Archive for October 2018
Monday Motivation October 29, 2018 Do You Make Decisions or Commitments?
Why are some people more successful than others with seemingly the same opportunities – because they make commitments, not merely decisions. How many decisions have you made this year and not followed through with them? We make a start, but we don’t carry through past a few weeks with the exercise, or losing weight or stopping smoking.
We start the report but after the first distraction we don’t return to it.
We have a raft of reasons why we can’t do all the other things we decided we were going to do. Decisions are nothing more than ideas in our heads unless we take action on them. Commitment is the Energy that fuels our action. Self-discipline is the energy that fuels commitment.
Read MoreMonday Motivation October 22, 2018 – Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?
Peter Wilson, President of the Australian Human Resource Institute, has said that only 24% of employees in Australian organisations are engaged, 60% are neutral – just there but not really engaged – 16% are turned off. Not only are these statistics worrying, they raise a big question – WHY? Why do so many people in our organisations feel unable to take the action that would see them become more engaged?
If you had a magic wand, what 3 problems in your workplace would you like solved? Now, I’m going to challenge you to be very honest with yourself.
Have you even tried to solve them?
Why haven’t you been able to solve these problems up until now?
In every workplace. people complain about the problems and about why “someone” isn’t doing anything about it.
Those who complain become part of the problem. The more they complain the bigger the problem becomes.
The late President John F. Kennedy once said:
I thought “someone” should do something, and then realised
I was “someone”.
Monday Motivation October 15, 2018 – Are You A Glass Half Full Person Or A Glass Half Empty One?
This is not just a quirky question. It determines whether people want to work WITH your organisation or just FOR it. There is a big difference. It also draws people to you or makes them run in the opposite direction when they see you coming. No one wants to be around the person who always sees the negative in everything, the person who always focuses on the difficulty in everything, never on the opportunity.
Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology, called this our “explanatory style”, the way we explain what is happening in our lives. It’s very much about our mindset. Our explanatory style, he says, determines whether we are happy in our lives or depressed, whether we are a pessimist or an optimist. People who have a positive explanatory style can explain even the most devastating experiences in a glass half full way, in a positive explanatory style.
Read MoreMonday Motivation October 8, 2018 – Develop An Attitude of Gratitude and Expand Your Life
We are living in an age where depression is rife. Every year in Australia 800,000 adults experience a depressive illness. Even young children are now being diagnosed with depression. The World Health Organisation has predicted that by 2020 depression will be the second biggest health problem world-wide behind heart disease. So what’s the answer? How would things change if we began to focus on the positive in our lives?
What might happen if we developed an attitude of gratitude?
What if we focused on everything in our lives that we can be thankful for?
Brian Tracy says:
“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”
Read MoreTuesday Motivation October 2, 2018 – Self-Care needs to be a Priority
Last week I conducted a group mentoring session on Self-Care for leaders in a human service organisation. While this is a most important leadership skill for all leaders in these unpredictable and changing times, the motivations that lead people to work in the human service field make it all the more challenging. I have quite a number of people on my mailing list who work in the human service sector so this blog is being written for them. Its content, however, is very relevant to all professional leaders.
As human service professionals, you do the work you do because you are motivated and inspired to care for others, to make a difference in peoples’ lives, to bring empathy and compassion to them. Yet while you are busy taking care of others, you too often fail to take care of yourself. You feel self-care is an indulgence, or it is selfishness.
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