Lessons from Operation Smile

Have you heard of Operation Smile? I just heard a lecture from the co-founder and CEO of the organization, Bill Magee. What they have done during their approximately 30 years of existence is perform facial surgery on over 150,000 children in 60 countries, absolutely free. He showed before and after pictures and they were amazing. The vast majority of these children were so deformed facially that they would never have the opportunity to do what you and I take for granted, smile. A typical surgery lasts about 45 minutes and while most of the surgical teams travel to the countries where the children are, sometimes the children are brought to the US.

While Bill’s message was surely impressive and moving, he used the opportunity to ask the room full of professional speakers he was talking to a very profound question: what’s the difference you can make in the life of another in 45 minutes? Think about that. Here’s what came to me as I thought about his message long after his talk was over.

First, if you’re reading this, can you see how blessed you are and how much you take that for granted? Yes, many of us have challenges and that’s a part of life. But mostly, the challenges we face pale in comparison to those faced by people in third world countries.

Second, for far too many people, life is about our success, our happiness, our accomplishments, our desires, our goals, ….have I made my point? It’s my assertion that the vast majority of people, taking everything we have for granted, spend most of our time thinking about how we can get more of the blessed life we already have.

Now I’m not suggesting that there’s anything wrong with being successful, having a great life, and having all of the things you want. The only problem is that if that’s your focus, I guarantee you you will never achieve the level of fulfillment that’s available to you. I learned a long time ago, and hear me clearly, you will never experience doing for yourself the joy that is available in helping someone else get what they want for them.

Which brings me back to Operation Smile. Every one of you reading this has a gift to give. If you run a company, you likely have many gifts to give, same if you manage people. I invite you to look and see what you can do for another in 45 minutes. Maybe it’s going around and smiling at people or saying hello. Maybe it’s asking someone what you can do for them. You decide. In any event, I invite you to set aside 45 minutes every day to focus on contributing something that you have to give to one or more people. I promise that if you’re not in the habit of doing this and you do, you will discover something profound about life.

Leaders - What's Your Story?

One of the most popular children’s books is The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper.   If you’re a parent or grandparent, you’re probably saying, “Oh, yes, my kids/grandkids love that!”  I love it to.  For those not familiar with the story, when the red train full of toys breaks down, the Little Blue Engine is asked to take over and pull the train up the mountain to the boys and girls.  The Little Blue Engine is skeptical and says,   “I’m not very big.  And I’ve never been over the mountain.  But I’ll try.”

This story has some great insights.  The Little Blue Engine had some beliefs – You have to be big enough and have experience to get over the mountain.  How many of us have those beliefs or stories that hold us back?  These are often called Limiting Beliefs.  Sometimes they are a fallacy or an excuse, sometimes a way to avoid doing something, usually an uncomfortable something.  There are things that we believe are true, we accept them as facts and live our life accordingly, sometimes, even unconsciously. 

Let’s see what this might look like for you as a leader in business or, even, in your family. 

Here are some beliefs people might have:

No pain, no gain.

Money doesn’t grow on trees.

You have to work hard to succeed.

It takes money to make money.

The pie is only so big.

There is too much competition.

I was raised that way.

Only certain people are born to be successful.

That’s how we’ve always done it so it must be right.

More excuses:

I’m too busy to … (ie. make sales calls)

I’m too old, young to….

I’m not experienced enough to do ….

I’m not good at ….

Do any of these beliefs sound familiar to you?  Are they holding you or someone you know back from accomplishing what you want? 

Now that you have some awareness of Limiting Beliefs or “Stories”, let’s learn a lesson from the Little Engine That Could.  While he had a belief that he may not be big enough or experienced enough to make it over the mountain with the train full of toys, he decided to “try”.  He didn’t let his limiting beliefs hold him back!  He said, “I think I can.  I think I can!”  And when he made it to the top of the mountain and all the boys and girls were cheering, he smiled and seemed to say, “I thought I could.  I thought I could!”

What’s your story?  What’s holding you back?  Are you ready to “try” anyway?  If you need some coaching to get you over the mountain, contact me at Lois@UnshackledLeadership.com  or visit our website www.UnshackledLeadrship.com for some great resources. 

Creating money and wealth

I’m about to do a teleclass about money, mostly about why most have less than they want and a few have so much. Here’s the essence of what the class will be about:

Any conversation about money or wealth must start with the basics as I have discussed here many times: you have the same power to create as anyone else, and this applies to the area of money and wealth. You have the same power as Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Warren Buffet, they just know how to use that power and perhaps you don’t.

We’ve also discussed here many times the nature of the creative process. We all awake every day into the same field of infinite possibilities and just like the farmer plants corn seeds and waters the soil to get corn, you plant seeds with your thoughts and water the thoughts with your emotions.

So the bottom line is that you can create any amount of wealth you want and, in fact, what you have now is exactly what you are creating. Your thoughts create your experience 100% of the time and what you are presently seeing is the results of your past thoughts about money and wealth. The problem is that hardly anybody understands this. People think they go to work and create money with what they do. That’s pure nonsense. Money and wealth work just like everything else – they are a reflection only of your thoughts and emotions; which is why the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.

So why isn’t everyone rich? Because most thoughts about money are negative, as are most emotions. You can’t believe the almost endless list of beliefs people have about money: money is the root of all evil; getting rich takes a lot of work and struggle; money doesn’t grow on trees; money isn’t really that important; rich people usually aren’t happy; it takes money to make money; and on and on. We have a list of 66 beliefs like those and they’re not all of them.

The point is that none of those statements are “the truth.” They could be true but they could just as easily not be true. More importantly, rich people don’t believe them, that’s why they’re rich. But the vast majority of people do believe them and those beliefs are like a valve at the end of a pipe, shutting down the natural abundant flow of the universe.

And not only do we have negative beliefs about money, we have negative emotions about it too. We feel resentful that other people have money and we don’t. We get angry when we can’t have what we want. We get frustrated when things don’t go our way. All of these negative emotions kill off any possibility of money flowing easily to us.

So, the only way to increase the flow of money and wealth into your life and your company is to flush out your limiting beliefs about money and replace them with expansive beliefs and to exchange your negative emotions with positive ones. For most people, this is a lot easier said then done. But if you’re tired of not having what you want, we do have a number of programs to support you in moving forward. Take advantage of the free hour of coaching we continuously offer or send me an email at scott@unshackledleadership.com and schedule a time to chat.

Success Strategy: Responsibility vs. Blame

Have you ever blamed someone else for what’s going wrong in your life?  Here’s a thought, maybe you have but you don’t even realize it.  Have you ever said, “If only…” or “Yes, but….”?  Have you felt like a victim to circumstances?  These are clues that you may be blaming someone or something else for what’s going on in your life.

Let’s take a look at this and how it may be affecting your life and your success.  Once I didn’t get the promotion I wanted.  I was very upset with my boss and while I didn’t realize it, I was blaming her. She didn’t recognize this or that about me, etc.   And I was carrying around the negative emotions that go with it.  Poor me.

Fortunately, I happened to read a book, How to Get What You Want and Want  What You Have by John Gray, where he talked about twelve blocks to success.  One of the blocks was BLAME.  All of a sudden, the light went on for me.  The process of blaming my boss for my lack of happiness and success was preventing me for taking responsibility for my life.  He said, “When you make others or circumstances beyond your control responsible for how you feel about your past, present, or future, you are unable to create the changes you want.  As long as someone else is responsible for how you feel, you forfeit the power to change your life.” 

In reading this, I realized that as long as I was blaming my boss for my lack of success, I was holding on to a belief that I couldn’t create what I wanted because of her!  In essence, she was in charge of my destiny at work. I was giving up my power.  Wow.  That was like pouring a bucket of cold water over my head.  Enough of that!   I wanted my power back.  I realized I needed to take responsibility for me. 

In taking responsibility for yourself, you gain the power within to heal and let go of the pain. We need to move on and bless the person or circumstance.  Forgiveness is letting go of the tendency to hold others responsible for our plight in this world. When people feel powerless to get what they need, they get stuck in blame.  It’s easy to be a victim. 

This is something that seems obvious when you hear it but not so obvious while you’re in the muck of it. This is what’s powerful about having a coach.  Someone outside your situation and “story” about the situation can help you see things differently.  When you stop blaming, forgive and take responsibility for yourself, your power to create and be successful will grow.  If you realize you are stuck and need some coaching, contact me at Lois@UnshackledLeadership.com.  At Unshackled Leadership coaching, we help leaders get “unstuck” so they can get their businesses “unstuck” and realize the success they want and deserve.  For more information, go to our website www.UnshackledLeadership.com

The Roadmap to Success

For those of you who are regular readers of this newsletter, you will recall that back in February of this year, I announced the start of our 2013: Roadmap to Success Coaching Program. I suggested at the time that if you wanted to have 2013 be your best year ever and the year you begin to have the things you truly want, I invited you to give yourself the gift of being part of this program. The program included monthly coaching calls and unlimited access to personal coaching via e mail directly with me, your personal success coach!

Over 30 participants chose to participate in this program and the journey has been nothing short of amazing. The participants have had an opportunity to create a vision for their lives and their careers and they have begun to dissolve the barriers that they have created that prevent the fulfillment of that vision. As one of the participants wrote recently: “Thanks for sharing these concepts which are surely rocking my world. I consider you one of my life coaches and I want to tell you that your effect on me will have effects on many others who consider me one of their coaches.”

 Another one wrote: “Thank you so much for sending the handout, and you reaffirmed many things I know, but forget to apply, so I really value the reminders, and you are right these Programs can be life changing.  I also learned things that are as you say are simple concepts, but you have to make some big changes to reap the benefits.  For now, I am concentrating on four areas, an attitude of gratitude, becoming a better listener, laughing at the voice of my ego, and putting together a vision of what I would like my life to look like in 10 years. Thank you for the opportunity to do these things.”

I know that many of you would have liked to participate but for one reason or the other, the timing just wasn’t right. For others, the thought that you could actually have the life and career of your dreams was too much to consider. If either was the case, I’m sorry you missed this incredible opportunity.

But here’s the good news: it’s not too late. I have created a video version of the program which you can watch on your computer or your TV. And, like the initial program, the video program includes monthly coaching calls for you to get the support you need to accomplish your goals. So if you are ready to win in the game of life and take control of your business or career, I invite you to go to: http://www.unshackledleadership.com/free-success-video-ty and sign up for the platinum group coaching program which will include both the mp4 and DVD versions of the video program. The coaching program starts the first week of August so don’t delay. While you’re at the site that the above link will take you to, be sure to read what the program is all about. This could just be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. See you on the first call in August.