Motivational Quote: People

“People are not organizations most important assets… the right people are.” – Jim Collins

The First Key to Happiness

“People are just as happy as they make up their mind to be.” – Abraham Lincoln

This quote reminds me of another saying about how you decide, yes I said decide how you are going to live your day. This question asked if you get up in the morning and say, “Good morning God” or do you say, “Good God Morning.”

If you get up with the first thought in the morning you will likely have a great day. However, if you get up with the second thought, I can guarantee you won’t.

Instead you will be like that Peanuts character, Pig Pen, who has a dark dust cloud following him everywhere.

That negative attitude will not only ensure that your day will go sour, but your body language will alert others to stay away.

Not a great way to go through life.

So, make up your mind to be a happy, positive person and you will find that happiness will find you.

Have a great day.

Great advice from Winston Churchill

“It’s not enough that we do our best;  sometimes we have to do what’s required.” – Winston Churchill

It is so easy to give up and declare that we did our best. However, how do you know that it is really your best until you have pushed so far that you fail.

Imagine if Christopher Columbus declared that he did his best and gave up in the middle of his journey. We would all be European.

And what if Winston Churchill declared the England did their best and gave up in World War II. We would all be speaking German.

And what if you push yourself to not only do your perceived best, but your true best performance, imagine what you may accomplish.

So next time you are thinking of declaring that you did your best, go one or two steps further and discover a new personal best.

How to move your Career and Life in the right direction

“Be better than you were yesterday, but not as good as you will be tomorrow.” - Richard Elmes

How do you accomplish this?

By continuously learning and looking for opportunities to improve your performance.

It doesn’t matter if it is improving your performance in business or your personal life, when you continously try to improve even a little bit each day, you will find that you will make great strides over time.

For example, I have read over 110 books a year for the past 11 years. I have accomplished this task by investing a lot of 5 minute segments every day in my development. I also try to improve my business and personal relationships everyday, by asking questions and listening to what the other person is telling me. (and not telling me). This way I move the relationship forward one step at a time.

And this way I ensure that I am continuously improving and being better tomorrow than I am today.

So, what can you do today to make sure that you will be better tomorrow than you are today?

Oprah’s Big Secret

“The Big Secret in life is there is not secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.”
-Oprah Winfrey

The Key Component in Relationships

The key component when you are working with people, either in a leadership position, business or personal relationship is trust.

Distrust breads resistance.

Trust breads willingness.

Think of the best relationships you have and I would bet that they are solid because the level of trust between you is high.

Then think of those relationships that frustrate you. My bet would be that they are difficult, because the trust level is low to non-existant.

If you want people to work for you and not just do what they are told – work at building their trust in you.

If you want to increase your sales – work on building trusting relationships with your customers.

If you want your personal relationships to grow – work on building the trust between you and that person.

So this begs the question, how do you build trust between two people?

Visit my next post, to learn some tips that will help you do just that.

How to make your New Years Resolutions stick

Many of us who are looking forward to the future have made New Years resolutions.

You know those grand plans that we come up with, that if we follow-through, will make our life more fulfilling. Unfortunately, they are also the same plans that are usually forgotten by the 3^rd week of January. If you don’t believe this just check the classifieds in February for used exercise equipment.

 

Common resolutions like “Quit Smoking, Lose Weight or Save Money,” may sound great, but they aren’t very successful. Using the following 7 steps will help you design more powerful New Years resolutions.

 

1. Develop S.M.A.R.T. Resolutions

Specific: You must specifically and clearly identify your target because you need to know what success looks like.

Measurable: Clear destinations and checkpoints along the way provide stepping-stones,  that are easily attained and provide victories that keep you motivated.

Action Oriented: Effective resolutions require action, they are doing resolutions, not being or having resolutions.

Realistic: You design resolutions to solve a problem or to achieve a dream. They should stretch you outside of your comfort zones, but if you make them completely out of reach, you are only setting yourself up for failure.

Timely: They need to be important to you at this time in your life, if it is not, you will not do the work necessary to succeed.   

 

2. Identify what’s in it for you: If you are going to follow through with your resolution you need to be excited about the benefits it will bring. Visualizing yourself fitting into those jeans that “shrunk” or driving that new car are powerful motivators.

 

3. List the obstacles that stand in your way: Knowing what the obstacles are can help you determine how to get around them.

 

 4. Consider who can help you: You need to carefully identify friends whom you can trust to share your goals with and who can check your progress and encourage you. These people enable you to maintain your focus and keep your eyes on the goal itself.

 

5. Consider what resources are needed: Knowing what tools and knowledge you’ll need to help you accomplish your goal will increase your chances of success.

 

6. Develop an Action Plan: There is something so powerful about putting your resolutions down on paper, but this is the step where most people fail. I think Denver Broncos football coach Mike Shanahan put it best when he said, “If you have a plan, and if you have your direction laid out. You can chart your progress to your dreams at each stopping point along the way. And just as important, all along the way you can see how far you’ve come”. Developing your action plan will give you the road map to your dreams.

 

     7. Set a deadline for achievement: Resolutions without deadlines are only dreams. Deadlines are another powerful motivator. Also when you are setting deadlines add the phrase “on or before” ie. “I will acquire 20 new clients on or before July 1, 2009”

 

So this year make those New Years Resolutions stick, and reap the benefits. Because the best way to predict your future, is to create it yourself.

How to make effective personal decisions

“How would the person I’d like to be, do what I am about to do?”

This is a great question to ask yourself when you are trying to decide which path to take. Figure out the answer to this question and you will know which path to take.

Motivational Quote: Learning

“You must learn from the mistakes of others, because you can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Sam Levenson

How to Lead via their Ego

It amazes me how much our ego plays in our day to day decisions.

One tip on leading people is to look for the win for them personally if they act the way we want them to act.

The reality is that your employees will only act the way you want to act while you are watching, if the only reason you give them for acting that way is, “Because I say so.”

However, if they see how it will make their life easier, reduce personal stress or make them more money, by acting the way you want them to, then their will be no need to police them. They will simply act that way because it will produce personal benefits for them.

Educate them on those benefits and they will be motivated to act that way, whether you are watching or not.

This is how you get them to do what you want to do, because they (and their ego) want to do it.