Billy Arcement’s
News From the Swamp
Issue # 41
Bringing you ideas from The Results
Group Office
on
“Working
with business leaders to produce a culture of teamwork, productivity and
profits.”
Please recommend this newsletter to a friend or associate.
Sorry this newsletter is a few days late. I was on a personal retreat over the weekend and
got a bit behind on some projects delaying this project. Thanks for your continued readership. Enjoy this issue.
When you receive this newsletter, print, three-hole
punch and place it in a binder for future review. Place the binder in your bookcase. Take the binder with you on trips to read in
down time. Review it while you’re
sitting down glancing at your TV screen or create your own unique way to
re-read the words. Reviewing the
messages reinforces the content and expands the possibilities of retention and
implementation of information shared.
Put the ideas to work for you.
This is how winners learn and grow and I believe you are a winner!
Traditionally, January is viewed by many as a month of renewal or change implementation. We get that “New Year Fever” and make vows to change our habits for the better. Unfortunately, many times our good intentions go unfulfilled. Please allow me to suggest an activity that might help with this process and perhaps make a bigger impact on your success efforts for 2005.
Reflect through your life and make a list of people who have been your heroes. Next to each name, write why you choose that individual. When your list is complete, look for the common threads—the trends in their characteristics. If there were overlapping reasons for a number of your heroes, those qualities are apparently important to you.
The exercise continues with a reflection of your life this month. How many of the qualities you felt were important in the past are now part of your every day habits? If you’ve lost something important from the past, re-introduce the habit into your future actions beginning today. Go slow. There is no rush. It took many years for our “bad habits” to take over our thinking and actions. Replacing them can also be a long process. Focus your thinking on what you want to become. Keep that vision. Develop a plan to make it happen and each day work a part of your plan. Don’t stress yourself, just keep moving along.
Drops of water applied long enough can eventually wear out a mountain. Begin washing away your bad habits one drop at the time. This is the year you can make it happen if you use your heroes as role models and the vision of what you’d like to become as your milestone achievement.
In the exercise I just described, you were looking through your life for people of influence—your heroes. Certainly, just as you have heroes, your actions, values and character have attracted others in such a way that you’ve become their hero. I hope if you are a parent your children view you as their hero. If you are in a leadership role at work or in some civic / church activity, you are placed in the role of a hero. You may not think of these roles as those of a hero but they are. Anytime you are in a position to have your behavior—actions—decisions influencing others, you serve as a hero. Remembering that fact helps shape the types of behavior, actions or decisions you make. The question to ask, “Would I pick me as a hero?”
Silence Is Golden
For the
past fifteen years on the third weekend in January, I enter the gates of
Manresa House of Retreats a few miles downriver from my home.
While
predominately Catholics attend, the retreats are open to any man who wishes to
attend regardless of their religion. One
of the characteristics of the Manresa retreats is the rule of silence. Starting about
Let me suggest that you consider spending time in silence thinking about your life and where you want be at the end of the year. Silence can speak volumes if you open your mind and heart to the ideas that will surface. There is a power greater than you and I that “speaks” in the silence. Make such events a golden moment by capturing the insights.
My recent weekend was the best in fifteen years. Unlike past years when I sought to plan every aspect of my life during the retreat, this year I only focused on one item—finding ways to build a stronger relationship with my spiritual hero. To me, doing this right will have a ripple effect on every other part of my being. In the environment of silence, I “heard” ways to bring about the improvement I was looking to accomplish.
Let me encourage you to try the power of silence. Find a quiet spot in your yard, the park, wherever nature can provide a positive environment. Think about your life. Take notes. Write your thoughts. Work that process as often as you must until you’ve developed some answers to the concerns of your life. Silence is golden. Is it time that you start mining some?
Please contact me if you are interested in
learning more about the
The nature of this newsletter has always been to provide ideas so you can improve both your personal and professional life. However, these must be in balance. When one or the other gets out of kilter, you loose part of the joy life can bring. I hope the ideas shared in the past forty issues have helped you to achieve a bit of this balance. But today I’d like to introduce a new idea that you will truly have to spend time thinking about to appreciate the wisdom of the message. The ideas are not original to me. Today, I simply serve as the messenger.
We all seek to gain possessions (material things as well as professional / social status). Society measures our success based upon the quantity and quality of our possessions. But as we all know, no one has figured out how to bring any possession with them when their life ceases. While not trying to be morbid, I simply want to put things in perspective.
I make no assertion that possessions are a bad thing. What I am suggesting is that to make possessions a gauge of your success is the wrong approach. True success is a measure of how “indifferent” you are about those possessions. What if you lose your possessions? Does that automatically make you a failure? The answer is clearly ‘NO!
When one is indifferent to possessions, their loss is not the end of the world. But when one bases their life solely on their possessions, their loss becomes the end. And, in some cases, people turn to suicide as the answer to overcome their loss. But in the process of handling their own personal loss this way, they create vast loses in the life of those that love them.
But here is where the beauty of indifference comes into play. If you can truly appreciate life with or without your possessions, it really does not matter what state you find yourself in. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting that you drop all ambition and seek a life of poverty. What I am suggesting is by learning to become indifferent to possessions, a life of poverty is of no consequence or concern to you.
In my life I’ve come to the crossroad of indifference on several occasions. Like most, facing the loss of these possessions and/or achievements was difficult and troubling. It was only when I became totally at peace with the indifference of the situation that the solution occurred. When I stopped fearing the loss, my mind cleared enough to overcome the hurdle. I adjusted my thinking and allowed the solution to enter. And ultimately, the mindset of indifference allowed me to avoid the loss.
I don’t know if all this makes sense to you but I do know that the process works. It’s not an easy position to take but keeping a proper perspective on life demands that we become indifferent to every aspect of life. When we can achieve this way of thinking, we enjoy the journey more and we stand a much better chance of reaching our potential.
Newsletter Archive
I’m pleased to tell you that my website, www.SearchingForSuccess.com now has every back issue of News from the Swamp and Children First posted for you to read at any time. There are also a few articles you might find interesting.
Check it out.
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Executive Coaching / Management Consulting: Use Billy’s problem-solving skills and vast experience base
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The School Board Strategist: Billy is considered by many school boards as their number
one resource for enhancing board performance.
The Author: Get his book, Searching for Success, today. It can make a difference.
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Please notify
Children First! Spread the Word
Children First, my newsletter offering parenting tips, continues to grow
very nicely. To subscribe, email me at barcement@eatel.net and place “children”
in the subject line. The next issue goes
out February 1.
Value Added
Ideas
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