Perspectives in Brief

I know it’s not the typical Tuesday newsletter; however I wanted to get my wishes in before you take off for the holidays.  This is a reflection and creation newsletter.

What are your favorites?  I love reflecting on favorite things this time of year.  When you look back at 2007 can you remember what your favorites were?  Something that remains embedded in the best of your memories is worth making note of don’t you think? 

There is a method to my madness….stay tuned.

So what was your favourite book?  Dinner in?  Dinner out?  Movie?  Vacation or break?  Favourite song?  Favourite surprise? (good ones, obviously).  Favourite piece of clothing?  Favourite learning experience?

You’ve got the drift.

Reflection:

What if your intention for the new year was to experience something new in every one of those realms?

Years ago I did a workshop for Health Canada and over their lunch break I gave them a task.  They had to eat something they never ate before, or eat something they think they remember not liking but couldn’t remember why and see if they still had the same opinion of it.  28 people walked back into the training room with their stories about their eating experience.  Now let me tell you, the cafeteria at Health Canada at that time was pretty pathetic when it came to choices, so most of those 28 people had discovered the only thing they hadn’t tried before or thought they didn’t like because of the heat were Jalapeno chips. 

Each and every one of them had a different story or experience to share.  I’ve since bumped into some of those attendees who still remember that experience and continue to try new things to this day! 

Why in the world am I asking you to do this, you ask?:

Because most of us live our lives looking through the rear view mirror rather than from a sense of possibility.  What we might not have liked once, we might love at this stage of our lives.  Half the time we can’t even remember why we didn’t like something or someone.  We’re just too stubborn to let go of the control history has on us. 

A new year…new beginnings, new experiences, new possibilities.  It’s all about intention.  Intentions equal results.  Think of how strong that one sentence is.  If we intend to stay stubborn then that’s what will happen and if we intend to open ourselves up to possibility then we’ll do that too.  Your choice.

So What Can You Do?

Celebrate life.  It might sound corny but think about it.  We can regret things, let things fester, hold onto things that no longer serve us or intend to do something different or be different.  Your choice.  Life starts now, not one day.

Web Stuff

For those of you who didn’t make the postal deadline to send cards there are all sorts of eCard sites that have beautiful cards you can send electronically.  Check out http://www.hallmark.com/ or http://www.americangreetings.com/ and touch someone from across the miles or around the corner, no matter what holiday they celebrate or just to show you celebrate them for no reason at all.

As Always:

These newsletters will be parked at http://www.perspectivesinbrief.com/ Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for a future newsletter or blog post. Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com/ . Check it out at the end of the year to learn more about what we’re up to at ABP.  

To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:  http://www.itsallaboutyouandothers.com/intro.htm

*****For Newsletter Subscribers Only*****

Subscribe to this newsletter to receive notices for our program launch and special pricings.  Click here to subscribe.

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays!

All the best…

Donna Karlin 

Founder and Principal

A Better Perspective

http://www.abetterperspective.com/

ISSN 1913-6307

Do you lead from a position of passion or control?  I believe anyone can be taught leadership if their passions are triggered and ignited.  Once people discover their passions, causes, what’s truly important to them and their well-being and sustainability, (professional, personal, whatever), they will usually step up to the plate.  If you help them realize what their lives will look like when they do step up, leadership emerges, is fueled and burns brightly.

One doesn’t learn leadership from a text-book.  They can learn it when they pull in the context of their lives look at how it impacted them and those around them and draw the parallels.

Learning and practicing leadership doesn’t necessarily mean automatic success.  We have to recognize the differences there.  In learning to lead, even though you might fail now and then, getting up, dusting ourselves off and trying again, is one of the characteristics of a courageous leader.  Models and studies track trends.  What if we studied behaviours and triggers within various contexts around leadership rather than models and organizations?  That would give us a much better indication of what works and why in our own worlds.  We all know that what works for one organization might not necessarily work for another.

Reflection:

Take a moment to reflect on when something just clicked.  It worked for all reasons and for no specific reason but what you remember most is the energy and enthusiasm and joy of doing whatever it was at a specific time of your life.  Was it amazing because you learned something and grew exponentially?  Or was it amazing because everyone did their thing and collectively created something as close to magical as it gets?  Or was there some other reason why it was amazing?  What if you could recapture that feeling?  What about what you did could be replicated in some way in your day to day life / work?

Perspective Check:

Are you telling yourself right now that it’s not possible to recapture that time in your life?  Are you talking yourself into the why not rather than asking yourself “Why not?”  Amazing where the mind will take you….up or down.  Your choice.

So What Can You Do?

See what you can change.  Who do you need to connect with?  Are you wasting time with people who suck you dry of energy or who ignite a fire underneath you?  These choices will make all the difference in the world.

Web Stuff

For those of you who want to start a Blog, I recommend http://wordpress.org/ .  It’s super easy to use, free (and as they say, priceless at the same time) and gives you a web presence in no time at all.  It’s also available in French, can be private or public, or by invitation only and is a great vehicle to get the word out, share personal experiences with colleagues, family and friends and become a portal for your memories and pictures.

As Always:

Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for a future newsletter or blog post. Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com   

To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:  http://www.itsallaboutyouandothers.com/intro.htm

With deepest respect,

Donna Karlin

Founder and Principal

A Better Perspective

http://www.abetterperspective.com

ISSN 1913-6307

When the unpredictable happens and it’s not easy to always figure things out ahead of time, what do you do?  Is it ever possible to have all the knowledge at your fingertips to have success in everything you do or plan your life to a ‘T’ so that everything turns out exactly the way you want it to?  Of course not! 

It’s called life.  Life happens when you least expect it.  You can either fight it or go with the flow and see where it takes you.  A few newsletters ago I asked the question “What is so perfect about this when it clearly isn’t?”  Will you always have the answer to that question?  No.  However sometimes just asking it is enough to give you a reality check that says “You won’t always have control over everything that unfolds.”  Period.  Finished.  That’s a fact!

There will always be times when we are blindsided and hit with the unfathomable, or unexpected.  No matter how connected we are with people, through the internet or how global our work is, things will always happen that we won’t expect, from our biggest challenges to most unimaginable surprises.

Did I mention it’s called life?

Get With The Plan…Or In This Instance, No Plan

Some people need to have control….control over having their perfect job, perfect number of kids, the exact money they’ll need to have the perfect lifestyle and the perfect set of friends.

They don’t take into account life, crises, surprises, or unexpected people who come into our lives.  It’s all a part of life’s journey which never goes from point A to B.  Life isn’t black and white.  It’s a myriad of colour, textures, sounds and shapes coming together in various permutations and combinations.  Life happens because it happens not because we can pre-design what it will look like.  It just is.  What if you relinquished the need for control for how life happens?  How freeing would that be?  Can you take that leap?

Reflection:

Just as not knowing the reason why things happen, we need to look at the premise that just because we don’t know all there is to know, doesn’t mean it isn’t.   Like the question “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”  Of course it does!  It just makes a sound that we’re not around to hear.

Mind Shift:

We can try to design the perfect life, go after the perfect job, create the perfect lifestyle and have the perfect mate or…we can look at our job as perfect for us right now, our lifestyle as perfect for what we can do right now and our mate as someone we chose to be with for better or for worse, not until he or she leaves the cap off the toothpaste tube.  Of course there are extremes and choices to be made in certain circumstances.  It’s how we think of what’s happening in our lives more than how we expect things to happen in our lives that will help us create a life we love.  It’s what will give us guidance and direction and to see this grass as green as it gets, at least for now.

So What Can You Do?

Ask yourself “What is so perfect about this when it really isn’t?”  You might just come up with an answer that works.  The shift will be from complaining and blaming through life to learning and growing into life.

Web Stuff

Every week I make it a point to read at least 2 new blogs so I see what people are writing about.  Some I comment on and some I link to as they are amazing resources and fountains of insight and information.

However as there are more than 70 million blogs published to date that we know of, I want to make sure what I’m reading is what I want to read.  www.technorati.com is a great resource to find blogs by topic, country, popularity and you can rate them as favourites as well.  Blogs are here to stay and a great way to dialogue with like minded people.

Last But Not Least: 

Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for a future newsletter or blog post. Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com     

To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:  http://www.itsallaboutyouandothers.com/intro.htm      

*****For Newsletter Subscribers Only*****    Unadvertised program launches and coaching package discounts are announced first to subscribers of Perspective in Brief.  In order to take advantage of these special prices and packages, click here to subscribe.   With deepest respect,
 
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307

Potentialists   

My son teases me incessantly about creating words.  When I can’t find a word that says what I want, I often make one up.  Leaders are alchemists of vision and potential — i.e. ‘potentialists’. There are leaders at every level in an organization.  They are also chess players and understand that all the pieces, or their people, move differently. Each individual leaves an impact all their own.   

Have you looked at the roles of each person in your organization, not only from the perspective of what job they were hired for, but from the perspective of their personality styles, energy levels and speed within which they can contextualize things? One of the keys of creating a strong, cohesive team is to recognize individual talents and strengths, to task to them and to harness individual uniqueness into a common focus to get results.   

Reflection: 

Are you where you need to be to achieve your level of excellence and realize your potential?  If not, have you had a conversation with the powers that be to increase your learning and growing curve? And if you’re in a position of leadership, have you done the same with your staff?  It’s up to you to ask for that conversation no matter which side of the desk you sit on.   

What if you could transform your organization by the very next act you undertake?  What might that act be?  Are you where you need to be to make that transformation?    

Everything we do has a ripple effect, an impact on others and in turn back on us.  What if one or more of those acts were transformational beyond our wildest dreams?   

What We Can Do: 

Coaches are potentialists. We bring out the best in our clients based on their talents and strengths.  We listen.  We partner.  We support, catalyze and applaud. We also challenge, do not judge and accept.   

Awesome isn’t it?   

And through all that we help grow people into their highest potential.  Those who act as leaders do much of the same.  Perhaps in a different way and not always intentionally, but they do whether they’re the lowest person on the totem pole or the highest.  That kind of leader is not defined by level of responsibility; that kind of leader is defined by attitude, impact and presence.  Are you that kind of leader?   

So What Are You Going To Do?   

Who haven’t you paid attention to recently who you could grow in some capacity?  It doesn’t necessarily have to be someone at work.  It can be one of your kids, a relative, friend, anyone in your life who might be wandering through life instead of defining it.  Paying attention alone gives a whole new level of energy to those around you.  It’s valuing them as human beings.  That is the first step in helping others realize their potential and that’s recognizing them and their individual and personal impact.   

OK So I’m a Closet Geek (and am proud of it!)   

I am always looking for technology to enhance and facilitate my work, not replace what I do.  Using Google Docs goes a long way in helping me work with international colleagues, collaborate and create material, documents, presentations and whatever it is we’re playing with at the time.  I invite them in as collaborators and we both write, edit and create, having a common parking spot that’s web based so we can go to it whenever we want, wherever we are.   

Last But Not Least:     

Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for a future newsletter or blog post. Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com     

To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:  http://www.itsallaboutyouandothers.com/intro.htm   

*****For Newsletter Subscribers Only*****   

Unadvertised program launches and coaching package discounts are announced first to subscribers of Perspective in Brief.  In order to take advantage of these special prices and packages, click here to subscribe.   

With deepest respect,
 
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307
 

“We don’t stop to ask what a tool does. We ask about what kind of people we become when we use it”. – Amish quote.

What Tools Do You Need?

Are you struggling to get something done without the right tools to do it well? We use twice the energy we should be using when we’re not properly equipped. Sometimes it’s lack of knowledge as to what’s available, and other times, it’s not taking the time to get the right tools for the job before you get going.

This week we’re going to look at one of the three questions I use when doing a reality check with my clients. The question is “What’s available?” i.e. resources, people, technology and anything else you need to move forward. If you don’t have what you need right now, then how are you going to get it? Borrowing tools, expertise, or partnering with someone else who could give you what you need are three ways to go about this. Which one, or other one is the right avenue for you?

Reflection:

I can’t tell you how much simpler life is when you automate everything that’s automatable or use the proper technology to facilitate the work and have the right people running it. What can you automate that will free you up to do what you really have to dive into? What are you doing that really isn’t in your area of responsibility? There are way too many people who take up the slack “temporarily” only to find it becomes a permanent part of their workload. Is it sustainable? If the answer is no, then make changes before you have to. If you’re depleted you won’t be making the right choices for the right reasons.

Perfection  

A question I ask my clients, especially those dealing with a major challenge is “What is so perfect about this when it clearly isn’t?”  It puts everything in an entirely different perspective.  It takes one’s focus away from what they’re being deprived of or what they’re missing because something isn’t going the way they want, to why this might be the best thing that happened to them.  I know, for many thinking of a major problem as a gift or something perfect is a stretch, but think about it for a moment…if you bring to mind something that’s really challenging you right now, at work, home, wherever….what is perfect about it?  What have you learned about yourself, about your environment (all environments), about what’s possible or what you hadn’t seen before?

Reflection  

If, for a moment you started from the premise that “this is just perfect for me right now”, how might that turn your life around?  I often watch 2 colleagues deal with the same problem and respond to it, speaking about it in totally opposite ways.  One might say that it’s insurmountable, they can’t move forward, nothing is possible and look at their world in every negative way imaginable while the other, dealing with exactly the same problem will tell me he learned how amazing his team was, they’re pumped and trying to figure out the answer together so even through chaos they are energized and doing more than ever.  The first one was dwelling on everything that wasn’t working.  The second had been asked the question “What is so perfect about this….?” Attitude is contagious.  It goes both ways.  Which do you want?  And which might you think will energize everyone around you?

So How Do You Do That?  

Start by picking the elements that are working, that are perfect for you and show you just what you’re made of.  Think carefully.  Don’t just pick the first thing that comes to mind.  If you begin by nailing down what is perfect (and you can see it as such), it will happen and the rest will begin to unfold as it should with a lot less effort.   Perfection doesn’t just happen, it’s perception and perspective as much as anything else.

Tech Stuff   

Google Desktop Search is a tool I use all day long.  If I want to find an email, a document, a file of any kind that I know is on my computer it does a search almost instantly of all the emails, documents and websites I’ve accessed from the most recent to the oldest so I can not only find the document but can read emails I had deleted after reading, and conversations that had gone poof into the night for some reason.  It saves a ton of time and reminds me of files I had on my system that I had forgotten about. 

Last But Not Least:   As always this newsletter will be posted here. Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for future a future newsletter or blog post.  Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com    To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:  http://www.itsallaboutyouandothers.com/intro.htm  

Life is perfect, don’t you think?   

Donna Karlin

“There is no use in trying,” said Alice;
“One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,”
said the Queen. “When I was your age,
I always did it for half an hour a day.
Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as
six impossible things before breakfast” - Lewis Carroll

It’s All About Attitude  

My colleague Thomas Leonard used to say “Nothing is impossible.  It just hasn’t been invented yet”.  I agree and using that as my guide, there’s no ceiling….just sky. 

The future is not some place we are going to but a place that is created — created first in the mind, then where willpower resides, and next in activity. It’s a path we create and the changes we make determine the destination.   

When working with clients the first thing I ask them is, “If you invent your future (and they do) what will your life look like and what did you do to get there?  Not what will you do, but looking at it as having already happened, what choices did you make to invent your future?”  You don’t fall into what might be.  You create it along the way.  

Can You See It?  

It’s not about talking about what you want and foreseeing one time, one day, it’s seeing it, tasting, reaching out and feeling it.  I rarely work with clients on long term goals.  I want them to want their future as they’ve defined it.  Then we design it as it will only happen if you make the appropriate and relevant choices right now.  Change towards creating the future you love involves immediacy, not something so far in the distance it’s parked indefinitely.

If you wait for the perfect time, life will get in the way.

So What Might You Do?   

Slow down to the speed of conscious thought.  Step one?  Prune your life of toxic relationships and environments that will take over.  You will be so busy fixing life that you won’t be inventing the life you love. 

If you’re so busy making money for your future, how much life are you missing along the way?  You might decide the future you were so set on a while back is no longer relevant.  Revisit, revamp and redesign and often.  That’s not to say change jobs at the drop of a hat…it’s saying pay attention to what works and keep it and get rid of what doesn’t.  It’s all about choice. 

It’s presumptuous to think life stands still and will be exactly where you want it to be when you remember to  pay attention.  Are you designing a fantastic life or lifestyle and is it sustainable? 

Favourite Software 

I can’t remember a day going by where I haven’t used my SnagIt.  It’s partly a screen capture but it’s also an editor where you can add text to images, create great banners and text logos and can morph, change, capture and add to all kinds of graphics, save it in multiple formats and use in presentations, web design and for capturing an error on your screen to send to tech support. This is probably one of the few pieces of technology I couldn’t live without (workwise that is : ) 

Policy to Adopt:   Simple but too often forgotten:  If you call a meeting then make sure there’s a definitive agenda.  And if you’re called to a meeting, ask for an agenda so you come prepared.  No agenda?  No meeting.  Sounds simple but how many times are you calling into a meeting and have no idea why?  How much of a time waster is that?  We’ll get into meetings in detail in our Time in a Bottle program. For now, focus on the agenda so you have focus.  Then hold yourself accountable to it.Contact us for availability for Lightening Round and Laser Coaching Sessions as well as for Shadow Coaching™  (http://www.theshadowcoach.com)  

Last But Not Least:   As always this newsletter will be posted here. Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for future a future newsletter or blog post.  Our blog can be found at http://betterperspective.blogspot.com    To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:  http://www.itsallaboutyouandothers.com/intro.htm 

Reality Check

People used to work 10 hour days. Now many of them are working a minimum of 12 - 14 hour days when you take into consideration the hours they put in at home, weekdays and weekends. Add in all this wonderful technology (which was supposed to make our lives easier, right?) such as cell phones,  handhelds, i.e. the BlackBerry (CrackBerry) , and even when they are off, they’re ‘on’. They are scheduled to death and when they aren’t scheduled for a meeting, they are interrupted more times than one can count.

“You do what you are…You’re born with a gift. If not that, then you get good at something along the way. And what you’re good at you don’t take for granted.” - Morgan Freeman
 
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Who Are You?
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Most people equate themselves with what they do for a living. How many times have you asked someone “Tell me about yourself” only to hear volumes about their work and nothing else? And in the scheme of things, how many are living their passions and doing what they are? Living and working in alignment with their talents? How many have unique talents and never get a chance to use them? Is that you?
 
That is taking your gifts for granted. True leaders who are living their dreams, lead through their passions and have limitless energy in doing so. They can’t wait to jump into the deep end of every day and see what unfolds. I tell many clients “If at first you don’t succeed, try something you’ve already been successful at and build on it”. Have you been paying attention to your successes and not only celebrating them but doing something to build on them? That is the road to Mastery.
 
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Who Do You Want to Be?
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Are you happy with your life? Are you inventing your future or living a life of someone else’s or circumstance’s design? A key point is, if you’re going to be working most of your waking hours, why in the world isn’t it at something you love doing?
 
What’s stopping you? Or, a better question might be, when is the right time to be doing it? I’m constantly hearing “It’s not a good time” or “It’s not the right time.” Are you waiting for ‘the perfect time’ to make changes? And how do you define ‘perfect time’?
 
A leader lights a fire in people. Can you truly do that if you have little enthusiasm for what you yourself are doing or living? How can you light a fire in yourself? What aren’t you thinking of and if you can’t come up with that answer, that’s where a coach comes in.
 
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Tech Stuff to Play With:
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I love to write. But it’s not always easy to get the thoughts down in such a way that I can park them and do something with them afterwards. I discovered the Tinkertoy of all software programs that works for me, called The Personal Brain (http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?9cdu5XsVxpHD.ENZ2o1Aig).
 
Finally a computer program that thinks like a person! Well at least one that thinks like I do. I can park all sorts of ideas on there and tie them in later. It’s a great way to write a book.
 
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And All The Rest:
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If you want to book in your Lightening Round or Laser Coaching Sessions, there is still some time open on September 7th, 11th and 17th in this two week newsletter period. Contact us at info@abetterperspective.com  for openings as well as for Shadow Coaching™ (http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?.6isturkqoPLVvRt3ccWnA) availability within this calendar year.
 
We’re in the midst of creating a time mastery program that will look at ‘you’ in relation to time. We’d love to hear your time challenges. We want to make sure that once this program is up and running it will meet your needs and then some. Anything you share will remain confidential, so fire away and send them to ideas@IfICouldSaveTimeInABottle.com
 
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Last But Not Least:
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As always this newsletter will be posted on http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?Ms04htAvvbQpq.iOnS8JGg Please feel free to share your comments, insights and perhaps a subject or two you’d like to open for discussion and we’ll look at it for future a future newsletter or blog post. Our blog can be found at http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?nHl3lR0SZkbf1N0LnacHEg
 
To sign up for our Self-Coaching program It’s All About You…and Others, visit here:
http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?.b1rwqxfUHfBpM.ev54XHg
 
Time to run with life, invent it and not run away from it.
 
With deepest respect,
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://clicks.aweber.com/z/ct/?d6gb_67PplTLjzD1l9aWXA
ISSN 1913-6307