Practical Ways to Boost Your Performance in 2020

By Liza Vasquez ICF CMC and Jeffrey F. Silber MBA CMC

Certified Master Business and Life Coaches
 

Most people who make New Year’s Resolution find that they make the same promises to themselves year after year. As life and business coaches, our clients have asked us for a set of guidelines to use as we enter 2020. We put our heads together and put together came up with this list of practical things you can do to make this new year spectacular for yourself.

We found that our thinking was very similar in many instances to that of Dale Carnegie and what he wrote 84 years ago. After all, human interaction and human nature itself have not changed in thousands of years.

To the extent possible, please follow these guidelines in your professional and personal life in 2020; and at the end of the year, let us know how your life has improved as a result. We hope that when 2021 arrives, these habits you no longer have to think about.

Protect Your Health

Don’t burn yourself out – relax before you get tired

Learn to relax at work by doing your work and not worrying about it. Does worrying help any situation?

Put into practice these good work habits:

· Clear your desk of all papers not related to what you are working on in that moment

· Not everything can be both Urgent and Important at the same time. Learn to prioritize and work on the most important matter first. If a matter is Urgent, that does not necessarily make it important. Prioritize!

· Do not put off solving an important problem. Face it right away and take a decision

· You cannot do everything by yourself. Learn the art of effective delegation and supervision

· Remember ‘multitasking’ is an Urban Legend, created by a Marketing person. Complete one task after another.

Protect your health at all costs!

How to be a Better Leader

Begin with praise of honest appreciation

Praise the slightest improvement and every improvement

Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing others

Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly – let the other person save face

Be generous with your praise

Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to

Make faults seem easy to overcome

Make the other person happy about doing the things you suggest

Offer challenges

How to Influence People

Don’t criticize or complain – it only makes you look bad

Give honest sincere appreciation

Get others to want to do their best and a desire to succeed

Become genuinely interested in other people

In any language, a person/s name is the sweetest sound (but don’t over do it)

Be a good listener, get other people to talk about themselves

Get the other person to do 80% of the talking (as often as possible)

Talk about the other people’s interests

Make the other person feel important

The best way to win an argument is to avoid it

Respect other people’s opinions, never say “You’re wrong!”

If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically

Begin in a friendly way

Smile

Get the other person to say “Yes” to something as quickly as you can

Let the other person believe the idea was theirs

You don’t have to agree, but try hard to see things and understand things from the other person’s point of view

Be sympathetic with other people’s ideas and desires

Appeal to the other person’s nobler motives

Illustrate your ideas with stories

How to stop worrying in 2020

How to face trouble:

· Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?”

· Then be prepared to accept the worst outcome

· Try to improve on the worst outcome

· Keep in mind the damage to your health that excessive worry can have

Analyzing your worries:

· Get all the facts

· Weigh the facts and come to a decision

· Once you reach a decision, act!

· Write out the answers to these questions:

· What is the problem?

· What are the causes of the problem?

· What are the possible solutions?

 Break the Habit of Worrying Before it Breaks You

Keep busy

Don’t bother with unimportant things

Use the law of probability to analyze your worries

Go with the flow of the inevitable

Decide how much worry a particular problem is worth, and don’t give it any more than that

The past cannot be changed, so don’t bother worrying about

Instead, concern yourself with the actions you can take

Mark Twain said, “I've lived through some terrible things in my life, most of which never actually happened.”

 Create a Mental Attitude That Will Bring You Happiness and Peace

Fill your mind with positive thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope

Never squander your energy trying to get even with an enemy

People will likely be ungrateful – expect it and don’t let it disappoint you.

Count your blessings not your troubles

Be an original, do not copy anyone but pattern your life after someone you admire

Learn from your mistakes, profit from your losses

Find happiness for yourself and bring happiness to others

Pray as if everything depends on God but act as if everything depends on you

Don’t worry about criticism

Don’t concern yourself with what other people think of you – it is what you think of yourself that really matters

Moreover, unjustified criticism is a compliment based in envy

You cannot do any more than the best you can, just be sure you are doing the best you can

We are looking forward to hearing from you at the end of 2020 about the improvements in your personal and professional life that you have observed and experienced. Good luck.

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