Audio Tidbits

"Anything in life that we don't accept will simply make trouble for us until we make peace with it." -- Shakti Gawain

 

Accept people as is. Your goal isn't to change anyone. Rather, you focus on encouraging and facilitating in ways that enable each person to achieve optimal performance within the context of their skills, abilities, and interests. Concurrently, you expect people to expand and improve their capacities and are ready to help with that process however you can. People aren't expected to change but are expected to grow and develop.

"Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy." -- Brian Tracy

 

This is no less true when we expect other people to succeed, expect them to do things correctly, expect them to give everything they do their best effort. You are surprised when other people make mistakes, give things less than their best effort, don't succeed. Since you expect success, you assume personal responsibility for mistakes of others, lackluster effort, non-success. Your first take on the situation is that you haven't been smart enough or skilled enough to effectuate the right outcome. You then work with the person to identify the deficiencies. You modify your performance so that you better facilitate the other person's success.

"If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place." -- Margaret Mead

 

Have a high tolerance for and acceptance of differing personalities, traits and characteristics, personal styles, individual values and beliefs, and for the idiosyncrasies of people. Similarly, carefully manage fluctuations in people's moods, points of view, and interests. Alternatively, have little tolerance for sub-standard work, less than complete attention to the task at hand, or lackluster performance. You always give your best effort and expect others to do the same.

"When we have begun to take charge of our lives, to own ourselves, there is no longer any need to ask permission of someone." -- George O'Neil

 

Don't shirk or avoid responsibility. Do everything you have agreed to do to the best of your ability. The underlying principle here is this. All of your internal systems and processes are on high alert and active. You are much sharper and better able to perceive and manage things, when you are giving your best effort.

"Indecision is debilitating; it feeds upon itself; it is, one might almost say, habit-forming. Not only that, but it is contagious; it transmits itself to others." -- H. A. Hopf

 

Make decisions and take action thoughtfully but quickly. Don't delay or postpone decisions or actions, don't try to avoid or defer doing what needs done, and don't hesitate or proceed reluctantly. Your actions and reactions aren't impulsive or ill considered. They are, instead, decisive and timely. In part, you are able to do this because you tune into and trust your intuition. Experience tells you that trusting yourself is a reliable path to success.

"Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road." -- Dag Hammarskjöld

 

Focus most of your time and energy on goal attainment. Minimize time and energy absorbed by worrying about unlikely contingencies and maintaining the status quo. This strategy maximizes your focus on the here-and-now. It minimizes the amount of static or irrelevant data thus enabling you to focus your intuition nearly exclusively on goal-centered data.

"Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity." -- Gary Ryan Blair

 

Be cautious without becoming paralyzed by the potential downside of action. Pursue your goals continuously but incrementally, testing/evaluating progress toward the goal. This approach assures movement toward the goal without exposing yourself to unnecessary and avoidable jeopardy. You shouldn't simply play it safe but should play it cautiously. You don't proceed haphazardly or impulsively, risking not giving yourself time and opportunity to process, analyze, predict, evaluate, and modify actions and circumstances. By exercising caution, you provide your intuition maximum opportunity.

"All men have an instinct for conflict: at least, all healthy men." -- Hilaire Belloc

Don't avoid dealing with conflict, disagreements, and difficult issues for fear of stepping on the feelings of others. Neither should you charge ahead insensitively or inconsiderately. Rather, deal concurrently with the issue or concern and with the feelings and sensitivities of others.