Avoid misdirected reactions

A very common human reaction to problem is to vent. This vent sometimes takes the form of irritated outbursts. This form of outburst is counter productive to the originator itself. Worse yet is having this misdirected at someone who had nothing to do with the original problem. People misdirect these reactions at people/animal/things that they perceive to be weaker/nicer than the original source of the problem. Thereby, such outburst would provide them a less aggressive/reactive/destructive target. The pleasure gained by such outburst is very short lived and could cause embarrassment or remorse later. We have to remember that professional success is directly related to effective relationships. Misdirected reactions could kill relationships. The best ways to avoid misdirected reactions is: (a) isolation and relaxation, (b) unemotional focus on resolution, (c) rejoice momentarily with some other fun activity

Help often

Life is full of challenges for all of us. We must be happy for all those times that we are not bogged down by those challenges, and we are sailing smooth. At times like these, there may be others who are not sailing quite as smooth as we are. We must take these opportunities to help them overcome their challenge. Since our mind is free from any major issues that we need to solve for ourselves, this is the best time for it to take on more. The more help points we can earn at times like these will pay us many fold later. First, it will help build relationships within a corporate structure. This in turn will be huge to get things done (even across department/company lines). Next, it will make it easier for us to get help when we need it. Last, but not the least, it helps build charisma through positive deeds. If we put out a helping hand to someone who has not previously shown much concern for us, it will help them realize their mistake and change their attitude and behavior towards us.

You can get anything you want.. IF.. you help enough other people get what they want - Zig Ziglar

Look on the brighter side

My eight year old daughter just said this to me during our usual father-daughter conversation the other day. She had never said this before and I was pleasantly surprised by her usage of the phrase. It was a gentle reminder for me to focus on positive and be positive. Since then, everytime I sit down to teach her or have a conversation with her about good habits, I am reminded to not only start on a brighter note, but I am also reminded to stay positive for the rest of that day - it is a good thing that I always start the date with an interaction with my wonderful daughter. Lesson learned... it would be helpful for us to pick some visible clue in our house, on our drive to work, at work, or elsewhere preferably earlier in the date, to show positive and negative characteristics. Understand and appreciate the positive characteristic that makes the object what it is and/or what it could be. This could be things like:

• a two year old who is just terrible to manage - without that child your life will be meaningless, that child's energy is a source for you to emulate, it is a trigger to your creative brain to come up with creative solutions to handle that

• a flashy combination of paint colors on a building - look at the creativity of the person who did that, their courage to be different, their solution to grab your attention every day