Posts tagged 'motivation'
National Be a Millionaire Day (observed May 20th) is about taking steps to turn dreams into reality by making plans for your future. And what better way to get into the success mindset than with the modern-day bestselling classic, Think and Grow Rich! Author Napoleon Hill draws on stories from Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and more than 500 other wealthy people to teach simple and practical techniques for achieving great and lasting success with nothing but thoughts, ideas, and organized plans.
Hill delves into a method for changing your desire for riches into its financial equivalent with these six steps:
FIRST. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say, “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount.
SECOND. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.”)
THIRD. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
FOURTH. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
FIFTH. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
SIXTH. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night and once after arising in the morning.
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As Earth Day approaches, it’s time to get honest with ourselves; it’s time to HUG OUR MOTHERS — Earth and Nature, that is. We know enough and we know better, so the fact that we are still not doing enough is no longer a problem of pollution but a more personal problem. Our planet doesn’t pollute itself. That’s on us. And it’s time for us to choose kindness. Hugging Mother Earth and Mother Nature matters. So now it’s time to take action.
Action 1 – Participate in or organize a community cleanup day. Find ways to get local companies, schools, churches, friends, and family members to join in. Make it fun and a day for everyone to show kindness to our mothers.
Action 2 – Reduce! Of all the R’s—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—reduce is the best option. Take shorter showers, print on both sides, carpool, change your sprinkler timers, etc. You know these ideas already. Now you just have to do them.
Action 3 – Be kind to animals.Take time to research how humans are impacting the different species from around the world—from dolphins to elephants to orangutans to factory farm animals. Brace yourself. You won’t see a ton of kindness in your searches, but this is the very reason to get involved.
Matthew Emerzian
For more ways to live a life that matters, check out Every Monday Matters>>
There is a lot we can learn from history when it comes to leadership, including the different types of leaders and the lessons both their successes and failures can teach. The Founders of the United States will go down in history as having changed the rules of leadership and redefined what it means to spark change in people. One of the most influential leaders of the American Revolution was Alexander Hamilton. Through his example, and the lessons learned from other Founders, we can understand the principals of revolutionary leadership. Here are three key insights:
1. Recognize Your Challenges
In a recent Interact/Harris Poll, 91% of employees said their leaders lack good communication skills. What weaknesses have you identified in yourself as a leader? What about your strengths? As Alexander Hamilton would have realized, the ancient Greek aphorism, “know thyself,” is an excellent place to start in the study of leadership.
There are many practical ways to assess your particular skills and challenges. Read about strong leaders and compare yourself to them. Take online personality tests and skills assessments. Consider part-time work in fields that are related to what you are interested in. Additionally, ask your boss, mentors, coworkers and friends what they think your challenges are—and don't take offense at their responses!
2. Set Personal Goals
Did you know that you are ten times more likely to succeed if you have a stated goal? To start, take some time to determine what your long-term goal is. From there, start setting short-term goals that will help you attain them. You can decide how short the short-term goals are, but a common duration is five years. After five-year goals are established, set up smaller and smaller goals that will help you reach your five-year goals. Remember that each goal should always support achievement of the higher goal.
3. Never Give Up
Failure is scary, but it is inevitable: 90% of all startups fail; 50%–60% of executives fail within the first 18 months of being promoted or hired; and 92% of people fail to meet their goals. However, that doesn’t mean you should give up. No one has ever succeeded by giving up after failure. So, even if everyone else abandons you, it is imperative that you never give up on yourself. So what if you miss that promotion or aren't appointed to that leadership position you thought was so important? There is always another promotion to pursue, another team you can join, or another company you can switch to.
Get more insights from The Leadership Secrets of Hamilton >>
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Decision-making, no matter how big or small, takes a toll on your brain – with each decision, it becomes harder for you to weigh the consequences. Once decision fatigue sets in, your brain looks for shortcuts and settles for the path of least resistance. So what can you do to combat decision fatigue? Simplify your decision-making process! Author Joe Calloway shares a story about an effective way you can do this:
Sir Peter Blake led Team New Zealand to successive victories in the America's Cup yacht competition in 1995 and 2000. The key to this success was that Blake focused the team on one question, which they asked about everything they did: "Will it make the boat go faster”?
Everything they did and every decision they made had to go through the filter of "Will it make the boat go faster”? This applied to equipment, training, nutrition, crew composition— and more.
We can all simplify and focus using our version of that question. Look at your daily choices and ask yourself your own version of "Will this make the boat go faster”?
- Will this get me where I want to go?
- Will this help me to create positive relationships?
- Will this assist me in reaching my goal?
We all have a "boat" we want to go faster. Be sure you are focused on doing things that will help you accomplish your goals. In the process, you will prevent decision fatigue by knowing exactly what you are aiming for.
From Joe Calloway
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Accountability. Good employees are accountable. Good leaders hold their employees accountable. Good organizations have accountable cultures.In many ways accountability has become a holy grail to business success. But what does it really mean to be accountable? And what happens when someone isn’t accountable? How organizations deal with non-accountable behavior goes a long way to defining the organizational culture and the focus of the employees.
The generally accepted definition of being accountable is that “you do what you say you are going to do.” Yet everyone will inevitably fail on this accord. Does that mean they are not accountable?I think it is at that moment of not doing what they said they would do is when you find out if someone is going to act accountably or not. Non-accountable behavior is characterized by excuses, finger pointing, denial, deflecting or refusing to change. Accountable behavior, on the other hand, means taking responsibility for not delivering on the desired results and doing something different until the desired results are achieved.
Wouldn’t life be great if everyone exhibited accountable behavior 100% of the time? As great as that idea sounds it is not realistic and organizations must decide what to do when someone is not acting accountably. The responsibility usually falls on the leader to hold their employees accountable when they are not acting accountably. To effectively do this, leaders must engage in a series of steps starting with things like setting clear expectations, contracting, incentivizing, and putting feedback mechanisms in place. If that doesn’t do it then they must do things like coaching, reassessing, training or even setting consequences. Continued non-accountable behavior will often lead to disciplinary actions and even termination.
But who really has the accountability during this process? Who is the one doing something different until the desired results are achieved? The leader! The whole notion of holding someone accountable is really a myth. When a leader says they are holding someone accountable what they are really saying that they are taking the accountability away from the individual. They are now the ones that are doing something different until the desired results are achieved. And if they don’t achieve the desired results their leader is going to do the same thing to them. This is called leader led accountability and is the norm in most organizations.
There are two significant problems with this approach to managing accountability. One is that not everyone is good at taking the accountability from their employees (formerly known as holding them accountable). Some leaders are afraid of alienating their employees so they shy away from it or they convince themselves they can’t do until they are perfectly accountable themselves. The second problem is that it creates very upward looking organizations. Employees are constantly looking up to their boss as they are they ones whose expectations they have to meet and they are the ones who will take their accountability away if they don’t meet them.
But there is another way that accountability can be managed and that is when someone’s teammates take it. When team members start to do this to each other that is when the team becomes accountable and extraordinary team results can be achieved. In a lot of ways accountable teams are the ultimate holy grail. They are rare. Teams that are accountable are often considered an anomaly that happened as a result of unique circumstances, a special group of people or an extraordinary leader. While some or all of those do happen on accountable teams, they are part of much bigger array of factors that have to happen to make it possible. The good news is there is a definitive and predictable set of steps that will lead your team to becoming accountable.
Want to know what inspired Eric Coryell to write Revolutionize Teamwork? Find out with this author Q&A>>