Category Archives: #redshoellc

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Creating Cheerio Castles From a Mom’s Heart

Every Business Owner Has a Personal Story

As an Executive Consultant there are several questions all clients ask. The first being, “how do you know”. My response, “I am an observer of others, experiences, and learn something from all of it.” Our knowledge, experiences, and actions within and beyond those give us an extraordinary gift of intuitive education.

As stated by Colin Powel once said as Secretary of State (United States) you have to make decisions quickly and at times you may only have 80% of the information the rest you go from what you know.

I decided to share this story with all of you as last week was a particular tough one. Some dear friends of mine sent a care package with Cheerios. Below is one of my stories and from working with executives to raising a kiddo from hard places just as I do; you too have the ability to build Cheerio Castles.

Creating Cheerio Castles From a Mom’s Heart

What does a mom’s heart have to do with Cheerios and creating a castle? Cheerio castles are those little round bits of cereal you find on the floor, car, and craft projects. My imagination builds beautiful castles with cheerios. I am sharing one of my stories of being careful what you pray for and second, finding God’s answer daily.

I do believe God answers prayer in His timing and not our own. As humans we make prayer and answered prayer more complicated than God intended. Many years ago someone told me: “God’s ‘no’ or unanswered prayer is not a rejection but is for our protection.”  There are many variables to unanswered and answered prayer; when we are present, allowing God to lead the way, we find our prayers are heard and answered daily. This is one of my go-to scriptures for prayer: There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven… He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.- Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11

This past year my husband I opened our hearts and home to a beautiful 12 year old boy. We became parents for the first time by becoming Foster Parents. Becoming a parent found daily there is a learning opportunity about myself and heart. 

Unanswered Prayer | God did not answer our prayer through creating our own family.

Answered Prayer | God brought a beautiful boy to us. This boy is made for us and fits in so many ways we would never pray for; God knows.

Our morning routine settled in to my husband and son waking and getting ready. I tend to stay out of the way. My husband is better equipped to keep our son on track, getting him out the door on time, dressed, brushed, and in a joyful mood.

When the guys are busy I stay in our bedroom and use this time to pray, meditate, and wire my brain for what is on the schedule for the day. One morning during prayer I found myself grieving experiences we as parents would not have, bringing an older kiddo into our home and hearts.

 Prayer: Give all you have to God for he knows what burdens our hearts.

 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. – Romans 8:28

My prayer this particular morning went to my mind making a list of those things we will never experience such as:  quirky toddler moments, elementary school art projects on the refrigerator, mommy and toddler groups, little guy soccer, peanut butter and jelly faces, to our car would never have the cheerio chaos on the floor and seats, macaroni art, our dogs would not experience food on the floor or from a hand of a little one. My imagination spent more time creating cheerio castles, macaroni jewelry, what containers would store these amazing nutritious rounds of awesomeness, and so forth.

This prayer and meditation continued for about an hour and my logical brain hit me hard; almost an audible slap across the face. I said out loud to myself, “I do not have patience to clean up Cheerios out of the car.” My prayer took me from building Cheerio castles to the reality of patience.  I wrapped up this grief prayer session, not hanging onto what we will miss but considering the joy of messes a pre-teen and teenager brings without pretense.

The guys left for the day so I headed to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. As soon as I entered the kitchen my eye caught the dining room table. There were three Cheerios on our son’s placemat.  This has never happened before and my heart went directly to thanking God for answering prayer. My logical mind and temperament has no patience for such things as cleaning up Cheerios. God knows my heart yearns for Cheerio castles and that left me blessed with an answered prayer.  

God continues to leave me reminders of answered prayer as I continue to find Cheerios in unusual places. Sometimes I am not too keen on our beautiful boy and his shenanigans. God delights in my heart’s desire by leaving remnants of a Cheerio castle built in grief. God truly delights in our heart’s desires and I pray you too find God delighting in yours.

Be careful what you pray for: God knows what is on our hearts and delights in our joy.

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37-4

Look UP & OUT!

Tracy Worley

 

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Are You Prepared to Take Risk With Imagination and Innovation?

We all have risk and either we embrace it or do everything in our power to avoid it. Imagine the playground where a group of children are jumping off the top of the monkey bars and then there are the few who stand at the edge pacing waiting for the school bell to ring so they do not have to jump.

I want to encourage you to JUMP! Not in the sense of physical, mental, or spiritual harm but to really jump back into a childlike state and use your imagination, create, and innovate right where you stand. Ken Robinson states the risk of imagination eloquently, be prepared to be wrong. When you are prepared to risk, be wrong, and basically stand there looking like an idiot you are onto something!

Society has taught us to no longer within our natural gifts but to test out in an educational standard. Highly successful people have bunked the standard and create success by risking standing alone. The risk takers are the ones you watch rise to the next level, the risk takers are the ones who are creating original ideas.

When you are prepared to imagine, innovate, and risk within your gift set you are no longer living within a standard of average! ~ Tracy Worley

*Take time out and reflect on your life, career, and significance your natural gifts offer the world.

*Reflect on what you loved doing as a child (natural gift).

*Reflect on all of those assessments you have taken over the years (natural gift).

*Reflect on your voice of doubt, do it afraid, do it anyway.

* Reflect on discipline in your daily agenda, are you taking time to risk.

*Reflect on the ideas popping into your head and write them down, some will make sense and some will not.

Step forward with one of the above where clarity comes through and start moving forward without knowing how, details, or held up in the paralysis of perfection.

You are meant to have a life and career of significance so embrace your natural gifts, talents, wisdom, and knowledge to create original ideas. Look back in history and innovation, most of those who risked standing alone where mocked but now we have light bulbs after ten-thousand tries, we have flight because the Wright Brothers believed with imagination, risk, and perseverance it was possible.

Society standard of average is not where you are valued. Create value by standing alone in the edge of the monkey bars and JUMP!

Look UP & OUT!

Tracy Worley

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Masterminding Mondays

How do you make people feel?

Legacy is what people will say and remember about you when you are not in the room.

 

Think about the wake trailing a boat in water. Depending on the speed and intention the wake can reach far and wide. The wake can be soft or turbulent. It is a choice for your wake to be a positive influence or a negative one.

You can start making adjustments today to influence the outcome of lasting relationships meaningful not only to you but to the community at large left in your wake.

Below are a few questions to ask yourself for reflection:

  • What are people saying about you?
  • What would you like people to say and remember about you?
  • Do people revel in the your presence in the room or repel?
  • Are you influencing with relationship or influencing with position?

Look Up & Out, Tracy Worley

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“Influence is Human Connection With Your Heart First”

Fostering Faith Friday's

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

Look Up From Your Phone: The Answer to Awesomeness Is Sitting Right in Front of You

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Done vs. Undone: What are you influencing today?

TT Talk Tuesday's

Undone Vs. What is Done

How you view the world is how you communicate to the world. Awareness of self-perception is an ingredient toward your success in influencing the outcome desired.

I often talk about communication, connection, collaboration, and creating community through influence. Through communication consulting, coaching, and creating communities there is always a new ingredient to success. Each group, person, and influencers are different. From industry, personalities, organizational culture, and so on. Every scenario of connection has a variation of an ingredient you cannot create all connections as equals.

There is one main ingredient to influencing; how you are viewing the world, internalizing, and communicating outward.

 

Recently, I found a new awareness with myself. I was viewing certain things in life as undone instead of what was done. Personal case study: at home I became frustrated when a trash bin had not been emptied. The bin was overloaded, heavy and not easy for me to lift and dump in the larger bin outside. What my view of the word at this time was, undone; “why would the person who filled the bin not empty it, they have left a burden for the next person; me.” The next phase of this case study was to influence the outcome and have someone empty the bin. My attitude was not a winning strategy to say the least. Crashing down came the humbling awareness of how I viewed this particular area of my world. I did not see what was done, such as no garbage on the floor; everything was tidy in the bin. I only saw what was undone. Undone was this person did not leave the bin better than the way they found it.

Awareness is always the next step in success. I ask, what area’s in your life are you viewing undone when in fact they are done.

For me and mine, I had a change of attitude and influenced a better outcome of completion of “done” and that is leaving the bin better off for the next user.

Would love to know your thoughts and experiences of done vs. undone.

Look Up & Out,

Tracy Worley

 

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Gratitude is Everything

Gratitude is Riches, Complaint is Poverty ~ Doris Day

In America we have our annual feast of food, family, friends, and now commercial gluttony.

Last Holiday season everyone in our family received a journal to write what we are grateful. Each night at dinner we would share those grateful thoughts written down. Some days it was a rinse and repeat from the day or weeks before. What I found is we let the daily grind and outside influences take place of our daily journal. Today we will start anew!

Are you in the hustle of to-do lists, deadlines, and forgetting details of the day where there are gifts and miracles surrounding us minute by minute? Most of us have more than we need, from running water, warm beds, clean clothes, shoes purchased just for our feet, to the freedom of choice in entertainment, to freely walking to our local park to shoot hoops without fear.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ~ Albert Einstein

My wish and prayer for you is to find the miracles in your day.

I am grateful for all of you, your gifts, and everything you share with your global communities.

Look Up & Out,
Tracy Worley

 

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Spark of Success

A life full of joy, clarity, focus, and determined success

I am often asked why I do what I do. This is a valid question and one I ask myself often.  From coaching, consulting, to public speaking the one thing that keeps me coming back is the “spark”.  Yes, all individuals, teams, and groups have an energy all their own and I see this as a “spark”. There is a raised energy when people see or rise to the next level of success.

Think about the spark of excitement in your face when holding a sparkler; even as adults we giggle and have childlike wonder when holding a sparkler in our hand. Working with men and women; they all hold a spark of excitement when entering the next level of success!

Throughout a golfers career whether for pleasure or competition there are times the swing is not recalling. It could be from mind block, muscle memory, fatigue, and so many other factors. At times it is a bad game or bad season where the player is unable to hit the ball well. What keeps players coming back is the “spark”. What keeps players coming back is the one great shot, chip, or putt; the “spark” of confident excitement and rush of accomplishment.

Identify Your Spark

  • Who or what makes your heart jump for joy?
  • Where would you love to spend more time serving?
  • What projects when complete sends your heart racing and calling others to share in the excitement?

The above is a short list of questions to dive into what you love to do and why you do it. If you are finding current space and circumstances keep you from doing what you love to do; perhaps it is time to make a change. Your unique talents are what the world needs. The world is in need for you to “spark” others with what you have to offer.  The “spark” is similar to a golfer, one well hit ball or “spark” builds your heart to do more of what you were built to do.

Personally, my “spark” to keep doing what I do is filled with clients accomplishments, ideas, and  transition to next levels of success. My clients build solid foundations while holding childlike wonder creating their own sparkler experience.  You can say I am a “spark” maker by sparking individuals, teams, and groups into new success they could not see or do before.

The spark leads to a well lived life full of joy, clarity, focus, and determined success.

Share, I would love to know what “sparks” you to do what you do!

Look Up & Out,

Tracy Worley

 

 

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Fire It Up Friday | 6

Summer 2017 Series Episode 6

Are you DOA when showing up  personally and professionally? What is DOA: Dead on Arrival or Dead on Attitude.

My questions to you are:

  • Are you Dead on Arrival?
  • Are you showing up to work, home, and life: filled-up to serve your clients, employer, and self?

Dead on Arrival vs. Daily Opportunity of Action

This past week I had the privilege of attending our Innovate Montana Symposium. Before going I set the intention with an end in mind. My end in mind was meeting people to help my clients in their next endeavors and a current project I am working on…

 

I was ALIVE ON ARRIVAL! As humans we should show up with intention and ‘alive’ in everything we do. There are always the few who show up because they have to. These are the individuals I like to “light” up! Giving them other perspective and a reason for being there and how they add value.

Albert Schweitzer, “Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now-always.”

When I work with organizations in employee engagement we always start with a survey to see where the engagement needle is and the culture. I can say 99% of the time when engagement is low there is little trust and/or respect to and from leadership.

Here are a few steps to engaging yourself:

  • Discuss and outline your vision and navigate where you are going. The more people you share this with the more likely you will find the resources needed to launch to the next level.
  • Set exceptions by creating and modeling the who you want to show up in  your personal and professional life.
  • Connect with clients on personal level (i.e. paraphrase what they  have said, or remember your last conversation such as if they mentioned a soccer game ask them how it went)
  • Connect and collaboration with peers by setting parameters of expectation, timelines, etc. . .(this always resolves who is responsible for which task, and accountability for the entire team)
  • Connect with people by having one-on-ones (be candid and transparent where you are, and they will be candid and transparent where they are on projects, hurdles, and how they plan to overcome them) “I CAN’T RAISE THE BAR FOR OTHERS IF I HAVEN’T RAISED THE BAR FOR MYSELF.

The core of engagement is transparent humility (this is not showing employees or clients how to weep but to let them know you are human, everyone wants to know they are  on the team with someone who has heart)

 If you and your team are not making individual efforts , then everyone is DOA when they walk through the door every day. ~ Tracy Worley

 

Thank you for joining me on our Summer Fire It Up Friday Series.

Look Up & Out, 
Tracy Worley