Rhondalynn Korolak

First let’s get one thing straight – happiness and optimism are not the same thing.  Happiness is an emotion, a feeling, a state of mind that can be changed in an instant. Optimism is something quite different – it is a belief about the future. 

Optimists trust that the future will be mostly good – they also believe their decisions, choices and actions shape their destinies.  There is evidence to suggest that optimists tend to have better coping mechanisms and tend to be less negatively impacted but life’s little ups and downs.  They recover faster, tend to eat right and exercise, are less likely to smoke, suffer less from aches and pains and are at a much lower risk for dementia and other diseases.

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Rhondalynn Korolak, Author of "On The Shoulders of Giants"

 “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. ”  William Arthur Ward

I was reminded of this brilliant principle last week when I spoke to one of my business coaching clients.  There can be no doubt that we are living in interesting times…. the global financial crisis has impacted overall spending and consumer sentiment – and this has hurt many small businesses around the country.  It’s no good hoping that circumstances will change – in order to survive we all need to dig deep and find creative ways to work smarter not harder.

Jim Collins, in his book, “Good to Great,” talks about this very interesting paradox that he calls “The Stockdale Principle”.  According to Collins, “you have to be realistic about your current situation and yet, stay optimistic about the future”.  

General Stockdale was the highest ranking American prisoner of war in Hanoi, Vietnam. Over the years he began to notice an interesting phenomenon – optimism could in fact be a liability.  His fellow prisoners (who were the eternal optimists) constantly set themselves up for disappointment.  They set huge milestones – “we will be rescued by Christmas” – but those milestones came and went year after year and with it… their will to live.

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Rhondalynn Korolak

For those of you who were at the South Melbourne Business Association breakfast this weekend, as promised, here is a copy of the powerpoint presentation slides with more content and specifics…

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AYBH8mMoO9b6ZGY5czUydDNfMWhkMnZoNGZu&hl=en

Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have – I am happy to elaborate on these topics and provide whatever further guidance I can…

Author of On The Shoulders of Giants

I often get asked to speak on content marketing – specifically what do I do (besides the obvious stuff like SEO) to get good qualified organic traffic onto my website.  Here are some of my top tips which cost very little (or nothing) and are highly effective and easy to implement.

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How can an online service that only lets you write 140 characters per message be worth using to build your business or further your career? After all, it seems to be full of MLM marketers, life coaches and people who are only too happy to tell you exactly what they are doing, every 10 minutes of their day! 

Twitter can be a powerful way to make connections, get feedback, test headlines and put your finger on the pulse of what is hot in your industry – in fact, Twitter can be an asset if used for good, not evil.  Indulge me for a moment while I highlight some very useful strategies that will make your online efforts simply Twitterific.

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