Khai McBride

Become Addicted to Finishing

Why do some people achieve their goals more than others?  It's simple...they finish what they start!  Far too often, people start goals, tasks, projects, ideas, assignments and never finish.  And if you don't finish, you can't achieve your goals!  I'm much more addicted to finishing than I am starting because I like closure.  Without closure, I live with the heavy baggage of knowing I didn't reach my goal but more importantly, I broke a promise to myself.  If I tell myself I'm going to do something, I do it.

Now, there's also a big difference between not finishing and deciding to never finish the goal.  If finishing your goal is no longer relevant to you or someone else, than it's ok to decide to not finish.  But at least you can delete it off your list and create closure.  It's the things that are still relevant that are left dangling in your mind that you need to finish.

The biggest list of goals I have is probably my 43things.com list.  It's the things I want to finish before I die and because I don't know when I'm going to die, I'm doing everything I can to do them quickly!

So there you go.  Grab all those lists of unfinished business you have in your life and either delete them or finish them.  Become addicted to finishing and you'll start achieving everything you want in life!

See my 43things.com list

Monetize Your Passion And Crush It!

"If you like Smurfs...Smurf it up!" - Gary Vee

Like Gary Vaynerchuk says in his Web 2.0 presentation...there is no reason you should be doing stuff you hate, because you can lose just as much money being happy as hell.  In this presentation, Gary inspires us all to make money doing what we love.  The internet and social media have finally leveled the playing field allowing just about anybody to create a strong market presence and monetize their passion.

I am a first hand testimony of this concept, building both of my businesses in 2009 through social media while having a really fun time doing it.  If you have 15 min, this is definitely a video worth watching.

Two Keys to Success

Marilyn vos Savant, the person with the highest recorded IQ, was once asked "Can you tell within a few minutes if someone will be successful?"  Her answer (and I'm paraphrasing here): "Absolutely.  All I have to do is figure out who they associate with and what they feed their mind."

Really simple.  If you want to be successful: 1) hang out with successful people, to absorb their wisdom, habits, and attitude, and 2) feed your mind with positive knowledge.

Getting Things Started

How often do you let your day get away from you?  You have the intentions on being productive, but as soon as you walk into the office, you are bombarded with calls, emails, voicemails, and lots of fires to put out.  Before you know it, you didn't accomplish the things that are most important to your job, business or livelihood.  Working hard with little to show for it is very frustrating.  This problem is one of the biggest challenges in time management: controlling and prioritizing your day. 

Many coaches and time management experts have different strategies and suggestions on how to tackle this problem.  And despite their differences, most will agree on one simple concept: planning.  You must plan your day before you can attack it.  Now I'm a big believer in planning.  In fact, when I take the time to actually create a plan, it usually gets executed allowing me to reach my goals.  But here lies the second challenge: finding time to plan.  How do you find time to plan, when your day already controls you, distracting you with other activities?

Here is a strategy for effective planning that I've used for some time, and has made me much more productive:

1. Have a separate physical location for planning, one that is free from outside distractions such as email, voicemail, and other interruptions.  This will be your planning sanctuary from now on.  This could be the conference room or even a lounge chair in your backyard.
2. Start your day in this separate "planning" place so can have a clear mind, free of distractions to plan.
3. After you create your action plan for the day, you can go to your normal place of work (desk, etc) and attack your day.
4. Anytime you have the urge to plan or brainstorm, relocate to your planning location.

Give this strategy a try.  You will not only find more time to plan, but your planning will be more effective and oftentimes, more creative because you are free from outside noise.  This can also help reduce your stress because you are not immediately jumping into fires.

Start to look forward to your day, because now the first part of it is the most fun.