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Significance Begins HERE

How does your WHY help you find your way? Here are four insights.

1. Knowing your WHY allows you to focus more on Others and less on Yourself. Purpose works from the inside out. This requires time and a lot of introspection. There are no short cuts. The sooner that you can find your WHY the sooner you will be able to focus on others.
2. Living out your WHY gives you confidence that is attractive to others. Have you ever noticed people who walk into a room and you could feel their presence? They bring an energy into the room. This is not ego or arrogance. It’s purpose. People with purpose have an air of distinction about them.
3. The more you live your WHY the more you layer it. People’s individual strengths and purposes are always connected. Your why is fuel for your strengths and your strengths are the way to fulfill your why. Every time you use your strengths you are fulfilling your purposes
4. The more you layer your WHY, the more impact it has on others. Purpose has a compounding effect upon our life. Doing the right thing, with the right people, over time, gives you a huge significance return, and ultimately a giant significance reputation. Keep acting according to your purpose and doing significant acts day by day, year by year, decade by decade, and your impact will keep increasing.

How do you find your WHY? Margie Warrell contributing writer to Forbes Magazine offers 4 key questions to assist in discovering your WHY!

1. What makes you come alive? This is a question about what ignites a fire in your belly? This is more than your favorite dish of food or favorite team in sports. This is about a bigger passion to leave a legacy. This about connecting your strengths and energies to a cause that is bigger than you but it aligns with your passions.
2. What are your innate strengths? Have your ever taken the time to discover what your true strengths are? There are many tools available to assist in this discovery. Beyond the mere discovery of what your inner strengths are, having a good coach to assist you in seeing how these traits coupled with your present thinking can take your leading to a higher level is crucial. In the show notes there is a link that will give you insight to Executive Coaching from Shepherds Advantage.
3. Where do you add the greatest value? Doing work that you are good at but yet you loathe it, is not an effective pathway to happiness. Ask yourself this question to assist in knowing where you can add the greatest value; “What problems do I enjoy solving?” The answer will guide you to a correct pathway of fulfillment and happiness in your life.
4. How will you measure your life? The old adage is true; “If you do not take a stand for something your will fall for anything?” How do you want to be remembered? They say that people will only give one good paragraph that describes your life when they eulogize you – so start writing it now! What matters the most in your life right. If your life and possessions started to diminish today, how would you prioritize these losses?The purpose of life is not just to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make a difference that you have lived and lived well – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Significance Begins HERE

I believe that we all have a longing to be significant, to make a contribution, to be part of something noble and purposeful. In order to accomplish this you must be willing to focus on others.

Every big thing that has ever been done started with the first step. Do you remember Neil Armstrong’s famous words from the moon; “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!” We cannot go anywhere in life without making the very first small step. No matter what, you must take that step if you want to achieve big things.

How do you get started in taking that first small step? Here are four suggestions.

1. Start where you are

• Mother Teresa declared that some of the greatest work has been done from sick beds and prison cells.
• Philosopher Parker Palmer stated that “Our real freedom comes from being aware that we do not have to save the world, we must merely make a difference in the place where we live.”

2. Start With Your One Thing

• I believe that everyone has “one thing” they do better than anything else.
• Henry David Thoreau stated “One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something.”
• Howard Hendricks from Dallas Seminary used as a life mantra “We tend to put something into everything instead of everything into something.
• Victor Frankl stated that when you cannot change your situation we are challenged to change ourselves.

3. Start watching your words

• Solomon one of the wisest men said “Words kill, words give life: they are either poison of fruit – you choose.”
• There are words that we need in our vocabulary – we, can, will, yes. Some words need to be eliminated such as me, can’t, won’t, no.

4. Start by making small changes

• Mother Teresa once responded to the question what do you need to do to be considered successful in your work. Her response is classic – she stated “…if the Missionaries of Charity have brought joy to one unhappy home – made one innocent child from the street pure for Jesus – one dying person die in the peace of God – don’t you think it would be worthwhile offering for just that one?”
• Success is measured in inches and not miles

Now let us consider the four suggestions on thinking big.

1. Believe in yourself

• Do you believe in yourself? Your belief about yourself will drive your behavior. Many times the thought I don’t think I can arises from the thought I don’t think I am!
• Steve Jobs once stated that the people that are crazy enough to believe they can change the world are usually the ones that do.
• There are many successful people that others do not believe in. However, there has never been a successful person who did not believe in themselves. Start believing in yourself and you just might make a difference.

2. Believe in you mission

• Understand first of all that your life mission cannot be from someone else. It must be your own. Borrowed beliefs have no power, passion and they definitely do not instill conviction that you can make a difference.
• Peter Senge states mission instills the passion and the patience for the long journey.

3. I believe in people

• When you work with a person that truly believes in you, isn’t true that you respond to that person based upon their level of belief about you?
• Don’t you perform at a higher level for a boss you want to please or a teacher who encourages you, or a coach who inspires in you? You work harder because of the belief factor.

4. I believe in my God

• “Everyday should be your masterpiece” – John Wooden.
• God is the one who helps take my best effort as flawed as it is, and makes it better.
• Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
• Anybody can do their best. God helps us to do better that our best – Catherine Bramwell-Booth
• GOD-ROOM is space between your best and room for God to step in and help you do better. Leave plenty of God Room!

John Wesley is credited with the statement “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all of the ways you can. In all of the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

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“If you are going to grow, you have to be intentional” – Curt Kampmeier

If you really desire to make a difference…

• Wishing things to change wouldn’t make them change
• Hoping for improvements will not bring them
• Dreaming wouldn’t provide all the answers needed
• Vision wouldn’t be enough to bring transformation to me or others
• Only by managing my thinking and shifting my thoughts from desire to deeds would I be able to bring about positive change. I need to go from wanting to doing!

Consider these seven benefits of Intentional Living….

1.Intentional Living prompts us to ask, ‘What is significant in my life?’

• Successful people are good in these four areas: Relationships, Equipping, Attitude, and Leadership.

• Living intentionally will cause you to start asking questions and begin to prioritize what is important and not what is urgent. You begin to ask Can I make a difference? Whom should I help? How can I help? What can I do to add value to others?
• An unintentional life accepts everything and does nothing. An intentional life embraces only the things that will add value to the mission of significance.

2. Intentional Living motivates us to take immediate action in areas of significance.

• When you make this shift in your spirit and mind you no longer see a need and ask why doesn’t someone to do something? versus I must do something.
• “DO IT NOW” should be the mantra of every person who decides to start living intentionally.

3. Intentional Living challenges us to find creative ways to achieve significance

Note these comparative statements ….

• Intentional living always has an idea – Unintentional living always has an excuse
• Intentional living fixes the situation – Unintentional living fixes the blame
• Intentional living makes it happen – Unintentional living wonders what happened
• Intentional living says, ‘Here’s something I can do’ – Unintentional living says, ‘Why doesn’t somebody else do something’

4. Intentional Living energizes us to give our best effort to so significant acts

• Most people do not aim to high and miss, they aim to low and hit it!
• Being unintentional is failing to take aim in life. Unintentional people wander through life without focus.

5. Intentional living unleashes the power of significance within us

• “If you first help others get what they want they help you get what you want” – Zig Ziglar
• The Bible states that we are to prefer others before ourselves. Scripture had it right long before the leadership guru’s of the day. It is in helping others that you realize that your needs are being met.

6. Intentional living inspires us to make every day count

• John Wooden, famous Hall of Fame College Coach stated, as a leader of my team, it was my responsibility to get the most out of my players. As a coach I would ask myself everyday ‘How can I make my team better?’
• How many of us ask that question of those we are leading daily. I am afraid we must confess that our agenda and schedules rule what is important without ever understanding what is significant.

7. Intentional living encourages us to finish well

• August 13 2012 was an important day for a man that turned 60. He asked the question for six months – “How can I finish well?” Here is what he wrote…
• I want to finish well therefore I will…Be bigger on the inside than on the outside because character matters
• I will follow the golden rule because people matter
• I will value humility above all virtues because perspective matters
• I will travel the high road of life because attitude matters
• I will teach only what I believe because passion matters
• I will make every day my masterpiece because today matters
• I will live God with all of my being because God matters
• I will finish well because faithfulness matters

Who was this man? – John Maxwell

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Consider these 4 steps to start writing your story of significance.

1.Put Yourself In The Story – No one ever stumbles into significance – you have to be intentional in your daily action. Victor & Mildred Goertzel wrote a book Cradles of Eminence. They investigated the lives of 300 highly successful people. Here is what they found…

1. Three-fourths of them came from severe poverty and broken home relationships
2. Many of them experienced severe psychological drama being played in the home daily by their parents
3. Over one-fourth suffered physical handicaps such as blindness, deafness, and crippled limbs
4. “To dare, is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself” – Soren Kierkegaard
5. If you are not in over your head, how do you know how tall you are? T.S. Eliot

2.Put Significance in Your Story – If you want to live a story of significance, do not wait until you become good – start now so you can become good. Everyone starts out bad regardless of what your are practicing for. We start however, so that we can become good.

1. In the Orlando Science Center there was a sign that read “Experiment – Experience – Explore.” DO NOT TOUCH is not in the vocabulary of significant people! Awesome!

3.Put Your Strengths Into your Story – In answering the question, “What is required to bring about a positive life-change to any community? Jim Collins responded with these three statements:

1. Can you be the best in the world at what you do? – Maybe or Maybe not! Can you be the best YOU in the world – ABSOLUTELY!
2. Are you passionate about what you are doing? Significance begins in the heart when we desire to make a difference.
3. Do you have the resources to change the world? Do you have the tools? You know doubt have many resources at your fingertips.

4. Stop Trying and Start Doing – “I’ll try my best” is a statement that we have all made at one point or another. What we are really saying is that I am going to try but I am not going to take responsibility for the outcomes. So here is the million dollar question: If we are going to live lives of significance are we going to succeed simply by trying? I don’t think so!

1. Trying does not communicate true commitment. It is half-hearted at best. It definitely is not a pledge to achieve a goal. It is another way of saying that we will make an effort.
2. An attitude of doing is powerful. Steven Pressfield writes, There is a force resisting the beautiful things in the world and too many of us are giving in.”

When you begin to get involved in making a difference in other people it is going to have a lasting impression and effect upon your life.

• Jim Rohn states one of the best places start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental ‘I should” list.
• Action is what converts human dreams into significance.
• You will reaffirm your values – acting upon your values will clarify those values and make them permanent as a guiding priority.
• You will find your voice – taking action will give you confidence and you will begin to develop a moral authority with people.
• You will develop character – Passive people will allow their character to be shaped by others. Active people will take charge of their own character.
• You will experience an inner fulfillment – Contentment is found in being where you are supposed to be.

A butterfly cannot go back to being a caterpillar. When you start living a life of significance you will not go back!

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Growing yourself enables you to grow others

If you are not doing something with your life it does not matter how long it is!

Adding value to other people should be a high priority for leaders in both the profit and nonprofit arena. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “I would rather have it said ’He lived usefully’ than ‘he died rich.’” 

According to Dr. Jon Van Hornes of the Library Company of Philadelphia stated that Franklin’s philanthropy was what I call a collective nature. His sense of benevolence was aiding his fellow human beings and doing good to society. In fact Franklin’s sense of benevolence was his religion…doing good for mankind was in his sense, divine.”

Gordon MacDonald suggests a series of questions to ask of who encourages us and then become a person who encourages others…

• Who mentors you and offers a baseline of wisdom?
• Who mentors you to aspire to be a better person?
• Who challenges you to think?
• Who cheers you to dream?
• Who cares enough to rebuke you?
• Who is merciful when you fail?
• Who shares the load in pressurized moments without being asked?
• Who brings fun and laughter into your life?
• Who gives you perspective when you become dispirited?
• Who inspires you to seek faithfully after God?
• Who loves you unconditionally?

1. BE GRATEFUL – People who are not grateful are not givers. They rarely think of others – they constantly think of themselves. Zig Ziglar stated that you can get everything in life you want if you help enough people to get what they want.
2. PUT PEOPLE FIRST – Possessions are temporary – people are what really matters.DON’T
3. LET STUFF OWN YOU – Richard Foster writes that owning things is an obsession in our culture. If we own it, we feel it will give us more pleasure.
4. DON’T LET PEOPLE OWN YOU
5. DEFINE SUCCESS AS SOWING, NOT REAPING – Robert Louis Stevenson said “I consider the success of my life based upon the seeds I sow, not the harvest I reap!”
6. FOCUS ON SELF DEVELOPMENT, NOT SELF FULFILLMENT – Self fulfillment thinks of how something serves me. Self-development thinks of how something helps me serve others.
7. KEEP GROWING TO KEEP GIVING – Whenever people stop actively learning and growing, the clock starts to tick down to a time that you will have nothing to give of worth.

The greatest gift you can give to someone is your own personal development – Jim Rohn

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Significance Begins HERE

Growth Always Increases Your Capacity

There is no finish line – Nike

Have you ever maxed your capacity? Have you ever reached the fullest expression of yourself? If you are breathing, you have the capacity to enlarge yourself. Authors Kriegel and Patler state in their book If It Ain’t Broke…Break It, The potential that exists within us is limitless and largely untapped…when you think of limits, you create them.

How do you push through toward your potential and keep increasing your capacity? I have heard it said that we only use about 10% of our potential. STOP! That is an amazing statement to ponder! So the next question becomes, how do we tap into the other unused 90%? I believe that the answer lies within changing how we think. MORE does not increase capacity. More of the same is simply more of the same.

Consider these three ways to increase your capacity.

Stop thinking more about work and start thinking about what works – Working more is the typical answer to the question, “How do you increase your capacity?” More of the same is more of the same, when what we want is better than what we have. Working long hours and managing an ever increasing To-Do-List is not becoming a person that reaches full potential. Here are a few questions to ask to improve what works: (1) What am I required to do? (2) What gives me the greatest return? (3) What gives me the greatest reward?

Stop thinking can I? and start thinking how can I? – When you ask Can I? indicates hesitation and doubt. It is a question of limitations. Ask it often enough and this single question will sabotage your effort even before you can begin. When you ask the question How can I? assumes a solution and positive outcome. There is a way, I just need to find it !Sharon Wood the first North American woman to climb Mount Everest stated discovered that it was not solely about physical strength but about psychological strength.

Author Price Pritchett in his book YOU writes, “Your skepticism, which you presume is based on rational thinking and an objective assessment of factual data about yourself, is rooted in mental junk. Your doubts are not the product of accurate thinking, but habitual thinking. Years ago you accepted flawed conclusions as correct, began to live your life as if those warped ideas about your potential were true, and ceased the bold experiment in living that brought you many breakthrough behaviors as a child. Now it is time for you to find that faith you had in yourself before.”

Stop Thinking One Door and Start Thinking Many Doors – Do not bet your future potential on just one door for the fullest expression of God’s creative work in you.

• There is more than one way to do something successful.
• The odds of arriving anywhere increase with creativity and adaptability.
• Movement with intentionality creates possibilities.
• Failures and setbacks can be great tools for learning
• Knowing the future is difficult; controlling the future is impossible.
• Knowing today is essential; controlling today is possible.
• Success is a result of continued action filled with continual adjustments.

Having just examined how to increase you thinking capacity, let us turn our attention to increasing our capacity for action. Consider the following…

Stop doing only those things you have done before and start doing things you could and should do – The first step toward success is becoming good at what you know how to do. The more you do what you know how to do, the more you discover additional worthy things you could do. When you reach this point you have a decision to make. Will you continue doing what you have always done or will you leap and try new things. Picasso stated “I am always doing that which I cannot do in order to learn how to do it.”

Stop doing what is expected and start doing more than expected – We live in a culture that awrds people with trophies for just showing up. Former CEO of GE, Jack Welch says this is not helping people to get out of the pile – you have to rise above average.

Stop doing important things occasionally and start doing important things daily – Writer Henry David Thoreau stated once “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live a life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; and he will will live with the license of a higher order of beings.”

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Significance Begins HERE

The most important personal growth phrase you will ever hear a good leader say to you is “FOLLOW ME!”

So what is a good model when choosing a good mentor to follow? Here are a few thoughts on choosing worthiness in a mentor. 

1.A Good Mentor Is A Worthy Example – Many professionals attempt to persuade us to believe that it is possible to divorce your private life from your public life.

1. Author Gordon Hinckley writes that it is not wise or even possible, to divorce private behavior from public leadership – though there are those who have gone to great lengths to suggest that this is the only possible view of “enlightened” individuals….They are wrong and they are deceived. By its very nature, true leadership carries with it the burden of being an example. Is it asking too much that our elected officers stand tall and be a model before the people that elected them? If values are not established at the top, behavior down ranks will be seriously jeopardized and undermined. Values that are being neglected will vanish in due time.
2. A Good Mentor Is Available – Andrew Carnegie once stated that as he grew older he paid less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do. As you consider a mentor – look for individuals that are 2-3 levels ahead of you and not 10 levels. This enables you to spend your time with people who are truly available to you and can help. To illustrate this point – what if you are deciding to run for political office for the very first time. The President would not be a good place to seek out mentorship – stay connected to the grass roots with the resources that are within your grasp. The key thought is that at every level of growing find a mentor.
3. 3.A Good Mentor Has Proven Experience – An old Chinese proverb states ”To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” The further you go in personal development the more new ground you will break. Grow from others experience. This is true in my life’s journey – at every new level I have sought out those ahead of me in order to gain insight and rapid growth. Rudy Giuliani stated that all leaders are influenced by those we admire. Reading about and studying their traits inevitably allows an inspiring leader to develop their own traits.4.A Good Mentor Possesses Wisdom – An manufacturing expert was called one day to assess why all systems had stopped and were not functioning. The expert arrived with nothing more than a small black bag. As the expert assessed the situation he pulled our a small hammer and tapped precisely at the correct place and all systems began to work again. The expert left a $1000 dollar bill behind. Management was furious because it was not itemized. The response came back: Tapping with a hammer $1; Knowing where to tap $999. THAT IS WISDOM in action! Wise people often use few words to help us see what we are overlooking and help us navigate difficult matters in life.5.A Good Mentor Provides Friendship and Support – “Great things happen whenever we stop seeing ourselves as God’s gift to others and begin seeing others as God’s gift to us” – James Vuocolo. At Peter Drucker’s passing Jim Collins wrote – Drucker’s most important lessons cannot be found in any text or lecture………but in the example of his life. I made a personal pilgrimage to Claremont, California in 1994 seeking wisdom from the greatest management thinker of our age. I came away feeling that I had met a compassionate and generous human being who almost as a side benefit was a prolific genius. We have not lost a guru on a pedestal but a beloved professor who welcomed students into his modest home for warm conversation. Peter Drucker was not driven by the desire to say something but the desire to learn something from every student he met.

   6.A Good Mentor Is A Coach Who Makes A Difference in People’s Lives – The term coach originates in the 15th century in the town of Kocs. It was a vehicle that carried royalty and eventually other important items such as mail, jewelry, etc. The idea was that a coach carried something or someone from where they are to where they desire to go. Think about how this concept has permeated our world. Kevin Hall’s book Aspire gives us insight to the usage of transporting people from one place to a preferred place.

   Self evaluation is helpful, but evaluation from someone else is essential – Andy Stanley

   1. C- is for caring for people we coach
   2. O- is for observing attitudes, behaviors, and performance
   3. A- align people for peak performance using their strengths
   4. C- Communicate and give feedback
   5. H- help people improve their lives and performance

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Significance Begins HERE

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not – George Bernard Shaw

How do we cultivate curiosity? – Here are ten suggestions

1.Believe that you can be curious – The number one enemy of curiosity is “LIMITED BELIEFS.” “I can’t, I’m not good enough, They are better, I am not smart enough, I am not a natural,,,,, The single biggest difference between people who believe they can’t versus curious growing people is the belief that they can learn, grow and change. Give your permission to be curious!

2.Have a beginner’s mind-set – Peter Drucker once declared that his single greatest asset in being a business coach was to be ignorant and ask questions

3.Make WHY your favorite word – Here is another gem from Einstein, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.” Author Brian Tracy states that a major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions. There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights.

4.Spend time with other curious people – Curiosity is not about formal education – it can be – but is not necessary. Find someone with an attitude of openness and inquiry and start hanging our with them Author Jerry Hirshberg in his book The Creative Priority: Putting Innovation to Work in Your Business states:

“No one in a corporation sets out to stifle creative thought. Yet, a traditional bureaucratic structure, with its need for predictability, linear logic, conformance to accepted norms, and the dictates of the most recent “long-range” vision statement, is a nearly perfect idea killing machine. People in groups regress toward the security of the familiar and the well regulated. Even creative people do it. It avoids ambiguity, the fear of unpredictability, the threat of the unfamiliar, and the messiness of intuition and human emotion.

5.Learn something new every day – One of he best ways to remain curious is to learn something new everyday. Start your day off with a curiosity that “I will learn something new today!” Successful people seize the day to grow and learn instead of just accepting the day and how things turn out. It does no good to simply learn something new without quality time to think and apply.

6.Partake in the fruit of failure – Do not view failure with the attitude that says, “I will never do that again!” See failure as progress – you cannot grow if you do not fail. Fail fast, Learn fast, Get up and try faster – this attitude leads to growth and success.

7.Stop looking for the right answer – If there is a “RIGHT ANSWER” to every question in your life you might be stagnated your growth and success. Ask WHY? No idea is perfect! All perfect ideas can be improved upon. Have you ever heard this statement: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” This is a phrase used by people who stopped growing. Replace that phrase with these questions: If it ain’t broke, how can we make it better? If it ain’t broke when is it likely to break in the future? If is ain’t broke how long will it serve as the world changes? Author Roger van Oech in his book, A Whack On The Side of The Head writes, Almost every advance in art, cooking medicine, agriculture, engineering, politics, education and design has occurred when someone challenged the rules and tried another approach.

8.Get over yourself – If you are going to ask questions and allow yourself to fail, then accept the fact you will look foolish at times. My response – GET OVER YOURSELF! If self image is your motivator we probably would still be in caves! Keep a child-like curiosity fresh in your daily routine.

9.Get out of the box – Thomas Edison stated “There are no rules around here – we are trying to accomplish something.” Ralph Waldo Emerson states that all of life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Good ideas exist everywhere but you will never see them if you do not get outside the box of your life. Getting outside the box requires an abundance mind-set. Unfortunately, inside the box thinkers have a poverty or scarcity mind-set. Average people ask “Can I do this?” This question is based upon the circumstances they see. Abundant thinkers ask different questions – How can I…? This simple change forces you to think differently.

10.Enjoy your life – Tom Peters in his book, In Search of Excellence writes, “The race will go to the curious, the slightly mad, and those with an hot passion for learning and daredevilatry. Simply stated get outside the box, learn fast, fail faster, and get up and try harder.

LINKS

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Significance Begins HERE

People will cling to an unsatisfactory way of life rather than change in order to get something better for fear of getting something worse – Eric Hoffer

Trade offs are available to us throughout our life – Everybody make trades throughout their life whether they know it or not. The real question is whether you are going to make good ones or bad ones.  

We need to learn to see trade-offs as opportunities for growth – Nothing creates a greater gap between successful people and unsuccessful people than the choices we make. While we do not always get what we want, we always get what we choose.

What are the pluses and minuses of this trade off? – Anytime you react to one of life’s crossroads according to fear rather than looking at he merits, you close yourself off from a potential opportunity.

Will I go through this change or grow through this change? – Denis Waitley, author states that a sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the realization that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences. You are responsibility for your life and your ultimate success depends on the choices you make.

Trade-offs force us to make difficult personal changes – The difference between where we are and where we want to be is created by the changes we are willing to make in our lives. Changes to our lives always begin with changes we are willing to make personally. Victor Frankl states that when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

What are some trade-offs that are worth making? What kind of trade-offs have you been making in your life? Have you taken the time to even think about this reality? Consider these five trade-offs.

I am willing to give up financial security today for potential tomorrow. Physician George Crane writes “There is no future in any job. The future lies in the man who holds the job.” When is the last time you bet on yourself? Kevin Turner wrote the only job security we have is our individual commitment to personal development.

I am willing to give up immediate gratification for personal growth. Darren Hardy writes in his book The Compound Effect “We understand that scarfing Pop-Tarts will not slenderize our waist lines. We realize that logging three hours of NCIS leaves us with three fewer hours to read a book or listen to a teaching audio. We “get” that merely purchasing great running shoes does not make us marathon ready. We are a rational species – at least that is what we call ourselves. So why are we so irrationally enslaved by so many bad habits? It is because of our need for immediate gratification can turn us into the most reactive, non-thinking animals around.” When it comes to growth and success, immediate gratification is always the enemy of growth.

I am willing to give up the fast life for the good life. Albert Schweitzer stated that the great secret to success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.” Authors Leider and Shapiro in their book Repacking your Bags, write that the good life is living in a place you belong, with people you love, doing the right work, on purpose.

I am willing to give up security for significance. The great men and women of history were not great because of what they earned and owned, but rather what they gave their lives to accomplish. Most people are capable of making a living. The significant thing is making a difference!

I am willing to give addition for multiplication. The challenge of leadership is not what can other people do for me? Rather, What can I do for and with other people.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Premier Service – Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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Significance Begins HERE

Only a mediocre person is always at their best!

What happens when you stretch yourself in leadership? Remember that leadership is influence and not title. What are some possible outcomes of stretching yourself to accomplish, become, and develop yourself in new ways?

Consider the usage of a rubber band.   In all of the ways that a rubber band can be used there is one thing that is common in all of those usages. Can you think what that might be? YES – a rubber band is useless until it is stretched. Without stretching the rubber band as an invention is utterly useless.

With these thoughts as a backdrop consider the following thoughts…..

1. Few people want to be stretched – most people use only a fraction of their ability and rarely strive to reach their full potential. Consider this truth – 1/3rd of high school graduates never read another book the rest of their lives and 42% of college graduates never read another book after they graduate. Publisher David Godine claims that only 32% of the US population have ever been in a book store. People are settling for average daily

Consider the thoughts of writer Edmund Gaudet:

• Average is what failures claim claim to be when asked why they are not successful
• Average is the top of the bottom, the best of the worst, the bottom of the top, the worst of the best
• Average is the ”run-of-the-mill”
• Average is the lazy person’s cop-out – it is refusing to take a stand in life. If you do not stand for something you will fall for anything
• Average is taking up space for no purpose
• Average is to pass away one’s life with time instead of passing time with life
• Average is to be forgotten when we pass from this life
• Average is to commit the greatest crime against yourself and your God

FEEL THE TENSION OF THE GAP that stands between you and your fullest potential!

2.Settling for the status quo ultimately leads to dissatisfaction – I believe that our natural tendency is to settle into our comfort zone where we choose comfort over potential. Abraham Maslow once states that “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all of the days of your life.” You must leave the familiar, safe and secure. You have to give up excuses and push forward. You must be willing to face the tension that comes with stretching toward your potential. Writer John Wittier states that for all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these; ‘It might have been.’

3.Stretching always starts from the inside out – James Allen’s book “As A Man Thinketh,” wrote in 1903 is one of the more profound books that you can read today. In it he states that you cannot travel within and stand still without.

• Author’s Buckingham and Clifton state that most people do no like their jobs, yet will never leave to pursue a job of their dreams. What is stopping people?
• There are all sorts of dreams that people are not pursuing – WHY?
• Let us keep the context of life into focus here – my situation in life is mainly due to the choices I make and the actions that I do or fail to do.
• The older we are the more responsible for our situation.
• If we are merely average of if you are no closer to your dream’s fulfillment this year than last year, you can choose to accept it, defend it, cover it up, and explain it away. Or you can choose to change it, grow from it, and forge a new path.
• Thought Leader Jim Rohm states that every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings however have been the dignity of choice!
• Measure what you are presently doing against what you’re capable of doing
• You can choose to be all that you can be or you can choose less. What motivates you from within. Where do you find the strength to stretch?
• 4.Stretching always requires change – A.G. Buckham states that monotony is the awful reward of the careful. At some point you have to stop looking over your shoulder at your past. Yesterday ended last night!
  • Alan Cohen author and contributor to the Chicken Soup for The Soul series wrote, “To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past. Your history is not your destiny!”

  It is not too late to be what you might have been! – George Elliot

  LINKS

  Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

  FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

  Executive Coaching Premier Service – Private message me for details on this customizable service

  Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!