A Global Dialogue

I was doing a search for a few blogs I'd written way back when and came across a blog I'd written almost 2 years ago today titled "A Milestone…..All of a sudden there were 50….and then there were 51! I wrote "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have regular readers from 50 countries coming by to read, comment and email their three cents."

That was the halway point between when I started blogging to now. Two years since that post I am now celebrating readership from 108 countries and territories! To say I'm blown away at how far reaching a blog can be is an understatement. To tell you how rich a dialogue can be when one has comments and insights from people from across the globe is indescribable. I am honoured and grateful that you take the time to read and write me and hope you stay for a long time to come.

If there is a topic or conversation you'd like to have and for me to write about, please suggest that too.

I will write more over the weekend, but for now would like to welcome our new readers from Bahrain, Fiji and Vietnam. Make yourself welcome!

Best to you all...
Donna Karlin

Thinking Traps vs. Mental Flexibility

A while ago I asked the question "What are you tolerating?" I wrote of one toleration where people habitually come into meetings late. That results in everyone else having to wait around, push back the rest of the day and other people's appointments to accommodate disrespectful behavior. This week I'd like to talk about another toleration; that of draining thoughts and beliefs.

Holding onto old ways of doing things, paradigms and processes that are no longer applicable can bring an organization down. Often, leadership, especially a leader who founded the company way back when and perhaps taught by a mentor from a generation past, wants to stick to methods that were tried and true. That doesn’t mean everything has to be scrapped and changed but if you're dealing with thoughts and beliefs that are draining you because you're in a constant tug of war with automation, technology, methods, and new "whipper-snappers" who want to do things the 'new-fangled way', not only will you be fighting them but you’ll have an inner tug of war going on that will spiral all of you downwards.

You end up tolerating this for many reasons, one of which is because you’re not sure how to modernize or change that paradigm without looking 'stupid' (or so you think). Those become thinking traps or patterns of thought that become roadblocks to success. These thinking traps don't serve you any more. It's time to revisit, upgrade your thinking, personal operating system or whatever you want to call it.

When you get into thinking traps you’re no longer making decisions that are best for your lives and/or organizations. It has nothing to do with how intelligent you are. It has to do with how quickly you can integrate new ways of thinking that will serve you better. It’s mental flexibility.

Are you tolerating a leader who is stuck in a thinking trap? Could you be the one who might be stuck? Before you jump in to answer on instinct...give it a thought for a moment or two. Care to share?

Best..
Donna Karlin

Perspectives for the Summer

Over the summer months we tend to spend more time playing than inside reading so to reflect that, I'll be posting shorter, to the point posts. This is the time of year when I do more program and model creation as well as seeking out like-minded blogs and articles and wading through the many books I've been asked to review.

How you'll benefit from this is to be the first to find out what it is I'm launching, creating and to be able to benefit from launch discounts, tips and pointers and other blogs to peruse that will give you the insights you're looking for.

Today I'd like to quote a blog I came across which really resonated with me.
Nic Askew writes... When your company must show itself naked...Exposing Company Soul...

"It occurred to me that if a company doesn't know its own essence, its reason for being perhaps even its soul then it will, as a result, spend most of its time and money re-inventing itself to react to the world.

It will always be telling the market what it thinks it needs to hear in order the convince that market to act how it wants. That sounds frustrating and expensive.

And I'm not sure that such a company could ever possess the sense of wonder & curiosity that would act as a lighthouse to customers, employees, ideas, funding etc. That also sounds no fun at all. Why do it, why run such a business?" Click Read On for the rest of the article..

The same concepts goes for individuals, though, doesn't it? If we can't articulate what it is we want in life, work, relationships, any of it, we too will be in reactive mode and let life's circumstances dictate our roles within it. Is that what you want? You can fall into a life based on everything and everyone else, or create it.

Best..
Donna Karlin

*Note: Welcome subscriber from Bahrain. 105 countries and territories and counting!