Do You Lead or Follow Your Thoughts?

Who's in charge? You or your mind? You'd be surprised how much your mind goes on and on without your commands. In order to have a mindset that serves us, we must do better at leading our thinking.

What do I mean? I'm sure many of you have never given it a thought (pun intended.) When you're driving in an open space, does your mind wonder all over the place? Thought so. That's following your mind or thinking and it happens often. Think how many times you engage in brief "mindless" hellos or chit chat where you really aren't thinking at all about the conversation.

Do you think about things you don't want to? You're allowing your mind to be in charge.

Are you longing for a better life (good -you're normal)? Do you wish to accomplish more in less time? Then be more conscious of your thinking. Lead your thinking to where you wish it to go. Don't let your mind wonder so much on its own.

Awareness! That's the key. We must first be aware our thoughts are wondering and then and only then are we able to replace those rambles with our directed thinking. Leading our thoughts where we want them to go, so we'll be empowered forward and served by them.

Shorten your route to success and joy by taming and training your mind to be your servant. It's the ticket to overcoming your daily grind, problems and challenges.

E-mail Overload? Declare- Enough!

Has e-mail become your foe? Are you chained to your computer sorting through endless messages and trying to decide on the ones in which to reply? Do you save them just in case?

E-mail was supposed to be our friend and time saver. The great communication tool. Now it wastes hours a week if we let it. This demanding economy requires the utmost performance from everyone, and it’s time e-mail is part of the cutbacks.

Great decisions empower. Take back your life and decide to set new boundaries on e-mail. It’s your life and changing the way you think about e-mail is a choice. Here are a few decisions that will start you in the right direction.

• Decide first what you really, really want; more time, greater productivity, more leisure, tighter focus, or more e-mail. Remember this every time you open your in-box.
• Let everyone know not to send anything other than very important mail.
• If you are self-employed, set rules for mail; only Cc. those absolutely necessary, executive summaries only on lengthy mail, no one should answer unnecessary mail, ask for other input and ideas.
• Open your mail only once or twice per day.
• Ask, “What would be the worst case if you didn’t open this message.”
  
  Take a stance. Start a trend. Declare – enough! Make your job more efficient and effective immediately. Be tough on e-mail and set yourself free.

Read This Book

Are you an entrepreneur, sales person, pastor, leader or professional with a passion for being the best you can be? Then read, What Got You Here Won't Get You There; How Successful People Become Even More Successful, by Marshall Goldsmith. Marshall is widely known as one of the best executive coaches in the world.

Isn't that a fabulous title? Doesn't it really tell you why most of us get stuck in our pursuit of excellence?

Coaching is about self-discovery and self-knowledge. Once you master the fundamentals of your job, most often it is "who you are," or self, that holds you back. The more you learn about your self, which is driven by your mindset, the faster you can grow towards your personal and professional goals.

Read this review, "The Word" According to Marshall, (10/13/08) by "Excellence" expert, best selling author, consultant and leadership phenomenon Tom Peters on Tom Peters' blog. He gives you the scoop straight out and praises Goldsmith as "peerless" meaning without peers.

Your customers and mine aren't interested in "very good." They want exceptional.

Being Positive in a Very Negative World

Are you overwhelmed, even distraught, with all the negativity bombarding you? These are extremely difficult times. Most of us have never experienced such turmoil, and it's an extraordinary challenge to stay positive.

It is critical for you to do everything you know in directing your thinking towards solutions and positive possibilities. Move towards what you want not away from what you don't want. Focus and what you need to do to get through your challenges.

Live in the solution and not in the problem.

What most of us do is focus on our problems, think about what we don't have and fret about how life should be different. It's the wrong strategy. Don't spend your time figuring out how to move away from what is wrong.

This only causes us to spend our precious time focusing on what is wrong. Even worse, our mind will expand whatever our focus. That means our problems become even bigger the more time we spend with them.

I am not saying ignore your problems by any means. Accept them as they fully exist and don't hide from the truth at all, or you will be building a foundation for disaster. Acknowledge what's wrong but focus on solutions.

You can only spend your thinking and energy in one direction at a time. Doesn't it make sense then to find solutions, as small as they may be, and propel yourself forward in any way possible?

Do you want to be exceptional in the face of severe negativity, enormous personal challenges, and severe economic conditions? Even when facing personal hardships as never before, you can empower yourself, your family and your team with your positive solution focused mindset. Result? It may not be all you wish, but you will create the best situation possible.