Sound Wisdom Blog
The Lies of Hustle by Jennifer Janechek
We were sold a lie that “there” is better than “here.” The belief that your life becomes fixed, whole, and happy—that YOU become fixed, whole, and happy—on the other side of the next goal. The belief that all your worries will finally go away. The belief that “happiness is behind the next thing.” We have fallen more in love with our vision boards than the life we have now.
4 Reasons Why People Don’t Set Goals, According to Zig Ziglar by Jennifer Janechek
According to Zig Ziglar, “97 percent of the people in our society do not have a clearly defined, written-down set of goals for their lives.” We all know goal getting can be difficult, but why is goal setting so hard for the majority of the population? In Goals Planning and Action Guide: How to Get the Most Out of Your Life, Ziglar gives four reasons:
Fear
Poor self-image
No buy-in
Don’t know how
How to Build a More Inclusive Workplace by Jennifer Janechek
Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us that the American dream is possible only insofar as every human being has an equal opportunity to find meaningful work. In his lesser-known speech to the Fourth Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO, given in December 1961, King says:
I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one, with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians, or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into realization the American Dream—a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed…. The dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of human personality—that is the dream.
While many companies today tout diversity as a hiring value, not all organizations support their diversity efforts by cultivating an inclusive workplace. Below are six important strategies for creating a more positive, equitable experience for employees.
Resolve to Read Every Day in 2021 by Jennifer Janechek
Approximately 1 in 4 adults (27%) made it all the way through 2020 without reading a single book—audiobooks included. To be fair, the year came with unprecedented difficulties. But the benefits of reading are too important to be ignored. Consider the following research-backed perks of reading and make a plan to incorporate reading into your daily routine in 2021.
How to Get the Exact Position You Desire by Jennifer Janechek
Seven steps to your dream job
In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill informs readers that “your achievement can be no greater than your plans are sound.” The sixth “step to riches,” then, is organized planning. In order to attain your life purpose—or what Hill terms your “definite major purpose”—you must create and implement plans characterized by definiteness.
The Importance of a Good Morning Routine by Jennifer Janechek
The key to a successful, energizing day is a good morning routine. Not only does it set the tone for the entire day, but it creates physical and cognitive changes that ripple outward, giving you positive momentum. Below are some tips for setting yourself up for success with a life-giving morning routine:
The Jack-of-All-Trades by Jennifer Janechek
Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to success is the human tendency to juggle too many tasks at once. So often we pride ourselves on our ability to multitask and “do it all.” However, what we neglect to realize is that in “doing it all,” we are really doing nothing substantive. We are merely treading water—distributing effort across a multitude of tasks, expending energy just to stay afloat. If we pause for a moment to consider the reality of our situation, we discover that we have not, in actuality, moved forward. We have made no progress; and yet, we are completely exhausted from wasting our energy on divergent aims.
Are You “All in” on Your Life? by Jennifer Janechek
In her new book No Reserve: Take Ownership and Live YOUR Life without Limitations, celebrity “auctiontainer” Letitia Frye presents an extended metaphor comparing life to an auction. Many of us, she explains, establish conditions that are necessary for us to act on our dreams. Or in auctionspeak, we set a “reserve”—or a minimum bid—on our life. We wait to start living our legacies because we think we aren’t or don’t have enough: enough resources, enough connections, enough time, etc. As she writes, “Life is like an auction: you get your best returns if you don’t set a reserve on it. Anyone who wants to live a meaningful, fulfilling, invigorating life that makes an impression on the world must learn to live their life with no reserve.”
The Art of Converting Defeat into Opportunity by Jennifer Janechek
Napoleon Hill wrote his masterpiece, Think and Grow Rich, in the thick of the Great Depression. It is credited with helping end the Depression by providing people with the strategies they needed to take control of their future by single-mindedly pursuing a definite purpose. He speaks directly to his original readership when he writes, “You have been disappointed, you have undergone defeat during the depression, you have felt the great hurt within you crushed until it bled. Take courage, for these experiences have tempered the spiritual metal of which you are made—they are assets of incomparable value.”
Do You Have Stickability? by Jennifer Janechek
Do you have stickability? Are you able to look beyond today’s difficulties into tomorrow’s goldmine? Learn from Greg in Three Feet from Gold what a difference it makes to identify your definite major purpose and unabashedly pursue it.
Don’t quit now…you might be just three feet from gold!
Proper Etiquette for Business Meals by Jennifer Janechek
Business meals are an integral part of most jobs. Whether you’re on the road meeting clients or employees from other office locations out for dinner, or you’re networking with people over appetizers at a conference, or you’re simply at a company lunch or grabbing a bite with colleagues, it’s important to make the most of these opportunities for your career…as well as to avoid business meal faux pas that could negatively impact your work relationships.
Are You in the Work-at-Home Doldrums? Here Are 5 Strategies That Will Help by Jennifer Janechek
As any remote worker or entrepreneur knows, working from home can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, your schedule might be more flexible, with opportunities to squeeze in chores or childcare responsibilities in between work commitments. On the other hand, it’s easy to fall into a rut and feel disconnected from the other people in your organization—or, if you’re a solopreneur, to lose the drive and energy necessary to maintain your momentum.
Intentional Living through Increased Productivity: An Interview with Author John Martin by Jennifer Janechek
On the heels of his very popular first book, Empower Yourself: 7 Steps to Personal Success, John Martin has released a new title that is sure to accelerate your timeline to personal and professional success. Increase Your Personal Productivity: Your Guide to Intentional Living & Doing More of What You Enjoy is a wonderfully helpful guide to implementing a personalized goal system—one that is actually sustainable and repeatable. If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching others live lives that you deem impossible for yourself, or if you just need some support in your current success journey, Increase Your Personal Productivity will provide you with the tools you need to define and achieve success on your own terms. I recently had the opportunity to chat with John about his latest book, and I learned a lot about his refreshing take on productivity.
Four Ways to Turn Introversion into a Leadership Asset by Jennifer Janechek
In her bestselling book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain explains how in the twentieth century, extroversion became a cultural value—one that resulted in the conflation of success and outgoingness, likeability and talkativeness. Consequently, “introversion—along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness—is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology.” However, as she notes, pointing to figures like Sir Isaac Newton, Rosa Parks, Steven Spielberg, Dr. Seuss, and J. K. Rowling as examples of high-achieving introverts, “we make a grave mistake to embrace the Extrovert Ideal so unthinkingly. Some of our greatest ideas, art, and inventions…came from quiet and cerebral people who knew how to tune in to their inner worlds and the treasures to be found there.”
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Poetry by Jennifer Janechek
Humanities majors are becoming increasingly desirable to corporations. Just take a look at this recent study suggesting that Google’s most-prized skills in its employees are those cultivated by a humanities degree rather than a STEM one. But even if you don’t have a degree in the humanities, you can still take insight from the wisdom that programs of study like English, history, and philosophy have to offer.
Four Reasons Why Emotional Intelligence Is the "Secret Sauce" to Transformational Leadership by Jennifer Janechek
In his new book The Solutions-Oriented Leader: Your Comprehensive Guide to Achieve World-Class Results, Dr. Rick Goodman defines emotional intelligence (EQ) as the “ability to perceive and identify emotions in the workplace and in your relationships with others…being attuned to the emotions of the people around you, but also to your own emotions—and making your decisions accordingly.”
If you’ve ever wondered what that certain je ne sais quoi is that distinguishes truly great leaders from mediocre ones—that quality that makes them dynamic, engaging, motivating, and that enables them to deliver results—very likely it is emotional intelligence.
Unleash the Power of Your Humor Being by Jennifer Janechek
In his new book Motivate THIS!: How to Start Each Day with an Unstoppable Attitude to Succeed Regardless of Your Circumstances, professional stand-up comedian and Speaker Hall of Fame inductee Steve Rizzo shares strategies for overcoming the negativity bias that’s programmed into us in childhood and retraining our brains to think more positively in order to reach our goals. One of the methods he endorses is “unleashing the power of your Humor Being.” According to Rizzo, your Humor Being is that part of yourself that enables you to access your sense of humor in order to thrive during life’s ups and downs. Rizzo defines “sense of humor” in a unique way, one that helps readers view it as an actual mental tool for reshaping their outlook: “a sense of humor means to be aware that you have a mental quality to turn your mind in an unusual way, or a need to produce joyful or absurd ideas that can soothe your being.”
How to Find Balance as a Work-at-Home Mom by Jennifer Janechek
These days there are a plethora of opportunities that enable mothers to stay in the workforce while remaining at home, which is fantastic. However, working from home as a mother of small children is no small feat. While I certainly would not dare say that one mom role is harder than another, being a WAHM can be a very trying position: in many ways, the WAHM is, in addition to being a working mom, a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), someone who is responsible for childcare and/or household duties at some point in the day. And in my experience, because you’re juggling these two positions as a WAHM, it is easy to feel like you’re failing at both. Below are some tips for managing the stress and challenges that come with being a WAHM.
I Spy a Sale by Jennifer Gluckow
During a sales call, the hard-to-find details in the room can often be the secret passageways that lead to an order. What do you look at and what do you look for when you’re in a conference room or someone’s office? Are you so busy “pitching and showing slides” that you forget to look around? Are you staring at your phone in anticipation of the next e-mail or text? No! This is the precise time to be in the moment, look up, and put your “I Spy” skills to work.
“Lead the Field Literally Changed My Viewpoint on Life”: An Interview with Dr. Sarbari Gupta, CEO of Electrosoft by Jennifer Janechek
A month or so ago, I came across an article in the WashingtonExec about Dr. Sarbari Gupta, CEO of the technology company Electrosoft. In it, she says that Earl Nightingale’s Lead the Field audio program “literally changed [her] viewpoint on life when [she] first heard it in 1995 and motivated [her] to take bolder steps toward [her] goals in life.” Sound Wisdom recently published a beautiful print edition of Lead the Field, so I reached out to Dr. Gupta to learn more about how Nightingale’s work shaped her life and career. She was kind enough to chat with me over the phone, sharing many of her own success strategies as well as those that she gleaned from Nightingale’s audio program.