1. GIVE EM' WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR. Practice communicating in the language that other Colors need to hear. Begin by starting to speak and write in EACH of the four Colors, then boldly try to speak and write in ALL four colors simultaneously. I have written the only book I know of that teaches you how to do that. Yes, the book is about Job Interviewing, but its lessons apply for most situations.
2. YES, YOU CAN TAKE THE EASY WAY TO STARDOM. Leverage your natural strengths and watch your happiness grow. If you have a copy of the book Strength Finders (by Tom Rath), then you know the power of intensifying your existing powers and becoming the superstar or millionaire you know is lurking there and chomping at the bit to break out. From your workshop notes, turn to your strongest Color, then identify a strength or two you have not fed in a while because you thought "it was too easy". Go with these strengths, folks. Ride the magic carpet for a change!!!
3. CHANGE ONE THING. Go after a weakness in your weakest Color. In your Four Windows workshop notes, look for the STRENGTHS of people who have your weakest Color. Pick just one new strength there to work on and make it your own. You will not believe the powerful effect that will have on the rest of your life. In my case, I chose many years ago to never be the first to either postpone or cancel a meeting (a Gold dependability trait). For years afterward, I got a reputation for dependability that I certainly did not have before. A promising book on the subject will be out on Amazon on February 17 of this year: Change One Thing by Sue Hadfield.
4. BE LESS UNINTENTIONALLY IRRITATING. Modify a behavior that you know is annoying other people. This is hard because the annoying behavior probably does not feel negative to you at all. If you know me, you know I enjoy small talk. The large majority of people are not comfortable with small talk, especially in a business setting. Believe me, I have to remind myself of that all the time. So I've learned to curtail it on the job. Fortunately I'm married to a woman who loves it as much as I do.
5. YES, THERE IS ONE SIMPLE WAY TO HELP CHANGE THE WHOLE WORLD. When people annoy you, choose to look first to the positive strength beneath the behavior before you choose to be upset. Wayne Dyer (in The Power of Intention) says that 90% of the world is spending 90% of their time looking for ways to be offended. Each one of us has the choice to be part of the 10% who like to think, "Sticks and stones..." you know the rest.
Enjoy 2014, folks!
