Category: Change

Inspire Someone

Thanks, we are glad to have you here with us again!

Have you been thinking about what we’ve been talking about this week? Have you been writing things down? This is your life. I think we each only get one, and it is important that you have the chance to live the life that does you honor.

I have been taking a course on various companies. Learning what motivated them. Learning about their passions. Learning what it took to become viable and sustainable. For the founders of these companies, it truly is work. It is the work of fulfilling their passion.

Two kids from the same high school, one in ends up flipping burgers and salting fries. The other is driving Mercedes and taking vacations to Hawaii. Why?

Think of life as trade offs. 

Even better, think of where your passions live.  What do you need to do to fulfill them?  And, how that helps others because if done right, you could inspire generations that come after you. Don’t believe me?  Three words: Disney, Ford, Edison.

Mountains and Molehills

Hi there!

Did you sit down and consider the questions from yesterday? Did you write something down?

I saw a saying that goes you can be anything you want to be. A Variation on the saying is that you can do anything you want to do. Another variation is you can go wherever you want to go in life.

For some people, those things appear to be just lip service. They point at obstacles, and hindrances, and the results of poor decisions because no one to give them a chance. At the same time, there are people whose mountain of concerns make other people’s look like molehills, and yet they succeed.

Many people look at those who succeed and say, “Sure, but there they are outliers.” My thought on that is, “Yeah, so?”

You can do whatever it is you set your mind to. And, the second part of that? You have to be willing to do what it takes to succeed.

We will talk about what that looks like tomorrow.

A Few Questions To Think On

Last week we covered habits and systems. If you have the right systems inform the right habits to use them life gets a little easier. Without the right systems and the right habits, life gets tougher.

To understand what we need to do and why we must take a step higher, and look around. To help you with this, you need to get your notebook or writing pad, and you need to break down what is most important to you. This list is very important to you. You are making this list to better understand where your work is.

As you start to make your list, I’m learning to ask a few questions just to help you get started and to help you think a little bit about what is most important to you.

Which is most important:

  • Does family come before or after employment?
  • Which comes first, kids or friends?
  • Do you take care of yourself or others first?
  • Is your car a showpiece, or something to get you from point A to point B?
  • Are you happy with the way your house or apartment looks? If not, what steps do you take to change the appearance?
  • Do you ever not go to the doctor because of work needs?
  • How many nights a week do you not get enough sleep? Why?

The next question tells you where you want to end up.

  • If at the end of your life, your friends and family and former coworkers throw you a Three speeches are made about three significant things in your life. What do you want the three items to be? And what would you like the speakers to say?

When you get through thinking about this and writing everything down, a couple of questions are still left:

  • If you make no changes, will the speeches say what you wanted to hear?
  • If not, what would you change so the speeches could be given in a way you would like to hear them?
  • What do you think it would take to make the speeches reality?
  • Are you willing to put in the effort?

These are the questions for you to ponder. Making notes and writing things down is quite often less confusing and ensures that you will probably not forget the subtle things that you should remember along the way.

Looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow, have a great day.

Do you wash your dishes by hand? Or, do you use a dishwasher? Do you take care of dishes and get them into the dishwasher as soon as you use them, daily, or to you wait until you can no longer see the sink and/or most of the counter?

The easiest time to take care of something is before it grows. Handling one or two plates to clean them and/or put them into a dishwasher is easier than looking at the kitchen three days later when you can no longer see the sink. You are also less likely to run out of the utensils you use the most. And, with the kitchen looking better, you feel better.

A House with less clutter helps keep the mind clutter free.

The easiest time to ensure that you have your clothes, shoes, belts, purses, car keys, socks and wallets is to put them all together the night before. Place them in one place where you plan to get dressed so that everything is ready for the next morning. Some of you are saying, ‘Oh yeah that’s the only way to do it.’ Others are saying, ‘That’s a waste of time.’

There are some great advantages to gathering everything the night before. How many times have you gotten dressed and then been unable to leave the house because you can not find the car keys? How often do you spend valuable morning time looking for two socks that match? How many times did you wake to find out that there were no pressed or wrinkle free pants or shirts? It happens.

When you set up everything the night before you save time. Your stress levels are lower, and once you’re dressed in the morning, you feel better. You were prepared.

Is it easy? Never at first, although when you are used to it, you will think it is the only and best way. You will have developed your system for being ready, for having less stress, and you will find you are happier because of it.

Systems and Habits

The more I work in my chosen field of my business, the more I know that I need good systems. I also know that if I don’t have the habit to use the systems, they will fall by the wayside. That does neither my consumers nor me any good.

I was born into a military family. Dad was a staff Sgt. the Army and just as everything was shipshape at work, so would things be ship shape at home. I still remember having to answer the phone with my expected saying,” Balof quarters, Mike speaking.” After a while, as I grew, I stepped away from all the rigmarole. I believed in spontaneity, and I had a belief that everything would be done in time, just that maybe the time wasn’t now.

When I went into the Air Force, everything came back. I was used to the various systems of doing things and the habits that were trying to be instilled. And I understood them in a new light. When I had my kids, I remembered what I went through with my dad, and did not want to inflict that upon them. Try as I might a little always seeps through. Yet, I did my best to instill in them their free agency.

After being out of the service for over 20 years, I have decided to go into my own business. I write these blogs that you get to read for free, and I love to make them. I write books which are a lot of fun. And I’m still developing courses as I have done for the last 15 years. Only this time, I am making the majority rather than the minority of them for online presentation. And the one thing I know for sure, for everyone who uses my offerings, I need to have good systems in place, and good habits to serve you better.

With your permission, this week I am going to spend our five days together looking into habits and systems and similar items we can all use to be better at what we do.

If you would like to share, please add to the comments below and let us know about your favorite habits and the type of systems you use to stay on track. When we learn from each other, we learn great things, and everyone does better because of new knowledge.

We look forward to being with you again tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great day.

 

If You Change Your Angle

Hello and welcome back.

We’ve been talking about comfort zones. Up until now, we’ve been talking about having a comfort zone and going to a new one as something fearful. There are always worries about what might happen. The truth is you don’t know until you try.

Would it be fearful for something to offer you a large sum of money? To give you prestige? To give you a better lifestyle? You’re probably expecting me now to tell you all this happens with the comfort zone to the next. Sorry. As stated in the last blog, I have been around the block a few times. But I am here to tell you that with a little research and a little work moving from one comfort zone to another can be a very good thing.

Look at changing a comfort zone like this. I had a friend in Alaska who won a free trip to Hawaii from a radio station. It was for him and his wife, and the catch was they had to leave in two days. They both had jobs, and kids, and other responsibilities.

Most people would have just said no I can’t go, I have too many responsibilities. The contest involved packing suitcases, so the suitcases were packed. They each made a quick call and explanation to their jobs and their employers who understood and encouraged the trip. The next-door neighbor, who they traded babysitting with offered to take care of the kids while they were gone. And in about 18 hours, they were ready to board the plane and enjoy a vacation paid for by local radio station.

Many things look impossible when you’re down looking up. If you can change your angle of view a little bit, you can start to see ways in which obstacles diminish and opportunities become possible.

Take another look at the worries and concerns that you may have in trying to achieve something new. If you can adjust the view, maybe with reading a few articles or watching a few YouTube videos, maybe you can see a way.

Thank you for being with me today and listening to one person’s ideas. We hope you find the way to seek and find what you’re looking for.

We look forward to being with you again tomorrow. Thank you.

 

 

Just One Opinion

Thank you for being here again, it is always great to provide these blogs for great people and friends such as you.

Yesterday we talked about the fears of leaving the comfort zone. And indeed there are real fears in doing so. And considering that, why would anyone ever want to leave their comfort zone facing all that fear? Before we decide to stay where we are forever, let’s look at some other views of comfort zones.

Comfort zones can quite often hold us back when it is time for us to move onto something better. Again this happens because fears of the unknown prey upon us and make us want to stay where not everything is perfect, but at least we know more about the situation.

What we need to remember is we are smart, strong people. We can easily learn new ways and Excel at new tasks and, if we are training correctly we can excel. And these days training is as easy as YouTube and the Internet.

I’m here to assure you, if you do not try you will never know the great things you could accomplish. If you do not move out of one comfort zone, you will never get the rewards of the next comfort zone.

I believe it was Teddy Roosevelt when talking to a gathering of business leaders, both successful and unsuccessful. He told them he was glad to be there because everyone there had one thing in common. He told them it did not matter, were they successful or unsuccessful. The thing that they had in common was everyone in the room had tried. And Teddy Roosevelt felt that the most important thing was to at least try.

Can I promise you that everything will always be roses, and nothing bad will ever befall you? Sorry, I’ve been around the block a few times myself. What I will say, is that Win, lose, or draw, you will be happier in trying, than in never trying and not knowing.

Of course, this is one man’s opinion. But it is one person’s opinion, shared by a president of the United States and a multitude of others.

Thank you for being here with us today. Please leave a comment, and we look forward to meeting with you again tomorrow.

 

 

Think about your Comfort zones

Thank you for being with us today.

We have been talking about comfort zones and what may happen when we have to leave one comfort zone and move to a new comfort zone.

Sometimes we are convinced that if we leave our comfort zone, we will never find another one again. It’s a real fear, and yet it is one that I assure you is nothing to worry about. Will you find a comfort zone? Yes, you will build it for yourself, we always do.

Look back over your life, and think for a moment. How many times have you changed comfort zones? The first day of going to school, whether it was kindergarten or first grade, was a change in your comfort zone. It was something new and different. And, although it may have looked scary at first, you met people, learn things, and were better overall from moving from one comfort zone to another.

I can cite several other times you changed comfort zones at least times most of us did. Going from grade school to junior high. The first day of high school initiated a change of comfort zones. Your first job. The first time he left home on your own. Matriculating to college is a very scary change in comfort zones. And there are many others.  Some happen to everyone, and some are unique to ourselves.

We would like to encourage you to take a few minutes and think about the different comfort zones you found yourself in throughout your life. What was good about the comfort zone? What about the comfort zone wasn’t as good as the comfort zones you had before it or after it? And, before you changed from one comfort zone to another what were the knowledge points you wish you would’ve known ahead of time?

Please think this over, and if you wish to, please feel free to share in our comments area.

Please have a great day. And, remember, any time you move from one location to another whether it is to the end of the block for coffee or to the other side of the country for a new job, do so safely

Comfort Zone Security

Looks like we secured some of the technical problems with the computer and the microphones and today we are looking at why somebody would move out of their comfort zone.

I like my comfort zone. It is not neat, and not pretty. My comfort zone, though, is something that I am used to living in. I know where things are. I know most answers to whatever may come up. And I understand what my expectations and limitations are within my comfort zone. And yet, I have had to move out of the comfort zone many times before, and I know I will do so several times in the future.

Sometimes we move out of the comfort zone because we search for something better. Sometimes we move out of our comfort zone to support others in their quests. And sometimes we are forced out of our comfort zones through actions and changes which we had very little control over.

Some of my changes in comfort zones were because I was in the military and moved from one base to another. These changes were very agreeable to me because as a child my father was in the military, and we would move every two or three years. I liked seeing new surroundings, seeing new things and of course learning.  Every time you move from one comfort zone to another you learn new things.

Sometimes those things aren’t what you really wanted to learn. That is okay. I have a philosophy that says learning is good. At one point after I retired from the military, I learned what it was like to have your factory to close and move all of its operations overseas. I did not ask for this to happen. I was unhappy for myself and the hundreds of people out of work. This forced me to change my comfort zones whether I wanted to or not.

Everything being equal, you are at most risk when you move from one place to another. It is true when you go from one house to another, and when you’re on the road. The risk is present when you move from one job to another and have to learn new ways of doing things. When you move from one neighborhood to another, positive changes include meeting new friends. Negatives include the fact that you don’t know what the good and bad of the new neighborhood will include. Risks are always unpleasant. To minimize risk, we always want to get back into our comfort zone, new or old, as fast as possible.

With your permission, in upcoming blogs, I would like to explore the idea of the comfort zones a little bit more in detail. And maybe with the help of you and others, define some precautions that we can take while outside of our comfort zone which will make getting into the new comfort zone easier.

Thank you for reading, please leave us a comment!

 

 

 

What does your comfort zone look like?

Team,

Due to some technical issues, I will not be able to give a full blog to you this morning.  I would like to leave you today, though, with the thoughts that we will explore for a while, starting tomorrow.

When do you feel most comfortable?  Is it when you are in your comfort zone or when you are transitioning from one comfort zone to another?

The experts say we rarely leave our comfort zone of our own accord.  What would cause you to leave your comfort zone?

I will be back tomorrow, and we will look at these in detail.

In the meantime, please use the comments section below to share what your comfort zone looks like and what it would take for you to move to another comfort zone.