Whether it’s a skater or skier or snowboarder or other, everyone who won a Gold Medal in Vancouver recently is a role model for us all. Practice, patience, persistence, and passion – the 4 P’s of Olympic Gold – are likely mantras for all these winners. Shaun White, in particular, is a true living example of exactly what every senior executive and business leader should be focused on creating in their organizations – not because he won gold on the half pipe, but because he won gold after winning gold on the half pipe!

That’s right.  Shaun White was standing at the top of his second and final run when the results came in, and he found out that he already won the gold medal without even completing his last run. In that very moment, he had a choice- walk down the mountain a victor with snowboard in hand or deliver what he came to deliver for the crowd. After a 2-minute pep talk with his coaches that seemed to last forever, he did exactly that. Deliver!

Shaun White was not just in it to win it. He was in it to bring it! Winning the gold almost seemed to be an unnecessary bonus for him as he stuck the landing on his final trick. Click on the following video to watch this incredible “double gold” performance.

Link to NBC Footage of Shaun White’s 2010 Olympic Performance

So what can we learn from Shaun White and all the other Olympic Gold Medalists this year?  The following 4 P’s of Olympic Gold are critical for anyone to be successful in fulfilling their dreams and achieving their objectives in today’s fiercely competitive business marketplace:

1. Patience – Gold medal performances don’t come overnight. Be patient and remain focused on your end goal.
2. Persistence – As a follow-up to #1, success requires long-term and unwavering commitment. Don’t give up even if you hit a few road bumps along the way.
3. Practice – Practice, practice, practice… Gold medals only come from taking risks, reaching beyond your comfort zone, and learning new skills over time.
4. Passion – And finally, passion! As Jim Collins writes in his best-seller Good To Great, you can achieve anything you set your mind to if you are passionate about it. Without passion, you are far more likely to throw in the towel on the 1^st 3 P’s before you achieve your objectives.

If you are interested in engaging in a powerful and stimulating conversation about how best to groom the next generation of Gold Medalists in your organization, join us and the OD in LA MeetUp group next Tuesday, March 23^rd at 6:30pm. Plus Delta’s President and CEO Samantha and Jeremy Lurey will be hosting a World Café forum to discuss this very subject with some of LA’s finest organizational consultants. Click here for more info.

Current science has legitimized the power of thoughts, words, breath, meditation, and world-view to have direct and lasting effects on our performance, happiness, and well-being. As studies in neurobiology, behavioral genetics, and quantum theory begin to confirm what has long been known by practitioners of—sometimes ancient—wisdom, we may see a new acceptance of ideas embraced by those who were once chided as “touchy-feely” types. Below I’ll provide a “top 7” list of areas to consider and specific solutions that may make a difference in your life—but I would be doing you a disservice if I were to rank-order these solutions or tell you what works “best,” rather than provide you with a call-to-action to reflect on your life, explore these options, and find what resonates for you as initial steps.What are you doing lately to develop yourself, your habits, and your overall well-being? How are you integrating such practices at work and in your personal life? To what degree are you committed to leading the life you’ve always wanted?

Let me be clear: This is not about what some call the “self-help” movement or such potentially misleading films as The Secret. Thoughts create new openings for actions, and that step may have been lost on some. For that reason, one can deride many of the over-simplified, extreme, or blatantly scheming claims of similar material, and by so doing, overlook the core ideas that Aristotle would call Phronesis, or practical wisdom. We just need a guide to separate the charlatans from those who provide value to those of us who want to get things done in spite of increased stress due to the increased speed and complexity of our professional and much of our waking lives (e.g.  entrepreneurs, job-seekers, or employees in general). How often have you experienced a fight or flight response in the last year? Alternatively, how often have you found yourself in optimal flow (see the work of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi)? Be honest.

Has your workplace sent you to any workshops or seminars to calm the mind, raise the spirit/vitality, or unlock your potential? Beyond the classic productivity workshops such as David Allen’s Getting Things Done, Mission Control, or Franklin-Covey, have you participated in anything designed to either: A) train the mind to maintain focus during times of increasing amounts of informational load? or, B) raise our level of understanding that we create the world through our words and actions, and that what used to be a passé understanding of the power of what they called “positive thinking” is actually a reflection of how the world really works? That’s right. One need not agree with the more spiritual views of Integral Psychology (see Ken Wilber) to recognize that our thoughts and actions as we grew up believing in them from a basic Newtonian physics model are not quite what we experience in the world today. The world works differently than we thought it did!

While philosophical discussions of serendipity, coincidence, and the quantum nature of reality are far too ambitious for an introduction of this size, for future discussion we can reflect on and eventually share our most profound experiences with self-development and humanistic approaches toward well-being, as well as the correlation to the scientific articles we often see via the Internet or in books or journal articles.

Here are seven categories, each of which deserves in-depth future discussion:

• Healthy Body/Healthy Mind (eg. Cardiovascular exercise and its effects on the brain; the effect of sleep on brain function )

• The Science of Breath (eg. Coherent Breathing of Steve Elliot; Sudarshan Kriya breath technique of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar)

• Awareness Training (eg. The forum; therapeutic and emotional intelligence work; cognitive-behavioral techniques)

• Nutritional Optimization (a variety of movements that largely focus on the benefits of more greens and less animal products in one’s diet; herbal and other supplements often called “neutraceuticals”)

• Biofeedback and Meditation (eg. Computer-assisted EEG neurofeedback such as BrainPaint; meditative practices; auditory meditation such as from the Monroe Institute)

• Electrical Devices (eg. Light boxes; Cranial Electrical Stimulation devices)

• And even the more common forms of gratitude and prayer, often via religious or spirituality practices

Science and ancient wisdom are merging on a set of ideas that may reach a tipping-point sometime soon, whereby many more people will understand that they have both high-tech and low-tech options with which to redirect their focus, optimize their performance, and train their body and mind to cultivate an energetic and creative well-being, including the potential for mitigating illness and disease. How would it look to create a path for yourself and your life that extends far beyond what you thought was possible? New possibilities appear when you’re “there” to meet them.

Public comments are encouraged. If you would like to privately share your experiences, please email me: mliskin-at-plusdelta-dot-net

Stuck in a rut? Still worried about the recession? Well, I hate to say it, but you know you’re doing it to yourself, right?

Self-fulfilling prophecies are very powerful. Now I’m not saying that the skies are always filled with warm sunshine and pretty rainbows. I am, however, saying that you can choose to see them that way if you want.

Does this all sound easy to say for a guy who was born and raised in Los Angeles where it’s “shorts weather” most of the time? Well it is, but not because of the physical weather around me. It all has to do with my perspective on how I choose to view the world. I’m not ignorant to the global financial crisis we all experienced in 2009. I’m not even in denial about how much hard work it’s going to take to dig ourselves out of the mess we’re all in. I just believe in myself and know at the bottom of my heart that I can achieve anything I set my mind to.

Two years ago, I decided I was on the downhill slide of being overweight and physically unfit. No argument about how I got that way – too much holiday cheer, not enough time at the gym, too many late nights working and definitely not enough sleep! For the better part of a year, I told myself, “It’s OK. It’s just a busy time at work.” But then I said, “This is ridiculous! I’m not even 40, and I refuse to spend the rest of my life like this…” Well, now I’m in the best shape of my life. Really! I weigh about 20 pounds less than 2 years ago, I ran a 5K for the first time of my life on Thanksgiving Day, and I’m now training to run 4 more races this year – including the coveted 10K “Mud Run” at Camp Pendleton in June.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t expect to be in the best shape of my life when I decided to focus on personal health. I didn’t even know that was possible. What I did know is that “trying to lose another 5 pounds” wasn’t the right approach for getting into shape. Instead, I focused on living a healthier and more fulfilled life by getting into shape. Being in the best shape of my life was just a welcome surprise that came as a result of focusing on the positive results of my near-term efforts.

Another key area of focus for me this past year has been sales. For those of you who are in sales, you probably recognize the name Chet Holmes and have read his book entitled the “Ultimate Sales Machine”. There are lots of people in this world who wish they were better salespeople or wish their customers would stop saying no to them. Both of those sentiments are true for me too. I just stopped letting them be my primary focus (dare I say the stories I told myself to justify my lack of sales in a down economy). Instead, I told myself that I was the “Ultimate Sales Machine” and focused my energy on making that happen – by reading great sales resources, by reinventing some of our consulting offerings, and by being more confident with my go-to-market strategy. Now I may not be the “Ultimate Sales Machine” based on Chet Holmes’ standards, but I sure feel better about myself and the results that I am producing these days than I did before I shifted my perspective.

And I could go on and on… Just about every facet of my life has a self-fulfilling prophecy – one that is motivating and inspiring and produces phenomenal results or one that doesn’t serve me very well at all. You must be confident in yourself and move from “I think I can” to “I KNOW I will”! Treat your desired results as if they are inevitable outcomes, and you will be much more likely to achieve what you want in life without exerting wasteful energy focusing on the things you don’t want to do.

So what are your self-fulfilling prophecies? And how are they working for you?

Entertainment.  It’s all around us.  The late night talk show wars between Jay, Conan, and Dave.  The new TV season is starting with American Idol and 24, and SuperBowl Weekend is just on the perceivable horizon.  I don’t know about you, but we live in exciting times!

Really?  Really?  What have we become?  Does Hollywood really dominate our attention so much as to dull our senses about what is going on in the world around us?  Have we become so numb to our world that we let “The Tonight Show” shenanigans take precedence over what happened in Haiti these past weeks?  Or to take precedence over what’s going on in our own homes with our spouse and children?

We are deluged daily, not only with entertainment, world news of disasters, war, and economic turmoil, but we are “attacked” with e-mails (let’s start a contest to see who gets more than 500 e-mails a day!), and overwhelmed with requests for our time to attend meetings and teleconferences.  Where do we draw the line?  When do we start to get control over our lives and our time?  How do we start to manage our commitments and keep a focus on the important relationships in our lives to make a statement about what is important to us?  How do we dig out of everything that gets piled on top of us so that we can breathe fresh air and regain a sense of balance that will both sustain us and energize our efforts to lead more productive and fulfilling lives?  Is this all too much to ask?  Is it pure fantasy that we can actually achieve this?A little over 25 years ago, I had the fortunate opportunity to participate in a program that truly changed my life and that provided me with the foundational tools and experiences to launch a career in OD.  The program was called the HRD Intern program, and it was conducted by the brilliant staff of consultants at University Associates (UA).  The program was expertly designed and elegantly facilitated so that upon completion, I (and other participants) left with a much clearer sense of “self” and “purpose” that would enable us to more effectively operate as a catalyst for positive change in organizations.

Oh, getting my Masters degree in Counseling was a great foundation, too.  But the UA Intern program was not about “book” learning where theories and concepts were king.  The Intern program was about getting centered on who I was as a person.  It was about getting clear on my values….on what was important in my life, and on what I needed to do to be “on purpose” in all of my interactions with clients, colleagues, family, and friends.  It was about having access to, and learning from some of the great thought leaders in the field of OD including John Jones, Phyliss Cooke, Will Schutz, Warner Burke, Len Goodstein, Paul Hersey, and Bill Pfeiffer.

The Intern program was designed to enable an experience of personal growth, as each of us learned to struggle with our own idiosyncrasies, our own interpersonal needs and issues, our own values and beliefs, and our own weirdness.  But it also enabled us to integrate our very personal learning with our professional development.  We learned that if we are to be instruments of positive change in organizations that we must first learn to change ourselves and thus become more positive role models to those we are encouraging to change.

So what did I learn?  It’s difficult to capture in words, because so much of the learning took place on an experiential level.  And experiential learning is, by very nature, transformational as it causes learning to occur on not just a cognitive level, but on a physical and emotional level as well.  But if I were to capture a few key points about what I learned to be more “centered” and “on purpose”:

• I am “on purpose” when my thoughts, intentions, words, and actions are focused on jointly optimizing my client organization’s needs and objectives with those of the employees working there.  In other words, I use myself as an “instrument” or “catalyst” for positive change by applying my knowledge of people and organizations to design and implement new systems, processes, structures, and roles to help companies become more profitable and to help employees feel more fully engaged.

• Through various structured activities, personal growth group experiences, and intensive self-examination and assessment, I learned how to become more “centered” and “comfortable in my own skin”.  I learned more about who I was (values, beliefs, strengths, weaknesses, needs, drives, etc.) so that I could become a more effective human being in interpersonal and group situations where people look to me to offer helpful insights, counsel, and advice on how to improve leadership and organizational effectiveness.

Looking back on that period, I realize that it was my experience in the HRD Intern program, and my fortunate opportunity to work as an employee at UA for nearly four years, that caused me to shift my career focus from becoming a Counselor to a Consultant in OD.

If you are an OD professional, what foundational experiences led you to choose OD as your career of choice?  What are you doing, or what have you done, to develop yourself for a career in OD? For all professionals, how do you stay “centered” and “on purpose” amidst the onslaught of information overload and the demands of competing priorities?

As for me, I try to attend at least one major conference a year (Linkage and/or OD Network) to “recharge my batteries” and expose myself to new thinking.  And I try to do at least one “retreat” a year where I commune with nature and some good friends or family in the peaceful surroundings of the Sierra Nevada, but I confess that these things get harder to do amidst all of my other commitments.

So, back to my opening comments on entertainment…… I confess to be an addict to “24” and “American Idol”, and I have them set to “record” on my DVR.  (We all need our “guilty pleasures”.)  And I wish that I could apply some sweat and muscle to rebuilding Haiti, but since I can’t I will donate money so that others can.  But I do hit the “delete” button on more and more e-mails, and I am continually striving to keep my priorities clear and in focus.  (I need to make more time for my hobbies of playing guitar and photography for sure).  But I am curious to hear what you do to make (and keep) yourself the best “instrument of change” that you can in whatever you do.