Our Most Powerful Tool

The mind is our most powerful tool.  It has two parts - the conscious and the subconscious/unconscious (other than conscious). The mind can distract us or keep us focused.
It’s the mind that allows the late night ice cream binge or the discipline to eat right all day.
The mind will awaken us, without an alarm at 4:45 to start our morning routine, or the mind can cause us to sleep in and rush panicking into the day.
We can be conformed to this world by going with the norm of our existing thoughts and the world around us......or we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Renewing of our minds is a powerful principle. It’s out choice, our decision, our outcome! What we focus on, we’re more likely to get. Do our actions and habits produce the positive results we want? If not, change the way we think, practice daily disciplines to renew our mind. As a result, new actions and habits will follow.
What’s going into our mind through our senses is changing who we are in the inside that we live out on the outside. Who we are on the inside will determine who we are on the outside.
We cannot always change what just happened us, but we can control how we respond by controlling how we renew our minds.
We will all be different 5 years from today, than we are today. That difference is determined by who we associate with, what we watch, what we hear and what we read.

Pondering - Leadershift

I read Maxwell's "Leadershift" as I was shifting into a new role 6 months ago.

This new role has been an emotional shift and I'm surprised I've lasted. My 12WkYr Coach, coming into the new job, recommended my only goal should be "to show up every day."

Wise. Simple and wise.

This morning I find myself looking through this list of shifts Maxwell writes are necessary.

- SOLOIST TO CONDUCTOR

- GOALS TO GROWTH

- PERKS TO PRICE

- PLEASING PEOPLE TO CHALLENGING PEOPLE

- MAINTAINING TO CREATING

- LADDER CLIMBING TO LADDER BUILDING

- DIRECTING TO CONNECTING

- TEAM UNIFORMITY TO TEAM DIVERSITY

- POSITIONAL AUTHORITY TO MORAL AUTHORITY

- TRAINED LEADERS TO TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERS

- CAREER TO CALLING

These recent months have further confirmed my belief that we (humans) perform best when we "manage processes and lead people." John gives a good explanation of my belief on page 1....

"Management systems and processes tend to be linear. They assume that similar inputs will result in similar outputs. In many situations, this holds true. Leadership, however, requires a more nuanced view of the world because it involves people: what motivates them, what their interests are, and how engaged they become."

To that end....I think I know what I'm rereading this weekend.