10 Steps for Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Workplace

Every workplace is different, and accordingly, each has unique challenges. Simple solutions do not apply to every business, especially if managers and employees are constrained by rigid labor agreements or ill-conceived business models. Nevertheless, the following time-tested principles should serve as a checklist designed to assist leader/managers in the never-ending challenge of maintaining a positive overall attitude in the workplace.

1. The leader/manager should, first and foremost, demonstrate a commitment to the organization through hard work and responsible behavior.

"Nothing is so infectious as example."La Rochefoucauld
"Example is the school of humankind, and they will learn at no other."Edmund Burke
"Any team can be a miracle team, but you have to go out and work for your miracles."Pat Riley

2. The leader must be competent and worthy of leadership.

"Leadership comes from competence. Leadership is by example, not talk."Bill Walsh

"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, better to bruise than to polish."Anne Bradstreet

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."Machiavell i

3. The leader should have a clear vision of the goals of the organization; the leader should clearly communicate those goals to the appropriate parties.

"Nobody wants to follow somebody who doesn't know where he's going."Joe Namath

"If you don't know where you're going, be careful. You might get there."yogi Berra

"The true leader inspires in others self-trust, guiding their eyes to the spirit of the goal."Bronson Alcott

4. The leader should translate the organization' s goals into clearly definable work.

"One of the most important factors, not only in military matters but in life as a whole, is the ability to direct one's whole energies towards the fulfillment of a particular task."Erwin Rommel

"The best plan is only a plan, that is, good intentions, unless it degenerates into work."Peter F. Drucker

"Inspiration comes from working every day."Charles Baudelaire

5. The leader should establish clear expectations and provide frequent feedback so that employees will know when they have been successful in their work and when they have failed.

"Drive thy business or thy business will drive thee."Ben Franklin

"Issuing order is worth about 10 percent. The remaining 90 percent consists in assuring proper and vigorous execution of the order."General George S. Patton

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." Andrew Carnegie

6. The leader should create an atmosphere of success, one in which employees confidently believe that they can be successful if they apply themselves.

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."Benjamin Disraeli

"Confidence imparts a wonderful inspiration to its possessor."John Milton

"Act as if it were impossible to fail."Dorthea Brand

7. The leader should reward success and praise behavior that meets or exceeds expectations while dealing forthrightly with behavior that fails to meet expectations.

"The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated. "William James

"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish." Sam Walton

"Praise loudly. Criticize softly.."Lou Holtz

8. The leader should demonstrate appropriate respect for his or her employees.

"We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them."Elbert Hubbard

"We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life."
Edwin Markham
"When you respect the other person, you respect yourself."Clint Eastwood

9. The manager should understand that attitudes are contagious and that a manager's outlook, either positive or negative, will play a major role in the overall attitude of the workplace.

"The real secret of success is enthusiasm. Yes, more than enthusiasm, I would say excitement. When people get excited, they make a success of their lives."Walter Chrysler

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed.."Audrey Hepburn

"Passion persuades."Anita Roddick

10.. The leader must understand that chronically negative individuals will, inevitably, have a profound negative impact on the morale of the workplace.

Achieve Your Dreams: Six Steps to Accomplish Your Goals and Resolutions

• You need to deeply desire the goal or resolution. Napoleon Hill, in his landmark book, Think and Grow Rich, had it right. "The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat." So, your first step in goal setting and achieving your dreams is that you've got to really, really want to achieve the goal.

• Visualize yourself achieving the goal. Lee Iacocca said, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." What will your achievement feel like? How will your life unfold differently as a result? If the goal is a thing, some gurus of goal setting recommend that you keep a picture of the item where you see and are reminded of it every day. If you can’t picture yourself achieving the goal, chances are – you won’t.

• Make a plan for the path you need to follow to accomplish the goal. Create action steps to follow. Identify a critical path. The critical path defines the key accomplish-ments along the way, the most important steps that must happen for the goal to become a reality. Stephen Covey said, "All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind." He's right.

• Commit to achieving the goal by writing down the goal. Lee Iacocca said, "The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen." I agree completely. Write down the plan, the action steps and the critical path. Somehow, writing down the goal, the plan and a timeline sets events in motion that may not have happened otherwise. In my own life, it is as if I am making a deeper commitment to goal accomplishment. I can’t fool myself later. The written objective really was the goal.

• Establish times for checking your progress in your calendar system, whatever it is: a day planner, a PDA, a PDA phone or a hand written list. If you’re not making progress or feel stymied, don't let your optimism keep you from accomplishing your goals. No matter how positively you are thinking, you need to assess your lack of progress. Adopt a pessimist’s viewpoint; something will and probably is, going to go wrong. Take a look at all of the factors that are keeping you from accomplishing your goal and develop a plan to overcome them. Add these plan steps to your calendar system as part of your goal achievement plan.

• Review your overall progress regularly. Make sure you are making progress. If you are not making progress, hire a coach, tap into the support of loved ones, analyze why the goal is not being met. Don’t allow the goal to just fade away. Figure out what you need to do to accomplish it. Check the prior five steps starting with an assessment of how deeply you actually want to achieve the goal.

This six step goal setting and achieving system seems simple, but it is the most powerful system you will ever find for achieving your goals and living your resolutions. You just need to do it.

Best wishes and good luck.

10 Tips for a Positive Life

1.

Take a morning walk without fail. It will create a fertile mind ready for success.

2. Transform adversity into success by deciding that change is not your enemy but your friend.

3. Make a difference to the lives of others.

4. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

5. Live with the 3 E's. Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy.

6. Remember there’s no substitute for hard work.

7. Instead of complaining focus on solutions. It’s the key to innovation.

8. Read more books.

9. Smile and laugh more. They are natural anti-depressants.

10. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy it.

World's Biggest Hindu Temple - 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records

BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham

BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham is a 100-acre Hindu temple complex in New Delhi, India. It aims to showcase Hinduism's ancient art, culture and spiritual heritage.

Since its opening in November 2005, Swaminarayan Akshardham has become a popular landmark of India's cultural and religious landscape, attracting more than five million visitors a year. It featured in the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records book for being the largest Hindu temple in the world.

Lotus garden

Over 60 acres of the complex comprise various forms of landscaping. One part is the Lotus Garden, a lotus-shaped sunken garden with messages from great world thinkers sharing their faith in God and humanity.

Largest Hindu temple in the world

The central feature of the complex is the ornately hand-carved stone temple, ormandir. Built according to ancient Vedic texts, and measuring 356 ft (109 m) long, 316 ft (96 m) wide and 141 ft (43 m) high, it is the world's largest comprehensive Hindu temple.

It was built within five years by 11,000 artisans and volunteers of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, an international socio-religious organisation. ..

Exterior carvings

The outer wall of the temple is profusely covered with 200 stone figures of India's sages and intricate depictions of nature.

Temple sanctum

Enshrined in the temple's inner sanctum is an 11 ft.-high gilded murti (sacred image) of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, the deity to whom the temple and complex are dedicated. Other images include those of popular Hindu deities and spiritual leaders of the Swaminarayan tradition.

Interior carvings

The temple is a fusion of pink sandstone on the outside and white marble on the inside, but with no structural steel used anywhere. The interior is filled with 234 ornately carved pillars, 9 ornate domes, and intricately designed ceilings. In total, there are more than 20,000 carved figures.

Elephant plinth

The temple stands on a 1,070 ft..-long plinth of 148 full-sized elephants carved entirely from stone. Together, they weigh 3,000 tonnes.

Stone colonnade

The temple and its surrounding area are garlanded by a 3,000 ft (214 m)-long two-tiered stone colonnade. It features 1,152 pillars, 145 windows and 154 cupolas.

10 healthy computing tips

Neck or shoulder pain? Try these 10 healthy computing tips:

1. Take a 3-minute break every 30 minutes.
   During your break, breathe deeply from your abdomen. Relax your arms in your lap, and then stand up and stretch your neck and shoulders. You can set a recurring reminder in your e-mail or scheduling program to help you remember to take a break. Try these workstation stretches recommended by the National Institute of Health.

2. Customize your chair.
   First, adjust your chair height so your feet are firmly supported by the floor (or a foot rest) and your thighs are parallel to the ground. Next, adjust the backrest so that it supports your lower back. The backrest (not your arms) should support your torso weight.

   

3. Rearrange your workspace.
   Set your work surface to elbow height. A desk that's too high can give you shoulder fatigue. If you use a fixed-height work surface, try installing a keyboard and mouse tray that you can adjust.

   

   Place any devices you use frequently, such as your mouse and keyboard, within easy reach.

   

4. Reposition your monitor.
   Place your monitor at arm's length and make sure the top of your screen is eye level when sitting up straight. (Bifocal users might need a lower monitor.) Center your monitor and keyboard in front of you so you don't twist your neck while typing. If you refer to documents while typing, consider using a document stand to position documents near eye level.

   

5. Alternate your hands.
   Throughout the day, try moving the mouse to alternate sides of the keyboard. Switching hands will help balance the load between your arms. This can be particularly helpful if your shoulder or neck hurts on one side only. You can use a symmetrical mouse to make left-and right-hand pointing more comfortable. Check out the ergonomic symmetrical mouse devices designed by Microsoft.

6. Get a headset for your phone.
   Never hold the phone between your head and shoulder. If you use the phone frequently, use a headset to reduce the strain on your neck.

7. Use a forearm rest.
   A forearm rest can reduce the load on your shoulders by supporting your forearms (not your wrists or elbows) when using the computer. Several ergonomic forearm rest styles are available online. Choose one that doesn't lock you into a single posture. If you're using the arm rests on your chair arm but are experiencing discomfort, try removing the arm rests. They can sometimes place your arms in an awkward position or put pressure on the nerves in your elbows. Make sure to support only your arm weight on the forearm rest, and not your full upper body weight.

8. Dock your notebook.
   When using a notebook computer over long periods of time, attach it to a docking station and use an external keyboard and mouse. If you don't have a docking station, you can raise the height of your notebook screen to eye level and then plug in a USB keyboard and mouse. When you're away from your desk, consider using a notebook mouse instead of the mouse built into your notebook. Check out the wired and wireless notebook mouse devices designed by Microsoft.

9. Use a sit/stand workstation.
   Try using an adjustable sit/stand desk that supports neutral postures. It lets you adjust the height of your work station to accommodate both sitting and standing positions.

10. Seek medical attention for recurring discomfort or pain.
    These tips aren't intended to replace medical treatment. If you have consistent neck or shoulder pain, consult a healthcare provider.

From Microsoft at Home & at Work

10 Rules For A Good Day

1. TODAY I WILL NOT STRIKE BACK:

If someone is rude, if someone is impatient, if someone is unkind...I will not respond in a like manner.

2. TODAY I WILL ASK GOD TO BLESS MY "ENEMY":

If I come across someone who treats me harshly or unfairly, I will quietly ask God to bless that individual. I understand the "enemy" could be a family member, neighbour, co-worker, or a stranger.


3. TODAY I WILL BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT I SAY:

I will carefully choose and guard my words being certain that I do not spread gossip.


4. TODAY I WILL GO THE EXTRA MILE:

I will find ways to help share the burden of another person.


5. TODAY I WILL FORGIVE:

I will forgive any hurts or injuries that come my way.


6. TODAY I WILL DO SOMETHING NICE FOR SOMEONE, BUT I WILL NOT DO IT SECRETLY:

I will reach out anonymously and bless the life of another.

7. TODAY I WILL TREAT OTHERS THE WAY I WISH TO BE TREATED:

I will practice the golden rule - "Do unto others as I would have them do unto me" - with everyone I encounter.


8. TODAY I WILL RAISE THE SPIRITS OF SOMEONE I DISCOURAGED:
My smile, my words, my expression of support, can make the difference to someone who is wrestling life.


9. TODAY I WILL NUTURE MY BODY:

I will eat less; I will eat only healthy foods. I will thank God for my body.

10. TODAY I WILL GROW SPIRITUALLY:

I will spend a little more time in prayer today: I will find a quiet place (at some point during the day) and

I will begin reading something spiritual or inspirational today.