What You Talkin' About Willis?

I remember watching the TV series "Different Strokes" years ago. Gary Coleman played a character named Arnold. He use to question his brother, Willis, with this famous line, "What You Talkin' About Willis?" Arnold had this furrow in his brow and a pouty mouth.



I saw the same look on my older son's face the other day when his soccer team was suffering a potential loss. He is a competitive young man who strives to win. He is still learning the lessons of loss and sportsmanship. He wanted to switch to a different team, a team which he thinks could have a higher skill level. I told him we could look into the possibilities but I could not guarantee that the move would be possible. He may have to make the most of the situation. As he stood on the sidelines, he crossed his arms and gave me the look, "What you talkin' about MOM?"

What I explained to him, can apply to areas in our lives as well. You may have an event or situation that comes up in your life that you may not care for. It can be working with a committee or a team in which all members come together with different abilities. I explained to my son, "There will always be people better than you and those who do not have the same skill level as you. What matters is how you play the game. How do you enrich the team you are assigned to? Are you giving your best in every play or situation?"
You can help build other players up by teaching them some of your savvy skills. Ask a person you see as more skilled than yourself for their guidance and tips for improvement. You can find out what every one's expectations and goals are. Communication is so important in working together. Get to know each other and discover each other's strengths. Position yourselves so that you are allowing people to give their very best. That way -You win. Everyone wins. Let other people know what you doing and ask for help when you need it. You are sure to SCORE  the goal and achieve your end result.

Take your event or situation. See how YOU can make a difference right where YOU are right now. Look at what you have and not what you do not have. The outcome of your situation depends on how you respond to it. What skills do you bring to the table? How can you leverage these skills and make your situation better?

Instead of "What You Talkin' About Willis?", let it be - "NOW that's what I'm talkin' about!" Go for it!

Just in case you wanted to know, my son scored and he tied the game.  We had investigated moving to another team. He is unable to move teams but he knows he has much more to offer his team. Next year, he plans to try out for a higher level division. He will have many lessons to share. He is learning to be a leader!

Go Against the Grain Not with the Flow

Have you ever noticed that when you need a certain resource it tends to show up just when you're ready for it? I had noticed Darren Hardy's book, The Compound Effect in The Success Magazine a few times and I thought it may be a good book to add to my success library. I had listened to a podcast discussing The Compound Effect and it really piqued my interest. I knew I needed to order it. Once I received my book and CDs, I started listening to the audio of The Compound Effect immediately and I began listen to it every chance I got. Hardy’s advice and recommendations on climbing the ladder of success was like tree full of fruit is waiting to be picked. I wanted to take one of these juicy ideas and put it into practice. I decided that I would track my time and what I was doing because we all know there are several time wasters in our lives that we can curb to make our time more productive and more efficient. My time wasters are social media and e-mail. Even though these can be productive tools, they can take up a lot of time without you even realizing. I had tracked my time in the past but never so consciously.

The first day I started writing everything down I became very conscious of what I was doing. It was amazing how much more I accomplished. Not that I don't accomplish things on a normal day but with the increased awareness, I began to acknowledge more of my accomplishments And not only did I perform better, but I started noticing how much more time I had to get the things done I wanted to including more time to spend with family and friends and give back to others.

The biggest lesson was on the second day. I had allotted time to go to the gym however, I decided to check just one more e-mail and before I knew it my gym time had elapsed to twenty five minutes instead of the hour. But because I made a commitment that I needed to go to the gym, 25 minutes was better than nothing. I realized I cheated myself out of the time that I put aside for myself. This may have happened to you. You may have thought to yourself “I’ll just do one more thing...it will be quick” only to realize that the one more thing took a lot more time than you realized. Cheating ourselves out of looking after ourselves can be harmful in the long run but with conscious decision-making and following through on our commitments we can achieve so much more.

Many people go through life going with the flow instead against the grain. Going against the grain does not mean encountering resistance. It means doing things differently than everyone else. How many people do you know who use a tracking system in their lives? Ask some people if they have tried it. Try it for yourself for the next 30 days. This exercise can be used in other areas of your life as well such as tracking how often you praise your children, your spending, your food intake, and your activity in relation to exercise. You will quickly see that you may have not been doing as much as you thought you were or perhaps you will notice a lack of harmony in certain areas in your life. When you become more conscious of the decisions that you make, you will notice improvements in the areas that you focus on. If you have felt that you are off track, the slightest adjustments will get you back on the right track.

How many people go with the flow because it's comfortable? No one ever said that being successful would be comfortable but what I do know is that success comes to those who make slight adjustments in their course, persevere, focus on what they truly want, and enjoy the journey.

What slight adjustments have you done in your life? Do you track your progress? Are you consciously making decisions that will help you achieve your goals and desires? Let us know...