Andre Koen: Minnesota Human Resources Training, Cultural Sensitivity, Cultural Competence, Diversity And Inclusion Trainers - Floating Clouds

Racial Associations

Wed, 16 May 2012 05:40:25 -0800

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Racial Associations

Wed, 16 May 2012 05:40:09 -0800

It clear by looking at people that we have some obvious differences, body shape, nose width and har texture are just a few clues that we need to pick up as we interact with others. These differences often get co-opted or mixed with the values we attach to these differences. In the case of the racial difference, we will refer to them as Racial Associations. These Racial associations are the value, values and attributed that we assign to an individual or predefined group based on cultural and societal norms.

Clues that we are engage in a partner or cycle of Racial Association occur when we don't "know" the "Race" of a person and so we try to figure out "Who and What people are". Questions like: "What are you?", "Cute baby, is it a boy or a girl?" or "How long have you been in this country?". Are all attempts to make sense of the the world and the people in it. This is a natural process, yet we must rise above our human nature and become more that the sum of our parts. Understand and cooperation in the achievement of our goals will lead to greater engagement, personal productivity, and professional attainment of outcomes.

Post Title.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:45:01 -0800

3 Steps To Manifestation The Personal Development Way

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:46:39 -0800

3 Steps To Manifestation The Personal Development Way

Do you know how powerful your thoughts really are? Are you fully aware that these thoughts, all 50,000 per day, are singularly the most powerful influences on everything that happens to you in your life and are the reson you have attracted the people you know, the house you live in and the car you drive?

In fact the sum total of everyone's thoughts is the very thing that shapes everything that exists, everything that has existed, and everything that will ever exist. You may ask then "if this is true then shouldn't it be possible to bring into existence anything we desire?"

Well the short simple answer is YES!

It is through the power of deliberate thought that we can create. While thought alone does have the power to bring tangible (cars, houses, boats) and intangible (peace, harmony and joy) things into existence often times this is not enough! Intention, or directed thinking and believing, is enough to create powerful enough thoughts to manifest anything we want but you must also add two other ingredients.

Firstly, your thoughts must be backed by emotion. The more powerful the emotion - the stronger the thought. It is essential to create within you the same feelings that you will have when you actually achieve your desire. You actually do this all the time only in the opposite direction. For example, you think of what you are afraid may happen and all of a sudden you feel frightened, tense and may even start to exhibit some physiological symptoms such as sweating or shaking or just get the shivers. Begin to reverse this method of thinking. Think only of what you do want and conjure up the feelings associated with that. How will it feel to meet and marry that perfect person? How will it feel behind the wheel of that new Mercedes or in the kitchen of that new home?

The second key ingredient of the three is action! It is neccessary to be prepared to take some action. This is a key point that many personal development gurus leave out! The action that you need to take will not be strenuous or a toil, it will be enjoyable and feel right to you.

Each of us here on the planet plays their own special role in the complete operation of the Universe. We are all One, interconnected and interdependent. Your desires will almost always come through some form of action and through connection to other people.

Your thoughts do have the power to completely change your life and circumstances. When thoughts are backed by emotion they become an unstoppable force that will carry you to wherever you want to go in life. But you must be willing to take the steps towards your desires when these steps are presented to you. For example thinking and believing you will meet your soul mate will bring you vast opportunities for meeting him/her but you never will if you sit at home all day and do not venture outside! You may find that you begin to get asked to go to places more often or get invited to a place you have never been before. You may even accidently meet old friends or develop new friendships. This is the Universe setting you on a path to your desires. Take that invitation. Even if it is something you have no desire to do or somewhere you do not want to go, you should accept the invitation. Who knows who you may meet or where you may end up!

So remember, ingredient 1 - thoughts have power. Ingredient 2 - thoughts backed by strong emotion and belief can change the very Universe and create ANYTHING you want. And the lastly ingredient 3 - action is the last key ingredient to bringing about your desires and living the life of your dreams. Now get out there and start to CREATE!

Way to be kind in the work place.

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 06:03:21 -0800

We do the bet we can with what we have. We have to be kind.

Perception

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:45:10 -0800

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Truth about Personal Motivation

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:43:27 -0800

Daniel Pink

The Pride...Yeah!!! Part II

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:20:25 -0800

Another hour goes by of sitting in this room. Now, they've been bringing tea and water and stuff like that to keep us like, whatever. And so, about an hour goes by and no pictures yet. I still want to do it, but my friend, she's already ticked off. She's way mad because we've wasted a good part of an afternoon, and we're going to be late for our next thing. The guy comes back and he's like, no, no, no. We're just about to do it. We're already set and ready to go. And so, my friend is like, let's leave now. I'm like, no, we've waited this long. We may as well just sit, and the guy's going to put us on billboards in Zamalek. I'm like, how can we pass this up? Free exposure, all sorts of stuff. And the guy keeps flattering me. So my head and my chest is really getting puffed up, and I'm excited about this and I'm loving it, loving it although the waiting stuff is getting on my nerves.

At any rate, they take the pictures. This is about two hours later. They end up taking the pictures, and they're like, we'll send you the stuff. Now, my relationship, my friendship with my friend is now damaged. She's like, we sat for two and a half hours for these stupid pictures that you wanted. And I was like, but the guy said we looked good. So, I got caught up in this whole thing. And so, we spent the rest of the vacation out there. I toured and did all sorts of stuff. It was really fun.

And so, I get state side, get back to the states and just kind of bopping along, and finally my friend comes back to the states, and she brings back the brochure. And she talks about the fact that, yep, they made billboards of the pictures, that we were in the pictures and all this kind of stuff. And I'm hyped, I'm excited. I'm like, oh, my dream has come true. I'm an international star in Zamalek, Egypt. It was just crazy. So, my head is like, really big, and I'm really excited.

And so, she gives me the brochure. And so, we're looking through the brochure, and we're looking, and I'm like, where...I was like, yeah, these are the rooms that are in the hotel, and I'm looking through here. And I'm like well, some of these don't look like pictures I've seen before, and then I open up the inside of the brochure.

Now, I want to tell you I sat for two and a half hours to take these pictures, so I'm really excited about this. And they're billboards. They are billboards all over Egypt. And so, finally I open up the inside of the magazine, and there is a picture of my friend and me. And I don't know if you can see it, but there's a picture of my hand. It is my hand. I sat for two and a half hours, ruin a friendship with my buddy for a picture of my hand.

Egypt: Pride Part I

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:19:46 -0800

OK. I went to Egypt a little while ago, and actually, it's been quite a while now. So, I went to Egypt to visit a friend and had a great time, got to see pyramids and that kind of stuff. Although, I do have to say the pyramids are somewhat of a let down because when you're really close up to them, they're just a pile of rocks, literally, I mean, just a pile of rocks. You've got to get pretty far before you start seeing the shape of them.

Anyway, so it was a great time hanging out in Egypt and all that kind of stuff. And so, my friend and I were hanging out and we decided to go to, it was a hot day and I think we just left the museum and we were staying in Zamalek. So, we decided to go to a hotel, one of the five star hotels in Zamalek right on the Nile. The Nile is nasty. Anyway, but right on the Nile.

And so, we go to -- I think the hotel, I have a brochure right here, called the Safir -- the Safir Hotel in Zamalek. We're ordering tea and that kind of stuff and this photographer dude, this Egyptian photographer dude comes over and he says, "Hey, can you guys come take a picture with us?"

And, we're like, "No, no, no." And, he was like, "No, you guys really have the look that we're looking for. We really want you to be a part of this."

And my friend was like, "No, you know, we're hot, we need to get back to the hotel." And, I'm like, "No, this is a great opportunity. We're in Egypt and then he wants us to like take these pictures, and actually, the pictures were going to be for the brochure, for the Safir Hotel brochure."

And, he's like, "We're going to put them on billboards and it will be great. Can you do it?" And, all of this is like in this Egyptian English kind of thing so it's kind of thick.

But he's like, "No, you guys really have to do this. It will only take just a couple of minutes. It will take no more than 10, 15 minutes out of your time, we'll get this rolling and you can be on your way."

And so, I convinced my friend to go, you know, I was like, "Can we? Can we? You know, let's do it." And, she's like, "No, we really should get going." And I'm like, "No, this is our opportunity to be famous. So, all this stuff."

So, we're sitting there and 15 minutes go by and my friend's really agitated. She already didn't want to stick that 15 minutes, but whatever. So, I'm kind of blowing her off. And so, a half an hour goes by and now at this point I'm getting a little irritated myself.

And the guy comes back and he's like, "Oh, we just had to get two more people for this shoot, so we're going to go ahead and take it. Actually, if you can just come into this room and have a seat, we're going to prepare to take these pictures."

And so, another hour goes by of us sitting in this room. Now, they've been bringing tea and water and stuff like that to keep us like whatever, and...

Seven at 7

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:51:34 -0800

AndreKoen.com

It's 7:00. My mother gets us ready for bed, and she does three things before we go to bed. She makes sure that we've brushed our teeth, that we've washed behind our ears, and she makes sure that we get a big spoonful of cod liver oil. Yuck! Seven at 7. So, she'd line us up every night before we went to bed and made sure those three things happened. We brushed our teeth, washed behind our ears and got a big spoon of cod liver oil. Fast forward 30 years. Before I go to bed, what do you think I do? I brush my teeth, I wash behind my ears, and I do not drink cod liver oil. But why do you think I do those things 30 years later? Because those things have become a part of what I do. They've become a habit.

But how do we structure, how do we get habits? We get habits through routines. Because I did those things on a regular basis, I did those things on a regular basis, they became a habit. So we know that a habit is a learned pattern of behavior that's become automatic, but what is a routine? A routine is a cognitive, something that you think about. It is also something that is scheduled, so it is a cognitive scheduled behavior that we do on a regular basis. And we do that so much that it becomes a habit.

So if you have bad habits, what does that mean about your routines? You once had bad routines. Smokers, when they first start out, have to think about buying and getting cigarettes until it becomes a habit, and they don't have to think about it.

It's funny, Kung Fu fighters and Wing Chung masters and boxers and athletes, they practice these moves over and over and over and over again. They go through drills. They exercise their mind, thinking this thing through. They stretch. They prepare. They do all of these things so that when game time comes it has become a habit.

Whatever you do on a regular basis, that you're cognitively thinking about, something that is important to you, those things become your habits. Be careful what routines you set because that's a powerful thing, because those routines will become your habits, and those habits become the sum total of your behavior. And your behavior is what people see about how you act.