If it doesn’t make you happy then why are you doing it

If It Doesn’t Make You Happy Then Why Are You Doing It?

I’m sure that you have often heard people complaining about their life and about all the things they have to do that they don’t like doing. Perhaps you have even been guilty of this yourself on occasions. Let’s have a look at how you can change those unwanted patterns for good.

Life is full of choices and possibilities. It is impossible to do everything and so we have to have some system for deciding what we do and what we don’t do. This seems like common sense but in reality most people don’t have any system for choosing.

If you don’t have a system for choosing what to do or what not to do then you will end up as the victim of someone else’s system. You have lost control of your life and you have lost control of your potential for happiness.

Notice that in any group of people, whether it is a family, a social group, a workplace, or some form of club or organization, you always find that a few people do most of the work and some people contribute nothing at all, and get away with it.

If you are one of the contributors you may feel that the others are being unfair or lazy. The reality is that you are allowing yourself to be a victim and you can choose to no longer do that.

Here is a 5 step process for regaining control over your quality of life and your own happiness.

Step 1: Establish a Basis for Choosing

If you are going to develop a system then you need to establish a basis on which to evaluate your choices. The basis you use will go a long way toward determining whether you make good choices or bad choices. For example if you choose on the basis of guilt or a sense of responsibility then you are choosing for reasons that don’t necessarily enhance your life and so your choices are unlikely to contribute to your sense of happiness.

A healthy basis for choice making is whether or not the option that you choose will enhance your life and make you happier. If it will then choose it and if it won’t then don’t choose it.

Step 2: Increase Your Options

Even though the world abounds with possibility most people end up making choices between a very limited set of options. Often this set does not include any options that you really want to do. The problem is not that you don’t have good options; the problem is that you are limiting the possible options and by doing that you are not including your good options.

Make a habit of looking outside the box. Make a habit of asking yourself what other possibilities exist. If you take the time to brainstorm options you will be surprised just how many possibilities there really are. Keep brainstorming until your options include a number of possibilities that you like.

Step 5: Make a conscious choice

Once you have established your basis for choosing and brainstormed for more possibilities it is time to actually make a decision and choose. This is where you have to draw on your strength of character and stick to your criteria for choosing.

Resist the temptation to say «yes» to something you don’t want to do just to keep the peace. You are not keeping the peace by doing that. You are severely damaging your own inner peace. When you want to say no then say no. It may take some practice but saying no is the way to get that practice.

Your responsibility is to yourself and your own happiness. That means that in the case of choosing what you do and what you don’t do, your responsibility is to consciously make your choice according to the criteria that you set in step 1.

Step 4: Evaluate the Outcome of Your Choice

No matter what you do in life you should always evaluate your outcome to see what you can learn about the system that you are using. In this case you are evaluating your outcomes to see if they are meeting the objective you set in step 1.

Step 5: Improve Your Choice Making System

If your choices aren’t producing the outcomes that you want then maybe you need to modify the way you are making those choices. Over time you will develop the criteria that work best for you.

A word of warning though. Never sacrifice your long term happiness for the promise of short term peace of mind. The price for that short term peace of mind may be that you fail to achieve true happiness and self fulfillment in your life.

How to remain calm with an agitated customer

How To Remain Calm With An Agitated Customer

A day in the life of a business person can be filled with joy and satisfaction or it can be frustrating and stressful. When things go wrong, some people lose control. Holding emotions in check and reacting professionally under fire are not always easy. It is particularly difficult to be nice to people who are not being nice to you.

So what do you do to keep your cool when the customer is chewing you out? Most of the time, it is not even your fault. It could be that the problem was with a product or a service delivered by someone else in your organization. You’re getting the blame because the unhappy person found you first, and it’s not pleasant. When faced with angry people, there are four key steps that will help diffuse the situation.

Step one is to apologize. «But,» you say, «it’s not my fault.» It doesn’t matter who’s to blame; apologize anyway. As a representative of your company you have a responsibility to see that things go well. Your willingness to be accountable will have a positive effect. After all, it takes two to have an argument. If one of you refuses to be disagreeable you can’t have a disagreement. You are not accepting blame-you are simply saying, «I’m sorry about the problem.» You are wasting your breath unless you apologize with complete sincerity so be sure that your tone of voice matches your words.

Step two is to sympathize with the irate customer. Let the person know that you can identify with his feelings. Say that you understand the frustration of receiving a faulty product or poor service. The angry person begins to feel better as soon as his reaction is validated.

Step three is to accept responsibility for the situation. Be accountable to the customer. Let him know that you intend to do whatever it takes to make things right. You can’t help what has already happened, but you will come up with a solution to the problem or you will find someone who can.

The last step is to take action. Decide what you can do and tell the customer. You will replace the defective or incorrect product as quickly as possible. If the issue was poor service deliver better service. Whenever you can offer a bonus of some sort or waive fees, the tiger before you is transformed into a pussycat.

Use the acronym «ASAP» to remember these four steps for calming upset customers. Each letter stands for part of the process.

A is «apologize.»
S represents «sympathize.»
A stands for «accept responsibility.»
P means «prepare to take action.»

Nothing will be solved by becoming argumentative and reactionary. Instead, diffuse the client’s anger by being apologetic and sympathetic and focus on positive steps that will resolve the situation. Before you know it, your adversaries will become your allies.

Oh yes, remember to smile. It will make everyone feel better and behave better.

How interviews help you understand your strengths and weaknesses

How interviews help you understand your strengths and weaknesses?

Of all the Human Resource Management functions, staff selection is arguably one of the most important and vital. In this process, the “interview” tool and technique helps in assessing potential employees’ “fit” in the organization. The 2-fold advantage of such interviews is: assisting in employee selection, and — for the candidates — realizing their own potential. Every time an individual attends an interview, it makes them a better person in terms of career growth by making them more competent, confident, ready and willing to take up challenging assignments. ‘No one is perfect’ and everyone has strengths and weaknesses at their own level. These play an important role during the interview sessions that an individual experiences.

The essential qualities of a person that surface during an interview session are:

Personality
Attitude
Knowledge through education
Self developed knowledge/Tacit knowledge
Skills

These five qualities are a face value portrayal of the basic characteristics of an individual. Among these virtues, most people usually score well on knowledge through education and skills. This is because it is imbibed by us through coaching, while the other qualities are made up of talents, concentration and mental quickness. These qualities, which decide the strengths and weaknesses of any individual, are developed over a period of time and vary from person to person.

When the interviewer and the candidate meet for a job interview, the demeanor, body language and mannerisms of the candidate are observed. Under these circumstances, it becomes very important to keep up the positive note within us. This will not only create positivism within the candidate, but also in the surrounding environment. It is this positivism that takes people far ahead in life and especially in a career.

Secondly, the determining factor of one’s personality is attitude. At times the knowledge and talent that an individual acquires blinds them to the world of humanity and this may be termed an ‘attitudinal problem’. This is a common weakness that many people develop because it becomes difficult for them to handle the power they are vested with. This is one characteristic that is very difficult to overcome and becomes obvious in one’s behavior.

It is not necessary that an individual has to get through every interview that they attend, but every interview brings out a better individual to face the next one. Both success and failure during interviews can help an individual understand their own strength and weaknesses. It helps too in leveraging success factors and working on areas needing development. Hence, each interaction like these helps in shortening the learning curve.

Let me reduce your stress

Let Me Reduce Your Stress! — Productivity Tips

I got an email recently from someone saying, «I don’t have time to read your newsletters. It’s stressing me out. You need to turn them into quick tips.»

If you’re like me, your in-box is constantly ‘pinging’ you that another newsletter has arrived.

So I’ve given it a lot of thought and did some samples.

Here’s what that could look like:

«People and their organizations get further, faster and easier when they’re more productive. Since organizations accomplish nothing unless people are doing something, the people involved need to get more productive with their doing.

«So — Get MORE Productive… NOW!»

Hey, not bad! Next week I could put out this one:

«People are more productive when they’re focused.

So — FOCUS your attention!»

«People are more productive when they know why they’re putting the effort in.

So — Have a VISION and use it everywhere with everyone!»

«People are more productive when they have actionable plans

So — Have a PLAN and make sure it includes «who is doing what, by when?»

«People are more productive when they leverage the time, intelligence and efforts of others.

So — Direct, Delegate and DO everything efficiently»

«People are more productive when there is a repeatable system in place that reduces efforts.

So — Put SYSTEMS in place that you can use to train, evaluate and stabilize everyone’s efforts»

Gosh this is quick! I could knock these out and send out two lines every week!

But, you know. Now that I think of it, if that’s what you’ve been looking for, let me reduce that stress you’re feeling ~ just check in with the Catalyst Action Tips. And Meanwhile, just get your attention on your intention and pick an action and get moving!

Meanwhile, everyone else: tune in and ask yourself «What actions do I already know that would be High Payoff?» What makes it easy to put them in action?»

Your answers will help you recognize the patterns you use that get you the results you have today. And they’ll walk you through techniques that shift you out of your habits and patterns and find new ones that will work for you more productively so that you get the results you’re dreaming of.

In fact, the record shows that «People using Linda’s techniques increase their productivity 267%.»

In about 7 minutes a week.

Now that’s High Payoff!