Promoting Health & Wealth - My Performance Nets My Results

As we evaluate our Wheels of Life, what becomes even more evident how much thought, or lack thereof, goes into how we are performing to achieve the results-The Success - that we want out of life. Our performance is directly related to our level of competence. Even more importantly, our performance is absolutely linked to our belief in ourselves and our abilities to accomplish what we really want.

Behavior studies show that our mind functions between the conscious and subconscious level - once again, I'd like to reiterate that on average we operate only about 10% in the conscious realm. Our performance therefore is generally 90% in the subconscious or HABITUAL state. Keeping this information in mind, I realize that treating results achievement as a process rather than random events actually increases my degree of success and positive outcomes. Very simple concept which takes a tremendous amount of focus, planning, personal accountability, flexibility and honest reflection.

For me, the most important competency is honest reflection can be summed up by in the words of James Allen, author of As a Man Thinketh, English poet and philosopher.

Circumstances don't not make the man, they reveal him.

How we respond to circumstances, events, situations that show up for us is a direct correlation to how successful we will be in our work and life.

One how to that I practice daily is to journal about my results. I use my time with a journal to write, reflect, evaluate and measure to become more conscious of those behaviors that I own which have caused me to fail and/or succeed. One of those behaviors that I find shows up for me, and as I work more and more with others I find it is showing up for them too, is that our response often times is defensive (again, think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - the need for safety and security.) Whenever I perform from a defensive position, I immediately sense that I am at a disadvantage and my results are certainly affected. Therefore, it becomes important for me to think and act more proactively.

Let's think about the word proactivity (defintiion according to The Dictionary by Farlex)

1. tending to initiate change rather than reacting to events

2. (Psychology) Psychol of or denoting a mental process that affects a subsequent process

This simple how-to approach is to Act As If. This becomes great way for me to net very different and much more successful results.

Act As If:

• I am willing to learn from mistakes
• I am excited about the new job, new assignment, new idea
• I am a great leader, team player
• The other person has a right to their opinion.
• That others have great ideas too

Practicing this Act As If approach often transforms my results most times almost instantaneously. How about giving it a try and let me know how it works for you?

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Own Your Goals - own your life

I practiced with a group an exercise w using the Wheels of Life. It was amazing how quickly people discovered that they needed to look at ALL the key elements of the personal and professional (organizational) Wheels of Life as they checked in with their goals. Next they identified that s when connected with the essential Skills and Knowledge (S&A) element is a powerful process.

As we worked with these Wheels of Life, people realized that they now could also appreciate that their goal setting experience had helped or hindered them in their work and life. For example, many had completed their education, achieved certificates, attained degrees and/or landed jobs. This helped to validate to them that they had at least a basic understanding of goal setting. They also came to understand that they didn't realize how setting goals is not necessarily aligned with goal achievement. But it certainly is a great start.

How do the goals we set actually do more than just nudge us in the direction of accessing our skills and knowledge? Or, do our goals actually position us for achievement, success and powerful results?

What if we have a great deal of challenges with conflict, personally and professionally. We set a goal to increase our knowledge of conflict and we will read a book. This is a nice goal, even a good goal, but then what? Remember applied knowledge is even more powerful and setting a goal that will lead us to do something MORE than just read a book takes more work and planning but nets us even greater results. So we set a goal to read a book specific to conflict management such as Crucial Conversations;Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny,Ron McMillan & Al Switzer in the next 30 days. After we read the book, .will identify at least one tip or take away, put that tip into action and then evaluate the effectiveness of that tip.


We just created a WHY -Written, Habit-forming and YOURS, SMART goal - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistically High and Timed. Each individual pen the goal and decided to own the goal- no one gave us the goal - we each penned our own. Someone else may write. After reading the book, I will teach one technique to my team.

The more we own the goal and make it apply to what we need to enhance with our skills and knowledge the more likely we will be to succeed.

Using the Wheel of Life to help us to identify at least one area for growth or enhancement a month over the course of 12 months will help us to build new habits.

The biggest tip I can give for goal setting is make the goals your own and change your life!

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promote Health & Wealth - Appreciate How Much You APPLIED Your Skills & Knowledge (S&K) to Achieve Your Goals

I've come to appreciate how much skills and knowledge (S&K) people apply in their lives each and every day to survive and then ultimately thrive. This element of the organizational or work wheel of life is one area that I believe we don't fully understand how much it helps us to achieve our goals and ultimate success. Even in infancy, we learn to communicate and then apply our S&K to indicate our needs. The goal is to be fed or to be dry. That goal is met and we move up.

As we grow and mature, we expand our S&K by learning to read, write, math, science... This list is becoming quite extensive, almost overwhelming if we stop and evaluate what we skills and knowledge we have gained over the course of our lives. The mind is a truly wonderful place as it stores virtually limitless bytes of information that we retrieve consciously and subconsciously every second of every day.

Taking some time to identify our specific Skills and Knowledge is something only we can do for ourselves. Whether we earned this S&K formally or informally is not relevant. What is relevant is that we have learned to APPLY this S&K to some degree. Could we be more and do more, certainly, but I'd like to suggest that we start with taking stock of our current success and appreciate that the only place we can go is UP.

Here's 2 key questions...

What skills do I currently possess and how have those skills helped me achieve my goals?

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What knowledge do I currently possess and how has that knowledge helped me achieve my goals?

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Taking time to appreciate that we already possess a great deal of Skills and Knowledge moves us to an entirely different level of confidence and self esteem in our work and life performance. This is one exercise that I believe is essential to add to our weekly, if not daily habits.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Design Your Work for Flow

The organizational or "work" side of the life wheel is once again divided into four major components or quadrants:

1. Focus
2. Goals
3. Results
4. Attitude

I realize that these are relatively simple, everyday words. But, as I continue with this exploration of the Flow - life becomes much easier if we at least start with a mutual understanding of these words (or any words for that matter). So here are basic definitions compliments of The Free Dictionary by Farlex

Focus - A center of interest or activity.

• Time - A period necessary or available for a given activity

Goals - The purpose toward which an endeavor is directed; an objective.

• Skills - Proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience.
• Knowledge - The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned.

Results - The consequence of a particular action, operation, or course; A favorable or concrete outcome or effect.

• Performance - The way in which someone or something functions.

Attitude - A state of mind or a feeling; disposition.

• People - Humans considered as a group or in indefinite numbers.

Exciting and really interesting topics. Until tomorrow - back to research and discovery.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura