How To Be More Productive

There is nothing more exciting or fulfilling them accomplishment. You were made for productivity. If you are not been productive, you can be. If you’re productive, you can be more productive.

Paul Meyer said, “Productivity is never an accident.  It is always the result of a commitment to excellence intelligent planning, and focused effort.”

The following keys will help you be more productive:

Be informed.
Knowledge is power. In order be more productive you must know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and how it needs to be done. Skills must be learned that will assist you in doing things in a more productive manner. Attend seminars, read books dealing with your particular project, ask questions of others that have accomplish similar tasks to what you want to accomplish.


Get specialized training.
This goes hand-in-hand with point one, be informed. In order to be more productive, proper training is essential. Take courses that will help you develop your skills. Find a mentor or personal coach that can train you to be more productive. Work hard practicing the skills you develop.

Set goals.
Goals are essential to productivity. They keep you on track and give you something to focus on. The goals you set must be realistic, inspiring, and obtainable. The goals keep you moving in the right direction. Someone has said, "a goal is a dream with a deadline on." Your goals should stretch you. They should get you out of your comfort zone. They should push you to excellence.

Make plans.
Planning your work is also essential to being more productive. Great achievers not only plan their work; they also work their plans. A plan is simply a road have to guide you on the road to productivity. You can improve your planning skills by asking yourself to following questions when planning a project or task: What? Why? Who? Where? And how?

Do it!
While information, training, goals, and plans are essential to being more productive, they are futile without action. Great things are not accomplished by talking about them; they are accomplished by doing something about them. Someone has said, "Actions speak louder than words." Nothing could be truer. You will never be a person of productivity, unto you become a person of action.

Be aware.
To be more productive you must be aware of the things that rob you of productivity. Although there are many "productivity thieves," perhaps the following list will help you to be more aware of what can steal your accomplishment. Procrastination, lack of planning, lack of effort, negative associations, just to name a few.

Follow through with persistence.
In order be more productive, you must be persistent. Remember the saying you learned what you were a kid "quitters never win, and letters never quit." Well it's still true today. Great achievers have learned to never quit, regardless of the adversity. By never giving up on your ideas, goals, and plans, you will enjoy a life of greater productivity.

7 Keys to a Healthy Relationship With Your Spouse

In the book “Yes You Can” by Sam Deep and Lyle Sussman, “like in the organic system, a human relationship is subject to entropy—meaning that it is always in a state of decay.” In order for relationships to grow and flourish hard work is required.

All relationships suffer from this malady if given time. However, there are things you can do, principles you can live by, that will help insure that relationships do not die needlessly. Like a beautiful garden, it is possible, through proper cultivation, to develop loving, lasting relationships.

It is important to remember that all of life is about relationships. Your emotional stability, self worth, spirituality, security, and personal success are all dependent on how you relate to those around you.

You cannot live in isolation all your life. It was never God’s intention for you to be totally autonomous. In fact scripture is plain on this matter. In Genesis 2:18, God said us “it is not good for man to dwell alone.” The Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans “that no man is an island.” In other words, God desires for us to be in healthy, growing relationships.

The following principles will aid you in the cultivation of your relationships:

Make the decision to build a loving, lasting relationship All of life is centered around the choices you make. It is imperative that you make the conscious decision to cultivate your relationships. Don’t be afraid to try new things. Get rid of the idea that the feelings you have now about your partner will always be the same. Understand that if you’re going to make your relationships work, you’re appointed have to put a great deal of time and effort into them.

Communicate

Communication involves much more than what you say. It also involves your ability to listen to what your partner is saying. It involves the ability to empathize with what they are feeling. Communication is about much more than proving a point or winning an argument. In order for your relationship to grow you must seek a common ground of understanding and agreement.

Pray together

This may sound trite or even elementary, but it is highly important. No truer words were ever spoken than “the family that prays together, stays together.” There is something about developing intimacy with God that helps to build intimacy with your partner. It is easier for your “horizontal” relationships to be right, when your “vertical” relationship is right. Pray for God to bless your partner with health, peace, provision, and favor on a daily basis. Try it and see what happens.

Learn to relax

It is a good thing to learn not to “select a small stuff!” Don’t get been out of shape about every flaw or shortcoming that your partner has. Remember, they probably see yours also. Constantly pointing them out, griping, or complaining about them, only adds fuel to the fire. The Bible says, “it is the little foxes that spoil the vine.” Takes a few deep breaths. Step back and ask yourself, “is it worth destroying this relationship because of the small stuff?”

Be quick to forgive

Scripture says that we are not to let the sun go down on your wrath. Everyone does things that upset, offend, or even hurt their partner. No one is immune to this. People in loving, lasting relationships, are those who learn to forgive their partners when they make a mistake. To have a winning relationship, be quick to apologize when you do something to hurt your partner, and quick to forgive repair

Give appreciated gifts

Everyone loves to receive special gifts from their partners. There is nothing like receiving an unexpected dozen roses, or a cute romantic card from your partner. Surprise your partner with something out of the ordinary. It doesn’t have to be something expensive, it could be something you may. The point is when you give your partner cars, give us or even ton, you are saying they are valuable to you. The golden rules that is, “doing to others, a she would have others do unto you.”

Seek to really know and understand your partner

It is amazing in marriages how much you think you know about your partner, when you first marry them. After years of being married many people have awakened to realize they don’t really know the person they are married to. Why? Is it that the person has changed so much? Usually it’s because we don’t spend enough intimate to time with our partners, getting to know them. Seek to understand their dreams, their desires, their aspirations, their needs, and their wants. If you put forth a little effort in this regard you’ll be amazed what you learn. The Bible says, “to dwell with your wife with knowledge.”

Yes, you can enjoy winning relationships. Quick whining about your relationships and start winning, by doing your part to make it work. Keep the faith. Believe for the best. Be patient, and you will begin to see the fruit of your efforts!

Inch By Inch

Success in Increments


The old adage, “inch by inch anything is a cinch,” still rings true today. As much as we dislike it most success comes in small pieces. Seldom do we experience “overnight success.” Most get rich quick schemes are nothing more than scams designed by con artists to get our money.

These schemes would never be successful if people weren’t always trying to achieve great success instantly. Our society is caught up with instant gratification. If we can’t have something right now, we don’t want it. This desire for instant gratification is one of the major causes of debt in our world today.

There actually is no such thing as an overnight success. People who have head this label attached to them many times worked for years developing their skills and talents.

Tom Lehman who has became one of the top golfers in the world is one such person. Although his rise to stardom on the PGA tour seems to have come fast, Tom actually struggled for years on the seemingly endless trail of mini-tour events worldwide. His success today is the result of years of lessons, practice, and patience.

One-man who was called and overnight success said, “I might be and overnight success, but it sure was the longest night I’ve ever known!”

Perhaps you have heard it said that, “the longest journey begins with a single step.” Regardless of what you are desiring to accomplish, if you don’t get started you’ll never get where you’re going.

Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, started with one store in Batesville Arkansas. After years of hard work and his refusal to adhere to the advice of his detractors, he developed a network of stores that cover the majority of the United States and many countries around the world. His vision, hard work, and patience, eventually caused them to become the wealthiest man in America. This success came incrementally, one store at a time.

The children of Israel were told that they were to drive out the inhabitants of the promised land little by little, lest it be overrun with wild beasts. In God’s scheme of things victory is experienced a little at a time. Jesus said in John 8:32 “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Notice he didn’t say it would make you free, which would denote an instant and complete freedom. Rather He said “it will make you free,” which denotes an ongoing, day by day freedom. In other words freedom comes in increments.

The following principles will help to guide you to success over the long haul:

Clear Cut Vision 

Know exactly where you’re going and what you intend to accomplish. Write it down. Having a written vision helps to motivate you and keep you on track. Your vision in life is what gives you purpose. Without purpose you just meander through life never really accomplishing anything more than taking up space.

Have a plan

No coach would take his team out to play game without a game plan. No contractor would think about building a skyscraper without a set of blueprints. You see a step-by-step plan is essential to getting anything done. Some people think others that are successful are so because they are lucky. Denis Waitly defines luck as “Laboring Under Correct Knowledge.”

Get busy

Once you have written your vision and developed a plan for attaining it, then you have to get busy. As the great NIKE ad says “Just Do It.” A vision and a plan are important, but they are worthless if you don’t put them into action. A lot of people are great dreamers but they are lousy doer’s.

Stay focused

To focus is to concentrate on the task at hand. It is to concentrate on the desired result. As a teenager I had the opportunity to work on a farm one summer with my grandmother and her husband. One day I helped plow the fields. I quickly learned that if you were going to plow a straight line you had to pick and object on the horizon and focus on it until you reached it. Don’t allow yourself to become distracted by other things. One major reason why people with good intentions never follow through is because they allow themselves to become distracted.

Practice patience

Patience s not putting up with something but rather it the is constancy. It is the ability to stay with a project until it is finished. It is not quitting in spite of the obstacles or adversity. The primary reason people quit is because they are not seeing the results they want to see. Remember success is incremental. It doesn’t happen overnight. Grossly

You Have to be Tough

“Tough times never last, but tough people do!” (Robert Schuller)

Life isn’t always easy. At times it can be extremely difficult.
Health problems, financial problems, family problems, relationship problems, marriage problems, can all present incredible challenges. They challenge our resolve, our attitudes, and our future.  Your toughness determines whether you overcome the challenges or the challenges overcome you.
Jesus wrote, “In this world you shall have tribulation.” Job said, “Mans days are short and full of trouble.” While it is true that life can be tough and full of difficulties and trouble, it is also true that things don’t have to stay that way. There is always a way out of the difficulties you face in life. Listen to what David said, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Just because trouble comes doe’s not mean that we have to allow ourselves to be destroyed by them. While the Bible is full of passages that warn of trouble it is also full of admonitions for overcoming them.
Just like building up your muscles, if you are going to be mentally, spiritually, and emotionally tough, you must put in the time, work, and effort to do so.  You must make up your mind that you are going to be tougher than the challenges that come your way.  You must believe that you can overcome and outlast any challenge that comes your way.
The following principles will help you victoriously overcome life’s difficulties.

• Have faith. Believe that things can and will change. Expect God to do what He promises in His word. Believe in healing, deliverance, provision and protection.
• Renew your mind. Change the way you think. Get rid of negative thinking. Refuse to think thoughts of doubt, unbelief, and destruction. Fill your mind with the promises of God’s word.
• Watch your mouth. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. What you speak in life is what you can expect to have. This is a spiritual principle that cannot be nullified. Paul wrote, “confession is made unto salvation.” Begin to speak what you intend to see, not what now is. It is a true statement confession leads to possession.
• Positive actions. Choose to do your part to change the way things are. Become a doer not just a hearer of the word of God. The prophet Jeremiah said, “if you are willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land.”
• Surround yourself with winners. Your associations are important to hanging tough. Don’t run with gloom and doom thinkers. The last thing you need when facing tough times is to be around people that are down and out. By running with winners, in tough times, they will encourage you to keep on keeping on.
• See the end result. In order to hang tough in trying times, you must be able by faith to see beyond what now is to what can be. Faith sees beyond the present circumstances.
• Don’t stop. Quit should be a word that you remove from your vocabulary. “Quitters never win and winners never quit.” The race isn’t to the first off the line, or even to the fastest runner, it is to the one who endures to the end.