Word-Of-the-Week #751: Exhilarating
December 27, 2018 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #751: Exhilarating
Exhilarating – beyond exciting; joyful; cheerful.
How has the Holiday Season been for you? Did it make you feel cheerful and joyful? How often would you say that your life is “beyond exciting?”
This week’s a good time for reflection and making decisions that will affect the coming New Year. Today features excerpts by Tony Schwartz from The Harvard Business Review on “The Exhilarating Power of Purpose.”
“I had just woken up in a hotel in San Jose, California, last week and I was brushing my teeth when I suddenly felt a powerful wave of something I can only describe as joy. Perhaps oddly, it was about my work. I love what I do, virtually every aspect of it. That amazes me, because what I do is run a business — a consulting business — which is something I never imagined myself doing.
I became a journalist, right around the time Woodward and Bernstein broke the Watergate story. I wanted to break big stories, rock the establishment, expose injustice, and make a difference.
I rarely felt my work was making much of a positive difference in the world. In several instances, I took on assignments simply to make money. I rarely loved what I was doing, and over time, I got to like it less and less. Eventually, I concluded I didn’t like writing itself, and that I’d chosen it mostly because I was better at it than anything else.
Finally, in 1999, I switched careers entirely. I’d always been deeply interested in human behavior, and especially in how and why people grow, develop, and perform at their best. The career change was an opportunity to work with a sports psychologist named Jim Loehr, who had come up with fascinating ways to help athletes perform better under pressure.
In 2003, I went off and founded my own company, The Energy Project, with a broader mandate to help organizations do a better job of energizing, engaging, focusing, and inspiring their employees, not just by better meeting their needs physically, but also emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
I’ve met relatively few people in any corporation who feel passionate about their work, and only a handful of leaders who communicate a strong sense of purpose to employees — who make them believe that what they’re doing really matters.
There are many companies whose products and services don’t add any discernible value to the greater good. But that doesn’t preclude individuals finding a purpose — a way to add value — and feeling energized by it.
- “We must not, in trying to think about how we can make the big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to the big differences we often cannot foresee.” – Marian Wright Edelman
If you’re a leader, what do you and your company truly stand for and how can you more powerfully communicate that mission to those you lead?
If you’re an employee, what can you do to invest your work with a greater sense of meaning and value?
This week’s focus is to examine what is exhilarating for you. What things make you feel cheerful and joyful? What are you doing that gives you a sense of purpose? What would you like to do that would be beyond exciting?
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Word-Of-the-Week #749: Advice
December 13, 2018 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #749: Advice
Advice – an opinion that someone gives you about what you should do.
How receptive are you to getting advice? Do you trust your own gut instincts?
This is a follow up to last week’s Opinion. I think there are people who mistake an opinion for advice. When someone offers their opinion that’s all it is. If they’re telling you that you should do something or act differently that becomes advice.
“The trouble with advice is that it’s usually something you don’t want to hear.”
– CHARLES DE LINT, The Onion Girl
In pondering this I realized I prefer advice when I have asked for it. How many times have you gotten unsolicited advice? How did it make you feel? Basically for me it brings up feelings of “I know better than you do” and superiority. Does it seem like the one’s giving unsolicited advice a lot of the time are those people closest to you?
I like to share and receive information, reviews, etc. Sharing information is not giving advice but actually a way to receive advice or validation. It really comes down to how that information is presented and perceived.
“Before you give advice, that is to say advice which you have not been asked to give, it is well to put to yourself two questions–namely, what is your motive for giving it, and what is it likely to be worth? If these questions were always asked, and honestly answered, there would be less advice given.”
– JOHN WILLIAM MACKAIL, “On Giving Advice”
When I travel I have always asked people their advice on places I haven’t been to and it has served me well! That being said, it is my gut feeling that ultimately decides whether to use the advice or not. I can’t explain why I believe some people and not others.
“I only do what my gut tells me to. I think it’s smart to listen to other people’s advice, but at the end of the day, you’re the only one who can tell you what’s right for you”
– JENNIFER LOPEZ, Woman’s Day Magazine, Nov. 13, 2007
This week is all about advice. Do you have a tendency to give it more than you take it? How about your family members? This is the time of year when you see more of them and a reminder that they may be just giving their opinion and not advice!
PS – I write about that which I need to be reminded of or that resonates with me. And things that I would like to or will say to someone I love and care deeply about. I try to keep my emotions out of my WOW’s but they have a way of creeping in! Pretty much like my life 😊
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Word-Of-the-Week #748: Opinion
December 6, 2018 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #748: Opinion
Opinion – a judgment or belief not founded on certainty or proof.
Do you trust your own judgment? Are you bothered when others what to share their opinion? Have you ever questioned why that is?
Steve Strauss, author of STEVE’S 3-MINUTE COACHING, once again has great insight to share.
Quote: The Opinions of Others
(Quotes are capsules of information, reinforcement or enlightenment.)
“Don’t let the opinions of the average man sway you.
Dream, and he thinks you’re crazy.
Succeed, and he thinks you’re lucky.
Acquire wealth, and he thinks you’re greedy.
Pay no attention. He simply doesn’t understand.”
– Robert Allen
Coaching Point: What is so compelling about the opinions of others? Why do we let them affect us so much? Can’t we trust ourselves?
This week is all about understanding what an opinion is. It’s just someone else’s belief. It doesn’t make it right or wrong. How would it feel to listen without being emotional? And vice versa, how would it feel to express your opinion without getting emotional? How it easy would it be for you to say, “It’s just their opinion”?
And if you want more, check out Opinions Are Like Belly Buttons.
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