We Got Trouble

Diane Loomans once reminisced, "If I had my child to raise all over again, I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later. I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less. I would do less correcting and more connecting. I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes. I'd take more hikes and fly more kites. I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play. I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars. I'd do more hugging and less tugging." Being a parent is both satisfying and challenging. Knowing exactly how to handle any situation can be very difficult. Sloan Wilson captured the central issue this way, "The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard." Although being a parent is very complex and will have many twists and turns over the years, knowing how you and your child are doing through the process is less daunting

1. What do you think it means to have good mental health? 2. What do you do to help your mental health? 3. What do you like about yourself? 4. What helps you feel happy, excited, satisfied? What kinds of people, situations, things help you feel good, help you be emotionally positive? 5. When do you feel unhappy? What kinds of people, situations, or things get you to feeling afraid, angry, sad, confused, or feeling emotionally negative? 6. Sometimes our negative emotions get out of balance and sort of take over. When this happens, we sometimes have problems with our behavior and adjustment. When your emotions get a little out of balance and the negative emotions take over, what kinds of problems does it cause you with your behavior, your adjustment? 7. Our feelings are okay. This includes feeling afraid, angry, or sad. How we deal with our feelings makes a difference, though. How do you deal with it when you feel angry, when you feel afraid, when you feel sad? 8. It is important to understand our

Do you want to know everything there is to know about success in about five minutes? If so, please press play and learn. If not, well, you're on your own.

There are many reasons why some of us succeed while others of us are only getting by. One of the more hidden reasons is directly related to how successful people - yes, all of them -- communicate. They always have smart conversations. While others are having simple conversations, the successful are doing smart, without anyone noticing. Do you communicate for success? I doubt that you ever do otherwise. I am assuming that you are too smart to be that dumb. Listen and hear how it works.

In this episode of the Audio Tidbits Podcast, you learn everything you need to know about negotiation at home, at work, or wherever you are when the time comes to make a deal. The skills you will develop will facilitate your being more effectively assertive, being a better problem solver, and being a better conflict manager. Developing the skills is sometimes tedious and requires a lot of practice. The payoff is both substantial and positive though. At first, it will be useful to move through the negotiation process in a step-by-step manner. With practice and experience, you will gradually get to a point where effective negotiating is second nature to you and is not something that requires a lot of detailed activity. At first though, it is important to develop a negotiating plan and to seek out opportunities to practice. It is a little like learning to play the piano. Learning how is tedious and time consuming. Being able to play well however, is a very satisfying thing indeed. PRELIMINARY ACTIVITIES

I’m still finding the Prompts app on my iPhone pretty interesting. Whether I decide to play every time or not, it does get me thinking about things I would otherwise not consider. The idea is that the app provides a phraise to serve as a thought starter. The point is to finish the sentence that starts with the prompt phraise. I suspect that the authors hope that we will write more than a sentence, but you get the idea. I talked about one of the recent prompts on PPOV.net yesterday where I share my Personal Point Of View. I found the prompt interesting enough to explore it further here on the Audio Tidbits Podcast. I invite you to join me on the mental journey. … The prompt is, “In 500 years ….” Yesterday, I floundered some with the prompt and found myself commenting on exciting things like: 500 years on Earth is about the same as 2,075 Mercury years and 41 Jupiter years. I discovered today that that same 500 earth years add up to a mere 3 Neptune years. By themselves, those likely facts are little more th

In what I think was probably the most recent episode of Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything podcast, Mr. Walker featured an artificial intelligence (AI) expert from Google. The Google guy was discussing what sounds like an AI game for geeks. In this scenario, the geeks are themselves artificial intelligence entities. Think of them as computer one and computer two. Computer one’s gig is to create realistic scenes indistinguishable from reality. Think of them as mind pictures. Also keep in mind that these scenes are completely computer generated. They are fully a product of artificial intelligence, ones and zeros supported by algorithms. Once the button is pushed, there is no additional human intervention. For computer two, the gig is reality detection. Along with IA scenes from computer one, computer two is shown scenes captured from actual reality. The challenge for computer two is to tell which scenes are artificial and which are actual, which are fake and which are real. Think of computer two as a lie

Success requires Focus, Focus, Focus. Your full undivided attention is on your success agenda. You do not permit distraction or competing priorities. You continuously say Yes to your success. Success requires Timing, Timing, Timing. You are where you need to be, when you need to be there, doing what you need to do. You are always prepared, always good to go. Success requires Attitude, Attitude, Attitude. It is not a whatever you happen to feel about it today attitude. It is the success attitude. You believe in your success, your capacity to succeed. What's more, you have no doubt about what you do to succeed. You do whatever it takes. … Success requires Persistence, Persistence, Persistence. You are committed to sticking to it. How long do you hang in? You hang in as long as it takes to succeed. You persist. Success requires Practice, Practice, Practice. This is the key element separating you from the less successful. However talented, skilled, capable, clever, ingenious you are today, you can improve, ca

This episode of the Audio Tidbits Podcast is a remix of an earlier episode that suggests an approach to people and situations that reduces any tendency we may have to reflexively react negatively to others and new situations. It helps protect us from us.

Are you a Charlie Checker fan? If not, this is your chance to get abord with Charlie and his latest cases. Charlie thinks of himself as a detective but is at least as much into being a teacher and friend. Press play and get the story for yourself. I think you will enjoy it.

Have you ever taken a trip on the success train? If not, you are in for a real treat. If you have made the journey with Tom and his friends before, you will discover that a second trip on the success train is even better than your first. Press play, climb aboard and enjoy the ride.

Brent Miller's dog-and-pony show takes twelve minutes. When the lights are back up, Brent confidently asks if there are any questions.  This is his big mistake.   Ronda Simpson breaks the ice. "That was good, Brent. I at least understand your data better than I did in January."   Brent smiles and says, "Given your twenty years as a manager, Ronda, I will take that as a compliment."   Harold Stiner, Production manager, jumps in, "I know you have only been with us for a year, Brent. There are a few things you seem to be still struggling with. You want $150,000 to - what did you call it? - place two machines. Production keeps getting pushed to cut costs, and your boys in R&D want a hundred here and a hundred there."   More interrupting than responding to Harold, Brent asks, "How much can we handle for this test installation?"   Harold imperceptibly tenses as he responds, "As far as I'm concerned, R&D wants to push up the cost unnecessarily. This will get the price up so high we may get stuck with the l

All management is based on guiding principles; and the effectiveness of management derives from those principles. This is true whether the principles are appropriate or inappropriate, reasonable or unreasonable, consistent or inconsistent. Similarly, the derivative nature of management holds whether the guiding principles are vague or well-defined, followed faithfully or haphazardly, applied day-to-day by managers who are highly skilled or fundamentally incompetent. Effective management, then, is a product of:   Guiding principles that are appropriate, reasonable, and consistent;   Managers who clearly understand the guiding principles, faithfully adhere to them, and who are fundamentally competent.   It follows from this that the effectiveness of an organization's management is a product of the Principle/People equation:   Principles + People = Outcomes. …

Is there someone where you work who absolutely, totally, and unequivocally drives you up the wall? Do you sometimes feel like climbing the wall all by yourself as the quickest way to escape? If you are saying Yes! Yes! Yes! you have had first-hand experience with "The Frustration Factor," up close and personal.   The players of the world are alive and well and ready to drive you up the wall. Some are aggressive, some passive; some are extroverts and others introverts. Whatever their personalities, they are mostly motivated by personal needs, status goals, and insecurities. If their private goals are coincidentally compatible with your company's, so be it. If not, their selfish interests prevail.   Rich is an experienced player.   Rich's approach to driving people up the wall is B-t-B: By the Book. In a less linguistically correct time, we called this CYA.   His main play is to do things the same way he always does them. What has worked before is likely to work again. He knows people seldom find fault

What do you think about taking a few minutes to remember Christmas? You haven't forgotten? Relax, close your eyes and try really hard to remember. You may recall that it is really even better than you remembered. You are in for a nice surprise.

I am hearing that there is going to be a great tax cut, maybe even the greatest tax cut of all times. Unfortunately, that is the limit of what I hear of any substance. I guess I am expected to reflexively believe that a tax cut of any kind is good and that the current taxes people pay are excessive and unwarranted. Since I get no details, I might as well go ahead and comment on what we know very little about. I hear politicians and political pundits do that daily and as best I can tell, they don’t know much about what they are talking about either. I have some questions. To start, why do we need any tax cut at all? I hear that unemployment is low and getting lower. I hear that corporate profits are high and getting higher. The stock market keeps reaching new all-time highs. The economy is chugging along at a quite respectable pace. Our President tells us that the economy has never done better than during his first year in office. So why do we need a tax cut to stimulate the economy? Let me suppose that we

The How To Matter podcast team is having a rambling chat ranging from frustration to whatever comes next. Like most casual discussions, the topic shifts with no particular theme. Let’s listen in to see how well we do following the conversation.

In this episode, the adaptive leadership series is continued. Focus is on leadership as a service and what does and does not lead to leadership excellence. Note: In the last episode, I did not realize that the musical notes under the narrator might distort on a phone speaker. I'm sorry and will try to avoid similar issues.

8 minutes to success may be a little out of range for most of us; but learning what is required only takes our old friend Simon 8 minutes. Please listen to see if you agree. It may be the best 8 minutes you invest this week.

The discussion of adaptive leadership is continued in this episode of the Leadership Shop Podcast. The discussion starts with focus on vision and mission. It then turns to valuing the people who make the journey with him or her. A commitment to excellence is essential as well as valuing customers and always meeting or exceeding their expectations. Please listen in to hear how these important elements are explained.