Dreams do come true, if ...

Robert Collier said "Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself."

When I was a boy I had many dreams.  I dreamed of:

• Being an astronaut
• Being President of the US someday
• Being a heavy equipment operator (except when i was a kid i called it "the bulldozer driver" ... and I wanted this more than those first two)
• Owning my own NHL hockey team
• Meeting my 'dream' girl
• Getting married
• Having kids
• Going to college
• Going to college again to get my MBA
• Working for Ford Motor Company designing cars (crazy idea since I can barely make stick figures)
• Having a great house (white picket fence was optional) in a great neighborhood
• etc.

Which of these dreams actually came true?  Believe it or not, most of them.  They didn't always "appear" when I imagined they would ... but somehow, all the things that are truly important to me are now in my life.  There is no doubt that I had many more "dreams" that never came true, but I hardly remember those.  Which probably means that either I didn't really want them or I didn't believe in myself enough to pursue them, maybe both.  Either way I haven't been to the moon yet and no one has voted for me for since I wrote my name on a city council ballot back in 2008. 

I've heard varying schools of belief when it comes to turning dreams into reality.  But near as I can deduce,  the commonality is that you have to believe that it is possible for it to come true.  This may very well be the key to life, happiness and success - belief.  So believe in the worthiness of your dreams and in your ability to achieve them.

I still patiently await the day that I will sit atop that giant Caterpillar earth mover ... I know it's coming!

You can never disappoint me ... if ...

You can never disappoint me ... if you always try your best,
        (Apply your skills)
You can never disappoint me ... if you always bring your passion to your projects,
        (Use your energy)
You can never disappoint me ... if you always keep learning,
        (Grow your brain)
You can never disappoint me ... if you always find a way to serve others,
        (Grow your heart)
You can never disappoint me ... if you have the courage of your convictions,
        (Be brave and strong)
You can never disappoint me ... if you have the discipline to do what you know needs to be done,
        (Work hard on the right things)
You can never disappoint me ... if you love others at least as much as you've been loved! 
        (Share your true wealth)

Someday I hope to share the above statements with my children.  I'm sure that they need reinforcement and while they don't show it ... my approval too.  My extended family and friends may even appreciate the above, why not be candid with them and let them know how I feel? After all, who isn't seeking the approval of others?  Who doesn't want to know what your expectations of them are?  

And today, I am sharing the above statement with my toughest critic ... Me!  I'm being honest with myself, I'm challenging myself, I'm setting expectations for myself!

Have a great day!
 

Where there's a will, there's a way!

Have you ever heard the expression "Where there's a will, there's a way!"?  I have ... dozens, if not hundreds of times.  It's a true statement, but how strong of a statement is it?

No doubt that there is always 'a way'.  But there is not always the willingness ('will') to do what you or your team wants to get done.  Your will is something you choose, but to me it's a weak word, without much commitment.  Another, stronger word for will/willingness is DESIRE.  This is a word that I favor over will.  It has determination and fortitude built into it!

Change the statement to read "Where there's a DESIRE, there's a way!"  And now you have a statement that says "you're not going to give up so easily" (a.k.a. 'if at first you don't succeed ... try, try again!"); "this is important to me"!

Now change the statement to read "Where there's a PERMANENT, BURNING DESIRE, there's a way!"  WOW!  That's saying something.  The choice is yours:  you can have a will; or, you can have a PERMANENT, BURNING DESIRE.  You get to choose.  YES!  YOU GET TO CHOOSE!

You can't apply that kind of passion to everything you do at all times.  You would be completely drained and may not enjoy life so much.  But for your most important projects or goals it's a must.  You need to have a permanent, burning desire!  Now focus on what is most important to you and do it!

So you made a bad shot ... now what?

The other day I was listening to a story being told by that great orator Zig Ziglar.  And, as they usually do, this story stuck with me.  Actually, it did more than stick with me ... it inspired me to blog about it!

In brief, the story is about a golfer who is teeing off and happens to be staring at a sixty yard wide (that's one hundred and eighty feet) fairway.  That seems pretty wide ... yet his or her shot goes into the woods.  Once in the woods and standing over the ball the golfer sees two options.  He/she can punch it out onto the fairway very easily and use a stroke, but get a great lie.  Or the golfer can try and punch it through a three foot wide gap that, if hit hard enough, will land the ball on the green.

Forget about having a "Tiger" or "Jack" moment.  What does the smart golfer do?  What does the golfer with average skill do?  What does the golfer who is good at making bad decisions do?

As Zig said "Don't follow a bad shot with a bad decision."  When you find that your actions or decisions have landed you in a tough spot, stop and think about what your next smart step should be!  And if you don't know, seek advice.  On every hole of every round Tiger Woods has a caddy standing right next to him at the ready with his best advice.

Does quality matter or is 'good enough' good enough?

Does quality really matter?  There’s an expression that I learned from my father and it is “good enough.”  I would venture to say that I have used this expression more than a thousand times in my life.  Until recently, I hadn’t given it much thought.

But is ‘good enough’ really good enough?  It sure sounds like you’re settling when you say “good enough.”  And the truth is you are!

There are times when good enough really is good enough.  Let’s say it’s the weekend and you find a leak in your bathroom.  Fortunately you had supplies on hand to stop the leak until you could hire a pro to fix the leak.  What if you are a student and the deadline for a paper sneaks up on you?  You know you need at least five hundred words and the topic has to be the French Revolution.  You crash on the paper until the wee hours of the night so that you can turn in a paper and not get a zero.  Good enough is good enough.  Or perhaps like me you are not a groundskeeper or a carpenter, but your son or daughter wants a pitcher’s mound.  You build it in your backyard, it’s not perfect, but it is good enough (for now).

What if you are launching a product or service?  Does ‘good enough’ apply in these forays?  Go ahead; think on it for a while.  Obviously you have to wait to launch until you’ve perfected your ‘thing’, right?  Otherwise your customers will hate you and never buy your product.  No!  Good enough is ‘good enough’ here too.  You want your product to be great and for your customers to love it … but if you wait until it is perfect you will never launch. 

After you launch you will get plenty of feedback on the features or additional items that the customers would love to see.  They will help you create “Good Enough V2.0”.  Yes quality matters, but no you can’t wait until a product or service is perfect because it will never be perfect.  You can’t have your product exploding (unless your product is dynamite) or causing harm to its users.  There will be a new material, process or craving that the customer has every tomorrow.  The world is evolving around us; if you wait to launch you will never launch.   Sometimes “good enough” really is “good enough.”

Why is life full of challenges (a.k.a. Struggles)?

     Life can be tough. Very tough!  We all face struggles or challenges.  Once you've lived a while (like I have) you are able to look back and review your history.  And when you walk down memory lane, don't think of all those little, insignificant hurdles as being trite.  You (probably) weren't just a whining little baby, those were real struggles at the time, probably the biggest of life to date!
     Sure, when you look back, it all seems so easy... NOW!  But at the time those things were pretty big.  When you were four years old and struggling to tie your laces you may have thought that you would never learn how.  Do you remember the first time that you did tie them by yourself?  Your parent(s) were probably extremely proud.  Why didn't they think of it as nothing?  Why was it a big deal for them?
     No doubt they were excited because now they didn't have to tie your shoes anymore.  And, they were proud because it meant you were growing up, you were learning, you were getting stronger!  They looked forward to every new challenge that you faced, because they loved you and they knew that "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."  My parents used that expression all the time.  I kept thinking 'what challenges do they want me to face where my life may be on the line?'
    They also knew that as you overcame challenges you wouldn't just get stronger, you would also get braver and more confident in yourself.  It does you no good to be physically strong and emotionally week.  In order for you to survive on your own in the real world you need to have strength in both.  This doesn't mean that you never call your parents or a friend for advice or help.  In fact, knowing when you need to call someone is a sign of emotional strength.

    Two parting thoughts:

• In nature every plant and animal has it's own struggles that make it stronger.  If they didn't have the opportunity to overcome these struggles they would die.  Think of the young butterfly struggling to escape it's chrysalis.  It's said that if you cut open the chrysalis for the butterfly it will perish.  The fight to escape the bondage of the chrysalis is what makes the butterfly strong enough to fly!

•  From the Bible, Job 7:1-7:5 "Is not all human life a struggle? Our lives are like that of a hired hand. like a worker who longs for the shade, like a servant waiting to be paid.  I, too, have been assigned months of futility, long and weary nights of misery. Lying in bed, I think, 'When will it be morning? But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn.  My body is covered with maggots and scabs.  My skin breaks open, oozing with pus. 

I read a story like that of Job and realize that early on in time (about 4,000 years ago) man realized that the struggle makes him stronger, it makes him a survivor, it makes him a better person.

Take your own advice!

So many times I have found myself offering advice to friends and family ... usually unsolicited.  But the other day I was recanting in my head a conversation with my brother and realized I was being a hypocrite.

On a recent phone conversation with my brother I was providing him with some great tips on how to eat healthier and get more exercise.  He is not the type to open up too much, so I am quite sure that he hadn't asked me for any help.  Being someone who loves him very much though I felt compelled to shower him with my wisdom!

I mean I really love my brother and I want him to live a long healthy life which is why I was recanting the conversation.  All the time wondering "was he listening?", "what could I have said differently that would have resounded in his mind and motivated him to take action?"

Then I realized, I've been trying to get in shape and lose 20 pounds ... FOR FIVE YEARS!   Why am I preaching to my brother, I need to be preaching to the mirror!  Who am I to offer advice?  I barely passed my annual physical and get winded walking up the stairs to the third floor at my office!

I often listen to a recorded lecture by Jim Rohn and remember him saying "some of you are asking 'Mr. Rohn, how is this stuff working for you?' ... well ... listen to me very closely, but don't watch to carefully!"  Mr. Rohn was a great "preacher" of a philosophy on how to live a successful life.  And even Mr. Rohn was having trouble following all of his own advice.

Unsolicited advice is usually hard to hear and even harder to follow!  How many doctors, nurses and fireman do you know that smoke ... don't they know better?  Aren't they always telling people not to smoke? How many police officers and legal gun owners are injured by their own weapons or fireworks each year due to their own lack of judgement or missteps?  Hmm?

Well the good news for my brother is that I will try not to offer him any unsolicited advice anymore (emphasis on "try") and I will start to heed my own advice.  Those twenty pounds are coming off by Christmas 2015!