Tag Archives: action plan

One Way to Overcome Stress

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By Emma Wortt

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill.

You have a problem. In order to solve it you’re going to need to make some changes. The thought of that is making you stressed, but the thought of leaving things as they are is even more stressful.

You want to make changes but you know that there are risks involved in doing so. Perhaps you’re thinking there’s someone who won’t approve or someone who may be upset. Maybe you’re wondering where you will find the time to make those much needed changes or you are telling yourself it’s not possible to improve the situation. Whatever you perceive as the risks involved in moving forward is making you anxious, and that is holding you back.

The first step in overcoming your challenge is to work out exactly what outcome you want.

Ask yourself:

In an ideal world how specifically do I want this situation to operate in the future?

The word ‘specifically’ is important here. Decide when you want the situation to have changed and then imagine yourself at that point in the future. Allow yourself to become immersed for a moment in that vision of the resolved issue. Write down now in detail and with clarity what will happen and what you will see, hear and feel when you have resolved this challenge.


The next step is to see this challenge in terms of who you are as a person.

Ask yourself:

Taking into consideration my personal and professional values; my work ethics; my peace of mind; my goals; – am I willing to continue to tolerate this situation as it is now?

Now ask:

What are the risks involved? What specifically am I anxious about? What is stopping me from sorting this out? Make a list.

Now one last question:

Is the outcome I want worth the risks involved in attaining it? If your answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ then you can now start to work out your action plan to reach the goal.

Stress itself is not the problem. If you want growth and you want change then decide to tolerate the anxiety that will be inherent in it. As long as you continue to balance the risks involved against your desired outcome and who you are as a person your anxiety will begin to dissipate. Then instead of holding yourself back you will empower yourself to move forward.

© Emma Wortt of Em-powering Executives, 2008. All Rights Reserved.
Em-powering Executives help leaders and their teams to achieve excellence through executive coaching and training. To receive similar articles direct to your inbox, you can subscribe to the FREE monthly Em-powering Executives newsletter at http://www.em-poweringexecutives.co.uk

5 Smart Steps to Changing Careers

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1085291_taj_mahalA new year is when many people ask themselves, is it time to change careers? People in this generation will change jobs more often than in any previous generation, and fewer jobs are offering the kind of security enjoyed by our parents.

Sometimes changing careers means going to work for yourself. Indeed, one study by economists at Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin found that people who change careers to work for themselves feel more secure in their self-employment than those who work for others.

More than 30 million workers in the United States today are self-employed or own their own businesses. So changing careers is not just limited to changing employers; it also can be about making your new boss yourself.

Whether you want to work for someone else, work in a different field or become self-employed, following an action plan and organizing your step-by-step progress will help you make a smoother, more productive transition.

Here are five smart tips that will help you reach your goal:

1. Create an Action Plan. Pro-active steps can put you in charge of your career, instead of the high stress than comes with not being in control of your own destiny. If you are unhappy with your job, and find that you cannot make changes that will allow you to be happier at your job, then decide right now to change jobs, and get started on your action plan. Create a chart on paper. Give yourself a week to research career change options. Ask yourself, what am I truly interested in doing in my work and in my life? During week two, whittle down your findings to one or two potential careers that fit your goals. Then, “go deep” during the third week exploring the advantages and disadvantages of each. Next, start looking, and chart your progress each week to keep yourself on track.

2. Network. Networking still is the most powerful way to find a rewarding job. If you are changing careers, then change your professional networks to zero in on the career you really want. Invest in a membership at your local chamber of commerce, and join committees or subgroups related to your next career, not your current one.

3. Integrate your Lifestyle Goals. Don’t just think about changing careers; think about how you can reach your lifestyle goals, incorporating your career change. For example, if you want to spend more time with your family, consider changing to a career that might pay less, but provides the priceless dividend of time. If you want to be healthier, consider changing to a career that does not force you to sit at a desk for 10 hours a day. It’s ultimately more rewarding to downsize your budget to accommodate a lower-paying, but less stressful job, than to shorten your life with an unhealthy career.

4. Enlist a Coach. Enlist an outside coach to help you integrate your lifestyle goals you’re your career search.

5. Organize. To change careers, you must organize your time to allow you one hour each day to focus on your career change. Make a schedule and stick to it, creating one hour each day to devote to career research, networking, to your coach or to other tasks you have outlined in your action plan. Simplify chores, meals and other responsibilities to create this extra hour in your day.

Always appreciate fresh new marketing and branding tips to drive your business several steps forward? Tap Ruth Klein’s expertise at trend tracking, time saving advice with advice that can grow your business. http://tinyurl.com/2dopf6

What is Success? – Only You Can Decide!

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963086_chileLook in any bookstore and you can find hundreds of books claiming to contain the secrets of success. And each has some valuable insights to pass on. But I see too many people who are using other people’s standards to quantify their success. Anyone using other people’s definitions of success is in danger of either being unable to attain the heights set for them by others, or else being left unsatisfied by a specific achievement because it really doesn’t fit with their own deep seated (and possibly unexplored) wants and needs.

Everyone has a different vision of what success is. The ingredients and the recipe simply cannot be found in other people’s experiences. Having said that, there are skills we can learn which will help us determine what our true ambitions in life are, and how we can best achieve them.

Reading the biography of someone we look up to might inspire us. Being exposed to a high-achiever’s “go-getter” attitude can make us realize that we are capable of having, being and doing more than we previously thought possible.

It is so important to give yourself time to read. Not just work-related “information” stuff, or, heaven forbid, a newspaper (you’ll rarely find anything very inspirational there). Allow yourself the time to read a self-help book that appeals to you. Just don’t become a self-help book addict! You see, the answers to your life questions are inside you – maybe deep inside, buried in your subconscious. A good self-help book just helps you realize which questions you need to ask yourself, and then how to work out the answers.


It’s the unasked questions which are responsible for making you feel uncomfortable or incomplete, or restless. Once you have your question (where do I want to go?), you are in a position to work on the answer (the destination).

Any self-help book should be seen as a guide, not an action plan. One way to view a guide is as a map with all the roads, rivers, mountains and points of interest clearly marked. You can choose where to travel, and how. Lets say you choose to go in your car. Along the way, you might have to take a detour or follow a dirt track for a while – but you are making progress, albeit in a round about way. Your guide (the map), shows you alternative routes. You just refer to it as and when you need it. An action plan can be seen more like a train journey. There is a list of possible destinations, but these are limited, since not everywhere has a railway station. Once you get on the train, the journey is out of your hands. You are simply taken along according to the timetable. You are subject to whatever delays the train may encounter – and you are no longer in control of how you get to your destination. Your only option in this “action plan” analogy is – you can get off the train. You then have to try a different method to get where you want to go. But the action plan is now redundant. So, taking the view that a self help book is only a guide – not an action plan – ensures you create your own definition of success – and that you achieve it on your own terms!

Brendan McKeogh believes that success is as individual as each one of us. Although different for everyone, it involves enjoying the best of the situation we find ourselves in today, while striving for better tomorrow. He offers free success resources (including a report and a complimentary chapter from his latest book based on Orison Swett Marden’s work) at http://www.mardenskeystosuccess.com

Mini Marketing Action Plans

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1190309_dangerous_womanMost small business owners do not have marketing plans. This means that their marketing tends to be inconsistent, ineffective and inefficient.

Some service professionals do have marketing plans for their business, but fail to actually put it into practice. This really isn’t much better than having no plan!

The secret to consistently marketing your services and products is to have what I call a “Marketing Action Plan”. A plan saves you time and money, brings in more prospects and clients, helps you keep customers, and helps you run a successful and profitable business.


As soon as someone mentions anything with the word “plan” in it, business owners usually cringe and most run for the hills! Marketing action plans do not have to be laborious and minutely detailed. In fact, if it’s too complicated, none of us will follow it.

Creating a marketing action plan and putting it into practice daily does require some thinking, time and commitment. However, it doesn’t have to be the overwhelming task that many business owners fear.

I strongly believe that the way to tackle anything that appears to be too big and unwieldy is to break it down into smaller steps or chunks. The same applies to a marketing action plan – break it down into individual mini marketing action plans.

Marketing encompasses several different areas and corresponding activities – each of which can have a mini marketing plan built around it. Examples of areas are: publicity, public speaking, publishing articles, referral, joint venture, direct mail, promotional, advertising, internet (website, ezine, blog), automated email communication, networking, social media, and so on.

Each of these marketing areas can be looked at as a mini plan – with action-oriented steps and activities for you to follow.

Here’s a simple and quick process to create your marketing action plan, by completing several mini plans:

1. take a blank piece of paper and draw a line down the center

2. write “Marketing Areas” on the left hand side

3. write “Action Steps” on the right hand side

4. list the marketing areas you want to focus on down the left column – leaving a few lines between each one

5. in the right column write your overall goal for each category

6. list each action step needed to achieve your marketing goals

7. put dates against each action step

8. transfer these dates into your Outlook, PDA or wall calendar

9. put the completed marketing action plan somewhere visible and DO IT!

To give you a better idea, below is an example of a couple mini marketing action plans:

Marketing Category: Publicity

Goal: send out a monthly press release

Action Steps:

* identify online press release services

* identify online and offline publications/newspapers that appeal to my target group

* find out the necessary contact information of publications

* figure out newsworthy stories or business events (product or service launch, new location, special event, etc.) and write a press release

* submit one press release each month using online and offline avenues

* keep track of whether or not your press releases are run

Marketing Category: Networking

Goal: attend a weekly networking event

Action Steps:

* choose a couple groups or associations that appeal to your target market

* look into ways that you can be a part of these networking groups: volunteer on board, host meetings, help out with newsletter, attend monthly breakfast meetings, etc.

* identify key contacts in each group and develop strong connections with them

* send out at least one thank you card to someone you meet at each meeting/event

* schedule time in your schedule after each networking event to do any follow up phone calls, send out materials and put contact details into your prospect database (or get your Virtual Assistant to do it)

The next steps would be to assign dates for completion for each marketing action step and transfer these into whatever system you use to keep track of your to-do lists and daily/weekly activities.

Start with about 4 – 6 mini marketing action plans and once you’ve got these up and running smoothly, then start adding additional marketing activities one at a time. Or you can also make each mini plan more comprehensive by adding additional goals.

For example, your internet mini marketing plan could consist of several goals like: do 2 blog postings each week, create and build a subscription list for an online ezine, add 4 new articles to your website monthly, and so on.

Remember, the idea is to do your marketing consistently and easily – so make sure you keep the number of mini plans manageable and be sure to take action on the steps you’ve identified. This is the only way that you’ll continue to get new and returning clients on an ongoing basis, and ensure success and sales.

Jody Gabourie, The Small Business Marketing Coach, delivers simple, innovative and powerful marketing strategies to help business owners find and keep their most profitable clients. To learn more about how she can help you take your business to the next level, and to sign up for her FREE special report, ezine and articles, visit her site at http://www.JodyGabourieMarketingCoach.com

Photo: Scott Snyder