Educational Conversation Games Now More Widely Available

Portage, MI (April 3, 2014) — Harvest Time Partners, Inc., a personal and professional development company, is expanding its market penetration through a distribution agreement with New Day Christian Distributors. The arrangement will provide Harvest Time Partners with the capability to offer its full line of patented and award winning conversation games to a broad retail network.

David Esposito, a managing partner of Harvest Time Partners, said, “After the successful launch of our conversation games during the 2013 holiday season, we look forward to significantly expanding the presence of our games into the ‘brick and mortar’ retail market with our newly established relationship with New Day Christian Distributors.  New Day Christian Distributors has tremendous presence in the market and we see them as a great fit to reach our goal of further penetrating the large market for conversation games. We look forward to working with them as we expand our reach and make our conversation games available to more consumers in stores throughout the United States.”

New Day Christian Distributors will begin offering the revised and updated version of the  award-winning conversation game Abundant Harvest®, a one-of-a-kind board game designed to help families and educators open the door to more-productive dialogue and encourage decision making based on principles such as honesty, loyalty, and commitment. Reinforcing the law of the harvest, the game’s primary takeaway is that you will always reap what you sow.   Face to Face, the newest line of conversation games from Harvest Time Partners, will also be marketed by New Day Christian Distributors.  Face to Face games are designed to start great conversations on real-life issues, in real-time with friends and families. Face to Face is available in a Kids Edition, Teen Edition, and Dinner Party Edition.

Michael Turner of New Day Christian Distributors said, “We are excited to offer these innovative conversation games to our customers.  In addition, the fact that Harvest Time Partners, Inc. is a combat-veteran owned business and all products are “Made in USA” is of great value to New Day Christian Distributors and our customers.  We look forward to a successful relationship with Harvest Time Partners as they continue to bring innovative products to the market.”

For more information or to discuss additional products and services from Harvest Time Partners, Inc., please visit the company website at www.harvesttimepartners.com, email David at david@harvesttimepartners.com, or call 877-786-4278.

About Harvest Time Partners, Inc.

Harvest Time Partners, Inc. was created 20 years ago to provide support to individuals, companies, and organizations on a variety of topics and subjects encompassing personal and executive development, team building, leadership training, and building a strong marriage and family. Harvest Time Partners provides character-building seminars, workshops, and custom programs designed to increase personal effectiveness, enhance character development, and strengthen the bonds of marriage and family. Harvest Time Partners, Inc. created the award-winning conversation game Abundant Harvest that continues to be embraced by families, schools, and faith-based programs nationwide. For more information, visit www.harvesttimepartners.com.

About New Day Christian Distributors

Located just north of Nashville, Tennessee, New Day Christian Distributors ships to anywhere in the continental United States in three days or less.  Independently owned, New Day began servicing store’s music needs 33 years ago, and now provides retail stores with a wide variety of gifts, toys, books, Bibles and family-friendly DVDs, in addition to a growing roster of exclusive music.  Visit New Day on the web at www.newdaychristian.com  or call 1.800.251.3633 to place an order!

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.

There has been a great deal recently written and discussed on the topic of loneliness.  Most of you reading this blog have been “around the block” a few times and can most likely relate to the reality that all of us walk through periods of loneliness in our lives.  Prior to the last decade or so, the topic of loneliness was never discussed around the dinner table, in the classroom, and rarely even mentioned within the confines of traditional religious services.  There was very little authentic sharing of one of our most common human experiences of being in the dark valley of loneliness during certain points in our lives.

Regardless of whether we believe the topic is open for discussion or not, the reality still exists that we all have felt terribly alone at certain points in our lives.  There were those school-age experiences of when the best of friendships became strained or a ‘first love’ ended or never actually got started (those of us who were rejected in the school hallway can relate to that reality).  There was perhaps a time when the choices we made caused us to fall out of favor with the ‘cool’ group and we felt all alone.  The quiet struggle of dealing with being away from home for the first time in a dorm room at college, a cold hard bunk-bed in basic training, or some other place that removed us from the comforts of home brought us into the valley of loneliness.

We do not escape the periodic grip of loneliness as adults either.  The times of strained and broken relationships with those closest to us always seem to result in a feeling of loneliness.  In the journey of marriage, all of us (it is not an exaggeration to say 100% of us) have walked through a period in our closest relationships where we have felt absolutely all alone even when we have someone sharing the same bed with us.  In the workplace, falling short of some performance goal or being an ‘outlier’ on the lower end of some performance grid can bring us into a very lonely spot.  The ‘politics’ still present in many organizations can result in us feeling left out of the ‘cool’ crowd and all alone just like in grade school.

Even in the ‘golden years’ of life as senior citizens in retirement, the feelings of loneliness are sometimes even more present.  As children and grandchildren progress through new experiences and quite often a very busy season of life, grandparents can feel a huge sense of isolation and loneliness.  We could devote a significant amount of time to this topic as 10,000 baby boomers each day in America will reach the age of 65 for about the next 20 years.

The occasional pep talk of just “get motivated” is a good one and may just be the snap-back to reality we need to get us back on track.  However, for most people, if it were that easy to snap out of it, they would, and often do give themselves the ‘halftime motivational talk’ and keep moving forward without anybody ever noticing their own internal struggle.

The unfortunate reality is that sometimes the shadow of loneliness grows long and it takes a more intentional effort to overcome.  In the book, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, there is a scene when Mike, one of the main characters, is asked how he went bankrupt.  He responded, “Two ways.  Gradually, then suddenly.”  When I speak to adults about the topic of loneliness, I see essentially the same description.  A small infraction in a relationship that is first ignored, then another comes along, then another, until a major event triggers a bankruptcy in the relationship and the very real sense of being all alone in the dark valley of loneliness sets in.

As we continue on our journey of building and strengthening our character, there are a few steps we can take to become more resilient in bouncing back from the inevitable feelings of loneliness we will all encounter.  The first step, like in most situations, is to have the courage to face reality.  In this case, the reality being that we will encounter times of feeling all alone throughout our journey of life.  We are not the exception, we are the norm.   Accepting this reality will help us to not lose energy on an unproductive sense of denial or surprise when we arrive “gradually, then suddenly.”

The next steps are the real tough ones.  In our most struggling times of loneliness, we need to (1) resist the desire to think only about ourselves and (2) move with compassion in service of others.  Compassion is defined as a desire to alleviate the suffering and burdens of others.  We should make the choice to lift our eyes off ourselves and turn to those around us with compassion and a desire to serve.   We will soon realize that one of the major benefits of serving others is the light on our own personal struggle becomes strangely dim.

Below are just a few ways we can work our way more effectively through a period of loneliness by serving others.

In the workplace, consistently passing along sincere words of encouragement to hard working coworkers or stepping up to help someone else deliver on a major project are a few practical ways to move with compassion and serve others.

In the home, when the feelings of loneliness creep into our closest relationships, we need to overcome our natural desire to “go to a neutral corner” and move forward to directly, with sincerity and humility, meet the needs of the one where the relationship is strained.   We need to rebuild the connection with compassion to serve rather than be served.

Making a decision to move with compassion to serve others will build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® to move efficiently out of the valley of loneliness and into healthier and stronger relationships, especially with those closest to us.

David Esposito appointed to the Board of Directors at Medizone International

http://www.medizoneint.com/asepticsure-moves-closer-launch-medizone-internationals-board-directors-expanded-add-significant-business-development-strategy-strength/

 

As we continue on our journey to build and strengthen our character, I wanted to write about a virtue that gets little mention in today’s “loud and proud” environment.  When we call roll for those who have delivered lasting, positive impact in our world, in our communities, and in our homes, there is a common virtue among them that is tough to find in the intensity of our world today.

The quality of gentleness, or “strength under control” as the more practical, relevant definition, continues to be an effective behavioral anchor for us in dealing with relationships in the complexity of life today.

I am confident that if I polled all the readers of this blog, we could all give a few solid testimonies about when we “lost it” in a relatively intense or even seemingly routine interaction with a family member, coworker, or friend.  We occasionally blame our response on the hectic commute across the town, the stressful day at work, the loss of the big game, the weather etc.   However, we all know we fell short in demonstrating strength under control and we most likely took a big withdrawal from the proverbial “relationship bank account” and needed to work extra hard making deposits into the future if we wanted to repair the relationship.

Maintaining gentleness in today’s world is not easy.  The real-life situations of dealing with an unruly child while hustling to get ready for work, an irate customer call just as “normal business hours” have passed and your daycare is closing, the spouse that just seems oblivious to the situation you are struggling to get through, or the aging parent who does not realize her limitations are all situations that put our gentleness to the test.  It is not easy to maintain strength under control, but it is worth the effort.

There are several positive outcomes that we can all expect by demonstrating a greater degree of gentleness or strength under control in our interactions with others:

(1) Gentleness has been shown over time, either through time-tested philosophers or academic research, to be the more effective method in strengthening relationships and sustaining positive behavioral change compared to the typical “loud, proud, and loss of control” technique we all so quickly adapt.

(2) We will quickly replace the regretful thought of “oh, I should not have acted that way” with the cherished memory that we did the harder right, rather than the easier wrong and more times than not, maintained a productive connection to continue the relationship another day.

(3) Our example will be “watched” by those around us and whether we ever see it or not, others will be positively impacted by our actions.

One final note of truth from the late Leo Buscaglia, PhD:  I am not sure if you remember Leo, but he was “Dr. Love” in the 70s & 80s who was famous for his sold-out “Love 1A” class at the University of Southern California.  His PBS Specials (which are on YouTube for those interested) were an earlier and less rehearsed version of modern day TED Talks for healthy relationships.  Leo Buscaglia, in describing a relevant truth of those exhibiting the virtue of gentleness said, “Only the weak are cruel.  Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.”

We should all strive to be strong and exhibit gentleness.  As a result, we will continue to make steady progress on building and strengthening our character and Character Creates Opportunity® for us to have positive, lasting impact in our relationships.

There is a great deal of material written about and attention given to leaders. One of the burdens of leadership is often summarized in the quote it is “lonely at the top.”  There are many times when a leader needs to step forward and decide. The leader has gathered all the input, sorted through the data, and then at some point a decision needs to be made.  There is that moment of decision when the burden is only fully felt by the leader.  This is when a leader confronts that cold reality that it is truly “lonely at the top.”

However, today’s message is not about the “leader”, but about the often underappreciated role that most of us play…The role of serving to get the job done.  Mostly out of the spotlight, behind the scenes, and without the typical fanfare that comes with the “lonely role at the top.”  Similar to an offensive lineman blocking for a great running back or providing protection for a great quarterback to find the open receiver, the offensive line, like many of us, do our job faithfully day in and day out without being in the spotlight.

Although many times underappreciated, there is something extremely honorable about the commitment of those who get the job done in our workplace, our communities and our homes.  A tremendous example is quietly set by those getting up on a cold, dark morning and getting the job done on a consistent basis that is worthy of appreciation, but so often goes without it.  It does not matter what role you play; whether you get up and load boxes into a truck, pack a lunch for children, sit and hold grandchildren, or plan the strategy for an organization.  The day in day out choice you make to get up and get going despite going underappreciated for not just days, but perhaps years, is worthy of praise and honor.

Truth be told, our most underappreciated examples of honorable, quiet service most often occur with those closest to us in our homes and extended family.

We may not realize it, but those around us, whether they are our children, our coworkers, or our neighbors are all impacted by our example to get up and get going.  The spotlight or the press can be fleeting and inaccurate over time on those individuals in high-level positions.  However, the day to day example of those in quiet service to a cause beyond themselves and honorably fulfilling their commitments are to be given the highest praise for their impact is positive and lasting on those around them.

All of us, at certain points in our journey across the various roles we play, will feel underappreciated for our efforts.  Whether it is an insensitive spouse, a young adult going through that “know it all” phase, a preoccupied boss, or selfish coworkers, we all will go through times of service where we just feel underappreciated.

In most cases, especially in the home, the tide does eventually turn.  The insensitive spouse or the “know it all” young adult eventually has that “light-bulb” moment when they realize the quiet service that has been delivered faithfully over the years.  However, if they do not, it is important that we do not lose our drive to deliver on our commitments to do our job and fulfill our obligations.  Continuing to move forward in quiet service is the right thing to do.

If you have felt underappreciated for a while, take this writing as a little “pat on the back” of encouragement for a job and an example well done.  In addition, we all should do some self-reflection and see if we are that insensitive spouse, “know it all” young adult, preoccupied boss, or selfish co-worker and start today to put forth some encouragement and recognition to those who are in honorable, quiet service around us.

There are two key points from today’s message:

(1) Keep moving forward in quiet service no matter how seemingly underappreciated or unrecognized our efforts become.  Our day in and day out example to maintain our commitments will have a positive impact on those around us, even if we do not see it today.

(2) We should avoid allowing the negative energy of bitterness to set in when our service goes unnoticed or the praise and recognition for the task goes to someone else.  Continue to transfer energy into serving and minimize the negative energy that can creep in when recognition or appreciation is non-existent. If not, it will have a negative impact on our ability to deliver on our commitments.

There is a famous poem that has been attributed to a number of individuals.  The most famous accounting is that it is written on the wall in one of the Missionaries of Charity orphanages in India that was founded by the late Mother Teresa.  The poem is entitled, Anyway.

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.   Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.

In essence, the learning is to continue to build and strengthen our character by doing what is right, regardless if we are appreciated or not and regardless if someone says thanks or not.  Our efforts will build and strengthen our character and Character Creates Opportunity® for us to have a positive impact in our world and on those closest to us.

The positive financial impact of compounding interest is well known and has been reinforced by some of the brightest minds in our history.  Benjamin Franklin described compounding as “Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more.”  A quote commonly attributable to Albert Einstein is, “Compounding is mankind’s greatest invention because it allows for the reliable, systematic accumulation of wealth.” Compound interest is one way our money can make more money. It is a simple, yet effective way of building financial strength.

As we look to continue to build and strengthen our character, the concept of compounding interest can provide some insight.  Before we go there, it is important to acknowledge that we all have an element of our nature that wants a quick fix to our struggles or a fast track to achieving our life-long goals.  We want financial security now and there is a strong appeal to some quick, potentially high return investment.  We listen to a motivational speaker at some high energy sales conference and we expect great results on day one.  We attend a weekend marriage retreat and plan to apply the ‘5 principles of a great marriage’ on Monday and then we expect to finally have the relationship we desire.  We get the DVD series and new juice blender to lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks and we believe we have found the fountain of youth (we have cabinets full of DVDs and blenders in case any of you are wondering).

The reality is quick, lasting fixes don’t happen in the major and most important areas of our life.   As we think about the principle of compounding interest, there are some relevant learnings that compounding can have in many areas of our lives beyond financing.  When we look at a graph of building financial strength with compounding over time, the ‘wealth curve’ appears relatively flat in the early years and then slowly builds momentum and the curve gets very steep in later years.  The consistent application of some small dollar amount placed in a savings or investment portfolio will put any one of us on the path to building a small fortune over time. The principle is that we need to stick with it, leave the money alone, and let the interest grow.

Guiding our thoughts, decisions, and actions by the principle of compounding in other areas of our lives can help to build and strengthen our character.

In Relationships:

There are probably many things we can do to improve the relationships of those closest to us.  There are countless books and blogs out there to help all of us.  Applying the principle of compounding by making a decision to do something small and consistent over time will help.  For example, we could just focus on being a better listener.  When we feel like immediately jumping in with a comment or correction, if, just once a day, we held back and focused on listening with the intent to understand the other person, we would be on a better path to building strong relationships with those that matter most.  Just changing our behavior once a day in conversations will build momentum in our relationships and the compounding interest curve will continue to rise with the eventual outcome being healthier relationships.

In Health and Wellness:

We all have struggles with some aspect of staying physically healthy.  For some it is overeating, others it is getting little to no exercise, for still others a lack of sleep can contribute to health problems.  There are plenty of resources out there to help us get on the right path to improving our health.  With the principle of compounding, find one small, relevant step we can do and stick with it.  Perhaps leaving a few bites of dessert behind is a potential step to take or drinking one less can of soda throughout the day.  For others it may be walking one more lap around the block or maybe 5 more minutes of some cardio-workout.  The point is that whatever the choice, making one small change, consistently over time, will pay tremendous interest over time with regards to our health and wellness.  There is a great deal of academic research and practical experience to dispute the lasting impact of any extreme fad diet or exercise regimen.  However, the consistent application of small incrementally positive steps toward improving our health will make a lasting impact.

In Personal Development:

We all have areas we need to improve professionally and personally.  Perhaps attending some high energy seminar will kick us in gear to take the first step.  However, it will be small incremental changes that will bring about lasting change.  For example, reading books relevant to our chosen profession for 15 minutes a day or keeping a daily journal of progress toward some goal are small steps, that over time, have proven to produce huge dividends in personal growth and accomplishment.   These actions start small, build over time, and gain momentum to have a positive sustainable impact.

Remember the compounding of interest…just keep making steady, small, consistent steps in the right direction and the results will be tremendous over the long haul.  The curve will be relatively flat at first, but it will get steeper over time.  It is how we finish, not the “dash and flash” at the start, that really matters.  As we continue to apply the principle of compounding in other areas of our life, we will continue to build and strengthen our character and our Character Creates Opportunity® for us to make a real difference in our world.

 

As we continue on our journey of building and strengthening our character, I wanted to address the topic of intention.  Intention simply refers to the course of action that an individual decides or proposes to follow.

Several months ago, I had a very ‘out of the ordinary’ experience in that I was chaperoning a group of middle school musicians (one being my son) to Chicago to visit a world-renown, music school and conduct a band practice with a very famous music teacher…and eat a ton of deep dish Chicago pizza.  The chaperones were allowed to sit in the back of the room and observe the instruction.  The last time I met a music instructor was in my third grade band class when I attempted to play the trumpet, so I was very interested to see how things may have changed over the years.  The music teacher gave some great music lessons and buried in his instruction were some valuable life lessons.

As one would expect, the group of young jazz musicians made a few mistakes throughout the day and the teacher provided some encouraging words to keep them on track.  However, when it appeared that the kids were drifting a bit and became a little careless in their practice, the teacher shut things down and gave what amounted to an amazing half-time locker room speech that would have made Vince Lombardi proud.

He spoke about the importance of intention when hitting a note.  Just going through the motions would result in many off key notes being played.  If they are not going to strike a note with intention, they might as well not even hit it.  In addition, he did acknowledge that they will still make mistakes in playing.  Sometimes they would play an off key at the start or they may wander in the middle of the selection, but “you live with your finish,” so be intentional about finishing strong.  Always focus on a strong finish as you will have no more notes to play at the end.  His rallying cry worked and the still tired and hungry jazz band ended up sounding like a group of professionals.

Beyond playing effectively in a middle school jazz band, I think there are two takeaways from the instructor’s pep-talk that are insightful for us to consider on our journey to build and strengthen our character.

#1:  We must live with intention 

Our homes, our businesses, and our world continue to grow in complexity, intensity, and uncertainty.  We can’t afford to just “wing it” and go through the motions.  If we think we can build a solid 30-40 year career in a job just by showing up, we are living in a fantasy.  We need to be intentional about how we add value today and what additional skills we may need to acquire in order to stay ahead of being commoditized in a global economy where someone will always be able to do our job faster and cheaper.  Regardless of industry, we all are only a few years away from being “outsourced” or “downsized” unless we become intentional about staying ahead on additional training, skill development, job experiences, etc.

In our homes, we are all facing the reality that as our world gets more connected with things like the internet and social media, we run the risk of enabling those tools to get us disconnected within our own families if we just “wing it.”  Just look at the average family driving in a car or sitting at a restaurant.  Just about everyone has their own screen in front of them connecting with the rest of the world only picking up their heads to announce their order to the waiter.  There are six of us in our family, we all have smart phones, and we all battle this reality pretty regularly.  If we move forward without intentionally getting involved in the lives of those closest to us, we run a greater risk than just a temporary shutdown of internet service.

#2:  We should focus on moving forward in order to finish strong 

We all have a story or two about our past.  Some may be good and some may be bad.  Our past should not define us; it is just what got us started.  Often, we unfortunately spend a great deal of energy “grinding” over our past.  It is our responsibility to learn from it and focus on moving forward to finish strong.  We are each responsible for writing the rest of our story with an intention on finishing strong.  It does not matter whether we are 30, 60, or 90 years old, we can move forward with the intention of finishing strong as we will never know when our last note will be played.

If we make the choice to live with intention and avoid the seemingly easier path of just “winging it” in the short run, we will continue to build and strengthen our character and our Character Creates Opportunity® for us to finish strong in the areas of our life that matter most.