More Words on Habits

Here are three important statements on habits that you need to lock onto and understand.  If you have a habit that you want to change or break, understand these fundamentals.

#1 – For habits to permanently change, people must believe that change is feasible.

Do you believe? 

#2 – Habits cannot be eradicated.  They must be replaced. 

That could be why many formers smokers switch to chewing gum, or using the new marvels of vapor cigarettes as one small example.  Find your safe and effective replacement and use it.

And here is perhaps the most important concept of all.

#3 – For a habit to stay changed, an individual must believe change is possible.

So much in life comes down to belief, doesn’t it?

   Religion

      Self-esteem

         Love

            Success

               Worthiness

How strong is your belief factor?

(These three factors are found in the book The Power of Habits, a highly recommended read.)

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

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6 Qualities Every Leader Seeks

Every time you hire for a key position in your organization, you dearly hope and pray that the one selected will have some of these key quality traits.  Here they are.

    1. Positive Attitude

This is more than just the Pollyanna syrupy sweet “all is right with the world because I believe it.”  This is the pleasant attitude, the forward seeing attitude and the mindset of “let’s see what we can do about that” positiveness.  Positive attitudes matter.

    2. Loyalty

Are you on our team or not?  Are you fully engaged or not?  Do you believe in our mission and our focus or not?  Those are the questions to ask when determining loyalty.  You don’t need a Judas on your team.  You need committed team players.

    3. Personal Growth

This next quality is something that must be inherent with the candidate.  Are they a growth-minded individual?  Do they spend time in developing self?  This one makes a difference in unspeakable ways.  Look for it.  Ask for it.

    4. Creativity and Applied Creativity

Creativity comes in all sizes, colors and degrees of competencies.  Everyone is creative.  We just show it in different ways.  And I personally believe creativity can be strengthened.  It grows with use, just like a muscle.  The more you exercise creativity the more creativity will come into play.  I know this first hand in my writing and speaking.

    5. Risk Taking

To quote one of my favorite quotes:

“The jump is so frightening between where I am and where I want to be, because of all I may become, I will close my eyes and leap.”

~Mary Anne Radmacher

What might be possible when you take some risks?  This is a question to be weighed and weighed again.  Proceed with care, and then the time comes – jump.  Take the risk.

    6. Decisive Action

Sometimes we don’t have all the facts, and when we don’t, these are the moments when we have to make the tough decisions.  A great leader soon learns when the times call for decisive action and then steps up to the plate and acts in accordance with the situation in hand

Learning decisive action is like going to school every time this course is offered.  We rarely have a history to fall back on.  But we are leaders and we make the tough decisions. 

Success to you as your continue to lead.

(These 6 qualities are from John C. Maxwell's book Be a People Person.  The additional commentary are my own thoughts except for quote used.)

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

5 People-Skills Keys

Unless you are a hermit living in a hut in the Himalayas you probably need to keep your people skills relatively sharp.  Here are five key points that might help.

1. Listen to People

There is no need to get on a rant about all of our iGadgets and how we ignore others by tuning into these hand-held marvels.  Bottom line, people want to be listened to.  They want to be heard. 

In one of Bob Burg’s and John David Mann’s books they use these words from a husband and wife conversation.  The wife is speaking:

I’ve never been so heard … so listened to.

That is a remarkable comment.  She felt she had his ear.   Gotta love that.

2. Pay Attention

Small children are masters at getting out attention, because they will continue asking until you do notice.  Heard this lately?

“Mommy, Mommy, look at me.  I can swim.”

And if you look away, you get a repeat request, repeated until you do look and pay attention.

Employees want to be noticed for some really good work.  Spouses like it when their special efforts are acknowledge.  We pay attention in our relationships.

3. Look at Them

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and kept noticing them looking over your shoulder?  It kind of gives us the feeling that we are not very important, doesn’t it? 

Dr. Bernie Sigel tells of some cancer patients who had five requests.

Knock on my door.

Look me in the eye.

Say hello.

Say good bye.

Let me talk first.

I LOVE that.

4. Honor Them

And how do we do that?  Recognize them as a living and breathing human being who simply wants to be heard and recognized for the brief moments you are in conversation.

Remember their birthday or anniversary.  I just celebrated one and was amazed at the number of greetings I received on Facebook. 

Recognize an accomplishment and celebrate that. 

5. Respect Them

Respect them by giving a bit of attention, focus and interest.  We honor people by asking about what interests them, their kids, spouses, jobs, business, and recent successes.  Show interest – honor them.

I wish you much success in all your relationships. 

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

I Want a Job

I want some company to hire me and give me the job title of Ambassador of Good Will.  My job would be to simply wander the halls of this company and catch people doing something right.  And when I do, I would go to my office later in the day and send them a personal note of acknowledgement.

If I see an attitude improvement in someone, I would note that.

If the lowliest sales person made some kind of significant improvement, I would send a note or an email, or a phone call.

If marketing produced a stellar marketing piece of some type, we would celebrate the merging of their creativity and ingenuity and their ability to wow the marketplace.

I would find ways of praising employees in front of their peers and celebrating their accomplishments.

Now note this – I would not concentrate on the super-star employees.  They already get accolades from upper management.  I would concentrate on the little people at the far end of the food chain – the ones who rarely receive any kind of praise.  They need love too. 

Can you imagine how the environment around that place would change if I had this job?  It would probably revolutionize the business.  I think employees would come to work earlier, hang around a bit longer after hours, increase productivity and turn-over would be reduced. 

Now, how is that for a profitability performance review?

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

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Aim High

A Story:

It was the class after lunch.  Some students were lounging in their chairs as the teacher talked, making emphatic point after point. 

He paused, and looked over the half-lens reading glasses perched near the end of his nose. 

He cleared his voice, slapped his hand on the desk nearby and said, “Aim for the moon!”  His voice thundered in the small class room, echoing off the hard tile floor. 

“Aim for the moon.  And if you miss, at least you may land on the mountain top.”

The end!  But not really.

Love this thought:

Don’t fear failure.

Not failure, but low aim is the crime.

In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”

~Bruce Lee

Class dismissed.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Some Words about Habits

Astounding fact:  “more than 40% of the actions people perform every day are not decisions but habits.”

That is a direct quote from The Power of Habit.

I had to mull that one over a bit and soon came to that same conclusion.  When I write on my computer, many of the words are now habits and I spit them out in a blur so to speak.  That is because I’ve formed the habit of writing certain words thousands of times over the past bunch of years.

Another nugget:  “Habits can be changed if we know how they work.”

Ah, understanding how they work is the key.  There are triggers with any habit, and when we analyze those triggers, we begin to understand the mechanics of this thing called habits.

This one stopped me in my tracks. 

“Habits never really disappear.”

All you do is create new tracks for your muscles and tissues to flow down and over time you create new habits.  The old one is still there lurking, and can be pulled back into play.  Do you really want to resurrect that old habit?  Consider that one carefully.

And finally:

“You brain can’t tell the difference between bad and good habits …”

Charles Duhigg is the author of this fine book.  Get your copy soon.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Popular Vs Important

Just because something is popular doesn't make it important.  We live in a ratings society.  If a book makes it on the New York Times Best Seller list that automatically assures that it will be read by the masses.  If Oprah promoted a product on her show you can expect that product to zoom to the top in sales. 

That may be the syndrome of “awareness” but is it important?  And to whom is it important.

I’ve read many fine books that never made it to the top of the heap.  I wear shirts every day that never get near a fashion show runway.  Yet I like them, they are good quality, they are stylish for my tastes and they look great.  Just ask my wife

The question is this:  What is important to you and your world? 

Popular is good.

Important is better.

  

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words Web Site

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time