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Change Something!

Written by: Sylvia Lafair

Article Overview: Are you "Stuck in the Mud"? All dressed up and nowhere to go? Your life at a standstill? Read Sylvia's helpful hints on how to create change, and get yourself on the right track again.

Free Download - Entrepreneurs and the “Oh! No!” Trap By Sylvia Lafair
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Change Something!

What happens when you get stuck in a rut? Think about it for a moment. There you are sitting in your car and the tires are mired in mud. First thing you do? Tell the truth now! First thing? Most people rev the engine. So, there you sit with the tires going round and round digging deeper and deeper in the soft, squishy dirt. Next is the back and forth dance; car in drive, car in reverse, car in drive, car in reverse. Sometimes this works, and off you go. At least here you did something different.

What, however, do you do if these two actions fail to bring the change you want? In this wonderful day of cell phones, you have great options. Call someone, like a brother-in-law with a truck or AAA.

Then you wait. You can listen to music in the car, read a book, call a colleague or just sit and meditate. Yet, most will sit and go over and over the annoying circumstances that got you in the mud in the first place. And that is how to waste the most precious resource you have - your mind power!

Whenever you are "stuck in the mud", this is an ideal time to make the changes that will lead you to a next new thing.

Entrepreneurs love change and yet, even the best of us get locked into old, hand- wringing ways of saying "It just won't work." "This is the way it's always been". "I'll never have a happy life"!

When waiting for the new ideas to come, take action. Here are some simple things that you can do, while sitting in a chair, that will have long term consequences for activating those brain neurons so that soon, really soon, you will have an "aha" moment and get to where you want to be.

1. Visualize the outcome of what you want: it only takes a few minutes of clock time to see in your "mind's eye" what you want. Don't judge it as impossible, just see it!

2. Hear it: don't just let the pictures take place, activate them with internal dialogue and let yourself talk out what you want. Let others who are in your inner picture talk also. You can even ask them questions and wait for the answers.

3. Walk backwards: Yes sir, I mean in real time. Get up on your feet and walk backwards. Little kids love to do this. It will get parts of your brain that have been latent, activated. Now, take the visualization and play it backwards from the beginning. You will be surprised what you learn.

4. Make a commitment to change something: If you tend to dress as if every day is casual Friday, buy yourself a new tie or blouse and dress up for the next few weeks; or get a haircut, or let your hair grow. Desserts a no-no? Get a gooey hot fudge sundae today, or if you love desserts, eat a stalk of celery at the end of the meal.

Now, weeks later take stock of what has changed in your inner world, as well as your outer world. You see, getting the changes you want means taking small, yet definite actions to engage your brain and flood it with new ideas.

So, next time you get stuck in the mud, get out on the highway and flag down a friendly stranger who can help, and maybe, just maybe that important stranger will become your next best customer. You never know if you keep repeating the same behavior patterns over and over.

In fact, go to my website - yes, do it now, and take the PatternAware quiz to find out where you need to make change happen.

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Home > Leadership > Sylvia Lafair > Change Something
Article Tags: Life change, Road to success

About the Author: Sylvia Lafair
RSS for Sylvia's articles - Visit Sylvia's website

Developing leaders and transforming teams is my speciality. As a clinical psychologist I know that we bring the behaviors we learned in our original organization, the family, into our present work organization. The key to leadership is understanding how individuals form a system and how that system impacts the bottom line. I have worked globally and find that the core of relationships is much the same whether in California, China,or Chile. My book "Don't Bring It to Work (Jossey Bass) offers tools and strategies for developing collaborative work cultures and important core techniques for entrepreneurs to have motivated and fast moving teams. I am a speaker at national conferences, radio, and television. You can follow my blogs at  http://www.sylvialafair.com/blog/ . You may contact Sylvia Lafair, PhD, author of "Don't Bring It to Work" directly at, sylvia@ceoptions.com or 570-636-3858 for any questions or feedback you may have.

Click here to visit Sylvia's website
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More from Sylvia Lafair
Leadership Tip Dream On
Leadership Lessons Listen Up
3 Rules for Integrating New Employees into the Workplace
Business Leadership Strategies Deciding How to Decide
Entrepreneurs and the Happiness Quotient


Related Forum Posts
Re: Spellcheck? Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers - Hi GT It is only fairly recently that people in South Africa have been able to get full use of Paypal as we were only able at one time to make payments but not receive them. Fortunately this has now changed. I have received money through Global X Change for one of the affiliate programs that I promote and have found them pretty good as the money is normally transferred directly into my bank account within 2-3 days and I have not had any problems with them. MichelleJ
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":3kaa8sg4] Obama WILL make changes... but they're not the changes we as a country need or should look forward to.[/quote:3kaa8sg4] Sad but this is exactly how I feel about it. Change is coming - but unless I'm really wrong, it is not a change this country needs. Amazing how much a good speaker with a good speech writer can do. If you paid attention to the things he said "off script" - much of it is frightening. Chris
Are you an Opportunity Addict? Are you an Opportunity Addict? - 1) if you find yourself saying yes without thinking about how it will affect your other priorities 2) you have over 10 projects/inventions going on at the same time and this seems normal to you 3) you have spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on manufacturing, prototypes, etc. not to mention thousands of hours of your time....but you havent followed through on any of it 4) most of your projects are falling behind or have completely fallen off your radar....which is fueling your frustration The first step in recovery is to recognize this as a pattern of self sabotage. If you are clear in what your overall goals and objectives are, you should be able to create a lens through which you measure opportunities. You create your life, and your to do list. Change, Add, Remove, Adjust time-lines - whatever you like. But remember that every piece of unfinished business - stays that way J
You are too young You are too young - I don't really believe (I've been into web designing for 7 years now... I started in 2000) there is any web design laws. Besides the fact that you can't use copyrighted images on web design without permission from the original author. Also, any web designs you do you may want to have it copyrighted so other's can't steal your idea's or whatever... of course, you can offer a "Copyright Change" option for a bit more money that will allow you to be able to transfer the copyrights and give exclusive rights to the purchaser. All in all, don't worry about the laws... you should be fine, just remember that if your in the U.S. that if your making over $400 (or maybe its $600) in revenue, you'll have to pay taxes to the government... and please get a LLC, although its not a big thing with web designs, you could get into legal trouble somewhere in the business. Lastly, use contracts for when your selling or use agreements to clear the air so that you can have a safe business and you'll have some backing up if you ever are taken to court.


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