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 Having the right tools for the job is important. We’ve all found ourselves with a box before us, taped up tighter than Fort Knox, and we have nothing sharper than a house key in our pocket. Well, General Motivation Company is known for having the right tools. That’s why we’re giving away the handy set pictured to the left. Our multitool and folding utility knife set have beautiful hardwood handles. The multitool contains needle nose pliers, screw driver, bottle opener, even a powerful LED flashlight and a nylon carrying case ($60 retail). Both items will be personalized with the winner’s name and logo. All those handy features mean you won’t be without the right tools again.
If you’re a business owner, or if you work in human resources or public relations, then you know perhaps more than anyone the importance of having the right tool for the job. Whether you’ve got a service award program that needs a serious makeover, or if you’re searching for just the right promotional items to get your name out there, you could think of us at General Motivation as your multitool. We have an endless selection of items, and if you think of something we don’t have, we’ll find it for you.
Want to enter to win our Wood Handled Multitool and Knife Set? Just follow the simple steps below. If you just can’t wait to win, give us a call at 1-888/664-6449. We’ve got the tools to help you out.
Multiple Options for Multiple Entries:
1.) Leave us a comment telling us your most indispensable tool at work – or the one you wish you had! (***You may enter once a day, but please list a new item you like each time.) Remember, leave an interesting comment. If we cannot contact the winner, you might be chosen instead based on your comment.
2.) Blog about, Twitter, Subscribe and/or Become a Fan on Facebook! Get an extra entry for each of these activities. This time just leave a separate comment for each (only one time for each extra activity completed), giving me a link to your blog post, your Twitter name, and/or a note saying you’re an FB Fan and/or subscriber. SUBSCRIBE HERE!
(Psst! Our Twitter name is hrhelper.)
You have until midnight EST on Friday, July 9, 2010, to enter. Winners are randomly selected.
 - 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.
 Memorial Day is this Monday, and that means one thing: Picnic season has begun! No doubt you’ve got some hand in planning the company picnic, and like most company picnics, there will be prizes. A fun part of the event for everyone, but of course that means picking items that will grab everyone’s attention. Here are a few suggestions that are not only great as company picnic door prize ideas, but also for your service awards programs.
The Director’s Chair: Put your employee in the director’s seat with this folding chair. It includes a built-in folding side table for drinks etc., and side storage pockets for incidentals such as sunblock, sunglasses, and snacks. Lightweight aluminum with reinforced seat.
Chill and Grill Outdoor Kit – This is a great one for the family on the go. Vacationers will enjoy the opportunity to stop at roadside parks and cook up a picnic as they travel. This portable grill comes in a container that also includes a 15-can capacity insulated cooler. It also comes with grill tongs and a shoulder strap.
Pop-Up Leaf Sunshade – Brilliant and unique, the leaf sunshade (pictured below) folds up easily and comes with a carrying bag with shoulder strap. For anyone who’s ever had a difficult time finding their umbrella after a swim at the beach, this one will stand out from the crowd. Surprisingly affordable, and great for the service award as well.
 To keep that company picnic hopping, offer fun and practical door prizes such as these. (Contact us for info on these and other ideas.) Adding your company name and logo to the prizes will help send your guests home with some fantastic memories of good food, great times, and an enjoyable company to work for. Happy picnicking!
 Pens are possibly the most popular promotional handout item. They’re inexpensive, they’re useful, and they seem to stick around. Let’s try a little experiment. Stop a moment and look at that mug right next to your computer. No, not the one with the last dregs of this morning’s coffee. The other one – the one loaded with pens. Now take them out of the mug and peruse the business names on them. You probably don’t even know how they came into your possession, but there they are. Perhaps Ron’s Roofing & Siding is your favorite; no, you’re not into shingles, but it’s purple and you always liked a nice rollerball. Then there’s Betty’s Donut House, and while you do frequent the place, you didn’t even get the pen there. It was probably nabbed from a bank teller who swiped it from the business owner making a deposit who found it at the doctor’s office… you get the point. Pens get around, and although you may not run to your mug full when it’s time to call a roofer, no doubt when you flip through the Yellow Pages and spot Ron’s Roofing and Siding, somewhere deep within you’ll feel a warm fuzzy due to that purple ballpoint you use daily. Hence another reason the pen may just be mightier than the sword. Or the billboard.
So what are your options? So glad you asked. Whether the pen is cheap or expensive, they have great staying power. But of course you don’t want to hand out fancy Cross pens like they’re candy at a parade. More than likely that would remain something special for your incentive program. Here are a few suggestions for less expensive handouts:
The Character Pen: These little guys are kinda quirky, and we like their ability to stick with a theme. This cow pen, pictured top left, is a great handout for the dairy industry, for instance. It’s got lots of room for your company name and logo, along with contact info. The barrel is metal and is laser engraved. The pen cannot be milked, but it will write for a long time.
The Banker’s Pen: This one is more serious, as you can see. Since not everyone wants their pent to be smiling at them as they write (see cow), you may opt for this banker’s model. It’s inexpensive, has a metal barrel, and comes in red or blue. It’s also lasered, and the engraving comes through in a nice gold. A nice pleasant weight, it really does look and feel much pricier than it is.
 The Natural Wood Pen: A wood barrel adds some warmth and a nice natural look that’s pretty popular. This particular one is quite reasonably priced, and is great for having a theme or simply something unique that’s extra hard to part with. We think this one would be great for businesses involved in construction, interior design, anything focusing on nature or arts, and about a million other possibilities.
The pen is a pretty fun item to choose to represent your business. Endless possibilities combined with the knowledge that your brand will be in someone’s mug next to their computer make the pen the long standing first choice for promoting your company.
If you like any of the promotional pen options you see here, please don’t hesitate to call us to chat. We’d love to help you find anything from a flamingo pen to that fancy Cross pen for your incentive programs. You can contact us at 1-888/664-6449 or by using our Contact Form page.
 We’ve all worked with that person. He or she seems utterly impossible. They’re loud and offensive, they destroy office relationships, they’re just plain mean. Like the bully on the playground, no one wants to deal with them; but you’re in HR and you have to. There is a way to deal with the difficult employee or coworker. Learning how to work with someone you don’t like may not sound like much fun, but once you’ve done it successfully the first time, you may find yourself looking forward to finding more hidden “gems” in difficult people.
Let me tell you a story. When I was young and naive, I worked in a factory. One of my coworkers was a real tough cookie. She swore like a sailor, lost her cool at every opportunity, made the temps cry (and sometimes the management), and - oh, her music! All day her music of choice was loud snarly stuff about suicide, kicking puppies and other unmentionable stuff. I couldn’t figure out how she still even worked there. Being the inexperienced young person I was, she found in me a prime target. I swear she chose her most offensive language and music for the times we had to work together. When I’d just about had enough, a thought occurred to me: Maybe I could find something in her I actually liked. The idea sounded ridiculous. Like something out of a childhood fable and just about as unlikely as a cow jumping over the moon. But what did I have to lose?
At first I started noticing small things. She had really cool hair. Okay, that was likable – sort of. When she did laugh and it was genuine, it filled a room and was infectious. When the jokes were somewhat clean, they were really funny. I also discovered she knew her job very well, and when I got up enough courage to ask for her help or opinion, she would stop everything to assist me.
A funny thing began to happen–as I found small things to like, I actually began to like her. And she started to like me too. We even found a few small but surprising things in common. After some time, I noticed the music got turned down when I was around and her language was tamed. We finally began having real conversations. And then one day she came to me when no one was around and started telling me about something in her personal life that was causing her emotional pain. I let her talk. She even cried, and I realized that this tough woman was someone who had gone through a lot in her life.
We never talked about that conversation again, but we found a true respect for one another. She still made the temps cry and she was just as crude as ever most of the time, but I learned something valuable about people: There really is something to like in the vast majority of people.
Maybe the concept seems simple, but oftentimes those are the things that work. When you have to figure out how to work with someone you genuinely don’t like, and when you manage to turn the relationship around, something amazing happens – you begin to find likable things in just about everyone. That not only makes the world seem a better place, it transforms your job into the perfect opportunity to appreciate the differences in people.
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