Connections can make you if you have them.

They can break you if you don’t.

Connecting is the fourth of Seven C’s, seven stages you move through when you turn a good idea into focused action, successful implementation and, eventually, celebration of great results.

They’re also covered in this blog post, Let the Seven C’s carry you from early idea to ultimate success.

To connect for success and results follow these four basic steps:

1. Strategize
2. Think creatively
3. Be prepared to make an exchange
4. Plan ahead – things always take longer than you think they will

Let’s take a closer look at each step:

1. Strategize

You have a vision or goal, however well- or loosely defined it is now.

And so, with that goal in mind, what resources do you believe you need for success?

Of these, what do you already have?

Now, what gap is left that you need to fill?

Consider whether you need connections to help you:

- Build your market

- Find the right people to work for you

- Get the money you need, in the right flow

- Find the right materials at the right price

- Get the right information easily

- Test and refine your product or service

- Figure out the easiest way to make the product or service for your customers

Once you know the reasons you need connections, you can start to plan where and how to get them.

2. Think creatively.

Remember a time in your life when you were especially resourceful, perhaps at a time when the odds seemed to be against you.

What connections did you need to make success happen?

How did you create or find them?

You be just as creative and resourceful now.

Who or what can most easily lead you to the resources you need – whether people, money, materials or information, or best methods – to get the job done?

3. Be prepared to make an exchange

There’s a big difference between reaching out and actually connecting.

You can attempt to make a connection, but it’s not something you can directly control.

What’s in it for the person you’re trying to reach, to connect with, to help you?

They may do it out of the goodness of their hearts, but the odds are that they’re very busy, too.

To get their time and attention, what do you have or can you offer that can help them meet one of their goals?

Keep their needs in mind as you try to make or grow a connection that will serve both of you well.

4. Plan ahead – things always take longer than you think they will

Making connections, like many things in life, takes longer than you expect.

For example:

- Someone you hope to meet and get advice from has a calendar that’s impossibly full.

- Another person turns out not to be the right resource, at all, but has an idea of someone else who may be able to help you.

- Still another person has a competing project, and can’t help you now.

You see how this goes.

Reaching, finding the time to try to connect, and then actually connecting often takes far longer than you hope.

Start now to have the connections you need, when you need them.

Create the right conditions for connections to thrive. Your connections and grapevine will grow when you’ve seeded and tended it well.

If you liked this post, and have friends and colleagues who will find the information valuable, please share it with them. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---

Doing something new in your work or life – or hoping to?

Then the odds are very high, you’re going to have to clear something else out of the way.

You may need to free:

- Time
- Money
- Space
- Energy
- Attention

You may not want to take this clearing step, but don’t wait for something to break.

Give the new idea or project space.

Clear the way.

Clearing is one of the “Seven C’s.” These are seven stages that take you from initial idea through success and celebration at a project’s end. You can read more about it in this post, Let the Seven C’s carry you from early idea to ultimate success.

If you need to clear the way for a new project or goal, consider each of these possibilities:

TIME

If it’s time you need to clear, look at your calendar for a day, a week, a month.

What activities do you see there that make you feel dragged down, depleted, or in other ways constrained, restricted or held back?

Look for ways to streamline, simplify or eliminate them.

Maybe you need to give up a volunteer activity, or a committee you’re on right now.

Perhaps you need to outsource that work, or delegate more (even if it’s not easy for you…ESPECIALLY if it’s not easy for you).

Or perhaps you need to streamline a process so the activity you must do – and only you – doesn’t take as much time as it did before.

Think creatively.

Think big.

Learn to let go of the things that you don’t value so much anymore to make room for what’s new or improved.

MONEY

If it’s money that you need to free up for the new project or goal, look closely at your spending in the last month or quarter,

You’d be surprised how many dollars are probably leaking out of your wallet – or budget at work – when you weren’t paying attention.

What expenses did you have that you didn’t expect?

How can you plan for them in the future so that you can prevent, control, or minimize these costs when you can?

In what ways did you spend money that turned out not to be satisfying or effective, in the end?

Now, look ahead.

Can you substitute, make do, or extend the useful life of something you already have to free up money to fund your new project or goal?

Find ways to be a better buyer, stretch the budget you have, or in other ways, figuring out ways to fit the new expenses in.

SPACE

You’d be surprised how much energy you find when you clear the decks of “stuff.”

Give yourself a good environment in which to work and think.

1. Imagine your work environment as it is when it works best for you, and the people who work with you.

2. Look closely at what can – or must – go. Figure out what must stay.

3. Decide where you’ll send the things you give away, throw away, or donate.

If you don’t have a clear and appropriate destination, the things you thought would go away?

They’ll stay.

They’ll just go in a storage closet somewhere and someone (probably you) will have to go through all of it again.

4. Make the time to do the work, but don’t make too much time.

Stay focused. Keep moving. Set your goals and be decisive.

And if you have a hard time starting, just get rid of three things. You’ll already feel fresh energy from having started.

Let it take you from there.

5. Donate, give away or throw out the things you choose to let go, just like you said you would.

No angst.

No ennui.

Just do it.

6. Reward yourself in appropriate ways for making good progress and completing the project.

ENERGY

The way you can free up energy for new things is by doing some of the things we’ve already talked about:

Clear space

Prune your calendar

Create processes to get the basics done easily, and well.

Don’t keep reinventing things that should be easy and predictable by now. Create simple, predictable processes to get predictable things done easily.

Use your creative energy to move ahead, make change, do things better, reach dreams.

Do big things with your best energy.

Don’t keep it trapped in the back room.

Put your energy to work for you.

ATTENTION

This one can be deceiving.

You may not realize the many ways in which your attention is drained away.

Consider activities, people, clubs or other diversions that just aren’t as satisfying as they once were (and maybe they never were very satisfying at all, now that you think about it…).

Let them go.

Direct your attention to what you really care about now.

Get out of your own way.

Clear the decks to forge ahead.

The past is the past. And the present could probably use some improvement.

Find or make the necessary time, money, space, energy and attention to create success on your new project.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---

Commitment.

When you hear, or see that word, what do you think? What do you feel?

For some people, the idea of commitment makes them feel restricted.

For others, the word brings a sense of direction, focus, steadiness, calm.

In an earlier post, Let the Seven C’s Carry You from Early Idea to Ultimate Success, I shared seven stages that are involved in turning a great idea into great success.

The stage when you commit to a decision, a direction, a goal is the stage when you narrow the many possibilities, the many good ideas, down to one.

It sets your target, and in the process, can make future decisions far easier about how to spend your time, money, energy and attention.

You’re saying “THIS is my path. I’ve considered many possibilities and THIS is the one I choose.”

And by making that decision, by making that commitment, you’re flipping the switch of potential achievement into planning, action, and soon, results.

It CAN be scary to narrow many interesting possibilities down to just one.

Here are a few ideas you can use to choose your direction, and make a well-considered commitment that will serve you well.

1. Envision success

Get quiet.

Remove distractions.

Close your eyes for a few minutes.

Imagine you’re enjoying the success you hope to achieve, and that it’s all happening right now.

What is it like there?

What do you like as well as you expected?

What do you like even more than you thought?

And what do you miss about the path you left, and the paths you did not choose?

It may seem strange to consider the downside of your dream as well as the upside, but it’s an important part of making a good, informed, and committed choice.

Now, consider what you had to do to reach this point.

What commitments did you make?

What actions did you take?

What did you give up, change, or walk away from in order to reach this goal?

2. Imagine the success after this one

Pretend you’re looking back from beyond having reached this next goal.

What new paths did that achievement open up for you in the future?

Do you like where those possibilities can take you, when you consider the “success after this next one?”

What surprises you most about what you imagine or realize, when you imagine the success that’s possible after this one?

3. Compare and contrast

Think back on a project or team to which you were really committed.

Now think of a team or project you were far less committed to, a team whose success you were far less invested in.

Compare the two experiences and the results you and your team achieved, in each case.

What were the differences?

What was the positive part of each experience?

What was the downside of each experience, if there was one?

How did you feel about your participation, performance and results in each case?

4. Look through another’s eyes

Imagine someone (consider your customers, manager, peers, or best competitors) watching you work on something to which you’re really committed.

What would they notice about you, as they see you working in a fully committed way?

Does it appear to them as if you’re happy about the choice you made, and the actions and effort it requires of you?

Now imagine they are watching you working in a far less committed way.

What do they notice about you, the way you’re working, and how you appear to feel about it?

Finally, for now, use good decision-making processes as you choose the direction you’ll commit yourself to. Here’s more information about good decision-making.

Know that when you’ve made a good decision, you may feel a strong and surprising sense of clear direction and even, calm.

At this point, your target will be clear, your efforts will be focused, and your success will be far more assured than without having made a committed choice.

Take a chance.

Make a committed choice.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---

Why do some people consistently get a lot done, have fun doing it, and get great results (and often, many accolades, too)…all for less effort than most people do?

It’s because they’re working on things they care about, A LOT.

A quick look at dictionary definitions provides some perspective:

care, v.
1. to feel concern about
2. to wish, desire or like

The bottom line is these people are guided by heart-felt values that align their work with what’s important to them in a sense that’s often much larger than their jobs or a current project.

In last week’s newsletter article, Let the Seven C’s carry you from early idea to ultimate success, I shared seven stages involved in turning a great idea into great success.

Doing something you really care about is the first step in the process of creating great success.

Whether you’re off-track and trying to find your way back, or searching for the next great project or job, start by asking yourself these questions:

1. What do I care about?

- Think about your dreams.

They’re not a minor thing.

Dreams and aspirations provide valuable information about where your time and energy will be best and most enjoyably invested.

- Think about the causes that are important to you.

Perhaps someone you know is affected by an illness, condition or experience that you’d like to prevent others from having to go through, too.

That concern or priority can help guide you to projects or jobs that may be especially satisfying to you.

- Think about your favorite projects and jobs.

Spend a few minutes thinking about why you think you liked them so much.

This may help guide you to a new idea, project, or job that will be satisfying to you, too.

- Think about the skills you have and enjoy using the most.

If you know what you’d like to do more of (and what you’d like to do less of)
in the future, it will help narrow alternatives to make best use of your time and talent.

2. Who do you care about?

- Think about the people you’ve enjoyed working with most in past jobs or projects.

Spend a few minutes considering why they were great people for you to work with, and what you’d like to repeat about that experience, if you can.

- Now think about the people with whom you’ve done your best work.

These may be people you really enjoyed working with, but in some cases, they’re not.

Very challenging people bring out strengths we didn’t know we had, higher expectations than we may be used to, and in other ways, spur us on to do more with the talents we have than we knew we could do.

3. What do you want to create and experience?

- Think of products or services that you wish someone would create.

Maybe instead of waiting for someone else to invent or in other ways bring these ideas to market, the person who needs to do that is you.

- Also, consider experiences you’d like to have.

There may be ways to begin doing that with your next project or job.

- Consider, also, the things you would love to do, but think you can’t, perhaps because you believe it’s “just not you.”

Take a chance.

What’s stopping you?

For your greatest success on your project or job, it’s vital that you think about what you care most about, aspire to, or dream to have come true.

Start now.

Don’t be the one who’s stopping you.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---

Are you searching for a great idea, a new opportunity, or a project in which you can thrive, driving it to complete success?

Use the Seven C’s, seven stages that will take you from earliest idea to  successful final project, and celebration, as well.

It’s common for people and teams to skip one or more of these important steps.

And that can seriously affect the final outcome of the project, often in undesirable ways.

I’ll cover each of the following seven stages in more detail in future blog posts:

1. Care
Start your idea search by considering what you care about, a lot.

You know from your own experience that success is far more likely if you’re working for people you care about, on things you care about, as well.

2. Commit
Caring and commitment are very different things.

Commitment means you’re choosing to invest your time, attention, energy and, often, your money, as well, to getting this job done – and not invest it in doing something else that’s more interesting.

3. Clear
There may be things you need to clear out of the way in order for this project to get your full attention.

Think about what, specifically, needs to change to make way for this project. Figure out how you’ll get that done as quickly and well as possible.

4. Connect
Often other people are involved in large or significant projects.

Who needs to be involved in this one?

Do you know them already, or do you need to reach them through others?

Often some groundwork needs to be done to create the connections you need for full success.

5. Create
Finally you get to the actual creation stage.

Much of the work up to this point involves laying the groundwork for success.

What steps are involved in creating a sample of the product, or a pilot program to test the concept?

How can you test the idea with a sample of customers who are likely to buy the final product or service?

What is the process you will follow – or teach others to – in order to produce this product or service easily, consistently?

6. Complete
There comes a time when a product or service is ready to be offered for sale to customers, or the project needs to be finished.

And yet…

Sometimes finishing is the toughest step.

Some people try to wrap things up too quickly, and miss some key details that make all the difference, in the end.

Others hang on to a project far too long, and seem to almost refuse to bring the project to an end.

This is costly, and you may very well miss other opportunities and sales, in the process.

7. Celebrate
Do you take the time to fully notice your achievements as they occur?

It’s easy to be so focused on what isn’t complete, or what hasn’t been done yet, that you miss success as it unfolds, bit by bit.

Notice and acknowledge what’s going well in order to grow success even more in the future.

Try the Seven C’s the next time you’re seeking project success, particularly when the challenge is new, and the path ahead is unfamiliar.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

---