Is It You or Is it Me?

This week, I was feeling out of sorts with no evident reason why - until Thursday morning. That's when I got back into my meditation routine. My Muse device told me I hadn't meditated in four days!

When I started meditating daily six years ago, I saw remarkable changes in my life. Good things started coming to me out of the blue. Things which used to drive me bananas didn't phase me anymore. I had changed and life around me changed.

Is meditating the answer to world peace? Maybe. I do know it helps with my corner of the world.

The Opposite of Mad

Last week I was driving my eight-year old to school. Out of the blue, he piped up, "The opposite of being mad is being thankful."

I was a bit surprised. I thought about my brilliant son and said, "Yes, Zachary, I guess the opposite of being mad is being thankful."

He then continued, "The opposite of being worried is being excited. The opposite of happy is sad. Now you say a few."

"Well, Zachary, I think you've covered everything," I replied after giving it some thought.

"Haven't you ever thought about emotions, Mom?" he responded.

I laughed, "Yes, I have thought about emotions."

I gave a class that day and told them about my conversation in the car. One lady surmised that perhaps they had talked about emotions in school. So, when I picked Zachary up, I asked him if they had.

"No, that was just to break the silence," he said.

Many times I have started to get angry at a situation or a person, probably for not being the way I wanted them or it to be. I think maybe a lot of us are like that. So, I am focusing on catching myself in those “almost mad” moments and turning them around - what is there to be thankful about instead?

Maybe, like my eight-year old, I can understand that the opposite of being mad is being thankful.

Inspired

On April 3, my company is starting up a program where senior executives will tell their stories. These leaders have inspired me by their generosity of spirit.

The executives giving these sessions are all busy people. They travel, they manage good-sized companies. All of them, when asked, agreed to share how they got to where they are.

Just considering this inspires me. That these individuals would be willing to take the time and present their tips, tools and advice. This isn’t about making more money or getting publicity - they already have enough of those.

So thank you, Halifax Executive Mentoring Series presenters!

If you are in the Halifax area and are interested in learning more about this series, please see halifaxleadership.com.

Positive Questions

Have you ever used affirmations? Have they given you results? I have read lots on the power of affirmations but must admit I have never really used them.

However, when I saw “The Book of Afformations” by Noah St. John, I was intrigued. Mr. St. John came upon a realization that our subconscious mind acts upon questions. If we pose questions to ourselves, things happen.

I was happy to test out this theory. For the past few weeks, I have reframed my thinking to be in the form of positive questions. I think, along the guidelines provided by Mr. St. John, “Why do I provide such great service to my customers?” Interestingly enough, using this questioning technique has coincided with many opportunities to prove my customer service skills.

This questioning technique can be related to projects. For teambuilding, perhaps the project team could think this way: “Why do we get our work done so efficiently? Why do we provide such great value to our customers and company?” These questions are starting points. Your team will undoubtedly come up with excellent questions themselves. Then, it will be interesting to see what happens.

It doesn't cost anything to use the technique and I would encourage you do to so. Let me know your results!

Make Sure Opportunities Find You

I recently conducted a global webinar for over 1300 participants and received some great feedback and questions. One repeated question was: "How do you ensure opportunities do not pass you by?"

1. You need to ask. Easy to say, difficult to do. We seem to hesitate for fear somebody will say no. But if you don't ask, it is a definite no. Believe in yourself, your capability, and that confidence will prompt you to ask and open up opportunities.
2. Focus on your strengths. It is easy to let our weaknesses hold us back. A weakness is only defined because it is somebody else's strength. I'm not sure why - just because somebody is great at something, that defines us? Define yourself, focus on your strengths, and tell everybody.
3. Learn to say YES. We all have opportunities that come before us and many times it is easy to make excuses as to why we cannot partake. Although these excuses are valid short term, they will hold you back long term. This implies that you need to raise your level of risk tolerance but your increased confidence from focusing on your strengths will offset that.

Unglamorous work?

Bill Gates is famous as the founder of Microsoft. Today, he spends much of his time and considerable money on the eradication of polio in the underdeveloped world.

With his great help, polio has been eradicated in India. This effort has taken a lot of hard, unglamorous work. All by his own choice. The man who has enough money to do whatever he would like.

Most of us have nowhere near Bill Gates’ money. We imagine, if we did, how we would buy a castle or travel the world a few times over, or some such lofty indulgence.

However, Bill Gates has gone from Head IT Manager to working for the underprivileged.

If we think we are doing something not as significant in the world, it might be worthwhile to think about what Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great” says:

The truth is, few people are working on the most glamorous things in the world. Most of them are doing real work - which means that most of the time they’re doing a heck of a lot of drudgery with only a few moments of excitement. The real work of the economy gets done by people who make cars, who sell real estate, and who run grocery stores or banks. One of the great findings of this study is that you can be in a great company and be doing it in steel, in drug stores, or in grocery stores. 

The basic message is this: Build your own flywheel. You can do it. You can start to build momentum in something for which you've got responsibility. You can build a great department. You can build a great church community. You can take every one of these ideas and apply them to your own work or your own life.

Bill Gates built his own flywheel a few times over. But we can all do it.

And while you are it, remember: project management principles will help with all that building!

Click here for more information on Bill Gates’ work on the eradication of polio. Click here for more on Jim Collins and “Good to Great”.