Leaders are readers. Show me a progressive leader, and I’ll show you a leader who is reading books.
Reading books has skyrocketed my business and personal success on multiple levels.
I am genuinely happy in my personal life and my coaching business hit record highs this year. To God be ALL the glory!
If you want to grow, read. And after you read, write down what you learned, and then put what you learned into action! For a bonus, go back a year (or sooner) later and read the highlights again.
At the beginning of 2015, I set a goal for myself to read at least 3 books a month for a total of 36 books. I’m happy to report that I exceeded my goal and actually ended up reading 63 books. This included audio books, as well as physical hard copy books (my personal favorite).
I decided to write down the main points I learned from each book and document them for you here as a summary.
Enjoy! (note: this is an ultra long, value packed post. Glean what you want and leave the rest.)
January
The Practice of the Presence of God
Brother Lawrence
Finding constant pleasure in God’s divine company, speaking humbly and lovingly with Him in all seasons, at every moment, without limiting the conversation in any way.
In humble adoration, we must confess our sins and weaknesses to Him, lovingly asking for the help of His grace in our time of need. Then, we will find that we can partake of all the virtues found in Him, even though we do not possess any of our own.
Good Leaders Ask Great Questions
By #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, John C. Maxwell
Success is a relationship game. The most sought-after skill from CEO on down is the ability to communicate with people. Take care of relationships today, and you do much to take care of success tomorrow.
The greatest legacy any leader can leave is the other leaders she raises up before she’s finished. When you take over a team, if you did nothing other than put each player in his or her strength zone, you would greatly increase the productivity and success of the team.
Nobody without good people skills can be a great leader. Elevating someone with bad people skills is a recipe for failure. It’s like sending ducks to eagle school. It just doesn’t work. You cannot get someone who does not want to grow to embrace personal growth.
People worthy of your time and attention have a learning attitude. They’re open to instruction and hungry to grow. I help people have confidence by seeing the potential in them, expecting the best out of them, and expressing my belief in them.
I am responsible for giving the best of myself-but not their response. Give people your best, but don’t carry the weight of their choices. Don’t carry the weight of the results. Help whom you can, and allow the others to find another environment or another leader who can help them.
Love Is The Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends
By New York Times Bestselling Author, Tim Sanders
Sales. To make a sale, you must join people on their buying path. When great salespeople fail to make a sale, they don’t complain or give up. They ask, “What did I do wrong?”
Deliver. Deliver on your promises and add great value. Value the intangibles like love and respect.
Be an idea deejay. Be likable and a source of help to others even in troubled times. Prescribe books to people like a doctor prescribes medicine.
Books. Do a one to three paragraph review when you finish reading a book. Don’t just file the book away on the shelf. Writing down what you learned will help you retain more knowledge. Put what you learned into action!
NSPS – Nice, Smart People Succeed
Being a lovecat is not just about being nice. There’s no point in playing by these rules if you’re not smart, too. Because if you’re not, it won’t scale, and all you’ll have to show for it is good intentions rather than good business relationships. To quote the movie This is Spinal Top, “There’s a fine line between stupid and clever.”
Positioning. Positioning is stronger than packaging. Treat people well — always.
Growth has natural limits. Don’t overextend yourself. If you’re swamped, just say, “I can’t do any more now.” Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.
Learn to sense when you are being offered the chance to do more. Don’t let negative feedback depress you. Use the word “love” rather than the word “hate”.
Like others. Use words like, “I’ve always liked you, and I am committed to your success.” “I’m only doing okay if you’re okay.” Listen, aspire, help – do all the things a machine can’t do. Live a good, honorable life. You get more out of people when you love them. You’ll accomplish more in the next 2 months by developing a sincere interest in 2 people than you’ll ever hope to accomplish in 2 years trying to get 2 people interested in you.
According to the late Mother Teresa, the greatest disease in the West is not tuberculosis or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, uncared for.
Keep your employees happy. Keep your customers happier. That way, you keep your company happy, too.
Tune your receiver. Train your ears to pick up subtle cues in conversation. Focus your attention. Listen for people’s value – i.e., what they do or what they offer. And listen for their needs: i.e., what they want.
Choose carefully. If you spend time with people who say, “We are talking about that,” “We are thinking about that,” “We are planning that,” be wary. These people aren’t good bizpartners. They don’t execute. People who say, “We studied it,” “We planned it,” “We did it” are the winners you should give your time to.
People. People love to hear about themselves. Their attention spans sharpen when the discussion centers on them. The more you genuinely care about others, the more likely they are to open up their own channel capacity as a human being.
Be constant. Stay focused. It’s as though every time you touch people in business, you are running for president of their heart, and you’ve got to keep your campaign promises. Make it clear right away that the focus of the conversation is the benefit and happiness of the other person. Use language like, “I’m really glad to see you.” “I’m always happy to spend time with you.” “I look forward to the time we spend together.”
February
The Legacy Journey: A Radical View of Biblical Wealth & Generosity
By New York Times Bestselling Author, Dave Ramsey
Wealth demands maturity. The real key to building wealth is diligently managing your income over a long period of time. Wealth is the result of faithful, diligent, hard work along with biblical management of that income.
Be grateful. What matters is being grateful for what we’re given, taking responsibility for it, and then managing it well. Service to the marketplace generates wealth, not your inherent value as a human. Remember the story of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
Bad: Single stocks, CD’s, bonds, and gold investments
Good: Variable annuities and a money market account in a mutual fund
Money: Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom
By #1 Bestselling Author, Tony Robbins
Hire a Fiduciary: of, relating to, or involving a confidence or trust: as held or founded in trust or confidence.
Switch from being a consumer to being an investor. Invest like Paul Tudor Jones.
Stronghold Financial is an excellent resource. strongholdfinancial.com
Fixed Index Annuities (FIA) are the way to go.
PPLI – Rich Man’s Roth
Put 10% in short term investment and 90% in the S & P 500 through Vanguard
Review this book annually.
Love & Respect – The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs
By Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
It’s not a bad rule for a wife to always ask herself, “Is what I’m about to say or do going to come across to him as respectful or disrespectful?”
You don’t have to fight. You don’t have to push and push and struggle to understand him as you try to move closer only to have him coldly move away.
There is another way to get his love, and the Bible tells you what it is. Your quiet and respectful behavior will win him. This is the key to empowerment: you get what you want by giving him what he wants.
Go on record with your husband that you see him as having 51 percent of the responsibility and, therefore, 51 percent of the authority.
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know
By Meg Meeker, M.D.
Let me just go on record by saying that this phenomenal book, although it’s geared toward dad’s, is an excellent resource for women who want to understand their husbands better, step-moms and teenage & grown daughters.
You Are the Most Important Man in Her Life. She will look to you for answers. Be there. Don’t be shy to share your wisdom.
She Needs a Hero. When she gets in trouble, let her know that you’ll be there to rescue her.
You Are Her First Love. No doubt about it, she will learn how to treat a man from you.
Teach Her Humility. Raise a wise daughter. Not a princess. Teach her that humility is a necessary ingredient for integrity.
Protect Her, Defend Her (and use a shotgun if necessary).
Pragmatism and Grit: Two of Your Greatest Assets. Don’t be afraid to show your practical side and stand firm in your wise decisions. She needs that.
Be the Man You Want Her to Marry. Be a consistent example of integrity and strength.
Teach Her Who God Is. She has to believe in something bigger than you.
Teach Her to Fight. Let her know that’s it’s ok to stand up for what is right.
Keep Her Connected. No matter how old your daughter gets, she will still need you. She’ll always want to know, “Daddy, are you there?” So be there. Don’t walk away. See my post: When Daddy Walked Away: How to Use Your Rejection for Direction
The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive
By Brendon Burchard
The Five Baseline Drives: Control, Competence, Congruence, Caring, Connection
The Five Forward Drives: Change, Challenge, Creative Expression, Contribution, Consciousness
Congruence: What are three things you could do every day to better manage your mood so you can have a better day?
Commitments: What are five commitments you’re going to make and keep in the next sixty days?
Caring: To care more, connect more
Contribution: Be the cheerleader in your relationships, not the cynic.
Strengths Finder 2.0
By #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Tom Rath
Learner. Help this person track his learning progress by identifying milestones or levels that he has reached. Celebrate these achievements.
Achiever. Establish a relationship with this person by working alongside him. Working hard together is often a bonding experience for him. He’s annoyed by “slackers.”
Maximizer. If you do not have someone around you who regularly focuses on your strengths, spend more time with a Maximizer. She is naturally inquisitive about excellence and will help you hone in on what you do best.
Positivity. Cynics will quickly sap up this person’s energy. Don’t expect her to enjoy cheering up negative people. She will do better when asked to energize basically positive people who are simply in need of a spark.
Input. See if you can find a few common interests, and then share facts and stories on these topics. This is often how great relationships begin.
Good to Great
By Jim Collins
Resiliency is the key of greatness.
Discipline. The stuff great leaders are made of.
Great vision without great people is irrelevant.
People aren’t the most important thing. The right people are the most important thing.
Get the right people on the right bus.
Focus your work on where your passion and skills are. Be sure you can make an income model from it.
Keep the meaning in your momentum. Dare to be great!
Under-promise and over-deliver.
Remain true to my hedgehog principle. Treating my clients like kings and queens.
Have a “stop” doing list.
The Stockdale Story: Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
Spending time and energy trying to “motivate” people is a waste of effort. The real question is not, “How do we motivate our people?” If you have the right people, they will be self-motivated. The key is to not de-motivate them. One of the primary ways to de-motivate people is to ignore the brutal facts of reality.
The Search for Significance – Seeing your True Worth through God’s Eyes
By Robert S. McGee
What are some ways people react to rejection and hurt?
An “I don’t care” attitude. Some try to give off a cool, nonchalant exterior and, consequently, never develop deep, satisfying relationships.
They withdraw from everything. Others are so fearful of rejection that they withdraw and decline almost everything
They can’t say no. Some always say yes to everyone, hoping to gain their approval.
Easily controlled or defensive. Some are sensitive to criticism and react defensively while others are shy and easily manipulated.
How the effective leader reacts to rejection:
Sure, it may still sting when he is rejected, but the effective leader knows that his self worth is not found in the approval of people. He knows that only God can truly define him and lives his life according to that principle.
The leader who has learned to use his pain for purpose knows that dependence on others for value brings bondage, while abiding in the truths of Christ’s love and acceptance brings freedom and joy.
Galatians 1:10 says:
“For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”
The only way we can overcome the fear of rejection is to value the constant approval of God over the conditional approval of people.
March
Conquer The Entrepreneur’s Kryptonite
By James Woosley
Have a plan. Using the SSP (Simple Strategic Plan) creates a realistic plan for the future and action steps one must take to get there.
Values. Core values create purpose. Make sure your values are clearly aligned with your business goals.
Build. Build a solid financial plan and check in with income and expenses regularly. Hire an accountant.
Use verbs. Use action words to create my personal and business goals. After reading this book, I went through my 2015 goals and made sure each one started with a verb. That simple action gave me more momentum and built confidence.
Commit. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3
Thou Shall Prosper: 10 Commandments for Making Money
By Rabbi Daniel Lapin
#1 Believe in the Dignity and Morality of Business
You are in business, and the occupation of business is moral, noble and worthy.
Read business nonfiction regularly.
Offer to write a short column or op-ed piece for your local newspaper that would forthrightly declare the profession of business to be noble and moral.
While reading, watching TV, or seeing a movie, remain on high alert for subtle (and not-so-subtle) swipes at the dignity and morality of business.
#2 Extend the Network of Your Connectedness to Many People
Never impose your mood swings on your associates and customers.
Success in business means getting on with people.
Learn to develop new relationships.
Learn how to relate to strangers with the sincere warmth and interest that turns them into friends.
Make sure all your friends and contacts know that there are ways you could help them and that you are eager to help them.
Choose carefully those with whom you do business.
Find joy in serving others.
Be predictable, and you’ll be seen as a professional.
#3 Get to Know Yourself
“What causes anger? Arrogance. Show me someone who readily loses his temper and showers those around him with angry yells and insults, and I’ll show you a very arrogant man.” (p. 124)
Set aside a short period each day during which your sole purpose is to become your own harshest critic. Get stronger everyday.
As difficult decisions are demanded of you during your working day, share the emotional conflict you are undergoing with your associates. This let’s them know you aren’t superwoman.
Seek out small battles to win in your private life.
Start drawing up an inventory of your skills.
Find out how you really spend your time. Keep track of it.
#4 Do Not Pursue Perfection
Accustom yourself to questioning the conventional wisdom in all areas that seem to blame business.
Rid yourself of all feelings of envy toward those who have much more than you do.
Thinking, acting, and sounding positive, happy and upbeat make you more pleasant company; and building many new friendships and relationships is crucial to your quest.
In both your business and your personal life, try to become comfortable with the second-best solution if the very best solution is unattainable.
#5 Lead Consistently and Constantly
Learn to follow if you want to learn to lead.
Have the courage to persuasively present your vision.
Induct your employees into the culture of your organization.
Adapt the power of prayer (yes!) to your business goals.
Make sure you balance short and long-term business goals.
Make sure not only that you have a long-term plan but also that those whom you lead are well aware of your long-term views.
Carry yourself like a leader. Speak authoritatively, and be able to give presentations without notes.
#6 Constantly Change the Changeable, While Steadfastly Clinging to the Unchangeable
Understand that the Star of David represents a strong life view that helps deal with change.
Accept innovation and embrace change.
Try to absorb and make changes gradually.
Do your best to avoid two or more simultaneous stress-inducing changes in your life.
Create a file in your computer or on a dedicated page in your organizer on which you make, modify, and maintain a list of those things that never change for you. Anchor your values.
Keep in mind your core values – as an individual and in your business.
#7 Learn to Foretell the Future
Recognize which external events will affect your business or your life and which will have no effect at all.
Interpret events without emotion.
Before looking forward, look backward.
Watch for patterns.
Be open to the possibility of cycles and trends, but never allow yourself to become blinded by them.
To hear the soft footsteps of approaching trends, block out all the external “noise”.
Visualize your future.
Practice memorizing.
Select reading material that will help you recognize trends.
#8 Know Your Money
Regardless of your past performance in this area, turn over a new leaf and start developing your trustworthiness.
Learn a specific and very valuable new skill: namely, how to read financial statements.
Prepare and maintain your own personal financial statements.
Search for your own “tropical island” on which to successful market your goods and services. Locate where and how what you have to offer will be most valuable.
#9 Act Rich: Give Away 10 Percent of Your After-Tax Income
Don’t try to find a rational reason for giving away money.
Give money away because it is one of the most powerful and effective ways of increasing your own income.
Keep in mind that giving away money is like investing. It keeps your investment muscle fully exercised and ready for opportunity. #firstfruits
#10 Never Retire
Stop thinking of retirement as a goal, with a specific date in mind.
Recognize that many people lead very productive lives long into their advanced years.
Understand that retirement is essential selfish.
Keep in mind that retirement erodes perseverance, which is one of the most important factors to success.
Don’t believe the three lies inherent in the retirement myth: reject the idea that work is only a means to an end; instead, recognize that work is valuable. Second, don’t buy into the idea that as you age, you become weaker and less capable of making money; the opposite is true – you are even more equipped now. Third, ignore the misperception that people are merely voracious consumers of finite resources; instead, recognize that you are a creator of something useful and valuable: You are productive.
The Magic of Thinking Big: Acquire The Secrets of Success…Achieve Everything You’ve Always Wanted
By David J. Schwartz, Ph.D
The procedure for developing successful products is to get as much opinion as you can, listen to the people who will buy the product, and then design the product and its promotion to please these people.
The bigger the person, the more apt he is to encourage you to talk; the smaller the person, the more apt he is to preach to you. Big people monopolize the listening. Small people monopolize the talking.
Concentrate on what the other person says. Evaluate it. That’s how you collect mind food.
How we think is directly affected by the group we’re in. Be sure you’re in the flock that thinks right.
Don’t let negative thinkers pull you down to their level. Let them slide by, like the water from the proverbial duck’s back. Cling to people who think progressively. Move upward with them.
Think first class about everyone around you, and you’ll receive first-class results in return.
Don’t be a conversation hog. Listen, win friends, and learn.
How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.
Next time you go through hard times, don’t say, “This is taking something out of me.” Say, “This is putting something in to me” instead!
Book Yourself Solid
By Michael Port
No one else determines your price and value except for you.
People hate to be sold, but love to be invited.
Offer a “Think Big” tele-seminar – make it a weekly phone call. Give free value through a weekly call to help get people into your sales funnel.
Product Idea: “The You Have What it Takes” Super Series (a weekly tele-seminar series)
Product Idea: “The You Have What it Takes” Coaching Pack
Product Idea: “The Purpose Planner”. A free weekly tele-seminar series to help establish trust with your audience.
More Product Ideas: Page 97. “You are in the business of serving other people as you stand in the service of your destiny and express yourself through your work. “
Speaking strategies: Page 220. Create ways that you can instantly add value to your potential and current clients by way of an invitation.
Speaking strategies: Page 230. Know your speaking venue and make sure your introduction bio covers all the right details. If it does, the audience is much more likely to offer you its respect right from the get-go.
April
Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach their Kids About Money that the Poor and Middle Class do Not!
By Robert T. Kiyosaki
“If you are not tough inside, the world will push you around anyway.”
Think like an investor.
Failure inspires winners. Failure defeats losers.
Instead of saying, “I can’t afford it.” Ask, “How can I afford it?” Let your mind come up with creative ideas and ways to serve others.
Wise investors buy an investment when it’s not popular.
It’s never too late to get in the game. Remember the story of Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Be careful what you learn, because your mind is so powerful that you become what you put in your head.
Cold Tangerines
By Shauna Niequist
This book was truly a welcome read from all the business books I’ve been reading lately. If there are two things that stood out to me about Cold Tangerines the most, it is this:
“The more I let go, do without, reduce, the more I feel rich. The more I let people be who they are, instead of cramming them into what I need from them, the more surprised I am by their beauty and depth.”
“I wasted a lot of time wishing I was different. I didn’t love the gift of life because I was too busy being angry about the life I was given. I wanted it to be different. But being angry didn’t change things. It just wasted time. I can’t take away the things that have happened to you or to me, but what we have, maybe as a reward for getting through all the other days, is today. Today is a gift. And if we have tomorrow, tomorrow will be a gift.”
The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest that Will Bring Purpose to Your Life
By Chris Guillebeau
Believe in your dream even when no one else does.
Live your life for a purpose bigger than yourself.
Seek out a personal quest that brings you joy and helps you grow and stretch in extraordinary ways.
What it Means to Pray Through
By Mother Elizabeth Juanita Dabney
Prayer is the answer to your problems
When others think prayer doesn’t work, keep praying anyway
“The prayers of the righteous availeth much.” James 5:16
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.” Psalm 34:18
May
The Miracle Morning
By Hal Elrod
The Miracle Morning (60-min.) Sample Schedule:
Silence (5 minutes)
Affirmations (5 minutes)
Visualization (5 minutes)
Exercise (20 minutes)
Reading (20 minutes)
Scribing (5 minutes)
“Your entire life changes the day that you decide you will no longer accept mediocrity for yourself. When you decide that today is the most important day of your life, and that now matters more than any other time because it’s who you’re becoming each day based on the choices you’re making and the actions you’re taking, that is determining who you are going to be for the rest of your life. “
The Art of Work
By Jeff Goins
What happens when the life you end up living doesn’t look like the one you planned?
Maybe we all have the power to turn our lives into significant stories if we start to see our difficulties as opportunities.
“I often hear people who need guidance in their lives asking for advice on how to find a mentor, but that’s the wrong question to ask. When you pursue a calling, you will find a community of supporters to champion you along the way. It’s not up to you where these people come from or even how to locate them. You just need to keep your eyes open. Accidental apprenticeships are all around you, and if you listen to your life you’ll be able to recognize them.”
On our deathbeds, we will see things with the most clarity we have ever had. Each of us will have to face the facts of how we spent our lives, especially when we had the opportunity to act and didn’t.
No amount of success is worth losing the ones you love most.
What if you realize you do, in fact, have a calling, and you don’t want to waste another minute? Join Maximum Potential Academy!
The Inheritance of Honor
By Dr. Sewdatt Itrajh
The honor we give is the honor we will receive. Those who truly learn honor have mastered life, because you are not moved by the outward circumstances. We ought to be the first who deposits honor and respect in someone else’s life.
Character matters in the family. Arguments and disagreements should never become occasions for hurtful words. Instead of allowing bickering and name-calling, sit down together with God’s Word to seek His perspective on how we are to treat each other. Emphasizing someone’s negativity will never make you look better than them.
If you want to become great, even though you were created to be great, you must do something. The seed of greatness is already in you, but you need to discover and activate this seed, otherwise it will remain dormant.
Focus
By Al Ries
The Perfect Focus:
Fewer ideas, better judgment.
Can be almost trite, yet powerful in your market.
Is memorable because in 1-2 words, it creates an idea in the minds of customers, employees & media.
Plays to human nature and common sense, not corporate logic.
Is simple (but recognizing it isn’t so simple).
Tells your customer what you stand for.
Creates a belief in your customer’s mind that you’ll be a big success.
Tells employees where they are going.
Gives you power over those with no focus.
Attracts exactly the right employees to reinforce your strength.
Concentrates & enhances employee dedication to a goal.
Doesn’t have to be a single product. It can be several products with a shared attribute.
The Slight Edge
By Jeff Olson
1. Successful people don’t hold a grudge – not just because it’s morally wrong), but because it gets in the way. It slows them down. They’re too busy moving toward the future to be staring in the rearview mirror.
2. Devote more time on where you’re going TO.
3. Successful people acquire the 3 kinds of knowledge they need to succeed. They create an ongoing support system of both book smarts and street smarts, learning through study and through doing, and they catalyze and accelerate that knowledge by finding mentors and modeling their successful behavior. They plan, they act, and then they review again and again. Ready? FIRE! Aim.
4. Successful people are always asking: “Who am I spending time with? Are they the people who best represent where I want to be headed?” They form powerful relationships with positive people; they carefully build Mastermind groups, work with those groups regularly and take them seriously; and they do not hesitate to disassociate themselves, when necessary, from people who are consistently negative and threaten to drag them down.
5. Successful people read at least 10 pages of a powerful, life-transforming book each day, and listen to at least 15 minutes of educational and inspirational information every day.
June
Opening Closed Doors: Keys to Reaching Hard-to-Reach People
By C. Richard Weylman
1. You may want to start by creating an informal networking group among your existing customers. You could present this as a special networking event for them. (I’m doing this for my 2015 VIP Leaders Conference)
2. People love to talk about themselves. When you meet people, ask how they have become successful in their business or in their life. Ask what advice they could give to someone working with people like themselves. Find out how many years they’ve been in business or in the cultural organization. Ask discreet questions about their family.
3. The more your questions focus on them, the more people will focus on you. You will become well known as an individual who has a sincere interest in people, not just in the products and services that you sell. Remember the old adage: “The sale starts when you stop talking.”
4.The focus should always be what you can do for your prospects, not on glorifying yourself.
5. Make sure what you promote is what you deliver. Under-promise and over-deliver.
6. Focus on serving my audience. It’s not about me.
7. Frequently use phrases like, you, thank you, would you please, what do you think, I am proud of you.
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time
By Jeff Sutherland
Multitasking Makes You Stupid. Doing more than one thing at a time makes you slower and worse at both tasks. Don’t do it. If you think this doesn’t apply to you, you’re wrong – it does.
Half-Done Is Not Done. A half-built car simply ties up resources that could be used to create value or save money. Anything that’s “in-process” costs money and energy without delivering anything.
Do It Right the First Time. When you make a mistake, fix it right away. Stop everything else and address it. Fixing it later can take you more than twenty times longer than if you fix it now.
Working Too Hard Only Makes More Work. Working long hours doesn’t get more done; it gets less done. Working too much results in fatigue, which leads to errors, which leads to having to fix the thing you just finished. Rather than work late or on the weekends, work weekdays only at a sustainable pace. And take a vacation.
Don’t Be Unreasonable. Goals that are challenging are motivators; goals that are impossible are just depressing.
No Heroics. If you need a hero to get things done, you have a problem. Heroic effort should be viewed as a failure of planning.
Enough with the Stupid Policies. Any policy that seems ridiculous likely is. Stupid forms, stupid meetings, stupid approvals, stupid standards are just that – stupid. If your office seems like a Dilbert cartoon, fix it.
No Deadbeats. Don’t be one, and don’t allow the behavior. Anyone who causes emotional chaos, inspires fear or dread, or demeans or diminishes people needs to be stopped cold.
Strive for Flow. Choose the smoothest, most trouble-free way to get things done. Scrum is about enabling the most flow possible.
Secrecy is Poison. Nothing should be secret. Everyone should know everything, and that includes salaries and financials. Obfuscation (intentionally confusing something) only serves people who serve themselves.
The Happiness Test (give this to every member of your team)
1. On a scale from 1 to 5, how do you feel about your role in the company?
2. On the same scale, how do you feel about the company as a whole?
3. Why do you feel that way?
4. What one thing would make you happier in the next Sprint?
The Noticer
By Andy Andrews
Growth happens in the valley. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life’s next peak.
Think. Learn. Pray. Plan. Dream. Your life may just look like barren sand to you, but nothing could be further from the truth. As you lay your head down tonight, you are sleeping on fertile ground. Think. Learn. Pray. Plan. Dream. For soon…you will become.
Focus. Whatever you focus upon, increases. Whatever you water is what grows. Make sure you’re watering the right things in your life. A grateful perspective brings happiness and abundance into a person’s life.
Stay away from negative people. When a person is negative, complaining, and disagreeable, other people stay away. And that person receives less encouragement and fewer opportunities – because no one wants to be around her. On the other hand, a life filled with opportunities and encouragement finds more and more opportunities and encouragement, and success becomes inevitable.
Best friends. A best friend will tell you the truth, but a wise best friend will include a healthy dose of perspective. It’s all a matter of perspective.
Chill out. Most people spend so much time fearing the things that are never going to happen or can’t be controlled that they have no energy to deal with the few things they can actually handle. Chill.
Complaining of not enough time and money? That’s a matter of perspective, too. You can accomplish whatever you want to accomplish. You are never lacking funds. Neither is the calendar your enemy. When you need most to accomplish something great in your life, you are only lacking an idea. Put your idea into action! How? Start here: www.maximumpotentialacademy.com
You may not have fireworks. The decision to turn your life around in a different direction rarely arrives with fireworks and marching bands. Often, the decision came with tears and regret. Then, God’s power of forgiveness fills an unseen void, allowing a new day’s optimism and sense of purpose to take hold and point that life in a new direction.
Scary Close
By Donald Miller
We can’t let our failures define us.
People sometimes do unhealthy things and practice codependency to make themselves feel centered and whole.
Sometimes the story we’re telling the world isn’t half as endearing as the one that lives inside us.
Some people take positions of power not because they are truly called to it, or passionate about it, but because they feel like it earns them other people’s respect.
An attention addict is still an attention addict.
Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you dropped the act and began to trust that just being yourself was enough to get the love you need?
If love is conditional (if you do this, I’ll do that), then it’s just some sort of manipulation masquerading as love.
Grace only sticks to our imperfections. Those who can’t accept their imperfections can’t accept grace either.
Attraction isn’t intimacy. What attracts us doesn’t always connect us.
Face it. Some people are not safe. Your heart is worth protecting.
Healthy relationships happen best between healthy people.
Unless we’re honest with each other, we can’t connect. We can’t be intimate.
If you want to make a sad person happy, start by planting them in a community of optimists.
90% of people’s problems could be prevented if they’d choose healthier people to give their hearts to.
Controlling people are the loneliest people in the world.
You can’t control somebody and have intimacy with them at the same time. They may stay because they fear you, but true love casts out fear.
Whenever there’s lots of drama, there’s often manipulation. Deception in any form kills intimacy.
In true, intimate relationships, people don’t keep score.
Fearmongers manipulate by making people believe they are strong. They are never vulnerable and fear being perceived as weak. Fearmongers are completely incapable of vulnerability and, as such, incapable of intimacy.
We need each other. There’s no reason to judge. People are more fragile than you could possibly imagine.
I don’t know if there’s a healthier way for two people to stay in love than to stop using each other to resolve their unfulfilled longings and, instead, start holding each other closely as they experience them.
Million Dollar Coaching: Build a World-Class Practice by Helping Others Succeed
By Alan Weiss, Ph.D
The most secure leaders are gentle and loving.
Coaches to know in this business: Marshall Goldsmith & Jeff Gitomer
Questions to ask potential clients: “What is the greatest outcome you’d like to experience as a result of your coaching?” “If you were able to make some changes through coaching, how would that affect your image, reputation and credibility?” “Do you have a growth plan for your life?”
“What is the ideal outcome you’d like to experience?” “What results are you trying to accomplish?” “What would make you happy in this coaching relationship?” “What would make you unhappy?” “How will you know that we’ve accomplished your intent?”
The best coaches have done what they are trying to coach.
If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Don’t throw everything including the kitchen sink into your proposal in an attempt to justify your fee. Instead, “unbundle” what you’re capable of providing and add the various items back in for an additional fee.
The more you grow, the more you want to grow.
Be intentional about your personal growth.
Our mission and our value is in leaving our client better off than when we walked in.
Don’t use mentor and coach interchangeably. Not only does doing so unduly cloud the two functions, but if you encourage prospects to do that, you may be lowering your potential fees.
Do you know of anyone who can use the value I provide, as you’re familiar with it? Would you be agreeable to introducing me or allowing me to use your name? Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
To be a Master Coach: Have strong content skills (has done it) and process skills (can transfer it)
Objections are a sign of interest. Don’t be afraid of them.
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy
By: Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
(Adapted from Renee at www.goodreads.com) The point of this book comes through loud and clear, the people that we think are millionaires are more than likely swimming in debt. Just because you live in a fancy neighborhood and drive an expensive car does not make you rich. In fact it goes as far as to say that most millionaires live in less costly areas because it costs alot of money to keep up with the JONES! In fact their study showed 37 percent of their millionaires bought used cars opposed to new and paid cash of course. Now their used cars may be Mercedes but they save on the depreciation of the person that bought it new.
They reference one guy nameed W. W. Allen who is a self made MUTImillionaire. “He and his wife have lived in the same three-bedroom house in the same middle class neighborhood for nearly forty years” “Living in less costly areas can enable you to spend less and to invest more of your income. You will pay less for your home and correspondingly less for your property taxes. Your neighbors will be less likely to drive expensive motor vehicles. You will find it easier to keep up, even ahead of the Joneses and still accumulate wealth”
(Adapted from Kressei at www.goodreads.com) According to this book, there are two kinds of people: under-accumulators of wealth (UAWs), who spend everything they earn as soon as they get it (to say nothing of credit cards); and prodigious accumulators of wealth (PAWs), people who live frugally, save, invest, and end up becoming millionaires. So when you see someone who lives in a fancy house and drives a fancy car, chances are, he’s not a millionaire. He may be a high earner, but he’s also a big spender, so he’s a UAW. A real millionaire lives humbly and isn’t into consumption. He might even live right next door.
I guess it’s not really news, but parents who bestow too much of their wealth too easily on their children end up providing for them even in their forties and fifties.
July
The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self Discovery
By: Dr. David G. Benner
People who have never developed a deep personal knowing of God will be limited in the depth of their personal knowing of themselves.
To be touched by God’s love is to be forever changed.
Shared experience is the core of any friendship. What God longs for us to experience is intimate knowing that comes by means of an ongoing relationship.
God cannot help seeing you through eyes of love
Divine love is absolutely unconditional, unlimited and unimaginably extravagant.
People that suffer from “unhappiness” and “overindulgence in lust” is usually because they have a high degree of resentment and a strong sense of entitlement. At the root, they are bitter because no one recognizes how special they are. No human can do that fully. Only God can.
Unhappiness is always a result of “not being able to do something I want to do, have something I want to have, or concern about what others will think of me.” This brings us back to the core of the false self – placing your value in what you have, what you can do, and what others think of you. Only GOD can truly define you.
Jesus did not merely accept the identity that others offered Him. Had he done so he would have, like us, been pulled in many different directions.
It was through meeting God in places of solitude that Jesus discovered his identity and grew in intimacy with God.
Online Sales Formula: A Six Step Model to Grow Your Impact and Income Online
By: Dr. Brian J. Dixon
Create a compelling value proposition that targets who you are called to serve. Here’s mine:As Founder of Maximum Potential Academy, I help driven, early stage entrepreneurs turn their obstacles into opportunities and use their rejection for direction so that they can experience incredible success as business leaders.
I help high achievers clarify their purpose, amplify their strengths and thrive financially with what they ALREADY know by creating work they love!
You need a website platform. Brian explains it like this:Now that you have your domain name to point to a server, and you have a server to host your files, you now need a website platform, which will serve as the instructions for your website. To really simplify it, compare it to building a house. The host is the land you build on, the files are the raw materials that go into your website like the brick and the wood go into the house, the platform is the blueprint used to build your house.”
Make a checklist of upcoming blog posts you want to do.
Create training videos when you do your next launch.
For example: Video 1: Introduce yourself and the problem that you solve. Video 2: Paint a picture of life after solving the problem. Video 3: “Imagine if” – “Well, now you can!”
Here’s great sales copy for you: “You’re going to experience resistance to change. I am experiencing resistance to change, but I know what it’s like to struggle and I know what it’s like to succeed. I am someone from whom you can learn. When you invest in The Academy, you’re not just buying content, but you’re getting access to a real person who knows what it’s like to be you. A person who understands what it’s like to walk in your shoes.”
Here’s the formula: Offer a great first impression, a valuable lead magnet, and a strategic email nurturing autoresponder campaign.
Your sales page should include: overview video, outline of the program, testimonials, features, benefits, clear results, clear contents, guarantee, clear audience, clear value, clear offer, call to action.
Price should be equivalent to 10 times the value. For example, if someone is going to increase their salary by 5,000, then it is reasonable that you could charge $497 for your program.
How bold are you? Pricing has to do with your confidence, but make sure you deliver results!
Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
By: Austin Kleon
Study everything there is to know about the thinker you admire. Then find 3 people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them. Repeat this as many times as you can. Climb up the tree as far as you can go. Once you build your tree, it’s time to start your own branch.
You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.
Keep a praise file of when others complimented your work. Use it sparingly – don’t get lost in past glory – but keep it around for when you need the lift.
Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored – the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.
People Over Profit: Break the System. Live with Purpose. Be more Successful
By: Dale Partridge
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Or just because it’s smart, doesn’t mean it’s right.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -George Santayana
If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.
Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving. – James E. Faust
A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity. -Dalai Lama
Bitterness is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. – Anne Lamott
Authenticity is a simple concept, really. It’s just living your message. Practicing what you preach. Being who you are. But developing this trait