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I’ve taken over a month off from blogging. This was completely unplanned, but it has led me to rethink everything about how I have blogged in the past and what kind of blogger I want to be going forward - and even IF I want to be a blogger at all. I guess you could say I’ve been having an existential blogging crisis. Let me explain…
A long, long time ago - I think it was around 2002 - some of my friends started to write these online journals on a site called Blogger. They called these journals blogs and they were simple little web pages that they would update with scintillating details about their dinners and how fat they felt on a particular day. (Some of my friends still haven’t outgrown this phase of their life.) But regardless of the subject matter, blogs were social media. People used them to keep in touch with old friends and find new ones that shared their interests.
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Can you find the cloud in every silver lining? Do you have the uncanny ability to have a lousy time at the best party? When you’re offered a promotion at work do you immediately start to think about what a hassle the new position will be?
If that is you, I completely empathize. I have to admit that I can out-negative the best of them. There seem to be many reasons to be cynical about life in general, and not nearly as many to be optimistic. The problem is, being a cynic isn’t much fun.
Personally, I prefer having fun over whining.
The good news (pun intended) is that there are many ways to transform your thinking from negative to positive. Here are just a few techniques:
If you decide to really turn around your negative thought patterns, participate in Positive Thinking Day on September 13. The website has lots of good information on ways to think more positively and improve your mindset - and your life.
Do you have a positive thinking technique that works well for you? If you do, please share it in the comments.
If you would like to support this blog, why not buy me a coffee? $1 for regular brew, $5 for a vanilla latte.If you are a frequent visitor, you may notice that Never the Same River Twice has a new theme. I was getting a bit bored with the previous theme and decided to change things up a bit.
Thanks to some assistance from the awesome Joel of The Blog Tech Guy, the theme is installed, but I will continue to tinker with it for a while to work out the last few formatting issues and add some New and Exciting Features!!!
Stay tuned and thank you for your patience during the transition process.
If you would like to support this blog, why not buy me a coffee? $1 for regular brew, $5 for a vanilla latte.How can I convince other people to change?
If there is one great mystery in change management, it’s that question. Whether it’s your employees, your coworkers, your children or your significant other, it seems like it’s always a challenge to bring others along with a change. It’s such a problem that I’ve begun to work on a way to use mind control techniques to influence others to change.
I’m willing to teach all of my readers these techniques, provided that all of you promise to only use your new powers for good.
Promise?
Here’s the first secret: You have to lead by being the first to change.
Recently I ran across a story in a local business publication that described how a senior executive changed his working style. He had been reluctant to delegate and didn’t feel that it was important to develop relationships with his direct reports. Here is an excerpt from the article:
When I began to work with him, Roger was doing the work that his managers and other staff should have been doing. He admitted problems in his leadership and personal relationships had pursued him throughout his life. He was wearing down physically and mentally.
Roger and I started with a written action plan… His preliminary action steps were to listen, ask open-ended questions, become more visible to the employees, get to know them on a personal level, and invite them to participate in decisions… These were deep changes for Roger, who had never seen the value in work relationships and had suffered for years because he didn’t focus on them.
Roger has reported some new and remarkable experiences. Employees are opening up to him in a way they hadn’t before. His team has begun to offer ideas and participate in making the changes. His personal relationships are changing for the better. He now understands how a few changes in the way he interacts will increase the engagement of those around him.
What really caught my attention from this piece was the effect that Roger’s change in working style had on his employees. By changing himself, Roger was able to influence his direct reports to take on more responsibility, make more contributions to the company, and add more value in general. I’m quite sure that if Roger continued down the path described in this article, he influenced change in employees throughout his department.
As we can see from this example, change - especially sincere, steadily applied change - has a way of spreading.
I’m sure by now you can see where this is going. If you are convinced that a change is the best course for your organization, family, or relationship YOU will have to be the driver of that change. Here are a few common examples of desired changes and ways that you might begin to implement them.
The secret to making any of these types of changes stick is to be consistent in your changed behavior. You will have to establish yourself as the leader of this change long enough to allow them to become established in the group. If it takes up to 30 days for people to establish a new habit, you may have to be the leader for a minimum of 30 occurrences of the pattern you wish to change. This means 30 departmental meetings, 30 days of messiness, or 30 nights out. If this is too much commitment for you, rethink whether you truly want the change.
So what are you waiting for? Start working your mental powers to influence others to change. When you do, come and tell us about it in the comments!
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