Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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Six ways to build a better future

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog, leadership | Leave a Comment

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.-James Thurber

Mindfulness is probably one of the most difficult traits to cultivate. Many of us spend a lot of our time living in regret, nursing grudges or worrying about things that may or may not happen. It’s so very ingrained in our individual and collective consciousnesses, that to jettison The Past and The Future takes a focused, concentrated effort. And it’s an effort that must be lived each day, moment to moment.

What’s frustrating about living in two time periods that don’t technically exist any more/yet (past/future) is that in so doing, we lack the ability to truly harness The Present. What’s key to developing our independence is learning how to tap into the power of The Present, because it is in The Present wherein the true fulcrum of our effort exists.

When we have the ability to notice, catalogue, discern and apply our wisdom/actions to what is happening in the here and now, we have the best tools at our disposal for fashioning our future. If we’re distracted by what has already happened, or worry about what has yet to come, we aren’t paying attention to Now.

In today already walks tomorrow.-Friedrich von Schiller

In previous blogposts, we’ve talked about managed risks as they relate to independence. Risks are projections that rely upon known factors plus the extrapolation of standard data (ie. financial trends, human aggregate behaviors, socio-economic figures etc.), cross-referenced with an understanding of our own abilities. This is the closest to a guarantee of tomorrow’s outcomes that we can expect.

However, that being said, the way we live and the choices we make today DO have an influence on our tomorrows. This is the fulcrum to which I alluded earlier. When we have the presence of mind to apply an awareness of what is happening now, coupled with hypotheticals (without attaching ourselves to the outcomes), we have achieved a certain level of independence.

It’s exceedingly difficult to be present/mindful. But it is a skill that we must master if we wish to become independent.

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.-Montaigne

Rejoicing. How many of us can recall the last time we really rejoiced? Was it at a wedding three months ago? Perhaps a New Year’s Eve party? How many of us are looking forward to rejoicing on Saint Patrick’s Day, a month from now? A dinner party this weekend? Both represent both past and future opportunities, but how about right now?

How many of us rejoiced this morning because their computer that connects them to the world started right up? …That they’re probably reading this in a snuggly bed while checking their messages on their smartphone? That they’ll be able to goof off today and watch basketball with their buddies; maybe even have a beer or two? That they can stand under a hot shower until someone flushes the toilet in the downstairs bath and yells at them to get the heck out of the upstairs bathroom?

These may all sound like goofy excuses for rejoicing (especially that last one), but gratitude is not only the seat of all abundance, but it is also key to realizing your independence. It is in rejoicing and gratitude that you identify that which is important to you. When you know what is important to you, you can divest yourself from the other stuff that the world says SHOULD be important to you. THAT, my friend, is some serious freedom.

I really take the time now to notice when things are going well. I notice how good coffee smells when making the first pot of the day. …When I’m driving down the highway at dusk and the fields have that buttery-right-before-sunset glow to them …The sound of a kid laughing in the park. All of these are moments that are easily ignored, but they are all gifts waiting to be recognized.

Even when things aren’t so Hallmark-ian, it pays to rejoice: when you lose the Big Account; when you lock yourself out of your car; when you date the wrong person. Each is a gift, waiting for you to see the lesson within so that you can apply it to tomorrow’s actions.

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.-Albert Camus

I really like the saying, “go big or go home.” Fully committing ourselves to our actions is where the magic lies. Half measures really do avail you of nothing.  Try to imagine a wedding proposal where the man said to his girlfriend, “Yeah, well, the divorce rate stinks, but if you’re willing to give this marriage thing a shot, I’m game. ….So, do you wanna get married, or what?”  Blerg. (“No,” by the way – not to a halfhearted proposal such as that).

In order to give our all to the present, we must be prepared. Here are some ways to “train” for your life:

  1. Meditate. Even if you can only start with 5 minutes a day, learn how to shut out the external world and tap in to your consciousness.
  2. Maintain your Temple: this means taking the time to invest in your health – mental, spiritual and physical. A healthy individual is a responsive individual.
  3. Educate yourself about your industry, career, calling. Success is where preparation meets opportunity, and so spend a few minutes a day reading blogs, articles or otherwise researching the subject that makes your heart sing.
  4. Reach out to others who have already achieved what you hope to attain. Take the time to understand what is important to these folks; find out what you have to offer them, and connect (comment on their blogs; engage them on a social media platform).
  5. Learn to recognize opportunity and then act when your chance presents itself.
  6. Do the work. This is the part where your action influences your tomorrows.

When we are tied to the past or connected to possible outcomes, we cannot live independently. We are bound by our regret of what has passed or by fears of what is to come. We must learn to fully inhabit the present and be prepared (as best we can) to deal with what happens. Living in the present requires an agility and flexibility which is a natural by product of independence. What are you doing to live fully?

——-
Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive)

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Why It Takes a Personal Plan to Be Outstandingly Successful

Filed Under Business Life, Inside-Out Thinking, Successful Blog | 14 Comments

Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

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The road to success — We’ve all heard of that one. Do the things everyone does and you’ll probably get to something that’s . . . well, . . . not broken. But if you want to be successful and outstanding. Doing what everyone does won’t get you there . . . because to be outstanding, by necessity, you have to be individual.

To do stand and shine as uniquely valuable, a business or an individual needs a road that leads in a singular direction.

Note that I used the word leads.

A Plan to Be Irresistibly, Outstandingly Successful

Any effective, efficient project, business, or life has structure and direction. It starts with a destination — literal or figurative — and then a route to get there. Without a plan, we leave ourselves open to winds that push us toward distractions or detours. A plan, well thought and well provided for is the only way to get where we want to that shining end point.

Have a plan and work the plan is sage advice.

Why It Takes a Personal Plan to Be Outstandingly Successful

Last week we talked about making decisions. Here are the reasons that outstanding success demands a plan.

  1. If we don’t have a plan, we’re just wishing.
  2. If we don’t have a plan, we’re always here and success is always out there.
  3. Without a plan, we have no direction. Any road will take us anywhere, but we won’t end up there.
  4. Without a plan, every decision is likely to have as much power as a whim.
  5. A plan is the only way to benchmark our progress and to build on what we’ve accomplished.
  6. A plan is keeps us focused when other ideas tempt us away from our dreams.

Decide. Plan. Get determined. The plan makes a dream into an outstandingly success. It’s the plan — the decisions and determination — that fuels the reality. Distractions are easier to disregard when we can hold them up to a plan we know we can achieve.

Without a plan, we’re always getting ready to succeed. Christine Kane says it eloquently.

“How will you go the long, long journey,
if you’re always about to begin?” — Christine Kane, Falling in Love with the Wind

If you want to be outstandingly successful, plan for it. Outstanding is a stake in the ground that we keep our eyes on. It’s a path that we plot for the life that we want. It’s as easy as a decision.

Have you planned outstanding success into your life?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need help deciding? Work with Liz!!
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How to Know If You’ve Lost Track of Your Vision

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 14 Comments

Where Do You Want to Be?

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It’s well-thought business wisdom that we need vision for a business or a career. Knowing where we’re going makes our daily decisions easier, quicker, and more lasting, because we’re building a road to a specific destination. Having a vision for our work is the same as having goal we’re saving our money to enjoy — a vacation or a great retirement.

I’ve not met anyone who disagrees with the wisdom of doing that. Yet, when I ask folks about their vision, most people have to stop, find some long ago thought, and dust it off. Holding that vision in the sunlight, they see how long it’s been set aside. Real-time issues and day-to-day decisions have taken all of their attention.

Many folks have lost track of their vision and don’t realize.

How to Know If You’ve Lost Track of Your Vision

If we don’t keep our business vision in our sights, we lose direction. A business vision is the energy that fuels our decisions, especially when situations get trying, and we’re learning new things under new conditions. With no clear focus to guide us, we start to compromise. Here’s how to know if you’ve lost track of your vision.

The road to making a most amazing vision happen is paved with our thoughts, our passion, and our decisions. No outside barrier can stop a person who’s willing to stay fully invested in getting where they want to go. Winners keep their vision in front of them, adjusting and tweaking it to fit reality and their changing skill set. They do the work and stay the course, holding onto the future they see, even when other choices come along.

That’s the purpose of having a vision — to guide us to where we want to go.

Is time to take out your vision and dust it off again or are you on the road to making it happen? Do you know where you’re going?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you need to refocus where you’re going, let’s talk.