Tweet

Leaders Put Good Intentions into Action

Guest post by: Jim Clemmer

Article Overview: A recurring nightmare haunted Peter to re-examine and change the aimless and drifting course of his life. In his bad dream he was standing before a severe judge and disapproving jury. "You are charged with wasting your life," the judge bellowed harshly down to Peter standing before the high bench. "How do you plead?" Restraining himself from fleeing the courtroom, Peter was finally forced to whisper, "Guilty." He appeared ready to say more, then stood lost in thought.

Leaders Put Good Intentions into Action

"Mr. Meant-To has a comrade,

And his name is Didn't-Do;

Have you ever chanced to meet them?

Did they ever call on you?

These two fellows live together

In the house of Never-Win,

And I'm told that it is haunted

By the ghost of Might-Have-Been."

- William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues A recurring nightmare haunted Peter to re-examine and change the aimless and drifting course of his life. In his bad dream he was standing before a severe judge and disapproving jury. "You are charged with wasting your life," the judge bellowed harshly down to Peter standing before the high bench. "How do you plead?" Restraining himself from fleeing the courtroom, Peter was finally forced to whisper, "Guilty." He appeared ready to say more, then stood lost in thought.

The click ticked steadily on the courthouse wall. "I always had the best of intentions," Peter began slowly. "I just never got around to translating them into action. There was always tomorrow. But tomorrow never came and the world went speeding by. I ran out of time. I guess, after all is said and done, a lot has been said, but only a little has been done."

Looking back, we can all point to times in our lives that seem wasted. In some cases, those times were a pause in the action. Perhaps it was time to regroup and take a different course or rest before trying again. The danger is if the time-out turns into just putting in time. If we fail to continuously grow, change, and develop, then precious life is wasted. The American writer and publisher, Elbert Hubbard, warned, "The recipe for perpetual ignorance is to be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge."

The unknown author of this poem stresses the importance of using our time well:

Imagine there is a bank that

Credits your account each morning with $86,400.

It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance

You failed to use during the day.

What would you do?

Draw out every cent, of course!

Each of us has such a bank.

Its name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost whatever of this you

Have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance.

It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you.

Each night it burns the day's deposits; the loss is yours.

There is no going back.

There is no drawing against the "tomorrow."

You must live in the present on today's deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health,

Happiness, and success!

The clock is running.

Make the most of today.

Treasure every moment that you have!

And remember that time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is a mystery.

Today is a gift.

That's why it's called, "the present."

Success isn't how far we've got, but the distance we've traveled from where we started.

Related Articles
  Breaking Through - How to Remove "Stuck" from your vocabulary - Series 4 of 5
  2011: The Year of Mastered Self-Expression
  Article #46 What Do Leaders Strive Everyday For?
  Tolerance
  Leadership Malpractice: What to Do When Leaders Don't Lead
  A Letter To America
  Good Intentions Are Never Enough
  Saying Yes Always Means Saying No
  Keep your eye on the ball
  Inundated in Intention
  Action For The Sake of What?
  The Art of Creating A 'Not-to-do List' for Entrepreneurs
  The Value of an Accountability Coach
  The Time To Act is Now On Becoming a
  Sustainability is an outcome of intention, heart and mind set, and action
  Making it Work!
  CEO Speak Out
  Attracting Holding Good Trade Show Traffic
  Blogging
  Ten Characteristics of Leadership

Article Tags: leadership
Referred by: http://www.searchengineworkshops.com



Related Forum Posts
Good Leaders? - Hi there, How can we train good effectual leaders today? What are the prime factors to consider in any business? Perhaps anyone has a good story to share. Kindest Regards Beat "Promote Good Leaders"
Re: I am refreshed and ready - Hi Tanny, Good to see you back. I notice you have already appeared on the "This Month's Leaders" board so you have obviously been busy contributing to the forum! The good thing about an affiliate marketing type of Internet business is that you can let it tick over while you are away doing your own thing.
Advertisement that sales - Plan your marketing programme. It should include commitment to capital resources. If you run a small business, you aren't likely to have a generous enough advertising budget that will allow you to run costly branding or campaign ads. Every advertisement you run must convey to your prospect a solid offer and attractive reasons to act quickly, and result in increased sales and an enhanced image of your company. Good advertising always pays its own way through increased sales and profits, improved cost-effectiveness, reduced selling costs and shortened selling cycles. A useful formula that will help you increase the effectiveness of your advertising efforts is A-I-D-A, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. When creating an advertisement, always remind yourself that it should: (1) capture your prospects' Attention, (2) arouse their Interest in your offer, (3) create their Desire for your product or service, and (4) provide a powerful spur to Action, that is, turn your prospect into buyers. Remember, bad advertising is an unproductive expense, and good advertising is an investment in future profits!
Re: Just Saying Hello - Hi Camil, Welcome to the forum. You have a great mentor, one of the best, he has been a great help to me and many others. You found a very good niche, Golf, is very popular niche, but you need to redesign your website, I suggest using a WP based website, because right now your website is a long sales page and not very friendly, I wanted to click out. Pay Per Action can be a good solution for you and if you still want to use PPC, try MSN system, and not Adwords, it will be cheaper. The main thing is to keep a budget, and never spend a cent more. NEVER! if you know how much you are going to spend, there wil be no surprises. Good luck
Re: March 21 Triple Crown Update - Congratulations to the first three Leaders in the Forum category. Keep it up.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

3 Pointers to Recruiting and Retaining Good Staff

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.