The Great Kindness Challenge

My wife found this awesome challenge from GreatKindnessChallenge.org. Even though the challenge already ended last August 11, 2012, we can always choose to do it everyday. How many do you think you do in one day? 

Acts of Kindness Checklist

Share and spread the kindness to everyone!

Enjoy!

Until my next post!

Elvin Peria

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7 Deadly Sins of Business Meetings

Here, seven deadly sins to watch for in business meetings -- and tips on how to redeem yourself.

1. Meetings that become useless rituals. Companies frequently meet simply because it's time for their weekly, monthly or annual sales meeting. "Meetings that are ritualistic instead of necessary are often boring, and attendees eventually flip an 'off switch' in their brains," says Joe Calloway, business strategy consultant and author of Becoming A Category of One (John Wiley, 2003).

Tip: First, reexamine your routine. "Do not have a meeting unless you can very specifically define why it's necessary and how it will advance the strategy of the organization," he says. Also, create a specific agenda and send it out early enough for people to prepare.

2. Meetings that are a one-way conversation. People often tune out monotone lecturers and mind-numbing PowerPoint presentations. "A one-way speech is generally one of the least effective ways of teaching, informing or motivating people to action," Calloway says.

Tip: Encourage your team to speak up, exchange ideas and comment on what they've heard. If you show PowerPoint slides, make them visually interesting and keep words and numbers to a minimum.

3. Meetings with lax leadership. In today's "virtual" conference rooms, time is often wasted waiting for people to join the call and then getting stragglers up to speed on what they missed. "This punishes the people who joined the meeting on time with the likelihood you'll run over, leaving employees stressed out playing catch-up on the rest of their day," says Gary Bradt, business strategy expert and author of The Ring in the Rubble (McGraw Hill, 2007).

Tip: Choose a leader who is organized and forceful, leaving latecomers to catch up on their own. "Use tact, of course – you don't have to be Attila the Hun – but if you're too nice, it allows too much nonsense to go on," Bradt says.

4. Meetings that harp on setbacks instead of strategies. One of Bradt's clients spent 95 percent of each meeting having plant managers explain why their numbers weren't up to par and only 5 percent planning future strategies. Not surprisingly, Brandt says, everyone came out of the meeting with a long face.

Tip: Use the past as a platform for understanding and planning future actions, not "a battering ram to beat people up," Bradt says. The collective brainpower in the room should be used to avoid mistakes going forward.

5. Meetings that disrupt the most productive hours. Many companies hold meetings in the morning, interrupting employees' most productive hours, says Jackie Freiberg, co-author of Nanovation: How a Little Car Can Teach the World to Think Big and Act Bold (Thomas Nelson, 2011).

Tip: Schedule meetings in the afternoon, when escaping the cubicle can be a welcome relief.

6. Meetings that are held in a bland environment. At the vast majority of meetings, employees gather around a conference table and keep their gaze focused on the leader at the head of the table. Freiberg believes this format does little to stimulate discussion and creative ideas.

Tip: Take your employees on a "walking" meeting in the park or just around the building and parking lot. "When you're not eye to eye, you have the guts to say certain things," Freiberg says. "And when walking, you look at the world differently, which stimulates fresh ideas."

7. Meetings that are too formal and rigid. Few meeting leaders have a sense of humor. The result is a room full of bored, restless employees, says Eric Chester, author of Reviving Work Ethic (Greenleaf Books, 2012).

Tip: Break up the meeting with music, a video, jokes or an engaging story, Chester says. "In the age of YouTube and iTunes, there's simply no reason to not inject a bit of levity in a meeting to gain attention, disarm negativity and generate enthusiasm."

I got this amazing article from Entrepreneur.com by Lisa Girard. I hope you find something useful.

Elvin

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100 Simple Secrets of Happy People

Scientists and academics have spent entire careers investigating what makes people happy. But hidden in obscure scholarly journals and reports, their research is all too often inaccessible to ordinary people.

At last, social scientist and psychologist David Niven, Ph. D., distills the scientific gobbledygook of over a thousand of the most compelling and important studies on happiness and habits for happiness is illustrated with a clear example and illuminated by a straightforward explanation of the science behind it to show you how to transform a ho-hum existence into a full and happy life.

1. Your Life Has Purpose and Meaning
2. Use a Strategy for Happiness
3. You Don’t Have to Win Every Time
4. Your Goals Should Be Aligned with One Another
5. Choose Your Comparisons Wisely
6. Cultivate Friendships
7. Turn Off the TV
8. Accept Yourself—Unconditionally
9. Remember Where You Came From
10. Limit Yourself to Thinking About One Subject as You Lie Down to Sleep
11. Friendship Beats Money
12. Have Realistic Expectations
13. Be Open to New Ideas
14. Share with Others How Important They Are to You
15. If You’re Not Sure, Guess Positively
16. Believe in Yourself
17. Don’t Believe in Yourself Too Much
18. Don’t Face Your Problems Alone
19. Age Is Not to Be Feared
20. Develop a Household Routine
21. Don’t Be Overprotective
22. Pay Attention. You May Have What You Want
23. Don’t Let Your Religious Beliefs Fade
24. Do What You Say You Are Going to Do
25. Don’t Be Aggressive with Your Friends and Family
26. Root for the Home Team
27. Don’t Confuse Stuff with Success
28. Every Relationship Is Different
29. Don’t Think “What If”
30. Volunteer
31. If You Can’t Reach Your Goals, Your Goals Will Hurt You
32. Exercise
33. Little Things Have Big Meanings
34. It’s Not What Happened, It’s How Your Think About What Happened
35. Develop Some Common Interests with Loved Ones
36. Laugh
37. Don’t Let Your Entire Life Hinge on One Element
38. Share of Yourself
39. Busy Is Better Than Bored
40. Satisfaction Is Relative
41. Learn to Use a Computer
42. Try to Think Less About the People and Things That Bother You
43. Keep Your Family Close
44. Eat Some Fruit Every Day
45. Enjoy What You Have
46. Think in concrete Terms
47. Be Socially Supportive
48. Don’t Blame Yourself
49. Be a Peacemaker
50. Cherish Animals
51. Make Your Work a Calling
52. Never Trade Your Morals for Your Goals
53. Don’t Pretend to Ignore things Your Loved Ones do that Bother You
54. Get a Good Night’s Sleep
55. Buy What You Like
56. Accomplish Something Every Day
57. Be Flexible
58. Events Are Temporary
59. Be Your Own Fan
60. Join a Group
61. Be Positive
62. There Will Be an End, but You Can Be Prepared
63. How We See the World Is More Important Than How the World Is
64. Keep a Pen and Paper Handy
65. Help the Next Person Who Needs Some Minor Assistance
66. Take Care Not to Harshly Criticize Family and Friends
67. Some People Like the Big Picture, and Others Like the Details
68. Do things You Are Good At
69. Go visit Your Neighbor
70. Smile
71. Don’t Accept Television’s Picture of the World
72. You Always Have a Choice
73. Be Agreeable
74. Don’t Ignore One Part of Your Life
75. Listen to Music
76. Let Your Goals Guide You
77. Use Your Job Positively
78. Don’t Forget to Have Fun
79. Believe in Ultimate Justice
80. Reminisce
81. Be Conscientious
82. Don’t Dwell on Unwinnable Conflicts
83. Enjoy the Ordinary
84. Focus Not on the World’s Tragedies, but on the World’s Hope
85. Get a Hobby
86. Envying Other People’s Relationships is Pointless
87. Give Yourself Time to Adapt to Change
88. Focus on What Really Matters to You
89. Realize that Complete Satisfaction does Not Exist
90. Surround Yourself with Pleasant Aromas
91. Don’t Let Others Set Your Goals
92. You Are a Person, Not a Stereotype
93. Know What Makes You Happy and Sad 94. Keep Reading
95. We Must Feel Needed
96. Say “So What”
97. Have a Purpose
98. You Have Not Finished the Best Part of Your Life
99. Money Does Not Buy Happiness
100. What Does it All Mean? You Decide

Until my next post,
Elvin Peria

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Empowerment

For almost two years, I subscribed to Hugh MacLeod's GapingVoid mailing list. Everyday, I am receiving emails from him. Today, I got this email and this explains why every people living on the 21st century should write their thoughts down. Every struggles, every hardships, and every painful events that happened should be written down. Of course, success stories should be written too. 

Who knows, perhaps there will be one person who will be empowered with the stories that you have shared. Who knows, his life might change because of that piece of literature published online or offline. We'll never know. 

I can talk about this topic all day long but I guess that's for my future post. For now, enjoy Hugh McLeod's post.

“Empowerment” doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Empowerment is part of a story... your story. You feel empowered depending on the context. 

I believe that every person needs to know, at least once before they die, that their life- with all its mess and suffering- was worth it, somehow. 

And how do they know that? by telling stories. By telling THEIR story... 

And making it great. 

When someone is using your product, don't ask what stories are they telling about you; ask what stories they're telling about themselves, and how you product fits into it. You'll get a far more interesting answer.

Until my next post,

Elvin Peria

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Tips on Multitasking and Planning a Project Effectively

I stumble upon this post from Brian Tracy's blog while I was updating our facebook page. It is entitled How to Multitask and Effectively Plan a Project. This post is very timely because my wife and I just started our new online project with the help of Millionaire Society.  Enjoy reading!

All of life is a series of projects. A project is a complex task. It is often called a multitask job. This type of job requires the coordination of efforts of several people, each of whom is responsible for a part of the job, with every part of the job being necessary for successful completion. Your ability to handle these multitask jobs is a critical skill for success. All achievements of consequence are complex, and they involve the cooperation of many people.

The Key Management Skill

A study by Stanford University of the qualities that companies look for in promoting people into the position of chief executive officer concluded that the ability to put together a team to accomplish a task was the single most important identifiable quality of an executive who was destined for the fast track in his/her career. Your ability to put together teams to do multitask jobs, ability to complete complex projects, and visible qualities of leadership will determine the course of your career as much as any other factor. It will enable you to multiply yourself times the talents and efforts of others, and accomplish vastly more than you could do on your own.

A Learnable Skill

Project management is a learnable skill, like riding a bicycle. It can be divided into a series of steps, each of which you can master, one at a time. In managing any project, you begin by defining the ideal desired result of the project. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? What will the project look like if it is a complete success?  Start by defining a successful completion of the project, the ideal desired result.

Start at the Beginning

Once you are clear about your desired result, you then start from the beginning. Determine what you are going to have to do to get from where you are to the completion of this project, on schedule and on budget. Determine a specific deadline or target to aim at. Make sure that it is realistic and achievable.

Assemble the Team

Bring together all the people whose contributions will be necessary for the success of this project. Sometimes you need to assemble a team before you can even decide upon the ideal result and the schedule. Remember that people are everything. Take ample time to think carefully about the people who are going to be the team members.

Share the Ownership

Instill ownership of the project in the team members by sharing the job with them. There is a direct relationship between how much a person feels a sense of ownership for the job and how committed he is to making the project a success. One of the key jobs of management and leadership is to instill this feeling of ownership in each member of the team, so that each person feels personally responsible for the accomplishment of the overall project. You accomplish this by discussing every detail of the project with the people who are expected to carry it out.

Develop a Shared Vision

A shared vision is an ideal future picture of success that everyone buys into. How do you develop a shared vision? You sit down and work with the team to answer the question, “What are we trying to accomplish?” You encourage everyone to contribute, visualize, and to imagine the ideal outcome or desired result of the project. Once this vision is clear and shared by everyone, you move on to the development of “shared plans” to achieve the vision.

Set Schedules and Deadlines

Once you have a shared vision and shared plans, and everyone knows exactly what is to be done and what the ideal results will look like, the next step is for you to set a deadline for project completion based on the consensus of your team.

Create a List

Create a to-do list and write down every task, function, and activity that must be completed, right down to the smallest job. Make it easier for yourself-get the project finished on time and break the project down into individual jobs and tasks as much as you can.

Organize the Project

Organize the different parts of the project in two ways: sequential tasks and parallel tasks. You organize by sequence when you determine which jobs must be done before other jobs can be done, with each task in order. Sequential organization is necessary where a particular task requires that another task be completed before it can be started. In almost every case, before you do anything, you have to do something else first. Organize the tasks sequentially with a logical process of activities from beginning through to the end of the project.

The second way to organize the tasks is through parallel activities. Parallel activities exist when more than one task can be done at the same time. Two or more people can be working on two or three different tasks independently of each other.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  Please leave a comment and share with your friends! 

Until my next post.

Elvin

PS. By the way, I will be sharing my review for the online group Millionaire Society on my next posts. 

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Tips in Renewing Driver's License in the Philippines

Last first day of March, I renewed my driver's license for the third time. I realized that I've been driving for almost nine years. Wow. I never realized that I was that old. Anyway, even though I've been through the process of renewing my license a couple of times, I haven't perfected it. I still encountered some problems  along the way. I'm sharing you these tips so that you will not encounter these anymore.

Tip # 1. Bring a pen. Obviously, I forgot to bring one. I was already mobile when I realized that I forgot my pen. Oh, well. It made me incur additional time to search for a place where I can buy a pen. Also, it made me incur additional P10.

Tip # 2. Prepare P400 for drug and medical tests. The amount may vary depending on the location but this is the exact price I paid for these tests at the LTO compound in Calamba City.

Tip # 3. Make sure that you have the capacity to urinate enough to fill 60ml bottle. I failed to fill the bottle on the first attempt. For me to urinate again, I needed to buy water and wait for more than fifteen minutes while convincing myself that my kidneys are full.

Tip # 4.  Be there before 10AM. In my experience, if the LTO system is not down, you can get the license in less than two hours as long as you are there before the cut-off for lunch break. 

Tip # 5. Be sure to talk to other people while waiting (or better yet bring a book). You'll spend a lot of time waiting for your queue therefore it's best to do something while you're waiting.

Tip # 6. Be sure to look good in front of the camera and don't forget to smile. Someone told me that you're not suppose to smile but I think it's better to try your luck because I did. It's better to look good in your driver's license because you'll be using it over the next three years. Who knows, being positive (even in the license) might help you in the future. 

I hope these tips can help you in renewing your license. Please feel free to share your experiences too.

Until my next post,

Elvin

PS. The exact price of driver's license renewal is P417.63. 

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The 50 New Rules of Work

Photo courtesy of Budzlife. 

I was researching on how can I improve the websites I created when I stumbled upon Robin Sharma's blog. He has written the "50 New Rules of Work". He encourages us to share, discuss and debate with our team throughout our organization. Let's try them over the next thirty days and let's see the results.

The 50 New Rules of Work by Robin Sharma

1. You are not just paid to work. You are paid to be uncomfortable – and to pursue projects that scare you.
2. Take care of your relationships and the money will take care of itself.
3. Lead you first. You can’t help others reach for their highest potential until you’re in the process of reaching for yours.
4. To double your income, triple your rate of learning.
5. While victims condemn change, leaders grow inspired by change.
6. Small daily improvements over time create stunning results.
7. Surround yourself with people courageous enough to speak truthfully about what’s best for your organization and the customers you serve.
8. Don’t fall in love with your press releases.
9. Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth (to either show you live by the values you profess – or you don’t).
10. Copying what your competition is doing just leads to being second best.
11. Become obsessed with the user experience such that every touchpoint of doing business with you leaves people speechless. No, breathless.
12. If you’re in business, you’re in show business. The moment you get to work, you’re on stage. Give us the performance of your life.
13. Be a Master of Your Craft. And practice + practice + practice.
14. Get fit like Madonna.
15. Read magazines you don’t usually read. Talk to people who you don’t usually speak to. Go to places you don’t commonly visit. Disrupt your thinking so it stays fresh + hungry + brilliant.
16. Remember that what makes a great business – in part – are the seemingly insignificant details. Obsess over them.
17. Good enough just isn’t good enough.
18. Brilliant things happen when you go the extra mile for every single customer.
19. An addiction to distraction is the death of creative production. Enough said.
20. If you’re not failing regularly, you’re definitely not making much progress.
21. Lift your teammates up versus tear your teammates down. Anyone can be a critic. What takes guts is to see the best in people.
22. Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared.
23. Leadership’s no longer about position. Now, it’s about passion. And having an impact through the genius-level work that you do.
24. The bigger the dream, the more important the team.
25. If you’re not thinking for yourself, you’re following – not leading.
26. Work hard. But build an exceptional family life. What’s the point of reaching the mountaintop but getting there alone.
27. The job of the leader is to develop more leaders.
28. The antidote to deep change is daily learning. Investing in your professional and personal development is the smartest investment you can make. Period.
29. Smile. It makes a difference.
30. Say “please” and “thank you”. It makes a difference.
31. Shift from doing mindless toil to doing valuable work.
32. Remember that a job is only just a job if all you see it as is a job.
33. Don’t do your best work for the applause it generates but for the personal pride it delivers.
34. The only standard worth reaching for is BIW (Best in World).
35. In the new world of business, everyone works in Human Resources.
36. In the new world of business, everyone’s part of the leadership team.
37. Words can inspire. And words can destroy. Choose yours well.
38. You become your excuses.
39. You’ll get your game-changing ideas away from the office versus in the middle of work. Make time for solitude. Creativity needs the space to present itself.
40. The people who gossip about others when they are not around are the people who will gossip about you when you’re not around.
41. It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation and 30 seconds of bad judgment to lose it.
42. The client is always watching.
43. The way you do one thing defines the way you’ll do everything. Every act matters.
44. To be radically optimistic isn’t soft. It’s hard. Crankiness is easy.
45. People want to be inspired to pursue a vision. It’s your job to give it to them.
46. Every visionary was initially called crazy.
47. The purpose of work is to help people. The other rewards are inevitable by-products of this singular focus.
48. Remember that the things that get scheduled are the things that get done.
49. Keep promises and be impeccable with your word. People buy more than just your products and services. They invest in your credibility.
50. Lead Without a Title.

I encourage to share this post to your team. :)

Until my next post,

Elvin

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I Love My Job

I was searching for an email in my archive when I found this facebook note from Francis Kong.  I believe that this is worth sharing.

Dr. Seuss came up with a poem entitled “I Love My Job” and it is so funny in its attempt to reflect reality. Now listen to this: 

I love my job, I love the pay, I love it more and more each day.

I love my boss and he's the best. I love HIS boss and all the rest.

I love my office and it's location. I hate to have to take vacation.

I love my desk, drab and gray, and love those paper piles each day.

I love my chair in my padded cell; there's nothing else I love so well.

I love to work among my peers. I love their leers 'n jeers 'n sneers.

I love my computer and all its ware; I hug it often to show I care.

I love each program and every file; I even try using it once in a while.

I'm happy to be here, I am, I am...I'm the happiest slave to my Uncle Sam.

I love this work; I love these chores; I love the meetings with deadly bores.

I love my job AND I'll say it again, I even love these friendly men: 

These men who've come to visit today, in lovely white coats to take me away!

So what is he saying here? That those who really love their jobs are truly insane? 

This is funny and it actually reflects the attitude of many people in the work place. 

What about you? Do you share the same sentiment? 

If you think your job is awful allow me to give you a list of the world’s most terrible jobs. And here is the list: 

1. Nuclear Warhead Sensistivity Technician

2. Circus Elephant Clean Up Specialist

3. Rotten Sardine Taste Detector

4. Executive Assistant To The Boss's Nephew

5. Shark Baiter

6. Russian Cartographer

7. Vice President, Screen Door Sales, North Pole Division

8. Hurricane Photographer

9. Director Of Public Relations, Chernobyl Nuclear Facility

10. The Person Responsible For Replacing Urinal Deodorizers

11. Prison Glee Club President

12. MGB Electrical Specialist

13. Road Kill Removal Crew 

A lot of people complain all the time about the kind of jobs they are involved in yet when news travel through the grapevine that a re-engineering is about to take place, layoffs will happen, that will be the only time they begin to value their jobs.

No one can make you happy and neither can anyone make you unhappy in your job. It is your choice you make and no one can make that choice for you. There are people out there who would be happy to take over your job if you are willing to hand it over. 

Work is a blessing. It is not a curse. It becomes a curse when you make it so. 

Only productive people can be happy and only the happy people can be productive. This has been the secret of winners and now this secret is yours to keep. 

Stop focusing on your boss as the monster and start focusing on God as your Provider and Employer and do everything you can to make the most out of your job. Learn new things. Improve your craft. And then suddenly, a mysterious thing begins to happen. You begin to be excited with your job. 

Just a parting thought:

Live every day as if it were your last. Do every job as if you were the boss. Drive as if all other vehicles were police cars. Treat everybody else as if he were you. 

Love God serve Him and men and enjoy your day.

Hope you find this helpful. Have a great day!

Elvin

PS. My wife wrote an ebook about Job Hopping, two years ago. If you haven't read it yet. You may download a copy on this link: Stop Jobhopping Now! 

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