Ten Tips to Become "Fabulous" with Optimism -- Dr. Russ Buss

Oct. 19, 2010 - PRLog -- Dr. Russ Buss asks: Ever wonder what it might be like to experience the optimism of being “fabulous?” Are you pessimistic about such a possibility? It’s time to “Busst-Up” that pessimism with these TEN TIPS - “Bussters” - designed to take you from the mundane to the exceptional.

The first nine tips help to improve moment to moment optimism. Follow tip number ten and go from optimistic to "FABULOUS" in order to rate a ten out of ten, a top ten, or just a TEN.

Ten TIPS - "Bussters" - to Make “Fabulous” Part of your Everyday Experience

1. When it comes to dealing with problems, the entrepreneurial and optimistic mindsets are identical: All problems create opportunities and possibilities. The problem of rescuing 33 miners from a half mile deep hole has created a myriad of new opportunities from a new lease on life for each miner, the opportunity to reform miner safety, for Chile to take center stage in the world, and for the study of, “How did they do that?”

2. Sometimes thinking outside of the box means throwing out the assignment and making up your own. Teams of students, in an upscale university town, were given $5.00 and 2 hours to create a return on investment. The students decided the real task was to solve a problem by creating something of value from nothing.

* Problem: long lines waiting to be seated for dinner at many local restaurants.
* Solution: Use the student’s FREE time to book as many reservations as possible at these popular restaurants.
* Next: sell the reservation to people in line.
* LESSON LEARNED: Anyone, even an unemployed individual, with FREE time and access to a cell phone could start this business and make a little money.

3. Start with the mundane, but keep experimenting and trading up towards the exceptional. A team of students offered a deal - buy one student and get two free. At first the purchases were mundane: for carrying groceries, returning bottles, or washing a car. Then they learned their greatest resource was their collective intellectual and brainstorming expertise to help companies come up with new ideas.

4. Value measured only in dollars is much too limiting. Optimism comes from exploring perceived value and value to society. For example, a widget called a “diamond widget” might be perceived as worth more than one called a “square widget.” One pack of post-it notes and 23 hours of time was used to create a video to encourage people to unplug their electrical items while away. It was viewed by millions worldwide for FREE on YouTube. The value to society and earth's resources calculated as conservation of energy was not only enormous but incalculable and priceless.

5. People may be more willing to share secrets than wishes. When we share a secret, we are relieved of a burden. But we may not want to share a wish because a wish may not come true unless kept secret.

6. Make your own luck through hard work, open mindedness, networking and connecting. Never pass on an opportunity to ask a question and find out more about a person at a chance encounter. Never pass on an opportunity to answer an unexpected question in a novel and self-confident manner.

7. The optimistic skill of rapid adaption only comes with the experience of failure, and the faster, more frequent and cheaper the better. Try creating inexpensive prototypes or just asking three people if they would purchase or even just spend time engaged with your product or service.

8. Don’t wait to be given direction. Look around, see what needs to be done and take charge by doing something about it. In 1990, I was in Bamberg, Germany attending an educational leadership conference on innovation in schools which was being attended, for the first time, by educational leaders from East Germany (i.e., the Berlin Wall had just come down). The East German leaders who had never before had the opportunity or freedom for self-directed leadership kept asking: “Tell us what to do.”

9. At least do something rather than nothing. Teams entering an entrepreneurial contest were charged with making something of value out of rubber bands. They marketed the “can do” band in which anyone who wanted to placed a rubber band on their wrist and made an public commitment about a personal goal or task by writing a blog post about it and asking others to pass it on. The idea caught on and went worldwide over the internet. While no real dollar value was created, priceless emotional value was.

10. “Never miss an opportunity to be ‘FABULOUS’.” (Tina Seelig). Many work to do the minimum to get an 'A' or to just beat or “touch out” the other in a race or competition. Imagine what would be accomplished on earth if we ALL tried to operate at our peak and best in just a few more moments of everyday. Being “FABULOUS” is FUN. Anyone can be “FABULOUS” in any given moment because it is defined as their “PERSONAL BEST.”

{Many of the ideas, stories, and a few quotes contained in this blog post are based on a lecture by Stanford Professor, Tina Seelig.http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2266}

For more Moment-to-Moment Optimism click on the link: http://www.drrussbuss.com

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