Category: Change

More Control within

We hold more control than we ever know.

We’re pushed on by forces beyond our control every day. We do not have to bend to those forces. And most times, it is better if we do not. The forces at play are concerned about themselves, what their needs and desires are, and how they achieve through the skillful use of others.

We have to do this because of the money. We should really be doing that because of politics. We should be doing the other because of the neighbors… It seems as though demands are never-ending and resources are often meager at best.

With all of the above going on in our lives, I would just like to offer a thought. What if we didn’t? What if we gave up on letting others tell us to do this, that, and the other?

I’m not saying not to do anything. I’m talking about finding new voices to guide you. We always follow voices different than us, mainly because they’re different than us. We assume their difference makes them better. I believe I have found something even better than them.

I’m not saying to forget conventional wisdom. I am saying to look inside find that quiet voice within you. Not the one screaming in your head saying you’re doing everything wrong, rather the quiet voice, and consider it.

Do good for yourself and your family, and others. Strive to better yourself. And, help others to find that good within themselves. The real treasures in life aren’t things, the real treasures are the times we share with each other.

Yes, I Probably Should

Many people claim that they don’t like or want habits because they just do things when they’re needed. The truth of the matter is people don’t do things when they’re needed. They wait till everything is piled up, and it’s hard to walk across the floor, and you can’t see the sink anymore. Then the idea comes to mind, “I ought to clean this up.”

Usually, as we finish cleaning something up, it dawns on us that the time and work wasn’t too bad. And, as good as the place looks we should do this on a regular basis. And yes, I probably should.

When they’re up and fully running, habits are wonderful. Trying to get a habit up and running is tough. Times don’t work out, things get in the way, and believe it or not sometimes I just get tired.

I have to tell you I do not believe in bribery. I have been known, though, to initiate positive behavior modification. Positive behavior modification is a lot better than bribery. I modify behavior to meet a needed objective by having an incentive which is highly desired and only given after the modification conditions are fully met.

I want the dishes done every night and the kitchen cleaned before we watch TV. However, there are good shows on early in the evening, and I don’t want to miss any of them. Okay, how do I make this work?

I can clean the kitchen as I cook dinner, rinse and stack the dinner dishes into the dishwasher, and if full start it. If I get creative, I could spend about three or four minutes after each meal I eat, to rinse the dishes and stack them in the dishwasher. I could also pick up the kitchen as I cook whatever meal I’m eating. And that would also save time.

Please comment and tell me what other chores plague you, what you think a significant incentive would be to complete them, and how you would make them a habit.

Take A Look

We all have work we want to do in life, and we all have work we have to do in life.

If we are lucky, we like the work we do. Yet, some of the work is important whether we like it or not? When we get to this point, we need to stop and think for a moment.

Am I about to tell you that you don’t have to do work that you don’t like? Sorry, no. Some work we do not enjoy is still very important work. Instead, when faced with a task you don’t really want to do, stop and consider for a second.

Stop and consider why the task needs to be done. Consider what will happen if the task is not done. I hate to mow the lawn and trim the trees. So, I have some things to consider. Consider what the yard could look like if I did not do anything. Overgrown, bushes turning into trees, and havoc sprouting up everywhere. It would be a real unsightly mess. I may get some comments, but I sure wouldn’t like them.

Next, consider what the yard would look like if you did a half-hearted job. Wayward bushes and trees may be knocked down, most of the grass would be cut, you might even pile the trash into a central location. Yet the place would only look so-so. Would this really make you happy? Will it make you feel good? Or would it just be one more task done until you have to do it again?

Then, think of what the yard would look like if you really set out to do a good job. Trash bagged and ready for removal, the grass neatly trimmed with care and edges clean and straight, sidewalks swept, and proper maintenance of the lawn. Wow, this may take half the day or more. Just think of how you’ll feel about a good-looking yard when the work is done. Consider how future effort will be easier as long as the yard is kept up and maintenance may end up as little as a couple of hours a week, and that time may be spread over many days.

All of us are individuals, and as such, we all have things we do not like to do. We just need to look through the work, to see if we like the outcome.

I Owe You an Apology

First and foremost, I owe you an apology. I slipped away in the last week, only through my own fault. No one else forced me to do this, and nothing else should have been big enough to stand between me and the time I spend with you each week. And yet, I became mesmerized. For this, I am truly sorry and will try not to let this happen in the future.

I am now working on a new course that helps people to research what they want to do in life, find friends and mentors to help them by giving advice along the way, and make a map those goals and the milestones to get to them. We hope to start the first pilot class later this month, and it will be for veterans. I hope to have another pilot class after that for college graduates who are having a hard time finding the work they want to do in life.

Needless to say, this is an interesting and new aspect of a problem that is as old as life itself.  As I worked to build this course and deliver it, and with your permission, I will keep you advised and up to date.

The problem I am working to alleviate is not only held by veterans or college grads. Everyone who leaves one comfort zone for another can find themselves in the same quandary. Especially, if their departure was not planned or completely thought through.

As work goes on, I will keep you up-to-date on how it goes and as we get closer, talk to you about others that you know who may benefit from this.

Please forgive me my absence and please add comments as to articles I could post to help you in the future.

Time to Get Up

Today’s an exciting day. The weather is cool, the sun is out, and for a new day in a new week, life is pretty good.

I am embarking on a new idea. One, I hope will help many people. The project is called Reveille. Reveille is the bugle call you hear early in the morning when it’s time to get up, get started, and go out to win a new day.

No one likes to sleep in more than I do. And yet, all those things that I want to do cannot be accomplished with the covers over my head. I need to get up, clean up, drink up the coffee, and get out there where I can accomplish those items I need to do.

With your permission, as this week unfolds I will tell you more about Reveille, and more about how will be structured to meet your needs. For now, thank you for joining me in this wonderful announcement, and please come back to this blog to learn more as Reveille unfolds.

I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. If it’s is beautiful where you are, go out and seize the day!

 

New Way

We Have a Plan

Plans are important. If you think the plan will never change, you never faced a true enemy in combat. When you face-off in combat the first thing that changes are the plans. These days my plans normally revert to “yes dear” and “I’m sorry.”

As you craft your plans, the best idea to get everyone who is part of that plan involved. Not only do you get overall buy-in to the plan, but you also have the support of everyone, because they know and understand they are part of that plan.

I know this sounds strange that I’m telling you to plan and then tell you that your plans will change. To demonstrate this let me tell you about Boy Scout Troop which I helped run as a leader.

About four times a year the scouts would go out to a camporee, freezoree, or some other camping adventure with all of the troops in the Council. Imagine a vast field with between 75 and a hundred troops of boys in attendance and camping over the weekend. We used to hold an overnight camp-out a week or two before a camporee and train the scouts in our troop on all of the various skills which would be tested on in the games at the camporee.

Does this mean the kids had an automatic guarantee of winning the games? No. Like everything else in life, things do change. The boys were there to have fun and having a little knowledge about what they were doing made it more fun. The games were never exactly like what we taught them, yet having those skills helped to do well. They still had to do it, and adapt as things changed. But, at least they had a plan of how things work.

As you leave one comfort zone, even though you may not have been exactly comfortable with it at times, you need a plan. The plan alone does not guarantee an absolute victory. The plan and a little practice mean you have a good idea of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Will that plan change? Yes, dear, I’m sorry.

Protect What Is Valuable as We Move Forward

Sometimes when we live with jewels all of our life, we forget what is really precious. We sometimes take for granted the things that work so well. And, tend to ignore those people  that are always there.

When we make a change, the ripples of the change affect everything and everyone around us. The larger the change, the stronger the ripples around us are; and the more those who are near to us are affected. It is important that we are cognizant of, and pay attention, to those concerns.

Have you ever been in an earthquake? Having lived around the world, I have been in several earthquakes. Some that were over as soon as they started, and some that seemed to go on forever. The truth is, the time of earthquakes is usually shorter than you think. The reason it feels longer is that you don’t know when it’s going to stop. Just like the earthquake, ripples that are caused by the change of one person affect others more deeply when they do not know what is going on or where the changes are headed.

There is a really neat way to help dampen the ripples of change for both you and those around you. The nice thing is it doesn’t cost anything, it takes very little time, it provides everybody involved some great support. Just sit down with those concerned and talk to them about what is going on.

It’s amazing that when people know, they can work as a team and together they can do all sorts of wonderful things to meet challenges.  To grow, to move in  directions, and to set the basis to ultimately succeed, no matter what the odds are.  Whether you are moving to a new city, changing jobs, planning a retirement, or any number of other things, sit down with those around you and whatever you do you discuss it and do it together.

That is one mean old master sergeant’s thought for the day. Try talking to those around you, especially the ones you care about, and you’ll be surprised how much support and teamwork you actually will gain.

Talk to you again tomorrow, have a great one out there.

We change with the times

We have talked about the fact that nothing lasts forever. Even the glass bottle that we drink from and the glass vase that holds our flowers is actually in a liquid form very slowly, forever changing. And so we have a choice. As everything changes around us do we accept the fact and change with it? Or, do we put a stick in the sand and say, “Here I stand.”

We see this all the time. Because of this, some people are labeled as old fogies. Other people are just dismissed out of hand as not knowing because it was not of their generation. The truth is, it depends. It is actually up to you. Do you keep with the old times? Do you learn and grow and go with the new times? I vote for the latter. I am too young of the mind to start living in yesteryear and begin believing there are no worthwhile changes.

We see others, and sometimes ourselves, occasionally get stuck in the past. Does that mean we are forever doomed to live the life of what happened at the high school football game? Counting the rivets on a B-52 in North Dakota? The pain of a hangover a day after the frat party? The patrol that went sideways? Or whatever else is burdensome on our mind? I really don’t think we have to do that.

We have a choice. For me, I choose to remember the past, learn and live in the now, and celebrate the possibilities of the future.  We remember in order not fall into the same traps or repeat mistakes. Now is where I live. If I am not happy with now, I learned so that I can change it. I also learn to prepare my path into the future.

Right now I should not be living in the past nor in the future. Right now, I should live, except, and enjoy where and what I am now. I do this knowing that like glass, I am not a solid. Rather, I am something that is continually learning, growing, and reshaping my destiny.

Nothing is a forever

Nothing in our lives in this world lasts forever. Rarely is there an immediate change. Often the change is gradual. What is normal to us is what seems like slow progress, and is often viewed as a drastic change by those who leave and come back five or 10 years later.

To see changes in the galaxy, or in the universe, one would have to leave and come back in 1000 or 2000 years to notice a difference. Sometimes we change so slowly, we do not even recognize the changes within ourselves. One day we wake up, look at our reflection and wonder, “Where did that old Fart come from?”

Change is inevitable. I know that this is quoted until it’s  practically a cliché. However, it is still true. I am talking about the second law of thermodynamics. Everything will break down to its most common elements.

As change happens, we have a choice. We can look at change as a good thing, or we can look at change as a bad evil. If you read my blog for a while, you know why I believe change is good.

I look at all the ills in the world that have been cured. I look at better understanding and better thinking brought about by better communication which leads to better collaboration. I believe that the more we learn, the better we become as humans.

This week we will explore this topic in more detail. If you aren’t sure, we are working towards something here. Hopefully, it will be something good.

We will talk with you again tomorrow.

Laying Out the Day

Several weeks ago, we had a blog about laying out our clothes, shoes, socks, belt, wallet,  and accessories the night before work, rather than running down the day of work in trying to find everything.

What would you think if I told you you can do the same thing with your day at work for the next day. The nice thing about going over the next day the night before is it saves you time and emotion.

Just grab your calendar and go over it. Just to remind yourself of the meetings you have, whatever is due the next day and how much work you still have to do on at it, and how much free time you have and at what times during the day, because something will always come up to take care that free time.

If you understand what’s going on at the time, it is easier to face. A thank you and the office of the boss is smiles and grins and grips. Working with an unhappy customer make a cause for some contrition and an earnest pledge to find and fix whatever is wrong. And, counseling a team member who did not perform his tasks on time may cause the need for empathy, encouragement, and chiding in proper amounts.

Knowing all this ahead of time means that none of it catches you blindsided, and you have some time to think and prepare. Knowing ahead of time is nice because you are less likely to go off your script or make some foolish error based on lack of time to think and consider.