knowledge

Have you ever had the opportunity to follow-up on a sales lead? Recently, I had such an opportunity to reconnect with an organization that I had been trying to secure as a client. Due to some new events and after multiple unreturned phone calls, I decided to ask for the decision maker within the department. After receiving the executive’s name and finally making contact, I explained who I was, where I was from and how I could add value to their training request. A planned 5 minute telephone call turned into a 30 minute engaging dialogue where I learned even more about their needs and was asked in return if I had the experience to facilitate a second, separate engagement.

The point of this story is quite simple. How many times in life do we fail because we didn’t ASK? For example, we receive only part of the information that we need and instead of A.S.K.’ing for the rest of the information we provide a response based on limited information. We rationalize this behavior because of our desire to respond quickly, to showcase our expertise, to show respect, to not lose a potential contact or sale, etc. Yet, if we had received all of the necessary information, how much different would the outcome be?

Many of us know when to ask, however, we may not understand why we need to ask. In exploring the various reasons for asking, there are 3 basic actions why we A.S.K:

Aspire ~ Solidify ~ Know

First, by A.S.K.’ing, we aspire to reach that next level of understanding. Remember, how young children are always asking “Why?” like “Why isn’t the moon always round?” These endless questions provide opportunities for them to grow.

Reason number two centers around the need to solidify our current information or knowledge. By A.S.K.’ing, we take the time to ensure that our understanding is solid so that we can accept new knowledge into our existing experiences. Examples of this include such questions as: “Ask do you understand?” or my personal favorite “Does that make sense to you?”

The third reason we ask is to know something. Knowing questions are “Where are you going?” or “When do you want this project finished?”

A.S.K.’ing is truly an art that we refine over time through practice and awareness. Our continued practice and awareness create the balance so that we also know when not to ask. The question is then “Should I ask?”

“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” Chinese Proverb

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. President of ADVANCED SYSTEMS, is the Process Specialist. With over 25 years of business and education experience, she builds peace and abundance by connecting the 3P’s of Passion, Purpose and Performance through process improvement. Her ROI driven process solutions affect sustainable change in 4 key areas: financials, leadership, relationships and growth & innovation with a variety of industries. She aligns the strategies, systems and people to develop loyal internal customers that lead to external customers. As co-author of M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential:Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement due for June 2005 release, Leanne speaks nationally to a variety of audiences. Please call Leanne a call at 219.759.5601 or email leanne@processspecialist.com if you are seeking amazing results.

Copyright 2005(c) Leanne Hoagland-Smith, http://www.processspecialist.com

Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accept.)

Tags: balance, failure, Inspiration, knowledge, motivation, opportunities, self improvement, successbalance, failure, Inspiration, knowledge, motivation, opportunities, self improvement, success

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I’m thinking today about thinking. Interesting concept, huh? How often do we really stop and think about the way we think? How might the way we think about things really have an impact on the way we see the world?

I’ve been listening to Wayne Dyer and also to Deepak Chopra recently, and they have been talking about how our beliefs really do shape our reality. Deepak, who is a medical doctor, was telling a story about a fellow doctor friend of his who was a heavy smoker (this was a few years ago when many more people smoked). Deepak said his friend was always coughing and Deepak suggested that he get a chest X-ray just to make sure he was OK. His friend refused. One day Deepak said his friend was coughing profusely, and Deepak dragged him in to get a chest X-ray and it revealed a coin-sized spot on his lung. Deepak said within a week his friend was coughing blood, and within a month he died.

Deepak went back and checked in his friend’s medical file and found an X-ray that had been taken five years before and there was the coin-sized spot - no different than it was on the last X-ray. What Deepak concluded was that his friend didn’t die of cancer, but died of the diagnosis. What he knew of cancer was that it was a death sentence and he proved himself right. Wow.

If we can start to see that whatever shows up in our lives is a result of the way we are thinking, what would that mean to the voices in our heads that are masquerading as the “victim” and the “villain”?

I don’t know about you, but this shift in my thinking has caused an amazing shift in the way the world is occurring to me. When I started thinking about this, I discovered that I don’t have any negative friends; I don’t have depressing conversations with people; I don’t really have too many complaints in my life. At first I thought that was just a lucky phenomenon until I started examining the work I’ve been doing on myself over the past couple of years. I started noticing that as I shifted my attitude, things started shifting around me. Now I look for positive things in my life and that’s exactly what I see.

On the one hand it seems almost amazing … but on the other hand, isn’t this the way it should be for all of us? Shouldn’t life be wonderful and peaceful and supportive of us? Wouldn’t that be a better space for all of us to exist inside of? What would you be freed up to be if you didn’t have the worries and stresses in your life?

I met a new friend a couple of weeks ago who told me that she has worked hard all her life to save money. In her words, she said she has been a “hoarder” and one night she figured out that she had enough money socked away so that she could live for the rest of her life without working. Wow - that’s pretty freeing! She went to sleep that night with all kinds of exciting ideas in her head … and then she bolted awake three hours later and went back to her checkbook and discovered - to her horror - that she had the decimal point in the wrong place, and she wasn’t financially independent like she thought she was three hours earlier.

The good news is that during those three hours of freedom, she had all kinds of new thoughts about how she would live her life without constraints - and she remembered what they were. Nothing had changed in the universe in those three hours - but in her mind they had and her thought process allowed all kinds of new energy into her space. Although she didn’t have the money she thought she had, she still had the ideas and the thoughts and she committed to staying on that path and living that way in spite of the reality. And she’s seeing a lot of those ideas come to fruition in her life just because she intended them.

What are your thoughts producing in your life? Where might you be able to see something different by thinking it that way? Try it - and let me know what shows up in your space!

Jodee Bock is a life purpose and career coach, speaker, facilitator, and trainer. She works together with people - individuals and teams - who want to practice “riskful” thinking as opposed to merely “wishful” thinking. Together Jodee and her clients co-create a roadmap that works backwards from what they would like to become and set up a plan to transform their knowledge into action.

In addition to her coaching and facilitation, Jodee is available for keynote addresses, and develops and delivers customized workshops and seminars. She is a certified Job Relations trainer for manufacturing environments, and also a certified Accelerated Innovation trainer and coach with SolutionPeople (http://www.solutionpeople.com).

Jodee is a co-author of the book “Don’t Miss Your Boat,” and her own book “The 100% Factor: Living Your Capacity” will be released this fall.

For more information, check out her website at http://www.bocksoffice.com or her blog at http://youalreadyknowthisstuff.blogspot.com.

Tags: belief, Inspiration, knowledge, Positive Attitudebelief, Inspiration, knowledge, Positive Attitude

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