It’s a new year, a time when many of us reflect on the past and determine to make changes for a better future. This is a good thing, it is always a good thing, even if you end up being like the majority of people who do not follow through and actually make the desired change. It’s always good to have hope and express a desire for something better.

But why do most of us fall short on the execution? Well, there are probably as many reasons as there are individuals, but one thing that seems top trip up a lot of folks is this simple truth: All Change Requires Sacrifice.

Our culture has become one that reinforces the idea of getting something quickly, getting something for nothing, a culture of entitlement. Well, guess what, no one is entitled to much in this life and spending any time lamenting about not getting something for nothing is time wasted.

Anything worth having in your life, whether it be good health, business success or strong relationships requires hard work. It requires sacrifice on your part. Lots of it. What are you willing to give up to reach your dreams?

The turtle is often associated with slow processes so it may seem to be the opposite of what you want for your self development. When you are ready to make changes in your life and become happier and more successful, you want to see fast results. You want to turn your life around now, not at some point in the very distant future.

In an audio book titled The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson shows that a turtle’s pace could be exactly what you need to make permanent changes in your life. You may want fast changes that you can feel right now, but it is typically better to focus on smaller changes that will permanently impact your life for the better.

Think of it in terms of an obese person who needs to lose a hundred pounds. They desperately want the pounds to just melt off instantaneously, but no amount of starving themselves or binge dieting will work permanently. They start yo-yoing with their weight in an unhealthy manner and the weight loss goes nowhere in the end.

It is when the obese person starts taking smaller steps to live a healthier life overall that they really start to see the pounds melt away. They take these small steps in a consistent manner over time and before they know it they are a hundred pounds lighter living an active lifestyle they would have only dreamed of months before.

The process for self development and life change is very similar. Jeff Olson shows why making some very small changes can lead to huge changes over time. This approach to change is less radical and may seem too easy, but it is a proven strategy for long term change and personal success.

Olson also teaches you to put your habits under the microscope to determine if they are working for or against you. How else are you going to know what small changes need to be made?

Real change doesn’t occur in the dark. You have to open your eyes to the way you are living. Then you have to identify real differences between your lifestyle today and what your lifestyle would need to be in order to live out your dreams. Once you become conscious of these things, it becomes much easier to take turtle paced steps toward a better life.

Anyone can overcome obstacles and go on to be highly successful. If you aren’t successful today, you can learn from the habits and lifestyle choices of people who have already become great successes.

In The Slight Edge, Olson identifies real habits shared by some of the most successful people in the world. He breaks them down so you see how you can use those habits in your own life to be successful in your own way.

You don’t have to do anything dramatic to become successful when you follow Olson’s philosophy. You just have to be very clear about what choices you are making today and what choices you would have to make in order to be successful. Then you can take those turtle steps that will lead you to a future of success.

Imagine yourself a year from now. You are highly successful. You contemplate back to this very day and realize how far you have come in such a short period of time. That vision of your future self can come true!

Please visit The Personal Development Company if you would like to learn more about Slight Edge principles by Jeff Olson

The comfort zone is a warm, safe place where things don’t go wrong. It’s also a place where no progress is made and no growth is achieved. In order to be successful you have to get outside your comfort zone, push the envelope, try new things, and other tired (yet still true) cliches.

Here are some things that may help you take that next step:

• A big part of success is people – who you know and who you work with. If things don’t seem to be going well, try finding a new partner, a new client, or a new mentor.
• Find passion and enthusiasm in what you do. It’s okay to rely on those tactics that pump you up, even if they’re not directly related to what you’re doing.
• Is there something you’re worried about or afraid of? Get out of your comfort zone by tackling your fears.
• Even though the goal is to improve your business, trying something totally unrelated – even something weird – can help put you in the right mindset moving forward.
• Get some courage elsewhere, then channel that energy to your business. Do something you’re good at, build up the confidence, and then attack your business head on.
• Put more structure and form into your environment or make it more chaotic. In other words, shake things up a bit to see what happens.

It can be overwhelming to think about the unknown or the potential for failure. The comfort zone is comfortable, but it doesn’t bring success. Don’t ignore the fear or the frustration, but overcome it by breaking out.

You have a lot on your plate and you have a lot of long-term goals; you’re busy and you’re stretched thin. It may seem a bit counter intuitive, but by spending a little more time planning, you’ll likely save yourself a lot of time in the long run.

You need to establish a set time each week to plan out the next seven days. Here are some things to consider while planning:

• Think about what you need to accomplish that week. Think about the progress you’ll want to have made by that same time next week, and divvy out those needs appropriately. Get yourself on a schedule to accomplish what you need to that week.
• Think about what you want to accomplish that week. You’re going to have to prioritize, since you’ll likely not always be able to get everything done. Establishing these wants will help give you direction if you finish a task quicker than expected.
• Establish specific times you’ll spend on your business each day and what you want to accomplish each day. This way, going into each day you’ll already know what you’re going to try to accomplish.
• Consider how these daily goals and weekly goals fit into your long-term goals. If one of the things you need or want doesn’t fit into these broader goals, then do you really need or want to do it?
• Use this weekly session to track your progress. If there are tasks you didn’t accomplish that you wanted to, discover why that was (and adjust accordingly).
• Make the process as simple as possible. That may mean investing in some scheduling/planning software or establishing some other system, but you don’t want your planning to be directionless and unorganized (because that will likely result in a directionless and unorganized week).

Do a little bit each day – and know in advance what you’re going to be doing each day – and you’ll increase your efficiency and save yourself loads of time.

When you’re making important decisions for your company, you have to take a lot of factors into consideration. Every decision comes with costs, and some are more obvious than others. No matter what aspect of your company you’re planning—whether it involves shipping methods, distributors, travel, personnel or anything else—your decisions come with costs and rewards.

While it’s easy to overlook, opportunity cost is a force to be reckoned with. It can have big implications for your company. But what, exactly, is opportunity cost? Simply put, opportunity cost is the value of whatever you give up to make a certain decision. It is involved in every decision any person makes. Sometimes it is monetary and sometimes it is harder to measure, but it always affects our decisions whether we realize it or not.

When we make decisions, we choose to give up something scarce (usually our time or money) in exchange for something we want. We ensure maximum profits by minimizing opportunity cost losses. For example, consider the implications of throwing a party for employees during work time. The monetary costs of throwing a simple party include decorations, food, prizes and maybe some entertainment. However, you must also take into account opportunity cost—by throwing the party, you are reducing productivity and paying employees for work they aren’t doing. This could amount to thousands of dollars lost and is thus a factor to determine when planning your party. You may choose instead to do it after hours or cut the party short to decrease costs.

Once you understand opportunity cost, it’s easy to see how it influences business planning. If you invest $1,000 in a certain stock and lose $500 in the first month, you might think your total loss is $500. However, you have also lost the money you would have made had you invested that money elsewhere. If you had invested that $1,000 in stock that has doubled in value over the last month, you would have made $1,000. Thus, you must add that $1,000 to the $500 you lost. When you take opportunity cost into account, you see your real loss is closer to $1,500. When planning for your company, be sure to take into account opportunity cost to determine actual risk and increase your likelihood of success.

Everyone knows you are what you eat, but that principle also applies in the workplace. If you choose foods that supply high energy for short periods of time, your work will reflect that pattern. Your morning coffee and donut might give you a lot of energy in the morning, but by afternoon your work will slow down just as much as your energy has.

On the flipside, if you choose healthy snacks that give you sustainable energy, you will be more productive over time and be a greater asset to your company. Here are a few healthy snacks you can choose to keep your body and your productivity on track.

1. Fruits. Fresh fruit contains a lot of natural sugars that are excellent sources of energy. For this reason, fruits make great mid-morning snacks or supplements to your breakfast. Because they are sweet, fruits can also squelch your craving for candy in the afternoon and offer a healthy alternative to empty calories.
2. Vegetables. What these snacks lack in sweetness they make up for in nutrition. Carrots, celery, broccoli and cauliflower are packed with vitamins to help you stay healthy. By choosing these snacks, you will prevent both short- and long-term illnesses (and, by extension, unnecessary absences from work). Supplementing vegetables with peanut butter or low-fat salad dressing can make them taste better and add more nutrients, like protein, to your diet.
3. Whole-grain foods. Grains with complex carbohydrates provide you with a lot of energy without the empty calories. Foods like brown rice and whole wheat breads provide you with these types of carbohydrates, and some also contain fiber to help keep your digestive system healthy.
4. Water. Drinking plenty of water is essential to maintaining a healthy diet. Your body needs plenty of fluids to replenish your blood supply, aid in digestion, remove toxins and even keep your body temperature consistent. But aside from those benefits, drinking plenty of water keeps your stomach full and helps you resist the urge to snack.

Business owners are busy people. It takes a lot of work to succeed in running a company, and that often means schedules packed with conference calls, e-mails, business lunches and company meetings. All of those responsibilities add up to a lot of busy-ness, but too often thwart productivity.

Many people think that a full schedule is the same thing as productivity, but that’s rarely the case. Too often business owners and employees alike spend several busy hours putting out fires and responding to e-mails before ever getting to the first task on their to-do lists.

Even worse, many people don’t realize they are doing it. They assume that because they are busy they are being productive. They often go home feeling like they haven’t accomplished anything but can’t identify what they’re doing wrong. Here are a few tips for combating busy-ness and staying productive.

Let the e-mails pile up. Busy people answer e-mails immediately; productive people answer them consistently. Keeping up on e-mail is an essential part of the work day, and you should definitely be prompt in your responses, but you don’t have to be a slave to your inbox. Let the e-mails roll in while you’re working on your tasks, then take time for e-mails every day at the same time. This will prevent e-mails from distracting you as you work on long-term tasks.

Eliminate distractions. This is more easily said than done, but distractions can cost you hours of productivity. If you find yourself falling behind on your tasks, take some interruption-free time. Your co-workers will respect your wishes if you close your office door and put off conversation for a few hours to get caught up, and it will feel good to have lingering tasks completed.

Simplify. Busy people complicate tasks until they spend hours on something with little to show for it. Productive workers put the necessary effort into projects but make ideas simpler and concepts easier to implement. While a busy person might spend several hours working on the intricate details of a project, productive people focus on perfecting core concepts. Focusing on the essential and letting other things go will help you stop being busy and start being productive.

“Simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau lived more than a century ago, but his words of wisdom apply just as much – perhaps more – today as they did when he penned them. In our world of instant messaging, instant microwavable dinners, and instant gratification created to make things easier and help us succeed, we have somehow managed to make life much more complicated.

In the deluge of information that inundates us on every side, many people suffer from information overload that unnecessarily complicates life. Simplify by eliminating unnecessary information while still taking advantage of the technologies that enrich your life. Here are a few tips to help you do so.

Choose favorites. There are a lot of places online to find information on nearly any topic, and there are people writing in every niche. Don’t try to follow every blog, subscribe to every magazine or read every tweet that mentions your industry. Instead, trim your blogroll and RSS feed until you are left with the authors you really care about. This will significantly decrease the amount of information you face and will keep you from getting overloaded.

Skim. If you try to read every article that comes your way, you’ll waste a lot of time on details when you just need the main idea. Filter through e-mails and paperwork to determine what needs a second look. After you’ve skimmed enough to determine what is worthwhile, your reading pile will have decreased significantly.

Delegate. This step can be difficult if you run your own company from home, but do what you can to help lessen your load. If you have an assistant who can help you filter unimportant messages, ask him or her to do so. You might also assign certain employees the task of staying up-to-date in certain areas. Having other people glean information for you can give you more time to run your business and keep you from getting overloaded.

The best thing you can do for your company is create quality products or provide quality services. But even the best products can’t sell themselves, and poor marketing can bankrupt million-dollar ideas.

Marketing doesn’t have to be difficult – often, it’s just a matter of saying the right thing. The right words can help you sell your products and services, and there are resources to help you if you get tongue-tied. Books like Words That Sell and More Words That Sell by Richard Bayan offer helpful advice, as do other websites and resources. Here are a few good words to get you started.

• Free. Giving products and services away might seem counterintuitive, but it can bring great benefits. People love getting something for nothing, and letting consumers try your product is a great way to get them to buy it. Provide free samples or offer free shipping with certain products. People pay attention when they see the word “free,” so use it to your advantage.
• Value. Especially in today’s struggling economy, getting quality products or services for less-than-premium prices is appealing to consumers. When you point out that your product has great value, you’re more likely to attract customers who might be more hesitant to purchase something more frivolous.
• Solution. The best products make life easier for consumers. Frame your product as a solution to their problems. Using “solution” and its synonyms illustrates that consumers’ lives will be better if they use your product, which inspires them to purchase it.
• You. Using the word “you” in your marketing copy makes it feel more immediate and relatable to customers. A product description that says, “The perfect gift for the little one in your life” is generally more effective than “The perfect gift for a little one.” It’s a subtle difference, but speaking directly to customers in your copy helps them feel like they really can use your product.

Setting goals is good, but reaching them is even better. Goals help you achieve greatness and leave you better than you were when you set them. Reaching goals brings a sense of accomplishment that is reward enough for the effort involved.

Accomplish your goals by doing one thing every day that will bring you closer to them. Some days, that might mean taking a large portion of time and making good progress. Other times it might only involve a few minutes of Internet research. But whatever you have to do, be sure to set aside time every day for your goals. Here are some ways you can spend that time:

1. Work on the goal directly. If you are training for a marathon, for example, this would include running. Most days, this is the type of work you will be doing on your goal – the sometimes mundane tasks that you need to be consistent in if you are serious about reaching your goals. As you begin to make progress and show improvements, this part of the process can be the most rewarding.
2. Take care of logistics. This type of work takes less time and is a good way to work on your goals on particularly busy days. If you have a goal to write a book, you’ll need to look into possible publishers and find an editor. Getting these things taken care of is an important part of reaching your goals and allows you to work toward your goals even when you’re not doing so directly.
3. Evaluate and adjust. In order for you to be productive in your efforts, your work needs to be well-planned. Take some time every once in a while to evaluate your progress and make adjustments. See if you’ve reached milestones and determine if you need to speed up or slow down. Maybe you need to set your sights a bit higher or give yourself more time. Periodically re-evaluating your goals helps you stay on track and ensure you’re making progress.