Results – Dave Glardon

Don’t Let Up Now – You’re Almost There!

October 10, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

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

Have you ever given somebody a gift, not quite sure if it’s what they really want? You did the best you could and hoped it would hit the mark, but you just weren’t sure. Know the feeling? And then, they open it up and it’s the best surprise ever. Their eyes light up, their face begins to glow, and you know all the searching for that perfect gift paid off. It’s a good feeling.

It’s the same when you’re on the job and you’re just not sure if what you’re doing is exactly what the boss wants. Then you hand over the report and wait for the verdict. Especially if it didn’t take that long to complete, you’re pretty sure it came up short somewhere. But then you get a thumbs-up that says it was exactly what was needed. Whew! Time for a fresh cup of coffee!

That happens all through our lives. Sometimes you get the results immediately, like when the wrapping comes off a gift or you tell a brand-new joke onstage. Let me tell you, that one can be brutal. If its good, the payoff is exhilarating. If not, it can throw the rest of your night into one big disaster. And there’s nowhere to run. You have to finish the job and take the blows as they come.

As a comedian, I quickly learned how it feels to stand in that spotlight and deliver my best material to an audience that’s looking at their watch. If you’re lucky, they keep their opinions to themselves. But you have to work through that to get to the nights when they’re howling at everything you say. In the beginning, you wonder if it’ll ever happen, and if it’s worth all the trouble it takes to get there.

Sometimes, the results aren’t so immediate. You can put in your best effort for years before you find out if you did the job right. Parents, can I get an amen? It’s one thing to watch your kid tie their shoe for the first time and pat yourself on the back for being such a great teacher. But wait till they hit their teenage years or move out on their own. That’s when the real report card comes in.

Thankfully, with most things, we’re able to measure our success along the way. I sit here each morning and hammer out 800 words to (hopefully) brighten your day. Some days are better than others, and it’s usually the ones I’m not really sure of that get the best response. And going back to read it again is about as effective as telling the same joke twice, hoping it’ll be better the second time around.

I see people at work who are unsure of their position, praying they’ll measure up and do the job well. More often than not, they’re a lot more capable than they realize. And maybe it’s that uncertainty making them try harder that makes them so good. It’s usually the slouch who thinks they know it all that gets blindsided when the boss calls them in for a conversation nobody wants to hear.

If we approached everything thinking we can’t get any better, we never would. And, in the process, we’d eventually slide backward into a place of comfort that doesn’t require the extra effort it took to get good in the first place. On takeoff, the plane’s engines are at full throttle. As it climbs, the pilot gradually eases back until the plane reaches the desired altitude. At that point, it just cruises.

Cruising can be a good thing, if you’re happy with your current pace and trying to conserve energy. But sooner or later, another plane will zoom past because its throttles are set just a little bit higher. Then, when you get to your final destination, you find that the best parking spot is already taken by the pilot who wasn’t content to ease back and just cruise.

I find myself in that position a lot. I’ll work hard to get something going, and when I finally get some traction, I pat myself on the back and take a well-deserved breather. And with the throttles set on cruise, guess what happens? I sit back in my place of comfort as the world zooms past. The only way to catch up is to step on the gas and get back in the race. I’m guessing I’m not alone here.

We’ve all read the story of the tortoise and the hare. The rabbit would race to get ahead, then sit back until the tortoise crawled past. Then the race was on again. Granted, there was more than one tortoise in that story, so there was a little deception going on. But the point of the story is don’t get so cocky at anything that you don’t think you have to try.

Whatever you do, give it your best every day. The reward will always be worth the effort.

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

Focus Your Effort for Amazing Results

August 16, 2019 by Dave Glardon, posted in Uncategorized

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

So, the weekend is here and hopefully you’ve got something fun planned. After all, it is what we seem to spend all week working for. And I know, for some of you the weekend is when work really heats up. But you get a little reprieve while the rest of us are enjoying Monday, so it all works out. Either way, I hope you enjoy your time off, whenever it comes.

I listen to motivational audios most days, and in some of them the speakers are young people with names that sound even younger. Names that weren’t so common back when I was in school, with youthful voices to match. They’re full of excitement and energy, and don’t appear to have a care in the world. And somehow, they all beat me to retirement. What’s up with that?

These are people who are still sound asleep each day as I begin my morning routine. They get up whenever they feel like it, or whenever their kids wake them up. They take their time with breakfast and get dressed if and when they feel like it. They go to morning aerobics classes, have lunch with old friends, take the kids to the park, and pretty much do whatever they want most of the day.

And best of all, they plan work around their vacations instead of the other way around. Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but that lifestyle sounds pretty appealing to me. And believe me, they’ve earned it. They’re not rock musicians or movie stars. They’re just ordinary people like you and me who decided they wanted something more and were willing to get out and work for it.

And the thing is, they didn’t have to take on another fulltime job to make it happen. A laser is nothing more than a highly focused beam of light. It can travel great distances and, depending on the type of light and how it was generated, it can cut through steel with precision that’s just not possible by any other means. It’s all about focus – putting the energy where it counts most.

And when you can find something that works, something where you can generate a little extra income or pay off some bills a little early, all you have to do is focus that energy to get extraordinary results. It doesn’t have to take up all your spare time, because you’re not trying to do everything all at once. You’re focused on one thing at a time with a precision that magnifies your effort into something incredible.

But it all has to start with the basics. A laser pointer is essentially a battery, an LED, and a lens. None of them on their own are all that extraordinary. But when you put them together in just the right way, the result is pretty impressive. And that’s how it is with the things we do for ourselves. A little extra effort, focused on the right things, can accomplish a lot of work with the precision of a laser.

If you throw enough mud on a wall, some of it will stick. And if the goal was to cover the entire wall in mud, sooner or later you’ll get there. The end result won’t be very pretty, and some areas will be a lot thicker than others. But if you could find a way to spray that mud in a fine stream, you could cover the entire wall a lot faster and with a much more impressive result. Focus.

Put that same premise to work on your personal goals, and you can achieve some incredible results with a lot less effort than you’d imagined. All it takes is focus and commitment – honing your effort to whatever produces the best results and sticking with it no matter what. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So, instead of looking at your goals as a huge job that’ll take up all your waking hours for the next fifty years, figure out how to focus that effort and do the work that produces results. You may need to adjust the lens a little along the way. But once you dial it in, nothing can stand in your way.

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!