Systems for Success

Your personal mission statement is about the contribution you want your life to make in this world. Values define who you want to be. Mission declares what you want to accomplish with your life.

If you have listened to the last episode on values and taken action on it...you've taken some time to think about and hopefully write down your personal values… In that episode I recommended that you take some time to think about how you want to be remembered by the most important people in your life in terms of the guiding principles that affect how you interact with people — how you live your life. Who you want to be.

Your personal mission statement takes that a step further now. You're values answer the question of how you want to be remembered in terms of character. Now think of the same relationships categories in your life and ask yourself what you would want the key people in your life to say about what you did in your life — your contributions, achievements, and experiences.

ROLES

What would you want your spouse to say what you accomplished with your life? What would you want your friends or business associates to say about what you contributed to this world?

What would you want your kids to say about the experience you left behind on this planet when you're dead and gone?

I think the first time I did something significant about this was after I went to a Stephen Covey seminar in the mid 90's. Covey talked about looking at my life through the lens of the different roles and relationships I have. He suggested that the place to start understanding life purpose is to get clear on my purpose for each key role in my life.

Here's what I wrote down back then.

My spouse - My spouse is the most important person in my life. I will treat my spouse with love and respect at all times.

My children - My children inherit the future. I will provide them with every opportunity within my means to develop them to their fullest potential.

My friends - My friends are my devoted support structure. I will not neglect my friends but will always be there for them, as they are for me.

My business associates - My business associates look to me for leadership and guidance. I will set the example of honesty and integrity in all my business relationships.

My God - My God is the highest priority in my life. I will strive to live my life in a way that is honoring to Him.

My community - My community is where my family lives, works and plays. I will be involved in making my community a better and safer place for all who reside here.

Some people find that defining a purpose statement for each of the key areas of their life like this is the easiest way to start on the journey to living life with a clear mission behind everything you do. If you haven't done this yet, you might try that approach.

Think about each of the important people in your life and imagine how each would want to describe their thoughts and feelings about what you have accomplished in your life. Think about the key roles you play in your life. A student, friend, sibling, son/daughter, partner, employee, and so on. What impact do you want to have on others in each of those roles? What impression to you want to make? When you are at the end of your life looking back what would you feel really good about accomplishing in each of these key roles of your life?

You may start with a written purpose statement for each of the roles you fulfill. If you just stay there for a long while that could serve you very well.

Eventually, you might want to develop one single statement of purpose for your life as a whole. And in fact, some people find its best to start there with one statement rather than statements for each role in your life. Some do both. There's no one size fits all to this. It's a very personal thing. What counts is that you find the system that works for you to have great clarity on the purpose that drives what you do in your life. The mission that will make your life matter.

If you want to move from purpose statements for each role in your life to one life mission statement look at all the purposes phrases you list for each role of your life and look for themes that may inform you of the overarching purpose for your life.

HEROES

In my journey of seeking clarity on my life mission over the years another helpful system I've discovered is to think about my heroes. Who has impacted you in the most significant, positive way? Was it a friend? A teacher? A relative? A peer? Make a list of your personal heroes. Then list the qualities, accomplishments and values you most admire in them.

I don't remember all the heroes I listed when I first did this exercise years ago. Some heroes stay the same and some change over time as we learn and grow and meet new people. Some heroes are alive, some are historic figures. Some are people I actually know and others are people I have just read about. As I reflect back on my heroes over the years, they all have certain qualities and accomplishments in common. All my heroes are courageous leaders who did and said things to positively influence millions of people around the world. They all left some type of multigenerational positive impact. They all left a pattern of success that they taught or that others could learn form and follow to become more successful, more fulfilled, more effective.

And that's one of the reason why our family mission statement starts with to courageously lead generations of people. And that's one of the reasons why my personal mission statement is to develop and implement self-perpetuating leadership development systems that draw millions of people around the world to understand, live by and promote God's universal systems for success.

Hopefully as you identify your heroes and write down the characteristics and accomplishments that you most admire in them, you will get valuable clues to help you develop your own powerful statement of life purpose.

THE PERFECT DAY

Another way to get at understanding your life purpose is to envision and build the specifics for your perfect day, your perfect week, month and ultimately life. This is an exercise that starts to initiate you dreaming again. Moving you from your current situation to where you want to be, fully activated in your life purpose. The goal is to become passionate and committed, knowing you are in the process of living out your ideal life purpose.

Here's how The Perfect Day Exercise works:

1. Spend twenty minutes just imagining what a 24 hour day would look like where you were fully living out the ideal purpose for your life.
2. Write down hour by hour what your perfect day would look like. We'll include on the Perfect Day Worksheet in show notes.
3. Be as specific as you can about your feelings, what your environment looks like, smells like, and people that you are around.
4. What time you wake up, travel, eat, meet, every aspect is to be as detailed as possible.
5. Write down how you would feel inside as you go through your day.

After you've gone through this initial brainstorming process outlined there, you'll take all the information and write as a narrative story called "A Day in My Perfect Passionate Life" authored by you.

If you want to go the extra-mile, write a narrative for your Perfect Week!

Take the Perfect day and write out a perfect week by repeating the Perfect Day process for seven consecutive days. Watch out this could become motivating !

LIFE MISSION DISCOVERY QUESTIONS

So this last system is a set of questions that will help you begin to think deeply about the passions, abilities, values and dreams that are deep within your heart and will provide clues to discovering your life purpose.

• Find a time and place where you will not be interrupted. This is something that would be a great guide for an hour or two or even a half day of solitude and silence.

• Write down your answers to each question. Write the first thing that pops into your head.

• Write without editing. It's important to write out your answers rather than just thinking about them.

1. What meaningful activities make you lose track of time?
2. What do you care deeply about? What makes your heart sing? What lights you up? What energizes you?

1. What's wrong with the world that drives you crazy? What makes you weep or angry at the wrongness of it?

1. What are you naturally good at? What do you usually get great results from doing?

1. What do people typically ask you for help with?

1. If you had to teach something, what would you teach?

1. Imagine you are now 90 years old, sitting on a rocking chair outside your porch; you are blissful and happy, and are pleased with the wonderful life you've been blessed with. Looking back at your life and all that you've accomplished and all the relationships you've had; what matters to you most? List them out.

1. Who inspires you most? (Someone you know or have learned about…family, friends or authors, artists, leaders, etc.) Which qualities inspire you, in each of those people?

1. What do you value most in life? What character qualities do you want to be known for at the end of your life?

1. If you could get a message across to a large group of people, who would those people be? What would your message be?

1. What would you regret not fully doing, being or having in your life?

1. If you had all the time and money you need to accomplish anything, what would you be doing with your life?

After you have taken some good time alone to write down your answers to these questions, review all your answers and then start writing some statements or phrases that capture the themes you see in your answers. The act of even starting to write your personal mission statement is transformational because it causes you to declare your life priorities and you'll be amazed at how your behaviors start changing to support what you say is important.

WORDSMITHING YOUR MISSION STATEMENT

A personal mission statement can take many forms, from bullet points to a paragraph to a sentence. But I'll give a bit of guidance here on what I've found after helping thousands of individuals, families and companies develop mission statements as what I've seen is the most effective structure an ideal mission statement.

Don't get hung up on the form or even getting the exact right words as you are starting to do this. Just start writing statements that capture the essence of the answers you've given to these key questions. I've seen people end up in their first drafts with several bullet points that they are really excited about. I've seen some early drafts that are a long paragraph or even a few paragraphs. Ultimately, I've found it's ideal if you can boil it down to one simple sentence that is compelling and easy to remember.

Ideally, a personal mission has 3 parts:

1. WHAT do I want to do? List key action words or phrases that indicate what you want to do.

1. WHO do I want to help? List everything and everyone that you really want to help.

1. What is the RESULT? Identify the key outcome you see for your life…the value you will leave in this world. How will the WHO from the second part benefit from WHAT you do? What difference, what result do you want your life to make?

PROCESS SUMMARY

Review your answers to the 12 Life Mission Discovery Questions and/or the 8 Purpose Factors that we discussed in the previous family round table episode on this topic. Review your answers from the Heroes exercise or the Perfect Day process. Look at all your answers and categorize key words and phrases regarding WHAT you want to do. Then the key words or phrases that reference WHO you want to help. Then list the words or phrases that describe the RESULTS or value for society that you want to leave behind at the end of your life.

SAMPLE CONCISE MISSION STATEMENTS

MICROSOFT MISSION

To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

WHAT: To empower

WHO: Every person and every organization on the planet

RESULT: To achieve more

LEVI-STRAUSS MISSION

To market the most appealing and widely worn casual clothing in the world. We will clothe the world.

WHAT: To market the most appealing and widely worn casual clothing

WHO: The world

RESULT: Clothe the world.

LONNIE'S PERSONAL MISSION (first drafted in 1996)

To develop and implement self-perpetuating leadership development systems that draw millions of people around the world to fully experience God and His enduring systems for success.

WHAT: To develop and implement self-perpetuating leadership development systems

WHO: That draw millions of people around the world

RESULT: To fully experience God's systems for success.

LONNIE AND SHELLEY GIENGER FAMILY MISSION

To courageously lead generations of people to become devoted friends and sold-out followers of Jesus!

WHAT: To courageously lead

WHO: Generations of people

RESULT: To become devoted friends and sold-out followers of Jesus!

KYLON AND TELIAH GIENGER FAMILY MISSION

To lead generations of people to take extreme ownership, achieve their full potential, live gratefully and love unconditionally.

WHAT: To lead

WHO: Generations of people

RESULT: To take extreme ownership, achieve their full potential, live gratefully and love unconditionally.

TAKE ACTION

Now it's time for you to take action to create another system for your success. Download the systems for developing your personal mission. Then take some time answering the key questions that will help you begin to define your personal life mission. Go ahead. Take this foundational step to designing the life of your dreams...a life full of fulfillment and purpose!

Resources:

• Download the Roles and Relationships Purpose Exercise if you want to start this journey of living a mission driven life by first identifying the purpose for each of the important roles and relationships you have in your life.
• Download Your Heroes Exercise to help you think about the qualities and accomplishments that would be most important for your life.
• Download The Perfect Day Imagination Exercise and take some time to expand your dreams for what might be possible in your life.
• Download this Mission Statement Made Simple System and thoughtfully answer these 12 questions that will pull from your deepest core what is really important to you in your life. Then create a draft mission statement using the guidance on the last page. Once you have done this, you are now in the good company of the smallest percentage of people who make the biggest positive impact on this world!

Thank You!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them.

Join the Systems for Success Community!

• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes.
• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS.
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Clarity on your personal life mission is one of the most powerful things we can do to insure a life of real meaning and significance.

Once you have defined your personal values you need to determine how your LIFE MISSION will represent those values. Your personal mission statement defines the impact you want your life to have on this world — the overall purpose for your life. It describes who you want to be and what you want to do in your life.

There are a lot of people who go to work day-in and day-out, putting in long hours of hard work, who never feel any personal connection with their work, much less any personal reward. They feel dissatisfied, directionless, without purpose. They don't have all of the elements of their lives working together toward a common purpose.

If you have ever experienced absolute joy and satisfaction in the midst of circumstances, a project, or other opportunity, prompting you to say, at least in your heart, "I was made for this," then you understand what it's like to discover your purpose or what some might call your calling.

When you live your life with a clear purpose, you have the direction you need to make wise choices, judge important issues in your life and live life with overflowing joy and passion. The goal is for you to know the answer to a couple critical questions like: Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life on this earth?

The most effective thing anyone or anything can engage in is the ultimate purpose for which it is created. Doing what something was meant to do results in great outcomes. And if you are the one who is the designer or creator of something, it brings you a lot of joy when that thing you created is used for its intended purpose.

I personally believe that there is a God who created me and the good things I see around me. And I think that my Creator takes great joy in seeing the work of his hands skillfully performing the functions for which He made them.

Some of the most renowned scientists in the world who may not believe in a personal God, still point to the reality that there is clear evidence of intelligence design. That there is some master designer behind everything we see in the natural world. That things were created for a purpose and things generally work best when the fulfill the purpose for which they are created. If that is true of everything from the tiniest atom that predictably performs the purpose it was designed to perform. And it is true of the huge stars and planets in our solar system that consistently perform the purpose for which they were designed. Why wouldn't it be true that we as human beings might each find our way to a powerful purpose for which we are ideally designed to accomplish?

Unlike atoms and stars or even animals, we as humans have freedom of choice and many motivations and distractions that can sidetrack us from finding or living out a unique design for our life.

I believe that there is placed within each and every person unique gifts, passions and talents that are clues to specific purposes for which we are well designed. And I personally believe that God is a good God and therefore he surely wouldn't make us for a great purpose and then not reveal that purpose to us.

What is a Personal Mission Statement?

A personal mission statement simply captures an overriding theme or direction that is probably already present in your life. It puts down in words the real work that you are here to do: the cause you will pursue, the wound in individuals or society you want to heal, the problem you will devote your life to fixing. It states the highest, purest, most others-oriented aim of your life.

A personal mission statement is like a constitution by which you make all decisions for your life. The more you check in with it, the smoother things run. But, hopefully we at least check in with our personal mission statement when we are making decisions about new directions for our life. Ideally you want to write a mission statement that you will remember easily, check often, and speaks to YOU as an individual.

Trying different things can be a valuable part of the process of beginning to understand the specific purposes for your life. But keep in mind that your life mission is broader than your vocation. Your purpose is broader than any position you may have at any point in time. Your purpose is what will fill your position with meaning and fulfillment. Your position is just the platform by which you will live your purpose. Your career is just the vehicle by which you can express your calling. In fact, as you discover your life purpose you may be surprised to find that whatever business or career you are in now (even if currently mundane or even downright boring) could take on completely new meaning as you find ways to live your purpose even in your current vocation.

In doing this with people over the years I have found that some people with a clarity on personal mission find that this breathes whole new purpose and meaning into their existing business or career. Or you may find that clarity of your life purpose will lead you over time to choose a different vocation or business that more effectively allows you fuller expression of your life purpose. But the reality is that most people can find ways to live out their life purpose in any occupation. In fact, I have seen people live out the same purpose in several different jobs over time...from truck driver, preacher to plumber.

You can call it a credo, a philosophy, you may call it a purpose statement, or a personal mission statement. it's not as important as to what you call it. What's important is that you end up with some written statement that describes your current best understanding of what you see as the ideal ultimate outcome for your life...the legacy you want to leave...the contribution for good that you want to make on this world.

Benefits of a Personal Mission Statement

- Clarifies what is important to YOU

- Provides focus

- Helps you design YOUR life, instead of having it designed for you

- Guides your day-to-day decisions

- Helps you understand, clarify, and put into action your values

- Gives you a greater sense of meaning and purpose

Most have heard of the importance of beginning with the end in mind. In our lives, the most effective way to begin with the end in mind is to develop a mission statement that focuses what you want to be in terms of character and what you want to contribute to this world by the end of your life. When you live your life with a clear purpose, you have the direction you need to make wise choices, and judge important issues in your life.

What Keeps People From Defining and Living a Magnificent Mission?

Other voices- By the age of 18 today, young adults have taken in more than 10 million discreet marketing messages from highly sophisticated marketing companies seeking to convince you that you need a product or service. In this noisy culture, it's hard to remain clear about who you are. Other voices come from within. Maybe you hear the voice of a parent bouncing around in your head saying you don't measure up or you can't do anything right. Or maybe an important voice is missing from your past. Or the voice of a coach or teach who in a moment of frustration say you wouldn't amount to anything. Those voices, those messages that play in your brain can prevent you from hearing the good voice about a good future and a powerful purpose for your life.

What voice are you listening to now? It is critical to learn to distinguish the good voice in your mind that speaks of a good future for you...from all those of other voices.

Fear - The number one passion killer. Whether it is fear of the unknown or from the past. Maybe you hear the voice of a parent or failing, we often stop before we every start considering what we could become passionate about.

Focus - If you can't find passion in all your activity it may be that it is buried in being busy! Being busy doing a ton of good work can be the greatest enemy of benefiting the world with the greatest work you could do.

So take the time to think beyond where you are now and what you are doing now. Drop the fear of failure. Take the time to think deeply about what your life could be like if you were living life to its full potential with maximum purpose and fulfillment. Once you become clear about and committed to your personal purpose that becomes more powerful more significant, more influential, than the baggage of the past, or the noise of your present circumstances.

Process to Develop Your Personal Mission

Let me start with some basic guidelines: First, understand that creating a mission statement is not something you do in an hour. It takes deep introspection, careful analysis, thoughtful expression, and often many rewrites to produce it in final form. One of the best ways to get started is to take a half day to a day of solitude and silence to just really make space to reflect and listen. Most of us don't need more information, we just need to make space and time for reflection. And if you believe in God, I would say...time and space to let God to speak to us.

Do this in a large block of time to get started and then in your daily meditation and journaling you will get more direction over time. Even then, it may take you several weeks or even months before you feel really comfortable with your mission statement, before you feel it is complete and concise expression of your innermost values and directions. Even then, you will want to review it regularly and make minor changes as the years bring additional insights or changing circumstances.

The Purpose Factors Exercise

A personal mission statement is impacted by and takes into consideration eight areas that I call purpose factors.

The eight factors in determining your life purpose are your core values, your personal strengths, your special gifts or natural talents, your life experience, your passions, your dreams, the current needs of culture and your skills.

Core Values:

What kind of person do you want to become? What character traits do you want to possess? What values do you want to be known. What you want to become and what you want to accomplish should be based on the core values you have identified? Make sure your values are the foundation of your personal mission statement.

Values are the non-negotiable principle that will guide the way you go about living your life purpose.

Personal Strengths:

Understanding your unique "wiring" that shapes how you process information, communicate, deal with risk and contribute to others. Personality profiles (like DISC or Leading from your Strengths or Strengthsfinder) can give you insight into personal strengths you could leverage to help you be most effective at living out your purpose. Find ways to live your purpose that are a match with your personality and core behavioral strengths.

What is your personality like? What are your core behavioral strengths? How do these personal strengths play into forming or fulfilling your personal mission? What assessments have you taken?

Personal strengths help you know what behavior style will be most effective and fulfilling and sustainable in how you live out your life purpose.

Special Gifts and Talents:

What are the exceptional talents that you have that just seem to come natural to you? Some people call these spiritual gifts because they often seem to be strengths that you were almost born with in a supernatural kind of way. Or they are like natural talents that just come out of you in almost a spiritual kind of way because it seems easy to you. Other people look at you doing that thing and say, "Wow, that's amazing how you do that!", and to you it just seems natural and normal.

When you understand the special giftings you have then you get an insight into the unique ways that you can contribute to others. These are skill or action based strengths like the natural ability to be great at teaching, giving, leading, showing mercy, administration, faith, etc. If you haven't taken a special gifts inventory, go online and take one of the many free spiritual gifts assessments.

What are the exceptional talents that you have that just seem to come natural to you? How do these play into guiding or helping you accomplish your personal mission?

Spiritual Gifts define the supernatural empowering methods you will use to live out your purpose.

Life Experiences:

What are some of the experiences that have shaped your life? To understand your unique life purpose you must be clear about who you are, both in terms of your inborn behavioral strengths as well as the how the experiences of life have shaped you and prepared you for some purpose. Learn to understand the "parable of your life". Become aware of your personal journey including situations that have caused pain and loss as well as those that have caused great joy and abundance. I had a purpose coach one time that told me to do a timeline of your life and make note of key milestones, important people, times of great joy and times of great pain and times you heard some clarity about what was really important in your life. Was amazing to reflect back on these things and then think about How might all of these life experiences be used to prepare you or focus you in a powerful purpose for your life?

What are some of the experiences that have shaped your life? How might all of these life experiences be used to prepare you or focus you in a powerful purpose for your life?

Life experiences prepare you and focus you on a unique purpose for your life.

For example, maybe you experienced abuse as a child and because of this you have deep compassion for abused children. Or maybe you had an amazing teacher as a child that changed and redirected your life for the better gave you a deep appreciation for the power of mentoring children.

Passions:

What do you care deeply about? What would I love to do on a daily basis that gives me energy? What would I be doing if money were not a factor? What makes your heart sing and what makes it weep? What lights you up and what energizes you? What makes you get of your chair so you can't sit still anymore? What is wrong with the world that drives you crazy?

Passionate discontent can lead you to your place of divine calling. That extreme joy you feel at certain times can lead you to your place of powerful purpose.

Your passions help you know where to live out your calling and provide motivation or energy to excel at it. Passion moves us to action where we bring what we have to offer…our strengths, gifts, experiences, skills etc.

For example, if I am passionate about children and have the gift of mercy it might indicate that my life purpose has something to do with showing mercy to children. Working with children, (my passion) will give me the motivation and energy to excel at showing them mercy. But if my primary gift is leadership and my passion is children, then it might indicate that I need to find a way to lead an organization that does something valuable for children.

Understanding your personal strengths and skills can lead you into an understanding of where you will excel as you look for your ideal life purpose. But it is not the fuel that keeps you moving forward. You need to discover your passion. Many people are skilled at what they do but would rather be doing something else that they are more passionate about so never really reach their full potential. If you are not fulfilled and passionate about what you do, you will not perform at your maximum capacity.

Dreams:

What do you want to accomplish in your life? What dreams do you want to fulfill?

Your dreams of what you would love to accomplish inform you of the outcomes that God may want to see fulfilled in your life purpose.

Following the example above, do you dream of children being free from hunger or free from sex slavery or free from poverty? Or do you dream of providing and safe, comfortable home for every child?

Current Culture and Needs:

What is the current culture surrounding you? What are the needs surrounding you?

Your life mission will take place in the culture, the generation and even the community in which you were born. So interpreting the situations and events taking place around us is just as important as understanding what goes on inside us. When your life purpose intersects with the deep needs in people around you, powerful results take place. Frederick Buechner says, "The place God calls you is where your deep gladness and the world's hunger meet." Take some time to open your eyes and your heart to the reality that your life has a powerful purpose in this time and in this place in history. YOU are a key part of the plan to make this world a better place at this point in earth's history!

What are the needs you see and care about in the current culture surrounding you? How does the current culture and needs influence your personal mission?

Current culture and needs is the context in which you are placed that provides clues to the powerful world changing purposes that you could fulfill at this point in time in history and in this place.

For example, if you are deeply connected in a major city or community where child sex slavery is rampant, then this might give you an indication of your life purpose.

Skills:

What are you really good at? What do you do that regularly produces good outcomes?

What are some skills that you recognize that you are really good at and what might that say about your life mission?

Your skills give you ideas for how you can be most effective in getting something done that is of importance to your purpose.

For example, if you are really good at marketing and advertising then maybe the way you go about solving sex slavery will leverage this skill to reduce problem by huge public awareness that gets a whole city involved in your cause.

Write down your answers to the questions in these eight purpose factors. Then analyze your answers for common themes and synergies that will give you valuable insight into the highest and best use of your life.

Resources:

• Download this Purpose Factors Exercise and take some time to thoughtfully answer the questions.

Thank You!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them.

Join the Systems for Success Community!

• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes.
• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS.
• Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success.
• Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess
• Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Identifying and living by your core values has more to do with creating sustainable success in life than what most people realize. Here's why:

• True and lasting success is based on who we are way more than on the goals we set or even the goals we accomplish.
• Sustainable success in all areas of business and life is based on who we are.
• Character is the creator of who we are. Therefore character is the creator of all true and sustainable success.
• The foundation of character is knowing what you stand for and standing for what you know. Therefore, the basis of character is knowing and standing for your personal values.

What are Personal Values?

Our personal values are your standards of ethics and behavior. They set the boundaries by which you live your life. They are the overarching system for how you define success in your life.

Our values affect every area of our life: physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual, financial and certainly our business life.

Values are not practices. They are guiding principles that effect everything. Our guiding principles are fundamental, enduring truths that have universal application. Those principles give meaning to our life and a reason for being.

Concepts like integrity, honesty, quality, service, excellence, and fairness are principles that guide human conduct.

What Are the Non-Negotiable Principles that Guide Your Life?

If you haven't taken time to define your personal values, now is the time. If you've read many books or gone to many seminars on business success you'll know that defining core values for your business is foundational to creating a culture of success in your business. Just like every successful company has clear values that guide decisions and actions, so every successful person has clear individual values that guide their decisions and actions.

What Does It Mean for You to be a Good Person?

When you ask some people what they want out of life, their number one answer is often something like, "I want to be happy." Or "I want to make more money." I think our whole world would be in much better shape if the number one answer was "I want to be a good person."

We're going to encourage you to take time to write down a list of the values that guide your life…those things that define what it is for you to be a truly good person.

For example, do you value, always doing the right thing, or authentic friendships, or a healthy lifestyle, or continual personal or spiritual growth, or strong family relationships?

Personal values refer to the standards of ethics and behavior that are important to you. They set the boundaries by which you live your life. They help set priorities in your life and draw lines of what you will and will not do to reach your goals. They influence every decision you make.

Values are the guiding principles that affect every part of your life: physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual, financial, and business.

How to Begin Discovering What's Really Important to You

One way to help you identify your personal values is to think of how you would like to be remembered if you died today. What would you want to be written on your tombstone?

Personal values like honesty, hard work, fatherhood, and love for family. These principles give meaning to your life and a reason for being. When your business is aligned with your personal values your work gains purpose. When your family values are aligned with your personal values then your family takes on whole new direction and meaning.

If you did die today, what would people say about you and your character — how you lived your life?

More importantly — what would you WANT them to say?

What would your spouse say?

Your children and family?

Your friends?

Your business associates?

Your God?

Your community?

How you want to be remembered by each of these relationships can help you understand what's really important — to you.

Not What You Think You SHOULD Value

Identify the values that are important to you. Don't confuse them with values you feel you should have. Your core values are not what others think you should believe in or what you think others think you should believe in. Trying to live up to values that are not your own will only lead to resentment.

Basis for Family Unity and Success

Your personal core values will lay the foundation for the core values that you establish and live by in your family. Every decision, action or reaction in your home will be guided by these values. Your future generations will be guided by these values that are an overflow of what you value. Your core values, more than any other factor, will impact the quality and impact of the legacy that you leave behind on this earth.

Basis for Business Meaning and Success

How does getting clear on your personal values relate to your business or work life? Life is more than just a paycheck. Your work is a part of you. You invest a significant portion of the best days and best years of your life in making a living. So, make sure that the way you go about making a living is in alignment with your core values and allows you to live out your non-negotiable principles of behavior.

Integrating your core values into your vocation is one of the rewarding aspects of owning a business. If you are a business owner, you have the privilege of creating a business that has core values that reflect your personal core values. When you align your business values with your personal values, it's a powerful motivating force. Your work gains purpose. It will instill passion and energy in you. And, if done in a participative manner, it will also instill passion and energy for your business in your employees, customers, vendors, and anyone else you work with.

How to Discover Your Personal Core Values

Start by brainstorming a list of potential core values that you want to define your life. To help you get your started brainstorming your potential values, we are providing a list of sample values that might spark some ideas in your mind. There's a list of simple one word values and another list of values that are expressed as an action phrase. Either way of expressing your values is fine…however, there is often a little extra power in turning your values statements into action phrases so we are going to encourage you to do that by the end of this process.

The list we post or the values we share are by no means an exhaustive list of personal values someone could have. And again, we are not necessarily recommending any of these specific values for you. These are just samples. So please only check those that are important to you and write in others that come to your mind that are important to you but not on this list.

This is for YOU to define what it means for YOU to have been a really great person who succeeds in all aspects of life.

Prioritize Your Values

After you brainstorm a list of potential values that could be important to you. Then see if you can prioritize and write down your top five or ten personal values. Ideally, you'll end up paring the list down to number of values that you can keep in mind, keep in front of you and keep using to guide all your decisions and actions. Ideally, you're going to post our core values somewhere where you will be reminded to live your life based on these values. Ideally over time you will evaluate how well you actually live each of your values and what you would need to start, change or stop to live each value more fully.

If you're like me, there were quite a few things that are important to me. I mean, who wouldn't say that "honesty" is good, right? But even though you may be an honest person, you may not be as passionate about the value of honesty as you are about the value of compassion or maybe the value of excellence. So, your next step is to prioritize you're your initial list of all the things that are important to you down to your top values. Read back through all the values you initially wrote and rank them in order of priority then select the top 5-10 that are most important to you.

Make sure there is an enduring basis of truth behind each of your core values. That there is a universal truth behind your core values. If you say you value having 1000 followers on social media, that's not necessarily an enduring truth that could guide actions and decisions for the rest of your life let alone for generations to come. Your core values should be principals that will stand the test of time as being enduring non-negotiable principles.

Now it's time for you to take action to create another system for your success. When you finish listening to this episode, click on the resource links below and work through the system that will help you identify your personal core values.

EXAMPLES:

Kylon Gienger's Personal Core Values (Stated as Active Affirmations)

1. I have a positive attitude and I think positive thoughts at all times. 2. I do unto others as I would have them do unto me. 3. I am a leader, I lead by positive example in all situations. 4. I defend those who cannot defend themselves. 5. I am a man of integrity, I always tell the truth, my word is my bond. 6. I am humble, I do not seek recognition for my actions. 7. I have self control, I control my emotions and my actions regardless of the circumstance. Even keeled, steady, constant 8. I never quit, I am resilient, I persevere and thrive on adversity. 9. I am a trendsetter, an influencer, I am creative and innovative. I am an outside-of-the-box thinker. 10. I am healthy and strong, physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. 11. I am a wise manager of my time, money, and resources. 12. I am hungry, self confident, and ambitious. I can do or have anything in life through DESIRE, FAITH, and HARD WORK. 13. I take extreme ownership in all situations 14. I am formidable 15. I am abundant in all things

Lonnie and Shelley Gienger Personal/ Family Core Values

(with Business Value Corollaries)

• Continually growing toward more intimate friendship with God
• Seeking God's Kingdom and his purposes and interest above everything else.
  • Business Value Corollary: Building beyond business
• Basing all our thoughts and actions on the model of Jesus
• Developing positive, authentic friendships
  • Business Value Corollary: Creating quality relationships.
• Investing our lives in helping people experience God
• Enjoying vibrant physical, mental and emotional health and energy
• Seeing value and finding something to appreciate in everything
• Demonstrating a positive attitude at all times
• Continual life-long learning and adventure…enjoying life with passion and fun
• Beginning with the end in mind (setting worthwhile goals we act on)
• Wise management/stewardship of time, money and resources
• Excellence, thoroughness, persistence and self-discipline
  • Business Value Corollary: Continually pursuing excellence
• Always doing the loving thing and considering the preciousness of others.
  • Leaving everything and every person better (building people in every interaction) Business Value Corollary: Building People
• Seeking first to understand before trying to be understood
• Leading through serving (influencing and inspiring through a servant's heart)
  • Business Value Corollary: Leading through serving
• Creating and experiencing quality music and art to honor God and inspire people
• Creating value and building a better world through entrepreneurial ventures

Lonnie's Business Values:

1. Doing the Right Thing
2. Acting in the Best Interest of Our Partners
3. Defining Wealth by Who We Are
4. Building People
5. Leading through Serving
6. Continually Pursuing Excellence
7. Building Beyond Business
8. Creating Quality Relationships
9. Enjoying Life with Passion

Resources:

• Do your life a big favor and take some time to actually write down your personal core values. http://systemsforsuccess.com/4-the-secret-to-sustainable-success-in-life/ Scroll down to the show notes and follow this simple five step System for Identifying Your Personal Core Values
• To help you start brainstorming your own personal values, check out these lists of Values Examples for Episode 4 including some from our own family.

Thank You!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them.

Join the Systems for Success Community!

• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes.
• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS.
• Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success.
• Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess
• Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Stories about a backpacking adventure and what it takes to stay course toward accomplishing our dreams despite the inevitable and unknown obstacles and challenges that get in the way.

The key in backpacking? Following a map! The key in life? Following a strategic plan. What's that? Simply put, it's a map to turn your dreams for your life into reality. It's a way to turn your dreams for your business into reality, your dreams for your family into reality, your dreams for your health into reality, your dreams for your finances into reality.

In a sense, it's a like creating a recipe for success. Big picture, strategic planning is the process you'll use to actually get what you want from life.

You'll use strategic planning systems to build your ideal life, your ideal family, or your ideal business.

How Does It Work?

First you define what critical focus AREAS are most important to your life, your family, or your business at this point in time. So, if you are in business you would decide what areas are important to focus on in your business this year. Or if you want to develop a strategic plan for your health, you would decide what areas are important for you to focus on in your health this year. Then you focus the necessary ATTENTION and RESOURCES on those issues.

As the result of this process like this, a strategic PLAN is created that charts the path to your success.

As you go through the planning process, you'll begin to put write down the results of each planning stage.

1. You will first write down your vision, your ideal for some area of your business or life.
2. Then you will write down a few critical focus areas you can focus on to make progress toward that vision.
3. Then for each critical focus area you will write down at least one objective.
4. Then for each objective you will write down a few specific, measurable goals that will help you accomplish that objective.
5. Then you will write on your calendar specific action plans that will help you accomplish each goal.

Make Your Map

Strategic planning bridges the GAP, between where you are TODAY and where you WANT to be. It creates a bridge from where you are to where you want to be in some area of your life. You create specific plans and action steps that form the road over that bridge from your current reality to your desired future.

You create a strategic plan for the same reason you take a map along when you don't know how to get to where you're going. You need direction.

Think of your plan as a map you'll follow to reach your destination…to the other side of your gap between how things are in some area of your life now to how you want things to be.

Most people start journeys with some destination in mind. Most people start new ventures with some vision in mind. Everyone starts their marriage with some vision I mind. If you've had kids, everyone starts having kids with some vision in mind for the kind of family they'd like to have…the kind of relationship they'd like to have with their kids. If you're in business, when you started your business you had some destination in mind.

But here's the kicker. Even though most people have some idea of where they want to end up, they rarely take the time to create a map for exactly HOW they are going to get there.

So they still start on the journey toward where they want to end up but inevitably they hit some bumps in the road…some circumstances that threaten to take them off track or sideline them from achieving their dream. Without a clear plan, you may make some progress toward your dream but you won't know what to do when you hit that first bump in the road?

Without clearly defined goals and a well-thought-out plan for how to get there, every time you hit a bump in the road, you're likely to stop your vehicle, get out and analyze — the bump. Or worse yet, decide to take a new direction. Or just throw in the towel.

You may have tried a lot of things to make some area of your life successful. Any one of the things you try might have worked for a certain period of time and in a certain direction. But too often all those good efforts fail to accomplish the desired outcome because they weren't part of a well-thought-out plan. A plan that would move you toward your goals for that area of your life.

You need a strategic plan so all your resources— time, energy, people, and money — are headed in the same direction to make the progress you want in that area of your life or business.

Keep on Planning, Keep on Refining, Keep on Correcting

Although a planning system like this does result in a written strategic plan with a clear vision and specific objectives and goals, it doesn't stop at that point. You've probably already learned that in life, changes occur all the time. For a business or for any area of life to remain successful— you need to reassess and revise your strategic plan when necessary.

Planning your future requires — commitment to a process. Sometimes that can be a battle.

I'm not a big boxing fan. But I am sometimes inspired by the "never give up" attitude I sometimes see in fighters. One of my favorite quotes on persistence to overcome obstacles is from James Corbett, an American boxing champion during the end of the last century. This guy understood commitment to keep going even when the going gets tough!

"Fight one more round. When your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round — remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped."

To plan effectively you need to be innovative and creative not only at the beginning but as you begin executing on your plan and hit obstacles.

Where to Start

The first step of the strategic planning process for your life or for your business is to define your personal aspirations. Once you understand what it is you want out of life, you can build a family, a business or career that gives it to you. One you understand what you want your life to stand for, you can build a family that stands for that too. You can create a business or career that fulfills your personal aspirations. You can create a family that lives your personal values.

In future podcasts, we will break down a system for defining your personal values, mission and vision. These things will be the basis for specific plans you create for your life, your family or your business.

For now, begin by being honest with yourself about areas of your life, your health, your family, your finances or your business where you have given up on your ideal for something because it just seems unreachable. Or maybe some area that you have made resolutions or plans to improve but things haven't seemed to get better…so maybe you've given up on plans to improve in that area. The first step in creating a better future is often to frankly admit that the way things are now is not okay and MUST change. If you could make any area of your life, your health, your family, your finances or your business better and know for sure that you could create plans that could get you to that ideal, what would you change?

Resources:

• Watch for a video link of Lonnie talking to business owners about creating a roadmap to overcome fractured thinking in your life and business!

Thank You!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them.

Join the Systems for Success Community!

• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes.
• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS.
• Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on www.systemsforsuccess.com for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success.
• Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess
• Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

An inside look at a powerful system for success that our family has been following now for about 15 years. It has helped us expand our vision and achieve dreams that are bigger than we ever thought we could.

It's a system for success that I'm pretty sure you won't hear much about in many other places. But this has been a critical process for us individually and as a family. Like many good things in my life, I learned about this process from a mentor who had focused on success in this specific area of life more than I had. I will be forever grateful to my family coach and good friend, Greg Gunn for opening my eyes to this life changing system for success.

In this episode all eight of us gathered around the table for a fun discussion right after we finished our 15th Annual Gienger Family Goal Setting Retreat. What is that? Here's how it works. We all get together as a family at the beginning of each new year to celebrate our successes in the last year and set goals for the new year. We start with a a focusing talk by dad. Then we spend 3-4 hours in solitude and silence where each family member journals on their successes in the last year and writes down goals for the new year. After everyone takes time alone to document their successes and work on their individual goals, we come back together to share what we have written down. This gives us a rich space in time to celebrate each other's successes and become aware of how we can support each other's goals.

After we finished our time of sharing this January, we all sat around the table, clicked record and reflected on the experience. As you listen to us discuss the following questions, we hope you will gain insights that could help you create a system like this, in your own way, in your own life.

• What are some of your earliest memories of doing our Annual Gienger Family Goal Setting Retreats?
• Can you describe what it has been like for you to do this when you were young kids?
• How would you describe the actual process we have used in our annual goals setting retreats?
• To the spouses who married in to the family (Teliah and Auren): Do you remember when was your first time joining us in an Annual Family Goal Setting Retreat? What was it like for you to participate in this process?
• What do you think have been the benefits of doing this for you and for our family? What's the value of this from your perspective?
• What are some of the highlights or most meaningful elements of what we experienced or what you heard or shared in this year's Annual Family Goal Setting Retreat?
• How do you see this carrying on into the next generation?

Resources:

• Check out the Family ID podcast by Greg Gunn who was Lonnie's initial coach on this topic.
• Kylon and Te referenced their excellent Successful Dropout podcast for young people looking for an alternative to the traditional institutional university education route.
• After listening to the podcast, some have asked for a copy of the questions that we have used over the years to guide us through our celebration and goal setting process. If you're interested, you can check out our Gienger Goal Setting Annual Retreat Questions. As with all systems, we hope you can learn something from our process...but please be sure to customize this system in a way that works best for you.

Thank You!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them.

Join the Systems for Success Community!

• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes.
• Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS.
• Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success.
• Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess
• Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Create Your Game Plan for Success

In this episode we're talking about developing the game plans to create success in different areas of life. Most people would just rather play the game…or watch the game. That's a lot more fun than creating the game plans. But winning the game starts with a good game plan and then playing to the plan. Creating the right plans and the right plays…or as we like to call it, systems…are key to accomplishing your dreams and goals.

Can you imagine any sports team entering into competition without adequate preparation — or a game plan? Can you imagine showing up for the first day of practice and the coach saying, "Here's your game schedule for the year. Your position is written on the first page. Just show up on time for each game and we're gonna figure out how to whip the competition as we play."

Sounds crazy?! It is! Yet that's how many people go through life every day.

The failure to PLAN — to prepare a game plan — is one of the main reasons so many people fail in key areas of life. Certainly one of main reasons people fail in business or in their financial life. A key reason people fail to have the health or energy they want. And a key reason people fail in relationships.

Some people have never gone through a detailed planning process for something really important in their life. Others have done some planning. Some see it as a waste of time. Others think it's something only certain people need to do for certain things.

Planning does take time. But it's not a waste of time.

Done right, it's worth every minute it takes. Your investment in strategic planning NOW will pay big benefits in the long run. Big benefits in both time and money.

Success is a Planned Event

Success is not accidental. It doesn't just happen. Success is a PLANNED event.

A pilot needs a flight plan before getting off the ground.

A house needs a blueprint before construction begins.

A football team needs a strategy before playing the game.

And YOU need Planning Systems to build a successful life.

Planning means setting goals — both personal and professional. And in setting goals, I'm not just talking about how much money you're gonna make by a certain date.

What's Your Real Problem?

Do you think your number one problem is lack of money or lack of time? It's not.

I'm sure you're thinking, "That's easy for you to say, Lonnie! It's not YOUR checkbook you're talking about!" It's not your schedule you're talking about!

Let me explain.

If you don't have enough money to support your desired lifestyle, you have a problem with your money creation systems or money management SYSTEMS. Do you hear the distinction I'm making?

Lack of money isn't the PROBLEM — it's a SYMPTOM of poor money creation systems and/or poor money management systems.

In the same way, health is a SYMPTOM of doing the right things in the right way.

For example, health the result of a well-planned, well-managed physical, mental and emotional life. Focusing on just health will rarely accomplish your health goals. It's no more a plan for success than simply saying you want to be more healthy will make you more healthy. Health is the result of doing the right things to make each system of your body work well and work well together.

What Do You Really Want?

Take an in-depth look at your life — every aspect of your life. Decide what you want to achieve in your financial life, your physical life, your business life, your relational life, your spiritual life. What you want your life to look like in each of these areas when it is at its optimal potential. How you want to be viewed by your friends and family...by your next generations when they sit around talking about great, great grandma or grandpa you.

What if you could write a plan of action for reaching your goals for each of these areas of your life? Call it a game plan if you will. Or charting your course. Or a blueprint.

Where Do You Want to Go?

But whatever you call it, you've got to first determine where you are now, where you want to go — and how you're going to get there.

If you're like most people, at some point in life, you had some big dreams and goals. There was something tangible or intangible that you wanted to see happen in these key areas of life.

But achieving your goals in any area of life means that area of you life has to continually grow. The challenge is we get stuck and get used to status quo.

What Does Growth Mean to You?

Growth to you might mean increasing your income by $50k this year? Or to you it might mean losing 20 pounds of fat and gaining 10 pounds of lean muscle. Or maybe growth to you has nothing to do with numbers. Maybe growth to you is about some quality or effectiveness you want in life. Maybe to you growth means having a passionate romance with your spouse that is stronger every year of marriage. Maybe growth to you is having adult kids who become better and better friends.

But regardless of HOW it grows, these key areas of our lives MUST grow — or move toward dying.

If you continue doing what you've been doing in any area of your life, the chances are pretty good that you'll the same or worse outcomes in that area of your life.

The Growth Cycle

In fact whenever you start on a new course to pursue growth in some area of your life, I've found you'll eventually go through — this cycle we've come to call the Growth, Plateau and Decline Cycle.

You'll start your growth in that area for awhile, reach a plateau, then begin to decline.

Where are you in the natural growth life cycle now? Are you bouncing from place to place depending on what area you're focused on at the time? It's not unusual to move around a bit, but staying in the momentum stage is the optimum choice.

But that doesn't just happen! The key to staying in the momentum stage is to plan for it — and put systems in place now so you can continue to succeed.

I know sometimes there is a bit of luck that goes into success…But the majority of the time luck has very little to do with success and when it does success that is real and sustainable usually happens when luck and preparedness meet.

How Success Happens

Success happens when opportunity and preparedness meet:

People who create a lasting success do it by planning for their success. There's just too much that's out of your control not to have plans in place. If you don't think so, think again.

The fact is that change is on the horizon in just about every area of life now and if it isn't now, it will be.

Changes in the economy, new technologies, changing relationship dynamics, new health challenges from age or sickness. and much more — are mostly — out of YOUR control. But that doesn't mean you can't exercise some control over your plans and process…what you plan to do and what you actually do in any are of your life to still make progress toward your goals, despite these external factors.

The Primary System for Success

Look, here's a basic system for success. A successful person — for whatever area of their life that is important to them— creates clear plans for growth and improvement.

Then, if you begin to get slightly off course in that area of your life, you can respond quickly, get back on course, and still get where you want to go.

Did you know that a plane rarely stays exactly on course straight to the destination? There are way too many environmental changes to stay on course all the time.

In reality, the plane rides you take, even in big commercial planes, don't stay exactly on the course they have plotted straight from point A to Point B.

The actual course of the flight looks more like this. It weaves back and forth across the straight course line as the pilot constantly corrects for wind and drift.

But do you still get to your destination? Of course! Does uncertainty and change minimize the value of planning? Absolutely not!

As I have coached business owners over the years many have asked me, "Why should I make a plan? There's just way too much that's out of my control in this industry."

How would you like to fly on a plane with pilots who operated with that attitude?

"Flight 123 is cleared for take off."

"This is your captain speaking. I hope we end up in Chicago today. We expect some high winds again so I didn't file a flight plan. We never stay right on course anyhow, so it would be a waste of time to prepare one. I'm sure we'll get to Chicago OK, though. Enjoy the flight."

Sound ludicrous?

It's no more ludicrous than when someone says, "I can't plan because some things are just out of my control."

That fact is that without the flight plan, the pilot wouldn't know when the plane is off course — and he wouldn't know how to get back ON course.

Your life plan allows you to respond quickly to changes in your environment.

The FAA made me file a flight plan in the first tiny Cessna I owned. And it made the pilot of the last flight you took on a jumbo jet file one, too.

Chart Your Own Course

Regardless of the size of your dreams for any area of life, regardless of the size of your bank account, regardless or the size of your business, regardless of the state of your health, you must file your flight plan. You have to chart your course.

Over the course of the next several podcasts we're going to share with you our systems for success in planning. You'll learn how to write your strategic plan for different areas of life…or for your business. But it won't end there. Remember the old saying about life being a journey not a destination? Planning never ends. Not a once n done thing.

There's always someplace better to go. A new level to go in your relationship. A new business or career goal to accomplish. A new level of inner joy or peace to attain. A new processes to improve. New people to mentor and develop.

Strategic planning will help you lay the foundation for a more successful life or business. This is the beginning of your systems for success journey.

TAKE ACTION:

After you listen to this podcast, take action on what you've just heard. You've taken the first step toward turning your dreams for our life into reality by at least listening to a podcast like this to hopefully inspire you a bit. But the best information or greatest inspiration won't actually change anything in our lives unless we take some action on it…unless we do something about it. So, we're going to challenge you at the end of each podcast to take some action on what you've heard. This is another system for success. Always try to take some action on something you've learned that you think could benefit your life or those around you within as short a time as possible after you hear or learn that information.

Where Have Your Super Dreams Have Become Your Settled for Realities?

Here's the action we're going to challenge you to take as soon as you finish listening to this podcast. Pick up your pen, your phone or computer and write down at least three things you've dreamed about for some area of your life but where you've gotten use to a much lower standard of reality than what you had dreamed of. Maybe you want to just pick one area of your life like your health or your finances and think of a few unfulfilled dreams. If you picked your finances, maybe at one point, you dreamed of creating residual income or multiple streams of income and you've just gotten used to working a 40 hour a week job trading time for dollars. Write down, "I dreamed of being financially independent by this age but I have settled for trading time for dollars." Or if you pick the area of your relational life, maybe you write down "I dreamed of having a passionate romance in my relationship with my spouse but I have settled for just being parents and roommates and making life work".

The task here is for us to get real with ourselves and identify the gap between our ideal vision for certain areas of our life and the reality you have become accustomed to.

Stare that reality straight in the face and ask yourself, do you really want to reality or do you want to reignite your vision bad enough that you are willing to do the hard work of creating plans and disciplining yourself to implement those plans to start moving toward your vision?

Take action!

Do it now!

How to Turn Your Grandest Visions for Your Life into Realities

Why is it that some people just seem to get everything they want in life? Great relationships, plenty of money, great health and time to enjoy it all? And why is that other people who seem to work equally as hard or seem to be equally deserving constantly struggle with a life that is always far short of their ideals?

This podcast grows out of a deep conviction the grand design for life is that everyone should have an equal shot at achieving the success they want in all areas of life. This podcast is based on the proposition that anyone who really wants to, can actually learn and apply some next steps that they can take to move toward their dreams for success in any area of their life. This podcast grows out of a deep belief that our grandest visions for any area of our life are most likely to become reality when we understand and implement certain universal principles and processes that create success in any particular area of life….when people understand and live by what we call, universal systems for success.

I don't know many people who don't want to be more successful in at least some area of their life...however they uniquely define success. But I don't know of many people who take the time to understand, develop and implement the specific processes, steps, or systems it takes to create that next level of success.

What the Secret?

I'm not here to tell you that I have all the secret systems. I am here to tell you that systems, is the secret. And if we don't know the systems needed to produce success in any area of our life, I'm here to tell you that you can find someone who knows those systems and you can learn from how they implemented those systems and apply the principles you learn from them to create the success you want in your own life.

The secret to success is only a secret if you don't know where to find the secret. And the secret to success in any area of life is found is in the systems that cause the success. And the great news is that anyone who is hungry enough can seek out, understand and implement the systems they need to cause success.

Not Just Another "How-To"

With today's globalized information availability, we can find information and how-tos on just about anything. So, it is not just another how-to that is needed. If the possession of checklists of systems to follow were the key to success, every capable Googler in the world would be enormously successful! The key to success is not just learning about some systems. It's not just hearing more how-to's. It is gaining a deep real-life understanding of the right systems you need at the right time AND creating a doable pathway to actually implement those systems in the unique situations of your life.

Real-Life Learning for Real-Life Successes

Our passion in this podcast is to unpack the specific systems we are learning that bring success in various areas of life…and to do that in the context of real-life learning. In the context of the real trial and error rodeo of implementation. We'd like to take you on a journey with us. To open our lives (past and present) to let you share in our learnings as we have been seeking to implement our own systems for success in life.

The goal here is not to come across as people who know it all…because we certainly don't. If anything, I've made more mistakes than the average guy. The goal here is to simply be transparent about what we have learned and what are learning about the systems…the specific processes that produce success in key areas of life. And our hope is not that you just take any of these things we share and implement them verbatim in your life. But rather that you take the principles and processes you learn from the stories from our lives, our businesses and our families and apply them to creating your own unique systems for success.

Only Listen If You're Serious About Turning Your Dreams into Reality!

This podcast is for people who want to do more than just talk about the success they want. It's for people who are willing to do the hard work of learning how to develop and implement the systems that will create the success they want. It is for that uncommon person who is willing to think deeply about cause and effect and honestly change how they do what they do in every-day life to create new causes that produce new effects in their life. This podcast is for people who are serious about turning vision into reality. People who are serious enough about turning their vision for any area of their life into reality that they are willing to change paradigms and change practices to create new systems that bring the success they want in life.

Serious Questions for Serious Seekers of Success

Sometimes it's helpful to just take a serious inventory of where you're at in some area of life compared with where you really want to be. Ask yourself questions like these:

• Do you ever feel like your life is running you, instead of you running your life?
• Does it seem like you're always putting out fires in one or more areas of your life?
• Does it seem like more often you're a day late and a dollar short to capture the full opportunity you'd dreamed about?
• How about your relationships? Are you short on the love and fulfillment you once dreamed about in your relationships with friend, with your spouse or significant other, with your family?
• How often do you feel like you have the time to do what you really like to do?
• Do you have chronic health challenges? Or maybe you just never seem to reach that ideal weight or strength or energy?
• How are your personal finances? How is your cash flow? Does cash seem to flow in, and then right back out again, without giving you the chance to catch your fair share along the way?
• Have you had a lot of great hopes and ideals for your life, for your business, for your relationships or your health…and you just never seem to have those visions become reality as much as you'd like?
• Fortunately, things don't have to stay the way they are. The good news is that change is possible, whether you've been facing that issue for 20 days or 20 years. The good news is that the systems for success in any area of your life that you want to improve are knowable and doable for you.

Unlock the Secrets of Success

Here's the deal. There is no silver bullet to success. There is no magic formula for consistent prosperity in any area of life. There is no secret to success in any area of life. With today's wealth of information availability, there really is no secret to success in finances, there is no secret to success in creating strong relationships. There is no secret to success in growing business. There is no secret to success in being as healthy as you want to be. Oh, it may be a secret to you right now, but it is a knowable secret. And the key to unlocking that secret is to do the hard work of developing and implementing the specific systems that will create success for you in that area of your life.

Here's the Key

The key to getting the full benefit of the systems approach is to design and implement the right systems for you. That takes listening to and learning from others who have implemented systems that are related to the need or vision you want to address in your life. And even when you find someone who is using a system to accomplish exactly what you want...here's what I've learned about systems over the years…very few systems are completely 100% plug and play duplicatable from one business to another or from one life to another. But there are two things that are duplicatable. First, the principles and the processes that one business or one person used to create a system that worked for them…those principles and processes can be duplicated to create or customize a system that works for you. Second, the modeling and motivation that you can gain from seeing how someone else has implemented their system and continue to use and improve their system can have immeasurable benefit to provide you with success in implementation of your systems.

Models and Motivation To Make Your Own Success

We hope that as we share our experiences developing and implementing systems for success in various areas of life and business that you hope people will use those principles and process to create or customize a system that works for them. And as you hear about our trials and successes at implementing various systems, I hope you will receive a model...a picture...and plan that could help you implement you own systems...and maybe also get some motivation from just knowing that someone else is, or has been, on the same type of journey.

Our passion in this podcast is to unpack the principles and processes that create systems for success in these key areas of life. And to give you real life implementation examples from our successes and failures and from those of others that will give you some models and some motivation on your own journey as you learn to design and implement your own systems that turn your visions into realities.

I invite you to join the Systems for Success journey with us now!

Lonnie Gienger