What would you do to escape reality? A friend shared his daydream with me last week and it gave me a new appreciation for the realm of make-believe. I know we should always strive to function within our realities, but I think spending time daydreaming may be a short-term escape that helps us through difficult times. My friends' daydream was as simple as associating a road … [Read more...]
Working with Grownups
Let’s face it we’ve all worked with people who act so much like grownups that there’s little fun to be had, but equally as often we’ve worked with people who sometimes act like children. We may too have been a bit childish at times, but the big question is: how do you deal with a co-worker whose behavior warrants a time out? If it’s a subordinate, you can somewhat coerce … [Read more...]
Be Inspired
I have a new mantra; it's a two word sentence: Be Inspired! It came up in a culture meeting at Rockhouse this week and it struck me as a powerful suggestion. Being motivated...is nice, being driven...is good, being inspired...is the most passionate description I can imagine that encompasses all the right reasons we are motivated and driven to achieve anything and everything. … [Read more...]
Perpetuating Positivity
There's an old quote from Al-anon that says, "fake it 'til you make it." The mantra is also refered to as the "act as if" way of being and is a common catchphrase that means to imitate confidence so that as the confidence produces success, it will generate real confidence. The purpose is to avoid getting stuck in a self fulfilling prophecy related to one's fear of failure. I … [Read more...]
Sum of the Parts
As Alfred Lord Tennyson once said, “I am a part of all that I have met.” I happen to agree. And that is one of the things I love about myself; the fact that I have taken away little pieces of all the wonderful people I have met in my 44 years. I guess you can say that’s one of the things I love about other people. It sounds a little strange saying, “I love that part about me … [Read more...]
Stand Up and Take Responsibility
I once heard that success in life is not measured by what we have accomplished, but by the obstacles that we have had to face…and most importantly, the obstacles we have overcome. I read something similar recently in a book that taught me to assume full responsibility for my life, my circumstances and my troubles; to embrace even the problems in a way that actually makes them … [Read more...]
We Are Nashville: The Importance of Building Community
Every day you hear or see someone networking; working the room for future business prospects or referrals. It’s one of those things that you get, but you sometimes get turned off by it. Oftentimes we are inundated with these community-building tactics on Facebook, Twitter and Emails. There are many less than complimentary things we can say about people who annoy us through … [Read more...]
Getting Over the Procrastination Hump
What is it that causes us to put things off we know we should do? Is there a psychology to procrastination? Is there a cure? I took a trip inside Psychology Today to learn there really is an art and science to procrastination: Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. It's not trivial, although as a culture we don't take it seriously as a … [Read more...]
Are You Homophonebic?
Are you afraid of using the correct part of speech or the correct spelling or usage of a word? Even more frightening, does it make you shiver when intelligent people (like your superiors) misuse common words that were differentiated at least in the 8th grade? With the advent of social networking, texting and IM'ing we commonly use acronym's like LOL and TTYL; and take … [Read more...]
Tell Me My Baby’s Ugly
Reposted from March 15, 2009. I don't have kids so it's easy for me to say. I know it sounds harsh, but if I did have kids I'd really rather know. So often in business we are forced to work with people who won't go to that place of, "tell it like it is," and it's frustrating for the rest of us who want to know the ugly truth. I'm not suggesting you lose all regard and … [Read more...]