If you wait until you're ready, you'll be waiting for the rest of your life.

I'm Sid Meadows, and welcome to Success Soundbites. I'm really glad that you're here with me today because you know what? If you wait until you're ready, you'll be waiting for the rest of your life. That is a really powerful question, or statement. And why is that? Because, guess what, friends? You're never ever going to be 100% ready.

I'll use myself as an example. Three years ago, when I started embarkCCT, I had a little bit of a business plan, a little bit of a financial plan and a couple of clients, but I was nowhere near 100% ready. And if I had waited until I was 100% ready to start my business and to enter the world of entrepreneurship, I'd still be waiting today because there's no such thing as 100% ready, because you cannot prepare for the unknown. You can't prepare for the things that you just don't realize are going to happen or haven't thought of because I've experienced so much learning...

Are you a student or a worker? It's kind of a strange question, isn't it? Well, let me tell you the answer.

I'm Sid Meadows and welcome to Success Soundbites. I'm really glad that you're here with me today while we take just a moment to explore being a student or being a worker.

Recently, I was wrapping up a coaching session with a client. And at the end of my coaching sessions, I give my clients the opportunity to ask me any question they want to, and I will answer it as honestly as I possibly can. And so, this client, particularly, asked me what it was that he needed to do in order to further his career and to advance his career. You know what my answer was? My answer was to be a student.

What I mean by that is, be a student of your industry, be a student of your job, and learn and educate yourself as much as possible about the industry that you're in and the job that you perform. It doesn't matter whether you're in sales or customer service or marketing or any role...

Do you control your calendar, or does it control you?

Welcome to Success Soundbites. I'm Sid Meadows, and I'm the founder and principal of EmbarkCCT. I'm really glad you're here with me today for this week's version of Success Soundbites as we talk about controlling your calendar.

As we venture into not just a new year, but a new decade, increased productivity is important for all of us. And my clients, on a regular basis, are asking me, "Hey Sid, what are simple ways that I can improve productivity?" And I always start with the very first question, "Are you controlling your calendar or are you letting other people control it?" And the typical answer is most people agree that other people control their calendar. So how can you really improve your productivity? I believe the answer to this question is simple and a really easy thing for you to implement and it's called block timing.

Block timing is a concept where you make an appointment with yourself. And in making that appointment,...