Personal Development Blog

Goal Setting

Do Your Own Talent Management

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If you have ever been employed by a large corporation, you’re probably familiar with the concept of talent management already: it’s a documented and closely followed process of attracting, integrating, developing and retaining highly skilled workers.

One of the main ideas behind talent management is that we all have talents. By definition, being part of a talent management process makes you a talented person. You may need help and time to identify and perfect your talent, but that’s exactly why your company has a talent management process.

If you’re new to this topic, I think you will really like the Wikipedia article on Talent Management” – it provides a great introduction to the many processes involved, and gives you a few really good pointers. If you’re looking for software, there are many vendors providing solutions to address every imaginable aspect of managing talent with your company. For example, you can find a complete suite of talent management software at the Halogen Software website.

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Productivity

Evernote Web Has Arrived!

I’ve been meaning to write about Evernote Web for quite some time now. Being a fan of the original Evernote application and having used it for managing all sorts of personal notes for the past few years, I’m really excited to see that Evernote Web has finally arrived: it now takes only seconds to get started with using one of the most useful online services on the web.

What is Evernote?

Evernote is an information organizer. Coming from the world of standalone applications, it started as a Windows app, but is now available on a number of platforms. The most useful thing about the current Evernote service is that it’s an online repository – so all your information is available instantly on any of the devices – including Apple iPhone.

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Motivation

What Gives You Courage?

Lorraine Cohen from the Powerfull Living had invited me almost a month ago to participate in a meme called What Gives You Courage. I’m happy to finally participate. It’s a wonderful thought-provoking topic I would encourage everyone to give a try.

Lorraine, thank you for giving me a chance to recall once again one of the most glorious periods of my life so far.

What’s the bravest thing you ever did that you’re most proud of?

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Happiness

Simple Steps to a Better Life

This is a guest article by Willie Horton, www.Gurdy.net

Websites like Gleb’s are a superb resource for anyone who has decided to embark on life’s most exciting adventure – the journey of personal development and self-discovery.  Why?  Because personal development is a lifetime’s work, it’s an ongoing journey that will take you to places that the normal mind cannot imagine.  Too often, people are under the false impression that, once they embark on this journey, their lives will be changed immediately and irrevocably – as if struck by lightning.   Unfortunately, even if you are struck by lightning, its effects will eventually wear off.

On the other hand, I have seen people “struck by lightning” where, having decided that they wanted to change their lives, their lives changed for them very quickly – they immediately saw real and concrete benefits from being more focused, more mindful, more tuned in to the opportunities that life is offering you and me today – if only we had eyes to see.   But, even for these people, the effects wore off and they found themselves gradually return to “normality”.  And normality is a dangerous thing because decades of psychological research prove that to be normal is to be mad.

Here are a few key facts that you need to know if you want to progress along the path to effortless happiness and success.  So-called normal people pay about 1% attention to what is actually going on in the here and now – so, it’s pretty difficult for them to rise to today’s challenges effectively and it’s even more difficult for them to notice and recognize an opportunity when they see one.  The greater part of the normal mind’s attention is focused in the dim and distant past – what we call our formative years, when we were young and impressionable, when we learned our beliefs about the world and our place in it – and the normal subconscious thinks that all the things that made us feel good or bad about ourselves way back then are actually happening today!   That’s why we automatically feel shy or nervous, confident or inadequate –  it has nothing to do with now, a now to which we’re not really paying attention.   Which leads me to the most important fact:  your happiness, success, peace of mind and well-being is directly correlated with your ability to pay attention to the here and now.   As we’ve already seen, this is simply a task that the normal mind isn’t up to.

So, to change your life, you’re going to have to start living it, one moment at a time, in the here and now.   That’s why those people that I mentioned earlier, those people whose lives changed dramatically, drifted back to normality – because they stopped paying attention to the moment and drifted back into what is, for all of us, our normal, inattentive adult default state of mind.   Unfortunately, the normal mind is a little like a piece of crappy software that you download from the internet.  It loads up with default settings, which you change to your own settings.  However, when you wake up the next morning, the old crappy default settings are back – your inattentive default state of mind has to be reset every single day of your life if you want to progress, if you want more out of life.  The good news, however, is that, once you learn how to reset your mind to pay attention to the present moment, changing your “default settings” only takes a few minutes each day.

I said that happiness and success is a function of how good you are at paying attention.  You have to become an expert.  This is done by coming to your senses –  I literally mean that – you have five senses, pay attention to them.   Start by finding a quiet place first thing in the morning, close your eyes (it’s easier to pay attention to your senses one at a time for a start) and you’ll notice that someone’s turned up the sound!   They haven’t, of course, you’ve just started paying attention.  Notice the feel of your clothes against your skin – that feeling’s always there, but now you’re noticing.  If you build, day by day, on your ability to observe, notice and pay attention, you will suddenly find yourself being more tuned into what’s going on in the course of your daily life, you will suddenly become more effective and more efficient, because you’re more attentive.

But, you’ve got to take these little steps every single day – otherwise your default state of mind will kick in and, being surrounded by all the other normal mad people, it will be the easiest thing in the world to be normal all over again.   It has been said that there is never a single step wasted on the journey to self-discovery and self-fulfilment – no matter how small.  Every single step you take, each day, every time you sit down to “smell the roses” will be rewarded, little by little – or you might even be struck by lightning.  Sooner or later, the pennies will drop for you – you’ll realise new things about yourself, you’ll be alert to new opportunities.  But, just like the old “Penny Falls” in the amusement arcades when I was growing up, you never know which penny that you put in the slot will make loads of pennies cascade over the edge – you’ve got to put your penny in the slot every single day.  And, believe you me, it’s worth it.

About Willie Horton

Willie Horton has been enabling his clients live their dream since he launched is now acclaimed two-day Personal Development Seminars all the way back in 1996. His clients include top leaders in major corporations such as Pfizer, Deloitte, Nestle, Merrill Lynch, Wyeth, KPMG, G4S and Allergan together with everyone from the stay-at-home parent to sports-people. An Irish ex-banker and ex-accountant, he lives in the French Alps from where he travels the world as a much sought after motivational speaker and mentor. In 2008 he launched Gurdy.Net where is self-help seminars are now online. For more information visit Willie Horton’s Personal Development Website Gurdy.Net