Deferred Gratification

Have you given some thought to your potential? Do you know what your potential is? All of us have potential—not all of us maximize our potential. More distressing is that some of us actively destroy our potential with our behavior and the pursuit of QUICK FIXES and an unwillingness to delay gratification. The credit crisis is an example of how instant gratification can destroy your potential! Another way to destroy our potential is to focus on your past mistakes. By looking backwards you will miss what’s in front of you. You cannot change your past but your past should change you—face your failures and correct the flaws that lead you to the failures. Here are some helpful hints:

see yourself clearly;
admit your flaws honestly;
discover your strengths joyfully;
build on those strengths passionately.

You can reach your potential tomorrow if you dedicate yourself to grow today. Remember, to change your world, you must first change yourself. You DO HAVE THE POWER to change YOU.

Hope

One of the traits of a WINNER is the ability to hold on to HOPE. Never underestimate the power of HOPE. Winston Churchill was once asked by a reporter what his country’s greatest weapon was against Hitler’s Nazi regime. Remember, England had to endure daily bombings from Germany that decimated structures and took many lives. For years, England lived under a “Black Out” situation and had to ration food. Families were torn apart as children were sent to the country to live so that they wouldn’t succumb to the bombings.

Without pausing for a moment Winston Churchill said: “It was what England’s greatest weapon has always been – HOPE.” People will continue working, struggling, and trying if they have hope. Your ability to maintain an attitude of hope comes from seeing the POTENTIAL in every situation and staying positive despite circumstances. POSITIVE THINKING will lead to POSITIVE OUTCOMES! Never be discouraged that you can’t see the outcome today, your seeds of positive thinking are growing right underneath the surface.

Know How To Be Positive

I often listen to Joyce Meyer in the morning as I am getting ready for my day. I am always fed and today was no exception.

Her message centered on a period of time in her life that she wanted to put her faith and beliefs into practice and wanted to change her propensity to be negative. She stated that she consciously, daily worked not to be negative as this was her major “speed” when confronted with any challenge. She in other words, would react negatively to any challenge or perceived disappointment. She was convinced that this approach to life was 1) bringing negative events into her life because when you are stuck on your negative channel this leaves you OPEN to negative events; 2) making her less effective in her ministry; 3) not uplifting to others; and 4) preventing positive events and thoughts from blessing her.

After about 6 months of making a concerted effort not to be negative, she was still wrestling with the fact that this new behavior was not bearing fruit so began to question why. It was revealed to her that although she had made a conscious effort not to be negative, she had made no effort to be POSITIVE! She hadn’t gotten stuck in the POSITIVE Channel yet. This principle is so simple and yet very PROFOUND! JUST BECAUSE YOU STOPPED BEING NEGATIVE IS NOT A GUARANTEE THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO BE POSITIVE. You have to work at BOTH. PHEW! WHAT A REVELATION! WHAT AN “AHA” MOMEMT!

If we all practice being positive look at all the possibilities that we will be blessed with. It starts with you and it starts with me!

Roots

When you think about your future what process do you use? Do you take time daily to think about where you want to be with your life’s pursuits next month, next year or tomorrow? When you think about the future you want to provide for your family, what do you picture?

All success starts with your thinking and forming a mental image. During the early stages, your vision for your future is always incredibly fragile. New hopes and dreams are fragile because we haven’t had time yet to let them grow or develop. New dreams, just like new seedlings have to be nurtured daily. When a seedling oak tree is only a year old, a child can tear it out by its roots, but once it’s had some time to become firmly established, even a hurricane can’t knock it down.

Do you notice that if you share your dreams too soon with some folk, they spend their time telling you why something can’t be accomplished? It is easy to deter you in the beginning on your quest, however once your dream takes hold LOOK OUT WORLD. Some times failure is just a matter of not taking the time in the beginning to create good root structure!

Communication

Leadership implies that you have followers! You are not really a leader unless when you look around there are people willing to follow you! People, in my experience, will not follow you if they don’t know what you want or where you are going. Sometimes this is as function of ineffective communication. To improve communication follow these 4 truths:

Simplify the message – BIG words only serve to put a spotlight on the communicator. Keep every message simple and straight forward.
See the person to who you are delivering message. Connect with your audience.
Show the truth—believe in what you sat and then live it!
Seek a response – every time you speak to people give them something to feel, something to remember, and something to do.

As a leader/Winner, it is your responsibility to effectively communicate with yourself, with your love ones, with our customers and with each other. Great COMMUNICATION leads to GREAT results!

Think Outside the Bowl

Did you know that the common Gold Fish will grow to fit the size of the aquarium or bowl it lives in? My husband and youngest son created a fresh water pond for me one year for mother’s day. We stocked the pond with Koi fish and other tropical fish until it got too expensive to keep stocking the pond—these out door ponds serve as dinner and lunch for raccoons and other critters we have in our back yard.

We started putting simple gold fish in the pond and the gold fish that survived got bigger and bigger. One of those gold fish got to be about 10 inches long. Apparently all living creatures will be limited by the size of their environment, including us. If your current circumstance does nothing to help you grow, you’re going to have a hard time enlarging yourself to reach your potential. Your current “bowl” may be your job, your lack of education, a less than supportive relationship, your image of yourself, negative thinking, your dependence on what other’s think of you. Whatever the “bowl” is that limits you, leave that bowl and create an environment of growth around you. We may not be able to define the bowl we find ourselves in but we are all responsible for remaining in that bowl! Live today to REACH your potential. I believe in you today and all days!

Michael Phelps

I hope you have been following the Olympics and especially the Men’s Swimming events. Michael Phelps came to China with an objective – to be the most decorated swimmer in history. No one has to guess his Motivation—it is evident every time he gets into the pool. He swims as if the race he is swimming is his last race. He gives his all and doesn’t hold back for the next race.

On Wednesday night he swan the individual 200 meter breast stroke only to swim 1 hour later in the relay. He won gold and set world records in both. The commentators were all commenting that he should save his strength and pace himself however Michael Phelps has conditioned himself for this time in his life. When interviewed, he indicated that he has lived, breathed, slept swimming for 4 years. He has put everything else on hold to achieve what is unfolding before our eyes. He swam 5 hours every day for the past 4 years and concentrated on molding himself into a SWIMMING MACHINE!

If you ever wondered what it takes to be AT THE TOP OF YOUR GAME we all know. He has left nothing to chance in achieving his goal! He is a WINNER and has taught countless number of young boys and girls that time, commitment and vision will remove all obstacles from your path.

In a recent interview, Michael Phelps indicated that there were days that he didn’t want to swim another inch let alone another mile. He didn’t want to be near anything that smelled or chlorine or saline. He wanted a normal around adult life in which he could hang out with his friends. He then remembered what he wanted to achieve – 8 gold medals in the 29th Olympiad and jumped into the pool to do more laps. We can all experience that level of commitment each day if we examine our motivation.

Book of Job

I am sure that you all have heard the story of Job. As you are aware Job was a Jewish nobleman who had a large family, wealth, and a great life. Many people admired him and he had many friends. A lot of folk assumed that he was a good man because his outward possessions were plentiful and therefore he had to be righteous, correct?

Well then Job hit a bad patch. In fact, Biblical scholars teach that the “Bad Patch” was actually nine years in length. During this nine year period of time Job lost all his wealth, his children, his grandchildren, his health and yes his “friends” because the same friends that support him because of his outward “blessings” now assumed that he was really a bad person because only bad persons have the kind of bad luck Job was experiencing.

To ward the end of this nine year period, Job was left with his own thoughts, his relationship with God and his wife who admonished him to curse God and then die to be released from the misery that Job was experiencing. Job then learned a very important lesson. It was okay to question his circumstances but it was not okay to doubt the love of his Creator. Job learned that he was not defined by his possessions or his family but defined by his beliefs and his relationship with God. When he embraced that concept that we come in the world with nothing and therefore will leave with nothing he understood the ultimate lesson in this life. Prior to his losses, Job never had to ponder whether he was a RECEIVER or a BLOCKER. Job in the end was a RECEIVER and over the next 9 years of his life everything that was lost was restored nine fold. Blessing are always ready to be received!

What motivates you?

Have you given some thought as to what motivates you on a daily basis? What is the first thought you have when you awaken? What is the last thought before you fall asleep? When you are struggling to find an ounce of strength to keep going on, what do you think about? If you haven’t thought what motivates you, today is a good day to start because whatever it is that motivates you will also define your life and your future.

Your motivation can also dictate what path you follow in life; if you are motivated to be the best you can be then your choices will reflect that motivation; if you are motivated by being negative then your choices will also reflect that. If you have no motivation then the vacuum that exists in your life will be filled with the motivation of others and your life will have no compass, no course. My hope and desire for you is that you are motivated toward EXCELLENCE because that is what winners do; that you embrace each day to make the most of it for yourself, your family and the human race. The human race needs more positively motivated people to ensure that we continue on this little rock called planet earth! Embrace motivation today!