“Thank You.”

When I launched Strengthen the Harmony between Your Life, Family and Work my instinct and consulting work with businesses and nonprofit organizations told me there was a need for people to look at their life from a holistic perspective.  But I had no idea if this would resonate with readers.  Thank you so much for your encourgement.  I will continue to write from my heart and hope that the topics resonate with you.

Please feel free to suggest ideas for topics from your own life.

Thanks again for your supportive comments

If you are a business owner, have you clearly identified the core values of your business? Have you articulated them to your employees? And do you insist that the company culture and code of behavior reflect those values?

Core values help you get to the root cause of disagreements and issues that cause stress, conflict and anxiety in the workplace.  Core values address the root cause instead of solving a symptom.

In my strategy consulting business, I see lots of people in organizations solving symptoms instead of resolving root causes. The trouble with solving a symptom is another symptom will just surface to take its place because the root cause has not been addressed.  This causes more time to be spent on solving another symptom taking time away from working on the work of the organization.  It also causes more stress, anxiety and dissatisfaction in the workplace. Who needs that?

So if you are feeling stress, anxiety or dissatisfaction in the workplace, check in with your core values.

Here’s a little activity to help you determine if you core values are a good fit with your employer’s.  On a piece of paper, 1.write down your core values. (See post in Your Life.)  2. Write down examples of how each core value is “drawn into play” in your workplace.  3. Write the core values of your employer.  (If you don’t know the core values, check if any are published on the company’s website.  Or ask someone who might know.)  Then compare your core values to the those of the organization.  Are they aligned? Are there areas of conflict?

Knowing if there is alignment or differences will help you determine if you need to take action to make changes — In your own life or in your workplace.

And if you need a resource to help you clarify your core values, check out the Core Values eCourse.  It is a good tool to get you started.

Visit www.StrengthenTheHarmony.com to register for a webinar. Or give the Gift of Webinar to someone you care about.

Learning a new skill

In this economy it is more important than ever to keep your skills up-to-date.  It also is important to keep learning new skills to keep yourself valuable and able to handle new tasks.

I’ve been experiencing the roller coaster of learning new skills for the last several months.  I’m trying to become adept at the technology involved in creating and running an online business.  There have been moments of sheer frustration.  And there have been moments of sheer exhilaration.  I’ve learned to insert products in my shopping cart.  I finally figured out how to create my own website templates.  The long hours of trying to understand Joomla, WordPress, Dreamweaver, blogs, squidoos, article marketing, linking and much more is finally starting to make sense.  I feel like I’m trying to learn a foreign language and living in a foreign country.  I’ve had major meltdowns. I’ve had to walk away from it all to regain my perspective.  I’ve had celebrations to acknowledge mastering a task.  I’ve gotten excited to see articles I’ve submitted to directories being viewed by website and blog editors.

And to my surprise, I kept coming back to try again and again.  There were many times I thought about just walking away from the frustration and expense.  But every time I walk away, I come back, try it again, and make small gains.

So what’s the lesson in this?  Persistence?  Try and try again?  Don’t give up?  If it is your passion, you will prevail?

What do you think?  What experiences have you had as you try to learn a new skill or job? How does the “trying” affect the harmony in your life?

If stress is intruding on you at work it can:

• Reduce your productivity (which can cause more stress as your boss and co-workers recognize you are not holding up your end of the job)
• Impact your health in both the short-term (colds, flu, headaches, stomach aches etc.)  and long-term if you don’t resolve the stress (cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal problems, psychological disorders, etc.)
• Cause you to be less satisfied with your job
• Affect your relationship with your co-workers
• Affect your relationships with your family

The first step toward dealing with workplace stress is to identify what is causing the stress.  Once know what is causing the stress, you can then work on finding a way to resolve it. For me, one thing that causes stress is when I don’t know how to do something.  Usually it involves technology in some way, shape or form.  One trick I’ve learned is to step away from the task that is stressing me.  The simple act of walking away for a few minutes calms me down and helps me to reframe my mind.  Sometimes I have to leave it overnight.

Another trick I’ve learned is to check my “self talk.”  Usually when I’m frustrated and stressed, I have this unhealthy self ‘talk going on.  “I don’t know why this has to be so hard.”  “How come everyone else gets this and I don’t.”  “I just don’t get it.”  Recognizing the limiting self-talk and changing it to:  “I can figure this out.”  “I just know I can do this.” or “This is easy and fun.  I can find the information I need to figure it out.”  has proven over and over that I can control my emotions and my stress.

What causes you stress in your workplace?  What tips or tricks have you used to reduce the stress and strengthen the harmony in your life, family and work?

Crossing my fingers

Questioning why I am not further. And much, much more. And crossing my fingers.

You see, I’m no different than everyone else who is working on achieving their goals, building the life they desire, and family harmony. We all want to reach our goals.  We all want to have the life we dream about.  But I know from my own life that sometimes it just feels like “I’m the only one struggling with this.” or “Why is this so hard?  Everyone else seems to get it so easily.” or ” How come I am not getting what I want as fast as others get what they want? or “Why do family or work needs keep taking priority over what I want to accomplish?”

Being Authentic is Important

I want this blog to be authentic and a place where readers can find resources that help them on their journey to strengthening the harmony in their life, family and work.

You see, I believe that the people we believe are successful — business owner, celebrities, happily married folks, etc.  — have all experienced their own personal demons and difficult times.  They just stuck with it and figured out how to get through and get better.  That is what this blog is all about.  Helping you to get through whatever is holding you back and get better at strengthening the harmony in your life, family and work.

I don’t know where this journey is taking me.  I only know that I was given the idea — somehow it floated into my head and at least I was wise enough to “hear it.”  Up until now, I have been reluctant to truly embrace it and take action to take the idea to the world.

But now I am taking action.  I hope “the world” will welcome the idea and use the resources to take action in their own lives.

The  purpose  of this blog (StrengthenTheHarmonyBlog.com) is to

Strengthen the Harmony Workbook

provide articles, resources and of course comments from the readers about topics and ideas that strengthen the harmony in your life, family and work.

We all have many things that can cause stress in our lives.  It could be our kids, aging parents, workloads that are increasing, finances, relationships with our spouse, personal goals that seem to always be out of reach or put on the back burner.  It could be trying to revamp our lifestyle to be healthier or trying to learn a new skill (like blogging) or settling into or out of a job.

Any one of these things can add stress to our life.  Any one of these things can cause us to lose focus. Any one of these things can be the last straw that sends us over the edge. That’s why I finally took the leap.  I finally decided it was time that I put this idea out there.

So what you will find on this blog are articles, ideas, tips and even humor to help you strengthen the harmony in your life, family and work. I don’t have the answers.  But I do believe that as we share our thoughts, ideas and support one another, we will discover and uncover answers that will help us strengthen the harmony in our lives.

I know I sure need more harmony — especially in the financial area.  Developing StrengthenTheHarmony.com, ShopliftingIsStealing.com, Whalen.com and ItStartsWithUs.com has definitely drained my resources.

I  am certain that by providing quality information and serving others, it will be replenished.  I’m still looking forward to the adventure.

Judy Whalen

I finally took the leap, mastered the technology (well, almost mastered) and launched this blog.  Let me tell you, it was a leap.   I hear so many people talking about how they write, read and comment on blogs.  I’ve had internet marketing coaches tell me to just put up a blog and start interacting with people.  Well, it seemed to take me more time than most people.  You see, I needed to develop the strategy of how the Strengthen the Harmony webinar and this blog and fit into my overall business.  In my offline world (whalen.com), I am a consultant working with businesses and nonprofits to help them develop strategies to be successful.  So I needed time to get the strategy piece to come together.  But I also needed time to convince myself that I could master the technology and learn the interaction piece. You see I am “old school.”   My professional life started long before computers were on every desk or before you could research your marketplace or get feedback from your customer by “tweeting.”   Back in those days we developed elaborate plans about getting feedback.  Today you get feedback instantaneously.  So that is the leap!   I am jumping off the “old school bus” and hopping on the “new school bus.”   I’m opening myself and my ideas up for comments and instantaneous response.   I have to be honest, I have a bit of trepidation.  But nothing ventured, nothing gained.  So here I go.…. Welcome to the Strengthen the Harmony blog.  I look forward to this adventure.