Organizations usually underestimate the potential value of
the most important new information, technology, and ways of
operating. This error occurs because the new information or
resource unexpectedly makes untrue what has been undeniably
true in the past.

Achieving 2,000 percent solutions is a good example of this
tendency.  While hundreds of organizations routinely
develop and implement such solutions every day, the
majority of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and
governments continue to focus on how to make 4, 5, or 6
percent improvements.  With the same time, effort, and
resources, these people could be accomplishing hundreds of
times more!

What is a 2,000 percent solution?  It’s any way of
accomplishing 20 times more with the same time, effort, and
resources.  Why would you shoot for less?

Here’s an example:  A best selling business book will
usually be read in part by fewer than 10,000 people.  Chop
the book up instead into essays and provide those essays
for free over the Internet, and you will soon have over
500,000 readers.  The time, effort, and expense of putting
up those essays will be less than finding an agent for a
book.  Lead those essay readers to your Web site and you’ll
sell more books than a best selling business book, and
you’ll earn more profit because you won’t have to split the
revenues with a publisher.

Disbelief: Limited Imagination and Blind Spots

The disbelief stall (a bad habit that delays improvements)
is based on a valid experience, lack of relevant
experience, or a previously established circumstance that
no longer pertains. The bigger the new idea, the more
likely it will boggle the minds of those involved.

Consider this: Over a hundred years ago, Alexander Graham
Bell supposedly offered his fledgling telephone business to
Western Union for $100,000. Western Union reportedly turned
him down cold, perceiving the telephone as an electrical
toy with a limited future. Bell himself initially saw the
telephone as limited to use as a substitute for town
criers. Householders wondered, “Why get a telephone when I
can step outside and talk to my neighbor over the back
fence?” The airplane, radio, computers, and the photocopier
were greatly underestimated in similar ways before becoming
the foundations for major industries. Major breakthroughs
change the possibilities of how we can lead our lives, and
we are slow to see that undeveloped potential.

STALL ERASERS

Creative People with Different Viewpoints

In checking out new information, technology, and
techniques, seek the help of people who enjoy creating new
solutions. You may find these open-minded people among
suppliers, new employees, customers, and outside experts,
including academics. If you don’t have enough such people
to draw on, expand your circle of acquaintances.

In the same way that no two people have identical kinds of
curiosity and imagination, organizations likewise differ in
how they look at potential new solutions. You can easily
imagine that Intel, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, and
Disney would take quite different approaches to addressing
the same opportunity. You should examine your
organization’s personality and orientation to consider how
your perspective can be expanded in useful ways, perhaps by
adding new partners and new competencies.

Positive Thinking Starts the Exponential Progress Engine

To overcome the disbelief stall, you need a positive
outlook. You have to believe that wonderful results are
just around the corner, if only you keep looking for
improvements.

Ask yourself a positive question about any possibility you
consider. For instance, imagine that you are being asked to
use a computer in a totally different and more difficult
way for the first time. Instead of fighting this new
assignment, ask yourself how the task could help you get
home sooner every night. A manager recently had a good
experience from opening himself up to this opportunity. An
IT expert noticed that the manager didn’t know how to do a
mail merge, a way to produce custom documents for many
people on a list. At first, the manager resented the few
minutes of unexpected training. But that attitude soon
changed after many monotonous tasks were accomplished 20
times faster.

At the same time, it’s even more helpful to adopt new
beliefs that open the doors to possibility. A good example
is that many people will never read this article because
they think it’s far-fetched to find even one 2,000 percent
solution. A better belief to hold is that untapped 2,000
percent solutions abound in your most important opportunity
areas.

Other helpful attitudes include:

• Seeing roadblocks as opportunities in disguise

• Feeling that all events occur to help you improve

• Believing that large changes can be made quickly to
create positive results

• Being convinced that new technology can easily remove old
limitations

• Believing that high goals are more fun to pursue

STALLBUSTERS

Locate Blind Spots

The more often you hear about something, the more likely
the new thing is to be relevant to your organization. It
helps to seek out the new to speed up the process of
appreciating what’s going on. To help identify your
organization’s blind spots, ask yourself the following
questions:

• What complaints are customers making that you’ve chosen
to downplay?

• What things are your competitors doing that you have
decided to ignore?

• What things are the communities you do business in
talking about that you have ignored so far?

• What negative feedback have you been receiving from
employees for at least two years?

• What perceptions about your organization and industry are
you not addressing?

Evaluate the Implications of the Blind Spots

Ask yourself these questions about your blind spots:

• Which blind spots are in areas where your organization’s
actions can improve or worsen your situation?

• What actions are needed to gain the most benefit or avoid
the most harm?

• When are actions needed to be most effective?

• What is the minimum evidence you need to know that
immediate action is      needed?

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

—————————————————-
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. Free advice on accomplishing 20 times
more is available to you by registering at
=====>  http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Jane and Bob want their employees and team members to be
motivated at all times.  However, we often believe the time
to motivate is when there is a lack of motivation in an
employee or team members.  Not so!  Jane and Bob need to
focus their attention on motivating their team members when
they need it most, usually when change is happening.

It’s much easier and takes less effort to sustain the
desired behavior and performance than to try to create it
from the ground up.  Intermittent reinforcement is the key
for maintaining desired behaviors.  Knowing what motivates
someone can help Jane and Bob reinforce those behaviors
effectively.

Conversely, it takes less time to sustain the desired
behavior than to deal with a problem.  So, when we say that
we “don’t have the time” because we’re so busy that we’re
barely treading water, we need to understand that we’ll be
spending a heck of a lot more time dealing with the problem
instead of motivating people to continue to do what you
want them to do.

WHAT DOES MOTIVATE YOU, SALLY?

It’s important to understand that different factors
motivate different people.  If Jane and Bob apply the same
standard of motivation (like money or time off) to
everyone, they’ll be off the mark for many people.  Hence,
Jane and Bob have to find out what motivates each person.

In the “Top 10 Ironies of Employee Motivation Programs” by
Bob Nelson, he found that when employees and managers were
asked to rank motivators from 1 to 10, employees rated
“appreciation for a job well-done” as #1.”  Managers ranked
it as #8.  Employees rated “feeling in on things” as #2;
managers ranked it as #10.

THE TIMES, THEY ARE A CHANGIN’

During times of change, chaos and confusion rule the day.
Keeping people informed and showing your appreciation is
vital.  Remember, it’s not just you working long hours,
handling challenges, and feeling overwhelmed.  Your team
members are, too.

AND MOTIVATING FACTORS CAN CHANGE, TOO

Individuals’ motivation changes as their needs change.
Don’t assume that what motivated a staff member two years
ago, or even last year, is the same as what motivates him
now.  Jane and Bob make it a habit to sit down with each
staff member and find out what’s important to each.

MOTIVATING THEM TO DRINK THE WATER

When people are motivated, they are more productive and
happier, and they’ll be less likely to leave your
organization.  Jane and Bob need to find out what motivates
their team members, continue to motivate them using those
factors, and they’ll see productivity and happy team
members, even through change.

—————————————————-
Linda Finkle, CEO of INCEDO GROUP, works with innovative
leaders around the world who understand that business needs
a new organizational growth style. These innovative leaders
know that powerful cross-functional communication is the
highest priority and the strongest strategy for building
organizational effectiveness. To find out more, visit:
http://www.IncedoGroup.com

Copyright (c) 2007 Weiss Communications

The above quote, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
is from Woody Allen. It was particularly appropriate this
past weekend.

I went to take a dance class. My favorite teacher was back
in town for a short time. I was thrilled and ready to
dance! This teacher is incredibly talented, an excellent
dancer, good choreographer and her class is high energy and
fun! I had often wondered why she was not more successful
as a teacher or why she never got into a decent dance
company.

I rearranged my entire schedule to be there. So did a
number of her students. One cut short her holiday weekend
with her parents to get on a plane and fly back in time for
the class. Another rearranged her work schedule, going in
to work at 4:00 a.m. in order to be done in time for the
afternoon class.

The class never happened. My favorite teacher called in
“sick” at the last minute.

When she taught regularly in New York City this teacher had
a habit of canceling classes at the last minute. She’d been
gone for six months and was scheduled to teach only four
classes over the holidays. So far she’s only made it to the
first class. She called in sick for the second. Was she
sick? Perhaps and who cares?

I’ll never again rearrange my day to take her class. I know
several other dancers who also will never again rearrange
their days for her and even more dancers who will simply
never take her class again! Now I understand why this
teacher never got very far in the dance world.

I was raised on the old show business adage, “The show must
go on.” It has served me well. As a young dancer it was
drilled into my head that the audience didn’t care how I
felt. They were there to see me dance. They’d paid a lot of
money to see me dance and it was my responsibility to be at
my best, no matter how I felt.

While that “nobody cares how you feel” message may not be
the best message for a child, in business and in sales it’s
the truth.

Your prospects and customers want what they want when they
want it. It is your job to deliver. If you do not, they
will find another source.

The first rule of prospecting and selling: Show up.

Most sales are made between the 7th and 12th contact with a
prospect. Most sales people stop at about three to four
contacts. All you have to do to sell more is show up a few
more times!

Want to build trust and rapport? Show up. Keep showing up.
Do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re
going to do it. No excuses. Prospects and customers like
and trust people who do what they say they’re going to do,
when they say they’re going to do it!

Want to close the sale? Show up and ask for the order. If
you do not get the order that time, show up and ask again.

It doesn’t matter how smart you are. It doesn’t matter how
talented you are. It doesn’t matter how great your product
is. If you don’t show up, nothing else counts.

—————————————————-
Wendy Weiss, “The Queen of Cold Calling,” is a sales
trainer, author and sales coach who helps you to gain
confidence, reach more prospects, close more sales and make
more money!  For free prospecting sales tips go to
http://www.wendyweiss.com

Last time we saw how Jane and Bob work on communication,
especially around problems, and that they are very clear
when asking for what they need.  Sometimes, they find that
asking isn’t enough; they have to motivate their staff and
team members.

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR STRENGTHS, JIM….

Jane and Bob motivate their direct reports by focusing on
their strengths, rather than weaknesses.  People succeed
when their tasks and goals build on their strengths, and
they want to be and feel successful.

Jane and Bob work around their direct reports’ weaknesses
by providing peer coaching and pairing with other people
who are strong in their weak areas.

MATCHING, NOT MIXING

Match the right job to the right person first, and then
help him grow into his role.  A manager’s primary job is
not to help every individual grow; it’s to improve
performance.  To do this, you have to identify whether each
person is in the right role.  Once everyone is where he or
she is supposed to be, then you can help him or her grow.

MAKE THEM FEEL WHOLE

Help direct reports establish their own goals that are
aligned with the organization.  Jane and Bob don’t have to
tell you that when someone is invested in the success of
the company, the company benefits.  Make sure those goals
have clear outcomes so each employee knows what success
looks like and has milestones along the way.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

Money is not the supreme motivator for all people, or even
most people.  Motivation can come in many forms (praise,
security, opportunity, structure, challenge, power, status,
influence, friends, more free time, flextime, and the list
goes on).  Learn what motivates each individual, and do
what you can to provide more of it.

On the other hand, remove, to the best of your ability,
factors that are negative and demotivating for your direct
reports.  Once you find out what motivates someone, the
lack of or opposites are often demotivators. Ask him to
confirm and eliminate what you can.

By the way, recognition for a job well done was the top
motivator for employee performance, according to a survey
by the Council of Communication Management.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Managers tend not to focus on employee motivation until
it’s lost.  What could the benefits be for your company if
you focused on it now?

Praise is the most powerful motivator, but it must be
immediate, factual, and sincere.  Telling someone “Good
job” immediately after a presentation doesn’t motivate the
presenter.  She has no idea what she did that was good.
Instead, try, “You demonstrated fabulous facilitation,
creative thinking, and leadership skills.”  This tells her
exactly what you think, and gives her feedback on what she
did well so she can do it again.

Research shows that if a manager’s expectations are high,
employee performance will be high.  And, of course, the
reverse is also true.

So, Jane and Bob add motivating their employees to their
ever-growing managerial skills.  The payoff, for company
and individual, is boundless.

—————————————————-
Linda Finkle, founder and CEO of IncedoGroup.com, works
with innovative leaders around the world who understand
that powerful cross-functional communication is the
strongest strategy for building organizational
effectiveness.  There is no such things as “only a
communications issue”.  Communication IS the issue.   To
find out more, visit: http://www.IncedoGroup.com

My mother used to affectionately refer to me as a turtle
because at swim lessons, while the other kids eagerly
jumped right into the pool ready to start, I stood near the
edge, waiting.  I wasn’t afraid of the water.  Rather, I
was taking time to prepare for the event.  Then, when I was
good and ready, I jumped right in and swam.

Thus began my relationship with the fable “The Tortoise and
the Hare” found in the much beloved bedside collection The
Fables of Aesop.  “The Tortoise and the Hare” is perfect
for illustrating sound start up practices.

Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare

Once upon a time, there was a hare who, boasting that he
could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing
tortoise about his slowness.  Then one day, the irate
tortoise accepted the challenge when the hare boasted that
“there was no one in the world who could beat him in a
race.”

The next day the race began, and the hare yawned sleepily
as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off.  When the hare saw
how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half-asleep
on his feet, to have breakfast and a quick nap.  “Take your
time!” he said.  “I’ll have forty winks and catch up with
you in a minute.”

The sun started to sink below the horizon.  The tortoise,
who had been plodding towards the winning post since
morning, was less than a yard away from the finish when the
hare awoke with a jolt.  Away he dashed!  Though he leapt
and bounded with great effort and speed toward the finish
line, he was too late.  The tortoise had beaten him.  Tired
and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who
said, with a knowing smile, “Slowly does it every time!”

The Tortoise and the Hare Start Up Model

From the very start of this fable, it seems absurd that the
slow, prodigious tortoise would even consider pitting
himself against the swift and built-for-speed hare.  Though
everyone can appreciate the tortoise’s desire to quiet the
hare’s bragging and silence his teasing, to the tortoise,
the race was never about speed or silencing a bully.  It
was about following through on his word.  It was walking
the talk, doing what he said he would do–something the
hare never saw coming.  The tortoise was all about the long
game while the hare was about the short.  Both approaches
are important for a successful small business start up.

The Tortoise Speaks

Do you have an overall plan for start up success and
becoming a leader in your industry?

•  Do you have a viable niche market?
•  Do you have a purple cow product/service?
•  Is your profit margin adequate to support your income
goals?
•  Do you have cohesive branding that effectively
communicates what you do?
•  Do you have a business coach or mentor?  
•  Do you have lots of time?
•  Do you have the courage and commitment to see it
through?
•  Do you have sustained financial recourses?

The Hare Chimes In

Are you able to easily adapt and maneuver within the
overall plan?

•  Are you computer savvy?
•  Do you have a reliable computer with high-speed Internet
service?
•  Does a reputable Internet company host your domain?
•  Do you have the tools and skills to create a web site
and edit web pages?
•  Do you have a variety of ways to drive visitors to your
web site?
•  Do you have an Internet merchant account and shopping
cart?
•  Do you have a list serve or another way to send
thousands of emails out to customers/clients?

The Tortoise and the Hare Share Thoughts

Realistically, it takes the winning combination of tortoise
and hare characteristics to successfully start up and
launch a new small business.  It really isn’t a matter of
one being better than another, nor is it about choice.
It’s a combination of preparation, flexibility, strategy,
ability, sustainability and maneuverability in today’s
business world that makes the difference between a success
start up success and failure.

Moral of the Story

Getting out to an early start may seem like the thing to
do, yet, the moral of The Tortoise and the Hare is that
slow and steady wins the race.  Follow the example of the
tortoise:  focus on the task, pay close attention to the
tried-and-true business start up fundamentals, and see
things through.  Then follow the example of the hare by
being nimble and quick to adapt and maneuver when
necessary.  Taking the best from both the tortoise and the
hare ensures that slow and steady will win the race, while
high-octane speed and adaptability will set the pace.

—————————————————-
Susan L Reid, MS, DMA, Small Business Start Up Coach &
Accidental Pren-herâ„¢ is the soon-to-be author of The
Accidental Preneur: Discovering Your Inner Samurai.
Transforming start up woes into start up goes, she provides
value, inspiration and direction to entrepreneurial women
starting up small businesses. For ideas and start up tips,
subscribe at http://SuccessfulSmallBizOwners.com Add your
pren-her story at http://susanreid.typepad.com

Talk! Talk! Talk! We are in a business where talk reigns
supreme, and the boldest talkers are always at center
stage.  Claims run rampant about everything from ad
responses – to phenomenal product results – to bodacious
income projections.

Sometimes this talk sways the uninitiated, and if they fail
to seek any type of verification before taking action, they
might find that they have based their decisions and plans
on pipe dreams and smoke screens.

However, before I leave the impression that talk is always
cheap (and therefore frivolous), I need to emphasize the
legitimate role of responsible talk in MLM. Responsible
talk in our industry accomplishes a number of things:

It speaks public commitments into existence which then
create the forum for public accountability that is so
helpful to those who need a support structure for
continuous production;

It helps people design a time frame for success (i.e., I’m
going to lose 20 more pounds before Easter);

It excites and motivates others to think bigger;

It sets a climate for accomplishment in the organization
which stimulates others to make commitments;

It intensifies focus for everyone so they can evaluate
their goals, large and small.

We consider this type of talk to be positive because it
results in benefits like those listed above. However, empty
rhetoric, or worse yet, distorted testimonials and promises
spoken, but not kept, have damaged our industry
tremendously.  When people keep talking about the future
and how much money they are going to make, you need to come
out from under the ether and look at what they’ve
consistently done over the past year or years and compare
those results to what they are saying.

I used to — out of ignorance — stand in front of the
room and ask the question, “How many of you would like to
make $10,000 a month?” Every hand would go up . . . and
that got me excited!  I didn’t learn for several years that
I was asking the wrong question.

Of course, they all wanted $10,000 or more each month; they
just didn’t aspire to the levels of commitment, focus, and
keeping of production schedules that were needed to produce
such a monetary result.

In those days, I didn’t comprehend those levels myself as
my own business was not making $10,000 a month yet. I
daresay that if I had known and identified the work habits
and time constraints required for a $10,000 monthly result,
I would’ve had far fewer “takers.”

I don’t want to discount the importance of “speaking things
into existence,” because I do feel that public declaration
can go a long way towards helping people get on track and
stay on track. Just don’t be misled by unsubstantiated
talk. Most of the companies in our industry are bigger on
telling you what you can do, particularly in reference to
your earning possibilities, than in sharing what others
like you have really accomplished. Before you put a lot of
time, energy and money into a game plan, check it out
carefully to make sure that the speaker has lived what he
or she is speaking and that it was indeed successful.

Industry legend Richard Brooke says, “Success comes through
you before it comes to you.” By speaking your commitments
into existence, you can attract energy to you, which will
support your making things happen . . . if you are truthful
and focused while honestly sharing both those times when
your accomplishments are measuring up and those times when
they have fallen short of what you have said.

We must be ethical and honest at all times. Too many
distributors will say anything to prospects to get them
involved. Check out some of the ads in any papers or
letters, and you’ll see what I mean. If it sounds too good
to be true, it probably isn’t true. Greed often clouds our
judgment about what to believe.

We must be careful that we speak honestly, respecting our
prospects and giving them the best that we can offer. We
need to distinguish the wide array of benefits and
contributions that our MLM opportunity presents. We need to
talk about what they, the prospects, want, and we need to
focus our speaking, and then our actions, on team efforts.

Only then will talk really become a vehicle for helping
dreams come true.

—————————————————-
Eileen Silva, Ph.D., N.D. is a metabolic health balancing
expert, talk show guest,  and lecturer. Dr. Silva is also
an individual, group, and corporate weight management
consultant. Contact Dr. Silva at
http://www.dreileensilva.com

We can create what we want, and this is evidenced by the
unprecidented number of people who are starting their own
businesses. How do these people do it? How are so many
people finding success today? They pracrtice the three R’s.

Any endeavor you would begin starts with a question: “What
do I want to come of this? What is my intent?” The first R
for success is RESULTS. What results do you want? When you
are starting a business or a project, clarify what you
want. If you are already leading a department or an
organization, clarify what you want.

Most people in the world do not know what they want. They
know what they don’t want, and so they spend most of their
time thinking about what they don’t want. People complain,
worry, and criticize. None of these actions create what you
want.

It begins with a dream, a thought of creating something
meaningful.  As leaders and entrepreneurs we must move
beyond merely dreaming and clarify what results we want to
produce. The key piece is feelings. How would success feel?
The reason people do anything is based on how they think
they will feel. Words like joy, fulfillment, delight,
making a contribution, gratitude, meaning, and love come to
mind. It is this feeling that creates the  passion and
drive that will have you doing what it takes to create your
successful business.

Whenever people start telling me about how much money I can
make in their business opportunity I tend to hang up,
delete, or say “no thanks”. Money is great, and it usually
isn’t enough of a motivator by itself. It is important to
enjoy what you are doing. Money and business success  may
make you feel good. It is more likely that feeling good
will help you make money and success. In other words, our
ability to feel successful right now helps us to create the
results we want. Success is created from the inside out.

Your vision for success is something you begin to live
right now. Think, feel, walk, talk, and act like a
successful person. Never say you are “trying to start a
business.” You are either starting one or you aren’t!

Once you start you need to clarify your identity. What is
your mission? The mission involves what you do, who you
serve, and why it is important. What are your values?
Values involve how you do business and how you treat
people. Clarity about who you are and where you are going
will lead to the results you want.

The second R is RESPONSIBILITY. Responsibility is your
ability to respond. It means that you move beyond blaming
and recognize that you create your experience, therefore it
is you who must respond. Businesses will always have ups
and downs and problems to solve. You can spend your energy
focusing what you don’t want (the problem), or you can
spend your energy focusing on what you do want (solutions).

As an executive coach I have seen so much waste and stress
created by people blaming, being defensive, denying
responsibility, and avoiding problems. At the same time I
have seen businesses where people communicate openly and
honestly, and consciously align their thoughts and behavior
with the results they want to produce.

Responsibility doesn’t mean that we never blame or
complain. It means that we catch ourselves doing it and
move toward resolution.  When we find ourselves complaining
we can ask “What do I want?”, and we can act on it.

The third R is RESPONSIVENESS. Responsiveness is about
being in the moment with other people. It means that my
customers, my coworkers, and others are real people with
real needs and concerns. In business people get so focused
on task they forget about people. People are treated as
objects. A complaining customer becomes an inconvenience.
An unhappy employee becomes a problem. The result in these
cases is the inconvenience  and the unhappiness are
increased.

We need to envision every person wearing a little sign that
says: “Please remember to treat me as important.” We need
to listen, to acknowledge, to respond, and to help people
meet their needs. Most people want to be taken seriously
and not dismissed. If we can be responsive to our employees
and customers, they will want to work with us. Ultimately
the value we create is found in the value we offer to
others. Success is about meeting the needs of those you
serve. If you can do that, you will produce the results you
intend.

—————————————————-
William Frank Diedrich is a speaker, executive coach, and
the author of Beyond Blaming: Unleashing Power and Passion
in People and Organizations. William offers keynotes and
workshops on leadership and moving beyond blaming. William
also offers an inexpensive, yet powerful online leadership
class, The Leaders’ Edge, and a free e-newsletter,
Transformation Times. Learn more about William at
http://noblaming.com

A simple definition of success could be something about
achieving one’s goal or goals.

We often read or hear, “he achieved success” in such and
such a year or upon completion of a project.  Success seems
to be viewed by many people as an end in itself.  Once
reached, some sort of cup or wreath is given to the victor,
and they remain “successful” for all time.  The term is,
somewhat confusingly, applied in several types of
situations.  In baseball, a batter may be successful at a
single time at bat, yet not be successful for the entire
game or season.  A politician runs a successful campaign
when he or she is elected to the office which was sought.
That same politician may run an unsuccessful campaign and
yet be successful in bringing some important issue or
issues to the attention of the electorate.

So, it is easy to look at success as being, as mentioned,
the achievement of a specific goal, whether your own or
someone else’s.  After all, the ballplayer may be wanting a
hit to reach a new record, and his manager may want the hit
to make it to one more playoff so he can hold on to his
job, and the owner may want the hit in order to win the
game and create an atmosphere where he can sell more
tickets to future games.

However, if we are to look at success as applied to an
entire life, one home run, as successful as it may be at
the moment doesn’t quite define a person.  After all, to
continue with the baseball motif, Bobby Thomson hit the
“Shot Heard Round The World”, a home run that won the 1951
World Series to help the New York Giants win the pennant.
He went on to have a good career as a ball player, but
never achieved such a high level of (subjective) success as
on that particular day.  Oddly enough, waiting in the
on-deck circle that day was a rookie who would achieve a
level of success that Thomson never reached.  He was a
young kid named Willie Mays.  At a later point, Hammerin’
Hank Aaron, one of the most successful ball players of all
time, got his chance to play in the big leagues due to
Thomson’s breaking his ankle.

Sticking with baseball just a little longer, let’s take a
quick look at Roberto Clemente.  As a ball player, he won
four batting crowns and had 3,000 hits.  His achievements
as a baseball player include: All-Star (15): 1960-67,
1969-72; National League MVP 1966; Gold Glove (12):
1961-1972; 1971 World Series MVP.  His life and career were
cut short at age 38 when he died in a plane crash while
flying relief supplies to Nicaraguan earthquake victims.
Throughout his career, his humanitarianism earned him the
respect and admiration of fans, players, and the public in
general.  If success is doing the right thing for the right
reasons, then Roberto Clemente was a successful man, just
as Mother Theresa was a successful woman.

While people who achieve what the public tends to applaud
as success often do gain fame and wealth, they are also
often NOT the people who are considered to be the real
successes of a society.  And, while we often hear a great
deal about people who gain momentary success by achieving
some great feat or goal, such as sailing around the world,
or scoring the most points in a game, we hear for decades,
and often for centuries after they are gone, about those
whose lifetime of success was measured in small daily
actions and attitudes which contributed to the betterment
of their fellow humans or the improvement of the earth upon
which we all depend so completely.

So, while not to belittle the amassing of fortunes or
benefits of fame, if you would be truly successful, perhaps
you should try to achieve something of value each
day…something of benefit to all.  Perhaps you will find
that you enjoy the pursuit of THAT sort of success much
more than the pursuit of wealth, fame, or power.

One last note.  People such as Angelina Jolie and George
Clooney are rich and famous because they live in a world of
make-believe and produce make-believe pieces for people who
live vicariously through their stories.  However, it is
possible that they will be more famed and admired for the
steps they have taken to improve the world they live in
than for what they have done in the world of entertainment.
After all, the next movie star can be discovered working
at a soda fountain (they still have those?).  The person
who is going to change the world will have to work at it.

—————————————————-
Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer. He is a University
of West Florida alumnus, a member of Mensa, and is retired
from the U. S. Army. He is the owner of
http://texasprepaidcellular.com .

Yes!  And people are doing it everyday!

You are spending anywhere from 40-60 hours a week at work, and many people aren’t happy with their jobs.  That seems completely insane!  A lot of people bring that same emotion back home, and that doesn’t make anyone feel good.

So whay can you do to find more happiness and job satisfaction?  The majority of it, is your perception on life and work.  There are many great quotes on how “perception is reality”.  If you take a positve outlook on work, you are more likely to find good things.

If you want to read more about finding happiness at work, check out the website PositiveSharing.com

The author, Alexander Kjerulf, has daily motivation, tips, and insights on finding more happiness at work.

It may be that there’s nothing more disruptive than
experiencing a career change. Frankly, it really doesn’t
matter how big the change is -  could be as major as a
complete exit from a long term workplace, or it could
involve subtle shifts of role assignments or
responsibilities. Whatever the magnitude, career changes
can leave us feeling thrilled, nervous, sad, angry, hurt,
depleted, disoriented, confused, or even all of the above.

Many indicators point towards the idea that there will only
be more and more of this kind of change. Therefore, career
resilience is one of the essentials you will need to find
and keep good work throughout your work life.

Yes – without resilience, even if you follow the
tried-and-true process endorsed by a plethora of career
coaches and counselors, the longevity of your sense of
workplace satisfaction may suffer.

As someone who’s passionate about helping people create and
bring their career visions to life, I sometimes notice that
I’m apparently more enthusiastic than my clients are about
their work prospects. How can this be? It seems that when
they’re faced with even the tiniest barrier, they give up.
And this occurs far too often and way too quickly in my
opinion. Somewhere along the way, perhaps due to the very
reason they contacted me, their resilience diminished.

Why is resilience so important? Well, for starters, we can
all count on life routinely handing us things that get in
our way of the real work we yearn to engage in.

Yet, someone who has highly developed resilience would set
a limit or avoid altogether any brooding time. And, the
prospect of giving up doesn’t make its way into their
awareness. Without the option of giving up, what are people
with resilience going to do? They’re going to face the
obstacle, and trust the possibility that this is when
creativity, quality, courage, initiative, and
resourcefulness will likely emerge in their work. Anyone
who has had this sort of experience understands the joy
that will inevitably follow such an experience.

There are limitless practical tips and actions that can be
taken immediately to help you develop career resilience.
Here are some suggested strategies to get started.

Sustain a Practical Outlook: Resilient people are
pragmatic; they know that they can control their situation
and the choices they make in response to evolving
situations. When a career change occurs, one thing you can
do is clarify your core needs for your work, such as the
core values, preferences, and talents that help you feel
energized, enlivened, and fulfilled at work. Once you
understand your core needs, they will become a resource for
you in the midst of change. They’ll help you actively
explore the change and its implications for your work. For
example, you can ask yourself:

- In what ways does this change help me meet my core needs?
 
- How might the change hinder my ability to meet my core
needs?  
- What are some things I can do, now that this change has
occurred, to ensure I continue meeting my core needs in my
work?

Tap into your Resources: People who have high levels of
resilience develop and draw from a wide range of resources.
What got you through previous changes? What happened? How
did you deal with it? What was the outcome?  How can you
take what you learned from that experience to help you now
in the midst of career change?

Explore Possibilities: People with resilience prepare, in
one way or another, for a number of eventualities that may
come their way. Explore the future of your career direction
and the specific ways in which your core needs, values,
interests, and motivations can be brought back into your
career focus through one of the following strategies:

- Enrich: Work within your existing job and workplace to
find ways to bring your core needs back into your work.  
- Relocate: Keep the job type, but decide to change your
workplace.
- Move around: Keep the workplace, but decide to change
your job or area of responsibility.
- Revamp: change it all – your job and your workplace.

Be Intentional: Keep your eye on your intended objective.
Short term changes should not derail you from the “big
picture” of where you’re going in your work life.

Having high levels of resilience offers you a different way
of looking at difficulties that present themselves along
your career path. The person who has resilience understands
that no matter how prepared he or she is, no matter how
much knowledge attained or skills developed, their most
ideally suited work will bring all manner of set backs from
time to time. These people inherently know that such
challenges will foster their own innovation, so they greet
the challenge with enthusiasm. This carries people who have
resilience through tumultuous times, often resulting in
their developing heightened resilience to future set backs.

By shifting your attention from what has happened to you in
your work life to what you are going to do as a result of
the change, you can actively participate and manage your
own transition process in a way that honors your core needs
and ultimately paves the way for you to experience long
term career fulfillment.

—————————————————-
This article is provided by
http://www.srpcareertransitions.com : Helping people
clarify their goals, differentiate themselves, sell their
skills to prospective employers, and get on a path to more
enlivening work. Stephanie Peacocke is a career coach,
certified professional resume writer and specialist in
career resilience and differentiation.
http://www.srpcareertransitions.com