Uncategorized – Page 37

Windows of Opportunity are the Keys to Your Success

June 12, 2019June 12, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning! I hope your day is off to a great start.

We talked a couple of days ago about the problem of doing the work that needs to be done and not seeing any visible results. It happens to all of us, and it’s frustrating when it does. Especially when there’s a limited window of opportunity, and if you miss that window, you have to sit around and wait for the next one.

My grandson sometimes cuts our grass. He’s got a full-time job and lives in a neighboring town, so it’s not like he can just walk across the street and do it. And, with a schedule that changes from week to week, I never know when to expect him. Factor in the weather, and there are very few opportunities for me to get my grass cut without doing it myself.

Yet, when the grass needs to be cut and we have a day without rain, you don’t blow the opportunity. With the season we’ve had, it could rain for the next four days in a row and by then the grass will be so high it’ll need to be cut twice – once to lower the height, and another to chop up the clippings. So, when that window of opportunity comes along, I get out there and mow the lawn myself.

Sometimes windows of opportunity come along a few times each day. If there was something you needed to do on your morning coffee break and just didn’t get around to it, you’ll have another break coming later in the day. Or maybe you can do it over lunch. If all else fails, you can set aside some time right after work. And if that doesn’t pan out, there’s always tomorrow.

But other times, the window of opportunity may last several weeks or even a few months, and then it’s gone. You had the best of intentions, but life just gets in the way. Your health isn’t up to par, there’s a new project at work, the ball team needs a coach, an unexpected bill comes along, and there’s that room you’ve been meaning to paint. Meanwhile, the window just keeps shrinking.

It happens to all of us. Maybe you’ve got an outdoor project you wanted to tackle, but the weather just isn’t cooperating. Maybe you wanted to qualify for a business challenge that only comes around once a year. Maybe you were hoping to take the kids on a special vacation before school starts again. And no matter how hard you try, things just don’t seem to work out. You’re not alone.

I read yesterday that only a third of the farmers in my state have been able to plant their fields this year, because of historically heavy rainfall. The fields have been so wet they can’t even drive a tractor across them, much less plow the fields for planting. By now, their crops should be almost half-grown. Time is running out, and a good number of them have already given up for the year.

Those farmers would have given just about anything for a brief window of opportunity, and they’d have dropped everything to take advantage of it. They’ve learned, through bitter experience, that when the fields are ready to plant, you plant. It doesn’t matter what else you’d planned to do that day or that week. You do what needs to be done before that window closes again.

Thankfully, for most of us, the situation isn’t quite so dire. There may be something we need to do, or maybe even just want to do, and if we miss our chance today, there’s always tomorrow. Or next month, or next year. Keep that up and you’ll forget what you wanted to do in the first place. The consequence may be that nothing changes. But is that what you really want?

If there’s something you want to change, find those windows of opportunity and don’t let another one slip by. There will be a day when you can look back at this point in your life and celebrate opportunities taken or lament the ones you missed. Do the things you need to do today. Your tomorrow depends on it.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

When Seeing is Believing, Take a Closer Look

June 11, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning! I hope your day is off to a great start.

Now that the weather is a bit nicer, I’ve been trying to get out and take a walk more often. Lunchtime is usually a good time to get away, because it gives me a break from my desk, lets me get a little exercise, and keeps me from gorging on food I really don’t need anyway.

I work downtown, so there are always plenty of places to walk. And there’s never a shortage of people to make the walk interesting. Most simply walk past, give a brief nod, and maybe say hello. Some sit on a bench and look longingly at a world that seems to have passed them by. And then there’s the guy who was chirping like a bird and having a loud verbal argument with himself.

I wish I was making that up, but that’s what I encountered yesterday. Last week it was somebody else, waving his arms and yelling loudly at somebody who wasn’t there. Or, at least from my perspective. Who am I to say there was nobody there, just because I couldn’t see them? In his mind, he was in a full-blown confrontation.

It’s easy to form an opinion on what’s going on with some of these people. Drugs may certainly have been involved, but there are a dozen other possibilities that are much less nefarious. You could be looking at a military veteran who saw things in person that no network would ever allow us to see on TV. You just never know.

Perception is a tricky thing. It’s an important part of quickly assessing a situation in which our safety may rely on our ability to accurately perceive what’s going on. But it’s also a very biased opinion based exclusively on what we’ve experienced and learned to date. We think we know enough to assess the situation, but quite often we’re completely wrong. Worse yet, we may never know.

I remember in high school, walking through a loud and crowded hallway between classes, there was a guy with long stringy hair walking through, seemingly oblivious to everything around him. His head was cocked to one side, his mouth was open and slightly drooling, and he was clapping and snapping his fingers to a beat only he could hear. I was certain he was drugged into oblivion.

A couple of months later, one of my teachers was talking about human miracles and how we can overcome otherwise crippling handicaps to live a normal life. As it turns out, that student wasn’t on drugs. He was blind. He was able, in the middle of a crowded hallway, to listen to the echoes from his claps and snaps to know exactly where he was and what was in front of him.

I remember thinking what a miracle that was, the challenges he had to overcome. Imagine learning the floor plan of a large school so well that you know each doorway and what’s behind it. Water fountains made an entirely different sound, and I’m sure the echo off the lockers was distinct. And he was able to selectively shut out all the background noise to hear only his own echoes.

As I said, sometimes you just never know. It was probably my first big lesson in judging a book by its cover and, nearly fifty years later, I can still see him stumbling through the hallway to get to his next class. I often think about my first impression of him and how incredibly wrong I was. He wasn’t intentionally dulling his senses – he was using them to a level most of us will never achieve.

Every person you encounter presents an image that may or may not be entirely accurate. The young woman who looks like she was out all night partying, but in reality, nobody ever taught her how to apply make-up. The guy who’s nodding off at his desk because he has a severe case of narcolepsy. The overweight person who’s eating candy to ward off insulin shock.

It would be easy to form an opinion based on two or three seconds of observation. And, even when our opinion is accurate, there’s still a lot more we don’t know. Maybe that person is on drugs. But why? What have they experienced in life that’s led them to the choices they’re making today? More importantly, if we’d been in their shoes, would we have responded that much more responsibly?

We’re all very different people, and we all have unique gifts, abilities, troubles, and needs. And we all share this planet together. Instead of crossing the street when I saw a man having a fight with himself, maybe I could have helped talk him through it. Maybe I could have calmed the “other person” down. Who knows?

It’s been said that we should never judge a person unless we’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Until we do, we may never know how hard that walk might be.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

Every Failure Brings You That Much Closer to Success

June 10, 2019June 10, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning, and happy Monday! I hope your day is starting off well.

You know that feeling when you’ve been working away at something day after day with no visible results? You know what needs to be done, and you’ve been doing it, yet none of it seems to have moved you any closer to your goal. For all practical purposes, it seems you end each day right back where you started.

I imagine it feels that way for software developers. You write line after line of code, for days on end, with a simple goal in mind – you want to turn on a computer, press a few keys, and see things magically happen. But until that last line of code is written, you have no way of knowing for sure if what you’ve done will yield any measurable results. Everything in between is just work.

It’s that way with a lot of the things we do. We work and work and work, and waiting for the visible results can seem to be an eternity. This is especially true with raising kids. You put forth the effort every day for years before you find out if you did the job well. Oh, we’ll get little indications of success along the way, but it can literally take a lifetime to see the full impact of our effort.

Still, every little thing we’ve done contributes in some small (or not so small) way toward the overall results. We may not see the results immediately, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. When you’re on a cross-country trip, you probably don’t celebrate every one of those mileposts along the way, even though each one is getting you closer to where you want to be.

But when the road is closed, and a detour takes you several miles out of your way, you breathe a big sigh of relief when all those twists and turns finally put you back on the highway you were on. The goal is that much closer, and you set the cruise control with a feeling of accomplishment at having navigated unfamiliar territory without getting lost in the process. You da man!

For the past several weeks, I’ve been putting forth a fair amount of effort in one of my personal goals without any visible results. It happens. My mentors, people who have been where I am and have gone far beyond where I hope to be, all keep telling me the same thing – just keep doing what needs to be done. Put forth the effort on a consistent basis, and the results will come.

Well, they were right. Over the weekend, some of that work paid off and I was able to celebrate a win. It’s a small win in the overall scheme of things, but one of many that will lead me closer to my goal. And, for that very reason, it’s a huge win. Because every step in the right direction validates not only the effort, but the self-confidence that got you moving in the first place.

As challenging as it can be to succeed, it’s even more challenging to work through those times when things just don’t work the way we’d planned. To be certain, some of those times actually put us further from our goal than we were to start with, and it takes that much more work just to get back to where we started. After a while, you begin to wonder if it’s even worth taking that next step.

But sometimes we have to find out what doesn’t work in order to find what does. Mom used to say there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and she was right. But for everything that gets the job done and brings you closer to your goal, there may be hundreds of approaches that won’t work. And in the very act of eliminating those that don’t work, we move closer to the ones that will.

Those software developers know exactly what I’m talking about. If any of them ever tell you they’ve never written a faulty line of code, and that every one of their creations worked exactly as planned on the very first try, don’t trust them in a real estate deal.

Creation, of any kind, is a process of trial and error. You have to be willing to fail in order to succeed. And when those failures come, you have to be willing to dust yourself off and keep moving. Because what you’ve experienced isn’t truly a failure – it’s just another step along the path to success.

Decide what you want and then put forth whatever amount of effort is required to get you there. Remember these words – I will, until. You’ll make mistakes, and you’ll experience setbacks. But as long as you keep doing the things you need to do the results will come. Stay focused and keep moving. Success isn’t just possible – it’s inevitable.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

What Do You Want To Be Good At?

June 7, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope you’re gearing up for an awesome weekend.

Weekends are supposed to be about rest. That’s what the boss likes to tell us. “Go home and relax – I need you back in here Monday ready to roll.” Well, that would be great, except the boss isn’t married to my wife. She thinks Saturday and Sunday belong to her. And all those jobs I put off during the week because I was too tired from working … well, they’re not going away on their own.

Okay, I say that tongue-in-cheek. Partly because most of the jobs I have to do at home are of my own creation. I decided they need to be done, and I’m the one who picked this weekend to do it. Also, I like eating dinner that’s cooked by somebody else and, if I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s that you don’t pick on the cook before the meal.

Do you ever feel like life is just one job after another, and the work never really gets done? It’s like a boat with a slow leak. You grab a bucket and get all the water bailed out but sit there a while and it’ll fill right back up. I think most women know exactly how that feels. I can build a shed and I’m done with it. But cooking and cleaning are never really done. It just looks that way.

I attended a business conference in March, and something the speaker said really stood out. He said if there’s something you need to do on a repeated basis, get good at it. Because when you get good at it, you don’t have to work nearly as hard. It becomes second nature, and instead of just swinging at those fastballs, you begin to connect. After a while, you hit more than you miss. Nothing to it.

I think it’s that way with anything in life. The more you do something, the better you get. We’re all born with a set of natural talents, and no two people are alike. But just as you were able to learn your job and get good at it, you can learn anything you want and be better at it than you were in the beginning. After a while, you don’t even have to think about it. It just happens.

The question is, what do you want to be good at? Do you want to be good at your job? Do you want to be a good cook? Do you want to be a good parent? Do you want the best-looking lawn in the neighborhood? Do you want to be a good driver? Do you want to be the kind of person others look to for guidance?

You can be good at anything. Maybe not good enough to make a living at it – I’d love to be good at golf, but I’ll never be good enough to join the PGA tour. And that’s not my goal. I just want to be better than I was last time. I want to hit that one perfect drive, or a putt that curves perfectly into the hole. And just once, I’d like to get out of the sand with a single stroke. Is that too much to ask?

None of us can be great at everything. The key is figuring out those things we want to be great at, and those things we’d like to do well. I want to be great at my job. I want to be great at my business. But cleaning the basement is something where I’d be happy to just get the job done. I don’t even care if my approach is all that pretty – I just want the final result to be good.

Find the one thing in life that’s most important to you right now and get good at it. Odds are, there will be more than one, so pick a few. Just don’t try to do it all at once. And whatever you choose, practice it until it becomes second nature – something you could do with your eyes closed. Except driving. Keep your eyes open for that one.

The better we become at anything, the less effort it takes to achieve the desired results. And the more we do the things that intimidate us the most, the more comfortable they become. We may never come to love those tasks, and there may always be an element of reluctance. I don’t enjoy doing laundry, but I’m good at it. And that sure comes in handy on laundry day.

If there’s something you have to do over and over, get good at it. Whether it’s on the job, around the house, in family life or in building a better life, the better you are the easier it becomes. And the easier it becomes, the more likely you are to just dive in and get it done. Then you’ll have that much more time to do something nice for yourself.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

Fill Your Brain With Something Worth Remembering

June 6, 2019June 6, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning! I hope your day is off to a nice start.

Have you ever awakened in the morning with a song stuck in your head, one you haven’t heard in ages and you’re wondering why, of all the songs in the world, you woke up to that one? And then, later in the day, as you’re driving to or from work, that same song comes on the radio. And you wonder, was it premonition or just a strange coincidence?

It happens to me all the time. I’ll be thinking about an old movie, one I haven’t seen in several years. I’ll recall a certain scene, or maybe just a memorable line from the movie, and then in just a day or two, it’s on TV. I get a chuckle out of it, and usually watch the movie just because it’s on my mind now and I have to.

Now, I don’t make any claim to supernatural abilities. More than likely, I’ve heard the song somewhere, maybe just on a commercial or in the background music of a movie, and that’s how it got stuck in my head. And television networks advertise movies a few days before they air, so it’s possible I saw a commercial for the movie and just didn’t remember it.

The same thing happens sometimes with my writing. Those of you who have been with me a while know I like to read motivational books. Go figure. To me, there’s nothing quite as intriguing as a book that tells me I can succeed at anything I want and enjoy the life of my dreams. Call me what you want, but that’s the kind of stuff I want to read.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve written a post in the morning, and then read a passage in one of my books that very evening that makes the same point. And I’m sure some of my friends who are reading the same book (we’re reading it together) wonder if I’m picking up ideas from another writer. To me, it’s just amusing. You know what they say – great minds think alike!

But it lends credence to a theory, which is that none of us has a truly original thought, and everything in our conscious mind is simply repetition of something that’s in the subconscious. We’ve seen or heard something in the past that’s buried deep in the brain, and a conscious thought comes along and goes digging for something in the subconscious to back it up and make the point.

Now, if all I read were murder mysteries or romance novels, I’d probably have a hard time coming up with words of inspiration each day. Nothing against those books – I think reading is good for the mind, and if it’s entertaining to you, go for it. But we should also balance that out with something a little more positive.

The mind is like a sponge. It picks up everything that comes along and keeps it forever. There’s a reason people with dementia can’t remember the names of their own children, but they can remember the name of their first-grade teacher. Anything that’s in our long-term memory is there for instant recall, and we can remember it like it was yesterday.

People always say things like, “I’m not good with names. I can’t remember what I ate for dinner last night! My memory just isn’t very good.” Yes, it is. You can remember names, and you can remember what you ate for dinner last night. You’ve just got too many other conscious thoughts racing around to let you dig into the subconscious.

But, like a sponge, those thoughts in your subconscious will make themselves known at some point down the road. Pick up a sponge that hasn’t been used in a few days, and the smell will turn your stomach. At that point, you have two choices. Throw it in the trash (and fill up a new sponge with the same kind of junk) or refill it with something a lot more pleasant.

We need to be careful what we allow our minds to consume. The words we hear, the songs we sing, the books we read, the places we go, the people we spend our time with – all of these things create memories that your brain stores forever. And when you least expect it, those thoughts will again rise to the surface. Stir up a bucket of mop water, and the whole thing turns muddy.

With each conscious thought, every new idea that comes into your brain, it automatically goes searching for something in long-term memory to validate or repudiate that thought. So, make sure your brain has a sufficient number of positive thoughts to choose from. Fill it with the good stuff and top it off regularly. Your brain will always have something to say to you. Make sure it’s something you want to hear.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

What Are You Waiting For?

June 5, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning! I hope your day is starting off well.

At lunchtime today, the week will be half-over. Funny how we measure time that way. As babies, our parents measured our age in weeks, and then months, all the way up to our second birthday. Then, when people would ask our age, our parents would look at them through weary eyes with the voice of a condemned prisoner and simply reply, “Two.” That pretty much says it all.

As kids, we made sure to add a little to our age every chance I got. “I’m six, going on seven!” “I’m seven and a half.” “I’m almost thirteen!” That last one was always a big deal, because you were no longer a kid, you were a full-blown teenager. But by the time you turned nineteen, the last thing you wanted was to be called a teenager. You were an adult and made sure the world knew it.

Well, after 61 (and a half) trips around the sun, I’m in no rush for the days to pass by. As a kid, every time I’d get excited about an upcoming birthday or wish I was a bit older, Mom would say, “You’re just wishing your life away.” I didn’t really understand what she was talking about at the time. But those words take on a whole new meaning now.

It’s usually the same about this time each week. Sure, I look forward to the weekend just like most other people. The week is half over! On the other hand, when it comes to my personal goals and the things I’d planned to accomplish before the weekend, the week is … well, half over. Time is running out, and if I don’t get busy, I’ll never get these things done.

I guess I’m like anybody else. I get up on Monday morning and think, “These are the things I need to do, and I’ve got a whole new week to get them done.” There’s no real pressure Monday, because there are still four days left in the week. Besides, Monday is all about getting through a tough day at work. And then Monday evening I’m busy. But Tuesday – that’s a good day to get started.

Well, you know how that goes. You get down to Thursday evening, with absolutely nothing accomplished, and your brain says, “Tomorrow is Friday – everybody will be thinking about the weekend and so will you. But next week, I’m getting this done!” Famous last words.

And I guess that would be okay, once in a while, but when it happens week after week after week, it starts to wear you down. After a while, you don’t face your goals for the week with quite as much gusto. You know what happened last week, and odds are the same thing will happen this week. Besides, what’s the rush? You’ve got the rest of your life to make this happen.

Before long, you’re not just going through the motions of setting goals, you stop setting them completely. Because you can’t fail at something if there was never any intent to do it in the first place. Right? I guess that works when we’re trying to justify the fact that our dreams are still just dreams, and we’re no closer to them than we were in the beginning.

But in the quiet moments of the day, when it’s just you and your thoughts and there’s nobody else around who’s gullible enough to believe the excuses, our brain isn’t quite so forgiving. Because we know how many times we had the opportunity to get started, to take that next step, to accomplish that next goal, and let the time slip by without lifting a finger. We only have ourselves to blame.

Only you know your innermost dreams, the things you hope to accomplish in life, and how soon you want that to happen. Maybe you’ve shared these goals with others, and I highly recommend that as long as it’s somebody who will hold you accountable. But for the most part, our dreams live within our own mind, and nobody but us knows if we’re any closer to making them come true.

If you know your conscience will beat you up for not doing anything toward your dreams, there’s only one way to fix that. Do something. Set a goal, make a plan, and get moving. Stop with the excuses. We’re all busy, and things come up every day to get in the way of our plans. Success comes to those who can work past these obstacles and find the time no matter what.

If there’s something you can be doing to get closer to your goal, don’t let one more minute slip by. The week will end, whether you’re ready for it or not. And think of how nice it would be to look back on a week of progress, knowing you’re that much closer to your goal. Another minute is beginning right now. What will you do with it?

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

Swing Like You Mean It!

June 4, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning! I hope your day is off to a great start.

My office at work is right across the street from a minor-league baseball stadium. You can always tell when the team is in town for a home game, because of all the fanfare in and around the stadium. And the home team has as many die-hard fans as any major-league team. They just don’t have to pay quite as much to watch a good game.

As a young boy, I loved playing baseball. That is to say, I loved putting on the uniform, biting off a big chunk of bubble gum, and standing out there in right-field pretending somebody would actually hit a ball in my general direction. Let’s just say I spent a lot of time kicking daisies off their stems.

And when it was my turn at bat, there was little doubt I’d be heading back to the dugout empty-handed. The only way I got on base was if the pitcher couldn’t throw three balls in the strike zone. I’d swing – sometimes. But even when I did, it was a half-hearted swing because I had accepted defeat before I ever stepped up to the plate.

I always thought failure is probably one of the worst feelings in the world. Years ago, my wife and I owned a NASCAR souvenir shop. We built it from nothing – a few ball caps, some tee shirts, and a display of coffee mugs in the local flea market. We grew that into a fully-stocked weekend store, then opened a kiosk in the local shopping mall, and finally went into a real retail storefront.

I’ll never forget those last two days after the “Closed” sign was placed in the window for the last time. There were boxes to pack, full of items nobody wanted. There were shelves and racks and display cases waiting for somebody to haul them away for half what we paid. Finally, our name was removed from the front window, and it was official – we had failed. Life was pretty bleak.

But as bad as it feels to fail, it’s even worse stepping up to the plate expecting failure, knowing that no matter how hard you try, it’s the inevitable result. In baseball I didn’t swing as hard. I’d look at a perfect pitch and hope the umpire went temporarily blind. In my store, I’d sit behind the sales counter watching cars go by instead of making phone calls. The shelves were dusty. I just quit trying.

I’m sure every one of you has been there. Nothing seems to go right, and each thing that goes wrong becomes just one more example in a litany of excuses for why it was never going to work. After a while, you become your own worst enemy. You hang your head and look for new excuses. And when none present themselves without any effort, you make things go wrong. You’ve long since given up on the idea of success – all you want right now is validation for failure.

Missing a goal feels pretty bad. Do it a bunch of times in a row, and it can really start to wear you down. After a while, you look around at other people who aren’t even trying and begin to think maybe they know something you don’t. You’re over here beating your head against a brick wall and they’re lounging around in the back yard with frozen cocktails. It’s not hard to envy that life.

And then your subconscious mind kicks in and regurgitates every negative thought in its arsenal. “What made you think you could do this? You had to know you’d fail. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it. How much time have you wasted when you could have been enjoying life? You wouldn’t be feeling this way if you’d never set a goal in the first place. Just give up!”

If any of that sounds familiar, welcome to the human race. It happens to all of us. And the more it happens, the more we begin to believe it. Negative thoughts can be pretty convincing, especially in the absence of success. And with every failure, those negative thoughts just get stronger. It’s like pouring gas on a fire except, after a while, the fire begins to pour gas on itself.

It’s only when we put those negative thoughts behind us and replace them with a newfound confidence that we can turn those failures into successes. Approach a goal with the expectation of success and your odds increase exponentially. With every swing, expect a hit and be ready to run to first base when it happens.

Step up to the plate. Swing confidence and conviction and keep doing it no matter how many times you miss. That perfect pitch is coming, so be ready when it happens. This is your time to shine.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

Keep Swinging – You May Be Closer Than You Think

June 3, 2019June 3, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning! I hope your day is starting off well.

Well, the weekend is over and it’s Monday again. For most of us, that means a new week at work and a morning of facing all the things we didn’t get done last week. I guess there’s a reason so many of us aren’t overly fond of Mondays. But on the other hand, it’s a new week full of opportunities to do some of the things we’ve been putting off and start crossing them off the list.

I’m not talking so much about things you do at work. Trust me, somebody will be there to remind you about them, especially if you start falling too far behind. But what about those things you’ve been planning to do for yourself? You know, the ones that seem to slip from one week to the next, and by Friday, you’re just saying, “I’ll get started on this next week.” Well, it’s next week.

One of the problems with personal goals is that we go into them with the best of intentions, and we tend to aim high. Maybe a little too high. And when things don’t happen exactly the way we thought they would, we beat ourselves up and set the same goal again, only this time with a little more admonition than conviction. And trust me, friends, that admonition can wear you down fast.

It’s the same issue with New Year’s resolutions. We vow to make some huge change in life over the coming year. Part of our brain says we’ve got a whole year to get it done, so what’s the rush? But when February comes, and then March and April and May, and we’re still no closer to getting it done, it begins to wear on us. By June, we’ve pretty much given up. Besides, there’s always next year.

But what if we were to re-define success? What if, instead of actually attaining the final goal, “success” was simply movement in the right direction? Putting the goal firmly in front of you, establishing the mindset that you really can do this, planning a course of action, and then taking the necessary steps to make it happen – regardless of the actual results, isn’t that something worth celebrating?

It’s like chopping down a tree. You make the decision. You look at the tree and think, “I can do this.” You sharpen the axe, decide on a plan (like, which way you want it to fall), and take the first swing. A small chip hits the ground, but the tree is still standing. So, you swing again, and again, and again. Before long, the results of your effort begin to show. It gives you hope, and you continue.

Now, imagine that you’re swinging that axe blindfolded. You can feel the axe hitting the tree, but you can’t see the chips falling. Your arms are getting sore and blisters are forming on your hands. You begin to wonder if you’re even hitting the right tree. But, as any lumberjack will tell you, there’s no way of knowing which swing will finally bring the tree down. You just have to keep swinging.

We’ve all felt the same frustration with things we’re trying to accomplish. We put in the effort, but nothing seems to be happening. So, we re-assess our plan and move to another side of the tree. Maybe the wood is a little more “friendly” on that side. We swing several more times and the tree is still standing. Finally, in frustration, we move on to another tree or leave the axe to rust in the rain.

Progress isn’t always readily apparent, but any action you take toward your goal gets you closer. And, much like taking chips out of a standing tree, you never know when you’ll start to hear the welcome sound of wood fibers tearing away as the tree begins to fall on its own. From there, success is inevitable. The laws of gravity and physics take over, and all you have to do is get out of the way.

Meanwhile, you’ve been building up your arms for that next tree. You’ve learned a thing or two about how to swing an axe for maximum effect. Your experience tells you which side of the tree to hack away at first if you want it to fall in a certain direction. And, when you face that next tree, there’s little doubt in your mind it’ll eventually fall. Success isn’t just possible – it’s inevitable.

With each step you take toward a goal, you’re not only wearing away at the final objective, you’re building the person doing the work – you’re transforming from the kind of person who can imagine a goal into the kind who can accomplish that goal. More importantly, you’re becoming the kind of person who can accomplish ANY goal. And that, my friends, is the true definition of success.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

How’s Your Work-Life Balance?

May 31, 2019May 31, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning, and happy Friday! I hope your day is off to a great start.

What are your plans for the weekend? I hope you’ll find time to relax and enjoy the special people in your life. I know, there are always things to do, and every weekend can’t be all about fun and games. I get it. As I went through my morning routine, I found myself thinking of all the things I need to do this weekend. It’s a force of habit, and the list never seems to stop growing.

Most employers these days, especially in their recruiting pitch, stress their support of a healthy work-life balance. And I believe most of them mean it, or at least they go into it with good intentions. But through it all, there’s a job to be done and that pretty much comes first. There’s a reason it’s called “work-life balance” instead of life-work balance. Work comes first. Life is what’s left.

And that’s not a slam on employers. After all, every one of us at some point in time got dressed up a little nicer, brushed our teeth, put on matching socks, and went to our employer to ask for work. We presented an image of somebody they wanted to pay to do a job that needs to be done. In fact, we probably went to great lengths to convince them nobody else could do it better.

I think most of us, from the time we’re old enough to pick up our own toys, are taught that life is about a mix of work and play, with a few other obligations thrown in for good measure. Of course, back then, play was the greater part of our day and work was something for old people.

But work is a necessary part of life – it not only pays the bills, but it’s a vital part of most everything, including our ability to enjoy life when we’re too old to work. So instead, let’s turn our focus to the other half of the equation – life.

I once saw a tee shirt with an intriguing question: “Is there life after work?” Well, sure. According to our employers, we spend less than 25% of our time each week on the job, which means we’ve got more than 3/4 of our time to do whatever we please. Of course, that doesn’t count time spent getting ready for work, commuting back and forth, and complaining about it when we get home.

Still, there’s not much we can do about that. So, back to the original question – is there life after work? Well, I guess that depends on your definition of life. And, to a large degree, it depends on the things you’re able to do with that time. If you’re stuck in the house because the gas tank is nearly empty and bill collectors are blowing up your phone, work is probably a welcome escape.

How many times have you heard somebody walk into work on a Monday and exclaim, “I needed to come back to work so I could get some rest!”? I’ve said that myself, more times than I’d care to admit. But when your time outside of work consists of working to catch up on all the things you couldn’t do during the week because you were working somewhere else, it doesn’t leave much time for life.

Worse yet, for too many people, having time to do the things they’d like to do isn’t as much of a challenge as having the means to do something enjoyable with that time. On one end of the spectrum, you have people with more money than they’ll ever need, but no time to enjoy it. The rest of us seem to find our way to the opposite end – all the time we want, but no money to enjoy it.

If we want a healthy work-life balance, we have to establish the parameters. Just as we can choose where we work, we can also choose the life we want outside of work. It’s not easy, and it takes time. But with the same determination you used to build the career that consumes 25% of your time, you can build the life that consumes the remaining 75%. Build something you can enjoy.

We’re only as busy as we choose to be, and we’re only as wealthy as we choose to be. If time or money are getting in the way of life, fix the problem. Right now, at this very moment, somebody is enjoying the life you dream of. If they can do it, so can you. It all begins with a decision. Make the choice, and then do something about it. Life awaits, my friends. Make the most of it.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!

Take a Breather – You’ve Earned It!

May 30, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

Good morning! I hope your day is off to a great start.

Those of you who have been with me for a while know I try to be an upbeat person who can find the good in just about any situation. I’ve always believed life is what we make of it, and if we choose to focus on the positive, we’ll get a little extra bounce in our step and find more reasons to smile. And let me tell you, it sure beats wallowing in the negativity that is just looking for a chance to sneak in.

But lately, it seems I’ve allowed that negativity to take a more prominent place in my mind. I find myself letting little things get under my skin more than normal, to the point that I don’t really even notice it. And I guess it’s starting to show. Several times lately, my wife has suggested I should go back and read a little more of what I’ve written each day. Ouch!

It can happen to any of us. Positivity isn’t something that comes naturally. It has to be practiced, sometimes with a conscious effort, in order to become a habit. That’s the way habits work. Negativity, on the other hand, doesn’t take much effort. If you pull the plug out of a sink, the water will drain out and air will take its place, because nature seeks to fill a void. Let the positive thoughts slip away, and negativity will rise to the surface.

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned signs of stress. We all like to think we can handle stress. Some folks even brag about it. “I thrive on stress!” No, you don’t. You may think you do, but the reality is stress erodes away your spirit until there’s no room left for anything but more stress. And along with stress comes the inability to enjoy life’s little treasures. Positivity out, negativity in. Just like clockwork.

Well, in a conference call yesterday afternoon, I was asked a simple question, and I gave a simple answer. No big deal. Twenty seconds later, another person on the call sent me a text message … “You sound happy!” Wow. I had to think back to what I’d said, and still didn’t realize it came off a bit abrupt. The next message was a little more direct. “You need a vacation.”

It’s easy to get so caught up in everyday life that we forget to slow down and enjoy everyday life. There are jobs to be done, bills to pay, people to see, things to fix, walls to paint, grass to mow, stores to shop, oil to change, trash to take out, and all those hundreds of little things that consume our day. At some point, we need to take a step back and say, “TIME OUT!”

And you know the answer most people give when you suggest that? “I can’t take time off … I’m too busy!” In the immortal words of astronaut Jim Lovell, Houston, we have a problem! It’s like saying you can’t go to sleep because you’re too tired. Trust me, you WILL go to sleep. It just may not happen exactly when or where you choose.

We all like to think nobody is quite as busy as we are. We wear it like a badge of honor. Because, if we’re busy, it means we’re productive. We’re getting things done. The world depends on us every day for its very existence, and we’re not about to let the world down. Sound familiar?

But sooner or later, your body and mind go off in a corner to chat behind your back, and when they come out, they have one word for you … enough! It’s time for a break. And if you don’t take one voluntarily, your body will find a way to make you do it. Now, let me ask you, which sounds more appealing? A week on the beach, or a week in bed wishing you were on the beach?

We’re raised to believe life is about working hard and getting ahead. And there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as we remember that life is also about taking time to smell the roses. It’s about dropping everything to enjoy what we’ve worked so hard to build. It’s about family, and dancing, and laughter. And if you dance like me, those last two come as a package deal.

When it’s time to work, give it your best effort. If you have to be there anyway, make it count. But know when it’s time to step away and give yourself a break. If you’re waiting for a “good” time to take off, forget it. Put something on the calendar and let it be known that you’ll be doing something else during that time. You’ll be happier, and so will everyone around you.

That’s all for now. Have an awesome day!