Be Inspired

Be inspired.

How does inspiration and creativity manifest itself to you in your life, your work and your passions? That is, do you always have a preconceived goal in mind of something you want to accomplish even when it is a struggle to fulfill that "itch" or what that itch means and form your plan around tightly designed .. ways .. to accomplish the goal?

Or do you, at least once in a while, recognize that there is something different you want to accomplish or every attempt (even if it is something that has a very short duration) and simply allow yourself to experience what is around you and let the inspiration come to you from the myriad elements of your surrounding?


Are you looking for that inspiration desperately? Maybe it is to be found in an afternoon or a single day road trip.

1. Pack an overnite bag.
2. Gas up the car.
3. Pack up your phone, camera, laptop, pad of paper and pens.
4. And drive.
5. Maybe you will think of someone you can surprise with a hello.
6. Maybe you will wander across a forest clearing that will give you inspiration for something you need to accomplish.
7. Maybe a mountain overlook or clearing you hadn't ever stopped to look at before has something to say to you ... and you to it.

Don't plan anything. Be inspired.

I Own It

Each of us are responsible for the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

If there is one lesson that life has taught me, it is that struggles or at least unexpected "turns for the worse" are an expected element of our existence. However, the real lesson is, no matter how we got where we are, we are responsible for where we are.

One of the constants and most important blessing we have in life is that of free agency. This gift and the implications of its exercise can be the source of greatest joy in our lives or it can be the cause of our greatest sorrows. 

We can choose the direction that our life takes. We feel empowered when we exercise that agency, resulting in happiness and satisfaction coming into our lives. We feel empowered because we believe we are in control of what happens to us based on our choices. However the exercise of agency by others, or the unexpected impacts of agency by ourselves is not always as easy to accept. 

How many times have we seen the ravages of war and its impact on the innocent civilians. We see almost daily, the heart-wrenching videos of a grief-stricken mother whose child has been figuratively and literally ripped from her arms and from her life by the actions of a drunk driver.

It is these effects of the exercise of agency by others that oftentimes drives people to life-ending depression, questioning the goodness of a God who would allow such a thing to occur and questioning of the fairness of life.

We live in a time of a very difficult economy for many. Long term unemployment is at historic highs. We see the quoted unemployment statistics weekly. We all know someone who has been impacted by these circumstances. I can speak from personal experience after being a six figure wage earner for most of my adult life.

It is easy to see a "path of responsibility" when it is obvious that our actions or inaction have "caused" our present circumstances. What is much more difficult for people to accept, is that regardless of how we arrived at our present condition, we are responsible for where we are.

Most people frankly have a difficult time accepting this statement and implications thereof. "I didn't do anything to cause myself to lose my job. How can that be my fault?" I bought into this line of reasoning until I came to realize and accept that:

• I didn't prepare for this eventuality.
• I allowed myself to be comfortable in the position I was in and didn't constantly retrain in the latest technologies.
• I didn't keep myself physically fit to have the energy and stamina to make major changes in my life.
• I wasn't setting goals; short-term and long-term.

Now the path is much more difficult, but it is my responsibility for where I am in life regardless of any effects I have or currently feel because of the actions of others. No, I am NOT responsible for the actions of others, but it is my and only my responsibility for not being prepared.

What does one do when beset upon by seemingly insurmountable circumstances or conditions? (In no specific order.)

1. Dream big. If your dreams and goals do not SCARE you, you are not dreaming big enough.

2. Pursue your passions. This may mean taking on work and jobs that are not your passion at the moment in order to gain momentum. That is fine. Sometimes anything that pays the bills is progress.

3. Find your success coach. Find that person who sees your potential and will hold you accountable.

4. Fight your fears and procrastination. Sometimes you must tackle only one task at a time. Sometimes it means just paying one bill to make progress for the day. Do NOT pretend that your fears are a part of you to be ignored. They MUST be recognized, accepted and confronted.

5. Do not live your life for others or for their acceptance or approval of you. What they think of you is none of your business.

6. Whatever you plan on doing with your life, it must involve leaving this world a better place than when you got here.

7. Say hello to someone new and learn their name, every single day. This may not seem to "fit" in with what it takes to change one's life around. We gain perspective by connecting with other people and we bring joy to the lives of others by recognizing them and making the effort to get to know them.

8. Talent on its own never won the day. It is the person who hones his craft every day, works till 2 am and that has that sickening work ethic that is focused on improving oneself that realizes the dream.

9. Get up early in the morning to start your day. Eat healthy and exercise.

10. The biggest problem that people have breaking out of their circumstances is that they don't SEE themselves in another life. They don't see themselves living on the beach. They don't see themselves writing books. They don't see themselves giving seminars. No matter what kind of changes we make in our lives, on average 4 out of 5 people will not believe we are making the right choices or will turn us down when we approach them for a job, for a sale or for support. 

All that matters is that YOU first believe it and that YOU take the ACTIONS to make it happen.

The Client Needs to Steer

The increase in the productivity of a sales team is most often linked to small incremental changes in thinking and behavior. Moral of the story: There are no big secrets.

As Darren Hardy hammers home throughout his best selling book The Compound Effect it is the small daily changes that we make in our lives and practice CONSISTENTLY that effect real changes in our lives.

If your sales force practiced these simple principles, their productivity would stand a much better chance at improvement:

Do you as a manager encourage (and do by example) your sales team to ALWAYS be engaged in personal improvement?

This can take the form of books, seminars, webinars, etc.

Does your sales team "walk the talk"?

That is, do they use their own products and services? If you sell one brand of car, does your sales team drive another brand? This is probably not going to encourage others to think that they really believe in their product. (If they really don't believe in the product, then you probably have a bigger problem.)

How is your team trained to react to "No"? 

The more people that say "No", then that means they are approaching more people. "No" doesn't mean failure. It can mean one step closer to success.

Do you find that your or your team are "steering" customers to products or services that YOU want them to buy?

There is very little success achieved in this approach. In order to satisfy our customers, we need to FULLY understand what THEY want and need and direct them to our products and services that satisfy those needs. It rarely works out the other way around.

Are YOU and your team personally organized?

I am going to include in this good grooming and ... yes, this includes smelling good. If this sounds silly to you, just ask yourself how you feel as a customer when you see someone in a suit and tennis shoes (yes I have seen this recently with a car salesman here in Phoenix) and could pick out everything he had in his dinner salad from what was between his teeth.)

Do you and your sales staff how followup call sheets AND notes from their meeting with their potential customers?

Are you and your sales staff practicing all your best practices ON A CONSISTENT basis?

We are creatures of habit. The more we practice our best behaviors, the better we get at them.

In summary, you as a manager must walk the talk, set expectations, and provide the tools for your staff to be successful.

The Winds of Time

I think she was welcoming me back, in her own way. Her "voice" has always spoken to my soul. My memory of her is most reminiscent as a young man, walking to church at 5:45 am, cold snow crunching under foot and then hearing her calls whispering through the pines, pretending to say .. something. I was certain that she would speak louder as  I approached her in the the pine trees and then die down as I passed. Was she disappointed?

Her voice was not her only attempt to gain my attention. She knew early on in my life that I had a hidden fantasy for her. I looked forward to her loud yet unannounced arrivals with her siblings; rain and snow, but especially with the summer rainstorms. I felt she was was whispering only to me; whispering and then announcing her presence and quietly leaving.

She exercised all of her womanly assets; ability to evoke the deepest of emotions with gentlest of caressing touches to my face; the cold and bitter emotions of rejection and anger as biting, stabbing knives in the dead of winter. She would use her strength coupled with desert heat to inflict stifling, breath-taking pain. She would touch my soul and make me wish she would never leave when accompanying early fall drizzles.

She didn't forget about me on the night of December 7th, 1988.

The night before Eric was born

She certainly was going to announce his birth. 52 MPH wind gusts!!! Yes my dear you got my attention. He has deserved all the trumpeting you brought that night to his arrival the next day.

The last two nights, your whispers have been of a different, quieting, calming nature; almost as if you were telling me, begging me, pleading with me, to have faith, to calm down, to not give up. That all would be well. I realize you were giving me a gift. A gift from an old friend.

You haven't been just the winds of time in my life. You have marked the moments of my life in a way that a friend wants to not be remembered as much as to have had an impact. You have helped me remember the cold that can be so sadly and maliciously directly between humans. You have reminded me through displays of strength, the power that I own and only need to bury the fears that hold that power at bay. The most important and touching impact you have had, is how you have caressed through your soft ripples of the curtains, the gentleness that resides in me.

I think I will remember you most though, through your passionate almost lust-filled approaches; the nights in late fall, when you would gently accompany the light rain and carrying the sounds and smells of the rain gently falling on the roof.  You would passionately seduce me, with thoughts, feelings and longings for the embrace of that passion in my life, or missing from my life. Your gentle breezes brought the smell of the freshly fallen rain to my being, accompanied by the rhythmic beatings of the rain  and even occasional sprinkles to my face as I lay near the open window wishing you would never leave.

Stay close dear fiend. You are more than the winds of time. You are the balancing of the ebbs and flows of life, emotion and passion.

Rain on the Face

It hasn't been a heavy rain tonite, but one that like a long lost friend, has been missed. The absence of this friend evokes response from all the senses; the repetitive pounding of the rain on the roof, and falling onto the ground; the cool brisk air on the face, reminiscent of cross country meets, walking home from football games and lonely walks; walks that tempts one to not turn around, to walk into the arms of destiny.

The rain also has a smell of freshness and renewal; hope and motivation for the courage to walk new paths.

But it is the feel of the rain on the face that conjures up a lifetime of memories. The innocent wonder of an inquisitive child wondering  "Where does the rain come?". Long walks of solitude by a confused teenager wondering where he fits in life; asking and looking for answers to fill the gaps of loneliness and yearning for a future of new goals, new friends, new outcomes. This rain is very uniquely reminiscent of one memory; son and dad; his first football game, one that he will likely not remember but a long walk back from a now long gone stadium to the boy's rescuing feelings of warmth of the car. Dad's feelings and memories of warmth are quite different, then and now.

The rain today however, sometimes summons feelings of failure, memories on a path that have led to an unplanned for future, but it is a future full of new possibilities, new memories of rain to be had, to be experienced and to be shared with those closest; eternally closest and forever loved.

Perhaps these memories are shared, perhaps they are forgotten, but the experiences spawning the memories are what will be remembered and felt; felt much like the rain on the face. For perhaps, new memories await, new feelings to be felt, new echoes to be heard and cool breezes to be felt.

Perchance I am only now learning that the rain is meant to both nourish the memories needing to be indelibly anchored in the heart and soul, to wash away the burdens of guilt and unfulfilled hopes and dreams of the past and most importantly to initiate the growth of new experiences, memories, goals and friendships. Maybe it is the new rain of my life; the life giving water that turns our gaze outward and in to the hearts of those that mean the most to us; those that need the nourishment of our concern, friendship and love.