The Solution Within

It’s quite amazing how many people go through their lives with very little thought as to where they are heading with it.

There is an accepted lifecycle assigned to everyone and most of us seem to just fall into it and ‘live’ it out as if there was no alternative.

There are some truly disturbing statistics about people’s lives, most of it relates to their financial status at retirement time but I won’t scare you with that, you can research it by yourself if you have not heard it all before. But what is even more disturbing is the quality and ‘purposeless-ness’ of their lives which is difficult to measure or put into statistics, yet is all around us.

I don’t want to point fingers at anyone, all you have to do is look around and you’ll see what I mean. I often look at people with drug and alcohol problems or even history of selfharm, suicide. I think it is getting worse and I just couldn’t help myself from wondering why that is.

I don’t claim to know all the reasons for it or be an expert in this field, however, I have a keen eye and lived enough, both in years and experience, to have found some of the common reasons why that is and what some of the solutions might be to this problem.

But the way I see it, one of the biggest problems is this lack of purpose people find in their lives. The other is the lack of time or, for one reason or another, commitment to finding out about it.

It is not easy to stop and look at one’s life and it is even more difficult to face up to the reasons why someone’s life may have no purpose or is ‘in a mess’. The lack of unbiased, friendly and in some cases anonymous help make this even more difficult. I haven’t done any research (yet) on how good free, anonymous phone-in help lines are. But I would not be surprised if they were very, very busy. I say this because of a personal experience I had as a young university student.

I had some problems in my life and thought there was no one I could talk to. So, after some struggle within myself I decided to drop in at the university’s own counseling service. I’d explained that I had some problems I really needed to discuss with someone. They started asking my name, address, what course I was attending etc, etc, etc. Two minutes into this ‘conversation’ I thought to myself “hang on, I don’t want to be a statistic, I just need someone to talk to… now.” It was hard enough to come up with the courage and come to a complete stranger and own up that I do have a problem that I don’t think I can solve on my own and need some else’s help, let alone being quizzed about things which should not really matter, not just now anyway.

So, I promptly turned around and left without saying much. I don’t think they’d kept my record, need to keep the paperwork down, you know… Anyway, I got myself an ice cream, two scoops just to be on the safe side and had a loooong walk in the city churning over thoughts after thoughts in my head. It was one of the worst and best days of my life. The worst because I realized I was only a number at the university and I did not get the help I needed so very much and I also realised I did not have anyone close enough to talk to about my problems. And the best because in the long walk I’d allowed myself some ‘time-out’. Allowed myself to stop and think about what was happening to me, why I was having the problems I was so desperately seeking solution to and why I felt so alone. I’d found time enough to clear my head and find the solution from within… I can’t remember what route I took, where I ended up walking to. But I can clearly remember every thought I had on that day and this was more than 20 years ago…

Since then I’ve learnt to rely more on my own abilities and realised that all solutions have to come from within. You are the only person who knows everything about yourself and this makes you the only person qualified to find the right solution for your problems. Sometimes it seems easier to try and find someone to help you, in a sense put the responsibility on them. But to be as blunt as I can, you are the only person to whom your problems matters the most. It is good and you should discuss things with others, use as them as sounding boards, source for inspiration and encouragement but at the end of the day you have to solve your problems from within. You have to look at your life and find a direction and purpose for it.

Ference is self-help author and an inspirational speaker. He now lives in New Zealand, enjoys life and helping others to live their lives to the fullest. You can contact Ference at ference_kish@yahoo.co.nz or you can visit his site http://www.SelfUnleashed.com

Keeping You Confident!

We can all be confident when we are sure of ourselves and knowledgeable about the situation in which we find ourselves. But what happens when we are not so sure and when we are forced to step outside our comfort zone? What happens to our thinking?

First we need to control our thinking then we need to develop techniques for remaining confident in a wide variety of scenarios and to catch ourselves when confidence begins to wane.

11 Techniques to Boost Self-Confidence

First of all let’s demolish a myth that some people believe about confidence …… You don’t have to be an expert in something to have confidence.

You can have 2 people learning a new task, and one person is learning to do the task with confidence, while the other is making lots of mistakes and getting flustered. It’s not about how well you do a particular task, but how you feel inside as you are doing it that makes you confident. If I had to choose to be confident in one area only, I would make that area ‘learning whilst making mistakes’.

First identify a situation where you would like to be more confident, for example:

o In meetings with an important person

o Giving presentations

o Giving honest feedback

o Visiting a client

o In a sales context

o Networking with friends and prospective business associates

o Meeting new friends

o At parties

o Beginning a new hobby/evening class

Write your situation here:

TECHNIQUE 1 - Context Switch

List 5 situations, in a similar context to the one you have identified above, where you are usually confident.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Next, imagine you are re-enacting one of the contexts above, feeling very confident, and answer the following questions:

1. How do you feel when you have this confidence?

2. How do you hold yourself?

3. What is going through your mind?

4. Do you have any inner dialogue? What is it saying?

5. On what are you focusing your attention?

Now adopt the thinking, inner dialogue, posture and emotions you have when confident, at times where you are lacking confidence.

The above extract is taken from our e-book Keeping You Confident

This 33 page e-book shows how confidence is dependent upon the way we think, and focuses on 11 techniques for boosting self-confidence in any situation, among strangers as well as contemporaries. Some of the other techniques in the e-book are:

o Sphere of Confidence

o Smile at your thoughts

o Compete with Yourself

o The Breath of Confidence

o Adopt Confident Gestures

More details at: http://quadrant1.co.uk/cat.php?cat=24

Choosing an Apprentice

Along the path from where you are now to millions in revenue, thousands in readers, tens of thousands of prospects, or hundreds of clients — whatever criteria you use to define success for your coaching…there us is one key speedbump which is seldom talked about.

That is capacity.

This is especially true as your revenues grow up to six figures and you set your sights on building a seven-figure legacy business with a global impact.

How do you get your head around this problem? What secrets will ease your way through the growing pains?

In all the many thousands of hours of consulting, coaching and training I’ve done, there is only one key I’ve found to date that doesn’t require significant cash investment. And that is the concept of apprentices.

Several years ago I was one of those apprentices.

I’d been running my own recruitment business for some time, and had become disgruntled by putting great people into heirarchical organizations that stifled creativity and disregarded the whole person.

I decided to take a sabbatical and paid for supplies to begin volunteering with the Coaching Scoop’s Real Interviews project for Steve Davis and Thomas Leonard of CoachVille.

Some might say I had found myself a real winner of an apprenticeship program.

I tell you this story for two reasons.

(1) You may find yourself wishing for an apprenticeship for yourself, from time to time. It’s a great way to move quickly into new areas by finding a mentor who will trade you a lifetime of wisdom for your legwork.

(2) Regardless of where you think you ‘are’ in your work, you are ready for an apprentice. Because the benefits of an apprentice are in fact much greater to you than just the added pair of willing hands.

What you teach, you become.

And what you teach, also becomes your legacy.

As you mentor your apprentices, there is a point at which they become your proteges.

This is a tipping point that occurs when the apprentice graduates from learning to creating.

A few things to bear in mind as you prepare for apprentices:

(1) Don’t change what you do.

Design the apprentice relationships so that it doesn’t disrupt your productivity. Allow your apprentice to come into your existing set up. The key at the beginning is to increase your capacity, not add capacity.

Your apprentice is someone you invite to your house without cleaning up first. Soon enough, they’ll be helping you tidy things.

(2) Pick certain people for your apprentices. There are two main criteria.

You must like and respect them.

They should be entrepreneurially minded, meaning either they have run a business of their own OR they were brought up by familiy who did.

The latter covers just about every other characteristic you could want: loyalty, hard work, a sense of urgency, and a problem solving orientation.

(3) Use technology and systems to support the addition of new people to your business.

The most basic and essential way to induct an apprentice is to set up a system of shadowing. The simplest way is to set up your email so that a copy gets sent to your apprentice.

That’s a natural part of the selection process because the apprentice - mentor relationship can rely quite a bit on personal chemistry and whether or not the visions align.

Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J. Leonard’s General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. This is an excerpt from the her NEW BOOK - Multiple Streams of Coaching Income, http://www.multiplestreamsofcoachingincome.com

Getting Out Of Dodge

The freeway was relatively clear. It was early in the morning as we rushed in south-southwest direction out of town. The lights of the city were still burning brightly at this early hour of the morning, but they became smaller and farther away as we raced off in our chosen direction….to freedom!!

And so it is.

Every once in a while we just need to get out of town. Anyone out there old enough to remember the old T.V. series, “Gunsmoke”, would also know the reference of “getting out of Dodge”.

The lights of the city are alluring. The necessity of taking up residence is important for us in the occupations and responsibilities and demands of life. We need to eat. We need to live. But sometimes we just need to get out of town. Even if for nothing more than a very short break from the consuming chores and cares of our daily lives.

And a side note: It’s more fun to get out of Dodge with someone special. We talk, we read, and we sing together. We curl up with each other and watch the miles passing by. But do it together. The escape to freedom is so much sweeter when you escape with someone you love!

Bob Curtis has been writing articles, short fiction, and poetry for over 30 years. He is currently the managing director of People4People.blogspot.com, and is the president of Nexus Publishing, nexus4u.blogspot.com.

Positive Mind, Successful Life

It took me a long time to realise the benefits of positive thinking. I had often heard people mention that if you think positive, positive things will happen to you, I used to think they were a bit weird. I now believe they were right and this article explains why.

Growing up through the difficult teenage years and into my early twenties, I felt very sorry for myself. I used to think I was the most unluckiest person in the world. I had a bald patch the size of a ten pence piece on my head, a speech impediment(stutter), I was overweight to the point of being fat, and was short for a male(5ft4).

I believed that I received more mickey taking out of me than anyone else, and life was certainly a struggle. To meet members of the opposite sex when you have a lack of confidence and a speech impediment is not easy. To gain work, order drinks, socialise in general, these were all difficult for me. Everyone else seemingly breezed and eased there way through life.

One day I was at work and a colleague of mine who was about thirty years older than me, commented that I was a very depressive person. I disagreed with him and was quite shocked, I believed that most people worried and stressed about things. He went on by stating that I was always negative about most things in life, always moaning about this or that and very rarely smiled. He went on to say that he had used to be like me, always depressed, moody and stressed until he was given some advice when he was aged thirty. He then proceeded to give me the same advice.

THE ADVICE:

When you feel down, depressed and sorry for yourself, watch the news and read the newspapers and you will see that there are many people worse off than you, and that you are actually one of the lucky ones.

I thought about this and started to follow what he had said. I now realise how stupid I had been. To be born and live in the UK, I am one of the lucky ones.

Stephen Hill has a number of websites including:

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Be Creative: 10 Easy Steps To Increase Your Confidence, Creativity and Cash In The Attention Economy

How can you be more creative? How can you turn creative ideas into cash. Want to be better at creative thinking?

In Australia at the moment we are celebrating the Australian Innovation Festival.

This years theme is Innovation and You.

The festival was established to celebrate the best in Australian innovation.

According to the official brochure innovation can be defined as “a process that transfers ideas through business activity into saleable goods, processes and services”.

I have been proud to present a range of seminars as part of the festival and attend the official launch.

I was impressed by guest speaker, John Howkins who is a leading figure in global communications, media and entertainment. I’m currently reading his groundbreaking book The Creative Economy.

As I sat, listened and then reflected on his presentation, here is my analysis distilled down into my Top 10 Tips:

1. Create a Confidence Culture.
Don’t rely only on your own individual talent to have and implement ideas. When you have ideas you need to convince people to invest in those ideas. This relies on your confidence and ability to persuade people to turn a dream into reality. If you’re not confident in your idea how can you convince others to invest time, money and resources in it?

2. Sit and Think and Look and Question.
The best answers to problems are solved by observation, analysis and insight. Take time out to practice these too often lost skills. Appreciate time working on your own. As Dr Karl Kruszelnicki says in his IQ case study on Nobel Prize Winners (who by the way have normal IQs around the 120 mark), “its not the answers that get you to the blue hall, but the questions!”

3. Attitude.
Ideas are available to anyone. All you need is your brain because it is made up of perceptions and memories which form inherited ideas. Put the priority on ideas rather than data. In our democratic and populist societies, we’re seeing the rise of the individual. Be an individual to stand out from the crowd and nurture your uniqueness, but also be a team player. This unique combination is essential for success.

It is a credo I live by. Framed hanging on the wall in my office in a prominent position is a poster with my logo and this message:

“OUR CORE VALUES. The following values are actively fostered, encouraged and central to the way we do business:
Creativity
Excellence
Service
Teamwork”

Have an attitude, live it and be consistent.

4. Be Competitive and Tough.
The barriers of entry for new ideas are extremely low, even non-existent. You need to outsmart your competition and understand patents, copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property laws that protect ideas. What business is about, is not the technology, but about ideas and the application and protection of ideas.

Howkins compares the examples of two brilliant men, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and inventor of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee. Gates protected his idea and is now the wealthiest man on the planet. Berners-Lee didn’t and yet his invention has changed the way we communicate.

5. The Ability To Change People’s Mind.
Being part of the creative economy is about changing people’s minds. If you want your ideas to be taken seriously, you need to have outstanding persuasion and influence skills.

6. Learn Endlessly.
Ideas are about doing something different and better. Borrow. Innovate. In beautiful Perth where I live, as well as the low cost of living, stunning lifestyle and great weather - we have another advantage. I call it the isolation, ideas and innovation factor. We live in the most isolated city in the world and this is both a negative and positive. The positive is remoteness breeds creativity. When you stop learning, you stop being creative.

7. Excel In The Attention Economy
We now live in an economy where creativity, the media and entertainment dominate. It seeps into every crease, fold and cranny in our lives. Learn to excel in this economy. Understand the pressures and the principles of living in this age.

I call this a time when the Three C’s of Change are on the increase:

Chaos,
Clutter, and
Competition
Chaos - Our lives are getting busier and busier and more and more chaotic as we sift through the masses of information coming at us.

Clutter - This mass of information is getting held up, like grains of sand in an hourglass, and the sheer volume is cluttering up our lives and decision-making processes.

Competition - It is an increasingly competitive marketplace now, with me too brands, look at me brands, and global brands dominating the marketplace. It is increasingly difficult to be truly unique and standout from the crowd.

8. To Make A Mistake Is Not To Fail.
There’s a well-known saying along the lines of “a mistake is only a mistake if you don’t learn from it”. The rate of failure is high within an economy built on ideas. That failure can be at a personal, company or even Government policy level. Learn how to deal with failure and manage it. Traditionally bureaucrats have focussed on policy and businesses avoid risk.

When a senior executive at the ABC, I always found this a challenge as a manager. A delicate balancing act was required to encourage creativity to make good programs on the one hand, while working within a dinosaur-like, bureacratic, public service culture where policy and process dominate. I learnt the hard way there is an unstable relationship between creativity, innovation and bureacracy. You can read a full article about these challenges originally published in The West Australian newspaper in November 2000 here.

9. Build A Powerful Personal Brand.
How creative you are, whether your ideas are accepted and how often you fail will impact on your personal identity. Your identity is how others see you. Manage these perceptions and build a strong personal brand that is resilient, reliable and real.

10. Have Ideas, Make Fun, Make Money.
Ideas are the currency and rules by which we get access to capital. If you have the right idea, with the right support, you can have great fun and make a huge amount of money along the way.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com.

The Unknowing Mentor

You may ask, “What is an Unknowing Mentor and what am I looking for in an Unknowing Mentor?” Let’s start by explaining the concept of mentoring. Some companies utilize formal mentoring programs that pair less experienced employees (mentees) with more experienced employees (mentors) for the purpose of sharing knowledge. Mentors provide mentees with coaching, suggestions, and tips about things to watch out for in their job, ways to grow a career, etc. from the perspective of someone who has been there/done that. Mentors are typically not the mentee’s supervisor, because supervisors need to maintain an equal interest in responsibility for everyone on their team. If a supervisor was spending more time coaching/developing one particular individual over another, it could be construed as favoritism by the rest of the team. This could hurt the team’s ability to work together.

The intent of a mentoring relationship is to provide the mentee with someone to help move them along their career continuum and to be a sounding board for whatever questions, frustrations, or successes the mentee may have. The concept of an Unknowing Mentor functions a bit differently from a typical mentoring relationship because the “Unknowing Mentor” does not know they are mentoring you! You could schedule a meeting with them and let them know that you are glad they are your mentor and you are looking forward to getting to know them better. But I don’t advise that. Your Unknowing Mentor will not have a formal role in your development, but they will make a significant contribution. Being able to observe them and how they behave in the environment will give you a great deal of information to consider and use as you see fit.

I started using this method very early in my career and I was able to pick and choose various behaviors and skills from my Unknowing Mentors that helped me create my own personal style. One individual I used to work with always had managers and supervisors in his office talking over various things. I wondered, “How can I build the same rapport with people?” What I observed was that he was a good listener. When presented with a problem from someone, he did not solve it for them (although he easily could have) but instead he asked for background about the problem. How did you get here? What led to this? What else has been done? The person with the problem would talk, and as they talked, my Unknowing Mentor asked more questions. The person would start to see there were some options out there. They just needed someone to help them realize it, and my Unknowing Mentor did this by listening and asking questions.

Another Unknowing Mentor taught me how to deal with executives in an effective yet respectful way (which can be difficult from time-to-time). This same mentor also had a practice of owning a person’s problem until it was resolved. When it was necessary to pass along a request to someone else, she always told the requestor to come back to her if they did not get follow-up within a reasonable time. She would continue to carry the issue forward until the person was satisfied. Both these individuals were viewed as highly competent within our organization, motivated by the right things, and fit the culture of the company. I have been able to take their lessons, adapt them to fit my own style, and grow a bit faster professionally than if I had had to learn those lessons on my own.

Now that we’ve defined the Unknowing Mentor, where do we find one? Hopefully you will be able to find one or two potential candidates within your workgroup using the process I am about to describe. My process identifies folks who have habits and behaviors worth modeling that can lead to success in a career. I need to point out that my definition of success is not acquiring power, prestige and money but being a balanced, contributing and growing employee.

Over the years, I have started to evaluate people against three different factors. I like these factors because they are blind to any demographic indicator (race, gender, etc.) and can be measured by simple observation. I am sharing this because once explained, I feel this is a tool you can use to evaluate potential candidates for the role of your “Unknowing Mentor.” What you want to find in your work group/team/department, etc. is a person who demonstrates the positive aspects of each of the three areas I am about to explain.

The factors I use to evaluate people are:

1. How well they do what they do (Competence)

2. Why they do what they do (Motivation)

3. How well they fit within their employer’s culture (Fit with the Culture)

I define each of these in the following ways:

Competence: This is the easiest of the three to define because it describes someone who is technically good at what they do. There will usually be someone who by reputation is the “best” or one of the “top performers.” It may be the customer service rep who consistently receives high numbers for customer satisfaction, the sales rep who consistently meets or exceeds his or her targets, or the staff person who handles problems quickly and efficiently. In other words, the person knows his or her stuff and has a reputation for excellence. You can determine who meets this requirement through conversations with your manager, your peers or other folks within the group.

Your boss’ and co-workers’ opinions are equally important to your observations for this factor. Some individuals may LOOK like they know what they are doing, but they do not follow up with results or the results they provide are inaccurate. A friend of mine used the term “tennis whites,” to describe an employee who looked good but could not play. If you have ever noticed someone who is dressed in the latest gear on the ski slope, beach or tennis court but who looks totally lost when they are trying to ski, surf or play tennis, you understand what I am talking about. Your manager and co-workers will have a very strong opinion on someone like this. Any employee who talks a good game but does not deliver results impacts everyone in a negative way and usually has a reputation as such.

Motivation: Short of talking to the person to find out why they do what they do, you have to start depending on your judgment for this factor. With motivation, we are looking for someone with a work motivation based on the understanding of responsibility and the desire to deliver what they are supposed to. The best co-workers I have had were ones who understood that they had certain responsibilities and they carried through on those responsibilities because people depended on them, or because they held themselves to such a high standard of performance. These folks put a little bit of themselves into their job - not because their job defined who they were, but because they knew that whatever they did reflected back on them. They wanted to show their capabilities. If they could not deliver as promised, they made sure that you recognized such and that your needs were taken care of by whomever could do the job.

The folks who do not meet this factor are the ones who just come to work because they need the paycheck and will probably hang around until something else happens (layoff, termination, death, the lottery, etc.). They are really not interested in whether or not you get what you need or whether you get answers to other questions. If they are late with something you need, they are late. If you do not like what you received from them or what they did for you? Tough. They just work here.

You will not gain anything from observing these folks.

Fit with the Culture: This is one you will definitely have to gather from observation and it may take awhile to figure out who fits the culture. But people who fit the culture you work in carry some of the best information Unknowing Mentors can offer about how to survive in your current environment. Company cultures are defined by people, and since people are all, by nature, very different, some people thrive in certain cultures and some don’t. The people you see growing within a company are the ones who have responded well to the company’s culture, whatever that may be. Cultures tend to replicate themselves because if one type of person does well in a culture, and that culture is made of people like them, they tend to bring other people like them into the culture, and so on, and so on. This can be both good AND bad.

People with successful behaviors can bring in people with successful behaviors and conversely, people with unsuccessful behaviors can bring in people with unsuccessful behaviors. You have probably heard about “cultural change” and how it is SOOOOO difficult…almost impossible. Cultural change is difficult because there are usually a small number of people trying to convince a large number of people to change the way they think and act. It is not easy because the majority liked the way things were, and now this small group of voices is asking them to change. Without a compelling reason to change, folks tend to like to stay just as they are.

As stated, all companies have their own cultures. If someone has been with the company for awhile and has moved up and/or is viewed as successful, chances are they demonstrate behaviors that are consistent with the company overall. For example, if the company has a culture that desires action and the individual is one who seems be always on the go and is in the midst of many things, it would likely be a good cultural fit. Or, if the culture values hierarchy, respect for levels and titles, and the individual seems to have fostered respectful relationships with those at higher levels and knows how to manage those relationships, they fit the culture well.

Individuals who do not fit with the culture will stand out to you. Someone who may not fit appears to always be at odds with people, either through their words or through their actions, may not speak favorably about the company and/or their role in it, or behave in a way that does not seem consistent with the general environment. An example of the latter could be someone with a loud, boisterous communication style working in a company that is relatively low key and polite in its interactions.

Based on this brief explanation, I hope you understand how an Unknowing Mentor could be beneficial and how you can find one. You can have many Unknowing Mentors over the course of your career - there is no limit and you may find them to be an easy way to broaden your own capabilities with minimal effort. It is definitely a subjective call about who you choose to make your Unknowing Mentor, but the good thing is you have no downside to giving it a try. No one will ever know. If you follow the above guidelines, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you learn.

Excerpt from Leaving Campus and Going to Work

by T. Jason Smith

ISBN 0-9777237-6-3

Aspen Mountain Publishing

Release date April 12, 2006

For the past fourteen years, Jason Smith has held Human Resources positions in the oil and gas, merchant power, and media industries. He holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resources from the University of South Carolina, a Bachelor’s Degree in Corporate Finance from East Tennessee State University, and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) designation from the Society of Human Resource Management.

How Enthusiasm Can Help You Reach Your Goals

Copyright 2005 Arina Nikitina

If enthusiasm can be bought as an item from a store, do you
think it will sell? And if it does, just how much are you
willing to pay for it?

I believe your response will be: “You must be kidding. It’ll be
a sellout. The store might probably run out of stock, you’ll
have to wait in queue for a long time before you can get your
order no matter the price.”

Just how important is enthusiasm in goal realization; in one’s
life? It is so important that it occupies one of the top slots
in the list of elements needed for successful living. It is so
important that it is one of the deciding factors to realize
one’s goal.

There is no doubt that everyone likes talking to enthusiastic
people, unless a person likes to be in a gloomy state, which I
doubt that person does. Enthusiastic people keep the
conversation alive and upbeat. You feel like you are partying.
And when you feel like partying, you’d wish the night will never
end.

Enthusiasm brings out the hyper character in us. It is like
adding more wood to a bonfire making you feel like you want to
roast marshmallows in it. Honestly, as I am writing this, I’m
beginning to be more enthusiastic myself.

The point is, enthusiasm is contagious like a disease. This is
one contagious disease that has a desirable effect. Matter of
fact, enthusiasm is the only disease everybody wants to
contract. If there is a category in the Guinness Book of World
Records of being the contagious disease most people would like
to have with them, it is enthusiasm. Law enforcers would
probably ban quarantine of this disease.

Now, just how do you get enthusiastic especially when your
surroundings, the weather condition, and the general situation
feels down and out?

Here are some helpful tips to develop enthusiasm:

- Adopt the “as if” principle. It is believed that this was
first stated by Professor William James, at times known as the
father of American Psychological Science. This is an effective
time and people tested principle.

I would suggest at this point that you try to apply the “as if”
principle with someone near or beside you to confirm its
effectiveness. Think creatively.

Another similar principle is the “what if”. If you are in the
business of developing products of specialized use, you are most
likely exposed to a lot of experimentation. When you come up
with an idea on a product you’d like to try even if the idea
seems unconventional, would you try it? Would you be saying to
yourself: “What if I try to…”

- Adapt enthusiasm into the “practice makes perfect” principle.
In other words, be enthusiastic on almost everything you do
every day no matter how insignificant they are, no matter how
small they are. All those small things when added up become big.
This is the “as if” principle in small ways.

- As you wake up each morning, be enthusiastic about the things
you are going to do that day. Bring enthusiasm to even the
routinely morning chores like taking a shower, getting dressed,
eating breakfast, taking the bus or driving your car (even in
heavy traffic), in the office up to the time you reach home for
dinner till you go to bed, enthusiastically looking forward to
tomorrow.

- Remember that each day in your life is God’s gift to you. Show
your appreciation to Him for the gift you receive by being nice
to other people, helping others and thanking Him through
prayers.

Schindler’s Way

There is more than one way to actively fight tyranny. The obvious way is to stage a massive demonstration, where the protestors are subjected to being maced, beaten, shot and hauled off to jail by government police. If the demonstrators go against a well established tyrannical government, it may take years of well organized protests, and the heartache and pain associated with them, to achieve the desired objective.

Another, more subtle approach, was made famous by Steven Spielberg’s academy award winning movie “Schindler’s List.” The movie details how a German industrialist, Oskar Schindler, was able to save over a thousand Jews from being sent to death camps during World War II.

Before World War II, Krakow, Poland’s Jewish population numbered over 50,000. After Germany invaded Poland, Jews were herded into crowded ghettos, and faced all forms of abuse from the German occupation force. Jewish property and businesses were appropriated by the SS and sold to Nazi party members.

Schindler came to Poland in 1939 believing he could make a lot of money as a war profiteer. He quickly became friends with the local Gestapo leaders. He would supply them with money, women, and liquor. His connections helped him acquire a factory using Jewish labor. This factory produced enamel goods and munitions to supply the German front.

At first he seemed like a typical German industrialist, only concerned about profit and not really worried about the means used to get it. But Schindler’s actions proved to be very different. As more and more Jews began to be sent to death camps, Schindler began hiring more of them for his factory. He hired unskilled workers and falsely reported they had essential factory skills. He paid off the Nazis so they would allow certain people to work at his factory. He got some rich Jews to invest money in his factory in order to work there and be spared the holocaust. Schindler later used this money for everyone’s benefit.

In March of 1943, the Germans closed the Krakow ghetto. Jews were moved a Plaszow concentration camp just outside the city. Schindler’s Jews still continued to work at his factory. He even convinced the Germans to build a special sub-camp for his workers. By the summer of 1944, Plaszow was ordered closed and the Jews moved to Auschwitz to be liquidated. Schindler, through pleading and bribery of High German officials convinced the Germans to relocate his factory to a new site in Czechoslovakia. This is when he made the famous “Schindler’s list” of everyone that would be allowed to move to his new factory. He took a thousand Jews from Plaszow to Czechoslovakia. Other workers were added to his list of employees now and then for variety of reasons. During this time, Schindler spent all his money to protect his Jews and to pretend that his factory was essential to the German war effort. By May, 1945 the Russians liberated his factory. Schindler and his wife, fled to Argentina and took up farming. In 1958 he returned to Germany where he died in poverty in 1974.

Schindler is honored for the creative way that he manipulated the Germans for years and saved over a thousand lives in the process. Have you ever thought of how many people Schindler would have saved if he “stood up” directly against German oppression? My guess would be that he would have been shot instantly or would have wound up in a gas chamber at Auschwitz. His actions prove that it is not always prudent to “stand up” and “speak out” when fighting an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.

In these times, where corporate aliens have gained tremendous power over our lives, it makes more sense to use creative techniques, as Oskar Schindler did, to combat their oppression. Here are some examples of how Schindler’s techniques may be used in today’s world.

Corporate aliens are controlling most of today’s work environments. As a result, employees are being tracked, listened to, or watched. Everyone is constantly told to be more productive, even though, productivity profits only upper management. Productivity and quality meetings are commonplace. All corporate jobs have common harassment factors. To stand up for your rights in these environments will only get you fired. Instead, using Schindler’s techniques can be very helpful in maintaining your mental well being. Pretend it’s a joy to come to work every day. Build a strong friendship with your supervisor. Wine, dine and make him or her happy. Keep your resume up to date and use it to get a higher paying position when the opportunity presents itself. Make maximum use of your sick days and personal days. Find subtle ways of shifting the blame for any work related problems back to management. Don’t think of working as the equivalent to being in a concentration camp. Do anything within reason to secretly make your life less frustrating. Be creative.

Consider American companies like Google, Yahoo, and MSN in China. Could they really be trying to secretly help the government opposition? Are they really using Schindler’s tactics? If they are, for these tactics to be effective, they can’t publicize them. Does turning in a few dissidents mean they’ve become China’s pawn or are they really protecting thousands by turning in a few? Do we know enough to judge? Even if the companies themselves wholeheartedly collaborate with the government, could not employees of these companies use their company resources to secretly support the enemy? When we protest the actions of these companies, remember that if they did not establish their presence in China, using any subtle techniques to support the cause of freedom would not be possible.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the US income tax being unconstitutional. Some people have gone to great lengths to interpret the constitution and prove that the income tax is against the law. Be that as it may, the government runs the country, and its interpretation of the constitution, in spite of what it really says, is that income tax is legal and failure to comply can result in fines and imprisonment. Some of the people that have stood up for their constitutional rights are currently serving time in federal prison. Why not use the Schindler approach? The government makes it easy to legally reduce taxes, with tax loopholes designed to help corporate America. Learn to use these tax loopholes effectively. There might even be instances where you can obtain an “under the table” income so that the IRS doesn’t know about it. If you look at how governments use tax money, you know that the amount of taxes they get from the common man is totally unfair. But, standing up to them will only result in more problems. Being creative can get much better results. Why go to prison?

As time goes on many “democratic” governments are demanding more and more individual rights. History has shown that when governments go too far, revolution results. Using corporate alien techniques, populations are being conditioned to worry more about the “World Series” or “Super Bowl” than their individual rights. Under these circumstances a revolution may never come, no matter how abusive the government gets. And if a revolution does come, the new government would usually be more oppressive than the one just overthrown. For an individual living in these times, the only way to obtain any kind of justice is to use Schindler’s techniques to secretly achieve his or her goals in the midst of government interference.

George Lunt is someone who feels the world is getting too corporate. His writings relate the individual’s struggle with big government and big corporations. His website is http://www.corporate-aliens.com.

This article is © George Lunt. All usage of this article must include a citation to the author and a link to corporate-aliens.com.

Ways to Bring Play into Your Life

1. roll around in the grass, and don’t brush the grass off.

2. drive/walk a different way to work, or wherever you usually go.

3. wear glitter underneath your work clothes.

4. wear a bright orange tie.

5. smell a flower fully, and thank it for its beauty.

6. smile at stranger.

7. go thru the children’s aisle in any store and imagine what toy you’d love to play with.

8. buy that toy.

9. do kart-wheels.

10. say yes when you would say no.

11. say no when you would say yes.

12. stand in front of the mirror and say ” I am king/queen of the universe!”

13. call a friend and invite them over for play time

14. climb up the slide at a playground

15. turn the volume of your thoughts down

16. turn the volume of your heart up

17. stop. Breathe. Giggle. Look around you

18. remember that its never too late to be what you always wanted to be

19. take yourself out for a play date.

20. laugh at yourself as much as possible.

21. remember you are a child of god, you are loved

22. put stickers on your bills

23. learn something new, without judging if its right or wrong

24. erase good or bad from your dictionary

25. re-define responsible for yourself

26. selfish means- self -fishing for love and honor of me.

27. eat whipped cream right out of the can-right in mouth

28. hug your family, friends and yourself with playful abandon

29. paint rocks and line your driveway

30. order the happy meal instead of the super size

31. drink with straws

32. receive with a playful heart

33. give with a playful heart

34. send someone a bucket of crayons for no reason

35. know that you are magnificent, AS is

36. there is nothing you have to DO

37. write a letter to someone who needs to play more, and tell them you want to be there!

38. buy stickers

39. make a picnic and go to your bedroom for a playful intimate picnic.

40. play with your hair, your friends hair, your partners hair…

41. be a super hero for a day.

42. stop. Jump up and down and yell.

43. find time to laugh at your self

44. remind a stranger of how awesome they are with your eyes

45. mow the lawn outside the lines

46. watch children

47. be messy.

48. name each star for your self

49. put marshmallows in everything you make for one day

50. hang poster board in your kitchen : write one thing you love about life on it in crayons everyday.

51. invite your roommate/family/partner to participate in writing on the board in crayon

52. be aware of perfectionism ..and with love…recreate a new way of looking at perfect

53. be confidently playful

54. celebrate your body…dance naked…take sea salt showers…

55. finger paint your to do list

56. erase SHOULD from your dictionary

57. watch lady bugs

58. watch a football game, and during commercial blast music and dance

59. order a banana split with an extra cherry

60. ask your children if they enjoy what they are up to- all ages apply

61. throw a temper tantrum if you don’t get your way…c’mon its fun

62. finish this sentence I AM…

63. finish this sentence “roses are red….”

64. make pictures with your food

65. eat your meal with your hands without a napkin

66. pile all those you love in one bed and snuggle watching a playful movie

Be you. Be love. Choose Play. Hug and Honor all those you love.

GOT PLAY?

About The Author

Jenny Ward is the owner of PLAYWARD. PLAYWARDS mission is to celebrate the magnificence of being alive. Jenny is a licensed coach, speaker, author and PLAY ACTIVIST!

www.playward.com

jenny@playward.com