Two fun parts for today’s T4D… the first the awesome quote from Wang Yang-Ming and the second my next completed Action Step from the wonderful “Make it Great” book.

The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself.  ~ — Wang Yang-Ming (1472-1529) Chinese Philosopher

Action Step 4 - (I felt like my action step 1 also included steps 2 & 3 so I am now in Chapter 2 “Learn as much about yourself as possible where Phil suggests different tools for learning more about ourselves…and specifically our strength.  I am and have been a huge fan of the book “Now Discover Your Strengths” which comes with an access code for what they call their “Strengths Finder” assesment.  Of all the personality stuff like Meyers Briggs, Color Code, MBTI and others this has been far and away the most meaningful to me and to my ability to lead and influence others.  It helps you identify your true talents or strengths so you can get yourself on the right seat on the bus.  (A little Good to Great lingo there).

         

 What follows are my 5 Major Themes presented in the report form I recieved immediately upon completing the assesment.  I find it to be 110% accurate and wonderfully validating. 

KIRK WEISLER

Your Signature Themes

Many years of research conducted by The Gallup Organization suggest that the most effective people are those who understand their strengths and behaviors. These people are best able to develop strategies to meet and exceed the demands of their daily lives, their careers, and their families.

A review of the knowledge and skills you have acquired can provide a basic sense of your abilities, but an awareness and understanding of your natural talents will provide true insight into the core reasons behind your consistent successes.

Your Signature Themes report presents your five most dominant themes of talent, in the rank order revealed by your responses to StrengthsFinder. Of the 34 themes measured, these are your “top five.”

Your Signature Themes are very important in maximizing the talents that lead to your successes. By focusing on your Signature Themes, separately and in combination, you can identify your talents, build them into strengths, and enjoy personal and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.

Connectedness

Things happen for a reason. You are sure of it. You are sure of it because in your soul you know that we are all connected. Yes, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgments and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger. Some may call it the collective unconscious. Others may label it spirit or life force. But whatever your word of choice, you gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it. This feeling of Connectedness implies certain responsibilities. If we are all part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others because we will be harming ourselves. We must not exploit because we will be exploiting ourselves. Your awareness of these responsibilities creates your value system. You are considerate, caring, and accepting. Certain of the unity of humankind, you are a bridge builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the invisible hand, you can give others comfort that there is a purpose beyond our humdrum lives. The exact articles of your faith will depend on your upbringing and your culture, but your faith is strong. It sustains you and your close friends in the face of life’s mysteries.

Communication

You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information-whether an idea, an event, a product’s features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson-to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.

Strategic

The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path-your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.

Activator

“When can we start?” This is a recurring question in your life. You are impatient for action. You may concede that analysis has its uses or that debate and discussion can occasionally yield some valuable insights, but deep down you know that only action is real. Only action can make things happen. Only action leads to performance. Once a decision is made, you cannot not act. Others may worry that “there are still some things we don’t know,” but this doesn’t seem to slow you. If the decision has been made to go across town, you know that the fastest way to get there is to go stoplight to stoplight. You are not going to sit around waiting until all the lights have turned green. Besides, in your view, action and thinking are not opposites. In fact, guided by your Activator theme, you believe that action is the best device for learning. You make a decision, you take action, you look at the result, and you learn. This learning informs your next action and your next. How can you grow if you have nothing to react to? Well, you believe you can’t. You must put yourself out there. You must take the next step. It is the only way to keep your thinking fresh and informed. The bottom line is this: You know you will be judged not by what you say, not by what you think, but by what you get done. This does not frighten you. It pleases you.

Positivity

You are generous with praise, quick to smile, and always on the lookout for the positive in the situation. Some call you lighthearted. Others just wish that their glass were as full as yours seems to be. But either way, people want to be around you. Their world looks better around you because your enthusiasm is contagious. Lacking your energy and optimism, some find their world drab with repetition or, worse, heavy with pressure. You seem to find a way to lighten their spirit. You inject drama into every project. You celebrate every achievement. You find ways to make everything more exciting and more vital. Some cynics may reject your energy, but you are rarely dragged down. Your Positivity won’t allow it. Somehow you can’t quite escape your conviction that it is good to be alive, that work can be fun, and that no matter what the setbacks, one must never lose one’s sense of humor.

These are my strengths… what are yours?

Kirk Out

Years ago…( too many to talk about we ) I remember a college professor showing the 1957 film., “Twelve Angry Men” arguably one of the most popular and powerful films of the entire decade.  On Thursday of last week I sat down and watched with my 3 oldest children.  Brittany 14, Jacob 13, and Joshua age 10.   Over the weekend they still talking about and obviously thinking about the film… amazing considering it was black and white, involved no special effects, and the entire film took in one room.  No car chases, explosions, or martial arts…. just dialogue, discovery, persons, peer pressure and persuasion.

It was an amazing experience…. we paused it several times to talk about it.  Our main discussion points were prejudice, peer pressure and the courage to stand for what you know is right instead of choosing what is popular or convenient. 

There is another element in the film that is worth discussing… that being the willingness of people to change their mind after they have already decided they know the answer.  The film required the 12 actors, and invited all viewers to examine our own social conditioning, to consider how open we are to considering other alternatives, possibilities, and influence. 

There were 11 jurors in the film that ended up changing their ballots…but not changing their minds.  They just went along with the majority what ever the majority was.  They had so seldom thought for themselves it seemed they were incapable of it.

Some people seem to have the viewpoint that changing their minds would be an admission that the position that they had previously held was wrong and the longer they held that position the harder it may be to let go of it.  So in spite of new facts and information they doggedly hold on to what was, never realizing what is, or what may be.

Watching the main character, played by Henry Fonda, calmly respond to the many verbal attacks leveled at him by the other jurors was inspiring and highly educational.

12 Angry Men… a wonderful film about change. I only rented the film from Netflix…but I intend to own it.  

Tomorrow I will share my next accomplished “Action Item” from “10 Ways to Make it Great” 

Kirk out

In work, the greatest satisfaction lies - the satisfaction of stretching yourself, using your abilities and making them expand, and knowing that you have accomplished something that could have been done only by your unique apparatus. This is really the center of life, and those who never orient themselves in this direction are missing more than they ever know.   ~ — Kenneth Alsop (1920-1973)

I agree with Kenneth Alsop but would add that I think the greatest satisfaction includes helping others to do the same.  The more people we can invite and inspire to stretch the more satisfaction and accomplishment our world will enjoy.

Stretching is a significant part of a great athletes daily regimen.  It is an essential ingredient to their ability to perform at high levels.  It is something you can observe them doing before, during and after they compete.  

 

Let’s “Make it Great” - let’s stretch!

Kirk Out

10 Ways to Make it Great. By Phil Gerbyshak

- Action Step 1:

Write Your Obituary as though today were your last day.  Be honest!  Write what you think people will remember most about you.  Some things to include are:

Who is at the service mourning you?

What difference did you make in the lives of those at the service?

How is the world a better place because of what you did?

OK so here is what I personally wrote in response to  - Action Step 1:

Like many of you I have been at funerals attended by hundreds and others attended only by handfuls.  I think there is something inside of me that at first pass thinks ” I hope a lot of people care enough to come.”  But the more I thought about it…the more I concluded that if my immediate family cared enough to come that would be enough.

We have a favorite quote in our family that goes “No success in life can compensate for failure in the home.”  If I can do my best work with my spouse and children then I feel I will have done the best thing.

So who is at my funeral … Family - Wife Rebecca, and children Brittany, Jacob, Joshua, Brooklyn Joy and Ashlyn Eve.  Also attending would be my brothers Dan, Greg and Ted.  Anyone else who cares to come may but these are the ones who I am hoping want to be there!  (I am very hopeful this happens way in the future so my Mom & Dad are already waiting with St. Peter)

Difference I have made in their lives?  

To my Rebecca - I would hope that she felt that I had enhanced, enabled and magnified her journey of realizing a fullness of her joy and her potential.  That I was quick to say I was sorry and even quicker to forgive.  That I had become or was becoming better and that she was inspired by my willingness to change and grow.  That she never doubted my love and loyalty to her and to our family and that I had never done anything to affect her trust in me or in our marriage.  That together we had learned, loved, and laughed deeply and often.

To my children - In Randy Pausch’s book the Last Lecture he spoke of his parents and said he felt like he had , “won the parent lottery”.  Not because his parents were pushovers, or made the mistake that so many parents do of trying to be popular or accepted by their kids…but because they parented, they taught, disciplined and loved him.

I hope that I was a Father first, friend second… that they learned from me how to honor marital vows, keep covenants, serve others, sacrifice, work hard, love learning, how to set goals, apologize, pray and live with faith, maintain a hopeful and helpful attitude and outlook, and the importance of joy.  I hope they learned that decisions determine destiny, to laugh often, to love much and to learn always.  Most importantly I hope that all these things they learned from what they saw me doing not just talking about.

To my brothers… I had been quick to forgive, to encourage, to love, and laugh with.  That while I have not been a perfect brother I would hope that they could freely say of me that I had been both a good listener and good example and loyal.  

How is the world a better place because of me? -

I had bigger ambitions when I was younger or at least I thought they were bigger.  But I have come to realize that the greatest contribution I can make to the world is to raise great kids with great values.  The greatest work we will ever do is within the walls of our own homes.  Everything else I do is in support of that and everything else I do needs to be in harmony with the values I hope to instill in them… because it is so much more likely to happen if they are instilled in me.

Others - If other people came to my funeral (and you would all be welcome) I would simply hope that they could stand as a witness that they had seen me striving to accomplish what I have described above.  Perhaps they were inspired by that.  More likely is that they had helped inspire me to achieve it.  For that I would like to thank them for their examples, encouragement, and friendship.

How are you Making it Great?  Buy the book and let’s go to work.

(Next I’ll be working on Action Step 3 & 4)  I invite you to join me - and to share what you discover in the comment section of the blog.  www.kirkweisler.com/t4d  

Kirk Out

Planned on having my Make it Great assignment ready to share today… but it’s still not where I want it to be.  So here is a great piece that follows by Wendall Noble that will have to do.  Enjoy ~ Kirk

I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the tasks you do you might as well turn over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly. I am easily managed, you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great men and women and alas of all the failures as well. Those who are great I have made great. Those who are failures I have made failures. Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you.      Who am I?    I am habit.  

After a recent presentation a man approached and said something that sounded very pleasant to me but in a language I did not understand.  I asked him for the English version and ended up asking for both.  Here you go.

Queda aroma en la mano que da rosas.  - Scent is left in the hand that gives a rose. 

 

Gracias

Javier.

My very cool brother-in-law, Barry McMullin, used to work for NBA basketball commisionar David Stern.  Below is his response to yesterdays T4D on Truth and Action.

Kirk,

This is posted on the San Antonio Spurs locker room wall:     “When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it.  Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” - Jacob Riis

So let’s keep hammering away at our action items in “Make It Great“ so by next week we’re ready to complete 2 more!

Make it a great weekend.  Kirk OUT

In a past life I worked a bit with some ”youth treatment” programs.  Today’s T4D was written on the walls of one of them as a reminder to the youth… that they were being taught true principles that could only help them if they were willing to internalize and operationalize them.

“I cannot save you; you cannot save me; we cannot save each other, only so far as we can persuade each other to received the truth, by teaching it.   When a man receives the truth he will be saved by it. He will be saved not merely because someone taught it to him, but because he received and acted upon it. ”

 Kirk Out

Purdue University Students Blogging About Kirk Click Here

Could Kirk Boost Your Morale? See what others are saying.  Click Here

After 5 Hour Leadership Lecture Students Tell Kirk What They Think…. Click to Read their e-mails.

Just for fun I have inserted a picture of my lovely wife Rebecca Weisler below… actually I am doing an experiment to see how long it takes search engines to find this jpg and make it a part of their search results.  Not that anyone will every actually read what I am writing on this low traffic page.  Still if you do…  let me know at kirk@kirkweisler.com

   

        

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it’s not going to go away.  ~ Elvis Presley

“When you’re ‘happy for no reason,’ you bring happiness to your everyday experiences rather than try to extract happiness from them. It’s not that your life always looks perfect - it’s that however it looks, you’ll still be happy!”

Marci Shimoff  ~Author, NY Times bestseller “Happy For No Reason”

~ Kirk Out

=================

Special T4D Team Activity - No one need feel obligated or left out …. The traditional T4D is above and the above quotes are the traditional content for the “thought 4 the day”  subscribers… What follows below and in some of the future T4Ds is a section dedicated to creating a shared experience of working together on “Making it Great” and better preparing ourselves to create written goals and a clearer pathway and plan for our futures. 

Now for those who are joining together to “Make it Great” (see links at bottom for previous references) .  You most likely have received your copy of 10 Ways to Make it Great or you will this week.  The goal is too complete just 2 of the 22 action steps Phil has provided in the book.  If you are like me you have already skimmed the book looking for the 2 easiest ones to complete!  Guilty!   In the end though I have decided though that for this week I will complete action steps one and two on pages 3 & 4.

To support Phil’s concise statement on page 2 “Begin at the End and work toward Today”… I have included the following true story of 1000 marbles. (See below) This link will take you directly to the authors website. http://ke9v.net/stories/1000marbles.html

I invite any who care to share your thoughts, feelings and discoveries as we continue this journey at the blog version of this e-mail www.kirkweisler.com/t4d   I’m excited to join with you in Making it Great.

Links to Previous Posts on Making it Great Project

At this link www.kirkweisler.com/t4d look for these posts

Goal Primer - Make it Great

great people create their lives

Knowledge not just Information

Develop a Greater Vision for your Life

http://kirkweisler.com/t4d/page/2/

Kirk Out

The 1000 Marbles       

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the volume up on my radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning talk show. I heard an older sounding chap with a golden voice. You know the kind — he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business himself. He was talking about “a thousand marbles” to someone named “Tom.” I was intrigued and sat down to listen to what he had to say.

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital.” He continued, “Let me tell you something, Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.” And that’s when he began to explain his theory of a thousand marbles.

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about 75 years. I know, some live more and some live less; but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

“Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me Tom, I’m getting to the important part. “It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over 2700 Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.

“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in my workshop next to the radio. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. “I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday, then God has blessed me with a little extra time to be with my loved ones.

“It was nice to talk to you, Tom. I hope you spend more time with your loved ones, and I hope to meet you again someday. Have a good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop when he finished. Even the show’s moderator didn’t have anything to say for a few moments. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to do some work that morning, then go to the gym. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. “C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, nothing special,” I said. “It has just been a long time since we

spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

I love Dr Seuss …grew up with him.  Today if you were on Google you saw that they were commerating his birthday with their unique presentation of the word Google.

Some Suessical Quotes on Life, Leadership and the Pursuit of Happier Endings in a season of reduced corporate spendings.

A person’s a person, no matter how small.
– Dr. Seuss
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
– Dr. Seuss
And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked.
– Dr. Seuss
And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed.
– Dr. Seuss
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
– Dr. Seuss
Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.
– Dr. Seuss

From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.
– Dr. Seuss
I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!
– Dr. Seuss
I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
– Dr. Seuss
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent.
– Dr. Seuss
I’m sorry to say so but, sadly it’s true that bang-ups and hang-upscan happen to you.
– Dr. Seuss
If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.
– Dr. Seuss
So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.
– Dr. Seuss
Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
– Dr. Seuss
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
– Dr. Seuss
Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!
– Dr. Seuss
Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way.
– Dr. Seuss
Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.
– Dr. Seuss
Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.
– Dr. Seuss
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
– Dr. Seuss
You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?
– Dr. Seuss
You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
– Dr. Seuss
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
– Dr. Seuss