Generating Possibilities & Creating Opportunities There is no future in any job. The future lies in the person who holds the job. George Crane
Your competitive advantage, in both your career and your life, is your interest in what you’re doing.
When you ignore or set aside your interests, passions, values, and personality features and succumb to actions or decision making based solely on obligations, expectations and what comes easily to you, you run the risk of having a very unsatisfactory and unprofitable outcome--othewise known as a making a poor choice. We all have the ability to make informed, aware and fitting choices, we just need to discover our own unique choice-making formula for optimal performance and happiness—at home and at work.
Good business and career decisions and actions are based on your own deep passions, interests, and creativity, not just on your aptitudes and achievements.
When gifted, talented and creative adults restrict themselves to what they, or others, think they’re good at because of their past achievements or performance--without exploration of other areas of interest and passion, there is the risk of a loss of vitality, opportunity and satisfaction.
Knowing the anatomy of a poor choice and the structure and process of an innovative and viable opportunity and possibility is an important distinction.
Do you know the difference?
Generating possibilities and creating opportunities for yourself and your business is very challenging in the face of personal, familial, organizational and societal expectations, pressures and stresses. Finding a job is a job in itself. Ryan Gosling Everybody has an opinion, advice they give or something they think you should do. When you focus on this information—or should I say, when your mind is flooded with this information—you have no room, or time, for reflecting on your own thoughts, ideas and counsel.
Thinking and making decisions from a pressured, constricted or stressed out perspective most often results in difficult and conflicted internal conversations, inner tension and turmoil, and a highly unsatisfactory and unprofitable choice. Need I mention loss of sleep, irritability, increased conflict with your spouse, and personal feelings of inadequacy? An anxious and miserable existence is the result.
Poor choices--or not the best choices and opportunities--result from focusing on what others are telling you without creating a time for thought, reflection, exploration, research, and consultation from self and invited others. Companies repeat what made them successful
Long after it starts to damage them. Jerry Judge Study these success masters and you will find they - know who they are
- take care of themselves well
- maintain their business, personal and community relationships
- have many interests and are always learning something new
- know their strengths
- are focused, committed, passionate and creative.
Did I mention that they call on their circle of contacts whenever they have a question, need information or some assistance? They also reciprocate whenever their contacts need the same. This is some of their success formula.
Choice making and the generation and consideration of possibilities and opportunities from an informed, self-aware and expanded perspective and state of being more often results in a sense of satisfying commitment and action toward doing things you want to do that make a difference to you and your business or organization--as well as the bottom line.
This is the basic anatomy of success, satisfaction and happiness that is well financed.
Taking risks, being willing to make mistakes and taking huge leaps of faith come from knowing and honoring your interests, values, and priorities—and from having your own success team—with you as captain and CEO.
So whether you have a business, executive or life coach, a formal or informal mastermind group, “kitchen cabinet”, or small circle of advisors—make sure you are at the center of your own life, business and career.
Check in with yourself and all your thoughts, interests, passions and desires first. Do this on your own or with a trusted advisor, mentor, coach or therapist.
Know where you stand and what you want before you listen to what your friends, family members, colleagues and society have to say, advise or pressure you with. Once you listen to what others have said go back and reflect on what you want, need and desire, then make your decision or take your action—or get yourself a really, really good coach—one who understands and knows how to guide and collaborate with original and creative-minded gifted adults--to help you create and manifest the success you envision. Lynne Azpeitia, M.A., Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
provides coaching, psychotherapy and consulting services to:
Gifted Individuals, Couples and Families at
3025 W. Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, California 90404
(310) 828-7121 (626) 797-1052 Coaching, Consulting & Mentoring Available By Phone & Skype
Articles Moments of Greatness: Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership
Robert E. Quinn
As leaders, sometimes we’re truly “on,” and sometimes we’re not. Why is that? What separates the episodes of excellence from those of mere competence? In striving to tip the balance toward excellence, we try to identify great leaders’ qualities and behaviors so we can develop them ourselves....Even those who are widely admired for their seemingly easy and natural leadership skills—presidents, prime ministers, CEOs—do not usually function in the fundamental state of leadership. Most of the time, they are in their normal state. In my work coaching business executives, I’ve found that if we ask ourselves—and honestly answer—just four questions, we can make the shift at any time. It’s a temporary state. Fatigue and external resistance pull us out of it. But each time we reach it, we return to our everyday selves a bit more capable, and we usually elevate the performance of the people around us as well. Over time, we all can become more effective leaders by deliberately choosing to enter the fundamental state of leadership....Getting there requires a shift along four dimensions...More The One Number You Need to Grow
Frederick F. Reichheld
Companies spend lots of time and money on complex tools to assess customer satisfaction. But they're measuring the wrong thing. The best predictor of top-line growth can usually be captured in a single survey question … More Michael Duff: Too Smart for Good?
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I remember being smart. Man, that was great: to know all the answers without being told, to finish all your class work in an hour, to race through exams and be the first one to turn them in. I think I peaked in second grade, and I get a little dumber every year. We talk about smart people as if they are all the same, but.....More Why Nerds Are Unpopular
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Thanks to new technology, the seemingly uncanny ability of many top athletes to anticipate opponents' maneuvers might now be taught to average competitors. Often, the best players in a sport aren't the fittest or strongest, but those with "field vision" -- knowledge of where teammates are at all times, where the ball is headed and what opponents plan to do. Such talent has long been assumed to be innate, and impossible to teach, reports Jennifer Kahn in Wired. But now, a movement in sports training aims to use technology to show ordinary athletes how to think like superstars. Damian Farrow, a scientist at the Australian Institute of Sport outside Canberra, relies on a host of gadgets to identify how elite athletes operate. One device that tracks where players' eyes turn during a game showed that the best players continually dart their eyes around the field, while those who make poor passing decisions focus for too long on certain targets. By tracking vision in another way, he found that top tennis players unconsciously read their opponents' body language a third of a second before the ball is hit to predict where a serve is headed. Since last year, he has been trying to teach volleyball players to do the same by having them wear glasses that suddenly obscure their sight just before the other team spikes the ball. Unstructured play can be the best way for young players to develop perceptual skill that will pay off down the road, he says. "What do we do instead? We put children in regimented ... programs, where their perceptual abilities are corralled and limited."....More
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