How to Stay Safe During This Crisis

The most important thing to remember during this difficult time is to not let fear take over.  When we react rather than respond, we make poor decisions that often backfire.  When we approach a crisis from a place of preparation and confidence, we are much better equipped to deal with whatever comes our way.

The resources below are provided to assist.  I am not a doctor, and this is not intended as medical advice.  These are various tips I have gathered from sources I trust, and have used to prepare my family.  What you choose to do is strictly your choice.

This is a great article with suggestions of supplements to take to prevent Covid-19 or any deep flu.  The most notable of these is Elderberry, which is said to be powerful in preventing the virus from spreading in your system. You can get in in mot grocery stores, health food stores, etc.

9 Nurtirents to Help Protect Against Corona

Vitamin Shoppe sent out this quick do it yourself way to make your own hand sanitizer:

 

 

 

Grocery Shopping

I read recently that the best time to go to the store to get needed supplies like disinefctant and toilet paper is early in the morning, because stores restock overnight.  I found that to be true myself.

Check on Your Neighbors and the Elderly

More than ever, the time for kindness and sharing is critical.  There are many people who live alone and need someone to help them.  If you are shopping anyway, why not offer to help someone who is infirm or ill?

We can all get through this with compassion, courage and a positive outlook. Prayer helps, meditation helps, preparation helps.  Most of all, believe in the goodness of humanity and demonstrate that.

God bless you all.  My love to you.

Snowden

Resolutions Don’t Work but Written Goals DO!

For leaders and high performers, accountability and written commitments aren’t just motivational- they’re proven performance drivers. The research is that by 3 months, 70% have failed at their New Year’s resolutions.  But that doesn’t mean goals aren’t important.

Multiple peer-reviewed studies have found how to make your goals work for you.  Dominican University of California did a study and they determined that written goals do work, especially if you have an accountability partner.  Dr. Gail Matthews found that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down and repeat them.

Dr. Halverson, a psychologist, learned that if you decide in advance where and when you’re going to take specific action on your goal and follow-through, you double and triple your chances for success.  Writing down your goals daily can be a powerful exercise in reminding your subconscious what you need to focus on.

But the most powerful study of all is from ASTD, the American Society for Training and Development. The study found that if you have written goals and an accountability partner and you commit and check in with that partner about your goals weekly, your chances of success increase 95%!! That’s amazing. Many of the leaders I work with integrate these accountability habits as part of their professional growth and performance development through our Executive Presence Training. (Thanks to the wonderful Marie Forleo for sharing this.)

So if you want this to be your year- Write your goals down, share them with an accountability partner, and check in weekly on your progress- the research shows this dramatically increases your likelihood of success..

Check Out the Good News!

At a time when there is so much divisiveness and polarization, it’s important to remember that there is a great deal of good going on.  I believe that people are fundamentally caring, and the stories below demonstrate that.  I’m wishing you a glorious holiday season and I’m grateful you are one of my readers.  I’d love to hear from you!

• In Jacksonville, Fl:  Shaquille O’Neal, with Duval County Public Schools, the Henry and Zach Crocklett Foundation and  Rhodes Graduation Services, brought gifts and food to needy families in need this week. This happens through the Turkey & Toys Districtwide Partnership.

• In Maryland, the DARCARS dealership erased $25,000 of school lunch debt.

• A baby who had been abandoned at birth next to a dumpster has gone on to be a $62 million entrepreneur finding solutions in the tech industry.  He also created a tracking device for those with Alzheimers. Freddie Figgers says “The best thing any human being can do is influence another one.”

• A 93 year old toymaker, Ed Higinbotham of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, donated 300 wooden trucks to the state police this month.

• Actor Morgan Freeman has devoted his 124 acre ranch to saving the bees, and saving the planet.

• Miss USA, Miss Teen America, Miss America and Miss World are all black women this year.  A wonderful trend of diversity!

• A British scientist who developed a new drug for ovarian cancer has donated her share of the profits, £31 million, to charity.

• And a couple who get engaged at Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC, from South Africa, and were subsequently shamed by critics on social media, got the surprise of their lives.  McDonald’s bought them a honeymoon to Capetown, a jeweler provided wedding rings, Huawei provided new phones and KFC paid for the whole wedding!

 

To watch a video on empathy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmuSZVTQWFg&feature=youtu.be

Learn more about Renewing Dignity

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©2019, Snowden McFall, Fired Up! You may reprint if you credit me with content.Follow me on social media @snowdenmcfall

How to Cut Down On Email Clutter

The Average employee gets over 12o emails ad day, most CEO’s receive 300+.  Eeks!!  How can you cope with that deluge of email on a daily basis.

Here are a few tips from my friend Dianna Booher, whose new book Faster, Fewer, Better Emails came out this week.

What to do:

1. Read each email only once and either delete, put into action, reply or send to right person.
2. Ask coworkers not to cc all.
3. Don’t prolong responses with personal commentary that is meaningless.  Women often try to build relationships with email; this is not the place.
4. Acknowledge receipt and respond with a plan: “I will get that report to you after I hear from Tom; you will have it by 3:00pm.”
5. Bow out after introductions.
6. Don’t forward jokes, stories, etc. We all have enough distractions.
7. Unsubscribe to ezines.
8. Turn off alerts.A tip from me:
9. Only check email 4-5 times a day.  First thing when you start work, before lunch, after lunch, mind-day and at end of day.  Don’t take it home and don’t read it before bed- it will wreak havoc with your sleep.  You train people how to expect your response.  If you respond immediately, they will always expect it.

You can handle your email in a way that works for you. Try these techniques and let me know if they helped!

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©2019, Snowden McFall, Fired Up! You may reprint if you credit me with content.Follow me on social media @snowdenmcfall

A Month of Good News!

In a world all too frought with tragedy, bad news and polarization, it’s critical to celebrate milestones and achievements.  Doing so reminds us of the essential goodness of the human spirit, and our ability to overcome. It shows us that our hard work has been worthwhile, and that we do, indeed, make a difference.

What in your life have you been celebrating? What has been exciting and meaningful in your world?

This month has been especially busy, with many great events and opportunities to be thankful. My nephew, Quint, graduated from college. I hosted the Top Women Igniting Success Awards, and volunteered for Read USA.

Honoring Those Who Contribute

The Top Women Igniting Success Awards. accompanied by the First Coast Symphony and Tara Winds from the Atlanta Symphony celebrated 35 women who have made outstanding contributions to our community.  We also acknowledged 4 Top Achievers who have gone above and beyond. Those women include Ellen Wiss, co-founder and CEO of Read USA Inc.,  Helen Jackson, founder of the Women of Color Cultural Foundation, Chris Schwing, Chairwoman/co-founder of the Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum, and Ju’Coby Pittman of the Clara White Mission, which has made great strides in feeding and employing the homeless.

Ending Poverty

Did you know that 2/3 of children who struggle to read by the 4th grade end up in jail or on welfare!!!!  And 2/3 of impoverished homes have no books.  Ellen Wiss and Vanessa Tussey co-founded Read USA Inc. years ago to address this very issue.   I had the privilege of volunteering this week at school book fairs where each child receives 3 free books to own! Donations are made from the community (we raised over $165,000) to pay for the books.  Amazingly, this only costs $10 per child for 3 free books.   We got books into the hands of 16,000 children this week,which means they will have books to read over the summer and stay engaged with learning!

This month, I witnessed the power of hard work, tenacity, learning and community fellowship.  Every day members of your community, my community, every community throughout the world, are making a difference.  Celebrate that and let that knowledge inspire and fire you up as you go forward.

 

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©2019, Snowden McFall, Fired Up! You may reprint if you credit me with content.Follow me on social media @snowdenmcfall

Are you on the edge of burnout?

Today is National Stress Awareness Day, and people who are severely stressed on an on-going basis burn out. Burnout is a major problem all over the world. Japan has a term called “death from overwork” (karoshi) and over 30,000 deaths have been attributed to it.  Over 2000 Japanese workers committed suicide.

Americans work even longer than the Japanese. According to the American Psychological Association, 60% -80%of work absences are due to issues such as layoffs, longer work hours, stress and burnout. This accounts for over $300 billion of economic loss in lost productivity and health care costs.

Take this quiz to see where you are:

Check any that apply to you right now:

1. You come home regularly dead-tired with little or no energy.
2. You stay awake at night thinking about all the things you have to do.
3. The concept of vacation is inconceivable to you- you have way too much to do to go away.
4. You don’t have time to exercise regularly or participate in your favorite hobbies.
5. You don’t have time for massages, haircuts, or personal care like doctor’s and dentist’s appointments.
6. You snap at your loved ones and co-workers fairly often.
7. You have very little patience with others and expect them to work as hard as you do.
8. You are very critical, especially of yourself.
9. You feel your life is out of control.
10. You eat on the fly, often junk or fast food.
11. You don’t like change and wish things were like the way they used to be.
12. You feel unappreciated, unloved and undervalued.

If you checked 5 or more, you could be heading towards burnout.
©2019, 2000 Snowden McFall All Rights Reserved

What to Do About it?

1. Get help.  See a counselor, therapist, or coach.  Many of my coaching clients are hovering on burnout when I start working with them.  Change takes awareness and having an accountability partner.
2. Go away for a technology break as soon as possible– like this weekend.  And plan a vacation within a month- again technology-free.  Trade houses if you need to, just take at least 7 days off from work.  Your brain and body need down time.
3. Laugh as often and as much as possible.  Watch funny movies, listen to comedy stations, ask people about their funny stories.  One good belly laugh is workth 45 minutes of stress relief.
4. Get more sleep– at least 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a cool dark room with no technology. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

For more stress tips, consider Stress Express 15 Instant Stress Relievers!  It’s a quick read, inexpensive and all tips are researched backed.

Fear of the Unknown Creates Significant Anxiety

Fear of the unknown often plagues employers and employees alike, as well as parents and teens. Whether you’re a CEO concerned about payroll, or a caretaker wondering how to handle your parent’s latest medical crisis , fear of the unknown can absorb far too much of your time and energy. Not knowing what will happen and then projecting worry, or worse, catastrophizing, is a huge stressor for those who don’t know how to handle it. If uncertainty or the unknown has been increasing your stress load, you may find these practical stress management strategies helpful.

Here’s what you can do to handle this stressor:

1. Do a reality check. Worried about cash flow? Check your numbers carefully. Analyze receivables and projections, bills and outflow. If there truly is an issue, consider renegotiating agreements with vendors, tapping into a line of credit, or asking for help. Whenever you contract about money, make a written list of all you are grateful for right now. What are all the blessings in your life? Review them. That will shift your focus off of lack and into abundance. We create more of what we focus on.
2. Put your attention on the present moment. One of the biggest stressors is worrying about the future, of what could happen. Most of the time, we cannot control what is going on in the world; we can only control our attitude. Stay optimistic and handle what you can right now, in your immediate future. Visualize a good outcome. The more progress you make today on your highest ROI activities, the better tomorrow will be.
3. Take control of something small where you can see an immediate result. That might mean cleaning off your desk and filing all your documents. Or washing the dishes. Or completing a short report. Do something that gives you a sense of completion, and that will help you reframe your sense of futility and powerlessness. It will also get your moving physically, which shifts the negativity.
4. Analyze challenging times in your past. How did you prevail? What or who got you through them? Reference previous successes and coping strategies, and employ them now to help you deal with the most recent stressor.

Know that you are incredibly resourceful, capable and powerful, when you set your mind and heart to it. Get clear about what’s happening, ask for help, tap into your resources and previous strategies and you will thrive, no matter what the future brings.

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©2019, Snowden McFall, Fired Up! You may reprint if you credit me with content

Today is International Women’s Day and there has never been a better time to recommit yourself to having an impact. Whether you know it or not, you do touch lives and inspire others, often without realizing it. By acting with integrity, being true to yourself, leading with courage and expressing kindness, you are a role model and an instrument of change.

A Few Great Women Doing Just That

One of the exciting new aspects of my life is the Ignite Success TV Show I am shooting every week, where I get to profile inspirational women leaders and provide a 5 minute motivational message.

Last week’s show was so powerful because each of these women has made a huge difference in the world and continues to.

Kristin Keen, who started Rethreaded, a non-profit which gets women who have been human trafficked off the streets, into a full-time job, with support and therapy, was completely Fired Up! She shared that Project Runway All Stars had featured her non-profit on the show that aired in January, and Southwest Airline had donated enormous quantities of supplies for her women to turn into saleable merchandise . Rethreaded is now selling gorgeous gifts and accessories which change lives. And they have a new corporate gift program..https://www.rethreaded.com

Ju’Coby Pittman has been the CEO/President of the Clara White Mission for 25 years and is the incumbent Councilwoman for District 8. She has been working to improve Jacksonville for over 30 years; by feeding the homeless and implementing vocational training programs for veterans, ex-cons, and the homeless with amazing results. With projects like Clara’s at the Cathedral, a meal service catered by her people, and White Harvest Farm, an organic farm on the north side, Ju’Coby’s work has impacted thousands! She’s appeared on Oprah and the Today Show.http://theclarawhitemission.org/

You, too, make a difference every day, whether you realize it or not. Every smile, every kindness, every time you help another, you are changing lives. Never forget that you have an impact and a purpose. I believe in you!

Ellen Wiss, philanthropist and president of Homekor Florida, is the co-founder of Read USA, which is dedicated to eradicating poverty through literacy. 2/3 of all children who struggle to read by 4th grade end up in jail or on welfare. This organization mitigates the problem by proving book fairs where children get to pick out their own books which they get to keep. This is so critical because 2/3 of homes in poverty have no books at all. This year the organization will host 35 book fairs and they need volunteers and donations.$10 will provide 3 books to a child. $100 willl provide books for 30 children. To donate or volunteer, go to https://www.readusainc.com

Snowden

If you’d like to watch any of my tv shows, go to my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/SnowdenMcfall/videos

4. Jacksonville-based Rethreaded featured on ‘Project Runway’

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with others. Sign up for tips on success, employee retention, productivity, and stress relief. https://www.firedupnow.com/kindlings

©2019, Snowden McFall, Fired Up! You may reprint if you credit me with content