The Gift of Growth

A few weeks ago, a good friend and I spent the day in Tijuana, Mexico visiting families and friends we know there. We have been involved in supporting a community in Tijuana for a few years now, and from time to time we get to go and visit. They are beautiful people.

One thing that never ceases to amaze and sadden me is their inability to consider the hope of a good future. Most of the families we support down there are just trying to make it through the day. It is a very sad reality. A reality that is more pervasive in this world than most of us care to acknowledge.

When I leave that place, I go through a whole host of emotions, one of which is gratitude. Another is responsibility.

It is quite likely that, if you are reading this blog, you are blessed in so many ways. More than you can count. One way that we are blessed is that we have both the freedom and possibility to dream and plan for a future.

We can look ahead into the coming year and make plans, create goals, and believe that there is indeed prosperity and peace in store for us. Having a vision for where we want to go is a luxury that so many in this world don’t even know they could have. As you make your plans for next year, do not take this for granted.

Do you have a personal development plan? Do you have a health plan? Do you have a reading plan? Do you have a plan to grow spiritually?

I am acutely aware that many plans do not come to fruition, and I certainly do not believe that just because you write things down they magically come true. But as a coach I have observed that those who take the planning process seriously get much further than those who don’t. Do not buy the lie that you are too busy or too distracted to make a plan.

The gift of our freedom is amazing. Let us not squander it by relegating ourselves to an unplanned life. This is the time of the year to make those plans.

For all of my clients out there: I look forward to seeing yours and to helping you grow where you want to go in the coming year.

With much peace,

Coach Steve

Posted By: http://www.realityandhope.com

Posted in Championship Living

What’s Holding You Back?

What is really impact­ing your pur­suit of the results you want to achieve? If there is some­thing hold­ing you back in your life and cho­sen career, what can you do about it?

Cer­tainly the econ­omy — domes­tic and global — has impacted most of us, and will con­tinue to have a neg­a­tive impact for at least a few more years. But it is too easy to blame out­side influ­ences and avoid tak­ing respon­si­bil­ity for what we need to do in order to reach our goals.

There are exter­nal fac­tors — includ­ing biases, prej­u­dices, reg­u­la­tory bar­ri­ers, and so on — that are out of our imme­di­ate con­trol. Yet there are things we can do that will improve our sit­u­a­tion if we per­sis­tently stay the course.

Take stock of the fol­low­ing as you reflect on what you want to achieve in 2012.

Know where you want to go.

What is that you want to achieve in every impor­tant aspect of life? And what is your plan to do it? Too often we can get stuck in a rou­tine with­out think­ing about how our daily actions fit into a greater plan of reach­ing our goals. Each of us can ben­e­fit from a spe­cific game plan.

The more spe­cific your goals are, the more spe­cific your actions will be. Big goals (and lit­tle ones, too) are accom­plished one step at a time. But we need to start mov­ing in the right direc­tion with a con­tin­u­ous focus on expected results.

Know what you need to improve.

All of us can get bet­ter. Know­ing what to work on is a good start!

Be hon­est in your assess­ment of where you need to improve. Don’t miss the oppor­tu­nity to ask loved ones, co-workers, and yes, even the boss what you can do to improve. There is a very worth­while exer­cise called Keep-Start-Stop that can be a huge benefit.

Take this feed­back seri­ously, imple­ment the sug­gested changes, and it can make a big difference.

Per­sist through the challenges.

There will be set­backs. Expect them. When obsta­cles get in the way, attack them head-on. Over­com­ing them can be stim­u­lat­ing as well as rewarding.

Don’t keep your goals to yourself.

There is some­thing extremely ben­e­fi­cial about shar­ing your goals. At the very least, it will make you more com­mit­ted and account­able to stay­ing the course to reach them.

Work your plan.

With your goals and required actions in front of you each day, you can move for­ward with the con­fi­dence of know­ing that the accom­plish­ment of each action moves you closer to your goals.

Review your progress reg­u­larly. Make mid-course cor­rec­tions as necessary.

You will get there by keep­ing your game plan in focus.

Posted By: leadershipfromthetrenches.com

Posted in Championship Living

Looking Forward to the New Year

There are all sorts of ways to approach plan¬ning for the upcoming year. What has always been clear to me is that you need to have a plan. Your plan should be in writ¬ing and it should be specific, including the actions expected, who’s responsible, and when each step should be completed.
There are a few important “mindsets” that will keep you focused on a creating a plan that can help you achieve your desired results.

Don’t believe everything you read or hear.

The pundits and media (and maybe even people you know) seem to have the “glass halfempty” view. They overreact to perceived barriers and issues. If you are planning or leading, you can’t afford to get distracted by these views and let them overly influence your direction.
One reason I encourage senior leaders and CEO’s to spend a lot of time out of their offices is to meet with the employees who get the work done. It is important to bet¬ter understand what your people are really thinking. If there are barriers, you can learn about the issues firsthand and unfiltered.

If you don’t believe you can, why should anyone else?

If you have doubts about your plan being successful and overcoming inevitable obstacles then why would the team believe it can be done? They need to see what’s possible and know they will be supported. Leaders must keep communication balanced and focus on what’s critically important to move forward successfully.

Don’t build strategy based on a forecasted decline or increase in the overall market.

Sometimes managers believe they need to automatically haircut or increase next year’s plan in correlation with what is expected to happen in the overall industry. It is important to be aware of the bigger picture, but most businesses are too small to be overly impacted by global changes. You don’t need to build this factor into your overall plan.
No one really has all that much market share, so there is far more upside than you might expect — especially when you have specific plans driving results. Build a plan to take market share and win business based on excel¬lent execution and customer service.

Ask the team how you can overcome obsta¬cles together.

Don’t let challenges or issues stand in the way of accomplishment. Most obstacles can be overcome if proactively and positively approached. Remember that results come from detailed planning and stepbystep execution. Your team will participate in the execution, so why not make them part of the planning?

Big goals can be intimidating, but it’s the daily execution of spe¬cific action plans that will get you there.
Remove the “fear factor” of big goals and unpredictable changes in market factors by focusing on the next step to successfully execute the plan. And don’t forget to celebrate your accomplishments and results.
As success grows, you and your team will realize that you CAN accomplish the toughest of plans.

Posted By: leadershipfromthetrenches.com

Posted in Championship Living

More Blessed!

one of my favorite verses of scrip­ture states that it is more blessed to give than to receive. If that is true, and I believe it is…
Wouldn’t you be more blessed if you could give more with­out it cost­ing you any­thing? There is some­thing that every­one can give that is com­pletely with­out cost to you, the giver.
You can give thanks!
With Thanks­giv­ing only a day away (or 11 months if you’re in Canada), many peo­ple are prepar­ing meals and plan­ning for Black Fri­day shop­ping excur­sions. Christ­mas is just around the cor­ner, par­ties are being planned, and the speed of life is about to get frantic.
Before it does…let’s slow down long enough to give thanks.
Tell some­one you are thank­ful for them.
Find a way to actively demon­strate your gratitude.
Pay for­ward a kind­ness that has been shown to you.
Thank­ful­ness is an invest­ment that doesn’t cost, but always pays. It truly is more blessed to give than to receive!
Thank you for being a reader of Irrefutable Suc­cess!

Posted By: http://www.irrefutablesuccess.com

Posted in Championship Living

Getting Back on Track After the Holidays

The Hol­i­days. Do you ever find your­self won­der­ing if they are worth the effort?

We all love to eat turkey and pump­kin pie, and who doesn’t like to get gifts? But it seems like every where we turn there is another rea­son to take off. Have you ever noticed that at least once a month there is some­thing tak­ing us away from work? Thanks­giv­ing, Christ­mas, Spring Break, Easter, 4th of July, and so many more hol­i­days to dis­tract us from our jobs.

I want ya’ll to under­stand that I am not advo­cat­ing that we put an end to hol­i­days. I real­ize that tak­ing time away is vital to our men­tal and phys­i­cal well-being. So, how can we enjoy our well-deserved rest and relax­ation with­out killing off that won­der­ful hol­i­day “buzz” the minute we return?

The answer is twofold. Pre-plan and post-organize.

Pre-Plan

When my father taught me how to drive, the best advice he ever gave me was to look as far ahead as I could. At first, I stopped look­ing at the cars in front of me in order to focus on the ones far off into the dis­tance. We almost crashed, until my father fur­ther explained his statement.

What is in front of you is impor­tant, but if you cou­ple that aware­ness with the wis­dom to fore­see what is com­ing up, you can pre­vent much disaster.

When you are prepar­ing to leave for the hol­i­days, look ahead to what is hap­pen­ing the week you return, and do some pre-planning to effi­ciently han­dle those activ­i­ties. Pre-planning can involve block­ing out time the day you get back to com­plete a project or giv­ing your­self per­mis­sion to not start some­thing new on that day.

Either way, don’t turn into that fam­ily from Home Alone that was so dis­or­ga­nized that they acci­den­tally left their child to fend for himself.

Post-Organize

Do you jump right back into work before you’ve even fin­ished the pump­kin pie, or do you take a moment to orga­nize your pri­or­i­ties first? Do you feel the need to put out all the “fires” right away, or do you imple­ment a post-holiday plan that will get you back on track and reduce your stress?

You can choose how to man­age your time. Dur­ing the week you return, spend at least 30 min­utes each morn­ing pri­or­i­tiz­ing your day. (Of course, you should be doing this every day already, but if you aren’t, at least do it the week after the holiday.)

Plan and orga­nize wisely and your next hol­i­day will be joy­ful, not stressful.
Posted By: www.coachkristenkelly.com

Posted in Championship Living

No Matter Which Way the Winds Blow, Lean Forward

Prob­a­bly a decade ago I wrote a piece for the old Mort­gage Orig­i­na­tor about the need to lean for­ward no mat­ter which way the wind blows. Strangely enough I talked about volatil­ity and uncer­tainty. Times don’t change all that much nor does the mes­sage about lean­ing for­ward, or mov­ing for­ward if you like, no mat­ter the circumstances.

There is cer­tainly more than one way to look at change. A view could be that there was a per­fect win­dow of oppor­tu­nity to grow our busi­ness and we missed it. Now is not the time to take chances. Let’s do noth­ing or maybe even retrench. That’s one view but I don’t buy it. I never have.

Of course there are other views. Whether we are in the upside or down­side of a busi­ness cycle it takes def­i­nite action to cre­ate momen­tous results. We need to ask our­selves what will it take to move us for­ward now? No mat­ter which way the mar­ket winds blow, stand­ing still and doing noth­ing doesn’t usu­ally work.

Whether the wind is in our face or at our back we must learn to lean into it. Have a forward-leaning plan and exe­cute it, espe­cially when the going gets tough. If we have the wind at our back then it can accel­er­ate results. If there is an eco­nomic head­wind then we must lean into it even harder.

All com­pa­nies strug­gle with deci­sions to move for­ward. This inde­ci­sion cre­ates oppor­tu­nity for those that act deci­sively. Where are the real oppor­tu­ni­ties and what can we do to take advan­tage of them? Be spe­cific. Develop defin­i­tive plans, pri­or­i­tize them and move for­ward to gain ground on these oppor­tu­ni­ties. What actions are required to defend and to advance on all areas crit­i­cal to your company?

What sep­a­rates and dif­fer­en­ti­ates com­pa­nies through mar­ket cycles is clar­ity of focus and action. These are the times when we must be sharper in every respect. Lit­tle things count more when the going gets tough and when we are push­ing for­ward. In either case we don’t want to squan­der our resources and lessen our abil­ity to take advan­tage of emerg­ing opportunities.

Be clear and set spe­cific expec­ta­tions. So many times man­agers jump at oppor­tu­ni­ties with­out think­ing through what it will really take to make it work. How much will this new effort require and what will be the expected finan­cial results? Under­stand­ing what it takes and set­ting clear expec­ta­tions up front are crit­i­cal. Mon­i­tor­ing progress and hold­ing man­agers account­able each step of the way is part of good results management.

Unan­tic­i­pated stuff does hap­pen, even with the best plans and peo­ple, so don’t be afraid to either revamp the plan or can it if nec­es­sary. Even if it was the best idea we ever thought of let the num­bers speak for them­selves. Rede­ploy your resources and human tal­ents toward another opportunity.

But don’t stop lean­ing forward.

Posted By: http://www.leadershipfromthetrenches.com/

Posted in Championship Living

3 Simple Steps to Living the Dream

David Freese grew up in St. Louis, one of America’s great base­ball towns. I can only imag­ine how many times he may have dreamed of hit­ting a game-winning home run in the World Series for his home­town team, the St. Louis Cardinals.
On Thurs­day night, he did it!
…and you can live your dream too.

Every­one can move closer to liv­ing their dream by fol­low­ing 3 sim­ple steps.

1) Know your dream… If you don’t have a Life Plan or a Vision for your busi­ness, there is no dream. To get what you want, you have to know what you want at a heart level.

2) Do more than dream… David Freese did more than dream. He worked at hon­ing his base­ball skills to the point that, dur­ing his high school senior year, he recorded a .533 bat­ting aver­age (which remains a school record) and was offered a schol­ar­ship to play base­ball in col­lege. Deter­mine what you need to do to put your­self in posi­tion to live your dream, and then take action!

3) Assess and adjust… After his senior year in high school, David felt burnt out. He decided to quit base­ball and enroll in school to study com­puter sci­ence. Dur­ing the sum­mer after his fresh­man year in col­lege, he vis­ited his high school and real­ized that he still had a pas­sion for base­ball. He returned to the game dur­ing his sopho­more year in col­lege and today plays for his home­town St. Louis Car­di­nals. David assessed his desire to play base­ball, made the nec­es­sary adjust­ments, and went on to become a home­town hero.

On Thurs­day night, David Freese hit a triple to tie Game 6 of the World Series for the St. Louis Car­di­nals. Then in the 11th inning, he hit a home run to win the game. He was named the World Series MVP.
David Freese is liv­ing his dream and you can, too!

Posted By: http://www.irrefutablesuccess.com

Posted in Championship Living

Jerry’s Smile

There are a lot of things I used to do. I used to change my own oil, I used to wash my own car, and I used to shine my own shoes.
Although it’s con¬ve¬nient to get my shoes shined while I’m at the air¬port, it’s not always the most pleas¬ant expe¬ri¬ence. Some¬times the per¬son barely looks up as they slap some paste on my shoes and wipe it off, try¬ing to get the job done as fast as pos¬si¬ble. But not Jerry.

Today Jerry shined my shoes.… and he really made them SHINE!

Right away I could tell that this guy was dif¬fer¬ent. He seemed to care more than any¬one else. He seemed to actu¬ally take pride in shin¬ing my shoes.
There was a point when he was putting the final touches on the shine that he just looked up at me and smiled. I had already been admir¬ing the work he was doing, but that smile topped it off. I said, “Man, I believe this is the best shine I have ever had.” Jerry kept right on smil¬ing… in fact, his smile was so big that he was actu¬ally bit¬ing his lip to hold it back.
He was proud of his work, and I was thrilled to be the recipient.

What have you done today that makes you proud of the results and brings joy or value to some¬one else?

In the mid¬dle of all the hus¬tle and bus¬tle of a major air¬port, Jerry took the time to do great work, and add the smile that topped it off.
What can you do like that today?

Posted By:  www.irrefutablesuccess.com

Posted in Championship Living

Don’t Normalize Mediocrity

In his book Entre­Lead­er­ship, Dave Ram­sey men­tioned a phrase I hadn’t heard before: “nor­mal­ize medi­oc­rity.” As you might expect, he was say­ing that you should NOT nor­mal­ize mediocrity.

Why would any­one want to nor­mal­ize medi­oc­rity? Medi­oc­rity holds us all back from excel­lence. Medi­oc­rity hin­ders improve­ment. Medi­oc­rity makes life down­right boring!

Just when I was con­tem­plat­ing this con­cept, I was slapped in the face by a per­fect example.

Demias Jimer­son, an 11 year-old foot­ball star from Malvern, Arkansas used to score a touch­down almost every time he touched the ball. I say “used to” because Demias can’t score at will any­more. It’s not because he is injured, or that other teams have dis­cov­ered how to defend against him. It’s because he has been banned from scor­ing more than two touch­downs per game if his team is winning.

Why? “To pro­vide his com­peti­tors with a chance to develop as play­ers too.”

Could this same phi­los­o­phy explain why some Lit­tle League base­ball teams don’t even keep score any­more? Are we afraid someone’s feel­ings will get hurt?

There have been times in my life when get­ting beat was the best thing that could have hap­pened for my devel­op­ment. Los­ing caused me to want to learn more, pre­pare more, and apply more… so I could win more!

Are there any areas in your life where you are accept­ing medi­oc­rity? Have you ever low­ered your stan­dards or changed a goal just so you wouldn’t have to stretch?

I say raise your stan­dards, bump up your goal… and never, NEVER allow medi­oc­rity to be normalized!

Posted By: http://www.irrefutablesuccess.com

Posted in Championship Living

3 Things Everyone Wants to Know About You

Lou Holtz is one of the most quoted foot­ball coaches in his­tory. One of my favorite Lou Holtz quotes is actu­ally a series of three questions.

There are 3 things that every­body wants to know about you:

1) Are you com­mit­ted to excel­lence?
2) Do you care about me?
3) Can I trust you?

If you’re won­der­ing how oth­ers might answer these ques­tions about you, you might first want to ask them of yourself.

1) Are you com­mit­ted to excellence?

How do you define excel­lence in your life? In your work? In your rela­tion­ships? Do you accept medi­oc­rity in any area that you pro­fess to value? Com­mit­ment breeds action. If you are truly “com­mit­ted” to some­thing, it will show through your actions. What actions are you cur­rently tak­ing that show you are com­mit­ted to excellence?

2) Do you care about me?

Do you gen­uinely care about other peo­ple? Are you con­cerned about their con­cerns? Is their well-being impor­tant to you? If so, what are you doing about it? How do you show other peo­ple that you care about them? Words are cheap — if you care, do some­thing to show it. If you don’t care….well, you might be able to fake it for a while, but peo­ple will even­tu­ally real­ize the truth.

3) Can I trust you?

I believe that if you are com­mit­ted to excel­lence and you truly care about other peo­ple, then you can be trusted. I know that I trust peo­ple who are com­mit­ted to excel­lence and who care about me.

Think about your response to these three ques­tions as they relate to each per­son you encounter today. Then observe how your response to each of these ques­tions impacts the actions you take through­out the day.

The results may sur­prise you.

Posted By: www.irrefutablesuccess.com

Posted in Championship Living