Reality Bites-Breaking the News

Introduction

There are incidents in our life where we have to disclose some news or have to say something to people close to us...known to us where we are aware that it may hurt them. For Example read the following:
1) You have to tell your sub-ordinate that he is sacked or he has to resign.
2) All in your team got increments and promotions, except two people...disclose this news to them.
3) You father is serious and he is in hospital...sharing this news with your sibling.
4) Your daughter has appeared for "Chartered Accountant Exams" but failed...now share it with her.
5) Giving "honest" feedback to your spouses...about their looks.
6) Giving "honest" comment to your friends about their behavior and habit.


There are many such incidents. One time or another we've all been there. You want to tell someone how you really feel. But how do you say this difficult thing to a person you care about without damaging, or even destroying the relationship? It's easy to say something we know will be welcomed: "I like your new suit" or "The package you were waiting for just came." Even something potentially embarrassing -"You've got chili between your teeth"-is easy to say to a friend who's going out on a date and would be horrified if you didn't tell him. About 95% of the things we need to tell other people are easy because they're welcome or routine or they confirm the sense that everything is OK. It's the other five- percent that gives us trouble.

Often in those cases, we back off and say nothing. But in silence, while incredibly tempting, is usually not the best option. Too often it's not an option at all, because the other person will eventually learn the truth anyway. Better to speak up and at least have some control over how the message is conveyed. But what, exactly, should you say? We all how easy it is to say something the wrong way and have the situation blow up in our faces. That's why certain truths are called bombshells. Deep down we all want the same thing. We want to say what needs to be said, feel good about ourselves for saying it and make good things happen when we do.

Tell the truth but meet the need

The need is what the other person is left feeling when you've dropped your bombshell. If you tell your boss: "The report will be ready tomorrow, as we agreed," you haven't created a need, you've fulfilled one. But if you say, "The report won't be in till Friday. Sorry!" you're creating an unmet need in someone very important-your boss-so you're afraid to say it. Your answer: tell the truth but meet the need. If you do that, you convert something that's hard to say into something you're brave enough to say. But how do you know what the other person's need will be? Just ask yourself what the other person is afraid of, and do or say something to help him feel less afraid. For example, you don't have to be a genius to guess that if your fiancée hears you want to postpone the wedding, he might:

Ø Need not to be humiliated in front of friends and family;

Ø Need to feel reassured that in this case postponement doesn't mean cancellation;

Ø Need to know what feelings prompted the postponement. (Has he done something wrong? Do you still love him?)

American Idol and All of the Other Crazy Reality Shows We Become Hooked On

Since day one of American Idol, fans of America have fallen into the ever popular schema behind one of many reality TV series: Road Rules, Survivor, Big Brother House, The Bachelor, and The Biggest Loser are a just a few on the tip of the iceberg. Why do we become so enthralled with these shows? In large part, we are becoming a passive society full of couch potatoes rather than the "do-it-yourselfers" that we used to be. Here are some great tips to help you turn off the tube and become active in your own reality.

After a long hard day at work, one might really be tempted to kick back and relax to the evening news with a cold one, but that one show slowly seeps into two and three and more as we become enticed by entertaining commercials of the ever suspenseful reality show. A good suggestion to those prone to couch vacuum scenario might be to read the news paper rather than turning on the power to the television. In order to keep in touch with what might be going on in your favorite series, read print relative to the reality television shows such as TV Guide and others like it.

Setting a time limit might also help some to remove themselves from the clutches of the black box, although sometimes that is not enough. Planning events that you look forward to around your television time might be enough to get moving. If you can do so effectively, try multitasking while you are watching a show. Then the televisions don't seem to drain the hours from your day as fast. Great time to flip on the tube as background can be found in times while cooking dinner, folding clothes, or picking up the family room.

No matter what measures you take to ensure you are being an active part of your own reality, remember that keeping touch with the loved ones around you are the true acts that make life worth living. Sitting down to an hour show on your own will not have the same meaning as doing so as a family.

Entrepreneurs - What It's Really Like to Be Start Up Junkies - According to Reality TV?

As a serial entrepreneur, I find reality TV a complete, contrived waste of time. I've never watched American Idol, Survivor, Amazing Race, The Apprentice, etc. Even the commercials showed me more than I ever wanted to know.

However...

There is finally one reality show that I not only watch - but one that I strongly recommend every entrepreneur and start up company CEO should watch religiously.

The show, Start-Up Junkies, on the MOJO Network really does show what it is like to run a new company.

Frank Lloyd Wright once said TV is chewing gum for the mind. He must have been talking about reality TV. However, Start-Up Junkies is a feast for anyone even thinking about starting a company.

Having started my own four dozen companies, I have been there, done that - and not only have the tee shirt - but also several suits of armor from all the battles with dragons that try to kill entrepreneurial ventures and start up companies. Besides all that experience with my own companies, during the past 14 years I've also served as a start up consultant to 2,000 entrepreneurs in three dozen countries on six of the seven continents. So, trust me when I say, I know what it is like to be a start-up junkie myself.

From the show's web site, this is their executive summary:
The Pitch: CEO/Entrepreneur/Start-up Junkie Ron Wiener believes that the world is ready for a revolutionary online postal mail service.
The Goal: Secure millions in funding from investors and take Earth Class Mail from promising idea to profitable reality.
The Problem: Nine out of ten start-ups fail.

Beyond the usual hype for any TV show, this is an excellent production that is very well directed. More importantly, the show genuinely conveys the juggling act required of almost every entrepreneur and start up CEO.

If you are considering ever having your own business, watch the show...and see if YOU could stand the stress and multiplexing required.

The bad news about this reality show is that almost no one has even heard of the MOJO Network since it is only hi def - and a premium hi def channel at that.

The good news is that all seven episodes that have been broadcast to date since the show started in January are available for viewing at the MOJO website ...so you can watch them all. Each show only lasts 22 minutes since there are no commercials.

So, what's my experienced opinion of the company and the management team?

Ron Wiener is an excellent start up CEO. He has the combined skill sets and charisma to pull it off...and the fortitude to withstand stress levels non-entrepreneurs cannot imagine even exist. He is seasoned enough with his prior start up experience to know the right path and how to slay the dragons he needs to slay before they kill the company - although, sometimes, it is uncertain which way to swing the sword when so many dragons attack at once. He made a brilliant move by agreeing to the TV show - incredible exposure for his company and his fundraising for no cost - although doing this while doing a private placement must put him in the dark gray areas of securities law.

Ron has recruited a good management team but it looks like the company may be quickly outgrowing the capabilities of some of them (a very common problem for many of my start up clients.) Based on the company's web site, Ron has a new CMO and a COO.

Reality TV Contestant Fatigue

While the big news in reality TV casting for May is the start of casting for Amazing Race 14 and Survivor 18, another issue may be showing itself for the first time: are we seeing the first signs of contestant saturation? With nearly 400 network TV shows now soliciting viewer participation, is the herd of people willing to turn their lives upside down to meet the time commitment reality TV demands finally thinning?

Probably not, if you're casting twenty-somethings looking at reality TV as a career move. But a spate of deadline extensions in the past few days has to make one think that when it comes to casting for ordinary people in the Southern California area, pickings are getting thin.

Season 1 of the TLC documentary reality series The Secret Lives of Soccer Moms premiered in February and did well enough to get renewed for a second season. The series documents the lives of women who have given up their careers to be stay-at-home wives and mothers. Season 2 applications opened March 23/08 and were supposed to close a month later, but had to be extended over two weeks.

ABC and Magical Elves held an open call for the pilot of Wipeout, billed as "Fear Factor without the grossness," back in mid-December/07 and has had a casting notice up on the ABC casting page ever since. The pilot was shot in January and tested well enough to warranted a full season. Applications were supposed to close April 30th but that deadline also had to be extended.

And finally there is 13. This is a CW horror-themed reality series slated to air this fall. The heavyweight executive producers, Sam Rami (Spiderman) and Jay Bienstock (Survivor, Apprentice), wanted to cast this one like a film, with the usual stock of Scary Movie stereotypes. Casting closed in late April, but they evidently haven't been able to fill their quota of "white collar students/professionals" and have extended their application process for applicants able to drop everything for a 3-week shoot starting May 22nd.

Three deadline extension in a single week; all of them following casting periods of over a month, all of them specifically seeking applicants living in So Cal, and 2 of the 3 looking for upper middle-class professionals with no show biz aspirations. Is this the start of a trend? If it is, we may see more casting outside of the usual So Cal and even the NYC tri-state areas. And that is good news for the vast majority of people who would like to be involved in their favorite show.

Subjective Reality - The Game of Life

This is good news and bad news.

The circumstances in which we find ourselves can be quickly changed because subjective reality allows us to make energetic personal changes far more quickly than would happen if we were trying to manipulate the masses of matter formed by billions of other humans.

It is not that we are the only people manifesting change, but we are the only avatars of our subjective reality dream who are doing the manifesting. Here's the problem. If you are thinking and worrying about some illness, it will come fairly quickly to you. If you are worrying about some financial difficulty, it will come fairly quickly to you. Perhaps you know someone who was worried about some disaster, and lo and behold, it happened to them.

It is of vital importance that you keep your mind on the good. Keep your mind on your desires rather than your fears, and get rid of the fears as fast and as completely as you can.

Be Careful of Self Deprecating Jokes

Stop any joking about your children "giving you a heart attack" or your husband or wife "driving you to drink" or your mortgage making you feel so "sick and tired...". As Byron Katie says, "Life is always kind." The Universe will take away anything that makes you unhappy, and your Subconscious will make real anything you talk about consistently. And, it won't take long.

Jesus said, "By your words ye are justified and by your words ye are condemned." So, as you've no doubt heard, "Be careful what you ask for." Every statement of fact is a request.

In-tuition is being Taught from Within Just as In-curable Means Curable from Within

Once we know enough to be careful of what we say and think, we are ready for the next level of mind control or listening within. This is another area that benefits greatly from the quiet listening of meditation.

This is why you don't want to go into busy action, having formed your own plan to execute your desire. Let the Universe help. Do be active, but also take time to listen for the promptings of Divinity.

Once you have visualized it in your Conscious Mind, and imprinted the idea in your Subconscious Mind, then your Superconscious Mind packages it for the Creative process. Divinity will partner with you in bringing it into your Subjective reality.

Have faith for this will come as surely as tomorrow's dawn.

Jesus reassured us, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Take action, but listen for directions, adjustments and teachers who appear in your path.