14 Years – You Have The Answers (WT728)

14 Years – You Have The Answers (WT728)

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by Shirley Dalton | 7 Jun, 2024 | Blog, Business, Mindset

WT 728 14 Years. You have the answers

Today we celebrate 14 years of writing a weekly thought and we haven’t missed one single week in all that time.

I am very proud of this achievement.

I am very proud of my commitment.

As I reflect back over the years, having started my business in October 2006, both the business and the Weekly Thoughts have evolved.

When I first started my business and attended networking events, people would ask me who I worked for.

I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “myself”.

That wasn’t a great answer.

They asked what I did.

I told them, “I help business owners streamline their systems and processes”.

They would reply, “Oh, you’re an IT person.”

“No.”

What I found was that when I finished a project and left the business to continue, the new systems often fell over.

Why was this?

It was because the owners and managers didn’t know how to lead and manage their people.

Evolution number 1 – I started coaching them one to one.

Evolution number 2 – I invested in more leadership training and offered small intimate intensive Leading Yourself and Leading Others experiences.

Evolution number 3 – as I learned more about mindset and neuroscience, we included Possibility into our framework of People and Process.

Evolution number 4 – changing the name Possibility to Potential.

Evolution number 5 – realizing that my clients are wanting High Performing Businesses with high performing people, high performing processes and high performance potential.

Over the years, most of my work has been word of mouth.

People would say to their colleagues, “You need to speak to Shirley”.

Speaking to some clients recently, asking them why they work with me and what benefits do they get, they all answered with a similar answer:

“I came to you because I was stuck. I didn’t know which way to turn. I didn’t know what to do. You listened to me. You didn’t interrupt. You allowed me to speak and then you reflected back what I had told you. Much like a mirror. When I heard myself through your voice I could easily evaluate what was going on. I found the answers and if I didn’t find the answers, you gave me the tools to find the answers.”

I just love that I can help you find your answers.  You have them inside of you.

Sometimes we just can’t see the label from inside the jar.

So this week, I want to thank you.

Thank you for being part of our community.

Thank you for allowing me to help you find your answers.

Thank you for being open to grow and develop.

Thank you for being you.

Thank you for being on this journey with me.

Happy anniversary!

P. S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

You Have To Dress For The Job You Want (WT726)

You Have To Dress For The Job You Want (WT726)

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by Shirley Dalton | 24 May, 2024 | Blog, Business, Mindset

WT 726 Dress for the job you want

This week’s inspiration comes from one of my favourite clients and his Operations Coordinator.

As I sat wondering what this week’s thought would be, Ray called to give me a business progress update.

He started the conversation with, “I changed my life today”.

“What did you do? Sell the business?” I asked.

“No”, he replied. “I was vulnerable with my team and shared my vision for the business. I wanted them to see things from my perspective.”

“Amazing!”

Knowing Ray as I do, I asked him what the turning point was.

“I have to give credit to Kim” he said.

“When I shared my vision, she responded with ‘You have to dress for the job you want’”.

“As soon as she said that, I knew she was right. I had to start acting as if I was the CEO of the type of business I envision.”

“I took action straight away. I restructured. I delegated (not abdicated) and empowered the team. I’m feeling good after coming from a place of feeling wrung out.”

Hearing this made me feel so happy too.

I was happy for Ray. I was happy for Kim. I was happy for the team, the customers and the suppliers.

It’s a great reminder. Thank you Kim.

You have to dress for the job you want.

In a way it’s similar to “Act as If”.

We know that in order to have what we want, we have to be fully aligned to the result. When you dress and act as if you already have it, your unconscious mind will go to work to ensure the external matches the internal.

What is the job you want?

How do you have to dress and act?

I’d love to hear your progress report.

P. S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

It’s Not Hard To Live In Peace (WT722)

It’s Not Hard To Live In Peace (WT722)

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by Shirley Dalton | 26 Apr, 2024 | Blog, Mindset

WT 722 It's Not Hard To Live In Peace

With everything that’s going on in the world at the moment, we could copy The Animals’ Playbook.

Ross and I just spent a few weeks in South Africa.

We were fortunate to be able to resit The Silva Mind Control Course at Cradle Moon.

Cradle Moon is a game park.

There are no predatory animals, however the animals that are there are wild and roam free.

In fact, one young boy was reminded, in no uncertain terms, that animals come first, when he tried to shoe away the zebras who came to drink from the pool.

As we sat in the conference room we could see the zebras marching around, stopping to graze and then moving on. Totally at peace and not in any hurry.

Sharing the park where we were staying were zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, monkeys, blesboks, springboks, impalas and a huge monitor lizard.

We also saw rhinos with babies and ostrich when we went further into the park on a game drive as well as the animals mentioned above.

According to Kruger National Park, “Most of Africa’s herbivores can be classified as either grazers of grass or browsers of leaves off trees. Some animals, like the elephant and impala, do both – depending on the availability of food.”

Which brings me to my point, it’s not hard to live in peace.

Sitting on the patio, waiting for the sun to set, we were in awe of the peaceful parade of animals as they grazed together.

They weren’t fighting for food, although we did see a bit of infighting for the attention of the females.

Because there were no predators in the park, i.e. no lions, cheetahs, leopards or hyenas, the grazing animals were safe.

They lived together harmoniously.

The giraffes ate the leaves from bushes with very big spikes. The monkeys ate what was available to them, including pinching toothpaste and sugar (cheeky monkeys). The impalas, blesboks, springboks and zebras ate the grass.

As species, they weren’t fighting for territory. They shared the territory.

I couldn’t help but wonder why we can’t do the same.

I would love to see a world where humans live together in peace.

Where we accept the differences and allow those that are different to us to live the way they want to live.

There is no right or wrong or judgement from the animals. They just mind their own business and carry on.

What do you think?

Do you think we could take a leaf out of their book (pardon the pun) and start to live in peace?

P. S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

I Made A Decision (WT719)

I Made A Decision (WT719)

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by Shirley Dalton | 5 Apr, 2024 | Blog, Mindset

WT 719 I made a decision

We had guests around for dinner the other night.

I made a quiche.

When we sat down to eat, one of the guests looked at my plate quizzically and then turned to me and said, “You’re eating eggs. I didn’t think you ate eggs”.

“I made a decision”, I replied.

“You made a decision?” he asked.

“That’s right. I decided I wanted to eat eggs again, so I decided I would.”

For those of you who are not aware, for about 15 years I’ve had an intolerance to eggs if they were not cooked with flour. I became nauseous if I ate quiche, scrambled or other breakfast eggs or mayonnaise.

Whilst I’m not rushing out to eat mayonnaise, once I decided I was going to eat eggs again, I started introducing small amounts of scrambled egg until I could eat a regular breakfast meal.

I was testing myself with the quiche and I am happy to say, I didn’t get sick.

Enough about my digestion and eating preferences.

What has this got to do with you?

Well, you too can make a decision.

You can decide to be happy. (I had that conversation with a party guest last weekend who told me she just wanted to be happy.)

You can decide to have a good relationship.

You can decide to have children.

You can decide to change jobs or careers.

There’s a great book by Raymond Charles Barker called “The Power of Decision”.

I urge you to get it and either read it or listen to it or both.

It will help you understand and apply the power of decision.

And one more example from a client who decided to reduce his weight.

“Shirley, I’ve found that when I start thinking about reducing my weight, even before I have taken action, just by the mere decision and thought I can lose 4 kilos.”

What is it you want?

What can you make a new decision about?

All it takes is to decide.

Let me know what your new decision is.

P. S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

When You’re Short On Time (WT716)

When You’re Short On Time (WT716)

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by Shirley Dalton | 15 Mar, 2024 | Blog, Mindset

WT 716 When you're short on time

I’m always looking to grow and develop and of course share what I learn with you.

This week I learned two things which I think will benefit you.

The first is a concept called “Power Pocket Rehearsals” by Lisa Pezik.

Lisa attended “World’s Greatest Speaker” training with Brendan Burchard, Bo Eeson and Roger Love.

She enrolled with all three for their coaching programs.

Bo encouraged the group and asked, “What if you could achieve your 10 year goal in one year?”

Lisa didn’t really think this was possible, however she did the work and created her own vision board, by sketching it and then set about sharing her goal and working towards it.

Lisa wanted to write a play and star in the play in live theatre as a one woman actor.

She achieved her goal in just less than one year. Amazing!

She shared her strategy – “Power Pocket Rehearsals”.

Instead of scrolling on Facebook for 20 minutes of a night, she rehearsed.

If she only had 7 minutes between meetings, she practised her voice warm up exercises.

Lisa found the pockets of time that previously she felt she wasted.

How often do we do that?   Waste time on something that isn’t “essential” when we could be doing something towards manifesting our dreams.     

The second thing is “Learn To Love It”.

In my coaching session I wanted to know how to get myself to take the action I know I need to take.

Mentor, Cham Tang replied, “Learn To Love It”.

I was puzzled.

He explained, we find the time to do the things we love, so learn to love the things you need to do and yet don’t do that are good for you.

When Cham was younger he enrolled in acting classes. He and another student had to practise their roles.  The other student enthusiastically said, “Oh, I just love practising. I’ve been away from acting for a while and I just love it.”

At the time Cham didn’t love the practise and yet he continued to the point where he did start to like it and eventually love it.

What’s something you are putting off that is good for you or will take you to where you want to go and yet you can’t get yourself to do the work?

Can you find some power pocket rehearsal times or practise enough until you learn to love it?

In fact, the only reason I got to hear Lisa’s presentation was because we turned off the nightly television shows and decided to watch something that was good for us.

What is it for you?

Reply and let me know.

Regards Shirley

P. S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

You Don’t Have To Point It Out (WT715)

You Don’t Have To Point It Out (WT715)

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by Shirley Dalton | 8 Mar, 2024 | Blog, Mindset

WT 715 You don't have to point it out

This week I observed something that triggered me.

I was watching a recording of a training video and I noticed that the presenter had spelled one of the words incorrectly on the flipchart.

I couldn’t see the message that he received, however he stopped his presentation to address the person who had pointed out the spelling error.

Whilst he said “thank you” for pointing it out, he also mentioned that he was dyslexic and didn’t learn to read until he was in his mid twenties.

As a result, he spells differently to the rest of us. (A bit of humour.)

This triggered me because I didn’t think it was necessary to point out the error.

If you see a spelling mistake and you know how to spell the word correctly, in my opinion, just write it down correctly.

As a presenter, I can sometimes get words mixed up on the whiteboard and I’ve felt the embarrassment of someone pointing it out, especially when the word looks similar to the correct spelling, for example, “recieve”.

It might be spelt incorrectly, but it’s clear what the word is.

In fact, studies have shown that we really only need a few letters of words to actually work out the word.

Anyway, my point – there are times when being right can quickly turn into being righteous.

As Denis Waitley says, “If you have the choice, and you always do, to be kind or to be right, choose kind.”

One way you can be kind and correct a mistake is if you see that a date is incorrect.

Thank you to Bec for taking the time to let me know that the landing page for people to sign up for next Tuesday’s free training, 3 Steps to Reclaim Freedom in Business had the wrong day but correct  date in the form. The correct day is Tuesday 12th March.

I didn’t pick up the error and I didn’t know how to change it on the web and my developer is away at a conference. A couple of reminders there for me:

  1. Be more thorough with my reviews
  2. Don’t leave things until the last minute.

And lucky for me, my developer was kind enough to fix it within a few minutes of my request.  Thank you Paul.

I’m curious, what would you do? Would you point out the spelling mistake?

Would you take the time to provide feedback when the day and date don’t match the calendar? As the reader you won’t know which is correct and which is incorrect? It could be either the day or the date.

Or am I making a big deal over nothing?

P. S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.

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