Finding Your Personal Motivation and Passion in Life by Shawn Doyle

Webster’s defines passion as: “Pervading spirit, ruling passion, master passion, fullness of heart, flow of soul.” 

Why is it important to feel passion for what you are doing, both professionally and personally? 

One reason is that if you are passionate, you are motivated. If you are motivated, then you are passionate! 

Have you ever met someone who is passionate about his or her work? It probably made a huge impression on you.  

Think about it. Whenever you experience someone who is energetic and passionate in a store, restaurant, or business, doesn’t it impress you? When you experience the opposite of that, doesn’t it make a negative impression?  

Having a passion for what you do has several advantages: 

• It keeps you fired up and motivated. 

• It makes what you are doing fun. 

• You can be an inspiration to others. 

• You will be more productive. 

• You will be more successful. 

People who are passionate have more energy, enthusiasm, and charisma. It is like a high-powered jolt of electricity. A person who is passionate loves what they are doing so much that they eat, drink, and sleep it.  

So you are now saying to yourself, “But what if I am not like that? What if I am not filled with that kind of passion? What if I never feel that kind of passion?” You may also be saying, “This guy is crazy, and the passion thing is for the birds.” 

If I may, I would like permission to be very blunt with you: you haven’t found what you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about your work and your life, then change it! Stop complaining and do something. Life is too short to keep doing what is passionless and mundane. But you must make that decision. 

I recently stepped into an elevator and said, “Hello, everyone.” Everyone on the elevator looked at me like I was a little crazy and kind of mumbled. Come on! Wake up, world! When you feel passionate, energized, upbeat, optimistic, and proud of what you are doing, you will be motivated to get more accomplished than you ever thought possible, and your energy will be contagious. 

How to Find Your Personal Motivation and True Passion 

Are you married or in a committed relationship? If you are, you probably had to look around for a long time before you found the right person. How did you find the right person? More importantly, how did you know it was the right person? As your mom and dad used to say, “When you are in love, you will just know.” So you knew you were passionate about this person, and they knew that they were passionate about you. 

Professionally, the same rules apply. You will know when you find the profession or job that you can be passionate about. In order to find out what you are passionate about, you must search anywhere and everywhere. 

Here are 5 suggestions for finding your personal motivation and true passion: 

1. Go Back 

Look back at your childhood and teen years, and ask yourself, “What was I passionate about back then?” Could it be that you still are passionate about that area? It may be an old flame that is dormant and waiting to be reignited. Take some quiet time and think through that. Can you think of something deep in the back of your mind? 

2. Go Out  

Part of the problem many of us face is that we keep doing things the same way and doing the same activities over and over. We never do anything new. Try to read new magazines, travel to new towns, and go to a museum that you have never visited. In our family, every other Saturday is “family day,” and this sacred day is set aside to go somewhere. The family day has one simple rule: it must be spent somewhere that we have never been. Seeing new sights and visiting new places just may stimulate your imagination and lead you to discover a passion that you were not aware existed. The bottom line is that if you haven’t found your passion so far, then you need to change your methods. 

3. Vacate 

If you go on vacations every year, plan to go to different places. If you live in the mountains, go to the beach. If you live at the beach, go to the mountains. The different places you go will stimulate your imagination and help you to uncover your true passion for what you love. You may accidentally run into the passion of a lifetime and a new career. 

4. Read 

As Dennis Kimbro says, “Leaders are readers.” Read constantly, and read about topics that you have an interest in knowing more about. Even if you have a slight fascination with a topic, get a book and read about it. Surf the Net and try to find out more about it. Read the trade journals of that particular industry. For example, if you have an interest in being a police officer, read about police officers. Better yet, call your local police department and ask if they allow citizens to ride with them. The only way you are going to find out is to experience as closely as possible the area in which you have an interest. As the old Alka-Seltzer ad said: “Try it—you’ll like it!” I recently had someone call me who was interested in the training industry. I asked them how much they knew about it. They said they knew nothing about it. I gave them several resources, said I would be happy to help them in any way I could, and told them to touch base and let me know how things were going. The person never called me back.  

5. Find a Coach 

If you go to a local gym, you have the option of hiring a personal trainer, or coach, who is an expert in fitness and nutrition. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could hire a “success coach”? Well, there is good news: there are personal success coaches nationwide who can coach you. For a fee, these trained professionals will work with you over the phone or in person and help you with your overall life goals. 

Knowing Passion When You See It 

When you keep searching for your life passion and you finally find it, how will you know that you have found it? There are some symptoms, which are very easy to recognize: 

• You will be excited about it long-term. 

• Your wheels will be turning 24/7. 

• Even though it is your work, you would almost be willing to do it for free. 

• When time flies by—that is a big clue! 

• You will give 197% willingly. 

• You will talk about it with friends and family constantly. 

Please understand that being passionate and motivated will make you different than many people in our society. This is a great distinction, but keep in mind that it will open you up to criticism. You will be the one saying that the world is round when everyone else says that it’s flat. 

For some reason, people will try to negate what you are doing. They will cut you down and try to tell you all the reasons why you can’t, won’t, and shouldn’t—and they will take pleasure in the act! Tell them politely that you really appreciate their input (kill them with kindness), and then tell them that you have to go because you have things to do! 

I was once offered a new job, and it was a great growth opportunity. My wife and I both decided to go for it, and I gave notice at my old job and decided to move from South Florida to Philadelphia. The negative comments were expected, but they still amazed me. 

• “You are taking a big risk.” 

• “I can’t believe you are leaving after being here eight years.” 

• “It’s a stupid mistake.” 

• “Philly is a big city—I don’t see you as being a city person.” 

• “I don’t believe you are moving to Filthy-delphia.” 

If we would have listened to and believed these ridiculous, and incredibly negative, comments, we would have never moved and we would have missed out on one of the best experiences of our lives. Don’t let the negative people in this world shape your vision of the future! You must fight the good fight and always maintain your passion for work and for life.  

Having passion will drive you on days when you need to be driven. It will separate you from most of the people in your society. In a job interview, passion will increase your chances of landing the job. For promotions, being passionate will increase your chances of being promoted (if it doesn’t, you may be working for the wrong company). 

Passion pushes your pure profitability potential, your productivity potential, promotion potential, professional potential, and your personal fulfillment potential!  

That is the personal motivation and passion differential! 

This article originally appeared here on ShawnDoyleMotivates.com and has been edited for inclusion on the Sound Wisdom Blog. 

 For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series. The latest book in this series is Jumpstart Your Happiness: Your Jolts to Prosperity, Motivation, & Living with Intention, which is available to purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Books, and other retailers. 

Nine Secrets of Happy People by Shawn Doyle

Happy people do certain things that unhappy people don’t. Want to be even happier? Check through this list to see which ones you are already doing and which ones you need to do more. 

Have you ever noticed that there are some people who just seem to be happy all the time? I know you have met them—they are people who love life, who have energy, and who seem to enjoy everything they do. They are so darn pleasant to be around. Some people even wonder if they are really that happy, but guess what? They are! So what is their secret? It’s actually pretty simple: Happy people do certain things that unhappy people don’t. Want to be even happier? Check through this list to see which ones you are already doing and which ones you need to do more: 

1. They count their blessings. Happy people, no matter what, sit down on a regular basis and consider what they are grateful for. They are grateful that they’re employed, they are grateful that they have their health, they are grateful that they have their loved ones, family, and friends, etc. So in order to be happy, it is important not to take what you have for granted and to understand the things that you should be grateful for. 

2. They surround themselves with positive people. One habit of happy people is that they do not spend very much time with people who are negative or pessimistic. Nope. They instead spend their time with people who are upbeat, optimistic, encouraging, and fun to be around. There is no question that the quality of your life is in direct correlation with the quality of the people you spend time with. If you spend your time around unhappy people who growl a lot, you’ll be less happy. If you spend your time around happy people, their happiness is downright contagious. 

3. They enjoy the small things in life. Happy people do not have to wait for the “big events”—they make sure to enjoy the smaller things in life around them, whether it is a beautiful flower that bloomed in the yard, the belly laugh of a baby, a lovely sunset, or sharing a chuckle with a colleague at work. None of these things in themselves are earth-shattering, but happy people take the time to notice them and other small moments that make life so very sweet. 

4. They say “Oh well” when things go wrong. When things go wrong, happy people don’t spend their time dwelling on it; they say “oh well” and acknowledge that it could’ve been worse. If a flight is delayed, they say, “Well, at least it didn’t get canceled.” Happy people do not dwell on negative events—they just say, “Next.” 

5. They help other people for absolutely no reason. Happy people help other people for no reason other than the fact that helping other people makes them happy. Opening the door for someone, doing someone a favor without being asked, showing kindness to another human being, not only makes the other person feel better but it also makes a happy person feel happier because they are doing something good. 

6. They expose themselves to positive materials. Happy people do not spend a lot of time watching violent movies or focusing on bad news on TV. They instead spend their time taking in inspirational and motivational content. They watch movies that uplift them and bring them hope. They read books that inspire and motivate them.  

7. They do things that bring them joy. Happy people have made a list of the things that bring them joy, and they try as much as possible to do these things on a regular basis. They engage in hobbies and activities that they have a passion for and that make them feel happier. It may be baking a cake, assembling a model airplane, or working out—they’ve identified the life activities that bring them joy, and they do them. 

8. They say “please” and “thank you.” When someone does something for them, they say “Thank you very much,” and when they need something they’re polite about it: “Can you please send me the information that I requested?” They also go out of their way to give other people compliments that are authentic and that make the other person feel good about themselves.  

9. They choose to be happy. There are many people in life who have faced a great deal of adversity. However, when you meet those people, you don’t know it because they’ve simply chosen to be happy. Yes, it may sound strange that you can actually make the decision to decide to think happy thoughts instead of negative ones. When people choose to be happy, they are deciding to be the architects of their own lives. They are deciding what attitude they are going to adopt, and guess what? That changes how they perceive the world at large. 

Try to put these ideas into practice, and you will wake up every day as a happier person. 

This article originally appeared here on HuffPost and has been edited for inclusion on the Sound Wisdom Blog. 

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series. The latest book in this series is Jumpstart Your Happiness: Your Jolts to Prosperity, Motivation, & Living with Intention, which you can preorder now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Porchlight Books, and other retailers. 

The Leadership Manifesto by Shawn Doyle

I travel all over the world as both a trainer and a speaker, and leadership development is the focus of my work. I work with companies of all sizes: small, medium, large, and corporate giant. In doing this, I have come to a realization—it is time for a revolution in the way we think about, train, and develop leaders. In fact, let’s just scrap it all and start over.

The way in which we view leadership development now is worthless. Why do I make such an outrageous statement? I see managers and leaders who are failing themselves, failing their teams, and failing their companies. Their companies, of course, failed them first, by never providing the proper training for their leadership roles. 

To start the much-needed revolution, it’s time for the Leadership Manifesto. Follow it and see the difference. Ignore it, and bask in the ineptitude of your leaders.

There are six principles to follow in the Leadership Manifesto:

1. Stop promoting people to leadership roles just because they are technically competent. 
   Fred is a brilliant programmer who got promoted. His new position requires that he manage a team of sixteen people. However, he has no interest in leading people and probably isn’t a very gifted leader anyway. All Fred ever wanted to do was do his job well, but now he has to manage a team, which is killing him slowly. 
   Solution: Promote people in the organization that have the technical knowledge and the potential to lead.

2. Stop promoting someone and then assuming they know how to lead. 
   Alexis gets promoted to a leadership role. She is excited and optimistic about the future but scared to death. Why? She has never led a team before, and she doesn’t know how. She won’t admit it or ask for help. She figures that since she was promoted, she’ll just have to figure out how to be a leader. Alexis goes from the frying pan straight into the fire. Her only option is to model what her managers have always done in the past—many of whom, by the way, were completely incompetent. 
   Solution: Have a comprehensive leadership development training program to get new managers up to speed.

3. Stop assuming existing managers don’t need development. 
   I once met with a CEO of a small company and asked him about his current training and development initiatives. He raised an eyebrow questioningly and said, “Who would I train? Most of my managers have been here a long time.” When I mentioned the concept of ongoing development, he smiled and replied, “I hired them because they know what they are doing. Why would I have to train them? If I have to train them, I hired the wrong person.” From the expression on his face and the tone of his voice I could tell that the discussion wasn’t going to go anywhere. He clearly did not understand and was never going to. Just because you hire a manager doesn’t mean that he or she is already a great manager. Even if they are, training always helps the people in leadership roles to grow their skills. 
   Solution: Every leader in the organization should have an individual development plan and should receive training annually. If they don’t, they will leave and go somewhere where they can get training and development.

4. Stop allowing mean leaders to lead teams. 
   I have been in many organizations where I meet and observe managers who are mean, surly, demanding, rude, offensive, and specialize in striking fear into the hearts of the team members. Why is this allowed? The answer is always either “they get results,” or “they have been there a long time.” Neither of these answers is an acceptable or a legitimate excuse for that kind of objectionable behavior. The days of mean bosses are over. This is 2019, and leaders have to lead with influence, negotiation, expectation, and motivation. What companies don’t understand is that allowing abominable managers to keep being mean is sending employees a confusing message: “We allow our managers to treat you like dirt, but we value you still.” Yeah, right.
   Solution: Mean leaders need to be put on notice that they have to change or they have to go. There’s sure to be a celebration in the employee lunchroom if the tyrannical manager gets fired, and they’ll certainly breathe easier if the manager is forced to change.

5. Stop allowing executives to think that they don’t need development.
   In many companies, I hear: “Well, we can have training, but our vice presidents won’t attend.” Why not? “They don’t feel that they need training, and if they did, it would be an admission that they have skills they need to work on.” In many organizations, attending training is viewed as a sign of weakness. What’s going on here? Just because someone attends training, they’re weak? Shouldn’t commitment to development be viewed as a strong point? Apparently not. In the leadership ranks in many organizations, this is a liability. Sad, but true. Arrogance and ego are robbing executives of development that they need. 
   Solution: The CEO has to model a dedication to development and insist that every executive get training and development annually, based on specific and identified areas for improvement. When the rest of the organization sees that executives are committed to development, then they will be more inclined to develop themselves.

6. Stop waiting until you have a vacant leadership role to identify talent.
   Here is how I see it happening in many organizations. Someone in a leadership role resigns or gets fired. Panic ensues. The executives meet to see who can fill that role. Is there someone internally they can promote? Do they need to do an outside executive search? Although they seem organized, they will never admit that there is no strategy—it’s called flying by the seat of your pants. 
   Solution: Every organization should have a talent management initiative. This would include recruitment, succession planning, leadership development for future leaders, leadership development for current leaders, and ongoing individual development plans. This helps to build the talent pool for future needs. 

I want to see a brighter day when companies and organizations are led by leaders who are inspired, dedicated, and skillful in the way they lead their teams. Let’s tear down the old bronze monuments to arrogance, incompetence, and management by intimidation.

Let the revolution begin.

 For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation. Be sure also to listen to his podcast Winning Edge@Work, co-hosted with Rachael Doyle.

Why Training Fails: The Shocking Truth That Most Leaders Don’t Even Know by Shawn Doyle, CSP

I have been involved in training, speaking, and consulting for 28 years, and the same issues have been present all along. In this article, I want to share with you the 11 main reasons why training fails. The shocking truth is there is a lot of money spent but tons wasted because of the barriers organizations have in place around training. 

1. No one tells them why they are doing the training. When I am facilitating a training program and I ask people why they are there, the No. 1 answer by far is “because my manager told me to be in the training.” In the majority of the cases they are not told why. Solution: Mangers should tell people the reason why they are in the training.  

2. Training is as boring as watching paint dry. In today’s world of instant entertainment, if they are not entertained they check out quickly. People tell me all the time that most training programs are  very boring. Solution: Train internal people on how to facilitate great training or hire an outside expert. 

3. Training is a legal requirement or is policy driven. Many organizations have certain training programs that are required like safety training and sexual harassment avoidance. Because they are mandatory, people feel like they are being punished and resent being there. Solution: Each manger should explain to their team how the training will help them and the company. If people understand why the training is important, they are much more likely to go along with it. 

4. There is not enough time for training. When I am talking to a client about training and they ask me how long a program is and I say “a full day,” they want me to do it in a half day. If I say “a half day” they want me to do it in two hours. There are no effective shortcuts to effective training. Solution: Budget the time as an investment to help people learn. 

5. There is no training at all. I am simply amazed that there are so many organizations that don’t train people at all. They use the world-famous “just follow Fred around for a week” and rely on other people to show new employees the ropes. Solution: Every new employee should have an initial training program for orientation.   

6. The company uses a subject matter expert for the training. Just because someone is a SME does not mean they can teach the subject to others. Solution: Be careful whom you select for training. They need to be both a SME and an expert at training. 

7. The company thinks that education is training. Education is learning about something. Training is learning how to do it. I can learn all about feeding lions at the  zoo, but if I’m going to do it I need to be trained on how to do it or I will face dire consequences. Solution: Make sure the outcome of training is that people can do what they need to do. 

8. The company thinks that training has to occur in a classroom. There are many different ways to train someone, and it doesn’t have to be in a classroom. We can mentor, coach, have on-the-job training; we can rotate job assignments to cross-train; or someone can study a how-to guide. Solution: Find other creative ways to train people. 

9. The employees find the training to be goofy. I have seen some activities in training that, to me, belonged in a Kindergarten class. When training exercises are too juvenile, people will stop learning. Solution: Know your team, and don’t have exercises that are too childish. 

10. There is no follow up. Many people attend training, and then they are done. Their manager doesn’t meet with them to see how the training went and discuss what they learned. The retention or information goes way down when they only talk about something once. Solution: Every manager should talk with their direct reports within two weeks of the training to discuss what they learned and develop an action plan. 

11. The employees think that training is an event. Many people think of training as an event. The reality is that great training should be a process, with many elements involved. This helps organizations implement changes as a result of the training. Solution: Have better training plans and know how they all relate together.  

Thinking about all of these elements and how they fit together will make sure that you don’t waste your training dollars.  

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation.

Here Is the Best Gift You Can Give Anyone by Shawn Doyle, CSP

In my church, there is something I always find very moving: we turn to each person around us and shake their hand, saying, “Peace be with you.” It is actually wishing all the people around you peace. I just think it is a great gesture, and I really focus on being sincere about it. I don’t want to just go through the motions; I want to mean it. I think, I am giving you peace from my heart to yours. 

These days I must admit to being taken aback by the violence in the world, random killings, bombings, and as people say, “man’s inhumanity to man.” I am concerned about people on Facebook who are very cruel and vicious to anybody who doesn’t agree with them. It’s disturbing to see videos on social media of beatings in a fast food place with people cheering them on (which I refuse to watch). I know what they are about by reading the headline. The name calling, the vitriol, the violence, the hate, the spewing of violence based on any ideology. 

What can we do about it? What can I do about it? What can you do about it? There is something small you can do.  

You can give someone peace. What in the daylights am I talking about? Through your actions you can give people the best gift ever—peace.  

Last night, my wife and I went out to dinner at a local restaurant on a weeknight, and it was busy and the restaurant was packed. The server came over, and she was clearly frazzled. They were down two servers, and she had a ton of tables. My wife and I both said, “Take your time. No hurry.” At the end of the meal, she said she “felt terrible” about the slow service. We said, “No worries! It’s all good!” Don’t miss this point—we could see her relax. We helped her feel better, we gave her peace of mind, and we saw her visibly relax. Some guys reading this would say, “I am going to chew out that server for being slow!” So now let’s review: (1) you have gotten mad (you were there to relax—right?); (2) you have gotten her upset; and (3) you have created a scene for those around you. Maybe you have heard this term—you are disturbing the peace. Okay, maybe not in legal terms—but what I am saying is we are bringing tension, aggravation, hostility, and not peace. You are not being “my peace I give you; my peace I bring you.” You are bringing the opposite.  

Here are some things to think about: 

Traffic—The next time someone cuts you off in traffic, just smile and wave and send them a good thought and wish them peace. Here is the idea: you are not only sending them peace, but creating peace in yourself and deciding to be calm and not irritated. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.” 

That stupid person at work—There is that person at work who just irritates everyone. C’mon, you know the one I am talking about. They are just so irritating! Instead of being irritated, why not give them peace? Why not be nice to them? I was doing a training program for one of my clients, and there was one person who was irritating, blunt, disruptive, and clearly agitating everyone. What did I do? I was kind, patient, and gave him respect. I sent peace his way. Over the months, I eventually won him over, helped him calmed down, and he actually told management that he really liked the program and me! (He doesn’t like anything.)  Now, some would say, “Hey, if this person has a big mouth and an attitude, give it right back to him! An eye for an eye, right?” As Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” 

Your loved ones—When at home and your loved one makes you mad or irritated, don’t get irritated back. Just think how you can give them peace and love. After all, isn’t that what we want for those we love the most? 

What would happen if we all made a commitment to do that? Every day? 

Henri Nouwen once said, “Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.” 

Well said Henri, well said.  

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation. 

6 Smart Tips for Hiring Smarter by Shawn Doyle, CSP

One of the biggest downfalls I see in leaders is they don’t have great interviewing skills. For you to be successful, you must become an expert at interviewing. What we have to realize is that the work is not done by the leader; the work is done by the team. Therefore, if we hire the best team, we get the best results.   

Tips for Hiring Smarter  
Here are six tips for ensuring that you hire the best:  

1. Make it your goal to find the best. 
   I see leaders in many industries settle for a candidate who seems okay but is not the best of the best. If you do that, you’ll pay for it later. Be the tortoise, not the hare. Take your time, be patient, and make sure that you’re hiring the cream of the crop. 

2. Always be looking for new talent. 
   When you attend industry conferences and meetings and as you network, stay on the lookout for new talent. Sometimes when we least expect it, we come across the talent we will someday want to be on the team. Talk to them and get to know them professionally. Perhaps even ask them to send you a resume, and put it in your file of future talent. Keep in touch with this talent on a regular basis, and when you are ready to make a move, you now have a very strong “best of the best” candidate.   

3. Become an interviewing artist. 
   Really strive to become a master interviewer. This is a skill and a science. Identify people in your organization who are known for being great interviewers. Ask them if you could sit in on one of their interviews. Be the proverbial “fly on the wall” and observe their techniques and approaches. I learned all of my best interviewing skills from a gentleman named Filemon, an executive to whom I once reported. He taught me the subtleties of effective interviewing approaches and techniques. If internal training on effective interviewing is available, take advantage of it. Secondly, read and study books and online courses on effective interviewing—you will find that you will learn a lot.  

4. Have multiple interviews with multiple people. 
   In my experience, I have found that interviews that incorporate multiple people and that require the candidate to come back for several interviews are much more effective. Why does this work so well? The reason that this is so effective is that each time the candidate comes back for an interview, he or she becomes more relaxed and comfortable. This allows you, as the leader, to get beyond the techniques that they’ve learned in their interviewing books and classes and get to the real person. Additionally, if multiple people are interviewing the candidate, there may be areas identified by one person that were not identified by another. The reason for this is simple: some people have chemistry with one interviewer and not another. I once had a very strong candidate whom I interviewed two times and was practically ready to make them a job offer. That is when it got very interesting! I took the candidate to lunch for a third interview, and over lunch she revealed some ethical problems that she had in her last job (plagiarism), which clearly told me that she was not appropriate for our team. I believe that this would not have been revealed if we had only done two interviews and if she had not been interviewed by multiple people. By the way, you’ll notice the classic technique mentioned above—the all-important, infamous “meal” technique (which, by the way, works like a charm). If you want to find out more about the real person, get them to dine with you. The candidate will disappear, and a real person will emerge.   

5. Look for internal hidden assets. 
   I often find that in corporations and organizations, there is hidden talent just waiting to be discovered. I was once a vice president of training and development for a large company. I received a resume from an internal candidate who wanted to fill the position of trainer. I called the human resources department and asked them why they sent me her resume. They explained that even though this candidate worked in the accounts payable department, she had indeed developed and designed a significant amount of training on her own to train accounts payable people around the country. “Besides,” the HR person said, “you have to interview her—she has passion!” Of course, we interviewed her, and after several interviews and a live training audition, she was hired as a trainer. So we discovered a talented trainer who was buried in another department in the organization who was truly a hidden asset.  

6. Hire for diversity. 
   Great leaders hiring people are always are looking for diversity. Yes, I know it’s the right thing to do, and it adds greatly to the company’s PR reputation. The fact that leaders are sensitive to and addressing diversity issues in terms of hiring has great value. But I think there’s a more important reason—the real reason—why you should hire for diversity. You should hire for diversity in order to get people who think differently. My definition of hiring for diversity means that you get people on your team who are completely different than you. You get diversity in race, creed, color, ability, religion, geography, lifestyle, age, culture, etc. The advantage of having this kind of diversity on your team is that each person brings a unique perspective to both the projects and the work. That way, you get a much broader range of opinions. So, hire people who are completely different than you—in fact, the opposite of your own image. Hire people radically different than you.  

Those are the key strategies for interviewing. Print this out and tape it to your desk. It will pay off when you are looking for your next “superstar.” 

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation. 

When Did You Stop Learning? by Shawn Doyle

Today I am going to address a topic that very few people are talking about right now. I have a unique perspective because I do about 100 training programs a year. Here is what I am seeing. In class, I will ask, “Who has read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?” Out of a group of thirty people, one hand will go up. I am not asking about an obscure book but one that has been on the business bestseller list for thirty years. The rest of the class has never heard of it.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 68 percent of men read at least one book last year. Okay, that is the good news, but here is the bad news: that means that 32 percent didn’t read one at all in a whole year (52 weeks—365 days). 

When I talk to people, they tell me they don’t read (learn) for the following reasons:

• “I have never been much of a reader.”
• “Between work and home I am just too busy.”
• “I read on my device all day at work. The last thing I want to do is read when I get home.” 

There is a whole range of other reasons people give me—way too many to mention. Here is the reality: instead of reading, they are watching TV or surfing the Internet. Is that you? Look, I am not criticizing; I am just passionate about everyone learning all the time.  

I want to help you, and my goal is to convince you why you need to keep learning and then give you some quick tips you can use today.

The following are reasons why you have to learn now:

• There are people in your organization who are reading and studying, and you are not.
• They are going to take your job if you don’t keep up.
• Knowledge is a huge competitive advantage.
• You will be much more likely to get promoted.
• You will be much more motivated and creative when you are exposing yourself to new ideas.
• You will be smarter and more thoughtful. 

One note: If you have never enjoyed reading, that is okay—I am not judging you. Then just listen to audiobooks or watch videos on the same topics online. 

I am asking you to make a commitment to learning now. I am also asking you to commit to reading nonfiction most of the time. You learn so much more from nonfiction than you do from fiction. 

Here are some techniques for finding time to read/learn:

• Cut back on TV. The average American watches 2.8 hours of television a day. So, one simple step is to cut back on TV to one hour, buying yourself reading time. Besides, reading new books is so much more interesting than watching a rerun of a stale show you have already seen. 
• Get up thirty minutes earlier in the morning to read and study. I have noticed an enormous percentage of highly successful people do that every day. Author Hal Elrod calls this “the morning miracle.”
• Read during your lunch break at work. I know you probably get lunch and take it back to your desk. Don’t! Find a quiet place and read at lunch.
• Planes and trains—whenever you are on a plane or a train, pack something to read. Maximize your travel time.
• Learn in your car. If you have to commute by car, listen to audiobooks.
• Training programs—if your company has a training department, see what programs you can sign up for this year.  

The reality is that every year you need to be a different, better, improved version of you. So, let the new you start today. You can do this!

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation.

Eight Tips on Giving Presentations Like a Pro by Shawn Doyle

I am a professional speaker, and I get many chances as I travel around the country to see other people give presentations. When I see professional speakers give presentations, they’re always very well done and professional. Of course these presentations should be great because they are delivered by professional speakers. Sadly, in most cases, I see exactly the opposite with others—terrible presentations that are boring, dull, dry, and go on way too long. You know what I’m talking about because you have seen it. 

I believe that in order to be a successful leader and a successful entrepreneur, you have to become skilled at giving presentations like a pro. Here are eight tips on how to give presentations like a pro. 

1. Pros properly prepare. You’re probably thinking that preparation means having your presentation deck in order and having your handouts organized, but that is not what I mean at all. What I mean by proper preparation is doing a careful audience analysis to know to whom it is you’re speaking and what they are expecting or needing from the presentation. Take time to talk to the person who has asked you to give a presentation to do a full and complete audience analysis to determine who will be in the room. Obviously, the presentation for a room full of CEOs will be different than a presentation for a group of front-line workers. 

2. Start with a bang, not a whimper. I have seen many presenters who start out their presentation by giving their name and the title of the program and then say, “Let’s get started.” I promise you if you start out the presentation with a boring beginning, you will lose the audience before you even get started. We live in an era of high entertainment, and when we sit people in a room to watch a presentation we need to start our presentation with a bang. You can start with a compelling quote, you can start with a great story, you can start with a stunning statistic, or you can ask the audience a very provocative question. The key is to get their attention. Then you can introduce yourself and your topic. Use these tools to close out your presentation with a bang as well because people do remember the beginning and the end of everything. 

3. The space is part of the presentation. In many instances, I have seen the space become a barrier to the presentation’s effectiveness. Either the room is too crowded or was set up the wrong way, or the speaker was tied to the podium because that was the only place a microphone was available. Make sure to check out in advance the space in which you’re going to be presenting to see what limitations and possibilities it offers. Additionally, arrive early the day of your presentation so that you can solve any room or space problems that exist before your presentation starts. 

4. Please get rid of the PowerPoint slides. It seems to me that everyone giving presentations these days is in love with PowerPoint. To me, there are several issues with PowerPoint—the main one being that PowerPoint quickly becomes an anesthetic because people are staring at a screen, and often people will dim the lights so the PowerPoint can be seen more clearly (an invitation for everyone to take a nap). I personally believe you’d be much better off with a couple-page handout than you would hypnotizing people with PowerPoint. I also think most people, when they give presentations, have way too many slides. This is, in my opinion, just a disaster. Lastly, most people seem to believe that their PowerPoint is their presentation, when the reality is the PowerPoint is supposed to be a supplement to illustrate key points of the presentation. Most people do not use PowerPoint in this way; they actually use it as a script for the presentation, and they read from the screen. This makes people want to run screaming from the room. 

5. Make it a conversation, not a presentation. When you’re designing a presentation, you should have a couple of moments designated for interacting with the audience. This makes the presentation much more useful and interesting for the audience, and they have a chance to provide feedback and ask questions and actually talk to you like a human being instead of a presentation robot. 

6. Use stories. Great presenters tell stories that captivate the attention of the audience. But here’s something I don’t want you to miss: the stories are not just stories to tell for the sake of it; they illustrate the key points that the speaker is discussing. This makes the presentation much more memorable. 

7. Get some coaching. Every professional speaker with whom I’ve ever spoken has told me that they used a professional coach at some point to help them with their presentation skills. Join Toastmasters to learn better presentation skills, determine if your company offers training for presentation skills, attend a presentation skills class somewhere in your community, or use a private coach to help you polish your skills. I guarantee you if you do that you’ll get it amazingly better results just by having someone give you feedback in an objective way on what you do well and what you need to improve. 

8. Evaluate. Each time you give a presentation, ask a trusted colleague to observe your presentation and give you feedback or, if that is not possible, at least sit down after every presentation and review what you believe went well and what could be improved. This will ensure that you continue to improve, and you will be one step closer to being a presentation pro! 

For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation. 

8 Ways to Live Again After Losing a Loved One by Shawn Doyle CSP

Almost every year, each of us has a friend or family member who loses a loved one. It is a sad fact of life that everyone is going to face it. According to the CDC, 2,596,993 people die in the United States each year. 

So here is the compelling question: How do you heal after losing a loved one? I experienced this on a personal level when I became a widower at the age of 54, when my wife of 32 years died tragically. So I had to learn how to heal after losing my wife. Here are eight ways to heal after losing a loved one. 

1. Remember the good times. Often when someone passes away, we tend to dwell on their death instead of celebrating their life. I highly recommend writing in a journal and listing all of the good times you had with the person that you lost. It’s a way of reminding yourself to be grateful for what you had, for as long as you had it, instead of just focusing on the loss alone. 

2. Only be around positive people and situations. When you are grieving, the last thing you need to do is expose yourself to anything negative. Concentrate on spending your time with positive people, viewing only positive television and movies, and reading positive books and articles. Avoid anything negative.  

3. Figure out what you don’t want to do. During my healing journey there were certain things I just decided I did not want to do. For example, the first Thanksgiving after my wife passed away I was invited to visit with family in another state to celebrate Thanksgiving. Quite honestly, I didn’t feel like doing it—so I didn’t. It’s okay to say there are certain things you don’t want to do and not allow other people to pressure you to do them. This helps you heal.  

4. Think to yourself, “I’m going to be okay.” Most people who have had a loss do not think they’re going to be okay; they think that they will never be okay. I ended up writing a book about grief and loss called The Sun Still Rises. One reason I wrote that book was to help people realize that they can be hopeful and optimistic even after a loss. If you keep saying to yourself long enough, “I’m going to be okay,” eventually, guess what—you will be. It just takes time. 

5. Think about how you want to reinvent your life. When I talk to people who are grieving, they find this to be an odd concept, but it actually really makes a lot of sense. Once you have lost a loved one, your life is changed forever, and it will never be the same because of their absence. But the other side of that equation is it is an opportunity to reinvent your life and make it whatever it is that you want it to be now.  

6. Tap into your resources. There are many resources available to people who are grieving. You could join a support group. You could volunteer for various organizations and give back to others. You could surround yourself with supportive family and friends. There are so many online resources of articles and groups that are available at the touch of a button. There are also many great books about dealing with grief and loss that are available physically or as a download to your Kindle. 

7. Know that the pain will get better in time. People who are grieving are in pain and will be in pain—that is the bad news. The good news is the pain will get better with time, and one day it will actually go away. The phrase “time heals all wounds” may be a cliché, but I have found it to be remarkably true. So, just knowing that the pain will get better is a comforting thought. 

8. Get a grief education. I think when people are grieving, they think they are the only people in the world who are experiencing grief or who have had loss. When people start to study grief by reading books about grief and loss or attending support groups, they learn that they’re not alone and get tools and techniques that really can help. 

If you have had a loss, review this list, figure out what you can do now, and put it into action. If you know someone who has had a loss, please share this with them and let them know you are there for them. Yes, you can heal after a loss, and I know because I lived it. There is hope.  

Read more about surviving and thriving after grief and loss in Shawn Doyle’s The Sun Still Rises, available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible, Google Play, iTunes, and other major retailers. 

Six Fundamental Business Lessons Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From Walt Disney by Shawn Doyle, CSP

Everyone knows Walt Disney. Almost everyone has been to a Disney park somewhere, seen a Disney movie (live action or a cartoon), or knows some Disney character. Some people even go on Disney cruises. I think in some ways people know more about Disney, but fewer people about Disney the man. Walt was a visionary, an entrepreneur, and a creative genius. There are some invaluable lessons every entrepreneur can learn from what he was able to accomplish in his life.

Lesson #1 – Never give up. Many people don’t know that Walt Disney was not an overnight success. He started several companies that went bankrupt. He started a commercial art studio, and it tanked. He tried to create advertisements, and they also failed due to lack of revenue. Instead of giving in or giving up, Walt always just tried the next thing. As Walt said, “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

Lesson #2 – Be a problem solver. Walt Disney was the consummate problem solver. He was very observant and was always looking for ways to solve a problem and thinking of how it could be an opportunity in the marketplace. He took his daughter to a park to ride some rides, and he noticed the rides were dirty and in bad shape, and the people operating the rides were rude. This problem that he thought about became Disneyland. He wanted a place that was safe and clean, where parents could take their kids. As Jason Kilar once said, “When I was 10, we drove to Disney World. When we arrived, what impressed me most was the meticulous attention to detail; there wasn't a gum wrapper anyplace.”

Lesson #3 – Be willing to reinvent yourself. Many people don’t know that Disney’s first major cartoon star was not Mickey Mouse but Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He had signed a contract with a distributor for the short cartoons and was thrilled with their success. When he went to renew the contract, they fired Walt and said that they legally owned Oswald, not Walt Disney, as outlined in the contract. Even worse, all of Walt’s animators left Walt and went to work for the other company. Walt went home having lost his biggest success. He had to start over. As he said: “Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.”

Lesson #4 – Surround yourself with talent. Walt Disney admitted that he was not the most talented at drawing or animation. As he once said, “I started, actually, to make my first animated cartoon in 1920. Of course, they were very crude things then and I used sort of little puppet things.” He was brilliant at knowing what he did best and was able to hire the best artists and animators in the world. The person who animated Mickey in the early was not Walt but an animator named Ub Iwerks. Walt didn’t have to have the talent for drawing, but he had the vision. It’s like being an architect—you don’t have to be the general contractor; you just have to know what you want the project to look like when it is done.

Lesson #5 – Be curious. Walt was an inquisitive soul and always wanted to learn new things. In animation, this led to some stunning developments in the early years. He is famous for making the first sound cartoon, the first live action and animation mix film, and the first full-length cartoon movie. Until Walt, cartoons were fluffy, short, mindless clips that came on before the main feature. Here is the point, and don’t miss it—he didn’t know how to do any of those things, but his curiosity led him to investigate and figure it out. Walt said: “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Lesson #6 – Diversify. Walt was smart enough after building a successful animation studio to get into live action movies, documentaries, television, amusement parks, and tons of products. He could have just run an animation studio, but that would not have created the kind of success his company had. I think Walt said it best: “Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.” Every business needs to keep looking at ways to grow and diversify.

This article originally appeared in Entrepreneur and has been slightly modified for republication. For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, CSP, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation.

Wisdom for This Year: Lessons We Keep Learning Over and Over by Shawn Doyle

A while back, I had oral surgery in order to remove an impacted wisdom tooth. My family dentist said the tooth needed to come out, and after reviewing my X-rays the oral surgeon also agreed that the tooth needed to come out. So off I went one early Friday morning to have dental surgery. I was asleep during my surgery and woke up feeling pretty good, and Friday night I slept fairly well. On Saturday I had a tiny bit of pain but felt well enough to go to the mall to do some shopping. All of that changed on Sunday night when the pain was so bad I was waking up all night long. By Monday I was miserable, popping painkillers every four hours and feeling extreme pain and fatigue. I was hurting. My day was a blur of prescriptions and ice packs and naps—when I was able to sleep. This pattern continued on for an entire week. I expected to recover in one or two days, but instead it took me eight days to fully recover. I was told by medical professionals that I was recovering slower because I was an “older patient” (I was 55 at the time) and because my surgery was “more involved” because I had a tooth that was impacted and laying sideways under the gum line. During my eight “lost” days I was not able to work, drive myself around, or really even think very clearly at all in my Percocet haze. Don’t get me wrong—I know that there are many people fighting long-term chronic diseases, and I was sick for only a measly eight days. I know that is nothing. It was, however, the most painful experience of my life in terms of the length and severity of pain.

But when I woke up on the ninth day, I felt so much better. I had energy! I was no longer in pain and no longer on pain-killing drugs. So as I embraced feeling well again, it got me thinking at the start of a new year—what do we take for granted?

Healthy is normal – Why do I feel that getting up and feeling great every day is normal? What if for a 56-year-old man that is not the norm? What if I am the exception, not the rule? So why do we blithely ignore the blessing of good health? I don’t know about you, but as for me I plan to celebrate each morning that I wake up and feel healthy and have energy.

That we will always have a job – Even in today’s economy, I think when people lose their jobs due to cutbacks or layoffs they are often shocked. “But I was the best marketing person in my department!” they say, or “I was the best salesperson in the region.” Unfortunately layoffs and cutbacks are often not related to the skillset of the person who’s been let go. It’s based on numbers and headcounts and budgets. As an entrepreneur and professional speaker, I never assume that I will have work, and I am always looking at the calendar for the next several months because my work is never assured. So why do people take their jobs for granted? One theory I believe is that once people come to a company and are hired, they assume that their position is permanent until they decide to leave. I call this the “job security mythology.” As for me, I went to celebrate every success that I have and will continue to be grateful for the business that I can produce.

That people will always be there – As a person who lost my wife suddenly over five years ago, I know that there is no assurance that someone I know will be there tomorrow. A friend of mine recently lost a dear colleague at work, and she had worked with him for over 15 years. She left the company a few years ago and so she had lost touch with him, but she had always planned to go back by the company to say hello to her former coworker. But he died of a sudden heart attack so she never had the opportunity to say hello, only goodbye at his funeral, and she regrets it. So I think that we take life for granted and we take the people in our life for granted. It’s a good idea when we lose a loved one to use that experience as a reminder to appreciate people who we love and like. As for me, I will make sure that all the people that I know, love, and like will be told this year that I love them and that I like them and truly enjoy working with them.

The supply of time is unlimited – My time in recovery at home was eight days, but it seemed like the first week lasted a month. Time crawls when you are in pain. On the flip side, when we are having fun, we perceive time to fly by, but I also see how as a society we waste time and throw it around so lightly. For example, the average American watches 32 hours of TV a week but then says they “don’t have enough time.” Imagine what they could do with those hours! I for one will not waste my time and will only watch one hour of TV a day (and some days none at all). I want to do more important things.

So what are you grateful for? Why?

What should you not take for granted? Why?

What do you need to look at more carefully? Why?

The answers to these questions will lead to a better life. It’s funny—having my wisdom tooth taken out may have helped me became wiser.

This article originally appeared in B2B Magazine and has also appeared in The Good Men Project. For more business and personal development insight from Shawn Doyle, check out his titles from Sound Wisdom, including his Jumpstart Series, The Sun Still Rises, The Leadership Manifesto, and Two Months to Motivation.