What’s the fastest way to sully the new year and dampen your spirits? Make a list of all the things you don’t like about yourself and then write some resolutions designed to ”fix” your faults. Give me a break. We all know dwelling on weaknesses is not upbuilding and does not lead to growth - so why do we persist with this negative tradition? Habit. It has become so habitual that during the month of January we hardly greet a person without making some mention of the deadly “R” word.
I’m not against goals or self improvement. In fact, I’m a big proponent. What I object to is the negative slant associated with resolutions. Here’s my proposal. Let’s approach this from a strengths-based perspective and see if we get better results.
Taking a strengths-based approach
Take that same piece of paper – you know, the one where you were going to record your faults. Shake your head a few times to rid yourself of thoughts of shortcomings. Then write down 3 strengths you possess. If you haven’t tried this approach before it may take you a few minutes. If it’s really hard to do, ask someone you trust to help you. Here are some examples of natural talents or strengths:
- Problem solving
- Organizing
- Team leadership
- Writing
- Ideation
- Inspiring others
Once you have 3 strengths written down, set a goal for each one. This will stretch your performance by leveraging your talent. In other words, you’re throwing your energy at the areas that will net you the biggest results.
Happy New Year to all!
From infancy, humans understand the direct connection between communication and survival. Before we learn our first word, we perfect the art of getting our physical needs met through whatever vocal abilities we can muster. Later, curiosity about our environment and a strong desire to be understood drive us to master language skills.
It’s not enough to create a great product or deliver top notch service. Brands today need to cultivate a strong sense of community. This means listening and interacting in real-time. Web 1.0 is dead. Those were the days when you could put text and graphics out on the internet and leave them there, secure in the knowledge that you had a website working for you. Web 2.0 is a two-way conversation. Clients and prospects are talking out loud through social media. It’s the new normal.
How do you put more progress in your week without adding additional hours? Future pace your time.
Web sites attract traffic by featuring and repeating key words – not unlike the way we humans attract or repel others with our speech.
