Tag: Personal Leadership

Fear Not, Seriously

“We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care for.” — Marie von Ebner Eschenbach

How is it with you?  I mean, if you really gave earnest consideration, what’s your honest answer?

Well for me, it used to be true; however, reading, writing and thinking at an accelerated pace for the past nine months, has heightened an awareness that there are people who will never change. Duh, right?

Okay, so I’m stupid a little slow sometimes.

This is no secret.  But I’ve always held out hope that people would change.  Now, I’m convinced, not that they won’t change, but that it no longer matters.

And the day this epiphany came, it was glorious.

I’ve learned to move on, to be strong, and to focus on transformational personal change – not in others, but in the mirror. It’s hard as hell, of course, but I will not stop.  Doing the impossible will take everything you have.

And there are people out there, they might even be reading this now, who will think it’s crazy.  Who cares So.

Fear Not

“Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.”  — Marie von Ebner Eschenbach

Early in my Fortune 100 career, there was a new assignment which required that I move and inherit an existing, high-performing team.

And even though they knew much more about how things ran, they still wanted me to help them improve. They brought dozens of creative ideas.

I was on a huge learning curve and loving every minute of it. However, you know what happened?

Nothing.

Being insanely busy, and blindly disorganized, none of their ideas moved forward. I was overwhelmed and didn’t even know it.

Crazy thing though, I thought things were actually getting better, because their ideas started to dwindle, but not because things got better.

Even crazier, they thought, “Don’t go to Jeff, he won’t do anything.”

Wished they would have argued with me, “Why aren’t you helping us?” Instead, they dodged.

And who could blame them?

But The Bigger Question Is?

Yesterday I eloquently droned on about thinking like a failure, whatever that means, right?

Well guess what else?  I’d like to drone on about what does yesterday’s post mean to you today?  Because if it meant nothing to you, guess what?

Seriously, if I have to explain this (again) to you, you may not get it.

Hey, you do know I’m only talking to myself and none of this is meant to make you feel uncomfortable (yes it is).  Having tough conversations with myself is the most effective way to push the limits of my abilities.

What do you do to push the limits of your abilities?  You do push yourself, right?

Don’t Blog

Not a Blogger?  Click Here (and then click upper right, “skip this ad”) for 11 payoffs if you blog, or if you ever want to start blogging.

Blogging won’t ever be important to you, if you won’t ever make blogging important.

Creating a great blog won’t ever be important to you, if being great isn’t important to you.

Same with exercise.

Exercise won’t ever be important to you, if you don’t ever make your health a top priority.

The list goes on and on.  But will you?  Go on and on, I mean. To do the hard work that has to be done to be great.

Only the mediocre are at their best every day.

Don’t Bother

“If you’re not going to come into the office on Thanksgiving Day, don’t even bother coming in on Christmas day”, the overworked, underpaid leader stated to the others on her team.

The Beatles got it right, didn’t they – “Eight Days A Week”.

This is a good time to be working harder than you ever have before.  I know firsthand, and some think I’m crazy, but I work seven days a week. And have for a long time.

Ain’t braggin’.  Just stating the facts.  And sometimes I wish the week had eight days. But mostly, an extra day just to sleep.

Hope you have an extraordinary week of hard work. We reap what we sow. This is the time to be out-working your competition. When others are ready to give up, it’ll be your opportunity to shine.