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ProDevelopment Consulting
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Lessons Learned While Doing the Incline
I knew it existed and always had a buried interest to "do it"....the Manitou Incline that is, which is, for those who are not in the know, a hiking trail that rises above Manitou Springs in Colorado. It began as a three foot gauge for a cable railway, but morphed into a popular hiking spot after the tracks were washed out during a rock slide in 1990. The incline is most famous for its views and its steep grade that reaches points of 68%, but has an average of 45% incline throughout pointing to how it received its namesake. It has become a fitness challenge for locals and something they "do" rather than hike. I have always found the challenge intriguing, but not to the point in which I ever took it on. Until a friend came to visit and her friend told her about it.
"She said it took her two hours to get to the top!" she told me after being introduced to the idea of the Incline. "Two hours?" I exclaimed in a dumbfounded and condescending voice, "It isn't even a mile! Do you want to do it? We can go after we work out."
After we work out. I thought that climbing up the side of a mountain while ascending over old railroad tracks and climbing more than 2000 feet in elevation would be a child's game. I imagined making a quick stop and spending twenty minutes of physical exertion on this thing. How hard could it be? So, we spent about an hour and a half in the gym BEFORE heading to the Incline.
I stood at the base of the beast at six o'clock in the evening and scoffed again at how long it took her friend to complete the task at hand. Let's do this! We started to climb and it began fairly easy. Over the first few hundred yards, I repeatedly mentioned how I thought a two hour completion time was ridiculous. I shut my mouth as soon as the oxygen felt like a limited commodity and my calves felt like the muscles were going to rip through my flesh. I could not believe how quickly the climb felt like one of the most horrible exertions that I had ever placed on my body. I paused and looked ahead at how much further I had to climb and it looked like the path never ended. I felt the sweat drip into my sock as if my calves were actually crying at what my eyes were seeing. I would have been perfectly fine with turning back had a boy around the age of five not run by me at that precise moment. I continued forward with my focus on the top of the summit. We reached the turn back trail which is about three-fourths of the way up and I started walking in that direction.
"You are not coming this far to quit now," I heard my friend say as she grabbed my arm and pulled me back on course. I climbed another five feet and then sat on my ass while she started dancing on the railroad ties that are now used as a .88 mile stairway to hell. Who in the hell brought all these ties up here, and how in the world can she be dancing right now? Did they carry them on their backs as they climbed up here? Oh my God! I want to die. I broke away from my thoughts and looked again towards the summit. Only about twenty-five more feet, I reassured myself and stood to my feet for the last haul.
I took a deep breath in to collect enough air to ask, "Do you think that's really the top, or is the bastard tricking us?"
"No, that's the top. Come on; we are almost there!"
I dug deep and pushed through for my last twenty-five feet and then I felt my blood boil. I wanted to murder somebody as I broke the top of the peak to discover that it was a false summit and we still had another fifty to seventy-five more stairs to transcend. We finally reached the top and I felt defeated. My pride was completely shattered when I looked at my friend who was still dancing.
How was it that we had two completely different experiences doing the same thing? Mindset. I let my mind defeat my efforts the very first time I looked up and processed the task in it's enormity. I calculated how much work it would take to reach the top and focused on the entire event. My friend did not look up one time and kept her eyes on the stair directly in front of her. She did not give her brain the opportunity to consider that there was anything more than the one railroad tile that was directly in front of her.
Don't turn a molehill into a mountain or a railroad tie into an Incline. Our brains have the tendency of creating obstacles that don't really exist when we only see the end goal, and what we see seems so far out of reach. It is better to have an idea of where you are going and then lay your plan in front of you in smaller steps. Keep your focus on the step in front of you while limiting how often you look at the end state goal. Only look up to ensure you haven't veered off path, and then immediately shift your focus back to the step in front of your face. If you find yourself moving away from the goal, than make slight sight adjustments before shifting your focus back to your feet.
There is only one way to eat a whale; one bite at a time, and there is only one way to rise to the top of the incline; one step at a time. Don't let your mind stop you from succeeding.
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Tall Enough to Ride the Coaster of Life
It's 2016 in Rio and Olympian Michael Phelps has made history. He is an American hero and the people are praising his graces. He must feel wonderful; a man on top of the world. His life must have always been amazing with no complications, right? People like him never suffer and they don't live normal lives like you and I. They are immune to the setbacks and disappointments that seem to present themselves at every turn in the lives of the rest of us. Actually, his very successful professional life has been peppered with serious complications in his personal life. In 2014, he was suspended from swimming after receiving his second DUI in the period of two years and subsequently entered rehab. He was quoted to say that he wishes his life was over in 2009 after a picture of him hitting a bong was published causing Kellogg to revoke his sponsorship contract. His first DUI occurred when he was 19 years old leaving him feeling as though he had disappointed his fans. His life is just as complicated and shitty as the rest of us. But what makes people like him different? Is It because he ebbs with the ebbs and flows with the flows better than the rest of us? No. It's because he buckles himself into the roller coaster and holds on.
The ebbs and flow of the tide is a great analogy for someone who is just coasting through life. For someone who has their life jacket on and doesn't mind moving two inches forward before being pulled two inches back again. There is no excitement or anticipation in just waiting around and letting the tide carry you to and fro. You aren't interested in coasting through life, so the roller coaster analogy is a better fit for you. Your life is a roller coaster, but you have to choose which one to ride. There are an array of choices starting with the one where you get into a bucket that is shaped like Dumbo all the way to the one that comes with horror stories of people dying from shock while riding it. The choice is yours, but if you choice Dumbo then you can stop reading now. The rest of the article doesn't apply to you.
For the rest of you, lets talk about the dynamics of the ride. The scariest part of the ride is not when you are going down or doing wild upside down turns; that's where the fun happens. The scariest part of the ride is the anticipation starting from the minute you look up at the monster of a coaster that you want to commit yourself to. Your heartbeat increases as you get closer to the front of the line, and your hands sweat as you stand in front of the bar that is the last separation between you and it. You crawl into the bucket and say a little prayer that the carnie who just checked your safety straps is paid more than $5 an hour. You start moving and hold your breath as you hear the tracks underneath you as you slowly climb to the top of the summit without any idea of what is to come. You fear the unknown and you wish you had just turned around before it was too late. This, friends, is the scariest part of the ride and the scariest part of life. The only difference is that there is a point of no return in which you cannot back out of your commitment on the rollercoaster that doesn't exist in life. In life, you have to find purpose in staying the course despite your fears. The other side of the summit could very well be disaster, but the ride doesn't stop after one dip. Get out of the Dumbo life and get in the line for a life that will scare the shit out of you. Get started now!
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Behaviors more important than talent
There is a romanticized belief that individuals are born with talent that is greater than the talent of the remaining 7.4 billion individuals in the world. You are either born with a talent towards a particular subject, or you are not. It is as easy as that. Those who become very successful in one field or another do so through raw innate talent that they were blessed with, which made them superhuman in that area. We not only ignore the hard work, dedication and perseverance that it required for those individuals to become successful, but we also turn a blind eye to their many failures and setbacks that they faced on their journeys. Michael Jordan was born with a basketball in his hand and Albert Einstein's first words were E equals MC squared. The poor rest of us will just have to settle for a lackluster life in which only the mediocre is possible. We were unlucky enough to be born without a talent. There is no reason to fight against it; your efforts are futile. Settle into the belief that your life is meant to be lived in a 9-5 job that you hate because you were not one of the chosen few to be great.
What a bunch of hogwash. No matter how many books, images, memes and stories that are told of the long hours successful people spent to perfect their skill through deliberate practice and perseverance, we still resign to the fact that we can never be as successful as them. It is a form of self handicapping behavior. We would rather believe that we are biologically incapable of being successful, because what if we try and fail? We won't be able to tell stories that start with "I could have been a contender" if we actually tried and were not successful, but if we don't try than the possibilities of what we could have been (if we had only tried) are limitless. The paradox of the heartbreaking could-have-been stories is that you will never actually know your full potential until you risk failure. Your potential could change the world if you put in the effort to develop your skill.
Please don't misunderstand, there are people that are born with a talent that makes them naturally better, faster, stronger or smarter than you. It is great to be born with an advantage; however, the advantage needs to be cultivated or it will be lost to someone that did not have the same advantage, but practiced behaviors that are more important than talent. Developing these habits is not like surgery. This article will not remove your old habits and replace them with new habits before sewing you back up and sending you on your way. It is a process that will require dedication, and includes the following behaviors:
1. Warrior Mindset
The most successful people approach their lives with a warrior mindset. They do not rely on talent alone in order to get by doing the bare minimum. A strong work ethic requires commitment to a strong emphasis on the quality of work. Successful people are never satisfied with "good enough" and are driving their own success. Warriors are not afraid to get in the arena and fight gladiators ten-times their size. They do not cower in the corner protecting their faces with their hands and arms. Warriors come out swinging with their assets exposed and at risk because they know that they have to be in the fight to win the fight. Warriors know that sometimes you have to take a face shot in order to place yourself in the right position to deliver the stike to defeat your opponent.
2. Effort
Effort is the opposite of entitlement and special treatment. Effort is rolling up your sleeves and working hard to improve. Effort requires self-discipline, dedication and sacrifice. The most successful people work hard on all aspects of their lives and never neglect an area because it seems to be doing well. Success is the worst contributing factor of failure because complacency sets in and we think that we can slow down. Your competitors are not going to slow down and will pass you when they catch you napping. Continued effort will secure your position at the head of the pack and keep your competitors nipping at your heels.
3. Energy
Think about the tortoise and the hare, and let's be honest. Nobody wants to be the tortoise. We all want to be a smarter hare who doesn't lose to someone as inferior as a tortoise. High energy will maintain the sustainment piece that is required to remain successful. High energy requires that you take care of health. Don't have time to workout, eat well, sleep and drink water? Than you don't have time to be successful. Quit now because your body and mind will not be able to bring you enough energy to beat that determined tortoise.
4. Become a life-long student
Think you know everything and nobody has any advice or guidance that will benefit you? Not only will you not be successful in your field, but you also won't have many friends. Once you think that you can't get any better, than you won't. Life is like playing sports; you won't get better when you play with people that are at the same level as you. Go find the bigger kids in the playground and play with them. Keep playing with them until you are better than them and then go find even bigger kids. You can find the bigger kids in your business and personal circle. You can also find them through private organizations and clubs, continued education opportunities, workshops, consultants and coaches. You may have to pay a premium for the services, but the return on investment is priceless.
Talent is fantastic to have, but is not as important as developing skill through a warrior mindset, effort, energy and continued learning. Skill development does not guarantee that your potential will produce results equal to that of Michael Jordan or Albert Einstein. However, a lack of skill development does predict one or two stories told by you about how great you could-have-been had you only tried. Call our professionals now if you are ready to roll up your sleeves but don't know where or how to start, or if you have reached a plateau and need a jump start. http://www.prodevelopmentconsulting.com/contact.html
#talent#skill#coaching#mindset#warrior mindset#winning#biggerbetterstrongerfaster#energy#effort#student of life#learning#growing#development
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Do you run from pain or towards pleasure
In today's world, we are used to instant gratification. We can have almost anything we want, even if we can't afford it. Our models of behavior have shown us that money will be loaned to anyone for just about anything. Phone companies have found ways to offer us the latest model smart gadget for $0 down with a hefty increase added to our monthly payment. Car dealerships will put an 18 year old in a brand new $30,000 vehicle, and the banks will tack on a small interest rate of 18-24% knowing that the young adult will only be able to afford their car payment and nothing else. When that same young person wants to put fuel in their tank, buy new clothes, furnish their apartment and eat, they seek in store credit charge accounts or unsecured loans through the major credit card companies. Americans want to go to school, but they want it to be quick and easy with no entrance requirements and our abundance of for-profit "colleges" make it convenient...until the graduates learn that their degrees aren't worth the paper they are printed on. What happens when the debt piles up and employers won't hire them based on their credentials? They forfeit on loans. American bankruptcy laws allow for default on all debt with very minimal repercussions. Search any news story on federal student loan default and you will learn that our citizens are moving out of the country to avoid payment leaving their parents (most whom cosigned) to incur the debt. What has happened to our value system that fosters so many irresponsible Americans? Or is the problem really our values? I would argue that it is not. The problem is our psychology and how easy it has become to obtain pleasure.
Humans are psychologically programed to avoid pain or to seek pleasure. Behavior will only change when the level of pain out weighs the level of pleasure. Our society has made pleasure too easy to obtain, but the paradox is that the pleasure of material possessions is fleeting and requires a continual influx of possessions to satisfy the high of instant gratification. Most of us live on a roller coaster low and high-the low occurs when we feel empty and unsatisfied, and the high occurs when we try to fill that hole with the latest hi-tech piece of equipment. The behavior we created of seeking pleasure through the hottest, fastest and sexiest new product causes a lot of pain which we seek to avoid. The motivation to buy new shit and own a collection of iPhones that is dangerously close to hoarder style actually stems from our need to avoid pain. Most of us don't know what really drives us because the cloud of bullshit over our heads that society has created which paints a picture of what successful is...handsome/beautiful, money and a "good job" (as also defined by a romanticized version of reality). Most of us don't live up to what we think everyone expects from us which causes an extreme amount of pain. Because most of us don't know where the pain is actually coming from, we turn to vices that keep us temporally high only to return to the numb reality of our day-to-day lives. You need to break that cycle through whatever means that works for you, but usually involves the following steps:
1. You have a breakdown
A significant life experience occurs in which you feel an exorbitant amount of pain. The pain hits you at your inner core and you know that they only way that you can no longer feel that pain is to
2. You run from the pain
In cognitive psychology, many experts encourage their clients to create as much pain as possible and associate it to the unwanted behavior. An example is one of a smoker who finds immense pleasure in smoking and has no desire to quit smoking until his young daughter, at the age of 5, asked him if he was going to still be alive to give her away at her wedding. He felt a slight bit of pain that I encouraged him to amplify. I asked him to visualize his daughter growing up without a father because he dies of cancer. I painted visual descriptive pictures of him abandoning his loving daughter and the life she led without influence from him. He closed his eyes tightly as I described her feelings of loneliness and longing to him until he burst out of his chair and left my office without a word. I thought that I had lost him, when in fact the opposite had been true. He left my office to run home to his daughter and squeeze her tight as if he had really just lost her. He called me a few weeks later to tell me he had destroyed all of his cigarettes that day...it is now five years later and he has not touched one since. The human brain does not differentiate visualization and reality when recalling a memory. His memories recall so much pain associated with leaving his daughter that the pleasure of smoking has been eliminated.
3. You run towards the pleasure
As discussed earlier in this articles, society has made it difficult to discern what brings us genuine pleasure. We are so used to superficial pleasure, that unless we do some serious sole searching or have a coach or counselor to help guide us, than we are destined to a never ending cycle of rock bottom, numbness and extreme highs. We create a sense of manic depressiveness without the chemical imbalance. You can break the cycle on your own and replace your unhealthy pleasure seeking habits with healthy alternatives that benefit you as a person, but it is going to take trial and error. The first step is finding what really drives you and then pursuing it. A coach will help you get there faster...a coach can be a professional or a mentor. They can also be a friend or coworker that you admire. Like everything in life, you can get there on your own, but having a wingman makes the experience more enjoyable and effective.
Contact our professionals at ProDevelopment for a free consultation if you need help finding a starting point.
http://www.prodevelopmentconsulting.com/contact.html
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Winning the War Within
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly… Teddy Roosevelt’s words were delivered during his Citizenship in a Republic speech in Paris as a reminder of the challenges associated with maintaining a republic. The passage above has become known as “The Man in the Arena” and could not be more true or speak more powerfully to the struggle of humankind. The struggle is simple: we do not believe that we are capable of being the one in the arena, so we don’t try to achieve our dreams. We know that the credit belongs to the one who is in the arena and daring greatly, but we think that it takes some sort of superhuman ability to step into the arena. We look at those daring greatly and see the tip of the iceberg without looking beneath the surface. We do not notice their fears and insecurities, their moments of doubt and weakness, their failures and perseverance; all we see is the success associated with their hard work and determination. Why do we view those who have accomplished extraordinary feats as extraordinary humans? Because of mindset. Mindsets for success can be divided into two categories: those that believe success is attributed to ability and those that believe that success is attributed to skill. Some of you might be confused by the words skill and ability because you think they are synonymous. In terms of performance psychology, ability refers to attributes what an individual was born with and passed on through genetics. Skill, on the other hand, is derived from an individual’s personal effort to develop the trait. Most people hold the mindset that people are inherently dispositioned with an ability for greatness. In reality, the most powerful athletes, leaders, scientists and millionaires are successful because of skill that they developed through deliberate practice. Mindsets can create limitations, obstacles and roadblocks or they can create opportunity, paths to success and empowerment. Psychologist and author Carol Dweck refers to the mindsets as fixed and growth. Fixed mindset believes that you have what you were born with and that will never change. A growth mindset is the belief that skill is developed and improved through hard work and learning. There will come a time when everyone has disempowering thoughts from a fixed mindset, but you can destroy those thoughts with a four-step process. STEP 1: Learn to hear your fixed mindset voice. You will be able to hear your fixed mindset voice loud and clear. It is the one that asks you if you are sure you want to do something. It asks you what happens if you fail. It tells you that you will be a failure if you do not succeed. It screams to you to protect your dignity by not trying. The fixed mindset voice can creep up on even the most growth mindset disposed people, so pay attention when you hear it. It might appear when you face a setback, try something new or face criticism. In the face of setback, it might say, “this would have been simple if you were really smart or talented”, “now you’ve shown the world how limited and stupid you are”, and “it’s not too late to back out…make an excuse to get out of it and save what dignity you have left” During criticism, you might hear it say, “It is my boss’s fault for putting these high standards on me” and “who do they think they are”. You might also only hear the person that is giving you feedback as to say, “I’m disappointed in you. I thought you could do better, but you obviously can’t”. STEP 2: Recognize that you have a choice. You can make the choice to listen to your fixed mindset and act upon the advice it is giving you, or you can choose to respond with the idea that intelligence and talents are not fixed. Do not move forward to step three if you decide to listen to your fixed mindset. If you choose to stretch yourself through the realization that your intelligence and talents are not fixed, than you will move on to step three. STEP 3: Talk back to your fixed inner voice with a growth mindset voice. Find growth mindset ways to negate what your fixed mindset voice. Here are some examples: As you approach a challenge: THE FIXED-MINDSET says “Are you sure you can do it? Maybe you don’t have the talent.” THE GROWTH-MINDSET answers, “I’m not sure I can do it now, but I think I can learn to with time and effort.” FIXED MINDSET: “What if you fail—you’ll be a failure” GROWTH MINDSET: “Most successful people had failures along the way.” FIXED MINDSET: “If you don’t try, you can protect yourself and keep your dignity.” GROWTH MINDSET: “If I don’t try, I automatically fail. Where’s the dignity in that?” As you hit a setback: FIXED MINDSET: “This would have been a snap if you really had talent.” GROWTH MINDSET: “That is so wrong. Basketball wasn’t easy for Michael Jordan and science wasn’t easy for Thomas Edison. They had a passion and put in tons of effort. As you face criticism: FIXED MINDSET: “It’s not my fault. It was something or someone else’s fault.” GROWTH MINDSET: “If I don’t take responsibility, I can’t fix it. Let me listen—however painful it is– and learn whatever I can.” STEP 4: Take the growth mindset action. After you are done verbally assaulting your fixed mindset voice, you need to jump into the task and attack it. You have to be “all-in” and face the challenge with perseverance and enthusiasm. You might be confronted with a setback, learn from it and try again. Take criticism for what it’s worth. Take what you can from it to make you better and discard what is not helpful. Own the process and make it better. Your face will be marred with dust, sweat and blood as you dare greatly and little by little, you will become stronger and more powerful than you ever imagined. You can take the world for everything that it has. You can achieve everything you want in life. You can be extraordinary. But it all starts with mindset.
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Stop Neglecting Your Employees
Employers and businesses spend time, money and resources to recruit young and talented new employees. The recruitment sometimes feels more like a courtship as employers present their most cordial, supporting, attentive and attractive traits while they wine and dine new prospects. Then, like most exciting love affairs, the attentiveness fades once the deal is sealed. Employees begin to feel undesirable and unappreciated with no opportunities for development or progression, and they start looking for the next best thing. The next best thing might only have to be the next new thing depending on how stuck the employee feels. The courting phase starts again as soon as the employee jumps ship, but the cycle is only doomed to repeat itself.
Employee turnover is inevitable in business, but you want to mitigate the frequency in which it occurs. The goal of any business should be to keep qualified and productive employees on the payroll for as long as possible. High turnover rates equates to high costs, lost time and poor team dynamic. The best way to lessen the effects of high turnover rates is to invest in employee training and development.
Many employees feel as though they do not have the technical expertise or leadership knowledge to be successful. They feel inadequate and unprepared to tackle the challenges that are in front of them. The solution is found in training and leadership development programs that cost companies pennies on the dollar compared to the costs associated with hiring and staffing new employees. The following tips will help you create or refine your development plans.
1. Performance-based employee developmental plans
Structure an employee developmental plan that fits your company’s mission and vision and provides upward mobility for the employee. Utilize annual performance assessments as a guide for how to develop your employee. Remain engaged and monitor their progress against a standard of specific, measurable, attainable and time-based expectations. Provide your employee with a list of classes in which they can take to develop their skills for the next level in their developmental plan. The goal is to build upon skills that the employee already has, and to challenge them for increased responsibility. Well-designed shadow programs allow for employees to learn while doing through on-the-job training.
2. Provide a robust training schedule
Your employees should be engaged in some form of training at least once a quarter, and should be designed to develop technical and leadership skills. Outsourcing is the most cost efficient way in which to create a training program that fits your company’s needs. Many vendors can provide video-based or instructor led courses that can be taught at your business. Both options are cheaper and more practical than trying to create a program in-house, and will save your managers headaches and frustration as they try to figure out how to develop training curriculum.
3. Start mentorship and coaching programs
Mentorship programs will look differently depending on the organizational structure of your companies. They can range from pairing individuals to inviting lower-level employees to a lunch with a different board member each month. The idea is to exchange information and close the knowledge gap. Employees will remain engaged as they learn from their mentors.
Coaching will increase employee productivity tremendously. Everyone at all levels of leadership should have a business coach, but unfortunately, most entry- and mid-level employees can’t afford them. Here, again, is where outsourcing makes the most sense. Most coaching and consulting firms offer packaged coaching services at a discounted rate. Depending on your budget, you may be able to afford one to two hour coaching sessions each week for your employees. Your employees will feel safe discussing their concerns with their coach, and are more likely to seek advice from them than their frontline supervisors. No matter how approachable and reasonable supervisors are, employees are apprehensive asking advice because of the risk associated with it. Thoughts or, “what if they think I’m stupid, what if they think of me differently what if they lose trust in me” among others cloud their judgment and most do not seek advice at all. Those fears are not associated with an outsourced business coach, and employees feel safe using them.
Implementing all of the suggestions in this article will increase employee longevity. Your employees will feel desired and appreciated and will take ownership of the work that they perform for you. You don’t have to implement all three tips at once to see results. You can start with one; just start now!
#training#development#coaching#longevity#keepyouremployees#goodhelp#success#prodevelopmentconsulting
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Habitual Living
I woke up one morning feeling like a train ran over me. My body throbbed with fatigue and pain and my mind was clouded with clutter and haze. I knew exactly what the problem was: I had let everything else in my life take priority over taken care of my health and wellness. My diet consisted of convenient garbage that was low in nutritional value, but high on portability and speed. I traded time at the gym with time at my computer or with my clients. As a result, not only were my mind and body sluggish, but my self-respect was also spiraling downward quickly. I value health and fitness, and by neglecting it, my behavior and values were no longer congruent. There is nothing in your life that will make you happy or feel satisfied when you are not living in sync with your own value system. I had to do something. The first thing I did as a professional who makes money on helping others become successful, was what any self respecting life coach would do. I kicked myself in the backside and chastised my performance and inability to lead by example. Once the drama had passed...
“I’m going to the gym in the morning!” I exclaimed to my spouse who very lovingly shot back, “That’s what you said last week...and the week before!” This time I was serious. I made a plan and stuck with it. The next morning I was up at 0-dark thirty and was ready to rock and roll. I packed my meals that I had prepared the night before and went to the gym. I felt great for the entire day! I had taken action and it was easier than I had thought. I went to bed feeling proud and accomplished. 4:45 came around the next morning and it was as if I had been suddenly transported into a Nightmare on Elm Street movie...you know the one where the kid falls asleep only to wake up to his nightmare pulling him through the middle of his bed and straight into hell. Only my nightmare was not some creepy burnt up janitor with knives for fingers. Mine was a combination of the softest white fluffy clouds in the sky and 1000 rolls of Charmin triple ply toilet paper. I was contoured around a softness that felt more comfortable than anywhere else that I’ve ever been. His soft whispers were telling me to go back to sleep as I sunk deeper and deeper into bed. “No!” I jumped out of bed and went to the gym. The second day was difficult and I had to deliberately concentrate on being present to carry me through my work out. I struggled with the same challenges on day three, as did most of my fellow gym goers. I also made this commitment at the same time as thousands of other Americans...New Years. By day three, the parking lot was nearly empty. I pushed myself through my workout. An amazing shift happened on day four when I woke up automatically without the help of my alarm clock. I no longer had to force myself to workout when I was at the gym, because my body was telling me that it wanted to work out. What caused the shift after three days, and why is it always so hard to make a change? Habits!
Our bodies and brains are designed to expel as little energy as possible. Our brains do not want to waste time thinking, so they find ways to avoid it all together. The central nervous system starts creating schemas that are stored into your long term memory and accessed through the working memory through habits. How many times have you pulled your car into the driveway to realize that you don’t remember the drive home? That was your habits working. Your brain shut off to conserve energy and let the habits that it built do the hard labor. Almost everything we do in life is a habit, and new behavior becomes difficult to initiate due to those habits. What happens is that habits team up with your motivational system that is designed to help you reach your goals. Once you have a habit formed, your motivational system automatically thinks your habit is a goal and kicks in double time to help you achieve it. You have to take action against your already developed habits when you are trying to change your behavior, and, unfortunately, your motivational system is going to work against your efforts. Fortunately, the process of developing new habits does not take that long, although it feels like an eternity for the first couple of days (or up to as long as 153 days depending on how fast your central nervous system works). There are some ways that you can speed up the process:
1. Change your environment
Make your goal more accessible or your undesired behavior less accessible. We worked with a health clinic recently that had unhealthy employees. They were overweight and the majority of them smoked, The management team wanted to promote a healthy lifestyle change to improve their image and cut down on losses due to employee health issues (of course, they wanted their employees to have a higher quality of life and to live longer as well). We suggested that they implement a smoke free environment in which their employees were not allowed to smoke any where on the property. As a result, only really dedicated smokers took the mile hike to the edge of the property when they had a nic fit. Changing your environment will make your undesirable behavior difficult. Want to cut back on eating snack foods? Don’t buy them and keep them in your house!
2. Make a plan
Make a list of everything that you think could go wrong on your path to changing a habit or reaching a goal. If you are like most people, this task comes easily. We spend an exorbitant amount of time thinking about all the obstacles that stand in our way before trying something new. But this time, don’t use them as an excuse for not moving forward, use them to succeed. Divide your list into three categories: Very possibly will happen, likely will happen, more than likely will not happen. For example: a very possible obstacle that will happen if your goal is to eat healthy is to be tempted by your favorite desert. Create a contingency plan on what you will do when you are faced with those obstacles, and create well in advance of ever coming face-to-face with those obstacles. Use imagery to visualize how you will react and what resources you will use to negotiate those obstacles. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Plan out how you will encounter your obstacles, and execute the plan when they present themselves.
3. Take action
There was a point in your life when every habit that you had now was a first step. You had to take action to develop what is now habitual. It took you years to develop your habits and some are more serving than others. You can deliberately develop new habits but it takes action. You must take that first step. Remember to be compassionate to yourself. You did not get to where you are over night, and you will not get to where you want to go over night. Keep moving forward with action and you will get there!
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We are all born equal (kind of)
We are all born equal…just some are born more equal than others. It is undeniable that a child born in America has more opportunities than a child born in the Congo. Even in America, there are differences in our equality. Sure, we all have the same education services available, but hungry children don’t concentrate on school work. There will always be stark differences in how equality is applied until basic needs are equally attended to. There is one area in which everyone has the exact share of the resource: time. No matter how you flip it, tweek it, manipulate it or approach it, there will always be 24 hours in a day and 8760 hours in a year (8784 on those glorious leap years). Around the world, transgressing economic, social and cultural differences, we are all born equally time wealthy. Then why is the biggest excuse for stagnation that I hear, “I don’t have enough time”? The excuse is used as a form of self-handicapping. If you don’t have enough time, than no one will be disappointed that you led a mediocre life and didn’t reach your full potential. The no one that I am talking about is you. You don’t want to feel like you are cruising through life with a job that barley pays the bills and is not satisfying so you create self-imposed limitations with time being the champion cause for your struggle. When a client tells me that they don’t have enough time, what I hear is, “I do not have the desire, I am afraid that I will fail, I like the comfort of sadness, I doubt my abilities or I am lacking in time management skills”. Time Management is really managing yourself in relation to time. What can you do to feel like you have an abundance of time? Manage yourself in relation to time.
1. You spend too much time on social media
On a lazy day, the first thing I do after I gain my faculties is reach for my phone. I check my email, check any phone messages and then…I start mindlessly scrolling through FaceBook. I can be scrolling for hours before I even realize that I have just spent 10 hours of my life watching videos of thug cats pushing glasses off of tables or fat children dancing like a boss. Don’t get me wrong. I love social media in all of its wonder. However, with the advent of the smartphone and tablets it can be a real productivity killer if I do not manage myself. Mindless scrolling sucks away your time…are you aware of how much of it you actually do each day? Keep a social media journal for a week. You will be surprised. Or…there are a few apps that will help you log how many hours you spend, how many times you unlock your phone and how many times you open apps like Facebook. Check them out: Moment, Checky and Menthal (for Android). If you really want to blow your mind, than estimate how much time you think you spend on your phone each week before entering into the data collection phase.
2. You watch too much T.V. and play too many video games
To be fair, there are people in this world who are completely satisfied with working a minimum wage job and earning just enough to live comfortably. They are perfectly fine with coming home and sitting in front of the T.V. or game system for the rest of the night. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way they choose to live their lives. But if you desire driving fast cars, traveling the world, eating delicacies and building an empire and successful family life, than leave the obsessive gaming and T.V. watching to them. Focus on what you want and then take action. There is no need to purge it completely from your life. Purging will lead to binging with a feeling of disgust that you feel after any binge. Limit it in the same manner that you will with social media.
3. Structure your time
Your time at work is structured, as should be your free time. Researchers credit Sunday at noon as the “unhappiest hour in America” because that’s when people feel the least productive. Structuring your time (work and free) has been proven to make you more motivated, focused and happier. Structure gives you a direction and a purpose.
4. Keep a diary
As mentioned above, you should keep a diary to unlock the mystery of how much time you are spending on social media, gaming and T.V., but what if you are spending your time unwisely in other areas not mentioned? You will not know exactly where you are using your time unproductively unless you keep a time diary. A time diary allows you to see patterns on how you spend your time and allows you to compare your priorities to where you actually spend time.
5. Memento mori
Remember that you will die! Watching T.V. for 3 hours a day will accumulate to 10 years of your life if you live to be 80. Each of us has 24 hours a day, which is divided between sleep, work, eating and chores leaving you approximately 5.5 hours each day that are yours to use for creating your destiny. You do not have that much time to waste after you subtract your commitments. Start saying,”no” to activities that don’t mean much to you, structure your time and make the most out of every second!
#time=money#equality#prodevelopmentconsulting#timematters#24hours#8760 hours#mementomori#timemanagement#selfmanagement#80/20 rule#potential
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Don’t be afraid of change. Oftentimes you will lose something good, and then gain something even better.
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Mentors will take you out of Cruise Control
We hear about how important having a mentor is every day in the business world to the point where we stress out trying to find the one that is perfect. We expect our mentor to have Superman-like qualities who can save the world, be wealthy and maintain an amazing relationship all while staying in phenomenal shape, building houses for the poor and living an adventurous lifestyle in their free time. We are shocked when we can’t find anyone that fits our cookie cutter image of the perfect mentor. Let’s be honest, very few people are able to exceed in every aspect of their lives; however, there are an abundant amount of people that excel in one or two areas and continue to improve themselves in the other areas. The people that you want as mentors more than likely also have mentors, because successful people know that stagnation equals sudden death. Cruise control is the worst place for anyone to be in their lives. Being on cruise control is far worse than struggling because there is no attempt to make life better and there is no focus for improvement. Life becomes routine and boring and we lose our lust for living. Mentors can take you out of cruise control by making you increase acceleration, sometimes by pushing their foot against yours as it hits the pedal. Good mentors should challenge you to move outside your comfort zone and support you when you feel as though you will drive over the cliff. Completely lost on how to find mentors? Start with the following advice, but remember that the relationship that you form with your mentors is all in your hands.
Make a list of areas in which you want to improve
Remember how I used the word mentors instead of its singular form earlier? The reason is not only because it is nearly impossible to find someone that is an expert in all of the areas in which you want to be mentored, but also because you don’t want to put the stress of being your sole mentor on someone’s shoulders. No one person can be your “everything” in life, and the same is true with your mentor search. Therefore, the first step to finding your mentors is to be clear about what areas you want to improve. I have a mentor for each of the following areas in my life: business, fitness and health, finance, spirituality, family, education, public service and positive attitude. How do you find the areas in which are important to you to improve? Brainstorm. What roles do you play in your life? Mother, father, son, daughter, husband, wife, manager, team member, community leader, friend? What do you desire in life? Artistic expression, positive attitude, career, education, financial freedom, longevity, pleasure? A combination of those two lists will provide you with a compilation of what is most important to you. You will have your list of areas in which you want to improve…even if you already an expert, you can always get better.
Make a list of potential mentors
Consider your list of areas one item at a time to create several lists of potential mentors. Start your list by keeping in mind that your mentors should assess your strengths and weaknesses, help you understand the structure and organization of the topic, introduce new perspectives and correct any wrong thinking, boost your ability to make decisions, familiarize you with the tricks of the trade and introduce you to important resources and useful references. Think of all the people that you know (or don’t know) that can fulfill the role of mentor in each of your areas in which you want to improve. Aim high. If you want to be successful in real estate, than add the likes of Barbara Corcoran and Donald Trump to your list. Be on the lookout for potential mentors in your everyday life. You may meet someone at the grocery store that would be a perfect fitness mentor. Add them to your list.
Think about what you will say
How do you get someone to want to be your mentor? You become interested in them, you learn about them, you initiate communication with them and then you sell yourself to them. Follow them on their social media sites and read their books. Comment on what is important to them and make them see your potential. Mentors are willing to give their time when they believe that their time is respected. Use the word mentor as a verb rather than a noun when you approach your potential mentor. It is a lot easier and less awkward to say, “Would you like to have coffee and discuss my budget? I could use some mentoring on how to make my money work for me” rather than, “will you be my mentor?”
Have a plan and take action
Have a plan that maximizes your mentor’s time when you find one that is agreeable to meeting with you. Stick with the agenda and bring to the table progress on what you have done since the last time you spoke. A mentor will be more likely to continue meeting with you when he or she sees that you are applying their advice to your life. A mentor will become frustrated and irritated quickly if they continue to provide you the same advice with absolutely no action from you. The quickest way to lose a mentor is to make them feel as though their time is wasted.
Be persistent
Keep working down your list and recreating lists until somebody says yes. You may have to go through several lists before you finally find someone that is willing to mentor you. Hopefully, your personalities will also click and it develops into a lifelong relationship. Until then, don’t get frustrated. Keep improving your sales pitch with each no that you receive, and eventually you will close the deal for the perfect mentors.
In the meantime...
What if you keep being shot down? What if it takes you years before someone says yes? What if, worst yet, your perfect mentor is dead? Don’t wait until you forge the perfect mentorship relationship. I have found most of my best mentors in the library! Most successful people have written books or have had books written about them, and some even put their workshops and seminars on CDs. The benefit of listening to your mentor through prerecorded or written word is that they had time to think about the perfect advice to give to you. They made it concise, entertaining and easily accessible. You have no out of pocket cost with a library card.
But what if?
But what if you have a specific issue that is difficult to negotiate, you haven’t found a mentor and you can’t find the perfect book to help you? What if you just need to bounce ideas off of someone for support? Consider getting a coach. A coach should embody the same attributes that you are searching for in a mentor, but they come at a cost which has advantages. Your coach will never say no to a request for coaching and they will be personally vested in your success. Business coaching has become increasing popular among high preforming CEOs who are able to capitalize on the advice they receive. Many CEOs have multiple coaches for different areas in their lives and consult with them on a weekly basis. Not sure if coaching is an investment that you want to make on yourself? ProDevelopment Consulting offers a free consultation session so that you can see whether coaching is right for you with no upfront financial obligation.
Finally
Thank your mentor. Be specific when you tell them how they helped you to improve your quality of life. Showing gratitude will ensure that your relationship will be mutually appreciated.
#mentors#development#bestyearever#prodevelopmentconsulting#ProDevelopment#coaches#coach#find a mentor#personal improvement
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Traveling for the holiday? Know your consumer rights!
During the first six months of 2013, 277,000 airline passengers were denied boarding, and 31,500 of them were involuntary. Sometimes with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, the consumer feels as though they are at the mercy of airline companies. However, in 2011, the United States Department of Transportation created more stringent airline regulations, but don't expect the airline companies to tell you what they are. In fact, expect the airline companies to offer you a lesser compensation with an agreement form that requires your signature. The airline companies rely on your emotions to take control during frustrating situations, and they expect that you will not read the agreement form before you sign...they expect you to be satisfied with the lesser compensation because you do not know that they should be offering you more. Not our readers! You are going to be prepared to demand what should be offered. What are your consumer rights? 1. You have the right to get to where you're getting Airline companies must get you to your destination in a timely manner. If you are not allowed to board due to overbooking, they must book you on the most reasonable first flight possible regardless of class. Reasonable doesn't mean hanging out in an airport for 36 hours. They must also reimburse you for any required hotel expenses and provide you with food vouchers while refunding any extras like upgrades and extra baggage fees. 2. If you are denied boarding, you have the right to cash back even if they rebook you If you are denied boarding and subsequently rebooked, you are entitled to 200% of your one-way fare back if you arrive more than two hours later than your original flight. You are entitled 400% of your one-way ticket if you arrive more than four hours later. The entitlement is cash and not airline credit. Refuse airline credit if they offer it to you, and read the form they ask you to sign with the airline credit. But.....there's a catch to this one. The max payment is $675 for 200% and $1350 for 400% 3. More concerned about getting to your destination on time rather than entitlements? There are steps that you can take to help you avoid being bumped as "overbooked". First, make sure that you reserve a specifically assigned seat when you book your ticket, and then check in within 24 hours of your flight. Being a frequent flier or elite member of the airline also limits your chances of being bumped because the companies view you as being more valuable from the miles that you receive for the trip. 4. Not concerned about getting to your destination on time but want perks? Maximize your chances of being bumped by not booking seats, not checking in and not redeeming your air miles. Flying during peak times from large busy airports also increases your chances on being overbooked. However, keep in mind that you could go through all the hassle but still be rebooked on a flight that gets you there on time or before the two hour rule. You receive nothing in that case. Also, just because you are delayed doesn't mean your baggage will be. Airlines may legally fly your baggage to your destination on your original flight...possibly leaving you in a hotel with no toiletry items or clean undies.
#ProDevelopment#prodevelopmentconsulting#know your rights#holiday madness#holiday travel#get money#travel stress#consumer rights
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Don't Let Anyone Tell You Not to Sell Chicken
I finished writing a lesson plan for a workshop titled, “The Power of Purpose” last week. My research for the workshop included theories about “finding your why”. The word “why” is a new fad that researchers, authors and entrepreneurs throw around as a noun in an attempt to lessen the stress of trying to find a life purpose. I was discussing the workshop with my wife who became immediately overwhelmed with the thought of finding a purpose in life. She told me that the process of finding a purpose, higher calling, why or meaning to life was too stressful, and that she didn’t understand why anyone would want to pursue finding it. She told me that she refused to believe that she has a purpose, because she wasn’t going to subject herself with the magnitude of pressure associated with it. I told her that she does have a purpose, and that she’s already living it. She scoffed at me and ended the conversation. Our discussion was very enlightening for me, and expanded my perspective. It made me understand why people run from engaging in the soul searching process of differentiating between what is really important to them and what they think is important to them based on societal demands. The truth is that many people avoid finding their purpose because they think that a purpose has to be powerful enough to unlock all the secrets of the universe. Sadly, most people already know what puts them in a flow state and brings them the most joy in life, but they DON’T DO IT because they do not believe it is grandiose enough to be a “purpose”.
Unfortunately, the belief that our purpose in life has to be significant and wide reaching is also a byproduct of social influence. I recently watched a video of a man lobbying to increase minimum wage to $15 an hour. The man highlighted his successful career in the United States Army and told the story of how he was awarded the Purple Heart. He spoke of his dedication to the cause and how he continued fighting after he was injured in combat. When he left the Army, he started a career in a fast food fried chicken restaurant. He spoke of his dedication to his costumers, and the satisfaction he received from the service he was providing. Watching the man, and listening to his words made me realize that selling fast food chicken IS HIS PURPOSE. What thoughts do you have about a man whose purpose in life is to be a frontline employee at a fast food chain restaurant? I read the comments below the video which probably echo your thoughts: He needs to find a new job that pays him more, he needs to find a job in which he can utilize the training he received in the Army, he needs to go back to school to make him more marketable if he wants to find a job that pays him enough to support his family, working in fast food is not desirable nor respectable and the comments went on and on with similar sentiments. None of the comments spoke to the passion this man displayed when he spoke about his job. All of the comments told the man that selling chicken is not a life for anyone. Everyone had advice for this man on the way he needed to live his life, and none of the advice included selling chicken. The comments were full of judgment and disgust that anyone would actually think that working in a fast food joint is meaningful and rewarding. Now imagine what the comments would have read if this man actually said the words, “Selling fast food chicken is my purpose in life!”
Your purpose in life does not need to outline a pursuit that is similar to that of Mother Theresa’s. Most people do not need to search very hard for their purpose; their purpose is what they already do that brings them the most happiness. The hardest part of living one’s purpose is ignoring the judgment of others. Find what makes you happy and claim it as your purpose. It does not have to be earth shattering or universe awakening…it only needs to make you feel like the real you. Sell chicken.
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Throwing Money at the Problem
We live in a culture in which we believe that money is the root of all problems, and it is also the solution. As a result, we spend exuberant amounts of money at every issue that arises, and then wonder why we didn’t receive results. Sometimes, we create more problems while trying to fix the original one, leaving us even more frustrated and broke. Recently, we were contracted to help a private security company who was suffering from a 47% turnover rate. Nearly half of their employee were quitting before their first year of employment. The company contacted us as a last resort, and after they had already spent half a million dollars on morale services and activities for their employees. The company automatically assumed that the turnover rate was due to low morale, and threw money at that “problem”. They created tuition assistance programs for employees and their family members (to include children), they built recreation rooms and stoked them with computers, wifi, pool tables and weight equipment for employees to use during work hours, planed elaborate company picnics where everyone left with a high-dollar prize and upgraded their equipment, vehicles, facilities and furniture. What was their turnover rate after this investment? 52%.
Our team immediately began analyzing the root cause of the turn overrate by researching company practicing and procedures. We put boots on the ground and interviewed frontline employees…we asked very direct and pointed questions. What we discovered was that employees were frustrated by the amount of time required to earn and maintain the proper certification required for employment. The company required employees to maintain an average of four certifications to be qualified for their positions, and each certification required 60-days of training culminating in a three part test: written, oral and practical. To add insult to injury, the tests were conducted on the employees scheduled day off, and each certification was required to be accomplished annually. Employees were in a perpetual state of training, with the fear of losing their job from poor results ever looming above them like a dark raincloud. Our team closely examined the requirements of each certification, and noticed that as the qualification increases in responsibility, it overlaps training items required with subordinate qualifications. The company accepted our recommendation to create a hierarchy of certifications and allow employees to be qualified on each subordinate task under the hierarchy of the highest certification that they earned. The process reduced the amount of certifications that the average employee must maintain from four to one. The simple change saved the company 6,000 overtime hours and $126,000 annually. It also saved the average employee over 360 hours of study time that was conducted during their days off. We were able to give each individual employee 15 days of their free time back through one simple adjustment that only cost the company $5000. Their turnover rate reduced to 25% within the first month of implementation, and they now boast a low10% turnover rate….it turns out their $500,000 investment into morale also increased employee satisfaction after we eliminated the root cause. My experience working with this company taught me a few key items that are applicable to all leaders:
You can’t see the forest for the trees.
Often times, leaders are reluctant to allowing an outsider look at their procedures; however, those same leaders are not able to identify the root cause because they are too far in the weeds of their operations. Leaders need, and should, solicit the advice of a third party who has no self-interest in their success. Allow them to dissect your process and provide the hard feedback that often times your employees are reluctant to tell you. Business consulting firms, like ProDevelopment Consulting, can be one of the easiest avenues for finding a third party. You can also ask your competition to give it a look…but then you become vulnerable.
Do not skip steps in process improvement
Regardless of which process improvement model you utilize, they all have one thing in common: they all have steps to be performed in number order. Although each process calls it something different, each number 1 step is to identify the problem, or root cause. The story above illustrates what can be at stake if you fail to complete step 1 before moving on to step 2. Fortunately, this company contacted us after reaching a spending threshold that they were uncomfortable maintaining with zero results. Often times, leaders are so determined to fix the problem that they bankrupt themselves in the process. They skip step 1 in the process improvement model, and chase a rabbit down the hole of financial disaster. Sending a handful of your employees to become certified in one of the hundreds of processes out there will show a great return on investment…if you use them to analyze root causes. If you have a problem now, and do not have any employees certified in the process, do not wait. You need to take action now. Hire a business consultant who is an expert in improvement processes or risk chasing rabbits.
Money is not always the answer
And often times creates new challenges. Process improvement sometimes takes time to produce statistical results; however, you should begin to see tangible results within the first three months when you are heading in the right direction. Take a step back from the situation and see if the money you are spending is correlating positive or negative results. Have you spent so much money that even if you solve the problem, you will create a new one? You have an obligation to your employees to maintain a successful business. Their livelihood depends upon it. Striking a balance between how much money you spend in process improvement and how much money you spend on your employees is difficult.
Small investments in your employees pay off
Research has shown that leaders and employees profit from professional development programs offered in the workplace. The employees that we interviewed at the security company were all concerned that the amount of required qualification training prevented them from actually developing new leadership skills. The company added 1,500 coaching hours to the contract they signed with us as a result of our interviews. Each employee was provided an hour-long coaching session each month of the year. They were allowed to roll over their unused time to the following month. We also provide in-house professional development workshops each quarter targeted at individual growth. As a result, the company now hires most of their leadership from within the ranks. They are investing in developing their future, and their future is dedicated to the company as a result. Their current leadership team embodies the values of the company and is intricately motivated to succeed. Coaching and professional development workshops are part of a continual improvement process that has a return on investment that pays off exponentially. http://prodevelopment.tumblr.com/
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#prodevelopmentconsulting#professional development#invest in employees#don't waste your money#roi#turnover rates#root cause analysis#process improvement
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What is your mindset? You
The ability to grow starts with your mindset. What type of mindset do you have? Complete the following questions using the following answers: strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree. Leave a message if you want the scoring key.
1. Intelligence is something people are born with and can’t be changed.
2. No matter how intelligent you are, you can always be more intelligent.
3. You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.
4. You are a certain kind of person, and not much can be done to change that.
5. You can always change basic things about the type of person you are.
6. Musical talent can be learned by anyone.
7. Only a few people will be truly good at sports—you have to be born with it.
8. Math is much easier if you are male or if you come from a culture that values math.
9. The harder you work at something, the better you will be at it.
10. No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially.
11. Trying new things is stressful for me, and I avoid it.
12. Some people are good and kind and some people are not—it is not often that people will change.
13. I appreciate it when people, parents, teachers, coaches give me feedback about my performance.
14. I often get angry when I get negative feedback about my performance.
15. All human beings are capable of learning.
16. You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.
17. You can do new things, but the most important parts of you can’t really be changed.
18. Human beings are basically good, but sometimes make horrible decisions.
19. An important reason why I do/did schoolwork is because I like to learn new things.
20. Truly smart people do not need to try hard.
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