Skip to main content

ADOS

Do you suffer from the agonizing effects of ADOS?  Do you set goals, or make a list of "to do's" and never seem to complete them?  Do you ever lie in bed thinking, "there are just not enough hours in the day"?  You may be suffering the harmful effects of ADOS - Attention Deficit... Oooh... Shiny!
Now, I am all for a business with flexibility.  The hard part is keeping the "business" in with the flexibility.  So many of us need to accomodate the schedules of others that sometimes we forget that our priorities are important , too.  Keeping schedules, priorities & goals requires discipline.
Do you remember when you were young and all you wanted was a particular toy or your first car... and your parents told you that you had to save your money to buy it?  It was all you could think about and all of your money was stashed away for the day when you finally had enough to go buy it?  Discipline seemed simple- you knew what you wanted, and what it took to get it.
"Discipline is remembering what you want."  David Campbell, founder, Saks Fifth Avenue
What do you want?
To make "x" amount of money?  What do you need to do consistently to make that happen?
A happy family?  What does that mean to you?  Supper on the table at 6 every night?  No dirty laundry in the basket?  One night a week where everyone is together?  Define the priorities.
More friends?  What are you doing to meet people?  What are you offering them?
Health?  Does that mean walking 3-4  times per week?  Or running a marathon?  Does that mean getting into a bikini?  Or just feeling more comfortable in your own skin?  Write it down.
Excitement?  Does that mean jumping out of a plane?  Or learning something new?
Once you really define what your goal is, discipline becomes easier.  When you don't know where you're going, it's hard to know when you get there.  And it's much easier to be distracted... oooh... shiny!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

People test

"If you do not pass the people test, nothing else matters. Promotion without connectivity is destructive. I often share with church leaders that most of the churches in the United States should not promote themselves. Why? Simple. If your current membership is not actively inviting people or visitors are not staying, there are reasons why. If you do an advertising campaign, you are asking people to come in your doors only to realize why no one wants to invite anyone to your church. They never come back and leave to tell all their friends what they did not like about your church. This is not good marketing. The heart of marketing is people. Don’t start with mailers. Start with people. Ask yourself, “What am I doing this week to learn how to reach people more effectively? It's time to evaluate. Are we creating an atmosphere that fosters growth or are we ministering unto ourselves?" http://www.beyondrelevance.com/index.cfm/PageID/913/blog_year/2010/blog_month/2/index.html...

Clean House

While flipping through some late night television, I came across "Clean House: Search for the Messiest House in the Country 4".  Now, without getting into a rant about how people could let their house get so full of "stuff" (let alone letting it be broadcast to the world), I want to touch on one of their underlying issues.  The dad traveled a lot with his job, and every time he came back, he brought his family gifts to show them that he loved them and thought of them often when he was away.  These gifts were contributing to a huge clutter problem and many gifts had never even been opened.  The family was disconnected, because the wife and children really just wanted to spend time with the dad, who had to keep working more to buy more gifts... do you see the problem? This whole situation took me back to a book I read many years ago, "The 5 Love Languages" by Dr. Gary Chapman.  According to Chapman, the 5 are: Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Quality ...

Volunteers

I've heard many in leadership lamenting about the lack of volunteers.  If you lead a church or other non-profit, or are in direct sales, you lead an army of volunteers.  Sometimes, your volunteers will not hit you over the head with their willingness to serve.  Sometimes, they will.  Are you ready to mentor them in their volunteer position so that they will be successful?  Do you follow through with them while enthusiasm is high?  I think we all believe we do. About two years ago, I volunteered with a non-profit in the Quad Cities area.  It took several weeks just to be able to get through to the correct person to volunteer my services with.  I was invited to attend an open meeting, where I spoke of the service that I was willing to provide.  Although there was much agreement that my service would be a great addition to the service they were providing, and several follow up calls on my part, I never was given the opportunity to volunteer. A...