Happiest of Friday’s.
Human connection is the foundation of relationship and sustainable success in business. Well pretty much any influence you want to glean from others is connection.
Scott Halford wrote an excellent article about technology, observing our surroundings, and finding the brilliance of life right in front of us.
Cheers, Tracy
Adventure Entrepreneur
Are you packed and ready?
Life is an advance and ordinary life has a way of sweeping us away into schedules where we are over-booked!
We end up over booked and in the “acquiring things” race. Do not get me wrong “things” are great, a privilege, and makes our lives more comfortable.
Adventure is:
Find adventure in the adventure in the messiness of your life. An example is my messiness of area’s of too organized and unorganized. There is adventure in both; choose adventure!
Find adventure in everything, everyday, making the ORDINARY an ADVENTURE!
Embrace your own adventure, choose messy hair!
CHALLENGE: step out of your “schedule” and pack a bag to find adventure in your daily everything’s!
Thank you for joining me on our Summer Fire It Up Friday Series.
Look Up & Out, Tracy Worley
All success comes from an individual perspective in measurable increments. For organizations it comes from their perspective initiatives and the perspective of gain or loss.
One of the top reasons I adore about living in Montana, USA is the rugged back country is close and tangible. I find myself in a National Forest several times a week and if possible daily. No matter what trail my administrative staff and I hike; there is always an elevation gain or loss.
Administrative Staff On Trail
Success also has a measure of gain or loss dependent on your initiatives and goals. I recently read, “The only person who needs to move forward little by little is you. Engineer your own evolution” ~ E. Burger, M. Starbird.
When I read evolution my reaction was, “Yes, success is creating your own revolution from the norms of how others have accomplished success.”
As you create goals there are meaningful ways to ensure a gain:
Moving little by little is like climbing a trail. It takes step by step, bit by bit to make it to your destination and crest the top. Once you are at the crest you will see a higher peak (next goal) to strive toward. There are times you may need to lose elevation to glean new knowledge, understand the depth of measurable increments, and evaluate timing.
Refining knowledge is where most entrepreneurs and organizations lose traction. The tendency is to gobble up all information, processes, and best practices. This tendency hinders progress of little by little; often creating a stale environment of growth and innovation. To keep on track, define your objective clearly then adopt, adapt, or delete best practices and move forward.
Each goal has its own trail of learned knowledge. Success can happen time after time hiking the same trail. However, conditions can change and new knowledge is gleaned from season to season. Business perspective; who is on your team creating a stale mate, are clients engaging, is it time to adopt, adapt, or change trails to new success?
The hard truth is not one person or organization creates success on their own. There is always someone supporting them in one manner or another. There are teams who sustain forward momentum to success and community who purchases services and or products. The basic truth not often seen are those who blazed the trail ahead of us. A back country hiking trail is often not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of elevation gain, loss, gain, loss and keeps going until final destination. A back country trail is not managed and if it is there is a group of volunteers who hike in with band-saws and other gear to keep the trail clear (chain saws are not permitted due to fire danger, there are no motor vehicles allowed). From back country hiking to entrepreneurial paths cleared there is always someone who blazed the trail or idea ahead of us. It is your responsibility to create synergy and innovation from what is already forged.
“If I have seen farther than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants” ~ Isaac Newton. Bring someone on board to create and sustain your momentum toward your goals bit by bit. No matter what or who you bring on board it is important to be open-minded about possibilities not seen at the beginning of the trail.
Success is worth the journey bit by bit, little by little! Would love to hear about your journeys and where you have gleaned success and what your goals are today!
Look Up and Out,
Tracy Worley
Soccer Moms Are For Real! Alright, to be fair all parents are for real when it comes to their progeny in the course of competition. From spelling bees, debate, basketball, soccer, football, and all the rest parents are for real.
From the time of my youth I have been competitive in nature, loving the endorphin rush to the finish line to having the last line in a debate. The last few years I have had the privilege to referee High School Soccer.
What I have observed, learned, and gleaned from the soccer pitch is our youth deserve to play in a safe, competitive, inspiring, and empowering environment. How parents show up is how they will show up to lead your organization. Board room bullies are for real!
Parents hold the key to safe play for your youth’s environment. Yes, administrative staff, coaches, and referees hold these key elements too, but parents have the ultimate ability to turn a competitive event from fun to devastating the hearts of our youth.
Being in the center of the field to the sidelines refereeing I have heard the best and the worst from parents. This leads me to your boardroom. How people show up to events in “support” of their children is telltale of how they will show up in your boardroom.
Parents are not the only influence: fellow competitors, coaches, and other participants show up to instill inspired competition…or use downright degrading language which is not worth repeating. However, these moments give me the guilty pleasure of presenting them a yellow card for a warning. If things get worse, referees can stop play and have the offending parties removed.
Crucial conversations will always come into play on and off the field. However, competition is not the time to be yelling, huffing, and stroking out over a bad play. I appreciate how one of my colleagues, Judy Preston, calls these Courageous Conversations, which should happen one-on-one or off the field of play and out of the board room.
Here are a few ways to create a REAL space for empowered play and inspired competition from the soccer field to your boardroom:
Reward: Give everyone a sportsmanlike handshake before or after the game. It is the reward for showing upto play. If the coaches, referees, and players did not show up there would be no play. If you are unhappy or dislike someone it is NOT your prerogative to be disrespectful. Reward others with respect you also deserve.
Environment: Create a safe environment for all to participate, compete, learn, and hone individual and team skills. This could include cheering for the competitor. The higher level of play, the more you learn.
Action: Take action when others are not lifting others. Everyone from players, coaches, referees, parents, and observers should show up with an attitude to serve each other, and push each other to the next level. Boardroom culture should be no different.
Lead: Everyone is a leader of one (you). Show up to make a difference to those around you. One word of encouragement could make someone’s game on and off the field.
Challenge: Respect yourself by respecting others, take action toward the good of all concerned, create an environment to take risk to fail and win; lead by example because everyone is a leader.
Look UP & OUT!
Tracy Worley
Tracy Worley (2015) Authentic Leadership, Authentic Self
Tracy Worley (2015) Hero2One™
Turning Back Too Soon: One of my favorite teaching moments. You are all awesome and keep moving to the end of the trail!
Are you stopping before reaching the end of your goals, desires, and life purpose? Don’t STOP, KEEP moving forward, because you are worth it!
Look UP and OUT,
Tracy Worley
I love people watching and am keen observer of their actions. Two of my higher level strengths is connecting and relating. These two strengths are so strong and developed that at a networking event I can tell you who belongs to who, who is avoiding who, and who doesn’t belong to who but spending a lot of time together.
Don’t worry I do not share your secrets. I have discovered and noticed as an increasing technology society we are leading our lives under Fitbit rules. These are just a few ways society is being led by technology.
My question to you as a leader, are you finding the pulse of your people?
People do not know where they are going unless goals and the path are laid out. When goals and the path is not clear; people set their own goals, or end up somewhere else. “People need responsibility, they resist assuming it, but they cannot get along without it.” ~ John Steinbeck
As a leader of “self” what actions are you not fol
lowing through on? Your actions are being shown in large lights and even in Fitbit rules your actions are shown with a back-light in the dark. There is not hiding your leading actions, so again I ask as a leader of “self” what actions are you not following through on?
“The world has a habit of making room for the person whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.” ~ Napleon Hill
Below are five areas of connection and caring actions to bring into the bright lights of your leadership. The pulse of the people is hungry for strong leaders without oppression and modeling success with transparent integrity.
Change the pulse of your people to healthy conversation around the water cooler, if you do not give them knowledge, goals, and sustainable actions they will make it up, gossip, or go somewhere else. “All human beings by nature desire to know.” ~ Aristotle
In “celebration hands” I applaud you and celebrate your success!
Look UP & OUT!
Tracy Worley
October morning sun glistening on the morning dew,
Birds are harvesting and deer are frolicking
in the last days of our garden.
Fruit trees are shedding the weight of summer
preparing for a winters sleep.
Maples, aspen, and oak are quaking
waiting for the rakes keep.
Farmers and Ranchers are preparing for
next year’s harvest of seed and animal.
The air is fills my lungs with the promise of tomorrow,
fresh and crisp like the October apple.
October morning sun gleaning the harvest of tomorrows to come.
By: Tracy Worley
Tension to success is not hearing, “not tonight dear I have a headache”. Tension to success is consistent applied pressure to your growth and stretching into something and someone bigger and better tomorrow.
My tension started in 2001 when I moved hundred of miles away from my hometown to take on a new job, city, friends, and to top it off the population was only several thousand. This move and new job was a huge stretch and paid off in learning and gleaning so much over-time. Eventually, I had to find new ways to stretch my growth. Truly, with a small population to continue my growth I had to seek opportunity outside of the community. This meant online training, masterminding across the miles, and reading books from authors I admired and without knowing this stretching one of those author mentors would become a friend, mentor, and business partner; John C. Maxwell.
In 2011 when I had an opportunity to “jump” the opportunity to partner with John C. Maxwell opened and I was prepared to walk-through.
On stage with world leaders, co-collaborators, and John C. Maxwell.
Tension is thinking of a rubber-band how you pull there is tension, release, and then do it over and over; after a time the rubber-band cannot go back to it’s original shape. This is what happens when you keep applied pressure/tension to your growth you are never the same again. By applying consistent pressure you will quickly and easily become the top in your field. Why? Because few people want to be uncomfortable, learn, and stretch outside of their comfort zone.
Benefits Of Applying Tension:
Keep stretching to the end, I love Mahatma Ghandi’s statement, “the difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
I truly believe everyone can have a life of significance it just takes a bit of applied pressure to stretch into something more!
If you won’t be better tomorrow than you were today, when what do you need tomorrow for? ~ Rabbi Nachman
Apply tension to your Keep It Simple Silly Strategic plan and think about what significant action you could take if only you become what you could be. Dream big, and set this as your lifetime goal! ! Not sure where to start , please feel free to contact me!
Want to learn more? Click Below:
Look UP & OUT!
Tracy Worley
John C. Maxwell (2012). 15 Invaluable Laws of Rubber Band, Chap10. Tracy A. Worley (2015) GRACEbreak Radio
We have all heard “No Pain No Gain”, this is true in any area of growth up and out of current circumstances, success, and leading others.
The pain comes from the discomfort from being outside of your comfort zone. Some discomfort comes from planned growth and other discomfort comes from bad experiences. What sets you apart from others is learning from all experiences good or bad and applying the lessons learned. John McDonnell said, “every problem introduces a person to himself.”
A problem to me is an opportunity for growth. I also state and have my team not say “we have a problem”, I have them change the world to challenge or opportunity. Every discomfort is a temporary lesson to clarity. Life has a way of giving you more than you think you can handle from loss of a spouse, child, parents, job, divorce, natural disasters, etc…at the end of each life changing scenario you come through the back end with more clarity, purpose, and strength.
Discomfort in hiking 4,000 vertical we found something of significance! The payoff of the view, wildflowers, and great satisfaction of accomplishment!
I’ve never known anyone who said, “I love problems,” but I’ve known many who have admitted that their greatest gains came in the middle of their pain. ~ John C. Maxwell
My personal life of discomfort has truly shown how attitude and looking for the lessons in clarity has created a life of significance and the gift of coaching others through my own experience of divorce, loss of children, loss of a job, hiking 14K+ mountains, sky-diving, and so on. . .these few examples from my stories give courage to character. Given strength, wisdom and knowledge to take into the corporate arena with a fierce understanding the discomfort is only temporary for the team to achieve something of significance!
Attitude is the number one trait of achieving great clarity through the Law of Pain. Virginia Satir states, Life is not the way it’s supposed to be, it is the way you cope with it is what makes the difference. Experience is the best teacher but the examination and taking lessons from each experience is key to the clarity of significance. Where there is no conversation of discomfort innovation becomes stagnant and the clear road ahead becomes foggy.
Look at current or past experiences to find creative clarity of moving forward:
Discomfort, Pain, and Clarity is not something kept on your daily agenda, but I promise once you define them as outlined above the temporary discomfort will bring you to achieving something of significance! Not sure where to start , please feel free to contact me!
Want to learn more? Click Below:
Look UP & OUT!
Tracy Worley
John C. Maxwell (2012). 15 Invaluable Laws of Pain, Chap8. Tracy A. Worley (2015) GRACEbreak Radio
Powerful statement, Are you creating the future you want?
Whether your are a Home Engineer, Entrepreneur, or work within someone else’s corporate structure I DARE YOU TO ASK YOURSELF, “Am I creating the future I want?”
The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment you first find yourself in.” ~ Mark Caine
Creating the future you want is not a narcissistic question so allow yourself to release any “selfish” notion with the question. Creating the future you want is growing your potential in the right environment. Your environment is made up of your daily agenda, people, places, and things.
Whether you are a success or failure in life has little to do with your circumstances; it has much more to do with your choices.” ~ Nido Qubein
holding you back? These people determine as much as 95% of your success or failure in life. This is one of the hardest because you need to sacrifice time spent with people you know and love. However, you do not have to “dump” them just spend less time and create a reference group who will challenge you to be more tomorrow than you are today! My personal best is when I spend time with my mastermind group, they model all of the 8 areas referenced in the YOURSELF category and I am my best when others around me are growing!You cannot take this journey alone, not if you want to reach your potential. The most significant factor in any person’s environment is the people. If you change nothing else in your life for the better than that, you will have increased your changes of success tenfold. So think long and hard about who you’re spending the most time with, for where ever they are headed, so are you. ~ John Maxwell
Self leadership is the start to creating the success you desire and creating a dynamic team of leaders who will succeed beyond your “business-plan” expectations. I am sure this peaked your interest . . . “succeed beyond business-plan?” Yes, and if you want to find out more please feel free to contact me because what keeps your team alive is you!
Want to learn more? Click on Law of Environment.
Look UP & OUT!
Tracy Worley
John C. Maxwell (2012). 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, Chap6. Tracy A. Worley (2015) GRACEbreak Radio