Creativity, Discipline, Health Myths, Fun Video Marketing!
As a Christian business leader you want to accelerate your growth, profit, and witness in the marketplace (and build a better life!). Our goal is to bring you the best tips, tools, and techniques to do just that!
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Business
Does Your Business Need More Creative Solutions to Problems?
Most do. Charles Kettering (amazing inventor, engineer & businessman) stated that “a problem well stated is a problem half-solved.”
Warren Berger in his book, “A More Beautiful Question,” proposes a simple three-part system to help create better problem statements which will lead to more creative solutions. Here are the three questions he recommends when attacking a problem.
- Why? – Asking why we do something a particular way or why a problem continues to occur is the starting point for understanding the situation. It gets all of the facts on the table. Many in the room might be bothered by this level of questioning, but it is in the pressing, that “iron sharpens iron.” Don’t let peer pressure keep you from asking hard questions and developing a full understanding of the problem or situation.
- What If? – This turns the group into the “blue sky” realm of possibility. Brainstorm. Throw seemingly crazy ideas out and see what concepts you can stick together to reach a solution. Asking people to throw out their “what ifs” no matter how seemingly off the wall will empower your team to get creative.
- How? – Don’t just ask how and stare at the crowd. Ask “How can we make this work?” Don’t try to create the full implementation. Dive in and start trying things. Test and pivot like they do in a lean startup. Move quick, don’t let analysis paralysis set in.
Great deeper dive into the book can be found here.
5 Tools for Greater Discipline – Whatever the problem, it is likely that some level of discipline will be required to implement the solution.
In fact, solutions have become ridiculously easy to find. Want to lose weight, motivate a team, write a book? The solutions are out there and often for free! What we lack is the discipline to implement.
- Focus – Change stinks (to put in lightly). It scares us and most of us run from it. It takes massive amounts of our mental energy (also known as discipline) to make the change. What is the solution? Never, ever focus on more than 1 item to change. Make sure it is the absolute, most important change that needs to occur in your life or organization and then dedicate yourself to making it happen. Burn the boats. This is your #1. Stake your reputation on making it happen and it will.
- Shrink It – Change can get discouraging – real quick. So create some small wins. What is the smallest change possible that would be a step in the right direction? Is it 1 extra sales call? 2 extra push-ups? Our willingness to take the action skyrockets when we know we can accomplish it. Don’t worry about the fact that 1 sales call or 2 push-ups will not get you anywhere near your goal. Just create a win and some momentum. You’ll be able to ramp up the efforts later.
- Own It – “If it is going to be, it is up to me!” Discipline is not created by groups. It is created through personal actions. What is the action that you are dedicated to take?
- Know Your Why? – Make sure this is the #1, most important change that needs to made. You still have a life and/or organization to run while making this change. What is the outcome if you don’t make the change? How big is the win if you do? How big is the potential loss?
- Accountability – Regularly, at least weekly, preferably daily, meet with your team to discuss outcomes, next steps and your commitments.
I hope these help with whatever “change” you have in front of you or your organization.
Health
The pH Myth – If you follow any natural health sites you have probably seen recommendations to follow an alkaline (mainly fruits and veggies) diet. The gurus suggest that eating an acid forming diet (meat, sugar, white flour) can cause everything from bone loss to cancer. Suggestions for fixing this can include drinking lemon water and way too often drinking “alkalized” water (which of course requires a fancy machine they are selling!).
I do drink lemon water in the morning and was hopeful that it might have some positive effects on my blood pH, but when I starting considering this alkalized water thing, I knew I had to do some research.
Turns out that more fruits and veggies and less processed foods is always going to be more healthy, but not because of your blood pH. Our bodies are built to maintain our blood pH in a very tight range (7.35-7.45) and has lots of systems to make this happen, but the primary vehicle used by our body is our kidneys. Some argue that you could overload your kidneys with an acidic diet and then your body would be forced to turn to your bones to regulate pH. Clinical trials do not support this hypothesis.
In short, eat more fruits and veggies (even lemon water if your stomach is OK with it), drink lots of water and don’t worry about your blood pH. God created a pretty fancy system to take care of that!
If you want to dive deep you can see the evidence on Chris Kesser’s site and some good recommendations at Dr. Kim’s site.
Life, Fun, Whatever!
Sometimes good humor sells. Hilarious video by Friskies that has garnered over 26 million views on YouTube. 3 minutes of entertainment and an opportunity to think about how to “lighten up” your brand. Click the image below to watch.
Here’s wishing you a great rest of your week!
If we can ever help you on your journey to excellence, just drop me a line!
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