BAReed Writing, Business Writing

Growth is good change, but requires some painful stretching on our part.

“When the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain that it takes to change, it is then that we change.”

~Dr. Edwin Louis Cole

If we focus our attention on the opportunities that we can gain, we can push through the reluctance for growth and change.

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach

Life is full of interesting possibilities, and while we cannot sample all of them, we should stretch for some new options periodically.

“Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it, but your arrow will fly higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself.”

~Joel Hawes

Just as our muscles protest infrequent actions as we get older unless we retain variety of motion, our minds need to continue to be stretched too.

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach

Conveying unwelcome news by way of a written message happens regularly, but it is an art to do it well.  Do you want the reader to focus on the news itself, or past the news to a better way forward?

“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”

~Henry David Thoreau

Communications should create a tone that makes the intent of the document clear.

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach

How many emails do you write in a day?  When you receive an email message, how often do you have to ask the writer for clarification because their point is not immediately clear?

“Either you think or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.”

~F. Scott Fitzgerald

We are all too busy to spend time chasing down unclear information, and when we are the author of the information we do not want our messages to be ignored because our intent was not clear.  Better to spend time upgrading your writing skills to present a clear message the first time.

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach

We are faced with so very many choices on a regular basis – what we should do, who we should be, what we should buy.

“If you’re willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly.”

~Edward Albee

Sometimes the best course is to make the more difficult, and interesting, choice.

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach

There are things that we enjoy doing, like going on vacation; and things that we find onerous like doing our taxes.  Then there are so very many tasks in between these two opposites.

“Knowledge which we gain with enthusiasm… tends to last longer and go deeper.  Things we learn out of duty, we don’t keep them for long.”

~Tenzin Gyatso (14^th Dalai Lama)

Something that perhaps we don’t particularly care for at first, like writing for many, but will bring us closer to a thing that we seek, should be reconsidered then.

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach

“I am in full possession of accumulated resources – I have only to use them, to persist, to do something more – to do much more – than I have done…  Try everything, do everything, render everything – be an artist, be distinguished, to the last.”

~ Henry James

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach

There will always be those who have natural talent, or who gain amazing skill through hard work and determination.  We believe this about sports, but somehow seem to think that writing is either an innate talent or not.

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.  Motivation determines what you do.  Attitude determines how well you do it.”

~ Lou Holtz

We would all like to be J.K. Rowling, but we don’t have to be in order to be successful practitioners of solid writing communications.

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach

We are faced with so very many choices in our lives, throughout each day.  We can get lost in the details of the choices themselves.

“We have the chance to be either architects or victims of our future.”

~ Daryl R Conner

We need to remember to conserve enough of our energy to apply it when our choices really count toward gaining ground to our own definition of success.

© 2013 BAReed Consulting | Business Writing Coach