I’ve been thinking a lot about trust. Specifically trust in business relationships.

My VA, Erin Blaskie, is building me a new website based on a blog platform. This required giving her access to my wordpress account, shopping cart, and domain management accounts.

I didn’t give it a second thought until yesterday. I didn’t think of it for any negative reason, it just occurred to me that I’ve put an enormous amount of trust in her by giving her access to some vital business systems.

Why would I do that and not even bat an eye? I think it comes down to what Stephen MR Covey calls the Speed of Trust. In the book by the same name he posits that Trust is the most important feature of any business relationship as it literally affects the speed of any transaction.

Basically:
Low trust makes things slower
High trust makes things faster

I met Erin through another colleague, Michael Port, who is a business author and coach. I’ve also had the chance to visit with her and talk and I’m glad to call her a friend. This creates a high trust relationship. So, when she asks me for access to a system relevant to the work we’re doing, I don’t even give it a second thought.

How is the trust in your business relationships? Do you take the time to cultivate positive emotions? I don’t me to suggest that you have to be on everyone’s Christmas card list, but do you have unwavering trust in the people you depend on, or do you feel you have to maintain complete control?

In my next post I will discuss the difference between Delegating and Abdicating which I think will help you let go some of your control issues, if you’re holding on so tight that your sub-contracts can’t operate at high speed.

Technorati Tags: Andrew Mugford, business relationship, blogging, blog website, blog platform, Erin Blaskie, virtual assistant, Business Services ETC, trust in business relationships

<Gasp> Yes, you read that right. I said, “Setting goals is a total waste of time!”

I know, everyone is telling you to set goals.

If you’ve fallen into that trap, my friend, I am glad you found this post. I’m here to dispel this most harmful of myths.

So, why do I believe setting goals is a total waste of your time, energy, and possibly money?

Simply put, because that’s all most people do. Most people set a goal and forget it. Perhaps they take one or two small actions towards achieving it, but most times that’s where it ends. So, in that case, setting the goal, getting hyped up and excited, and failing to achieve the goal, or make any measurable progress towards that goal SHOULD NOT MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF!

Let me make this clear. YOU FAILED! Heck, admit it, you didn’t really even try that hard.

If you set a goal to lose weight and bought a year-long gym membership and only went twice, that whole exercise (pun intended) was a total, complete waste of your time, energy and money.

So please, if you’re going to set a goal, remember:
The Goal of Setting Goals is NOT to set goals, it is to ACHIEVE them!

Technorati Tags: Goal setting, setting goals, goals

We all have beliefs that guide our actions through life.

Some of these beliefs only serve to limit and hold us back from being the great people we are destined to be.

Sometimes these manifest themselves as ‘Ya, but’s!’.

You know: “I could do that but…” or, “I can’t do that because…”

We all have reasons NOT to do things. Our brain is expert at coming up with objections.

When these ‘ya but’s’ manifest themselves in your life write them down in your journal. Let them go. I also encourage you to write down ‘yes, I can’s’ beside them. Write down the reasons you CAN do it.

Take the power out of the ‘ya but’s’ in your life and you will grow!

Technorati Tags: Manifest, objections, journal, beliefs, actions

I was at a meeting the other day where I was reminded of a powerful life lesson.

One of the other ladies on this committee has been absent because her mother has been diagnosed with cancer.

She related how one day in the hospital she was feeling rather numb and getting into the elevator she accidentally pressed the wrong floor button.

The doors ended up opening onto the terminal cancer ward - for children!

She said she was struck by how calm and at peace these parents were. The acceptance in their childs fate and the desire to make the most of the remaining time.

She now makes it a point to visit that floor regularily.

Interesting. What are you upset at right now? If the parents of a dying child can project peace… can you get over being stuck in a traffic jam?

It is in the end that we remember how we should have been in the beginning.

Technorati Tags: Beginning, end, terminal cancer