Monday, October 31, 2011

When "Good Enough" isn't Good Enough


Recently I was visiting a very sick friend (who has since passed away)at a local hospital when I noticed the most attractive elderly woman at the bus stop on my way home. She looked very distinguished,her hair was well coiffed, her makeup applied flawlessly, and she was dressed impeccably. I felt utterly compelled to pay her a compliment and did so by telling her how abosolutely gorgeous she looked. She accepted my compliment graciously and said that she had noticed my attire and thought I looked great. I thanked her. She then explained that her late husband well taken care of by the doctors and nurses of the hospital during his illness and that she volunteered there three times a week as a way of giving back. She proceeded to tell me why she felt compelled to look her best. She said "I have a friend and everytime we get together she just throws something on, her hair half done, and no make up, not even a little lipstick, and quite honestly she looks like a slob. When I ask her why she does not make the effort to pull herself together she tells me "this is good enough"." She continues to tell me that "Good enough" is not good enough and will never befor her. She explained that at least 50 people see her on her way to the hospital and another 50 people see her on her way home. She said "That's approximately 100 people thre times a week that I'm making a first impression upon and I don't want their impression to be of a slob". "I see looking my best as the gift of beauty to everyone I encounter. I look my best for me and so that I can give that gift of beauty to others ". what a novel concept as I never thought about it that way before but this woman was providing me with a new angle on putting my best foot forward. Now everytime I get ready to go somewhere her words are a gentle reminder of the secret gift that we have to give .. presenting our best selves to the world. So is "Good enough" good enough for you?

Friday, September 30, 2011

Strength, Courage and Wisdom

I feel the strongest when I'm faith-filled empowered with an unwavering belief and trust in the power of God's goodness. I also feel my strongest when I'm single-minded,tenacious, and exercise laser focus on my goals. Clarity can provide a sense of Strength too.

Stay tuned for more!

Live to Give

There is an intrinsic power in giving. Giving involves mindfulness and pure motive.

Stay tuned for more!

The Most Important Question ... ever!

Want to know what the most important question you'll ever be asked in your lifetime? Stay tuned!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Love is a choice




I’m in love with love. This idea of love in all its grandeur, splendour, complexity, and mystery has held my interest for what seems like an eternity … well at least 48 years of that eternity. Many of the movies that I watch are about love - Love Jones, Shakespeare in Love, Love Story, and Love Actually, you get my drift.

I am of the firm belief that ‘Love’ is a choice. It’s a decision and a choice. Love is also a verb. It’s active that we choose to make and take daily. One of the most beautiful statements about love was written by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians in which he implores …

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Love can seem sometimes like that elusive dream or that dangling carrot. Metaphorically love can take on the form a cartoon character like The Road Runner and sometimes we can feel like the Wiley Coyote always chasing the Road Runner only to be tripped up by some folly. Of course the Road Runner always seems to have the last laugh and love can seem like that at times but it can also be unbelievably fulfilling, simple, breath-taking, unbelievably satisfying, pure and true.

Ultimately love is a decision and a choice. Love is not some passive thing but in fact active with ‘legs’ on it. If love is patient, kind, not envious, or boastful, proud or evil, and rejoices in truth and is protective, trustworthy, hopeful, and persevering it definitely takes a major decision and choice to make this all of these things happen. Love is challenging, multi-faceted, and multi-dimensional. It can be like a diamond in the rough where you and I are its miner and refiner.

I've discovered that there are four (yes four) major types of love - Phileo (brotherly and friendship love) and Agape (Godly or selfless love) and Storge (kindred of family love) and Eros (Erotic and sexual desire). I’m sure there are many more types of love as I’d find it hard to believe that love could be so easy to define.

I have met a few people who have been really cynical about life and love but thank goodness I have had the luxury of meeting living examples of ‘love in motion’ who have kept my hope and belief in love alive. As someone who is currently single and who hopes one day to marry I have always been curious how couples who have been happily married for years stay that way. My friends Gladys and Don Webb were married more than 50 years. When I asked them what their secret happy marriage was Gladys responded “we made a life-long decision to love each other and when we took our vows and said ‘til death do us part’ we meant it. We accept each other exactly as we are, we don’t try to change each other, and we live to serve the other person selflessly”. Don shared with me over dinner one evening that he loved Gladys more in that moment than he did on the day they got married. He said “Carol, when I married her she was a quiet little thing and now she is not so quiet and she’s not a little thing but I love her exactly the way she is, I have never cheated on my wife and I wouldn’t even dream of it, I simply adore that woman because she is my best friend and I believe that she is a gift directly from God to me”. I wanted to cry at his simple declaration of profound love for his wife. He told me that “Gladys is holding my hand in this life Carol and God will be holding my hand in the next”. I’m so grateful to have had that conversation with Don because within a little over a year he suddenly became ill and passed away. The good that remains is that Gladys is continually fed by the gratitude and memory of Don’s love and he has passed that legacy of love on to his sons who exemplify and bestow it on their wives.

Ruth and Ron Adams are two cherished friends of mine who have loved and lived selflessly, gently, lovingly, and respectfully for over the 54 years of their marriage. Ron was blind when they met and never had the chance to envision Ruth’s outward beauty but more importantly he had the advantage over many to solely focusing on her inner beauty. While many men of today are bedazzled by a woman’s outer beauty I wonder how many of them take the time to find out who she is on the inside? A waitress once asked Ruth and Ron what the secret to their successful marriage was and they individually replied “Commitment” and “Communication”. I would add selflessness, a great friendship, and a deep and abiding love and respect, true affection, and large doses of humour. Anytime I joined them for lunch I always got the sense that I was in the midst of two great friends who knew each other deeply. I also sense that they truly treasured the time that they spent together. There was an undeniable simpatico or a profound compatibility shared between these two lovely people and sprinkled with their complimentary sense of humour. I believe that great loves laugh a lot. Ron passed away in June of 2010 and I know that he is deeply missed by all who knew him and thank goodness Ruth and Ron’s daughters have found men that love them with that same kind of intensity and the same kind selfless love that their father had loved their mother with.

Love is to be embodied, radiated, and shared lavishly with everyone you can. It’s not to be coveted. But what about the difficult to love? The troublesome daughter, son, parent, relative friend, or coworker? How do we love them? I would suggest to love them in the same way that porcupines love each other… very carefully. And my closing words to you dear reader about love is this … See love, be love, and give love.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

On Becoming ... Resilient, Buoyant , and Brave!


How does one remain resilient,buoyant, and brave in the midst of upheaval, change, personal struggles, letdowns,setback, and uncertainty? Let me share a few suggestions that have helped me through these circumstances.

Volunteering ... Time Well Spent!


Want to know the best way to develop new skills, contributing your own, add an instant professional network, and have some fun along the way? Volunteering make be your best ticket.

I have been volunteering in my community since the age of 13. My first volunteer gig was that of a Red Cross Babysitter for single parents. Recently I was asked why I felt that volunteerism was so important. Well there are many reasons but here's my short list of opportunities that volunteering presents:


1. The opportunity to contribute and to engage in the community around you.

2. The opportunity to develop a new network of like-minded individuals who share your passion for the cause at hand.

3. The opportunity to share your unique talents, skills, perspective,and experience.

4. The opportunity to develop new skills, training, and experience.

5. The opportunity to try out a new industry or sector and see if it is for you.

6. Assisting in keeping you skill set sharp when in transition between jobs.

7. Providing a stronger sense of purpose,satisfaction, and fulfillment by the very nature of the contribution that you are making.

8. Added self confidence by exercising your competencies.

9. New insights, perspectives, and knowledge of a particular industry.

10. You can leverage the experience you've gained as a point of entry into a totally new industry.

So what are you waiting for ... volunteer opportunities await.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Keep Calm and Carry On


"Keep Calm and Carry On" was a poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of World War II, intended to raise the morale of the British public in the event of invasion. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private sector companies, and used as the decorative theme for a range of paraphernalia including water bottles, coffee mugs, tote bags, stationary, and the like.

While languidly sipping the most delicious cup of freshly brewed Starbucks French Roast I often pretend that the morning java in my 'Keep Calm and Carry On' red coffee mug is a secret elixir that will enable me to do just that ... keep calm and carry on! Oh, if life could only be that simple but we all know the harsh reality that it isn't.

Many of us are dealing with high stress jobs, exceedingly high unemployment rates, dwindling bank accounts, escalating cost of living, and many other present-day challenges too vast to mention. So what is one to do?

Well Ido have a few constructive ways to "Keep Calm and Carry On" that could include:

1. Seeing your present challenges for what they are ... hidden opportunities that will help to test your mettle and your strength.

2. Trying your best to live in the present moment which still means enjoying the occasions and joys that may appear in the midst of your struggles.

3. Choosing to focus on the 'solutions' and the 'impending gains or growth' and not the imagined doom and gloom.

4. Shoving your pride and ego aside and asking for help when you really need it. Make sure that you keep all negative folks away.

5. Doing something nice for someone else. Shifting your focus to those in need is a suprisingly great way of lifting their spirits and your own.

6. Trying to exercise your creativity and resourcefulness and 'thinking outside of the box'. Exercise doesn't hurt either to kick start those happy and calm endorphins.

7. You're probably only using 10% of your brain power so how about tapping into the other 90%.

8. Evicting all negative thoughts and replacing them with positive and affirming ones.

9. Remembering always that you have value aside from what you do for a living and that you are indeed a competent and capable individual.

10. Most times emotions are not a very good gauge of reality so just try to do the next best or constructive thing even if it's only in baby or incremental steps. Just remember that you can choose to exercise 'grace under pressure', and you can recover from disaster or adversity and be resilient. It's all in how you think, what you feed your mental faculty and what you choose to do about it. So I challenge you to Keep Calm and Carry On!

May great success be yours!


Wednesday, July 27, 2011

I've Got The Power



I’ve always had a fascination with the word “power”. Many popular books contain the word power in the title like “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale, “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene, “The Power of your Subconscious Mind” by Dr. Joseph Murphy, and many others. Thunder and lightning are always fascinating in the power that they represent and I often wonder “if this is just a little inkling of God’s power what is the full magnitude of his strength?"

God is often referred to as “omnipotent” meaning “all-powerful”. So if God is all-powerful it begs the question “how powerful are we mere mortals and how powerful can we become?” The word power sounds explosive and full of unlimited strength. Dictionary.com describes 'Power'as:

1. The ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something.
2. Political or national strength
3. Great or marked ability to do or act; strength; might; force.

In looking at these definitions something becomes very apparent … that in order to be powerful one needs to be power-filled. So where do we plug into this power? One would hazard a guess from the one who is “all-powerful”, right?. I often envision power being transferred through focused prayer and meditation and most importantly seeking out and plugging into God. Time spent in prayer and meditation strengthens the mind, body, emotions, and spirit. The same way you plug your cell phone into a power outlet to get it fully charged is the exact thing that prayer and meditation can do for you. More often than not you'll be left with an undeniable sense of clarity, purpose, capacity, and competence.

Harnessing power begins with recognizing your power source and plugging into that power source. All things made manifest here in the physical realm were first made manifest in the spiritual realm. Great buildings, magnificent works of art, revolutionary inventions, and remarkable monuments were all first inspired in the hearts and minds of great men and women. The word ‘inspired’ is originally drawn from its Latin roots meaning “in spirit” and inspiration comes from God. To receive inspiration is to receive power. To be visionary is to receive inspiration and to receive inspiration is to receive power. So here comes the hard part, the challenge for all of us to use that power responsibly. That’s when many of us falter by not recognizing “to whom much is given, much is required” and what is required is responsibility. Yes being responsible with your personal or corporate power is an imperative and essential for using power as it is intended. One of my favorite authors and business leaders Brian Tracy describes being ‘responsible’ as being 'response-able', the ability to respond with complete and utter competence.

Years ago I read a juggernaut of a book that was instrumental in my own personal effectiveness and spiritual growth entitled “Ordering your Private World” by Gordon MacDonald. Very similar in its content and subject matter is Richard Foster’s breakthrough masterpiece “The Celebration of Discipline”. Both books speak to the merits of cultivating a “Secret Garden” or developing an inner spiritual life of power through prayer, meditation, simplicity, solitude, service, worship, fasting or just taking some time away from the things that can become strongholds or addictions. Both books focus on the development of a calm, simple, and poised inner life. Two of the many take-aways is that confusion or chaos is the enemy of calm and that real and undiluted power can only be found in the calm. God is definitely not the author of confusion but our choices can be. Your power source is waiting, fully charged, and just waiting for you to plug in. So my question for you today is ... How powerful or power-filled are you?

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

What’s ‘Forgiveness’ got to do with it?


Lately I’ve been wondering whether forgiveness belongs in the work place and have come to the resounding conclusion that, “Yes!…100% it does!” Most exceptional leaders are engrafted with a forgiving heart because they inherently understand that the way to personal and corporate maturity is through not letting personal offenses, slights, or disruptions have the last say, and having the ability to move quickly past them. They understand that failure and blunders, more often than not, give way to growth, evolution, and transcendence. They see failure and moving past conflict as a rite of passage on their way to success. As leaders, they recognize that they are not perfect and they do not expect anyone else to be either. They seek peace and pursue it.

If you and I are like most people, we hold little grudges even though we don’t acknowledge them as such. We accumulate little mental markers similar to the Monopoly cards that say “Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200”. We quarantine offending persons into little categories like “do not trust this person and most definitely do not like them”. The critical difference between mediocre leaders and exceptional ones are that exceptional leaders see the “big picture” and do not let petty grievances serve as distractions or impediments. Their gaze is firmly fixed on the end goal and they inherently know that harmonious, peaceful, loving work environments are breeding grounds for success in character and in organizational effectiveness. They resolve conflicts expediently and unflinchingly. They shine a bright and blinding light on the proverbial “elephant in the room” and expose strife for what it is. They dismantle un-forgiveness in its infancy.

Exceptional leaders know that in order to maintain a clean, crisp, visionary, and progressive organization, there is no room for un-forgiveness. They lead by example and “walk their talk”. They see the term “Conflict Resolution” as a nice, technical way of saying “Forgiveness Resolution”.

Un-forgiveness is a germ that, when allowed, can pollute and poison a potentially dynamic organization otherwise poised to accomplish great things.

So how can we deal with this deadly emotional virus? There’s a simple solution – name it, confront it, root it out, and move on. Life can be challenging enough without the unbearable weight of un-forgiveness. The minute un-forgiveness rears its ugly little head in the form of slights, dirty looks, off-handed remarks and the like, act swiftly; nip it in the bud, use tact and diplomacy and, most of all, large doses of love. But don’t ever ignore it … don’t ever ignore it!

Your challenge for today, this week, and this lifetime, is to examine all of the ways that you have been un-forgiving and decide to make a change right now; evolve into a better version of yourself – a forgiving version of yourself. I dare you!

Note: This article has been published in MOTIVATED Magazine Online on July 27th at: http://motivatedonline.com/whats-forgiveness-got-to-do-with-it/

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Lessons from the Chocolate Factory



As a kid, I loved the movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (who am I kidding, I still love this timeless classic)!   I must sheepishly admit that I just watched this movie last night for the hundredth time and every time I watch it I glean another collective pearl of wisdom.  There is a profound old adage that says “God picks the simple things to confound the wise” and I’ve often learned some of my most valuable life lessons through simple stories.


Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a story of a poor young boy named Charlie who scores the remaining “Golden Ticket” and wins an opportunity to tour the most eccentric and mysterious chocolate factory in the country – owned by Willie Wonka.  Charlie is a fresh faced ‘tween’ dangerously armed with truck-loads of integrity from which the business leaders of today have much to learn.

The metaphoric “Golden Ticket” of this era is having unshakable integrity and exceptional leaders know that they need lots of it to win and win big.  They don’t go along to get along, they just do what’s right. They realize that another “Golden Ticket” rests in their employees and in cultivating a healthy corporate culture. These exceptional leaders do the math and equate conflict, chaos, pathos, poor communication and a toxic environment, to high absenteeism, high churn, high stress, low morale, low retention and net losses for everyone concerned.


Exceptional leaders scrutinize the relationship terrain and find effective ways to leverage those relationships and talents to create ‘win-win’ scenarios for everyone.  They know that, in this burgeoning 2.0 world, valuing their employees, keeping their integrity firmly in tact, and acting in the best interest of everyone concerned is the key to profitability.  Mediocre leaders, however, miss out on this winning combination because their egos loom largely, their views languish myopically, and they often fail to see the big picture.  So why are organizations like Google consistently successful? It’s because their exceptional leaders know how to value and leverage talent and they are extremely intentional about creating an enviable social culture.  They create happy and motivated employees who actually want to show up for work, who want to add their signature contribution; and when you have people showing up for work giving the best that they’ve got to offer, that’s when the magic happens!


Now back to our protagonist Charlie.  Charlie is faced with a dilemma early in the movie. The story’s antagonist, a rival candy shop owner named Mr. Slugworth, appears and offers Charlie the opportunity to make his poor family very rich. All he must do is turn over his ‘Everlasting Gobstopper’ so that Slugworth can figure out the formula and create a profitable knock off.  How many of today’s leaders are faced with similar temptations – selling out to rivals, bribery, opportunities to cut corners, theft, or any unsavoury means of fast-tracking to wealth or prominence?  Just too many.


Sadly, our protagonist Charlie briefly falterers when he succumbs to his Grandfather’s coercion into taking a sip of the forbidden “Fizzy Lifting Drink”.  This momentary lapse of judgement, however, does not come without its own consequences.  We soon find out that nothing has been missed by Willie Wonka, who flies into a blistering rage and informs Charlie that he has been disqualified from receiving the Grand Prize and that he and his Grandfather are immediately being thrown out the factory. Charlie ‘fesses up’, shows complete and utter remorse for his mistake and, upon  leaving the factory, pauses, turns back, and gently places his “Everlasting Gobstopper” on the desk of Willie Wonka.  There is a brief silence and Wonka’s vitriolic demeanor of seconds before dissipates into a joyful countenance as he happily informs Charlie that it all was just a test – that Mr. Slugworth was actually working for him to test Charlie’s character.  He tells Charlie that he only held the contest because he wants to retire and wanted to find his successor. He tells Charlie that he would only turn the factory over to someone he felt was worthy; someone compassionate with a moral compass steeped in integrity.  He informs Charlie that he is the ‘chosen one’, the benefactor of the whole chocolate factory and all of the riches contained within.


So the simple lesson in this story; for kids, parents, mediocre leaders, and exceptional leaders alike; is that integrity never grows old.  Whether in fiction or in real life, it will always win out in the end!



Note: This article appeared on June 9, 2011 in Motivated Magazine Online at: http://motivatedonline.com/lessons-from-the-chocolate-factory/

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Fearless, Fearful, and Fearsome

My young table mates at the Youth in Motion event


I recently had the pleasure of being invited to serve as a career role model for Youth In Motion, an organization that provides mentors, job skills training, and capacity building programs for youth in and around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  I was invited to participate with other community leaders, high ranking business professionals, and accomplished women from Politics and Government.  My participation required that I facilitate table talk around the topic of my career to a group of Grade 8 girls and to also field their questions about my career trajectory or rather in my case meandering.  

It’s amazing what perspective you can gain of your own life when viewed through the lens of 13 year old girl.  Everything seems to loom large and impressive and takes on a more vivid depiction when rewinding and pressing the ‘replay’ button.  To my surprise my own career journey sounded pretty impressive even to me … yes meeting President Bill Clinton in Ethiopia, visiting rural projects in Ghana and field assessments in other ‘exotic’ places, sitting on the Board of Directors of a worldwide HIV/AIDS charity and chamber orchestra, and helping to disburse $20 Million dollars of  grants back into the local community sounded all too impressive but I knew better.  Those milestones all required a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, unyielding focus, long hours, tears, more tears and most importantly facing down my fears.  It all required a lot of  ‘moxy’ and heavy doses of fearlessness and doing the very things that I feared.

Speaking of fearless, I had the pleasure of meeting for the second time the 90 year old Mayor of Mississauga Hazel McCallion.  This woman is the epitome of fearless.  She speaks her mind, holds to her opinions without apology, deals briskly with adversity, applies common sense, has an admirable work ethic, and rolls up her sleeves and just gets the job done.  There’s quite a bit of wisdom to be learned at the feet of this juggernaut of a woman who has been the Mayor of the town of Mississauga for more than 30 years now.  

Many of these Grade 8 girls shared with me their overwhelming sense of fear and trepidation as they thought about their pending transition to high school.  Upon personal reflection I don’t ever remember feeling fear upon entering high school.  Actually, I remember feeling very excited and like a brand new adventure was about to begin but all these young women  could think about was leaving the familiar to venture into uncharted territory and having their friendships scattered everywhere.  I soberly shared with them that ‘change’ was a constant and provides golden opportunities of testing and growth and seeing what they’re made of.  I told them that 'change' would be a life-long process and a recurring theme so they had better prepare themselves to embrace it wholeheartedly.  Maybe their reason for feeling fearful is understandable as the times have certainly changed and the issues are far more complex since I was in high school but ‘change’ is the only thing that won’t change.

“Fearsome confidence” seems to me to be the secret elixir that can remedy any malady of fear but it has to be cultivated on a daily basis by applying 'little acts of courage'.   Incrementally these ‘little acts of courage’ can add up to something grand and can even help to carve out a career worthy of emulation like Hazel's or put a blazing and fiery passion behind a great cause. Today I challenge you to embrace all of your fears and charge right through them the way Buffalos charge right through a storm because you never know what may be on the other side.

Me and Mayor Hazel McCallion

Cheers and Blessings on your day!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Iron Sharpens Iron – Peer-to-Peer Mentoring



For the last two months I have had the luxury and uniquely rewarding experience of having a professional peer-to-peer mentor.  It all came about quite accidentally and now appears to have organically taken on a life of its own.  What started as just two people with complimentary skill sets getting together occasionally to chat has evolved into a capacity building tool.  I started to look at this ‘reciprocal mentoring process’ through the lens of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People but with an unconventional twist and you may want to experiment with your own version.  So, here are some tips on how to make the most of your  peer-to-peer mentoring experience:

The 7 Habits with a peer-to-peer mentoring twist 

1.       Be Proactive – Set a firm date to meet once a month to discuss our goals, plans, key challenges, and exchange information, resources, and come to each meeting armed with a good shot of authenticity encouragement. Bring the real you to the meeting.

2.       Begin with the end in mind – Visualize what the Best Version of Yourself would look like and work collectively to that end.  

3.       Put First Things First - Assist each other with figuring out what your top priorities are and the next realistic steps that will take you there. 

4.       Paradigms of interdependence – Optimize, leverage, and exchange valuable information.  In the sessions that I’ve attended I’ve always come away feeling more empowered by the generosity of information exchanged and knowing that each of us is trying to serve the highest good in one another.

5.       Seek first to Understand – Peer-to-peer mentoring is a great opportunity to really understand your peer and can actually provide you with the opportunity to use and improve your listening skills.

6.       Synergize – Cooperating to achieve a common goal can be one of the noblest endeavours that an individual can undertake.  Again, this is an opportunity to apply structured teamwork.

7.       Sharpen the saw – There’s an old biblical phrase in Proverbs 27:17 that states “As iron sharpens iron, so one man/woman sharpens another”.  Isn’t it amazing that when we hang around someone who is much smarter than we are that it automatically causes us to up our game?  My Mother always told me “show me your company and I’ll tell you who you are”.  Well, judging by this generous and brilliant individual I’m in very good company.  In “sharpening your saw or your iron” you can take advantage of reviewing your physical, mental, social/emotional and spiritual philosophy from an objective viewpoint and move towards personal growth in each of these areas of your life.  Covey indicates that by “sharpening our saws” we are actually preserving and enhancing the greatest assets that we have ---ourselves! 

So today I challenge you to go out and find the other iron to sharpen your own!

Cheers to the best in you,
Carol

Friday, February 11, 2011

… And who said there were no good people out there?


I have a small admission to make … I have always been accused of being a bit of a  “Pollyanna” and I must admit that I have a strong proclivity to look for the good in people even when  at times it’s been glaringly apparent that they  were on the side of the ‘beasts’ and not the angels.  What a refreshing surprise today to actually meet a ‘genuinely good person’ who does his best to serve the highest good in others.  This encounter left me feeling like someone had just pumped compressed fresh air into an exceedingly dry room. 
            This life offers an elixir of the good and the bad things– the epiphanies, the really horrible stuff, the unexpected revelations and sometimes those real ‘stinkers’ we cross paths with. Ah, but the delicate balance always lies in the ability to hold the good and the bad in tension and be able to see things as they really are.  Reality then becomes our ‘good drug’ of choice.
Today’s meeting was intended to expand our mutual professional network but it actually turned out to be so much more than that. This guy actually wanted to help people and serve them with a deep sense of commitment, honour, and integrity just because it was the right thing to do.  His authentic spirit of generosity was unmistakable …in fact, undeniable. Imagine that in this era of everyone being tuned into WII.FM or rather ‘What’s in it for me’ this guy realized that he was put here to serve others? How utterly refreshing and who wouldn’t want to meet a truly humble person with no hidden agendas? He unwittingly allowed this ol’ Pollyanna to see a real life “do-gooder” up close and personal and it provided me with a fresh hope in our humanity. It felt so darn good to be graced with guy’s presence.  This encounter drove an ordinary day into the extraordinary and I actually felt like I had just stumbled upon one of my tribe’s people … and what a welcome surprise that was.  
What I’ve learned is that if we really pay attention ‘they’ are out there … those good souls poised to serve others in the most remarkable of ways. Instead of trying to find Waldo or trying to decide what’s in it for you I challenge you today to look out for them … those good authentic souls because they are out there.

Best of the day to you! 

PS. Since my original post many of you wanted to know the identity of the guy ... so this is his website:  taxevity.com