I recently read a wonderful personal and professional development book by Darren Hardy called The Compound Effect. To say that it’s a “good book filled with a wealth of resources” is an understatement. When I read a book or article, I highlight and use tabs when I come across ideas, quotes, great stories or pick up any nuggets that I can share with my clients and friends.  It’s safe to say that most of the text is now highlighted yellow.

The gist of the book is this – every action and thought, no matter how small, simple or inconsequential, compound’s over time.   And, over time that “compounding effect” will create exponential results. These actions will either work FOR you by helping you to accomplish your goals, desires and dreams. Or, they will work AGAINST you taking you so far off course that you won’t recognize yourself or the goals and dreams you long to achieve.

Here is a great example of the power of compounding: Let’s say someone have you a choice of taking  $100,000 right now, or, get a penny a day that would double each day for 30 days. On day one, you get a penny. On day two, you get two pennies. And on day three, you get four pennies, etc.

So which one would you want? If you took the $100,000, you sold yourself short. Why? The power of compounding. The penny deal would have given you $5.4 million at the end of 30 days.

Simple? Yes. Easy? No. Why? Because we tend to not be patient or persistent enough to do what we need to do to get what we set our hearts and mind to accomplish.

Several of my coaching clients who have read The Compound Effect implemented small actions in their lives and work. Here are examples of a few and the results they envision:

Doing 15 minutes of personal / professional development a day. The result: to develop and further themselves personally and professionally

Creating a morning routine of meditation, exercise and gratitude lists. The result: to have a more relaxed, peaceful, healthy and fulfilling work-life.

Now, multiply those habits by days, month and years. Imagine how those simple habits will make dramatic changes in their lives and work.

How about you? Can you imagine how powerful it would be for you to add a good habit in your daily routine?  Take time to think about what you may want to implement. What does it look like for you? What’s it worth to change your present routine and create a new and different habit?

I’d love to hear how you are taking action.  Drop me a line in comment box below to share.

Happiness = Productivity

When you think of happiness and productivity, do you think there a correlation between the two?

I believe there is. When our brains are in a positive state we are more productive, accurate and efficient.

Last May, I was fortunate to be in attendance at the TEDxBloomington talk by Shawn Achor. In this insightful talk Shawn outlines the formula for creating happiness and success.

It’s well worth the 12 minutes to learn the “happiness advantage” for accelerating success in your work and life.

What’s your happiness advantage?

If you’ve met me, then you know that I am a huge fan of the power of daily practices to propel you to the desired results that you want. Having a daily practice of quite time (prayer and or meditation), followed by visualization, affirmations and writing gratitude lists is one of the most powerful daily practices that we can do.

My good friend, Alissa recently shared a new app with me that is worth spreading the word about. It’s called Inspire! The app is designed to help users create and visualize personal and professional values and goals. It even helps you to achieve those through weekly planning.

To read more about a great tool that may help you to focus on what matters most, click here.

I recently joined Indiana Sports Corp and had the pleasure of packing backpacks for kids. It was a fulfilling experience collaborating and networking with my fellow “co-workers” as we packed away. If you are an independent business owner or work for a small company and you haven’t exercised your philanthropic passion lately, I encourage you to flex your giving muscle and make a difference.

If, on the other hand, you work for a business that has a Corporate Social Responsibility mission, you are probably aware of the surge in options of team building events that combine team building and philanthropy. I recently wrote a blog about of the options available and the benefits of combining the two. In addition, the attached video highlights how when individuals engage in team activities teamwork, rapport and camaraderie gets established.

That’s the power of being of service.

Every experience that we have is an opportunity to learn and most times those experiences teach us much more than we would ever have imagined. My good friend and running buddy, Kate wrote the blog below about running, friends and all that we have to run towards in life.

Thank you for this wonderful reminder, Kate!

I’m often asked why I run. Not only is the question unanswerable to me, I am also baffled by the frequent immediate follow-up: “I would only run if I was being chased, hahaha”.

Well, how do you know? Just as I can’t tell you why I run, how do you know that you…can’t?

I became a runner a few years ago simply because I’d met some super-cool women who were runners and I’d have done just about anything to hang out with them. You’ve probably seen these beautiful girls: bright packs of them, flying along the trail, talking and laughing and sweating. And at the end of their runs, they would hug; really HUG, in an I-see-see-you-for-who-you-are-and-love-you-for-it way. To me, they represented all that I wanted: strength and confidence and freedom, and community. Those beautiful girls looked like a net to me, and I needed to be caught in it.

Oh, did they ever catch me. And they helped me find my strength, and confidence, and freedom, and they gave me the community that fed my bravery, too.

In the spring of 2010, two things happened. I don’t know which came first, but I realized that my marriage was probably over, and I registered for my first marathon. Those long training runs gave me the quiet to pay attention to the internal life that I had ignored for so long, and as my legs grew stronger, so did my clarity. The miles I logged helped me shed my disappointment, and anger, and fear; I began to see myself again, and I saw that I loved me.

I ran the marathon alone. I declined friends’ kind offers of support, telling them that this was one race I had to do by myself.  And it was hard, really, really hard. It was also lonely, and sometimes boring, and pretty darn cold, too. My legs hurt. My nose hurt. My heart hurt the worst. At mile 24, I began to think I could not do it, that I had come this far and would not be able to finish. And that’s when my angel appeared. All right, I knew she wasn’t really an angel – I wasn’t hallucinating THAT badly – she was a pacesetter, and her name was Dawn. She gave me a huge smile, and told me we were almost home. I started to cry, choked it back, and sped up. I needed to have her with me; I realized that, in some races, as with life, we do sometimes need to accept a little help.

As I crossed the finish line, the tears overwhelmed me. I couldn’t breathe, my face stung, and my throat was exploding. An elderly man wrapped the silver thermal blanket around my shoulders, and I collapsed on the curb. I don’t know how long I sat there, crying and gasping like a guppy, but eventually my breath came back. And I thought, “okay, this is as alone as you will ever be, and you just did the most difficult thing you could imagine. Feel this, because it’s real, and it’s now”. And I realized that I was perfectly fine. Better than fine: triumphant. And my heart beat loudly in my chest, and told me YES.

There’s a rumor among runners that the greatest challenge of the marathon is mental, not physical. I would agree, and for myself, it was also emotional. For me, it was about throwing myself in front of the huge Karmic bus and trusting that not only would the Universe catch me, but that I would catch myself. For me, it was about allowing myself the ugly sobs until they stopped by themselves, and then wrapping myself in my shiny silver blanket, and making my way home.

My marathon taught me this: there is nothing to run away from, and much to run toward.

by Kate Hayward, Arms Wide Open

Ever thought about creating a team building triple win?

In the past several years more and more companies are focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs that involve combining team building and philanthropy. CSR team building programs range from packing backpacks for kids to restoring parks to neighborhood clean-up efforts.

The range of programs offered varies and is ever growing. Below is list of a few examples:

• Building bikes for kids
• Mini golf course can food drives
• Build a bear to donate to charity
• Neighborhood cleanup scavenger hunts
• Care packages for soldiers overseas
• Build a dollhouse to donate to underprivileged girls
• Team cook-off’s to make meals for the needy
• Habitat for Humanity Building
• Neighborhood restoration projects

The result of blending your philanthropic passion, your company mission, your team’s power is win, win, win: The community wins, your company wins and your team wins. Not to mention the impact on your bottom line and the fulfillment of knowing that you’ve made a difference in your community and in the lives of others. The sum of the equation is everyone wins.

“One of the reasons that people can’t find four leaf clovers is that they are too busy looking at all of the three leaf clovers” – Marjorie.