Wednesday Wisdoms
Please enjoy! You will find Jennifer’s blogs below the Wednesday Wisdoms, which were the predecessor to WW’s.
Thank you for reading!
The Magic of Seeing the Part that Shines!
Most people are winners, it’s been said. Some are disguised as losers, but don’t let their disguises fool you. — I was reminded of that quote recently when I realized how often I used to see someone with his or her disguise on and I’d never look past that behavior to see if there was anything more. And the interesting thing, there always was.
In my last book on the super powers we possess, my favorite ‘power’ is X-Ray Vision, the power and ability to see past the problem to multiple solutions, and past the problem person to his or her potential. Often even people we really care about get labeled in a certain way, and then we don’t see past that behavior to the essence of the individual. We miss the unlimited potential someone might have because we’ve categorized him and see him only through a limited perspective.
Andrew Carnegie made more millionaires during his era than anyone else, and when questioned on how he did it, his response: It’s a lot like digging for gold, you have to dig past the dirt to the part that shines.
How often do we hear people talk about their problem employees or the idiots who report to them or even teachers who quietly talk about the students who are losers, they’re even lucky to have made it this far.
My belief is when we stop labeling or putting people into categories of winners and losers, especially when our first impressions of people don’t meet our standards of how something should be done, then we might start to see a lot more shine in the world.
Let me give you an example of seeing the ‘shine’ instead of the disguise:
Pot Roast & the Magic of SOS’s!
A friend of mine told me once she had a very special way of cooking pot roast, handed down from her mother. The secret: cut an end off the roast when putting it in the pan (which my friend had been doing for years). One day her mom was with her when she began preparing the roast. When she cut off the end, her mother asked her what on earth she was doing. “Cutting off the end like you did,” she replied, to which her mom said,” but I only did it because the pan was too small!”
It’s easy to get caught up in nonproductive habits and actions based on old beliefs and assumptions. And it’s something all of us do, whether it’s the way we drive to work each day or how a new initiative is rolled out, much like last year’s. If we start to put some of our assumptions and habits under a microscope we see that while they may be working, they aren’t working as well as they could be. By making small changes we can start to see big results.
Habits can Make Us or Break Us
What separates highly successful people from everyone else? It definitely isn’t education, although many are highly educated. It isn’t IQ; success comes to all intellects. It’s not even that they work twice as hard or are exceedingly disciplined. What is a differentiating factor, however, is the series of habits they form. And when we can replicate how they align those habits, we can literally move mountains to achieve successes we never thought possible.
Let me explain. Highly acclaimed psychologist William James was ready to commit suicide. He was a Number 1 quitter; no matter what he did, he couldn’t follow through. He wanted to be a painter, but he quit. He wanted to be a doctor, but he dropped out of medical school. He wanted to go on an expedition up the Amazon, but he didn’t stay with it. He was so distraught he seriously contemplated suicide, but then he decided to try an experiment for one year instead. His experiment: he decided to believe that he truly had free will and could therefore think and envision how he wanted his life to change; he could absolutely make anything happen with an action plan and a different set of beliefs which he would put into a series of habits. He figured he had little to lose, and consequently before the year was up he had begun teaching at Harvard, had married, and had turned his life around.
Exactly how did he do it? By creating a new set of habits.
It’s 2:00 pm. Do you know where your mind is?
Remember the old advertisement centered on keeping track of one’s children? The message: Good parents knew where their kids were and took time to be proactive and find out if they didn’t know. No excuses.
Well smart, successful people know where their minds are at all times. No excuses! Every second, every minute, we are either moving toward what we want or away from it, depending on what we’re thinking.
Have a bad week or an unexpected bill? Are you drawing more frustration to you by mentally calculating all the bad things that have happened so far?
Want a better week? Day? Afternoon? Start paying attention to what you’re thinking. Are you moving toward what you want, or have you even put into your subconscious mind the ideal outcome you’re aiming for?
Remember, if you hear someone say to you, “I can’t imagine owning that car (substitute going on that vacation, getting that promotion, dating that person, making that kind of money)”, then the only answer is, “You’re right.” If someone can’t imagine having something, then all the opportunities and lucky breaks in the universe won’t make it happen.
To Keep Your Mind Working for You…
It’s Time to Brag About Our Numbers!
We all carry around numbers, and they’re usually bragging rights. Whether we’re proud of our child’s GPA or how fast we run the mile, whether we brag about our cholesterol level, golf handicap or tennis ranking, sometimes numbers seem to define us.
And yet here’s a number you may not know, and one that I discovered, to my dismay, was pretty high for me. The number: What percentage of your daily thoughts dwell on something negative? I’m not talking about problems that have to be solved, I’m talking about when you catch yourself repeatedly thinking about how annoyed or angry or frustrated you are with a person or situation.
“I am the greatest! I said it even before I knew I was.”
Years ago I had an opportunity to meet Muhammad Ali when he was speaking at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, and write an article about him as well. He impressed me with his confidence and wit, and at the same time he was quite gracious when we met. That memory came back to me vividly when I read a quote recently that is attributed to Ali: “I am the greatest. I said it even before I knew I was.”
How does that relate to the rest of us who don’t happen to have the athletic prowess to become a world heavyweight champion? Because one of the smartest ways we learn is to pay attention to what works for others. When someone wants something so badly that he/she not only thinks about that vision but talks about it, imagines what it will be like once it’s here, and enjoys feeling the satisfaction and success of having it, then it starts to become reality. I’ve used this formula many times, and I’m convinced that when I’ve reached specific goals, it has everything to do with mentally creating the goal first and then watching it happen.
Why am I so sure this works? Because I’ve also mentally created what I don’t want many times, just from where I put my focus and worry and energy. Either way we are creating, and it does seem a bit of a no-brainer that we might as well be creating what we want, it’s going to make us a lot happier.
