“Your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
VALUES DRIVE BEHAVIOR
This article was adapted from a process we developed to help emerging entrepreneurs and new small business owners identify their values. It was written to help take a closer look at the Values selection process. Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs have one thing in common with their larger corporate counterparts and that’s the need for Values.
As I worked with my TEAM to build out the structure of our new process to help entrepreneurs and small business owners capitalize on what makes them unique to their market and to help position themselves as the only logical choice for their potential customers, we realized the need to identify our own set of values that will drive our decision-making process as we begin to take on new clients.
At CreateYourQUEST™ we believe YOU are the Hero of Your own Story!
Our process was developed with YOU in mind. Our goal is to help you turn (Your Everyday Story) into (Your Empowering Story).
In the spirit of The Hero’s Journey, we are committed to helping you not only write your story, but also create an exciting and empowering QUEST to guide you in the direction of everything you hope to accomplish as you continue to move forward towards the achievement of your goals and dreams.
What do YOU offer the World?
At CreateYourQUEST™ we believe YOU will be happiest living a life of integrity in which your actions are aligned with YOUR personal values and beliefs. In other words, YOUR “True North.”
The reason many of us struggle with knowing what we genuinely want is because we don’t really know what direction to go. If we use our true north to guide us, in other words if we use our values to guide us, it makes the decision-making process much easier. Some of us struggle with simple day-to-day decisions but when we take the time to consider our core values, these things often become crystal clear.
Our core values will be the needle point of our compass. They will be like the north star in the sky guiding your journey. Your values will be like a torch in the night to help guide you down your pathway toward living your meaningful life and bringing purpose to your quest so you can live your life filled with passion and purpose.
Your values will help you avoid all the “shiny objects” you are bound to discover while on your quest. Values will shield you from the potential outside influences attempting to distract you from reaching your prize, from reaching that elusive prize we’re all searching for, success. Values will help you identify what success means without sacrificing the things most important to you. Values give you the energy and clarity to say both yes and no. Your success will be guided by your ability to say no to things like social media, social influence, and the social environment that would try to keep us from being true to ourselves.
If you are interested in gaining clarity around the importance of values, then read on. If not, then this article is probably not for you, and I will save you the time and trouble of reading any further.
The activity outlined below is designed to help you discover your own unique list of values and beliefs that will help to orient you on your journey. If you’ve ever wondered what a life would be like if you were living in harmony, this is the life you will experience when you become clear about your values. That’s why we think it’s so important that you take the time to properly do this exercise because it means everything!
Your core values will help you build the foundation of whatever it is you hope to bring into the world while on your quest. Whatever you build, if it sits on a strong foundation, it will stand the test of time.
Success can only ever be identified individually and absolutely must be defined by the individual seeking success. Otherwise, there will be no way for you to measure whether you’ve achieved what you set out to accomplish. If you try to skip over this step what you will find is yourself chasing empty accomplishments. You will find yourself stuck on the hamster wheel of life chasing your tail. We cannot impress upon you strongly enough, the importance of completing this exercise.
When we don’t know and understand our values, we could easily make the mistake of violating something incredibly important to us, simply because we weren’t aware. The result of doing something like this is usually fraught with feelings of shame and guilt and not even knowing why… It’s because somewhere along the way you violated what was important to you and there’s no way to reconcile the actions you took when they are not aligned with your values, when they’re not aligned with your true north.
One of the things that makes CreateYourQUEST™ a unique organization is the partnerships we’re creating with individuals who’ve proven themselves to be value added resources to both individuals and large organizations.
The following list of core values comes partly from my own research and partly from my dear friend and Executive Coach, Michael O’Brien from Peloton Coaching. He has been helping companies and the executives of those companies create better tomorrow’s by teaching them to clearly identify their values TODAY!
CORE VALUES
Note: This is not an exhaustive list but will definitely get you started with the selection process!
Based on the guidance of my Executive Coach, Michael O’Brien, who you can find at michaelobrienshift.com — I suggest you pick 5 values as your core values. This doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t have other values that are extremely important to you. It simply means being bold enough to select 5 for right now. As we change and grow some of our core values will change with us. As we embrace life-altering challenges and opportunities, our core values might shift as we gain new insights and information.
Examples are always good to demonstrate a viewpoint so let’s examine the idea of wellness. Let’s get extreme to drive home the point. If you had a heart attack, or developed a life-threatening disease, wellness might easily become a new core value for you if it wasn’t previously one of your five.
One of the most impactful ways to discover your core values is to focus on what’s important to you. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to ask empowering questions. Here are some empowering questions to help you get started with the process of focusing on what’s most meaningful to you now that you’ve been given a whole bunch of ideas about which values might be most important.
· How would you define this value?
· Which actions, activities, and behaviors reflect this value?
· How are you in alignment with this value?
· Where does this value show up in your daily life?
· Why is this value important to you?
· What is it about this value that inspires you?
· Who would you be without this value?
Feel free to create some of your own empowering questions to stimulate the discovery process! Answers are good. Questions are empowering!
The gap between where we are and where we want to be can often be closed by having a better understanding of our values. With a better understanding of our values, we will be in a better position to say yes to everything that’s important to us and no to everything else that’s a distraction. When what we do is aligned with what we say, we can then be congruent in our behavior about what’s most important to us.
If you remember from earlier, we learned that values drive behavior. Let’s move now from concept to construct with some core examples. We will share with you the five core values significant to us and why we chose them to demonstrate the importance of this exercise.
CORE VALUE EXAMPLES
One of the core values of our TEAM at CreateYourQUEST™ is Freedom. A second value important to each of us is Authenticity. Another core value is Courage. The 4th core value critical to the success of our organization is Encouragement. And finally, we turn one FACE into many FACES by adding the “S” of Self-Respect.
When you put these five values together what you get is FACES. We refer to this as our ability to show our FACES to our clients and customers. There are a whole host of other values especially important to all of us at CreateYourQUEST™ but we decided on “FACES” because we wanted something first that was easy to remember, and that more importantly, reflected the true essence of what we see as our collective core values.
As an emerging leader in this field, we felt it important to do the hard work of identifying our core values “Up Front” so that whenever we face a decision as it relates to the company and our future direction, we can come back to our values to help us make a clear choice about what we want to do, where we want to go, and how we want to get there.
We made a pact early on that we would never sacrifice our values in relation to our opportunities. What we collectively decided was that if an opportunity didn’t align with our values, then we would just politely say thank you for the opportunity, but it doesn’t fit with what we’re currently trying to do with the organization right now.
We took it one step further and decided that if we were honoring our values, we would help whoever was asking us to work with them by providing them a referral for an organization we felt could better help them with what they were trying to accomplish.
Let’s take the time to dive a little bit deeper into the five core values of our company as an example, so you have a clear idea of what might be important to you and a frame of reference as you choose your core values for yourself and your organization, or your family, moving forward.
FREEDOM
“When Writing the story of your life don’t let anyone else hold the pen.” ~Harley-Davidson
For us, the importance of this value is best expressed by this quote we use as a guiding principle for decision making. We believe everyone has the ability to write their own story and create their own ending.
The reason we believe freedom is so important is because it leads to an abundance of expression, creativity, and original thought. From this abundance, we experience increased productivity, a sense of fulfillment, an enhanced purpose, a state of well-being, and an overall higher quality of life. We understand freedom as a value that should never be taken for granted. We understand the fragility of freedom.
We hope to communicate the importance of this value. All too often, those who live in freedom tend to ignore just how fragile it is and take it for granted. We hope to reinforce the importance of freedom. We must be free to think, to create, to crowdsource, to collaborate, to build, to come together, to accomplish what none of us could ever hope to achieve alone.
AUTHENTICITY
“Authenticity allows us to engage with each other in powerful dreams that make the impossible possible. We are called on to persevere despite failure and pursue a purpose beyond the paycheck. This is at the core of innovation.” ~Henna Inam
Authenticity is all about being true to ourselves. Being true to ourselves is all about having the courage to define our own version of what it is to be successful. Success absolutely, positively, must be identified individually because what’s success to one person, might be failure to another. Success is discovering the delicate balance between drive, achievement, and self-reflection. The prize, if we’re diligent enough to pursue it, is equanimity which is just another way of saying, mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation.
Authenticity helps us build deeper connection with others. The way we build authenticity is by being willing to let our guard down. Once we are willing to show and share our shortcomings, warts, and all, we give ourselves and others permission to be true to what we really believe. Authenticity is almost a “bearing of our soul” and when we do it without concern for what others might think of us or about us, we in turn create the best opportunity to be true to ourselves, our values, and what’s uniquely important to us, not those around us, but to US!
Innovation is the lifeblood of almost any organization. The only way we will ever be able to completely tap into everyone’s ability to be innovative is when everyone is given permission to be their authentic self. Richard Branson was quoted as saying that “innovation happens when people are given the freedom to ask questions and the resources and power to find the answers.”
COURAGE
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” ~Maya Angelou
The word consistently is often overlooked in the quote above, and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen here. Courage gives us the ability to put aside our fear of failure and to take the first steps. Courage helps us to overcome our fear of rejection. Courage allows us to attempt things that we have not tried before despite our fear of judgment or looking foolish.
It has been said that confidence is important and indeed it is, but without courage, confidence does not exist. We believe courage is more important than confidence because we know that confidence comes from being courageous. Before we will ever be confident, we must first be courageous.
We need confidence to do something that we’ve never done before. And to do something that we’ve never done before will require courage. We need courage to begin something. When we’re attempting something, we’ve never done before, we will experience a feeling of uncertainty.
Courage gives us the ability to move along the continuum from unsure to unstoppable. We believe courage is the secret sauce that allows us to act despite our fears. Confidence is an outcome. It’s a natural result, or the benefit. It’s becoming familiar with our fear and working through the process. Confidence is a one day at a time game, it builds day by day every time we courageously embrace our fear.
Courage allows us to consistently practice all the virtues and values that are important to us because without courage we won’t be able to consistently honor the rest of our values. At some point in time the challenge will be too intense, or the effort required, too much, and without courage, we will give in.
“You can’t be consistently kind, or fair, or humane, or generous, not without courage, because if you don’t have it, sooner or later you’ll stop and say the threat is too much, the difficulty is to too high, the challenge is too great!” ~Maya Angelou
ENCOURAGEMENT
“Hidden within each of us is everything we need to achieve anything we can imagine.” ~Bobby Kountz
One of the greatest lessons on the power of encouragement comes from the story of the letters written by Ralph Waldo Emerson to a young and aspiring writer by the name of Walt Whitman. Had it not been for the encouragement of Emerson, there is an exceptionally good chance that Whitman may have never followed his passion to become the great poet he is known to be.
At CreateYourQUEST™ we are in the encouragement business!
We should never underestimate the value of an encouraging word. One small act of encouragement could be enough to change the entire trajectory of another person’s life. When we offer encouragement, we’re literally speaking courage into another human being. We are empowering them with our words. Encouragement can make all the difference.
Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny… ~C.S. Lewis
SELF-RESPECT
“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.” ~Robert Tew
The importance of self-respect cannot be overstated! Having a healthy level of self-respect is what enables us to create the confidence to set clear boundaries for ourselves and others. Malcolm X once said, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” Self-respect means knowing what you stand for and what your values are. It means being aware of both your strengths and weaknesses.
Self-respect is being courageous enough to say no when you need to, and bold enough to say yes when you’re afraid to. It’s saying yes without having all the answers ahead of time. Self-respect allows us to stay to true to our values while still pushing the envelope to take informed risks. Self-respect is developed after experiencing setbacks and failures. It’s a byproduct of resilience. It comes as a result of embracing self-discovery.
Self-respect is knowing who you are, what you believe, and what you are willing to work for and sacrifice for. It’s also knowing what you are not willing to compromise on and then having the courage to stand your ground.
We hope you found some merit in this article that was adapted from the Values Identification Process we take our clients through when they commit to working with us. It’s how we turn our clients into VIP’s!
If you believe we might be able to help you better tell your story to your potential audience and customers, then reach out to us.
You know our values now so it should be an easy decision to at least reach out if you know you need some help telling your empowering story!
We are creating an interest list for our inaugural CreateYourQUEST™ interactive, immersive, appreciative inquiry experience. To learn more, send an email with UNSTOPPABLE in the subject line to unsure2UNSTOPPABLE@gmail.com today!
Advance Confidently is the title of my next book, you will have to wait to celebrate its release as I celebrate my 60th birthday. I have concluded the world doesn’t need another self-help book from me right now, so I am listening to my muse and will write a sci fi personal growth story of self-discovery instead. Hmmm? Almost sounds like a QUEST, right? I believe you will be INSPIRED with the story that chose me to write it! I never saw it coming but now that it’s here, I can’t wait to share it with all of YOU! I know it will be worth the wait because that’s my commitment to you, my readers. Thanks in advance for your trust and patience!
In the meantime, I released a special audio short story on Twitter to commemorate my Independence Day and my 31st year of sobriety. You can watch/listen to the story here ( https://youtu.be/9zP4kk5OTlo ). You can find me on Twitter @bobby_kountz
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“There is always a best way of doing everything.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
If there is indeed always a best way of doing everything, how do we go about discovering the “best” way? We may not initially know the best way, but with so many resources available at our disposal today, we can evaluate several different options and then try our best to choose the best one available to us at that moment in time.
The Scientific Method is a procedure known to the natural sciences since at least the 17th century. It consists of a series of systematic observations, experiments, measurements, calculations, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses. It is viewed as an empirical method of acquiring information and knowledge through careful observation and rigorous skepticism. It takes into account the understanding for potential bias and therefore relies on objective observation balanced by a healthy dose of skepticism.
Trial and error is a less formal and much less rigorous process characterized by multiple repeated varied attempts to reach a desired outcome. Failure is a natural part of the process of both trial and error and the scientific method and failure is embraced as part of the natural process of moving in the direction of the desired result.
How was Thomas Edison able to discover the best way to create an incandescent light bulb? The simple answer is he found thousands of ways that were not the best way. If we are willing to try different approaches and keep our minds open to all available options, eventually we will discover the best way for the task at hand in those circumstances. The best way is ever evolving, constantly improving, making room for the next best way. We are still figuring out the best way, all these years later, to create the best lighting solution possible. Sometimes the best way is only slightly different than what the best way was the day before.
Writing is a lot like this. When I first started writing, many of my messages were rudimentary. As I practiced my craft, I learned different ways of expressing my ideas and gained a better command of language, expression, and description. I also developed my style. The more I practiced, the better I got. And the more I practice, the better I will get. Excellence eventually becomes a habit.
Excellence is the evolution of ideas and the understanding that our world is in perpetual motion, movement, and advancement, which allows us to individually do our best in any given situation or circumstance. Our willingness and openness to evaluate new information and ideas is what gives us the opportunity to do our best work. Collectively, we rely on one another and on the sharing of ideas and information to discover the next best way of doing things.
When we move from believing that we as individuals have the best opportunity of creating the best solutions to instead, crowdsourcing the collective wisdom of our communities and companies, we then gain access to the collective consciousness and collective wisdom of the group.
The best practices of today only provide a bridge to the best practices of tomorrow. The cycle repeats itself with each new day and once again gives us the opportunity to do our best because our individual best is the “best” way of doing everything. That is, unless we can come together in a group and work collectively to solve whatever challenges we are facing and then the “best” way will have been decided by each of the “best” minds working together to create an even better “collective best” mind or more simply, the crowdsourced “best of the best!”
My name is Bobby. I am The Inspirationalist!
I inspire people to pursue their gifts!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
By the way, if you enjoyed this article, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy my next book, Advance Confidently. I look forward to sharing it with you on the 4th of July.
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps — we must step up the stairs.” ~Vance Havner
As described in the quote that inspired this article, the word venture refers to the action one must take to bring their vision to life. The best way to bring a vision to life is to ask empowering questions. Let’s get started.
What’s your vision? What are your values? What’s your vibe?
Pause now and take a minute to at least consider the questions. Then, when you finish the article, take the time to really answer them!
We can use these three questions, all beginning with the letter V to create the foundation for everything we ever hope to achieve or accomplish. If we build a strong foundation, then it will support whatever it is we choose to bring into existence.
What do you want to create? Who do you want to create it with? Why do you want to create it? What do you want to ripple out into the world? Who do you wish to be? What kind of human being are you striving to become? What inspires you? Why does it inspire you?
Some deeper questions…
To achieve what you choose, who do you need to be or become and what skills will be required?
Stop asking how and start asking who and what instead. You can’t control the how, but you can control yourself and the way you choose to show up for both yourself and those you serve!
If you could learn to sort, sift, and separate the trash from the treasure, so that you have more time for what’s important to you, how much would that be worth?
If you could quickly determine, decide, and delegate all your non-essential tasks to a trusted aid or virtual assistant, marketing partner, or your IT team, how much more time would you have for your family, friends, and hobbies?
In the military, they have SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) for everything. Why do you suppose that is? In the special forces, they have contingency plans for all their tactical operations. Why do you suppose that is?
Tactics, techniques, and timelines exist so they can operate with the surgical precision of a Swiss watch. TEAM members can disassemble and reassemble their weapons in the dark and blindfolded. What do you think they do that?
When you prepare and plan, with precision, you can predict your outcomes with clarity, confidence, and conviction!
To produce an outcome, action is required. It is the application and implementation of ideas, plans, and procedures that creates results.
Many years ago, I learned that profits are better than wages. However, I never really internalized the lesson, I never applied what I learned. I’d like to prevent you from making that same mistake.
Here’s why profits are better than wages:
Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. The reason people invest in companies and in the stock market is because they expect a return on their investment.
What expectations do you have of yourself or your business? What kind of returns do you expect from YOU, Inc?
Write this down!
We get what we expect! If we have clear expectations, we get clear results! If we have unclear expectations, we get unclear results!
In other words, if you expect to be successful, you will often, be successful. If you expect to win, you will often win.
The metaphor, lose the battle but win the war, exists for a reason. The phrase, live to fight another day, exists for a reason. The reason survival is so important is it is impossible for you to be who you need to be if you are not in business. And it doesn’t have to be a physical business either. If you don’t have your health, then you’re not in business.
Commitment and discipline teach us to mitigate unintended outcomes so we can instead, execute flawlessly on our intended or desired results.
Ready, fire, aim, might work in some scenarios, but not most…
Have you ever wondered why the military has so many different forms and procedures? And instead of jumping right to the answer of well it’s the government what would you expect, maybe we could ask another question. What do those forms procedures and processes solve?
SOP’s, AAR’s, PMCS, Forms, Nomenclatures, a 24-hour system of time, and on and on it goes. Before a fighter jet ever leaves the runway, a detailed pre-flight checklist is completed. Why? What can we learn from the military that we can apply in our own lives? Heck, the military even has a system for physical fitness.
What problems do you suppose they might be solving before they ever have a chance to materialize? Yes, it’s called prevention!
What problem are you solving?
What does your customer want and why?
If your customers want more time, help them turn decades into years, months, weeks, and yes, depending on the circumstances, maybe only days. What if the client you’re working with has three of the four numbers of their combination lock of success all figured out? What if the wisdom you have regarding what they need is that missing fourth number? What if because of your skill and experience you helped them identify what they needed? What kind of difference would that make?
There are countless success stories and testimonials of people experiencing complete transformations in a single weekend.
When someone goes from thinking they can’t to believing they can, that’s a radical transformation. Then, all that’s required is consistent action to create the desired intention.
Clarity and confidence create enthusiasm. Enthusiasm creates energy! Energy is everything!
My name is Bobby. I am The Inspirationalist!
I inspire people to pursue their gifts!
If my words somehow inspired you to pursue your gift, then I succeeded…
By the way, if you enjoyed this article, I believe you will thoroughly enjoy my next book, Advance Confidently. I look forward to sharing it with you on the 4th of July.
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“Your biggest break can come from never quitting. Being at the right place at the right time can only happen when you keep moving toward the next opportunity.“ -Arthur Pine
A search of Arthur Pine revealed the following:
One Door Closes, Another Door Opens: Turning Your Setbacks Into Comebacks by Arthur Pine and Julie Houston
Using personal stories of failure and rejection from celebrities such as Michael Jordan, Robert Merrill, Elton John, Ed Asner, Carol Burnett, Katarina Witt, Walter Cronkite, and others, this encouraging book illustrates how painful experiences can change lives for the better — how setbacks can open the door to new opportunities.
Prior to discovering the quote above, I was not familiar with this author although I am quite familiar with this genre of work. One of the most well-known books in this genre is not just a book, but an entire series of books; The Chicken Soup for the Soul series by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen gave rise to an entire “Chicken Soup for the Soul” Brand.
One of the interesting details that many people don’t know about the first book is the number of rejections it received from publishers. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen saw every single “no” not as a no, but as an OPPORTUNITY for the next publisher to review their manuscript. They knew that eventually the right publisher would say “yes.”
What they didn’t know though, was that it would take 144 rejections before that “YES” finally came. And even when the YES finally came, the publisher had an extremely limited vision for the potential of the book and didn’t offer much in the way of support to the authors.
Jack Canfield said: “Chicken Soup for the Soul” was rejected by 144 publishers. If we had given up after 100 publishers, I likely would not be where I am now. I encourage you to reject rejection. If someone says no, just say NEXT! (Jack Canfield Facebook post dated November 18, 2015 at 11:27 PM).
The book was a runaway success story and held a spot on the New York Times Bestseller list from 1994–1998. The rest is history! The brand was eventually sold and now has over 250 publications and other product lines as well. Simon & Schuster is the current distributor of the Chicken Soup For The Soul LLC Brand.
Opportunity is often just on the other side of rejection or hiding behind an obstacle!
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“If you have dreams, goals, or aspirations, you need to GROW to achieve them. But, if you’re like I was — and if you are like most people — you have one or more mistaken beliefs that create a gap that keeps you from growing and REACHING your potential. Each of us has the opportunity to bridge that gap. But we must make that a goal and follow through.” ~John Maxwell
It’s a well-known leadership principle that we either grow or die. However, this harsh dichotomy is not consistently applied to the lives of the broader community.
Many of us never actually choose a path, so we naturally just drift along from job to job, place to place, or path to path. Be assured there is nothing wrong with any of these choices.
Life tends to temper the resolve of an individual much the same way steel becomes hardened with fire. When we become ready, a subtle shift develops almost imperceptibly. In this shift, the sub-conscious prepares the waking mind for the acceptance of new ideas. This is where the gap is either bridged, or not. If the “GAP” is identified and acknowledged, progress is all but guaranteed. However, if the “GAP” remains unexamined, it will invariably prohibit growth.
Growth almost always occurs because of one of two pairs of things: planning or pain, goals or inanity, success or failure, dedication or procrastination, contemplation or COMMITMENT!
This is the paradox…
If we will simply commit, we can then learn to bridge the gap. The bridge spanning the gap typically comes in the form of a goal or mentorship. With proper coaxing and collaboration, a healthy dose of guidance or coaching, an individual becomes ready for the step of CHANGE. With this step, knowing the “how” is unimportant. However, the “why” is critical. Our “why” provides the fuel for commitment. We conquer the how with the why. This process requires action and resolve. These attributes are activated with one small word: commit! The strategy is simple: COMMIT, then figure it out! The plan will unfold and develop once the act of resolve is initiated. The final phase comes with dedication, persistence, and hard work! This is the process of going from unsure to UNSTOPPABLE!
Welcome to the path of success!
Success is not a destination but a commitment to the process. Success is showing up again and again. Success is baby steps… Success is the natural result of commitment and persistence. Success operates on her own schedule and her own timeline.
Many give up before she reveals herself… She is often just on the other side of the most recent obstacle we encountered. She readily hides just on the other side of one more feeble attempt. She often blends in with circumstances and even disguises herself as failure.
She is elusive, not unlike an early morning mist or the evening fog that ebbs and flows with the setting sun. As darkness falls, she can be seen in the shadows, just out of sight, just out of reach. She is often experienced in the dusty recess of our fading dreams as we awake only to find it was indeed just a dream…
Ah, but what is a dream if not a prelude to the possibility, for it has been said that if we dream it, we can do it. And beware the dreamer of the day for they may act their dream with open eyes and bring it into the physical realm of existence.
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” ~T. E. Lawrence
Keep Pedaling, Keep Going, Keep Growing!
Advance Confidently!
If you enjoyed and found value in this article, please share it.
In Gratitude,
Bobby Kountz, Author, Speaker, Sobriety Scholar, Inspirationalist!
PS. You can find out more about me here. You can find my book on Amazon.
“Time is a fixed income and, as with any income, the real problem facing most of us is how to live successfully within our daily allotment.”~Margaret B. Johnstone
Time truly is a fixed income.
Each of us receives the exact same amount every single day. There is no
hierarchy of time. There is no aristocracy of time. Wealth won’t buy you one
second more than the poorest of the poor. Intelligence provides no advantage
here either. The most intelligent person on the planet receives the exact same
allotment of this precious commodity as does the person who struggles to think.
Wisdom however, now that’s a
different discussion. Wisdom is the gift that allows for the full utilization
of our very precious 86,400 seconds of income. Wisdom helps us determine how to
best invest this precious resource. Wisdom is often mistakenly referred to as the accumulation of knowledge.
Wisdom is not the accumulation of knowledge, it’s the application of knowledge.
“Time is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible, without it nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it.” ~Arnold Bennett
Time can never be managed. It
can only be invested into the activities of our choosing. Time management is a
catchy phrase that made a complex issue seem simple. What we manage, if we are
disciplined enough to see the importance of it, is activity. Time is simply a
receptacle for activity management.
As it relates to time, we don’t
even get paid for our time even though many of us are paid by the hour. What we
get paid for is the activity we put into the time allotted for the activity.
Some would argue this is semantics, but if we truly got paid for our time we
could just simply stay home and eat bon bons all day. No, if we work for a
company or for ourselves, either way, whatever we are paid, it will be for what
we produce, for the activity we put into the time allotted.
As human beings we have free
will, which also means we have free choice. We choose how we invest and spend
our time. We choose our work, our vocation, our creative outlet, our leisure
activities, what we read or don’t, what we watch, or don’t, what we listen to,
or don’t. The allocation of our time is one of the most important decisions we
make on any given day.
A common phrase we often hear
is, “If I only had more time.” The hard truth was expressed over a hundred
years ago by the author Arnold Bennett and was captured for all eternity in the
following quote.
“We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.”
When determining how to best
invest your income, consider what you really want and then strategically
allocate specific blocks of your daily commodity into that activity.
Most of us procrastinate to
avoid the discomfort associated with a specific task or activity. We fool
ourselves into believing we can do it tomorrow, or the next day, or the day
after that, or even worse, someday…
As a recovering
procrastinator, I am all too well versed in the many ways of avoidance.
Creativity is NOT a superpower for procrastinators! But let’s be honest, we all
do it at least every now and again. As a matter of fact, we are prone to it and
without discipline and vigilance it’s easy to have a day slip away never to be
regained.
Fortunately, tomorrow is kept
for us, no way to get into debt, impossible to borrow from the future. Now, now
is all we have. We talk about our twenty-four hours because of the system we
use to measure time, but the truth is all we have is this moment and then it’s gone,
and we are onto the next moment. Therefore, it’s so important to structure the
proper use of this ever-precious commodity.
Another note on time. We tend
to overestimate what we can accomplish in a day and to drastically underestimate
what we can accomplish in a decade. Here’s a rudimentary example that might
shift your thinking based on what I refer to as the cumulative effect. One hour
per day invested into the endeavor of your choice is 365 hours per year which
equals approximately 45 workdays. Multiply the 45 days by 10 and you have 450
days or 1.25 years. When we think about all the things we could accomplish in
this amount of time, it’s absolutely amazing. All because we suddenly
understood the value of an hour consistently invested into the activity of our
choosing. No, it won’t happen overnight, but think how much smarter you’ll be a
decade from now.
Ponder this one-hour rule and
think of all the different experiments you could conduct in your own life by
applying this rule every day. Oh, and as it relates to habits, think of how
many productive habits you could develop and apply to your future with this one
simple change in focus. This is an example of what I call the cumulative effect
and what Darren Hardy calls “The Compound Effect” in his bestselling book.
“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.” ~H. L. Hunt
Be “WISE”, don’t
leave this task to chance, for if you do, you will find this gift slipping away
just as the sand slips from one side of the hourglass to the other…
For a truly interesting read,
check out the work of Larry G. Maguire.
