Tag Archives: success

Does your vision have pulling power?

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It’s right about now that the passion many of us have for our new year’s resolutions begin to fade. If you’re like a lot of people I know, you’ve already run into plenty of reasons to quit. You may have already given up on your goal for 2016. We start with good intentions but when the reality of our goal begins to fill our windshield, we can get discouraged and quit. Michael Hyatt calls this part of the process “The Messy Middle”. The part where there aren’t very many rewards but all the work still has to get done. This may be where you are in the pursuit of your goals. I want to take a minute to encourage you.

I started 2011 weighing in at more than 200 lbs. For my height that was too much. My healthy weight window is between 170 & 185. What really got me though was when I saw pictures from one of our family reunions. It was in the middle of the summer and we were at a lake. I saw myself in those pictures and did not like what I saw. It was my wake up call.

Girl on road in fog

It’s not that hard to start doing things we know we should do. We all do that on a regular basis. The true difficulty is in finding the will to keep doing them when you really don’t want them bad enough to keep going. Often the drive to stop is greater than the drive to keep moving forward. Our desire for a long term benefit is over-ridden by the desire for a short term benefit. Most of the time, the short term benefit is not what we really want. Then we get mad at ourselves.

I know me. I have not always been a fan of pushing my body to higher performance. When I got serious about my fitness journey, I took a hard look at me. I knew there would be days when I would be weak. I knew that these are the times that I would fall if I didn’t have help.

I tried to do what Jeff Walker calls “looking through the corners”. I intentionally looked down the road to see what was coming. I would then build my situation while I was strong so that it could carry me when I was weak. If you are prone to quit under certain conditions, you need to either strengthen yourself or remove the conditions.

More important than engineering your situation is to have a vision of your destination. We can never become anything that we can’t see ourselves becoming. Proverbs 29:18 says that where there is no vision, the people perish. Clarity is so important when it comes to motivation. Having a clear vision will help us keep motivated and passionate about our goals.

Daniel Harkavy says that your goals & plans need to have pulling power. They have to mean enough to you that you are pulled forward by them. We see this in Genesis when God tells Abraham to look up at the stars. In light of His illustration to Abraham, the words “So shall your seed be” has tremendous pulling power. Abraham didn’t faint at the promise even though it took years before he saw the realization of it.

Ask the Lord for wisdom concerning this. He will give you the help you need. Quite a bit of the book of Hebrews is about dealing with and resisting the temptation to quit. For the Hebrew church, the temptation was to draw back from following Christ. Consider this passage from Hebrews 12 in the Easy to Read translation.

Heb 12:2 Having our eyes fixed on Jesus, the guide and end of our faith, who went through the pains of the cross, not caring for the shame, because of the joy which was before him, and who has now taken his place at the right hand of God’s seat of power.

Heb 12:3 Give thought to him who has undergone so much of the hate of sinners against himself, so that you may not be tired and feeble of purpose.

 

What a good way to say that. So that you may not be tired and feeble of purpose.  As of this morning, I weigh 179 lbs.  I have been able to reach and maintain a healthy weight because of the pulling power of a clear vision, and anticipating my weakness and while I’m strong, doing what I can to make those weak moments easier.

So – Have you grown tired and feeble of purpose? Have you allowed the weights, sin or distractions of life to rob you of your vision? Begin this week to think on your reasons why you are doing what you are doing. I know that when I stay connected to my “Why”, I can usually find the motivation to step up and stay focused.  Let the joy of your “why” become the pulling power to draw you through the hard parts so that you can be victorious.

If this has helped you, please consider sharing. Also, please leave a comment. I draw encouragement from your comments.

I appreciate you all.

Art

Simple Guidelines For Making Great Decisions In 2016!

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Jeff Walker in his book Launch said that in a workshop that he was hosting, an attendee came up and asked him what was the one thing that made all the difference to him and his business success. The thing this man should be focusing on as his business grew. Jeff ‘s answer was this – Opportunity Cost.

Opportunity cost is a theory in Micro-economics.

www.netmba.com defines it this way – The value of the next best choice, that must be given up when making a decision.

www.wikipedia.com defines it this way – The value of the best alternative foregone, where a choice needs to be made between several mutually exclusive alternatives given limited resources.

Opportunity Cost image card

When I was a teenager, I started learning to play guitar. I used to lay in bed imagining myself playing my favorite songs in front of large audiences. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s ever had rock-star dreams. The thing is, I also liked hanging out with friends and I was getting interested in girls. While I did learn quite a bit about playing guitar, I knew several guys in my school who could play far better than I could. Why? Because they didn’t spend the majority of their time hanging out with their friends. When they had spare time, they were sitting on the edge of their bed practicing scales. Here is where we find the Opportunity Cost. There has to be a trade off.

We all have the same amount of time every week. We all get 168 hours to work with. While we would like to be awesome at everything we pursue, we simply can’t. We humans develop excellence through study & practice, so we can’t realistically expect to be stellar in every area of our lives. We need to make choices as to what we are going to give our time to because for everything we say yes to, we have to say no to something else. You will be saying no to opportunities in order to say yes to (hopefully) better opportunities.

“The chief cause of failure & unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now.”  -Zig Ziglar

One of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes is: “The chief cause of failure & unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now”. Isn’t that sad? We sometimes short circuit our own long-term success because we run off after vain, short-term satisfaction.

Another favorite Zig Ziglar quote is “Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.” Let’s take that to heart and take the time as we enter the new year to build a plan. Set a goal to make the life we dream of, a reality. As we make our plans, here are some things to consider:

  1. Look through the corners; Another thing I learned from Jeff Walker. If you only focus on what’s immediately in front of you, things will “suddenly” pop up in your field of vision and you will not be able to react in time. Make it a practice to look around the turns & see what’s coming before it gets here. Also, consider how your actions will affect your future. Wisdom sees down the road.
  2. The value of a good reputation is immeasurable.  Therefore, sacrificing a good reputation is not acceptable. When considering Opportunity cost, saying no to a solid, honorable reputation in order to achieve short-term gain is not worth the trade-off. Above money or power, your reputation will work for you, or against you. Protect it constantly.
  3. Money should be a byproduct of making the world a better place. When we focus on enriching the lives of those around us, we stand a better chance of finding happiness and fulfillment in our own lives. There’s a book by Marsha Sinetar called Do what you love and the money will follow. I believe this to be true unless your love is sleep. I haven’t seen anyone making a long term living at that one yet. I will say this though. There are now people making a living playing video games on youtube. No joke. The bottom line is that when money is at the top of the priority list, things are on shaky ground.

“Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.” – Zig Ziglar

As we stand here staring square in the face of 2016, let’s examine not only our goals for the coming year and beyond, but also the opportunity cost to make them happen. If we carefully choose only the few truly important things we want this coming year, we can use these to guide our decisions about all the other things. The things that while eating up all of our time, don’t really get us where we want to be. Let’s get where we want to be in 2016! Let’s be strategic with our “Yes & No”. Say NO to good opportunities so you can say YES to great ones!

Happy New Year!

Here’s One Big Reason Why I’ve Made It This Far.

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Joe: “Bill, why did they bury your mother in law so deep? 10 feet is a little much don’t you think?”

Bill: “Well, deep down she’s a pretty good lady”.

A lot of people do not like their mother in law. While searching the Internet for information and statistics about this subject, it became pretty clear that many people struggle with the In-Law relationship. The mother in law has become the brunt of a lot of jokes. By far, the majority of the information indicates that the daughter in law / mother in law relationship is the more contentious relationship in comparison to the son in law / mother in law relationship.

My Mother in Law is Awesome and a Half!

My mother in law’s name is Mary. I just want to say right away that I love Mary very much. She’s awesome and a half!

Mary has been a constant source of support and encouragement for as long as I’ve known her. When you meet her, it becomes evident early on that she puts high value on people and relationships. She has a big heart that’s full of compassion for people in need.

I’ve seen her bring people into her home and make them feel like they were part of the family again and again. She’s quick to invite people to dinner who are new in town and don’t know anyone, inviting some to spend the holidays with our family and even buying them gifts so that they will have something to open when we all open gifts.

Mary has a heart for God. Her heart’s desire is to please Him and be used by Him. She is committed to personal study and prayer. She’s always ready with an encouraging word and publishes her own inspirational blog. I encourage you to check it out. Just click this ridiculously huge blue button.

Huge blue button

https://maryruwe.wordpress.com

 

On more than one occasion Mary has put an arm around me and just said “We’re glad you’re a part of our family”. She has helped me build my faith through some of our long phone conversations, and she’s helped me build my library over the years with many faith building books and tapes. She has also been an enthusiastic supporter as I have stepped out to fulfill my calling.

The book of Ruth in the Old Testament is a small book. It’s only four chapters long and it tells us about a woman named Naomi and her daughter in law Ruth. Naomi’s family moved to the land of Moab for better opportunity. While there the two sons married two Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. As time went by, Naomi’s husband died and then a while later both sons also died. Naomi determined to go back to her home town and told the daughters in law to return to their father’s house because there was no benefit for them to stay. While Orpah was sad, she kissed her mother in law and then returned to her father’s house. Ruth however, would not leave Naomi’s side. Because of that relationship, they both were ultimately blessed and Ruth turned out to be King David’s great grandmother. None of that would have happened without that powerful relationship between Ruth and her mother in law.

This relationship does not have to be a rocky one. It can instead be a relationship that God can use to make a difference in the lives of all it touches.

Mary, you have been a source of strength, support and encouragement to all of us. I am glad to be a part of your family.

Mary celebrated a birthday last week and I intended to publish this post then. Stuff got in the way. Don’t forget to check out Mary’s inspirational blog for yourself.  Just Click Here – https://maryruwe.wordpress.com/

Undermining Your Own Credibility

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We’ve all done it.  Limited ourselves by our words.  Today I share insight in the video below on how word choice can cost you in influence.

 

I would love to hear what you think about this.  Have you ever noticed where someone was destroying their own credibility?  Please join the conversation and leave a comment.  If this is helpful to you and you think it can help someone else, please consider sharing.

These Five Things Will Unlock Your Greatness At Work.

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After nearly a year of working very hard to keep up with an ever-growing workload in my department, I was able to hire a new estimator.  We are all very glad to have her.  We know she is going to be an excellent addition to our department.  I began the search for our new person quite a while ago, and while going through resumes I began to give serious thought to not only what we wanted, but what we had to have in our new associate.  We wanted someone good.  That sounds over-simplified when I say it like that but it made me think in terms of my own employment history.  In my experience, what makes a good employee?

office imageI am amazed at what a small team of dedicated people can accomplish when they are all pulling in the same direction and when they all have a real passion for what they are doing.  I have had the privilege of being part of a small start-up company many years ago.  There were just a few of us.  I remember times of being at work for 31 hours straight.  Those first days I remember climbing over unpacked pallets of supplies trying to find the things I needed to accomplish the job.  The general mindset was that we could do it! We could make it work, but that if it was going to work and be successful, it was because we made it work.  These were challenging, rewarding & fun days (and nights) at work.  The air was just thick with purpose and everyone was breathing it.

What usually happens as a company grows is that in order to be efficient and profitable, standard operating procedures will be implemented.  These will help to streamline and unify the way everyone does their job so that the company can yield consistent results.  This is very important.  Great reputation and corporate good will are built on the foundation of quality and consistency.

Associates that find themselves in larger companies might find it harder to find the passion in what they do.  When your job consists of putting these nine nuts on those nine bolts before the piece moves to the next assembly line station, you may find it hard to get excited about your contribution or think that what you are doing matters.  As a result, you may find yourself just showing up, and just putting in the minimum effort to keep your job. You may be just enduring your work, barely able to make it to quitting time everyday and Sunday night is the worst time of your entire week.  It can be very challenging.  Let me just say this – a good job is always worth doing.

Bobby Unser
Desire! That’s the one secret of every man’s career. Not education. Not being born with hidden talents. Desire.

A good leader will try to build a vision into their associates and to communicate the big picture. Letting them see why their job is important, but you don’t have to wait for someone else.  You can stir yourself up and take steps to improve your situation now, on your own.

These things will help you connect with your purpose and become great at your job.

  1. Consider the end.  Who are you helping?  When I spend time thinking about some of our clients and why they are coming to us in the first place, it helps me find my purpose.  I believe in the work that some of our clients are doing. I can get my heart behind it.  Find a reason to get your heart behind what you do, then you will be self motivated.
  2. Solve problems.  One of the most important things my supervisors have looked for over the years is that they want employees that are problem solvers.  Let me clarify.  The reason I’m there in the first place is because they have a problem.  They have more of this specific work to do than they can do. I was hired to help solve that problem.  I can solve that problem at the minimum expectation or I can really invest myself and be remarkable and look for other problems to solve too.
  3. Don’t create problems.  I have yet to meet someone in the work place who has never made a mistake.  This isn’t what I’m talking about.  There are some associates that I have observed over the years that have personality traits that have consistently resulted in problems.  Norwood Bishop was the instructor for a class I took in Bible School called People Skills.  One of the things he said that stuck with me was that 99% of people that are hired are hired because of their ability to do the job or their ability to be trained.  85% of those people that are fired from the same job were fired because they couldn’t get along with people they worked with.
  4. Be correctable.  People who can’t take correction are arrogant and full of pride.  I have seen people defend behavior that they knew was wrong because they couldn’t admit that they were wrong.  Have you ever met anyone who was more interested in being right than in keeping friends?  I think we all have.  Being teachable goes a long way toward also giving you favor.  People like to help the humble. You don’t know it all and will not be right every time.  Be open to being corrected.  Think about it.  Correction means improvement.  You will be better because of it.
  5. Be Faithful.  Proverbs 25:19 says “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint”.  Think about what that’s saying!  Have you ever had a sprained ankle or a broken bone in your foot?  You have two feet but one of them is totally useless.  It can’t hold any of the weight that you need for it to hold.  It slows you down in every way.  You can’t even put your pants on normally.  You have to move slowly around the trouble area.  A broken or abscessed tooth is the same way. You have a tooth but it can’t do any of the tooth duties that you need it to do.  It would be better not to have a sore tooth at all than to have one there and to cause massive discomfort in your whole mouth by using it.  This is what an unfaithful associate is like.  In some cases, it would be better if they weren’t there.  At least you would not be trusting them and then get left twisting in the wind.  Have you ever received help that actually became a “Do Over”?  There are some people who help best when they help somewhere else.

This is not a complete list.  These are just things that I have noticed in my years in the workforce that I have personally tried to build into myself and they have served me well.  I promise you.  If you incorporate these 5 things into your life, it will pay off for you in the long run and you’ll be happier and a better ambassador for Christ on the job. You will be the employee known for your spirit of excellence.

Dale Carnegie
Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.

What things do you value in the people you work with?  What things have you brought to your job that make you great?  Please join the conversation & leave a comment.

If this has been helpful and you think it can help someone else, please share it.

Your First Step On The Road To Success

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I want to talk to the guy who’s hearts desire is to open his own transmission shop but he’s stuck working in retail.  I want to talk to the woman who’s hearts desire has always been to open a soup kitchen for the down and out but who’s just retired from manufacturing.  I want to talk to the loan assistant who’s days are filled with stress but her heart beats for the people of Kenya.  I want to talk to the corporate manager who’s dream is to help people take steps of faith.  I want to talk to you.

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What are you passionate about?  When you think about your future and where you want to go, what do you see?  Is it different than where you ARE going?  When you look at yourself, what do you want to become?  Is it different than what you ARE becoming?  What are you doing about it?

I have had to ask myself those same questions.   Then I forced myself to answer them with brutal honesty.  The truth is:

  • I was waiting for someone to give me permission to make my dream come true.
  • I was waiting for someone else to care about my dream.
  • I was waiting for someone else to give me the roadmap to my dream.
  • I was waiting for someone else who knew more than I did to help me.

In all these things we see two things.  #1. I was waiting.  #2. Someone else had the keys to my dream.  In my mind, I couldn’t move forward because I didn’t have what it took to succeed.  I needed someone who knew how to get there to become interested in what I was doing & help me.  With this thinking, my dream was going to be forever out of my reach.  Why?  Because that other person, who could do all of those things, was busy making their own dream come true.

I want you to take a serious look at your dream.  What one thing can you do that would give you forward motion?  Identify one thing.  It’s probably not going to be some huge thing, but isolate just one thing that will get your dream moving.  Make it something that you actually have the ability to do for yourself, and make it something that you can do now!  Every journey begins with the first step.  Most of them are small.  It takes the first step to get to the second step.  Sometimes you can’t even see step two until you’ve taken step one, but I promise, it’s there.   Step one has to be first.  Are you ready to take it?

Make up your mind in the beginning to not allow yourself to be discouraged by the small steps.  Everyone starts at the same place.  No one is born with lots of customers.  No one is born with lots of influence.  Everyone gets to start with one customer.  One listener. One faithful supporter – and it’s usually mom.  Let your vision and your dream be your driving force.  Let it be the reason your feet find the floor every morning.  Draw your strength from the purpose in what you’re doing.

Long before you play to a full house, regardless of what your dream is, you’re going to play to a lot of empty ones.  Don’t quit.  Get your eyes checked and make sure you’ve got selective vision.  See what matters, look beyond what doesn’t.  – Jon Acuff

Give serious thought in the coming days of what needs to happen in order for you to get from here to there.  Form your plan.  Nothing is going to get done unless you make it happen but you will need a plan.  The truth is that there aren’t really any good excuses.  The things you need are available if you want them badly enough.  We are living in an unprecedented time where all of the gatekeepers are gone.  There are so many tools available to every one of us that we can make our dreams come true if we will take the initiative and stop believing the lie that we can’t do it.

A few years back I was listening to a business man talk about one of his endeavors.  He had bought a nursery.  In the same area where his nursery was located there was a well established nursery that was larger and well funded.  He went out and immediately planted 4,000 trees on his property.  in his own words “Now we looked like the 800 lb. gorilla on the block”.  People began to come into his business because he looked like he knew what he was doing.  He had committed to his course and then he pulled out all the stops.  His purpose was to be successful and he didn’t ask anyone else’s permission to go for it.    Are you ready to put your creativity to work & make your dream come true?  Now – Give yourself permission to go for it, then take your first step.  It all begins with that first step.  You need to START.  On your mark, Get set, GO!