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Dear Reader
It's 2004 at last! When you receive this newsletter I
shall be in a plane flying back to Singapore from the
UK. I've been in the frozen north of England for 3
weeks, spending some time with my lovely Mum. It's
been so cold, around -5 degrees! To get some idea of
just how cold, imagine living inside your freezer! Yes,
THAT cold!! Every day I've had to scrape the ice off
my car windscreen, dress up in coat, scarf, gloves and
boots, and don't forget the thermals! Brrrrr! But very
soon I shall be back in Singapore (OK you lot, I know
it's been raining there a lot, but at least you haven't
been living inside your freezer!!) Christmas in the UK
was much the same, and I sang along to 'The Sound of
Music' this year, just like every year in the past!
So 2004 is here - that means a new start, new friends,
new challenges, new adventures, new potential. I
hope 2004 holds all that YOU hope for. Good luck,
good health, lots of love and happiness to you all.
Shirley
| Mastering Motivation |
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Need a little motivation to kick 2004 off with a bang?
Well thanks to my good friend, great communicator and
fellow trainer, Ricky Lien, here we have a large dose of
just that!
These words from Goethe are a good place to
start:
"Whatever you can do or dream you can do,
begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic. Begin it
now."
For many companies 2003 has been a tougher year
than usual. The SARS outbreak, the tougher economic
conditions, the layoffs, the down-sizing, right-sizing
and capsizing of many small and medium enterprises
caused us much concern.
Many companies have been cutting back, there are
fewer jobs available, and pressures to perform are
greater than ever. Under such conditions it is easy to
lose our motivation. Yet, let's remind ourselves again
of Goethe's writing: "Whatever you can do or dream
you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and
magic. Begin it now."
Here are some fundamental principles of motivation to
start off the new year with positivity:
- You must believe that you can do better than you
are now doing.
- You must take personal responsibility to do so.
Staying motivated means that you must take charge of
your thoughts and act upon them.
- You must energise yourself.
- You must have a compelling purpose and stay on
track.
- If you fall off the track, work out why you fell off,
fix it, and then get back on immediately.
- And most importantly, although we stay motivated
to achieve all our dreams, remember we should not take
ourselves too seriously.
Yes, we must take what we're doing seriously, but do
take it easy on ourselves too. We tend to judge
ourselves too harshly when we make mistakes. So try
not to be too hard on youself, but do learn from any
mistakes.
I hope 2004 is the year we all start really enjoying
ourselves in our journey through this wonderful life!
This article was contributed by Ricky Lien. To learn
more about Ricky, please visit his website at www.mindset
media.com.au.
Click here to read more articles from Ricky Lien »
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| Creative thinking under the gun |
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Have you ever been asked to prepare a briefing paper,
a report, or an official memo, and suffered writer's
block? Don't know where to start? Can't think how to
give the document an authority you don't feel? No
ideas whatsoever?
It's not uncommon for us to be intimidated by an
unanticipated responsibility and a blank screen. When
we have trouble producing the work, and the deadline
approaches, we become even more anxious, and the
problem gets worse. Necessity is certainly the mother
of invention, buy anxiety murders productivity. Stress
shocks us speechless. In such a competitive world, it
makes sense to take steps to increase our chance of
success by increasing our confidence in what we have
to offer.
Learning to trust your imaginative impulses, to censor
yourself less, to go with the flow, will have an impact
throughout your life, not least in the job arena. It is
certainly an advantage to be able to think more
creatively, so it would be a shame to let fear cause you
to miss the opportunity to learn how to do so.
If YOU want to learn how to tackle your fears and
how improvisation can help you to overcome writer's
block, then click here to read the rest of this article.
Thanks to Alison Lester for contributing this article
on creative thinking. Alison is the director of A J Lester
Creativity Training, and she leads corporate in-house
workshops in creativity and team-building with an
emphasis on improvisation. She is also an
improvisational comedian, and performs regularly
with The Madhatters Comedy Company. She can be
reached at
ajlestersg@yahoo.com.sg.
Read some more articles to help your writing skills »
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| And finally ... |
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TIP OF THE MONTH
"When you are experiencing writer's block, keep
saying "Yes" ... over and over and over if necessary.
Do not allow negative thoughts. Keep the positive
thoughts coming. Pretty soon you will be feeling more
energy and your fingers will be tapping away on the
keyboard."
Thanks to Alison Lester for this month's TIP OF THE
MONTH. Alison will be receiving a free copy of my new
book, Model Business Letters, E-mails and Other
Business Documents.
If you would like to receive a FREE COPY of one of
my books, please send your tips to me at
news@shirleytaylor.com.
I hope you've enjoyed this issue of Shirley
Says. If you have any ideas about what you
would like me to include in future issues,
please write to me at
news@shirleytaylor.com.
PS: You may reprint this e-newsletter or forward it to
your customers and colleagues. However please keep
this copyright and contact information intact:
Copyright Shirley Taylor 2004. Shirley Taylor
is author of several popular books on effective
communication and business writing. She lives in
Singapore and works as an international trainer, seminar
leader, professional writer and conference speaker.
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