With Regard To Life

Charitable Giving

The letters, telephone calls and solicitations for donations from charitable organizations have started arriving in the mail. One for a regional food bank was in my mailbox Saturday. Three more were received today. It is that time of year. Many - perhaps most - non-profits rely on the financial support of numerous donors to operate. And it is good for us to align ourselves with some of them and assist them. Just be sure to do your due diligence before making your gift. You can get guidance from the American Institute of Philanthropy. Charities have to know that donors are looking online and studying them a lot more carefully. Don't get in a hurry. If it just does not feel right, it probably isn't. Don't be afraid to say no. Today's Winning Thought: "The important thing to bear in mind is that the vast majority of charitable organizations are trying to do the right thing. Outright fraud is quite rare at nonprofits. The main issue in evaluating a charity is trying to determine how efficiently an organization operates." -- Stan Perlman, Senior Partner, Perlman & Perlman

Recalibrate

I heard a word this morning in an interview and I have thought about it all day long. the word is RECALIBRATE. The discussion was about blended families, the role of the stepdad and stepmoms. There are times when families just need to recalibrate. When you recalibrate you "correct a measuring process by checking or adjusting in comparison with a standard." Where are you in life? In business? In your various relationships? Where are you, and what is the standard? I also attended a funeral today of the brother of a friend. He was eulogized as a loving, caring husband, father, son, brother and friend. At some point in his life, this young man had recalibrated his life. Where are you living today? What is the standard by which you are measuring your life? Do you need to make any adjustments? If you do, it does not mean you have failed. You don't fail unless you give up. So, regroup, reflect and recalibrate. Today's Winning Thought: "Falure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently." -- Henry Ford

16 Or Nothing

The baseball season is a long one. Some days you will score a bunch of runs, and some days you won't. Some days you will not score a single run or even get a hit. In the World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals scored at will Saturday, two days after scoring only one. The day after their offensive explosion, the team did not score a single run. Go figure. That is baseball. Some days are like that in real life. One day everything goes right. The next might be painfully long and frustrating. That is life. Every day cannot be sunny, 75 degrees and only a gentle breeze (my favortie conditions). There will be occasional storms. You just hope that the bad days are few and far between. If you are going to have the (bad days) you might as well learn from them and grow. Harvey MacKay wrote a book a few years ago entitled We Got Fired! And It's the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us. It is full of countless stories of people who overcame adversity, including football coach Lou Holtz. "Things are not always going to go the way you would like them to go, but I think it is important to understand how important your attitude is," Holtz said. "Whenever you face adversity, you can't let it discourage you from being the very best you can possibly be." Today's Winning Thought: "Some people rebound from a firing setback because they are destined to. Most people rebound because they are determined to." -- Harvey MacKay

Get Your Plans Off The Shelf

I serve on a steering committee for one of the organizations I am a member of. We had a meeting this week where we discussed strategy, and the progress of our five-year plan. One of the members of our committee said something pretty profound, and very true. He said, "Plans on paper are just paper. We need to take them off the shelf. It needs your passion." While I am finishing 2011, I am glancing at 2012, thinking about plans and strategy. I have some of my ideas on paper and some in my mind. I am thinking about how I can be more effective and efficient. Whatever plan I come up with, I will need to make sure I don't leave the printed version of my plan on a shelf. It will also require passion. Todaya's Winning Thought: What goals do you have? Will you have the passion to carry you through to completion?

Let's Make A Bet

People throughout this country are in trouble financially. Not everyone, of course, but far too many. The problem areas start with too much debt. It also includes not saving any or enough money, not making enough money, careless spending, materialism and more. There are so many statistics available on personal finance that you could not read or digest them all. You can make statistics read however you want them to read. There are no shortcuts on the road to financial success, so I would not look for any. The best advice I would offer is to have a plan and follow it. The first and most important part of your plan is this: you must spend less than you make. Not one month, but every month. Spending more than you make is unsustainable. If you are on shaky financial ground, I want to encourage you to place a bet. Bet all you have. Here is the bet I want you to make. B-E-T. BELIEVE you can have a better financial future. EVALUATE where you are today. TRUST in God and trust in sound financial principles. That is a bet that you will win. That is a bet you cannot afford not to make. Today's Winning Thought: I do not mean to imply that gaining control over your finances will be easy. I am saying that doing so will change your life for the better.

Gratitude

There is a chapter in the book I am currently reading that focuses on gratitude and grace. The author, Mark Sanborn, quoted a British philosopher and writer, Roger Scruton, who suggests that we too often limit gratitude to special occasions. Then, it got interesting. He (Scruton) wrote about governments taking over the functions that used to be handled by charities. The idea of justice, he wrote, has replaced the idea of charity. "Benefits are handed out equally rather than given as gifts to those in need. Eventually the gifts turned into "rights" and claims replaced gratitude." I believe he has described one of the things that is wrong with America today. The lack of grace and gratitude is preventing too many people from living successful lives. Sanborn cited these examples: The chronically thankless are never satisfied. The chronically dissatisfied are never thankful. It works the other way also. The thankful are always satisfied. The satisfied are always thamkful. Today's Winning Thought: A lot more people in this world could be a lot more grateful. And all the time, not just on certain days. As Mark Sanborn said, "Gratitude is not situational." How are you doing when it comes to being grateful?

Throw Something Away

I have a new rule in my home. It is only for me. And I must follow it. The rule is this: I cannot leave my office (in my home) without removing something that will be given or thrown away. There is too much paper, there are too many folders and boxes. One of us has to leave, and it isn't going to be me. I am trying to simplify my life. That is easier said than done. But I am trying. Simplify the workplace, Jack Welch said. Eliminate. Streamline. Whatever you have to do to make things less complex. Life will be easier that way. Today's Winning Thought: Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go remove some things from my office.

Half-Million Applications

I changed cell phones this weekend. Today's cell phones have 500,000 applications or more. That is mind boggling. How could you begin to even see all of them, muchless read or download them? Information comes at us so fast today that we can only grasp a small percentage of it. If you never turned on a television or radio and only spent five minutes a day on the internet, you would still be bombarded with information. You have to know what you want and you need to be selective. Mark Sanborn writes that the world in not maintaining, it is moving forward. We have to keep learning because the world keeps changing. John Maxwell wrote in a recent column, "A wise person once said, "Inflexibility is one of the worst human failings. You can learn to check impetuosity, overcome fear with confidence and laziness with discipline. But for rigidity of mind there is no antidote. It carries the seeds of its own destruction." Today's Winning Thought: Today, be flexible.

Little League

I spent an hour at the little league football field this weekend watching our friends sons play. Many of these little guys are not much bigger than the ball they were using. A couple of the players ran for a lot of yards and a touchdown. There was a nice pass and an even better catch. As I watched the game, I wondered which, if any, of these kids will play on a big stage some day. If they do, and even if they do not, they can always look back at their childhood and that short football field in their small hometown. They can look back and get a glimpse of a game that helped shape their lives. There have been many young men and women who have gone on to play a professional sport who came from smaller towns than this, including a Cy Young Award winner in baseball. They needed a little more than average talent and a whole lot of work ethic. But they made it. Pat Williams recalled in his book titled The Warrior Within, that his dad took him to a major league baseball game when he was seven years old. He wrote that that particular day set the course of his adult life. His dad was also his first coach. Today's Winning Thought: "If you are a father, then you had better be a hands-on father. No other goal or obligation in your life even comes close." -- Pat Williams

6-1, 0-7

I went to a high school football game tonight. It was painful. Our local high school team lost for the seventh time this season. They are still winless. The team played well in the first half and had a double-digit lead at halftime. The third quarter was not pretty. This team is not an offensive juggernaut, so they must master the little things. This is not a team that can lose the ball on turnovers and still have enough margin to overcome its challenges. Our college team, on the other hand, is 6-1. The team lost its only game, in overtime, to the number one team in the nation. Since their opening loss they have been beating every team they play like a dirty throw rug. Football is just a game. I was reminded of that today when I heard about a high school player in Oklahoma who died earlier this week. But I believe that if you are going to play the game, you should take it seriously and strive to win. There are many life lessons we can learn from both teams. I remember speaking to our high school team prior to a game 20 years ago. I took someone with me - my young daughter. I talked to the players about overcoming the challenges they would face on the football field and in life. I had overcome challenges related to my daughter, who was born with Down syndrome and a heart defect. This was a challenge because before she was born I was the kind of person who would walk as fast as I could to another aisle in the store so I would not have to see people with mental or physical disability. I felt so guilty because I was so healthy. It was all I could do to cope. When our daughter was born, I had to change. I had to overcome my challenges very quickly. Some days were more difficult than others. The message to the team that night, and to this team next week if I were delivering their pre-game speech, was to keep working hard. Work through the trials you are facing. And believe me, there are plenty of trials in an 0-7 season. We can also learn from the college team. This team wins nine or 10 games each season. I don't know if they are feeling any pressure, but expectations are higher for them because all they do is win. To this team, and to you if you are having a winning season in life, I would encourage them to not get ahead of themselves. Stay focused, do the fundamental things better than anyone else, don't take your success for granted. You are as good as your last game. Today's Winning Thought: Whether you are 6-1 or 0-7, work hard and do not forget the basics. They will serve you well.