Net Miles Of Smiles

“Manage Your Energy”
An excerpt from
The Essence of Leadership
By Mac Anderson

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time with best selling author John Maxwell. The conversation turned to how managing your energy can be one of the keys to leadership. John felt that leadership and energy were joined at the hip. It is impossible to have one without the other. He said that it all starts with knowing yourself, knowing your limitations, and knowing when you perform best. The key, for him, is to schedule his most crucial activities when his energy levels are at their peak. John, for example, schedules his important meetings and his writing time in the mornings when he feels the most energized. Activities of less urgency are scheduled in the afternoons.

Also, as he winds down at home in the evenings, he saves an hour or two for writing letters and for light reading. Of course, he said, a schedule doesn’t always cooperate, but following this general philosophy has served him well.

Speaker and author, Jim Cathcart, says that to be at your best, find your zone of optimum velocity by observing the pace and intensity at which you perform best. This is the zone at which you are most creative, unstressed, happy and productive.

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Above the zone: First you experience stress and frustration, then anxiety, and finally burnout. At this level you are overwhelming yourself with too much to accomplish at one time. Lighten up a bit to get back on track.

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In the zone: You are at your best. Not stressed, going with the flow of work naturally, productive and self-assured, challenged but not

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Comments (0) Aug 27 2008

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper (Psalm 1:1-3).

Comments (0) Aug 27 2008

Author Unknown

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer’s neighbours continued to shovel dirt o­n top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt o­n you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our

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PONDER THESE THINGS

Aligning Actions And Words
Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Words carry a lot of weight in this world, from how we say them to what we say with them, but it is through our actions that we bring things into being. This is what we mean when we say to one another that actions speak louder than words. In many cases, what we say doesn’t necessarily line up with what we are doing, and it is here that it becomes clear that it’s easier to talk about doing something than it is to actually do something. At the same time, it’s easy to keep doing something that we don’t necessarily acknowledge ourselves doing verbally. It’s good for all of us to take a look every once and a while to make sure there is alignment between what we say and what we do.

For example, it’s easy to talk about our dreams, but it takes a lot more energy to take the many small steps that lead to bringing our dreams into reality. If all we ever do is talk about it, we begin to lose faith in ourselves because nothing changes on the external level. In this way, being all talk and no action is actually a form of self-sabotage. It’s also useful to examine our actions to see if, through them, we are following through on our words. For example, in expressing concern about the environment, we can look to make sure

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Doing good is the greatest
happiness.

~ Chinese proverb

Comments (0) Aug 27 2008