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mark@markap1.comMost of us tell ourselves a story about how the world works. We can call that our narrative. Our brain takes in more information from our senses than we can process and remain sane. We start filtering out most of it when we are young and psychologists say we have formed our personality by the…
People into affirmations and positive thinking will say that mindset is key. Most of us have found that we continue the same cycles throughout our lives based on the conclusions we have made. We start basing future prospects on how we feel we have handled past opportunities. This becomes our mindset. We may set out…
How you see things is probably a limited view of reality, but it is your reality. It is formed from a lifetime of experiences that has informed you what is true and what you can and cannot do. Chances are it is all wrong. What you see as truth is your perception, but considering that…
Thriving is about lifestyle. Getting rich is about making money. Can someone get rich and have a thriving lifestyle at the same time? This has been a plague for the modern era when people started thinking work/life balance should be a goal. Up until now, balance and happiness were secondary considerations. For thriving people, lifestyle…
Right now, I see adversity all around us. Financial markets certainly are afraid and even Warren Buffet is making defensive moves. Jamie Dimon, head of JP Morgan-Chase and darling of Wall Street says his disaster team that meets once a week might start meeting every day in face of possible U.S. Debt default. All this…
If there is single problem organizations seem to focus on it is worker engagement. One reason is that jobs are often taken for the money, not necessarily that the work is part of a building career. It has been said that student’s coming out of college don’t spend the time looking for their dream job,…
Thriving is a newer concept in our society and in the minds of organizations. Microsoft said it is the new North Star. What is it about thriving that would make a large organization think it would improve their performance if all its workers were thriving? Thriving might be the new self-actualization that is on top…
There is so much emphasis on setting goals. I love goals and have had hundreds in my lifetime. I don’t even remember how many I achieved. Organizations want us to set goals and measure us by whether we reach them. When we were kids, we had goals of what we wanted to do when we…
We are born happy. It is in our DNA. When we are born, most people are nurtured and their needs are met. They are held, cuddled, and nursed. What else could a baby want? Then as we become adolescents, most kids continue on a happy journey with lots of attention and nurturing. Where does it…
There is one thing the brain lives for more than anything. Challenge. It is how we have evolved from Cave man to Mars Explorer. Think of every advancement man has made that has changed lives over the millennia and challenge has been the starter seed. We are naturally prone to think about where we are…
Everyone is competitive by nature. We love to win. We love to do better than others. We feel pride if we are better than we were yesterday. We feel pride if we can look back and see how far we have come. Yes, progress builds self-esteem and confidence and is mood uplifting. Being better today…
Society makes a big deal about reaching goals. So many these days are tired of the concept and don’t want to set them because then they have to face the success or failure of achieving them. Goals open the opportunity for the prefrontal cortex to judge us on our personal performance and test our self-esteem….
When facing a change, gear up and get all systems moving to support the mental and emotional challenges you anticipate facing. Fear may play a big factor, but there are psychological tricks to deal with it inhibiting progress. How often and how many times in our life have we dealt with fear of change? We…
I find a good routine in the morning begins every day on a positive note. Your subconscious registers your intentions and behavior as self-actualizing which means you could be getting a nice dose of dopamine to start every day. A good routine is “me” time and part of delivering the work/life balance everyone seems to…
There are so many negatives we are exposed to on a daily basis. We face news on so many fronts. There is the economy, politics, war, inflation, the stock market, weather, our own health, the operational difficulties of our employer, our industry’s welfare, the fear of new technologies replacing us, getting downsized, the difficulty of…
If asked, do we have a set answer for who we are? Is who we are nouns or verbs? Most people will go right to a few definitions usually starting with being a parent, then their work, and most likely a activity with which they identify. I have often thought I am a parent, a…
A compass can be a guide to your destination. Mariners have always used some type of guidance system or they could go around in circles. Your imagination could be a great guidance system to reach your destination as it motivates you to work for something. I love to buy lottery tickets now and then. I…
Deciding what to do each day should not be just about tending to our obligations but how to move our life forward. In fact, how to move our life forward should be our first priority because at the end of the day, this is what makes us say “that was a good day.” I have…
Having a Unique Selling Proposition is a valuable tool for a product or service. It differentiates you from competitors. Some products have a slogan like “Its the Pepsi Generation” meaning to me that you better drink Pepsi or you are not part of the community. Does your life have a theme that distinguishes you from…
Emotions are a weapon and not a hindrance as was thought in past business scenarios. It was thought men made better leaders than women because they were not emotional. Research showed that male leaders analyzed facts but then used their intuition to decide with their emotional gut feeling. Women have come into leadership because it…
Humans have a built-in instinct to detect danger and to feel trust. These instincts are based in the Lizard brain which is our survival tool and in its most primitive sense may say attack or may say run. Think of all the new people you see and meet and you will remember you have a…
Good habits are how motivation achieves results. Habits are how dreams become reality. Not forming good habits is how New Year’s Resolutions die. You get the idea. You create the goal or vision. You create the plan or strategy. Then you develop the tactics. You have to engage in the tactics each day to fulfill…
I have habits I follow each morning which include stretching, dumbbells, tea, coffee, and a smoothy. These are warmups to begin my day of growth and contribution. Two habits in the morning that are important are meditating and writing. Writing is my creativity that helps me clarify my thoughts and focus on my purpose. Meditating…
It is so easy to develop negative thoughts when there is so much turmoil in the environment. We have had a crazy year of weather and then banks are going through a scare and the biggest tech companies are laying people off. Consumer spending is retracting partly because people are worried. There is constant saber…
We are attracted to people who know what they want and are diligently expressing their talents to reach their goals. Isn’t this the job of the CEO? He has a vision for his organization and he mobilizes his talent, those of his workforce and all resources available to achieve his vision. Thriving is achievement of…
The most successful people are passionate people. What is passion but a drive to engage in something you love. Passion is love. When this indescribable word “love” is applied to our desire to move forward, magic things happen. It is hard to hold a passionate person down because failure is not a concern. They are…