Secret Ways to make 2016 Fabulous - Clay Serenbetz

Based on my previous posts, here are some powerful ways to make 2016 your best year ever, Here we go –

1.  Beautify your work area. As much as possible, make your work environment a place where you feel comfortable and positive.

2.       Bundle minor tasks into single efforts. Combine minor to-do items into a single project and they will seem easier to accomplish.

3.       Do the easy stuff first. Look for easy-to-do tasks that will have a large positive effect on your career and business. Do those tasks first.

4.       End each day with gratitude. Just before bed, write down something wonderful that happened that day. Be grateful for the day because it will never come again.

5.       Laugh more often. Numerous studies show that laughter doesn't just make you happier, it also make you healthier by relieving stress.

6.       Help someone less fortunate. Giving to others is the best way to create a sense of abundance in your own life.

7.        Lose more arguments. Some battles aren't worth fighting, and many people are easier to handle when they think they've won.

8.       Never over commit yourself. Be enthusiastic and go the extra mile, but avoid making promises that you can't reasonably keep.

9.       Show more respect. Respect is the foundation of a strong business relationship. Respect creates respect, and thus the relationship grows.

10.   Sleep more soundly. An hour before bed shut down your computer and phone. When you wake up, wait until you're ready for work to read your emails.

11.   Stop comparing yourself to others. You have no idea where someone else's journey might take them, so drawing comparisons is a complete waste of time.

12.   Worry less what others think. Because you can't read minds, you have no idea what people are really thinking about you.

13.    Thank the thankless. Janitors, maintenance stiff, customer support people and so forth have tough jobs. Having someone thank them is huge

14.   Take yourself less seriously. If you can't or don't laugh at yourself, I can guarantee you that everyone else will be laughing behind your back.

15.   Take a long bath. When you're in the tub, you can't use your electronics, so that's a perfect haven from work pressures.

About Clay Serenbetz

Clay Serenbetz  is the best lawyer for Legal Malpractice issues concerning professional ethics, lawyer advertising and fiduciary duties of practicing lawyers. Call Clay Serenbetz for legal help now.

Why Attitude Is More Important Than Intelligence

People with a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. They outperform those with a fixed mindset, even when they have a lower IQ, because they embrace challenges, treating them as opportunities to learn something new.  

Common sense would suggest that having ability, like being smart, inspires confidence. It does, but only while the going is easy. The deciding factor in life is how you handle setbacks and challenges. People with a growth mindset welcome setbacks with open arms.  

According to Dweck, success in life is all about how you deal with failure. She describes the approach to failure of people with the growth mindset this way,

Regardless of which side of the chart you fall on, you can make changes and develop a growth mindset. What follows are some strategies that will fine-tune your mindset and help you make certain it’s as growth oriented as possible. Empowered people pursue their passions relentlessly. There’s always going to be someone who’s more naturally talented than you are, but what you lack in talent, you can make up for in passion. Empowered people’s passion is what drives their unrelenting pursuit of excellence. Warren Buffet recommends finding your truest passions using, what he calls, the 5/25 technique: Write down the 25 things that you care about the most. Then, cross out the bottom 20. The remaining 5 are your true passions. Everything else is merely a distraction.

It’s not that people with a growth mindset are able to overcome their fears because they are braver than the rest of us; it’s just that they know fear and anxiety are paralyzing emotions and that the best way to overcome this paralysis is to take action. People with a growth mindset are empowered, and empowered people know that there’s no such thing as a truly perfect moment to move forward. So why wait for one? Taking action turns all your worry and concern about failure into positive, focused energy.

Everyone encounters unanticipated adversity. People with an empowered, growth-oriented mindset embrace adversity as a means for improvement, as opposed to something that holds them back. When an unexpected situation challenges an empowered person, they flex until they get results.

How Social Entrepreneurship Make Change Happen

Social entrepreneurs, Barry Coleman explains, consistently ride in that cushion, where there is plenty of potential to get ahead and just as much to slide out of control. It is a place where guts and determination are required, and where skill and expertise can pay off. Barry should know. He and his wife aren’t just race enthusiasts, they are social entrepreneurs: founders of Riders for Health, an organization that manages transportation systems for the delivery of health care in seven countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

The miserable health-care equilibrium in Africa, the Coleman’s would argue, is kept in place partly by its failing infrastructure. Too often, available medicine and equipment can’t get where they are most urgently needed. Health workers waste hours each day walking and waiting, rather than delivering care. Communities go weeks and months without meaningful access to health care, even in times of desperate need. All of these problems result from gaps in infrastructure, but it was one gap in particular that tweaked the notice of this pair of motorcycle enthusiasts: African health systems were failing because they lacked the underlying transportation systems needed for reliable health-care delivery.

It isn’t the stuff of banner headlines. But in Africa (or, for that matter, anywhere else), if reliable transportation is not part of the health-care delivery system, people die. To Andrea and Barry Coleman, the reality that they encountered — a health-care delivery system hobbled by inadequate transportation management infrastructure — was utterly unacceptable. They envision a very different equilibrium, a future transformed, in which African health ministries are equipped with reliable, affordable, and effective transportation systems that deliver the health-care services their people need, when, where, and how they need them. And it turns out motorbikes have an important role to play.

Is Multitasking help to get More Work Done?

There never seem to be enough hours in the day to get our work done. That's why many of us turn to multi-tasking, which represents our best, noble attempt to accomplish multiple tasks. But it turns out that multitasking may actually limit productivity and ultimately affect your level, and your health. According to athlete and international and TEDx speaker Katie Brauer, "Higher productivity happens when you limit multitasking and stay focused on completing a task at hand. Studies show that multitasking makes you 40 percent less productive and increases stress levels."

While acknowledging the difficulty of focusing, especially at work, Brauer suggested that implementing a few simple steps in your workday can help you focus and make a dramatic difference in your rate of work output.

"Do not check your phone or email when you first wake up," Dietz-LiVolsi said. "Wait at least 60 minutes, so you are not jumping right into a ‘reactive’ state of mind."

Next, start your morning by creating a list of five people you need to email or call in the day. Start your day by working on calling/emailing [those] five people. I reach my top five on my list by 10 a.m. It’s my most productive time of day.

If you ask yourself ‘who, what, when, where and how’ before you send, you will eliminate a lot of the back and forth.

5 Ways to Create an Inspired Team

Business leaders understand that employeesare the greatest asset their company has, making attitude the greatest determinant of success. Wise business leaders focus on what is “right” in their company and in their employees. Using intimidation and uncertainty to spurn productivity yields limited, temporary results. That type of coercive motivational approach is totally counter-productive in the long term.  A workplace imbued with a positive mindset has the greatest potential. 

1. Balance negatives.

Human beings tend to dwell on negativity. Negative thoughts are bigger than positive thoughts and are processed by a different part of the brain. Negative thoughts take longer to break down. Managers can easily get stuck focusing on what hasn’t been achieved and what employees are not doing, leading to negative feedback that undermines those who work for you.

2. Keep promises.

Creating a positive work environment is accomplished through reward, acknowledgement, group and individual recognition, but most importantly through trust. If you tell the team or an individual person their hard work will be rewarded, either with bonuses, tickets to a game, a show or through some other form of reward, you must follow through. Not keeping a promise will lower individual and team morale.

3. Support your employees.

Inspire your employees by communicating your confidence in their abilities to do what needs to be done to succeed. Only talk in terms ofsuccess, rather than threatening failure. Your team must see you have the deep confidence in them they crave and deserve. When you have doubts about your team communicate in a way that ensures their success. Offer feedback, rather than criticism.

4. Focus on today’s success.

It can be demotivating when leaders focus only on the bigger picture and how far the team is from reaching the company’s loftiest goals. The perception amongstemployees is one of lack and how far off they are from achieving what needs to be done.

5. Build upon strengths.

Study your employees diligently. Observe and comment on their strengths to positively push them to their fullest potential. When you see a specific strength in someone, you will quickly know their optimum position and role on your team. Use this knowledge to refine and expand them. Assign each member a defined purpose on the team that they accept, understand, embrace and feel good about.