How Does One Remain Contantly Inspired?

A list of the right quotations always gives me a lift. Here are some examples of my favorite “perspective-changing” quotes to keep you constantly inspired.

Doors of happiness

When one door of happiness closes, another one opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.

– Helen Keller

Helping others

One of the most beautiful compensations in life is that no man can help another without helping himself.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

How you see

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

– Wayne Dyer

More quotes: Innovation Quotes … 10 Fantastic Lessons from the World Best

Use your imagination

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

– Albert Einstein

Careful for what you settle for

You are what you settle for.

– Janis Joplin

Your load

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

– Lou Holtz

Feeling good

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

– Maya Angelou

Kindness

The two most powerful things in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.– Ken Langone

Making a difference

Unless you walk out into the unknown, the odds of making a profound difference in your life are pretty low.

– Tom Peters

Optimism

The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
– Winston Churchill

Workplace Skills Young Students Need for Success

Modern workplaces are as much a living breathing thing as the world they operate in. They are ever-changing and evolving, and as a result, offer new daily challenges and goals. It’s a collaborative and competitive environment for any newcomer. The best modern workplace skills for students to have foster trust, forge leadership, and create productive results.

All kinds of organizations seek these kinds of recruits. Luckily the modern workplace skills listed below cover pretty much all the bases.

So what’s on the list? Practicality, versatility, and adaptability are key here. These are the kinds of modern workplace skills that never go out of style. As workforces evolve, these skills will likely become even more important.

Problem Solving Skills

This one heads the list for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that technology transforms the very fabric of our society. Our students will be coming up against challenges we can’t even conceive. There are literally problems not yet invented that will need creative and versatile solutions applied to them.

Of course, the problems of the present need just as much attention. Problem solving ability is a top priory as far as modern workplace skills go. A guided process for doing this is what the 6Ds of Solution Fluency are all about. Consider it a timeless teachable and learnable system that will serve our students well.

Information Skills

There’s so much information being created every single day it’s staggering. Bernard Marr has some Web facts that are blowing people’s minds. You can check them out in the article Big Data: 20 Mind-Boggling Facts Everyone Must Read. Here are a few highlights:

More data has been created in the past 2 years than the entire history of humanity.
By 2020 we’ll be creating about 1.7 MB of new information every second for every person in the world.
Right now, less than 0.5% of all this data is ever analyzed and used.

Someone’s got to be able to wade through all this. Modern workforces need those who can critically analyze, organize, and utilize information. That’s why these are the kinds of skills that are taught within the process of Information Fluency.

Communication & Collaboration Skills

As mentioned before, the workplaces of today and tomorrow are collaborative. We are just as easily establishing virtual partnerships with people across the world as those across the room. Modern workplace skills like Collaboration Fluency focus on building teams that take businesses to new heights.

Collaborative practices begin in the classroom. That’s where our students form groups to solve problems and create projects. It’s how they interact and work together that determines their success. It’s the exact same thing for the workplaces they will graduate into.

Independent & Critical Thinking Skills

Any successful business draws on an employee’s ability to think critically and independently. Workers who need constant direction and supervision are often seen as a detriment to an organization. As such, these people will become less and less employable in the future. The same can be said for those unwilling or unable to think deeply and analytically about any issue.

It also means being able to spot problems and the potential for them before they happen. This kind of “cognitive initiative” can save businesses untold sums of time and money. Our students absolutely must add critical and independent thinking to their catalog of modern workplace skills.

Useful Failure Skills

Great students and workers turn mistakes into proactive moments of clarity. This means seeing failure as an opportunity. If we can use our mistakes to learn and to flourish, then we need never fear them. No matter what, we are always moving forward with a “useful failure” mindset. Establishing an intention to learn from failure and use it to grow as person, and then delivering on that promise, is exceptional.

It’s also the responsibility of those in authority to ensure that this is nurtured. Blame, guilt, admonishment, and derision for mistakes hinders progress and prosperity. This again is true of both the classroom and the workplace. As teachers or business leaders, we must provide encouragement and guidance when errors are made. This is how success grows for everyone.

Personal Organization Skills

There’s a reason why Mom told you to clean up after yourself and pick up your toys. She wasn’t being tyrannical or bossy. She was teaching you a valuable and respectable life skill for home, school, and work. Grumble all you want—the lady knew what she was talking about.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe instructed us as follows: Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean. The capacity for personal order ranks fairly high among modern workplace skills. Outward order is a reflection of inward order. It positively affects everyone around us in the work environment. It’s the kind of thing that leaves a good impression on teachers, employers, and co-workers alike.

Adaptability and Agility Skills

Nothing ever stays the same. Companies get demolished, ideas fade, promises get broken, and people go their own ways. Positions get handed to new people and others get moved around. Promotions and demotions happen regularly. Physical spaces expand and contract. Money is made and lost. People gain and lose control. This is the game of life.

Here we echo the words of Rudyard Kipling and ask: Can you keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you?

The ability to adapt and be agile in the face of change is a must among modern workplace skills. Work and life will throw curveballs of every kind at us. The person who would lead stands fast with change, keeps a clear head, and fixes an eye on the future.

Relationship Building Skills

Finally we come to relationships. Life is built on them, as is success and progress. Only by interacting with others can we truly learn and grow. We can know our own strengths and limitations better. We can also come to understand others better by having solid relationship skills. This makes collaboration so much more enjoyable and productive. Students should make fostering interpersonal skills of all kinds a priority.

What other modern workplace skills do you think our students can benefit from having?

Learn and Keep Pushing from These Motivators

Thoughts are powerful, and negative thoughts can prevent you from achieving your goals. The flip side is that positive thoughts can be just as powerful. The next time you feel unmotivated, use any of these 35 positive thoughts to keep pushing and reenergize yourself. Really: They work!

There’s no perfect plan. There are some definite flaws in your plan — but there are in every plan.

Everybody starts somewhere. Nobody is born successful. Everyone starts somewhere, and usually from the bottom.

It can only get better. If it’s hard at first, it can only get easier.

I can do anything. It’s a simple phrase, but it helps to remind yourself — you really can do anything you set your mind to.

This is why I can. Instead of giving yourself reasons why you can’t do something, give yourself reasons why you can.

It’s never too late. No matter how old you are or how many opportunities you’ve passed up before, it’s never too late to make a decision and get a fresh start.

There will always be challenges. No matter what you do in life, there will always be challenges — don’t let one set get the better of you.

There’s no perfect plan. There are some definite flaws in your plan — but there are in every plan.

Everybody starts somewhere. Nobody is born successful. Everyone starts somewhere, and usually from the bottom.

It can only get better. If it’s hard at first, it can only get easier.

Failure is temporary. If you fail, you’re in good company — most successes come only after several rounds of failure.

Mistakes are learning opportunities. If you mess up, you can only become better for it.

Everything has to be earned. You can’t get anything in this life unless you work hard for it.

Action is a better regret than inaction. Making the wrong decision is always preferable to regretting never having done anything at all.

I don’t need anyone’s permission. If people think you’re crazy, so be it.

I’m in control of my own destiny. You can decide whom you want to become.

The risk is worth it. Know that risks are real, but the potential benefits are worth them.

Discipline feels better than regret. Discipline is hard, but it’s easier to deal with than regret.

Many good ideas seem crazy or impossible at first. Yours is no different.

Experience is always valuable. Even if your mission doesn’t turn out the way you’d expected, you’ll walk away with experience.

Every day counts. Today, tomorrow and the next day are all steps toward your end goal.

There is no problem that can’t be overcome. Everything can be solved or worked around.

Everything can be improved. Even if you start out rough, you can always make improvements to your approach.

I can learn whatever I need to know. Free resources are plentiful.

I can master whatever I need to do. Practice can make you good at anything.

I know what I want. Know what your end goals are, and visualize them.

Trying and failing is better than doing nothing. This is universally true.

I can’t win unless I try. Effort is the only way to get results.

I’m better than I was yesterday. You’re older, wiser and more experienced than you’ve ever been before.

Nothing great happens overnight. Work and patience are your friends.

I’ll reward myself when I’m done. Even small rewards can be great motivators.

There are always more chances. If you screw up, you can always try again.

If nothing else, this will make for a good story. You’ll walk away with great memories and interesting anecdotes.

What do you think? Do you have anything to add based on your experience?

Lessons Learned from the Leadership School of Hard Knocks

Have you ever given this Helen Keller quote any thought? Think about it for a moment. How does it play into lessons learned? Hold the thought for a few minutes and give me your answer after reading this article about the lessons learned from the school of hard knocks.

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.

Helen Keller

Ever wondered how the best leaders handle being at the top so effortlessly? The truth is, these highly successful people do stumble, worry, and doubt themselves, just like the rest of us. But they are very good at mastering the way they are perceived.

Many a day I like to reflect back on my three careers, my experiences as a leader and manager, and my lessons learned. Here are some of my better lessons that I have shared most often.

Understanding expectations

It’s so easy to launch yourself into an effort, to get straight to business when working with a new boss, and think that we’re being productive. Happened a lot during my corporate career. Taking the time to clarify expectations upfront, however – whether that be in terms of the work itself , what’s the scope, and so on; or in terms of the working relationship … how you can work most effectively together – can avoid a whole lot of time wasting.

The same applies as a consultant as I am today. You can dive straight in and try to solve everything you think needs fixing, but that may or may not be what the client wanted. Clarifying those expectations at the beginning of the relationship, identifying three main areas where you’re going to focus your time and really deliver results, will allow you to deliver the most value while making sure that the client is getting what they want.

Get information

In my last career, I am a marketer and in many aspects, I know a lot about online and social media marketing. But I do follow a lot of other online marketers; I am subscribed to their blogs and email lists. Why do I do that? Because I can still learn from them: I can see what they do and how I react to it. I also get a ton of information and can easily select which of this information I want to read or watch and what to ignore. All in all being subscribed to my competitors makes me a better marketer.

As an online marketer I am never done learning and by simply listening to people I would otherwise regard as my competitors I get even better at what I am doing. Not listening to them would mean I would be missing out. I can get a ton of information for free from people that I highly respect.

If your competitors produce great content from your niche and share industry insights or knowledge, appreciate their work and learn from them. If they provide value, you can profit from it just as much as your potential customers.

Communications and collaboration

At IBM or Lockheed Martin, and at any large company, there is a whole system of words and expressions and those dreaded acronyms that you need to understand in order to be able to communicate. Once you have the lingo, this will give you shortcuts to getting your point across and will ultimately get things done more quickly and in a way that everyone agrees with.

While this language code can be useful, you also need to remember the poor souls who aren’t quite up to speed. This can include new hires, of course, and external agencies, but you’ll be surprised how sometimes even the more experienced managers won’t have a clear idea of what you’re actually talking about. Agree on common definitions upfront and you’ll be more effective in delivering something that everyone is happy with.

Power of effective communications

I was amazing at writing at school. So it was a bit of a shock when I started my first job at IBM and found that essay writing was not the same thing as business writing.

On top of that, an international environment where most people were not native speakers meant that simple and unambiguous communication was crucial. Effective business writing had a specific objective, used clear and concise language, active tense rather than passive; it wasn’t about sounding clever or being poetic.

Learning to write an effective business document – a recommendation, a report, or just an email for that matter – will allow you to get your message across quickly and effectively, to influence people with a more persuasive argument, and to impress people with your convincing business results.

The ability to distil complicated matters into a clear and well thought-out message is a useful skill in all areas of life, above and beyond the corporate world.

Making tradeoffs

Ah, choices. This is a biggie..

So what does this mean? Well, you can apply this at a couple of different levels. First, looking at your project list: you need to identify which projects will have the biggest impact and then focus your time on those projects – it’s far too easy to get bogged down in little tasks and trivial details.

Second, at the macro level, a strategy is choice: we’ll focus on this market OR this market, we’ll invest here OR there, we’ll prioritize this OR that. Giving a laundry list of every possibility, or saying that “it’s all important”, is the path to failure.

Work-life balance

I’ve written about this before and I’ll say it again: the concept of work-life balance is a completely false dichotomy; and I think it was IBM that taught me this. During my first years at IBM I was a poster child of “work hard, play hard” – me and everyone else.

We were all straight out of university, young and single, hardworking and ambitious. We worked late and partied later. In the good old days, IBM even encouraged this with extravagant Golden Circles events in exotic places.

The point is that you can’t hate your job, counting the minutes until you get to go home at 6pm, the days until the weekend, and the weeks until the next vacation. That’s no life at all.

Instead, I’m a big fan of work-life integration, where we enjoy our professional endeavors and spending time with our colleagues just as we have fun while working hard on our personal interests in our time “off”. I’ve never felt happier or more fulfilled than I do now, working harder than ever on my own businesses and projects and having a blast while doing it.

Grow Your List of Habits To Increase Success

Ever wondered what it takes to be a successful person in life? It might be subjective to answer, but there are a few things that we certainly can point out and utilize in your list of habits to become more effective.

Apart from skills, intelligence, and opportunities, it’s their good habits that make the difference.

When we talk about habits, we know that not all habits are good. Bad habits are basically negative behavior pattern that keeps you away from accomplishing your dreams, whereas good habits are those that helps you achieve your goals.

People who are highly successful in life because they practice some good habits of successful persons regularly which other people don’t.

One thing which separates high achievers from regular people: is intention. Meaning, if you get up every day and just coast wherever events and situations take you, you’re going to end up somewhere other than the ideal place. To reach your utmost potential, you need to steer your own path via daily habits which prime you for success. Here are the things nearly two dozen executives say help them get ahead in business and life.

Here is a list of 50 habits of successful people that are common among them.

Start with little tasks in the morning to clear your head

“As a founder and a mom, my multiple roles bring on a vast array of responsibilities, big and small. I quickly learned that tasks like ‘put more batteries in the remote’ or ‘dust keyboard’ can bog me down so much that I’m unable to focus on my priorities. I learned from the book The Artist’s Way that doing morning pages to relieve my consciousness helps to remove these distractions first thing and helps me to start my workday right.

So I’ve created a habit where I write down these tasks and put them aside in an effort to clear my head. With this exercise being done before my coffee is poured, I feel so much more happy and relaxed to handle the more significant initiatives throughout my work day.”

Check different industries to expand your thinking

“My most creative and successful ideas have been formulated by looking at best practices and successful innovations in industries that are totally unrelated to mine. When you’re successful, it’s easy to get complacent. And too often, looking only at your competitors will give you only incremental improvements and perpetuate ‘good enough’ results.

By looking outward, you not only draw on your own ingenuity and motivation as a leader, but it also gives you the power to drive key innovations that have the potential to transform your business and leapfrog the competitors, whether they’re traditional or non-traditional.”

Check communications only a few times/per day

“I used to pride myself on being responsive to emails, Slack, and chats until a friend pointed out that I was priding myself on being bad at my job because my job was to give serious thought to big projects and decisions. Don’t get in the habit of constantly interrupting your workflow to check communications. Set the expectation that you’ll respond once or twice per day, and stick to that. Being responsive means destroying your attention span and letting happenstance drive your priorities.”

Employ a checklist

“I start off every morning by writing a checklist of major tasks I have to get done for the day and check them off one by one, making sure I complete them all before I leave for the day. With so many workflow tools and task management providers out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and distracted. I find that a pen and paper checklist is simple, keeps me accountable, and has a huge impact on my overall productivity and focus.”

Be a continuous learner

“Education and learning are not just for students, but something to be embraced at every stage of life. As a CEO, I am constantly looking to grow my skill set to not only remain competitive with my peers but also to nurture a sense of personal accomplishment and learning. I believe it’s especially important to step away from your every day and gather new information and skills only tangentially related to your industry… It can be scary learning new things, and sometimes it takes a little push to take that step and open yourself up to try, but learning difficult things can build up confidence and an ability to be at ease with being outside of our comfort zone.”

–Tara Chklovski, CEO of Iridescent, an education nonprofit that partners with leaders from Google, NVIDIA, GM, and more to deliver STEM education to underrepresented communities

Get quality sleep

“When it comes to sleep, it’s about quality, not just quantity. Sleep heals us. Sleep recharges us. Sleep is an important part of our biology. One of my keys to success is to prioritize getting a good night’s sleep. I start unwinding and switching off early in the evening in order to fully disengage before bed. Disconnect from electronics and screens. Read a book, listen to calming music, or even an inspiring talk in order to get a good night’s sleep. Your body and mind will thank you for it, and you will be so much more productive.”

Connect with others

“I always try to find time throughout the day to ask people what’s going on in their lives and how they are doing. It’s important to have those connections and day-to-day interactions with the people around you and foster a sense of community.”

Be self-critical

“I try to stay humble by being self-critical, looking for my potential faults, taking responsibility for failures, and looking for critical feedback. This pushes me to always strive to improve, not only in my career but in my personal life as well.”

Start the day off early and quiet

“I have found that if I get up before the rest of my household, sit in my office with a nice cup of coffee, and write (whether it be the next presentation, blog post, or book), it helps me focus on the task at hand and have a sense of accomplishment before I dive into the work day. It completely changes my well-being too, which empowers the rest of my day.”

Keep an idea journal

“Creativity is not just for artists and designers. And inspiration can strike at any time. I have several different notepad pages on my phone, organized topically. Whenever I have an idea I quickly and immediately write a sentence or two in the form of a running list to remind myself later of the thought. This is an incredibly powerful way to tap into your own creativity and combat the natural forgetfulness we all have.

Develop the habit of adding several notes a day. Don’t edit, delete, or judge, just write it down. It gets easier over time and you’ll be surprised how quickly your lists can grow. Some topics I find useful range from ‘ideas for future blog posts’ to ‘for follow up with INSERT NAME.’ Later, when that person walks into my office, I can skip the whole ‘I had something I wanted to discuss with you but forgot…’ preamble. And when it’s time to write a blog post, or speech, or company presentation, instead of staring at a blank screen I flip open my notes and get to work.”

Work on your hardest daily task first

“I did not personally develop this concept, but it’s one that I’ve found very useful in staying productive and also staying focused on the most important things. If you’re familiar with the book Eat that Frog, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s easy to procrastinate starting the projects that challenge us most.

Setting a goal to tackle your hardest challenge first will make the rest of the day or week seem easier and will ensure you get the most important things accomplished. I prefer to spend 30 minutes on Fridays thinking through my priorities for the following week so I can come in on Monday ready to tackle my biggest problems first.”

Check-in with annual and quarterly goals

“I’m a big believer in working backward from long-term goals. I allocate a few days at the turn of each year to think deeply about and write down my long-term (five- to 10-year) and one-year goals, both personally and for our company. I check in with these notes when I’m creating my quarterly goals and then at least two to three times per week. It helps me make sure that my daily activities are aligned with, and that I am on track to accomplish, what I’ve decided is truly important.”

Take time each day to learn

“Early in my career, I felt some guilt about reading a blog while at work or signing up for a trial of that new software and playing around with it. It felt like goofing off. But now I recognize it as an essential skill and encourage everyone on my team to take time to read and learn. Digital marketing is constantly changing which is scary but also what makes it fun. There’s always something new to learn. The people who are able to learn quickly and apply that knowledge to their work will stay a step ahead.”

4 Rules for Hiring Exceptional Employees

Google receives more than two million job applications from around the world each year, hiring several thousand of those exceptional employees.

It takes an average of six weeks to secure a hire, and every candidate needs to be screened by their potential boss, potential colleagues, a hiring committee, and finally Google CEO Larry Page.

“If you wondered if this takes a lot of Googler time, it does,” Google’s senior vice president of people operations Laszlo Bock writes in his new book “Work Rules!” But he says that time has been cut down significantly by making the hiring process more efficient.

In the early days of the company, hiring would take four to 10 hours of a manager’s time each week, with top executives spending a full day on it. By 2013, the company had grown to 40,000 employees but had slashed that time to one and a half hours.

Bock explains that years of research and experimentation helped Google get hiring exceptional people down to a near science. “There are four simple principles that can help even the smallest team do much, much better at hiring,” he writes.

We’ve explained them below.

1. Set an uncompromisable high standard.

You will be able to quickly determine if someone is worth even an initial interview by setting the bar high and not budging about it.

“Before you start recruiting, decide what attributes you want and define as a group what great looks like,” Bock writes. “A good rule of thumb is to hire only people who are better than you.”

This applies to all positions, he explains. If you’re hiring an administrative assistant, don’t simply look for someone who can answer the phone and schedule your meetings; find someone who will make your job easier by organizing your time and priorities better than you ever could.

And if an employee search is taking longer than you would like, be patient and concentrate more of your effort on the task.

“Do not compromise,” Bock writes. “Ever.”

2. Find candidates on your own.

Google works with some recruitment firms, but only in specific situations in which outside expertise is a requirement, such as building a new team in another country.

The company has used third-party job boards like Monster in the past but pulled back from them after its reputation grew sufficiently, mostly because it found that too many of those sites’ users send out generic mass job applications.

Today, Google relies on its own careers portal and the referrals it solicits from Googlers. And when your company begins growing, Bock says, “ask your best-networked people to spend even more time sourcing great hires.”

He also recommends that managers make use of LinkedIn, Google+, alumni databases, and professional associations to discover talent.

3. Put checks in place to assess candidates objectively.

An organization the size of Google can afford to have a large group of people spend time with each candidate, but even smaller companies need to avoid placing the burden of hiring someone onto one individual.

“Include subordinates and peers in the interviews, make sure interviewers write good notes, and have an unbiased group of people make the actual hiring decision,” Bock writes. “Periodically return to those notes and compare them to how the new employee is doing, to refine your assessment capability.”

4. Provide candidates with a reason to join.

Jonathan Rosenberg, former SVP of products and current advisor to Larry Page, used to keep 200 Google employees’ résumés in his office.

“If a candidate was on the fence about joining Google, Jonathan would simply give them the stack and say: ‘You get to work with these people,'” Bock writes.

According to Bock, the candidate would look through the impressive collection, including everyone from the inventor of JavaScript to Olympic athletes, and ask Rosenberg if he had cherry-picked them — to which he would honestly reply no. The technique worked every time.

“Make clear why the work you are doing matters, and let the candidate experience the astounding people they will get to work with,” Bock writes.

Miami Florida Recruitment Agencies – Your Trusted Partner for Sourcing Elite Talent

What is a recruitment agency?

Whether you are a job seeker or looking for A-list staff to join your team, recruitment agencies have the experience to find the very best and the elite in any field of employment. They use only tried and tested techniques to ensure they put forward only the most talented and experienced candidates for consideration.

With their extensive experience and team of experts on hand, they will work hard to find the right role for you if you are seeking a change or if you are wanting to fill positions within your business with elite professionals. Save time and stress by employing an experienced team of head hunters and recruiters in your area.

Job Seekers

If you are wanting a new challenge, a brand new environment, or even just to make a name for yourself in any industry, signing up with a recruitment agency can help you fulfill your goals. They work with each candidate to help refine their resumes, prepare for interviews and help to market themselves to any employer at each interview. They take the hassle out of job searches, work with top brands and companies, and will take the time to match your experience and skills with the right job role.

Not only will it save time, but you will be interviewing for the role that suits both your experience and expertise. If you are wanting to change jobs and environments, a recruitment agency will work with you to fine-tune your needs and will work with only top companies to secure an interview in a short amount of time.

Hiring Staff

Are you a company wanting to hire only the very best? Recruitment Agencies today can offer a package that will ensure only the best in recruitment for your company. With services offered, including Sales, Marketing, and Operations Recruitment, as well as access to a large network of professionals, you will be sure to have all you need to have only the very best work at your company.

They not only source the right professionals for each job role but, using a series of interviews and assessments, they identify only the most talented and experienced candidates, which means you do not have to waste time.

Success Stories

“We needed some salespeople for our team. We got two people to come to our team, and it was the best month we ever had.’

“The process is easy, and we received one of the best hires we ever have.”

Are you stuck in a rut in a job you don’t care about? Do you want a change of pace, more responsibility, or a higher salary? Are you looking for fresh talent and elite professionals for your company? Look no further and find the right talent for your Miami Company at Jayce Grayye Consulting & Recruiting. Visit their website today or call and speak to one of their friendly staff for more information.

Deadly Sins Which Will Devastate a Positive Attitude

We are all very aware of the impact of positive thinking ideas on our success in life. But how to avoid deadly sins is another matter, isn’t it? How have you ever used checklists to improve your productivity … or perhaps your positive mental thinking? How well did they work for you?

We often use checklists to achieve our goal to create positive thinking that can see opportunity in every difficulty.

After college, I spent almost 2 years training as a naval aviator. An important element of that training was the use of checklists in the learning and refresher process. Checklist utilization remains an important part of my business life. It is always a good idea to have a helpful checklist for reminders of improvements for your business or your personal life.

You will perhaps have heard this very old story illustrating the difference between positive thinking and negative thinking:

Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential.

The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential here – nobody wears shoes.”

The second salesman reported back, “There is massive potential here – nobody wears shoes.”

This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two quite different ways – negatively or positively.

I keep a stack of 10 or so checklists that I rotate and update occasionally. I pull out one checklist to read and contemplate for five minutes as a way to start each day. I find it puts my thinking in the right frame of mind. Here is one checklist example of simple reminders to improve the odds of success in any task that I or my team may be doing:

Savor life’s joys

Deep happiness cannot exist without slowing down to soak up the positives all around you.

Be forgiving

Harboring feelings of hate and meanness is horrible for your well-being.

Avoid social comparisons

Comparing yourself to someone else can be a poison to your positive thinking.

Express gratitude

When you appreciate what you love, what you love appreciates in value. If you aren’t thankful for what you already have, you will have a hard time ever being positive.

Nurture your relationships

The most positive people we know are the ones who make friends easily and work to build deep, meaningful relationships.

Develop coping strategies

It always helps to have healthy ways to cope in your arsenal.

Increase flow experiences

We define flow as a state in which it feels as if time is standing still. It occurs when you are so focused on what you are doing that you become one with the task. In this state, nothing competes for your attention.

Become an optimist

People who think as an optimist see the world as a place packed with endless opportunities, especially in tougher times.

Practice acts of kindness

Selflessly helping someone is a super powerful way to create a positive attitude.

Commit to your goals

Magical things start happening when we commit ourselves to do whatever it takes to achieve our objectives.

If you are in a business where you deal with people on a regular basis, like we are, your motivation and positive thinking need to be in ‘top gear’ (as it will usually impact most issues of the day). By spending 5-10 minute reading and thinking about the items on the checklist, you will be better prepared for the events of the day.

Do you consider your company a social commerce business? While there has been considerable hype about social commerce in the last few years, we don’t consider it new … it has been around as long as commerce. These days there are just more channels to engage customers and be social. Positive thinking is everything in this regard.

We like to discuss the importance of positive thinking tips on the success of any business, particularly those that engage with the public to a great extent. Here is a story about a nursery in our region. It is a story we like to tell because it contains some simple secrets for connecting positive thinking to employee and customer engagement.

A nursery gardener ran a business that had been in the family for two generations. The staff was happy, and customers loved to visit the store, or to have the staff work on their gardens or make deliveries – anything from bedding plants to young trees.

For as long as anyone could remember, the current and previous owners were extremely positive-thinking people.

Most folks assumed it was because they ran a successful business. In fact, it was the other way around…

A tradition in the business was that the owner always wore a big lapel badge, saying Business Is Great!

The business was indeed generally great, although it went through tough times like any other company. What never changed however was the owner’s positive thinking and attitude, and the badge saying Business Is Great!

Everyone who saw the badge for the first time invariably asked, “What’s so great about business?” Sometimes people would also comment that their own business was miserable, or even that they personally were miserable or stressed.

Anyhow, the Business Is Great! badge always tended to start a conversation, which typically involved the owner talking about lots of positive aspects of business and work, for example:

The pleasure of meeting and talking with different people every day

Reward that comes from helping staff take on new challenges and experiences

Fun and laughter in a relaxed and healthy work environment

Fascination in the work itself, and in the other people’s work and businesses

Great feeling when you finish a job and do it to the best of your capabilities

New things you learn every day – even without looking to do so

The thought is that everyone in business is blessed – because there are many millions of people who would swap their own situation to have the same opportunities of doing a productive meaningful job, in a civilized well-fed country, where we have no real worries.

And so the list went on. And no matter how miserable a person was, they’d usually end up feeling a lot happier after just a couple of minutes of listening to all this infectious enthusiasm and positivity.

It is impossible to quantify or measure attitude like this, but to one extent or another it’s probably a self-fulfilling prophecy, on which point if asked about the badge in a quiet moment, the business owner would confide:

The badge came first. Great business followed.

Key Takeaways from this story

Remember, this is the time to create remarkable experiences in order to create lasting relationships with customers. Lead with initiative … own the moment. Remember attitude is everything.

Want to see some additional tips on how to build customer relationships?

Being social with great positive thinking and attitude isn’t a new way of marketing; it’s a way of doing business.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Happy Life: Want To Live Happily? Here is How

Let us start with a simple premise that you must accept. That is, happiness is a choice. It is your choice to live a happy life.

Forget customer satisfaction, what matters is life satisfaction.

Check out our thoughts on team leverage.

Here’s a great study in the latest edition of the wonderfully titled academic ‘Journal of Happiness & Well-Being‘ that can help you understand and deliver happiness.

10% of your life consists of things you willed or brought about. Don’t sweat that small stuff.

90% is all that you cannot control, the stuff that just happens to you. How will you deal with those things? How will you react? What will you learn? The key to these questions is attitude.

None of these things (the 10%, remember?) matter if you have not fostered the most important attitudes we discuss here. Most can be infinitely scaled. Their power is limitless if you learn how to attend to them.

Share your happiness: Successful Leaders: 12 Habits Happy People Share

Do you have unusual fears? Have any doubts? Like the fear of an embarrassing moment? Don’t. This world is full of people very sympathetic and willing to help you with help to get you through the day. And help you with the attitudes needed for happiness. All you need to focus on is defeating your doubts. Do you sometimes wonder how much-unseen impact your actions and life is having on others?

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass,

it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

-Vivian Greene

There was a time when I thought happiness was a destination, in much the same way I imagined I’d eventually arrive at peace or success.

It seemed like something I needed to chase or find—definitely not something I could experience without dramatically changing my life.

I’ve since learned through experience that helping to get through the day is always available, and like any desirable state of mind, it requires effort, even if that effort entails consciously choosing to be still.

Here is a checklist of simple attitude reminders to improve your happiness each day. It certainly has been a big help to me:

Happy life … start well

Start your day believing that you are going to have a great day.

Sharing

Sharing is always caring. You can’t do enough sharing.

Show kindness

Show some kindness without expecting anything in return. If they ask what they can do for you, tell them to pay it forward.

Smiles

Smiles matter. And they are so simple to execute.

Strangers

There are many strangers just waiting to make new friends. How many friends can you make today?

You

You are the master of your destiny. Take charge and show your happiness.

Happy life … create some alone time

Sit in nature—under a tree, on a mountain—and let yourself simply be quiet.

Remarkable

Be nothing less than remarkable. It just takes a little more effort.

Share some fun with someone you love

Forget about everything that feels like a problem and do something that seems like fun. Have fun spontaneously.

Play

Play is always the centerpiece of work. Be happy and enjoy the things you do.

how to live a positive happy life — How to live a positive happy life.

Defeat doubts

Eliminate fears or doubts. Mistakes and failures are ok.

Actively enjoy good things now

Be about the present instead of scheming to create a better future.

Volunteer your time

Volunteer your time to help a charity you believe in. Put all your energy into helping others, and you will find happiness without looking.

Serve someone else

Just because … just for them. That might mean helping them pursue their passion, or motivating them to reach their fitness goals. Whatever gives your life meaning, give it to someone freely.

Show gratitude

Gratitude is the attitude directed towards appreciating anything and anyone. Think of it as the ability to assign a value to something that others overlook. It is the secret to true richness. It never runs out. And best: it is not a scarce resource, unlike any other resource in the world.

Live with humility

Humility is the attitude of not taking yourself too seriously. Never forget where you came from. Never forget what you are: just human. No matter how high you fly or how low you fall, it all just seems so much easier if you tread lightly.

Remember not to take yourself and those many projects of yours too important to the point of agonizing about them. It is fine to strive and seek.

Be resilient

Resilience is the attitude to weather anything from the gentlest breeze to the strongest gale threatening to derail or break you on your journey. Some call it growing a thick skin, a tough hide, robustness, or fortitude. No matter what you call it, foster it because you have no idea what people are capable of surviving.

The world is not necessarily cruel by definition, but it can be cruel by ignorance, by the apathy of nature, by forces so large they can toss you around like a speck of dust to make you know your place in the scheme of things. Those times can hurt. A lot. For those times, I wish for you to have the resilience to suck it up and then get back to work.

Live a happy life … stay true to values

What makes you tick is this squishy, intangible but very real set of values that make you the person you are. It is the compass that was implanted in your heart when you were born, then shaped by your upbringing and experiences.

Keep it simple, since as much as you like to think you could be this incredibly complex person, chances are there are some 2-3 core values that make you who you are that define your choices and preferences in people, places, and occupations. Make it your life’s work to figure them out – I mean figure them out, to know them without the shadow of a doubt.

Let go of uncontrollable

Let go of things that are beyond your control, particularly those that frustrate you or make you sad.

Learn to accept and move on

Learn to accept people or things around you as they are rather than how you want them to be. This will make your life easier. Follow the saying “Do good and feel good.”

No worries

Don’t worry about what others think about you. If you like something go for it, don’t think about how people are going to judge you.

Respond properly

If anyone hurts you or says something bad to you, don’t be quick to react. Control yourself and give it some time. You will discover that it is worthless even thinking about it.

End well

Focus on what you have rather than what you want. At the end of every day, be grateful for all that you have.

The bottom line

There comes a time in life when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad and focus on the good, and keep your peace of mind very intact.

The important thing is that we create many of these mental attitudes each day. Practice each day; they don’t just happen until they are strong habits.

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics that relate to improving the performance of a business. Go to Amazon to obtain a copy of his latest book, Exploring New Age Marketing. It focuses on using the best examples to teach new age marketing … lots to learn. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Leadership Characteristics: Style Mistakes That Destroy Your Influence

Eisenhower certainly understood the concepts of being a more influential leader, didn’t he? Spot on. I have been in the military and business world for forty years, and I often get asked what it takes to be an influential leader. Being an influential leader is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve their influence skills and to avoid leadership characteristics and mistakes that have the opposite effects.

Check out our thoughts on team leverage.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.

– Dwight Eisenhower

Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task.

Effective leader influence as an entrepreneur means that you can “make things happen,” instead of just “letting things happen.” Leader influence is required in many activities. It is involved in a variety of situations and problems, from the very simple to the very complex. And there are many leadership mistakes that can quickly destroy that influence.

Leaders must influence others to achieve goals, and they must gain the respect of followers to influence them. This is no easy task, but if you want to have the respect of your followers, you must become an influential and trusted leader.

Related: Looking for Battle-Tested, Effective Leadership Qualities?

Leaders use influence and collaborative skills to solve problems by selecting one course of action from several possible alternatives. Almost any decision involves some conflicts or dissatisfaction. The difficult part is to pick one solution where the positive outcome can outweigh possible losses.

To many, avoiding decisions often seems to be the easiest approach. Influencing decisions and accepting the consequences is the only way to stay in control of your time, your success, and your business.

Here are ten mistakes of leader influence Digital Spark Marketing uses with clients to improve their ability to get the best leadership influence skills:

Leadership characteristics … hesitant with action

It is critical that you learn the importance of the start, whatever you have been postponing. Just do it, as Nike likes to tell its customers and potential customers. If you wait for the perfect time to start, it will never happen, and you will have accomplished nothing.

Great leaders don’t work in existing systems. They change the systems to give them what they want. And they don’t delay the start.

They come up with new options for jobs, projects, and professional development that their bosses hadn’t even thought of. They see an opportunity coming their way before most of the rest of us have even looked up from our laptops. They don’t hesitate to seize the initiative or get into action, do they?

Lacking integrity

Nothing can ruin your influence and respect faster than a lack of integrity. Integrity, however, is not just about avoiding unethical choices and situations. Integrity is intentionally molding a culture of values and service.

Leadership weaknesses … not learning from others

Observing and learning from those around you makes you stronger, and better. Never fail to see its value. Your peers, as well as competitors, can usually teach you more than your friends. Let them. Learn from them. To be a great leader, you need to have a strong will and an even stronger stomach.

At the end of the day, you need to remind yourself that your job isn’t to make everyone happy, but rather to improve the organization as a whole.

Good leaders are constantly trying to improve and surround themselves with the ablest people they can find. They look squarely at their mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future.

And because of this, they can move forward with confidence that’s grounded in the facts, not built on fantasies about their talent.

Employing a style outside your ‘comfort’ zone

One of the most important things you can do as a leader is cultivate self-awareness. Knowing your leadership styles will help you to be more intentional about using them well and managing their shortcomings. Do you lead with expertise? Charisma? Caring?

Armed with this awareness, you can leverage your unique styles to become more influential and inspire others. Avoid styles that are outside your comfort zone at all costs.

Lacking persistence

Persistence is key. Always keep up the effort as you will never know how close to success you may be.

Think about your energy. It’s not just about what you like best, but about what feeds you and what depletes you. And who. Do what you can to increase the good stuff and decrease the bad. You just need to realize you have the power to accomplish it. Much more than you may have imagined.

Eliminate whatever it is in your life that’s draining you, and replace it with something that inspires you. This will help your persistence.

Leadership pitfalls … not investing in yourself

Leaders invest in continuous learning. Grow your expertise. The more you know, the more you can

help. The greater your competence, the more others will respect you and the effort you made to learn about what they do.

Always work hard at being a little better than you were the day before. Continuous learning is one of the most important attributes in the work and personal environment.

Great leaders know that every step they take, and every decision they make, matters in the end. They know they must strategize carefully, and then act decisively. They know they must think ahead — not just to their next step — but to the many steps after it.

Worrying about mistakes and failure

No matter how confident someone may seem, everyone is afraid of failing. All of us are afraid of screwing up or afraid of looking stupid. But great leaders know that everyone they interact with is also afraid.

These people are successful because they act in the face of fear. They go after what they believe, seek change, and, ultimately, make a difference.

They also believe they can take a risk because even if they fail, they’ll be able to learn from it and overcome it. Their fear doesn’t hold them back. Instead, it springs them into action, because they know not stretching themselves is worse than failing.

Not being a coach and advocate

One of the leader’s most important roles is being a coach and advocate. Help people be successful. Focus on developing leadership skills in your team. Be a resource, a sounding board, and a safe place to talk.

If you want the people you lead to respect you, they need to know you are on their side. Advocate for them; help them get the promotion they’ve been hoping for. Leverage your influence on their behalf.

Lacking enthusiasm and passion

Always show your enthusiasm and passion for what you are doing. To do that, you must find those things that you love. Follow the passion; it is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles to everyday tasks. Passion is power … it is what keeps you going when everyone else gets tired and gives up.

Management mistakes … short-term focus

A leader’s job is to interact with the future on behalf of constituents. Spend time doing things that only you can do, delegating other critical areas to qualified team members. Establish a vision, and keep your gaze focused on the overall goal. Resist the temptation to spend too much time-solving day to day problems if they cost you progress toward your vision.

The bottom line

Avoid these leadership mistakes and think ahead for your greatest leadership advantages.

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?

Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics that relate to improving the performance of the business. Go to Amazon to obtain a copy of his latest book, Exploring New Age Marketing. It focuses on using the best examples to teach new age marketing … lots to learn. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.