I changed my mind! It’s more than your prerogative!

September 27, 2015 By

Time for ChangePersonal development expert and author Brian Tracy teaches the value of zero based thinking. This practice invites you to re-examine choices based on the principal of evolving possibilities.

While it may seem obvious, we often need to be reminded that for choices to be unlimited, one of our choices has to be to change direction, to adjust and shift, even stop and re-start.

Emily Dickinson once said that we must “Dwell in possibility”. That is the secret. It is not something you occasionally do. It is where you live. The land of the winners is a citadel built on the art of possibility.

Possibilities are a personal business because we are each unique. We all have our own philosophy of life and point of view that is constantly evolving. Hence the need for re-examining our choices. At any given time, we can see different possibilities. That is what makes this so incredibly powerful. There is truly no limit to what we can accomplish because we can grow into our evolving opportunities.

My favorite success stories involve learning how to apply something already known to a new situation. In these stories someone embraced the idea of a new application of knowledge as a new opportunity for success. Each had to learn something new as well. That is part of the growth process. Each layer builds on the other.

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading to new paths. ~ Walt Disney

If you want to be an accomplished musician, you start with the scale and go from there. You progressively add to your expertise by layering your knowledge. If you want to be a successful business owner you need some basic understanding of how businesses work in order to see how all of the elements of your company work together to serve your customer. Every discipline has its own version of the musical scale. What is yours? How well do you know it? How are you layering new knowledge to increase your understanding and expertise? To drive positive change?

We must remember though that because change can and will bring with it some fear, we should expect to experience resistance. What we must embrace is the fact that growth transforms and creates new vistas for us. It is a good practice to pay homage to what we enjoyed about what we are leaving behind as long as we understand that growth requires a willingness to change. The key is to be committed to intentional growth.

“The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor. He takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

Take on the role of creator in your life’s design and plan. Take Emily’s advice and dwell in possibility!

Live today like you want tomorrow to be. Live well.

Filed Under: Learning & Growth, Possibilities & Perspective, Winds of Change Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Do you have a reservation? The Two Minute Save!

September 13, 2015 By

There were going to be eight of us for dinner at 7:00 on a Saturday evening.

We were traveling in from different parts of the city. That called for some coordination.

The meeting held importance for us and so the particulars of where and when had an elevated consequence.

We could easily have just decided to meet and hope for a table to be available or wait for one. Yes, that was an option. The better option though was to confer with the restaurant and let them know that there would be a party of eight there at 7:00 PM and confirm they would be able to accommodate us.

They could. So as we each arrived we were able to be seated straight away. No waiting. No rushing about by staff figuring out where to put eight people in a crowded restaurant on a busy Saturday evening.

The entire process took less than two minutes. But the time and stress it saved for everyone involved cannot even be fully measured.

Imagine if we took this care routinely with important appointments in our daily agendas. Imagine what would happen if we took that extra two minutes to plan in a way that allowed others (and ourselves) to prepare. That is the lesson in this. There is a partnership between planning and preparing that cannot be ignored. All too often we are guilty of over-planning and under-preparing.

Let’s dig a bit deeper. We place things on our calendar every day. That’s the plan part. But all too often, we don’t ask ourselves who else might need to know about that plan. Because of that, the results of the plan may not be what we need or want them to be. That two minutes can make the difference between whether or not the plan is fully resourced or chock full of risk that we won’t have who or what we need at the time we need them.

It is a two step process within a strategic approach. Creating the plan and then preparing for its success. Here are some basic questions to consider that will make that two minute difference for complete success:

  1. Who else needs to know about the plan?
  2. What information or other resources do I need to provide to them in advance?
  3. What are the possible outcomes and next steps for each possibility?
  4. Is my schedule, etc. ready to adapt and take on those outcomes?
  5. Do I have other resources on alert, ready to respond if/when needed?

In the world of business intelligence we might refer to this step as impact analysis. Within the idea of success or life intelligence, it could be referred to in the same way. What is the actual impact for others and their resources and my own? Are we ready for successful outcomes? Or will we be surprised by success and scrambling?

It’s clear that this level of preparation won’t apply to every item on our calendars. However, I would challenge all of us that if the majority of things on our schedule don’t carry some element of this importance level we may need to look at why not. We may need to step back and stop being so busy that we are failing to be productive. Which will bring us right back to this conversation and the fact that balance begins here: planning and preparing together.

Live (plan and prepare) today like you want tomorrow to be. Live (plan and prepare) well!

Filed Under: Possibilities & Perspective, Winds of Change Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Perfect Just the Way You Are? Perhaps, Perhaps Not!

September 7, 2015 By

You are perfect just the way you are! Now that I am a Nana to some pretty spectacular grand-daughters, this is a sentiment that I express on a regular basis. And I absolutely mean it. Those girls are perfection and I will never believe otherwise. Just ask them! You may get a bit of an eye roll from the teenager but no argument that their Nana is their number one fan! Biased? You bet.

For the most part though, we all know that perfection is in reality a myth. Even if seemingly achieved for a moment, it is illusive, interpretive and does not serve us as an ideal.

It’s certainly not true for me. I am constantly looking (and finding!) ways to improve myself. My focus and lens then remains with possibilities. I want to know that I am continuously moving into my growing potential. One of my favorite quotes speaks to this and comes from Emily Dickinson: “Dwell in possibility.” This is a truly fantastic way to live; to see the world and ourselves.

Did you know that September is self-improvement month? A perfect time for us to pause and create a plan for that pursuit of possibilities. With that said, where do we begin? Allow me to offer a thought to help. Don’t make a list. Don’t start there. That simply does not work. We can quickly become overwhelmed and start thinking in probabilities instead of possibilities.

Instead choose one area of your life where you want to see growth and change. It can be a personal discipline, a relationship, a skill. But choose one and begin there. Just focus there. Then choose one immediate action you can take and one continuous habit you can develop over time. One target, two action plans. Begin there.

That’s the “secret sauce” if there is any. Skip the analysis on this one and go right with your instinct and pick one. Because the good news is that you’ll be able to pick another one. And quickly! So don’t worry about whether or not it’s the “right” choice. Just make “a” choice and get started.

Continuous self-improvement is our fuel in any month. That is because the only motivation in life that works every time is this: Progress. So let’s create some progress. And with that, we are creating our own internal fire and motivation for more. And we are well on our way to realizing those possibilities!

Live (improve) today like you want tomorrow to be. Live (improve) well!

 

Filed Under: Learning & Growth, Possibilities & Perspective, Winds of Change Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Your Journal: A Personal Textbook for Life’s Journey

August 23, 2015 By

A core personal practice that has been one of the key contributors to my personal growth is journaling. This subject came up recently at a master mind group and it was a reminder that not everyone may know about how powerful this practice can be.

Although it began for me as a young girl (Remember your first diary?) writing everyday about my life and how my world was coming into (or out of!) focus has had its own evolution over the years.

If this is not a practice you employ, I would urge you to consider adding this to your personal development toolbox.

From my experience, the best way to begin journaling is to choose a primary starting purpose for your journal. There are many different ways to use them and over time you will most likely incorporate all of them but to begin, just choose one. Some possibilities include collecting ideas, quotes and reflective thoughts or even a gratitude journal where you record something to be thankful for each day.

The one I like best as a starting point though is the one recommended by Jim Rohn whom I consider to be the best teacher on this particular skill: Recording your challenges and the process you follow to their resolution.

There are a number of reasons why this is effective but primarily it is about creating a space between you and the challenge. When we take the time to write the challenge down, it gets it out of our head and to a place where we can “see” it from a different perspective. Have you ever noticed that the closer we are to something the harder it can be to see it clearly? Getting it on paper and out of your head creates space and the ability to look at it from a different point of view.

When we review the challenge as we’ve written it down, we can begin to see how things really are vs. just how we might have perceived them to be. Surprises will definitely be in store! First we write, then we read and in the end, we analyze.

Here are the four cornerstones of the analyzing process that Jim Rohn teaches:

  1. Look for points that may be exaggerated and out of proportion.
  2. Check for blame vs. responsibility.
  3. Eliminate any expectations that circumstances or people are going to change in order to make the challenge go away. (A favorite quote from Jim has always been: “Things get better when we get better.”)
  4. Look for weak points in the obstacle that could be creative pivot points for the solution.

When we see any challenge through this adjusted lens, different levels of truth emerge. Then when we record all of this and begin to move through to our solution and record that as we go, it becomes a veritable personal textbook for life.

In time, quite often all it will take is one good session with your journal to find a solution or help you make a core decision that would have never been captured any other way.

It will be invaluable for you as you live today like you want tomorrow to be.

Now back to my journal…

Filed Under: Learning & Growth, Possibilities & Perspective, Winds of Change Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What can you think of? If only you try…. Thank you again, Dr. Seuss!

August 16, 2015 By

What can we think of if only we try?

Some of my favorite pearls of wisdom are found in the pages of books written by Dr. Seuss. A particular favorite is from his book: Oh the THINKS You Can Think!

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!”

Imagination and creativity are both key ingredients to creating an uncommon life. It is here that we find innovation. After all, innovation is rarely about what we do. More often, it is about how we do it. Finding new ways to get things done can be exciting and fun.

It all starts with an idea. It may only be a vague sense of something at the onset but it is there. We want (or need) to change something. We want to make something bigger, smaller, wider, deeper, easier, slower, faster – the list goes on and on. The question then is what we can leverage as inspiration to kick our imagination and creativity into overdrive and truly amaze ourselves.

Here are five of the best places to begin when you want to find what you can think of if only you try!

  1. People – Read biographies of people that are innovative. Study what they have done and how they went about it. Follow the mental footsteps that you see and find out where they take you!
  2. Technologies – A five minute session on Google with creative key words can help you mine for ideas galore. Just start with the challenge, not the solution. Let the solution emerge based on what you find.
  3. Failures – What at first seem like failures can be great sources of solutions. Why did it fail in any particular situation? What was missed? Sometimes what failed in one place could be a great success in another.
  4. Wins – What did you do that worked before? What did others in a similar situation do? Start with a proven framework but allow some new colors to emerge.
  5. Urgency – Some of the most effective questions we can ask begin with “what if?” What if I only had 24 hours to do something? What if I could win $100,000 if I solve this today? Starting with some what if scenarios that carry a sense of urgency with them will push our mental adrenalin into overdrive. Turn on the simulation timer and beat the buzzer!

Five places to help you find “the thinks you can think up if only you try”!

Live (think) today like you want tomorrow to be. Live (think) well!

Filed Under: Inspiration & Creativity, Possibilities & Perspective, Winds of Change Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Life Lessons From a Potter’s Wheel

August 8, 2015 By

Balance and harmony are important in all areas of our life. When we talk about balance we tend to think in terms of balancing across each segment of our life but in truth, it matters within each of them as well. We need a balanced approach to health as an example and within our financial profile. Our personal network should be diversified and expose us to perspectives with range and depth. But balance only truly happens when we also have each area of our life in harmony with the rest.

The same is true for learning. We need to have core skill building for our professional endeavors and soft skill development overall. We also need to integrate things into the mix that are perhaps outside our standard fare and develop creative interests as well as skill. This is an area where quite frankly I have not always had the right mix. My professional development always took precedence.

I made a conscience decision to change that and begin incorporating some creativity into my learning mix and enrolled in pottery classes. Why pottery? Most likely because I love that art form and it seemed like something that would completely occupy my attention. That was after all part of the point. I wanted (and needed) a complete departure from business as usual. As a writer, I also felt that it would introduce me into a world of artists where I could also absorb some of that creative energy. And quite frankly, I thought it might be fun to play in some mud! And it has been.

I am about three months into this latest adventure and I am now without question a lifelong enthusiast. The parallels to life are there every time I sit down at the wheel or work with the clay at the table. And the miracle of what happens with glazes and the heat of the kiln are incredible.

My very first piece was a small dish that had a small bird on it since that’s my favorite collectible. It became a Mother’s Day gift for my Mom. Now a grandmother myself, it had been a long time since my gift to her was something made by my own hand. It felt so good to do that. And the gift has a richer meaning for her as well.

What lessons have I learned? Here are my top five:

  1. When we are willing to become a beginner at something, we renew our true love of learning
  2. Even the simplest of materials can and do have the potential for creating beauty
  3. To make things happen we have to be willing to take some risks and get our hands dirty
  4. Pressure and heat create strength and transformation
  5. We all sign our work in one way or another

If you were asked to choose something new to learn, what would you choose? Consider giving yourself, or someone you love that gift. It truly is priceless.

Live (learn) today like you want tomorrow to be. Live (learn) well.

Filed Under: Inspiration & Creativity, Learning & Growth, Personal thoughts & insights, Possibilities & Perspective, Winds of Change Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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