From Discomfort to Success

Discomfort can be a pain or a springboard for success. When you are uncomfortable you want to change your status. You are not happy with the status quo. This creates the impetus to take action. 

When you are comfortable you can easily become satisfied with status quo.  This can potentially lead to mediocrity. 

Therefore do not view discomfort negatively but rather use it to provide the impetus to change – and change for the better. 

To get to the next level of success, you need to leave your comfort zone and learn new things and seize opportunities.  
You have to make yourself accountable for going the next level or find a mentor who can make you accountable.

Relationships!

I am not a relationship expert. However, I do run into relationship issues while I coach business executives.

What I have noticed is that the biggest lament for women in a relationship (marriage, common law) is the lack of expression, appreciation, and priority from the man in her life.

Women find men to be misers in expressing their love and appreciation and give priority to other things (business, sports) compared to the relationship.

Men, on the other hand, are confused. No matter what they do, women can find fault with them.

If men started to take every opportunity to express their love and appreciation and assign priority to their relationship things would get much better.
If women, on the other hand, picked their battles instead of making every battle a big one, things are bound to improve.

It would be good to do a weekly checkpoint of how this is working as follows:

– what worked well last week?
– what could have been done better?
– what are the goals for the coming week?

I believe when an important relationship is rock solid in terms of communication, respect and understanding the rest of the challenges are far easier to handle. When the foundation of an important relationship is shaky, the rest of your life gets impacted!

Art of selling

Sales is the lifeblood of any business.

No matter how good you are at selling, you can get better. Ask yourself where you can get better by reflecting on the following questions:

1. Do you know your customer? If not, what do you need to do to know your customer well?

2. Are you delivering a memorable experience? If not, what do you need to do to create a memorable buying experience for your customer?

3. Have you identified your unique selling strength?

4. What is the process you use to tap into your selling potential – sales presentation, reading, seminar attendance?

5. What do you do to ensure that you are authentic when selling your products and services?

6. Do you genuinely care about your customer?

7. Have you mastered your emotions?

8. Do you persist till you succeed?

9. Do you increase the face to face meetings with your clients?

10. Do you get demotivated by every “No” you receive or actually motivated by every “No” because it gets you closer to a “Yes”.

When you stop growing, your business stops growing. Therefore, make it your goal to get better and better every day in every way!

Spark!

You hear an inspirational song or a powerful message and you feel like conquering the world.

Next, you go to the office or home and a call comes in or someone interrupts you and in no time you are distracted.

Suddenly from the energy that wanted to conquer the world you have now been brought down to being the same again. You got the spark but unfortunately, you allowed the spark to disappear.

The magic happens when you optimize the feeling and avoid doing anything that disrupts the spark created in you.

There is no doubt that you will get a spark in your life. However, what you do with the spark will depend entirely on you!

”Corporate Sufi” Leader

*Finding Your Purpose*

Once you find your life mission, the one thing you need to do, then fuse it with all of your activities—personal and corporate. By so doing, you unleash your potential and find fulfillment on your journey.

*Embracing a Principle-Centered Approach*

Listen and trust the voice of your conscience and work with integrity, principles, and respect.
You have a social conscience, and you ensure that your corporate work creates a better society all round. You do not engage in any activity that is detrimental to the overall well-being of society or the environment.

*Making a Difference*

It is not just what you have that matters; rather, the value of your life is determined by who you are and what you give. You treat life as a precious gift and use this gift to give and to make a difference.

*Embracing Life-Long Learning*

You learn from cradle to grave. You learn from all, including nature which offers immense wisdom. You know that, in order to succeed in life, competence is the key which comes from life-long learning.

*Having Faith in the Unknown*

You do not fear the unknown. You are willing to take risks and to persevere in realizing your dreams.

*Persevering*

You never give up. You persist until you succeed in achieving what you believe in.
Perseverance and patience go hand in hand.

*Being Effective*

You are a role model inspiring your team through your example.
You eliminate insecurities by trusting and believing in the inherent abilities and gifts of team members.
You are results-oriented, not task-focused.
You empower your team—you do not overpower them.

*Having a Positive Attitude*

You keep confident expectations. What you expect is what you invite into your life.
You are solution-oriented, not problem-focused.
You are non-judgmental, giving people the benefit of the doubt.
You do not worry about criticism. You believe in doing your best and leaving the rest.

*Balancing your Life*

Real success is holistic and caters to your body, mind, and soul. You allocate your time wisely and do not compromise on a tight set of priorities, which brings you balance and synergy.

*Savouring the Path*

You know that destiny lies in the path. You love the challenges and hurdles because they enhance your strength and tenacity.
You regard each day as the most important day of your life. Thus, every day—every moment—is a gift that you cherish and savor. You go with the flow without taking your eye off your goals.

*Taming Our Ego*

You strive for positive pride and shun egotism.
You let the subject disappear in the object by letting the self disappear in the higher purpose of your work.
You accept your shortcomings. You do not have a need to become defensive or take things personally.

*Igniting your Spirituality*

You make spirituality the centerpiece of your life, including your corporate life, so that 24 hours of your day are grounded in spirituality.
You know the corporate soul—the real reason for the corporation’s existence.

*Understanding Life and Death*

You realize that there is a beginning and an end to everything in life. Every beginning is an end of the old, and every end a beginning of the new.
When you die, you know that you do not take what you have but, rather, what you gave.

*Experiencing the Divine in Corporate Life*

You know that all success happens by the Divine’s work. Hard work and struggle pay dividends, but without grace you cannot go too far. You invite the Divine into your corporate life and make the Divine your partner in everything you do.
You become co-creators with the Divine by creating something beautiful in this world through your work.
You see divinity in all. You understand that everything and everybody is a signpost to the Oneness of creation.

These principles are universal and practical. They are founded on love and act as a bridge between your personal and corporate life. If these principles are implemented by you and other leaders in your team, your corporation would be a more happy, peaceful, and loving place where each person is given the space and the opportunity to flower to his or her potential and to contribute to society and to the world.  Your corporate life will, thus, be materially rewarding, as well as spiritually enriching.

Creating Zest

Zest creates joy; it gives you the ability to appreciate life even when there are ups and downs; the drive to face challenges in a positive manner.

Zest is fueled by what excites you, makes you enthusiastic and passionate. If you know what this is, do more of it.

When you are living and working with passion, it is contagious and it inspires others. Work and life are then less stressful.

Finding things that make you feel excited about life help to increase your zest – but doing the right thing does too. How you build your relationships with loved ones can have an impact on how zestful you feel. If you have loving and jovial relationships, you enhance your energy.

People who practice zest embrace life as an adventure and push the envelope. They see possibility where others only see problems. They do big things and bring other people along on their journey.

Create zest in your life and experience a life of unbridled energy and enthusiasm!

Persevere

When J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel, 12 different publishers rejected the book. Even Bloomsbury, the publishing house that finally purchased Rowling’s manuscript, advised Rowling to get a day job.

Walt Disney was turned down 302 times before he got financing for building Disney World.

Harrison Ford moonlighted as a carpenter to support his young family before getting his first big break in movies.

It is not surprising then that Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Here perspiration implies both hard work and perseverance.
Perseverance is often the deciding factor between having a dream and living it. So how do we grow this quality and make it a part of our being? The answer lies in the acronym “PERSEVERE”.

P- Purpose – Purpose lies at the core of perseverance. Every story of perseverance derives its strength from the purpose around which it revolves. If the purpose is ambiguous or weak, it will not sustain you on your path for the long haul. It is therefore important to define your purpose, find out what really makes you tick, and set out a plan of action.

E – Enthusiasm – Enthusiasm is the positive energy you bring to every task. It forms the key ingredient that spurs you when times get difficult or the wait seems endless. The easiest way to boost enthusiasm is to do what you love or love what you do.

R – Resilience – Resilience is the ability to bounce back whenever you fall down. Resilient people don’t allow setbacks to slow them down but use them as stepping-stones to their success.

S – Support – We are all interconnected and interdependent. It is a good idea to involve people in our dreams and help them achieve theirs. Invite, welcome and acknowledge support from family, friends or mentors, as well as strangers.

E – Efficiency – Make sure your daily actions and processes are imbued with efficiency. Efficiency happens when you identify and consistently practice a set of best practices in your field.

V – Values – During any change or crisis your values and principles will keep you from feeling lost or unbalanced. They will serve as beacons helping you make the right choices, rather than acting from fear or confusion.

E – Eliminate – Eliminate all that is unnecessary, irrelevant and takes you away from your purpose. Clutter distracts your mind and weakens your drive.

R – Review – Make it a habit to regularly review your tasks and identify patterns or actions which have led to maximum results. Simultaneously, rethink, change or eliminate all that is no longer serving your purpose.

E – Elasticity – this refers to flexibility. Remember that life is a spontaneous and dynamic process. While it is important to keep your eye on your purpose, many times you might be called upon to take unfamiliar detours in your journey. But while you do this never lose sight of your larger goals.