During our Ireland Wisdom Council this past September, we visited a Climate Change exhibit.  At the end of our tour, four college students at the customer service desk were ready to answer any questions we had.  As a Dad and Granddad, I naturally took the opportunity to ask them what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives.

The first three eagerly responded with aspirations of changing the world through social policy, animal welfare and natural resource conservation.  When I got to the fourth young man, he looked down at the desk and in a low voice said, "I'm majoring in robotics.  I guess I'm going to take jobs away from a lot of people."

My heart sank.  Not because of his chosen profession, but because how he FELT about his chosen profession.

Perfect time to share some wisdom.  Here's what I told him ….

Imagine four cavemen huddled around the fire after a long hard day of hunting and hauling big rocks for their home structure.  One...

Ever felt like an underdog?  Does that mountain you need to climb look … HUGE!

I've had those feelings since …. forever.  I'm the youngest of four.  I didn't grow up in a normal family.  (Did any of us?)  My parents had an uncanny way of expecting excellence, but without speaking a word.  No overt pressure.  Their primary force du jour was Silent Disapproval.  My siblings were all excellent at their chosen tracks.  My oldest brother is an intellectual genius.  My sister, an extraordinary professional artist.  My other older brother, a financial guru.  I felt a constant pressure to excel. 

When we played cards, I would lose.  When we played the game Risk, I would lose.  When we played Monopoly, I would lose.  When we wrestled on the floor in the living room, I would always get pinned. 

Silent Disapproval and Relentless Comparison with Continual Defeats.

I've talked this over with my...

What we never had in the beginning was never ours

Just borrowed

We enter the world with our spirit

And it's with our spirit, we depart

All else .... just borrowed

Even our time is unknown

Borrowed time

What do you do with all these borrowed things and borrowed time?

Do you take them?

Use them up?

Leave this world with less than what it had before you arrived?

Or

Do you treat these gifts of time and things preciously?

Adding your talent to them

Giving back

Nurturing them like a beautiful prairie field

Oh, can’t you see Her beauty!

The grasses bending as the breeze cuts across the field

Billowy clouds create pillows of cool shadows

Clean fresh air fills your lungs with each breath

We are not natural takers

We’ve learned these ways

Time to unlearn

Time to return to being givers

Living in harmony

Giving back to each other

Giving back to the nature we call ... Her

Mother Earth

It is TIME

And it's just...

Borrowed

In...

You've got the task in your sights.  It may be simple or hard, but what you need to do is clear.  It doesn't get done.  You move it to next day's or next week's To Do list.  Still doesn't get done.  You convince yourself you'll get tired of moving it to the next To Do list.   And it still doesn't get done.

You may have a bunch of reasons why push it off, but this is a specific kind of pushed task.  It's the kind where you've got a story in your head that you're not good at that task. 

"Oh, I'm not good with numbers."  Or, "I'm not good at technology."

It requires you to…..gulp….. LEARN something you don't want to!  I call these:  "I don't wanna" Competencies.

If you find yourself lacking a competency critical to your success and you lack the drive to learn it.  You can make one of 3 choices. 

1. Build that competency – build a personal learning program
2. Buy that competency – engage a coach...

What is the most sensual voice you've ever heard?  YIKES!  Where are we going with THAT question? 

Vocalics.

Vocalics is the study of all stimuli produced by the human voice that affect the auditory sense.  It's not the words themselves, but how the words sound.  Even pauses and silence are our instruments of vocalics.

Have you ever thought about how you sound?  It's time to hike up your awareness and skills of vocalics because people hear the emotion in your words maybe even more than the meaning of the words themselves! 

When we project our voice, we think of it as our voice.  We may initialize it from within our body, but once it gets out there, it really isn't ours anymore.  Once our voice leaves our bodies, three little ear bones vibrate in the other person's body. 

How intimate is THAT? 

Let's do our own experiment.  Hum a really low note.  Where do you feel that in your body?  Now hum a really high...

Have you ever stressed out about what someone thinks about you?  Yep, I've done it too.

After my divorce, I all too often wondered what my ex-wife was telling my daughters about me.  Was she saying good things?  Disparaging things?  I wondered and worried.  It really ate me up inside.  I thought about being direct and asking her, but would she tell me the truth – especially if she was telling them icky stuff?  And I must admit, there was enough icky truths to tell them, too!  Should I ask my young daughters?  Aargh…this was SO frustrating!

We worry about what others think.  Every time you think about what another person is thinking, you give that person power over this moment in your life.   Is it worth your mindshare, your energy?  If it's not worth it, you leak energy and personal power!!  YIKES!

So how do you prevent leaking personal power?  I analyze these situations with three simple...

We traveled a long way to get here.  Delphi, Greece.  The place where Pythia, the Delphi Oracle, received pilgrims seeking answers to questions related to their most pressing issues.  Politicians, kings and philosophers traveled the arduous journey to the Delphi Oracle.  Why?  Because they believed she spoke Truth. 

What question would you ask, if you had complete faith the answer would be absolutely True?

I call this the Delphi Oracle Question (DOQ).  I use this metaphor in my events and programs.  When I prepare for big events or ceremonies, I brainstorm my DOQ.  Review and revise it.  Imagine if you could receive absolute Truth, wouldn't you hone that question to get it just right?  The process of honing my question is a habit and I'm amazed at how the question is always answered!  Perhaps not in the way or timing I expect, but always answered.

Well, here I was at the actual site of the Delphi Oracle!  Magnificent...

You may think this piece is about life after turning 55.  I have a great story of turning 50, but that story is for another time.

This story begins in Cuzco, Peru.  A few years ago, I had a magical 'pull' to conduct an event in the sacred mountains of Machu Picchu.  I conducted a dry run of the event because of the exotic location.  So, my team and I took off for Machu Picchu, flying through Lima and staging in Cuzco Peru.

When I landed in Cuzco, I felt a little 'off.'  It was like having a mild case of sunstroke.  A little confusion.  Head a little blurry.  Altitude.  Cuzco is at about 11,000 feet.  I slept well that first night, but woke in the morning still dizzy.  I was downing coco tea, a local remedy for altitude sickness.  Due to my Cardiac Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), I carry a small oximeter which measures my oxygen levels.  Oximeter read 64%.  For people without lung problems, typical readings...

I was talking to a Senior at my alma mater, Purdue, recently.  He was graduating with a four-year graphic design degree.  Wow!  Think of the hard work.  The many classes.  Drawings.  Computer Programs.  Tests.  Projects.  4 years of hard work.

"What do you want to do when you graduate."

His answer surprised me.

"I'm not sure I'm qualified to take a full-time job so I'm thinking I'll take a part-time job to learn what I need to do a good job."

I looked at him.  Stunned.  Here's a young man who has worked hard for 4 years and doesn't have the confidence to put his hard work into practice.  I guess he's suffering from the "Not Good Enough" syndrome.  Ever caught that dis-ease?

I launched into my story from my Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering and how I had seen many failures along the way.  One particular one sticks with me today.  You see, I flunked second semester Organic Chemistry in my second...

"Let's Go. Go. Go!!"      "Where are we going?"

My 4-year old nephew.  So full of life.  Boundless energy.  Always seeking the next big adventure.  His life is one discovery after another.

I was also taken aback by his exclamation.  Our lives are full of activity, but do we fill our lives with Action?  Do we know where we're going? 

Webster defines Action as the accomplishment of a thing.  And Success is the accomplishment of an Aim or Goal.

Action is different than Activity.  Action moves towards your goal.  It's your journey to achieve what you want …. your success! 

Sit back for a moment and think about what you want to accomplish today.  Write it down.  What Action do you need to take today to accomplish that thing?  Voila!  You have today's Action Plan!  Today's Success is within reach!

Now let's hone this a bit.  Any activity not aligned with accomplishing the...