#FindYourPurpose #StopProcrastinating #JustDoIt
How do I stop procrastinating?
How do I gain more confidence in myself?
How can I reduce my fears and anxiety?
These are questions Gregg Steinberg gets from people struggling with their careers.
Steinberg, a professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, says there are no easy answers to those questions. The best answer, though, is to fill your life with purpose.
Steinberg discussed his strategy for doing that in a column Aug. 16, 2015, in The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville.
His three-step strategy includes thinking of a time in your life in which you had a meaningful impact upon another person’s life. Then, think of words that represent that situation for you. For example, if you successfully mentored a younger colleague, your words might be, “be the teacher,” Steinberg writes.
When you are feeling de-motivated and burned out, you need to say the words and visualize the situation in which you created success, Steinberg says.
It’s easy to put things off. It’s easy to think that you CAN’T do something. It’s easy to be AFRAID to do something.
Most motivational experts advise people to create urgency in their lives. In other words, do what you need to do TODAY to make your lives better tomorrow. Once you begin the path to success, it will be easier to keep going. Sprinters and other racers have to wait for the gun to go off to start running. Pretend the starting gun has just gone off in your head. That will help you conquer procrastination.
The motivational experts often tell you to “do it afraid.” It’s OK to be afraid to do what you need to do, but do it anyway. Putting it off won’t make the fear go away, so do it now, and do it afraid.
You also can reduce your fears by acknowledging any successes. You complete a project, make a sale etc., so celebrate. Take yourself out to dinner – and take your favorite person(s) with you. Celebrating alone is no fun.
As you feel successes, your fears decline. Once you “did it afraid” a few times, you become less and less fearful or anxious.
Once you discover what you want, and learn what to do to get it, don’t wait. As the Nike slogan says, Just Do It! Chances are, whatever you want to accomplish will be done over time. You don’t necessarily get one shot. Even the sprinter who loses a race gets to race again. So, if you do what you need to do immediately, and not find success, chances are you’ll have other opportunities to find success. You just have to know what you are seeking is good for you, and for others, and stay committed to it. It will become, as Steinberg says, your purpose.
If you have the need to change your life, and have the ambition to do it, but are unsure which path to take, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. That path has proved successful for many who were once in your shoes.
So the best advice is to find your purpose, create some urgency to moving toward it, do what you need to do, even if you are afraid, then celebrate your successes along the way.
To wallow is hollow. To pursue is cool. Pursue your purpose.
Peter
Tag Archives: Gregg Steinberg
WHO’S CADDYING FOR YOU?
#innercaddy, #JordanSpieth, #TheMasters #positiveinnercaddy
A professional golfer routinely has a caddy to help advise him on what club to use for a specific shot, what type of shot to make etc.
In the example of young pro golfer Jordan Speith, who won The Masters tournament in 2015, and his caddy, Michael Greller, there is also positive motivation.
Gregg Steinberg, professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, and author of the best-selling book “Full Throttle,” discussed the “inner” caddy in a column in the April 26, 2015, edition of the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
As Steinberg points out, Greller probably would be out of a job if he kept telling Spieth things like, “don’t hit it right again,” or don’t leave it short.”
Steinberg says that if one’s “inner” caddy is giving him negative information, or keeps berating him, it’s OK for that person to fire his inner caddy.
The point here is that you, and your inner caddy, should only have positive interaction. Perhaps you have gotten complacent, or your inner caddy is a bad habit that you have way too frequently.
Steinberg says that one aspect each successful athlete and business person has in common is that he has fired his bad inner caddy, and keeps training and retraining his good caddy daily.
How do they do this? Steinberg offers three ways. First, develop a good inner caddy book filled with positive affirmations, such as, “I really feel it, today.” Secondly, like Bruce Lee write down any negative thoughts on paper, and visualize crumpling it and throwing it into a fire. Third, Steinberg cites the tried-and-true rubber band trick. If you start thinking negative thoughts, have a rubber band on your wrist that you can snap, and that will snap you out of those thoughts.
To some, this may sound like psychology 101. We’ve all learned along the way that thinking good thoughts is always better than thinking bad ones. But, bad things often happen to good people, no matter what they are thinking about.
When that occurs, instead of thinking about more bad things that could happen, think of the good that will come after you’ve dealt with a bad circumstance. Bad circumstances often are our greatest teachers.
Circumstances you can’t control are not inevitable, but they can and do occur. We must use whatever methods at our disposal, and within our personalities, to make sure the bad things don’t get to us, or, at least, only get to us for a short time.
One must believe he is a better person than the bad circumstances he’s been dealt. He didn’t deserve what he got, but he can overcome it.
Sometimes overcoming bad circumstances may require us to step outside our comfort zones. Jordan Spieth, in his very early 20s, could have found it difficult to compete against players more accustomed to pressure-packed tournaments. Instead, undoubtedly with the help of his real caddy, he hit shot after shot over four days, overcame the bogeys that came his way, and won The Masters.
If you, no matter what your age, have the determination of Jordan Spieth, are willing to fire your negative inner caddy and hire one that gives you the strength and grit to win, power to you. If you are looking for something outside your comfort zone to help you win, and help you help others win, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
Spieth had dreamed about winning The Masters since he was 14. What are you dreaming about? It’s there for you, if you find the right reinforcement, and the right vehicle, to take you to it.
Peter
THE MARSHMALLOW TEST, PART 2: PUTTING YOUR MIND ON SELF-CONTROL
Though the marshmallow test was taken by 4-year-olds, other research into willpower focused on adults.
The research was highlighted in the book, “The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control,” by Walter Mischel, and discussed in a Feb. 15, 2015, column in The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville by Gregg Steinberg, professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee and author of “Full Throttle.”
Steinberg suggested several ways to improve one’s willpower. In the first, he advises to focus on the future. Many of us only think about today, and how we can be instantly gratified. The world moves quickly, and the advancement of the Internet and social media gives us instant results.
That can be good and bad. It’s good that we can get information instantly, but not so good if your employer reorganizes frequently and costs you a job.
This instantaneous world requires us to think about the future, because it has become so unpredictable. So, if you want to work until you want to retire, it may not happen. Expect your “retirement” to come sooner than you want, and expect that you probably won’t know when it’s coming.
That means that while you have a paycheck, put some of it away where you can’t touch it, and where you can watch it grow. It will help cushion that unexpected retirement.
Steinberg also advises to give yourself rewards. When you accomplish a goal, treat yourself. He quotes an example of hungry students. One group was given cookies and candy, the other radishes. They were asked to solve unsolvable anagrams. The ones who ate the sweets were better able to stay on task, since chocolate is more fun to eat than radishes.
Of course, part of having willpower is frequently avoiding sweet treats. But if you do something good, it’s OK to celebrate, briefly.
Finally, Steinberg says self-control is a mind-set. He quotes a study of students at final exam time. He says the students who believed their willpower was limitless did better than those who believed the opposite.
In sum, those of us with futuristic thoughts, who give ourselves periodic rewards for doing good and who put our minds to it will have good willpower.
If you are having trouble coming up with a Plan B, in case your Plan A fails you in the future, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Perhaps if you see the good in there, your thoughts of the future will turn to dreams.
So celebrate appropriately. Learn to believe that waiting for something good is not only possible, but desirable.
Know where you want to be, and perhaps what you want to be doing 10, 15 or 20 years hence. Then, work toward that end. You may hit some bumps along the way, but your strong mind can guide you toward your own solutions.
Have the will. Find the way. Don’t be easily tempted to stray. The journey often is more fun than the destination. Press on with care and patience.
Peter
THE MARSHMALLOW TEST, PART 1: THE POWER OF WILLPOWER
#marshmallowtest #willpower #achievegoals
Would you pass “The Marshmallow Test?”
In his book, “The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control,” Walter Mischel describes decades of research related to willpower.
Gregg Steinberg, professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee and author of “Full Throttle,” discussed Mischel’s research in a column in The Tennessean Newspaper in Nashville Feb. 15, 2015.
The Marshmallow Test involves 4-year-olds. They sit at a table, each with a marshmallow in front of them. The adults leave the room for upwards of 20 minutes. The children are told, as the adults are leaving, that they will get another marshmallow if they stay in their seats, and refrain from eating the marshmallow in front of them. The children also had the option of ringing a bell on the table, after which the experimenters would return and the children could eat their marshmallows.
How would you do?
You can go to youtube.com and check out a few videos of this process, Steinberg wrote.
Steinberg writes that the researchers discovered that the more seconds the child waited before ringing the bell, the higher they rated on social and cognitive functioning when they were retested decades later, Steinberg writes.
The study found that those children who waited longest to eat their treat had higher SAT scores, lower body mass index a better sense of self-worth, pursued their goals more effectively and dealt better with stress, Steinberg writes.
As adults, some of us hate marshmallows and could sit there for hours without touching it, or ringing the bell. In the meantime, we could amuse ourselves checking e-mail on our phones, texting our friends etc.
So, we could pass the literal marshmallow test with flying colors.
We might even be able to pass the test if the marshmallow were substituted for something we love, be it chocolate, steak, etc.
We might even tell ourselves that as adults, we have far more patience than a child.
But let’s take it a step further. What goal do you have sitting in front of you that you’d love to achieve, but may find difficult to achieve?
Is it making lots of money, or having a secure retirement? Is it moving up the ladder in your company, or even just surviving in your company for as long as you want to?
Do you want your goal badly enough to do what you know you need to do to achieve it? Do you have what it takes to deal with the inevitable pitfalls that will come your way, yet not stray from your mission to achieve that goal?
If so, consider yourself passing The Marshmallow Test. Should you find yourself short of tactics to help you achieve your goal, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll see one of the many ways to achieve goals that your current circumstances may not help you achieve.
Life, like marshmallows, can be a bit squishy. But goals, and the willpower to achieve them, keep you firm. Stay firm. Step over life’s squishiness. Stay patient. Achieve your goals. They are there for those who wait, and work smartly.
Peter
ATTITUDE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT
#attitude
To paraphrase a Southwest Airlines ad: We all know airline employees have attitudes, but we have the good ones.
When your parents told you have an attitude, it was not a compliment. Of course, if you didn’t have the attitude THEY wanted you to have, you were told you have an attitude.
But Gregg Steinberg, professor of human performance at Austin Peay University in Tennessee, believes an attitude can be the force, as in “Star Wars,” that should be with you. He wrote about that in an Oct. 12, 2014, column in The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
As a child, your parents did not want you have independent thought. They saw that as attitude. They did not want you to think that things they had taught you could be wrong.
As adults, it’s desirable to question things. It’s desirable to investigate for oneself whether something is right or wrong. It’s best, as an adult, not to assume or presume. It’s best to make judgments based on facts.
But attitude is much more than finding facts and making judgments. Attitude is belief. To quote Steinberg, attitude is a force. It’s also, as he said, a choice.
One can choose to be optimistic or pessimistic. Once can choose to see the world as a great place, or a doomed place. Once can choose to believe that the best years of their lives are ahead of them.
Of course, belief is a start. One must act on what he believes. He must choose to fight through the gloom and doom and take charge of his life.
How does one do that when “life” has hit him upside the head? First, he recalls what is good in his life – and we all have good in our lives. Then, he is grateful for the good in his life. Chances are, what’s good in one’s life trumps what’s bad. So, we fight through the bad by having an attitude of gratitude.
Then, one must ask: what can I do to make things great? If you are having trouble finding a good answer to that question, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll see people who had trouble answering that question in the past finding the answer in abundance.
But no good thing comes to us without effort. We must make an effort not only to believe there is good out there, but to find it.
Once we find it, we must do what we need to do to get it. Once we get it, we must help others believe it, find it and grab it.
Perhaps it’s not what lies beneath that matters. It’s what lies within.
Our circumstances may rattle and shake us. But they should never break us.
We mustn’t fear the future, for it eventually will be bright if we make it so.
So, as an adult, it’s OK to have an attitude. It’s OK to defy what peril has been put upon you.
We all have so much good in our lives. Embrace that to start with, then go get more of it.
Attitude is a choice. Choose wisely.
Peter
SPEAK WELL OF YOURSELF — TO YOURSELF
#tennismotivator
Tennis great Novak Djokovic was tied at Wimbledon with Roger Federer, in the gentlemen’s championship match in2014. Federer had won the fourth set to even the match.
Djokovic had to win the last set to win the match. He took a bathroom break after the fourth set, but it was not just a physical moment. It was a mental moment as well.
He looked at himself in the mirror and began to fill himself with positive affirmations. He told himself how good he was, and that he could win the title. He did. That day, he was his own best friend.
Gregg Stienberg, professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, discussed the Wimbledon story in a July 20, 2014, column in The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
People make fun of folks who talk to themselves, but, as Steinberg says, self-talk is actually a type of self-hypnosis. Djokovic actually hypnotized himself into a pure level of confidence after that fourth set, Steinberg writes.
At this writing, both Federer and Djokovic are now competing for the men’s U.S. Open title.
Here are Steinberg’s suggestions of how you can create a positive mental tape that plays in all pressure-packed situations: create a best-friend journal of positive self-statements, or, snap out of negativity with a rubber band around your wrist.
Just as you can talk yourself into doing certain things, you can talk yourself out of doing certain things. The obvious rule here is to talk yourself into doing things that you know are going to create a positive outcome for you, and talk yourself out of doing things that will hurt you.
We don’t always know which is which. Djokovic obviously knew that winning Wimbledon would be a great thing for him, so he talked himself into it. He gave himself the motivation to overcome whatever Federer threw at him.
Was it easy? No. Was it worth it? You bet.
We often find ourselves taking the easiest way out of any circumstance. We find ourselves following the path of least resistance. Djokovic could have thought to himself, “I’ll do the best I can, but finishing second at Wimbledon is not too bad, right?”
Are you aiming for “not too bad?” Probably not. Are you aiming to be the best you can be? Sure. You have to believe you can be great, and you have to do what you need to do to be great.
You may not be great at tennis, or any other sport. But anyone can be great at something. As Darren Hardy, publisher of Success magazine, has said, a lot of great people are mediocre, or even terrible, at some things. That’s because they gave singular focus to the one or two things they are great at, and didn’t worry about being good at anything else.
So, what do you believe you are, or can be, great at? You may not be able to answer that question easily. If you want to be great at something, but are not sure what, there are many things out there that ANYONE can be great at. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll learn how people became great at something that’s simple, but not necessarily easy, and were handsomely rewarded for their achievement.
For some people, talking positively about themselves to themselves may be a great motivator. For some, talking to themselves may not be their thing. For everyone, whether you are into talking to yourself or not, thinking positively about oneself is essential.
Focus on what you CAN do, not what you CAN’T do. Play tennis, or any other sport, for recreation and don’t worry about the score, or winning. You want to WIN at what you are good at.
Find what you are good at and stay with it. You’ll see setbacks and circumstances that may try to derail you. Remember, and believe, that the great ones ALWAYS rise above those things, and carry on. Don’t quit what you want to be great at.
Peter
OPTIMISM BREEDS SUCCESS
Imagine being a pessimist and being a leader.
How can you lead people, or yourself, to success if failure is always in view.
That isn’t to say that leaders might not be realistic, but it would be difficult to find success if you never can see it.
Gregg Steinberg, professor of human performace at Austin Peay State University, uses the example of Diana Nyad, who swam from Cuba to Florida in September 2013, after several tries. Nyad had been trying to complete the swim since 1978. She faced obstacles like stinging jellyfish and other occurrences, but on her fifth try, everything was finally in place to ward off failure and she completed the swim.
Steinberg wrote about Nyad and optimism in the Sept. 29,2013, edition of the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
He says that even people who are natural pessimists can succeed by changing their view of failure. He talks about the TUF strategy, in which failure is viewed as temporary, unique and flexible. He says people who long for success must have internal dialogue that describes failure as TUF. It’s temporary, meaning today was not the day. Tomorrow we have another chance. Unique, because each situation is unique and a better situation will arise tomorrow. Today’s attempt was a strikeout, but there’s another turn at bat tomorrow. People talk within themselves about flexibility, because one or two tweaks in strategy may change the results.
All successful people have known failure. They’ve come to accept it as part of the journey. But they are always optimistic that failure today could become success tomorrow.
In recent years, it seems many of us are surrounded by failure. A good job may be gone. Our mortgage debt may have turned from manageable to underwater, with no action by us. The idea of getting a job, or working for a company for life has all but disappeared.
We see previous generations, now retired, who’ve never experienced this. They may or may not be able to help us. It’s not that we’re lazy. It’s just that our comfort zone has gotten very prickly.
What to do? First, as Steinberg suggests, maintain your optimism. If that’s not natural for you, try to change the inner dialogue you have with yourself. Sure, optimism isn’t going to give you a paycheck tomorrow, and it may not cover your underwater mortgage, but it will help you believe that there is something better out there awaiting you.
It may be a great job that you had never envisioned doing. It may be that person you had just met, who will become meaningful in your life. It may be something totally unexpected. But if you never believe good things will come, they may show up and you won’t recognize them. Your ship may come in, but if you don’t see it, you’ll miss the boat.
You also have to look at things that may be outside your comfort zone. For one such thing, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. It may not be your ship, but you won’t know unless you go to the dock to check it out.
Regardless, optimism and a positive attitude is the one thing you can do for yourself, despite your circumstances. Look at your life so far, and see where you are. Take stock about what’s good in your life. Be thankful for those blessings. Then, see about fixing what’s wrong. You may need some help, but don’t EXPECT help. Ships will come and go, but check out every one. A certain one may have your ticket to success.
Stay focused and positive. Be optimistic. Remember, employers are looking for people who have a genuinely good outlook on life. That may be the key to you landing that great opportunity.
Be optimistic that your ship is waiting.
Peter
CHOOSE TO BE CONFIDENT
Confidence is a choice.
Sure, results can encourage confidence and failings can discourage it, but whether or not you are confident in any situation is entirely in your hands.
Gregg Steinberg, author of “Full Throttle” and professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University, used golfer Jason Dufner as his example of choosing to be confident. His choice led Dufner to victory in the PGA Championship in August 2013. Steinberg’s column appeared in the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville Sept. 1, 2013.
Not everyone finds the choice to be confident easy. Many go into job interviews, tests, and other stressful situations in which one’s performance is evaluated without confidence. Not all of those situations will turn out the way one wants, but if one is confident, failure won’t matter. Next time, or the time after that etc., you will succeed.
People like to be around confident people. As we discussed last week, Andy Andrews, in his book, “The Noticer,” described success as having people WANT to be around you. Confidence will help you persuade people to want to be around you.
Confidence is a shield against the word, “No.” If you don’t fear “No,” you know you are confident. When you don’t fear “No,” you can collect as many of them as are out there and just toss them aside. You have to collect “No’s” to find the “Yeses.”
Are you choosing to be confident yet? If not, Steinberg suggests that you have a planned statement you can say to yourself, or someone else, to inspire your confidence. “I choose to be confident,” is one that Steinberg suggests. Or, “I will not fear No,” “I will win,” are a couple of others.
Steinberg also suggests that you recall a time when you were very confident before delving into your currents stressful situation. Perhaps you were confident you would win when you played on a first-place athletic team. Steinberg suggests that as you think of a time in which you were very confident, write down why you felt that way and carry it with you. As you feel your confidence sliding, take a look at that.
The idea of writing things down is almost universal advice. After all, it’s not money that we all want, it’s success. You encourage success by writing down the things you would do when you are successful – either for yourself or for someone else. Confidence encourages us to help others that need us, and that attitude will encourage our own success.
It’s best not to confuse confidence with arrogance. The choice to be confident is helpful. The choice to be arrogant is not. Confident people are humble. Arrogant people are egotistical. Confident people give to others. Arrogant people take from others.
Remember that situations can inspire confidence, but cannot create it. We must create it ourselves. When we create it ourselves, we display confidence in any situation, and circumstances will be meaningless.
If you have created your own confidence, and are looking for a vehicle in which to apply it, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. Check out how people have overcome circumstances to never fear the word, “No,” for they know something many others do not know.
So be confident, be accountable and create a world that until now, you’ve only dreamed of. Write down today what that world would look like, and carry it with you. It will help keep you on your confident path.
Peter
GOOD HELP IS HARD TO FIND, KEEP
One would think that with still-too-high unemployment, people would be afraid to change jobs.
And, one would think that even if an employee moved on, he or she could be easily replaced.
Yet, companies today talk about the difficulty retaining good employees.
Those companies are putting in nice extras in the workplace to make it a place people want to work.
Lance Williams, business editor for The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, says seven out of 10 American workers admit they are “checked out” at work or they are “actively disengaged” on the job. Williams also says that out of 100 or so Americans on the job, about 30 are actually engaged or involved in, or enthusiastic about their jobs.
Williams wrote a about this in a June 30, 2013, column in The Tennessean.
That means that the “good” people in any organization are about 30 percent of the workforce. They are the ones employers want to retain. The odds are against the employer finding another good one to replace a good one who has left.
That same edition of The Tennessean spoke of “intrapreneurial” spirit, as Anita Bruzzese calls it, and finding purpose in everyday life to help your motivation soar, as Gregg Steinberg talked about. Both Bruzzese and Steinberg are authors and experts on the subject.
Bottom line: if you aren’t motivated at work, find something there that WILL motivate you. If you own a company or manage people, create an atmosphere at work that will motivate people. Employers like entrepreneurial types within their organizations. Before the word entrepreneur became in vogue, these folks were called self-starters. They didn’t require much direction from their bosses and figured out new and better ways to do things.
No one expects a job to be a vacation or a hobby. Everyone expects to work – even handle unpleasant chores. But if you are employed, you need to find some perks in your job – something other than a paycheck that motivates you to do well and enjoy your time there. Sometimes you have to create them. Sometimes, your boss needs to create them. But you can’t depend on the boss to make your work life a total kick.
If you are among those who are “checked out” at work, it will be noticed. If you don’t care, then no one else will care if you go. If you do care, it will be noticed. No one will want you to go, and other employers will want to steal you.
Companies can replace skill, but it’s more difficult to replace MOTIVATED skill. Every employer wants its staff to be motivated, and each must take action to help find that motivation. Otherwise, the few motivated ones will be gone and difficult to replace.
If you are a motivated person, but not working in the right place, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. It may be just the thing to keep you from “checking out” at work. It may be the thing that will help you find purpose in everyday life. It may be just the thing to be “intrapreneurial” with others.
To bosses: work on not just getting out the product, but getting the most out of your workers. To workers: if you have a good job, but don’t feel it is right for you, try to find something you can like. If you can’t, keep looking. There are good places to work.
You need to be working in a place that gives you more than money and benefits. You might even already be working there, but haven’t yet found your purpose.
Peter
FINDING GOOD IN EVERYONE
It takes all kinds to make a world, and those most successful people value everyone that helps them achieve success.
“When you make every client your favorite, you are bound to have a deeper connection with your clients, as well as have greater success,” says Gregg Steinberg, professor of human performance at Austin Peay State University and author of the Washington Post best seller “Full Throttle.”
“You will always have some clients whom you perceive as friendly and kindhearted.,” Steinberg said in a May 2013 column in The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
But, “”everyone’s business has a few clients that simply get on the nerves,” he added. Your dislike for that client will eventually show through, and affect your business, he said.
Let’s dig deeper into Steinberg’s idea. Everyone that we interact with has good and bad traits. We just have to focus on the good traits, and let the bad ones roll off our backs. By focusing on one’s bad traits, we waste energy. Dislike, even hate, takes energy. It doesn’t improve anything. It doesn’t move us forward.
If a person is vital to our lives, or our businesses, we have to manage our emotions about them. We have to focus our energy on appreciating the good they do, and not waste a lot of energy focusing on what they don’t do for us.
Any relationship is like that. One cannot be blind to the flaws of another, but one does not have to focus on it. Focusing on the positive not only improves chances of success in that relationship, it also creates less stress.
Sometimes we witness true evil. We can’t help but expend energy trying to combat that. Though motivational speaker Andy Andrews tells us to “sweat the small stuff,” sometimes the little things that a person does that annoy us might not be worth sweating. Andrews also advises us to “smile when we talk.” If we do that consistently, we will focus our energy on the positive traits of those we come in contact with. The nagging little annoyances won’t bother us so much.
Success is treating each (pick one: client, coworker, friend, acquaintance, neighbor) as if they are just right for you. Seeing and focusing on the positive in that person will be reciprocated. Perhaps you will make each other successful, which is ideal.
If you want to make everyone you interact with successful, but are not sure how to do that, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. This may be the vehicle you have been looking for not only for your own success, but also to help others succeed.
Helping others involves giving, but sometimes the best thing you can give a person is a way to help themselves and others.
The more you give in that regard, the more those to whom you give the opportunity will pass it on. The more everyone passes it on, ultimately, the more successful people become AND the more people become successful.
The more successful people there are, the better place the world becomes. The more successful anyone becomes, the less energy is wasted on little annoyances. But to get to that point, you first have to make the effort NOT to focus on what annoys you. Focus on what you see that is good, and continue to feed that.
In short, don’t let the little stings cripple you. That creature who stings produces the honey that you love. The more honey, the more success.
Peter