Vision
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Passion = Success
We all have a drive to be successful. To be successful in life, love what you do. Whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability. Whatever your ability is, drive to get better. Whatever you want to be better at, make the choice. When you make a choice, have the discipline to stick with it. In order to have discipline, you need to understand why? Once you understand why, you have meaning and purpose. With meaning and purpose comes passion.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Short Term or Long Term Focus?
I was out for a run tonight and had an epiphany.
Life, and success in it, is all about whether you have short or long term goals. Think about it... Here's two examples using career and health. Short term focus begets excuses, long term focus begets success.
In your career if you have a short term focus then you're going to be looking at the dollars you're making, the title on your business card, if you're climbing the ladder or not and why you don't get recognized. With a long term focus you're going to be focused on going the extra mile, working within your circle of influence, building relationships and growing your skills.
With your health, a short term focus will cause you to be disappointed with missed goals, fill a void with food, skip a workout and/or eat unhealthy because it's easier. With a long term focus on your health you will create daily rituals that will take you closer to your goal and most importantly you will know WHY you want to be healthier.
When you focus on the long term and then do all the things that you need to do well to get there then the success will come. More often than not, if you have a short term focus then you're not going to get to where you want.
Choice and discipline, that's what it's all about. Begin with the end in mind and stay the course. Don't waver. Be strong. Persist. You can do it!
Life, and success in it, is all about whether you have short or long term goals. Think about it... Here's two examples using career and health. Short term focus begets excuses, long term focus begets success.
In your career if you have a short term focus then you're going to be looking at the dollars you're making, the title on your business card, if you're climbing the ladder or not and why you don't get recognized. With a long term focus you're going to be focused on going the extra mile, working within your circle of influence, building relationships and growing your skills.
With your health, a short term focus will cause you to be disappointed with missed goals, fill a void with food, skip a workout and/or eat unhealthy because it's easier. With a long term focus on your health you will create daily rituals that will take you closer to your goal and most importantly you will know WHY you want to be healthier.
When you focus on the long term and then do all the things that you need to do well to get there then the success will come. More often than not, if you have a short term focus then you're not going to get to where you want.
Choice and discipline, that's what it's all about. Begin with the end in mind and stay the course. Don't waver. Be strong. Persist. You can do it!
Sunday, March 10, 2013
There Are NO Failures
The meeting didn't go the way you planned. You haven't lost the weight you were hoping to lose. It doesn't look like you're going to make your monthly budget. You're not where you want to be in your career.
How do we view these events? Positive or negative? You have a choice. My suggestion is to take a potentially sub-par outcome and treat it as nothing more than a result. Don't think of it as a failure, just a result. Not only will this keep you in a more positive state of mind but it will also get you on the fast track to achieving a better result next time.
The first time I heard about this philosophy was a few years ago in an audio recording of an Anthony Robbins speech, where he said, "...there are no failures, only results." At the time the statement didn't have a huge impact, but over the next few years to now I've kept this idea in the back of my mind.
My Lean and business experience has also helped to support the "No Failure" mindset. I have a growing understanding that there are desired results and actual results; my job is to understand the gap between the two. Once I understand the gap, I need to eliminate it and achieve the desired result(s). The best part, once I reach the desired result then I need to move the desired result out even farther and create a new gap.
The gap is made up of waste (there are 8 forms of waste), outdated paradigms, WWADI (way we've always done it), fear, lack of training and many other things. Eliminate these things are you will achieve the desired results.
Leave the fails for Youtube, we want results. Make it happen.
How do we view these events? Positive or negative? You have a choice. My suggestion is to take a potentially sub-par outcome and treat it as nothing more than a result. Don't think of it as a failure, just a result. Not only will this keep you in a more positive state of mind but it will also get you on the fast track to achieving a better result next time.
The first time I heard about this philosophy was a few years ago in an audio recording of an Anthony Robbins speech, where he said, "...there are no failures, only results." At the time the statement didn't have a huge impact, but over the next few years to now I've kept this idea in the back of my mind.
My Lean and business experience has also helped to support the "No Failure" mindset. I have a growing understanding that there are desired results and actual results; my job is to understand the gap between the two. Once I understand the gap, I need to eliminate it and achieve the desired result(s). The best part, once I reach the desired result then I need to move the desired result out even farther and create a new gap.
The gap is made up of waste (there are 8 forms of waste), outdated paradigms, WWADI (way we've always done it), fear, lack of training and many other things. Eliminate these things are you will achieve the desired results.
Leave the fails for Youtube, we want results. Make it happen.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
The 8 Wastes in Your Business
All businesses are full of waste. Moreover, the waste is preventing you from higher profit, shorter lead times, better quality, less headaches, better teamwork, reduced costs and so much more.
There are eight forms of waste that you need to be looking for at all times. The first seven were originally identified by Taiichi Ohno, the late Toyota executive who also pioneered other Lean concepts such as JIT and TPS. Each of these categories of waste should be treated with equal importance, none are more important than another.
1. Transportation - Using people to move material, information and supplies is a waste. Ideally, any and all transportation should be automated. People need to be used for value added work and moving stuff around is NOT value added work. Examples of transportation waste would be people pushing stuff on carts from here to there and forklifts moving material/pallets around.
2. Inventory - No inventory is ideal, but sometimes a small buffer inventory is needed due to lead times or minimum order quantities. Anywhere inventory is needed there should be a kanban in place to manage the inventory based on pull from the customer.
3. Motion - This waste is all about ergonomics. Everything needed for a task should be within arms reach; moreover, there shouldn't be any excess bending, turning or reaching for tools or parts.
4. Waiting - Waiting for ANYTHING is a waste; people, material, supplies or information.
5. Over Production - Making too many _____. Have you ever made too many copies of a document? Have you ever produced more widgets "just in case"? Do you double-enter information anywhere in you business/supply chain? If you answered yes, then you're producing waste.
6. Over Processing - This is using inappropriate tools to achieve a quality product or service. Two great examples would be using a dull axe to chop down a tree or cracking a walnut using a sledgehammer.
7. Defects - These are any mistakes or errors, both internally and externally. If a product is produced that does not meet the customer's expectations then a defect has been produced. When a process produces a defect the process should stop immediately, fix the problem that created the defect and only when the problem (and the root of the problem) is corrected should the process continue.
8. Skills - Whenever you don't take full advantage of your people's talents and abilities then you are wasting them. Involve your people in problem solving, kaizen and improving your business.
Tim Woods, just remember Tim Woods and you will remember the eight forms of waste. What do I mean by Tim Woods? Look at the first letters of each of the wastes. Taa daaaa.
Now what? Get out from behind your desk, talk to your people/team, go to the gemba, look for the waste and ask your team to help.
There are eight forms of waste that you need to be looking for at all times. The first seven were originally identified by Taiichi Ohno, the late Toyota executive who also pioneered other Lean concepts such as JIT and TPS. Each of these categories of waste should be treated with equal importance, none are more important than another.
1. Transportation - Using people to move material, information and supplies is a waste. Ideally, any and all transportation should be automated. People need to be used for value added work and moving stuff around is NOT value added work. Examples of transportation waste would be people pushing stuff on carts from here to there and forklifts moving material/pallets around.
2. Inventory - No inventory is ideal, but sometimes a small buffer inventory is needed due to lead times or minimum order quantities. Anywhere inventory is needed there should be a kanban in place to manage the inventory based on pull from the customer.
3. Motion - This waste is all about ergonomics. Everything needed for a task should be within arms reach; moreover, there shouldn't be any excess bending, turning or reaching for tools or parts.
4. Waiting - Waiting for ANYTHING is a waste; people, material, supplies or information.
5. Over Production - Making too many _____. Have you ever made too many copies of a document? Have you ever produced more widgets "just in case"? Do you double-enter information anywhere in you business/supply chain? If you answered yes, then you're producing waste.
6. Over Processing - This is using inappropriate tools to achieve a quality product or service. Two great examples would be using a dull axe to chop down a tree or cracking a walnut using a sledgehammer.
7. Defects - These are any mistakes or errors, both internally and externally. If a product is produced that does not meet the customer's expectations then a defect has been produced. When a process produces a defect the process should stop immediately, fix the problem that created the defect and only when the problem (and the root of the problem) is corrected should the process continue.
8. Skills - Whenever you don't take full advantage of your people's talents and abilities then you are wasting them. Involve your people in problem solving, kaizen and improving your business.
Tim Woods, just remember Tim Woods and you will remember the eight forms of waste. What do I mean by Tim Woods? Look at the first letters of each of the wastes. Taa daaaa.
Now what? Get out from behind your desk, talk to your people/team, go to the gemba, look for the waste and ask your team to help.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
No Excuses!
There's always an opportunity to come up with an excuse. Why? Why do people make excuses?
My feeling is that there's a few reasons why people make excuses; they don't want to deal with a potential failure, it's going to be hard work, and/or they're worried what others might say. There's probably a lot more reasons why people make excuses, but these three are the main ones. You are stronger than these things!
The famous quote that comes to mind is by the Star Wars movie character Yoda, who said "Do or do not, there is no try." Excuses fall somewhere between 'do' and 'do not', in the same place where 'trying' lives.
If you're looking for the pathway to success then you have to take the path that is free of trying and excuses. The first step on the path to success starts with choice and discipline, the choice to walk the path and the discipline to stay on the path despite distractions, bad habits and temptations to get off the path. A choice to make excuses is a choice to accept mediocrity, and if that's your choice then be happy with it and don't regret the outcome. What I believe is that we all have a choice between regret and discipline. What do you choose? I choose discipline.
Don't give up, persist. Don't try, do. Don't complain, influence. Don't keep doing the same, change. Don't settle, succeed.
My feeling is that there's a few reasons why people make excuses; they don't want to deal with a potential failure, it's going to be hard work, and/or they're worried what others might say. There's probably a lot more reasons why people make excuses, but these three are the main ones. You are stronger than these things!
The famous quote that comes to mind is by the Star Wars movie character Yoda, who said "Do or do not, there is no try." Excuses fall somewhere between 'do' and 'do not', in the same place where 'trying' lives.
If you're looking for the pathway to success then you have to take the path that is free of trying and excuses. The first step on the path to success starts with choice and discipline, the choice to walk the path and the discipline to stay on the path despite distractions, bad habits and temptations to get off the path. A choice to make excuses is a choice to accept mediocrity, and if that's your choice then be happy with it and don't regret the outcome. What I believe is that we all have a choice between regret and discipline. What do you choose? I choose discipline.
Don't give up, persist. Don't try, do. Don't complain, influence. Don't keep doing the same, change. Don't settle, succeed.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Why I'm Successful
My success maxims: There is no one definition of success. Despite what you may read, there is not a set of magical steps that will get you to success. You should never let anyone prevent you from getting to your success. There is only one person responsible for your success, you.
With that being said, here are my own principles that I follow and what I believe make me successful.
Choice and Discipline - Everything in life is a choice; your health, career, relationships and everything else. Depending on what you want to get out of life you will need to achieve certain things to get there. For example, if you want to be in good health then you're going to have to make a choice to eat a balanced diet and exercise. Now comes the discipline... You know what the choice should be to achieve good health, but do you have the discipline to stick with it every day, week, month, year and so on? If success is your goal, then discipline is essential to get there.
Success is being happy with my choices - The choices I make define who I am. I don't regret any choices I've made in my life, and for the choices that didn't turn out as I would have liked, I choose to learn from them rather than regret.
Balance is essential - So many people say they want balance but don't follow up, not me. An average weekday for me looks like this... Starting at 5AM after 7-8 hours sleep... Workout (45 min.), work with passion (9-10 hours), family time (2-3 hours), improve myself through reading, writing, hobby or anything (1 hour), leaving a couple hours for meals, travel or adding a bit to the other areas. Weekends, replace the work piece with family time. This is my balance.
Start with Why? - This is a relatively new principle for me, one that I picked up only a few months ago. It stemmed from a TED Talk that I watched of Simon Sinek titled "How Leaders Inspire Action". If you haven't watched it I highly recommend you do. The concept is that most people start with What, then How and finally (yet rarely) figure out with Why they do things. Simon says (no pun intended) start with Why? Then go to How and end with What. By starting with WHY you do something you will give meaning and purpose to everything you do; moreover, when you start with Why, the How and What take care of themselves.
Kaizen - Kaizen is a Japanese word for continuous improvement that means many things to me. Most significantly, kaizen is a passion to make things better, reflection, respect for others, knowing what I can influence and not allowing the things that I can't influence to affect me.
Be myself, everyone else is already taken - There's not much more I can say about this, it's pretty self explanatory.
Keep learning and reading - I read as much as I can, a chapter each day is my goal. I believe that in order to fuel personal growth and to keep my mind sharp that need to keep reading and feeding my brain. During an acceptance speech at the Teen Choice Awards, Will Smith talked about the keys to life being running and reading, check it out on Youtube.
Exercise - My gut feeling is that we all tend to ignore the fact that we're not going to live forever. On top of that, as we go through life we also tend to ignore our health until a health crisis forces us to change destructive habits or even worse, when it's too late for change. If you're one of these people it's never too late, and if you're not one of these people then I commend you. Regular exercise will not make you live forever, but it will definitely allow you to enjoy your time on this Earth with more energy and more years than if you don't achieve regular exercise.
I'll leave you with this... Don't settle for mediocrity. Find your success, whatever it is, and go get it.
With that being said, here are my own principles that I follow and what I believe make me successful.
Choice and Discipline - Everything in life is a choice; your health, career, relationships and everything else. Depending on what you want to get out of life you will need to achieve certain things to get there. For example, if you want to be in good health then you're going to have to make a choice to eat a balanced diet and exercise. Now comes the discipline... You know what the choice should be to achieve good health, but do you have the discipline to stick with it every day, week, month, year and so on? If success is your goal, then discipline is essential to get there.
Success is being happy with my choices - The choices I make define who I am. I don't regret any choices I've made in my life, and for the choices that didn't turn out as I would have liked, I choose to learn from them rather than regret.
Balance is essential - So many people say they want balance but don't follow up, not me. An average weekday for me looks like this... Starting at 5AM after 7-8 hours sleep... Workout (45 min.), work with passion (9-10 hours), family time (2-3 hours), improve myself through reading, writing, hobby or anything (1 hour), leaving a couple hours for meals, travel or adding a bit to the other areas. Weekends, replace the work piece with family time. This is my balance.
Start with Why? - This is a relatively new principle for me, one that I picked up only a few months ago. It stemmed from a TED Talk that I watched of Simon Sinek titled "How Leaders Inspire Action". If you haven't watched it I highly recommend you do. The concept is that most people start with What, then How and finally (yet rarely) figure out with Why they do things. Simon says (no pun intended) start with Why? Then go to How and end with What. By starting with WHY you do something you will give meaning and purpose to everything you do; moreover, when you start with Why, the How and What take care of themselves.
Kaizen - Kaizen is a Japanese word for continuous improvement that means many things to me. Most significantly, kaizen is a passion to make things better, reflection, respect for others, knowing what I can influence and not allowing the things that I can't influence to affect me.
Be myself, everyone else is already taken - There's not much more I can say about this, it's pretty self explanatory.
Keep learning and reading - I read as much as I can, a chapter each day is my goal. I believe that in order to fuel personal growth and to keep my mind sharp that need to keep reading and feeding my brain. During an acceptance speech at the Teen Choice Awards, Will Smith talked about the keys to life being running and reading, check it out on Youtube.
Exercise - My gut feeling is that we all tend to ignore the fact that we're not going to live forever. On top of that, as we go through life we also tend to ignore our health until a health crisis forces us to change destructive habits or even worse, when it's too late for change. If you're one of these people it's never too late, and if you're not one of these people then I commend you. Regular exercise will not make you live forever, but it will definitely allow you to enjoy your time on this Earth with more energy and more years than if you don't achieve regular exercise.
I'll leave you with this... Don't settle for mediocrity. Find your success, whatever it is, and go get it.
Friday, January 25, 2013
The World of You, What and Try.
We need to change.
We live in a world of You, What and Try. And although not everyone is plagued by this mindset, unfortunately the vast majority of us are. We need to change. What do I mean by You, What and Try? Let's start with You; this is essentially a focus or blame of our current situations on anyone or anything other than ourselves. Moreover, it's always looking for a scapegoat or external reason that we didn't achieve the results we want. This could be health, economy, career, family or anywhere else we're not successful to a point where we believe we should be. Next is What. We're a species that is getting more and more attached to the What in life, the material things. What I want; faster internet, more money, better health, fancy car, deeper relationships, and so on... These are all what we want, they're "stuff" without meaning or purpose. Lastly, there's Try. This lovely three letter word is widespread and instils failure the moment it leaves our lips. "I'll try to...", and when you don't get the results you want? Hey, at least you tried...
We need to change to a mindset of Me, Why and Can. it's all up to you, no one else. Where ever you get to in life, or don't get to, you're the one that got you there. We all need to focus on ourselves and what we can influence, stop wasting time on things you can't control. Believe me, you can control more than you think. When you hit road blocks and challenges you can rise up and keep moving forward or you can give up. The world is full of people who have risen above challenges that seem insurmountable, be inspired by these people. Don't wait and see, don't follow the crowd and don't be afraid of what others will say (they're just envious that you stepped up when they couldn't). Be a leader. Why... Do you know why you do what you do? Why do you go to work? Why do you eat the way you do? If you want more out of life then you have to start with why, your purpose, something deep within you driving you forward. Without that meaning behind accomplishments you just get "stuff", and most of the time the "stuff" isn't really what you need or want. Lastly, you Can. You can achieve whatever you want and can be successful at whatever you want. Seriously, you can. You just need to know why you want it and have a purpose or understand that you're future is in your hands. Take "Maybe" and "try" and replace them with "Can" and "Will".
Me, What and Can are not easy and take discipline, which is why we don't all do it. It's hard, we try, we don't know why we're doing it and then blame external reasons when we don't get there. I ask you this, if you could choose regret or discipline, which one would you pick? Make a choice and be happy with which ever one you picked.
We live in a world of You, What and Try. And although not everyone is plagued by this mindset, unfortunately the vast majority of us are. We need to change. What do I mean by You, What and Try? Let's start with You; this is essentially a focus or blame of our current situations on anyone or anything other than ourselves. Moreover, it's always looking for a scapegoat or external reason that we didn't achieve the results we want. This could be health, economy, career, family or anywhere else we're not successful to a point where we believe we should be. Next is What. We're a species that is getting more and more attached to the What in life, the material things. What I want; faster internet, more money, better health, fancy car, deeper relationships, and so on... These are all what we want, they're "stuff" without meaning or purpose. Lastly, there's Try. This lovely three letter word is widespread and instils failure the moment it leaves our lips. "I'll try to...", and when you don't get the results you want? Hey, at least you tried...
We need to change to a mindset of Me, Why and Can. it's all up to you, no one else. Where ever you get to in life, or don't get to, you're the one that got you there. We all need to focus on ourselves and what we can influence, stop wasting time on things you can't control. Believe me, you can control more than you think. When you hit road blocks and challenges you can rise up and keep moving forward or you can give up. The world is full of people who have risen above challenges that seem insurmountable, be inspired by these people. Don't wait and see, don't follow the crowd and don't be afraid of what others will say (they're just envious that you stepped up when they couldn't). Be a leader. Why... Do you know why you do what you do? Why do you go to work? Why do you eat the way you do? If you want more out of life then you have to start with why, your purpose, something deep within you driving you forward. Without that meaning behind accomplishments you just get "stuff", and most of the time the "stuff" isn't really what you need or want. Lastly, you Can. You can achieve whatever you want and can be successful at whatever you want. Seriously, you can. You just need to know why you want it and have a purpose or understand that you're future is in your hands. Take "Maybe" and "try" and replace them with "Can" and "Will".
Me, What and Can are not easy and take discipline, which is why we don't all do it. It's hard, we try, we don't know why we're doing it and then blame external reasons when we don't get there. I ask you this, if you could choose regret or discipline, which one would you pick? Make a choice and be happy with which ever one you picked.
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