Author: Jay Wren

Sometimes The Best Way to Start Exercising is Simply to Walk Out the Door.

This morning I was having trouble getting started on an exercise program.   So I just put on my shoes, my sweatshirt, and walked out the door. I walked to the end of the street and turned left. I walked along the paved path beside the canal system.

I walked up twenty feet from a small hawk sitting on the fence along the way. As I drew closer the hawk flew across the canal thirty feet away and landed on the fence on the other side.

It was exciting to see the hawk.  I know that they are ruthless raptors that prey on other birds.  I have seen this ruthlessness first hand when I saw a sparrowhawk eating another bird in my backyard a couple of years ago.  Although I do not encourage ruthlessness, I respect the bird for it powerful and simple success in doing one thing and doing that one thing to perfection.  I often wish that I could see my life with similar straightforward simplicity.

I have read that sparrowhawks also eat small rodents.  I guess that if prey is scarce, a sparrowhawk might eat anything.

There is an owl’s nest along the walk I took today.   I wonder how many city dwellers live among birds of prey and are not aware of that these birds exist.   I have heard this owl screech from its nest at night.  I know that this owl eats rodents, because I have seen the bony remains of rodents under the owl’s nest.

As I walked further, I passed a neighbor who was cutting up small branches from a tree in his yard. It has recently turned fall.   We had a strong wind a few days ago.   I am guessing that the neighbor was cleaning up his yard.

The leaves on some of the trees have turned yellow and gold.   The temperature was around sixty.  There was not a cloud or even a trace of a cloud anywhere.

A plane passed overhead.  I could not see it, but I could tell from the sound of the engine that the plane was at a level and inbound for a landing.  I know that it was inbound.  I never see outbound flights overhead in this area.

While walking the other night with a friend, I learned something that probably everyone on earth knows, but was news to me.

In the Northern Hemisphere, a waxing moon appears as a “D.”  A waning moon appears as a “C.” On this night, the bright moon formed a solid D or perhaps a white half of pie.

My friend also taught me that as the moon rotates around the earth, the bright reflection of the sun on the surface of the moon shifts from the right side across to the  left side.   Picture the full moon: ” Ο.”    As the full moon wanes, the earth slices a slightly larger crescent out of right side of that reflection each day until the earth eclipses the moon’s surface into darkness.   Then as the moon continues to rotate around the earth, the slices of reflection begin to reappear on the moon on the right side.

The phases of the moon to us in the Northern Hemisphere kind of look like the following.

)   Waxing

D   Waxing Quarter Moon

(]   Waning Quarter Moon.

(   Waning Moon.

Getting started exercising can seem difficult.   Yet just walking though is so rewarding.  The best way to exercise is to just to start exercising.   I am truly blessed that I can just walk out my front door so easily, get the exercise of a run or a walk, and learn so much as I walk along.

5 Signs I Have Lost Focus on the Job

When I feel anxious, I have lost focus.  My mind is not on what is going on around me.  My mind is on what I imagine might happen.

There is a difference between planning for future events and creating scary scenarios of what might happen.  I have to remind myself every day that scary thoughts might come along.  The best way to end those scary thoughts is to take a deep breath and see the world around me.

The feelings of anxiety will pass.  I do not have to fight them.

When I feel regret, I have lost focus.  No one can do things in the past.  What I can do is recognize where I might have made mistakes.  I can learn from those mistakes and not repeat them.  I can remember that ruminating over the mistakes will take me no where today.  I can take advantage of the time I have today is to take healthy strides that will give me great memories tomorrow.

When I am angry over the past, I have lost focus.  Staying angry after things have passed is painful and futile.  The greatest waste of time, mind, and energy is carrying around anger over a squabble or personality difference.  Ironically, I can often get past the personal anger by speaking with a person and telling that person that I regret how I handled a situation and saying that if I had it to over again I handle things differently.

When I feel insecure, I have lost focus.  Insecurity is a form of fear and is another waste of time and energy.  We might experience insecurity when we enter a room full of people, especially at a social gathering, or when we are speaking in public. We might experience that feeling when we are working with a new device while other people are watching.  Insecurity occurs when our main concern is how other people are judging us.   Insecurity makes our thoughts and feelings personal and can steal our presence of mind.

I remember telling my father that a shirt in his closet was out of style.  He liked that particular shirt.  He smiled, winked, and said, “Son, if other people don’t like the way I look, they can look the other way.”

I loved my father’s modest self-confidence.  When he felt insecure, he just let the feeling pass quietly.

Sometimes I find that overcoming insecurity requires action.  When I enter a social gathering, I can face insecurity head on by speaking with the first person I know or introducing myself to someone.

When speaking in public or handling a new devices in front of other people, I can practice what I am going to say or do.

If I have no time to prepare, I can admit that I am doing something that I have never done before and ask the audience to go easy on me.  Showing humility is always a great way to win over an audience.

When speaking to a large crowd, I can also know that half of the audience is not paying attention and the other half will not remember what I said.  The main thing is simply to work from an outline however quickly written and sketchy and to stick with that outline.

When I played football, I suffered horrible insecurity at the beginning of the game.  I found that just banging into someone one time relieved the pressure of insecurity, and I was into the game.   Often the least simple action can break the ice of insecurity.

When I have target fixation, I lose focus.  I become unaware of what I am doing.  When I focus, I am aware of my surroundings and aware of the person with whom I am meeting.  When I get target fixation, I only see the goal I want to carry out.  Target fixation can make me deaf to the points the other person is making.  I might fail to give correct and complete information.  I try to stay loose and focus on the other person and make sure that I deliver the information this person needs to know.

Why Leaders Tell People What to Do

When I was sixteen, I worked as a grocery clerk.  On my second day on the job, I showed up at my work station a few minutes after the time to start to work.

The store supervisor called me over. He told me that I was late for work. He told me that the next time I was late for work, I would lose my job.

He said that the best way to arrive on time to come to the store fifteen minutes early and go to the break room. I could sit there on a fifteen minute break to relax, have a cup of coffee, put on an apron, and get mentally ready to go to work.
I enjoyed working for that store manager. He never told me not to do anything. However, he did teach me how to do a lot of things.  He taught me how to deal with short-change artists.  He taught me how to work with two hands when stocking shelves or putting groceries into a bag. He taught me how to pack bags so they would not burst and how to put similar goods in the same bag for the shoppers’ convenience.

I try to practice the same approach in all areas of my life.  I tell people what I want, not what I do not want.  Leaders tell people what to do, because simple, direct instructions are effective.

7 Action Steps to Productivity

Assess and Adjust.  Life does not always go according to my plans.  I can do several things when I meet frustration.

1. I can ruminate on how unfair life is to me.
2. I can blame other people for my frustrations.
3. I can feel sorry for myself and play the victim.

On the other hand, I can look for ways that I can turn life’s surprises into opportunities.  I make a list the actions and tools for adjusting to the change.

1. What is my new situation?
2. How practical is it for me to continue to pursue my goals?
3. Should I make my goals larger or smaller?
4. What things do I already know to take advantage of these opportunities?
5. What do I need other people to do?

As life changes and my business opportunities change, I assess and adjust.

Finish.  Some projects need an extra effort and attention.  Sometimes completing the project is frustrating, boring, or even annoying.  I enjoy writing programming language.  Sometimes the projects are long and involve of a lot of detail.  Often I take programming code I have used in one place and move it to another place.  There is nothing creative about this type of process.  Usually I find that I need to edit the code for the new place.  It is easy to make errors.  I have to concentrate to make sure that the codes are exact before they will work.

Further frustrating is that the codes may produce good results in one browser and not in other browsers.

To finish the project, I slow down.  I focus on the details.  I find that being patient and using the right tools, I finish the most tedious and frustrating projects.

My extra effort of adding new code makes the program much more appealing and effective for the reader.  I enjoy the results of finishing these types of projects.

Act once and act now.  I read so much material that it is easy for me to skim instructions for a project and then put the project aside.

If I continue to start and stop on projects, I do a lot more work than acting once.

If I cannot act on the project when I first come to it, I put it on my schedule so that I can start the project and finish it without stopping.  The “act now” phase of the project becomes the time for which I have scheduled it.

By acting once and acting now, I do a lot work and have less on my mind.

Own your mistakes.  Conflicts arise for everyone.  Blaming other people sometimes may feel like the right thing to do.  If I focus on the things I need to do I sometimes find that my own adjustments are all that I need to change to get the project completed.

Control your schedule.  Whenever someone asks me to do something, I check my schedule.  If the person is asking me to do things that I do not believe are the best things for me, I simply say, “My schedule is full.”

Take responsibility.  I started a number of softball teams and soccer teams.  I knew people who wanted to play, but no one would organize the teams and contact the City Parks department to schedule games and register the teams.  I took responsibility for starting the teams and had a lot of fun taking a leadership role and from taking responsibility.

I have had clients who were slow to conduct interviews.  I took the responsibility.  I would find out when the hiring manager and the applicant were available.  I would offer the hiring manager options for interviewing the applicant.  “Here are the times.  Which ones work for you?”  By taking responsibility, I made the process of interviewing simpler for the hiring manager.

Building a Successful Business or Career Never Ends. It is a continual process of expanding your goods, services, skills, and network.

Building a Successful Business or Career Never Ends.

Building a business or a career is a continual process of expanding your goods, services, skills, and network.  The day I sat down to start my career as a recruiter; I had a telephone, an empty legal pad, and a box of blank 5 x 8 index cards.  My contact management systems today contain tens of thousands of contacts.  These are people I have personally tracked and for whom I created files.  Most of them I have reached out to by phone, email, or professional networks.  I still make new connections every day.  Little has changed except that my file system has gone from paper to a computer.

I have continually added clients.

Here is a partial list of companies where I have placed managers:

1. 1. PepsiCo
   2. Pepsi Bottling Group
   3. Frito-Lay
   4. Coca Cola, USA
   5. Coca Cola Foods
   6. Mobil Oil Company
   7. Soft Soap
   8. Pillsbury Green Giant
   9. International Playtex
   10. Quaker Oats
   11. Dannon Corporation
   12. No Nonsense Fashions
   13. Coca-Cola Foods
   14. Del Monte Foods
   15. The Clorox Company
   16. Nestle
   17. Brach & Brock
   18. Catalina Marketing
   19. Health Resource Corporation
   20. Majers Corporation
   21. Welch Foods
   22. Softsoap
   23. E & J Gallo
   24. Sunny Delight
   25. M & M Mars
   26. Tambrands
   27. Nabisco
   28. News America Marketing
   29. El Dorado Marketing
   30. Imagitas
   31. ConAgra Foods
   32. ConAgra Armour Swift-Eckrich
   33. Polaroid Corporation
   34. Dial Corporation
   35. Dep Corporation
   36. United Vintners
   37. 7-Up
   38. Miller Brewing Company
   39. 13-30 Corporation
   40. Hain Celestial Group
   41. Q-Interactive
   42. Label Dollars
   43. Promo Edge
   44. Centiv
   45. The Sunflower Group
   46. PromoWorks
   47. The Wine Spectrum of Coca Cola
   48. Kaiser-Roth
   49. DSD Communications
   50. Black & Decker
   51. ActMedia
   52. Linkewell Health
   53. Bush Brothers Beans
   54. Marketing Technology Solutions
   55. Sunny D
   56. Twenty-Ten Corporation
   57. InStore Broadcasting Network
   58. Insignia Pops
   59. The Beecham Group
   60. GlaxoSmithKline – GSK
   61. Jacobs Suchard
   62. Cody Kramer
   63. SVP Worldwide
   64. Mauna Loa
   65. Garden Burger
   66. EAS
   67. New World Pasta Company
   68. Vacation Connections
   69. Lala USA
   70. Continental Promotion Group
   71. Kayser Roth
   72. Morningstar Farms
   73. Duracell
   74. Kiss Products
   75. Phillips Food Brokerage
   76. Unicous Marketing
   77. Kelley Clarke Food Brokerage
   78. Wizards of the Coast
   79. Oberto Sausage
   80. Fanfare Media
   81. Linkwell Communications
   82. Lindt
   83. Nurserymen’s Exchange
   84. Maybelline
   85. Advantage 360
   86. American Italian Pasta
   87. Warner Lambert
   88. Fuel Rewards/Centego
   89. First Flavor
   90. Potlatch Corporation
   91. Crossmark Food Brokerage
   92. RB (Reckitt Benckiser)
   93. Marketing Force
   94. J&J Snack Foods Corporation
   95. Cartera Commerce Inc.
   96. Alcon Laboratories
   97. Ray-O-Vac
   98. Naterra
   99. ICOM
   100. Slim Fast (Unilever)
   101. Potlatch Corporation
   102. Dean Foods
   103. …and others

   In the list are many companies that no longer exist.  In some cases, the brands still exist, but these brands are part of another company.

   Building a Successful Business or Career Never Ends.

   Companies come and go.  People come and go.  Processes change.  Opportunities that are here today are gone tomorrow.  Even if a person only has one large, sustained client, may see frequent buyer turnover.  People who build new relationships and expand their relationships within that one client will become more effective.

   Change is constant in business and careers.Building a business and a career is not like building a house or a wall.  The process of building a business and building a career never ends.