Category: Uncategorized

Guiding Your Future

Many people tell me that they cannot plan their future because there are too many variables.  And yes, variables do abound.  Guiding your future, though, is using those variables to your benefit and making good choices that help you to reach your goal. I’m willing to bet you do things like this now, on a much smaller scale. All you need to do is use the skills you already have with a slight widening of choices and lengthening of the timeline.

I can see the skeptics from here, so I’d like to give you a little demonstration. Let’s say that you went to work this morning, and your team invited you to go with them to see the new movie that was premiering tonight. Everyone’s going to meet at one person’s house near the movie theater to share some munchies and then go from there to watch the movie. You agree to go. And will bring some chips and dip. Now, there are things you need to do to get yourself organized and ready for the night’s festivities.

You’ll need to change from your work clothes into something more comfortable. By planning what you’re going to wear ahead of time, you’ll avoid having to make that decision when you get home. You’ll need to pick up some chips and dip. And you can save time by calling the grocery store that is on your way home and asking them to have a seven-layer dip in a large bag of tortilla chips ready for you so you can just run into the deli and get them on your way home.

Next, you want to have a little information about the movie. On your morning break, you look the film up online to see comments from the director, who stars in it, and exciting stories of what happened during the filming. That way you have some good things to talk about. These actions are ones you would probably do anyway. By getting organized, and planning them up front, you were able to make all the individual efforts easier on yourself.

The same is true for planning your future. You are going to want to do something, so start by figuring out what that something is. You may not know everything you want to know about it, so you start by looking it up online. Finding out about the career field and talking to others to understand what the career is really all about.

You’re going to need to test the waters. This includes taking some courses, talking with people who are in the career field and trying it out for yourself in small doses. Maybe you volunteer to help out to learn more things firsthand. The more of a social interchange which you can have with people who are where you want to be, the more you can learn. Remember there two sides to every coin. The front side says that everything’s okay. And the other side often telling the truth. A good mentor will ensure that you see both sides of that coin.

You really want to know if your desired profession is needed or will be needed when you are there. You want to know if your chosen profession will provide a living wage or will you have to modify the way you live to be able to work within the business. And you want to know if all the work and additional duties that go with such a profession will fit within your temperament.

You won’t have any of these answers until you really start planning and organizing your adventure. Until then, it’s just a pretty good pipedream. But you are smart, and you can learn. Do your best for you.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Go Forth and Do Good

Go Forth and Do Good

For many days now, we’ve been talking about emotion, caring, and passion. It is essential to understand where the feelings and emotions come from, and yet there is no forward motion without action. For better or for worse, no one can ever possibly take your steps for you. Those actions only happen when you make them so.

If you have noticed, no one has said it is going to be easy. And it rarely is. Yet, if you work hard to do good, you will know both the ecstasy and the agony of those who try, and those who do. And within that, you will find your own peace.

There are a couple things you can do, which will help you greatly. First, understand the idea that your passion leads you to and do all of your research on it. Too many plans go asunder because of minor details that could’ve been easily avoided with just a little research.

The second thing, which is a little harder to avoid, yet absolutely necessary to succeed is to ignore the naysayers. Everybody without a stake in the game will have an opinion. Unfortunately, most of those others with a view will have a negative one and a litany of reasons why you could not accomplish whatever it is you’re trying to do. And sadly, some people will listen to the naysayers and give up a perfectly viable project.

The best way to overcome the negatives is to do your research and put your plan in writing. Be aware that the plan will change. All plans do. Even the most sophisticated plans of the military usually are no longer sound at the moment they meet the enemy. Having a plan in writing, though, gives you a better ability to look at it and see what might happen, and plan contingencies accordingly.

Remember, not all plans will succeed. Although you should take a look at all the items being sold on the market these days. Some will succeed in the future, and some may fail. And some will go on for 100 years or more. The mere fact of everything that is being marketed and making a profit has to tell you it’s at least possible. Whether you are a large corporation, a mom and pop shop, or a social entrepreneur, the possibilities are there. And, win, lose or draw, the fact that you worked hard to do good can give you peace in your heart and the knowledge that at least you set forth and gave it a try.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again soon.

The Good Use of Passion

Passion used correctly is a positive tool for doing good for others. People like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates have all used their passions for the greater good of others. And yet they are only a few of the most notable. Because we all have passions. We also have the ability within us to turn those passions into something great for mankind. Easy? No. Doable? You bet.

To make passion work, you must make it work for both yourself and others. For passion to be positive, it needs to flow. Take a lesson from the river Jordan. The sea of Galilee thrives because it allows the Jordan River to flow through it. This allows the sea to have an abundance of sea life, fishing, trade, and commerce. The sea does well for those who live around it, making their lives better because it is open to the flow.

Look at the other end of the river, and what do you have? The Dead Sea. All of the good that happens in the Sea of Galilee is missing from the Dead Sea. And one small item which is missing causes this. The Dead Sea does not have flow. Everything going to the Dead Sea stays there. Because it is stuck in the Dead Sea and has nowhere to go (no flow,) nothing grows.

And, this is an object life lesson which we can avoid if we want our passion to grow and if we’re going to help others. We can create a flow of our passion and our knowledge from us to others. The best thing we can do to create this flow is to help others to leverage off of what we’ve created so that they can go forth and do even better. It is in the creation of these win-win situations that our passion finds its true potential and the ability to grow a life of its own.

I have a funny feeling that somebody is reading this and saying, “That sounds good, but I can’t give things away, I have to make a profit.”

And yes, everybody has to live and to do so everyone has to earn. Yet when I look at people such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, all the way back to Michelangelo and beyond, I don’t think that what they have shared with billions has ever hurt their bottom line. Remember, none of these people had a significant stake to start with, and yet no one can deny the greatness that they have done for both themselves and for others.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Passion

We discussed feelings. Feelings are our emotions, telling us what we like and what we don’t like. Then we talked about caring. Caring is like emotions, only you can care for anything. And you can care for things in various ways with different levels of how important the item or thought you care for is. Now we need to talk about what happens when you really care.

When you really care, you can feel a visceral experience where you just know what must happen and what you have to do. This experience is called passion. And passion is important because its intensity is the motivator. Passion makes you want to get things done. With passion in the driver seat, you are going places. You just need to ensure that it is what you want to do and where you want to go. I say this because there is also a danger involved with passion.

Passion is a two-edged sword. While passion makes you believe that the whole world believes with you, and the thing you want to happen is the same thing that everyone wants to have. However, in this world of over 7 ½ billion inhabitants, getting everybody together on something is a highly unlikely action.

We often see passions failures on the news. A person who is willing to kill everyone to have the wife he wants. The person who believes that anyone not believing like him or her needs to be eliminated. The person who believes that donning a vest and blowing up themselves and others are the will of the higher deity. False bravado pitifully fails to define these heinous acts which were perpetrated by gullible people in the wrong beliefs of passion.

Before we discount passion as a danger to humanity, we need to take a look at the other side of this valuable gem. When two people fall in love together and work together to make their lives better, passion is a great thing. The men who went to the moon started out earning a couple of hundred dollars a month. No one was in it for the money, or the notoriety, or the fame. The first man to step on the moon was actually an introvert. They did it because there was a passion For learning new knowledge from somewhere man had never been.  

Passion helps us to do what needs to be done. It helps us to protect, to aid, to go over and above what an average person can accomplish, and hopefully do good for ourselves and for others. We just need to make sure we are on the proper side of passion.

In this blog, I did not mean to downplay the positives of passion, nor did I want to make passion seem evil or highly dangerous. Please remember, there is good and evil in everything. That doesn’t mean the thing itself is good or bad, it just depends on how we use all of those items. Inanimate objects do not have passion. We are the ones burdened with the choice between good or evil. Please choose wisely.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

What Do You Care About

Just as we all have feelings, we all have things that we do or do not care about.  When you care more about something then you do other items, you will find the feelings and emotions not too far away. Where felt feelings could be grouped into categories of about 30, what you care about can be almost anything. And the things that you care about can bring a wide range of emotions along with them.

You can care about something a little bit, and it’s no big deal. Maybe you like succotash or peas; However, you really don’t like Brussels sprouts. It’s not worth losing any sleep over. If somebody serves you Brussels sprouts at a restaurant, you just don’t eat them. This is an excellent way to save room for more dessert. There are things that you care about far more than vegetables, and I’m sure when you realize what they are, it will make a profound difference in how you feel.

We care for family, and we want them to do well. This is a tendency for us to sometimes drive the family and ourselves a little overboard. Especially when a son or daughter has an entry in the science fair or is getting ready for a recital. It is good to care, yet we have to temper our care with sound judgment. Winners should be those entrants who thought up and designed something good and not what the moms and dads did for their kids. The latter just takes the fun out of it for the kids and makes them feel as though what they think and do doesn’t count.

Something else we also have to guard against is those who will play on our emotions and the things we care about to get money from us. We have all seen the commercials that are designed to help free us from our wallets. Sad songs coupled with pictures of abused dogs and cats and asking for a monthly contribution. Destitute children in foreign countries playing in puddles and suffering malnutrition and dubious claims of how many people could be fed for how little a day. Rather than being filmed, the children should be taking care of and fed.

One that really got me recently is a young man who showed up at my door with a tote of candy bars and other things and a card explaining what he wanted to sell and where the money was going. I told him I wasn’t interested in buying anything and I thanked him. And he said, “That’s okay.” And then he did something that shocked me. He put his arm over his face and began to fake cry.

I kept an eye on him, making sure he wasn’t really crying. He wasn’t. But he looked up to see if I was watching. Then he walked away from the house, still acting like he was crying. And when he got to the edge of the driveway, He turned around to look back to see if I would call him back.

I did not call him back, although I wish I had. Not to buy something from him. I should’ve brought them back and given him some useful tips on how to sell things legitimately. As an entrepreneur, I would be willing to work with him and pass on what I’ve learned and maybe even coach him a little in ways of finding the right product and a favorable sales technique. If I knew his family, I would certainly call and make the offer.

Next time, rather than standing shocked at petty deceit, I plan to be a little bit more inclined to make an offer that may genuinely help someone.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

What Do You Feel?

Whether you realize that you are feeling something or not, you are feeling.  We all feel.  Yes, all the time.  Sometimes we grow callous of our feelings. And sometimes we just bury our emotions with all the other things that we have to do. When we don’t feel well, it is easier to hide our feelings than to understand why we feel the way we do and fix what is wrong.

Sometimes trying to understand feelings is just overwhelming. I remember one day when my coach gave me a paper with pictures of 30 different feelings on it. She asked me how I felt. I couldn’t choose, I could not pick anything. I was overwhelmed. There were just too many choices, and I could not figure out how I should feel. And that was my big mistake.

When it comes to feeling, there is no right or wrong. There is only what is. And yes, it is vital for you to understand how you feel. If you feel good, knowing why helps you to repeat the experience. If you feel bad, knowing how and why is a starting point so you can work on helping yourself to feel better.

No one else, not spouses, counselors, coaches, doctors, kids, or the family can make you feel better. It comes from you, from the inside. All the others can help, but it boils down to you. And yes, we are all overwhelmed today. There are just too many outside stimuli. So if you have problems with this, find a quiet, comfortable place where you can spend some time each day and work on better understanding yourself.

Although you are the only one who can genuinely help you, coaches and counselors and mentors can help. It is a sign of strength to realize this and asked for assistance. Asking means you recognize the need to move from where you are, to where you want to be. And when you ask, skilled helpers will often be there to assist.

Indeed, nobody can do this for you, yet where you are others have been. I have learned this myself through intense trial and error. It was not easy. It was much better than staying where I had been.

Everyone feels. And everyone feels the entire range of emotion at one point or another. It is better to understand why you feel and what you want to do about it.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Choices

As we talk about moving into the future and planning our route, we need to understand that sometimes we will end up on a plateau. The trip to where we are going is not as much an inclined plane, as it is a series of steps. We rise by learning new things and then stand on firm ground to practice them and understand meanings and actions. And sometimes the best way requires taking a step down on the ladder of success to go up again.

I would like to revisit the story of an old Master Sergeant who climbed this ladder. He started off as a recruit in basic training. All he had to do was learn, do with those in charge told him, and try not to look too far ahead. When he graduated basic training, he was promoted earning his first stripe. After the nine-month tech school in electronics, he was sent to his first duty assignment and promoted with his second stripe. He was now an Airman First Class

It took him a short time to see that the sergeants told the airmen what to do, and the airman went out and did. And in time he was happy to become a sergeant. As the years went by, his number of stripes grew as he was promoted. And, as he was promoted, he was given various additional duties and details which were demanding at times and did cause stress. Finally, he earned his sixth stripe. He was now a Master Sergeant.

As time went on, he ended up the shop manager for a one-of-a-kind satellite depot. He ran a shop of 25 people, and they were charged with fixing broken components, and repairing or modifying satellite ground stations around the world as needed. He also owned the stress and concerns that came with the job. One day he was standing at his office door watching as the airmen repaired circuit boards and tested them to ensure proper calibration. And, he started to think, how great it would be to sit at the bench again and only have to fix circuit boards.

We all have times, as we go through life, where we think of how great it would be to go back to a simpler time. And if we did so, how much easier life would be. Many people feel embarrassed by these feelings. However, taking stock of where you are, how you got there, and where you’re going is a good thing.

Checking on where you are and seeing if you really want to be there helps you to know if you are in the right place and on the right path. Although many stop and think about the simpler times, it does not mean that they are on the wrong path. Sometimes, it just helps to reinforce the fact that it’s better to be in the wheelhouse helping to make decisions, then to be in the boiler room doing the work and not having a say.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Do or Do Not

I have to start off today with an apology. I wrote a fantastic blog yesterday, which my computer locked up, dropped, and lost as soon as I completed it and started the save process. This is not the first time I have been foiled by electronic technology. And I am sure it will probably not be the last. Yet, I cannot merely leave it at that point.

First off, electronic technology problems are a side issue. I take full responsibility for not delivering your blog to you yesterday. I assure you that I will take more productive steps in the future to ensure your blogs are ready to be sent and will be in place when you wish to read them.

Secondly, and I have just had a poignant demonstration of this very recently, complaining, never gets anything done.  Doing consists of the actions you take after you realize only because you complain, a fix usually does not instantly and magically appear.

If you want something done, it is up to you to help determine and understand the root cause. With the root cause found, a permanent fix can be developed and implemented. With the problem permanently fixed, it gives you more time for things other than worrying and complaining.

Of course, if you are actually looking for peace and quiet, you may have something with the complaining. If you complain that long enough, loud enough, pretty soon no one will come around to talk to you or call you back when you call. The problem with the constant complaining is the harm it does to your blood pressure, possible aneurysms, and your overall health in general.

As a mean old Master Sergeant, please allow me to suggest that you take the steps of a wise old saying. Do something when you can, understand why it cannot be done if you cannot fix it, and have faith in yourself, and others, that you will be able to tell the difference. You could be like the man of old, always riding off to tilt at windmills, yet does that really fix anything? And you could fold up your tent, sneaking off in the middle of the night claiming that nothing could be corrected, but that would rob others of your ability to work at the things you could change.

I am not telling you what you should or should not or must do. Only you can know that for yourself. The choices are yours. You have to choose what is important enough for you to go tackle. And understand what your abilities to correct something actually are. As for me, I am going to work at ensuring my products meet my client’s expectations, and I can deliver them as promised.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Your Path – Your Choice

Yesterday the question was asked, “Are you willing to do what it takes to learn what you want to know?” This is a question that each of you must answer for yourselves. No one else can speak up for you. And, there is no one flying around in a tutu, smacking people upside the head with a wand, and granting them complete knowledge over a subject. You must make the decisions, and you have to do the work.

Nothing in the world is stagnant. Whichever answer you give moves you in a new direction. And whichever direction you go in will bring you closer to, or farther from your goals. If you plan to spend your time doing something, shouldn’t it move you closer to your goals?

It sounds strange, but sometimes the smallest of actions can make a considerable determination in placing us closer to our passion or farther from our goals. These are the things you have to take a close look at as you plan what you want in life, and where you want to end up. Reinforcing your decisions actually helps determine what you do next. If you’re going to go for your gold, is it time to start some actions?

One of the first actions in finding out what you want to do is learning about it. YouTube adventures and trips to the library are both excellent starts. You will probably find out, though, the best way to understand what you’re life goals are about is to talk to those in the industry. Find out who is doing what you would like to do and make an appointment to speak with them.

Find out if there is a shadowing program where you can go out with somebody for a day or two and see what they do and how they do it.

Just a side note. If you’re thinking of becoming a cowboy, going to a dude ranch does not count as job shadowing. In this case, job shadowing may include riding a horse, herding cattle, sleeping under the stars and other real work that cowboys do.

As you explore your passions and what you would like to do in life, you want to make sure you’re seeing the real thing and not a glorified idealism of what people think the job should be. You will do much better as long as you’re looking at real-world work and not just what you think it should be. Sometimes you’ll find the realism harsh, and in that, you’ll know if you’re on the right path or not.

Unfortunately, there is little I, nor anyone else can do for you. We can encourage, give thought, listen, suggest, and other sideline actions. Only you can do and only you know if it’s what you really want to do or not.

This time is filled with both doubt and excitement. And, these actions are vital to your later happiness. It is it much less stressful and less costly to recognize something and change plans now than it is to chase a false dream for a decade or two and then realize it’s not where you want to be.

Just remember you’re never too young, and never too old. You are the only one walking your path, and you are the only one who can make your decisions.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Are You Willing?

We can all step up to the occasion and do something positive if we have to. Anyone can get lucky one time or another. The question becomes, are you willing to apply yourself to your endeavors? Faced with being put on the spot most people can Buffalo their way through most things, even with not knowing all the facts that are pertinent to the subject. Therefore, the question becomes, “Are you willing to do what it takes to become good at your craft?”

Everyone knows some things, no one knows everything. You have to figure out what you already know and what you are willing to learn? If you want to know about something, reading a book is a good start. If you wish to know some more about anything, you take a class. Taking a class provides you with somebody who you can interact with and ask questions. This is also a good step. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to really teach you.

If you genuinely want to learn about something, you need to teach what you know on the subject. If you’re thinking, “I can’t do that, I don’t know that much.” In my answer to that is both yes and no. Yes, you don’t know as much as you’re going to have to you teach the class. And no, you know more than the people you are teaching. Remember, you are not trying to make them gurus of the subject. You are only trying to teach them what you know.

I’m sure your next question is, and please correct me if I’m wrong, “How are people who do not know as much as I do, going to teach me more than I already know about the subject matter?” This is a very fair question. And probably because I have done this, the most straightforward question for me to answer.

You are teaching people who do not know as much as you do, which means you are helping them by teaching them what you know. The class, in turn, helps you because they will ask you questions you never thought to ask, yourself. You may feel that this puts you on the spot. And it might. Just thank the person who asks the question and let them know you’d prefer to research the right answer and bring it back to them. Explain that it is better than just giving something made up off the top of your head. The class will respect you for that.

When you’re given a question that you do not know the answer to, make sure it is written down. Bring it back to the next class. And explain it not only to that person but to the entire group, because other people will want to know the answer. The more you do this, the larger your reputation for understanding and sharing the truth will become. Also, the more you do this, the more you will learn. You must, because you have a whole class counting on you to do so.

The only question, “Are you willing to put this much work into knowing more?”

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tom