Take the Stairs

It’s sadly amazing the number of people that I talk with who tell me they want more, they want a better job and more success, yet they feel they are not worthy of achieving it. I hear every excuse about what “might happen” or “what if this happens” and I hear very little “I’m going to make it happen.”

Here is the good news, these are normal thoughts for many people and success is just a few steps away. If you can dream it, if you can see it, you can start on the path to getting there. Here are five simple steps to help you get there:

1. discover your dream
2. plan the steps to get there
3. start taking steps, reasonable risks 
4. constantly exceed your expectations
5. reflect on accomplishments and push for more

Like a ladder or stairs, the steps should be reasonably separated allowing you to move from one step to the next without a big jump. In contrast to this analogy, life or your career may not always present opportunities in equal increments. Some steps may be more of a stretch then others. This is where risk and reflection will be important factors in your success.

I like taking the stairs – do you?

- DEG

The Grocery Store and Success

One of the chores I dislike the most is grocery shopping. A failure for planning what to buy and what meals to prepare leaves me open for a disastrous shopping experience. My dislike to for the experience positions me to want to move fast and make quick choices. My lack of planning often opens me up to be forgetful and leave the store without something I desperately needed. I know the solution to this problem. It is better planning and an appropriate pace, it is the discipline to want to overcome the negative outcomes and have a positive shopping experience.

Success in our personal or professional careers may be an analogy to the grocery store experience. The good news is that there is a solution to achieving success. It requires planning and an appropriate pace. Knowing the desired end result and creating a plan for a path to get there is important. Pursuing that path at an appropriate pace is also critical. Going too fast we may burn out early. Going too slow may limit our options, or we may find the doors closed as we approach a desired milestone.

Approaching your life and career unprepared and without a plan could limit your success.

What is your plan?

 

- DEG

Pleasing Everyone

Have you ever tried to please “everyone?” Trying to please everyone can be amazingly frustrating.

Have you ever felt like there are too many choices? Have you felt confused, not knowing which option to pick? Do you worry that the outcomes of a decision or choice you make will cause anger or hurt to another person?

At times, by our own desire, we may seek a wide variety of options. However, limiting our choices and narrowing options will be less confusing and make us more confident in our selection. In order to make a good choice there is always a balance between having the widest array of opinions and options and choosing a responsible path.

The good news is, recognition of too many opinions and not enough commitment to a choice or a path can be avoided. Don’t try to please everyone, don’t pursue every recommended option. Select your path, make your choice. Be committed to your choice. Start by thinking – “Yes, I can do this. I’ve got this one!”

Confusion is frustrating. Pick your own path!

Who Are You?

What is your elevator speech? You know that short paragraph or expressions that describes who you are and what you do. 

Do you know who you are? Sometimes your inability to define who you are is not only a matter of not being up-to-date on your elevator speech, but it is a matter of understanding yourself.

Right now, I am asking you, “Who are you?” In our personal or professional lives we sometimes feel forced to be the person that someone else wants us to be. Worse yet we sometimes allow ourselves to become “invisible.” We become so introverted (introversion is not necessarily bad) that we fail to be noticed by others. Fear, pressure, and obedience represent at least three of the factors that may drive us into this place.

The good news is this, if you are truly determined to become successful you can break out of the mold or frame that you or others have placed upon you. Have courage to take your own path, forget about the pressure that someone else has placed on you; and obedience, well quite honestly that only brings one thought to my mind. Training a four legged furry creature we know as man’s best friend.

It is unlikely that someone else will make you successful, so only you can make YOU successful.

So I’m asking. Who are YOU?

 

- DEG

Beware of the Masquerade

There is an old mantra, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” Many of us have probably heard this or other similar rants regarding people and friendships. If you explore the discussion of friends in the workplace you will often come across people who are very willing to tell their story about a once beautiful friendship that has gone painfully wrong.

There may be many reasons for this, some of which include: misunderstandings, poorly communicated changes, and unfortunately -jealously. It is one thing to be aware of a problem or grievance with a person, but it is yet another type of situation when people are masquerading themselves as a very close friend, meanwhile they do not have your best interest in mind.

Friends matter, people matter, and relationships that you build matter, what doesn’t matter is trying to please those persons who will never share in your enthusiasm, energy, and success. There will always be someone who doubts you, there will always be someone who is jealous or envious, and there will be someone who pretends to be your friend who is not. Don’t get caught in the masquerade trap, free yourself and stay focused.

Here is the great part. You have the option to take a position, your position. Make the decision to pursue what you believe and you will feel alive, free, and focused. Accept advice, listen to friends, but beware of the masquerade.

It’s a party I’m not attending – are you?

- DEG