Tag: Goals

Do you wash your dishes by hand? Or, do you use a dishwasher? Do you take care of dishes and get them into the dishwasher as soon as you use them, daily, or to you wait until you can no longer see the sink and/or most of the counter?

The easiest time to take care of something is before it grows. Handling one or two plates to clean them and/or put them into a dishwasher is easier than looking at the kitchen three days later when you can no longer see the sink. You are also less likely to run out of the utensils you use the most. And, with the kitchen looking better, you feel better.

A House with less clutter helps keep the mind clutter free.

The easiest time to ensure that you have your clothes, shoes, belts, purses, car keys, socks and wallets is to put them all together the night before. Place them in one place where you plan to get dressed so that everything is ready for the next morning. Some of you are saying, ‘Oh yeah that’s the only way to do it.’ Others are saying, ‘That’s a waste of time.’

There are some great advantages to gathering everything the night before. How many times have you gotten dressed and then been unable to leave the house because you can not find the car keys? How often do you spend valuable morning time looking for two socks that match? How many times did you wake to find out that there were no pressed or wrinkle free pants or shirts? It happens.

When you set up everything the night before you save time. Your stress levels are lower, and once you’re dressed in the morning, you feel better. You were prepared.

Is it easy? Never at first, although when you are used to it, you will think it is the only and best way. You will have developed your system for being ready, for having less stress, and you will find you are happier because of it.

Not Good or Bad

After yesterday’s blog, you’re probably scratching your head and wondering, “What type of systems do I need,” and, “What kind of habits do I need to run them”

The answer is easy and one way or another you’re making and using habits right now, for systems that hopefully work for you. Some people run systems and habits that are bad for them also. Look at a couple of these, and we’re not saying that you have good habits or bad habits, good systems or bad systems. It’s up to you to take a look at what you have to use, and figure out what you need to do. I can help you to look and help you with the how.

Do you have to be at work in the morning? Do you have to do things before you go to work? Showing up at work in pajamas and bed hair does make a statement, probably just not the one you want to make. I bet you use an alarm clock. Making sure the alarm clock is set at night and getting up when it goes off in the morning or good habits. They feed the habit of being ready and going to work on time.

Do others count on you? If you have two children, spouse, maybe a pet needs to be walked, shower to take, need to get dressed. And you need to ensure children are dressed and fed before catching the school bus or walking to school, you truly need some pretty good systems. And, everyone has to have the habits to do what is needed in a timely order.

Do you have habits when you bake a cake? Do you put used items in the sink and throw away discards in the trash as needed? You pile everything up and clean up the kitchen when everything is done or while the cake is baking? Do you leave everything where it is with the idea of you baked the cake, and somebody else can clean the kitchen? They are all habits that feed the system of working in the kitchen.

I didn’t say all habits were good. I only said they are habits. If after work you go with everyone to a local pub, as part of a going away party for a working member, it is a one-time thing. If you go to the pub every day after work, it is a habit. One-time actions and habits in themselves are not good or bad. How you use actions and habits can have a positive or negative effect on you.

One of my habits, which is not good for me, is to recline on the couch nightly and watch other people pretend to do things for entertainment. You got it, I watch far too much TV.

Here’s how you know what you need, what you do, and whether it’s good for you. Make a list of those things you must do. Do you have to cut grass? Do you have to get up in the morning? Are you required to ensure that members of your family make it to where they are supposed to be on time, school, appointments, etc.? Do you have to cook? Do you have to go to the grocery store to get things to cook? Do you have to sleep? Do you have to relax? Do you need to be entertained? These are items we require or are required to do as humans. The way we normally handle what we do soon become habits due to repetition. The overall concept of these things and how we handle them are systems.

Tomorrow, we will look at a couple of systems that many people use. On Friday, we will look at ways to develop systems unique to us that work better than leaving things to chance.

Who’s Fishing, What’s Biting, Be Pleasant

Thank you for being with us again.

Today we take a final look, for now, at comfort zones. From time to time we will come back to the comfort zone, as we are exploring other things.

When we’re going to move from one comfort zone to another, it is always good, as with anything we do, to do our research. Research is the homework that makes us look better when we’re out in public. We want to know the basics that we can find out on the computer before we arrive.

It’s good to know the company motto, the mission statement, the major company beliefs, a general overall ‘who is who’ especially for the top brass. These days, you can find out who the senior staff is on a company website. If there are no pictures there, you can look up the leadership individually by name, and there will usually be a picture, especially on their Facebook or LinkedIn.

If you know a few facts about the company or recognize the head of the plant or the director of manufacturing before being introduced, you score some big points because at that point you are no longer a visitor, you are starting to grow into the role of a member of the tribe.

You want to research the facts that you can find and know them. Yet, at the same time, you do not want to over think things. And you don’t want to come off as the nerdy geek. I’ve already filled that job. Be yourself never try to reach for something you’re not. It is over thinking and overreach that killed more opportunities than anything else.

Remember that smiles are better than frowns. And, letting the person in charge lead a little is always good when you’re not quite sure. Finding your way into your new comfort zone is a time for smiles and positives. Think of what people like, what you like and be that person. If you have been invited into their company and they have shown interest in you, they really want you to succeed. The last thing that anyone on staff wants is to go back to the drawing board to find someone else.

Whether your new comfort zone is being the new plant manager or occupying the fishing spot under the tree on the bank. The work you do to get there is the same. Know who is fishing, know what’s Biting, and be pleasant.

 

 

Just One Opinion

Thank you for being here again, it is always great to provide these blogs for great people and friends such as you.

Yesterday we talked about the fears of leaving the comfort zone. And indeed there are real fears in doing so. And considering that, why would anyone ever want to leave their comfort zone facing all that fear? Before we decide to stay where we are forever, let’s look at some other views of comfort zones.

Comfort zones can quite often hold us back when it is time for us to move onto something better. Again this happens because fears of the unknown prey upon us and make us want to stay where not everything is perfect, but at least we know more about the situation.

What we need to remember is we are smart, strong people. We can easily learn new ways and Excel at new tasks and, if we are training correctly we can excel. And these days training is as easy as YouTube and the Internet.

I’m here to assure you, if you do not try you will never know the great things you could accomplish. If you do not move out of one comfort zone, you will never get the rewards of the next comfort zone.

I believe it was Teddy Roosevelt when talking to a gathering of business leaders, both successful and unsuccessful. He told them he was glad to be there because everyone there had one thing in common. He told them it did not matter, were they successful or unsuccessful. The thing that they had in common was everyone in the room had tried. And Teddy Roosevelt felt that the most important thing was to at least try.

Can I promise you that everything will always be roses, and nothing bad will ever befall you? Sorry, I’ve been around the block a few times myself. What I will say, is that Win, lose, or draw, you will be happier in trying, than in never trying and not knowing.

Of course, this is one man’s opinion. But it is one person’s opinion, shared by a president of the United States and a multitude of others.

Thank you for being here with us today. Please leave a comment, and we look forward to meeting with you again tomorrow.

 

 

Think about your Comfort zones

Thank you for being with us today.

We have been talking about comfort zones and what may happen when we have to leave one comfort zone and move to a new comfort zone.

Sometimes we are convinced that if we leave our comfort zone, we will never find another one again. It’s a real fear, and yet it is one that I assure you is nothing to worry about. Will you find a comfort zone? Yes, you will build it for yourself, we always do.

Look back over your life, and think for a moment. How many times have you changed comfort zones? The first day of going to school, whether it was kindergarten or first grade, was a change in your comfort zone. It was something new and different. And, although it may have looked scary at first, you met people, learn things, and were better overall from moving from one comfort zone to another.

I can cite several other times you changed comfort zones at least times most of us did. Going from grade school to junior high. The first day of high school initiated a change of comfort zones. Your first job. The first time he left home on your own. Matriculating to college is a very scary change in comfort zones. And there are many others.  Some happen to everyone, and some are unique to ourselves.

We would like to encourage you to take a few minutes and think about the different comfort zones you found yourself in throughout your life. What was good about the comfort zone? What about the comfort zone wasn’t as good as the comfort zones you had before it or after it? And, before you changed from one comfort zone to another what were the knowledge points you wish you would’ve known ahead of time?

Please think this over, and if you wish to, please feel free to share in our comments area.

Please have a great day. And, remember, any time you move from one location to another whether it is to the end of the block for coffee or to the other side of the country for a new job, do so safely

Comfort Zone Security

Looks like we secured some of the technical problems with the computer and the microphones and today we are looking at why somebody would move out of their comfort zone.

I like my comfort zone. It is not neat, and not pretty. My comfort zone, though, is something that I am used to living in. I know where things are. I know most answers to whatever may come up. And I understand what my expectations and limitations are within my comfort zone. And yet, I have had to move out of the comfort zone many times before, and I know I will do so several times in the future.

Sometimes we move out of the comfort zone because we search for something better. Sometimes we move out of our comfort zone to support others in their quests. And sometimes we are forced out of our comfort zones through actions and changes which we had very little control over.

Some of my changes in comfort zones were because I was in the military and moved from one base to another. These changes were very agreeable to me because as a child my father was in the military, and we would move every two or three years. I liked seeing new surroundings, seeing new things and of course learning.  Every time you move from one comfort zone to another you learn new things.

Sometimes those things aren’t what you really wanted to learn. That is okay. I have a philosophy that says learning is good. At one point after I retired from the military, I learned what it was like to have your factory to close and move all of its operations overseas. I did not ask for this to happen. I was unhappy for myself and the hundreds of people out of work. This forced me to change my comfort zones whether I wanted to or not.

Everything being equal, you are at most risk when you move from one place to another. It is true when you go from one house to another, and when you’re on the road. The risk is present when you move from one job to another and have to learn new ways of doing things. When you move from one neighborhood to another, positive changes include meeting new friends. Negatives include the fact that you don’t know what the good and bad of the new neighborhood will include. Risks are always unpleasant. To minimize risk, we always want to get back into our comfort zone, new or old, as fast as possible.

With your permission, in upcoming blogs, I would like to explore the idea of the comfort zones a little bit more in detail. And maybe with the help of you and others, define some precautions that we can take while outside of our comfort zone which will make getting into the new comfort zone easier.

Thank you for reading, please leave us a comment!

 

 

 

I Am Under Construction

First off, I have to apologize for not being with you the first two days of this week and for that I am truly sorry. I know that the largest part of everything is to be there. I promise you that I will work hard to ensure daily blogs are there when you’re ready to read them.

 

Not as an excuse or reason for not being here, rather something good that hopefully affects all of us, I am now taking courses to help me with the work I do for you. These courses will hopefully help me to make better learning modules, better blogs, and to be able to share more information on those things which you are interested in hearing about.

 

In the meantime, I will keep the blog going daily Monday through Friday, and as time goes on, I will keep you updated on the how the training is going.

 

One thing I can mention now is that I’ll be doing some interviews in the next week or two to learn about to learn more about you and how I can better help you. The interviews are for gathering information they are not sales calls nor will I sell anything while talking with you on information calls. I am just an old scholar learning new ways. But the key thing there is learning. For most people, it’s learning the new that keeps you young.

 

If you would like to participate in the interviews, please let me know in the comments section, and we should be able to connect and set up a time and date it’s mutually agreeable.

 

Thank you for putting up with me, and starting tomorrow will be back to looking at neat and interesting things.

 

 

Be The Person You Want Helping You

Lately, I have read a lot from many entrepreneurs about which is more important, to make a lot of money or to help the client who needs that help?

This is a fair dilemma. If you don’t help people and do good for them or their companies you really can’t make very much money because you will not have many customers. If you spend all your time helping people giving away most of what you do and not making a sufficient income, you will not be able to continue due to a lack of funds.

This reminds me of a similar debate in manufacturing. To provide the customer what they are paying for, the winds need to build quality products. To earn sufficient funds to pay for the lines running, asserting quantity must be built and shipped to the customer.

Poor quantity means not enough product to satisfy the customer or keep the line running. On the other hand, poor quality means returns, reworks, and loss of reputation.

Let’s  look at this in action. You have a young line with new builders who have only the most minimum of training. The manufacturing manager steps on the line and tells everyone they will build and package 350 units by the end of the shift, or else she will find new people to build her computers.

The new people, needing the jobs to support their families and themselves are terrified and start doing whatever they can as fast as they can. Quality inspectors, who work for the manufacturing manager (poor choice in organizational structure) are letting all but the most serious of errors through inspection believing if the units are bad they will fail at the testing stations.

Although it’s a squeaker, the 350 units are built and shipped by the end of the shift. Everybody feels elated. Even the manufacturing manager has something on her face, although it’s not sure if what people saw was a smile, or sneer. Alas, this is just the start of the story and not the happy ending. The units shipped have a myriad of flaws, and the customer believes some units have major flaws which require repair before the units can be sold on the open market.

The 350 questionable units are shipped back to the United States from Europe and with 400 units that were built but not shipped underwent re-inspection and repair. When planning the economics of the line, a re-inspection and repair of units at this magnitude were never contemplated. The factory now has to pay for transportation of units, storage of units, a work crew to inspect and repair units, certification of the work by the customer’s inspectors, and re-shipment back to Europe. This is what we call a hidden factory. It’s not something you plan for your factory to do. Not something you’re going to get paid extra for. It is just a drain on the resources of the factory.

Let’s move this back to our question of the day and are we out to help people, or are we after the big bucks.

If you help someone, hopefully, they tell a friend. And if you help their friend, they’ll tell someone else, maybe two. If you build a quality product and put it in a quality program and charge a fair price, you may go far. Doing good things for people grows a following.   

If your product is filled with errors, grammatical problems, ideas that are irrelevant to the reader you may find items being returned and fees requested to be refunded. That is never a good start and is certainly a bad end.

So, what do you do? Do the best that you can make sure your work is relevant to your customer and you go from there.  And…

Be The Person You Want Helping You.

Real Riches Are Never Measured In Money

Have you ever contemplated what work really is? We learned fairly early in life, usually around 11 or 12, that if we go out and do something for somebody, we can get a reward. Five dollars to shovel snow from the walk or to weed a garden. Fifteen to 20 dollars to cut the yard depending on size. And as we grow little, babysitting money.

Even at a young age, these small jobs can be big bucks. Young, smart entrepreneurs can easily maintain a list of five or 6 yards to cut in a weekend earning them $75 to $100.

As we grow older, we can then hire the neighborhood kid or our own children for those jobs we do not wish to do ourselves. And then later on when everyone’s grown, once again we find is ourselves doing those jobs with one small catch. No one is paying us. Wait a minute?

Is what we view as a job promotion for a life we spent becoming something else? I don’t think so. Cutting the grass is cutting the grass. A labor of love?  Again, I don’t think so. I would often be happy just to let it grow. Pay the neighborhood kid to do it? Last time I did that, he demanded the money up front for scout camp and then, he never cut the yard.

Side benefits for cutting the lawn? It keeps my significant other from more complaints. And, a good completion, if lucky, may even result in a kiss. Yet, it’s something that still has to be done. You can’t stop grass and shrubs from growing.

We do a lot of things, for rewards that have nothing to do with money. Raising kids is work, and at the same time, it’s a labor of love. The reward is when the children grow into adulthood and find their positive directions in the world.

Taking care of the house is a job. The better you keep it up, the easier the job becomes. When you keep the house like I do you end up with a true work of art. My house is post-modern clutter.

We all have chores we must complete. Chores that are often considered paid jobs to other people. Any chore or job that is done is a direct reflection on the person doing it. If a chore goes undone, is that not also a reflection upon the person in charge and the person who is supposed to complete the chore? This is something to contemplate.

Almost every action you do is an action someone else gets paid for. Chefs cook dinners.  Barbers shave people. Home health care workers wash people. Critics watch movies and TV shows and talk about them. If you’re doing these different occupations, for yourself, you’re working for yourself. And you are giving to yourself what others would be paid. This may not be in the coin of the realm, however, think of the riches you have and those you gain in doing these chores. After all…

Real Riches Are Never Measured In Money.

Are You an Original?

A simple question.   Are you an original or are you a duplicate?

It’s also a silly question, one asked, not to be insulting or demeaning; rather, one to look at considering. And either answer is all right

I am an adult educator and trainer by profession. I am also a writer and an artist. For some of these roles, I’ve done years of extensive schooling. For others, I have either taken other classes or worked with the help of mentors and informal education.

I keep an eye on what’s being talked about looked and taught online. I do this, first, because I need to learn and continue learning. Knowledge continuously changes and grows. I like to keep up with my contemporaries.  I truly believe that online learning, done right, is the best training you can possibly get.   Online learning can fit both into your time and your economic constraints (of these two items, time is the most valuable.)

I look at many offers for classes online, each selling the idea that they have the secret and that if you follow their way of doing things hundreds of thousands of dollars could easily be yours every year.  I have seen some ads which talk about a quick $5000, and others that suggest up to a seven-figure annual earnings.

The interesting part is as you look at their offerings and go to their webinars they start to merge together. Various deliveries give you the same information and lead you to the same actions and conclusions.

This puzzled me at first, then, as I looked at and contemplated this I began to understand. I came up with a plan which was suggested from one of my mentors.

 It works like this; the happiest, richest, and most content people are often those who pick a road early on and stay on it as they walked through life. This is true in religion, it is true in marriage, and it is very true in education. The reason for this is that the alternative to taking all roads at once turns out to be physically impossible and economically impossible. You just can’t do it, and it’s not very productive. Anyone jumping between roads headed towards their destination will find that the changes and costs will keep pulling them back towards the beginning, away from their goals.

If you have a religion that meets your needs, brings you closer to your God, to your beliefs and makes you a better person, follow it. If you have a marriage and children and it looks like a lot of work, that’s okay. Work it. Although things look better elsewhere, the look is just the wrapping on a package of things you don’t even know about yet. If you commit, stick with it. There are hundreds upon hundreds of educators online willing to show you the path to riches and greatness. If you have three or four that you believe in, follow them and stay with them. Jumping between various mentors and trainers can become costly, confusing, and more than taking your money it can steal your time. You can always get money, yet each of us only has so much time and no matter how we use it when it is used it is gone forever.

Yesterday I talked about outliers and the difference between being an outlier and following the crowd. If you wish to be an outlier, don’t be the crowd and don’t be a duplicate.

Be the Outlier…

                                  …Be Original.