5 Recommendations on How to Live a Happy and Motivated Life

Happiness and a motivated life are powerful, yet tricky beasts. Sometimes they are easy, and you find yourself wrapped up in a whirlwind of excitement. Other times, it is nearly impossible to figure out how to be happy and motivate yourself, and you’re trapped in a death spiral of procrastination.

Attitude is everything

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 the attitude. That’s great news, in a way.

No matter your level of formal education, no matter how far you think you got in your life with your career or relationships. None of these things (the 10%, remember?) matter if you have not fostered three most important attitudes. Both can be infinitely scaled. Their power is limitless if you learn how to attend to them.

First is gratitude, the attitude directed towards appreciating anything and anyone. The ability to assign a value to something that others overlook. The deep, bottomless wellspring of being thankful for your health, your family, your job, anything. This 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.

Humility

Second is levity or humility, 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 if you remember not to take yourself and those many projects of yours too importantly to the point of agonizing about them.

It is fine to strive and seek. But this too shall pass. Don’t forget that in your darkest hour and it will set you free.

Resilience

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.

I wouldn’t lie as you will likely have your fair share of hurt even if you did nothing to deserve it. For those times, I wish for you to have the resilience to suck it up and then get back to work.

Stay true to your values

The goal of life, if there is any, is to gain self-knowledge. To learn who you are and what makes you tick. 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.

If you ever feel lost in life, if you don’t know what you are supposed to do, if you don’t know what is even worth doing, chances are you have not been in touch with what it is you most value. If there is any task worth doing, any adventure or ordeal worth going through, these things are all only helpful as later seen by their ability to help you articulate or confirm your values.

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 to figure them out, to know them without the shadow of a doubt. Then do what is necessary to affirm them, defend them to the death if you should be so inclined. That is what it means to be lead an authentic life. Lead one. It’s not the only way to live, but the noblest in my opinion.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: some of your values can change throughout your life, just to make things a bit harder. Where would the fun in it all be otherwise?

5 Recommendations on How to Live a Happy and Motivated Life

Happy and motivated are powerful, yet tricky beasts. Sometimes they are easy, and you find yourself wrapped up in a whirlwind of excitement. Other times, it is nearly impossible to figure out how to be happy and motivate yourself, and you’re trapped in a death spiral of procrastination.

Attitude is everything

Humility

It is fine to strive and seek. But this too shall pass. Don’t forget that in your darkest hour and it will set you free.

Resilience

I wouldn’t lie as you will likely have your fair share of hurt even if you did nothing to deserve it. For those times, I wish for you to have the resilience to suck it up and then get back to work.

Stay true to your values

Oh, and I forgot to mention: some of your values can change throughout your life, just to make things a bit harder. Where would the fun in it all be otherwise?

Always return to kindness

You may wonder if this is not just one of those values I talked about above, and I would tend to agree if it were not for the fact that kindness is not just a value. It is something so enormously important I would place it in a category of its own. Whatever your values, whatever you do with yourself, never forget to be kind.

Let me rephrase this since we all forget a lot of the time (we are human): try not to forget, and when you eventually do, make it up by returning to kindness. Don’t ask why. If you have to the reason is this: because it’s the right thing to do.

Listen, life can be short. It can also be very painful and unpleasant, mostly because you put yourself at the center of the universe. But the world is too vast for your small heads. So don’t torture yourselves unnecessarily. The trick is to think of others, to live in service of others, not because it will serve you later in return, not because you expect something from them, but because this is what you were put on the planet to do.

Let me put this more bluntly. Everything you have ever learned, everything you have worked so hard to achieve so far, all that you have accumulated in riches and experiences and glories and war stories – it all amounts to nothing ultimately. That is unless you have found some way – some tiny, modest or outright ingenious way – to put it to use to help others.

Help them find comfort, help them by loving them, by keeping them companionship; help them survive, help them thrive, help them learn something, help them find themselves – anything – but please be of help in some meaningful way to you. And throughout all this: be kind more often than you are not.

Remember, kindness is not the goal; it’s the path. When you stray, just get back on, it’s no big deal.

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 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 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. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

Know What Customers Want: Why You Should Stop Pretending to Know

Sam Walton once said: The goal of a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary. Does your business go with its ‘gut’ to know what customers want? Or do you ask customers directly and use other means to gain useful insights?

It’s a question we should always ask, and yet we often find so difficult to answer. How an organization handles this question (and the answers) will determine its ultimate success.

If you consistently offer your customers what they want (at a price they feel is fair), you’ll have all the customers you can handle.

We usually start our client workshops on customer service with an exercise to list what customers want.

Here is a prioritized list from the majority of these workshops.

Listen to me.
Know more than I do (about your product or service).
Be easy to work with.
Help me get what I came for.
Smile.
Don’t treat me like I’m an interruption.
Show me you care.
Don’t waste my time.
Be honest.
Offer alternatives if you don’t have what I want.
High quality and low prices.
Don’t try to sell me. Just help me.
Do what you say you’re going to do.
Keep me informed.
Tell me your name.
Acknowledge my presence.

Consider these details:

Understanding

Always remember that little details can often create big experiences. Pay attention to and fully understand all the details.

Figure out the details that your customers enjoy and make them a routine part of doing business with you.

Sensitivity

Use language that demonstrates you are always thinking customer-centric. Put customer needs ahead of your own.

Design your processes and policies with your customer in mind.

Here is an example often overlooked. Always update phone messages to be customer-centric.

Helpfulness

Think creatively when solving customer issues. See your customer as someone who needs your help.

But to deliver WOW service, remember your customers are there because they want and need YOUR help.

And remember how good it feels to help someone in need! Go the extra mile.

Flow

No one knows what your customers want better than your customers. If you ask them with genuine interest, they will tell you.

So ask them and heed their advice. Go with their flow.

Satisfaction

Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t. Always follow up and follow through to increase customer satisfaction.

One of the biggest complaints people have is they often never hear back from sales or service employees. Someone promises to do something, and it never happens.

An easy way to thrill your customers is to simply do what you say you will. Whatever you promise, do it promptly, thoroughly and accurately.

Then do a little more. It thrills them every time!

Know what customers want … attentiveness

When a customer is telling you the issue, give them your complete attention. Customers consistently tell us they hate dealing with employees who don’t listen or pay attention.

When you begin talking with a customer, stop whatever else you are doing and focus on them.

Don’t multi-task. Don’t half-listen.

Write down what they are telling you and get specifics from them. Make appropriate eye contact, listen, nod, and show them you are paying attention.

Then confirm that you understand.

Knowledge

importance of knowing your customer — Importance of knowing your customer.

Use language that demonstrates you think customer-centric.

Put customer needs ahead of your own. Design your processes and policies with your customer in mind.

An example that is often overlooked. Update phone messages to be customer-centric.

Attitude

Be sure and set aside time to look at the big picture which controls your attitude. Things are never constant or ever as they seem.

Your big picture analysis is essential in helping you adapt to change.

To illustrate how simple things in customer service can happen without much notice, we like to use the following example.

We occasionally visited Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. That was until a disappointment with a KFC takeout order which included soggy, unappetizing chicken and fries.

We called the restaurant chain’s toll-free number to complain but were told that complaints should be directed to the specific location’s manager.

One call is worth the effort for us, but not two. This is especially true if the company shows a lack of interest in the first call. We found it easier, given these two incidents, to find a new place for lunch.

KFC lost a customer without even knowing it had happened. You can bet your customers make “silent” decisions like this on a regular basis …so make it easy for them to complain.

Don’t rely on feedback forms. Ask customers for direct, face-to-face opinions. Do it regularly and have them know whom they can complain to if anything goes wrong.

“The most important concept that a market-focused organization pursues is that of result benefit. A common and well-established confusion in managers’ minds is between the attributes and features of a product or service and the real end-result benefits. These benefits are the ones desired by customers who may use that product/service.”

The customer is the reason we’re all here. So any company looking to provide great service must first and foremost try to look at everything from the customer’s perspective.

Because now more than ever, the voice of the customer is loud and public.

There will always be more than one way to do anything, such as providing customers access to important information.

Your sales team might have thoughts about how best to do this. I am sure the product team, and marketing might want it done a completely different way.

But what’s best for the customer? What will provide the customer with the best possible experience?

Here is an interesting new guide all about the customer experience to help you focus on improving the way customers interact with your business.

It’s one thing to talk about being customer-centric, but doing so means putting the needs of the customer front and center. That is, even when it’s at the expense of people within the company.

Taking this approach might lead to some difficult decisions, but customer service isn’t easy, remember?

The good news is that the opposite is also true: provide positive experiences and customers will tell others about and choose you, time after time. When this happens, anyone who advocated against the customer-centric approach will quickly forget they’d ever argued against it.

Below is an actual letter sent to a bank by an 86-year old woman.

The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times. Sound familiar?

Dear Sir:

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month.

By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it.

I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

The bottom line

What your customer perceives about your company is what determines whether they will stay with you. And their perception is built one contact at a time. Even one bad experience can taint their perception of you.

So make sure every contact they have is a great one. Create customer evangelists by caring about your customers and showing it with everything you do.

This list is your gold-plated ticket to increase customer loyalty. Make sure your company does all these things for every customer every time, and your customers will keep coming back again and again.

Ask your customers what they want and listen to what they say.

EMPLOY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE — Employ customer experience, yes?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

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.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

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

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

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Sam Walton once said: The goal of a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary. Does your business go with its ‘gut’ to know what customers want? Or do you ask customers directly and use other means to gain useful insights?

It’s a question we should always ask, and yet we often find so difficult to answer. How an organization handles this question (and the answers) will determine its ultimate success.

If you consistently offer your customers what they want (at a price they feel is fair), you’ll have all the customers you can handle.

We usually start our client workshops on customer service with an exercise to list what customers want.

Here is a prioritized list from the majority of these workshops.

Consider these details:

Understanding

Always remember that little details can often create big experiences. Pay attention to and fully understand all the details.

Figure out the details that your customers enjoy and make them a routine part of doing business with you.

Sensitivity

Use language that demonstrates you are always thinking customer-centric. Put customer needs ahead of your own.

Design your processes and policies with your customer in mind.

Here is an example often overlooked. Always update phone messages to be customer-centric.

Helpfulness

Think creatively when solving customer issues. See your customer as someone who needs your help.

But to deliver WOW service, remember your customers are there because they want and need YOUR help.

And remember how good it feels to help someone in need! Go the extra mile.

Flow

No one knows what your customers want better than your customers. If you ask them with genuine interest, they will tell you.

So ask them and heed their advice. Go with their flow.

Satisfaction

Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t. Always follow up and follow through to increase customer satisfaction.

One of the biggest complaints people have is they often never hear back from sales or service employees. Someone promises to do something, and it never happens.

An easy way to thrill your customers is to simply do what you say you will. Whatever you promise, do it promptly, thoroughly and accurately.

Then do a little more. It thrills them every time!

Know what customers want … attentiveness

When a customer is telling you the issue, give them your complete attention. Customers consistently tell us they hate dealing with employees who don’t listen or pay attention.

When you begin talking with a customer, stop whatever else you are doing and focus on them.

Don’t multi-task. Don’t half-listen.

Write down what they are telling you and get specifics from them. Make appropriate eye contact, listen, nod, and show them you are paying attention.

Then confirm that you understand.

Knowledge

Use language that demonstrates you think customer-centric.

Put customer needs ahead of your own. Design your processes and policies with your customer in mind.

An example that is often overlooked. Update phone messages to be customer-centric.

Attitude

Be sure and set aside time to look at the big picture which controls your attitude. Things are never constant or ever as they seem.

Your big picture analysis is essential in helping you adapt to change.

To illustrate how simple things in customer service can happen without much notice, we like to use the following example.

We occasionally visited Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. That was until a disappointment with a KFC takeout order which included soggy, unappetizing chicken and fries.

We called the restaurant chain’s toll-free number to complain but were told that complaints should be directed to the specific location’s manager.

One call is worth the effort for us, but not two. This is especially true if the company shows a lack of interest in the first call. We found it easier, given these two incidents, to find a new place for lunch.

KFC lost a customer without even knowing it had happened. You can bet your customers make “silent” decisions like this on a regular basis …so make it easy for them to complain.

Don’t rely on feedback forms. Ask customers for direct, face-to-face opinions. Do it regularly and have them know whom they can complain to if anything goes wrong.

The customer is the reason we’re all here. So any company looking to provide great service must first and foremost try to look at everything from the customer’s perspective.

Because now more than ever, the voice of the customer is loud and public.

There will always be more than one way to do anything, such as providing customers access to important information.

Your sales team might have thoughts about how best to do this. I am sure the product team, and marketing might want it done a completely different way.

But what’s best for the customer? What will provide the customer with the best possible experience?

Here is an interesting new guide all about the customer experience to help you focus on improving the way customers interact with your business.

It’s one thing to talk about being customer-centric, but doing so means putting the needs of the customer front and center. That is, even when it’s at the expense of people within the company.

Taking this approach might lead to some difficult decisions, but customer service isn’t easy, remember?

The good news is that the opposite is also true: provide positive experiences and customers will tell others about and choose you, time after time. When this happens, anyone who advocated against the customer-centric approach will quickly forget they’d ever argued against it.

Below is an actual letter sent to a bank by an 86-year old woman.

The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times. Sound familiar?

Dear Sir:

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month.

By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it.

I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

The bottom line

What your customer perceives about your company is what determines whether they will stay with you. And their perception is built one contact at a time. Even one bad experience can taint their perception of you.

So make sure every contact they have is a great one. Create customer evangelists by caring about your customers and showing it with everything you do.

This list is your gold-plated ticket to increase customer loyalty. Make sure your company does all these things for every customer every time, and your customers will keep coming back again and again.

Ask your customers what they want and listen to what they say.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

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.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

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

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

More reading on advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.