Category Archive: Work Life Integration

Change Points

Posted by on March 9, 2009

In all of our lives we encounter major events that cause us to stop the routine and reevaluate where we are and more importantly where we want to be.  We are all living through one of the most dramatic change points in our lifetime during the current global economic meltdown.

 These sometimes crisis and many times normal episodes in our lives are significant enough to change us.  It can be something as positive as getting married or having our first child.  It can be something as negative as divorce or losing a job or poor health.

Life is full of change points and many times we do not get to choose the ones we experience but we always get to choose our reaction to them.  Many people are left bitter because of their personal tragedy while others seem to have a different perspective on life.

In times like these it is very important to remember what we have left not what we have lost. Tom Hanks was right the sun will come up and we never know what the tide might bring in.  So we receive every day as a gift and live it with heart full of gratitude.  

 

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Personal Mission Statement

Posted by on February 16, 2009

All of us have become proficient at doing all the major components of the business plan at work.  We know how to define goals, create plans, execute priorities and evaluate success.

However, very few of us use these same disciplines to help lead our personal lives.  Research shows that approximately 95% of us have never written out our personal goals in life, but of the 5% who have, 95% have achieved them.

Steven Covey popularized the phrase Personal Mission Statement in his bestselling book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  He makes the point that ultimately all professional success flows out of our ability to lead ourselves first.

Every day we must say no to something because there is simply too much to do when you include the personal, family, career and civic responsibilities of our lives.  If we do not take the time to define what we want our legacy to be for the people and things we care about the most they will by default usually end up on the no list.

What the annual plan does for your corporate productivity and performance your personal mission statement will do for the rest of your life.  It will help define the core values for you personally and your family and set realistic goals with strategies that will help you to write your own script for the totality of your entire life.

It should never be acceptable to succeed in one area of our lives only to fail in all the others.  Take the time to write down what is personally and professionally  important to you in this life because in the end that is all that will really matter.

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Significance

Posted by on January 23, 2009

We all need to ask ourselves what we really want out of life.  For many it is success and all the outward benefits and rewards that come from achievement in the corporate culture of our day.

I will never forget an interview that I saw with Tom Brady after he had won his last Super Bowl.  After he talked about all the fame and fortune he had achieved, he then made the following statement, “there has to be more to life than this.”

There is and it is called significance which is all about adding value to other people.  I have talked with a lot of people near the very end of their lives.

The common denominator for all of  these conversations is that when it is all said and done all that really matters is have we made a difference in the lives of other people.

Today if we are not careful we are in danger of reducing all of our important relationships down to a few words on voice mail, or a picture attachment to an email. 

Can someone be professionally successful and realize personal significance at the same time?  Absolutely.

Everyone who has accomplished both has come to the critical understanding that professional success is only the means to the end of having personal significance through helping other people.

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Family Matters

Posted by on January 19, 2009

I have never known a successful leader who did not know how to establish goals, develop plans, execute priorities and finally evaluate success in their career.  The old saying about goals is true, if you cannot measure them, then they really don’t matter.

However, tragically for most people that is exactly what happens to them in their personal lives.  They say this part is ultimately the most important but they never take the time to write down what they want their legacy to be for the people that matter the most.

Because the personal does not get the priority of the professional the family usually ends up with the leftovers.  Leftover time, passion, affection and energy.

I have know people who can make million dollar decisions at work without blinking but by the time they get home they do not have enough emotional energy  to decide if they want hamburgers or soup for dinner.  They have been nice to other people all day, co-workers, suppliers and customers only to come home and be so fried they have to retreat to the T.V. because they have nothing left for spouse or children.

Someone has well said that the person who cannot see the ultimate always becomes a slave to the immediate.  Meaningful relationships with family and bottom line professional results are not mutually exclusive but you must be willing to pay personal leadership price to have both.

 

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Marginless Living

Posted by on December 2, 2008

In yesterday’s blog I talked about the need to create margin in our lives.  Margin is the space that used to exist in all of our lives between all the physical, emotional and mental pressures of every day and our capacity to respond in a meaningful way to all of the people and circumstances that we must address.

The lack of margin is exactly the opposite when we have too many demands and not enough resources.  For most of us the public parts of our lives centered around our work life demands its percentage first.  I know people who can make million dollar decisions all day long at the office only to be so spent by the end of the day they can’t even decide if they want pizza or hamburgers for dinner.

They put other people first all day whether they are customers or co-workers only to come home with nothing left for a lonely spouse or stressed out children.  We may feel successful at times because of all the public praise that comes with making your numbers but at the end of the day we know something is terribly wrong.

Whatever it takes all of us must find the courage to stake out some core values that are non-negotiable.  This will allow us maybe for the first time in our lives to have the margin we need to live the life we want rather than the one someone else has scripted for us.

You have the capacity to write your own script, so take out your pen and start writing.

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