The National Parenting Center recently gathered its panel of some of the world’s most respected authorities in the field of child rearing and development to provide parents with a comprehensive and responsible review of recently released products.  The National Parenting Center’s expert panel released their review of Abundant Harvest for Kids.

We want to thank the expert panel for a very thorough and thoughtful review.  Their comments provide a great summary to guide parents and educators on the intent of Abundant Harvest for Kids.

Please see the link below for the complete review.

http://the-parenting-center.com/abundant-harvest-for-kids/

 

Our world is not short on new ideas or techniques to help us all succeed in achieving our hopes and dreams.  Whether it is a new diet plan that will help us achieve the health we desire, a new idea to open up better communication in a struggling relationship, or maybe it is the new idea to spark excitement and engagement in our organizations, we can always find new ideas to more effectively address our changing world.  Many times these new techniques are ‘just what the doctor ordered’ to help us get moving down the path toward accomplishment.

Even as our world evolves with continuous innovation in the marketplace, our personal lives, and our society, one thing has not changed and likely never will; the first step in achieving our hopes and dreams is to deal with ourselves.  As Plato said more than 2000 years ago, “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.”

As we continue on our journey of building and strengthening our character, one of the personal habits we need to develop is taking the most effective first step in dealing with a challenging situation.  When we are faced with a challenging relationship, a personal dilemma, or a challenge in our business, the most effective first step is to look at ourselves.  Unfortunately, we all have a common tendency to look outside of ourselves first to identify the genesis of our problem instead of looking in the mirror.

When our closest relationships begin to struggle, we have a consistent pattern of looking at the other person’s faults and not what we have done to contribute to the problem.  When businesses fail to achieve their potential, there is a strong tendency to develop the list of external events impacting the business and minimize the shortcomings of leadership that does not set clear direction, behaviors that fail to reinforce the desired culture, and the unwillingness to do the hard work of tactical execution.  On some personal areas like our health, we can always blame a busy lifestyle for not getting the proper nutrition or exercise.

Our character is built and strengthened when we can take that first step to look at ourselves in a very authentic and genuine way to find some area of our own contribution to the problem.  As we identify those areas within ourselves and commit to delivering on a plan to improve, the shortcomings of others become a distant thought and any associated anger and frustration is minimized.  We take responsibility for the situation and that is an effective first step on the path to improvement.

As we look to deliver on the first and greatest victory as Plato suggests, we will build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to have a greater impact in our homes, our businesses and our communities.

The importance of touch does not get a great deal of attention in society and is only now beginning to gain some traction within published, academic research.  As we continue on our journey to build and strengthen our character, an opportunity that we do not want to miss is the positive outcomes that result from touch that can build, strengthen, and heal relationships.

We are all well aware of the physical bonding that happens between a loving parent and a young child.  There is a strong body of evidence to suggest that loving, physical contact at the early stages of a child’s life are critical to his or her physical, mental, and emotional health.  There is a great deal of documentation on the steep rise in infant morbidity and mortality when there is a lack of loving, physical contact during the early development years that has been seen in orphanages around the world. 

The reality is that beyond our infant years, we have a tendency to disregard the emotional and physical benefits that result from touch despite the growing body of research that suggests touch is fundamental to communication, relationships, and overall health.  Michelangelo said, “To touch is to give life” and there is growing recognition that touch is our primary means for communicating compassion.

This message is not some weird call to start grabbing each other.  However, there are many of us who have grown up in western culture where consistent, supportive touch has been so confined to early childhood that we are missing a key element to build, strengthen, and heal our most important relationships.  There are studies that show touch signals safety and trust which are foundational to healthy relationships.  When we take an honest assessment of the relationships we value the most, whether they are struggling or not, we will most likely find we are missing the benefits of a warm, supportive touch on a consistent basis.

This message is not just for the home.  Even if we were fortunate to grow up in a home where touch was reinforced throughout our lives in support of healthy relationships, chances are that societal pressures probably got the best of us in school and work where a supportive pat on the shoulder is sometimes considered out of line.  Studies have shown that teachers who provide a friendly tap on the shoulder increase student engagement and learning.  In my professional journey, I have seen the benefits that a supportive touch on the shoulder can communicate straight to the heart of an individual that they “belong on the team” and that we will work together to deliver results.  It is unfortunate that some foolish, out of hand behavior makes the headlines in work and school which increases our collective resistance to providing the benefits of a supportive, helpful touch.

I would like to leave you with two considerations with regards to the importance of touch and our character:

(1)  “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” (thanks to Ben Franklin). Many of us maybe talking and acting in a very supportive and encouraging way in our close relationships.  However, statistics will show that for most of us, a consistent, supportive touch is not part of the equation.  Given the well-documented benefits to our physical, mental, and emotional health and to the health of the relationship, start being intentional about adding a supportive touch to the mix as it will build relationship strength to help overcome the inevitable challenges that relationships bring throughout life.  Start in the home and then build your courage to take it elsewhere.

(2)  When relationships are struggling, there is most definitely an absence of touch.  Whether it is the struggles of a parent-child relationship, the routine friction between spouses, or ‘the big mistake’ that created a fracture between close friends, a warm, loving touch should be part of our tool box to bring healing and health back to the relationship.  An authentic, genuine embrace can open the door to health more effectively than words and time.  Also, if you happen to be on the receiving end of an embrace to heal a troubled relationship, don’t resist, reciprocate the embrace and you will both be better off for the touch.

As we demonstrate the courage to incorporate touch in our most valued relationships, we will build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to improve the health of our relationships and set a great example for those around us.

 

Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”  I think we all know what Yogi meant…:)

We are all familiar with times in our lives where we stood at that ‘fork in the road’ and needed to make a decision one way or the other.  The decisions span the spectrum from quick and easy to long and incredibly difficult.  The decisions we make and the actions we take to move down one path or another are very relevant opportunities to build and strengthen our character.

Success in various areas of our lives brings about a multitude of ‘fork in the road’ decisions.  If we have success in our careers, there are number of ‘climbing the ladder’ type decisions that need to be made.  If we reach a level of financial success, there are a number of decisions around managing wealth that need to be made.  If we have success in building strong relationships, there are a number of decisions that need to be made to maintain the commitments of lasting, healthy relationships.

In today’s blog, I would like to address the origin of many of our ‘fork in the road’ decisions as it can bring some insight to our efforts of building and strengthening our character.  History demonstrates that for most of us, we only learn and grow through pain, discomfort, and challenge compared to the times we are riding high on the wave of success.  Books are filled with examples of companies that have been blinded by success which eventually resulted in their downfall and examples of great “turnarounds” from the challenges of bankruptcy and potential insolvency.  In close relationships, we really only wake-up and prepare to learn and grow when our world is about to fall apart and our spouse’s bags are packed, compared to the relative calm of a quiet night at home when everyone is well fed, well rested, and the bills are paid.

Discontent and frustration over our current situation is an opportunity waiting to happen.  Discontent is the first step in any value creating endeavor.  The great medical discoveries were born out of frustration and near hopelessness in witnessing suffering and death from disease.  The great challenges of war brought about some of our greatest inventions.  The tremendous frustrations of a growing nation brought about incredible advances in transportation and communication in the most recent 100+ years of our nation’s history.

On a more personal note, when discontent and frustration hits us personally, our ‘inner voice’ that drives our thoughts, decisions, and actions spotlights our character.  When we are at the ‘fork in the road’ of a difficult personal situation, which direction do we turn?

When faced with the normal and unavoidable frustrations between a parent and a growing teenager, which direction do we take?

When faced with the inevitable frustrations between couples, which direction do we take?

When faced with a frustrating manager at work, which direction do we take?

When a teacher in school seems unreasonable and illogical, which direction do we take?

When a missed promotion seems so unfair and politically driven, which direction do we take?

In those difficult times, when discontent accompanies us at the fork in the road, if our thoughts, decisions, and actions are based on principles like courage, honesty, responsibility, and understanding, we build and strengthen our character as we head down the most effective path.  If we let our thoughts, decisions, and actions be guided by anger, apathy, and the death-nail of relationships, contempt, we weaken our character and head down the least effective path.

In the same way that discontent and frustration is the first step in incredible innovation in our world, personal discontent and frustration with the state of a relationship can be the fork in the road where there is a path of opportunity to build and strengthen the relationship and a path to destroying it.  We are responsible for the path we take.

Since there will probably be only a few of us leading the next great wave of global innovation to alleviate the suffering of the masses, the rest of us would be wise to focus most of our effort on choices to build and strengthen our relationships.  When those relationship frustrations occur and we are reminded that we are at that fork in the road, choosing to move down the path of opportunity vs contempt is a choice that will build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to improve our relationships and expand our impact.

There is no denying that our world continues to grow in complexity, intensity, and uncertainty.  Given this reality, we have a tendency to think that ‘today is different’ and there is a new set of rules in order to reach our full potential.   History would tell us that there are always evolving techniques that can more effectively move us along the path to reaching our potential.  However, the principles that we can apply as the foundation to our path are timeliness and retain their value regardless of the ‘latest and greatest’ technique or changing environment.

One clear, timeless principle is that effort is the great equalizer in reaching our potential.

Some of us may have had a stronger start in a nurturing, supportive home.  Some of us may have received a better education.  Some of us had stronger relationships that added fuel to our hopes and dreams.  Some of us had mentors in the marketplace that helped us advance a few more steps in our career.  Regardless of these momentary advantages, effort, applied over time, is the great equalizer in reaching our full potential.  Along our journey of life, these momentary advantages seem to ‘seal the deal’ for individuals, but they are not sustaining.  Our effort, applied over time, can sustain us on our journey to reach our full potential.

Most of us hearing this message are leaning forward and giving it all we have in life.  What I want to highlight in this blog is one of the most important risks working against this principle of effort and its correlation to reaching our potential; the risk that derails our effort being the great equalizer to reaching our potential is a dilution of effort.

When academics and practical observers study people and organizations that succeed in reaching great heights, a common characteristic is a focus of effort.  Our greatest risk to the truth that effort is the great equalizer is lack of focus.  Despite how heroic we may think our personal capacity to work, love, and live is, we have limits.  If we dilute our effort across too many fronts, we run the risk of falling short of our potential and being stuck in the middle of the bell-shaped curve of life.  Even marginal effort has been proven to be a drain on our overall effectiveness to reach our full potential.

Here are just a few thoughts on avoiding the dilution of effort risk:

(1) Determine what is essential and make peace with saying “no” to the rest.  Sustaining our effort to reach our full potential is dependent on our discipline to say “yes” to the essential and a clear, unequivocal “no” to everything else.

(2) When we choose to take on another task, another project, another hobby, or invest in another deep relationship, we need to be disciplined to determine what will come off our plate.  The phrase “doing more with less,” popularized in the corporate downsizing trends of this recent recession, is a nice catch-phrase, but the reality is we need to say “no” to more in order to drive greater success on the important tasks.

(3) Let’s not kid ourselves.  The real easy choices are eliminating the simple, mindless time wasters we can all walk easily into from time to time.  Even minimal or “passive” activities are proven to be a drain on effectiveness.  The tough part is once those frivolous energy drainers are gone and we have to cut to the bone on real promising activities, that is when we know we are making solid progress in eliminating the risk of dilution.  One of the most effective questions I have found in assessing business plans and operating plans is “what are you not investing in?”  A business can go in a number of seemingly promising directions and can risk diluting their effort.  The most successful ones make disciplined choices on where they are not going just as much as determining where they are going.  The same question is a good first step for us as individuals to clarify what we are saying “no” to in order to maximize our effort on the things we say “yes” to.

In determining what is essential, here are a few thoughts across the personal and professional sides of life:  (1) No accomplishment in this world can compensate for a failure in the home.  (2) In building an organization, all the great strategic insight and brilliant execution do not produce sustained success when there is a lack of trust.  An honorable culture is critical to sustainability. (3) No individual can sustain a high level of accomplishment without a focus on his/her own character.

Making clear, intentional choices on where we apply our effort will help build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to reach our full potential.

Some of the best insight we can gather on our journey to build and strengthen our character can come in the form of questions.  Throughout my own life’s journey, some of my greatest learnings were when someone asked me a question which allowed me to learn and grow as I attempted to respond.  Many times, the question helped to highlight a weakness or shortcoming that needed to be addressed.  On the contrary, when others just provide the ‘answer’ or tell us ‘what to do,’ they hinder growth and many times create a cycle of dependence on someone else providing the answer or showing us the way.  Questions enable growth and we should embrace them as opportunities instead of disruptions.

I can recall a particularly painful learning in my professional life when I was standing in front of a large group seeking funding for a new opportunity.  After the long presentation, the leader of the business asked me a critical question, “Is this consistent with our strategy?”  That one simple question revealed a great deal of insight and none of it was particularly flattering to me. Did I even know the strategy of our business?  Did I even know what strategy meant?  Did I think that this very successful business and the leader who built it have the wrong strategy?  I could go on, but I think you get the point.  Asking the right question can bring about a great deal of growth instead of just providing the answer.

On a more personal level, I think we all have experienced a moment when we heard something, read something, or observed something that was particularly meaningful to us.  The experience stirred in our hearts a desire to change or incorporate that learning into our lives.   Whether we gained some insight from a speaker, found something helpful in a book, received some relevant comments from a coworker, or a family member’s ‘tough love’ helped us to acknowledge some shortcoming we had not been willing to admit.  When we encounter truth in these experiences, many times we are moved to action.

When we encounter truth and our hearts are stirred to action, asking the right questions will help us to move further along on our journey to build and strengthen our character.   Upon hearing some insight and being moved to change, now is the time to ask two important questions:

(1)        What will I do differently as a result of this insight?

(2)        How will I hold myself accountable to deliver on it?

There are several ways to personalize our answers to these questions, but the basic intent is to clarify the learning, take action, and measure and monitor our progress.  We all have occasions where we knew we encountered truth and were momentarily moved to action, but it did not stick.  We let the ‘feel good’ moment pass and become just another missed opportunity to learn and grow.

Asking the right questions in order to move beyond the ‘feel good’ moment and take action will help build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to continue to learn and grow.  Let’s all keep asking the right questions.

 

Technology continues to expand our ability to get “connected.” As a result, we have more opportunities to stay connected or get reconnected with friends, family, coworkers, and the larger world beyond our neighborhoods.  Staying connected with others meets a strong human need to “belong” in relationship with others.  Ironically, as today’s world gets more connected, we are actually battling greater levels of isolation which runs in a vicious cycle with addiction.

If you speak with someone who leads a Twelve Step program for addicts, a pastor or counselor dealing with similar issues in people who have not yet admitted their addiction, they all will tell you about a common theme in the cycle of addiction, it starts with isolation.  When we experience a period of loneliness or we make certain choices that drive us into isolation, we often reach for a soothing remedy that, if we are not careful, breeds an addiction and the cycle continues.  Our remedy may change, but the cycle continues.

We are all familiar with the addictions that grab the headlines like drugs, alcohol, porn, sex, greed etc.  There are a number of addictions that don’t make great headlines, but we will save them for another blog post.  The process of addiction is pretty much the same; we run into some kind of struggle like poor self-esteem, a broken or troubled relationship, stress when a dream becomes a nightmare, and we move into isolation.  With isolation comes our search for a remedy and when we find it, often it becomes an addiction to help us to avoid the root cause of the struggle.

Addictions fill the void of our need for human connection when we become isolated.  Addictions replace the healthy human bonding that results from face to face, authentic connections where tone of voice, body language, the spoken word, and touch bring warmth, caring, and concern.

Below are two points to consider as our connected world gives rise to isolation and addiction:

(1) Technology will not replace the human need for the healthy bonding that results from face to face connections.  Technology can help bridge the gap that comes with time and distance, but it cannot replace our basic need for the touch and feel of a face to face connection.  We must not let the ease of technology enabled connections lull us into thinking that is all we need.  Ask any grandparent about SKYPE.  It is a great tool to bridge the gap, but it will never replace the hug of a grandchild.  Ask any business traveler or their family at home about FACETIME.  It is a great tool to stay connected from some dark, cold hotel room, but it will never replace the feeling of spending an evening at home.  If we go too long without a face to face connection, the health of our relationships can be at risk.

(2) We need to be careful that the same technology that enables our world to be connected, does not become an enabler of “quick and easy” isolation which then opens the door to addiction.  The risk of this dynamic in the workplace is seen when leaders attempt to lead from email from the comfort of offices and fail to make the effective face to face connections around the office or in the field with sales and service teams.  The ease of communicating electronically can become an addiction that aids avoidance of the tough conversations that leaders need to have face to face in order to sustain a healthy organization.

The greater risk of technology becoming an enabler of “quick and easy” isolation is perhaps in the home. The technology and tools present in today’s homes enable isolation more than ever.  With multiple smart phones, tablets, computers, and “on demand” TV programing, most family members can easily retreat to their own corner of the house.  Despite how busy we all seem to find ourselves, academic research and our own honest assessment of time in our homes would inform us that we still manage to spend a great deal of time with our technology of choice.  It is important to remember during those times we let technology serve our individual desires, we are most likely missing out on improving a connection with a child, a spouse, or a parent.  When times are tough in our homes and relationships are in a real tailspin, the isolation that can come with technology is an easy, comfortable addiction to avoid the hard work of repairing a struggling relationship.

In today’s vernacular, my kids would say, YOLO (You Only Live Once) in addressing the complexities of our connected world.  From some experienced Twelve Step folks, I am sure they would recommend YANA (You Are Not Alone) to help us address the complexities of our connected world.  YANA is a strong reminder to help us minimize our periods of isolation that open the door to addiction.

When we put effort into maintaining healthy connections, we build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to stay connected with others and we build huge barriers to isolation and addiction.

In Part I of our message on Energy, we focused on the types of positive energy that can help sustain our efforts to reap an abundant harvest in the important areas of life.  Things that do not have a “Finish Line” like family relationships, our health and well-being, and the legacy we leave behind.  We also described the reality that we do not have an unlimited capacity of energy, so we need to ensure we maximize the positive and minimize the amount of negative energy in our lives.  Today’s message is about negative energy and how we can minimize its impact in our lives.

There are some common sources of negative and unproductive energy that we need to address as we continue to build and strengthen our character.  It would be a bit disingenuous for any of us to say we do not deal with negative or unproductive energy from time to time.  Today, we are going to shine some light on a few problem areas, in the hope that we can more effectively deal with them.

Below are a few common sources of negative and unproductive energy.

Worry:   Many of us struggle with worry in a number of areas.  We worry about our family, work, finances, war, etc.  Many of these things are big and important.  Also, we probably worry about the not so big and important things like how we compare to others in our personal and professional lives.  Worry can be a significant source of negative energy in our lives.  Sustaining high levels of worry is unhealthy and needs to be addressed.

The best path to minimizing worry in our lives is to focus our efforts on controlling what we can control and begin to take action.   If we are worried about a close relationship, just sitting there and worrying about it is not an effective choice.  Begin by making a modest plan and start working the plan.  Even if the relationship is too damaged to speak directly with the other person, we can still make steady progress simply beginning to think and journal about the struggle. Eventually, we will build up the courage to take the next step.  We can effectively replace the negative energy around worry when we take a positive step towards addressing the concern.  We don’t need to take big, bold steps; small steps in the right direction are all we need to put some positive energy into a difficult situation.  In addition, history is a great teacher, if we are willing to learn.  The vast majority of things we worry about never happen.

Anger-Bitterness-Resentment:  I could break these three apart, but they have a tendency to travel together.  We typically hold onto these negative feelings when someone did something to us or said something to us that we felt was unkind, unjustified, or was the truth we were just not ready to accept.  In addition, sometimes we become envious of someone else and these three negative feelings follow on the heels of envy pretty consistently.  Although we may be pretty good at rationalizing our way into these feelings, the reality is that they result in an unhealthy level of negative energy and need to be addressed.

Below are three ways we can minimize the negative energy around the feelings of anger-bitterness-resentment.  As with most things, the easy, low risk path often returns the smallest rewards.  The more difficult, high risk path most often returns the greatest reward.  We all have our own tolerance for balancing risk and reward and the choice is ours alone to make.

(1) Ignore: “Shake it off” or let it roll off you like “water off a duck’s back.”  This is the easiest path to take and like most easy things, returns the smallest reward in terms of minimizing negative energy.  However, it is a good step in the right direction.

(2) Forgiveness: This is where things get tougher.  Genuinely giving up our perceived right to “get even” and hurt someone back can provided us with a solid boost of positive energy as we clear the issue from our plate of activity.  Eliminating the negative energy around the grind of “getting even” or stewing over the misdeed through forgiveness, can free up a tremendous amount of capacity for positive energy to replace the void.  Forgiveness involves a little more risk, more effort, and returns a potentially bigger reward.

(3) Grace:  This is the most difficult of all steps.  Basically, grace is going out of our way to be kind, considerate, and a blessing to someone who we feel hurt us.  This takes a great deal of effort and it more often than not, produces the greatest rewards.   Demonstrating grace is the biggest game changing step to take any relationship in a positive direction.  It has an exponential effect on the amount of positive energy within an individual and an equally significant impact on reducing or eliminating negative energy when we have been hurt.  Demonstrating grace is not for the weak or faint of heart and the rewards, measured over the long journey of life, are unmatched in building healthy, strong relationships.

Lost:   Most of us lose our way from time to time.  Whether we are on the highway towards a new vacation spot or on the proverbial “highway of life,” we get lost. In both situations, we spend a great deal of unproductive energy wandering around when we could be more productive with our energy if we took some time to figured out where we are and where we need to go.

There are a few simple, but often underutilized steps to minimize this unproductive energy drain and free up capacity for more positive energy.

On “the street” searching for a destination:  (1) Ask for directions much sooner than we have in the past (2) Instead of yelling at our travel companion, we should ask for their help.  They bring a different perspective from their seat and at this point, a different viewpoint may help (3) When in doubt, upgrade the software on your GPS.

On the “highway of life” searching for a destination:  Spend some quality time figuring out where you really want to go, make a plan, and then make decisions to start heading in that direction.  Spending the time upfront is critical, but so few people actually do it.  Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.   We should use a similar construct as we determine our life’s destination.  Where do we want to go…spend some time thinking about it.  Then buckle-up and head on down the road in that direction.

As we take steps to maximize the amount of positive energy and minimize the negative energy, we will build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to achieve our goals and strengthen our relationships.

I received some positive messages on last week’s blog about how the spring season can help reinforce the principle of the law of the harvest and encourage us to plant some seeds in areas we want to grow.  Also, most people in the country are actually starting to see a little of spring which I think is lending some support to people’s enthusiasm.  In southwest Michigan, we are actually seeing some grass for the first time this year.

In today’s blog, we have Part I of a two part message where I want to focus some thoughts on how we can channel a level of energy necessary to sustain our efforts towards reaping an “abundant harvest.”  Personal sustainability can be defined as the ability of a person to hold firm and endure in the face of a variety of forces that could compromise their health and well-being.  We all can probably relate to the experience of starting a project well, but somehow not seeing it to completion.  For most routine goals in work and home, like closing the financial books at the end of the month, delivering a presentation, taking a vacation, or cheering on a child at some sporting event, these goals have a definite finish line.  On most occasions, we can find the strength to wrestle down these goals and get them done.

However, the relevant challenge for all of us is that most of the really important things in life never have a completion date or a stamp that says, “FINISHED.”  For things like healthy family relationships, our personal health (physical, emotional, and spiritual), and our attempt to have a lasting impact in some capacity outside of the home, there is no finish line.  We are continuing to journey towards reaching our full potential, which appropriately seems just beyond our grasp.  That continual stretch to reach our full potential in the real important areas of life can, at times, be exhausting.  Unfortunately, for many of us, at that point of personal exhaustion, “quit looks good” and that usually involves convincing ourselves that “it is just not worth it anymore.”

There are plenty of well-researched methods by some very bright people that could help us all more effectively work through some of these “quit looks good” moments.  I would encourage you, as I do so myself, consult a number of resources and speak with others to help strengthen our resolve in the tough times in life.  My attempt is to not review a large number of resources, but to simply provide one area of focus that has been proven to be a good preventive measure to take to help minimize the number of “quit looks good” moments we encounter with the really important things in life.

We only have so much energy in our universe.  I do not want to go into the details of the 1st and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics (my engineering professors at West Point would be laughing at the very suggestion that I could instruct others on the concept).  Suffice to say, we have some natural limitations on the amount of energy we can possess.  We can eat better, exercise more, sleep better, etc. and gain some additional capacity, but our personal energy is not unlimited.  Even our favorite motivational speakers or fitness gurus need some down time when they are not on stage.  Therefore, one critical choice we can make to improve our sustainability in the journey to reach our full potential is about our how we manage our own personal energy.

We all know the feeling when we are in a state of positive energy (as Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described in his seminal work Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and as Shawn Achor described in The Happiness Advantage).  When the conversation and the connection is easy and fun with loved ones, the feeling of a “runner’s high” when we exercise, the positive thoughts we have during a reflective moment after a job well done, the times when we really do “count our blessings,” and the seemingly boundless energy of a small team of entrepreneurs working towards building “the dream.”  That type of positive energy is what we want to focus our efforts on.  It lasts longer, it gets easier to create more of it as we develop the habits to cultivate it, and we strengthen our sustainability to keep moving towards our own “abundant harvest” in the important things in life.

Given that we have natural limits on our energy, in order to create capacity for more positive energy, we need to minimize the amount of negative energy we create and minimize the amount of unproductive energy spent.  This is where our Character Creates Opportunity® to maximize the positive and minimize the negative and unproductive use of our own energy.

Please tune in for Part II of this message where we will discuss some of the common sources of negative energy and importantly, what we can do to minimize them in our lives.

For residents in most parts of the United States and Canada, we all welcome spring after a long, challenging winter season.  However, like most difficult struggles in life, when they pass, we all reach a greater level of appreciation for a warm spring or a more comfortable season of life.  As springtime begins to slowly creep its way into our days, we hear more birds chirping, the sun shines a little longer, and we all seem a bit more hopeful during this change of season.

As we continue to build and strengthen our character, the coming of spring is one of the most encouraging times of the year.  The coming of spring reminds us of the one fundamental natural law that most directly translates into a relevant, practical, and universal pathway of truth to accomplish our hopes and dreams:  The Law of the Harvest; simply, you reap what you sow.

The law of the harvest is the most simple and most powerful life transforming principle.  Ironically, it is also the one that we need a consistent, steady reminder of its simplicity and power during the twists and turns of our life’s journey.

The law of the harvest, in the natural world, is as true as the law of gravity.  If we want to reap an abundant harvest of corn or cotton in the fall, there is only one pathway to follow: The Law of the Harvest.  If we asked any farmer 2,000 years ago or one today in the fields of Iowa, we would get the same general response; There are no shortcuts to an abundant harvest.  We must spend time in the winter to make a plan, make decisions, and make preparations to implement when the spring comes. In the spring, we must prepare the ground and plant the seed.  In addition, throughout the spring and summer, we must cultivate the fields through a long growing season.  Then, and only then, will we reap an abundant harvest in the fall.

There is no way to take a short cut.  We cannot vacation in the spring and summer and then jam an entire growing season into September.  There is no way to pay for the “Speed Pass” lane on the farm and there is no “Easy” button.  The natural law of the harvest will always be our judge.  Just like the law of gravity governs our eventual return to the ground no matter how high we jump, the law of the harvest governs our ability to produce our most essential food sources for life.  In addition, the law of the harvest governs our ability to accomplish our most personal hopes and dreams.

If we want healthy relationships with those closest to us, the law of the harvest will be our judge.  Did we make a plan and decide to act?  Are we planting seeds and are we continuing to water, weed, and monitor progress? If we are not, we will not reap the harvest of a healthy relationship.  There is no short cut to building a healthy relationship.  A nice gift of chocolates, spending one night in good conversation, or occasionally relieving a loved one of doing some undesired, but necessary chore will help momentarily.  However, if there is not a consistent effort applied to cultivate the relationship throughout the seasons of life, the relationship will not have the lasting health to reap an abundant harvest.

Also, in the workplace, there is no short cut to effective leadership.  Intentional planning, decisions, and actions must be consistently applied.  The character of a leader must be seen consistently over time.  Employees don’t give their full engagement to the cause of the organization because of one great motivational speech or one great leadership retreat.  Employees get engaged when they see their leaders consistently setting the example, engaging them in their efforts, and supporting them to achieve their piece of the organization’s objectives.

Furthermore, in our own personal development, the law of the harvest will always be our most steady path to lasting growth and accomplishment. If we want a more fulfilling career path, then we need to be intentional about making a plan and working the plan.  If we are expecting someone in “management” to come and spoon feed us a fulfilling career plan, we may be waiting for a long time.  If we want to maintain our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, we need to make the plan and work the plan.  Lasting health is built over time.  It is not an overnight success.

Despite our annual expectation of an abundant harvest based on the law of the harvest, there is the occasion when it just does not work out.  Sometimes that storm hits and hail or heavy rains ruin a season of planting despite our best efforts to adhere to the natural law.  Similarly in our personal lives, we can be living consistently according to the law of the harvest in our relationships at home and at work, and someday, someone will walk in and say, “I am done and I want out.”

Just as on the farm and in our own lives, we do our best to keep moving forward through an unforeseen tragedy and we persevere with our own unique ways of coping through the upcoming winter season.  Then, with the return of the next spring, we have another season of opportunity to start again and more often than not, the law of harvest will go our way in the next season on the farm and in our lives.

If you missed your chance on a New Year’s resolution to make a change, I would encourage you to use this spring and the reminder of the law of the harvest, to plant some new seeds, cultivate them throughout the spring and summer, and fully expect an abundant harvest in the fall. This time of year, with the freshness of spring, has always seemed to me to be a better time to start something new than a dreary, dark January anyway.

Let this spring be a season of opportunity to support and encourage our efforts to apply the law of the harvest to achieve our goals.  As we become intentional about living according to the law of the harvest, we will build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to achieve our goals no matter what our present circumstance.