Extreme Mind Makeover Edition

Mahatma Gandhi said, "a man is but the products of his thoughts. What he thinks, he bocomes". Whether we care to admit it or not, our thoughts and beliefs impact our experience.

We think 40,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day. How we feel is indicative of the types of thoughts we think. Do you feel joy and excitement in your life or are you feeling fatique? Do you see the glass as half empty or have full? The better we feel the more optimistically we are thinking.

So what do we do in those situations when we are focused on what is not working or what we do not want? There are simples techniques that we can use as follows:
1. Listen to your language: What are you saying to yourself and others?

2. Visualization: Mentally picture what you want in your mind and feel it.

3. Pivoting: When you are focused on what you do not want,ask yourself, "what do I really, really want. Take a belief and try it.

4. Scripting: It is writing about what you want as if it has already happened. Write it in the present tense with as much detail as possible.

All of these techniques can change your thinking. As Norman Vincent Peale believed, "Change your thoughts, and you change your world"?

Do you need an extreme mind makeover today?

Thought for the Day

Sometimes a simple thought for the day can be more profound than an entire blog. As you move through this upcoming week think of the Gandhi quote, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world".

What change do you want to make in your life that will make the world a better place?

The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

One of my favorite authors is Patrick Lencioni. His leadership ideas are simple but powerful. The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive is no exception.

In this book he begins with two fictitious companies. One exemplifies a healthy organization and the other does not. The story showcases how an organization becomes healthy. A healthy organization is defined as having less politics, and confusion, higher morale and productivity, lower unwanted turnover, and lower recruiting costs than an unhealthy one (Lencioni, 140).

The following are Lencioni's four disciplines of a healthy organization (141):
1. Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team. This is the most critical and
enables the other three.
2. Create organizational clarity. It is agreeing to the fundamental concepts
that drive an organization.
3. Over-communicate organizational clarity. With this principle, employees at
all levels and in all departments understand what the organization is about
and how they contribute to its success.
4. Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems. Systems and processes that drive human behavior must be clear.

The end result of practicing these principles is a healthier, happier and more productive organization.

As you think about these principles, which ones are currently active in your organization.