The Congruence newsletter is distributed monthly to almost 11,000 subscribers gratis by email and contains useful tips on life, service, communication, presenting and being a cool person. To write me, mailto:director@congruence.co.za. To subscribe or upgrade your subscriber status, go www.pauldutoit.net or www.congruence.co.za or use the link above right. Why not share this with any friend or associate you feel may benefit? We share your address with no-one. Want to opt out? See the footer.

1. New Mindset Shift Seminar

On Tuesday morning 30 January 2007 I will be launching my new Mindset Shift seminar in Pretoria at the CSIR. The seminar runs again on Wednesday evening 7 February at the FNB Conference Centre in Sandton, and Durban Wednesday morning 14 March at the Riverside, Durban North.Cape Town will be 4 April at the Cullinan Hotel.

The Mindset Shift seminar is about taking a serious look at how you, your team or organisation is going about things and asking yourself the serious question: "How can we be doing this better?" You'll leave with a Mindset Shift Blueprint, and some extraordinary new insights on to how to use the opportunities available to you today to improve your business and your life, and concrete ways to accomplish this quickly. It's only R597 per head, and I must say I'm getting more and more excited about the seminar as I put the finishing touches on it!. Book here now - you can also read more about the seminar using the same link. Each delegate also receives a complimentary DVD.

• 30 January Pretoria - booking deadline 24 January
  
• 7 February Sandton - booking deadline 1 February
  
• 14 March Durban - booking deadline 7 March
  
• 4 April Cape Town - booking deadline 28 March

Go to the same link for other seminars coming up in February in George (Winning Attitude) Rustenburg and Klerksdorp (Mind Blowing Customer Service).

2. The MXit Phenomenon.

*feature article*

MXit (pronounced "mix it") is a mobile instant messaging application developed in South Africa that runs on GPRS/3G mobile phones with java support. It allows the user to send and receive text messages to and from PCs that are connected to the Internet and other phones running MXit. These messages are sent and received via the mobile Internet, rather than with standard SMS technology. The user can also exchange messages with online chat communities like MSN Messenger, ICQ, and Jabber. Messages are limited to 2 000 characters. Because messages are billed by the amount of data sent, they are much cheaper to send than traditional SMS messages. MXit claims to have a registered userbase of two million and about five million log-ons per day. The application is distributed internationally, but the bulk of its userbase are South African teenagers.

Tradepost is the MXit e-commerce store where users may purchase access to certain services and update Moola (the Mxit currency). One Moola is the equivalent of one South African cent. With 200 Moola, 100 messages can be sent in the chat rooms. The user does not pay Moola for normal Instant Messaging. Above paying Moola, the user is charged internet costs, according to his or her service provider.[the two paragraphs above courtesy of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/]

Sounds amazing, doesn't it? And it is. Our young people are socialising and learning how to build contacts at a rate that we don't understand. They are staying in touch with people they deem to be important extremely effectively. They have an instant means of assuaging their thirst for social acceptance.

Then why are parents of teenagers (teenagers these days means anyone over 9) all over South Africa tearing their hair out as they lose what little they had of their teenagers to this cheap, instant, hand held, mobile, electronic socialising phenomenon? Getting your teenager to set the table, take out the garbage, feed the dog/cats or heaven forbid do homework has always been a challenging task. Today it's a war in many families! You will be told (often quite impatiently) that the e-conversation your teenager is having right now is very important and can't wait because the person they're chatting with may go offline - and you (parent) do not want to be nearby if this happens, if you value your sanity.

The limited quality time MXit teenagers spend with family members has undoubtedly diminished. The family is always there it seems, but has become even more unnoticed. Mom and Dad have dwindled in importance to unpaid and un-thanked providers of high quality services.

Many of us Boomer and early X Generation parents swore that the generation gap would not happen in our families. We would be far more understanding, we even listen to cool stuff like Eric Clapton, the Eagles, Genesis and Pink Floyd. But the generation gap has widened considerably - they've moved from head banging to punk rock - it's now techno-rap. A few months ago my 14 year old daughter told me that if her friends found out she had Eric Clapton on her iPod, she'd be the laughing stock of the school let alone the grade. "But do you know who Clapton is" I implored, using my voice reserved for someone truly special."Some old gizzard over 60 who plays country music" the bored response.

An article on Wikipedia states that numerous news agencies and papers have placed articles in which they quote parents from all over South Africa who claim that MXit is having an effect on their children's school work. Some argue that their children fail to communicate properly and find themselves in their own world of mobile chat rooms.

First it was, and still is, television. Then computer online addiction. That's not too difficult - if the child becomes addicted, allow limited access by permision only (you do this with a secret password) or if necessary, remove the computer completely.

Programmes that operate from the cell phone are a different matter. Parents today use their child's cell phone as a means of staying in touch, confirm pick up times etc. Besides, who wants to go down the path of confiscating the phone and relegating their child to local social outcast? But that, according to Wikipedia, is exactly what some parents are resorting to.

If you have a solution that works for you, I'd like to hear from you, and I'll share the best ones with my other subscribers. As reasonable parents we want the best for our teenages, including a healthy social life, and do not want to be draconian. We also understand that each child is different - perhaps your child does not have electronic addiction or compulsive tendencies. But you are most likely in the minority. There is a limit when a fad is so compelling that it becomes addictive and affects the normal functioning of a child and compromises their role in the family and at school.

As a final comment - the explosion in technology, as terrific as it is, is leaving most adults gasping for breath. We can't fight it - it's like a tidal wave. Besides, many of us use it to good effect. With our Garmin GPS we can now get to anywhere in the world without knowing how the hell we got there! We can, however, pool ideas in a bid to ensure that technology is used in a positive way to make our lives better, rather than creating more problems than it solves.

We need a Mindset Shift - and quickly. 'Till next time!

Paul du Toit, Mindset Shifter.

3. Congruence one and two day course schedule - 1st quarter 2007

Johannesburg: The course schedule with pricing and venues - now available and posted on our website - please go here for details. Includes Presentation Skills, Customer Service, Conflict Resolution, Time Management and Winning Attitude workshop dates. We also deliver in-house countrywide

4. Your Own Digital Business Card.

Digital business cards are about to hit the market in a big way. Using leading edge technology, the digital business card is one of the most effective ways to market your business. Imagine your own business card that greets clients with a video message and displays your products with a comprehensive explanantion and product pitch! It also has links to your website and email.

Contact Harm Fourie on 011 656 9311 or harmf@dbcc.co.za to enquire about your own digital business card. If you are interested in acquiring an agency, fifteen have already been sold - but more are available in certain areas - move now, before it's too late. Go here for more details

Harm and his team have just completed my digital business card, and it's very impressive. For your own free copy, please mailto:director@congruence.co.za with your postal address or call us on 0860 503 191 share call.

5. Sporting and Other Tidbits.

If a section of the crowd at Centurion Park were hurling abuse at SA spin bowler, Paul Harris, and Herschelle Gibbs (himself reputedly a person "of colour" - although I fail to see the relevance) is picked up on the stump microphone referring to that section of, apparently Pakistan supporters, as bloody animals - this is racist? Surely it's a compliment as animals don't abuse alcohol or one another in this way. To their credit, the ground staff evicted some of the drunken idiots from the ground (oops, am I allowed to write that? Too late - it's on paper and besides, journalists get away with much worse!). Then the ICC bans Herschelle for two test matches. For crying out loud, isn't this a storm in a tea cup?

Eish! Anyway, good knock Herschelle. I'd also be a little sensitive if they got me out 6 runs short of my first test century in 2 years. Let them eat grass, I say. Mooooo.

Besides, shouldn't we as a nation be focusing our attention on bringing the appalling crime rate down, helping our aids sufferers and putting some relevant pressure on that tyrant Mad Bob instead of hassling a great cricketer who's coming back in to form and uttered an indiscrete word or two? Perspective, I say. Perhaps they'll ban the Congruence newsletter next.