Just as it was time to head over to the train, it decided to pour ice cold rain and lucky for me, the venue was about 5 city blocks away from the train station. Needless to say, I made a great decision wearing my rain coat, although a hood would’ve been nice too.

No matter, I braved the horrific (a little exaggeration) weather and finally got to the conference room where the book tour was being held.

Low and behold, after some much needed HOT coffee and warm pastries, we all took a seat to hear Dan Heath talk about the amazing concepts in his new book Switch.

All I gotta say is wow. I took about 4 pages of notes without any fluff and left with a copy of the book. More importantly, I left with a framework of what it takes to change your behavior and the tools needed to overcome the obsticles to change.

I even managed to sneak in a question during the Q & A session which was “What strategies can you offer to make a lasting change once the emotional experience ends?”

At first you may not quite understand my question, but one of the premises of making a switch or making a change is that facts alone are not enough to cause change, but emotions are.

He added that getting engaged for marriage is an event that is almost completely based on emotional decisions rather than logical ones.

Let me just tell you that if the short talk with the author was any indication of the quality of the book (as well as their previous book Made To Stick), Switch may become a MUST READ book for many social circles, especially business people.

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This short 4 word statement is one of the main culprits of killing dreams (yeah, its not your spouse as you may have thought) .

You see, there are usually a couple universal excuses that people use to get themselves out of committing to their goals in life.  They include the lack of money, not having a good support group, they’ve previously failed in other ventures, and they don’t have time.

Of all the excuses, the lack of time has got to be the worst one. You see, anyone who has achieved amazing things in life have something in common with those who don’t; the same 24 hour days and the identical 7 days a week. Yes, we all have the same exact time to do what we want in life.

So, wth that reality in our face, its time to talk about the real issue behind not having enough time. Its not a matter of time, its a matter of priority.

No one can ever manage time but everyone can control their priorities. This is what’s imporant, isn’t it. If you are married, time doesn’t stop when you are with your spouse,you simply decide to make them a priority over other things. I know I do.

When you have children, things don’t automatically remove themselves from your life. You simply make your children a priority over other things that aren’t important anymore. So you see, its not a matter of how much time you have but what you do with your time that matter.

How can you better manage your priorities you may ask. Its quite simple. Here are three quick steps to get started.

1. Identify your real priorities - most people live on default simply living every day as it comes. However, highly successful people live life on purpose and only do what’s most important.  Decide what’s most important to you so you can come up with a game plan.

2. Set SPECIFIC time apart for your priorities- if family is a priority, “burn it” in your calendar, meaning make a standing appointment to accomplish that. If businessis important, block out some time to be productive in business. You now have your priorities worked out so now make time for it. 

3. Do a weekly review every week- this should only take about 15 minutes in the weekend but its important to reflect how you did making time for your priorities. This time of reflection is perhaps the most important part since you’ll be able to see if you’ve committed to what’s important, and if not, adjust for the following week.

So what do you think? Is this doable. Believe me when I tell you that this has the potential to change your life and the lives of those around you. Each of your areas of priority wil be much better for it!

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As they prepared their lunch, they noticed that they forgot the salt at home. As they were discussing the options, finally one of the turtles decided to make the trip all the way home to get the salt so they could enjoy their fulfilling meal.

20 minutes past by and nothing. No sign of the turtle. Then came the 30 minute mark, then 40, and finally an hour went by and still no sign of the turtle. Finally, the turtle who stood back decided to eat his portion so he could get back to work.

As soon as he took the first bite, from behind a bush, the other turtle appeared and said “Aha, I got you. I knew you would eat without me, so I stood here waiting to catch you!”

So there you have it. A beautiful story of friendship and… FEAR!!!

You guessed it, the most offensive 4 letter word is FEAR. (What did you think it would be?)

In the story, the second turtle decided to hide in fear that the first would eat the lunch all by himself. The ironic part was the the first turtle did end up eating by himself because the second turtle was paralyzed by fear and decided not to go at all.

He never came back with the salt because he really never left. He was stuck wondering the worst thing that could happen if he actually left.

And now I ask you, what has fear done to paralyze you in your business and your life? Does it seem like bad things keep happening in your life over and over again because you’re too afraid to change your circumstances?

If so, don’t worry, you’re not alone. We all go through it from time to time, but that’s exactly how we must handle it every time, by going THROUGH IT, not staying IN IT!

Take some time today to dig deep inside and break out of the fear that has kept you from being who you’ve dreamed of becoming. I believe in you and so do more people than you probably realize.

Are you going for the salt in order to enjoy the pleasure it brings or will you stay hiding in a bush out of fear? The choice is yours!

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Let’s think about the benefits:

1. You can either generate a source of income if you’re currently unemployed, another source of income to supplement what you have coming in now or replace your current income altogether.

2. You give others an opportunity to see your success and want to do it themselves.

3. You begin living the dream that you’ve had in your heart and mind for all those years.

The truth is, your business will take time and effort, and above all, a lot of work. However, if you start with the little you can now, you’ll be closer each and every day to the work you love.

Be sure to leave a comment here and tell me what you can start doing today to begin working on your new business?

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