Being Brave Means Being Humble

A professional speaker has to get used to being on center stage. Has to.

Sure, it would be easy to label me jeff noel arrogant or not humble. I mean, seriously, look at how often Mid Life Celebration uses it’s name. Repetition of keywords is a leadership proposition if you want Google page rank. Google page rank is needed if you want to reach your audience – say, 1.2 million male Baby Boomers. If your dream is small (and that’s okay) or you don’t want or need page rank, this seems superfluous.

At the end of the day, trying to help make the world a little nicer by posting five blogs a day for nearly three straight years is a gracious offer – by anyone’s standards.

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Here’s Why I’m Right

The title here will ruffle some feathers and simultaneously, get others to cheer.  Why?  Because, as the 1960’s psychedelic rock band The Doors summed up in one of their songs, “People are strange.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  You get the point.

So how does working seven days a week lend itself to balance?

First, the big picture intent is to NOT work seven days a week.  When the early pioneering Americans had a vison to become farmers, they spent countless hours clearing the land.  We can’t even comprehend the hardships they endured.

Every time I fly and look out the window, I imagine America, long before it was tamed – covered with trees and forests for as far as the eye can see.

What I’m doing now, working seven days a week is this:

  • Working to become a world-class professional speaker
  • Establishing processes to teach our son “life’s big four”
  • Preparing a metaphorical “hurricane disaster plan”
  • Preparing for the responsibility that comes with aging parents
  • Figuring out how to become a speaker, author, mentor of choice
  • Working to hear, “Well done”

The reason some succeed over others, is that successful people outwork the others.  This shouldn’t surprise anyone.  It’s a basic survival of the fittest, of the smartest, of the most creative, etc.

So, in summary, I’m clearing a hostile land, cutting down trees, digging up roots, making piles to burn, removing boulders, caring for sick animals, hunting for food, building shelter from the seasonally harsh climate, dealing with the emotional loss of my home state or mother country, protecting my family from wild animals and unknown diseases.

So really, if you don’t come from a lineage of hand-me-down success or riches, you have got to out work the competition.

Don’t beleive me?  Try and do it any other way.

Do I practice what I preach?

Do I practice what I preach? Do you?

This is a follow-up post to yesterday’s interesting challenge about “mistakes” smart people make.

Funny thing is, I’m often tempted to judge myself based entirely on my intentions.

The fundamental change brought about by teaching – and they say to teach is to learn twice – is that I’m much more aware of my blind spots.

So, I rewrote my 463-word vision/mission statement, created in 1995 after reading Stephen Covey’s classic, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”.

It went from 463 words to two words!

So easy even a caveman can remember it.

Make it a GREAT day, because if you don’t, who will. Carpe diem jungle jeff 🙂