Last week, I blogged about stress and how it could be detrimental not just in work, but also in life. In relation to the workplace, stress can stem from many things, but personally I find that most of all – stress can come in the workplace from not being prepared. We’re all chasing success one way or another and in order to achieve our goals we must be ready for when our number is called.

Have you ever had a board meeting, certification training, a presentation for a potential client and were over-stressed because of not being prepared? I’m sure we can all relate. Speaking from experience, spreading yourself too thin and not staying organized can not only hurt yourself but the team too.

To always stay on top of things, first I suggest that you prioritize and create a to-do list. Only do what matters. Avoid busy work and going in all directions. Say no to stuff that won’t move the needle. In addition, make sure to have an objective. What is the end goal? Refuse to accept vague goals. Find 100% clarity, then execute.

Also, Never add new tasks in front of the queue, add them to the bottom. Complete what you are doing first. So that you can focus on the latter. You never want to overwhelm yourself with old tasks that should have been completed prior.

Everyone wants to have a career with a work-life balance. Make sure you stay organized by creating and managing your schedule in a calendar. Review each week ahead of time on Sunday so that you are prepared for the work week. Use time blocks for different types of calls, meetings, and even email, family time and workouts. By committing to your schedule it will give you a peace of mind knowing that each day your being as efficient and organized as possible. At times, something may come up that you have to attend to. Make sure to assess the situation or opportunity before making an impulsive decision. If it’s not on the calendar, don’t do it. Don’t assume that you will be working on something unless it is on your calendar.

Furthermore, don’t forget about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Take care of yourself, it’s very important. A healthy mind will bring forth great productivity. Take breaks during the day and use the weekends to relax and rejuvenate. Regular exercise is highly recommended. Block off exercise times on your calendar, commit to it –  or it won’t happen. Lastly, make sure you get enough sleep. Nothing is better than being rested for another work day with a good night’s sleep.

Hopefully you will find some of these tips useful. Feel free to add tips that worked for you in the comments section below.

Stay inspired.

Frank.

Another week has come, and another week is close to being complete. Have you accomplished your goals set for this week? I hope so! The other day I received a call from a good friend of mine regarding their stressful situation at work. Unfortunately for him, he brought that stress with him back home. Although that is always a bad idea, I can in fact relate.

Stress can be really hard to deal with, especially if other external factors in your life aren’t going too well. Stress can only make things worse if you let it build. Personally, I suggest never to bring stress from work home, but sometimes it can be really hard. We mostly spend most of our days at work and although we’d love for our stresses to go away the following day – in most cases, it won’t. Speaking from experience, I’ve been dealt with many different hands not just being an entrepreneur – but in life too.

One thing I always do is meditate. Believe me it helps. You never want to let those negative thoughts in your head build. So by meditating, and maintaining a clear mind by turning those negative thoughts into positive it definitely helps a lot! In addition, exercising has proven to be a great task to alleviate some stress off your back as well. If you don’t have a gym membership I suggest you get one. Maintaining a healthy body will only bring forth positive results for a healthy mind and soul. Working out will bring out your confidence and give you that added energy to get out of difficult situations.

Most of all, spend some time with the ones you love! I’m lucky to have a loving family and friends to vent my problems to and help me forget the issue at hand. Everything is temporary. Once you believe that, difficult and stressful situations will be easier to push through. One thing that’s allowed me to be successful today is the fact that I’ve always found a way to persevere. Although it wasn’t easy, these experiences definitely shaped me for the better. Never stress what you can’t control and always remember that tough times don’t last – people do.

Frank.

Have you ever been haunted by the past? I’m sure we all have! In most cases, always looking back at the past sometimes can hinder whatever is happening in the time being, thus effecting your future.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve experienced constant change and disappointment and sometimes it’s been tough to get out of a bad situation. I’ve learned that as best you can, you must allow yourself to become aware of your surroundings and stop beating yourself up. Smile. Congratulate yourself for becoming aware of what’s going on in your life and having made the decision to change or eliminate it.

Change is good, and at times can be for the better. You must be willing to adapt to change and learn how to persevere through the hard times, especially in business. Finally, ask yourself “What do I need to focus on to make this change easy?”  This will be a change in perspective for most people because we believe that habit change is hard.  It’s not necessarily hard as much as it is hard work. You have to put in an effort everyday. How else can you see immediate results?

I could give you a million suggestions but overall the most important thing is to listen to that internal voice that’s been bothering you to change something now, before it’s too late.  Don’t let regret for past actions or lack thereof hold you back from doing something today that will make life better for you and those who you care about. Always remember to forget about the past, control the now, so you can better dictate YOUR future.

Frank.

As we’re gearing towards the end of April, I cannot be more than excited for what May will bring for the Wish Group. Not only will the warmer month be exciting, but I’m very excited about the growth we’re having at the company! Last week we had our Spring Leadership meeting and it was such an amazing experience.

I had a chance to learn about our new hires, share the financial growth we’re having, and share some inspirational stories that have helped me grow as an entrepreneur and CEO. Some of the best advice I’ve learned early on was” “don’t try to be all things to all people, because it basically means you are not very good at any one thing.” By following this rule, I focused on doing one thing and doing it well before deciding to become a serial entrepreneur.

It is nearly impossible for a business to grow without intelligent, talented people. That’s why it’s been my focus to hire people who are smarter and talented than I am in other areas. I’m always looking for ways to improve our culture, our benefits, and the reasons why employees would want to keep working for us. I believe that many companies forget that true loyalty comes when employees believe that the organization and its leadership team care about them as a person and professionally.

More importantly, when you love what you do it shows to the people surrounding you every day in the office. I’m passionate about my work and career and I try my best to display this every day. Unfortunatly, there is no guarantee for business success. It takes a combination of strategy and creative thinking to ensure that a brand or business is successful.

So as you embark on another work week, ask yourself what motivates you? What is your 5 year plan to be successful? Are you currently happy where you are in life and your career? If you’re unhappy, what are you willing to do to change that? Always remember to never focus on another person’s accomplishments or what they have. Focus on YOU, learn from the best, stay motivated, keep positive and YOU will be successful.

Don’t forget to keep your eye on the prize.

Yours,
Frank.

While embarking on your career journey it always is very exciting at first, but as you know, when you grow – things change. It is very important to grow your career by maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

For those of you who don’t know the concept of work-life balance: work–life balance is a concept including proper prioritizing between “work” (career and ambition) and “lifestyle” (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation).

For example, a lot of people are having a more difficult time finding balance in their lives because there have been cutbacks or layoffs where they work or depending on the lifestyle you live, you need to maintain a full-time job to ensure you can pay off your monthly expenses.

A lot of my success has been due to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Here are some tips that I’ve listed to help:

1. Build downtime into your schedule: We all have millions of important tasks to complete on a daily basis. Make sure you do a great job by having some down time in the day. Take a break. It will relieve some stress and allow you to complete tasks with a clear mind.

2. Drop activities that sap your time or energy: Prioritizing is very important to ensure a successful work day. Drop activities that have no importance in your life, especially ones that take out most of your time and energy. Time is the most valuable currency. Remember that.

 3. Rethink your errands: We all have errands and tasks we must complete on a daily basis to do our job. Rethink your errands and prioritize and plan so you’re not wasting any time.

4. Get moving: You know that saying: “The early bird gets the worm?” Well get up and get moving! The more efficient and organized you are, the more free time you have to enjoy the free time you have!

5. Remember that a little relaxation goes a long way: Always remember. A little relaxation is better than no relaxation, but don’t relax too much! “Always make each day better than the last so your future can be better than the past!”

Have a great week.

Frank.

While embarking on your career journey it always is very exciting at first, but as you know, when you grow – things change. It is very important to grow your career by maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

For those of you who don’t know the concept of work-life balance: work–life balance is a concept including proper prioritizing between “work” (career and ambition) and “lifestyle” (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation).

For example, a lot of people are having a more difficult time finding balance in their lives because there have been cutbacks or layoffs where they work or depending on the lifestyle you live, you need to maintain a full-time job to ensure you can pay off your monthly expenses.

A lot of my success has been due to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Here are some tips that I’ve listed to help:

1. Build downtime into your schedule: We all have millions of important tasks to complete on a daily basis. Make sure you do a great job by having some down time in the day. Take a break. It will relieve some stress and allow you to complete tasks with a clear mind.

2. Drop activities that sap your time or energy: Prioritizing is very important to ensure a successful work day. Drop activities that have no importance in your life, especially ones that take out most of your time and energy. Time is the most valuable currency. Remember that.

 3. Rethink your errands: We all have errands and tasks we must complete on a daily basis to do our job. Rethink your errands and prioritize and plan so you’re not wasting any time.

4. Get moving: You know that saying: “The early bird gets the worm?” Well get up and get moving! The more efficient and organized you are, the more free time you have to enjoy the free time you have!

5. Remember that a little relaxation goes a long way: Always remember. A little relaxation is better than no relaxation, but don’t relax too much! “Always make each day better than the last so your future can be better than the past!”

Have a great week.

Frank.

We can all sometimes suffer from comparison-depression. They say ‘a picture is worth a words’, we all know though that sometimes behind that picture can often be a thousand more words that we can’t or won’t ever see.  A topic that seems to be coming up in many of my daily conversations with people lately is how Facebook/Social Media affects us.  Social media can be a business tool, especially for business development and recruitment which are core business objective at The Wish Group, it can be helpful for staying up to date with our friends and family, however it can also have its dark side.

I’m sure we’ve all felt the feeling before of seeing an image or update of someone having success or experiencing something amazing and then the downward spiral begins. We start comparing, perhaps even becoming resentful that a certain person is not deserving, it’s not fair and it should be you and all of a sudden the things in our life pale in comparison.

The truth is sometimes things are not always what they seem.  We have no idea what that person is currently or has been through.  We don’t always know what’s behind the scenes of that picture, the hard work put in, the tears, the frustration, the past challenges that they had to push themselves through to get there.  Sometimes, it’s nothing more than the Grace of God that’s allowed them to be or have what they have. Sometimes Grace can knock Karma out of the park because maybe that person just has a certain calling or destiny in life that other people will be blessed by.

So instead of letting this depress us, let’s rather ask ourselves:

What can I do NOW to inch my way closer to a dream or to feeling better about myself?  What have I proudly accomplished in my own life that others might look at as successful and may wonder how I got there? What can I learn from seeing a colleague/friend/family member achieve something I also want?

Rejoice in the success of others and focus on you how you are living and can impact your own special destiny. Keep your life’s purpose in mind and focus on what you can control which is a having a positive attitude and taking action on a daily basis, that coupled with grace will make all of your dreams come.

One thing I’ve always learned in business and sales is that you must build a rapport. Honestly, it is one of the most important soft skills to learn, regardless of whether you are an employee, manager or a job seeker finding jobs in Toronto. It is very important to learn how to establish rapport quickly with people. With people that haven’t spoken to or have met.                    

One thing you must to to start building a valued relationship is by being punctual. It builds a great starting rapport an also shows that you values people’s time. In addition, by doing that your showing a genuine interest and that you care about them. Don’t forget that people generally want to talk about things that affect them first, so start conversations by asking questions that show a genuine interest in their needs.

If you’re meeting someone for the first time in business and you’re having a conversation, mirror their postures and even their gestures when you speak to them . They will feel more relaxed. Once you have got into good rapport, you can slowly change the pace of conversation so that the remaining conversation can be done at your pace.

While the truth may not be important to everyone, it is not as much as a rapport breaker as over promising something and downplaying concerns and objections. So when in sales, make sure you set the right expectations and keep your word because your word means everything, especially in business.