Giving back.
Paying it forward.
Providing help.
Assisting others.
Donating.
Charity.
Volunteering.
Sponsorships.
Scholarships.
Philanthropy.
Fundraising.
Whatever you do for others.
Please do more of it.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Productivity has been high.
You’ve been on fire all day.
There is a trail of done tasks left in your wake.
Now the energy is waning.
You’re running on empty.
Sure, you can keep going.
Becoming increasing unproductive the longer you persist.
Persevering past the point of diminishing returns.
You can grind out the next task.
Or you can rest and recover.
Do what works for you to recharge.
Returning to productively tackle that task.
You know when you’ve persevered too long.
The trick is to stop and recharge before you get there.
“Focus on being productive instead of being busy.” – Tim Ferriss
“We take better care of our smartphone than ourselves. We know when the battery is depleted and recharge it.” – Arianna Huffington
Confirm their name.
Check the pronunciation.
Check the spelling.
Is it two “l’s” or one?
Apologise if you get it wrong.
Apologise when you can’t remember.
Do better next time.
Learn people’s name.
What’s in a name?
Everything!
“Remember my name and you add to my feeling of importance.” — Dale Carnegie
“Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” – Dale Carnegie, author of “How To Win Friends and Influence People”
“Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
“Bond. James Bond.”
There is the offering of help.
The offer made on your own terms.
It’s easy to make the offer.
There’s the request for help.
That comes from them.
A little harder, but you still have control over the how.
Then there’s the request for help that is hard.
The type of request you would rather not do.
And you do it anyway.
Otherwise, they’d be stuck.
Because they would suffer great difficulty.
Your small inconvenience will avoid a major one for them.
So you help.
Because you can.
“Helping others is the way we help ourselves.” — Oprah Winfrey
“Life is short. Help more people.” — Robin Sharma
Take some time out.
Preferably before juggling balls start to drop.
Before the thinking get blurred.
Before performance is impacted.
Take some time out.
To renew.
To regenerate.
Recharge.
To sharpen the saw.
Take care of the body.
Nurture relationships and the heart.
Feed the mind.
Cultivate the spirit.
You’re no good to anyone if you burn yourself out.
“Renewal is the principle—and the process—that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement.” — Dr. Stephen R. Covey
What was the welcome like?
You will tend to remember the extremities.
Whether it was extraordinarily great.
Or disappointingly awful.
You probably shared the extreme experience.
As it was remarkably worthy of sharing.
So how do you think your welcomes are remembered?
Perhaps others found them remarkable.
For which extremity, well that is up to you.
“The more we feel concern for others and seek their well-being, the more friends we will have and the more welcome we will feel.” – Dalai Lama.
“There is little in life so reassuring as a genuine welcome.” – Robin Hobb
Your situation could always be better.
Then again, it could be worse.
Regardless of your present challenges.
There is someone worse off than you.
“If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.” – Regina Brett
“There is always someone worse off than yourself.” – Aesop
He has worked hard.
She with very little reward.
Often doing what is described as “a thankless job”.
Well …
Find that person.
Find those people.
And “thank” them.
Thank more … not less.
“Anyone too busy to say thank you will get fewer and fewer chances to say it.” – Harvey MacKay
“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” – John F. Kennedy.
“I can no other answer make, but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks…” – William Shakespeare
There are times when you get (need?) to slow down.
To appreciate the little things.
A great night’s sleep.
Dinner with the family.
Having a long conversation with a friend.
The dog playing with a new toy.
A sunrise … a sunset (you get to choose).
Your favourite drink (again … you get to choose).
Laughing out loud.
A Sunday drive … on any day.
Reading … anything.
Looking across water (river, lake, ocean).
Going for a walk.
A hug.
Take some time to savour.
Appreciate the little things.
“The little thing? The little moments? They aren’t little.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” – Winnie the Pooh
There is a blockage in the pipe.
A kink in the line.
A short in the circuit.
The communication is not getting through.
There are mixed messages.
Vague instructions.
Unclear directions.
Ambiguity.
Contradiction.
Miscommunication.
Or simply none at all.
Go fix the pipe.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw
“It’s the most talented, not the least talented, who are continually trying to improve their dialogue skills. As is often the case, the rich get richer.” – Kerry Patterson
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler