As a kid, I loved the words "hocus pocus" when I would play with my magic wand that never worked like Harry Potter's did. Some quick research on the etymology of the words, reveal they don't go back to Latin and the Catholic Church. Hocus pocus started appearing in the early seventeenth century in several plays and William Vincent titled his 1694 book of conjuring, "Hocus Pocus Junior, The Anatomy of Legerdemain".
Enough with the history, besides, what does this have to do with business? Any business that has multiple jobs for each employee faces this problem of FOCUS. In the Human Resource (HR) world, when a company reaches about 150 full-time-equivalent employees, there is usually a need for a dedicated HR person. Prior to that, the head honcho needs to wave the magic wand and have someone (or an outside contractor) take on the focus of HR.
In my world, grabbing your magic wand and saying "hocus pocus" is a mental queue to getting a plan, delegating that plan if appropriate and then getting back to your own focus. Now, least we forget, as the delegator, we must review and evaluate, but if we have conjured the correct plan, someone else will be "doing" so we can be focusing on our own work.
Now all together: "Hocus Pocus Time to Focus" and check out what Pat has to say below.
Copyright 2010 Linda Fayerweather
Changing Lanes LLC
419-897-0528
http://www.changinglanes.biz/
The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
Things are changing so quickly; it seems almost impossible to keep up, especially with new technology. I finally broke down and got a smart phone. I'm looking forward to receiving it this week, with its 3G mobile hotspot...whatever that means!
What's interesting though is that as much as things change, certain beliefs seem to stand the test of time. I recently located an article that was published in the April 1920 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. Did you know that Good Housekeeping has been around for that long?
The article titled "Stiffening Your Mental Backbone" is by H. Addington Bruce. The byline says: "Can you do what you want to do? How often do you go to the office with plans all made for the day's work so that you can make every minute count, and then some trivial thing upsets the whole schedule and you go home at night with the feeling that the day has been lost?"
Can you relate?
Addington tells the story of a man who goes to a doctor because he can't seem to focus long enough to get necessary tasks done. It turns out the man was not nourishing his body properly and according to Addington, the doctor explained the condition to his patient as follows:
"You are lacking in energy because you do not eat properly. Your organism not being sufficiently nourished, all your faculties, your will included, fatigues quickly. Strength of body and strength of will tend to go hand in hand."
It's interesting that in 1920, the belief that nurturing our physical energy, gives us mental energy was accepted in Good Housekeeping magazine and 90 years later we still haven't learned that lesson. In fact, we probably nourish our bodies less than back in 1920, when more whole foods were consumed.
In his article Addington also mentions these familiar concepts:
"As a man wishes, so he wills."
"Like begets like."
"Form the habit of devoting a few minutes every day to thinking about work in a large, broad, imaginative way."
Take a look at your beliefs and see if they have stood the test of time, just like these beliefs about the mind/body connection. You might also want to try an apple for a mid-morning break, instead of that donut!
Pat Altvater
Transforming Bodies and Minds
http://www.outsmartweight.com/
http://www.ignitethepowerwithinbook.com/
419-344-6613
