Don't Let Yourself Go!

Have you read a book or participated in a physical activity lately? I had no idea how soft I was getting mentally and physically. Stop and Look at yourself, you see what I'm talking about, but do not want to believe what you see. I am right on point concerning this matter for most of us, think about it and be honest with yourself. I want you to stop here and take a minute to assess you mental and physical state on a scale of 1 to 10. Times up, anything less than an honest 5, you need to make a mental note to yourself as I have done. My mental note was simply to remind myself, as I get older do not stop challenging the mind and keep the body physically active. For those of you who are physically and mentally fit, you may opt out at this point or possibly learn something, even feel free to move on to another article or just stick around.

What I mean by soft is the lack of mental or physical endurance I used to have, is just not there. I'm no talking about running a 5K race or studying for your CPA Exam, just an improvement in the frequency of engagement in a mental and physically challenging activity. This will require a few basic preparation steps because you are the only one that can change you current behavior that allowed the softness to prevail.

You have already started by simply getting this far in the article, next step is to breakdown your day and select times for simple mental and physical activity. I started on the mental part first by creating a brainstormed list of subject matter I wanted to read about or research. The brainstorm list for mental activity was all over the place and included improving my Internet business skills, professional education, learn a new language, read mystery and science fiction books visit self improvement websites and internet forums. My commitment was to read for at least 15 minutes each day on one of the chosen items on my list. I found at the beginning I read books of interest such as Birds of Prey by Wilbur Smith, Sahara by Clive Cussler. After a while 15 minutes was nothing, and I actually found my vocabulary was growing. Another part of the reading effort was to write down words I did not understand or know the meaning of. I kept these in a notebook that I regularly refer to and make myself find out the definition. Usually I have the word, and book it was from referenced, not always for some people this may be a little much. Here is my latest word: Turgid . I have been in the mental activity groove regularly for 5 months now and can definitely tell a difference in my mental sharpness and attention span, not to mention I am actually learning new words and using them.

Onto physical activity…this will be up to you to get out of the chair, off the couch and computer. Get outside and do something besides trim and mow the lawn. You know your physical limitations and I do not want to attempt to promote something beyond your capabilities. Just enjoy some level of physical activity engagement. There are chair aerobics, go for a walk, ride a bike, go visit a neighbor, play basketball with the kids or even join the local health club. Again brainstorm and create a list of physical activities you can perform, start slow, check with your doctor and begin. I started last week by committing to a local health club, 3 times a week to do treadmill and machine resistance work. One week in and I'm on my third trip to the gym. Guess what, I'm actually looking forward to going, soon you will also.

Have You Experienced The “Chicken Little” Syndrome?

Everyday in business and or our personal lives we encounter situations that at first appear to be catastrophic. Appear. After a little investigation we often find things are not as bad as they first appeared. How do you handle these situations? Do the people involved go running around as in the story we all know; Chicken Little? I refer to this crazy reaction as this as the *Chicken Little Syndrome*.

I have found that if you address the problem in eight (8) phases each and every time you can counter these situations very efficiently and effectively.

The 8 phases are:

Phase 1. Keep the emotions in check. Emotional control gives you the edge in these types of situations because it allows you to think clear and make rational decisions.

Phase 2. Define the real problem. Ask the people involved what the real problem is, you need to get this defined clearly before any other actins are taken or you are wasting your time as well as others.

Phase 3. Double check to verify the problem. Always double check the facts, data measurements, original plans or whatever triggered the issue in the first place. This is also a critical step because you do not want to be chasing or reacting to non problems. In most cases, seek out the person who discovered the problem and review with them what the facts are. Sometimes the problem is only communication or a misunderstanding. If the facts warrant, you may be able to resolve the situation at this phase.

Phase 4. Understand the Magnitude of the problem. After you have in fact verified there is a problem, now you must understand the impact. What ramifications will this problem cause to support groups, customers or family members? Will it shut down the manufacturing process, is safety involved and so on.

Phase 5. Containment. Try and understand if this affects a single item or multiple items in work of that may have been shipped outside your facility. If the problem is product related you must go to both sides of the supply chain to determine the effect on previously produced product or not. Try to establish boundaries for the problem, have you heard of something called a *Recall*?

Phase 6. Investigate and define root cause. Determine the most efficient way to determine root cause, depending on the problem this phase can take many different paths and required actions.

Phase 7. Correction. Simple, find it fix it. Keep in mind the economics involved when evaluating any correction of a problem.

Phase 8. Closure. Communicate to all affected parties is a clear and concise manner. More often in business, the management team wants to know the problem, what it took to fix it, are there additional resources or costs involved. Beyond that, spare the details unless you requested to provide them to someone.

One of the key threads throughout this whose process is your ability to communicate with affected personnel. As you can tell this takes an organized approach, but still relies on your leadership ability to manage the process and closure of each phase. One suggestion is to utilize this approach on a smaller problem just to see how it works for you and gain some experience to improve your skill set. You will be successful, try it.

What?

How aggravating is it when you are speaking to someone and the first word out of their mouth is *What?*. My first reaction is thinking the person was not even listening to anything I was talking about or even paying attention to me. Frustrating, oh my yes and also a waste of time for you and anyone else involved.

If you are as I am, a person that values their time, there are three tips that I can give you to prevent this type of encounter from ever happening.

Tip # 1. When you first engage a person, start out with an introduction; initiate a hand shake or some other simple greeting that makes the person engage you. What this 1st contact engagement establishes is eye contact and gives you a sense of whether this person is focused on you or potentially distracted by someone or something else.

Note: If the person is not interested, break off and move on. If you need to engage this person, do it at another time and try again.

Tip # 2 Tell the person what the subject is you are going to speak to them about. Ask them if they understand, and if the response is positive press on and keep eye contact.
You can tell if the person is maintaining eye contact that you’re the focus of attention, just be cautious of not making the eye contact an uncomfortable situation for them. Some people are not real comfortable in prolonged eye contact.

Tip # 3 Depending on the situation and person, when the response is *What?*, you can ask them a question to establish and understand why they responded in this manner. Often when speaking to someone, your tone or clarity may be the reason and it is mush better to understand this before each of you get into a *What* back and forth conversation. At times people can not hear certain tones or thy may be nearing challenged, the better you understand the person the easier it will be to continue the conversation and it also makes the person fell as if you are paying attention to them.

Remember conversation is a two way street, you must take charge and establish the other persons listening level. On the same hand, check yourself to make sure you are not the *What* person! You are in charge of making your own successful way in this world, embrace it.