Successful Blog

What Do You Do When People Say You’re Inspiring?

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(Updated in 2020)

I’ve been thinking about how inspiring you are.

I heard someone say that you’re inspiring. I saw you value the words and the person who said them. You were so taken by the compliment that you didn’t know what to do.

I think you’re inspiring too.

So I’m writing this for you and all of you who inspire me. Would you listen to what I mean by that?

Inspire means to breathe.

I don’t know your struggles well, but I know you’ve faced them down, and you’re still breathing. That alone is inspiring. Add that you’re fun and easy and it’s meta-inspirational. You motivate me to think I can blast through my own struggles and come out smiling.

In other words, you make my breathing easier.

Isn’t that what inspiration means?

So please know . . .

When I say, “You’re inspiring,” I’m saying . . .

“You motivate me to keep going, doing the next thing, to keep breathing, to keep knowing that I’ll get there.”

What do you do when people say you’re inspiring?

Smile, breathe it in, and say ‘thank you,” with gusto to reinforce a positive change in the world. Glow more each time someone says you’re inspiring. So that more folks wonder who you are.

Smile. Breathe. Glow. Then . . .

Inspire everyone you can to inspire someone else down the line.

Get the whole world breathing again, right along with you.

What do you do to keep inspired? Who inspires you?

Liz

P.S. If you’re thinking this is about you, it is.

5 Ways to Survive Hard Times Without Ending Up Unemployed

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Job Anxiety Is Real–and It’s Global

Gorilla_from_sxc.hu

These are not normal times. Two changes in the past decade have produced a huge global oversupply of labor and intense competition for an expanding array of jobs. First, the Cold War’s end threw millions of workers, who formerly produced only for the socialist bloc, onto the global labor market. And second, that market has become integrated by technological change that now permits outsourcing of service as well as manufacturing jobs. Carnegie Endowment

As if we didn’t know that.

And it has some of us worried. Who doesn’t need to eat tomorrow or pay the rent?

Worrying doesn’t bring anything to build new business. Waiting for the other shoe to drop doesn’t build confidence. It doesn’t matter if we’re working in an office or working for ourselves, letting the bad news stop our progress will only make things worse.

Taking action and putting both feet in the game with all we’ve got is the way to make it though hard economic times.

5 Ways to Survive Hard Times Without Ending Up Unemployed

During hard economic times, people turn inward, we want to take care of our own worries and our own spaces. We tend to have less money, less time, and less energy to socialize. Here are 5 ways to stay a productive part of the environment in which you work.

  1. Pay attention. When people are worried or stressed, they are more easily offended and set off balance. If you notice them and their concerns, you’ll be a source of support rather than an irritant.

  2. Be adaptable. Change often comes with trying times. Be someone who moves easily through change. Help keep things stable for the culture to realign. Notice the vision that your managers or clients are espousing. Don’t try to teach them how to think. Learn about what makes them tick.

  3. Be beginner every day. Show up and be present as if you’re starting your first week of work. Keep interested and interesting. Be anxious to take your boss’ or your clients’ advice. Now’s a great time to learn knew skills with enthusiasm.

  4. Be aware. Explore your own anxiety. Don’t dismiss it. Know what it’s about and determine whether your concerns are real.

  5. Be realistic. Compare the current situation with your past. Do you see patterns that match others? Is it time to break out a resume or start looking for new clients? Sometimes it’s good to just go.

When times are tough the first place people look to save money are points of pain and points of redundant or superfulous spending. It’s as simple as that.

And if you find your life has a new job in the future. . . .

Be creative and don’t forget to ask for help.

How do you stay focused and productive in hard economic times?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Would You Help Me Answer this Man Who Has a Dream?

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The Comment and the Dream

Personal Identity logo

In January, 2008, I wrote a strategy called How to Make Your Dream Come True — Thought, Strategy, Action. The article included these steps (abbreviated here).

  1. Define the dream.
  2. Define where you sit.
  3. Plot your strategy.
  4. Detail your needs.
  5. Determine your commitment.
  6. Enlist support and advocates.
  7. Write the story.
  8. Know how you’ll ask.
  9. Define yourself by the dream.

Yesterday. September 30, 2008, a man wrote two comments in response. I bring them forward here unedited.

September 30th, 2008 at 4:28 pm e
Pama said Hello,
I’m writing because I have nothing to lose except to not fulling my dream. I cannot allow my dream to just remain only my dream. I must make it into reality. About five years before 9-11-01 I had a thought, a way I could earn a living, travel and help our US Military families and our fallen hero families. I had defined my dream, worked up my plan of action, worked with success to make it all happen. Then as I was almost to seeing my dream to into reality two things happened to set me back lightyears. I was hit hard but not yet down. Rebuilt, regrouped and moved forward again. Life was helping me realize my dream again. Then like a bad storm, 2005 hit me slap in the face. Left with very little and a buring dream still not fulfilled. Its been years, stories, hopes, hard work and I am in my later fifties now. I have not giving up but the endless goals to reach my dream are showing its toll on me and my money stream. I have never once asked for money, nor have I asked for help from others out side of my mother (in her 80s now). I want to see my dream through to its highest potential. Any advise would be much needed and applied to my goal of realizing my dream. Thank you for your blog site and I have enjoyed your wisdom. Pama

September 30th, 2008 at 4:41 pm e
Pama said Please forgive me for all the misselled words and bad grammer, half thoughts. I was typing straight from my heart, not my mind. I knew if I stopped long enough to make the needed corrections I would chicken out and never hit the send Submit Button. Hope you understand, writing here is a huge step for me. Thanks again, Pama

military rose_from_geek_philosopher

Dear Pama,

I sit staring at the months-old blog post where you left this comment yesterday. I wish I knew more about your situation. I have many questions. I’ll simply respond this sentence that implies whether you should keep going on.

I have not giving up but the endless goals to reach my dream are showing its toll on me and my money stream.

Be certain that you’re not moving forward because you don’t want to give up. It’s human to hold onto a losing battle because we don’t want to think we lost. We put our head down and end up losing more because we don’t see that we’ve changed, the game has changed, and so has the world. So reevaluate before you keep go for that dream. Stop. Go somewhere. Sit on the side of a mountain. Think of life without it. Then if you go again, start from the beginning and know exactly what dream you’re going for.

That way you’ll be certain the dream is still out there. After all, once upon a time a boy could dream of leading a caravan across the desert. That choice has gone.

You’ve never asked for help. . . . why not?

Seeking knowledge and requesting someone’s aid in moving something forward is willingness to show a commitment to your dream and to yourself. Asking for help can be an investment in a relationship. It also allows the giver a chance to be generous and to contribute what they do far better than you ever will be able to do. Mostly importantly, it elevates your cause by allowing others to be part.

Asking for help is a sign of trust. Is your dream big enough to share? Can you trust folks to be part of your dream?

Those are my thoughts. I hope they’re even close to where you are.
I wish you hope, energy, and the wisdom you need.

Liz

If You’re Reading . . .

Please help me answer this man who has a dream. Add to my response or correct what I’ve gotten wrong.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Do You See Your Wallflower Self Wrong?

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Ever Seen One?

Yesterday at Brogan’s blog, Mark Hayward wrote a great post about being shy when attending conferences and other social situations. He called it Wallflower Syndrome.

Perhaps you’ve had some experience with that condition?
I have and still have moments when it returns. Truth is if I don’t plan well, a room filled with new people easily can shake my thinking.

I read what Mark wrote with interest and found a lot of what I do in his suggestions, but what surprised me what the photo that he chose to illustrate the feelings of wallflower-edness. He picked a sweet kitten in the grass.

Maybe that’s been part of the problem . . . I’ve been seeing the wallflower me all wrong.

Somehow I had this picture in my head that wallflowers were scraggly. dark green, barely surviving plant-like things. In my fish-eye imagination, a wallflower was a limp spinach mess with small wilted purple petals in a brown granny dress sitting in front of yellowing wallpaper.

How did I get that picture in my head?

Awkward and ugly was what wallflower always meant to me.

From junior high school school dances to certain networking events since,
that image of a spinach thing in a granny dress defined me the first second I felt shy or self-conscious in a group of more than three.

If I made the unfortunate mistake of walking near a wall, the game would soon before I could miss the thought of a wallflower and the image would make me feel even smaller.

Wallflower_from_sxc.hu

Then this morning, I saw this picture of a wallflower.

I’m feeling sort of duped and wondering . . .

I’m thinking that I’ve been seeing my wallflower self all wrong. I wonder whether you’ve been doing that?

What if I had seen myself as Mark’s kitten or known a wallflower could look like this one? Would shyness have been a different experience?

Do you suppose that could make a difference?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Open Up a World of Solutions with One Idea

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Mondays Are for Trying New Things

Change the World!

When I write something that moves me, when I smile at a worried over presentation, when I flesh out a particularly elegant idea, a high joy overflows my boundaries. I share that feeling with a friend who does the same when the joy of accomplishment is shining through her.

And when I’m overwhelmed with a problem or misstep, a bad hair day or a dark dead end. I dial through to that same friend again.

This time it’s not joy I’m sharing. It’s a state of confusion, a search for solutions, a total frustration with my inability to make things connect in the direction that was my intention.

The answer is get in return is always the same, “What would you say to someone else? You’d be brilliant, wouldn’t you? So go be brilliant for yourself.”

One idea: Be as brilliant for you as you would be for everyone else.

Every time I hear that, I shake my head in recognition. My outlook changes and a world of solutions opens up.

One idea. I’m learning to say it to myself.
I still call though because I like to hear her say it.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Change the World!.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.

What Determines a Creative Life? What Determines Success?

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Determination

“Square peg in a round hole.” That’s what people used to call it.

Even as a kid I knew it was a silly waste of time to put a square peg in a round hole. That was just plain common sense To make the peg fit, it wouldn’t be a square peg anymore. It would hurt the peg, and the hole wouldn’t like it.

What makes some people grow up to live highly creative lives? Is it in their genes — “the way the tree was bent”? Is a creative life determined by their experience?

Yet, what is astonishing is the great variety of paths that led to eminence. Csikszentmihalyi

Though the 91 creative people in the study that became the book, Creativity, had unique characteristics and traits that made them stand out. The life paths that led to their creative contribution were not particularly different from what you might find any group of 91 citizens.

  • Some were precocious. Some were prodigies. Some didn’t seem to stand out as children.
  • Some had serious hardship growing up. Some suffered the death of parents. Others had happy childhoods without incident.
  • Some were ignored. Some had guides and teachers who helped their development. Some had devastating experiences with mentors.
  • Some seemed to always know their calling. Some searched for years to find their path.
  • Some were noticed early. Some struggled for years to gain recognition.

Those same circumstances describe the people I call my friends, none of whom yet have changed the world through Creativity with a capital C.

 

It seems that the men and women we studied were not shaped once and for all, either by their genes or by the events of early life. . . . Instead of being shaped by events, they shaped events to suit their purposes. . . .

According to this view, a creative life is still determined, but what determines it is a will moving across time — the fierce determination to succeed, to make sense of the world, to use whatever means to unravel some of the mysteries of the universe. Csikszentmihalyi

 

Fierce determination to succeed.

Success doesn’t happen without giving ourselves over fully to what we’re pursuing. It’s not the barriers that stop us, it’s the way we respond to them.

If we’re determined, we maneuver over, under, around, or through them. It doesn’t matter how difficult the problem we stick with it until we innovate, create, or cobble together a solution that solves it.

ladder_over_wall_from_sxchu

Determination removes options other than success: We refuse to define our outcomes as:

  • the fault of our parents.
  • an imperfection in our environment.
  • the result of bad timing.
  • bad luck or bad karma.
  • something outside of us.

As determination to succeed is key to world-changing creativity, it seems to follow that determination and creativity are key to success.

How have determination and creativity contributed in your past success? What are you determined to accomplish now?

–ME “Liz” Strauss