3, 2, 1 Liftoff!

Great New Year 2012! Purposely avoiding the usual list of resolutions, in its stead there is a strong mental and physical commitment to forge forward throughout this new year. Allow me to share the three countdown words that constitute resolute action to take us to higher heights:

Proactive: Wisdom purports that “timing is everything” and indeed that may be true. Sometimes we must act as the timekeeper ourselves, initiating the action – sending out that first smile, calling a friend instead of returning the call and offer the kind unexpected word and action daily.

Clarity: Transparency is trendy, but beyond the trendiness daily progress requires continual focus and pellucid living. This is yes or no, do or do not, black or white, no gray area and nothing stored to clutter or accumulate.

Conficernment: Now there’s a new word for you (my gift.) Start the new year with a dynamic combination of confidence and discernment and you get conficernment. Surely great strides will accompany certitude, assurance and an acuteness of understanding to only do what is the right thing to do.

These three words create action, focus and insight, which will ignite your launch sequence for 2012! Headed toward the stratosphere of success. Climb aboard.

The Value of Voices

When you have to compete with all the noise bombarding us each day, how in the world can anyone hear what you have to say?

Stop for a moment and think about all noise we have heard over the last few months. We have been subjected to all kinds of sounds coming from a variety of venues and directions: political campaigns, countless media reports of pre and post-election coverage, football fans screaming, holiday celebrations and yes, even the barrage of electronic and social networking spheres seem to raise the noise level all around us.

We have become so accustomed to the continuous noise levels that millions of Americans cannot sleep without some form of white noise.

Trying to be heard above the crowd noise used to mean that you had to raise your voice to be recognized…now you just have to use your voice. The constant increase in noise and the onslaught of non-verbal communication through numerous social media networks has given new value to individual human voices. Talking one-on-one used to be the most common way of communicating, today it may not be the most common, but it certainly remains the most valuable.

If you want to deliver your message with maximum impact, nothing comes close to that of a single voice taking time to share an important message. It is no longer about raising your voice to be heard, effective personal communication now comes from just using your one voice.

Want to be heard above the noise? Just talk to me.

Silent Anticipation

 

Sitting alone in the dark quiet of Christmas Eve morning among the twinkling of the Christmas tree and flickers from the fireplace beholds a special silent anticipation.

Before others awake adding excitement to the environment, I am enveloped in this serene moment of stillness. While mezmorized by the lights, my thoughts are filled with a steady stream of faces coming to mind…family, friends, colleagues and pets. These thoughts are joined by the first hint of dawn’s light in the morning sky.

This is the joy of Christmas, being grateful for all we are given and knowing there is even greater joy in celebrating the birth of our savior. Silent anticipation of eternal joy.  Gratitude for the blessings of the day.

Life Flights

Recent airline travel for a vacation trip to Chicago offered an excellent opportunity for me to observe some important life lessons that are often overlooked during hectic business trips. Leisure travel with my wife made me aware of some simple travel truths experienced that are easily translated to our daily life flight. 

There has always been a cost for excess baggage. When the airlines started charging for extra baggage, folks were in an uproar. Truth is we pay daily for all the excess baggage we personally haul around. It definitely affects our balance, power consumption and altitude.

Pressurized cabins require lots of oxygen. Whenever we are feeling pressure all around us, it is the time to breathe deeply. So many times we get caught up in trying to multitask and take everything in that we forget about the basic need to supply our brain with oxygen to stay focused. Slow down and breathe deep.

A one-way ticket is going to cost more. Typically airline travel is more economical when booking a round-trip. Life is the same; you always gain more when your relationships involve give and take.

You can still land safely even when you have flown through turbulence. Every flight is not going to be smooth. Sometimes you have to fly through, over, under or around the storms. The key to arriving at your destination is to have a safe landing.

Check your bags, buckle up and enjoy your journey from a higher altitude.

Attitude Altimeter

Our attitudes are so often influenced by outside factors – day of week, special events, health, time of day, travel and yes, certainly those we interact with each day. While most of us are quick to adjust our attitudes in response to some of the aforementioned items, few of are aware of or check our personal attitude altimeter.

We rely on all types of gauges throughout the day to ensure we don’t go over the speed limit, run out of gas, arrive timely, remember our appointments and are comfortable in our surroundings. Unfortunately for too many of us, myself included, we fail to keep an eye on a most important gauge, our attitude altimeter, to ensure a smooth flight throughout our daily lives.  Truth be known, many of us don’t realize we even have an altitude altimeter and by default we allow our emotions to act as such.

Absent of the physical presence of an attitude gauge, I am slowly learning how to improve the navigation of the daily terrain I traverse. Far from accomplished in the process, I have learned a few key steps to better optimize my personal attitude altimeter:

1. You can only adjust your own attitude gauge.

While we may impact and influence others with our attitudes, just as they do to us, attitudes are only adjusted by the individual that owns them.

2. Your body provides continued signals of your attitude altimeter.

Just as you prefer to enjoy a smooth flight or even keeled attitude, you have to be quick to respond and appropriately adjust to your attitude altimeter’s warning lights.

3. Proper maintenance is continually required for optimal performance.

You are your own ground and baggage crew. You have to know and maintain proper loads and balance for optimal life flight.

Our individual attitude altimeter is the important gauge for us to measure and monitor in order to optimize everything we seek to accomplish and encounter. Keep in mind that while we may be able to observe someone else’s attitude altimeter, our view and perspective makes reading theirs is much more difficult to accurately gauge. We can offer support and suggestion to influence it, but honestly an attitude altimeter is only controlled by the individual.

A good flight with a safe landing, whether airborne or through life, will always be subject to keeping your eye on the altimeter.

Love that Grows

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life – Deborah.  On 04/22/10 we celebrate 21 fun years of marriage. For me I can truly say she is my best friend and soul mate. I am grateful and blessed that she loves me and continues to put  up with me.

Thinking back on our wedding day I was struck with the thought of how many of the important things surrounding our wedding day that have changed over those 21 years:

• Ausley Farmhouse where we had our rehearsal dinner is long gone and now the Buckhead subdivision in Tallahassee.
• The church we got married in has been converted into special school for arts & sciences.
• The ballroom where we had our reception has changed ownership several times.
• The hotel where we spent our wedding night has been sold and renovated to become the Hotel Duval.      

If you look at our wedding picture, for me I have less hair and a few more pounds. As for Deborah, she is more beautiful.

What has also changed is our love for one another – it has grown to a special place that we both hold dear. We know what each other is thinking, we finish each others’ sentences and we definitely understand each others’ non-verbal communication.

As  individuals, we are no more special than anyone else; as a couple we are blessed beyond measure and our love for one another continues to grow. Happy Anniversary Sweetheart – you make loving fun!

2009 – A Positively Tweet Year

Sometimes in your life you are fortunate to be at the right place at the right time and so it was for me on Twitter in 2009. I began tweeting in March ’08 to follow @claytonbell during the birth of his daughter Caroline. From the start I was amazed being able to share in the excitement of Caroline’s arrival.  The same same energy and excitement continues and is ignited almost daily in communicating with those whom I now count as some of my closest friends via Twitter: the #PositivePosse.

No coincidence, it is only divine intervention through innovation that brings the unique talents, creativity and personalities together that make up the PositivePosse. Interesting enough no one person ever said “let’s form the group” or let’s call ourselves the PositivePosse” or “let’s include so and so,” it was nuclear fusion social media style. Long before the introduction of Twitter lists, we formed global bonds of friendship and compassion beginning in early 2009. With friends connected from Sydney Australia, to Ontario, Canada, the PositivePosse is what I often refer to as the GlobalGreats. While there are numerous followers and many other great Twitter friends, allow me to highlight the original PositivePosse crew:

@Iconic88 and @Bridget_Cooks – Sydney, Australia: Our Chief Happiness Officer and The InternetChef. There are no finer folks to be first to start a new day on the planet than these two.

Global Greats

@nlupus – Minsk, Belarus: Sasha is a young, smart gent talented in technology and social media innovation.

@funkysteph – Luxembourg: Steph knows information technology; she shares and inspires with her communications daily.

@ph1lm – Cambridge, England: Phil is a great encourager with a caring heart, which is a great talent combined with his web development.

@juliarosien – Ontario, Canada: Julia is the epicenter of energy and combines it with fun. Julia is a talented and spirited communicator personally and professionally.

@stacijshelton – Akron, Ohio: Staci is the superstar of compassion and caring. She goes way beyond networking, she builds strong relationships. Twitter lights up when she logs on.

@aceconcierge – Wilmington, NC: Suzie recently moved from the NE to the North Carolina. She is a master at getting the task done; with a little jolt of java she will literally kick it up a notch. She brings a smile with the fun.

@CoachCharrise – South Bend, Indiana: A treasured friend and talented life coach. Charrise’s advice sets new heights and opens new opportunities continuously. She speaks and writes truth fearlessly.

@johnlusher – Roanoke, Virginia: John is a proven technology connector and social media strategist. He puts his heart into all he does.

@vincenthunt – Albany, Georgia: look up creativity in the dictionary you will find Vincent’s avatar. Innovative, thinker, visionary, collaborator, gentleman genius. He is and has an amazing spirit.

@jerry_cohen – New York, New York: Jerry is an attorney who is informed and innovative in a very positive way. He understands how the value of social media can be an asset to businesses and individuals.

@tkpleslie – Minneapolis, Minnesota: Leslie is a gifted writer and social media leader for the furniture industry. Her passion and talent is evident in every post.

@sandyguerriere – Wilmington, NC: author, photographer and writer, Sandy shares her talent in both her local and online community.

@bkmacdaddy – Tallahassee, FL: Brian knows how to bring social media communication to life. Multi-talented and works to get it right and sings too.

Log on just about any morning shortly after 5:00 am and you will see #PositivePosse sharing a cup of coffee and encouraging one another for the day ahead. Our friendships have meant business opportunities, collaboration, sharing, laughter, compassion and the start of life-long relationships. Much has been written about the power of social media but I sincerely doubt there is a better example of global communication and friendships than those forged through the #PositivePosse.

Our circle of friends continues to grow and include countless others whom we look forward to tweeting with on Twitter. No doubt these friends and the PositivePosse serve strong year ’round, which makes for a positively tweet year!

Pressure Cleaning

It seems like many of us go to extravagant efforts to prepare for the holidays or a special event that we are hosting. Sometimes the planning and work for these seasonal celebrations will begin months in advance with some deep cleaning. Internally the deep cleaning may involve closets and carpets, while externally the deep cleaning means pressure washing the hard exterior.

I am not one to typically enjoy intense cleaning chores, but I found pressure cleaning to be different. The repetitive process of waving the water wand over the targeted area involves strength and steadiness. The act of pressure washing is deceptively relaxing while accomplishing cleansing of dirt build up that has gone unnoticed over time. Every now and then you may have to focus on a particularly tough spot, but the results are always rewarding.

The pre-holiday pressure washing made me realize how we also need some seasonal pressure cleaning in our work and personal lives. Pressure washing covers targeted areas and usually takes time on task for the best results. Sometimes it takes a focused stream of pressure to help us get rid of some our own built up soil or some of the hard to get spots. The intense pressure of the cleaning wand, regardless of it’s form, might even sting a bit at times.

So where do you need some personal pressure cleaning? To keep our hard exterior shining from the inside out, I recommend an occasional pressure wash – the end result is well worth the time and stinging of the chore.

Imagining Life Without Fear

I have found that some books arrive at just the right time in my life; that is clearly the case with Fearless by Max Lucado. Amidst all of the uncertainty surrounding us today it is easy to be frozen in fear for any multitude of reasons. Lucado’s latest book does a good job of covering numerous aspects of fear while staying focused throughout.

In order to imagine a life without fear, we first must comprehend why we are afraid? While fear may seem elementary to understand, Lucado offers his trademark style of using a systematic uncovering of the roots of fear without rehashing old clichés. I was still in Chapter 1 when I totally struck by the following: “Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that.”

Lucado does an excellent job of sharing how fear surfaces in the seasons of our life from childhood to the senior years. Beyond just identifying fear, the book has both a scriptural and common sense approach to breaking out of the prison of fear. Fleeing fears from the depths of ocean all the way to alien abduction, Lucado helps the reader to identify the origin of our fears while sharing true and timeless wisdom to live a life unshackled.

Fearless is a good quick read; it is one of those books to keep on active reading rotation. There will be times when I pull this one back out for encouragement and elevation of attitude. It seems to me that Fearless was written and released at a time when our battles with fear are raging; as Lucado shares, it is time to battle and conquer them.

Getting Engaged

If you are outside of a relationship, the very thought of getting engaged can quickly strike fear. Like personal relationships, those formed on-line or virtually in social networking communities function very similar to those we forge in person. There is an unspoken expectation of protocol and etiquette from those in the relationship along with some good advice to adhere to the appropriate rules of engagement.

We all function and exist in a multitude of relationships – the people, settings and structures of which form the rules for each accordingly. We learn in relationships, both personal and those in social networking communities, there are common sense rules; yes there are some unwritten rules. I have learned the unwritten rules are the ones you typically learn about after having become aware that you have violated one or more of them.

No different than it would be to butt into someone else’s conversation mid-sentence, the smooth entry for social networking is to listen first and then join in the conversation in an appropriate manner and time. Who is talking, listening, how and what is being said. Put your periscope up, look around, take a scan of the horizon. With a sense of perspective, you are much more likely to be on target in positively engaging the relationship for the short or long-term.

Successful engagement in social networking communities and on-line conversations begins with an awareness of the multiple paths to how we can get engaged. Assimilation and long term success in the relationship comes from working the right path and simply following the rules. Defining “engagement” would involve significant detailed direction, so allow me to share this excellent road map as a resource, courtesy of the ThinkMap Visual Thesaurus.

Growing your social networking relationships is rewarding in numerous ways. You have the ThinkMap, you know the rules…get the right perspective and get engaged.