Managing Your Product Resources

Matrix Key:  Financial Viability - Resource Management - Products

"A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone." - Seth Godin

Next to your employees, the most important resource in your business is your product!  If you don't have a product, you don't have a business.  As you can see on the WholeLife Matrix, you must devote time and energy to caring for your product resources.  If you cannot consistently produce a quality product, you will not be able to sustain your business.

Here are the most important points to consider if you want to effectively manage your product resources:

1. Cost
2. Materials
3. Technology
4. Research and Development

You can manage these resources by developing good relationships with vendors and always looking for new ways to source materials.  Make the investment in the technology that will keep your product cutting edge, and always be on the lookout for your product's next evolution.  When you produce a quality product effectively, you have already won half the battle.

Are you ready to win?

Everything Happens in Time

Matrix Key:  Time

"Time brings all things to pass." - Aeschylus

Have you noticed the purple background on the WholeLife Matrix?  It's not just a colorful compliment to the matrix graphic.  The background represents time, and the concept that everything we do, everything in life, happens in time.  The entire matrix is surrounded by time, and time is the one thing we all share.

Few people think they have enough time, and time is often to blame for not achieving certain objectives and intentions.  Why haven't you written job descriptions for your employees, or studied the sales numbers, or met with your top 20 clients?  Is it because you didn't have the time?

Successful people have a very distinct relationship with time.  They seem to get more done with the same 24 hours.  They use their calendars wisely, and schedule projects, meetings and personal time, just like they would schedule a doctor's appointment.  And they show up for what's in their calendars.

Here are four key thoughts about your relationship with time:

1. Radar Screen - where do you watch your time, in your head or in your calendar?
2. Task Collector -  how do you capture all the things you need to get done?
3. Putting Things in Time - how do you arrange your schedule so that you can get everything done?
4. Determine What Not to Do - how do you weed out or delegate what you don't have time to do?

Throughout this blog series, we will touch on the subject of time.  When you use the WholeLife Matrix as a tool for building a happy, successful life, you will become more and more comfortable with your relationship with time.  You will be able to have time to accomplish everything in business and in life.  And you will discover how winners always have time on their side.

Are you ready to win?    

Personal Awareness

Matrix Key:  WholeLife Matrix - Personal Awareness

"You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself." - Zig Ziglar

The world is a very busy place, and every day we have many demands for our time and attention.  Technology keeps information and input at our fingertips, and makes it convenient for people to contact and connect with us.  With all of this data coming in, it's easy for our inner selves to get lost in the jumble.  It is very important for everyone to take time to find himself within all the chaos of daily life.  Where do you fit in the mix of your life?  Do you feel like you have a purpose?  Do you feel like life is happening to you or with you?

Personal Awareness is one of the four primary quadrants of the WholeLife Matrix.  If we are not personally aware, we cannot be in sync with the world around us.  We cannot see where we fit in and then joyfully go about relating to the world from that perspective.  We should each schedule time to reflect on who we are being in the workplace and the world.

Have you thought about your relationship with each of these parts of your life?

1. Self
2. Spirit
3. Community
4. Environment

How do you show up in each of these areas?  You can see that personal awareness in both internal and external.  We must know ourselves and commune with our internal thoughts and being, but we must also be aware of how we are part of the greater community and the world.

You may be only one person, but if you know where you fit in, you will find happiness, fulfillment and success in your corner of the cosmos.

Are you ready to win?

Health and Well Being

Matrix Key:  WholeLife Matrix - Health and Well-Being

"The greatest wealth is health." - Virgil

What could be more important in life than Health and Well-Being? Health and Well-Being is one of the four primary quadrants of the WholeLife Matrix. If we cannot get out of bed in the morning and feel well enough to function, how are we ever going to accomplish everything we have to do and handle in the day?  Our bodies and minds are high performance machines, and they need care and maintenance if they are to last.  If you put time and effort into maintaining your car, shouldn't you put at least that much effort into maintaining you?  Yet many of us put ourselves last, running ourselves into the ground until we are sick, tired, and worst of all, depressed and depleted.

The WholeLife Matrix breaks Health and WellBeing into four key components:

1. Vacation and Time Off
2. Having Fun
3. Nutrition and Weight
4. Exercise and Fitness

We all know that we should be working on all four of these components, but haven't we all put off at least one of them?  It's easy to skip that day at the gym, to work through the weekend, and to eat that slice of pie.  In order to have a balanced life however, we must be proactive about Health and WellBeing, and schedule time for it into our calendars.  If we want to keep the engine running, we must maintain it!

Are you ready to win?