Stress loves mental clutter.  As the pile of clutter grows in a person’s mind, stress becomes more powerful.  The clutter creates confusion, making it difficult to see the important things, the things that a person needs to do.   The confusion creates doubt and lowers self-confidence, creating more stress.  The growing stress robs a person’s energy.  Lower energy leads to inaction, procrastination.  Inaction creates greater mental clutter.

Mental Clutter>>Confusion>>Doubt>>Stress>>Fatigue>>Less Action>>Greater Mental Clutter>>Greater Confusion>>Greater Doubt>>Higher Stress>>Greater Fatigue>>More Procrastination>>so goes the cycle.

Write about it. When I am feeling stressed about something, writing takes the power from the anxiety.  Just putting something on my calendar or task list helps clear my mind, but the thought of an upcoming event can still make me feel stress.

Therefore, I can name the problem and write it down.  For example, I might write, “I am afraid that I will miss my flight.”

Then I can write a solution.  “I will make my flight, because I will go to the airport early and read a book until my flight boards.”

A more complex example is how one of my friends prepares lectures he gives to other doctors.  Speaking to a public audience is stressful for nearly everyone.  Imagine a speaker with a cluttered mind.  Just picking and sticking to a topic is difficult.  Even if you have never spoken to an audience, imagine the pain of living in anxiety before speaking.

My friend is an expert in his field of medicine.  The first time he gave one of his lectures, just thinking about the presentation made him nervous.  As he spent more he thinking about speaking to an audience, he became more nervous

He wrote, “I am nervous about giving this presentation to a group of doctors.”

Then he outlined what he wanted to say.   It occurred to him that he was not the subject of the presentation.  His knowledge was the subject.  He began to see his audience as people who needed the information that he could give them.  He could help them become more successful in their medical practices through learning what he had to say.

He focused on writing out the details that would benefit his audience the most.  As he wrote, he gained confidence.  He saw the value in his knowledge.

Instead of writing that he is nervous, he writes, “What is the most important information I can give my audience during the time I have?”

He has given the lectures for over a decade.  He continues to update his presentations.  His ideas are current, relevant.  New audiences need his knowledge as much as the first audiences did.  He keeps his mind clear by sweeping out the clutter and doubt through preparation, writing out his presentations.

Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2:  “… for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Winning teams and players come out of the locker room ready to play.  Monday blues can distract anyone from starting the week with a winning attitude and mentality.  Here are six steps that can help you start Monday ready to go work and give a winning performance.

1. Having a power phrase is a great way to start Monday or any other door of the week.  On Monday morning, a trainer at a local health club greets people coming in the door with an enthusiastic “Finally a Monday!” He psyches himself for the day and spreads his enthusiasm to everyone who walks through the door.

2. Eat healthy foods and cut the caffeine Sunday night. Good nutrition can help you sleep and feel rested for the beginning of the week.

3. Scheduling fun things to do during the week can fill Monday with great expectations.  I schedule meetings with friends on a regular basis during the middle of the week.   In the winter, bowling, playing cards, meeting for dinner, or any fun relaxing event that creates expectation can make the week more fun.  In warmer weather, outdoor activities are a lot of fun and create expectation for the week ahead.

4. Using Sunday night to list Monday’s activities takes the weight of starting the week out of my mind.  Scheduling things and setting priorities the night before any workday is always a good idea.  The list changes the muddle of things wandering through my mind to a short list.

5. Listen to motivational recordings during your commute.  Getting great positive thinking piped into my mind helps me enjoy my day.  Motivational and inspirational speakers sell audio material.  Ted Talks also has a downloadable spreadsheet of podcasts.  You can Google “most popular free podcasts” and find great lists of listening material to make your morning commute more fun.

6. Get to work early.  I have a friend who has a long commute in heavy traffic.  He has joined a health club near his office.  He grabs a cup of coffee at 5:00 AM and drives to the health club before going to work.  He avoids the rush-hour traffic.  His commute is more pleasant.  He starts his day energized from his exercise.

Power Assessment: Are People Your Greatest Asset?

There is an old saying on Wall Street that the company’s assets go up and down with the elevator every day.

When I went through orientation at Procter & Gamble, the trainer explained to me that the philosophy of the company is that its people are its greatest asset.  He stated that if the company lost all of its assets and kept it entire organization, it could rebuild itself in ten years.  There is certainly nothing to substantiate that statement, but it gives some perspective of the value that Procter & Gamble places on the people it hires and the people it keeps.

“People are our greatest asset” is a common statement among business leaders.  I have read articles in which writers have stated initially that people are not a company’s greatest asset.  What I find is that the purpose of these articles is to create a headline for attention and to draw the reader off topic.  For example, some writers argue that people management is more important than the people themselves are.  What is rather obvious is these writers are confusing the issues of assets and asset management, entirely for effect.

Dishonest people are liabilities.  Other writers talk off topic about people as an asset and confuse the issue by drawing attention to brilliant people whose conduct brought companies down:  to mention a few, Bernie Ebbers (WorldCom), Kenneth Lay (Enron) Bernie Madoff (Madoff Investment Securities LLC), John Rigas (Adelphia Communications Corporation), and others. Obviously, dishonest people are liabilities.

The greatest assets of a company are sometimes one or two great founders:  Ed Land (Polaroid Corporation), Ernest Gallo and Julio Gallo (E.&J. Winery),  Sam Walton (Walmart), Steve Jobs (Apple), and others

Of course, great companies devote a great deal of money and time to train and manage the people in their organization.  These organizations start with training their people from the beginning.  As people continue through each level of development and as the company changes it products and operations, great companies continue to train their people to do their job.  The skills of the people grow as they grow in responsibility and as the company grows.

Employees vary in value based on how well they do their job and how much they learn about their company and their industry.  This fact is great news for people who work harder, take better care of themselves mentally and physically, are more conscientious about their performance, and build relationships within and for their employer.  This places the asset management in the hands of employees at least to have a role in managing their career.

The best places to find the greatest people are at the companies that place the greatest value on people as assets:  General Mills, Zappos, USAA, Salesforce.com, and hundreds of other companies.  As a corporate recruiter, I found training companies that hired too many great people for the growth of the company would experience relatively high turnover.  These companies were gold mines for sources to fill the needs of my clients.

The greatest talent does not always make for the greatest assets.  From a stability standpoint, companies that value a mix of talented, experienced, developmental hires combined with people who progress less rapidly find that some of the less talented more long-term people can offer tremendous value.  These people stay in the same job as people progress beyond them.  The great value of these people in the long-term is their ability to build a strong asset base to support the company.  The military has most clearly defined these roles in creating the ranks of enlisted men and officers.  The enlisted pay grade E-7 is the backbone of the United States military.