Gathering Your Thoughts When You Have No Idea

Cool Ideas

 If you're like me, you get some way cool ideas on a fairly frequent basis...
 
What!!? You don't?
 
Ooohhh, let me guess,

 

You're one of THOSE people that thinks that everyone around them gets awesome ideas but you never do?
 
I used to think I didn't either. But do you know what I've found?

 

We ALL get them, but most of the time, we choose to dismiss them before we consciously realize we had one! 
 

Dismissing Ideas

 

Why do we dismiss them?  

I don't know, it's kind of silly, in all honesty.

If we listened to all the ideas we had and acted on one or two, you and I would've probably ran into Chris a couple months ago on some remote Caribbean beach just down from where we anchored our yacht! (If that's your thing...my point: we could be wealthy!)
 
Having great ideas is vital in business, leadership, and personal life.
 
I believe that you're smart. I believe you have a unique perspective of the world and that with your perspective and skills you could improve the lives of countless people! Your ideas are valuable! And they are right there in YOUR BRAIN!!
 

So how do we capture these ideas?

 
1. Be Aware: Pay attention to what you're thinking. Some of your best ideas will come when you are supposedly "not thinking". Proactively ask yourself what you are thinking about.
 
2. Write it Down. Committing your ideas to paper conveys to God (and your subconscious) that you value those ideas. When I show my wife I value her cooking, I typically get to enjoy MORE great food. The same applies here: Assign value to your ideas and you'll begin to receive and recognize more fantastic ideas!
 
3. Sundown Rule. Before the sun goes down the next day, share your idea with someone. Your spouse, children, close friend, mentor--someone! Articulating your idea out loud will clarify your idea and spark other related ideas in your mind and from those with whom you share them.

4. Come back to them. Keep all your ideas (good, bad, or ugly) in a note book or on 3x5 cards. Go back and review each idea once every couple weeks or each month. Some time may give you added perspective on an idea.
 
5. Act! You may have no idea how to bring your idea to fruition, but don't let that stop you! Take a cue from Andy Andrews. Andy says if he doesn't know what to do he asks himself this question:

"I know you don't know what to do, but if you DID know what to do, what would you do RIGHT NOW? (emphasis added)

Then make plans to do that one thing with your idea right away. Research the idea. Write a blog post about it. Do a brainstorming session. Seek further counsel.
 
YOU are intelligent. YOU have great ideas. You just need to convince yourself of as much!
 

 

Question: What do you do to recognize and develop new ideas each day?

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings! Please pass them along to your friends, family and associates if you find them valuable!



Twitter: @Skropp2

 

The Path to the Future Goes Through the Present...

Be Present

Last week I was out of town for work and bored out of my mind in the hotel room. I decided to take a walk at at like 9pm. As I walked, I started having a conversation with Heavenly Father (admittedly I did most of the talking…at least that I actually heard.).

Photo via flickr.com 

Courtesy of ToastedWoobie, Some Rights Reserved

  I began asking questions such as,

What is expected of me?
                                               What am I suppose to be learning? 
                                                                                                       Where am I going in my life? 
                  What am I suppose to be doing? 
                                                                                What do I have to do to be successful?

Who Better To Ask

Those are pretty strong questions, and I have been searching for the answers to those questions for quite some time.  And who better to ask than my Father in Heaven?

As I was having this conversation I received an answer.  No, I didn’t see an angel, hear a sound, or receive a scroll.  I did however have a still, small voice speak to my mind and my heart (1 Kings 19:11-12).  I had a scripture from the Book of Mormon come to mind, as well as two words.  Here’s the scripture:

“O that I were an angel and could have the wish of mine heart…But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.” Alma 29:1,3

The two words were “Be Present”

The Answer

And there was the answer to all my questions.  I needed to, first, be content with where I was and what I have been given and blessed with in my life.  And second, I needed to be present.

What do I mean?

What do I mean by “Be present”? 

I mean that I needed to avoid being so discontent with my life, my job, my pay, etc that I couldn’t recognize and enjoy the vast blessings that are in front of me daily.  I couldn’t get obsessed with thoughts like

“If only I was older…”
                                               “If only I wasn’t so busy…”
                                                                                         “If only I had this or that job…”
                        "If only I made this much money…”

What I'm NOT Saying

Now at this point, let me be clear as to what I am NOT saying.  I am NOT saying that we shouldn’t plan and set goals.  And I am NOT saying that we shouldn't try to better ourselves and our position in life. 

However, by being too focused on our discontentment, we experience several unintended consequences.

Consequences

When we are focused on our discontent we can experience four consequences:

1.      We can miss out on valuable lessons that we could learn and that would greatly benefit our growth, progression, and success in our personal and professional lives.

2.      We will often overlook opportunities to serve and bless those around us…including our families and close friends because we are only worried about what we don’t have.

3.      If we are too preoccupied with where we are not at in life, discouragement and frustration will overtake our thoughts, causing stress, anger, depression and all sorts of not fun feelings!

4.      Focusing on our discontent can lead to envy and covetousness.  We will look at everyone more successful than us with disdain and jealousy.  This will not help us become more success, rather it will hinder our success.

How can we “Be Present” in our lives?

1.      Be grateful for what you have.  Count your “haves” not your “have nots”

2.      Remember that there is a season and a time to everything (Eccl. 3:1)

3.      Recognize that valuable lessons  can be learned and service given here and now

4.      Be patient

5.      Have faith, in God, in yourself, in your abilities.

There is a balance we must find a balance between pushing towards our future, and not missing our present. 

I know that Heavenly Father was telling me that I need to focus more on what I have rather than what I don’t have. 

He wants us to succeed, He wants us to be happy, but His thoughts and ways are certainly higher than mine (Isa. 55:8-9) and it is not my job to argue with His plans and His timetable. 

We must always be striving to grow, progress and succeed, but the path to the future goes straight through the present, so BE PRESENT!!!

Q: How can you make sure that you don’t overlook the present in your daily life?

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Twitter: @Skropp2

Culture: Party of One

Culture: Party of One.

Listening to the EntreLeadership Podcast, you can't go too long with out the word "culture" being mentioned.  I'm pretty sure Chris LoCurto has the word "culture" tattooed on his bicep!

You hear how you're creating culture no matter what. Culture affects productivity. It's up to leaders to set the culture. It takes a lot of work to create and maintain a culture. And so forth.

So I started trying to decide what I want the culture to be like in the business I'm starting.

Hmmm...

 

• a love of soccer

• fun atmosphere

• desire to teach and encourage

• determination to be the best

And then I made a goal to implement it as soon as I had 5 team members!

But then I started thinking that if I didn't try to implement a culture until there were 5 team members, that means there would be 4 team members that would slip into a culture that was created inadvertently by my lack of proactively setting one.

 

How??

But how could I set culture when I'm the owner, CEO, COO, CFO, and every other C-O a business may have???

I didn't know exactly what I could do all my my lonesome. But last Friday night I set my alarm for 6am Saturday morning. I decided I'd take my soccer ball and head over to the park a couple blocks from my house. And I'd just listen to my iPod, kick around the ball, chase it, dribble, enjoy the early morning and "kick around" some business ideas.

So that's what I did (and if you don't believe me, ask Lily Kreitinger... She sent out a tweet at 6:05 am and I responded, so there's proof!!!)

I had a great time.

 

I'd forgotten how fun it was to just kick around a soccer ball all by yourself!  When you're all alone and no one's watching, you can pretend your Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, or Christiano Ronaldo!

I headed back to my house, hopped in the shower and grabbed some cereal for breakfast.

 

And that's when it dawned on me.

I was creating the culture of my business! What I'd just done was exactly how I envision brainstorming sessions with my team, and many of the meetings we'll have as a company.

 

Standing in the grass kicking around ideas, challenges, solutions and a ball!

On Saturday, June 9, 2012 the CEO, COO, CFO and every other C-O a company needs of my business called the first brainstorming session of the company to order.  Every team member was present and as we kicked around a soccer ball we kicked around ideas. We got some good ones too! 

I was beginning to create a culture that will grow and strengthen as time goes on and business expands. But on that Saturday morning it was Culture: Party of One. And it was great!

 

 

Question: what do you do to set the culture you want in your business, group, or family?

 

 

 

 

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Twitter: Skropp2

 

I See Success...

"Success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile idea."

That is a quote by Earl Nightingale.  And by that definition, Today, I am successful.

It may seem like a small thing to many of you, but today I took the first actual steps towards the "...realization of a worthwhile idea" that I have had in my mind for probably almost a decade.

Soccer Camps

For nearly 10 years I have had the dream of starting a soccer camp.  A business that was mine, a business that combined several of my passions--soccer, coaching, business ownership, and financial success--into one place. 

Today I took the first real steps in making that dream a reality.  This morning my sister went with me to our local soccer complex.  There she took pictures for me to put on the new blog I just started.  I got some great ones, and I started my blog this afternoon.  You can check it out at www.afterpracticesoccer.blogspot.com. If you have any interest in soccer, haha. 





Dissatisfaction and Discouragement

"Dissatisfaction and discouragement are not caused by the absence of things but the absence of vision."  ~Anonymous

More than once in the past I have found myself dissatisfied with my life and discouraged with where I seemed to be going (or not going, as was more often the case...).  This has rarely had anything to do with where I was, I've had great jobs, with great pay and management.  It just was not my vision.  Like it says in Proverbs 29, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (vs. 18).  I dont think it means that you just disappear, I think its like when fruit perishes, it just gets old, brown and dead looking.  Likewise, when we don't have vision, our lives get old, boring, stale and frustrating. 

When I have lost my vision, I get very discouraged and depressed with where I am in my life.  When I think of what I want to accomplish, who I want to be, and begin to make plans to that end, I find joy, excitement, and energy.  It has been amazing the excitement I've felt in these past couple weeks as I've been working on how to get closer to my goal of owning my own company focused on coaching soccer. 

When you have vision

"When you have vision it affects your attitude.  Your attitude is optimistic rather than pessimistic." ~Charles R. Swindoll

I don't expect you to understand.  I really don't.  How such a seemingly simple thing--a few digital photos and a stupid little blog with only one post could affect my attitude so profoundly.  I'm pretty sure most of my family and friends don't understand it--and thats ok.  It isn't their dream, it's mine.  I'm emotionally attached to it, its been nagging at me for years now!  While you see a little blog, I see a blog with thousands of visitors, I see an ebook that is downloaded hundreds or thousands of times, I see a summer soccer camp that people travel hundreds of miles to attend with world class training and elite coaches.  I see seminars and day camps dedicated to helping youth and adult, player and coach, to achieve whatever it is they want to accomplish--whether that's a professional soccer career or simply to coach their 10 year old daughter's rec team better. 

I See Success

I see success.  I see lives changed.  I see a life filled with joy and peace because I am still in the process of progressively realizing my worthwhile idea...that is even bigger and greater than today.  I see a man that my wife and my children can be proud of because I reached for my goal, I overcame my obstacles, I endured the hardships. 

I don't expect you to see that.  But I do.  And you know what, I may fail.  I may never reach what I hope to achieve.  But I will never give up reaching for it. 

"I'm going to be a great leader of this generation.  The stars in the space up there are my witnesses." ~Toba Beta

 That is why I am so excited for this stupid little blog.  So laugh if you want when, and if, you look at it.  But someday, somehow it will be something.  It will mean something.  It will achieve something.  Or I will go out with a blaze of glory and a content heart, knowing I did all that I could do.

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice.  Not something to wish for, but to obtain." ~William Jennings Bryan

Question: What are you doing to achieve your vision?





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Twitter: @Skropp2



Photo copyright: Linda Sieverkropp, All Rights Reserved.