Why Something So Small Can Make a BIG Difference

It's interesting because there is something that I don't exactly share with many people in a business setting, but it is one of the my BIGGEST pet peeves when it comes to the business world.  When people exhibit this behavior, it drives me absolutely crazy, and I have (in the past) racked my brain trying to analyze and explain their behavior in some way that could potentially make it justifiable.  However, as I have progressed in my professional career and interacted with a number of different professionals from various executive levels, I have come to the conclusion that my original analysis of this behavior is correct and there is just no other way around it.  To not be so cryptic and keep you in the dark, first of all, this "behavior" is not returning phone calls or emails in a prompt and reasonable manner and my "analysis" of this behavior is that these people just aren't good at their jobs.  While this may sound harsh, my feeling is that this person's lack of understanding of how important it is to return phone calls/emails/text is a microcosm of their reaction to other things in their business world, which leads me to believe that more than just this is "falling through the cracks."  But to validate this argument, let me share with you the reasons that returning messages from individuals is vital to one's professional success.

IT IS SO EASY TO DO SO

In today's world of electronic devices out of the wazu, it makes absolutely no sense that someone cannot get a message back to you with almost no effort.  Today, we are flooded with ways for you to respond to someone when they reach out to you (text, email, phone call).  Even Apple makes it super simple by responding to a call with automated responses so people know what is going on. No one is SO busy that they can't take 10 seconds to respond to an urgent email or phone call asking for an answer to something that is critically important to the other person. I've met many C-level executives during my professional career, and what I've found is that these individuals (clearly busier than the average line manager with so many people vying for their time) always made the time to get some type of answer back to you. If they couldn't do it, they would make sure that their personal assistants would do so. Even if it is an "I'm not interested," they took the time to make sure the other person knew where they stood and were clear. The funny thing about this type of response is that it actually frees more time for the executive in the future because if he or she responds with an "I'm not interested" as least they know they have decreased the chances of them getting that phone call or email in the future. When no response is given, the other person could just persistently continue to follow up with you wasting more of your time in the future.  It is this long term, around the corner type thinking that probably got many of these people in the positions they hold today.

PEOPLE DON'T FORGET

From an internal standpoint, when you fail to return phone calls, email, or text to your co-workers, these individuals will remember, and this could taint how you are perceived as being effective at your job. Over my years in my professional career, the individuals who were promoted most quickly and seen as someone you can "depend on" were those individuals who were listed as "highly responsive" by their peers. If one of your co-workers needs something important to their success for an upcoming meeting and they make this explicitly clear to you, and then you take so long to respond to them that their success is jeopardized, do you think they are going to have a positive or negative view of your ability to handle the responsibilities of your job? Regardless of what kind of results you may be currently achieving, there is going to be a skewed view of your effectiveness in that role by them.  And in a business world in which there is an increased focus on peer and subordinate reviews for possibilities of a promotion, this could be highly detrimental to your ability to make it to the next level.

WHAT IF THE SHOE WAS ON THE OTHER FOOT

The most obvious reason that this is important, and perhaps the most important, is the answer to the question "How would you want others to treat you?"  It's funny because I'm sure that some of these people who are horrible at returning phone calls or email or probably some of the most upset when others don't do it for them in a prompt manner. Regardless of how important you think that person is, the courtesy to return a request for information with some type of answer shows something about your moral character and respect for others.  People who make their best efforts to do this are generally people who feel that all individuals are worthy of their respect and should be treated accordingly.  People who don't do this often have a feeling that there are certain people who are "better" than others, and only these people are "worthy" of their responses. While this may seem to make sense in some ways from a business standpoint, which person do you think would exhibit higher overall moral character from a long term ethical standpoint?

Emails, text, phone calls. They don't seem like a big deal if you don't return them because you are so busy you don't have time.  But in the world of email on our phones, automated text responses, and personal assistants, there is no reason we can't respond in a timely manner.  The end game is important as well because you never know if that person that you shunned and disrespected some years ago with a lack of response will be put in a position of power over you in the future. And while you may think this person won't hold a grudge against you because of something so small, you never ever know...it might be someone just like me.

Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.

You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN

What We Can Learn From Kendrick's Loss at the Grammy's

So, immediately after Kendrick Lamar's lost the Grammy win about a month ago, I was completely baffled at how this could be the case and had to download Macklemore's The Heist to make sure I wasn't completely crazy.  While the unbelievable boundaries that Kendrick pushed with his GKMC album seemed to be unparalleled this year, there could be a possibility that I completely missed how much better Macklemore's album was. I heard a couple of tracks off of it on the radio and generally overall liked them. However, after going through all of them and listening a second time, I just didn't get it. While I admit that the album is above quality work, I just couldn't see how anyone who could consider themselves a connoisseur of hip hop would rank that over GKMC.  Macklemore even admitted as much, as he texted Kendrick after to let him know that even HE thought he was robbed (very classy move on Macklemore's part, BTW). Overall, the loss by Kendrick at the Grammy's offered many lessons that I think we could all take in consideration for our lives.

THE BEST DOESN'T ALWAYS WIN
I know we all would like to think we live in a fair world, and if you work hard and do what is asked of you, you will be successful.  Hogwash.  There are so many different influences and prejudices that people have of which you may have no idea.  We live in a world in which people have very ingrained beliefs about others based on how they were raised and their specific life experiences.  For this reason, you may be put in a situation in which you may be the better candidate for a promotion or another job, but because they just don't "connect" with you, you could lose out on it.  By understanding this simple fact in life, you could continue to have a positive outlook on the situation by knowing that you didn't lose because you had an inferior performance or did poor quality work, but because the situation was not geared in your favor. Now, this isn't to say that all situations are like this, and sometimes you do lose because you suck, but this just helps keeps things in perspective that negative outcomes are not always the results of negative inputs if there are ancillary influences that can skew the results.  This will help you keep an positive outlook on your road to success.

THERE ARE ALWAYS THINGS OUTSIDE OF YOUR CONTROL
Kendrick had no control over who was judging him that day.  Needless to say, if the judges were a group of individuals who truly listen to hip hop on a regular basis and understand that what Kendrick Lamar created was special and only comes around every 5-6 years or so in the hip hop world, this would've been a no-brainer. However, the judges had backgrounds in all different genres of music and I would guess the majority rarely listen to hip hop, if ever. Why one would let people vote on a genre that they are not truly experts in is confusing to me. It's like having NFL coaches vote on who's the most valuable NBA player.  They are both sports, right?  It's utterly preposterous.  For that reason, however, there were things that Kendrick Lamar just had no control over. This is very comparable to life in which the person who has to make a decision on your career or the various circumstances you are put in throughout life are in no way controlled by you.  You may not have the same contacts and connections as someone else applying for the same position.  You may not have gone to the same Ivy league school and worked on your golf game at the age of seven as some others who may be more "chum" with the boss.  You can't control this and have to remember to continue to work hard on those things you can while accepting and not dwelling on those that you cannot.

DON'T LET UNFAIRNESS GET YOU DOWN AND STOP YOU FROM MOVING ON
Often, I will hear about individuals who are passed over for a promotion and immediately quit their job because they feel they were wronged. While, there may be instances in which this is the right thing to do, it often comes across as extremely petty and childish. If you weren't considering leaving your current job before missing out on a promotion, why do it immediately afterwards?  If this is your 3rd "passing over," that's a different story, but if it's your first, try a different approach.  As Kendrick Lamar responded to the questions of whether he was robbed or not, he was very gracious in his response and said Macklemore had a great album and was as deserving of the award as anybody (something I'm sure Kanye could learn from). You can demonstrate this same type of class by accepting when things don't go your way and instead try to learn as much as possible of how you could've changed the outcome for the next go-around. What could you have done better?  What could you have done to counter or mitigate those things that were outside of your control? By consistently analyzing what you could've done to put yourself in a different situation, you are being proactive in planning ways to make sure this never happens again.  This is a much more effective and impactful strategy than to just quit or sulk. Anyone could do that.

Overall, Kendrick's loss was personal to me, as I felt it was another indication that preferential prejudice still exist in 2014 - even among individuals whom you think would be more open-minded based on the industry in which they work.  I was inspired, however, to see how much one can learn from Kendrick response and attitude, as he demonstrates the resolve of someone who knows he is talented and will not be denied. For this reason, instead of sulking and crying foul the next time something doesn't go your way unfairly, use this situation as fuel to ignite an even deeper desire and drive for you to prove others wrong. I'm sure Kendrick is, and I can't wait for his next album to see its results.

Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.

You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN

Trade offs - The Crux of Success

Earlier this week, I was thinking in the shower (my usual location of great epiphanies), and I thought occurred to me that seemed so simple, I wondered why I hadn't thought of this before.  I was thinking about what I had to do for the next three days in relation to my work and personal schedule and realized that there was no way that I could do everything. Therefore, I had to make some trade offs to decide which one of the many activities I had lined up for the week would provide the most "bang for the buck" and ROI (I have to use words like this from time to time to feel like the 70k that I'm "investing" at Georgia Tech for my MBA is being used for something now).  From this thought, I decided that the night hanging with the fellows at Twin Peaks probably wasn't more important than my National Black MBA networking event, so that would have to wait for later.  Also from this, however, the great truth hit me that life is itself about trade offs and the super successful are those who consistently make the right trade offs for their lives to give up that which can wait for that which will yield dividends for their future.  There are three main reasons for this:

YOU CAN'T GAIN SOMETHING WITHOUT GIVING UP SOMETHING
In life, the one resource that will always be finite for each of us is TIME.  This makes the planet a zero-sum world, in which our decision to participate in one activity directly affects our ability to do something else at that time.  Many people do not ever consider this when they are making decisions. For some reason, they never consider how a decision will add extra burden to their lives and then are extremely surprised when they are not able to do everything they once did in relation to their new endeavor.  For example, when many people decide to get a dog as a pet, they often think about how much fun it is going to be to play with the dog when they get home and run around and care for him/her in the afternoons during their walk. They don't think about the 15-30 minutes they are going to have to get up earlier to take the dog out each morning or the time they are going to miss from work every day if they don't have a dog sitter to take the dog out during lunch. While this may only take 30-60 minutes per day of time during the work week, multiply that by five days and you have 2.5-5 hours per week that could be spent increasing your knowledge or polishing up a report for a presentation. While this may not seem like a lot of time to some people, this time could make a HUGE difference over one's career, especially when one is starting out.  Whenever you make a decision, you have to look at what you will have to give up for it and then game plan ways to get that back if you feel it is something you need to be successful.

WHAT YOU ARE GIVING UP WILL OFTEN MAKE THE EFFECT OF WHAT YOU ARE GAINING STRONGER
It goes without saying that there are certain combinations that don't seem to match. If you are going to begin a hardcore exercise program each afternoon, you routine of having desert at lunch every day is probably going to make it hard for you to enjoy your workout that afternoon (think drinking warm milk right before a long jog). When making trade offs, understanding those things that will make it harder for you to be successful at whatever new endeavor you are taking on and eliminating them will increase your chance of success dramatically.  Sometimes this can be very difficult to do because we get up in the habit of doing the same things each day or each week.  However, simple changes in one's life can make a tremendous impact on how successful someone can be when trying something new.  If you know that your friends always want to go out and drink on Fridays after work, but you have decided that Friday is going to be one of your gym days, don't put yourself in a situation in which you tempt yourself by going there and promising you will only have ONE beer.  Not only will this not put you in a position of failure to need the willpower to say no after one, but your decision to not drink at all will make your Friday work out that much better and effective once you get into it.

WHAT YOU GIVE UP, YOU CAN OFTEN GET BACK LATER WITH A MUCH RICHER RETURN
The concept of delayed gratification is one of the greatest indicators of a success in a person's life. A study was done in which young kids who were able to delay gratification of one cookie immediately for 15 minutes to get two cookies later went on to do much better in school and life by possessing this trait and understanding at such an early age.  By making trade offs and focusing on the important things now, you don't give up fun for your life, you just put it off a little while until you are in the position to enjoy it without it affecting what you are accomplishing now.  For some, this could mean no ice cream until Saturday after you've finished all of your working out for the week and feel you have earned it as your cheat meal.  For others, it could mean staying at home on a Friday or Saturday night studying to earn a degree while your friends are out partying all night.  For the person who earns the degree, the attainment of the improved lifestyle (mostly through having access to more money) this person will have after the degree will allow him/her to enjoy a much more enjoyable and pleasure time when they are able to go out and have fun with their friends.  Often the friends who were partying so hard before will be nowhere close to the level of financial security that this person will have that allow him/her to travel all over the world if desired.

At the end of the day, trade offs are the things that allow us to truly be able to make better decisions in our lives.  We can't have everything (and those that try end up in very difficult situations, e.g. Tiger Woods), so we have to consistently make decisions about what we want for our lives by deciding what is important to us. By consistently evaluating these things, we are then able to better view our lives and know how to create the future that we desire. The truth will always be evident that giving up a LITTLE now can lead to a LOT later.

Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.

You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN

How to Not Blow Your Tax Refund This Year.

Income tax time.  This is that time of the year in which either you are desperately worried that you and your family will be out on the street when the IRS realizes you don't really have 10 dependents living in your household or you feel like just you won the lottery because you have a "bonus" check coming your way from the money you lent Uncle Sam over the past 12 months.  If you are "lucky" enough to be in the latter category, make sure that you take time to assess your financial situation to make sure you don't wake up two months from now and wonder, "What happened to all my tax refund money?"  It happens to people every year, as they see the latest pair of Air Jordans (I can't believe anyone other than rappers and basketball players would spend $160 for a pair of sneakers) or that new Michael Kors bag (put MK on anything and people (when I say 'people,' I mostly mean women) will pay almost whatever price you ask) and just have to have it.  You can be smarter than those individuals this year, however, by following a few simple rules that will make sure you don't be one of the many people who eventually end up giving this money right back to Uncle Sam in some form or another.

WAIT 30 DAYS BEFORE DOING ANYTHING WITH IT
Immediately, individuals get excited about all the things they may have been waiting on for the entire year. They are so focused on the things they may be able to buy that they actually, in a sense, "spend" the money before they get it.  Relax. Don't get so attached to an idea of purchasing something new that it becomes too hard to let that opportunity go if you decide it's not the best thing for you.  Often, our emotions get so caught up in being the first person with that new bag or that new outfit, that we become attached to the idea and find it very hard to let it go.  Our minds begin to see this as being a reality and as soon as we get the money to make it so, we rush off to whatever store to spend anything to make our dream come true.  Don't do this. Take some time to truly assess your priorities and allow the money to sit in the bank for at least 30 days before making a decision.  This will give you more time to get comfortable with the concept of not buying something.  Over time, you may begin to realize how you actually didn't need the product at all and how your life will be just fine without it.  This 30 day waiting period will greatly increase the chances the money will still be there 60, 90, or even 365 days from now.

DON'T LEND IT OUT
One of the first things that people feel they have the ability to do is help others with their money.  While this is not often a bad thing, there are some people who are unselfish to a fault. By always lending people money when you have extra, you can put yourself in a precarious situation if you are put in a bind.  You never know what the future may hold, so by focusing on "stacking as much paper" as you can, you decrease the chances that some catastrophe will happen in which you are not able to withstand.  Just like you shouldn't spend the money before 30 days or up, you shouldn't lend it out to anyone during this time either.  When people ask, just let them know that the money is spoken for and you cannot afford to do so. They don't have to know by "spoken for" you mean "not meant for them," so there should be no issues there. Keeping the money in your possession is key because mentally you want to get comfortable knowing that you have the money and are making the conscious effort to NOT spend it.  Seeing it in your bank account and knowing it's there helps your mental fortitude in relation to the discipline needed to be thrifty and not spend money just because you have it.  By doing this, as you continue to add to your savings through other investments or the natural course of payments from your employer, you will continue to not spend that money as well.

STOP THINKING ABOUT IT
Money is funny. The more we think about it, often the less we have.  When it comes to money, just know that it's in the bank and gaining interest (as minuscule as it may be), but don't be one of those people who checks their balance every 20 minutes to make sure nothing has changed. In the famous words of...well...me, "Chillax."  Know that the money is there and isn't going anywhere, but don't consistently think about it or wonder what you could do with it. The more you think about the different things you could potentially buy with it, the more likely you are to convince yourself that you've "earned" that new pair of earrings or that trip to Jamaica.  By allowing yourself to not focus on it and go on with your life, you don't give your brain a chance to manipulate your thinking to allow you to convince yourself that saving the money is "silly" and that you need to "treat yourself" a little.  Out of site, out of mind, generally leads to a pretty healthy savings account balance.

Income tax time is generally a good time in people's lives.  A little extra money typically is a good thing. It allows us to buy and experience some things we may desire at that time.  What you want to make sure of, however, is that you always make wise decisions when you may get larger amounts at one time, as you can easily waste it if you are not careful.  By applying some of these simple rules I've shared today, hopefully you will have ability to hold on to your income check this year a little longer than last year...if it's not too late already.

Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.

You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN

Why Four Eyes is Better Than Two - The Importance of Always Looking at Things From Different Perspectives.

Glasses.  These are those round spectacles that many of us will have to begin to don once we turn 40 and sometimes make use look more "mature" than we would look without them.  Outside of the typical usage of these to increase one's ability to read road signs from a distance or read a book that right in front of one's nose, there is also a metaphorical uses of glasses that can help each of us in our daily interactions with other that will improve our ability to live more productive and fulfilling lives. I refer to the ability to look at the world (different scenarios, people, yourself) through different sets of glasses when the situation merits it to accomplish a number of different tasks that will benefit us throughout our lives.  In this week's blog, I wanted to share some of the major benefits of making this a regular practice in your life by focusing on its three major areas of benefit.

It can help you see your areas of weakness.
Often, when we look at ourselves, we generally think about what we see in the mirror. We typically feel that there are very few things about us that are not "perfect" but, surprisingly, we don't know many other people that are.  For this reason, it helps tremendously if you are able to take a hard, objective look at yourself from time to time, as a stranger would.  One exercise that will initially help with this would be to look at yourself in the mirror as as stranger would and quickly assess what would be your initial impression.  Is your hair somewhat disheveled? Do you have extra weight that isn't attractive? Do your close fit on your well or are they too tight or too baggy? By doing this, we can get a quick snapshot into how we physically may come across to people to improve any areas of deficiency that we may see. Whether it gives you motivation to lose weight, do a better job of with your hair, or buy a whole new wardrobe, this can help you quickly assess where you need to improve. Now, let's turn this inward and identify the psychological or emotional areas in which we can do better.  We should look at our behaviors and, instead of rationalizing them by the different "special scenarios" going on in our lives, we should look at them from the outside as a stranger would to get a sense of what they would think.  This will allow us to more objectively assess our behaviors and give us more motivation to change those that present the wrong image or are holding us back from our various goals.

It gives you a different perspective to solve problems
Whenever we are put in a tough situation in which we just can't seem to come up with an answer, often if we remove ourselves from the scenario and look at it from the perspective of someone from the outside looking in or from the perspective of the adversarial party (if there is one), this will often give us an opportunity to come up with a creative solution that we may not have identified before due to our intimate involvement, and often skewed perspective, on the situation.  This can be done in a number of ways. If you are typically a very emotional person, perhaps trying to look at a situation more analytically would help you identify a solution that is better for all parties involved.  If you're in one specific group of people that is facing a problem with another group, perhaps trying to understand what is important to them by looking at the situation from their perspective will shed light on a resolution that would've never been identified had you not put yourself in their shoes.

It allows you to be more sympathetic to others
We know ourselves better than we know anyone else, so there are number of different things we may say or do that we automatically know what they indicate about us and what we mean by them.  Unfortunately, everyone is not wired in the same manner that we are and often, our reaction or approach to a situation can be interpreted completely different from what we intended.  This can often lead to negative impacts in your interactions with others and not allow you to achieve the results you desire. When working with other people (especially at work), always try to think what their lives are like and what this means in relation to how they may approach a situation in contrast to your approach.  This can often allow you to easier communicate with this person and have a better overall understanding of who they are and what makes them tick to establish a deeper and more meaningful relationship.  This is also very helpful in relationships/friendships in which a disagreement can be resolved by just truly understanding the other parties point of view.  At the end of the day, this can make all the difference in the world.

Perspective.  It seems so easy to have, but we often have a tendency to only have one: OURS. By consistently practicing wearing the glasses of other individuals in our lives, we are way more apt to identify our flaws easier, solve problems faster, and relate to others better.  And while some people may not like the way they look in a pair, the benefits of sometimes having "four eyes" will beat out what two can do any day.

Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.

You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN

Applying the Pareto Principle to Life

Happy New Year to all!  I hope everyone enjoyed their time off and took time to truly enjoy some family time with their loved ones.  This is always a good time of year to reflect on all the blessings we have been given that make our lives so special.  It is also a good time to reflect on a number of things we set out to do in 2013 that we did not accomplish to get a sense of why and then create a plan to make sure that this doesn't happen in 2014.  One concept that has paid tremendous dividends to me when I am beginning to evaluate how to make a complete change to take my abilities and level of success to "another level" is to apply the Pareto Principle to my life.  The Pareto Principle is an ingenious discovery by Vilfredo Pareto in 1906 in which he observed that 80% of Italy's wealth was owned by 20% of the population.  What this basically led to was a discovery that in many things in life, 80% of our ROI is usually associated with 20% of our actions. By applying this principle to our lives, there are several truths that come to the forefront that should allow us to improve the quality of our lives if we accept them and take actions to adjust accordingly.

80 percent of your headaches come from 20 percent of the people in your life.
This is one that is very dear to me because I am very much the type of person who believes you should only have positive people in your life.  There are those individuals who are only energy-takers and never energy-givers. It seems their whole point in life is to find the negative in everything and then to make everyone see it as well.  You should eliminate, or at least marginalize, these people's influence on your life. You can do this by simply eliminating the amount of time you spend with these individuals or removing them from your life all together. In relation to situations in which you cannot completely stop all interactions with this person (i.e. work), you can attempt to discuss these differences and see if you can come to any resolution to improve your relationship.  If not, you may want to see if you can move to a different department or group if possible. If that still doesn't work, you can just try to eliminate the amount of time you must interact with this person or, as a last resort, look for a new job all together.

80 percent of your income comes from 20 percent of your activities
If you are in sales (like me), you definitely get a sense of why this principle is true.  Often, we spend our entire day doing a number of different activities, from documentation to reporting to follow-up. What we realize, however, is that there are really only a handful of things that actually put money into our bank accounts. For sales, it is often prospecting and spending time in front of the customer that ultimately makes the most difference in relation to success. This can be the same with any job, however, if you break it down to what are the 2-3 activities that you must be really good at and do almost every day that will have the greatest impact on the benefit you are able to deliver to your company.  If you are a teacher, perhaps it is teaching the best lesson by staying as focused and "in the moment" as possible with your students.  If you are a chemical engineer, perhaps it is consistently iterating your design and approach to the development of new chemicals that produces the greatest benefits to your company's bottom line. Whatever it is, identify it and do your best to maximize the amount of focus and time you are able to put into that particular area of your work for greater success.

80 percent of your LACK of success comes from 20 percent of your choices.
Anyone who has ever experienced marginal success in life but can't quite get over that hump is familiar with this aspect of life.  Often, the marginally successful do a lot of things right in relation to how they approach their day and focus on accomplishing various tasks.  There is, however, one or two things that this person is doing incorrectly, or not at all, that is holding back the super success that is on the horizon.   One has to consistently review the different vices once has in her or her life and try to eliminate them all if possible.  It can seem like a very small thing when your one vice may be your mom's sweet potato pie, but that small thing could be a huge deterrent to your goal of losing 20 lbs if you're eating sweet potato pie each week. Consistently identify those things in your life that when you do them, there is something in the back of your head is telling you that it isn't "right."  Fight to remove those things from your life and discipline yourself to overcome those temptations and you'll be surprise at the 80 percent improvement you might see as a result of it.

While we learned in grade school that 1=1 and 2=2, it appears that as we mature in life and math (i.e. calculus), these truths seemingly aren't as set in stone as we once thought.  As you look at your life in 2014, take time to identify that 20 percent of your life that is holding back the 80 percent of your success.  This could be those individuals who only bring you down and bring nothing positive to the table, that small number of things that you are NOT doing, or that small group of vices that you know you should eliminate from your life.  Whatever it is, identify it TODAY and begin working to make sure that you don't allow ANYTHING (or ANYONE) hold you back in 2014!

Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.

You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN

How to Make AND Keep New Year's Resolutions

What a year.  I can hardly believe that 2013 is almost in the books! Were you able to achieve everything you set out to do this year?  If so, awesome job!  Pat yourself on the back.  If not, ask yourself why and begin asking what you are going to do to make sure this doesn't happen in 2014.  In this last installment of Life: How to Get What You Want Out of It and my last blog of 2013, I wanted to share with you three simple tips and strategies to make your New Year's resolution making more effective and help you make 2014 your best year ever!

I. DON'T CHOOSE TOO MANY
What hurts many people when it comes to making resolutions is they try to change EVERYTHING. They attempt to become a COMPLETELY new person the next year, and when they have a misstep here or there, they COMPLETELY give up on trying to change and revert back to their old ways.  When making New Year's resolutions, you should keep your commitments to 2-3 goals. That's it.  No mas. This way you can stay focused on the specifics of what you need to do for those goals and not have to worry about trying to present this image of being a completely different person.  You should also try to pick goals that will give you compounding results in relation to each other.  For example, if you desire to lose weight for 2014.  You three goals could be workout three days a week, cut back on drinking, and eating better. This way you will see the results much faster as they all work together to achieve your ultimate goal.

II. START SMALL
I'm always amazed at how people will try to go from having not worked out in the past three years to going to the gym six days a week for 90 minutes.  I've been working out my entire life and going to the gym six days in a week is WAY too much for me. You can't go from Clark Kent to Superman overnight.  Instead, start small by only going three days a week for 20-30 minutes. This way you are much more likely to stick to it and won't have the excuse of something coming up, as you can easily switch out your days if needed.  If you want to go back to school to get another degree or complete your first one, don't try to take a full 15 hour semester to start out.  It'll be too overwhelming and cause you the quit. Start by taking only one class to get back in the groove and discipline of reading, studying, and preparing for class.  Once you start to see some success in either the gym, school, or whatever, you can then begin to increase the intensity and push yourself to do more and better.

III. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN
Sometimes, when individuals make New Years resolutions. they don't do the planning to ensure they will be as successful as possible at achieving their results. They think everything will just take care of itself because they said they would do this.  Not so.  As in anything in life, a fail to plan is a plan to fail. This planning takes place basically around two things: 1. The LOGISTICS of making sure you can commit to the things you desire and 2.Identification and elimination of DETERRENTS that can hinder your ability to be successful.  In relation to logistics, you need to make sure that you've created a clear plan on how you are going to incorporate your new activity or focus in your life to give yourself the best chance to be successful. For example, if you are going to work out three days a week, you need to make sure that you know exactly what days you are going to go and make sure that you do not allow ANYTHING to take those days from you.  If you are going to go to school, you need to make sure that you have time committed and blocked on your calendar for reading and studying to be successful.  You have to think through the different logistics and what-ifs to prepare for them, so you will stay on your course and not get deterred.  In relation deterrents, you must identify those people or things in your life that could keep you from being successful and eliminate or marginalize their impact on you.  If you have a friend who likes to drink a lot and you are trying to cut back, you may want to cut back on how much you hang out with him/her.  If you've committed to eating salad during the week, don't go to your favorite rib restaurant every day for lunch.  The chance that you will slip will increase greatly, and if you are able to stand it, you're only torturing yourself anyway. Think about all the things, people, and places that could hurt your chances to be successful and make sure that you do everything in your power to keep them away or at bay.

That's it.  That's all you need to know to make sure that you are creating the right New Year's resolutions to give yourself the best chance of actually sticking to them.  Remember, however, that you don't have to wait until January 1st to begin turning over a new leaf.  There no better time than NOW to begin creating the best you ever.  Happy New Year to everyone, and I'll see you again in 2014.

Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.

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