It’s the deadline

I have a BIG deadline looming ahead of me that is forcing me to turn all my attention, effort and energy in that direction. In less than three weeks I am in charge of a Spring Dinner Auction for Jim Elliot Christian High School, that is their biggest fundraiser of the year. 

I am promoting, planning, preparing, soliciting donations, selling tickets and recruiting, training and leading over 50 volunteers!  

Deadlines are amazing motivators, don’t you think?  So for today’s Monday Motivation, I am reviving something I wrote five years ago about setting your own personal deadlines.  Here it is:

“I work better under pressure” 

Haven’t we all heard (as well as used) those words often in our lives?  The truth is we don’t necessarily work better under pressure BUT we certainly do WORK!  It seems like all we need to accomplish something in life is…..a deadline.

Think about it –

• How many of you will finally start getting around to doing our taxes this next week?  It’s that April 15th deadline!
• Why can’t we lose that extra weight until the invitation to the class reunion arrives in the mail?  It’s because we finally have a deadline!
• When do our kids sit down & really study for that test or write their term paper?  The night before its due – the deadline!

We all have a tendency to work hard & accomplish the goal when under the pressure of a deadline.  Just this morning, I told my girls that if they got dressed, ate breakfast & finished all their chores before I got home from my doctor’s appointment that I would take them to the store to buy their summer sandals.  It was amazing!  What usually takes them over an hour with lots of prodding from Mom was accomplished in half the time & they were ready & waiting to receive their reward.  They had a deadline!

In business, I think we often fail to work hard & accomplish our goals because we lack a deadline.   But the bottom line is we are self employed.  No one will fire us or fail us if we don’t meet these deadlines.  We must have internal motivation, drive & desire to put a self imposed deadline on our  goals & dreams and then work hard to meet that deadline.

• Deadlines provide us with a sense of urgency.  We feel that “pressure” to get things done….and get them done NOW!!  As a matter a fact I am feeling that same sense of urgency that a deadline provides right now -with less than three hours left of Monday. (can you believe I actually began writing the first lines early this morning?)
• Deadlines give us extra energy.  Have you ever noticed that you can stay up most of the night and not even feel tired, before a big event and accomplish all sorts of wonderful things, simply because it has to be done by tomorrow.  The adrenaline of the deadline helps us to accomplish the seemingly impossible
• Deadlines forces us to lay aside our excuses. When faced with a deadline we stop making excuses as to why we haven’t done something yet and we start looking for ways to do it.
• Deadlines help us to focus. We are able to really concentrate on that one goal and not let anything distract us from meeting it.  We have the single-mindedness, determination and power that focus brings.

Begin today to set yourself a self imposed deadline to meet your business goals.

Set a deadline to schedule ___X___ number of events in the next month by this Friday. Call your upline or manager and tell them your goal.

Set a deadline to make five phone calls before you get to enjoy your morning coffee!

Set yourself a deadline to have your current family pictures in your album & journaled by National Scrapbook Day (what a great example you’ll be to your clients!) Email them & tell them that you’ll have it there to show them along with great ideas to complete simple & easy albums.

Set a deadline to promote to leadership in your company by ______________,2008.  Tell your spouse, your family, your friends, your upline and sidelines. 

Did you notice all these “self imposed” deadlines also included telling others?? The more people you tell the more it will feel like a “real” deadline. (and the more pressure you’ll put on yourself to meet the deadline!)

I had a self imposed deadline today, that when Joy was 6 weeks old, I would do two things – start back up writing Monday Motivations and go back to the fitness center!  I put it on my calendar and planned and prepared to do it, but I also told others.  For Monday Motivations I emailed & told everyone I’d be back  (no pressure there…..Ive already received several emails today asking if I had sent it yet!) and as for working out I shared my deadline with my friends, the owners of the center and my family. 

And as I sit here in the quietness of the late evening, with my muscles aching from my first workout in nine months, typing one handed as I nurse the dear baby, I have that sweet satisfaction that comes when you have accomplished your goal & met the deadline!

 

Here is that “dear baby” I was nursing when I wrote that Monday Motivatin. Joy just turned five in February!

I hope to be able to keep posting during the next three weeks before the BIG event (as it is a very enjoyable “break” for me) but if you begin to hear from me less, you’ll know why! It’s the deadline! 🙂