- Clarity – Get clear on who you want to become and what you want to achieve.
- Completion – What will be the positive or negative result if you achieve or don’t achieve your desired outcome?
- Confide – Tell at least one person that will hold you accountable to creating change in your life.
- Commitment – Create a plan and system to be steadfast and unmovable.
- Chase – Pursue only your dreams; not the dreams of others.
- Control – Take control of the forces (e.g., habits, people, or substances) that can create barriers to achieving your inner-most desires.
- Confidence – You have everything within you to succeed. Do not base your success on external conditions.
- Condition – We are what we think. Defeated thoughts will lead to a defeated life. Train your mind to win.
- Courage – Be audacious and create your own path for success.
- Contentment – Be satisfied with what you have and don’t compare yourself to others.
- Character – Who are you or who will you become as a result of you reaching your goal(s)?
- Contribute – Sow into the lives of others as you strive for success. You will be amazed of what you will reap.
February 2, 2015
Twelve ways to ‘C’ your way through 2015
December 2, 2014
Invest in yourself
"If my company wants me to stay, they should pay for my training."
"As soon as I get my MBA, I’m out of here!"
"I only enroll in workshops or classes that are free."
If your company pays for training, who’s investing in your professional development, you or your company? If your company pays, what do they get in return? If you pay, what’s the ROI (Return on Investment) for your growth and development?
Imagine hiring a contracting company that specializes in home renovations showing up at your doorstep without the skills, tools, or resources to perform the job. Would you pay for the training and resources the contracting company needs to complete the job? Or, would you hire another contracting company equipped with resources and expertise to meet your requirements and deadline to renovate?
Corporations are discovering better ways to yield returns on their resources and investments. And unfortunately, this doesn’t include ‘human’ capital because too many corporations have witnessed and experienced their education and training investments walk out the door.
If your career has come to a screeching halt, evaluate where you invest most of your time and money. If you plan to excel in your current or future place of employment, you have to transition to self-directed and life-long learners. The library is replete with ‘free’ resources for professional or career development and some organizations are replete with ‘fee-based’ resources. The resource you choose would be based on what you’re trying to achieve and why?
Education has been recognized as an integral path to economic empowerment and wealth. Not designer bags, shoes, or acrylic nails. If you’ve been blessed with these things great! But, if you invest more in these things than yourself, evaluate how these things have positioned you to create the foundation to your financial independence and stability?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “We buy what we want and beg for what we need”. Education is a needed commodity to evolve and thrive in today’s society and your growth will be measured by what you endow to yourself.
November 12, 2014
Don't Die with Your Baton
November 10, 2014
Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID)
A group of AVID middle school students completed their assignments fifteen minutes early and wanted to watch YouTube videos which were unrelated to AVID. When asked to turn off their videos, a student responded with: "My mom watches YouTube videos all the time at work, so why can't we watch them at school?"
What legacy are we leaving our children in reference to work, finances, or service? Students need role models to coincide with their lessons to advance academically, socially, or economically. And their parents should be their first point of reference.
The industrialized workforce is depleting and individuals that choose to watch YouTube videos instead of seeking opportunities to serve will be challenged to advance via individual determination.
October 31, 2014
Things or Experience?
In addition, 72% of millennials shared they would like to increase their spending on experiences, and 69% say that their experiences make them feel more connected to their communities, other people, and the world.
In 1998, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore published an article - The Experience Economy. In this article, they state businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers, and that memory (i.e., experience) itself becomes the product. Savvy businesses use this model and charge for the value of their "experience" product because they know if they create experiences that are exciting and transcendent, they can build a community of fans that will rave about their 'experience.'
Jesus Christ created a community of raving fans because He always gave people what they needed - a spiritual transformation. Example, a Samaritan woman went to Sychar to draw water from a well where Jesus was sitting. Her encounter with Jesus transformed her life when He told her about herself and offered her a drink of 'living' water that would quench her spiritual thirst forever.
After her encounter and transformation, she returned to her town and told everybody about her 'experience' with Jesus. As a matter of fact, she left her pail of water at the well.
Matthew 6:19-21, states, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Experience is what transforms, things pile up. What are you willing to invest in that will lead to your stronger 'inner' being?
October 28, 2014
Skeptics of The Poor
- Why were they evicted?
- Are they tithing members of a church?
- They must be irresponsible women to be evicted from a shelter.
- Why can't they move to another shelter?
- I don't believe in giving my money to people that don't want to help themselves.
- Why can't they go and stay with relatives?
October 23, 2014
We Plunged
We’ve supported Zumbathon® events to benefit heart disease and ovarian cancer. And one-year later we’re hosting our own to benefit women experiencing poverty in the Washington region.
The Zumba® Corporate Office approved our Zumbathon® Charity Event within two-hours of submission - a process that normally takes two-business days, and within four-weeks, only 10% of our desired participants have registered.
Lesson learned, we’re doing something we’ve never done before and its success can’t be measured solely on who showed up; but, on our commitment to work and move the weight of poverty off the shoulders of women who live with it daily right in our backyard.
Not achieving the desired results from this plunge will not stop us from doing it again. Poverty is growing, and we do not have time to be stagnated by fear, skepticism, or resistance.
If you want to experience growth and enthusiasm click here - this can result from trying something new.