Improve Your Personal Effectiveness by Finding Balance

To go past the mark is as wrong as to fall short.

-Confucius

Could you believe that the ideal person is never the best at anything? Our heads are so full of delusions about wealth and power that we run ourselves ragged trying to out do each other. We spin our wheels until we burn ourselves out and are left hopeless and exhausted.

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There is great pressure to attain the highest level of achievement. We want to be the richest, most beautiful, and most well-liked because these virtues are glorified. But by indulging our vanity we do ourselves more harm than good. The only way to achieve sustainable happiness is to practice the Golden Mean.

The idea of the Golden Mean has existed for thousands of years. It is at the core of both Eastern and Western philosophy and is central to the teachings of Aristotle and Confucius. The idea is simple.

Every quality has extremes at both ends. The Golden Mean is the natural balance between these extremes. At this harmonious point goodness and beauty are achieved.

Socrates used the example of extreme devotion to athletics versus extreme devotion to music to illustrate this idea. The athlete becomes overly aggressive and ferocious, while the musician becomes overly soft and effeminate. The ideal is someone who practices both athletics and music in moderation and acquires a harmonious mixture of both qualities.

Consider an example from modern times that I’m sure everyone has observed. The first person is extremely career driven. Each day he focuses on advancing himself. He spends long hours at the office, competes mercilessly with his coworkers, and flatters his superiors. As a result he has almost no personal life. The second person’s only pursuit is leisure. He likes to waste time with his friends watching television and playing video games.

Which of these persons is superior? Many people would argue for the hard worker. But at second glance his life is rather cold. His obsession with success has alienated his coworkers and left him without a family. He may become rich, but how will he enjoy it? The second man is no better. He has wasted his life in laziness. He has refused to develop himself and exists as a parasitic leech. Both men are worthy of pity.

I think we’d all agree the ideal would be somewhere in between these two people. So how do we find the elusive Golden Mean? The bad news: it takes years of trial and error get it perfect, but fortunately, we can all improve if we try.

It all starts with setting the right goals. Whenever you make a goal you need to do it with the right intention. Don’t set goals with the intent to dominate other people. This type of goal setting is ego driven and pulls you away from the mean. Instead, try to start with a goal that is in between total selfishness and total selflessness. If you are helping yourself and other people at the same time you can draw motivation from your ego driven side and from the part of you that wants to work for the common good. This type of goal setting is effective because whenever you start to lose motivation in one area you can draw from the other.

The next step to reaching the Golden Mean is knowing your limits. You need to know when that next drink is going to put you over the edge or when one more project is going to stress you out. The idea is to maintain balance at all times. You need to police yourself to avoid extremity. If you know when you are inclined to stray you have a head start on achieving balance.

Another step to achieving the Golden Mean is being aware of your personal needs. Sure we need money and success, but having good relationships with friends and family are just as important. Whenever you find yourself unhappy, take a moment to reflect on the reason. You will likely find that you have drifted over to one extreme and are feeling the consequences.

I know the Golden Mean is hard to live by, but it is the key to finding your inner confidence. Ben Franklin said, “The wise learn from the mistakes of others, fools, scarcely from their own.” Next time you find yourself willing to do anything to be the best of the best, take a moment to reconsider. You may find it is better to be the best “you” you can be.

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Top Life Lessons from Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins has dedicated over 30 years to discovering what it takes to Change Your Life to Extraordinary.

Some of the world’s most accomplished people like Hugh Jackman, Serena Williams and Bill Clinton have turned to Tony to help turn the life of their dreams into reality. Inspiring, passionate, insightful, and experienced – thousands of people have transformed their lives because of Tony, and we thought we’d share what we think are the best life lessons he’s imparted.

1. You can train your mind to do anything
“The truth is that we can learn to condition our minds, bodies, and emotions to link pain or pleasure to whatever we choose. By changing what we link pain and pleasure to, we will instantly change our behaviours.”

2.You have all the power you need
“I’ve continued to recognize the power individuals have to change virtually anything and everything in their lives in an instant. I’ve learned that the resources we need to turn our dreams into reality are within us, merely waiting for the day when we decide to wake up and claim our birthright.”

3.You must act consistently
“I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret.”

4.Your attitude to money is crucial
“Change the consistent emotions you associate with money – or your beliefs about it – and you will immediately change the amount of money you attract, accumulate, and enjoy in your life.”

5.Your past is not your future
“If you want to succeed in your life, remember this phrase: The past does not equal the future. Because you failed yesterday; or all day today; or a moment ago; or for the last six months; the last sixteen years; or the last fifty years of life, doesn’t mean anything… All that matters is: What are you going to do, right now?”

6.Your relationships are a place to give
“Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they’re trying to find someone who’s going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.”

7.You must be flexible in communication
“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”

8.Your internal drive is everything
“The invisible force of internal drive, activated, is the most important thing in your life.”

9.It’s okay to be human
“Live life fully while you’re here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You’re going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don’t try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.”

And of course, the most important lesson:

10. Live your life!

“Every man dies. Not every man lives.”

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How Much Value Do Your Employees Bring to the Bottom Line?

When you stop to think about it, the only people standing between you and the acquisition of lifetime customers are your employees.

And yet, getting your employees on board with your mission isn't easy. This joke pretty much sums it up: One business owner asked another, “How many employees do you have working for you?" The other replied, “About half.”

All kidding aside, let’s take this thought process one step further and let me ask you this question: How much is each one of your employees worth to your company? 

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For the sake of this article, let’s use a yardstick of just one year. Hypothetically, let’s assume if the amount of money one customer would spend with your company over a 12 month period is $500. If each one of your employees comes into contact with 10 customers per week, then when we multiply that number of new customers over 50 weeks, this comes to 500 customers per year, per employee. The potential retention power over the short term of one year has a financial impact of $250,000 of gross revenues per employee.

So what can you do to make sure that the employees you have on your team live up to your expectations? Plenty!

First, you must begin looking at each employee as a profit center, if you're not already. This means that, with the right amount of psychological and financial investment in each of your team members, they can begin to develop their full potential and contribute to the company’s bottom line.

By psychological investment, I am referring to how you and your management treat them. It has been said that employees don’t leave a job, they leave a boss or manager. In other words, if they don’t get the support and praise they deserve, their psychological bank account is empty. Once it becomes empty, they usually begin looking elsewhere for employment.

Financial investment refers to the amount of money you invest in their education and training. In today’s economy you can’t afford to retain employees who have the wrong attitude, or are lacking the necessary people or technical skill sets. These people are non-productive and literally steal money away from your bottom line.

Some business owners are reticent in investing in training for their employees, saying they cannot afford to invest in them or are worried that training employees will make them better equipped to leave for some other company. To answer these concerns, I remember how one business owner told me that he couldn’t afford not to train employees. As he explained it to me, “If they don’t produce, I don’t make money.”

In other words, we need to hire the best people we can find, and prepare them through the right kind of focused training and development programs. When you invest in developing your employee capital, you increase the percentage of the number of successful one-on-one encounters with your customers, whether it is in person, on the Internet, or over the telephone. (Despite the abundance of technological options that your customers have to interface with your business, for many customers, face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact is still the most important.)

So, how much value do your employees bring to your company?  Let the numbers do the talking and invest in your team accordingly.

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21 Dos and Don'ts to Improve Your Email

Email.

Just the word makes many people shiver.

Email has become a scourge in many workplaces.

Too many emails flooding your inbox, poorly written notes, and senseless Reply-All copies.

The good news is that email can be a productive tool if you follow some common sense tactics.

Bad Email or Bad Behavior?

Email isn’t bad… it’s just written that way.

Bad email behavior is commonplace in many companies.

Long unreadable emails. Red fonts. Silly signatures. Unwieldy attachments that clog your inbox.

It seems silly, and it really is inexcusable.

Yet, when were you or anyone at your company taught how to write better emails?

Chances are, there aren’t any email standards or training at your company.

Instead, everyone is left to work in a free-for-all of email chaos.

Email Dos and Don’ts

Despite its reputation, email isn’t all bad. In fact, it can be a very productive tool when used correctly.

The following tips can help you write better emails, get better responses, and create less frustration with  your co-workers.

21 Dos and Don’ts to Improve Your Email Communication:

1. Do Keep Your Emails Short – Effective emails shouldn’t be more than a few lines long. Use 5 lines as a good guideline. If you find yourself writing an essay, it should probably be a separate document or report.
2. Don’t Reply-All to say Thanks to 1 Person – If you want to thank 1 person, you don’t need to copy 33 other people on the email.
3. Don’t Use BCC – There is no real use for the BCC field. Really, there isn’t. Either publicly copy someone on email or don’t include them.
4. Do Write your Emails Backwards – To improve responses to your emails, lead with the question or call-to-action as the first line in your email.
5. Don’t Copy the Entire Universe – Copying more people won’t get your message read more. In fact, it actually becomes counter-productive because if you are always copying extra people, they will stop reading your emails in general.
6. Don’t Knock Twice – Don’t email someone and then walk down the hall and say, “I just sent you an email.” Pick one channel of communication.
7. Don’t Play Email Ping-Pong – Avoid the back-and-forth email conversation. If you have to reply more than twice, you should probably pick up the phone and call the individual. Email is not a good medium for conversations.
8. Don’t Use Silly Fonts or Colors – Writing your message in fancy fonts just makes it unreadable. Colored fonts are just as bad. Keep it simple.
9. DON’T USE ALL CAPS – NO ONE WANTS TO BE YELLED AT IN ALL CAPS. DON’T WRITE YOUR EMAILS IN ALL CAPS.
10. Do Lose the Signature – You don’t need a long and drawn out signature with images, social share icons, and your favorite quote. If you must have one, keep it simply your contact info and nothing more.
11. Don’t Send Criticism via Email – Praising via email is good. (Although in person is better.) However, sending negative information can easily be mis-interpreted by the recipient. Even constructive comments can be misunderstood as flame mail.
12. Don’t Broadcast Your Location – No one needs to know where you are writing your email from. You don’t look cool by having “Sent from my Smartphone” or sent from my iPad. Remove these silly messages from your emails.
13. Don’t Send Time Sensitive Info – Email is the new snail mail. It is not instantaneous. Don’t expect immediate responses to your messages. In fact, you should give recipients at least a day to address your message. If you need a quicker answer, use a quicker communication method. (Text, phone, etc.)
14. Don’t Shuffle Your Work – Email has become the modern version of “paper pushing.” Don’t simply forward your work to others via email.
15. Don’t Copy Yourself on Messages – You get enough email. Seriously. You don’t need to copy yourself on messages. Ever.
16. Do Archive Those Messages – The average email user has thousands of emails rotting in their inbox. These only clutter your email and impede your productivity. Get older messages out of your inbox and into an archive.
17. But, Don’t File Them – The average email user has 37 folders they try to sort their email into when filing. This is a waste of time and effort. Archive your email into a common folder and in the off case you need to find a message again, Google-search your email.
18. Don’t Send Large Attachments – Blasting someone with an inbox (and mobile) crushing attachment isn’t cool. If you are sending large documents or video, send a link for download instead of the actual file.
19. Do Work Your Email from the Top – Process your email inbox starting with the newest message. This may seem counter-intuitive, but you can save yourself much time and effort. Often, newer messages will have already addressed the inquiries of older messages.
20. Do Use Other Communication Channels – Don’t get stuck in an email only communication world. Use other methods such as text messages, phone, and even in person. (Many newer technologies like Slack can replace your team email entirely.)
21. Don’t (Ever) Send Flame Mail – Never ever send an email in anger. Hit “Delete” instead of “Send.” Before you send that Flame Mail, ask yourself, “Would I be embarrassed if this message was made public?” It just might… you never know.

Write Better Emails

Email doesn’t have to be bad.

Use these 21 tips and guidelines to improve your emails.

Not only will you write more effective emails, but your co-workers will thank you. (But, hopefully not with a “Reply-All.”)

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Why You Need Motivation EVERY Morning

It was happening to me again…

I just laid there. Still. Mind racing, but body stagnant. The battle had begun…

Should I wake up and work out/send emails/write a new article/do anything mildly productive, or should I surrender to just one more hour of sleep.

On most days, this wouldn’t be a battle. I am better than that.

But even the mightiest success chasers need new sources of motivation every once in a while.

You see, most of us are indeed crazed to succeed, and rarely need any external pushes to get ahead. We are intrinsically motivated beasts 99.99% of the time, but one day (or week, or month…don’t judge) there will come a time where you everything will seem gloom, the important goals you’ve set for yourself become less noticeable than an extra 15 minutes of quasi-sleep, and the rollercoaster hits its lowest valleys.

That’s why you need motivation every morning.

WHY?!? Because you CAN create the life you want, but only if you work your a** off to create it.

WHY?!? Because you INSPIRE others through your work, words, and actions, so it’s your responsibility to be a good role model for those who look up to you.

WHY?!? Because certain jobs, people, and friends passed you over, and it’s on you to PROVE THEM WRONG.

WHY?!? Because your family, friends, and supporters WANT TO SEE YOU SUCCEED.

WHY?!? Because you are a LEADER, and because people DEPEND on you.

However, all that being said, I know some days are harder than others, and because there have been days (weeks, months…) that I’ve had this same problem, I want to give you some ways to get motivation EVERY morning.

Make it a habit, just like brushing your teeth and tying your shoelaces, to seek sources of motivation every single morning. Watch an inspirational Youtube video, listen to you favorite, potentially-Rocky-inspired song, or get a group of friends together for a daily, 5 minute “pep” conference call.

Meditate and think of all the things in life you are grateful for.

Listen to your favorite self-help audio book or podcast during your commute to the office (I recommend The Law of Success
and Three Feet from Gold as great audio books, and The James Altucher Show, The Tim Ferriss Show, andEntrepreneurOnFire as awesome podcasts).

Go for a run, or do some pushups, or try some yoga. Something. Get active. It’s amazing how much happier and clear-headed you will start each of your days.

Remember each morning why you do what you do, and who you do it for. Which people have given you opportunities in life? Which people said you couldn’t chase your dreams? Are you supporting your parents, children, friends, family? Why did you get started in “the biz” in the first place? Remember that, and get motivated every morning.

Seeking motivation every morning has helped me have days where I can speak to Ivy Leaguers, appear in a nationally broadcasted commercial, and save babies, all in one day. Those are truly epic days, and every day can and will be just as epic for you if you make it ritual to start every morning motivated! It’s the only way I can work on projects like 2 Billion Under 20 and The Gap Year Experiment and, quite frankly, your work too should serve as a source of motivation every morning as mine does (or you need a new job!!!).

Don’t leave it up to yourself. Don’t leave it to “inspiration” or chance. Make motivating yourself a daily practice. You NEED motivation EVERY morning, and with that one habit, anything else will be possible.

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3 Simple Techniques To Keep Negativity Out Of Your Life

If you don’t control your mind, you will never control your life.

It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not, everything that gets inside your mind has a tremendous impact on how you feel, think and act. On what you achieve or don’t achieve. On who you become or don’t become.

Sometimes it’s so instantaneous that a great day becomes a nightmare after you hear a demotivating word or someone looks at you with an angry face.

Your mind starts doing its work, turning the seed that has been planted into something huge and out of control.

Do you feel that this situation is familiar?

This is the natural state of an unguarded mind.

The 2 Keys For Taking Control of Your Mind

You are exposed to thoughts and ideas all the time. Your mind picks the ones that have a bigger impact, positive or negative, and starts working on them until it receives something more impactful to replace them with.

This is one of the saddest elements of human nature I have found, but also one of the most encouraging.

If you are not aware of what’s going on in your mind, your life feels like a roller coaster, and your destiny is at the mercy of external factors.

So, how do you lock out all the negative factors and influences you are bombarded with all day, so they don’t impact you?

Simply put, you can’t.

If someone shouts angrily at you on the street, it’s going to impact you.

But what you can do is DECIDE whether your mind is going to pick that thought and turn it into a monster that ruins your day, or pick something optimistic and inspiring that lets you flow seamlessly through your day instead.

There are 2 key factors for taking more control over your subconscious:

1. Reaction: How you react to your environment. How aware you are of when a bad thought is starting to grow in your mind and how fast you can take action to replace it with the thought you want to have there.
2. Action: Placing in your mind the thoughts you want it to work on. Then letting them repeat, amplify and grow until you soak them up completely and they push you towards the goals you define for yourself.

After years of testing techniques to master my mind, I have collected a few that produce great results.

Here are three of my favorites:

1. Word Amplification

The simplest way to interact with your mind is by repetition of words.

If you detect your mind working on an idea that makes you feel bad, start repeating a word or sentence that makes you think immediately about something that inspires you or makes you smile.

For instance, if you would love to go to Japan on your next vacation, start repeating the word “Japan, Japan, Japan…” or the sentence “I’m in Japan.” It will make you feel better immediately and move your mind and feelings to a different place. .

A curious thing I have found is that using the exact opposite thought doesn’t work as well as using a thought that represents something different and positive for you.

If, for instance, you find yourself thinking that you don’t like your body and start repeating “I’m fit,” it will be harder to make yourself believe it and you will have to struggle to replace the negative thought.

If, instead, you avoid the fight and focus your mind on a different thought, you will forget the original thought more easily and soon everything will start to revolve around the new one.

Whenever you find yourself trapped by a negative thought, stop everything you are doing and repeat to yourself 10 or 20 times the most uplifting words you can find. Let your mind do its magic before coming back to your daily routine with renewed vigor and focus.

2. Painting The Picture Of What You Want To Achieve

This is a habit many successful people have used all their lives. In some cases, it is the only one they have kept after becoming extremely rich.

Write down your goals in the morning, at night, and every time you cannot remember clearly what you are aiming for and realize you are doing something that is not taking you closer to your goals.

After you have them in writing, take a minute to visualize each of them. If it’s hard for you to do this on your own, find some related pictures on the Internet.

This will help you start quickly producing bigger ideas for achieving your goals, what will get you out of your negative mental processes. Remember that the trick is to offer yourself thoughts that are bigger, more inspiring, and more exciting than the ones you are busy with at the moment.

Between two fruits, the monkey in your mind will always pick the one with the strongest flavor.  And guess what, he doesn’t care if it’s sour or sweet.

3. Acting Like the Person You Want to Become (AKA Playing The Part)

You can call this technique “playing the part” or “fake it till you make it.”

Your goal here is to trigger a mental reaction from your physical actions. You have to ask yourself what the perfect version of yourself would be doing if they were in your shoes right now.

Then do it.

Well, you may ask, “What if I don’t know the details about the person I want to become?”

Let me give you some support and ask you a few questions to help you remember how you would like to be, or what you would like to have right now.

• What do you hate about your life? What would you like to have instead?
• What is missing in your life?
• What are the attributes and habits you would like to have?
• What do you enjoy doing but can’t do right now?
• If you had all the money and time in the world, how would you choose to spend your days?

There you have some food for thought to help you describe the perfect version of yourself.

Now forget about money and material things and think only about that human being. What would that person be doing now?

Start acting the part, and soon you will find that your thoughts seem to be more aligned with that person. You may start having thoughts that seem to come from a far more developed person, and that’s simply because you are acting like that.

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Leadership from Within

When most people think of great leaders they picture someone extraordinary, like Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi or Bill Gates, but the truth is everyone is born with leadership qualities.

As children we start out having a real sense of who we are and what we’re passionate about. We dream, are perpetually curious and live in the moment, plus we feel things and are not afraid to show it. We trust ourselves and our beliefs.

Then life gets in the way.

The world chips away at our potential by imposing limiting assumptions, nay saying and criticizing until many of us desire conformity above all else. Those people want to do a good job and work to achieve what is expected but look to others to show the way. Leaders, on the other hand, strive to be the best they can be at whatever they do and accept added responsibilities as another chance to become even better.

Although society thinks of leadership in terms of title and prestige neither is a pre-requisite for being a leader. True leadership is about leaving the world better than you found it, whether it is by doing charitable work or making the best, value-added products that you can. One need not be the CEO to drive a company towards encouraging its employees to take chances, grow by making mistakes and feel safe enough to dream big. The type of work you do is actually less important than how you do it. For example, cab drivers who strive to make someone’s trip the best they’ve ever had are exhibiting the qualities of leadership.

When you think about things this way a business that has many leaders is bound to be wildly successful since each of them is passionate about the purpose, product or service that company provides. That passion fuels a commitment to excellence and fosters the ability to meet adversity with creativity and greatness.

Since so many of us are trained to live low or no-risk lives, how does one recapture the qualities that instill confidence to take action based on personal truths and jump out on a limb where the fruits of leadership hang? Here are eight proven steps for becoming a leader:

1. Rediscover who you truly are by taking the time to be alone with yourself, away from the noise and distractions of life. Think about what makes you tick, is meaningful to you and fulfills you so that you can achieve clarity of purpose.

2. Set overall objectives for yourself based on achieving the things that are most important, like being a better parent, selling a product or service you believe will solve a problem in the world, etc.

3. Divide the big goals into achievable ones, starting with years, then months, weeks and days focusing on mind, body, emotions and spirit. Visualize daily goals as having already been met and build activities and thoughts around making that true. Plus, don’t end your day until you’ve completed them (remembering that your list must be meaningful but manageable and that small goals, like being grateful for something, count too).

4. Keep your passion alive and thriving by allowing yourself to get excited about what ever it is that you’re doing or discussing.

5. Connect with other people; build relationships; show your clients the importance of doing the same with their customers; adopt the process of MasterMinding with people you respect and encourage those you work with as well as lead. When people know they are respected and cared about they are more likely to grow, contribute and love their jobs. And, the more the people in your business love what they’re doing, the more committed to it they are and the more they want it to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

6. Always be in testing, that is looking for ways to improve yourself or your product.

7. Work towards being physically fit so you have the energy and resources to fulfill your purpose.

8. Practice these principles every day to keep yourself motivated.

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4 Things to Keep You Going When You’re Stressed at Work

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” ~Charles Swindoll

I remember working at a job where I absolutely could not do anything right.

This was one of those jobs where it was extremely fast paced and you received 100 tons of work thatmust be completed by an unrealistic deadline. And here’s the kicker: your time at work was spent in meetings, all day. I’m talking about four to seven hours of your day. You get the picture.

So you may ask when I had time to do the work. Unfortunately, after work hours, in the evenings at home or on the weekends, when I was supposed to be spending time with my family.

Now don’t get me wrong, at times I was able to steal a half hour to an hour on the job to work on tasks that needed to be completed; however, I found it tough to consistently focus and devote my undivided attention when I was shifting gears all day, every day.

It almost seemed impossible to win against an environment of nonstop “busyness” with no real progression in sight. I was losing fast.

I did not perform well during my time there and did not have the impact I thought I would and wanted to have in my work, and within the organization. I failed (or so it seemed to me).

One day, I finally decided it was time for me to leave. While I initially had mixed emotions about leaving, I knew I wasn’t helping myself by staying at the organization; I was totally out of balance!

I needed to breathe, I was drowning at work, too busy doing the work at home, not fully paying attention to my daughter, and I became a stressed out monster, having emotional meltdowns far too often.

Upon leaving, I received a card from my department staff and some people shared their reflections with me, which revealed that I had done so much more than what I knew. How could I have shared my light with others after falling short in my role?

What I learned is, people are always watching how you respond and react in tough situations. Your character is revealed when going through darkness.

I was able to reach out to others and bring out the best in them through in-depth conversations during supervision or in morning talks with colleagues. Even though I was dying inside, I always came to work with positive attitude, a smile, and people picked up on that energy.

I provided guidance to some with their career goals, assisted with developing their voice and professionalism in the work environment. I had somehow helped others become acclimated to the job and feel like they were productive and contributed.

When I reflected on what kept me going, I remembered the four things listed below were key:

1. Shift gears with your thoughts.

We can control our thoughts by monitoring them, and when we find ourselves having negative thoughts, change it to something positive. With self-talk we can be proactive and plant the thoughts we want.

For example, there were times I would feel sick before heading into the office and I told myself how much I hated being there. But changing my thought from “I don’t want to be here” to “What can I do to help someone today?” allowed me to open myself up to the possibilities for each day.

2. Meditation is key.

Spend at least ten minutes in the morning quiet and doing nothing before starting your work; prepare your mind for the day. A prepared mind will help you to sustain the stresses that life will place on you. You will feel the pressure, but when you are mentally prepared it will be much easier to cope with them.

3. Get pumped up.

Before heading into the office listen to a song that motivates you, makes you feel good, and will push you. This can be your song of the day to play at your desk to keep you going. Two of my songs were “Happy” by Pharrell and “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves.

4. It is what it is.

When challenges are out of your control at work, don’t beat yourself up. Accept what it is. By accepting the things that you have no control over, you will have the energy to concentrate on the things that you can control. You will end up maintaining your happiness, and perhaps even your sanity.

When you find yourself in a situation where there’s too much that you simply cannot accept, or that is unhealthy to accept, it is time to take responsibility for making a change. Instead of staying in a situation that will build bitterness and resentment, start looking for something new that will contribute more positively to your life.

—

In the end, through my unhappiness, I had somehow been encouraging, supportive, and motivating to others. I shared my sense of humor and brought out the humor in others. In what I deemed as a professional failing nightmare, I unknowingly had brought positive energy and a boost to others.

How you respond in tough situations may unknowingly help others, as well.

Man meditating at work image via Shutterstock

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How to Motivate Your Employees to Peak Performance

Discovering how to motivate your employees is incredibly important to your business success as a manager and for the success of your employees.

How do you keep your employees motivated and enjoying their job every day that they come to work?

Watch this video, learn the best way to motivate your employees to peak performance.

THE KEY TO CREATING PEAK PERFORMANCE AT WORK

The key to creating a peak performance organization is to create a high self-esteem environment by removing the fears of failure and rejection that inhibit personal performance. The manager who creates a positive, high-self-esteem workplace will have higher performance, lower absenteeism, lower employee turnover, higher productivity, and fewer mistakes.

HOW TO MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES: 2 BASIC WORKPLACE NEEDS

To perform at their best, individuals have two basic needs in the world of work:

1) The Autonomy Need. The first is called “the autonomy need.” This is the need to be seen and respected as an individual, and to stand out for one’s personal performance. It is a need to be recognized for individual achievement or the “I am special” need.

2) The Dependency Need. The second need that each person has in the workplace, is “the dependency need.” This is the need that people have to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. People want to be part of a team. It is the need to feel recognized and accepted as part of a group of people in the workplace.

Good organizations and good managers create environments where people feel both autonomous and important, on the one hand, and have their dependency needs satisfied by making them feel as if they are part of a team; part of the whole organization. The reward structures in excellent organizations are designed to reward not only autonomous performance but also team performance.

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION: USING POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT AT WORK

The key factor in employee motivation is one thing: the nexus between the manager and the managed. It is what takes place at the moment of contact or communication between the manager and the employee that is the key determinant of performance, effectiveness, productivity, output and profitability of an organization. The point at which the two people connect, whether positively or negatively, is where the past, present and future performance of the individual and the organization is determined.

When this contact between the boss and the subordinate is positive, supportive and encouraging of self-esteem and a positive self-image, then performance, productivity and output of the individual will reach its highest level.

LOW SELF-ESTEEM WORK ENVIRONMENT: THE WORST WAY TO GAIN EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

If this point of contact between the manager and the managed is negative for any reason at all, performance and output will decline. A negative relationship with the boss will trigger fears of failure, rejection and disapproval. If the boss is negative for any reason, people will play it safe, and only do exactly what they need to do to avoid being fired.

Almost everyone has worked in a low self-esteem environment. These are usually remembered as the worst jobs the person ever had. Everything you do to improve this intersection or contact improves the overall quality of your work life, no matter where you are on the ladder of management.

The more effective you can become in eliciting peak performance from each of your staff members, the more and better people you will be given to manage for it. The top managers and leaders of today are those who are capable of eliciting extraordinary performance from ordinary people.

CONCLUSION

Effective managers are intensely action-oriented. When they hear a good idea, they move quickly to implement the idea and put it into action. Therefore, if you hear about anything that you think can help you to motivate your staff to a higher level, don’t delay. Practice it immediately, that very day. You will be amazed at the results.


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