FOR PEOPLE WHO MAKE THINGS BETTER

Thank You

by Geoff Welch
November 23rd, 2011

Thank you for showing us your passion. When we see you fully alive we are compelled. It is attractive and draws us in. When we see you excited about something you love we recognize our deep need to share our passions with others as well.

Thank you for standing up. It’s a scary thing to raise your hand, to suggest something different, or to care about something deeply. When you step up and step out you make it a little easier for the rest of us to do the same.

Thank you for not being self-serving. We can see that you do the heavy lifting to making things better for everyone, not just yourself. That matters. We are convinced that looking out for number one is the most important thing and when you act in ways that contradict that idea it helps us to become unstuck.

Thank you for not waiting for permission to lead. Seeing you take initiative and responsibility for making things better, without the need for someone to tell you it’s okay to do so, is liberating. It helps us to realize that nothing changes because we are all waiting for someone else to approve of the progress we desire. You show us that there is a better way.

Thank you for being humble. You are doing great work but you don’t esteem yourself highly. Your humility is a testament to your concern for others and that you won’t be distracted by pride as you work to make things better.

Thank you for making a difference.

Thank you for making things so much better.

Categories Musings
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Be Their Power-Up

by Geoff Welch
November 17th, 2011

After my last post about wrestling with fear a reader of this blog/customer of my printing business showed up at my desk, put a hand on my shoulder, and said some very nice things about me.

It wasn’t flattery. It was a genuine bit of encouragement and it was like getting that power up in Super Mario Bros that makes you twice as tall.

And while it was nice for me to receive a few kudos what really stuck out to me was the fact that we all have the ability to do this for the people around us. And, without a doubt, doing so makes things better.

I know that you already “get” this, but I just wanted to express that I’ve personally experienced how much it matters and you can’t stop now.

Today, perhaps right now, you can make someone feel ten feet tall by simply encouraging them. It’s up to you. The power is in your hands.

Categories Influence
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A Message To Fear: Go To Hell

by Geoff Welch
November 10th, 2011

I spend a lot of time being afraid. It’s not something I’m proud of, but it’s true.

I’m afraid of being rejected. I’m afraid of failing. I’m afraid of not measuring up to the “standard*”. I’m afraid of dreaming too big and having to settle for less.

But those fears have never served me well. They are not like the fear of being eaten by a bear while camping in the woods. At least that fear can help a person take appropriate precautions against real danger. No. These fears are imaginary. They are all about protecting myself from a hypothetical reaction.

Realizing this has left me with no choice but to place myself into situations that scare me as a means to prove them impotent.

I am working on some major initiatives in my business that will put me on the line. These strategies will force me to do things that might not work. They will also force me to answer the question, “but what happens when they do?”

I have also put in a request to speak about my heart for making things better in a public forum. I have been wanting to do this for months and finally decided that it was better to risk rejection than to never try. I firmly believe that even if my petition to speak is denied that it will only be a matter of time before they are petitioning me to come and share. I believe in this work and I know that it matters.

Perhaps sharing these things will prompt you to reflect on whether you master your fear or whether your fear masters you. I’m working on the former.

I intersect with my fear every single day. It is likely that I will wake up tomorrow with a hint of fear about how this post will be received. I will no doubt be afraid that what I am saying doesn’t matter and that people aren’t being encouraged.

And then I will look in the mirror, steel myself against the fear, and tell it to go to hell.

I haven’t figured out how to stop being confronted by fear. I’m not convinced it’s possible. But the part where we make things better often starts with a feeling of fear followed by a determination to proceed anyway.

So tell me… Will you move forward in spite of the fear?

*Why in the world would I want to be “standard” anyway?

Categories Discipline & Focus
Comments (2)

Work With What You’ve Got

by Geoff Welch
November 3rd, 2011

It can be tempting to long for the day when you can make things better in a much larger way. This is a trap.

This notion that someday will be better than today is akin to the planning trap I’ve written about before. The rub is that the people who are changing the world, the ones who will eventually have a lot more to work with, are starting now by working with what they’ve got.

It’s not sexy, but it matters.

It matters to your boss. It matters to your spouse. It matters to your neighbors. It matters to your audience. It just matters.

It might mean going the extra mile with a customer, encouraging a friend, or just letting someone off an airplane ahead of you. It might mean helping a stranded motorist or walking your neighbors dog. It might mean finishing those reports earlier than expected or refilling the coffee pot.

It probably won’t be glamorous but it will matter. Oh yes. To the people you help it will mean more than you think. And it will strengthen the part of you that recognizes that when it comes to making things better…the small things are often very, very big things.

So please don’t let the dreamy dreams of curing cancer or solving the problem of hunger prevent you from actually doing something to make things better today. We need you.

Please. Start. Start right now.

PS: I’m writing this post from downtown LA on the night before I attend my first Blogworld Expo. The sheer terror of knowing THIS is the post that anyone I intersect at the conference with will see if they look me up is a little heavy right now. But screw it. I didn’t come to impress people…I came to extend my ability to make things better.

Categories Action, Discipline & Focus
Comments (5)

In The Trenches

by Geoff Welch
October 27th, 2011

Some days writing is like a precision aerial attack in which the planes fly in, acquire their target, and destroy the enemy compound with an effortless exactitude. Other days writing is like sitting in a muddy hole, in the rain, trying not to get blown up.

Today is the latter.

But them’s the breaks. As you well know, it’s the days that the work is a bloody fight that separate the people who really make a difference from those who don’t. When the words won’t come or the deal falls through or the news is grim, you and I have a choice. We can choose to give ourselves a pass or we can choose to press on.

Will you pull the covers up over your head and wait for tomorrow? Will you allow (force?) someone else to do the hard work and earn the favor that could have been yours? Or will you choose to stand up in the face of the darkness, in the face of the Resistance, and scream at the top of your lungs that you will not back down. Not this time.

The secret about remarkable progress isn’t discovered on the day when everything works. Nope. It’s found on the days when everything is broken and you choose push forward anyway. Enough of those days and amazing things happen.

So even though it’s been a fight to get these words out. Here they are.

I win.

Categories Discipline & Focus
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The Internet Hates Your Guts

by Geoff Welch
October 20th, 2011

Ever need to Google something and, 42 minutes later, realize you got a wee bit distracted? Usually I find that I never actually looked for the information I intended to source because something grabbed my attention as soon as I opened my browser. This is because the internet hates my guts. Yours too.

The internet is cunning. It waits for you to access it for the most virtuous of purposes and then BAM! a dog playing the piano and singing. I’m not going to link to it because then you’d be lost for a good hour. The point is that while the internet seems like it’s your friend, it isn’t. It’s plotting. It’s scheming. It’s ready to stab you in the back at any moment.

And that’s okay if you have nothing better to do. But you do. You are here to make things better.

So the next time you find yourself checking your e-mail every 90 seconds remind yourself that the internet is at it again. Now, more than ever, you have to be disciplined to do the hard work that makes you valuable instead of getting bogged down in the internet quicksand like everyone else. Remember, you are not like everyone else.

What are some of the traps you fall into? Between Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, and RSS feeds I am a mess on some days. If you are looking for an excuse to coast, the internet is ready to give it to you.

RESIST! Stop reading this right now and go do something amazing.

Categories Musings
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You Are Here, Now

by Geoff Welch
October 13th, 2011

It’s not easy to be fully present. There are a thousand things that are vying to steal your attention. But you understand the immense value in being here, now. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, your ability to be effective or extract value is tied directly to your ability to be fully present.

You may be in a staff meeting, at church, at the park with your daughter, or operating on someone’s liver. Any situation that requires your attention deserves your full attention.

Not everyone recognizes this. Many of your friends, co-workers, and (ulp!) superiors spend a great deal of time somewhere else. They are rarely present, rarely aware of the significance of the moment. They are most usually thinking about things they cannot currently change, at the expense of the things they currently can.

This gives you a tremendous advantage. Much in the same way that understanding you are not a victim makes you infinitely more productive than your peers, being fully here, now, allows you to tap into what is currently possible and squeeze out the most significance.

While some are 80% here and 20% elsewhere, you shine because you are not distracted. Your focus and ability to turn it into action or understanding separate you from the herd. And separate from the herd is a very, very good place to be.

Categories Discipline & Focus, Time
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Please, Don’t Do It For The Money

by Geoff Welch
October 6th, 2011

I had a conversation recently with a friend who was unhappy with her job. She was frustrated and jaded because the people she worked for treated her poorly, but the financial benefits were compelling. She wouldn’t come out and say it in so many words but it was apparent to me that she was staying for the money.

Her employers were pretty good at dangling the right carrots at the right times to buoy her when she felt especially mistreated, but it didn’t change the truth: they treated her badly and she allowed them to do it for the right dollar amount.

This made me sad.

She was trading misery for money.

I know we all have to eat, but life is too short to do it for the money. You already understand this. You are the kind of person who appreciates the temporary nature of life on earth. You know that you can buy a lot of things, but happiness, respect, and dignity are not among them.

But in case you were wavering, or had forgotten, let me implore you: Please, don’t do it for the money. There is more to life than things.

We in America have turned excess into an art form and it can be difficult to recognize when we are being manipulated by the machine that is consumerism. But if you wake up one day and realize you are trading your dignity for dollars, please consider the true cost.

Categories Money
Comments (3)

Service Is A Part Of You

by Geoff Welch
September 29th, 2011

I just changed the job titles for my employees at Date-Line Digital from Customer Service Specialists to Problem Solvers. I’ve never been one for a great degree of formality anyway, and I just don’t believe that “Customer Service” is a line item on a job description that people can be trained to do. To be perfectly blunt people either give a damn about helping other people, or they don’t.

And that’s what is great about you. You have the innate desire, independent of your job title, to help people. That is something that can’t be taught. It’s a special part of you that makes you remarkable.

When I think about my staff I don’t want blind policy followers. I don’t want people who are nice to customers because they have taken a vow to do so for a specified period of time in order to collect a specified monetary reward.

I want my staff to be concerned about solving the problems that face our customers using their skill, available tools, and compassion. I wan’t them to be free to find solutions that can’t be planned for in a policy manual because they have license to do great work. I want them to actually care.

I sincerely believe that building a staff with a heart of service is a hiring problem, not a training problem.

And having this heart of service makes you valuable. You are the kind of person who will always be in demand. You are the kind of person that is sympathetic to the needs of those around you. You understand where needs exist and seek to fill those needs in creative ways.

While others may be able to fake it for a while, your heart for service will be proven again and again. It is not work to meet the needs of those you serve when service is a part of you.

What about you? Do you recognize the difference between people who serve out of obligation and those who serve because they care? Does it matter?

Categories Influence, Relationships
Comments (2)

You Are Not A Victim

by Geoff Welch
September 22nd, 2011

I Am Not A Victim

Even if you are, you aren’t.

Because when I say “victim” I mean someone who is overwhelmed by circumstance and who life happens to. No, you happen to your life.

I have a sign in my office (much like the one pictured above but with slightly stronger language) to remind me that, like you, I am not willing to have my outcomes dictated to me arbitrarily. I am going to interject myself and fight to see my hopes and dreams made real.

Are there things that are beyond your control? Yes. Am I suggesting that by your sheer will you can create your own realities? No.

The point is that most of what everyone else views as immovable truths of the universe are simply things that require a little effort to change. Heck, they probably require a lot of effort to change. But if they can be changed, then it’s up to you to change them.

While everyone else complains, you find solutions to make things better.

You are not a victim.

(PS…If you want a 5×5″ print of the above artwork just drop me a line at geoff [at] thistinyempire [dot] com and I will send you one…for free.)

Categories Action, Discipline & Focus
Comments (1)
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