Choose Your Attitude

There's a winter song, In the Bleak Midwinter, that describes the cold short days with beautiful similes such as "earth stood hard as iron" and "water like a stone".  The melody floats and carries lightly on the air while the harmonies support it throughout the song - sometimes in perfect thirds, sometimes with dissonance.

But if you only judge a song by its title, you'd never hear it.  You would focus on the bleak and turn away, thinking enough of winter as there's no joy in the cold or snow.  If you turn away from this because of one word out of four, it isn't hard to imagine the focus you place on other things, various events, or the viewpoint you employ every day.

You would be missing something pleasant and enjoyable - and if you do this for a song, think of all the other things that you miss.  You set the stage for your own path.  Arguably, some believe we are predestined while others say choosing our direction is possible.  Even if we are predestined, choosing your attitude will improve the travel toward your own greatness... and the others around you will be very appreciative, too.

Just look at this panda (below) enjoying the time midwinter, creatively figuring out a way to play.  The panda knows it won't escape the snow, and likely realizes it won't escape it's enclosure.  But choosing to enjoy what's before it gives it a much happier existence than moping around huddled in a corner waiting for spring.

Develop your focus on happier things, and you'll be able to begin see yourself as halfway through a winter period rather than immersed in the bleak surroundings.  With the market fluctuations and businesses changing all around us, we need to shift our perceptions - something we can control - rather than expecting to impact the many other variables that surround us.

http://mashable.com/2016/01/15/toronto-zoo-panda-plays-in-snow/#doJlkQ7OfGqD 

When Pennies Count

For the students in my MBA class, the Economics professor was brilliant - a PhD from MIT.  Yet, he was so difficult to understand for two reasons - he predominantly talked to himself while facing the board as well as his thick accent.  Students had to put on an interpreter hat that filtered his language AND what the heck does guns versus butter really mean?

Do you find you learn more from teachers - either in a formal school setting or life lessons 'on the road' - that speak your language?  I'm not talking about literally the King's English, but I mean relate to your situation, take time to find parallels and relative experiences to make it more personal?

One of my teachers had a writing exercise (in a pharmacology course) where he asked "do you need to do heroin to know how to treat it?"  Experiential learning isn't necessary, but you need to have someone that can relay information in a way that can students can understand.

An American was awarded a Nobel Prize yesterday by doing just that (not heroin - explaining things well).  He was able to explain various aspects of poverty and inequality.  For the past four decades, he has completed research and explained why numbers matter in terms of every day wealth for people around the world.

If the stock market matters to your retirement planning, or the health of the American nation, or working towards greater equality for all really means something to you, see how this American helped shape the world by watching - and explaining - why simple things matter in big ways.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2015/popular-economicsciences2015.pdf

What's In Your Risk Basket?

Perception is very important. In graduate school, where we had a lot of international students in the program, one of our first non-credit "personal enhancement" sessions was a cultural education class. Here, we learned which classmates' cultures may have been offended by a wave hello (surprise!) or what country's business person would expect presentation of our business card in a very formal manner when first meeting (good to know). 

Considering the "place where you are" is important. Even if you are in a city where you've spent a lot of time, you should consider that it's always changing. We kindly joke that Pittsburgh doesn't change because the road work signs just move around the city, but how many people living outside the western Pennsylvania region realize that Google has a huge base here and Apple's newest offices are located here, too? Not the steel mill image that first comes to mind, huh? Second only to Silicon Valley for technology innovations, it's not the Smoky City any longer. 

Jokes around New Orleans, Louisiana are that even if it changed, most tourists don't get past Bourbon Street so wouldn't remember if there were any changes. Southern California droughts typically bring wildfires and conservation warnings - but El Niño is about to bring some major changes, the first of their kind since 1950... Get out your rain boots!

You change as a person, too, and you have risk-shift. When younger, you may have been willing to "take more risks" when playing sports than you are now. But, maybe now your risks include traveling to new places or meeting new people when your younger years were not as adventurous outside the friends you knew from school. What risks are you willing to take now - either for fun or by educating yourself and venturing in a new direction?

You can't just lump things together with your old glasses anymore. In the article below, there are some very interesting changes to the world maps when looking at data in new ways. Slice and dice new information for your old ways of thinking - you may be pleasantly surprised and more prepared for the community around you. 

http://www.businessinsider.com/eiu-global-risks-maps-2015-8 

Location, location, location

Where do you live?  The economy of your state, for instance, may have heavy exports or imports from countries that will surprise you.  Louisiana's biggest import product is oil - not a surprise - and its largest partner is Saudi Arabia (in this case, it's influenced by the strategic oil reserves for the U.S. that are held in the state); largest export destination is China (which may come as a surprise, but is likely influenced by our large Port, which does a lot of business - 31 million short tons of cargo and over a million cruise passengers in 2014).  Some of the partners on the map may surprise you.


Think about how 'where you are' affects your business, your experience, and even your investments.  Are you diversified enough in your skills to be able to transition jobs swiftly in this ever-shifting economy?  Do you monitor the news of other cities and industries to detect trends and opportunities that will benefit you?  Make sure you are improving up your skills-set up to speed on training so that you are ready to shift gears if need be - and know where the map may take you.


http://www.businessinsider.com/state-and-country-trade-maps-2015-7

Money on Monday

I am giving this entrepreneur two thumbs up for the spirit and idea of her company that she started in 2014. If you identify your money motivators and triggers, you can invest 'in line' with your beliefs - and buying stock when you had a stressful day can return a far greater reward than a splurge at a department store or the extra dessert at a restaurant.  Investing can be fun. And, people should start saving younger than we do (you get more money that way). Many people rely only on their work-directed retirement plans.  And work always has the employees best interest at heart, right??? Now, with smartphone apps, you can have the live sync to stock exchange data with historical views. Small ideas and small investments grow into larger ones - take advantage of saving today.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-16/can-one-brunch-date-force-you-to-face-your-budget-

Strange Bedfellows

Political analysts use this term to describe the effect of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" or when two diametrically opposed politicians end up on the same side of an issue. (Note that's diametric not diabolic...) This WSJ article, posted after the outage on Wednesday, shows how sometimes unintentional alliances are perceived even if they don't exist. It's unlikely these two plan anything together, but they are having similar effects.  It's always important to consider your competition's role - sometimes it can enhance your own standings if the perceptions are used wisely.


http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-sanders-the-disrupter-brothers-1436398120

Have You Needed To Change...

but don’t have time to figure out what would work best?  Perhaps you bought a new software program that someone else recommended to you, but you aren’t sure how to use it.  You don’t have time to dig into all that it can do, but you know it should do more than what it is doing for your team.  Process management is as important as time management, though it’s not the same thing.  Make sure you know the difference.


http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7740986 

They Said That?

No matter who says it, the old ways no longer work. Fine-tune your engine... Sharpen the saw... But, don’t reinvent the wheel...


http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2015/07/07/marco-rubio-on-us-economy-old-ways-no-longer-work/?cmpid=GoogleNewsEditorsPicks&google_editors_picks=true