A Year of Purpose

As we stand at the end of another year and look ahead to the new one the biggest emotion I’m feeling today is thanks. I’m grateful we’ve made it this far and so many of us are still here together, and I’m grateful for all that those who have passed on have taught us and the role that they played in our lives, however short it may have been. I can remember back in 2019 looking ahead to 2020 (and feeling really sick while doing it!) and having absolutely no clue how much would go on in those few short years and the challenges we would face as a nation and a world, but really hoping for something better than the “challenging” couple of years before 2019. I didn’t get my hope for those years, but we certainly have learned a lot about our world, each other and ourselves since 2020 and this decade began. So no, I don’t have insider knowledge about what the new year ahead holds, and I’m not planning a word for the year ahead (at this time), but as I was reading a devotional which spoke to the new year ahead I was reminded that one of the best things we can do in the new year (or anytime) is to live with purpose.

What does that mean? First I think it means that we should live, period. Yes, there will be rejections and failures and you won’t get to do everything or be everything for everyone, but I think it’s time that maybe we think less about the issues and make fewer complaints and instead start working in the situations we have and go from there. In other words (to use a recent example), just because there’s a pandemic happening, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still have adventures, learn new things, do fun things, or meet new people, you just have to get creative about how you do it and exactly what those things look like.

Second, living with purpose has to do with making lots of decisions. I know, cue the groans, but in all seriousness, the more intentional you are with your decision making (which means you proactively decide things and don’t just let them slide hoping they’ll magically take care of themselves or a better answer might fall into your lap), the more likely you are to be happy with your life and the more likely you are to have a life that fulfills you and let you do what you want. When you’re active with your decision making you are the one with the power and you get to choose many more of the twists and turns that your life takes, and you’ll have more power even during those moments that are really hard or when there are many unknowns because you’re used to making decisions and have gotten really good at finding and evaluating information and understanding and trusting your gut.

Finally, I think it means that you get to know yourself really well and accept yourself for who you are. Accepting yourself doesn’t mean that you don’t make changes or that you don’t have any growing to do, because often what you come to accept is that you’re really imperfect and have lots to work on and will do so at the pace that works for you (a snail’s pace isn’t an option). Choosing to live with purpose is about making decisions that are right for you and who you are and not about what’s cool or trendy or what insert name here thinks you should do because they think you’re ruining your life living as you are (and no one else agrees with them). And a hard part of accepting ourselves sometimes is in accepting that we’re adults and have to make decisions or things will go downhill (often faster than we can imagine). So we can either choose to do it how it works for us, or we can choose to miss out on a lot of awesome life that is out there for us to live.

I’m not saying I’m hoping for a good year (of course I would love that) but I am saying I haven’t given up yet on what the year ahead could be, maybe even because of how we’ve worked through the past few years. I hope you’ll join me for a new year of decision making, being an adult, doing good in the world, and living with purpose.

Leaders with Purpose

This month I read The Heart of Business by Hubert Joly. While he has been in the business world for his whole career, he decided to write this book after he completed his time as CEO of Best Buy. His journey and involvement with many businesses around the world and with many business leaders taught him a great deal about leadership and caused him to evaluate what it really means to be a leader and what type of leader he wanted to be. Let’s take a look at some of the things that are part of what Joly sees as leadership that is necessary for the future we’re heading into.

His experiences have motivated him to be a leader like I talk about frequently: one who places a high importance on the idea of humanity in business (i.e. you can’t forget that your business isn’t a robot business, but made up of people from top to bottom). He presents it as companies have 3 keys: people, business and financials. It starts with people because if a business really wants to be successful in this day and age, especially after all the changes that happened during the pandemic, you have to consider the impact your business has on society as a whole, not just the bottom (financial) line. Profits should be seen not as the end-all-be-all, but rather evidence of how successfully you’re building relationships with the people who buy from you (or the lack thereof regarding your strategy or lack of connection).

As part of that people conversation, the book delves into the evolving world of compensation, motivation and incentives. Even before the pandemic started many people were rethinking what they needed in the way of support from the companies they worked for, and the pandemic only prioritized that question. What it boils down to is what used to work for people doesn’t work for many people these days. The best way to get your team on board and committed to your organization is through respect, honesty, openness, listening, and truly valuing them and their contributions.

I’ll close with Joly’s encouragement about how to be a leader in this day and age: “Be clear about your purpose, the purpose of people around you, and how it connects with the purpose of your company.” Hubert Joly’s career shows that it’s totally possible for leaders who are both starting out and those who have been in the leadership world for a long time can be the leaders that people need today. While some things may return to how they used to be, given that many of the things that came to light during the pandemic only became more clear and focused, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll ever completely return to how leadership or business used to be. Are you being the leader that your company needs in this day and age with all the changes that have happened and focused interests, needs, perspectives and plans of your people?

Good Growth and Bad Growth

Growth. It’s what so many of us are dreaming of. Summer is a great time to talk about growth because of everything that’s growing in nature around us. I don’t have the greenest thumb, that would be my mother and her mother, but I do have a couple of plants that I’ve managed to keep alive, some for several years now. I want my plants to grow because I like to look at them, my mother wants her beautiful garden to grow because that’s her passion and the vegetable portion is tasty too, and the farm and garden centers want their plants to grow so they can sell them or grow produce to sell to stores. That’s all great garden growth. But out behind where I live there’s a large patch of weeds that’s completely out of control and just gets more wild with each day. I don’t mind seeing the green growth, but I don’t like watching the weeds take over buildings and wires and potentially cause damage.

What I’m really talking about here is two different types of growth. We often hear that growth is good, but is all growth really good? Do we really want mold growing on our tasty cheeses (when it’s not supposed to be there)? Do we really want to grow our collection of stuff to the point that we’re a hoarder? Do we really want to grow the pounds until we’re extremely overweight? Do we really want to grow our debt until we’re in such a hole we don’t know how we’ll get out? Do we really want the numbers of murders to grow each year? I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.

So how do we get to the kind of growth we want, the kind of growth that helps us create victories? The key phrase is “purposeful work.” This is when you do work that you know will help you get to the victories you want. When you work in the garden caring for the plants you want to keep and pulling the weeds, that’s purposeful work. When you wash the dishes so that you have a clean kitchen after dinner, that’s purposeful work. When you take the time to reply to emails regarding work with potential clients, that’s purposeful work. When you take the time to plan out your content schedule for your marketing, that’s purposeful work. When you take the time to track your expenses so that you don’t overspend, that’s purposeful work. When you make a plan with both an overview and one with lots of details on how you can accomplish a victory, that’s purposeful work.

So if you know the growth you’re looking for is found in purposeful work, what purposeful work will you do today? It may not get you from A to Z today, but gardens don’t grow overnight either. Commit to choosing purposeful work and start on that work today.

Success is Personal

In recent days I learned that a family-run business I grew up with experienced some overnight teenage trouble (captured on security cameras). The young people stole, damaged property and caused issues for the people who not only run a business on that property but live there. I’m connected with some of the family on social media and they shared their hurt as well as asked for support from the community in response to these events. Of course I was upset reading about this because their business is definitely an institution in the area and it hurts as a fellow business owner that people would do this to something that you work so hard on.

As I reflected on these feelings, I was reminded of how personal success should be. It should be something we’re invested in, it should mean something to us, we should be passionate about it, and there should be purpose behind it. In this day and age there’s no reason why you shouldn’t choose a job or build a business around something that matters to you. There are so many things that can and do go wrong in our lives, so many things that challenge us, so many changes we have to work through, so much growing to do, that it is almost illogical how many barriers we put between both our success and happiness.

Directly connected to being invested in your own success, we also have to do better about respecting and recognizing that others are invested in and work hard for and are passionate about their work. We should take care with the things that make up other people’s success, and remember that a fellow human is trying to earn a living as well. We don’t have to have the same passion or level of interest that they do (even though we greatly benefit when they are that invested in their success), we just have to understand that they have a personal stake in their success journey, just like we do in ours.

If success isn’t personal for you anymore, if the work you’re doing has lost value or you’ve lost sight of what you were investing in and why, it’s a good reminder to dig into that, and there’s no better time than this virus pandemic that has upset much of our world and encouraged us to rethink so much of how we’ve lived and the decisions we’ve made. What’s your ‘why’ to your success?

Seeing Success

In one of the many inspiring emails I receive throughout the week I read this quote:

Danny Thomas said: “All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don’t discover why. Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others.”

I always love thinking about life purpose. It’s one of the best ways to be encouraged and motivated. Of course, if you don’t know what your purpose is, it can be one of the most frustrating things to think about. But lately what I’ve been thinking about more than life purpose, is what success really means. To some it means getting up in the morning. Others feel successful when they bring in millions of dollars for their clients. Still others find success in raising their family. Do you realize that success means a lot of different things?

In the quote Thomas is talking about true success, a win-win-win, when everyone wins or benefits from what’s going on. So not only is it important to know that true success includes everyone, it’s also important to know how you define success, and to be open to re-defining your definition of success. By not being open to redefining your success, you limit yourself to how successful you can become! So if you think that success is making a million dollars, but once you reach that you don’t rethink what success could be, you won’t ever make more than 1 million dollars. Likewise, if you think only you can be successful in life, and can’t help someone else be successful at the same time, your definition of success needs to be re-written.

So ask yourself today, what do I think success means? Do I need to redefine what success means in order for it to better fit who I am? (Am I thinking that I want my kids to be less difficult, but what I really want is 10 minutes to myself each day?)

You can have success, and you can have it today. It just depends on your perspective.

Live Your Life Your Way

One of the questions that is asked from time to time is along the lines of “do we really need another blogger in the world?” Of course that same question could be easily asked about countless things from authors to web designers to chefs to baseball players. I get it, I mean there are tons of people who share similar things or seem to do the same thing.

But with the incredible loss of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade last week I got to thinking about this question again, especially in response to some of the things people posted about Anthony Bourdain following his death. We could watch any of a dozen or so news channels on TV, but each of us has our own preference about which we watch as well as which news site we typically visit on the internet. They often share the same exact news (a baseball score isn’t going to change depending on who you hear it from), yet we think they share the news better or we have some other affinity with them.

So I say go for it. Share your story, write your blog, investigate the world from your perspective, listen to others, get to know the world around you and you live in, and do your part to take care of it and all who share it. No one can ever tell your story like you can, no one can make the difference in the world that you can. We all have a role to play in this world, what statement will you make with the way you live your life?

Building a 4 Leaf Clover Business

With St. Patrick’s Day this weekend I thought today we’d talk about 4 aspects of business success in honor of the 4 leaf clover. We’ll first take a look at the 3 things that appear on all clovers (in all businesses) and then we’ll look at one that only appears on the 4 leaf clovers:

People:
However you want to look at what you offer, without someone to buy what you offer, there’s really no point to being in business. It’s essential that you take care of all your people if you want to stay in business, let alone become one of the few beloved companies who lasts the tests of time.

Product/Service:
Every business needs at least one product or service that has value, addresses a need or solves a problem for people. Once you’ve got the concept for your product(s) and/or service(s) you have to decide what type of quality you will provide, and whether to differentiate yourself by price, or serve only a specific location or try and reach the masses among other things.

Marketing:
Once you’ve got a product and/or service you’ve got to tell people about it! There are tons of ways that you can market your business and what you’re offering from social media to blogs to newsletters to TV ads to radio ads to joint ventures to affilates. Marketing today has evolved from just product/service awareness to creating experiences, educating potential customers, and interacting with them in real time all in addition to product/service/brand awareness.

Purpose/Mission/Vision:
As I said, most businesses do their best to attend to the first 3, like any clover, but some business go the extra mile and give the extra effort to do things on purpose and with purpose. I had a business owner ask me recently if they really needed to have a purpose/vision/mission because they were “just selling a shirt.” Yes, you can differentiate on the exact product you sell, price and marketing you do and the people that fit your niche, but if you really want a tribe, if you want people to come back again and again and have a passionate investment in your business you need to have and follow a purpose/mission/vision.

So what about you? Are you just working to sell a product or service, or are you working to create an experience for your customers, one that they want to invest in, be part of and share with others?

Making an Impact in 2018

As I was visiting the History website the other day, I noticed an article about the holiday of Kwanzaa, which is celebrated each year at the end of December. While it has ended for this year I thought that the lessons and reasons behind Kwanzaa were something we could start the year off talking about. Let’s take a look:

The Facts:
-It was begun in 1966 to bring African-Americans together as a community.
-“Kwanzaa” is taken from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza” which can be translated as ‘first fruits.’
-During Kwanzaa families gather together for 7 nights of celebrations including singing and dancing.

The 7 Principles of Kwanzaa:
Unity
Self-determination
Collective work and responsibility
Cooperative economics
Purpose
Creativity
Faith

Can you tell why I wanted to talk about Kwanzaa as we start this new year? Because many of the things that make this holiday what it is are things that could have an incredible impact on 2018 if we’re willing to take them on and apply them to our lives and the world we share. Over the past few years we have seen community develop, but we’re still miles away from where we could be. There are also more people than ever working towards a win-win-win world and win-win-win relationships, but there are still tons of people who are self-centered and not open to supporting others or helping them get a leg up in life.

Will this be the year that we really conquer the concept of community? Will this be the year that unity becomes a reality? Will this be the year that we incorporate purpose, creativity, faith and cooperation into all aspects of our lives? What will you make with this new year?

Dream A New Dream

Yes, we’re at the end of a year and beginning of a new year.  I think it’s one of the best decisions that was made many, many years ago to have a yearly calendar because it gives people a fresh start.  It helps us to organize and straighten out our lives and choose to make positive changes in our lives.  It’s also a reminder to each of us to reflect on what the past year of our lives has brought and what we’ve learned and helps us focus on what we need to improve.  If we lived our lives as one day after another we might live more in the present moment but we would miss out on the benefits of having a yearly schedule if you will to follow.

It’s funny because we really do well when we have a semi structured life.  We can’t live lives that are scheduled every minute of every day but with some structure in our lives we’re able to work jobs, spend time with our families and learn how to make each moment count.

But with this new year, and every new year, I’m reminded anew of the blessing that it brings us to be able to make changes in our lives and to dream a new dream.  It’s never too late to start fresh or make changes in your life.  Until, of course the day comes that you’ve run out of time and you’ve used up all your moments.  With this new year I want to encourage you to use your moments to the fullest.  It’s not too late for you to make your dreams come true, or to have new dreams that actually excite you.

I know that dreams get tired, I know that people get tired. Which is why it’s important to evaluate each year where you’ve been and where you’re going.  The awesome thing is you only have to set the goals you want to set.  Set goals for each day, set goals for each month, set goals for this year.  Make it manageable so that your dreams can become a reality.  This year, I challenge you to make this your year.  In addition to whatever words or themes you’re choosing for this year, choose to make this year the year that you become and show yourself to the world.  Take the wheel and make this new year your year.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” C. S. Lewis

Taking Control of Your Success

Success is something that I think just about everyone wants to have. Everyone’s definition of success may be different, but I think we can all identify with the desire to have success and to feel successful. Today I thought we’d talk about a couple of things that may work to help you be more successful.

Success requires focus. Very few people will find success in life if they don’t have a definition for success and aren’t focused on taking steps to accomplish that success. Maybe you’re at the stage that those steps include researching or asking for help to accomplish that success, or maybe you’re deep into implementing what you believe will help you achieve that success. But if you’re off chasing butterflies or out gallivanting all day and not putting in the necessary time or focus, it will be very difficult to achieve that success quickly or maybe at all.

Success requires discipline. Part of the success journey is being able to take control of your life and the factors that are part of that success you desire. If you can’t be disciplined to structure your life in such a way that you’re devoting time on a consistent basis to working on your success and making room for that which will support your success journey, it probably won’t happen.

So how do we incorporate focus and discipline into our lives without feeling completely depressed that we don’t have all the freedoms that we used to in the past? First, remember what you’re doing this for. Keeping your success goals at the forefront will help keep you motivated. Second, choose to be a responsible adult. This one is a bit difficult because everyone likes feeling and acting like a kid sometimes. But the fact is if you really want success you have to be responsible about taking those steps in your life. On the other side of it if you’re really a responsible adult you’ll choose success goals that will help yourself, your family and your world, not hurt it.

Third, don’t be afraid to set up some boundaries and ask for help. I love how instant communication can be with all our technology, but it gets in the way of getting things done. If you are involved with a lot of high priority communications on a regular basis, set up 2-3 times throughout the day that you check those communications and reply, and then the rest of the day unless there’s a real emergency, you should not be replying to communications. If it’s necessary to do some communicating as part of your success work in between those 2-3 times you can do that, but the goal should be to limit your email/phone/social media time so that you can actually get things done. If you have so many communications throughout the day that you are spending the majority of your time on them and not getting anything else done, it’s time to hire a communication team member and have them deal with the majority of the communications, passing on to you only those that actually need your personal touch. As well, learning how to say no can be difficult for you, I know I like to help people, but the fact remains that there’s only so much time in the day and you have to protect the time you need as well as not take on things that aren’t going to help you accomplish your success.

As we enter a new month tomorrow I encourage you to really think about how you want these last 4 months of the year to go. What will you do differently?