Wednesday, May 1, 2013

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.