If you hang around Influential U for very long, you’ll hear the mantra “slow down to speed up.” This idiom may seem counter-intuitive in a world of quick fixes, miracle pills, and the insight-addicted. However, borrowed tactics, false starts, and aimlessness lead to wasted time and wasted resources. Few have the time, energy, money, and patience to weather a meandering journey to success.
Incremental Change: Slow Down to Speed Up Read More »
As we teach it, if you mean it, you measure it. Measurement is one of the eight critical exchanges in any transaction. The simple objective is to collect, organize, and report the vital measures of activity; to understand the results and consequences of your labor, work, and action.
To measure the result of an activity is to understand the true nature of results. Results are an outcome of activity, not something produced independent of activity. You can’t promise results (without the fitness to back it up), but you can promise activity – which is measured.
Measures Maketh the Win Read More »
The simple objective of every Invitation is an offer or request “to find out more.” Keep this simple phrase in mind. Invitations will take many forms and vary greatly depending on the situation at hand – however – the simple objective of every Invitation is to accept or make an offer “to find out more.”
A powerful Invitation is compelling. How do we make powerful offers or requests to “find out more”? What works best? Does this vary with differing personalities/
What is an Invitation? Read More »
ZIG ZIGLAR famously said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” While many ambitious professionals have specific goals, we sometimes aren’t aimed in a direction that will ultimately help us build the career we desire, get paid what we’re worth, and not work so hard in the process. In fact, most people don’t know what they want and how to get there. If we seek to live a satisfying and comfortable life, we must confront the truth about our aims in each Condition of Life. This journey begins with carefully crafted aims that ensure that you know where you’re going.
What Are Your Aims and Why Do They Matter? Read More »
Career is our marketplace identity. It is how we are identified as an offer of help and value in the marketplace. Career is, in general, how we are known as an identity of value and help in our public world.
Thinking Accurately: Career Read More »
Robert Cialdini identified the 7 Levers of Influence that people use to persuade others: reciprocity, commitment or consistency, consensus or social proof, authority, liking, scarcity, and unity. These levers have become widely used for persuasion since the book’s first publication many decades ago.
When it comes to getting people to take action, every exchange is an opportunity to persuade them.
How do we apply these levers in our transactions?
Levers of Influence Read More »
How do we think accurately about our Money? Where do we tend to not think accurately and why does it matter? Money is the value of our help in the marketplace. Money includes currency (cash), equity, highly specialized skill, and other valuable forms of exchange that allow us the opportunity to transact in the marketplace. The more money we have, the more options, opportunities, and autonomy we enjoy.
Thinking Accurately: Money Read More »
We are defined as much, if not more, by what we decline as we are by what we accept. If you don’t respect your offer, no one else will. Staying present to your aims in each Condition of Life – and – being informed by the commitments, promises, and obligations already in place will be your greatest guide for what invitations, offers, and requests will (or will not) offer you the best use of your time, energy, talent, and concerns.
The Power of Declining Read More »
Activity is what we do (the actual activity) with our body/mind to produce satisfaction in all of the Conditions of Life. How do we think accurately about satisfying this condition?
Thinking Accurately: Activity Read More »
Health is one of the fifteen unavoidable Conditions of Life. How do we think accurately about our health? Where do we tend to not think accurately and why does it matter? Dr. Gary Ward helps us understand more about this condition.
Thinking Accurately: Health Read More »
