doug smith training

The problem with perfection is that it's not sustainable. As soon as you get there, the landscape shifts. Standards change. Details emerge that switch everything up. We can get upset about that, but it won't change the inevitable. It's better to flex, to move, to dance with the waves Are your dancing shoes ready? 

Do you enjoy success? If that seems like a silly question (Of COURSE I enjoy success!) think about it from another perspective.  Sometimes we can taper down our enjoyment and appreciation of something because we know it's not perfect yet, and how can we be happy if it's not perfect? I do that somethings. It's not helpful. OF COURSE it's not perfect: nothing else and nothing ever will be. There are no perfect people, processes, performances, or plan. If we wait for perfection, we'll just keep waiting (and probably without gaining ground...) Let's do both. Let's enjoy our current level of success and achievement while also working to improve it. Performance must constantly improve, AND we can enjoy our exiting improvements. -- doug smith

  Great goals need great power. They need the power to keep going thru resistance. They need the power to innovate when the temptation is to stagnate.  Where does that power come from? You know this! The power comes from you. Hard as it may sometimes seem, you do have the power to achieve your own goals. Power for your goals comes from what you're already good at -- or plan to get good at -- and are willing to work for, Set the goal, do the work, and feel the power. -- doug smith

I get a charge out of encouragement -- both when I encourage someone else and when someone else encourages me. It doesn't take much energy to provide encouragement, and the payoff is huge. A brighter day, a bigger smiler, a repeat of a task that was done correctly. Encouragement is free and the impact immense. However much you're encouraging others, what if you did it even more? -- doug smith  

Have you ever had a boss who thought that in order to get the best performance from you they had to treat you like dirt? If so, how did you feel about that? Leadership is a balance, but that balance too often leans to the side of manipulation and force. Being mean is a poor, sad, troubling strategy.  When is it appropriate for a leader to act like a jerk? Never. Many supervisors could double their effectiveness if they stopped acting like jerks. If you catch yourself about to get mean, come clean and restart.  -- doug smith