I am a bit rushed between meetings so am using one of my time tips. Use someone else's material. One of my reseller friends forwarded this to me. The following is used with permission of the author, Jamie Broughton.
Your Problem Isn't the Problem
In a remote village in China hundreds of years ago there lived a wise farmer and his son. The wise farmer was respected in the village and also admired, for he owned a beautiful stallion.
One day, the stallion ran away.
The villagers flocked to the old farmer’s home and offered sympathies over the farmer’s loss.
“Oh poor farmer, you must be so sad to have lost your most valuable possession.” “What a terrible thing to have lost your stallion.”
“What ever will you do?” And so on…
The wise farmer responded, “Indeed, my stallion is missing. This is interesting.”
Weeks passed and still no stallion. Finally, one day, the stallion returned! With it, he brought a beautiful wild mare. The villagers rejoiced.
“What good fortune! You not only have your stallion back but a wonderful mare as well! How lucky you are!”
The wise farmer quietly responded, “Indeed, this is interesting.”
The farmer’s son was quite excited about the arrival of the new wild mare and saw it as an opportunity to tame her. The farmer agreed.
The time came to try and ride the mare. When the son did, the mare bucked and threw him, breaking his leg. The villagers soon heard of the latest turn of events and came running to the farmer’s home.
“Oh what bad luck!” they agreed.
“This is so unfortunate. What will happen if your son cannot work the fields?!”
The wise farmer was his calm self. “This is interesting,” he quietly repeated as he began to prepare for the journey to the doctor, days’ travel away.
Soon after, much to the dismay the villagers, the Chinese army came to town looking to take able-bodied young men to fight the latest bloody war.
The farmer’s son was passed over of course, left to heal from his (relatively) minor wound.
“Interesting,” thought the farmer.
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Coaching Fieldwork
Life is a never-ending series of events. What you may not have considered is that each event is just that, an event – something happens.
Yet, as humans we unconsciously and automatically interpret that event and ADD meaning TO what happened. In essence, we create a story about it.
Based on the responses of the villagers above, some may have thought:
“Without the stallion, he won’t have much fortune left (and will live much poorer).”
“With the stallion AND the mare, he’ll be twice as rich (and will live more fully).”
“He won’t have the man-power to work the fields without his son (and will lose some portion of his crop…and be much poorer).”
These “stories” create problems, and lots of them. In fact, more often than not, it’s the story of what happened that’s the real problem.
Look at your life right now. Is there a situation where you’re stuck or resisting action? Big or small, it doesn’t matter. Here are some examples to get the brain started:
Making a request of someone
Purchasing something or not
Proposing a new idea
Making a change
Ask yourself, what “stories” have you created about the situation that are holding you back? What meaning have you added to the situation unknowingly? What is it you “know” will happen if you take action?
© 2006, Jamie Broughton
"By Jamie Broughton of the VAR School of Business. He assists VAR owners and management teams in their effort to grow their business in less time and with less effort. To learn more about his innovative programs and sign up for more FR*E tips like these, visit his site at www.VARSchoolofBusiness.com."
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Be Zen
I am in California at the HP conference. The grounds here (at Half Moon Bay) are beautiful (although it is raining). Oceoan view with huge waves. I would like to go swimming but it is not really set up for it (rocks, high waves (which I love), no one else swimming and a minor inconvenience of a "no swimming" sign.
I am irritated that I missed my workout due to unexpected business calls.
I guess I need to heed my own advice. Plan and schedule but also leave enough slack to deal with priorities and interruptions that come up. And regardless - be Zen about what is happening. It does not help to be upset.
I am irritated that I missed my workout due to unexpected business calls.
I guess I need to heed my own advice. Plan and schedule but also leave enough slack to deal with priorities and interruptions that come up. And regardless - be Zen about what is happening. It does not help to be upset.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Advice for New Bloggers
I am often asked for blogging advice by new bloggers. I thought it would be more efficient for me to post suggestions and refer people to this blog post rather than email each person. I welcome comments and feedback from you, my readers. Take what I have started with and add please.
Advice for new bloggers:
· Don’t start blogging unless you like to write. It is a bit of an obligation.
· I like keep blog postings short (400 – 500 words) and this seems to suit the attention span of most readers.
· Just to it. It is easy to start and in the worst case, you can stop.
· You are not really considered to be a blogger until you have blogged from 4 – 6 weeks. I think it is a great idea to have a strong first post because some people read first posts but the next 4 – 6 weeks, you don’t really need to have tremendous depth or substance. I would suggest copying things that you find interesting but not pouring too much of your heart in to it for the first while.
· I suggest installing a www.statcounter.com. This tells you what your traffic is and where they come from. It is free.
· Some people think blogging is technical; it’s not. Anyone can learn how to BLOG in about 5 minutes.
· I suggest finding a blog mentor – someone who can help you with the simple set-up and give you a little bit of support through the early days.
· I would not try to do anything to generate traffic in the first 30 days as you are really not a blogger until you have reached that point.
I am off on more travel today. Conference in California and while I am there, I will stop by Fremont head office.
Advice for new bloggers:
· Don’t start blogging unless you like to write. It is a bit of an obligation.
· I like keep blog postings short (400 – 500 words) and this seems to suit the attention span of most readers.
· Just to it. It is easy to start and in the worst case, you can stop.
· You are not really considered to be a blogger until you have blogged from 4 – 6 weeks. I think it is a great idea to have a strong first post because some people read first posts but the next 4 – 6 weeks, you don’t really need to have tremendous depth or substance. I would suggest copying things that you find interesting but not pouring too much of your heart in to it for the first while.
· I suggest installing a www.statcounter.com. This tells you what your traffic is and where they come from. It is free.
· Some people think blogging is technical; it’s not. Anyone can learn how to BLOG in about 5 minutes.
· I suggest finding a blog mentor – someone who can help you with the simple set-up and give you a little bit of support through the early days.
· I would not try to do anything to generate traffic in the first 30 days as you are really not a blogger until you have reached that point.
I am off on more travel today. Conference in California and while I am there, I will stop by Fremont head office.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Synchronicity
My back is still a bit sore today from work outs yesterday. I did about 45 minutes in the morning fairly hard and an easy 2 hours in the evening. More than I usually do.
Yesterday, after brunch with my son, I took the back roads back to Guelph from London. I know the back roads well – I grew up in Woodstock and went to the University of Waterloo. The weather was beautiful. The snow from the morning had melted and it was almost warm.
I saw a huge double V of trumpeter swans. They migrate far to the north in early spring. My mother instilled an interest in bird watching in me when I was young and to this day, I know more about birds than most people.
I lead a good and privileged life. I take seeing the swans as a positive sign. We choose what we see the “signs” as. I choose to see it positively. Synchronicity is when things happen that just seem to make life come together well. For me this is Synchronicity.
Yesterday, after brunch with my son, I took the back roads back to Guelph from London. I know the back roads well – I grew up in Woodstock and went to the University of Waterloo. The weather was beautiful. The snow from the morning had melted and it was almost warm.
I saw a huge double V of trumpeter swans. They migrate far to the north in early spring. My mother instilled an interest in bird watching in me when I was young and to this day, I know more about birds than most people.
I lead a good and privileged life. I take seeing the swans as a positive sign. We choose what we see the “signs” as. I choose to see it positively. Synchronicity is when things happen that just seem to make life come together well. For me this is Synchronicity.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Writing Flow
Last night I saw the Blue Man Group courtesy of Sam Sorbara where Elizabeth works as a lawyer. Interesting cultural experience.
Today I have a couple of articles to write. I seem to be "blocked" so took a break to blog. Perhaps I need to re-read my article on "8 tricks to write an article in 20 minutes". I could add a couple of tricks to the article:
1 - sometimes a break works well. If the ideas are roughed out and the article is just not coming together, I take a break then come back to it.
2 - Unrelated writing (like doing a blog post) can sometimes help get the flow working. Sometimes I just start to write anything and then it starts to flow.
Off to work out shortly then go to London to have lunch with my son David who is at Western.
Today I have a couple of articles to write. I seem to be "blocked" so took a break to blog. Perhaps I need to re-read my article on "8 tricks to write an article in 20 minutes". I could add a couple of tricks to the article:
1 - sometimes a break works well. If the ideas are roughed out and the article is just not coming together, I take a break then come back to it.
2 - Unrelated writing (like doing a blog post) can sometimes help get the flow working. Sometimes I just start to write anything and then it starts to flow.
Off to work out shortly then go to London to have lunch with my son David who is at Western.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Goals and vision
Long day so I am tired. Might be a bit jet lagged. It was not all work though. Tonight I played duplicate bridge after attending a reception at a local accounting firm.
As I often do, I have been thinking about my goals. Seeking clarity as always.
“There is nothing like dream to create the future” by Victor Hugo 1802 – 1885.
I have always been a great dreamer, although the line between dreamer and visioniary is sometimes blurred.
What I am looking for now is ways to clarify my vision as I have always found the clearer my vision, the better I am able to come up with the action plan and the tactics to create the dream.
I have often seen people who have dreams but don’t have the follow on action plans and don’t end up being any further ahead.
However, I find people with dreams and vision even without the action plan often get further ahead with no dreams and visions.
As I often do, I have been thinking about my goals. Seeking clarity as always.
“There is nothing like dream to create the future” by Victor Hugo 1802 – 1885.
I have always been a great dreamer, although the line between dreamer and visioniary is sometimes blurred.
What I am looking for now is ways to clarify my vision as I have always found the clearer my vision, the better I am able to come up with the action plan and the tactics to create the dream.
I have often seen people who have dreams but don’t have the follow on action plans and don’t end up being any further ahead.
However, I find people with dreams and vision even without the action plan often get further ahead with no dreams and visions.
To smile or frown
This morning on the way to Ronson (about an hour drive for me), I was listening to an audio program.
The author said it was good to smile. It uses only 17 muscles compared to 43 to frown. Now as a health and fitness guy - is it not better to use more muscles?
The author said it was good to smile. It uses only 17 muscles compared to 43 to frown. Now as a health and fitness guy - is it not better to use more muscles?
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