Category: - Coach to Expect Success

Quote of the Week - April 28, 2014

4/28/2014

"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears." – Les Brown

We got done recently listening to a little Les Brown in our Leadership class and it made total sense to highlight this quote this week after I saw it on social media. No wonder we are to busy living our fears as I just got done with dinner with my wife and we were watching the news (mainly for the weather updates), but was also saw so many stories that feed right into worry, stress, negativity, anger, being fed up with government and people, etc. We get so tired of all the other crap that we don't have any energy some times to live out our dreams.

Knowing that - I need to change my mindset a little bit. The podcasts and audio books that I'm listening to on a daily basis before I get to work help with starting out my day in a positive way. I need to continue that.... so I've been connected with a couple of more that I'm listening to during the day and at night while I do my schoolwork - really helping big time. Are you doing that at all? If you have any suggestions please send them my way or at least get them out there for others to use too.

Another thing we need to realize - is really the short amount of time we actually have to go out and live our dreams. Time is going by so fast and we seem to spend it on things that really don't matter too much. I am trying to identify a couple of my fears that have been holding me back and I am working on defeating them along with moving on with some goals and dreams I have. Maybe you too can find one fear to address and work on along with taking that energy and time and putting it towards a goal that might have?? Let me (and others) know for everyone needs help. You just might be that one person that helps others get over what they have to do. :-)

Quote of the Week - April 7, 2014

4/4/2014

"I refuse to die an un-lived life." - Les Brown

This week we had the pleasure of having a few lessons from Les Brown for our Principles of Leadership class. So many nuggets that this man gave us and this week's quote (coming out to you early too), is a prime example as to how valuable his message is for us.

Taking on this attitude that you don't want to live a life that is un-lived, that you want to think about every day on how to live more of life - is a huge difference maker. It is so easy to live a life of going day to day, just getting by, thinking that you are doing better than most people, and the list of cliches goes on and on and on.

It takes a conscious effort to know that you don't want to die, not having really lived. Too many people I think are like me - where we wait too long until we start taking this idea on. It's something that Les and my students have helped me see that I need to focus on this more and more. Looking at each day differently than before, especially with the important people in our lives -that's a great place to start. This is also causing me to look ahead a little more too. At least this way I have an idea where I'm going. Along with I know what type of person I need to become in order for me to make that happen. I've heard it many times before that the best investment we can all make is investing in ourselves. That is what I'm looking to do.

So as many schools take a break - it's a great time of year (if you can find a few moments) to sit back and relax along with spending some time to think about how things are going in your life. Shake off the winter chills and hopefully Spring will warm us up a little bit. As always, love the comments and ideas that come from you, they really help me a lot.

Quote of the Week - August 5, 2013

8/5/2013

"Life is way too short to spend another day at war with yourself." - unknown

This quote stuck out to me big time - I really think anyone of us could put their name after this one as being the author. It's been a rough week. A number of friends have lost someone this past week it seems and it also included finding out that one of my high school classmates passed away too.

So when I saw this quote, two things came into my mind really quick. The first was how so true the first part is: Life is way too short! That statement, the older I get, really is one of the all-time true statements. I think a huge key is for people to realize it early on in life so that things can be different in their lives. It's a wisdom thing I think and as we all know, wisdom comes with age and experience. So maybe it's not meant to be learned or understood at a young age?? But I think it should and I also think it's possible too. I know plenty of young people who do indeed seem to have this understood.

The second part that jumped out to me and once again - it either punched me real quick in the nose or at least slapped me across the face and got my attention was being at war with myself. This, more than any other problem probably that I have (and there are many it seems), is one that I know I've spent too much time on in my lifetime. There are so many great leadership & life teachers that mention this statement - we have to overcome ourselves before great things can happen. We must get out of our own way to go anywhere. Oh, how true it is.

As always, I love learning from others and their thoughts, ideas, and experiences. What lesson do you draw out of this statement? Have you ever thought about this fact? August is a great time to re-focus on things as summer winds down. Let me and others know what you think.

Quote of the Week - June 17, 2013

6/16/2013

"Sharpen your interest in two major subjects: life and people. You will only gather information from a source if you are interested in it." -- Jim Rohn

What a great quote - summertime or during the school year, it doesn't matter. We all should "major" in these two subjects. The key is - where to find the info on these two important topics? One is from the man that gave us this quote. I suggest that you find him on Twitter (@OfficialJimRohn), find his pages on Facebook, check out his website (http://www.jimrohn.com) and find any of his outstanding books that are out there too.

These two subjects should be something that we are all passionate about. Getting good in these two areas will open up the doors for so many other areas. Since we only get one shot at life, we might as well do all we can to make our journey the best it can be. Along with the idea that so many people come in and out of our lives throughout our lifetime, it too is something we might as well handle the best we can by learning as much as we can about people. As I tell my students and my two kids all the time about finding things to be passionate about and then chase after those things.

Study, read, learn all you can about these two subjects. They are simple by just the words - but oh so difficult to really learn about. There is not a better time to learn and study - it's summer! A perfect time to do some reading, thinking and learning. In fact, I will be doing just that. Look for some more things coming out that not only might help you, but I know for sure it will help me. Speaking about help, help me and others by letting me know what you think about this quote. Leave some thoughts here or get in touch with me.

Quote of the Week - May 13, 2013

5/15/2013

“The goal in life is not to live forever, the goal in life is to create something that does.” – John Maxwell

John Maxwell always has great thoughts. This is one of the many that I enjoy reading about. I guess as I get closer and closer to 50 years old - still a couple of years away - I get to thinking about the bigger picture about what is life all about. This idea that he brings out, should get all of us thinking. As usual with many success and leadership principles, the earlier you think about some of these things, and then start to implement them into your life, the better off you can be.

Everyone should understand that we can't live forever. But John Maxwell is correct in getting us to think about creating things that do go on and on, even after we are gone. It could be a book, articles, or other writings that we might produce that will be around for a long time. It could be an invention maybe or even starting up a business that goes beyond our years. But I tend to view this as the investments that we can make into other people that are the best things we can create that will last longer than we will.

The investments that we make in our own children that will pass onto others. The way we treat and interact with others; both in and outside of our families will carry on after we are gone. The example on how we lead our lives, do get picked up and noticed by others. If we are leading our lives with positive examples - those will be remembered and used by others, which in turn will be picked up by others. If it's the other way around, then others will use our not-so-positive examples in their lives and affect others with them.

Any thoughts? Are you on your way to creating something that will last beyond your years?

Quote of the Week - April 1, 2013

4/1/2013

Even with a break from school - I still wanted to get some thoughts out.

"Learn from your failures or be conquered by them." - from livelifehappy.com

This quote just jumped right out at me from two standpoints. First, learn from your failures is something that I know I need to always focus on in my life. Sure wish I had a clue about that earlier, but now I do. Failures happen, but we need to learn from them, make adjustments and move on. So many times I see myself and others making mistakes and failing... but then we don't learn from them. Ouch! Life is all about mistakes happening. Life has failures in it everyday. But we don't have to choose to keep making them over and over again, do we?

Second, if we don't learn from our failures and we don't make adjustments to become better or to get through those things that we struggle with - those failures will end up holding us back, really conquering our futures. There are obviously so many different levels to this as there are different levels of failures. Another key element to this that when we don't learn from these failures, they will also affect the other people in our lives that we are connected to.

Too many of my failures and shortcomings that I've had in my life have affected my family. Whereas if I would have learned from them and gotten better, things could be more positive in many ways for me and my family. These really end up getting in the way of our relationships in life. Which, if you haven't figured out by now, are really what's important in our lives.
Any thoughts or ideas on this? Have you thought about how things like this might be getting in the way for you? Always looking for discussion points.

Quote of the Week - March 11, 2013

3/12/2013

"The things which hurt, instruct." - Benjamin Franklin

I think the older you get the more this quote connects with you. They key is to have this (and other ideas like it) connect to you early in life rather than waiting for getting older to help you figure it out. I tell my students all the time, feel free to learn from me and others that are older than them so you don't take the time that we did to figure things out.

Learning more about Ben Franklin really shows me how smart he was. Those things that really matter in life, usually hurt us at some point in time and we have to learn from them. Life is full of teachable moments, we just have to look upon those moments as being able to learn from them rather than getting all upset and ticked off at those moments. Ben brings up so many important points about how we should live our lives. He learned many lessons himself about how he had to improve the way he did things. If you can find any of his writings, I suggest you take the time to read them.

So even if you don't like history, check out Ben Franklin. Not only is he a very wise man for the history of country, but he also learned some things about people and himself too. In life, improving ourselves and how we interact with others is one of the most important things we can deal with throughout our lifetime. What are your thoughts? Is Ben correct?

Quote of the Week - March 4, 2013

3/6/2013

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes

There is a lot of challenge from getting away from old ideas and old habits - for many like me it's a constant challenge to break out into having new ideas. The older we get, the more difficult it seems to be sometimes to developing new ideas. Difficult yes, impossible no.

Some of it depends I think on our dreams. We need to keep them alive and continually out in front of us. I try and get my students to understand that one. It's been said - "if you don't dream and think about it, it won't happen!" We will all end up somewhere in life. It might as well be someplace that we want to be. We need to break away from old ideas and have new ideas in our lives in order to help make that happen.

Another key in helping ourselves to have new ideas is to have good people around us encouraging us to go after our dreams and helping us think of new thoughts and ideas. We all know people that are helped by others to stay just where they are at. Association is a huge part of success as the people we hang around play a big part in us taking on new thoughts and ideas in our futures.

As always, I'm very interested in reading and responding to your thoughts. In fact, that helps me (and others) to develop new ideas and get away from old ones.

Quote of the Week - December 17, 2012

12/16/2012

“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once." ~ Calvin Coolidge

Love this quote! Sometimes I think we look at all the many different things we have to do in our lives and we get discouraged at the enormous mountain of stuff. I know sometimes I get overwhelmed and if I can remember to focus on just one thing to work on, it helps me tremendously. I know I can work on one thing at a time, but for me the key is to at least get going on that one thing. I have mentioned to my students this new Winter term that we just started about the W.I.N. principle (What's Important Next) - a great thought that I got from coach Lou Holtz. Something to focus on next time you feel overwhelmed with a bunch of things to do.

With the recent events in Connecticut at the elementary school, this quote also reminds me that when things happen that affect a great number of people in a tragic way, I think it comes down to the fact that we MUST do something. That something has to be bringing us all closer together rather than dividing us more than we already are. I see already the politics getting thrown into this sad and heart-breaking issue. One thing is to hopefully start looking at the way we treat each other. It starts with each of us taking the next steps in our lives to not only make ourselves better but also to help others too. These tragic events always seem to bring us closer together, but it's usually only for a brief amount of time. The lessons from the sad event, gets lost with current events and things going on in our lives.

What are your thoughts on what's happened? What are you going to do about it? How does this affect you? Always interested in learning from others... especially you!

Quote of the Week - December 10, 2012

12/10/2012

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” - Maria Robinson

I think all of us at one time or another dwell on our past, for both good and not so good reasons. I've come to realize that my past is something to learn from, get better for today and for my future from those experiences. I heard a great thought a few days ago about the past. It's always been said that the past is the past and that we can't go back and change anything, so it's best to move on. This person also went on to say that our past got us to where we are today. That's the point that stuck out to me as something to dwell on and connect with. My past, as yours too, has gotten us to where we are today. Good, bad and indifferent; that is something that we need to accept.

Something else to think about as the quote above suggests. The things we think about and end up doing today, will not only become our past of tomorrow; but it will lead us to our future as well. I'm trying very hard to spend time thinking about my past and how it's gotten to me where I am today. There are changes I'm also trying to make today from where my past has gotten me to, since I know that I have the power and control to change things today and in my future. Here is what I think is the missing piece to think about with the quote above. The changes that we make today, don't just affect us. They affect the people that we care about too. Looking back, if I knew this little nugget in high school; wow.. the changes I could have made back then to lead me to a different future. But the important factor is I didn't know and still wound up here in my future. Looking around where I am today, it's still pretty good. I'm in a good place and I'm working to make it and my future better.

Now, if you are in high school now - you need to stop and ponder this a little bit. Do your "homework" on this thought for sure, in other words spend a few minutes thinking about learning from your past, don't get down about it and let it keep you from doing great things today and in your future. It really doesn't matter what age you are, the younger the better for you I guess. Take a couple of things to work on. Things to get better at and keep moving forward towards your goals and dreams. There is no age limit on this fact. No matter when you start throughout your lifetime, you can make a new ending for sure.

This teacher loves to learn from others. Do you have any ideas or thoughts on this quote that others can learn from,especially me? Leave me your thoughts and ideas as I'm always interested in reading what you have to say.