Risk Taking--The Art of Living

It is often said that taking risks is not what people regret in life but rather the risks that were never taken. So why should we take risks when can just play it safe? Taking risks challenges us to learn and grow, encourages us to fulfill our dreams, provides excitement and energy, and pushes us to reach our full potential. Without taking risks, we may never know what we can accomplish. In his book, The Other 90%, author Robert Cooper provides us with many pointers on how we can learn to take risks and the following are some of my favorites.

1. Listen to Your Own Drum

Too often we ignore what is really important to us by trying to “be liked” by others. Letting others tell us what to do, how to act, what we should want in life, etc., etc. will result in an unfulfilling and unrewarding life. Our society and the media are powerful influences that encourage us to be copies of each other yet we are individuals so listen to your own drum and follow it even if it’s risky.

2. Make Unreasonable Requests of Yourself

We are creatures of routine and too often we fall into a routine and then rarely seek to change or improve it. We need to wake up by finding ways to improve our routines, or change them in order to stretch and push ourselves to be our best and accomplish our greatest aspirations. We constantly need to be setting goals and adjusting our behaviors in order to be our best selves.

3. Say No to Gradualness

It is nearly impossible to make slow, gradual changes thus, if you know something needs to change, do it! Almost always it is less effective to try and ease into a change that needs to happen than to just make the change immediately. Either we change and take risks or we don’t. There is rarely an effective and helpful middle ground.

4. Close the Back Door

What this means is we need to eliminate or try to minimize an easy way out. Once we take a risk, stick with it and make it as painful as possible to go back to where you started. Closing the back door will make it easier to never look back or return to presumably safer ground.

5. Use the Rocking Chair Image

When we are concerned about taking a risk, we need to imagine we are 90 years old sitting in a rocking chair and reflecting on our life. Will we regret not taking this risk? When contemplating risk, imagine how you will feel about it when you are 90.

Time never stops thus we need to start living today by taking risks. By following our own drum, by making unreasonable request of ourselves, by saying no to gradualness, by closing back doors, and by using the rocking chair image we will be more ready and willing to risk. And risking will make our lives more meaningful and fulfilling and will allow us to reach our full potential. Good Luck!!

Do You Have Rhino Skin?

In his book, The Other 90%, author Robert Cooper suggests that we all need to develop the skin of a rhino in order to truly reach our untapped potential. The reasoning behind this he explains is because rhinos have thick skin. And, having a thin skin often increases troubles in life and distracts us from the bigger picture of what is truly important such as achieving our goals. The following are some suggestions the author offers in his book that will help us develop rhino skins.

1. Don’t Take Things Personally

It is an inevitable fact; we cannot please everyone in life. Nearly always someone in our life is upset or angry at us and that’s okay. We must understand that often when people are upset it is not about us but usually about them. Human beings by nature are also fickle, dynamic, unreasonable, emotional, and passionate and thus often distort reality, get caught up in the heat of the moment, or do not say what they truly mean. Taking things personally is senseless when we realize we are all human and we all have different opinions. Hence, trying to please everyone will result in unnecessary stress, and frustration. Avoiding taking things personally will simplify our lives and make us happier.

2. Carefully Analyze Feedback

It is easy to jump to conclusion or feel any form of feedback is criticism since so often feedback is given in ineffective ways and inappropriate manners. However, when receiving feedback from others, we must remain as objective as possible. We must strive to determine if the feedback truly is based on genuine concern and support as often is the case. With this feedback, we must discover, accept, and embrace the truth that may be there and then use that feedback constructively to motivate us to improve our performance and be better people.

If we feel feedback is blatant negative criticism, we should let it go and not internalize it. We do not need to let others weaken our inner confidence through criticism or disrupt our focus on our goals. And we cannot afford to be offended, hold a grudge, or try to get even when we receive this criticism since doing so will only slow us down in maximizing our potential.

3. Talk Straight

What this simply means is that we need to tell the truth as this is what builds trusting relationships. We also should not withhold information for fear of the impact it may have on others. By talking straight we will save time and break down barriers that often impede otherwise successful relationships. Doing this often means we trust others with our true thoughts, opinions, and feelings and this is scary because people will likely disagree with us. However, sharing our truth will allow us to be stronger leaders and live more in harmony with our true selves.

So, do we have rhino skin? Developing rhino skin by following these three steps found in The Other 90% will truly make us more effective and successful individuals and leaders. Learning to not take things personally, carefully analyzing feedback, and talking straight will certainly make us unique in today’s society yet it will help us achieve our full potential.

Clearing the Clutter

How many of us lose sleep or are unable to fully concentrate at work, school, or at home because our minds can’t stop racing? All of us spend unnecessary time thinking about a plethora of different concerns, unfinished obligations, ideas, upcoming events, tasks, needs, worries, and countless other thoughts that pull us away from seeing the big picture. In the book, The Other 90%, the author offers a very simple suggestion of how we can better clear our minds and concentrate on what is most important. I have found this simple tip helpful and thus would like to share.

The simple tip is to get everything in our head out onto paper by writing it down. This is one of the best ways to clear our minds by eliminating those items that may be distracting us from what is truly important at the present time. If needs be, we can carry a day book or journal to write down these thoughts whenever we have them or whenever they may be distracting us for what is at hand. By doing this, we get these thoughts outside of our heads and put them in a “safe place” allowing us to fully concentrate on our greater goals.

When time permits, we then can review the items we jotted down and prioritize them and determine if they are truly important. We can determine what items may need to be moved to a task list, what items can be delegated to others, and what items can be removed completely. We can put the most pressing and important items at top and items that can wait near the bottom. This will help us organize and prioritize our lives.

By following this simple advice, we can keep our minds clear and focused on the tasks at hand. We can relax sooner, breathe easier, and enjoy life more. Effectively learning to clear our minds will allow us be more effective leaders and reach our full potential each day.

Living a Value Based Life

Recently, I have read many books that emphasize the importance of being directed and driven by values. Most often these books refer to the business world and how organizations should be centered on strong core values that can guide decisions and actions. One thing I enjoy about business books however is that they often offer many great ideas and strategies that we can apply to our own personal lives to make them more rewarding and successful.

For example, just as successful businesses today are based and centered on core values, our personal lives as well can and should be guided by our own personal values. Do we know the personal values that are guiding our lives? Have we taken the time to think about and define our own core values? Below are some very easy steps to help us live value based lives.

First, we need to determine what our values are. Think about it. What four or five values are most important to you? Perhaps these are values that are near to your heart or maybe they are principles you’ve always felt are important but may need to work on? Take some time to first develop your list of core values that you can commit to and that will represent you as a person.

Second, create a spreadsheet to track your progress. Write your values on the left hand side of the page and the days of the week across the top to rate your effort each day. Place this spreadsheet in a place you will see it often to remind you of your core values.

Third, on your spreadsheet, give yourself a rating from 1-10 at the end of each day on how you feel you lived each value. Reflect on the things you did well and the things you may need to improve to live your values better tomorrow.

Fourth, on a weekly or monthly basis, ask yourself if you are happy with your results and analyze what you may need to change moving forward to better live your values. This also is a good time to realign your efforts, reevaluate your values and recommit yourself to living a value based life.

Valued based business helps companies achieve success and reach their potential. By following these four easy steps to living a value based life, you too will begin to be the best you. With a little effort and focus, your values without a doubt will begin to influence your daily actions and change who you are as a person. This will also impact those around you and will help you to become a more effective leader. So are you ready? Are you ready to live a value based life? Doing so will make your life much more rewarding and meaningful—so start living a value based life today!

The Other 90%

In the book, The Other 90%, author Robert Cooper discusses how we can reach our full potential through developing our trust, increasing our energy, stretching our vision, and strengthening our nerve. This book identifies secrets to what makes a good leader great and what separates many of the most successful people in life from their peers. There are so many insightful ideas and motivating stories found in this book that it is difficult to narrow it down and write only a one page review on its content. Thus, truly capturing what is inside the pages is a difficult challenge indeed.

The main premise of the book is unlocking our hidden potential with an emphasis on the greatness of every human being. For the most part, the ideas and insights found in this book are simple to apply. Yet, it is the little things that often make all of the difference. From taking appropriate breaks in order to boost energy, to learning how to effectively clear your mind, to knowing how to interact more successfully with co-workers and family members, to strategies on how to accomplish your wildest dreams, this book provides tips on it all.
The four keystones of our “Other 90%” as listed in the book include:

1. Trust

To truly maximize our potential we must learn to gain and earn trust from others as well as trust more. Trust is essential to maximizing our potential because it enables us to build and sustain exceptional relationships with others.

2. Energy

In the book, the most important element of energy is learning how to increase our “calm effectiveness” or our ability to perform at our optimal level of performance for longer periods of time. Clearly learning this secret will help us better reach our potential.

3. Farsightedness

Having the ability not only to see but also to shape the future is important for any sort of sustained success. With the future arriving faster than ever before, it is that much more important we lift our gazes up beyond the horizon and prepare for what is yet to come.

4. Nerve

Being consistent and bold is an important part of developing our nerve as leaders and as people. As we learn to take risks and stay true to who we are, we will begin to exceed expectations.

If I do have any complaints about this book it is that its topics are so vast and diverse that it is hard to grasp it all in one reading. Thus, I know I will be reading this one over and over again—both so I can understand it all but also because it is a very inspirational and an enjoyable read. I strongly encourage all to read it and begin to unlock The Other 90%.

Changing What Lies Beneath

Are underlying beliefs and assumptions taring apart your organization, group, or even family? If so, you can regain control by following three simple steps.

1. Set Clear Expectations

In order to derail and change underlying rules or behaviors that exist in your organization, you must first establish very clear expectations and values that each group member must adhere to. For optimal success and implementation in establishing these expectations, allow all members of the group to participate in the development of these expectations. As a ground rule for this process, remind everyone that the expectations agreed upon must be in-line with who you are as a group and what you hope to eventually achieve.

2. Accountability and Consistency

Once clear expectations have been established and are agreed upon, it is extremely important to be consistent in holding everyone accountable to them. This takes discipline and commitment but is absolutely necessary to change the current underlying assumptions and beliefs or culture of your group. As soon as you fail to hold someone accountable to the expectations, the lower standard allowed instantly becomes your new level of expectation. This is a very common downfall among all groups and organizations.

Without getting to political, one example in our country is immigration. As a country we have established laws on how to immigrate to our country legally however these laws have not been fully enforced. Thus, the lack of enforcement of these laws makes them irrelevant and meaningless, creating an underlying assumption that it is perfectly okay not to obey these laws. By not being consistent and holding people accountable to these established standards, we have instituted a new standard by our actions or lack thereof.

This is one example how written laws or expectations are meaningless without consistent enforcement and accountability. Letting your standards and expectations slip is very common and very costly as it negatively impacts any organization. Thus, in order to change underlying beliefs, do not allow poor performance to go unnoticed!

3. Direction

Each group needs a clear understanding of the direction they are headed. This includes what their ultimate goals are and where they would like to eventually end up as a group. This direction tells people why they exist as an organization and why they should adhere to the established expectations. Setting a clear direction will motivate and align each individual in a group to reach common goals.

Following these steps will begin to help you change the underlying beliefs and assumptions of your group. This belief system is often known as a group’s culture. This unwritten belief system of every group is very powerful and can have both a positive or negative impact on the organization. Thus, it is important to monitor culture frequently.

Impacting and influencing organizational culture is one of the most difficult yet most rewarding and important things leaders can do to gain group success. Learning to influence and change culture will make you an extraordinary and effective individual and leader whether it be in a large corporation or simply your own family. We all have the ability to influence each culture we are a part of so start today to regain control of your organizations. Start today to build your organizational culture!

Making Culture Pay

In a complicated and competitive world, businesses as well as other organizations need to seek every advantage they can to come out on top and be successful. In his book, Making Culture Pay, Jerry Haney discusses how we can strengthen our organizational cultures and truly make them a powerful asset to each of our groups. Though this book deals specifically with the business world, other groups and organizations, including families, can implement many of the ideas found in this book to help fortify and support their unit. While the book highlights six specific categories that impact organizational culture, I will delve into some of the most meaningful points found in the book.

First off, it is important to understand what organizational culture is. Organizational culture is the underlying thoughts and beliefs that exist within an organization that shapes the attitudes, beliefs, and actions of its members. We can think of organizational culture as the unwritten rules that people obey. Every group of people—no matter how small or how large, from our nation as a whole to our own individual families—has developed some type of organizational culture or underlying belief system. Thus, it is so important to understand and begin to shape and change these cultures for the better.

One of most basic and fundamental pieces of every strong organization is that it is built on a solid foundation of core values. If these values are emphasized and modeled by the leaders of the organization, the values will guide the interactions and behaviors of all within the organization. These principles must be clear and must be enforced and reinforced often. These core values can have a significant impact on the overall attitude and performance of the organization.

Another important element to developing a strong organizational culture is it must have a strong sense of direction and vision. People must understand where the organization is headed and how it plans to get there. The organizations most important goals and objectives must be clear among all of its members and must be in-line with the core values of the group. Each member should also clearly understand how they contribute to this vision and direction.

Developing a strong culture also requires involvement from all. Leaders need to encourage and allow others to set their own goals and measurements. They must involve others in decision making and encourage participation in other important aspects of the organization. By doing this, members of the group will more willingly take an active role in helping the organization reach its potential.

Additionally, measuring and assessing organizational culture must be an ongoing continual process. Organizations should establish formalized ongoing assessments of the organization’s culture in order to continually strive for improvement and greater impact. They must also emphasize the importance of culture and the influence each individual has on it. Understanding culture and where a group stands is important as it allows effective strategies and adjustments to be made as a group. Again this is not a onetime process but needs to be done regularly and in this book is known as the Cultural Renewal Process.

Too often organizations fail to reach their full potential as a result of an ineffective culture, and great cultures don’t just happen overnight. A strong and concerted effort must be made to shape and improve the culture of a group thus maximizing the success of the organization. Doing this will bring about great satisfaction and pride as members within the group—as well as the group as whole—flourish. So pick up this book and start making your culture pay today.

The Most Important Day (part 2)

In continuation of my last blog posted Monday about the importance and urgency of today, I recently read a poem written by a husband of a flight attendant who was killed in a tragic plane crash in Brazil last July. This text was reportedly posted on the airline communication board and is supposedly based on a poem written by Norma Cornett Marek. My intent in posting this poem is not to fill us with regret or bog us down by uncontrollable life tragedies but rather to inspire and motivate us to “cease the day” and prioritize our life so that we are doing the most important things each and every day. By doing so, we will live a more fulfilling and rewarding life and we will actually strengthen our leadership abilities. So for now, read this poem and reflect on how you can be better today!

Tomorrow Never Comes

If I knew this would be the last time I would watch you sleep,
I would hug you tighter. I would plead with the Lord to protect you.
If I knew this would be the last time I saw you walk out the door,
I would hug and kiss you and call you back to hug and kiss you one more time.
If I knew this would be the last time I would hear your voice in prayer,
I would record every gesture, every look, every smile, every one of your words,
So that I could listen to it later, day after day.
If I knew this would be the last time,
I would spend an extra minute or two to tell you, "I love you," instead of assuming you already knew it.
If I knew this would be our last time, our last moment,
I would be by your side, spending the day with you instead of thinking,
"Well, I'm sure other opportunities will come, so I can let this day go by."
Of course there will be a day to revise things,
And we would have a second chance to do things right.
Oh, of course there will be another day for us to say, "I love you."
And certainly there will be another chance to tell each other, "Can I help with anything?"
But in my case, there isn't one!
I don't have you here with me, and today is the last day we have—our farewell.
Therefore I would like to say how much I love you,
And I hope you never forget it.
Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, young or old.
Today might be your last chance to hold tight to the hand of the one you love and show all you feel.
If you are waiting for tomorrow, why not do it today?
Because if tomorrow never comes, you certainly will regret for the rest of your life
Not having spent some extra time for a smile, a conversation, a hug, a kiss,
Because you were too busy to give that person what ended up being their last wish.
Then hug tight today the one you love, your friends, your family, and whisper in their ears how much you love them and want them close to you.
Use your time to say,
"I'm sorry,"
"Please,"
"Forgive me,"
"Thank you,"
Or even,
"That was nothing,"
"It's all right,"
Because if tomorrow never comes, you will not have to regret today.
The past doesn't come back, and the future might not come!

The Most Important Day

Your performance today must come from a deeper place. No matter how hard, no matter how tough—you are expected to make a difference. Today are you ready, today are you at your best? So much depends on what you do today.”
Bronco Mendenhall

Today is the most important day of our lives. What we do today will be what we are tomorrow. Too often we procrastinate and say we will do something tomorrow or that we will change in a few days but often, tomorrow never comes. So what are we doing today that makes a difference? After all, today is really all that matters.

Yesterday is in the past and there is nothing we can do to change it. We must let go and move on learning from the past but focusing on today. Tomorrow is in the future and is unpredictable. In fact the best prediction we can possibly make of what will happen tomorrow is by viewing what is taking place today. Past and/or current behavior is the best indicator of future behavior. Thus, if we are procrastinating until tomorrow, it is a safe predication that we will procrastinate again. Thus, today is our day, the day to take action.

Just do it, is a famous slogan coined by Nike but I have another word to add that can motivate us to take action even quicker and that is “just do it NOW!” We cannot wait for that perfect moment or a sign or until we have more money or a better job or the weather changes, etc. to do those things that are most important to us. We must do it now. We must not wait.

Today needs to be our focus. We must perform our very best today so that we can have a better tomorrow. Today cannot be another day of putting things off or wasting time. Today must be the day we take action because after all, everything does depend on today. Are our priorities right? Are we doing the most important things today? Are we putting first things first?

What we do today turns in to who we are and what we care most about tomorrow. Each day we have the opportunity to move forward towards our dreams or goals or move backwards and that depends on our actions today. It has nothing to do with what is past and even less to do with future plans. Good intentions are never good enough. What matter is what we are doing now.

So, learn to live in the present and realize that tomorrow will never come. Do those things that are most important to you today. Do not put them off because we may only have today...