Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography/ / CC BY 2.0

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.”
Brian Tracy

I believe that one of the biggest reasons why people get stuck in reading and discussing things instead of taking action to change their lives for the better is simply that it is uncomfortable.

But to make real changes in your life you have to step outside your comfort zone. At least for a little while.

My grandma, Mabel Reynolds Ostrander, and I shared one of those special relationships as rare as a double rainbow. She was 53 when I was 10. That’s when we planted our first Victory Garden together during World War II. We planted seeds together—in the soil—and in each other.

Grandma lived 87 seasons without a complaint. I was 44 when I last saw her. But I remember every mince and lemon tart, every bite of made-from-scratch apple pie and every lingering wave of her hand as she stood (out of sight, or so she thought) behind the rayon Priscilla curtains in the little house at 718 West Pennsylvania Ave. in San Diego, Calif., where I was born and raised. As our station wagon full of kids and contentment would slowly pull away from the curb, we would all look back at her and wave—and I would gaze at her fragile silhouette through the rear-view mirror, wishing I could frame her there forever, just that way—wondering how many more Easter and Christmas dinners we would share.

Most of all, I remember my grandma and I planting seeds. We planted squash, beans, corn, watermelons, beets, pansies, mums and other flowers. I’ll admit I rode my bike those 20 miles each Saturday more for the bonus of the conversation and the homemade pastries than for the vegetables and flowers. But no matter how full I was after I ate, I was always left hungry for more of the wisdom and optimism she shared with me.

I’ll never forget the day we tasted our first harvest as a result of crossing a plum tree with an apricot tree. The ripe fruit was pink, not purple like a plum or orange like an apricot but a combination of both. “Gee, do you suppose they’ll be any good?” I asked. “Why of course they will be wonderful,” she chided. “Didn’t we do the planting, nurturing and pruning?”

Sure enough, they were delicious, even though they were different from any fruit I’d ever seen before. “That’s because they are uniquely unlike any other fruit you’ll ever eat. They are plumcots!” she said. ‘“You always get out what you put in,” she continued as we sat under the tree eating most of what we had picked. (Finish reading here).

By Kevin Kennemer, SPHR

When B.B. King, the King of the Blues, wrote these lyrics, “When my heart starts beating like a hammer, and my eyes get full of tears,”  he wasn’t writing about his job but many hard working Americans feel this way on Sunday evening each week.  According to research, getting ready for Monday can be a real bummer.

Have you ever had that feeling of dread come over you on Sunday evening as your mind begins to prepare for the work week ahead? Does your heart start beating like a hammer? Do your eyes fill with tears? Is the thought of Monday – the start of a new work week – so daunting that you begin worrying about work on Sunday?

This type of worry and dread cuts into your weekend.  It feels like Monday starts on Sunday. This phenomenon has been termed the “Sunday Evening Blues.”

It is a real phenomenon. For some people there is much to worry about. In fact, more heart attacks occur on Monday mornings in the workplace than any other day of the week.  When the sun rises on Monday mornings so does the blood pressure of many hard working Americans.  What is the cause of the Sunday Evening Blues?  The cause could be related to your morning commute, sleep deprivation from the weekend, abuse of alcohol, poor family relationships, or the act of returning to a toxic work environment.

When surveying employees regarding their satisfaction with work, I think it is a good idea to ask this question: “Do you experience the Sunday Evening Blues when thinking about returning to work on Monday?”  The results will be a good indicator of the health of your workplace.

As business leaders we should do what we can to make the workplace a welcoming and inviting place.  The environment should help employees perform at their highest levels.  Below are a few ideas on how to create a warm and inviting workplace and beat down the Sunday Evening Blues:

• Drive Out Fear in the Workplace – Fear stifles creativity, productivity and quality. Fear seizes up the organization’s ability to freely produce results because employees are afraid of being reprimanded.  Drive out fear by ridding your organization of supervisors who are overbearing, micromanaging, nitpicking, fire-breathing Neanderthals.
• Model Servant Leadership – The most productive teams are motivated by servant leaders. When leaders realize their job is to help others succeed, work/life begins to make more sense.  When everything and everyone has to accommodate the leader, he/she is not a servant leader but a dictator.
• Throw Out Rigidity and Embrace Flexibility – Our personal and professional lives have never been more complicated.  Many times the competing demands of our family and work intersect and create enormous pressure.  When the company forces employees to choose between work and family, the company will always lose in the end. Even if the employee chooses company over family, the company will eventually lose when the employee’s family falls apart.  It is best to work things out through flexible leadership.  In other words, focus on results not face time.
• Provide Lessons on Etiquette and Civility – Our country severely lacks some basic lessons on etiquette and civility. If a driver does not speed off at a green light within one second, hoards of cars will start honking their horns, shouting obscenities and shoving crude finger gestures at you.  These ruthless, impatient, vulgar people are driving to work too and you likely work with many of them.  It is a good idea to provide mandatory etiquette and civility training to help smooth out the major and minor irritants that cause friction in the workplace. If there is friction in the workplace it is manifesting itself at the customer level as well.
• Leaders Should Be Nice - It is amazing what will happen in an organization if the top leader and his/her executive team are simply nice people.  You do not have to be mean and nasty to get work done. That is myth not reality.  Leaders who are nice, cordial, pleasant, focused, determined, objective and fair will lead their company to greatness.  When nice starts at the top it will cascade down the organization.

Display beautiful images is a potent element in web and graphic design, where there is less concern for readability and more potential for using images in an artistic manner. Photoshop is useful for both creating and editing images to be used in print or online. Not too easy to use, but full of high-quality features, Photoshop is the best choice for any image manipulation job.

This article showcases the Most beautiful and ready to use free Photoshop PSD files and resources which helps you to enhance your design work and features.

For those, who don’t know what is Photoshop? and what it can do? Then please follow the link below for detail introduction.

• About Photoshop | adobe.com
• Adobe Photoshop | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The next generation, representing two decades of excellence. This application contains everything you need to create high-end images and graphics. For those artists whose work demands more than the basic application, There is a Photoshop to satisfy their every needs that utilizes photo manipulation.

You may be interested in the following related articles as well.

• 40+ Sources To Download High-Quality Royalty Free Stock Images
• 50+ Sources To Download High-Quality Free Vector Stuff
• The Ultimate List of Sources for Free Background Patterns
• 120 Best Free Blogger Templates Around
• 140+ Brilliant Free Wordpress Themes Around

Please feel free to join us and you are always welcome to share your thoughts even if you have more reference links related to more PSD files that our readers may like.

Finish checking out Free Photoshop PSD Files and Resources!  There’s a lot more!!

10. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) A classic Christmas movie comedy, the Griswold’s, especially disaster prone Clark (Chevy Chase) are always good for a laugh. This comedy has great examples of ‘don’t try this at home’ and the humor in dealing with certain unruly relatives.

9. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Tim Burton’s “stop motion” musical film is a classic Christmas movie about a misfit Pumpkin King that thinks his purpose is to merge Halloween and Christmas. Perfect for those with a great imagination that like being taken to a strange place. Not for small children (rated PG).

8. The Santa Clause (1994) A Christmas movie comedy and heartwarming story of Santa in training with amazing images of the North Pole Workshop. Tim Allen is funny and he does a great job becoming Santa.

7. The Polar Express (2004) Based on Chris Van Allsburg’s book, this animated classic holiday film for kids is about a little boy who lost his faith in Santa. He ends up on a train and trip full of adventure – their destination the North Pole, where the boy meets Santa and receives the first gift of Christmas. Tom Hanks plays the little boy and several other roles. The great thing about animated movies for children is that most adults enjoy this type of movie as well.

6. Disney’s Christmas Carol (2009) The computer animated version of Charles Dickens’ classic with voice of Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and all three Christmas spirits. This classic Christmas movie follows the usual story of Scrooge and visits from ghosts of past, present and future. Disney’s best movies are those based on old classics and this one is no exception. If you enjoy digital effects, Jim Carrey and the story of Scrooge – go see Disney’s Christmas Carol now (in 3D at select theaters).

Finish reading the list of Best Christmas Movies for Kids and Adults.

Articles

Here are some articles that can help WAHM get some ideas on how to manage their time and build their businesses.

1. Job Opening? Work-at-Home Moms Fill Bill: This article from USA today will help give you some background as to why working while staying at home with the kids has become such a popular option for moms.
2. Tips for Dealing with an Unsupportive Spouse: Starting your own business from home isn’t always the easiest thing, and can often be met with opposition from those closest to you for a variety of reasons. This article discusses how you can deal with a spouse that doesn’t share your enthusiasm about your home business.
3. Childproof Your Home Office: To avoid messy spills or dangerous situations with your children in your workspace, check out this article which gives working moms ideas on how to keep their home offices safe and functional.
4. Keeping Your Kids Busy While You Work at Home: It can be hard enough to concentrate on work in an office, but throwing a couple of attention seeking kids into the mix can make it near impossible. Here you’ll find advice on how to make time for work while keeping your kids happy and entertained.
5. WAHM and Loving It: Tips for the Work-at-Home Mom: This article from Parenthood.com gives WAHMs some tips on how to make their business integrate smoothly into their day-to-day lives.
6. Balancing Home and Work: The Challenge of the Home-Based Business: Keeping up with the demands of housework and children while tending to a business isn’t an easy task. This article discusses the battle between the two and how you can achieve a sense of balance in your home.
7. Brainstorming a Business Idea: Want to start a home based business but can’t think of an idea to get off the ground? This article will give you some pointers on how to come up with an idea that’s practical and profitable.
8. Remember to Take Care of Yourself: You can’t care for a family or a business if you become so run down that you get sick. This article discusses the importance of taking time to make sure you’re healthy.
9. Mom-preneurs: Moms Create Work Options that Work: If you’re a mom working at home and caring for a family you’re not alone. Here you can read about other moms who’ve built successful businesses without sacrificing their dedication to their families.
10. How Much Do You Need to Make as a WAHM?: This article discusses the financial realities of choosing to leave the workplace and opt for a home based job instead. It will help you factor in many costs associated with childcare and family needs to make sure you’ll be able to stay on your feet while staying at home.
11. Tax and Accounting Solutions for WAHMs: Managing your personal finances is complicated but can be made more so with the addition of a home based business. This article gives links to loads of resources women working from home can check out to help them get their finances under control.
12. Combating Work at Home Loneliness: When your kids are off at school, working at home can be a lonely experience. This article discusses how moms working from home can avoid feeling isolated by getting involved.
13. Avoiding the Work-at-Home Weight Gain: Easy access to your kitchen may cause you to put on a few pounds when you start working at home. This article gives times on how to combat the weight gain and keep you healthy while you stay at home. (Finish reading).

One of the best ways to not only get content for your blog, but to also build your Rolodex and get you established as an expert in your niche is to get industry experts and celebrities to contribute to your blog.

Whenever someone starts a new blog, one of the first things I tell them to do is go interview a whole bunch of people and post those interviews on your blog.

It’s actually amazingly easy to get a ton of people who have a lot of authority and are already established experts within your niche or industry to help you out. All you need to do is send them an e-mail that says something like this.

“Hey, I think you’re awesome and I think that your product (or website) is awesome. I have a blog over at www.mysite.com. I would love to interview you on ‘xyz subject’. The interview should get you plenty of exposure in the industry, more traffic to your site and help to get you more customers or clients. I have already interviewed X, X and X. The interview will take less than an hour. It will be quick, painless and fun. Will you do it?”

When I send out e-mails like that to just about anybody who has written a book or has a popular website, or has info products out in my niche, I usually get well over an 80% positive response. Now sometimes the e-mail might not get through to the person. In that case, you can try to call them or get a hold of their assistant or something else. But if you can get that e-mail through, most people who have a product or popular website or book out want to get their name out there more and will happily do an interview. You do want to let them know though to please not make this a pitch… but they can plug their product and/or services. You just don’t want them to do any heavy pitches for it.

This process will help establish you as an equal authority in the eyes of your audience, because hey, there you are talking to this person, interviewing them, so you must be on the same level with them. But what it will also do is build your Rolodex and create great relationships that you can use in the future. This process will also help you come up with a lot of contacts.

On top of publishing the audio to your blog, you can also have it transcribed and make pieces of it into individual posts. For example, if you cover five topics, you could take the transcriptions and break that down into five individual posts. Just make sure you always give the person giving the interview credit and a link back to their site.

I followed this process before one of my product launches, and in just a few months, I became one of the biggest experts in my industry and got tons of traffic and built tons of great relationships with well respected people in my industry. Many of them ended up promoting my product based on the relationship that all started with an interview for my blog.

Interview industry experts, celebrity and some out-of-the-box experts who might not be an expert in your industry, but who might know something applicable to your industry. Like, I am in the health fitness marketing industry, but I go out of my way to find other marketers and possible bloggers and things like that who have nothing to do with the health and fitness industry that can offer a fresh, out-of-the-box perspective for my readers.

Just make sure that when you contact the person you want to interview that you show them what is in it for them. Don’t try to convince them about how amazing your own website is going to be and that is why they should get on board. Convince them based on the facts of what it is going to do for them and how it can help them. And always throw in a few compliments because we all love to hear compliments. It is really pretty easy to get these people on board.

If you do one of these interviews a week, that will be 52 of them in a year. You will have expanded your Rolodex with 52 new possible future partners and people to promote your products or services and other experts who will possibly link back to you and interview you for their blogs, etc. And you will be getting an extra blog post a week just from the audio for the interviews. Not to mention if you chunk down the transcriptions and use them to make multiple posts.

I recently attended a conference where Guy Kawasaki challenged the audience to create meaningful “Mantras” for their companies.

He explained how the standard corporate “Mission Statement” really wasn’t cutting it anymore. In describing the process of conducting a two-day offsite meeting with a highly paid consultant to facilitate the flip-chart discussion, he revealed that the Mission Statement Generator on the Dilbert web site actually comes up with some pretty good ones. So good in fact, that a global accounting firm nearly adopted one created on the Dilbert site which was submitted to the company’s internal contest — it won second place. So I tried it for myself and found it works for just about any industry.

For an alternative energy company:

“The customer can count on us to continually engineer world-class services such that we may continue to synergistically network ethical resources while maintaining the highest standards”

For a business services media company:

“It’s our mission to interactively supply scalable resources so that we may endeavor to competently disseminate business materials while maintaining the highest standards.”

How about for a consulting firm:

“We efficiently simplify low-risk high-yield paradigms to allow us to enthusiastically fashion market-driven deliverables to stay competitive in tomorrow’s world”

OK, these are silly and no one in their right mind would ever put out this kind of drivel, right?

Wrong.

Read this ACTUAL mission statement – you will be surprised where it comes from:

“The following six guiding principles will help us measure the appropriateness of our decisions:

Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.

Embrace diversity as an essential component in the way we do business.

Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee.

Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time.

Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.

Recognize that profitability is essential to our future success.”

This is from Starbucks. Shouldn’t their mission statement be more like “We brew delicious coffee and build friendships”?

Bayer’s mission statement requires a 9-page PDF. I thought they were supposed to get rid of headaches, not give them!

If you want to create a mission statement that actually means something – think about what your company actually provides to the consumer and go from there. You really don’t need to write a manifesto or a behavioral guideline for employees. Just say what you do.

If you want to have some fun, try the Dilbert Mission Statement generator, or the B.S. generator which is really good for generating PowerPoint buzzwords.