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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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When the going gets tough...

by Rick Baker
On Apr 28, 2016

When the going gets tough...

When you are all stressed out because the work ahead looks so daunting...

When your spirit is weakened...

...review your key talents and areas of strength. Think about your past successes and why & how you brought them about. Why was the success important to you? Does the work ahead share any common ground with the work already successfully completed?

...remember babies learn to walk one small step at a time. Think about major challenges you faced in the past and the small steps you took when you needed to get beyond the big obstacles. How did you select then focus on those small steps?

...take a short time out and countdown with 10 slow breaths. As your mind quietens, think about a time when doom and gloom scenarios seemed imminent then as time passed those problem scenarios did not happen.

Consider the possibility - this present problem too shall disappear in time.

Values, talents, achievements...and peace of mind.

by Rick Baker
On Apr 25, 2016

Values and talents make a powerful mix when combined with goals and persistence. To put this in perspective: there's an important linkage between personal values and individual talents. Values provide the moral compass, which includes the setting of rules (whether formal or subliminal) around behaviour and expectations of 'fair play' by/from others. Talents, when given opportunity, combine with knowledge and skill-practice to create personal strengths. 

Groups of people - teams, communities, societies - have the ability to excel when the personal values of the individuals align. Obviously, alignment doesn't mean 100% consistency and agreement, however, it does mean general acceptance and habits that conform to written or unwritten rules/laws/codes of conduct. 

Groups of people - teams, communities, societies - have the ability to excel when the personal talents of individuals 'feed off' one another...with the strengths of individuals compensating for the weaknesses of other individuals and the strengths of individuals amplifying one another to create results often described as 'the whole is greater than the sum of the parts'.

When both values and talents align and are coupled with a strong desire to achieve and persistent can-do mindsets, excellent performance follows. When the four attributes [values, talents, desire to achieve, & persistent focus and effort] are combined an interesting phenomenon visits - people naturally make more-positive use of heir stress energy.  That phenomenon results in peace of mind. 

Got No Time & Ineptitude

by Rick Baker
On Apr 22, 2016

Many people believe they have no time because they think they are far too busy. Since we all have the same amount of time each minute/hour/day, when people feel/think they don’t have enough time they are experiencing a flawed mindset. Actually, these people do have time and their mindset is clouded by some form of ineptitude. Sometimes it's their ineptitude...their inability to identify their talents and use their talents to perform their work. Sometimes it's the ineptitude of people they work with...again, the problem often boils down to a mismatch between talents and work tasks.

If the people are bosses then they can't blame others...they have to accept the fact their ineptitude is the source of the problem [and the cause of the alleged shortage of time]. 

Herein lies a Catch-22. People get so busy 'in their minds' they have no time to address their own ineptitude or anyone else's.  When this problem takes full hold, their too-busy mindsets fuel their ineptitudes and their ineptitudes fuel their too-busy mindsets. The result is a never ending cycle - a shrinking spiral -of work, busyness, stress, and distress...in a paycheck-to-paycheck business environment...[if business is doing that well]. 

When I hear people complain about poor business practices at their company, I know they believe they are too busy. 

When I hear people complain about being too busy, I know their company is experiencing poor business practices. 

Busyness and Ineptitude: These things regularly travel hand in hand, creating a tightly-clutched Catch-22. To excel, people need break the Catch-22 by doing at least one of two actions:

#1 - stop saying & thinking "I am too busy" and

#2 - start injecting better goals, better procedures & better disciplines into their business practices. 

***

Of the above 2 actions, #1 is the easier starting point.

But, what if people try #1 and cannot do it... 

 

 

Tags:

I'm too busy! - I don't have time! | STRENGTHS: People-Focused for Success

6 steps for making positive use of Stress Energy

by Rick Baker
On Apr 20, 2016

Putting Stress Energy to Positive Use

by Rick Baker
On Apr 4, 2016

To maximize the positive use of stress energy:

  1. believe you can succeed [as Napoleon Hill taught - What the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve.], 
  2. know how to bring your personal talents and strengths to bear, “The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  3. know your personal values [and understand how they can support positive use of stress energy],
  4. anticipate stressful  situations and prepare your reaction to them, 
  5. gather the tools and support you need prior to the event, and 
  6. practice self-talk/autosuggestion aimed at bolstering your self-confidence and courage.
 
 

Might as well put stress energy to good use

by Rick Baker
On Mar 25, 2016

To maximize the positive use of stress energy:

  • believe you can succeed, 
  • truly understand your personal talents and strengths, 
  • anticipate situations and prepare [in advance] your reaction to them, 
  • gather the tools and people support you need prior to the arrival of the situation/event, and 
  • practice self-talk/autosuggestion/affirmations designed to bolster your self-confidence and courage
Accept the fact things will go awry: appreciate that provides opportunity to build courage and confidence.
 
We grow when we overcome obstacles, especially when we plan in advance then take action that proves we can overcome obstacles.

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.