It doesn’t matter if you spend your days toiling away in a cubicle, as a carpooling Soccer Mom, or a multi-tasking CEO you are responsible for managing your most valuable asset, your energy. Rich or poor, young or old, each day we have the same twenty-four hours to get each item on our to do list crossed off. Yet we repeatedly find ourselves running out of steam.
Truth be told, if you were getting paid to manage your energy you would have been fired a long time ago. Face it, your lack of energy runs your life, it is your boss, you answer to it. It doesn’t answer to you! But life doesn’t have to be that way anymore.
Energy deprivation is the number one burden that many business owners silently tolerate. Sadly they suffer with low energy levels as well as their staff and family members. Gurutej is known as the Energy Guru to hig
In my last post, I described how life reflects back to us what we believe about our worthiness and “enoughness” and I said that watching for patterns is a great way to recognize these reflections. I recently identified a pattern in my own life and connected it to a painful belief that held me hostage for most of my 38 years ~ not any more!
About a month ago, I moved into an idyllic 1930s cottage right along the river and Missoula’s beautiful river’s edge bike path. I was so happy to be in a house again, especially one with so much charm. What could be wrong with that? Plenty!
The floors creak more than you might imagine, and there is a renter in the basement. During my first few weeks in the house, I felt terrible about walking around in the morning, knowing that my neighbor might be woken up by my movements. While I was doing everything I could think of not to disturb her, she slammed her door every time she went in or out and she blasted
Motivation doesn't last. We wish it would, and I especially, since I'm what is termed a 'Motivational Speaker'. It's a misnomer. The truth is: no one can motivate you, and even if they could, it wouldn't last.
Though we feel good when we go to a seminar or workshop or experience a speaker who does a good 'pump up', the other side of the coin is learning what to do when the 'pump up' wears off. Just as important, it pays to understand the nature of motivation in the first place, which would leave little room for disappointment when the 'pump up' wears off and you're back to the daily grind of doing what must be done.
To me, motivation is like lighter fluid, whereas inspiration is like charcoal. When you get out the grill, you fill it with charcoal. You then pour lighter fluid over the charcoal. When you set the lighter fluid on fire, you get a big 'poof' of a flame, depending on how much lighter fluid you poured
American workers are working longer hours (about nine hours to nine and one half hours per day). They are taking less and less of the vacation time to which they are entitled. This trend has been increasing in recent years for any number of reasons. In some cases employees believe that by not using vacation days they are demonstrating commitment and loyalty to their company. Others are creating an emergency cushion of paid leave "in the bank" should they ever need paid leave.
Other employees do not take vacation because they are unwilling to risk having a large workload pile up while they are gone and be waiting for them when they return. Still others cannot afford to go anywhere on vacation and find it boring to stay at home and not go to work.
There are what could be described as "sub trends" that go hand in hand with not using or only partially using vacation days. One such sub trend is that of taking on the vacation a cell phone and l
As humans, we are social beings. For most of us, one of the cruelest punishments is total isolation. We need other people to listen to our stories, to share their own, and to mirror and respond to our thoughts and feelings and behaviors. But since we really do need other people, why do so many of us, so much of the time, have the biggest conflicts and the most harrowing difficulties with those people we need the most?
Part of the problem is that we need people, yet we may believe that we should not need anyone. The dream of Marlborough Man, the independent, cool, tough guy, still exists for men and women alike. So, we get into relationships with people we need and then we make every effort to prove to them how much we don't need them. And this happens at work, at home, and in any situation where we spend time and share activities with other people.
I give lots of seminars to non financial personnel. They all tell me that they often wonder "what in the world are the Accountants talking about" In the view of non-financial personnel, Accountants speak a language known only to them. Their conversations and discussions are filled with accounting jargon which I call "Accountantese". Non-Financial personnel readidly admit that they attend my seminars to understand what the accountants are talking about and gain a first hand knowledge of the basic concepts and framework of finance & accounting.
Prior to my sessions the generally held notion is that accounting is complicated and full of scientific theories, equations and calculations. Nothing can be further from the truth but this notion is nutured mainly by accountants who seem to feel that this art of accounting that we practice is somehow too mysterious for the average business personnel to understand.
Communication is easy. All you need to do is say what you mean and mean what you say. Right! How many of us are able to truly do that? And, when we finally do say what we intend to say, why is it that the people we say it to are not always happy to hear our words?
Whether we want to believe it or not, there definitely is an art to communicating effectively. First, of course, we need to really know what we think, feel, believe, and want to communicate to others. Right here, many of us run into problems. We may have some idea about what needs to be said, but we may not be clear about how we feel and we may have no idea how the other person or persons might respond. So, first, we have to gain clarity about our own thoughts, ideas, needs, desires, beliefs and intentions.
Next, it is important for us to know who we are communicating with. How does this person tend to receive and interpret information? Do they often&n
At times, life in the office can be frantically busy, perhaps even chaotic. Deadlines to meet, meetings to attend and projects to complete all have a tendency to converge into a point of frenzy.
Yet, a calm, purposeful and productive demeanor can be maintained, even in the midst of chaos.
How?
Four simple strategies can propel you through a busy day, while allowing you to keep your peace of mind:
1. Set an intention for what you desire to create today. Most folks begin their day by diving straight into whatever is on the desk (maybe even what's left over from yesterday). Without a clear intention that focuses and prioritizes what must be accomplished today, how can you expect to be clear in mind and focused in action? Set an intention that clearly states what you desire to experience today and what you intend to do. Remember, an intention statement is not a to-do list. It is a simple, clear statement of intention that supports you in creating what you des
People join a group for many different reasons. Motivation, excitement, appropriate skill level, cooperative attitude, and desire to participate, may be lacking. Some people join a group to "look good," to add it to their resume, because someone coerced them and they just could not say no, or because they're curious but don't intend to contribute much. Others join a group with the intention of being a star, the boss, leading others to their own self-serving goals, or just controlling others to boost their own morale. Some people join a group because they want to receive what that group has to offer - education, advice, money, prestige, or a sense of belonging. Then there are the rare few who join a group to discover what they can contribute, how they can help the group to improve and expand.
Not only do people join groups for diverse and completely different reasons, they also arrive with completely different personalit
Managers will find it easier to understand employee stress by thinking about food. The cost of energy is linked to the cost of food in several ways. It requires energy to raise food: fuel for tractors, fuel for making fertilizer and fuel for transporting food. When energy costs go up food costs go up. The price of foods made with corn is rising because the market for corn in ethanol gasoline is creating increased demand. Bad weather in the United States and increased need for grain in China is also driving market prices higher for food and grains.
The people who work for you might not be overly interested to know all the reasons why their gasoline, electricity, heating oil, natural gas and food cost more with each passing day. Along with healthcare costs, mortgage rates and college tuition what they really want to know about is how to pay for what they need. They need food every day. When prices rise stress also rises, rapidly.
