“What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.”

Posted on July 25, 2019 by Barry

“What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.”

—Ralph Marston, 20th Century professional football player

Image from Unsplash by Glen Carstens-Peters

The critical word in today’s quote is “can.”

There is, of course, no guarantee that today will improve all, or perhaps more realistically, most of your tomorrows.

With the right attitude, planning, and of course, inspired effort, the likelihood of a more positive and successful future is inevitable.

EXERCISE:

What attitude-enhancing efforts will you bring into your day today?

What planning did you do yesterday, or this morning, to assure you are working on your top personal and professional priorities?

What inspired and committed actions will you take today to guarantee many better tomorrows?

Things do not necessarily happen for the best

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Barry

“Things do not necessarily happen for the best, but I can choose to make the best of things that happen.”

—Tal Ben-Shahar, Israeli-American Author/Lecturer

Image from Unsplash by Alan Meceanu

Take a few minutes to reflect on your day if it is evening, or on yesterday’s events if you are reading this in the morning. To what degree did everything go as planned, and work out exactly as you hoped?

If things did not work out for the best for whatever reason, what consequences did you experience?

How did you react or respond, and what emotions or feelings came up?

EXERCISE:

Consider the metaphor of a sailboat. How might you adjust your sails and rudders of mindfulness and adaptability to the sometime stormy seas of life?

Feel free to reply to this post to share the approaches you take on a daily basis to make the best of things that happen.

The method of the enterprising

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Barry

“The method of the enterprising is to plan with audacity and execute with vigor.”

—Christian Bovee, 19th Century New York City writer

Image from Unsplash by Simeon Jacobson

To what degree are you a “Go for it” person?

When you put on your thinking cap, how creative and bold are your ideas and plans?

Once your strategies and tactics are formulated, how inspired, energized, and motivated are you and those around you to execute them with passion and purpose?

EXERCISE:

Where and on what personal or professional priority would a far more enterprising approach be what is needed to achieve a more audacious outcome?

Now is the perfect time to prepare

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Barry

“Now is the perfect time to prepare.”

—Author Unknown

Image from Unsplash by Glenn Carsterns-Peters

Prepare for WHAT?

When I reflect on my days, I see numerous areas where I prepare for activities that help my life run smoothly and successfully. Some of them are:

Meal preparation
Layout out my exercise clothes
Creating agendas for meetings
Reviewing my calendar to plan my day
Preparing checklists for shopping
Organizing and preparing financial documents to review with my accountant

EXERCISE:

Where and on what personal or professional matters – big or small – is it time to prepare more fully, to realize the goals and objectives you most desire?

The pause is as important as the note

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Barry

“The pause is as important as the note.”

—Truman Fisher, American Composer

Image from Flickr by Ben Rogers

Do you enjoy music? If so, what types of music do you prefer?

Prioritize this list from high to low based on your preferences:

Pop	Hip-Hop	Holiday	Electronic
Swing	Classical	Rock	Folk
Rap	Reggae	Disco	Jazz
Blues	Chamber	Country	Bluegrass
Alternative	Show Tunes	Baroque	Dance

Although the instruments used in these various forms of music can be different, it is perhaps the pauses, or rests, as much as the notes that are played that give each genre its own special sound.

EXERCISE:

Consider your life as a form of personal symphony. Where would paying even more attention to the pauses, to resting between your life notes enhance the melodies in your world?

Plan your day work your plan

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Barry

“Plan your day and work your plan.”

—Author Unknown

Image from daytimer.com

Many people find planning their day downright boring, preferring to simply go with the flow and see what the day brings.

The most successful and often most disciplined people, on the other hand, chart their course and prepare for their day before they venture out into the world.

Consider this statement from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road can take you there.”

What payoff do you get for planning—or not planning—your own course? Some would say that unhappy people get to play the victim and blame other for their lot in life.

What does it cost you and others to abdicate opportunities and responsibility for planning your own course?

EXERCISE:

Consider posting today’s quote in several locations in your personal and professional environments. Take 3-5 minutes each day over this week to discover its benefits in creating a happier and more successful life.

A Wonderful Thought

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Barry

“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t happened yet!”

-Author Unknown

image from searchengineland.com

Today’s quote caused me to pause a bit longer than I normally do as I look to the New Year ahead. Instead of looking at the year as a whole, or even fleshing out the priority goals and objectives I wish to tackle, I plan on looking at each day as a unique and precious gift.

One way to see the value of this exercise is to take a trip into your past to examine and pleasantly re-experience, through memory, some of the really great days and experiences. As you take the time to do this, count how many great days you can recall. The list will probably be finite.

EXERCISE:

How can you design the coming year, proactively and intentionally, to have as many remarkable days this year as you have had to this point in your life?

“Never look back unless…”

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Barry

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.”

—Henry David Thoreau, 19th Century American author, poet, philosopher

photo from www.yourperfectdaybyjess.com

At this time of year a fair number of organizations schedule various forms of management meetings to discuss their current status and plan for the future.

They often refer to these group sessions as “retreats,” which I find amusing, since I am sure none of these leaders wish to take their organizations backward.

Recently, some leaders are recognizing the power of the language they use, and are beginning to call these off-site meeting “advances.”

EXERCISE:

Plan you own “advances” with key individuals in your professional and personal worlds to move toward the future you sincerely desire.

“It wasn’t raining when…”

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Barry

“It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”

—Howard Ruff, financial adviser and writer

Photo from Boy Scouts of America

We tend to live our lives at a mad pace, with only a few moments each day to catch our breath.

When we do this consistently, our level of stress goes up, and our effectiveness and productivity go down. Another consequence of this rush-around world is that we rarely get to the big and important projects that we most desire.

Taking time to plan and build our own “ark of life” prepares us for the critical life events that come our way and make life worthwhile.

EXERCISE:

Examine some of the most important and urgent life issues that are just around the corner or over the horizon. How can you work backwards from these events, to be as prepared as possible and get ahead of the rainstorms of life that are coming?

“No plan is worth the paper it is printed on unless it starts you doing something.”

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Barry

“No plan is worth the paper it is printed on unless it starts you doing something.”

—William Danforth, co-founder of the American Youth Federation

Image from Flickr by orangeacid

January is one of the busiest times for coaches, when both individuals and organizations crystallize and clarify their goals and plans for the new year. Of course, we have all seen these intentions and plans lose their steam and sit on the shelf to eventually await the next planning cycle, when we do it all over again.When asked, a very significant percentage of professionals would describe the planning process as “unremarkable” and “not particularly worthwhile” – primarily due to the lack of ongoing review and rigorous execution.

Exercise:

Seek out the help of your own individual or organizational coaches to make sure that this year, your plans are worth their weight in gold.

If you do not yet have a coach, you may want to take a look at the services I offer, to see whether I would be a good fit for you: