Five Ways to Boost The Way Others View You

The way you perceive yourself is the way others will see you.  Think about that statement.   What is your perception of yourself?  Are you confident, are you in shape, and are you helpful, courteous and kind?  Are you self-assured in your knowledge, skills and abilities at work?   If you answered no to anyone of these questions, then you have some work to do.  If there is any aspect of your life – personal or professional that you do not feel good about, then you are projecting that image to others.

Your self-image is vital to the way people view you.  You can give your self-esteem a boost by changing your thinking.  Our minds are powerful and our thoughts have a direct correlation to how we behave.

Labels and titles play into our perceptions.  Perhaps you have heard of some of the altered titles given to the following professions.  The jobs haven’t changed, but the attitude of the people doing them has.

Transparency Enhancement Facilitator – Window Cleaner
Field Nourishment Consultant – Waitress

Garbage Man – Sanitary Engineer

Housewife -Domestic Engineer
Highway Environmental Hygienist -Road Sweeper
Sanitation Consultant – Toilet Cleaner

 I offer these five things for helping you to perceive yourself in a better light.

1.  Identify the area(s) that you find upsetting.  This will take self reflection and may make you uncomfortable.  You may be avoiding thinking or talking about this area of your life.
2. Identify  the thoughts you have when thinking about this area.  How many times do you think “what if”, “I can’t”, “It won’t happen” or other negative thoughts?  Notice any feelings or sensations you have while having the thoughts.
3. Notice any reactions you may have as a result of these thoughts.  Are you over eating, under eating, drinking too much, not sleeping, avoiding people. have a short fuse and become angry, etc.?
4. Challenge your thoughts.   If you have the “what if’s” play them out in your mind.   Negative thinking causes helplessness.   Recall also how many times you had “what if” scenarios in the past and how what you feared never happened.
5. Change your thinking – change your life.  Be kind to yourself and change negative words into positive ones.  Avoid the words “should and must”.  Treat yourself with kindness and be forgiving.  Be your own cheerleader.  If you don’t love yourself and believe in yourself, why should anyone else?

Planning for Retirement: You Are Truly On Your Own

We speak often of the generations and how groups of people born during a short period of time are influenced profoundly by common events and often by the observations of one’s own parents.  As a baby boomer, I have seen a tremendous change in how we perceive retirement versus my parents and my children’s perspective.  It seems logical that many of our parents had longer periods of employment with singular employers and many achieved pensions.  Today, if you are in the private sector, the pension was replaced by a 401k plan or you just missed the cut-off date as you have had 4 or 5 jobs these past 3 decades.

Observing our parents behavior showed a tradition of savings due to their experience living through the great depression.  Most were prudent savers and shoppers far different from our children who have easy access to credit and only our frequent caution not to overspend.

Individual responsibility for planning for retirement is a reality and as the poor returns over the last 10 years from stocks only places more pressure on us in our 50’s and early 60’s to save aggressively.

I do not coach financial planning, but this is one area that we all should take a moment to consider if we have a plan and not wait or procrastinate.  Too often people gamble to recoup dollars lost or let their emotions take hold of their investment decisions.  One fact is that we should take stock of our current saving strategies and most likely increase it.  Those that live in beautiful California know that it is very expensive and taxes are due to increase.  Our future quality of life will depend on us planning now.

Stand for Something, or Fall for Anything

I teach critical thinking skills to Undergraduate students.   One of the concepts to this class is not only what we think but why we think the way we do.  Of course our upbringing or enculturation has a great deal to do with the thought process.    How we adapt and react based upon the environment and culture shapes our values.   We then take those values into the world and apply them to all situations.  There is one problem with this logic and that is that not all people were brought up with the same values and ethics.

Part of being a critical thinker involves taking the time to understand the differences in others.  Why they think and act the way they do. We may not agree with these actions, but we can at least understand them.    When we have understanding we can then take the next step to bridging  gaps that could lead to conflict.  So many of us put such great effort into pushing our ways onto others that we don’t realize there is another way.   Of course, You have to stand for something, or you will fall for anything .   But, in order to stand for something you need to research, understand and critically think about what it is you are standing for and why.

We follow great leaders, but why do we believe they are great?  What is it about their thought process that resonates with us and allows us to want to take on their attributes and be a follower?   In business there are many leaders at many different levels.  You don’t have to have a fancy title to be a leader.  What you need is to understand people and their thought processes.  You need to help them to see the various views from  various angles and not just your own or their own.

I enjoy seeing how my students evolve from the first day of class when I ask them who taught them to think to the final week of class where they have grown into critical thinkers who can determine for themselves what they believe to be truth.

What Is the Most Important Quality In a Job? Find Out Here

CNN Money Magazine has a quick poll on their site.  Each day they ask their viewers another question and then display the results. The other day they asked the question “what do you think is the most important quality in a job?” ( I have posted the results below.)   It wasn’t surprising to me that the number one answer was satisfying work. (43%).

The question now is, what makes satisfying work?  What are the attributes of satisfying work?  For some it may be the following:

Self fulfillment, feeling of expertise and competency, recognition and respect from the people you work with, the ability to be self-directed, enjoying the challenge of being creative in your work processes, being empowered, having the training, tools and resources to do your job well.

I am sure there are many more and this is just a short list, but one well worth thinking about.

QUICK VOTE RESULTS – Money Magazine Poll!

What do you think is the most important quality in a job?

Satisfying work	43%
Good pay and benefits	39%
Flexible hours	6%
Growth opportunities	12%

Total responses to this question: 104959