The Power of Words
Starting Each Day With A Little Thinking...Accountability
Perhaps the biggest change in society over the past half century is in the area of individual accountability. With each passing day, we are greeted with another rule or law that tells us how to or how not to live our lives. Amazing that we have somehow lost our ability to be personally accountable and need some higher power to provide us with guidance.
Unfortunately this trend has a huge “creep effect”. In particular, as we are greeted by more and more instances where there is some entity in place to take care of things for us, we begin to expect this. And, accordingly, start to think more and more “that’s not my responsibility”. We each ARE responsible for ourselves. That means asking the hard questions, giving the hard answers, and taking the hard steps required to grow as individuals. And, when we do this, the results are remarkable.
With that in mind:
Are you holding yourself accountable?
As always, thanks for the time.
Habits
When the topic of habit comes up some smile and some frown. But everyone is locked in as to the significance. Habits are those things that people due that define them. The things you KNOW they’ll deliver on. Whether it’s good — like exercising daily or eating well — or bad — like eating too much or smoking — we all recognize people’s habits. They’re also very difficult to break — which, again, can be good or bad.
When it comes to forming habits, two things stick in my mind. The first is the “21 day rule”. If you can do something for 21 days, you can form a habit. Sounds easy enough. The second has to do with the process of forming a habit. Here there’s three components: knowledge, skills, and attitude. Knowledge of what you are trying to accomplish, the required skills to support the habit, and finally the can-do attitude. Often it’s this last item that holds us back.
With that in mind:
How’s your attitude?
As always, thanks for the time.
Perspective
It’s easy to get caught up in the challenges that we personally face. As a result we spend a vast majority of our time looking at things from our perspective. However, almost every situation we face involves other individuals. Individuals with their own perspective. Many times there is a high degree of alignment in their and our perspectives. However, there is almost always some degree of difference in perspective introduced by the experiences of the others involved.
My experience has shown me that the most successful individuals have a knack for identifying the alternate perspectives and making sure that the solution to the problem at hand is consistent/aligned with what the other parties would perceive to be a good outcome. It’s a real talent that can be developed over time if one makes the effort.
With that in mind:
Have you considered the perspective of those around you?
As always, thanks for the time.
Pressure
It’s interesting the way that certain words have very strong connotations. Pressure is one of these. The basic reaction is almost universal – y when people hear pressure there is normally a twinge in the stomach. For some that’s good. For others that’s bad. Some people feel uncomfortable, start to worry, and may even panic. Others snap to attention, increase their focus, and get down to business.
Amazingly the same external stimuli associated with a particular situation can have these vastly different impacts on individuals. That is because the external stimuli are processed through our internal realities. Realities that are of our own making. To some pressure becomes problematic. To others a real opportunity. The difference, in my mind, is how folks perceive the situation a priori. Those that recognize the twinge in the stomach as natural and a trigger to jump to action, excel. While those that treat the twinge as signal that things are about to go down hill, normally get the bad result they are expecting. In my mind it’s the classic fight or flight reaction.
With that in mind:
When you are faced with a pressure packed situation do you fight or flee?
As always, thanks for the time.
Recent Comments