Volume 1, 2009

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Featured Topic: Change Inside Out

Inside This Issue

100 Changes You Can Make

It is a new year! Welcome 2009!  It doesn’t seem too long ago that we were preparing for all the predicted problems that 2000 would bring, yet it has been almost a decade.

People associate the beginning of a new year with change. In our current economic climate, most Americans are looking for change. Politics aside, this can be a great time for you to make changes in your life. The change can be pleasant. Doing something different can lead to thinking differently which can lead to permanent and positive change.

Look through our list and pick a few that will matter to you. Create your own list. The important thing is to do something different. Let us know what change you are making by writing to us at tlc@talklisten.com. We may add it to our list!

  1. Get physically fit. Being fit physically will aid in mental clarity. It also energizes and helps you to reach your goals.
  2. Expand your vocabulary. This keeps you in a constant learning mode.
  3. Start a hobby and become excellent in it.
  4. Laugh out loud at least once a day.
  5. Listen more than you talk.
  6. Attend professional development programs.
  7. Pray/meditate every day at the same time of day.
  8. Make lists of ideas for personal growth.
  9. Volunteer your time to those less fortunate.
  10. Mentor someone.
  11. Perform a kind deed each day without getting credit for it.
  12. Watch the History Channel.
  13. Listen to NPR.
  14. Don’t keep track of hurts. Let them go.
  15. Join professional or trade associations and become active.
  16. Work crossword puzzles.
  17. Train another part of your brain to excel, such as playing a musical instrument.
  18. Practice concentrating on a thought for 5 minutes and add a minute each day.
  19. Choose what you listen to in the car such as self-help CD’s or downloads.
  20. Keep a daily journal.
  21. Learn a foreign language.
  22. Do something each day to nurture your spiritual life.
  23. Learn something new each day.
  24. Give a compliment each day.
  25. Visit the public or university library each week.
  26. Listen and talk to your children.
  27. Take a different route to work.
  28. Play with crayons or clay.
  29. Take a walk.
  30. Wear your watch on the other arm for a while.
  31. Watch people when you are in public.
  32. Keep a pad and paper or recorder to record your thoughts.
  33. Brainstorm with a friend or team member.
  34. Write your personal mission statement.
  35. Strike up a conversation with a stranger.
  36. Get out of the country and have conversations with the locals, even if you need an interpreter.
  37. Go to a concert.
  38. Take a vacation.
  39. Smell the roses.
  40. Play Scrabble.
  41. Use a dictionary and thesaurus regularly.
  42. Paint or draw and remember that you do not have to be good.
  43. Make a list of positive characteristics of someone that you do not like.
  44. Count your blessings – literally write them down on paper.
  45. Break up your routine and find different ways of doing familiar tasks.
  46. Watch Jeopardy.
  47. Write a poem.
  48. Ask yourself “why” and “why not” every day.
  49. Write down your goals.
  50. Write an advertisement for yourself.
  51. Attend a play.
  52. Listen to classical music.
  53. Read at least one national newspaper each day.
  54. Improve your computer skills.
  55. Stay in touch with customers.
  56. Build upon your relationships each day.
  57. Watch foreign films.
  58. Take a deep breath whenever you think of it.
  59. Write a legacy statement describing what you hope to leave behind.
  60. Read a business book.
  61. Learn a new game.
  62. Work a puzzle.
  63. Play chess.
  64. Make a personal financial plan.
  65. Use a daily planner.
  66. Start each day thinking about 4 things you are looking forward to.
  67. Test your memory by recalling the details of a positive event in your past.
  68. Discipline yourself to begin a difficult task.
  69. Make lists.
  70. Take a correspondence course.
  71. Join a book club.
  72. Play a sport.
  73. Call an old acquaintance or friend.
  74. Teach a course at a local college or at your YMCA.
  75. Close your eyes and listen to the surrounding sounds to identify all that you hear.
  76. Watch a toddler use his/her imagination.
  77. Play with a dog or cat.
  78. Give a speech.
  79. Write an article for a newsletter or magazine.
  80. Seek out new friends who are smarter than you.
  81. Listen to people who think differently than you.
  82. Examine leaves and admire their beauty and differences.
  83. Have a conversation with someone in another generation.
  84. Spend some time with someone from another economic status.
  85. Give yourself “done-lines” (deadlines).
  86. Get up one hour earlier each morning.
  87. Learn to cook exotically.
  88. See how many objects you can name in the same category.
  89. Take a chance.
  90. Always get back up.
  91. Give at least one informative compliment each day.
  92. Put a mirror on your desk and look into it as you talk on the phone.
  93. Take a course on financial planning.
  94. Write a song or short story, then share it with someone.
  95. Develop good posture.
  96. Dress for success.
  97. Take a class in ballroom dancing.
  98. Each day, talk out loud about ideas, rather than events or people.
  99. Behave as though someone is always watching because they probably are.
  100. Do something to humble yourself each day.

What Our Clients Are Saying

The results from the group training we received from Beverly and the individual coaching I received from Vincent, are still evident today. The classes were three years ago but because of the skills taught to us we have been able to get real results that have had positive changes in the ways we communicate with each other and the media. The TLC training is effective because they made it applicable to what we do everyday.

Gil Francis, Knoxville, TN

Increase Your Tolerance and Acceptance of Change

Vincent Ivan Phipps

How many results would you expect to find if you “Google” the word change?

There were one billion, two hundred million (1,200,000,000) results just for the word change! I got “Google” happy and decided to see how many results I could get for a synonym for change. Revolutionize was the synonym for change with the fewest results of 4 million. It is a sign of our times when only 4 million results are considered a small number. The synonym for change with the most results is the word “alter.” It produced 171 million (171,000,000) results!

If the word “change” is so common that it addresses over a billion results on the Internet, what are the reasons change is still so readily resisted? The great thing about Google, Askjeeves, and other search engines is that they give you options and resources.

Options and resources are also the two key components that can prepare you for change. Behavioral statistics tell us that 54% of the population will resist change, even if the change is good. Fifteen years ago, it might have been silly to be seen walking around downtown talking out loud although no one was around. Now, with cell phones, that change is common.

Follow these three steps to increase your tolerance and acceptance of change.

Number one:

Create the change. Instead of sitting back being a victim of what has been placed upon you, develop the mindset that you will orchestrate your next step.

Example: As our economy has shifted financially over the last decade, industries are cutting expenses on heath care, travel, and training. At TLC we feel this sting too. We created a series of inexpensive public seminars to address this change.

Number two:

Research the change. Identify what has altered or modified your industry.

Example: Televisions in HD (High Definition) are a new trend. Television providers started providing more channels in HD. This led to offering more enticing packages for their viewers.

Number three:

Embrace the change. Rest assured, the only thing that will remain consistent is that there will be changes. Don’t fight them; delight in them!

Example: I am a director on several boards. I am accustomed to having the minutes typed and emailed to me in an attachment after each meeting. In 2009, our process changed to having the minutes posted on our website. Some of the less savvy Internet members resisted. I also like having them emailed. I still welcomed the change. Having the minutes posted ensures I can’t delete them, lose my copy, or contribute to the ever-growing piles of paper in my life!

Whether you accept the billions of definitions of change, or create your own, only with change can you become smarter, stronger, and more productive. Welcome the new changes and, even if you dislike them, just hang around long enough and they will change again!

Happy Birthday

TLC wishes a Happy Birthday to clients celebrating in January:

Critical Thinking

Therese Padgett

NPR recently aired a story about education in China. Basic to the story was this: that new ideas should not be introduced to children (including youth) until AFTER their core belief system had been indoctrinated. Please read that again.

My fear is that our own educational system works much the same way, and that is a sad commentary on society. Stop and think about prejudice for a moment. Think about the Puritan work ethic so ingrained in American society. Think about corporate greed. What are the core belief systems at work in each of these? What were the historical contexts in which they originated? Are they based on fact and proven by experience? Has experience changed over time? Have the belief systems changed with the experiences and facts?

As a child I was always asking “Why?” My parents encouraged this behavior, not so much by answering me as by asking me, “Why do YOU think it is or is not so?” This response spurred me to imaginative exploration. The most important lesson my grandfather taught me was that “the only dumb question is the one you do not ask!” His lesson formulated confidence in my ability to think independently while valuing the experiences of others.

S. Ferrett, in Peak Performance (1997), lists the following attributes of a critical thinker:

2008 provided a great many opportunities, especially during a heated electoral process and a deteriorating economic climate, for all of us to witness many times when critical thinking was not exercised. We witnessed a time when news journalism became editorialism (translation: opinionism); a time when prejudicial emails were interpreted as the facts, and nothing but the facts; a time when fear mongering stirred up emotions that clouded and obscured reason and justice; a time when greed and poor judgment in the financial markets created global groaning; a time when self-survival (translation: self-centeredness, fear) blinded us to issues of poverty and neglect of those so much less fortunate.

While we may all agree that change is needed, we need to first know from what we are changing, why we need to make a change, and to what we are changing. Change that is pursued without a preface of critical thinking is doomed to failure.

Practice critical thinking in the New Year to assure your goals for change are real and reasonable and, most of all, realizable. Make 2009 your best year ever!

CEO Corner

Beverly Inman-Ebel

Chief Executive’s Opinion

We spend a lot of time and money changing us on the outside. Think of grooming costs we dedicate to our hair, clothing, even the car we drive. Sometimes those efforts pay off and people notice us differently. I have a couple of power suits that usually bring a comment or two when I wear them.

To prosper in 2009, we need to focus on changing us from the inside. Being prepared for thinking differently, acting responsibly, and creating new opportunities can take us places we have not traversed before. Just imagine what could be, without limiting yourself by what is right now.

We have a lovely retreat in the Cherokee National Forest with two mountain homes. The Creek House has a very large bedroom without a private bath. For years I have been considering adding a bathroom to the outside of this room. In a brief conversation with my father over the holidays, he asked me what I was striving to accomplish and we ended up with a plan that not only creates a bathroom, but alters the function of the original room and the stairs to get there. I had been looking at what I had and he was looking at space without barriers.

Sometimes we have to remove walls, literally or figuratively, to create change that works. Think about something that has captured your thoughts for some time. It may not be urgent, but making a change would make your life better. Quit looking at what you have and focus on what you want. Create some possibilities that can prosper in the space. The space can be a physical location, a budget, or any resource. Notice I used the plural form of possibility. Don’t stop at one idea.

It’s like playing scrabble. The ‘space’ may be the letters that you draw, yet you have options on how you use them, where you put them, and what other options may appear because of the actions of others. And then it is not like scrabble because who says you have to use all the letters?

In 2009, think outside the box. Don’t wall yourself in. This year truly is a time for change. That’s my two cents. While $.02 may be small change, it can bring big results. Think without rules. Create. Live your dreams!

TLC establishes long-term relationships with our clients. If we have helped you or if you believe our approach to change would work for someone you know, please request a proposal or phone 1-888-232-2873. We work with individuals and groups on the following subject areas: attitude, listening, body language, voice, leadership, compliments and corrections, behavioral style, teamwork, effective meetings, public speaking, accent reduction and much more!.

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