mastering life

“Perhaps the severest requirement of the good life is to have the constancy of mind to maintain our joy and gratitude even amid hardship, pain, and injustice.”

Brendon Burchard from the Motivation Manifesto

 

Have you ever asked the question what do people want?  What do people really want?   Is it more money?  For some it is but for most it isn’t.  Is it a better job, for some that may be the case but there are some who have their dream job.   Is traveling what you want?  Is it a better relationship?  Is it personal growth?  Is it the feeling of significance?  What is it that people want?

The answer might be as simple as a choice.  The choice to do what really matters most is what people want.  Work is often a choice for many people if it is engaging and meaningful.  Relationships that are fulfilling and allow for personal growth is a choice many would like to be able to make.   What kind of choices could you make to increase vitality and joy in your life?

What dreams have you had that dried up and blew away that you wish you made the choice to follow?   The choice was there at one time and you ignored its call to follow something that others would say is more important.  What if you had that chance again would you follow your dream?

The mastery of life is about making the best choices for you.  It is about living your life authentically and with vitality.   The mastery of life is about creating wonderful goals that inspire and motivate you and then doing what you can with what you have to realize those goals.   The mastery of life is about being aware of who you are and what you are doing.  The mastery of life is about having the ability to make choices.  What choices are you making that will make your life rich with significance?

A new year is around the corner.  What changes do you want to make in your life?What do you want to do that matters most to you?   What is stopping you from realizing your dreams?

Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.”
― John Gardner

in 10 minutes I can

“The world’s greatest achievers have been those who have always stayed focused on their goals and have been consistent in their efforts.”
― Roopleen

What can you do in 10 minutes?

– Plan the day
– Put the dishes away
– Clean the bathroom
– Fold clothes
– Encourage someone
– Walk the dog
– Exercise
– Breathe
– Drink a glass of water
– Write down your thoughts
– Stretch
– Make a commitment
– Learn something new
– Help someone else
– Call a friend
– Thank someone
– Take a moment to appreciate something
– Journal
– Reflect on a lesson

There is a lot that can be done in 10 minutes to improve your life, your day or  your week.  In the busyness of everyday life it is easy to neglect the idea that 10 minutes can make a huge difference in personal or professional productivity.

Planning is perhaps the most important activity to complete as it helps you determine what is important and what isn’t important to work on.   The plans would allow you to create blocks of time in the day to complete important work, focused work, or a single activity where you put your best attention.

What things can you do in 10 minutes?    If you have things you haven’t started on use the 10 minute test and just do 10 minutes of an activity and see how far you get.

Do what you  can in a 10 minute sprint – you’ll be surprised.

 

what will your masterpiece be?

“We cannot know what a human being can achieve until we have seen [the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel].” — Wolfgang von Goethe

What do you want your masterpiece to be?   Everyday you have the opportunity to do something great, what will it be?

How are you going to use your genius, your passion, your grit, your persistence, your practice, your pursuit, your intelligence to make a difference in this world. The world needs all of who you are every day.   You can make a difference.  You have the all the abilities you need to change the world.

What will be your Sistine Chapel moment?   What will be your Sistine Chapel contribution to the world?

The realm of exceptional performance comes from the pursuit of an idea that is at the edges of your abilities that push your limits beyond where you have been before.  Push yourself, move outside the comfort of the known to experience the unknown and do something great.   Go to the place where the fear lives within you and push it back.

how do you want to be remembered?

“Laugh, even when you feel too sick or too worn out or tired.
Smile, even when you’re trying not to cry and the tears are blurring your vision.
Sing, even when people stare at you and tell you your voice is crappy.
Trust, even when your heart begs you not to.
Twirl, even when your mind makes no sense of what you see.
Frolick, even when you are made fun of. Kiss, even when others are watching. Sleep, even when you’re afraid of what the dreams might bring.
Run, even when it feels like you can’t run any more.
And, always, remember, even when the memories pinch your heart. Because the pain of all your experience is what makes you the person you are now. And without your experience—you are an empty page, a blank notebook, a missing lyric. What makes you brave is your willingness to live through your terrible life and hold your head up high the next day. So don’t live life in fear. Because you are stronger now, after all the crap has happened, than you ever were back before it started.”
― Alysha Speer

One of life’s great questions is:  “What do you want to be remembered for?”

What will your life story mean?  What fingerprint will you have left on this world?  What difference will you have made?

If your inner voice is filled with complaint, blame, anger, dissatisfaction or disappointment then create a new path for your life.   Start living your life by giving to the world you live in your genius, your spark, your creativity, your ideas or your time.   Give to the world and the world will give back to you, perhaps not in the currency you anticipate but in ways that will reward you far greater than you can imagine.

Here’s the  challenge.  What can you do to make a difference in this world?

What will your masterpiece be?   What will your shining moment be?  What will your Mt. Everest event be?   Describe your work of the art to the world.  Write it down and give it life.

How do you want to be remembered?   What do you want to be remembered for?

your work matters

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.”
― Aldous Huxley

Imagine working for a company that wants to make work exciting, fun and challenging while offering top quality service and yet not all companies care about their people, those both inside and outside the business.  There are organizations that value their staff and the result is that the employees desire to do their best for their customers and for the company.

Recently I’ve come across a number of people who are being bullied within their company, micro-managed and intimated by threat or coercive pressures by poor management practices.  The bully doesn’t belong as a leader or manager in any company and yet they find a way to maintain a position of power in their organization.     Results matter and how they are achieved matter as well.

There are some companies that boost results and have better ways to manage people and better ways to get results as well.

Take a look at these values, what do you think?   Is it a top company?  Does this company value its employees and customers?

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

What company do you think has these values as part of their business structure?

The company that has these values is Zappos.   Is this an organization you’d like to work for?

What kind of organization do you want to be a part of?   What kind of culture would you fit best into?

a new story

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
― Maya Angelou

 

Story.   Your life is a story and throughout the pages of your story are moments of joy, regret, sorrow and excitement.   What do you want others to know about your story?

For some people their story is routine, bland and roughly the same everyday.   Year after year they go to work and come back to a place they call home.  The story repeats itself in the spring, summer, fall and winter.   There isn’t something that creates substantial meaning in their story.   It just moves from one clock tick to the next.  Life becomes more about dealing with the bills, weather and occasional routine disrupters that interfere with most people’s lives,  fixing a broken pipe in the dead of winter, mowing the grass, trying to plant a garden, tripping over a piece of worn carpet, getting to work and getting back, talking with the same group of people, complaining about things that won’t change, listening to the news realizing that the story is the same every night, getting groceries, eating, cleaning up, and life goes on.

Life goes on and living has somehow stopped.   Real goals linger as “should do” items on a dusty shelf.   Beauty gets swallowed into a sea of grey thinking.  The crisp edges of life disappear and are replaced with safe routine.

There comes a time in life where reflection of the life lived  begins to ring louder and louder, and begs the questions, “Did I live?”  For most people there is a deep desire to live a life that does matter that there was some contribution, that there was a story worth sharing with others.

What story do you want your life to tell?   What new story do you want to write?

What would make life interesting rather than routine?   What do you want your story to be about?

Start writing a new story today.

start with one

“Everyone is familiar with the phenomenon of feeling more or less alive on different days. Everyone knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth, but which he might display if these were greater. Most of us feel as if we lived habitually with a sort of cloud weighing on us, below our highest notch of clearness in discernment, sureness in reasoning, or firmness in deciding. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.”   William James

If you read the quote above you probably have had days where the energy to live fully just wasn’t there.   It was a day that you felt you needed to take off and just find a place to do nothing.   Where does your energy come from?   What makes you excited to participate in a new day?

What do you think is the biggest thief of energy?
1. To many things to do and no clear priorities
2. Nothing very interesting to do, not challenging or valuable
3. No external motivation, others encouraging you forward
4. Physical ailments or negative thinking

What would it take to activate you so that your day was filled with energy and positive outcomes?     You do realize that your energy doesn’t come from somewhere else, it comes from within you.   It comes from lifting your energy level up when it is down.  It comes from thinking about one thing that will produce a desired result.

Clarity and focus.   That is one way to get energy flowing.   Be clear on achieving one goal and focusing on achieving that goal.   Stay clear of distractions, email, conversation, or other activities that pull you away from that “one” thing.

authentic leadership

“Often misconstrued, authenticity is not about being an open book, revealing every detail of yourself without rhyme or reason. It is simply the act of openly and courageously seeing what needs to be seen, saying what needs to be said, doing what needs to be done, and becoming that which you are intent on being.” ― Scott Edmund Miller

 

Authentic leadership realizes and recognizes that people have lives outside of work and are willing to create the opportunity for their workforce to live a balanced life and balance doesn’t mean equal it means the opportunity to separate work from life in a way that one doesn’t feel guilty for taking time off to see their kids dance on a stage.

We live in an age where employers are trying to squeeze more out of their workforce and are getting less.  Even though there is room for people to do more at work they don’t.    Some people are overworked, some are doing boring work and some may totally disengaged. Employee engagement is a key indicator for organizational success and yet many leaders ignore this key aspect as a way to create a high performance organization.

Organizations that have high employee engagement have 21% more productivity. What can leaders  do to increase employee involvement?

Leaders need to learn how to lead their team and organization by:

1. Compelling vision (does it inspire others, creating meaning)

2. Employee input  and participating  (leaders need to listen)

3. A trusting environment (vulnerability, authentic, genuine, transparent)

4. Ensure the values and standards are consistently applied and are known by everyone.

5. People are held accountable for results (someone checks on the results)

6. An environment of excellence and environment.

What kind of work environment are you in?   What type of leadership is used in your organization? When you go to work are you inspired, engaged and happy to go to work?   If you’re not what would need to change?
What motivates you? Will you be surprised?

do you know who you are?

“Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves.
But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. ”

 C.G. Jung

Do you know who you are?   Not who you think you should be but who you really are?   It is easy to cover up the true you in exchange for the perceived you, the you, you’d like to be.   Being authentic will allow you to express yourself fully and comfortably.

When people have been asked “have you ever lied?” and they say no, they are are probably not telling the truth then.   Most people live behind a mask,  a mask that is used to cover up and flaws or weaknesses they have.   It could be  character flaw, or an integrity flaw, or some other issue they don’t want others to see.    Anyone who has said, “I am not good enough” in some aspect of their life to themselves has probably not told anyone else that story.   That is their belief and it is a belief they don’t want to have.    What would happen if you told everyone “I am not good enough.”, what would happen?

How well do you know yourself?  How well do you want to know yourself?

Fill out the following assessment.    Score yourself for each line from 1 to 10 (using the labels below)

Statement as it applies to you. How do you see yourself most of the time?	Hardly ever		Some of the time			Most of the time			Almost always
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
I speak positively about myself	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I support others and their ideas	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I get results frequently.	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am compassionate	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I take responsibility for my actions	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I love myself	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I love others in my life without conditions	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am happy with who I am	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am happy with my finances	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am happy with my physical health	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am happy with my physical appearance	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am happy with my mental health	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am valued as a person by others	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I value myself as a person	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
When I make a mistake I can forgive myself	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
When others make a mistake I can forgive them.	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I don’t hold grudges	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I do my best in everything I do	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I don’t make excuses	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I seek personal growth	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am competent	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am confident	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am strong (physically)	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am intelligent	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am honest with myself	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am honest with others	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am authentic	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I am a person of integrity	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I meet my commitments	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_
I use my strengths and talents most of the time.	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_	_

When you are done just add up the scores for 1, 2 and 3,4,5 and 6,7,8 and 9, 10.    What was your score?  How many were 1’s or 2’s, or 3,4,5 or 6,7,8 or 9, and 10.

What area’s would you like to change?   Where do you want to improve or did you resist doing the assessment at all?

The first step to change is recognizing the areas that you could change, that could help you be more authentic.   When you are able to live authentically you’ll experience greater joy and happiness in your life.

What do you really want to change?   Start today!

my career my choice

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards, they try to have more things or more money in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are then do what you need to do in order to have what you want. ”
― Margaret Young

Career choices …

People are desiring to look for a new job.  A recent survey by Right Management indicates that many people are dissatisfied with the work they are doing right now.   This means there is the potential for a substantial shift in what and where people work.   While the sample size is relatively small it indicates that the work and amount of work that people have to do are not matching up with what employers want their employees to do.

People who desire to look for new work in 2013

	2012	2011	2010	2009
Yes, I intend to actively seek a new position.	86%	84%	84%	60%
Maybe, so I’m networking.	8%	9%	8%	21%
Not likely, but I’ve updated my resume.	1%	2%	3%	6%
No, I intend to stay in current position.	5%	5%	5%	13%

Source Right Management

Are you one of the many who are polishing up their resume and checking out the want ads for a new position?

If you are you might want to look all around you for ways to make that career transition work for you.

1. Search for your name on Google.   What shows up?  What is your on-line reputation?  Will those who are looking for you find the “right” you on-line.   What does your Facebook account contain?  What do you tweet?   What does your linkedIn profile say about you?   Know what your on-line presence is and know how others see you.

2. Understand “who” you are.   If the job you are in right now isn’t working for your skills and needs aren’t being satisfied by the work you are doing.   Know who you are before you start your job search.   This is a dig deep process into who you are.   Take the time to know your strengths, talents and abilities before you touch up your resume and look for work that you are doing today.   Doing the same work in a different location may not be the best thing for you.

3. Create a strategy.    Have a plan.   Know what you want before you start looking for a new job.   Once you have a clear idea of what you want to do, research job positions that align with your purpose.   What skills are required?  What training is needed?    If you need to develop skills make that part of your plan to get the skills needed to transfer to a new role or career.

4. Tune your resume to match the job  you are looking for.   Often people take adjust their work to match who they are.   That is even given a role with a certain set of expectations they will slowly change the job to match who they are, and do what they like rather than do what is expected.   If you find yourself changing what your role is in your job then you might be in the wrong job.    Do what you like doing and find the job that allows you to do that.   Fighting your way through each day is an indication that you may not fit the job you were hired to do.

5. Adjust.   Looking for a new job is one of adjustments and tuning.  Be willing to make small changes in your resume to match job descriptions and needs.   Be willing to adjust where you are looking and how you are looking.   Find out what is getting you results and what isn’t.

Prepare – Plan – Succeed.

Listen to a TED talk about Careers and jobs.