Think Positive - Make Life Better !

Is our glass half-full or half-empty? On those days when nothing in our life seems to be going right, it can be really tough to see the silver lining among all those clouds. However, it's during these times when the ability to see the good in even the worst situations is so important. A positive attitude benefits not only our mental health, but your physical well-being as well.

Helen Keller says, " When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us ". This is very true and most of us are victims of this. To make it clear let me share a simple but good story which I came across reminding us of the choice we have to think- positive or negative.

There was once an old lady who cried all the time. Her elder daughter was married to an umbrella merchant while the younger daughter was the wife of a noodle vendor. On sunny days, she worried, "Oh no! The weather is so nice and sunny. No one is going to buy any umbrellas. What will happen if the shop has to be closed?" These worries made her sad. She just could not help but cry. When it rained, she would cry for the younger daughter. She thought, "Oh no! My younger daughter is married to a noodle vendor. You cannot dry noodles without the sun. Now there will be no noodles to sell. What should we do?" As a result, the old lady lived in sorrow everyday. Whether sunny or rainy, she grieved for one of her daughters. Her neighbors could not console her and jokingly called her "the crying lady."

One day, she met a monk. He was very curious as to why she was always crying. She explained the problem to him. The monk smiled kindly and said, "Sister! You need not worry. I will show you a way to happiness, and you will need to grieve no more."

The crying lady was very excited. She immediately asked the monk to show her what to do. The master replied, "It is very simple. You just need to change your perspective. On sunny days, do not think of your elder daughter not being able to sell umbrellas but the younger daughter being able to dry her noodles. With such good strong sunlight, she must be able to make plenty of noodles and her business must be very good. When it rains, think about the umbrella store of the elder daughter. With the rain, everyone must be buying umbrellas. She will sell a lot of umbrellas and her store will prosper."

The old lady saw the light. She followed the monk’s instruction. After a while, she did not cry anymore; instead, she was smiling everyday. From that day on she was known as "the smiling lady".

The story tells us, we cannot change the things happening around us but we can change the way we look at it.The choice between positive & negative thinking is very much within us.We can focus on the positive side of everything and stop worrying about the negative side of it.

Our minds are an incredibly powerful tool, and as we know, we only use a small portion of it every day. Our thoughts play a significant role in how we view the world, and the positive v/s negative thoughts we carry with us can be the foundation for all sorts of things in our lives, both good and bad.

But, we know no matter what happens and how good our life seems to be going, there are going to be times when it seems like everything is going bad or just not the way that we want it to. In these times, we can choose to either allow ourselves to feel down and out, or we can decide to overcome any of these adversities and learn how to look for the opportunity that is being presented.

How to Think & Stay Positive?

Many people believe that positive thinking takes lots of effort. In the beginning, while we form the new habit, it certainly will take awareness. However, the only way to empower ourselves to live Our Very Excellent Life is to live consciously with an awareness of our thoughts.

It is said that of the 65,000 plus thoughts that flip through our mind each day, 95% of them are the same ones we thought yesterday. Yes, 95%! Why in the world do we do that? The simple answer-most of us live in the past or the future, missing the only time that really counts and really that matters- the present.

Most of us use the energy we need for today, to keep alive memories from the past or misuse our imagination by carrying past pain into the future as slightly altered experiences. The fears that stop us from living our dreams are really expectation of bad experiences in the future. In other words, many of us take our past into the future and remain stuck in life.

With little effort we can find ourselves to be positive thinkers. Positive thinking is actually very simple, here are a few ways we can get started...and have a positive impact on all areas in our life:

• If we find ourselves thinking a negative thought, change it to a positive thought.
• Surround our life with positive people, don't allow negativity into our life.
• Spend our time on activities that bring us happiness.
• Invoke positive memories whenever we can.
• Cherish the simple pleasures in our life.
• Be around people who make us laugh.
• Love ourselves

Don't fool ourselves into thinking that, just because the above ideas are simple they will not work. The opposite is actually true, and we all know what impact positive v/s negative thoughts can have in our life. If we convey a positive attitude towards others we will be surrounded by people who want to be around us and are positive themselves. These relationships will only continue to grow and bring more positive energy into our life. The opposite is true as well, so keep positive thoughts.

Remember thinking positive is only a plat form where the thinking has to translate into positive action which should eventually become positive habits which lead to positive results. But every thing starts with positive thinking!

Have you heard of the old saying "he woke up on the wrong side of the bed?" We have all experienced this before ourselves, for some reason we wake up in a bad mood and our entire day seems to turn out bad. Did you know that we can change this?

Begin each day in a positive manner. Open the drapes to let the sun shine in, put on some of our favorite music, tell ourselves a positive thought or two...whatever it takes to start our positive thinking. We will be amazed at what these simple changes can bring to our life.

Well, just because these ideas are simple...does not mean they are easy. That is probably why everyone is not walking around with a positive attitude, because it takes work, desire, and discipline to live our life in this manner. It is easier being negative! The choice is ours, we have nobody to blame but ourselves, when deciding between positive v/s negative thoughts.

What are your thoughts now- Positive or Negative ?

Shamim

" Attitude Virus " - A Threat to Organizations!

Last Sunday evening I was at this big Super Market chain next to my house well known for Customer Service where I buy groceries regularly. For once, there was no one in line and I walked right up to the first position in the queue. There is a new gal in this Super Market that I try to avoid. I really wonder if she was ever trained before she got placed in the billing counter. Last time when I asked the reason for delay in billing she said she hates working on the computer and wished she didn't have to use it! Welcome to the real world, sister! I found she is extremely slow and the queue in her counter recently have been horrible due to this.

Well, I have no problem with new employees. Sometimes a fresh new face can make the experience tolerable. But not hers!

As I walked up to the counter I glanced over to see one of the "regular" employees who has known me for some time. He had a big smile on his face and said, "How was your week end sir ?" I immediately answered, "It was great, thank you for asking!"

With that I looked at the gal who was handing over the bill to me and after making the payment I said to her, " Thank you and have a nice evening!" To which she replied with a long face, "If I can get out of here early, it will be a better evening" !

Two employees, same shop, two totally different attitudes, and which employee will the customer prefer to go back to? I think it shouldn't be hard to guess. Entrepreneurs may be familiar with this employee symptom which is popularly known as "Attitude Virus"!

The Attitude Virus is everywhere. It's contagious and it can spread in minutes. It infects the employees and kills motivation. Symptoms include rudeness, poor service, lack of motivation, and increased stress. The non-performing and under-performing employees carry this virus and soon it infects the healthy employees which eventually threatens the bottom line and the very existence of the organization itself. Long term effects result in employee turnover, low productivity, customer complaints, poor sales and a drain on profits. One bad attitude, like one bad apple, can infect the entire organization.

Let me give you a check list of the symptoms exhibited by the Attitude Virus infected Employees. Check out whether they, (1) Miss too much work (2) Come in late too often (3) Make too many mistakes (4) Gripe and argues all of the time (5) Upset others to the point of disrupting their work (6) Complain now and then (7) Are a nuisance (8) Violate company policies more than most (9) Talk too much or too little (10) Seem to be in their shell all of the time.

I am sure all the above mentioned symptoms are very common among our employees but we don't act on it most of the time. This is easy to clear up only if we understand about it and if we ask about it. Don´t lose employees because we are sticking our head in the sand. Let's take a deep breath and get to the bottom of it. We will feel better and both we and our employees will benefit. That's a promise!

If your employee exhibits the behavior in Items 1-5, the solution may be termination; if the employee is more like Items 6-10, the solution may be to counsel and change his/her attitude. Attitude is everything when it comes to business. You can be taught all of the skills and procedures to correctly do any job, but I believe you can't be taught to be nice. I think it is a never-ending battle to try to teach people to be nice, that in the long run, will leave you exhausted and in the meantime, will drive away your customers!

Business for every one today is going through a critical phase due to recession and high competition. Creating a positive culture that can attract, motivate and retain customers and employees is the biggest challenge entrepreneurs face today.

The Prevention and the Cure

Many Managers throw their hands in the air and believe that they cannot do anything about these virus infected employees. Not so. The above behaviors are not acceptable and can and should be managed just like any other expectation. I believe teaching Managers to manage and motivate effectively is the prevention and the cure for improving employee retention. Most Managers have the skills to handle day-to-day activities but only the top performers have the talent needed to avoid the things that derail most people. The missing skills that derail Managers are the weak links in an organization that leaves the organization vulnerable to more attacks and employee turnover.

What can an organization do to immunize the workplace and end Attitude Viruses?

1. Diagnosis. Recognize that there is an attitude problem. This requires an honest assessment of the organization at all levels and collaterally to your vendors, suppliers and customers. Acknowledge any underlying causes of the Attitude virus and take responsibility for removing them.

2. Investigation. Select only Managers who have the skills or potential to manage and arm them with the tools and training they need to detect the infected employee before they leech out the morale and motivation from the healthy and positive employees. Effective Managers hold the keys to employee retention and profitability.

3. Treatment. Take responsibility for upgrading the skills of your first line of defense, the front-line employees and managers, who fight the "infection" and "exposures" on a daily basis. Develop and train managers to have the skills to "treat" or quarantine the infected employee and train them back to health. The attitude virus is spreading almost daily and continuous learning is crucial to prevent it.

4. Monitor, monitor, monitor. Taking a diet class and waiting for the pounds to shed off is ridiculous. Taking skills training without reinforcement and feedback and re-testing is equally bad. Identify the skills that differentiate your highly effective managers from the average performers, develop training that is specific and responsive to those specific skills, and provide on-going feedback and post-assessment to monitor progress.

Suppose this training & counseling doesn't work what do we do? To be specific with an example, assume you have an employee whom you probably rely on for crucial work. In other words, you have been forced to live with his bad behavior. Does he realize this? Is the toxic behavior a case of attitude virus syndrome? If so, you could train someone to cover his work. This could be an internal transfer or a new hire. Maybe he'll realize he's replaceable and change his ways. If he doesn't change his ways, at least you will have made progress; you'll no longer be obliged to him.

If you believe he is truly irreplaceable, you could isolate him. Put him in the corner, or in his own office. Schedule meetings without him. Suggest he works from home. Minimize his contact with the rest of the team, and you'll minimize the spread of his toxic attitude virus.

Learning new ways to manage and better ways to perform is no longer a choice but a necessity. A good attitude starts at the top. Work attitudes have changed. Increasing demands on performance and increasing workload have changed employee expectations. This often leads to tension in the workplace. Entrepreneurs must focus on how each employee thinks about doing his or her work and create policies and systems to get all the work done effectively with a minimum amount of stress. Creating a positive climate with a renewed focus on the needs of our employees and customers will differentiate our business in a competitive and demanding market.

Now is the time to attack the Attitude Virus and to immunize your organization. Attitude Virus-free organizations grow and prosper because they select positive workers, quarantine their infected employees and either nurture them back to health, or "delete" them before they infect other workers. A work culture clean and free of the Attitude Virus is rewarded with a healthy bottom line, good sales, high rates of employees & customer retention.

Is your organization contaminated with this deadly virus? Take a closer look. You might not always be able to "see" it but i guess you might be able to "smell" it! If so,don't wait pass the bug spray!

Shamim