How to Move Forward in Life.

If you want to fly and move on to better things, you have to give up the things that weigh you down – which is not always as obvious and easy as it sounds.

Starting today, give up…

Letting the opinions of others control your life. – People know your name, but not your story. They’ve heard what you’ve done, but not what you’ve been through.  So take their opinions of you with a grain of salt.  In the end, it’s not what others think; it’s what you think about yourself that counts.  Sometimes you have to do exactly what’s best for you and your life, not what’s best for everyone else.

The shame of past failures. – You will fail sometimes, and that’s okay.  The faster you accept this, the faster you can get on with being brilliant.  Your past does not equal your future.  Just because you failed yesterday; or all day today; or a moment ago; or for the last six months; or for the last sixteen years, doesn’t have any impact on the current moment.  All that matters is what you do right now!

Being indecisive about what you want. – You will never leave where you are until you decide where you would rather be;  It’s all about finding and pursuing your passion.  Neglecting passion blocks creative flow.  When you’re passionate, you’re energized.  Likewise, when you lack passion, your energy is low and unproductive.  Energy is everything when it comes to being successful.  Make a decision to figure out what you want, and then pursue it passionately.

Procrastinating on the goals that matter to you. – There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.  Follow your intuition.  Don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do.  When there is love and inspiration, you can’t go wrong.  And whatever it is you want to do, do it now.  There are only so many tomorrows.  Trust me, in a year from now, you will wish you had started today.

Choosing to do nothing. – You don’t get to choose how you are going to die, or when.  You can only decide how you are going to live, right now.  Every day is a new chance to choose.  Choose to change your perspective.  Choose to flip the switch in your mind from negative to positive.  Choose to turn on the light and stop fretting about with insecurity and doubt.  Choose to do work that you are proud of.  Choose to see the best in others, and to show your best to others.  Choose to truly LIVE, right now.

Your need to be right. – If you keep on saying you’re right, even if you are right now, eventually you will be wrong.  Aim for success, but never give up your right to be wrong.  Because when you do, you will also lose your ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.

Running from problems that should be fixed. – We make life harder than it really needs to be. The difficulties started when… conversations became texting, feelings became subliminal, sex became a game, the word ‘love’ fell out of context, trust faded as honesty waned, insecurities became a way of living, jealously became a habit, being hurt started to feel natural, and running away from it all became our solution.  Stop running!  Face these issues, fix the problems, communicate, appreciate, forgive and LOVE the people in your life who deserve it.

Making excuses rather than decisions. – Life is a continuous exercise in creative problem solving.  A mistake doesn’t become a failure until you refuse to correct it. Thus, most long-term failures are the outcome of people who make excuses instead of decisions.

Overlooking the positive points in your life. – What you see often depends entirely on what you’re looking for.  Do your best and surrender the rest.  When you stay stuck in regret of the life you think you should have had, you end up missing the beauty of what you do have.  You will have a hard time ever being happy if you aren’t thankful for the good things in your life right now. 

Not appreciating the present moment. – We do not remember days, we remember moments.  Too often we try to accomplish something big without realizing that the greatest part of life is made up of the little things.  Live authentically and cherish each precious moment of your journey.  Because when you finally arrive at your desired destination, another journey will begin!

Eliminating Negativity

Trying to manage people who have a poor attitude can feel like a losing battle. Negativity, left unchecked, will eventually stunt team performance; the first step to reinstate the positive? Learning to distinguish real negativity from someone who simply doesn't agree with you. 

"You want people on your team, in any profession, who challenge your thinking and ask the right questions,” says Suzanne Bates, author of "Speak Like a CEO”. "Asking questions that are constructive is not negative -- it's an asset."

But if someone really needs an attitude adjustment, here's how to help him or her:

Open your office door. Sometimes, consistent negative comments mean an employee feels unheard by their boss, and the fix couldn't be simpler. "Keep your door open so people feel comfortable coming in and talking with you informally about what's happening with the team," Bates says. Those conversations may also help you find out about a particular person creating an issue. If people are worried about "tattling," let them know that your conversation will be kept confidential -- and keep that promise.

Pinpoint the person's problem. If someone has a sour attitude, figuring out the cause by talking to him or her one-on-one is crucial. "Ask open-ended, short questions to get to the root problem. Is your employee frustrated with her job activity, and if so, why? Are her skills being underutilized,, and if so, how?"

Encourage employees to contribute to a team-wide solution. It's important to ask for input from the group, as well as from the individuals involved. "One thing we find is that the antidote to negativity can be shared vulnerability. Ask each member of the team to how they have contributed to the current state" of the group, says Jim Haudan, author of  “The Art of Engagement”.

Then ask them to come up with a solution -- together. This is more effective than your dictating the new direction. "When the problem person describes what is to be done, it's more likely to happen," notes J. Robert Parkinson, co-author of "Becoming a Successful Manager”. Have the group define details about goals and solutions and instruct them that it is their responsibility to help maintain this new code of conduct going forward.

Touch base on any future negative behavior. Once you've outlined a plan that has been created, and agreed on, by your team, check in with members individually and as a group to see how it's working -- or not. "Changes in negative behavior require time and attention. Permanent changes won't happen after a single meeting," Parkinson says. Adjust accordingly, and you should be able to keep a few negative people from dampening the positive spirit of the larger group.

Leadership-Taking Charge

The problem with leadership is that we're making copycats. We study the road leaders take and all try to take the same road, creating creative gridlock. We need more road-makers, more people to follow the spirit of these leaders' steps, not their actual path. We need more history-bending figures that seem bigger than life, able to do things that the rest of us see as impossible. In two words, we need more "iconic leaders." The fact that so many icons were at the same conference is amazing. The fact that we have so few icons is tragic.

After looking at this subject for many years, I believe there are three factors that iconic leaders have.

The first is a sense of their own, center of the Earth, core values. Such values are discovered, not taught, not adopted. One of the reasons leaders tend to come from situations of adversity (poverty, early death of a parent, illness -- all factors positively correlated with a life that makes an impact) is that hardships reveal what matters to us -- what principles matter, and what don't. We all have hardships, but we don't all learn from them. It's not the hardship that counts; it's the reflection on it that does. People who are depressed have an edge in this type of learning, because they feel so down they cannot help but to reflect. The result of great reflection as iconic leaders all say, as Martin Luther did when challenged about why he was risking his life: "Here I stand, I can do no other." Gandhi's core values were dignity and respect. Martin Luther King, Jr. was justice and empathy. People's core values are as unique as a fingerprint, so my brief summary of a few iconic leaders’ core values is the beginning of their journey, not the end.

The second element is that they know their great gift. Great gifts are much more specific than talents, strengths or abilities. They are a bit like a cat. They don't come running when you call, but if you create the right environment they insist on sitting on your lap. Like a cat, you can put them in categories (long hair, short hair, tabby, ragdoll), but truthfully, no two cats are the same; each has its own pattern of behavior, it's own personality. If the cat analogy doesn't work for you, then think of children or best friends. The key is to get to know the nuance of your great gift -- when it works, when it fails and situations when it's extra powerful

I referred to finding your great gift in a previous post, and at a specific conference, several people were asking me about mine. It's that I take input and ideas from many fields, companies, empirical research, and synthesize something original. It's part creative and part discovery. And unlike other synthesizers, I take it all the way down to specific steps people can take. It's why I write one book every three years, instead of three books every year. I can't release them until they're done, until my great gift says, "It's ready." My great gift is that I synthesize across fields, from history to spirituality to brain science to mythology, and produce what my tribe calls "actionable insights" -- a new way of seeing an old problem, with specific steps that people are inspired to take as a result of the new perspective.

Here's the test of whether you're on the trail of your great gift: You can do it. When your mind is idle, your great gift kicks in. If you go days without using it, you feel like you've neglected a friend. So a great gift is subtle and creates an obsession at the same time. If you learn to use it, it stops stalking you, and reveals its nature more and more, every day. A relationship with your gift is not optional; the only choice is whether your great gift will feed your leadership story, or whether you feel haunted by an obsession.

The third element is a "cross-trained intuition." Leaders seem to know what the right thing to do is, even when others don't. How do they do this? In almost all the cases I've studied, they drew on insights from a field very different from the one in which they're leading. Howard Thurman, a missionary who had met Gandhi, and studied the principles of non-violence, mentored Martin Luther King, Jr. Many of King's insights came from combining an understanding of missionary work, with the remarkable life of the Indian leader. As a result of this influence, his intuition told him to not align himself with either political party in the United States, to remain outside the system of elected office, and to side with anyone down on his or her luck, regardless of their gender, age, race, or religion. His intuition has been trained by studied something very different from leading a social movement in the United States.

Gandhi's mother was a Jain, a devotee of a belief system that every living being has a soul. He also studied the classics, and was especially moved by the story of Harishchandra, a legendary figure who never told a lie and was a symbol of courage. Later in life, he became a nonviolent agitator -- values-driven, courageous, and building a movement that included Hindus and Muslims -- traditional enemies in India.

The leader with a cross-trained intuition that everyone is buzzing about is Steve Jobs. He did a deep dive in minimalism and aesthetics. The computer I'm typing on now -- a new Mac Book Pro -- shows the effect of his intuition, and how he was famously able to reject focus group marketing, because people wouldn't know what they wanted until they saw it. Just as athletes improve their overall fitness by cross training, leaders who have done a deep dive in a field different from the one the lead come across as a bit odd at first, then clever, later visionary, and finally, as godlike in their insights.

If you put these factors together, you unleash a process called the "genius effect." It begins when you notice that the status quo offends you. You get mad, even outraged. The source of this anger, if you trace it back, is that the way things are violates your core values. You can do something about it -- your value compels you to action, even though the challenge seems like it would require a Manhattan Project to tackle. You do have a secret source of ability, which is your great gift. As you get to know it, you find that it's activated by your righteous indignation of the situation. It's not that your gift saves you, it's that you find yourself using a gift you didn't know you had. Along the way, if you're playing long term, you're guided by a deep instinct that has been cross-trained. If you follow the root of this instinct, you go to the field that you know, that others don't.

The genius effect gets its name from what people tend to say about iconic leaders: They are geniuses, not like me at all. That's true. There will never be another Steve Jobs, or Martin Luther King, Jr., or another Gandhi. Nor will there be another you. Your job is to find the way you can be an iconic leader and do that.

If you want a more specific challenge -- then find two people, and go through the process of finding these three elements of iconic leadership with them. It's your job to help them both find their values, great gift, and source of cross-trained intuition. There are two people who will change your life, and you can be well on your way in 90 days. Your job is to find them.

I will end with this thought: Why aren't there more iconic figures? - Because, in the post millennium there just isn't more courage in the world. In fact, a lot of people study leadership for the wrong reason. They are in a situation and rather than rely on their cross-trained intuition, and great gift, and core values, they calm the restless feeling by reading about leadership. So armed with these general guidelines, the challenge is: Stop reading about it, and do it.

Your Education-Why Engineering is still your best educational investment?

When deciding on a particular degree course, many students are unaware of the vast opportunities that lie in the broad area of engineering. This problem arises since most people are unable to define exactly what type of work an engineer performs.

The engineering profession is not well understood by the general public, even in the United States. A professional engineer lives in a high-tech, fast moving world where the competition is fierce and the stakes are high.

With a degree in engineering, you are far more likely to be involved in the research, design and development of new products and services. Engineers have designed and created most of the world in which we now live. The subject is fairly creative and aims to solve everyday problems in a cost effective and practical manner. While many see engineering as a very technical subject, in reality many engineers will develop considerable management experience and the ability to communicate well and motivate individuals is an important skill.

The financial realities of studying for a degree cannot be ignored. Engineering is one of the few University subjects where companies are actively looking to sponsor students throughout their degree program. If sponsored, the company will normally give you money during the university terms, and this can help to make life a bit easier! Most companies will also offer paid work experience during the long summer holidays, and this is a very useful way of experiencing the type of work opportunities engineering has to offer. Sponsorship also offers the chance of a job offer after you graduate.

Job prospects for graduates with a degree in mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering have never been so exciting. The huge growth in areas such as telecommunications has resulted in a large demand for suitably qualified students. In the past, many students have not realized how many opportunities lie in engineering, and this had led to companies finding it extremely difficult to attract people with the skills and experience they require. In general, engineering offers very rewarding work, as well as the potential for personal development, worldwide travel and good pay.

The mechanical engineer has been called the general practitioner and the jack-of-all trades among engineering professions. This is because the profession requires education and skills that span a broad range of technical, social, environmental, and economic problems. In general, however, the mechanical engineer is concerned with controlling the principles of motion, energy, and force through mechanical solutions. 
A mechanical engineer designs the tools and processes used for satisfying the needs of society through a combination of material, human, and economic resources. He/She might work on electric generators, internal combustion engines, steam and gas turbines, and other power-generating machines. He/She might also develop machines such as refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment, power tools, and other power-using machines.

Practically every company that designs and produces a product employs a mechanical engineer. But mechanical engineers can also be found in research labs, the military, government, and in other professions such as medicine, law or teaching; most mechanical engineering jobs require design experience. When for a new or improved product is needed, companies call upon mechanical engineers to do the job. Engineers have to push beyond the limits of their previous work and use innovative technology to meet project requirements successfully; a second major area of employment for mechanical engineers is manufacturing. Manufacturing jobs cover nearly everything involved in developing a product, from selecting the appropriate materials to choosing the correct machinery to manufacture the product. Most mechanical engineers in this industry work for equipment manufacturers, aerospace companies, utilities, material processing plants, transportation companies, and petroleum companies. They also work with small firms, consulting practices, universities, and government research labs.

An Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree opens the door on many possible careers. Whether you want to be a manager or a technical expert, a sales person or a computer programmer, most electronics companies will need and value your skills. If at the end of your degree you decide that your future does not lie in engineering, then your degree can still be used to apply for a wide range of alternative employment opportunities.

In conclusion, a good degree in Mechanical, Electrical and Electronic Engineering from a university with strong research in growth areas such as telecommunications, as well as strong links to the industry, is an excellent and flexible foundation for future success.

Did you know that within Fortune 500 companies 53% of the CEOs have a degree in engineering, while only 11% have a business related degree in their resume?