One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. ~Bertrand Russell
To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. ~Barbara Bush
It's been an ironic paradox that the more I have been sought by my Friends, my clients, while continuing to maintain my Family balance and Faith as my core Principles, the less time I have devoted to writing. I jokingly remind myself that there will be time enough for writing when clients cease to engage me.
Reflecting back upon my last article nearly five months ago--and smiling at the mutually-profitable connections I have made with new Friends as a result--I find myself today once again applying those same timeless lessons to myself amidst a Family situation many of us have faced.
...Last evening, following a day focused upon a thoroughly-fulfilling Process Improvement engagement for a corporate client, I arrived home with just enough time to eat Supper and chat with my beautiful Bride before we were to depart for Mass. After Mass, I would have attended a Commission meeting before heading back home for the night.
God had a different plan for me and my Family the moment our six-year-old Daughter called us from upstairs following the sudden onset of a stomach bug. Details can be spared, but needless to say we embraced and comforted our tear-stricken Daughter, then set to sharing duties as my Bride attended to the bath and I to the carpet cleaning.
Without hesitation, I sent word soon after that I would not be in attendance at my meeting, and recognizing that the following day would not avail our daughter of school attendance, I cancelled my schedule for the following day to be exactly where I needed to be. My Bride made necessary phone calls to notify school, teacher, etc. of our Daughter's impending absence, and arranged to take the second day off if necessary.
Yes, we three were awakened several times throughout the overnight...changing bedding, washing up, comforting our Patient. Today I have laundered much bedding, bath linen, and clothing--not quite the project and meetings in which I had engaged the prior day. But today I have persevered and smiled as our Daughter, between uncharacteristic naps, has optimistically and whimsically declared war on the germs that have derailed her.
I am exactly where God, my Bride, and our Daughter need me to be today. We only have today, as there are no promises of tomorrow. In my business, I strive to always stay within the client's budget; to exceed expectations; to execute the deliverables ahead of schedule--BUT above all, I make no apologies for having built my Family's foundation upon the bedrock of our Faith. I am accountable to God today and at my final hour as I stand before Him at Judgment to faithfully recount my Stewardship of his Entrustment to me.
...Yes, I conduct my business with that very same level of Integrity. Tomorrow I will be serving my Friends again in one-on-one and group sessions to achieve their outcomes, but ever at my core will be my Principles of which I have been most fully reminded this day. Thank You, Lord, for a Life: Fully Lived!
TODAY'S QUESTION: Do we recognize God's Will for us in Life's "interruptions" and "inconveniences"?
Showing posts with label principle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label principle. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Thursday, January 14, 2010
PRINCIPLES AND CHARACTER
"If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen." - Ronald Reagan
"I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life." -Ronald Reagan
One cannot deny that Ronald Reagan exemplified consistent adherence to conservative principles, among them free enterprise, states' rights, and democracy. President Reagan's consistent opposition to the insidious influences of socialism & communism domestically and abroad served to protect and project the nation's strength at home and infiltrated even the Iron Curtain.
Reagan also knew how to accomplish his objectives (strengthening our military) or to rein in and recast other's objectives (the 1983 Social Security Act with then-House Speaker Tip O'Neal) without compromising core principles, attacking an opponent's character, or being perceived by others as a man of narrow extremism. Those who didn't agree with his policy objectives could often still share a laugh or a frosty beverage with the congenial "Great Communicator."
Our 40th President knew that regardless of the policy and principled differences that he and others might have shared, his perpetual optimism and belief in the strength and character of America, Americans and American Free Enterprise would not allow him to devolve into petty partisan bickering. If he disagreed with someone, he said so openly and often with a smile.
Ronald Reagan could also acknowledge that Americans had more in common than what might separate them. Other than lunatic extremists and malcontents, a large majority of Americans love God, love their families, love freedom, embrace economic enterprise and are willing to join together and fight (and die, if necessary) to protect all four pillars. While standing up for his principles with character, Reagan focused his attention upon building a stronger America and world that would draw diverse people together instead of focusing upon meaningless differences that would drive neighbors apart.
Look around you...if you're a candidate, are you willing to faithfully represent and serve ALL the citizens of your district upon being elected --including those citizens who openly opposed you? Now THAT demonstrates your character. If you are a supporter of a candidate or a ballot measure, are you willing to engage in peaceful and respectful two-way (listening & speaking) dialogue with opponents of your candidate or ballot measure? THAT demonstrates your character.
Don't compromise your principles, but also don't forget how to be a neighbor, an American. Yelling, besmirching character, negatively stereotyping, and mischaracterizing positions with broad slogans may fan the flames of the already faithful, but will do NOTHING to win the hearts and minds (and votes) of the ever critical Independent voters. 50.1% looks a whole lot different than 49.9% the morning after Election Day.
TODAY'S QUESTION: In the hours that follow the closing of the polls, will you be receiving or will you be making the concessionary and congratulatory phone call? [Your connection with Independents will determine the outcome.]
"I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life." -Ronald Reagan
One cannot deny that Ronald Reagan exemplified consistent adherence to conservative principles, among them free enterprise, states' rights, and democracy. President Reagan's consistent opposition to the insidious influences of socialism & communism domestically and abroad served to protect and project the nation's strength at home and infiltrated even the Iron Curtain.
Reagan also knew how to accomplish his objectives (strengthening our military) or to rein in and recast other's objectives (the 1983 Social Security Act with then-House Speaker Tip O'Neal) without compromising core principles, attacking an opponent's character, or being perceived by others as a man of narrow extremism. Those who didn't agree with his policy objectives could often still share a laugh or a frosty beverage with the congenial "Great Communicator."
Our 40th President knew that regardless of the policy and principled differences that he and others might have shared, his perpetual optimism and belief in the strength and character of America, Americans and American Free Enterprise would not allow him to devolve into petty partisan bickering. If he disagreed with someone, he said so openly and often with a smile.
Ronald Reagan could also acknowledge that Americans had more in common than what might separate them. Other than lunatic extremists and malcontents, a large majority of Americans love God, love their families, love freedom, embrace economic enterprise and are willing to join together and fight (and die, if necessary) to protect all four pillars. While standing up for his principles with character, Reagan focused his attention upon building a stronger America and world that would draw diverse people together instead of focusing upon meaningless differences that would drive neighbors apart.
Look around you...if you're a candidate, are you willing to faithfully represent and serve ALL the citizens of your district upon being elected --including those citizens who openly opposed you? Now THAT demonstrates your character. If you are a supporter of a candidate or a ballot measure, are you willing to engage in peaceful and respectful two-way (listening & speaking) dialogue with opponents of your candidate or ballot measure? THAT demonstrates your character.
Don't compromise your principles, but also don't forget how to be a neighbor, an American. Yelling, besmirching character, negatively stereotyping, and mischaracterizing positions with broad slogans may fan the flames of the already faithful, but will do NOTHING to win the hearts and minds (and votes) of the ever critical Independent voters. 50.1% looks a whole lot different than 49.9% the morning after Election Day.
TODAY'S QUESTION: In the hours that follow the closing of the polls, will you be receiving or will you be making the concessionary and congratulatory phone call? [Your connection with Independents will determine the outcome.]
Sunday, September 20, 2009
VISION TO VICTORY
Ronald Reagan had it; Governor Rick Perry has it. Do you have it? If not, you'd better get it...so that others will get it.
Every election will be decided when the independents lean in. You want a clear landslide--but you'll win with 50.1% . The right and the left will reliably remain loyal. Always. But the most recent presidential election differed from the 2000 presidential election simply because the independents leaned in a different direction.
Independents lean toward the most compelling vision, and then cast votes in the hope that the future will be better than the past. Ronald Reagan emerged at a time when America perceived that its President had yielded too much ground both at home (think Energy Crisis) and abroad (think Iranian Hostages). Ronald Reagan delivered confidence, growth, and patriotism to a nation that sorely needed it. Reagan successfully worked within his party and across party lines, ideological lines, and oceans.
More recently, Governor Rick Perry has skillfully guided Texas through the nation's economic turmoil. Education, entrepreneurship, clean energy, construction, and healthcare have all improved and prospered under his leadership. Texas' future looks equally bright under his continued leadership, because Governor Perry communicates his vision through actions that families and business leaders readily identify with and embrace.
Fear, negativity, and obstruction only have so much mileage. Name-calling and demagoguery provide red meat for pundits until the next news story comes along. But families and business leaders look for tangible results and then vote accordingly.
Reagan and Perry, both smart leaders, have understood that the people (the voters) want to trust, identify with, and believe in their elected leaders. Their visions convey optimism without yielding values and principles. Both leaders could disagree with others without being disagreeable, both domestically and internationally. Leading from a vision of growth, optimism and consensus-building, effective governance has followed.
TODAY'S QUESTION: How are YOU going to convey your PRINCIPLES and VALUES so that the deciding majority embraces your VISION?
Every election will be decided when the independents lean in. You want a clear landslide--but you'll win with 50.1% . The right and the left will reliably remain loyal. Always. But the most recent presidential election differed from the 2000 presidential election simply because the independents leaned in a different direction.
Independents lean toward the most compelling vision, and then cast votes in the hope that the future will be better than the past. Ronald Reagan emerged at a time when America perceived that its President had yielded too much ground both at home (think Energy Crisis) and abroad (think Iranian Hostages). Ronald Reagan delivered confidence, growth, and patriotism to a nation that sorely needed it. Reagan successfully worked within his party and across party lines, ideological lines, and oceans.
More recently, Governor Rick Perry has skillfully guided Texas through the nation's economic turmoil. Education, entrepreneurship, clean energy, construction, and healthcare have all improved and prospered under his leadership. Texas' future looks equally bright under his continued leadership, because Governor Perry communicates his vision through actions that families and business leaders readily identify with and embrace.
Fear, negativity, and obstruction only have so much mileage. Name-calling and demagoguery provide red meat for pundits until the next news story comes along. But families and business leaders look for tangible results and then vote accordingly.
Reagan and Perry, both smart leaders, have understood that the people (the voters) want to trust, identify with, and believe in their elected leaders. Their visions convey optimism without yielding values and principles. Both leaders could disagree with others without being disagreeable, both domestically and internationally. Leading from a vision of growth, optimism and consensus-building, effective governance has followed.
TODAY'S QUESTION: How are YOU going to convey your PRINCIPLES and VALUES so that the deciding majority embraces your VISION?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
PRINCIPLED COMMUNICATION
Joe and his wife Martha were approaching a stop sign on their way home one evening. Having come to a complete stop, Joe looked both ways and was preparing to proceed through the intersection. Martha, also looking both ways from her passenger seat vantage point, saw what appeared to be a semi barreling down on the intersection from the right. She exclaimed to Joe, "Don't go yet! I don't think that vehicle coming the other way is going to stop." Joe calmly replied, "Martha, it's a four-way stop and I have the right of way," and proceeded into the intersection...
Joe was right...dead right in proceeding upon his principled conviction. Oftentimes we hold beliefs that we know are true for us, and perhaps are universally held truths across cultures (i.e. Thou shalt not kill). We can express and live out our convictions in a principled and respectful manner with moderation toward others.
When communicating to a diverse audience toward achieving that margin of victory, we should be able to comfortably express our personal conviction with a tone and volume appropriate to remove any doubt about our principles.
We begin to lose our margin of victory when, in an effort to demonstrate the moral strength of our character, we infuse our personal convictions with such tone, volume, and fervor so as to appear full of disdain, intolerant, extreme. For every citizen we may attract with such vitriol, we may lose two who previously leaned toward our core message.
Hold firmly and live out your personal and universal principles, but be mindful of how you are communicating the moral strength of your character to a diverse audience. We are a Big Tent, not a Big Top.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Are your principled communications conveying solutions to your audience's widely-held concerns, or narrowing the appeal of your message only to your existing base?
Joe was right...dead right in proceeding upon his principled conviction. Oftentimes we hold beliefs that we know are true for us, and perhaps are universally held truths across cultures (i.e. Thou shalt not kill). We can express and live out our convictions in a principled and respectful manner with moderation toward others.
When communicating to a diverse audience toward achieving that margin of victory, we should be able to comfortably express our personal conviction with a tone and volume appropriate to remove any doubt about our principles.
We begin to lose our margin of victory when, in an effort to demonstrate the moral strength of our character, we infuse our personal convictions with such tone, volume, and fervor so as to appear full of disdain, intolerant, extreme. For every citizen we may attract with such vitriol, we may lose two who previously leaned toward our core message.
Hold firmly and live out your personal and universal principles, but be mindful of how you are communicating the moral strength of your character to a diverse audience. We are a Big Tent, not a Big Top.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Are your principled communications conveying solutions to your audience's widely-held concerns, or narrowing the appeal of your message only to your existing base?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
THE BIG TENT OR THE BIG TOP?
Nothing gets 24/7 cable news coverage like extremist acts or extremist rhetoric. The torching of a luxury vehicle dealership by an environmental terrorist group or the gruesome homicide of an abortion provider might garner huge "ratings" and attract a certain segment of the television-watching population. The margin of victory is subtler and more substantive.
There will certainly be times when we will effectively and appropriately employ the media catalyst of the "extreme" (yet lawful) event/rhetoric. But the vast majority of our time will be spent broadly communicating, through our sincere actions and rhetoric, our positive solutions to issues affecting a plurality of our citizens and businesses.
Conservative principles by their very nature are time-tested, transparent, and largely codified in the U.S. Constitution, our state Constitutions, and the laws that flow forth from those documents. Conservative principles have provided the guiding and moderating influence in our nation that has ushered in and fostered certainty, freedom, faith, and opportunity--even as society and technology have evolved.
So, let's leave the Big Top circus antics to the extremists and fringe groups to pander to the ratings-hungry media. And instead let us win the hearts and minds of all persons who value freedom, opportunity, the rule of law, and God--under the Big Tent of principled solutions.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Are YOU communicating your conservative ideals as positive solutions to widely-held concerns, or are YOU merely targeting specific issue groups?
There will certainly be times when we will effectively and appropriately employ the media catalyst of the "extreme" (yet lawful) event/rhetoric. But the vast majority of our time will be spent broadly communicating, through our sincere actions and rhetoric, our positive solutions to issues affecting a plurality of our citizens and businesses.
Conservative principles by their very nature are time-tested, transparent, and largely codified in the U.S. Constitution, our state Constitutions, and the laws that flow forth from those documents. Conservative principles have provided the guiding and moderating influence in our nation that has ushered in and fostered certainty, freedom, faith, and opportunity--even as society and technology have evolved.
So, let's leave the Big Top circus antics to the extremists and fringe groups to pander to the ratings-hungry media. And instead let us win the hearts and minds of all persons who value freedom, opportunity, the rule of law, and God--under the Big Tent of principled solutions.
TODAY'S QUESTION: Are YOU communicating your conservative ideals as positive solutions to widely-held concerns, or are YOU merely targeting specific issue groups?
Thursday, May 21, 2009
COMPROMISING POSITIONS
We may hear phrases like, "Go with the flow"..."Don't be so stubborn"..."Why do you always have to stick to your principles?"...and the like. What do YOU do when faced with that cajoling, thinly veiling the underlying implication that your position is too rigid and should be cast aside?
I do not pretend to say that which is a principle for you, a truth for you is absolutely a principle or a truth for me. Certainty, except in foundational matters, is in the eye of the beholder. But YOUR principles are your principles.
Trust your instincts. You can recognize the difference between a preference for which you will yield on occasion versus a bedrock principle for which you would lay down your life. Throughout life we are faced with tension from others (and occasionally from ourselves, our "inner demons") when the temptation to set aside that which is right for us appears to be getting in the way of what other options beckon.
He who pushes you to abandon that which you hold dear may simply mean well and want company on his journey. But beware the alternative, the insidious invitation designed to separate you from your principles. One might think of matters of faith, honor, chastity perhaps. Each of us knows in our hearts how we define those positions for which compromise is not an option we would choose.
Compromise should always remain an option for matters of mere preference. But do not fall victim to the urgings of the misguided or the miscreant, but instead hold true to your own uncompromising positions.
TODAY'S QUESTION: What ideals or truths are you unwilling to compromise?
I do not pretend to say that which is a principle for you, a truth for you is absolutely a principle or a truth for me. Certainty, except in foundational matters, is in the eye of the beholder. But YOUR principles are your principles.
Trust your instincts. You can recognize the difference between a preference for which you will yield on occasion versus a bedrock principle for which you would lay down your life. Throughout life we are faced with tension from others (and occasionally from ourselves, our "inner demons") when the temptation to set aside that which is right for us appears to be getting in the way of what other options beckon.
He who pushes you to abandon that which you hold dear may simply mean well and want company on his journey. But beware the alternative, the insidious invitation designed to separate you from your principles. One might think of matters of faith, honor, chastity perhaps. Each of us knows in our hearts how we define those positions for which compromise is not an option we would choose.
Compromise should always remain an option for matters of mere preference. But do not fall victim to the urgings of the misguided or the miscreant, but instead hold true to your own uncompromising positions.
TODAY'S QUESTION: What ideals or truths are you unwilling to compromise?
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