Tag: motivation

You can’t change people, but people can change because of you

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How many times you have closed your eyes and wished deep inside  that someone could just change? and how many times you thought you really “could do it” and change them? was it a behavior that you didn’t like, was it a wishful thought to make your relationship become better. Whatever the reason was, we all did it, and more likely we will all keep doing it… Trying to Change others… 

The Miracle of Believing is Individual, is Singular, I wish I could believe for all of you, but the fact remains that you need to believe for yourself.

~Jim Rohn

In my upcoming Book, “Living an Influential Life”, I go over the power of Influence and how you can inspire and aspire others to change by simply working on yourself and building specific aspects of YOU that will make others look up to you.

Let’s pause for a second and think of the following… If you have been doing something in a specific way, and it was working for you… Would you want to look for ways to enhance it? chances are that you won’t… However when that specific way lead to a disaster, then you would be forced to change… But there are those times, when you are not really looking for way to enhance and change things, and suddenly, you see someone else doing it in a much efficient way, that you feel inspired to change!

During my line of work, I used to travel a LOT… and I have used to ask the cabin crew for requests in a very polite manner but really had no specific way on how to do so; Until one day, one of my Best friends, Bachar D.  who was more experienced in traveling than I was, gave me a great tip… We were siting in a restaurant and he asked for a napkin from the waiter, he said to him: “Excuse me, <First Name – that he could read from the nameTag>, when you have time, can you please get me a napkin.” and the waiter smiled at him, and despite how busy he was, he did prioritize getting the napkin for him in no time…

Now of course it may sound silly for you, but when Bachar explained this to me, he said that the fact that he mentioned ” WHEN YOU HAVE TIME” in the sentence, it made a huge difference in the structure of the sentence and the other person felt more respected, and of course this was a trick that he learned in the airline business…. and Ever since, I tried it and used it over and over and over and it works every time…

He really didn’t ask me to change… He didn’t say that my “can I have a napkin please” is horrible… he really didn’t say anything… he was just being him, and doing things his way… and Just that… Inspired me to make a small change in my behavior.

So the tip for this week, is Instead of trying so hard to Change people, Be The Change you want to see… and inspire others to change because of you!

Your Story Matters... By Bachar Dib

This post is dedicated to Bachar Dib

Enjoy your Week!

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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

Enjoy your own life, without comparing it with that of another

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They say that it’s easy to feel better when you watch someone else feeling more miserable, and it’s easy not to feel pretty if you bumped into a more attractive person, and you know what, yes they are right! only it’s a double edge sword… You can hurt yourself while doing that.

I’ll give you an example from a question I asked, on my first post on this blog:

When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror and you were completely satisfied with what you saw? do you accept everything about yourself everyday?

Before you continue reading… Think through the first 2 paragraph, and try to conclude what this week’s tip would be…

Come on… Try it before you continue reading.

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I’m curious to learn what your answer was, so if you can comment on this page or send me a msg on my Facebook Page… 

Ok here it goes,

Instead of checking how good or bad your life is by looking at others, you should do it when you look at yourself; Some of the best times of our life may never come back to us, not because life is cruel, but simply because the phase where we could party all night and sleep for 1 hour and then jump up and continue our day, needed to end at your 20s, and when you’re 40, that won’t be pretty applicable anymore (Because of our body structure/Energy of course).

is that a bad thing? not particularly, Noone says that you should keep on partying all your life, but I would say to look at your life TODAY, and realize where you are RIGHT NOW, and compare it with Where you would want to be and where you were… I Wouldn’t normally suggest that someone would crawl back to the past, EXCEPT if He/She would be looking at the future at the same time.

You could not like yourself right now, remember you can change… and you can have a great Life… it’s in your hands… not in anyone else’s,

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

So it’s time you look at yourself and check out how your can change… and if you need ideas, it’s ok to look at others… but don’t let others make you feel inferior just because they are doing better than you are, you really have no idea what they might be going through.

Enjoy your Week!

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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

Don’t be the same. BE BETTER!

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It’s the first Monday of the year 2016, and possibly you’re at the stage of thinking of beginnings, change, transformation, ambition or simply thinking about improvement.

I’ve had a practice since I was in my early 20s, that I used to do on the edge of the year… When I look back and reflect on how that year has passed by, and more importantly… How my life is going?

Well, yes, some years has been sweet, some has been sad, some were weird and it seems that the more you grow older, things start to get more and more challenging, and you get back to wishing how easy your life was when you were younger, and the opportunities you could’ve seized with that Body you had and so on…

“Don’t wish it was easier wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge wish for more wisdom” – Jim Rohn

Well, the thing is… No matter how you want to look at it… It will look right. YES… it will look right! if you want to see it as a bad year, you will be right, and if you want to see it as a good year you will see it… so either way… rest assure.. You’re Right! 

My advice for you this year, is to become a better version of yourself… Become A Better Person… Just BE BETTER!

You may not be able to control the wind, the flow of things, the rain or whatever you face externally… But remember that you can ALWAYS control your personal development! Learn More, Explore More, Experience More… And BECOME BETTER.

Try to check edX or Coursera and pick one of the free courses.. You can get an accreditation from one of the top universities in the world, like Harvard and MIT… FREE & ACCREDITED… imagine if you can take 1 or 2 courses per year… Would that be better on your resume by December 2016? How about Matching that with 2 books… and maybe learn a skill from just watching YouTube?

It’s easy… YET you’re still the SAME as last year! Don’t be… BE BETTER THIS YEAR!!

Enjoy your week,
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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

You Cannot Stop the Rain from Falling

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The more you become good in strategy, the more you realize how much you need to be able to see the impact of external forces to your life or to your business or to both.There will always be things that we can control, and things that we cannot… But it’s important to note that the things we cannot control, shouldn’t control us.

This week’s tip, is about how you should react when bad things occur towards you; I have been accused of being “too” optimistic sometimes, that I always look for the bright side even when things are going too dark, and too down, and one time I was asked the following question: “Why do you keep saying it was something good, when you know that the result is obviously bad??” and I normally smile, even when things can look sad, and reply back “You cannot stop the rain from falling”.

Let me ask you the following questions:

If you missed your flight… How would you feel?  Terrible? Angry?? Disappointed???

If several hours later you heard that the same flight you missed… Crashed…. How would you feel now? Lucky?? Happy???

Now what about all those decisions you took in your life and never knew what would’ve happened?

What if you met a homeless and gave him a sum of money, and later on discovered that he was a fraud?? Would you focus on your self and your act of GIVING or the fact that he was a bad person and took advantage of you? did he?

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

~Gilbert K. Chesterton

You cannot stop the rain from falling, but you can always control how you would feel about it… Just like in NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) where they say that it’s not the words that hurt you, but it’s you that allow the words to hurt you… And that’s very powerful.

So in the end, you can be optimistic & positive, or negative & pessimistic when either way, the result is still the same… I would choose to be optimistic and positive, everytime!

Enjoy your Week!

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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

Without Challenges, You can’t feel the taste of Success and Happiness.

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When studying some basic concepts in psychology to help me understand the drive a person would have a to achieve a fulfilling life,  researchers always stumbled upon what we call Happiness. Are we happy when we have a high level of pleasure? Are we happy when we achieve a higher goal? is happiness a permanent state? a goal to reach for?

So many questions to be asked, and only one answer is interesting for you to know about right now, Happiness means different things to different people but somehow the impact is the same for everyone.

The same challenging definition is the definition of Success, is being successful related to fame, money, achievements? what does success mean? or even better.. what does Success TASTE like.

Each one of us have tasted success at one or more times in his or her life, it might be the first time you walked when you were almost 2 years old or the diploma you earned when you were 20 or the huge deal you landed to your company making you in the top 20% (The High Performers); I’m sure if you only closed your eyes for 20 seconds and remembered that time, you would suddenly smile and feel happy of the memory itself.

One thing that would make almost anything worth appreciating, is how easy or difficult it was for you to reach there… You see if you spent 2 minutes to find a photo online to use for your presentation, chances are you will forget where you stored it on your computer, and you probably won’t care that much if you lost it… Cause you will spend 2 more minutes later on to find it again or find an even better one.

Without challenges, success and excellence won’t exist, especially when such a success is meant for the homeland and its fruit is harvested by the citizens. Without challenges, we won’t feel the taste of success and happiness we wish for our people in this dear land.”

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

However when success was the highlight of a road filled with challenges, that taught us determination and when we needed to look for motivation to make it, this success will be hard to forget, and where you will be fighting to defend your right to keep it and benefit from it.

So if you were in challenging situation, just remember how Happy you would be when you succeed, knowing that you worked hard to make it happen.

Have a beautiful week,
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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

A winner is a dreamer who never gives up

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I was having a chat recently about my opinion on what would be the key to success & winning…  I wasn’t very sure about what would that be… But I answered: perseverance

Most of the winners in this life, have faced lots of failures and disappointments in their life & career, but they never stopped believing in the beauty of their dreams… and Never gave up!

In one of my lectures at one of the universities, I had an interesting question:“How should we know when to take an opportunity and when we should wait for the next one?”

I hesitated to answer, since there’s virtually no guarantee that an opportunity will be the right one or that the next one (if there was one) will be the right one… so here it was the answer I gave that young lady:

“The Short Answer is that you WON’T KNOW… But it’s not a game of chance and that you need to gamble with opportunities, All you have to understand about opportunities is that they are MEANS, and not DESTINATIONS; So you get an opportunity to have an interview, an opportunity to meet someone, an opportunity to showcase your work to some buyers… And therefore, if you don’t have a destination in mind, all opportunities would look the same to you…”

The Key to Winning is to NEVER GIVE UP, and to try to fuel your chances by taking the opportunities that would get you closer to realizing your dreams.

Cheers,
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 “I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”
― Nelson Mandela

Photo Credit: Samer Chidiac
Scene Location: Belarus
Model: Elena Chepak

Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

Be like the Ant: Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can!

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One of my favorite and most probably one of the first stories I heard when I was a kid at school, was the story of the Ant and the Cricket, the cricket that was singing all summer while the Ant was working, and when the winter arrived, the cricket paid the price while the ant ripped off the benefit of hard work.

The summary of the story is goes something like this:

Once upon a time… one hot summer, a cricket sang cheerfully on the branch of a tree, while down below, a long line of ants struggled gamely under the weight of their load of grains; and between one song and the next, the cricket spoke to the ants. “Why are you working so hard? Come into the shade, away from the sun, and sing a song with me.” But the tireless ants went on with the work… “We can’t do that,” they said, “We must store away food for the winter. When the weather`s cold and the ground white with snow, there’s nothing to eat, and we’ll survive the winter only if the pantry is full.”

“There’s plenty of summer to come,” replied the cricket, “and lots of time to fill the pantry before winter. I’d rather sing! How can anyone work in this heat and sun?”

And so all summer, the cricket sang while the ants laboured. But the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months. Autumn came, the leaves began to fall and the cricket left the bare tree. The grass too was turning thin and yellow. One morning, the cricket woke shivering with cold. An early frost tinged the fields with white and turned the last of the green leaves brown: winter had come at last.

The cricket wandered, feeding on the few dry stalks left on the hard frozen ground. Then the snow fell and she could find nothing at all to eat. Trembling and famished, she thought sadly of the warmth and her summer songs. One evening, she saw a speck of light in the distance, and trampling through the thick snow, made her way towards it.

“Open the door! Please open the door! I’m starving. Give me some food!” An ant leant out of the window.

“Who’s there? Who is it?”
“It’s me – the cricket. I’m cold and hungry, with no roof over my head.”

“The cricket? Ah, yes! I remember you. And what were you doing all summer while we were getting ready for winter?”

“Me? I was singing and filling the whole earth and sky with my song!”

“Singing, eh?” said the ant. “Well, try dancing now!”

Although this is a story designed for children, it’s very true in the world of business, entrepreneurship and leadership; you see, Ants are fascinating creatures, they don’t have left and right brain to think logically and creatively and they don’t have a Facebook account to brag about what they are doing or watching, instead, they are only driven by their instinct to fulfill their life mission and goal. 

If they’re headed somewhere and you try to stop them; they’ll look for another way. When I was a kid, I used to place a straw to prevent the ant from continuing its path and the response was, they’ll climb over, they’ll climb under, and they’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way.

This week’s tip, is about learning 3 things from this amazing tiny creature,

  1. Look ahead
  2. Work in a team towards a common goal
  3. Stay positive and do all you can 

Have a nice week,
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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

Sometimes you need to hear what you don’t want to

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At points in time, we feel that we have everything figured out in life, as if we know exactly what we want and how do we want it… Yet we would NOT be willing to do what it takes to get what we really want… It’s probably one of the most mysterious concepts in human psychology…

When I was very young, I have always have admiration to those tiny ANTS who taught me more about determination than probably all the business schools I have ever visited and attended… Those tiny creatures, that NO MATTER how much the 6 years old kid tried to keep them away from their path… They keep going back… And they Won’t Stop!

…Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.

~Steve Jobs

In this week’s tip, I’d like to highlight something very important, it’s about being determined to get what you really want… What you really want to achieve in Life… That’s why you have to do EVERYTHING THAT YOU NEED TO DO in order to get there… I can list countless examples from productivity to life lessons to economics and even to literature… That shows how most of the times you would NEED to do something you don’t like to get to something you want.

I have done so many talks about motivation to people who really wanted to listen… So many times I can’t even remember, and Yet I can almost still recall every individual talk I’ve had with someone who NEEDED to hear me out..

And I can’t illustrate it better than sharing with you the monologue from a very nice talk between Sean and Will (Robbin Williams and Matt Damon) in the movie Good Will Hunting.

So if I asked you about art you could give me the skinny on every art book ever written… Michelangelo? You know a lot about him I bet. Life’s work, criticisms, political aspirations.
But you couldn’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling.

And if I asked you about women I’m sure you could give me a syllabus of your personal favorites, and maybe you’ve been laid a few times too.
But you couldn’t tell me how it feels to wake up next to a woman and be truly happy.

If I asked you about war you could refer me to a bevy of fictional and non-fictional material,
but you’ve never been in one. You’ve never held your best friend’s head in your lap and watched him draw his last breath, looking to you for help.

And if I asked you about love I’d get a sonnet, but you’ve never looked at a woman and been truly vulnerable. Known that someone could kill you with a look.
That someone could rescue you from grief. That God had put an angel on Earth just for you.

And you wouldn’t know how it felt to be her angel. To have the love be there for her forever. Through anything, through cancer. You wouldn’t know about sleeping sitting up in a hospital room for two months holding her hand and not leaving because the doctors could see in your eyes that the term “visiting hours” didn’t apply to you.

And you wouldn’t know about real loss, because that only occurs when you lose something you love more than yourself, and you’ve never dared to love anything that much.

I look at you and I don’t see an intelligent confident man, I don’t see a peer, and I don’t see my equal. I see a boy. Nobody could possibly understand you, right Will?

So wherever you are right now, whatever you are doing, when you get the chance… JUST OPEN Your Heart and LISTEN…

Enjoy your Week!

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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

You are not the center, the center is You

Posted in Motivation, ProductivityTagged , , , 4 Comments

During my path of coaching and assisting people, whether it was on a professional or personal level, if we were in a casual conversation or in a formal meeting, I have encountered a lot of similarities in what hold some people off from realizing their potential, and sometimes in what is holding them from doing any type of progress!

This week’s tip is inspired by the same conversation that I had with like at least a dozen of individuals (with variations of course); the initial versus of the conversation starts with something like:

  • I don’t know what to do …
  • My personal life is going nowhere…
  • My professional life is going nowhere…
  • I’m not the same person I used to be before…

and then it continues on and on, and at some point in the conversation, I would ask “Why can’t you do this… ” and the reply is always similar to:

  • But you don’t understand, how can I do this while THAT is still there…
  • I can’t focus on my work while my Personal life is not working…
  • I can’t focus on My self while I’m having issues at my work…

So to cut it short, here’s what I end up saying:

“My dear <NAME>,

Let me put it this way for you, there are 3 Circles in your life. 1) The Professional Life, 2) The Personal Life & 3) The Private Life.

1) The Professional Life: includes all the work related items, your relationship with your boss, colleagues etc

2) Your Personal Life: includes your family, friends, loved ones, LOVEd one, and your life with them

3) Your Private Life: which includes YOU, how you eat, drink, exercise, what makes you happy, and what makes you sad… etc

All 3 constitute YOUR LIFE, but let’s be realistic, those 3 areas are not the front of the BLADE of a BULLDOZER that you use to CRAFT your life AT THE SAME TIME!  in fact although they are interconnected and interdependent, they are to be dealt with separately.

Of course when you are happy at home, and you are in great physical shape, it would affect your professional life in a positive manner. Of Course, the opposite will affect (and would probably mess up) everything around you. But Hey! don’t make yourself the CENTER of the 3 circles, just understand that The Center is YOU. And you just need to have a mental separation to all 3…

  • You need to Eat healthy, take care of your self, EVEN IF YOUR professional life is not going well.. Don’t Stop Taking care of yourself…
  • You need to take good care of your personal life Even if you have issues at work
  • You need to keep the work related issues… AT WORK….

”

From what I learned from Successful people, they do that a lot, they have this amazing ability of separating things mentally, if they have issues at home, they don’t make that affect their responsibility and especially their communication with their employees, teams and colleagues… If they have an issue at Work, they don’t bring on the stress home to their family.

If you put yourself in the Spotlight of the 3 circles, you won’t get satisfaction unless everything is solved / working optimally, however realizing that the center is you, makes you work further on developing / handling each aspect separately and enjoy the benefits!

Enjoy your Week!

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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

You need to stand up and walk, before you can run

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In my line of business, I’m lucky to meet interesting individuals from all over the world, almost everyday 🙂  and in this post, I’m going to introduce you to one of them!

This is the first Monday of the year 2015, and for some, the first day of the first week of the year that would change their entire life. You would wake up, filled with motivation that this is THE day that you need to make it happen…

Unfortunately for some, they are close to losing faith in themselves… As this is not the first Monday they have felt this enthusiasm, it has been the same in 2014, in 2013 and maybe since 2003? And some have been waiting all of their life for Life to Happen!   is it just bad luck? is it just that some are not DESTINED to be great? not to become successful?

To be quite honest with you, I haven’t always been that optimistic and enthusiast about life 😦 . There were days when I felt that no matter what I did, I would NEVER succeed. And the reason why I felt this way, is because I was holding myself accountable by comparing myself to “successful” people and underestimating the reason (s) and mostly the TIME-FRAME it took them to become successful!

If you take a good look at some of the basic things you’re able to do today with ease, you would be surprised how difficult for your grandfather to visualize himself doing the same when he was your age. Some things was NOT AT ALL EASY back then, yet today, we take them for granted… Even some of your favorite artists today, have been in business for years and some DECADES.

This week’s tip, is inspired by a conversation I’ve had with a very interesting individual, She’s the proud owner of a “Happiness Project” of spreading positive vibes and motivation everyday to hundred of thousands of people around the world.

When I first discovered the Quotes Gate  Facebook page, my first impression, was that a successful company, led by several team members, must be running it… Until I received a message from the owner, ASMA, introducing herself to me and initiating connection, and after an interesting discussion, I learned (and got shocked) that it was only a young Egyptian Student managing this page from her iPad! I was shocked because the page has more than 900,000 Fans!!! a number some very established media companies fail to reach with all their budgets and team efforts… 

 Driven by only her passion to helping others and spreading wellness to her community, ASMA is doing a Fantastic Job!

But there was a Catch to this story!

You see, based on our discussion, I discovered that this well established project, is only at its beginning, and have way more room for growth that you can possibly imagine, only the owner, was standing STILL and waiting to FLY. Not diving into our conversation and the details of the strategy I’ve advised her to do… You will hear about it when the time is come 🙂  I just wanted to stress on the fact that Every Professional was an Amateur at one point in time, it’s OK to Start somewhere and stand up, and learn to walk first… Then learn to run, and then JUMP…

It’s better to improve by 0.5% everyday, than to wait 1 year to improve 100% … if you do the math, you’ll see that improving 1/2 a % daily will lead you to being more than 600% better!!

Remember this quote by The German Philosopher and have a beautiful year ahead!

Enjoy your Week!

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He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

Be the hero of your own story!

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For so many, Heroes are those who save lives and fight evil, posse extra-ordinary powers and in times of bad circumstances they are those who make it happen for the sake of others; For me, a Hero is someone who inspire others in times when they need inspiration the most, simply by doing what he or she does on a regular basis, it’s their life story that give value to the rest. Your father can be a Hero to you, your manager, your teacher and of course when you run out of options, there’s always BATMAN and SUPERMAN 😛

Heroes represent the best of ourselves, respecting that we are human beings. A hero can be anyone from Gandhi to your classroom teacher, anyone who can show courage when faced with a problem. A hero is someone who is willing to help others in his or her best capacity.

~Ricky Martin

Now a Hero is not a person, it’s a role played in a story… it could be a science-fiction story filled with spaceships and lasers, and it could be a real story of a single mother struggling to balance between her life, her dreams and her only child. either way, the Hero plays the main character in a story / movie, he or she is the center of attention and where everyone wants to be them :)… And at the end, he or she is the one to be remembered when everything is over, probably not the secondary actors and certainly not the 3rd level actors…

This week’s tip, is for those who don’t play the major role in their own story, who are passive to events, and are not being proactive towards their future, but rather reactive… When big opportunities arise, they are the supporting actors, and when the light is out… They were soon forgotten.

Once my sister told me (She’s the one who appears in the main post picture btw),  that failure is a word that we invented, along with every other word in the dictionary, and it’s up to us to write our own story, choosing our own words; at that time she was an average biology teacher, and later on that year, she won the prize of Innovative Teacher on a national level, then on the regional level and reached to take 3rd place among 250,000 other teachers world wide. She wrote her story, the way she wanted…

Failure is a word that we invented, along with every other word in the dictionary, and it’s up to us to write our own story, choosing our own words. ~Yusser Chidiac

So my tip to you this week, don’t be passive, you only live once, and your life is what you make out of it… Just think of yourself as the MOVIE Star of your own Story… Try and get your self an Oscar!

Enjoy your Week!

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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

The bigger they are, the harder they fall

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This week’s tip is double sided 🙂

The first side is been said to emphasize that the more important or powerful a person is, the more difficult it is for them when they lose their power or importance

In his TED Talk about What Physics can teach us about Marketing, Dan Cobley, speaks about how brands can survive here’s an extract to read

So, physics and marketing. We’ll start with something very simple — Newton’s Law: “The force equals mass times acceleration.” …  But if we rearrange this formula quickly, we can get to acceleration equals force over mass, which means that for a larger particle — a larger mass — it requires more force to change its direction. It’s the same with brands: the more massive a brand, the more baggage it has, the more force is needed to change its positioning. And that’s one of the reasons why Arthur Andersen chose to launch Accenture rather than try to persuade the world that Andersen’s could stand for something other than accountancy. It explains why Hoover found it very difficult to persuade the world that it was more than vacuum cleaners, and why companies like Unilever and P&G keep brands separate, like Ariel and Pringles and Dove rather than having one giant parent brand. So the physics is that the bigger the mass of an object the more force is needed to change its direction. The marketing is, the bigger a brand, the more difficult it is to reposition it. So think about a portfolio of brands or maybe new brands for new ventures.

The Double Side comes from the same quote meant in the opposite direction, with an example from the great battle between David and Goliath.

Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, versus David, taking only his sling and five stones from a brook.

David and Goliath

David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and shield, David with his staff and sling. David hurls a stone from his sling with all his might and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead, Goliath falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head.

So the tip of this week, is simply to understand that becoming “Big” is never about the size, but about the impact that you or your brand can give to the world, so build yourself to become impact-full and even if your size is small now, you can defeat the giants by being focused and dedicated to your goals.

Have a Nice Week!

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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

The Night is darkest before the dawn

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Let’s face the truth on something, at some points in time, we can be in a situation where our life seems to be falling apart… Problem after Problem, issue after issue… From personal to private all the way to social and professional… Nothing seems to work!

I have always had the same conversation with different variation on the same topic; Someone would be talking to me about how life is hard on him or her and starts listing the negative things happening in their life. And I would almost always bring out the same point:

“That’s not a big deal… You know why… Because REAL problems in Life are only health related issues… The rest is just a day-to-day issue to deal with” 

 You see, the well-being of you and your loved ones, is far more important than issues you may have in your school, workplace, in your social space or even in your house.

And I started realizing that whenever I (or practically anyone of us) would meet a dear friend, I would skim through a summary of the highlights in like 5 minutes and then start listing all the negative issues facing my life in like 25 minutes. But again 5-6 years later, If I were to recall a flashback to the same conversation, I realize that I had to pass through some dark times, to reach and enjoy the sunlight!

Just  when the caterpillar though the world was over, it became a butterfly

Funny enough, that Some of the really REALLY bad thing that happened to me at some points in time, worked great for me later on… If I HAVEN’T have had passed through these, I wouldn’t have taken some life changing decisions and I wouldn’t have reached to were I am right now… and Trust me I’m pretty happy with that 🙂

So for this Week, remember that whenever things gets darker and darker… The Darkest will be just before the Dawn…

Enjoy your Week!

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Image from the Movie “”Batman: The Dark Night

Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project

Take the time to look outside while the train is moving

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I started writing this post while I was taking the train from Casablanca to Rabat. I had already spent an 8+ hour’s flight earlier that day from Qatar to Morocco and where something fascinating happened to me.

a view from above the clouds

For someone who travels as much as I do, you get used to particularly all the parts of the experience, nothing is as fascinating anymore. The safety procedures on the plane, the in-flight entertainment, “the annoying passengers”, the cute and adorable kids who makes your life worth that one moment when they smile at you, and the other small devils who make you want to stop wanting to have kids.

Irrespective of all the parts that collectively bring up your travel experience. There’s one element in particular I’d like to pause and reflect on this week, which is the world outside of your car, metro, train or plane.

The reason of the introduction is simply to highlight those of us who look, but don’t see… Who stare but don’t enjoy… Who watch but don’t enjoy, who can be so captivated into “capturing the moment” and worrying that the beautiful moment would be better captured on the phone / camera rather than in the memory. and Guess what, at some points I’m guilty of these charges. I’m used to the fact to use my mobile to capture great moments… That Later on I admire the image  but the experience itself doesn’t mean much to me. 

This time, and while the plane was going down to the beautiful Casablanca, we were still up in the sky… Above the clouds, and as usual, I held my phone and started taking photos… Worrying about how to capture a good shot to post online when an adorable baby girl who was sitting in the seat in front of me started “playing” a small game with me. She was probably little more than 1 year old, she kept on standing on her seat, look at me and smile then disappear, to reappear again in about 10 seconds.

This annoying, yet VERY adorable gesture, kept me from well positioning my phone towards the window, so I kept playing with the baby girl, (simply smiling and shading my eyes away every time was enough), and then I noticed her mother admiring her daughter… and she looked back at me and told me: “This is the best time of my life”.

The mother was not trying to capture that moment on a technological device, fearing that it will be forgotten. But instead she was not wasting a second of Enjoying this priceless moment. And that got me thinking…

I set my phone away, and tried to enjoy the view… and believe it or not… Those 10 minutes of admiring the clouds that resembled to snow mountains while the plane is so close to them is still vivid in my head than probably 100 other photos in my phone of the same topic.

So the tip for this week is as follow, from time to time, take some time to relax and look outside… Look, See and Feel  the moment… Because what makes a priceless moment will always, that associated feeling… and Not the quality of the captured photo.

Have a nice week!

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Samer Chidiac

Samer Chidiac is a Sr. Strategist, Author & an International Innovation Expert.

The Monday Tip Weekly blog is part of the “Influencing the Life of Others” project