by Phil Cooke
At a board meeting, a formal dinner party, a local football game, or church, in a casual social situation or on a business trip, does your behavior reflect the level of success you’re working toward? And please don’t think the value of perception is the ability to hide the fact that, in reality, you are unethical or dishonest. Ethical and moral behavior matters. It creates trust, loyalty, and integrity, and when damaged, reputations are tough and often impossible to rebuild.
Everything communicates.
—BRAD ABARE, BRANDING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTANT
Start today recognizing opportunities to jolt your perception in the eyes of your superiors, your customers, and your associates. A business genius who neglects the value of perception risks appearing to others as simply average, or worse, a fool. On the other hand, even a relative novice in business and leadership skills can dramatically improve his standing among his associates through an investment in the art of perception.
Who you are is important, and so is the impact of how you are perceived.
» JOLT #19
CHANGE YOUR THINKING
AND CHANGE YOUR FUTURE
The Incredible Influence of Your Thought Life
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
—ALBERT EINSTEIN, PHYSICIST
Elevate your thinking, and you elevate your life.
—KEITH CRAFT, LEADERSHIPOLOGY.COM
Real positive thinking isn’t empty platitudes or “wishful” dreaming. It’s not a shallow attempt at getting employees motivated to do their best, or something only stupid people follow. Yes, that type of positive thinking is out there. You most often see it on posters with beautiful landscapes with cute little quotes in the corner, or engraved on plaques hanging on the wall of office cubicles.
A motivational speaker makes you feel good, but the next day you don’t know why.
—JOHN MAXWELL, LEADERSHIP EXPERT, AUTHOR, AND SPEAKER
Shallow attempts at “positive thinking” drive me nuts. But when you get past that surface level of motivation (or pseudomotivation), you discover that real positive thinking affects the core of your being. How you think determines your outlook, your attitude, your persistence, and your approach. It changes your perspective on life and therefore can literally change the outcome of your situation.
Thinking determines action. In fact, one of the most fascinating elements of the teachings of Jesus Christ is the link between thought and action. When Jesus taught two thousand years ago, one of his greatest challenges was from religious leaders who acted piously on the outside but were dark and evil on the inside. He taught that you don’t just commit a sin by actually physically doing the act, but you can also commit the sin just by thinking about it: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27–28 nkjv).
Was Jesus some type of cosmic killjoy who wanted to ruin our appreciation of beautiful women? Didn’t he understand that it’s a natural thing for men to look?
Actually, more than any person in history, Jesus understood life and how we live it. Remember, he turned water into wine at a marriage feast to save the day—so he certainly wasn’t a prude. But Jesus understood the power of our minds. He knew that what we think can easily turn into action, so he was simply warning us about the power of our thoughts and how they can either make us better or destroy us.
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.
—HENRY FORD
Obviously, our minds can’t do the impossible. There have been false religious systems created on the idea that our thoughts can do anything, and that idea simply isn’t realistic or possible.
Sadly, there are always people who are gullible and tend toward the extreme in just about anything. But aside from the fringe, the fact is that there is enormous power in the way we think and what we think about.
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
—SIR WILLIAM BRAGG, NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS, 1915
I’ve discovered in my consulting work with organizations that my first great challenge is always to change people’s thinking. We can change the company’s direction, the mission statement, the vision, the priorities, and even change the budget. But we’ll never get anywhere until we can change how the employees think.
It’s not an easy task. We all think in ways that were shaped by our upbringing and circumstances. Our parents had an enormous influence on the way we think and what we value. My father loved books, and guess what? So do I. Reading is one of my greatest passions, and my idea of a perfect day is to be snowed in at a mountain cabin with a fire in the hearth and a stack of books next to my chair. That love of reading came directly from the influence of my dad.
Chances are, key elements of your thinking came from your mother or father. Another key to our thinking is the group of people who have influenced us during the course of our lives. Perhaps it was a great teacher, coach, or family friend. Our thinking habits weren’t born in a vacuum but were planted, watered, and nurtured by our closest family members and friends.
But no thinking pattern is locked. We can always change our thinking to make us more productive, positive, successful, and fulfilled. Good thinking is not involuntary; it’s something we control, and as a result, it’s something we can change.
Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
—GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, PLAYWRIGHT
CONSIDER FOR A MOMENT YOUR STYLE OF THINKING
Are you naturally positive?
Do you meet most challenges with a positive response? Is it tough to really get you down or depressed? Are you the most encouraging person in your company?
Are you naturally negative?
Yes, there are people who deal with life in a very negative way, and you might be one of those people. Do you face every challenge with responses like, “Well, I told you so. Nothing ever works out for me”? Do you naturally expect projects to fail? There was an executive who to this day is the most negative person I have ever encountered. When you walked into her office, you felt a darkness in the room. She was insecure and incompetent and looked at everything from the most negative angle possible. She yelled at everyone, believed that nothing would ever work out, and was depressed most of the time. She was finally fired when her boss realized that everyone in the company would walk out if management didn’t do something immediately. She was toxic, and her negative thinking affected everyone around her.
There is no question that she’s an extreme example, but millions of people have a negative thinking style that hinders them from breaking through barriers and experiencing success.
Are you naturally critical?
I have a tendency to be critical, and I have to fight to overcome this deadly style of thinking. As a television and film director, I’ve spent years on a set, judging aspects of the production. Is the acting natural? Is the set design what it needs to be? Is the lighting the most appropriate? Evaluating and being critical is my job, but I have to be careful to leave it at work. Unleashed at home or in other situations, it can be deadly.
Are you naturally reflective?
Do you think before speaking? Do you hold your thoughts until enough information is in? Do you prefer to sit back and not commit? Are you naturally shy and bashful?
INCREASE YOUR POTENTIAL THROUGH BETTER THINKING
Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.
—RALPH CHARELL, MOTIVATIONAL WRITER
Quality of thinking. It’s a phrase we don’t hear about much, but it’s absolutely critical to changing your life. I’m always amazed watching the employee dynamics of a
n organization. When I assemble a creative team around a conference table and throw out a challenge, it’s fascinating to see how different people respond. Some grasp the challenge immediately and take off running. Others prefer to think about it first, and still others blow it off, open their laptops, and start answering e-mail.
Everyone approaches a challenge differently.
The mind ought sometimes to be diverted that it may return the better to thinking.
—PHAEDRUS (15 BC–AD 50)
Jack Welch, legendary former CEO of General Electric, said, “99.9 percent of all employees are in the pile because they don’t think.”
Rise up. Stand above the others. Get out of the pile. The key is the quality of your thinking.
How do you do it? Start thinking of your brain as a muscle and exercise it. Read, learn, challenge yourself, push the limits of your thinking. Perhaps more important than anything, set aside a time during the day when you do nothing but think.
Leadership expert John Maxwell has profoundly influenced me when it comes to thinking. John has actually set aside a chair in his office where he thinks. He doesn’t use it for anything else—when he’s in that chair, he just sits and thinks.
I encourage you to do the same. Don’t take phone calls, go to meetings, answer e-mail, or update your Facebook page in that chair. That’s your “thinking chair,” and thinking is the only thing you use it for. Every day—probably near the end of your day—take some time and sit in the chair, with only a pad and pencil, and think. Reflect on the day, think about the future, jot down notes, and just think.
When you make thinking a priority in your life, the quality of your life will dramatically increase. It’s almost as if your brain is flattered that you’re making it a priority, because believe me, it will respond. When you take that important time to reflect and think—and make it a daily habit—you’ll be amazed at how the quality of your ideas will increase (not to mention the quantity).
MAXIMIZE YOUR GIFTS AND SKILLS THROUGH STRATEGIC THINKING
Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
—ALBERT VON SZENT-GYORGYI, NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE, 1937
When filmmaker George Lucas created the Star Wars series of films, he didn’t set out to impact the greater culture. He didn’t know he would be producing some of the highest-grossing films of all time and creating the movie merchandising phenomenon we take for granted today.
But he did know he wanted to maximize his gifts and talents through the filmmaking process. When you study the story of how Lucas created the movies, struggled for the financing, and dealt with the major film studios, you find that he was very strategic in his thinking. He wasn’t about to give in on any point he didn’t have to, and he focused his thinking on a strategy that would not only get the first film made but would also open a doorway for an entire series of movies. The fact is, his remarkable thinking changed much of the way movies are marketed and merchandised. His films have become cinematic history, largely because George Lucas was able to maximize his personal gifts, talents, and skills through strategic thinking.
Strategic thinking is all about purpose. “We’ll see what happens . . .” is a certain indication of the absence of strategic thinking. Strategists never leave anything to chance. They observe and calculate each step in their progression to success.
MULTIPLY YOUR OPTIONS THROUGH CREATIVE THINKING
You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.
—J. K. ROWLING, HARY POTTER AN D THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
Creative thinking is all about options—about new and innovative ways of doing what most people think is routine.
The great painter Pablo Picasso said, “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
Creative thinking opens doors that are closed to the vast majority of people because it allows you to see options they can’t see.
Before anyone else, Fred Smith envisioned a company that would deliver packages anywhere in the United States overnight. Before anyone else, Thomas Edison saw cities lighted by electricity. They both were great businessmen, but they were also creative thinkers.
I learned an unusual example of creative thinking years ago at a birthday party for a friend in Los Angeles. While at the party, I met a businessman who told me a remarkable story. He was sitting in a shopping mall four years earlier and noticed all the teenagers talking on their cell phones. He starting thinking about the connections—teenagers, cell phones, popular music—and thought that they might really enjoy being able to download ringtones of popular songs to their cell phones. So he assembled a small team who designed a website that would allow people to select a song and, for a small charge, upload it from the website to their phone.
That was four years earlier—before anyone had ever heard of “ringtones.”
He told me that he had recently sold the company to a major corporation for about $40 million.
How many of us have watched teenagers talking on cell phones and not thought a thing about it? But by using creative thinking and making some innovative connections, with very little money he created a company that sold for $40 million in just four years.
OVERCOME DEFEAT AND OBSTACLES THROUGH REAL POSITIVE THINKING
The word impossible is not in my dictionary.
—GENERAL NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
As I said before, what I call real positive thinking is not shallow and trivial. It’s not wishful or unrealistic. Authentic positive thinking is an accurate picture of the possibilities and what can be accomplished in a given situation.
Real positive thinking looks at obstacles most people call impossible and laughs. Not because we’re being stupid but because we’ve done our homework, have confidence in our abilities and skill, appreciate the mysterious, and are unhindered by fear. Real positive thinking is how underdogs make a living. It’s how battles are turned and championship teams are upset.
Positive thinking isn’t denial; it’s the accurate realization that we don’t, in fact, know everything, and therefore, anything could be possible.
Normal Vincent Peale wrote, “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously.
Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture.”
Religious tradition has taught the mind-body connection for thousands of years. Recent studies show that a mental attitude has a significant impact on the body’s ability to heal, and doctors are now taking the mental attitude of their patients very seriously.
Talk to athletes or business leaders and you’ll find a remarkable similarity in the way they think about “thinking.” Mental attitude is a key for championship athletes, and it can be a key for you as well.
EXPERIENCE SUCCESS THROUGH LONG-RANGE THINKING
A blockbuster movie takes 5–10 years to produce. So it’s not about knowing what’s popular now. To be really successful, you have to be thinking about what will be popular 5–10 years in the future.
—RALPH WINTER, PRODUCER (X-MEN, WOLVERINE )
To make change happen in your personal life or in the life of your company, you have to see things from a higher vantage point. It’s not that different from looking at your house from street level and then seeing it from the window of a plane. It’s a different world up there, and it puts the size of the house into a different category.
Most executives and leaders get stuck in crisis mode. Problems and challenges are hitting them on a daily, perhaps hourly, basis, and planning is difficult when you can’t see beyond the immediate disaster. In that environment, it doesn’t take long to sink deeper and deeper into the abyss and finally throw your hands up in failure.
But long-range planning can be done. Here are some suggestions for pulling your thinking out of an immediate crisis and consi
dering your challenges from a greater distance:
Learn as much as you can about the competition.
Not necessarily to beat them, as much as to learn from them. Most people spend their careers either hating or ignoring the competition. Either way, you lose. You must realize that your perceived enemy can be your greatest friend. Learn from your competitors—both the good and the bad. The key is keeping an open mind. Leave your prejudices about their business at the door and objectively study how they work. It will expand your thinking and enlarge your perspective.
Study the legends in your business.
Why waste your life hitting walls, making mistakes, and tripping over obstacles, when you could easily learn from others who have gone before? Isaac Newton, considered by many to be the father of modern science, said, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Study the lives and accomplishments of those in business, sports, politics, the arts, and other areas that could benefit you. Head to the biography section of your favorite bookstore and start reading. Learn from their mistakes, so you can move ahead faster and with much less frustration.
Become active in organizations related to your business or passion.
Becoming active in trade organizations, business seminars, and workshop events gives you the unique opportunity to network and discover new methods, new perspectives, and new techniques. Find out what others are doing and use that for your benefit. It will enlarge your vision and widen your perspective.
Nothing will jolt your thinking faster than seeing how others do your job. And nothing will help you appreciate your situation better than seeing other failures!