EB – Control your own destiny or someone else will. – Jack Welch

JW – Either you run the day or the day runs you. – Jim Rohn

MS – Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

JD – Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts. – Nikki Giovanni

The quote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe illustrates what I think is the major struggle that most people have when it comes to time and time management.

We all intuitively know that we should spend our time on what’s most important. And we all intuitively know that we spend too much time on the things that matter least.

But I continue to spend time on things that don’t really matter. Why?

It seems hard.

It seems hard to say no to some things in order to say yes to others.

It seems hard to know what is and isn’t important.

Here are some ideas to maybe make it a little easier:

Spend some time setting priorities and then let others know. Share your top goals and mission/purpose statement with those you care about.

This is also why it is so important to be always learning and growing. Always refining your definition of what is and isn’t important.

Make it a great day doing what matters most to you.

Jake

http://vimeo.com/39484374

This is a great video and song illustrating the five love languages from Gary Chapman. (If you want to find out more or take the quiz, here is the site: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/.)

The tool and this concept speaks to something really important for each of us.

We must know ourselves. We must seek to know those we care about more deeply.

Tools like this can help us understand ourselves and why we do what we do. Not so that we can have an excuse for acting in whatever way we want, but so that we can understand more fully and act more wisely.

Tools like this also help us with those we love. Understanding them allows for better relationships.

I encourage you to take the quiz, share the results with those you love and get them to take so that you can review their results.

But most of all, I encourage you to think of those who are important to you and how you can love them the way they want to be loved.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The Green Zone

“Don’t lose your grip on Love and Loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart.”

Imagine a graph with a brightly colored continuum. On the far left side is a blue side with the word printed truth above it. On the far right side is a yellow zone with the word love written above it. In the middle of the continuum is a green zone where truth and love mingle. Where would you place yourself on that continuum?

Are you the kind of person that prefers to be in the yellow zone? Are you proud of your reputation for always offering a word of encouragement and freely spreading love around? But do you shrink back from speaking words of truth? Do you pursue peacekeeping at the expense of the truth?

Or are you a sharp-edged person who prides yourself on living in the blue zone? Are you fearless when it comes to slapping people with necessary truth? Do you enjoy “fixing people?” But do you generally ignore that bit about kindness, love, and grace? – Bill Hybels, in Making Life Work

Each of us have natural tendencies to one side of the spectrum or another. But to be our best in this world we need both love and truth. It’s the genius of the and. The beauty of balance.

Think of a way today that you can share the whole truth – with a coworker, family member, or customer – with love.

BethAnne Dorn

Don’t Hold Out

“Don’t withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.”

Sometimes in my day-to-day hustle, I forget that I have been given enormous freedom and power. Most often in life I am held back by the imaginary restrictions on what I can do or should do. I don’t help as many people as I could because I lapse into thinking, “No one empowered me to do that.”

Which is rubbish. There’s no “Do Good Fairy” riding around in a convertible that will drive by and say “Today you can do good for that customer. Today you can slip that guy $5.” No, I have that power every day.

At Illinois Wesleyan our former President Minor Meyers Jr. said, “Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.”

Do not withhold good. It is in your power to act. You are able to say a compliment. You are able to help carry in your neighbor’s groceries. A Mavidean recently told me he shoveled his neighbor’s walkway. He has strength in his body, warm clothes on his back, and a shovel. He went and did good.

What is in your power to do? What have you been given that you can use to help others?

Are you strong? Are you smart? Are you funny? Of course you are! Go forth.

BethAnne Dorn

The next couple of days will be written by BethAnne in a series of thoughts she had while reading “Making Life Work” by Bill Hybels.

The Nine-Out-of-Ten-Club

Do you struggle from the nine-out-of-ten excuse? Are you doing most things in life relatively well and using that as leverage to ignore the one area of your life that’s hurting you the most?

Are you like that dad who instead of spending time with his daughter on the weekend says, “Come on, give me a break. I work hard. I travel during the week. I help my friends. I vote. I do jury duty. I follow the rules. I’m an all-around nice guy. But I get tired. I need a day off.”

What’s the list in your life that you’re using to justify not changing for the better?

Are you awesome to people but ignoring that pesky voice reminding you to exercise?

Are you a hard worker and volunteering all the time but failing to respond to the needs of your spouse?

Do you bust your bum to make money but then are too tired to discipline yourself on how you spend it?

BethAnne Dorn

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. – Melody Beattie

Thanks to the substitute Emailer while I was out last week. It is always great to see what other people write.

I found this quote and thought it captured the feelings I had when coming home from our trip.

We had a great trip to Arizona. It was warm and we got to spend time with great friends.

It was kind of funny when I realized that I was actually happy to be heading home to Illinois and the freezing temps.

It was the “home” part that got me.

I was thankful to be going home to our house.

I was thankful to get see our dog.

I was thankful to get back to work with my fellow Mavideans.

What do you have to be thankful for?

Make it a great day.

Jake

EB* – I’m at an age when my back goes out more than I do.- Phyllis Diller

JD – Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open. – James Dewar

JW – Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo DaVinci

MS – Education without values, is useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil. – CS Lewis

The CS Lewis quote is a great illustration of why values are so important.

If we don’t know what is important and what is of value, it is easy to throw it all away in pursuit of something invaluable.

As you learn and grow, challenge yourself to measure what you learn against your own value system.

Make it a great weekend.

Jake

http://youtu.be/Pu8KFlfzk3Y

What’s love got to do with it? Everything.

Meaghan wrote 1 Corinthians 4-8 on the chalkboard at home:

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

Most of us have heard this some time at a wedding. And these are some great sentiments for a wedding.

And it goes for more than just marriage(s).

Love is something we should feel for our fellow human beings all the time.

Being a parent has really opened my eyes on this one.

Each person you meet is someone’s little boy or girl, no matter their age.

If only we could see each other through the lens of a loving parent.

A loving parent that can’t wait for the little ones to wake up.

A loving parent that would love to hug or snuggle a little.

A loving parent that will see the errors and mistakes but focus on the accomplishments and achievements instead.

I don’t know about you, but looking at those I interact with through those eyes might just change my day for the better.

Make it a great day.

Jake

If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person. ― Fred Rogers

What a great sentiment from a man that impacted so many lives.

Every day we have opportunities to leave a little bit of ourselves in each small encounter we have with others.

Our interaction with a waiter or waitress.

A conversation with a colleague.

Dinner with those we care about.

Each one presents an opportunity to leave a positive impact on those we interact with.

Each is an opportunity to leverage our chance for importance with those we touch.

Seize these opportunities.

Make the most of them.

Turn a short conversation into a positive, lasting impact.

Create a smile on the face of that person on the other end.

Do it for what it will make of you. Do it because being selfless and thinking of others first actually makes you happier and healthier. Do it because you only get one chance at each interaction and you don’t want to live life having lost those opportunities.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – Still looking for volunteers to send the daily attitude emails next week while I am out Monday-Thursday.

The bad news is that time flies. The good news is that you’re the pilot.

Saw this clever little saying on a church sign the other day and really liked it.

Think of yourself as the pilot. What does a pilot do to be successful?

A pilot does a pre-flight check.

Are you doing a daily/weekly/monthly/annual check in to make sure everything is ready to go to get you where you want to go at the end of the trip?

A pilot changes the flight plan constantly in response to wind, weather, etc. but doesn’t change the destination.

Are you making adjustments along the way while keeping your eyes on your long term goals?

A pilot is constantly watching the gauges.

Are you watching the important indicators in your life to make sure everything is going well?

A pilot embraces risk while minimizing it. They are flying through the air in a huge chunk of metal, but double checks every safety feature before doing so.

Are you taking calculated and managed risks to get the most out of your time on this planet?

You are the pilot of your life. Time to start acting like it. (See what I did there….I am so clever.)

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – I am going to be out of the office next Monday-Thursday and would love to have some volunteers to send out the daily attitude email while I am gone. Just email me to let me know if you are interested and what day you would like to send one.