There is so much “noise” going on right now in the world. The economy, job losses, a new “stimulus” package, tax cuts, retirement accounts moving in the wrong direction (including mine), housing troubles, etc… Wow! If we get caught up in all the “noise”, it would be very easy to become depressed and have a completely negative outlook on life as a whole. So what we must do is shrink our “universe” down to our biggest asset; which is ourselves! You are your biggest asset to make changes in your life, to help resolve issues you are going through, to find a job, to make money, to build a better relationship with a loved one, and the list can go on and on. Plus, you can’t control the stock market, the government, what happens to your home price, the price of oil, but you can and must control you. Too many people rely on others (where they work, their families, their church, the government) to support them, or to tell them what to do next. This type of thinking shrinks one’s own ability for “free or critical thinking”. If we allow others to think for us and make decisions for us we are not growing our biggest asset, we are actually shrinking that asset, and making it a liability. We can’t change the past, but we can influence the future by taking steps today towards a better life. What are you doing today to grow your biggest asset?
There are three uses of our time. We can invest our time, spend our time, or waste our time. When you invest your time you are growing your biggest asset. Focus on ways to invest your time. How? You can:
• Read a book
• Spend quality time with a loved one
• Find your true calling in life and begin the proper steps to find a new career or job
• Work on your resume
• Network to find other avenues of business
• Go to the gym and get a workout in
• Pick up the phone and make that call you have wanted to make
• Take some quiet time to gather your thoughts
• Take the first step in making a situation better
The list could go on and on, but by investing your time you are growing your biggest asset....YOU. Take time to do at least three things that will truly help you grow your biggest asset. Have you taken action? What progress have you seen? What seems to be working? What changes might need to be made? What have you learned by creating action in your life? Write down thoughts about your progress and/or your thoughts about where you are going. Take 15 minutes right now to begin.
If you haven’t created any to do lists or taken any action, I suggest one of two things at this point. Either get serious about getting serious and start doing something NOW, or forget about change and just be happy with where you are in your life. Sound harsh? Only you can change yourself, and if you haven’t started yet, either do so or stop kidding yourself.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Execution Is A Funny Thing
Execution is a funny thing. Most people know what to do, but actually doing it and taking action is a completely different game. In the execution phase an organization must focus on giving everyone necessary the proper training and development to be successful! Everyone must flawlessly execute their roles and responsibilities! The right skills and tools must be given to people inside the organization to execute the plan of attack!
There must be time given to learn the new skills and tools and everyone must not waiver and execution must be encouraged from day one! The organization must coach people along the way to help them get comfortable with all the skills, behaviors, tools, and changes. It works the same with individuals. Let’s look at driving a stick shift again. When learning how to really execute we go through different stages of learning. All of us have a comfort zone and we must work hard at expanding our comfort zone if we want to improve. Remember the first time you drove a stick shift? Let me take you back one step prior, remember when you sat in the passenger’s seat, before you knew how to drive a stick shift and watched somebody drive the stick shift that knew how? You probably said what I said at the time, “that looks easy”. At that point with driving a stick shift I was in what I call unconscious incompetent. In other words I did not know I was stupid. Not calling anyone stupid, just want to make the point. Now you get behind the wheel and the car dies, you restart the car 12 times, and someone is yelling, “push in the clutch”. Now I became conscious incompetent, or now I knew that I was, yes, stupid. But something happens after you practice over and over and over again. I finally reached the point to where I could drive the car, but I still had to think about it. This is the conscious competent stage. Good yet still must think about things as you go. You probably won’t admit it, but we would talk to ourselves and say things such as, “easy on the clutch” or “make sure to get in reverse not fourth gear”, or we would be stopped on a hill and someone was right behind us in our rearview mirror. We would say “&^%$” and then burn out the clutch to move forward. Now at some point you reach the stage where you are so good that you don’t even think about it anymore. You just start the car and off you go. This is the unconscious competent stage. It becomes second nature. This takes time and lots of practice to be able to execute on an unconscious level. As people go through these levels of learning we must encourage even the slightest of positive improvement or movement in the right direction!
First we must help people realize what they don’t know and help them create a learning gap, or they will think that they already know “how to do it”. If we shatter confidence when someone is in the conscious incompetent stage, it’s likely they will never expand their comfort zone. Remember when we talked about justification. People can justify why they never learned to drive a stick shift, or talk themselves into believing that an automatic is better. They do this when they feel discouraged when learning anything new. Justification is the mask when there is little confidence.
Once the execution phase is coming in for a landing and people are in the conscious competent stage mid-course adjustments must be made if needed. Getting everyone executing the fundamentals and principles of the plan of attack should be the number one focus. Results should be on the back burner with faith that executing on the right activities will provide the right results. Results are the end zone; executing on the right activities is each first down along the way.
There must be time given to learn the new skills and tools and everyone must not waiver and execution must be encouraged from day one! The organization must coach people along the way to help them get comfortable with all the skills, behaviors, tools, and changes. It works the same with individuals. Let’s look at driving a stick shift again. When learning how to really execute we go through different stages of learning. All of us have a comfort zone and we must work hard at expanding our comfort zone if we want to improve. Remember the first time you drove a stick shift? Let me take you back one step prior, remember when you sat in the passenger’s seat, before you knew how to drive a stick shift and watched somebody drive the stick shift that knew how? You probably said what I said at the time, “that looks easy”. At that point with driving a stick shift I was in what I call unconscious incompetent. In other words I did not know I was stupid. Not calling anyone stupid, just want to make the point. Now you get behind the wheel and the car dies, you restart the car 12 times, and someone is yelling, “push in the clutch”. Now I became conscious incompetent, or now I knew that I was, yes, stupid. But something happens after you practice over and over and over again. I finally reached the point to where I could drive the car, but I still had to think about it. This is the conscious competent stage. Good yet still must think about things as you go. You probably won’t admit it, but we would talk to ourselves and say things such as, “easy on the clutch” or “make sure to get in reverse not fourth gear”, or we would be stopped on a hill and someone was right behind us in our rearview mirror. We would say “&^%$” and then burn out the clutch to move forward. Now at some point you reach the stage where you are so good that you don’t even think about it anymore. You just start the car and off you go. This is the unconscious competent stage. It becomes second nature. This takes time and lots of practice to be able to execute on an unconscious level. As people go through these levels of learning we must encourage even the slightest of positive improvement or movement in the right direction!
First we must help people realize what they don’t know and help them create a learning gap, or they will think that they already know “how to do it”. If we shatter confidence when someone is in the conscious incompetent stage, it’s likely they will never expand their comfort zone. Remember when we talked about justification. People can justify why they never learned to drive a stick shift, or talk themselves into believing that an automatic is better. They do this when they feel discouraged when learning anything new. Justification is the mask when there is little confidence.
Once the execution phase is coming in for a landing and people are in the conscious competent stage mid-course adjustments must be made if needed. Getting everyone executing the fundamentals and principles of the plan of attack should be the number one focus. Results should be on the back burner with faith that executing on the right activities will provide the right results. Results are the end zone; executing on the right activities is each first down along the way.
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