Month: December 2014

December 31, 2014

Will Your Kids See You As A Deadbeat?

Have you ever thought about the legacy you are creating? Whether you like it or not, your children, and maybe even their children, will be subject to the decisions you are making today. Maura and I don’t have children, but we were children not too long ago. So, I’m speaking out of my experience as a son.

It’s yours to build
Last weekend as my brother and I walked around my Grandparents’ farm, I thought about our family’s legacy. My grandfather came from an abusive home, and my grandmother was raised in the hills of West Virginia (not exactly the birthplace of wealth.) However, by the end of their lives they had acquired 260 acres of land, a wonderful family, and a comfortable life. Where you start in life isn’t the determining factor of where you will end up.

Make the decision today
My grandparents did not stumble into the lives I watched them lead. They made a choice. They made a choice when they were married to stick it out no matter what. They chose to work hard, and work together to get out of debt and retire with dignity. They chose to teach my Mom how to work and how to be successful in life. All of these benefits in life have to be choices on our part that are carried out intentionally.

Stick with it
My Grandparents were huge advocates of hard work. Thomas Edison said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” If you want to leave a legacy for your children and even your grandchildren, there will be times when it feels like work. But, take heart! If you stick with it the benefits will far surpass the temporary sacrifices you are making today. Literally, you will change your family tree and impact generations.

I often use financial illustrations when talking about intentionality, but only because it is a concrete and measurable aspect of our lives. There are so many other factors that will impact our future and that of our families. Zig Ziglar used an illustration known as “The Wheel of Life” which does an amazing job of helping us understand what all these factors are. More on that to come! So, my question to you is: Have you ever considered what your children and grandchildren will say about you when you’re gone? How will they describe you to their children? What are some specific things you would like to do for your family to set up their future? Please leave a comment below!

December 24, 2014

Passion

I love the topic of passion. Maybe it’s because I am so passionate about so many things, especially personal development. My guess is if you’re reading this blog, you probably are too! Have you ever hit slumps in your job where passion was nowhere to be found? Unfortunately, this tends to happen from time to time. I know it’s happened to me recently. Follow these three steps, and you’ll be on your way to recovering the passion needed to thrive!

View the challenge as an opportunity
Last week I was tasked with producing a demonstration video that would cover three separate products. I needed to film in four separate locations, use four different cameras, and cover all of my material in one morning; half of which would be shot outside in the late December cold. The night before, I dreaded having to go in and go through the pain of managing the shoot. Instead of staying in a place of dread, I began to view it as an opportunity. This was an opportunity to produce one of the best videos I have ever made. With that result in mind, I tore through the shoot with passion. Not because it was particularly fun, but because I really wanted this to be a video that I could show to my boss, my friends, my wife, and even myself with pride. The end result was a video that gained more views in the first 24 hours than any of our previous videos.

Have the end in mind
Do you enjoy busy work? Me neither! One way to gain passion is to ask good questions. Try to discover why the work you are assigned is important. When we can see results for our work, it motivates us to attack the next assignment with passion. Why is what we are doing so important? What’s at stake? If your end is to simply bring home a paycheck, then I promise you won’t be happy, much less passionate! If you are spending 40 hours a week doing something you dread, then you need to consider a career change. But, that’s a topic for another day.

You bring the passion
I know, this post is supposed to help you regain passion at work, and here I am saying something that sounds a lot like “Just do it.” Just follow me for a second. The ability to bring passion, even when it’s hard, is one of the most important traits of effective people. Sometimes work is really hard. That’s why they call it work. Even work we enjoy has moments where we have to really push through to finish. It’s during these times that keeping the end in mind and viewing the challenge as an opportunity are important. When you do, passion is the byproduct. Passion is contagious.

Do you ever experience these slumps at work where passion is nowhere to be found? If so, what are some ways that you have regained passion? Please leave a comment below!

December 17, 2014

The Trap of Least Resistance

We’ve all heard about “The path of least resistance.” As a teenager, all I heard in that phrase was “no fun for you!” Today, as a newly wed and fresh college grad, I understand why avoiding what that phrase entails not only means life, but a successful, fulfilled life. Following the path, or as I call it, the trap of least resistance has caused me serious pain. Read on to find out why, but most importantly, how you can avoid it.

Hakuna Matata
As a young college student I ventured out without a plan to pay for school, prepare for life after college, or how to get the most out of my time while attending. So, like many students today, I took a part time job and coupled that with Student loans. I had the H.O.P.E. scholarship, which covered most of my tuition, and the loans covered my living expenses. It was easy, stress free, and I didn’t have to think about it. Hakuna Matata. As a result, I graduated with loads of student loan debt which is a huge tax on my income today.

It Hurts!
This is the problem with the path of least resistance. It’s easy now, and may save you a little pain, but it always catches up. When it catches up, the pain is multiplied exponentially compared to what it would have been had you put forth the work of being intentional. I could have avoided the student loans with wise spending, saving, and working more hours. It would have been a little harder then, but it would have changed my life forever. Instead of living in a tiny apartment with my wife, we could be saving up for a big down payment on a house right now. Not to mention avoiding the pain of being the only one to bring debt into a marriage. Don’t follow the path of least resistance! It hurts!

You can avoid the pain that comes with this easy path. The key word is intentionality. Be intentional about how you live. Use your emotions as a gauge. How do you feel in your marriage, at work or at school? Is it easy? If so, it’s possible that you may just be in a good season. But I encourage you, strongly, take inventory. Assess your situation and see if there’s something you could be doing better, somewhere you could be working harder, somewhere you could be more effective. Don’t make the same mistake I made. Don’t just go with the flow!

Have you ever found yourself caught in the trap of least resistance? How did it affect you? What are your tips for escaping it? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

December 9, 2014

Unity: Secret Sauce to Success

I have different opinions than my boss. I don’t always agree with his decisions. If I sound like I am being insubordinate, you need to change your thinking, and here’s why:

We are all human, and we don’t always agree.
The element that separates winning teams from mediocre teams is not that winning teams agree. Instead, winning teams support leadership decisions, take ownership of their job, and don’t sabotage projects they don’t agree with. The element is unity, and it supersedes good ideas.

Unity trumps good ideas every time.
There is no shortage of good ideas. Entrepreneurs have good ideas every day. In my experience, the shortage is in unity. The boss makes a decision that the team may not agree with and, as a result, the team drags their feet. Rather than supporting the boss’ decision in unity, the goal is sabotaged by disunity.

Unity starts with you.
Unity will not happen by accident. Leadership should facilitate it, but often, they don’t do the best job. If this is the case, it’s your job to influence the culture around you. Give credit where it’s due. Be kind even when your coworkers don’t deserve it. Encourage everyone around you. Otherwise, problems just get worse. Then, when a project falls through, when a deadline gets missed or when your department falls short of expectations, everyone is held responsible. Facilitate unity, and succeed together.

What do you do that helps unity in your workplace? What about your home? I would love to hear from you in the comments!