Jolt!, Phil Cooke [reading women txt] 📗

more you travel beyond the city limits, the more you’ll sound simply out of place. Talking like a cast member of The Sopranos may be desirable in parts of New Jersey, but in parts of Texas you could be shot on sight.

Proper grammar is another basic issue that frightfully few take the time to fix. If you want to increase your value and perception in the eyes of other people, never open your mouth unless you’re speaking standard English and using grammatically correct sentences. Remember that, in most business situations, your speaking voice and writing abilities are your most important communication tools; therefore, poor grammar muddles up your meaning.

No matter how old you are, it’s never too late to improve your communication abilities. A quarterback wouldn’t neglect his passing skills, because that’s often the key to his success. In the same way, your brilliance and business expertise will never be known or understood if you can’t express those ideas clearly and accurately.

Appropriate Behavior

Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country, as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court.

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Knowing instinctively how to act in a variety of situations is a critical element to improving perception. Some football coaches are brilliant on the field, but at a dinner party they become bumbling fools. In the same way, I’ve met doctors who are internationally known for their medical skills in the operating room but act ignorant and uncouth in other situations. Learn to become comfortable in a wide variety of circumstances, and your chances of success are greatly improved.

At a board meeting, a formal dinner party, a local football game, or church, in a casual social situation or on a business trip, does your behavior reflect the level of success you’re working toward? And please don’t think the value of perception is the ability to hide the fact that, in reality, you are unethical or dishonest. Ethical and moral behavior matters. It creates trust, loyalty, and integrity, and when damaged, reputations are tough and often impossible to rebuild.

Everything communicates.

—BRAD ABARE, BRANDING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTANT

Start today recognizing opportunities to jolt your perception in the eyes of your superiors, your customers, and your associates. A business genius who neglects the value of perception risks appearing to others as simply average, or worse, a fool. On the other hand, even a relative novice in business and leadership skills can dramatically improve his standing among his associates through an investment in the art of perception.

Who you are is important, and so is the impact of how you are perceived.

» JOLT #19

CHANGE YOUR THINKING

AND CHANGE YOUR FUTURE

The Incredible Influence of Your Thought Life

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.

—ALBERT EINSTEIN, PHYSICIST

Elevate your thinking, and you elevate your life.

—KEITH CRAFT, LEADERSHIPOLOGY.COM

Real positive thinking isn’t empty platitudes or “wishful” dreaming. It’s not a shallow attempt at getting employees motivated to do their best, or something only stupid people follow. Yes, that type of positive thinking is out there. You most often see it on posters with beautiful landscapes with cute little quotes in the corner, or engraved on plaques hanging on the wall of office cubicles.

A motivational speaker makes you feel good, but the next day you don’t know why.

—JOHN MAXWELL, LEADERSHIP EXPERT, AUTHOR, AND SPEAKER

Shallow attempts at “positive thinking” drive me nuts. But when you get past that surface level of motivation (or pseudomotivation), you discover that real positive thinking affects the core of your being. How you think determines your outlook, your attitude, your persistence, and your approach. It changes your perspective on life and therefore can literally change the outcome of your situation.

Thinking determines action. In fact, one of the most fascinating elements of the teachings of Jesus Christ is the link between thought and action. When Jesus taught two thousand years ago, one of his greatest challenges was from religious leaders who acted piously on the outside but were dark and evil on the inside. He taught that you don’t just commit a sin by actually physically doing the act, but you can also commit the sin just by thinking about it: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27–28 nkjv).

Was Jesus some type of cosmic killjoy who wanted to ruin our appreciation of beautiful women? Didn’t he understand that it’s a natural thing for men to look?

Actually, more than any person in history, Jesus understood life and how we live it. Remember, he turned water into wine at a marriage feast to save the day—so he certainly wasn’t a prude. But Jesus understood the power of our minds. He knew that what we think can easily turn into action, so he was simply warning us about the power of our thoughts and how they can either make us better or destroy us.

Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.

—HENRY FORD

Obviously, our minds can’t do the impossible. There have been false religious systems created on the idea that our thoughts can do anything, and that idea simply isn’t realistic or possible.

Sadly, there are always people who are gullible and tend toward the extreme in just about anything. But aside from the fringe, the fact is that there is enormous power in the way we think and what we think about.

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.

—SIR WILLIAM BRAGG, NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS, 1915

I’ve discovered in my consulting work with organizations that my first great challenge is always to change people’s thinking. We can change the company’s direction, the mission