Dream Act Plan Believe

Chris Brogan’s recent article talked about how to Grow Bigger Ears in 10 Minutes.  No it’s not one of those article that teaches you how to grow bigger body parts!  (How many of us have gotten those in our spam box).   It’s an article that talks about the importance of listening to the chatter about you, and your brand.  In this article Chris teaches you one way you can use the power of Google Reader to capture that chatter about you or your company.

I couldn’t help thinking as I was reading the article that companies, for the most part, could also do a much better job of listening to their employees.  I’ve seen companies close their ears to suggestions that could save hundreds of thousands of dollars because “this is the way we do it here.”  And companies that treat their employees much like a robot, or a number, leaving their employees to think that their opinion doesn’t really matter.

• What if companies listened to the chatter of their employees?

• What if they tried to really listen to the opinions and experiences of their employees?

• What if they set out to see how they could help their employees enjoy their work experience even more?

That last question caused me to reflect about Kevin Carroll and about his experience at Nike.  I heard him speak not to long ago at the iLearningGlobal Mastery Retreat where he talked about the importance of play.

I tell you I gained some new respect for Nike that day as Kevin relayed his experiences with the company.  He basically wrote his own job description, where he was a catalyst for change.   While at Nike Kevin came up with the concept for their play commercials.

Have you seen them?  I think they’re great.

Here’s one that he showed us at the convention:

I’d love your feedback…

• What if there was a play revolution among companies?
• What can you do right now to add more play and excitement personally into your life?
• What can you do to play and more play into your life at home or at work?
• How does your work place incorporate play into their employees lives?

Take time to play.

~ Leisa

P.S. – Oh, Tag.  You’re It

Related Articles Elsewhere On This Site

• Kevin Carroll Interview
• The Red Ball Project by Kevin Carroll
• iLearningGlobal Video Review – Purposeful Play by Kevin Carroll
• Kevin Carroll – Books by Kevin Carroll, and  iLearningGlobal Faculty and Content Overview

Here’s some recommended reading to help you improve your life, accelerate personal growth, achieve happiness, and unlock your intution.

• In Sixteen Weeks of Purposeful Personal Growth Jerry Lopper talks about sixteen key areas. that when concentrated on for a week at a time can accelerate your personal growth.

• In When Success Becomes Meaningless It’s Time to Drop Out Johnathan talks about how defining what success means to you is important to truly experience contentment.

• In A Key Ingredient to True Happiness Johnathan talks about the role that kindness and a loving attitude have in achieving true happiness.

• The Seven Deadly Personal Barriers to Personal Growth talks about seven stumbling blocks that greatly effect our ability to improve our life.

• And also from Accelerated Personal Development is an article on How to Unlock Your Intuition.

Far to often we  lose focus of where we want to go because we simply can’t see our destination. Barriers block our view causing us to lose sight of our goals temporarily, and that causes for to many people to detour off a chosen path.

In reality, what really matters is knowing where we are going and what lies directly in front of us. What matters is the path we are on.

When traveling along the path if we take care of what the immediate steps, the ones we can see directly in front of us, then we will stay on track and move in the right direction.

It’s much like driving cross-country from California to New York in the dark. All you can see are twenty or so yards in front of you. You can see what your head lights show you. You follow the map, and follow the signs, but the only way to get there is to drive those few yards at a time. Then the next few yards and so on.  Barring no obstacles one will eventually arrive at their destination.

Of course, one obstacle that can keep us from arriving at the destination is not having a plan. Developing a plan on how to get from point A to point B helps us pay attention to the signs around us. It helps us gauge where we are compared to where we want to be. Without that we are not to very likely to get there.

So it is with life…

Those without a plan rarely arrive to the destination they really want to be at.

Another obstacle is failure to pay attention to the warning signs.  Following a road map or chosen path explicitly can also lead to devastating results

I recently heard a new story about a couple who blindly followed their new Mercedes GPS system and didn’t pay attention to the road signs. The sign read “road closed.” The couple drove their car off a washed out bridge. Apparently they aren’t alone. There was a story last year in the Times of London that reported drivers were following their GPS directions right into a river.

Another obstacles is distraction.  It’s easy to get distracted by the scenery around us, and detour off our chosen path.  Having a firm destination helps us handle the detours that may arise.

A missile will not head straight to it’s target. It is constantly making adjustments as it travels through the air to it’s destination. It has an internal guidance system that guides it towards its destination. An internal guidance system allows us to stay focused on the path before us, but still allows us to know what our destination is.

A traditional Zen tale reminds us of how we can lose sight of the path by focusing to much on the destination:

A young but earnest Zen student approached his teacher, and asked the Zen Master: “If I work very hard and diligent how long will it take for me to find Zen.”

The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years.”

The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast — How long then?”

Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.”

“But, if I really, really work at it. How long then ?” asked the student.

“Thirty years,” replied the Master.

“But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?”

Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”

Some success coaches will tell us that keeping your eyes focused on the goal is important. Others teach us that the path we travel is most important. I say they are both important and that the trick is to keep a balance.

If you have paid attention to the signs around you, and have followed your plan (your roadmap) you will get to your destination!

Today’s insight comes from David J. Schwartz’s book, The Magic of Thinking Big ((Schwartz, David J. The Magic of Thinking Big. 1959. Prentice-Hall))

David Schwartz lists five weapons that destroy your chance of success. They are: Read the rest of this entry »