I’ve had several close, personal friends come to me lately for advice.  Considering this to be a huge compliment and ultimate faith in my ability to give good advice I, naturally, want to help.  Most of these people are now avid readers of this blog and know my philosophies, so they have come to me out of a sense of, “This isn’t working for me and I can’t figure out why – can you?”

About 98 percent of the time, every desire not yet manifested, and nearly every problem, stems from four basic areas.  Whether it’s something that you’re trying to create, or a situation you’d like to change, consider these 4 questions and you’ll find your blockage almost immediately.

Have you identified your desire in detail? Have you used your imagination to picture the new car, house, people treating you better at work, etc?  Your imagination is your most useful tool in recreating your life.  Since I just wrote a post on this, Facing Reality, I’m not going to spend any more time on it here, just remember to use your imagination, as you did when you were a child, to visualize your desired outcome – whatever that is.  (Most of you are getting pretty good at this.  That’s great!)

Do your thoughts reflect your true desire? What is your internal dialogue like?  You know what I’m talking about; when you’re going about your daily routine, or just sitting and mindlessly watching television, are your thoughts positive or negative?  Are you thinking about what you want and getting excited about it?  Or are you imagining “worst case scenarios” for other areas of your life?  Read How to Conquer Persistent Negative Thoughts if you think this is an issue for you, and if internal banter is a problem, check out, How to Control Your Internal Dialogue.

Do your words reflect your desire? What do you talk about?  I’m not saying that you have to share your goals with everyone you know, in fact, I usually advise against doing so.  I’m also not advocating that you talk about your dreams all the time.  But all of that gossip, negativity, bringing other people down for no reason whatsoever, or reliving how someone hurt you - all of it lowers your vibration and keeps you from getting what you want.  This is probably the biggest room for improvement in the lives of most of my friends.  You say you want one thing, but then you talk about all of your problems, everything that’s going wrong in your life, and all in the excuse of needing to talk about it.  You would be better off spending that time alone, visualizing your ideal day, interacting with no one, than participating in the latest water cooler scandal.  When you sit down for lunch with your co-workers, do you share all the good things that are happening in each others’ lives, or do you talk about the people who aren’t there at the moment, or the boss, or the company, or about how hard it is to make a living working there, etc?  Your mother was right:  If you don’t have something good to say, say nothing at all.

Read Achieve Success by Surrounding Yourself with a Positive Environment for more on this topic.

Do your actions reflect your aspirations? Are you “acting as if,” in faith?  Or are you letting other things get in the way?  Are you doing everything you can to be the person you say you want to be right here, right now, in this very moment?  Remember, determine what you want to be and then be that; do what you feel inspired to do; and you will have everything you want to have.  If you truly believe that your desire is possible, if you believe in God and the universe, and if you believe that all things are possible, your actions will reflect that belief.  You will no longer speak unkind things and you will guide your thoughts and develop the ability to focus on your true desires.  Once you accomplish this, the world is your oyster.  Wouldn’t that be worth it?

Until next time,
Live joyfully!

Technorati Tags: Motivation, Success

Posted under Law of Attraction, Leadership, Motivation, Success, Weight Loss

In 1897, an Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed a pattern in the distribution of wealth among citizens no matter the country or time period concerned.  He found that the distribution was extremely skewed toward one end:  A small minority of earners always accounted for a large majority of the total wealth.  Pareto’s theory was tested, forgotten, revived, proven, and eventually adopted in the United States and Europe during the 1960’s as the “80/20 rule.”

The 80/20 principle has been applied to many disciplines and basically states this:  80 percent of results come from 20 percent of effort.  While the formula is not 100 percent accurate, it is amazingly close and I have read many examples where it was dead on.  In dentistry, I often talk about “Top 20 patients.”  This refers to that 20 percent or so of patients who are responsible for approximately 80 percent of the practice’s revenue for a given year.   Any business can apply this principle to just about any area of that business.  Eighty percent of the work is completed by twenty percent of the workers.  Eighty percent of your inventory comes from twenty percent of your suppliers. As an average individual, 80% of your productivity, comes from 20% of your time.  Take a minute to think about that.  The average worker, 80% of us, spends 8 hours per day on the job, but less than two hours of that is productive time!   You’d be surprised at how many small business owners I share that statistic with and get the response, “Tell me something I don’t know!”

So how can you become one of the 20% of individuals who accounts for 80% of all success?  Identify what you do best, what makes you the most productive, and what provides the greatest value to you and/or your organization.  What are those tasks?  Now identify the tasks you do that could be performed, probably even better, by someone else.  Are there some things that could be eliminated completely?

I find that a lot of companies have employees doing things just because “we’ve always done it that way.”  We maintain the status quo when we could be setting records because our people are spinning their wheels in low productivity, time-consuming, practically worthless tasks.  When we allow people to focus on their top 20 contributions, their creativity is spurred and we start innovating in our industry.  A company is only as strong as it’s people.  This is true whether you are a small business owner working alone, or a Fortune 500 company.

For an in-depth study on how to become more effective and productive, check out Richard Koch’s Living the 80/20 Way.

Posted under Conscious Creation, Dental Practice Management, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Leadership, Motivation, Success

Perhaps the most frustrating personality for me to deal with as a consultant is this: (Picture this with me for a moment.)

So once the client is finished talking, I ask the question, “What are your goals?”

Which is typically followed with, “What?”

So I patiently repeat, “What are your goals for this business?” Then, when I get that look, I expound with, “You said that you’re not producing as much as you should be.  What should you be producing?  What is your production goal?”

Then I get this:

Well, I’m friends with a guy who practices in Metropolis, USA and our town is about that same size.  Oh, we might be a little smaller, but he has more competition in his area.  We went to the same schools, we’ve been in business about the same number of years, we have a similar size office and number of staff.  But he’s doing twice what I am.

“Okay, so is that your goal?  You want to be doing twice what you are now?” I ask.

“Oh, I don’t think I could ever do that,” he replies.

Big sigh and roll of the eyes from me – even if only in my head.

Now, immediately I know this person has a self-image issue to some degree, right?  (See yesterday’s post.)  As a business consultant, though, I usually do not have time to address that directly.  I might, if it seems appropriate and the opportunity presents itself, say something to the person privately about it and direct him or her to some reading material.  But what I get paid to do is get the business on track.  So I start with setting some goals and continue with my consulting process to locate blockages and create systems to prevent problems and protect assets.

The reason I shared this story with you is because it happens so often I figure everyone can relate to it.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some great business leaders out there who know exactly what they want.  When I walk in and the person in charge says to me, “We’re trying to gross $100,000 a month but we’ve been stuck at 60-70K for the past year now.  We can’t figure out what we’re doing wrong. We’d like to know if you think our goal is achievable and what we need to change to make it happen.”  That’s when I know I’m going to accomplish a lot with this team.

You see, and here’s the main point, (I bet you’re glad I’m getting to it,) it’s impossible to construct a road map when you don’t know where you’re going.  Oh, you can get in the car and drive.  You can drive for a long time, a very long time.  You can even go home at night, get up the next day and start driving all over again.  But where are you going and why?  Do you know?  At what point do you make up your mind to stop driving around all day not knowing where you’re trying to go?

Calling in a consultant to “fix what’s wrong” when you haven’t set goals is like stopping to ask for directions when you haven’t decided your desired destination.  Seriously, would you stop and ask a gas station attendant, “Can you tell me how to get to where I’m going?”  Then expect him or her to tell you without asking where you want to go?  (I’m back on my soapbox aren’t I?)  Better yet, would you allow the gas station attendant tell you where he/she thinks you should go?  I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is what I am asked to do every day.  “Would you please tell me where I should be and how to get there?”

Please understand that I love helping people figure out what their goals are.  I love leading goal-setting seminars.  But too often in the consulting venue, business owners want me to tell them what other businesses in their industry are doing and give them a quick fix on how they can just do a little better than that.  It’s the old “We just need to outdo our competitors” way of thinking.

In today’s world, outdoing the competition is not enough.  If you want repeat business, you’ve got to be excellent and innovative.  You should be striving to be the best and constantly changing to improve and be even better than yourself if you are the best.  Why even settle for being the best when you can be a trend-setter?

“Do not go where the path may lead; go where there is no path and leave a trail.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Why not strive to do something in your industry that no other business has accomplished or even thought of before?  Something that would give you a competitive advantage and set you apart from the guy (or gal) down the street?

So are you ready to set some goals?  Okay, here we go!  Get out some paper and a pen.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine that you are on your deathbed.  You are 100 years old, and you are content, peaceful, and ready to die.  You are content because you have accomplished every major goal you set for yourself and your life.  Take a minute or two and really think about this.  You had an impact on people.  You are leaving a legacy.

Now open your eyes and write down what you did.  What have you accomplished over the course of your life from now until you’re 100 years old that makes you content, peaceful, and satisfied with the way you have lived?  What specifically did you do?  Who did you work with?  Whom did you affect? Write everything down; business and personal, mindful and spiritual.

Got it all written out?  Good.  Okay now write down how you accomplished this.  What steps did you take?  Whom did you have to go through?  Was more education involved?

Next, write out where things take place.  Where was your greatest impact?  It can be a city location, it can be specific like a university campus, or it can be more non-tangible like in your family, mind, or heart.

Now write out:  Why you?  What unique qualities or experiences did you have that allowed you to make this impact?  Why you; why now; why these things in this way?

Now it’s time to do some planning.  You’re going to write down how you are going to accomplish your goals and when each step in the process will be complete.  You might have to do some research to complete this part and that’s okay. You already know what the end result is.  Doesn’t that feel better?  Congratulations, you now know your unique purpose in life. And you thought you were just going to set some goals!  You have discovered your destiny. I’ve known people who have gone through this process and cried for hours.  That’s okay.  It really should be that deep.  If you’ve never dealt with any of these thoughts or feelings before it can be very emotional.  Some people don’t cry and that’s okay, too, but it should have some effect on you if you’ve never completed the process before.

I believe that is why some people stay away from goal setting.  We know our goals should relate to our mission in life, and that’s an emotional thing to think about.  It is so deeply personal and most of us don’t want to go there.

I’ve heard all the excuses.  I’m too busy working to try to achieve something and make something of myself I don’t have time to set goals.  I’ll know what my goal is once I reach it.  I just want to make money, that’s all I care about.  I just want to live comfortably and be happy.  I just want to please my spouse/mother/father.  I can’t make my own choices so why should I strive for something I can never achieve?

All of these comments come from a place of fear.  Some people are afraid of the responsibility of living up to their destiny.  They know they are destined to be great people, but they’re afraid of what that means.  Some people are afraid of accomplishment.  “I want to make a million dollars, but what will my family think or say about me if I do?”  Some have tried setting goals in the past and either failed, or had a bad experience.  Pope John XXIII said, “Consult not your fears, but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

I want to challenge you to do this:  Pretend that when you wake up tomorrow, you will have amnesia.  You will not remember anything about your past.  You will know your family and friends and you’ll know what you need to do and where you need to go to work, but all your personal past is gone – completely wiped from your memory.  All you have is your hopes and dreams for your future.  How do you think that would change your life?

Until next time,
Live Joyfully!

Posted under Inspiration, Motivation

As a success coach, one of the biggest problems I see with my clients is their self-image or lack of self-esteem.  The problem is more prevalent with women than with men for reasons that I will not get into in this article – most of us know what those reasons are anyway – but it does affect all income and professional levels.

Your self-esteem determines your energy level and the vitality of your personality. It is the control valve on your performance.

How you react, both consciously and sub-consciously, to everything that happens to you and around you affects your self-esteem in some way.  Your perception of each stimulus either increases your self-esteem or lowers it.  Your response to every word or gesture of other people toward you affects your self-esteem in some way.  Therefore, the defense and development of your self-esteem becomes the key to high performance, happiness, and ultimate success.

While many things affect your self-image, one of the most important is the difference between your current self-image, the way you see yourself in the moment, and your self-ideal, the way you would ideally like to be either right now, or sometime into the future.

Whenever you feel your current performance and behavior is consistent with the person that you would like to be, your self-esteem goes up.  You feel happier and more exhilarated.  You have more energy and enthusiasm.  You are more positive and personable with others.  You’re in a good mood.

On the other hand, when your current performance or behavior is inconsistent with the person you like to be, your self-esteem goes down.  You feel anxious and unhappy.  You feel self-conscious and embarrassed.  You feel frustrated and angry.  You feel depressed and in a bad mood.

So how do you increase your self-esteem and create a self-image that will propel you forward instead of holding you back?

First, develop a clear picture of the person you want to become.  The greater clarity you have with regard to your self-ideal – the person you would most like to be – the easier it is for you to tailor your performance and behavior to be consistent with that kind of person.  Sometimes it is helpful to read about someone whose personality you admire, and try to adapt his or her behaviors.  For example, Shelly Branch and Sue Callaway have written a great book titled, “What Would Jackie Do?”This book details some of the characteristics of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.  Men tend to like anything by or about Winston Churchill, like “Never Give In.”

Second, visualize yourself behaving in the manner you desire.  We all have some recurring situation that gets the best of us.  We never know how to react until it’s too late and the opportunity has passed.  However, people with a well-developed self-image rarely have this problem.  They have practiced, (I’m not kidding,) saying or doing that which they desire until the opportunity presented itself to behave in a certain way.  It’s just like an actor preparing his or her lines until the night comes to perform.  Every time you do or say anything that is consistent with the person you want to be, your self-esteem goes up.  When your self-esteem goes up, your self-image begins to change.  You feel positive and powerful.  You feel capable of doing more and better things in that area and in other areas of your life.  You become the person you want to be because you are your self-image!

Third, realize that “reacting” to a situation doesn’t always mean you have to say something.  Remember earlier when I said that how you react, both consciously and sub-consciously, to everything that happens to you and around you affects your self-esteem in some way.  Sometimes, it’s best to just let the other person say what they want, then silently say to yourself, “That’s not true.  I’m a very smart person.  I’m organized and thorough.  This was just a minor mishap that will never happen again.”  As long as your inner mind can influence your self-image, there is really no need to start confronting every issue.  Choose your battles.  Doing so will give you an amazing sense of control.

Fourth, engage in positive self-talk.  I’ve already alluded to this in the above paragraph.  But I want to address it in a little more detail.  Start saying nice things to yourself.  In his book, “Million Dollar Habits,” Brian Tracy says one of the ways he increased his self-esteem years ago was by repeating to himself 10 to 50 times a day, “I like myself!”  The powerful message behind this phrase is that even when you mess up, and we all do, you can still like yourself.  Or at least you should, because that what self-esteem is – liking yourself no matter what.

Listen, things happen to us.  Everyone, even the most successful person, has setbacks.  What matters, as I’ve been saying throughout this article, is how you react to them.  Don’t let anything or anyone keep you from attaining the success you deserve.  You can do anything, but you need to know that and believe it first.  Defend and develop your self-esteem.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about another issue that holds otherwise great people back, but today, I’d like to hear from you.  What holds you back?  Do you think you have low self-esteem or a bad self-image?  Who has inspired you to change?  Whom would you most like to emulate?

Until next time,

Live Joyfully!

Posted under Motivation

Recently a client was complaining that he had a difficult time getting his staff to follow check-off lists for important systems that need to be completed in a certain way at specific times throughout the day.

I must say that I am right there with him in his perplexity of what the issue is.  I love lists.  I have a list for just about everything.  I could retire if I had $1 for every time I’ve heard, “Now that’s a shopping list,” at the grocery store.

I have a packing list that I use and keep updated for items I need when traveling.  Everything is on that list.  Being able to follow that list and knowing that absolutely everything I need is on it keeps me calm while I’m packing and helps me get the job completed faster.

The real power of lists, however, comes from what happens in our subconscious minds when we create a list or follow one routinely.  Have you ever had the experience of forgetting your shopping list and yet you remembered everything on it?  Most people just think, “Wow.  I’m good.  See, I didn’t need that list after all.”  So you stop making the list.  Then what happens?  You don’t remember things as well.

Many people, including some psychologists, believe that when we write things down, we’re writing them on our subconscious minds.  Can you think of all the implications this could have?

I, for one, am a firm believer that “writing it down makes it happen.”  And there many other people out there who share my view.  See Write It Down Make It Happen by Henriette Anne Klauser.

In some ways, lists are like pets:  Feed them and they will give you lots of adoration and unconditional love.  (But I can’t remember the last time my cat spouted back to me my top 20 career successes.)

In writing this article, I found 18 reasons to love keeping lists and was inspired to write a poem.  (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, please forgive me.)

Ode to My Lists

By Debra Moorhead

Oh, list. How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.

I love how help me remember my important goals in life and yet, at the same time, how you’re not too full of yourself to remind me of the little things too.

I love how you always want to go everywhere with me and never complain about how much I put on you.

I love how you sit quietly and patiently until I am ready for you.

I love how you clear my head and organize my thoughts.

I love how you help me make my dreams come true.

I love how you can retrieve so much information at my every whim.

I love how you keep me calm by always making yourself available during trying times – like packing a suitcase – and through thick or thin.

I love how you know my hopes, desires, dreams, likes, dislikes, and accomplishments and yet you never judge me.

I love how your only concern is with me and my needs.

I love how you are always available to me, morning, noon, night, every day, week, month, season, year and beyond.

I love how the only time you fail me, is when I forget you.  But then you always forgive me, and are willing to stay by my side at all times.

I love how you keep track of all my ideas and never laugh at them.

I love your versatility; you can be personal and professional, static or dynamic.

I love how you can mingle my business and personal lives and yet, at the same time, keep them separate.

I love how you help me create systems that lead to my success.

I love how you always come through for me.

I love how you never get jealous of other lists.

I know there are many other ways that I am leaving out.  Ah, but alas, you will eventually remind me!

Okay, so my poetry writing needs a little work. Other than that, what do you think?  In what ways have lists helped you?  What kind of lists do you keep?  (I am always looking for new lists to try.)

Until next time,
I Invite you to Live Joyfully!

Posted under Conscious Creation, Dental Practice Management, Education, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Leadership, Motivation, Success, Weight Loss

Have you ever given up on a project about halfway into it?  Many of us do that with our goals and dreams. Living your dream and creating the life you want is hard sometimes.  The actual work becomes so difficult, we forget about the reward at the end – living our dream - so we quit.  Then a few months down the road, we decide to start again, only to follow the same pattern.

Successful people have a way of visualizing the big dream – they focus on the result, not the work.  I can’t tell you how many times in developing this website I’ve almost given up.  I have literally had the thought, “Forget it.  This is too hard, I can’t do this.  No one should have to go through this, there’s got to be an easier way.”  Then I realized there was an easier way; I could hire someone to design the site for me.  But then I’d be at their mercy every time I needed to change it.  I want a site that I can re-design and customize on a moment’s notice.  If I give a speech and want to make materials available to that audience alone, I want to be able to do that immediately and on my own.  Luckily, I’m a very determined person who doesn’t give up easily.  I don’t like to give in and let something beat me.  More appropriately, I was able to keep my thoughts focused on the desired result instead of how complicated the process.

I’m still working on my site – constantly.  There’s a lot more I want to change and the list grows daily, but I can do it all myself and I’m constantly learning.  I also enjoy the creative side of maintaining my site myself. With each new language I learn, it seems as if there’s another that must be learned to go with it.  Then there’s the marketing side with new methods introduced daily.  There’s also the profitability side, which accounts for a lot of stress as well.  The important thing is that I’m living my dream of motivating, educating, and inspiring others to be their best through my writing, speaking and consulting.  This site is the glue that holds all of that together and to turn it over to someone else would not work for me.  So when the going gets tough, even painful at times, I let my “control freak” kick in and guide me through the process.

How to overcome the strong notion to quit

So what are some ways that you can overcome that strong notion we all get when the going gets tough to just call it quits?  I’ve put together some ideas and thoughts for you that have helped me.  First of all, take a step back and ask yourself, “What am I trying to do?  What is the desired result?”  If that desired result is strong enough, it will keep you going.  That’s what kept me going on this project and does so almost daily.  I remind myself of my unwavering desire to have complete control over my website.  That’s the most important aspect of my career right now.

Realize that it’s not really you

Those thoughts of, “I’m not smart enough to do this,” or any version of, “I can’t,” are just hogwash.  You can do it or you wouldn’t have started/been assigned the project to begin with.  More than likely, you just need to eat something, take a break, go for a walk, read something light, or get some sunlight - REFRESH!  At the very least, you need some perspective.  Refuse to give in to any negativity, wherever it’s coming from.

Make sure it’s your goal/dream

It’s common for us to get caught up in someone else’s dream.  If you’re faced with a situation where the work should be easy for you to accomplish, and you know how to do virtually everything required to accomplish it, but you’re still confronting blockages, think about whether or not this is your goal.  Or, are you being used to accomplish someone else’s dream?  When you work for someone else, it’s easy to get caught up in this, especially if you’ve chosen a field you’re not passionate about.  Assuming you can’t quit, (and I strongly recommend you not quit a project you’ve given your word to complete), think about what your individual reward is for the attainment of this goal.  Is it money?  Is it a better position within the company once this project is completed?  Find that incentive and focus on it.  As Brian Tracy puts it, “Let your vision of the future guide your present performance.”

Think of it as easy

With whatever you have to do today, think of it as easy, and it will be.  Don’t believe the voice in your head telling you that the accomplishment of a particular task is going to be difficult.  So you have to design a new website today?  Easy!  You’re on your way to an important meeting where you’re expected to a sign a $5 million account?  Easy!  You have only two hours to clean your two-story home?  Easy!   Why is it easy?  Because it’s important to you.

Anytime you concentrate on the difficulty of the work instead of its results or rewards, you are likely to become discouraged.  Dwell on it too long, and you will develop self-pity instead of self-discipline.  The next time you’re facing a must-do task and you’re thinking of giving up instead of paying the price, change your focus.  Count the benefits of doing what’s important, and then dive in.

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Related Posts:

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How to Motivate Yourself into Action

We Are All Self-Employed

Seven Steps to Goal Accomplishment

Until next time,
Live Joyfully!

Posted under Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Leadership, Motivation, Success, Weight Loss

Many historians consider Napoleon Bonaparte to be the greatest military leader who ever lived. Napoleon’s courage was legendary, but it was not vain or impetuous. He didn’t just “luck into” or “stumble upon” greatness, he planned for it.  Let me explain.

Napoleon was famous for his meticulous attention to detail; for taking pains to study and thoroughly understand every military situation he ever faced. He led the French army in hundreds of minor and major engagements and lost only three, the last one being the Battle of Waterloo.

He carefully considered and followed through to its natural conclusion every setback or possibility of defeat he might encounter and then he prepared against it. To be caught unprepared for unexpected setbacks is a mark of weak leadership.  It is not the setback itself that illustrates your weakness to others, but your unpreparedness, or inability to deal with it that does.  Confidence comes from the constructive use of pessimism, thinking about what could go wrong long before it does, and developing a plan of action “just in case.”

The more you know about what you face, the greater your courage and confidence. The more time you take to think through a situation, the more capable you will be of dealing with it when it arises. Napoleon planned for every contingency.

The only real measure of business leadership is results. This requires the ability to act boldly with no guarantees of success. The greatest obstacle to overcome is fear of the unknown.

Most people allow their fears to sit around in their minds, fester, and grow mold.  Failure to deal with these fears in a constructive way causes the creation of the fear itself.

Developing a plan of action, however, whether it’s for a confrontation, or your life in general, will increase your confidence and make you feel better about whatever subject you’re dealing with.  I’ve found that the best antidote to fear is preparedness.

Continue learning and growing – no matter what your field or endeavor, there is always more you could know. The more you know, the more confidence you will have.  The more confidence you have, the better you feel.  The better you feel, the more successful you will be, and the greater you will become.

Spend as much time in the planning process as you need to feel good about the upcoming situation. The more prepared you are, the more confidence you will have.  Personal strategic planning is a great tool to use for your life in general, and project planning can be applied to many subjects, business and personal.  In my experience, there is nothing better than a good plan.

Until next time,
Live Joyfully!

Posted under Education, Leadership, Motivation, Success

I happened across an interesting leadership analogy yesterday from WalktheTalk.com. They are currently featuring a book written by Linda Galindo titled, “Way to Grow.” I have ordered the book because I believe it will provide some very useful information – I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, here is an excerpt from the introduction, and my take on this unique leadership perspective thus far.

“Think of your employees as orchids, daisies, and weeds.

Think of yourself as the gardener whose job it is to nurture them to full bloom.

If you could choose the employees you’d most like to work with every day, would you select:

Orchid employees, who need you to stick close enough to ensure they get just the right amount of – but not too much – sunlight, water, and humidity (read that: directions, feedback, and praise), or else they’ll wither and die?

Daisy employees, who can yield voluminous blooms (excellent work) in a wide range of temperatures (situations), but still need you to check in every now and then to make sure they are getting adequate water, sunlight, and circulation (coaching, feedback, and opportunity)?

Or weed employees, who can fend for themselves in almost any situation, leaving you plenty of time to tend to the needier plants in the garden?

When it’s put to them that way, most managers say they would welcome a garden full of weeds.”

Personally, I’ll take an office full of daisies. I know the author is going to try to convince me that I want weeds, but here’s how I feel about it. Weeds are invasive, unwanted annoyances that can be very difficult to get rid of, but it’s not just that.

I like daisies because even though they require a little maintenance every once in a while, they do offer a lot of beauty in the meantime. They perform well, require very little, and are dependable.

While weeds might be able to withstand anything, they also ignore your desires and have no problem over-stepping their bounds.

We’ve had a few weeds – I always pull them!

We’ve had a few orchids, too – they usually quit!

Right now we have an office full of daisies and are looking for a couple more. I have faith that we’ll find them. If only there was a place one could go to find employees as easily as one can find daisies . . .

Until next time,
Live Joyfully!

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Get Inspired! What do you want to create? Wake Up and Create the Life You Want: A Guide to Self-Empowerment has helped hundreds of people create the life of their dreams. You can read their stories here. If you choose the downloadable version, it comes with my free report on “The Science of Getting Rich.” Get Organized! Learn the secrets of getting and staying motivated and organized with the Eliminate Clutter and Organize Your Life E-book. This inspiring book gives you step-by-step instructions for getting control of every area of your life. Click here for the table of contents and to purchase.

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Posted under Leadership, Motivation, Success

I spend a lot of time on this site talking about cleaning and de-cluttering; two things I firmly believe in.  But a couple of things happened this week that brought to light an important life lesson and that’s what I want to share with you today.

Earlier this week I drove to a local farmer’s produce stand.  This family has a beautiful garden with fresh corn, tomatoes, carrots, onions, watermelon, cantaloupe, etc.  I was actually able to give up my vegetable garden this year because their produce is so wonderful and very dependable.

Not wanting to use their plastic bags, I took my own regular shopping bags that I’ve been using since going paperless.  (I’m also trying to reduce my use of plastic, as well as just overall what I put into landfills – but that’s another post.)

When I told the woman to just start putting what I was picking out into my bag, she exclaimed, “Oh, don’t get that bag dirty – it’s so pretty and clean!”

I tried to explain that I bought it to be used, that I always take it to the grocery store, and that it can be washed if necessary, but nothing was going to stop her – I came home with 5 plastic bags!  She just could not stand the thought of getting that beautiful bag dirty.

Earlier today, I had to fire someone.  He just wasn’t working out and in the exit interview we discussed how we both went into this knowing it might not work out, but we wanted to give it a try.  We tried.  Things didn’t click.  We bailed.  The employee was really good about it.  It’s the only time I’ve ever gotten to the end of a termination and received a hug!  (Yeah – he was that glad to be let go!)

Both of these experiences have reminded me of a paradigm I’ve held for a long time:  You learn by doing.  You live by getting the bag dirty and enjoying every minute of it.  Children get it – they have the most fun when they’re getting really good and dirty!   We adults need to re-learn that lesson.  Don’t buy something new just to save it for special occasions.  The dust mites don’t deserve it – you do!  Don’t be afraid to try a job you’d like to go after for whatever reason.  Even if things don’t work out you’ll learn some valuable lessons that will propel your life forward.

Sure, you might have some cleaning up to do, in fact, you probably will have a lot of cleaning up to do, but isn’t that what this journey is all about?

So, go ahead – get that bag dirty!

Until next time,

Live Joyfully!

You can subscribe to this blog here.

Get Inspired! What do you want to create? Wake Up and Create the Life You Want: A Guide to Self-Empowerment has helped hundreds of people create the life of their dreams.  You can read their stories here. If you choose the downloadable version, it comes with my free report on “The Science of Getting Rich.”

Get Organized! Learn the secrets of getting and staying motivated and organized with the Eliminate Clutter and Organize Your Life E-book.  This inspiring book gives you step-by-step instructions for getting control of every area of your life.  Click here for the table of contents and to purchase.

***Please Note:  All transactions are processed through PayPal, but you can use Visa, MC, AMEX, or Discover.

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Posted under Dental Practice Management, Education, Motivation, Success

Have you ever wondered if you were adopted?  I have!   I am so unlike either of my parents it makes me wonder to this day – was I (adopted)?  I also have very little in common with my brother.

I can sometimes see evidence of a congenital relationship to my grandmothers:  I am sometimes dictatorial like my paternal grandmother and a cleaning fanatic like my maternal grandmother.  Other than that, zip – zilch - nada. 

I saw an ad yesterday for a website that helps you trace your genealogy.  At first I was intrigued, falling for the “find out who you really are,” scheme.  Thankfully I quickly remembered that we determine who we are and what we become through our choices and our decisions.  While we might share traits with our ancestors like red hair and blue eyes, we are always in control of our actions.  (As difficult as that might be sometimes to accept.)

Alexander Graham Bell had it figured out a long time ago:

“A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself.”

Until next time,

Live Joyfully!

You can subscribe to this blog here.

Get Inspired!  What do you want to create? Wake Up and Create the Life You Want: A Guide to Self-Empowerment has helped hundreds of people create the life of their dreams.  You can read their stories here.  If you choose the downloadable version, it comes with my free report on “The Science of Getting Rich.”

Get Organized!  Learn the secrets of getting and staying motivated and organized with the Eliminate Clutter and Organize Your Life E-book.  This inspiring book gives you step-by-step instructions for getting control of every area of your life.  Click here for the table of contents and to purchase.

***Please Note:  All transactions are processed through PayPal, but you can use Visa, MC, AMEX, or Discover.

Technorati Tags: Time Management, Personal Development, Conscious Creation, Coach, Success, Quit Smoking, Motivational Speaker, Retreat Leader, Motivation, Organize, Law of Attraction, Dental Practice Management, Consultant, Motivational Book, Self Help

Posted under Education, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Leadership, Motivation, Success