Abundance – 2011 “Best of the Best”

Abundance Personal leadership

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As you look back on your experiences in 2011, I encourage you to reflect on how and where you better applied the three values of the Character Triangle: Accountability, Respect, and Abundance. How much have you consciously practiced? Have you recognize how it has helped?

Key Point: The following three blogs on ABUNDANCE are my candidates for “best of the best in 2011,” based on reader interest and feedback regarding the degree they stimulated thought and action. I hope you enjoy reading them again or if you missed any that you find them meaningful. Thanks for being part of the Character Triangle “Tribe.” I hope you will join me again in 2012 for a new and invigorating set of ideas and suggestions as part of the continuous journey of Character Triangle development.

Your Last 50 cents… What Would You Do?

Goddess of Wisdom and Goddess of Wealth

Two Cheetahs Could Like You Today …Really!

Character Move:

  1. Read one or more of the blogs again.
  2. Think about what action you took or will take as a result.
  3. Give me your feedback as to which of the three was your 2011 favorite.
  4. Share them with anyone who might value the message.

Best in the Triangle,

Lorne

 

Respect – 2011 “Best of the Best”

Personal leadership Respect

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As you look back on your experiences in 2011, I encourage you to reflect on how and where you better applied the three values of the Character Triangle: Accountability, Respect, and Abundance. How much have you consciously practiced? Have you recognize how it has helped?

Key Point: The following three blogs on RESPECT are my candidates for “best of the best in 2011”, based on reader interest and feedback regarding the degree they stimulated thought and action. I hope you enjoy reading them again or if you missed any that you find them meaningful. Thanks for being part of the Character Triangle “Tribe.” I hope you will join me again in 2012 for a new and invigorating set of ideas and suggestions as part of the continuous journey of Character Triangle development.

The Rat Challenge this Holiday Season?

Do You Know the Meaning of “Genshai”?

How Do You and I Make People Feel?

Character Move:

  1. Read one or more of the blogs again.
  2. Think about what action you took or will take as a result.
  3. Give me your feedback as to which of the three was your 2011 favorite.
  4. Share them with anyone who might value the message.

Best in the Triangle,

Lorne

 

Accountability – 2011 “Best of the Best”

Accountability Personal leadership

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As you look back on your experiences in 2011, I encourage you to reflect on how and where you better applied the three values of the Character Triangle: Accountability, Respect, and Abundance. How much have you consciously practiced? Have you recognize how it has helped?

Key Point: The following three blogs on ACCOUNTABILITY are my candidates for “best of the best in 2011”, based on reader interest and feedback regarding the degree they stimulated thought and action. I hope you enjoy reading them again or if you missed any that you find them meaningful. Thanks for being part of the Character Triangle “Tribe.” I hope you will join me again in 2012 for a new and invigorating set of ideas and suggestions as part of the continuous journey of Character Triangle development.

Practice IS Life …Enjoy and Embrace It

Last Wishes at Last?  Why Wait?  Please Do It Now!

Fear – Hiding Cash in Tampon Boxes?

Character Move:

  1. Read one or more of the blogs again.
  2. Think about what action you took or will take as a result.
  3. Give me your feedback as to which of the three was your 2011 favorite.
  4. Share them with anyone who might value the message.

Best in the Triangle,

Lorne

 

The Astonishing Gift of Smiling

Abundance Kindness Well-being

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Key Point: In this season of gift giving I want to remind you to give yourself and others a huge gift that scientifically is proven to generate emotional and even material wealth, yet is absolutely free: A SMILE.

Ron Gutman has written a book Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple Act. Please allow yourself 10 minutes to watch the following entertaining video by Gutman on this topic in TED talk. Share it with people you care about. Put in their digital Christmas stocking.

The facts are overwhelming. People, who genuinely smile a lot, live longer, are perceived to be smarter, have less stress, and just do better in life. If you want to review the wealth of studies and research that support this premise, read Gutman’s book. If you want a practical test, just walk around the building you’re in now and observe smiling. Think about the good feeling that is generated when someone just smiles at you. One fact that reinforced this for me is that little kids smile about 400 times a day; we adults a heck of a lot less (see our grandson, right, with his first ice cream cone).

Character Move:

  1. Consciously think about smiling a heck of a lot more. It is free AND has a huge ROI! (Go check the facts if you think this suggestion is just mushy do da.)
  2. Walk in your work area and smile at everyone on the way in the morning. Do the same thing when you leave for the day.
  3. Do not take things so darn seriously. Even the most serious business/work issue is a candidate for a smile. It isn’t usually a life or death matter. So be a strong, tough minded, disciplined leader and just friggin’ smile.

Smile Power in the Triangle,

Lorne

 

Time Out Please!

Accountability Well-being

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Key Point: the holiday season and year-end pressures at work can mix to create a toxic, stress-filled cocktail. Recognize that we need to proactively and consciously take moments to slow down and rest. At least once or twice a day we need to intentionally take a quiet moment to sharpen our presence and self awareness.

The holiday season impacts us at work too, of course. The year-end involves trying to squeeze out every sale, ship out and invoice every product and service, budgeting and planning for the new year, and more. Mix this with all the personal and family obligations and it can be very stressful.

I remember arriving late one night at Seattle’s airport, after a long and hectic road trip between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I put in money for a luggage cart but the darn cart wouldn’t release from the kiosk. So of course using my refined technical skills, I violently began shaking the cart trying to use force to make it release. As I’m furiously yanking back and forth, I have this sense that I’m being watched. Sure enough, I look over at the baggage carousel and there are about ten orange-clad Buddhist monks staring at me with a sense of amazement. They must have thought, “It didn’t take long to observe a crazy out of control Westerner just as we expected.” Well, as you might imagine I sheepishly slowed right down, took a deep breath, and just like a knife through butter, the luggage cart released with obedient precision.

Character Move:

  1. Recognize that the holiday season and year-end work pressures usually result in extraordinary stress.
  2. Consciously take time during the day to gather in yourself for some quiet reflection. Plan for it. Build it into your diary.
  3. This is a great time to keep up your exercise program, meditation, and whatever technique you use to calm yourself.

Zen in the Triangle,

Lorne

 

The Rat Challenge this Holiday Season?

Abundance Contribution Empathy

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Key Point: rats are proven to demonstrate conscious empathy. They work to help each other get out of situations where they’re trapped. It is the “rat like” thing to do. Why can’t we humans more consciously help each other out of situations where we’re trapped? Let’s choose helping each other versus seeking self gratification. After all even rats resist eating that chocolate chip cookie before helping out a fellow rat.

I read about this very interesting study in The Big Think blog. My reaction was, “Wow, if rats’ natural action is to behave this way certainly we as people are capable of more with each other.”

“Now this paper, out in last week’s Science, will make them seem even more human: it turns out that rats will take the trouble to free a trapped fellow-rat for no physical reward (though there may be a warm, fuzzy feeling). In fact, even when there was a reward (delicious chocolates for the taking, next to the trapped victim) rats in these experiments often freed their fellow-rodent and shared the food, when they could have kept it to themselves.

Rodents have been shown to feel “emotional contagion” (which humans demonstrate when, for example, they screw up their faces in a pained expression while watching someone else get hurt). But the paper, by Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal, Jean Decety, and Peggy Mason is the first to demonstrate that the animals will take action to help others in distress. As Mason points out in this video, that’s a pretty big achievement, because it requires that the Helper Rat overcome the fear it feels emanating from the Victim Rat.”

Character Move:

  1. Recognize when someone including ourselves is trapped in a situation, we need to ask for and/or give help. We cannot accept being trapped as a given.
  2. Take the “rat road;” be persistent until freedom from a trapped situation arrives. Stay away from that narcissistic “cookie;” it will only distract us. The reward comes from helping and getting out of that trap whatever it may be.
  3. If we are “helper” rats we have to overcome the fear we feel emanating from the rat needing help. Just help. Just do it. Celebrate the freedom.

I recognize that this rat metaphor is taking license by applying the learning of this experiment to people. But if rats have this ethic… well, it just makes me pause and wonder (hope you do to).

Solid “rat moves” in The Triangle,

Lorne