![]() Hermann Hesse said, "Wisdom can not be imparted. Wisdom that we might attempt to impart, sounds like foolishness to the listener. Knowledge can be communicated but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders with it, but one can not communicate and teach it." So where can we find it so that we can live it and do these wonders everyday? I define wisdom as the ability to take knowledge from the past and apply it at the right time, in the right way to achieve the best result possible in the present. Sadly to say this is not as easy as it sounds. Wisdom has to be personally unlocked. 3 Keys 1.Experience – Like it or not, wisdom is not something we can go to the store and buy. We might be able to go to someone to get their advice or their wisdom but it doesn't become our wisdom until we experience the successes and failures and make it to the other side. Gaining proper wisdom comes from aligning yourself with the truth, when you hear it or see it. When you are exposed to the truth, what you do with it determines if you are wise. Taking what you experience and running it through the truth, is a key to being wise. 2. Understand - There is a great statement that says, "In all that you try to get in life, get understanding." Being able to think or process what is going on around us is vital to being wise. Working to put things together in there proper form is called deductive reasoning. You as well as I often wonder why things happen the way they do. Is there a reason or a cause? Having the desire to understand the "whys", is the start of becoming wise. Captivate and absorb as much as you can, from all the places that you can, anytime you can, with truth being your guide; because the more truthful information you have the more you will be able to put things together. A great writer said it this way, "Study to show yourself approved, so that you will be able to apply what you have learned to situations you may face." Truthfully understanding is a key to wisdom. 3. Conscience - Knowing when to and when not to is sometimes hard for the best of us. When faced with challenges, we often want to be wise in making the best choice for the best outcome. So, after we have reviewed "all of the above", we sometimes have to rely on our conscience. Our conscience reflects our true motives. It's the inner sense that separates right from wrong. If our motives are clear and pushing for what's right and true we can usually conclude that we are making a wise choice. Push to have your motives (heart) pure and focused on the best. Martin Luther King said it this way, “There comes a time when you must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but you must take it because your conscience tells you it is right.” Have a clear (truth focused) conscience, it is a key to wisdom. Summary - Find your wisdom by analyzing your experiences, seeking to understand life, and having a clear conscience - all based on truth. Then seek to apply that information at the right time, in the right way for the best results possible in the present. Your wisdom has to be personally unlocked by you. Go, pursue your wisdom!
0 Comments
![]() The fundamentals of responsibility are based in our personal values. Emotional and physical improvements comes from properly responding to what we have the ability to change. When this is done we improve our self-esteem, we behave as someone with standards and control. Our words and thoughts will line up with our actions. A responsible person understands how to be the most effective and efficient with their lives by wisely handling situations and tasks instead of running away from them. 3 Fundamental Points 1. Allow – We must give ourselves opportunities to independently accomplish tasks, rather than having others finish it for us. It is easy to be down on ourselves, feeling that we are unable to complete tasks; but the truth is that we will become unable to do so, if we don’t allow ourselves the chance to learn and master certain skills. Learn from and own up to your failures and mistakes. Michael Jordan said, "I failed over and over again, that’s why I succeeded.” It is not the failure that prevents your success; it’s being irresponsible with your failures that cause you to be stuck. Push beyond your failures and allow yourself to grow better at what you do. 2. Anticipate – “Old habits are hard to break” is a true statement. We, for some reason, don’t like being forced to do new stuff even if it is our responsibility to make the change. To implement new responsibilities into old ways requires some high expectations of benefits. If you are like me, I like to know that I'm going to be rewarded for my effort. Abraham Lincoln said, "You can't escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading them today." We must daily keep before us our desired outcome. It must be greater than our short term feelings we feel today. Anticipate what it will take both mentally and physically to achieve success. Create a daily plan for success and against failure. Take ownership of accomplishing the small daily tasks first. You are the only one that can make it happen. Slow implication to your goals will help you overcome discouragement, self-sabotage and an uncooperative spirit. Anticipate your end being great! 3. Adamant – Being responsible requires us to be purposeful about meeting a certain standard or goal. Clear objectives helps us filter out the needed over the unneeded. Weight lifters set objectives to accomplish the results they want. The adamantly push themselves to the limits even when they don't feel like it. Their purpose is clear and it supersedes their feelings. They tell their bodies, "Body, you have to meet the goal!" Adamantly demanding better for yourselves, is a part of being more responsible. Always seek ways to improve YOU. Getting tired and wanting to give up is natural but being responsible demands that you don’t quit. Continuing to learn from your mistakes and not giving in to quitting is being responsibly mature. Summary – The fundamentals of responsibility are attainable by you. Take on the mind set everyday to not give in to irresponsibility. Give yourself a chance to be responsible even if you fail a few times; divide your tasks into smaller manageable segments; anticipate the difficulty of hard work; and demand from yourself to keep moving forward to your goals. Analyze, plan, tweak, drive, to your goals this reflects a responsibly mature person that's destine for success. ![]() I remember as a teen getting more responsibility. At the onset, I thought I was the man and was becoming a mature adult because I had more requirements. But after many mess ups, I recognized that more responsibility was really a burden that came in the form of more work and stress. I learned that just because I had a lot of responsibility didn't mean that I was great at handling what I had been given. I (and maybe you too) continue to have responsibilities that just seem to be a big burden, more work, more stress, and more difficult to handle. Success in life comes from being responsible for what we do have in our hands. This week I want to give you some helpful tips that have help me handle my responsibilities and stand up to my commitments. 3 Core Tips 1. Cope – Learning to cope with problems instead of blowing up, fighting, or giving up is a big step to being responsibly mature. Life will bring frustrations and disappointments but valuing commitment calls for coping (putting up with them) to accomplish the required goal or goals. Work to be optimistic about every situation good or bad. Allow them to empower and motivate you to achieve your goals. Don't visualize yourself as a helpless victim, who can't change their circumstances. Instead, work to improve your situations at all cost at from all angles. Don't give up! Always believe that there is a way through the mess. Step back, take a deep breath and keep swinging at your responsibility. You can make it! 2. Respond – Responding properly and following through with our commitments is a sign of being responsibly mature. It's easy to point the finger and find fault in the other person to avoid our responsibilities; however,. they will not go away because we don't like them. Owning up to responsibilities will require you to avoid vague excuses and playing the blame game. Think through your choices or decisions before you respond to them. Value your words and your commitments. Allow your responses to reflect mature responsibility. 3. Humble – Recently I was in a meeting where one of the key elements discussed was how achieving success requires an oxymoron of sorts: to be on top we must lift others up, to lead we must follow, and to impact others the most we must serve. All of these twists require us to be humble to acheive the success we may desire. Humility is key to being responsible. It is controlling our opinions or keeping ourselves low on the importance scale. If we wish to be more responsible, we must not give in to selfishness. We must be humble. Your humility is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of being responsible. True responsibility is more than “getting YOU to the top”, it's about getting your whole team who you are responsible for to the new level you seek. Summary – Opportunities to be irresponsible will come and you may submit to them because of the short term benefits but the long term effects can be detrimental. Learn to be more responsible by: coping with the tough issues, responding properly to the call of duty, and being humble when severing others. You are at the center of changing your responsible level. ![]() Within each of us is a power that can alter activity on the other side of the world. That power is our spoken words. “Speech is power: which should be used to persuade, convert, and compel.”, says Ralph Waldo Emerson. Our words spoken and unspoken have a tremendous effect on the success and failure of our lives. In the movie called “1000 Words”, Eddie Murphy plays a literary agent named Jack McCall who had one thousand words to use before he would physically die. Even his unspoken words counted against his thousand. He had a high price to pay for the use of his words. Believe it our not our spoken and unspoken words should be limited too because of their power. Martin Luther said it this way, “You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say”. We must take full responsibility for our words if we seek to live successful lives. 3 Power Guides 1. Bank – A word bank is a place where students keep words they have learned handy for future references. We all possess a type of word bank in our heads. Our memory bank is constantly being filled with words from our life experiences. Often times we are not aware of the negative words we continue to deposit until time to withdraw. Our word withdrawals can sometimes show up as bullying, put downs, hating on positive situations, etc. We must work to guide what we deposit into our bank. Focus on being responsible by allowing your word bank to be filled with more positive words than negative. Challenge yourself to withdraw words that provoke thought, words that encourage, words that will guide those who hear them. When your withdrawals are more positive than negative you can see your contained power impact your world for success. 2. Barricade – Great power is usually protected with a barricade to prevent it from being misused by the uneducated and untrained. When a baby starts to crawl, parents put up barricades to protect the baby from harmful things. (Ex.- Stairs, plugs, cords, bags, etc.) These this are not bad items but can be harmful when used irresponsibility. Our words need barricading. We must work to keep unwanted things from exiting and only allow the valuable things to be put out. Barricade your words to reflect what you value. Speak those things that will only promote your long term objectives. Filter out the mess and crud with your barricade. Clean your barricade daily by continuing to reflect on what you are responsible for and build positiveness all around. 3. Bond – Like it or not we are physical connected (bonded) to our words. Zig Ziglar said it this way, "Life is like an echo. What we send out, comes back. What we sow, we reap. What we give we get. What we see in others, exist in us." Before we speak we must think about the effects our words might have on others and ultimately ourselves. You are bonded to your words of gossip, rudeness, lying, etc. when they are said they represent you and will always reflect where they came from. Negative words will not bring positive reactions but positive words can bring positive reactions. Work on using the power of your words to reflect you because they are your life bond. Summary - Dr. Laurence J. Peter says, “Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.” There is no doubt that there is power in your words. Use them wisely and they can unleash the world. Use them loosely and they can destroy your present and your future. Be responsible by building your word bank with positive words, govern what leaves your mouth, and know that what you We cannot separate ourselves from what we say; therefore, we must use each word responsibly by respecting others feelings, integrity, and privacy. Before we open our mouths, we must ask ourselves if what we are about to say will help or hurt the situation we are faced with. Use your word power wisely and succeed. ![]() Winston Churchill said, "The price of greatness is responsibility." We all want to be great at something, even if it’s just talking to friends. But to be great all around requires us to be responsible all around. Being responsible means that we are the ones that are answerable or accountable for what’s going on. We are the ones with power to control or manage. We have the capacity to make a moral decisions or rational thoughts for a certain action. To be responsible is a big thing that cannot be pushed to the side if we desire to be successful and free. Friedrich Nietzsche said it this way, “Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves first.” True responsibility brings freedom. 3 Responsible Areas 1. Errors – It's inevitable, we all make some types of errors or mistakes daily. However, the irresponsible thing to do is to allow ourselves to live in the error – continuing to practice or support the mistake we’ve made. Responsibility responds to errors and mistakes with quick confessions and sincere efforts to make things right as soon as possible, no matter the cost. This is a challenge for me and I'm sure it is for all of us but is necessary if we want to live effective lives. Be more responsible by looking at where you might have messed up, accept your consequences, and work to make things right. Freedom comes by owning up to your mistakes not by covering them up. 2. Excuses – When we make comments like "I’m not responsible for this because..."or "I would've, but...” to things we are directly connected to, we are making excuses. So as we develop ourselves to be more responsible, we must practice catching ourselves and stopping ourselves in the middle of an excuse; until we develop the habit of being more responsible with what we say and do. Change your actions by admitting the real reasons why you did or didn’t do it. That's freedom. If you’re too lazy, too tired, or just felt like doing something else, that is the truth. Admit the real issue instead of lying about it but, keep in mind that just because you admitted to it does not mean the consequences will be or should be softer. Josiah Stamp said it this way, “It may be easy to dodge your responsibilities, but you cannot dodge the consequences of dodging your responsibilities.” Be willing to accept the consequences of what you have done. Don't give and excuse. Lovingly give the reason and move forward to being more responsible. 3. Earn – Every stage of responsibility should be earned. It’s like climbing a ladder; we can’t get to the top unless we first stand on the first step. We should not be entitled to a higher level of responsibility if we cannot master the first step. My son was asking me one day to move the car so he could play basketball, I said, "I don’t know son, you haven’t been doing too well at parking and moving the lawn mower." I wasn't telling him that he could never move the car, I was saying that you need to prove yourself more in something with less responsibility, which was where he was, moving the lawnmower successfully. If you desire more work, more trust, or more opportunities you must prove yourself on step one. If you're not moving, check yourself for signs of irresponsibility. Do you take for granted what you have on step one. Watch how you say things like: this is boring, stupid, or a waste of my time. Work to take every opportunity as one that could bring freedom to your next level. Summary – Accepting responsibility is a must for success in your life. The facts state that – a more challenging, fun, and new thing will not keep you engaged to be more responsible. The thing that will keep you engaged in a new responsibility is a commitment and acceptance of basic life principles (honesty, positive attitude, respect, diligence, self-control, responsibility, and wisdom) into the areas where you are. Accepting current responsibilities brings freedom to do more. |
Archives
December 2020
|