Purpose and Meaning
Put First Things First with Stephen Covey
Are you one of the many people who feel overwhelmed and overloaded at present? Are you at burnout stage? Do you feel bombarded from all sides? Is your mental health being affected by this pressure and stress? Are you also one of the people who are being ordered back into the workplace where you know the stress levels you now feel will be escalated?
Why is this happening? Is it your manager putting you under this pressure? Is it the culture of the organisation in which you work? Is it your expectations?
Could it be that you aren’t managing your time constructively? Are you spending your time putting out bushfires, being challenged by the pounding surf or mending fences, all unfulfilling work that is urgent but not important? What would happen, how would you feel if you could do work that was important, where you were able to put first things first and saw you making a real difference?
Read MoreAre You Valued in Your Workplace?
Do you feel valued in your workplace? If not, why do you stay there? Why wouldn’t you move to where your expertise is valued?
In my work, especially as a mentor, I constantly talk with people who don’t feel valued at work. What keeps them there, however, is a doubt about their own ability. Part of them believes they are making a valuable contribution, but because no one actually acknowledges it, they then feel that maybe they are not as valuable as they think. They rely on the people around them to validate them. Because that doesn’t happen, they then fear to go elsewhere, feeling they have nothing to offer.
That’s one of the great things about mentoring. It validates you even while it challenges. If it is one-on-one mentoring, the mentor does that, but if it is group mentoring, a whole group of like-minded, equally motivated people share their experience with you and you find it validating yours.
So if you want to discover your real value, ask the right people. A mentor is one of those people.
Read MoreLearning From My Dying Brother
Today, July 31, is my brother Colin’s birthday, but he is not here to celebrate. He died in 2012. Ever since he died I have gone dry in July to raise money for cancer research and the Andrew Love Cancer Centre here in Geelong. My fund-raising page is still open until August 15 so if you haven’t already made a donation to cancer research this year, please consider supporting my cause at https://www.mycause.com.au/page/207577/maree-harris-in-memory-of-colin-rickard
In the new year after Colin’s death, in February 2013, I wrote the following blog post for my Colleagues and clients. I am sharing it with you all here because I learned so much from sharing his journey with him and you might learn something also from reading my reflections.
Read MoreMonday Motivation November 26, 2018. Say Thank You And Change Your World.
It’s only two small words but they make a world of difference. In fact, they can change people’s lives and change the world in which we live. However more often than not we haven’t time to say them. Of course, I’m talking about those two words – “Thank You”.
We live our lives on a frantic freeway, always racing, never time to stop. It’s a 7 day working week nowadays.
With all this rush and tear of modern life, we do not have time anymore for some of the most important things in life – valuing and appreciating one another, showing gratitude, acknowledging the goodness of people, giving one another the positive feedback that makes us feel valuable, important and worthwhile – and saying “thank you”.
Monday Motivation October 8, 2018 – Develop An Attitude of Gratitude and Expand Your Life
We are living in an age where depression is rife. Every year in Australia 800,000 adults experience a depressive illness. Even young children are now being diagnosed with depression. The World Health Organisation has predicted that by 2020 depression will be the second biggest health problem world-wide behind heart disease. So what’s the answer? How would things change if we began to focus on the positive in our lives?
What might happen if we developed an attitude of gratitude?
What if we focused on everything in our lives that we can be thankful for?
Brian Tracy says:
“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”
Read MoreMonday Motivation September 24, 2018 – Replace Email with Connection and Engagement
How did we ever manage without email? It’s difficult to imagine and for those of us old enough, hard to remember what we used to do.
Yet for all its benefits, it also has its negatives, the biggest being the way it depersonalises relationships.
We email people in the next office, rather than go and talk with them.
We email our frustrations and other emotional reactions rather than go and talk them through.
We attempt to resolve complex work situations via email, rather than trying to work them out face to face, or at least by phone.
We have forgotten that doing business and running sustainable and successful organisations is about relationships. It’s relationships between people that make or break a project or deal.
Email is one of the most ineffective ways of building connection and engagement, of building sustaining relationships.
Turn Your Goal Setting Upside Down and Be Successful.
The great debate at this time of the year is about whether goal setting has a value or not. If you’ve been there before only to find that, in spite of your best efforts, life and “important” work gets in the way after a month or so, then you are probably not going to set any goals this year.
Let’s stop and think about this a bit.
Whatever success means to you, it is worth pursuing the actions that will see you achieve it. You feel empowered, in charge of your life when you do. You see yourself as a “Can Do” person. Having achieved one goal, you gain in confidence about achieving another. And the next one is much easier again. Your head is in the right place. You have more energy. You have fewer limiting beliefs about yourself. You are much more confident.
The most successful people, in whatever field they work, all set goals. They then bring focus to achieving them.
Goal setting is about focusing on your WHY. If you have a big enough WHY, the HOW is easy.
So the first step in goal setting is knowing why you want to achieve that goal. Sometimes you have to dig deep to get clear about that.
So let’s turn this goal setting problem upside down.