Don't Just Do It...................Do It Well!

We have owned our much loved Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet  for 10 years and she is a little tired at just under 230,000km. After much agonising about a replacement we decided we need to go out and have a look. So what did I do first? Get on the internet of course! In my search had I come a cross a care that seemed interesting a 2009 Toyota Prius. Now being a motor racing buff, I had never ever considered a "hybrid". I mean they are used by those who are first and foremost concerned with environmental or taxi drivers aren't they?

However this was such a well optioned car," top of the line" New Zealand assembled vehicle my wife and I decided to go and have a look. So I rang and for the first time spoke to Allan making an eleven o'clock appointment. We would have to travel for over an hour to get to this appointment in Auckland City. The first thing that happened was that the we were late because we got caught in traffic for our appointment.We had rung the office to say that we would be late as we sat in the traffic When we got there we saw the car that was being climbed all over by another couple of guys. Allan then introduced himself and said he would talk to his boss about us travelling so far and having a prior viewing claim on the car. The manager agreed and said to the other gentlemen that if we did not take the car he would ring them..... most impressive.

Allan the proceeded to spend an amazing amount of time with us. He talked about the car and all its features about it had to offer. More important to me as a Life Coach, he then questioned us about our needs and how was this car going to meet those needs. As couple we were challenged to look at our vehicle needs and to examine our life stage in a way we weren't expecting. We came to realise that the previous car purchase a Mazda Demio had fulfilled the purpose as being very economic which was why we bought it,  but had left us short in people transport capability. We came to see that this would fulfil our potential needs for the next ten years when our life stage would probably change again.

Allan was masterful not in just his sales technique  but in his care for us as a couple. he was constantly checking back in with to ensure we knew that this want we wanted to do, but also this car would meet our lifestyle requirements. Because of the care Allan took the whole sales process took three hours, but to me this was irrelevant. Yes I bought car, but Allan has a repeat customer when the Demio needs replacing I will go and talk to Allan. We sung his praises to anybody in that branch who would listen. The response was always the same "Yes he was the best sales men they had" and more importantly he was a great guy!

Being a car buff I have bought a lot of cars in my time;  family cars, racing/rally cars, sports cars and classic cars. This was the best sales experience I have ever had simply because I am convinced I got it right because Allan made sure that happened! I was convinced the correctness of an option 24hours previously I would not have even considered.

Allan has shown me the absolute value of doing what you do

with excellence. It is not only good for you it means you set the tone for all those around you. This is leadership, not only was he the best, he influenced all those around him. We all have this capacity to influential. Whether we are the president or the janitor. We have the capacity to take pride in what we do and be the best we can.

Thank you Allan for todays experience! A master-class in excellence!

How about you? Do you display excellence?

"I don't wanna!" But......!

We have had our three grandchildren aged 12, 10 and 7 staying with us since last Thursday while their parents went to a conference in another city. We had planned out some activities, which included going to go 10 pin bowling and then meet their 3 year old cousin and uncle at the local council swimming pools for the afternoon. The eldest granddaughter was invited to have a pedicure with Grandma and a girls afternoon. Which  is in the end what she decided to do. That left me with the boys and we were going to go through with our plan for the afternoon.

Just before we were about to go the eldest grandson decided that he didn't want to go, saying he didn't really like bowling. We said "that is fine but are not spending the day watching TV or other screen time." With those restrictions, he decided to come with his brother. He really tried hard and participated in everything. The smiles started to develop and the laughter.

On the way home I asked if he had enjoyed the afternoon and he said he had a great time. So I stated to think when did he start to enjoy it.? I believe he started to enjoy it, when he first started to engaged with the process around him. He found bits of the bowling he did enjoy, little bits of success. Then he loved the pools.

So much of our time can be wasted with things we don't like and as a consequence won't engage with. If we would just engage with the process we may find a different result to one we expect.

We may enjoy at least part of the experience, or maybe learn some new skill that makes it a little better.

I believe there is a lesson in just choosing to engage enthusiastically whenever we can.

The option-tunity of legacy

In todays world there are many opportunities for a lot of us. There seems to be a huge range of choices of what we could do with our life. What do we want to do with our education, our recreation, our career, our personal life, our relationships and family? A veritable smorgasbord choice in so many areas. Some would regard me as old, I may prefer deep into middle age, but even I have choices going forward. How will I choose to live the rest of my life?

I have heard of a strategy described as living with the end in mind. Some would say designing your own epitaph. What kind of legacy do you want leave behind. What will people who know you, know of you or have interactions with you, remember you for or by? In other words what sort of inheritance do you want to leave when you are no longer alive?

I believe whether you are 9 or 99 you always have a choice to learn and develop. You still have the opportunity to change what will happen or rectify what has happened. The choice or option is yours.

I believe it starts with self discovery: 

Who am I? What do I believe?  What are my values?What do I want? Who am I connected to? Who could I be connected to? Who do I want to be connected to?

What am I good at? What gifts and talents do I have? What options can I develop? What experience do I already have? What training or educational options is available?


Where Do I want To be in 5 years or 10 years? Where do I want to be emotionally, relationally financially and physically?  What opportunities would I desire after that period of time.

As I ponder these questions, I encourage you to also do so. Lets call it a life health check.

A cautionary note!

Post storm wisdom.

Last night there was a major storm over our little town and throughout our region. So many people are talking about it on social networks and in conversations with people. Everybody that I have spoken to this morning has talked about the weather.

Apparently there was torrential rain, thunder and lightning. I say apparently, because I slept through the the whole thing. The only insight I had that anything had taken place was the slips on the road and the bits of debris around. when I drove out at about 6.30am.

Now I can get involved in the talk and the discussion but in reality it was not mine to talk about because I simply just didn't experience it. As a spectator it is interesting I suppose, however I do not need to get involved. The descriptions of others may be interesting, but I have a choice to jump on board with all the discussions or let it float on by.

I started to think that we are presented with a lot of situations each day that really have nothing to do with us. Situations that produce drama that don't have any direct relation to us and we cannot positively effect. I am not suggesting we should not get involved good causes, but there are other situations which are just hype.

Later on I had an opportunity to enter into a discussion about an issue at work which really had nothing to do with me. I could of jumped in on the drama, but I had nothing positive to offer, nothing that would improve the situation. So I choose to stay out, like the storm discussion it simply wasn't mine to be involved in.

Wisdom often comes quietly and in a simple form.

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Social Media?

I was reading  a report on social media use which I found quite interesting, if not a little scary:

 

Specifically, among American social network users: (As at 2013)

• 18-34-year-olds report spending 3.8 hours a day;
• 35-49-year-olds report spending 3 hours per day; and
• 50-64-year-olds report spending 2.4 hours per day.
• In terms of the gender difference, female social networkers spend almost 40% more time daily with social media sites than men (3.6 hours vs. 2.6 hours), a finding consistent with earlier research from MyLife and from Burst Media showing women to be more active than men on social media.
• Interestingly internationally there are a lot of countries that have much higher use of social networks than the United States.

I also found it interesting that the average American only gets 6.8 hours sleep. (This is a significant drop from 7.9 hours in 1942.) The reason I was interested in that was to see how much of their waking hours were occupied by social media. So the average American is a awake 17.2 hours. So at the lower levels of use they are exchanging around 15-20% of their awake time to this phenomena in very rough terms.

Interestingly I don't consider myself  a particularly heavy social media user. I did start thinking how much of my life is this phenomena occupying, because of responding to the "Oh that looks a bit interesting  I will go and have a look.'' attention getter.

I decided to ask myself a few questions:

Is my life any better for this activity?   The  answer; probably not. 

Do I feel any better socially connected than before? The  answer; A little through Facebook. But there is really no  major depth. Anything that is really meaningful  still happens face to face.

Do I waste time? The  answer; yes especially on Trade Me (A New Zealand online auction site like E-Bay)

If I am honest do I have a problem with it at present? The  answer; probably not but I need to be aware and monitor my use.

I need to live intentionally in this area and continue to monitor where I sit. Because at the moment I don't have time to access much. However when I do get time I tend to use more time than I need to.

 I do however get benefits, after all I am still talking to you on social media

How about how you?

How do you go with the questions?

Until next week, Paul