"Own the mistakes..."

"We had to admit to ourselves and to the people of this company that we owned the mistakes that were made. Once we did, it was a powerful turning point. It’s like when you have a secret and get it out: The burden is off your shoulders."

Those are the words of one of America's most successful CEO's, Howard Schultz of Starbucks in his interview with the Harvard Business Review.  He's talking about the amazing power that comes from admitting and owning your mistakes.

Too often we spend our time rationalizing why we're not getting to our dreams.  If something we try is unsuccessful or backfires on us, we immediately seek to understand what happened.  But all too often, we forget to look at ourselves.

We're not perfect.  And as mere imperfect beings with imperfect knowledge, we make mistakes.  If you're like me, you make a lot of them.  One way to respond is to refuse to admit them and seek to place the blame on other people or circumstances.  It couldn't be that perhaps I wasn't as well prepared as I could have been, or maybe got too nervous during the interview, or couldn't read my notes in trial.

Another, better, way is to openly and proudly own your mistakes. 

Each one represents you trying to achieve your dream.  I wouldn't be in court if I hadn't put myself in law school and dared to start practicing at 47. 

Each one is a learning experience, though probably an uncomfortable one.  I learned quickly how to make usable readable trial notes.  Before getting to an interview, I make sure I have at least 15 minutes to relax in preparation. 

Viewed correctly, mistakes are something to be proud of. 

After all, as Mario Andretti said, “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

So lay down that burden and celebrate your mistakes.  Just try not to keep repeating them!

http://www.manifestationcoaching.com/

"Our Deepest Fear..."

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people around you won’t feel insecure.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

– Marianne Williamson

Brain work...

A little brain teaser to pass the time!  Print and enjoy.

Your Competitive Advantage...

If you're the owner of a small business, you know the margin between success and failure is very thin.  You need every advantage you can get.  Marketing, efficiency, economy...each has to be at it's best.  But there's one area that can give you more competitive advantage than anything else, and it doesn't take loads of investment to get there. 

Value Your Employees

Every person who works in your business is a potential goldmine.  If you treat them correctly and keep them motivated.  Studies show that what employees want from their job can be (superficially) boiled down to three things:

• Equity
• Achievement
• Camaraderie

Equity - people want to be treated fairly with respect.  Communicate, communicate, communicate.  And that means listen more often than speak.  Full communication not only helps get the job done better, but its a sign of respect.  Face up to poor performance.  Find out what's getting in the way of improved performance.  But also, don't shirk from dealing with poor performers, or your best people will soon lose their motivation.

Achievement - Instill an inspiring purpose in the workplace.  Help your people understand how important they are to you and to the mission.  Having a mission statement is a powerful uniting tool.  Provide recognition.  People need to be recognized when they do something well.  It gives pride and strengthens their connection to the mission.  Coach your team for improvement.  Help them reach the next level.  Most people are excited by progress and mastery.  Those who aren't will soon make room for others.

Camaraderie - People love to feel a part of a winning team, just look at professional sports fans.  Promote teamwork.  Teams are more effective getting things done well than individuals, and most people get a morale boost from feeling part of a team.

In short:

** Listen and involve your employees in the business.
** Promote teams and show interest in their ideas.
** Give your teams freedom with defined task boundaries and let their imaginations fly.

A word about money.  Most business owners feel helpless to ask more of their employees when they can't give more money.  Especially when they can't give big raises because they're just barely hanging on now.  I spent twelve years as a corporate compensation expert and I can tell you that the excitement from a money raise fades very quickly, and with it, any increase in motivation.  Money doesn't buy happiness...for very long.

For long-term satisfied employees, your best tool is to value your employees and make them feel it.  Recent surveys have shown that people are feeling less valued at work than ever before.  Think it's because of their pay?  Actually, the largest percentage (42%) said they felt less valued because of the behavior of their manager or supervisor.

Not their pay, workload, benefits...the behavior of their boss.

Yes, money is important, but not the most important.  A successful business with motivated employees generates money and raises.  But a valued workforce generates a successful business.

http://www.manifestationcoaching.com/

Irish words of wisdom

"Contending against knowledge,

contending without proofs,

Taking refuge in bad language,

A stiff delivery,

A muttering speech,

Hair-splitting,

Uncertain proofs,

Despising books,

Turning against custom,

Shifting one's pleading,

Inciting the mob,

Blowing one's own trumpet,

Shouting at the top of one's voice."

The Story of the Irish Race, 1921, Seumas MacManus.

The great Irish king Cormac MacArt on what makes a bad lawyer, circa the tenth century.  Some things never change. 

What a Coach Can Do....

Some folks think you need to be an under-achiever to benefit from a personal life coach.  Not true!  Here's a story about a highly ranked education professional, an expert in career creation, who attributes much of his personal and professional success to using a coach.  "All along, he worked with an executive coach who helped him figure out what motivated him and how to be a better manager, father, and community member."

His coach helped him build a dynamic career and help others in the process.  How could a coach help you?

Getting Started #1 (Mornings)…

Technorati Tags: mornings,waking up,bedtime,good sleep,sleeping,getting started,coaching,life coach,manifestation coaching

"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."  --  Will Rogers

Getting up in the morning can be one of my most difficult lifetime challenges. Some mornings, even though I can hear the birds chirping outside my sunny bedroom window, elevating myself up from my deep morning's sleep can seem an impossible and unwelcome chore. I used to joke that I'm not fully awake until 10 o'clock in the morning, but as I get a little older, it becomes that much less of a joke.

Speaking of the office, by the time I get there and face the piles of paper on my desk, I'm not so happy to be awake. Is it any wonder that the first thing I do is drop my briefcase and headed across the street for a strong cup of coffee?

Of course, similar pattern emerges from me when I start on projects. I suppose you can begin to see the pattern yourself: the only thing I don't have trouble getting started is my car and that's because it's a Honda. In fact it took me three tries to start this article and it's now Saturday afternoon.

Am I alone? I don't think so.

There's two parts to getting started, preparation and execution. Let's start with getting up in the morning. The best way to get up in the morning is to get a good night's sleep, and the best way to get a good night's sleep is to be prepared for one.

Getting To Sleep at Night

Relax.  The best thing you can do for yourself to prepare for a good sleep is to be relaxed. For me that means reading a good book, for you that could be a hot bath, or even a bowl of cereal with warm milk.

Set a regular bedtime. I know it sounds like something you tell your children, but the body is a creature of habit. Get your body accustomed to going to sleep at a particular time of the evening and it will become easier and easier to sleep at that time.

Don't wait until you're drowsing on the sofa. That drowsing is exactly what you want to drift you into a good night’s sleep. If you have to interrupt it by getting up off the sofa, getting undressed and getting into bed, you've already interrupted your sleep.

This sounds silly, but keep an orderly bed. Tangled sheets and blankets hang you up at night and make you toss and turn more than you normally would. Take just a moment before you go to sleep to straighten out your covers and make sure you're comfortable.

Use music or white noise. Many people have trouble turning off their brain when they lay on the pillow at night. Their thinking continues to run a mile a minute, or they listen to every sound they hear and project a potential disaster. Gentle music of any genre in the background, or even a white noise machine with the sound of the ocean or birds chirping quietly, can distract your mind and help you focus on the nothingness that will bring you sleep.

Get a good pillow. You'd be surprised how fast a pillow wears out and ceases to provide the proper support. If you’ve had your pillow more than three or four years, it's time to replace it. If it's one of those expensive down-filled pillows, consider taking it to a dry cleaner to have it cleaned and fluffed and possibly even refilled.

Remember that the pillow is more than just a block to lay your head on. It needs to provide the proper support for your head and neck so that you can breathe properly while you sleep, and minimize strain on the back and shoulder muscles.

Getting Up in the Morning

Now that we've mastered preparing and getting a good night of sleep, I thought about getting up in the morning. This is the real problem for me. When I was young, it was common for me to sleep through three alarm clocks and still be late for school. I know now it wasn't because I didn't hear the alarm clocks, it was because I wasn't ready to face the day. Sometimes the reason that you can't get up in the morning is because you don't want to, and sometimes the reason is because you didn't get enough sleep and you can't wake up. It's important to know which is which and which is happening to you.

Here’s what worked for me for both reasons.

Don't use the sleep button. Don't let your body think that each deadline gives you more time. Reconcile both your body and your mind to getting up without the extra 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 30 minutes that you steal with the sleep button. Think about it, if you can regularly give yourself an extra 15 or 30 minutes, then set your alarm appropriately and get up when it rings. Steve Pavlina suggests that you use a Pavlovian training method of repetition to a custom yourself to getting up upon hearing the alarm. However you get there, fight that hesitation to fall back into sleep.

Stretch. Before you even throw the covers back, stretch out take a deep breath open your eyes and look around your room. Give your body a chance to become accustomed to being awake.

Shower immediately. Don't slump around making your coffee, picking what you're going to wear for the day. Hit the shower right away. It's much harder to fall back asleep if you're showered and shaved.

Don't think about the day ahead of you. There's plenty of time for that. Give yourself at least an hour in the morning of not thinking about the day that's coming up. Instead, listen to the sounds of the morning or music, appreciate the weather, say hello to your fish. Anything but stressing yourself out by anticipating the events of the day.  Don’t listen to the news.  You can hear that on the way to work.  This time is for easing into the day.

These are my strategies for getting a good sleep and getting out of a good sleep the next day for a good start.

Having conquered that, I next set out to master the art of facing my desk in the morning. I'll write more about that in the near future.

Www.manifestationcoaching.com