The Attitude – The Passion – The MotivationIn the business world and also in life, there are three words that can ultimately define who you are, what you will actually do and how successful you may be at accomplishing it. Those words are Attitude, Passion and Motivation. Each has its own unique meaning for each of us, however the simple dictionary meaning is:
Stress, Rest & RelaxationWe have all had those days where your job or maybe those individuals you work with might be causing you stress. Maybe something you are dealing with in your personal life has caused you an immense amount of stress. In either case it might be an acute short-term thing or it may be more chronic and simply be part of your life, in any case, you need to deal with the situation and the stress it is causing you.
Epictetus, a Greek philosopher (A.D. 55-135) once said, “People are disturbed not by a thing, but by their perception of a thing.” A person’s perception or view of what they believe they are dealing with can cause them a huge amount of stress in their life. The American Institute of Stress states that one definition of stress is, “a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.”
Plan for Change, It Happens! In the twilight of our lives, when we have lived the life our choices and decisions have brought us, both good and bad; when our creative ideas and dreams of an earlier time have given way to the comforts of a more sedentary lifestyle; when we have lost a large amount of our drive or have accepted the inevitable…at that exact point, what do you want to remember from your life? What do you want to have succeeded at or accomplished? What do you want to be able to do from then on? This is why you may want to change your current lifestyle and develop a plan for your future.
Now is the time to ask yourself some very pointed questions. Think long and hard on your answers.
What do you want to do with your life?
What do you want to know?
What do you want to see and hear?
What do you want to really have and enjoy?
What do you want to feel and experience?
Just who do “YOU” want to be?
A Focused LifeHow often have you really sat back and took a good look at your life and wondered if you have achieved what you set out to do many years ago? Do you remember what your intentions, goals or dreams were 20 or more years ago? What did you believe your “life’s purpose” to be back then? Is that purpose still what gets you going every day? Has it changed any?
Reflecting back on your past can be a great method to help re-align your future plans. Looking back and weighing the pluses and minuses of your life, as you remember them, will help you understand more about yourself and allow you to use some of your wisdom to make better decisions about your future.
There are many types of people that approach this reflection differently and if two people had the exact same experiences with their past, my guess would be that each would reflect and remember it in different ways. Each would draw different conclusions on what was a plus and what was a minus. Each would be correct, from their perspective, but still have only one point of view, theirs. A singular point of view is not what you may want when planning your future, is it? This singular point of view, because of its singularity, may tend to blind you from other options that are in front of you and because of this singular thinking pattern, you may not see or acknowledge potential options. This is not to say that after all options have been uncovered, researched and weighed, and a plan for the future is determined and put in place, that this action plan cannot become a focus and somewhat a singular point of view. In fact, this is how big goals are achieved.
Help for Your Small Business & YouWhen you own and operate a small business or are thinking of maybe starting one the act of hiring others to assist you in defining, fully understanding and growing your vision can play a crucial part in its future success. Let’s face it, many small business owners are driven to succeed and spend much of their time in one or two areas of their business where they feel comfortable or excel at, like sales or operations. Not paying needed attention to all areas like strategic planning, marketing, process improvement, pricing, finance, accounting, matching the right people to the right job function or motivating your employees can cause your business many additional challenges that simply can be avoided.
You may have built your business to where it is today by focusing only on certain key areas, but time needs to be spent on the other areas of your business as it grows, but it does not have to be your time. Bringing in an outside set of eyes can get some of these activities done right away and bring a new perspective to you while helping your business succeed and grow to another level.
The Best Man You May Ever MeetWhen you meet any man for the first time, have you ever considered you might have just met one of the best men you may ever meet in your life? What about when they walk away after meeting you, do you think they might be wondering that very thought about you? Is it possible, did either of you just meet one of the best men you may ever meet? Have you been trying to be such a man; a real genuine role model for others? Where would you meet such a man? Would you meet him in the places you frequent? Take a minute and think about that?
I wrote this blog for my male readers, but my female readers may find it interesting as well. A genuine man needs to ask these types of questions about himself. In this day and age a man needs to have a high level of integrity mixed with strong moral values and actually live by them. This makes him who he is and is no easy task to live by. In the story of King Arthur’s court, you hear about the Knights of the Round Table and how honorable they were or tried to be? Would you be able to live up to their code of values? Can you be one of the best men someone may ever meet, a knight of the round table? Wouldn’t you like to be part of this group of men?
Who Was Thankful For You This Year?Is Thanksgiving a day of the year, a state of mind, a way of life or the start of the retail shopping season? Did you give thanks yesterday for only those blessings you have been given lately or do you give thanks for them all year around? When you give thanks, do you thank the Lord for putting someone else in your life that had a significant impact in your life? Have you made any significant impact in anyone else’s life? Do you think you were on someone’s list of what they were thankful for this past year?
There are many things we all should be thankful for. Consider if you were born in another part of the world? Say Europe, Africa, South America or Asia? What if you were born at a different point in time? Say 1655 AM1 (Anno Mundi “year of the world” or 2349 BC “Before Christ”; approximately one year before the flood), 32 AD (when Jesus Christ was 32 years old, 1492 AD (Christopher Columbus finds the new world) or 1929 AD (the start of the USA Great Depression).
You were born to live at this point of time in your current location of the world for a reason. What that reason is, only you can decide. What you do or don’t do with your time while here, only you can determine. If you are living your life and doing things with a focus to only improve your current situation, then you may need to broaden your scope of thinking and step into a lifestyle that includes doing things for others in need and next year you may be on a few more thankfulness lists.
Living “The Life” of 100 YearsThey say that hindsight is 20/20 meaning that when we look back in our life, we see much more clearly what we should have done at different points over our life; positive or negative as that may be. More times than not, I think we tend to focus too much on decisions we made that we believe were incorrect at the time we made them and if we would have chosen a different path our current situation in life would be different. Much better of course!
As we age and daily face different challenges and opportunities in our lives, the number of decisions we make piles up for each of us. The negative outcomes of those decisions around doing or not doing something correctly or incorrectly in our past may be seen as regrets; based entirely from our current singular viewpoint at this time. Regrets or disappointments about our past choices are not something we want to look back on in our life. What regrets do you have so far in your life? Are you making better decisions today about the many tomorrows you have coming up in your future? Are you using your past to make a better tomorrow for you and for your family?
The Big Cheese, LeadershipEvery organization has a leader, even the organizations you belong to. Every entity, every company, every City, County, State and Country has a leader. The leader is the person who is responsible for the direction of the organization they lead. The leader makes sure strategic direction has been defined for the organization, that precise future goals are set and resources are available to accomplish those goals. The leader is the person out in front, “the big cheese”; they get everyone to march to the same step. The leader is the one the rest of the organization sees as the one to follow and the one person the followers trust most to make good decisions improving the organization so it benefits its stakeholders, which includes the followers.
Where would you follow your leader? Are you following your leader? Do you know what your leader stands for? Do they work to benefit themselves or the organizations stakeholders? How many different leaders are you following?
Over the years many different types of individuals have held leadership positions. Some seek it out while others have it thrust upon them. Some individuals rise to the occasion and do a fantastic job leading their organizations, while others, do not.
Living “The Life” of 100 Years
Last week I posted part one “Learning Years” of a three part series called Living “The Life” of 100 Years. This week we continue with “Earning Years”, the next 35 years of our 100 year life.
Have you ever considered living a lifetime of 100 years? What does it really take to do such a life feat? What type of planning should be involved? You may think you will never live that long, but what if you do? What if the Lord blesses you with long life? Will you be ready for your golden years, mentally, physically, spiritually, financially? Have you been using your knowledge to improve your earnings in life so far, or have you simply taken a job to collect a paycheck and allow life to happen to you?
We tend to spend a lot of our time predominately focused on generating income and accumulating wealth since it is the time when most of us are at our peak earning years, from 35 to just around 70. As we enter the “Earning Years” phase many of us have completed a desired level of schooling, have an education in our intended field of interest along with a fair amount of work experience in an industry we have sought out or ended up in. In any case, as we move through our 30’s and 40’s, we have a value to offer the job market, and the job market has an amount it will reward us with. Hopefully, the job market reward is equal to or higher than our own calculated value.
Living “The Life†of 100 Years
Have you ever considered living a life time of 100 years? What does it really take to do such a life feat? What type of planning should be involved? You may think you will never live that long, but what if you do? What if the Lord blesses you with long life? Will you be ready for your golden years, mentally, physically, spiritually, financially? Have you been applying the knowledge you learned in life to improve your life so far?
100 years is 36,525 days (365.25 days in a year x 100 yrs). Even in today’s terms, that is a long time. However in an earlier time, a time discussed in detail in the Bible, individuals lived much longer. In Genesis 5:27, the Bible says, “Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he diedâ€; Methuselah, being one of the oldest long lived men on record, if not the oldest.  Can you just imagine the type of planning that would be needed to live that long in today’s time?
Consider also, that God later in Genesis 6:3 mentions man should live to be approximately 120 years old. Given that information, along with living a healthy lifestyle, consistently working daily at some God pleasing task and being assisted with the correct balance of pharmaceuticals it is very likely we may live close to being 100 if not longer and we should all plan accordingly. What is your life long plan for your future?
8 Small Business ChallengesRunning a small business today takes a lot of determination, stamina and problem solving skills by the owner if they want to even attempt to run a business. If they intend for it to prosper and grow, they will still be faced with many waves of challenges that may knock them off their feet from time to time. A small business owner will need to be aware of, understand and will probably have to address each challenge at some point in their business. Let’s look at eight challenges that may need to be addressed.
An entrepreneur is a special class of person that has something that is driving them to start a business in the first place. It could be a passion or they may have something to prove, whatever their reasons for starting the business, chances are they will be lacking in certain knowledge and skills. They may excel in some areas and they may be able to work 22 hours a day to make up for a lack of some knowledge, but at some point time, their fatigue and uncertainty, while trying to do it all alone may get the best of them. A business that is largely dependent on the owner can only grow to the point of that owner’s ability, willingness and time spent on getting things done.