A Change in Scenery
By M.J. Clark

As I was on my way in to work yesterday, I felt so very happy that I actually started laughing in the car. It wasn’t a particularly special day, and I had gotten no great news. My happiness stemmed from the fact that I was heading to our new office. ILS recently moved to a beautiful building in Westerville, and I was really excited about spending another day in our great, new office.

This positive emotional experience made me think about the New Year and how a change in scenery can really change a person’s outlook. It made me think of other times when I felt excited and alive, like when I was a kid and a new school year was starting, or when I went skiing for the first time, or when I made a new friend who I thought was truly wonderful.

It’s the little things in life that change our perspective. Don’t we all need that from time to time? And yet how many of us are reluctant to try new things? When was the last time you made a new friend? When the last time you took a class to learn something new?

I have coached many people who feel “stuck.” They are not sure why, but they feel bored with life. If this sounds like you, I encourage you to try something new this year. You don’t have to move to a new office building to experience the feeling I did. You can get that same feeling of excitement by scheduling time with a  good friend, trying something you have always wanted to but never had the courage to, or just signing up to volunteer for an organization you admire.

If you decide to take this advice, I hope this change in scenery will lead you to a bit more excitement in your life. You are in charge of your own happiness, so take some steps to truly take charge.

Do You Deserve It?
By Steven L. Anderson, Ph.D., MBA

So much of success is feeling like you deserve it.  If there is a part of you that is not ready to succeed it will hold you back.

That happened to me recently.  Last summer, Char and I bought the house of our dreams, but it was really my dream.  It is a beautiful place that sits on the lakeshore of Hoover Reservoir.  Every day the lake presents us with views that make us happy that we moved there.

So, on 7/4/09 I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.  I had an amazing wife and six great kids.  I was healthy.  I loved my job and sales for the year were fifty percent higher than the year before.  And now I was living in the house of my dreams.  I must be some kind of stud, I thought.

Time for some humility.  From that point until recently, it seemed like nothing could go right.  We couldn’t sell our other house.  The previous owners of our new house were smokers and try as we might we could not get the smell out.  Then things started to break in our new home.   At last count, six of the major appliances broke including the furnace and the freezer.  

Each time we had to call the home warranty company and Char, God bless her, had to wait a half day for the repairman to show up.  They usually ordered parts and then she had to wait for them again.  She did this while working in two plays, working full time at ILS and painting most of the inside of our home.  What a partner I have!

Meanwhile, the recession finally caught up with our business.  Sales were still flat with the previous year, but with two mortgages to pay and all of the moving expenses we were going backward fast!  Also, even though we kept on dropping the price of our home, no one would put in an offer.  I have never felt so powerless in my life.  I would lay awake at night trying to think of some way to get rid of that house.  It was very scary.    (continued)