Is Your Glass 1/2 Empty or 1/2 Full?

We are all familiar with the illustration of a glass of water being either half-full or half-empty. The pessimist sees it as half-empty and thinks he is missing out. The optimist sees it as half-full and is encouraged to build on the success he has already experienced.

Well, I’ve got great news for both the pessimist and the optimist. Half-empty or half-full, there’s room for growth, improvement, and advancement.

 If You Have a 1/2 Empty View:

• Change your perspective. Think positively instead of negatively. Communicate a positive message to your team. Is this just playing mind games? Maybe, but then again, the mind is where the game is being played.
• Set fresh goals. Make sure they are challenging, achievable, measurable, and time bound.
• Set out on a plan for personal growth and development. To do more you will have to be more.
• Start doing on a daily basis what you need to do to fill up your glass from this point forward.

 If You Have a 1/2 Full Perspective:

• Stay the course while you evaluate your next big step toward the top of the glass.
• Keep growing personally and professionally. Leaders are learners. If you stop learning, you will stop leading. Read good books and publications, listen to effective leaders, and attend dynamic conferences.

Half empty or half full, where you go from here is up to you. If by chance your glass is already full, try moving to a larger glass.

Vision Casting

What good is it to develop a bold vision if you don't boldly cast it to your team? I've seen many leaders fail to achieve their most significant objectives simply because they failed to boldly, passionately, and convincingly share the vision with their leadership team. Sharing vision is the riskiest thing a leader does. You are literally laying your dream on the table for people to accept or reject...to buy into or dismiss; but until you effectively cast your vision to the people whom you expect to help you achieve it and get their buy in, your significant dream remains a fantasy.

The Power of Convenience

I was listening to a health and fitness coach who asked, “Why do people, despite knowing the benefits of healthy eating and exercise, fail to eat healthy and exercise?” Several responses were given, then someone mentioned the availability of fast food. She then made an attention-getting statement, “It is much more convenient to be unhealthy than to be healthy.”

Wow! We can rephrase that to say that it is more convenient to be unsuccessful than it is to be successful. Attaining success in our chosen field of endeavor is inconvenient, isn’t it? Success requires an extreme focus on personal and professional growth. Achievement is experienced at the end of a process that entails hard work and personal sacrifice. Success comes at a price and a lot of inconvenience.

When you go through the inconvenience of a healthy lifestyle, you’ll feel better, and you will feel better about yourself. When you go through the inconvenient journey toward achieving success, you will feel better about your work and your life.

How Important Is Your Dream?

I can discern how important your dream is to you by what you are willing to do on a daily basis to achieve it. Are you communicating the significance of your dream through your daily agenda? Everyone seems to have a dream, vision, or significant objective for their careers and lives, but not everyone incorporates the pursuit of their dreams into their daily schedule.

As you consider the books that you will read during 2017, let me encourage you to consider The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. I knew the Wright brothers flew their plane at Kitty Hawk in 1903, but I did not realize the amount of labor, skill, knowledge, and determination that went into not just making that first flight, but also in developing their plane and their skills to produce a successful commercial endeavor. The Wright brothers had a dream of flying a heavier than air machine, and they committed a part of everyday working toward the realization of that dream. We would all do well to make that kind of determination a part of pursuing our significant goals and objectives.

The Climb to Success and Significance

                     

The journey to success and significance is rarely a straight path toward a single destination. It’s more like climbing a tall mountain. You don’t reach the summit by climbing a straight line. You go to one level, regroup, plan the ascent to the next level, and repeat the process until you reach the peak. The mountain climber actually achieves several objectives before he reaches his major objective of the top of the mountain.               

That's the way it is when pursuing success and significance. We reach a number of lesser goals and objectives that serve as the platform for pursuing our most significant objectives. Some of you reading this blog today have some goals for 2017 that you would have never considered at the beginning of your career or business. You now have the experience, skills, and network to do greater work and achieve greater results. You grow yourself and your business step by step, level by level, destination by destination.

Here are a few considerations as you climb toward significance and success:

• Build on your successes, and learn from your failures. Failure is never final, but failing to  learn from failure is unforgiveable.
• You can’t go up unless you grow up. A plan for continual professional and personal growth is indispensable for continued success.
• We achieve success by reaching our desired destination, but we achieve significance by bringing others with us. Significance is not found in what we do for ourselves, but in what we do for others.

We've already come through the first week of 2017. I encourage you to make continual daily progress toward the next level of your climb toward success and significance.