Use the form on the right to contact us.
You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.
123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999
(123) 555-6789
email@address.com
You can set your address, phone number, email and site description in the settings tab.
Link to read me page with more information.
Using systems and habits to improve your life is a proven method to succeed. It requires seeing the work as a system and then adjusting your thoughts and behaviors to be able to take advantage of your opportunities in life.
With football season winding down I figured I would share 2 quotes from Vince Lombardi, one of the greatest football coaches of all time. He has a lot of quotes and was known as a tough leader who demanded the best from his teams.
The first quote is “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”
Read MoreThe other day I was talking to a friend who just got promoted at his company. He was talking about the struggles he is having getting the team to adjust to his leadership style.
He described several situations and complained that his staff just couldn’t work in the way he needed them to. At first I thought he must have a difficult staff but after several minutes I realized something.
Read MoreIn my Toastmasters meeting yesterday we discussed New Years resolutions. When one of the accounting professionals was asked about goals for 2016 she quickly said that the accounting profession has their busiest time at the beginning of the year so she doesn’t worry about goals until spring.
She also mentioned that the cold weather in Cleveland is very unmotivating and she gets motivated once the weather gets a little better and the days become a little longer.
Read MoreThis morning I was reading Project Management JumpStart by Kim Heidman and I came across a section on gaining trust and respect from team members while leading a project. Several “tactics you can put into practice today to help build trust and respect with your teams” were listed.
I found it insightful yet I immediately felt that it makes it sound very easy to build trust and respect but in reality is extremely difficult. Here are a few of the tactics she mentions: Do what you say you will do, lead by example, be honest, be on time, clearly define the goals of the team and hold team members responsible.
Read MoreJanuary tends to mean a fresh start and a new chance to reach goals. It means resolutions and closing last year’s books. It means we are past the holidays and time off and getting back to our routines.
This year, instead of setting new goals or trying to come up with a new resolution, take a different approach. I’ve written in the past about why resolutions don’t seem to stick and why setting goals isn’t as effective as people assume.
Read MoreYou have a new goal. Maybe you want to start a company, start a new workout routine, quit smoking, earn an advanced degree, write book or finally start eating healthy foods. You know what you want to achieve, you set goals, you know how to do but you just seem to keep putting it off.
Why is getting started the hardest part? Why is it that we can know what to do but can’t really do it?
Read MoreThere is a famous quote by Albert Einstein in which he defines insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Many people quote this as a call for change.
But I think that this may be simplifying things a bit. I don’t think he meant to constantly move to different things, but rather to understand when something isn’t working and to move on.
Read MoreLately I have been focused on studying to obtain my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. Two themes have really stood out to me as being applicable in helping us achieve our personal goals, as well as playing a crucial role in project management.
Continuous improvement is the idea that we need to be constantly improving. We need to make incremental improvements and do them over and over. The other concept that is applicable to our personal goals is Agile Project Management. Agile was born out of the software development industry where they realized the long project management process were ineffective because they needed to quickly see the results and make changes. They weren’t able to predict every aspect of the project in the beginning so they shortened the time from concept to launch.
Read MoreMost people make judgments based on events rather than on process. We judge a sports team by wins and losses, we evaluate scientists based on their discoveries and we rate artists based on the sales of their albums. But the events don’t always tell the full story.
In the book Sidelined by NFL football coach Chuck Pagano, he describes his journey after being diagnosed with cancer. He was talking about a few specific games while he was in the hospital and then said, “However, as my cancer experience testified, events don’t always go as planned.”
Read MoreWhile I was obtaining my MBA I had an instructor who used to always say, “a strength overdone becomes a weakness.” She emphasized that we need to be aware when we take something to the extreme and the ramifications of doing that.
I didn’t believe her when I first heard this. I have always been of the belief that we need to maximize our strengths. By leveraging our strengths we can achieve much more than if we simply try to fix our weaknesses.
Read MoreThere is a wealth of information online. It astonishes me how easy it is to find almost any piece of useful or useless information through Google. I have used YouTube videos to lean how to iron my clothes, fix my furnace and publish a book.
But utilizing groups can also be dangerous. Too often, in a small group setting, the squeaky wheel gets oiled. In other words, those in the group that are the loudest often get more attention than those who aren’t as vocal.
Read MoreOne of the most incredible things about studying systems and habits is realizing just how common it is to rely on these concepts. The more I read the more I realize the connection.
The connection isn’t just from a few industries or a few biographies. Over and over as I try to learn about people I find the principles of systems and habits alive in their stories.
Read MoreHow we look at something is very important. Most of us probably feel we are pretty unbiased and can judge a situation objectively. But the reality is that our perspective will always influence our opinion of a situation.
This is why there are so many differing opinions. We take all of our life experience and form a perspective. In order to see things differently we have to find a way to break away from our habitual thinking.
Read MoreOne the key factors when trying to change habits or improve your habits is repetition. The patterned repetition in our lives is what forms our habits. The more we do something the more likely it will stick.
But repetition is too often overlooked in our lives until there is a problem. We continue to make poor choices until the accumulation becomes overwhelming and we are left with a major problem.
Read MoreToday I was taking advantage of the nice weather we have been having and decided to get out the bike. I was riding my usual route and came to a steep hill in the middle of a park.
Normally I dread this hill. I always seem to struggle a little and it feels like it just keeps going and going. When I finally reach the top I always need to slow down my pace to catch my breath.
Read MoreInstant gratification is something that everyone experiences. Giving in to what we should do for a short-term pleasure always seems to make sense at the time. But long-term success requires a much different approach.
The way to long-term success is actually to give up the idea that we need everything now and instead learn how to leverage time.
Read MoreWe are constantly bombarded with messages of more. Marketers are always trying to convince us that we need their product or service. We value success by seeing who has more fame, more money, more awards, etc.
But do we really need more? A few years ago Herm Edwards, a former NFL coach, spoke to the NFL rookies before the start of their first season playing professional football. What is interesting is that he didn’t spend all his time talking about football. He talked about the players’ life outside of football.
Read MoreFollowing the systems and habits approach, you can start to find ways to improve. You can focus on small improvements and then systematize them to form positive habits. But how do you determine what to improve?
Recently I went to a popular pizza place in Cleveland. The restaurant was very busy and dealing with the typically large lunch crowd. But the ordering process at this particular pizza place can be extremely painful to customers because they don’t employ thought-out systems to run this particular process within their business.
Read MoreSetting goals is an important aspect to business and personal growth. Plenty of articles, books, and videos go into how to craft the perfect goal. Some emphasize that they need to be written down while others focus on setting precise dates.
But trying to create the perfect goal is completely useless unless you understand and focus on the process of achieving that goal.
Read MoreMost people think of innovation as a flash of genius, a sudden realization that changes the course of the world. In an instant everything changes.
But if you explore popular innovations you will see that there is typically a different path. The path of innovation seems more like evolution than it does a stroke of genius.
Read More