Examining Your Own Belief Structure

We each steer our lives around a set of beliefs we have on ourselves, on others and on the world around us.  These beliefs shape our decisions, thoughts and ultimately our actions then as a result whether we know it or not.  It is beliefs that also shape us into the individuals we are and it is these very beliefs that limit or allow us to change and grow in our lives as well.  We all have them, we all have a unique set of beliefs even if many overlap, and we often don’t examine our beliefs enough to truly understand ourselves. Personal development is highly related to these beliefs and without taking time to understand them, we can never achieve the maximum personal growth we desire.  So, in this article we will explore our belief structures as they are in intermingled critical point

It is common to reflect on questions about ourselves, about our character traits and the description we have of ourselves, and most people can do that quite easily but it’s much more difficult to describe one-self entirely on the beliefs that we have.  That is where I feel the true character is revealed and knowledge of those beliefs lets each of us to move those from the subconscious mind to the conscious mind where we can shift our beliefs and decisions more easily by choice.  Without examining your own belief structure, we easily confuse our beliefs and how they steer us, with situational excuses or victimization, both which highly limit our ability to change and grow in areas we are striving for improvement in to become a better person.

Core Values and Principles

Core values and principles are often looked at to define things or a person, but they are unfounded without also looking at the beliefs that shape them.  Values and principle are really just the actions or results we show because of what we believe.  For example, take integrity as a value or principle.  Integrity is something that is shown when a person acts consistently with good judgment.  Well that judgment is really part of the underlying belief.  A person with integrity believes that making the right choice and acting consistently in those actions is worth doing or the right thing to do.  The moral aspect here is not the point, the belief in this moral aspect however, is.  You can have a similar value or principle with a negative side as well that is triggered by a belief.  Some people believe that if they don’t get their way, then they will also lose power and it is a sign of weakness.  The belief of this being a weakness steers that anger.

Activities

Core values then turn into action as we choose our activities in life.  Perhaps our activities come about from circumstances you may think, but I think they are much more in line with our beliefs than we let ourselves realize.  In fact, all of our actions are at the very least, influenced by our beliefs and so our activities are a result of choice, and the choices we each make are a direct result of our beliefs that steer those choices.  So, beliefs impact this area of our lives as well.

Aspirations and Dreams

And finally, the area I so love to write about. Aspirations. Dreams.  Everything we hope to become and do and learn is wrapped up inside our many aspirations.  Our aspirations and dreams are a reflection of character and they define the spirit within that holds them. Our dreams as children create a path for life that could be followed by what imagination places in our minds.  This creative mind is a catalyst to forming new beliefs and generates an internal motivation and drive to make the imaginative aspects reality, therefore also forging the belief the dream is based on into a realization.  If only it were left on its own for this to happen…

Unfortunately, our dreams as children and aspirations through life are not shaped only by our imaginations.  They are also shaped by the endless social aspects that form the majority of our beliefs and it is these beliefs that limit and bound our capabilities.  Some people rely more heavily on these social influences than others, but we are all affected by them to some degree.  The problem with them is that the social aspect makes wild dreams and aspirations something to be avoided, since it is less likely to ‘fit in’ or to be ‘realistic’ as others define it.  To avoid embarrassment, fear of rejection and the many other limiting beliefs, we often succumb to what is more regularly accepted as ‘normal’ and we stop chasing our dreams.  The beliefs that these social aspects are either more important or perhaps more likely shapes the decision we make when it comes to aspirations.  Some of us accept being the social outcast and are willing to take those consequences by still going for their ‘unique’ dream and others ignore their dreams in order to be accepted more by others.  Both are beliefs, the difference is that we easily forget about the daily influences and beliefs that we all wish deep down we were not limited by.

So with all this weighing on your mind and thoughts, I leave you with just a simple question.  What beliefs in your life are the strongest ones you have and how are they shaping your choices?

Posted by Mike King under Learning | 15 Comments »

Leading Up to The Summit

Well, every week can feel like a bit of a mountain climb at times.  Work is busy, life is busy and all that just to enjoy the weekend.  The climbing analogy for a work week is that its a long haul uphill to look forward to the end and for me, this analogy has been especially true venturing out to climb a few local summits in the nearby Rockies.  I wrote a few weeks ago about climbing Mr. Allan with my Unicycle and how it needed great perseverance.  I generally love to always take my uni with me, but I knew this climb was not a good fit for having it since there was a fair bit of scrambling and some bouldering to do.  Neither of which fair well with a unicycle on your back.  After doing the trip though now for the first time, I’ll go again for sure, and perhaps with the uni next time just for the fun of it and some scree downhill runs.  That would be excellent to ride on the unicycle!

Anyway, I had a shortened time frame on the weekend as I had plans to get to the lake for some wake boarding in the afternoon so I planned to pack light and move quickly to summit Mt. Yamnuska west of Calgary.  It was an absolutely perfect day and luckily I made it out early to the trail before anyone else so was fortunate to solo the entire trip up without seeing a sole.  Perfect solitude!  Sometimes I wish the hectic days at work could be started out in similar solitude, to clear the mind and get focused back on life, purpose, God and nature.  I guess that is what the weekend will have to be for when you with a lot with other people.  Don’t get me wrong, I love working with others, but sometimes I just really like time to myself and the beautiful world I find myself in.

So as usual, I had some great adventures on this climb as I don’t really do anything in my life like the masses so of course I didn’t stick to the trail, I had to venture off finding new things, getting turned off course and venturing out on slopes that really are not the best places to be.  After a few hours of climbing, some detours and a bit of backtracking I made it up to the summit to enjoy the incredible views with not a cloud in the sky.  Amazing!

Photography

Definitely one of my passions in nature is to capture it and photography, especially natural landscapes I have always had a keen eye for.  I spend a lot of time taking photos on a hike and then move quickly to the next vista to capture it as well.  Some people call me Mr. panorama since I absolutely love panorama photography and take them at every chance I have.  I’ve learned a great deal about photography through my artistic and 3D graphics business/hobby.  I have always used Canon’s digital elph series of point and shoot cameras (since I must be able to easily pack them in my active sporting / hobbies) so I really find myself always pushing the limits of such a simple camera without going all out for a DSLR or something more impressive.  Personally, I like to the challenge of taking great photos with a less than fantastic camera and it drives me crazy to see so many people with camera 10x better and worth 10x more than mine who don’t even know how to run them.  Photography is about knowing your camera in order to capture the perfect photo, its NOT about having a camera that CAN capture perfect photos yet not knowing how to use it.

The digital aspect of photography is really what I enjoy about it.  I love learning and playing with photography software tools and making the photos look their very best with some editing.  Panoramas are perfect examples of this as you just can’t do them without digital editing and the software tools now for it are simply stunning.  Please have a look through these select photos and panorama views and I really want to encourage you to look at what you capture as far as moments in life, how do you remember your adventures and is photography an element that you use to reflect on life and personal development?  I know if it for me so I wanted to share that and a few thoughts on that subject here.  I hope you enjoy it, I’d love to read your comments!

Note: If you are interested in seeing the summit panorama I created it as a full 360° view using quicktimeVR and an interactive summit panorama using Microsoft’s new HDView.  Both available free using those tools.

Posted by Mike King under Life | 8 Comments »

Anyone who knows me, knows I like to have a LOT of fun and that I really don’t take day to day life all that seriously. I can definitely put in some focused attention and get the job done and while I do that often, I don’t let it happen without any element of fun.  Fun is something I think so many people are lacking in life and its especially true about the workplace.  Many workplaces are places of sterile positioning and power struggles that you can’t just work together as a team, have fun doing it and still make great accomplishments.  In fact, I challenge you with the statement that any workplace that has fun doing their work, will get a lot more done because of the engagement between people and simply because people enjoy their work more when it is something they like to do.

Fun in the workplace comes in many flavors and obviously what I consider fun won’t necessarily be the exact fit for you or your workplace but my examples and suggestions here can easily serve as ideas for building your own fun work environment.  Not surprisingly, most elements of fun in the workplace require some imagination and fortunately, imagination and fun both lead to more innovation and ideas sharing among co-workers.  This is one of the many great impacts fun has on an organization as well, especially in one where design, innovation and new ideas are an important part of the company’s success.  It certainly is in mine and so fun brings even more than its most obvious personal benefits by also encouraging the visual and imaginative mind to do more than what is required for day to day tasks.

Elements of Fun

Personal enjoyment

Everyone wishes their jobs to be something they enjoy and fun adds an element that creates that feeling of enjoyment.  If the workplace is fun, you will ultimately like your work more and put more effort into it and be happier with the job. A good job helps make a person happy and can add a lot of fulfillment and personal enjoyment to a person’s life.

Sparks creativity and imagination

Fun in the workplace can come in many forms and many of those, such as humor, games, jokes, competitions, interesting challenges or systems with prizes require new ways of thinking, wit or cleverness, teamwork or challenge and other activities that trigger new ideas, thinking and creative work. Many people simply consider anything creative to be fun (I’m one of those people) so tasks that involve these elements are often close associated or even sparking new creativity, innovation and imagination among those involved.

Can be a strong change proponent

So fun will trigger people to think about have more fun, often improving systems and processes or tasks along the way to make them both effective and fun in the process. This creativity is a wonderful partner to fun when it triggers ideas and rally’s support for change.  Change is scary to many people and so making change part of something that is enjoyable takes the fear out of it and it helps to support the change instead of add fear to it.  The ideas that come from fun programs then often encourage or reinforce even more change and it can continue to feed on itself if the systems are dynamic enough to let fun steer some of the work tasks and processes.

Engages teams and cross functional teams more easily

Most things that are fun in the workplace will only be successful if they are done with multiple people and when people have a chance to work together or compete with one another doing it.  Many of the systems and programs I’ve seen that are fun are when multiple departments or teams come together.  This can be anything from team building exercizes or job sharing to competitions or social events.  Activities that bring people together from multiple areas that do not generally work together are more social, and even if the activities are entirely work focused, the new social aspect is fun, and engages people more than without these activities in place.  And its this engagement between teams then that really starts to benefit the organization as the company works more and more integrated among its people instead of in silos or separate areas.

Builds personal relationships faster for more effective teamwork

The engagement between teams just above obviously happens within teams as well and the advantage of this is that personal relationships are build faster among teams when they are having more fun in their work.  People interact more and communicate much more frequently during fun activities and ultimately, when they know each other better.  People with closer relationships understand one another well and can be much more effective as a team than people who do not know each other well.  This is the case in all areas of life and it works well in the workplace as well.  Fun in the workplace is simply an element that can encourage this to happy and provide the environment needed to allow effective teamwork.

Increases employee loyalty and lengthens employee service time

People who are happy doing something tend to do more of it or to do it longer and so this is certainly true when it comes to work.  If you like your job and work because you have a lot of fun doing it, you are more likely to stay. People who are more likely to stay, will provide more value to an organization through gained expertise, strong relationships and teamwork with colleagues and by reducing overall training time and learn curve ratios compared to their delivered results.  All can be had by using fun in the workplace to keep wanting to stay!

Examples of Fun in the Workplace

These are just some of the things I have experienced in my work environments or know of that help to promote a fun work environment:

• Encouraging and allowing people to personalize their workspace with personal items, signs, posters, favorite team jerseys, flags, objects, gadjets or any other simply items.
• Keeping formalities out of day to day business and making daily communication informal, interesting and lively.
• Ensuring that staff meetings and group meetings are upbeat, lively and exciting.  Leaders must bring energy and enthusiasm to their teams and make it obvious and visible.
• Diverse personality types is advantageous for many reasons, but especially for adding fun, since you get more variety in the type of people working together when you have a mix of personality or behavior types.
• Managers and leaders must allow and promote fun themselves so that all employees know it is not only allowed, but encouraged.
• Jokes and humorous stories should be regularly available by postings, newsletters, and in scheduled meetings.
• Create and support an active social club to organize events, games and sports for all to participate in outside of work.
• Have the social club coordinate monthly social lunches and BBQs.
• Encourage simple, harmless practical jokes around the office
• Use team names and nick names for people based on their work or areas of expertise
• Play on people’s reputation with words, encouragement and tactful teasing
• Ensure high amounts of teamwork without individuals becoming too self situated in their roles
• Rotate job functions within teams to experience varying styles and personalities in repetitive tasks

Risks with Fun in the Workplace

There are of course some risks with adding more fun in the workplace and while they should not be ignored, they can easily be mitigated and controlled.  The most easily occurring risk could be that jokes and practical jokes get out of hand or unprofessional.  It is very important to know that any humor must be clean and clean from any prejudice, racism or sexism.  If this is monitored and correctly quickly when it is visible at any level, the humor can be kept professional and fun without the risk of hurting feelings or attacking anyone’s character.

Another obvious risk is that fun can be a distraction to actually getting work done and it can sometimes seem like a waste of time where pressing deadlines and tight schedules just don’t allow any time for fun.  I’d definitely argue against this thought process since I’ve seen how much more productive people are (including myself) at times of stress when there is some fun still to be had in the workplace.  The ratio of time to let the workplace be more fun instead of stagnant, is well worth the small number of hours lost considering the increased productivity, loyalty and imagination that the fun aspects of work bring out in people.  The benefits easily outweigh the risks and with attention and clear expectations about fun and time spent having fun in the workplace, it can properly be managed and encouraged to make all employees enjoy their work a little bit more!

Posted by Mike King under Business | 4 Comments »

I’ve got a short list of resources this month as I’ve really not spent any time surfing or using social media this month.  Too much great outdoors to enjoy and explore lately so here are the few top picks I had from what I have been reading and enjoying!

Favorite Articles and Highlights from June

Treasure Trove of 50 Free Classic Personal Development eBooks

Naked in Eden (Book Trailer) – Robin has become a good online friend through our blogs and so her book and site are definitely worth a preview.

How to Avoid The Personal Development Plateau – Marc and Angel always have great coverage of ideas and this article is a good resources for continuing personal development.

Sharing Life Skills Newsletter – a new personal development newsletter that I contributed to for Jonathan from Advanced Life Skills.  This looks like it is going to be a great growing resource and currently available for free so please do go check out the premier issue and sign up for future issues.

Lists and Archives

From my own archives here, I thought I would highlight one of my earlier archives.  This one is about the common excuse everyone makes about not having enough time.  This is easier than you might think to overcome.

LearnThis has made it into another top blog list.  This one is the Top 50 productivity blogs to watch in 2010. Thank you so much for the inclusion among all of these great blogs!

Posted by Mike King under Learning | 7 Comments »