Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Dealing with Conditions

I had a great COO working for me at SYNNEX who talked about "Conditions".  Conditions are those things which you cannot change - you can only choose how to react to them.  For example - the exchange rates or if an accident has already happened.  It is done - now you can only react to the Condition.  Or as someone once wrote "you cannot ought to have done anything".  Dwelling on the "ought to have done" does not change it or add any value except in tearing down your self esteem.

Some tips for dealing with Conditions:

1 - Compartmentalize.  Often the Condition is high stress.  Once you have done all you can do.  Leave it.  Do something to take your mind off it.  Try to not let it spill into other compartments of your life.

2 - Choose your reaction.  Often the reaction chosen can hurt you even more than the condition.  This is like the person who chooses to say "my life if ruined because...".  Why do they choose to let the Condition ruin their life.  The more they assume they have no choice but to take the reaction they have the more helpless they are.

3 - Count your blessings.  Most Conditions are not as catastrophic as we imagine.  As Mark Twain said "I have suffered from a lot of worries in my life - a few of which actually happened".  The grateful in this world are happier and more in control.

4 - Help someone who is worse off than yourself.  This helps with gratefulness.  Focus on someone else.

5 - Focus on making another part of your life better.  Just because a Condition happened in one area does not mean you need it to poison all of life.  Often you can build better in another area.

6 - Be logical.  Often by exaggerating what it really means, you can see that it is not as big of a deal as it feels like at the time.  Sometimes a calm and insightful mentor can help this.

7 - Break a sweat.  I find there is nothing like a good workout to help me get perspective back.  And there is no downside.

8 - Control what you can.  Even though the nature of Conditions is you cannot control them, there often are parts of it or other things you can control.  Control gives hope and a part of us always like to be "doing something to fix it".

9 - Take a break.  Often the weight of the condition colours our whole view on life.  If you have already done what you can, take a break.  Breaks rejuvenate.  Figure out what rejuvenates you.

Good luck dealing with your Conditions.
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High blogger guilt.  Have not blogged lately.  I have been publishing some on Medium and Linkedin.  And have been invited to publish on Lifehack.

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I am a big believer in Linkedin.  It is a platform that people keep their own contact information current so you never lose touch.  And it is also an easy way to stay top of mind with prospects and clients by publishing updates and articles.  I have started re-publishing articles I had previously written. See this one on replicable sales models.

My stats on articles published is about 5% of my Linkedin connections or about 300 people read the articles.  Of course not all readers need to be my connections since anyone can see them.  I suppose in a way, that builds brand and has more people see the Danby name.

One of my more successful Linked articles got 772 views.  Not sure exactly why it go so many.   It did not have a particularly clickable title (One Effective Hiring Technique you Likely do not use)

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I am a self development person.  One author suggested he had success by using a login id which was his primary goal.  Interesting idea.  Article is here.  I have not tested the theory yet.

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Some press on Touch Bistro.  And the second CNBC article with 8 entrepreneurs sharing business advice.

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People think Xavier is smart because he knows the alphabet.  Big deal - I know the alphabet and no one says I am smart because I know the alphabet...






Sunday, September 11, 2016

Daniel Charles Maisonneuve Born Sept 10/2016

Headline says it all.  Brother to Baby Elizabeth who now likes to be called big sister Elizabeth.

Wondering what exciting things his life will bring.

Must be colder in Ottawa than here - he is wearing a hat.