Value Yourself

Resolve to value yourself.

If you don't, you lessen yourself and reduce your value to others.

When you do, your true value soars.

Do not, except by choice:

- Work for nothing
- Do a job you hate
- Spend time with people who drag you down

Do, at every opportunity:

- Accept your true rewards
- Love what you are doing now
- Thrive in the company of those you love

And have a great life!

Roy

Aim Higher

Any project that is going to motivate you to keep at it has to challenge your sense of what's possible. Give yourself room for half-measures and shortcuts and you'll almost certainly find an excuse to use them.

That's why your mission and your standards have to be higher, purer and more difficult to achieve than other people's if you're going to do better, be better and make more of a difference.

Easy is boring, anyway.

Real success is achieving what you weren't sure you could.

Roy

Synergy - When It All Falls Into Place

When things start falling into place so that each 'thing' supports every other thing in some way, or when you start to notice a common theme in the disparate things you're involved with, when things (and people) start to come together, that's synergy.

You can't really force synergy. Yes, you can look for 'congruence' in what you do, but that's really about consciously cutting your workload by being consistent and repurposing what you do to get the maximum mileage out of it.

Synergy seems to happen more by accident. Or at least, we don't consciously seek it out - but then, the brain is a mysterious thing.

So when you look at your client list, friends list or your interests, can you spot a theme? Interests can be wide-ranging at first glance and yet somehow...

With our client list and ongoing projects we're starting to notice a definite theme. Mainly, it's people and science. Particularly the science of people, from diet to behaviour (more closely linked than we usually realise), taking in motivation, self-esteem, goals and ambitions, 'mentality' and psychiatric and physical health.

And all these subjects involve equipping ourselves with the right tools and understanding how to use the tools we've got. That's why one of our most recent clients struck such an obvious chord with both of us. After all, what could be a better fit with everything we've done recently than the 'Human Toolbox'?

Lindy Wheeler is fascinating, caring and, above all, knowledgeable about the human mind and brain and the 'human tools' we all have within us to change the way we think and act and so transform the results we can achieve. Her workshop on 27th April is a 'must-attend' event if you're at all interested in human potential, and especially your own!

Meanwhile, have a think about what you've been drawn towards recently and what seems to be falling into place in your life, work and career. If you've been wondering what to do with the rest of your life (or the next episode of it), you might well find a clue right there.

Maybe go with the flow for a while...

Roy

Really Brave or Merely Fearless?

Are the people who do the amazing, deliver the extraordinary or accomplish the seemingly impossible different in some fundamental way from the rest of humanity?

That's a question I often ponder, especially when I read the advice of coaches and self-helpers (the ones who have achieved great things) and successful entrepreneurs, who say, in effect, that "Anyone can do it".

The ones who really have 'done it' often seem unaware of the essential difference that marks them out as special, or at least unusual.

I'm not sure there's a word to define this difference, actually, but 'fearlessness' is the closest I can get. Fearlessness meaning 'lack of fear', rather than 'courage' or 'bravery'. If you're not afraid you have no need to be brave, whereas most people are only too aware of the dangers - real and imagined.

But what if you're not like them and you do feel afraid? What if you still want to go ahead and do the difficult thing? Then you need to be very brave, or you need to learn the trick that those danger junkies seem to have learned without trying.

Turn fear into excitement. In Susan Jeffers' immortal words: "Feel the fear and do it anyway", by feeling your fear in a new way, as an energising force, like an actor taking to the stage. Use it to fight, not for flight.

Welcome your fear as a part of your journey, an experience that's as unique to you as the rest of your journey. Because, when you own your fear, it can't own you. 

Roy

You, the Expert

So you get a call or an email from a client or a customer, asking for your opinion on something.

Is it a test? Will you pass? Can you evade the question or pass the buck?

No. It's a compliment. It means they value your opinion (even if, from time to time, you don't).

So give them the benefit of your expertise. It's only your opinion, but it's obviously something they value. It's a gift that's yours (and only yours) to give.

Lucky them!

Roy

How to Do Your Greatest Work

The only way you will ever do your greatest work is if you truly love what you do.

It is possible to do 'great' work by trying your hardest, even if you don't actually love what you're doing (and that can still be tremendously rewarding), but your greatest work only comes from genuine love and passion.

Don't worry if you haven't found your passion yet - most people haven't and most of them never will.

But if you want to be exceptional and make a real difference in the world, only genuine passion will be enough to make you do your greatest work.

Of course, being ordinary is okay too, if that's what you want to be.

But if you have the choice...

Roy

Attracting the Right People

On the subject of having the right people in your life, the best place to start is with yourself. In fact, it's the only place to start and finish, since you can't (or shouldn't) control who else comes and goes.

And being the best, most authentic version of you is the best way to attract and keep the people who are the best fit with who you are. Again, this is true in life and in business.

Note 'the best' and 'most authentic'. You can change for the better and still be 'you'.

One thing you need to accept, though: when you change, the people you attract will change, too. But it's better that way around than you forever trying to be someone you're not, to attract or keep hold of the people who don't really fit with the real you.

They don't really belong here, do they?

Roy

My Enemy's Enemy is....

In the dark science they sometimes call 'the art of the possible' - that's politics to you and me - there's an expression that goes: "My enemy's enemy is my friend".

I think it's a throwback to the days when we were almost permanently at war with someone, and anyone who could help us 'beat' them was seen as an ally. It led to some pretty unsavoury alliances, too.

Back in the real world, I like to think I don't have any real enemies, but I know people who do.

The thing is, if we're to take sides and choose between friends and enemies (as though there's only those two categories to choose from), we're obviously going to choose friends. But, if those friends have a habit of making enemies, how long is it before we become one of them?

Now, I know some long-standing friends who have fallen out with one or two people, but that's different. I know them for the decent people they are. 

But choosing a friend on the basis that he or she is an enemy of someone we don't care to be around is like choosing a smouldering firework over a flaming one. And making friends with someone who can't wait to tell you about all the slights and insults he or she has suffered from other people is like befriending an unexploded bomb.

The same goes for clients, employees and employers, too.

I don't need people like that in my life. Do you?

Roy

Transferable Skills

I was writing a newsletter for a client today and got onto a topic that was relatively easy to write about, since I do it every day myself, when it occurred to me how many of my skills I use across all my various interests (personal and business).

Have you ever run an audit of your skills? Maybe the last time you applied for a job or wrote a CV? Was that recently?

Two points:

1. A lot of our skills can be applied to many different areas of our lives and work
2. We all have a lot more skills and knowledge than we often realise

Really, it's amazing what knowledge and skills we accumulate over the years and take for granted. Even if you can't always find a 'buyer' for those skills (or even want to) maybe you should take the time to appreciate just how many things you know about and are able to do.

You really are amazing!

Roy

A Change of Direction

With several of our other blogs and websites concentrating on various aspects of marketing and training I've decided to reclaim this one and take it in a different direction.

The problem with a corporate blog is that personal opinions, ideas and interests don't really belong there, unless you are your business and it's built on the back of your unique character.. That doesn't always work in a partnership, and some of the things I want to write and talk about are more personal to me. So, at the very least they would dilute the company message if I posted them on one of our other blogs and sites.

You can, of course, find out more about our marketing services at Cinnamon Edge and our SEO and training services, just by following the links above. This blog, though is going to be less about Cinnamon Edge and more about me and, I hope, you too.

I'll still include ideas and tips but in a more individual way, and mixed in with articles and shorter posts on whatever else is interesting me at the time.

I hope you'll like it, maybe get to know more about me and what I have to offer, and come back for more. Feel free to comment on anything I say and contact me if there's anything you need.

Well, almost anything :-)

Roy