Success Common Sense

Did you watch the Super Bowl yesterday?  About 100 million people did.  The game was entertaining and fun to watch.  New Orleans won 31 – 17.  Drew Brees, the Saints quarterback was the Most Valuable Player, and he endeared himself to the country by bringing his little boy – who was wearing noise reduction headphones – on to the field and carrying him around after the game.

I bring up the Super Bowl because you can learn a lot about branding from it.  If you notice in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, big box retailers suggest you buy a new, better TV to watch the “big game.”  Super markets and delis promote their party trays for the “big game.”  That’s because the Super Bowl is the crown jewel in the NFL’s brand; so much so that they’ve trademarked it.  If you want to use the words “Super Bowl” in your ads, you have to pay a fee to the NFL.  Coors Light did.  That’s why you saw so many Super Bowl themed Coors Light commercials these past few weeks.  Interestingly, Coors Light didn’t run one ad during the game.  M&Ms paid the royalty fee too.  I loved their ads with the M&M running on the conveyor belt in the super market.

The NFL works hard to protect their Super Bowl brand.  You should work hard to nurture, promote and protect your personal brand too.  Creating positive personal impact is one of the success competencies in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, I Want YOU…To Succeed, Star Power, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  Developing and nurturing your unique personal brand is the first step in creating positive personal impact.

I’m sure you know who I mean when I say Oprah, Michael, Shaq, Madonna and Bono.  These are people who are powerful brands.  However, personal brands aren’t just for athletes and celebrities.  All successful people create and nurture their own unique personal brand.  Your brand is how others think of you.  It is a combination of a lot of things – what you stand for, how you act, how you dress, your on line presence.  Nature abhors a vacuum.  If you don’t consciously create your brand, others will do it for you.

As you go about creating your personal brand, remember that a good brand will not appeal to everyone.  A brand that appeals to everybody is too vanilla.  You want a Cherry Garcia brand, something that is uniquely you.  A good brand will appeal to a lot of people, but it will also turn off a certain portion of the population.

Take my “Common Sense Guy” brand.  It appeals to a lot of people.  However, some people find “common sense” a little too pedestrian and “guy” a little too colloquial.  That’s OK.  Those folks probably aren’t real interested in what I have to say, and how I say it anyway.

There are two simple and common sense steps for creating a strong personal brand.

1. Decide how you want people to think of you.
2. Do whatever it takes to get them to think that way.

Once you choose your brand, stay on brand at all times.  Be consistent and constant.  Do whatever you can to reinforce your brand.  For example, all of my websites have the words “common sense” in them.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that I end every one of my blog posts with a paragraph that begins, “The common sense point here is…”  I avoid lengthy, complicated analyses.  I work hard to simplify the complex and provide simple, easy to implement advice to my coaching clients.  I use humor in my talks – and frequently pepper them with the words – “After all, it’s just common sense, right?” 

I work really hard to consistently and constantly present myself as someone who has common sense answers to everyday career and life success questions.  Later this year I have a book on teams and teamwork coming out.  It’s called Common Sense Ideas for Building a Dream Team.  See what I mean?

William Arruda, my friend and author of Career Distinction says it well…

“Be on brand in all that you do.  People with a strong personal brand ensure that everything they do and all that surrounds them communicates their brand message.” 

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people create positive personal impact.  Developing and nurturing your unique personal brand is the first step in building your brand.  Brand building takes work, but it is simple conceptually.  Do two things.  First, decide how you want people to think of you.  Then do whatever it takes to get them to think of you that way.  Your brand is important and, just like the NFL, you should do everything you can to protect it and build it.

That’s my take on the super Bowl and personal branding.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Self confidence is one of the four pillars of career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Star Power; I Want You…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  If you want to become interpersonally competent, you need to do three things: 1) become an optimist; 2) face your fears and act; 3) Surround yourself with positive people.

A while back in a post I did on optimism and self confidence, I mentioned a quote in which a guy by the name of Ambrose Bierce bashed optimism.  “The doctrine that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong… It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.”

The other day, I came across another quote from Mr. Bierce, “Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.”  I found these quote to be really cynical, so I decided to learn something about Ambrose Bierce.  As it turns out, he was called “Bitter Bierce” by his contemporaries.  And I can see why.  First he bashes optimism, then he suggests that human beings see the good fortune of others as a personal calamity. 

Ambrose Bierce is an interesting character.  He was born in 1842, and served in the Union Army during the Civil War.  No one knows for sure, but it is thought that he died in 1914.  In 1913, he traveled to Mexico to observe firsthand the revolution going on there. 

He joined Pancho Villa’s army in Juarez.  On December 26 1913, he posted a letter to a friend from the city of Chihuahua.  That was his last correspondence.  Wikipedia says, “Several writers have speculated that he headed north to the Grand Canyon, found a remote spot there and shot himself, though no evidence exists to support this view. All investigations into his fate have proved fruitless, and despite an abundance of theories his end remains shrouded in mystery. The date of his death is generally cited as ‘1914?’”.  His disappearance is one of the most famous in American literary history.

In 1906 he published “The Cynic’s Word Book”, later to become known as “The Devil’s Dictionary”.   It is a book of satirical definitions of English words.  Ambrose was clever, I’ll give him that.  I often see quotes from this book online, including the one that inspired today’s post, “Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.”

But I digress.  I wish he were around today, because I would like to ask him where he got his bleak view of human nature.  He defines politeness as, “The most acceptable hypocrisy.”  In another quote, he defines perseverance as, “A lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.”

Do you know any people like Ambrose Bierce?  If you do, hold them at arm’s length.  While you may find them to be witty and entertaining at first, they will drag you down in the long run.

People like Ambrose Bierce may be clever, but their views are incompatible with becoming self confident.  Self confident people look for, and usually find, the best in others.  They are polite because it is the best way to build strong relationships.  They are willing to extend themselves to help others, even when they can see no immediate return to them for so doing.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I am a big fan of The Optimist Creed.  Point 6 says,

“Promise yourself to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are of your own.”

This is 180 degrees from the Ambrose Bierce quote that I cited at the beginning of this post and from his life view in general.  Self confident, optimistic people aren’t jealous or upset by the success of others.  They are genuinely pleased when they see others succeed.  They use others’ success as an inspiration.  They use it to motivate themselves to achieve bigger and better successes.

If you would like a copy of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your workspace, go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.

The common sense point here is clear.  Successful people are self confident and interpersonally competent.  Self confident and interpersonally competent people build strong relationships with the people around them.  In part, they build these relationships by being genuinely pleased about the success of others.  They are not jealous, nor petty.  They are happy to see others succeed.  Self confident and interpersonally competent people use the success of others to motivate themselves to greater success.

That’s my take on Ambrose Bierce, self confidence and interpersonal competence and how one reacts to the success of others.  What’s yours?  Please leave a quote sharing your thoughts on these ideas.  As always, thanks for reading – and writing.

Bud

The other day, I was at a workshop and one of the speakers was clearly nervous.  He began his talk by telling the old story about the survey that asked people to name their greatest fear.  Public speaking came in first, by a large margin.  Death was fourth.  So, if you believe the results of this survey, most people would rather die than stand up and give a talk.  He was one of them.  He urged us to be kind to him because he was nervous doing this talk.

He was suffering from what is known by a number of names: presentation anxiety, stage fright, the jitters.  Whatever you call it presentation anxiety can be the death knell for an otherwise great talk. We all get nervous before a talk, but being nervous doesn’t have to mean you’ll do a bad talk.   Presentation anxiety is a response to fear of doing a poor talk.  It shows ups in a number of ways: blushing, shaking stuttering, preparing.  At its worst, it will lead you to feel as if you’re not making sense, or worse yet, to lose the thread of your talk.

Presentation skills are one of the three communication skills that are part of my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss them in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Star Power; I Want YOU…To Succeed; Your Success GPS; 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.

I make speeches for a living, and I get nervous before every one of them.  In fact, if I’m not a little nervous, I start to worry that I will be flat and deliver an unenthusiastic talk. Over the years, I’ve developed a few tricks that I use to calm my nerves before a big presentation and make them work for, not against me.  Check them out…

Practice your talk out loud. This will help you get comfortable with your material and your delivery.

Think good thoughts.  Imagine yourself succeeding beyond your wildest dreams.  Imagine that you will get a standing ovation for your talk.  This is what visualization is all about.

Get there early. In this way, you’ll be able to set up your computer and run through your slides one last time.

Greet people as they arrive; exchange a few words with them. This will help you make a good first impression with members of the audience. It will also help you get control of your nerves, because you’ll feel more comfortable speaking to a group of people you know rather than a group of strangers.

Take a deep breath before you begin.  This will calm you, help center you and give you enough air to get through your opening.

Move. When you begin your presentation, move around. Use body movement to help release some of your nervous energy. Don’t get trapped behind the podium.  It can inhibit you from releasing your energy.

Just chat with the audience. Think of your presentation as a conversation. There might be 10, or 25, or 100 people in your audience. But in terms of real communication, there are only two people in the room: you and a single listener.

Tell stories to illustrate your main points.  People like listening to stories and they tend to remember points illustrated by stories.

Ask questions during your talk. This will help you build a dialogue and a participatory feeling. I try to make at least one quarter and as much as one half of my talk a discussion with the audience. In this way, it’s less of a speech and more of an expanded conversation with every person in the room.

Don’t worry if you make a mistake.  To begin with, most people won’t realize that you made a mistake.  Second, realize the audience is with you.  They’ve all been there and know that presenting can be nerve wracking.  Most people in the audience will be pulling for you to do a good job. 

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are dynamic communicators.  Presentations are opportunities to shine – to demonstrate that you are a dynamic communicator.  Stage fright is the biggest enemy of presentation success.  Don’t let stage fright rob you of your opportunity to shine.  One good presentation can make a career.  Presentations are the best ways to get noticed and have your name at the top of the list when promotional opportunities come up.  There are several ways to deal with presentation anxiety: be prepared, know your stuff cold; think of your talk as a conversation with the audience; tell stories to illustrate your points.    However, there is one piece of advice that trumps all when it comes to delivering dynamic presentations: practice, practice, practice! 

That’s my take on dealing with stage fright.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Yesterday I wrote a post in which I quoted George Bernard Shaw, my favorite playwright.  I showed how his words related to two of the four pillars of my Common Sense Success System: clarity of purpose and direction, and commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and success. 

After I wrote the post, I came across a Japanese proverb…

Vision without action is a daydream.
Action without vision is a nightmare.

“Great,” I thought.  “Another twofer.”  And a twofer on the same two pillars – clarity and commitment. 

“Vision without action is a daydream” goes to the heart of commitment.   No matter how big your plans, thoughts and dreams, they’ll never become a reality until you act on them.  You have to commit to taking personal responsibility for creating the successful life and career you want and deserve.  And action is the single most important word when it comes to demonstrating your commitment.

On the other hand, action without vision truly is a nightmare.  You’ll never get where you want to go if you don’t have a clear idea of exactly what you want to achieve.  I call this clarity of purpose and direction.  Think of your purpose is your mission in life – why you exist, why you are on this world.  Think of your direction as your vision for the next five years; that big hairy audacious goal you are going to accomplish.  Your mission and vision, your purpose and direction shape your actions.  When you act in accordance with them, you’ll avoid the nightmares that come from unfocused action.

I talk about this stuff and the other two pillars of my Common Sense Success System in much more detail in my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I Want YOU…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  You can read more about these ideas in any one of these books.  My daily podcasts at www.CareerSuccess.mypodcast.com also provide information you might find useful.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people have a clearly defined purpose and direction for their lives.  They also commit to taking personal responsibility for their lives and careers.  To develop your clarity of purpose and direction, you need to do three things.  First, define what success means to you personally.  Second, create a vivid mental image of you as a success.  This image should be as vivid as you can you make it.  Third, clarify your personal values.   You demonstrate your commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career by doing three things.  First, take personal responsibility for your success.  Only you can make you a success.  You must be willing to do the things necessary to succeed.  Second, set high goals — and then do whatever it takes to achieve them.   Third, stuff happens; as you go through life you will encounter many problems and setbacks.  You need to react positively to the negative stuff and move forward toward your goals.  Getting clear and getting committed are the starting points for creating the successful life and career you want and deserve.

That’s my take on clarity and commitment.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Yesterday, I quoted George Bernard Shaw in my post.  He is one of my very favorite playwrights.  I always enjoy a production of one of his plays.  Today, I’d like to quote him again, as he makes such a great point about how important a personal clarity of purpose and direction is to your career and life success.

“This is the true joy in life; being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

He’s talking about two things here: accomplishing a lot – being a “force of nature,” and more important, having a mighty purpose to direct that force.  Clarity of purpose and direction is one of the four keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS, I Want You…to Succeed, Star Power,  and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  You can develop your clarity of purpose by doing three things.  First, define what success means to you personally.  Second, create a vivid mental image of you as a success.  This image should be as vivid as you can you make it.  Third, clarify your personal values.

Your clarity of purpose and direction provides your foundation.  From it, you can build the successful life and career that you want and deserve.  The more clear, and the more mighty your purpose and direction, the stronger your foundation.

I’m a sixties guy.  After all these years, my favorite recording artist is still Bob Dylan.  My favorite Dylan song is “Forever Young.”  He rerecorded and rereleased it recently.  Pepsi has picked it up and is using it in its ads that run on NFL games.  I used one of the lines from it to introduce my bestselling book Straight Talk for Success – “May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung.”

Check out some of the other lyrics…

“May your hands always be busy.
May your feet always  be swift.
May have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.”

By now you may be saying, “Get to the point, Bud.”  So I will.  You can begin your success journey by clarifying your purpose in life.  Why are you on this earth?  What are you meant to do?  I believe that the more mighty this purpose, the more you are likely to succeed.  A mighty purpose gives you that strong foundation “when the winds of changes shift.” 

I’m here to help other people succeed in realizing their purpose.  I think this is a pretty mighty purpose.  I may help someone who someday may become President, or a Supreme Court Justice, or find a cure for cancer, or just be a loving and caring parent.  This purpose anchors me.  It keeps me going when I get frustrated, or when I feel like quitting, or when I feel that I can be “good enough,” not great.

Commitment to taking personal responsibility for you career and life success is another of the four points in my Common Sense Success System.  And, it’s what Bernard Shaw is talking about when he says “being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”  Man, that guy could write – “selfish little clod of ailments and grievances” – that’s really turning a phrase.  What he means is take personal responsibility – commit to it.  Yeah, stuff happens as you go through life.  Some of this stuff is frustrating and can piss you off.  But successful people react to the frustrating stuff by choosing to react positively.  They learn what they can from difficult situations and people and go on to bigger and better things.  They are not “selfish little clod of ailments and grievances.”

In most posts, I usually discuss only one of the four pillars of my Common Sense Success System.  You got a twofer today.  I was able to hit on Clarity and Commitment in one post, just by discussing one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite writers.

The common sense point here is simple.  Success is built on four pillars; clarity of purpose and direction, a sincere commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career, unshakeable self confidence and competence in a few key areas.  George Bernard Shaw’s quote on being used for a mighty purpose gets at the ideas behind developing your clarity of purpose and direction – and the importance of taking personal responsibility for your life and career.  If you want to succeed, start by determining why you are on this earth, and then devote yourself to living that purpose every single day of your life.

That’s my take on George Bernard Shaw, a mighty purpose and not being a selfish little clod of ailments.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

The other day I saw a great quote from Margaret Thatcher…

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.”

Ole’ Iron Maggie really nailed it with this one.  I like this quote because it gets at the essence of commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career.  Commitment to personal responsibility is one of the four pillars of my Common Sense Success System.   I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I want YOU…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart your Professional Success. 

You demonstrate your commitment – to yourself and to the world — by doing three things.  First, take personal responsibility for your success.  Only you can make you a success.  You must be willing to do the things necessary to succeed.  Second, set high goals — and then do whatever it takes to achieve them.   Third, stuff happens; as you go through life you will encounter many problems and setbacks.  You need to react positively to the negative stuff and move forward toward your goals.

Those days in which you have a lot to do, and you get it all done, are not only satisfying they demonstrate your commitment to your success, and help strengthen that commitment.  I’m writing this on a plane on Friday night.  It’s about 8:00 in the evening.  I’ve been up since 5:00 because I needed to finish an important project for a client before I attended an all day workshop with Russell Brunson, my internet marketing mentor and business partner.  I’ve had a full, but very satisfying, day.  And, as Ms. Thatcher points out, one in which I feel a sense of supreme satisfaction.  I’ve demonstrated to myself that I’m willing to do the things necessary to succeed.

On the other hand, I had a bout with the flu earlier this week.  It left me feeling weak and tired.  I spent all of Monday afternoon and a good part of Tuesday morning in bed.  It couldn’t be helped.  I needed to get my strength back.  By Tuesday afternoon, I was feeling physically better, but emotionally drained.  I felt as if I hadn’t moved forward toward my goals.  I didn’t get anything done for about 24 hours – and I hated it. 

I find that I agree not only with Maggie Thatcher, but with George Bernard Shaw, my favorite playwright…

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.  I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

I know that I want my life to be a splendid torch that burns long and brightly.  How about you?  Do you revel in hard work and accomplishing everything you can?  Or do you prefer those days Maggie Thatcher describes as one in which you “lounge around doing nothing”?

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for the creating the successful life and career they want and deserve.  They set high goals – and do whatever it takes to accomplish them.  They react positively to the people and events in their lives – especially the negative people and events.  They relish the days when they have a lot to do, and then go on and do it.  They get great satisfaction from working hard and seeing the results of their labor.  When was the last day when you were truly busy? How did you feel at the end of it?  If you’re an achiever – someone who is committed to your career and life success, I bet you felt exhilarated and ready to go the next day.  That’s how I felt after a very long day last Friday.

That’s my take on feeling good about putting in the time and effort necessary to succeed in your life and career.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

This week in Sue Shellenbarger had an interesting column in the Wall Street Journal called “Thinking Happy Thoughts at Work.”  The column focused on the application of recent research in positive psychology in the workplace. Put simply, positive psychology emphasizes building resiliency and positive attitudes instead of solving emotional problems. 

This is an approach whose time may have come.  The latest Conference Board survey shows that 45% of US workers are satisfied with their jobs, down from 52% in 2005 and 61% in 1987.  In my coaching practice, I’m finding that many people are unhappy with their jobs, while at the same time, they are afraid of losing them. 

To my way of thinking, a lot of this angst is the result of a lack of confidence.  Self confidence is one of the four keys to personal and professional success that I describe in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I want YOU…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success. 

Here are some of my best tips for building your self confidence…

First, become an optimist. Learn from, and then forget yesterday’s mistakes.  Focus on tomorrow’s achievements.  Optimists believe that today will be better than yesterday and that tomorrow will be better than today.  Optimism is powerful.  That’s why I love The Optimist Creed.

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself:

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

If you want a copy of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your office go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist.

Second, face your fears and take action.  Action cures fear.  Procrastination and inaction compound it.  I find that procrastination is the manifestation of fear.  When you find yourself procrastinating ask yourself what scares you about the situation.  Once you identify admit and embrace your fear, you’ll be able to do something that will help you move past it.

And you’ll find that failure is rarely fatal.  Do something, anything that will move you closer to achieving your goals.  Thomas Edison always said that he knew thousands of ways of how not to make a light bulb – meaning he failed a lot in his efforts to create a light powered by electricity.  He persisted and went on to found General Electric. 

Third, surround yourself with positive people.  Build a network of supportive friends.  Jettison the negative people in your life.  Hang around with positive people; people who are upbeat about life and where they are going.  Optimistic, positive people are contagious.  Their enthusiasm will infect you and get you moving in the right direction.  On the other hand, negative and cynical people are also contagious.  They will infect you too – but with a malaise that can kill your confidence.

Fourth, find a mentor.  A strong mentor will help build your confidence and guide you along the way.  Mentors are positive people by definition – because they are willing to share their knowledge and experience to help others grow and succeed.  No one can go it completely alone.  That’s why you need to find a mentor and learn everything you can from him or her.

Finally, become a mentor.  It’s never too early to begin helping others.  You have learned things that can greatly benefit others.  Be willing to share what you’ve learned to help others from having to learn it the hard way – through personal experience.  And, you never learn something as well as when you teach it.  By helping others, you’ll be helping yourself learn and grow.

Back to the WSJ article.  Ms. Shellenbarger ends by quoting Marshall Goldsmith, one of the most well known and respected executive coaches around.  He advises us to “find a positive spirit toward what you are doing now, that starts from within.”  To me this is just common sense.   You can build a positive spirit by becoming more self confident.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  Self confident people are optimists.  They face their fears and act.  They surround themselves with positive people.  They find mentors to help them learn and grow.  They mentor others.  If you begin incorporating these five things into your life, you’ll become more self confident, you will be happier in you work and your life and you’ll be on your way to creating the successful life and career you want and deserve.

That’s my take on positive psychology and self confidence.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute and leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

I am The Common Sense Guy.  My tag line is, “Helping individuals, teams and entire organizations succeed by applying their common sense.”  That’s why my ears perked up when I heard President Obama say the words “common sense” in the State of the Union address last night.  He said, “Let’s try common sense – a novel concept.”  Common sense is not a novel concept, but it is one that is often misunderstood.  

In the Introduction to my forthcoming book, Common Sense Ideas for Building a Dream Team, I say… 

“We are all born with five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.  These senses help us navigate our way through the world.  They bring us delight in small things: the turning of the leaves in autumn, an Eric Clapton guitar lick – or depending on your taste, a Yitzhak Perlman violin piece; the warmth of the sun on your face on the first day of spring, your favorite birthday dinner that your mom always made, the smell of warm bread baking.  They also warn us when danger threatens: lightning in the sky, a police or fire siren, a hot barbeque grill, food that is spoiled and not safe to eat, the odor that is added to natural gas.

“However, I believe that we all have a sixth, and underused sense, our common sense.  Your common sense helps you make the right decision in ambiguous situations – but only if you use it.  When I tell people that I’m the Common Sense Guy, they often come back with the old saying, ‘Common sense isn’t all that common.’  I disagree.  I think that we all have innate common sense.  It’s a natural gift, just like our five other senses.  I think common sense is very common.  What’s uncommon is our lack of willingness to use it.

“Noetics is emerging science.  The word ‘noetic’ comes from the ancient Greek nous.  It refers to ‘inner knowing,’ a kind of intuitive knowledge beyond what is available to our normal senses.  Noetics is the exploration of the nature and potentials of consciousness using multiple ways of knowing — including intuition, feeling, reason, and the senses.  Common sense is a type of noetics.  It is an inner knowing of what to do in any given situation.

“Thomas Edison once said ‘Many people miss opportunity because it comes dressed up in overalls and looks like work.’  I believe that most people know what to do in most situations, their common sense tells them.  However, many people often don’t do what their common sense says for a number of reasons… ‘it’s too difficult and not worth the effort,’ ‘it takes too much time,’ ‘so and so might get upset with me,’ ‘I don’t know if I can do it.’  I’ve found that there are as many reasons for not using your common sense as there are people in the world.”  

In the case of politicians, the reason for not doing the common sense thing is usually rooted in their need to get reelected – not wanting to anger the voters back home, or the lobbyists who make big campaign contributions.

This isn’t a political blog, so I’m not going to comment on what President Obama implied is a lack of common sense in government.  It is a career and life success blog however, so I will comment on how common sense should be your guiding light when it comes to creating the successful life and career you want and deserve.  My Common Sense Success System is built on four common sense success principles: 1) clarity of purpose and direction; 2) a sincere commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career; 3) unshakeable self confidence; and 4) competence in several key skills.  I discuss these ideas in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I Want YOU…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success. 

If you want to succeed, you need to apply these four common sense principles in your daily life. You need to use, not deny your common sense.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people embrace and use their common sense.  They apply four key common success principles: 1) clarity of purpose and direction; 2) a sincere commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career; 3) unshakeable self confidence; and 4) competence in several key skills.  In the State of the Union address, President Obama called common sense a novel concept.  It may be.  However, if you are serious about creating the successful life and career you want and deserve, you will embrace your common sense.  You’ll apply your inner knowing of what to do to when it comes to succeeding in this life and in your career.

That’s my take on common sense and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

New Orleans was jumping on Sunday.  The Saints beat the Vikings to get into the Super Bowl.  I read that during the game 80% of the televisions in New Orleans that were turned on during the game were tuned to the game.  That’s an amazing number.  This is the first time the Saints are in the Super Bowl in their history.  They began playing in the NFL in 1967.  That’s a long time to wait for a chance at the championship.  Ironically, many Super Bowls have been played in New Orleans, the Saints just haven’t played in them.  I was at the Denver Broncos first appearance in the Super Bowl in January 1978.  It was played at, you guessed it, the New Orleans Superdome.

The party began in the Superdome as soon as the game was over and continued long into the night in New Orleans.  There was one story about all the partying that really caught my attention.  Sean Payton, the Saint’s Coach mentioned that his young son was worried that they wouldn’t be able to have their post game catch because the stadium floor was covered in confetti. 

I thought this was touching, but I also thought it reinforced one of the points I make about creating the successful life and career you deserve – clarify your purpose and direction in this life.  Sean Payton’s son is a little guy.  Right now, his purpose in life is to enjoy playing with his dad.  By the way, they did have that game of catch, confetti and all.  Young Mr. Payton was staying true to his purpose.  He wanted to be able to continue his ritual with his dad.  A successful day at the stadium meant playing catch with his father after the game was over.  It didn’t matter that this was the biggest game his dad had coached to date.

Clarity of purpose and direction is one of the four keys to career and life success that make up my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I want YOU…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  To develop your personal clarity of purpose you need to do three things.  First, define what success means to you.  Second, create a vivid mental image of you as a success.  This image should be as vivid as you can you make it.  Third, clarify your personal values.

When I speak about clarity of purpose and direction people often ask me how this ties into things like a personal mission or vision.  Here is what I tell them….

Think of your purpose as your mission in life as your reason for existing – why you are on this earth.  My mission is helping other people create the successful life and career they want and deserve.

Think of your direction as your vision for where you are going in the next five or so years.  My current vision is to use the internet and emerging technologies to being my common sense message about career and life success to as many people as possible.

Get it? 

Purpose = Mission

Direction = Vision

Your personal vision needs to be aligned with your mission.  Your goals should flow from your vision.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people clarify their purpose and direction in life.  Your purpose is your mission – why you exist.  Your direction is your vision – where you are going in the short term.  New Orleans Saints head coach, Shawn Payton’s son has a simple purpose in life – to spend as much fun time with his father as he can.  That’s why he worried that he wouldn’t be able to have his post game catch with him last Sunday – because the field was covered in confetti.  What is your mission in life?  What is your vision for the next five years?  If your answer is, “I don’t know,” please take some time to answer these questions.  These answers provide you with your clarity of purpose and direction – a foundation on which you can build to create the successful life and career you want and deserve.

That’s my take on clarity of purpose and direction.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Self confidence is one of the keys to personal and professional success that is part of my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I Want YOU…To Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart your Professional Success. 

You can become self confident by doing three things.  First, choose optimism.  Believe in your heart of hearts that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better than today.  Second, face your fears and act.  Procrastination and inaction feed fear and rob you of self confidence.  Action cures fear.  Third, surround yourself with positive people.  Don’t let the naysayers into your life.  Hang around with people who are positive about themselves, their careers and life in general.

I have learned that self confidence is an upward spiral.  Self confidence leads to professional success, which in turn leads to increased self confidence, which leads to higher levels of success, and so on.

You might be saying, “That’s great, but how do I become self confident if I’m new in my job or career and haven’t had a lot of success to bolster my self confidence?”  There’s an old saying that applies here: “Fake it till you make it.” In other words, act as if you’re successful. This will help you succeed. Your success will help you build your self confidence.

How, do you “fake it, will you make it?”  Begin with affirmations. If you’re in a new job, tell yourself something like, “I have the skills and desire to succeed in this job,” several times a day. If you repeat this to yourself often enough, you will begin to believe it. This will help you perform at the level necessary in order to actually succeed in your job.

Affirmations are positive self talk. The idea behind affirmations is that when you think of the things to which you aspire, like becoming a success, and then tell yourself that you are a professional success, you will believe that you can become successful. More importantly, you will be more likely to do the work it takes to make that aspiration come true.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a book called Star Power, Common Sense ideas for Career and Life Success. I used a star to depict this model. I urged readers to think of themselves as a star and to aspire to becoming a career and life star. I like the star metaphor. Daily, I repeat the following affirmation to myself: “Bud Bilanich is a star.”

I’ve done a lot of working in making this affirmation a reality – redoing my website, developing better promotional materials, speaking, writing books, blogging.

I’ve also done something a little unusual. A few years ago, right after Star Power was published, I went to the “Name a Star” website and named a star after myself. Now I can say “Bud Bilanich is a star” and really believe it, because Bud Bilanich really is a star.

Bud Bilanich the star, is Catalog Number TYC  868-1011-1 in the constellation Leo. Bud Bilanich has a Visual Magnitude indicator of 11.2. Right Ascension is 11h 58m 21s. Declination is 11degrees, 43,’18.”

I don’t have a clue what all of these things mean, except the constellation Leo, which I chose because my birthday is August 14. But I do know one thing. Bud Bilanich is a star!

How’s that for an affirmation?

Affirmations work. I have become a minor star in the career and life success world.  You don’t need to go to the lengths I did to make them work either. Just decide what you want, visualize yourself as having it, and tell yourself you have it. Then do whatever it takes to make your affirmation come true.

Affirmations alone, however, are not enough to guarantee your professional success. You have to do the work. Spend the time necessary to accomplish your goals. Volunteer for projects that will get you noticed. Become an expert on your company, its competitors, and your industry. In other words, bust your butt, and you will succeed.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  If you want to become self confident, you need to become an optimist, face your fears and act and hang around with self confident people.  Your self confidence will improve as you build a successful life and career. The self confidence => success =>self confidence cycle is an upward spiral. You have to enter the cycle somewhere. Most of us don’t have a strong track record as we begin our careers, move into a new job, or start a business. Therefore, you have to “fake it till you make it” by “acting as if” you are a success.  Find ways to bolster your self confidence until you have some real successes on which you can build.  Affirmations are a great tool for helping you “fake it till you make it.”

That’s my take on self confidence and faking it till you make it.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud