Dawna Stone

If you’ve ever thought, “There must be more to life than this,” you’re not alone but simply desiring something more or better isn’t enough. Positive change only comes with action. Things begin to happen when you make them happen. It sounds simple, because it is simple. If you push ahead, the effort you put forth will begin the forward motion needed to capture success. You’ll notice I said “capture.” Success isn’t going to find you just because you want it. It’s not going to seek you out just because you’re a good person. It’s going to happen when you desire it, believe you deserve it and, most importantly, act upon it.

You have the power to succeed because you possess the power of choice and the power of action. It’s up to you which direction you want to move; it’s up to you to make it happen. You can alter your life by simply moving forward, and I’m not necessarily talking about making a huge shift. Even small, simple actions can make a major difference in your life, finances, relationships, happiness and overall success.

BONUS: 7 Secrets to Your Best Life!
Click Here.

How do you make it happen? We all have the ability of turning something mediocre into something great; we must do only two things—develop a plan and follow it. Creating a plan is the easy part; acting upon it is where most people get stuck.

Early on in my career, I felt so stuck that I not only experienced emotions of despair, but also those of immense hopelessness. I worked at a job that I very much disliked, and I spent four years being miserable. I wanted to do something else and dreamed of finding a job I loved, yet I didn’t do anything about it. Every day I would wake up and drag myself to my job. Why? Why would I spend four years of my life doing something I didn’t want to do? I look back now and wonder why I wasted all that time, when all I needed was to implement a plan and act on it. Like most people, I was waiting for positive change to find me rather than creating a proactive strategy to go after it.

When I finally decided I’d had enough, I devised a plan for getting a new job that involved updating my resume, researching industries and companies that interested me, writing a cover letter, putting together a list of contacts, etc. The amazing thing was just how simple it was to make that plan. It took less than a week for me to gather all the pieces so that I could start making calls and arranging interviews. The simple act of moving forward in the right direction landed me my dream job in a completely different industry—in the city where I wanted to live.

Because the plan of looking for a new job and the act of actually reaching out and making meetings proved so easy, I often wonder why I didn’t begin sooner. Stop waiting for change to find you. Go out, and make change happen.

Where do you feel stuck in your life? Where would you like to see change take place? Do you want to improve your relationship with you boyfriend or girlfriend, your spouse or your kids? Do you want to build stronger friendships? Do you want a new job, or do you want to start your own company? Do you want to make more money and have more freedom to do the things you love? No matter what you’re looking for and regardless of how stuck you may feel right now, make a plan. Sit down right now and write out a list of three to five things you could do that would move you in the right direction. Then under each item, write what necessary action can make that happen.

Don’t wait for success to find you, go get it!

P.S. My new book You Can Have A Better Life: 21 Secrets to Getting the Life You Desire—Full of Significance, Joy and Purpose is now available! See it HERE.

Don’t let fear and doubt hold you back. Fear can so easily derail your opportunities for success. Overcoming our fears and learning to take risks can open doors to unlimited possibilities and help you realize your ultimate potential.

BONUS: 7 Secrets to Your Best Life!
Click Here.

The first step involves being aware of your fears, acknowledging them and drilling down into the worst-case scenario possible. Often our fear and the potential outcome causing that fear don’t match up. That is, our level of fear far outweighs what we’re scared of. What’s the worst thing that can happen?

Now if you’re talking about climbing Mount Everest during a bad storm, your fears are likely warranted. But if your fear is keeping you from speaking at an industry conference, your fear factor probably outweighs any potential negative outcome. What’s the worst that can happen? Even if you don’t do a stellar job, you’ll most likely learn from the experience and know how to do a better job next time.

You need to connect your fear to the potential negative outcome and then put your fear into perspective.

Every single time I’ve been scared to do something but did it anyway, I either learned something amazing or moved my career forward.

In 2006, I was given another amazing opportunity. I was offered an hour-long radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio. The show, “Health and Fitness Talk with Dawna Stone,” was a live talk show that included guest interviews and answering listeners’ questions. I was so excited about the opportunity; I mean, how often do you get offered your own radio show, right? But then fear set in once again, and the negative self-talk began. “I don’t know how to do a live radio show!” “How am I going to have enough to talk about?” “What if I can’t get any expert guests to come on the show?” And so on and so on.

Thankfully, I conjured up the inner strength to really take a hard look at my options. I could turn down this amazing opportunity and play it safe, or I could just commit and do my best. I thought about the worst-case scenario. If I froze on-air or, even worse, wasn’t any good at the role, I would be no worse off. But if I gave it a shot, enjoyed it and actually thrived, I’d have an amazing experience.

When I arrived at Sirius for my first show, I felt sick to my stomach. I actually thought I might throw up in the hall waiting to go on-air. But just as I was getting ready to enter the studio, Howard Stern came walking down the hall toward me. He stopped, introduced himself and said, “You don’t look so well.” I told him it was my first show and I was nervous and extremely nauseous. Howard then shared that, during his very first show, he was so nervous that he threw up in the studio.

Now, I’m not sure if he was telling the truth or simply trying to make me feel better; either way, it worked. A few minutes later I was in the studio, the red “on-air” light went on, and I had the time of my life. The nerves vanished and everything just flowed. My guests were fabulous, the listeners were engaged and calling in with great questions, and my producer made the entire hour run smoothly.

BONUS: 7 Secrets to Your Best Life!
Click Here.

I look back now and think about how fear could have easily kept me from experiencing something amazing. Although I’m sure Howard wouldn’t even recognize me if we met again, I still believe that his little anecdote, true or not, helped me put things into perspective. What’s the worst thing that could happen? I could throw up like Howard did—so what!

Don’t let unfounded fears hold you back from opportunities that can impact your life in a positive way. Don’t let your fears rob you of an incredible experience that could catapult your career or simply bring joy to your life.

P.S. My new book You Can Have A Better Life: 21 Secrets to Getting the Life You Desire—Full of Significance, Joy and Purpose is now available! See it HERE.

I used to thing I had to do it all to be successful, but success came when I focused on what mattered most. If you’re like me, you may feel overwhelmed at times. There always seem to be so much to do and so little time to get it all done.

In order to get more done, I used to buy into the multitasking concept. I figured the more I could do at once, the more I would accomplish. But the opposite actually happened, the more I loaded onto my plate, the less I got done—and the more stressed I became.

BONUS: 7 Secrets to Your Best Life!
Click Here.

We try to do it all, but we end up doing it all poorly and poor execution doesn’t equate to the desired outcome we’re hoping for or the success we are striving for.

When I started focusing on what mattered most I didn’t stop doing important tasks, I just learned how to focus my attention on the things that mattered most and purge the unimportant tasks that were consuming most of my day.

I learned to work smarter rather than longer or harder and I learned to work on a few things—the things that would catapult my success rather than on a laundry list of things that didn’t get me any closer to my goals.

It’s not easy to refocus and shift gears as we’ve all been taught that doing more is good. In fact, you may feel a little anxiety at first as you let go of some of the items on your list. But lets be honest, most of us have items on our to do list that have been collecting virtual dust for weeks, months or even years. Isn’t it time we take those items off our list?

I can tell you from experience, that taking items off our list immediately reduces stress. If you’re like me however, no matter how long something has been on the list, you may feel uneasy about getting rid of it. Here’s a little hack that can help. Simply build another list called: Items I may or may not return to in the future. This way, you won’t lose the task but it also won’t be weighing you down. You can then simply review the list every few months or as needed (or not at all).

We are all extremely busy and unimportant tasks often take over our lives causing us to waste valuable time. We are constantly overwhelmed and our life is overflowing with trivial tasks, unimportant conversations and unproductive activities. So it becomes important for us to look at everything we want to accomplish and decide what matters to us.

Focusing on what’s important can immensely improve our lives. So how do you determine what matters most? Start by looking at all the things you want to achieve and but together a list, if you don’t already have one.

Then take your list and go through a series of four simple steps to ensure you’re focusing on what matters most:

1. Prioritize
2. Eliminate
3. Delegate
4. Schedule

Prioritize

Prioritization is key to focusing on the things that matter most. Far too many little and insignificant tasks creep into our day causing us to waste minutes if not hours. This wasted time keeps us from achieving the more important tasks that can truly make a positive impact on our lives.

If we can prioritize our tasks, we can free ourselves up for what matters most.

Eliminate

Not only is it important to prioritize everything you have on your to-do list, but it’s important to take items off your list that won’t improve your life or the life of someone around you.

Many of us have items on our to-do list that have been on there for so long that they are collecting virtual dust. These long-standing to-do’s only cause us undo stress. Take a good look at your to-do list and ask yourself these three questions:

1. Will this task or project improve my life?
2. Will this task or project help me achieve my end goal (one that matters)?
3. If I don’t complete this task or project now, will it negatively affect my life?

Go through every one of the items on your to-do list and ask your self these three questions. If you answer yes to any of them, then keep the item on your to-do list but if you answer no to all of them, remove the item from you list. If eliminating items from your list makes you feel anxious then file that to-do item in a separate list as mentioned above.

Delegate

Once you’ve prioritized your list and eliminated those items that were unimportant and didn’t add any value to your life, review the remaining items on the list and determine if someone other than you can do any of them. That is, see which ones you may be able to delegate to someone else. Can your spouse, sibling, friend or co-worker do it for you? Then start delegating and free up your time for the activities that matter most.

Schedule

Research shows that people tend to do the simple, unimportant tasks first and save the more time consuming or difficult ones for last. The issue is that there is never enough time to get every thing done so those more important tasks never get accomplished and we spend our days, weeks and years focused on the unimportant items on our list.

If you’ve done a good job prioritizing, eliminating and delegating, you should have very few if any unimportant items left on your list. But even so, tackle the items that matter most first to ensure you get them done. More over, if we do the things that matter most when we are still fresh, i.e. first thing, we will be able to give them the focus and attention they deserve.

Try spending your first hour or two every day working on what matters most—before you check email, social media, texts or return calls. Don’t do anything that might distract you. Instead focus all your attention on accomplishing your goals. You’ll be amazed how one or two hours each day (which you would have spent working anyways) can be the impetus to achieving all your dreams.

Schedule your most important tasks into your calendar just like you would an important meeting. For example every day from 8am to 10am or 9am to 11am set aside for “What Matters Most” and get specific. For me, I spend my first two hours of every day on my writing. I know from experience that if I open my email, I won’t accomplish my most important to-dos so I’ve made it a habit to not open my email or answer my phone until my scheduled writing time is over.

Time is fixed so how do we make time for everything? You don’t! The only way to make the most of the time we have and to focus on what matters most is to prioritize what needs to get done, eliminate those items that don’t, delegate when we can and schedule it in our day.

In his bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren says, “You become effective by being selective. It is usually meaningless work, not overwork, that wears us down, saps our strength and robs our joy.” He goes on to say, “If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Stop dabbling. Stop trying to do it all. Do less.”

Are you dabbling? Are you trying to do it all? Become selective and find success and joy by doing what matters most!

BONUS: 7 Secrets to Your Best Life!
Click Here.

To Your Best Life,

Dawna