Spike's Advice

A Misplaced Purpose

 

Sometimes we go along to get along. We do what is expected at the expense of what we always hoped, dreamed, and intended to become.

I've been there.

Sometimes I return there too; less these days but it's still easy at times to be lulled by past habits, convenience, and obligation. I too have been seduced by the familiar and the comfortable.

But I do my best, I am my best, and I give the most when I'm most aligned with my truest intent and my highest purpose.

Purpose is the fuel that powers the soul. It's the manna from the universe the pulls us closer to what we were born to do.

What's my purpose?

My purpose is to be the best I can be. It's to give all I can give—that's easy enough.

But what's my real purpose? Why have I created the circumstance, the opportunity, and the challenges that surround me? What is it that makes me uniquely human and an inimitable soul?

The eternal question, "why am I here?"

I believe in my heart of hearts, my human existence is to recover, rediscover, and reconnect with my soul, my spirit; to align my energies and my actions toward a path of contribution and realization of a divine purpose.

My purpose is this--to lead, guide, and inspire people to live an aligned life; to help people choose a vocation and an avocation (or avocations) that stir their soul and passions. My purpose is to help business leaders as people and organizations to create the greatest value they can for themselves, their employees, their stakeholders, their customers, clients, and their market.

As a consultant, as a speaker, as an author everything I aspire to be and endeavor to accomplish is to help the people I meet or work with discover and honor their uniqueness for their own benefit and for the betterment of the world. In business that significance could be a service or a product. In relationships and social interactions, it could be simply a smile, an act of kindness, a charitable contribution, or a passionate cause. Ultimately my purpose is to help people realize and act upon their own divine purpose and their personal mission of service to themselves and others.

What's your purpose?

You have always known; perhaps you misplaced it, you simply have to ask the question and look deeply into your soul to rediscover it.

 

 

Get up, Shut up, and Put up

 

Admittedly, this post might be off-putting to some. For those who might feel anything less than positive for what I'm about to say, I apologize in advance but ask for your indulgence to read beyond your initial reaction. It's personal to me and I think there's value for others.

I'm proud of my accomplishments as humble and as modest as they may be by some standards in both life and in business. I'm equally, perhaps more appreciative of the obstacles I've overcome. Not that my hurdles have been any higher than yours or anyone else's but they were mine to jump over just the same. But, after all, as Arthur Schopenhauer said, "To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence."

However, progress is seldom made without models and mentors to grow from and to be guided by.

The most influential person in my life has been and is my Mom. She grew up first in an orphanage, and then lived in a less than functional adoptive home. She was a single parent raising me (the hard-headed sort that I was and am) and bringing up my brothers and sisters from her early age of seventeen. She never had the advantages I was given, earned, or learned along the way but her wisdom and insight was not only an inspiration but the whack-upside-the-head I needed to first survive, then get by, and eventually thrive.

She taught me to love music—soul music; she taught me that to dance through life is a key to happiness and to appreciate what I have and go after what I want.

From her, I learned the meaning of respect—give respect and expect to receive respect in return.

My Mom is 69 years old, 5"4 about 120 pounds but to this day, even though I'm over 6 feet tall and about 240 lbs, she'd beat my butt in an instant (and she could) if I'd ever give her a cross look, an insolent word, or were to whine to her about my current state of affairs . Not because she doesn't love me, respect me, or think that I'm not an adult but because giving respect, expecting respect, and making life what one wants it to be is one of our family standards.

My Momma taught me independence, how to love without limits, and to honor the distinctions in all people, races, religions, cultures, and circumstance.

Most vividly she value of knowing the difference between "can't" and won't".

When I was about nine or ten years old, on one occasion my Mom told me to do something; the task I forget, the lesson I'll always remember. When she told me to do whatever it was at the time I said "Mom, I can't". Her words stayed with me forever. "Son, when you tell me you 'can't', either you're telling me you 'don't know how' or you 'won't'. If you're telling me you don't know how, I'll teach you how; if you are telling me you won't, then I'm gonna beat ya; now which one is it… you don't know how or you won't do it?"

I'd don't know if her words were original wisdom, instinct, something she heard or was taught but it sure worked for me; I'd much rather be taught than "whupped". I learned that there are few things I couldn't do if I was willing to learn and had the benefit of someone showing me the way.

My Mom taught me not to judge people by their religion, color, creed, ethnicity, or economic status but make up my mind by who they were and are as individuals and the actions they took.

I learned from my Mom, never to back down, never to give up, and never forget I can be, do, and become whatever I put my mind to. She taught me I'm no better, no worse than anyone else and that diversity and adversity are gifts that "God" or the "universe" given to us to learn and grow from. She taught me it matters not from where I came, but only where I am and where I am going that counts.

Most importantly, though she never said it, my Momma taught me when life, business, people, or events get tough, when things go wrong, when days get you down to "GET UP, SHUT UP, and PUT UP"

Momma, this is for you, I love you and thank you for all you are and all you do.

 

Success from the Inside Out

How does the world, your contemporaries, your competitors, or others define success in life or in business?

Is it fame, notoriety, wealth, popularity, power? Is it a certain amount of profit, income, or market share?

Who cares?

Success, true success should be defined on your own terms and in the context of what you can influence and control in your own life and business.

William Faulkner said "Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." It may not be your definition of "success" but it's a pretty darn good example of succeeding, in my opinion.

To me, success is being better at what's most important to me than I've been before. Success means being the best I can in the endeavors, pursuits, principles, and passions I hold most dear. It matters not by who's standard, simply my own.

Success, like love, beauty, happiness, and all things grand and glorious is a subjective, abstract criterion that has only the meaning we give it.

I can't tell you how to be totally happy, what true love means to you or what or who is the height of beauty, but I can tell you this. If you ask 100 people to give you a universal, undeniable definition and ultimate proof that their "opinion" is the one true interpretation of happiness, love, and beauty you're going to get dozens of different answers for a 100 different reasons and rationales. Same goes for success.

Tony Robbins is fond of saying "success leaves clues"; that it does. Examples of success exist all around us. But I would caution not to use the "success" of others as the measure or the definition of your own success.

Model the strategies of people who meet your definition of success in your areas of passion and aspiration. Use their performance for inspiration. Learn from their mistakes and their accomplishments. But evaluate yourself by your own standards, your own capabilities, and most importantly your definition of "personal" success.

The Road Half Taken

 

There is a beautiful and profound poem by Robert Frost called "The Road Not Taken" http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html).

It's a wonderful ode on why it is sometimes better (sometimes not) to go the way less traveled but either way to follow your instincts, your heart, and the path of your own soul and that in itself makes all the difference.

The path that you take, to me is less important than engaging whichever path you choose with a full commitment –in business, life, or relationships. Too often, we begin a journey with great hope and expectation but with less than a full-out commitment. Taking a path, beginning a journey, or making a decision with a half-hearted commitment is the truest course to mediocrity at best and stagnation and a direct road to regret at worst.

Think of the most successful people you know of or know in business. Consider your family, your circle of friends, or your mentors or models of great accomplishment. Again, success is a subjective term so think of the people you most admire and best meet your criteria of success. Were they tentative? Were they half-hearted, partially committed to their mission, vision, values, and destination? Absolutely not.

When I look at the periods of my own life when I've had the most frustration, the deepest disappointments, the greatest feelings of failure—in hindsight the cause was clear. I left open too many options, too many alternatives, and too many divergent paths or choices to make along the way. In my moments of greatest happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment they have always been without exception when I made one clear, committed choice to a destination I would reach no matter the obstacle or hindrance.

Please understand, I'm not saying you can't ever wander off into the proverbial "woods" without a plan, without an intention, or without a destination. It might be exciting and even growth-enhancing to take an occasional trip of spontaneous exploration; in itself it can be rewarding and an exercise in self-discovery. What I am advocating is that in order to pursue a path, a goal, a clearly defined destination you must take the path you choose with purposeful commitment and conviction.

If you have a goal, pursue it vigorously. If you are clear on where you want to go and you choose the best road to get you there, never stop, never give up, never give-in. Let not a rock, a gully, a hill, or a mountain stand in your way. Use every ounce of strength, every resource, element of ingenuity within your being and at your disposal to carry you along the way on the "road fully taken".

Visions of What’s Possible

 

Everything begins with a vision of what's possible. The questions for the world and for our surroundings of "Why", "Why Not", "What if" and "What else is possible" are the foundation of all creation, creativity, and change.

The key that unlocks our personal potential is asking those same questions of ourselves and for ourselves.

There's a proverb that says "Where there is no vision, the people perish". In my humble opinion, it goes even deeper than that. Where there is no vision, our individuality, our purpose, and our passion perish.

The beginning of all change, of all progress, and all possibility begins with a vision that something else is possible. Better health? A more fulfilling relationship? A business with greater rewards? A career with greater recognition and satisfaction? More prosperity and an improved financial condition? Greater contribution to ourselves, our family, our community, the world we live in? It all begins with imagination, foresight, and healthy unwillingness to settle for less than what's possible.

You might stumble upon change for the better by default. I guarantee you won't create positive, productive, and passion-enhancing change by design without having a greater vision of what's possible.

My vision for you is to embrace all your all potential, all your possibility, all your hopes, and pursue your most dearly-held dreams and deepest desires and turn them into a reality. Don't settle for anything less than you deserve or less than you can be.

Your vision must be your own; you must embrace it, nurture it, love it, and adore the possibility of it. Contemplate it, visualize it, and embrace it with all of your passion, might, and soul.

Invest in this exercise…

Take three pieces of paper.

Label the first, "What I am, do, or have that I would like to change."

Label the second "What I am, do, or have that I would like to increase".

Label the third "What I else would like to be, do, or have".

Write a description of everything you'd like to change, increase, have, do, or become. Write with an open mind and an honest heart.

Ask yourself why you would like to make these changes in your life or have them at your disposal. Make a lengthy, heartfelt, detailed list of everything these things bring you. Does the list fuel you passion? Does it stir your soul?

It should. If not, either you have the wrong focus or the objectives are not clearly articulated or aligned closely enough with your deepest desires and sense of what's possible for you and your worthiness.

You are a divine being with unlimited possibilities, choices, options, and potential within you and at your disposal. Be respectful of the gifts you've been bestowed and the experiences you've gained. Embrace your uniqueness and your individuality for yourself, for those you love, and for the world. There is only one "you" and we all need you to be all you can be.

 

 

 

 

Forgiveness

Annie Lamont said "Forgiveness is letting go of all hope of a better past."

To forgive is a blessing you can bestow upon yourself, at the time of your choosing. You need not deprive yourself of the blessing any longer.

Forgiveness is not a validation of another party, the other person, the external entity that you hold to blame for a "wrong" heaped upon you or done to you. Forgiveness is simply a realization and willingness to recognize that your happiness, well-being, and constructive present and future are far more important than reliving the past and continuing to give that someone else the power to make us angry, to feel hurt, or to see ourselves as victims of a wrong.

You want to get back at your "doer of wrong"? Remove the power you give/gave them to make you hold onto the past, the dirty deed, the ill-intent, the evil, or stupidity they thrust upon us.

Living well is the best revenge and living without resentment, anger, fear, and hate is the way to live best. Does it mean you have to agree with your knuckle-headed wrong-doer? No. Does it mean you have to condone your victimizer? Absolutely not. Does it mean they were right and you were wrong? Hell no. It simply means you care more about yourself and your opinion than you care about them or their past actions.

Over the years, I've had my share of "being wronged", at least in my mind and my opinion. I've been incredibly angry—jump-up-and-down and red-faced crazy about it at times. Sometimes I acted to "even the score", almost always it never removed the anger. In fact usually I regretted my action, resented my lack of self-control, and completely despised the fact I allowed the actions of others to dictate or at least strongly influence my rage, connivance, or negative obsessions. Fortunately, I've left most of these emotions behind long ago and the ones I still have are confined within the boundaries of new found experience and expanded resources.

In the coming months of 2008, one of my deepest and most dear commitments to myself is not only to let go of any lingering resentments, remaining feelings of being wronged, or deeply recessed fantasies of "getting back" at anyone who I felt has done me dirty, hurt my feelings, disrespected me, or treated my unjustly. Most effective and preventative, is to evaluate actions, individuals, and events more positively so I don't have to release anything, I simply make a better, more productive and healthy choice as a gift and self-bestowed blessing to myself.

Where does one start?

First, forgive yourself for perhaps not having been totally forgiving in the past. Next think of all the people you, can, should, and will forgive as your gift to yourself and for the rejuvenating relinquishment of any power you surrendered to them to affect your present state and frame of mind for something they did in the past.

Perhaps they will be poorer for it and you certainly will be infinitely richer and more rewarded in your wealth of forgiveness.

Consciously Creating Your Future

   

Often my clients, subscribers, friends, colleagues, and participants in my programs ask me to offer summaries of my workshops, teleconferences, and seminars. Occasionally I do; usually I don't.

I've always had a bit of a crisis of conscience in gifting something for free that others have paid good money to benefit from. Today is one of those rare occasions where I will.

Did I change my ethics? No. I reached a compromise.

Below is the summary notes of group teleconference I conducted for about 1800 people in a mentoring program I conduct with Jay Abraham.

Why the change? We decided to gift it to our mentoring group members as a bonus session at no-charge to them and as a supplemental call to their 13 month mentoring program. It's called "Consciously Creating Your Future"

I believe we create our future—usually unconsciously. Our thoughts, the direction of our attention, our intention, actions, decisions, and things we focus on or ignore have the greatest impact on whom and what we attract into our life. When we shift our thoughts, our perspective, and our energies in a consciously directed, congruently powered mission of passion, contribution, and perfectly aligned action plan consistent with the goals and objectives most important to us, we can consciously create a new and better future.

Easily said.

Simply done? Yes, with an effective strategy, plan, and blueprint.

Two weeks ago, I conducted a two hour teleconference that was received with overwhelming enthusiasm. I included the summary notes for you as part of this blog. I hope and believe it will serve you well.

If you'd like a transcript or an audio-file of the entire call, please e-mail me at Spikehumer@aol.com. I'll be happy to share it with you in its entirety as my gift to you. Feel free to share it, embrace what you find useful and disregard the rest.

Happy New Year.

Spike

   

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will." George Bernard Shaw

   

Consciously Creating Your Future

"Your results are the logical conclusion to the beliefs you have, the decisions you make, and the actions you take" Spike Humer

1. It begins with a clear and compelling vision; start by imagining what's possible.
   1. What if there were no limitations
   2. Possible for some, possible for all
   3. Possible for one, possible for me
   4. The future creates the present
   5. Write out a description of your ideal life; include the major areas of importance:
      1. Health/Physical
      2. Financial/Career/Business
      3. Relationships/Social
      4. Spiritual/Creative/Intellectual
   6. What do I need to create in my life and what do I need to accomplish to make it so?

         

2. It progresses with a focused system of beliefs
   1. We start with a belief and then find evidence to support it
   2. You're either arguing for your limitations or your potential
   3. What beliefs do I need to change about myself or my capabilities
   4. What new beliefs do I need to embrace about myself or my capabilities

         

3. It continues with an alignment of your beliefs, values, and actions
   1. Make a list of your values, the things you treasure most
   2. Make a list of the three most important goals in your life
   3. Make a list of the most important things and people in your life
      1. What will happen when I accomplish this goal?
      2. What will happen if I don't accomplish this goal?
      3. What won't happen when I accomplish this goal?
      4. What won't happen if I don't accomplish this goal?

         

4. It's initiated by action and sustained by attention
   1. Get started now; today is the time to change your life
   2. What do I need to change in my life?
      1. What do I need/want/will start doing?
      2. What do I need/want/ will stop doing?
      3. What do I need/want/will start doing more of?
      4. What do I need/want/will start doing less of?
   3. What is the most important thing I can do right now to get started?

         

5. It's supported by a measured, monitored, and managed plan
   1. Ask yourself the right questions
      1. What are the major actions, activities, benchmarks, and guideposts?
      2. What are the incremental steps I can take to accomplish my most important goals?
      3. What is the most important thing I can do right now?
      4. What resources do I need? What resources do I have a available?
         1. Find a mentor or a model
         2. Enlist others to benefit in your vision and goals
      5. Am I closer or farther away from my goals right now
   2. Success is not a straight road
      1. Adjust, readjust, align, and realign

            

6. S.M.A.R.T. Goals Revisited
   1. Specific AND Strategic
   2. Measurable AND Meaningful
   3. Achievable AND Actionable
   4. Realistic AND Relevant
   5. Timely, Time-Phased, AND Task Oriented

   

Closing Thoughts:

1. Visualization, Meditation, and Prayer
   1. "Pray as if it all depends on God (or the Universe) but work like it all depends on you."

         

The Law of Attraction verses the Laws of Attention and Action

Functional Fantasies and Other Useful Beliefs

 

Everyone has beliefs; and they're just that—beliefs. Laws are not beliefs. Beliefs are not laws.

Beliefs are not truths; they are not facts. Beliefs are simple assumptions or conclusions that we find evidence to support or dispute. It's not the "truth" in a belief that is important—it's the functionality and usefulness of the beliefs that count.

We all have beliefs about the world, about other people, and about ourselves. Some people share the same beliefs; others would die to try to change our minds.

Is it the depth of commitment, level of fanaticism, or emotional sincerity that "proves" a belief to be true? No.

Is the willingness to shout, the ability to find plausible positions, the number of famous people we can find who agree with us, or the amount of popular opinion polls we can point to that prove a belief to be true? No. Beliefs aren't truth.

Rather than trying to prove a belief to be true, it's infinitely more effective to determine or decide if a belief is functional and useful.

For example, I have certain beliefs about who I am, what I can do, what I can't do, what I will or won't do. Does it mean I can't change my belief or improve my ability? Does it mean forever I am good at what I think I'm good at and where I'm weak remain puny forever? Does it mean I can't expand my thinking, learn a new skill, change the evaluation criteria, or be proven wrong? Thankfully, no.

When I was a small child, my Mom would tell me to be careful crossing the street. I really didn't think I needed to worry. In my belief, I could simply put my foot up and stop an on-coming car dead in its tracks. True? Definitely not. Functional or useful? Probably not. Simply a dysfunctional, impractical, potentially dangerous belief. Fortunately, I never elected to test my belief to be true (I've since chosen a belief I think to be more practical, like it's good to look both ways before crossing the street).

I have a belief that I have the ability to influence my world, affect my future, and attract great things and people into my life. I believe most people have a kind and gentle heart, that everyone does the best they can with what they have available to them at the time, and that the world will eventually come together in a more glorious, balanced vision of humanity and global unity. I believe in love at first sight, that hard work pays off, and that there is always enough to go around. I believe it is better to give than receive and that life and living can be a win-win proposition and doesn't have to be played as a zero-sum game.

I believe I'm a good person (some people like my ex-wives may differ). I believe I'm intelligent, informed, witty (at times), and pretty good at what I do as a speaker, author, consultant, and mentor. I believe I'm terrible at home repairs (because I don't want to be good at them). I believe I'm still as good at most things as I was in my twenties and better than ever at other things.

True? Who the hell knows but it's better than the dysfunction of thinking that my best years are behind me, my ex-wives are right, and that I have a roof to fix, a leaky faucet to repair, and some other god-forsaken home improvement project I should be doing right now because I'm handy around the house.

Now, I know beliefs aren't true (or at least that's what I believe). I know that some of my beliefs can't be proven as fact or as immutable laws. What I choose to believe is that I can adopt beliefs that are useful, perhaps functional fantasies that help me progress toward that which I hope to become and aspire to be.

What beliefs do you chose; what fantasies do you embrace? Are they effective and functional for you and your life?

Love Verses Evil

"Men regard it as their right to return evil for evil --and if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty." Aristotle

 

…feel that you might, feel that you must but it is unjust. Evil begets evil as love begets love.

In our passions to be right, to be respected, to stand up and be heard it is never "right" however deemed necessary to perpetuate or escalate upon the actions of others, regardless of their deeds or their intent. We have an obligation to be more.

The obligation is not to others, it is to us—our own lives and the people affected by our actions. If we allow the deeds of another to dictate our own, we're simply slaves to the reactions we allow inside ourselves and our measures we take within our lives.

Freedom rests in the ability to be ourselves, to impact our lives, not because or in spite of others but for the betterment of our own condition.

Survival might rest in the ability to defend ourselves--but growth, personal progress, and true freedom are discovered in our ability to transcend our environment, our circumstance, and our current state.

This is not always who I have been, nor is it always who I am, but it is who I aspire to be.

My intent, my evolution as a spiritual and contributory being is to move closer to that which I hope to become.

 

Yours in aspiration,

Spike

 

Slow Death by Adaptation

 

Living things are designed to adapt. Failure to adapt to the environment can cause extinction of an entire species. Death can occur to any single being that simply can't (or won't) adapt at critical stages of their existence. Adaptation is necessary for survival; humans included.

But… and it's a BIG "BUT". The ability to adapt may be the very cause of death or dying (figuratively or literally) in particular, but often common circumstances and environments.

There is an experiment once used by a university professor at the start of each semester to illustrate the ease in ability of a frog to adapt (although deadly in this situation) to certain environmental conditions. Being cold-blooded a frog can vary its body temperature to compensate for the changing environment.

As the story goes the professor would place the frog in a large pot of cool water. Slowly, gradually, incrementally the temperature of the water would be increased. With each rising degree, the frog would easily and comfortably adapt. Warmer and warmer the water got, while the frog simply went about its business in the water until the clueless amphibian boiled to a slow death without any attempt to leap out of the water.

As human beings we often adapt toward (thus quietly accept) a slow demise—emotionally, physically, intellectually, spiritually, financially or otherwise. We simply get gradually conditioned and eventually desensitized.

People will stay in dysfunctional or destructive relationships. They will show up for a job day after day that stifles their creativity and smothers their dreams. Still, others will settle for a business that is a mere shadow or shell of its potential and their vision. Adaptation.

But there is an option…and it's a powerful life-enhancing, soul-saving option—"CHANGE".

Change the conditions of your environment and have it adapt to you and your needs. Change your response to your current environment and see how it responds to you. Change your environment altogether and find or create one more conducive to the life, relationship, job, prosperity position, or business you desire.

It CAN be done.

At times in my life I have ignored my own advice, always to my own detriment and peril.

Through over-adaptation, I've allowed toxic people into and to remain too long in my life. I've more than once worked for less than I was worth or what I contributed on an ever increasing basis. I've spent time and energy, invested money, resources, and relationships on people and projects inconsistent with my dreams, vision, and values.

In the past, I've on occasion allowed my environment to slowly boil me almost to death and virtually outside my conscious perception. So I've been there.

Fortunately, I've learned to leap from the proverbial pot of boiling water when it starts to heat up. More significantly, I've discovered how avoid the pot. Most importantly, I'm continually creating my own environment, the one I most desire and one that serves me and those around me.

To get a different result, to create a different response, to survive and thrive in a new environment, we need to change. Easy enough—that's what to do...

But how?

How do we know that we're making the right changes and not simply jumping into a slightly cooler pot of water that will eventually boil us to death? How do we change without changing too much, too soon, too often, or too many things at once? How do we know if we're on the right track and how do we monitor our path to progress?

How do we change? More directly, how do you change?

There resides the challenge and there the secret is hidden.

Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing with you a virtual treasure trove of tools, techniques, and methods to map your change, to plan your progress, to monitor your performance.

Why?

Because part of my continuing change is to give more, to be more, to serve more. I am on a strategic mission to align my actions more fully with my intent, more on the path toward my own vision of contribution and my grandest dreams.

A friend of mine, Stephen Pierce once made a statement that instilled a thought which has both haunted me and compelled me at times—"Don't sin against your dreams"…

…let us not, together.

My Best Always, Spike

Strategy Verses Tactics

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." Sun Tzu

 

Several well known, fairly respected experts in the field of marketing, business, and consulting espouse the overarching importance of strategy. At the same time, these same so call bastions of business brilliance often relegate tactics as something subordinate, inferior, somehow less important—perhaps elementary or even juvenile.

While strategy is critical, integrated tactics are equally important. A strategy without tactics is a plan without hope of effective execution. Tactics without strategy is an exercise in inefficiency, an investment in random chance, and plain and simple—irresponsible planning and leadership.

A campaign of realistic impact in business, in life, in relationships, and in personal or organizational growth has to have a clearly defined, well founded, and soundly reasoned strategy. But it also needs well thought out, impeccably integrated, expediently executed, well measured tactics to be successful.

Tactics follow strategy, but tactics bring strategy to fruition.

In certain circles being labeled by a so called expert as "tactical" is an insult. At the same time being called "strategic" is somehow deemed to anoint you as a superior being. To me the labels applied as insults or complements is simple a testament to limited, uniformed thinking and opinion. Both statements represent a lack of understanding and education to the true meaning of each term.

In their simplest forms "strategy" and "tactics" can be defined as follows:

Strategy: "Plans, methods, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result." Stated differently, what you'd like to have happen after hopefully deep thought, investigation, and consideration.

Tactics: "A procedure or set of maneuvers engaged in to achieve an end, an aim, or a goal; any mode of procedure for gaining advantage or success." In other words—getting the job done.

In military circles both terms have more specific meanings and applications but in the world of business, personal action, and life activities, I believe the definitions above are much more effective. Strategy involves planning, tactics involve execution and implementation.

Perhaps General George S. Patton said it most clearly: "Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy."

Please don't call me a strategist or a tactician. I prefer to be considered a strategic tactician or a tactical strategist. Better yet, just call me someone who likes to plan and then put it into action.

Best, Spike

Keeping it Simple in Business

Being successful in business isn't easy. But most owners, leaders, and managers however make it far more complex than it needs to be. In its purest form, business is about marketing, sales, service, leadership, and management.

In its simplest structure to start a business, you find a need or a desire in the market place. Then develop a service, product, or information that meets the need, solves the problem, or satisfies a desire for your market. Create opportunity for individuals, groups of people, organizations, or businesses that you can advance or deliver.

Next you need to find a way to articulate the value of what you do, distinguish your product, service, or information from other choices in the market place and find a way to make it visible. You educate the market, your prospects, your clients, and your partners. Make it easy for people to do business with you and for you. All of which is the essence of marketing. Marketing is nothing more than conveying value. It doesn't have to be catchy, clever, or overly articulate. The message just has to be clear, concise, and effective.

Sales, on the other hand is about conveying trust and confidence in what you say you do, what you will deliver, and doing it better, faster, cheaper, more consistently, or more uniquely than your competitors.

Service is all about delivering the value you convey in your marketing and in your sales process and ensuring the benefits are tangibly delivered before, during, and after the sale.

Management of the process, the company, and your organization is the key to building a sustainable business, a scalable proposition, and a consistent level of quality, service, and deliverability. It's where most enterprises breakdown—organizationally, operationally, in implementation, and in growth. Without the foundation of effective management, stagnation at best, and collapse at worst is inevitable.

As a leader, manager, or owner…

1. Be motivated by a long term vision and direct others and be directed by immediate priorities; don't just visualize the future—get off your butt and do what needs to be done—NOW. Be the champion of the vision and the leader in ensuring its progressive materialization. Lead by example but expect everyone to take immediate and consistent action in turning vision into reality.
2. Understand the immutable interdependence between effective strategy and aligned, well structured tactics. Strategy without tactics is reckless and tactics without a clear strategy is a waste of time, talent, opportunity, resources, and money.
3. Align the company mission, vision, values, principles, policies, procedures, and compensation to build a culture of clarity and consistency. Missions are sustained by the daily practices and actions undertaken by everyone in the organization. Alignment brings harmony, effectiveness, and efficiency. Misalignment brings confusion, conflict, and self-centered competition. Competition for an individual to be the best for the good of the whole is healthy. Competition for selfish gain at the expense of the whole is destructive and debilitating to the growth, scalability, and sustainability of the company.
4. Leverage the talent, time, energy, of other people by engaging them in and helping them embrace the company vision—for their reasons. Employees, partners, vendors, and clients aren't motivated by your desire, their reward comes from the fulfillment of their own goals, desires, and aspirations. Understand what motivates your team members and set the rewards for success and establish the consequences for not getting the job done. They need to know how the company vision will benefit them personally for their contribution and commitment to the health, growth, and success of the company.
5. Do only what you do best and better than anyone else around you and the things that have the highest impact on your organization and your business. If you love doing it and you're marginally proficient, either get good at doing it or give it up. If you're lousy at it, let it go and get someone to do it that knows what they're doing. You have an obligation to yourself and your stakeholders to instill a "highest and best use" practice and culture.
6. Lead people, manage results. Delegate functions, not tasks. If you need to continually tell someone "how, when, where" to do their job you have the wrong people or you're simply not managing. Assign the function, set the expectation, define the parameters and measure the result—give them the flexibility to get the job down within the bounds of budgets, time frames, company policies but don't tell your key people what to do, when, how often, how long, or with whom.
7. Hire slowly and fire fast. Find the right people with the right skills and don't shortcut the process. It's better to take two months to find the "right" person than to hire the wrong person over and over again. If you make a mistake, fix it. You can sometimes train people "up" but if you can't, you have an obligation to yourself, your clients, and your organization to free the "wrong" person to pursue their bliss somewhere else.
8. Communicate often and communicate openly. Communicate the good, the bad, and the ugly. Convey your expectations, your boundaries, your hopes and your concerns. Communicate what you mean, do what you say you will, and honor your commitments. Accountability applies to everyone—including you. As a leader your word is a convent and an example of the values and virtues an organization holds dear.
9. Understand the impact of the decisions and demands you make—on your clients, your employees, the marketplace, and all of your stake holders. Give clear, pragmatic direction. Set responsible expectations as to what can be done, should be done, and will be done by everyone inside and outside the organization. There are few things more de-motivating or disabling than setting impossible goals, demanding the impossible, or not having a reasonable expectation of performance. Strong performance, continuing progress, and high proficiency are within the realm of reasonable performance. Perfection is reserved for divine beings that generally don't work for a living.

1. Develop systems for measuring, monitoring and reporting Key Performance Indicators of the business, your employees, key initiatives, innovations, customer activities, and other variables that sustain, grow, or improve your business.

Yours in clarity and simplicity,

Spike

Perception is Reality—Really?

It happened again. Someone said it to me today.

"Perception IS reality." Really?

Bull!

'"It" is what "it" is, not what you perceive", I said. "Your perception may be your reality but leave room for others won't ya?"

I wondered; since I shifted his perception by focusing on me and my opinion, did his reality change? If not, does it mean he didn't perceive me or my opinion? If so, does it mean the reality of his former reality changed, did it not exist, or did he not really perceive it? Hummm…

"Perception" is nothing more than attention supported by a set of beliefs, our sensory awareness, and previously established neural networks and connections in our brain.

Our perception might shape our interpretation of reality but it is just that—an interpretation. For that not to be the case, anything we are not aware of at any given moment would be "unreal" or "mu-reality".

What we focus on may seem more "real" or more tangible simply because it has our focused attention.

Want to expand your reality? Expand your perception by learning something new, doing something different, or looking—thinking—feeling differently about something—anything. Spend time in another community, city, or country. Eat foods you have never eaten, take up new hobby, read books on topics you know nothing about. Meet someone new. You might not change the real reality but your perception will never be the same.

Knowing is Not Doing

I love to learn.  Books, journals, magazines, are stacked and stored in about every nook, cranny, crack, crevice, and corner of my home and office.  Documentaries, seminars, webinars, newspapers, newsletters, conversations with bright people—all my passions, fill my most every waking moment. 

My MP3 players?  (yes, I have more than one)  They’re filled with the likes of Brian Tracy, Jay Abraham, Robert Greene, Malcolm Gladwell, Wayne Dyer, and the latest audios in business, personal growth, philosophy, persuasion, relationships, spirituality, and wealth creation. 

Exploring, experiencing, and engaging in new and interesting activities with my friends and family are the most enjoyable aspects of my life.   Discussion, dissertation, and spirited debate are the biggest part of the party when I entertain in my home.

I have e-books in my phone.  I am a subscriber of TSTN—The Success Training Network.  I read more Blogs, online content, and websites than anyone I know.   I subscribe to book summary publications, trend tracking, article consolidation services, and listen to talk radio more than music these days.

I’m an information junkie.  If it’s available to learn, I want to know it; and therein resides the risk.

People too often, sometimes me included, consider the learning of a subject the accomplishment worthy of recognition and gratification.  Learning a topic or subject is “an” accomplishment but it is not “the” accomplishment of the most merit.   Knowing a subject well might make you an expert but that alone doesn’t make you a person of impact in the field of the matter or the world at large. 

All matters of progress, greatness, advancement, and human achievement come from the application of knowledge, not simply through the acquisition of information.  Quite the contrary; from the most masterful application of knowledge springs forth the most notable accomplishment and valuable achievement and contribution.

Think about the most monumental events in your life?  Did they materialize because you “knew” something or because you “did” something with information you learned or knowledge you gained?

In consulting with clients and in working with people in the seminars I conduct the greatest obstacle between their present station in life and business and their potential for greatness is the failure to apply what they’ve learned and what they know, initially and continually.

Just as some people have a prejudice toward action, many others—in fact most people, have a habit of inaction and preservation bias of the status quo. 

For some, it’s a form of learned helplessness (“I can’t” or “I could never do that”).  For other people, it’s a lack of focus, discipline, and sufficient motivation to apply new knowledge and information.   The greatest gap between potential and achievement is “knowing without doing”.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of the best tools, techniques, and technologies I’ve learned and developed over the years to move my clients toward action.   Learning the information I’ll share with you is “an” accomplishment but of course, taking action, applying what you will learn will be “the” accomplishment.

Yours in Knowing and Doing,

Spike

Truth and Reality

There’s a debate raging. 

One of the most successfully marketed products of the last few years has been the DVD and book called The Secret.  Millions sold, tens of millions of dollars made; the revelation of the Law of Attraction.

The debate begins.  Is the Law of Attraction real?  Is it true this secret has been withheld throughout history?  Is the Law of Attraction, in fact a law? Is it a scam or a cheap marketing ploy?  Who knows and who cares.

A seminar leader and therapist friend of mine does personal change work for his clients using metaphors and stories.  He’s one of the most brilliant story-tellers and effective therapists on the planet.  I’ve seen first hard the results of his work and the extraordinary changes made in people’s lives.

After attending one of his programs where I was speaking a few years ago, I asked, “Are all of your stories true?”   His reply?  “All of my stories are true… and most of them are real.” 

Who knows the real truth?  I’m not sure there is such a thing.  But my advice on The Secret, it doesn’t matter if it’s true, it only matters if it’s useful.  In any endeavor, in all experiences, and in every interaction and each bit of information, take what is useful and leave the rest.

Your’s in my true reality,

Spike

Borrowed Wisdom

People who know me—family, friends, colleagues, and clients will tell you I am a voracious reader.  Not the casual kind, the obsessive kind.

I read books, book summaries, magazines, newsletters, blogs, websites, junk mail, product labels, and street signs.  I read hardcover and softcover. I read the large print, I read the small print.  I read on airplanes, in the car, waiting in a restaurant, at the grocery store, the barber, or on a street corner.  I read paper and I read electronic. I read books in my hand, on my computer and I read books stored on my PDA phone.

I’m simply an information and knowledge junkie.   

Certainly weekly, if not daily I get asked “what are you reading that’s great”.  It depends on your definition but I read enough to come across a reading list that most if not all will find something of note and value.

Here’s what I’m reading or have read in the last few months that I think is worth you checking out.  Some books are new like “Change or Die” by Alan Deutschman, some are classics I’ve read a few times before like “The Law of Success” by Napoleon Hill.  I left out recommendations for fiction, which I don’t read, poetry which I think is too subjective to recommend, and of course junk mail and information from product labels.

Networking:

1. Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazz
2. Little Black Book of Connections: 6.5 Assets for Networking Your Way to Rich Relationships by Jeffrey Gitomer

Masterminding:

1. Meet and Grow Rich: How to Easily Create and Operate Your Own "Mastermind" Group for Health, Wealth, and More by Joe Vitale and Bill Hibbler
2. The Law of Success, Volume I: The Principles of Self-Mastery by Napoleon Hill
3. The Master-Key to Riches by Napoleon Hill

Goal Setting:

1. Goals: How to Get Everything You Want by Brian Tracy
2. The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt

Change:

1. Change or Die by Alan Deutschman
2. The Story of You by Steve Chandler
3. Are You Ready to Succeed by Srikumar S. Rao

Trends and Dynamics

1. Freakonomics (updated version) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
2. The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille
3. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
4. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowieki
5. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
   by Chris Anderson

Leadership:

1. The Eighth Habit by Steven R. Covey
2. Good to Great by Jim Collins
3. A Simpler Way by Margaret Wheatly

Health, Fitness, and Nutrition:

1. Staying Healthy With Nutrition, 21st Century Edition: The Complete Guide to Diet & Nutritional Medicine by Elson M. Haas, Buck Levin
2. The Perricone Promise by Nicholas Perricone
3. Bill Pearl's Keys to the Inner Universe by Bill Pearl
4. Powerlifting for Men and Women: How to Lift Like a Champion by Paul Lewis

Wealth, Finance, and Prosperity:

1. Billionaire Secrets to Success by Bill Bartmann

Intelligence and Emotions:

1. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

Relationships:

1. The Way of the

   Superior

   Man by David Deida

Metaphysics and Universal Laws:

1. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
2. The Attractor Factor by Joe Vitale

Social Graces, Manners, and Etiquette:

1. The Modern Gentleman: A Guide to Essential Manners, Savvy & Vice by Phineas Mollod and Jason Tesauro 
2. Multicultural Manners: Essential Rules of Etiquette for the 21st Century by Norine Dresser
3. Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More Than 60 Countries by Terri Morrison, Wayne A. Conaway
4. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Communication, Influence, and Persuasion:

1. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
2. Persuasion Engineering by Richard Bandler and John LA Valle
3. The Power of Persuasion: How We're Bought and Sold by Robert V. Levine

Yours in Reading Obsession and Borrowed Wisdom,

Spike

Choices and Change

Nothing can be both constant and changing.  When things change, then by definition something or everything becomes different than it was--something added, something given up. 

Making a change means certain things are now possible or likely.  In that moment, it also means other choices no longer exist, or at least without giving up something else.

Change happens.  You can ignore, you can deny it, you can rant, rail, and rave against it.  But it happens, always has, always will. 

You have no choice but to face change--in life, in business, in relationships, in yourself.  How, when, and why you change is steeped in infinite choice.   In making a choice, we expand certain possibilities and options.  We close off, eliminate, or minimize other avenues or potentials.  Therein resides the opportunity.

Knowing what you want and what you want to change is the first step to creating powerful, productive, positive change.

Knowing what you’re willing to give up, why you’re willing to give it up, and what you are expecting to receive or create in return transforms what might seem to be a sacrifice into an investment in getting what you want.

Do you see yourself a victim of circumstance or a conscious creator of your fate and condition?  Recognize your choices are exactly that—choices. Change can be consciously and constructively directed and created.

Ask yourself these questions.  “What would I like to change in my life?”   “What am I willing to do to make these changes happen?”  “What am I willing to give up in order to have these changes in my life?”   “How will my life be better because of the changes I am committed to making?”

Yours Truly Ever Changing,

Spike

Defining Your LIfe

Ask a hundred people what they want; few can tell you in specific terms what they are truly trying to create in life.   Ask the same hundred people what they don’t want, almost without fail, lists of disappointments, disenchantment, and dissatisfaction flow without end.

Why?  Most people haven’t taken the time to define what they want in matters of life, love, finances, or their career.  Life happens, events unfold, and we simply accept them and assess them as something we like, dislike, or perhaps simply accept.

An undefined life takes care of making you aware of what you don’t want.  After all, it’s probably something you already have.  It may not be something you intended or understand, but it’s here, now, and you just know it’s not what you want.  It could be a relationship that is unfulfilling.  It could be a business or career that steals your energy and enthusiasm.  It could be habits or behaviors that crush or diminish your potential and prospects for the future.

Most people spend their time fighting the things they don’t want, trying desperately to eliminate the things that make them unhappy or keep them unfulfilled.  Resistance is futile.  The very energy focused on trying to extinguish negative habits, events, interactions, and activities in our lives is the fuel that keeps those things afire in our lives.

The same energy focused toward a defined desire allows us to change our lives and our world.  Focus on what it is you want and not on what you don’t want.

The Law of Attraction states “like attracts like”.  Dick Sutphen describes it as though “…we are like a walking magnet that draws to us anyone or anything that is on the same wavelength. If you’re radiating positive energy, you attract positive people and experiences. If you’re radiating negative energy, you attract negativity.”

I would add that “definition”, specific descriptions of exactly what you what, how you want it, when and where you want it supercharges the magnet of attraction.  Think about it. 

Besides, if you haven’t truly defined what you want, how will you know when you have it?

Ask yourself these questions.

How do I define success?

How do I define happiness?

How do I define love?

How do I define wealth?

What in your life will be different as you bring more of success, happiness, love, and wealth into your life?  What does it feel like?  What does it look like? 

Take the time to vividly imagine having success, happiness, love, and wealth in your life the way you define them.  Focus your time, talent, thoughts, and energy on bringing these to a crystallized vision and a daily reality.  Contemplate how your life will be different as your definition of success, happiness, love, and wealth are ever expanding in your daily life.

Yours in defined expectation and realization,

Spike

Of Mentors and Models

Other people’s money (OPM)… Other people’s experience (OPE)… other people’s contacts and connections (OPC)….

Other people--plain and simple.  Mentors and models.

Want to learn how to do something?  Find someone who’s done it.  Want to find out how to get somewhere?  Find someone who is there or has been there and knows the way back.

At two seminars we recently held in Sydney, Australia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia we selected an “Other People’s fill in the blank” volunteer at each venue.

Our “O.P. ________” assistants were enlisted to compile a list for the next three days of all of categories other people’s skills, experiences, assets, opportunities, circumstance, challenges they could leverage.   Other people’s time… other people’s talent… other people’s passion… other people’s clients… other people’s problems… other people’s everything and anything useful or needed.

The lists grew and evolved to seventy-five or eighty “other people’s _______” at each event. 

Near the end of each program, our “O.P.______” compiler/volunteers shared their list with the entire seminar group of several hundred people.  The program attendees were invited to list as many people as they could think of for each category on the list.   Who did they know that they could access, utilize, or leverage as mentors or models for achieving their goals and objectives?  Who had the experience they needed?  Who had the time, talent, money, or resources they needed? 

As simple as it was, it was one of the most powerful, productive, and potentially profitable exercises of each event. 

Have a goal?  Have a passion?  Want to improve your life or your business?  Find a mentor or mentors; seek out models of excellence or learn from counterexamples of what doesn’t work. 

Regardless of your intellect, your talent, your creativity, your capital--your time is finite.  The collective mine of intellect, talent, creativity, and financial abundance you can tap into are infinite.

My mentors and models are many.  Some famous, some virtually unheard of; achievers, speakers, writers, thinkers, philosophers, giants of business, and leaders of social change.  My mom, former managers, teachers, colleagues, and next door neighbors have been my mentors. 

Athletes, politicians, friends, family, past business partners, my kids, and strangers on the street have served as models.   Examples of what I aspire to be or what not to be in one area or another; sources of information, inspiration, and knowledge of what to do and what not to do to get where I want to go.      

Life brings lessons.  If we learn, we grow; if we don’t we stagnate or recreate circumstances and relationships until we get what we need to learn the lesson and move on.

Ask yourself these questions and answer fully and frankly…

“Who has accomplished what it is I want to do and how did they do it?”  “What mistakes did they make that I can avoid?”  “Who do I know or who do my friends and colleagues know who I would like to have as a mentor?”  “What would I be willing to offer in return for their time and contribution?” 

Yours in learning and leveraging,

Spike

Subjective Reality and the Supreme Realist

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day and I asked the question, “Do you consider yourself an optimist, a pessimist, an optimistic pessimist, or a pessimistic optimist?”

His answer?  “I consider myself none of those, I’m a supreme realist, I see things as they really are.”

Curious, I thought.

“Reality” as we know it is a subjective experience, which ultimately means “reality” doesn’t’ truly exist in the objective sense.  It’s a construct; a creation of our hopes, our dreams, our memories, our beliefs, our experiences, our environment, our senses, our moods, our biases, our prejudices, our values, our assumptions, our self-identity. 

And if that’s not enough, “reality” is created, defined, and refined through our mental processes of generalization, distortion, and deletion.  How the heck can any “reality” be the same “reality” for anyone and everyone at the same time?

The meaning of anything and everything we experience is the meaning we give it, that’s our reality, not the “reality” for the rest of the universe.

I’m fond of the saying “It is what it is.”  No, it’s not a resignation of personal power or an admission of helplessness.  It’s not because “it” can’t be changed.  “It” is as it is because of the belief I choose to have about “it”, by design or default.  “It” as it is, might be completely different for someone else. 

If I change my mind about “it”, would “it” then be both “it as it was” and “it as it now is”.  Would that “it” still be the same “it”?  “It” makes my head spin.

The questions we should be asking and answering about “reality” isn’t if it’s real or true, but is it useful as we’ve constructed it and does it serve us and the rest of the universe.

Ask yourself, “What is my reality?”  “How does it serve me and the people most important to me?”  “What would happen if I were to change my mind about what is “real” and what is possible?”  “How would my life be different if I were to change my beliefs about my potential, my options, my relationships, and my life?”

How and when will you change your “reality”?

Sincerely yours as a consciously constructed optimistically dreaming realist,

Spike