Month: July 2015

The Strategic Advantage of Tenacity and Resiliency

| Brian E. Dick, MBA, MA, LPC

  
Photo by the author 

Sometimes going through the same path can seem unappealing.  Repetition is mind-numbing at times.  Reframing your path as tenacity and resilience is a fresh way to look at your efforts.

Your efforts have a meaning if they are important to you.

When repetition is unproductive:

  1. When the efforts don’t contribute to something higher than yourself 
  2. When they don’t align with what you see as important 
  3. Mis-directed meetings 
  4. When your heart is not in it
  5. No results…

Resilience is combining thoughtful repetition with a mission despite the hardships encountered.

Ways to make your behaviors and actions mean more – and create an advantage:

  1. Do more that matters.  Define what that is.
  2. Examine whether the hardship is tied to important values or a mission.
  3. Is your activities wearing you down, or are they creating “tired but rewarding energy.”

Too many activities are a result of distraction, survival, and reaction.  If any of these exist, it’s probably time to find a new path. Embrace repetition, when it is getting you closer where you want to go.

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Taking On Worry By Being A Better Problem Solver

| Brian E. Dick, MBA, MA, LPC

  

Photo by the author 

If you worry a lot, then you probably need to get into more problem solving skills and behavior.  Humans are tied to knowing, and when something isn’t quite known, there is a tendency to gravitate toward anxiety or worry.  Obviously this does little to change the situation.

Worry squelches and cuts off your ability to use problem solving.  Working through something may require different levels of problem solving.  Often cutting through a problem means you have to think it is possible to solve it.

A problem solving process

  1. Define what is really the problem.  Use one or two words to label it.
  2. Think of all the evidence you have that “won’t support” your original worry.
  3. Come up with exceptions when the problem didn’t exist.  What was happening? 
  4. Gather if needed other expertise, resources, or skills that will potentially solve the problem.
  5. Choose your options and apply one or more approaches.

Worry is only an unproductive dead end to a problem. It never leads to everything except more distress.  Moving effectively through worry requires a commitment toward constructive action and determination that other solutions exist.

Ways to Drive More Positive Change in Your Life

| Brian E. Dick, MBA, MA, LPC

  
(Photo by the Author)

Change is seen as the enemy and something that must be dealt a response, often reactively.  Creating change is a lofty topic to be sure, but the intent should always to create the change you want to prevent unwanted change, and also to make things better.

Examine change everyday. Your heart knows what needs to change.

Unless you’re spending a great deal of time in denial, avoidance or procrastination, your heart informs your mind about what should be different or better.  Many if not all of us stay in this zone of self-denial. Examining and checking in with yourself daily is the first step toward an honest appraisal.

Five “first steps” toward driving change:

  1. Just start opening yourself up to the things you automatically feel are wrong.  They may be big or small, but they are there.  Just write them down and define them. Pick one word that defines the area for change.
  2. Work toward a plan.  Use a personal journal.  The more you write about something, the more your heart informs the mind, and enables your ability to problem solve.  We are often what we think.
  3. Use imaging.  Use your capacity to imagine what desired change looks like everyday.  Do this in conjunction with walking exercise, or quiet time.
  4. Work your plan slowly, with small steps. Realize it will take time.  The secret is actively doing something.  Getting imperfect results is a sign that change is happening.  You’re building momentum.
  5. Reevaluate weekly, or daily if necessary.  Become a “tweaker” that makes small adjustments.  Learn more and get more skills or feedback if you need to.

After a while your heart will tell your mind whether your on the right track.