Courage of Conviction

I wrote an article on being organized - my definition of being organized is probably not what you would expect.

For me, organization has nothing to do with perfection. Let’s be serious for a moment - my wife and I have three children aged 5, 3, and 1 - perfect organization just doesn’t happen in our house. There is no expectation that everything will be in its own place and tidy.

To me being organized is not about spending a great deal of time cleaning, buying organizational supplies, sorting, etc. My definition of being organized has everything to do with effectiveness.

The questions you want to ask yourself when it comes to being organized are:

What’s your definition of being organized? Are you looking for perfection? Do you need to alter your definition and expectations based on your circumstances and your personality? What small changes to your physical space could you make that would make you feel 10% more organized? How about mentally? When’s the last time you looked at your strategic plan?

I wrote an article about washing my cell phone. Yes, it’s true - I wasn’t careful, didn’t check the pockets of my shorts and ended up with a clean, but unworkable phone. In times like these, there are plenty of lessons to be learned from such mistakes. In fact, events like this give us a moment to ask some questions of ourselves. Here’s a sample of the questions this event caused me to ask:

I tell you this story for a couple of reasons - first when you go through an unpleasant experience, what’s the silver lining? What are you learning from the experience? What do you have control over?

Second - make an assessment - ie. ask yourself questions - How bad do I need a phone? Can things wait until a later time without chaos happening?

Today I wrote a post about control.  Here’s an excerpt:

What do you have control over?  Be honest, and I mean really honest, with yourself - what do you really have control over?

The answer is - not much.  You really don’t have control over much of what happens.  About the only control that you have, to some degree, is how your react to things.  Even then, our subconscious habits control most of how we react.

Today on my EADDblog, I posted an article on saving money and how it relates to life and business.  Here’s an excerpt:

This past week, I cut out about six different monthly services that my wife and I haven’t been using all that much.  These were for both business and personal use - including the landline phone at home.  It’s been months since I picked up the landline to make a call - so why did we keep paying the phone company $35 each month?   

In total, we’ll be saving just under $200 each month by canceling the services that we did.  So why didn’t we do this months ago?  Why did we keep sending our hard earned money to other people for things we didn’t use?   

and…

The lesson is simple - small things, when combined, can make big impacts.  It’s true when in comes to money.  It’s also true when it comes to time.   

I posted an article on my EADDblog about urgency and putting out fires.  I based it off of a blog post from Seth Godin on the subject.  It’s really an excellent piece and worth the read.  Here’s a piece:

You can have grand visions for remodeling your house or getting in shape, but if there’s a fire in the kitchen, you drop everything and put it out. What choice do you have? The problem, of course, is that most organizations are on fire, most of the time.

Over on my EADDblog, I posted an article about signing up for the Hartford Marathon, why I decided to run another marathon and how it relates to business.  Here’s an excerpt:

The marathon signifies so many things to me - perseverence, dedication, development, pushing yourself to your limits and beyond, attitude, focus, and more.  People ask me how I can do it, year after year.  How can I do all the training that is required, especially with a young family.  How can I run 4 hours straight.  How can I be excited about getting out an running in the rain in the early morning.  How can I…

The simple answer is that I can’t do any of that - what I can do is be someone who takes one step and then another and then another.  It’s not about running 26.2 miles - it’s about running up to the next corner, or taking the next step - pushing myself to do just one more because I know I can.  Small and simple is the way you do a marathon.  As the old Chinese proverb goes - the journey of a thousand miles begins with one first step.  The same is true with a marathon. 

The key for you, my dear reader, is to relate the marathon to yourself.  What is your marathon?  Is it your business? 

Enjoy.

Rhonda Hebbard, from Luxor Marketing, posted some ideas about distraction on her blog.  She related an experience she had with distraction with somethings I had told her recently.  Enjoy!

It’s nice to see people being nice to other people over the Internet.  One such good example is Bill Columbus.  Bill is a cartoonist.  I met Bill at a Chamber of Commerce function a couple of months ago, thought his business was interesting and decided to see if I could put him in touch with other people who might be able to help him out.  Unfortunately, none of the contacts I sent him panned out.

Bill wrote a nice blog post on his blog just yesterday about the experience.  You can read it here.  It’s nice to see that I’m not alone in restoring people’s faith in other people.  Enjoy.

I warned you that I was going to make some changes.  Not only is the look and feel of the blog new and improved, but I’ve also made other changes as well. 

I changed the theme to be more in line with my business website - www.somedayisland.com.  If you visit the site, you’ll see what I mean. 

I created an “about” page which gives you a little insight into the direction this blog is heading. 

I created a new survey for you to participate in. 

I cut down on the number of categories - which means that a bunch of previous posts are now uncategorized.  They are still there, but you’ll have to search a bit more for them than previously.  All new posts will fit into the categories I’ve created.  I now have four link sections for your convenience - Business, Leadership, Networking, and Politics.  I’ll be adding more links to the first three as I come across worthy sites.  I may add another category - Development.  This would be a category of sites that are people-development oriented.  This could also include spiritual development.  We’ll see what happens here.  All in all, I’m open to suggestions of links you like and use. 

Enjoy the new Courage of Conviction.

I’ll be making some changes to the blog over the next couple of weeks.  I’ll still be commenting on issues and news stories that attract my attention - I will just be mixing in some new features which I believe will make the blog even better than it already is.  

Here’s a preview to what you’ll start to see.  First off, I’ll be incorporating more of my “real job” into the blog.  This means that there will be some changes to the content of the blog.  I’ve never really taken full advantage of the whole concept of courage here at the blog.  I plan on changing that.  The focus will be on courage - unleashing courage to be exact.  Courage is displayed in many forms and I plan on highlighting examples, some political, some not.  I’ll share thoughts on courage development - both my thoughts and others.  I really see this blog as a tool for developing courage for people who have an interest in courage. 

Recently I added a podcast radio show, called The Keystone Report.  I plan on having an weekly podcast, sometimes more.  When I record a show, I’ll be sure to post the podcast here.  As many of you know, I write for The National Networker and have occasionally posted my articles here.  I plan on posting all of my articles here. 

There are other changes that I’m working on that I think readers of this blog will really like - like an online community devoted to politics, that is unique and goes far beyond alot of the other networking sites that are out there. 

I’m also working on changing the look of of the blog, so don’t be surprised if you go to the blog one day and it looks different.  I may even test a few looks out.  When I do make changes please make sure to leave your feedback, positive or negative.  If negative, please give me some suggestions for how to improve, don’t just complain. 

You’ll see other small changes, added features, etc. to the blog.  Enjoy!