Archive for the 'Professional Practices' Category

Jun 12 2011

YOU HAVE 86,400 SECONDS . . .

24 Hours from right now,

                   

you will have used up

                                            

86,400 seconds of your life.

                                                                                                                                     

Will you have made them count?

 

How often do you micro-manage your SELF? From all I’ve been able to determine in studying truly successful people, is that they seem –universally– to do this on a fairly regular basis. They plan and deliver to themselves short periods of introspection.

A few minutes a day perhaps. Or maybe an hour or two over the weekend? Is it time to prime the pump and recharge the batteries?

“I take yoga,” one person tells me. “I run (walk, jog),” others proclaim. There are also, of course, the “workout freaks” whose lives revolve around the gym and the weights they lift.

The bottom line, though, is that –while all of these and many other methods are great for all-around good health– it takes that extra conscious attention to the unconscious to be fully productive and rise above the limits of physical accomplishment.

Don’t abandon yoga or running or lifting. Take them to the next step and make them work for you.

Creative and spiritual people excel at this.

Some part of them knows instinctively when and where and how to mentally and emotionally “drop back” into themselves for a How Goes It?” self-inventory and assessment.

It’s rarely as formal and compartmentalized as this suggests, but it nonetheless serves to rally your energy and your focus.

                                   

If you’re serious about wanting to take as full advantage as possible of every passing day’s worth of 86,400 seconds, you will not be offended by my never-ending suggestions to integrate more deep breathing into more of your life: Just click here for the free 60-second exercise that can change your life, and ignite your business.

Deep breathing gets more oxygen to your brain for better decision-making and it stimulates blood flow for more relaxed, not weaker, less stressed muscles. It works for every level of health and fitness. You will feel better!

The combination of effects rewards those who make deep breathing an ongoing practice, with substantially-increased self-control, self-confidence, and better health. It’s free. With little practice, it’s also “invisible.”

With improved self-control, self-confidence, and health, also comes a much-enhanced ability to respond instead of react to what would otherwise be stressful external circumstances and individuals.

If you don’t react, you can never over-react!

                                         

That single benefit is generally the “crowbar” that separates true leaders from lifelong followers. And if that’s not enough, be reminded that self-control and self-confidence come partnered with HIGH TRUST!

Who wants to follow someone who’s out of control emotionally, or for whom they have no or low trust?

So, making the most of your next 86,400 seconds will serve to point you in the direction of strengthened self-control and leadership. What more could you ask? Uh, odds are you’ve probably just used up 100-150 seconds reading this post. That leaves you with about 86,200 seconds in the next 24 hours. make the most of them!

And remember that pausing to enjoy, and to introspect, helps ensure that your next round will also be productive! Oh, and did I mention “HAPPY”? Well, if you’re feeling mentally, physically and emotionally healthier, and getting more accomplished . . .

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. .

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

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Jun 09 2011

It’s Patient Loyalty, Doc!

Businesses have customers.

 

Shrinks, lawyers and CPAs have clients,

                                   

But you, Doc,

                     

have patients!

                                           

—————–

If you have a doctor-friend in your life, you might want to share this post. Useful, straightforward “business” posts for healthcare professionals are not typically or readily available. You may also want to consider how these same dynamics apply to you in your business or non-medical practice.

———-

                                                                                        

So what, you say?  Here’s what: Given that healthcare has now become even less predictable (than the plights of business, shrinks, accountants, and lawyers) as we edge ever closer to that Obamacare precipice, you may already be starting to lose patients as you lose patience.

I mean, businesses, CPAs, and lawyers already see the staggering new costs handwritten on the walls. And shrinks? Eh, who ever knows about shrinks?  Anyway, it’s all about you, Doctor. You are being called on as never before to rise to the occasion and bite the business bullet. You must grow your practice in stagnant times

This means riding out the economic storms and going with the insurance provider flow even when all you want to do is practice medicine and be fairly paid for your expertise, training, experience, and compassion. Ah, but there stands Obamacare in your path! And you can’t get over, under, or around it. 

So, you’ve got to get through it!   

The only way to “get through” it –to survive and thrive in the next few months and years ahead– is to build and strengthen patient loyalty.

Patient loyalty is the single most critical component of practice growth, especially in hard times. It triggers increased  patient volume and stimulates referrals faster and more cohesively than any other factor.

———-

Here are the five key sets of values that determine success in acquiring and strengthening patient loyalty:

  1. Your professional skills, resource network, and “Google-ability”

  2. Your training, experience, and regional word-of-mouth reputation

  3. Your patient-centric care approach and reassuring “bedside manner”

  4. Your office staff’s abilities to communicate clearly and pleasantly, and to handle insurance reimbursement tangles quickly and simply

  5. Your effectiveness in managing patient support, diagnostics, and referrals

Notice that the first four value sets above are ones that you should control and/or that should rely almost entirely on you. The fifth one, however, depends on others. This distills down to the reality that you must first attack the first four and fully capture or re-capture them into your control before moving into value set five territory.

Why? So you can strengthen the area that’s not in your control by coming at it from a position of strength in the four areas you are able to harness.

Take a hard look at the ten qualifiers suggested in the first four numbered value sets above. Can you rate yourself a “9” or “10” in each? In which areas are you weakest? What do you need to do –specifically– to get to those ratings in each suggested category? Can you identify three steps you can take next week to lead yourself there?

When you can honestly give yourself those 9-10 ratings, move on to #5 above and ask yourself what specific actions you can take now to improve the ways you manage patient support, diagnostics and referrals. Are you, for example, using resources that keep you in case management control over each of your patients?

The farther away from Med School and Internship and Residency you are, the more vulnerable you may be to economic invasion, and the more important it becomes to self-assess on a regular basis. Quarterly works. It might be the most rewarding investment you can make in your practice . . . or the most costly one to avoid.

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Hal@Businessworks.US

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Jun 08 2011

“I Almost Died!”

“Almost Dying”

                                    

is a GOOD thing.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Uh, because…?

 

Huh? Hey, if you “Almost” died, then you didn’t, right? 

. . . which means you’re still alive.

Well, Glory Hallelujah!

                                                       

Like the baseball team that had to come back from being ten runs behind in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and one strike left, and –by some miracle– twelve straight hits, including a walk-off grand slam and two others, wins the game. How many times have we heard of being spared by being snatched from the jaws of death?

Okay, so we know that things like this happen in other places besides Hollywood, but what’s the payoff? A unique, new, more meaningful perspective on life is inevitably gained — one that was clearly missing when you woke up the day before you almost died.

The same dynamics apply to small business ownership and management.

For many entrepreneurs –particularly in the last two years of oppressive federal government controls, spending and taxation without representation– their businesses have also almost died.

                                                                   

Yet somehow, miraculous comebacks have been recorded. Even in the face of the Obama Administration’s (well-documented) every effort to refuse small business owners and operators the opportunity to make miracles happen. Even after having the pedestal of self-esteem and career accomplishment knocked out from under their enterprises.

And perhaps –to one degree or another– your own?

But somehow, for those who have returned to life, guts and gumption have prevailed. And here they are. Still breathing. Are you breathing?

What do we learn by almost dying?

We learn to value and appreciate more than ever what we’ve had (and still have) that we disavowed, disregarded, and just plain dissed.

                                                            

We discover people who we had no idea of before, riding to our rescue. We find that we still have a sense of ingenuity and a passionate drive to make our ideas work. Many find money and investors they never knew existed.

Many who have ventured or been brought close to the edge, to the brink of death, also find prayer and spiritual guidance that they might never have believed possible.

There’s something to be said for

reality bringing fantasy into reality!

                                                                                        

Suffering? No one –except for terrorist crazies and the ignorant self-indulged among us– wishes suffering on anyone. Yet all of us suffer for ourselves and our lives and our families as we do as well for our businesses. The trick is to choose to not get swept away by it, not wallow in it, not get so caught up in it as to miss the present.

That’s the hardest part. Letting go. Moving on. But small business owners and managers know this perhaps more than most because having your own business is like having another family, and it often feels like two lives are being lived. So, yes indeed, the trick is in fact choosing to go forward when it’s hardest.

Let’s close with the great quote by B. Olatunji:

“Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called the present.”

                                 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Jun 07 2011

Healthcare Wealthcare

Small Business

                                 

 Must Rise Again!

                                            

Mandated healthcare on the horizon means overwhelming long-term expenses for small business as well as families and individuals who are not illegal immigrants or who are not sponging off government giveaway programs. (Legitimately handicapped and legitimately unemployed, a clear minority, are among those who truly need help.)
I’m referring to the quiet majority of government program beneficiaries, the ones who know who they are and who know better than to make waves.

The ones who think they’re entitled.

The ones the rest of society are paying for, and will be paying for at brain-rattling increased amounts as we get closer and closer to the Administrations “share the wealth” healthcare debacle.

Well, perhaps I shouldn’t be so presumptuous. After all, there certainly are some people out there who believe in and are heavily invested in every form of globalization and “greenery,” who can barely wait to throw their money out the window for passing vagrants to grab and run to the nearest cigarette and liquor stores.
Oh, but you don’t understand, a liberal-minded neighbor told me in defense of those who love the tax and spend mentality that fuels globalization and all those “sustainability” efforts. Without sharing the wealth, I was told, folks like those you describe would turn violent to get their smoke and drink fixes. It’d be like living in a Steven King novel.

(and then came the great afterthought following a “Tsk, tsk” pause):

Besides, they’ve had terrible lives; who can blame them?

Y’gotta be kidding!

                                                          

First off, we choose who we are and we choose how we behave and think and no one’s a victim of the past unless she or he chooses to be. Poor potty training at 3 years-old has no bearing on success at 13, or 23, or 33, or 43. or… 

Cesar Milan (“The Dog Whisperer“) was born in Mexico and raised into the depths of poverty and despair. Yet he battled his way to Los Angeles, learned English, earned his citizenship, found honest work, and has made great contributions to society while earning millions of dollars, and a household name among the world’s dog-owners.

What, you need more than one example? I could fill this blog for the rest of my life with stories like his.

The point is that giving opportunities to those who don’t choose them, want them, or show willingness to earn them, simply breeds dependency. This may be something the control-crazed Obama Administration actually seeks, but a healthy attitude, it’s not.
So what does this have to do with small business? my neighbor snorted.

Sharing the wealth with those who are unwilling to “earn their keep” stimulates unemployment.

Why work if you can eat for free, sleep for free, go to school for free, get medical care for free, even get cash (our hard-earned tax dollars) for free?

Hey, life is great, ain’t it? So who cares about jobs?

GREAT incentives for small business, huh?

                                     

This isn’t all about whining, anger and complaining. In fact, none of it is. I’ve worked more hours in my lifetime than most people live. And I’m not resentful of those who figure out how not to work.
I am disappointed that I was ever so dumb to think that government would never double-cross our Constitution, that anyone with enough power could turn serving the people of America into a private power play for serving himself at the expense of us all, and especially at the pronounced expense of small business.
Because it’s small business that built and grew America.

Small Business

(Remember there are 30 million of us!)

Must Rise Again.

                             

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Jun 06 2011

It’s about “TRUST”!

No, No, Mr. O . . .

                                        

America’s economic

                                                                     

mess is NOT simply

                           

“a bump in the road”!

                                       

                                      

It is an issue of TRUST.

 

Here’s the bottom line, right up front:

                                                            

I believe you have proven your self and your ideology (over common sense and genuine citizen need) unworthy of my trust, my children’s trust, my grandchildren’s trust, the trust of America’s military, the trust of America’s healthcare professionals, and –among others– the trust of America’s business owners, operators, and managers.

So, without trust, the question becomes: Why should we create new jobs only to get higher taxes? What reason have we to believe that taxes will not be raised again to even more crippling levels? Your word? I don’t think so. Some meaningful tax incentives for new small business job creation? Bring ’em on!

 ——————————–

You have put tons of tax dollars where they don’t belong:

  • In the greedly hands of over-the-top unions and States whose votes supported you.

  • In the incompetent hands of corporate giants and government agencies, neither of which creates new jobs that are REAL.

  • And in the frivolous hands of social programs you apparently value above weather-disaster victims in “Red States,” and the interests of free market competition businesses that are struggling to get free from government choke-holds.

_______________________
                                                                        

You’ve been putting BandAids on a gaping wound and have not stopped the bleeding, yet you persist in doing everything possible to squash small business, the nation’s only source of real new job creation and our only hope for turning the economy around.

You have demonstrated repeatedly that you have not even the slightest understanding of business or of how to undo the economic disaster that –in your relentless efforts to hold socialistic values above the financial survival of those you were elected to represent– you exacerbated. You have proven unworthy of the peoples’ trust.

You are plunging us into yet another (deeper by all appearances) recession. And –to make matters worse– your steadfast refusal to own up to the fact that every single attempt you’ve made –arrogantly and obstinately in the face of what knowledgeable businesspeople the world over have advised– has failed miserably.

Yet your oratory claims progress when every American with a brain realizes there is none. 

                                                       

I laughed hysterically today, at hearing the White House quote that America’s economic disaster “is a bump in the road”! (Of course, I was wishing it was laughter that was triggered by funny stuff instead of the sense of panic that crawls under the surface of every business owner’s skin!)

It’s all about TRUST, Mr. O. You haven’t earned it; you don’t get any. Why should any business owner (and there ARE 30 million of us, regardless of what your warped numbers show) trust you in urging to create new jobs when we know you will immediately raise taxes on those who do create new jobs. Truth? Of course you will.

Do you think we’re stupid?

                                                                               

Oh, and it’s also hard to not mention that following the “bump in the road” comment, came yet more undermining-of-reality: a declaration by Ms. Pelosi that “if not for the Obama Administration, things would be even worse.” Now THAT is truly laughable!

 Lest we forget:

It was you who inherited an economic molehill

and made it into a mountain of financial disaster!

                                                                                          

A 3-year-old can connect the dots: It’s the Obama Administration that’s made and continues to make the economy worse. Why is it so incredibly impossible for you to face facts, own up to your errors and move this country forward by honoring the input of small and mid-sized businesses and their owner/operators.

They know how to solve the economy. You don’t. Will you persist in pretending until the week before Americans rise to make a difference on November 6, 2012? That may be too late, even for you!

                                               

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Jun 05 2011

Someone’s Opinion of You

“Someone’s opinion of you

                             

   does not have to become 

                                           

   your reality.”

                                                                                         

—Motivational Speaker Les Brown

                                                                                     

Let’s look at it this way: You are reading this right now because you are an entrepreneurial thinker and/or leader, because you own or operate or manage a small business or professional practice, or because you are a partner or investor in, or advisor to (or a student of) small business.

If this is true of you, then you know you are made of different stuff than are corporate or union folks, or those engaged in mass media. . . or government employees (from the White House to your State House, County Seat and Town Hall . . . including all levels of government agencies) . . . or those theoretical academic types.

Let’s put all those people aside for a minute. (Yes, of course there are exceptions; I’m talking about the overwhelming, vast majority of individuals who simply don’t get it, and who prefer being sheep!)

You, on the other hand, have a brain. And common sense skills. You know how to think and act productively.

You are focused on the here-and-now present-moment more than most people, and have little or no use for analyzing the past or fantasizing the future, beyond getting your ideas to work.

You know how to make things happen.

You have a sense of urgency, and you know how to “turn on a dime” when it’s time to change direction or meet a market need.

You create your own opportunities and are not afraid to step up to the plate when they arise — plus, you are smart enough to know how to get yourself on base without swinging wildly for the seats on every pitch.

                                                                        

Okay, so as far as others cut from the same fabric as you are concerned, all of the above makes you a (no gender implied) “Good Guy.” (There are 30 million of us!)  

But–alas–those admirable qualities that set the entrepreneurially-minded apart from the closed-minded also fail to insulate small business enterprise high-achievers from warped opinions!

Here’s the bottom line: When you find yourself beginning to worry about others’ opinions of you, your behavior, the way you run your business, the kind of schedule you keep, ask first if you are behaving legally and second if you are sacrificing your own health or your family’s existence.

If it’s “no” to both of these questions, change the channel.

It’s your brain. You are the only one who controls your brain. Simply change the mental channel in your brain from whatever self-denial, self-badgering, self-guilt station is playing, to something more challenging or geared more to easy listening.

It’s a choice. You can choose to rise above other’s opinions and pursue your burning desires freely.

Imagine if Edison or Ford or Gates or Winfrey or Ashe or Carnegie or Jobs or any great entrepreneur had balked at others’ negative opinions. We’d probably be –just for starters– without lightbulbs, cars and computers. Don’t choose for the negative opinions of those who can’t see your light to create darkness for your business ventures.

There’s too much to do, and life is too short to waste time dwelling on or worrying about other people’s opinions. Because–in the end– all you have for certain is you!

                                                                    

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Jun 02 2011

LEADERSHIP RISING

Yeast, the Sun,

                              

and Leadership.

                                                          

                                                 

I get (and agree with) what Paul Ryan’s advice to Mr. Obama was all about when he visited the White House yesterday and reminded the man that “leadership starts at the top,” but I take some exception to the semantics of what that advice might suggest as it is applied to the rest of the world. 

———————————————-

Leadership, like yeast, like the sun on the horizon, rises from low places. It starts, often below the surface, and grows to recognition, then to love and respect or –sadly, in many cases– to fear and loathing, with little room left in-between those two extremes for tolerance and apathy. The problem is that yeast and the sun are fairly predictable.

Some aspects of leadership are also predictable.

Qualities like being able to inspire and motivate others, for example, are part of almost every description of leadership since the beginning of time.

Truth and reality, however, measure all leadership by one word alone.

What’s your best guess?

What single word sums up “leadership” most definitively?

                                                                                

Surely you know the word if you think about it enough. It’s authenticity. Authenticity of character, of personality, of purpose, of attitude, of responsiveness, of courage, of self-image, of the nature of the people involved, of the nature of the tasks to be done. It cannot be manufactured, pretended, stolen, replaced, avoided, dismissed, disregarded, or disarmed.  

Almost never to be found near government or political enterprises or management: authenticity. And rarely does it appear in corporate life when it isn’t guarded — easy to understand when UN-authentic people hovering at the top feel threatened. Yet, say many, true authenticity must also be free, so how could it be guarded?

Okay, so cross off corporate authenticity. And what are we left with? Family life and small business. Why? Because there is less need to lie, make excuses, and cover one’s butt, and because entrepreneurial attitudes are not so affected and convoluted by status-ladder-climbing and artificial allegiances.

————————————-

TEN EXAMPLES of authenticity:

  1. Giving credit where credit is due.

  2. Speaking up for what you believe in and supporting others who share your purpose.

  3. Accepting responsibility without excuses.

  4. Acknowledging screw-ups and owning up to your mistakes, also without excuses.

  5. Taking immediate corrective action when called for instead of analyzing and seeking blame.

  6. Being focused on the present “here and now” moment as much as possible.

  7. Always acknowledging the human factor in every decision and action, even when others pass it over. Business transactions are impacted by illness, injury, and family issues.

  8. Nurturing (and cultivating) positive and productive behavior and attitudes consistently.

  9. Soliciting and respecting the opinions of others . . . praise in public and criticize (constructively) in private.

  10. Treat every employee and every customer like the special people they are, the way YOU want to be treated, every day, all of the time, without exception.  

————————————

How do you measure up, stack up, size up, match up? What three steps do you need to take now to give rise to more of that authenticity you have inside you? Can you take that first step right now?

It is, you know, a choice. 

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

2 responses so far

May 26 2011

Threaten Your Critics?

Just imagine that someone

                            

doesn’t like your business

                             

(I know, I know, but it is possible!) 

 

So you get criticized. Then what? Right, you do like any normal red-blooded American: you threaten to terminate your critic.

I mean, after all, it’s dog eat dog out there, an eye for an eye thing. “I don’t like what your business has to say!” or “I don’t like the way your clerk looks at me!” POW! BAM! Blow ’em away! Threaten. Great PR. Guaranteed to win you customers. Oh, and what a fabulous example it sets. Reputation suffers? Who cares. You got even.

Anger wins!

It would almost be funny on SNL, but from all I can determine, this knee-jerk reaction is unfortunately coming from that un-leader-like icon of hope and change: The Great American Dream himself, Mr. (ta-ta-ta-ta-tah-tah) Obama. Are you ready? This news is completely off the charts. If you have a website or blog, you might want to be sitting.

 —————————————

Bloggers and websites critical of Mr. Obama are now reported as being targeted by the White House for something akin to “shape up or ship out” ultimatum warnings.

This news, according to a post filed online yesterday by Messrs. Doug and Joseph Hagmann.

(Doug is at Director@HomelandSecurityUS.com and Joseph is at JoeHagmann24@aol,com).

The two reportedly run a private investigative agency specializing in surveillance and counter-surveillance operations focused on terrorism activities. Their article was headlined in the Canada Free Press Daily Mail.   

According to the Hagmann’s, the Obama “online rapid response team,” created as part of the 2012 re-election campaign is “headed by… Jesse C. Lee, 31, of Tacoma Park, Maryland” who has been “tasked specifically with quashing any Internet articles and news critical of Obama.”

Lee, says the article, has initiated his activities by opening an official White House Twitter account featuring an image of “The Terminator” which sends a threatening message to anyone critical of the Obama Administration, and “a signal that unfavorable reports about Obama and his reign will be dealt with much more aggressively.”

Oh, and by the way, while such activity in the past has been the province of and at the expense of the National Democratic Party, this time, report Doug and Joseph Hagmann:  Mr. Obama has elected to keep costs and control “in-house” and under the jurisdiction of the White House Communications Department.

In other words, Lee’s “Terminator” services

are being paid for by the American taxpayers.

                                                                      

That would be like charging your customers/clients/patients an extra percentage tacked on top of whatever they pay for your products or services to pay for a hatchet man to come back and threaten them with extinction if they dare to criticize you or your business. Oh, joy! What a world this is. You can’t make this stuff up.

So now what? What on Earth could top that? I’m sure something will.

It’s bad enough to have a man that so many well-intentioned people were led to believe would be a great leader, only to find out that he is the absence of leadership.”

Besides being a one-man small business wrecking crew, his meddling is managing to screw up the corporate world as well. We the people are over-taxed and over-regulated at every turn. Mr. Obama continues to spend money far beyond America’s means at a terminally reckless rate. Could you do that with your business? Your household?

Make A Difference! TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2012

                                                      

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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May 25 2011

Are You Being Trickled On?

No wonder we feel like

                         

drops in the bucket

                          

with all this

                               

trickle-down spending!

                                                                                     

                                                                    

I mean where do we business owner types get our ideas? Sometimes from bits and pieces of what others say and do, and sometimes from opportunities that emerge or smack us in the mouth when we’re not looking. The steady bombardment of media drivel and twisted reports of government greatness can make us stop in our tracks.

We start to think, hey, maybe things aren’t so bad after all. Maybe gas prices will stand still and small business tax incentives for job creation and innovation will actually start to move forward. Maybe there’s more spending power in my bank account than I thought. Maybe tomorrow it will start raining ducks! Maybe I should have hope.

Hope. Yeah, well, that doesn’t accomplish anything. So let’s go back to the trickling action and see what we can learn

From the White House to the State House to the County Seat to the Town Hall, look and learn from all the mindless trickle-down spending muscle-flexing.

I’ve seen people in my town climbing through dumpsters for food scraps, and the mayor and council decide to spend a thousand bucks to buy a town logo and open a mega-million-dollar floodgate of “revitalization.”

                                                                                                 

Hey, why not? The White House thinks it needs to buy votes so it prints a few million and sends it to the States. The State people think it’s a great thing and that the counties will love them for passing along some of the dough to “green up” the place. The county guys want the poverty-stricken town’s votes, so the town gets a thousand bucks.

The money is spent on a new logo for the town. Next, of course, will be “beautification teams” and landscapers and architects and engineers and street widening and off-street parking and bigger more complicated infrastructure — more fire, police, EMTs, water, electric, sewerage.

But, hey, why not? Easy come, easy go. Spend it now.

                                             

Brick walks and old-fashioned looking gaslight fixtures? Go for it. Have fun! After all, you can’t take it with you. Besides, it will spruce up the boarded-up places with broken windows. And why be selfish. Think of your grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Plan ahead for future generations. Spend. So what if the revitalization isn’t needed. Do it anyway. It’ll create jobs, and we need jobs. What does it matter that nobody much cares about beautifying the town except two struggling over-priced restaurants. No one can afford the gas to drive through here anyway.

Oh, and take a guess where that revitalization money will come from. 

There you go. Consider yourself trickled down to! How does that feel? Seems like you need deep pockets and no sense of reality to be successful in politics. Just slap backs, pass out money, and make everything green. “I’ve always wanted a logo” the mayor explained as he railroaded the town council vote through.

Well, who knows? Maybe that’s the kind of thinking we need. A new $1,000 logo for a town where food scavenging and foreclosures and unemployment are almost more the rule than the exception. 

And are you as lucky as we are? I mean we’ve already got mandatory recycling services that we’re forced to pay for even if we want to do our own recycle sorting and transporting. I am NOT badmouthing recycling. I simply want the choice to do my own.

Don’t you just love mandatory stuff?

                                                                 

Well, that should certainly wrap up all the country’s economical and terrorist and natural disaster and devaluation and plummeting national image in one neat tidy package. Isn’t it just exactly the way you would deal with these kinds of problems in your own business?

No?

Oh, right, you know better than to tax and spend

and ignore others’ needs.

Hmmmm. How come you know all that

and our great leadership hasn’t a clue?

Think about it. You have ’til November 6, 2012. Nineteen months to get UNtrickled. Y’think? Well, there ARE 30 million small business owners being trickled on

 . . . as you read this.

Thought for the day: Strength in numbers!

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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May 24 2011

No one MAKES you do it!

FEELING: Angry? Depressed? Embarrassed? Happy? Sad? Disappointed? Frustrated? Anxious? Afraid? Lonely? Poor? Dumb?

YOUR EVERY ACTION,

                                                        

AND EVERY THOUGHT

                                                                                                        

IS YOUR CHOICE!

 

Nah!  That’s not possible,” you say?  Hey, it’s not only possible, it’s true. And it’s true  100% of the time! 

We CHOOSE our behavior. 

No one makes you mad.  You choose to feel mad about something someone says or does or thinks.

No one embarrasses you.  You choose to feel embarrassed about something you or someone else chooses to do or not do or say or not say or think or not think. 

And it IS your choice

Anger. Depression. Embarrassment. Humiliation. Envy. 

Jealousy. Guilt. Hatred. Fear. Loneliness. 

                                                             

These feelings don’t just fall down from the sky and land on your shoulder.  You, we, all of us, choose these emotions and we also choose the time-wasting behaviors that come along with them. 

So, maybe you don’t like hearing that, or thinking about it because you don’t want to have to admit that you’re that wimpy, wussy, weak-willed, fragile, malleable, and stupid. So you conjure up all kinds of defensive excuses and scenarios to discount the validity of it. But you can’t. There’s no discounting the truth.

Maybe you didn’t choose to get in that car accident, but you did choose to get in that car. You knew there was a risk associated and you knew that other drivers were not always as careful as you, and you chose to drive or ride anyway. But you had to BE someplace else. Wasn’t that a choice also?

It’s not that we make bad choices. Everyone on Earth does that. It’s that we convince ourselves that bad stuff is not the result of making a bad choice. We didn’t make a bad choice; circumstances were bad. Ah, but we chose to put ourselves in those circumstances by either direct or indirect choice. We did! At some point in time, it was a choice. 

I mean why would anybody CHOOSE to feel angry?  It’s much easier to blame others for the upset negative feelings we have and the accompanying nonproductive behaviors.  Isn’t it? 

That moron cut me off in traffic!  He’s a jerk!  He makes me so angry I think I’ll race up alongside him, give him the finger, and then cut HIM off!  I’ll show him!  Hey, that’s great . . . the stuff road rage heroes are made of, right? 

Why not instead choose to STOP for just a minute and take a deep breath, collect your self-control and mentally step back from the nutcase driver who just prompted you to choose to feel angry, and, instead, think to yourself that:

     A)  He’s in some kind of emergency situation or under great duress, or

     B)  I am not going to choose for that nut-job to cause me to choose to feel upset.  He’s not worth it!  

Since many choices are in the unconscious mind, when you find yourself choosing negative and upsetting behavior, pinch yourself, take that deep breath, remind yourself that you are in fact making a choice.  Change the channel in your brain from “Bad News” to “Mellow, Happy Music.” 

Remember that you always control your own brain.

(Ask any POW survivor or cancer survivor about that).

                                                                              

No one reaches inside your brain and causes you to think or act or react in a negative or unsettling or upsetting way.

You do that to you.

                                                                

You can just as easily choose for something hard to be easy, something risky to be safe, something maddening to be calming, something impossible to be possible, a problem to be an opportunity, the glass to be half full . . ..

Go ahead and run the risk!

Choose to overcome the negatives by bringing in the (There’s a really old song my parents used to sing: “E-limi-nate the neg-ative, ax-cen-tuate the positive…”) awareness that you need only blink and then choose –instead of creating or adding to an uproar– a positive, productive behavior, thought, action, response.

Go for it! The more you do, the easier and happier it gets. Hey, it’s your choice.

                                                   

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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