Dear Friends,

Expanding spiritual capacity requires subordinating our own needs to something beyond our self-interest. Because we often perceive our own needs as urgent, shifting attention away from them can prompt very primitive survival fears. If I truly focus my attention on others, we worry, who is going to look out for me? It is a mark of courage to set aside self-interest in order to be of service to others or to a cause. The irony is that self-absorption ultimately drains energy and impedes performance. The more preoccupied we are with our own fears and concerns, the less energy we have available to take positive action.

Subordinating our self-interest to something beyond ourselves may feel threatening at first, but as I discovered, it can also be immensely rewarding—a means by which to experience a deeper sense of meaning and great self worth. The commitment to live according to our deepest values not only creates a more stable center in our lives but also helps us to better navigate the challengers we face along the way.

Viktor Frankl has written movingly about the power of spiritual capacity to transform even the most horrifying circumstances. Frankl was the psychologist who survived the Nazi concentration camps and went on to write the classic Man’s Search for meaning. In it he quotes Nietzsche’s famous words, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” Frankl goes on to describe the way this insight helped to save his own life, even as others were dying around him:

Woe to him who saw no more sense in life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. What was needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—hourly and daily. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the task which it constantly sets for each individual.

As Frankl saw it, we must make our own meaning—actively build spiritual capacity. Doing so necessarily involves discomfort. “Mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, “he wrote, “the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become…What man actually needs is not a tensionless state, but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.”

Lance Armstrong offers a particularly inspiring example. In the early 1990’s, Armstrong was a top American cyclist and by his own description, highly self-absorbed. In 1996, at the age of twenty-five, he was diagnosed with a virulent form of testicular cancer. In a short time, it spread to his lungs, and then to his brain. His odds of survival were put at less than 3 percent. Somehow Armstrong survived and, equally miraculously, he returned to cycling. In 1999, three years after his original cancer diagnosis, he won the Tour de France, the most challenging bicycle race in the world—and he went on to win it the next three years as well. As Armstrong saw it, surviving cancer was a far greater and more significant achievement—in large part because it pushed him beyond his own narrow ambitions:

The truth is that if you ask me to choose between winning the Tour de France and cancer, I would choose cancer. Odd as it sounds, I would rather have the title of cancer survivor than winner of the tour, because what it has done for me as a human being, a man, a husband, a son, and a father…The one thing the illness has convinced me beyond all doubt—more than any experience I’ve had as an athlete—is that we are much better than we know. We have unrealized capacities that sometimes only emerge in crisis. So if there is a purpose to the suffering that is cancer, I think it must be this: it’s meant to improve us.

With Appreciation

Jim White, PhD

Author, What’s My Purpose, A Journey of Personal and Professional Growth

Creator What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Course

Founder & CEO, JL White International, Inc.

PS

We are starting another 12-week class on September 6, 2010…

www.whatsmypurpose.com

Over the time I have been aware of who we are as a nation I have been asked from time to time just what it means to celebrate the 4th of July. It’s not just the mantra of the birth of a new nation. It’s not the just another weekend to get drunk, party, BBQ, and take advantage of the time off. It has to have a deeper meaning, one that resonates from the past and looks to the future.

For me, there was an awareness at the age of 8 about what this great nation has gone through and will go through now and in the future. The rich military history of my family, from the time of the 1800’s to now in places like Basra, and Kabul, fill me with a pride that others know, and cannot explain. As I was growing, I began to read about how and why our existence as the United States of America came to be. It wasn’t just by accident that a number of disgruntled, angry men decided that enough of the outrageous behaviors of the British king had to come to an end. There were many who supported the view of coming to terms with the British crown and government, there only had to be an accommodation of representation, we might all still be British subjects, and this country would look very different from what it does today, geographically.

The men in that hot Philadelphia courthouse knew what they were starting. It was called rebellion, treason, a lack of respect, and more. If they failed, it would be the block or worse, but if they succeeded, a new nation would be born, one that would preserve liberties, and a form of government unheard of in history. There were those that opposed such a declaration, the reasoning was that a terrible price would have to be paid, and some did not want to see the suffering that went along that path. By vote, a practice that still is part of the grand culture we have as a citizen, it was decided to declare independence. Independence from foreign rule, independence from being forced to quarter soldiers, independence of taxation, without so much as a notice that they were being raised, an independence for self determination. It was a time of high minded ideals, and the anxiety of disaster if there was failure, and it would be a near run thing to a failure in the coming fight for that independence.

There have been many stories of the cold Valley Forge winter, of men shivering in the cold, without shoes, blankets, or warmth. Of frozen disheartened soldiers who did not re-enlist, the lack of food, powder, shot, and all the essentials to keep an army going, the failures of the Congress to provide the supplies, and the shame of some of these men to not be able to do more. But somehow, with the help of God, and there was help, the army that came out of Valley Forge that terrible winter was forged steel, an instrument worthy of the name Continental Army. The blood shed then, as now, was for a type of freedom that ALL men and women everywhere deserve, the freedom of the mind, the freedom of expression, the freedom of self-determination and the freedom to define, implement and live a life on purpose.

Our history as a nation is not one of conquest, or the taking of territory, even though that happened early in our history, it has not been the cause of our fights from the time of the War between the States until now. Our army, our forces, have fought to set other men free. Free from a tyranny that they themselves could not do alone. Cuba, Panama (twice), Nicaragua (twice), Western Europe (twice), Vietnam, my war, now in Iraq, Afghanistan, and a host of other places we are engaged in a desperate struggle, not just for the freedom of other people to self determination, but a fight to stop an archaic form of religious government that reverts mankind to the stone age.

So how does the 4th of July affect you and your outlook on this nation?

For me, it is represented by the flags, ribbons and photos I keep stowed away. The folds and creases have set in my fatigues over the years, there are some moth damage to them from improper storage, but the colors are as bright to me today as they were in 1968, the ribbons, campaign badges and photos of all the young boys tell the story alone of a man who gave his all for his country, and too soon was gone from his family. A brighter folded flag sits in a box, its stars are silk thread, from a time later that all men who served in the terrible fight’s for a small hill, a unknown village or for some line on a map. It is represented by the tragic burden that these men carried, my friends who’s faces I can not see any more and the distant strangers I put on point, who suffered the affects of war long after it was over and spoke little of the horrors, and drank themselves to sleep and to their deaths to relieve the nightmares of that time.

There is more to the 4th of July for me than barbeques, beer and fireworks. It is a time of remembrance of the men, and women who gave, and continue to give, their all in the cause of making all people free.

We should celebrate their lives every day. You should celebrate your life every day.

Happy 4^th of July!

Jim White, PhD

www.whatsmypurpose.com

Purpose is not something that is granted to one person

and not another.

Purpose is not reserved for only the great or

near great. It is not something impractical or

mystical. When you come from center, you can be

courageous. You are secure in yourself, in your

deep connection to the ground you stand upon.

Therefore, you can step out in life answering,

“How can I make a difference?”

Perhaps we were placed on earth to meet the

challenge of a single day; or like many

people today responding to another

devastating disaster. Or perhaps, like Nelson

Mandela, we are here to change the world consciousness.

Like a path, purpose must be walked. Our purpose

is determined by one thing and one thing only: the

degree to which we add to or subtract from other

people’s lives. The degree to which we dare to

fully embrace the question, “Why?”

The degree to which we are willing to say “yes” to

what truly matters to us.

Centering ourselves from the essential question

allows us to feel our passions and at the same time

gives us the strength to take action from our highest

purpose. Centering is always a choice we can make.

When they sense a path or face a crisis, people like

Nelson Mandela and countless others give of themselves

with their bodies, minds and spirits.

They embody the practices of centering that

strengthen them to get up every single day saying

“yes” to what matters most in their lives.

In my forty years as a business person, author, coach, speaker

and transformational leader, I have observed that purpose

is the single most significant prediction of life fulfillment.

It is one of the critical factors in emotional intelligence—

considered by some to be a better predictor of success

than technical knowledge or general intelligence.

How about you? Are you living a life on purpose?

If yes, please pass it on!

If no, please take the purpose journey with me and other

purpose seekers as we kick off another 12 week

journey on July 7, 2009 at 5 pm pst.

Please say yes right now!  Are you ready?  Register now!

www.whatsmypurpose.com

If you are on the fence allow me to give you a little

Push. How? by giving you 50% off the already low

Price of $588.00. But, you must hurry offer will expire

Monday, July 6, 2009 at midnight PDT.

Go ahead just click on this link www.whatsmypurpose.com

and insert this code jlw742009 upon check out.

With appreciation

Jim White PhD

Author What’s My Purpose, A Journey of Personal and Professional Growth

Creator What’s My Purpose life Mastery Course

Dear Friends,

Most change programs fail, but the odds of success can be greatly improved by taking into account these counterintuitive insights about how employees interpret their environment and choose to act.

In 1996, John Kotter published Leading Change. Considered by many to be the seminal work in the field of change management, Kotter’s research revealed that only 30 percent of change programs succeed. Since the book’s release, literally thousands of books and journal articles have been published on the topic, and courses dedicated to managing change are now part of many major MBA programs. Yet in 2008, a McKinsey survey of 3,199 executives around the world found, as Kotter did, that only one transformation in three succeeds. Other studies over the past ten years reveal remarkably similar results. It seems that, despite prolific output, the field of change management hasn’t led to more successful change programs.

It also hasn’t helped that most academics and practitioners now agree on the building blocks for influencing employee attitudes and management behavior. McKinsey’s Emily Lawson and Colin Price provided a holistic perspective in “The psychology of change management,”1 which suggests that four basic conditions are necessary before employees will change their behavior: a) a compelling story, because employees must see the point of the change and agree with it; b) role modeling, because they must also see the CEO and colleagues they admire behaving in the new way; c) reinforcing mechanisms, because systems, processes, and incentives must be in line with the new behavior; and d) capability building, because employees must have the skills required to make the desired changes.

This prescription is well grounded in the field of psychology and is entirely rational. One of its merits is its intuitive appeal: many managers feel that, once revealed, it is simply good common sense. And this, we believe, is precisely where things go wrong. The prescription is right, but rational managers who attempt to put the four conditions in place by applying “common sense” typically misdirect time and energy, create messages that miss the mark, and experience frustrating unintended consequences from their efforts to influence change. Why? Because when they implement the prescription, they disregard certain, sometimes irrational—but predictable—elements of human nature.

In our research and by working with companies attempting change, we have identified nine insights into how human nature gets in the way of successfully applying the four conditions required for behavioral change. As we describe these insights, we’ll show how various companies have, either by conscious awareness or simple luck, overcome or leveraged counterintuitive sides of human behavior in making change happen.

Creating a compelling story

Change-management thinking extols the virtues of creating a compelling change story, communicating it to employees, and following it up with ongoing communications and involvement. This is good advice, but in practice there are three pitfalls to achieving the desired impact.

1. What motivates you doesn’t motivate most of your employees. We see two types of change stories consistently told in organizations. The first is the “good to great” story: something along the lines of, “Our historical advantage has been eroded by intense competition and changing customer needs; if we change, we can regain our leadership position.” The second is the turnaround story: “We’re performing below industry standard and must change dramatically to survive. We can become a top-quartile performer in our industry by exploiting our current assets and earning the right to grow.”

These stories both seem intuitively rational, yet they too often fail to have the impact that change leader’s desire. Research by a number of leading thinkers in the social sciences, such as Danah Zohar, has shown that when managers and employees are asked what motivates them the most in their work they are equally split among five forms of impact—impact on society (for instance, building the community and stewarding resources), impact on the customer (for example, providing superior service), impact on the company and its shareholders, impact on the working team (for example, creating a caring environment), and impact on “me” personally (my development, paycheck, and bonus).

This finding has profound implications for leaders. What the leader cares about (and typically bases at least 80 percent of his or her message to others on) does not tap into roughly 80 percent of the workforce’s primary motivators for putting extra energy into the change program. Change leaders need to be able to tell a change story that covers all five things that motivate employees. In doing so, they can unleash tremendous amounts of energy that would otherwise remain latent in the organization.

Consider a cost reduction program at a large US financial-services company. The program started with a change story that ticked the conventional boxes related to the company’s competitive position and future. Three months into the program, management was frustrated with employee resistance. The change team worked together to recast the story to include an element related to society (to deliver affordable housing, for example), customers (fewer errors, more competitive prices), the company (expenses are growing faster than revenues, which is not sustainable), working teams (less duplication, more delegation), and individuals (more attractive jobs).

This relatively simple shift in approach lifted employee motivation measures from 35.4 percent to 57.1 percent in a month, and the program went on to achieve 10 percent efficiency improvements in the first year—a run rate far above initial expectations.

2. You’re better off letting them write their own story. Well-intentioned leaders invest significant time in communicating their change story. Road shows, town halls, and Web sites are but a few of the many approaches typically used. Certainly the story (told in five ways) needs to get out there, but the insight we are offering is that much of the energy invested in communicating it would be better spent listening, not telling.

In a famous behavioral experiment, half the participants are randomly assigned a lottery ticket number while the others are asked to write down any number they would like on a blank ticket. Just before drawing the winning number, the researchers offer to buy back the tickets from their holders. The result: no matter what geography or demographic environment the experiment has taken place in, researchers have always found that they have to pay at least five times more to those who came up with their own number.

This reveals something about human nature: when we choose for ourselves, we are far more committed to the outcome (almost by a factor of five to one). Conventional approaches to change management underestimate this impact. The rational thinker sees it as a waste of time to let others discover for themselves what he or she already knows—why not just tell them and be done with it? Unfortunately this approach steals from others the energy needed to drive change that comes through a sense of ownership of the answer.

At BP, to develop a comprehensive training program for frontline leaders, a decision was made to involve every key constituency in the design of the program, giving them a sense of “writing their own lottery ticket.” It took a year and a half to complete the design using this model but was well worth it: now in implementation, the program is the highest rated of its kind at BP. More than 250 active senior managers from across the business willingly teach the course, and, most important, managers who have been through the training program are consistently ranked higher in performance than those who haven’t, both by their bosses and by the employees who report to them.

3. It takes a story with both + and – to create real energy. The “deficit based” approach—which identifies the problem, analyzes what’s wrong and how to fix it, plans, and then takes action—has become the model predominantly taught in business schools and is presumably the default change model in most organizations. Research has shown, however, that a story focused on what’s wrong invokes blame and creates fatigue and resistance, doing little to engage people’s passion and experience.

The fact is that human beings consistently think they are better than they are—a phenomenon referred to in psychology as a self-serving bias

This has led to the rise of the “constructionist based” approach to change, where the change process is based on discovery (discovering the best of what is), dreaming (imagining what might be), designing (talking about what should be), and destiny (creating what will be). The problem with this approach is that an overemphasis on the positive can lead to watered-down aspirations and impact. The reason is that, as humans, we are more willing to take risks to avoid losing what we’ve got than we are to gain something more. Some anxiety is useful when it comes to spurring behavioral change.

We believe the field of change management has drawn an artificial divide between deficit-based and constructionist-based approaches and stories. While it is impossible to prescribe generally how the divide should be split between positive and negative messages (as it will be specific to the context of any given change program), we strongly advise managers not to swing the pendulum too far in one direction or another. Consider Jack Welch, former CEO at GE, who took questions of “what’s wrong here?” (poorly performing businesses, silo-driven behavior, and so forth) head-on, as well as “imagining what might be” (number one or two in every business, openness, and accountability).

Role modeling

Conventional change management suggests leaders should take actions that role model the desired change and mobilize a group of influence leaders to drive change deep into the organization. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily deliver the desired impact.

4. Leaders believe mistakenly that they already “are the change.” Most senior executives understand and generally buy into Gandhi’s famous aphorism, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” They commit themselves to personally role modeling the desired behaviors. And then, in practice, nothing significant changes.

The reason for this is that most executives don’t count themselves among the ones who need to change. How many executives when asked privately will say no to the question, “Are you customer focused?” and yes to the question “Are you a bureaucrat?” Of course, none. The fact is that human beings consistently think they are better than they are—a phenomenon referred to in psychology as a self-serving bias. Consider that 94 percent of men rank themselves in the top half according to male athletic ability. Whereas conventional change-management approaches surmise that top team role modeling is a matter of will or skill, the truth is that the real bottleneck to role modeling is knowing what to change at a personal level.

Typically, insight into what to change can be created by concrete 360-degree feedback techniques, either via surveys, conversations, or both. Look at Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer’s approach of asking each of his top 75, “What should I do differently?” and then sharing his development needs and commitment publicly with them. Consider the top team of a national insurance company who routinely employed what they called the circle of fire during their change program: every participant receives feedback live—directly from their colleagues—in relation to being the change, such as “What makes you great?” and “What holds you back?”

5. “Influence leaders” aren’t a panacea for making change happen. Almost all change-management literature places importance on identifying and mobilizing those in the organization who either by role or personality (or both) have disproportionate influence over how others think and behave. We believe this is sound and timeless advice. However, we have observed that the role of influence leaders has gradually shifted—from being perceived as a helpful element of a broader set of interventions, to a panacea for making change happen.

Our experiences working with change programs suggest that success depends less on how persuasive a few selected leaders are and more on how receptive the “society” is to the idea. In practice it is often unexpected members of the rank and file who feel compelled to step up and make a difference in driving change. That’s why we warn against over in vesting in influence leaders and advocate that change leaders’ attention should be balanced across the right application of all four conditions for change, to ensure they reinforce each other in ways that maximize the probability of the change spark taking off like wildfire across the organization.

Reinforcing mechanisms

Conventional change management emphasizes the importance of reinforcing and embedding desired changes in structures, processes, systems, target setting, and incentives. We agree. To be effective, however, these mechanisms must take into account that people don’t always behave rationally.

6. Money is the most expensive way to motivate people. Companies that try to link the objectives of change programs to the compensation of staff find that it rarely enhances their motivation for change to the extent desired. The reason for this is as practical as it is psychological in nature. The reality is that in the vast majority of companies, it is exceedingly difficult to incorporate a meaningful link to the change program within compensation systems that are based on a vast array of metrics. Moreover, many studies have found that for human beings satisfaction equals perception minus expectation (an equation often accompanied by the commentary, “reality has nothing to do with it”).

The beauty of this equation for change managers is that small, unexpected rewards can have disproportionate effects on employees’ satisfaction with a change program. Gordon M. Bethune, while turning around Continental Airlines, sent an unexpected $65 check to every employee when Continental made it to the top five for on-time airlines. John McFarlane, former CEO of ANZ Bank, sent a bottle of champagne to every employee for Christmas with a card thanking them for their work on the company’s “Perform, Grow, and Break-out” change program. Most change managers would refer to these as merely token gestures and argue that their impact is limited and short lived. Employees on the receiving end beg to differ. Indeed, they consistently report back that the rewards have a disproportionately positive impact on change motivation that lasts for months, if not years.

7. The process and the outcome have got to be fair. Employees will go against their own self-interest if the situation violates other notions they have about fairness and justice. Consider a bank, which, as part of a major change program, created new risk-adjusted return on capital (RAROC) models and delivered the resulting new pricing schedules to the front line along with new and appropriate sales incentives. The result: customer attrition (not only of the unprofitable ones) and price overrides went through the roof and significant value was destroyed by the effort. What went wrong? Because the frontline bankers perceived the changes as unfair to the customer, a significant number of them vocally bad-mouthed the bank’s policies to customers and used price overrides to show their good faith, even though it meant they were less likely to achieve individual sales goals.

In making any changes to company structures, processes, systems, and incentives, change managers should pay what might strike them as an unreasonable amount of attention to employees’ sense of the fairness of the change process and its intended outcome. Particular care should be taken where changes affect how employees interact with one another (such as head count reductions and talent-management processes) and with customers (sales stimulation programs, call center redesigns, and pricing). Ironically, in the pricing example described above, the outcome was inherently fair (customers are being asked to pay commensurate to the risk the bank is taking on), and therefore the downward spiral described could have been avoided (and has been by other banks adopting RAROC-based pricing) by carefully tending to employees’ perceptions of fairness in the communications and training surrounding the changes.

Capability building

Change-management literature emphasizes the importance of building the skills and talent needed for the desired change. Though hard to argue with, in practice there are two insights that demand attention in order to succeed.

8. Employees are what they think, feel, and believe in. As managers attempt to drive performance by changing the way employees behave, they all too often neglect the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that, in turn, drive behavior. Consider a bank that through a benchmarking exercise discovered that its sales per banker were lagging behind those of the competition. After finding that bankers spent too little time with customers and too much time on paperwork, the bank set about reengineering the loan-origination process in order to maximize customer-facing time. Unfortunately, six months later, the levels of improvement were far lower than envisioned.

A further investigation, with an eye to the bankers’ mind-sets rather than their behaviors, revealed that they simply found customer interactions uncomfortable and therefore preferred paperwork. This feeling was driven by a combination of introverted personalities, poor interpersonal skills, and a feeling of inferiority when dealing with customers who (by and large) have more money and education than the bankers do. Finally, most bankers were loath to think of themselves as salespeople—a notion they perceived as better suited to employees on used-car lots than in bank branches.

Armed with these root-cause insights, training for bankers was expanded to include elements related to personality types, emotional intelligence, and vocational identity (recasting “sales” as the more noble pursuit of “helping customers discover and fulfill their unarticulated needs”). This enhancement not only put the program back on track within six months but also ultimately delivered sustainable sales lifts in excess of original targets.

9. Good intentions aren’t enough. Good skill-building programs usually take into account that people learn better by doing than by listening. These programs are replete with interactive simulations and role plays, and commitments are made by participants regarding what they will “practice” back in the workplace. But come Monday morning, very few keep their commitments.

This lack of follow-through is usually not due to ill intent: it is because nothing formal has been done to lower the barriers to practicing new skills. The time and energy required to do something additional, or even to do something in a new way, simply don’t exist in the busy day-to-day schedules of most employees. This failure to create the space for practice back in the workplace dooms most training programs to deliver returns that are far below their potential.

We advocate a number of enhancements to traditional training approaches in order to hardwire day-to-day practice into capability-building processes. First, training should not be a one-off event. Instead, a “field and forum” approach should be taken, in which classroom training is spread over a series of learning forums and fieldwork is assigned in between. Second, we suggest creating fieldwork assignments that link directly to the day jobs of participants, requiring them to put into practice new mind-sets and skills in ways that are hardwired into their responsibilities. These assignments should have quantifiable, outcome-based measures that indicate levels of competence gained and certification that recognizes and rewards the skills attained.

In the same way that the field of economics has been transformed by an understanding of uniquely human social, cognitive, and emotional biases, so too is the practice of change management in need of a transformation through an improved understanding of how humans interpret their environment and choose to act. While sustained impact can be measured only over numbers of years, our early results when applying these insights give us the confidence to broadly share our thinking.

I want to thank McKinsey for doing this type of much needed research and further confirm my experience supports this report.

It has been my firm belief for over 30 years that if you get every individual to define, implement and live a life grounded in purpose you, your employees, employers, stakeholders and the world population will benefit in five (5) areas (1) Financial, (2) Relationship (3) Spiritual (4) Physical Health (5) Mental Health. If we do define, implement and live a life grounded in purpose this report might become a mute point! What do you say?

Get your employees, friends and family engaged and living on purpose today. We get but one shot at life!

With Appreciation

Jim White PhD
Founder & CEO, JL White International, Inc.
Best selling author of What’s My Purpose
Creator of What’s My Purpose life Mastery Course

http://www.whatsmypurpose.com

• The venerable independent Investment Banks Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns no longer exist.
• Central Banks and finance ministers, working in concert, are battling to keep up with events.
• China’s government is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the US economy.
• Chief Executives in the US financial-services and automobile sectors have gone to Washington, with hats in hand.

Along the way, many core assumptions about the merits of globalization, markets, risks, and debt (long taken for granted by business, government, academia and individual citizens) has come into question.

One big shift already under way involves a far larger economic role for government, whether through outright ownership of former private sector assets or tighter regulation.

Also inevitable: massive changes in industry structures. Consolidation effected either by bankruptcy or merger, is already transforming financial services or seems bound to take place elsewhere as the impact of the credit crisis ripples through our economy.

My focus in sharing this information with you today is to raise awareness about living a life on purpose and the implications of the economic transition that has just begun. This transition is a critical theme running through much of the information coming out of Washington and from industry experts. One thing that they all agree on is that “The worst is yet to come”

The challenge is how to cope with the extraordinary uncertainty permeating today’s business environment and how it will affect each individual.

The landscape of the rich will change, the landscape of the middle class will change and the lower socioeconomic class will continue to be driven further into poverty and despair.

It is time for bold leadership by every individual in the US and abroad, our shores will not protect us from this monster.

My call to action is for every individual to define, implement and live a life on purpose. By doing so, you will experience abundance in these five specific areas of life: Financial, Relationship, Spiritual, Physical Health and Mental Health.

It is well documented that those individuals that live a life on purpose are better positioned to live a life of abundance in any economy.

I invite you to join me and other purpose seekers as we start our next 12 Week What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Tele-Course on March 11, 2009 at 5pm (PST).

I feel so strongly about helping millions of individuals to define, implement and live a life on purpose that I am and will continue to offer my What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Course at a deep discount as long as the need is present. www.whatsmypurpose.com

Please help yourself and others by becoming a part of this world changing process.

In addition to defining, implementing and then living your purpose we will provide practical advise for individuals, executives and business owners on how to increase revenue, reduce cost, finding that new job, that new career or maybe starting that new business all aligned to your life’s purpose…yes, YOU CAN start a new business in this economy. I have, and so have many others.

I wish to close with a few words about leadership, something that is sorely needed on the part of each adult leading a family and on the international level if we are to renew the global financial system. Leadership on all of our parts is necessary to avert a backlash of protectionism or excessive regulation that could derail economic progress (especially in countries and in regions emerging from poverty) and dampen the entrepreneurial spirit. Within organizations, family units, and education, strong leadership is equally as critical.

Together we can be the leaders that will go down in history as that band of folks that came together to bring one family, one nation and one world living a life on purpose.

Please help me to achieve this vision and do not miss my appearance on The View from the Bay (ABC7/KGO) on February 17, 2009 from 3 to 4 pm PST as we help more people to achieve our mutual goal. For those of you in different time zones and other countries, we will make replays available of the show.

I look forward to seeing you in our next class. If you have not done so, go ahead and register now at www.whatsmypurpose.com so you can get started with your first assignment.

With Appreciation,

Jim White PhD

Author and Creator,

What’s My Purpose?

What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Course

CEO and Founder,

JL White International, Inc.

© 1991-2009 JL White International, Inc.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Did you know that the U.S. job losses in December could be the worst in almost 60 years as companies scramble to cut costs even deeper to survive the country’s economic and financial storms?

A barometer on layoffs showed on Thursday, January 8, 2009 that the number of newly laid off people signing up for state unemployment insurance last week rose to 540,000, up from 492,000 in the previous week, according to economists’ projections.

Just days into the new year, managed care provider Cigna Corp., aluminum producer Alcoa Inc., data-storage company EMC Corp. and computer products maker Logitech International were among those announcing layoffs to cope with a recession that has just entered its second year. The flurry of job cuts suggest the employment picture will remain grim this year.

U.S. private employers shed close to 700,000 jobs in December, far more than economists had estimated, a report by ADP Employer Services said on Wednesday, suggesting a more comprehensive government report on Friday will be dismal as well.

“This is shockingly awful,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York told Reuters. “If the recent relationship between the ADP numbers - after their recent revisions - and the official payroll data holds, then we should expect a drop of about 700,000 on Friday, the largest decline in 59 years.”

The number of people continuing to draw jobless benefits is projected to stay near 4.5 million, demonstrating the troubles the unemployed are having in finding new jobs.

Electronic unemployment filing systems have crashed in at least three states in recent days due to the crush of newly jobless Americans seeking benefits.

“Businesses were panicked at the end of the year and those that had been holding off on layoffs are now capitulating,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.

With jobs disappearing, shoppers held tight to their wallets and pocketbooks last month. Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, predicts retail sales out Thursday will show a drop for December and the worst holiday shopping season since at least 1969.

For all of 2008, employers likely slashed payrolls by at least 2.4 million. That’s based on economists’ forecasts for a net loss of 500,000 additional jobs in December, as well as the job losses already reported every month last year by the government. Some, however, think the number of jobs cut last month will be higher - around 600,000 or 700,000. The Labor Department will release that report Friday.

If the conservative, 2.4 million estimate of payroll reductions for 2008 proves correct, it would mark the first annual job loss since the previous recession in 2001. It also would be the worst year of job losses since 1945, when employers slashed nearly 2.8 million jobs. Though the number of jobs in the United States has more than tripled since then, job losses of that magnitude would be sober testimony to the nation’s economic woes.

With employers throttling back hiring, the unemployment rate is expected to jump from 6.7 percent in November to 7 percent in December, which would be the highest in 15-1/2 years. That figure also will be released Friday.

President-elect Barack Obama, who takes over Jan. 20, is proposing a mammoth $775 billion package of tax cuts and government spending over two years to revive the moribund economy. With add-ons by lawmakers, the package could swell to $850 billion, his advisers say.

Even with a big government stimulus, economists still believe the unemployment rate will keep climbing, hitting 8 or 10 percent by the end of this year. Obama’s economic advisers estimate that a $850 billion recovery package would lower the jobless rate to about 7.4 percent and create 3.2 million jobs by the first quarter of 2011.

Vanishing jobs, tanking home values and shriveled investments have forced consumers to cut back sharply on their spending. In turn, businesses have retrenched as well.

Consumers and companies are folding under the negative forces of the collapsed housing market, a global credit crunch and the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The recession, which started in December 2007, already is the longest in a quarter-century.

The expectation of more job losses ahead “will only perpetuate the vicious downward cycle propelling the economy,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economic at the Economic Outlook Group.

Sobering Huh!

I know from personal experience that challenges such as we are experiencing, brings many opportunities if you are open to receive them. I also know that this is the time for you to take a serious look at your financial, relationship, spiritual, physical and mental health. How are you doing in these five areas? If you are challenged in any of these five areas you can take positive steps to deal with the pain. You can make them go away!

However, you must be willing to make a decision. A decision to make the rest of your life the best of your life.

As you probably know Oprah Winfrey kicked off a series on Monday, January 5, 2009 called “Best Life Week”. For five days her show dealt with the five areas of life that I have been teaching since 1992 in my What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Course and they are financial, relationships, spiritual, physical and mental health.

The series that Oprah started was in part a result of her struggle with her weight. What an inspiration she is. She went on national television and said “I can not believe I am still talking about my weight” What courage.

It is people like Oprah, you, and me that will make a positive difference in millions of lives around the world.

I am asking you to join me as we take a 12 week journey together.  The journey will require you to look at your stuff. The stuff that is holding you back from your best life.

If you are open and willing to look at your self in this deep way we will work together to define, implement, and then make a plan to live your life on purpose. What are the benefits of doing so? They are: Financial, Relationship, Spiritual, Physical and Mental health abundance.

If you will accept my offer, I will take my $1,895.00 What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Tele-Course and give it to you, your friends, your co-workers and your family for only $49.00 per class.

Then, after the 12 week journey is over, I am going to give you two 90 minute Bonus Sessions at no additional charge. Yes, at no additional charge.

The two Bonus Sessions will include material from my One Year Executive Circle of Success Program. You will learn how to handle a lay off (Just in case), you will learn how to land an interview and get that new job if and when you ever need to do a job search, and you will learn eleven ways to handle your house-hold bills and get out of debt should that be an issue.

So please do not wait… go ahead and register now.
www.whatsmypurpose.com

This is our first time ever offering the two Bonus Sessions. Please do not miss this opportunity. With the two Bonus Sessions included, your per class price will be $40.83 per class. So please make sure you read, listen to and view all the testimonials you will find on the order page and then make the decision to change your life for ever.

www.whatsmypurpose.com

I will talk to you soon.

With Appreciation,

Jim White PhD

Author and Creator,

What’s My Purpose?

What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Course

CEO and Founder,

JL White International, Inc.

P.S.
In order to obtain the two Bonus Sessions, you must complete the 12 week course and no refunds will be offered at this price.

© 2008 JL White International, Inc.

Dear Friends,

Affirmations are the most positive self-talk. An affirmation is an announcement in present tense of some condition you want to create in the future. Affirmations are effective ways of bringing the power of positive thinking to bear in bringing to you the things that you fervently desire.

Napoleon Hill spoke the truth when he said, “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Since you are today who you thought you were yesterday, begin today to think about what you expect to be in the future. Make statements to yourself that reflect the life you want. For example, if you find work to be an unfulfilling drag, you might begin today to affirm that you have meaningful work. As you make these statements, keep in mind these rules for affirmation:

· Rule #1: State Them in the Present Tense
Your behavior tends to mirror what you believe. When you state something to yourself as if it were true today, your behavior will come into alignment with the belief. For example, if you are looking for a new job, you will not get as positive a result by saying “I will find a good job” as you would if you affirmed “I have the job I desire.”

· Rule #2: State Them Positively
Your mind works more effectively with affirmations that express what you want, rather than ones that express what you don’t want. For example, “I accept myself” is more powerful than “I don’t criticize myself.”

· Rule #3: Use Them Every Day
Since you talk to yourself all day long, your affirmations should replace your negative self-talk. Say them frequently, at least every morning and every evening. Say them as you fall asleep at night, and you can program your subconscious mind as it is relaxed and susceptible to suggestions.

· Rule #4: Empower Your Affirmations with Feelings
When you say your affirmations to yourself, evoke as much feeling as you can. This is like supercharging your affirmation. You remember things that you feel.

Your affirmations can be about anything. Begin with affirmations related to your self-esteem, then your finances, your relationships, your spiritual life, your physical health and your mental health.

As you do this every day, you will begin to notice a difference after about one month. You will be pleased with the results. The route that lies between purpose and true bliss and joy is a two-way street. The better you feel about yourself, the more apt you are to take delight in life and to identify your passion and your purpose.

Equally, the clearer you become about your purpose, the better you will feel about yourself. The two form a synergy — an upward spiral, if you will. You will lose the temptation to listen to negative messages you get from yourself or from anyone else, for that matter. You won’t feel tempted to compare yourself to others. You will understand that you are unique and will be able to appreciate that quality as much in yourself as you do in others.

The destination is not the ultimate aim. The joy comes from the journey. Purpose is bound up in the process. Make 2009 the best year of your life! All you need to do is to start!

I wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday season.

With appreciation,

Jim White, PhD
Best Selling Author of What’s My Purpose?
Creator of the What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Course

P.S. As a reminder, our next class begins January 19, 2009. To register, visit:
www.whatsmypurpose.com

Personal values include anything from altruism to concern about personal appearance. They most typically include things like music, family, integrity, loyalty, health, and religion. They can be internal, interpersonal, or cultural. A value by itself does not become a purpose, but it forms the basis for the desires and passions that lead us to purpose. If you don’t value community service very highly, then feel free to decline to serve on committees. Don’t let neighbors talk you into being president of your Homeowners’ Association. As you become conscious of your values, the values clarification will give you strength to resist doing things that other people might think you should do but that bring you no sense of joy or satisfaction.

If you compromise your values, you lose your self-respect, which soon will be followed by your self-esteem. The only time you can compromise a value is for the sake of a higher value. For example, you might value both loyalty and truth, so when your boss asks you to do something deceitful, what do you do?

This actually happened to me. I lost a great position in a company because I would not sign my name to a document asserting what our sales had been because I knew that some of the products listed as being sold were actually sitting in a warehouse. That company had my loyalty; I had worked hard to make them successful. But I would not compromise my integrity by agreeing to this lie. Of course, top management really believed that I should be a team player and just sign the thing, but it was too much to ask. I would have felt dirty. There are lots of things worse than being fired from a great job.

If our Washington Politicans and Wall Street Executives would follow suit, we would not be facing this 1 Trillion dollar disaster, which grows by the minute!

Value conflicts are painful but rewarding because they drive you deeper into yourself to find your own truth.

Have you faced a similar situation lately? Have you stood up or compromised your values while making a decision? Please share your story!

The destination is not the ultimate aim. The joy comes from the journey. Purpose is bound up in the process.

Bon voyage!

Jim White, PhD
Author & Creator of What’s My Purpose?
www.whatsmypurpose.com

From my humble beginnings I have been able to purchase, turnaround and sell 22 companies which I operated in 43 countries and generated in excess of 1.8 billion US Dollars in revenue.

I have been truly blessed, and in 1991 I decided to commit the balance of my life to helping individuals and organizations worldwide to define, implement and live a life on purpose. I am pleased and honored to report that we have worked with over 100,000 individuals, entrepreneurs and corporate CEO’s worldwide. We have accomplished much over the past 17 years… our coaching, consulting, teaching and mentoring programs touch hundreds on a daily basis.

However, I am very concerned that the fabric of our free enterprise system has been pushed to the limits by arrogant, greedy, and irresponsible Wall Street Executives and Washington Politicians.

What happen to the words truth, honor, character, integrity, accountability and responsibility and why are they important to this discussion? 

In my mind they are extremely important, especially in light of the current negotiations creating this huge bailout plan being hammered out in Washington in order to avert an economic meltdown. The men and women leading these large enterprises have forgotten the meaning of these words. It is the spirit within these words that is critical if this bailout plan is to work.

Unfortunately, the bailout plan is needed, and it needs to be put in place quickly. At the same time, we need to ask how the financial system came to require a rescue of this magnitude.

This time around, assets are evidently rotten in so many places that no financial institution wants to risk doing business with any other financial institution without government backstop.

Such fear recently threw a huge wrench into the wheels of commerce because business cannot function without credit, and banks cannot function without the ability to draw on one another’s resources as needed. Some radical, comprehensive step from government was necessary, or else outcomes as bad as — and perhaps even worse than — those of 1931 and 1932 would have been inescapable.

Naturally, a plan of this magnitude has stirred a storm of commentary, but two important potential results deserve more attention than they have received.

The first is the risk of moral hazard within the bailout itself. That is, if government is going to make good so many losses throughout the system, why would anyone set limits on future risk-taking? The situation could turn into a free-for-all that makes the recent disregard of risk look like child’s play.

The second problem is more philosophical, involving what the bailout plan reveals about the functioning of the free enterprise system. This raises disturbing questions. Although I must say I agree with President Bush’s observation that “the risk of not acting would be far higher,” we should be aware of the secondary effects of what we are getting into.

My position on government bailouts of institutions on the verge of failure has been clear ever since the procedure was formalized in the savings-and-loan crisis in 1989, under the first President Bush. I have favored these steps, even though such rescues reward those who took more risks than they should have and are ultimately paid for by those more prudent.

FROM this viewpoint, government bailouts create moral hazard and therefore might seem a mistake. If the government always comes to your rescue when the chips are down, why limit your risks? Why be responsible?, why operate with character and integrity? Why be accountable?, Why not go for the home run every time? What does it matter if you put the system over the edge, so long as you have a chance to make money by lying and cheating while Uncle Sam takes care of everything if you lose? How could any rational individual pass up those kinds of opportunities?

We could avoid this conflict of interests by refusing to bail out the irresponsible, arrogant risk-takers and letting the financial miscreants squirm in their own juice. That might provide satisfaction to moralists, but life is not so simple. An epidemic of unpaid bad debts would devastate lenders and ignite a conflagration that could pull down the economic and financial structure, ruining everyone.

We were on the verge of such an outcome in the last few weeks, as banks froze up in fear of every piece of paper being tainted. As a result, they refused to enter into the most routine transactions with one another. The choice is between two cruel outcomes: the high probability of an irreparably damaged financial system, or an overload of moral hazard. I prefer dealing with moral hazard now as well; but preserving the system — and society — must now have top priority.

My views have developed over the years, from the bailouts of single entities like Chrysler 1980, U.S Airlines 2001, Lockheed 1971, Penn Central 1974, New York City 1978, and other groups of companies like savings institutions in 1989 and over the years. But these relatively simple transactions have only a distant family resemblance to the Paulson-Bernanke plan for a huge bailout of countless financial institutions, to say nothing of possible help to households that took on mortgages that would work out only if the home price kept rising.

There is an immense difference between a plan for a comprehensive bailout and the far simpler process of bailing out Bear Stearns or even a dozen or so Bear Stearnses. The justification is the same, but the grim consequences in terms of moral hazard are of an incomparably greater order of magnitude.

Hence the federal government declares, “Thou shalt not fail,” there are no limits to how far future risk-takers will go. Who will see any need to pay attention to the possible consequences for the government’s budget, the market for its bonds, the taxpayers, its creditors and, indeed, the whole economic structure?

Furthermore, there are limits to how freely Washington can dispense largess. We no longer owe the national debt to ourselves, as we did in the 1930s, when deficit financing was first proposed as viable policy to overcome the Depression.

Financing the government today depends heavily on international entities’ willingness to buy our bonds, but some accept our obligations only when they see some kind of control over the volume of issuance. They will perceive very little control in plans whose limits are porous and uncertain.

My second issue goes to the foundations of the economic system in which most Americans believe, and take for granted. Though we sometimes give it more lip service than respect, it is rooted in individual decision-making in free markets. In theory, at least, the less government intervention, the better; the mantra is that markets know best. Huh! The Mantra should be markets know best when they are lead with integrity and accountability!!

We often hear this refrain, and history confirms its importance in the most profound issues of economic policy. It justifies our revulsion with Communism, our philosophical distance from the current Chinese system, and when greedy Wall Street Executives and Politicians, not markets, try to shape our system.

Faith in free markets made icons of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, who made deregulation a policy cornerstone. An echo in our own time was the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, legislated in 1933 to separate investment banking and commercial banks. Its repeal was a key contributor to the calamities now gripping the banking system.

TODAY’S crisis thus emerged from a combination of disasters operating in free markets with no integrity or accountability, but wreaking ruin as they developed. The sub prime mortgage mess, the huge leverage throughout the system, the insidious impact of new kinds of derivatives and other financial paper, and, at the roots, the vast underestimation of risk could not have happened in a planned economy. A super jumbo bailout is the inescapable result, but at some point we must confront its more profound implications.

As we move into the future, and as the crisis finally passes into history, how will we deal with this earth-shaking blow to the most basic principle of our economic and free enterprise system?

I will be announcing my solution to a sound recovery on October 4, 2008. The foundation of my solution will be rooted deep in my belief system and 40 years of international business experience which has allowed a poorer than poorer southern boy to achieve huge success.

Join me on October 4, 2008 at 10 am PDT as I lay out my Tribe of Five Plan.

Register at www.whatsmypurpose.com/tribeoffive

With appreciation,

Jim White PhD
Author and Creator What’s My Purpose, A Journey of Personal and Professional Growth, What’s My Purpose Life Mastery Course