Realization to Transformation

The idea of staying where I am scares me, what about you? I think we have to step into this idea of realization so we can experience a transformation. It has to be about flipping the page like flipping the script to make this year your best year ever. How's it going? Have you quit already? I hope not. And I hope you'll continue to just move forward.

The reality is most people, after about the first two weeks, give up on their dreams or goals, their new year's resolutions, whatever you want to call them. I went to the gym on the first Monday of the new year. And there was not a parking spot when I got there. I mean there was, but normally when I go, I've got my choice of parking spots. I can kind of drive around and get the best one.  A lot of people have been back in the gym. Here's what I know. After about a week or two, about half the people won't show up again. That won't be you, right? You're going to keep going.

Let’s discuss this idea of shifting from realization to transformation. What does that mean? I want to talk to you a little bit about just getting real. The 2020 year was a year of realization. I want 2021 to be a year of transformation for you. There's a lot of people around the world right now that got real about a lot of things in their life, maybe their health, their relationships, finances, or personal growth. 

I know one thing that we all got real about, hopefully, you got real about it. I'm saddened by the lack of leadership, the epic failure of leadership in our world today, and it's never been more evident in 2020 and into the first week of 2021. 

I want to talk about those two things for just a minute. We are more divided now than we have ever been. Yet, we have tools that are supposed to bring us together. Leaders around the globe have worked to divide us, to divide us by our skin color, by our beliefs, our religion, our education, and where we live. People, leaders, supposed leaders, people that others are listening to, maybe you're listening to have worked really hard to divide us.

Then there are just people who are divisive, right? They look for every little thing. I mean, I'm not a big fan of social media, even though I use social media. I don't allow social media to use me. And I want you to think about that for a minute and ask yourself that question, am I using social media? Or is social media using me? So, the important question I asked, is a realization question. (That's a getting real question that you need to ask yourself.) Are you using social media? I use social media to put a message of positivity out there to do business, to connect with people I want to do business with, to connect with people I want to serve and help and add value to. I do not allow social media to use me. Now I can if I'm not careful. 

My question is, are you one of those people? Are you as a leader dividing people, or are you as a leader being divisive? It's a very important question for us to answer. My mission here is to inspire leaders to increase their impact and their influence. And when I say that, I mean, their positive impact and their positive influence. 

Who are you listening to? I want to challenge you to think differently, to live differently, to speak differently, to be a leader to influence people in a positive way. Don't let social media or the media in general influence you to not lead well in your own life. So be careful who you're listening to and be careful what you're consuming. Another question for you is, what are you consuming? If you're not adding value to yourself, whatever you're taking in, is what you're going to put out. I want you to become aware of what you're consuming, what you're taking in, what you're feeding yourself. Is it coming from a leader or someone who's values-based? Someone who has a personal agenda or a people agenda? See those are different? I have a personal agenda we all do. But I have a people agenda. My agenda is about leading people higher in purpose and excellence and action, three key-value words for me.

Leadership is so hard today. You have to be better in order to lead people better. Unless you choose to create something different, it's already chosen for you. Unless you choose differently than the realization that others are more concerned about their agenda than your agenda. I'm challenging you to realize you must value yourself. The reality is that we cannot add more value to others unless we're adding value to ourselves. And that takes place on the inside. So, whether you're talking about your eating habits, your exercise habits, or your leadership habits, you've got to go inside.

The transformation is an inside job, you've got to start working on what you think, what you believe, and how you act. If you're listening to others, then you're thinking about what they think. As a leader, you've got to go inside and begin to examine your thoughts. You've got to begin to understand your own thinking, which drives your beliefs, which drive your behaviors, and your behaviors become your habits. 

To change your habits as a leader to take people to that next level, you've got to go inside. So, let's talk about how you do that. Because I'm not interested in just talking about theory. I'm interested in helping you take this theory of moving from realization to transformation, I want you to understand how. I'm going to share four ways to do this.

These four come from a book that if you've never read, I want you to read this year, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. That book was written over 30 years ago and I read that book for the first time when I was 23 years old. It set me on a path to transforming my own life, it changed my life.  It was a system of how to grow myself, my mindset, and do some things differently. I'm not going to share all seven ways with you today, I'm going to share four of them.

1. Begin with the end in mind. No matter what area it is, whether it's your health, your finances, your fitness, your family, your relationships, or your leadership, which is what I love to talk about, leading yourself and leading others. You've got to begin with the end in mind. What do you want? What do you want your leadership to be like? How do you want to lead others? What's the story you want to be told about you as a leader? I mean, just spend some time answering that question. Begin with the end in mind. This is how we go from the realization of where we're at to transforming ourselves to where we want to go. The first step is, to begin with, the end in mind.                                                                                        
2. Be proactive. What does being proactive mean? It means quit waiting.

I want to challenge you to be proactive in your growth. When you think about that beginning with the end in mind, what do you need to learn? What do you need to develop? You can only do that by being proactive in your growth and taking in new things and then doing something daily to move forward.

 I have a tool called The Daily Compass Quarterly Planner just rolled out in December. You can get a copy of it at dailycqp.com. It's a performance productivity tool. I use this is every single day to write my goals down, to write my task down, and move forward. It's a productivity tool I've used for years and I've coached others to use it.

3. Seek first to understand. This is one of my favorites. It's probably the hardest one for me, seeking to understand others before I challenge them to understand me. It's a lost art in the world. It's why there's a lot of division right now, we seek to create division versus find common ground. If you want to lead others to that next level, if you want to move your team, your family, your organization, seek first to understand what they're thinking, and what creates the behavior. Remember, I said our thinking creates our behavior, which becomes our habit seek first to understand the thinking behind why people behave. Then you begin to understand and can begin to speak differently and unite people to a common cause.                                                                                                                                             
4. Sharpen your saw. What do we mean by that? You have got to get better. Abraham Lincoln once said, ‘if I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first seven sharpening my ax.’ You heard me say crisis does not make a leader it reveals whether you are one or not. And there were a lot of people that were in leadership roles that found out they're not good leaders. If you found some weaknesses, some blind spots, some weak areas in your life, I want to challenge you to sharpen your saw this year to be someone who reads, studies, listens, and watches more lessons for leadership.