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Six Ways to Be a More Positive Person

April 4, 2012 in General, Leadership with 9 Comments

“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” – Winston Churchill

There’s a reason you don’t read a lot of profiles of successful people who credit their negative outlook for helping them achieve their goals: It doesn’t happen. Negativity is like an anchor that holds us down and keeps us from accomplishment. A positive attitude on the other hand can help you navigate rough waters and reach your destination. Every great thing you do begins with belief – in yourself, your abilities, and your potential for success. That’s the true power of positive thinking. If you want to achieve more goals and experience more personal and professional success, here are six ways you can work to become a more positive person.

“Speaking for myself, I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else.” -Winston Churchill

You know the benefits of positive thinking. Now you’re ready to take the next step: Transforming yourself into a more positive thinker. I am daily learning how to be more positive. I am still learn but here are some practices helping me a positive person.

#1 - Meet with God Daily

Prioritize time with God. The truth shall set you free. Take time each and every day to clear your head. It will give you the opportunity to release your negative thoughts, worries, struggles and hang-ups, so you have more space in your mind for positive thinking. It will also reinvigorate you when you are having a rough day or are in a particularly negative situation.

#2 – Surround Yourself with Positive People

Both positive and negative people can influence your perception. Think about it. Everybody loves being around a positive person. They are invigorating and energizing. Negative people have the opposite effect on those around them. Everybody is drained and frustrated. Make it a point to spend more time – especially in your professional life – with people who have a positive outlook; who enjoy a challenge; who believe every problem has an ideal solution.

#3 – Absorb Encouraging Media

Subscribe to blogs, podcasts and websites of people or organizations issuing content that fuels your passions. Much like negative people, negative information can wear on you and bring you down. And let’s face it, the Internet isn’t exactly a den of positivity – there’s a lot more negative info out there. That’s why you have to do some work. You have to seek out positive sources and consume the majority of your information from them. This will keep you tuned in to the positive and affirm your optimism.

#4 - Control Your Thinking

Thoughts lead to actions. Actions lead to results. Not happy with negative results? Check your thoughts. Take an honest assessment of your thought process. When a new job or challenge arises, are you immediately excited and passionate about tackling it? Or do you begin to gripe about the work and time required? If you skew toward the negative, you need to acknowledge that and make a change. Over time, you can train your mind to focus first and foremost on the positive aspects of any situation.

#5 – Exercise Regularly

Make physical activity a priority. Scientific data has proven exercising helps with attitude and thinking. Try to schedule 3-5 exercise sessions each week. This will help you expel stress and negativity, gain more energy and sleep better. All those things will lead to an increase in positive thinking. But while you should try to participate in regular exercise sessions, don’t beat yourself up if you miss one. The point of exercise is to enhance positivity – not add another negative.

#6 - Consume High Energy Foods

How your body feels has a direct effect on how you think. Treat your body well. Give it the fuel it needs to run properly. Avoid the “three white killers” – salt, sugar and flower. Eat gluten, grain and dairy-free products. Fuel your body five times a day by eating short meals every three hours. You will be amazed at the difference you experience in both body and mind.

Don’t let negativity hold you back in your professional or personal life. Take control of your mind, and work to make positivity a priority. The whole world can open up in front of you when you shine a positive light on all the opportunities surrounding you.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” -Winston Churchill

How do you stay positive in your daily routine?

3 Questions to Answer Before Vision Casting

April 2, 2012 in Communications, General, Leadership, Marketing with 1 Comment

Vision casting is an art form that all great leaders must master. Whether you’re leading a small business, local church or Fortune 500 company, you have to be able to communicate your unique vision for the future to others. Simply identifying a vision is not enough. People are skeptical. The casting and communication of your vision must be clear, concise and compelling. If it is not, your words will float in one ear and out the other. The best way to cast vision is to answer tough questions ahead of time. These three questions provide leaders the clarity they need to communicate a vision to the public.

Realize the weight and power of your words

Everybody possesses the ability to cast vision. Think about it – most of us cast vision everyday. We make comments about what could be or should be. You’ve probably suggested to a friend or family member how they could improve their life; or shared ways your company could do business better. All of that is vision casting. The position we hold in people’s lives determines the weight of our words and thus our potential to shape their future. But vision casting is not just about the content of your vision – it’s also about how you transfer that vision to others.

Answer these three essential questions about your vision -

4 Signs of a Catalytic Vision

April 2, 2012 in General, Leadership, Marketing with 0 Comments

cat·a·lyt·ic adj.

Of, involving, or acting as a catalyst:

cat·a·lyst noun

A person or thing that precipitates an event or change

You hear the term “catalytic vision” and you may imagine a person foreseeing a catastrophe like an earthquake. Rest easy; the catalytic vision I’m referring to is a very good and positive thing. It means an idea or action that brings about positive change or compels people to take action. In the professional world, catalytic vision is an all-too-rare commodity. Most organizations lack a clear vision that inspires people and ensures the organization remains strong moving into the future. So how do you know if your organization has a catalytic vision?

Does Your Organization’s Vision Include the 4 “M”s?

Find out if your organization has a truly catalytic vision by seeing if these four signs are present in your workplace:

The 3 Distractions Killing Your Dreams (and How to Fight Them)

March 30, 2012 in General, Leadership with 0 Comments

We all have dreams. We dream of changes that will make the future better. We dream because we are blessed with the innate ability to self evaluate – to reveal our current reality and pinpoint our desired future. Despite that amazing ability, many dreams never become realities because we let them fall by the wayside. Regardless of the dream, if you are not alert, you will get distracted. The daily grind of life is hard on dreams. Life is now. Meetings are now. Emails are now. Bills are now. A dream is later. In the meantime, 50 years pass by. Today, we look at three distractions that may be preventing you from living your dream and how you can overcome them.

How to Jump Over the 3 Biggest Dream Hurdles

While the things that distract us from our dreams can be numerous, there are three distractions that seem to never disappear. These are the biggest obstacles individuals generally face when working to achieve their dreams. Like the annoying fly that keeps buzzing around your head, these distractions can really throw you off if you let them. Here’s what they are and how to counteract them:

To Go Forwards, Go Backwards

March 28, 2012 in Communications, General, Leadership with 0 Comments

How we relate to the past determines how we move into the future. Sometimes the past can be a driving force, propelling us forward. In other cases the past can be a hindrance, keeping us from forging ahead. What’s the difference? The key is learning from the past, not living in it. Living in the past halts your personal or organizational growth. It’s like chains holding you back. On the other hand, learning from the past accelerates growth. It allows you to make better decisions and become stronger. There’s a huge difference in these two approaches. So how does a person learn from the past?

Three ways you can learn from the past

The past is a gift. It provides us a vast resource of information for making choices and shaping our actions moving forward. Here’s how you can learn from the past in order to build a better future:

1. Review Successes and Failures – We’ve all had highs and lows in our lives. Moments when we’re on top and moments when we’ve hit bottom. Both sets of moments are valuable. They give you strategic insight into how to achieve success and avoid failures. Think about two or three of your biggest personal or organizational successes and failures. Then ask yourself a few questions:

Why, when and how were you successful?
Why, when and how did you fail?

Relive these moments in your mind and take detailed and vivid notes. Identify every key indicator of success or failure. Make a list of them. Whenever you go to make a decision or take an important action, refer to this list. See how these indicators apply to current situations and if they pull you in one direction or the other.

2. Apply What You Learn – Your past failures show you pitfalls to avoid. That’s important. Everyone makes mistakes; the key is not repeating them. By acknowledging your missteps, you can make a concentrated effort to steer clear of them in the future. That’s what learning is – gaining information and tailoring your actions accordingly. The most successful individuals (and organizations) make a lot of mistakes… and they learn from each and every one of them.

While you learn from your failures, you should focus more time and energy on your past successes. If your failures provide a crash course in “what not to do”, your successes are your “to do” list. This will help mold and shape your efforts moving into the future. Take what worked for you in the past and apply it to your present situation. Know where your strengths lie, and leverage them to continually achieve success. Ultimately, learning from your past successes and failures will help you strengthen your strengths and weaken your weaknesses.

3. Let Go of the Past – I’ve talked a lot about reviewing and learning from the past. But that doesn’t mean living in it or lingering on it. That’s when the past becomes a negative rather than a positive. They say all great quarterbacks have a short memory. They shake off an interception and go back on the field and throw a touchdown pass. The same goes for work and life. If you always keep the past in front of you, you can only move backward.

The best way to learn from the past is to let go of it. For many leaders and organizations, the past is equivalent to “quicksand”. The past paralyzes them from moving forward. Execute the first two points of reviewing and applying, but make it a point to make peace, let go and forget the past after you learn. Your eyes should always be steadily focused on the future in front of you – and the infinite possibilities for success it offers.

The value of the past is different for all of us. Some people use it to fuel success and become better, stronger and smarter; others let it hold them back so they keep running in place when they should be sprinting forward. Fortunately, we hold the power over the past. That means the choice is yours: Will you let the past take the driver seat, or will you be the one behind the wheel using the past to navigate toward a successful future?

First Time Visitor to Member

March 26, 2012 in Culture, General, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy with 6 Comments

When is the last time you thought about what a “guest” thinks about before attending your church?

What should I wear? Will I fit in? Will our children have a great experience? Do I have the right Bible?

These are questions people ask before they even step foot in their vehicle and depart for a church service. It’s easy for church leaders to forget the emotions people face when visiting a church. Or the stress and anxiety people experience as they make their way to a church for the first time.

The car isn’t loaded. The kids are half-dressed eating Pop-Tarts. Mom can’t decide on an outfit. Dad forgot to iron shirt. The kids begin to whine. Anxiety is boiling and rising. Finally they pull into church parking lot…

What will they experience? Are you ready as church leader for these guests? How can you give them the guest experience they desire and deserve?

Guest Experience Checklist

From start to finish, you need to show your guests they are welcome by providing them an ideal visitor experience. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can do that:

Trying to Nail Jell-O to the Wall (and Knowing When to Quit)

March 22, 2012 in Culture, General, Leadership with 2 Comments

Imagine trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. Before you can even swing the hammer, it dribbles to the ground. As a consultant who helps individuals and organizations accelerate growth, I experience a constant challenge: I see client after client attempting to nail Jell-O (a department, employee, event, idea, etc.) to the wall. It keeps dropping to the floor and they keep pulling out nail after nail. They don’t receive the desired result but they keep trying over and over again. They refuse to dissolve a department, let go of an employee, or shut down an event or project. They don’t know when to quit.

Why is it so hard for organizations to let go?

It’s tough for leaders and organizations to quit. It symbolizes failure in the minds of many. From a young age, most of us are taught quitting is not an option. We need to stick it out, work harder and find a way. Most of the time, I agree with that philosophy. After all, great leaders are made by overcoming adversity. But there’s a flipside to that coin: great leaders also know when it’s time to cut their losses and move on. There’s a difference between giving up and failing. Leaders and organizations should not be afraid to admit when they’ve failed. You can only waste so many nails on the Jell-O before you go from being determined to being foolish.

10 Characteristics of Continuous Leaders

March 8, 2012 in Culture, General, Leadership with 0 Comments

Leaders are learners. Learners are leaders. Those who lead effectively learn continuously. These effective leaders never lose their curiosity. Simply stated, they never stop learning.

Are you a continuous leader? Here are 10 Characteristics of Continuous Leaders -

Desires to learn. The leader inherently possesses a deep emotional desire to learn.
Has humility. The leader is not impressed with how much they know.
Has endless curiosity. The leader pursues thoughts beyond their experience or knowledge.
Has the discipline to pursue learning. The leader schedules time on weekly schedule to read books, magazines, blogs.
Largely self-taught. The leader appreciates formal education but has the ability to learn on their own.
Listens more than talks. The leader understands the art of asking questions.
Alert to learn at every opportunity. The leader persistently looks for news ways to learn and grown.
Finds the best resources. The leader asks people who know more than you.
Welcomes feedback and evaluation. The leader holds a humble posture and invites constructive criticism.
Always teaching, informally or formally. – The leader grows by mentoring and teaching others.

Where do you stand?

Your Brand Is the Sum of the User’s Entire Experience

March 5, 2012 in Communications, General, Leadership, Marketing, Social, Strategy with 1 Comment

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.” - Scott Cook

In the old days, branding was a means of telling one owner’s cattle from another. Today, branding is a way of telling one organization from another.

Many organizations spend a lot of time carefully honing the “brand” they want to present. Problem is: Brand isn’t what you want people to think about your organization, it’s what people actually think about your organization. So what can you do to create a positive perception? Short answer: Everything. All your efforts should work to provide a positive brand experience. Your brand is the sum of the user’s entire experience.

How You Can Influence Brand Perception

Whether you know it or not, you have a brand. It’s what people think about you and how they perceive you. Ultimately, your brand lies in the minds of others. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have any control over your brand. You may not be able to open people’s heads and toss in the ideal version of your brand, but you can influence how they think about you. That’s what branding is. It’s effectively communicating what you are all about and why you are beneficial to your audience.

Make All Your Efforts Reflect Your Brand

Brand is not just an ad or a logo or a mission statement or a website. It’s the culmination of all those things. It’s how people decide to perceive you because of your ad, logo, mission statement, website, services, products, customer service, PR, communications, etc. Add everything you do together from top to bottom and you have your brand. It’s the sum of the user’s entire experience. That’s why your ability to make every interaction a positive one is essential to building a strong brand.

Here are five proven traits of a positive brand experience:

Interview with Mars Hill Director of Communications on Developing a Web Strategy

March 2, 2012 in General, Leadership, Marketing, Technology with 2 Comments

I interviewed Mike Anderson of Mars Hill. Mike is the Director of Communications Mars Hill & The Resurgence. Last week I posted The Top 3 Websites in America. Mars Hill easily made the list. I wanted to dig deeper and understand why and how Mike and his team developed an effective web presence on behalf of Mars Hill. Connect further with Mike via his blog and Twitter.

What is your role at Mars Hill?
I direct the communications team. The team has broad oversight of all communication aspects of Mars Hill Church, The Resurgence, PastorMark.tv, and now the Acts 29 network.

What are your primary responsibilities?

I lead a team of very strong managers who each are much stronger than I am in their specialty. My responsibilities are to make sure that we have the right people in the right positions, to translate the vision of our leadership into strategy, and create a culture of execution in which we do great work that is true to our focus of “it’s all about Jesus”.

What process did your team follow in developing Mars Hill web experience?

We have a general philosophy of project management that we try to follow that you can read about here: http://mikeyanderson.com/simple-project-management. Redeveloping the Mars Hill site was on a very agressive timeline, our Web Development manager really stepped up to the plate to own the process.

What elements are needed to produce a strong Internet presence?

There are a ton of ways to get a lot of people to a website. But a successful Internet presence is based off of the mission and vision of the organization you’re building for. In our case we are all about making disciples and planting churches. We have a general goal of planting 100 Mars Hill Churches and 1,000 Acts 29 churches – additionally our goal is to baptize around 10% of each of our church congregations each year. This means that we’re telling people about Jesus, empowering our people to be missional, and people are getting saved. To create a strong Internet presence for that mission has a few big characteristics:

Define your audience
In our case this means that we have 4 large websites that each hit a different group of people that are essential to the mission and vision of our movement. MarsHill.com and it’s social network presence revolves around the idea of “making disciples”. This site is aimed at telling people about Jesus, providing Jesus-focused sermons, and connecting them into meaningful community at Mars Hill. For the Resurgence we’re aimed at current and future leaders—mainly focusing on theological, pastoral, and practical topics that leaders of any level face. Acts 29, which we’re currently in the process of building a new site and content strategy is focused on higher level leaders who are planting or may have church planting in their future.

Make a flywheel
In his book “Good to Great” Jim Collins talks about the fly wheel principle. This means that just as a flywheel is a large heavy disk that as it spins it gains more and more momentum and is very difficult to stop – the fly wheel of a web presence is the idea that the right strategy can grow in momentum and be a driving force in the success of your mission. With Resurgence this is very simple – we publish two articles a day that are short, punchy, and helpful. On most days we have around 20,000 people a day coming to read those articles. These are all people that we are praying will grow in their love and knowledge of God, and that will contribute to our mission of Making Disciples and Planting Churches where ever they are.

Simplify
If you can’t do it well, it’s often not worth doing. If I was responsible for the website of a church that was small and didn’t have the resources to create a well thought out web strategy, I would create a simple one page website. It would say the name of the church, the mission we’re on, the times we meet, and how to connect.

How does Mars Hill use the Internet to engage people with the Gospel?
We have two primary ways that we engage – the first is that we push out what we believe to be the best teaching we can though each of our sites. We don’t hide Jesus. On the new MarsHill.com we decided to put Jesus in the upper left corner to be clear what we’re about. The second way that we engage people is that we try to connect people online to real like Gospel-centered communities so that they can get discipled well.

What systems does your team follow on a daily basis to maintain your Internet presence?
We have a few staff members devoted to the content on these 4 sites, but we have literally hundreds of writers from around the world that are contributing in some way. We have a set of themes for each of the site that we’re trying to communicate. For Mars Hill this is almost always related to what is being preached from the pulpit on Sunday, for the Resurgence this is often related to a quarterly theme that we choose to have about 50% of our posts address.

We have a ton of different rhythms that help us to organize the massive amount of content that we publish.

What advice would you give a church leader when attempting to develop a Internet presence?
I believe that the internet is important, but not ultimate. It is a tool in your tool belt to accomplish your mission. For a church that has a very large and expanding vision I would recommend bringing in a specialist or a consultant to create a roadmap. For a church that is focused on multiplying small churches or growing linearly I would recommend that you try to apply these communication solutions (http://mikeyanderson.com/destroy-these-communication-problems) to your organization.

Why do you believe the church must use the Internet to engage people with the Gospel?
I believe that some churches must use the Internet to engage people, and even those churches should automatically go hog-wild with online. They should use the Internet only as much as it helps the mission.

We did an audit of our communications at Mars Hill and found out that we were communicating with our people through 57 different channels. The result of our good intentions to engage people were ever they were is that we created a passive audience that waited for information to come to them instead of seeking it out. To address this problem we actually diverted some of the effort that we were putting into the web and investing in doing a great job with our weekly handout. Simplifying and communicating to our people through fewer means has initially seemed to drive engagement with those channels.

Additional Thoughts:

I (Tim Peters) enjoyed the intentionality of advance the mission of Mars Hill via the Internet. Brilliant. By streamlining messages, site architecture and rich content the mission of Mars Hill is reaching thousands and thousands of people.

What do you think?

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