I recently completed Martin Seligman’s VIA Survey of Character Strengths again and realised that “Gratitude” moved up to my number five strength. Previously it did not feature at all! Read the short blog I posted after doing the test, if this test sounds like something you could benefit from.

Now I’m thinking: “How did this happen?”

And: “Why is Gratitude a notable strength?”

Well, the first question I can answer with ease since it is because I’ve surrounded myself with other people who are grateful for what they have and who they can be in their lives. Inspirational people like Martin my coach and others in the entrepreneurial networks I belong to… even most of my Facebook Friends who share what they love about their lives on a daily basis.

It is the people around me that turned me into a grateful person!

But it is also my own resolve to introduce rituals into my life, such as starting the week with an hour-long call with four other entrepreneurs. We start this call firstly by sharing what each of us is grateful for in our businesses and the rest of our lives.

Now I stand amazed at how much I’ve previously taken for granted and how I created stress in my life by wanting more, instead of being more. It serves me best to love what I have so that I can focus on being more, rather than having more!

OK. So I’m living proof that you can be grateful by surrounding yourself with grateful people and by introducing small rituals where you say “thank you”.

BUT why is gratitude important?

You can probably think of many reasons why it’s good to be grateful. For some it may be part of their spiritual or religious expression, while for others it may be to motivate them to achieve more…

For me, it is perhaps a bit of a selfish reason that stands out as the most important – it is because it makes me a happier person!

Be grateful because it makes you happier! It is as simple as that!

I get into my flow when I do what I love doing and what I know I do well; and when I try doing what “has to get done”, I get stuck in the frustrating slowing down of momentum!

But tonight I realised I’m more than halfway towards the answer of what I should do to create more flow: I did my signature strengths test, and have 24 pointers towards what I’m naturally great at.

So it’s as simple as making sure that every day of every week of every year, I focus on activities requiring my strengths. These are::

• Learn new things.
• Be original in finding new ways to do things.
• Be honest, authentic and genuine.
• Remain industrious and persevere to get things done.
• Show gratitude and remain aware of the good things in my life.
• Keep thinking things through and if need be change my mind.
• Be curios and interested in the world around me.
• Offer my wisdom as grounded advice.
• Create a future based on hope and optimism.
• Speak up for what is right even if there is opposition.
• Increase my capacity to love and be loved.
• Create more energy and maintain my enthusiasm.
• Appreciate beauty and excellence.
• Be playful and have fun.
• Be fair without letting my personal feelings bring bias.
• Be careful in my choices.
• Build on my sense of purpose and develop my spirituality.
• Be kind and generous.
• Be loyal and work hard for the success of my teams.
• Show leadership.
• Always remain modest and show humility.
• Forgive and give people a second chance.
• Maintain self-control and discipline.
• Be aware of the motives and feelings of other people.

Your 24 strengths will be different from mine. And from most other people! That is why each of us has a different “formula for success”. You can define your unique “formula” by doing the VIA Survey of Character Strengths, developed by Martin Seligman.

Go to http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/testcenter.aspx to do the test now.

They recently launched Seda Small Business Stars, a national business plan competition with a unique focus on entrepreneurial education.

Over R4 million worth of prizes are on offer, including laptops and software for all winners, as well as a R50,000 cash prize for the overall winner. Entrants can also register for this free training at any Seda branch.

The competition is open to any South African citizen over the age of 18 with a business idea or existing small business. From the 17^th of October, candidates will be able to register on the competition website, and download the business plan template to prepare their entry. On-line entries will open from the end of October.

Entries close on 31 January, 2012.

For more information, please visit www.seda.org.za or follow Seda Small Business Stars on Twitter or Facebook

Ken Blanchard

Optimal experiences at work are within our grasp! This is what the science of positive psychology shows us today and which individuals can learn from in transforming their lives. But, you may ask, how do we translate these insights into practical business tactics?

Along comes Ken Blanchard, best-selling co-author of “The One Minute Manager” and half a ton other books on leadership in business, to remind us in a recent Fast Company post that “flow” is a useful concept to help managers with maintaining the engagement of all team members.

Flow is the concept coined by leading positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as “optimal experience” where people feel “strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities”.

Says Blanchard:

“One of the keys to achieving this state is finding the perfect balance between challenge and skill on one axis and anxiety versus boredom on the other.”

In the blog post he wrote along with Scott Blanchard, also from The Ken Blanchard Companies, three rules are proposed to get managers started:

Managers can get started on the right path by following three rules:

• Become more aware of your goal-setting habits.
• Focus on both the long and short term.
• Create variety for yourself and others.

Read the full blog here.

The course is aimed at managers and decision-makers in not-for-profit organisations who are seeking new ways of creating a sustainable future for their organisations.

Emma Arogundade, coordinator of the course,  says that organisations wishing to create new revenue streams, while strengthening their social impact, will benefit most from participating in the course.

Course presenters include Varkey George (CEO of Shawco), Dr Johann Graaff (Senior Lecturer in Development Studies), Eliada Nwosu (Senior Lecturer in Social Enterprise), Kolade Arogundade (Financial Consultant), and Stian Olderkjaer (Social Entrepreneur).

“The world is just beginning to recognize and value the role of the Social Entrepreneur,” says Varkey George, who initiated the course after receiving many requests from not-for-profit organisations to show them how Shawco created sustainable revenue streams. He says that “Social Entrepreneurs work in non-profit organisations, in the public sector, and in their own businesses where they solve social and ecological problems through innovative and sustainable solutions.”

The course focusses on how to build Social Entrepreneurship within the not-for-profit sector in order to maximise sustainability and  consists of three components:

• An introduction to development and social entrepreneurship models.
• Practical use of purpose-based business planning to address real world social problem sustainably (in groups during the course).
• Guidance to identifying sustainability opportunities, and developing a project plan for each participant’s own organisation.

In addition, participants are challenged to reflect on their personal qualities and that of their organsations, that make for successful Social Entrepreneurship and creating sustainable futures.

The upcoming Creating a Sustainable Future for Not-For-Profits Course will take place between 5 and 10 December 2011 in Cape Town.

For more queries and application forms,
please contact Chantele Jacobs
on chantele [dot] jacobs [at] uct [dot] ac [dot] za
or call 021 406 6740.