What’s the value of asking the right questions?

How about getting to the right answers???

“5o Questions That Will Change Your Life…          plus 5 That Will Save It”

is designed to help you find your own right answers.

To get your free copy, simply sign up to in the box to your right. Enjoy it with my compliments!

Want to rekindle your interest in your job? Try one of these tips:

1. Reconnect with why you started this job in the first place.
2. Recall the company’s values and in what ways you align.
3. Think of at least 5 ways the job supports and improves your strengths.
4. Think of 5 ways to demonstrate your strengths at work more often.
5. Think of 3 ways to have more fun at work every single day.
6. Let go of any personal grudges.
7. Make new friends.
8. Find a mentor or create a mastermind group.
9. Volunteer for a project or committee, increasing visibility and leadership profile.
10. Quit a committee (preferably by grooming someone else for the role).
11. Form a professional or leadership association in your profession but outside your company.
12. Form a mastermind or dreamers group inside your company.
13. Ask for a personal development or a non-work-related workshop for yourself and a group of co-workers.
14. Expand your network – attend talks, workshops, conferences, professional association meetings.
15. Each morning, think of one thing you’re looking forward to, rather than dwell on the drudgery of going to work.
16. Place something in your workspace that makes you smile (or even better, that makes you laugh!)
17. Decide what you would do differently if you were the boss, and see if you can influence any changes.
18. Avoid water cooler gossip and start a different kind of conversation.
19. Broaden your skills – get the training you need to move up.
20. Revisit your accomplishments by updating your resume (just in case!)

Not sure you’ll ever love the job you’re in? If it’s time for a change, visit www.successmindset.co/change to get started in a new direction. Life’s too short to be unhappy in your work. Love it or leave it!

Some disappointments are so enormous that a natural response is to look for someone to blame. Someone other than ourselves, that is.

When Giselle threw the receivers under the bus (“I can’t believe they dropped so many passes”), what she was really saying to Tom Brady was, “It’s not your fault. Don’t feel bad.” She was offering comfort, albeit at the expense of others.

But comfort at the expense of others is an excuse.

And there are 3 problems with excuses:

Excuses do not reveal the root cause of the problem.

Excuses do nothing to resolve the situation.

Excuses do not lead to improvement or the next win.

Tough-minded leaders do not accept excuses. In fact, tough-minded leaders will shoulder burdens that they are not even responsible for. Guilty by association.

Businesses, families, even societies, are like teams: you win and lose together. Every player has to perform at their peak AND the entire team has to pull together, without finger pointing or excuses. And if someone drops the ball, perhaps it was not thrown as well as it should have been.

How do you handle disappointment? Do you look for an excuse or do you try to learn from it and improve for next time?

Here are 5 ways to change how you deal with disappointment:

1. Ignore your first emotion. Letting an uprising of sadness or anger overtake you will only cloud your judgment and potentially lead to creating an even bigger problem than the one you have right now (ie. the media frenzy over Giselle’s comment.) If there was ever a time to invoke Emotional Intelligence, it is when sadness or anger are guiding you. Ignore these powerful but unhelpful first emotions!

2. Recognize the efforts of others. No one intentionally drops the ball, and who do you think feels the most devastated? The person who actually did drop the ball. Adding blame does nothing to change the outcome. When someone fails in a really big way, recognize that they gave it everything they had, and mistakes happen. A pat on the back works wonders to restore someone’s confidence in their own performance. And you’ll feel a lot better than if you ream them up and down.

3. Take responsibility. Choose guilt by association and own the entire mistake all on your own. Sound heavy? It’s actually enlightening to step up, put yourself in the middle of the huddle and say, “I could have done a better job.” Then get back out there and try again. I have the feeling that Brady did just that, after every dropped pass.

4. Look for the root cause. There are so many reasons mistakes happen. And sometimes there is no reason at all – just bad luck. Instead of quickly looking for someone or something to blame, step back and look underneath the mistake for the root cause. What happened just before the mistake occurred? Often the root cause lies there.

5. Make a decision. One reason mistakes feel so lousy is that they are an in-your-face demonstration that you have lost control. Take control back by making a decision to change something, practice something, learn something, purchase something – and then follow through with action that supports your decision. Be intentional, make a plan, and do it.

You’ll get over the disappointment in no time, AND set yourself up for success next time, when you choose these steps instead of wallowing in excuses and blame.

“Have a grand vision.” “Pluck the low-hanging fruit.” “Eat your frog first.” “Focus on the task at hand.” “Just do it!”

The motivational market is full of advice, all of it useful, some of it conflicting, and none of it perfect, on how to start every day leaping out of bed with energy and enthusiasm for accomplishing your to-do list.

And frankly, as much as I love the concept of tackling the hard stuff first, I just can’t get excited about starting every day by eating a frog*. I only want to do that when I absolutely HAVE to!

So, in addition to these effective but difficult-to-keep-up-day-in-and-day-out ideas, how can we learn to jumpstart every day?

My favorite technique is this: When you wake up, immediately think about something FUN you are going to do that day. (Hint: In order to do this, you need to have something FUN planned every day! It can be as small as enjoying a cup of coffee while you read the news on your iPad, but you have to recognize and acknowledge the activity as FUN.)

Why does this work? Because your first thoughts trigger the way you start your day (jumping out of bed with energy and enthusiasm). Even if your FUN plans are later in the day, anticipating FUN helps you get through whatever you do before the FUN. And the feeling of satisfaction after FUN will carry  you through the rest of the day. Some days, you might even have FUN twice!

(Note: If you notice an analogy between FUN and sex in this article, it is unintended, but also unavoidable. FUN that incorporates physical activity, including sex and sports, has an even more powerful impact on your mental alertness than a solely intellectual activity.)

So, do you want to jumpstart every day? Make sure every day includes some FUN!

*Author’s Note: Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy is an excellent book on overcoming procrastination. It is referenced here solely to make a point, with complete respect for his work!

photo credit: isolino.

Was 2011 a rough year for you? In my view, this year seemed like a fire-storm of never-ending bad news. War, floods, accidents, divorce, layoffs, foreclosures, disease, death. I personally know someone who was affected by each one of those calamities in 2011. Major, catastrophic, life-changing events. How then, do we put bad things behind us and carry on? I asked people affected by terrible misfortune, and here is their collective, insightful advice:

1. For immediate distraction, get lost in a lengthy book where the characters suffer great loss yet are redeemed in the end.
2. Start writing yourself, from letters to memoirs to fiction.
3. Physically hold another human being or a pet. Medical science has proven that physical contact is necessary for humans to thrive.
4. Don’t isolate yourself – find a group where you feel like you belong. Even if it’s just the morning Starbucks crowd!
5. Find a way to laugh every day. Watch funny movies, buy a book of New Yorker cartoons, or listen to a comedian on tape.
6. View tough times from a “bigger picture” perspective: Life is a journey, and ups and downs are an inevitable part of it.
7. After a loss, also consider what you have gained by the change. There is always a bright side.
8. Get involved with helping others who are even worse off than you.
9. Create! Get your right brain very, very active and it will quiet the left side that is busy staying focused on your problems.
10. Control the next change that occurs in your life. Intentionally do something you have always wanted to do; go somewhere you have always wanted to go; even changing the car that you drive can redirect your sense of being in control rather than becoming a victim of circumstances.

Thanks to the folks who contributed these great ideas for handling any kind of transition with some degree of grace. May 2012 bring better times for all. Wishing you peace, health, and prosperity in the New Year!

Lately I’ve had a lot of calls from people who need help expanding their businesses. Whether they are small business owners or working in a firm of some sort, their request is the same: “I need to get our name out there. I want to bring in more business. I wish I could get more recognition.”

And then come the downside concerns.  ”I’m not sure how long I can keep this thing going. Maybe I should be thinking about alternatives. I’m losing confidence in myself.”

And then finally the question: “What should I be doing?”

And after working with so many on solving this problem, I realized it’s not a matter of DOING. It’s a matter of BEING.

What people in business really need to succeed is this:

Transform from being “you” into “You, Inc.”™

You, Inc. means:

• You see yourself, and present yourself, as a distinct business entity.
• You know and control your brand, whether for your business or personally (even better, for both!).
• You know what products and services to offer.
• You’re attractive to potential partners, clients, and customers.
• You’re confident in your pricing.
• You’re comfortable closing the sale.
• You’re able to expand your reach into profitable new arenas.

Imagine what could happen in your business world if you grew from “you” to “You, Inc.”

Would you show up more confidently in meetings or when networking?

Would you master the words to wrap around your unique brand?

Would you claim your place in your industry, proudly standing up to the competition?

Would you draw customers and partners and investors to you, as a business/business person they want to affiliate with?

Would you treat your business like a “real” business?

Would you communicate to your employer your true talents and expectations?

Would you go after that big promotion, that big sale, that incredible opportunity?

Be You, Inc. instead of just you, and discover how “being” instead of “doing” leads to more business, without all that busy-ness! It’s the shortcut to success, without having to try so hard.