Dear Friends,
Your success and the success of our nation rest on us – the citizens of this nation – to be active participants in creating and building an outrageous future. None of us can expect to get to where we want to go, if we fail to get into action in our own behalf… if we fail to tell those who are in leadership positions what we want! So, how can you stand up for what you believe in and participate in building an outrageous future for yourself, your family, and your country?
In a nutshell, we have to make sure our voices are heard – for ourselves personally and as a community, and we do so in the actions we take! You make your voice heard by:
An outrageous future depends upon each of us participating in creating it, and if we are not going to participate in building an outrageous future, we have to take responsibility and be accountable for the future we do create… no matter how unpleasant that future may be! George Burns was once quoted as having said: “ I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.” So I ask you, where do you want to spend the rest of your life? What do you want your future to look like? And what are you willing to do to make it happen? Best Regards,
We have now passed the mid-part of the year, and with less than 6 months to go in the year 2010, I’ve got to ask: “How’s it going… have you achieved all you set out to achieve by this point in the year?” If not, “Where’s your plan for getting back on track?” Having a plan WORKS. A plan will help you get to where you say you want to go – even when the economy stinks! Plan… plan… plan. Let’s look at reminders of how important it is to have a plan—reminders that are contained in the word P-L-A-N itself. P is for PAPER.You must write your plan down on PAPER. That is the first step in turning dreams into reality. Involve your team. Team members’ ideas will be helpful and creative, and when you involve the team, the team has ownership and interest in the plan. Start by writing down everything you “know” about where you are going and where you want to be. What you write down at first doesn’t have to have a logical order. Just get it down on paper. When everything you “know” is on paper, what you don’t know about your plan will show up! Then you can plan for how to deal with what you don’t know. Where is marketing missing? Where is team missing? Where are you operating on hope instead of being a visionary? L is for do something you LOVE.If your heart isn’t into what you are doing, why are you doing it? If you’re having trouble writing your plan because you don’t really want what you say you want, you need to get straight with yourself. Writing a plan about what you really want is FUN! Have fun with the plan you are writing. It should reflect your passion and purpose. Our creative juices are at their greatest when we are having fun. So let loose, have fun and step away from the norm. Allow yourself to consider where your "out of the box" thoughts could take your business or family…it just might be outrageous enough to work! A is for ACCOUNTABILITY.Your plan should have specific action steps, so the team members who will be implementing the plan will know what to do and by-when they need to do it. For any plan to be outrageously successful, it must be fully communicated to every person. Write down the actions necessary to get where you want to be, and then, after asking permission, of course, hold the team accountable for doing what they say they are going to do, by-when they say they are going to do it. N is for NOW! Get going! Do something now to make your plan
happen! It doesn’t have
to be a big step… just even a small step will get your plan started.
Saying you want success is not enough. Focus, write the plan, and then live
it. You have to really want what you want, write it down, and be willing to
hold others accountable and be held accountable yourself for getting it all!
Getting what you say you want is within your reach, but you’ve got to
step out and be in action to get it. So get moving! Couple this rate and breadth of change with our society’s 24/7 multi-media news coverage and you can see why it’s tempting and easy to just shut down from information overload and ignore it all. But don’t! Here’s what you’ll miss. Change brings opportunities…even the slightest changes can open up a huge space for something new to occur…something better. It’s like looking through a kaleidoscope. You first see a set pattern, but with the tiniest twist to the right or left, the entire picture changes and results in a new, surprising design. Your job is to be ready for these shifts and to be prepared to respond to the new situations before you. Ask yourself if you are ready. How is your ability to quickly and effectively manage change? What about your team's abilities? The best way to manage change is to plan for it! Don’t relate to change like it is something that “just happens” and then you react to it. Think ahead about changes. Remember, they don’t all happen outside your business. It may be time to purposefully change what you and your team are up to! Successfully managing or making changes requires excellent communication. A team that is well informed about changes will be ready to do what is necessary to take advantage of the opportunities presented by them. Talk straight to your team, and remember communication is a two-way street. Build a feedback process where staff has the freedom to raise issues or concerns. How you language your message about change is crucial to producing the outcome you desire. To prepare people for success in a rapidly changing environment, they need precise and clear information. They need to know why, how, when and where the change is going to occur. Make sure your team knows the importance and purpose of making a change. Be ready for people to react to change in different ways. Some people move with change quite easily—others are challenged by it. Have those on your team who change easily support those who do not. Next time a change shows up, greet it with
enthusiasm and curiosity. See how quickly you can see the
opportunity it
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Having
celebrated the Independence Day holiday just a few weeks
ago punctuated once again how great our country is and the
sacrifices made to give us the freedoms we have today. The
USA was built upon the backs of us great citizens and it
is up to us to build our future successes as well! 
Failing
to plan is planning to fail. —Anonymous
We live in a world where change occurs at an unprecedented
rate. Check it out—what’s “true” one
day is proved “false” the next. Things you’ve
counted on for years disappear before your eyes. Today’s
technologies make last week’s obsolete. New medical
discoveries are announced every day—replacing the wisdom
of long-standing health practices with new ideas. 
The
Balanced Life
