How to Achieve Clarity in a Foggy World

Posted on by

Driving Through the Fog

If you have ever driven a car, you have likely had the experience of driving through heavy fog.

Building a business, building a career, and building a life can feel a lot like that. In fact, that’s precisely the problem for many people; they spend their time navigating through the fog.

A businessman with no real direction who leaps at the next new thing to offer in the hopes for profits that turn the business
The person goes all in to the next scheme guaranteed to make them millions
The girl or guy who obsesses over the next person they think will truly make them happy.

It’s a mirage in fog.

Many people make decisions when things aren’t going well. They look for relief in the despair of the valley instead of waiting for the clarity that comes from being on the mountaintop. And when you’re experiencing the darkness of the valley, it’s always tempting to make changes that you hope will relieve the discomfort. -John C. Maxwell

Finding Your Way Clear

Successful people have CLARITY. The path is clear in front of them and they are joyfully on their journey. And while they path may wind, the hills may seem steep, and the road gets rocky on occasion; they forge ahead with determination because they can see where they are going. How do you achieve this clarity in your life or career or business?

[snaptweet]It’s not the problems that make YOUR life song so special, it’s the clarity you get when you determine to see your way through it.[/snaptweet]

Key Elements to Achieve Clarity:

KNOW YOUR CORE VALUES – Know what you stand for. Know what defines are the very core of your organization or core of your person exactly what has to factor in to every decision you make and everything you do. Honesty and integrity are key core values that you want to integrate into everything you do.
DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE – What are you driven to do, what do you want to accomplish. Here’s a tip: if it takes more than a sentence, then you haven’t fully defined your purpose.
VISUALIZE THE END OF THE ROAD – See where it is you are trying to go.
KEEP AN EYE ON THE PATH IN FRONT OF YOU – That’s where you are going to encounter those rocky roads and if you spend all your time looking ahead, the roadblocks in front of you may stop you before you can get there.

How to Be the Big Hitter for Your Team

Posted on by

Baseball Season!

We are coming up on another baseball season and I looked back on the statistics for the last season. The number hitter in all of baseball last year was Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers. He finished the season with a .338 batting average. What that means is that for every three times he went to bat he was only successful once. In other words, one-third of the time he successfully accomplished his job.

How does a hitter handle that? He goes to bat again; he goes up convinced that this time he is going to get a hit, whether or not he was successful the last time.

One of my all-time favorite players and another one of the great hitters in baseball was Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves. Aaron was the the first one to break Babe Ruth’s all-time homerun record. I remember watching it on television; even at that age I was a rapid Atlanta Braves fan. Hank Aaron was more than just a homerun hitter, he was a great hitter overall. When asked about how he accomplished so much in the game, he said,

My motto was always to just keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump, or feeling badly, or having trouble off the field; the only thing to do was to keep swinging!

The Key

There is the key to being the big hitter.

The successful DON’T STOP!

They keep going.

No matter what else is happening in their lives, they keep swinging and have the hope and belief that they will connect this time.

The salesman who wades through a hundred no’s until he gets to the yes.

The job applicant who goes to interview after interview, taking care to always look their best and always remain positive; enduring the uncertainty and lack of call backs until that time that the opportunity is offered to them.

The inventor who creates and redesigns products until she finds the one that meets the needs of enough people to make her prosperous.

Anyone who keeps adding value to others until they are able to reach their goals. Zig Ziglar said it best in his ageless statement

You can anything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want!

Keep Swinging

So how are some ways that we can keep swinging to become the big hitter?

REFLECTION – spend time learning lessons from your experiences
- Daily – keep a journal. Look back at the day’s experiences and what you have learned from them. Learn from the good and the bad.
- Quarterly – what’s working? what’s not working? what needs to change to help move you towards your goals?
- Annually – look at you accomplished in the last year and look forward to what you want to accomplish in the coming year
ACCEPT WHAT IS BUT NEVER BE SATISFIED WITH IT – Accept things as they are but be constantly looking for ways to make them better.
DON’T STOP! Whatever else happens, keep moving forward towards the kind of person you want to be.

And take time out to go see a ball game on occasion!

Stop Being A Gilligan and Grow!

Posted on by

What Are You Doing?

So exactly how are you pursuing that dream or that goal?

You know, that thing you have always wanted to get to?

If you have ever listened to anyone about personal growth or success, they talk about getting your plans down on paper and setting the definitive plan for achieving your goals.

It’s Not Enough

But there is another step. You have to actually act upon that.

And this is where the plans fall apart for many people.

Brian Tracy says that many of us live on Someday Isle.

You’ve probably heard many people refer to it.

Someday, I’ll quit this job I hate.

Someday, I’ll begin that project I always wanted to do.

Someday, I’ll spend more time with the family.

Someday, I’ll volunteer with a non-profit.

Do you know people guilty of this?

Are you guilty of this?

I know that there are times when I am. I become so focused on the routine of the day or the fire of the moment, that I lose focus on the things I want to do and they get pushed to the back burner.

It’s kind of like the castaways from the television program, Gilligan’s Island. They got stranded there and set about making themselves comfortable and never really got off the island. Until cancellation that is. Yes, they tried some things but they were random and not sustained. But they kept saying, “Someday, we’ll get off this island!“

I can relate to Gilligan and the castaways many times in so many ways.

Someday?

The problem is that someday never comes and that’s not where our true success comes from. In fact, you are going to get your best results not by saying someday but through what you do on a day to day basis. John Maxwell said you will never change your life until you change something that you do daily. I like to think of it in terms of what you do on a day to day basis makes a difference in your life.

That’s what personal growth is all about.

Intentional Daily Growth

So what we are talking about is embarking on an intentional personal growth plan so that on a day to day basis you are working towards your goals. Set aside time on a day to day basis to work towards the goals that you have.

It ain’t easy, but nothing worth having is easy. But you know that.

If you focus on doing something on a day to day basis to move a little closer to your goals then incrementally it gets better.

Don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the end result. Be a 1%er. Focus just on that 1% growth you can achieve today. Choose what you will do beforehand; don’t just pick anything.

Remember the goal here is to grow towards your goals, not grow randomly.

Schedule a specific block on your calendar every day. It doesn’t have to be long; start with just 15 minutes. Protect that time ruthlessly and commit yourself to it and its going to make a difference in your life.

Not just in the future, but today.

One Thing You Can Do NOW to Grow

Posted on by

How Grows It?

So tell me how your personal growth journey is going.

Or more to the point…is it going?

Do you have a definitive plan? Is it written down on paper (or computer)? That alone is a great start.

Get Out of Your Head

Ask most people and they will tell you they have a plan but it’s all in their head. If you manage to get it out of them, you will find the plans vague at first. Not good enough.

Get out of your head and into your greatness. –Les Brown

Your personal growth plan has to be written down and it has to be specific. Not just what you want to do but by when and how. You can’t hit a target you can’t see.

But even that is not enough. You have to actually act upon that plan. This part can seem very overwhelming to most people because they see all that they have to do to reach their goal and it seems like so much that they get discouraged and just give up. Is that where you are? I know I have been there many times.

Bit by Bit

To overcome this, it helps to break it down. As they old saying goes you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Focus on what you can do right now to get a little closer to your goal. To become a better leader, connect better with people, build better relationships, learn to increase your influence; whatever your personal growth goals are they can be broken down into daily activities.

Become a 1%er

So think 1%.

Focus on growing yourself just 1% a day.

That’s a fairly easy thing to do. If you grow yourself by just one percent a day, then think about this: over one year you will have grown yourself 365 percent. Actually even more than that because it is exponential; one percent on one percent on one percent and so on. So if you focus on that one percent and do that on a daily basis, then you are going to get much closer to your goal.

Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow. -Doug Fireball

Pick It and Plan It

Start with WHAT you are going to do daily to grow. Read a book, attend an online seminar, practice a particular skill. You need to have a specific activity. Random doesn’t work. When we are specific, we choose activities that actually lead us where we want to go. Random leads us anywhere.

I’m a big fan of what Zig Ziglar called “Automobile University“. Buy CD’s ( or use your MP3 player) and listen to learn. Motivational recordings, instructional programs, books on audio; there is a never ending supply. You can even borrow some from the public library.

Did you know that if you subscribe to Success Magazine (and you should) that there is a CD in every issue with tips and guidance from thought leaders?

Whatever you choose, stick with it until you finish it. And most importantly, schedule it. Your commute to work is ideal for this.

Become a 1%er today and move closer to achieving your goals.

How Your Life Gets in the Way of Vision

Posted on by

Vision and Crisis

It’s a natural thing.

As you go through your daily life, you sometimes lose track of where it is you wanted to go. I do it; highly likely you do too. Also likely that the most successful person you can think of does it as well.

Dreams get lost in the shuffle of daily living. Crises appear, fires need to be put out. People are demanding our immediate attention. Things crowd in and as they say you have trouble seeing the forest through the trees and we just lose track of where it is we wanted to go.

There’s the old joke about the engineers that when you are up to your ears in alligators its hard to remember your initial objective was to drain the swamp.

And so we sometimes let our daily activities get in the way of our goals during the crisis of the moment.

Lead Through Crisis

As I said, it’s only natural and like the saying above, certainly not original. We can easily excuse our lack of focus on our vision away using daily goings-on as a crutch. After all, nobody would blame us, right? You gotta survive, right?

But this is the opportunity for you to step up! The opportunity to come forward and be the leader you were meant to be by bringing that vision back to the forefront!

This is the time to shine!

So here’s a couple of steps you can take to move positively in the direction of keeping your vision in front and getting yourself in place to accomplish those goals.

USE THE UP-DOWN METHOD. Write it down and post it up! Write that vision down on a piece of paper and post it up where you are going to see it on a daily basis. That serves as a daily reminder of what it is you are trying to accomplish.
ASK FOR HELP – FORM A TEAM. Take your strengths and your weaknesses, find people whose strengths compliment your weaknesses. And team together to help accomplish that goal.
SHARE THE VISION OFTEN. If you continually share the vision in words and actions to your team, that helps keep them focused on where it is you want to go.
ADJUST THE PATH AS YOU GO, BUT NOT THE VISION! Things will get in the way and won’t always go the way we want them to go, but we need to keep that vision at the forefront; the final destination of where we want to go.
HELP THE DREAMS OF OTHERS. As you bring team members on, they are going to have dreams of their own. See where your dreams mesh, where there are opportunities to work together for a win-win where everyone accomplishes their dream. You may find it is going on to greater things then you ever imagined possible.

Keeping that vision before you AND your team is critical.