Moment with Manal

This is my first column and I’m delighted to share a few thoughts with you

that I consider to be amazing life lessons. Often we are asked if you could

give X number of items that helped you, what would they be (the list)?

There are certainly some basics. The love of learning and investing in your

self, the importance of gratitude, the doing more than is expected of you

principle, etc. Upfront I will share with you to be mindful, that you can learn

from anyone; children learn from adults and adults can learn from children.

I'm always learning wonderful things from my children.

For this first column, I have intentionally selected a topic that I believe is

rarely mentioned, and yet critical. Today I would like to speak to you about

strengthening your Personal Initiative. Success does not come to us by not

acting. We are talking about the importance of being proactive and doing

the little simple things, the extra things.

If you want to be more well regarded, gain more influence and build your

self esteem, advance in your career, it’s important to begin increasing your

personal initiative, not waiting to be asked to do something but taking

action on small everyday items at home and work regularly as part of your

routine. For example, when it comes to the work of mobilizing people, you

begin to see how people separate out. You quickly find the leaders, the gogetters,

and the doers. You appreciate those people and you become

attracted to them. This is an experience I am very familiar with in mobilizing

my community to lobby one day during the legislative session.

Yes, I'm inviting you to step up your game, to be the one that registers first

for an event, the one that makes a handful of calls when asked to serve on

a project, the one that writes the thank you note or encouraging email. All

those small actions are great contributors to setting you apart. It''s that

easy, because most people don't do it yet those that do get noticed.

Along with strengthening your personal initiative is the value of

visualization. Visualizing what you want is a powerful tool for those of us

that have figured it out. A fun memory is when I first met Riadh and I was in

my final year of pharmacy school he encouraged me daily to visualize my

notes in order before an exam. To review them by subheading so I can see

the information in my mind during the exam. It was the single best piece of

advice I received to accelerate my studies.

Recently I had trouble with my iMac; before we went into the Apple store,

Riadh and I visualized a positive outcome, where they would replace the

computer without any charge. Yes, that is exactly what happened at the

store. We walked out with a brand new iMac. I'm inviting you to either

begin or continue to visualize what you want to see happen in your day so

that you are open to receive those items/events throughout the day.

In this short moment, I am encouraging you to visualize what you want to

happen in your day and to commit to increasing your personal initiative.

See you next time at a Moment with Manal.