I've learned the hard way that busyness does not equal productivity.
The lesson came to me over a period of years when I had a small business as a newspaper distributor. Before you laugh, there can be lots of money in newspapers, people are hooked on them and, I found out, will get quite cranky if there's an issue with its delivery.
Anyway, the schedule was grueling, up at 1:00 am to deliver over 1,000 papers to subscriber's doorsteps in 'dry readable condition'. Once that was finished (at about 5 or 6 am) there was time for a tiny nap until the complaints started rolling in. We'd have until 10:00 am to run out and supply the 'missed' papers to customers who didn't get them in 'dry readable condition.' Then it was time to deliver the evening paper, which we had to pick up at 11:00 am and complete by 5:00 pm. Once again, customers who didn't get, you guessed it, a 'dry readable' paper called, and well, we were off a
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
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
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
Will be attending the above-mentioned conference in Minneapolis from April 30-May 2. Resume writing, career changes, returning to the corporate market after respite, traditional movivational speeches, Jesus Christ Superstar production and more. Not exactly my bag, but I will be introducing a "spiritual, philosophical, pragmatic, legalistic, small business approach" at my booth....and hope and expect such will be well received.
Project Management is a process. Project Management Professionals know how to use the process to have a positive impact on project outcomes and organizational profitability. The utilization of the tools and techinques must be thoroghly understood and implemented if the benefits and return on investment are to be realized. The secret to success is sound, pragmatic education and dedicated attention the people in the process. A growing PM professional never stops learning. He/she is always looking for a way to improve their contribution through effective use of the concepts of PM.
I have often wondered how you create charisma in your life. Since charisma is a form of energy, the question is how do you go about creating energy. And then there’s the question of what type of energy.
If you look at charisma as magnetism then charisma can be used in a good or bad way depending on the intention of the person. There are some people that are just plain charismatic no matter what
The other day I was sitting in Starbuck's coaching a prospective client who was sharing her concerns about marketing. "It makes me feel greasy" she said while scrunching up her face and wiping off her arms as though she literally had slimy, sticky animal lard all over them. "I also believe that people should just know I'm great and there is nothing more to it! They should just know that I'm going to help them get where they want to go with my services. If they don't see how fantastic I am, well then they can just walk!" She paused for a moment and then stated, "I do realize however that I have no choice, and must market if I want to gain more customers, make more money, and keep my business open but how do I do it without having these nasty feelings?" I shared with her that if we altered her present perspectives on marketing and got her more connected to how she wanted it to be, it actually could feel easy, fun and less "greasy.&quo
You wake up one morning and the world seems to be collapsing around you. Your tenuous time living with you parents because you are running out of money has gotten worse because you placed a bowl in the wrong place in a washing machine or forgot about a coupon to purchase a scooper for cleaning out leave troughs. The previous week a job hunting trip went bad because your car with 120,000 miles on it broke down on highway with steam coming out from underneath the hood. One day late in paying off your membership in your health club, you ask the owner if you can discount for doing some work around the gym. You are told that the gym has more than enough people working for them. Even if they did, you wouldn't be the one they would want. So it goes.
You can develop a real bad feeling about yourself if all this continues. Just because others suggest bad things doesn't mean they are true.
Life occassionally sends each of us life perservers. If these life persevers ar
