Author: cbarney.45

People will work hard for you if they feel you respect and appreciate them. I know, it’s not a profound statement, but I feel that it often gets overlooked in today’s environment.

If you disrespect someone, apologize. Don’t let your ego make a bad situation worse by not apologizing. Just like Dale Carnegie says in How to Win Friends and Influence People, “If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.” This is easy to see for most people, and while some may have a difficult time admitting when they’re wrong, they at least understand that they should apologize.

But what if you’re not disrespectful to anyone? Does that guarantee that you’ll have loyalty from your co-workers or employees? The answer to this question is, no. In addition to being respecting, they also need to feel appreciated.

If someone you’re working with is trying hard and working smart towards achieving their goals, thank them. Take time to celebrate little wins. Do this privately AND publicly, but make sure that it feels genuine. Be specific with your praise and avoid giving out generic commendations. You don’t have to set a schedule (i.e., every Thursday at 9 a.m. I’ll tell John he did well on something). Instead, try to be aware of what they are stressing out about. Have they been working really hard on a project and just completed it? Did they close a particularly difficult sale?

They may just be doing their job, but regular encouragement can reinvigorate them. Charles Schwab once said, “The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.” I’ve found this statement to be true in many areas of life, not just work. Do you ever remember being a kid and having a parent, coach, or teacher say that you did something well? All you wanted to do after that was keep up the good work. You worked harder, because now that’s who you’ve become. You’re the kid who is good at ______.

We all crave to be appreciated – by our significant others, friends, co-workers, and bosses. If you truly want to bring out the best in someone, always treat them with respect and regularly let them know you appreciate them. If they can “feel the love,” they will stay with you for a long, long time.

I recently read a quote from Charles Lamb, an English essayist and poet, which stated, “My motto is: Contented with little, yet wishing for more.” I have not seen a quote that sums up my attitude towards life as closely as that.

I believe that we should all be grateful for what we have, no matter how much that happens to be. If you’re able to read this, that means you have a smart phone, laptop, iPad, or other device. You have an internet connection. And even though, to you, it may seem like you’re struggling financially, according to Investopedia, if you make $32,400 per year you are in the top 1% of income earners in the entire world. Just living in the United States, flawed as it may be, is such a blessing and I would not want to call any other place my home. I love and am grateful for my family, my friends, and the fact that I get to workout and push myself mentally and physically each day. I love my church, even though it has been a while since we’ve been able to gather together. I love going for hikes in nature and exploring. There is much to be grateful for, and with my family’s minimalist lifestyle, we don’t require a lot to be happy. We are content with little.

That being said, I’m hungry. I’m not talking about being physically hungry (although I do have an appetite). I’m talking about being intellectually hungry. I’m always searching for more – looking for opportunities to improve myself daily. I keep busy as I read, write, work on my website, work to become a successful real estate agent (I officially became licensed yesterday!), to be a good landlord to my tenants, to become a notary public (that’s next on my To Do list), the list goes on and on. I cram all of this in while still trying to spend as much quality time with my family and talk with my friends regularly. I wish for more so I can provide the best life possible for my family.

All of this is to say that we need to be grateful for what we have, but still ambitious so that we are still able to progress in life. I don’t want to be doing the same thing over and over, reliving each day as if I’m Phil (played by Bill Murray) in Groundhog Day. No, instead I want to be a dreamer – I want to have hopes and dreams. And then I want to put together an action plan to make those dreams become reality. If I succeed, great. But if I don’t, at least I will know that I gave it a shot. I’ll be content, then I’ll probably be on to the next project, wishing for more…

Getting focused isn’t difficult, staying focused is. You can do anything you put your mind to for an hour, a day, maybe even a week or an entire quarter of the year. But are you able to maintain that focus for the long haul?

Don’t rely on motivation to get you to your goals. Motivation comes and goes. Instead, develop good habits. Become someone who is capable of doing what they don’t want to do for a short period of time in order to get what they want in the future. Be ok with delayed gratification. Stay focused and you will eventually get what you want.

Find a way to outsource (automate, eliminate , or delegate) tasks you hate as quickly as possible. If you don’t like doing something, it will drain you. If you’re repeatedly doing something you hate, it can affect your relationships, your mental health, and your physical health.

When you feel like you’re low on energy, sometimes changing whatever you’re doing will re-energize you more than resting will.

Try to use a different part of your body to re-energize. If you were stuck in a deep thinking activity, go do something physical (even if it’s just going for a walk). If you’ve been laboring all day, sit down and read something that is thought-provoking.

If I do this, oftentimes I feel better than if I took a nap or watched t.v. After switching activities, I feel like I can tackle whatever problem I initially needed a break from. On the contrary, when I sit down or go on social media to procrastinate from doing something, I find myself even more drained when I go back to the task at hand. Instead of re-energizing me like I thought it would, it demotivates me.