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!
Create More Happiness in 2018!
Create More Happiness in 2018! January is always about renewal, fresh starts and new beginnings. It's a wonderful time to shed anything that didn't work well in 2017 and look to better ideas/different approaches for the new year. We make resolutions, often as many for...
What’s the Difference between Mediocrity and Success…Resiliency!
What’s the Difference between Mediocrity and Success…Resiliency! Whether on the battlefield, in the corporate board room or in the class room, one of the most important attributes we can possess, that will actually be a deciding factor in our success or failure, is...
The Secret of Charisma…Five Steps to Create Luck & Opportunity
As I was sitting in an airport waiting for a red-eye recently I was oblivious to the sea of humanity all around me at a large restaurant near my gate. Lost in my emails I glanced up and realized that in both directions there were dozens of people in a dialogue with...
Fuel, Fire & that which you Desire!
When was the last time you were really fired up over an idea or meeting or project? When was the last time you gave yourself permission to have fun or take an hour off during the day? And what were your strategies recently to fire up everyone around you in order to...
Freeze! Now exactly what are you thinking?
It happened again! Even though I thought I had it under control I ended up just as annoyed with someone; same old problem and same old reaction from me. Very frustrating! It also dawned on me that if I didn’t make a change—primarily in how I was thinking—I...
Misplaced your Passion? Here are Some Great Ways to find it!
Misplaced your Passion? Here are Some Great Ways to find it! People are watching us; how we react to criticism, handle a problem or enjoy our day. It’s what we model to others that matters, not what we’re saying. And Albert Schweitzer said it best when he asserted...
Lessons from L.E.A.P….or How to Get Free Upgrades through Conscious Communication
Lessons from L.E.A.P. ...or How to Get Free Upgrades through Conscious Communication Usually my work keeps me traveling much of the time, accruing lots of travel miles and a few hotel perks. At the same time I often run into travel troubles, which is exactly what...
How to Avoid ‘Down’ Days—The Science of Feeling Good
No one has time for a “down” day and most managers won’t understand if we call in “unhappy” or “feeling blah.” We have to function as if we’re in our zone every day, exuding self-confidence; filled with energy and wisdom. Of course things don’t work that way; we all...
What is Your Legacy?
We probably all agree that it would be great to leave an amazing legacy when we die…people remember our good work or our financial benevolence or our intelligent guidance in achieving extraordinary results. That’s all well and good, but what kind of legacy are we...
This is Gonna’ be My Year!
This is Gonna’ be My Year! Many friends reminded me in their Christmas cards that 2016 was going to be my year. After all I had completed some recent milestones—like finally getting my master’s—and it was time for me to reap the benefits of all my work. And now, as...
Watch out for Your PCC’s…they’re Creating Your Reality!
Watch out for Your PCC’s…they’re Creating Your Reality! The cat was one good morsel for the coyote, easy to kill without even exerting a sweat. However when cat and coyote were walking together and coyote accidentally stepped on cat, cat bounced up to coyote’s eye...
Five Ways to Be a More Assertive Woman!
Avoid using the words just, try or sorry. All of these can lessen your credibility. Use confident body language and non-verbals. This means standing up straight, making eye contact and speaking loudly enough to be heard. Get rid of disclaimers of any sort. They...
Five Ways to Build Confidence
Think of someone who acts the part of confident, and then do what Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (author of The Power of Positive Thinking) did when he didn’t feel motivated to lecture, he acted as if. Act as if you were the confident person you are thinking...
Did I Tell You Thank you Today? The Benefits of Appreciation!
I did an interesting experiment the other day in a class in Phoenix. The group of individuals in the communication class I was teaching had created such synergy, such a great camaraderie in the two days they had been together that at the end of the class I pointed to...
The MAGIC of Focus
Did you know paint doesn’t stick to furniture if you don’t sand off the old, flaking layer first?
New ideas don’t stick much either if we’re trying to put them on top of old, deeply-rooted beliefs. We’re all creatures of habit but when the old habitual thinking keeps us stuck, it’s time to initiate change, and there’s no better time than right now. A little practice can yield amazing results.
Focus is key when it comes to creating change, and since acronyms are an easy way to remember, here’s a simple formula for creating lasting change.
Get Rid of Excuses…It’s Liberating!
Excuses are valid, they really are. Traffic really did make me late and my dog really did eat my paper (however he prefers pulling money out of my purse, finding $20’s more delicious than $10’s). Excuses however, are still excuses.
An excuse is defined as “an attempt to lessen the blame attaching to a fault; seek to defend or justify.” And in last month’s blog I began examining how to let go of any person or grievance where we feel stuck through the acronym, Forget It and Drive On (FIDO). This month I’m looking at Habit Number II in this acronym, which is to Wipe Out Excuses!
What do Statistics and World-Class Communicators Have in Common? Read on!
I don’t like statistics, and more than that, I feel clueless the majority of the time I’m studying it because I don’t do well with calculating the standard deviation of anything and I’ve got a mental block on the difference between independent and dependent variables. Yet, here I am taking an advanced research/statistics class to get through graduate school, and so in order to keep from cracking up over T-tests and interpreting multiple regression, I’ve worked out a few shortcuts for survival.
For example, a way to remember the difference between an independent and dependent variable is to think IF, followed by THEN. In statistics this sounds like, “If the manager’s behavior is intimidating, then the employee may be ineffective in his job because he’ll be afraid to ask questions.” Independent variable: manager’s intimidating behavior. Dependent variable: employee’s performance.
And what, you might ask, does this have to do with anything?
It has a great deal to do with thinking before we say something we may regret.
It’s Time to Start Treating People like Dogs!
Animals seem to bring out the best in us; in fact I’m often amazed at how kind, tolerant and generous people seem to be around the most cantankerous or meanest of animals. Typically I hear comments like “There is no such thing as a bad dog, just a bad owner.” In other words people tend to cut bad dogs lots of slack, reasoning the dog’s behavior is really not its fault.
However the same folks will turn around and bristle at any unkind word or become annoyed if they perceive someone disagrees with their opinions. This dichotomy in behavior is what prompted my blog, it really is time we start treating people like dogs!
Which means exactly what, you might ask. Let me explain…
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.
