Posts tagged Pillar
Five Steps to Enjoying the Journey
Sep 9th
When I was a child, I had a recurring dream in which I was leaping from the top of one pillar to another and each pillar started to fall the moment I landed on it, so I had to keep leaping.
As an adult, this is the way I’ve lived my life – leaping from one accomplishment to another – degrees, accreditation, various different careers. My mother used to say it made her tired just listening to me, because I was always pursuing new challenges.
But it struck me one day when I was saying to her, “I can’t wait ’til I finish this program and get my certification” and she said “Don’t wish your life away!” She was so right! I was failing to enjoy the journey.
I also realized how different my husband’s attitude is! To him, life is a “walk in the woods”. He truly enjoys the moment. When we went to England to do our PhD’s, I was always working hard and focused on the goal, while he simply enjoyed the process itself. To him, the goal was incidental but not that important. He was simply enjoying the research he was involved in.
This difference in attitude was even more evident when we returned from England and searched for employment. For six months, I was frantic and impatient, while my husband enjoyed our little ‘vacation’. He said “Relax and enjoy this time. Before you know it, we’ll be back in the grind, with very little time off.”
We have both accomplished many things in our lives, but I lived in a state of “gotta get THERE” and he lived in the state “Isn’t THIS amazing”.
So many people live all their lives, waiting for the future. You hear them say “when I graduate…”, “when I have a family…”, “when the kids are grown up…”, “when I retire…”. Life happens but we’re not there.
Here are five steps that may help you to live and enjoy life fully in the present:
Take responsibility for where you are now. Some people say “Well I have to provide for my children”, but you decided to have children and you did that for a reason! So your next choice is to decide HOW to provide for them. No matter what limiting beliefs you have, you DO have choices about where to go next. Set your next goal, creatively finding a way to achieve a joyful life, while fulfilling your responsibilities. This requires: introspection (to find what makes your heart sing), research (to investigate the possibilities) and courageous leaps of imagination (to overcome limiting beliefs about what is possible). Focus on the moment and savor the journey. As my mother said, “Don’t wish your life away”. Appreciate what you have now and find the joy in every moment. If your children are little, take a moment to appreciate them, because when they grow up and leave home, you will miss these times. So don’t miss it now! Welcome challenges and failures as skill-building opportunities. Challenges help us to get creative. Sometimes you will seek out a mentor. These experiences will also help you to become a mentor to others. All the best teachers tell us about their challenges and failures because these were the times when they learned the most. Remain flexible. If at some point, you feel that this is not the direction you want to go, allow yourself to reconsider and modify your goal to something that truly inspires and energizes you. I have changed careers many times in my life and everyone thought I was crazy, but what others think does not matter – as long as you follow your heart, you can never go wrong.”Enjoying the journey” does not mean “not planning”. It means planning with both your heart and your mind and then immersing yourself in the journey with all your heart, learning and changing direction as you go, accepting all the ups and downs and always moving in the direction of your joy.
The Heart Connection of Life is the Secret Power of Sales – Success Pillar Eight
Aug 12th
Talking to an expert in sales was not my “thing”. In fact, if someone tried to sell me on a product before establishing a relationship of some kind my ears would close off automatically, as if it were a preconditioned response. Well…perhaps it was preconditioned.
I’ve come to understand that unless a person speaks from their heart about themselves and/or the ‘why’ behind what they are selling, they may know little about increasing the lives of others with intention. All too often we’re so busy trying to make a living selling a product that we forget to ask whether it will bring increase into the person’s life or not.
Pillar Eight:
All Life Is Sales – The Power of Persuasion & Influence is talent and virtue
In the Twelve Pillars, written by Jim Rohn and Chris Widener, they refer to Sales as being ‘all of life’.
Sales is influence, nothing more, nothing less. Rohn and Widener say that in order to influence others you must become a person of talent and virtue.
So how do you do that?
Lets first understand that talents are your gifts and virtue is your character.
The definition for Talent is; special natural ability or aptitude: as in a talent for drawing as an example.
The definition of Virtue is; moral excellence; goodness; righteousness, moral and ethical principles: as in choosing high integrity for instance
As we grow – we hone our skills, we create more opportunities for ourselves by sharing what we learn, but amidst all of it – others look to us for guidance or recommendations. This is the power of influence.
You were born to influence!
Have you ever noticed how much influence we have over our parents as babies? When we want something that we can’t have we cry and throw a fit until someone gives in. Our parents have options of course, and if they are wise they will resist the temptation, or simply reason out that whatever it is we are asking for would bring increase into our lives.
The dramatic exchange of sales in our infant years is what teaches us the power of influence; crying loudly, or long enough, that mom and dad eventually give in. Little Johnny wants a new bike. (cha-ching!) Sold. Teenage boy meets teenage girl and wants to take her to the prom. (cha-ching!) Sold. Going to college and needs a new car. (cha-ching!) Sold.
Wouldn’t you agree that we are born to influence one another right from the beginning of time? How you use that influence will determine your success. Will you decide to work harder on yourself than you do on your job? Will you work on your skills and character long enough to find out where they can take you or will you allow the fear of success to drown out those thoughts?
Take the 30 second VPA quiz
If you were flying in a hot air balloon looking down at yourself, what do you see yourself doing? Who would you be connecting to? Who are you influencing?
This quiz can give you a vision of what you may be called to do, or what you might want to be doing with your life, and wouldn’t now be a GREAT time to see it? I’ll leave you with this thought:
V = clear VISION of what you are called to do or desire to do most in life – no one else can tell you what that is P = the POWER to believe God has already provided you with the strength you need to accomplish it – imagine the possibilities A = with inspiration to take ACTION you can do it one step at a time – no matter how big or small – you can accomplish
Education is vital to success in every day life but truly it’s all in the connections of your VPA (Vision~Power~Action) that can move you forward in business, in relationships and in life.
