Posts Tagged ‘Positive Attitude’

Get Rid of Stress by Choosing Joy

Monday, June 10th, 2019

According to the American Psychological Association, 62 percent of Americans say that work significantly increases their stress. Imagine that—almost two out of three working Americans spend a third of their lives in an environment they consider stressful!

This is crazy! Life’s too short to live like that! So change things!

Now I’m not suggesting that you quit your job and go relax on the beach for the rest of your life. You’ll get a whole new kind of stress when the money runs out.

Instead, keep your job and choose to live happy. Choose against stress! Stress is your interpretation of events. You can be relaxed or crazed as you choose.

So you get a task that seems impossible. Why stress? It’s an opportunity to step up and knock it out of the park!

You have 20 phone calls to make in 30 minutes…why not do it with joy? It’s time to blow them away. How accomplished will you feel after the fact?

Attitude is a choice. Stress is a choice. Choose to live happily.

Show Appreciation This Thanksgiving Week

Thursday, November 17th, 2016

It’s Thanksgiving week—a week where we show appreciation. And it’s a good time to remember that the people we work with are not perfect.

Our bosses? Not perfect. Our companies? Not perfect.

But, what an opportunity to appreciate the perfection within them, the wonderful things they do, and the caring they give.

Let me ask you this—if you were to sit down and ask yourself every morning, “What are three things I’m really appreciative of?” I suspect that you’ll find—if you force yourself to say something new every day—that the list would be UNLIMITED.

So today, go around to the people you appreciate, thank them for what they do. Thank your boss for the fact that you have a job. Thank your company for making sure you get a pay check every week. And be in that gracious spirit because the spirit of Thanksgiving is alive and well.

Don’t Wear Exhaustion Like a Badge of Honor

Monday, November 3rd, 2014

You might think the boss will be mighty impressed to see you dragging your tired feet around the office. Obviously you’ve been working hard, right?

Think again.

The only signal you’re sending is that you are out of control of your physical and emotional health.

Make a pledge to become a well-oiled machine, NOT an overheated engine. Only the well-oiled machine is of any use in the long run. Get rest, eat right, and exercise.

If you see a frazzled face in the mirror, it’s not a badge of honor—it’s a failure to maximize your abilities by taking proper care of yourself and not focusing on affective and efficient work.

This is easier said than done. We’re conditioned to brag about our exhaustion. But once you make the change and see your productivity and quality of life go through the roof, you’ll never go back to that tired old illusion again.

Shake it Off!

Monday, October 20th, 2014

One of the kids takes a hard hit and is lying on the ground. The coach runs over, sees that she’s not seriously hurt, then says the mantra of coaches everywhere: “Shake it off.”

At first that might sound harsh, but it’s actually great practice for life. If you’re too hurt to play on, you’ll be helped off the field and cared for, no problem. But if you’re well enough to play on, even though it hurts a bit and the wind has been knocked out of you, the best thing to do is shake it off and get back in the game.

Whether in sports or business, winners know that to win, you have to play hard. And when you play hard, you WILL get hurt once in a while.

Failures and mistakes are common and necessary. Winners know how to shake it off, get back on their feet, and move on from failure, quickly adjusting course without wallowing in the bruises to their egos.

The next time you find yourself momentarily on your back, ask yourself—How bad is it really? Do I need to be helped off the field? Or can I shake it off, take a deep breath, and get back into the game?

Celebrating stories of success

Sunday, August 31st, 2014

History books are one person’s opinion of what happened. Need proof? Tune in to MSNBC and FOX News reporting on the same stories on the same night, and you’ll get two wildly different interpretations of what happened that day. An event described as a soaring success on one side of the political aisle is often described as a wincing failure on the other.

The very same thing happens with organizations. Is Apple the greatest thing since the light bulb, or the ultimate force for evil? It depends on who is telling the story.

The same is true of your own company. And as a member of the team, one whose success or failure are tied tight to the company’s success or failure, you have every incentive to be a cheerleader for your company.

Do you use your company’s products? If you work for Pepsi, are you serving Coke at the neighborhood barbecue? When you talk about the work your company does, do you share stories of success or failure?

What are the positives you can share with customers? What are the success stories you can tell them, the differences your products and services have made in the lives of others? Of course there are also less flattering stories. Every company has those. But for the company to thrive, and for you to thrive along with it, you want to find and tell the positives.

This isn’t just a job for marketing. It’s everyone’s job to pass along those stories and to institutionalize them. Stories of success, told again and again, are at the heart of every great culture.