Author: Mike Balof

A retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Mike used to lay in bed at night and worry about what would happen if his plant closed or found himself without a job. One day his plant closed. Rather than panic and hysteria (OK, maybe a little) Mike found himself carried away on the adventure of his life. Mike started with the best job he ever had working at Home Depot. He spent 8 years working with job seekers at a local workforce center, helping them to find employment. He then started his own company developing courses, writing books and urging others to follow their own paths into the future. Mike holds a Master of Arts in Adult Education and Training and a Bachelor of Business Management, earned through the University of Phoenix and an AAS degree in Electronics Systems Technology from the Community College of the Air Force. Mike is a member of the Delta Mu Delta Business Honor Society.

The Road

I believe in doing things and going somewhere.  I have a hard time with just standing still.  So, I have a question. 

Lately, a millennia-long wrong has started to be set right. Women have joined together to take a stand against gender bias and sexual misconduct in the workplace. This is an excellent thing. No one deserves to be Discriminated against for any reason nor should sexual demands or expectations play any part in business.

At some point, to thoroughly heal, there has to be a reconciliation between offenders and those offended. Therefore, I have to ask a question:

What is the road to redemption?

The reason I ask this is that until a way to redemption is agreed-upon and undertaken, the wounds will not heal. Until the wounds heal the job is only half completed.

Even worse, as the pendulum swings in the opposite direction, the accused become a minority unable to participate in the workplace. Rather than entirely righting the wrong, we end up with a new minority who face the same wrongs which they were once responsible for inflicting.

I will agree if you say, ‘This sounds like just desserts.’ And it does. I just want to mention that nothing was ever solved through history without an agreement on atonement for crimes committed, whether legal or moral.

In the atonement, recognized as the road to redemption. I am not sure I have the wisdom to know what the way is in this case. I only understand the new injustices which could be inflicted without one.

Have a good day, and I look forward to blogging again tomorrow.

 

Slow Down

For a time, when I served in the Air Force, I worked for great Chief Master Sergeant. He worked very hard both completing a mission of vital importance, and training those who worked for him to be better workers, and better leaders.

The Chief always said one thing I never understood at the time. When people would miss a deadline, including myself, he would tell us we had to slow down. At that time, I did not understand the concept of slowing down. If I was missing deadlines, I felt I needed to speed up. It took me years to appreciate his wisdom in the statement of slowing down. And, today I know it.

The idea of slowing down is not one of ignoring what needs to be done. Slowing down means taking the time to do things right. To slow down correctly, you need to know the importance of each task you take on. And, allocate the proper time to those things that are important and must be done within a set timetable.

 Will some things still not get done? Probably. Yet, knowing that gives us choices to make. The first choice, is this something I should do or is it better delegated to someone else? Is this time sensitive? If so, have I been given enough time to complete it. If not, have I asked for more time?

I understand now that slowing down doesn’t mean doing less. Instead, it’s doing the things that must be done, wisely. And, always ensuring you have the time and resources to complete any task you undertake.

Thank you for being with me today. Hope you’re here again tomorrow.

It Is Definitely Better Than Shooting First

Good morning.

It’s a beautiful day today. And I am lucky enough to be able to sit in my house and listen to planes and helicopters flying and enjoying the spring weather.

Although most people would think of hearing aircraft as mere noise, the sounds remind me of how connected we are now as a people. And how good it is to be able to have that contact which is a lot closer timewise than it was even 75 or 100 years ago.

It used to be that we would get a fragment of a news report. Because of vast distances and slow communication, we would not be able to fully confirm nor deny the story. And, because of that vacuum in information, we would do what humans do best. We would think the worse until proven mistaken.

I’m not here to pick on us. Yet, think of how many times in our lives and how many times in history are dander is raised, and ire rule the day until more information is received. Is this unneeded concern a bad thing? Although usually not needed, I believe it is a primitive defense mechanism. If you don’t know what’s going on sometimes, the safest thing is to assume it’s not going to be good. We can always backpedal later.

Today we are lucky enough that we have excellent communication, good databases and easy ways to find the correct facts. I am not recommending that we should paint everything is rosy until proven otherwise. I’m just suggesting, a broad middle-of-the-road stance until we know for sure, is always a good policy. It is definitely better than shooting first and asking questions later.

Being knowledgeable, understandable, and a proper stance are things we should strive to accomplish. It makes a difference now as we live in our world and try to bring our global village together. It will mean more and be needed even more as we discover new things including new sentient species.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope you are with us again tomorrow.

Ahhh… Sensory Perceptions

Good morning.

The sky is blue, and the temperature is cool shirt sleeve weather.  This will be a great spring day.

Did you ever stop to think how things get done? The dread of taking out of the trash? The fear and loathing of the laundry? The dank despair of the dishes? There’s a very easy explanation to help all these things become accomplishments.

The truth is, they get done because the only thing worse than having to do these unpleasant deeds, is to not do them and have to live with the results. Therefore, we do the tasks we often hate. And as we do those tasks, we find a reward.

Our hard work culminates in several sensory delights. The area we were working in Looks better. The same area probably smells better. And, there is a comfortable realization that for the moment it is one less thing to do.

All of these sensory perceptions are actually highlighted by the release of endorphins in the brain that make you feel better. The endorphins and the positive sensory perceptions upon the completion of the task actually work together to provide you a very positive experience.

You still may not like to do the dishes or clean the bathroom. Yet, with positive completion experiences, you might be willing to do it again and sometime in the future. As these things come about, they form habits. Habits persist because of the outcomes they produce.

If the endorphins and positive sensory perceptions do not work out well for you, McDonald’s always worked for my kids.

Have a wonderful day and a fantastic week.

A Question?

Today I would like to ask a question.

I have found that most of my adult life I have been coaching people. In the Air Force, in manufacturing, helping people to find jobs, and even now as I write books and develop courses. I have done this over and over again, although definitely, each situation is different, with its own nuances.

I actually like coaching and helping people. Not for my own enjoyment, instead to help them. The real thrill is when I see the light of understanding click on in their eyes. It is the moment when something they’ve been trying to figure out comes to full knowledge.

I don’t want you to think that knowledge is a one-way street. I learn as much from my students and clients as they learn from me. I believe if I leave the classroom, work, or coaching situation without learning something new, I have really not done my job right. Because whenever two human beings collaborate, both should grow.

My question is a simple one. In the world that has more and more social media and yet less and less person-to-person collaboration, do you think that a service where someone can call up and talk to you for 20 minutes or a half hour and ask a question or two would be a viable service to offer?

This is just a thought, based on observation and viewpoints of what the worldview looks like today. Please send me a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Have a great day, and thanks for reading the blog and commenting on the question.

Understand the Inner You

It is amazing how well we can do a task when we set our minds to something.

Sometimes what we do is so far beyond what we think we are capable of that we can’t see what we truly did and what it really meant until later. The time lag in our recognition doesn’t take away what our actions meant to others or how it helped them. The turmoil and actions of the moment mean more at a distance. You have to step back and take a look at the actions and what they led to as a whole.

It is important to have a set of values, beliefs, or goals you normally work towards. What you normally would work towards is what helps to ground you in the moments where you’re not so sure what the correct course of action is. This internal compass is going to help you to reach out and do the best you can.

When I was younger, there was a paper with many different feelings on it. And I was often asked to state how I felt any given time. I did not understand it then, I was used to people telling me what to think and feel. And yet now I have learned that knowing my feelings are very important. You need to know your feelings because they are you. And, we all need to be responsible for our own feelings.

To take ownership of your feelings, you need to know two things:

  • How do I feel?
  • Why do I feel that way?

This is the start of understanding your inner self and reading your inner compass correctly. When you can control your inner self, you can go far and do many wondrous things.

This is something to think about and to consider.

Have a great day, and I hope to talk to you again tomorrow.

 

From the Inside Out

Have you ever considered why sometimes no matter how much you try you just cannot get the results you are looking for? You feel that no matter what you do there is so much else in the way that you end up not doing anything? To accomplish something, you have to do the right thing. Maybe it’s a good idea to start by looking at what you need to do and stack it up against what you want to do.

We are not just one thing or another. We are human beings, and we are a conglomeration of everything that affects us. To do good work, we need to work from the inside out.

If I don’t sleep well, my work suffers. If I am worrying about everything all the time, my work suffers. If my house and yard are a mess, my work suffers. I need to remove those things that cause my work to suffer, and I need to enhance whatever makes my work thrive.

Does this mean I can’t work at all until everything else in my life is perfect? If we waited for perfection, none of us would ever get any work done. Nothing or at least very little in life is perfect. You have to strike a balance.

I may not be able to do full work while healing from an operation, complete the spring cleaning, or rearrange my schedule to get a full night’s sleep. I could, though, break my work up into bite-sized bits that I could handle.

Maybe I start out by just taking one hour in figuring out a plan of what I need to work on. Maybe I’m planning a new book. Maybe I’m writing a blog. Maybe I am painting a new painting. Whatever it is I just take time and draw a map or timeline, remembering to provide enough time and research to complete the project. If I’m painting a painting, maybe the next day I just put an outline on the canvas. If I am writing a book, maybe I sit down at the computer and just list some of the major events.

If I am writing a book, maybe a start off within the week by writing a sentence. And the next day I write two sentences. The idea is to build slowly until I can write between 500 to a thousand words for the book in a day. My time is still on working from the inside out to take care of me, to take care of around my surroundings, and to take care of my work.

Everything will not become perfection. Yet, what I will find this a sense of equilibrium. This is an equilibrium where the inner me is in balance with my surroundings and my surroundings give me the ability to better perform my work.

I wish I could tell you exactly how to do certain steps in a certain order to accomplish this. I will work on that for you if you wish. Although, I must tell you that every person and every situation is different. And each of us needs to be responsible for ourselves and seek our own way.

Look forward to talking again tomorrow.

 

Hooray for Monday

The snow is still on the mountain. There is an old Native American expression that states as long as the snow is on the peak the winds will continue to blow. I believe those old Native Americans are pretty smart people.

I had an amazing weekend.  As a mean old Air Force master sergeant, I used to move often. Well, about every three years or so. And during the move, the house would be cleaned, items not needed anymore would be disposed of, files would be Cleared and straightened up, all in preparation for the big day.

After we bought our house in 1994, we have not moved since. We enjoy the house. We dust, we make the beds, clean the kitchen and cut the yard. And, it seems as though in the last 23+ years, we have not prepared for a move. I started to recognize this one day about a year ago when I looked around and said, “Holy crap. Where did all this stuff come from?”

Since then, I have been slowly and steadily trying to battle the overflow of all those wonderful things that sneak into our lives and then turn into junk. Some days as the battle rages the junk wins.  Some days, like this last weekend, I get to put a dent in it. At least I now have my files 75% organized and thinned of unneeded items.

I know that this is a small victory in the overall junk wars. Yet, I will take any victory I can get.

Have a great start to a good week. Hope to talk with you again tomorrow.

Have a great day

 

Not Just Now or Then

We are hoping life is treating you well today.

It seems as though sometimes as technology changes, old and inefficient ways tend to drop by the wayside while newer and more innovative technologies take over. That is the way of the earth and the way it is probably meant to be. After all, when was the last time you saddled up the horse or took the buckboard to the store for groceries? It does still happen yet not like it did.

I know there are those who live in the years of their youth, and others who live in the years of their parents. Truthfully though, as good as the old days were, today is better. More diseases are cured, there are more empathy and understanding in the world, and, they’re more people able to do more things because of advances in technology and humanity.

Are there still illnesses to cure? Is there strife that is unneeded and still needs to be calmed?  Are wars still prevalent around the earth? The answer is yes, and there are poverty, homelessness, and crime. Yet think about it for a moment would you like to be living now or hundred years ago? Were there positives 100 years ago? Yes, there was. Was there unnecessary evil a hundred years ago? Yes, there was and much more than there is now.

I do not condone the evils and hardships of today, and I believe these are the challenges we and our next generation have to work on. And yet, as you look at our timeline you can see advancements in almost any area you wish to search.

Before taking the ideal approach to where the blame the good and the evil lives, we need to understand that good and evil lives within each and every one of us. And, we need to understand the good and the evils we see within the world also rage within us. This is true because sometimes every positive has a possibility of a negative side. That is why we need to think before we act. And it helps to understand the positive and negatives of every action and subsequent reaction.

Just something to think about today as we go on with our lives and our routines.

Thank you for reading with us today.