Strategies in Power - Cecilia Edwards

Power Punch #3

You always have a choice in life.  If you think you don't have time to do something that is important to you, you have really just made a choice to prioritize something else ahead of it.  If there is something you feel your boss is forcing you to do at work, you really do have a choice. You are choosing to comply because of the implication that not complying may have on your job and career.  If the law requires you to do something - you are choosing not to have to go to jail or pay a fine. You can choose your reaction to situations, and what you think about them.  You have a choice about everything in life - as long as you remember that you must also bear the consequences.  Embracing this simple truth will rescue you from a life of victimhood and propel you into be a powerful  agent of change both in your life and the world.

Power Punch #2

There is no one on earth that can be responsible for ensuring we receive and accomplish all we desire in life besides ourselves. If we want to improve things, we may not have the positional power, but we do have personal power. Learning to effectively use it is what will move those with the positional power to act, and it is what will increase our odds of obtaining position power ourselves. Owning your part of the situation is the best way to operate inpower and to begin to change our world.

Have a powerful day!

Cecilia

New Book - Tap Into Your Power

In December, I completed my first book, Tap Into Your Power: Increasing Access to Your Inherent Power.  I have been complelled to write and urged by others for quite some time now to write a book.  I have had a book outlined on how to change the world (yes, in big ways) for quite some time now, but decided not to write that yet.  Simlarly, I passed on writing the book on problem solving and on my InPower coaching program.  All three of these seemed a bit too premature. 

Instead, I chose to write something that would be accessible to the masses, that would begin to change people's thinking to a state that is more commonly in power than one of being a victim.

I chose to use quotes - something we are all familiar with and often use for brief moments of inspiration.

I chose a format that will support the goal of having this book have some impact on those who read and use it by suggesting reader participation.  I chose a format that was good for starting conversations with groups and even moving through the book with others.

My desire is to facilitate conversations about power and to create a community of people who have the audacity to believe that they have the power to lead a life of impact and even to change the world.

Share you thoughts with me and others on the kind of impact you would like to have.

Instead, I chose to write something that would be accessible to the masses, that would begin to change people's thinking to a state that is more commonly in power than one of being a victim.

I chose to use quotes - something we are all familiar with and often use for brief moments of inspiration.

I chose a format that will support the goal of having this book have some impact on those who read and use it by suggesting reader participation.  I chose a format that was good for starting conversations with groups and even moving through the book with others.

My desire is to facilitate conversations about power and to create a community of people who have the audacity to believe that they have the power to lead a life of impact and even to change the world.

Share you thoughts with me and others on the kind of impact you would like to have.

Power Punch #1

Only commit to things that you can place the highest value in accomplishing. These are the only things that you have any real intention of doing anyhow. If you have not commitment to follow through on your resolutions, they do more to rob you of your power than they do to support. This year, try it a different way and create plans to which you are committed and build in accountability. This will increase your odds of having a powerful 2009.

Have a powerful day!

New Year's Resolutions Don't Work - Time for a New Approach

Each year nearly 100 million Americans make New Years resolutions to lose weight, eat better, exercise, save, invest or earn more money, quit drinking or smoking, strengthen or make new relationships, or a host other things that might otherwise eliminate unnecessary pain or cause joy in their lives.  Every year, 97% of the resolutions made are broken.  25% are broken within the first week, close to 40% are broken within the first month, and nearly 60% don't make it past the six month mark. The next year, the same resolutions are made to do, start, or stop the same things again.

New Year's resolutions - the way our tradition would have us make them just don't work.  Here are two major reasons why:

1. Relatively little thought goes into determining the resolutions.  Either the last few days of the year or on New Year's day, a list of things that are top of mind are jotted down as resolutions.  The draw backs to this are numerous, but here are a couple of major ones:
   
   • All of the bad behaviors and indulgences from the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season are on the top of our minds.  These do not necessarily reflect the things of most importance for the whole year
   • Usually includes a list of things we think we should do regardless of our level of motivation.  These are not the things we want to do so our commitment to them is relatively low
2. Resolutions usually focus on completing tasks and not transforming behaviors.  A resolution to clean out the garage will usually need to be made the following year because no effort is taken to change the behavior that led to the junky garage in the first place.

A much better approach is to focus on goals and objectives that are in alignment with both who we are and who it is we desire to become.  Doing this will require more work - the kind of work that will increase the odds of the objectives being met.  You will therefore be better off reducing the number of goals you set each year and creating a plan for each one.  The process might look something like this:

• Determine the areas of your life or work in which you have the greatest desire to make a change
• Craft a long-term vision for what things would ideally look like in that area
• Create a shorter-term goal for the year that will move you closer to that vision
• Determine what structures and supports you need to put in place to accomplish the goal - including potentially a coach or accountability group

If you have not commitment to follow through on your resolutions, they do more to rob you of your power than they do to support.  This year, try it a different way and create plans to which you are committed and build in accountability.  This will increase your odds of having a powerful 2009.

Have a powerful day!
Cecilia

A Joyful Christmas During Tough Economic Times

In my coaching program, Get InPower, I have a rule - No Should-ing.  The No Should-ing rule is extremely important during this holiday season and in the current economy.  Over the years, our learned behaviors and expectations for the Christmas season are that we will all spend an excessive amount of money buying presents for each other - many of which will be totally useless shortly after their purchase. 

The retail industry’s success for the whole year is based upon spending during the holiday season.  They capture about 25% of their sales and 60% of their profit during this time of year.  Shortly after Halloween, the store aisles start showing signs of items dreamt up and manufactured just for this time of year to play into our thinking that we "should" spend. We spend way more than is reasonable on things we either don't want or need.  After all, who really needs a Chia Pet.

Economists have estimated that at least 10% of our purchases during this season are deadweight loss.  This means that if you calculate the amount givers spent and subtract how much the receivers of the gifts would have paid for the same items (if anything) - the difference is the loss.  Not really intending to pick on them, but ... would you ever spend $20 of your own money on a Chia Pet.  Probably not.  That is deadweight loss.  Ten percent might not sound like a lot, but Americans spend upwards of $40 billion a year during the Christmas season.  Ten percent deadweight loss is $4 billion - and that is a lot of money.

This year, times are tight for everyone.  People are losing their jobs and homes.  Retirement funds are being raided just to keep the lights on.  Even the wealthy have suffered losses.  As the stock market takes a dive, it is their net worth that plummets.  Companies are cutting back on holiday parties and bonuses.  Out of necessity, the extravagant spending will be greatly reduced this year.  (There is even talk that Barak Obama and his administration are considering scaling back the inaugural celebrations so as not to send the wrong message to the American people.)

The Good Morning America, The Today Show, and other talk shows are buzzing with advice on how to reset gift expectations this year and to not become racked with guilt in the process. The best way to do this is to stop Should-ing.  Here are a few steps:

• For everyone on your gift list, consider exactly what you are trying to accomplish with the gift.  Some examples might be:  to let them know you love or care about them; as a thank you for their support during the year; because you always give them a gift; because they will be upset if you don’t give them one.  Try to be as honest with yourself as possible, assess your motives, and make conscious decisions about who stays on your gift list and who only needs a card.
• Try to determine what the receiver might actually value.  This is not only important for the gift's recipient but for the giver as well.  When you give something that you know is of no interest to someone, you reinforce the sense of obligation to give that you have internally, feel as though you are wasting your money, and receive none of the joy that is inherent in the act of giving.
• Determine how much you are willing to spend in both time and money on the gift.  Since the root motivation for all gift-giving is connected to the maintenance or establishment of a relationship, the sentiment of the gift is important.  Sentiment does not have to cost a lot of money, but it does require your time.  Invest some of your mental energies to ensure your gift has high sentimental value.  If your $10 gift is related to something you heard the person say they wanted or addresses a problem you know they have, it will be more valuable to the receiver than an expensive necklace is to someone who doesn't wear jewelry.

The spirit of the Christmas season, regardless of your religious affiliation, is one of love, joy, and peace.  Gifts (originally handmade items and baked goods) were traditionally given as an expression of that spirit.  As the economic power of our nation grew, the price tags our gifts has grown and our expectations of the quantify of gifts also grew.  During all of this growing, the true Christmas spirit has suffered and so has our level of personal power.  Take back your power and decide for yourself, without the Should-ing, how you would like to extend your love, experience joy, and spread peace this holiday season.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Have a Powerful Day!
Cecilia

Barack Needs Your Help: He Can’t Fulfill All of His Campaign Promises Without You

The election of Barack Obama is indeed historical and marks the beginning of a new era in American history.  Not only has our country made great strides in achieving Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of an America where we are judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character, we have reached new heights of involvement in the political process and have called for change.  Barack Obama ran on a platform of change.  “Yes, we can” was his campaign slogan.

Now that he has been elected our 44th president and the first black president of the United States of America, we must remember that we only elected a president, not a savior.  While bold claims of change were made on the campaign trail, President-Elect Obama has always made it clear that he needs our help – the help of all Americans to succeed. 

While he promises to improve education, it is up to us to engage in the education of our own children and send them to school prepared to learn.  New jobs can be created but we have to be prepared to qualify for them and have the proper work ethic to keep them.  While having access to health care is critical, more than 60% of our health outcomes are determined by our own habit and behaviors.  We must be prepared to live healthy lives and do our part to minimize preventable diseases.  Our environment will only get better if we all reduce our energy consumption and live more “green” lives.

In other words, we have to do our part.  Obama will only succeed if we put forth the same type of effort and assume an even greater level of responsibility than his staff, army of volunteers and millions of America’s voting citizens took in getting him elected.  As he stated, his victory was our victory – the victory of the American people.  His success – or failure – will be ours as well.

Barack Obama will assume office in on January 20, 2009.  Until then he will be preparing himself to execute his plans.  He is preparing himself to effectively use all of the power that will be bestowed upon him as the President of the United States of America to affect the greatest change possible.

What are you doing to prepare for your part?  Do you understand that you too have tremendous power to affect change?  If you are going to do your part, why not join our President-Elect in preparing for the most powerful time of our lives.  Determine which of the issues are most important to you.  Decide what you will do in your own life to improve in those areas and make a commitment to work to change the system in an area or areas that are of greatest importance to you.

Have a powerful day!

Cecilia

Weight Loss and Exercise Are Usually Bad Goals to Set

Every year millions of people set goals to exercise or to lose weight. A multi-billion dollar industry supports this national obsession with goals related to moving our bodies and slimming down. Gyms count on the fact that most of the people who purchase memberships will not show up. Were everyone to do so, there would not be enough room to hold all of the sweaty bodies. Diet product companies are supported by their repeat customers who had some measure of success that was not sustainable. The yo-yoing we used to do with toys as children has been replaced with an even more pervasive yo-yoing of our weight and waistline measurements.

Queen Latifa recently started Jenny Craig. She has been known in the past to say that she did not have a problem with her weight, she thinks she is beautiful, she likes to eat, and she thinks the skinny people look hungry. This opinion that she holds of herself is not one that she holds alone. This full-figured beauty "queen" has graced the cover of several magazines and full-page glamour advertisements.

So why would she go on Jenny Craig and why will she be successful in her efforts? Because her goal is not to lose weight. On one of her first commercials, she stated that she heard that by losing a small percent of one's body weight, just 5-10%, the risk of diabetes and other heart related diseases dramatically decreases. That sounded compelling enough for her to take some action. Reducing health risks and increasing her energy levels became the goal. A change in diet and increased exercise became supporting habits she was willing to establish in order to accomplish her real goals.

There are a whole host of motivating goals that someone might establish, some more serious than others, that would require healthy eating and routine exercise as supporting habits for their realization:

• Preventing or recovering from disease or injury
• Achieving a certain weight class or performance level in sports
• Meeting the requirements for a job
• Being able to fit into an existing wardrobe
• Reducing stress levels
• Increasing and sustaining energy levels
• Feeling better
• Having clearer thinking

Goals such as these are linked to either our values or life's desires. It is much more likely that our motivation levels will be maintained when there is a high level of internal alignment with our goals. Self-discipline and will power are supported by a genuine desire to accomplish something that is important to us.

Some things to remember when setting goals related to weight or anything else are:

• Don't set goals to do or accomplish something just because people say you should
• Don't set goals to do things you don't like doing
• Set a goal to accomplish something that is important to you
• Identify the supporting habits, things you may or may not enjoy doing, that are necessary to accomplish your goals.

Have a powerful day!

Cecilia

High Achievers Must Set Their Own Standards

Hicham El Guerrouj is an Olympic gold medalist in track and field as a middle distance runner.  His vision of achieving the title of Olympic Champion led to a tough ten year battle and was almost not realized.  El Guerrouj was headed down the path of becoming "The Greatest Never" [to will a Olympic gold medal] and instead became "The Greatest Ever."

Prior to arriving at his first Olympic games, El Guerrouj was part of the Moroccan relay team that set a world record.  He won the indoor world championship, came in second in the world championship, and was on an unbeaten streak in the 1,500 meters as he entered the games.  During the 1996 Olympics, on the last lap of the race, while battling for first place, he fell and finished last.  He won the remaining races that season, including a victory over Noureddine Morceli, the gold medalist in his ill-fated Olympic race.

For the next four years, El Guerrouj won several more championships and broke a couple of world records.  He entered the 2000 Olympics as a favorite.  During the 1,500 meter race, he was outrun by another competitor and took the silver.  Regardless of the fact that he had beaten every other runner on the track besides Noah Ngeny and received a medal, El Guerrouj did not consider himself a champion.  He went back to work in preparation for the next Olympic games.

He shared a comment in an interview about his preparation for the 2004 games that is astonishing.  This world champion several times over, multiple world record holder, and Olympic silver medalist said that he was not disciplined enough and that he was going to take things us a notch in order to be successful in 2004.  That sounds like a preposterous statement.  This man was clearly more disciplined that 99.9% of all of the people on the planet.  He was an extremely successful athlete whose past accomplishments required a kind of focus and dedication that is incomprehensible to most of us.  There was not a single person on the planet that could have legitimately criticized him for his level of discipline and focus in training.  No one, that is, but himself.

There are a valuable set of lessons that all high performers can take from El Guerrouj:

• Push so hard that you risk failing - To win big, you have to take the risk to really put yourself out there.  That means not playing it safe so you can win second.  Play to win.  Had El Guerrouj been satisfied with second place, he probably would not have pushed himself so hard in 1996 and fallen.
• After a defeat, get back up and continue your winning streak - Just because you fail, doesn't mean you are done.  The history of performance and accomplishment should be the focus for the future.  The failure should only be examined to determine adjustments that should be made to support more and greater accomplishments.
• Set your own standards - Be clear about your own definition of success and never let others try to tell you to settle.  The definition should be an absolute standard versus a relative one.  Relative standards don't hold up as you continue to excel because you soon become relatively better than the competition.  Absolute standards or standards that are relative to your own performance are the ones that will continuously support you in maintaining a level of high achievement.

By the way, although suffering from some type of congestion just days before the race and not feeling like himself, El Guerrouj went on to win the gold medal in the 1,500 meter race at the 2004 Olympics.  Adding to this victory, El Guerouj took on the most difficult Olympic double distance challenge and won the 5,000 meters race as well, solidifying his place as one of the greatest middle distance runners ever.

Have a powerful day!

Cecilia

An End to Death-by-Meetings

Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

At the end of a meeting I attended the other day, I almost witnessed a scene that is all to familiar in the business world.  A group of people, often very highly paid, sit around in a room for hours, discuss lots of great ideas, make statements regarding things they would like accomplished and about actions they would like "someone" to take.  When the meeting breaks up, everyone walks out of the room and promptly forgets everything that was discussed until the day of the follow-up meeting.  All too often, during that next meeting, no one has done anything that was last discussed and nothing has been accomplished. 

If this is a common scenario, why bother meeting?  We do so because meetings are valuable tools where colleagues have an opportunity to gather to:

• Discuss ideas
• Challenge each others thinking
• Get input from multiple perspective
• Make decisions
• Develop plans of action
• Build consensus on issues of importance
• Work collaboratively on projects
• And a host of other very positive things

There are some very practical steps that can be taken to maintain the value that meetings have the potential to provide while eliminating the wasted effort and time so commonly experienced.

• Have and publish in advance an agenda - Published agendas are used so that everyone knows beforehand exactly what is to be covered in the meeting and how they should prepare.  If you are not the meeting organizer, after reviewing the agenda, make sure you understand why (or if) you are necessary to accomplish the meeting's objectives before you agree to attend.
• Keep a running list of action items - All throughout the meeting, some should be keeping a running list of every request for action that is made by anyone during the meeting.  That way, it eliminates the need for everyone to later try to remember everything that was said.  If the list can be kept in a manner that is visible to all participants - on a white board or flip chart - that is even better.  It allows participants to more fully participate in the entire meeting without worrying whether their point was captured and eliminates the need for them to repeat it.
• Assign each action to an individual - aAt the end of the meeting, the group should collectively go through the list of action items that were captured.  Some items may have been covered during meeting or are no longer relevant.  These items should be deleted.  The remaining actions should be assigned to an individual.  If there is more than one person that needs to be assigned, one person should be identified as the primary person responsible for initiating the necessary actions to complete the item.
• Assign a due date to each item - There should be collective agreement on when each item is due.  A specific date is needed here, not something vague such as "two weeks from now."  If the action is a long-term effort, a date should be identified for some interim steps that are necessary to initiate the item.
• Publish the assignments - As soon as possible after the meeting, the complete list of assigned actions should be distributed to all meeting attendees.  The longer it takes for the attendees to receive this list, the greater the chance that their commitments go "stale" in their minds and they become more committed to other issues.  It will require greater effort for them to reengage so send the assignments while there is still some momentum.

Incorporating these simple disciplines into your meeting practices will greatly enhance the productivity of your meetings and keep everyone coming back for more.

Have a powerful day!

Cecilia