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Letter From The Editor

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share with you the following which was written by a dear young friend of mine and printed in her local newspaper:

Christmas is a special to me because I like to go to Mass with my grandma and grandpa. We eat with them too. My mom makes chicken cordon bleu. In the morning we open up presents. Christmas is my favorite holiday.

— As written by a very smart little girl in the second grade

When I read this I was so impressed by my dear little friend and what she loves about Christmas. Notice, she didn’t write about the mounds of toys she gets. (Sure she mentioned presents, but she did so last, and she is a child after all!) What she focused on was the traditions that she has with her family; being with her grandparents and the special dish that her mom makes just once a year. If we could read between the lines and see what is actually written on her heart – things her young mind have yet to be able to express – we get the sense that for all of the hustle and bustle that goes on around her, my little friend, this seven year old child, really gets the true meaning and spirit of the holidays.

As adults we talk about how the spirit of the holidays have been lost; it has become too commercialized and too much about presents and looking good. Yet, given the wisdom of my little friend, one has to ask the question, "Who has lost the holiday spirit? Who has done the commercializing? Who is too much about presents and looking good?" It seems to me that we all have something to learn from my very wise seven-year old friend.

My best to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

Clay S. Nelson

Creating an Outrageous Holiday Season

We all know that the holidays stress people out. This is clearly evident as we check out at the grocery store and rush to pick-up that last minute gift. The truth is that this stress affects all domains of our lives. Think about your work, for example. It is the week before Christmas and chances are that the majority of the people in your office aren’t 100% focused on the project proposal that is due on December 24th! We are human, after all, and all of the thoughts, feelings, and activities that the holidays bring can take a toll on us mentally and physically. So, what can we do to be energized, give up the bah-humbugs and support each other as a team this holiday season?

We have the power to either create an outrageous holiday season (which usually requires some help) or complain about it and be downright miserable all by ourselves! Which would you like to choose?

You are choosing to create an outrageous holiday season? Fantastic! Read on.

The best way to create an outrageous holiday season is to write about what you want to get out of the holidays and ask for help getting through your stops in order to get what you want!

At Clay Nelson Life Balance we begin, as early as October, writing about what we want for ourselves personally and for our team and we continue all the way through January. We are constantly evaluating, making sure we are on course and that we are being who we need to be to have the most outrageous fun ever. We do this by:

• Writing about what we’ve completed personally and professionally this year.
• Writing down what we haven’t done and still want to do.
• Writing down what kind of fun we want to have at the end of the year… who we want to talk to… who we want to be with, and then we actually take time on the job to talk about it!
• Supporting each other in making our plans.
• Holding each other accountable.

We support our own humanity by supporting our team, not as employees, but as human beings. And I guarantee that there are few teams having more fun than the Clay Nelson Life Balance team in the 4th quarter of any year!

So, please take the time over the next few weeks to really be with your team. Allow people to acknowledge their feelings – happy, sad, stressed, or frustrated – whatever they may be. By giving your team the room they need to say what is on their minds and the tools and support they need for creating the holiday of their choosing, you are giving them the best gift you could possibly give.

Nurturing Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

Think about how exciting it is for a child to sit at a table on the sidewalk and sell homemade lemonade, or the rush kids get from hitting their relatives and neighbors up with cookie and candy sales. They love it, which is evidence to me that there is a bit of the entrepreneurial spirit in all of us!

So what is required to turn that small bit of entrepreneurial spirit into what it really takes to be a successful entrepreneur?

• Vision: Entrepreneurs have vision for what they want to provide the world and they can see its use in the marketplace.
• Being Unstoppable: Entrepreneurs know what to ask for, and they are unstoppable in getting it.
• Team Building: They build teams and have an innate ability to move themselves and their teams forward in a systematic, organized way around the product and the game that must be played in order to be successful.
• Forward Thinking: And what really sets entrepreneurs apart is their ability to do all of this, while at the same time, see what’s next; they see what is beyond what has been started!

Of course, there are challenges to being an entrepreneur, but for the entrepreneur who stays the course and welcomes the many challenges—the long hours, the energy required, the ability to think clearly, and being unstoppable in the face of everything—the perks are many! Along with the responsibility and hard work come acknowledgement, financial reward, and the great feeling of “I did it!”

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