Zugunruhe: Helping great people get [good] things done: Zoog.un.roo.ee

On the Road

Portland Airport, 5 am. Thank God for Coffee People!

I want Matt's job

Yes, apparently he really gets paid for this.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Les bons temps rouler! Let the good times roll! To celebrate Fat Tuesday in style, I have some treats for you. First, you'll find my very own recipe for Jambalya, no roux required! Then, there's a hot zydeco iMix to get your toes a tappin'.

Before you start cooking or dancing I want to invite you to join me here on Ash Wednesday for the first in a series of posts and podcasts. The day after Mardi Gras traditionally marks the beginning of a season of reflection. I've created a new coaching program entitled: Forty Days to Success. You can learn all the details right here beginning Wed, Feb 21, 2007. Until then, allons dancer! Let's dance, ya'll!

 

For a great tasting, really easy Jambalya:

In a deep boiler, make 3 cups of cooked rice. In a separate pan, sauté one medium onion and a green pepper (both chopped) in olive oil until nearly soft. Add sliced smoked sausage (turkey sausage works well) and cook until browned. When the rice is done, mix the rice, sausage, onion, and pepper mixture, one can of cream of chicken soup, and hot sauce to taste. Add enough water to make the mixture moist but not soupy. Simmer for 10 minutes and serve hot.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tomorrow is Valentine's! I wanted to pass on a helpful tip for all you last minute romantics. Here's a quick, easy, and very memorable way to tell you sweetie "I love you."

Grab some post-it notes and write a short message on each one. Your messages can be anything from "I love you" to "Thank you for feeding our pets." Post your notes all over the house: in his car, on future days in her planner, the bathroom mirror, or even tucked in shirt or jacket pockets. The idea is that your beloved will find notes for days--not just on Valentine's. Enjoy the love!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Poor old Punxsutawney Phil, the national groundhog spokesperson for the United States, looked rather shell shocked this morning when he made his annual appearance to pronounce his forecast for the next six weeks of winter. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it's been sunny for several days in a row. Any marmots (the western cousins of groundhogs) living here will certainly be seeing their shadows and predicting more winter weather.

Up on Mt. Hood a couple of days ago, the pleasant conditions allowed hikers to ascend up to Hogsback Ridge where one of the climbers was badly injured after being it by falling ice. You may remember that Mt. Hood was the site of an intense search for three missing climbers in December (only one of whom was found, deceased).

At the moment, I'm reading a fantastic book, Deep Survival, which details, among others, the story of an earlier (much worse) accident at Hogsback Ridge. If you've ever looked at stories like those of the Mt. Hood climbers or James Kim and wondered "what were they thinking," this is the book for you. Laurence Gonzales writes beautifully and spins tale after tale of survival in the face of grim odds. The stories are simultaneously sobering and inspiring. As someone who hikes in backcountry relatively often, I found myself wondering how I'd react under the circumstances Gonzales describes.

Ride along with Steve Callahan, adrift at sea for 65 days, or wander the wilderness with Ken Killip who was lost in Rocky Mountain National Park for five days. Gonzales explains both the psychology and the neuroscience behind the behavior of people in extreme circumstances with lucid prose, compassion, and humor. The book is packed with great quotes that apply not just to survival, but to daily living in less extreme circumstances; here are three:

Plan the flight and fly the plan. But don't fall in love with the plan. Be open to a changing world and let go of the plan when necessary so that you can make a new plan. Then, as the world and the plan both go through their book of changes, you will always be ready to do the next right thing.

Whether a deity is actually listening or not, there is value in formally announcing your needs, desires, worries, sins, and goals in a focused prayerful attitude. Only when you are aware can you take action.

Chance is nothing more than opportunity, and it's all around at every turn; the trick lies in recognizing it.

If you're interested in how adversity can shape people into better human beings and in becoming more resilient yourself, then read this book. I'll never look at a simple walk in the woods (or the big city) in the same way again.

Speaking of dealing with adversity, this month's free teleclass is Bounce Back: Improving your Resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from difficulty When an obstacle shows up, resilient people find a way around, over, or through it. Personal coach, Tara Robinson, will talk about how you can learn the skills of resilient people to become more successful in today’s shifting markets and beyond. The class will be  taught via phone bridgeline on February 22, 2007 at 7 pm Eastern (4 pm Pacific). Space is limited; reserve your spot now. To read some feedback on Tara's previous presentations, click here.

How to Be a Better Listener and Why

In business and in life, you interact with people all the time. Some are friendly and others are not. Some folks may be downright hostile. And all the while, you are the common denominator in every situation. “Wherever you go, there you are.” Yet when people treat you a certain way, it’s not necessarily about you. It’s about them. Their perceptions. Their experiences. Their expectations.

Knowing this doesn’t let you off the hook. You have to be accountable for what you are and say and do. But in the end, you control only one person’s responses: yours. Your job is to set up interactions with your customers, business associates, kids, and everyone else in your world in such a way that everyone has a chance to respond to the real you, not some idea or expectation of you. At the same time, you need to be able to respond to the real “them.” How do you do that?  Simple. By listening. Here’s a simple step by step.

First, hear with naked curiosity. This means to listen to every word and observe every gesture and expression with nothing added or subtracted. What is being said? What is not being said? Don’t be afraid to be silent and just listen. If the person stops talking, make sure they’re truly finished speaking. It’s a good idea to ask “What else?” before moving ahead. Remain in this phase of the conversation until the other person is clear. If you’re not willing to stay in this phase until the other person is clear, consider whether or not you should be having the conversation at all. (The answer may be ‘no.’)

Next, ask carefully phrased questions. Here, engage your interest and ask questions to learn more, not to lead, confront, or challenge. If you don’t understand what was said, this is your chance to clarify. For example, you could ask: “What are you most concerned about?” or “Help me to understand what you mean by…” If you’re having a difficult conversation (like dealing with a hostile customer or a teenager), remember to stay focused on curiosity and information gathering. (And don’t forget to breathe.)

Third, make sure you know what the situation means to them. People rarely get disconnected from what happened or facts about a situation. What they usually get lost in is what it all means. If you don’t know what it means to them, it doesn’t matter what it means to you. (For you Steven Covey fans, this is “seek first to understand before seeking to be understood.”) One way to learn what the situation means to the other person is to say “Tell me about why this is important to you” or simply ask “What does this mean to you?” Listen very carefully to the answers. You may find yourself back in step one (hearing with naked curiosity). Remain in this phase as long as necessary for you to truly ‘get’ what the other person is saying. And if you’re having trouble understanding, whatever you do, don’t fake understanding.

Once you’ve got an understanding of the other person’s point of view, ask them what they want. You might say, “What would you like to see happen?” When you hear their answer, you have three choices: say yes, make a counteroffer, decline outright. Depending on your situation, you’ll need to carefully think your response through. It is perfectly OK, to say “I need to think about this” before coming back with an answer.

In business situations, however, as long as what they want is not illegal, immoral, or personally compromising, do your best to give it to them. Remember, this is not about you. It’s about them. When you genuinely evaluate someone else’s needs and act accordingly, you’ve heaped on tons of value. In his extremely popular books, Jeffrey Gitomer says “give value first.” He’s not kidding. You will build the best relationships with customers and business associates when you put their needs ahead of yours. If you can’t say ‘yes,’ say why, and offer to negotiate.

Regardless of how you choose to handle what they want, summarize what you’ve heard and understood. This is the most important part of the equation. People want to be heard. When you can accurately and sincerely demonstrate that you’ve heard someone, you are one of the few people in their world who is actually listening. You will stand out as someone special immediately. If the person has expressed their feelings to you, you should acknowledge those, too. That’s as simple as “It sounds like you feel ___ about this. Is that accurate?”

Finally, be faithful on the follow up. It’s not enough to listen, understand, and ask what someone needs or wants. You’ve got to be reliable. This is true in every relationship in your world. Reliability begets trust. Trust opens doors to better, more meaningful relationships.

Ultimately, becoming a skilled listener is a bit of a paradox. Listening gives you the chance to be yourself and enjoy having people respond to you instead some idea they have or a perception of you. Listening gives you insight into who people really are. To paraphrase the great Yogi Berra: you can hear a lot by just listening.

Free Teleclass: Jan 18

People often know what they need to do to be successful but have trouble acting and following through. In this free teleclass, you will learn how to create motivation and break through block.

The class will be offered by phone bridgeline on Thursday, January 18 at 7 pm Eastern (4 pm Pacific). Space is limited; reserve your spot now.

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Get walking, get coached contest ends soon!

See this post for the full story...

I’m wiling to bet that you have 30 minutes strewn around your schedule right now that you can put together and turn into thirty minutes of no sweat, easy does it, no-extra-work-on-your-part walking. I’m so willing to bet that here’s my offer. Email me your story about how you fit in walking without actually changing your schedule. I’ll feature the best story on this blog and I’ll give the winner one month--that's four weekly sessions of one hour each--of free coaching to help them achieve whatever other goals they’ve set for the new year. Sound good? Then get creative, start walking, and email your story to me. I'll post the winner no later than January 15, 2007.

How to Create Healthy Habits

Some habits are ridiculously easy to create. Chocolate, cookies, golf all seem to fall into this category (at least for some of us, any how). But what about those habits that provide us with good health, wellbeing, and success? Habits like exercise, flossing your teeth, and following through on contacts. It seems that those habits are hard to cement into place but once done, they pay huge ROI.

One of the problems with creating habits like exercise is that the reward (e.g., admiration by others, strong heart and lungs, weight loss) is disconnected from the activity itself (walking thirty minutes a day). Likewise, the “punishment” (e.g., high blood pressure, weight gain) is similarly disconnected from the poor lifestyle choices that created them. Brain research (also known as neuroscience) may provide some insight into how to use natural tendencies of your mind to create lasting, helpful habits....

Want to know more? Click here to subscribe to my newsletter and receive the entire article.

One week to fitness

Every New Year, most folks resolve to get in shape. But by January 2, a lot of people are already feeling discouraged. But what if there was a simple program to get in shape that took only one week to do? That’s right! One 40 hour work week. Five eight-hour days. No kidding. Not a joke. Not a scam. And it’s free! Would you do it? Of course!

Walk thirty minutes a day. Keep it up for a full 40 hours: a simple work week in half hour increments. Do it and you will see fabulous ROI. Even if you don’t change your eating habits at all, you will burn more calories and that increased calorie burn will burn off fat.

People in study conducted by Duke University lost 1% of their body mass when doing low intensity walking every day over eight months. Compare this to a 1% gain by a similar group that was inactive. (For a 150 pound person, 1% is one and a half pounds.) Want more results? In the same study, people who exercised at high intensity over 30 minutes a day (jogging), lost 3.5% over the same time period (5 pounds for a 150 pound person).

You may be thinking that you don’t have time for 30 minutes a day so here’s the challenge: look at how you’re spending your time right now. What are you doing today? Got five minutes between meetings? Walk around the block. Three minutes early? Park farther away than usual and walk. Going out to get the mail? Keep walking for an extra five minutes before you swing by the mail box.

I’m wiling to bet that you have 30 minutes strewn around your schedule right now that you can put together and turn into thirty minutes of no sweat, easy does it, no-extra-work-on-your-part walking. I’m so willing to bet that here’s my offer. Email me your story about how you fit in walking without actually changing your schedule. I’ll feature the best story on this blog and I’ll give the winner one month--that's four weekly sessions of one hour each--of free coaching to help them achieve whatever other goals they’ve set for the new year.

Sound good? Then get creative, start walking, and email your story to me. I'll post the winner no later than January 15, 2007.

Why Habits are So Hard to Break and What to Do About It

At the end of the year, I start to think about looking back and looking ahead. Like many people, I also consider what I’d like to do differently in the next year. Some of you may be thinking about quitting smoking, adding an exercise program, cutting down on email or Blackberry, or some other form of self improvement. Yet, changing is tough. Help may come from studies of how the our mammalian brains acquire habits.

Imagine a mouse in a cage. The mouse has a little bar to press. When the mouse presses the little bar, a treat drops out. Naturally, the mouse presses the bar again. Every time a treat shows up the mouse gets a reward and the mouse’s brain squirts out a chemical called dopamine.

However, dopamine not only rewards behavior, it also elicits the very behavior it rewards. That means that dopamine provides motivation to do something and rewards the doing. (For a full rundown of the research, see this article in Nature.) Dopamine is the root of habit.

Now imagine yourself sitting in front of your computer. You check your email by clicking with your mouse. You’ve got mail! Getting mail makes you feel good somehow: someone needs your input, it gives you something to do, it relieves boredom or allows you to put off something you didn’t want to do (like exercise, say). Your brain gives you a nice dopamine rush. So, you click your mouse again. More mail. More dopamine. Poof! You have a habit. If you are one of those people who cannot put down your Blackberry, you now understand why. But what you do about it?

Pay attention to yourself. Yes, change may be a simple as quietly observing your own impulse (that is, the first surge of dopamine that tells you to do something) and then disobeying the impulse. If you think that’s oversimplifying, consider the research of Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz. Schwartz has demonstrated that the brains of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) become physically altered when they simply pay attention to their impulses and then do something different instead. The entire program of habit breaking, step by step, is presented here.

With this simple program, you may have greater success in breaking old, destructive habits. The next task will be to add in new, healthier ones. Next week's post will tackle that subject. In the meantime, Happy New Year!