“When you feel that way about yourself [like you have a divine purpose] that makes other people react to you differently, too.” Inspiration and lessons for your leadership journey! In A Travel Guide to Leadership, I call mission, vision, guiding principles, and goals GPS for Leadership. In his book, Monday Morning Leadership, David Cottrell calls it “keeping the main thing the main thing.” A few weeks ago, I shared with you Simon Sinek’s TEDX Talk video in which he explains his concept of “leading from the why” or “start with why.” Stephen Covey instructs us to “begin with the end in mind.” There is also a lot being written about a related topic, leadership legacy – how you want to be remembered and measured as a leader. But sometimes we forget why taking the time to identify these ideas for ourselves and putting them into daily action is so important. They truly make a difference in your life and for those you lead and inspire. What is your divine calling or purpose? Do you have a leadership legacy statement or life mission statement? Remember, you are literally a child of the universe and are here to make a difference. In today’s video (thanks, Charles!), George Dennehy and his adoptive parents share their own story about divine purpose and believing in yourself. I hope that it sheds some light on just why it is so important for you to know and live yours. It runs about 13 minutes and is not one to miss. Bonus Video! Watch: >> George Dennehy – My life story >> If you like this week's blog, I encourage you to share it with your family, friends, and colleagues and join me on my journey to empower and inspire millions of people around the globe. Together we can spread words of Encouragement, Inspiration, Empowerment, and Loving Leadership! Together we can make a difference! Thank you and… Have an amazing journey today! Alan
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Inspiration and lessons for your leadership journey! “America, in contrast to the venerable Eastern cultures, is a ventilationst society. We deem it honest, just, and even healthy to express our anger.” I’m writing this week’s blog on World Gratitude Day and the International Day of Peace – two emotional states we need much more of in this world. Marty points out something about our culture that can hit close to home for a lot of us – the belief that expressing your anger is somehow cathartic and good for you. In fact, the research convincingly disputes that belief. For example, in one study, researchers measured the overt hostility of 255 medical students. Twenty-five years later, as practicing doctors, the researchers found that those who had measured the highest in hostility and anger had five times as much heart disease as the least angry ones. In another study, it was only those males with more explosive voices, more irritation when forced to wait, and more outwardly directed anger who had the highest risk of heart attack. Experiments with both men and women have shown that when anger is bottled up, blood pressure goes down and only goes up when anger is expressed. As I wrote in my latest book, A Travel Guide to Leadership, “Positive emotions actually quell the “fight or flight” response as it broadens attention; enhances thinking patterns that are flexible, creative, integrative, and efficient; and, fosters positive actions.” The bottom line from the research is that all emotions – both positive and negative ones – when they are openly expressed amplify, broaden, and spread. Let’s build on the good ones. If you like this week's blog, I encourage you to share it with your family, friends, and colleagues and join me on my journey to empower and inspire millions of people around the globe. Together we can spread words of Encouragement, Inspiration, Empowerment, and Loving Leadership! Together we can make a difference! Thank you and… Have an amazing journey today! Alan Inspiration and lessons for your leadership journey! “Happiness is associated with greater cooperation, motivation, and creativity, which in turn are instrumental to success in business, and in life as a whole.” Does happiness matter? Consider this: People who are happy, who have more satisfying lives, and who live in happier communities:
By almost every measure, happiness does matter for us individually, at home, at work, in our communities, and for our world. The World Happiness Report 2013 Because of this, the United Nations issued its second "World Happiness Report," which assesses a country's happiness level based on survey data about wealth, health, freedom, and more. It is their contribution to a worldwide major policy debate about the objectives of public policy and establishing sustainable development goals for the period 2015-2030. Happiness has merit in this discussion. Experts examined 2010-2012 survey data from 156 countries and found that the countries with the highest levels of happiness were:
While worldwide happiness levels slightly increased year over year, the United States dropped from its 11th ranking in 2012 to 17th on the list, putting it just below Panama and Mexico. Boost your happiness Boosting happiness has individual, social, workplace, and global impact. I present simple things you can do and outline multiple strategies that will help you boost your happiness and success in my latest book, A Travel Guide to Leadership. They will also help you help others to boost their own happiness. Do yourself and those you lead a service; boost your happiness. Dr. Wayne Dyer shares a charming story in today’s video about how to get happiness to follow you wherever you go. Enjoy! BONUS VIDEO!  If you like this week's blog, I encourage you to share it with your family, friends, and colleagues and join me on my journey to empower and inspire millions of people around the globe. Together we can spread words of Encouragement, Inspiration, Empowerment, and Loving Leadership! Together we can make a difference! Thank you and… Have an amazing journey today! Alan Inspiration and lessons for your leadership journey! “Up until about the 20th century, there was no plural for the word priority.” As you will hear Reverend Merola tells us in today’s video, the word priority had no plural version until sometime around the 20th century. Before then, to be “a priority” was to be first or prime – there wasn’t anything else that could be first. The word prioritize wasn’t even used until 1973. Isn’t that interesting? It seems like we’re overwhelmed with priorities, these days. But what is your true priority – your main thing? What is your organization’s main thing? Your team’s? Your school’s? Your class’? If you can’t answer that quickly and easily, how do you expect those you lead to know what that is and how to achieve it? If you were to ask the members of your team today, “What’s our main thing?” How would they answer? Would everyone have a different or varied answer? Until your team is united on what that is, how do you expect those you lead to know and how to achieve it? What kind of mixed messages and lack of focus are you inadvertently creating? I’m not talking about metrics – that’s just how you measure the main thing. The main thing is something that gives vision and mission focus. It is easily and clearly scripted, recalled, and communicated. It becomes your team’s mantra or call to battle. The example from David Cotrell’s famous book, Monday Morning Leadership, is that his team’s main thing was actually three main things:
The coachee in the story, a manager for a Fortune 500 company, came up with something similar for his team:
I ask you again: What is your main thing? What is your organization’s main thing? Your team’s? If it doesn’t easily roll off your lips and/or your team members might have different answers than yours, this is your new ‘priority.’ Get a main thing. Without a main thing, it will be difficult if not impossible to be effective as a team, create meaningful change, or add any real value to those you serve. Know your main thing and then keep the main thing the main thing. That’s what leaders do. Bonus Video! Watch: The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing This week’s video runs 23 minutes in total. CLICK HERE for the full video. CLICK HERE for a shorter version. Stop the video at 15:50 and it will only be about 8 minutes.  If you like this week's blog, I encourage you to share it with your family, friends, and colleagues and join me on my journey to empower and inspire millions of people around the globe. Together we can spread words of Encouragement, Inspiration, Empowerment, and Loving Leadership! Together we can make a difference! Thank you and… Have an amazing journey today! Alan Inspiration and lessons for your leadership journey! “The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, Along my journey, I seem to keep falling down and having to get back up, brush the dirt off, and find a way to get going again. Sometimes they are simple stumbles. You know the kind when you’re walking along and it seems like some mysterious thing catches the tip of your shoe. You don’t quite fall down and you may even try to act like you meant to dance foolishly like that. Other times, however, I have found myself face down in the mud. There’s no dancing that kind of fall off. Funny thing however, so many famous and successful people were dubbed ‘failures’ at one or many times in their lives (there’s a good read about 26 of them here and an interesting Slideshare about 60 Famous Failures here). Like the famous coach tells us in our opening quote, the greatest accomplishment is rising after a fall, setback, or disappointment. Think about it. For example, you wouldn’t be with that amazing partner of yours if your previous relationship hadn’t “failed” (even if that was thirty years ago). Whether it’s relationships, job or career, or any number of other areas of your life; problems, stumbles, and falls help define who we are and help us to get where we’re going. If you like this week's blog, I encourage you to share it with your family, friends, and colleagues and join me on my journey to empower and inspire millions of people around the globe. Together we can spread words of Encouragement, Inspiration, Empowerment, and Loving Leadership! Together we can make a difference! Thank you and… Have an amazing journey today! Alan |
Alan Mikolaj
Alan Mikolaj is a a professional, experienced, positive, and passionate speaker, leadership and organizational development consultant, change agent, author, and coach. He holds his Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology from Sam Houston State University. He is a certified graduate coach from Coaching Out of the Box and holds his ACC and membership with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Free Discovery Conversation!
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In his third book, A Travel Guide to Leadership, Alan offers you simple, fundamental, and powerful lessons that have the power to transform you, your relationships, and your career.
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