EDUCATION: How to clean your rose-colored glasses. Change is inevitable. And because it is inevitable, some aspects are predictable. Yes, there will be friction between the old and the new. But remember: friction creates traction. And like the car’s tires that use friction to not only steer clear from here, but to also get from here to there, you can leverage changes in your life to better your circumstances, as well as the lives of others. Along the way, destroying bad habits, bad thoughts, and bad karma is not a bad idea. Likewise, having rose-colored glasses is actually a good thing. Just remember: windshields, thoughts, and even rose-colored glasses eventually need cleaning. These next 10 Dares are essentially a step-by-step guide to proactively clean your rose-colored glasses throughout the day and week. Start, maintain, and end your day with these 10 practical steps to Clean Your Glasses: - Dare #16 - Step #1 - Meditate - Dare #17 - Step #2 - Dedicate - Dare #18 - Step #3 - Separate - Dare #19 - Step #4 - Educate - Dare #20 - Step #5 - Integrate - Dare #21 - Step #6 - Pollinate - Dare #22 - Step #7 - Rejuvenate - Dare #23 - Step #8 - Illuminate - Dare #24 - Step #9 - Incinerate - Dare #25 - Step #10 - Congratulate Today I dare you to clean your rose-colored glasses with daily EDUCATION... Ahhh... the dog days of summer... Here in the United Sates of America, the summer season is always the best part of the year. And as we segue into the fall season of life, I find myself fondly recalling the seasonal rite of returning to school after a great summer vacation. Rekindling old connections, meeting new friends, and starting off on a fresh, new path in life were always the best parts of the first days of school. Such hope. Such promise. Such potential! Such a powerful place from which to begin a positively presumptuous passageway forward in life! Inevitably, after a few days of administrative settling in, teachers would assign that oh-so-original assignment to write an essay about “What I Did Over Summer Vacation.” * sigh * Oh… those beautifully sunny days of summer!
All of those things came with one small caveat: soon it would be gone. As a native son of the Great Lake State of Michigan, I had the pleasure of experiencing all four seasons: fall, winter, spring, and summer. With its kaleidoscope of warm, earthy colors, fall in the American Midwest is absolutely gorgeous. Toss in a night of trick-or-treating, a special night of “Homecoming,” a holiday created specifically for offering thanks, and a few crisp nights made for cuddling up in front of a warm fireplace… and fall is a pretty hard season to top. But along comes winter… and in the true winter wonderland of Michigan, the cold weather rarely puts a damper on the affection for the season. As we enjoyed the sports transition from football to basketball, we also felt blessed amidst a worldwide holiday season that included an homage to an historical, biblical Savior… not entirely disconnected from the beautiful renewal that is achieved by simply turning a page on our Gregorian calendar - one more day; one more month; yet an entirely different, brand Happy New Year! And then came spring. April showers brought May flowers… with a few good thunderstorms to remind us that “all sunshine and no rain will give us the best desert around.” Shedding the constricting, cold confines of winter, we often edged into a restlessness that foreshadowed the true release awaiting us a mere month or two away… SUMMER ! Perhaps it was my fondness for summer that led me to my love of the Hawaiian Islands. Then again, said in a different way… perhaps it was my eventual disdain for the constricting cold of winter that led me to this island paradise. Or, perhaps it was the experience I had during my initial visit to the island of Oahu, as a young man, back in 1990. Actually, I think it all began when I first read about Hawaii… way back in the second grade. As I sat there reading that large library book, I was fascinated by the history, the culture, and the climate of this remote archipelago. I wanted to learn more and more about Hawaii… and learn, I did. I did everything from study the encyclopedia… to watch Elvis Presley’s (less-than-stellar) movies made on location right here in Hawaii. As I look back on my first visit in 1990, I now realize that I fell in love with Hawaii many years ago. But did I learn to love it? Or did I simply love to learn about it? To this day, I am not sure which is more correct: Do we end up loving things because we have learned about them… or do we ultimately learn about things because we innately love them in some inherently instinctive way. The answer to this question, though seemingly innocuous, if not irrelevant, can help us achieve a new level of appreciation for how we educate ourselves. And perhaps more importantly, the answer to that question can actually transform us to a completely different plane of reality. Yes: a different place… a whole new world… Yet, a geographically real place firmly ensconced in actuality. How can this be? How can a mere answer to a seemingly innocuous question yield transformational results? Moreover, how can that answer take you to a whole NEW world while paradoxically keeping you established in the real world? How? Via the education each of us receives in life… At the risk of appearing trite, I will ask you to complete the following quoted phrase: “Knowledge is ____________” Knowledge is acquired through education. Education is acquired through a formal or informal process of learning (not necessarily through mere teaching). Yes: knowledge is power. But knowledge and education are the mere crumbs of power. If you want to have your cake and eat it, too… focus on your wisdom. Wisdom is the application and use of knowledge. And in the great expanse of wisdom, you potentially have some rather impressive super powers. In fact, every single one of us has these inherent, marvelous powers of wisdom. Me? When I was in kindergarten, I learned that I was special. Well… either I was special or the teacher was a tyrannical conformist. I like to believe the former; all kindergarteners and most kindergarten teachers are equally special. To this very day, I often garner severe glares when I open my public discussions with the statement, “I am a very unique individual.” Interestingly enough, those glares soften significantly when I remind the audience that they, too, are very unique individuals. Of course, I am special and unique. And YOU, too, are equally unique and special. To that end, I have learned that people love to hear how special they are, but often disapprove of self-promotion. Ironic, eh? When I was in elementary school, I found out that I was gifted and talented. I just happened to be a little boy in a small elementary school… a school that had recently created an academically Gifted and Talented Program. It wasn’t until later that I found out that “gifted and talented” applies to the entire population of this here world. Indeed, gifts and talents come in all sorts, sizes, and specialties. Beauty, brawns, and brains are the often-considered three gifts. Empathy, kindheartedness, insightfulness, strategic ability, recollection powers, communication capability, tenacity, endurance, and hospitableness are all gifts and abilities that are not as highly revered, and all too often, are sorely needed in today’s all-out, leveraged, what-can-you-do-for-me landscape. As I have grown older and wiser, I now know that arms, legs, eyes, ears, and every other ounce of my flesh are also great gifts. And I am the talented creator who owns those phenomenal gifts, as do most of us. When I was in middle school, my older brother was disenchanted when our family doctor recommended that he start wearing reading glasses. My brother must have “lost” those glasses at least a hundred times. Of course, as his little brother, it was my sworn duty to find those ugly frames. And find them, I did! A year or so later, as I was exiting the school bus, a friend asked me to look at a sign a few hundred feet down the street. My friend was in disbelief when I told him I could not see the sign… nor read it. My subsequent pleadings to my father, requesting a pair of glasses, fell on deaf ears (he said I was having an identity crisis and that I wanted to be like my big brother). A year later, he finally relented and took me to the optometrist. When he saw firsthand that I could not read anything under the big fat ‘E’ on the eye chart, he, too, was in disbelief. Then and there, I learned the power of perspective… and how people can be absolutely blind, literally and figuratively, and yet not even know just how much of the actual picture they are missing. With the new glasses interpreting my environment, I saw a whole new world. With the new-found knowledge, I lost a significant amount of naiveté and gained tremendous insight into the reality of divergent perspectives. When I was in high school, I gasped at the rapid rate of change in the world… my world. Events unfolded in a manner and speed for which I was quite unprepared. I failed to grasp the significance, effect, and consequences of my parents’ divorce as I scaled the hill of young adulthood en route to this mountainous range of adulthood. With its precipitous peaks and vast valleys, I soon learned that people are people wherever you go. Family, friends, foe… and everybody in between: we all live, learn, love, and die. And with this latest “Generation of Likes” upon us, we would all do well to (go ahead and) let them speed up the pace of change… just like it was done in your youthful time… and the time before that. Just remember: change is one thing; transformation is something totally different. When I dropped out of high school, I quickly learned that the world values people who value education. I subsequently enrolled in college, and learned to love to learn all over again. And as the recipient of a GED, BBA, and MBA, I gained an education on what it feels like to be given a second chance at gaining a formal education. I also learned that credentialism is not just a fancy word; in today’s world, there really is an over-emphasis on credentials when hiring staff and “assigning” social status. Remember: people are people wherever you go. When I joined the United States Navy as a teenager, I soon learned that patience, patriotism, perseverance, and prior proper planning could be powerful predictors of success. Those self-same characteristics could also imbue myopic points of view bordering on boorish, boring elitism, and ultimately risk the evisceration of the creative energy within all of us. In my sometimes idealistic frame of mind, I periodically lost faith in the concept that “we (the people of the United States), in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…” My faith in this republic was not restored by other mere concepts, but rather by real people who knew the right thing to do… and then did it. It is these people who incrementally hold the balance of power in the daily battle among the black, white, and all the grey in between (figuratively speaking). When I became a parent, I learned how to fear things that were entirely beyond my control, principally the absolute safety of my daughters. Thus, I sought to push and prod my children to grow in a manner that helped prepare them for the world. And then I realized that many of my parental pushes were also pushing them away from the very arms made to protect them. I had to learn to love to learn how to continuously become a better parent… and to subsequently see the world through their eyes. Achieving a mere glimpse of their powerfully promising perspectives amidst my broadly protective parental knowledge has been an amazingly illuminative experience. Once blind, now I see. When I married my wife, Delia, I learned to love the all-too-often undervalued advantage of diversity. Before I received the gift that is Delia, I was absolutely convinced that I needed and wanted a spouse who was “just like me.” In a humorously ironic twist of events, Delia and I are about as opposite as a couple can be. Yet, aside from a religious experience or two, she is literally the best thing to ever happen to me. And as she tells me all the time, I could never handle someone like me. On that, we vehemently agree. This past month, I re-learned the truism that "optimism can take you just so far in life." I had a personal invitation to a refresher course demonstrating the painfully obvious fact that there are some very troubled people in this world… people who have no problem lashing out at blameless others as they, themselves, process the life of evils consigned upon their once-innocent lives. For me, it was a harsh reminder that everyone deals with devilish demons on his or her own respective terms, sometimes successfully, and oftentimes disastrously. Irrespective of the season of life in which we each independently travel, I was reminded that we live in a world of intersecting paths, interjecting events, and introspecting individuals. As such, we don’t travel independently, but rather interdependently. Accordingly, I still believe in YOU. And I remain an optimistic realist, just as I was before penning this narrative, and before that illustrative event. Admittedly, immediately after this “refresher course,” cynicism reared its ugly head. However, I choose to rely on what I know. That is to say that I have endeavored to focus on the brighter side of things I have learned over the course of the lifetime that is consummated within me. I encourage you to do the same. And as each of us moves from one season of life into the next, we will continue to live and to learn. But will we do our best to shape the ever-present wheels of change by sharing a proper balance of what we know (not all of the bad, not all of the good, but rather a balance of the two)? Of course, people rarely want to be told this, that, or the other. After all, you, too, don’t need to be told anything. Right? In reality, we are all a tad bit more selfish than we realize. Indeed, if we believe we will somehow benefit from a directive, we will more likely do what we’re told to do. For example, “Click HERE to receive a FREE car.” Or “Come here and get this $50.” Gladly! As selfish as we are about the present value of other people’s directions, we are often equally shortsighted when it comes to valuing the “bad” events of our past. At some point, however, if our goal is to grow old gracefully, we have to embrace all that ever was… including the good, the bad, and the ugly. And we should judiciously share it. The past is not a liability; it's not a jinx, curse, or plague from which we all continuously, contemptuously, or frightfully run. The past is an asset. If this is, indeed, the case, the past can be traded for something better: today. Thus, if we can somehow educate ourselves on the things which have helped craft the gifted and talented beings we are today, we might actually be able to help others approach that near-perfect altitude between the proverbial places of heaven, hell, and each of our ideal lifestyles. As we fully embrace our past… our friends, family, and even our enemies become co-creators in the work of art that is us… you, he, she, and me. Yet, only you know what you know. And today, I share a mere fraction of a sliver of what I know. In the long run, everything – yes, everything– has the potential to add value to your life… if you allow it. In the final analysis, the past is neither an asset nor a liability; neither a bad thing nor a good thing. It is what it is: it is what you make it. So why not make it your asset? And guess what… (?) The same truism applies to the next minute, hour, day, week, and year of your life. It is what it is. It is what YOU make it. Today I dare you to take a step back, slow down, and reminisce on those phases of your life that have developed the miracle that is you. If you are flying high, congratulations! Only you know what you have had to do to get to where you are. Still… take a moment and educate yourself on how you got here… not just the last few good jobs, great bosses, awesome assignments, and victorious occasions… but also reflect upon those terrible times, eerie events, and painful people from years long forgotten (but fatefully leveraged) by the creator that is you. On the other hand, if you think life is passing you by, educate yourself on this one little fact:
Educate yourself on WHY you are HERE, and then prepare for arrival at the next level. In essence, we must learn to love where we’ve been and who we are before we can even begin to see what’s possible in the next turn of events. Ultimately we end up loving things because we have learned about them. What do you know about you? What do you know about “them”? Indeed, we can press the LIKE button as many times as we want, and life goes on. But as soon as we begin operating within the currency of love, we eventually learn more about new and existing things because we already know, need, and feed them in some mysterious, transcendent, supernaturally natural way. IF you can take some time… invest that time in a short jaunt down memory lane, and then see your gilded past for what it is (an asset), then you will have fundamentally shifted your point of view regarding those “mistakes.” Ironically, if you can find value in your own past mistakes (and I know you can), you can certainly lend credence to the FACT that others can do the exact same thing (make mistakes, then turn those mistakes into lessons and then into assets worth sharing). And though we may never completely understand or fully embrace the malevolent mindsets that potentially lurk behind every man and woman on the face of this earth, we can choose to be optimistic realists… people who hope for the best while continuously educating ourselves about the wonderful people, places, and things that emphatically enable and endow our benevolent beginnings, every single, gloriously new day! By doing this, we actually transform ourselves to a completely different plane of reality… a world where the balance of power between good and evil is literally reduced to one person answering one small, specific question. WHY are you here? Why are YOU here? Why are you HERE? That’s the question. Want your ANSWER? You have the knowledge. Knowledge is POWER. You have the education. Seek the WISDOM. Educate yourself. It will transform YOU. ********** Indeed… It’s all about YOU. But tell me: What’s your role in your soul, your goal, and for whom the bell tolls? Today, I dare you: EDUCATE your self. John H. Clark III is an optimistic realist.
He believes better development of leaders is what we (all) need. And to be better organizations, we need more good leaders, not followers. To build better leaders, we must start with the individual (you, she, he, and me). Described as “an innovative leader,” John teaches leaders, organizations, and individuals how to inspire each other. With a bold goal to inspire a worldwide community of optimistic realists who continuously accept, adapt to, and achieve the bold and beautiful concept of The Ideal Life, John is leading a movement to inspire people to apply his trademarked mantra {Accept. Adapt. Achieve! ®}. An innovative business manager and retired naval officer, John is fascinated by leaders and organizations that make the greatest impact within their organizational culture and within the “real” world — people who “get it.” Over the course of his life as a military leader, corporate mentor, and innovative content creator, John has discovered a wealth of insight about how we think, act and communicate within our respective work/life environments. As a career naval officer, mentor, educator, and optimistic realist, he has devoted his life to sharing insights to assist in our quests to become better at what we all do – live @ work! An optimist with a penchant for writing about realistic solutions to the challenges of everyday life, John is the author of 3 books: a leadership-development insider, "The Ideal: Your guide to An Ideal Life," a teen-focused guide, "Getting Out: Expert Advice for Today’s Teens," and the Christian-based book, "God’s Heartbeat: A Powerful Premise for Leading a Christian Life." He delivers a unique and refreshing point of view to life's seemingly overwhelming situations. Through books, blogs, and everyday conversation, John's message resonates with an empowering blend of ideals that enrich, uplift, and “authorize” people to set and achieve goals far beyond current mindsets. His trademarked phrase is a winner: SEPARATION: How to clean your rose-colored glasses. Change is inevitable. And because it is inevitable, some aspects are predictable. Yes, there will be friction between the old and the new. But remember: friction creates traction. And like the car’s tires that use friction to not only steer clear from here, but to also get from here to there, you can leverage changes in your life to better your circumstances, as well as the lives of others. Along the way, destroying bad habits, bad thoughts, and bad karma is not a bad idea. Likewise, having rose-colored glasses is actually a good thing. Just remember: windshields, thoughts, and even rose-colored glasses eventually need cleaning. The last 10 Dares are essentially a step-by-step guide to proactively clean your rose-colored glasses throughout the day and week. Start, maintain, and end your day with these 10 practical steps to Clean Your Glasses:
Today, I dare you to clean your rose-colored glasses with daily SEPARATION... Last week I was invited to speak to a group of middle-school students, and that visit has dramatically altered the way I view today’s future leaders. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like many of the students in today’s schools are particularly talented, especially in the area of getting to the bottom line - fast. And this group of 8th graders seemed exceptionally skilled in this conversational art form. After leading the students on a journey through the importance of having good personal life-leadership skills, I donated 50 copies of my book, “Getting Out: Expert Advice for Today’s Teens,” and then I opened the floor to questions. After witnessing my presentation and the opening round of related questions, the principal and vice principal left the classroom. That’s when the “real” questions began rolling out in earnest. Many of the students asked about my worldwide travels. Some of the students asked about my experience as a veteran. Others asked questions related to my experience as a published author. And then someone’s daughter asked, “What’s better: street smarts or book smarts?” It was a great question, and we spent some time as a group delineating the benefits of both… and just how far each type of “smarts” could comparatively carry one in life. But it was one question in particular that made me smile, think, and re-think before providing an honest, forthright response. The question? Someone’s son said... “Mr. Clark… What makes you… you?” Either in partial denial or outright disbelief that such a question could spring forth from this (obviously) gifted fourteen-year-old boy, I said, “Excuse me… I don’t think I heard you.” With a strong, quiet confidence, he re-stated his question: “What makes you… you?” My smile belied the vertigo that accompanied the giddiness swirling back and forth, in and around my mind, body, and soul as a I saw and felt every teenaged pair of eyes slightly narrow and focus intently on my face as I pondered such a profoundly personal question. Indeed, I already knew the answer… Yet, I was so pleasantly surprised by the depth and richness of his question, that I had to separate myself from my own emotions as I stood in awe of his ability to provoke such a powerful response amidst a very evocative, innocent, self-seeking inquiry. So… for a brief second or two, I literally separated my thoughts from my emotions; I had to do this in order to formulate exactly HOW I was going to answer such an awesome question. As humans, we all have the capability to invoke this separation of emotions and thoughts at any time. Of course, like our much-maligned dietary and exercise habits, just because we CAN do something, doesn’t mean we will always do it. Accordingly, as a species, we will continue to argue, fuss, fight… and wage war. The 17th-century French philosopher René Descartes argued that only humans have the capability to be conscious of their very own self, thoughts and emotions included. I’m not so sure he was correct (To wit: unless he was well-skilled in the art of shape-shifting, how could he possibly know what other animals see, think, feel, or know?). Descartes was a brilliant philosopher, mathematician, and writer who is widely considered to be the father of modern philosophy, as well as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry. His theories were vital to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. Indeed: he was a brilliant man. He was also a dualist. Unlike Monistic philosophers, Descartes believed the mind and body are separate, distinct entities. On this theory, I agree wholeheartedly (that’s a pun). Perhaps best known for the quote, “I think; therefore I am,” Descartes had a fiercely logical thought process. And yet, during and after his lifetime, there has been much debate on whether he was an atheist, agnostic, or a God-fearing Catholic. Where am I going with this? If you really think about it, the universe of things that we will never know is staggering. And as much knowledge as he imparted to the human species, in the final analysis, Descartes left us with one very important reminder of what makes us… us. Yet, our innate ability to think has proven to be as much of a blessing at it is a curse. We are all too often unreasonably reasonable with each other. Hunh? Ironically, it is the unreasonable people who have transformed our world into the dynamic network that it is today. Guglielmo Marconi is credited with creating the radio; yet he was criticized for believing in such “hogwash.” (He was actually committed to an asylum for such crazy thoughts like, “I can send voices through the air and make them come out of an electrified box several miles away.” Imagine what he would say about YouTube, iChat, Skype, and that time machine I have been developing!) Henry Ford was unreasonable in his quest to have every family in America own a car. Today, many families own two or three cars. And because of the success of Ford’s assembly line, other complex machines were soon available to the mass market. Steve Jobs helped create a company that some say has changed the world. And because of his vision to make cool, quality stuff, Apple owns the computer marketplace (this includes portable computing devices like iPods, iPhones, laptops, and desktops… as well as the Napster-sprung iTunes). The list goes on and on. These “unreasonable” people changed the world. But more importantly, these unreasonable people had the wherewithal to separate themselves from the criticism, cronyism, and capitalism just long enough to create what they needed to create… and then figured out how to leverage those same critics, cronies, and capital to launch products that you and I use to this very day. But what about you? Are you reasonable or unreasonable? Regardless of your answer, please know that you – yes YOU - change the world every single day. Perhaps you don’t see your self as the world-changing type. However… If you don’t do anything else today, please take a moment and realize one very important FACT: You change the world wherever you go. The question is… How do you change it? Do you add to the problem or the solution? Indeed, almost every challenge has a solution. And for many of us, the biggest problems are based on people, not processes. And all too often, we get caught up in our emotions and thoughts of grandeur, when all we really need to do is separate ourselves from those life-changing idiosyncrasies. We don’t need a vast expanse of time to do achieve success in this endeavor. Often, we just need to KNOW that we have such a capability. And once we realize we have this capability, we can then refine it. Shall we begin? Try this… Using the hourly chimes from a clock, watch, or smartphone, consistently and periodically take a long, deep breath and ask yourself **how** you are thinking. Literally think or, better yet, audibly ask yourself, “Am I thinking positively?” Literally separate your self from your thoughts. Yes: It IS possible to do this. After asking your self that question, if your thoughts were already positive, simply renew, refresh, and rejuvenate your previously positive thoughts. On the other hand, if your thoughts were previously negative, simply separate the past from the present and ask yourself, “Why am I being negative?” This is a very important question. Do not underestimate the power of this question! As stated in my blog post, "What Is A Good Philosophy," knowledge and wisdom are two different things. Indeed, we all KNOW that some things seem to get in the way of having a fabulous life. However, many of us don't know WHY this or that bothers us. And when stopping to ask, "WHY am I being negative?" you not only separate your thoughts from your emotions, you also initiate a powerful journey from the "old" you to the "new" you. When you understand the drivers behind your thoughts and emotions, you create a pathway between knowledge and wisdom; you literally create a solution with the one thing in this world that you control: YOU. By increasing awareness of your SELF, you are better informed on what makes you tick, what makes you sick, and which habits you should kick. This is good info! (And that’s an outrageous understatement). Remember: Negative thoughts can’t exist in the same thought-space as your positive thoughts. Unfortunately, throughout the day, external media can influence (and create) many of our negative thoughts. Television shows, talk radio, pop culture, friends, family members, and everyday people can have a very formative impact on how we think. Don't be afraid to simply separate your self from those influences. Walk away if you can. Run if you must. And if the situation negates your ability to separate your self from those influences, please consider using my ultra-simple and super-powerful mantra to: Accept. Adapt. Achieve. ® Believe me, trust me, and allow me to convey exactly how much trial and error that has gone into developing that little mantra: A LOT! I won’t go into detail here, but I will briefly describe the beauty of this short, simple mantra: Acceptance is all about leaving the past exactly where it is. Adapting is all about negotiating success in the moment - now. And, as much as those other two are very important, it is this last one, Achieve, that I must give the title of "Most Important." Yes: we must all accept what is and move past the past... or choose to live in denial. And yes: the one constant that we all live with is change (or adapting). But as we move from day to day and from minute to minute (especially during those maddening meetings or meandering medleys we call relationships), we must do what we rarely take time to do: we must first ask ourselves "What it is that we want to Achieve (?)" Thus, we must first begin with end in mind. If we can periodically, if not continuously, do this... over time, we will learn to not only successfully negotiate with "what is," we will also amass an almost ridiculous power to actually co-create amazing results with some rather interesting people. Yes: you and I know that this world is full of some rather unreasonable, seemingly insane individuals. But the truth of the matter is that everyone adds value to our world. Indeed, finding and seeing that value takes less effort with some people than with others. Or does it? Maybe it's us. Maybe WE are the cracked lens that skews the view. Maybe. In the final analysis, regardless of how strong, independent, and accomplished we are, there will always be those (good and bad) things that influence us. As you power through this day and the next… and the next… learn to identify the effects of your influential inputs and invest time and effort in separating yourself from the negative influences (especially people). Clean your glasses by purposefully and proactively separating your self from your thoughts... and the things that cause those thoughts. Today, I dare you... Separate your self. If that's not possible, Accept. Adapt. Achieve. ® Ahhh… but what do you want to achieve? ********** Indeed… It’s all about YOU. But tell me: What’s your role in your soul, …your goal, and for whom the bell tolls? Today, I dare you: SEPARATE your thoughts. READ MORE... John H. Clark III is an optimistic realist.
He believes better development of leaders is what we (all) need. And to be better organizations, we need more good leaders, not followers. To build better leaders, we must start with the individual (you, she, he, and me). Described as “an innovative leader,” John teaches leaders, organizations, and individuals how to inspire each other. With a bold goal to inspire a worldwide community of optimistic realists who continuously accept, adapt to, and achieve the bold and beautiful concept of The Ideal Life, John is leading a movement to inspire people to apply his trademarked mantra {Accept. Adapt. Achieve! ®}. An innovative business manager and retired naval officer, John is fascinated by leaders and organizations that make the greatest impact within their organizational culture and within the “real” world — people who “get it.” Over the course of his life as a military leader, corporate mentor, and innovative content creator, John has discovered a wealth of insight about how we think, act and communicate within our respective work/life environments. As a career naval officer, mentor, educator, and optimistic realist, he has devoted his life to sharing insights to assist in our quests to become better at what we all do – live @ work! An optimist with a penchant for writing about realistic solutions to the challenges of everyday life, John is the author of 3 books: a leadership-development insider, "The Ideal: Your guide to An Ideal Life," a teen-focused guide, "Getting Out: Expert Advice for Today’s Teens," and the Christian-based book, "God’s Heartbeat: A Powerful Premise for Leading a Christian Life." He delivers a unique and refreshing point of view to life's seemingly overwhelming situations. Through books, blogs, and everyday conversation, John's message resonates with an empowering blend of ideals that enrich, uplift, and “authorize” people to set and achieve goals far beyond current mindsets. His trademarked phrase is a winner: DEDICATION: How to clean your rose-colored glasses. Change is inevitable. And because it is inevitable, some aspects are predictable. Yes, there will be friction between the old and the new. But remember: friction creates traction. And like the car’s tires that use friction to not only steer clear from here, but to also get from here to there, you can leverage changes in your life to better your circumstances, as well as the lives of others. Along the way, destroying bad habits, bad thoughts, and bad karma is not a bad idea. Likewise, having rose-colored glasses is actually a good thing. Just remember: windshields, thoughts, and even rose-colored glasses eventually need cleaning. These last 10 Dares are a step-by-step guide to proactively clean your rose-colored glasses throughout the day and week. Start, maintain, and end your day with these 10 practical steps to Clean Your Glasses:
Today we will clean our rose-colored glasses with daily DEDICATION: Here's a question: To what are you truly dedicated? My wife and I had dinner with friends last night. The husband half of our friends has recently decided to retire from a well-paying government job. Actually, he is retiring from a CAREER -- a significant difference from retiring from a job. Late in life, within the comfortable confines of a good government job, this friend that I will call Peter has dedicated his life to an ideal: he is a life-long member of the United States military. He and his family have dedicated their life to moving where they have been needed. They have sacrificed a stable life among a stable community. And, yes: over the years, they have dedicated every single day to the safety and security of our nation. I salute him and his family for what they have achieved. More importantly, I am in awe of their superlative resolve as they begin the process of shifting careers. They are confidently moving from yesteryear to tomorrow... with a faith and dedication that often falls far under the radar of most people. They are fully committed and dedicated to the "next step." As you move forward from yesterday to today to tomorrow, I challenge you to survey your span of influence and ask your self a very important question: To what have you honestly dedicated your self? To be clear: I am not talking about mere contribution. Contribution is great. Without individual contribution, our families, cities, and countries would be far less synergistic, super, successful, and sovereign than we currently are. But contribution and dedication are two entirely different things. When you are dedicated to something, you are not only devoted and steadfast in your continuous contributions, you are also passionate and prosperous. Your passion is in the continuous contribution. Your prosperity is in the simple faith that your contribution is making a difference... somehow, some way. Today, I dare you to dedicate... or RE-dedicate... your self to something GREATER than you. Invest this day, and perhaps a few more days pondering the difference you can make somewhere in your organization, community, or country. Focus your actions and thoughts on a person, an organization, or a cause that is beyond your individual capability to fully solve. On this topic, I must share a powerful allegory by Loren Eiseley: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked... “What are you doing?” The youth replied... “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said... “...don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t possibly make a difference!” The boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and tossed it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said... “I made a difference to THAT one.” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ When you dedicate a part of your SELF, you do more than merely give a portion of the life force that is you… you actually surrender your energy to something outside of your SELF. Indeed, surrender is a very powerful concept. Because of a mostly negative connotation, the very thought of surrendering can be a very scary process for many people. However, surrender is more about voluntary relinquishment of control than it is about loss or forfeiture of power. And when you cheerfully and consistently voluntarily give yourself (and your energy) to an effort, cause, organization, or event that exists largely outside of your concern for your SELF, you will reap considerable returns on your investment. And though these returns are not likely to be tangible or readily available for your immediate recognition or use, when you dedicate yourself to something bigger than you, interestingly enough, you become part of that same larger-than-life effort, cause, organization, or event. Thus, your SELF becomes larger than life. You become larger than life. You create a legacy that will last long after you are no longer here. Today, I dare you to dedicate or RE-dedicate your self to something GREATER than you. ********** Indeed… It’s all about YOU. But tell me: What’s your role in your soul, …your goal, and for whom the bell tolls? Today, I dare you: DEDICATE your self. Make a difference! Accept. Adapt. Achieve. ® READ MORE... John H. Clark III is an optimistic realist.
He believes better development of leaders is what we (all) need. And to be better organizations, we need more good leaders, not followers. To build better leaders, we must start with the individual (you, she, he, and me). Described as “an innovative leader,” John teaches leaders, organizations, and individuals how to inspire each other. With a bold goal to inspire a worldwide community of optimistic realists who continuously accept, adapt to, and achieve the bold and beautiful concept of The Ideal Life, John is leading a movement to inspire people to apply his trademarked mantra {Accept. Adapt. Achieve! ®}. An innovative business manager and retired naval officer, John is fascinated by leaders and organizations that make the greatest impact within their organizational culture and within the “real” world — people who “get it.” Over the course of his life as a military leader, corporate mentor, and innovative content creator, John has discovered a wealth of insight about how we think, act and communicate within our respective work/life environments. As a career naval officer, mentor, educator, and optimistic realist, he has devoted his life to sharing insights to assist in our quests to become better at what we all do – live @ work! An optimist with a penchant for writing about realistic solutions to the challenges of everyday life, John is the author of 3 books: a leadership-development insider, "The Ideal: Your guide to An Ideal Life," a teen-focused guide, "Getting Out: Expert Advice for Today’s Teens," and the Christian-based book, "God’s Heartbeat: A Powerful Premise for Leading a Christian Life." He delivers a unique and refreshing point of view to life's seemingly overwhelming situations. Through books, blogs, and everyday conversation, John's message resonates with an empowering blend of ideals that enrich, uplift, and “authorize” people to set and achieve goals far beyond current mindsets. His trademarked phrase is a winner: |
My purposeInspiring a worldwide community of optimistic realists. Archives
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