The second decision for success is seeking wisdom.

I really struggled with writing this post on seeking wisdom; I wasn’t quite sure about the best direction to communicate my perspective, and suddenly, it came to me.  Over the last few years, one word that has stuck with me is “patience.”   I have spent the last couple years really trying to understand and improve upon this weakness or should I say lack of wisdom.  I believe wisdom comes from having patience and patience gives us wisdom.

One year ago, while I thought I was efficiently conquering my daily priority list, I was presented with a personal lesson on patience. You see, I had been seeking some specific information and it was a top priority (even though it wasn’t quite a top priority to everyone else involved).  I received an email containing the information that I had been waiting for and began writing a letter in response.  I finally had the missing link and I was ready to react to the email.  I felt a sense of urgency as if I was writing- my emotions set the momentum (it was like preparing for a battle).   I had been looking forward to the email and replying to it all day.  That being said, it was suggested to me that, “we should sit on that information for a couple days, we have some time.”  I sat there for a moment before it hit me; by practicing patience, I can learn and grow from this situation more than reacting to it.  It was if I started viewing things from a new perspective; a calm, patience and confident wisdom.

Sometimes we get too caught up in finding our answers too quickly and respond without really understanding the value of the knowledge we gained.  Be patient and be in the present moment; you never know what you might be missing if you are looking too far ahead.  It was that day that I began processing information differently.  I slowed down and became more productive by practicing a greater understanding of patience.

You maybe a gifted driven individual but if you don’t take time to be in the present and reflect, you are going to miss out on a lot.   Sometimes things just don’t happen quite as quickly as we would like, but don’t become discouraged, keep pushing on.  A friend once said, “the longer you have to wait, the closer you are to what you are patiently waiting for.”   “A study of over 25,000 people showed that those who succeed in an outstanding way seldom do so before the age of 40.  More often they do not strike their real pace until they are well beyond 50.  Such great achievers as: Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, and James Hill were all well past 40 before they really succeeded.  Biographies of industrialists and financiers are filled with evidence that the period from 40 to 60 is most productive.” -Napoleon Hill

Seeking wisdom is the second of 7 decisions for personal success we learn about while reading the Traveler’s Gift written by Andy Andrews. I pulled this benediction from the book and believe we can learn something from it:

“I will seek wisdom. Knowing that wisdom waits to be gathered, I will actively search her out.  My past can never be changed, but I can change the future by changing my actions today.  I will change my actions today! I will train my eyes and ears to read and listen to books and recording that bring about positive changes in my personal relationships and a greater understanding of my fellowman.  I will listen to the counsel of wise men.  The words of wise man are like raindrops on the dry ground.  They are precious and can be quickly used for immediate results.  By counseling with a wise man, I add his knowledge and experience to my own and dramatically increase my success.”

Do I seek wisdom? Am I patient? How can I improve?  These are just a couple questions we should ask ourselves daily to stay on track.  I would love to hear from you…What do you think?

CRUX:  Wisdom comes from having patience and patience gives us wisdom. By counseling with a wise man, I add his knowledge and experience to my own and dramatically increase my success.

“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” -Alexander Graham Bell

The first decision for success is accepting personal responsibility.

We are living in an era when few people are being held responsible for their actions or even admitting fault. It has become increasingly easy to point the finger at others and pass blame for our actions. We have witnessed the collapse of Enron, mortgage bailouts, Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme, and the multi-billion dollar vanishing act by John Corzine and MF Global. Very few people have actually been held responsible or have taken responsibility for their actions. We have grown accustom to the idea that personal responsibility really doesn’t matter; but is that really the case? Is it simply easier to place failure on others rather than accepting failure as our own fault? We love hearing that we are right and we like to avoid pointing out when we were wrong. Typically this is the last thing we would like to take responsibility for, however, accepting responsibility for a failure and putting a plan in place to move forward will help you to become a better leader.

How would you define Locus of Control?

The concept dates back to the 1960’s, with Julian Rotter’s investigation into how people’s behaviors and attitudes affected the outcomes of their lives. Locus of Control describes the degree to which individuals perceive an internal or external origin of power that influences their life events.

Having an internal locus of control means that a person attributes what happens in their life to be a cause of their individual actions. This preference has ownership in destiny; knowing the decisions made today will affect tomorrow. We make choices every day. We are constantly in motion in the game we call life, however, if we don’t know where we want to go, how do we plan on get there?  Accepting personal responsibility is very similar to having a plan in place and moving towards the achievement of goals. Of course we want to take credit for when something good happens, others typically take notice and we love being recognized. However, when it comes to being recognized for a failure we run and hide.  These are the opportunities to learn from and build upon set-backs.  Consider the failures as conditioning opportunities so that your leadership skills develop as you learn from mistakes.

You may have the belief that everything happens for a reason (external locus of control), however, this doesn’t mean that you are powerless.  An external locus of control believes that the happenstances in your life are due to an independent force outside of personal control.  Basically, if you have an external locus of control you are not accepting personal responsibility for your actions. We need to take ownership of our lives and our actions good or bad.

Personal responsibility is the first of 7 decisions for personal success we learn about while reading the Traveler’s Gift written by Andy Andrews. I pulled this benediction from the book and believe we can learn something from it:

”From this moment forward, I will accept responsibility for my past. I understand that the beginning of wisdom is to accept the responsibility from my own problems and that by accepting responsibility for my past, I free myself to move into a bigger brighter future of my own choosing. The buck stops here.  I accept responsibility for my past. I am responsible for my success.”

Crux: Accept responsibility for you past, present, and future. You are the decision maker in charge of creating your reality.  Do you operate with an external or internal locus of control and how does that affect your leadership?

“Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.” - Jim Collins

The Traveler’s Gift:  7 Decisions that Determine Personal Success.

This book was a very inspirational read and once I jumped into it, it was very difficult to set it down.  Andy Andrew’s and The Traveler’s Gift offer a modern day parable of one man’s choices—and the attitudes that make the difference between failure and success.  It is a story about a man, David Ponder, who is down on his luck. He lost his job due to a corporate merger, fell behind on his mortgage, found a minimum wage paying job, however was fired for poor customer service. Oh and did I mention, he no longer had health insurance and his daughter needed her tonsils removed? After being fired, David took off speeding out of town contemplating life and death. As he recklessly continued to pick up speed, his car began to spin out of control and his life flashed before his eyes. He crashed and was knocked unconscious.

He awakes to find himself magically transported into an earlier time. The book takes the reader through the past painting a vivid picture of such leaders as: King Solomon, Abe Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, and Anne Frank.  On this journey David will visit 7 places and meet 7 leaders who each gift him one of the 7 Decisions for Success.

Life is an amazing journey and based on decisions we make today, we create tomorrow’s reality.  Over the next several weeks I will be writing about each of these 7 Decisions for Success along with how I believe a leader should approach each of these.  We constantly face challenges and we can decide to let them conquer us or we can continue to grow and push through them.   Each challenge we face is an opportunity for personal growth if we choose to learn from it. The question is, how successful do you want to be?

The Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success:

1. Personal Responsibility
2. Seek Wisdom
3. Be A Courageous Leader
4. Believe in Your Purpose
5. Chose Happiness
6. Power of Forgiveness
7. Persistence

CRUX: This is a fast and quick read that should be shared by all. Whether you are a senior in high school about to take the next step or someone simply reinventing your purpose in life, this book makes you question your principles and will help you gain a better understanding of who you are.  On a daily basis we face new challenges, however, only a select few of us continue to push forward and use them for our success.  Personal growth is a choice.

“The Traveler’s Gift will encourage you to live up to your fullest potential.” -Dr. Robert Schuller

Do you have a brand?  Does your web presence promote your value?  Maybe we should ask, what is your value?  Having a passion and interest in something is a start but where do we go from there…

Over the last few months I created a brand and have began blogging, commenting, using Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin to communicate my thoughts and ideas.  Here are a few tips and ideas I have learned.

What is your value?  I believe the first step in the process is having a clear understanding of what is that you want to contribute.  This is the hardest part of the process, I remember struggling with this idea for a few weeks and finally I decided I wanted to focus my passion on leadership and more importantly “how leaders should lead.” You may want to focus your value around your career and what you can contribute to others.  You maybe a salesman,  realtor, student, or someone looking to change careers.

Okay, our value has been established, where do we go next?  The next step is to create a blog and start capturing your thoughts.  Putting your thoughts to writing and posting them for the world to read, comment, and critique is a very humbling experience. Don’t get caught up in what others may think, these are your ideas and a this is a way to simply capture your thoughts.  Give yourself permission and don’t wait for the others to give you approval.  Remember, although you are posting it to the web it does NOT have to perfect.  It is going to be a while before others start reading your blog so don’t fumble over the idea that it needs to perfect.  Be clear and direct; longer is not better.  Pick a topic you are passionate about: sit down, capture your thoughts, proofread, and publish.

Where do we go next?  The best place to find value in the social media circle is on Twitter.  Many people are there to share, interact, and engage in conversation.  Read other blogs around your value and feel free to comment.  You will find that most people in the twitter world are there because they enjoy learning, engaging, and helping others. Take advantage of this and ask for advice.

Utilizing the social networking sites such as Facebook and Linkedin can also be powerful avenues to express your thoughts.  Although Facebook is a way to get your message out, it can damage your creditability as well as others. People can spot a fake a mile away so be genuine with your thoughts and find something that you are passionate about.

When it comes to differentiating yourself from the competition one edge you could take is using the internet to make yourself standout.  With the social networking sites such as myspace, facebook, and twitter we have began to open up to the idea of putting pictures and comments on the web for everyone else to see.  Unfortunately, if you are looking for a job you may have shot yourself in the foot because of the very web presences that you display.  I believe we were programmed to think “myspace”  was our own private space, when actually anyone with the internet could access what you posted.  If you didn’t have your settings set to private, you are completely exposed to anyone who maybe  interested.  So how do you create a positive web presence?

CRUX: Who are you? How do you want others to perceive you? Your web presence is a snap shot of who you are and how other see you.  This becomes a very valuable tool when searching for job or starting a new career path. Use the internet to create an edge for yourself over the competition.

“By giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent.” -Mark Zuckerberg

What motivates you?  It maybe a corner office, wealth, influencing others, or to reach a level others have failed to accomplish.  Motivation is NOT a behavior, however, it strongly influences our behaviors.  I would define motivation as the psychological source of personal energy that drives you to succeed.  There are many types of social motives, however, three of the underlying social motives are: achievement, affiliation, and influence.

The need for achievement can be described as a way to do something quicker, better, easier or simply more efficient.  The thought pattern of achievement motivated people may include: out-performing someone else, meeting or exceeding self-imposed standards, striving for unique accomplishments, and thinking about long-term career connections.  When I think of achievement I am driven to succeed by self-imposed standards I have set for myself.  Recognizing your driving force to achieve will allow you to control the force that ignites your fire.  Just remember to not cut corners when striving for your goals and avoid becoming an ineffective manager by only worrying about the results. 

What motivates you to affiliate?  The core concern behind affiliation is establishing, maintaining, or repairing relationships.  Two types of affiliation exist; you may have a genuine interest in others or you may just want to belong.  I enjoy networking, engaging in conversation, and  maintaining relationships.  If affiliation motivates you, you may also be concerned with  disruption of relationships and also characterize group activities as social or friendly.

What drives you to influence?  The goal underlying influence motivation is a concern with having impact, with reputation and influence.  Influence motivation is also called power motivation.  When individuals combine their ability to achieve with the ability to influence you will see a leader born.  Whether the drive to influence is for personal or social gain people like having a leader.  Having the ability to not only achieve but influence will create followers and in turn increase your ability to influence.   

I would love to hear what motivates you.  Are you driven to achieve, affiliate, and influence?

CRUX: Determine what motivates you whether it is achievement, affiliation, or influence.  Understanding what keeps you going will allow you to flip the switch and ignite your fire.  

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim to high and falling short; but in setting our aim to low, and achieving our mark.” -Michelangelo