A light was on in one office, even though most of the other offices had been dark for hours. The manager continued to work in the silence of the empty building, reviewing reports, studying numbers, responding to messages and emails that others would not read until the next morning. There was so much to do, so many responsibilities and so many decisions that would wait for the manager's guiding hand. The silence was broken as the manager was startled to see one of the employees standing at the door. The employee knocked hesitantly, one foot in the office and the other still in the hallway. "May I come in for a moment?" asked the employee. "Of course," smiled the manager, leaning back in the chair. "What are you doing here so late?" "I had a lot of work to do and I wanted to catch-up," said the employee. "If I get behind then it could impact our customers, and I don't want that to happen. It's my responsibility, and I want to take care of it. I know that's what you would do." "You're probably right," the manager said with a laugh. "So what made you stop in here?" The employee approached the desk, sat down in one of the chairs beside it and said, "I wanted to ask you a question." "Go ahead." The employee began, "You always work so hard, and you always take care of us. You come in early. You stay late. No matter how much you have to do, you always take time to talk to any one of us when we need you. You are so busy taking time for us during the day that you have to stay late at night to catch up on your own work. Yet, you never complain. You make us want to work harder and do better, and you give us every opportunity to be successful. You are an inspiration to the rest of us, so what inspires you?" The manager's eyes widened, "Wow, well that was quite a surprise. I appreciate the kind words and admit that you completely caught me off guard." "Well?" persisted the employee, "What is your source of inspiration?" The manager was silent for a moment, carefully contemplating the response. Then the manager stood up and said, "follow me." As the manager and the employee walked down a row of cubicles, the manager started to point into them one by one. The cubicles belonged to the colleagues of the employee. "This person is a single parent and comes to work each day to support two children. Those children need someone to look up to, someone to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. This person doesn't work for me, this person works for them." The manager paused at the next cubicle and said, "This person is a grandmother who is working days so she can pay for her college education at night. She doesn't need a degree and it won't make any difference for her career. She is already past retirement age and she could quit at any time. She wants that degree to make her children proud and to give her grandchildren someone to look up to. She doesn't work for me, she works for them." The manager moved to the next cubicle and said, "This person is overqualified for the job. It would be easy to leave for another company, probably get a promotion out of it and earn better pay. Why doesn't this person leave? After eleven years working with the same group of people, it is like a family. This person doesn't work for me, this person works here for all of you." The manager paused at the next cubicle and said, "This person has a family to support. Two kids in school, a mortgage, two car payments, and a whole host of obligations that comes with taking care of a family. Needless to say, you know that this person doesn't work for me." The manager pointed down the line of cubicles, "That young man is engaged to be married, and he is saving up to buy their first home. That next person has a daughter in college. The next one wants to build a career out of this experience. The one after that wants to be a musician and only does this job to earn enough money to pay the bills." Walking into the corridor, the manager paused and smiled as the custodian came around the corner. "This person barely speaks our language, but comes to work every day when everyone else has gone home. More than half of the money earned will go to family members who do not even live in our country, while this person keeps only enough to pay for food, shelter and transportation here every day. This person comes into my office and takes away my trash, not for me, but because it is what needs to be done to earn the money that goes to a family that lives hundreds of miles away." "And then there is you," said the manager with a big smile. "You have your own reasons for coming in here every day. When I need a source of inspiration, all I have to do is look around me. I am surrounded by it. Inspiration comes from recognizing what is important to the people around you and making it your own. If I can feel the dedication that these people feel for their children, for their families, for their hopes and dreams, then I have all the inspiration that I need. They are inspired by their own sense of purpose, and I am inspired by them. Just as you believe that you are inspired by me, I am inspired by you." ______________________________________________________ Words of Wisdom "Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness - I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness." - Aaron Copland "Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation." - William Arthur Wood "Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others." - Robert Louis Stevenson ______________________________________________________ About the Author: John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, educational articles and references to local affiliates for consulting and executive coaching. http://www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development.
John Mehrmann is a freelance author, industry expert and President of Executive Blueprints Inc, an organization dedicated to developing human capital and personal growth.
howtogetwhatyouwant
I had scheduled a morning to write. I had my notes out on the desk, and the computer booted up. Then I went outside to have coffee on the patio, then puttered around in the kitchen, played with the dog, and mailed a letter. I just couldn t get my brain to wake up and go to work. For some people Brain Freeze (masquerading as procrastination) is habitual, and can have damaging effects. It s easy to do things we want to do, but the things we find difficult or unpleasant are what we put off. In my case, it wasn t that I didn t want to write, or that I found writing difficult or unpleasant. I just found it hard to get started. There were so many more interesting ways to use the luxury of that quiet morning. Simply, procrastination is often just a habit of making the wrong choices. It s choosing to take a nap instead of mowing the lawn It s opting to socialize with a co-worker instead of working on a project. It s cleaning off your desk instead of getting prepared for a meeting. It s checking out who s on The Today Show instead of writing an article. Now there s nothing inherently wrong with any of these choices. As an adult you have the luxury of choosing how you behave, and choosing your own responsibilities. And we all have responsibilities that we don t particularly care for. But if you allow Brain Freeze to make choices that aren t good for you, or that we don t really want to make, then it s time to put Brain Freeze on a leash. Just Do It may be a great marketing slogan, but in real life we often need a little bit more to work with. To conquer Brain Freeze, you will need to change the behavior that works against you achieving the desired results. Remember that you are changing a habit, and it will feel uncomfortable and unnatural at first. But with practice, you can teach Brain Freeze that it is not welcome in your life. Here are three ways to do this. 1. When you recognize a particular task is difficult for you and that you continually put it off until the last minute, try designing a system to handle it, instead of just putting out the fire when it becomes a problem. For example, if you re always running around late in the morning trying to find the kids homework and your keys and gym clothes, consider setting up a basket or backpack for each member of the family to collect things they need to get out the door. If you re always late paying bills, consider setting them up on automatic withdrawal. You have set up a system, not just reacted to a singular problem. 2. Determine if Brain Freeze is signaling you that you have made a mistake in your choice. If you find it difficult to go to work in the morning, perhaps you are in the wrong job. If you find that you don t want to go home in the evening after work, it may be that you are living in a place that is not healthy for you. Don t continue a mistake. Admit the mistake to yourself first and others (if necessary), and make the necessary arrangements to make it right. One of my clients was a senior in college receiving a degree in Electrical Engineering. He was having difficulty finishing projects, doing homework, studying for tests. His parents believed that he was afraid to go out into the real world . But as we talked, it became apparent that he had never wanted to be an engineer and had allowed others to make those choices for him. He was spending all his time working in a restaurant where they were teaching him how to cook. As soon as he recognized that he had made a mistake, he was able to tell his parents how he really felt, make the change to get the training to be a chef. 3. We all have things we re good at and things we prefer to do, and Brain Freeze can also signal that it is task that you really don t like to do. Ask first, does it have to be done at all, and second, does it have to be done by you. Consider delegating the task to someone who would enjoy it, so that you can concentrate on things that you would devote more creativity and energy to. In my particular case, I love to mow grass and my husband hates it. I despise vacuuming, and I don t do a very good job of it (in rebellion, I suppose). My husband doesn t mind it, and always does a much more thorough job than I do. Easy tradeoff. Finally, REWARD yourself for a job well done. This is very important and a step that a lot of people ignore. A reward can come in any form you choose, from a simple affirmation to yourself, to buying yourself a treat. Realize that the ultimate reward for taming Brain Freeze is that by being in control of what you do, and finding ways to do it efficiently, you have given yourself more time to enjoy your life. -
the author ian chappel is well known article submitter
Ways to Make Money From Home
With today’s gas prices, many people are start to rethink their commuting jobs.
Fortunately there are ways to make money-work from home that can earn you a living while keeping your car in the garage.
Then there is the necessity of moms (or dads) who want to work from home, keep their little ones out of daycare and still make money.
Work from jobs or home based businesses are definitely in higher demand the more societal lifestyles change.
So how can you make money? Work from home positions come from a variety of
fields and require different degrees of skill and education. Let’s look at some of these work from home opportunities.
You can make money in data entry for companies that have data you can directly enter onto your computer in their data base. You need to be able to type fast and it is relatively boring work to do but it does pay money, sometimes by the amount of data you enter.
This is a lot like data entry and can be somewhat boring if you have to do it all day long.
are a huge plus for this type of work.
You need to have a great deal of people skills and you need to be able to handle disgruntled customers. If this is not something you think you can do, try one of the other jobs at home available.
A very safe and credible website to start searching if you want to make money-work from home, is at www.elance.com.
You will need to establish some sort of trust and credibility but everybody starts somewhere.
Kageni Pierce has a passion for sharing self improvement resources in the simplest and most practical ways. Join the fast-growing number of readers who log onto her website everyday to soak in the latest personal development resources. Personal growth through Success From a home business at Self Improvement to Personal Development http://www.self-improvement-to-personal-development.com/legitimate-work-from-home-opportunity.html.
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