MOTIVATION - Everywhere & Nowhere

MOTIVATION – Everywhere & Nowhere


By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC – February 2010

Michael Korda says “If your position is everywhere, your momentum is zero.”

Hahaha – man this is priceless! How many times have you heard the words “I am running round like a blue *&^%ed fly” or “Running around like a headless chicken”? I would probably be quite wealthy by now if I got a rand for every time I have not only heard this, but said it myself. How about, when some one asks “how are you doing?” or “how’s business?” and our standard reply (well mine is anyway) “Busy!”

Here’s the thing – ‘busy’ with what? I am also one of those people who start the day, very early I might add, with the best intentions – I am going to do x, y and hopefully even z by the end of the day. Yet when the end of the day arrives I haven’t stopped running around, I am pooped, worn out, bone weary and more often than not, x, y and z still haven’t been done! So what is it that I have been doing? Make no mistake, I am working – the admin gets done everyday, clients get called, articles get written, not only for the blog, but also for the newspaper and the Business Women’s magazine. I am interviewed telephonically or end up on TV, when I thought it was a radio interview. I have attended to the crisis of clients with unruly staff, met with potentially new clients, done the mentoring thing, done the committee work for Women In Finance (http://www.womeninfinance.co.za), done everything except what it is that I set out to do and although it’s only 07h00 in the morning here as I write this, I have already attended to two client calls and my x, y and z of today have already been pushed out.

The problem of course, is that x, y, and z are also going to make me money and even though I will be charging the clients that called this morning in a state of panic, the work that ‘their panic call’ generates is far less than what the x, y and z will generate – yet somehow they always seem to get pushed to the side to accommodate the rest. What’s with that?

Make no mistake everything always does get done, I am very fastidious about my deliverables but the point is that I find it very difficult to ‘stick’ to my day planner and often it comes at a huge cost to myself, like working through the night to get done, or working over weekends when I should be grabbing a little time to rest for myself. I have no problem with putting the plan in place or deciding upon the priorities for the day. I have no problem with focusing on what needs to be done and I certainly do not have any problem with working – hard. What I seem to have a problem with is saying “No” to clients who expect me to drop everything to accommodate them because they are having a crisis and therein lies my own particular challenge.

The result of all of this is of course, that I end up running around like a blue &^%ed fly or a headless chicken (depending on which video you like to see in your own head) and I don’t get what I have planned to get done, done.

So the challenge to myself today (and of course any of you who are experiencing the same issues that I am), is to stick to my plan for today and slot the ‘Crisis’ into the planner for tomorrow or even the next day. After all, if the client only woke up to the problem as it is about to implode on them, it is really their problem and it should not be made mine or alternatively (and the thought has just occurred to me) that the ‘Crisis’ will be dealt with today – at an additional cost of course.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za