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How to Adapt to Change in the Workplace:

6 Tips to Gain Control and Move Forward

June 19, 2014 13 Comments

circle of life: how to adapt to change in the workplaceA sudden, unexpected event happens that forces us to change how we work, to adapt the way we think of our career aspiration and our life.

A change in the workplace policies or practices, a change in the relationship we had with our boss or our co-workers or a shock to the overall business from a competitor or other outside forces.

These days, it feels like there is so much unpredictability and change that we feel blessed and grateful if we can go one day without a dramatic change in our lives.

Complexity leads to change

Over the last few years, what I have learned is that disruption in the workplace has become more common as our world gets more populated and global.

The world is getting more complex as we evolve, not simpler. Due to greater complexity and uncertainty, businesses are under severe pressure from customers, competitors, government regulators and the general public.

In science the term for this is entropy, which I’ve talked about in a previous post. The more people we have in the world taking various actions the more complexity, uncertainty and disorder we get.

Imagine a household with parents and one child. Then imagine a household with parents and three children. Chaos!

Things don’t get simpler. They get more complex.

 

What it means for learning to adapt to change in the workplace?

Get used to it! It means that we all have to be better at adapting to change in the workplace if we’re to survive, grow and succeed in our careers and our lives. Standing still makes us feel stuck and uneasy. So, buckle up!

 

Here are some tips on how to adapt to change in the workplace: 

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Rule #2: Say YES and DO New Things Tagged: adapt to change, adapting to change, how to adapt to change

4 Traits of a Strong Mind

April 18, 2014 20 Comments

how to build a strong mindset

A young man was walking in New York City and approached an older gentleman asking, “Sir, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?”.

The older man responded as he walked away with a smile, “Practice my boy. Practice.”…or so goes the tale.

Like most things in life, if we want to become really good at something, we have to work at it.

In a recent book I’m reading titled, “Talent is Overrated” the author, Geoffrey Colvin argues that talent is not necessarily a gift bestowed upon the fortunate but something that is acquired through what he calls, deliberate practice.

Hard work, independent learning, pushing on through painful experiences, rigorous effort, receiving coaching and so on, is what is needed to train ourselves to achieve greatness in our job, a task, a profession or a life pursuit.

When it comes to learning how to build a strong mindset, I have realized that this too requires deliberate practice.

Learning to build a strong mindset is crucial these days as we encounter a sudden change in our work, our relationship or in our life. It will be a strong mindset that will get us through a challenge, not money.

How do I define “strong”?

-Confident (not arrogant)

-Effective

-Focused

-Determined

-Able to take on challenges

-Successfully achieve goals

“It will not be power, influence or the money in your pocket that will help you create a fulfilling life. It will be your strong mindset.”

 

How do we build a strong mindset?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Rule #2: Say YES and DO New Things Tagged: a strong mind, build a strong mindset, strong mindset

How to Become More Resilient:

5 Ways to Learn to Bounce Back

March 11, 2014 10 Comments

How to become more resilientComfort can be nice. But these days, it’s good to be prepared for the ups and downs we all face or will face eventually.

“Comfort is the enemy of achievement.” – Farrah Gray

What I have realized is that while we should be grateful for each and every “normal” and “boring” day, we should make some attempt to stretch ourselves. To find a way to become more resilient. Especially if we want to improve our the quality of our life.

 

resilience

: the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens

: the ability of something to return to its original shape after it has been pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc.

 

For some, being resilient comes from experience. Some of us experience turmoil in our childhood or have been through a divorce, a business crisis or career chaos, which can make us more resilient. For others, it’s not so easy.

Is it possible to learn to become more resilient without having to go through crisis, pain or suffering?

The answer is something I have thought about deeply.

What I have realized is that while nothing can replace the experience of bouncing back, we can learn traits and behaviors which can build our resiliency muscle.

Nothing can replace the journey of a tough life to teach us how to become more resilient but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try especially if we’re feeling comfortable.

Here are 5 lessons I have learned about how we can shift our thinking to help us become more resilient:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Resiliency Tagged: agility, become more resilient, how to adapt, how to be resilient, resiliency

How to Move Forward When You Feel Negative About Yourself:

3 Ways to Get Going Right Now

January 31, 2014 9 Comments

compels us forwardWinters are tough for me. I look at the year ahead and know that I’m supposed to be working on fresh new goals. 

But it’s tough getting motivated. Feeling lethargic, I tend to procrastinate, often feeling negative about myself. 

Trading old habits for new ones can be daunting. 

Losing weight, taking a new career step, saying yes to a blind date or simply moving forward on developing new business ideas or opportunities IS a lot of work. 

No, let me repeat: Creating change in life IS hard work. 

But it is also POSSIBLE.

Goals can be achieved. Businesses can be created. Relationships can begin anew. Health can be restored.

Here are 3 tips to get you motivated to move forward when you feel negative about yourself or plain old lazy in these winter months:

1. Remind yourself why you’re going after that goal

Rediscovering what achieving that specific goal means to our life can help to motivate us to move forward out of a funk.

When I first started writing this blog, I had no idea how to do it properly and wasn’t really sure if anyone was reading it. Sometimes I would start to feel negative about myself and thought, “what’s the point?”   [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rule #2: Say YES and DO New Things

63 Tips on How to Get Unstuck in 2014

December 30, 2013 6 Comments

get unstuck in lifeSometimes I dread the New Year for this uneasy feeling of making resolutions that may not stick.

The problem with the resolutions I used to set for myself is the follow through.

Each time I would gain some momentum in my life, my mind would create these negative stories causing me stop following through on trying to lose weight, recharge my career or do something meaningful for my quest to get my book published.

My mind held me back and made me feel stuck.

Over the last few years, I made this important realization: Finding a way to overcome our mind’s negative overthinking is a powerful way to get unstuck. And it requires not some bold, unique strategy but a simple one. 

To get unstuck in life and follow through on our goals, we need to break the pattern of overthinking, replacing it with something more useful – even if it’s for a brief moment.

And so for 2014, I have developed a few tips that I have used daily to help interrupt the negative pattern of overthinking that keeps us from achieving our resolutions and goals to help us get unstuck and get in the groove of action.

To get unstuck in life…to move forward on our 2014 goals, it helps to try these simple techniques whenever we encounter the disabling force of our overthinking mind.   

I want to help you get unstuck in life because I truly believe that each of us are meant to be making a positive contribution to the place we work, the people who we love and the passion we pursue. 

Learning to get unstuck in life is up to us, not anyone else. 

Here are 63 tips to get unstuck and move forward in 2014:

1. Accept things as they are not as you wish they were or ought to be

2. Don’t listen to negative people

3. Start the morning off on the right foot by creating your vision for the day, listening to positive words, writing and creating

4. Read one page from an inspiring book

5. Take action right this minute [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rule #2: Say YES and DO New Things Tagged: get unstuck, get unstuck in life, new years resolutions 2014

12 Not So Obvious Things to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving

November 27, 2013 8 Comments

Things to be thankful for

Yes, we should be thankful for a lot of things this Thanksgiving. 

Parents, spouses, children, friends and loved ones are usually at the top of our list. 

But this Thanksgiving, perhaps we should be thankful for a few other things in our life that may not be so obvious.

Why not be thankful for the simple things? Or even the wrong turns, twists of fate or the challenges we have had in our life?

Isn’t every wrong turn an opportunity to learn?

As we look back at a year where clouds of uncertainty seem to hover always above, there might just be a tiny line of silver that we haven’t noticed.

Here are 12 not so obvious things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. 

Let’s be thankful for…

1. Relationships gone sour for helping us to discover the power of resilience that we didn’t know we had inside.

2. The woman at the coffee shop who shows up happy every morning to serve her customers with enthusiasm and energy for showing us that our life’s purpose doesn’t have to be so grand and can be as simple as making a positive contribution to someone else’s day.

3. The disgruntled coworker who can make us realize that it’s easy to put blame on others for your life but harder to look within. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rule #2: Say YES and DO New Things Tagged: Happiness, learning t

3 Tips on How to Deal With Difficult Work Situations

November 15, 2013 25 Comments

The boss isn’t being fair. Co-workers are being being difficult, putting us in tough situations. 

It’s hard to focus on the work because of so much drama other people are creating for no good reason. 

It becomes particularly frustrating because we can’t fight back against toxic co-workers or the boss no matter how unfair it might seem for the fear of being seen as a whiner or a ‘difficult person’.  

With so much uncertainty and chaos at work these days, it’s easy to get consumed and hard to get anything done.

Whether you’re facing difficult co-workers or an unfair manager or an uncertain and complicated situations, here are a few tips that might help you figure out how to deal with difficult work situations so that you create a little peace in your life.

My Key Lesson: The reason we get stressed and anxious in trying to deal with difficult work situations is because we have lost control. Things are so complex and uncertain and it feels as thHow to deal with difficult work situationsough everyone’s out to get us and we can’t do anything about it.

By bringing back control to ourselves and creating certainty, we can begin to deal with difficult work situations.  Yes, even in uncertainty, we can create certainty of something very powerful: Ourself…and the actions we take. 

[Tweetable]: Certainty in a difficult work situation lies in our own words, thoughts and actions. That’s the only certainty we have – ourselves. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rule #2: Say YES and DO New Things Tagged: career chaos, chaos at work, deal with difficult people, deal with uncertainty at work, happiness at work

2 Words That Hold Us Back and 142 Words that Move Us Forward:

Embrace the Chaos Morning Manifesto

October 11, 2013 1 Comment

Embrace the Chaos Manifesto PostcardWords can define us.

Words make us feel.

Words hold us back: “I can’t…” or “Yeah, but…”

Words can move us forward: “Why not me?” or “It IS possible…”

I used to get up in the morning and read three newspapers on my way to work, until I realized that what I was putting into my mind were seeds of uncertainty that my mind used as fodder to feed an overthinking brain hyped up on coffee.

Those words from the news didn’t inform me – they worried me. They made me over analyze, overthink and feel fearful of the future. 

Over the course of the last few years as I learned to deal with uncertainty in life, the unpredictability of things and the complexity of it all, I stopped reading the news in the morning. I still keep informed and now glance over the news once in a while towards the middle of the day – when my mind isn’t so vulnerable. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rule #2: Say YES and DO New Things Tagged: Happiness, morning manifesto, moving forward

21 Reasons Why Some People Get So Lucky in Life

September 3, 2013 17 Comments

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 Did you ever look at someone and think, “He is so lucky. He has money, he’s in a great relationship and wow – what a great career being able to travel like that?” 

I’ve done it too.  And as my mind entertained this thought, I would find myself in an often depressing place overthinking about reasons why I wasn’t as successful as “that guy”.  

I wasn’t so lucky.  I wasn’t lucky to be born with good looks or into the right family.  I wasn’t lucky enough to have the right education or lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.

But as I grew in my career and in my life and by meeting lots of people from all over the world in so many walks of life, I made this profound realization:  

Tweetable: Luck, chance and randomness are often consequences of action. The more you do – the luckier you get. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rule #2: Say YES and DO New Things Tagged: creating happiness, Happiness, lucky in life, success traits

How to Move On After a Setback:

3 Tips for Forging Ahead When Things Are Tough

August 8, 2013 10 Comments

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We get hit by a curve ball.  A surprise out of nowhere that hits us like a ton of bricks.  A setback.

The chaos of life affects us all at some point in time.  We get a setback at work. A setback in our relationship.  A setback in business.  And sometimes that setback can make you question everything.  You freeze because you don’t know what to do.  You’re so emotionally wrapped up in the shock of what happened that you can’t think straight.

And your forward momentum seems to unravel right in front of you dashing any hopes of creating a life that you desire.  The seed of uncertainty settles in our mind as we settle in to the chair of despair.

Here are 3 tips I learned on how to move on after a setback and it reflects the 3 rules that are part of my mantra:

1. Accept

It’s not easy.  But holding on…to why it happened is not going to help us move on after a setback.  It only hurts, further debilitating our body from the forwardly motion that we so desperately need. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Stop Overthinking Tagged: move on after setback, overthinking, stop overthinking

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