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By: Neal Bookspan

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Neal Bookspan

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Organization is more important than ever. Many of us are working remotely. Even if you aren’t, being organized makes a difference. If you have children, school is about to start around the country with remote learning, pulling even more on your time. Being organized will put you in the best position to be successful in all facets of your life. Now is the time to organize or, if you are organized, to reorganize. Delay rarely helps in any situation and disorganization leads to disaster. It not only can make you late on your commitments, it can adversely affect your business…
Most professionals still are working remotely and will be for the foreseeable future. This makes mentoring relationships more challenging. You can have phone calls or Zoom calls with a mentor or accountability partner, but mentoring relationships grow from forging a relationship based on knowing each other. Getting to know each other is harder to do by phone or Zoom unless that close relationship already existed. Even then, it’s not as good as being able to spend time together in person. All of this makes beginning new mentoring relationships more challenging because it’s easier to build the relationship and trust through…
Have you ever trained or practiced something with a goal in mind, such as improving your time on your daily run, memorizing your lines for your role at the local theater, or something similar? When you do, you have to make time to work up to your goal. With no preparation, you may finish the race, but it won’t be fast and you likely will feel it in your body for quite some time. If you don’t practice those lines and really get them down, the opening night will be uncomfortable, at best. These are examples of why preparation matters.…
I have been thinking about change during the last few months as many businesses have had to convert to remote working, and others have lost their jobs or businesses. It caused me to go back to a post I wrote in January 2014, which resonates today (and everyday). I have updated it, but it remains truth that change is constant. Winners know this. What do I mean?  Being able to adjust on the fly is important.  In my world it can mean abandoning the entire oral argument you spent hours preparing because of a question or statement by the judge,…
Reputation takes a lifetime to build and mere seconds to lose. This is why your reputation and the reputation of your business matter in all you do during work hours and outside of those hours. This relates both to an overall picture of what others think and what you do that fits within those general thoughts, or not. We all are ambassadors for the companies we work for. No role is bigger or smaller than other roles, just different. All roles are important and allow your business to function. It’s important to act in a manner that reflects well on…
Being healthy obviously is good for you. It also is good for your business. It gives you energy. You can work out with others, including people you work with, customers, referral sources, etc. It is what you make it, and that can turn into something powerful in your life. People seemed to really get into exercise when the quarantines and stay at home orders started. As time has gone by (and it has gotten really hot where I live), the amount of people I see out exercising, even early morning, has significantly decreased. We all should make exercising part of…
Do you set goals? You should, and they should be in writing. If you have, you should revisit them often to see where you are on the road to achieving your goals. Writing goals and not reviewing them will negatively affect your chance to reach them. You need to write down your goals. I currently am outlining my goals because June is the fiscal year end for my firm. Everyone at my firm writes down SMART goals for the next fiscal year. We also have mentoring and accountability groups that meet throughout the year to discuss goals and help our…
elena-taranenko-hCUA4xtxVTA-unsplash Photo by Elena Taranenko on Unsplash
Photo by Elena Taranenko on Unsplash
What are  you doing right now? Are you focusing on reading these words? Do you have an eye on your email, texts, or social media? If you are working from home, are you dealing with your children? Or maybe you are do some combination or all of these activities.  Or are you on the phone?  We all think we can multi-task and do it well, but the truth is we can’t. How many times a day, when you are on the phone, can you hear the keyboard and mouse clicks on the other end of the line?  Are they taking…
allie-I3nD16F56Ko-unsplash Photo by Allie on Unsplash
Photo by Allie on Unsplash
For most of the past two and a half months in person networking hasn’t existed. It remains of the utmost importance for all of us, whether we are lucky enough to be able to work or are unemployed. Many people I speak with have not networked or conducted business development activities since offices closed and stay at home orders went into effect. Doing nothing is harmful in the long run and despite businesses now being allowed to open in most states, normal networking and business development activities will take longer to become the norm again. Most of my networking involves…
During this social distancing and quarantine limbo we currently find ourselves in, I have found myself taking time to think about my career, the road to where I am, and the road forward. Through doing so, I had some random thoughts that connect into an outline on trying to build a sustaining career. I wish someone had told me some of these back in the day, but trial and error, along with wrong turns, are how you learn so you can make better decisions down the road, thereby giving yourself the best opportunity to achieve success. 1. Being the star…
Are you the workaholic each of us knows? You know the one. They check their email from the time they wake up, to when they are at lunch with you (please remember this is rude when we are able to dine together again), to when they go to sleep. For some, it’s an easy pattern to fall into. Now that many of us are working from home, it’s easier because there is even less separation between work and home. Work/life balance is difficult in normal times, but we aren’t in normal times. The blur between work and home has never…
Staying connected to people you know is difficult when you are in different places and told it’s unsafe to gather in groups. Most people currently are isolated at home other than when grocery shopping. You probably are working remotely, if you are able, and are lucky enough to still have a job. You may walk around your neighborhood and get to waive to your neighbors or exchange a quick greeting from a distance. This isolation is unhealthy mentally because most of us crave connection and miss it now that it’s harder to come by. Your disconnection with friends, family and…
We currently are living in strange and different times. Businesses, cities, and countries are shut down. People are isolated. There is no traffic and the air seems cleaner. And people are exercising outdoors more than usual. Despite businesses being closed, or their employees working remotely, the time to network is now. Networking is about connecting. Connecting takes many forms in addition to attending events or meeting for coffee. With in-person networking off of the table for now, other ways to connect should be your focus. Many people have more time on their hands, which can be used to connect by…
If you are lucky enough to still have a job or business, has the manner in which you work changed during the pandemic? You likely are working remotely, as are many of your co-workers, friends and family, including many who haven’t done so before. If you think about this, it’s pretty amazing how fast companies adapted to be able for their entire workforce to work remotely. As we go weeks in with most people working remotely, rough edges are getting ironed out and the manner of work is becoming more routine. Yes, most people are getting used to working remotely…
You probably saw the title and thought “what is he writing about?” It could be about the great Talking Heads song of the same name, but it’s not. It’s about living in circumstances that changed on a dime forcing most to work from home, and many to lose their livelihood. It obviously isn’t the equivalent of really being a soldier at war, but for most of us it’s similar in that the terrain is constantly shifting and you have to continuously adjust. It also is a war in that we all (or, at least most of us) are together trying…
Exercise is so important. It’s not to sport a six pack of abs or Popeye like biceps, but to give your body something it needs. Exercise benefits your body and your brain. To quote the Rolling Stones, “you gotta move.” When you are healthy, movement helps your body to be healthier (this is easy to Google). Movement helps your body physically, but also mentally. In times of stress, like now, it can help reduce anxiety, depression, and stress, and improve your mood and cognitive functioning. Read that sentence again; movement can help you to be more centered and at peace.…