Champions Know the Value of Preparation
Preparation pays off in business. It pays to have a system that gets you ready for any situation.
Successful business plan — Make compassion your passion
Everyone in business is looking for a successful business plan. They realize that the old adage is true that failing to plan is planning to fail. photo credit: centralasian I’d like to suggest that before you adopt a business plan, first take a look at your values. Knowing what you believe will keep you from doing things that you’ll regret later. And if you already have a business plan, being clear on your values will help you clarify and if…
Winning the race, one goal at a time
The other day, I was reading a story about NASCAR driver Kyle Busch. He’s not my favorite, but I admire his will to win. In the story, Busch talked about what motivates him. “What I use is the car in front of me. If there’s a car in front of me, I’m going to chase him,” Busch said. “… I want to pass that guy. If I’m the leader, there’s another car in front of me, he’s going a lap…
Give yourself a hand
The other day, my wife was talking to our daughter about how her day at school went. My daughter talked about an exercise one of her teachers had the students do that day. The teacher asked the students to join their two hands together, interlocking their fingers. She then told the students to look at their fingers to see which of their thumbs were in front. When people put their hands together like that, they almost always do it the…
Create success by staying calm
I was thinking earlier tonight about a seminar I went to several years ago that included a session on the way families work. One of the things I learned is the importance of being what the teachers called a “non-anxious presence.” It seems that often issues that arise within families can be handled if one of those involved can keep his or her anxiety level down. That “non-anxious presence” can serve as a calming agent of sorts. I often thought…
Success from the inside out
I was in a study group the other night when the leader pointed out that the spiritual life is a paradox, requiring both solitude and contact with others. He was, in effect, encouraging us to spend some time in quiet meditation between our weekly sessions as a group. Good advice. Every once in a while everyone needs to get away from the chaos of daily life. I think burnout is in large part caused by the way we keep our…
How busyness can hurt your business
I’ve been thinking today about how my busyness seems to get in the way of my business. Sometimes I just think I have so many things to do that I don’t get anything done. I was reminded of this watching a clip from one of the morning TV shows this morning. It focused on traffic and included a section comparing how efficiently ants got around to traffic jams on major highways. The ants it turned out, get around much better…
The trail of fears
Recently I went on a trip to Belize with some folks from my church. We spent four days working and about a day and a half sightseeing. One of the sights we wanted to see was the Blue Hole. It had been raining hard that day, and initially it appeared that the park where the Blue Hole was located was closed. But a park employee came out and opened the gate to let us in. Before long we were hiking…
A different perspective
There’s an adage that says, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” The other day, I was looking for a notepad on my desk. I needed it to write down some information that I wanted to be sure to remember later. My desk can get kind of messy. OK, it can get very messy. Stuff was piled all over the place. I looked and looked. No notebook. I moved some piles around….
The recipe for success
My wife makes this great hash brown potato casserole that is out of this world. She takes some hash browns and mixes in some butter and other stuff, then puts them in a pan, tops them with bacon bits and cooks them in the oven. They are good. I mean, they are real good. She often cooks them for family reunions. When we’re going through the line, one of the first things I look for is those potatoes, because I’m…