Your Second Great Day

How to Catch a Plane

When I talk to people about writing a personal purpose statement I get varying reactions. But one of the ones that drives me crazy is the person that says, "Wow, that all sounds great. Maybe someday I will write a personal purpose statement."

I just want to say...someday? What do you mean someday? What do you expect to gain by doing something as important as this someday? Do you think you can make up the time by working harder or more effectively once you have taking the time to identify why you were put here on this earth?

I heard John Maxwell tell a story a few years ago that has stuck with me. It is one of those stories that you just can't get out of your head, nor do you want to.

Here is the story...

A man was on his way home from a long business trip. He was standing at a gate waiting for his plane home when he noticed this guy coming towards him very fast. He saw this man running toward him, well actually toward the gate at which he was waiting.

The man came running around the corner obviously trying desperately to catch his plane. As he turned the corner he realized he had missed his flight. The man coming home from the business trip observed all of this an approached the man.

The man who had been running had his hands on his knees and was very out of breath. The business man put his hand on this disappointed travelers shoulder and leaned down as said, "Had you only run a little faster you would have made your plane."

The man catching his breath, took a deep breath in, turned and looked at the business man and said, "No, had I only left earlier, I would have caught my plane."

Why do we put extremely important things off? We will not be able to make up the ground we are currently losing. So stop losing ground

You want to catch your plane...START NOW!!!

Make Coffee

I found this little story in an issue of Bits & Pieces. I have it displayed on my desk and read it often. I thought it was very worth passing along:

A young woman was complaining to her father about how difficult her life had become. He said nothing, but took her to the kitchen and set three pans of water to boiling. To the first pan, he added carrots; to the second eggs; and to the third, ground coffee. After all three had cooked, he put their contents into separate bowls and asked his daughter to cut into the eggs and carrots and smell the coffee. What does this all mean? she asked impatiently.

Each food, he said, teaches us something about facing adversity, as represented by the boiling water. The carrot went in hard but came out soft and weak. The eggs went in hard but came out hardened. The coffee, however, changed the water into something better.

Which will you be like as you face life? he asked. Will you give up, become hard - or transform adversity into triumph? As the "chef" of your own life, what will you bring to the table?

Quote: Success and Failure

"Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal."
Mike Ditka

Just Didn't Work Out

Have you ever looked back at a situation or decision and think, "Boy, I really made a bad decision there." Sure we all have. The other day I was reading through the book Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court by the famous college basketball coach Jon Wooden. I highly recommend this book; it gives little stories or thoughts for you to read. You can pick up your own copy here. The other day he was talking about looking back on "bad decisions."

Wooden basically said that you don't make bad decisions. We make decisions at a specific point in time with the information we have available to us. And if once time passes that decision turns out to have negative results, we have the tendency of looking back calling this decision a bad decision. I know in my life this has always been a fear of mine...making a bad decision. I would find that sometimes I would even avoid making the decision altogether for fear it might be a bad one. Thinking about that I have to just shake my head at all the opportunities I have lost out of a fear of a bad decision.

Wooden's perspective freed me of that fear. Wooden basically says we don't make BAD decisions...we simply make decisions that did not work out. And that there is not value in the worry about these decisions. They are in the past!

So as you start this new year if you are being weighted down by past "bad decisions" tell your self its ok...they were decisions that just didn't work out. Learn from them. And move on!!!

Wecome!

If this is your first time visiting Your Second Great Day Blog...WELCOME! There are very few more important things in life then finding and developing your personal purpose. You might find this introduction helpful as you start to read, participate, and share this blog. Glad you're here!

Write It Down!!!

A few years ago when I went back to school to get my MBA, I went to a university that at the time had a program that was ranked 12th in the nation. One of the first classes I took was Organizational Behavior. It was one of the best classes in my whole academic career (way to go Bonnie, keep up the great work!)

One of the many things that has stuck with me from that class happened when we were talking about goal setting. I would have to admit I sort of clocked out during this discussion because I had hear all of this before...but I still had something to learn.

Professor Bonnie asked all of us to raise our hand if we had ever set a New Years resolution. There were about 30 business, very corporate, white collar, "fast track" students in the class and we all raised our hand. Then she asked us to keep our hands up if we actually accomplished our resolution. I just about fell out of my seat when there were only two hands left raised, one other student and me.

Seriously only about 5% of these type A people actually accomplished what they set out to do? There has to be something wrong with this. So of course this was a perfect time for a discussion to figure this out. You know what came out of that time of discovery? Something very simple. You probably will not even believe me. Here it is...here is the only thing that separated success and failure. The two of us wrote our resolutions down!!! Seriously that was it.

So what are you waiting for? If you made a resolution...WRITE IT DOWN!!!