The following points are the insights that a friend of mine and I have learned from this book.

Our intention is to share this to increase your awareness and hopefully improve your life. However, please be critical and aware that some of these insights may or may not be practical for our lives, please use your professional judgement when thinking of implementing the ideas talked about here:

1. Focus In The Moment!

• Present Moment: Be here in the present, focus on what is here now
• LOOK FORWARD TO THE PRESENT Instead of always having your eyes set to the future, Dyer states that we should enjoy the present. There is a saying “that the present is a gift.” I think Dyer would agree with this. He makes the point that people who are overly-focused with accomplishing goals in the future do so out of feelings of inadequacy or lack of accomplishment. While it is good to have goals for the future, it is not good if you believe accomplishing those goals will lead to greater happiness, especially when most goals are based on achieving more status. Dyer coyly asks the reader if they can remember achieving a goal from the past, that the reader thought would improve their life, or make them happier. He then says that in most cases he assumes the reader would answer no when Dyer asks if accomplishing that goal made them any happier. The point in all of this is that we need to happy about our present lives. We need to find happiness within ourselves, and not base happiness on materialistic possessions, or the achievement of titles based on status. As Dyer states, “there is not a way to happiness, but rather happiness is the way.”

2.  Inner stillness is key

• By being quiet, you force yourself to observe more. Silence is a virtue. Silence is associated with wisdom. Wayne Dyer makes this point many times throughout book.
• Here’s a bit about Dyer’s habits to create inner stillness. He rises at 4am and does yoga and meditates, he keeps talking about a line by a famous poet that says that the morning breeze has secrets to tell you, don’t go back to sleep, meaning that when you meditate in the morning early hours, you access higher frequencies, thoughts and ideas.

3.  Love & Give

• Be service oriented: Ask “How may I serve?”(p.15) and work on helping others become stronger and grow. See life as being opportunities to help with each thought and action. Do actions that will make people better off and say words that will awaken the person to make good choices.
• Love: When someone is giving you negativity, Dyer suggests that it would be amazing if we could return and give love in response, and cooperate and listen when in conflict.
• Give: Dyer mentions the benefits of giving and enlightens us about walking the path of giving: Start giving, that includes what you have and money, slowly try to incorporate giving in your life. When you are generous, you get wealth. Start by giving one thing away. Be a giver instead of a collector. Teach about higher principles. Give and do things that will help enrich and make their lives better. Instead of telling people to do something, you can ask them for their suggestions.

4.  Be Spontaneous

• Spontaneity – trust your inner self and act spontaneously more than your plans. Instead of putting in so much effort and force, allow your actions and words to come. Go where the pull from within tells you, instead of following your own rigid plan when going on for example a trip.

5. Have faith & Surrender

(Please note that the following points are controversial, please be critical when deciding to implement this, the main intention is to share with you the teachings of the Tao from Dr. Wayne Dyer)

• We learned that one of the Tao principles is to let people and situations be.  Here are the teachings we’ve learned about surrender and acceptance. DO NOT INTERVENE Let people be. Let people learn on their own. Instead of interefering and trying to influence people’s lives and decisions, just let them be and let them make the decisions for themselves. Let people come to learn through their own life experiences and decisions. Trust in their own skills, judgements, and abilities to allow themselves to make good choices and decisions.
• Surrender, let people and situations be as they are. Don’t try to force your way to get a certain result, know that in the end God’s way will end up happening and that will be right eventually. Instead of striving to achieve certain results, be a witness and let things come and flow in life. Avoid the rush to ripen quickly. “You are unfloding in Divine Nature” (p.70)) Avoid your need to control anyone or anything. Believe that I don’t have to be more better than anyone else or do I have to do something, instead just BE and neither do i have to be successful or win or be first. Your need to control others, let go! Idea – Dedicate a week to not controlling and making things happen and notice instances of things working out. Nature lets things grow at its own pace. Let yourself be guided by God. Let your life come about in natural timing, forget about rushing to quickly ripen. Things are happening in God’s schedule and will work out. Let people do what they came here for without intruding.
• DO NOT START FIGHTS/ARGUMENTS If someone around you says something that upsets you, or that you strongly disagree with, just remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Therefore, just hold your tongue, and try to be quiet. If you do say something, make sure it is not a statement that will provoke a disagreement, argument or fight. Instead of starting fights, listen and let them be right, witness what’s happening
• Have faith – use affirmations like All that I need will come at the right time with no rushing. Trust that God will make everything turn out right, be grateful. Let your life unfold and know that your desires will be fulfilled at their own time, let it be instead of feverishly chasing after your desires.

6.  Unity & Oneness is everywhere.

• THERE IS ONENESS IN ALL OF US Rather than focus on the things that make people different from us, we should focus on the things that make us similar. That will encourage people to be more peaceful and friendly with one another, and decrease the likelihood of feelings of hatred if we all practiced this.

“The key to life is not accumlation, but contribution [and] service to others” (p. 107)

 

Conflict happens and when it does, how do we usually react? Are we the ones yelling? Or are we the ones who are walking away and giving the silent treatment, interrupting the other person to make them understand our view or are we the ones willing to be the first to listen? After reading the 3rd Alternative by Steven Covey, I’ve learned some helpful insights about dealing with conflict.

The main insights that I gained from this book are that when conflict arises, one must be an active listener who seeks to understand and then communicates this understanding, work together to create better solutions than either one of us could have created alone, live a healthy life focused on contribution and service, help students and children become leaders who strive to find 3rd alternatives to their problems, value people because of their uniqueness, lastly, problems and conflicts are opportunities.

Active Listening Is Crucial

It’s so important to be a good listener, especially when in a conflict situation.  When you have a conflict with someone else, instead of pushing your own views, interrupting and just thinking of your own reply, learn how to be an active and empathetic listener.  Truly try to understand their view and feelings and then communicate it to the other person so that they feel understood. Instead of striving to make the other person understand your side of the story, be the first to say, “Let me listen to you first”.

• During the listening process. be an  active listener, which involves reflecting their feelings and thoughts. Here are some phrases to use during the process:
  • “Okay, help me understand” (p.436)
  • “You believe that…so you are saying that…”(p.340) and “you’re feeling…you’re not sure … tell me more” (p. 175)
  • “Let me see if I understand your position…”(p. 263) Then, after you’ve attempted to show your understanding, ask “Is that your position…and is that a complete & fair understanding of your position? … Is there anything else I need to understand” (p. 263)
  • Then seek for them to understand you, by asking, “Now would you be willing to listen to me the way I’ve listened to you? (pg. 264)

If someone does not see things your way, instead of neglecting them or walking away, it may be helpful to say, “You see things differently, I need to listen to you” (p. 40).  This will help you gain new insights and broaden your mind to help you find new understandings.

Talking Stick Technique.

Another really helpful strategy to use during a conflict is the Talking Stick technique which was used by the First Nations people. Here are the steps in the process: Whoever has the talking stick. let them talk, without interrupting them. However, you can ask questions to clarify and better understand their view.

Then, until they feel understood, only then will they give the stick to the other person and that same process is repeated.

The listener tries their best to tell the point of view of that person with the talking stick until she feels that her point of view is fully understood.

Main Point 2 – Synergize!

Instead of my solution versus your solution, why not synergize? This means that we combine our strengths to collaborate and look for another solution that is better than what either one of us could have come up with on our own? The first step in the process is to ask the 3rd alternative question: “Would you be willing to come up with a better solution than either one of us had in mind? Would you be willing to look for a 3rd Alternative we haven’t even thought of yet?” (p. 12), then together determine what a successful outcome would look like ”Define what success looks like[to both parties]…what would better look like… [clarify] what a great outcome looks like [for each person]”(p. 67)) and then you should enter the magic theatre (Purpose is to get lots of ideas flowing, without judgement, you can write and draw and create rough drafts) 

Synergy works best when you have a diverse team like the instance when the Bill Gates foundation wanted to help a place that had a disease that was being spread by mosquitos. While synergizing one person mentioned why don’t we just zap the mosquitos with lazers? They ran with the idea and the different specialists contributed and they created the Weapon of Mosquito Destruction which detects mosquitos by their wing vibraion and zaps them.

Main point 3 – Contribute, serve and be healthy.

“Service is the key to lasting happiness” (p.429)Live a life where you are involved in serving. Serve with love and in such a way so as to benefit others. Find solutions and make products or services that aim to better the lives of the people around you. University is supposed to prepare us so that we can make our own unique contributions and remember that when you are helping others you are also helping the creator. “Strive to make higher and better contributions to the happiness of [our] fellow beings” (p. 429)

Main Point 4 – Students and children, create leaders by helping them find 3rd alternatives.

When people behave with you in a certain way, you have the choice of how to respond. Covey suggests you choose to respond with love. He mentions a technique he uses with his  kids when he needs them to do something that they don’t really want to do, its called the “two minute moaning time” (p.166) he allows the kids to whine, moan and complain for 2 minutes non-stop, but after that time limit is up, they have to stop and move on. With kids and students, lets stop comparing them to others and forcing them to be a certain way (“To love someone means to see him as God intended him, ‘not as I intend him’”(p. 167)., instead lets make them feel like they matter by coaching and supporting them so that they are independtly able to come up with 3rd alternative solutions to problems in their lives.

Second, help develop them into leaders by encouraging them to set goals that can be measured and then create a scoreboard where progress could be tracked and displayed. And help them find leadership opportunities. And to help them succeed involve parents and other community players.

Third, develop positive relationships with them by appreciating what they are good at and doing things they enjoy with them and realize that the differences you notice are not to be frowned upon, but instead , as gifts. With our key relationships he suggests that instead of focusing on making the other person better, just focus on being happy together.(“Don’t try to make your spouse better: try to make him or her happy”(p.172) “Appreciate their differences, run with them and try to make them happy” (p. 172) Catch them doing good by praising and even giving positive tickets & certificates when you catch them doing something good.

Main Point 5 – Differences are gifts, value people and see problems and conflict as opportunities.

See disruption as opportunities, one type of opportunity it gives you is a chance to build your relationship with that person and if others see things differently, and when problems are presented see it as a chance to gain awareness and insight and value it

Concluding paragraph.

It all comes down to:

• seeking first to understand, then communicate your understanding to their satisfaction
• synergize together to find better solutions
• serve, contribute and be healthy
• help create leaders that synergize to create 3rd alternatives
• value differences
• see problems as opportunities.

Have you ever wondered what some of the principles are of success? What are the habits and behaviours of successful people that maybe if we tried we could improve ourselves? These were the questions that I had which led me to the book Success Principles by Jack Canfield. The following will be the main points that I came to understand and would like to share with you with the intention of increasing your well-being and success.

The main important points that I understood from reading this book are to develop good habits, keep the company of those you wish to be like, be confident by keeping past successes in mind, keep learning and apply wise thoughts, relax,  be clear on your purpose, mission, desires and goals, ask for you want & need, be action oriented, give, be prepared, develop good relationships, and use positive affirmations.

I hope this knowledge will be of good use to you and enable you to reach greatness.

Good Habits

People who are successful, generally have certain habits which they engage in which enable them to be more effective.   Habits are important, as a student in school, you may have noticed that the students who earned A’s in school, had certain habits they engaged in repeatedly each day which led to their success. I was always the one who wanted to learn those habits and have tried them out for myself. Similarly, in the realm of our professional and personal life, Canfield helps us out by identifying some habits of the successful:

• Learn from failure:  Usually when things don’t go the way I wanted, I usually think that I failed; however, Canfield advises we see it as not being a failure, but just as a certain result we attained. One idea he writes is that after an event that doesn’t go as we liked, we can write out what we learned from the experience which includes lessons and insights. Afterwards, he suggests create a title called “Ways to do it better next time” (p. 162) This is where you can write your intentions for how you would try to improve the outnext next time.  Also, It may be beneficial to say some of the following to ourselves after an event that we think was unsuccessful

1. “How can i use this experience to my advantage”(p.48)
2. “God has something better in store for me”(p.50)
3. “What’s the possibility that this is?” (p.129)

• Keep score to improve: Canfield, is suggesting that if we want to improve something in our lives, why not create a score board and keep track each day and try to improve it over time. For example, I am trying to improve my vocabulary in Punjabi. So I have created a Punjabi scrabble game with points on each letter and I try keeping score of how many words I have created and try to improve it each time. This way I can see whether or not I am improving and can also try certain interventions (e.g. Reading more Punjabi books) and see if it impacts my score.

• Focus on solutions: Canfield is suggesting that when there are problems, lets move towards the generation of solutions.

• Implement changes incrementally: Keep implementing change one step at a time. Try every 13 weeks to focus on developing 1 habit. Here are some examples of good habits that I learned from Canfield… read for 1 hour per day, read one book a week or every two weeks, 15 mins listen to audio book from good authors and experts.

Confidence

Having confidence is also an excellent habit to incorporate in our lives. The first step involves being aware of our thoughts. What is it that we are remembering and recalling when we are going to engage in a task or experience? Canfield suggests, we recall our past successes to help boost our confidence. A daily practice which we can do each day is to keep a victory log, where each night before bed one writes down the successes experienced throughout the day. Here’s a link to it: http://www.thesuccessprinciples.com/resources_index.php

Keep Learning & Apply It

How do you learn best? Is it visually, auditory or kinesthetically? Canfield, informs us that these are the three ways that the brain takes in information.  Another important point he mentions is that when new information is presented, he suggested writing it down within 37 seconds to transfer it to our long-term memory storage. I found that this works for me when I need to learn new names. I carry a mini-notepad where I try to record the names of people so that I can review it later on.  Also, Canfield quotes Bob Proctor who states that true genius comes from first understanding and then applying wise thought.

Relax

Do successful individuals work all the time, even on the weekends and in the summer? I’ve learned from Canfield that, it may be more beneficial to try implementing more relaxation in my life. He suggests, to take at least 4 vacations/trips a year.  In addition, Canfield writes about using the intuitive powers within through meditation and asking the following questions internally when we need advice about a certain course of action and then write down the messages that come:

• Should I … ?
• What should i do about… ?
• How can I … ?
• What can I do to …?

Be Clear

Do you know exactly what you want? Canfield, informs us that it is beneficial to get really clear on what we want and then outline the steps we can take to achieve it.  In other words, write out one’s desires and then create specific goals (He suggests writing each goal on a 3 X 5 index card in the present tense with a date: For example, I am so happy giving 500 Punjabi scrabble games by December 2011 or something better).  Lastly, the mind mapping is a really good strategy to outline all the steps required in achieving a goal (please see the folllowing for more info: http://www.jackcanfield.com/media-center/community-videos/95-jack-canfield/video/149-canfield-coaching-mind-mapping.html)

Ask

If you need help with a task, what do you usually do? Do you ask for help? Canfield suggests, that successful people are not afraid to ask for what they want.  Ask for what you need whether it be help, support, money, and time. Also, when asking he suggests that we ask with the assumption that we already received what we are asking for.

Sample stems for asking:

• “Will you give me some money…I want to (Talk about your solution to a problem that your product or service is addressing)” (p 144)
• I’m wondering if…
• Would it be okay if…
• Is there a possibility of getting …
• What do I have to do in order to ….
• Can you tell me how to go about…
• What would I have to do to …
• How did you…
• What would have to happen for you to be able to …” (p. 349)

Seek Clarification

Canfield also suggests that when we don’t fully understand something, to seek clarification:

“Do you mean…” or “Do you mean that you would rather….:(p. 349)

Seek Feedback

Act and then seek feedback. Ask for a rating (i.e., On a scale from 1 – 10 how would you rate…[your product/service]. Then he suggests asking for what it would take to raise the mark. Next, one can create an action plan of steps one can take to improve.

Asking for help stems:

• “What can I do to make this better?” (p. 109)
• “I’ve notice that … (state the problem: For example, maybe a customer is not buying your product or using your service anymore) … what would it take for you to start … (e.g., buying my product again or using my service again?)

After receiving feedback, it may be wise he suggests to summarize: “So let me see if I got this right. You want more of this… and less of this…Correct? Okay I will go [implement] and bring it back” (p. 326)

Take Action

Instead of waiting and preparing in anticipation, Canfield suggests that we have a target, act, then seek feedback and improve.  Similarly, instead of talking to ourselves with SHOULDS, he suggests the following stems:

• I want to …
• It supports my goal to …
• It would be smart to … (p. 235)

Lastly, here is an amazing formula about changing outcomes in our lives Canfield writes about: E (Events) + R (Your Response) = Outcome. Thus if you change your response, you can hopefully get a different outcome. For example, say my current outcome is that I am being called to supply only once a week. If I was to change my current response of sitting at home and waiting to instead volunteering, it may lead to a change in outcome, maybe I’ll try this.

Give

Giving is a good habit. He stresses that serving by giving and sharing products and services that are helpful to others and volunteering pays off! Also, it may be more beneficial to share. For instance, when writing his book, he could have tried to do everything by himself; however, he reflects that he had way more success by sharing his idea with a coauthor and then having tons of coauthors and staff which required them to share their profits; however, they achieved far more success this way.

Prepare

The night before really counts! Canfield suggests that the night before, to wrap up, to maybe use the last 45 minutes to write out our daily successes, reexamine our goals, plan for tomorrow and visualize our day going smoothly. Also, he talks about reflecting internally by asking within:

Show me …where I could have been more effective today, where i could have been more conscious today, where i could have been a better (…) today, where I could have been more loving today, where I could have been more assertive today… after each, play in your mind “the way you would have liked it to have happened”

(p. 205)

Cultivate Good Relationships

What can we do on a daily basis to improve our relationships with the important people in our lives? Here are some great ideas I’ve learned from Canfield:

A great way to start conversations are to ask: “What are you up to? What are you excited about?”(p.49)

Nurture others by being positive, encouraging and uplifting. Focus on appreciating others and finding something to appreciate in our experiences during the day.

Before speaking, think. Be a good listener, by making good eye contact and asking for clarification. Before giving all your thoughts and ideas, try asking “What do you feel….and what do you need from me…”(P. 326). In addition, if someone you think is feeling a certain way, ask about it, “I’m imagining that you might be (Insert you guess of the feeling), are you ?) (p235). To improve relationships, be more interested in them and it might be nice to try letting them speak first: Their feelings, views, dreams, desires, fears, and obstacles. If you are curious about what someone is“Thinking, intending or doing” )p.347) ask them so that you can clarify…. ask “I’m wondering if…would it be okay to …. are you feeling?….)p. 347

Interesting questions to ask “If we were meeting 3 years from now, what has to have happened during that 3 year period for you to feel happy about your progress?”(P. 327).

If someone is displaying body language that you perceive to be negative, Canfield tried out the following and it worked well. He approached the person and said “I can’t help but notice, you dont look like you’re in a good space. I was wondering if maybe …[“the workshop is not working for you”] or maybe …. i’m just really concerned” (p. 348) or “You don’t look happy. whats going on? (p.348). instead of assuming, check in with the person… “X, you’re going to be …. right? “ (p. 348)

Affirm

Repeating positive affirmations helps because each thought has an impact on the body (Canfield).

Some financial affirmations I really liked:

• “Everyday, my income increases whether I am working, playing or sleeping” (p. 378)
• “People love to pay me money for what i most enjoy doing” (p. 378).

In addition, Canfield suggests that we get financially literate by reading about money and investing, and even reading one money book per month. Next, he suggested that 10% of our income,  we save and invest it. Also, have cash in our wallet and use it to buy with it because it helps us know and see where money is going. Another interesting idea for trying to create money in our lives is by asking ourselves … “What service/product can i give or “additional value can I deliver”(p. 404). Then make and give it! “Find out what the world needs and then offer your solution” (p. 404)

Business Ideas that I liked.

After you do a presentation about your product or service, you could hand out a promise to buy form, just like Canfield did when promoting his book. Second, to talk about your product you can start by saying “Are you familiar with…?(State your product name). Third, you could create a flyer for your product and mail it out for people to order. Here’s a website for help you start and earn money through the internet:(www.instantinternetprofits.com)

To conclude,

I hope you are able to benefit from this knowledge and apply it to improve your lives and the lives of those around you. I also would like to share a link to Jack Canfields Websites for more resources:

www.jackcanfield.com

http://www.thesuccessprinciples.com/

Y.T.

 

I recently read the book called The Power of Focus:What the World’s Greatest Achievers Know About The Secret to Financial Freedom and Success by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt. Here’s what I learned from this amazing book…

The Power of Prioritization

I learned that we should prioritize the night before or the morning of, the important things that you want to do and rank them. I found a really good app for the ipone or ipod touch its called priority matrix which lets you put in tasks based on their urgency and importance, its really good!

Keep the Mind Engaged When You Are Free

It was suggested that reading as much as one can is good. This would include books, magazines, articles and it’s also good to listen to audio books on topics that are motivational and that would help you in being more knowledgeable. It was also suggested that we invest in getting better at things that you are good at. One example is that you could take classes. Keep learning and being curious, and it’s good to try to spend 1 hour if possible to improve at your skill and or learn how to be better. One technique was given where, in the morning, for 20 minutes you could read something in your field that would give you an advantage in your field.

 What do you want and need?

I learned that it is important for you to know what you want and need and then to be able to communicate it to others and you should also be open to asking for help from others in achieving what it is that you want, and then take action. In addition, you can explain why you are there and why you want what you want and then you can ask them, can you help… [or ask them] would you like to …[e.g. help …]. One good hint was that people like it when you give them options, you could say,”would you prefer .. or …..?”

What’s your target (daily, weekly, monthly)?

Setting goals is so important, in this book it was suggested that you make yearly goals, then monthly and weekly, and to try to make them in these areas (Financial, career, and Fun time ,relaxation, health and fitness, relationships and personal contribution – Here’s a link to a fill-in form: http://www.thesuccessprinciples.com/resource/AchieversFocusingSystem.pdf) and even with your spouse or significant other you can sit down and weekly you could make goals.

What’s your weakness?

I think they are saying that you should try to be more reflective, you could use a journal to note down what you need to be better at and then once you realize your weaknesses, to acknowledge them and then to get help to improve this area.

Do what your good at and improve your weaknesses

If you are good at something , to find that  out you should ask what am I able to do really easily and doesn’t require too much study and preparation for me to do, and then you should just do what you are really good at and then let others help you or use their talents and skills to help do those things for you that you are need improvement in.

True power comes from what?

Its all about knowledge, but not only that but to apply that knowledge is true power and then one idea is that once you learn something important you could then try to make a commitment it could be for 21 days where you write it down somewhere that you will apply that…

What would you rank me?

To boost relationships, they suggested that you do these things with some key relationships that you have in your life you can sit down with that person be it a week whenever is convenient and then you could ask that person if he/she could rank you out of 10 in terms of how good you were as their friend/spouse/son/etc..(depends on the type of relationship role) and then whatever mark they give you, you can accept it and then ask them for specific things they could have done to improve to a better number.

Do I like, trust and respect this person?

They were coming to the point that who you hang around with really is important and critical in your progress and that one can try to hang around with successful people but if you are trying to figure out who you would like to hang around with you can ask yourself, do I like this person, do I trust this person and do I respect this person? These are three things you could ask yourself to help you decide if you want to associate with this person or not.

 

Habits are important

Write down the bad unproductive habit and the long term consequences and then define the new habit you want and the benefits and then make actions steps at least 3 and then a start date.

What are the needs of others and focus on them

Criticize alone, praise in public

Mentor is important

It is important to have a mentor, its “someone with vast experience or unique talents, who is willing to share ideas with you on a regular basis…mentee [is responsible] to use it…[to] further career/financial status/…personal/family life”p.139

What’s our purpose?

Its’ important to have a purpose or a mission you could write it out, if you already have one they suggested to call it Our Purpose

Where to gain wisdom?

Talking to people and reading good books was what I learned from this book to improve one’s level of wisdom.  

Are vacations important?

Yes and it was suggested that we take 6 weeks off to relax and recharge where one would not think of doing work or any other related tasks.

Here are some more resouces you could check out: http://www.thesuccessprinciples.com/resources_index.php

Would you please leave a comment, I’d love to hear your response to this book review, thanks.

Take Care Of Your Body

“You can grow if you ‘challenge what you are currently capable of on purpose and often” (Schwartz, p.89)

    I learned that in order to function better in life, we don’t need to do more or work longer. Instead, we just need to do better renewal.  The first form of renewal is body renewal. Schwartz suggests that to function well we need 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Before sleeping, you could start preparing like 30-60 minutes beforehand and breathe deeply, you can write out your worries and ensure the room is dark and quiet. If you are interested you can log your sleep by going http://theenergyproject.com/sleeplog to track your sleep.  Healthy eating is also important and to at least snack every 2-3 hours. Try eating nutritious snacks that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates. For example you could try fruits, vegetables, yogurt and nuts.  Another effective body renewal method is exercise (There are three types you can try focusing on (Strength Building, Cardiovascular, Flexibility) Here is a link to the exercise log which you can use to track your exercising in each of these categories http://theenergyproject.com/exerciselog), it was suggested to try exercising 3 times per week for at least 10 minutes per session; Swartz suggests to exercise 30-40 minutes.  Yoga is another method of renewing energy as well as breathing deeply several times a day. Swartz says “the deeper you breathe the more relaxed you are” (P.199).  Other forms include, playing, laughing, taking a nap, sleeping and meditating.

What Types of Breaks Are Productive?

     Taking breaks is important. Try to schedule mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks. Napping is also a good thing to try as it will refresh your mind and body. Schwartz suggested to take naps either between 1 – 3 pm for 15-30 minutes or 30-60 minutes or 90 minutes.  Going on vacations regularly is important as well because it helps you take your mind off of work and is known to help decrease depression as well. To help you get a break during the work week you can set out one evening where you decide that it will be work free and you won’t do any work related tasks such as not checking emails!

What do the Experts do?

                Being successful requires positive rituals! Repeated practice that is deliberate and uninterrupted and of high intensity is efficient. Schwartz mentioned in his book a research finding which found that the people who were the best in their profession, spent more hours practicing. They practiced an average of 3.6 hours a day and they practiced intensely for 90 minute sessions. Then they would relax and rest in between. For these positive rituals, set a specific and precise behavior that will be done at a specific time and location and which will help increase your functionality. Just choose one ritual to implement at a time (They also have a tool to help you do this on the website under the tools option).  One really good ritual to have is where you reflect by using a journal to ask questions about yourself like why am I doing what I am doing? and how do I want to behave and what do I stand for? Another key component mentioned in the book in being successful is having belief in one’s abilities and a good affirmation. One example is the following: “I intend to be the best [you can fill in the role of your choice here] I am capable of being despite my [ you can list the disadvantages you feel you have here] disadvantages”(p.15).

How to have effective Meetings?

    In order to have effective meetings, start and end them on time, have a purpose or goal for the meeting and a rigorous agenda; also schedule time in for Q2 (Strategizing, Brainstorming, and reflecting).

How to deal with the challenging situations?

                When events occur in life, Scwartz suggests to try finding the good in each situation and know that each event that occurs is feedback that is helping me improve and move me closer to realizing my true abilities.

Whats better, Multitasking or focusing on one thing at a time?

     It is important to improve our skills in focusing and paying attention to one thing at a time. Try to improve your attention so you can focus deeply and sustain your attention for long periods of time.  Prioritize the tasks in terms of their importance and work on the important items first; you could prioritize one night before or even early in the morning as suggested in the book FOCUS. When learning something new it is better to learn it in small chunks daily and in spaced sessions than learning it all at once.  Doing one thing at a time and focusing  on that one thing at a time is effective.  For example, when it is time to drive, just drive, even hands –free talking is distractive because you are forming images when driving and talking.

Effective practices to being productive?

    In order to accomplish great things it is best to do work you love. If there is a task you really need to do and get done, schedule and enter a specific time, location and date when you intend to tackle that task. Second, work in uninterrupted bursts of 90 minute sessions without interruption (i.e. no cell phones and email). It is suggested to view emails at specific times during the day and put an away message for people to call you if it is very urgent. Third, if you are feeling annoyed by situations or people, Schwartz suggests breathing deeply and thinking before acting and speaking.

How to improve my relationships with key people in my life?

      The other type of renewal is emotional and it deals with interacting well with people. Here is what I learned about how I can improve my relationships; people have a core need to feel valued and secure. So what can we do meet relationship needs? Here is a list of several suggestions and reminders mentioned by Schwartz about what we can do to improve our relationships with the significant people in our lives:

• Help people feel important (e.g. when talking/listening to someone give them your full attention),
• People want to feel accepted and appreciated,
• people have a need to pay attention to ,
• Take care of them and recognize them,
• Give gifts to show you value them,
• Pay attention to their needs as well,
• Respect them (e.g., talk to them alone if you want to talk to them about a behavior that you feel needs to change),
• Acknowledge them,
• Talk and react to them,
• Help them feel like they belong,
• Comfort them,
• Make them feel assured and wanted
• Trust and have faith in them and inspire them to have trust in us too,
• Increase their confidence by seeing qualities in that person that they might not even know about themselves.
• Encourage them
• Inspire them
• Be kind (e.g., When you want someone to explain their behavior, one suggestion is to say, “I’m just wondering why…you do or don’t…”(p.152),
• Be positive,
• Be supportive (e.g. with you wife you can try being loving, giving advice, reassurance, having humor and being optimistic)
• Listen to their concerns,
• Let them know you believe in them and know that they can get the job done,
• Admit your mistakes.
• More things we can do is to focus on serving others with the intention to improve their health, wisdom, and autonomy.  Ask yourself, “What can I do to meet the needs of my partner?”.
• When you are having a conflict with another person you could say: “Here is the story I am telling myself about what happened [You could explain your view of the situation] …Have I got it right?” (p.173)

Reply 1 contributed by M.J.:

The NTIP is a performance appraisal that each new teacher has to do in his/her first year of teaching (twice) in that first year, and then after 5 years for other teachers. Its just like a perfermance apprials you wold have at/in any other job.

I had my first one done a cople of months ago and have my second one this in the spring. Depending on the school and admin support you or the admin support will answer a bunch of questions (admin support is supose to do this) but it all depends on yor school size.
Either the vip or the pincpal also come in to see you teach a lesson plan.
After everything is completed you have a breif discussion with whoever did your perf. apprasial.

Hope this helps,
M.J.

Someone asked this question and I could use some help.

If you would like to contribute your answer, please click on the comment box.

Replies:

Here’s what comes to my mind in terms of how I would try to keep up with the current issues in education:

Google Reader - this is an amazing website (http://www.google.ca/reader/) where you get to choose which websites and blogs you subscribe to (which is free). I would suggest adding newspaper websites like (TheStar, National Post, CBC news, Globe and Mail, NPR).

What does Google Reader Do?

What Google Reader does is that it will present on one page all the main headlines from each of these websites/blogs so that you can find everything in one place. For what education blogs to add, here are a few that I would look into (OCT – ontario college of teachers-http://www.oct.ca/home.aspx, ETFO- http://www.etfo.ca/Pages/default.aspx and www.educationnews.org, http://www.ed.gov/ (U.S. related Education News, http://teachers.net/, http://newteacher.com/)

Have you heard of IPOD Podcasts?

The second thing that comes to mind is to listen to IPOD Podcasts, you can go to itunes then you can go to Podcasts at the top and then you can click on the category of Education and maybe you’ll find some education related podcasts there.

Have you been face to face with the experts?

http://www.ted.com/ – this is a great website with great ideas from speakers from all over the world, and I feel exposes us to experts in their fields. I would suggest typing in education and see what happens, also I’ve heard some talks from Sir Ken Robinson and I found them to be very informing.
Where’s a good place to find new material in education?

Reading Journals from the J.A. Turner Education Library on the 2nd floor of the building – 650 Hurontario Street, Mississauga, ON L5R 1C6  - It has the latest books and journals in the field of education, but you will need a Peel Number to access the materials.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/sentences/fs.shtml

The game is called Kung Fu Sentences, it’s a lot of fun!

I want to share a website called Wordle, here is the link to it:

 http://www.wordle.net/ 

The following is what I created using this website:

This picture might seem strange to you but it’s the Panjabi words that I am trying to learn this week. (Staran = 17, Tayee = 23)

• What does it let you do?

 It lets you type words and then it creates an amazing visual that incorporates all those words.

• Why would you use this?

You could use this to help you review the words and to keep on testing yourself to see if you still know the words.

• How can I apply this, as a teacher/learner?

When students come across words that they want to learn, one thing you could do is to have them fill out a template such as the following

 and then they can cut out the word and the picture and put it somewhere where they can see it (E.g. in a pocket chart on the wall) and review it often. Then, have them use wordle to create the visual, which they can take with them and review often.

I hope this is beneficial to you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU5q7ms4LfI

A teacher shared this amazing app called Popplet, which he had on his ipad. He showed me how on this app he can upload pictures of each of his students and create and recreate seating arrangements. He could rearrange the seating plan by just touching and dragging the pictures to any other location he wanted. I thought that was just amazing and wanted to share this!