jungle jeff

Far Away?

Passion.  Bet you have a ton of passion.

Maybe you’re in a job where your passion thrives. Maybe you’re not.

Does passion make for a better worker?

Do you do your best work around something you’re passionate about?

How many leaders are in positions that got them a better title, a better paycheck, better meetings, and better perks, but took them further from their passion?

And then there are people who have found their passion, their dream job, but over the years they have allowed things beyond their control to poison themselves.

Imagine your own situation.

Hmmm...

Has anyone ever called you a competent incompetent?

If so, consider yourself a rookie. But, a rookie with incredible opportunity.

In today’s rapidly changing work environment, even seasoned professionals may sometimes feel like a competent incompetent.

And there’s just one thing I’d like to say about that. Remember who you are and why they hired you in the first place.

When I first became a professional speaker, I knew nothing, zip, zilch, notta, zero, about public speaking.

This was a good thing, my new boss told me.

What the?

And what’s weird about his comment, I agreed with him.

I was fully aware I didn’t know a thing about my new career path.

Public Speaking for a large Central Florida company was frightening. The people that made up the team I just joined were seasoned professionals.

Me?

The new guy, that didn’t have a clue. But they eluded to the reason why they hired me, over all their other choices.

“You have the most heart!  The most passion.”

Here we are, 11 years later.

What Would You Find?

Hey, don’t want to make a big deal, or start some internal swirl of guilt or doubt with anyone, so I won’t dwell on this blog thing from yesterday.

But may I please say one more thing before we move on?  Google a few things and see what you get:

• Your name
• Your Company
• A few key words you use

Blogging will accelerate your search engine optimization. It’s not a silver bullet, but then again, and we all know “There ain’t no silver bullet.”

And as a “put your money where your mouth is” kinda thing, Google any of my blog titles (minus the .com, .net or .org).

Maybe there is a silver bullet.

Or, beginner’s luck.

Morning After Remedy?

Happy New Year.  Anyone reading this with a hangover?  :)

Just a guess. A hunch.  Been there done that.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 the highest, how much thought have you put into your big, audacious goals for 2010?

You don’t even want to know mine.  Seriously. It’s like a 15, or maybe a 20!

That’s totally flipping out of control, isn’t it?  Maybe some of you are still drunk, but pinky-swear, that’s the real number.

Okay, here comes the “Hail Mary Pass“ – I ain’t waiting to find out my time is almost up, and then try to start doing something great.

I also am not going to wait for another potentially serious wake-up call to get my butt in gear.

Different strokes for different folks.

A Dreamer, and, A Doer

Walt Disney said many profound things. There are few on Earth that think Walt Disney was stupid and misguided.

Are you a Walt Disney fan? I mean, a fan of the man, the dreamer and doer?

After several days of long jungle jeff blog posts, I’m cutting this one short with a simple and profound Walt Disney quote, which summarizes how I want to think in 2010:

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

In 2010, let’s pursue the dreams we’ve always had, but have not yet made our dramatic leap. Ya with me?

To Serve, To Strive, and not To Yield

In March 2009, just ten short months ago, I made a promise – a 100-day challenge.

Have you ever made important promises, big promises, promises that you could almost taste the life-changing benefits?

Some call it dreaming big dreams.  Walt Disney, one of my heroes, was like that. But Walt Disney also had something different.

He had drive. And Walt Disney did what he set out to do. And Walt turned a deaf ear to the multitudes who called him crazy.

Walt Disney did things others said were impossible. When I set out to write five daily blogs for 100 days, not even I could imagine what it’s turned into.

Here we are, not 50 blog posts later, not 100, not 500 blog posts later, not 1,000 either, but over 1,500 blog posts – in ten short months.

It is quite literally a Five-A-Day Blogger explosion.

PS.  Who would you rather listen to:

1. A big-time dreamer?
2. A big-time dreamer and a big-time doer?

Audacious, antagonistic, insightful, servant.

We Can Do Great Things

It is helpful to remember the big picture, isn’t it?

Do you have creative and effective ways to remember the big picture?  I mean everyday. Do you?

Currently, writing five daily blogs has helped me make a dramatic leap in the way I perceive excellence and act on excellence.

The dramatic leap didn’t happen a year ago when I was writing single digit monthly blog posts – November 2008.

It didn’t happen when I wrote nearly 20 monthly blog posts – December 2008.

And it didn’t happen in the first two months of this year, when I wrote even fewer.

But something magical happened in March, ten months ago.

I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.  Wishing you the best day of your life -today!  Carpe diem.

Want a tip to help you resist the urge to wait? In a moment, I’ll share what happened last month, what I did about it, and how it impacted my leadership philosophy.

But it’s a double edge sword isn’t it?  If consistency is the hallmark of quality, and continuous improvement is the key to becoming world class, how do you balance risk and reward?

Faced with a opportunity to do something the way I’ve always done it, or a way I’ve been dreaming about but always chicken out, I was once again presented the opportunity, but was afraid I’d pass on it again.

But not this time.  Finally choose the way I had envisioned.

It was amazingly exhilarating!  Why?  Which is a good question because the thing I did differently, was actually very small in the big scheme of things.

Then why was it exhilarating?  Because conquering a small fear builds the confidence to conquer another small fear.

Eventually, the fears that get conquered are bigger and bigger, until we are faced with very little fear that we can’t act on.

Well, we will always come across scary things, but the confidence to confront and conquer is a priceless ROI for small risk taking habit.

The key, the simple tip – “Do at least one thing each day that scares you.”

Dear jungle jeff readers, you probably know this, but jungle jeff is just one of five daily blogs that I write.

After speaking of fear yesterday here at jungle jeff, a few minutes later I posted an important jeff noel blog post.

And the topic at jeffnoel.com yesterday was the antithesis of the one here at jungle jeff.

Is it okay to notice personal growth and use that confidence to make a dramatic leap in progress?

One thing for sure, I’m not afraid to find out.

Click here to go there.

Please listen carefully.  This simple fact about public speaking may be the key to becoming a more effective leader.

But only if people listen very carefully, and not rush through this.

Here’s the truth about being a Professional Speaker:

• If you look out at your audience and they look bored, you’re boring them
• If you look out and they are on fire, you lit it

Leaders hate to admit they sometimes stink are not highly effective. This makes them look bad and feel horrible. Who wants that?

But the simple truth is, if the people around you don’t seem passionate about their work, their mission, their customers, guess what?

PS.  If your team is on fire with passion, mission, service, guess what?