annual, monthly, weekly, and daily basis. It was a blast and such a good feeling to hear it was a helpful session.
Bonus: Scribbles is awesome and I thank them for hosting us! Their wall is lined with books and getting to color on the table tops was a creative feature.
One part I was particularly proud of was transforming my personal at-home command center into a useful printable for everyone that attended. The full version of the 2016 Command Center is attached below. I condensed it to one-page from them to save on printing costs and paper, so I wanted to share the full-version should there be any visual types out there.
Grab the free full version printable 2016 Command Center today.
Zinga Hart 
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