Sunday at church before the preacher started his sermon, he made some announcements and one of them was a 99th birthday celebration of one of the members. He asked the man to stand up and the man did. When the man seated back down, the preacher recalled a short conversation he had with the birthday celebrant. He asked him if he ever had any negative days in his life. The celebrant said “I do not have time to be negative.” What a great outlook, is it not? I am pretty sure he did not say that because of his age, although it does make sense if you think about it. I think he lived that long because he had that outlook all along. Most of the corporate training programs I facilitate greatly deals with attitude shift. Whether it is about customer service or team building or even leadership and management programs, it will almost always involve an attitude shift. You may also know it as a paradigm shift since changing your attitude depends largely on changing your current outlook in a situation. Whenever I create and design training programs that deals with attitude shifts, I always ask the same question as any training professional asks. “Can you really teach an attitude?” My answer would always be, you can guide them the to the ideal attitude you want yo convey however, the changes will happen if the attendees are open to it and willing to learn to accept the change. If they do not, then you certainly will not expect any attitude shift to ever happen once the are done with the training. There are no guarantees because the results depends solely on the person. Openness and willingness. These are the two keys in attitude shifts. You do not have to be a 99 year old birthday celebrant to say “I do not have time to be negative” in life. Why not start now – at whatever age and stage you are in your life. Have that outlook that being negative is a waste of your time. When you think about it – it is, anyway! So start now. Shove the negativity out of the way and move forward with positivity in mind every day – starting this minute.

“The relationship between time and you is always one of master and slave. List making - it is your anchor, your harbor in the storm of life. Start each morning with your wish for the day, and then move right on in into your daily goal list. Remember to keep them in behavorial terms and be specific. Why? Because a specific list is a happy list. And don't forget it's chaos out there. We conquer that by taking control, setting priorities. Life cannot be based on whim. Those who fail to control whim are destined to be controlled by it.”
Frank Allen From the movie The Chaos Theory

Do you prepare a To-Do list? Daily? Weekly or Monthly? Yearly even? Do you finish all that is on the list? How do you come up with your list? Does your list follow a certain pattern? Is it a routine for you? Is it specific? Is it a happy list? Or maybe I should ask “Are you happy with your list?” I remember learning about making a to-do list when I was in 4th grade. We had these notebooks where the 2nd page would usually have this Time Schedule page. We were taught to write down what subjects we hour every hour including the am and pm breaks and lunch time which you write down break or lunch. Beyond the school hours, we were taught to write down which of our subjects we had homeworks and what time to schedule once we get home. On weekends, I had to write down what was up like if I had to do weekend homework or piano or ballet lessons and church. I remember our teachers would look and check them when they collect our notebooks to check if we did our designated homeworks. So I guess you could say that I learned making to-do lists at a young age. Of course as we grow older those lists would be less basic and have grown to more specific ones most especially our to-do lists at work. In my line of work as a training and development professional/consultant/manager, my lists are endless. I am sure yours are too. If you are handling people, you have assessments and performance evaluations to deal with, even job descriptions and responsibilities, productivity reports and added to that are incidents or grievance handling reports, promotion, termination papers. Do not forget your every day responsibilities of handling your department issues and concerns. Yes, to-do lists are never ending. You have to admit, though that a sense of happiness comes over you when you start writing down what you need to do because as Frank Allen said that “chaos is out there and we conquer that by taking control, setting priorities.“ We do need lists to go by our day and to never forget what we needs to be done and dealt with. Otherwise we forget and whatever it is we wanted to do remains undone or unfinished. When you check off that item on your checklist, does it not feel like you have accomplished something great even if it was just a simple task? A to-do list gives you a path to take that day and lets you know you cannot stray away from it. There is that inner voice that tells you “Yes, you need to deal with this today. You cannot put it off any longer.” Would you consider yourself uptight or obsessed if you have a to-do list? I do not think so. Having one just helps you deal with thing for the day and helps you focus on what needs to be done. Use your time efficiently and wisely because we all know time flies fast. Being organized is not a bad thing, you know. So do not freak out if you find yourself making a to-do list one of these days (if you are not the type) and just go with it. You might even discover that it helps you get things done faster because you know what to do and not waste time wondering what it was you needed to do. Grab a paper, grab a pen and start writing. You are not alone.

Have you seen the movie The King's Speech? One thing that I admire and like about the movie is the lead character's struggle to overcome his speech impediment and his perseverance in moving forward to deal with his impediment. At first he had gone through trying out everything – even though it seemed ridiculous and pointless, he was willing to try it. Then he decided to just give up, assuming that whatever he did will not work anyway so better just leave things as be. After hearing himself speak articulately via recording, he decided to go back to the speech instructor and give him a try. Yet, despite the hard work he had been putting himself through, every time he has to make a speech, he remains afraid to speak. Like every one of us, he had gone through the stages one goes through when they want to overcome an impediment or fear. The first stage of course is admitting to yourself that impediment or fear you have. Once you do, the second stage comes in. You then go about trying to find a way to overcome them. Try different cures for what ails you so to speak. Third stage is during these times when you feel nothing seems to work for you, you finally go to that “I give up” phase. For some reason, you have this inkling of wanting to try it again. I guess you could say it is that “Why not?What have I got to lose?” or “What harm can it do if I try again?” attitude. This becomes the fourth stage, many of us do find ourselves at times. Whether you got a “sign” from somewhere that you have been waiting for or you come across a certain revelation – whatever the reason is – you just have this surge of adrenalin that makes you feel invincible to give it another shot. So you do. This time you find yourself working harder, with more gusto in your efforts, pushing yourself to the limit. A greater need to go through with it this time around especially if you see improvements in yourself. Finally, you come to the last stage. You have worked hard, you feel invincible and you fee ready to take on the world. What happens? In that moment, your fear comes back again. You lose your courage and for one millisecond, you find yourself back on that first stage. Admitting your impediment or fear. However, you find some tiny bit of spark inside you that ignites. Small at first, like when you are trying to light a candle and the matchstick just stubbornly gets that small spark of a friction but does does not go all the way through. Then you try and again and maybe again until you succeed and walla – then there was light! That is how you feel inside and whatever you feel inside, it shines outside. That is when you find the courage inside you, find your confidence soar and you just do it. No matter what impediment or fear you have or are experiencing in your life, know that it is alright to go through these stages and know that it is normal. You are not alone in this, we all experience it. The big question here is, are you the kind of person that gets stuck at the third stage and remain there? Or are you the kind of person who is willing to move on to the fourth stage? Ask yourself that.

Saw the movie The Mechanic the other day. It was a story about an assassin who kills bad guys. Do not worry I am not gonna tell you the whole stole and spoil it for you if you have not seen it. =) It is an action-packed movie and yes some scenes are violent so it really watch-at-your-discretion-type. Anyway, what was most impressive about the lead character is that he has everything planned from how his target goes about his daily routine, how he starts his day and down to where he will be at what time and how he plans to kill them. Even at the end of the movie, he was prepared. His old friend had this gun which had the words “Victory loves Preparation”. I thought that was an interesting thing to find in a gun and though that it is true. Being prepared does mean victory, does it not? Now where am I going with this, you may be wondering. I am talking about us being prepared in almost our day-to-day living. Not only in your personal life but also your professional one. You have to admit that you have to be prepared when you make your plans, right? For personal ones, like a vacation, a road trip, a party or making an important personal decision. For your professional life, being prepared for say, a meeting, a presentation, a new position, a new job even. Being prepared is important. Ever gone to a meeting unprepared? How did that feel? How did you feel the whole time? Probably watched the clock and hoped the meeting would end soon, right? Did you have answers to questions that were raised and directed to you? It is hard being put on the spot in that kind of a situation, is it not? So what have you learned from the experience? Next time – be prepared so that instead of waiting for the meeting to end – fast, you would be wanting for more time to get discussion going on and on. How about on presentations? Being prepared is the key too. Especially if it is with a client. You would want to be very prepared for that. Remember to be always a step ahead of your clients. Thinking a step ahead of them, have an answer to question they will be asking as you go along the discussion. It is not that hard to do that. All you have to do is practice ahead of time. Have a mock meeting or presentation with your colleagues who will also be in the meeting or presentation. Together, think of potential scenarios and questions that my arise and then prepare answers to them. This way, there will be no 'awkward and silent moments' with your clients when they ask you a question. This way, you will come out as credible, reliable and impressive in the eyes of your client. They will see that you are doing your job and will know that they made a right choice. Like you, I have been in meetings where some people were just not prepared. It was not a good experience and furthermore, did not end well. I hate that when it happens. I have this attitude where if I came prepared for this meeting, so should the rest of my colleagues. No excuses. One thing I am not fond of is time being wasted and meeting goes on and on and to no avail. Ever been to those kind of meetings where it takes more than 1 hour and ends in 3-4 hours sometimes? I never want to experience that again and I am sure that you do not want that too. What is the takeaway here? One word: Preparedness. Include that in your everyday vocabulary. Then practice, practice, practice.