Archive for October, 2005

In John Maxwell’s book, Your Roadmap for Success, John talks about the stages of a dream.

He lists the stages as…

1. I thought it: The initial thought

2. I caught it: Adding feelings to the dream

3. I sought it: Committed to action

4. A few shot it: Others tried to shoot it down

5. I got it: Through dedication and perserverance you reach you goal

6. Some others fought it: Not everyone will celebrate when you achieve your dream

7. I taught it: The dream grows by teaching it to others

8. Others bought it: People will follow the leader with a successful dream

Over the next few days we’ll look at each of these steps and look at some strategies along the way. Continue Reading »
Stages of a Dream

What is your success story? If you could do anything and you knew you could not fail… what would you do? Who would you be?

Would you be the CEO of a company?

Would you be a doctor?

Would you be a teacher?

Would you be a musician?

Would you be a sports star?

I love this question… if you could not fail, who would you be and what would you do?

It is really interesting to really think about this. Who would I really want to be?

Some people think it would be great to be a sports star… but would we really want the pain and commitment that goes with it?

How about the CEO position… the money is great, but would we want the 14 hour days and the stress of being the leader?

Consider the doctor… would we be willing to give up 9 or 10 years for medical school?

In my case, I really want to be a motivational speaker. It sounds like a great job. I picture myself as a Tom Peters, speaking and motivating an audience to go out and do great things. But when I really think about it… would I want the weekly travel and the schedule of meetings and engagements?

Those are the tough questions we really need to consider when developing a dream. Continue Reading »
Developing a Dream

In our last post we talked about destinations. Places you would like to go. Some may be close to home, others far away. There is another vacation destination that has become increasingly popular over the last few years. It is called the “Cruise to Nowhere,” and it does exactly that.

The boat leaves from a popular port, goes out to sea and circles around for a couple of days and then returns to the same place it started. The passengers enjoy great meals, fun activities, and great shows. It’s a fun filled time with no destination.

John Maxwell, in his book The Roadmap for Success, uses this type of a vacation as an illustration of how many people live their lives…

The problem for a lot of people is that their lives are too much like these cruises. They’re on a trip with no set destination, no charted course. They’re in a holding pattern, and they occupy their time pursuing pleasures that don’t have any lasting benefit for themselves or others. Meanwhile, they travel in circles. In the end they finish no better that they started. A cruise to nowhere may be a fun way to occupy a few days of vacation time, but it’s no way to spend your life.

I have gone on far too many of these cruises in my life. Whether it be procrastination or just plain apathy, I ‘ve found my self adrift without a rudder. When I finally make it back to shore, it’s always the same place that I started and the same problems or issues are still there. It reminds me of the anonymous quotation, “A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.”

So how do we choose a destination? Are there some tools that can help us chart a course?

In the next post we’ll look at how we can identify and sail towards our destination and how we can discover the dream…

Developing the Dream

As we start on our success journey we need a destination.

Where would you like to go?

I would like you to dream a little today…

How about a waterfront out of a Thomas Kinkade painting?

How about a condo on Fiji?

What about breakfast in Brussels?

Buenos Dias… How about a taco on the beach in Mexico?

How about a relaxing horse back ride in Wyoming?

Why haven’t you taken that dream trip?

Money?

Time?

Need someone to travel with?

Why not plan to go there today?

Write down your destination… we’ll continue tomorrow…

What is the definition of success? I looked at Webster’s dictionary and they have “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted:” as their definition. This is a start, but what if success is not an achievement? I opened another book, Celebrating Success by Gerard Smith that has inspired letters on the meaning of success. These letters were written by famous leaders and some of the worlds most influential people. The letters were an inspiration but none of them really described my definition of success.

I have tried to put my definition into words, but they just don’t do the subject justice.

I’ll get one sentence done and find there is so much more that I want to say.

I picked up another book this week,
entitled Your Roadmap to Success by John Maxwell

I found a list of things that Success isnt...

It’s not Wealth...

It’s not a Special Feeling…

It’s not Specific and Worthwhile Possessions...

It’s not Power…

And it’s not even Achievement…

According to Maxwell, success is a… Journey.

He goes on to say that the picture of success is not the same for any two people because we are all created differently as unique individuals.

John’s definition of success is…

Success is . . .
knowing your purpose in life,
growing to reach your maximum potential,
and sowing seeds that benefit others.

I like this definition as it allows me to be a success . . . Today

Stay tuned this week as we start on our Success Journey. . .

Where would you like to go?

How do you get there from here?

Get your suitcase and let’s get packing . . .

In my previous post I talked about “Peer Production” and the synergy that can be derived from working with a group of your peers. As I thought about the topic I ran into some interesting conversations around the net about bloggers getting together for meetings, bike rides and just plain fun. Here are some of the ones that I found.

Fellow bloggers Adrian Trenholm and Jason Womak met up in London along with 4 other bloggers for a bike ride through the streets of town. Jason Comments…

I must say that my latest weekend in London goes down in history books as one of the best ever! Just taking the slice of life, 1 October, from 6:30am until 11am by itself is something I will remember for always.

The guys put together something special. As we had scheduled, the meeting in front of the Marriott Park Lane hotel (literally across the street from Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park) occurred at 7am. From there the 5 of us rode to pick up Ben in/near Putney.

Our ride took us down/along the King’s Road, and then out to Richmond Park. What a fantastic day it was! Six of us guys, in a line, riding through the roads of London, I have to admit a few times I laughed out loud to myself.

“What are you laughing at?” someone asked.

“I can’t believe it. By all counts, this day shouldn’t have happened!” I said…

Wow a bloggers meeting with exercise too…

As I was reading Adrian’s blog I realized we have something in common, we both use the Wordpress template “Blix” and we both have been talking about a redesign. Well Adrian’s post gave me the incentive to actually set a concrete date for the new design of this blog. His post brought up an interesting milestone that I didn’t know about…

Since Jason reminded me of the power of setting a date and sticking to it, I realised that I have been procrastinating about the redesign of this site. My use of the Blix theme from King Cosmonaut - excellent though it is - was only meant to be temporary, yet months later my custom design is still no more than a flicker in Photoshop’s eye.
Continue Reading »
Peer Conversations