Passionate Pursuit or Posturising?

We all have our crosses to bear in our lives, yes? Our past helps us to be prepared for the present; Our present is the basis for our future. Life is always hard for those of us that strive to move forward in every aspect of our lives, those of us that want more, want to contribute, want to make a difference in the lives of all that we touch. There is a common thread amongst people that have a passion for creating a legacy in our lives - Life gets a bit harder in the short-term for we are never satisfied with maintaining. We learn and think and act in a way that drives us to be different, to consistently become better people, to lead, to achieve more. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to the point that I think we can lose touch with the day to day struggles that we all face because we are focused so much on where we want to go, and be, and do. I was told recently that I tend to be misleading in the way that I present myself to others - that I am somehow not being honest to myself. A good friend said that it's like the circumstances and challenges that I face on a day to day basis just doesn't affect me the way that they do to most - in that I appear not to pay them any attention, the problems, not my friend! It made me think about who I am, what I am passionate about, and why. Am I so focused that I become unrelatable? I think that it does happen. I focus so much on the potential in situations and people that at times that I forget that to get to where we are going we must first know where we are. You can't get from A to Z if you don't know where A is, right? The short answer is that I do have many challenges; Children, Family, Business partners, business concepts, bills, debt, relationships, etc. You name it - I'm sure I have something along those lines. However, I have trained myself to look beyond them. Sure they're important, but they're just temporary setbacks and challenges that I will overcome to achieve the vision that I have for my life. It does me no good to focus on a shortage of income now that can be overcome by doing the things I need to do to create a larger income later. This is called long term vision. It is a key principle to success in anything. So, who do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see yourself as you are now or do you see yourself as you will be in the future? I summize that perhaps it is important to see both. Take stock in today's struggles by paying attention, but also keep focused on the long-term solutions. As in most things, balance is good. I'll try to stay relatable, but don't expect me to stay in any one spot for too long - I have a dream! (I encourage you to chase yours with me.) Live Well - Be Well! Stephen

The Heart of the Matter

John Eldridge wrote in his book Wild at Heart, that there are three basic things in every man's heart and soul: A Battle to Fight; An Adventure to Live; A Beauty to Rescue. After reading this I was shocked at how closely my life reflected much of this. My relationships with others, especially women, have all clearly reflected these concepts, however, I never really understood much of the "why" part. It's not that we are literally born to go to war, or discover the last resting place of the Holy Grail, or even be the hero that rescues the damsel in distress - but metaphorically, yes! We men need to feel important, respected, perhaps even honored from time to time - yet also to remain humble, lest we develop an ego (which is short for "Edging God Out" of our lives). I think it's very important men come to realize that perhaps they too have much of these ideals represented in their lives. I highly recommend you read the book, as John provides sound reasoning that has been garnered from many years of counselling others to describe why men act the way they do and how women can better understand them (us) as well. Hopefully a clearer understanding of our motives shall lead us to, perhaps facilitate, a more harmonius existence between and amongst the sexes, yes? I watched an interview today with John and his wife and it got me thinking about the book again. What I took from it, and how I have applied the information I gained; not only how I interact with other men and women in my life, but also how I see many of my friends and acquaintences behave. I believe that He is using me to teach others and clearly I have much more to learn in regard. I firmly believe that we never stop learning, and every new experience adds to the whole, whether it is positive or negative. While many of my endeavors have ended up being "learning experiences", some have produced excellent examples of the impact that making the right choice has on one's life. It never ceases to amaze me how much opportunity we have to influence others as we learn and grow ourselves in our own understanding of why we do the things that we do. This is also true in our ability to learn the same from others' experience, yes? I hope that I have influenced your thoughts in a positive way today - perhaps even inspired you to do something decidedly different. That hope makes this crazy life of mine worth the effort. Read, learn, grow, share - and fight the good fight! Live Well - Be Well! Stephen

Depth Perception

In my business community there is this concept we call depth. The main principle of depth is that the growth of the business can be measured by the volume of people that are joining us at the bottom of each business center (or "leg") in any given period of time. I was thinking about that today and I realized that my perception of this concept goes much deeper than that - pardon the pun. To me depth in our business community includes depth of knowledge, depth of character, and depth of commitment. I believe that this is as much a key ingredient to the success of the individual as it is to the organization as a whole. In order to be successful, one must develop a deep knowledge of their chosen field. To do that, one must have sufficient character to the extent he/she can be committed or dedicated to a tireless pursuit of excellence. In "Talent is Overrated" by G. Colvin, the author states that "[talent is not necessarily inherent...talent is most often created by the individual through deliberate practice carried out over a period of time]". Meaning that great performance or great success in any specific action or direction in life, is usually preceeded by a specific learning process deliberately carried out and evaluated/measured over time toward a specific goal or set of goals. It is simply not enough to train or practice at things over & over again and expect outstanding results. Repetition in & of itself is not enough. To become truely great at anything requires evaluation of results and grading oneself on performance in order to identify what you are good at & in what areas are you not so good. Chris Brady calls this "Smart" practice. For example if you are a golfer and you consistently hit your 9 iron perfectly onto the green from 100 yards out, practicing this shot over & over again is not going to improve your inability to hit 300 yards with your driver! This rule genarally applies to most things in life, however it is seemingly little known and applied sparingly, if at all at the career level. I've found that both personally and professionally, many people seem to think, as I did, that you either have it - or you don't! That some people just have a natural ability to do things well and some don't. While there is some truth to that, many simply plod along their career path growing in experience, but not really growing in expertise. Orrin Woodward once stated that "20 years on the job is not necessarily 20 years of experience; Frequently it is 1 year of experience repeated 20 times over". I've found through reading and learning and associating with people who have much more success and/or experience than me; that the great ones, those that excell at practically anything, learned how to be great. They identified their goal and then worked on their weaknesses in that endeavor until they became strengths. To become the best, we too can and must adopt the concepts of depth. It is something that can be applied by anyone willing to focus long enough to achieve what they want out of life. It's not easy, but what great thing was ever achieved with ease? When you see those who have achieved great things do you still think they were just lucky or did they work really hard to get there? I assure can assure you, as one who aspires to a better than average level of significance in life, it is and takes hard "smart" work. This is yet another reason why I feel the Team is making a difference in the lives of many on our way to a global community of a million people. Take time-tested principles, apply personal perspective, and drive depth to succeed in a way that the world has never seen before. "Living the dream" I hear people say to me in jest - I urge you to take your life into your own hands and actually do it with us. Live Well - Be Well! Stephen