Posted on Saturday, November 28, 2015

Create a Bigger Vision

Create a Bigger Vision

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand”. — Woodrow Wilson

Sometimes it feels like we do not know where we are headed. We just seem to be going through the motions. Where are we going? Where do we go from here? Is this all there is? How many times have you felt this way or asked yourself these questions? I know I have more often than I care to admit.

When this happens it just may be possible that we need a bigger vision. Perhaps a bigger vision of who we are, what we want to accomplish or where we are headed. Without a firm picture of where we want to be, we will wander aimlessly from one challenge or crisis to another with limited energy and enthusiasm.

According to Dictionary.com, vision is defined as: the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be. By creating a picture in our mind of what we want the future to look like, we are establishing a multidimensional impression that can energize our thoughts and actions toward a specific outcome. The bigger and more clearly focused the mental image is the more we are able to channel our energy into moving in that direction.

A bigger vision allows us to put more energy into what we do to get to a better place. It also offers more room for creativity and innovation. The bigger vision allows us to consider possibilities that we might not have ever considered and opens creativity that leads us in a different direction to a more satisfying outcome.

We need to see ourselves as part of something bigger. When we just focus on ourselves we are missing out on how we interact with the rest of our environment. As we examine our wants, needs and motivations, we are likely to find that it is the connection to other people, through family and/or work organizations that drives our satisfaction. Being part of something bigger can help give a larger meaning to our lives. In order to expand, we have to be willing to explore the ways we limit our lives.

So how do we go about creating a larger vision? Here are some practical suggestions.

Posted on Saturday, November 21, 2015

Change, Don’t Let it Happen to You, Be Change

Change, Don’t Let it Happen to You, Be Change

“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished” — Benjamin Franklin

Change is all around us and it is never going away. All of our lives we have experienced change and as long as we continue to draw a breath, we will experience change.

This past year we have all experienced and continue to experience change. Change in the ways we conduct business, changes in our organization structure, perhaps changes in our position, reporting relationships, personal relationships and circumstances. Certainly we are surrounded by change and a lot of it.

There are really only two ways to react to change. We either embrace it or we reject it. If we embrace the change, then we find ourselves looking forward, developing new relationships, trying to understand how our new environment works, establishing our individual perspective on how we fit into the new world and ultimately, how to thrive in this new set of circumstances.

Alternatively, if we choose to reject the change, we create a never ending anxiety about how we choose not to fit in the new world and watch our new reality spin ever further away from the way it used to be. Not embracing our new reality does not stop the world from changing around us. It just creates a greater distance from where we are to where we need to be.

Consider if we were able to reverse the change, even then things would never be the same. We have new experiences and new ways of thinking that would not allow the past to ever resurface as a new today.

By doing so we are no longer the victim of the change but a living part of the change, looking forward and reestablishing our prior level of comfort. Our choice is to either not let change happen to us or to be part of the change.

Personally, I choose to be part of the change. How about you? What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Skip Gilbert

Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2015

Time Out to Increase Productivity

Time Out to Increase Productivity

I need a break! I can’t take any more of this! I’m so tired I can’t do this again! I am worn down and have lost my energy! My productivity is way down! Does this sound familiar? It did to me. I can relate in every way, how about you?

Recently, I was fortunate to be able to take a week-long vacation and completely unplug from everything. I really needed it. I found that I was feeling really stressed and repeating the statements above on a regular basis and I knew in my heart that these thoughts were not the real me. I am typically an optimistic and encouraging person. Not overly energetic, but engaged, thoughtful and usually looking forward to tomorrow. I found myself just worn out, physically, mentally and spiritually. It has been a challenging and rewarding year, but life and work events had robbed me of my perspective and productivity.

Fortunately, my wife and I plan a cruise for every November which provides an opportunity to unplug from the world and strengthen our connection to each other. This year the timing could not have been better as I was to the point of needing a life raft for every aspect of my being. On the cruise we are able to leave our day-to-day challenges behind, simplify our lives to eating, sleeping, being entertained and time for processing. We have been able to resist the growing trend of staying connected to the world through electronic and social media by turning off our phones and not purchasing Wi-Fi connectivity. We just unplug.

What a difference that get away time makes. While it took less than an hour to unpack our suitcases, it took days to unpack my stress. But after a few days I was fully unpacked and able to start processing and regaining my perspective. There was a lot to process.

As I reclaimed the real me, it reminded me that it is as important to schedule rest as it is to schedule the next event. Without rest and processing time we are risking our health, energy, perspective and productivity. The unlikely paradox is that we actually need to occasionally pause to be more productive.

According to Business Insider, saving your vacation time can do more harm than good. They reported that “in 2013, a whopping 42% of working Americans reported that they didn’t take a single vacation day.” Additionally they found “Based on a survey of 1,214 adults living in US households where someone receives paid time off, 85% of respondents said people who fail to use time off are losing out on quality time with their significant other and their children”.

Interestingly, Health Net reports that “The professional services firm Ernst & Young conducted an internal study of its employees and found that, for each additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their year-end performance ratings improved 8 percent, and frequent vacationers also were significantly less likely to leave the firm.”