July 2008

MARK'S DAILY THOUGHTS: July 2008

2008-07-01 - Making Decisions Short of Certainty
To accomplish our dreams requires taking risks. Our dreams drive us to grow, and to do what we originally thought was impossible, and this always requires us to make decisions short of certainty. Be willing to take the risks and make those decisions that will make your dreams come true.

2008-07-02 - Listen your Way to Drive Change
Many leaders view the best way to drive change is continually communicate the direction and why change is needed. This is right, but not enough. It is also the listening that helps to have the people feel part of the change, and this is sometimes more important than anything the leader can say. Listen your way to drive change.

2008-07-03 - Reminding Yourself What is Important
For all of us, we tend to struggle making sure that the urgent does not take over the important. The people who get their important tasks done each day are those that have found a way to remind themselves of what is important. How could you remind yourself each and every day of what is most important to you?

2008-07-04 - Slow Down When Saying Something Serious
Look at all effective speakers and you will notice that they slow down when saying something serious. They want to make sure that everyone catches each and every word, and they also might speak a little softer to pull in people's attention. Remember to slow down when saying something serious.

2008-07-05 - Putting the Focus on the Other Person
To really gain a rapport with others, the right approach is to always put the focus on the other person. You could say that the goal should be to help the other person feel good about them, versus they feeling good about you. Making others feeling good about them will always have them feeling good about you, just naturally. Remember to put the focus on the other person.

2008-07-06 - Knowing your Life's Purpose
The most successful and happy people in the world are the ones who know their life's purpose. What makes them different from others is that they took the time to think about it and define it for themselves. Have you invested the time to think about it and define your life's purpose?

2008-07-07 - Ability to Deal with Surprises
One of the best abilities you can have is the ability to deal with surprises. First, you have to have the confidence that you can deal with any surprise that comes you way. How you get that confidence is by constantly investing time developing yourself, thinking ahead and asking yourself the "what if" questions. How is your ability to deal with surprises?

2008-07-08 - Putting What You Learn into Action
Knowledge is important, but that alone will not enable your success. All successful people have a thirst for knowledge. However, what separates them from others is that they always put what they have learned into action soon after they first learned it. You can too. Put what you learn into action, today and every day.

2008-07-09 - What You Put In, You can Take Out
We all get out of life what we put into it, and it works this way for both our work and private lives. If you want to get more out of life, then you have to find ways to put more into it. One way is your own self-development, and by developing yourself you can contribute more, be involved in more, and in return get more. Remember, what you put in, you can take out.

2008-07-10 - Courage to Live for the Long-term
Successful people have always taken a long-term view. They focus themselves on creating or building something and understand that it will take time. They have the courage to take the actions on a daily basis, knowing that the return might be sometime into the future. It takes courage to live for the long-term.

2008-07-11 - Remember, Weeds Grow Fast
As a leader, you will always encounter people who will be negative about the change you are driving. If you avoid this and allow them to voice their negativity everywhere, they are just like weeds, and their impact grows fast. Then, it will take a great deal of effort to remove the weeds once they have grown. Always address the negativity right away, before the impact grows.

2008-07-12 - Listen your Way to Success
One of the skills that everyone can improve on is their listening skill. We often read or hear the advice about listening more, but after a few days we soon forget about the power behind having better listening skills. Why not write on the top of your calendar for each Monday morning, "Invest More Time Listening This Week". This simple reminder could make a big difference.

2008-07-13 - We All Have the "Choice"
There are so many people going through life each day and thinking that what they have is only what is possible. These are the people who see their circumstances as fixed, and not something that they can change. Remember, we all have the "choice" on how we act and what we do. Those people who take the "choice" create their own circumstances and put themselves in the driver's seat of their life.

2008-07-14 - Emotion: Enthusiasm Driving Motion
At great way to look at emotion in business is that it is enthusiasm driving motion. You really don't get an overall commitment from your people unless you get some emotion ignited behind their efforts. Remember, Emotion is enthusiasm driving motion, and one of the key roles of a leader is building the environment that creates the enthusiasm in everyone.

2008-07-15 - Knowledge Only Releases Power When Used
There are many people who are great readers and have a real thirst for knowledge. However, you can spot the successful ones by observing that they also "use" that knowledge to do something meaningful with it (create value). Knowledge only releases power when used.

2008-07-16 - Take your People with You
You are a leader if your people follow you. There are far too many people who think they are leaders, but haven't taken their people with them. Their people are doing what they are told to do, and not really believing in the direction. True leaders focus on taking their people with them and getting ownership in the direction from everyone.

2008-07-17 - People only Repeat Behaviours that Work
You often see people exhibiting bad behaviours and you wonder why they do it. People only repeat behaviours that work for them, and the response they are getting to their behaviour is filling an emotional need they have. As a leader, if you see this in your people, observe more of their other behaviours as well. You might uncover some core insecurities that they are trying to hide with their behaviour. Address the insecurities, and you can change the behaviour.

2008-07-18 - Describe your Goals in How You will Change
It is very important to describe your goals with a picture of what you want to accomplish. However, it is also true that your goals will require you to grow and become the type of person who could achieve them. Remember to take the time to describe your growth goals too, as your own growth is what enables you to achieve your goals.

2008-07-19 - You Often Need to Entertain to Persuade
One thing I'll bet you have never seen - a boring person with great persuasion skills. Why not? One reason is that to persuade others you need to reach them on an emotional level, and often being a little entertaining does that. It creates the feeling in others that makes them listen to you more closely.

2008-07-20 - We are Always Smarter than Me
Successful people have learned this concept very early in their career. We are always smarter than me. The people who get ahead in life are always those who know how to create teamwork between people. Teamwork creates the foundation for even greater success, as no one can be successful on his or her own.

2008-07-21 - Knowing Where to Go for Help
Success in business and life is not something we can achieve on our own. We will always need the help from others (and to help others). The people who achieve great success are also great at knowing where to go for help. They build a network of people willing to help them and in turn they will help others. Success is often about knowing where to go for help.

2008-07-22 - Repetition Brings Retention
The most powerful way to retain what you learn is the constant repetition of the same material. Also, every time you review something over again you pick up something new, as well as reinforce what you have already learned. Invest the time for repetition on those important areas of your self-development.

2008-07-23 - The Every Day Principle
We all would like to put in place those key habits that we know we need to. We always say, "I know I need to, but....." Why not create the Every Day Principle for that most important habit you would like to put in place. Just make the commitment to yourself to do it EVERY DAY, and make that commitment today!

2008-07-24 - The Voice Inside your Head
People's most powerful friend or foe is the voice inside their heads. This voice is either cheering them on or telling them it can't be done. What is the voice inside your head telling you? Almost always the voice inside your head is more powerful than any other voices you hear.

2008-07-25 - Because We Will Keep Going
You often hear that we should all do what we love. This is important, as we will be much happier doing what we love. However, the most important reason for doing what we love is that when challenges come our way (and they will), we will have the passion to meet those challenges and will keep going. Because we love it, we will not quit.

2008-07-26 - How Would You Recognise Success?
Most people go through life not really defining what success means to them. They often know what they don't want, but find it difficult to tell you what they do want. How about you? Have you defined success for yourself and how would you recognise it? Investing time to define success for yourself could be one of the wisest investments you could ever make.

2008-07-27 - Get Comfortable Making Decisions
Life is all about making decisions and taking personal responsibility. The more you focus yourself on making decisions and making them faster, the more confidence you grow in yourself. Almost always, your problems only get bigger when you delay the key decisions in your life. Therefore, for a happier and more successful life, get comfortable making decisions (and faster decisions).

2008-07-28 - Vision That's Worth Taking a Risk For
A vision for a company can be a powerful motivator for the people. Why? Because all great accomplishments are the result of risk taking, and a powerful vision motivates the people and shows them that it is worth taking risks in order to achieve it. The same goes for individuals. Why not build a vision of your future life that's worth taking a risk for!

2008-07-29 - The So What? Test
You have ideas that you think are great at first and then someone says "so what?". It is never until you clearly evaluate those ideas that you see if there is real potential in them or not. For all your new ideas, do the "so what?" test yourself first. Remember, to get that great idea, you need to get lots of ideas first.

2008-07-30 - Easier When You are not Guessing
Today, leadership is much more difficult than it was in the past. The world is more complex, and the pace of business is only getting faster. The leaders, who struggle, don't really understand the power of questions and/or understand what motivates their people. They end up guessing and often guessing wrong. Leadership is about asking the questions and is easier when you are not guessing.

2008-07-31 - Rate of Learning > Rate of Change
The world is changing at a faster and faster pace, and those who are not keeping pace, will never reach their potential. There's a simple comparison to understand if you will keep pace. Your rate of learning needs to be greater than the rate of change. Think about that comparison for yourself.

June 2008 «

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