Category: motivation

Categories
motivation

Is It Real Change If You Go Back to the “Good Old Days”?

Illustration of an Amish man at an old PC. I drew this for Illustration Friday. This week's word is "old-fashioned."

There will always be problems and issues. Frequently, when problems arise, it can be tempting to think we need to go back to the good old days. But can you really make lasting change by going back? Were the good old days ever that good?

I grew up during the Vietnam War and Watergate. I don’t think we want to go back there. Before that, it was all the riots and unrest of the sixties. In the fifties, we were in the Korean War and battling polio. And the forties? World War II. The thirties? The Great Depression.

We tend to remember only the good in a decade and tend to forget the trials and troubles each decade had. Sure, we need to learn from the past. But wishing we were back there is an exercise in futility. Nostalgia can only get us so far.

Besides, I have no desire to go back to the computers of yesterday. Who wants Windows 98 and Palm Pilots back? Anyone?

Illustration of an Amish man at an old PC. I drew this for Illustration Friday. This week's word is "old-fashioned."
Categories
motivation

Reacting versus Responding

Cartoon of mother, son and teacher

“A culture of reactivity alone insures that we have time to do little else but fight fires.”

Scott Ellis in Changed People Change Process

I once heard Zig Ziglar talk about the difference between reacting and responding. He urged the audience to think about going to the doctor because you have an illness. What if the doctor prescribes medication and you come back the next week?

If the doctor says you’ve had a reaction to the medication, that doesn’t sound good. That means you have broken out in hives or worse. The medicine isn’t helping.

But if you return and the doctor says you have responded to the medication, that means it is working and you are on the road to recovery.

It can be very easy to react to a situation. Frequently, a flurry of emails comes in with scores of very hot jobs. If you are servicing twenty different customers in a day, you can have twenty different hot jobs. The next thing you know, you spend the whole day putting out fires.

But what if we trained ourselves to respond instead of react? Instead of jumping at every hot job that comes in, what if we prioritized and looked at the big picture of the workload instead of attempt to put out twenty different fires?

It can be as tempting to react like the Sunday school teacher is in my cartoon. But if the teacher in this example reacts in a way that prevents her from the lesson and highjacks the rest of the time in class, it can be wasted time in class. That’s what reaction does. It creates waste.

Our challenge is to minimize a culture of reactivity and transform it into a responsive culture. Scott Ellis’ book has already given me some great insights on how to do that. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know how things progress.

Cartoon of mother, son and teacher
Categories
motivation

Dreamers and The Big Stretch: Dan Miller

Cartoon of a mom and a boy at a sundae. The boy says, "You just made all my dreams come true!"

I was listening to Dan Miller’s podcast the other day. He had some great insights. He was interviewing Teneshia Jackson Warner on her new book, The Big Stretch: 90 Days to Expand Your Dreams, Crush Your Goals, and Create Your Own Success. Here’s a link to the podcast:

https://www.48days.com/following-your-dreams/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+48DaysRadio+%2848+Days+to+the+Work+You+Love+Internet+Radio+Show%29

Have you had a dream lately? Has it been a dream you have held onto for years? Is it one of these dreams?

  • Someday, my ship will come in
  • Someday, my prince will come
  • This lottery ticket is going to make all my dreams come true
  • When everyone gets their act together, I am going to rock this world!

This post ties into yesterday’s quote. Until you take responsibility for your dreams, it is unlikely they will go anywhere. If you are relying on someone else or something else to make your dreams come true, you may be waiting a long time.

We all have God-given dreams. What are you doing today to make those dreams closer to reality?

If your dream is to simply have the best sundae ever. That’s all good. Let me know when you’re ready and we can share some divine dairy delectables.

Cartoon of a mom and a boy at a sundae. The boy says, "You just made all my dreams come true!"
Categories
motivation

The Price of Greatness

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

Winston Churchill from Brainy Quote

This quote would mean less if Winston Churchill didn’t live it. Here was a guy who stood up to Hitler when the rest of Europe fell. He remained defiant and encouraged a nation when it looked like all hope was lost. He held out until America entered the war. Because he was responsible, Nazi Germany was beaten.

No one has ever become great sitting on a couch, watching TV, and waiting for something to happen. No one has ever become great by looking the other way when challenges come. No one has ever attained greatness by seeing a mess and just assuming someone will take care of it.

If you notice something on a job is wrong, and you just assume a supervisor will take care of it, you have forfeited greatness. If a customer complains the job isn’t right and you blame everyone else who had a hand in it, you have forfeited greatness.

Every day, we have opportunities to be great. It takes courage to be responsible and to rise above the average to the great. We may not encounter a dictatorship. But we may be faced with the choice of speaking up when things aren’t right or relinquishing our chance for greatness.

Categories
motivation

Emphasize the Good

When criticism is minimized and praise emphasized, the good things people do will be reinforced and the poorer things will atrophy for lack of attention.

Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People

Why is it so easy to see the speck in another person’s eye and ignore the log in our own? We like to pick apart those that are close to us and ignore the self-improvement we could make and have the control to do.

I am the oldest of four kids. Unfortunately, that meant I was really good at seeing the faults in my siblings since I had at least a two-year head start on them. I’d say none of them benefited from my years of “constructive criticism.” They are wonderful, healthy adults today in spite of my influence rather than because of it.

Criticism is too easy. It lets us off the hook of our own self-improvement and focuses on the improvement of others. Sure, employees need to be accountable to bosses and managers. But look for ways to do it that inspire good behavior rather than place an undue emphasis on the bad.