The Key to Making Life Unique and Worthwhile by Jim Rohn

The key to making life really unique and worthwhile is to share. Sharing has a certain unique magic of its own.  Here’s what I learned in sharing ideas.

If you share an idea with ten different people, they get to hear it once, and you get to hear it ten times.  So here’s part of self-interest for yourself, getting you even better prepared for the future. Share ideas.  Share with your family, share with the people around you, share with other employees, share with your colleagues.

Because, by sharing, two things happen.  Here’s what we call it. I don’t know how to explain it, but I do know it happens.  And I don’t know all about how it happens or why it happens, it just happens.

When one person shares with another, two things happen.  The audience could be transformed, and so could the speaker.  If you share with someone else, they could be transformed.  You may have dropped in at the right time. This may be their moment.

They’ve got three numbers dialed into the lock already, and if you say it well and say it right you’ll be the fourth number that they can dial into the lock of their personal experience and the door will come open and there’s opportunity they never saw before.  The person who hears could be transformed.

But here’s what else is exciting.  The person who speaks could be transformed.  Guess what we’re all looking for… transformation for our new life.  The new life tomorrow, the new life this month, the new life next year, the new life this year.

The caterpillar one day says, “I think I was made for more than this crawling on the ground.”  So the caterpillar climbs the tree, attaches himself to a leaf and spins the cocoon.  Who knows what disciplined effort it takes to spin a cocoon.  But something inside the caterpillar says, “I was designed for something more than being just a caterpillar.”  And then when the cocoon is ready and it opens up, out comes a butterfly that flies away, maybe singing, “I believe I can fly! I believe I can touch the sky!  I used to be a caterpillar on the ground, now I fly.”

I’m asking you to go through such a metamorphosis.  I’m asking you often to go through a period where you say, “New skills, new things are waiting for me,” and part of this will come if you’ll translate for other people what you feel in your heart and in your soul.  As awkward as your language might be at first, don’t hesitate to do it.

Here’s what sharing does… makes room for more.  Key question: If the glass is full of water, can it hold any more?  And the answer is yes.  Yes, if you pour some out.  So jot that down.  If you want more, you’ve got to pour out what you’ve got, and then you have the opportunity to receive more.

Now, unlike the glass that remains the same size when you pour some out, it’s not so in the consciousness of human beings.  Your capacity will increase the more you share.  You’ll get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Now, why the self-interest wish to be bigger?  Here’s why: to hold more of the next experience.  Some people can’t hold much happiness because they’re too small, their thinking is too small, their activity is too small, they’re too small in their ability to share, they’re just too small.  Can’t hold much.  They’re too small.

But the bigger you get, the more you will receive.  When happiness is poured out, you’ll get more.  When joy is poured out on the nation, you’ll get more.  When bounty is poured out from the economy, you will get more, if you share what you’ve got and become bigger and bigger and bigger.

More about Jim Rohn at http://www.jimrohn.com/

6 Ways To Take The Lead and Give Thanks All Year

Towards the end of every calendar year many people will take a minute to be thankful for various things and people in their lives, especially in the workplace.  I have always wondered why so many people wait until the end of the year to show gratitude, reflect, and review targets.  If you do it all year long, you reap the rewards continuously. 

Here are 6 simple ways to take the lead and give thanks all year long:

Say “Thank You” to at least one person every day.

A simple genuine thank you goes a long way.  Think about how you feel when someone actually takes the time to walk up or call you to say “thank you”.  I know we live in a fast paced texting, tweeting world, but hearing someone’s voice just makes it more personal and genuine.  It also maximizes the appreciation someone feels when you actually make the effort to verbalize it.

Take a team member to lunch.

A simple gesture of treating someone or a team to lunch for working late a few nights last week or over the weekend to make a deadline shows that you have taken notice.  Plus, you get to know team members a little better.  I used to do this periodically with my team and they loved it.  You have a remote team?  Get creative.  I would agree for the team member to take their wife/husband/partner out for a very nice dinner and expense up to $75 off the meal.  If I were meeting with a client fairly close by the remote team member’s location, I would take the extra half-day or day to meet the team member to take them to lunch. 

Have team members choose a peer to recognize.

As a corporate leader, I initiated an employee of the quarter for my department.  The requirement was that only peers could vote.  Each team member would send an email with their top two team members and provide a detailed reason why they are nominating each person.  I would look at all the nominations and tally the votes.  The announcement would be made during the quarterly meeting and the reasons that were submitted would be read for all to hear.  This was very popular and a variety of people were recognized throughout the year for things the leadership team would probably miss.

Give a gift card to team members that do something special.

The leadership team has a stack of $20 Starbucks gift cards in their desk or near them at all times.  When you want to recognize someone for something, hand it or send it to him or her.  The key is to make this genuine and do it periodically.  It was a judgment call and it worked great.

Meet with your team members to define and monitor targets

Taking the time to meet with each person one-on-one to assist with establishing clear targets to monitor will separate you from the pack.  I scheduled a one hour meeting with my direct reports every month to understand career (and other if they wanted) ambitions, establish new targets, monitor progress on existing targets, and receive feedback.  If we needed more time, I would schedule another meeting.  The key is to understand what your team members want and how to assist them moving forward.  We would discuss how their targets align with the department and company targets, so adjustments could be made accordingly.  Sometimes the adjustments meant the team member moving to another team, department, or company.  I didn’t mind at all because I wanted what was best for each team member.

Educate Yourself.

Continuously learning benefits yourself and the team.  Team members will want to share ideas and be mentored if you are up to date on industry trends, social media, learning techniques, technology, etc.  The more you have to offer, the more valuable you are to others.  Share, share, and then share some more.

Finding Your Target by Joseph McClendon

It is your birthright to walk around feeling 
healthy, happy, strong and great about yourself. 



A child is born with all the flair and confidence that he will ever need in this life. It’s not until others step in and tamper with that greatness that the child begins to doubt himself and his worth.

It’s your birthright to be happy, full of confidence and pride. You already have a great amount of confidence and esteem. It came with the package. In order for you to have survived as an infant, you had to have thought enough about yourself to cry out and request food, connection and security. 



Also, the people who were around you thought enough about you to provide those things and much, much more. The proof of this is that you are here today… you made it! It is important to know that you still have a considerable amount of that confidence, drive and esteem inside of you right this very minute. Every cell in your body displays it every second that you are alive.

The trick is to start with what is already inside of you, use it as a foundation to build from, then find others who are getting the results that you desire and model their actions, beliefs and methods. By doing this, you will build a powerful and automatic confidence demeanor within your own nervous system. This will in turn result in better actions and more effective behaviors. Tap into that wealth of power that you already own and model what you have already done.

As with so many other things that we’ve learned in our lives, most of us have all but forgotten the lessons and experiences in life that served us, and replaced them with the ones that cost us our drive.




Who taught you to be great?

Who taught you to be confident?

More about Joseph McClendon  at http://www.josephmcclendon.net/

Back to Basics: Establish Clear Targets (3 of 4)

In previous blog posts, we discussed getting back to basics by establishing a clear company Vision and identifying the company Core Values.  Once these are in place, the next step is to create clear Targets that support the Vision and the Core Values are how the company will conduct business to achieve the Targets.

Leadership teams must have clear short and long range Targets in place so responsibilities can be assigned and progress can be measured.  All company team members must know these targets up front and progress needs to be shared on a regular basis. 

It is a fact that team members are more productive and engaged when they are working within defined Core Values, towards Targets that support the company’s Vision.

Setting company Targets can be simple by using a SIMPLE approach to define each one:

Specific

Targets are to be in detailed "chunks" that are challenging, yet achievable.

Identify

Identify the results and what success looks like for each Target. 

Measureable

Determine the Target’s deadline as well as how progress will be measured and how often.

Purpose

Determine how the Target support’s the company Vision.

Liable

Determine who is responsible for each target, any dependencies, and who is impacted with the outcome.

Exciting

Imagine what it will feel like to achieve the Target.  Is it exciting?

I had great success when I was a corporate leader by using this SIMPLE model.  My team knew what to expect and what was expected of them.  They were clear on the targets and were given the chance to question them for clarity as well as raise any initial red flags.  I communicated the progress on every target every quarter no matter how we were doing.  The team greatly appreciated this approach and performance accelerated.  I have lived this and it works.

Company leaders must take the time to define clear Targets and share these with all team members to ensure that everyone is working as one productive unit.  Only with defined clear Targets can plans be created and put into action to determine what success looks like. 

“If you don't know where you are going, you will end up someplace else.” ~Yogi Berra