Welcome to the August 2008 edition of Clearing Your Roadblocks To Success.

A short one message August E-Newsletter.

Get ready now to hit the ground running right after Labor Day.

Rather than wasting the final lazy days of summer away and feeling like your hair is on fire while you are shot out of a canon right after Labor Day, click the links below for some ideas to help you coast towards December 31, 2008 knowing that you are going to win.

Enjoy the read.

This edition of the E-Newsletter Includes:

• Nonsense to Try to Move Ahead
• How Can We Sleep When Our Beds Are Burning?
• Before The Labor Day Bell Tolls

Click Clean Up Those Files And Put Up Those Shelves for an example of how we are walking our talk and getting ready for Labor Day.

Click As A Result Of The Practice Of ... for an example of the work that we are doing to delegate everything we can to complete our product development that includes the book, book publishing, show reel and web site.

Nonsense to Try to Move Ahead

Coaching calls are finished for the week and what a week it was! I’ve been full on since Tuesday without my usual Monday planning day because we were on holiday last week which included Monday. So I’m investing the balance of Friday into emptying my head into MS Excel to get on top of all of my active calendar items, e-mails from associates and friends, documents, files, ideas, journalings, notes, projects, routine items and to-dos so that I can sort them by category, prioritize them and then schedule them for action if need be. I’m using this system to bail me out because I have been sacrificing my organizational time to keep up with writing the book and workbook drafts which are now complete.

I find that when my mind is full of ideas all of it seems to be an A priority.

This process will allow me to get back to work next week on the six business building projects that we are working on.

It is nonsense to try to move ahead when my mind is swimming with loose ends.

1. Hire a book architect / designer
2. Print the book
3. Update our web site copy to match the book and workbook
4. Update our show reel to match the book and workbook
5. Publish an entrepreneurial version of the book and workbook
6. Hire a viral marketing contractor

Have a great weekend.

How Can We Sleep When Our Beds Are Burning?

Weekends off is a strong rule for me which I broke over the weekend and I did the deed on Saturday and Sunday mornings of cleaning up my office which included going through my active calendar items, e-mails from associates and friends, documents, files, ideas, journalings, notes, projects, routine items and to-dos. Notice there are no sticky notes which I did away with years ago :-) .

While I’m acknowledging that I pushed off everything including keeping myself organized save for providing my clients with top level service to complete writing the book and workbook, it took its toll and I had loads of loose ends that were distracting and draining.

On top of it all and in the middle of one of my book weeks my main computer fried from a power surge even though I had two surge protectors. Now I have three new ones :-) .

Sometimes you have to make a decision to take the time to lead your business and yourself because if you don’t have a vision then someone else will and you will not like it. At the same time you will likely feel completely overwhelmed and you will not like that either.

Midnight Oil’s song ““How Can We Sleep When Our Beds Are Burning”” comes to mind when I ask;

How can you walk out of your business on a Friday night when your business is disorganized looking for some sort of coping mechanism on the weekend so that you can forget about your business only to walk right back into the fire on Monday morning?

Before The Labor Day Bell Tolls

The last two weeks of August and the last two weeks before Labor Day are approaching just before the bell tolls for everyone to get back to their regular work schedule.

While your client's expectations are not as high and many of your clients are grasping for the last few days of the summer, take the time now so that they can hit the ground running in September heading towards the finish line of December 31, 2008 knowing they are going to win.

1. Review your calendar and to-do lists, ID the life and death appointments and actions, the ones that are musts and urgent, schedule them into one or two days for completion re-schedule the non life and death appointments and actions to create the space, two to three days to clear your mind.
2. Clear your mind using the technique that I talked about in Nonsense To Try To Move Ahead.
3. Pretend that it is December 31, 2008 and look back at all areas of your business life and personal life and ask what would have to have happened in order for you to feel truly satisfied with your progress and how does this make you feel. With this in mind, write out your September - December goals and action steps for each category of your business and personal life.
4. Enjoy the rest of the summer knowing that you are going to have a winning September - December!