Connecting with a Motivator

What a great weekend I had! I hope you all did too. What made my weekend so great? Almost too much to mention. However, the greatest thing about my weekend was a visit from one of my nephews.
He arrived Friday evening and I have to say, he arrived to probably one of the most deflated couples he had seen in a long time. I was worn pretty thin from my week at work and my wife was beaten down from her week at school. In addition, we had a sick kid in the house that was needing a little attention as well.
After the usual greetings, we decided to go grab a bite of late dinner and try to get caught up with all that was going on in our nephews life. We ducked into a local pub and tiredly slid into a booth. After yawning a few times and making lame attempts at conversation, my wife and I sat staring blindly at the menu. My nephew grabbed all the menus and said that he needed our attention. In his usual "take command" way, he pointed out that since he walked through our front door, we had complained about our work week, pointed out that our son had a bad cold, complained about the poor choice of restaurants, and asked him several questions about his life that included such fun topics as his divorce, his ex-wife, and his challenges at work. He then asked if he could expect the whole weekend to be such an uplifting experience.
My wife hesitated for a few seconds and then just busted out into laughter. My nephew was so right. We were wasting a great Friday night by complaining and lamenting our lives. Once he saw that he had support, my nephew continued to push and prod us into having a great time. We finally found our feet and ended up laughing and dancing until 2am. What a great time.
As I reflected on the weekend last night, it dawned on me what a great lesson we learned Friday night with my nephew. He was a great motivator for us. He reminded us to live in the moment and to only work the problems until you have done your best. At that point, let it go. I woke up this morning with a new found interest in making the most of the day. Not wanting to worry or lament. Just wanting to to have a good time doing what I do.
If you know of a motivator in your life, take the time to connect. It will do all the good in the world!

Remembering Not to Settle

You are out there every day of the week giving it your best. You are dedicated and motivated and you continue to strive for the everything you dream of. You make progress daily and continually gain ground. Then you get smacked in the face with a set back.
Challenges take many forms but no matter which form they take, they often have a similar toll on your spirit. They sap a little bit of energy. If you are a little worn out, they can sap massive amounts of energy. They can leave you drained and asking yourself if you have what it takes.
You are a seasoned professional though. You have proven that you are tough. So, you quietly tell yourself that you will not quit, but is that enough? Are you really telling yourself that you will keep trying, but not trying as hard?
Times like these is when you cant tell yourself that good is good enough. If your set back is a big one and far reaching, it will be easy to look at all you have accomplished in the past and call it good enough. "Hey, I'm not in President's Club, but I had a good year". To some, that may sound like a great, positive attitude. Only if it is at the end of a year where you gave it all you had and came up a little short. If you find yourself thinking that kind of thought after a set back, you need to check yourself.
As I have said before, "be happy with everything you have, but don't be happy with all the things you don't have." After a tough work situation hits you, it is more important than ever to re-focus on your goals. Do not settle for "good" when your real dream is greatness.

Hey! Whats With the Long Face?

Im going to keep it brief today folks. Brief but worth the time and worth the read.
This weekend I was visiting family and had the pleasure of engaging in a great conversation about business ethics with my sister-in-law and her main squeeze. As controlers and auditors, they are often faced with wrestling with business ethics issues. They are often put in the position of informing executives that somebody in the organization is on the take or is engaging in less than exemplary behaviour. Listening to their stories got me thinking about ethics issues in my own business. As I shared my own stories with them, I realized that I was getting really upset.
It dawned on me that violations of ethics really got under my skin. As I thought about the conversation later in the day, I was impressed with how much it really means to me to be ethical and to work with others that are ethical as well.
In many ways, these ethics issues are one of the main factors in problems with job satisfaction. When your values are different from your customers or co-workers, it creates problems of community and commonality. It can be one of the major factors in "burn-out".
When you cant live your values at work, you will become very unhappy, very quickly.
Take the time to review your ethics and value structure and locate areas at work that force you to violate or walk the line. If it is a relationship with a customer, take the time to redefine it. If you have problems with the business ethics of a co-worker, find a way to suggest a better way of doing things. Im not suggesting that you blow the whistle or make accusations. Just begin to lead by example and be willing to bring up ethics issues at group meetings.
When others realize that you hold a higher standard, they will most often try to live up to your expectations and make changes for the better.