Success in Balance

Well last night I finally finished Your Best Life Now and I must say I ended up liking the book even more at the end than at the beginning (I liked it a lot when I started). It is easy to see why Joel Osteen’s church continues to grow. He has such simple esay advice. The only problem I see is that while it sounds simple, it requires retraining your mind and daily discipline. My only regret is that I did not utilize the journal. I think it would have enhanced the entire experience. However I do not think this will be the last time I read this book. I look forward to posting a review of the second part shortly.

If you would like to share your thoughts, there is a thread started in the discussion area. Please feel free to jump right in. That is what this site is all about.

As you can probably already tell, I do quite a bit of reading. Actually as a college professor I am reading all the time (I knew I should have paid more attention in 2nd grade!). I have books all over the place just to keep me thinking and focusing on moving things ahead. You know, trying to be more successful in balance with the rest of my life. I have several easy to read type books from Covey, Wooden etc. in different places and this morning I picked up one by Wooden. I read:

Preparation is the Prize

Cervantes wrote, “The journey is better than the inn.” He is right and that is why I derived my greatest satisfaction out of the preparation the journey day after day, week after week, year after year.

Your journey is the important thing. A score, a trophy, a ribbon is simply the inn.

Thus there were many, many games that gave me as much pleasure as any of the ten national championship games we won, simply because we prepared fully and played near our highest level of ability.

The so-called importance of a particular game didn’t necessarily add to the satisfaction I felt in preparing for the contest. It was the journey I prized above all else. - page 53

Wow, as I read that it just struck me. I have always quoted “success is a journey, not a destination,” but this took it to an all new level. As I reflected some more I started thinking, why Success in Balance is important to me? Why do I see a need? Well, some people are addicted to success. They have gotten so caught up in those moments when they arrive at the inn being the purpose of their lives that they are driven to get to more inns while missing out on so many good thing. That’s my many people are consumed with getting rich.

Furthermore, I think we can all learn from Wooden. We feel great when something great happens during our day. But what about those days when nothing great outside us happens, but we did things the right way. We made progress in areas. We gave it our best. Do you get the same feeling of satisfaction that I do? If we can learn to focus on those days instead of the reward days we too can win the equivalent of ten national championships in our own lives.

One final quote for the day, which seems appropriate:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau

As always, feel free to share your own thoughts in our discussion area.

The problem with popular thinking is that it doesn’t require you to think at all - Kevin Myers

I’m not an answering machine, I’m a questioning machine. If we have all the answers, how come we’re in such a mess? - Douglas Cardinal

Last night I completed my reading of Skill 8 in John Maxwells Thinking for a Change. I must say I was skeptical of this chapter as it talks about questioning popular thinking. But the more I read the more I agreed. Maxwell does not argue that we should question absolutely everything and live our lives in constant change, just for change sake. But he does recommend that each of us take our lives off auto pilot. Some great quote from the chapter include:

It is true: most people are more satisfied with old problems that committed to finding new solutions.

We limit our success when we adopt popular thinking.

We must always remember there is a huge difference between acceptance and intelligence.

So how can we apply this as we strive to achieve Success in Balance with the rest of our lives? For me it means looking at what I do and why. It means to step out of my comfort zone, to look at things, experience things I have not experienced before. It means trying to understand people I really don’t want to understand. As we reach beyond ourselves we achieve better more robust thinking, which can impact all the area of our lives.

The greatest enemy to tomorrow’s success if sometimes today’s success

I just finished reading a great article in the Seatle Times (from their web site of course) and it was really enlightening.

Working with college kids on a regular basis I see a lot of what the author is talking about. Many do see themselves as entitled and some are not willing to work for it, but many are. Too often we have a tendency to let the ones that are not willing to work form our opinion of the rest. But this generation has something that I personally have been struggling with most of my life. They have a clear ability to draw boundaries and they are not willing to sacrifice their life for a job. They have a better grip on Success in Balance than many people my age. They understand that if they maintain balance then success can come in time, if they work hard.

So it would appear that Succes in Balance will mean different things to different people. Some will need help with the Success portion, while others will need help with the Balance. But the good thing is that together we can help each other.

And the Seattle Times also had this great article which addresses the change in the internet business culture:

* Drunken optimism is out; sober reality is in.

* Job hopping is out; loyalty is in.

* Living to work is out; working to live is in.

* Greed is out; gratitude is in.

* In short, the old-economy workplace is new again.

Another great article with good insights. It seems the younger generation understands that there’s more to life than 9-5 or in some cases 8-8. The statistic where people would take extra time off instead of a $5,000 raise is quite encouraging. In the past we were too quick to measure success by $ alone.

Thanks Jeffrey for sending these articles my way!

Do you have some thoughts you would like to share? Feel free to post them in the discussion area. You can go here to post about these articles.

Well, I promised an update and continued review of Joel Osteens book over a week ago and it just hasn’t happened. It seems at times life is full of interruptions, some good and others not so good. But all my interruptions have been good from one perspective and bad from another. So which perspective will I choose? That is one of the keys to Joel’s book. Choose to take the positive view. In the Maxwell book that I am reading he says it quite differently, he points out that no one he knows that is very successful is a pessimist. He also points out that many people spend their time thinking about what could’ve, should’ve or would’ve been. These people generally find themselves living day to day, but those that are ultra successful don’t get caught up in those thoughts. They are too busy thinking about their next move - thinking strategically. As I thought about that, I thought about how much time I spend thinking “what if I would have started that internet business in 1995?” and “what if I would have not bought that…” you get the picture. The bottom line is it is good to learn from our past, but if we spend too much time thinking about it, it doesn’t move us forward. It just holds us back.

Back to Your Best Life Now…

The first section, we won’t look at the individual chapters, deals with enlarging your vision. God has great plans for you. He says over and over that if he told us we wouldn’t believe Him. As I look back on my life I can clearly see this. If he has told me 20 years ago when I was in college that I would eventually get a Ph.D. and be a college professor at a large public university I would have laughed and said “no way.” But here I am, living proof that if He would have told me I wouldn’t have believed Him. So now that I know this, why do I still find it hard to enlarge my vision? Could it be that I am thinking too much about “could’ve, would’ve, or should’ve”

Some quotes from the book that I think are key to enlarging our vision:

“Your life is not going to change until you first change your thinking” -7

I think I read the same thing in Maxwell…

“Don’t settle for a small view of God. We serve the God that created the universe. We’ve got to eliminate the barely get by mentality.” -11

“Each day you must choose to live with an attitude that expects good things to happen to you.” -13

“‘According to your faith…be it done to you.’ In other words, ‘Have what your faith expects’”  -14

Now that’s a powerful thought. I had read that verse many times in my life, but after reading it now it jumped off the page. God wants to bless you, are you not expecting it?

Also a key to remember is that “Your job is not your source. God is your source.” -23

Again, something I know already, but need to be reminded of. As I work on Success In Balance, I ask myself, “why’s no one jumping in” and I get a bit discouraged. My hope is that it will be of use to others and we can create a great community of people helping each other to enlarge our visions and making success in balance with the rest of our lives, a reality. But ultimately, should it take off or simply fade away is irrelevant. It serves a purpose. God’s purpose.

Joel also shares about his own journey and says something that makes a lot of sense and when you read it you will think “so what Paul, that’s silly.” But I encourage you to think about it and how it applies to you. When talking about his taking over Lakewood Church when his dad passed away, he struggled because he could not be his dad. Then he realized:

“…I didn’t have to fill my Dad’s shoes, I only had to fill my own shoes.” -26

Now that is freeing! We are each created unique. You know that already, but do you live it daily? All too often I try to find a model for success that matches me so I can duplicate it. But that is not what God wants. He wants me to be me and you to be you. From there He will enlarge our vision.

“You will never go beyond the barriers of your own mind.” -30

“…so stop talking about what you can’t do and start talking about what God can do.” -35

Again it comes down to limiting ourselves. Focusing on could’ve, would’ve, should’ve.

Finally he ends this section with a discussion of expecting God’s favor. God wants us to have good things. We just need to start expecting them to happen. They may not happen all the time, but if you expect them they will happen with more regularity.

One of the books I am currently reading is Joel Osteen’s Your Best Life Now and while I could probably read it all in one day (it is an easy read), I am taking my time to let some of what he says sink in. I have seen Joel and his wife Victoria on Larry King Live and CNN’s Paula Zahn each time he is asked about being to “soft” or being “power of positive thinking.” Each time I hear this I have to ask myself, is he? Is the book really correct in what it is saying? And each time I come to the same conclusion, Joel is 100% consistent in what he is saying and while he is very positive, he appears to be very on target. While the majority of his book is positive, he does make it clear that there are some down sides and we can get off track.

I have found the book to be very refreshing and inspiring. My plan is to take the next few days and post some of the things I have learned/re-learned. Hopefully others will find this information useful as well.

On another note, you may have noticed that there are some new ads to the right…. particularly the Audible.com ad. I decided to take advantage of a 2 books free promotion from Audible and have thoroughly enjoyed my purchases. I am excited about getting 2 new books each month to help me to continue to maintain Success in Balance with the rest of my life. I have created CDs of each book that I listen to in the car and I have added them to my MP3 player, so I can listen while working out, surfing the net, mowing the lawn…I even listened to one while relaxing on the beach/by the pool while on vacation. The new Audible offer is for 3 free books and I would highly recommend checking it out. This alone will increase the number of books I digest each year because I can work them into other arts of my life where I can not read (not a good thing to do while mowing the lawn