Category: Uncategorized

Tomorrow Is a New Dawn

Tomorrow is a new dawn. The start of a new day and the possibilities that day brings for all the great things in life. Just imagine what tomorrow might bring.

We get so used to the idea of the new Dawn because during our lives we have seen it happen so often. We get accustomed to the fact that there will be a new day in the morning. The new chance for a beautiful sunrise, dew on the grass, and beauty all around us in the air and on the ground.

Sometimes we just cannot see the beauty and wonder of it all, because we get a little jaded by its regularity. Yet it’s the most wonderful thing you can think of. Whoever put this whole plan into motion took great care. The cycles work well sunrise and sunsets, seasons and years.

In our day to day hustle of work, kids to school, bills to pay, and important things to do, we sometimes forget to stop and look. If you have the sun rising and purple on the mountain and crops in the fields, forests before you and the beauty of the shoreline again with its ebb and flow of the tides with the crashing of the waves to the shore, it is something to behold.

In the neatest thing, we each see something a little bit different within the new morning. It is as though each morning was crafted especially for each and every one of us.

Interesting things are coming up in the next week, and I will be very excited to tell you about it on Monday. Please remember without change, better things never happen.

Hope to be in touch with you again Monday.

What Is Next

Often, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of the rat race. Rather than having time to say that you’re glad that’s over with, as you finish one thing, you’re rushing forward to the next because you feel you are behind in your work. Other times, you may be idle and have so little to do, you become bored.

It would always be great if the rat race and the time of boredom could get together and smooth out. Just enough things to do, and just enough time to do them. It seems to me that sometimes we might be able to help the two smooth out.

Not a perfect solution, yet in a world of relativity, it usually works. If you know of tasks needing to be done sooner or later on a recurring basis, make a list of them. When you find yourself in a lull at work, pull out the list and do a few things that will save you time later.

Remember that you want to have those around you see you’re the busy person. Not with make-work, rather as the person always staying ahead of the game. The worst thing that could happen is that people see you as someone who is idle with no work to do. When layoffs come, and sooner or later they always will, management often starts off by trying to figure out who seems to have nothing to do. This is because someone with too much time and nothing to do is the one let go to thin down the company.

The worst thing that anybody can think is that they cannot be laid off because they do something so special that no one else can do it. It is very easy for the company to decide to train someone else to do those actions or to outsource those actions, or just not do those actions anymore. No one is so important the company would fall apart if they left.

Have a great day, and we will talk to 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.

How to Prioritize Danger

As humans, we often fear or panic over things which may happen in the future and for which there is no evidence at the moment. The lights might be turned off because ‘The utility bill is due at the end of the month.’ Or, ‘Southern Colorado might have a blizzard in a week, so we need to go to the store and stock up on everything right now.’ Or, ‘There was a bump in the road, I need to go back and look right now. Because someone may have gotten hurt and I may have hit them without ever seeing them.’ I won’t say that any of these things will never come to fruition. However, the odds are very favorable that none of these ever really will.

Is it wise to take precautionary measures? Yes. Is it a good thing to panic over things that have little chance of happening? Not so much. And yet, to the person having the panic attack, it is very real, and drastic measures must be immediately taken. How do you help this person down from near hysteria?

Start by talking to them calmly and ask them if they see anything within a 3 inch to a 6-inch radius around their body that poses an immediate danger. The answer is usually no. If there is, help the person to decide if it is a real danger or only a perceived possibility.

Next, ask them if there is anything within 18 inches of their body threatening danger. Again this usually has a negative response and follow-through is the same as the paragraph above. Next question, is there anything in the room that’s an obvious threat. From there go to the block and then the neighborhood.

You can go as far as you need to with this. Usually by the time you get to the neighborhood, the person you’re talking with starts to understand and feels better. Just because somebody occasionally feels overly upset about something, does that not mean that they have a medical or mental problem. Given the right circumstances, anyone may show this type of fear. If this is a full-time ongoing problem, the person may want to speak with a professional about it. If not, make it one less thing to worry about.

Have Many Irons in the Fire?

Too many irons in the fire hark back to the days of blacksmiths when irons were heated in a fire stoked by a bellows.  The irons were heated red hot and then pounded into shape by the blacksmith using an anvil and hammer. Having too many irons in the fire meant that the blacksmith could not handle all the work he had to do. Today, we use the saying for too many projects that we’re doing.

It is in our training and in our desire to help. We take on some tasks which interest us we take on even more because the powers-that-be want us to do more. And sometimes there is not enough money for two people to do the tasks and therefore one is let go in the other one has to do the tasks for both. This happens more than you think.

Often, this takes place without a lot of complaint up the chain. For one thing, we still want the job, and the higher workload is one of the requirements to keep it. Another item that’s not so well understood is that many of us are wired to take on added work and/or are ashamed to admit that we need help. We see asking for help as a sign of weakness.

Here’s the question, and if you’re new to our blog so I always ask questions. Is it better work as hard as you can, knowing some things will fall through the cracks; or, is it better to ask for assistance or delegate work?

As much as we would like to be the hero, save the day, get all our work done and never need to ask for help, it does not always happen. Would you rather be standing in the boardroom explaining why a pet project was not completed? Would you rather be standing in the board room,  congratulated along with your team that helped to complete the project?

We all live with some fear in the back of our mind about what others may think of us. Most of that fear leads us in wrong directions. Leadership always prefers the person with that will ask for help when needed because the action shows they put the project first. And everything being equal, leadership respects and honors positive project actions.

Next time you have too many irons in the fire get a few more blacksmiths and just pound that project out.

Thanks for being with us. We have piled up a few irons in the fire ourselves. And I am hoping by the end of this week or the beginning of next we will have some exciting news to share.

We are once again at the end of a week with no idea where the first days went.  This seems to be a ritual with me.  I am not sure why.  I live near the Air Force Academy, and I guess the cadets up there must be rubbing off on me.

At the Academy, the cadets look at a week as a day.  Monday is the new morning, Wednesday is lunchtime and Friday is the end of the day.  For young people who have a lot to do and little free time to waste, I guess this makes sense.

I may have to run my projects by the week and, like the Academy, cadets look at each week as a day.  It might make the week more interesting.  It would help to organize and expedite a project. And it would make each section of the week more memorable.

 

Just a thought.  Thanks for listening.

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.

Succeed or Settle

Welcome back!

I left yesterday with the cliffhanger. You can do anything that you want to; and, to do so you have to do whatever it takes to succeed.

Life is rarely handed to us on a silver platter. What makes our life so precious to us are the things we work and sacrifice for to make our lives better for our families and us. Anything just handed to us no matter how nice, unexpected, or needed, does not hold the same value to us as those things we scrimped, saved, or strived for.

So, the question becomes, who is the future you, and what are you willing to put into making it happen? If you haven’t done so yet, now, before others get up and speak for you, write down what you would want to say about yourself and the things you’ve done during your life and those things you want to do.

I know you feel you are doing a lot of writing this week. It is important. Think about a cartoon of a kid who shoots an arrow into the side of the building, and then runs out and draws the target around where the arrow had landed and thinks he has succeeded. Did he succeed? Or did he settle?

Do you want to succeed? Or do you want to settle? This is a decision you have to make, and I cannot tell you what is right or wrong for you.

 

 

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.