Stop and Seize the Moment

There are times when life is so busy that we do not allow ourselves any quiet moments to ponder, to appreciate, to be lazy, to rekindle our passions for our work. It is absolutely necessary to give ourselves permission to take those moments, refresh our minds, fill our souls with the surroundings that are our daily inspirations.

This month has been exceptionally mild, allowing us in the northeast to absorb the sunshine, breathe in the fresh air, basking in the outdoors, shaking off the cobwebs from winter and preparing ourselves for the tasks ahead. With spring just beginning, the flowering trees are in full bloom, the colors are fantastic, the warmth of the light amazing.

What do you find as inspiration in this season of transition? Whatever it is, be sure to take those moments, wrap your souls around them and save the memories for times when inspiration may not be so forthcoming.

Happy Holidays!

Dear Friends,

We hope that 2011 has been a great year for you.

We are very excited at the prospect of bringing you new and exciting design tips and concepts in 2012 to aid in your creativity and in your business ventures.

We want to thank our readers for your continuing support of Designed by Dianna. We wish you and your family a season of joy and much happiness in 2012.

Happy Holidays,
The Designed by Dianna Team
Our Creativity is YOUR Power!

How are you at selling?

Everyone in every organization is now part of the sales force AND part of customer service, but there are no customers without sales. Sales and customer service go hand-in-hand, but sales always come first. No matter if you’re the newest administrative employee or the CEO, your job is sales and then customer service, and if you don’t think it is, your business’s health is probably just as questionable as the rest of the companies out there. A business cannot survive without both. Customer service is now as important to those hired to actually sell as it is to the members of the production team and the people who answer the phones.

The really good sales professionals I know sell other people’s products just as readily as the ones they earn money selling. Successful sales people don’t push a product; they listen for people’s needs. Develop the habit of listening first. Find people’s needs – even when you are not working. Really listen. Hear more than what is coming out of their mouths. Find the way to be helpful and the habit will continue to pay you forever.

Customer service begins with empathy but cannot be exceptional unless paired with action. Sometimes, empathy is all you can offer. Take a delivery delay – that is out of your control, but first deal with the situation with empathy – be personal with all your interactions, and respond from the other side of the fence.

Empathy plus action is what makes really great customer service. Practice this as often as possible, do it at home. See the situation from the other person’s point of view as often as possible. Look for potential ways to help. And remember, really listening makes someone feel heard which is just as important an action as any other.

When someone asks if you are in sales, are you reluctant to admit that? What feels comfortable? What seems to need work?

Success

Success

He has achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;

who has enjoyed the trust of
pure women,

the respect of intelligent men and
the love of little children;

who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;

who has left the world better than he found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem or a rescued soul;

who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty
or failed to express it;

who has always looked for the best in others and
given them the best he had;

whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.

~ 1904 Bessie Anderson Stanley

According to  Bethanne Larson, Bessie Anderson Stanley’s great-grandaughter:

Success was written as the winning entry in a contest run by Brown Book Magazine in 1904. Bessie won a cash prize of $250 which paid off the mortgage on the house, among other things. It was included in Bartlett’s Book of Quotations for decades, and if you can find an old edition from the 30′s or 40′s, it should be in there. They dropped it, I think in the 60′s, but I don’t know why.

The family isn’t sure how the poem got mangled and attributed to Emerson, but it was further confused by Ann Landers and her sister Abby. Ann Landers used to (mis)quote it all the time and cite Emerson as the source. My great-uncle Art, a retired federal judge who died last March [2000], and she had a decade-long correspondence as he argued for a public correction. She finally conceded and in her book, The Ann Landers Encyclopedia, prints the whole story.

In the Spring 2000 edition of the Emerson Society Papers is an article “Emerson’s ‘Success’–Actually, It Is Not”, written by Joel Myerson; the following review by another detective in search of the secret of Success:

It’s short but interesting, as Joel Myerson tracks down the 2nd volume of a book called, Heart Throbs, published in 1911, which contains the Stanley quote, and then a few pages later, a piece by Emerson titled, “Good-Bye.” He concludes that “the proximity of Stanley’s work to Emerson’s suggests that someone might have made the initial misattribution by copying Stanley’s work, then returning to seek the author and mistakenly using Emerson’s name from three leaves later; Stanley’s name appears on the third line of a verso page, Emerson’s on the fifth of a verso page, making such an eyeskip possible.” He doesn’t address how Robert Louis Stevenson might have gotten connected with the quote, however.

Regardless of the confusion over the origins of this poem, the message is inspired and timeless. What is your definition of success?

Uncreative moments

One must also accept that one has ‘uncreative’ moments. The more honestly one can accept that, the quicker these moments will pass.
~ Etty Hillesum

Wise words from Etty Hillesum, a contemporary of Anne Frank, albeit a less famous one. Hillesum, born in the Netherlands in 1914, lived a short life of great courage. Hungry for knowledge, she cut down on food to purchase books, studying law, Slavic languages, and psychology. Hillesum went voluntarily to the Westerbork camp during WWII to help fellow Jews interned there by the Nazis. She wrote detailed letters about her experiences, and focused on issues of faith in a more meditative diary. In 1943, Etty Hillesum died at Auschwitz.

More quotes from Hillesum:

I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one’s inner life. And that too is a deed.

We are always in search of the redeeming formula, the crystallizing thought.

We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.

Don’t wait for perfection…

Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful. ~ Mark Victor Hanson

Whether your goal for perfection involves being a better athlete, best-selling author, recognized artist, musician, actor, ask yourself a few questions. How would you act if your already were that individual? Visualize the person, have a conversation with that person, imagining what the response would be if you asked about the quality of their life, how happy they were doing whatever it is they do.

Conditions to achieve your goals are never perfect, but being willing to take risks, discover what you need to learn, striving to grow daily as you work toward becoming your imagined individual, even if that means taking only one tiny step at a time, these are all crucial elements of the pursuit.