One of the basic things that you must understand is that talent is never enough. I know that’s a shocking statement given the title of this treatise. Let me clarify: talent is powerful but it’s not enough. To gain the full power of talent you must understand the magic of TALENT. Here is what I mean:
Thinking cultivates talent - It’s one thing to have talent and it’s quite another to know how to exploit that talent. It’s the quality of thinking that separents talented achievers from talented underachievers. Learning how to think at a higher level is key to maximizing your talent.
Attitude sustains talent - Denis Waitley is fond of saying that the winner’s edge is in his attitude. Attitude shines and it is the key to maintaining a successful pursuit of one’s real talents. A great attitude will enable you to achieve so much more than you ever dreamt possible.
Leadership elevates talent - Talent can enable you to soar from obscurity into the limelight but it takes leadership to keep you in the limelight. Having a leadership bent and a mind for what it takes to stay at the top is key to utilizing talent efficiently. Your leadership skills will elevate your talent.
Excellence magnifies talent - A solid commitment to pure excellence is the foundation for the magnification of one’s talents. Doing everything with excellence creates room for you to extend your talents. Excellence also sets you apart from the crowd because most people are used to mediocrity.
Nature nurtures talents - Nothing is more natural than a person’s talents. The key to being able to develop your talent is to stay natural. Don’t be a cheap copy when you can be original! Your nature actually sets you apart and makes you a winner. You’ve got to stay connected to the essence of who you are as a person.
Trustworthiness secures talent - A lasting legacy comes from lasting qualities. Developing a reputation for trustworthiness enables you to secure the use of your talents. People want to be able to trust that you will deliver. The key to that is in being truthful and honest with them.
Talent is never enough. It takes TALENT to realize the fulness of talent!
One of the most important things that must be grasped in life is that growth is not permanent. Many times we set a goal for accomplishment and once that goal is attained we sort of settle into a feeling that we have arrived. Best example of this is the diploma mentality. Most people stop learning and growing once their degree, diploma or certificate in whatsoever they are pursuing. The end result of this is that they slowly start losing most of what they had learnt. The key to continuos improvement in life is a commitment to never-ending personal growth. here are some growth keys for a better life:
Generate a passion for growth within yourself - Personal growth is not easy. It takes a special commitment to maintain consistent growth. The key to this is to make a personal decision for continuous growth. You have to decide that no matter what you will carve out time for your groth.
Read widely with a desire to expand your knowledge - Leaders are readers. In order to stay ahead of the pack, you must do what the pack doesn’t do. Few people read on a daily basis. What you do daily will decide who you become permanently. You have to read and listen to audio books daily.
Omit useless activities from your daily agenda - Personal growth goes hand-in-hand with time management. In order to develop yourself you must learn to discriminate wisely amongst activities. That’s the key to maintaining focus. Activity doesn’t necessarily equate to productivity.
Wear a whatever it takes attitude - I was watching Tiger Woods play golf on the final day of the 2008 Buick invitational which he won by a staggering eight strokes for his 62nd PGA tour win. Tiger has committed himself to continously improving his game. Nobody wears a whatever it takes attitude better than him.
Treasure the company of others that are growing - Who you become in five years depends a lot on who you associate with today. Find people that are growing and share in their growth. Your environment should consist of people that are going in the same direction in which you are headed. That is the key to achievement.
Hammer-out a lifestyle of growth - Developing a lifestyle of growth is not easy. Once you set your eyes on growing, all sorts of obstacles will try and prevent you from attaining that goal. You have to “chisel” out a pathway of growth in your life.
Embrace these keys to growth and you will definitely attain more than you ever thought possible!
One of the most impactful lessons I have come to learn is that most people are inspired by other’s dreams but it’s only a few who can be connected to a vision. All men have dreams but very few have vision. For dreams to have a chance at being a part of destiny they must be backed up with a solid vision that can be executed effectively. Dreams are born of hopes and desires while vision comes from foresight and passion. It is essential to have both because they work together in the manifestation of personal purpose and potential.Two Key Questions:
1. What is your dream?
What is your greatest hope or aspiration? What do you yearn for earnestly? What do you secretly wish for yourself and those around you?
Dreams are the cornerstone of life. Without dreams, life is meaningless. Dreams give substance to existence. They allow us to go beyond mediocre living to living with a zest for life. Dreams activate within us a willingness to embrace higher ideals worth striving for. Dreams are the bedrock of life.
2. What is your vision?
What do you imagine when you think about the future? What do you see yourself capable of achieving? If you had all the resources you wanted in the world, what would you do?
Visions give structure to life. They give form to dreams. Without vision life lacks power. Visions provide us with a framework for accomplishment. They enable us to go beyond living with zest to having a zealous pursuit that delivers results. Visions allow us to go from activity to productivity.
The Marriage of Dreams and Vision … is the birth of purpose!!
Dreams + Vision = Purpose!!
What’s your purpose in life? What is the reason for your existence? Can you clearly define that which you would give your all in order to realize in life?
The Offspring of Dreams and Vision … is pure potential!!
Dreams X Vision = Potential!!
Every human being has the potential for greatness. In order to uncover your true potential, you have to allow your dreams to flourish and pursue a solid vision with purpose. You can do it!
Change is a constant. You can’t step into the same river twice. People need to understand that change is part of life. Most people struggle with handling change because it causes the 3 D’s - discomfort, disruption and dislocation. A crucial part of the process of handling change will involve helping people handle the dis’s and get pluses out them. Let us explore how we can do that:
Discomfort - Change requires difficult adjustments by people. Adjustments can cause stress and bring tension to groups. In some cases change has been known to lead to depression in some people and a mutiny from others. Uncertainty about the results of the change can bring fatigue and frustration. The key to avoiding all this is to ensure that people know in advance what to expect and how to deal with it. The discomfort of change can be prevented by preparing people adequately for the coming changes.
Disruption - When significant changes are made, some people experience personal pain at the loss of familiar things to which they had become very attached. This can be a source of great trauma. Leaders can help people by allowing them to verbalize their sense of loss and grief, and then gently pointing them to the benefits of the change and the bright new future ahead of them.
Dislocation - Any change, whether it involves new strategies, new programs, new equipment, new work procedures, new facilities, new management practices or new leaders, disrupts an existing order and leads to discontinuity. In a time of change, leaders should frequently explain what is happening and keep their people informed. People will be more optimistic if they know the change is progressing successfully. Leaders should frequently communicate what steps have been initiated, what changes have been completed and what resulting improvements have occurred.
Handling these three dis’s appropriately will be the key to avoiding the dreaded dis of change - disaster! People must be helped through change seasons, otherwise they will see a lack of help as a sign of impending disaster within the group.
Michael Jordan once said that “there’s no “i” in team but there is in win”. Let us consider an extension of that - the word winning. There are two “i”s in winning. For you to win as a leader in 2008 you will need to discover and develop the two “i”s that will produce a winning combination. No single initiative, quality, person, idea or other factor will bring you the ultimate level of success you are destined for in 2008. You’ve got to find the winning combinations that will guarantee you victory. Start thinking outside the box. You’ve got to find a way of aligning any competing ideas, people or resources into one unit that fits and works together.The key to winning therefore is in having an arsenal of ideas, initiatives, strategies and resources and then knowing when to use which. You’ve got to have a bag of tricks up your sleeve, so to speak. You have to build your organization or business around a solid vision, have a driving mission (winning) and execute both the vision and the mission flawlessly. In between doing all of this, you will continue with the planning process we have been talking about in my recent blogs. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. You were born to win. Find your “i”s and develop them!
In many leadership and personal development circles today, people talk about the need for vision and why it’s important to craft a personal vision for life. While this is great, few address the need to go beyond having a vision to acting on the vision. A Japanese proverb says that vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare. I have come to prefer the term, being vibrationary to being visionary. The difference between visionary and vibrationary living is that whereas in visionary living, our path is guided and directed by the power of a compelling desire propelled by a glimpse of the future while in vibrationary living, we discern trends and read the pulse of society, enabling us to respond to the heartbeat of the real needs of people. Understanding the heartbeat of human need is more powerful than any vision we could ever have.
If we are going to be precise in the New Year, we must transition from visionary living to vibrationary living. A New Year requires a New Strategy. I suggest that we start responding to the needs of society rather than sitting in our own ‘vision cubicles’ to develop our own ideas.
Transitioning from vision to vibration is in essence shifting our focus from seeing to hearing. While it is essential that we be able to see where the needs are in society, it is also important that our ears be well turned up to be able to hear what the people are saying and what is vibrating in their hearts. This means that our ears should be close to the heart of the society. Sound is a series of vibrations moving as waves through air. Ringing a bell for example, sets off vibrations in the air. Detection of these vibrations or sound waves is called hearing. It is essential to understand how the ear works. Humans hear by bone conduction or primarily by detecting airborne sound waves, which are collected by the auricles. The auricles help locate the direction of sound. Then one turns to focus on the direction. Therefore hearing comes before seeing.
This transition will require a change from structure to rhythm. This will require a greater degree of sensitivity to the needs of society. Making the transition from visionary living to vibrationary living will require that we change from critical thinking to modulating. Make the big transition.
In my previous post, I wrote on the topic of planning and explained how it trumps making resolutions. I want to continue with this angle of thought. Great organizations know that in order for them to stay on the cutting-edge of their pursuits they need to follow a certain specific schedule for managing their projects. They therefore utilize what has commonly become known as the Critical Path Method. This is a technique whereby all the activities to be undertaken are listed, the time duration is clearly outlined and the elements of the project are taken into consideration. Through CPM, critical activities are determined and float times are developed for less critical activities.
If we are going to be successful in pursuing our personal objectives and goals in 2008, I would like to suggest going through a similar process. Any resolutions that we make must be clearly outlined in terms of goals. Once the goals are set they must be clearly prioritized and the various elements specifically outlined. Each goal and its elements must have a specific deadline for it’s accomplishment. Once this process is complete, we must develop a laser-like focus that will keep us on target with the pursuit of those goals.
Engaging in a process like this will enable us and our organizations to have a fruitful 2008. Our quest this year should be effectiveness and excellence. Modern organizations have developed crucial software that is used for this process but you can be as effective or even better with the use of only a pencil and paper. During the course of the year our task will be to analyze our critical paths and determine what elements need to be accelerated and which need to be decelerated. I encourage you to bookmark this page as we will be sharing ideas that will be essential to keeping you and your organization on the critical path throughout 2008.
