Ash Lawrence

Are you a doer or a talker?

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Kaizen

Learning ability, intellectual capital, knowledge and technical know-how are all intangibles. But these intangibles are among your most important assets, as everything you do to reinvent and update your knowledge allows you stay in the game and competitively perform.

 

Learning continually (Kaizen) throughout life is vital if we are to make informed choices about our lives and the societies in which we live.

 

Something new is always occurring as significant shifts in industries, technologies, and policies require interrogation and deeper understanding. This is only possible through a commitment to lifelong learning.
It would be foolish to ignore the call for lifelong learning as we discover more, and not less, need of new knowledge as we make progress.

 

Lifelong learning rightly interpreted, can have no endings and is as inseparable from normal living as food and physical exercise. It must be supported and encouraged throughout this challenge and throughout the course of life as a fundamental discipline

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Lifelong learning must not be regarded as a luxury for a few exceptional persons here and there, nor as a thing which concerns only a short span of ones early formative years, but that ongoing learning is a permanent national necessity, an inseparable aspect of citizenship, and therefore should be both universal and lifelong.

 

A commitment to lifelong learning is more than just education and training beyond formal schooling. A lifelong learning framework encompasses learning throughout the life cycle, from cradle to grave and in different learning environments, formal, non-formal and informal.

 

The Hallmarks and Prerequisites of Lifelong Learning

 

This list is ambitious and perhaps not even fully attainable. Lifelong learning is a journey with no end in sight, but the conscious pursuit of learning, just like excellence is what really counts.

• Intellectual Curiosity

A passion to understand the changing forces swirling around you, an eagerness to learn them faster, and recognition that learning is an unending journey.

• Humility

A pervasive acknowledgment that no one can have all the answers. You must have a willingness to learn from others.

• Self-Criticism

A logical extension of humility. A constant questioning of conventional wisdom and a keen awareness that success invariably sows the seeds of failure.

• Tolerance for Ambiguity, Complexity, and Change

An acceptance of the fact that change is an inherent reality. Thrive on change; don’t allow yourself to be intimidated by its rough and unpolished exterior.

• Experimentation

A willingness to try out new approaches, to monitor the results, and to incorporate the feedback into new initiatives.

• Hunger for Feedback

A genuine eagerness to reach out and get performance feedback from a variety of sources, and a willingness to listen to it and make changes.

• Failure

A view of experiments as desirable, mistakes as inevitable, and failures as offering the raw material of success. Learning is more a product of failure than of success.

• Creative Self-Destruction

No advantage lasts forever. Render yourself obsolete before others do it for you. It’s the price world-class innovators gladly pay for staying ahead of the pack.

Lifelong learning provides the opportunities for you to continually expand your capacity to create the new results you truly desire.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do for yourself and your future is to know your strengths and focus on them. To know your strengths and natural talents, to know how to improve them, and to know what you cannot or should not even attempt to do-these are the keys to lifelong learning.

Your challenge today and everyday is to commit to being a student for life as the quest for knowledge is one of the smartest investments you’ll ever make.

 

 KAIZEN……Continual and never ending improvement.

 “It’s your life, and it’s your choice. It’s also your consequence.”

Ashley

Carpe-Diem

We all know that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and the same holds true for the way you set goals.

The goal choices you make today set the pace (fast) as well as the tone (playing to win), and the actions you take today determine both your direction and destiny.

To ensure a good start, you must take that bold first step, you must identify three achievable goals and you must pursue victory throughout the day. You must start the day fast and finish the day strong.

You must have the conviction that the purpose of setting a goal must be to achieve it, as there is no purer form of success, no more exact and exacting test of what you are capable of than to seize every opportunity, and achieve everything you set out to do.

In the movie Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams plays the new English teacher, John Keating. During his very first class session Keating demonstrates forcefully that he is not just there to convey academic information, but also to show what students can do with such knowledge in their everyday lives.

The first class session is, indeed, not so much a lesson in English literature, but a dramatic philosophical wake-up call:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppqb0t_B0KY&eurl

The verbal form of the call is “Carpe Diem–seize the day!” Keating tells his students to take a look at Robert Herrick’s famous lines

Gather the rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
To-morrow will be dying.

“Why does the poet write these lines?” Keating asks, and he eventually answers himself with a flourish: “Because we are food for worms, lads. Because we’re only going to experience a limited number of springs, summers, and falls. One day, hard as it is to believe, each and every one of us is going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die!”

To drive home this point Keating makes the students look at the old photographs of former students that decorate the hallways.

“They are not that different than any of you, are they? There’s hope in their eyes, just like in yours. They believe themselves destined for wonderful things, just like many of you. Well, where are those smiles now, boys? What of that hope?” The students are sobered by what Keating is saying. Keating continues:

Did most of them not wait until it was too late before making their lives into even one iota of what they were capable? In chasing the almighty deity of success did they not squander their boyhood dreams? Most of those gentlemen are now fertilising daffodils.

However, if you get very close, boys, you can hear them whisper. Go ahead, lean in. Hear it? (Whispering) Carpe Diem, lads. Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary!

Keating’s teaching methods are unusual. He does not just tell students that it is important to keep an open, flexible mind, and to look at things from different and changing points of view. Rather, he makes them literally climb on top of a desk and take a look around.

This unconventional and physical translation of the run-down expression “changing one’s point of view” has far more effect on his students’ dispositions than any amount of theoretical explanation.

Seize the Challenge

Seize the challenge by seizing the opportunities of each day. Begin by embracing three goals that gratify your passion and which beg for your attention. The ones that say come and get me.

My goal in giving you this Challenge is to provide you with a vehicle for having the best year of your life and to help make your life extraordinary.

You succeed in living an extraordinary life by focusing seriously on those things–goals that make your life passionate and radiant.

Carpe Diem!

“A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think about when he is finished acting. A man of knowledge chooses a path with heart and follows it.”

 

This is a call to arms and this call to arms is not a call to do battle, it’s a call to learning.  How to feel, think and act differently and more productively, more humanly than our existing skills allow. 

Today’s world is a difficult place.  Human kind has experienced more change in the last twenty years than the two thousand that preceded them.  Boundaries that once served us geographically, politically, socially and emotionally no longer exist. 

The rules are constantly changing, but people cannot live without boundaries, without structure, without rules.  Some new ones have sprung up and proliferated in order to fill the void left by those that no longer seem to serve our New Age condition.  Unfortunately in a world of accelerated change there is little time for rules to take hold, as soon as the new rules are upon us they too are swallowed up in the insatiable vortex of change, followed all to quickly by more rules and then still more. 

The result of all this change is chaos and disorder, each change bringing with it a more turbulent world than the one before it, with fewer and fewer traditions to hold onto. A world in trouble where confusion reigns, but the trouble didn’t start out there in the world, if it did we really would be in trouble, because who among us knows enough to control or even have an impact on what’s happening out there.

 If it’s so difficult for us to do anything about our business how in the world are we going to do anything about the world, we can’t, and it’s that simple. Any call to arms that suggests we can is a stop gap measure, it’s a call to disillusionment and ultimately disaster because our stop gap measures are not solutions, our feeble attempts to fix the world cant change the overall condition, if they work at all they can only change the circumstances in which we find ourselves at any given moment. 

No we can’t change the world out there, and fortunately we don’t have to, we can begin much closer to home, we can begin in here. In fact if we are to succeed we must because the chaos isn’t out there in everyone else, its not our there in the world, the chaos is in here, in you and me, the worlds not the problem you and I are, the worlds not in chaos, we are. 

The world’s apparent chaos is a reflection of our own inner turmoil, if the world reflects a lack of good sense it’s because each one of us reflects the same, if the worlds acts as if it doesn’t know what it’s doing it’s because each one of us acts the same. 

If the world is greedy and heartless and in-human and often just plain stupid; it’s because you and I are that way.  So if the world is going to change we must first change our lives, unfortunately we haven’t been taught to think that way. 

We are an out there society accustomed to thinking in terms of them against us, we want to fix the world so we can remain the same.  For an out there society coming inside is a problem, but now is the time to learn how, now is the time to change because unless we do the chaos will remain and we cant afford to live in this kind of chaos for much longer, we are simply running out of time, bridging the gap and that is what this is all about, bridging the gap between the outside and the inside, between the world out there and the world in here. Your small business can become the bridge between you and the world, if you don’t take action the bridge will remain a bridge too far.

Live Every Breath......

Do you realise that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about ageing that you think in fractions. 

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key. 

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. 

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life..... You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony.. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!! 

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed? 

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would! 

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! 

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there; into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!' 
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!! 

    HOW TO STAY YOUNG;

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them' 

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's. 

4. Enjoy the simple things. 

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive. 

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, and hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge. 

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help. 

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the shops, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity. 

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but  by the moments that take our breath away.

“It’s your life, and it’s your choice. It’s also your consequence.”

Create your ideal life.......

You already have everything you need to create a wonderful life for yourself. You know everything you need to know to be your own best friend, a gentle guide, a teacher and a helper to yourself so you can be truly happy and fulfilled. 

You can learn how to become your own psychologist (And put me out of work) for life, and how to resolve the difficulties that stand between you and personal joy. 

Be Honest With Yourself
The starting point of becoming your own best friend is for you to be perfectly honest with yourself and your relationships. Refuse to practice self-delusion or hope for the best. For example, when something is making you unhappy, for any reason, the situation will tend to get worse rather than better. So avoid the temptation to engage in denial, to pretend that nothing is wrong, to wish and hope and pray that, whatever it is, it will go away and you won’t have to do anything. The fact is that it probably will get worse before it gets better and that ultimately you will need to face the situation and do something about it. 

Deal With Your Problem at a Higher Level
There’s an old saying that you can’t solve a problem on the level that you meet it. This means that wrestling with a persistent problem is often fruitless and frustrating. For example, if two people who are in a relationship together are constantly fighting and negotiating and looking for some way to resolve their difficulties, they may be attempting to solve the problem on the wrong level. Dealing with the problem on a higher level, those people would ask the question, “In terms of being happy, is this the right relationship for us in the first place?" 

 

Find the Right Job For You
Many people work very hard and experience considerable frustration trying to do a particular job. However, in terms of their own happiness, the right answer might be to do something else, or to do what they’re doing in a different place, or to do it with different people-or all three. Here are a few questions for you to answer in this arena of happiness. Write them down at the top of a sheet of paper, and then write as many answers to each one as you possibly can. 

What Would It Take?
The first question is: “What would it take for me to be perfectly happy?” Write down every single thing that you can imagine would be in your life if you were perfectly happy at this very moment. Write down things such as health, happiness, prosperity, loving relationships, inner peace, travel, car, clothes, homes, money, and so on. Let your mind run freely. Imagine that you have no limitations at all. 

What is Holding You Back? 
The second question is a little tougher. Write down at the top of a page this question: “In what situations in my life, and with whom, am I not perfectly happy?” Force yourself to think about every part of your day, from morning to night, and write down every element that makes you unhappy or dissatisfied in any way. Remember, proper diagnosis is half the cure. Identifying the unsatisfactory situations is the first step to resolving them. 

Determine Your Happiest Moment
The third question will give you some important guidelines. Write down at the top of a sheet of paper these words: “In looking over my life, where and when have I been the happiest? Where was I, with whom was I, and what was I doing?” 

Decide What to Do
Once you have the answers to those questions, think about what you can do, starting immediately, to begin creating the kind of life that you dream of. It may take you a week, a month, or a year, but that doesn’t matter. Every single thing you do that moves you closer to your ideal vision will be rewarding in itself. You’ll become a more positive and optimistic person. You’ll feel more confident and more in charge of your life, and you’ll achieve true peace of mind. 

Action Exercises
Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action. 

First, examine your business and personal relationships carefully. Is there any situation you wouldn’t get into again if you had it to do over? 

Second, make a list of every single thing in your life that would make you happy and then think about what you could do to begin achieving them. 

Third, allow yourself to dream and fantasise about your ideal life, what it would look like and feel like, and then do something every day to make it a reality.

Remember, it's your life, it's your choice what you do with it.....

Make it a habit to set goals......

It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of goal-setting as a positive habit. It is recommended as a primary habit because it can truly be life changing.

Research studies have shown that people who regularly set goals are far more likely to be successful then people who do not. Napoleon Hill, author of the best-seller, Think and Grow Rich, once said, "Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement, and its lack is the stumbling block for ninety eight out of every one hundred people because they never really define their goals and start toward them."

A study was done to determine the importance of goal setting. College students who had gone on to achieve great success in business were asked to list their habits. The students who had made a habit of setting goals were in the top 3% of earnings in the population!

Goal setting is simple, yet 97% of the population never do it. By making goal setting a habit, you can start placing yourself in the top 3% of the population of successful people. Your goal-setting habit can help you reach any of your goals, regardless of whether they are for business, personal, relationships, and so on.

Here are some simple steps to help you start your goal-setting habit:

Step 1   Define your destinations, write them down, and be very specific; capture your goals on paper.

Step 2   Determine what the time line is for reaching your goals; set specific deadlines for each goal.

Step 3   Identify any obstacles that may stand in your way, list them, and state how you plan to overcome them.   

Step 4   Make a list of the people and/or organisations who will help you reach your goals.

Habit Tips

You can combine this habit with virtually any of your other habits.   As an example, if weight loss is one of your destinations, make it a habit to set specific goals for the amount of weight you want to lose and a time line for reaching that goal. If a healthy heart is your destination, you can set goals for exercising and lowering your cholesterol.

Triggers

Keep a note pad with you at all times listing your goals, time lines, and plans to reach your goals.

What will you choose?.......

“The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.

 

It is more important than appearance, natural ability or skill. It will make or break a business... a team... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Your life, your choice...

Every choice you make today and everyday must have a purpose: to move you closer to your goals!

Every choice counts-there are no insignificant choices, no neutral actions. Even the smallest gesture has a consequence, leading you toward or away from your goals.

Choices are the meat of your daily diet and throughout this year you must choose wisely as your final results will be a direct reflection of the quality of the goals and choices you make.

One of the greatest forms of abuse in this world is the self-abuse resulting from wrong thinking and bad choices. The culprits of your struggles are your thoughts and corresponding choices-change them, and your life will turn for the better.

Some say that you must “play the hand that life deals.” But you build that hand largely from a deck of your own choices. Your hand improves as your choices improve.

Improving the condition of your life is an inside job. By choosing thoughts and actions that move you in the direction of your goals, you are bound to improve your station in life. Every choice carries a consequence.

For better or worse, each choice is the unavoidable consequence of its predecessor. There are no exceptions.

If you can accept that a bad choice carries the seed of its own punishment, why not accept the fact that a good choice yields desirable fruit?

If you change your thinking, you change your choices. If you change your choices, you change your life.

You can choose to be friendly or unfriendly, to be cooperative or stubborn, to be understanding or sarcastic, to be hopeful or hopeless, to wear a smile or a frown… to be excellent or mediocre.

Decisiveness pulls more weight than correctness. In some situations, you won’t know what to do.

You will want to do the right thing and have some sort of guarantee that everything will turn out fine, but you will feel unsure whether one course of action is better than an alternative.

Make a decision. Whether that decision is right or wrong, you’ll soon receive feedback that will help you progress.

Choose to make the most of life for yourself and everyone else around you.

Choose to deliver excellence and exceed all expectations.

Choose to focus on solutions rather than problems.

Choose to say yes to your dreams and focus on making them come true.

Choose to live passionately and completely.

Choose to make every moment count.

 “It’s your life, and it’s your choice. It’s also your consequence.”

Reflect, Review and Celebrate.....

Whether your goals for 2009 had to do with passing an exam, finishing your PHD thesis, becoming debt-free, exceeding your sales quotas, losing weight, or making some kind of significant and lasting change, I sincerely hope that I have provided you with a roadmap and that your confidence has grown, your vision has expanded, and that you’ve enjoyed living outside your comfort zone

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As we start 2010, it’s important for us to reflect on the past, take inventory of our efforts, and make resolutions for the future.

Let’s begin by examining six words that I believe are some of the saddest and regretful words ever uttered.

• Could have
• Should have
• Would have

As you reflect on your efforts during 2009, ask yourself if you have any could have, should have, would have moments.

There are two questions to ask yourself when or if you catch yourself using these words. Amazingly enough, these questions are the same to each of those phrases. The answers to the questions may vary but very little.

• Why didn’t you?
• What prevented you?

Here are some additional questions for you to wrap your mind around. They will help you to determine how you have grown, what you have learned, what obstacles you have overcome, and allow you to acknowledge, reward, and celebrate your accomplishments during these past 365 days.

• What are your proudest accomplishments of these past 365 days?
• Did you start fast and finish each day strong?
• Are you maintaining focus and following one course until successful?
• How are you using deadlines to maximise your performance?
• Are you beginning each day with a written plan?
• Have you focused on simple strategies, simple solutions and simple methods for obtaining results?
• Has boldness become part of your portfolio of skills?
• Are you consistently driven by a strong sense of urgency?
• In what ways have you exercised greater discipline and self-control?
• Does your work and daily actions demonstrate a commitment to excellence?
• Have you displayed passion and enthusiasm in your work and home life?
• Are you deliberately growing your network of contacts?
• Did you do everything you could during these past 365 days to astound yourself?

Only you and you alone know the true answer to these questions, after all, the strategy you have used for the past 365 days has given you the result you now have….

As your continue your journey into this new year you must always remember that there will never be a day that will not require dedication, discipline, good judgment, goal clarity, focus, and the feeling that you can improve. Each day offers an opportunity for improvement and each moment serves as an advance or retreat in the pursuit of your goals.

Here’s one final challenge, as you plan for the New Year ask and answer the following set of questions:

1. What single, super-sized goal or objective must you achieve in order to create a massive breakthrough in your life or business?
2. Why must this goal absolutely, positively be achieved? (List every reason)
3. How will you approach and attack this goal to ensure victory?
4. When, on what date will victory be achieved?

My greatest desire is that you find within yourself the courage to identify that big, bold, audacious goal and that you step up and shake the world by the power of your actions.

“It’s your life, and it’s your choice. It’s also your consequence.”

Ashley

"Show Me".......

To “Show Me” conotates a certain pragmatic stubbornness, a no-nonsense approach to living, and a devotion to simple common sense.

It sends a clear message that a smoke and mirrors approach won’t fly around these parts, and that you will ONLY be believed once you can prove that the results are real and legitimate.

In my opinion, it’s a brilliant, transparent, and effective approach to life that anyone can adopt to perform at their absolute best.

For those that are tired of all the B.S. being thrown around, and all the blowhards who talk a good game but don’t have the integrity or capacity to back up the talk, this message will be well received.

In this challenge lesson, I’m going to show you how to apply, and challenge you to adopt the show me philosophy to your life and business.

There comes a time when all the theory, talk, and verbal posturing have to stop and when you I have to prove that we can and will deliver results.

From this moment moving forward, make your life a model of the Show Me philosophy.

Show Me, Don’t Tell Me…

1. That You Love Me.

Think of everything you can do, large and small to demonstrate your love without saying a word. The message will be received quickly and appreciated far more as well.

2. That You are Committed to Excellence.

Define the non-negotiable rules of a superior performance and then flawlessly perform the part. Your actions will be far more powerful than your words.

3. That You Really Want to Succeed.

Get up early, develop a daily game plan, throw yourself into every task and your actions will show and tell the world how badly you really want it.

4. That You Have Perseverance.

Bounce back from set backs quickly, never lose your enthusiasm for your goal, and confront every obstacle with an indomitable, unconquerable spirit.

5. That You Are a Professional.

Be on time, be fully prepared, be actively engaged, and consistently deliver results. You’ll never have to utter a word as your reputation will do all the talking for you.

6. That You Have a Sense of Urgency.

Work fast, focused and purposeful. Set a deadline on each activity and neither accept nor provide any excuses. Your show me actions will open up new and greater opportunities almost immediately.

The strategic benefits of living a “Show Me” existence are vast and profound:

• Your reputation will speak well of your character and professionalism.
• Opportunities will come faster and with less effort.
• People will trust you and gladly provide referrals.
• You will make more money.
• You will attract an entirely new quality of people.
• You will have the inner confidence of a champion.
• You will never have to apologise for not walking your talk.

And your life will serve as a role-model, inspiring others to become disciples of the Show Me” philosophy which is perhaps the greatest gift of all.

 “It’s your life, and it’s your choice. It’s also your consequence.”

Ashley