Meir Ezra

"Approval and validation* are often far more valuable than material* rewards and are usually worked for far harder than mere pay." -- L. Ron Hubbard (*validation: confirm something or someone is true, genuine) (*material: physical)

In a Gallup Organization poll of 2,000 workers, 69% said praise and recognition from their bosses is more motivating than money. Four out of five workers said recognition or praise motivates them to do a better job.

Studies by the US Army prove that soldiers improve their performance 90% of the time when praised and 30% of the time when criticized. But officers in the US Army still prefer to criticize and rarely praise anyone.

Thanking employees is an effective management technique. Every manager and executive must know how to show appreciation to deserving staff members. Good acknowledgments encourage better behavior and increased production. Validating good workers can even help a business recover.

For example, the owner of a small business had a heart attack and could not work for a few weeks. He recovered and came back to work and found he had no money to pay his employees. Instead of asking the employees to leave or borrowing money to cover payroll, the owner used praise and acknowledgment as "pay."

Every employee stayed on board without financial pay for nearly two months. The morale of the group was tremendous. The operation became profitable and the team was rewarded with more money than they would have normally received from a similar job.

Meir Ezra --- Are you having fun? Do you get a thrill from your work? Do you enjoy waking up each morning?

Myths about work can hurt your progress. "Work is not supposed to be fun." "You must buckle down and get serious."

Perhaps the biggest myth of all: "People will think I’m important if I act seriously." Yet getting serious creates problems: stress, worry, anxiety, emotional pain, drudgery and failure.

Resolving problems by getting more serious is like fixing a computer with a hammer. The harder you try, the worse the problem becomes.

"When life becomes serious, a man becomes less cause and greater effect. If life gets really serious, his value drops to practically zero. Driving a car can become such serious business that one can wreck the car. Running a business can become so serious as to make it fail. There is a direct connection between insanity and seriousness." "It is only when an individual progresses in life to a point where much seriousness is attached to things that he begins to have a hard time. The ancient Italian really knew what he was about when he considered that the only psychotherapy was laughter." — L. Ron Hubbard

12 Ways to Lighten Up

Approaching your life with a non-serious attitude gives you a clearheaded view of difficulties and the energy to deal with them. Problems are easier to solve, people are more cooperative and you feel more relaxed. You probably live longer and more successfully, as well.

Try these ideas until you find one that lightens you up.

1. Deliberately turn a molehill into a mountain. Make a big deal out of a little problem. "I would feel much better if these papers were stacked exactly like this! Not like that! Like this! Not this! This!"

2. Ask yourself, "Is getting serious about this situation really going to improve it?"

3. Focusing on the positives. "What is right about this situation?" "What else is right?" "What else?"

4. Consider a complete, major change. For example, go back to school, move to the ocean, start a new career.

5. Ask yourself, "When I’m on my deathbed, will I be glad I was so serious about _______?"

6. A challenging game is much better than no game at all. So consider losing all aspects of the problem. Examples: You feel serious about family problems. You ask yourself, "Well, what if I had no family at all?" You feel serious about your investments. You ask yourself, "What if I had no money to invest?"

7. The size of your problem may match the size of your game. So get a bigger game. For example, if you get uptight about paper clips being in the wrong drawer, your game size is tiny. Double your amount of responsibility. Set some huge goals. Succeed by thinking much, much bigger.

8. Stop trying to solve the problem that is making you so serious. Certain types of problems solve themselves if you leave them alone. Your problem may be one of those.

9. Compare what you are doing to other careers. Imagine being a septic tank drainer or a tax collector.

10. Make everyone around you lighten up.

11. Look at bizarre solutions. What is the craziest way you could solve your problem? What solution, if it worked, would make you laugh out loud?

12. Act stupid for a minute. Let down your hair. Stop being so darn important for a while. Be a goof!

Meir Ezra, No one wins the blame game.

For example, you make a mistake or something goes wrong. So you blame someone or something.

"I crashed the car because you played the radio too loud!"

"It's not my fault the soup is too salty! It's your recipe."

"If we had a newer computer, I would do better in school."

Blame is frequently used to explain poor job performance.

"My boss is such a jerk, I can't get my work done."

"I closed my painting shop and went bankrupt because of the economy."

"You don't pay me enough to be nice to EVERY customer."

Blame is also used for personal problems.

"I'm depressed because of the tragedies in the news."

"I can't be faithful to my wife because I have a chemical imbalance."

"I can't stop smoking because my father used to spank me."

Why You Can't Win the Blame Game

When you blame someone or something else, you actually make yourself weak and ineffective. You make yourself "at effect" instead of being "at cause" of the situation. You give power to the person or thing you blame.

"Blaming something else makes that something else cause; and as that cause takes on power, the individual in the same act loses control and becomes effect." -- L. Ron Hubbard