Category: Time - Coach to Expect Success

It's Planting Season - Always Do Your Best

4/2/2016

"Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later." -- Og Mandino

It's great to see Spring coming around a little bit more everyday. Even with some colder weather coming in during the start of April, it's still nice to see it lighter out later along with some green coming back all around outside.

I am reminded about this quote seeing that I have been constantly reminding my students about doing their best for years. As I have always told them, I need the same advice for myself that I give to them. The things that we all do now, both good and bad will be what affects our future. There have been some things that I have gone out of my comfort zone for lately, and I need to continue doing that. It has become more exhilarating for me compared to causing me to be nervous and getting worked up about.

That's the one thing that my students have helped me with so often over the years. When I talk to them and hear parts of their stories about overcoming challenges and difficulties, about getting out of the comfort zone; that helps me so much so that I can try and do the same. Of course I tell my students the sooner they make these changes, the better off they will be. I also tell them that since I'm much older than they are, most of the time it's more difficult for me to make those types of changes.

I think it means more to me however (and others that are older) since we realize all the time that has gone by along with the amount of time we have left in life too. For younger people they may think that they have plenty of time to start things later, that they don't have to do it right now. This ties into a saying from John Fuhrman about every choice we make in life either takes us towards our goals and dreams or takes us further away. So we do harvest later what we choose to do today. It's up to us as to what we will be harvesting.

Gratitude - It's Connected To A Lot In Our Lives

12/13/2015

“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.”– Earl Nightingale

Time is a funny thing, especially when you get a little older. I’ll be 50 in less than 3 months and time seems to be sending me more messages every day. There are more memories that I think about, dwell on, get emotional over; along with the fact that I can clearly see that I don’t have as much time as I once did in my life.

It is the same for everyone. It is an equal currency for each of us. A dollar can represent many different things to different people. Time can too. But when I look at the value of each, I get different messages in my head. I’ve heard many times before that most people that don’t have a lot of money, sometimes have a lot of time on their hands. The other side of the coin is that people with a lot of money, don’t have a lot of time for other things. It’s also been said that most people won’t have a lot of both. I’d like to change that of course for me and my family, but I’m still working on it.

Earl is sure right on with this quote. The time passes anyway. If there is fear about how long a certain accomplishment might take and that fear hold us back? We have to start looking at the undeniable fact that the time will indeed pass and that possible accomplishment will always be a wish. There is also truth in the fact that time will continue on, but the willingness, ability and circumstances needed to make that accomplishment a reality – those will not be there later in life. There is a big difference from trying to do something in your 20’s compared to your 60’s. I see it as the sooner the better when it comes down to wanting to do something with your life, something that will last and make a difference with others.

As time goes by, and it seems it’s going by faster and faster – which we know really isn’t true; it becomes easier to see that changes have to be made in order to act upon the goals and dreams that you have in your life. One minute of time when I was 10 years old is the same sixty seconds as a minute is today for me. However, those 60 seconds are different at age 49, with a wife and two adult children, a career in education that includes teaching and coaching, bills to be paid, time spent with other family members, etc.

I had goals and dreams at 10 years old. I also have different goals and dreams today. So that one minute of time, that sixty seconds (at least to me) is totally different today than it was almost forty years ago. Those forty years have gone by, way too fast I might add, and I’ve accomplished some pretty cool things in my life, but there is more still to do. I also see it as the urgency for me sure is different today than when it was when I was 10.

So, take a look at where you are now. How much time has gone by in your life so far? We know what that is for sure as it is very easy to measure. What we don’t know is how much time is left. What can we all do to make better use of that time we have left? Those things that are close to our heart should be things that we want to take our time to go after. Start today. There is no better place in time to begin something. I know I need to do just that today. How about you?

Regrets vs. Dreams

11/14/2015

“A person is not old until their regrets take the place of their dreams.” – Phil Reinhardt

As time goes by it sure does get easy to have regular life take over where we find ourselves just going through the motions and losing our direction as to where we wanted to go earlier in life. The hopes, plans, dreams and goals are still in our mind but have been replace with looking to survive and maybe advance a little bit in whatever career path we find ourselves on. For many, it’s a career that maybe they didn’t plan on at all that they find themselves in. For others, maybe it a career path that they have never left and still find themselves on it so many years later.

There are plenty of regrets in my life for sure. I’ve tried recently to look at them as lessons learned instead of getting all hung up, sad and down about them not happening or more importantly, me not making them happen. The other thing that I have seemed to get connected with is to focus more in on dreams that I still want to accomplish. That’s what connected me with Phil’s quote when I saw it.

There are days I feel that I’m getting older, mostly due to my recent surgeries last year. I got my right knee replaced along with having back surgery, where I have six screws permanently in by lower back holding things together so to speak. Arthritis has made sure it is helping to remind me about the time that has gone by in my life. The way I look at it, I sure don’t need to help this process get any worse by not going after my dreams and goals and start having regrets pile up and replace those things that I still want to do in my life. Age is something that slows us all down at times which can add to the fact that we don’t feel like doing more about going after our dreams and goals in life.

This is why I promote to my own kids, my students and others to get started as early as they can on going after their dreams and goals, rather than after time goes by – and it does go by fast – we feel as if we can’t go after them since we are getting older and life is happening to us and we don’t have the time to do that. There have also been too many examples on why we can’t wait to go after our dreams and goals. Too many people that I have seen have died too soon in life due to a variety of circumstances. The tragedy in Paris just happened yesterday which shows even more the fragile state of life that some face more frequently than others.

They key is time will always keep chugging along. It doesn’t wait for nobody. Like Tiger Woods has said, “Father time is undefeated.” As time goes on, it piles up victories of making us start piling up our defeats of regrets instead of victories of accomplishing our dreams and goals. I’m not sure about you, but I want to still have some victories that I can look back upon as being memorable, lasting for others, and the opposite of regrets. What about you?

Life’s Too Short To Be Bored and Unfulfilled

10/24/2015

"Life’s too short to be bored and unfulfilled. Find your passion and use it to light up your life." — John C. Maxwell

Time and time again – there have been way too many examples about life being too short. John Maxwell is right, there is not any room for living a bored and unfulfilled life during the short time that we have. All too often most people don’t find their passions in life. Maybe even worse, they do find their passions but don’t do anything to go after them.

Les Brown tells the story about a man on his death bed and all of a sudden there are all these figures standing around his bed. He asked one, what are you all doing here? The mystical figure said that they represented all the dreams and ideas that he never did anything about. That because of him not doing anything about making them real, they are going to die with him. All the people that could have had their lives changed due to his ideas and dreams, will never have it happen. Of course he felt horrible at that moment. I’ve always pictured that story with me – and it is indeed very scary and sad to me. I guess that is one thing I’m trying harder to avoid in my life.

It’s one of my many issues that I try and get my students to think about as they go through high school and the fact that they are setting the table so to speak for the their journey through life. It’s become one of my many callings to bring this out so that students can start on this journey of going after a life of making a difference and one of fulfillment with their dreams and goals.
The same goes for adults too as we need to figure out our lives, no matter what age we are. It’s a lot more difficult for adults to make changes, to step out of our comfort zones and to find the time and courage necessary to do those things. One thing for sure is that we need to do it as we don’t want to end up at the end our lives, looking at all those faces of our dreams and ideas looking back at us with tears in their eyes, wondering why we didn’t choose to make things happen.

We also need to remember the faces staring at every day in our lives, our loved ones and friends. When we don’t go after our goals and dreams, we are making it much more difficult for them to go after theirs. It’s one of my many personal battles I need to take on because I know I have many people in my life that need me to step up and show them how to do things like this along with helping them to see the importance of the opportunities in their lives to make it happen for themselves. They too have others that they can influence and help, and so on and so on. A very familiar question should be asked by all of us. If not me, then who will step up and make a difference? Do you want to face all those figures at the end of your life??

Improving The World Starts With Us Improving Ourselves

10/21/2015

Making up for Oct. 13......

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." — Anne Frank

This one caught my eye right away when I saw it as I’ve seen so many people take this to heart lately by doing just little things that make such a big difference. It’s true and it kind of goes with last week’s quote about not waiting any longer to become the person you want to be.

It doesn’t take some fancy or formal declaration for anyone to start making a difference, big or small. That difference, no matter what it is does make a difference in the world. And if there is ever a time for differences to be made, it is now. Improving the world starts with improving ourselves. The better we get, the better those around us get.

Like so many other things, the time is now to get going on improving ourselves. Time seems to be going by faster and faster which should add to the sense of urgency that things have to get going on. With everyone being so busy and many times that does get in the way of important things, we have to ask ourselves what are we busy about?

How are we spending our time? The more we reflect on this and look to improve on what we do with our most precious resource, that is a huge improvement right there. That alone will help us to spend our time on more worthwhile things, which will have a direct affect on those that we have a connection with. Then those people will have affects on others that they connect with and so on and so on. So, what are you waiting for, the time is right to start improving yourself, which will then help improve the world. Just think if we all do a few little things, what a great shift of improvement we can help create in the world. How can you get started??

"The Boss" Is Right and The Time Is Now!

10/5/2015

“A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the person you want to become and start being the person you want to be.” – Bruce Springsteen

I knew that “the Boss” knew music. What I didn’t know that he was so wise about people. I think most people have this thought about becoming some type of person throughout life, but I don’t think that it appears too often together with another powerful thought. Not only do people get to a point of wanting to become somebody that means something to you yourself, but the “wanting that” becomes painful when you are not doing something about it. There is a time and place for just starting to be that person that you want to be and not put it off anymore.

It sure is frustrating and painful for many of us that for many reasons keep putting off becoming the person we want to be. I think for some people, they don’t understand this dilemma since they just go out and become the person they want to be without spending too much time thinking about things. The time is now, today to start doing things in order to become that person for ourselves. There is no better time than the present to start on this journey.

Me? I’ve been on this journey a long time. Looking back in my past even in 4th and 5th grades, I can remember having thoughts and ideas on what I wanted to become. It wasn’t a teacher or a certain profession, but I started to think about my future and where I wanted to go in my life. Stumbling and bumbling throughout life, I ended up in a profession that means the world to me. It’s become part of my identity for sure. This was due to mainly the people in my life that helped guide me to where I am today. Of course I chose things that contributed to my journey into coaching and teaching. I still look back with a lot of humility and gratefulness on how I ended up where I am today.

Another key for me is that I know I’m not who I want to be yet. There are new and exciting ideas I have for my life that I didn’t have a few years ago. The people in my life that I want to positively affect have made a big difference for me too. There are things I want to do both in and out of the education field and I realize I have to get going on those things quickly. The other factor that I have realized – and this is a key we all have to connect with – is how fast time is going by and how much time we really don’t have to do all these things.

It comes down to action folks. I know some of you are better at it than I am. I’m behind the learning curve on this one (for the most part), but I’m not going to quit. In fact, thanks to many people in my life – I’m more inspired now than ever before. What about you? What’s got you fired up and excited about doing what you have to do, to become the person you want to be??

Time Is The Most Valuable Item We Have

8/21/2015

"Time properly invested is worth a fortune; time wasted can be devastation." Jim Rohn

As I sit here at the car dealership on a Monday morning waiting for service to be done on my car, this was the first quote that I saw. Of course, as usual, I sure needed to see it. Truth be told, I have struggled with this concept for most of my life. Without seeing this quote, I know that I have to deal with this. After seeing this quote, I know I have to ramp it up as I know I've not been making this the priority that it needs to be.

Too many examples about how fast time is going by that make this point even more powerful and necessary for me to take on. Another key is that I know you also have too many examples, some that you have already thought of as you saw this quote. The question is what are we going to do about it?

For me the pain of staying the same is hurting more than the pain of me changing, and that fact is not only pushing me to tears at times, but it is becoming more necessary than ever before. The examples in my life about how fast time is flying by, these have a huge part to do with it. I'm sure it is the same with yours too. Another factor in the pain meter for me is how many people in my life that are also hurting that I could maybe help out a little if I start making the changes I need to make. Between my wife and kids, to other family members, my students, my fellow teachers, my basketball players and coaches I work with, other friends, the list goes on and on and on.

This also hammers home the point about how time seems to become more valuable as you get older. Really time should be viewed as being very valuable at any age. It’s the one factor of life that is truly the most valuable commodity that we have. Some say it’s money, but we can always make more money, cut expenses, etc., but we can’t manufacture more time. Our 24 hour days are the same for each of us, even for the richest person in the world, it’s just they use their time a little bit differently than the rest of us.

As I finish this up late this week, this is one of many focus points that I need to take more time to work on… get it?? There have been a few distractions that went on this week where I was unable to even sit down to finish up my blog, but it’s all good as those things that came up were things that matter to me as they dealt with my wife and kids and the things we had to get done. So to me, that was time well spent. So, take a few minutes to think about what you are spending your time on?

Big Key In Life - Work On Ourselves Harder Than Our Jobs

5/3/2015

“Go to work on yourself, harder than your job” – Jim Rohn

I love this quote and I’ve heard it a few times from different people too. I think it’s totally true, although it has taken me a few years to digest it and to see how true it is. Working on ourselves is a total inside job. We are the only ones that can do anything about ourselves. By us working hard to improve ourselves, everything else that we are involved in will be better too. If we only focus on our job and not ourselves too – the job will temporarily get better at our expense. Since we are not improving too, it will all catch up as both the job and ourselves will have plenty of troubles.

The actual reality of going to work on ourselves is not that difficult of a task to do. The actual “work” is easy. It’s the discipline, dedication, concentration, etc., that makes it difficult for us. The work itself are things like reading great books, blogs, articles, etc., that push us and give us new ideas on how we can get better in our lives. The work also includes keeping track of what goes into our brains. It has been said many times that most valuable piece of real-estate that we own, is the 6 inches between our ears. We have to be mindful of our thoughts as our thoughts become who we are and all that we do. Another key item on this work list is that we need to hang around good people. Those that will help push us out of our comfort zone and help us grow. Not the typical groups that want us to just do fun things, complain about our jobs and our lives, get caught up in living other people’s lives through reality shows, etc.

Finding the time or better yet, truthfully MAKING the time to do these things is the key. I’ve said, I hear people saying it all the time, and I bet even you have said this – I don’t have time for that. Now ‘that’ can be anything; exercise, eating right, doing homework, going to a meeting or class after a long day of work, spending more time with a loved one, etc. The key that I’m trying to make a change to is that we need to make it a priority, we need to actually make time for that item that we want to accomplish. This weekend I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this idea since we heard it last week in my Principles of Leadership class. Not only am spending some time thinking about it – I’ve put it into action!! With my wife for example, and spending time with her on her schedule and those things that are important to her and not mine. I’ve worked hard to not say anything to her about that and I have found that I’m still ok and we haven’t fought or argued about this like we normally do (usually due to my lack of patience and self-centeredness). That seems like one of the hundreds if not thousands of things I need to work on myself to improve. I bet you could pick one or two to start on you??

Father Time Always Wins - Quote Of The Week

12/15/2014

“Father Time is undefeated” – Tiger Woods

As we come close to the end of 2014, time is usually what a lot of people think about this time of year. Most of us look back at the past year, sometimes with regret I’m sure, but also we look back at all the good things that happened too. We also tend to look ahead to what the new year, 2015 will bring to us. Resolutions, plans, and goals all come to mind – many will be forgotten in the first few weeks of the new year sad to say.

I was watching an interview with Tiger Woods on TV last week when he said this statement about Father Time. It hit me on how right he is, so I quickly jotted it down as I don’t trust my memory anymore. He was speaking to coming back off one of his many surgeries and how it would affect his game. He is a year and a couple weeks away from turning 40 and he knows how Father Time has more baring on his career than ever before.

I could also see it in his eyes that he was talking about life and not just his career. It’s true for all of us, and I do mean each and every one of us. It’s amazing to look at our family and how Father Time has affected them. From our youngest nephew who many in our family still sees as being 4 years old, when in reality he’s 8. We look at our parents, with the oldest turning 78 this past year and all the age-related issues that are starting to settle in for them. Those age related issues aren’t just for them as I found out this year with my two surgeries dealing with the affects of arthritis on my knee and back.

That’s another thing that Father Time has given me. The time to sit and reflect a little more as I’m off work for awhile healing up from my back surgery in early November. It’s helped me to see many things more clearly and it’s given me the opportunity to make some adjustments with those reflections, and to make some changes for not only the year ahead, but for years and years ahead.

The looking back for us on Father Time can offer lessons to learn from and to make changes for today and the future. The looking ahead for us on Father Time can offer hope, dreams and goals to work hard for and go after. What I’ve seen from having some extra time to reflect and think these past few weeks (and for a few weeks more) Father Time offers us a great gift, every day that we can make changes and do the things necessary in our lives to make things happen for us, our family and our friends. Today allows us to take a blend of the past and tomorrow and do the best we can with what we have, and that is today, right now is all we have to work with.

So from reminders on the back end of our lives with our youngest nephew; to the reminder on the front end with our aging parents, it helps clarify what Father Time means to me and my wife along with others in our family from our own generation. It hopefully offers the chance for us to make any and all changes that we want to right now. For that is all we really have – the right now of our lives.

Tiger is right – Father Time is undefeated. Time always wins. How can we win within the time that we have?

Take Some Time To Look Around In Our Lives... So Much To See... Quote Of The Week!

11/2/2014

"Look back and be grateful, look ahead and be hopeful, look around and be helpful." - Unknown

Taking some time more often than usual to look around in our lives, is something that can be very beneficial and valuable for us to do. Just taking a few moments now and then to pause the craziness in our lives and look around at all the things that will be helpful to us.

This quote jumped out at me and I'm a firm believer that as long as we are looking, things that we need to see do make an appearance - then it's up to us to recognize that and grab a hold of it and use it. This unknown quote is something that did just that for me.

As I look ahead to having my back surgery this week, I must say it’s amazing to have so many thankful thoughts and feelings flooding over me. Looking at others that I met at a pre-surgery class that I went to last week, that they will be having the same surgery as I am and to see the different circumstances that they are going through compared to me. Amazingly grateful and feeling very blessed.

I am definitely hopeful as I look ahead to after the surgery is complete. I will have a very long recover period where I will not be in school and I’ve told my principal that I will still have my hand on things from home for some of the time I will be out. This has also led me to know how truly grateful I am that I have a job that I’m very passionate about. It has struck me as to how much I will miss my students, working with them, helping them, getting to know them, seeing them understand things, see positive changes they are making, etc. My coworkers are my friends as they are the ones that I spend a huge amount of time with – I will be missing them too.

The looking around to be helpful is something that I have prided myself on my entire teaching career. Now I’m the one that will need some help. It brings me to tears as I am writing this as I have my wife and my family. My wife will be taking some time away from her job to help me as I get back home after my hospital stay. My son and daughter will be home from college for a few weeks, they will be around to help me and my wife out. My mom too will be helping out along with other family members, friends and neighbors that have told us they will do whatever we need. This also ties into the thankful and grateful part. I cannot understand at times how lucky and blessed I am. Both for having a job that I care deeply about working with my students, but also all the fabulous people in my life that are there for me when I need them and are there other times for us to do things together and help each other at the different stages in our lives.

These quotes of the week always make sense (at least to me) to start a week off on a Monday with. This quote especially should be one that you should take a moment or two and let it sink in a little. (all of these that I find I feel the same too – but this one is a little extra special) Then let me and others know what does it mean to you – how can you use this to make some changes this week and beyond that will pay some huge dividends sooner or later in your life.

So if you are reading this in the next couple of days – have me in your thoughts would you please – say a prayer if you are inclined to do that, for I will appreciate all of them.