PM360 May 2010

COMMON SENSE

TWEETS TO LIVE BY

By Bud Bilanich

I have a new book out, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Success Advice...All in 140 Characters or Less. In this book, I’ve distilled my success coaching lessons into Tweets. This month, I’d like to share 21 of my favorites from the book with you.

1) Clarity: Define exactly what career and life success mean to you. It’s easier to hit a clear, unambiguous target.

2) Clarity: Think of your purpose as your personal mission; why you are on this earth. Your direction is your vision for the next 3 to 5 years.

3) Clarity: You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything. Your values help you make decisions in ambiguous situations.

4) Commitment: You’re in charge! Commit to taking personal responsibility for creating the successful life and career you want and deserve.

5) Commitment: Create goals in all areas of your life: career, personal, business, family, hobbies, health, and fitness. Make sure they are congruent.

6) Commitment: Treat failures as the tuition you need to pay to succeed. If you have a setback, just choose to react positively and learn something.

7) Confidence: Optimism is contagious. Become a positive, optimistic person. Surround yourself with positive people. They will build your confidence.

8) Confidence: Defeat fear. Here are 4 steps to deal with fears that can sabotage your success. Identify it. Admit it. Accept it. Do something about it.

9) Confidence: Give so much time to building your self-confidence and improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

10) Competence, Positive Personal Impact: Create and nurture your unique personal brand. Stand, and be known for, something. Make sure that everything you do is on brand.

11) Competence, Positive Personal Impact: Be well groomed and appropriate for every situation. Always dress one level up from what is expected. You’ll stand out from the crowd.

12) Competence, Positive Personal Impact: Always act like a lady or gentleman. It’s not old fashioned; it’s smart business and leads to a successful life and career.

13) Competence, Outstanding Performance: Become a lifelong learner. The half-life of knowledge is rapidly diminishing. Staying in the same place is the same as going backwards.

14) Competence, Outstanding Performance: Stay focused. Don’t get distracted. Treat time as the precious commodity that it is. Manage your time and life well.

15) Competence, Outstanding Performance: Determine your peak energy times. Schedule “high brain” tasks then and “low brain” tasks at times when your energy is lowest.

16) Competence, Dynamic Communication: Learn how to handle yourself in conversation. A brief conversation with the right person can greatly help—or hinder your career.

17) Competence, Dynamic Communication: Become a clear, concise writer. Make your writing easy to read and easy to understand. Use simple straightforward language.

18) Competence, Dynamic Communication: Presentation steps: 1) Determine the message. 2) Analyze the audience. 3) Organize the information. 4) Design visuals. 5) Practice.

19) Competence, Relationship Building: Get genuinely interested in others. Help bring out the best in everyone you know. Others will gravitate to you.

20) Competence, Relationship Building: Pay it forward. Build relationships by giving with no expectation of return. Give of your- self and time to build strong relationships.

21) Competence, Relationship Building: Do your job; give credit to others for doing theirs. Everyone likes to work with people who share the credit for a job well done.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these Tweets. It can be a challenge to get a point across in 140 characters or less, but I had fun writing the book. Success Tweets is available at your local bookstore and at Amazon. You might want to pick up several copies; one for you and others for your family and friends, people you lead or people you mentor.

Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy, is a success coach, motivational speaker, author, and blogger. He helps his clients apply their common sense to achieve the career and life success they want and deserve. He has written five books on career and life success, which are the basis of his Common Sense Success System. For a free introductory DVD, go to www.CommonSenseSuccessSystem.com. PM360 readers can also get a free subscription, worth $97 annually, to his weekly ezine Common Sense or download a free copy of his 25 Audio Tips for Career and Life Success.