The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Self-Help’ Category

The most successful people have mental and verbal abilities that would delight any philosopher of yore. How did they become that way? One book and one word at a time. To be smarter than your peers requires  setting aside time everyday to develop your mental and verbal powers.

1. Learn a word a day
2. Read a book each week and choose books that make you think
3. While reading record interesting phrases to use as quotations in your written communications to make them shine
4. While reading always be on the lookout for ways to apply the information to your work and life
5. Connect the new information to what you already know. Never read in a vacuum
6. Join the Great Books Foundation
7. Join the Center for the Study of Great Ideas
8. Sign up for the School of Thinking’s newsletter
9. Subscribe to book summaries
10. Join an online book club

If you consistently do the above 10 things, in no time people will not only notice, but also admire the change in you.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo Credit: via Apture

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A few days ago I viewed a video on using role models to help you acquire a skill faster, and getting what you want. After I watched the video for the second time something clicked and I realized that the video was a great tool for readers of the Invisible Mentor blog. Here is the video.

What are your thoughts about the video? How might you use role models or invisible mentors to get what you want? What are three ways in which you can use the technique described in the video? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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For Martin Luther King Day I decided to re-post Thinking Without Border which included information about Martin Luther King Jr. I just saw King: Man of Peace in a Time of War. King is also remembered for his famous speech I Have  a Dream.  If you have never listened to I Have a  Dream, here it is:

What are your thoughts? Is the speech relevant today? If you gave a speech titled I have a dream, what would it include?

Here is the Thinking Without Borders post from June 2009:

We are socialized to think and act a certain way. And, we often put self-imposed barriers around ourselves. To break free, let’s start making small changes, simple shifts in our mindset.

Take a few minutes to read and think about the Martin Luther King quote below.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

What’s your interpretation of the quote? Let your mind wander! There are no right or wrong answers, they are your thoughts, let them take you wherever. Break those self-imposed chains to your thinking, and step beyond your boundaries. For once, think without borders.

Isn’t it freeing?

Let me share a piece of me with you. When I think of the Martin Luther King quote, I think that I am my brother’s keeper, and that my actions will impact others.

I also think that we are all connected, which leads my mind to the Butterfly Effect, a concept where a butterfly flapping its wings in one region, could trigger a tornado (or some other act) in another region.

My mind then roams to The Hundredth Monkey principle, where after a certain point, new information (or learned behaviour) introduced, ceases to be new and is in the collective consciousness.

Just for today, start with the Martin Luther King quote, and let your mind take you wherever. You never know what great ideas you’ll generate simply by giving yourself permission to think without borders.

What are your thoughts? Do you dare to think without borders? If you were to think without borders, what dreams would you have? And, how would your I Have a Dream speech change? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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Interesting articles by Zemanta

• Steven Spielberg Has a Dream About Martin Luther King Jr. (cinematical.com)
• April 4, 1968: Scenes From MLK’s Last Day (queerty.com)

There is so much going on around us that it is very hard not to feel overwhelmed. We have too much to do at work, and too much information to process. I have been looking at this blog and there is a lot of good content here. I have experimented with breaking up interviews and combining them in novel ways and I have gotten some positive feedback.

I want to enhance the user experience so I am exploring ways to better mine the data by doing textual analysis to provide bite-sized pieces of information that is more easily digested. This is critical for the interviews where we have good original content. All of us, myself included will benefit.  I will also be emphasizing ways in which you can apply the information to your life. What are your thoughts? Do you have suggestions for me? I would welcome them.

And if you are feeling overwhelmed by life, do what I do and just take it one day at a time or one step at a time. A few years ago I was working on a project and I was feeling stressed and overwhelmed so I did what I usually do and broke down the projects into tasks. I focused only on one task at a time, and in no time the project was completed. I am sure that this tip will work equally well for you. Multitasking doesn’t work for most people, so focus on one thing at a time and that thing should be what’s most important to you at that instant.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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We are a work in progress and should be that way until we breathe our last breath. When you make a mistake or fail at something, pause, look at what you did wrong, learn the lessons and move on. I am getting better at this, I have had some spectacular failures, and I am learning to pay special attention to the lessons then let go. The most successful people know this. No one is perfect, we evolve, grow and become better. We are like fine wine, we get better with age.

If success is taking longer that we think it should, is the delay a byproduct of thinking that we have arrived and have gone as far as we can go in life. And if the success is not as grand as we expected, did we take the easy route or the road less traveled. It’s important to seek new challenges, our results are proportional to the amount of risks we take.

In 2010, what can you learn to do better? What ways can you change the way in which you perform you job? What are three things you can do to become more valuable to yourself, your company and your industry? Be proactive, and always mindful that you are a work in progress and can do much better than you think you can. And expect delays along the way!

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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Are you your brother’s keeper? In what ways are you helpful? What are your thoughts? Zig Ziglar said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” What are your thoughts, do you agree with Zig Ziglar’s quote?

We live in a culture that’s primarily survival of the fittest, where we are always competing with each other. But what if instead of competing we decided to create something that would benefit mankind? And what if instead of thinking me-me-me, we decided to lend a hand to someone in need?

Simple Application

What if you are trying to master a subject, one of the ways in which you can test your newly acquired knowledge is to teach the information to others. In doing that you are helping others to help yourself and you are spreading knowledge in the process. Another way would be to mentor another person, who is on the same path as you, and it doesn’t have to be a formal mentoring relationship. You could explain to them what to expect, pitfalls, lessons learned and so on. What are other ways to be your brother’s keeper?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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In Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler, the author asks 10 questions for us to answer to have our best year. Since 2010 is just around the corner I thought that I would list the 10 questions here again. See the post Is This Your Best Year Yet?

1. What did I accomplish over the past 12 months?
2. What were my biggest disappointments?
3. What did I learn?
4. How do I limit myself, and how can I stop?
5. What are my personal values?
6. What roles do I play in my life? (Father, wife, teacher, student, writer, consultant and so on)
7. Which role is my major focus for the next 12 months?
8. What are my goals for the next year?
9. What are my top 10 goals for the next year?
10. How can I make sure that I achieve them?

Make sure that you focus on your personal and professional life. I will answer these questions as well in preparation for 2010. This year was a very tough year for me in every sense, but my growth has been phenomenal. For us to enjoy the sweets, we must endure the bitter.

In My Business Wish List for 2010 social media strategist Chris Brogan shares with us his business plan and what he wants for 2010. Verbalizing what you want makes it concrete and you also do not know who will be able to help you realize your goals. Chris suggested that his readers do their list and link to the blog post. After you have answered the questions, and it would be helpful if you read the book, Your Best Year Yet, develop your 10 goals for 2010 and link to this post if you are able to.

Note: The link to Your Best Year Yet is an affiliate link

I like Chris Brogan who has helped me a lot indirectly. I subscribe to his blog and I learn a tremendous amount from him, and I often become aware of what I don’t know that I didn’t know that I didn’t know (wrap your head around that). I like his helpful and caring style.

What I want for The Invisible Mentor Blog is to build a community of people who share with each other. I am very passionate about reading and learning, and books have been great mentors to me. There are many lessons inside great books that we can apply to our lives. Sadly, most people do not read as much as they should.

My intent is to provide book summaries of books that impact, as well as interviews of successful people who we can learn things from. Use the information from the book summaries and interviews and find ways to integrate them into your life. Spend some time going through old posts to see what you have missed.

Older Posts Worth Reading

Want a Mentor? Be a Mentor
Summary of Technique for Producing Ideas
Could You Swear to It?
How to Analyze Information
Timeless Ideas Worth Exploring
Stepping Into Your Greatness, Are You a Leader or Follower?
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, What’s Your Story?
The Way of Strategy – A Review of he Book of Five Rings
If Estee Lauder Were a Blogger, What Would She Say?
Thinking Without Borders

And, I would greatly appreciate it if you helped me to spread the word about The Invisible Mentor Blog. Please comment and also let me know what are some of the things that you’d like to see.

Back to Chris Brogan, I watched a 10 minute presentation by him “Why Serendipity is Underrated” and in it he asks us five questions to ponder, which are timely for thanksgiving:

How do we share?

How do we extend experiences and relationships?

How do we collaborate?

How do we wire new networks people wise?

How do we develop relationships that yield?

and I would like to add another question that I think is important

1. How do we give thanks, or let people know that we appreciate all that they do?

I will think about these questions and I hope you will too. Here is Chris’ presentation.

A few years ago I came across the Rule of Five outlined in 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer, a book marketing expert . Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen have also used the Rule of Five to take their books to bestseller status.

The Rule of Five simply means that each and every day you perform five activities that will assist you in achieving your core goals. So in their case they were trying to sell their book, Chicken Soup for the Soul, so one day they would send out five copies of books to be reviewed, another day would be calling five radio stations to get interviews and another day they would be sending out five press releases.

The Rule of Five can be applied to any goal you are trying to achieve. If you are trying to get a promotion:

• Who are five people who you could call for an information interview, who have already traveled the path you are on?
• What are five things you can do to get noticed in your company?
• What are five ways you can improve the way your work gets done?
• What are five things that you could do to make yourself more valuable in your company and industry?
• Who are five invisible mentors (unique leaders) you could study to model their behaviour?

What would your Rule of Five look like? Please keep the conversation flowing, please comment.

I saw the quote, “The best way to predict the future is to create it,”  by Abraham Lincoln. Isn’t it a beautiful quote? I think so, so I decided to write a blog post. Here  is what I think will help you to create your future and they are not in any order of priority.

1. Internalize the idea of excellence, mediocrity just won’t do
2. What is your goal, where would you like to end up?
3. Take your idea and run with it
4. Have confidence in yourself and your abilities
5. Adapt a self-motivated attitude, accomplished individuals are self-motivated
6. Create your success team with people who have done what you are trying to do, and who you can call on when necessary
7. Have stick-to-itiveness
8. Have singular focus
9. Blaze your own trail
10. Have fun

What would you add to the above list? Let’s keep the conversation going, please comment.

Photo Credit: via Apture