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Gratitude Through Selflessness

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Monday was Veterans Day, and when I think about how grateful I am that people I’ve never met and never will meet, stepped away from their lives and their families for my freedom, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude. 

If you are a Veteran, thank you. Please know, from my entire family, we appreciate you every day of the year.

Veterans provide us a lesson when we stand back and listen: selflessness can often be the greatest show of gratitude.

If there’s one thing I hear consistently around Veterans Day, its that our service members serve to maintain our freedoms. By their selfless service we, as a society, maintain (and love) our freedoms.

So, my question to you today is, “What can you do for others to show your gratitude?”

The curious thing about this topic is that doing something – mentoring, etc – for others around us actually does help us in the business world. Through elevating and helping others, we also improve our own mindset, set better goals, and strive for increased success.

By showing appreciation and helping others, we elevate ourselves. Our mindset.

As we continue on our pursuit of gratitude and thankfulness this month, we must remember the people who have stepped up in our place so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we do. And we must remember to show our gratitude in our own corners of our lives by giving back, mentoring and supporting those that are most deserving.

What will you do for someone else today?

 

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” – Aesop

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Without Gratitude, It’s All for Nothing

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Gratitude is an awesome thing.

Sometimes we get so caught up in how great we are, how much we’ve done, how far we’ve come that we forget that we didn’t do this on our own. Being a strong leader starts with gratitude the people who have helped us get here, and the circumstances and opportunities that led us here today. 

Gratitude helps us stop comparing ourselves to other people. It helps us recognize our past failures as necessary building blocks. It helps us realize that everything we’ve been working on up to this point is all for the big picture.

It helps us forgive ourselves for anything that hasn’t been easy (or successful) in the past. 

Gratitude helps us to be content with what we have, reduces materialism, and gives us the ability to appreciate the good in our lives (and business). 

You have SO much to be thankful for. 

One thing is for sure, I would not be where I am today or who I am today without my team. Antionette, of course, has played a huge role in my success. And there have been others, countless others, who have taken my vision and helped it come to frution. They use their strengths collectively to build us up and keep us moving forward, and I do my best to remind them of how valuable they are to me. This team, this journey… I am so grateful for it all.

Who are these people for you? Your staff? Your team? Your spouse and family? Your friends who have supported you along the way? This week, let them know you are thankful for them.

In letting these people know you APPRECIATE them and are grateful for their support, you open yourself up to the next steps in your journey.

Here are some ways to show your team that you’re grateful for all that they do:

  • Buy them lunch
  • Leave them a handwritten note
  • Send them a gift unexpectedly
  • Give them some time off (if you’re a business owner, paid of course!)
  • Recognize them publicly for all they do for you
  • Throw a team-appreciation party

We are entering a season of family, friends, cooler temperatures (for everyone except those of us in South Florida), and good food. Let’s not forget to show our employees, our teams, our staff, and our friends & family how thankful we are for their dedication and focus on our mission.

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64 Days Left in 2019

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You haven’t quite reached your goals (or you want to squeeze in an EXTRA GOAL) before the end of the year.

What now?

Your next steps decide how your year will end. And… your DECADE. Will it be momentous and worthy of fanfare?

Or will you coast into the new year, fizzling out?

If you follow my work, you know there’s only one option: end the year with a bang!

Here’s how to make this year the most successful one yet… in the next 64 days:

1. Decide. WRITE DOWN no more than 3 goals you will crush in the next 64 days.

2. Analyze. What needs to happen to make those 3 goals happen? Who do you need to speak with? What do you need to implement? Where do you need to go? Write these down under each goal. BE SPECIFIC.

3. Plan. Block time off on your calendar to accomodate all that needs to happen between now and the end of the year. BE INTENTIONAL. If you’re serious about knocking these goals out of the park, make time and SHOW UP. If you block off 2 hours on Thursday, dedicate all 120 minutes to your goal.

4. Take Action. Do the work. This is the area where you’ll be a raving success or you’ll fail to achieve your goals. It happens in the action. DO THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO.

5. Check In. When scheduling your time on your calendar (#3 above), make sure to allot some of your time blocks to checking in and re-prioritizing. As you inch closer to your year-end goals, you’ll need to recalibrate. If you fail to plan for recalibration, you plan to fail!

6. Celebrate. You WILL meet your goals when you follow this age-old, tried-and-true process. WHEN you reach your goals, make sure to celebrate. Create the muscle memory that your hard work is rewarded by celebration and play. YOU DESERVE A CELEBRATION for what you achieve.

That’s it!

Think it’s over-simplified? You may be surprised that almost 85% of us fail to follow through this very straightforward process, even though we know it works!

Decide. Analyze. Plan. Execute. Recalibrate. Celebrate… and do it all in writing! (It matters!)

You’ve got too much ahead of you to stop now. You’ve got 64 more beautiful days this year. When you take action daily, you guarantee your success.

Here’s to a MEGA year-end celebration for a job well done.

Keep going.

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Fear of the Future

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People that love to visit haunted houses this time of year are always fascinating to me.

The dichotomy of being drawn to something they know they’ll be scared of, but they do it anyway is something even the most experienced psychologists could analyze for eternity.

But haunted houses aside, the fear that is experienced when we’re truly frightened is the same, no matter the event.

Terrifying, paralyzing fear. It keeps us from performing our best, from taking the next big step in business, and it keeps us playing small.

Fear of the future keeps so many business leaders, speakers, and entrepreneurs from taking the risk that could launch them into the next chapter of their lives. I’ve BEEN one of them.

And, I have no doubt, that you’ve been (or are) one of them, too.

But, it doesn’t serve us: our goals, our needs, our journey.

Fear of the future keeps us stagnant and prevents us from reaching our potential. The future is coming, whether you’re ready or not.

Ask yourself one simple question: A year from now, will you be okay being right where you are right now? If not, then you can’t afford to spend one more day scared of the future.

You’ve already stepped into the haunted house.

You can’t go back. The only way through is forward. And even if it’s scary, moving forward is a whole lot better than staying in one place. This fear and discomfort are temporary. You will be so proud of yourself when you finally bust through the other side.

Your future is bright.

It’s a sparkling white EXIT light on the other end of one of those stupid haunted houses. Keep walking towards it, one step at a time. There is a lot of beauty (and success) on the other side of fear.

Keep going.

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Don’t Forget Your Past

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[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]Everyone’s got a past.

Everyone’s got a past. It’s dotted with bad decisions and tough choices and one or two memories you wish you could erase forever.

But successful people understand that while their past shapes them, it does not define them. You went through what you went through on purpose, for a purpose. Without all of these milestones, you wouldn’t know what you know today or be who you are today. But if you lay in bed worrying about what you would do if your past suddenly interrupted your present, you’re only accomplishing one thing: losing sleep.

You can not control when or how or if the people and decisions of your past show up in this chapter of your life. But you can control how you respond to it if it happens. When you are confronted with the consequences of the actions of younger, dumber, less experienced you, you have two options:

Hide, avoid, and continue to give it power, or own it.

If you deflect, make excuses, avoid and deny your way through a resurgence of your past, you aren’t saving who you used to be; you’re sabotaging who you are. You’re working so hard to justify your history that you do not see it as an opportunity for future growth. We’ve all messed up. We’ve all gone through difficult situations, some of which were our fault and some of which were not.

And if the mistakes I’ve made in your past resurface, I say, “bring it on.” Here’s an opportunity to show the people who are watching me that I’m human, that I’m imperfect, that I’m accountable, and that I’ve changed. And if they can only focus on the failure instead of the progress, those aren’t my people anyway.

Stop believing the lie that your past is too dark, too bumpy, or too riddled with pain that it can not be redeemed for good. Stop worrying about what’s behind you and keep your eyes forward.

You will be successful because of your past, not in spite of it. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column]
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Fear is a Liar

All of the available space in my Bible was filled with notes after church service on Sunday. The sermon was about how our actions are almost always originated by fear or love really spoke to me. When I stopped to think about it, it made sense. When people make excuses for following their dreams it is because they’re scared. When people don’t encourage you to be the best that you can be, it’s because they’re afraid of how your success will reflect on them. When we can understand that people do things to hurt us because they are scared, it allows us to have more empathy for them. Instead of seeing them as jealous haters, you see them as individuals who are fearful of something. When we look at them this way, it is easier to show grace and compassion. 

Fear can be such a driving force in our everyday lives. Even when we don’t feel the common physical symptoms that are usually associated with fear, our actions can be fear-based. Sometimes, we act in a way completely unaware that the root of our action is fear. When people tell you you cannot do what you dream of doing, it is not a reflection of your talents or gifts or abilities. It is a reflection of their own insecurities and deep-rooted fears. Do it anyway.

Design the product, start the service, hold the meeting, make the phone call, do whatever it is that scares you. Being courageous does not mean you are not afraid. It means you are afraid and you do it anyway. You will not reach next-level success if you are afraid to take risks. You will not be the business leader or entrepreneur or parent or friend that you need to be if you let fear hold you back. 

You already have everything you need to take the next step towards achieving your goals. Listen carefully to what those naysayers are not saying. You may hear them say you are not good enough, smart enough, or rich enough. But what they’re not saying is that they’re actually worried about how your success will make them feel inferior. They have yet to learn that there is plenty of success to go around and choose to see your success as a threat.

This is your reminder that fear is a liar.

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