As easy as 1, 2, 3….

June 22, 2012 By

One of the success philosophies taught by thought leader Napoleon Hill is that “It is always your next move.”

When building a personal or professional platform, there are three essential elements that can guide our steps as we make each move.

The first element is education.  Before we can have a platform, we need to know what it is and have a depth of knowledge that allows us to champion it with passion and purpose.  For a platform to be sustainable, it must also include growth.  And so a continued focus on education for ourselves and our community is an essential component.

The second element is engagement.  A platform without a community or audience is merely a person with an opinion.  We have to engage an audience in dialogue.  We need to ensure that the platform is of value and serves.

The third element is execution.  A platform without associated action will not create change.  In the words of the Greek philosopher Epictetus: “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”  

The key to this is translating it into activities within each element.  My professional platform is centered on personal possibility.  The philosophy that there are abundant options.  I am always researching and looking for possibilities.  My personal quest is to learn something new everyday and then teach someone.  Engagement is covered by the teaching activity in many cases.  The execution comes with creating the framework where all of this happens.  That translates into the creation of a business focused on personal and professional development.

As I begin each day, I keep those three elements front of mind when planning my activities.  As I end each day, I reflect on their value and presence.  What a wonderful way to serve:  Learning, Listening and Leading.  What a rewarding way to live.

Thank you for being part of my community.

 

 

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

To the market we go…..

June 21, 2012 By

Sometimes we create challenges where they do not exist.  And most of the time, it comes down to communication.  One personal experience as a business owner was in the area of marketing and understanding the importance of “knowing” my audience.  I went into analysis over-drive.  I was being told at every turn that before I could create value for anyone, I had to first choose a “someone”.  So who do you choose?  There was the conundrum.  It also became clear to me that to make that decision you had to first understand yourself and be able to see where your own passion would bring you.  For some, the passion is in serving a particular group of people.  For others, it is providing a very specific value.  It starts there.  Which comes first? Who you serve or how you serve them?  It doesn’t matter.  It only matters that you choose one and then make sure the other side of the pairing fits.

As I began to delve into this it became clear to me that my passion was in the message.  In order to determine what audience would be served by that message, I began to look deeper at why I cared about it.  What was it that drove “it” front and center for me?  Not surpisingly, it was the people.  It was watching so many talented and gifted people be sidelined professionally simply because the places their skills had been applied was no longer a part of the economic landscape.  There is an entire layer of management within the corporate environment that is disappearing.  Not simply or solely because of the economy.  It is disappearing because the market no longer needs it.  Technologies and changes in lifestyle have streamlined everything about production.  What does that mean?  That means that those jobs are not coming back.  And if you were in one of them, you have to make a choice.  You can either mourn what has passed or embrace what is yet to come.

Dennis Waitley has been quoted as saying that: “We can’t afford to waste tears on what might-have-beens.  We need to turn the tears into sweat that can take us to what can be.”  That was my passion.  Working with that group of people as a possibility partner.  Helping them re-imagine a future better than the one they had planned.  It was my story.  And it became my message of hope.

As Seth Godin has so eloquently stated, we live in the time where somehow, someway – we find each other.  And we connect.  We put our ourselves out there with genuine caring and transparency so that we can recognize each other.  And when we do, that’s when the miracles happen.  So off to the market we go…  There are lives to change.  Especially our own.

 

 

 

 

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

Some things bear repeating…

June 20, 2012 By

Have you noticed that with some things in life we need reminders to keep certain values in focus?  It can be so easy to get overwhelmed by what is going on around us and lose sight of that core compass guiding us to the right place at the right time.  I surround myself with quick references that I know will keep my mental tracking in the right place.  And as Earl Nightingale said so brilliantly, “We become what we think about.” So it bears repeating some things that we need to think about as part of that evolving process.

I have found that a good way to stay centered is to have a clear manifesto.  After all, a better you is going to produce a better business.  Managing your thoughts, manages your actions.  And managing your actions, drivers better results in every aspect of your life.  Including your professional endeavors.  From time to time, I like to share mine here not only as a way to perhaps inspire my readers to craft their own, but to also reaffirm in my own voice, my own philosophical platform.  As you read through each statement, think about what would best express your beliefs in that particular area.  Then remember the power of taking the action of committing it to paper.  Write it down.  Then read it regularly.  You’ll find that as you evolve, your manifesto will evolve with you until it crafts into a full and powerful statement of you.

  1. My vision for the future is my decision touchstone. I recognize that what I do today is forming my tomorrow. I do not think about what might have been. I act on what will be.
  2. Creating value for others is always my objective. To do that, I need to understand and focus on what they need me to bring vs. what I want to bring.
  3. A curious nature is my most valuable resource. My most powerful tool is the right question.
  4. I invest time as a resource. I do not try to manage time. I set priorities and they determine how the time is spent.
  5. I do not think in terms of failure. I think in terms of effort.
  6. A change of scenery is often the absolute best way to achieve a change of perspective.
  7. The only rules that apply are those that I have accepted. By accepting (or not accepting) any guidelines, I am also accepting responsibility for my choices.
  8. Fear is not a bad thing. Fear is a healthy thing. Because it means I respect what I am undertaking.
  9. Fun is a good thing. I aspire always to have more fun.
  10. My surroundings reflect my values and appreciation for beauty.

 

 

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

How do you know?

June 10, 2012 By

My mentor Jim Rohn taught that if we want better answers, we must ask better questions.  A shift in perspective, the transformation of personal development, even the transition of a professional path all find their origins in the same place:  asking the right questions.

Everyone wants to know something.  For an author, the list of what we want to know, even need to know can seem endless.  Before we can explain, we have an innate need to explore.

The process does not begin with what we will write about, how we will write about it, where we will find the information we need or who we will trust to provide that information. At least for me that is not where it begins.  For me, it begins with why.  Because before I can find the answers, I must first find my questions.

When we talk about research, it can be helpful to understand that at the core, we are talking about questions.  We are talking about learning.  What I have found is that when we live in a constant state of what I call possibility thinking, the ability to form the right question and find remarkable answers becomes more and more instinctive.  It becomes less of a task and more of a way of being.  It shifts us away from the idea of creating data banks to the actualization of creating life experiences and then synthesizing that information in a way that makes the lessons not only valuable for us, but for others as well.

When we ask better questions as an author, we provide better answers for the challenges faced by our audience.

When we ask better questions as a person, we provide better answers for living our best lives.

No matter what answer we seek, the key to finding it is always going to be first finding the right question.

“Dwell in possibility.”  (Emily Dickinson)  Therein lies the right question.

 

 

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

The History of Blogging: Example from the 1700’s

June 4, 2012 By

No, I am not crazy.  I do realize that on the 1700’s, they did not blog. There was no Internet, no vehicle from which to instantly publish ideas and thoughts about the world.

In a way though, the idea of blogging did exist.  Done differently, sans technology used today, they did indeed have their own way of heralding information and ideas.

Samuel Johnson, the English author, biographer and critic was someone I would consider an early “blogger”. One of his formats (other than books and publishing his highly regarded “Dictionary of the English Language”) was the publication of pamphlets.  Short essays on topics of the day and ideas about whatever was on his mind became his literary platform.  Through this printed medium, he also invited others to be “guest” authors (guest bloggers?) and later compiled and published these writings under his work entitled “Rambler”. It contains both his work and that of those guest writers. Rather like taking a series of articles or blog posts and publishing them as a book today.  I found this to be an extraordinary example of how authors have always functioned, individually and as a community.

It may seem on the surface that things have simply become easier and they have in almost all aspects.  Because we do not have to wait any longer for type-setters and printers and for ink to dry and for papers to be hand-carried and delivered we are able to spread our message with lightening speed.  We are able to share our thoughts and ideas almost instantly. And because we now have so much information to process, we cannot afford the same level of verbosity. The reader’s attention span has decreased rather than increased as a direct result of so much information being available.  That means we must craft our messages quickly, concisely and effectively for them to be heard.

In studying Samuel Johnson and going through some of the essays, I came across this statement, which I found to be a wonderful description of what authors do:

 “The task of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of adorning them; either to let new light in upon the mind, and open new scenes to the prospect, or to vary the dress and situation of common objects, so as to give them fresh grace and more powerful attractions, to spread such flowers over the regions through which the intellect has already made its progress, as may tempt it to return, and take a second view of things hastily passed over, or negligently regarded.”

Today, not many would fully absorb this or understand the essence of it.  Here is how we might craft this thought today:

 “The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.”

It is interesting that the distilling of the thing is sometimes what reveals its truth.  Sometimes the real power of writing lies in the editing.  Rather like life.

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

What is your FTL?

April 27, 2012 By

FTL – Your Failure Tolerance Level.  Do you know what it is?  Do you know WHY it’s at that level? In researching the traits that make the transition from executive to entrepreneur possible, one of the primary areas that kept appearing was the whole concept of failure.  Most corporate environments do not encourage failure.  Starting with our educational system and moving into a corporate environment, we get “failure avoidance” tattoed into our business DNA.  And if you do fail, your primary objective is to make sure that either no one finds out or that if they do, you are not seen as the person responsible.  The result can be that we allow that perspective to shift our own creative set point mentally and emotionally.  It explains why some research shows that even though over 50% of corporate executives say they think they would prefer an entreprenuerial venture, only 30% of that group (or 15% of the total group) will actually make the leap.  They rationally know that failure is part of success.  And since they are highly evolved in the area of failure avoidance – they also end up avoiding success.  

If this is what is holding you back, one of the best people out there for you to latch on to is Seth Godin.  He is the thought leader of several generations on the subject of change in our marketplace and our lives.  And on this particulary topic, he delivers pure gold in his book Poke the Box.  Here’s what he has to say:

“Imagine that the world had no middlemen, no publishers, no bosses, no HR folks, no one telling you what you couldn’t do.

If you lived in that world, what would you do?

Go. Do that.”

Take the next 20 minutes and invest in raising your FTL  – and maybe, just maybe, change your world.  Ready?  Go. 

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