Monthly Archives: June 2017
Still in the Stone Age
Over the course of mankind’s development, we have so far never actually created any new thing. We’ve only ever manipulated and rearranged the rough materials we’ve found lying around. Everything ever made, from the caveman’s stone axe to the physicist’s particle accelerator, has all been crafted from rocks, sticks or mud.
Doubt that? Consider …
Take any modern material, such as plastic. It’s made from petroleum, right? So, your polyester-acrylic blend shirt and your Tupperware bowl are made from highly processed mud.
Reasons You Can’t – All Unreal
My grandaddy, who ran a plumbing shop, used to say, “There are lots of reasons you think you can’t, but not one of them is real. Not one.”
Grandaddy may have been a country boy from south Georgia with only a third-grade education, but that never seemed to slow him down. For instance, I recall that in his late fifties he still remembered all the states and their capitols. He could tell you every US president and when he served (as well as interesting little stories about things each one achieved).
New Email Design – Which Color Works Best?
A few days ago I sent out an email testing a new, bright red template. And I asked for feedback on the color about whether anybody liked (or hated) the red design.
Feedback was very sparse, with less than a dozen readers offering their opinions. Of those who did respond, however, there was near-unanimous agreement: red was not bad exactly, but it hit the eye a little too strongly.
Retiring Your Fears
I remember reading somewhere, “Words, said with certainty, can alter our beliefs.”
I really like that. Getting a client to put their own words together with their own actions is a great way to teach them DIY confidence.
About that thing I do, it’s similar to the way a hypnotist will place your pain in a blind spot, except
A Surer Way to Hit Your Goals
About a century and a half ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that people would rather look to others for their motivation. And that was at a time we nostalgically consider America’s “rugged individualist” phase. Wonder what he’d say now.
Human nature being what it is, I’d guess that nothing much has changed since the mid-eighteen-hundreds.
Back then they had a well established apprenticeship system under
Too Little Too Late? Phooie!
Ran across two things today within sixty seconds of each other.
First was the graphic on the left. Now, I like this kind of art … always have. If it’s eye catching and says something meaningful, ironic, funny or constructive, I’ll probably enjoy it. And this one, from Lori Deschene’s tinybuddha.com, said exactly what I wanted to hear this morning.
Some folks assume that their expiration date is hopelessly close and begin to act like they’re in their final days – even though those final days might go on for years longer than expected.
How Coachable Are You?
When coaches get together and trade shop talk, one of their favorite topics is who has the most “interesting” client from hell. Of course, few of them will admit such an openly negative thing publicly. But the truth is, they’ve all had at least one of those clients and usually more than one. In some cases, many more.
If you’re wondering what makes a “bad” client, this is where you find out. And if you’re a coaching client yourself, pay close attention to what I’m going to tell you. It could utterly change the results you’re getting.
So, what makes a “good” client? What characteristics make you a client that a coach just loves to work with?
Coasting Won’t Get Us There
Behind every person who makes a success of something, you’ll find a long, rugged trail of effort and persistence. Somehow the world knows. It can tell who’s paid their dues and who’s just coasted along, putting in the time but not the blood, sweat and grit.
Of course, we sometimes see an exception, a person who rides in on a connection, a coat-tail or a coincidence. But if they didn’t really earn it, their flash across the sky is brief and soon forgotten. Call them what you wish, one-hit-wonders, one-movie duds, or one-sale-burnouts, they don’t know what they did, so it’s a non-repeatable thing.
