Breast Cancer Brought Home

Received a call from my mother last night that my cousin Helen has breast cancer. It's brought this disease home to my family. Helen is my first cousin and more like a sister. I've traveled across country to stay with them in Colorado and Alabama depending on where the Air Force stationed them.

I have spent numerous Thanksgiving holidays with Helen and her family. She's one of the best cooks in our family and probably part of the reason I loved traveling the distance to enjoy her feast around the holidays.

I know she's a fighter and won't let this beat her, but it still sucks that someone so near and dear to me is having to even deal with this curve ball life has thrown at her.

San Diego

Had an awesome weekend in San Diego with Rob Elliott a dear friend of mine. He almost backed out at the last minute Friday morning, but I talked him into following through.

We had a blast except for the hotel accommodations I found us on Hotels.com. The place was a DUMP. Rob said he wouldn't pay $25 for the room which was closer to $100. I think the bug in the bathtub and the midget getting out of his car on Friday night just made the whole experience complete.

Saturday we visited Point Loma which is absolutely gorgeous. You can see all of downtown San Diego, the Bay and parts of Mexico from the top of Point Loma.

This is such a great place to just sit, listen to nature and listen to the voices inside you. I meditated as much as I could this weekend. I finished the 7 Habits training on Friday afternoon and went to San Diego for the rest of the weekend.

We came back a little early and I was able to finally meet Jeremie tonight at his graduation from his weekend seminar. I was really nervous since we were meeting for the first time, but it turned out to be an incredible meeting. Have good feelings about this one so we'll see where it goes. I'll keep you posted.... maybe! ; )

Powerful Friendships

Spoke with a dear friend last night and he blew me away with insights I wouldn't have expected from him. He's a type "A" personality (but has a huge heart). The paradigm shifts he's had within the past few months was shocking. Thomas also made me cry while speaking with him on the phone when I realized how much I miss him. That's the part that sucks being 2,000 miles away from Atlanta.

Thomas suggested I get the DVD of the "Secret" and watch it. Put it away for a few days and then on the first free weekend when I'm alone and have the time without other distractions watch it again. This time watch it with the pause button so I can take notes as I watch it and at the end of it just sit and journal on the movie. After a week or so get it out again and watch it along with your notes and journal. I've got to say he's definitely got me intrigued. I'm even more intrigued since Thomas has never been a journal er, but he says he does it a lot now. Keeping a journal is actually, really therapeutic.

Let me know in the comments section if you've read the book and what your thoughts are? I've read the reviews but their all over the place. I will post in future weeks about my experience with this assignment Thomas gave me.

Finally thank God for the incredible friends I've been blessed with in my life. Thomas I gave extra thanks for you this morning in my prayers. I love you and your hold a special place in my heart and you always have.

360 Degree Feedback

What is 360 Feedback, it's a tool where you are rated by your boss, peers and subordinates in how they see you. It's 360 since it's surveying people above, below and on each side of you. It's a very powerful tool to assist you in seeing how you see yourself, how your boss sees you and how the people around you see you. It can also be devastating depending on how you're rated.

Today in class we received our 360's to review this evening. Talk about bringing your day to a screeching halt emotionally. I drove home in silence without the radio playing, reflecting on what my eyes just told me. I wasn't surprised by the feedback from my peers, but the feedback from my manager. I now have it in black and white just how she sees me and have to make the difficult choices ahead. I shouldn't say it was a total shock, since she has made her feelings known throughout the past eight months.

I refuse to quit, since quitting lasts a life time. I refuse to let anyone, especially her defeat me or my spirit. The choice is how do I go forward with a leader figure that doesn't respect me, doesn't have my back and has made efforts to discredit me?

I have friends and former co-workers that know the situation and have gotten similar feedback from them that I've endured this longer than they would have. I've had one friend say I've been put through the emotional meat grinder and continue to be put through it. When is enough enough? How many times do you turn the other cheek?

I guess the thing that amazes me the most, is this person putting me through this hell is a director of diversity and leadership for this amazing company. Talking a good talk is much different than walking it. Time will eventually show who was really walking the talk and practicing what we teach in our workshops.

We Create The Results We Get

We as human beings exist to get the same things out of life whether we are a PhD, GED, live in the United States or a third world country. We want life, love, happiness, security, wealth and all those things summed up in one word would be "results". We as human beings exist to get results out of life.

The "results" we get in life, comes from what we "do", and we do what we do from the way we "see" the world. Our belief systems dictate why we do what we do. The results we get in life are always from what we do and you can't change it no matter how hard you try.

Now really ponder this one... "We create the results we get in life" If you don't like something at work, you created it. If you don't like the results you're getting out of your relationship, you created them. If you don't like where you are in life at this point, you created it. Life is nothing more than a series of continuous choices. We are always at choice every minute of our lives. We choose how we're going to react to something, we choose what we're going to eat, we choose how we're going to spend our time today.

If you don't like the results you're getting, change what you're doing.

212 Degrees

Did you know that water is hot at 211 degrees but at 212 degrees it's boiling and boiling water creates steam. Steam can power a locomotive.

Just one degree more can create power. How many times in life do we stop short when just 1 degree more could have made all the difference? We all have the potential of greatness but how many of us stop short and don't give it just a little more that could possibly make all the difference?

There's a great movie that illustrates this one degree. It's the same company that has the Dash movie. Check this out when you have time: www.212movie.com Let me know what you think?

How Do I Use My Time?

Monday I will be attending a workshop called "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" it's based on the book by Stephen Covey. I will hopefully gain the time management skills and focus more on what matters most to me. I am also hoping to gain more insight to using my Franklin Planner and becoming more organized.

There are four quadrants they teach in the 7 Habits. Where do I spend most of my time? Where do you spend most of your time? Stephen Covey says we should spend the majority of our time in Quadrant 2. I will be focusing the next few weeks on which quadrant I'm in.

I'm looking forward to this week long course and becoming certified to teach this Franklin Covey course!!

Forgiveness & Meaning It

I started reading a new book this past weekend called "Power Through Constructive Thinking". A section of the book is titled "The Lord's Prayer". It is the most important document of all the Christian documents.

Reading a passage about "The Lord's Prayer" something has struck me. It's the part about forgiveness. "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us". I have never thought of the ramifications of this simple sentence until reading this book. Thinking about that sentence, we are inevitably obliged either to forgive our enemies in sincerity and truth, or never again to repeat that prayer.

This clause in the prayer means that you have to truly forgive in order to be forgiven. How many times do I forgive with conditions? How many times do I say I forgive but then never forget the trespass? These are questions I'm asking myself.

Mahatma Gandhi said... "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it stands than to anything on which it is poured". True forgiveness involves forgetting, letting it go, and moving on.

How Much Do You Take?

Seems like I keep finding myself in the path of the storm. Every time I feel like I'm getting secure footing, another storm comes along and hits me even harder. This most recent storm hit this past Tuesday totally unexpected. The worst part is I wasn't the only one in the storm but my entire team was present to witness me getting beat up by the storm.

I seeked advice from a couple close friends back in Atlanta and got different perspectives from both. One advised that I am here for a lesson, to learn something I haven't learned before. We're not sure what that lesson is, but the friend asked if I had ever stood up for myself in the past. I replied that since I was a child growing up in church that I was taught you always put yourself last. There's even a song that exemplifies this, called "Jesus first, yourself last and others in between" I'm not sure I agree with that song or that belief anymore. I'm starting to think you should put yourself before others, so you can better serve others. If you aren't focusing on yourself first, are you really giving the best you have to others around you?

Another perspective I received was from a dear friend that said something that turned on a light bulb. He said "Craig, this is the third time in less than two months that we've had this conversation". He said I think you know what you should do. That's the issue I'm wrestling with the most, what decision to make. Two people have said they can't believe how much I've taken from the storms and they would have never lasted this long.

I believe I am here for a purpose. I am learning skills and leadership behaviours that no one not even the storm can take away from me. What ever decision I make in the future, I will be happy because it will have been my decision and no one Else's.