Focus is a powerful tool we can use to get things done and to do them well. A few minutes or a few hours of focus time can create powerful results in your life. Time to say goodbye to multi-tasking and distractions and simply do one thing at a time.

We all love to be recognized! And we all love to be recognized in different ways. If we are to offer meaningful recognition to others then we need these 3 keys. The first is to recognize people in the way that they want to be recognized. Trust me - they will tell you. It might be a random comment or a joke but I promise they will tell you if you listen. You can also tell by how they respond to different offerings - some things will have them performing better and other things will get no response. Just pay attention to how they respond. The second key is to be specific. Specific praise allows us to give continual recognition. It also shows that we know all the different things that they do. The final key is to do it often. We all need recognition. We all need a lot of recognition. This will have an impact on well-being and productivity.

Do you love it when someone tells you that you did a good job, they appreciate your work, or love working with you? Appreciation is something that everyone needs and loves to receive. As an employee, we have an opportunity to see all the little bits of genius that our coworkers add to the world. And the art of being a good employee is to open your mouth or get your fingers typing and tell them the good that you see in them. It may feel awkward at first and they may not know how to receive it but you can make their day, their year, and your words will likely be remembered longer than that. Let someone know you appreciate them this week.

Who is responsible when something goes wrong? It's easy to place blame and see the problems as someone else's responsibility but when we do this we limit our ability to solve the problem. We expect others to change and to correct problems but we fail to see how we could contribute to the solution. When we take responsibility we access more of our own creative genius and have the power to solve problems that previously we said were someone else responsibility.

Other people's business. It's our favorite type of business to be in but it's the place where we are clearly out of our own business. Taking the time to evaluate where you are in other people's business and then redirecting yourself back to your own business puts you in the driver's seat of your life. Our business is where we have all the power.

As an employee and as a person it is pretty easy to get worried about what is happening in the world and what other people are doing. We then spend all of our time and energy worried about these things. In this episode, we explore the three types of business - God's business, Other people's business, and our own business.

How much time do you spend in each of these types of business?

What are the things worth working on when you don't see results right away? What are the goals that make you develop into a different person? Is slow growth worse than fast growth?

In a world of fast food and getting rich quickly sometimes it is hard to stick with goals when growth comes slowly. But there are so many advantages to slow growth. With time for development, we can truly become better, more skilled, and ultimately completely different versions of ourselves if we will invest in slow growth.

Our mindset is powerful. It determines our experience. It determines our productivity. It determines our speed. It determines our joy. But how do you influence, change, or actually create a mindset that helps you as an employee and helps the company you work for? Following 3 simple steps of becoming aware, challenging, and practicing something new, you have the power to create a mindset that will serve you and others in any position.

What are the most common things you say about your job? Why would these things be important? In this episode, we discuss questions you can ask that will help you uncover these mindset patterns as well as the effects these patterns have on your enjoyment and success at your job. If you want to find more success and joy in your position then looking at your mindset is the most effective tool you have for change.

How many books can you find on being a good leader or manager? How many can you find on being a good employee? Though many of us are employees far longer than we are managers the material is a bit hard to find sometimes. As a result, this podcast series will teach some basic ideas, techniques, and mindsets every good employee needs to have or develop. This week we will discuss the concept of adding value. This isn't about working harder or doing more. This is about offering the value that only you have to give and in a unique way that only you can. When we learn the skill of adding value, we become the most sought after employee.

For the past year, I have written an email each week that outlined one good thing that happened the week before. Some weeks were easy, and some weeks were hard but every week I found one good thing. 3 lessons this practice has taught me: 1. Our brains will find what they go look for, so be intentional about what you are looking for. 2. Our brains are better at remembering the negative than the positive so have a system to help you remember the good. 3. No matter what is going on, there is always something good happening too. Can you find one good thing?

What helps you stay emotionally regulated? What calms you down when you are emotionally dysregulated? Knowing these things can help us navigate the complex emotional challenges that often come our way. From grabbing a snack, going for a walk, or taking a deep breath we can utilize many different tools to help us emotionally regulate so we can show up as our highest selves.

Have you ever noticed how much we love to judge ourselves and others? Have you ever listened to others judge something that you thought was wonderful?

Though our judgments feel like they are facts, they are not so. They are just judgments. We can decide how we will judge ourselves and others.

How do you accomplish great things?

One tiny task at a time.

What do you do when you miss a day?

Don't miss twice.

Simple things. Profound effects.

We each have something amazing to offer the world. This offering will help and inspire others. Sometimes our offering seems so simple, like the opportunity I had to walk a neighbor across the icy patch on the pathway. Sometimes our offering will seem grand. Either way we each have something extraordinary to offer. What do you need to offer the world?

We continued our conversation about rest from last week with 5 more types of rest. Time to recharge, break from responsibility, stillness, safe space, and home are ways we can access rest.

Rest. How often do you rest? Is rest easy for you to get? Does rest seem impossible? Rest is something all of us need. There are many types of rest and in this episode, we will talk about 4 different ways to rest.

The Golden Rule of treating others how we want to be treated has a few pitfalls that catch us all. As we struggle to actually treat others how we want to be treated or deal with the different interpretations of what that treatment should be, what can we do?

One thing is to consider the Platinum rule, treating others how they want to be treated. Do we know how they want to be treated? Is it different then we want to be treated? We can uplevel our relationships by considering these questions.

t is easy in conflict to distill the narrative down to something extremely simple and right or wrong. But conflicts are so much more complicated than that. Humans are so much more complicated than that. If we will utilize the tool of curiosity - ask questions and embrace the complexity, we will be able to more gracefully navigate conflict and likely find better solutions.

Creating time and space in a conflict can allow us to calm our emotions, investigate the story, and approach from our highest intelligence. When we are approaching conflict from our highest intelligence instead of our survival brain we will often find more common ground and less need to escalate the situation.

Getting curious, asking questions, and really listening are great tools for creating time and space.