Are you a golfer?

Are you a golfer? I'm certainly not, however, when I played golf, I thought I was doing pretty well just to get the ball somewhere on the putting green.
The truth be told, my main goal was to reach the green without majorly embarrassing myself, so I was satisfied even when my ball made it somewhere near the fringes.
One day a local golf pro told me that the key difference between an average golfer and one who is excellent is this: The truly great players shoot for the hole, not somewhere near the hole or somewhere on the green. They aim directly for the hole.
He told me, “You should make the hole your goal.” My intelligent, thoughtful response was, “Yeah, right! That’ll be the day.”
I didn’t think I’d ever be able to hit the hole, so I didn’t even try. The reason so many of us get stuck, unable to move deeper into whatever we attempt is because we don’t think it’s truly possible, at least for us. And so we don’t even try.
For 2012 one of my wishes is for everyone who has a huge dream to make the honest attempt to reach the dream. While thinking about this I realized that my golf game mistake was the exact same mistake many others make with their dreams. Now I don't ever dream of being a great or even good golfer - I just don't care for the game that much. However, I do want to be a better pilot and I do have several other things that I want to improve at doing - and for those items I need to "shoot for the hole" rather than just aiming for the fringe and being satisfied.
My New Years Wish for you is to "SHOOT FOR THE HOLE!" and to have a very Happy 2012.
Steve

Relaxing over the Holidays

I wrote earlier this month about making and working a plan for 2012. I've already completed the outline of my personal plan - but with me it is not just a written piece of paper but rather a living document that gets reviewed regularly and updated as needed.
As I sit here at home this last week of 2011 enjoying a week of vacation and visiting with my daughter, son-in-law, and grand daughter I realized that I wasn't really living my plan. Worse than that, I haven't been for the past several years! You see I always have God first in my plan, then family, then personal items and secure it all with work plans.
It dawned on me, rather shocked me, that for the past few years I haven't used all my vacation time that my company, USG Corp, is so generous to provide. This year is no exception. I am losing almost 2 weeks of vacation, again this year, and that just isn't fair to anyone.
I violate my family plan by shorting them of time together, and I violate my work plan because as we all really KNOW but sometimes forget to admit, that I don't do my best work when I'm tired and not really refreshed and recharged - which by the way - IS the PURPOSE of the company providing vacation time.
So I've just taken advantage of a fantastic opportunity to book a 5 day cruise with another couple during the month of January because the price was just way too cheap to pass it up! $219 per person for 5 days of cruise, including all taxes and fees! When you figure the cost of food and entertainment as well as the sleeping accommodation's, you can't even stay at a Motel 6 for that cheap - even if they do "Leave The Light On."
So this year, maybe for the first time ever, it is my plan and intention to spread my vacation time out and find real bargains so that not only do I recharge and refresh, (my work goals), I also meet my social, personal, and family goals, and have fun all at the same time.
What about you? Have you started on your plan for 2012 yet? Reviewed it? Thought about it?
No time like NOW to start so that 2012 will be the Best Year Ever for you.

Back to my family and easy chair now............
Steve

Success for 2012 hints.

Want big success in 2012?

It's as simple as football. 1. Know the rules. 2. Know the Playbook. 3. Execute.
You do know the rules don't you? Do you follow them?
What about your playbook? You have one don't you?
Execution is where most folks fail. They just keep getting ready to get ready but never seem to actually get into the game with action.

As a pilot we talk about "Flying in the Soup." Which means flying your airplane in poor weather conditions. Sometimes life provides us with poor conditions also - so here's what you need to do to overcome this.
1. Know the rules. 2. Know the playbook. 3. Forget your feelings. 4. Trust and believe your instruments.
Now the first two are the same as football. Number 3 means you can't rely on just how things feel when you fly - you must have accurate facts. Where do you get the "Facts?" From number 4 - trusting and believing your instruments. Same easy steps as football without a sight or vision reference. Much as the economic conditions we experienced during 2011.

Success in 2012 is really just about taking common sense steps that you already know and applying them plus doing the execution, even on those day's you may not feel like it.
As the shoe company said: "JUST DO IT!"

Merry Christmas to All.
Steve

Fast Start 2012

Hopefully everyone found last Monday's post on The Compound Effect - interesting and useful. Carrying forward in that same light, I would like to suggest that you consider taking time right now to carefully craft your "plan" for 2012.

My "plan" which I update regularly, but at least annually, includes the following items:
My personal vision statement
My Life Purpose statement
My Roles and Goals statement
My Accountability Checklist
One final item that I found helpful for me is a list of my strengths and weaknesses so that I can remain aware of both and plan to utilize my strengths while supporting my known weaknesses with others help.

Probably the single thing that I do that is critical for me is to plan and execute a daily Quiet Time. This is the time when I set myself apart to review and pray about everything going on in my life. I try to accomplish this in the mornings, but since my schedule requires flexibility I find myself doing my quiet time at various times - sometimes mornings, sometimes evenings, and sometimes even during my lunch time at the office. The critical thing for me is to DO IT!

If you have interest in any of the above planning items or tools, please contact me directly via email and I will share my statements and plans with you. It sounds overwhelming when you read this, but believe me, once you start it becomes so very easy and after you have carefully crafted your plan updating it regularly is actually quite fast.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Steve

Advise for 2012 start

This blog is absolutely not a book review, however, many of you know, as I do, that reading good books is critical to your future success. I've finished a fantastic book called:
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.

In the book he points out the following critical information to make 2012 the best year EVER in your life.

Five Key Points to Harness The Compound Effect

1. Choices: Identify what you want to change in your life.
2. Habits: Present specific strategies for eliminating bad habits.
3. Momentum: Develop profitable and effective routines.
4. Influence: Sustain positive life influences.
5. Acceleration: Actions that exponentially increase the impact of efforts.

If you follow this easy plan, in small daily steps, you will, absolutely, exceed your wildest goals and plans quicker and easier than you ever thought possible.

It is my suggestion that you consider purchasing this book for anyone you care about and also a copy for yourself. It will be, I promise, a fantastic return on your investment in 2012.

These are my thoughts, I'd love to hear yours.
Steve

A Standard World??

Lately I've spent a lot of my time involved in working on Standards. I'm involved in ASTM, ANSI and ISO and all 3 of those organizations develop and provide standards to help improve our world. I heard a number which shocked me recently - there are over 6,000 standards in use in over 80 countries in the world today. Yet the work is just barely begun as we still seem to see stories in the news on a regular basis about some product coming into the US defective and being sold to unknowing consumers because there was/is no standard in place currently covering that particular product. The gypsum industry learned that lesson the hard way a few years ago.
Believe it or not, almost everything you see or touch today is somehow covered by a standard in some way, either materials used or the testing protocol to bring the product to the marketplace. Yes, even your local ATM machine has many standards. Since I'm involved in the building materials industry I'm somewhat forced to become involved in building codes - and in the latest codes for residential buildings alone there are over 1500 ASTM specifications, practices, and test methods that the industry must comply with.
There are standards for everything - even standards about how to write and produce standards. There are standards for amusement park rides, standards for the vehicles that get you to the park, standards for the products in the hotels you stay in while visiting the parks, etc, etc. The funny thing is when you come across something that has no standard, then nerds like me immediately want to create a standard so that product too is covered!
Now I have to be honest here, nobody I've ever heard of grew up dreaming of becoming a standards developer. Not that there is anything unsavory or unsatisfying about being in the standards workplace - is is just necessary, low-profile work that some folks seem to end up involved in and usually either like it or leave quickly.
So in closing this Raving I want you to think about this: As you are decorating your house or even your tree this year know that the lights are covered by a standard, the ornaments are covered by standards, even the garland is covered by a standard. Doesn't that just take the joy out of your holiday season!!!

These are my thoughts, let me hear yours.
Steve

Doubt and Fear

Right now I have this quote on my email for work:
Doubt and Fear are the greatest enemies of Knowledge.
He who conquers Doubt and Fear conquers Failure.

Now I don't know how you feel about these two words, but I personally believe they have caused more failures than anything else. Every time someone has Doubt and Fear it tends to lead them to do nothing, which generally is the absolute worst thing they could do. Most of the time, in my experience, doing nothing leads to worse failures than if you had done even the wrong thing.

Next time you realize you have doubt and fear attacking you, stop, take a deep breath, relax, and then go back to work acquiring the needed knowledge to do something - to make something happen - to move in a forward direction. You will conquer failure this way.

I once took a sales course where the leader suggested that it is much easier to push a pendulum in the wrong direction than the right way. But do it anyway, because once you get it moving it is much easier to push it back in the correct direction. It's the movement that counts most of the time. I've found that to be exactly true in my business career.

So my Raving for today is this: Doubt and Fear - NEVER EVER allow them an extra second of life when you realize they are with you. They will only push you away from true knowledge and towards failure.

These are my thoughts, what are yours?

Steve