PRINCIPLES OF CHANGE - How to Survive

Change is inevitable.  To survive in these times, you may have to reinvent yourself.  

A little self help-ish which is not normally my thing but a couple of good take-aways.

As freelancers, we must adapt to change as a matter of survival.  However, for many people, change is very frightening.  What I found important in this article is that something good usually follows the toughest changes.  This is a first in a series of nine by Ariane de Bonvoisin.

1st of Nine Principles

After interviewing people going through all types of change -- whether it be losing a job, divorce, a cancer diagnosis, becoming a new parent or starting a business -- I noticed that there were some very similar patterns, behaviors and attitudes among people who are good at change. Since change is the word of the year for all of us, it's my hope that this research will help you with whatever change you may be navigating.

I discovered nine principles I want to share. Each of my columns in the next few months will highlight one of them.

Principle 1: People who successfully navigate change have positive beliefs.

Your biggest need right now is to develop new beliefs about yourself, about the particular change you are facing now and about life in general. Nothing will have a bigger impact on the way you handle change. What you are saying to yourself, your inner dialogue, is your biggest enemy right now.

Responding to any of the changes you are going through right now first requires positive beliefs about change and life.

Three questions about change
I host a weekly video podcast called "Change Nation," where I talk to experts, authors and celebrities, and I always ask them the same three questions at the end to discover their paths through change.

First, what is the belief you go to in times of change? Answers I get include "This will pass," "Things work out in the end," "I will get through this," "I'm not alone," "I have faith." You, too, have an overarching belief that has gotten you through tough stuff in the past. What is it for you? Now is the time to find safety in that.

Second, finish the sentence: The best thing about change is ...

And finally, what is the best change you've ever made? Think back. What is extraordinary is that a big majority of my guests have said it was a hard change. Yes, their most beneficial changes were also their hardest: a divorce, getting through a loss, being laid off. The thousands who have gone through change successfully? They are all optimists. Something good followed their toughest changes.

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• Principle 2:  People who successfully navigate change know that change always brings something positive into their lives.

  Every change has a gift associated with it. While it’s natural to find change hard it’s important to remember that there are two sides to every coin and that something positive will always come. This is by far the most important belief to have during the first thirty days of change.

• Principle 3:  People who successfully navigate change know they are resilient, strong, and capable of getting through anything.

  You are much stronger, much smarter, and much more intuitive than you have ever been told. You are more resilient and more powerful. Once you truly know and believe this, you will be able to get through any change- even the hardest one you can imagine.

• • Principle 4:  People who successfully navigate change know that every challenging emotion they feel is not going to stop them and will guide them to positive emotions that help them feel better.

    Negative emotions can stall us, making change harder, while the positive ones can help us move through a change in a simpler, quicker, and more conscious way.

  • Principle 5:  People who successfully navigate change know that the quicker they accept the change, the less pain and hardship they will feel.

    Let go of the idea of how life should be.

  • Principle 6:  People who successfully navigate change use empowering questions and words, think better thoughts, and express their feelings.

    At your most stuck point, if you can speak with different words, think a slightly better thought, and get in touch with how you are feeling, you can become unstuck in a matter of minutes.

  • Principle 7:  People who successfully navigate change know they are connected to something bigger than themselves.

    When everything around you is changing, look for the part of you that doesn’t change. The part that is calm, centered and always there.

  • Principle 8:  People who successfully navigate change are not alone; they surround themselves with people who can help, who have the right beliefs and skills. And they create an environment that supports their change.

    One of our biggest flaws as human beings is that we keep thinking we are alone. Whatever the situation, there is always, always someone who can help.

  • Principle 9: People who successfully navigate change take action. They have a plan and know how to take care of themselves.

    Actions come in many forms. Some are big and obvious; some are so small you may think they are irrelevant. But any good action you take is a choice to move forward.

THE STATE OF OUR INDUSTRY

IS THE AUTO INDUSTRY SHOWING SIGNS OF A RECOVERY?

February 19, 2009

As auto sales continue to track near historic lows the days of 16 million unit selling rates are but distant memories.   Estimates of annual sales of 10 to 11 million units are the new thinking in a market (and economy) where flat is the new up.   Compete measures auto shopping behavior across the internet and uses a subset of that (visits to third-party automotive sites) to develop its proprietary measure of in-market vehicle demand.   Sales are a function of generating demand and converting that demand into purchases.   Using this data we have seen what may be the very first signs of a recovery.

The chart to the right shows market-wide new vehicle demand and reveals an uptick from November’s all-time low.  January 2009 demand of 2.56 million in-market shoppers was the highest in 11 months and down only 5% from January 2008 when new mid-size car launches drove industry demand higher.  The y-o-y decline in January 2009 was the lowest in 11 months.  But if this is the first sign of a demand recovery it is in its very early stages given that this was the lowest January demand level on record.  In any case, a slowing of y-o-y declines may at least suggest we’re near the bottom.

But even with a recovery, don’t expect sales to return to the days of 16 million units anytime soon.  Demand, currently running over 1 million shoppers below historic highs, needs to fully recover before sales can really take off.  If demand holds stable at January 2009’s 2.5 million shoppers, the industry would have to convert nearly 45% of those shoppers into buyers each month to reach 13 million unit sales for the year, the same as 2008.  That’s an ambitious target, one that would likely require a continued reliance on incentives to entice prospects.  Industry conversion averaged closer to 39% in the 4th quarter of 2008. That translates into a 2009 market of fewer than 12 million units for the year using the current demand trend.  In any scenario, even with a recovery, 2009 will remain a difficult year for automakers.  

TECHNOLOGY NOTES

TWITTER - WHAT'S ALL THE BUZZ ABOUT?

I Thought I'd do a segment on Twitter.  Yes, I joined, I tweet, I follow.  But seriously, I don't get why it's so hot.  It can actually be quite annoying.  However, I'm riveted to all the media on it and am anxious to see how it all plays out until the next "hot" technology comes along!  In our biz - you must stay abreast of the latest technology or you'll be a dinosaur before you know it.

Why Small Business Owners Have to Use Twitter

Maybe you have read this a thousand times, but I would like to encourage you once again.

You. Have. To. Use. Twitter. Period.

What is Twitter, anyway? In essence, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging site that allow you to connect and interact with fellow users easily - in real time and in 140 characters - basically answering this question: “What are you doing?”

Twitter is the fastest growing social networking site on the Net today (Goodbye Facebook!), with 1,382 per cent year-on-year growth, compared to Facebook’s “mere” 228 per cent year-on-year growth.

What does Twitter’s growth mean to small businesses?

Two things: More opportunities and a bigger market to target.  Click title to read more.

TWITTER'S SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

Twitter.com continues to grow in popularity and importance in both the consumer and corporate worlds. No longer just a platform for friends to stay connected in real time, it has evolved into an important component of brand marketing. Unique visitors to Twitter increased 1,382 percent year-over-year, from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for the month.  Zimbio and Facebook followed, growing 240 percent and 228 percent, respectively.

Fastest Growing Member Community Destinations in February 2009

RANK	Site	Feb 08	Feb 09	% growth
1	Twitter.com	475,000	7,038,000	1382%
2	Zimbio	809,000	2,752,000	240%
3	Facebook	20,043,000	65,704,000	228%
4	Multiply	821,000	2,394,000	192%
5	Wikia	1,381,000	3,758,000	172%
source: Nielsen NetView, 2/09, U.S., Home and Work

You know the drill - click the title for entire article!

TWITTER MAKES FACEBOOK BLINK!

Here's why Facebook is all aflutter over Twitter

 click on title to see for yourself

GREEN REPORT

FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE - 350 Blog Challenge

By displaying our badge, your blog will help us offset 122,500 lbs of CO2 -- that's like turning off 38,000 light bulbs for a day!  With your support, we're putting more clean energy on the national energy grid, and together, we can help fight global warming, one blog at a time. 

GREEN SUMMIT EXPO

The 1^st Annual Global Renewable Energy Expo and Networking Summit is directed to begin to harness our most basic resources, creating dialogs, collecting ideas and getting people together to enable unique community initiatives. It has never been our intention to justify, criticize, or argue over any other organization’s right to exist, or historical place in environmental activism. This Summit conference was put together to urgently and effectively assemble people of like mind to review and discuss the issues and challenges that imperil our environmental future, and to create and enable practical solutions.

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GREEN SPOTLIGHT

Creative Greenius

My associate and friend, Joe Galliani, (creative director & environmentalist) posts a blog that you must check out if you have any interest in contributing to the beauty and preservation of our environment.  His latest endeavor is learning to install solar panels in homes.  With the proper training, guidance and direction homeowners can be taught to install their own systems.  And with the help of many neighbors pooling talents and resources the task becomes far more doable.

A little about Joe...

I’ve spent my entire career inventing and delivering creative solutions that inspire and motivate people to action. Long before my career began, my love for unspoiled wilderness and wildlife drove me to the green side.

In 1997 I co-found The Parks Company, along with my business partner and friend, Mike Baggetta, one of the most talented fine artists and gifted graphic artists of our generation.  Together we created America’s first and only national park catalog company raising money for the parks with every sale.

Today my passion to protect the beauty and power of nature drives me to help clients like Hewlett Packard who use their strength for the good of the many instead of the greed of the few.

More importantly it fuels my volunteer service for groups like the South Bay Cities Green Task Force and the South Bay Environmental Services Center here in my Southern California home.

And it calls me to employ my skills and talents to read, research, and dig, in order to understand the truth about the greatest challenge of our time - climate change.  I am here to spread that stark and unflinching truth in my own unique style and offer some of the creative solutions we need to go the green way… before we are forced to simply go away.

MEETING INDUSTRY

Don’t Blame the Business Trip

Ben Stein fron NY Times writes about the realities and impacts of business travel.  Read an excerpt below

... The truth is that business meetings are usually not a waste of time, even if they are held in Las Vegas or at a resort with a golf course near a Southern California beach. They are not decadent, with rare exceptions. And at the business meetings I see, an incredibly heavy burden of work lies on the shoulders of those who attend. Of course, I wouldn’t want to see taxpayer money going to buy Piper-Heidsieck for executives of bailed-out companies. Then again, I never see anything even slightly like that at business meetings.

At the gatherings I attend, men and women fly coach, stay in immense, boxy hotels, start their meeting days at breakfast at 7 a.m. and work through the day until far later than seems reasonable to me. Then they do it again the next day and the day after that, finally enduring the torture of waiting at the airport, next to screaming children, in order to get home.

These meetings, while burdensome, are helpful to the businesses involved. They cannot be entirely replaced with teleconferencing or mass e-mailing. The personal touch, the sharing of facts and secrets face to face, are important. Could Congress really do its work if it held its sessions by teleconferencing? Could Congressional committee hearings work as well by conference call? Could the Supreme Court?   

Technology is wonderful and indispensable. But for finding out the tricks of the trade, the way business runs in bad times and good, the latest developments in business and the economy, nothing can replace the spark of intelligence that travels from person to person at meetings.  Moreover, it would be harsh in the extreme to kick the hospitality industry when it is down by frowning on business meetings, thereby making hotels lay off cooks and waiters and maids.