Why Commit to Processes? Why put in the hard work of recording, training, and holding the team to a set list of processes? Well, let’s talk about it today.
Hey there everyone, Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here!
I’ve always loved Simon Sinek. The author and motivational speaker who just has some amazing thoughts on business leaders, how to relate to this newest generation and what that can mean for your day-to-day.
He was talking recently about the power of consistency. And in many ways, that’s what our teams struggle with, right? They want the big move, the home run, the grandiose event that shows they put it all together.
But in the day to day… there’s so much struggle to stay consistent and understand the process of how long it takes things to get accomplished.
He pointed out exercise. The first time you go to the gym. You put everything you have into it and come home and look in the mirror. What do you see? Anything different? Nope.
Fine, I’ll go again tomorrow and try this thing one more time. Look back in the mirror… nothing’s changed! This must not work.
Same thing with relationships. You stop by a girl’s house who you have a crush on… take her flowers and write her a little note. Is the relationship automatically healthy? Even though the inputs and process may be working perfectly, there’s nothing to be seen on a day by day basis.
What Sinek points out is that there are almost these universal laws, that, if followed, will produce results. I can guarantee that if you control your eating and exercise daily, you WILL get in good shape. It may take a year, but it WILL happen.
Same thing with relationships, if you commit to serving the other person… to caring for them, you WILL have a healthier relationship.
The important piece is consistency! If it’s doing it right 10% of the time? You won’t achieve the result you want. Even 50% of the time, probably not. But if you get to the 80% or 90% mark, there’s room in there for slipups, the piece of cake here and there, or the day off from working out. But it’s the habits and consistency that pays off over the long haul.
That’s where your process becomes so important. And the training of your processes that reinforce and develop CONSISTENCY.
Because the success for your business is never measured in doing it right for a day. Or a week, but consistency over a long period of time!
That’s why we get nervous when businesses celebrate the Big Deal they landed. Oh…we're going to double our revenue through this one deal it’s amazing! Yes, it is…but just like that first date with the girl of your dreams, where everything seems to go right…if you don’t have a process to fall back on none of it matters!
So…if you were to take time out of your day today and think about your processes. Where do you fall short? Maybe it’s starting with celebrating your team for the areas they are consistent. But it’s time to critically think about consistency and process.
It’s time to make a list of the areas you fail more than you succeed. Is it closing sales? Is it the handoff point from the sales team to the operations? Is it inventory management and you’re always looking for material? Is it communication with your team and training? Is it onboarding of new clients? Is it client retention for the long haul? Is it hiring and getting the right people on the bus, or maybe holding your team accountable once on the bus?
I don’t know. But I know without critical thinking and intentionality none of this consistency happens. You start swinging for the fences and striking out more times than not as a business. Sure, you may find some success along the way, but it will never be sustained.
So, commit to Process. Not perfection, not talent, but Process. Let that define you as a business. That people know exactly what they are getting when they call you.
And then let that Process turn your business into a wildly predictable (how’s that for an oxymoron)...a wildly, predictably, consistent team that shows up day after day and knows exactly what to do.
That’s the goal friends. Go chase after it.
Keynote from Superior Rigging & Erecting (SRE} Birthday Celebration
by
Scott Beebe
Founder | Head Coach
My Business On Purpose
In 1964 the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a ruling that reversed a previous ruling by the State of Ohio banning the showing of what they deemed an obscene film entitled The Lovers that was being screened at the Heights Art Theatre in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
After yielding remarkably different opinions across the bench of the Supreme Court, Justice Potter Stewart’s opinion was most unique stating, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be (obscene), and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.”
There are troves of content available and promoted on the idea of leadership.
Leadership, although hard to define, is a trait among people that one could easily mimic Justice Stewart’s opinion by saying, “I shall not define (leadership), but I know it when I see it”.
Leadership is birthed out of the Latin word “ductus” which suggests the ideas of guiding, conducting, drawing, pulling, taking, commanding, marching, and forging.
Leadership can be hard to define because leadership is complex, and explains why developing leaders require focus, attention, and a roadmap.
In its simplest, purest form, the dictionary defines leadership as “the action of leading a group of people or an organization.”
It may also be helpful to have a peek into what leadership is not. Leadership is not coercing, forcing, cajoling, conniving, or deceiving.
Leadership is not commanding, controlling, dictating, or forcing. That is an authoritarian mandate, not leadership.
Leadership is guiding and going before. Leadership is embracing a continual state of risk because under healthy leadership, followers always have an option.
How can you tell the difference between a leader and a manager? A leader casts vision, influences behavior, and inspires accountability and action. A manager ensures that the strategic elements of the vision are mapped out and executed.
The 1960’s in America were a time of significant civil unrest, and also a time of significant leadership as President John F. Kennedy casts his Moonshot vision, and Martin Luther King Jr led his infamous march on Washington.
JFK never set pen to paper with rocket engineering plans or fuel displacement calculations, and yet he led thousands of young scientists to do what was impossible.
MLK set a flame using the words of his mouth to ignite a peaceful resistance among thousands towards a racially integrated and unified vision acknowledging that “we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
Leadership is a conviction towards healthy transformation, towards creating opportunity, towards inviting those who desire a peace-filled future into a life forward motion.
Dr. King compelled such motion through his vivid invitation saying, “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
What is leadership? Here is a potential definition to guide us…
Leadership is one person, or a group of people, who are compelling willing followers to keep moving forward to a defined and shared vision.
Over the coming modules, we will be walking through and defining the ingredients of what healthy leadership looks like so you can begin to feast and compel others to move forward.
Leadership may still be hard to define, but you will know it when you see it.
ACTION: write a one-sentence definition of what you think leadership is and share it at your next team meeting.
Hey, y’all! Brent Perry with Business on Purpose.
A question I came across as I was reading over the weekend…” what habit in your life will yield the highest return?”
And then to take it a step further, how can you make that habit part of your daily routine?
The book is called Win the Day by Mark Batterson.
After you have defined the habit, whatever it may be, Batterson goes on to suggest (in regards to making this habit part of your day to day), he says “the key, no matter what it is, is identifying when and where.”
He goes on to give details of a study that was done in the 1960s involving students at Yale University.
Graduating seniors were educated about the dangers of tetanus and given the opportunity to get a free inoculation at the health center. Despite the fact that it was free and the majority of the students who were polled were convinced they needed to get the shot, only 3 percent followed through and got the vaccine. 3 percent.
Now there was another group of graduating seniors, the test group, that was given the same lecture with one caveat. They were given copies of the campus map with the location of the health center circled. Then they were asked to look at their weekly schedules and figure out when they would get the shot. And you know what… 9 times as many students in this group got inoculated.
Good intentions are good, but they aren’t good enough!
Define the habit. Then define the when and where. Or there is a good chance this habit, which can yield the highest return in your business, will stay just a good intention.
At the beginning of the year, I was working with a client and asked him the same question. He thought about it for a week or so and decided that the habit he saw that would yield an incredibly high return would be reading. Sounds incredibly simple, but he admitted that he hadn’t read a book in almost a year. He had intentions and even had books on his shelf that he had bought last year, but never got around to reading any of them.
Some were books on business. Some on marketing. Some mystery thriller books. Some books for his spirituality. All kinds of books, that he knew would make him a better owner, boss, husband, father, etc. But he never got around to reading them.
So he had defined the habit, it was time to define the when and where.
It was easy for him, he is typically the first person up in house so he can shower and get ready before helping others get out the door as well.
He decided he would wake up 30 minutes earlier each day. Make a cup of coffee. And sit in his favorite chair in the house.
He knew his habit. He decided his when and where and he has been crushing it.
He’s quick to admit that he hasn’t been 100% since he started, but he has already finished 2 books in 2022 and we aren’t even out of January yet.
So what’s your habit? And what is your when and where going to be?
Ask yourself this question over the next week, and see if there is a habit you need to take on that will yield a high return this year.
Thanks for listening.
If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our Podcast, and/or our YouTube channel.
The final details were settled around 8:17 this morning when Gerrick Taylor looked out over the room filled with Taylor’s 41 employees and was about ready to kick off Taylor’s fourth annual full team offsite training day.
Just four years ago, he thought he had lost his mind at the idea of closing down all Taylor’s retail locations. The calculation was steep; full wages for all Taylor’s employees that day while posting zero revenue throughout the entire day.
The model did not make sense on paper, but he knew a larger investment needed to be made; an investment in people…in relationships.
Taylor’s began almost twenty years ago on the side of the main road in Lexington, SC when Gerrick received a tractor trailer load of pine straw from his Dad. As a High School teacher and football coach, Gerrick was looking to make a little extra cash on the side.
His goal was to sell four trailer loads of pine straw that summer. Summer ended with over thirty trailer loads being sold by one person, with one phone number before and after summer football responsibilities. It was a grind.
After trying to juggle school, coaching, and the entrepreneur's reality, Gerrick decided to leave teaching and coaching and put all of his time and attention towards growing what would eventually become Taylor’s Landscape Supply and Nursery.
For years Gerrick led a small band of employees with a grinders spirit; do what needed to be done when it needed to be done. If you run into a problem, cross that bridge when you come to it. It worked… for a while. Over a decade later, Taylor’s was becoming “too much plane for one man to fly”.
Back in 2015, Gerrick went through a process where he made an intentional decision to begin working ON his business, taking time to step off of the lot, out of a tractor, and sit down to articulate where he wanted to go (vision), how he would get there (values), and why it was important (mission).
After articulating the purpose of Taylor’s he then began the long, methodical, weight-lifting-like process of identifying and building the necessary systems and processes that Taylor’s would need to bust through the ceiling and grow.
Gerrick realized that people crave structure…they also crave repetition and clarity.
Taylor’s became a hallmark of weekly team meetings, stand up team huddles, helpful checklists, and accountability. Something deeper was still needed in order to create a glue-like connection among the team.
In 2018, Taylor’s held its first ever full-day, shut-down-the-business, all-get-in-a-room, offsite team training day.
It was good. It was not life-changing, because it did not need to be. It was not cause for a circus. It was simply…good in a very healthy, solid, beneficial way.
Gerrick realized that thoughtful, repetitious, fundamentals are often more powerful long-term, than short-term bursts of creative brilliance.
Aesop reminds us the “Tortoise kept going slowly and steadily, and after time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping…(and the Hare) could not overtake the Tortoise in time.”
Slowly and steadily. Year one… two… three… now year four.
The only magic in a Taylor’s training day is this… it happens each year with purpose and an agenda.
Your team needs a time to break away from the day to day, and to be trained together. Other conferences are fine, but not like the value that a business team only gathering can provide over the course of one full day together with learning, conversation, workshops, meals, and happy hour.
What are the keys to building a great annual offsite?
First, articulate the purpose of your one day off-site.
What do you want to accomplish? What do you want your team to walk away with? How do you hope they feel, think, or act?
Whatever… WHATEVER comes to mind, write it down and allow that to determine the next key to developing a great one day off-site meeting.
Second, set the day on your calendar and draft a simple agenda.
What day will it be? Look at the flow of your year, is there a day or time that may be a bit less disruptive for your team? Consider seasons, times, family calendars, and workflows.
There is no perfect day and there will always be some conflict. Once you have considered all things, set the day and begin communicating that day and let the team know this is both exciting and mandatory. Client meetings, vendor meetings, and other meetings must be scheduled around this time, and only the most personal of conflicts should interfere with this day (weddings, funerals, births, etc.).
Your agenda should include a timeline of the day and the major elements of meals, opening and closing sessions, any keynote sessions (no more than two), and a variety of breakout and workshop opportunities (large or small group discussion times).
Again, align your agenda with your original purpose… allow that to guide the content.
You can always bring in 3rd party voices (speakers, workshop facilitators) to help with bring a unique perspective. Also, don’t overlook your own team members. Having them speak, lead, and facilitate is a great growth and leadership opportunity.
Third, what will your budget be?
You will need to have food, location services, learning materials, audio/visual support, speaker honorariums and travel, team member travel and logistics, etc.
Also, what are the non-obvious expenses that the business will shoulder like time away from work (especially in a retail environment)?
Fourth, set a schedule for preparation and communication knowing who will be coordinating what items, and when those will be communicated and tracked.
Finally, make sure your one day offsite includes ample time around the table where team members can eat together, laugh together, catch up, and work through a variety of ideas, issues, frustrations, confusions, and dreams.
Taylor’s full day off sites are not easy, not convenient, and not always perfect…but they are good.
Is your Vision Polarizing? Does it help decide who is in and who is out? Well, let’s talk about that today.
Good morning friends, Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose.
At the end of every year, we ask business owners to write a letter to their teams. They highlight things like where you’ve been, where you’re going, and how grateful they are for the team.
One of the key pieces is always Vision for the next year. And we’ll get into the why here in just a minute.
So, a couple of weeks ago, one of my clients did just this. Spent hours writing his letter to his team. They had a great year! And are positioning themselves for another great year. So, he laid it all out… the vision for the next year. How much work they had on the books, who they were as a business, the accountability they would put in place to keep the bar high, and the reward for the team if they reach their goals.
Even his wife came home after reading it all fired up, saying that she wanted to sign up to work for the team after having the letter read to her.
3 days later, 3 employees came in and quit. Why? Because the vision was so clear, so polarizing that they decided it wasn’t what they wanted to be a part of. They decided it wasn’t where they were heading and so they left.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself. Ouch! That stings! You put all this work in and your team up and quits on you. Should have been more vague…should have made it easier to hear and lowered the bar. Are you kidding me? Not. At. ALL!!!
The business owner called me more pumped up than I’ve heard him in over a year. I know exactly where we’re headed and our entire team is on board. This is the first time I’ve known we were all pulling the same direction in years!
He was absolutely floored… even though his team had shrunk by about 20 percent. Because he knew, that these guys would have fought him all year long and probably robbed his team of performance, profitability, and morale every day that they came to work.
That’s why we work so hard on Vision. It’s polarizing. It separates those who want to be there and those who don’t. It sets the destination and the standard and then allows people on your team to make a decision for themselves, which is a service to them even if they don’t know it!
I’ve never been more proud! Because it energized the business owner, and the rest of his team, to go out and do what they are uniquely equipped to do! That’s a powerful vision.
So, if I was to sit down and listen to your vision for your business or team. How polarizing and clear would it be?
If you were describing the destination to me, would it be something like this? “Well, we’re gonna head up to the northeast and find a town that we’re kind of excited about. We may drive fast, but it may take us another day or two to get there. That’s ok, though. At least we’ll be in the vicinity?”
No! You could arrive somewhere you don’t want to be!
But if it’s the city, the neighborhood, the street, the address, the room inside that house or building. Your team can decide if they’re on board or not!
It’s not vague in any way, but crystal clear. And here’s the beautiful thing about it. If the team comes to you halfway through the year and says, but we didn’t know this is what we were signing up for, you can hold them accountable. You can say, grab your letter I gave you in December that outlined where we’re going. I even took the time to write it down for you so you wouldn’t forget. And retrain to hold accountable.
That’s powerful! Imagine how exciting it would be to arrive at your destination a year from now. Or even to slightly miss it, but to be able to look back and say, well, we’re way closer than we would have been had we not written it down, shared it and planned for how to get there!
That’s Vision that changes you. It’s powerful, polarizing, and transformative. And that’s the vision you want for your team.
Anything less opens the door for chaos to creep back in and for your ceiling as a business to get lower and lower and lower.
So take time to revisit your polarizing vision today. It’s so so worth it. Thanks! Have a great day
What Is Grit And Why Is It Necessary?
In order to rekindle the daylight of clarity, the roadmaps of vision, and the motivational sounds of collaboration, support, belief, and courage, we need to become aware of the impending darkness and choose to replace it with the light of grit.
A recent business owner was hosting her regular check in with one of her key leaders. The key leader made mention of feeling “burned out”. After realizing that the team member had only been a part of the mission for less than 24 months, the owner had an honest narrative in her head saying, ‘you don’t even know what burnout is’, but chose not to say anything.
Instead, the owner made a decision to call the key leader to a higher level of leadership and to encourage the leader to realize that she was not even close to the ceiling of her capability telling her, “there are so many others waiting to be served and impacted through your work, we will not allow the public narrative of burnout to become the dominant narrative in her head.
Instead, she chose to replace that narrative with one of potential, opportunity, risk, adventure, and work.
She chose to help her key leader bust the ceiling of her upper limit challenge.
Grit is defined as “courage and resolve, strength of character”.
Courage is tied directly to fear… courage cannot be displayed where fear is not present. In order to achieve courage, you must go through fear.
Resolve is an unyielding commitment to a specific direction.
Character is the person you are when no one else is looking.
Grit is courage, resolve, AND character.
Without grit…
In his enlightening podcast How I Built This, Guy Raz brings powerful stories from some of the most successful and sizable companies around the world.
Dave Dahl from Dave’s Killer Bread tells of his story of how he went from a prison conviction to building a powerful bread brand.
Or across the street in Milwaukie, Oregon, where sits the famous Bob’s Red Mill. Bob explains how his life’s work went up in flames one night and how he led a lifelong comeback.
Guy Raz certainly talks about the success of each company, and yet does a remarkable job of taking you into the underground of each. You start to realize that it is not so much that money that is interesting, but how each person had to show a constant display of grit, and cultivate a culture of grit in their team.
We’ve been sold a lie. Work a little, play a lot, retire early, and ride off into the sunset.
It’s a lie!
I’m giving you a warning now. The…
“Work-till-you-drop-now-so-you-can-play-golf-till-you-drop-later” strategy
…doesn’t satisfy. Not to mention, there is no guarantee that “later” comes (one of the more unfortunate lessons from a pandemic).
If you live in a retirement community, you will see what I mean.
We have got to learn how to work well, play well, love well, and live well… ALL AT THE SAME TIME. That requires courage, resolve, and character… it requires GRIT.
How Do We Cultivate GRIT in the workplace?
Grind At The Right Time
Role Clarity (aka Do Your Job)
Identify Fear And LEAVE THE HARBOR
Trail A Mentor And/Or Coaching
GRIT only comes through hardship, uphill climbs, and bad weather.
It’s conditioning. Muscles grow thru trauma.
Grit does NOT come merely with the passage of time…but comes instead with a cocktail of time marked by maturity!
GRIT as a training topic used to not make the top of the list of necessary instruction.
For a variety of reasons, that has changed. We need GRIT to lead, GRIT to serve, GRIT to show up, and GRIT to be generous.
When we
Grind At The Right Time
Role Clarity
Identify Fear And LEAVE THE HARBOR
Trail A Mentor And/Or Coaching
Then we are being liberated from chaos to make time for what matters most.
Hey, y’all! Brent Perry with Business on Purpose.
I was coaching with a client this week and we were talking about his first team meeting of the year. He was excited about it. After the holiday season, he was excited to get all his employees and agents in the same room, to get on the same page, to talk about the upcoming week, month, and year.
He then told me he wanted to take it a step further this year.
After he gathered with his entire team, he had set up one-on-one meetings with each of them over the next week. Something he had done in the past, but had stopped during the pandemic.
He said he felt like it was time, and in a safe and healthy way…he wanted to get his time back with his team members.
I think this is brilliant. And needed.
I’m not a huge fan of much social media, I don’t have accounts of most platforms (not against them, just not for me)... but some clips become so viral that you can’t help but see them at some point. Whether it’s my wife, friends, co-workers, even on the news… you name it.
There was a video I saw a couple of years ago from a 5th-grade teacher out of Charlotte, NC that was incredible.
The video was simple, it showed the teacher, Mr. Barry White Jr., standing at the door of his classroom and his students in a single file line waiting to enter. One at a time each student walks up to their teacher does a handshake and then walks into the classroom.
Every single student. And when I say handshake, I don’t mean any kind of simple stick your hand out, firm grip, 4 seconds of eye contact handshake. These were complex and fun and usually had a little dance move at the end of the video.
Each student, and if memory serves me correctly, there were at least 20 kids in his class that got that personalized handshake from their teacher.
That didn’t just happen. That took time for Barry to learn and engage each of his students in a way that celebrated them, and made it personal.
In your business, I am not telling you to do what Barry did with his 5th graders in North Carolina. That wouldn’t translate the same to your employees like it did for an elementary school kid.
I am saying there is a lesson to be learned.
One-on-One time matters.
Take some time to meet with your team. And don’t just talk about numbers and goals. Or problems and solutions.
Yes, those topics do matter and can also be discussed. But spend a little time getting to know them. What makes them tick. What motivates them to walk through your door (or since it’s 2022 maybe turn on their computer and open that phone from their home office).
It can make a difference, and get you on the right track for a 2022 year of FLOURISHING.
Thanks for listening.
If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our Podcast, and/or our YouTube channel.
On Sunday, January 2, 2022, a wildly talented wide receiver in the National Football League decided to remove his jersey and shoulder pads, throw his shirt and gloves into the stands, and simply walk across the field into the locker room all while the game continued to be played.
Throughout 2021, the world, and primarily the western world, was subject to what has become known as The Great Resignation; a record number of people leaving their jobs for reasons not entirely known.
Call it a re-evaluation, or a reset, we’re not quite sure, but we do know it was and is real.
Antonio Brown simply played out on a very public stage what many employers have seen privately in commercial kitchens, construction sites, and entertainment venues throughout the United States and other parts of the world.
On the same day, Antonio Brown walked away from his work with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers professional football team I heard of another worker at a local entertainment venue in our town walking off of their job mid-shift. No major announcement, no obvious “incident”... they just turned in their gear and walked away.
Earlier in 2021, a client of ours had two significant office staff members leave in the middle of the day. If this is happening with reasonably well run businesses, it is bound to be happening on a larger scale.
We are in a season of culture where many seem to be in “fight mode”. Fighting for this niche hope, or that niche desire. Many of these fights are societal discussions that need to be had.
In most cases though, it is not the leaving that is the problem, but instead the fight method and forethought that goes into it.
We want things to change and yet find ourselves unwilling to go through the hard, long, patient work of change in favor of abruptly walking out assuming that it will fix things either with the organization or with ourselves.
There is one skill that stands in contrast to the “walk off” mindset that could bring massive value to you, your business, your community, and your family.
Grit.
Grit is defined as “courage and resolve; strength of character”.
Grit is a visible endurance of something that is not ideal, yet by enduring it can create a next-level maturity that, without grit, will not be achieved.
It will be easy in the Antonio Brown situation to focus on the underlying conditions that were the catalyst Brown used to exit his role, and then begin to put ourselves into jury mode in determining the validity of his grievance in contrast to the actions he took and declare, “Right” or “Wrong”.
Instead, maybe we should ask, “what opportunities were missed by not allowing grit to play a role in sticking it out through the end of the game, and having a sit-down conversation without the cheap air support of a cryptic social media post?”
Grit is a face-to-face conversation.
Grit is riding out the shift and then having a reasonable conversation.
Grit is wading through emotion and objective reality.
Grit is seeking wisdom before making a decision.
Grit is putting in the reps and realizing there is no such thing as an “overnight success”
Author John Sowers says simply, “hurry ruins everything.”
We are working so hard to get so much more and many times missing what is right in front of us.
Remember this wisdom statement, “to whom much is given, much is required.” We work with a lot of people that have significant access to wealth and can tell you with great experience, the ones who “have it all” many times feel like it all has them.
Many times we see anxiety increase with net worth.
Grit is the gift of realizing that whether you have plenty or little, the gift is in being part of the team, being on the field… being in the arena.
President Theodore Roosevelt had completed his two terms in office and was touring the world. He passed through Paris, France, and offered a speech entitled “Citizenship In A Republic”. It has come to be popularly known as the “Man In The Arena” speech and was meant to refute a society that had become a collection of arm-chair-quarterbacks, instead of participants in real life.
Roosevelt famously says,
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
As Antonio Brown theatrically left the arena, it was an interesting contrast to look back at the field of play and see twenty-two other men remain in the arena. Twenty-two men along with their coaches, although likely not perfectly happy in their skill set, contract value, team relationships, or family availability; they continued on in the arena “marred with dust and sweat and blood…” erring, coming short, and spending themselves in a worthy cause.
You may have woken to a New Year enthused with the opportunities that lie in wait or you may have woken to a New Year a bit dreadful of the striving that this year will require.
Regardless, you have the opportunity to dare greatly, and by daring greatly to know victory or defeat along with a soul that is full of warmth and courage.
Grit will be the necessary skill of a New Year.
What is your mindset going into 2022? What questions are you asking yourself to ensure that you think differently this year and keep growing? I’ve got 3 that I’d assume you haven’t thought of yet and I’m excited to ask you today.
Happy New Year to you friends! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here. So excited you are joining us and tuning back in for another year of the My Business on Purpose Podcast.
Each year I try to think differently. To walk down different paths and view things from another perspective! It helps keep things fresh and new and keeps me from getting bored. But, it also helps me to keep moving forward. To keep growing and continue being shaped and resist stagnancy.
I may come to the same conclusions year after year, but at least it will be reinforced by a new perspective and foundation for those same beliefs.
So, after thinking through some new perspectives with my clients at the end of 2021, I started asking some questions that are moving me towards some new actions in 2022. I’m excited to take this on as it’s a new opportunity to be intentional in everything I do.
Alright, so after taking some time to craft these questions last week, here’s what I want you to wrestle with this week.
Question number 1.
1. What do you consider wealth?
I stumbled across an interview with Bob Marley from around 1970 and a reporter was asking him if he made a lot of money.
“What’s a lot to you?” Marley asked back. “Millions,” the reporter came back. “No.”
“Are you a rich man?” The reporter then asked. “What do you mean rich?” Marley looked genuinely confused. “Do you have a lot of possessions, money in the bank?”
Here’s where I was captured… Bob Marley finished with this…”Possessions make you rich? I don’t have that type of richness. My richness is life, forever.”
And you can hear it in his rastafarian accent. It’s amazing. And yet has to make you think right? What do I consider rich or wealthy? What do I consider wealth?
Am I chasing someone else’s version of “rich?” or wealth? Or am I running after something that I know, if I catch it, I will be content and happy and joyful and satisfied?
I’d wager that a lot of us have never truly stopped to think about how we define wealth. Or what you want your wealth to consist of. And what Bob Marley says is a bit ridiculous right? Life, forever. What is that? But at least he’s living his version of rich. That’s all you can ask for.
Now hear me say this. Wealth has to be separate from monetary goals. It can be a part of it. But if you are not happy without it, Money never stands a chance to truly make you happy. In fact, a lot of times it just brings on more and more problems. Accents the hole within.
So take some time today to work on your Vision for this year and Define wealth!
Question number 2…
2. If someone looked at the way you spend your time and money, what would they say you value?
I almost didn’t write this question as it’s so personal. It’s a shot to the heart right? It always hits me in the face at the end of the year when I look back at how we did on our budget.
We spent what on what??? Are you kidding me? We don’t even like that! Why are we spending our money on that? Or when I look back on how we spent our time last year. Is it with the people we love and care about? Was it doing things we want to be doing or having experiences we will remember?
Or did we waste time? Are we locked into habits that we’re sick of? Are we spending time places out of obligation that in now way bring us life?
What does the way you spend your time and money say about what you value? And what do you hope your time and money shows your value? Where’s the disconnect?
That leads us to our last question…
3. What do you need to do to intentionally change that?
The time is now to make a change. Is it hopping online and canceling all those tv subscription packages that add up! Is it putting time parameters on your iPhone to keep you from scrolling your way into oblivion with all the social media crap you inhale? Is it building a weekly schedule and truly time blocking your week so that the things you value truly have a time and a place and are built into a rhythm for your week?
Is it setting your alarm earlier and placing it across the room so you can’t hit the snooze button? Is it signing up for a class or sitting down with your calendar and putting the things you value on there RIGHT FREAKING NOW, so you make sure to prioritize what you value?
I know if you don’t do it now, you will look back on 2022 with regret. Because either you own your time and spend your money intentionally or your time and money get spent for you. There’s no in between.
And no, you don’t have the time, you have to create the time. It will not just happen.
So, think through those questions this week.
1. What do you consider wealth?
2. If someone looked at the way you spent your time and money, what would they say you value?
3. What do you need to do intentionally to change that?
Enjoy! As always, if we can help be a part of chasing that with you, please reach out.
Have a great 2022 and please go ahead and subscribe to this podcast if you can. We want this content delivered straight to you every week, so make it as easy on yourself as possible.
Take care!