The Power of Words
Starting Each Day With A Little Thinking...Influence
To your co-worker – why can’t you just do your job and quit asking questions? To your kid – why does everything have to be an argument with you? To your wife — yeah right, like I’m going to give an example for that one!!!!
Hopefully the aforementioned situations resonate with you. Each day we encounter a number of situations where we would like to be able to control someone or something. Now perhaps you are more effective than I am in this space; however, I normally don’t do so well when I go with the control route. Sure, with a subordinate at work or with a kid you can sometimes get the behavior you want. However — and apologies up front for the political incorrectness — more often than not the old adage ‘convince a woman against her will and she is of the same opinion still’ holds regardless of whether the situation involves a man or woman, a child or an adult, or someone we know well or do not.
What we can do is exert influence. Influence is those things that we say or do that others observe. The key here is “do” versus “say”. People are incredibly observant. They listen and watch everything. They’re hard wired to notice disconnects quickly. Hence if you say A and do B, they pick it up immediately. Alignment between your words and actions is critical! People also like consistency. If they see the same behavior day after day, they’ll come to expect it. And in this manner you can exert your influence. Pick a focus, identify the right behavior, model the behavior, positively reinforce in others. It’s a recipe for success. The key is:
Ultimately we can not control anyone or anything; however, we can exert a huge amount of influence through our actions.
With that in mind:
Are you exerting influence through what you say or what you do?
As always, thanks for the time.
Blog Challenge – Day 1
As the old song goes “I get by with a little help from my friends”. A month or so back I came across a site called “The Suitcase Entrepreneur”. The author focuses on building an on-line business that you can take anywhere in the world. While I don’t harbor such aspirations, she shares some interesting tips and tricks that I find useful from time to time. Last week, she started a “30 day blog challenge”. She’s basically going to challenge folks to blog for 30 days about topics she’ll choose. Never one to back down, I decided to give it a go. So today’s the first “challenge”. It is:
- Write a post on why you started your blog, who you wanted to reach, what you wanted it to be all about. Then state why you joined this blog challenge and what you want to get out of it.
This one’s pretty easy.
- I started this blog for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to get in the process of putting some content out there on the internet. While I’m not sure where I’ll end up eventually, I do know that I want to develop a “virtual presence” on line and that won’t happen with some content. Second, I wanted to start to get some of the thoughts running around in my head down on paper.
- I’m looking to reach folks that want to learn, grow and live (hence the title). I’m not 100% locked in to my niche, but the partial definition is white collar professionals who are looking to achieve more — more at work, more outside work, more with their family, more financially. My hope is that I can leverage my 18 years in the corporate environment with a few pearls of wisdom.
- The blogs going to focus on ideas of all sorts. Initially, I’m focusing on a number of obvious things that we take for granted, BUT have a huge impact on our and other lives. Longer term, I’m going to focus on career development, book reviews, improving outside the workplace, and financial related issues. Sort of a one stop shop for the manager/worker in corporate America that wants some tips and ideas to help him/her be more efficient and effective
- From the blog challenge, I’m also looking to get a few things. First, it’ll be some more practice on writing. Second, it will hopefully bring me a bit more traffic. Third, hopefully I’ll meet a few new friends. And, fourth — and finally — I’ll be looking to take Natalie up on her one day coaching session in San Diego!
That’s it for day one of the challenge. Wish me luck and feel free to leave a comment or suggestion.
If you want some more information on the challenge, check out the post on day one at:
http://suitcaseentrepreneur.com/blogchallenge/blog-challenge-day1
Regret
If only… Not a good way to end the day! Each day we face multiple challenges and are offered new opportunities. Each day we make choices to take on some of these challenges and opportunities while letting others slide by. And at the end of each day we often reflect on what transpired. Some days we smile to ourselves as we faced the challenge and seized the opportunity. Other days, the frustration of “if only” fills our mind.
Why don’t we seize the opportunity and face the challenge? Sometimes time is the culprit. Sometimes fear. However, normally it’s a matter of priority. Without the discipline of priority we face the pain of regret. We need to recognize that ultimately the choice is ours and ours alone.
With that in mind:
Will you end today with or without regrets?
As always, thanks for the time.
Vision
There are three different concepts that come to mind when I hear “vision”. The first and most obvious concept is your eye sight. We often take this form of vision for granted; however, without it, many of us would be lost. The second concept is that of a hallucination. Here we think of the 60’s era rock star who used some sort of chemical to induce a surreal experience — sometimes good, sometime bad. The final concept is that associated with an ideal future state. Here we think of the picture in someone’s mind of a future state.
In my world, all three of these meld together. Each day I try and take in all that is around me. In so doing, I use my vision heavily (personally, this form of vision is extra special as I had corrective lenses from the age of seven until the age of forty-three when I had corrective eye surgery). All that I see constantly has my mind dancing with visions of what might be. And, finally, I’m constantly trying to take all of these visions and pull them together in to my vision of the future. Blending the three kinds of vision together helps me to “see” the next step that I should take.
With that in mind:
How’s your vision?
As always, thanks for the time.
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