The many returns of the day, Part 4 – What is your ROE?

April 9, 2016 By

Return on EnergyWelcome back! We are continuing our conversation about achieving a positive rate of return on our investments outside of invested cash.

Even though this is our final segment in this series, I hope that the conversation itself will not end here.

Our investments and intentions for them are a critical part of how we achieve the life and work that is most rewarding for us in any given season in our life.

In this segment we are talking about ROE or Return on Energy. This was covered briefly in our last segment where we talked about relationships and the “E” factor within those investments. However, since energy goes well beyond relationships, it merits its own spotlight in the series.

Just as with learning and relationships, the first place we look at is not the return, it is the investment. Our investment in energy includes three areas: Physical, mental and spiritual.  Quite often we fail to really consider the source of our energy and what best serves us.

Physical energy may require some active review for you. One of the best ways to do this is by keeping an energy log for a week. Make a note of your energy level on a scale of 1 to 10 every hour. Keep this simple – just a simple note in a log you keep in a small notebook or even in your favored personal electronic device. I kept mine in my phone when I first did this.

It’s important to do this at a minimum of every hour so that you can later see patterns. A word of caution: Do not try and interpret your entries until the end of your logging period. Then look for trends. Is your energy higher in the mornings or evenings? Do you see any correlation to eating and energy? Are particular days of the week standing out as higher or lower?

Look for both the high and low spots and consider what is routinely happening. This will begin to paint the picture for you and distinguish where you will see changes related to your diet, physical activity levels, rest and hydration. You may want to also consider a tool such as a Fitbit or an app to help you monitor for these activities.

The log will also begin to show you where mental energies are manifesting in your physical realm.

One discovery of value for me from this was energy within the context of introvert and extrovert personalities. The basic difference is where energy is most quantifiably sourced. When I first went through this logging experiment is how I realized that I am in fact an introvert. I have a natural love of people and value my leadership roles. I would not have ever considered myself an introvert. But the logs showed otherwise. Solitary activities spiked my energy. Group activities depleted my energy.

If we know where we get the fuel, we can frequent those resources with the right expectation and level of investment. And if we know where our energies deplete, we can also better manage those investments as well.

The spiritual aspect of investment is one that is often overlooked as we may not recognize that the energy of our spirit is in fact the most critical. We can overcome lags in our physical or mental energy by leveraging our spiritual energy. If it were a rock, paper, scissors contest, spiritual energy would always trump the rest.

How do you invest in your spiritual energy? Some of the most effective ways for me have been journaling, prayer, meditation, spiritual readings and music. What fills your spirit? Go to that well and invest.

Remembering that there is risk and reward for all of our investments is the key to achieving the success we want in our life and work. Whether it is about our money, learning, relationships or energy it comes down to the same factors. Our results are a reflection of our priorities and choices.

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

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

The many returns of the day, Part 3- What is your ROR?

March 27, 2016 By

Return on RelationshipsIn this post we are returning to our series focused on achieving a positive rate of return on our investments outside of a purely financial measurement.

We are exploring the idea that where our money goes in and of itself is not really the indicator of what our future is going to look like. Our priorities and choices in every part of our life are a factor.

In this conversation we’re talking about ROR or Return on Relationships.

Are you strategic in your relationships? Remember that being strategic is simply beginning with the end in mind. We all have relationships. It is our perspective about their value and our respective roles in them where we begin to understand the idea of a return from our investment in them.

I’m sharing these thoughts just after I’ve returned from spending a full day with one of my master mind groups. These relationships have given me the priceless gift of hope. I learn from each of our members every time we meet. They have validated my gifts and inspired me to invest them more fully. It is just one example of how our relationships can be intentional and create a return.

Here are five things I would offer for you to consider to take these thoughts further:

1–Just as with learning, the first way to be certain you are getting a maximum return is to honestly assess whether or not you are investing in your relationships. We should always check ourselves first and be certain that we are doing our part.

Consider who is on your calendar more than what. Where are you intentionally building and investing in relationships that represent your values and your vision?

2- The second place we need to check is our expectation or intention. What is the purpose of the relationship? Are you clear about that? Is the other party clear about it as well? Clarity in relationships is crucial. So many times we are not getting what we need because we aren’t being clear about that with ourselves and the other person or people. This is most often where dissatisfaction begins: a lack of communication around our mutual needs.

This is a lesson I have seen demonstrated very clearly within our master mind. In this last meeting, Kyle Wilson, our mentor and leader started our day by asking us to meditate around our intention for the day in terms of what we wanted to receive first and then what we wanted to give. A powerful part of how we achieve maximum results is knowing the result we seek.

3- Next is reciprocity. This is not about keeping score. It’s about balance, harmony, give and take. What does the other person need from you? Are you actively engaged in meeting their needs? As Ralph Waldo Emerson stated: “It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”

This could really have been 2a and 2b on the list but it’s important to highlight both sides of this particular coin. And there’s a reason that they are shown in the order they are. Many (most) of us are givers. That’s a good thing. Reciprocity is how you make certain you achieve balance. It is about giving AND taking. Review where you are on this point, even if you need to engage in a specific conversation about it.

Remember, it’s not for keeping score – it is about creating harmony and mutual value.

4- That brings us to what I call the “E” factor: Emotional and Energy returns. How do you feel about yourself in the relationship? How does the other person feel? Is your energy lifted or drained? In our next segment we will be talking about ROE or Return on Energy in more depth but it’s a clear factor specific to relationships.

I am a natural introvert. My energy comes from solitude and my personal creative processes. So this is a critical point for me. For my extrovert friends, being around others can almost always generate energy just because that is how they are wired. But for all of us, whether introvert or extrovert, the element of positive energy merits discussion. When we are invested in the right relationships our synergies make our time together empowering.  

#5- The final point is the horizon check: what’s changing for you? For them? What does that make possible for you and your relationship? What might need to shift in the relationship for it to hold and increase its value through those changes?

All of us go through transitions in our lives. Sometimes that is a natural course of changing seasons. Other times it comes from decisions about our work. The key is placing a value on core relationships within those changes.

When my work focus shifted it mandated a complete change in my personal network circles. I was not prepared for that. I had not nurtured or even developed relationships away from my work. This became a recognized value for me after that. Rather than starting with the work and seeing what relationships develop, seek the relationships and see what opportunities appear. A very different perspective and one that allows you to have agility within your personal and professional circles for growth in every area.

Five considerations to think about for driving positive investment actions in our relationships.

Remember that we are not meant to stay where we are. We are meant to grow. As Charlie Tremendous Jones taught – “Where we are in five years compared to where we are now is going to be determined by the books we read and the people we meet.” When we are strategic, those people will bring a positive influence and opportunities for all of us.

What makes these particular ideas valuable is that no matter what relationship we’re talking about, the same principles apply.

Whether it is our relationships within our family, with friends, colleagues or customers – we need to honestly review our investment, intentions, balance, energy responses and commitment to value them.

Following these guidelines can deliver confidence that the investments we make in others and our relationship with them is going to give both of us the highest possible return – a positive sense of self, who we are and our value in the world. How? Because we are creating a foundation that fosters and promotes that with every exchange.

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

 

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

The many returns of the day, Part 2- What is your ROL?

February 7, 2016 By

time to growIn this series we are talking about how we achieve a good rate of return on our investments outside of our money.

The reality is that where our money goes is really not our best indicator of what our future is going to look like.

Our priorities and choices in every part of our life are a factor.

What is in common across everything is that before we can have a return, we must invest.

You may be saying, Of course! I knew that. But in fact, the three areas we are going to explore together in many cases are not giving us the highest return possible because we are NOT really strategically investing in them. We may be experiencing them, but that is not the same as investing in them.

In part 2, we’re talking about ROL or Return on LEARNING. Are you a strategic learner? You can be curious, even a committed lifelong learner but again, while that is admirable (and important!) if we want a measurable return we have to have a clear intention AND investment.

It is in our learning strategy that we set our path for growth more than any other place. Here are five guidelines to help you as you create your own learning plan:

  1. Understand the difference between knowledge and skill and develop both.  Gaining knowledge on a subject to deepen expertise gets a different priority than learning how to do something. Make sure that you know what success looks like once you have gained knowledge or developed a skill. What should you be able to do once you’ve achieved it?
  2. Devote a minimum of 30 minutes daily to expanding your knowledge in your area of expertise and influence. As experts, remember that our role is also to act as curator or distiller of a vast bank of growing knowledge and create continued value. Make certain that you are including both established experts/mentors and emerging voices in your area of expertise in your study.
  3. Include personal skill building and development in your learning plan. This area is what I’ve come to think of as life harmony. When we say life balance it infers some kind of equality in how we distribute resources and that doesn’t prove realistic for me. But harmony is something I can (and do!) embrace. Harmony means we are making a place for all of the threads in our life. And when they are in sync we make music! What interests you as a person? Italian cooking? A particular art medium? If time and money were not a factor, what would you want to learn? Make a way to learn that! If you care about something, study it and practice it.
  4. Learn alone and in groups. Having the ability to interact about what we are learning can be invaluable in seeing innovative ways to apply the newly acquired knowledge. If taking a class with others doesn’t appeal to you, consider joining a master mind where you will be able to gain new insights and learn from other business leaders in the group. Taking advantage of today’s global technologies and joining learning communities on-line is another approach. It has been my experience that group settings are often my best place for learning outside of my primary work. They become a social community as well because our shared interest generates an immediate bond.
  5. Have a learning vision log.  Have you ever wanted to find the time to learn something and could never seem to do it?  Getting those areas of interest committed to a learning vision log gives you a place to refer to when creating your learning plan calendar. The time you allocate to learning can then be prioritized based on what you want to know vs. whatever comes across your path. Not sure where to start? Here are three ideas:

-What skills or knowledge do you respect and admire in others?

-What do you hire others to do for you today that you find interesting?

-If you could only learn three new things in the next year, what would you choose?

Being strategic about our personal and professional growth can and should be fun as well as immensely rewarding!

REMINDER: Achieving a RETURN begins with making an INVESTMENT. And STRATEGY simply means beginning with the end in mind.

What do you want to know? What do you want to master? What will help you create your best self and the life you want to live?

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

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

The Many Returns of the Day: What Investments Do You Measure?

January 13, 2016 By

GrowthIn our businesses we talk about achieving a good rate of return on investment or ROI.

We want to know that where we are investing our resources is providing us an adequate, even above average return.

We consider risk and reward as a part of this and most likely will not invest where the potential ROI (reward) doesn’t align to what we want to achieve.

It is about our priorities and choices.

All too often we limit these expectations (and conscious decisions) to where we are investing our money. We equate the idea of investment to what we are spending in terms of cash. This extends into our personal lives as well.

The reality is that for most of us, where our money is spent is not in fact the best place to focus for determining if we are getting our highest returns. There are at least three other areas of investment where when handled strategically and with a clear intention we can exponentially grow ourselves and our businesses at a much higher rate.

As we go into this new calendar year it is the perfect time to integrate this into our planning for how we are going to measure our results overall. The top three places we typically need an adjustment in setting expectations are learning, relationships and energy.

Do you have an investment plan covering these areas for yourself personally and professionally? If not, I would encourage you to step back and consider that, as Charlie “Tremendous” Jones taught, where we will be one year from now or five years from now is going to be the result of our learning and relationships. In his teaching it was “the books you read and people you meet”. Fast-forwarding to how we operate today, it is how we take in information and evolve our philosophies (learning) and our personal network (relationships).

The inclusion of energy is because it is one of the three primary resources we need to do anything (time, money, energy). While time and money are important, energy is often over-looked and even when we have the time and money we are simply out of steam (energy!) to do what we truly want to do. The overall return on energy in reality becomes the return we see for our life’s ultimate investment in what we care about and how we achieve that.

Join me over the course of this series to learn more about how you can be strategic and achieve much higher returns on your investments for learning, relationships and energy!

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

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

Have you read the book?

December 20, 2015 By

The news and social media threads have been filled lately with excitement about a particular movie. A movie many have been anticipating for a very long time.

No one wanted any spoilers for this one. In fact, several people even posted that if you were the one that did “spoil” it for them, you would be immediately and unceremoniously unfriended.

We love our heroes, even our villains and their stories.

Movies bring them to life sometimes in ways we might not quite have the imagination to conjure.

But my first question is usually about the book.

Many (most) movies have their origins in a book.  Sometimes the story translates well into the film media and sometimes it does not.  When it does not it is usually because of one of two factors:

  • The story line is changed in some material way by the omission of a character or scenes in order to address constraints of the film format for length/budget that results in gaps in the story; or,
  • Something within the story is materially changed due to cast selection, location, or other visual factors that when left to the imagination of the reader, were more relatable.

One thing that I have learned as a writer is that when artists create something it is fully integrated with their point of view whether the work is written, recorded, or other mediums.  It can be a challenge to allow someone else to fill in our blanks, whether that person is our reader or someone repurposing the work in another medium. Rather like someone telling us about the movie and how it ends before we’ve had a chance to see it for ourselves.

Consider visual art.  Each viewer can interpret it differently.  It’s not likely that they will interpret the work according to the artist’s intent.  That is really at the heart of this area of discussion – what needs to be honored most?  Is it the artist’s original intention or the freedom of interpretation of the consumer? More importantly, which should we encourage?

In my mind, the answer is straight forward.  The interpretation of the consumer will always trump the artist’s intent.  A reader’s response is no more predictable than someone sitting in a theatre watching the story unfold.  We each bring our own perspective and lens into the mix. That’s part of the beauty of the human experience.

When we are the creator, we must do what it is we do best and learn to develop and trust the right circle of collaboration, including our audience.

It is what works best with anything.  We are responsible to do our finest work.  The ultimate objective after all is to meet the audience where they are and then transport them to where they want to go.  Once we realize that they (our audience) are in fact our silent co-creator it becomes easier to make the space for them to be effective in their role. We may provide the conveyance, but ultimately they choose their own destination.

More than any other lesson in life, this one has been most challenging for me. I want to focus on the result, on the response. That’s not where we do our best work. Our best work is born from the creative process and focusing there. Allowing ourselves (and our audience) the surprises that will unfold. That is what I am looking forward to in the coming year above all else. The surprises in store. The transformations we will create together.

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

 

 

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

What Questions Would You Ask?

December 13, 2015 By

QuestionsLong ago in a land far away when I was a teenager, my favorite part about the Sunday newspaper was an insert about a particular celebrity.

The article answered a standard series of questions about them and their lives. It somehow made them more human, more like me.

All was revealed: their favorite movie, book, song, even words; all things that gave us insight to who they really were.

Even in those pre-social media days, those articles influenced the economy and industry. The books they liked became the books we bought. The moves and songs they claimed as favorites influenced our own cultural choices. These weren’t paid endorsements like commercials. We believed, albeit some might say naively that this was indeed who they were. And we believed our lives could be more like theirs, if we were more like them.

A similar kind of insight can be found today watching interviews on Inside the Actor’s Studio. This television show has a similar premise. The host (James Lipton) asks a series of questions of famous people. It would seem to be a format that has been and continues to be incredibly successful.

Why is this interesting to us? Why do we care? What if it is more than just wanting to be like them? What if at the core we really all just want to connect? These platforms both then and now bring that person into our realm. It allows the connection.

There is of course risk with this. You may find you like someone better, or perhaps not as much. But always you feel as if you now have insider information. You’ve been brought into their inner circle. While it can be argued (and should be) that in fact we do not really know them, there does seem to be some insight into the “why” of their life. The bond created in many cases converts us from mere fans to advocates of their personal causes. Especially today.

This is an interesting idea when we expand it to think about our connection to those within our daily lives. What if we allowed that same level of curiosity to come into play about the humanity of those we interact with everyday in our own communities, at home and at work? When was the last time you asked someone about a book they have read that left an impression? Or what movie has recently touched their heart? Do you know your child’s favorite word? Their favorite sound? What if we allowed ourselves to peer in a bit to learn what we could to better connect with them inside their world?

What questions would you ask?  How can you make certain that you continuously gain personal insights for those in your daily circles? What knowledge would help you create more value?

We all know that questions are a powerful tool.  They can change our perspective as well as those answering. In changing our perspectives, in the end we have the opportunity to change everything.

Not sure where to begin? What do you think they would like you to know?  Maybe just start there. Ask them that.

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

 

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