Don’t manage, lead.

Some recent events sparked the following thought, which led to the tonight’s blog. If you like the thought, or have something to add, leave a comment below and let’s get social. Don’t be a passive consumer! Let’s take the reins and lead together, or not. 

Why try to manage life, when you can lead. I’ve noticed there is often an emphasis on management in any of the companies I’ve worked for, (and I’ve worked for a few). In my opinion, to manage is to strive, or to push up a hill a weight that is often too big for anyone to carry. Life is more enjoyable, and accessible when we understand the value in the team around us, and in the opportunities we have at hand.

When we approach life from a leadership point of view, we will see the following:

1. Achieve greater results

2. Inspire others to follow

Just another random thought… I know it’s been a while since my last post. I’m editing my first fiction novel, at the moment, and taking my own advice (and the advice of Kid President) in Being A Light; and pursuing my dream with dedication, hard work and a lot of faith. Wish me luck!

 

A Mother’s Day Post

What a super week! From Oreo Cookie day, to World Book today, to International Woman’s Day. I have laughed, smiled, almost cried and had the BEST time celebrating this week. However, today, is a day that is really special. Today is the day we celebrate the beautiful woman in and around our world.

A woman’s strength is found in her ability to rise and be courageous, and to love in the face of fear.

If you haven’t had a great experience in life, I’m sorry. I hope that we all find someone in our world to be thankful for. If you feel like there’s no-one to appreciate you today, then let me. Have a listen to the song below and find out what I think about, when I think about YOU.

To all my inspirational friends and family around the world: Happy Mother’s Day!!!!

Being a woman is a great privilege and honour; and sharing this world with some of the finest people on the planet is a true blessing. Men, never under-estimate the value of the woman in your world. Life is better lived together! Woman this goes for you too. Let’s get better at helping our sisters out.

What does your environment say about you?

Today’s observation is again extracted from a personal experience. Two words:

Language

and

Environment

It astounds me how quickly we absorb the culture around us. Culture in our work place, in our peer group. We become who we are around.

Now this is not a newsflash to me, but knowing and understanding something are two very different things. To be honest, we need both to be successful.

Have you listened to those around you? There are certain buzz words that your peer group use that if someone, or a few from that group say them long enough, they become ingrained through-out that particular circle.

So if you want to know where your heading today in life. Stop and listen to the words, phrases and actions of your friends, colleagues and teammates.

Like what you hear? Don’t like what you hear? Do something to change it today. It’s not personal if you discover you need to make some changes to your environment. If you want to be an eagle, you can’t hang around with the chickens. If you want to speak French, you don’t go to Germany.

There is no shame in either, it’s simply a matter of choice to be who you are created to be.

To coin the phrase of a good friend; if we want to think outside of the box, we must first know where the box is.

Know who you are, be very careful what you listen to and what you say, and keep believing. A simple, but effective recipe.

Happy Burns Night to all my fellow Scots. 

Have a great weekend folks!

 

Merry Christmas!!!!

Like the title says, Merry Christmas everybody!!

Thank you for following this blog in 2012. Not only are we celebrating Christmas at The Social Exchange, but it’s our first birthday too!!

What a  year it has been. This year I have left one job, started a business, got serious about finishing my novel and became a proud winner of Creative Pioneers 2012 for my business idea Tailor Made Social. There are many highlights to this year, along with many challenges, however; I am so excited for the new year and all the super news to come.

Just before I go I wanted to share with you one little lesson I’ve learnt this year that has made the closing of 2012 extra special, and that is: Never quit in a dip.

Well that’s all folks from The Social Exchange in 2012!! Look forward to sharing more with you next year on some incredible things that are about  to take place. Wishing you a verry Merry Christmas!!!!

The power of choice

Watch this powerful music video by Rudimental. It’s a powerful and moving story of how our choices can lead us on two very different paths.

Which leads me to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter how you start in life, it matters how you finish. Every day we make choices that affect our tomorrow, which means we have the power to choose how tomorrow looks.

What you do today will flow into the Friday and so forth, so even if some challenges come your way today, how you respond to them will determine the altitude of your tomorrow.

We can choose many things today. Some of these may be:

- hope or depression

- love or hate

- kindness or selfishness

- curry or soup

- boots or flats

- press on or give up

- give or don’t give

- positive or negative

They are greatly varied;  but big or small they all add up. Here’s a good question to ask ourselves daily – are the decisions we make leading us to where we want to go in life?

Rudimental- Not Giving In from Josh Cole on Vimeo.

Start Small, Think Big

So in the interest of sharing, helping and learning myself I thought I’d share my early morning doodle, in preparation for the week ahead. I honestly believe that if you don’t already think like this, then this will add great value to you; And if you do, well there’s no harm in being reminded, and encouraged of a good thought leadership principle.

It doesn’t matter if your Richard Branson, or Joe Blogs down the road. I am learning through experience that with everything there is a time and a season, and a process in between that no amount of wishing will take away – Nor do we really want it too.

If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed a tweet of late which read:

“Focus is the key to progress, perseverance is the key to success; And all four are required in every endeavor.”

There is nothing quite like the feeling of accomplishment when you set yourself a goal for the day, week, and year, commit too and achieve that goal.

Best word of advice I ever got was, start from the desired end result and work back, and make the commitment to see your specific step reached.

If this was helpful to you, I’d love to hear so please feel free to share, subscribe, leave a comment below or come chat to me on Twitter!

Experience is better than inspiration

As fresh as this lesson is I decided to share and add value to the blog that I have now been committed too for over eight months and one hundred and nineteen posts later (one hundred and twenty if you count this one) – It may not be a long time, concerning this blog, but my point is not relative to this blog – Rather to explain the progression of the following two phrases:

‘It’s better to embrace the process of your goal, than reject it. In the end, you will get there faster.”

“Experience has taught me better.”

I have come to the understanding that as much as it’s good to be inspired, and have the ability to inspire others; it’s worth far more to have the experience to back up the inspiration for a product, or service or business idea. Depending on your industry or goal this will vary; but by the same token I’m not saying that we have to be an expert in any specific field either.

People change careers all the time, so if your stuck in a job or an industry you don’t like – Great news! You can change!  You just need to position yourself for that change, and when things have the potential to overwhelm – breathe and embrace the process. I heard someone say once, if it looks bad, then it’s not the end yet. There have been many areas in my own life when things haven’t looked great – we all have them, but I have finally concluded that it’s actually better to have gone through stuff and gained the experience good or bad, (even the bad can be turned for good). It is better to be season in life, or in the market you aim to succeed in first; and then inspire others from a position of strength.

Rather than hide from what we do not know, or try to pump ourselves up, I reckon it pays more to be honest and put my hands in the air when I do not know something. At the end of the day, Steve Jobs never designed the iPhone, he just facilitated it and asked the right questions.

We make a mistake if we agree with these ideas, and then at the mention of Steve Jobs or others who have ‘accomplished’ something, and respond ‘yeah well I’m not Steve Jobs.’ For some reason our Scottish culture hasn’t always been good to us. In my own opinion and experience, my nation is filled with exceptional talented, loyal and friendly people to any other nation, but sometimes when it comes to cheering on our own, we can struggle.

I have come to appreciate that whilst there maybe certain areas, or things have not gone my way in life before, maybe it was all for a good reason and maybe if it wasn’t for those set backs – I wouldn’t be who I am today, or doing what I’m doing.

Most things in life involve process, and often that process varies in time, skill and involvement, however; I do believe that through watching the lives of those gone before me, we must not reject process, instead embrace it and we will get where we need to go faster.

By no means have I arrived yet, or do I expect to get things right 100% of the time, but I do aspire to become more and more a person of character – Someone who inspires not just with fancy and impressive words, thoughts or ideas; Rather to be known as someone who has lived, been through the highs and low’s and inspires from a place of experience, not emotion.

Like the good old saying goes, ‘we must practice what we preach.’

Juggling the demands of time, in life.

Have you ever wished you had more hours in a day? Or looked at someone like Richard Branson, or your next door neighbour – who lives a completely different life to you, and wished… If only!

Well don’t! That comparison game is a web you do not want to get caught up in. And just because joe blogs esquire over there can juggle a million catrillion things in life, doesn’t mean you need to! Oh, and it’s not to say that you couldn’t do it. Who would I be to say that you couldn’t. However; the question I would suggest you ask is… Where does this fit into my purpose?

When we know, and at the very least, semi understand our purpose we will accomplish a satisfying result in whatever we put our hand too.

N.B. Providing that whatever we put our hand to, is in line with our purpose. Let me be clear on that as I know myself all too well, but to skip over that last section like a sweet row of teapots… ‘Aw that’s lovely. How nice’.

For what I can only put down to culture, or self. I have watched countless number of people spending so much time at work, all night online, and running on nothing, but coffee fuel for the first half of the day. All this has led me to wonder at some point, how do they do it? Is this something I really want to be getting into?

To be really honest, no. I didn’t. Shock horror, I can even feel the deep breathe drawing from within me.

What I failed to realise was that it’s OK to not want to be someone else, or to be doing what they are doing. It is completely OK to have to take a strange route in my career because for me, maybe it had to be that way. Let’s not short change our own individual unique experiences. Let’s not short change our businesses, or teams either.

The internet is a fast moving horse – one only needs to blink, and you could miss something, but why spend the rest of our lives glued to a screen, when you have an opportunity to work, and live.

The reality is, we all have twenty-four hours in a day, seven days a week. We’re not all Presidents, and pop stars, but we are just as valuable, and the one thing we all have in common, is time.

Culture has taught us so many screwed up theories that many of us end up wasting time, instead of enjoying it. To say that you are just ‘killing time’ is one of my pet hates.

And my point is… I’m getting there. Bare with me…

Whatever you find to be your purpose to be. Whether raising kids, building a business, studying at university, being a friend, a wife, a husband, a daughter, or son. Whatever the hats of life are for you, (and there can be multiple) we just need to make sure that we the take time to enjoy each, and every one of them. 

There will always be periods of complete craziness, (for some more than others). Still, instead of looking down on someone else, comparing or judging – We really ought to learn to appreciate the time we have, and gain some perspective. For instance; when we lose our job, we are actually gaining an opportunity to change gears, step it up a level, or move into another lane – formulating a new plan. Am I saying we don’t have bills to pay, of course not. I believe that to juggle the demands of time successfully, we must:

1. Make time, and gain perspective

2. Learn when, and where to share the load

3. Know your purpose, and list your non-negotiable’s

 

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The power to share

Never underestimate the power of one tweet!

Like any relationship, our response and actions within certain situations can have a positive, or negative effect. In world of social media this does not change; excluding the level of exposure, of course.

As scary, and as dangerous as this may seem too many, we must not lose our nerve and shy away from fear of exposure.

We should not worry about gaining a negative response from a comment, post, or plug made (within reason). Instead, I would suggest it is far more important to understand, know and respond well in these events. Always make sure you that when you do respond, respond in a manner that is appropriate, firm and professional.

The power of sharing is much more than simply the share of information. It has the potential to go the extra mile when building relationships; to share experiences both bad, and good. Building something of greater strength, and value – a friend for life.

Time and Value

Two very important things, and yet there are times when we seem to misplace these very expensive assets. Whether we lose them through our actions, or circumstances, we cannot afford to ignore what they are, and what they mean for our life, business, project, or relationship. Failing to weigh up the cost of time, and value can have serious consequences. Evaluate what these words mean to your business, change them if need be, but whatever you do; Make sure you include them in life and activity. Keep them right at the front, and do not digress.