Lessons in the Silence

Not what you might expect!

I was attending our National Speaker Association - Illinois Chapter meeting about a week ago.  It was the best meeting I have attended in over 2 years.  It wasn't that I had any predetermined expectations of the main program of the day.  I'm not sure what I was expecting ... but whatever I was expecting ... well, it wasn't what I got!

Meet Rory Vaden.  He is 26.   And he is not probably delivering the message you might think he is delivering either.  Tell Rory that his generation is filled with a sense of entitlement and wants it all and wants it now ... he might just agree with you.  He might also not limit it to his own generation.  His message for success comes from a place of discipline and sacrifice.  It is a refreshing wake-up call that is hard to ignore. While Rory delivers his message with a spoon full of sugar ... you find it hard to walk away and hit the snooze on what you have just heard.

To reinforce his message he is on a national mission he has branded as "Take the Stairs".  And he isn't asking you to do something he isn't willing to do.  In fact, while in Chicago he climbed all the stairs of the Sears Tower ... and he is going coast to coast climbing the stairs of the 10 Tallest Buildings!  As I traveled last week, I noticed Rory was right.  No one takes the stairs ... they prefer the effortless escalators.  I'm taking the stairs ... and seeing things just a little more clearly with each step I climb!

Rory ... thanks for a great message ... delivered in an exceptional way!  Thanks for helping people see the realities of life and helping them wake-up ... rather than roll over and hit the snooze. 

Focus on Commitment

   I think two of the greatest challenges we face today are FOCUS and COMMITMENT.  Last week I was able to work on both of them when I met with my Mastermind Group.  A lot of people ask me ... "what is a mastermind group?".  I best describe it as all members serving as each other's Board of Directors.  It is a nice blend of creative brainstorming, tough honest conversations ... and genuine encouragement.  But the bottom-line is that it is about stepping back to focus on what you need to be committed.

     It is easy to become victim of the "flavor-of-the-month" ... or, in today's fast world, the "flavor-of-the-minute."  There is a difference to strategically staying attuned to necessary adjustments in your journey vs. winging it every step of the way.  I like to think in terms that great planning leads to more insightful flexibility.  I know it is my instinctive nature to go off on tangents ... and some of those tangents can be incredibly valuable.  And in a paradoxical way, focus and commitment gives me greater freedom to go off on these tangents ... because I depart with the confidence of knowing the main foundation to which I can easily return.

And that is why I love my Mastermind Group.  I think each of us left with better focus and a commitment to our plan ... knowing that at our next meeting we would be held accountable to what we said we were going to do. 

But you know what happens after most planning retreats ... you return to the speed of life.  Focus and commitment are not about a meeting or event.  They are a way of life.  In the midst of my daily speed, I remember the advice my long-time business coach, Mark LeBlanc, gave me when we began to work together.  Mark said, "every single day you need to establish your three HVAs."  Those are your High Value Activities ... the three things that will move you three steps closer towards what you are focused on and committed to.  At  the end of the day you should revisit each HVA and ask yourself if you completed each one of them.  If you didn't, that's OK.  Don't give up ... just establish three the next day.  Eventually you will be surprised how your HVAs start to get done on a regular basis.  And if they are continually tied to your focus and commitment, you are likely to see your plan of the future become a reality of today.

They always say the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time (I always hated the thought of eating an elephant ... but I got the point!).  And the best way to stay focused and committed is establishing three HVAs a day.  And, of course, having a mastermind group that will hold you accountable!

Thankful for the Unexpected

Last week was a GREAT week!  First, because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.  I love the concept of the Thanksgiving Holiday.  No expectations ... other than just giving THANKS! 

But it was also a great week because I was given the privelge to deliver the weekend message for all the services at Good Shepherd Church in Naperville IL.  Last summer, I was invited to deliver a message on the concept of Silent Alarm to their Contemporary Service.  Shortly after, they decided they wanted their whole church to hear a version of the same message.  Each of their four services, on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, had its own genre of worship and it was fun to experience each of them.  The Message of Silent Alarms (John Blumberg 11-18-07) was designed to be a challenge to wake-up to the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) alarms that are ringing in our lives.  Good Shepherd Church's motto is Welcome-Grow-Serve.  I certainly got a huge dose of the first part of that motto and appreciated them welcoming me into their community with such a warm sense of hospitality.

I never dreamed when I wrote Silent Alarm I would have the opportunity to speak at weekend church services!  After all, I spend all week speaking to corporations, professional associations and universities across America.  And Silent Alarm is a business book written as a parable of hope for busy professionals.  My great buddies Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson, co-founding pastors of Community Christian Church in Naperville IL, were the first to take the Silent Alarm concept and  build it into a full-length 5-week series this past Spring.  They too gave me the privelege to speak in-person at their Yellow-Box Naperville Campus and through videocast at several of their other locations on the opening weekend of the series.  My friend Dan Carlton, Senior Pastor of Springhill Baptist Church in Ruckersville VA, was really the first to even suggest the idea of using my book, Silent Alarm, as the inspiration to develop a series of weekend messages. His church just completed their own version of a "Silent Alarm" series last month.  Thank you Dan ... for opening up a whole new dimension to this adventure.  You are one of my newest heroes!  I look forward to sharing the Silent Alarm message as the featured speaker for the Annual Parish Mission at St. John the Baptist Church in Winfield IL this next February 2008.

I continue to be amazed at what happens along this journey.  And I am very thankful ... on Thanksgiving and each and every day of the year!