Labels: Welcome

# posted by Gary @ 7:30 p.m.

"Any thought that contains love has a calming effect." ~ Hugh Prather (1938- ) U.S. author & counselor  

Next time you're stressed, try a simple approach I call my "Distress Controller™".  When you do, you immediately will lessen or defeat the negative effects of the "flight or fight" response² 

³ triggered by excessive dis-stress ...the bad kind of 'stress'. 

At the same time, you will automatically and quickly produce the healthful "relaxation response"⁴ in your body.

"'Dis-stress' is deadly for professionals and the level of your 'stress' requires constant optimization!" ~ gfp '42™

When you do, you will better regulate your thinking and, thereby, your emotional response to whatever is happening in your life at the moment. You'll also prevent your strengths from becoming liabilities, which dis-stress does to us all, as you'll discover here.

In other words, you will "optimize your stress" using this simple process:

1. Sitting or lying down and closing your eyes, if possible. (It still works when you can't!)
   
2. Check all the major muscle groups in your body and allow them to relax.
3. Focusing on your heart (Touching your chest near there, when appropriate, is subtle. It is doable even with others around. You'll focus easier on your heart by doing this.) 
4. Taking a deep breath and hold it for about 3 seconds.
5. Exhaling slowly.
   
6. Reflecting on a personal, heart-regulating issue. (How do I do that, you ask? While doing #3 and 4 a few times, ask yourself what would be a more effective and efficient emotion or attitude than you're currently experiencing ...one that will not only be better for you but also for those around you. Try appreciation. Or compassion. Or love! If the feeling doesn't come, just hold your heart-focus⁵ and stay neutral. When the feeling does arrive, reflect on the encouragement that floods you at your centre, quietly for a few more seconds, while continuing to breathe deeply as above.) 
   
7. Do not worry about whether you're doing the above 'right' or try to force things. Remain neutral and let relaxation occur naturally ...as it will when you regularly practise the Distress Controller™.

The above is a great, first step toward more effective and ongoing self care. That's one outcome you can be really happy about!

Here’s your people-relationship and life-skills S-M-A-R-TTip™: 

"Dis-stress control & stress optimization using my Distress Controller™ are moment-to-moment essentials for professionals who wish to flourish & survive because you cannot manage stress!" ~ gfp '42™

When you smooth your heart-brain interaction⁶, you feel better and can be at your best. You are better equipped to think more clearly because you can see people and situations from a broader, more complete perspective.

When you smooth your heart-brain interaction, you also become a better decision-maker and problem-solver. (Hopefully, increased wisdom would be a benefit for you!)

Please remember also, quality customer/people relationships are a moment-to-moment choice, each time. And a full life is an unending series of wise decisions. Try my Distress Controller™ ...right now... please! You'll believe in its power when you sense how it makes you feel.

You've got nothing to lose. And everything to gain. 

Please call me at the number below if I can help you in this area further! It's a coaching specialty for me because of what I learned from surviving a near-death experience and spending about 5 years being unable to work.⁷ 

OK, scroll back up and work through the steps ...now!

Please also drop me a line using the link immediately below this paragraph. I'd love to hear what you think and how you feel about the above.

By clicking here, you can e-mail me regarding questions about this article, to request other stress management information or to be added to my S-M-A-R-TBriefing™ Mailing List.

With my compliments and permission to reproduce, without change or profiteering, including the following:

© Copyright 1987-2010  Gary F. Patton

PattonAssociates.ca, People Development Coaches

"I specialize in business & personal life coaching that helps professionals flourish by relating and serving better cross-culturally & cross-generationally!"

142-26 Livingston Rd. Toronto ON CAN  M1E 4S4   Tel: 416-931-7048   E-Mail: Gary@PattonAssociates.ca

View my Visual Resume     Discover places where we can connect

This article is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 License.

# posted by Gary @ 4:31 p.m. 0 comments

Only in Toronto could isolated spasms of political protest drive a whole population into a state of collective hysteria

You'll find a Wordle for the following article at http://is.gd/d9246

When I was covering the riots at the Summit of The Americas in Quebec City eight years ago, the most useful data came through my nose: If I smelled tear gas in the air, I would follow the scent -- Toucan Samstyle -- to wherever in the city police happened to be raining tear gas canisters on protestors. Like other reporters and riot tourists, I even took one of the spent canisters home with me--you could find the things all over the city--to put on my desk and show my colleagues what a bad-ass I was.

The Quebec City protests of 2001 were about 10 times the size of the protests at Toronto's G20 summit this past weekend. And they were more violent, too -- featuring not only tear gas, but also frequent use of rubber bullets and water cannon. Some protesters even got through the security perimeter -- which never happened in Toronto. At one point in Quebec City, there was so much tear gas in the air that the official summit delegates couldn't even leave their building.

All of this violence was rightly denounced. And yet, somehow, the country didn't descend into hand-wringing about how Quebec City's image had been irreparably damaged in the eyes of the world. There was no talk of the historic city receiving a "black eye" on the world stage. The city simply cleaned itself up and got on with things. Within a day or two, it was back to the usual business of provincial governance and tourism.

Here in Toronto, on the other hand, we are in the midst of a spasm of civic mortification. Over the weekend, I listened to radio reporters breathlessly tell listeners that tear gas actually had been used on the streets of "Toronto the Good" -- as proof that the city was enduring some Cormac McCarthyesque apocalypse. Egged on by thousands of media images of the same three cop cars burning, my Twitter and Facebook correspondents filled their postings with hysterical dispatches: One particularly breathless Rosedale denizen compared the violence to "Soweto '76." A Toronto Sun columnist compared a brief detention of some protesters at Queen Street and Spadina Avenue to "martial law." The normally sensible Don Martin wrote that the scenes have "bought Toronto an international black eye." And the Toronto Star -- well, the Star covered the story exactly as you'd expect it to. Naturally, this being Canada, everyone is now demanding a public inquiry.

As a Torontonian myself, I am naturally not happy about what happened over the weekend. But neighbours, get a grip please: Thanks to a strong police presence, not a single person got seriously hurt, let alone killed. Even the property damage was minimal: As I wrote in Monday's Post, when I biked around the protest-affected areas of downtown Toronto on Saturday evening, I was surprised to see how few businesses actually had been attacked -- and in most cases, the damage was confined to a single plate glass window. That very evening, the downtown core was thronged with the usual crowd of well-dressed restaurant-goers and tacky club-hoppers. I guess none of them got the news about Toronto being transformed into Soweto.

I love living in Toronto. But in times of strain, the city takes on the character of an over-privileged wimp, shrieking and sobbing at the merest civic pin-pricks. We saw this in 1999, when the mayor asked for army troops to help battle the sort of snowstorms that Edmonton and Winnipeg seem to get every other week. We saw it again in 2005, when a series of local gangland shootings caused the media to present the city as a sort of Escape from New York wasteland of nihilistic violence -- even though we have one of the lowest per-capita rates of violence in the world. And now, a weekend of scattered protests, featuring even more scattered criminal vandalism, has had the same brain-scrambling effect.

In many parts of the world, including large parts of Europe, a protest featuring no deaths or major injuries would barely make the daily news. And indeed, it is telling how feebly Toronto's violence registered in the global media. I have in front of me print editions of three world-leading newspapers, The New York Times, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. All three front the G20 summit. And not a single one of those A1 stories even mentions the protests (though separate stories on the protests were included, in the back pages).

Is it any wonder the rest of Canada dislikes Toronto? We say we want to be a world-class city. But then, when the price tag comes -- in this case, in the form of the cliques of idiots who show up at each and very "world-class" G8, G20, WTO, IMF and World Bank conference -- we fall to the ground and weep.

It's almost as if someone tear-gassed us or something.

Labels: anarchists, G20, police brutality, riots, self-esteem, Toronto

# posted by Gary @ 2:17 p.m. 0 comments

Another Patton Associates S-M-A-R-TBriefing™

The Power of Love

by: Gary F. Patton (gfp '42™)

The Beatles were right! "All we need is love!"

That's because love is the most powerful force in the universe ...in your home, your workplace and in your neighbourhood. Recurring research proves it.

For you business people who doubt my linking the words 'love' and 'workplace', here's what one top management guru says on the subject:

“Love in organizations is the most potent source of power we have available.” ~ Margaret Wheatley, U.S. author, consultant & management guru (From: ‘Leadership and the New Science’)

The other names love goes by in a world that is preoccupied by sex and Hollywood's definition of love amplify and explain Ms. Wheatley's position. They are affection, appreciation, compassion, non-judmentalism and similar words.

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave." ~ Mohandas Gandhi (1869 – 1948) Indian statesman

Like other positive emotional states, love, like its namesakes, improves human performance, including the way the brain processes information.

Love creates more order in the pattern of signals coming from the heart to the brain thus facilitating cortical function. (See Institute of Hearthmath for powerful research on this 'stress-optimizing' issue.)

That's the part of the brain those of us who work were hired to use. It's the same part that we entrepreneurs are wise to optimize if we want to stay in business!

"If you want to hear the truth, listen to your heart because it doesn't know how to lie."
~ Gingerale

Here’s your customer service and people skills S-M-A-R-TTip™: "To love" is a verb ...an active not a passive verb, the synonym for which is "to serve"! And serving others is love made visible!" ~ gfp '42™ When we smooth our heart-brain interaction by feeling love (serving), we feel better and can be our best. We are better equipped to think more clearly because we can see people and situations from a broader, more complete perspective. When we do, we are better problem-solvers and decision-makers. We also are better lovers! "To love" is also a choice. And remember, quality customer service is a moment-to-moment choice. And life is an unending series of choices.

Please comment immediately below. Alternatively, by clicking here, you can e-mail me regarding questions about this article or to be added to my S-M-A-R-TBriefing™ Mailing List.

With my compliments and permission to reproduce, without change, including the following:

© 2010 Gary Patton, PattonAssociates.ca, People Development Coaches

"Specialists in assisting business & professional people to relate and serve better cross-culturally and cross-generationally!"

142-26 Livingston Rd. Toronto ON CAN M1E 4S4 E-Mail: Gary@PattonAssociates.ca

View my Visual Resume Discover places where we can connect

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 License.

Labels: anxiety, appreciation, compassion, creativity, joy, love, non-judmentalism, peace, planning, productivity, Spirituality, stress management, time management

# posted by Gary @ 8:36 a.m. 0 comments

Another Patton Associates S-M-A-R-TBriefing^_™

"Breakthrough Thinking® ...Adding Distinctive Value To Your Business & Life"

by: Gary F. Patton (gfp '42™)

Your Challenge

"Change is constant and inevitable. Improvement and growth are optional!" ~ gfp '42™

Every day, in service centers, offices, factories and homes, people try to solve problems. Yet, more often than not, their "solutions" are inappropriate, or even harmful. Incorrect thinking is usually the reason for failure in any endeavour.

You can cope with change, improve and grow in the new millennium, personally and organizationally, only by adding distinctive value, not just value, to your life and business. You will do so as you successfully solve your problems focusing on your customer whomever that may be in any circumstance.

The Key To Adding Distinctive value

Breakthrough Thinking® (BT) is the key distinctive value-adding process Patton Associates introduces to individuals and teams in working with them on any assignment ...at no additional cost.

BT adds distinctive value to organizations by enabling an individual or team to discover the purpose-oriented, solution-after-next for their challenge ...now and in the future. With appropriate coaching, your leadership team will learn how to use BT on its own to solve future business problems, with minimal or no outside coaching help.

At the same time, individuals also learn how to solve personal problems away from the office ...just as effectively.

How Breakthrough Thinking® Will Help Your Team

BT blends the best of the usual "Chance", "Affective" and "Rational" problem-solving techniques in a natural way. It is easy for you to use for every kind of problem. BT overcomes the inherent shortcomings in each of the traditional problem-solving approaches. It assumes that you have decided not to use the "Do Nothing" approach. BT is:

• simple ...You need no special knowledge or extensive training to use BT. It simply enhances your own creativity.

• practical ...You will increase the likelihood of finding a quality concept or "light bulb" idea, getting that idea accepted and, then, implementing it in less time and at less cost.
• transferable ...You can use BT in all areas of your life to enhance your success.

• proven effective ... BT is practiced worldwide by some of the most successful and innovative organizations. These range from industrial giants, like Mitsubishi, to hospitals, schools, governments and small businesses.

Putting BT's Principles To Work For You

The power of BT is its simplicity. It is a simple, not simplistic, and disciplined, common-sense approach to avoiding the seven basic errors usually made in problem solving.

BT gives you a successful thinking process to use, consistently, in solving your problems. BT focuses on solutions for your future rather than on problems in your past. To put it to work in your organization and life:

1. Recognize that every problem is unique ... This prevents you from applying canned solutions, that may have worked in the past, to new needs and different situations.
2. Focus on purposes ... This prevents you from working on the wrong problem by stripping away non-essentials and addressing both the immediate and practical, larger purposes for the future at the same time.
3. Look for the solution-after-next ... This prevents you from stifling creativity and more effective solutions by working backward from an ideal, target solution for your future, larger purpose.
4. Understand that every problem is part of a larger system ... This prevents you from overlooking complexities that you must embody in implementing your solution by making recommendations that fit the real world while coming closest to your ideal target.
5. Limit data collection up front ... This prevents you from getting bogged down in detail and missing a simple solution because you know too much about your problem.
6. Develop your solution with the people who will use it ... This prevents hostility and results in ownership of the changes by the solution's end-users from the beginning.
7. Adopt a betterment time-line ... This prevents you from losing perspective by planning for a sequence of purpose-directed solutions as a bridge to a better future.

Enhancing Your Team's Creativity

BT is the natural process identified by Gerald Nadler, of the University of Southern California and Shozo Hibino, of Chuyko University, Japan. They spent years researching, applying, and verifying what it is that successful leaders do to come up with truly creative, ground-breaking solutions to their problems. Nadler and Hibino identified the seven, simple, cross-cultural principles that consistently are used by all effective problem solvers. They also have discovered the steps that you can use to increase your success in solving your problems optimally.

BT could result in your using one of the new, business management processes for coping with 21st century change and competition as well as the need to provide superior, customer-delighting service. "Re-engineering", "chaos inducement" or another process could be your BT solution to your problem. But, BT does not start from the assumption that there is only one solution for your unique problem.

Unleashing New Possibilities

Here’s your customer service and people skills S-M-A-R-TTip™: "Consider the exciting possibilities for enhancing your potential and performance with Breakthrough Thinking! ~ gfp '42™ BT is elegant and powerful in its simplicity. Its seven, common sense principles, consistently applied by individuals and work or home teams, have the potential to revolutionize your business or organization and your life. You will communicate better and more powerfully when you do, no matter who or how you serve. Remember, quality customer service is a moment-to-moment choice. And life is an unending series of choices.

Please drop me a line using the link immediately below this paragraph. I'd love to hear what you think and how you feel about the above.

With my compliments and permission to reproduce, without change, including the following:

© Copyright 2000-10 Gary Patton, PattonAssociates.ca, People Development Coaches & Consultants

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 License.

Labels: communications, creativity, leadership, planning, problem solving, stress management, time management

# posted by Gary @ 5:29 p.m. 0 comments