EXPECT THE BEST

WHAT EVER HAPPEN TO . . . “GOOD” MORNING

I was asked point-blank this past week by a colleague at work . . . ” What ever happened to “good” morning? ah huh? was my response. I must admit the question caught me off guard. My colleague after explaining that there are so many people who greet her with simply “morning”. Later, I thought about that very thing and realized much too often, I too, had become one of those people, Yes, one of many people who are in such a hurry in the morning that week do not give the many people that we past and have the opportunity to greet . . . ” A hearty “Good morning“. It is my experience that most of want to hear that greeting with feeling and a warm smile. I am reminded of my years living in Geneva, Switzerland where the locals seem to revel in the opportunity to say good morning (bonjour Mr. Rainey), oh that beautiful sound! Most of the time it was with a big smile on their faces. That was infectious! Remember the 1988 movie “Good Morning Vietnam with the incredible Robin Williams when every morning he would kick off his show with Goooood morning Vietnam. The troops loved it and they loved him for it. I think by now you get the picture. Right?! We all talk about how thankful we are to see a new day. Well,  the way we greet people is certainly part of that. So whether it is Bonjour, Buenos dias, Buongiornio or simply Good morning . . . give all that you have the opportunity to greet a hearty good moring and KNOWUCANTOO.

HOME TRAINING VS. BUSINESS ETHICS

Ethics is a word that can be a lighting rod of passionate debate and at the same time people will tend to run and hide from it. Ethics is defined in Websters New World Dictionary as the study of standards of moral conduct and moral judgement. Without mentioning names, we’ve had numerous scandals over the last decade from our business leaders as well as our political leaders, too. It just begs the question. Why? For the record, clearly nobody is perfect. That said; there are many reasons for our record of poor ethics in the business/political world today . . . greed, power, ego, succumbing to political pressure, etc. But I believe the biggest reason is forgetting our HOME TRAINING or the lack of it. I would probably lean towards the former as people who attain prominent business or political status generally have had good home training for the most part. So how do we get back on the right track? To paraphrase from the Bible and as Mr. John Maxwell said in his word for the day ( ethics ) . . . Do unto others as you wish to be done and KNOWUCANTOO.

MIND WORK . . .

In this political season here in America, we are being fed all these ideas; scratch that . . . sound bites about how to bring the average American a greater level of success. And in this two-party political system ( Democrat and Republican ), each one swears they’ve got the better idea. And every 2 – 4 years we get all caught up ( off track ) emotionally, debating who has got our best interest at heart. Yes, I say off track, you get caught up watching debates that aren’t true debates, watching and listening to commercials that are clearly airbrushed with the truth at best. Candidates and political pundits talking about PLANS that they can neither explain or be specific about. So how do you get back on track? Well enough is ENOUGH! Those of you who have had any level of success are not distracted by the nonsense that is POLITICS. You know that success is a mind game. You have daily, weekly, monthly quarterly, and annual goals. You utilize practical experience when testing a new idea. You visualize and meditate on your goals prior to them coming to fruition. You know to mastermind and partner with other passionate minds embracing ACHIEVEMENT! You know that one must spend at least an hour daily researching and planning. You understand that you must put money aside for self-improvement, i.e. listening to audio-books, attending seminars, and networking with other like-minded people. You know that cable T.V. renders one mindless. Think for a moment. How often during the day are you watching the news, reality T.V., any one of the entertainment NEWS programs? Probably more than you realize. Surely, you get the point by now; it is all about what YOU decide to put in your mind. Still don’t get it? OK, let me put it this way . . . we all know that our bodies need healthy food to survive, but we love to feed it “addictive” junk food.  And when we continue to feed our bodies junk food it wares down faster than intended. The same can be said about our mind. When you nourish and challenge your mind you will realize the ENORMOUS potential that is within each of you. Do your mind work and KNOWUCANTOO.

MOVING TOWARDS PERFECTION

Let me start this post by saying I don’t believe we’re ever PERFECT. That said; I believe we must continue to strive for perfection. Whether you’re a welder, IT specialist, mechanic, marketing guru, public speaker, or even a blogger . . . it is your responsibility to move towards perfection.

HIT THE REFRESH BUTTON

How many times have you laid out your goals, you’ve done your planning due diligence, and your rolling along building and building and all of a sudden ( it seems ) you start grinding to a slow roll until everything just comes to a complete halt?  You know . . . that feeling of overload. You scratch your head because you started by using  all the ” how to ” rules to complete the task, but all of a sudden you’re STUCK. To make matters worse you examine everything you’ve done to that point  ( while you are still in the moment of course ), and you still can’t see where the problem lies.  Wow! this really hits close to home for me. 🙂 This is when it is time to “ HIT THE REFRESH BUTTON “. Yes much like one would do when using your PC. That’s right let us clear up the fog by hitting the refresh button. This is the moment when you need to step away from your work and do things that will get your mind off your current project,  i.e. go see a movie, run a mile, go to the gym, meditate, etc. I think you get the picture. Now you can come back to your work with a fresh perspective. So hit the refresh button and KNOWUCANTOO. 

MOVING TO EXCELLENCE

Year in and year out your boss has Identified your strenghts as well as areas for improvement. More importantly you understant what they are; especially your strengths. Why? While we all want to improve our weaknesses in all aspects of life. You must not lose sight of what you have shown to be good at time and time again. Too often we have the mindset that because we are good at something we don’t have continue to refine those skills. This type thinking leads o mediocrity. When you are good at something the key is to strive for EXCELLENCE. Excellence can be achieved by continuing to find ways to refine and making improvements to your processes or systems. Others ways to do this would be build relationships with associates and colleagues who have show to be excellent. Look up the LEADERS in your field and examine how they became successful. It is always important to aquire NEW knowledge. why? Because life is forever evolving.

LISTEN WELL

How many times  ( in your zeal ) have you wanted to help someone through their problems, but none of the solutions you offered were helping? And after repainting that person using all the different colors you have at your disposal;  you step back once again and reexamine the situation,  yet again, and realize you missed a key piece of info because you weren’t listening very well.

SWEAT EQUITY

SWEAT EQUITY.

SWEAT EQUITY

What is sweat equity? a party’s contribution to something in the form of effort. Now that is from Wikipedia! And they were referring to one’s work input on a business project. But you could use the same definition for your own personal projects/goals, home upgrades, team project at work etc.