A gift for you

Prompted by Chip Conley’s book, Peak, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking about Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  As many of you know, Maslow was a psychologist who developed a categorization of basic needs that all humans require to be fulfilled to be well, to thrive.

(If you are not familiar with Maslow’s pyramid, check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs).

My theory is that most, if not all, of us are seriously lacking in fulfillment of our basic needs.  I also believe that this lack drives most of our behaviour.  I was driving my hubby to work this morning (because he had a tough week and I figured he deserved the treat) and was observing the other drivers’ behaviours — she cut me off because she NEEDED to be one whole space ahead in traffic, he raced ahead because he COULDN’T stand to be behind the guy who was going a bit slow.  I bet that all the people who behaved inappropriately on the road lacked fulfillment of some basic need this morning.  Perhaps they didn’t get enough sleep, or they didn’t get a hug, or they are going to a job where people don’t respect them, or they don’t see how whatever they will be doing today serves any kind of purpose.

So, how do we make this better?  I think the first step is for each one of us to notice which of our needs are not being fulfilled and to try to do something about it.  That means asking ourselves some tough questions and seeing if there is some small action we can take to move forward towards fulfillment.  Unfortunately, when we are at our most vulnerable, when our needs are not being met, we’re not usually in a good position to figure out what to do to meet them.

So here is what I propose.  When you have some spare time, create a gift box for yourself.  Get yourself a nice box or envelope, preferably wrapped like a gift. Then, write down on small pieces of paper all kinds of things you could do to  fulfill your basic needs.  Things like taking a nap when you are particularly tired, getting some fresh air, calling up your Mom or a mentor or your best friend and asking for help, hugging a pet, playing with a child, tinkering with the car or some other project what you get totally immersed in, completing a simple task that gives you a sense of satisfaction (like cleaning out a closet), reading a novel, going to the gym and NOT answering the phone… anything that is FOR YOU and helps you meet your needs.  Put the pieces of paper in the box and keep your box somewhere precious where you will be able to access it when you need it.

Then, next time you are feeling low or frazzled or worried, open your box and give yourself a gift…grab one of the pieces of paper and do what it says.  I think you’ll find that you’ll feel a lot better, more able to cope with life, and a lot happier.

Today, I’m giving myself the gift of lunch with a friend — I spent the day yesterday waiting for good news that never arrived and I’m really drained…I think I deserve a smile and some good company, along with a nice plate of spaghetti.

Please let me know what you suggest for the gift box — perhaps we can all share our ideas!

My Year in the Master Key System – Part 6

I didn’t really understand Part 6 when I first read it.  Sure, some comments made sense.  For example, when speaking about being open to messages from the Universe, Charles Haanel says that “the receiver must be in tune with the transmitter”.  So if we want to receive messages that help us create success and happiness in our lives, we have to be aligned with the Universe.  To me, this means being aligned with creation (rather than competition), following the purpose for which we’ve been put on this planet, and, as Haanel says, being aligned with the concept “The greatest good to the greatest number”.  We can’t simply follow selfish purposes that bring us good things without consideration of others.

But then Part 6 starts talking about mental power and how it depends on the mechanism to which we attach thought.  That’s where I started getting lost.  Haanel says that the mechanism is our brain, so the source of our mental power is how we apply thought in our brain.  After rereading Part 6 several times, I think I’m starting to understand what he means.  The brain is the mechanism by which we create that which we think about.  How could the brain do this?  Well, it is attached to the body, in fact it directs everything the body does.  So the “mechanism” is not only the brain, but also what the brain can direct the body to do.  According to Haanel, the body can cause the “elimination of any undesirable effect” and the creation of any desirable effect.

But this takes considerable focus and concentration.  And, as mentioned above, it also means that the mind has to become a good receiver, so that clear messages are received about how to get the brain to direct the body to do the things that will bring us what we want.

As mentioned in the post on Part 5, this means that I must act to get what I want, and now I know that if I discipline my mind, I will receive messages that tell me WHAT to do to actually create the life I desire.  That’s a great relief for me — I don’t have to spend hours trying to figure out the right things to do, the right path to take, and then wondering if I’ve made the right choices.  I’m better off focusing instead on disciplining my mind, waiting for the messages to come, and then following them.

So, back to “practice, practice, practice”!  See you in a couple of weeks!

My Year in the Master Key System – Part Five

I ended off my last blog posting with the words “practice, practice, practice”.  The point being that to develop the ability to create our future, we have to develop mental discipline and focus, and the only way to do that is to practice each day.

Part Five of Charles Haanel’s program introduces another concept to this mental discipline.  As mentioned in previous sections, he reminds us that negative thinking and emotions – fear, anxiety, doubt, worry – bring us a negative future.  Haanel suggests that part of our daily “mental workshop” needs to be to do a mental housecleaning: clear out all the negative to leave space for only the positive.

In the movie The Secret, there is a visual that I find useful when I think about the impact of my negative thinking.  A woman is seated at a table and is thinking about being alone, and you see this ripple in the air, as her thoughts emanate out into the world.  I keep that image in my mind when I want to remind myself to clear out my negative thinking before it has a chance to ripple out and affect my future.  And I immediately send out a stronger ripple of positive thought and emotion to cancel out the effect of any negative thinking I’ve been sending out unconsciously.

Part Five of the Master Key System brings us another new message: to gain the power to create our future, we need to do three things: 1) earnestly desire it; 2) assert your claim; and, 3) take possession.  I understand the “earnestly desire it” part: as Haanel and others such as Wallace D. Wattles in “The Science of Getting Rich” tell us, we need to create a clear mental picture of what we want and infuse it with energy and emotion to give it power.

Next comes “assert your claim”.  We can’t just sit back and wait for “it” (whatever “it” is for you) to come, we have to go out and get it.  In the movie “Eat, Pray, Love”, Liz tells a story about a man who prayed daily to win the lottery, and finally he receives the message “go and buy a ticket!”.  We have to buy our ticket, we have to pave the way for the good things we want to come to us.  You won’t meet your life partner sitting alone watching romantic movies.  You won’t create your dream job by playing Farmville on Facebook.  You won’t get to travel the world if you don’t go get a passport.  Nike said it best: “just do it!”.

Finally, “take possession”.  For me, this means that you need to live what you are creating, so that it comes into your life gradually and naturally.  Are you an aspiring author?  Dress like an author, go to places authors go to, read what authors read.  Do you want to be a parent?  Read parenting books, hang out at playgrounds, browse the aisles at Toys R Us.  But beware, because there is a risk that you get depressed by being around that which seems so elusive right now.  That’s where your mental practice comes into play: remember to turn off the negative thinking and tell yourself three things that are great about what you are living right now.

This morning, as I work to create my future, I have some “asserting” and “taking” to do, along with my mental practice and visualization of what I want to create.  What will you do?

My Year in the Master Key System — Part Four

So, what have you been focusing on over the last few weeks?  I have to admit that I’ve been very caught up with the Holiday season and not very much with the mental practice I started a few months ago with the Master Key System.  But the beauty of this program of study is that the core ideas stick with you if you read them over often enough, so that they filter through even in the busiest moments.  And I notice that while very old habits tend to take over, they are slowly being shifted to incorporate the key ideas that Charles Haanel brings forward in his work.

Take, for example, the key elements of this week’s study.  I see three main ideas that pull together to give us the power and ability to draw what we want into our lives.  First, the concept of “give to get” – being of service to others and giving, in order to receive what we want.  But the model that I learned over the years of watching my mother and her mother slave in the kitchen, while everyone else sat around and ate, are not what Haanel is talking about.  Because he also stresses that we must take care of ourselves, that we “cannot be helpful unless we are strong”.  So my hours of work have been interspersed with hours of rest, play, sleep and time for me.  I’ve come to understand that it is, in fact, a cycle – take care of myself in order to have the energy to give, then give because it is the right thing to do, and then be ready to receive, which will re-energize me.  The Master Key System also says that “every transaction must benefit every person who is in any way connected with the transaction”, because we are each one of us part of the Universal whole.  So selfless, martyr-like giving is no longer part of my Holiday season tradition.

A second concept highlighted in Part Four is aligning our vision and actions with the Universe, in other words, “the higher, loftier, grander and more noble ideals which you can conceive,” the more we are able to achieve these ideas because they are aligned with the creative flow of the Universe.  Reminds me of a scene in a science-fiction movie I watched yesterday, Contact (Jodie Foster, 1997).  Foster is an astronomer who is the sole passenger on a spacecraft headed for the Vega system; after experiencing violent vibrations when strapped to her seat, she realizes that if she releases the straps, she floats effortlessly inside the craft.  She has picked up on one of Haanel’s important concepts: don’t fight the Universal flow just because you NEED to be right, open your mind to the fact that there may be an easier way to get things done.

And the final concept that pulls the Master Key System message together this week is the part that gives us the power to make what we want happen: mental and emotional strength.  This strength comes from regular practice, so that we learn how to focus better, how to seek out silence and repose to regenerate, how to channel our emotions to increase the power of our thoughts, and how to eliminate destructive thoughts.

Practice, practice, practice.  At this time of year, we often set New Year’s resolutions to start exercising more.  Why not resolve to exercise our minds on a regular basis, just like going to the gym, to make 2012 a GREAT year?

Votre avantage compétitif en 2012

Vous avezrenouvelé votre site Web, vous bloguez régulièrement et votre page Facebook aplusieurs « j’aime ».  Vousavez lu tous les revues de succès et de gestion, vous avez une copie des plusrécents livres de stratégie en affaires sur votre table de nuit, et vous avezpassé plusieurs heures à écouter des webinars et à participer à des conférenceset événements de réseautage.

Alors, vousavez l’avantage compétitif, oui?  NON!  Parce que tous vos concurrents ont faitexactement la même chose.  Le Marketing2.0 et l’économie globale ont égalisé le terrain de jeu – les « top »joueurs dans chaque industrie ont l’air tous pareil.  Et l’année 2012 n’apportera rien de nouveau,sauf si vous pensez que créer un compte Google+ trois jours avant votre plusimportant concurrent va faire la différence.

Qu’est-ceque vous pourrez possiblement faire en 2012 qui fera la différence?  Qu’est-ce que vous avez que vos concurrents n’ontpas, et que vous pourrez utiliser pour créer un avantage compétitif?    Pour commencer,vous avec… vous.  Et vous avez vospartenaires, vos employés et vos sous-traitants.

Mais, vous aveztiré la dernière once de productivité de votre équipe déjà épuisée.  Tous vos vendeurs ont déjà participé dans lameilleure des formations de ventes et vos processus de service à la clientèleviennent d’être changés à cause de plusieurs plaintes de vos clients.  Votre équipe de marketing semble avoir perdusa créativité, votre chef de finance essaie tout simplement de vous maintenir àflot durant cette récession sans fin et les RH ont de la difficulté à trouverassez de personnes qualifiées pour remplir les quelques postes que vous avezapprouvés.

Laissez-moivous donner quelques statistiques qui pourraient vous faire penser différemmentdes choses :

• Les vendeurs optimistes vendent 56% de plus que leur homologues pessimistes;
• Les employés heureux prennent, en moyenne, 15 jours de congé de maladie de moins que leurs collègues malheureux;
• 360 $ milliards sont perdus chaque année aux É-U dû à la baisse de productivité cause par des mauvaises relations entre les employés et leur superviseur;
• La foi d’un employé dans sa capacité est un plus important facteur prédictif de sa performance en milieu de travail que son niveau de compétence ou de formation;
• Une étude chez KPMG démontre que la formation en psychologie positive était la cause d’une augmentation en satisfaction de vie, un des plus importants facteurs prédictifs de la productivité et la performance en milieu de travail.

C’est çaqui sera votre avantage compétitif en 2012 – l’avantage humain.  L’investissement dans le développement d’une main-d’œuvreheureuse (y inclus vous!) peut vous donner un important avantage sur vosconcurrents.  Pendent qu’ils se grattentla tête, essayant de continuer à faire plus avec moins, vous serez un employeurrecherché, qui jouit d’une équipe heureuse, optimiste, créative et innovatricequi contribue à vos résultats financiers.

Vous voulezsavoir comment?  Revenez demain pour ladeuxième partie de ce blogue : comment incorporer les concepts clés de lapsychologie positive dans votre organisation.

Your Competitive Edge in 2012

You’ve updated your aging website, you blog regularly andyour Facebook fan page has lots of followers.  You’ve read every success and management magazine,you have a copy of the most trendy business strategy books on your nightstand, andyou spent several hours listening to webinars and attending conferences andnetworking events.

So, you’ve got the competitive edge, right?  Wrong, because your competitors have all donethe exact same thing.  Marketing 2.0 and theglobal economy have evened out the playing field – the leading players in anyindustry essentially all look alike. 2012 doesn’t promise to bring anything new, unless you think thatcreating a Google+ account three days before your closest competitor does willtruly make a difference.

What could you possibly do in 2012 that will make adifference?  What do you have that yourcompetitors don’t, that you can use to create a competitive edge?  Well, to start with, you have you.  And you have your partners, employees andcontractors.

But, you’ve squeezed every ounce of productivity out of yourexhausted workforce.  All yoursalespeople have attended the best sales training and your customer servicedepartment just underwent an overhaul due to too many customer complaints.  Your marketing department seems to have losttheir creativity, your finance group is just trying to keep your corporate headabove water in this endless recession, and HR is having a hard time findingenough qualified people to fill the few job openings you’ve dared toapprove.

Let me give you a few statistics that might make you think differentlyabout things:

• Optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by 56%;
• Happy employees take, on average, 15 less sick days per year than their unhappy colleagues;
• $360B is lost each year in the U.S. due to reduced productivity caused by poor relationships between employees and their supervisors;
• An employee’s belief in his or her ability is a stronger predictor of job performance than his or her actual level of skill or training;
• A study at KPMG reported that positive psychology training was responsible for improving life satisfaction, one of the most crucial predictors of productivity and performance in the workplace.

This will be your competitive edge in 2012 – the human edge.  Investing in developing a happy workforce(and this includes you) can provide you with a huge edge over yourcompetitors.  While they are scratchingtheir heads, trying to figure out how to continue doing more with less, youwill become an employer of choice, reaping the many benefits of a happy,optimistic, creative, and innovative team of contributors to your bottom line.

Want to know how? Check in tomorrow for part two of this blog: how to incorporate the keyconcepts of positive psychology into your organization.

Welcome / Bienvenue !

This is just a beginning of something great — stay tuned!