For What Are You Known

(We are now directing you to the following link to find material similar to what you have been used to seeing.  The link is It' All About People.  There will be no new posts for Steps and Skips for the foreseeable future. 

While here, you can revisit some of our past blog posts.  Enjoy.) 



When people think of you, your brand, or your place of business, what do they immediately think of?

Tonight as Carolyn and I drove around out small town we started listing the things that make some of the restaurants memorable.

Restaurant A has good oatmeal

Restaurant B has amazing coffee with heavy cream

Restaurant C has incredible burgers

Restaurant D has the best Italian food

Restaurant E has lousy coffee (even lousy coffee is memorable)

And we added a few others. 

You see, people know things about your business and about you that they may never verbalize to your face or put on a customer survey, yet you are being rated and judged based on their perception of you.

And so it is with us as individuals.

~I think people perceive of me as an encourager.

~My friend Ruth has never been happy in any job she has held for as long as I have known her.

~John is a thinker.

~Walt is always ready to help someone in need.

~Louie is lazy.

~Mary is resourceful.

~Aileen is an amazing cook.

~Don’t eat what Lucy cooks.

You see the pattern.  People make judgements about us too.

My point …

Get in touch with yourself and make sure your persona matches what you aim to give off.

Make sure your business is true to the impressions you set out to leave in people’s minds.

And if you fall short?

Do some research.  If you are a restaurant, ask your customers how they like your coffee?  Do you like the way I fry your bacon?  If there was one thing I could to do improve my business and get you to come here more often, what would you say?

Maybe what you are known for is not what you want to be known for.

Perhaps you can improve on that.

Maybe!

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Sabbatical

My Cherished Reader:

It is sabbatical time for me.  After seven years of steadily churning out blogs for my six blog sites it is time for me to step away.  There will be no new posts for the next ten weeks.  I will resume with some fresh insights and thoughts after Labor Day.

Thank you for your consistent support of this blog.  I cherish your interest, your readership and your comments. 

My back-list is still available and I encourage you to continue to dip into that as often as you wish.

I will post an occasional oldie-but-goodie from time to time on social media sites, but mostly this is a regathering time for me.

See you in September.

P Michael Biggs

Up-Words

Words of Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A New Word about Habits

When it comes to skill development, belief is a huge factor with which to deal.  The question one has to come to grips with is this:  Do I BELIEVE that I can change my bad habit and turn it into a productive action?

“For a habit to stay changed, people must believe change is possible.”

~Charles Duhigg - The Power of Habit

Once habits form, our minds go on auto pilot

and stay there until we force a change, and if we have formed a bad habit, we will continue to produce the results of that bad habit until we forcibly make whatever change is necessary.

Now keep in mind that the whole purpose of this post is to help us develop good skills and habits whether we play golf, play music or think productively

Some really great news … you can reprogram your brain.  It will just take a great deal of determination.

How many times have you heard these words: “Don’t practice a bad swing”?  If you have an unfortunate bad swing, you only continually reinforce this bad habit every time you use a golf club or ball bat until you get in touch with the bad swing and begin to fix it.

As a musician, do you continually stumble over the same technical phrase of music?  The principle applies here as well.  Fix the problem, learn proper technique, improve your skill one note at a time and then increase speed.

That is the secret – break your skill down into increments of correct posture and movement.  I remember reading of a professional golfer who was fixing the exact problem we are focusing on here – he had a lousy swing, and he continued to practice that swing every time he picked up a club.

His method, and the one I suggest here is this – go at a snail’s pace, literally, and do it dozens, yeah hundreds of time, but do it perfectly. 

DO IT PERFECTLY EVERY TIME!

I remember reading that my golfer friend did just as I’m suggesting and when the club finally made contact with the ball, it only moved three inches off the tee.  That, my friends, is a slow swing.  AND he fixed his problem after successfully performing a thousand PERFECT swings.

P Michael Biggs

Words of Encouragement

Words of Inspiration