Juggling Elephants Blog

The Boston Globe recently ran a story about a sweet lady whose name is Marilyn Coyne. At 82 years old her life story is remarkable. According to the Globe, she survived the Depression with little food and no heat in her parents' flat in Portland, Maine. She married and sent four kids to college. She saw her husband and one of their children die. What an incredible lady!

Three years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was recently told by her doctor that she had months to live. Looking at her final moments, she had one request-she wanted to Square Dance one more time. The video is touching.

Stories like this always bring me back to center. What would I do if I found out my time was limited... the truth is, that's the truth. There are opportunities with my time today that if squandered, can never be used again for such a purpose. At a younger age one MAY get the opportunity to do that something meaningful or special-but if we are honest with ourselves, we know there are no guarantees.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to get on the dance floor like Marilyn.

Labels: priorities, procrastination, work/life balance

On a calendar in a doctor's office I saw the following quote:

I found it quite profound because it describes so clearly another reason some of us become so overwhelmed with life-our expectations and reality are not in sync. We just feel like if we make that extra "super human" effort we will finally achieve _________________ (you fill in the blank.) Rarely do things work out that way.

Does this mean we shouldn't give our best effort and expect the best from others? Does this mean we should settle for mediocrity in our own pursuits and accept less than others? Of course not. What it does mean is that we need to allow for mistakes from ourselves and others. We need to realize that everything may not work out the way we planned-but it worked out better than if no plan at all was in place. Ultimately, what's the purpose of your circus-to have such lofty expectations of yourself and others that you always feel like a failure-or to see yourself (and others) as a work in progress?

Labels: goal setting, motivation, stress reduction

Labels: relationships, teamwork

If you start your day with the mental mindset that you are going to have a stellar performance but your physical energy just won't cooperate, here's an article that gives good advice on staying energized all day. As we say in Juggling Elephants-Your circus is only as good as your NEXT performance.

http://food.yahoo.com/blog/yahoofreshpicks/1829/top-10-eating-tips-to-stay-energized-all-day

Labels: health, productivity

Make a mistake today? Okay so you made more than one. You're normal. But have you ever thought about WHY you make those mistakes? If you have, get the book, Why We Make Mistakes, by Joseph T. Hallinan. In his book he offers well-researched and studied reasons why we aren't always perfect with our words and actions. One that made me chuckle was "When we multitask, we get stupid."

Not to leave us wallowing in our errors, he gives 8 simple ways to minimize our errors. Get the book to get the full list, but a couple key ones are:

• Think small. Don't overlook details.
• Think negatively. Always looking at things positively can blind you to possible problems. Thinking negatively helps you prepare for them.
• Slow down. Multitasking may put more things in process, but focusing on one task at a time is actually a more efficient use of your physical and mental resources.
• Get more sleep. Simply put by the author, "Sleepy people make more mistakes."

Labels: mistakes, multi-tasking, personal growth

Here's a little clown act for your Friday. Some humor just needs no explanation.

Mall Wants Manilow Music To Drive Out Unruly Teens
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_fe_st/as_odd_new_zealand_mall_rats

Labels: humor

Dr. Robert Maurer wrote a powerful book entitled, One Small Step Can Change Your Life. The primary focus of the book is to offer insights on how individuals and organizations should place an intense focus on achieving small goals-not just trying to make major wholesale changes. Large goals can seem overwhelming and defeating while taking small steps is more manageable and also easier to quickly reward.

In his book he references Toyota’s "employee suggestion" program. According to Maurer, Toyota receives over 1.5 million suggestions each year from employees and holds an annual program to award the person who provided the single best suggestion. Their reward? A pen. No, not a gold-plated or diamond studded writing instrument-just a pen. Why on earth would people be willing to share their ideas to win a pen? Maybe it's not about the pen-maybe it's the fact that these same employees know that Toyota really believes in their ability to see what needs to happen in the organization for improvement. Maybe they have actually seen some of their suggestions implemented in some area of the company. They trust that the time spent sending in their suggestion is worth the effort.

The "nugget" for organizations is to remember that when managers, supervisors and other leaders within the organization let others know their input is needed and valued, employees will often respond with ideas that can really work-if the workable ideas are put into practice. And rewarding them in some small is merely icing on the cake-or should we say ink in the pen. 1.5 million suggestions can't be wrong.

Labels: employees, feedback, motivation

Imagine this. You go to work for a really progressive growing company. For the first four weeks they pay you to complete their training program. You are all set to begin your job. Now imagine that the first official communication you get from the company is the offer of a $2000 bonus to quit. What would YOU do?

This is exactly what Zappos.com does as part of its employee training program. CEO Tony Hsieh says, "It's best to know early on if an employee doesn't buy into the culture. It just makes economic sense." While their practice seems to defy logic, it really does make sense for the long term health of an organization.

The traditional wisdom over the years is that the cost to an organization to hire and train someone is about 75% of the annual salary for a blue collar job. For a knowledge worker the number starts at 125% of their salary. $2000 now seems like a small price to pay to insure the quality of your performers.

On a deeper level, one has to appreciate the confidence that Zappos.com has in its culture and the opportunities available to those who are employed by the organization. So many organizations operate from the opposite mindset-that they can't afford to lose a mediocre employee because of the void created and the unknown. It's so refreshing to see an organization so committed to improving the quality of its performance by going after the best performers and maintaining a culture that encourages them to stay. It's the heart and "sole" of creating a quality organization.

Labels: business management, employees, teamwork

There were some interesting findings in a regular feature of Reader's Digest. In It's Around The World article it asked people from around the world, "What would you do with an extra hour?" Some of the results were:

• Spain: 50% would use it for family time
• Turkey: 41% would exercise
• Germany: 37% would sleep
• India: 50% would work another hour at their job

In the US the results were:

• 37% Family Time
• 32% Sleep
• 23% Exercise
• 9% Work

What is even more intriguing is how obtainable an hour could be for many people. Get up 15 minutes earlier, take 15 minutes less for lunch, cut out 15 minutes of web surfing or TV viewing and you already have 45 minutes. Send a couple less e mails and text messages and you are approaching the coveted hour.

The key is being a good ringmaster and making the best use of your discretionary time to make these moments a reality-regardless of how you plan to spend it. What would YOU do with an extra hour-and what are you willing to change to make it a reality.

Labels: focus, prioritizing, time management, work/life balance

Time magazine has a regular feature called "Postcard________." The March 2nd issue was entitled, Postcard: Beijing. The article discussed China's tough approach to those suffering with internet addiction.

The part of the article that caught my attention was a quote in the 3rd paragraph from the US Center for Internet Addiction Recovery. They classified internet addiction as "Behavior in which the Internet becomes the organizing principle of addicts' lives." Organizing principle... meaning their thoughts and actions were all organized to maximize their ability to be engaged with the Internet.

That got me to thinking. What if we tweaked the phrase a little to evaluate our own situations and our "organizing principles" to see what is most impacting our thoughts and actions? It might then read, "___________________ is the organizing principle of my day (or week or month or life). Taking a moment to reflect on our honest answer(s) might be helpful in determining if we are acting based on purpose.... or something less healthy.

Labels: priorities, purpose