a2b4me...The Podcast! Keeping YOU Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...One of The Most Critical Skills in Life, and The Value of Knowing Yourself!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"Create your life rather than live it."

Idea #2

"One of the most critical skills in life, and yet never taught in school, is choosing where to direct your attention.

After graduation, the valedictorian will often get lapped by "average" people who better invest their time."

Idea #3

"Money plays an important role in life, but it can't be the only filter for how you decide to spend your time.

Nobody will ever pay you to go on a date with your spouse or take your kids to the park or grab coffee with your parents"

Quote #1

Carl Jung, the influential psychiatrist, on the value of knowing yourself:

"The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you."

Source: Paraphrased from Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Quote #2

Philosopher and writer Sir Roger Scruton on the importance of building beautiful things:

"There is a deep human need for beauty, and if you ignore that need in architecture, your buildings will not last, since people will never feel at home in them."

Source: The Modern Cult of Ugliness

Question of the Week...

Today's question is a two-parter:

When I'm living a good day, what am I spending my time on?

Do the sources of information I am exposed to each day support that type of lifestyle or distract from it?

For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to feel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com...

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge: Balance Your Roles

In trying to fulfill all the key roles in our lives, we sometimes overemphasize one important role (often work-related) and get out of balance.

- Identify one of your most important roles in life, partner, professional, parent, neighbor, etc., that you might be neglecting.

- Do something today to better fulfill that role.

Ask Yourself: Am I getting absorbed in one role to the disadvantage of the others?

"One of the major problems that arises when people work to become more effective in life is that they...lose the sense of proportion, the balance...they may neglect the most precious relationships in their lives." - Stephen Covey

For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to feel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...The Most Important Habit, The Difference Between Ambition and Entitlement, and Friendship!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

""The most important habit is choosing the right habit to work on."

Idea #2

"Ambition is when you expect yourself to close the gap between what you have and what you want.

Entitlement is when you expect others to close the gap between what you have and what you want."

Idea #3

"It's generally better to over-communicate.

If you wait to reply because you don't have an answer yet (or because you don't want to share bad news), the other party often ends up making assumptions about what the delayed reply might mean.

Silence frustrates and confuses people. Better to communicate early and often."

Quote #1

Ronald Sharp on how friendship transforms us (or any great relationship, really):

"It’s not about what someone can do for you, it's who and what the two of you become in each other's presence."

Source: Do Your Friends Actually Like You?

Quote #2

Tara Ploughman with an obvious, but often ignored, insight:

"Never offer what you'd hate someone for accepting."

Source: Quotes

Note: Tara Ploughman is, reportedly, an anagram of entrepreneur Paul Graham.

Question of the Week...

Does this habit still serve me or am I blindly following an old routine?

For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to to reach out to me at a2b4me.com...

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge: Share Your Mission Statement

Your Mission Statement is not just for you; your loved ones can benefit from knowing your goals, values, and vision.

- Today share your Personal Mission Statement with someone you trust; a friend or family member.

- Ask them to help you refine it.

Ask Yourself: Which people in my life are most affected by my personal mission?

"We detect rather than invent our missions in life." - Viktor Frankl

For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

When we focus on efficiency, we sometimes overlook the people who really matter to us.

But true effectiveness comes from the impact we have on others.

- Take time to write down your end in mind for an important relationship.

- Do something today to make that end in mind more of a reality.

Ask Yourself: This week, how can I tend to the relationship that matters most to me?

"How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us." - Stephen Covey

For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to feel free to reach out to me...

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...Kindness, Intellectual Humility, and Learning from Others!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"Your problems adjust to their true level of importance after a hard workout and a good night of sleep."

Idea #2

"If you want to be rich, then be kind.

It’s hard to create wealth unless you work well with others, and it's hard to work well with others if you are unlikable.

Even if you can build wealth without kindness, rich jerks end up poor in friendship. You can buy friends, but not good ones."

Idea #3

"A phrase I heard recently and found useful: I agree with the idea, but I disagree with the tone.

Many ideas get dismissed because they are delivered in a cocky or hostile or dismissive tone...or because of who delivers them.

Separate substance from style."

Quote #1

Scientist and systems engineer, Donella Meadows, on intellectual humility and learning from others:

"Remember, always, that everything you know, and everything everyone knows, is only a model.

Get your model out there where it can be viewed. Invite others to challenge your assumptions and add their own."

Source: Thinking in Systems

Quote #2

Attorney and poet, Max Ehrmann, offers some words for life:

"You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

Source: Excerpted from Desiderata

Question of the Week...

Is what I'm about to do today connected to what I'm going to value over the long-term?

For more on this topic, I highly encourage you to feel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com...

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge: Refine Your Mission Statement

Your Mission Statement defines your highest values and priorities.

It's the end in mind for your life.

It enables you to shape your future instead of letting it be shaped by other people or circumstances.

1) Write or revise your Personal Mission Statement

2) Check that it:

a) Is based on principles.

b) Clarifies what is Important to you.

c) Provides direction and purpose.

d) Represents the best in you.

Ask Yourself: What is my compelling vision of my future?"

The mission statement gives you a changeless sense of who you are." - Stephen Covey

For more on this topic, I encourage you to feel free to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...Focus, Self Care, and Making Better Decisions!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"Focus starts with Elimination...Improves with Concentration, and Compounds with Continuation."

Idea #2

"Self care takes effort. It doesn’t just happen.

The body and mind need to be maintained.

Similar to a garden, without effort, weeds will pop up and overtake everything.

With a bit of consistent pruning, the results can be beautiful."

Idea #3

"The connective tissue between your failures and your successes is the lessons you learn along the way.

It is only by going through your early attempts (usually failures in some form) that you accumulate the insights, skills, and understanding required for success.

Everything is a lesson. Learn enough lessons and the failures become useful."

Quote #1

Greek philosopher Epicurus on desire and contentment:

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

Source: Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings

Quote #2

Author Carole Hildebrand on making better decisions:

"Most of us have weak decision-making muscles. We do not realize what it means to make a real decision. We fail to recognize the force of change that a truly congruent, committed decision makes.

The word "decision" comes from Latin roots, with "de" meaning "down" or "away from" and "caedere" meaning "to cut." Therefore, a decision means cutting from any other possibility.

A true decision means you are committed to achieving a result and cutting yourself off from any other possibility.

Committed decisions show up in two places: your calendar and your bank account.

No matter what you say you value, or even think your priorities are, you have only to look at last year's calendar and bank account to see the decisions you have made about what you truly value.

See how you have reserved your time. Look at your expenditures. Those are the trails to the decisions you have made."

Source: On Time (lightly edited for clarity)

Question of the Week...

What is the highest leverage activity you have ever done?

Does that tell you anything about how to better spend your time?

For more on this topic, I encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

This Week's Challenge: Celebrate Your 80th Birthday!

Being effective means taking the time to define the legacy you want to leave regarding your most important relationships and responsibilities.

- Visualize your 80th Birthday Party. Write what you would like each person to say about you and the impact you've had on their life.

- What one thing can you do this week to help make it a reality?

Ask Yourself: What legacy do I want to leave?

"Deep within each one of us is an inner longing to live a life of greatness and contribution...to really matter, to really make a difference." - Stephen Covey

For more on this topic, I encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!

Happy Thrive Thursday!

This week we discuss...Magical Outcomes, Being Bold, and The Persistence of Nature!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

Idea #1

"It's rarely doing the work that is hard, it's starting the work.

Once you begin, it’s often less painful to continue working.

This is why, in the beginning, it is often more important to build the habit of getting started than it is to worry about whether or not you are doing enough."

Idea #2

"Imagine the outcome you want to create.

Envision where you are headed in great detail.

Don't talk yourself out of it.

Don't encourage yourself to be realistic.

You will have to wrestle with reality soon enough.

Don't be your own bottleneck at this stage.

What would the magical outcome be?"

Idea #3

"Don't rush, but don't wait.

Act with urgency, but release yourself from the need to achieve it on a particular timeline.

When you think longer term than most, you can think bigger than most.

If it takes years, start now."

Quote #1

Grace Hopper, a pioneer in computer programming and a US Navy rear admiral, on being bold:

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission."

Source: Only the Limits of Our Imagination

Quote #2

Farmer and writer, Wendell Berry, on the persistence of rivers:

"To a river, as to any natural force, an obstruction is merely an opportunity.

For the river's nature is to flow; it is not just spatial in dimension, but temporal as well.

All things must yield to the impulse of the water in time, if not today then tomorrow or in a thousand years.

If its way is obstructed then it goes around the obstruction or under it or over it and, flowing past it, wears it away.

Men may dam it and say that they have made a lake, but it will still be a river.

It will keep its nature and bide its time, like a caged wild animal alert for the slightest opening.

In time it will have its way; the dam like the ancient cliffs will be carried away piecemeal in the currents."

Source: The Unforeseen Wilderness

Question of the Week...

This thing that I am unhappy about... is it actually hard to change or is it simply hard to have the courage to change it?

For more on this topic, I encourage you to reach out to me at a2b4me.com

Have an awesome week and Keep Moving in the Direction of Your Dreams!