“The truth of the matter is you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.”
General Norman Schwartzkopf
Bon Voyage Mate
My 16 year old son, Will, is flying to Ecuador in the early hours of tomorrow. Together with 8 other students and 2 teachers from The King’s School and an experienced rep. from Camre Cymru he will spend the best part of 4 weeks on an expedition. After their flight to Quito they move on to Quilatoa and then Pasachoa where they will trek to a height of 4,200 metres and sleep in a (hopefully) extinct volcano.
The next stage of the trip is to work on a project helping the Tsachilla people in the Bua community, they will live with the community and hopefully learn something about their life and about themselves too. This work has been organised by the Yanapuma Foundation.
The last few days are spent on a jungle trek and some white water rafting.
They have raised a lot of the funds needed for this trip themselves (for which parents are very grateful) and whilst away they will be responsible for the budgets, accommodation and arranging transport.
Should be a life altering trip – have a great time folks.
What Are You Suggesting To Yourself?
This is the first half Stephanie Houseman’s current newsletter repeated en-bloc. Stephanie is, like me, an ex-dental practice owner and a trained coach, in addition she’s an international speaker and author. She’s based in Illinois and her newsletter is a Tuesday constant (something I must learn). Her website is www.7steps2abalancedlife.com sign up for the newsletter there.
What Are You Suggesting To Yourself?
You have a burning desire. You have written it down, committed it to memory, and you repeat it morning and night. As a result, your desire is seeping into your unconscious mind. That’s good!
Yet, what are you telling yourself about your ability to achieve that desire?
Napoleon Hill believes that a major stumbling block to living the life you want is often your lack of self-confidence. “This handicap can be surmounted, and timidly translated into courage, through the aid of the power of autosuggestion.”
Autosuggestion is what you suggest to yourself about yourself. Moreover, you accept what you say as the truth, so it is to your benefit to suggest positive thoughts of confidence to your mind if you want to achieve your desires, or definite purpose, as Hill calls it.
How can you accomplish this? Work the Self-Confidence Formula as defined by Hill in his classic book, “Think and Grow Rich”.
The Self-Confidence Formula:
First: I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my definite purpose in life; therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.
Second: I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action, and gradually transform themselves into physical reality; therefore I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily, upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become, thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture.
Third: I know through the principle of autosuggestion, any desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of attaining the object back of it; therefore I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of self-confidence.
Fourth: I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim in life, and I will never stop trying, until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.
Fifth: I finally realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others….
I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory, and repeat it aloud once a day, with full faith that it will gradually influence my thoughts and actions so that I will become a self-reliant, and successful person.
Hill concludes by saying, “Like the wind which carries one ship east, and another west, the law of autosuggestion will lift you up or pull you down, according to the way you set your sails of thought.”
Set your sails of thought to those of positive autosuggestion and sail away to your definite purpose in life.
And Deliver Us From Inappropriateness
I have enjoyed David Hepworth’s comments on music and beyond for more years that I care to remember. I recall him introducing the first live film of Bruce Springsteen on The Old Grey Whistle Test in the 70’s, and I have never looked back. In recent years I have subscribed to Word Magazine and kept up with his views there. He blogs, twittters and podcasts too. This is from his most recent blog and I think the message in it applies to any business big or small.
And Deliver Us From Inappropriateness
No single word pops out of the mealy mouth of modern management more frequently than “inappropriate”. It manages to avoid being specific about the transgression while suggesting that the person using it has moral standards significantly higher than everybody else’s.
And now it’s “inappropriate” behaviour involving a researcher that has got Hardeep Singh Kohli suspended from his roving reporting role for BBC’s The One Show. Somebody reported somebody else and before anyone could stop it the corporation’s disciplinary procedure had swung into action and he’s being hung out to dry for six months – and this is where it really sounds as if the captain of the second eleven has got pissed and thrown up at the back of the coach – “to reflect on his behaviour”. Honestly. Wouldn’t we rather be dismissed in shame than sent off to reflect on our behaviour?
A couple of thoughts occur:
1. In the media the standard interpersonal stuff which makes every work environment interesting is often further, er, enlivened by the presence of fame, money and influence. Part of me thinks that if you don’t want to tangle with what’s involved when highly competitive show-offs work closely together for long periods of time you should get a job with, say, the Church of England. But then I’ve read “Barchester Towers” so I know that it goes on pretty much everywhere. And the researcher who was on the receiving end of the “inappropriate” behaviour didn’t formally complain. Which makes the whole incident even more puzzling.
2. What with this and the Carol Thatcher case you do wonder who’s supposed to be managing The One Show. Local difficulties like these shouldn’t turn up on the front pages. In my experience if you have to instigate a disciplinary procedure you’ve lost control. This particularly applies with freelance contributors. Surely you take them for a walk and warn them how they might be coming over to people. If that doesn’t work you just don’t ring them any more.
An alternative to Amazon and a fun site to watch
I like and respect the Amazon brand for what it has done to retailing and the way imitators and competitors have appeared. One of these is The Book Depository which I had used a few times before discovering they were based a few miles from Rees Towers. In addition to very being competitive on book prices they have a wonderful “who from where is buying what” page, it’s strangely addictive.
Take a look here www.bookdepository.co.uk/live
The Monday Morning Quote #49
“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.”
“Motivation is an external, temporary high that pushes you forward.
Inspiration is a sustainable internal glow which *pulls* you forward.”
The Weekend Read – Synchronicity (The Inner Path of Leadership) by Joseph Jaworski
This is (yet) another book that I wouldn’t have come across without Chris Barrow’s guidance, so cheers again cb. One of the joys or occasional chores of this, recently neglected, part of the blog is that I demand of myself to re-read or at least scan the mentioned book if it isn’t a new one to me. I’m looking forward to this read.
Joseph Jaworski was a successful trial lawyer; as was his father who became the Watergate Prosecutor. In many ways he “had it all” until, in his words, he realised that: “Mine was a Disney World sort of life – inauthentic, narrow, utterly predictable, and largely devoid of any real meaning.”
The catalyst came at the age of 41 when his wife of 20 years divorced him. This book is the story of his search for meaning, he tells how he left the practice of law, established the American Leadership Forum and then worked with Shell as head of Global Scenario planning.
A fascinating read, if you’re looking for something inspiring for the holiday this is for you.
Available from my Amazon site.
“Brits borrow millions for dental work”
From Dr Bicuspid’s Blog – Now please don’t tell again me that people won’t pay for Dentistry.
Britons have taken out personal loans worth an estimated 60.2 million pounds ($97.6 million) to fund private dental treatment, according to a Press Association story.
An analysis by Sainsbury’s Finance showed that nearly 7,000 loans have been taken out to fund dental surgery in the U.K. since the beginning of 2007, the news service reported.
The average size of a personal loan used entirely for dental treatment is 6,492 pounds ($10,527), roughly the cost of two dental implants, two dental crowns, and teeth whitening treatment, according to Sainsbury’s.
The bank estimated that, in 2007, 3.3 million pounds ($5.3 million) worth of loans were taken to fund dental treatment, increasing to 9.4 million pounds ($15.2 million) in 2008. In the first three months of this year, 3.2 million pounds ($5.2 million) in loans were taken out for dental treatment, the Press Association reported.
“The mouth is the mirror of the body”
I don’t remember who first told me that but it’s something that I said to patients regularly through my clinical career. We knew that it was unusual to find unhealthy gums in a healthy individual, to add to that, anyone who couldn’t get the enthusiasm and motivation to look after their mouth was unlikely to look after the rest of their body.
So it’s refreshing to find an almost relentless number of research papers implicating the mouth in other diseases. I wonder how often the converse is true?
So more ammunition to give to the ever sceptical public & medics. Now why isn’t your hygienist fully booked?
History Of Periodontitis Linked To Cerebrovascular Disease In Men view here.
Patients With Moderate To Severe Periodontitis Need Evaluation For Heart Disease Risk view here.
Short and sweet but powerful!
This came from Helen Waring’s blog. Helen, The Walkers Coach, writes regularly. She is married to Alan Stevens whose work I have featured before.
Evidence to turn off your email, twitter etc etc and deal with them when the time is right for you.
“It takes 64 seconds to retrieve your train of thought after interruption by e-mail, one study shows.
That means if you check your in-box every 5 minutes, you waste 8.5 hours a week. Try intervals of 45 minutes, and turn off the “new e-mail” pop-up alert.”
Source: Thomas Jackson, PhD, Loughborough University.
Well that surely gave me food for thought, what about you?
The Incisal Edge 