by Bruce Kasanoff
Every year, I update and republish this list of proven suggestions. I'd like to ask you a favor: if one or two of these suggestions especially resonate with you, could you please leave that number in the comments? I'll use your feedback to guide topics I write about in future issues.
Here we go...
1. Every time you interact with another person, make a conscious decision about the energy you wish to bring (i.e. positive, uplifting, supportive…).
2. Give other people clues that you are really listening: nod, ask questions, repeat what they said.
3. When you help others, you are demonstrating the kind of person you are, and you are creating the kind of world in which you want to live.
4. Day after day, be a little bit kinder and a tad wiser than you were the day before.
5. Always be yourself, unless you are a self-absorbed and self-centered person. In that case, act like someone else for a change.
6. Be as kind to others as you are to a puppy, and as respectful as you are to your boss.
7. If you can read and write, you can help someone land a job and a measure of self-sufficiency.
8. Be happy now. Don’t wait for {insert event} to happen.
9. Don't try to teach a starving person how to fish. First, give them a fish. Teach them how to fish when the pressure to eat is gone.
10. When you consider whether you have yet lived up to your potential, ask whether there is more you could be doing to help others in this world.
11. The more energy and focus you devote to the present moment, the better your life will be.
12. If you know a colleague is under pressure to wrap up a special project, provide something that will help him or her do this.
13. Once fear takes over, you can get stuck in a very bad place. You say things that don't make any sense, and you don't think straight. Don't allow fear to control you. Meditate, exercise, seek help and... help others. (When you can't help yourself, helping others will give your spirits a boost and demonstrate that you can make a difference.)
14. Intelligence is not only having something of value to say to others, but also knowing what to say differently to each person.
15. People are at the core of all business and life. Not technology. Not financials. People.
16. How do you get a terrified person to safety? First, prove they can trust you. Then break their challenge down into small pieces, and prove they can handle it.
17. The best way to capture someone's attention is to ask them a question they are interested in answering.
18. You can make others feel trusted, valuable and important by taking your time to listen to them and repeat accurately what you heard them say.
19. Beware of advice from - and actions by - people who are rewarded for certain outcomes that may be in conflict with your best interests.
20. Your environment always wins. Sometimes when you step back, you realize that you are spending time in the wrong places, hanging out with the wrong people, eating the wrong foods, living the wrong schedule, and pursuing the wrong goals. To change your results, start by changing your environment.
21. The timing of your words can be more important than your words. When you choose to communicate often outweighs the words themselves. Pick the right time to say what needs to be said.
22. It doesn't matter if you have the best ideas in the world; if you can't express them clearly, no one will ever understand your insights.
23. Imagine yourself near the end of your life, in a rocking chair on the porch. Ask yourself, "Will I sit in that chair and be glad that I (spent 60 hours a week in the accounting department)?
24. Don't lecture an entry-level person on what it takes to be a leader; don't bog your CEO down in details she doesn't need to know.
25. What do you love so much that you'd gladly do it all week and happily skip the weekend to keep doing it? Build your career around your answer.
26. The most attractive thing in the world is a human being who is completely comfortable in his or her own skin. Aim to become one of those people.
27. Be coherent. If you really want to live by the water, don't go looking at houses that are three miles away.
28. Most people have inflated opinions of themselves. Force yourself to adopt objective metrics for assessing yourself.
29. The more you value the differences that make each of us unique, the more you will bring out the best in both yourself and others.
30. The more volatile the times, the more essential it is to keep your options open. In risky times, you need more options, not less.
31. Smart people compromise - it is that simple. The more you feel it must be your way... the greater the odds that your way will end badly.
32. Our world has become too complex for one idea or set of principles to work every time. You need blended solutions that take into account a range of diverse ideas and beliefs.
33. We are only human, and we make mistakes. We see the world through our own biases and preconceptions; that is not going to change. Let's all be a bit more humble and open-minded.
34. Never stop challenging the ideas you love best, otherwise they may someday become the ideas that lead to your downfall.
35. Humans are inclined to act like the people around us. Be strong enough to resist this temptation if you suspect your friends and neighbors are wrong.
36. If you say what you want—again and again, both in words to others and in thoughts within your head—eventually you will get it.
37. It's always sunny. The only question is how high you have to go.
38. Most people are ridiculously oversensitive to losses, financial or otherwise. If this is true of you, recognize that this is irrational, and just try again.
39. Keep the people who don't work from slowing down your efforts to accomplish great things.
40. If you have boundless initiative, learn to be patient. If you have infinite patience, learn to take action. You will need both.
41. Do something 21 times, and it becomes a habit. Do it 210 times, and you become "lucky" to be so successful, healthy and...
42. While "the price of admission" for a job that you love may make you swallow hard, dig deep and pay it.
43. Be as persistent at helping others as you are at getting what you want.
44. The first rule of understanding others is that every human being is complicated. You need to look beyond the surface.
45. Hear what people say before you translate their message into your own worldview.
46. If a person is too selfish, nasty or scary for you to help... at the very least do your best not to hurt them.
47. The better able you are to set your own thoughts aside, the better you will be able to manage them when you turn back to them.
48. Peace in you = peace in the world.
49. Draw a circle five miles in diameter around your home. How many people desperately need help that you have the potential to provide them?
50. Create your own reality or someone else will create it for you. The greater your efforts to choose positive energy, the more of your life will be filled with positive energy.
You probably know this already, but I'm Bruce Kasanoff and my mission is to help people like you never forget what matters most to you.
If you liked this newsletter, please share it with others. If I can be of service, please let me know.
P.S. Spread love, kindness and compassion.