Transitioning from Next Level Thinking to a Living a Life of Legacy

People today are consumed with the idea of going to the next level in their lives, be it in their relationships, careers, finances or other area of life. While this is great because it motivates them, I find it to be an idea that can limit our true potential. My paradigm is that we need to be consumed with the idea of the kind of legacy we will leave behind at the end of the seasons of our lives.

Thinking about your legacy every day, rather than thinking about the next level only, makes you a better leader. I also believe that thinking about a legacy makes you other-people centered while thinking about going to the next level tends to make one self-centered.

How do you transition from thinking about the next level to thinking about developing a legacy?

1. Be more focused on other people rather yourself

The idea of being a ‘people person’ has been around for a long time. Dale Carnegie’s 1936 masterpiece, ‘How to Win Friends and influence People’, has helped so many people over the years to develop a people-centered perspective that has enabled them to leave great legacies. I would highly suggest a reading of the book. 

2. Ask how you can help rather than what others can do for you.

President John F. Kennedy immediately became a world figure with his acceptance speech in which he said, ” And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” In order to leave a legacy you must ascend in thought to where you are asking what you can do for others rather than what they can do for you. 

3. Be a giver more than a receiver

Nothing shapes a legacy more than the spirit of giving. When you give of yourself to others you become a part of the solution. It’s solution-centered thinking that sets the pace for the kind of legacy a person will leave behind. Again, when one is thinking of going to the next level, the pre-dominant question is “What can I get (or receive) that will take me to the next level?” When one is thinking of leaving a legacy, the pre-dominant question is “What can I give that will help others?” Be more of a giver and your legacy will be unshakable because the truth is that what we give is ours forever!

4. Be a leader more than a follower

Leaders impact and influence other people greatly. The great thing about being a leader is that you are able to take other people to the next level as you develop a legacy. What a beauty! Leaders pass along the best in themselves to other people. I’m always pleased when I hear from people I led in high school and at the university. They always say things like, “Herman, that idea was awesome. It took our group to a whole new level.” While those short-term moves were great for whichever group I led, the best thing is that a legacy was developed because even today they still talk about what we did.

Are you living for the next level or developing a legacy for and with your people? Start shaping your legacy today. 

How to Close 2007 Strong and Embrace Newsness in 2008

This being the last month of the year, its going to be a great month. I can see it. I can feel it. I sense new purpose breaking forth that will spill over into the New Year. I hope that you are also experiencing the same. Life is so designed that we have periods of newness that allow us to expand ourselves in many different ways. Every day is a new day. Every month is a new month. The new period allows us to begin afresh and put aside the happenings of the previous period. As we inch closer to 2008, we have an opportunity to extend our destinies to another level as we build a legacy for future generations.

There are three crucial keys that will allow us to experience the newness that new seasons offer us. I’d like to share these in anticipation of the fact that many people will soon be making New Year’s resolutions again. Enjoying newness comes in three steps. We need to be able to conceptualize, then visualize and finally materialize the newness.

Conceptualize

This begins with vision. One might even say the need to have a dream to pursue. It takes a lot of optimism to conceptualize a future that is yet to made manifest. The key is to really believe that you can make it happen and you have all the resources to pursue that which you desire. Conceptualizing means birthing ideas of what’s possible. This is crucial.

Visualize

Beyond conceiving the dream, you need to be able to see yourself walking in it’s fulness. To visualize is simply to form mental pictures or images of something. It simply means imagining yourself being, doing and having that which you are dreaming of. It’s using the power of perception to transform what you have conceptualized into a vision of possibility.

Materialize

Dreams and visions reach their full term when they are materialized. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing your ideas go from concept to reality. As you pursue newness this month, your goal is to do just that - transform ideas into powerful results. Embrace newness and bring fresh results into your life. This is going to be an awesome month! Next year is going to be an awesome year!

Positive Self-Definition

The quality of our lives is directly proportional to how we define ourselves. Most people tend to define themselves based on their past. It is impossible to attain our full potential if we define ourselves based on past experiences in our lives. Past experiences should never ever be a reference for who we currently are. Past experiences depict what happened in our lives, not who we are.

A proper definition of self should be based on one’s personal potential. Your vision of who you can become and what you can do with your life is the foundation of living the better life every day. What is it that you were born to do? Who do you see yourself becoming? That is the definition of who you are. You must define yourself in a positive way, talking about the good that you were designed to accomplish.

Action and Focus

The key to an epic life is inspired action on a daily basis and a sense of focus on key goals. Action sets apart the talkers from the doers. Inspired action is action that is birthed with a definite purpose. Inspired action compels us to work with passion and diligence. It produces a focus and consistency that allows us to move in a clear-cut direction with vision and motivation. The results of such kind of action are indisputable because they come from a deeper part of ourselves.

Along with inspired action, we need a daily focus on solid goals. By bringing yourself to a point of daily focus on concepts that are allowing you to grow, you are able to share your growth process and inspire others in life. Personally, I am creating room for even more good to come into my life so that I can share it with others. It’s been said that whatever you focus on expands. By focusing my thoughts every day, I am able to expand my understanding of the very same concepts. What a beauty!

The IDEA Matrix: How to Transform Concepts Into Reality

Ideas are delicate. To bring them to life, one needs to have a strategy that develops them well. Ideas need to be transformed from concept to reality through a brooding and development process. Today I would like to share an IDEA matrix for transforming concepts into reality. The processes outlined below interact at so many levels and the lines are not clear-cut between them. It is possible to go from the I stage to the E stage, then back to the D stage then the A stage and vice-versa. That’s the beauty of nurturing ideas. Here we go:

Invest, invent and innovate

No idea can become reality unless you invest time and resources to it. Ideas grow in fertile ground. For your idea to expand you need to create an environment in which it can flourish and blossom. This could be an environment where you brainstorm with others on the idea or where you can study on the idea. Investing time and resources to the idea is key to being able to invent the idea. To invent is simply to create or produce something. Invention leads to innovation - the introduction of changes or new things in society. The idea has to become a dominant force in your life through the investing of time and resources towards it.

Discover, document and define

Once the idea has been invented, it provides you with the opportunity to discover and really define what the idea’s purpose is. When concept becomes reality, we begin to discover the full potential of our dreams. This should be carefully documented because it is the key to innovation. As long as the idea remains concept, we cannot be able to discover it’s full potential nor to clearly define it. When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he couldn’t define it as we know it today at first. He knew that he had a device for transmitting speech. In his application filed on February 18, 2006, he mentioned “major improvements in telegraphy”. It wasn’t until much later that his invention was defined clearly. Through the many processes of this idea matrix, his concept has continued to be improved in so many ways. 

Experiment, experience and evaluate

Ideas need to be experimented on a lot of times at the early stages. Ideas need to be implemented so that we can build on them. If ideas forever remain concepts, we cannot be able to fully experience them. We need to have tangible evidence of the ideas so that we can evaluate them and improve on them. It is the process of constant and continuous evaluation and reevaluation that results in winning ideas. It is through the process of experimentation and evaluation that we really learn about our ideas. When we become students of our ideas, we set in process a mechanism that allows us to actualize the ideas.

Actualize, advance and advertize

Once the ideas have been experimented on and evaluated, they allow us to go to the next level of actualizing them. By this time we have tangible goods and services that can be advanced to others. The key to the idea reaching it’s full potential is in your ability to advertize it. Advertizing is simply bringing your idea to the masses so that others can experience it’s power and purpose. Your idea could be the solution to so much hurt and difficulty that others have experienced. So, work on those ideas. Use the idea matrix to bring them to the forefront of your world. 

Homework is Cool! - How to be Successful in Life

Every day life offers us myriads of opportunities to make a difference and have an impact on other people’s lives. These opportunities come largely through the interactions we have with those people. Our success in these situations depends largely on how we are prepared to engage and interact during those moments. The key to this is doing our homework.

When I was a kid my parent’s favorite words were, “Herman, have you done your homework?”. Even when I had completed my work from school, I knew that the day wouldn’t end without me hearing those words from them. I may not have liked the words that much then but I’m extremely grateful because those words served to shape a lot of good in me.

I think our success in life hinges pretty much on those words. So, have you done your homework? Before you go to meet that prospect, have you done your homework? Before you go for the interview, have you done your homework? Before you buy that new appliance or gadget, have you done your homework? Homework is cool. A healthy dose of daily homework results in a life of purpose and direction. Do your homework.

Connecting Through Teaming Up With Others

It’s been said a lot of times that teamwork makes the dream work. One thing that we fail to put an emphasis on in any team-building events or talk is the power of collective intelligence and the impact of the connections that arise out of the teaming-up process. When a person works alone, she is limited to her personal ideas. But when she brings other people around her, she is rewarded with the collective intelligence that comes from the group. In addition to this, relationships are built that become extremely valuable in time. The power of working with others is that you learn from their knowledge and share ideas with them. That kind of symbiotic relationship makes all the difference in terms of impact. Learning to connect with others may be the greatest reward one could give herself. 

Cultivating a Healthy Attitude Toward Risk

Great achievements have always required some form of risk-taking. Most people don’t achieve those great things because they are risk-averse. In order to experience the fulness of all that life has for us we must possess a healthy attitude toward risk. People fear risk-taking because of a fear of failure (or loss). But risk is sweet. Carefully calculated risk can mean all the difference when you are trying to achieve/accomplish something. Embrace the sweetness of risk today and you may just surprise yourself!

Butterflies in the Stomach: Aerodynamics of Public Speaking

Have you ever experienced the anxiety that comes with the task of speaking in public? Even the most seasoned communicators have experienced this. This phenomenon has been referred to as “having butterflies in the stomach”. I have come to love these “butterflies in the stomach”. I never know when they will start flying but I’m always thrilled about them. They are scary yet they symbolize opportunity - the opportunity to go beyond my personal limitations and do something worth remembering. This becomes particularly important when speaking in public. I want to be so used up after each speech so that they will literally carry me off the stage. I think a speaker is a performer. Like an athlete, he or she needs to be spent at the end of the performance. But that’s a completely different topic. Let me give you five strategies for training your butterflies to fly in formation. I call these the aerodynamics of public speaking because it’s about training those butterflies to fly in formation.

1. Select exciting topics

This is very basic and fundamental to speaking. Your topic has to appeal to the audience’s interests and senses. A good speaker can make any topic exciting but a boring topic cannot make a good speaker exciting. Careful choice of speaking topic is therefore essential to moving your audience.

2. Build your knowledge

Once you have chosen your topic, you need to study widely and deeply. A knowledgeable speaker who has done his or her research well is usually more interesting than one who hasn’t. Building your knowledge also includes learning about your audience. What are their interests? Where are they in life? What are they trying to accomplish?

3. Develop some visual aids

Visual aids help in enabling you to come across as a professional and utilizing all the senses of your audience. You can use items like charts, graphs. powerpoint presentations, overhead projectors, models and many other different objects. The use of visual aids also encourages you to gesture and gesturing enables you to maintain composure.

4. Master your message

You master your message by practicing it. Practice makes permanent. The more you practice, the more permanent the skill of speaking will become to you. As you master your message you become comfortable with speaking. Your expectations arise and your butterflies begin to fly at your command.

5. Love your audience

Expect your audience to like you. Go in with a belief that they will be attentive and will respond positively to you. Smile. Be confident. Visualize yourself being successful. Be at ease with talking to your audience. Audiences are not your enemies, they are friends. Enjoy getting to know your audience as you speak to them.

Enthusiasm: The Bedrock of Passion; The Key to Potential

Ralph Waldo Emerson, that great essayist and poet whose been quoted so many times, once said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”. Enthusiasm is the bedrock of passion and the key to maximizing one’s personal potential. Henry David Thoreau said that the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation. In other words, they do not have a passion for anything. They have nothing to stand for, so they fall for anything that comes their way. How then, can we break through and find something worth standing for?

The key is in having a desire to make a difference. Making a difference could mean changing the way things are or simply contributing to a social condition or situation. Desire is the ignition key, so to speak, of passion. You cannot pursue something unless you really have a desire for it. We generate enthusiasm by having positive desires that will contribute towards a better life and society. Let’s work on generating greater enthusiasm.