Success and Leadership - The Measuring Sticks of Success
Success and Leadership - The Measuring Sticks of Success
I am a pretty amazing woman - I may not be an Olympic woman of the games, but I am an Olympic woman in life. I bet you are too!
I have been using the wrong measuring stick as to my worth and achievements. It is the money stick! We get mesmerized by the glitter of celebrities and the Fortune list of the wealthiest people. We compare ourselves with a system that honors entertainment more than education, more than how we care for our families, or how hard we work. We compare our bodies to bodies that we are told are the bodies to have in order to have happiness. We need to stop comparing ourselves with unrealistic goals. What's good for one person is not necessarily good for you or me.
What brought this to my mind today is my comparison measuring stick. I am enrolled in a special business building program and I caught myself comparing myself with the achievements of another member of the group. I am happy for the person who succeeded in reaching her goals, but not happy for me. Why? Because I was telling myself there is something wrong with what I am doing. I know I am not alone in gremlin thinking. We beat ourselves with negative thoughts and feelings more than any foe would do.
Then, of course, there is the body image measuring stick, wanting a figure to match Angelina Jolie or Halle Berry. If only I would lose weight, my life would be so much better! That is false dreaming. We know of people who have lost weight only to gain it back. They didn't reduce the negative self-esteem to match the healthier body.
So here is my true measuring stick for the last eight years: The first five years of the millennium were full of challenges from being a caregiver to both my aunt, who sadly passed away more than two years ago, and my homebound mother. I was laid off in mid-2003 from a company that was downsizing. In mid-2004 I ended up in the hospital emergency room. My stay was 15 days - you know they don't keep you in the hospital for that long unless it is serious. It had to do with radiation side effects. I ended up in hospital again due to radiation side-effects in January 2005 - shorter stay. At the end of 2006 I lost two of my beloved cats, Desiree and Prospero.
Life is not lived linearly. While all of the above was happening in my world, I persevered in following through with building my dream coaching business. I enrolled in the a special coaching certification program and was certified in 2000. I didn't stop with certification. I have invested shamelessly in developing my skills to offer my clients the best and continue to do so.
Like so many other who have been building their businesses for several years, I have been erroneously using the money stick to measure my success. Telling myself that by this time I should be earning six figures. The fact is that it has only been since 2007 when I could put in the time and commitment needed to grow any business. That is less than two years!
Another fact is that there are processes going on while we are moving toward something new and letting go of the old paradigms. We have old programs running in our head that we respond to automatically. Developing the new programs takes persistence, practice and more practice until they become automatic. The ego is an opponent to change and will do everything to keep worn out programs. It is like they are running on the old LP's and we need to put in new thoughts to run on futuristic equipment, letting the past go to make room for the new dreams.
We want to rush to have things happen. We hear only what we want to hear regarding others successes. We don't know what they have been through to get there. It took Edison over 10,000 failures to give us the light bulb! Did he do that all in one day? Of course, not! Nor should we measure our success by false realities.
The point is that even while life might be throwing you detours, you can get around them with small milestones at a time. Since I began working on a business, I have grown immensely from developing a website to producing teleclasses, workshops, programs, and coaching my wonderful clients on their Olympic journey.
As I said in the beginning - I bet you have had amazing Olympic experiences!
TIPS:
• Build your dreams even when you are experiencing detours
• Create a vision statement that is compelling to keep your dream alive. It becomes a magnet to keep you focused.
• Use resources that support your vision.
• Sign up for whatever classes you need to build your skills
• Get a mentor - a coach. I can't remember the last time I was without a coach, even when I had cancer I had a coach.
• You are an Olympian in your life. What is the gold you are aiming to achieve within the next five years?
• Think leader. Your leadership is wherever you show up. Olympians are leaders who are committed 100 % to getting the gold. Those Olympians who didn't get a metal doesn't make them less of an Olympian. They showed up.
• Remember: Anything Is Possible and your potential to be a bigger winner is amazing!
Success and Leadership The Measuring Sticks of Success - To learn more about this author, visit Theresa-Maria Napa's Website.
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"It is an inexorable Law of Nature that bad must follow good, that decline must follow a rise. To feel that we can rest on our achievements is a dangerous fallacy. Inner strength can overcome anything that occurs outside." I Ching
I am a pretty amazing woman - I may not be an Olympic woman of the games, but I am an Olympic woman in life. I bet you are too!
I have been using the wrong measuring stick as to my worth and achievements. It is the money stick! We get mesmerized by the glitter of celebrities and the Fortune list of the wealthiest people. We compare ourselves with a system that honors entertainment more than education, more than how we care for our families, or how hard we work. We compare our bodies to bodies that we are told are the bodies to have in order to have happiness. We need to stop comparing ourselves with unrealistic goals. What's good for one person is not necessarily good for you or me.
What brought this to my mind today is my comparison measuring stick. I am enrolled in a special business building program and I caught myself comparing myself with the achievements of another member of the group. I am happy for the person who succeeded in reaching her goals, but not happy for me. Why? Because I was telling myself there is something wrong with what I am doing. I know I am not alone in gremlin thinking. We beat ourselves with negative thoughts and feelings more than any foe would do.
Then, of course, there is the body image measuring stick, wanting a figure to match Angelina Jolie or Halle Berry. If only I would lose weight, my life would be so much better! That is false dreaming. We know of people who have lost weight only to gain it back. They didn't reduce the negative self-esteem to match the healthier body.
So here is my true measuring stick for the last eight years: The first five years of the millennium were full of challenges from being a caregiver to both my aunt, who sadly passed away more than two years ago, and my homebound mother. I was laid off in mid-2003 from a company that was downsizing. In mid-2004 I ended up in the hospital emergency room. My stay was 15 days - you know they don't keep you in the hospital for that long unless it is serious. It had to do with radiation side effects. I ended up in hospital again due to radiation side-effects in January 2005 - shorter stay. At the end of 2006 I lost two of my beloved cats, Desiree and Prospero.
Life is not lived linearly. While all of the above was happening in my world, I persevered in following through with building my dream coaching business. I enrolled in the a special coaching certification program and was certified in 2000. I didn't stop with certification. I have invested shamelessly in developing my skills to offer my clients the best and continue to do so.
Like so many other who have been building their businesses for several years, I have been erroneously using the money stick to measure my success. Telling myself that by this time I should be earning six figures. The fact is that it has only been since 2007 when I could put in the time and commitment needed to grow any business. That is less than two years!
Another fact is that there are processes going on while we are moving toward something new and letting go of the old paradigms. We have old programs running in our head that we respond to automatically. Developing the new programs takes persistence, practice and more practice until they become automatic. The ego is an opponent to change and will do everything to keep worn out programs. It is like they are running on the old LP's and we need to put in new thoughts to run on futuristic equipment, letting the past go to make room for the new dreams.
We want to rush to have things happen. We hear only what we want to hear regarding others successes. We don't know what they have been through to get there. It took Edison over 10,000 failures to give us the light bulb! Did he do that all in one day? Of course, not! Nor should we measure our success by false realities.
The point is that even while life might be throwing you detours, you can get around them with small milestones at a time. Since I began working on a business, I have grown immensely from developing a website to producing teleclasses, workshops, programs, and coaching my wonderful clients on their Olympic journey.
As I said in the beginning - I bet you have had amazing Olympic experiences!
TIPS:
• Build your dreams even when you are experiencing detours
• Create a vision statement that is compelling to keep your dream alive. It becomes a magnet to keep you focused.
• Use resources that support your vision.
• Sign up for whatever classes you need to build your skills
• Get a mentor - a coach. I can't remember the last time I was without a coach, even when I had cancer I had a coach.
• You are an Olympian in your life. What is the gold you are aiming to achieve within the next five years?
• Think leader. Your leadership is wherever you show up. Olympians are leaders who are committed 100 % to getting the gold. Those Olympians who didn't get a metal doesn't make them less of an Olympian. They showed up.
• Remember: Anything Is Possible and your potential to be a bigger winner is amazing!
Success and Leadership The Measuring Sticks of Success - To learn more about this author, visit Theresa-Maria Napa's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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