Doing more with less by Nigel Buxton
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July 2005
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What to do now? Discovery Book
Dear Nigel,
If you are reading this then you want "more" from
your life. Maybe you are one of the many people
today who are feeling under pressure. Work is
becoming more demanding. And that demand is being
met by just working harder. It cannot go on this
way.
And it does not have to.
Are you one of those people who is good at your job
and respected for your contribution, but you know
you can do more, and you want to?
Have you established a pattern in your life (the work,
the family, the things you do and where you go) and
you have dreams (goals which do not yet have a
time
schedule) that you want to realize?
Here is your personal complimentary Discovery Book.
It is designed to help you to look at what you
can do for yourself to really make a
difference to your life and what you
make of it.
These are the areas covered in this Discovery Book:-
- being more active doing the important things;
- being more at ease with yourself at work;
- being more charismatic in getting your message
across;
- being more able at setting right goals and
deciding the right-sized steps;
- being more motivated for growing to your full
potential.
Working on these areas will make you live your life
more the way you want.
For best results print this Discovery Book
out. And when you have about half an hour to
one hour free quiet time read through this book. Take
your time: this may be one of the important moments
in your life when you allow some new perspectives to
arise. Enjoy discovering what would give you more
fulfilment in your life.
Kind regards,
nigel
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What more can you do? |
Being more active doing the important things |
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The first step is to decide what is important. It helps
to have a goal you are working towards. Then you do
what takes you towards that destination (or is it a
milestone?)
More success in doing important things comes when
they are not limited to one area of your life (work or
money), but all the areas of your life are taken into
account (work, money, family, relationship, health,
social life, spiritual life, home etc.).
If you decide to do more work-related important
things, and you focus only on that - you may find
that you are just working more, and actually
sacrificing time from another area of your life - your
exercise time, for example.
Which are the six most important areas of your
life?
* For each area of your life give a score from 1 –
10 which indicates your current level of satisfaction
(1 is low: 10 is the max.).
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What does being comfortable with yourself mean? |
Being more at ease with yourself at work |
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Every company has its own culture. The culture is a
collection of common beliefs, traditions, and
procedures which reflect the values of the company.
The culture is unique to each company. How you like
your job depends to a large degree on whether you
chose to work at a company with a culture
compatible with your personality.
Many people in companies find that there are some
elements of their job that they cannot handle, that
cause them anxiety and stress. It can be, for
example, leading meetings, speaking in public (or to a
gathering) or dealing with conflict.
In many cases people believe that if they changed
jobs everything would be different. Is it possible that
they would just take their issue to a new workplace?
Have you thought what issues you could work on
that would make you more at ease with yourself at
work?
Write down three areas you could work on so
that you would be more at ease with yourself at
work.
* For each of the three areas give a score from
1 –
10 which indicates your current situation (1 means it
is time to do something: 10 means it is not an issue
of concern).
Hint: the challenge is to be at ease working with
others.
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How do you become influential? |
Being more charismatic in getting your message across |
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Charisma is one of those things you cannot be given,
you create it for yourself. You can believe charisma is
a gift you are born with. You can also decide that
you want the characteristics that make someone
charasmatic, and you work to develop those qualities.
Having charisma will facilitate achieving the goals for
your domain, while acknowledging your
interdependence with other domains and contributing
to the greater common good.
Let me explain. Each of us has a domain where we
have some responsibility and some influence. There is
a hierarchy of domains, and even the President of the
United States has a higher domain (the Senate). The
responsibility of a domain is given to us (though we
can decide whether to take it or not). The influence,
though,
we have to create for ourselves.
The success of our domain will depend to a large
extent on the degree to which we can influence the
domains we come in contact with to support our
endeavours.
Charisma is a mixture of attractiveness – charm –
influence.
How can you be more attractive:
in two words you become more: authentic and
enthusiastic.
How to be more charming:
in two words you become more: positive and
open/friendly.
How to be influential:
in four words you beome more: caring, knowledgable,
communicative and visionary.
Is it starting to be seem a little more managable:
more "Yes, I can become more charismatic"?
* Where do you stand on these eight elements of
charisma? Give yourself a rating from 1 – 10 (1 means
a big opportunity for development: 10 means
mastered, better to spend time developing another
element).
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Decide what you want and do it! |
Being more able at setting right goals and deciding the right-sized steps |
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A famous study of Yale University graduates found
that, back in 1953, just 3% of the graduating class
had written down a set of goals for their lives. 20
years later a survey of the same group revealed that
the "goal setting" students were financially worth
more than the other 97% put together. This 3% also
had better relationships and enjoyed better health. It
was not parental wealth, degree subjects taken,
career selected, ethnic or gender base or any other
obvious factors that made the difference. The factor
that linked all these students was that they had set
clear goals.
"To begin with the end in mind means to start with a
clear understanding of your destination. It means to
know where you are going, so that you better
understand where you are now and so that the steps
you take are always in the right direction." – Stephen
Covey – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Without goals, you are drifting and when you drift,
you are not in control. If you are not in control, then
someone else is. You have relinquished your basic
right to shape your own future. In doing this, you
also surrender your freedom of action which restricts
your choices and can lead to frustration, anxiety,
fear and stress.
One of the principal reasons why people stop setting
goals is that they set goals that they do not achieve,
and then they give up. Edison made 10,000 trials
(failures) before he finally invented a light bulb. The
fear of being judged a failure is one of the most
common "brakes" people have which stop them from
persisting towards their goal.
Another difficulty with goals can be just getting
started. The goal can be absolutely right for you and
really challenging, but it is so big that you do not
know where to start. You get overwelmed by the
goal. It needs to be broken down into managable bite-
size chunks.
Do you have dreams that it is time to start planning?
* Do you have goals for your life that you are
working towards? Give yourself a score 1 – 10 (one is
for only dreams: 10 is for goals for all areas of your
life).
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What are you really capable of? |
Being more motivated for growing to your full potential |
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It is said that if a question includes the word "can",
then the answer is "Yes".
Can you say to yourself, "I can be or do anything
that I want"?
Do you have any limitations that are holding you
back – limiting beliefs that you are imposing on
yourself (for example: I am a movie actor, how could
I ever become President of the United States; or,
Success comes from sheer hard work; or, This is
what I know and do well)?
Do you have any situations that you believe you
would not be able to handle (for example: giving
awards to your salesmen in a full Wembley Stadium;
or, being without a job; or, taking some responsibility
for a EUR 10 million recall; or, turning your pet idea
into
a multi-million euro business)?
What is holding you back?
What do you believe is the full extent of your
potential?
* At what level do you believe you are operating
at now? Give yourself a score 1 – 10 (1 means at the
minimum: 10 means the max.)
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Nigel Buxton
Poljanski nasip 6
Ljubljana, 1104 SLOVENIA
(00386) 01-420-1524 : 031-674-924
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That has taken you through some pretty tough
questions. You should congratulate yourself on your
honesty and willingness to acknowledge things as
they are.
You may be saying to yourself that it is time for
change or that you want to have "more" out of your
life. You may be asking yourself, "Now what?",
or "Yes I want to do more but what can I do, how do
I start?"
The next step can be to look at Nigel's book, "Living
in Company – reflections on life in the corporate
world" which will give you more thought-provoking
perspectives. You can find the book at the website:
www.nigelbuxton.com.
Or, to talk to Nigel about the work
you want to do, without commitment, and in
complete confidentiality – call him on (+386) 031-
674-
924 or e-mail nb@nigelbuxton.com
Have you thought what it would be like to have
answered all the questions (*) above with a 9.5 or
even an 11??
Do you have an annoying little voice saying, "Can I
really have such high scores?"
Remember, if the question includes the word "can ",
then the answer is"YES".
This Discovery Book has been designed to give you
an indication of the areas where you might work to:
Do more with less
Nigel works with people in business who want to do
more with less – to make a greater contribution with
less effort – to be more themselves with less holding
them back.
Your feed-back on this Discovery Book is welcomed:
also any insights and new perspectives that you
would like to share – email: nb@nigelbuxton.com
If you were given this Discovery Book from a friend,
and you would like to receive your personal copy of
the weekly Nigel Buxton Update of ideas about how
to maximize your contribution at work, and what you
get out of it. Send an e-mail to nb@nigelbuxton.com
with "Subscribe" as the subject.
If you would like more information, call Nigel or
contact by e-mail.
This Discovery Book may be copied, reproduced or
freely distributed for all non-profit purposes without
the consent of the author as long as the author's
name, copyright notice and contact information are
included.
Copyright Nigel Buxton 2005
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