Live Life With Purpose with Adam Smith

We have seen less importance placed on becoming a good steward, and more importance placed on what we can gain. I would also say that we have seen a negative shift in the way people view responsibility. Let me be the first to tell you that things won’t happen the way you want them to until you take some responsibility. You have to take responsibility for your actions, the decisions that have gotten you to where you are today, and for moving ahead.

One of the best examples I have ever seen of someone who knew how to be a good steward with their lives was my boss at my first job, Brandon. He is still to this day the best manager I have ever known. Brandon knew how to coach others to become better, how to get great results, and he was also very personable with everyone. Because of this, Brandon was able to build trust and relationships with both the team and with customers.

Looking from the outside, it didn’t seem like he should be this far along in life. He was young, he really hadn’t been in management for a long time, and he was attending grad school full-time while working full-time to pay for all of his schooling. But, even with being stretched in every direction, he understood the importance of doing well with what he already had. He didn’t let busyness deter him from pouring into the lives of others.

I knew he had something that I wasn’t able to grasp yet, but now I understand. He was being a good steward. He knew that he didn’t have to go out and gather a bunch of different attributes first, but he was already enough. He didn’t wait to hopefully become a better leader someday, but he saw life as an opportunity and took advantage of it. Even though Brandon was in a waiting season himself, he knew what it meant to be a good steward with what he already had.

Brandon displayed what it meant to do well with what someone already has, but what about the trend of obtaining more, more, more? The want of something more isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when it becomes your sole purpose, it becomes your wrong motive. When having more is always your focus, you miss out on each daily opportunity to use the talents and passions you already have in your possession to lead in the lives of others right now. When your focus is on the present moment, you will be able to give more to those around you. In doing this, you will have more influence. If I am using John Maxwell’s definition of leadership, being influence, nothing more nothing less, then this is where we need to focus.

When you understand the need that people have for you and you know what needs to be done, it then becomes your responsibility to be a good steward and give life all that you already have. When you learn to be a good steward, you learn the importance of treasuring what you already have in your possession. When you learn how to be a good steward, growth always comes.

When things are going great, you probably don’t feel a huge need to focus on being a good steward, because things couldn’t be better. But, let me challenge you to not lose focus on what is at hand, so you can continue to grow. Being a good steward not only maintains greatness in life, but stewarding well is what grows people into becoming something better. Maybe you currently find yourself in the midst of waiting and are wondering if the next door will ever open again. Maybe you are making plans and are getting ready to put the work in. Or, maybe you are submerged in the trenches of your work right now, wondering when this pace will ever let up. Or, maybe you are in the season of reaping the benefits of the work you have put in for so many years and are wondering what to do with all of it now. Plain and simple, being a good steward in every life season is what will keep you growing.

If you are currently in a waiting season or have been there at some point in life, you know just how difficult this season is if you allow it to be. But, understand that waiting doesn’t have to be as difficult as most people make it out to be. Waiting will try to keep you to yourself and will try to settle you into contentment, but at some point you have to move out of your comfort zone and dare to make a change. At some point you will have to go and do. You can use the waiting season as a time to step out and go do something different.

There is no better time to plan your life out and all the intricacies of it than in the waiting season. Once you do this, you can start moving through this season and get to the next. Time is too precious to waste. You can use time to impact others in huge ways, especially in the waiting season.

The dreams that you have are what inspires people. People find inspiration in what you are pursuing with your life, but your dreams still need a plan to make them happen. Dreams excel when they are put into a plan. Your plan is simply a means to achieve your dreams, but every inspiration starts with a huge dream burning inside of you. You can be a good steward by taking responsibility now. Live your story, tell it, learn from it, and plan it out.

Within the practice of planning out your dreams, you get to see what you care about. You should pencil each and every detail out, even the gifts you want to bring out of others are important to identify. Planning is just another way to be a good steward with your life. Your plan should impact the lives of others, because it will always be people that matter.

But, even after constructing a plan, remember that only having a plan is never enough. At some point you will have to put in hard work. At some point you need to come to the realization that forward movement is the only thing that makes great things happen. When you are a good steward and put hard work into the right things, you will find success, because hard work always pays off.

I know the sexy solution is to say that you can use mind over matter and just think these things into existence, but the truth is that putting hard work into the right things always wins. I know it takes a lot of time to put in the necessary work, but it isn’t possible to skip this most important step of the process. The truth of the matter is people want to skip this step because again, people want to write off responsibility and take the easy way out.

But, when you realize the importance that hard work has in making things happen, making excuses seems like a really dumb thing to do. I used to dream of the day that things would become easier, but that day never came and it doesn’t look like it will show up anytime soon. I used to make excuses as to why I couldn’t be there for others due to a lack of time, but I hadn’t yet discovered the power of being a good steward with my life. The fact is that there are still people I come in contact with every second of the day who need me, and I still have the same responsibility to be a good steward that I’ve always had.

Yes, I am now busier with my family, I have more commitments, and I work more than I ever have before, but the difference is that I have stopped making excuses as to why I can’t make the time for people. When others aren’t our top priority, all of this is in vain. All of this work we put into Leadership In Life doesn’t matter when people don’t matter. This idea is that serious.

Being a good steward with my life didn’t just happen somehow, though. There came a time in my life where I had to declare that no matter what amount of time I was given, I would use it to the best of my abilities to impact the lives of other people. I had to make the decision to be a good steward with my time, and you can make the same decision right now.

In most cases, results will speak for themselves. If you are a business owner or an employee at a business, then you know that looking at your profit and loss statements will show if you have been a good steward with your resources. If you are working on a project for the business you work at, then you know that the time you put into your project will show itself by displaying just how prepared you really are when it comes time to present. When you are a good steward with your financial resources, you know that it will show both in your expenditures and your savings.

Being a good steward is what strengthens character and integrity within each and every one of us. Whether we are talking about work, time, or money, being a good steward with our resources sets us up for greater success. It shows that we are paying attention, that we care about our responsibilities, and that we want to do well with what we already have.

This concept of being a good steward is something that is hardly ever discussed in the world of wanting more. When is the last time you really thought about being responsible for taking care of what you already have and growing it into something better? When something is given to you and huge, new opportunities come into your life, take the responsibility to be a good steward with them. Once you do well with what you have now, more will come to you. That’s a principle that has always worked, and one that will remain true until the end of time.

Sometimes it may seem easier to give something away, delegate it, or even forget about it, rather than being a good steward with it. The thing is that we usually have the seed already in our hands, but we may not have the ultimate solution in our possession yet. If you can imagine planting a seed and taking care of it until it grows into a full plant or tree, this is what being a good steward looks like. When you live life well, you can know that what you already have in the ground will eventually grow to be a beautiful life-giving plant.

The post #071: Be a Good Steward with What You Already Have appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

Gallup research shows that only 13% of workers are actively engaged in their work. Here’s an article stating that people don’t quit jobs, they quit managers. I also found an article on the 9 things that make good employees quit. I share these articles with you as proof that the topic of company culture is important, and for good reason.

Businesses tend to focus the majority of their energy on attracting the right employees, but place much less focus on how they can keep the right people. Employee retention is a focus that’s worth the time and effort, because cultivating a great company culture is a necessity for your business to thrive. So, how can you help ensure a better company culture at your place of work?

1. Listen and be heard.

Listening shows that you are engaged with what is going on within your company. When you really listen to what individuals on your team have to say, it shows you care about others.

Listening isn’t the only way to show you care about others. Voicing your opinion shows that you care about the outcome as well. You will fight for what you believe to be right. Remember this truth the next time you have the urge to say something and feel like shying away from the opportunity. Voicing how you feel on a certain topic only shows that you care about creating a better outcome.

If you are in a leadership role at your company, then it is your responsibility to listen to your team’s input. Of course a decision needs to be made once all input is received, but listening to your team shows that you genuinely care about the perspective of others.

At some point a real disconnect happened between employers and employees. This happened when a few company executives decided to call all the shots and expected everyone else to fit in the terrible culture they created. The only problem with this is that a better company culture isn’t dictated – it’s acted out by people who care. A better company culture can begin to form when teams work together and healthy dialogue is exchanged between everyone involved.

2. Make creativity a top priority.

Company cultures suffer when creativity is lost in the shuffle. Once things stop moving forward, employees disengage. Everyone suffers when things remain stagnant. Businesses need to keep creativity in the forefront of all that they do.

Some questions you can ask yourself to create a better company culture are: 

How can we continually innovate?

Answer these questions often to see your company culture soar. The possibilities for your company are endless when creativity is considered to be a necessity.

3. Engrain the Why into everything.

If company culture is built by everything we do, then the mission of your company needs to be present in the actions of every employee. If management is doing their job well, then they are the ones who give the necessary tools to create a better environment for their employees. But, when employees see how they fit into the equation, they can help propel an engaging company culture to take it to the next level. A better company culture is the responsibility of everyone involved, not just a select few. Grab hold of the Why behind what your company does and see the difference it can make.

Now, go and create a better company culture, today.

The post #070: Create A Better Company Culture appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

When I took the StrengthsFinder test, I found that my number one strength is “futuristic”. It’s truly my blessing and my curse. I always want to live in the future, curious as to what’ s next, but I have forced myself to analyze my past. Why? Because it’s necessary. Of course we don’t want to dwell on the negativity from our past because we can’t change what has already been done, but we can continually learn from it and change our lives from this one simple practice.

Here are the three main reasons I believe looking at your past is one of the most important things you can do:

1. Looking at your past helps ensure that bad history doesn’t repeat itself.

We all have times in life that didn’t turn out so well. The way we can all turn these negative experiences into positive ones is by not being afraid to look at the past. Although it may not be comfortable, we can work to not only look at the past, but to learn from it. James Burke said, “Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look.” We should look at both mistakes in the past and victories and take advantage of them, because we can.

But, the only way to know that bad history won’t repeat itself is by making changes now so the future won’t turn out the same way. Want to change your future? Begin making better choices right now.

2. Looking at your past gives you incredible stories to share with others.

Looking at your past not only improves your memory, but making this a regular practice helps you to never forget where you came from. I will again recommend journaling to be able to remember moments, but some of the best stories that I share now are from the far past. This is fun for me, because I can see what obstacles I have overcome to get where I am today. You have had to do the same thing in your own life, and it’s in these experiences that make you who you are.

Every time you don’t allow your past to be used in some way, you rob others from experiences you have already encountered. You already have valuable insight on situations that others may encounter along their journey, so you might as well begin using it for good. Share your past to help someone else’s future.

3. Looking at your past lets you know what you can improve.

Looking at your past tells you how well you have been working in your strengths and weaknesses. You’ve probably heard the definition of insanity before — it’s doing the same things over and over again expecting different results. Some people do this without even realizing it, and when they do this they get stuck in a monotonous cycle that leads to a rut.

Looking at the past in this way will tell you if you have been working towards your goals or not. Based on this analyzation you will have a good idea of what kind of improvements need to be made. If you have been working towards your goals, then that’s amazing. Keep it up! But if you’ve been heading the opposite direction, then by all means make the needed improvements now instead of “someday”. (That may be my least favorite word ever.)

The post #069: Why Looking at Your Past Is so Important appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

After reading Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, I became more interested with what makes people happier. Everyone wants to be happier, but not many people know where to look, and that’s okay. What I have found in my research is that the road to happiness is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The beautiful creativity, the endless possibilities, and being able to analyze what works and what doesn’t are just a few of the things that makes life amazing.

1. Most happier people challenge themselves in a fun way. 

If you find yourself incurious about life, it is time to reevaluate. When you challenge yourself and become curious once again, it will immediately spark interest in your life’s passions, and in return will make you happier. When you begin doing this, no it may not always be easy, but easy usually doesn’t equate to doing what’s important. In fact, very few times will it be easy to do what’s important.

Ask any leader if their journey was easy, and I can almost guarantee that there were bumps along the way. But when you find these leaders, also ask them about the mistakes they made along the way. Actually, ask anyone who has been successful about the mistakes they’ve made along the way. I’m sure they will have many stories to share with you.

Most happy and successful people allow themselves to make mistakes, instead of being hard on themselves. Learn to make attempts and have fun along the way. When you challenge yourself while allowing yourself to try and try again, you will find yourself a much happier person.

2. Most happier people exercise and get outside. 

Exercise is scientifically proven to increase happiness due to releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain. Because of this, people who are more physically active report greater levels of excitement and enthusiasm than people who are less physically active. Exercise can make you less stressed out, energize you, and boost confidence. Exercise also helps me when I am feeling anxious.

Some studies even show that 20 minutes of exercise is all you need. David Conroy, professor of kinesiology said, “You don’t have to be the fittest person who is exercising every day to receive the feel-good benefits of exercise. It’s a matter of taking it one day at a time, of trying to get your activity in, and then there’s this feel-good reward afterwards.”

3. Most happier people spend time focusing on other people.

When we do things for others, we feel better about our own lives and are able to see the difference we are making in the lives of others. I think a huge reason in this is that we are able to take the focus off of our own problems, and help others through our lives instead. Conversation and companionship in relationships contribute to more happiness. When we know that people truly care about us, we become happier. Research has found that the characteristics of people who are happy and show the fewest signs of depression are those who have “strong ties to friends and family and commitment to spending time with them.”

We can also spend more time with people in a more organized way that is found in volunteering our time and service. In a recent review of 40 studies done over the last 20 years, researchers found that one activity was far more important than the rest for boosting psychological health: volunteering. This activity, the researchers reported, had been found in many volunteers to be linked with a reduced risk of depression, a higher amount of overall satisfaction, and even a reduced risk of death from of a physical illness as a consequence of mental distress. (via Business Insider)

4. Most happier people put themselves in less stressful situations. 

People who are happier tend to commute shorter distances to work, avoid comparing themselves to other people, keep their schedules open, and are able to remain present rather than thinking about the next thing they have to do. In other words, they find ways to lessen or eliminate unnecessary stresses. We have talked before about wearing busyness as a badge of honor, but it is when we stop doing this that life opens itself up to us and stress lessens.

Think of how much better life would be if you were able to eliminate some of the stress you experience. You would be ecstatic if you could do this, right? But, sometimes this can be easier said than done. If you are having trouble thinking of ways that you can begin reducing stress in your life, here are 10 ways you can begin right now:

The post #068: Four Ways To Be Happier Than You Are Right Now appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

We can all become overoptimistic of our capabilities at some point in our lifetimes and then find ourselves overwhelmed with all that we have going on if not careful. Past the need to focus on our priorities and knowing who we are, there will be times in our lives that we find that we have too many things going on. Being busy and overwhelmed never helps anyone. I believe that all of us can and should continuously tweak our schedules, so that we can find more bandwidth on a daily basis. Now, by no means do I have a perfect schedule. I am currently in the process of discovering how I can make my own schedule better and hiring more people to make it all work. But, I have discovered life-giving keys during this process of keeping a better schedule. The closer you get to finding what works for you, the more often you will be able to work in your passions and purpose.

This is an easy step to overlook, but it is necessary to bring a balance to your life. What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? Who do you want to spend time with? You need to realize the answers to these questions now, so you can commit to the right things later.

Sure, saying “yes” to more opportunities is what helps you to begin doing new things, but you need to know when enough is enough. Sometimes the best thing to say is “no”, even to those things you may enjoy doing. This is important in order to allow more room for the things that you were made to do.

In order to get my schedule back in order, I have quit more activities in the past week than I ever have before. I have found that a good rule of thumb is to quit doing two things for every one thing you start doing. I have adopted this practice and it is absolutely liberating. It will also constantly remind you what your priorities are.

Know that the commitments you make today may not be your heart a year from now. That’s why it is important to hear what your heart is saying, and to also be engaged with the life you are living. When you are self-aware, you can better anticipate issues that may arise in the future. This should be a routine practice you commit to at least every month to keep the activities you are committed to in line with your pursuits.

The post #067: Quit Being Too Busy appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

We all get the same twenty-four hours per day that everyone else does. So how is it that some people seem to get more done than everyone else? It has to do with the mental space that individuals take up with the unnecessary. If you are constantly thinking about everything else besides what you need to get done, well then you won’t do what is important. For those who have figured this out, they have more brain power to think about what needs to be done and more energy to take care of the tasks at hand.

If this sounds like the person you want to become, I have five tips for you to simplify your life in order to get more done:

It’s no coincidence that Steve Jobs wore the same black turtleneck and jeans everyday and that Mark Zuckerberg does the same with his hoodie, grey t-shirt, and jeans, and that Albert Einstein always wore the same grey suit and that President Obama only wears grey or blue suits. Sure it’s part of their branding, but they figured out that if they could have one outfit they would simplify the shopping, the trying on of clothes, the finding of the favorite shirt and pants, the daily choice of picking out what to wear, the finding of what matches, waiting on the washing of laundry in order to have clothes that do match, the time it takes to iron, and the choosing of what goes in the suitcase when traveling, they would save tons of time and would instead save brainpower for things that matter much more than clothes. Whether they were the ones to actually do these things themselves or if someone else was doing it all for them, it still takes up precious time. When you already know what you are going to wear, you save time and are able to do more in your day. This being said, when you find your favorite shirts, pants or shoes, buy more than one of them. This keeps you from having to find new favorites in the future when the best product you have found is discontinued and you have to start the process all over again.

I learned this tip from Nathan Wiebe, and have already applied it to breakfast and lunch. I have kept dinner as a different meal every night, because I love trying different foods and use it as a reward system. And no, I could never go to the one meal per day system that General Stan McChrystal recently talked about with Tim Ferriss. By simplifying two meals out of the day, I don’t have to research new foods. It’s just easier to simplify as many meals as you can, but it also increases discipline and willpower when you’re able to stick with a meal plan.

I learned this tip from time architect, Jana Kemp. She says to take care of all outstanding calls, paperwork, and emails the same day, so that they don’t get put on a to-do list somewhere to be forgotten about. This is just one other thing that takes up mental space, but it doesn’t have to. When you learn to simplify by prioritizing, you will see how much damage that procrastinating can make.

The average person sends 40 emails per day. That’s not only a lot of emails being sent every day, but that is a lot of time that goes into thinking up the topic, the body, and actually constructing the email. How many similar emails do you send on a daily basis? No matter how many emails you send, the answer you have been looking for to take back control of your email inbox is email response templates. Last year I looked at how many emails I was writing on a daily basis, and I was pretty close to giving up on email altogether. It was too much for one person to control without having proper systems in place to handle it. These email templates helped me find a way to streamline the process and take back my time.

I covered sleep in my previous podcast, but it’s important enough to cover again. When you get the right amount of sleep for your body, you fight fatigue through sleep rather than throughout the day. When you don’t get enough sleep, you make worse decisions and your mind is cloudy throughout the day. Sure you can fight fatigue with running, naps, or coffee in the middle of the day, but a good night’s sleep is the best possible way to ensure you are at your highest productivity level throughout the day. You will get more done in less time when you take the time to recharge through sleep.

This is all about creating routines and the more you can turn into a system, the better. Get ready for bed at the same time and in the same order to make nights easier. The same goes for mornings. The more often you give the same routine a chance, you will be able to see what works, what doesn’t, and you will also become faster at it. This allows you to fit more things into your day, again saving you time.

The post #066: 5 Tips to Simplify Your Life appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

As you know, I tend to talk a lot about action because it is how I am geared and it’s what actually gets things done. But what I haven’t given enough attention to is downtime through sleep. I haven’t always been the best at getting more sleep, but this is a serious change I am beginning to make in my life. After adopting a nonsensical mentality of “I’ll work now and sleep when I die” for many years to keep up with everything, this change comes from many people close to me calling it out in my own life. I just can’t keep the pace up. This kind of lifestyle has become a real epidemic in 2015 for all of us.

The thing is that I could tell you how busy I am, but my guess is that you are just as busy or may even be busier. There seems to be higher expectations, more work being given to individuals, much shorter deadlines, more people to please, and less time being given to families at home in order to finish this work. Let’s face it – most of our lack of sleep is due to stress or staying up to finish work. While more and more people push society with higher expectations, I want to challenge you to not fall for this trap. The more we give into these false standards, the more stress that we voluntarily bring upon ourselves.

I saw signs pointing to this struggle in a documentary I recently watched entitled Happy. This documentary is about what makes people happy, but in an effort to see the flip-side of happiness, the documentary also talked about Japan’s workforce literally working themselves to death. Karoshi as it has been named, is such a problem with employees due to Japan not having regulated overtime laws that people have given it a name. Yes, it looks like there is an effort to make this issue better, but I think it points to a much larger mindset we have all created – one that rewards more work and punishes the rejuvenation we need that is found in sleep.

Health not only includes eating healthy and the workouts that most people think of when they hear the word, but also sleep. Maybe when you were younger you thought you could take on the world and keep going no matter what detriment you brought to your body, but have realized that this isn’t a manageable reality. At least it’s not a reality for people who want to get more done. Action is just part of the equation of accomplishing more. You need the fuel found in sleep to finish what you started, because without it a struggle with lack of energy and burnout are both close by.

The photo below shows how much sleep top athletes get on a daily basis. It just goes to show how much of a priority the top athletes in the entire world values sleep. If they value sleep this much, so should we. Just as sleep helps athletes perform at their highest level and produce better results, it can do the same for all of us.

We have all been through times in life where we have had less sleep. It makes life much more difficult to see in a positive light. A lack of sleep can cause quick mood swings leaving us grumpy and unapproachable. It can even lead to depression. It’s almost weird to think that we can help all of this and more with sleep, but it’s true.

More sleep (7-9 hours) can help your memory, increase creativity, help you with your weight, lower stress, and can even contribute to living a longer life, says this article on health.com. I used to think that the longer I could extend my day with staying up to work, the more I could accomplish, but I was wrong. Sleep is the fuel for the energy we all need to help us through the day. We will actually get more done when we give ourselves the correct amount of sleep and allow ourselves to rejuvenate.

The post #065: How and Why to Get More Sleep appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

We have all made things more difficult than they need to be, and most of these times are due to not putting enough thought into our actions. Sure, it is important to begin moving ahead, but what about knowing where we are going? I would say that anticipation is a much needed quality for all of us to possess. The key to foresight is knowing that it is much less about luck than what most would make it out to be. When we put thought into our lives each calculated response can make life easier. When we take correct action now, the future can become much more predictable.

Do you want to lead a remarkable life? Put thought into it. On the other hand, if you want to lead an unremarkable life, don’t think about what effects your actions will make. Most people think that life lived according to the latter principle is much easier, when it’s actually much more difficult to make wise decisions on the fly when we don’t have grounded beliefs. When we know beyond a shadow of a doubt what we were made to be and do, clarity comes. Sure surprises come, but many less of them are present when we choose to look ahead. The secret is to not only think about today, but to look at tomorrow, next week, next year, the next ten years, the next twenty-five, and so on. It requires a mental shift to see the importance in this, but your future deserves it.

I intentionally ask myself this question repeatedly, because if I don’t know this I waver. The same goes for you. Who are you and what do you believe? You should know this inside and out, because it changes how you view yourself and the world around you. What you believe will help you to know right decisions from wrong decisions. You make life easier when you honestly answer this question, because it keeps you on track and gives you answers to issues before you even have to address them. Clarity here is a necessary foundation for accomplishing more with your life and helps you make life easier because it helps you prioritize what is truly important and move forward.

In other words, what do you want the outcome to be from what you are doing with your life? When you get to the end of your lifetime, what will you want to be able to look back on and be grateful for? This question helps make life easier because it keeps you focused on the right things you have set out to do. Answering this question keeps you saying “yes” to the right opportunities and helps you say “no” to the things that aren’t the right fit for you. We have all said “yes” to things that keep us too busy to be able to focus on our full potential. When we are able to separate our strengths from our weaknesses and our essentials from our nonessentials, we can become much more focused on our life’s priorities and accomplish more.

The previous two steps will help you before you get to this step of creating a detailed plan and putting it in place. If you don’t first know who you are and what you want to do, it will be impossible to put a plan into action. To accomplish more in your lifetime you need to make a perfect plan to pursue. I can help you form a specific individual life plan through my one-on-one life coaching program, or you can take the seven steps in this episode to help you craft your own. However you decide to go about it, a plan is necessary for you to reach your biggest dream. You don’t have to keep taking guesses at what you should do next with your life. The time is now to make a plan tailored for you individually, so you can make a unique impact on this world.

Please note that for you to create the best plan possible, you will need to make specific goals in each area of life to build on top of each other. Most people don’t see how much one area can affect another and become frustrated with the fact that they can’t seem to finish what they started. The main reason this happens is that an unseen hinderance from another area of life is keeping people from accomplishing more. In order to remain focused and make life easier, the five areas you need to pay attention to are health, time, relationships, career, and finances.

Within health there is physical health, mental health, and spiritual health. I try to focus more on managing energy more than time, but that’s a different episode. It’s essential to pay attention to your energy levels in order to accomplish more in your day. Even though we go through busy seasons where we give more energy than in other seasons, it is important to be aware at all times how energy and the lack of it affects you. This begins with getting structured with the way you schedule your day so that you can fit in workouts, studying, and meditation.

There is also the focus of time. We have talked about this in previous episodes, because it is what everyone wants more of. The thing that people need to focus on is how they can use the time they already have in better ways rather than trying to find more time. We all only have 24 hours in a day, but it is what we are doing with those hours that will lead to us accomplishing more or wishing we would have somehow done more. If you focus on everything else, I promise that more time will appear in your day. Margin comes when you live a fruitful, productive life. Stop managing time and instead begin measuring energy.

Within relationships there is your marriage relationship or your relationship with your significant other. There is also the important relationships you have with your kids. Outside of this there are the relationships you have with people at your place of work, your friends, and the new relationships you are creating on a weekly basis. As you can see, a lot of life is about creating relationships and nurturing them.

Within your career it is about defining you role in your workplace, what you want to accomplish in your role, how you can expand your reach through your work, and what and how you can give back to your place of work. Whether you are self-employed or work for a company, there are always ways that you can expand your reach and give back.

Focusing on your finances is important because it dictates so much that each of us can do. Finances can help you take care of your family, help others, and sets you up for a better future. Even though I don’t talk much about this subject, it is an important subject to focus on. It is yet another tool that can help you expand your reach and help you take care of others.

This is just a quick glance at how we should all focus on health, time, relationships, career, and finances, but it is necessary if you want to make life easier.

We all need deadlines to make sure we will actually finish what we started. The aspect of time again becomes important because deadlines are a form of accountability. Even if you don’t think you necessarily need a timeline, when do you realistically want to complete your plan by? How long do you want to take writing that book of yours? How long do you want to take to start your new business? By when do you want to travel to the country you’ve always wanted to visit? Dreaming that turns into action not only includes what you want to do, but it also includes a realistic timeline. It is much easier to finish what you started when you have a timeline in place to guide you through the process. Completing what you begin is exciting, so make it fun! Once you have a deadline, it is important to then work backwards to give yourself the necessary daily, weekly, and monthly action steps needed to turn dreams into reality.

Who is it exactly that will ultimately benefit from your actions? For me, this is the question that makes my plan worthwhile. If what you are doing isn’t impacting people, then you aren’t challenging others and you aren’t growing others. Your life’s work needs people on the receiving end to make a lasting difference. Sure, there is part of the process where you are alone in the planning process, but in the process of making an impact, you need to be aware of not only what you are providing to help people, but who needs you. Knowing who your plan and work is for will help you know where to spend your time.

If you read my blog, you can tell that I believe in this principle. There’s no way that I could be an expert on every leadership topic out there, so I brought in a team of experts to share their knowledge with this audience on a daily basis. There’s no way that one person can know everything there is to know.

My experience tells me that you will need to look at the strengths of others in order to form a well-rounded team of some sorts to help you achieve your goals. Whether we are talking about mentors for your personal life, consultants for your business, or developing a team to work with on projects, it is important to notice what you need that you cannot do on your own.

Once you do this, don’t be afraid to ask for help from individuals who could make you better in these identified areas. Life is too short not to live it well and it is other people who will help get you there. When you bring others in who complement your strengths, you will go further than you’ve ever dreamed.

The post #064: Make Life Easier With These 7 Steps appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

Companies today are concerned about attracting and retaining individuals who are between 20-35 years old. By 2025, this age group will comprise 75% of the global workforce. When the global marketing firm McCann WorldGroup surveyed 7,000 Millennials in 2011, it found more than 90% of those surveyed rated “connection and community” as their greatest need. Community is that important! As the researchers put it, “to truly grasp the power of connection for this generation, we can look at how they wish to be remembered. It is not for their beauty, their power, or their influence, but simply for the quality of their human relationships and their ability to look after those around them.”

We can see from this research that what the world needs more of is us. People don’t need a new break room, or more money, or more perks to make them happier – people need you and your relationship. They need your story, because your story matters. Telling it allows you to reach out and begin new relationships. Your story matters, because that’s what gets you in the door.

In order to help you build better relationships, I have compiled a list of five thoughts to help you share your story in better ways than you ever have before:

When you fully see this, you can get over the low points that you have experienced along the way. Pull from the best and the worst moments of your life and let people in. Sharing pulls people in and allows for them to share with you. Many times we will only focus on the negative areas of our story, but what about the amazing parts? What good and bad life-altering events have taken place in your past? Every great story has conflict, but it also includes a climax and resolution. Every part of your story matters. How have you healed along the way and how are you better now than you were before? These are all elements of your great story that you desperately need to share.

Your past is to learn from. Don’t let it hold you up. Every time someone allows their past to dictate their future, they hold back their story from impacting the world. Maybe you have a dark past, but your future is so much more important. The pages that have been written about your life are done, but you have the opportunity to write a more powerful story in the future. Everyone has something amazing to offer to those around them. You can begin writing your new chapter right now.

Last year I wrote an article for ChurchLeaders.com to help pastors and others learn how to tell their story in better ways. It doesn’t matter who or where we are talking about – all people crave community whether they realize it or not. And the easiest way to begin new relationships and grow a community is learning how to tell your story. Your story matters because it helps you to relate with all sorts of people. A lot of times people believe that what has happened in their own lives hasn’t taken place in any one else’s life, so they choose not to share. I really start to doubt that there aren’t similarities in all of us, and those similarities begin with the need for community. Learn how to tell your story and pull people closer to you.

Every part of your story matters. Fear will tell you to hold back. Don’t do it. Honesty and vulnerability are keys to building trust in any relationship. The more you build relationships this way from the beginning, the more true community you will build over time. People want and need to know you, all of you.

So many tangible things don’t remain important over time, but the power of your story remains constant your entire lifetime. The reason for this is that you will keep making decisions that will continually add to your story. From this point forward, decide to make decisions you want to add to the pages of your life’s story.

When you realize these five things and see how they can help you share your story more often, you are well on your way to creating more lasting relationships. When you see how much your story matters, the reason to share becomes much more clear. The reason you need to share your story is to build a bigger and better community.

The post #063: Your Story Matters If You Want to Build Community appeared first on Adam Kirk Smith.

One of the biggest problems in this world is the fact that most people don’t follow through. Good intentions are great and all, but it takes more than good intentions to make things happen. Results require action. Without action, lives don’t change.

For years I talked about how I would accomplish things, but never took it further than that. I didn’t put action to the plan I had created and my results weren’t good because of it. I was a good dreamer, but not so good at implementation. I knew deep down that something had to change, but how? I found some keys to moving through the dreaming stage, and I want to share them with you in this episode.

Here are three ways for you to move past talking about doing something and actually take action:

It takes more than a plan to get things done. It takes heart, and heart fades away if there isn’t an internal drive to do more. If you want to accomplish anything, it is important to first search yourself and see your true potential. You are capable of more than you probably think.

Do you know what you want to accomplish with your life? It isn’t about what sounds good to do. You need to do what you feel compelled to do and make those things important. How do you make those things important? Spend your time doing what you have made important. Focus on prioritizing your life and the rest will fall into place.

If you want to have a lasting impact, people need to be on the receiving end of your actions. You have heard me talk about the importance of helping others and even refer to this as the main theme of living a life of purpose, and it’s still true. People matter more than anything else. When people become the reason behind the reason that you do things, you will be compelled to take action.

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