A very small proportion of happenings at work, home, and around the world are negative. But it seems that the negative things capture our attention. That is odd because we are doing mostly fine. Perhaps the positive things happen so frequently that we hardly notice them. Don’t let people (particularly pundits, politicians, and other predators) […]
We are trained to look for and valued as leaders for finding the best solution to any given problem. But this focus gets us into trouble every time. That’s because every significant problem at work has four dimensions. Problems arise from and persist due to… What (or Purpose): a lack of a clear, commonly understood, […]
Most organizations spend untold time and money explaining what they (and their products and services) do and why they are so good. Look at their websites to see that they have the camera firmly turned at themselves. Most prospective clients, on the other hand, focus on the the results they want and the obstacles they […]
Here’s another habit we all seem to have inherited: focusing on bad things and trying to prevent from happening. Like other inherited habits, this one costs us: we waste too much time, energy, and effort on it. First, we anticipate a bad thing happening (e.g. a lost sale, a loss of prestige, position, or money, a rejection, a tough […]
There is a bit of a bun fight going on in the career coaching world about what it takes to have a successful career. On one side, experts advise us to follow our passion. “Do what you love,” they say. Experts on the other side say passion is highly overrated and what we really must […]
The more you concentrate on what’s wrong, the more you encourage what’s wrong to put its feet up and stay. If you insist on saying, “the reality is,” and then explaining why things aren’t working, I am afraid you will only ever get that reality you don’t want. Why not switch things up and start […]
Q: “How do you raise your buzz?” A: We raise our buzz in any way that makes us feel good, really good. We need not understand or even identify the bad-feeling thought. Just ask, “What thought would feel better than this?” Appreciating all that you already are and have is another good method. And so […]
Some problems seem to resist solving. These problems feel bad to consider. Knowing how uncomfortable they are, we don’t fully address them. Instead of solving the problem for good, we end up creating “solutions” that only numb the discomfort. To solve solution-resistant problems, embrace them. Start by feeling through the bad feeling. Catch yourself feeling […]
There are lots of big, important problems out there. How will we ever feed the hungry, reverse global warming, pay the sovereign debt, change government policy, hit our sales targets, get funding for our certainly-needed project, or get a winning big-league team in Toronto? We can trick ourselves by thinking the problems are too big. […]