Tag: #personaldevelopment

The Choice Between pain and Pleasure, it’s what determines your success.

We all have a choice but do we have the courage to make the right choice. The choice between pain and pleasure determines your success. The successful, the achievers, they understand this truth;

The Pain of regret is much worse than the pain of discipline

We all face fear, fear of failure, fear of ridicule, or fear of rejection. Whats holding you back from your goals and dreams? Fear typically manifest itself in procratsination, self doubt, and negetive self talk, you know that voice in your head.

We all have big goals and dreams, in fact I confidently believe Like Les Brown who often says, We ALL have greatness within us. Sadly though, most of us never achieve our greatest desires, in fact most settle for a life of medeocrity, never even start the pursuit of the life we dream of. Why is this?

Our pursuits and our decisions are drivin by pain and pleasure, Its how we are wired. We subconciously make a choice between pain and pleasure. Obviously we fear pain, the pain of rejection. The fear of stepping out in front of the world and failing, scared of what our friends and loved ones might think. We fear ridicule and judgement. Funny how those who are most judgemental are the ones that would never risk attempting anything great themsleves so your attempt scares them. It makes them feel threatended or exposed as weak because they havent the courage to face ther fears, yet I digress.

Pleasure is a much easier pursuit but its not alawys the best choice. Instant graditification is often the root of destroyed relationships. It is for many the reason we are over weight and unhealthy. its in large part why many struggle financially. It is the easy way out with regard to the decision making process, this is why as a society so many seek instant gradification yet to our own detriment.

The most successful, the achievers, they understand putting off instant gradification for long term success and happiness. Folks that are healthy and fit put in the time to excercise and are disciplene to eat healthy. Those that are financially fit set their budget and are disciplened in their spending and their saving. It is not by magic or for most that they were born with a silver spoon.

High achievers use their time wisely and intentionally, here are just three examples of what successful wealthy people do to help face and overcome their fears. They set themsleves up for success so they wont feel the pain of regret. These are just a few exapmples from Thomas Corley’s study of wealthy folks.

80% of the wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.

Succesful people more easily face their fears when they have a clear vision of what they want. They have a clear writtin plan, a blueprint for achieving the goal. They understand their why behind the goal, and their why and their desire is greater than their fears.

6% of the wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78% of poor.

Achievers dont just sit on the side lines of life and watch others chase their dreams, or in some cases in reality TV destroy their lives. They intensionally and activly pursue their dreams.

86% of the wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5% of poor.

Those who understand that to chase your dreams and to face fear you have to embrace personal development, living your best life is about improving yourself everyday. Jim Rohn always said, “work harder on yourself than you do on your job”.

With regard to these statistics it is Understand that wealth is not necessarilly THE determining factor for success and happines. Having said that there obvioulsy is a clear correlation between success, achievement, happiness and wealth. Success is a reslult of smart habbits. If you will embrace just these three habits you too can pursue your goals with more courage to face your fears.

High Performance Teams

There’s been a lot of talk lately about high performance teams. If you’re here reading this chances are you are like me, interested in learning and improving your skills, knowledge, and performance. To do that you need to have an open mind to explore new ideas and be open to changing the way we do things.

High performance teams are comprised of any group of people trying to achieve a goal, here’s a few examples;

• A General Contracting project team, Superintendent(s), carpenters, Laborers, project managers, and project engineers.
• A plumbing contractor with a team of Foremen all working on different projects.
• Electrical Subcontractor working on a project with a team of Electricians, apprentices, and laborers.
• A residential HVAC service contractor with a team of Technicians.

The concept is simple, a team of individuals working together to achieve a common goal. The team is put together;

• as a master mind group generally to think through the plan, coordinate interconnected task, to measure progress, and adjust the plan as needed.
• To brain storm solutions to problems.
• To hold each other accountable.
• for personal development

One other element to this team that I think is the most powerful is this, the team genuinely looks out for the interest of the other team members by building trust in each other. How do we do this?

• High performance teams meet weekly to review the scope and schedule and to identify goals for the upcoming week. (coordinated with the project schedule) Identifies daily activities for the next week required to achieve weekly goals.
• Sets stretch goals, longer terms goals. This could be schedule milestones for the next 4 to 6 weeks, completing more billable service calls over the next month, or hitting your schedule marks while reducing labor cost are just a few examples.
• Review the prior weeks goals, what goals did we achieve? Where did we fall short and why? How do we fit the completion of missed goals in this weeks schedule without negatively impacting the scheduled goals for this week?
• What does each individual need, resources, materials, etc. to hit his/her marks for the week?
• What issues or problems are team members having? How can we find solutions? Is there another team member that can help?

High perfomance teams are built on trust and respect working with laser focus on a common goal.

High Performance Teams are built on trust

These meetings are where trust is built. This is where team members should be able to share exactly where they are, what they need, and problems they are having in an environment where everyone is looking out for each other. There’s is no ego or competition, the project or goals are the priority. When one succeeds everyone succeeds.
I know no-one wants more unproductive boring meetings on their schedule but I’m telling you, if you put your team together and implement the High-Performance Team concept your project will be more productive, efficient, and successful.
It takes a real leader to build a High-Performance team, are you that leader?

The Best Leaders Encourage a Diversity of Thought

If you want to separate yourself from the pack and be the most effective leader you can be, you’ve got to challenge yourself. Challenge your thoughts, your ideas, and most importantly your ego. You’ve got to have the courage to encourage a diversity of thought within your team.

I’ve been around a lot of smart people in the construction industry. I’ve noticed there are some people who are really smart, but they don’t reach their full potential. They get “out-performed” by others who may not have the education or experience they have. Often they top out, they hit a wall they just can’t get beyond. What causes this?

CHECK YOUR EGO

Typically, its their ego. They arrogantly feel like they are so smart there is nothing anyone else can teach them. There’s nothing they can learn from the folks that work for or around them. The mear thought of giving consideration to the ideas of others is a challenge their ego and they can’t have that. Know anyone like that? I’ve seen it, been around it, don’t like it.
You know, the guy that knows it all. Once that’s your mind set you are destined to be mediocre. You may achieve a certain level of success, but you’ll never be the best you can be.

Diversity OF Thought

So how do you get the best from yourself and the team around you? After all its about the team and the success of the project, isn’t it? All teams need the best information and ideas to be most effective. By promoting a diversity of thought the best solutions rise to the top.

Theres a lot of talk about diversity these days. Typically this focuses simply on races, gender, age for example. These differences are important as they shape peoples perspective but theres a more important component. These different perspectives shape peoples ideas and thought processes. Leaders who create an environment of trust where all team mates are comfortable sharing their thoughts, thier ideas, lead more successful teams.

Successful teams bring idependent thought and ideas together for a common goal

Example

How do you do this? Look for and encourage a diversity of thought. The biggest break throughs and discoveries come from crazy ideas. If you have blinders on and stick with the old, “this is the way we always do it” mentality, you are going to get left behind. A true leader isn’t afraid to ask questions of others. Get your team together, maybe a trusted circle of peers, and start kicking around ideas.

Here’s what I started doing over the last year with great results. When trying to find solutions to schedule, work flow, details, whatever the issue at the time is we can be hesitant to throw out ideas because we fear what others might think. I know that’s not you but its just about everyone else. You’ve got to take fear and hesitation off the table right up front.

I start off this way, I talk about the greatest inventions of the world. The greatest breakthroughs started off as a crazy vision or idea that were originally thought to be a non-starter or crazy. These crazy ideas were the launching pad to breakthroughs, inventions, and solutions.

Then I throw out an aggressive goal or farfetched idea to get the conversation started. On more than one occasion I’ve had a team member say, well if we’re thinking crazy, how about this? And the conversation starts.

Typically, this is how it goes down. I throw out an idea that may never work, but we are stretching our thought process right? What happens then is we end up saying, no we cant do that but what if we do this, and then we could, and so on. When you throw out big crazy ideas you can easily work your way back to what’s real. In doing this often the team as a whole stretches their thinking and the answers and outcomes are better than anyone individually thought was possible.

What type of leader are you?

Don’t be afraid of someone having a better idea. A true leader is confident in themselves and builds an environment where a diversity of thought is a goal. The best field leaders’ number one priority is the success of the project and the team. Check your ego and focus the best ideas and solutions and you will excel and be known as a great leader.

New Year, Time to read How to Win Freinds and Influence people

How to win Friends and influence People, Dale Carnegie A personal development classic

Timeless wisdom. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

We are entering a new year and its a great time to re-read Dale Carnegie’s personal development classic, How to win Friends and Influence people. If you haven’t read this book I suggest you order it on Amazon or run to the nearest book store.
This book is a must read for anyone who works with people, has any relationships business or personal, wants to excel in a career and or as an entrepreneur. Okay I think that covers all human beings.

This is more than just a book that you read once and maybe pick up a few ideas you could apply in your life. Its more of a life and relationship manual. You’ll want to keep this book on your desk to refer to once a month to review and hold yourself accountable to the teachings.

We live in a day and age where soft skills and being able to lead people in the true sense of the word is paramount. You’ve got to have the people skills to inspire and influence others to buy into your vision, perform at high levels, to buy your product or service.

Dale Carnegie was way ahead of his time and that is why this book is more relevant today than when it was written in 1936.

Go after your dreams

You will find that there is a lesson on every page. You’ll need a new high lighter and a pen. My copy is high lighted and marked up with notes in the margins with many dog eared pages. While its highly educational its really interesting as well. The anecdotes about the tycoons of industry in the 30’s and 40′ like Charles Schwab, John D. Rockefeller, and Carnegie himself are fascinating.

How to win Friends and Influence people is a book for the individual who wants to succeed in business and in his/her personal relationships. If you want to improve your leadership and interpersonal skills this is a must read personal development classic. We suggest reading it once a year and then refer to it once a month and scan over your highlighted passages and notes to keep the lessons fresh in mind.