Category: Personal Development

In Work, Every Job is a Part-time Job

Posted by | Mar 29, 2017 | , |

Usually, the only connection between work and our individual well-being is stated in legalese. Employers may provide health insurance, short term disability, contribute to workers compensation or help us save for retirement. There’s something else that can help us to stay healthy while continuing to advance our career, but it’s not a complicated financial instrument or a miracle drug. Instead, it’s just a simple phrase: “Every job is a part-time job.” That mantra serves many functions. There are several important points to remember. First, it should remind us that we cannot and should not live all of lives at work. The body needs sleep to recharge and the mind needs rest to focus. Our emotional well-being is also influenced by those who love us unconditionally, not just those who need the client report finished by the deadline. To work effectively, we have to also spend time not working. Second, if every job is a part-time job, your colleagues are also part-time workers. They have lives too. Their friends and family, their health and their personal needs may be supported by their salary, but will and should always take precedence over their duties at the workplace.  You can ask people to turn off their cellphones while serving customers, but you cannot ask them to turn off their mind and forget their own lives. You may punch a clock or arrive...

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Assumptions Can Be The Most Dangerous Thing You Make in Business

Posted by | Mar 27, 2017 | , , |

There is an interesting dichotomy in business that makes you both successful and keeps you from being successful and that is the act of making assumptions. How can assumptions be useful? We all modify our world in order for it to make sense by doing three basic things, we generalize, we delete and we distort things so we can comprehend, explain and survive. From that comes the phrase made famous by the late Stephen R. Covey, “The map is not the territory.” This phrase was not a Covey original. It was originally coined in the 1930s by Polish-American scientist and philosopher, Alfred Korzybski. For example, in a positive sense, we learn how a key goes in a lock one time and then we know how to do that simple task evermore. Those generalizations work for us in all types of ways: In our sales process, the way we meet people, the way we navigate socially at chamber meetings or other business functions. Another useful way to use assumptions is to, as my friend and author Shelle Rose Charvet says, “guess and test.” That is the appropriate way (strategy) to employ the assumption or the generalization. The test component is critical. If you assume something make sure in some way besides the guess that you are correct. Otherwise, the strategy changes from a positive to a negative. How can assumptions...

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The Benefits of Standing Up

Posted by | Jan 17, 2017 | , , |

When friends or family visit us at our home, we don’t make them stand. We encourage them to find a chair. “Relax!” we order. “Take a load off,” we say.  “Have a seat.” That tradition came from generations ago, when virtually every job required long days of physical labor. It used to be that most of us worked with our bodies while standing up. Nowadays, more of us than ever are working with our minds while sitting down. Although the transformation from standing to sitting might sound like civilization at work, there are some tremendous benefits to staying on your feet. If we spend hours crouched over a desk or a computer screen, we may develop cramps, trap stress in our joints or reduce circulation. We should get out of our chairs at least once every hour. Better yet, we should consider working while standing up. The primary benefit to working on two feet is ironically, the exact reason why it sounds like it would be unproductive. We can’t stand in one position very long because we become restless. Yet this creates a natural rhythm and urgency to our workflow. We are more likely to take a break to visit the bathroom or get a glass of water when we’re already standing. We set shorter intervals to complete tasks and have a greater sense of accomplishment when doing so....

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Get More Done By Controlling Your ‘Attention Units’

Posted by | Jan 6, 2017 | , , |

Have you heard the term “attention unit” before? An attention unit is one little bit of space taken up in your head. Kind of like memory in your computer. Focus provides the purpose that glues together our attention and gives us what we want personally and in our business. We have all heard about the studies that have been released saying that we really are not good at multi-tasking and it does more harm than good for us. I can tell you from firsthand experience that interruptions lead to a list of unfinished tasks. Both these show that divided attention and shallow focus do not get us where we really, truly want to be. We want to be productive. We want to get ahead. That takes action, but while constantly treading through the same end of the pool is action, it does not make the difference we need. Action plus attention and focus drives results The things that happen – good or bad – in our lives are those things we focus our attention on most deeply. Let me give you an example. I have a friend with a medical condition that, for her, is best controlled by diet. She says she has always had an on-going battle with the scale, but decided last year to change her focus when it came to weight and health. Instead of paying...

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