Well, after being sick for almost 7 weeks already (grrrr) and having a baby 10 days ago (YAY!) I am finally getting back into the swing of things.

I am starting the week off with two exciting projects. One is testing a Attraction Marketing Program, and the second is building my network within LinkedIn.

One big Aha and one big reflections came up for me in starting these projects.

The Aha, was with the Attraction Marketing Program. Here I had a step by step program that should help me to build my Professional Coaching practice, but I didn’t have the time to put into it. I then realized that I could hold the vision and goal for a project but not be at the center of it. So I hired a student to spend 3-5hrs per day to follow the program and test it for me. The investment is small and the risk is low, considering the fact that I have already used similar ideas to grow my businesses.

The Reflection and focus of this post was in building my LinkedIn network.

My desire is to focus my Professional Coaching towards Business Executives and Teams. I needed to connect with people that fit this category. The logical venue for this seemed to be LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social network for business professionals. Unlike networks such as Facebook and Twitter which have a more casual feel to them, LinkedIn users are there to focus on their business and profession.

In reaching out to LinkedIn users in my contact list, I actively bypassed fellow Coaches and began making contact with as diverse a crowed as possible.

As I was going through the process, I reflected on how so many networking circles/events put people of the same profession/business together. What is the likelihood of a bunch of real estate agents getting together and selling each other houses, or referring their own clients to the competition?

When approaching Networking, I think there should be to areas of focus.

1. Peer Networking – This is where you get together with peers in the same field and share ideas and help each other grow. There are plenty of people to serve, more that you can handle in a lifetime. Sharing ideas will help you improve and grow your profession as a whole. I would recommend going networking on this level at the least on a quarterly basis.

2. Customer/Client Networking – This is where you are looking for business. In this situation avoid your business peers like the plague. Look for events where there will be a diverse group of people that meet the criteria of your target market. If you meet someone who is in the same field as you, be polite, but limit your conversation, you are on a mission to find customers/clients to serve, not to share ideas. You should be going to these events (on or offline) as often as you feel you need to make your business grow.

Ultimately when you are about to begin a networking process, the first step is to THINK about what your vision and goals are.

Questions you can ask yourself:

What is my purpose for Networking?
What is the outcome that I am looking for?
How will this event serve my purpose and objectives?
How do I need to prepare myself?

Now I could justify that there is the big picture of this great new project that is worthy of my focus, but the truth is that after 5 days, though I know much more about how the interface works, I am far from being able to complete the basics. Even with my ability to learn quickly, at this pace it will be weeks before I am done.

Fortunately I had my AhHa, and have stopped working on the area that doesn’t need me, and returned to the place that doesn’t happen without me.

I have smartened up and am now looking for a developer that will probably be able to accomplish the task in a day or so.

My mistake:
I indulged one of my old habits of doing everything myself, due to lack of patience and misperceived cost savings, and the belief that I always do it best (no matter what it is). I also assume that because I am working nonstop I am being very efficient.

My lesson learned:
When I indulge these old habits I end up being highly ineffective. I spread myself over a number of tasks that I am mediocre at, and there for pull myself away from the tasks that are my strong points and give me the greatest return for the effort. It doesn’t save me any money. In fact the amount of money wasted in the past week will far surpass the amount that it will cost me to hire a developer on Elance, who will finish the task in a few hours.

Forward Focus:
Five minutes of planning, can save days of time wasted. Next time I am ignited by an exciting idea I will take a few minutes to set an effective strategy on how to approach the project, and realize where I will create the most value and where I should be outsourcing.

Next week is looking great…

A Question than many of ask, but none know the answer to. But in that question lies the key to living a powerful life.

We are so busy going through life doing the things that we are already doing, and we can’t seem to find the time to make course adjustments. We plan to “get to it” eventually but that day never seems to come. We imagine that when our days near their end that we will begin to focus on the important thing.

How sad that we spend our lives in chaos only to plan to live our best life when we’re to old and frail to live it.

As you live your days, so you live your weeks, so you live your months, so you live your years, so you live your life.

Plan to Die. This is not a suggestion to spend your time in cultish death rituals, but to give yourself a wakeup call to action. Life is short its time to live.

I would like to recommend a 3 step strategy to activate you to your fullest life.

1. Tomorrow You will Die – What would you do if today were your last day on earth. Who would you say sorry to? Who would you hug? Who would you express your love? What guidance would you give?

This will help you to realize your core values, what you central focus in live is all about.

2. Next week / Next month you will Die. – Are you going to travel some where, build something, complete that life defining project.

This will help you realize what some of your dreams are, the things that given a 168 hours / 4 weeks till you die you would dedicate all your energy to accomplishing them.

3. Next year you will die. – Will you stay at your present job? If you do what sort of energy will you put into it. What will you set as your goals to accomplish for this year? Work? Family? Friends? Community?

A year is a long time, 61,320 hours to be exact this is where you define those broad goals where you core values are expressed through your everyday living.

When you see what matters most, begin to take action live your days fully. Review this process monthly. You will see that though many values and goals will stay the same, many will change.

As time passes you will realize a life that is truly monumental.

Time is fleeting, we don’t know when our end will come, use that awareness to spur you to your greatest life.