Breakthroughs, Breakthroughs, Everywhere

I was a bit out of the loop last week as I focused on a project, but as I squirreled away, several folks kept the conversations about breakthroughs and progress going. Here are the links with my thanks!

Dwayne offers this great post called, What box are you in?

Ambiguity is not your best friend, when it comes to feeling like you're making progress. Often, when I'm dissatisfied with the state of things, I find that it's because I'm not really clear on the outcomes I want.

Valeria offers thoughts on how to go from Start of Success:

Instead of trying to recruit others to help me, I set out to figure out how to recruit myself to help others. Think about this for a moment as you look at your organization. Is the current structure the right one to take you to the next step? As it turns out, changing the way I looked at my problem, taught me a great deal about re-inventing the network. What did I quit strategically? The thinking I had grown attached to.

Jodee is getting people talking big about small talk - join her!

Are you committed to bigger small talk in your life? Want to connect with others who share that commitment? Then put your mouth where your heart is (and your feet where your mouth is) and meet us in Fargo June 26-28! Watch this blog for more details as they develop.

I will just be returning to Seattle these dates and will have been in Fargo the week before on my motorcycle book tour, otherwise I would not miss it!

Check out Three Simple Ways to Charge Your Life over at Success Begins Today.

Dogs have changed my life. They have rescued me from myself so many times. When I am down, they always seem to cheer me up. They love walks (see number 1) and always add to the conversation when other people see them.

What would your three things be?

Mike continues the series about Two Weeks to a Breakthrough over at ConverStations. Super duper.

In today's share and requests, I asked others how they would describe my business and/or goals. Some interesting and even surprising answers.

While we may not ever see our business, life or goals exactly like an outsider, we should at least make an attempt to understand what an outsider sees. Which coffee shop owner will have more success - the one who never steps out from behind the counter or the one who roams the dining room now and again.

I love that Mike is putting the techniques to work. Thanks, Mike!

Nettie over at Allbusiness.com (Must Read Business Books) also featured a review of Two Weeks:

If you really sit and ponder the possibility that in two weeks time you could be filled with more passion directed at what you really want to be doing, then this book is a no-brainer. If however, you want to spend the next two weeks filled with doubt, wondering why other people get to be happy and you don't or just mesmerized by the latest "American Idol", then this book is not for you.

I'm not sure I can compete with this whole Sanjaya drama, but it's a wonderful thought!

Jory offers a very amusing post (all her posts are amusing, aren't they?) about The Secret.

I've visualized throughout my life, though I never did it to get anything; I just have a VERY vivid imagination, and imagining these outcomes felt good. What scares me is when I stop visualizing, when my life becomes too complicated that the natural manifesting mechanism shuts off. When I become stressed to a point where negative energy fills my brain, and I can't focus on the positive.....

The minute I pushed play the groans ensued. I'm not sure what situation is worse for personal development--when the books and tapes are clearly bootstrapped endeavors, or when they are slicker than Pink videos, and the actors in them can get SAG credit. Sure, there were too many special effects; sure, much of the language was  overly simplified and annoyingly repetitive; and many of the examples of manifestation included a new bike, a new car, a new necklace and other purely material outcomes, which evoke get-rich-quick schemes. But not once did I feel that the message was not inspiring or useful.

Yep. Get  the message and don't let the slickness of it get in the way. Thoughts are powerful.

The Cranky Middle Manager chats it up with our pal Phil Gerbyshak - relationship geek and all round positive life force.

Speaking of forces, Adrian over at Slow Leadership offers this posts on Workplace Black Holes.

Have you ever walked into a place of work—an office, a laboratory, a school, a retail store—and felt your spirits start to flag the moment you passed the door? Felt a kind of weight settle on you: a sense of dullness, gloom, coldness? Experienced trying to deal with people who seem disinterested, uninvolved, too distracted, or too sluggish to do more than the absolute minimum? If so, you’ve just encountered a workplace “black hole.” A phenomenon that becoming more common than it ought to be.

Here's to a week steering clear of black holes.

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

Well, unless I went bold, my name is Valeria, not Seth ;-D Thank you for the link and the correction.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Valeria - Yes, of course, my humble apologies. My brain and fingers were having a spat.