October 2005

MARK'S DAILY THOUGHTS: October 2005

2005-10-01 - Recovery Time - An Example of Why it is Important
A lecturer, when explaining stress management, raised a glass of water and talked about it's weight. He said, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it." If he holds it for a minute, that's not a problem. If he holds it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer he holds it, the heavier it becomes." That's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, they become increasingly heavy and difficult to carry. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. That's why our recovery time is so important.

2005-10-02 - Importance of Drinking Enough Water
You are mostly water. In fact, if you took all of the water out of an 82-kilo lean body, there would only be about 25 kilos left. Because your muscles and your brain are mostly water, when your body doesn't have enough water, it doesn't work like it should. You don't think as clearly, you lose endurance and your heart works harder. Make sure you drink enough water during the day, and you will be amazed at how good you will feel throughout the day (and more importantly - at the end of the day).

2005-10-03 - Work Harder on Yourself
Jim Rohn says, "Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Work harder on your job, and you'll make a living. Work harder on yourself, and you can make a fortune." How true this is. When we work on ourselves, we grow new skills and abilities that enable us to do more than just our present job. As we learn more, we get more excited and want to use these new abilities in more and different ways. So, why not think today - How can I worker harder on developing myself, and create an action plan to make it happen.

2005-10-04 - What options do you think we have?
A great question to use as a leader is: "What options do you think we have? Whenever issues or problems arise, the most effective way is to ask your people for their opinions. You can also ask; What do you think we should do? However, I have found that asking for options works best. It encourages a real dialog on the different options and better ideas come up. Asking your people helps them feel more ownership of the solution and can make the implementation of it much smoother. So, Why not ask your people "what options do you think we have" today?

2005-10-05 - First Impressions
I was listening to an audio book the other day and it talked about "First Impressions". The author said it takes about 4 seconds to make an initial impression, driven mainly by the clothes you are wearing; and then another 30 seconds for people to confirm that impression while talking with you. It's very interesting how clothes can create such a big initial impression and have such an influence. It really makes you think about having the right clothes and proper grooming.

2005-10-06 - FEAR
People always seem to fear something and almost always what they fear never happens. There's a great definition for the letters of fear that I heard from Zig Ziglar:

F - False, E - Evidence, A - Appearing, R - Real

False is a very good word for it. Because we are "imagining" this and making it "real" only in our minds.

2005-10-07 - Don't Work at Half Power (use your sub-conscious mind)
You often hear people say that you need to visualise what you want. A picture in your mind, the feeling you will have when you attain it, etc. Why do you think this is so? Visualising is like making a "Mental Blueprint" for what you want and provides your sub-conscious mind with that to work on. It's the same as you dreaming about a certain new car and suddenly you see them everywhere. You gave your sub-conscious mind a "Mental Blueprint" of what you wanted. So, don't work at half power - Give your sub-conscious mind the "Mental Blueprint" to work on.

2005-10-08 - Tell People the Communication Method You LIke
Today, there are so many communication methods (phone, text, email, skype, web messaging, etc). Each of us has a preferred method for urgent communications and normal communications that match our working style. In order to be more productive, tell others which methods you prefer. Having people communicate to you in the method you prefer makes you more productive. But also - Remember, it goes both ways; so ask others their preferred communications methods as well and your communications to them will be better received and acted upon.

2005-10-09 - Repetition is the Mother of Skill
How many times have we said to ourselves after seeing a speaker for the 2nd time, "I learned something this time that I didn't really hear the last time he or she spoke." It's the same with reading books a 2nd time. We always get different insights than we did the 1st time we read it. Just like repetition is the key in sports in perfecting a skill, so is repetition a key in our learning process. If you read a good book, why not re-read it again, and get those additional learnings to improve your skills.

2005-10-10 - Ask for Feedback
As a leader, it's a good idea to ask for feedback from your people. An interesting way is to ask for this feedback during one-on-one sessions and use it for two purposes. One, you get some information and thoughts from your people on how you can improve. You might want to ask, "How can I support you in your role better than I am doing today?" Also, you get a chance to see how your people can articulate their feedback and gauge their own development. Maybe it will help you determine how you can help them develop further through either training or coaching.

2005-10-11 - Leading a Team - Drive Interdependence
When leading a team, especially a "virtual team" (where people are located at different sites), it's often a good idea to "Drive Interdependence". This means to give a responsibility to each key team member to drive something for the entire team. It could be to develop a new process or to solve a particular problem that everyone has. What's important is that each key member must work with the others to be successful, and each key member has their own project as well. So, they will really need to help and support each other to be successful. They need to depend on each other.

2005-10-12 - For Meetings - Have People Sit Close Together
Speakers always like to have people sitting close together in a room. It always creates an atmosphere with more energy than with people spread out everywhere. Keep this in mind for your regular meetings. Make sure that if you use a large room for just a few people, that you sit people close together. People close together will generate more energy on the subject and be more involved than if they are spread across the room. So, sit close together for more productive and successful meetings.

2005-10-13 - The Importance of "Why"
There's a very good quote that goes like this: " You can take almost any How, as long as you have a big enough Why." That is so very true. When we really know why we want something (building a very strong need for it), then we do almost anything to make it happen. If you have a goal or a project which isn't moving as fast as you would like, a good place to start is asking yourself "Why" is this important to me. Probably, you will find that your "Why" is not as strong as you originally thought. Build a strong "Why" and you can do almost anything.

2005-10-14 - Save time in meetings by using "What's the Successful Outcome?"
At the beginning of meetings, ask the question: What's the successful outcome of this meeting? or What do we want to accomplish by the end of the meeting? This helps to keep everyone focussed on the Goal of the meeting (the successful outcome). When someone starts talking on something away from the subject, you can say "Remember the three things we wanted to accomplish today. We need to bring the conversation back (to the topic) in order to achieve them. .So, for your next meeting to be as productive as possible; ask the question: "What's the Successful Outcome?"

2005-10-15 - Book a Meeting with Yourself
Often we have important tasks that really require our attention. Sometimes these are the difficult ones, and we are slow to action them. A good idea to get it done is to schedule a meeting with yourself in your calendar to just work on that task. The key is to set a block of time aside for the time you think you need to complete that task. Then, only focus on that task and "Get it done." You will be amazed how great this works. There's a saying - anything is possible when it is given focussed attention. So, schedule a meeting with yourself this coming week.

2005-10-16 - Make a List or do a little Mind Mapping
The most successful people are list makers. When they want to think through something, they always want to capture that thinking down right away before they forget. They make a list or do a quick mindmap. What they are doing is getting all those ideas down on paper so that they can quickly review what would be the right "Next Action" to make something happen with the idea.. Next time you have something new to do or a new project, start with creating a list or a mindmap.

2005-10-17 - Day Specific Tasks
When you have day specific tasks (tasks needing to be done on a specific day), rather than put them in Outlook as a task; why not just put them right on your calendar for the day you need to do it. This keeps you focussed on getting it done that day, as you will always first look to your calendar each day anyway. Also, another idea is block off some specific time during that day to do that task. Sometimes blocking off time helps in getting it done.

2005-10-18 - Take Away Your Learnings - then Focus on the Future
Too often people dwell on the past too much. They play over and over again (like a broken record) the mistakes they have made. Everytime they do this, they reinforce in their mind the mistakes they made. With the past, we should only bring back the memory to take away the learnings from it. Once we have the learnings (understanding how to do it better the next time), we need to focus on the future. So, next time you feel yourself focussing on the past, just look for the learnings and drop it from that point forward.

2005-10-19 - Time Management really is Focus Management
Everyone talks about time management, but you really can't manage time. We all are given the same amount of time, and it's up to us what we do with it. We can only really manage our focus. It's what we focus on, driven by our goals and our discipline to achieve them; that help us to make the best use of our time. Therefore, we shouldn't think about only saving time on our activities, but what activities do we want to do to begin with (that's our focus).

2005-10-20 - Keep your Commitments
One of the worst feelings we all experience is the regret of not keeping our commitments to others. When we do this it's really a double loss. We feel regret and the other people we broke our commitment to, now trust us a little bit less than before (and if it was a really important commitment - a lot less now). We need to treat our commitments like making a "deposit in the bank". Everyone time we keep our commitment, we are "depositing some trust" in other's minds. However, every time we don't keep our commitment, we are "withdrawing some trust". Therefore, let's keep our commitments and grow our "Trust Account" with others.

2005-10-21 - Keeping Your Sense of Humour
As we go through life, we are always going to face problems all along the way (both big and small). Keeping our sense of humour and having the ability to have fun along the way not only makes life more enjoyable, but also helps us keep from being too stressed out. There's great old quote that goes: "A person without a sense of humour is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road." - Henry Ward Beecher. So, why not go through today with a smile on your face and look at the funny side of life.

2005-10-22 - You Become What You are Around
Ever hear from your mother when you were younger, "Don't play with the wrong crowd?". This is even more important as we grow older. If we spend time with or associate with negative people, we will become negative. If we spend time with inspriing people, we will become inspired. Take a few minutes today and think about the people you spend the most time with. A good question would be: "Are they draining energy from me or are they giving me energy?"

2005-10-23 - Think Re-Charge and Re-Load
It's important to "Re-Charge the Batteries" in order to both keep our energy level up and to release stress. Everyone has their own way to do this, but the important thing is to find your way and as Nike says "Do It". Also, it's important to find a way to "Re-Load the Ideas" into yourself, which also gives you energy. A great way is reading, as it triggers new thoughts and ideas that also give you energy in then trying to pursue them. Therefore, think each week (Re-Charge the Batteries and Re-Load the Ideas).

2005-10-24 - Move from Hearing to Listening to Learning
When we attend a training, we always want to learn something that we can use in our work and personal lives. I was thinking about what learning really means. For example, hearing means that we are physical there. Listening means we are understanding what is being said, However, learning is applying what we have understood and now use it in our work and personal lives. Therefore, we all should never stop at hearing and listening, but always get to the "Learning".

2005-10-25 - Have You Heard about the Glycemic Index
The Glycemic index on foods is really valuable to know. Some foods deliver energy in spikes (like foods with high sugar, etc), and others deliver energy more slowly and over a greater length of time. If you are looking for snacks that provide energy throughout the morning or afternoon, you want to look at eating snacks like the folllowing - Almonds, Applies, Dried apricots, Nutrition bars, Peanuts, Pears, Walnuts, Oranges, Peaches, etc. These foods will provide you energy for a few hours and keep you at a very productive level throughout.

2005-10-26 - See It to Believe It
You often hear people say that you should have the picture in your mind or visualise what you want. Also, it's the same for some people who don't believe something until they see it for themselves. They need to See It to Believe It. Sometimes all of us are like that - we need to see it first. So, for those important goals in our life, why don't we spend a little time visualising (seeing) how it would be to have achieved that goal. It's a great way to have that clear picture in our minds, and having that clear picture brings more enthusiasm and energy to achieving it.

2005-10-27 - Time Box an Activity
There's a great way to keep us more focussed on our key tasks. Why not set a time limit for the task up front before starting it. It helps you to be more focussed on this task and you naturally look for the best ways to get the task done in the time limit you have set. So, for a key task today, why not set a time limit and time box that activity.

2005-10-28 - Attitude Wins
I heard an interesting saying the other day. "All things being equal, attitude wins. All things not being equal, attitude sometimes still wins." Our attitude often speaks to people louder than what we say or the skills that we have. As the saying above highlights, you can still win with the better attitude. Therefore, after you finish your workday, think about how your attitude was that day. Think about the people you met and would there be a difference if you had a different attitude. An interesting little exercise to do.

2005-10-29 - Creating Habits - The Key to Success
They often say that successful people do what other unsuccessful people don't want to do. Successful people put in place the key "habits" that will keep them moving in the direction of their goals. Many unsuccessful people know what they should do, but lack the discipline to put the "necessary habits" into their daily lives. Take a few minutes to think about this today. What key habits are missing in your daily life?

2005-10-30 - Share Ideas
All of us have many ideas and keep trying to think them through in our minds only. Sometimes we get the biggest benefits just by sharing those ideas with others and talking them through. E. M. Forster said, "How do I know what I think, until I hear what I say." Often, it's when we talk about our thoughts and ideas (verbalise them), that it helps us to make them clearer in our own minds. So, if you have been trying to think through an idea on your own, why not share it with a friend or colleague this week.

2005-10-31 - Create Ways for your People to Know each other Better
It's really good to find ways for your people to get to know each other better. Teams with members knowing each other well, perform better than other teams. Each of the team members better understand each other's personalities and there are fewer problems with them mis-interpreting each other's behaviours. That's why it's important to have outside activities together. These can be social events, or simply doing some sports together such as volleyball, go-karting, football - etc.. Think about how you can get your team knowing each other better.

September 2005 « » November 2005

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