Meagan Kerlin

You know that bad habits can have a detrimental impact on your life and your career. You also understand that good habits can make you a more productive and well-rounded person. What you may not realize is how negative patterns in your life could be affecting your mental health, emotional well-being and professional success. Patterns of behavior are more than just habits—they are routines that you regularly engage in, getting similar results every time.

Good habits work best in positive patterns. For example, you want to be better about staying off your phone in the evenings while you’re trying to fall asleep. This is a good habit you want to establish, but you also need to build a good pattern to set yourself up for success. Create a pattern that helps you relax and fall asleep, including self-care and charging your phone outside of the bedroom. You may not be able to create this new habit if you continue to follow your old patterns.

The first step in building good patterns of behavior is to identify negative ones. What areas of your life feel the least successful? Where do you struggle to improve? The key may not be just one bad habit to fix, but an entire sequence of actions or thoughts that continue to set you up for failure again and again.

You may not even realize that you have negative habits in your life that continue to affect you. Establishing new habits may require re-tooling the way you think and a careful look at how you approach things. Looking at the patterns in your life can help you understand more about the reasons why certain things hold you back and how you can take back control over your habits and forward progress.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Like many others, you may have resolved to take time this year to get more organized. Organization is a popular resolution each new year because many people recognize that lack of it can lead to frustration, stress and other complications. Getting more organized is not a magical elixir that will solve every problem, but it is something you should consider as an investment in yourself and your future success.

Getting organized can take a significant amount of work up front. You will have to develop new habits and perhaps even gain new skills to reach the level of organization you need. If you aren’t a naturally organized person, this can be frustrating or even boring. You may not enjoy it, but getting organized can bring the following benefits:

• Organized business operations can lead to a higher level of profitability.
• It can make it easier to delegate tasks to others.
• It will save you and others on your team valuable time.
• Organization can create a better and more cohesive company culture.
• It makes the storage and retrieval of information easier and faster.

Organization is good for business, but it starts with you on a personal level. You can’t have an organized company or do your job with exceptional levels of efficiency if you are not organized yourself. If you are unsure of where to begin, start with an assessment of yourself. In what areas do you feel out of control? Do you lose papers or have trouble keeping up with things? Identify your own organizational needs and start there.

You don’t have to be a naturally organized person to successfully develop this discipline in your own life. You simply have to be willing to do the work. Consistency in this area will eventually pay dividends, and you will see a return on the investment of your time and effort.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

Starting a business is about more than just having a good idea. You have to work hard, face the possibility of failure every day and keep pushing forward when times are tough. Being an entrepreneur is risky, but there can be significant rewards as well. In your pursuit of success, it’s important to remember that there are certain pitfalls associated with entrepreneurship. It can be helpful to know them, to be able to recognize them and to avoid them.

One of the most common pitfalls associated with being an entrepreneur is expecting to succeed immediately. There are stories of success that seemingly comes overnight, but behind the scenes is someone putting in months or even years of hard work. If you expect immediate results, you will surely be disappointed – and you may even be more likely to give up.

Another common pitfall is to refuse to ask for help or think you may need advice. You may be a pro at what you do, but the reality is that you aren’t perfect. There is always room for growth. Take the time to listen to feedback, and ask for help when you need it. Trust others who’ve walked the same path in the past.

Entrepreneurs may make the mistake of failing to plan for the future. While you can’t predict what will happen, you can make plans that will allow you to operate through times of uncertainty. Thinking long-term can help you navigate setbacks and unexpected circumstances more effectively.

These are only a few of the pitfalls entrepreneurs may experience in their journey toward success. If you do make a mistake or find yourself a victim of one of these pitfalls, don’t panic. Simply learn from what happened, pick up the pieces and move forward. Being an entrepreneur may not be easy, but it’s worth it.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

It’s important to work hard, but it’s just as important to work efficiently. If you feel overworked and stressed, it’s likely you are working more hours than you really have to work. It may be possible to trim the number of hours you spend working by simply changing how you approach your workday and structure your schedule. Everyone has the same number of hours in the day, but how you use them plays a significant role in your success.

One way you can work smarter is to figure out how and when to multitask. There may be times when you can split your focus between two minor things, allowing you to get more things done quickly. However, there are certain tasks that deserve your entire focus. It’s a skill to know when you should be multitasking and when you should be phoned in on one thing. This helps you avoid wasted time and needless hours at your desk.

If you want to work fewer hours while still being productive and successful, you have to know what you’re doing. It’s important to seek the counsel of people ahead of you on your path and listen to constructive criticism. Honing your skills, building your knowledge and constantly learning will help you work more efficiently and avoid mistakes that can ultimately cost you valuable time.

Another thing that will help you avoid working too many hours is to evaluate where you could be losing time throughout the day. For example, if you ride the bus or the subway, could you be using that time to check emails, plan your day or do some work? Are you spending too much time on social media? Are you doing things you should be delegating? It’s possible you are losing time during the day by not getting the most out of your hours.

Working smarter means evaluating how you are currently using your time. Reclaiming your lost time can help you work more efficiently, ultimately allowing you to work fewer hours. If you want to work less, you have to start by trying to be more efficient with the time you have.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

It’s the start of a new calendar year, which means you probably have goals you want to reach over the next 12 months. Part of meeting your goals includes planning for success, and having the right strategy could play an important role in whether you accomplish your objectives. Having the right attitude is also a crucial component in achieving success in the goals you’ve set for yourself.

One attitude that you may find helpful is fearlessness. While this means moving forward with confidence, it does not mean being reckless. Fear can needlessly hold you back from chasing your goals, and you should not allow it to drive your decision making. You can still be fearless and also be prepared and knowledgeable about what you are pursuing.

Another attitude you will want to carry with you into 2021 is determination. You will face challenges and setbacks as you chase your goals, but this is part of the process. Your determination could make the difference in whether or not you are successful after you fall down, as your attitude will determine if you get back up and try again.

The mental approach you take will make as much of a difference in whether you reach your goals as your skills. Attitude can make or break your year both professionally and personally. The past year was difficult in so many ways, and 2021 will likely come with it’s own challenges. When your mind is in the right place and you have the right attitude, you can overcome whatever this next year throws your way.

As you consider your goals for 2021, think about your attitude and whether you may need to make some mental adjustments to better prepare yourself for success. How you feel about yourself, your abilities and your objectives can help you find the attitude you need to look ahead with confidence.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

It’s normal to have strong emotions, especially regarding things you care deeply about. Your emotions, however, can become a problem when you allow them to influence your decisions in a negative way or treat people poorly. If you tend to react in anger, this response can eventually harm both your personal and professional life. If you notice this habit in your life, you need to deal with it immediately and rip anger out by the roots.

It’s possible you do not really understand the impact of your anger problem. People who have uncontrolled tempers may even believe they are justified in their reactions. Over time, people exposed to sudden outbursts, aggressive responses, rude comments and yelling will tire of being exposed to these things. Anger is often cyclical, and it will help to understand what triggers your anger. Understanding these things may help you more effectively filter your words and actions.

You may think you can manage your anger, but what you should focus on is rooting out the problem completely. Honest self-evaluation can help you see ways to train yourself to react differently. The following questions may be helpful as you consider an anger habit:

• How would you feel if your words and actions were directed at you from someone else?
• Do you feel the need to humiliate others to prove a point?
• Have you noticed your relationships changing, or are people less willing to work with you in professional settings?
• Do you suppress your emotions until you reach a boiling point where you are no longer able to manage them?
• Do you often feel regret after outbursts or conversations where you were expressing your frustration?

These questions may help you regain a sense of control over your anger problem. Getting rid of the problem altogether may require deep evaluation into the causes of your feelings of anger, and it may help to speak to a professional. There is no shame in needing help, and taking this step can go a long way in helping you preserve the most important relationships in your life.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

 

You’ve seen athletes in the tunnel before they come out before the game – they’re listening to music, praying, meditating, doing exercises or going through other rituals to help them get in the zone. While you may not be taking the field for a big game, you still need to know how to get in the zone when it’s time to focus on that project or other work-related task. Music may help, or there may be another trick that will help you get in the right mental space.

One thing that helps some people is to exercise. A hard and fast workout will not only get your heart rate up, it will help you focus mentally. While you’re working out, you can think about what is ahead while allowing your nerves to leave your body through movement. You will also want to make sure you’re focusing on good nutrition. What you put in your body will have an impact on your mental focus.

If you are struggling with getting in the zone when you need to be, it could be that you are overly tired. Getting good sleep is critical for success, and it also has a direct impact on your health. The focus you need for that presentation, meeting or project actually starts the night before. Eat well, and then get to bed early.

Finally, you will find it easier to get in the zone if you are not stretching yourself too thin. Focus on one thing at a time, and it may be easier to get things done more effectively and efficiently this way instead of when you are trying to multitask. There may be other things that can help you get in the zone too, but it’s important to identify the specific things that help you so that you are able to focus and hone in on certain tasks when it’s time to do so.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC

When you consider your career path and the benchmarks you want to reach in your professional journey, you may think in terms of goals. It’s good to have specific goals for yourself in your career, but things change, and you may find that previous goals no longer align with your current projected path. This is why goals can be fluid and adjustable, but your standards should never be.

Your standards are the guiding principles for how you live and the decisions you make. While your goals can and likely will change, who you are should not. Instead of over stressing about what goals you need to succeed in your career, maybe you should consider the standards you have that will help determine how you conduct yourself, treat others and decide on what’s truly important. Asking the following questions may help you identify your standards:

• What is most important to you in your personal life?
• What do you value in your career?
• Do you prioritize your family and loved ones over your career?
• How do you want to be seen by others?
• How do you want to treat others?
• Where does your job rank on your list of most important things in life?
• Who do you look up to most?
• What character traits do you want to improve or cultivate in your life?

The standards you set for yourself will actually inform your goals. It’s possible to be a person with high standards and good moral character who wants to succeed in specific ways in his or her career. However, there may be situations where you have to make a choice between a certain step in your career and the standards you’ve set in your life. Your goals may not really have an impact on who you are a person, but your standards likely will.

As you consider your goals for the upcoming new year, don’t forget to outline your personal and professional standards as well. No matter what career or financial goals you want to accomplish in 2021, how you treat people and the type of person you are is more important than any of those things.

By Meagan Kerlin for Vertu Marketing LLC