i just finished the "2008 Marketing Plan" and "Projected 2008 Sales Goals" for my company and it got me thinking about New Years resolutions.
i have always thought of the whole idea as being asinine but i am slowly starting to change my mind. i think that the biggest problem i have with the whole thing is that people set goals for the New Year but have no plan on how to achieve their new goals... they have no strategy.
This year, i would implore you to treat your life like a business. No business goes into a new season of growth without a plan, any business that fails to set goals and create a plan to actually achieve their goals WILL fail. Over 98% of new business fail within the first year of their life, why, because they don't have a target and they don't have a realistic strategy for hitting their target.
Don't live your life this way. Treat your life like a business, write down a set "sales goals" (i.e things that you personally want to accomplish, become, create etc.) and from that create a"marketing plan" (i.e an exact and strategic plan on how you are going to hit your "sales goals").
So many great business practices should be brought into our personal lives, these are just a couple of them.
Anyway, if your have written goals and you have a plan on how you are going to accomplish them the odds are actually in your favor!
You can be, create and accomplish all that you want to in life if you simply stop walking through it acting like you are blind and ignorant. - Josh Lanier
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
The Truth Behind The "I"
When on a mission trip to China a few years back I was deep in conversation with a student on a college campus... I was teaching him to write a sentence in English that involved the use of "I".
After we had finished, he made an observation of Americans vs. the Chinese that I will never forget. He told me that in Chinese they always use lower case letters when referencing themselves in writing, it is a form of humility and respect for the person(s) that the writing is addressing. His comment to me was, "are Americans really so proud that they consider themselves better than even those that they are writing to? It could be a state official or their best friend or a parent or someone that they have never met, do they simply assume that they are better than that person?"
It is true, in a way, if you are not proud to be an American your not one. Well, from now on when I can get away with it, i am going to use the lower case "i" to refer to myself.
Whenever you see an "i" in my writing please take note that i respect you, i value you and i am here to serve you as your friend, son, brother, husband, father, co-worker or simply a fellow human.
After we had finished, he made an observation of Americans vs. the Chinese that I will never forget. He told me that in Chinese they always use lower case letters when referencing themselves in writing, it is a form of humility and respect for the person(s) that the writing is addressing. His comment to me was, "are Americans really so proud that they consider themselves better than even those that they are writing to? It could be a state official or their best friend or a parent or someone that they have never met, do they simply assume that they are better than that person?"
It is true, in a way, if you are not proud to be an American your not one. Well, from now on when I can get away with it, i am going to use the lower case "i" to refer to myself.
Whenever you see an "i" in my writing please take note that i respect you, i value you and i am here to serve you as your friend, son, brother, husband, father, co-worker or simply a fellow human.
Old Friends
I have to confess something; I have a love/hate relationship with Social networking sites.
The reason, I guess I don't really understand the word "friend". In my book friends are people who you would trust with your life or the lives of your family. A friend is someone that you want to be at every major/minor event of your life. A friend is someone that you want to share your heart with, your dreams with and your passions with. A friend is someone that you cry with, laugh with and mourn with.
I have been blessed to have many people that I would consider my friends. The problem that I have is that I apparently was not considered a friend of theirs and that is why I love Social Network sites; they point out that some people are not actually your friends. Sure, they will add you to their "friend" list but all you really are to them is a number on a page that they can brag about.
9 times out of 10 when I send comments or otherwise try to get in touch with old friends that I still care deeply about they either respond with one cold message or completely ignore my attempts to re-kindle the relationship.
I have never considered myself to that pest of a friend that people just put up with.... but I guess I am, or maybe people just "put up" with all their friends. I don't know.
What I do know and what these sites have made exceedingly clear to me is that I have a totally different definition of what a friend is.
My current disposition is that I offered my hand in true friendship and I have spent countless hours and un-measurable amounts of love and energy pouring myself into people who are, in the end, nothing more than users. They take and can't/won't give back or even offer gratitude.
I sound bitter I know, but the truth is I am simply incredulous at those "old friends" of mine. And I am coming to grips, slowly but surely, that "old friends" is really all that they are, no longer true friends.
You think you know someone, you think that you are equally committed. But hey, friends by the worlds definition are a dime a dozen so go ahead and abandon people who no longer have the energy to fill you and go suck someone else dry!
The reason, I guess I don't really understand the word "friend". In my book friends are people who you would trust with your life or the lives of your family. A friend is someone that you want to be at every major/minor event of your life. A friend is someone that you want to share your heart with, your dreams with and your passions with. A friend is someone that you cry with, laugh with and mourn with.
I have been blessed to have many people that I would consider my friends. The problem that I have is that I apparently was not considered a friend of theirs and that is why I love Social Network sites; they point out that some people are not actually your friends. Sure, they will add you to their "friend" list but all you really are to them is a number on a page that they can brag about.
9 times out of 10 when I send comments or otherwise try to get in touch with old friends that I still care deeply about they either respond with one cold message or completely ignore my attempts to re-kindle the relationship.
I have never considered myself to that pest of a friend that people just put up with.... but I guess I am, or maybe people just "put up" with all their friends. I don't know.
What I do know and what these sites have made exceedingly clear to me is that I have a totally different definition of what a friend is.
My current disposition is that I offered my hand in true friendship and I have spent countless hours and un-measurable amounts of love and energy pouring myself into people who are, in the end, nothing more than users. They take and can't/won't give back or even offer gratitude.
I sound bitter I know, but the truth is I am simply incredulous at those "old friends" of mine. And I am coming to grips, slowly but surely, that "old friends" is really all that they are, no longer true friends.
You think you know someone, you think that you are equally committed. But hey, friends by the worlds definition are a dime a dozen so go ahead and abandon people who no longer have the energy to fill you and go suck someone else dry!
What Makes You Tick?
I have been thinking a lot lately about why I do what I do, what makes me tick? Why do I keep getting up in the morning? What drives me to keep going after my goals and dreams? Why don't I just give it up and settle for the status quo? Why can't I seem to quit?
It is like no matter what I cannot break through and really achieve the life that I am after but I can't stop pursuing it either... what is that?
When I look around the world I see a whole bunch of people who have successfully given up. They have settled in into life as it is and apparently don't desire more out of it. How is that done? What gives people the ability to give up on their dreams and be so happy to do it?
I have to believe that at one point everybody around you had dreams and goals that they were striving to achieve and become and "be". Those things are a vital part of life as we know it, they are one of the things that separate us from the animals. We have the ability to dream of what could be instead of just accepting what is.
Maybe that is why I can't stop; because I value my dreams, they are a part of me. They are so deep a part that I feel like if I gave up on them I would become no more than an animal acting on nothing more than instinct and doing nothing more than responding to the world around me.
What are your dreams? What have you given up on? What are you still striving for despite the fact that it may never come to fruition?... What makes you tick, dreams or instinct?
It is like no matter what I cannot break through and really achieve the life that I am after but I can't stop pursuing it either... what is that?
When I look around the world I see a whole bunch of people who have successfully given up. They have settled in into life as it is and apparently don't desire more out of it. How is that done? What gives people the ability to give up on their dreams and be so happy to do it?
I have to believe that at one point everybody around you had dreams and goals that they were striving to achieve and become and "be". Those things are a vital part of life as we know it, they are one of the things that separate us from the animals. We have the ability to dream of what could be instead of just accepting what is.
Maybe that is why I can't stop; because I value my dreams, they are a part of me. They are so deep a part that I feel like if I gave up on them I would become no more than an animal acting on nothing more than instinct and doing nothing more than responding to the world around me.
What are your dreams? What have you given up on? What are you still striving for despite the fact that it may never come to fruition?... What makes you tick, dreams or instinct?
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