Always seeking certainty before taking action can severely limit productivity. In some cases, the evaluation and search for certainty is more costly than a potential failure due to action.

Worst case scenario for a wrong move is generally nothing more than an education (1 of the 4 points to better resilience).

Consider getting in the game a bit earlier the next time an opportunity arises. Avoid the "paralysis of analysis" and risk the uncertainty.

Cross The Line.
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Use this link for 3 minutes with Malcolm Gladwell – author of "Outliers: The Story of Success" – talking about the work that goes into the "overnight success". I love this reminder.
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Click here for third quarter GiveMore printable calendars. Use this link for calendar computer backgrounds.

2013 WorkDay charts are here.

A simple challenge where everyone wins (you and those around you). No risk. No additional time required.

Within the next 3 weeks (or maybe the next 3 minutes), set a 2-day period as your days (or your team’s days) to inspire others. Two days where you’ll put on blinders to anything negative and be the one in the office who everyone else can count on for words and actions that inspire and encourage. Two days where you’re the light for other people – your colleagues, your customers, your patients, your students – no matter what.

Allow nothing negative and focus only on your service to others.

Once you set your 2 days, fully commit to the effort regardless of the inevitable challenges, regardless of the weather (please, never the weather). Fall off the inspirational horse at 2:11 on the first day? Get back on at 2:12 – no excuses.

Remember, you wake with an option for your daily attitude. Challenges will come up regardless.

Choose positive. Spread it for two days. Get Smoving.

& ~> (that’s Smile & Move)

Not only will it be contagious … it might become a habit.

(Who could do it with you? Forward this email to them.)
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If you’ve not seen them or need a reminder (over the weekend or on a well-earned break)…

Use this link for a quick (2.5 min.) video made by Chick-fil-A to remind their employees that their customers are people and they may have things going on in their lives (a good thing to remember as you work with colleagues, customers, patients, students, etc.). It’s lightened me up more than once.

Click here for a great little 15-minute video on the value of a smile, being encouraging and resilient, and the impact we have on others (even when we don’t realize it). Save this for outside your money hours (and maybe watch it with your kids).
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What if everyone knew who you were? Use this link for a quick (and important) reminder.

Sometimes, if we don’t have success after repeated attempts to do something, we can lose confidence and eventually give up trying. It’s called "learned helplessness" (we learn to be helpless).

Give more check: Any areas where you and your team have stopped trying (or try, but with little commitment) because prior repeated failures and/ or a perceived inability to succeed has trained you not to try? With customer care improvement initiatives? In motivating and improving team attitudes and cooperation?

If so, what can you start doing today to minimize any "learned helplessness" that may have set in? (Maybe have a Cross The Line discussion. What’s that? See below.)

Click here to see (6-minute video) an interesting take on the concept from a class at Penn State Erie and to learn a little more about the person behind it.

(Have kids? Might be a good discussion topic.)
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Crossing The Line?

It’s about making a commitment to go beyond expectations in whatever you do. Use this link to read some of the personal notes I made to myself as I was finalizing the booklet.

On the page is a favorite clip of mine on commitment from the film Walk The Line (it’s at the bottom of the page).
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Click here for third quarter GiveMore printable calendars. Use this link for calendar computer backgrounds.

2013 WorkDay charts are here.

In Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, he lists 13 life virtues worth pursuing. Each builds upon the previous…

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

Click here to learn the remaining 9 virtues and get a printable reminder of all of them.

Side note: Franklin was a machine. He said it well and did it well. If you’re interested, you can learn more about him by using this link (from PBS).
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Need time? Get up 15 minutes earlier each day and you’ll add more than 90 waking hours to your year (the equivalent of more than 2 work weeks). Imagine what you could do with that (professionally or personally).

Push it up each day by 5 minutes and grab another 30 hours.

That’s 212.

(Like your sleep? Pull those minutes from bad web or TV time.)
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If I missed you with this…

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve asked more than 50 people if they know the number of hours in a week (all ages … seniors, mid-lifers, younger adults, teens). Not one person immediately knew the answer.

I only knew because I was thinking through the work-life balance issue.

Use this link for a few of my thoughts on the balance of our 168 (bottom line … exciting to me).

One thing that’s helpful to me when I catch myself shying away from taking a risk…

I remember that I’m not so important that a mistake or failure will likely have any lengthy impact or be that difficult to overcome with a little extra effort and time. (If you happen to be a head of state, a Supreme Court Justice, or a military general, maybe you need to be a little more careful. Of course, I’m fairly confident you’re not getting GiveMore quotes. But, then again…)
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luck: (noun) a force that makes things happen

You want more luck? Be the force that makes it happen…

1. Prepare. Work hard to be ready for the opportunities that are important to you. Research. Practice. Perfect.
2. Be awake. Pay attention to the people, events, and things around you. Evaluate logically and trust your gut instinct.
3. Take action. Put yourself out there. Explore. Be vulnerable. Make contact with people. Take risks.
4. Expect positive results. Optimism improves your chances. If (when) you fail, embrace the lesson and continue on, smarter.

That’s it. Now go be lucky (and make something good happen).

(inspire yourself or your team with a Push Your Luck pocket card or wristband … use this link)
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1 minute from Nike to wake you up (click here). I can’t stand how good this is. I’ve seen it over 75 times and it still gets me. A great weekly boost and reminder of what it takes to make good things happen (hint: it’s work).

Put it out there!

If you’re not earning the income you’d like to earn, ask yourself…

"Am I working like someone who makes $X thousand a year … someone who makes roughly $Y every money hour* of the day?"

Are you valuing your time at that level? If not, who will?

$50,000 = $25 every money hour
$75,000 = $37 every money hour
$100,000 = $50 every money hour (almost $1 a minute)
$120,000 = $60 every money hour (a dollar a minute)
$150,000 = $75 every money hour
$200,000 = $100 every money hour
$250,000 = $125 every money hour (more than $2 a minute)

Greater than $250,000 = You probably don’t need the reminder. ("Rich enough not to waste time.")

Forward this and help a friend see the light.

*money hours: hours during the workday where you can make good things happen for other people … the prime times where what you do really matters (get the "good things" posters and cards by clicking here)
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168 = weekly hours available to each of us

We might give 56 of those to sleeping and staying clean (grooming, bathroom). Another 50 or so are invested in our work and commuting (average U.S. one-way commuting time according to USA Today is 25.5 minutes).

That leaves us with 62 hours each week to apply wherever we’d like.

I find that pretty exciting.

And, if you’re lucky enough to love your work (or learn how to love making a contribution and love the people around you at work) … paradise (really).

Leaders and managers: What are you doing on a consistent basis to help your people enjoy their work more and the people around them? Are you doing anything to make it worse?

Truly happy people tend to be more engaged and make better things happen … better results, better relationships, more opportunities … more enjoyable for everyone. (lead simply)
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If you’ve never gotten your Kid President pep talk (and maybe even if you have), use this link for 3-minutes from the man himself. He’ll make you smile.

You don’t know everything.

You do know that, don’t you?

Continual learning is a basic necessity to professional improvement and in many cases it’s other people who will help you get there.

But only if you’re coachable. Are you?

To be coachable means to be…

• Approachable
• Attentive
• Receptive
• Curious

• Objective
• Trusting
• Shapeable
• Confident

It means you must listen with the intent to learn rather than to show what you know. (be no ego, right?)

Click here to get more insight and a quick 8-point check on your coachability.

Managers: How much development attention are you giving to your team? 20% of your week would be a full day of nothing but development time … 40% would be two full days, beginning to end.
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If we’ve missed you with these…

4 short videos (2-3 minutes) where I talk about the simple things behind what I feel will lead to better results, better relationships, and a more enjoyable experience for everyone. Use this link.

resilient: adjective: capable of bouncing back from or adjusting to challenges and change

We all fail from time-to-time (our doing, someone else’s doing, something else’s doing, a combination of each). It’s life.

To be resilient…

1. Focus on results. Embrace the fact that results are what we’re all really after. Effort and attempts are great first steps, but we need to act with commitment to delivering (just like we want people to do for us).
2. Make lessons of failures. Minimize the tendency to make a failure or mistake anything more than a lesson on how not to do something. We need to learn from our mistakes and truly accept them as tuition for succeeding later. And yes … Our mistakes might put us in a bind at times and have some uncomfortable consequences but again, that’s real life.
3. Continue on. Smarter.
4. Reinforce. Support each other (and ourselves) by continually reminding and encouraging one another to deliver on the first three points.

That’s it. Let’s practice it more. If we don’t, then this good habit of resilience might change into those bad habits of apathy, resignation, and "what’s always been."

(Forward this quote or inspire someone with the resilience pocket card or wristband – use this link.)
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Click here for Honda’s 8 minutes on how failure is a part of success (on the track and in business).

Only 30 seconds? Here’s Michael Jordan’s reminder (use this link).