As the tree changes its leaves, we change our present and build a new future, despite all difficulties and roadblocks that we may face as we move forward Have you ever stopped and noticed how beautiful change of seasons can be? Did you notice leaves on almost every tree changing their color from green to yellow to bright red, creating a wonderful and visually appealing sight? I have. I appreciate the change of seasons and accompanied change in weather and surroundings which remind me that time goes on, life keeps on moving forward, and that’s a great feeling and a reminder. This is especially helpful when we go through some tough times in life. Change of seasons reminds us that everything is going to be ok, we just need to be more patient, believe in positive outcome and change, and most importantly know that time doesn’t stand still, therefore, we shouldn’t either. Just like leaves on the tree change their color as seasons change, they fall off the tree, and then re-grow again and again. Because, nothing is permanent. When we face challenges in our personal and professional lives, we must remember that dark cloud shall pass, and beautiful blue sky will be visible once again. Appreciate each moment, each minute, as we go through challenging, often difficult, unpredictable, and yet very exciting and beautiful journey we call life. Next time when you face new life’s challenge, just look around yourself and see changes happening, people walking, talking, cars driving, birds flying, clouds moving, raindrops falling, leaves changing color, and remind yourself that life goes on regardless how difficult or challenging our situation may seem at a particular time. Therefore, bad times will pass, and good times will come, just be patient and stay positive in every situation, even when staying positive takes every bit of energy and hope that you have. Everyone is capable of giving up when things don’t go according plan, because, giving up does not require any effort unlike moving forward despite any roadblock and challenge, with strength, focus, and positive attitude, as doing so requires hard work on our part. So, are you ready to move forward and conquer temporary obstacles on your path with ease, confidence, determination, and grace? I am. Let me know if you had found this article useful for you or someone else that you may know. If so, please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
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Moving forward in life and career when faced with a difficult choice to take a risk or play it safe Many of us can be very creative when telling others about our ambitious goals and plans, which we hope to accomplish someday. However, when it comes to taking any actionable steps towards those plans, all of the sudden once who seemed to be confident and determined individual, disappears somewhere. But what happened? Why once confident, determined, and goal-focused individual capitulates and retreats into the shadows? Did the goal change? Or did the goal become less important? I don’t believe that it’s either one of those things. I think it’s a sense of internal fear of the unknown and fear of change that’s at play here. People typically don’t give up on their goals and dreams, but instead, we often retreat and put our plans in ‘I’ll do it later’ folder of our mind with hopes to retrieve them at a later time, which almost never happens. Once we put something away, that space gets filled up with something else, some other want or need. And, in addition of us feeling a sense of disappointment inside for our lack of action, we are creating a brand of procrastinator and someone who’s words do not hold much weight in the real life. So, next time when we tell someone that we plan on starting to work on an important new goal of ours, our words are no longer being taken seriously. Why? Because, we’ve been in similar situation before and did not keep our word and our commitment to ourselves and others. So, why should anyone believe us when we are not giving them any reason to do so based on prior history, creating an empty noise without any meaningful action to back them up with? Instead of talking about what we hope to achieve one day, we should actually take action, take steps to pursue our goals and plans, even if those steps are very small. The main goal is to create an action and keep fueling those steps with continuous progress that we create along the way. Yes, it can be very scary to start something new and move pass our comfort zone, and even more difficult to keep moving forward and keep trying, even when things get very tough, or when we do not see any results of our hard work for a long time. However, if we never try and actually stick with our plan of reaching a specific goal, we would never know what we are capable of, and will continue to live surrounded by doubt and uncertainty while standing still in our comfort zone and expecting for things to change. What we seek may be just around the corner, but if we give up and stop pursuing our objectives, we would never know how close to reaching those objectives we may have been. So many times, I’ve been tempted to stop pursuing my personal and professional goals in life. However, each time I had to remind myself why I set the goals that I did and why I cannot stop. I also reminded myself of everyone who depends on me and that it’s not just about what I want but also individuals who believe in me and look up to me as their source of inspiration and motivation. The result is, I keep on going, no matter what, and would hope that anyone who has goals and dreams in life that they want to pursue would do exactly the same. As Walt Disney once said: “The way to get started is to quit talking and being doing.” So, let’s get after it, let’s stop talking about our goals and start working towards achieving them. Let me know if you had found this article useful for you or someone else that you may know. If so, please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
We all have a unique set of skills and qualities to offer to this wonderful world that we live in Every person born into this wonderful world that we all live in has a unique set of skills that he or she can offer. We all are good at something, whether it’s sports, academics, art, etc. Even though many of us would want to be great at everything, unfortunately that’s not the case in the real world. Therefore, instead of trying to focus on being great in everything, we should focus our attention on the one thing that we are great at, whether it is sports or academics, or something else, and do everything that we can to continue enhancing and expanding our knowledge and strength in a particular field. There’s no reason to get discouraged if we learn that what we were good or skilled at, and what we liked in reality is not really the case. And, I am not saying that one should stop playing a particular type of sport for example, just because it’s not his or her area of strength in the real life, but instead continue to play and enjoy the sport, but remember to invest time and energy in his or her area of expertise and strength in order to continue growing and developing skills necessary to be successful in whatever activity or hobby it may be. Perhaps, academics is your area of strength and expertise, it’s where you feel like a fish in a water, then continue building on your strength, seek new academic challenges, set ambitious goals and objectives, keep learning something new every single day and continue expanding your knowledge library to become a subject matter expert in whichever subject area you are passionate about. We often focus all of our time and energy on doing that what we like, or at least we think that we like, just because t is popular among our friends, colleagues, or it is viewed as something that’s popular based on where we may live. So, we sometimes think that we must focus on what others expect us to like or do, in turn, taking away from our true strength and unique set of skills and talents that we can offer to the company we work for, community we live in, and larger world around us. Just remember that it’s ok to do your own thing, not what others may expect from you but what you expect from yourself. Only we know where we want to go in life, the future that we wish to build for ourselves and our family. Also, only we know what steps and decisions we need to make in order to achieve our personal and professional goals. Remember this next time you are at crossroads and not sure what you should do. Remember that what you hope to accomplish, what excites and drives you to wake up every day with a smile on your face, that what motivates you every morning to do your best. Doing so, will help you to stay focused and have a clear plan in your mind of where you are today and where you are going. As Dr. Seuss once said: “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
Unique and individual interpretation of difficult and challenging times in life and how we deal with them How would one define “hard times” in his or her personal life? Is there a such thing as general definition of hard time that many encounter at some point in our lives and standard way to react and interpret situation when one reaches a point in his or her life where extremely tough decision must be made? I believe, based on my personal experience, that how each of us defines “hard time” in life and how one goes about addressing each individual situation differs from person to person. I think that there’s no standard approach when it comes to defining challenges and difficult times that we all encounter. We are all different and, therefore, react to and respond to a particular challenge in our life, especially when it’s very personal and sensitive situation that we may be facing. Sure, some of us are much more open to share our personal life with others looking for support, help, or to simply share our thoughts and concerns with someone else who is willing to listen, regardless whether they are able to help to find a solution in the tough situation that we may be dealing with. However, there are also those of us who prefer to keep their personal life and their problems and difficulties to themselves. These individuals would typically try to handle everything on their own, regardless how challenging the situation may be. Sure, they may now know the answer or have a solution to the problem they or someone they know are facing, however, they will do everything that they can to deal with tough situation and would do so without giving any signs of struggle to those around them. On the surface, they would typically remain cool and composed, fun, and ready to tackle any project or task that they may be presented with, however, deep inside there would typically be a whole lot going on. Inside they are facing very tough questions that they are expected to know answers to and have a plan of action on addressing or dealing with challenges being faced. So, why am I telling you this? Because, I feel that it’s very important to remember that someone you may be interaction with on the daily basis, someone you may know or had just met for the first time may be dealing with some tough situation(s) in his or her personal life, and be respectful of their personal space, unique personality, and approach to analyzing and dealing with problems and challenges encountered. I do believe that it is very important to offer your help to someone who you suspect or know to be going through challenging times, but without forcing your help on them. You will know that someone prefers to deal with their personal problems on their own without sharing them with the rest of the world, because, they will make it known that by expressing to you that they do not want to discuss their personal life or situation, and will make also know that if assistance or support is needed, they will ask for such support. On the other hand, if someone is ready and willing to share their problems and challenges, you wouldn’t need to ask, because, they will tell you that that without being prompted, just be ready to listen and help, if you can. So, please remember that everyone has their own individual definition of life’s “hard times,” and how they prefer to deal with challenges that they may be facing. Offer help and assistance when appropriate, but do not force your help and support on others if they give a clear indication that it’s personal matter and they are not open to sharing or discussing it with others. Be respectful of peoples’ personal space but be ready to step in and help where appropriate, when possible. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
Do you help your business and team to keep moving forward or holding them back? Don’t like the speed with which the business is moving? Check how quickly and pro-actively decisions are being made by the leader(s) of the business. If important decisions are always made late or it takes a very long time for a leader to decide, then such actions or lack thereof would typically set the pace for how quickly things change within the business. Often, other people or groups may be waiting on a leader to make a decision in order to push things forward, which impacts productivity and puts beneficial and positive outcome of a project or process in jeopardy. So, why not be open and transparent in conversations with business leaders, letting them know that their lack of timely decision-making, proactive approach to problem-solving, can and usually does have a negative impact on the business as well as other business groups involved? Sure, we may not always hear or see an immediate reaction to our feedback, however, as least our constructive feedback and point of view will be heard. Unfortunately, many people are simply uncomfortable or afraid to express their feedback to a leader, and instead, they choose to keep their opinions to themselves even if it is clear that lack of pro-active approach and urgency in a particular situation does negatively impact the business, revenue, and business’s customers. Who wins in such situation? Nobody, when something could have been resolved quickly and effectively only if we would say something. Now, due to our own internal fears or reservations, we’ve contributed to the negative outcome. So, in this case everyone loses, with biggest negative impact felt by customers. On the other hand, when leader is pro-active, takes time to listen to other people, their opinions and concerns, receives and accepts constructive feedback, and acts quickly to not only address but prevent problems and issues from escalating, and understands the importance of quickly and effectively addressing and resolving concerns of employees and customers, then business moves at expected pace, small problems get addressed before they turn into bigger problems, and business’s employees and customers remain happy and loyal to the business and its leader(s). Do you consider yourself a pro-active individual and leader when it comes to your business, your company, your employees and customers? Or, do you tend to procrastinate when you must make an important business decision(s) and/or take high risk action? Do you help your team to progress, overcome obstacles, and move business forward, or do you hold everyone back and lean towards procrastinating? It’s important to remember that a leader of the team sets the pace on how quickly the business, it’s employees, and customers achieve their individual goals and objectives. As Lee Iacocca once said: “The speed of the boss, is the speed of the team.” Remember that next time you are faced with having to make an important decision in your place of business and the impact that it can have on internal and external stakeholders. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it, and hope that you found it to be very useful for you or someone else that you may know. Please feel free to share this post if you know someone who may benefit from reading it same way you did
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