Inspirational Quotations Newsletter #189

Pain is only weakness leaving your body,
so dont give up because it hurts keep going cause it makes you stonger.
* Brandon Moore

Be careful of your thoughts;
they may become words at any moment.
* Ira Gassen

In every person who comes near you, look for what is good
and strong; honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults
will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.
* John Ruskin

If your dog plays checkers with you,
don’t criticize his game,
just be glad he plays the game at all.
* Unknown

Some people make the day brighter just by being in it.
* Mary Dawson Hughes

Fate is the endless chain of causation, whereby things are;
the reason or formula by which the world goes on.
* Citium Zeno

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost.
When health is lost, something is lost.
When character is lost, everything is lost.
* Unknown

It’s when you run away that you’re most liable to stumble.
* Casey Robinson

Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
* Lily Tomlin

Every time I close the door on
reality it comes in through the windows.
* Jennifer Unlimited

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

Ideas for Impact #18: How to Examine a Process and Ask the Right Questions

Method Study Critical Examination

Method Study and Critical Examination

Method study is a practice of examining methods of doing work: work-flows, processes, etc. The key component of method study is ‘critical examination.’ Author Michael Armstrong describes critical examination in his ‘Handbook of Management Techniques.’

Critical examination uses the questioning approach to find out what, how, when, where and, most importantly, why and activity is carried out, and who does it. From this analysis, two fundamental questions are posed: (1) Does the activity need to be done at all? If so, (2) Are there any better ways of doing it?

The questioning approach for critical examination is described in the following chart. This chart is also available as a hand-out (PDF download) for quick reference.

Questioning Approach Critical Examination

Call for Action

Book frequent quiet time for thinking A great degree of professional work–in engineering, management, finances, and other functions of the modern corporation–involves analysis of products, procedures and systems. Here, thought-processes involve asking, and seeking answers to, a series of questions.

In my role as an engineer and manager, I carry the above chart of questions to meetings and brainstorming sessions. The chart helps me ask the right questions on the intent of a process or system and gain a big-picture perspective for my work or task at hand.

Download the critical examination handout, post it at your cubicle and refer to the chart for help on asking the right questions.

***See other articles related to ideas for impact, context, perspective, big-picture, career success, thought-process

Inspirational Quotations Newsletter #188

Habit is thus the enormous flywheel of society,
its most precious conservative agent.
It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance,
and saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor.
* William James

Show me the leader and I will know his men.
Show me the men and I will know their leader.
* Arthur W. Newcomb

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite,
something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it.
I think that I see something deeper, more infinite,
more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a
little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or
laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.
* Vincent Van Gogh

It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.
* John Wooden

There is no use going back looking for
the lost opportunity; someone else has found it.
* Anonymous

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.
The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
* Winston Churchill

It is not enough to succeed; others must fail.
* Gore Vidal

Play every game like it’s the last one your going to play.
* Joey R Mendoza

One of the things I keep learning is that the
secret of being happy is doing things for other people.
* Dick Gregory

Aim at the sun and you may not reach it;
but your arrow will fly far higher than if
you had aimed at an object on a level with yourself.
* F. Hawes

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

Inspirational Quotations Newsletter #187

After all is said and done,
there is more said than done.
* Unknown

Quite often we change jobs,
friends and spouses instead of ourselves.
* Akbarali H. Jetha

Habits are safer than rules;
you don’t have to watch them.
And you don’t have to keep them, either. They keep you.
* Frank Crane

To succeed you need to find something to hold on to,
something to motivate you, something to inspire you.
* Tony Dorsett

It doesn’t hurt to be optimistic, you can always cry later.
* Anonymous

It is possible to fail in many ways…
while to succeed is possible only in one way.
* Aristotle

We cannot do everything, but we must do everything we can.
* Glenn Pace

I have never been able to conceive how
any rational being could propose happiness to
himself from the exercise of power over others.
* Thomas Jefferson

Richer is one hour of repentance
and good works in this world than
all of life of the world to come;
and richer is one hour’s calm of spirit in the world
to come than all of life of this world.
* The Talmud

If you achieve success, you will get applause,
and if you get applause, you will hear it.
My advice to you about applause is this:
Enjoy it but never quite believe it.
* James Montgomery

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

Ideas for Impact #17: “The Waiter Rule”

'The Waiter Rule,' Interpersonal Skills - How you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character

Window to An Individual’s Personality

This article in the USA Today newspaper says that how one treats a waiter can predict a lot about the person’s character.

The article quotes Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson and Sara Lee CEO Brenda Barnes.

“A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person. Watch out for people who have a situational value system, who can turn the charm on and off depending on the status of the person they are interacting with. Be especially wary of those who are rude to people perceived to be in subordinate roles.”

“How executives treat waiters probably demonstrates how they treat their actual employees. Sitting in the chair of CEO makes me no better of a person than the forklift operator in our plant. If you treat the waiter, or a subordinate, like garbage, guess what? Are they going to give it their all? I don’t think so.”

‘The Waiter Rule’

'The Waiter Rule,' Interpersonal Skills -- How you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character We presume each person’s influence is a function of his/her rank or title. Consequently, we may fail to treat everybody as we wish to be treated.

All of us, especially the ones from the service and hospitality industries, have our favourite stories of people who treated us with dignity: perhaps a manager who remembers her employees’ kids’ names or a fellow-passenger who helped us handle luggage on a flight. We also have our tales of people being indifferent in various contexts: perhaps a new secretary who got yelled-at by an executive-on-fast-track for mistakes.

Fundamentally, the ‘Waiter Rule’ indicates that how we treat seemingly insignificant people, whether on a date or a job interview, can provide pointers to our personality and priorities.

Call for Action

Contemplate the following questions.

  • 'The Waiter Rule:' how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character, Consider your own experiences when you were touched by others–their thoughtfulness or consideration. How did you return their kindness? Additionally, think about circumstances when you felt disrespected or discouraged. How did you react?
  • Now, reflect on how you treat people: your loved ones, your staff and colleagues, ushers, store attendants, and the rest of the people you interact with everyday. Do you accept who they are and accommodate their concerns? Are you generous? Do you treat them as people or as a means to an end? How can you change?

***See other articles related to respect, ideas for impact, network, networking, interpersonal relationships, personality development, leadership skills, people skills, managerial skills, motivating people, golden rule

Inspirational Quotations Newsletter #186

What we call the secret of happiness is
no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.
* Leo Buscaglia

Only in growth, reform and change, paradoxically enough,
is true security to be found.
* Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Never, never, never give up!
* Winston Churchill

If I don’t have friends,
then I ain’t got nothin’.
* Billie Holiday

Minor surgery is surgery someone else is having.
* Joseph Cook

If you don’t change direction,
you’ll end up where you’re going.
* Unknown

If you begin to understand what you are without trying
to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.
* Jiddu Krishnamurti

If you don’t have a test,
you won’t have a testimony.
* Unknown

Make changes with SNAPS
S-Specify the situation
N-Name your feelings
A-Ask for what you want to happen
P-Pay off - will be either positive or negative
S-So go for the positive result
* Unknown

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
* Galileo Galilei

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

Inspirational Quotations Newsletter #185

In our lives we each act,
evaluate, correct, then act again.
* Unknown

Live today to the fullest.
Remember it’s the first day of the rest of your life!
* Unknown

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
* William Cowper

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
* Friedrich Nietzsche

Enduring habits I hate….
Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to
all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me
that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a
hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits.
* Friedrich Nietzsche

We are like people with short-term leases on
summer cottages; we can never seem to
make our provisions come out even with our stay.
* Mignon McLaughlin

It’s all right to have butterflies in your stomach.
Just get them to fly in formation.
* Rob Gilbert

Either you run the day, or the day runs you.
* Jim Rohn

To have a friend, be a friend.
* Old Saying

There ain’t no man can avoid being born average,
but there ain’t no man got to be common.
* Unknown

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations