motivation

A tremendous feeling of recognition

Having a feeling of worthiness regardless of what you are doing is the underpinning of unconditional love and built-in value. The most important opinion you will ever have is the one you have of yourself, no one looks at a photo of you with such scrutiny. We tend to be so critical of ourselves, every blemish instead of blessing is what we count. I think the best way to reinforce good behaviours and overcome fear is with knowledge, training, skills, and action. The best tips are given before anyone does anything because it raises the level of expectation. I think that a tip is an expected level of achievement which you want to give to yourself and other people because only an expected level of success is motivational. And if you expect more from yourself and others then you will perform more to that expectation than anything else.

 

If you are inexperienced, you see the danger in every opportunity and when you are experienced you see the potential. You can engage role models, coaches, and mentors, they will teach you the “correct swing” and then you will gain courage and confidence with knowledge and training. I think when you have the ability to influence people, it really does change the way you go about your day-to-day life and approach opportunities. I can help you eliminate the fear of the unknown, the fear of rejection, the fear of change and the fear of success.

Keep your eye on the target

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The first part of courage is the courage to start with a high possibility that you will face failure and rejection. The second part of courage is persistence - the power to keep going - to keep pushing and driving yourself. Passion and persistence are what matter. Dreams are achievable and you can make your fantasy come true, but there are no shortcuts. Nothing happens without hard work. Courage will you to look at the world in a new way, with both optimism and clarity.

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
— Bill Bradley

I think success in life depends on our willingness to never give up, even when the reward is delayed and perseverance is what separates the winners from the losers. Perseverance has other names - persistence, determination, a can-do attitude. Those who persevere understand that luck is something only failures believe in. Well the Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” What do you think?

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In my experience

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Successful people have a purpose and as a result they are excited, dedicated, passionate, and fearless. And they share their passions with others and lead from the seat within as they usually don’t have the luxury of maintaining a wait-and-see attitude. I think that If you are doing things the way you have always done them, then try something new and invite disruption into the picture. Why? This is because if you continue with those slow-moving strategies, you will be leading your organisation down the road to becoming obsolete. #justsaying

“You can’t climb the mountain of excellence if you’ve made camp on the hill of mediocrity!”
— Burrellism
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This is a journey

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Somebody once told me years ago, the greatest motivator is fear, and he meant in business. People need to be afraid of you and afraid that they are going to lose their job, otherwise they won’t do what they need to do. I think that’s terrible way to treat people and I don’t that’s for anyone. You want to work, you work for it, and you want to work for other people with the same conditions.

 

The most exciting part of life is learning, and being a better listener, being a better partner, being a better father, being a better leader, being a better friend, being a better colleague. We should all aspire to never be satisfied with where we are and always try to be better. I’m fully aware that things in business do not change overnight. It’s a momentum, it’s like exercise, it’s like parenting. It’s hard work and you don’t always get to see the results of all that labour, stress and sacrifice, but you get these little glimmers that you realise it’s all worth it, and that’s the point.

 

I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the importance, and the power, and the potential of creating a work environment where people feel valued and respected and have the opportunity to be fulfilled in their work. And it makes no difference whether you’re in the service or manufacturing business, at the end of the day everyone wants to be part of something. And if you give me an opportunity to play a meaningful role, I’m going to give you 150%. When you know somebody trusts you, it’s like you are raising your game to meet their expectations of you. And any organisation powered by people who care and are cared for is a lot better place to work, it’s a better place to buy things from, it’s just a better place.

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When you label me, you deny me!

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We are so obsessed by what was and I think that it’s something to be said if you are living and learning. You have to deal with cross generational realities even though we’re in different stages of life. Just because I am a person of faith it doesn’t mean that I don’t have moments of doubt. And because you may be a person of doubt, it doesn't mean you don’t have moments of faith. It takes faith to sit down on a chair, I don’t know anybody who checks a chair to see whether it will bear their weight before sitting down. You cannot exist without faith!

“Once you label me you negate me. - Søren Kierkegaard ”

Once we learn to label and we teach what that label means, now we’re trying to live up to being in that label. You have a gift and don’t lock it up inside just to please a small group of people. Keep speaking until somebody listens, keep singing until somebody claps and keep painting until somebody stares.

Looking ahead

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Back in the days, James Brown sang “I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door I'll Get It Myself).” I advise you take his words to heart and never beg anybody for anything - go out and create it for yourself. Your future is not dependent on what you lost, it is going to be decided on what you have left. If you spend all your time doing the inventory on what you lost, you will never count up what you have left and what you have left is enough to build something greater than where you are.

I know that you have all the rich experiences that come through atrocities you survived. You are stronger, you are wiser, you’ve proven things to yourself that you wouldn't have learned any other way. You can overcome everything that has happened to you and this gives you confidence to know that if you went through all of this, then you can walk through that door with confidence. Start looking ahead as no-one drives forward looking through the rear view mirror. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a personal meeting.

““When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.” - Tao Te Ching”

In the face of rejection

Illustration by Dawn Kim

Illustration by Dawn Kim

Have you ever been told that you are not good enough or that you are not the right fit for our organisation? Whether the rejection we experience is large or small, one thing remains constant - it always hurts, and it usually hurts more than we expect it to. Facing rejection requires courage to stay focused on the bigger picture as most rejections, whether romantic, professional, and even social, are due to “fit” and circumstance.


It’s easy to stop when the world slaps you hard in the face and says, we don’t want you. It’s not what they say about you that limits you the most, its that you may believe it and start saying it to yourself. Steve Jobs said in his famous Stanford University commencement speech, "Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”


I am a person with more than one gift, I am a person with more than one talent and I am a person with more than one pursuit. There is more in you than your job, there’s more in you than what you do and it’s your duty to yourself to discover your potential and explore all of these possibilities. I encourage you to explore yourself, I encourage you to explore your world and articulate this to your audience.

Throw away all the self doubt

This morning I was inspired by watching one of the greatest chase scenes of all time, you can see the video of an iguana escaping a posse of poisonous snakes. Remember that sometimes we need our daily reminder to have faith in what we are doing and that the seemingly impossible at times really means 'I'm possible' with a little hard work, passion, and dedication.

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Problem solvers

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If what makes you unique and stand out from the competition is who you are, then the big question is who are you? Another question would be based around your belief system, how do you do what you do? Over the 12 months, I have time to think about not only myself but also how organisations will operate post Covid.

There are more questions than answers, I think that all progressive organisations will have to take a deeper dive into understanding their competition and where they position themselves in the market place. Are interested in laying the foundations for creating a culture where everyone in your organisation works towards the success of everybody? Contact me via e-mail for a meeting.

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Patterns of behaviour

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Over the past 20 years or so, the thinking within our culture is that the richer you are, the smarter you are. Therefore, when you want to make a comfortable living, you think that I you need to make more and more money. Let’s change the system, lets try to change the reason why people think this way - educate people, train them to understand that finance is just one parameter of happiness.

Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. It’s important to remember that the term “systems thinking” can mean different things to different people. The discipline of systems thinking is more than just a collection of tools and methods – it’s also an underlying philosophy. Contact me via e-mail as I would really like to look at your:
a) PURPOSE - Why do these systems exist?
b) ELEMENTS - the interconnection between the different elements, and
c) FLOW - how things going out of your system.

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Love, empathy and kindness

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Taking care of our mental health during a pandemic has not been easy. In times like these we deserve better for ourselves than fear, paranoia and conspiracy theories. Be grateful if this virus hasn't touched you, your family, friends or colleagues. Let's all simply make choices which accommodate the needs of society.


Professor Steven Reiss (psychologist) has found that 16 basic desires guide nearly all meaningful behaviour. These desires are what drive our everyday actions and make us who we are. Reiss said, "What makes individuals unique is the combination and ranking of these desires."

The 16 desires are:
- Power
- Independence
- Curiosity
- Acceptance
- Order
- Saving
- Honour
- Idealism
- Social contact
- Family
- Status
- Vengeance
- Romance
- Eating
- Physical exercise
- Tranquility


Many researchers who have tried to reduce all human behaviour to just one or two basic desires, for example, pleasure, pain or survival. I think people know that other people have different values and pursuits, but they cannot understand how this can be. Self righteous people waste an enormous amount of effort trying to change people who do not want to be changed. As I believe that every person has a unique desire profile, hopefully, this pandemic has taught us that we are all connected.

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Your most important tasks will be to

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Right now, we are all living in a constant state of uncertainty, and sometimes it can feel like running a race with no finish line or making a puzzle without a picture reference. What can we do to minimise the impacts of uncertainty on our mental health? Research shows that gratitude may just help balance out our mental state. Do I have neuroscience behind this? Even though I have been studying human behaviour for over 25 years - I am not a psychologist - so this is only my opinion.


To cultivate gratitude in ourselves, we need to intentionally shift our focus to that which we are thankful for. You can do this by:
1) Pausing and reflecting on what’s working for you.
2) Writing a gratitude journal.
3) Taking small steps to build it in like a practice or ritual.


Contact me via e-mail for gratitude training and workshops.

6 steps to realise success

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According to Dr. David Harold Fink (psychiatrist) there are six steps that will help you achieve success. As today is my youngest daughter’s birthday I will just accept Dr. Fink’s advice.

  1. Set yourself a definite goal.

  2. Quit running yourself down.

  3. Stop thinking about all the reasons why you cannot be successful, instead think of of the reasons why you can.

  4. Trace your attitudes back through your childhood and try to discover where you first got the idea that you couldn’t be successful.

  5. Change the image you have of yourself by writing out the description of the person you would like to be.

  6. Act the part of that successful person you have decided to become.

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Silos of activity

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c/o Getty Images

c/o Getty Images

The majority of you who are reading my blog on a regular basis know that I’m a big football (soccer) fan. There are many parallels between a football team and an organisation. A football team consists of a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and attackers. All of them are doing their jobs in different ways but at the end of the game, they all want the same outcome - to outscore their opponents and win the match. You can do things differently, you can have different skills but you are moving in the same direction and this is the way we should want to behave when we are part of a team.


Simon Sinek said, ”Leadership is irrespective of what level we are at.”
You don't have to be in a position of authority to be a good leader and we can show that through our communication. When you just share and tell people something, it's not really powerful. Leaders need to be spending time trying to understand where your people are coming from, what they need and not just feeding them information/data and telling them what to do, as people do not respond very well to that.


It takes strong mental strength for a leader to step back and say what is the best thing that I can do that is going to move the needle forward as a group and build trust. Throughout my career, I have seen many islands of activity! Playing the blame game and pointing the finger at who’s doing it wrong in sales, marketing, production, R&D, etc. What I want to do is enable people, and allow them to support, empathise and learn about each other. Would your organisation like to learn how to communicate as a team and not as individual silos? Contact me via e-mail for coaching, mentoring or workshops.

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As we are entering the last days of 2020, I think it’s time to offer some “friendly” advice…

Don't be impressed by:

1. Money

2. Job titles

3. Appearances

4. Experience

5. Affiliations

6. Imitations

7. Big words


Be impressed by:

1. Kindness

2. Trustworthiness

3. Unselfish generosity

4. Humility

5. Good manners

6. Courage to dare, dream and do

7. Integrity and benevolence

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Habits

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Earlier this year I became a certified Power of Habits trainer as I believe the biggest influence in life is habit. I think the outcomes you seek are based on the habits you develop and maintain. Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement and a small habit, when repeated consistently, grows into something significant.


It’s almost that time of the year where everyone starts making New Year’s resolution. It’s almost that time of the year where everyone starts “dry January”. It’s almost that time of the year where everyone starts to think about the habits that they would like to change.


I am here to guide you and your organisation, send me an e-mail and let’s arrange a non-binary virtual meeting.