good thots

You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus."

~Mark Twain

"Even those experiences that we deem calamitous can carry the seeds of a greater blessing. It is often in retrospect, however, that the benefit reveals itself. And whether or not it reveals itself and how quickly is does so, is dependent upon only one thing: our own individual perspective."

~Kate Nowak

Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

~Margaret Mead

"Leading with a clear and compelling vision helps align team members with a sense of direction and focus. It gives the team something to aim at, something to make happen, something to manifest into positive results."

~John J. Murphy

Each one has to find its peace from within. And peace, to be real, must be unaffected by outside circumstances."

~Mahatma Gandhi

"Give yourself the time you need to find your dynamic balance and rhythm before your body decides for you. Remember, you want your life to be a marathon not a hundred-yard-dash, so pace yourself."

Peter Drucker, the legendary management consultant and author says this about teamwork:

"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we;" they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit...This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

an Excerpt From
Pulling Together
by John Murphy

At the center of every high performance team is a common purpose-a mission that rises above and beyond each of the individual team members. To be successful, the team's interests and needs come first. This requires "we-opic" vision (What's in it for we?), a challenging step up from the common "me-opic" mindset.

Effective team players understand that personal issues and personality differences are secondary to team demands. This does not mean abandoning who you are or giving up your individuality. On the contrary, it means sharing your unique strengths and differences to move the team forward. It is this "we-opic" focus and vision-this cooperation of collective capability-that empowers a team and generates synergy, the power of teamwork.

Cooperation means working together for mutual gain-sharing responsibility for success and failure and covering for one another on a moment's notice. It does not mean competing with one another at the team's expense, withholding important data or information to "one-up" your peers, or submitting to group think by going along, so as not to make waves. These are rule breakers that are direct contradictions to the team-first mindset.

High performance teams recognize that it takes a joint effort to synergize, generating power above and beyond the collected individuals. It is with this spirit of cooperation that effective teams learn to capitalize on individual strengths and offset individual weaknesses, using diversity as an advantage.

Effective teams also understand the importance of establishing cooperative systems, structures, metrics, incentives and rewards. We get what we inspect, not what we expect. Think about it. Do you have team job descriptions, team performance reviews and team reward systems? Do you recognize people by pitting them against standards of excellence, or one another? What are you doing to cultivate a team-first, cooperative environment in this competitive, "me-opic" world?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.

-- Chinese Proverb

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ten Steps to True Happiness

A team of experts believe that they have found the essential ingredients to make a
person's life happier. Based on best knowledge and research, the team came up with
a 10-point plan for happiness listed below.

The 10 steps to happiness

1. Plant something and nurture it.
2. Count your blessings - at least five - at the end of each day.

3. Take time to talk - have an hour-long conversation with a loved one each week.

4. Phone a friend whom you have not spoken to for a while and arrange to meet up.

5. Give yourself a treat every day and take the time to really enjoy it.

6. Have a good laugh at least once a day.

7. Get physical - exercise for half an hour three times a week.

8. Smile at and/or say hello to a stranger at least once each day.

9. Cut your TV viewing by half.

10. Spread some kindness - do a good turn for someone every day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy."

~Milton Erickson

"When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude."

~G.K. Chesterton

Ease will take you to success faster and more efficiently than struggle.

-- Alan Cohen
The best way to discover what you believe is to hear what you say and then realize how you feel about it.

-- Source unknown

Acting as if your life is good is closer to the truth than acting as if it is not.

-- Alan Cohen

always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early."

~Charles Lamb

"Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work."

~Robert Orben