Escape Negativity

Sure, these guys have thorns - but aren't they pretty?

How does it feel to be pulled into a negative state?

For me, it's a bit like an old ride in a amusement park. You think you're going into a fun house, but it turns out there's nothing fun about it. Poorly paid teenagers hassle you with textures and unwelcome contact. Distorted sounds surround you. Lights flash unexpectedly and you could just about swear that a rat just ran across your feet. Not fun.

Who would willfully choose a negative state? Circumstances sometimes suck us in. Darkness descends around us without our knowing why and certainly without choosing it. But let's not stay there.

Let's escape negativity. Let's work as centered, mindful, high performance leaders to stay aware of our mental state and choose our best path as often as possible. And, it's usually possible.

Centered leaders find ways to escape negativity.

Ways like challenging an out of bounds criticism. Staying curious instead of judging. Listening carefully and taking caution to avoid connecting any dots that aren't necessarily related (and certainly not causal). Since our perceptions and conclusions influence our happiness, why not select perceptions that are positive and that contribute to a state of balance and well-being, rather than digging us deeper into a pit of pity?

I'm not saying that positive thinking can fix anything. But when it's a choice, staying positive will work much better than debilitating negativity.

What's the best part of your day so far? Why not roll with that for awhile and let it make the rest of your day as positive as possible?

--- Doug Smith

Front Range Leadership: High performance leadership training

doug smith training: how to achieve your creative goals

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High Performance Leadership Combination

We can rationalize anything without making it justified. Leaders should always ask: who is this good for other than me? High performance leadership does NOT mean performance at any cost. It means performance that serves a noble cause while also benefiting people. High performance leadership is a combination. Results without relationships are shallow and temporary. Take care of both, and you'll be a high performance leader. -- doug smith

New Ideas

New ideas won't break you but they can make you bigger. -- doug smith

Your Reputation

More authority means higher levels of responsibility. More power requires more service to others, not less. What you do with your power is who you will be known as. Also, how you use the power you have creates who people will remember you as. How do you want to be remembered? -- doug smith

Start With Kindness

When you start with kindness you don't have to stay there, but you probably will. It works better for others. It works better for you. If you're human, you'll probably relapse. It does take practice to stay the course. The course starts by starting. When you start with kindness, it becomes more naturally the way. High performance leadership develops from the core leadership strengths of clarity, creativity, courage, and compassion. Build one of those strengths today thru some act of kindness and the others will get stronger as well. -- doug smith

What You Need

Use what you've learned to become what you need. -- doug smith

For example

Get good at something that won't obsolete itself. For example: emotional intelligence creating great conversations encouraging people leadership What would you add to the list? Which ones are you developing? -- doug smith

Decide

What do you want? Are you getting what you want? Intention is direction. Decide. And, then go. -- doug smith

Personally

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith

Measures Matter

Some people measure quantify first and quality later. Some people measure money first and impact to the team later (not even second!). How you measure productivity might determine your character and your reputation. Put people first. -- doug smith

Show Integrity

The goals we seek bring a lot of pull to them. We get wrapped in them. It's useful and it's powerful when we care about our goals so much that they propel us forward and keep us working even when we're tired, beyond the boundaries of our usual limitations. But they should not take us beyond the boundaries of our usual values. They should not trick us into bending the rules just because the rules are in the way. Truly high performance leaders of character who are focused, and centered, and noble maintain integrity. No cheating is ever worth the outcome. Integrity is so rare that many people don't even recognize. If you do, be thankful. We need leaders like you. To truly understand integrity you've got to keep it. Even when it's hard. Even the lines are blurred. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership

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