What moves us to take action is connected to what moves us to feel!

I recently read an article by Joel D Canfield in which he asks ‘Why Find Your Why?” In other words, why find out what really motivates you? Here’s a short excerpt of his description of how your brain works to move you to action:

“The part of your brain you’re using to read these words is the neo-cortex. Your neo-cortex understands language, does math when it’s forced to and can even figure out organic chemistry. Your neo-cortex is pretty smart. But it has no feelings. That means it is incapable of making decisions–and it can’t create motivation.

The part of your brain which just reacted emotionally to that sentence, feeling amusement, annoyance, disbelief–that’s your limbic system. Your limbic system understands feelings and is where all the decisions in your life are made. It would be nice if our neo-cortex, the higher reasoning part of our brain, could have a little chat with our limbic system, to present facts and figures, a reasonable, logical argument, and compel it to make the rational decision our neo-cortex already thinks it made.

That won’t work. The limbic system has no capacity for language.

Despite this enormous barrier, the limbic system and neo-cortex communicate every day using the abstract concepts we call emotions. These two parts of our brain have agreed that certain words represent emotions. This leads us to the question that trumps ‘what’ and ‘how’.” You can read the whole article here.

What we feel is influenced by what we value

The core message of this website www.WinAtWorkZone.com and blog is that your values are behind your ability to effectively motivate yourself to achieve peak performance in your profession or business. Joel’s short article explains some of the neurological underpinnings of motivation and how what’s important to you (what elicits strong feelings) largely takes place beyond your conscious awareness – a useful fact to be consciously aware of!

Your values are your unconscious motivators

In practical terms, your values are your unconscious motivators, and all really successful men and women have one thing in common – they are consciously aware of their values. In other words, they have discoverd how to be consciously aware of what motivates them and to make conscious, strategic choices about what actions to take, based on living their values.

More than 20 years of research and practical application

I have spent more than 20 years applying the knowledge of researchers from across the globe to help professionals and business owners achieve peak performance in their roles by identifying what REALLY motivates them and showing them how to apply that self knowledge to achieve high levels of success by working consistently in their Peak Performance Zone. In the next few months I will be launching a series of online training opportunities that will be exclusive to members of a new online community for peak performers. This will be launched from a brand new website – details to be announced closer to launch date.

New training and development opportunity coming soon

I’ll let you know when we’re getting close to launch date so you can be the first group to have an opportunity to join, as membership will be limited initially.

Until then,

Here’s To YOUR Peak Performance,
Karyn Clarke

New Series: Maximize Your Small Business Profits

The single most significant action you can take on a daily basis to maximize your performance and profits is to stay in your strengths zone. Your business strengths zone is the equivalent of what some people call flow. When you are in a flow state (your peak performance zone) your focus, performance and productivity levels are all at their peak. In addition, at the end of your activity or work day you feel a healthy sense of satisfaction, rather than a sense of debilitating exhaustion.

How Your Strengths Strengthen Your Small Business Profits

Your strengths are what you do best – most easily, most enjoyably and most efficiently, and therefore will lead to the most profit for your small business. Your strengths come from your natural talents. Your natural talents become strengths only when you have invested time and energy into increasing your knowledge, skills and experience to grow your natural talents into strengths. If you’re not yet 100% sure of what your natural talents are, you can identify your personal talent code here.

Once you have identified what your natural talents are, you owe it to yourself and your business profits to develop those talents into strengths, and to avoid working in your areas of weakness, where you are by definition less productive, less efficient and therefore less profitable. This is the secret to working on your business rather than working in your business.

So how do you avoid your weaknesses and stay in your strengths zone, your peak performance zone?

Outsource Your Weaknesses To Maximize Your Small Business Profits

If you’re anything like I am you will have a million and one business ideas in any given day, and cannot possibly implement them all. My solution to that dilemma is to outsource the tasks and systems that are time and energy draining for me.

When I first realized that I needed to delegate or outsource in order to become more profitable, I procrastinated for some time, putting the process into the too hard basket. I knew that I didn’t want any in-house employees, as I wanted the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, be it my local coffee shop or while visiting relatives in Japan.

The obvious solution was to engage virtual employees to do the work that was outside my strengths zone, but I really felt that it seemed very complicated and inefficient to engage people on a contract or project basis from sites like guru.com or elance.com. The challenge I have with that method is that every time you engage someone for a new project you also begin a new relationship, waste valuable time and energy educating your new contractor about your standards, expectations and professional requirements.

Then along came Tyrone Shum, almost in my own backyard in Sydney. Tyrone introduced me to his Mass Outsource System, and suddenly the cloud of confusion and uncertainty was lifted, replaced by clarity and confidence. Not only is Tyrone’s system amazingly effective and efficient in helping you to grow your small business profits, he actually gives away 10 FREE videos that outline his system in incredible detail.

Since linking up with Tyrone I am so much more motivated, focused and energized, simply because I now have the time and energy that I previously only dreamed about. Time and energy not only to expand my businesses and increase their profitability, but also time and freedom to actually have a life outside of my work. For the first time I feel that I truly am able to win at work.

Small Business Profits Resources Mentioned In This Post:

1. MyTalentCode.com
2. OutsourceTools.com

Can You Turn A Favorite Hobby Into A Profitable Small Business?

I have been asked this question many times, and the answer is … it depends.

Your small business profits depend on your performance, and achieving peak performance depends on your ability to engage your key natural talents and then to develop them into strengths.

You also want to align your business strategy to your core purpose and to your core values. Exactly how you do this is the core of our live and online workshops.

A note of caution …. while interests (hobbies) and strengths are related, there’s danger in believing that an interest can turn into a full time career. For some people it may, and for others it will only ever be a relaxing and enjoyable hobby.

To work out the difference you need to have a clear understanding of what your key natural talents are, and how they combine with what you value. You can identify your natural talents at http://www.MyTalentCode.com and your values at http://www.MyMotivationCode.com

Those two dimensions (talent and values) must be aligned for you to maintain motivation and achieve peak performance and productivity, which will in turn lead to profits in your small business if your business strategy also meets your market’s needs and wants, and your offers are communicated clearly to your target market.

Hobbies and Your Talent Code™

While interests, hobbies and strengths are related, there’s danger in believing that an interest can turn into a full time career. For some people it may, and for others it will only ever be a relaxing and enjoyable hobby. Here are 10 reasons why …

1. When you engage in a favorite pastime or hobby, you are motivated by the desire for relaxation or pleasure.
2. In hobbies there are usually no tight time frames or standards (other than self imposed ones).
3. The parts of your brain used for your leisure/hobby skills (creative mode) are different from the parts of your brain used for professional productivity (work modes) – that’s why hobbies are relaxing. They literally give your brain a break from work!
4. You can only achieve peak performance when you have a match between the level of challenge involved in a task and your level of skill – high challenge / low skill leads to frustration and inefficiency.
5. You will achieve a very high level of skill (expert status) only through the intense application of time and energy to building your knowledge and skill levels of your natural talents until they become real strengths – worthy of 9/10 or even 10/10!
6. You could apply that same level of intensity to a skill set that is not based on your natural talents, and after years you may still rank only a 6/10 or 7/10, even though you really enjoy using that skill.
7. If you love what you are doing in your hobby and you would rate at 6/10 or 7/10, that’s a pretty good indicator that you should stick to it as a hobby – high pleasure, low pressure!
8. If on the other hand you have a hobby in which your skill levels are 9/10 or 10/10, you lose track of time when you engage in that hobby, AND you still produce excellent results even under pressure, then that hobby may have the potential to become a profitable business for you with the right small business training. You are now motivated by a desire for productivity and profits.
   
9. You can get started by identifying your natural talents at http://www.MyTalentCode.com and your values at http://www.MyMotivationCode.com
10. In the meantime, your hobbies are important for refreshing and energizing your brain,  so enjoy  your hobby, strengthen your knowledge and skills, check out if your hobby matches your your key natural talents and you will end up with either a new career or continue to enjoy your very satisfying hobby!

What REALLY Motivates You When You Engage in Your Hobby?

To summarize the message of this article and to answer for yourself the question “Can I Turn My Hobby Into A Profitable Small Business?” you must honestly look at your key natural talents, and I’ve pointed you to a tool for doing that http://www.MyTalentCode.com

You also want to be really clear about your motivation for engaging in your hobby. Your motivation comes from your values – what’s important to you – and I’ll address that in more detail in my next post, where I will unpack the power of values alignment for maintaining motivation and achieving your professional or small business goals. One thing I can tell you in advance is this:

• All truly successful people know what their values are, and have the skills to live them!

What’s holding you back?

How to create momentum

Are you a career professional, an entrepreneur or a small business owner who is not yet in your Peak Performance Zone, not yet getting the results you really want and deserve?

In previous posts I’ve invited you to identify and execute your primary drivers of peak professional performance and business results, drivers that will create and maintain momentum in your career or business – your Talent Code and your Motivation Code.

If you have applied and leveraged the two scientific laws as shown in the free teleseminar Discover Your Peak Performance Zone, and have not yet achieved the forward movement and progress that you’re seeking, then you don’t need me to tell you that something is holding you back! But what exactly?

Barriers to momentum

What is holding you back, constraining you from achieving the levels of success you’ve worked so hard to achieve?

Rich Schefren, a business genius with a track record of massive success in both offline and online businesses,  describes three types of constraints to business and professional success in his training for entrepreneurs and small business owners:

1. Rational constraints – errors in your thinking
2. Procedural constraints – counterproductive work processes
3. Self-imposed constraints – necessary conditions and rules that exist only in your mind

Of course, those are pretty broad categories, and Schefren breaks each category down into its many subsets and shows you exactly how to identify and overcome your specific and unique constraints.

How to crush your constraints

Schefren’s high level coaching program, Guided Profit System 2.0,
may not be for everyone, but I encourage you to check it out right now,
as he’s offering a payment plan to make it more accessible in these
challenging economic times. I’m not sure how long the payment plan will be available.

3 reasons I endorse the system at www.GuidedProfitZone.com

1. The coaching program is based on a system, and has been scientifically trialled with outstanding results for previous students
2. The system is personalized, so that you are guided into your profit zone by identifying and overcoming your unique constraints
3. Rich Schefren is a man of integrity, who not only understands business systems, but has a deep understanding of what makes us tick as human beings – of what you want to leverage to create momentum, and what you want to eliminate to crush your constraints.

Discover how to crush your constraints at www.GuidedProfitZone.com

Current Economic Circumstances Demand A Focused Strategy To Maximize Your Professional Performance and Drive Your Business Results

That’s why you must understand that your values are the ‘invisible threads between people, performance and profit’ they are your motivation code – driving commitment, loyalty and customer service attitudes and skills. Identifying and prioritizing your values will provide the focus you must have as a basis for a success strategy that will work for you.

An astounding fact is that people who have clarified their personal values have demonstrated a 30% increase in commitment to their role and to their employer, regardless of their espoused values.

Discover how your values impact profoundly your ability to access your peak performance zone as you watch and take notes on this video.

Find out the 3 biggest mistakes that stop people from achieving their peak performance zone and what you must do to prevent those mistakes from wasting your time, energy and money as you reach for your peak performance zone and win at work.

You have a choice … you must ride this wave of economic circumstance, and you can chosse to ride the in the valley and be dumped upon, or ride the crest and reach your Peak Performance Zone™.

Successful People Know What Their Values Are AND How to Live Them

The winners in these changed global economic circumstances will be those of us who respond with greater focus in terms of how we spend not only our money, but also how we spend our time and energy.

Successful people in all contexts know the secret of focus is identifying what they value. Successful people not only know what their values are, they also have the skills and strategies to live them.

Your values are your internal motivators

Click here to qualify for a free values identification session.

Here’s why your values are such a powerful force in your professional and personal life – your values are your lifestyle preferences and priorities and are your inner motivators. They are the bridge from your inner desires to your outer reality. BUT … most of us are NOT consciously aware of what our inner motivators (our values) are because they are just beyond our unconscious awareness.

Successful people have discovered how to bring their unconscious motivators to their conscious awareness and then develop strategies and skills to make conscious choices that are aligned to their core values (the values that are most important to them – their unique Motivation Code™).

Successful people also have the strategies and skills to build a bridge from their inner desires (their values) to their outer reality (their desired results) by using their natural talents (their Talent Code™).

How to maximize your professional performance

Click here to qualify for a scholarship for Session 1 of Win at Work 101

That’s why every professional, every corporate employee and every small business owner who desires to be successful MUST crack their Talent Code and their Motivation Code. When you combine those two codes, which are unique to you, with your Commitment Nexus™ (the values you share with your colleaugues and customers), you will position yourself firmly in the centre of your Peak Performance Zone™, where you must be to maximize your professional performance.

Crack Your Unique Peak Performance Code AND Stay True To Your Values

Click here to qualify for a scholarship for Session 1 and to reserve your seat.

“Win at Work 101 – Crack Your Unique Peak Performance Code AND Stay True To Your Values” will educate and equip you with the knowledge, skills, strategies and systems you must have to succeed in these changed circumstances.

You have one last chance in 2008 to join a live Win At Work 101 Webinar series to prepare yourself for focused action in the times ahead.

ONLY 4 PLACES AVAILABLE so take action now to secure your seat! 

Click here to to reserve your seat.

I’m looking forward to meeting you in the first webinar on October 29 2008 …

How To Maximize Employee Engagement, Employee Commitment and Customer Service Focus With The Three “I”s Of Best Practice Training and Development.

My previous three posts in the Small Business Training and Development series identified The Three Deadly Sins Of Omission in the training and development of the employees in your small business.

I also described the antidote – The Holy Trinity of Employee Contribution to Business Results:

1. Maximize employee engagement
2. Compound employee commitment
3. Cultivate a customer service focus

Now that you know where to focus your small business training and development time, energy and money, you need to know what the three “I”s are and how to use them to turn knowledge into results:

Apply The Three “I”s Of Best Practice Training and Development To Maximize The Impact Of Your Employee Engagement, Employee Commitment and Customer Service Focus

1. “I“ #1:  Identify
2. “I“ #2:  Intensify
3. “I“ #3:  Integrate

Employee Engagement

1. Identify the professional roles in which your employees can perform most
   powerfully with the least effort as indicated by their Talent Code™
2. Intensify the time and energy they spend developing their natural talents into strengths – the path to true employee engagement
3. Integrate their Talent Code™ and unique Motivation Code™ into their daily work practices to access their Peak Performance Zone™

Employee Commitment

1. Identify the unique Motivation Code™ (identify and prioritize the core values) of each employee – their values are what REALLY motivate them
2. Intensify their motivation by aligning their unique Motivation Code™ to your
   company’s Motivation Nexus™ (the meeting point of your values and their values) for sustainable motivation
3. Integrate their Talent Code™ and unique Motivation Code™ into their daily work practices to access their Peak Performance Zone™

Customer Service Focus

1. Identify exactly whom each employee serves – internal or external customers. Establish metrics to gauge their level of success with customers
2. Intensify the application of what they do well in customer service and manage around their weaknesses as identified by their Talent Code™ and Motivation Code™
3. Integrate their Talent Code™ and unique Motivation Code™ into their daily work practices to access their Peak Performance Zone™in all aspects of their work, including customer service

Maximized Manager

If you want to accelerate your business results you must maximize your return on your small business training and development. Your number one goal must be to develop in your people the knowledge, skills, attitudes and systems to accumulate confidence, strengths and skills to manage themselves, their talents, their motivation, and their relationships with your customers and clients for maximum career acceleration for themselves and maximum business results for you.