Weekend Challenge: Renew

Springtime is nature’s way of resetting the clock.  Growing things have been dormant for a few months, the days have been short as if to encourage “hibernation,” and even wild animals have been secluded waiting for new babies to arrive with the thaw.

We think springtime is a great time to reset your own clock, as it were.  There is a reason the ancient Christians moved their celebration of Easter to a time near the Vernal Equinox!   Are there people in your life you have lost touch with?  Or perhaps old habits that were beneficial that you’ve gotten away from?  Or maybe you’ve just fallen into a rut and you need to shake things up.

Take this weekend to think about one aspect of your life that you want to renew, be it something big or something small.  And then do something about it!  Pick up the phone, or pull the exercise equipment out of storage, or go into the office and change your desk around.  Do something!

Because walking away from the opportunity to jumpstart any aspect of your life is to tacitly accept the mediocre.  And mediocre grows in your life like cancer.

The Gurus of Get It

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Traits We Admire: Discipline

“Hello.  My name is Tom.  I have big dreams and a great plan for how to make it . . . SQUIRREL!!   Hello.  My name is Tom . . . “

If you’ve seen the movie “Up”, you’ll understand that reference.  And though it refers to a fictional character, we’ve all seen characters  like that in our own lives: people who talk a great game and have gigantic aspirations, but who just keep getting bumped off-task by the silliest little things

We admire those people who set their minds to a task and then find a way to keep their minds on that task, those people who keep forging ahead, though they get buffeted on all sides by fortune, doubt, and competition.  It takes a special quality to be able to see all the “squirrels” around you and yet stay focused on your Purpose.  Life and society do an awful lot to try to get you to abandon your dream; and when you stick to your guns, Life has a way of trying to find other things for you to put your time and energy into.   Staying on course towards your Perfect Life takes more Discipline than you can imagine.

But it’s worth it!

The Gurus of Get It

Traits We Admire: Generosity

Generosity is usually associated with a tendency to be very giving of our resources and our time–giving to charity or buying something for a friend out of the blue, for instance.  And we admire that generosity; but that generosity is actually an outgrowth of a generosity of spirit that tends to consider the needs and situations of others.  THAT is what is truly admirable.

It, in some ways, is easy to see the tragedy unfold on the cable news, and feel like you should “do something,” so we make a quick phone call, donate $10, and go on our way.  What is much more difficult is to be generous in those actions much closer to home that inconvenience or irritate us. 

How many of us stand in the check-out line and take deep breaths at the delay caused by the person at the front of the line insisting on a price check?  Or perhaps respond in a less-than-kind way to the person driving slowly ahead of us?  A truly generous spirit takes the time to recognize that maybe, for that person asking for the price check, those 26 cents saved represent the difference between bringing home dessert for their children or not.  Or it would recognize that maybe that slow driver is desperately trying to just get home in one piece after being told that they were losing their job.

A generous spirit sees need in little things, as well as big.

Weekend Challenge: Prioritize

We here at Get It! love sports.  The human drama of competition and all that.  And sometimes sports gives us a glimpse of philosophical truths.

This weekend marked the start of the NCAA Basketball Tournament–64 teams competing for the title of National Champion.  Such tournaments have a way of paring down the field from the happy-to-be-there to the competitive-but-not-ready-yet to the serious contenders very quickly (with a few delicious surprises along the way!).  In other words, serious events like this tend to brush away all the extraneous until only the serious remain.

Life works like that, too. 

Every once in a while a serious event happens which forces people to eliminate from their thought process things that are not of central importance in their lives, and focus on what really matters.  One of the best explanations of this phenomenon we’ve seen comes from Randy Pausch and his Last Lecture, but we think the point he makes is one that we want to make, too:  your Perfect Life will start to take shape when you realize and embrace what is central to your life.

Give that some serious thought this weekend.  And then do something about it.

The Gurus of Get It

Wisdom from Tom Hanks!

As movie buffs, we just recently caught something that highlighted some of the best quotes from Tom Hank’s movies.  Some of these were:

“I met a man in an elevator today who knew exactly what he wanted.  And I found myself wishing I were as lucky as he.”…Joe Fox, “You’ve Got Mail”

“It’s supposed to be hard.  If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it.  The hard is what makes it great.”…..Jimmy Dugan, “A League of Their Own”

“What really matters is what you believe.”…Robert Langdon, “The Da Vinci Code”

We picked these because they were very appropriate to what we are trying to help our audience attain.  In order to really create a life that you are 100% happy with, you have to know what you want, understand the journey will be hard at times and you must continually believe you can attain it.

When you break it down that way (with “Hankisms”) it certainly does not seem too difficult.  Just follow suggestions 1, 2 and 3 to be on your way…..good luck and remember to enjoy each individual journey!

The Gurus of Get It!

Weekend Challenge: Gratitude

It has been said that the number one predictor of general happiness is a tendency towards gratitude–the natural leaning towards being thankful for what one has been blessed with.

This weekend we want you to concentrate your energies on recognizing what you have.  Even your frustrations are probably due to some “flip side” of a great blessing.  For instance: maybe you feel like you don’t have enough time to yourself to really plot out your Perfect Life; of course, that’s only because you have a full time job (which is nothing to sneeze at these days) and as soon as you hit the couch at home you’ve got children jumping on you.  Obviously, your great blessings are limiting your spare time; of course, without those blessings you probably wouldn’t have the same motivation to create that Perfect Life. 

But you get the picture.  Take this weekend to look very honestly at your life and be thankful for what you’ve got.  Such an effort will get you in such a good mindset that great things are bound to happen for you!

The Gurus of Get It!

Traits We Admire: Humility

Let’s get one thing straight to start with:  humility is NOT the studied, practiced deflection of praise made famous by Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLouche in Bull Durham (I’m just happy to be here and hope I can help the team and God willing . . . ); nor is it the sort of Hamlet-like self-doubt that plagues many decision-makers.

Rather, humility is the understanding of one’s limitiations, and a willingness to seek improvement.   Growth happens when one says ” I can not do this . . . YET” and then seeks out help to perfect it.  Humility is not denyings ones’ abilities, but it is rather recognizing where one’s abilities fall just short and then getting whatever help is necessary to accomplish the task at hand.

We all know there are times when we have to “toot our own horns” to get a promotion or some other recognition; but for most of the rest of the time, there is little value in announcing one’s abilities and accomplishments to the world.  Instead, try seeking out somebody who is better at something than you, and asking them a question.  You might be surprised at their reaction . .

 . . . and you will almost certainly end up smarter!

The Gurus of Get It!

Kudos to the Avalanche!

This blog is often used to help give our audience a little direction.  Today we want to share a story of some Get It’s.

In order to really build your perfect life, it is important to focus on not only family, career, etc.  It is equally important to try and give back (which can be as simple as giving your time).

A great example of this happened last Sunday by the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.  They put on a fundraiser for Children’s Hospital which included a fashion show.  In this show, each player/coach was paired up with a patient from Children’s Hospital.  Before the show, the entire team came down to meet and sign autographs for each of these kids.  This included every player, coach, the general manager and even the president of the team.  I know that a lot of athletes and entertainers give their time and people often wonder if it is genuine.  Let us assure you that every one of these players wanted to be there and felt tremendous getting to meet these young fighters.

In a world that is a little crazy right now, it sure is good to see a group of guys getting it in multpile areas of their lives!

The Gurus of Get It!

Sunday Challenge: Rest (with Purpose!)

Depending on your religious tradition, one day of the week is usually set aside for rest, reflection, and worship.  For the vast majority of Americans, that day is Sunday, so we are going to target this challenge at them.  Of course, if you have a different tradition, act accordingly.

Setting aside an entire day for rest and reflection is difficult in today’s world.  The discipline it takes to slow everything down, to say “no” to the phone and the email is sometimes nearly impossible to achieve, because it feels like we’re not accomplishing anything. But it is critically important to do that regularly.

Think of your computer: very often when something is going wrong, the first troubleshooting solution is to “reboot”–the computer needs some downtime get the system back on an even footing.  Your brain is much the same way.  And while sleeping does a nice job of “rebooting”, you also need to take some conscious time to let your mind drift.  It is during these “drifts” that the creative part of your brain takes its turn to solve problems and point you in a new direction–hopefully, towards your Perfect Life!!

Plan for, and USE, downtime.  Today.

The Gurus of Get It

Traits We Admire: Industry

Talk is cheap; actions matter.  If you are truly ready to start building your Perfect Life, then you should not be sitting still unless it’s to do one of two things:  relish the successes of today, or strategically plan the actions of tomorrow.  But the world will never recognize what you THINK is going to be your great Success; it will only recognize what you actually manage to build.

Put it another way:  you want to know which guy or girl at the office is on their way to the corner office?  Here’s a hint:  you’re not going to find them hanging out at the water cooler (unless that’s where the senior partners hang out).  They’re almost always going to be the person making the most of every minute that they have.  We have found that there is absolutely no substitute for hard work.  To quote a famous poster:

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education alone will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.

So get moving!  Your Perfect Life is out there–but it’s going to make you come and find it!

The Gurus of Get It!