This book re-inspired me and reignited my passion for what I do. I tell people I love my job but after reading this and going through the exercises I have come to realize that I really do LOVE my job. I have my dream job working and plus I work best people in the world. Well of course you do, you might say. You work at FranklinCovey where the people are highly effective, right?

Well I’ll be totally transparent here; we don’t always walk the talk. We try but we don’t always succeed. While reading this book I have come to realize now that we don’t walk the talk because of me. If I had lived by my Contribution Statement (which I have now created by examining my talents, passions, and skills) and if I were a trim tab, I could change the corporate culture. Really, I could make a difference.  I could be the singular irreplaceable one uniquely qualified to make that kind of difference. And even if others didn’t see or feel the shift, I would and I would know and my paradigms are my reality.

The book is divided into 3 parts: Conscience, Cause and Building a Village, each section includes exercises.

The Conscience exercise was a difficult pill to for me to swallow. They ask the question:  What is your real responsibility to your organization, to your customers and co-workers?

Well…

To my organization I applied a revenue number.

To my customers I applied the responsibility of creating and offering quality products and services that would help them further their mission by improving their lives.

And to my co-workers, my responsibility is to cheer them on, to offer solutions, to give my creative energies.

Wow! This was an eye opening moment for me. My moral compass and conscience told me that I had been a cynic, set up some roadblocks, and withheld my best ideas because of a scarcity mentality.

In this exercise I created a Contribution Statement for myself that applies my talents and passions to course correcting my attitude.  My goal is to be a trim tab.

So take a minute and share, what is your real responsibility to your organization, to your customers and co-workers?

We would love to hear from you.

Click here to join me for my next post, where I will discuss the more about my experince reading Great Work, Great Career.

 Author:  Annie Oswald

Embracing change begins with desire. Without the desire to change it is inevitable that change will not occur. Desire is the first step in the 7 rules for positive change (more about the remaining rules to come.)  This desire needs to spring up from you and you alone-no one can do it for you.  It lies deep with in the recesses of your own heart and soul.

I have found that desire can come from:

1. A bold vision of a better future

2. You’re unhappy with where you are right now (emotional pain)

3. Learning from your behavior and evaluating the results (trying to get better)

Let’s explore each of these.

A bold vision of a better future:

What will be your life long contribution be?  What talents do you have?  Where are your passions in life? What opportunities are within your grasp? What do you love to do?  How can you leverage your talent, passion and market opportunities to make money and thrive in your life?  

Spending time deeply thinking about these questions will eventually give you the “the long view” or the vision you need in order to change.

Remember, you and you alone have certain skills and talents you can develop to reach your full potential and make amazing contributions in life, regardless of your race, economic status, or interest.

Your vision should be strong enough to ignite your desire to change and do things differently.

You’re unhappy with where you are right now:

Pain, over time can numb the senses and cause great sorrow and a loss of direction.  Wanting something different than you have right now can be a great motivator to change.

This can lead to important self-evaluation or pinpointing your exact location in life.  Every journey to change has a beginning, middle and end.  With a clear starting point and a vision of where you want to go, putting together a plan to change can start to work.

Transform your pain into something productive by evaluating where you are at now and explore possible long-term opportunities or ways to overcome your trials or obstacles.  Take an inventory of your life right now of where you are. Consider your current status: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Learning from your behavior and evaluating the results:

We tend to be perfectly aligned to the results we are getting in our life.  If we are not happy with our life results we need to change our behavior.  Want new results, well it requires new and better behavior.

We have the choice to learn from life’s experiences or to ignore them.  In the mist of troubling times we can “call out” what is happening to us, label it, and then choose how we act because of it and what we will learn from it.

Everyone has challenges, suffers and makes mistakes. However, not everyone learns from their mistakes.

Make learning a life long journey.  The greater your learning the greater your awareness and the greater freedom you have to choose and ultimately change.

How have you learned to create a vision? What helps you when evaluating your current state and motivating yourself to change? What have you learned from your life experiences?

I would love to hear your insights.

Take care and  engage.

Author: Sam Bracken, Global Director of Product Management Marketing, FranklinCovey