“Trapping and selling wild monkeys was a lucrative business in Mexico at one time. Poachers would capture them by placing containers in the forest with a piece of sweet coconut meat. The container had a hole barely large enough for the monkey to put its hand in and grip the coconut. But if the monkey tried to withdraw its hand, it found that as long as it kept a grip on the food it stayed trapped. If it let loose of what it wanted, it immediately went free.”

From the book, The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey

This is one of my favorite stories because being too attached to the outcome of situations that are beyond my personal control is a constant struggle. So much so, that I have a stuffed monkey who sits on my desk to remind me to just “let it go!.”

I found myself falling into yet another attachment trap the other day.

As many of you know, I recently sold the rights to The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey to a terrific publisher. Hay House plans to issue their hardcover version early next year and market it throughout the world. One of the things on my pre-pub “to do” list is to invite a Famous Published Author to write the forward for the book.

Several weeks ago I contacted a Famous Published Author whose name you’d probably recognize.  When I talked with him on the phone he told me that he loved my book and would be delighted to write the forward, but he’d have to ask his agent because writing a forward was a “business decision.” The next day I sent an email, thanking him for considering my request.

That was more than a month ago. I have heard nothing. Nada. Not a word. I told my agent (someone who I consider an Isabel) how disappointed I was and she said that I should just let it go and go on to the two other Famous Published Authors on our list. I did let it go. I’m over it now (almost entirely….).

Later today my monkey and I have a meeting scheduled to review my current list of worries, one by one. If any of the worries are deemed to be beyond my control and a waste of energy, I will strike them off my list. I bet I whittle that list down to a reasonable few.

Don’t worry. Be happy.  Adopt a monkey of your own.

Have you been tempted to pay someone a compliment but decided not to, for fear of looking foolish? That hasn’t stopped two Purdue University students known as the “compliment guys.”

Since the beginning of the school year, Cameron Brown and Brent Westcott spend a couple of hours every Wednesday dishing out compliments to passersby. They don’t give their kudos too much thought. They just shout out whatever comes to mind.  A woman walking by got a compliment on her smile. They had conversation with a guy about his “nice pants” and when a classmate walked by they praised him for the grade he got on a test.

While standing with a sign that says “free compliments” may not be your style,  go ahead and pay someone a nice compliment this week. It will do you good and it might be the highlight of someone’s day.

Speaking of “generous  hearts.”
I invited readers to complete a brief on-line survey about having a Quiet Room in their call center. Look at the previous blog post for the survey results so far.

If you currently have a quiet room in your call center, please fill out the Quiet Room Survey today. (The survey is very quick — you can complete it under 3 minutes).

Every call center should have a room set aside where employees can go to get a little quiet time and unplug, don’t you think?

Make it a great week!

“When you unplug your headset, you disconnect from all the noise. The voices, the static, disappear.  All you hear is peaceful silence. The same thing happens with our minds. They are filled with constantly whirling thoughts and feelings and endless chatter. I discovered that when I unplugged mentally it all stopped. All I heard was silence. I felt calm and at peace.” — A conversation between Isabel, the wise woman and Olivia, the struggling service rep. From the book, The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey
Chances are we’ve all had a Monday like this:

Monday 7:55 AM.
Your weekend did not go well. You arrive at work in a bad mood. Instead of feeling rested and ready to handle whatever your customers can dish out, you feel tense and edgy.  You know from experience that if you can’t shake your negative attitude, you won’t have the emotional control and patience necessary to handle the more challenging calls — calls from frustrated, often irate customers. You believe that if the first few calls of the day go well it is a sign that the rest of the day will go the same way.

Monday 8:35 AM.
By the fifth call of the day you are convinced that an Evil Force is at work. It is picking out every cranky customer waiting in the queue and routing it to your phone. You suspect that your negative attitude and lack of patience may be part of the problem, but you can’t seem to stop yourself.

If you asked Isabel, the wise woman in the story, what you should do to stop yourself from spinning out of control, she would give you the same advice she gave to Olivia. And that is to go somewhere quiet, away from the chaos, and simply “unplug” for a few minutes.

With stress-related health problems and employee absences on the rise, more companies are looking for low-cost solutions for reducing the stress of their customer-facing employees.  One such solution is to provide a quiet room. A place of refuge where employees can go to relax for a few minutes and unplug.

Thanks to my client Barbara Moore, I had the opportunity to see such room during a recent visit to Progress Energy’s Technology  Support Center.
Employees use the room regularly, she told me. (see photo)

If your company doesn’t have a designated quiet room where employees can go when they need to, why not suggest it? If you are fortunate enough to have a room at your company, take advantage of the opportunity to use it every day.  It can make the difference between a good Monday and bad one.

Share what you know!
For those of you who have a designated quiet room, please take a couple of minutes to complete a very brief on-line survey which will ask you about guidelines for use of the room, etc. I will report the results in next Monday’s Aha!. Who knows? Maybe we can start a “Quiet Room” movement that will get more companies to offer these mini-refuges.

Make it a good week!