What is it right now that when implemented would impact your future and happiness?
My very good, long-time friend, Byron (Bud) Thompson, just wrote a book, "Build Your Dream: 12 Essential Tools for Successful Living". www.buildyourdreamthebook.com
He describes in the book the biggest decision he ever had to make and that was to answer a question another old friend of mine, Bob James, asked him years ago, "What business are you in?" What Bob was asking him was: What's your passion? What fits your values? What do you aspire to? What do you stand for? I guess another way of saying it, what is success to you?
Heck, this time of the year, resolution making, and setting goals, are more apt to be done. Gyms are full. There is more resolve to improve (for a while anyway).
Bob wasn't asking for resolutions or goals. All of us know how important goals are even though there usually is no straight line to them. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
Practically, most of us can't start with a clean slate. We are within a structure that is laid out - maybe we own or operate a business, then you have no choice but to create profits, please customers, increase sales and handle all the challenges that come with it. Or you are in a job doing a lot of things you wouldn't choose to do if you had the choice.
What you can do is choose to express your values, aspirations, passion and sense of purpose in words - on paper, in conversations and in your plans and goals. By doing this, you are designing your core reason why you do what you do and it will keep you centered especially when times get tough. Individuals and companies get lost - they forget why they got in the business or took the job. Individuals need meaning in their lives and companies need a core central direction.
You can be more successful, have more fun and a more interesting, satisfying life, if you get in touch with your purpose (the why) and vision (the what). It's there in you and your business, to be rediscovered. This morning I read how Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan, is going full out to populate the planet with electric vehicles - a man with a purpose and vision, on a mission.
Henry David Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." In other words, as Byron says, "You can either play it safe by opting for a life of predictable monotony or you can go for it and achieve an exhilarating, memorable life, worth living.
Most executives, managers and individuals I've met over the years that seem to have it all (like Byron):
Have a sense of vision and purpose for their business and lives. They can answer Byron's questions - what business am I in, what's my purpose and our vision, where are we going and how are we going to get there?
Have goals - they don't need New Year's resolutions to succeed (those are usually for simple but practical things ie. lose 8 lbs, play more tennis, spend more time with friends or grandkids etc.)
They usually look at all areas of their life (family, recreation, fitness, health, spiritual, social, community) and set goals for all of them.
How about you? Is it time to rethink, to plan?
All I've ever wanted to do since I was 21, was to help Canadians succeed in business and in life. This purpose sure has shaped my life. Does that mean I have achieved every goal, had no problems, or disappointments, made no mistakes, always felt like things were going well? Of course not! You know that. And I didn't cause recessions but had to endure them like you. I have had a lot of fun, achievements, satisfaction, happiness, love and business and financial success because of it. They are triumphs of purpose!
Consider these questions this week:
- What is your business about? (Don't look for some old wordsmithed document, look inside. Have you lost touch with the original purpose? You can find it again.)
- Does your offering to your market reflect that purpose? (Your customers can usually tell.)
- How can you contribute more to your company's purpose, while living your own?
- What goals do you have for all the areas of your life (financial, social, health, spiritual, family, recreation, hobbies etc.)?
Ralph Waldo Emerson defined success as:
"To laugh often and love much;
To win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give one's self;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.
These are broad, balanced and feel good values that all of us can relate to and believe it or not, can help us pay the bills and be successful as businesspeople, as long as we produce business results along the way.
Reposted with written permission from the Author
Precision Recruiting
Ottawa: 613-287-3767 Toronto: 647-727-4737 Web: www.PrecisionRecruiting.ca
