By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | I was so confident my shirt was about to bust open. My chest was out with head held high.
Then I boldly marched to the front of the room and grabbed the laser pointer. In the moment, I was cloaked in so much confidence I swatted down arguments with ease and led the group to an excellent outcome. People even thanked me afterwards for stepping up. Why was I so confident?
I had the answers.
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | I heard someone say, “It’s probably something tantric,” as I walked with my family into a tightly-packed pizza restaurant in San Francisco.
There was a couple sitting right next to us involved in a kiss that was so long I was concerned they might suffocate. The longer the kiss went on, the more people around the restaurant stared. Minutes passed and tension built. Is this even sanitary?
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | I noticed a few weeks ago that I was feeling anxious and paranoid. What had changed? I ran through my mental list of family, friends, health and career…all OK.
Then I looked down at my phone and noticed something different. On my home screen, there was a list of news headlines from an Apple News app that had automatically downloaded. Aha! You see I hadn’t realized that every time I picked up my phone I was seeing the top news headlines…most of which were loaded with bad news. This subtle change had slowly increased my anxiety and fear.
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | I know sometimes you doubt yourself. I know that you loose sleep sometimes when you’re taking on a taking a business risk, preparing an important presentation, or when your back is up against the wall with the looming deadline of an ambitiously project.
And I know the familiar questions that probably come up in your head. Can I really do this? What if I fail? What if I make a mistake that cost me my job or business?
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | What do you do when you have the solution but no one is listening to you? Do you say it louder, tell the boss or keep saying it until you just give up in resentment?
If you’ve experienced this frustration, I’ve got a much easier approach to share with you. Try using the language of success to increase:
* Effective communication
* Openness to your ideas
* Acceptance of your requests.
In life, it seems easier to rely on job titles and organizational authority to get things done. This shows up whenever someone at a higher level in the organization asks (makes) someone else at a lower level do something, for example, when the CEO tells a manager to implement a new system or program. This can be effective short term, especially in a crisis when every second counts. But when it’s used repeatedly, this approach starts to lose its power.
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | Ever thought you were going to “teach” someone something new, but then you quickly discover that you’re the one who is really the student?
Well that’s exactly what happened to me in two seasons of coaching ages 5-6 girls’ soccer. Turns out you can pick up a lot of lessons while coaching a sport, and they have practical application in your everyday work and life. Here are five life lessons I learned from coaching kids’ soccer:
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | What time of the day does your personal productivity naturally decrease?
According to the Daily Mail, the most unproductive time in the work day is 2:55 p.m. Interestingly, that’s also when social media usage spikes.
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | The most important moment of your day is your first minute at your desk. Choose wisely how you spend it. It can mean the difference between a huge infusion of positive momentum or getting sucked down the rabbit hole into a day of non-stop fire drills and chaos.
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | Can you imagine spending $70+ for a massage and then walking out more stressed that when you arrived?
My client was getting regular massages but couldn’t completely turn her mind off and relax. She would vent to her masseuse about being overwhelmed at work! So she started this simple process I’ll share with you today, and finally zoned out for the first time during her massage. Ahhh!
By Ben Fanning, contributing editor | Ever struggle to get your most important work done? Maybe even find it rolling from one to-do list to the next without ever making much progress?
When I tackled the “gotta do” work of writing my #1 bestselling book, The Quit Alternative, there were lots of days I didn’t want to write. This important work could have dragged on for years because there was always plenty of other work to distract me.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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