Beyond Core Values to Working Credos

Core Values are awesome. They have enabled many companies to achieve tremendous things. But I think having a solid credo is also essential. When we started the Better Life Company, we developed both Core Values and a Company Credo. Here they are:

Our core values come from the word PERFECT and are:

People: We value the dreams, hopes and ambitions of people. We will do our best to cultivate greatness in every single person we come into contact with.

Empowerment: We value the success of the individual. We will do our best to ensure that personal potential is multiplied.

Responsibility: We value our obligation to live up to our vision and mission. We will do our best to constantly and consistently pursue our goals.

Fun: We value happiness in life and at work. We will create ways and systems that ensure we are having fun in everything we do.

Excellence: We recognize our role as leaders in society. We will demonstrate a high degree of excellence in everything that we do.

Commitment: We value the trust of our consumers. We will do our very best to ensure that we not only meet but also exceed expectations.

Teamwork: We value the need to work to be interdependent. We will work together as a team across, functions, departments, businesses and cultures.

The Better Life Company Credo simply states:

At the Better Life Company we believe that the day will come when people will be judged not by their physical strength nor the size of their bank accounts, but by the quality of their lives; by their response to opportunities to live a better life; by their ability to use their physical, mental and spiritual resources to make a better world; by their concern for the disadvantaged and the disempowered and by their utilization of their gifts, talents and resources in a prudent manner so as to live productively and meet the needs of other people. Better Life Company is a contribution towards that day. 

PLAN AHEAD: The Key to Organization

Being organized is essential for an epic life. One of my favorite acrostics for this is PLAN AHEAD. Here we go:

Pre-determine a course of action

This essentially means having a vision for your life. Visualizing that which you intend to attain is the first step towards being successful in pursuing it. You need to have a concise end for which you can measure your progress against. Develop a vision which will be your pre-determined course of action.

Layout your goals

Once you have pre-determined a course of action, the next step is to break it down into specific goals that can be realized. To empower your vision you need to write it down and define it clearly. Laying out your goals enables you to harness the power of visualization.

Adjust your priorities

You will need to make some changes in the new year if you hope to make it a different year from the past. This will mean being open to adjusting your priorities. Priorities are the pathway to success. Making adjustments is the key to reaching your goals.

Notify key people

We all have circles of support around us. In order to accomplish your goals you need to find those people who affirm your positive goals and share your goals with them. These people will encourage you, motivate you and keep you on the path towards an epic life.

Allow time for your plans

Many times when we set goals we expect them to be realized within a certain time frame. While it is essential to set deadlines, we should never get married to the deadlines. Timelines should motivate us to work smartly towards our goals. If your goals are not attained within the timelines you set, don’t quit. Set new timelines and stay motivated.  

Head into action

Action is the first step towards achievement. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Head into action. Inch by inch it’s a cinch. Action must start now! The greatest enemy of success is procrastination. In order to achieve your dreams you must be action-oriented.

Expect problems

Every endeavor that has ever been worth pursuing has always had it’s problems and challenges. Problems are a sign that you are on the right track. The absence of problems is very likely a sign that something is wrong. Problems should never cause you to lose sight of your ultimate goals. They should be a call towards being more creative.

Always point to your successes

It is easy to lose motivation when failure sets in. The key to staying focused is in pointing to your already realized successes. Your track record of past successes is the springboard for your future achievements. When failure threatens your progress, embrace the confidence that comes from your record of past achievements.

Daily review your planning

Planning is a dynamic process. Plans should be reviewed on a daily basis to ensure that you are on the right track. Change happens (please see my earlier post below, shift happens) and you must be open to changing your plans daily. Flexibility is the key to success. You must be able to revisit your plans every day. Nothing ever dominates life unless it happens daily. It is the daily habit of reviewing your plans that will determine whether you realize them or not.

Shift Happens – Flux is fun: The Flow of An Epic Life

Living an epic life means that we be open to change and growth experiences. The word shift means to change; for example to shift gears in an automobile from one ratio to another. It can also mean to move; for example to transfer from one place, position, direction, etc. Flux, on the other hand, means continuous change, passage or movement. It may also mean a constant flow.

Life is in constant flow and we must learn to change in order to attain the better life and live an epic life. Embracing change and being open to movement is a sign of great maturity and understanding of the processes of life. In order to attain true significance, our attitude should be: “shift happens … flux is fun“. The flow of an epic life is characterised by an understanding of this concept.

Drafted into the Flow of an Epic Life

In the recent few weeks there has been a lot of drafting going on for the presidential race. There’s even been talk of a former actor being drafted into the race. While everyone else is focusing on these drafts, I want to ask, how about Draft YOU!! I want you to consider drafting yourself into the greatest race of all time – the race to fulfill your potential and live your very best life!  You can live an epic life. Get into the flow by drafting yourself into the greatest race of all time!

Serendipity and Synchronicity in an Epic Life

Dr. Mark J. Chironna has a little booklet titled, Tripping Over Your Treasures, that I have been reading today. He starts off by explaining the meaning of the word serendipity, saying that dreams are arrived at quite accidentally yet when one is being intentional. It may seem like a contradiction but I find this to be extremely true. When I was planning on my coming to the United States in 2001, I was very intentional about the whole process but my actual leaving of Kenya came accidentally!

I have also found that there is one more thing that contributes to the realization of dreams: synchronicity. Synchronicity is the coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related. I met my wife because of synchronicity. We had both signed up for the same elective course in college. Who would have thought that an elective course in school would bring two people together! 

The word serendipity was created by Sir Horace Walpole in 1754 after having read a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. In this tale, three sons of a King were always on their way somewhere only to bump into things accidentally on purpose that helped them along the way to their next stop. Over and over again, they kept on bumping into things that would aid their journey onward. 

As I was thinking about this, I started seeing that in my own life I have ‘bumped’ into people and things who helped me along the way. I would never have learnt about the Honor Academy in Texas had I not volunteered to go with some American missionaries to a remote village in Northern Kenya. In Texas, I met a friend who introduced me to the family that helped me move to Colorado. While in Colorado and later in Massachussets I pursued a great friendship with a stunner at Regent University. This led to our marriage in 2004. While watching an NBC Today show, we learnt about Boystown and decided to move to Nebraska. After working in Nebraska for a while I decided to pursue the dream of establishing an organization that I have carried with me for a couple of years. That’s a lot of serendipity! My moving to Cincinnati to start the organization is the piece of teh puzzle that I’m yet to find. 

The American College Dictionary defines serendipity as the faculty of making desirable but unsought-for discoveries by accident. Synchronicity on the other hand is meaningful coincidences that cannot be explained by cause and effect. Both of these words invite us to experiencing deeper lives full of meaning and richness – epic lives.