By Liza Vasquez ICF CMC and Jeffrey F. Silber MBA CMC
Certified Master Business and Life Coaches
Most people who make New Year’s Resolution find that they make the same promises to themselves year after year. As life and business coaches, our clients have asked us for a set of guidelines to use as we enter 2020. We put our heads together and put together came up with this list of practical things you can do to make this new year spectacular for yourself.
We found that our thinking was very similar in many instances to that of Dale Carnegie and what he wrote 84 years ago. After all, human interaction and human nature itself have not changed in thousands of years.
To the extent possible, please follow these guidelines in your professional and personal life in 2020; and at the end of the year, let us know how your life has improved as a result. We hope that when 2021 arrives, these habits you no longer have to think about.
Protect Your Health
Don’t burn yourself out – relax before you get tired
Learn to relax at work by doing your work and not worrying about it. Does worrying help any situation?
Put into practice these good work habits:
· Clear your desk of all papers not related to what you are working on in that moment
· Not everything can be both Urgent and Important at the same time. Learn to prioritize and work on the most important matter first. If a matter is Urgent, that does not necessarily make it important. Prioritize!
· Do not put off solving an important problem. Face it right away and take a decision
· You cannot do everything by yourself. Learn the art of effective delegation and supervision
· Remember ‘multitasking’ is an Urban Legend, created by a Marketing person. Complete one task after another.
Protect your health at all costs!
How to be a Better Leader
Begin with praise of honest appreciation
Praise the slightest improvement and every improvement
Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing others
Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly – let the other person save face
Be generous with your praise
Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to
Make faults seem easy to overcome
Make the other person happy about doing the things you suggest
Offer challenges
How to Influence People
Don’t criticize or complain – it only makes you look bad
Give honest sincere appreciation
Get others to want to do their best and a desire to succeed
Become genuinely interested in other people
In any language, a person/s name is the sweetest sound (but don’t over do it)
Be a good listener, get other people to talk about themselves
Get the other person to do 80% of the talking (as often as possible)
Talk about the other people’s interests
Make the other person feel important
The best way to win an argument is to avoid it
Respect other people’s opinions, never say “You’re wrong!”
If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically
Begin in a friendly way
Smile
Get the other person to say “Yes” to something as quickly as you can
Let the other person believe the idea was theirs
You don’t have to agree, but try hard to see things and understand things from the other person’s point of view
Be sympathetic with other people’s ideas and desires
Appeal to the other person’s nobler motives
Illustrate your ideas with stories
How to stop worrying in 2020
How to face trouble:
· Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen?”
· Then be prepared to accept the worst outcome
· Try to improve on the worst outcome
· Keep in mind the damage to your health that excessive worry can have
Analyzing your worries:
· Get all the facts
· Weigh the facts and come to a decision
· Once you reach a decision, act!
· Write out the answers to these questions:
· What is the problem?
· What are the causes of the problem?
· What are the possible solutions?
Break the Habit of Worrying Before it Breaks You
Keep busy
Don’t bother with unimportant things
Use the law of probability to analyze your worries
Go with the flow of the inevitable
Decide how much worry a particular problem is worth, and don’t give it any more than that
The past cannot be changed, so don’t bother worrying about
Instead, concern yourself with the actions you can take
Mark Twain said, “I've lived through some terrible things in my life, most of which never actually happened.”
Create a Mental Attitude That Will Bring You Happiness and Peace
Fill your mind with positive thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope
Never squander your energy trying to get even with an enemy
People will likely be ungrateful – expect it and don’t let it disappoint you.
Count your blessings not your troubles
Be an original, do not copy anyone but pattern your life after someone you admire
Learn from your mistakes, profit from your losses
Find happiness for yourself and bring happiness to others
Pray as if everything depends on God but act as if everything depends on you
Don’t worry about criticism
Don’t concern yourself with what other people think of you – it is what you think of yourself that really matters
Moreover, unjustified criticism is a compliment based in envy
You cannot do any more than the best you can, just be sure you are doing the best you can
We are looking forward to hearing from you at the end of 2020 about the improvements in your personal and professional life that you have observed and experienced. Good luck.
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