How to Build a Team on the Side of a Road

My daughter’s soccer coach treated the girls to slurpees after their first game of the season. They loved the slurpees, but that was not the best part of the after-game celebration for them.

For the girls, the celebration happened at the side of the road, among screams and shouts for excitement.

What happened?

With their slurpees, the girls sat on a small grassy hill next to the busy broad intersection. Cars drove by, but so did trucks, delivery vans and friends’ parents. Happy and having fun together after their first game, the girls gestured by pulling truck horns in the air, encouraging all drivers to honk back at them. They were hard to miss, all decked out in electric yellow team colors, screaming and laughing.

Practically every vehicle that drove by honked. The girls loved it.

But better than that, the team felt powerful. They felt empowered. The drivers gave them control by responding to their simple gesture. That control could have only been created because of teamwork, so spontaneous and so authentic.

Of course their coach treated them to slurpees to build the team. She knew what she was doing.

The sugar kick was a happy side effect that was hardly noticed … compared to the joy of having fun, together as a team, at the side of a road.

Getting Clear In 2012

Wise advice by my dear friend Carol...

Getting Clear In 2012 By Carol Lawrence

Do you write new years resolutions?
Do they usually work out well for you?
Do you commit yourself to your resolutions?


I can remember being a little kid thinking 2012 is so far away. I really thought back then we would all be driving hover crafts by now and that I would have grown up to be a "Solid Gold" dancer. (Past popular TV show).


Dreams change as we change with each passing breath. Like many of you I have written down my new years resolutions year after year. Some have been accomplished some have not. I'm pretty good at learning something new or completing a goal once I set my mind to it.


As I lay on my couch typing this blog post on my iPad and nursing a cold, I have been reflecting back on the past year. Many changes have taken place in my life and those around me. I'm grateful for
all of them.


This year I'm looking at my new years resolutions a little differently.

An Authentic Opinion Comes from a Place of Love

Love embraces and comforts. Judgement constricts and condemns.

People grow up forming opinions of right and wrong in the world. When someone forms an opinion without understanding what they believe, the opinion can turn into a judgement. This limits their capacity be open and loving and restricts their ability to receive love too, because it blocks the way to connect more fully with others.

Be conscious of your opinions and understand why you have them. Ensure they come from an authentic place.

For example, Barbara, 49 and a mother to two teenage girls, moved to a beautiful suburban street with well kept lawns except for one property. She and her next-door neighbors scorned the person who lived among the dandelions and bare-patched lawn. One day she observed an ambulance in their driveway. When she walked over, curious about the emergency, a young lady came out.

“Is everything ok?” Barbara asked.

“It will be. My mother has been living here for years and as she gets older she can’t care for herself so easily. Unfortunately I live out of town and don’t visit as often as I’d like. Once the doctors make sure she’s ok, I’ll move her to a residential home closer to my house. In the meantime, my brother will come over and tidy up her place. Her biggest heartache is she can’t garden anymore.”

Barbara felt awful. Not only had she not bothered to check on her neighbor, but she had judged her based on the state of her lawn.

By passing judgement, we limit the potential to express ourselves completely and we fail to perceive the full expression of others. We also miss out on opportunities to meet wonderful people.

Barbara offered to help the neighbor’s son do some weeding to clean up the front yard and, fortunately, forgave herself for her judgment. She resolved to know more in the future before forming a strong opinion.

The next time you feel yourself forming an opinion, ask yourself which root belief it is tied to. Ensure it comes from an authentic place within and serves to increase love in the world.

Visualizing Success: The Movie

I'm a big fan of visualizing success. When that picture is clear in my mind, I know exactly what I have to do to go after it. I'm still working on the timeline part (for example, I know my current vision requires alot of focused work, but sometimes I just want to visit with friends, play hide 'n' seek with our children, or catch up on Facebook). However, I know what I want.


To help to visualize the end goal clearly, I use a vision board or mind map, until last week.

Kick start Your Creativity

I’m in love with a new restaurant, and I haven’t eaten there yet. The Zinburger has a great online menu which includes their signature item: burger with zinfandel braised onions and manchego cheese. Red zinfandel and manchego are two of my favorites. And who thought to add them to an otherwise ordinary burger?

Zinburger did it, and in doing so took a common idea (the burger) and created something unique.

With millions of burger stops in the US, few of us think about the inspiration needed to create a successful new burger enterprise. Many of us would love to experience the thrill of that inspiration.

Seth Godin, author of Tribes and a dozen other books, recently created a publishing company backed by Amazon. He is trying a new out-of-the-box idea, launching the ebook, audio book and hard copy at the same time. Publishing has been done before, but here Seth created new twists.

How to Use Volunteering to Create Employment Opportunities

Volunteering is an opportunity to experience new skills with new people. During a period of joblessness, it may also be your link back to employment. Use volunteer work to connect you to your next job opportunity.

What are the benefits of volunteer work to create your future job?

1. Current work experience

What does the work experience section of your resume tell your future employer? If you are out of work, there may be a glaring gap. Volunteer work is a valid and respectable way to fill the break in your chronological resume. Whether your unemployment length is 2 months or 2 years, offering your talents to a non-profit organization keeps your experience up to date.

Volunteering qualifies as work experience, though you’ll want to be careful how you describe this position. Employers know the number of people out of work, but still expect to be told where you earned your paychecks. Some volunteer positions don’t need explanation, such as, “Offer extensive organizational capacity on Board of Directors.” To clarify a less obvious volunteer position, try: “Event planning and fundraising, volunteering up to 40 hours a week.” This moves “volunteer” out of the title and into the description.

Employers want to see motivation present on your resume, and your volunteer work will provide proof.

2. Enhance your skills

When you volunteer for a new organization, you give them the benefit of your unique talents and create an opportunity to enhance your profile. You may be an excellent organizational manager. To keep your experience current, help to organize an upcoming event, offer to streamline the process with creative ideas, and be a valuable support for the event directors. Learn about event planning and fundraising, as well as meet other volunteers with valuable insight or even employer connections.

If your talent is working in construction, you can offer to work in a place like Habitat for Humanity. If accounting is your focus, non-profits and community organizations always need treasurers and accounting experts. In each situation you will discover a valuable exchange of knowledge.

3. Create new contacts

As you become involved in your volunteer work, you will meet new people. Your enthusiasm to contribute in a meaningful way will rub off on people you meet, who again may be contacts for future paid work.

Be open to other volunteers about your situation. Don’t say, “I’m just volunteering until I find a job.” This devalues the work both you and others do for the organization. Say, “I’m not currently working, and want to use this opportunity to bring my talents to a new organization. Perhaps I’ll learn something new, and I may discover paid work along the way. I hope to continue this volunteer work once I begin a new job.” Other volunteers will be more likely to offer you job leads if they know (1) You are looking, and (2) You want to continue volunteering when the new job starts.

4. Increase your current life satisfaction

You may volunteer to fill the gap in your resume, but if you find an organization you feel passionate about, and a position you feel confident about, you may discover personal satisfaction spilling over into your life. With purpose in your routine, your attitude will brighten. And that attitude can help you get a job.

Stay busy volunteering during unemployment and you could discover a renewed sense of purpose, a full resume, and a link into a job.

Leigh Harris has been a career and personal development coach for 15 years, 5 years in nonprofit organizations. In her spare time she volunteers, with satisfaction, for two organizations. Visit her her website http://www.leigh-harris.com/
 
This was originally posted on http://nejs.org/

How to Know You will Achieve Your Goals

What is your purpose?

Do you absolutely, without any doubt, believe you will accomplish your purpose? Neither do I, except in one case: I know I will publish my book.

In this case, I get to cheat a little, if I want to. For my purpose, I have a safety net: Self publish. This isn't my goal, but perhaps having a backup is just enough for me to build my confidence into pure conviction.

With a backup plan, you can let go of your fear and focus on your dream.

However, for most goals, having a backup plan isn't enough. Want to start your own business? You can't accomplish your goal if you give the idea to someone else to start. Do you want to become a fundraising executive? It isn't the same if you settle for door to door sales (though this may be your first step). The backup is only useful if you continue to focus on your purpose.

So, how do I know I will publish my book? I know because I have commitment. Also, I continue to learn, write and take advice. Beyond these steps, there is one big one. I step over hurdles, without letting them snag me and pull me down. And this is often the difference between success and the backup plan.

It is like being a millionaire. We all want to be a millionaire, but we don't all KNOW we can. There are too many memories of defeat (agreeing to a joint venture that didn't live up to its expectations), lessons gone wrong (investing in a market that subsequently tanks), and poor choices (accepting the first salary offer without knowing there was room for negotiation). Unfortunately, we keep the loss, bad lessons and poor decisions in the back of our mind while we attempt to create a millionaire life.

Those memories which we keep inside only serve to drag us down. Those memories are the sludge that keep us from fulfilling our vision, our purpose.

This is the true law of attraction. We attract what we believe in our unconscious. In order to attract what our passion and purpose is, we must build walkways across the sludge. We must pull our feet out of it.

Feel Your Purpose, with Conviction

Let go of bad behaviors, memories, and whatever else may keep you down. Embrace the success you want until you KNOW it is a pure unfiltered force for the law of attraction. When you KNOW, circumstances come up which may have derailed you in the past. Now they are fleeting moments you easily let go while you fulfill your purpose.

Laura Day, in her book The Circle, calls this your New Reality. It is a powerful process, and includes the ups and downs of real success. Knowing what your New Reality is, understanding your purpose intimately, will help to guide you to succeed.

What is your purpose?

What blocks your path?

How will you move forward anyways, and with conviction?