Newsletter For July 2006:
Five Steps To A Great Life
Contents:
- This Months Thought
- Five Steps to a Great Life
- Quotes of the Month
- Strictly Business: Are We Half-Way There Yet?
- Humor: Strange Factoids
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This Months Thought
In the end, we get what we think about most of the time. Over time, our lives pretty much look like our days and if you want to predict your future, look at your daily activities. If there are things you need to change, change them! If you need a coach, get one! If you need to set better boundaries, re-affirm your values or assert your priorities, do so! In life, we usually end up pretty much where we are headed. Choose wisely, and day by day, do the "little things" that make a great life.
Five Steps to a Great Life
Most people know the phrase that we "become what we think about all day long." In life, we tend to get what we focus on, what we think about all the time. We tend to end up where are going on a daily basis. There is tremendous power in positive thinking, just as there is unfortunate power in negative thinking and fear. And, the truth is that we get to choose our thoughts!
I love the quote from Annie Dillard "How we live our days is how live our lives." If our days are stressed, chaotic, unfocused and unsatisfying, at the end of the year (and at the end of life) we tend to look back and wonder, "What happened?" On the other hand, if we make sure each day contains some joy, some gratitude, a bit of organization and purpose, some honest work and a bit of fun, I'm convinced our lives will be the same.
I've often joked that while I may not know how to live a great life, I can (usually) create a good day, and if I just put a few thousand good days back to back, that may come close enough to a great life.
So the question is not how to have a great life over 80 years, but how to have a few thousand good-enough days, back to back. Here are a few suggestions:
- First, plan each day. After coaching many of high achievers, I am convinced most of us do not put nearly enough time into deciding exactly how we want to live each day. We don't choose our priorities, affirm our values, and make hard choices about how we will-and will not--use our time. I take time out each morning before I start my day to identify my priorities for that day. I think it helps.
- Second, surround yourself with great people. There's an old proverb that says, "Show me the five people you spend the most time with, and I'll show you your future." To some degree, of course, we are all surrounded by people we did not choose. But we also have the responsibility to choose our friends and to associate with the best, most inspiring people we can find. Choose wisely.
- Third, write your biography in advance. We tend to live our lives in accordance with a myth or story we tell ourselves, so why not tell yourself a GREAT story?! Write the "script" for your own life, and read it often. Think about it and re-read it daily. Where are you going? What will your legacy be? Too often we get caught in the busy-ness of daily living and it pays to review and affirm your dreams every single day.
- Fourth, read and learn from the great people in history. It may be true that "experience is the best teacher" but I've noticed that it also charges the highest tuition. Life is short and we simply don't have time to make (and recover from) all the mistakes in life, so learn from wise people who have gone ahead and left a trail for us to follow.
Personally, this has been one of the greatest inspirations I've ever found. In the past year, I've read biographies of Lindbergh, Churchill, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, to name just a few. They were all flawed and none of them are perfect models, but they were smart people who achieved quite a bit, and I can learn from them. - Fifth, share the dream. Tell your loved ones, your best friends and trusted associates where you're going in life so they can support you. We all need cheerleaders in life, and the people around you will usually (not always—choose wisely!) offer help and encouragement if they know what you're trying to accomplish. FDR had his "brain trust." Most successful people have had a "master-mind group." Every sports team has cheerleaders and so should you.
In the end, we get what we think about most of the time. Over time, our lives pretty much look like our days and if you want to predict your future, look at your daily activities. If there are things you need to change, change them! If you need a coach, get one! If you need to set better boundaries, re-affirm your values or assert your priorities, do so! In life, we usually end up pretty much where we are headed. Choose wisely, and day by day, do the "little things" that make a great life.
Quotes of the Month
"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that our strength lies." -- Mother Teresa
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment to improve the world." -- Anne Frank
"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but (instead) someone." -- Coco Chanel
"Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash." -- Harriet Rubin
Strictly Business: Are We Half-Way There Yet?
Every business owner knows the importance of a business plan, concrete goals, and tracking your "measurables." We've all read about these things, and we believe in them. Unfortunately, a huge number of business leaders do everything except monitor their progress.
This is the first of July. What does that mean to you as an entrepreneur, manager or owner? It means it's time to sit down, check the numbers, monitor your progress and see how you're doing.
I am a huge believer in the importance of tracking the numbers. Since I'm a "visual learner" I love large wall charts. I use colored markers and graph everything. I graph subscribers to This Months Thought, visitors to my website, and progress toward personal goals such as days off, weight and fitness goals, and so forth.
In your business, there are almost certainly a handful of critical measurables. Typically, these include gross revenue, cost-of- goods-sold, and net earnings. Depending on your specific enterprise, you may chart employee productivity, sales calls, or any number of other variables, but it is essential that you track (and monitor) the key ingredients to your success.
Back in January you set goals for all of these things. (You did set goals, didn't you? If not, please contact me and I'll coach you to get started immediately!) Now, it's the first of July and you may (or may not) be half-way to your goals. Retail organizations, for instance, may do a third of their annual volume during the Christmas rush. But we are half-way through the year and it's the perfect time to review your progress, assess your situation and make adjustments.
Take a day to crunch the numbers. Get away from the office and calmly evaluate the data. Are you where you need to be? Have business conditions changed, and if so, how will you adapt? If you are where you need to be, congratulate yourself-and your staff! And if you don't like what you see, now is the time to do something about it. Do not wait until December to say, "ooops!"
It's the first of July. Are you half-way there?
Humor: Strange Factoids
Sometimes reality actually is stranger than fiction. I hope you get a chuckle and perhaps some actual new information from these items sent to me by a close friend. And, no, I did not make any attempt to verify their accuracy, I merely pass them along. If they're correct, you may learn something new. And if they are fibs, I hope you'll have a good chuckle. Here we go:
- Strawberries have more vitamin C in them than oranges.
- Ketchup is excellent for cleaning brass, especially tarnished and corroded brass.
- More money is spent on gardening than on any other hobby.
- A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
- The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."
- No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven (7) times.
- Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
- You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
- Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are 20 years of age or older. They live from 200 to 400 years...
- The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
- The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
- American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one (1) olive from each salad served in first-class.
- Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
- Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
- Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
- The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. So did the first "Marlboro Man."
- Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
- Pearls melt in vinegar.
- The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
- It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
- A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
- Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first U.S. president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." The second? William Jefferson Clinton.
Rodger Blaker works with executives, small business owners andprofessionals who want to grow in their business and create anextraordinary life! For info on resources for your success, visit:http://www.rodgerblaker.comor call me at 214-485-2238.
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