This is one of my favorite questions.  Ask it of yourself or someone you think you know, and either way you may be surprised at the answer.  So what is your dream?  Are you doing it now? [...]]]>

If you could do anything with your life, without worry of financial constraints or fear, what would you do?

This is one of my favorite questions.  Ask it of yourself or someone you think you know, and either way you may be surprised at the answer.  So what is your dream?  Are you doing it now?  Whether your ultimate dream is to become head of your HR department, start your very own company, or buy that sheep farm you pass on your way to work each day, one thing is vital: Never Give Up!

Take, for instance, Nola Ochs of Kansas.  A 97-year-old grandmother, Nola is a college graduate.  She graduated two years ago, earning not only a degree but a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the oldest person to graduate from college.  Her ultimate dream?  To get a job on a cruise ship as a story teller.  And guess what?  She got the job, took the cruise, told the stories… then decided to go back to college to pursue her Master’s.  A perfect example that even achieving your dreams isn’t the end of the ride.

Feel a thousand miles away from your ultimate dream?  Well, we all know it starts with the first step.  Steve Carrell of “The Office” once held a 3rd shift job as a cashier in a 24-hour convenience store.  Johnny Depp?  Sold pens over the phone.  Ozzy Ozbourne worked in a slaughterhouse. (I can’t help the irony here – I’m just reporting.)  Howard Stern drove an ice cream truck, Carrie Underwood worked in a gas station, Albert Einstein was a simple patent clerk, George Washington was a land surveyor, and he never even went to college!  You get the point – achieving your dreams doesn’t have anything to do with where you are now.  But it has everything to do with the direction you’re facing.

Taking one small step every day is important.  If you want to buy that sheep farm, read books on sheep.  Visit sheep farms on the weekend.  Wear wool on every opportunity.  If you’re hoping to write the Great American Novel, write at least one page a day, and allow yourself to write absolute crap.  If you have to rewrite the whole page the next day, you’re still closer to your dream than if you never started at all.

Obstacles?  Yes, there are always those.  Sometimes we can walk over them and sometimes we have to learn to fly first; sometimes they take a day to overcome and sometimes we have to wait a long time, like Nola Ochs, to see our dreams come to fruition.  As difficult as achieving our dreams can be, as frustrating and heartbreaking and seemingly unobtainable at times, it’s a far, far better thing to strive to reach them than to live without them.

It is rare today to find someone who isn’t struggling with some aspect of health and well-being: stress, overwhelm, low energy, weight fluctuation (mostly upward), health, etc. I am writing this series of brief pieces to offer insights on what it takes to get over and beyond such struggles, changing or even transforming on a small or [...]]]>

- by Margaret Moore

It is rare today to find someone who isn’t struggling with some aspect of health and well-being: stress, overwhelm, low energy, weight fluctuation (mostly upward), health, etc. I am writing this series of brief pieces to offer insights on what it takes to get over and beyond such struggles, changing or even transforming on a small or large scale. I get as much out of writing these pieces as anyone reading them – we all need regular doses of new inspiration and ideas. Fortunately, the knowledge base on how we change is ever growing.

My first piece last month started on motivation and in particular the importance of the inside out approach — finding one’s heartfelt desire for a life improvement that serves as the light in dark moments. The brighter the better. This burning desire helped a schizophrenic woman get out of a psychiatric hospital and onto her feet living independently as a manicurist, enjoying the satisfaction of producing prettily painted finger and toenails. While there is much more to share on motivation, it isn’t wise to do that until we bring into the picture a second and equally important dimension: our confidence in being successful at whatever it is we want to change.

Whether you think you can or think you can’t you’re right – Henry Ford

When we really want to do something, and we also really believe that we can do it, the synergy of motivation and confidence creates an upward spiral that is unstoppable. However, self-doubts (AKA “I can’t do it”) stop us in our tracks. While good intentions abound, we drive with the brakes on when our confidence is low. A famous coach, Dave Buck, once said that what draws a client to a coach is that the coach’s certainty is greater than the client’s doubt. Confidence is often the missing ingredient on the road to change.

So even though I would have loved to win an Olympic medal in cross- country skiing in my 20s and I love the feeling of a strong rhythmic glide through snow, I did not have the requisite physical talent. So my confidence in succeeding was a zero out of 10, taking my motivation to zero too. Most smokers really want to quit smoking but they doubt their ability to break both the physical and psychological addiction, borne out by failed attempts. So instead of keeping the motivational fire lit, they light a cigarette, enjoying the temporary bliss of a mindful moment while feeling badly that they lack the confidence needed to quit for good.

In the medical expert model, health professionals have long focused on providing knowledge and advice. While knowledge is valuable and it can increase both motivation and confidence, it is just a start. One of the reasons that most people regain the weight they lose within two years of dieting is that while they worked diligently to lose weight, they didn’t grow the skills and confidence needed to maintain their lighter weight. Many invest in personal training sessions and learn how to lift weights safely, adding strength and tone, but don’t gain the skills and confidence to work out on their own.

I am coaching a client named Susan who has Stage IV breast cancer, and when we started she had come close to giving up on forging a new life. She first decided to commit to finding and following a new life purpose, tentatively at first. Having had a long career in commercial real estate, reinventing her professional life at age 50 seemed way outside her comfort zone. Susan took some initial steps with an open mind and carefully recruited a supportive social network, attending diligently to keeping her fears at bay. She boldly reached out to a national conference on integrative oncology and soon had created a team and vision to start a nonprofit and raise funds to allow cancer patients to get access to resources to support thriving, just as Susan is modeling. Susan’s motivation outpaced her confidence initially. And then by breaking the journey into small steps that worked well, her confidence caught up within a few months. Even her bone tumors have regressed, enhancing her confidence further. Now Susan is unstoppable.

Whether we’re getting fit, learning how to meditate or cook or developing a new track in life, it’s important to build both confidence and motivation, so like Susan we’re driving to wellness without the brakes on.

Author Bio:  Margaret Moore (Coach Meg) writes for the Huffington Post.  She is a personal coach in health care.

Motivation is a beautiful thing.

Sometimes the easiest things are the most effective.  These 10 tips for motivating your employees may seem overly simple at first glance; perhaps you’ll say, “Of course!  Who doesn’t know that?” But these are the sort of tips that we often forget to put into practice.  Making yourself mindful of [...]]]>

Motivation is a beautiful thing.

Sometimes the easiest things are the most effective.  These 10 tips for motivating your employees may seem overly simple at first glance; perhaps you’ll say, “Of course!  Who doesn’t know that?” But these are the sort of tips that we often forget to put into practice.  Making yourself mindful of them will give you more productive – and happier – employees!

1.  Smile 

2.  Find reason to compliment even the most difficult employees.  Make it sincere, even if it’s just “Hey, dig those shoes.”

3.  Do a favor.  I’m not talking about waxing the secretary’s Prius.  I’m talking the simple stuff:  Buy her a cappuccino; fix that computer glitch she’s been bugging you about; clip a funny cartoon you think she’d like.

4.  Say thanks.

5.  Admit a mistake.

6. Bring in doughnuts.  Or a fruit basket.  (You’d be surprised at how fast a fruit basket will empty out!  It doesn’t have to be frosted to be devoured.)

7.  Listen.

8.  Ask for input.  Nothing makes an employee feel more valued than to have a boss, a supervisor, a manager ask for their opinion or input on something!

9.  Openly recognize talent.

10.  Laugh.

At first it looks simple; but be aware of just one or two of these tasks throughout the rest of today, and you’ll find some of them might be harder to implement than you thought!  That’s alright.  The payoff for everyone is great.  In fact, we could rename this post “10 Simple Tips for Motivating Yourself” and read it again. The list is just as effective.  Nothing is a more powerful self-motivator than motivating others!

A Misplaced Worker is an Unmotivated Worker

What if Shaun White never became a snowboarder?  What if, instead, his parents told him, “Kid, enough with the snowboarding already.  Crack into those books and aim for a respectable job.  That sport’s going nowhere anyway.”  Jump to Shaun’s adulthood:  He sits behind a desk pushing numbers as [...]]]>

What if Shaun White never became a snowboarder?  What if, instead, his parents told him, “Kid, enough with the snowboarding already.  Crack into those books and aim for a respectable job.  That sport’s going nowhere anyway.”  Jump to Shaun’s adulthood:  He sits behind a desk pushing numbers as an accountant.  Think he’d be any good at it?  Even if he performed alright, his heart certainly wouldn’t be in it.  In much the same way, our employees can be seriously underperforming if they are misplaced.  So how do you most effectively go about motivating your employees?  One of the best ways is to make sure their job description best matches their talents.

That’s not to say we tell them to trade in their keyboard for a snowboard, building them a halfpipe in the parking lot.  But if an employee seems less than motivated, even disgruntled, one area to look at is their day-to-day activities.  An employee turning in subpar work may simply be misplaced.  In smaller companies it’s easier to get to know an employee on a one-on-one basis than it is in larger companies, but it’s never impossible to learn the likes and dislikes of one’s workstaff.  Getting to know more about the personal lives of those who make your company operate is a great way to figure out where they might better be placed, or what new responsibilities may be added to their workday that would motivate them.

Take, for instance, Sandy.  A true story, Sandy worked at a factory.  She was young and wasn’t planning on making the factory her lifelong job and the bosses knew that.  She was placed on a machine producing parts, and the work environment was quite repetitive.  Others did very well in that position, but Sandy got squirrelly, wandered around and talked instead of working, and consistently produced bad parts.  Other employees complained that she wasn’t holding up to the task, and it wasn’t making for a very pretty work environment.  She probably would have gotten herself fired, but her supervisor saw it for what it was – Sandy was bored to tears.  She needed movement and mental activity that would change from day to day.  Her supervisor moved her to a different position where she would get what it took to make her a top performer in the company.  True, she did leave a couple of years later, but for the years she worked there she was happy and a top producer.  

As with the case of Sandy, misplaced workers can act out and even disrupt others; but like the image of Shaun White at the accountant’s desk, being misplaced simply means poor performance.  Reevaluating a worker’s job description may give you more than a happy, motivated worker – it may just lead to an Olympic performer who has the potential to take your company to Gold-medal status!