Mikzo Blog

Presentations, one-on-ones, to-do lists, family inter-actions…all can be handled with less stress and confusion when presented as a simple, clear mental (or written) statement: “I am attending Johnny’s baseball game today. We will be on time and I will only focus on enjoying the game.”
When we aren’t specifc in our thinking while making plans, [...]

Help your goals along by giving them a little extra kick in the pants. Why not create an “inspiration board” or “vision board” and place it on your wall at work? Seeing what you want will bolster your efforts tenfold. Here are a couple of quick guidelines:

Use cork or something permeable to easily tack [...]

When using the power of our thoughts, it is critical that the use of any negative language be avoided. Words like no, never, can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and not are simply not “heard” by the subconscious.
The reason the subconscious does not hear nega-tives is that it works with images only. To test this concept, say [...]

Now notice your “makes me” self-talk. “Makes me” is an example of language that is not self-responsible. It sends a message to yourself and the rest of us that you are not someone to be reckoned with. Examples include:
“Jane makes me so mad.”
“Dogs make me nervous.”
“He makes me uncomfortable.”
Watch your language [...]

Notice your language starting now. Are you using words like “should,” “have to,” “I’d better…”? Whether you think this way or speak this way, you are sending messages to yourself (and others) about your lack of personal power. Our language is not arbitrary. Research suggests that even joking about ourselves is picked up by the [...]

Remember, even if you consciously think in a positive mode, our subconscious still takes in the environment around us. With or without our approval, the subconscious hears and sees everything and takes it in as truth. To measure your positive versus negative ratio, try this exercise:
Imagine your day from beginning to end. When you [...]

The next time you get a jingle or a song in your head that you can’t get rid of, use it to your advantage.
Replace  the words of  the song with words  that affirm  your  goals.  For  instance,  if “Jingle  Bells”  is running through your mind, replace the words with something like:
Dashing to the [...]

No matter how high your enthusiasm may be after taking a training class or reading a new book, there will be no change unless you focus on this material for at least twenty-one days. That is the purpose of the “action plan” that you see at the end of many workshops. You will be fighting [...]

There is a convincing amount of data that confirms that our thoughts create neurological pathways or “grooves” in our brains. The more frequently we have a specific thought (or hear a thought verbalized by others), the deeper the indentation in the brain becomes. Eventually this “groove” takes the form of instinct or habit and becomes [...]

Here’s how to “do” affirmations correctly: Affirmations must be stated as if they are already true . It is a common error to state something like, “I will be promoted soon,” or, “I want to be financially comfortable.”
Unfortunately, what this language creates is the state of wanting to be promoted, but not actually being [...]

“Will power creates nothing durable.” —Napoleon In a nutshell, here’s how affirmations work:
1. Your subconscious mind accepts all data without question. Images, words, feelings all register with the subconscious. What this means is that if you are saying things to yourself like, “Attaboy!” then you’re in good shape. If you find yourself [...]

I know the word affirmation conjures up all sorts of imagery from “the new age” or pop psychology gurus, but affirmations really are more than just alternative theory. There are numerous published studies (via the New England Journal of Medicine and Duke University, to name just two) indicating that affirmations work. Whether you agree with [...]

Buddha said, “The mind is everything. What we think, we become.” This is true in all areas of our lives, but certainly where our careers are concerned. What we are thinking regularly is given attention or mental energy. Mental energy (our thoughts) is manifested in the physical realm as action. Regular actions become habits, and [...]

“Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.” —Thomas Alva Edison
As an adult, you have always been in the position to determine what it is you really and truly want to be “when you grow up.” No matter your current obsta- cles, bad choices, or credit card [...]

In any stress management regime, the emphasis on water intake is always mentioned. But why is water so important? What happens if we don’t take in the standard eight-ounce glasses every day? Is it really going to do that much harm? Read on for some important facts on good ol’ H2O.
1. Lack of water is [...]

I am a real quote fan and hope you are, too, since many things can be learned from others in our past and present. When you are faced with a difficulty, it can be an excellent use of time to search for quotes on that topic. It’s as easy as entering “quotes on conflict” into [...]

According to bestselling author Elaine St. James (Simplify Your Life), you can only have three priorities in life. If you work, that’s one. If you have a family, that’s two. What is your third thing? Working out? Church? Volunteering? You have to get rid of four, five, six (and so on) if you want to [...]

One of the best stress-busters is to weed out the chaos and complexity of your work world. Here’s a quote from Elaine St. James, the bestselling author of Simplify Your Life and Simplify Your Life at Work: “Maintaining a complicated life is a  great way to avoid improving it.” Are you finding yourself at the [...]

What happens when we finally make up our minds that we are a valuable tool in our own lives? That we need the same type of preventive maintenance as our computers or our cars? What might our activities look like once the thought that we have individual and unique value and should be treated as [...]

The term stress has become a badge of honor in our current world of faxes, email, and back-to-back schedules. When asked how we are doing, we inevitably answer, “Oh, I’m so busy; I am so stressed out.” To imagine answering,“Just feeling relaxed and enjoying today’s workload,” would likely mean being labeled a slacker, or at [...]

1   eat
Seriously. I see many people right around lunch-time  getting  anxious  or  irritated  or  sending  out snappish emails. Once they eat, they almost seem to say, “What was that all about?” We usually don’t see the connection between low blood sugar (caused by hunger) and our stress levels.
2   if you have a door, shut [...]

You may not remember your initial struggle with a habit that isn’t providing current-day benefts, but it’s likely the struggle existed. Even if you can swear there was no effort, the negative side effects were likely there and ignored. (How could a potato chip cause a zit? Can’t be true! Let’s break out the Lays!)
Once [...]

If 90 percent of my activity will always be habit, as The Power of Focus says, then what habits do I want/ need to set in place to achieve the results I want? This thinking makes a huge difference in getting results. Here are some things I have noticed that changed my thinking once I [...]

As mentioned in the introduction, I am an insatiable  reader of self-help, and I have managed to define an  entire career based on the sentence, “I just read this  incredible article. Let me tell you all about it…!” 
Interpersonal skills, motivation, self-improvement,  setting  and meeting  goals—all of  these  are  subject  matter I just can’t get [...]

Have you considered what your direct impact is on coworkers, customers, or citizens? People in such positions as police offcers, frefghters, or school- teachers can easily connect their jobs and their impact, but what about the rest of us?
What about sewer workers or garbage collec-tors? Well, we gotta have clean water. What would [...]

Jobs are more than just paychecks. They are social arenas, spiritual workshops, developmental play- grounds, group therapy, and one of the best tools for learning about ourselves. Anyone who has ever been fred from a job can tell you that this signifcant stressor was one of the best learning experiences of his life (albeit a [...]

A few metaphors for thinking about these different techniques is to think of them as a set of tools in a toolbox, a collection of healing plants in a garden, or a selection of software for carry out different tasks. Whatever the metaphor, these are basically a repertoire of techniques you can draw on separately [...]

As the stories in the previous chapters have illustrated, it not always easy to figure out what to do in a different situation—and there are many possible alternatives. Even if you choose what seems to be an optimal course of action at the time, you may not have all the facts or information you need; [...]

Tyrants may eventually inspire revolts or the intervention of outside sympathetic third parties to overthrow them—as in the toppling of Saddam in Iraq. But the process doesn’t often work that way in the workplace, when you have a tyrannical boss who calls the shots. He or she is fully in power—the owner of the company [...]

Keeping up in today’s competitive and fast changing work environment can be a problem, especially when you have to keep learning new skills and strategies and fear your job or business could be the next to go. Some people even start thinking grievance or lawsuit when they find that the promises made to them when [...]

In today’s climate of dot.com and high-tech layoffs, many people are running scared. People are afraid that the next job axe may fall on them; that the next business cutback will chop off their clients. Still other changes and readjustments in the workplace are due to more and more cross-cultural diversity across and within departments. [...]