How important is it to keep a positive perspective?  It’s a popular topic on the self-help and self development circuit as one of the keys to long term happiness (or at least contentment).  There have also been a lot of scientific studies – in this article on the benefits of positive thinking from the Mayo Clinic it’s pretty key, a positive outlook will help reduce stress, help you live longer and be healthier overall…all in all not a bad deal!

As a business owner, staying positive is even more important…especially considering the alternative.  You’ve got plenty of things to worry about – starting with finances, people, competition…overall it’s a long list.  Now picture the difference of approaching these issues with a positive perspective and outlook versus a negative outlook?  With a positive approach, anything is possible and problems can be solved.  With a negative approach, everything is an issue and soon it all feels very overwhelming – it would be much easier to throw in the towel if you’re approaching things negatively. 

It might sound a little touchy feely, but I can tell you that it impacts a lot of business owners that I talk to.  The idea is summarized nicely in one of my favorite songs from The Shins – Young Pilgrims:

“But I learned fast how to keep my head up ’cause I
Know there is this side of me that
Wants to grab the yoke from the pilot and just
Fly the whole mess into the sea.” – The Shins

I think we all fight our own demons from time to time, but there is a real upside to keeping your head up – when you can open up and look at the possibilities you’ll be surprised at the great ideas and solutions you can come up with.

So positive thinking can impact your results (as I’ve written before)…it’s a wonderful, important thing to do, but what if you’re just not wired that way?  It’s not like you can just flip a switch and start thinking positively.  How you think /  your approach to things is a habit and it will require some changes if you’re going to be able to make being positive stick. 

Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Be aware of your thoughts

A good place to start would be to simply start raising your awareness of what your thoughts are…how often are you thinking and talking to yourself in a negative way?  This is especially important because it turns our your brain is physically wired to reinforce whatever you’re thinking on a regular basis – check out points #2 and #3 from this great list of 30 Amazing Facts About Your Brain from Tim Brownson.  You tend to get more of whatever you think, so if you’re being negative, it’s easier to be negative the next time around.

Question? When you talk to yourself (in your head) are you positive or negative?

Give some serious thought to who you spend time with

Jim Rohn has a famous quote:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

If you’re hanging out with people who are inherently negative, you’re going to be negative as well.  Attitudes (along with success or failure) are contagious – it may be time to consider cleaning up your tribe (easier said than done, but it could have a huge impact on you).

Question?  Are the people you spend the most time with challenging you and helping you get better…or are they holding you back?

Start reframing when you notice potentially negative situations

Reframing is simply the conscious act of changing your perspective on something (an event, an outcome, a person, etc.).  Typically what ever we’re looking at or talking about isn’t inherently good or bad, it depends on how we frame our perception…and you can choose that frame.  Tim Brownson also has a good article on Reframing and how to use it.

Question?  Do you consciously look at a situation or an outcome and find a way to reframe it in a more positive light?  Could you?

There are a lot of other ways to impact your outlook – exercise can be a great way to lift your mood…a lot of people recommend some form of meditation…listen to positive music, read positive books or magazines, watch uplifting movies or shows.

How important is positive thinking to you?  When you’re trying to stay (or get) positive, what works best for you?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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It’s hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving – for me at least, 2011 has gone by in a blur (…time flies when you’re having fun?)!  Thanksgiving is always a great reminder to take a little time for yourself and think about what you’re grateful for.  Even better – use the time for reflection and start a new habit of appreciation that you can carry throughout the year.

I first thought about doing a straight list of things I’m thankful for, but Jason over at Blue Gurus beat me to the punch with his 10 Things We’re Thankful for this Year post, so I decided to take a slightly different approach.

Why be Thankful?

For starters it turns out that being authentically grateful for what you have confers a whole host of mental and physical health benefits!  Check out this great article from the Wall Street Journal – Thank You. No, Thank You.  There’s a lot of really strong information in there, including research that shows the following:

Adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past decade. They’re also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy or alcoholics. They earn more money, sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly and have greater resistance to viral infections.

All in all, that’s a pretty strong list of benefits – and it doesn’t even touch on the idea that people are naturally drawn to those with the confidence and humility to give credit to others.

Try This

Obviously there’s no deep secret on how to feel grateful – odds are you’ve had that experience.  The more challenging part is to give yourself the time and the mechanism for doing it on a regular basis (and not just over turkey). 

One approach that might work for you is to use a Gratitude Journal…every day or maybe every week sit down somewhere quiet and write down 3 to 5 things you’re grateful for.  Try to be specific and remember it doesn’t have to earth shattering, often it’s the little things in life that add a lot of meaning.

If you’re a little more high tech…and thankful for your iPhone or iPad, you might want to check out the Gratitude Journal App from HappyTapper (I love that name).

It sounds overly simplistic that just reflecting and journaling on the positives in your life can make a difference, but the reality is that you are what you think.  (On a related note – here’s a great article from Entrepreneur on You Are What You Think).

Me?  I’m thankful for a lot of things:  I’m thankful that my family is healthy and despite often crazy schedules we still have time to get together and have fun now and then.  I’m thankful for all the things my wife does to support me (and make the family thing actually work…).

I’m thankful for my great clients – not only are they all great people that I enjoy hanging out with, but they are attempting and doing a lot of interesting and important things and every day I  appreciate the opportunity to help them get to where they want to go.

Finally – I’m thankful for the times we live in.  Yes the economy is awful and politicians across the board continue to be selfish, short-sighted and often stupid.  But despite all of that, we are truly living in amazing times with technology and societal wonders happening all around us.  We don’t have flying cars or Hover Boards just yet, but we are seeing a lot of cool things every day.

What are you thankful for?  Take some time to write it down…or share your thoughts in the comments below – we’d love to hear from you.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

Photo by Kevin Dooley

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Have you ever had the experience of shopping for a new car, where you finally decide on THE car that you really want to buy.  Let’s say it’s a new Honda sedan…and at that point, you suddenly started noticing all of the Honda sedans on the road – they are everywhere!

The reality is that the number of Hondas on the road didn’t change from one day to the next, you just tuned your Reticular Activating System!

The Reticular Activating System is the part of your brain that helps you filter out the unimportant stuff going on around you…and conversely focus on the important stuff.  Without that filter, you’d be overwhelmed with stimuli and likely lose the ability to function, so it’s an important part of your brain that most of us don’t know anything about!

However the good news about the Reticular Activating System is that it can be programmed.  When you were buying your Honda, you decided that Honda sedans were important and by doing so you set your filter and you started noticing the Hondas that were out there…whereas previously they didn’t make the cut!

Another good example of this phenomena is the ability that we all have to hear our name spoken from across a crowded room, despite a dozen conversations going on around you at the same time.  Your name is important to you, and therefore your filters are set to pick it up…even in noisy circumstances, picking out that one unique sound out of hundreds being processed every minute.

You can experiment with this sometime – come up with a specific image that you likely could see during your day.  Maybe it’s men wearing a red tie, or a woman with a gold watch, something plausible but not common.  Fix that image in your mind and write down the description on a piece of paper 2 or 3 times – then count the number of times that you notice that imagery as you go through your day.  I think you’ll be surprised at how often you see things.

What you focus on expands

There’s a universal truth saying out there that ‘What you focus on expands’ which ties directly into the programming of your Reticular Activating System.

If you are focused on negativity and problems, you will find more of the same.

However if you are focused on opportunities and positive outcomes, you’re going to see more of those as you go through your day.

The kicker is that you are limited to the number of things that you can key on…so if you choose to focus on the negative, you lose the option of also focusing on the positive (and vice versa).  In other words, if you find yourself feeling negative and noticing all of the problems in the world, you can make the conscious choice to notice the positive and turn things around!

On a more tangible level, you can also train the filter to help you notice specific things that might otherwise go unnoticed.  As an example, let’s say you are looking for a friendly banker to build a relationship with in the hopes of borrowing money in the future for your business.  If you create a specific goal to meet a friendly business banker (and write it down…because that’s how you train your Reticular Activating System) then you will start noticing more business bankers that might have slipped your notice previously.

What are you focusing on?  Do you consciously choose to look for opportunities?  Do you hang out with people who are negative or positive?  You get to choose what you focus on…and by consciously choosing you set yourself on the path of doing important things!

Napoleon Hill said it best when he talked about this a long time ago when he was working on Think and Grow Rich:

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. “

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – have you ever seen examples of deciding to really focus and look for something and being pleasantly surprised when you found it?  How about your thoughts on the importance of a positive outlook versus a negative one?  Let me know what you’re thinking in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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Are you exhausted? 

How about just not energized or struggling to stay focused and ‘in the zone’?  Maybe you just feel sleepy a lot!

A lot of people these days are feeling stressed, nervous, anxious and generally not as effective or productive as they’d like to be – and that lack of productivity makes the whole thing worse, creating a real problem for a lot of people.

With that in mind – here are 3 articles full of tips from experts on how to be more effective, productive and less sleepy!

First up – 10 Tips for re-energizing your day, every day.  The article is by Matthew May, but the tips are from Tony Schwarz – CEO of The Energy Project and author of the book ‘The way we’re working isn’t working’.

There are several interesting things to take-away from the article:

• People perform best when they’re ‘pulsing’ on 90 minute intervals (go hard for 90 minutes and then take a break – scientifically proven!).
• Anxiety and fear aren’t positive motivators (even in moderation) – negative emotions of any kind undermine peak performance.
• Build time into your day and purposely let your mind wander (daydream, listen to music, go for a walk) to come up with creative solutions.

The second article is “How to be Insanely Productive and Keep Smiling” from the blog Zen Habits (always great stuff there).

The central premise for the article is that high productivity isn’t about doing, it’s about being.  (It sounds new age, but she makes practical sense).

My highlights:

• Negativity will stifle productivity (there’s a common theme here) – if you’ve spent any time around negative co-workers, you’ve probably seen this firsthand.
• You’ve got to take action…make things happen.  I think this is true from a personal perspective and for your business – you should be leaving a wake, building momentum to really get things done.
• Get perspective – why do  you need to be productive?  If what you’re trying to achieve is meaningful to you, then you’ll be much more focused.

Finally – a bit of a different take that’s more focused on writing is an article from David Meerman Scott, noted Author and Speaker with “Efficiency and Cranking Stuff Out” from his blog at WebInkNow (also a blog worth following).

I found this one compelling because I like his work and he is very prolific – multiple books, lots of blog posts, speaking engagements, etc.  Here are my take away thoughts from his article:

• He loves what he does.  He has a clear focus and it’s on his mind a lot.  You get more done if it’s something you love doing.
• He repurposes content – if you’re creating for marketing purposes, are their other ways you could use the same information?
• Just get it done – he knocks out what needs to be done and minimizes procrastinating.

What are your tips for being more efficient?  Do you agree that being well rested, focused with a clear outcome is the best way to really get things done?

I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below if you’ve got the time or energy. 

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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As a business owner, you always have choices on how you run your business.  It’s not unusual to see a taskmaster chewing out their employees and running a tight ship.  You will also find those businesses that are run with encouragement and a high degree of compassion.

The cynics out there will sneer at the power of positive thinking.  It’s all about profits and the bottom line and there’s no room for fluff and nonsense and making people feel good.  These employees are grown-ups, if they can’t handle getting yelled at, then they need to go somewhere else!

On the other hand, the uber-idealists will tell you that all you need is love (or maybe that was the Beatles) and as long as people are happy, the results, the bottom line doesn’t matter.  It’s okay to spend more than you have if it means helping people out and giving them what they want.

Clearly these are extreme examples, but directionally what is the better answer?

Let’s start by taking a look at our very own Kansas City Chiefs!

Haley turns Positive!

There’s an interesting take on this in Jason Whitlock’s article today:  Chiefs coach Haley shows how far he’s come .  For those very few of you that don’t know, the Chiefs aren’t a very good football team right now (and haven’t been for several years).  Their first time head coach, Todd Haley has generally adopted the approach of the no-nonsense highly critical manager who yells at his team and his coaches…a lot (maybe not as much as they do in Lawrence…but still a lot). 

However in yesterday’s game against last year’s Superbowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, Haley went out of his way to be positive and encouraging…and they won!  As Whitlock put it:

Haley coached an excellent football game. He concentrated on play-calling and encouraging his players. He left the refs alone. He didn’t overreact to the mistakes made by his players.

Good things happen when you expect positive results, when you put your mind in a positive place, when you treat the people fighting with you like they have as much invested in the outcome as you do.

Did the Chiefs win because of a positive attitude?  No.  However it’s likely they performed better, and they were able to bounce back after getting behind because they weren’t drowning in negativity.

As a leader, it’s your job to inspire and pick people up.  Yelling and negativity might have a short term effect of driving results, but in the long run it will work against you.

Example 2 – Positive Company Approach

I had the opportunity to do some Social Media training for a local company last week and I was really struck by how they ran their business.  This was a company that was investing serious time and money into their lower level employees – not on job specific skills, but on broader leadership and management training and awareness that would really help them see the big picture in the long run.

Additionally, you could see a real culture of working together and helping each other out.  The employees genuinely enjoyed working there, they appreciated their opportunities and their turnover was very low.

The kicker?  This company is growing so fast that they are struggling to find enough good people (in this economy).  Is that all due to the positive environment?  No – but I can tell you that it certainly helps!  These are employees that will do what it takes to help the company succeed – because they want to, not because they have to.

What kind of environment have you built around your business?  You can believe in the bottom line and still treat people with respect and positive reinforcement.  You may not get the quick response you get with yelling and screaming, but you’ll certainly get a better one – especially in the long run.

Have you seen any great examples of really positive (or really negative) companies out there?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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