Stress, Anxiety, Pressure.... no thanks I know how to deal with it

Coping with anxiety

A big event coming, bills to pay, deadlines to meet, hiring a new employee, doing the job of others and things at home aren’t that calm either……, all of this leaves you with a lot of anxiety and pressure.

We do behave differently under pressure, however it has been observed that we can turn anxiety to our side and use the extra push that we receive from pressure to transform it into energy. First of all it is important to acknowledge the pressure and the stress we are facing, and that will be an easy step to do, because we all show signs of stress on two different levels: Physical and Behavioral.

Physical signs:

· General fatigue

· Sleeplessness

· Headaches

· Back or shoulder ache

· Upset stomach

Behavioral signs:

· Irritability

· Loss of concentration

· Depression

· Change in appetite ( eating more or less than usual)

· Drinking or smoking more

· Feelings of panic

Before you get too worried, there are effective ways of controlling all those stress symptoms. I use two very effects methods and those are Simple body relaxation and Visualization.

Simple body relaxation:

This method will help you relax your muscles, which in their turn will send signals to your brain.

This sequence is easy to remember and all you need is 10 minutes and a quiet room on your own.

Toes: Tense the muscles on your toes, and then relax;

Feet: Tense the muscles on your feet, and then relax;

Lower legs: Tense the muscles on your lower legs, and then relax;

Thighs: Tense the muscles on your thighs and then relax;

Stomach and lower back: Tense the muscle and then relax;

Continue the same technique on your:

Chest

Shoulders

Upper arms

Lower arms and hands

Neck

Head

If you follow that sequence, you will feel a warm wave of relaxation spreading up your body, it will help you feel comfortable and less anxious

If you only have time to follow a shorter sequence, just focus on your shoulders neck and head.

Visualization:

While the first technique works on your muscles, this one works on our motherboard our programming engine: our Mind.

Visualization is used by almost every winning sports achiever in the world, it’s also very common among successful entrepreneurs, and has the effect on focusing on the important task at hand. The idea is to put yourself in a daydream state and picture success. Scientifics have found through experiments, that repeatedly picturing something, clearly and vividly, acts on the unconscious mind. In fact the mind begins to believe the dream and starts to mobilize resources to make it a reality. In the same time because your mind is so focused on the successful income, you won’t have time to worry.

In order to use visualization you need to do the following:

· Make yourself comfortable: by using the relaxation technique, listening to music or going for a walk.

· Make sure that you are totally relaxed

· Think about a time when you were successful at something, a time when you achieved and were happy, imagine doing the same thing again and the feeling that comes with it.

· Now visualize yourself in the situation: whatever is the task you want to accomplish, try to record a mental movie of it in your mind with all the details.

Whenever I have a keynote with a big audience coming, I start using the treadmill, because running relaxes my body. After making sure that I have no tensed muscles I try to remember my last successful speech, and with the experience I simulate my next keynote and start visualizing all the details; what will I be wearing, how the conference room looks like, who are the people and what will they be wearing…. Strangely enough, because I imagine myself being on stage with a very fit body, I tend to lose weight every time I deliver a keynote or a speech without even changing my dietary habits, this is how powerful visualization is.

For more info on how we can help you increase your personal and professional performance drop us a line on info@ideasgrp.com

Ideas Group is a global learning and human capital development firm specialized in leadership and team development. We help our clients become high performance organizations and foster a sustainable growth.
We strive to continue on partnering with our clients, finding solutions for their sustainable performance through services that include management consulting, generic courses for immediate impact, tailor-made workshops and transformational experiential learning experience

My new book is out

"Do what you Love, Love what you do"

What do you think of Dubai taxis? I had a different experience ...

Dubai taxis drivers are known to be smelly, angry and rude, reckless behind the wheel and cause most of the road accidents in the emirate. They are also grumpy and wouldn’t step out of their comfort zones, ironically know nothing about customer service, whereas their job is all about service.

All of this changed in my head, as I took the best taxi ride of my life; I was going to the airport, my fiancée stopped a taxi and asked him to follow us to the sandy parking lot and then drop me to the airport; Fareed, the clean and elegant driver nodded his head and with a gentle smile followed. As I have entered his car, I was surprised, that although it has 400000km on the dashboard, it was cleaner than new cars, with a fresh fruity scent. He initiated a conversation and asked if he might know where I was heading to, I have answered I am going to Lebanon, he then started to comment on the current growth in the financial situation of the country and to my surprise he was right in all that he said, his knowledge blew me off. As we were cruising I couldn’t but notice his great driving style, it was amazing; he was very respectful of other drivers, gentle on the accelerator and never had to suddenly break, which was unusual for a Dubai Taxi. He taught me some new cultural aspects of his native Pakistan and told me that he was an auto engineer and was not supposed to be a taxi driver, however since he is stuck with this job for visa reasons, he has decided to make the best of it, and that means that he wants to give every customer a beautiful and enjoyable ride. 

As a result of Fareed's behaviour in my airport ride I have doubled the fare as a tip, and I am sure you would have done the same.

The important lesson that I have learned from this taxi ride, is that whatever our job might be, we should enjoy what we do and exceed the expectations of our customers (whether internal or external customers). By giving an exceptional service, we don't only make an impact on others, but we also increase the chances of impacting ourselves.

So remember keep your smile and do what you are exactly supposed to do, no matter what you job is, and one day you can make an impression strong enough to change the world.  As Malcom Forbes puts it: “Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs”.

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The crisis is killing long term growth...all it takes is a paradigm shift

What do smart managers do in Economic downturns?

Yes you are right they start laying off their staff.

And how do they do it?

They look at the salary figures and start eliminating the high paid employees, then will look at any other large expenditure, all in the aim of rounding off their numbers.

However what organizations fail to do, is to downsize their operations, following the staff cut, by production cut.

This imbalance is nothing but the old concept of Production/Production capability (by Dr. Covey). What this means in simple terms, is that, whenever our delivery will start affecting our quality, we should decline new business ; each good manager should know where that break point is located in regards to their respective business.

To paint a clearer picture, I will share with you my worst dining experience; Last weekend I went with my friends for a very late lunch at Locatelli, the Italian restaurant of the famous Atlantis in Dubai. The restaurant seats 210 persons and looks very neat, with a good design and a welcoming atmosphere. We placed our order which was composed of salads, pizzas and pasta dishes. 45 minutes later the pasta was served and then the salads and some items on the menu were missing, although in those 45 minutes waiting time we called the waiters at least 10 times, 2 of which, the restaurant manager attended us, and where we made clear that we want the salads and the pizzas first as an appetizer and then the other dishes. The problem was that the restaurant is understaffed,orders were mixed, and the worst part is that waiters started blaming their colleagues in front of us.

I wouldn’t be writing this blog if this was a one off; As I was telling this story to my friends, I heard some similar comments on the same top class restaurant.

Staff lay off is a short term quick fix, however messing up with the P/PC equation is a long term damage, and its effects are most of the time irreparable. 

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Ask and you Shall Receive

And I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Luke 11:9

I have met a gentleman last week who has lost his job, as his company made more than half of the staff redundant.

“It is hard to find a job these days” he said “the market is crowded with job applicants and companies are getting rid of their existing staff” he adds.

So I asked: “Who did you talk to? And where did you apply?”

“There is no use even if I talk no one will listen in this tough period”

That reminded me of an old joke about a man who was complaining about never winning the lottery and when his friend asked him how many tickets has he bought in his life , he replies “none I never win so why buy”

We cannot expect good things to happen if we do not ask for them, it is just a question and there is no harm in asking a question. All it takes is just a simple question.

In Sales this question is called: asking for a referral, and a good sales person knows that the least that they expect to get out of a meeting is a referral, so if the client doesn’t need their product or service there is a large chance that they know someone who does.

Just two days ago, while an amazing mastermind session was being wrapped up, I said to the group “ I am going to Morocco in 2 weeks, do you guys know any one there?” and my good friend Reg www.regathwal.com jumped of his chair to grab a list of more than 30 business cards, whom I have emailed and got 2 scheduled meetings.

All I had to do is ask.

So my advice for you is to take control of your environment and choose your response to what is happening around you and never give in to the general negative mood.

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened Luke 11:10

I close this blog by a small extract of Habit 1: Be proactive; by Dr. Stephen Covey

It is inspiring to realize that in choosing our response to circumstance, we powerfully affect our circumstance. When we change one part of the chemical formula, we change the nature of the results. Those who are proactive focus on what they can do, on what they can influence.

So good luck on your new questions to be asked and if you need help you know who to write to: info@ideasgrp.com

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Now is the Time to Change.

On this edition of my bi-monthly blog I thought of sharing with you a story that reflects the current situation. As a friend of mine told me: “Human beings love to be victimized” and in the current downturn, people are blaming the crisis instead of taking action…. Well now is the time to decide what you would want to be doing next. To paint a clearer picture in your minds I would like to share with you an inspirational story. This story is extracted from the book “Notes from a Friend” by Anthony Robbins:

“Have you ever heard of a guy named Colonel Sanders? Of course you have. How did Colonel Sanders become such an unbelievable success? Was it because he was born wealthy? Was his family rich? Did they send him to a top university like Harvard? Maybe he was successful because he started his business when he was really young. Are any of these true?

The answer is no. Colonel Sanders didn't begin to fulfill his dream until he was 65 years old! What drove him to finally take action? He was broke and alone. He got his first social security cheque for $105, and he got mad but instead of blaming the society or just writing the American congress a nasty note, he started asking himself, "What could I do that would be valuable for other people? What could I give back?" He started thinking about what he had that was valuable to others.
His first answer was, "Well, I have this chicken, recipe, everyone seems to love! What if I sold my chicken recipe to restaurants? Could I make money doing that?" Then he immediately thought, "That's ridiculous. Selling my recipe won't even pay the rent." And he got a new idea: "What if I not only sold them my recipe but also showed them how to cook the chicken properly? What if the chicken was so good that it increased their business? If more people come to see them and they make more chicken sales, maybe they will give me a percentage of those additional sales."

Many people have great ideas. But Colonel Sanders was different. He was a man who didn't just think of great things to do. He put them into action. He went and started knocking on doors, telling each restaurant owner his story: "I have a great chicken recipe, and I think if you use it, it'll increase your sales. And I'd like to get a percentage of that increase."
Well, many people laughed in his face. They said, "Look, old man, get out of here. What are you wearing that stupid white suit for?" Did Colonel Sanders give up? Absolutely not. He had the #1 key to success; I call it personal power. Personal power means being persistent in taking action: Every time you do something, you learn from it, and you find a way to do it better next time. Colonel Sanders certainly used his personal power! Instead of feeling bad about the last restaurant that had rejected his idea, he immediately started focusing on how to tell his story more effectively and get better results from the next restaurant.


How many times do you think Colonel Sanders heard no before getting the answer he wanted? He was refused 1,009 times before he heard his first yes. He has spent two years driving across America in his old, beat-up car, sleeping in the back seat in his rumpled white suit, getting up each day eager to share his idea with someone new. Often, the only food he had was eating was bites from the samples he was preparing for perspective buyers. How many people do you think would have gone for 1,009 no's - two years of no's! - and kept on going? Very few. That's why there is only one Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC. I think most people wouldn't get passed twenty no's, much less a hundred or a thousand! Yet this is sometimes what it takes to succeed.

If you look at any of the most successful people in history, you will find this common thread: They would not be denied. They would not accept no. They would not allow anything to stop them from making their vision, their goal, a reality. Did you know that Walt Disney was turned down 302 times before he got financing for his dream of creating "The Happiest Place on Earth"? All the banks thought he was crazy. He wasn't crazy; he was a visionary and, more important, he was committed to making that vision a reality. Today, millions of people have shared in "the joy of Disney", a world like no other, a world launched by the decision of one man.”

So have you ever asked yourself those 2 questions? What could I do that could be valuable to other people? What could I give back?

I add to Tony Robbins questions a third one: What do I love and enjoy to do? But watch out! it has to be something that others are willing to pay for otherwise it will become a hobby not a business or a method of making a living.

So good luck on your next journey and if you need help you know who to write to: info@ideasgrp.com

Gaining a Competitive Advantage

 In these tough times, where the decision making process is very slow, and companies are laying employees off and cutting their expenditures, the common mistake that corporate organizations fall into, is losing their momentum and give up to the general negative atmosphere.

 As a manager or head of department you have to keep your staff prepared for three reasons:

 1-    It has been proven that in down times, prepared companies gained market share and managed to add great value that turned into a competitive advantage in prosperous times.

 2-    Projects will not stay on hold forever, whenever financial institutions will resume their activities, the market will revive at a blink and again only prepared companies will be ready to absorb that sudden growth.

 3-    Engaged employees, turn into disengaged and actively disengaged employees because of the uncertainty of the markets, and that results in companies losing their top talents; the same talents that cost the company a fortune to attract in addition to the painful recruiting process.

 So try to keep your employees engaged and think about the future.

For more info on how we can assist your organization gain and sustain a competitive edge from a human capital perspective drop us a line at info@ideaspr.com