Live Life With Purpose with Adam Smith

The definition of a mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person.

Being A Mentor

I like how it says “and often younger person”, because it doesn’t have to be. Your experience trumps age every time. So, if your excuse has been that you have been too young to become a mentor, my challenge to you would be to look at your passions and see where you can help others in specific areas of their own lives that you excel in. You can live tons of life and still be young if you pursue life to the fullest. Most people have valuable information within them waiting to be unleashed and their own fears of self-doubt begin to plague them enough to keep quiet. When we second guess our talents and gifts, we begin to give the upper hand to living a mediocre life. This keeps us holding in valuable information and keeps others going down the path most traveled; mediocrity. The thing is that most people are ok with living out this lifestyle. Well, you don’t have to be.

Finding A Mentor

The first realization in the mentoring process is that you don’t have all the answers. There, I said it. Once you realize this, you are ready for a mentor. You can’t do life well while taking it on all alone. You just can’t. I have tried to do this many times before and have learned that this isn’t a possibility if you want to live a life of greatness. When it comes to accountability, you need people in your life who have already been where you are at. You need mentors who have seen what you have seen. You need accountability from trusted mentors that bring motivation and direction along with these relationships. When you allow for these mentors to speak life into you, your life begins to flourish.

You can begin leading better today by opening up your life and being open to mentoring. For the mentoring system to work efficiently, you need to be open and honest, to bring about helpful guidance. Pride needs to be pushed aside and the desire to become better has to be at the forefront. I mean, you wouldn’t be reading this, listening to the podcast or seeking out mentors if you did not wish to become better, right? You need this inside advantage that mentoring gives to help you through life. Again, doing life on your own is single-minded. Why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to have multiple great minds bringing knowledge and experience from the past and the present and putting it to work?

So, where do you begin to actually make this happen in your own life?

Before you get started and know exactly what you need, you should begin with a self assessment. Where are you really at? What do you really need help with? This way, you know how to select the mentors that you need in your life. There isn’t one person who knows everything you need. If you need help with your finances, then select a person who can give wisdom in the area of finances. If you need help spiritually, select a mentor who lives a deep, spiritual life. If you need help with your marriage, be mentored by someone who lives the ideal marriage. If you need help with your business, be consulted by someone who runs their business with sound principles and produces results. Of course this isn’t difficult to figure out, but it is amazing how many people become complacent and don’t put these ideals into place in their own lives. I am a big believer in the fact that people live out their lives showing their fruits. Pay attention to what people live out well and those are the people that you will want speaking into your life.

Now that you have done this, the mentoring process first takes someone who cares about making a difference. And then it requires you to know what you need help with. For me, I will always have a marriage mentor. I refuse to go back to living with complacency in my marriage. I literally would rather fail in any other area, but that area. That is how serious I feel marriage is. It took me almost losing it to realize it, though. Don’t let that happen to you. Put the necessary safeguards in your life today to prevent complacency. Achieve greatness not only in your marriage, but in every other area of life, too. How? Let’s look at where you are.

Rate yourself with a Poor, Good, Better or Best in the following areas:

Marriage – This one relationship dicates more in your life than any other relationship.

Other Relationships – They get you where you want to be.

Career – This is how you extend your influence even further.

Financial – Make more and bless others by giving more away.

Spiritual – Live a life of purpose and use sound principles that work repeatedly.

Physical – Live healthy so you can give more for a longer period of time.

How did this turn out for you? Even if this didn’t turn out exactly how you wanted it to, you now know where you are and we can now move forward.  The next step in finding a mentor is to begin asking. That’s it. Most people will be flattered that you are asking them and will probably say, “Yes.” If they don’t because they have a busy schedule, don’t be discouraged. You know more than one person that you would want to speak into your life. Just ask.

A little about my mentoring story. My life needed a mentor and still does. You see, it doesn’t stop at some magical point where you have it all together. Life doesn’t happen that way. Life happens in baby steps. You begin along your journey with curiosity and you see ideas you want to discover and maybe one day will implement in your own life. You see people who have achieved so much and you wonder how they got there, but currently you are stuck in the daily grind. You pick up learning moments along the way in the middle of your busyness, seeing people who you admire and you decide to take some valuable lessons and attributes from them. If you are smart, you will neglect the bad qualities they have and continue to learn from people who have embraced a life of greatness. But until then, you find yourself in moments of discovery.

You like to assess the environment around you, taking things in and growing with every chance you get. Mentors are there for that. They help you grow, show you the way and are there not only to direct you, but to celebrate with you. Don’t you want your own cheering section? Life is best done best with guidance and motivation. Wise counsel helps you sift through the noise and find your “sweet spot”. Mentors help you find your momentum and they help you see potential in your area(s) of greatness. This is the easiest way you will begin finding success in your own life through a mentor. Sometimes you need someone else close to you to recognize your strengths within. Yes there are strength tests that can identify these strengths, and I have personally taken a lot of them, but it is discussion between two or more people that creates direction. Talking things out not only brings clarity, but it reduces stress. Getting it out helps every area of life.

Maybe you are at a point in life where you don’t feel that you need mentoring, but I can guarantee people who have been right where you are before can and will increase your chances of success. This is something to look for in your mentor(s)- a life full of wisdom to impart on your life. You don’t have to do life alone. Even the greatest people we look up to have had mentors. It is one of the reasons they are where they are at today.

You need a mentor.

The post #021: You Need A Mentor appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

A lot of times people aren’t accomplishing more because they aren’t taking permission. Stepping out and taking permission to do what you need to do to be who you want to be is one of the scariest things you will ever do. Why? Because it’s something you haven’t done before, it takes courage and it makes you better.

Here are 3 specific things that taking permission actually does for you:

1. It takes care of fear.

2. It gives you authority.

3. It forces you to commit.

To review this, taking permission takes care of fear, gives you authority and forces you to commit. Maybe you have a situation where you need to apply taking permission right now. You have been afraid to take the first step and you just need to begin. You have had this desire burning in your heart and you need to do something with it. You need to take the first step because you need to do something. Let me encourage you to step out, move on and keep going in the process. We all have something to give, but we have to take the first step. Go and take the first step, today.

The post #020: Take Permission appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

http://www.asmithblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Episode-19.m4a

Here are 3 ways to create more momentum in your life right now:

1. Create more “Wins”.

These will act as building blocks that will stack on top of each other. When life brings you more progress, it is easier to reach out and try new things. When you have a lot of losses, timidity ensues and trying new things looks daunting. Nothing will deflate confidence like a consistent stream of losses in a row. Stepping out isn’t easy when you don’t have momentum. It starts mentally. Do more that brings momentum into your life.

2. Create realistic deadlines and goals for yourself.

To get things done, set deadlines for yourself to help you finish. But, one of the most important aspects here is to first set realistic expectations for yourself to not find yourself defeated before you even begin. Once you do this, the most important thing to do is to stick to your plan. So often, these big, lofty dreams intimidate us and we find ourselves hiding from them. Don’t let this happen. Bite your goals off into daily chunks that will help you not only create more wins, but will it decrease stress and will create momentum.

3. Create a team.

Like-minded individuals form cohesiveness and pushes ahead to achieve more. Whether this means hiring virtual assistants, forming a better team at work that helps each other accomplish more, or getting your family more on board to support you emotionally and with your goals physically, getting others on board helps with achieving more. The support alone moves you to do more well. Create a team to help with moving you forward.

In other words, confidence and creation shapes momentum. The more you can do well, the better your outcomes will be. Confidence and momentum work well together because you will eventually venture out to try new things and succeed at them.

How do you create momentum in your own life?

The post #019: Create More Momentum appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

How many times have you hit walls during your journey and wanted to quit? Maybe you are there now. But before you are stopped in your tracks, take a moment to actually see what you can control in the situation you are in and have a different perspective on it.

Now, you might be in a situation that is out of your control, but I am sure there is one thing out of this podcast you can apply to your life and see things differently. Here are four things that are well in your control that you need to evaluate and move forward:

1. Your attitude.

2. Your outlook on life.

3. What you consume.

4. The impact you make in the lives of others.

So, how are you doing in these four areas? Maybe you are doing great in all of them or maybe the opposite. Maybe you need to apply one or all of these to your life and begin to see life differently. Know what is in your control, today.

The post #018: Know What Is In Your Control appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

Are you feeling stuck? Like Life is the same all the time? Have you been doing the same thing for quite some time and life just isn’t giving you the results that you want? It is probably time for a change. It is time to implement creativity into your life and begin doing something different.

Here are 3 areas to look at and think about how you can become more creative with them starting today.

1. The Two Most Important Priorities.

Relationships and Work. You have to spend time with your family if you want it to be a good relationship. Bring some creativity to the everyday to make life extraordinary, instead of ordinary. Maybe you don’t want to do movie night every single night, and it is time to change it up a bit. It is time to get out of your rut, because the people around you need you. It is time to wake up a bit earlier to get the things done that you need to. Some of the best advice I have ever received is to go to sleep when my wife does. When I stayed up later than my wife there was a disconnect, because I was staying up late and waking up early and consumed myself with work. This left a huge disconnect! When I learned to get more creative with my schedule, my wife appreciated it and our relationship grew! This way the work that I need to get done is taken care of and my family is to. Time management and prioritizing come into huge importance.

Friendships are also important in life. Cherish them and hold on to them. You impact others through relationships and in return create friendships along the way. Hold on to your friendships and grow together through life.

2. Your Huge Dreams

Most of us live busy lives, but we still have dreams. that’s the thing, though. Busy can no longer be an excuse. Busy is everyone’s excuse and you are better than that. Use creativity to make your dreams happen. Creativity creates a freshness to the way you are doing things and brings a new found momentum to your life. Dreams fuel dreams in the lives of other people, because success in your dreams inspire others to dream big. Be the inspiration someone else needs.

3. The Just Because

I want to impact the world, but not always because I have a reason to. Sometimes I just want to blow people’s minds because it’s fun to do. Sometimes I have the urge to go help people in need just because. Sometimes I want to take Colbie to nursing homes and brighten some people’s days just because. Sometimes I want to go listen to people’s stories at hospitals and hand them balloons just because. Sometimes I want to be the light in someone’s life just because. I know you have the urge to “just because”, so go do them this week. That’s my challenge to you…

When we do the “just because” with no motive or hidden agenda, it means more.

Go be more creative in life, just because. Don’t let life become stale and boring. It is time to begin allowing creativity to take place, start seeing the big picture and making a bigger impact. Work on making these three areas of your life better by being more creative on a daily basis.

Go be more creative in life, just because. Work on making these four areas of your life better by being more creative on a daily basis.

The post #017: Take Creativity To Your Life appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

I believe in this idea of discipline in your life, that I wrote an eBook on it and I believe in the message so much, I want it to spread so I give it away for free on my blog just for signing up.

Self-discipline is one thing missing from most people’s lives that will get them further than they could ever dream of. It’s what creates better habits and forms these principles continuously, rather than a “one-and-done” mentality. Self-discipline is what sustains you through times of doubt and busyness. Once you make daily routines and set self-discipline as a priority, success will come.

Yes, as you are implementing self-discipline in your life there will be pushback. There will be resistance, but just as anything worth having, the journey is difficult to get there. But, the reward is worth it. Whatever area of life you need more discipline in, this journey is worth it.

What are some benefits that self-discipline can bring into your life? Please leave your comment below.

You can also sign up for blog updates sent directly to your email inbox by clicking here and receive my free eBook on discipline. It goes into more depth on self-discipline and gives you a free tool to evaluate where you are and will help you implement good change.

The post #016: Self-Discipline appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

We need to work with a happy heart.

When we are happy while working, it doesn’t seem like work. It feels as if our day just began and time flies when we are having fun. One thing that can help us be happier is finding our strengths in our daily work. When we are working in our strengths, we make a bigger impact and are happier about it.

Honor everyone.

Honoring people that are above me or those that are older than me is something my parents instilled into me as a child and I am so glad they did. it is about appreciation and respect.

Relevance: Know that we are impacting others by what we do.

Find who these people are and keep them front of mind. We have to know what our mission is to know the goal of who we will reach. If you don’t know your vision for your occupation, you have to find it to know who you are impacting each day. This will give you more satisfaction for a job well done.

Make your job measurable.

If you don’t know your daily, weekly, monthly or yearly goals, you will become lost. Again, you have to know what you are working towards to have a full appreciation for your work.

As always, it comes back to relationships.

Who can create bigger and better relationships with at work? It may be time to grow personal relationships with those around you.

Use your work to make a bigger impact, today.

The post #015: Your Work Can Be Better appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

Lately I have been thinking about the word “calling” and what it actually means. The Bible actually speaks on it quite a bit. Where I think a lot of people miss the meaning of the word “calling” is associating every part of this word with their profession. I just don’t see this being the case. I actually don’t think it has much to do with it at all. Now, I am not demeaning where you are at in life and if you are right where you feel you are called to be and in your called profession, then I will be the first person rooting you on. The only thing I am debating here is having the wrong focuses in the pursuit of our “calling”.

Again, I believe that somehow we have learned the idea our professions somehow define us, but I see calling being entirely associated with the idea of being available for others. Calling and the relationships we have are one in the same. Can our professions help create relationships and give us more opportunities to make an impact? Absolutely.

But, I believe the biggest opportunity to lead is through being available to pour into the lives of others and to love them. Again, the first step in impacting the lives of others involves us first being available. Then and only then can we be a true friend and fully love. How many times have we come up with the excuse of being too busy to care for those we come in contact with? Probably more than we would like to admit. Well, I am exhausted and embarrassed of repeatedly making this popular excuse.  Can we all commit to being more available for one another?

To make this happen, don’t worry so much about your “calling” that you are heading towards and focus more about today. Focus on how you can make a difference in the lives of those around you today. Live each day the way it was intended to be, as your calling. You are called to make an impact in the lives of others. Stop putting life off until you someday reach what you are “called” to do. You are called right now.

Make an impact and start leading TODAY.

The post #014: Stop Worrying About Your Calling appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

Doing things for recognition or because you have to or because someone toldyoue to try it isn’t the way to go. It has to be more than that. For something to stick we have to buy into the reason behind the reason. In whatever we do, The real reason to do something is for the reward in doing it and for the help it brings to others. Do good things for other people because it is the right thing to do, don’t do everything for you and your feelings. Stop doing things because someone told you to do them a long time ago. Do what you do because you fully believe in it. When you do things with heart behind it, you get more out of it.

The two things that you can do by yourself that brings help & health to you is exercise and quiet time. Other than that, others need to be included to make a bigger impact.

In my own life, when I have done things for the wrong reasons, I become disenchanted with them very quickly. Here is what I have learned along the way and the “Whys” of starting to do things for the right reasons.

1. Start something bigger than you.

This involves more people and makes an impact in the lives of more people. When more people are involved, it causes motivation for everyone else, too. This cuts selfishness out and lets you see the bigger picture. Start thinking now- What is that one thing I can do to help others? I will give you a few seconds to think about that.

Alright. Hope you came up with that one thing you can begin doing now to help others. How often you do that one thing is completely up to you.

2. Be aware of the needs around you.

When you are in tune with your surroundings, you are able to make a bigger impact in the lives of others and others become your true reason. Going back to last episode, when you create more margin in your life, you have more time to impact others as well.

3. Do it for the satisfaction of becoming better at something.

When you keep at something and you practice doing it, you will become better at it, no matter what it is. When you practice good, you will become better at doing good for others and it will become an even bigger habit for you.

What one thing do you need to put on your Stop Doing List?

The post #013: Stop Doing Things for The Wrong Reasons appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

To create time for the people and the things in your life that matter most, you need to create more margin in life. That’s the problem with people’s schedules these days. They don’t leave any room for thinking, let alone making a difference in the lives of others.

Here are three ways to create more margin in your life:

1. Get rid of the unnecessary.

This is sometimes hard to accomplish. People want to hold onto as much as they can. Why is this? People don’t like letting anything suffer. People have work, church, family, friends, kids, activities and the list goes on and on. Before we know it, we are at a point where life has control over us instead of us controlling it. The truth is though that there are still 24 hours in a day and we all have to sleep at some point. If you put time into something, anything, there will be an area that suffers. Something has to give. So, “What will it be that suffers?” is the question. Take back your life when you begin getting rid of the unnecessary things that clutter up your life.

2. Maximize your day.

After you get rid of the unnecessary, there still might be a lot on your plate, and that’s ok. It is time to learn how to manage it well. The way I deal with this, is to put the most important things first in your day. This way you know they will get done. To get things done, you can’t compromise on this either. Learn to maximize your day and learn how to do more.

3. Plan as much as you can.

Some have argued with me on this step, but it is what works for me. I know some people who don’t make appointments and want to get everything done right away, but for me this hasn’t worked in my own life. I have found that the less I have to think about and just go ahead and get it out on my schedule, there is mental space that opens for other more important things. It allows me to move on.

When I started putting these 3 points in to my routine, more time became available for family and friends. These 3 things will help you create more margin in your life and will get you to open your days up more often to make a bigger impact in the lives of others.

How do you create more margin?

The post #012: You Need More Margin In Your Life appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.