Self Improvement Tips

One of the biggest challenges I have seen in my personal business coaching practice and in life over the past year is how to meet the challenge that fear, surrounding COVID represents.  If there were a perfect answer, I would give it to you, and we could all happily move forward.  But there is not. The ultimate goal in business and life is to first survive and then thrive.  Many businesses and individuals have gone from thriving to surviving.  And some have experienced the most feared outcome, death. For myself and my clients, we have fears.  The fears are valid.  Yet how we choose to act on them is our choice.  Once again, if there was the perfect answer on how to react to our fears, I would be happy to provide it.  Unfortunately, there is not. But the philosophy you bring to a fearful situation is critical to putting the odds in your favor of having a more successful outcome.  Notice I said putting the odds in your favor.  I did not sa...

Tugboats and trains perform distinct and separate functions in real life.  Tugboats operate on water.  Their mission is to push, nudge and help direct the barges and large vessels that cannot turn very precisely in the confined areas of a harbor.  Trains are designed to pull and transport heavy loads over steel rails to a specific destination. In business, to be successful, you must have both the tugboat and train.  You need people who are tugboats.  And you need people who are trains.  As a personal business coach in Houston and The Woodlands, I have seen successful businesses. the necessity for both over a forty-year career in business. Let’s look first at the train people.  They set a course, they lay down the processes, tracks and they have a clear destination in mind.  They are usually meticulous and very process-oriented.  They want the most direct and shortest path to achieving their business goals. Tugboat people see the same goal....

Faucets and drains are two things designed to work together.  Water comes out of a faucet and goes into a sink.  Once in the sink, it flows toward the drain and goes away.  Or you can stop up the drain and let the sink collect water.  As a personal business coach in The Woodlands and in Houston, I look for the faucets in a business such as cash flow, marketing, advertising, operational and financial processes, administrative and management style, and most importantly, the people. And I also look for the drains. Interestingly, there are several ways to look at faucets and drains in business.  A company invests a great deal of money in an advertising program.  The money is the faucet.  It pours out into the advertising program.  The advertising program is wildly successful at bringing in new and profitable sales.  The sink, the company’s cash reserves, start to fill up.  The drain, which is the money going out for advertising, is slower ...

There is a song by the musical group, Alabama, “I’m in a Hurry.” All of us appear to be in a hurry. Is that something that benefits us? At times we are in a season of hurriedness. That is understandable. But, if your whole life is that way I suggest that you are missing many things. The first verse of the song states: “I’m in a hurry to get things done Oh I rush and rush until life’s no fun All I really gotta do is live and die But I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.” In today’s world being in a hurry can be equated with being busy. We are busy because we are striving for greater self-esteem, wealth, possessions and property among other things. But, in looking at my own life and those of my personal business coaching clients I see that excessive hurriedness because we are always busy is a distraction. We rush and rush until life’s no fun. And we don’t either recognize or know why our lives are no fun. Being continually busy never gives me, you, or my clients time to rest and recharge. T...

One of the biggest challenges I have seen in my  personal business coaching  practice and in life over the past year is how to meet the challenge that fear, surrounding COVID represents. If there were a perfect answer, I would give it to you, and we could all happily move forward. But there is not. The ultimate goal in business and life is to first survive and then thrive. Many businesses and individuals have gone from thriving to surviving. And some have experienced the most feared outcome, death. For myself and my clients, we have fears. The fears are valid. Yet how we choose to act on them is our choice. Once again, if there was the perfect answer on how to react to our fears, I would be happy to provide it. Unfortunately, there is not.  But the philosophy you bring to a fearful situation is critical to putting the odds in your favor of having a more successful outcome. Notice I said putting the odds in your favor. I di...

  With the advent of COVID 19, almost a year ago in the United States, there has been a transformation in how we look at ourselves, our relationships, work, and as a society in general. Where pre-COVID we trafficked in a currency of confidence and a “can-do” attitude we now use the currency of fear. Fear shuts down connections. Fear shuts down conversations. Fear shuts down moving forward. Fear isolates us. As social human beings this last one, isolation, is the one that has wreaked the most mental and emotional damage. Fear causes us to grieve. We grieve because we have lost our sense of normal. We may have lost loved ones, our jobs, or our homes. Grief is the death of something. And fear triggers grief because we have lost our sense of normal and at the same time, as we move forward day by day, we have no sense of certainty about the future. In a way we are afraid to step out and move forward. Our fears are legitimate. A...

  Leading change is one of the top core leadership competencies that is honored in successful businesses large and small. There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things. When we are leading change, we are leading reform. There is always a large group who profits from keeping the old order. They are quite certain in their stance. Then there are those who see the need for change and who could profit by the new order. Yet they are only lukewarm to it. How come? Most individuals do not believe in anything new until they have had actual experience with it. We are wired to resist random change for we fear the possible random consequence of being declared irrelevant and let go. We are wired, first and foremost to survive, so we hang on to what has worked in the past. The challenge in  leading change  is to get those who are resistant open to it. And to get those who are lukewarm, ent...

  Things are different than they were a year ago. This is a huge understatement! The arrival of COVID 19 and the effect on our lives worldwide has been immense. My business coaching practice in the Woodlands and in Houston has given me an observation point to see many businesses and how they have responded to the new world that COVID 19 has wrought. The great news is that creativity, when it comes to survival is alive and well. The bad news is that in many instances it is not enough to survive. Each business, so to speak, is its own individual boat. When COVID 19 first arrived, some boats were already in a safe harbor. A safe harbor is a place where their business is not going to be severely affected. They are going to be profitable and survive. They will change because of safety concerns as to how they do business but overall, they are in good shape. The next business boat is the one who was out at sea and experienced some stormy turbulence, but they were able to make it ...

  As a personal business coach, I have observed that your level of self-improvement will not exceed the strength of your personal foundation. What is your personal foundation? An individual’s personal foundation is his or her structural basis that supports him or her in living an exceptional life. Just as a house must be built on a strong personal foundation to avoid collapsing under stress, so must your life. A house’s foundation is made up of earth, cement, and steel. Your personal foundation is also made up of three major elements. The are the What, the Who and the How. Let’s look at the “What.” The “What” is self-improvement business coaching is the package that person presents to the world. It is “What” the world sees when it looks at us. This element is also composed of several sub parts as well. We can include such things as behavior, the public self, what we show others. The “What” can be related to the “body” part of the body, mind and spirit. The ”Who” part of you is easi...

  Do you feel stuck? Do you have a sense of being overwhelmed? Sometimes the solution to getting jump started and to accelerate the process of your successful performance is right in front of you. Here’s the challenge. Are you going to take the step to grab what is right in front of you? If this is where you are at now then start the process of taking control of your destiny and go to  www.SelfImprovement-Tips.com. Steve Scott, Personal Business Coach, Author and Public Speaker has put together several offerings from his work over the last ten years that are foundational to self improvement and creating the business, the life, or both that you desire. There are self study guides on Character, Personal Development, The 8 Pieces of the Business and Life Puzzle and Business Keys to Success. There are also self coaching videos on self improvement and fear as well as a 10 part audio mini course, Imprisoned by Progress and the Treadmill Philosophy. Besides these offerings there is a...

To move forward in business, you or your organization must be good at execution. It sounds so simple, yet time and again the execution of a strategy or change fails. How come? Any time you seek to execute a change in strategy you are asking yourself and other to change your human behavior. It may be the behavior of a few, a team or an entire organization. The answer to good execution of strategy is to change the behavior of the people, to change the human element. You can have written goals, tactics and deadlines. These are good but they are only “on paper” change. Without commitment and proven practices to follow to execute the strategy or change “on paper” you will fail to change the one component necessary to success. That element is human behavior. Behavioral change strategies are very challenging. You can’t just put them down “on paper” and order, let alone expect them to happen. Behavioral change has a better chance of success when the system is changed and people are held accoun...

When looking for self-improvement companies in Houston, the area I live and work in, you will find many options.  Many of them focus strictly on the individual.  And, that is an excellent place to start.  Some are focused more on the business side of things with the result being that you will experience self-improvement as your business grows. Others focus more on self-improvement business coaching .  They look at what the individual has to become in order to achieve the desired results.  In some shape or form, all of them offer the opportunity for self-improvement. The first type of self-improvement company or coach I described will focus almost strictly on the individual.  Very often you will find people who are life coaches.  A life coach is someone who can support you in overcoming situations in your life that could definitely be impeding your progress in other areas. When looking at self-improvement companies in Houston, the second type will initi...

  Failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated ever day over a period of time. How often have you or someone you know seen something that is not working in a business and take the attitude that it just doesn’t matter enough to do something correct it, eliminate it or even improve it? Most of us have been guilty of falling into this philosophical trap of “it just doesn’t matter.” These errors in judgment get repeated because people don’t think they matter. Over time, accumulation of poor thinking leads to poor choices. Failure’s most dangerous attribute is subtlety. To reduce the number of failures and to increase the possibilities for success you must have powerful personal philosophy guiding your every step. You must become more aware of your errors in judgment and that each error really does matter. The next time you see something that you know is not right or leading you down the wrong path, address it. The next step is to do something about it. Maybe you can’t...

Commandism and Tailism are boundaries that are on purpose poorly defined. Let’s say you are part of a political movement, or you are working for a company. The leader of the political movement or a leader in your company asks you to do a special task or project. You approach it with enthusiasm and get it done on time and better than expected. Everything should be good. You should be recognized for your extraordinary efforts.  Yet, you are chastised for being too enthusiastic. You did your project too well. The leader feels threatened because he feels that other will look at you as the leader. He puts you in your place by telling you that he appreciates what you did for him but that you showed too much enthusiasm and care in completing the project. As a result, you are no longer asked to work on any significant projects or tasks. This is because you violated the law of Commandism. You were impetuous. You took too muc...

Any person who is interested in  self-improvement  welcomes hearing any  self-improvement tips for success .  When I hear a tip I may say, “Wow, that is great!  I can apply that immediately.”  Or, “That’s good but it really doesn’t resonate with me.”   Whatever resonates with you at the time are self-improvement tips for success that reflect where you are mentally and emotionally at that particular moment. What are some truths when it comes to  self-improvement tips for success ? Seldom will whatever you want in life exceed your personal development. Choose to self-improve and you will enlarge yourself to where more and better opportunities will be attracted to you. I must be the best “me” in order to be the best for others. I used to say, “If you will be good to me, I will be good to you.”  I had that all wrong.  I was leaving my self-improvement up to a reaction to others.  I was letting them control my self-improvemen...

You will become what you think about most.  This is a powerful statement when it comes to your personal development and growth.  What you think about most becomes the foundation for building your confidence and self-esteem.  And, what you think about most can help to improve your self-confidence or it can diminish it.  So, what are you thinking about most? As a business coach, who also plays the role of a personal development coach, it is not necessarily easy to answer the question, “What do you think about most?” I find a way to get something complex and deep started is to simplify it.  It is important to break it down into manageable pieces.  Let’s take a look at what I like to call the 5 Areas of Life. 1. Spiritual -The spiritual is about how much you are conducting your life in alignment with your gifts and talents, who you are. If you are not, don’t panic or beat up on yourself.  This doesn’t mean that you don’t have a good life.  You ...

The coronavirus pandemic has caused us to look inward and outward in examining our lives.  And, when you do this examination on a foundation of uncertainty it can make you feel worse, not better.  But there is something you can examine.  And, maybe there is some positive action you can take. As we go through life, we all have appetites that we feel we must satisfy.  It can be recreation, money, love, food, solitude, exercise, etc. So, what are your appetites?  In my personal business coaching, which can involve personal development training, self-improvement training, leadership and personal growth and development coaching, I am always looking for appetites.  What we have an appetite for will guide us to where we spend most of our focus and energy.  And, very often, if we just alter that energy and focus, that appetite some, amazing improvements can take place. At a time like this with the new and unsettling coronavirus that in many cases is ha...

In previous posts, we have looked at gratitude, happiness and serving others and how your self-talk can guide you in these areas.  Also, we have looked at an essential element of your mindset for successful networking.  You must focus on what you can control, which is you and your thoughts.  Do not focus on what you cannot control, which is others. Part of the control issue is that when we first network with someone there can be a tendency to have a “fixer upper attitude” or “I am here to help.”  While both of these may sound good, they actually can work against you and your goal of building deeper relationships through networking.  They imply to the person on the receiving end of your communication that somehow you are superior and that they are fortunate that you with your knowledge and insights without knowing anything about them can solve their problem.  In your self-talk with others remember that you are not there to fix anyone.  You are in ...

In the last post, we looked at gratitude, happiness and serving others and how your self-talk can guide you in these areas.  The result of your networking will be to increase the odds of building deeper relationships. In this post we will go under the hood of self-talk, so to speak and explore the mindset that is necessary to good self-talk which will manifest itself in a positive way to others allowing your networking to accomplish its primary goal, to build deeper relationships. Probably one of the biggest mistakes I see in networking that will keep it from not working is this:  People focus on what they can’t control instead of what they can control.  A person will meet someone and immediately after they hear a little bit about them and their business, try to “fix them.”  If you have a “fixer upper mentality” in your self-talk which manifests itself in your networking, get rid of it. Take a sword to it.  No one likes someone coming in with an answer...

There is some gold to be mined during the Holidays in discovering your self Improvement tips in life. For most of us, the normal routine is gone. It disappeared during the Christmas. And it was good. Now we have entered that twilight zone. What is the twilight zone? It is a time and place where the rhythm of business, life or both has changed. For most, it is a time where things have slowed down. If you have children in school you will not get to enter the twilight zone until after they go back. The twilight zone is a time for reflection and evaluation. It is a time, with the coming of the new year, to take stock of who you are and where you are at. It is a time to reflect on what has been and what is to come. It is a time of transition as we move from a Holiday mode back into our normal every day routines. One of the keys to success, whether you are a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional or an individual, working or not, is to enjoy and learn from ...