Think Big- Be Big
Yesterday, I got in the elevator to go to my 16fl office and I pushed the button for my floor. The elevator ascended and I made it to my office.
In order to go up - I had to do something.
If you are stuck on the first floor of your life, in order to go up you are going to have to do something. #youwillgetthatinthemorning
This morning I did as I do almost every morning after walking the dog -I made a cup of coffee.
Courtesy of Roger Price
Now I have one of those fancy keurig machines that will make you just a cup of coffee while you wait. Well this morning, while waiting the 1 or 2 for the coffee to brew I decided to go to my desk and send out a couple of emails. As inevitably happens, 2 hours later I realize I had not had my cup of coffee. Well realizing this, I went and put my cup of coffee into the microwave and decided to send a couple of emails while I waited the 2 minutes for the coffee to microwave. Well 2 hours later I am reheating my coffee yet again.
[callout]What am I saying - -If you continue to multitask you will have to keep reheating your coffee. [/callout]
What would have taken me 2 minutes has now taken me 4+ hours. The coffee is not as good as it would have been had I had it earlier. In your business it might not be coffee, but if you continue multi-tasking instead of concentrating on one project at a time - you will find that it actually takes longer to accomplish and more importantly when you get to it - it won't be as good.
Do yourself a favor - stop reheating the coffee.
#preachingtomyself
Today, as I looked through my newspaper clippings on the Internet. I came across an article from Facebook. This article was very interesting because it asked a specific question that got me thinking and thinking hard. The question although innocuous , pierced me to my soul. It was simply, what would you do if you were not afraid? That particular question stay with me all day what would I do if I was not afraid.
What would I say?
What would I be?
Where would go?
if
I was not afraid.
Now here was the crazy part about the whole thing. I couldn't answer the question. Because I've been afraid of life for so long. Yeah that's right this big well this short dark man was afraid. What would I tell my children. That I was afraid that I couldn't even live my life because fear had me paralyzed.
As I thought through this addiction to fear, if you will, I realized that really I wasn't afraid. That by just acknowledging that I was afraid I was able to break through. So I started thinking what would I do if I was not afraid. What places would I conquer.
Well I started writing a bucket list. I was absolutely amazed all the things that I would do if I was able to be not afraid. Today I started working through that list because no longer am I afraid of life. God has not given us a spirit of fear. Period.
So my question to you my friend is what would you do if you were not afraid.
Several years ago I came across a book called Choose to Cheat, by Andy Stanley. In this book Andy, goes on to describe that at any given time you are making decisions that pit you against your work or your family. Andy says that when you put your job first you are cheating your family and when you put your family first, you cheat your job. This issue is that regardless of what you do, You have chosen to cheat. Some thing is going to be cheated. The issue is what do you choose.
Cheating requires some hard choices. Changes in my job. Downsizing my lifestyle. It required sacrifices. I also had to change the expectation of my clients. I had to give away my Blackberry, set-up actual business hours and not take calls after a certain time. This perhaps was one of the hardest things to do. But the benefits have been marvelous. For the first time in a long time, I can breathe. I didn't realize that I had been holding my breath climbing a success ladder. My bonding with my family grew. I got to share the last high school years with my boyz pouring into them. And Frankly being loved on by them.
Life with my wife has improved immensely. Have you ever stopped and taken a look at someone that you have known for years and think I don't know them at all. We have been able to spend quality time together and really get to know each other at a whole different level. My decision then became very simple. At the end of the day did I want financial success and a messed up home life, or did I want a healthy family. I chose Family. -- I Chose to Cheat.
Tell me Your story - Have you ever Chose to Cheat.
Earlier today, while working out in the gym I sent my assistant something using iMessage on my iPad. While it toiled and struggled my iPad could not connect properly to the wifi. I had full bars but no connection: (that will have to be another blog post) And so as a result my messaged read "Not Delivered".
I thought somehow that this would fix itself once I got to a different signal. You know somehow, the message would magically send because now I am connected. Well Lo and Behold, when I got into the office and the iPad connected, it still read "Not Delivered".
Not to be deterred, I clicked the little info button next to my message and up popped this alert. The alert is not what is important. It is the instructions, underneath that made all the difference in the world to me. 2 words -- TRY AGAIN.
I want to talk to someone who has tried to send a message or do something in the past that just didn't connect. Maybe there is a project or even a relationship that you wanted to work in the past, but it just didn't seem to work out.
Could it be that at the time you were disconnected form the source of your strength. I mean the bars said connected but the message just didn't get through. Well my friend that was then and this is now. You may need to Try Again.
I am at a point in my life right now where stuff I have tried to set in motion, seeds I have planted, things that I thought would never happen are starting to come back to me. I mean these were things that I flat out failed. But I am hearing so in my spirit so strong the words TRY AGAIN. So I leave this as encouragement to you. Look back at your life, look at old opportunities, then pick yourself off the ground -- TRY AGAIN.
As I sat with my son's guidance counselor and teachers - I kept hearing the same thing over and over - He is a smart kid - but he is not working up to his potential. He is not getting bad grades but he is not getting great grades, which to me is bad grades. I sat there fuming, thinking of all kinds of nefarious punishments that would ensue when he got home. I mean how could he not perform at peak levels. He has all of the tools needed to excel. The latest technology, great support, and natural intelligence. What could be the problem, why is my son not working up to his potential. Why is he doing just enough to get by, when he has all of this talent and resources.
I stay busy being busy - but not always productive. I am surrounded by the latest technology - but have yet to produce a 1/4 of what I have the capability to produce. I only make 1/4 of what I can make financially. I am only delivering on 1/4 of what I have to deliver. I have technology, an incredible support staff, and unbelievable natural talents, but only live up to 50% of my potential. I had no room to berate what he learned watching me.
Somewhere along the line - I was told I was different - Somewhere I was taught that just getting by was ok. Somewhere along the line I gave up. I decided to be a number 2- when i had the capacity to be number 1.
Does this sound like you? Are You operating at a standard that is lower than your expectation?
HELP!!!!
In order to combat this here are 5 principles that I believe will help turn this situation around.
Going forward - I pledge to do better - for me not only is my career at stake - but as you can see the career of my kids and their generation is at stake - All because I Won't Step Up! -- I think it is time - what about you?
[reminder]
One of the reasons you have to be very careful about what you like or comment on social media, if you are not careful -- the algorithm of social media will keep you in the same cycle.
Yesterday, I posted an article where I discussed depression. It was not the whole article, just a couple sentences. Lo and behold, on today when I open up my Facebook account, I was presented with this sponsored ad.
An ad on how to cure my depression. What is interesting, is that again this was just a sentence within a larger article. Facebook saw that post, analyzed the comments that people were making to assume that I was suffering from depression right now.
While this can be a good thing. It can also have bad effects for some people.
I've also noticed that people who post negative things, like negative things, or comment on negative things, tend to receive those types of things in their newsfeed. I believe this perpetuates the same mood swings that a lot of people suffer from. So, be mindful what you post. But more importantly, realize that your newsfeed maybe keeping you in a negative cycle. Break the cycle, post something opposite.
Well it has been just under 10 days that we've moved into the new office space. And since this was a major move for me, I prayed Lord just don't let me mess up. I prayed this prayer everyday. And it was not because I thought that I was going to do something so egregious that I was going to bankrupt the business. I just wanted everything to be perfect.
What I soon realized is that this thinking is what held me back for so long. I was easily falling back into the same habits that have kept me from achieving my greatest levels because I was not messing up, I was being mediocre.
Let me go further. To not mess up means to just do enough to stay where you are. Whenever I've been in any kind of renovation, any kind of remodeling, it meant that I had to make a mess in order to make it better. I've never taken over any company where I did not have to dismantle something in order to build it better. There's never been a construction site that has not been messy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying don't be organized. I'm saying that sometimes you have to create a mess in order for things to be better.
So my new prayer has been, Lord help me to mess up. Help me to mess up the status quo, help me to mess up standard thinking, help me to mess up just being ordinary. My friends, I wonder if there's something in your life or in your business you just need to mess up.
Leave me a thought below I look forward to hearing from you.
This morning as I went to the gym I noticed my phone was running low on battery. So I did as I have done on many occasions, I attached it to the charger and left the room. When I returned, I noticed that the device was not charged. I mean it had all the right connections but, was dead.
Plug in the phone, Plugged into the wall. But yet no charge. It seemed that I was plugged in but not fully connected. For all intents, on the outside I appeared to be plugged in, but not all of the contact parts where connected.
That got me to thinking. How many times have you thought you were plugged in, but in reality you were not connected. You thought that your close proximity to greatness, or to certain people, would get you into the "party". But at the end of the day you may be plugged in, but you are not connected.
In relationships this happens all the time, you have all of the ends in the right places, but in fact, you are just plugged in and not connected.
I charge you (pun intended) to go and verify your connection, before you end up like me today, Needing to make a connection, but finding that you have been plugged in all this time, but never connected.
This week I will be posting taking a journey through the Bible dealing with attitude. It has been said on many occasions that your attitude determines your altitude. In other words, How high you go is directly connected to the way you approach or think about a situation. In fact, in the Bible the word "mind" is used more than the word "attitude" to describe this characteristic. My friends over at Lifechurch.tv have created this 7 day study. You can follow this plan at any time by going to Youversion.com and signing up for the reading plan.
Attitude
Matthew 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' NIV
One of the most important things to consider in changing or even maintaining our attitude to to remember it first starts with where we place our loyalties. Where we decide to place our trust. The scripture for today points us in the right direction. If we love the lord with all of our heart, soul, and mind, then our perspective on thing change.
Heart: “Heart in the Bible is the inner life that one lives before God and himself, a life that is unknown to others because it is hidden from them… the most fully developed, most far-reaching and most dynamic concept of the non-material man.” Bible Gateway
Soul: By an easy transition the word comes to stand for the individual, personal life, the person, with two distinct shades of meaning which might best be indicated by the Latin anima and animus. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Mind: The intellectual or rational faculty in man; the understanding; the intellect; the power that conceives, judges, or reasons; also, the entire spiritual nature; the soul; -- often in distinction from the body. Webster Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Your attitude starts with how your thinking and feeling. Guard both.