Let the games begin

You’ll not find much time left on the countdown clock for the start of the 2012 Olympics. Very soon you’ll hear the words, “Let the games begin.” Will you be watching?

Whether you’re a dedicated sports enthusiast or an occasional viewer, take advantage of the events in these next couple of weeks. Look beyond the gold, silver and bronze to see the stories of commitment, concentration, control, and courage that enabled these athletes to accomplish their goals and realize their dreams. Regardless if they win a medal, they qualified to participate in the XXX Olympiad. That is no small feat.

As you watch and listen to commentators regale you with facts and statistics, see if they inspire you. Regardless of their innate talent or abilities, each one (not just the track stars) had hurdles to overcome whether physical or emotional. None of them woke up one morning and decided to try out, and each one learned from the experience. I think we can learn from them as well.

You might enjoy reading what Penelope Trunk learned about business from playing beach volleyball or Christie Rampone gained in the area of leadership from her soccer experiences. And, you’ll become aware of many more inspiring stories once these games begin.

We will hear a lot to inspire us, and we’ll see examples of successful results. Will it be enough for us to do what it takes to follow our dreams? It could.

Moving out

Do you hate to move? I’m actually talking about changing your residence rather than a physical feat, but if you have ever transferred from one location to another, you know there’s plenty of exercise going on during the process.

According to Melissa Data and the US Census bureau, “out of a population of 282,556,000 people, 40,093,000 moved. That’s an overall percentage of 14.19 percent annually.” Were you one of them?

As an adult, I have had to move several times. Yes, adventure of a new beginning on the other side beckoned me, but the pre-requisite involved going through the mountains of things collected and stored in boxes in the basement and attic, stuffed into closets and cupboards or mounded on the shelves. Then I had to go through it all and discard, give away, sell or repack what was left, pack it into a truck, haul it to the new location and find a place to put it all. Here’s the strange part. When I went to move the next time, I found some of these same boxes still packed from the previous move. I guess the items in these containers weren’t useful after all, though they brought a measure of comfort. It may sound comical, yet isn’t this sometimes how we live our lives?

We get excited about a new job, new neighborhood, new relationship or some other new enterprise, and we prepare for the change. Our confidence is high. We lay aside the old routines and familiar traditions, a few unproductive habits and negative thought patterns. We’re making a fresh start.  We pack up the outstanding skills and characteristics that provided the opportunity and get ready to go. We make the move and transition into the new situation, but it appears something is holding us back. Alas, we discover those boxed up fears and past failures we had before. We did not get rid of them. We just packed them up and brought them along.

When we embark on a new situation or opportunity, we need to make sure that we don’t tote along any excess baggage. It adds no value, but it can certainly produce unnecessary weight that could hold us back.

Look around. Do you have any beat up old containers filled with bad memories, resentment or fears? Getting rid of them will be your biggest boost to making the move out of your Comfort Zone to the next successful phase of your life.

Changing your current direction

Have you ever hit one of life’s plateaus? You know, those times when you want to move forward but seem to lack motivation.

My first recommendation would be to direct you to the Lord and the Bible. The Scriptures will provide what you need. Sometimes, however, you may desire to look at the life of someone who applied what he or she learned from the Word to see just how that worked for them. One of these people is Jim Rohn. As you look at his life, you may discover a quotation – he has many – to get or keep you on track as well as provide support for your ideas and projects in concise and direct terms.

During his life, Jim Rohn mentored thousands in the realm of business performance and personal development through individual contact, seminars, workshops, books and recorded presentations. His unique style coupled with his ability to apply wisdom to principles and events made him renowned as America’s foremost business philosopher. His common-sense approach and proven methods provided both personal success and wealth as well as for those who adopted his methods.

Jim tackled tough topics like leadership management, work ethics, change, motivation, learning, goals, success, relationships, results and more. Though he has recently passed on, his words continue to ring true and bear continual review and repetition.

You can Google Jim Rohn to find many outstanding quotes that you can use in your writing, presentations, or for personal development, and when applied, they may open the door to further opportunities. I’ll leave you with just one.

“It is our philosophical set of the sail that determines the course of our lives. To change our current direction, we have to change our philosophy not our circumstances.”

 ~ Jim Rohn

Do we have a date?

Dave Ramsey is one of my favorites in both business and the financial world. Based on Scriptural principles, he takes a no-nonsense approach to finance, leadership and life (just ask his kids). He draws a line in the sand and strives (nobody’s perfect) to walk what he talks, and it works! I took advantage of some travel time in the car on the way to a meeting and listened to one of his CD’s on leadership. The concept he shared about making decisions proved simple, but profound.

Many decisions in life are easy to make – what to have for lunch, which container of milk to buy, how to subscribe to an e-zine, or whatever other similar choices affect your life. Hence, you needn’t spend a lot of time on the process of making your decision. On the other hand, if you have saved for a long time to buy a new car, you want to ensure you spend adequate time to make the right selection.  Your choice will be with you for a long while, hopefully.  In other words, small impact decisions require less thought than their weightier counterparts because they have a greater long-term impact. The amount of time you take to make your decision should be proportionate to its impact.

As one of those people with a million ideas, I can get bogged down in the process which sometimes leads to procrastination, a sense of being overwhelmed or a good idea falling through the proverbial cracks. Ramsey suggests when you have to make one of the heavier decisions or if you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, grab your calendar and set a date to decide. Don’t drag it out. Weigh the pros and cons, decide and move on. Setting a date relieves the stress because, if nothing else, there is an end in sight.

Your date may reflect a deadline that is either real or self-imposed. Either way, you’ll need to evaluate the facts, opportunities and challenges and then act. Based on your decision, you can adjust if the results are not immediately satisfactory. Whether you’re purchasing a new home, a piece of equipment or determining if you should open or close the doors on a business, Ramsey’s method has worked for him and countless others. I think I’ll give it a try. What do you think? Do we have a date?

Read The Hunger Games?

If you have read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, you are likely wondering why it took the rest of us so long to get a copy and sit down to read it. Sure there was a lot of hype about the story and comments about the movie version recently released, but it’s one of those books that you have to experience for yourself – even if it is not your typical genre of literature.

This past weekend, my English-teacher son lent me a copy to read. His wife and sons kept telling me what a fantastic book it was, so on all of their recommendations, I began reading the first page. I was hooked and could not wait for the 6 hour drive home to finish it. This is not the type of book I would normally choose because I generally don’t enjoy science fiction adventure stories, but Collins held my attention from the beginning, and I’m ready for Book 2. I just need to make sure that I can dedicate the time to read because you can’t put these down.

Story line aside, there’s more to it than the main plot that keeps you riveted to the page. As a writer I’d like to know her secret. Is it the first-person point of view? Does she show rather than tell what her characters are doing? Does she include a lot of action? Does she use colorful language to create vivid pictures? Collins does all of these things, yet she does it in such a way that you are compelled to read. You are engaged and readily identify with the main character even if you’re not (or never were or will be) a teenage girl.

Those of you who’ve read this YA novel, let me know why you think it was a success? Other writers would love to know how she did it. There’s no doubt Collins has hit a home run with this trilogy.

Can you learn from an 8-year old?

Have you ever seen a large-ticket item you feel you’d like to have, maybe even needed, but have no idea where to start to make it happen?

Some people seem to be born with focus. They know what they want and go after it, usually with success. Those on the opposite side of the continuum seem to float their way through life aiming at little and becoming confused by the less than desirable results. Although you can pay a lot of money to find and read a host of books, get training or attend seminars on setting and achieving your goals, you might also like a more simplistic approach.

Instead of trying to remember what each letter of a SMART goal stands for, you can follow journalism’s 5 Ws and an H – What, Why, Where, Who, When and How. With these questions you can define

• what you want
• why you should have it and what challenges will need to be addressed along the way
• who needs to be involved
• where to find resources
• when it should take place
• how to make it happen

You can adapt the questions to your specific purpose.

Without any help from adults or older siblings, my 8-year old grandson came up with his business plan to obtain a trampoline and prepared it in the form of a proposal to his parents. You might like his method. The last I heard, he’s still working on the second phase. I think you’ll chuckle at his wisdom.

ETHAN’S TRAMPOLINE

Why we need a trampoline is because:  It will help with heaLth. How it will help is it will give us leg muscles and we will play outside.

Where will we get the money? How we will get the money is it will be a birthday present from Dallas, and Michael, Sabrina, and Grandma, and Grandpa, and you guys (his parents).

Where will we put it? The options of where we could put it if we got it is:  In the back yard or on one of the sides of our house.

Safety: Make sure it has a net and has unlimited weight.

Other: We can move the basketball hoop towards the trampoline. We can save money because we won’t have to go to the workout gym.

Spring for change

Do you get excited about making a change in your life only to become discouraged because the results don’t come fast enough? Whether you’re starting a new business, ramping up an old one, writing a first-time novel or trying to lose weight, it can be easy to get discouraged when the transformation to success seems negligible or slow in coming. (Feel free to add your own desired changes. I know I’m not alone in this.) 

If you live in an area where you experience the cold of winter, you know how excited you get about the tiny changes that bring spring. Even a blade of grass that turns from its brown winter coat to brilliant green shouts to all who notice that spring is definitely on the way. One sign provokes a search for additional ones like buds popping up on trees, perennials poking their way through the hard earth, and of course, birds singing from high branches. Each day is part of the transition, whether we see something happening or not, yet you relish the fact spring is coming. 

Why is it then that we humans become so discouraged when we don’t see what we want overnight? If we are consistent in following the right paths, won’t we see results? Perhaps I should take heart in the lesson God teaches from nature. If it takes Him days, weeks or months to complete the process, who am I to give up so early when I don’t see the finished product? 

The next time I get down about my slower-than-desired progress, I’m going to remember the time element involved in spring. Then I’m going to spring for change … in me.

Come and get it

 Have you ever seen an eagle swim? Click here to see for yourself.

A good friend sent this video to me. Perhaps it’s on an email circuit from your friends as well, but one thing stood out. Apart from the fact I had no idea an eagle could sit on the water like a duck and then swim a modified butterfly stroke, I had to marvel at his perseverance. Granted his growling stomach drove him on, but it seems that there might be more of a lesson learned beyond a picnic at the lake. 

We cannot be certain how hungry our friend was in order to determine his motivation. Was this meal the eagle’s first of the day or did it give the appearance of a quick and easy snack? Regardless, our buddy accepted the challenge, even though it took four failures before he realized success. Maybe observing the eagle will help me (and you as well) to persevere with new adventures or difficult situations. 

Saw the opportunity – Even from great heights above, his eagle eye spotted a meal in the midst of the water. 

Envisioned himself successful – He pictured himself partaking of the delicate morsels. 

Planned to succeed – Stephen Covey would say he “had the end in mind from the beginning,” and he decided to go for it. 

Tried the easiest approach first – Swooping down and picking prey out of the water  had worked before, so that was the natural approach. If it worked, great. If not, something else would. 

Assessed the situation – The first try didn’t bring lunch. Maybe he was just off his game a bit, so he tried again being conscious of the entire process.   

Tweaked his program – Making adjustments along the way, he kept trying. You have to give him credit. 

Took a less conventional approach to meet the goal – Though I’ve now learned that eagles can swim, they generally choose a more conventional mode to prepare their meals. This eagle must have also read Robert Frost as he took the road less traveled and it made all the difference. Maybe his method will also work for me.

What’s the use?

If you’ve had the opportunity to visit a botanical garden like Longwood Gardens in the outskirts of Philadelphia, you know firsthand about the fantastic displays both indoors and out. It is an awesome experience. You make your way through the various buildings and flora-lined walkways, but as hard as you try, you just can’t take it all in on one visit. 

Can you imagine how many people and how much effort goes into making each garden bloom on cue according to the seasons? (You don’t grow poinsettias in April or daffodils in October.)  They do all of this while maintaining the grounds and facility in readiness for a vast number of tourists seven days a week. Think, too, about the challenges these horticultural wizards face between the elements of time and weather alone. It goes without saying they tackle other obstacles on a daily basis. Yet they achieve outstanding results because they continually focus on the plan. To the outside world, it looks easy. 

As we go through various seasons in our lives, we, like Longwood Gardens, must adjust to new expectations. At times, this requires a total makeover. All of this reinvention requires prayer, organization, time and action in order for a successful change to take place while life goes on and business continues as usual. Some days you can remain on task and schedule, while on others it seems you meet obstacles at every turn. When this happens, return to the plan (or make one if you started off without one), refocus, make adjustments as necessary and move forward.    

Doing this may be difficult. You could find a host of people and situations to blame or throw your hands in the air crying, “What’s the use,” but that won’t get you Longwood results.

Continuous Improvement Required

The only thing that does not change is God.  He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. Everything else – seasons, time, people, cultures, clothes, etc. – require change and that’s a good thing, but does it ever stop?

I get it. The business world must continually improve, reinvent and adjust itself because the marketplace and technology are changing so fast they have to keep up to compete. Employers expect their staff to do the same or lose their jobs. Even if you’re one who’s on the unemployment role, you understand these principles and start your reinvention process in order to find a new way to add value and land a job. The truth is, you never reach a point where the improvement process is no longer necessary. 

Few would argue that keeping up with technology, communication and industry trends enhances your capabilities, yet the reason for doing it all is often lacking. The fact is many workers travel focused career paths only to provide the pay and perks they desire. Although climbing the corporate ladder presents its own challenges and rewards, some reach the top and wonder what it was all about. There is a higher purpose for it all, but you could miss it if you’re not looking. 

I figure why wait until you get to the end to ask the hard questions, so I’m asking them of myself now.  To add emphasis, I’m putting them in the present progressive tense.   

• How am I adding value today?
• How am I making a positive difference today?
• How am I making my work count today? 

If I can answer these questions truthfully each day, I should begin to see the direction of my life.  If I discover gaps or inconsistencies, I know I’ve got some work to do. The good news is as long as we have breath, we can change. The best part is if I choose the road of continuous improvement, I might actually change the world or at least the part where I live.

Want to join me?