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The Monday Morning Mini-Motivation Meeting www.mondaymo ingcoach.com is the place to be for New Year planning. During this month, we’re going to be focused on expansive, strategic thinking for business and personal growth in 2011 and beyond. Here’s an overview
Happy New Year again. I hope your first week was great.
Whenever I was in the car as a little boy, my father would point excitedly at any sign that said “construction” and exclaim: “Look Jonny! Construction. That’s what Daddy does.” I was barely old enough to read simple sentences like “See Jane run” and “See Spot run,” but from an early age I could recognize the word “construction” amidst a world of language I had yet to fully appreciate.
One of the most influential writers currently in my life is an author, speaker, & trainer named Bob Burg. If you’ve read my book, Income Double – Half the Trouble, you might notice that he’s one of the only a handful of living people that I quote.
A few weeks ago, I put together a dodge ball team (yes, that's right - DODGE BALL!). I invited people I know from networking, offering three promises: we'll have fun, we'll get good exercise, and meet new people. So far we're having a great time, and on the side we're building business relationships. And surprisingly, we're in 2nd place going into the final championship match this Thursday.
We have many different names for money. In the United Kingdom, it's the pound sterling. In Japan, it's the yen. In the United States, we use words like "dough," "bread", "bucks," "dollars," "cash, and "coin."
Happiness is a very important concept of business and life. But how do you achieve and maintain it? I'd like to quote Rob Gilbert: "The first rule of happiness is: Don't seek happiness. Create it." I've found that the question asked in the title of our blog post today, "Are you super happy?" is very effective in doing just that.
About 12 years ago, I met a 75 year old man in a coaching class on listening. That man was one of the best listeners I've encountered in my life. I could tell by the things he said and asked. At the end of the class when we were all reviewing what we had learned, he said, "Boy, I have a lot to learn about listening". That moment has stayed with me for the length of my coaching career. Even at 75 there's the insight and motivation to get better and better at listening.
People who know me know that one of my favorite subjects is - "Professional passion." It is a fascinating blend of commitment, energy and joyful connection to your work. We all know how bad it feels when our passion is untapped. The remedy is to have a clear sense of purpose to be passionate about. The challenge is to find it ... AND to maintain a commitment to refining it. The three key elements to professional passion are:
Clear your mind. Transcend the past and be present to the blank canvas that the future really is. Your next 12 months can be predictable, or can be wildly successful – it’s totally up to you.
Stop fighting. Either take a stand, with a strong case, or stand aside. If you're fighting about something that happened, get over it. Resentment and revenge cost you more than it's worth. Try forgiveness - which doesn't mean you accept that a wrong-doing is right, but that you have the wisdom to accept that it happened, is in the past, and can live with it having happened. You have that power.
I’ve coined a new phrase and philosophy called “Living Life to the Nines.” Doesn’t that conjure up all sorts of positive connotations? We’ve all heard the phrase “dressed to the nines,” which means being dressed extraordinarily well. How about “cloud nine” – that blissfully happy place on top of the world?
In this week's blog I'd like to focus on how commitment strengthens deadlines and how deadlines can strengthen your commitment. Today most of us have one of the least favorite deadlines of the year. It's tax day. Like most people, I really don't enjoy doing the work that comes with filing my tax return. Still, every year I start early, I break the task down into segments, spread those segments out over several weeks, and this year I got everything done early Friday morning.
I was on a hike with my sister-in-law and the subject of summer-school came up. I remember that I enjoyed the sciences well enough to take Chemistry in high-school over the summer as a way of getting ahead. Reflecting on chemistry and about the world at a distance, the idea came to me that we are like molecules and atoms on this planet. Some of our connections and bonds are strong and can withstand heat and other forces. My wife and I, for example, just celebrated our 20th anniversary together, and we're still going strong!
The start of a new year is a time to reflect and consider your full potential. I’m sure I’m not alone in being excited for this year to start strong every day and every week. Here are 3 ways to overcome your top-of-the-year to-do list and use your time to your best advantage.
Your actions are related to your results. That might seem like a no-brainer, but not everyone always makes a strong connection between their desired outcomes and the actions they take. Ideally you're motivated and energized to get busy and get things done every day, but you might recognize the feeling that sometimes you're working out of habit. Some people keep doing the same things over and over again and don't produce the right results.
Today we talked about the three fundamentals of having teamwork work for you. It’s important to start with the realization that everything great was accomplished as a team. If you go in it alone, you limit your true potential. 1. Do what you do best and have others do the rest.
Trust is an important aspect of business, whether it's trusting others, or trusting yourself. I'd like to focus first on the trust you need to have in your team. This team could be the team of employees that you work with or lead, a virtual team, a team of people you network with, your family, or even relationships with clients. Within any of these situations, trust is a core element for a sustainable relationship. There are three components of trust, as described in Kenneth Kaye's book, "The Dynamics of Family Business".
Staying focused is a key ingredient to staying motivated and getting great results, whatever you do. Let me give you the 3 most important keys to staying focused:
Greetings from the beautiful Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania! Yes, friends, I decided to take a little bit of a breather from the hustle and bustle of New York, and so this blog is coming to you from the serene calm of a two-day vacation.
When Beethoven was young, he was told by his music teacher that he was hopeless as a composer. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper because he had "no good ideas." Henry Ford's first two automobile businesses failed. Michael Jordan was cut from his High School varsity basketball team. And Ray Krok failed as a real estate salesperson before he came up with the idea for McDonald's.* These important people in history remind us not to give up. It's really important to stay committed to your vision - persistence pays off.
Last Sunday was Father's Day, so out of love and respect for my Dad, today I'd like to discuss some of his advice on the subject of leadership. My father has a lot of experience and passion for the subject of leadership, especially in politics. We've come to accept that he is "opinionated," and you've got to appreciate someone who takes a stand and doesn't hold back when he has a well-researched, well thought out point of view. My father's engineering background formed him to be a "black and white" kind of guy.
For this week's Monday Morning Mini-Motivation Meetings, I chose the topic "Spontaneity and Trusting Your Instincts." To walk the talk, I did not plan an agenda, but trusted the likelihood that interesting things to say about planning, spontaneity and trusting your instincts would arise. Such as: a) Planning and preparation is important and provides confidence in business. It's always preferred to "winging it."
One day I was speaking with a client who is a top producer in his region. I asked what he wanted to speak about, and I was surprised by his answer. "I'd like to talk about my issues with confidence when talking to people with 'big money.' People at all levels, from those who are down in the dumps, to successful people in positions of leadership, occasionally find their confidence shaken. What do you do if this happens to you?
Turning Lemons into Lemonade: or How to Return to a State of Sustainable Confidence In January, I went on vacation with my wife and our two sons, who are 10 and 14. We had hoped to enjoy the warm, sunny, southern Califo ia weather, but as you may have seen in the news, it rained like CRAZY! Our activity plans had to be adjusted, but we decided as a family to wake up every day and, after a brief moan and groan about the forecast, we declared that we would have the best vacation ever. Many good things followed.
“Purposer It’s that little flamer That lights a firer Under your ass.” These lyrics, sung by an idealistic college graduate puppet named Princeton in the Tony-winning musical Avenue Q, are oddly appropriate coming from a largely satirical storyline.
Writer and producer Douglas Wood said “Fear of failure has always been my best motivator,” and considering the man has worked with Spielberg, I suppose the sentiment is valid. When it comes to small business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals, however, the “fear of failure” is sometimes less of a motivator and more of a deterrent, keeping them away from potential opportunities and stuck in the comfort zone. The problem is, without taking risks, there is no reward, which can lead to stagnation and, worse still, irrelevance in an ever-shifting marketplace. Fear not!
With Memorial Day approaching this weekend, officially launching the summer season, there’s a general sigh of relief and well-ea ed, wide-armed welcome after the very long winter we’ve endured. And while I’m the first one out there dusting off the grill for a summer of sundrenched days of pools, burgers, and fun in the sun, I’m also aware that the term “summer vacation” doesn’t apply to everyone.
Today in my M5 seminar, we talked about having calm confidence in the face of struggle, and my 5 steps to returning the calm confidence if it’s ever shaken. Confidence is often mistaken for cockiness, but confidence is not about being bold and blindly brazen. Calm confidence is a deep knowing that even if you don’t know how you’ll figure something out, you have faith that you will.
I kicked off the first session of a series of teleseminars I call “Monday Morning Mini-Motivational Meetings,” or M5 for short. The purpose of M5 is to spend 15 minutes – no more, no less – getting people excited and amped up for the week so they can be more productive, positive, and focused in their work. At 11:30 am, I had my notes and a theme, and I was ready to go. It’s not the most complicated format, but in spite of this I entered this first call with a certain amount of trepidation.
The calendar tends to be a baseline for me when I’m planning my Monday Morning Mini-Motivational Meetings (M5), so it seemed appropriate that this week’s theme somehow tackled the looming April 15th tax date.
My mother’s background is in piano. From my earliest memories, she’s always been a pianist and piano teacher, and some of my fondest moments in childhood were spent beneath the family’s baby grand as she practiced, my head in the curl of my dog’s belly, listening to the music and watching the mechanics of the foot pedals. It was bliss. I suppose those moments were the start of her gentle influence and knowledge of my talents.
I have a client who runs a business and has two people working in his main office. They weren't answering the phones with the level of energy that he considered representative and efficient. He had frequently asked them to change their behavior, but he didn't seem to get through to them. Sound familiar? This week we answer the questio "How do you want to be heard?" There are two key points in getting heard: Motivation and Clarity. More about that later.
Georgia (name changed for confidentiality) got stuck in the process of writing her business plan. She was holding back because she was afraid of the judgment and criticism she expected from a collaborative business partner. When she redefined "judgment and criticism" as "valuable research and input that would help her build a stronger case,” she gained confidence and got motivated to move forward. She was even able to learn from her own “inner critic.” With courage she was able to focus and get the job done within one week!
A lot of people come to me and tell me they’re stuck. They are trying to figure out something or another, and they can’t seem to figure it out. Whether it’s getting more clients, making the right staffing decisions, making more money, finding time to exercise, etc, people often feel like they’re thinking themselves in circles.
I know not everyone is a morning person. There are a few people who literally bounce out of bed at the sound of the alarm clock, but most of us fall on the sliding scale betwee “mild reluctance” and pillow-burrowing, “I don’t wanna!” dread. While I don’t promise you’ll jump out of bed like an over-caffeinated Tigger, I can promise that you’ll find yourself less and less dependent on your “Snooze” button.
One of the best ways to make a good impression with clients, potential clients and business colleagues (all of whom might be sources of referrals) is to be prepared. The Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts of America introduce the "Be Prepared" motto early to their young members, and I think it’s a simple, powerful yet commonly overlooked element in business success.