Eagles and Turkeys Don’t Flock Together.

“You can’t soar with the eagles if you’re spending all your time with the turkeys”

It’s been written that if I were to examine the lives of 5 of your closest friends I could probably describe your life pretty accurately. People tend to fellowship with those that have a very similar lifestyle. They shop at the same type of stores, their income brackets are usually very close, they have similar hobbies and they even tend to eat at the same kind of restaurants. While in and of itself this is not bad, it does tend to pose a problem for those wanting to separate themselves from the rest of the pack and move upward. Even though friends and co-workers can do a pretty good job of keeping us where we are at they do very little in the way of assisting us up the ladder.

Become Success Minded!

Employers don’t like whiners, gossipers or complainers. None of those traits bring improvement to a bad situation and as a matter of fact, they cost companies money in lost productivity. The only thing that corrects problems or changes poor performance are solutions. That is where your mind needs to be.

If you are going to simplify your life you need to make sure you spend more time focusing on positive productive thoughts than entertaining negative destructive ones.

If you come across something that isn’t working or is causing a problem, instead of just bringing a complaint to your employer, try bringing with it a few ideas that will solve the problem. Employers are looking for people that think for themselves; the kind of person that sees a problem and corrects it immediately whether they caused it or not. Comments like “It’s not my job”, or “I didn’t do it” are not what employers want to hear. They look for successful results and the more problems you can solve, the more successful YOU will become in the process.

Simplified Success in Your Relationship

People do not “Fall” in love.
We can fall into holes and we can fall into a pile of dog poop, but we cannot fall in love. Love is something that we give and receive; it is not just laying in the middle of the sidewalk waiting for its next victim and despite popular opinion; there is no angel waiting to shoot you in the butt with some love coated arrow.

People do not “Fall” out of love.
Because you cannot fall in love, you also cannot fall out of love. It is not like a window that you can lose your balance and fall from. Love is something you do with an emphasis on do.

When I hear people say that they don’t love someone anymore I ask them; “Why not?” They usually answer by telling me all the things their partner doesn’t do for them. I hear things like; “They don’t pay attention to me anymore, they don’t talk to me, they never come home” or they tell me all the wrong or bad things they do; “They yell, they smell, they are lazy, they cheat, they never….”
I let them go on for a few seconds, raise my hand and say; “No no no, I didn’t ask you to tell me about them not loving you, I want you to tell me why you are not loving them? At this point they usually get that “Deer in the Headlight” look and say, “I was telling you why I don’t love them.”

Simplifying Success on the Job

I have read a few statistics that say the average worker in America is only productive for 4 hours out of the typical 8 hour day. At first I denied the validity of those figures; that is until I did some investigating myself. It seems that the other 4 hours is spent being on hold, in non-productive meetings, waiting for someone, daydreaming, in non-work related conversation, reading non-work related magazines, surfing the internet for non-work related information and sending and reading personal email.

If you want to stop staying late or taking work home and put yourself in a position for advancement and/or a raise, you must make sure you are as productive as possible at work.

Love Life, Not Stuff!

People are in love with stuff. They love shopping, buying things and collecting things; whether they need them or not. Far too many people have become obsessed with having more, bigger and better things and this obsession with stuff has become unhealthy.

When we have a void in our lives, we buy things. When we are depressed, we buy things. When we have problems, we buy things. When we want to show someone we love them, we buy things. When we want to impress someone, we buy things. And these things are becoming more and more expensive, bigger, shinier and in many cases more wasteful.

Effective Communication Tips

1. It’s not about you! Whenever you communicate, the one on the receiving end is always more important that the one on the sending. Think of your audience first; I mean before you speak, hit that send button, post that blog or mail that letter. Ask yourself: What do I want them to do after they receive this? How do I want them to feel when they read or hear what I have to say? What kind of an impact will this have on our relationships after they receive it? By putting your mind on the receivers end and thinking about your desired outcome, you will be more apt to work your content toward that outcome.

Learn how to say “No”

If you want to become as productive as possible and become a master at managing your tasks you must also become a master at saying no.

Here are 4 simple steps that will help you say no without sounding offensive.

First Steps to a Simplified Life

After reading a few comments on my quest to stop the busyness and begin to live a more enjoyable simplified life I find that I need to expand my definition of what a simplified, less busy life is to me and exactly what I will be quitting.

A simplified life is where I identify what is most important to me and then do my best to make sure I spend the majority of my time and money achieving and maintaining those things.
Getting rid of the busyness is identifying and eliminating (or quitting) as many of the tasks and purchases I make that will bring stress or distance between me and the items I deem most important.