Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

Positively Contagious

This week we share a very powerful message from author and speaker, Jon Gordon. Jon's message is a great reminder about how contagious our attitudes and emotions are. Is your attitude worth catching?
The Flu is not the only thing you catch at work. Turns out you are just as likely to catch someone's bad mood and negative attitude. Yes, the latest research demonstrates what we’ve all known to be true, emotions are contagious. Researchers call them emotional contagions and they impact our work environments, productivity, teamwork, service and performance in significant and profound ways.

As we know all too well, one negative employee can pollute an entire team and create a toxic work environment. One negative leader can make work miserable for his/her team. An employee in a bad mood can scare away countless customers. Complaining can act like a cancer and spread throughout the entire organization and eventually destroy your vision and goals. And pervasive negative attitudes can sabotage the morale and performance of teams with great talent and potential.

That’s the bad news... but there’s also good news.

Positive emotions are just as contagious as negative emotions. One positive leader can rally a group of willing people to accomplish amazing things. One Chief Energy Officer who sits at the welcome desk can positively infect every person who walks in your business/school/workplace. One positive team member can slowly but surely improve the mood and morale of her team. And pervasive positive attitudes and emotions at work can fuel the productivity and performance of your organization.

Emotional contagions are the reason why when I speak to businesses, schools and sports teams I say that everyone in the organization contributes to the culture of it. You are not just a creation of your culture but rather you are creating it every day through your thoughts, beliefs and actions. What you think matters. How you feel matters. And the energy you share with others, whether it’s positive or negative, really matters.

You can be a germ and attack your organization's immune system or you can act like a dose of Vitamin C and strengthen it.

So the next time you head into work with a bad mood you might want to stop before you walk in the door and consider what your leader would say if you had the Flu. She would tell you to stay home until you are healthy and not contagious. And in that moment, as you stand at the door you have choice: You can go home so you don’t infect anyone with your bad mood, or you can choose to get healthy right there, change your attitude, and decide to be positively contagious.

Have a great week unless you choose otherwise.

Drago

 

Share the Warmth This Winter

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The Words of My Life was published on June 30th, 2016

The first ship date noted from the publisher was July 31st, 2016

106 Books Sold To Date! Thank you for your support!!

The Words of My Life - My First Published Book .... # 2 is in the works.....

Opposites Attract for a Reason

It seems to be a fundamental law of the universe that a thing cannot exist without its opposite.

Negatively charged electrons revolve
around positively charged protons.
Male and female.
Inhale and exhale.
Extend and contract.
Seedtime and harvest.

Every good thing exists in a state of duality.

A voice spoke into the darkness,

“Let there be light,”

and the first duality was born.

Darkness didn’t go away; it simply met an opposing force.

Whether you believe the Bible to be ancient folk wisdom or the word of God or something in between doesn’t really matter. Most of us can agree that something about it caused the Bible to be remembered for millennia.

According to the first chapter of Genesis, after the voice pierced the darkness with light, it spoke five other dualities into existence and proclaimed each of the six pairs of opposites to be good.

I’m not writing to you about religion.
I’m writing to you about wisdom.

I’m glad to see you’re still reading!  I’m sneaking up on an important point. Stay with me.

Good and evil are not a duality.
Love and hate are not a duality.
Peace and war are not a duality.
The first is life and the second is death.

It shouldn’t be hard to choose between them.

The only difficult choices in life are the choices between two good things.

Freedom and Responsibility are two good things that we must often choose between.
Likewise, a tension exists between Justice and Mercy.
Honesty and Loyalty are also good things.

Have you ever had to choose between them?

Which one is good and which one is evil?

The next time you see two antagonistic groups throwing word-grenades at each other, peer beneath the emotional language and you’ll notice that one group believes in freedom while the other group believes in responsibility. Or one side is pushing for justice while the other side pushes for mercy.

Niels Bohr wasn’t a touchy-feely philosopher. He was a scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among his discoveries was this:

“The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”

Stanislaw Lec said it this way,

“Proverbs contradict each other. That is the wisdom of a people.”

Then F. Scott Fitzgerald challenged you and me to step into a larger realm of living,

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

Don’t fall into the trap of believing you have to choose one and disparage the other.

Every creative person is familiar with the magnetism that exists between opposites. A skillful articulation of this energy is the secret behind hit songs, big movies, bestselling books and successful ad campaigns.

A voice spoke light into the darkness and said it was good.

And Niels Bohr said “Amen.”

And Stanislaw Lec said “Amen.”

And F. Scott Fitzgerald said “Amen.”

So please tell me, if you will,
What say you?

Roy H. Williams

Jackson Kiddard

Anything that annoys you is for teaching you patience.

Anyone who abandons you is for teaching you how

To stand on your own two feet.

Anything that angers you is for teaching you

Forgiveness and compassion.

Anything that has power over you is for teaching

You how to take your power back.

Anything you hate is for teaching you

Unconditional love.

Anything you fear is for teaching you

Courage to overcome your fear.

Anything you can’t control is for

Teaching you how to let go and

Trust the Universe.

-          Jackson Kiddard