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| Motivation Information |
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Dont Let Failure Go To Your Head
I watched as an 8-year-old All-Star slid dramatically into second base. Yet the umpire gave the dreaded signal, "Out!" The crowd yelled, "That's OK. Way to hustle! Great try!" Another little fellow swings the bat with all the power he can muster?three times without hitting the ball. Each time, the fans encouraged, "Good swing! Now just pick out a good one and make contact! Watch it over. You can do it!" Then the strike-out. "That's OK, man. Next time." I eavesdroppped as one of the coaches talked to my grandson Joseph's team, who had just lost their second in the double elimination tournament. "We have nothing to be ashamed of. You guys played hard and you played well. The other team just played a little better this time. You're gonna keep practicing and next year, you'll come back and you'll be great!" I was impressed as Steven, another coach, modeled for his young protégés the responsibility he was trying to teach. In front of the whole team, he apologized to Adam for his own mistake in signaling the boy to run on to third base in a play that resulted in an out. He did not want the young man to blame himself for something that wasn't his fault. Maybe you are thinking, "Of course, we tell them those things. We don't want them to get discouraged. We want them to keep trying and not give up." Exactly. We instinctively know what we need to do the keep these little guys motivated and encouraged. (Most of us, that is. Unfortunately, in the last few years of attending these games, I have heard occasionally heard some children being subjected to loud, harsh criticism from insensitive parents. I admit I was savoring the idea of punching them out when I was deterred by picturing the next day's headlines in the Hattiesburg American!) HOW DO YOU TALK TO YOURSELF? You know how to encourage others. But do you do as well with yourself? Do you know how to keep yourself encouraged in the face of failure and setbacks? Take this short quiz. 1. When you make a mistake, do you ever talk to yourself harshly and judgmentally, like this? "You idiot! Can't you do anything right? You should have known better." Think about it. What if you had a spouse or a boss that talked to you this way? How would this affect your performance? Your morale? Your confidence? Why not use more encouraging words to yourself, like the fans to the Little Leaguers? Talk to yourself about the effort you made, the little ways that your most recent try showed improvement over the last, and the things you learned from the failed attempt. 2. Do you ever generalize from a specific performance failure to seeing yourself as a general failure? In other words, you did not fail that test. You're a failure as a student. You did not lose that contract. You're a dud as a salesperson. Change that! Talk to yourself about the specific situation. Don't overgeneralize. 3. When you don't accomplish what you had hoped, do you tell yourself, "This is always the way it is for me?" In other words, do you view the failure as a never-ending pattern? Challenge that hope-robbing perspective. If you are to keep hope and keep trying, you must see your failures as temporary. Get to work and find out how you can do better next time. 4. Do you make yourself responsible for things over which you have no control? Recognize your human limits. Others make their own choices about what they do, despite your best efforts. There are very real conditions that impact your success at a task, no matter how skillfully and diligently you try. Take responsibility for doing your best, but be realistic about what you can control and what you can't. BE YOUR BEST FRIEND If you have trouble changing the habit of talking negatively to yourself, here's another tool you can use. Imagine that your best friend were telling you about the situation you are in, and that the words being used were self-berating?like yours. What would you say to him or her? How would you encourage him or her to find the best in the situation and keep trying? See?you do know how to do it. Now, do that for yourself. If you aren't your own best friend, who will be? Dr. Bev Smallwood is a psychologist who has worked with organizations across the globe for over 20 years. Her high-energy, high-content, high-involvement Magnetic Workplaces (r) programs provide dozens of practical strategies and skills that can be put to work immediately to: Review a complete list of her programs available for your convention or corporate meeting at the website, www.MagneticWorkplaces.com
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Business Management How to Make Bite Size Resolutions for 2005 It never fails. Another new year approaches. You watch that ball drop in Times Square and you say to yourself, "This year it's going to be different. This year I'm going to make things happen. Look out world here I come!" Teaching kids -- UGH!! (...and what I learned from it) I have a confession to make: I don't like working with little kids. Courage and Fear Mark Twain once said, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear not absence of fear." Day Dream Believer I am sure you, just like the rest of us, experienced all sorts of day dreams when you were younger. Who amongst us did not find themselves, at one time or another, in the precarious position of being blissfully lost in day dream when one of our teachers called on us in class? You know how that story went. What Makes a Champion? Imagine for a moment that you are a champion. You are the best in your town . No, you are the best in your country. How does that make you feel? Good yeah? You are a champion. What are you the champion of? What is your major strength? Are you a good leader? A good strategist. A great tactician. A team builder perhaps. A great listener. Perhaps you have the ability to develop and grow the skills of others. Whatever it is, you have the talent to become a champion. All you need to do is to understand what it is that makes a champion. In this article we are going to introduce you to a new awareness. We are going to open up your mind to the invisible world of what makes a champion. Practice, Practice, Practice It may sound silly but the key to self-confidence and building more self-esteem is through practice. Practice what it is you want to feel more confident about and eventually, the confidence will show itself. That makes sense if we're talking about a skill like playing the piano. With enough practice, you naturally begin to get good at it and then you feel more confident. But what about tougher things like public speaking or meeting new people? How do you practice something that you are terrified to do in the first place? Planting Seeds of Action Recently, I was driving past a local nursery and saw a sign that said, "Fall Is For Planting." As I drove, the idea on the sign was gnawing away at me. I asked myself, "what am I planting for fall?" What actions will I take now that will, with some love and nurturing, bring me a splendid and bountiful winter harvest? STOP! Reading the Headlines and Live Your Own Life First Imagine! 40 is old. The California State Supreme Court has said that when are you are 40, employers can discriminate against employees using this age as the excuse. 212 Degrees At 211 degrees, water is pretty darn hot. Keep Motivated To Succeed Online! Starting and managing a business takes motivation and talent. It also takes research and planning. Although initial mistakes are not always fatal, it takes extra skill, discipline, and hard work to regain the advantage. Take time beforehand to explore and evaluate your business and personal goals, then use this information to build a comprehensive and thoughtful business plan that will help you reach these goals. Stained Glass Windows Elizabeth Kubler Ross once said, "People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun comes out, but when the darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is light on from within." Are You in Touch With Your Inner M? "M" is for Motivation. Limitations Real Or Imagined, Stick Em In A Pigs Eye! It's about time to take a real hard look at what you think about yourself. What do you really think you are capable of? What if I told you that you could walk on water? Would you believe me? Well, what if I told you that you could never be an important person? What would you say to that? Why are You Living? It was 4,O'Clock in the morning, my regular time to leave my bed and prepare myself for the day's activities. But today, it was special?some thoughts were troubling the peace of my find. Why are we living? What is the purpose of this life? For whom, I am living? For my parents, my spouse, my kids, my country, my religion, NO, I am and in that manner we all are living for ourselves. If today anything happens to me, will my spouse, my parents, my kids, stop living? No, they will not. Then, what is the purpose of living? Why are you living? You are living for yourself, your name, your growth, and your happiness. The purpose of this life is: "You in Particular and others in General". Stop Holding Yourself Back Try this exercise. Take a sheet of paper and list down all the emotions you can think of? Take a couple of minutes and if possible, keep writing for as long as you can? Come on, do it. I'll still be here when you get back. Define Your Own Future - Shatter The Crystal Ball! When I decided to look into remote viewing, I had the impression that it had some bizarre metaphysical and psychic associations. But, in reality, remote viewing is a natural and 'taught' method of probing remote locations in the past, present, and future. As I learned and experimented, one of the important things that I discovered is that you cannot accurately predict the future of any person or event. Of course, some would argue this point and I would probably agree that we can 'see' the future. But, what I mean is, the future changes far too rapidly based on our experiences and directions for anyone to be truly accurate. Motivation: 3 Keys to Lasting Change David Bowie once sang, "Ch-ch-changes, tryin' to face the strain." Motivation: The Power of Celebration Cherish The Conversation of Recovery - Part Two The listening for the Conversation of possibilities will be even more unfamiliar than the one about the self-limiting belief. Even though possibilities will be caused for the individual and a sense of hope and inspiration created, there will be a tendency at some point for the person to not belief that their life can be truly transformed merely by creating possibilities. Even when the person gets the existence of his self-limiting belief, how he has been being that in his life and the impact upon himself and others as a result, a sense of doubt will arise that mere words or language will truly assist them in transforming their life let alone cause them to be successful with respect to their recovery. As with a newborn child, the existence of possibilities once invented or created will be quite fragile. There will be in the beginning of this Conversation a tendency to return to being ones self-limiting belief if for no other reason than it is familiar to the person. The self-limiting belief is about life in their comfort zone, from the ego, in what is reasonable and familiar to them. Even though the individual will become enrolled into his possibilities it is in the person's initial not getting of its application in life that will leave it vulnerable. The individual will return to his community and with this reentry a breakdown will happen. The success of this process will rest upon the individual continuing to stay in the Conversation about his possibilities and also upon the one assisting to continue to generate the space necessary for this creative process to be lived fully. Ending Procrastination Perseverance is about as important to achievement as gasoline is to driving a car. Sure, there will be times when you feel like you are spinning your wheels, but you'll always get out of the rut with genuine perseverance. Without it, you won't even be able to start your engine.
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