Promote Yourself!

I flew into the airport in Charlotte, N. C. on my way to conduct some workshops on team building and leadership for a company in Costa Rica. While waiting on my connecting flight i decided to grab a bite to eat in the large food court area in the airport. As I sat there eating I noticed an airport employee moving around the food court cleaning tables and making sure that the area was clean.

  What really caught my attention was the pure presence of this woman. As she cleaned the tables and chairs she was singing...and I mean singing from her heart and soul. She was literally HAPPY at work. As she moved through the area people would lift their heads from there books, phones, or laptops to take notice. It was like a wave of heads popping up.

  After completing my meal I approached the woman and explained to her that I was having a good day but because of her positive attitude and presence that I was having an even better one. I than asked where her attitude came from. She than explained that she decided a long time ago that if your going to go to work every day you might as well be happy. I told her that that was awesome and if more people adopted that attitude they would be more productive and happy.

  I asked the woman her name, she than put her hands on her hips standing proudly and said "Valerie" with the posture of a super hero. I asked Valerie for a hug and she hugged me tight enough to align my spine. Valerie went on to explain to me that her first job in the airport was as a bathroom attendant. I don't know about you but if i woke up every morning knowing that i was going o be in a bathroom all day I am not sure what kind of attitude I would have.

  Valerie's attitude was so amazing that she named her bathroom Valerie's Happy Restroom. Her slogan was "Everyone can always get a seat". She was promoted to the dining area in the airport because her supervisor's knew she would impact more people with that awesome attitude. I had to catch my connecting flight and gave Valerie a hug. She explained to me that she would not be there in two weeks and a I asked Why? She said that there was a company that found out about her attitude and passion for customer service and they offered her the position of director of customer service in their company.

  Chills went up my spine. I said to Valerie that Because of your attitude you have promoted yourself from the Bathroom to the Dining room to the Board Room. That's the power of a great attitude. How will you promote yourself today and every day with your attitude?

What is Your Purpose?

What is your purpose here in this life? It is so easy to get pulled into other people's lives and their purpose that we lose track of our own purpose, passion and reason for being in this world. Family, Friends, Co-Workers can all distract you from moving closer to the dreams and goals that you have for your life. It's not being selfish to pursue what fulfills you and gives you a sense of making a difference, not just in "THE" world but "YOUR" world.

Personal or professional growth and satisfaction is connected to moving in a direction that makes you feel more whole and complete as an individual. When you expand as an individual you actually expand the lives of the people around you. Staying focused on your personal or professional development is not selfish... it is selfless because of the effect it will have on others. Stay true to yourself and as you expand you will also help others to expand as well.

Live Out Loud!

Disconnect and Detox Your Mind!

"It's become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity"

---Albert Einstien

Have you looked around you lately? Everyone is either on their smart phone, ipad, laptop, or listening to an ipod. Facebook has become our way of interacting with each other rather than actually getting "face time" and speaking to each other. Have you received Happy Birthday messages through facebook? Is it the same as getting a card that has a hand written message from a friend or family member?

Don't get me wrong I have embraced technology just like everyone else...it does help to make things more efficient and a whole lot faster. What I am trying to say is that we need to go on a technology fast from time to time to detox our minds, helping us to back out of the constant noise that we are bombarded with all the time. You always hear about detoxing your body to cleanse it of contaminates for better health but we don't usually hear of the same for our minds.

Make it a point to disconnect form technology and detox your mind.

Live Out Loud!

Adopt The Attitude of Kaizen

Adopt the Attitude of Kaizen

“Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best.”

Do you have a personal rating system to measure where you are in any area of your life? It’s interesting in areas such as work, and school there are systems in place that measure performance, however when it comes to our own lives we never seem to have that system in place. The Japanese have a term called Kaizen. It means constant improvement. The concept that we should always be growing and improving in all areas of our lives is important.

Develop a rating system that helps you to measure where you are at in any given moment. When I coach individuals or groups I will stop them at certain points and tell them to rate themselves based on attitude, energy, and effort. I have them use a rating system from 1 to 10. 1 is the stinkiest, slimiest, sloppiest they could be and 10 is the super, shiniest, sharpest they could be. By monitoring where we are on a constant basis we can adjust our performance and attitudes.

I am not suggesting that you try to be a 10 all the time. That would be exhausting. I am suggesting that you pay attention to where you are so that you know how much you have improved, or need to. By adopting a system to evaluate personal improvement and performance we can save time and be much more effective in the Kaizen of our health and fitness, relationships, career and any other area that needs improvement.

Keep a journal and document your progress. If your life is worth living it is worth documenting. By journaling you can reflect on where and how you improved and develop a road map for success. It’s your life, get started now.

Live Out Loud!

Be More ChildLike.

“Happy is the person who has not lost their childlike heart.”
--Keith Elkins

Think back to when you were a child and think of how open you were to experiencing the world around you…The excitement of each new thing or experience that you came across. Something as simple as seeing a butterfly or getting messy while finger painting. Sometimes we lose track of the qualities that we had as children.

As adults we get distracted thinking that we have to always be serious when it comes to work and all the adult activities and responsibilities that we have. I am not talking about becoming irresponsible and approaching everything we do as a joke. I am talking about holding onto and reminding ourselves of the value of always being childlike. The following are just a few of those qualities.

Being in the Moment: When children are at play that is all that they are focused on. When they are eating that is all that they are focused on. When they are reading or being read to that is all that they are focused on. They are not thinking about what happened yesterday or what they need to do tomorrow. Being childlike means being focused only on the present.

Imagination/Creativity: Children have the most vivid imaginations on earth. They can sit and play with toys for hours making up imaginary people and situations. When they color or draw it is unbelievable what they can create simply because they have no mental limitations as to what is possible. I have a game that I play with my grandson called the story game. Each one of us tells the other a story that we totally made up in the moment. It gets pretty interesting at times. What story could you make up?

Persistence: WOW! This is a big one. As adults we often get discouraged and look at failures as the end. When someone says “No” to us we simply give up. A child’s persistence is without fatigue. Have you ever seen that small child in the store that keeps asking for a piece of candy or a toy and the parent starts off by saying “No” to the child? Then ten minutes later that child has exactly what they wanted before leaving the store. Now that’s persistence!

Smiling and Laughing : As we grow up sometimes we control our natural instinct to smile more and laugh out loud. Make sure to find joy in the moment and never hesitate to smile or laugh… laughing at yourself is an extremely valuable skill. Make it a point to laugh and smile as much as you can throughout the day. You will change the quality of your life as well as the people around you.

I Challenge you to take an inventory of some of the valuable childlike qualities that we all had at one time and make it a point to start using them to improve the quality of your life.

LIVE OUT LOUD!

Back Out of the Noise.

“It has become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity”
---Albert Einstein

How many hours a day are you connected to technology? The 800 pound Gorilla, used to be the television but now it is email, facebook, twitter, laptops, smart phones, or ipads. If you sat down and figured out exactly how much time you are actually connected…it would probably shock you. I love technology and I think it’s necessary and valuable in today’s world. I also think that because we are so connected at all times that we have become disconnected to many things around us.

It is important to back away from the noise. Just like going on vacation… when you come back you are refreshed and re-energized. In the workplace it is necessary to utilize technology but outside of work it is a good idea to not answer every phone call or constantly check emails, or facebook. Recent research demonstrates that couples taking their laptops, ipads, and smartphones in the bedroom contributes to marital disconnect. Rather than connecting with conversation and in other ways… use your imagination. It does just the opposite.

How many times have you been having a one on one conversation with someone and you, or both of you are constantly scanning your smart phone during the conversation? The challenge is that everything we do is a habit, so being always connected to technology becomes such we don’t even notice that we are doing it. It’s really about being more balanced in all that we do and making the necessary adjustments to get there.

I challenge you to take time to get outside, have conversations, spend quality time with family and friends and go on a technology fast for just a block of time everyday. You’ll be glad that you did.

LIVE OUT LOUD!

How Resilient Are You?

Setbacks are setups for a comeback


How do you deal with setbacks and adversity? How do you think, feel, and act when things don’t go the way you expect them to? Do you get frustrated, angry, sad, or more determined? We all go through challenges in relationships, finances, career, family, and health. The key is what you focus on the most. If you focus on frustration…that is exactly what will grow and expand. Instead work on looking past the obstacle and focus on overcoming it and getting more creative about the solutions that you come up with.

There are four ways to empower yourself with the ability of being more resilient when challenged by setbacks. They are:

Face It: Very often the basic human instinct when faced with problems is to ignore, or avoid them at all costs as if they will just disappear. We all know that this strategy does nothing but prolong the inevitable. Things don’t improve, they actually get worse. Facing up to challenges is the best way to overcome them.

Handle It: After facing your challenges you are ready to start handling them. At this point you can clearly understand what your challenge is and what you need to do to overcome it. Focus more on building a strategy.

Accept It: Accept the fact that you are not in control of what may happen to you at all times. Life comes at you from some crazy directions and you need to accept that you can’t control everything. Also accept the fact that you are in control of how you respond to things that happen.

Let It Go: I like to say Let go and Let Grow. Challenges happen and if you get angry, depressed, frustrated and hold onto the anger and don’t let it go it will consume you. If you let go of the negative thoughts and emotions and allow yourself to adopt more positive and healthier ones you will be much more successful.

Just remember that obstacles are not there to obstruct you but to instruct you. Get started today in adopting the proper attitudes necessary to be more successful in life.

LIVE OUT LOUD!!!