About

Posts by :

Six Steps to Boost Your Confidence

Lori Dryburgh Blog No Comments

When your confidence goes up, your competence goes up.

Confidence is the single most important human ability. In fact, all other desirable abilities need confidence as a foundation. People with confidence can overcome, learn, transform and accomplish anything.

And, like any ability, confidence can be learned, mastered and applied any time you start to feel a crisis of confidence.

If you ever struggle with self-confidence, here are six helpful ways to build it up:

Review your accomplishments

You’ve already achieved some successes in your life, right?

List them, identify why they were important and identify the skills and strengths you’ve used to succeed.

Seek new knowledge

If you’re lacking any of the skills you need to achieve your goals, focus on learning them.

This process will remind you that you’re capable of growth, and mastering the skills will give you a mental boost.

Face your fears

Too often we sabotage our self-confidence by hiding from what frightens us.

Train yourself to identify and examine your fears so you can take action against potential setbacks. Be more powerful than what you’re trying to avoid.

Adjust your thought patterns

Avoid negative thinking, such as all-or-nothing thoughts (“If I don’t get this job, I’ll be a total failure”), seeing only the downside (“I finished the project, but what if people see how tough it was for me?”), jumping to conclusions (“Bob didn’t reply to my email—he hates me”), or putting yourself down.

Train yourself to see the positives in every situation. Practicing a daily gratitude ritual can help train your brain into automatically seeing the positive.

Pay attention to your appearance

You don’t have to buy a lot of expensive suits, but devoting some time to your wardrobe, hair, and overall grooming can pay off by making you feel better about how you present yourself. A neat, professional look inspires confidence from others, and helps you feel better about your prospects.

Know what you want

Vague goals won’t inspire your best efforts. You’ll feel more confident and capable with a clear idea of what you want to achieve in your life and career, and if those goals are what you want—not someone else’s idea of what’s important.

Image courtesy of Victor1558.

The Happy Secret to Better Work

Lori Dryburgh Blog, Personal Growth 8 Comments

Well, things are looking up:

  • We have an economy in recovery: housing starts are up, the price of used homes in the greater Phoenix area recently rose 20%, foreclosures have slowed, and U.S. mortgage applications rose for the third week in a row.
  • Now that we have a Republican Presidential nominee, all the backstabbing comments from other GOP candidate wannabes have pretty much stopped.
  • Bank of America announced they’re forgiving over 200,000 mortgages up to $150,000.
  • And Fannie Mae posted a $2.7 billion profit for the first three months of the year and will not require taxpayer aid for the first time since 2008!

In addition, jobs are also in recovery with U.S. companies posting 3.74 million job openings in March.  The unemployment rate for 4 year graduates is now less than 4%, and Harvard and MIT just announced free online classes.

And, that, my friends is just the tip of the Good News iceberg!

How This Applies to Your Life

So, think about your own life. What do you have to be grateful for? Your family, your job, your co-workers, your health, your home, your pets, your freedom from hunger, pain, poverty and political unrest.

So, with a long list like that, why don’t we feel happy?

According to Harvard researcher and lecturer Shawn Achor, it’s because happiness is a choice. It’s a choice about where your brain will devote its very finite resources.

According to Achor, if you scan your world for the negative, your brain has no resources left over to see the things you are grateful for. But, he says, “If you scan the world for the positive, you start to reap an amazing advantage.”

He posits, “Why do we have many scientists trying to measure depression but almost none trying to measure happiness?”

The Data Is In

Achor’s research in the developing field of Positive Psychology – across more than 45 Fortune 500 corporations across the world – proves that nearly every business and educational outcome is improved by happiness. Sales raised by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%.

He has found that 75% of job success is linked to your level of optimism, your social support network and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a threat.

How To Get Happy

So, how does Achor propose we change how we scan the world?  In his book, The Happiness Advantage (click here to buy from Amazon), he says we can reprogram our brains and create lasting positive change by implementing five proven strategies.

For 21 consecutive days:

  1. Every day, write down 3 things you are grateful for. These should be three NEW things every day.  (Emmons & McCulough, 2003)
  2. Keep a journal of one positive thing that happens to you each day which allows your brain to relive it. (Satcher & Pennebaker, 2006)
  3. Exercise your body, because your brain learns that your behavior matters. (Babyak et al, 2000)
  4. Meditation allows your brain to get over the cultural ADHD that we’ve been creating by trying to multi-task.  It allows our brain to focus on the task at hand. (Dweck, 2007)
  5. Random or Conscious Acts of Kindness. When you open up your in-box in the morning, write one positive email praising or thanking somebody in your social support network. (Lyubomirsky, 2005)

By doing these things for 21 days in a row you will train your brain – just like you train your body – to scan for the positives and create the links required for happiness and in turn, success.

The Happy Secret to Better Work

So, if you’re interested in superior productivity, more resiliency, less burnout, less turnover and more sales watch this very humorous (you will laugh out loud!) 12 minute TED video of Shawn Achor and learn the how and why of being happy.

Have you tried any of Achor’s suggestions? What do you think?

Image courtesy of Dr. Wendy Longo.

Why I Love Christmas

Lori Dryburgh Blog, WorkLife Balance 7 Comments , , ,

There is absolutely no question; Christmas is MY favorite time of the year.

I love the lights and the decorations; I put ours up on Thanksgiving weekend. I love the music, the carols, the songs, the heartfelt and the silly. My all time favorite song is “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”

I love shopping for gifts for my family and friends. I love the food. It’s the one time of the year when I throw caution to the wind and eat whatever I love.

But mostly, I love the time spent with friends and family. My sisters and brother-in-law are coming for Christmas this year and that is all I want for Christmas.

The other thing that I love about this season are the movies. Many bring to mind the “real meaning of Christmas” so often forgotten, or perhaps just overlooked, in the bustle that can overcome our lives.

A few of my most favorites:


The Movie: A Christmas Carol, a.k.a. Scrooge

There have been lots of movie versions of this story but my favorite is the 1951 version starring Alistair Sim. This story talks to all the aspects of Christmas that we need to incorporate into every day of our lives, in business and at home.

Love, goodwill, charity, gratitude, the Golden Rule and the knowledge that, given some provocation, we can all change for the better.

The Movie: Miracle on 34th Street

There have been lots of movie versions of this story but my favorite is the 1951 version starring Alistair Sim.

This story talks to all the aspects of Christmas that we need to incorporate into every day of our lives, in business and at home. Love, goodwill, charity, gratitude, the Golden Rule and the knowledge that, given some provocation, we can all change for the better.

The Movie: Christmas Vacation

The lessons from the 1989 film Christmas Vacation are numerous and obvious: don’t substitute employee bonuses with a subscription to the jelly-of-the-month club; don’t hire contractors for pool work unless you have all the capital on hand; don’t kidnap your boss; never wear white patent shoes or a green dickey under a white sweater and, yes, you can overcook a turkey.

For me though, Christmas Vacation is one of the greatest examples out there for a funny film that shows just how rewarding tolerance and a loving heart can be.

Just like Clark (Sparky) I am given to romanticize my memories of Christmases past in search of the “Perfect Christmas.” But the humor of this movie lies in the contrasts of the perfect family gathering against the reality of a group of imperfect human beings thrown together by virtue of a blood connection.

And, for this perfect Christmas, sacrifices are needed. You may have to sleep in the same bed with your brother. “We’re all making sacrifices, Audrey.” You may have to live for a few days with irascible relatives and freeloaders. You may find yourself with a dead cat burned into your carpet. Your sewer may blow up.

But, it’s family and it’s Christmas and the beauty of it lies not in the achievement of perfection, but the process of searching for it.

Happy Holidays From Balanced WorkLife

So all of us here at The Balanced WorkLife Company want to wish all of you the very best Holiday Season ever. Oh and whether you’re Christian or not, sit down and watch these feel good movies that are more about how we treat one another than about Christmas. Now, go hug your family … the ones who push away and the ones who hold on too long … they are a part of you. They are what makes you you.

Editor’s Note:  I will be on vacation for the next week, but will be back after new years.  I apologize if our blog won’t be as active for the next week.  Enjoy the holidays – Bryce

image courtesy of dirjournal

Are You Grooming Others For Success? (And Why Avoiding It Can Cost You a Job)

Lori Dryburgh Networking Tips 12 Comments ,

As I write this, it’s tough not to be thinking about jobs. First, of course, the front page of the morning paper is about the loss of too young, Steve Jobs. Then, in my car on the radio, President Obama’s press conference pressing his jobs bill.  Then, young Wall Street protesters clamoring for jobs to pay off student loans and start a life. And, Sarah Palin declining to apply for the job as President. Jobs are definitely in the news!

One Trick Will Do Wonders When You Look For A Job

Harvey Mackay recently published a new book about jobs, “Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door” (affiliate).  It’s a great book that we recommend to clients … not because they’re necessarily looking for a job but because so much of the valuable advice in this book should be acted upon while you STILL have a job. Like what? Like NETWORKING.

It’s sprinkled all through the book because the book talks not only to how to get a job but how to keep the one you have. He even offers a 100% guarantee that if you don’t find a job within six months he’ll refund the cost of the book.
Mackay believes that the average person will have at least three career changes and ten different jobs by age 38. Over that time new jobs and careers will have been created that didn’t exist when you started out.

Mackay writes a weekly column (you can subscribe to it online) and on Monday the column title was: “Advanced Networking: The Fastest Track in Careers.” In this column he lists the nine most important new things he has learned about networking in the last ten years. It’s definitely worth reading but one of his points really came home to me.

Do You Showcase Developmental Prowess?

It’s number 7. Showcase your developmental prowess.  He says that “top executives increasingly want to know the answer to one question in evaluating other industry leaders for any role: What top people have you developed and where are they today? Make it a point to keep success stories you helped to groom part of your network.”

Years ago in my corporate life I had an amazing manager who “groomed” me and others he felt had potential. I continued to be a part of his network and shortly before he retired we were talking about all the amazing projects he had headed up, the major competitive wins he had spearheaded; his very accomplished career.

At that point he said to me, “You know Lori, all the things I did in terms of making stuff happen for the corporation are not my legacy. That was all well and good at the time but it’s the people I helped with their careers, their successes, that’s what I want to be remembered for. The positive impact I had on the people.”

We can get so caught up in our own jobs and careers that we forget that yes, making the numbers this quarter is really important, and yes, getting that next promotion and raise is significant but, who are you helping, mentoring, and coaching? At the end of your career, what will people be saying about you?

image courtesy of bujiie

Colossal Lessons From Roman Relics

Lori Dryburgh WorkLife Balance 30 Comments , , , , ,

We just got back from 13 days in Italy. Have you ever been? It’s been at least 20 years since we were last there and the amazing thing is … it hasn’t changed much. In fact, Rome looked exactly the way it did the first time we went there in 1978.

Living in North America we are so used to new developments. Tearing down “old” buildings to put up something new. New housing developments popping up where there used to be farm fields. In many parts of the US, “heritage” buildings are barely 100 years old.

Italy … not so much.  Where we were staying in Tuscany, you aren’t allowed to build new foundations. So, if you want to build a house, you have to find the foundation of a previous dwelling and then you can build on that spot.

And, old structures. Let’s look at probably the most impressive building in Rome, The Colosseum. About six months ago they started guided tours down into the bowels of the structure.  We walked on the floor where 2000 years ago thousands of gladiators and prisoners were held, waiting to go into the arena. We stood on the very top where the plebian Roman women sat to watch the games. It’s so high up that the people and animals in the arena looked like miniatures. These were truly the ‘nosebleed’ seats. We saw the underground water system that was used to flood the arena for reenactments of famous ship battles.

Here are some of the things we learned on the tour.

  1. The Colosseum was originally called the Flavian Amphitheater after the founder of the Flavian dynasty, Emperor Vespasian. The name ‘Colosseum’ is derived from the Latin word ‘colosseus’ meaning colossal. This was in reference to the gigantic 120 foot bronze statue of the Emperor Nero which had been previously erected near the site of the Colosseum.
  2. This elliptical building is 1,788 ft. in circumference, 187 ft. high, 615 ft. long and 510 ft. wide. It has 80 entrances and can accommodate between 50,000 and 75,000 spectators.
  3. Construction was started in AD 72 and was completed a mere 8 years later in AD 80.
  4. Above the ground are four stories, the upper story contained seating for women. The lowest story, which, like our stadiums were the best seats, was preserved for prominent citizens. Below ground were rooms with mechanical devices and cages containing wild animals. The cages could be hoisted, enabling the animals to appear in the middle of the arena.
  5. The Colosseum was the first covered stadium. It was covered with an enormous awning known as the velarium. This protected the spectators from the sun. It was attached to large poles on top of the Colosseum and anchored to the ground by large ropes. A team of some 1,000 men was used to install the awning.

A view of the Colleseum from below

There is much to be learned from old cultures and old things and there are a huge number of interesting facts about the Colosseum (click here if you’re interested) but some thoughts that came to us as we toured this amazing structure and other parts of the city were:

  1. If the Romans could build the Colosseum in a mere 8 years, what could we achieve if we really focused? Admittedly the labor was provided by slaves but the project management, the infrastructure, the innovative technology and craftsmanship needed to raise this structure are a testament to focus and determination.
  2. The foundations and innovations of ancient societies include many things that we use and practice today. Democracy, architecture, philosophy, building and construction innovations, art, literature, city planning, language, medicine, military configurations, and astronomy are just a few of the areas that we take for granted today that were directly influenced by the Greek and Roman worlds.
  3. There are “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome; history’s only other absolute superpower. In Rome, as in America today, we are stuck in an expensive and unpopular war in the Middle East that we cannot win on our terms. We have a debt and mortgage crisis as bad as what Rome had and any solution to this problem is hindered by bitter partisan politics.  In Rome, the two political parties were so bitterly hateful of one another that they would rather see the freedom of Rome perish than one or other of the parties triumph.

A look at the nose bleed sections.

Each of us have within ourselves the ability and opportunity to focus our attention towards a positive and uplifting future; both for ourselves and our families and our nations … let’s do that!

We Say Goodbye to Our Chief Greeting Officer

Lori Dryburgh Blog 4 Comments ,

Dear Friends,  It is with deeply saddened and heavy hearts that we write to tell you that our dear Keeley is no longer with us.  It was a very difficult decision to make but, as of Tuesday, she was simply unable to walk. According to the Vet, the combination of her hip and spinal arthritis made it impossible for her to hold her weight on her back legs. It was sad to see that she could move only by dragging herself with her front legs. Letting her go was the hard and right thing to do.

It’s been a grand ride with our Chief Greeting Officer. The average Skye Terrier only makes it to 10 or 11 years and last Tuesday Keeley celebrated her 14th birthday.  She was an outstanding pet; she loved everyone and she was loved by all who had the privilege to be blessed by her never ending kisses. We have so many wonderful memories; she will always be in our hearts.

BEYOND THE RAINBOW

Keeley left this poem for all of us:

As much as I loved the life we had and all the times we played,
I was so very tired and knew my time on earth would fade.

I saw a wondrous image then of a place that’s trouble-free
Where all of us can meet again to spend eternity.

I saw the most beautiful Rainbow, an on the other side
Were meadows rich and beautiful – lush and green and wide
And running through the meadows as far as the eye could see
Were animals of every sort as healthy as could be.

My own tired, failing body was fresh and healed and new
And I wanted to go run with them, but I had something left to do.
I needed to reach out to you, to tell you I’m alright
That this place is truly wonderful, then a bright glow pierced the night.

T’was the glow of many candles, shining bright and strong and bold
And I knew then that it held your love in its brilliant shades of gold.

For although we may not be together in the way we used to be
We are still connected by a cord no one else can see.
So whenever you need to find me, we’re never far apart
If you look beyond the Rainbow and listen with your heart.


Do You Know the Rule of Three? The Key to Your Goals.

Lori Dryburgh Professional Development, WorkLife Balance 2 Comments , ,

The United States Marine Corp believes strongly in what they call “The Rule of Three.” They’ve found that implementing this rule saves lives, gets more done faster and more efficiently.

An article on The Corp in INC. magazine says, “The rule dictates that a person should limit his or her attention to three tasks or goals.” When applied to strategizing, the rule prescribes boiling a world of infinite possibilities down to three alternative courses of action. Anything more and a marine can become overextended and confused. The marines experimented with a rule of four and found that effectiveness plummeted.”

I’ve always believed that three is a powerful number. We find it in some very significant places. The most powerful physical structure is a triangle or pyramid. In fact, it’s the building block of Buckminster Fuller‘s geodesic domes (think Epcot) and the Great Pyramids of Egypt. For Christians—it’s the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And then, of course, we have Mind, Body, Spirit. Three is a powerful number metaphysically—a number of completion.

As we become immersed in the ocean of information, possibilities, directions and the like, it becomes even more important for us to focus on the things that are truly important to us—the things that will make a difference in the quality of our lives.

Three things can easily be remembered. Any more than that and retention suffers. We can all sharpen our focus and get better results by using the Rule of Three in our daily lives.

Here’s a Few Ideas

At the bottom is a form you can print. Now list the three most important values in your life. What’s really important to you? If you make this list, you’ll place yourself in the top one percent of all the people on the planet because very few ever do this. Your decisions will become infinitely easier because your values are clear.

What are your three primary missions? These are different than goals. Goals can be measured. They can be completed. A mission is your vision of something that you’ll never say is done—at least not in this lifetime.

  1. Make a list of your three most important goals. It’s great to have lots of goals but which ones are worthy of your best attention and efforts? Remember, you can have anything you want in your life. You just can’t have everything you want.
  2. What three things would you like to master? Three things at which you want to become an expert. Maybe it’s speaking in public. Perhaps you want to learn another language. Or maybe you want to become a masterful parent. It’s your life and you get to decide.

By making good use of the Rule of Three, you’ll sharpen your focus, increase your effectiveness and experience greater fulfillment in all that you do.

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world.
Someone to love, something to do and something to hope for.”

—Tom Bodett

image courtesy of United States Marine Corps Official Page

Percival the Peacock Joins The Retreat

Lori Dryburgh WorkLife Balance 1 Comment

If you’ve following our Blog you will have read that we work in an almost magical place that we call The Retreat.

Our premise when we created The Retreat was to provide a place where our clients could relax, reflect and re-energize as we worked with them while they created their future. So, it was important that they feel that this was a “safe” environment; one where they could let their imagination be free and open to new ideas and big, hairy audacious goals.

Little did we know, however, that The Retreat would become a physical and emotional refuge not only for our clients and staff, but for our ever expanding menagerie.

You may recall in the summer of 2009 we had a trio of owls join us at The Retreat where they lay about the lawn trying to cool off during an especially hot July. They were taking a seriously high risk, especially with their chick, by sitting on the ground completely exposed to the staff, the dog and the clients walking back and forth to the office. They had to stay awake all day in order to be vigilant because they were now vulnerable to a coyote or a cat, both of which could pounce on them from the fence. But they were willing to take that risk in order to survive in the heat. And, perhaps, they intuited that this was a place of safety and the dangers were minimal.

Since then, we’ve been adopted by a squirrel, a cottontail, had two visits from a herd of javelinas, and now, would you believe, a peacock; who we have named Percival.

Percy showed up about four weeks ago, just wandering around The Retreat, looking in the office windows. We gave him a little food and assumed he’d head back home where he probably had a nice crate and possibly a girlfriend.

Well, no, he hasn’t left. He spends his days looking in the office windows, annoying both the dog and the cat, delighting all of us and our clients too. When he’s had enough of us, he hunkers down in the planter behind the Koi pond where he has lots of shade (camouflage) and cool ground. Then, at dusk, he flies up into the pine tree outside of Jim’s office, hops up to the very top, and roosts safely all night.

As you can see from the picture, he’s a real beauty.

Peacocks are not native to Arizona so why he is here and why he has decided thus far to stay are questions we can’t answer. I like to think that he has blessed us with his presence because he too was looking for a place of refuge; a place where he feels safe and he’s found it at The Retreat.

And for us, well, there is a lot of amazing symbolism surrounding the peacock. Peacock, which is the national bird of India, is a symbol of beauty, prosperity, royalty, love, compassion, soul and peace. The peacock naturally replaces his feathers annually; as such, the peacock is also a symbol of renewal. According to feng-shui, “Peacocks are a symbol of beauty reminding us to take pleasure in the finer things in life. The Peacock is pure of heart, loyal and faithful to their partners. The male Peacock goes to great lengths to attract his heart’s desire. Display the image of the peacock in the relationship area of your home to symbolize fidelity in your relationship encouraging a lasting and loving partnership.”

If the symbolism is real, we truly are blessed.

I’d love to hear your stories about your encounters with nature’s blessings.

Is Your Negativity Destroying the Workplace?

Lori Dryburgh Emotional Intelligence, Professional Development 6 Comments

Yesterday I was eating dinner with a dear friend as she sadly described the horrible day she just had. We’ll call my friend Susan for her privacy.

Susan is a speech language pathologist for several elementary schools helping disabled children improve their speaking.  This particular day she was traveling with a teacher to do a home visit with one of the girls they taught.  The purpose was to hear how the child was doing at home and answer any questions the parents have about the speech program their daughter is in.

Susan arrived with the teacher and sat down to begin the visit with the family, something she has done with other families hundreds of times.  The mother was very thoughtful and curious about how her daughter behaved and interacted in the classroom, so she asked them, “What does my daughter like to do in your program?”

Before Susan could respond, the teacher interrupted saying, “I can tell you what your daughter doesn’t like.  She doesn’t like Susan’s teaching.  She doesn’t like the games they play or the stories she tells.  She thinks they are boring and can’t pay attention to the way Susan teaches her.“  Susan was speechless, she tried to change the subject back to the family and their daughter’s speaking abilities instead.

The mother must have noticed the rude and unprofessional response the teacher gave adding, “Well, I sure have noticed a difference.  My daughter speaks much more clearly, her vocabulary is growing, and she seems happy when I ask her what she is learning in the class.”

As Susan and the teacher left to return to the school, the teacher told Susan to write down three compliments about herself.  Susan was a bit thrown off by her behavior but went along with it.  She wrote, “I am a good speech pathologist,” after all she had been recognized many times by the district for her work.  Susan read it out loud cheerfully, to which the teacher quipped, “That’s not true.”

Needless to say, the teacher’s negative behavior was destructive to the work they were doing.  What benefit did it serve Susan or the family they were visiting? Would it surprise you if I were to tell you the teacher was previously given notice that her own job was in jeopardy if she didn’t improve?

The Numbers on Negativity in the Workplace

The sad thing is Susan isn’t alone.

  • Gallup surveys show that organizations typically have one in six employees who are actively sabotaging the functioning of others in their workplace.
  • A study conducted by Christine Pearson found that 25 percent of employees witness workplace incivility every day, and 50 percent said they were the direct target of an uncivil act at least once a week.
  • In a study conducted in 2000, Keashly and Jagatic found that 27 percent of workers reported being mistreated at work.
  • Nurses are one of the most prominent victims of negativity in the work place.  A 1997 study in the Journal of Professional Nursing reported that 90 percent of RNs had been victims of verbal abuse by a physician in the past year.  Guess what the Journal of Nursing Administration calculated the turnover cost of a SINGLE nurse to be? $82,000 to $87,000.  A 2005 study by the Bernard Hodes Group found hospital turnover rates averaging 14 percent, in a 300-bed hospital with 375 full-time RNs costs approximately $4.5 million per year. Costly indeed.
  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates companies lose $3 billion a year to the effects of negative attitudes and behaviors at work.

So What Causes Negativity in The Workplace?

Horizon Health Organization Risk Management Center identified several internal and external causes.

Internal

  • Personality
  • Communication style
  • Personal stressors
  • Perception of events

External

  • Large workload
  • High stress
  • Poor job fit
  • Lack of communication

How Does Negativity Express Itself?

When these internal and external influences don’t cooperate with how an individual prefers their life to run, negativity creeps in.  Sometimes it can be as subtle as muttering under your breath, or as obvious as outright insulting.

Some of the more common expressions are;

  • Complaining
  • Not listening well
  • Finding only the negative aspects of a situation
  • Not offering solutions to problems
  • Unable to see how their behavior affects others
  • Attempting to create discontent in the workplace
  • Blaming others
  • Disrespecting others
  • Resisting organizational change
  • Disclosing too many personal problems
  • Co-workers go out of their way to avoid interaction with employee
  • Alienating themselves from co-workers

So How Do You Fix It?

Thinking back on Susan’s awful experience, you can easily feel her pain and wonder what could she have done to prevent or avoid the energy sucking negativity of her co worker.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross once said, “Negativity can only feed on negativity”  Knowing this, it would be wise to consider the causes discussed earlier.  If we can eliminate the internal and external causes, negativity would be hindered significantly.

Most of the external causes fall to your environment which for many of us is the office.  Companies can take a noble responsibility in facing this problem.  After all, it’s costing them just as much as the individual.  I find former U.S. Secretary of Education WIlliam J. Bennett’s advice helpful.  In response to a seventh-grader’s question, “How can you tell a good country from a bad one?” he said, “I apply the gate test.  When the gates of a country are open, watch which way do the people run.  Do they run into the country or out of the country?”

Unhappy employees are going to go somewhere, it’s much more profitable to keep them happy.

On the internal side, we as individuals can improve our optimism by understanding our personality, communication styles, stressors, and our perceptions.

The same tools individuals can use to understand their behavior and motivational styles can be used by businesses to understand their employees better.  I recommend two assessments that will help give you this knowledge.

1.  TTI Success Insights Behaviors and Motivators

2.  TTI Success Insights Emotional Intelligence

Knowing your communication styles, motivations, behavior styles, and emotional triggers will help you avoid negativity in the workplace and improve your overall workplace enjoyment.

Susan happened to know these things about herself from taking the assessments above.  Instead of reacting out of anger or emotion like many people understandably would, she stayed positive.  Her contribution to her work is awarded.  The principle over the district consistently reminds her of how thankful he is for her work ethic, she is recognized repeatedly in ceremonies, and her leaders go out of their way to make sure she is happy with her assignments.

The teacher on the other hand may be looking for another job in a few weeks.

image courtesy of Kia

How to Discover Your Ultimate Potential

Lori Dryburgh Personal Growth No Comments

How to Discover Your Ultimate Potential

Potential Defined

Ultimate Potential, wow, that’s heavy. What is this nebulous thing called potential? Throughout your life people have told you that you have lots of it … don’t waste it … and live up to it. But, again, what is it?

Potential comes from the root words “potency” and “potent” and refers to all the things you can be successful at if you develop and use your gifts, talents and natural abilities.

Very few people know what their potential is. For some people it’s a talent for singing or playing a musical instrument or slam dunking a basketball. For others it’s an unrelenting curiosity that leads them to science or economics or invention. For yet others it’s a passion to help others, or cure malaria or solve cold fusion. Whatever it is for you—however it translates to activity—what it is for sure, is PASSION.

Step 1.  What is Your Passion?

Your first step is to discover your passions. How do you do that? Think about what it is you do that comes naturally to you. There are some things you do that when you’re doing them you completely lose track of time.

Some people pick up languages easily; others excel at making touchdowns or being able to visualize an innovative strategy for their business. The things we find easy, that come to us naturally, point to and define our potential. They are our passions.

Step 2:  Make the List

Write down the things in your life that fit these criteria.

Then, look at your list and ask yourself: “What can I be the best at in the whole world?” Answering this question is not easy. In essence, it requires you to find your uniqueness. What value can you contribute to the world that can’t be given by anyone else?

Step 3:  Become a Master of Your Talents

Look at your list and decide which two or three do you want to master … to become the best at? These become your exceptional talents. When you are passionate about something it’s easier to develop your mastery.

Resolve to become exceptional at two or more things and then combine them. It’s in the combining that you become unique and contribute unique value to the world.

For example, I have 3 passions:

  • · Reading
  • · Writing
  • · Science of Learning

I have chosen to combine these three passions to create training modules and material related to our OnBoarding for Life program. I’m still a work in progress in terms of achieving my ultimate potential but I love what I do, take great satisfaction from the result and truly believe that I am contributing to our company’s goal of helping the best get better while they enjoy the journey.

Try this for yourself. Discover your passions and combine them to create your unique value. Then invest in those passions to develop the competencies that will make you the best. Do this and you will have moved a long way to achieving your ultimate potential.

Three Things to Do Next

1. Comment: What tips do you have for helping people find their ultimate potential.

2.  Share: If you found this article helpful post the following link to it – Personal Growth – on your blog, site, Facebook, or twitter.

3.  Make Your List: In the next couple of minutes take the first step mentioned above and make your list of the things that come easy to you.



1 2 3 4