Attitude Specialist

Business Goal Setting For 2012

2012-01-24T13:48:00.001-08:00

The year 2011 is now over. You may be thinking of what you want to achieve for your company or business in 2012. But do you know how to go over setting your business goals in such a way that you wouldn’t be overwhelmed?

Here are few simple things to remember before you go about the business of business goal setting.

1. Clarity of your business goal.

Remember that diamonds, more than their cut, are greater prized and treasured for their clarity. Diamonds with yellow, blue ang green hues are simply alluring. But 'alluring' is not what to do with your business goal. What the above statement means is that what you want and what you need is a business plan that is clear from the onset, in order for the internal factors of your business to run smoothly.

2. Come up with a goal that is doable and result oriented.

Remember the businesses right across your office and the one at your back? They have folded just a few years ago, with their officials facing imprisonment for fraud.

A hundred theories have been presented trying to explain why such situations happened, but, hey, if you base everything on rhetoric, then you really wouldn't get anywhere. Go for something that is tangible and concrete. Something you can actually experience and proudly present to everyone. You wouldn't want a shutdown of your own business, would you?

3. Put it into writing.

Decide where you company should be for the next year. Effective business goal setting needs to be detailed and put into writing. This will give you a concrete basis for further review in the future. It will also save you from having to grope your mind for the ideas you came up with during one 'eureka' moment.

4. Use active words.

Active words are not only for writers; they should also work perfectly with your business goal. Do not use passive words and passive sentences because these will give you the feeling of indirect responsibility. Do say: “My company will capture this particular market by the middle of next year”, and not: “This particular market will be captured by my company by the middle of next year”. Breathe action into your words to give life to your business goal.

5. Come up with smaller goals to complement your biggest one.

The smaller goal will help you achieve the ultimate goal of your business, by providing the step by step actions leading to the ultimate plan. By doing this, you will also see more clearly the initial errors inherent with an imperfect plan. In the process, you will know what actions are effective and what are not.

6. Employ people who share your dreams and ideas.

They may not share your concept on how to do things but if these people share your vision, they will at least give you alternative routes in reaching your goal. These alternative routes represent their own view with the world and their belief in doing things.

This process will give you the chance to improve your precepts or ideas.

And, of course, take a regular review of your plan or business goal. Do some revisions if needed, depending on the small changes that you encounter as the plan progresses. And should there be changes, big or small, accept them wholeheartedly. This is what effective business goal setting is all about.

Attitude Powertip - Turning Failures into Successes.wmv

2012-01-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

2012-01-16T12:36:00.000-08:00

To improve yourself you need to be open minded. Every successful person has been on this journey, combining natural talents and gifts and learned skills. The top 3 skills of a salesperson are:

Attitude

Knowledge

Confidence.

Many job descriptions include the phrase ‘must have a positive attitude’, so employers rate this trait as vital to success, but how do you describe it?

Here’s how I describe it in my workshops on Workplace Attitude. People with a positive attitude focus on: how to fix the problem and search for solutions versus the problem itself from negative attitude salespeople. They search for what is required, implement it and learn for next time. They’re happy to ask for help and believe in themselves that they can complete the task. They embrace the challenge and look at the problem as a temporary setback they need an answer for. They enjoy the challenges of work,are organised (even though this can be a challenge for this personality) and have positive approach to life in general.

It’s no wonder employers are searching for these traits in
their employees. A few years ago I conducted two year research on the topic of
Workplace Attitude and these were my top findings.

Negative attitude and disengagement from work is prevalent
Lots of positive re-enforcement and rewards were used by some companies.
Motivation at work is self directed.

I could understand the negative attitude if there is no on-going motivation from the
company, but was pleased to discover that many companies were already engaged
in this. However, I was surprised at the third factor, that motivation at work
is self directed. Maybe I shouldn’t have been as these are the people who have
a positive attitude. These are the people who in their own time followed a life
of self discovery and self improvement, thus were happier and more successful.

Which brings us to ‘how to motivate yourself’ if you want to improve your sales
performance. Understandably you need to have the knowledge about your product,
but you need to add to your tool kit - self knowledge. Not your present level
of understanding about yourself, if you’re not achieving the results you want,
but an upgrade to your thinking.

The majority of people perform below their capabilities and although they were born
with no thoughts about attitude or themselves, throughout their life they’ve
learnt unhelpful thoughts that have lodged in their brain. Consequently they
don’t believe in themselves and abilities to achieve. For these people it’s
about making a decision to improve themselves and their life. Starting with
this objective here are some tools for greater success.

Commit to a new you.
Analyse yourself to decide where you can make change.
Realise this starts with your thoughts.
Monitor your thinking for a day or week.
Rate your percentage of positive and negative thoughts.
Decide what to change first.
Set yourself a plan of action.

Your biggest asset is your thoughts, however many people fail to control them. Once
upon a time mine were 80/20. Eighty percent negative and 20 percent positive,
but that was over twenty five years ago and now I can say they are 99% positive
and I’ve learnt the skill how to change my thought quickly when a negative one
floats into my thinking.

Albeit your changes to become an XFactor salesperson start with XFactor thinking, one
thought at a time. Successful people have charisma and confidence. They can
walk into a room and start conversation, people look and listen to them and the
air of success can ‘hang around them’. It’s confidence!

Wikipedia defines confidence as: is generally described as a state of being
certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen
course of action is the best or most effective.

And here’s another definition: Confidence is a feeling that you think
you are capable of doing something. It makes you optimistic and pleasing.

Tom Peter’s author of Search for Excellence says: The good news is that top sellers are not born; anyone can become a top seller by studying, practicing, concentrating, and focusing on his own performance.

I’ve has been working on confidence for over twenty five years. It’s a choice thing, if you are not happy with your life right now you need to commit to creating a
better life for yourself, she says.

Here’s a checklist from my new programme: XFactor Confidence – 3 Vital
Keys to Creating More Success and Money and you can use to monitor your own
confidence.

I have decided on my goals aligned to my values
I am letting go my past and learning to step out of my comfort zone
I am communicating assertively and creating win/win relationships
I am boosting my self esteem and rewarding myself daily
I am thinking positive thoughts am embracing my exciting future
I am wearing clothes and aligning myself to my personality
I am living a healthy lifestyle and nurture my body.
I am using my new found confidence to create more money and success.

The three vital keys from my programme are: Motivation,
Confidence and Investing your time, energy and money in yourself. Combining these
three instils in you a pathway in life to study, practice and concentrate to
improving yourself to achieve your best performance.

Free EBOOK on XFactor
Confidence at: www.xfactorconfidence.com
Free Goal Setting WEBINAR at: www.thesuccessattitude.info/goals

Bring Tourists Back to Christchurch

2012-01-12T15:59:00.000-08:00

'Bring Tourists Back to Christchurch' with this idea!

Professional Speaker and Entrepreneur Janice Davies was writing an article for a Christchurch magazine when she hit upon a great idea that 'won't go away'.

Downgraded as a tourist destination, Cantabrians need something to help them re-enjoy life as they live moment to moment in the throes of the earthquakes.

Playing on the radio was the song "We built this city on Rock and Roll' as she wrote. Creating a new spin on this idea Janice has this idea rocking and rolling in her mind.

Organise the "World's Biggest Rock and Roll "Event.

First - Have lessons in the streets of Christchurch and teach each other to dance.
Set a date for a long weekend.
Check the Guinness world Records and see what record Cantabrians can break. OR - Create a NEW event by dancing in every street in Christchurch and make a NEW WORLD RECORD.
Invite New Zealand Rock and Roll clubs to attend.
Invite Overseas Rock and Roll clubs to attend.
Invite Media and capture world media.
Create a monthly R & R night in Christchurch for the tourists....or an annual R & R Festival.
AND of course start the event with the song ' We rebuilt the city on Rock and Roll'.
To revamp the energy, every hour play this song…

This may sound a bizarre idea, says Janice, but this could capture world headlines and something fun, exciting and profitable for the people of Christchurch AND BRING BACK THE TOURISTS.

Janice motivates people to succeed as a speaker, trainer, coach and author. Her new book The Success Attitude - Haunting Messages Guiding Us, is due for release in the USA market. This is one of those haunting messages she says...it won't go away, so I'm sharing it and hopefully someone might be interested to take this idea to reality.

2012 is a year of thinking differently. This is a great start!

This is a great way to re-unite the city and bring back the tourists to Christchurch. In my earlier jobs I was a travel tutor and often took my students to visit Christchurch and have visited it often myself. It's a great city…. It could be the Rock and Roll City. of New Zealand. It can work!!

Napier has revamped itself after it’s 1931 earthquake as the Art Deco city of New Zealand…so why not!

Success Attitude Book Trailer

2011-12-11T14:16:00.000-08:00

Success Attitude Book Trailer

Eight Strategies the World's Most Successful Experts Use

2011-11-14T15:04:00.001-08:00

Study those who have done it before you.
Where is the most urgent pain and will they pay for the answer
Sell the right thing to the right audience
Build your list of customers....online and offline
Use techonology - teleseminars
Do joint ventures with other companies
Get truckload of sales
Build a long term profit stream

The next question for you, is which ones are you doing now and which ones can you implement into your business.

Internet Scam Tips and

2011-10-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

Internet Scam Tips and Tricks

As a business person my scam was business related but these also apply to your personal emails.

1. Google the email address they are using to contact you, especially if they claim to be from a major corporation

2. If the company or charity is unfamiliar, do your research.

3. Check out www.hoax-slayer.com. They archive many different type of email scams.

4. Check for spelling and grammar errors, most legitimate people and corporations are precise about this.

5. Sense of urgency – the last thing a scammer wants is for you to take your time. They want you to act on something quickly.

6. Be wary of web based emails. E.g. Hotmail, Gmail and yahoo. These are free and require very little identification at initial set up so very easy to make false emails.

7. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is

8. Follow links inserted in email.

9. Google the name of the person and the company separately, however be wary these can also be scammed from someone else.

10. Have a credit card with a small amount to use for the internet.

11. Be wary of Western Union Accounts.

12. Don’t give out bank accounts or passport details.

13. Email a company and ask them BEFORE you act on any suspicious email.

14. Trust your intuition and gut feelings.

15. Ask for advice and report to police and online sites if applicable.

Millionaire Marketing in 3 Small Steps

2011-10-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

What is money? A child might say that it’s something rich people have and poor people don’t. An engineer might go into a detailed and lengthy explanation, but we all know that money is what really “makes the world go around.”In the business world, money is the definition of success or failure. That’s why it’s vitally important that every entrepreneur has a good understanding of money – even if their business is still struggling to get off the ground.

Have you ever noticed that people who have a lot of money are magnets for more money? I’ve listened to the gripes and accusations of onlookers who accuse them of being born with a silver spoon in their mouth among other things, but it’s more than that.

The secret is that they UNDERSTAND money.Financially successful people can spot opportunities to create more money in a heartbeat. They understand the money system and how it works. They know the magic of creating money. They have experience under their belt. Understanding money is a key ingredient to becoming someone who has money, and fortunately it’s getting easier instead of harder to do just that. Think about it. A checking and savings account used to be the only options within realistic reach of the “average Joe”.

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that there’s an amazing menu of options available at any bank or savings and loan company you walk into.What does that mean? It’s time to get busy and become students of money. If we’re going to have a lot of it, we need to understand how to invest and manage it. I can already hear it… So what if you don’t have much to manage and invest at the moment! Prepare for the future

Here are 3 easy steps to get started…

1. Think like a millionaireI know that’s tough to do, when you’re struggling just to pay for your overhead, but attitude is half of the battle. If you think like successful business owner, you’ll soon find out that money really is attracted to the “rich.”

2. Become Financially LiterateThere are a million-and-one self help books on the market for people looking for information on money investments. Learn from the best. Find a few reputable authors and read, read, read. Subscribe to money magazines and “The Wall Street Journal.” Read what the rich read.

3. Make Informed DecisionsOnce you know the ins and outs of the money world and have studied the successes and failures of others, it’s time to put your knowledge to work. When the opportunity knocks, you’ll be ready to open the door and greet it with a confident smile. Your new knowledge and attitude will make you a marketer to be reckoned with.

No more slouching around and pointing fingers at the rich marketer down the block. You’ll be one of them. You’ll have the tools to use every opportunity to create more success.

Future Proofing Your Business

2011-10-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

It's TIME for a Rethink while Away from Work.

You might be fishing or lounging on the beach, when suddenly a great idea pops into your
mind….why didn’t I think of this before, you might think….well maybe
your mind was just too busy!!

Many businesses, large or small, have enough problems dealing with today’s markets
and consumers, let alone tomorrow! But failing to focus on the future leads to
many businesses drifting into oblivion because their products or services no
longer suit the needs of consumers and clients.

There’s no denying the recession blasted some businesses and altered their status
Where as some businesses were not affected at all. Mine was the former…so I reshook myself
and came back to this. What did I really know I had to do? Since then I’ve
revamped my business online, blasting into the USA market, working on a movie
and revisited old ideas I didn’t think would work into ideas that will slam dung my business.

The reality is that change has never been as rapid or as dramatic as that which we have seen
and will continue to see over the next decade. Developing an understanding of a
number of key trends including the impacts of new technologies currently being
introduced or developed, the aging of the population and a decreasing interest
in rearing children, growing individualism, psychological age becoming more
important than physical age, the effects of smart networks, the shift from B2C
to C2B, changing logistics and delivery systems, and sustainability issues is
essential to ensure long term business robustness and excellence in
performance.

As the pace of change quickens, senior management and business owners need to be far more
aware of the trends that may impact on their businesses in the next 5 to 10
years than ever. The best way to enhance this awareness is to develop simple
scenarios that depict how the market may look in five to ten year’s time. The
sorts of questions that might be addressed when developing a scenario include:

· Are our products or services likely to be relevant in 5 – 10 years time?
· Will our currently high value product or service just become another commodity in 5 – 10 years time?
· Which technologies are being developed that might affect our current products or services?
· Who are my consumers going to be in 5 – 10 years time (age group, relative demographic importance, lifestyles, characteristics)?
· How am I going to be able to deliver the solutions that customers require?
· What channels will I use to access my consumers (bearing in mind that traditional mass saturation advertising strategies have, at best, a 1- 2% success rate and the retailing
scene is changing quite rapidly).
· Do I need tooperate effectively in both place (locally) and/or space (virtually)?
· How will the increasing focus on sustainability affect my business?
· How is increasing globalisation going to affect my business?

Focusing on the future rather than projecting from the past, the approach most business tend to
rely on today, requires a major attitude shift. Such an attitude shift is becoming increasingly critical in order to future proof a business

It is always difficult to change old habits. However, the shift required is not impossible.
Most staff respond very positively to forward thinking vision based strategic planning that moves the business forward if in they can see there’s still a job for them.

So time out for you is an opportunity to tap into your right brain and find creative
ideas that will propel you forward. Of course none of this happens without risk…and you need to
have confidence and courage to take a new step.

And I leave you with this…being a small business owner and then stepping up to become an
entrepreneur utilising your gifts, talents and passions in your business, means
stepping up and out with XFactor Confidence...and getting into the flow and
mastery of your life. It’s learning how implement the 3 Vital Keays to Create
More Success and make More Money for you….which is my new program.
http//:www.xfactorconfidence.com. Visit for your free ebook.

The Be, Do, Have principal is this concept in action. Future proofing your business embraces
your life mission from the past, aligning in the present and projecting into
your future.

Earn More Money by Being More Confident

2011-08-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Do you want more money in your life to pay the rent or mortgage, go on holiday, buy a new car or save for retirement? If you’re like me then your answer is yes! However now you’ve got to decide how you are going to make your money. Is it in your business if you are self-employed or if you’re employed is it into your pay packet.

Businesses have changed and even the teller in a bank is now up selling a product for higher commission with the question and ‘chat’ about insurance or another product. It’s the same ‘up sell’ concept made famous when you visit McDonalds and hear the phrase “would you like chips as well”.

Usually to make money you either have to sell a service or an item and you do this by promoting either yourself to your boss or colleagues, or to your customer or clients.
Maybe you don’t fit think you fit the category of a salesperson but I’d like to share some ideas with you.

If you want a promotion, you’ve had to sell yourself by proving you are a great performer by providing a great service or upskiling yourself with your work. If you have a business, you have to sell yourself by promoting your product or service to your clients. If you want a new job you have to promote yourself at the interview. No matter what, you are selling yourself to other people.

To be successful there are a number of common denominators you require. One is your skills, or your attitude or work experience. I’d like to include something you don’t get a qualification for and that is your confidence. Instead you learn that as a lesson in your life.

If you get a tick for the first three denominators but a minus for your confidence, it’s possible another person, product or service will be chosen instead of you. Albeit, you have not been able to sell yourself.

Here’s a list of things you might have to sell to others in your work environment if you want to create more money to come into your life:

• You
• Your ideas
• Your wishes
• Your needs
• Your ambitions
• Your skills
• Your experience
• Your products
• Your services….
• …and that’s at work.

Ultimately, to do these you need to be confident. You need to have high self esteem. You need to believe in yourself and your abilities and if you don’t you need to learn how.

Every business wants top performance from their employees. Making money today is more challenging since the recession and its ongoing affects. Consequently, if you want to have more money for you, your employer or your own business you need to improve your performance.

Hard you might say, when you either don’t like your job or there are not any others available where you live. However, you’ve still got another choice and chance to make money.

Now, to do this you have to follow your own dreams and finding your internal motivation. Whether it’s a job you love, or a reason to work, or a goal you want to achieve, your best performance will come when you are self motivated by being involved doing something you love. Once you have pin pointed that, you need to reassess the list above to decide which is your method to make the money you desire.

Hundreds of opportunities are available but you need to be willing to move out of your comfort zone to upgrade yourself with new skills. If you’re shy, timid or lack confidence or have low self esteem you’re going to be ‘stuck in a rut’ and unless you find the courage, you may be stuck there for the rest of your life. You’ll be living below your potential and I can guarantee, you will be unhappy!

Confidence and self esteem is created with your thoughts. When you are feeling low you’re not likely to ‘push’ out of your comfort zone to expand yourself. Therefore your key is to train your thoughts to be positive. To do this you need a variety of steps, including assessing your values, beliefs, goals, communication and many other personal development techniques learning about personalities, relationships and letting go of the past to live in the present and much more.

When a negative thought enters your mind, the best technique is to think “NO” I am not going to think that thought and replace it with a positive thought. This can involve a positive action such as contacting a client, complete an unfinished task, or offering to help a team member or engage in some online networking or selling. Each one of those tasks happens because of your inner motivation and confidence which eventually could result in the outer action of making money.

Every second, you have the chance to improve your confidence and self-belief. Surround yourself with positive quotes, books, courses and positive people and you’re on your way to creating your best by being more confident and making yourself more money.

Now.. if you want to know more...check out the free ebook on our website
or free webinar http://www.xfactorconfidence.com

NEW webinar $2,000.00 to $10,000.00 per week ...

2011-07-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

If you'd like to consistently bring in
$2,000.00 to $10,000.00 per week selling
your knowledge, experience, & expertise,
you should ATTEND my buddy JP MARONEY'S
NEW ONLINE WORKSHOP Thursday evening.

http://xfactorselling.com/2-10k

There's no cost to ATTEND THIS WEBINAR.

Starts 7 PM Eastern.

You'll learn stuff you didn't
even know was possible.

http://xfactorselling.com/2-10k

LIKE:

- How to ONLY create products you
KNOW will sell faster than cotton
candy at a county fair.

- How to build a "Guru Profit
Ladder" that takes prospects all
the way from your giveaway stuff
... to your ULTRA big-ticket
coaching and consulting or info
products.

- The EXACT formula for building
a list of red-hot leads -- FAST --
so you can start selling them
stuff and creating big paydays
every week.

- 3 Case studies that prove YOU
can make big bucks in information
marketing on the internet.

- And a bunch of other cool
insider tricks I've never taught
in public (certainly not without
charging).

http://xfactorselling.com/2-10k

You'll FINALLY get the behind the
scenes view on how to REALLY put
together your own CASH SPEWING
information marketing empire that
rolls money into your bank account
day in and day out.

There's no cost to attend.

And, I guarantee that your life
and business will be changed -
FOREVER!

Cheers,

Janice

PS: Hope to see ya there...

http://www.guruincubator.com/webinar/relay.html?AFFID=57877

Making Money by Promoting Your Own Success

2011-03-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Do you want more in your life to pay the rent or mortgage, go on holiday, buy a new car or save for retirement? If you’re like me and your answer is yes, you’ve got to decide how you are going to make it in your business or if you’re employed, into your pay packet.

Businesses have changed and even the teller in a bank is now up selling a product for higher commission with the question and ‘chat’ about insurance or a product. It’s the same up sell concept made famous you have when you visit McDonalds and hear the phrase “would you like chips as well”.

Usually to make money you either have to sell a service or an item and you do this by promoting either yourself to your boss or colleagues, to your customer or clients.

Maybe you don’t fit think you fit the category of a salesperson but I’d like to share some ideas with you.

If you want a promotion, you’ve had to sell yourself by providing a great service with your work. If you have a business, you have to promote your product or service to your clients. If you want a new job you have to promote yourself at the interview. No matter what, you are selling yourself to other people.

To be successful there are a number of common denominators you require. One may be your skills, or your attitude or experience and I’d like to include another and that is your confidence. If you get a tick for the first three but a minus for your confidence, it’s possible another person, product or service will be chosen instead.

So here’s a list of things you might have to sell to others in your work if you want to create more money to come into your life:
• You
• Your ideas
• Your wishes
• Your needs
• Your ambitions
• Your skills
• Your experience
• Your products
• Your services….
• …and that’s at work.

To do these you need to be confident. If you want to learn more….watch out for stage two in this series of articles which will be in my next ezine or email to register Janice@attitudespecialist.co.nz for my upcoming FREE webinar on: XFactor Confidence - Using your Secret Ingredient to make more Money and Give you more Free Time.

Attitude Test and 2 Attitude Tips

2011-03-07T14:24:00.000-08:00

How to Stop Negative Thinking and Stay Positive

2011-03-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

If you let your mind and thoughts wander, you already know that it will automatically have you thinking negative. In the middle of the night….all hell breaks lose as you mind is focussing on you failing.

You will fail at exams, businesses, relationships and any other challenges. You will lose money in a venture, or business and not get the pay increase you deserve. Your relationships with your partner or the new person you’ve just met will fail. Your children will get sick and not pass their exams or sporting venture. And your cold will turn into the flu or pneumonia or cancer …or worse. Whatever it is, you will not succeed! Your mind will try to convince you - if you let it wander uncontrollably.

I encourage you to think about your mind like this.

If you’re a gardener and do not weed your garden…the weeds and plants will grow and take over your once beautiful garden. It’s the same with your beautiful brain. If you don’t weed out the negative thoughts and learn to control them…they will take over.

The trick is how to monitor your thoughts and stop them ruining your life. You wonder if it’s possible…..and let me assure you it is. I’ve a favourite saying – Sing or Swim…and I always decided to swim. However, like going to school and learning to read and write, you just have to take the time to practise how to master this skill.

Over the centuries, billions of words have been written to read and occupy your mind. Albeit, the majority of time, we have only one thought occurring at once, if your allow your thoughts to wander, until you learn to control them, they’re likely to think negative. Thus the first trick is to take control of your mind when it is negative and read something positive, like a quote or an inspirational book, or something that is teaching you about personal awareness and development.

In today’s society where everyone is ‘on the move’ it’s not easy to carry a book with you to realign your thoughts to positive but there are other methods for you to use. It is easy to download some of these billions of words onto your phone or connect online to read the millions of positive phrases and articles online. Another way is to download them onto your IPod and carry them with you to listen to.

There is an enormous amount of free information to help you control your negative thoughts. In my attitude training programme I provide a structured programme for home study where you work your way bit by bit to take control and focus your thinking.

I know it works because I’ve done it for myself. The only thing it takes from you…is time and effort and the motivation to learn to control your mind…and become a master of your own life. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. You can learn how to stop your negative thoughts and think positive. Give it a try!

Becoming Independently You

2011-03-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

You probably don’t remember it like most of us, but I’m certain when you were learning to walk you carefully learnt to balance yourself and tried to stand on one leg before moving the other one forward. Unconsciously, your brain was telling you that’s how you would walk.

If you managed your first step the first try, that would have been a magnificent feat. However, more than likely you fell onto the ground crying or hurt and seeking some love and someone may have picked you up and helped you. And even though you failed first time…you tried again.

When you did, that precise moment between the place where you were leaving and your destination….you learnt your first lesson in becoming independent. Albeit, you were probably wobbly on your legs but you created a bigger world to investigate. Next there was the other side of the room then the room next door followed by outside and gradually you explored them all. You discovered the places you liked and spent time there.

Over the years of growing up you naturally repeated this pattern. You had experiences you liked and experiences you disliked. You wore clothes given to you from adults, ate food that was prepared for you and listened to words, television and music that was chosen by other people in your life. Maybe you don’t remember having to eat food you disliked or maybe you had to sit at the table until you ate the cauliflower you hated the taste of and an hour later was trying to swallow the cold unsavoury vegetable. All of that happened when you were younger…and all of those situations are in your past.

Currently, as an independent adult you have the opportunity to make changes to yourself as you embrace the concept ‘Creating the real me’. You don’t have to continue eating cold cauliflower or wear the type of clothes you don’t like…but here’s the biggey…you don’t have to think the thoughts you don’t want to either.

If your surrounding influences were positive and are helping you succeed in life more than likely you are happier and on track to creating your own success. On the opposite of the scale, if your surrounding influences were negative and are not helping you succeed in life, you may want to change your thinking so you can have the success you want.

Like the new world you created for yourself once you had mastered the art of walking, you can create another new world for yourself by mastering the art of positive thinking and positive attitude.

Your mind, body and soul are all integrated as you create your life journey. From your first steps to waking each day to a new starting point in your life, you are following the stepping stones and creating a new independent you on your journey of life.

Look for Star Beams

2011-02-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

It was a hot night, I couldn’t sleep and work was running through my mind. Finally, I decided it was time to take positive action. I made a cup of Milo and ventured outside to my home...on the cliff looking out over the sea, where I am lucky enough to live.

It was windless night or rather 4am and almost dawn. In the night air there were no tree leaves rustling and no birds singing. Above the stars from the Milky Way spread across the sky. Between the leaves on the Pohutokawa tree I sat under, I glimpsed two satellites race across the sky. In front of me, the sea stretched out to Rangitoto Island. It was glassy smooth and reflected the red light of the beacon on the rocks in front of us. There was only a gentle rustle of waves breaking silence.

As I looked to the rocks 300 feet below me, nature provided me with an amazing fluorescent show, just like you see in a nightclub with the strobe lights.
The sea had floating in it fluorescent (I’m sure there is a technical name) and every time there is movement of waves or fish swimming in it, nature provided an amazing light show. Whenever a wave rolled onto the rocks a chemical reaction caused an illumination underneath the rock face and the rocks glowed. It was beautiful!

HOWEVER, nature provided more…

I’ve seen the sun shining on the sea and watch the sunbeam glow across the sea.

I’ve seen the moon shining on the sea and watched a moonbeam shimmering across the sea.

Nevertheless, I was blown away (and forgot my thoughts of work) as something different was shining on the water. I thought it must be the light from a ship as two were cruising past at 4am…ready to dock at Auckland Harbour. However, I was wrong.

I ran inside to get the binoculars and stared at the distant light. It flickered and sparkled all the way back to me. Only then I realised it was a bright star, shining its light across the ocean. I was looking at my first star beam! Nature had provided another free light show…it had taken me fifty something years to see one…and I was (dare I say it) star struck! I watched… amazed!

As the mosquitoes started to attack, I thanked ‘the universe’ and slinked back to bed refreshed, tired, not thinking about work…and mind blown!

The moral of the story is – when you’re thinking about work and shouldn’t be, turn to nature and see what glory and peace of mind it provides you...and remember to take a moment and enjoy life!

Invest in Yourself to Succeed

2011-01-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

It’s plain and simple: If you don’t believe you will succeed, you won’t!

This is definitely not a rocket science, but if your thoughts are telling you, “You will fail” or “I don’t believe in you”, then, you will sabotage yourself.

Anyone you may have known who is successful, from your school teachers to family members, friends, television or movie stars, and successful business people at some time in their life, studied to get their qualifications or craft, because all of them have decided on a goal and worked towards it.

If these people didn’t set any goals, they wouldn’t be earning the salaries they have, working in a job they enjoy, involved in a relationship with a loving partner or a variety of other successful outcomes.

However, there is one more key to their success and that is - they believed in themselves that they would achieve.

It’s easier and less satisfying not working towards achieving. In fact, that is being stuck in a rut, held a prisoner to your fear and thoughts.

I’m sure, you don’t remember your brain teaching you how to walk. Even without some stimulation, in one stage of your life, you would probably thought of wanting to grasp out for something.

Do you recall what motivated you to start muttering your first sounds? Or perhaps what made you cry out for food? I’m sure you don’t remember. You just did it automatically! And, somewhere, someone was investing time in your life to help you learn the basic skills of living.

Over the years, you grew up with a wide variety of input into life, some positive and some negative. You are likely to remember some significant moments that could be life changing. Again, some of these may be positive and some are negative. Maybe you may have clung to the negative ones and have not taken the time to change these thoughts in your mind. By not doing so, you’ve decided it’s easier to become a “cling-on” to negativity and underachieve in your life.

If you think about it, your body tells you when to eat, sleep and dozens of other activities which you do automatically. However, your brain works in automatic mode replaying negative thoughts until you decide you want to take control of it and invest time in changing the way you think.

If you want to lose weight, study, find a partner, save money or whatever your goal would be, you have to control your mind to succeed. You need to invest time into achieving positive thoughts.

If you seek a happy life, you have a choice. Think happy, decide to be happy and work towards creating a happy life. It is really simple. However, people often make things challenging for themselves. When challenges arise in we get stuck in a rut, thinking the same thoughts and not investing time to make changes.

Years ago, I had the choice whether to pay a lump sum off my mortgage or go on a self development course. I chose the self development course and learned that if I change my mind and the way I think about things in life, I can create thousands of dollars more.

I continue to think this way: Investing in myself. For you to succeed, you won’t only need time and take advantage of offers that come your way, but you will also have to value yourself enough to make some investment in products that will teach you success.

Do you want One-Dollar-A-Day Happiness?

2011-01-24T21:50:00.000-08:00

Deciding on a dollar a day happiness, will depend on whether you have enough money in your life, to create the dream life you want - or not.

You may say yourself ”I can’t afford a dollar a day” but I ask you “can you afford not to?” If that one dollar a day is going to help teach you how to find love, success or happiness, you may decide that it is worth your investment.

Our basic survival human needs are food, water and shelter. However, most of us want other aspects in our life like people, possessions or places which can help you enjoy your life and become your best.

Being unable to meet any of our basic needs can have you feeling angry, sad, lonely, negative. Ultimately you may feel you are missing out the enjoyment of life. People who feel they lack something are living a life below their right and potential.

If you search on Google or any other search engines, you will discover that some of the most searched terms online are about attitude, love, happiness and other positive words and phrases. This is because people are looking for avenues that will give them a life that will make them feel happy.

Additionally, some of the other most searched terms relate to negative aspects of life like, anger, negativity, hate, loss and grief. People are searching because these are challenges that people would like to learn and overcome.

Ultimately, you want to have a positive successful life. However to achieve that you will need to learn to over come your daily fears and challenges you experience and fight your negative emotions, thoughts and feelings.

Taking this thought one step further….here’s a famous saying:

If you keep on doing the same thing…you will get the same result.

Consequently, if you don’t learn some new thoughts, you will continue going around in the same rut in your life. You have to value yourself as well by “investing” more in you in order to achieve your dreams.

You have five main areas of life that you need to set your goals in. At different stages some of these goals will have higher significance than others. If you are looking forward to getting fit and healthy, you would focus on exercise- maybe walking, buying gym equipment for home or just going to the gym. You focus your $1 a day (or it could be more) on achieving your own goal.

Consequently your personal goals are also changing, as you enter different stages and ages in your life. For example, over twenty years ago, I wanted to change my thoughts from negative to positive and I wanted to improve my self esteem. I didn’t have any spare money, so I borrowed books from friends or got them from the library.

Now, years later, I’m spending more than one dollar on me so I can achieve bigger and greater dreams. These include cruise the world, sit in a bay and write books and a lot more goals that are constantly driving me to change my thinking further outside the square box to succeed. Now, what about you? Are you learning anything new that will help you change for the better, which in turn will help you achieve your goals?

Isn’t a dollar a day, spent on you, learning new ideas to implement, all worth it? I think it is! Now it’s up to you. Success or failure? The choice is yours.

YOUR 2011 Goals - Free Ebook

2011-01-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR ... 11/1/11 was an awesome day yesterday...but today is another day to 'rethink and create a new you'..as is everyday of your life. This ezine was due out yesterday but due to 'online techo issues out of my control' it's was delayed and after a few hours of solution seeking - I must admit I got stressed. SO, I had to rethink my goals and reactions to stress for my life in 2011....but what about you? I have a question for you.... Are you dreaming your dream life? OR Are you setting goals to achieve it? If you need some help, my gift to you is my ebook: How to Get what You want in Your Life I wrote this over 10 years ago and revamp my goals every year...and am getting closer to one of my many goals - "to sit in a boat in a bay and write". I read Michael Hill has 30 year goals....which he set after his house fire at the age of 40...and look what he's achieved....so IT"S NEVER TOO LATE TO START. My goal process looks at your values, dream life, goals, the obstacles and time management as well...as you set your plans. (You will need to scroll down this page and as it's normally a product I sell for $10, you will have to complete the forms on my shopping cart before you get to a page to download the pdf file.) Click here to download YOUR FREE GOALS EBOOK.www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/e-books.htm BE quick - offer only available for one week. A great tip for our first week back at work...If you're like me, you're finding this first week a bit of a challenge. Day one I gave myself treats...with the nuts etc left over from Christmas and dipped them in Nutella (Hazelnut spread). I thought this was a compromise of healthy snack...and for my first day decided I deserved this low calorie (I'm sure) treat. And I'd done some baking...first time in YEARS.Find some treats for yourself this week

Wake up Shake up after 'Snuffing it'.

2010-11-21T17:44:00.000-08:00

Work/Life balance is critical. The recession is over (?) but the after affects linger. I don't know about you...but my business and stress levels were affected....and like many globally, I've not recovered yet....until I was forced to!

You see.....I was told I ‘snuffed' it! I went blue in 20 seconds elegantly 'frothed' at the mouth and did some weird movements and lost 15 minutes of my life. My partner relayed to the St John Ambulance lady (as he relayed my progress whilst waiting for the ambulance) that I must be okay....because I was arguing with him - not wanting to stay in the 'recovery' position. But I don't remember...until I woke staring into the lovely eyes of the St John Ambulance man.

He was a bit of 'tall dark and handsome' type so I could have been on my way to heaven....BUT Thankfully, I hadn't gone there...I would have been angry with myself if I had. You see, I wasn't listening to the signs, my body was telling me....and didn't start taking positive action...until I'd had my 'wake up call'.

Since then, I've done LOTS of investigating physically, mentally, spiritually, work and life wise and making LOTS of changes....(including buying a boat)...

All the reports from the hospital THANKFULLY came back I was okay. I’d had no earlier symptoms… (except those related with stress, not sleeping properly, tired etc. etc) so to everyone concerned – I was ok.

HOWEVER – I took this as a ‘wake up’ call. I was not ready to ‘snuff it’. I had tickets to the Eagles concert in Sydney with my daughters joining us…AND lots of exciting things I wanted to do.

I started with physical side of life by visiting the
• kinesiology
• chiropractor
• massages
• health books and shops,
• check ups with the doctors again
• new food and diet
• new habits (like resting and not working in the middle of the night)
• baths in the middle of the day
• breathing properly
• drink more water, carrot juice and cranberry juice
• lying in the sun
• and very gradually have started to make a ‘come back’ as I embark on more answers like yoga which I started again.

I also checked out the spiritual side of life which I have written my new book about my journey, and I’d seen an angel the night before it happened….so I thought I might find some answers there. AND I DID! I believe we are spiritual beings living in a physical body, and although I had started a new mediation programme (I’ve always struggled with this) I still need to chill out, revamp my life and myself (some more) and change business direction. So I visited the minister of the Unity church I attend…where I have since learnt that Oprah reads the same Daily Word quote book that I do, Plus I had a reading and an angel reading.

As a motivational speaker, trainer and author – our authenticity comes from living and learning before we can teach. I’ve had LOTS to learn… so teach from my own experiences.

One of my goals was to sit in a boat in a bay and write. I didn’t know what or where…but I’m now buying a share in a boat to live that dream. I’ve never been to a Neil Diamond concert…so going along to dance and sing there….and LOADS of other dreams to live.

However….first I have to believe and have faith and trust in myself to listen and create these things. Every human being has to do this…sometimes it isn’t easy…when we don’t know what’s planned for the next day….but as Eckhart Tulle says…live in the moment...we only have one life…and following our passions (mine is helping people boost their self esteem) then we will be on the correct journey for us.

My message to you is – find your journey and keep fine tuning yourself. (Like I have been doing and continue to do for the last 25 years.) The world is waiting for you to listen, live and laugh as you become your best, firstly for yourself and then to help make the world a better place. Don’t delay anymore….listen to the wind, the waves and the messages from words of friends, words in songs, words in books and blogs (like this) take care of yourself in your life.

In our business to succeed, we can forget the basics like I do. But my wake up shake up has set me off to further fine-tune my life to my greatness. I urge you to do the same.

Scary and exciting…this journey encompasses both of those emotions. Embrace them and concentrate on success. It will come with faith and trust and clarity and work. It does for others…so there is no reason it won’t happen to you…if you believe in yourself.

Want to learn more about finding your passions - check out my ebook How to Get what you want in life.. only $15 http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/e-books.htm or my complete Attitude Training programme which covers that and heaps more ...only $47. http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/attitude-training.htm

OR check out my new book The Success Attitude - Haunting Messages guiding Us,
which is my story with Hindsight Insights so you will examine your life to get on track.
http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/latest-product.html

Stress-Control Tools That Start With Your Heart

2010-11-21T17:26:00.000-08:00

Step One: Focus on your heart as you breathe in. Then, as you breathe out, shift your focus to the solar plexus, right below the heart. Breathe that way for 10-30 seconds-breathing in through the heart and out through the solar plexus.
This will bring you to a "neutral state." If you're really stressed out, or have been through a dangerous ordeal, you may have to do it for up to a minute.

Step Two: Now, select some kind of positive attitude or feeling. Rozman suggests something simple like appreciation. Something you enjoy and appreciate: your child, your spouse, a great vacation you remember, or even last night's poker game.
"So, now you keep breathing in through the heart and out through the solar plexus, while you're pretending to breathe that feeling or attitude in and out. It starts to shift your whole physiology back into coherence, back into that synchronized mode; so it's not just relaxation, it's energization," she says.

Step Three: "Once you feel the appreciation-or just the attitude of it, if you can't feel anything-you want to 'lock' it in by imagining that you're building and restoring that positive energy right into your body. Picture your cells recouping, your muscles regaining, your nervous system smoothing out. Feel yourself recharging your inner battery," says Rozman.

"You're still breathing into the heart and out through the solar plexus casually-you're not forcing it. You've done 30 seconds to just get it there, then you did 30 seconds where you were finding that positive attitude, now you want to lock it in for another 30 seconds. You just keep visualizing building and storing that positive feeling that appreciation gives you."

You can select the attitudes to breathe that will help you offset a negative emotion or imbalance of any stressful situation you're in, she says. "Breathe deeply with the intent of shifting any moment to a [better] feeling or attitude, from neutral-'Okay, I'm in this hairy situation, let me breathe in the attitude of neutral or balance'-to compassion or care, patience, clarity or anything. As long as it's a positive attitude: what you would really like to feel right then. You can use it in real time when you're in the danger zone.
"For example, we do training for trauma centers and emergency workers, and they learn to breathe in compassion and breathe out care for the patient; or breathe in balance so they don't get freaked out by the blood and gore, and breathe out appreciation that they're helping someone." You can breathe in any positive attitude that you can remember feeling and that helps you be what you want to be, she says.

"It imprints that whole attitude on your physiology and your heart-you 'put your heart into it,' and it's your heart that drives it. This creates the coherent rhythm that signals the brain, and then the brain signals the immune system and the hormonal system, renewing them. It's a way to reboot your whole internal system."
For more information, see www.heartmath.com.

Invest in yourself to Succeed

2010-09-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

Invest in Yourself to Succeed

If you want to succeed, you need to change your thinking so you execute an action that will take you one step closer to your success.

Failure to change your thoughts would have you not reading, writing or doing arithmetic, which are all vital skills to you succeeding. You wouldn’t have a job, a career or your business. You wouldn’t have your degree, skills and knowledge that you have now.

Imagine in your retirement, you would be reliant on any government subsidies or others for your food, water and shelter. According to Maslow, these are vital needs to your survival and you would be without them all.

With your thoughts your first action towards success, if you allow your brain to wander of its own accord, it would be full of negative thoughts. You know, you already experience them now. It is no wonder that for thousands of years, mankind has been writing quotes, poems, love songs and books, full of words about succeeding and some type of positive action.

Left to rumble on its own, your thoughts would help you lead a life or misery and negativity.

I’m sure you’ve meet these people anyway. It is a sunny day, but it’s too hot. It’s a winter’s day but it’s too cold….and on this negative thinking continues.
These people are sorry cases that are best left to their own company when they are thinking like that

But don’t let that be you! If you want to succeed you must take control of your thoughts. Your brain is 3 pounds of untapped flesh waiting for the opportunity to help you succeed.

I’ve spend twenty-five years learning to control my thoughts and wonder at the amount of new information that is available as I continue to learn to programme it with my dreams and desires. From single parenting on government assistance, to a variety of careers and now after learning myself my work is motivating others to believe in themselves so they will succeed.

Take control of your thoughts, read books, quotes and success stories as you fill your mind with your thoughts about your success and you are on your journey to become a winner.

Read my free report on Attitude 4 Success. http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/attitudereport.html

Find out what Oprah, J K Rowling and Walt Disney have in common that made them successful. http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/attitude-training.htm

Or try my Attitude Training Programme with over 325 pages of information to help you become the winner you want to be.

2010-09-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

The HAPPINESS SCALE ☺©

Created by Janice Davies – Attitude Specialist

Presenter in TRUE HAPPINESS DVD.

The great essentials in happiness in this life are
Something to do, Something to love
Something to hope for…..Joseph Addison

The Dictionary defines HAPPY as:

feeling, showing or expressing joy, pleased, causing joy or gladness.

Therefore seekers of happiness must decide what will bring them joy or gladness in life and pursue it. For some people deciding what brings them happiness can be the challenge.

Your ONE goal in life is to discover yourself.

Instead of honoring the abundance in their lives, some people limit their thinking to what they don’t have, getting stuck in thoughts of negativity. If happiness is expressing a feeling which is created with our thinking, people must examine and choose their thoughts.

It’s about aligning YOUR:

feelings, thoughts and action
OR
soul, mind and body.

When you are watching a bee looking for pollen from a flower, they don’t choose the first flower. Instead they examine many before deciding whether to delve in and collect the pollen from the flower.

It’s like that with our lives. We examine different areas and then decide what we need to delve into to bring us happiness.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.- Aristotle

Here’s an exercise where you can rate your level of happiness in each area of your life.

The column headed ‘others’ could be spiritual, community and project may be a big goal, i.e. saving for a holiday.

These two areas are optional. However the score ten is the highest and one is the lowest for any column.

It’s imperative you tap into your heart for this exercise instead of your head. Your heart creates the magic in your life (makes you happy) then your head has to create HOW you can make it happen. Often this works in reverse.

Do this exercise with your pen in your opposite hand, using the FIRST answer that comes into your head.

You'll need to click on this link to my website and download the exercise.
http://www.attitudespecialist.com/pdf/HappinessScale.pdf

The idea of assessing your Happiness Level, is that you are then able to decide where you are in certain areas of your life and those that rate lower, are the areas you could set more goals in.

Check it out...it works. But email me with any questions.
Janice@attitudespecialist.co.nz

Are you Happy? My Happiness Scale

2010-09-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

The

HAPPINESS SCALE ☺©

Created by Janice Davies – Attitude Specialist

Presenter in TRUE HAPPINESS DVD.

The great essentials in happiness in this life are
Something to do, Something to love
Something to hope for…..Joseph Addison

The Dictionary defines HAPPY as:

feeling,
showing or expressing joy
pleased
causing joy or gladness.

Therefore seekers of happiness must decide what will bring them joy or gladness in life and pursue it. For some people deciding what brings them happiness can be the challenge.

Your ONE goal in life is to discover yourself.

Instead of honoring the abundance in their lives, some people limit their thinking to what they don’t have, getting stuck in thoughts of negativity. If happiness is expressing a feeling which is created with our thinking, people must examine and choose their thoughts.

It’s about aligning YOUR:

 feelings, thoughts and action
or
 soul, mind and body.

When you are watching a bee looking for pollen from a flower, they don’t choose the first flower. Instead they examine many before deciding whether to delve in and collect the pollen from the flower.

It’s like that with our lives. We examine different areas and then decide what we need to delve into to bring us happiness.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.- Aristotle

Here’s an exercise where you can rate your level of happiness in each area of your life.

The column headed ‘others’ could be spiritual, community and project may be a big goal, i.e. saving for a holiday.

These two areas are optional. However the score ten is the highest and one is the lowest for any column.

It’s imperative you tap into your heart for this exercise instead of your head. Your heart creates the magic in your life (makes you happy) then your head has to create HOW you can make it happen. Often this works in reverse.

Do this exercise with your pen in your opposite hand, using the FIRST answer that comes into your head.

Yourself Health Relationships Work Finances Others Project

Yourself Health Relationships Work Finances Others Project

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Your areas where you have the rated yourself the highest marks, are the area you’ve had the most successes.

The areas with the lower marks are the areas of your life where you need to focus your goals.

The successful areas make you feel like a winner (and you are) the other areas make you feel like you’re a loser (which you’re not) you just haven’t achieved your goals in that part of your life YET!

You have free will so you can do it, if you choose.

As the author of How to get what you want in life and create success, and also a presenter on the new DVD True Happiness, I have had to recreate a happier, more purposeful personal and professional life.

It is a challenge but worth the effort to become your greatest.

Believing in yourself and overcoming your challenges gives you the confidence to move out of your comfort zone, and move onwards and upwards in your life, to happier times that you are experiencing this moment in time.

As Nike says: JUST DO IT!

The world is waiting for your best input
and
to put your best foot forward!

One of the key ingredients in being happy is to look after yourself and if you don’t know one else will, instead they will use you and your relationships will be one sided. They will get what they want and you don’t. Consequently, they are happy and you are not.

Additionally, your life is for you to learn to be yourself and live being that person.

Life is a journey that is constantly changing which means you have to be continually learning something new to keep on your self development journey.

It’s the old adage….Love yourself first and others will love you.

However….this takes a journey in self-awareness to your success and happiness.

The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved —
loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
Victor Hugo

Your Guide to
TRUE HAPPINESS
DVD

When I was invited to be part of the DVD Your guide to True Happiness, I had a huge sense of coming home. Here is some excerpts which I shared.

Put yourself first

Your lifelong goal is to create happiness in your own life. And that means learning to be who you are, living who you are, being that person. Then doing what you want to do is going to bring you happiness and you will get what you want to have.

Self, Health, Relationships, Work/Career, Finances, Community.

Putting yourself first means learning to love yourself. It’s moving from having low self-esteem to high self-esteem, to believing in yourself. When you do that, you’re going to be able to have the confidence to overcome any challenge that comes into your life.

Challenges

We’re always going to have challenges. We’ve got a whole lot of things that we’re working on in our life. But the tests that the universe sends us are going to be tests that you are going to be able to overcome.

So you’ve got to make a choice now. .

Your career

Life is about understanding that you’ve got choices – that choice

1. it’s going to take you down a happier path, and choice

2. you’ve got a bigger fear to overcome.

So, that’s also another thing to take into consideration when you’re thinking about happiness, and also the can and the can’t change; that we can be unhappy about something that we can change, and that is (a) our job, our health, our relationship. But we can’t change some things, and so being unhappy about things that we can’t change is really wasting our time and our energy.

Your key is to learn to create your happiness.

Here’s some information about the DVD.

True Happiness DVD
revamps 2000 year old secrets
for 21st Century

Former New Zealand Herald Careers editor Steve Hart has produced the True Happiness 70-minute DVD which features some of the country’s top motivational speakers as well as GPs, a psychologist and spiritual leader.

“Research shows that is not the case and that a person’s set point of happiness can be raised with positive thinking and looking at life in a more positive way If you are felling unhappy about your life, relationships or work then a new DVD may be able to help you.

He says the basic thrust of the video is that money doesn’t raise people’s levels of happiness.

“We all need money,” says Steve. “But once you have the basics covered, more money doesn’t translate into more happiness. For example, people live for the Lotto, saying that if they won the big prize they’d be happier.

The experts say that acceptance of your circumstances is really the start of becoming more contented – not wishing your life away hoping for a big win or waiting to retire from your job.”

Steve says the idea of the video came to him more than two years ago.

“At the time I was working full time at the newspaper and frequently got calls from people asking for advice about their careers. A lot of them seemed plain miserable with their lot.

“At the same time I was speaking with life coaches and career coaches and thought it would be good to bring some of them together in one positive, inspiring and motivational video.

ABOUT THE DVD
If you have been searching for the secrets to feeling happier, need guidance about the job that’s right for you or simply want to see the light at the end of the tunnel during these tough times, then your search is over.
The True Happiness DVD has already helped thousands of people discover new meaning in their lives. To bring life into perspective and help them look at what really matters: health, well-being, relationships and contentment.
This wonderful DVD is full of practical help and advice, delivered by people who are experts in their field. It really helps people who are feeling depressed, are seeking a happier life or want guidance on their career or job.
Among the nine New Zealand experts featured are Dr Tom Mulholland, The Attitude Doctor; leadership coach Dr Clive Littin; self-esteem guru Janice Davies; the Rev Rhonda Joy Gola; change agent Jon Winder and holistic physician Dr Robin Kelly.
This excellent and thought-provoking video will help you recognise why you may feel unhappy and give you solid ideas on things you can do right now to start changing your life.
The True Happiness DVD will help you feel better about yourself and see the world in a whole new light. It is spiritual – but not religious – it is motivational but not unrealistic – and above all it provides you with the tools you need to help you change your life for the better.
After watching the video in the comfort of your home you will start to discover a more positive you and become a person who smiles, embraces life and helps others to become more contented. Every time you watch the DVD you’ll pick up something new to help you.
If you are feeling unhappy then is time to be bold and make the changes you want in your life. Watch True Happiness today and let the changes begin.

DVD Chapters

How to be happy at work – The best job is one you would do even if you weren’t paid for it. You should be passionate about what you do at work, so you look forward to going to work. A job that uses your strengths and incorporates the things you are good at is what you should be looking for.
How to find happiness – Understand that everything is temporary – especially the bad things you go through. You control how happy you feel – other people do not make you happy or unhappy. Your level of happiness is down to you and what you tell yourself about your world.
Coping with depression – Understand how to cope with those low spots and discover what you can do to help yourself and who to see to get the help you need.
The route to happiness – The route to true happiness is right now – today. Always thinking about the past or the future robs you of being happy today. If the way you are living your life is not working then it may be time for change.
Buying happiness – While buying stuff can make you happy, the buzz can soon wear off. Happiness is a state of mind, an attitude. Learn to think differently and feel more happier and contented as a result.
The key to happiness – Self belief and accepting who you are and where you are is the start of finding happiness in your life.

Where to find happiness – Look within. Discover the link between being happy and being contented. Contentment is a stable attitude of mind – learn how to feel contented by being grateful for what you have and what you enjoy.

It doesn't matter how long we may have been stuck in a sense of our limitations. If we go into a darkened room and turn on the light, it doesn't matter if the room has been dark for a day, a week, or ten thousand years - we turn on the light and it is illuminated. Once we control our capacity for love and happiness, the light has been turned on. - Sharon Salzberg

NZD$39.95 PLUS GST & POSTAGE…
http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/dvds4sale.htm
*************************
Janice Davies – the lady with nice in her name
Attitude Specialist
Professional Speaker * Author * Coach *
Founder of International
Ph 021 514 511 Ph 64 09 424 8400
Skype: attitudespecialist
P O Box 83218 Edmonton Auckland
www.attitudespecialist.com

Keeping staff is in the balance

2010-09-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

I didn't write this article, but i thought you might be interested as i was quoted in it.

With many firms clamping down on costs as they navigate the gradual recovery from the recession, some bosses may decide to put ideas of helping staff maintain a good work-life balance on the back burner. But, says one researcher, this would be a bad move.
Dr Linda Twiname, a senior lecturer at Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, says work-life balance initiatives are even more important during hard economic times.
"Wise employers will treat their staff well," she says. "That is probably a part of who they are anyway, and we know that not all work-life balance initiatives cost money.
"Business owners need to make the most of every business opportunity when business is tight. And so having high commitment from staff will shine through at this time.
"The other side of the coin is that a lot of firms don't do work-life initiatives for the soft reason, they do it for the financial reason - and I totally understand that. When you are running a business you have got to pay the bills."
Twiname's belief is that during tough times employers need to keep their best staff onside, to retain them and prevent them from leaving to work for a competitor.
Brien Keegan, regional manager of recruitment firm Randstad, agrees, saying firms helping staff achieve a good balance will pay dividends for them in the war for talent. A war that is still active in many sectors of the recruitment game despite the recession.
"We live in times of a rapidly ageing workforce and as the baby boomer generation starts to retire that means offering them a good work-life balance so they are encouraged to continue with their career," says Keegan.
"By allowing older staff an almost semi-retirement situation, that will help firms retain institutional knowledge and capability for the organisation."
Keegan says the number one thing employees are looking for are flexible working options.
"So a firm that lets staff nip off to collect their children from school at 3pm will have a competitive advantage over firms that don't," he says.
Janice Davies, personal counsellor and organiser of the annual self-esteem event Self Day, says the whole work-life balance issue is a hot topic right now.
"It's been slotted down the list by some employers," she says. "But the fact is a good work-life balance is needed now more than ever as people are losing their self-esteem and becoming depressed.
"Those still in jobs, and who have seen colleagues made redundant, have the added stress of coping with more work to pick up the slack and perhaps have less of a budget to work with - they have to do more with less.
"Some people have not been affected, though, are carrying on okay, and moving into holistic life-work strategies."
Keegan says: "What we saw during the global financial crisis was that as people left firms, for whatever reason, those left behind would have to do more. Particularly in industries that are sales-dominated.
"And with current technology such as iPhone, Blackberries, advanced mobile phones and laptops, the line has blurred between life and work. It means employees need to work for a firm they are engaged with.
"I know of stories where people have been sitting at home at 9 or 10 o'clock at night still interacting with work via their Blackberries. Then their partner has said, 'It's time to turn it off - you're not at work now.'
"The great thing about technology is that it makes it easier to communicate and work wherever you may be, but it also binds us into our work life even more."
Keegan says the upside is that while people get more freedom to work where and when they want, in some circumstances it pushes the decision of work-life balance on to the employee.
"I think us Kiwis have got the balance about right when we compare ourselves to our cousins in Australia," he says. "It is normal for us to go to work, work hard and then leave on time and go home to continue the rest of our life."
However, he says people in professional services - such as lawyers, accountants and those leading project-driven roles - typically have more difficulty striking the right balance all the time.
"Because these are your work hard, play hard people," says Keegan. "The thing about work-life balance is that it is an absolutely individual preference or state of mind.
"Work-life balance means something different to pretty much everybody that you speak to. It could be drinks on a Friday or being able to get home to see the children before they go to bed.
"Job hunters should ask themselves if that new organisation will allow them to achieve the balance they seek in their lives."
Like Keegan, Davies says people should be employed in a job they like, then the balance will come naturally.
"These people are already happy and more positive about coping with the stress of work-life balance," she says.
"If they are not in a job they like, then balancing their life and work will not make them any happier. They are already thinking and feeling negative and are more susceptible to stress - coping will be more challenging because of their negative state of mind."
However, Twiname wonders if the term work-life balance should be replaced with the phrase life-life balance.
"Work is part of our life, we spend the bulk of our time at work," she says.
It is a view employment commentator James Adonis shares.
"I don't believe there is such a thing as work-life balance," he says. "The term is an oxymoron. It implies that work and life are opposites; that they're territorial enemies terrorising each other for space in an employee's life.
"That's an unhealthy attitude to embrace. Work and life don't need to compete with each other. They can co-exist.
"As a society we really need to stop looking at work as such a big bad beast."
Keegan says once the economy picks up and staff have more choice then firms that have turned their back on staff will see a mass exodus.
"As soon as there are more jobs around it will have a snowball effect."
By Steve Hart

Being Proactive Equals Your Success

2010-08-24T11:17:00.001-07:00

Being Proactive Equals Your Success

The World is your Oyster is a proverb Shakespeare first used in his play in1600.
and it’s a phrase that sums life up. It affirm that whatever you want is within your grasp. The challenge is that each person has to go out and get it. Unless you are one of the very lucky or privileged few…the money you want, the dreams you want, aren’t’ going to be handed to you. You have got to be proactive and work towards your success.

Being proactive means a change in thinking, followed by a change in actions. Often you need to eliminate from your mind old beliefs about life, that are not supporting you. If you keep thinking, “money is hard to get” you will never keep enough or earn enough because subconsciously you will find a way of sabotaging yourself. Your new thoughts could be ‘money is flowing to me easily’.

Fortunately, your success is in your head…and luckily it’s up to you. There’s another saying If it’s going to be – it’s up to me and that is true. Success isn’t an overnight event and for everyone, success equates to an individuals choice. It may be passing an exam, learning to skydive or making $50,000 profit in their business.

It takes between 21 and 28 days to change a habit. Your success is stepping stones in progress.

10 Steps to Become Proactive

1 Positive – Negatively is rife in life. It is in the media, magazines, people. If you want to be positive you need to rid yourself of negativity. Turn off the television is your first step.

2 Results. – You need to have a goal, dream or desire you are working towards. Maybe it’s money in the bank, increased cash flow in your business, a holiday, new car or ten new clients. A famous quote from the Wizard of Oz is: Any road will take you there, if you don’t know where you’re going.

3 Overcoming FEAR –False Evidence Appearing Real. Imagine not attempting to walk when you were young. You didn’t give up and you wouldn’t want to live without it now…. you tried and succeeded. Take small steps to over come your fear.

4 Attitude – My Attitude postcard reads: Past, Present, Future, Every second you have a choice. Choose Positive and be your own Success Story. It’s true; you can only think one thought at a time. Make it a positive one.

5 Confidence – Walk tall, stand straight, wear your best clothes, use eye contact Fake it until you make it. Smile! You might have butterflies in your stomach, but no one can see them.

6 Communication – Improve your communication by joining Toastmasters and at the same time gain confidence. Attend assertive communication courses, and remember Hello and Thank You.

7 BE Interactive – Just do it! Make the appointments, approach new clients, meet new people, join social clubs. Life is for living.

8 Victorious – With every small success reward you. After ten sales calls, have a coffee, after a completing a task well, find a way of patting yourself on your back. Acknowledge that you’ve achieved something.

9 Enthusiasm – Find the ‘it’s great to be alive’ feeling. Discover your passions, experience and enjoy them. Smell the roses, enjoy good health, eat well and find the vitality in life from within. You’ve got it, but it’s up to you to discover it. Everyone has free will, the choice is yours!

10 Never, ever give up!

Being proactive means you will always encounter challenges, but you will always
Overcome them. It’s like eating peas with a fork…they roll off the side and you usually have to try more than once to eat them. Making the world your oyster and crating your goals and dreams is the same sometimes you have to try more than once to achieve them.

Future Proofing your Business

2010-08-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

Future Proofing Businesses

Many businesses, large or small, have enough problems dealing with today’s markets and consumers, let alone tomorrow’s! But failing to focus on the future leads to many businesses drifting into oblivion because their products or services no longer suit the needs of consumers and clients.

The loss of relevance can happen quite quickly, not only for small businesses but also large businesses. Fletcher Challenge was one large New Zealand business that failed to adapt to change and McDonalds had to rapidly change with the fast food it offered and include healthier options.

Now watch the telecommunications and finance sectors over the next decade. There
will be significant attrition amongst the players in these sectors because a number of players have not developed future-focused business strategies that enable them to adapt to coming radical changes in technologies, markets and delivery channels.

The reality is that change has never been as rapid or as dramatic as that which we will see over the next several decades. Developing an understanding of a number of key trends including the impacts of new technologies currently being introduced or developed, the aging of the population and a decreasing interest in rearing children, growing individualism, psychological age becoming more important than physical age, the effects of smart networks, the shift from B2C to C2B, changing logistics and delivery systems, and sustainability issues is essential to ensure long term business robustness and excellence in performance.

As the pace of change quickens, senior management and business owners need to be far more aware of the trends that may impact on their businesses in the next 5 to 10 years than ever. The best way to enhance this awareness is to develop simple scenarios that depict how the market may look in five to ten year’s time. The sorts of questions that might be addressed when developing a scenario include:

• Are our products or services likely to be relevant in 5 – 10 years time?
• Will our currently high value product or service just become another commodity in 5 – 10 years time?
• Which technologies are being developed that might affect our current products or services?
• Who are my consumers going to be in 5 – 10 years time (age group, relative demographic importance, lifestyles, characteristics)?
• How am I going to be able to deliver the solutions that customers require?
• What channels will I use to access my consumers (bearing in mind that traditional mass saturation advertising strategies have, at best, a 1- 2% success rate and the retailing scene is changing quite rapidly).
• Do I need to operate effectively in both place (locally) and/or space (virtually)?
• How will the increasing focus on sustainability affect my business?
• How is increasing globalisation going to affect my business?

Focusing on the future rather than projecting from the past, the approach most business tend to rely on today, requires a major attitude shift. Such an attitude shift is becoming increasingly critical in order to future proof a business. CEO’s, managers and business owners need to spend 20-30% of their time on future proofing their businesses if they .want to thrive.

It is always difficult to change old habits. However, the shift required is not impossible if managers and staff have the inclination and tools to change attitudes and business strategies. And most staff respond very positively to forward thinking vision based strategic planning that moves the business forward when it replaces the same old “same old”, an increasingly outdated approach that increasingly leads to reduced employment security and lower incomes

Solutions for Preventing Workplace Bullying

2010-07-27T22:17:00.001-07:00

Article by Janice Davies, Ann Andrews and Michael Smyth

A recent report highlighted the tragic news that New Zealand has one of the highest rates of workplace bullying in the world, with a staggering one in five employees being subjected to overbearing or belittling behaviour at work.

The research, funded by the Department of Labour and the Health Research Council found that levels of workplace stress and bullying were far greater than expected.
A survey of 1728 workers in the health, education, travel and hospitality sectors found 18 percent had been bullied, while 75 percent had suffered workplace stress.
Ineffective leadership was highlighted as one of the main causes. However, Janice Davies believes that lack of personal awareness skills is also a key factor in the bullying relationships.

The research further discovered that employers across all the surveyed sectors had a limited understanding of the problem and how to address it. It also found that reporting structures in most of the organisations they studied were ineffective, with bullying being viewed as part of wider harassment or violence initiatives.
Organisations need to have a zero-tolerance policy towards bullying which, for most places of work will require a cultural change and clearly defined procedures put in place to educate managers and team leaders on effective strategies for dealing with bullies.

Although it is impossible to gauge lost revenue from the effects of bullying, some staggering statistics are available on workplace disengagement. In a biannual poll of working New Zealanders undertaken last year by Gallup Consulting, their results showed that 15% of workers are actively disengaged (a 4% increase since 2006) and that manufacturing has the highest percentage (22%); service industries the lowest (12%). 38% of actively disengaged staff felt that the stress of work caused a flow-on effect to behaving poorly with their family or friends, compared with only 13% of Engaged employees.

In New Zealand, JRA, who conduct the ‘Best places to work survey’, believe 70 percent of workers are ambivalent or disengaged and the cost of that disengagement is on the rise and estimated to be in the region of $NZ5.9 billion p.a.

Janice Davies was herself bullied at work from a bully with a previously tainted workplace reputation. After a five minute verbal attack from the bully, her boss told her to discuss the problem over lunch and become friends. Fortunately for her, prior personal experiences with bullies and had taught her how to remain empowered.
From the victims point of view bullies are cruel co-workers. It is difficult, but the victim needs to learn if it wasn’t them, the bully would find another target. They use manipulative language and behaviour, preying on kind hearted and non assertive employees or gradually nitpick at confident employees until they lose their self confidence.

A workplace bully is angry and unable to communicate assertively. They have low self esteem and create negative relationships. Some may be conscious of their antics but unaware there are different types of positive workplace relationship which create more satisfaction for both parties.

At Janice’s workshops on dealing with difficult people, attendees confirmed a high percentage of bullying was experienced. It uncovered that after victims discussed the situations with their HR department or managers, they were often told to ‘get on with it’ or it was fobbed off as inconsequential. Generally they found another job leaving the bully for the next employee.

These solutions are suggestions from the reports and our authors.

• Organisations need to have a zero-tolerance policy towards bullying which, for most places of work will require a cultural change and a realisation that bullying is not acceptable
• Organisation will also need to have clearly defined procedures in place to educate managers and team leaders on effective strategies for dealing with bullies
• Organisations also need to provide education for empowering employees to be confident and how to engage in positive workplace relationships
• Organisations who hire for skills rather than attitudes may discover that qualified staff have not developed their people skills, therefore qualified employees still need further education about creating positive workplace relationships.

When these solutions are addressed, an organisation is likely to have a safer environment with trustworthy, motivated staff who support, respect and perform at a higher level during working hours. Thus, the 1 = 2 or more, ratio of disengaged employees is transformed

In the Gallup Poll, it was discovered that 76% of engaged New Zealand workers strongly agree that their supervisor is an active supporter of changes that affect their group. Which translates into good old fashioned democratic or consensus style leadership!

Three professionals who work in the corporate sector are now providing practical solutions so companies can deal confidently and competently with the issue.

• Janice Davies from The Attitude Specialists is a business trainer and consultant who has first hand experience of being bullied at work and now shows targets of bullying how to deal with the situation.
• Ann Andrews – The Corporate Toolbox has 20+ years experience as an HR Consultant who, not only advises organisations on how to set up sound policies and procedures but also teaches managers how to actually deal with bullies in their team
• Michael Smyth is a practising employment law barrister and the author of Employed But Not Engaged: How to break up with your employees and hold on to the ring. Michael has successfully worked with the victims of bullying in raising personal grievances and defended employers from bullying accusations.

Also available are tips, articles, TV & radio interviews and E-Posters for display on http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/self-esteem-bullying.html For further queries email janice@attitudespecialist.co.nz

Solutions for Preventing Workplace Bullying

2010-07-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

Bullies Begone Article

2010-07-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

COME ALONG TO OUR AUCKLAND WORKSHOP - 10TH AUGUST 2010

HOW TO DEAL WITH TOXIC EMPLOYEES, BULLIES AND AVOID DAMAGES CLAIMS

WAIPUNA LODGE, 9.00AM TO 4.00PM.
ANN ANDREWS speaking on Performance Management
MICHAEL SMYTH - speaking on The legalities and avoid damages claim
JANICE DAVIES - speaking on The victim and bully traits.

Be quick to reserve your space.

http://www.approachablelawyer.com/Page/workshop/1967

BULLIES BEGONE

Why bullying at school is creating problems with our economy and how to fix it

Bullied at high school, it took me twenty years to realise its impact and get back on track in life. Both my daughters were bullied at high school as well. One received text death threats and this was solved with taking the telephone to the police. The other was the recipient of physical abuse from a group of girls and this was solved with changing schools. Whilst both daughters are now qualified and working in their dream careers, bullying at school can have a longer term impact on people’s lives and the success of New Zealand as a world economy.

How bullying impacts our economy

A recent report published by Massey University reveals that New Zealand has some of the highest rates of workplace bullying in the world illustrated by the fact that in the health, education, travel and hospitality sectors 18 percent of those surveyed had been bullied at work. The cost on the victim is immense and in my case cost me 20 years of my life, but there is also a cost on the organisation which permits the bullying behaviour and the bully.

For the organisations, bullying leads to employee disengagement which research shows means higher absenteeism, higher staff turnover costs and lower sales (estimated by the Best Places to Work Survey as being 60% less than a fully engaged workplace). For the bully, failing to deal adequately with their behaviour denies them the opportunity to grow into great leaders. It should come as no surprise therefore that these problems start at a young age when the bully is at school. With truancy on the rise it’s vital to cull the bullying so victims like my daughters are not wagging school to be safe.

School bullying and how to fix it

It is easy to think of school bullying as occurring between pupils only, but let’s not forget that teachers can be victims too, whether that arises from being bullied by another teacher or even one of their students. Therefore different strategies need to be adopted to deal with each situation.

One Manurewa East primary school principal, who completed his masters in the UK focussing on bullying, used his research to solve the school’s problem of bullying between pupils. He introduced compulsory sport in the last half hour of lunch breaks, which research proved was the time most bullying occurred. Not every student likes maths, or reading but it was still part of the curriculum so he introduced compulsory lunchtime sport. Students are kept busy and have no energy to bully others.

That strategy tackles one cause of the problem – boredom by pupils. However, in the workplace boredom is unlikely to be the issue and rather, the Massey report suggests that a primary driver of the problem is a lack of leadership skills within an organisational culture which tolerates bullying behaviour. So if there is a problem of bullying in the workplace (including between teachers) then a different approach needs to be taken.

Start with the culture

In any organisation, the starting point is to look at the culture to see whether it tacitly encourages or actively discourages bullying behaviour. Let’s not forget that our teachers of today were our pupils of yesterday. Similarly our current business leaders, managers and employers also were the pupils of yesterday. A person who grew up in a school environment which allowed him or her to engage in bullying behaviour is more likely to carry that trait forward into adulthood and into the workplace.
Schools therefore must adopt a zero tolerance bullying culture which encourages pupils to work in teams not cliques, creates respect amongst students and most importantly builds confidence and self esteem within individuals. Some classroom strategies include:

• Creating anti bullying zone in class and school
• Art class – making ‘anti-bullying posters, creating dream (goals) posters
• Education about good, bad, happy, angry, scared, fearful, exciting, sad feelings and their appropriate actions
• Educating about feeling good by positive actions (create rewards and certificates)
• Teaching and boosting self esteem with genuine compliments (start a give a compliment day)
• Rotate students seating and include group work to constantly create new teams
• Boost self-esteem by more ‘up the front’ presentations
• Start a new set of positive classroom rules with input by teachers and students
• Including books, DVD’s and posters for further education.

With that culture in place, the school then needs to have systems and processes in place for dealing with bullying complaints which allow victims to reach out for help without making the situation worse for them. Such processes shouldn’t focus solely on relationships between students but incorporate the relationships of student and teacher and teacher and teacher, anticipating that there may be situations where it is the teacher than is being bullied by the student.

As this problem increases a teacher needs to revert to use assertive phrases “I can understand how you are feeling” or similar to let the student understand they are being listened to valued and continue communicating with follow up discussions planned. However, step two if you ‘intuition’ or ‘gut reaction’ is to that physically danger is imminent, remove yourself with phrases like “I'll go and find someone else we can discuss this with” or similar. If personal safety factors are a major concern rearrange the room so your desk is close to an exit.

Next fix the people.

The key strategy when dealing with the victim and the bully is raising their level of self-esteem. After its impact on myself and family, it’s my life mission to improve the awareness of self-esteem, hence the annual mid-year Selfday – International Self Esteem day. Free tips, downloads, Eposters are available for download on www.internationselfesteem.com and visit the bully page for additional information.

Another concept is a Friday afternoon or Monday morning session in the classroom designed to re-enforce self-esteem, achievements, goals and steps for present and future successes. It includes encouraging pupils to use phrases such as:

• I am great because …
• Today I achieved …
• I felt good because …
• Next week I will try …
• I wish that …

These have been compiled into a one page Success Journal which can be downloaded and copied weekly from http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/school-coaching.htm.

For both bully and victim, lessons in leadership are vitally important. Study great leaders and encourage pupils to identify different leadership styles and whether each style is effective in bringing the best out of the team and the individual. It is a sad fact that many people entering industry today are ill equipped to take leadership roles and when promoted into those positions leave a trail of destruction behind them.

Education goes further than the curriculum.

Teachers have long known that by educating our children through the school curriculum we create adults who have the intellectual minds to tackle the problems of the future. However, the Massey report identifies that where New Zealand is falling short amongst its global counterparts is in the area of emotional intelligence and effective leadership which are the antitheses to bullying. Development of those skills starts at school.

After working in education systems from pre-school to tertiary and understanding some of its complexities, it’s vital that bullying is addressed. Students are failing because of its impact. Behaviour in society is reflected in our schools and I have joined forces with a performance management expert Ann Andrews and lawyer Michael Smyth to stamp out bullies. Help us to make a difference with our survey invitation below.

What are your views on bullying and how it can be fixed?

We would like you to take part in a short 5-10 minute survey on bullying. To take the survey, go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/nobullies

Janice Davies is The Attitude Specialist, who teaches people to be positive and empower themselves. As a Professional Speaker, Success Coach and author Janice educates people at conferences, workshops and through books. Janice is the founder of the global movement International Self Esteem awareness day.. Janice has online complimentary articles, tips, E-courses, E-posters products on attitude, self-esteem goals, stress, happiness, relationships and more. Visit http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz.

Mould Baby Boomers, Gen X, Y and Z into a Safe Team.

2010-04-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

What can Baby Boomers and Gen X pass onto Gen Y and Z to help improve workplace safety and are they listening? And what can Gen Y teach baby boomers?

Sometimes it’s a challenge to decide which generation you slot into and where your co-workers slot into the workforce as well. Baby Boomers post war babies are now middle age and entering senior years. In the economy, many are now retiring and leaving the labour force. Gen X is the generation born after the baby boom ended ranging from 1961 to the 1981. Then Gen Y applies to those born in between the dates of 1982 and June 1995, followed by Generation Z people born between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s.

One generation of employees exhibits maturity and steadfast loyalty, following the safety rules onsite. Meanwhile the workers of a younger generation who show brilliance and application have an exit strategy if boredom or dissatisfaction sets in, and are less likely to follow the safety rules.

Generation Y and Z have been a product of the self-esteem movement that baby boomers and Gen X did not have. Some of the baby boomers may have instilled it when they became parents to their children, who are now the same age group of workers they are experiencing challenges with.

Generally, it is the baby boomers and Gen X managing the safety of the site and trying to instill it in these younger workers. Every body responds to praise, although some people ‘shove’ it off as part of the job and not recognize a compliment. However, it is still important to give praise when it’s due. A manager, who can work this way, will be shown respect from others.

Often face to face communication hasn’t been established at a satisfactory level with the Gen Y’s and Z’s because of the computer age, mobile phones and other technology that is part of today’s society. However, when communicating safety issues, a good solution is to acknowledge at the commencement of a meeting or training that in their personal life text messages, language and modern methods of technological communication is great, but in their work life they need to use commonly understood communication which is either face to face or written.

This is acknowledging the differences that people are now experiencing and in essence showing some form of respect for that, but moulding the work force together as a team.

A manager who invites the members for input into conversations answering their queries and explaining some of the reasons behind the safety issues, helps to make them feel involved and creates the camaraderie and respect which some may have not experienced.

Teaching anything technical is still paramount and after explaining something to them, get them to demonstrate with ‘hand’s on learning and coach them through the process to get them involved.

Individual coaching of a device is another way to teach, as they want to learn, even if bravado is the face they showing. Gen Y and Z’s in spite of everything want to achieve and receive praise for a job well done and self respect is sometimes a missing key to their former learning.

Manage a young worker every single day and think of yourself as a coach. Check in and help prioritise, teach tricks, and steer their path as they want mentoring, teamwork and responsibility. Just be sure to give them work that is challenging enough to them to warrant daily input and paint a picture of when they mastered this task for a set time, there is something else they can work to achieve.

Baby boomers and Gen X’s need to realise the younger employees’ maybe short-term workers. One of the most notable characteristics is that they will switch jobs over the course of their careers more than any generation before them. Share their future in the company so they can understand there is a career path and you are likely to entice them to stay longer.

Understand they are not like your generation and never will be. Also a great reminder is that it was adults that started this technological revolution and this younger generation are the by-product. It’s not their fault and it is the evolution of society.

On the flip side the Gen Y and Z’s can teach others how to use technology. It has been and remains an integral part of their daily lives. With a whole generation addicted to it, you can’t ignore it and baby boomer lifestyle is not going to dominate the office forever. So start up conversation and be brave enough to ask for help and in lay-man’s language. Generally, they will be happy to be the teacher.

.

Workplace Bullying Television interview

2010-04-15T20:38:00.001-07:00

Workplace Bullying has hit NZ news.

Here is my TVNZ interview.
Click on the link and check what I had to say.

http://tvnz.co.nz/search/ta_ent_search_tv_skin.xhtml?q=Janice+Davies&sort=date%3AD%3AS%3Ad1&submit.x=40&submit.y=13

Workplace Bullying affects by Self Esteem

2010-04-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

Self Esteem and Bullying Affects Workplace Performance

In the land of tall poppies, it appears self esteem issues has raised its ugly head in our professional life in the work environment.

Additionally, during this ‘r’ time, as people and businesses are facing work redundancies, loss of business and other factors, people need to concentrate to remain confident in their own abilities as they and refocus their future. Albeit, they need to remind themselves they did not cause the recession and maintain their level of high esteem as they seek positive solutions during this time of challenge, through motivation and a positive attitude.

With NZ’s present suicide rates high and our steady decline of personal responsibility, sense of achievement and purpose, esteem is also affecting the professional lives of New Zealanders.

Human nature wants acceptance and appreciation in relationships which results in people ‘feeling good’. Unfortunately many people have not learnt an optimistic way to establish and create this and negative soul destroying bullying type of relationships are formed.

If it is un-encouraging at home, it filters to school and eventually into our workplaces It shows up as negativity, underperformance, bulling and other under achieving behaviour that is wasting the wages the employee is being paid and those they influence.

Additionally, a person who is bullying wants to feel good, be recognized and powerful at no matter what cost. They do it at the expense of another employee which accounts for two employees not working at their full potential.

Bullies have low self esteem. They may not portray that, but inside there is a person who wants to be accepted and loved, who doesn’t know any other way and so they become very clever. They find a vulnerable spot of a person and wedge their thought and ideas onto the person subtly and skillfully, often without the awareness by the second party it is taking place. People who once had confidence often may not realise what is occurring, except whereas once they felt confident in themselves and okay, they are now losing or have lost their confidence and feeling inadequate and dreading going to work.

In most cases, once a person realises they are being bullied, they usually seek resolution with the appropriate department heads or boss. Often this does not occur except further analysis and examination of the bullying situation, which re-enforces the bully’s power and has the opposite affect on the victim. Consequently they leave and the bully is waiting for its next prey.

If every few months you require a replacement employee in a certain department, it could be indicative there is a bully around who displays their destructive behaviour until either the new replacement is manipulated or leaves.

Some symptoms of low esteem

1. Lacking coincidence to learn, make sales or try a new role
2. Negative attitude, complaining and criticising others.
3. Overbearing or autocratic team player
4. Focuses on others problems rather than being responsible for their own
5. Quiet, shy employees who lack confidence
6. Egotistical employee who belittles bullies others

With over forty workshops during the past three years, one of the biggest learning curve for majority of people has been around the issue of self-esteem and unfortunately the most consistent bullying is done by women to women. However, once identified the problem has been half solved with additional counseling sought to re-establish the confidence of the person on the receiving end of the bullying and educate them that if it was not them it would be another person.

On the upside is high esteem. People who establish win/win supportive relationships where they help others, offer advice when asked, set goals are willing to learn, team players who generally help others but not at their own expense.

These people can become employees involved in mentor /mentee relationship and can assist educate them to be empowered, which is the single biggest factor that any human can do for another.

In homes, schools and in the community and workplaces, to create a new psyche in New Zealand, education is needed to improve the low esteem level of many New Zealanders.

Not a job to be taken lightly, for those whose self esteem is intact it may well be because the influence of people in their past.

Albeit a family member, sports coach, friends, strangers or managers who have what I phase ‘shoulder-tapped’ others to have the confidence to learn and succeed, are effectively angels or change agents in disguise. They encourage people to try something new which boosts their esteem and kick starts them to live life positively.

Bullying creates self esteem challenges

2010-04-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

Bullying create Self Esteem Challenges

Janice Davies – Attitude Specialist

Feeling powerful is one of the characteristics of bullies. They feel great when they see another person cringe after they have challenged them either verbally, emotionally or physically and this can even stretch to spiritually.

Bullies use their actions in these ways to make themselves feel good. The other party
feels intimidated, threatened or other negative ways. They will succumb to the
demands of the bully to keep the peace and stop the present teasing or antagonism. This leaves them feeling un-empowered, guilty, uncomfortable, angry and other negative emotions.

Bullies don’t care how you feel, they just care that they get their way. Bullies are only concerned about their own feelings and they’re false sense of power.

You’ll find bullies in personal or professional lives. They can be the boss, co-worker, customer or in one’s personal life, the parent, partner or at school, the children causing the fights, or in today’s society sending the threatening text or email.

Bullies are people who have not learnt in their life about how to create good relationships. In the first five to seven years of our life, people’s values about life and ‘how it works’ are formed. If they’ve experienced challenging negative relationships, that’s all they know. They don’t know how to express themselves, work in a good team, show love and care for other people without playing verbal, emotional or physical games.

Bullies are people who have low self esteem and to make them feel good, need power over other people. This creates negative relationships at work and home life. However the person who is being bullied also has low self esteem. This creates a lose/lose type of relationship. Both people have not learnt interpersonal skills and personal development.

Until one person learns how to interact assertively, the bullying continues. Once the other party starts to learn techniques to empower themselves, the relationship starts to change.
To the disgust and anguish or anger of the bully, the other person they once bullied doesn’t react in the same way. The bully will continue trying the same techniques that once got them the reaction and power they wanted. If the person succumbs to the pressure and returns to their old behaviour, the bully has won. This is the recurring patterns in relationships at work and home.

The answer for the person who is being bullied is to un-entangle themselves from this power playing and negative style relationship and move forward in their life. In a work situation it can be as drastic as changing jobs, which many people do. In personal life it can create the same result of leaving relationships, unless both parties are willing to learn together with guidance how to create a positive life.

In either of the above situations, the learning person of the relationship starts to boost their self esteem and overcomes their self doubt learning to feel good about themselves. This is what life’s challenges are for, to prompt people to learn skills to overcome their hardships. Any negative feeling or emotion is an indication that something is not right and needs to be addressed. Sometimes there’s a lot of this negativity and the key is to ‘chip’ away slowly at the challenges. They need to learn to move forward in their life, with more positive thoughts and goals to use their gifts and passions to create their dream life for themselves. It’s everyone’s challenge and some people have mastered the technique and others don’t try.

It’s important for the person learning, to continue their personal growth, coaching or counseling to ensure they have an understanding about their past. It’s also important for this person not to feel guilty and forgive themselves so they can move forward positively in life.

In the work place I hold my Dealing with People and Tricky Situations public and in-house workshops and have Ebooks and manuals which help people understand their situation and empower them with skills to move forward. All the information in these products relate to both personal and professional life. Additionally, my Attitude Training and Online Success Coaching courses all assist and teach people skills to success in their personal and professional life.

Appreciate your Workplace Team

2010-03-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

For any school to run efficiently there will be a group people with different skill sets and ideas. Have a big happy family at work might be the ideal, as long as understanding and respect is not undermined. A variety of challenges such as lack of personal development, egos, bullies and other unpleasant behaviors can cause disruptions.

Therefore learning to appreciate your colleagues, some of their idiosyncrasies, provides a platform for a more harmonious work space. Protocol and being PC at work also provide guidelines for positive feedback to boost workplace performances.

One of the biggest ‘aha’s, although it seems rather basic, is to remember that everyone is there for the same goal. Some people will reply they come to work for the money but really they are working to provide service to the customer – the pupils. Whether it is the external (parents or suppliers) or internal (pupils and colleagues) customers, working by the philosophy ‘do unto others as you would have done unto you’ provides a honorable statement for positive workplace relationships in any school.

In one school I worked the heads of department were jostling for ‘their importance’ which was causing disruption. It was a boarding school with the kitchen, laundry, matron, sports and others. It was not until together we reminded them that they were working for the ‘good’ of the pupils. Then they relaxed and began working as a team again. They all loved their work and the positive affects but had forgotten why they chose to work in that environment.

Albeit they learnt each department had different personalities and understood the impact that had on their actions and reactions. Then they could honour their differences, rather than dismiss and ridicule them because different departments ‘did not’ work exactly the same way as themselves.

Additionally, once they were reminded of their main goal of ‘helping their pupils’ I had the platform for prompting them about helping each other. This resulted in creating win/win relationships, versus the thinking ‘I have to win and I don’t care at ‘whose’ expense. I.E. I want the budget spent on my department because it is most important.

Consequently this had resulted in bullying and emotive communication which had developed in their workplace relationships. When people appreciate their colleagues’ strengths and learn how to communicate assertively and effectively, the relationships change.

People who are using bullying tactics are indicative of those who are still playing in the playground as the pupil, stamping their feet until they get their own way. Unable to do it physically, they turn to verbal and often subtle phrases and abuse, playing a game to assert their importance.

It is inflated self-importance which reveals that this person may have lower self confidence that they profess. In an attempt to ‘boost themselves’ they try to negate the other person. Doing so, makes them feel good.

These people need to learn there are other ways to make themselves ‘feel good’ besides manipulative behaviour.

In another school, the principal was shaken when he discovered that bullying was taking place in the school office. Unbeknown to him this negative behaviour had crept in with a new full time employee who threw her authority around especially to the longer employed part-timers.

Notwithstanding, there are the negative people, unable to move past the ‘challenge’ of last week or last year, about ‘how’ things were done or not done and are not willing to
embrace the changes and move forward. The complainer and negative folk need to learn to focus on the positives rather that get stuck in the past. It might take them three months to learn a new system, whereas it took others three days.

In creating positive workplaces it is paramount to move past the ego and into the hearts of the team. People in the teaching profession and their support staff and are the caregivers in society. Albeit they have different traits, but with respect and appreciation combined, the result is a highly effective school.

Everyone has a specific task to perform and exell in. Appreciating the differences and accepting each others strengths is a key to improving the workplace relationships and thus levels of productivity in helping the students perform. One of Mother Theresa’s famous quotes was: Be Kind and Merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Maybe this is challenging philosophy to live by, but worth the effort to try. Like a ripple in a pond, the ‘good’ feeling of appreciation spreads to the pupils and into society. Creators of our future society, we need to remember another quote: Appreciation is like an insurance policy, you have to keep renewing it.

Securing your 2010 Goals

2010-02-15T17:17:00.000-08:00

Securing your Goals in 2010

Securing your future starts with the end in mind. To retire with your dream income or lifestyle means you have to decide your outcome so you can work towards your goal. To save for a house deposit, your dream car or overseas trip has you involved in daydreaming or visualisation as many athletes do. They have seen themselves crossing the line first or on the podium with their medal and have learnt to ‘see the end in mind’ and work backwards in their training programme.

It’s the same with your new 2010 goals. What achievable results do you imagine you want to reach this year and write them down. Winning lotto is only a small possibility and even purchasing weekly tickets has no guarantee. Whereas, if you want to improve your fitness level you can start with a weekly or daily routine and you will have positive outcomes by 31st December.

The key to achieving is to understand you are living in a constant state of learning. You reach one goal and the next is scooting along ready for you. Hence you constantly need to learn new skills or ways of thinking to move forward in life.

When you are setting goals you have six different areas to set goals in: You, Health, Relationships, Work, Finances and Community. Focusing on all areas as the top priority will not achieve the results you want, so learning to balance these are your key to success. Albeit, you may have one or two as top priority goals for the year, which then become your focus.

As you are creating your life you need to replace your thoughts with new positive ideas that are aligned to your goal. For you to be successful your goals need to be aligned to your values or life rules. Additionally, if you want to save money for an overseas holiday, spending on a busy social life may spend your holiday fund.

Goal versus Intention

In the state of juggling life some of your goals may fail to meet the deadline. This can result in negative thinking, where in fact ‘life’ cropped up and you ‘lived’.

Additionally, the word ‘goal’ for some people has a deadline connotation. Sometimes using the word ‘intention’ works better. There is not the same sense of deadline attached to it. So missing the deadline for a goal (and the negative thinking attached to it) versus achieving an intention (positive thinking) is less stressful and also more successful.

Hard versus Easy road

A goal or intention is the key to success and ongoing happiness in your life. It makes you live life more enthusiastically and has the power to ‘get you out of bed’ with vigor and vitality. Every person is unique and has something different and your main priority is to work towards what you desire.

There are two ways you can achieve. One is to take the hard road and you cruise along until the day you realise you are only ‘dreaming’ about your goal not ‘working’ towards it and therefore will probably not achieve it.

The other is the easier road where you can learn by listening to others who have achieved, read books, or by attending courses. With your new found knowledge you are more positive and you decide what steps are right for you whilst working more quickly towards achieving.

Personality

Understanding your personality is an advantage when goal setting. You are aware of your strengths and weaknesses and grasp why you are achieving in some areas of your life and not in others.

Right-brained creative thinkers are constantly coming up with new ideas and so they achieve in a creative business and marketing is generally much easier for them.
However the most difficulty they will have is in the area of finances, systems and analytical areas. It’s the opposite for the left brained thinkers.

Here are some tips to help.

10 Tips towards achieving MAGIC in your 2010 Goals.

1. Take time to daydream and write down or draw pictures of your goals.
2. Created your goal from your right brained creative thinking.
3. Use your left analytical side of your brain plan out HOW to achieve it.
4. Understand that you will be challenged and to ask for help.
5. Visualise achieving your goal.
6. Be prepared to make sacrifices and changes.
7. Take the risk and enjoy life as you achieve.
8. Value your health, have fun, laugh and love along the way.
9. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
10. Pat yourself on the back and reward yourself constantly.

Keeping positive while you make change in your life is another challenge. One step each day will reap your results. For more help a free report called Attitude 4 Success and an ongoing programme is available on the website below.

7 Attributes or a Positive Attitude

2009-08-17T02:25:00.000-07:00

7 Attributes to a Positive AttitudeAttribute 1

Your attitude will determine your future. It sounds simple, but it is harder to do. Developing and maintaining a positive mental attitude is determining and controlling your thoughts.

There is negativity and doom and gloom being discussed so it is easy to ‘tune in’ to that type of thinking. With the downturn in the economy, people losing jobs and money, politicians squabbling and selling their policies, sometimes it is tricky to turn your thinking to a position that is helpful to you rather than destructive.

Become Solution Focussed
To change from a negative attitude instead of focusing on the problem you need to take a 180 degree spin and start focusing your thoughts on solutions. The longer you think about the problem the longer it will be before you discover your solutions.
You can only think one thought at a time so it’s important for your success that you make a choice and make it a positive one. If you are having 60,000 negative thoughts your actions will lead you to a day of despair or 60,000 positive thoughts will have you bouncing around life, surviving and beating your challenges.

Article I was interviewed on about Kiwi Men....

2009-08-04T16:39:00.000-07:00

Lazy Kiwi males lose points
4:00AM Wednesday Aug 05, 2009
By Jarrod Booker NZ Herald

Kiwis 8th best husbands, Aussies worst
Kiwi men are not doing enough around the house to win over their wives and partners, new research suggests, but we are still doing better than our transtasman cousins.

New Zealand ranked ninth-equal out of 13 countries in an Oxford University study that examined how people become more attractive to the opposite sex by helping out with the household chores and looking after the children.

Swedish men topped the table as most attractive in terms of pulling their weight around the house, while Australians - perhaps preoccupied by their great loves of beer and sport - came in last, British news website telegraph.co.uk reported.

The website quoted experts who said that women were more attracted to men if they believed they would help around the house and share the childcare.

Relationship expert Janice Davies said there was no denying that Kiwi men had some improving to do when it came to carrying the load in the household. Some of the older generation especially, who grew up seeing their mothers doing all the housework, needed to change their thinking.

"There is some of that old school thinking still around, that even though the man is working and the woman is working, that she should be doing all the housework, which is obviously showing up in this survey," Janice Davies said.

A harmonious relationship was about giving as well as taking.

"If you're running a home, a family and doing all the housework, exhaustion sets in, and in all honesty, the nicer sides of the marriage are likely to be non-existent."

Researchers in the study questioned 13,500 men and women aged between 20 and 45 from each country about gender, housework and childcare responsibilities.

Based on their responses, each country was given a rating on an "Egalitarian Index". Women in countries with less equality in the home were found to be between 20 and 50 per cent less likely to settle down with a man.

Dr Almudena Seville-Sanz, of Oxford University's Centre for Time Use Research, said: "This study shows that in egalitarian countries there is less social stigma attached to men doing what was traditionally women's work".

However, while the study suggested that women favour men who are willing to treat them as equals, it also found that men themselves placed less value on the quality in the opposite sex.

* Our place on the Egalitarian Index:

1.Sweden
2.Norway
3. Britain
4.United States
5.Northern Ireland
6.Netherlands
7.Republic of Ireland
8.Spain
9. =New Zealand, Japan
10.Germany
11.Austria
12.Australia

Selfday - International Self Esteem Day

2009-05-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Making a Difference
International Self Esteem Day

Celebrate this annual awareness day with family, friends and associates. Statistics reveal 95% of children and adults experience lack of confidence, self belief or low self esteem sometime in their life. Those individuals who have overcome their challenges, were fortunate to have their confidence boosted by a family, work colleague, a sports coach or even a passing stranger who has encouraged and steered them onwards to success

With the current economic climate, people in businesses, family, schools and communities are experiencing challenges. With each of us responsible for our thoughts, this is an opportunity for everyone, especially adults to analyse their thinking and re-set strategies to ensure they remain positive, confident members of society and passing on the positive thinking to their children and sphere of influence.

Whether during childhood or adult life…low self-esteem can be soul destroying. The trick is learning to overcome it. Some do and some do not, instead carrying around debilitating thoughts about their own self worth for the rest of their lives, revealing, itself during addictive and negative habits.

With your thoughts unable to be operated on and unseen in an x-ray, so there is no cut and paste like on a computer. Your only solution is stopping the negative thoughts and replacing them into positive ones. If people do not they never live to their ability and potential.

Starting as babes in arms, the best key is unconditional love, guidelines about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, understanding and teaching children at their different stages of development and praise for their achievements. With their brains soaking up their thirst for knowledge they are learning the most in their first few years of life. They learn to move, crawl, walk, skip and hop, make their sounds turn into words and then sentences, make a mark and create lines, shapes and paintings recognizable by adults, so there are plenty of opportunities for building a child’s esteem, by their parents.

During school years, life mastery continues forming the basis of their adolescent years. That’s when the tell tale signs of low esteem turn into negative actions. Using data from a 10 year study by Richie Poulton and his team, from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, discovered that adolescent with poorer mental and physical health had higher levels of criminal behaviour compared to those of adolescents with high self esteem. They summed up, saying that interventions designed to raise self esteem can have beneficial consequences in reducing violence and improving mental health.

But it’s not just our youth. Once in the workplace, adults with low self esteem are less likely to perform to their ability. Held back by lack of confidence, fearful of ridicule and rejection, their thoughts transmit messages of ‘I’m no good’ ‘I’ll never get it right’, “I don’t deserve’ and other negative thoughts.

Additionally, some people ‘thrive’ on the misfortunes of others. If they can entice those through bullying tactics, they create their egotistical feelings of superiority at the consequence of others, which in itself demonstrates a shoddier malfunction in their thinking….and low self esteem.

Along with our aging generation, ‘home alone’ pensioners and grandparents, baby boomers being replaced at work by younger people and maturity instead of bringing wisdom, bringing loneliness and despair, there could be deemed a rise in low esteem within the mature population as well.

A study by Richard T Lovelace in 2003 further reveals that those with high self-esteem were better able to handle stress than those with low self-esteem. More and more studies world-wide are endorsing the importance of having a good level of esteem and self belief.

Those with high esteem had other people supporting and encouraging them sometime during their lives, until they learnt to become self reliant. Therefore, there comes a time in life when these confident, successful people need to start to help others, just as they had received.

Therefore the question arises, how do you create high esteem? If you think of a roller coaster ride, some people love it and others hate it. Feelings and our interpretation of them, happen in a nanosecond within our body. If your heart races at the excitement of a roller coaster ride or races at the fear of a roller coaster ride, it is pre-supposed that exciting and scary are the same feelings. If that is the case, then the interpretation lies in the individuals mind.

Consequently reprogramming of your thoughts about fear and excitement and all your other negative thoughts is necessary to boost your esteem. Those that don’t, let fear of the unknown rule their lives, versus, the excitement of achievement. Terrible and negative things happen to everyone but the winners in life are the people that have learnt to overcome their negative thoughts about them.

With change constant in our lives, every part of society is engulfed in the need for us to learn, and with that comes stress. We no sooner master the keys on our new mobile and it is discarded for a new one with additional gadgets and tools that do not operate like our previous phone.

With younger people losing the connection with the outdoors and relying on technology to give them an adrenaline buzz it’s easy to become removed from personal interaction with other people. When they are out socializing, their actions are overshadowed with the misconception that drugs are necessary to enjoy life. A bungee jump might just be as good!

So, what can we do to help ourselves, work colleagues, families and country.

With New Zealand’s 6th National Self Esteem day on 24th June, it’s time to shuffle our thinking. Janice Davies, New Zealand’s representative on the International Council of Self-Esteem started celebrating this day because it’s an idea whose time has come. It’s a world first, she says and with our pioneer and entrepreneurial spirit and with New Zealand being the first country daily to greet each new day, it is fitting for the day to be founded and commence here.

However, we want to spread this globablly, so embrace the idea and share in your home and workplace.

Janice is encouraging people to do the following with children, family, friends and colleagues:

• 5 Activities to boost their own esteem e.g. Exercise
• 5 Activities to boost another person’s esteem e.g. Give compliment
• 1 or more activity to help the community e.g. Pick up one piece of rubbish

But the key is, she says, once you have tried it and like it and experience the ‘feel good’ factor for yourself, continue the activities and incorporate them into your daily life. Then, like other winners, you too can achieve your potential and start encouraging others as well. Here are ten additional tips.
1. Stop comparing yourself with other people and stop putting your self down.
2. Use affirmations to boost your self-esteem.
3. Associate only with positive focused people who you can learn from.
4. Learn to be still. The average person doesn't spend 30 minutes a month in total silence.
5. Make a list of your positive qualities, start at ten increase to 100.
6. Take up an exercise program - you will feel better and look better!
7. Remember good things people have said about you and write them down
8. Make any changes that help you e.g. appearance, hair style, friends, foods or behaviour.
9. Eat healthy food and stay away from diets that you always fail. Instead join a group or change your lifestyle where you can succeed.
10. Change negative thoughts to positive thoughts by focusing on the positive ones. Your mind can only think of one thought at a time. Make it a positive one!

Visit my website for free downloads
Additional tips, articles, 125 Tip Ebook and one page success journal

Want to progress in your professional life - Get a Coach

2009-05-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

Career Development through Coaching

Knowledge Is Power was my old school motto. It did not mean much to me at the age of ten however a few decades later, I realise knowledge is the key to success.

Everyone’s past thoughts and consequent actions has got them to their present situation in life.
As a manager or for yourself, it is understanding that if you want others or yourself to improve or make changes to performance, it’s imperative for your knowledge to be expanded.

Any person stuck in a rut, fearful of promotion or trying something new, angry at the lack of their promotion, negative, underperforming or complains, needs an injection of information to move forward. One situation was where an employee did not get the promotion expected and was categorized as an ‘unsettling’ although very qualified technician. It took a month before the person was willing to be coached, but the result was extremely positive.

With staff performance and retention a less expensive options than staff replacement, an astute manager will benefit from additional training or if that is unavailable, individual coaching for an employee. To get ‘buy in’’ from an employee, I ask for five reasons why an employee wants to receiving the coaching before I start. No-one can enforce change, therefore the initial consent is vital.

Educating an employee through individual coaching provides an environment of safety.
Once trust has been established the employee can share their grievances to a qualified ear knowing their work colleagues will never know of their dilemmas.

Employees are usually employed for their level of professional competency at performing a job. Normally what fails to be determined in the recruitment stages of employment is the level of personal development. After a few years, the lack of it, reveals itself through mediocre or stagnant performance.

Rather than questioning performance, it is understanding that everyone has had different values, experiences, circumstances in their life and not everyone has been fortunate as other colleagues to learn skills to personal success. Since the value of personal development has been recognized as an integral key of employee’s performance, coaching provides a positive solution.

It is a supportive manager and willing employee who chooses a coaching process to help them understand themselves, their past and present situations to create a positive future. Athletes and CEO’s receive coaching to help them succeed and embracing the concept of coaching for transformation is a wise move indeed.

Visit these webpages
For my free 5 day online course
online course

For my 5 sessions/10 week online course
online course

2009-04-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

HI Folk

On You Tube I mentioned Susan Boyle and her critical turning point, a decision to do something different, try at being a professional singer, something she had dreamed about since she was 12 but never given it a shot. When she did, it worked.

Well, we are not all like Susan, but we all have critical turning points. In the movie Pursuit of Happiness, Will had a critcal turning point when he decided he would go into finances and insurance and eventually, became a millionaire.

Everybody has these times in their life and to learn more about this here's an excerpt from my ebook 'Say Yes to a Positive Attitude', I wrote,

Often you've had a cruicital turning point in your life. This is where you've had a 'situation' that promoted a major decision in your life. Here's an example. If you've had a major health scare, it may be that you've had to change your diet dramatically and exercise regularly to enure future good health. It was a critical turning point and you can choose whether to create a healthier you and live longer, or continue life the same and shorten your life.

The critical turning point, is your thinking your decesion, about your action. So, if you want to improve your life, you need NEW thoughts so you make NEW decisions, because you past has got you to where you are now.

You can do this and make decisions with the 6 areas of your life and become happier, loved and more successful, or not. That decision is yours. If you want more information, about keeping a positive attitude visit my website for the ebook 'Say Yes to a Positive Attitude'.

Watch the clip on YOU Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpkCX1xW568&layer_token=49a72204a4350121

Until next time...Go Well, Be Positive and Just do it!
website and

weekly attitude tips on you tube

2009-04-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hi folk

I've decieded to get out and 'just do it' and have started posting attitude tips on You Tube.
It's a learning curve....but that's what life is about. Check them out and let me know your thoughts. Janice

New Vision and Focus!!

2009-02-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

Life is about expanding your self, your view and your vision.

This is a new idea...about how to create your future.

I had an 'aha' moment when I heard these words 100K in 100 Days.

I just liked the ring of it...so with a new vision...will set about creating it.

This is the 'stuff' in life that makes you buzz.

Search out yours. Get my ebook on How to Get what you Want in Life to Achieve your Success
and work through the process.

Janice

Creating an awesome 2009

2009-01-27T13:25:00.000-08:00

Dreaming dreams...is great. But it takes action to implement them.
One of my dreams is to cruise the world. You would think it would
cost lots of money. However...thinking outside the square box has
me finding a place where I can use my work skills to cruise for free.

YES...you read it right!!! I was blown away as well. BUT it means
I have to do some background work...and of course I will.

SO...with your dreams that may seem unreachable...what are you
doing to find a way of creating them.

Just do it!!

Attitude Tips

2008-12-27T19:28:00.000-08:00

The first day to the rest of my life.....

As a self-named Attitude Specialist, I have learnt to train my thoughts to think positive as I create and learn how to live my dream life. This is my first blog...and opens another world
and sphere to my life and business. As we learn....we grow.....we create ourselves and our dreams. Below is my favourite poem....and in the upcoming years that i continue to blog, I will share thoughts, powertips, quotes and poems, comments and more about keeping positive, even in our challenging times as we learn to overcome these challenges....and succeed!!!

As my favourite poem says below...it's 10% and 90%.

Attitude

Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education than money,
than circumstances, than failures, than success,
than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.

It will make or break a company…a home… a relationship.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice, every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day.

We cannot change our past.
We cannot change the fact that other people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have,
and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me
and 90 % how I react to it.
Charles Swindoll