Sara Hand

Life is a journey…What have you learned along the way?

Some of my personal observations.

• My life changes when I do, and if I don’t change…Life doesn’t change.
• If I want better answers, I need to ask better questions…Learning to ask great questions is a skill worth working on!         
• If I don’t apply structure to my time, someone or something else will! Especially if you are a person who gets things done…you will never run out of meetings to go to.

• I need to Focus on the big picture, then fine tune the details. And check back with the big picture…understanding strategy and tactics will keep me moving forward without getting bogged down.
• The only investment I can control is my own personal interest rate. How valuable am I? What kind of problems do I solve? What am I doing daily to become more valuable to myself and others?    
• I will never be successful at owning what is not my responsibility to own.  The line between help and support and reinforcing negative tendencies is very narrow.
• I can not control or change anyone.  I can only choose how I respond to situations and circumstances. What someone does with my response is their choice.   
• Just because I can…doesn’t mean I should. Learning to say no may be more important than YES.
• If not me, then who?  I am a part of a community that grows and thrives based on the contributions or lack of contributions from its members.
• Everyone has something to contribute. Intelligence is not determined by your IQ and neither is personal value. It is worth the investment of time to discover those contributions and draw them out so that they can flourish.
• I have an inherent responsibility to become my best; to faithfully steward the potential I have been given and encourage others in the same.

As I consider the list of things I have learned on this journey called my life…the list continues to grow. I am also reminded of those who have shared a part of this journey to date and am thankful for their contributions to whom I am and who I am becoming. What have you learned? Have you thought about it lately?

It’s hot. It’s rainy. The kids are getting restless as the time to go back to school approaches and so are the parents. Business owners have been playing phone tag around summer vacations, and long weekends. In Florida, on August 23rd that will all change and everything will begin to get back to normal. At least that is what many people will tell themselves. Once we get back from vacation, once the kids get back in school, once Labor Day weekend is over…

Not everyone can ride a wave...

If your business only runs well during normal, you are looking at a brief 7-8 weeks before Halloween gets here and then Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving everyone will be waiting to make decisions at the start of the New Year. In the beginning of the year it will take a couple weeks for everyone to get back in the swing of things after a long break. Then again, there will be a brief 7-8 weeks before Spring Break and Easter Holidays disrupt normal business.  Somewhere after Spring Break we have another 7 weeks or so before graduations, weddings and summer vacations kick in again.

21 weeks of normal sounds ridiculous! Yet we didn’t count tradeshows, CEU’s, national holidays or all the other things that business works around. We didn’t even consider the fact that many businesses don’t even get ready for those 21 weeks during their “off times”, but wait until everything is back to normal to get ready to do business as normal.

“So what do I do about this,” you wonder?

“I have enough challenges from recent economic turbulence to only have 105-120 normal working days.”

 Moving past normal takes an understanding of seasons. A season in business is much like surfing. If you wait until the wave is here to get ready to ride…You are too late! In between waves, when things are little slower is when you paddle out to be ready. Days when there are NO waves are days for servicing your board, or possibly cross-training to master other skills that might be beneficial to your success.

Consider moving past normal and getting ready to catch the wave!

Although it is still HOT, and it is still Rainy and not everyone is in their office everyday; consider being strangely different. Consider moving past normal and getting ready to catch the wave!

Check out growing your Business!

Every so often I really am tempted to have someone just take care of the yard for me. (That does not mean that everyone reading this with a landscape business should call me.) Because, if someone else took care of it, I would miss out on all the important stuff I am supposed to learn through the experience of getting out there. For those who have received my newsletter in the past, you have read about butterflies, weeds, micro-climates and a host of other yard related topics. Well this week it’s about potato vine or kudzu. Let me explain what I mean.

Looks Beautiful!

A number of years ago we built a new house on a wooded lot, a heavily wooded, previously un-cleared or ever mowed au-natural lot. This gave us a head start on that Florida landscape, that Sunken Gardens’ look that I love. It also gave us some interesting plants…like potato vine. If you are unsure what this is, think of driving on I-75 and those beautiful vines that fill the wooded sides of the road. That is what the back third of our lot looked like, with some beautiful native plants that we wanted to keep and some palmettos and palms…so we cleared this by hand.

This week working in my backyard, I realized that it is just like some of the other areas of my life. I may have been eating well, exercising, and taking my supplements or maybe I have been pursuing personal development by reading or maybe I have made a commitment to manage my finances more diligently and have been more careful in my spending. However, maintaining these habits is more than 21 days to a different life.  21 days is a start, but real lifelong development of behavior means periodically checking in to make sure that there are no little pieces of that old weedy behavior trying to rear its ugly head.

I am still clearing by hand! Now it isn’t what it was. But I still have to be diligent, I still have to get out there and rescue the palmettos from this lovely, encroaching, invasive vine that would take over the world if there were not people like me. Although this vine has less of a hold on my yard year after year, like my life and the things that are important to me…auto pilot is not an option.  Have you checked in lately to see how your garden is doing?

My daughter and I resolved to develop in better health. To do this we decided that getting more exercise would be good and that we would ride bikes together several times a week. We didn’t wait until January to get started. Before Christmas we began to ride 5 miles 2-3 times a week.

It felt good getting off to a great start, and then January came. Would we let a little cold Florida weather discourage us? Absolutely not! WE bundled up with many lighter layers and included hats, scarves and gloves. Each time challenges were presented to discourage us, we simply developed plans that to keep us moving forward.

However February was different. Not only was it cold, but upper respiratory challenges made riding impossible.

March brought us “wet” and two trips to Reale Bikes in Venice for tires and tubes. (Great Service!)

AND isn’t that the way it seems so often. You start out with a great initiative. You have well outlined goals, a plan to implement and you get off to a terrific start. Then things begin to happen, circumstances beyond your control. Yet you continue on, but so does the opposition. Sometimes you can feel like you are so far off track…

However, April arrived. It’s a new month and each day is new. The weather is warm, the bikes have been serviced, and we are both feeling better. Monday was a 10 mile ride for us.

My daughter said several times…”Don’t you feel empowered Mom?”

The answer is YES! We chose to not let time that we weren’t moving forward to keep us from continuing although it would have been very easy to have been discouraged and to have given up.

If you have gotten off track, if your recent actions have not fully corresponded to your initial intentions for this year…I want to encourage you that although staying on target is good; that getting back on your bike is incredibly rewarding.

Another blog post…another white paper…another 30 second commercial… How I can I keep up? How can I stay on the cutting edge and meet all the deadlines I have?

With today’s emphasis on generating relevant content in a fairly scheduled manner, how does anyone continue to turn out quality? The truth is, very few people hit home runs every time.

However here are a few tips.

Keep a list of potential titles or topics.  It doesn’t mean that you have to write on that title, but it does mean that you will never have to face a completely blank page. I try to keep about 50 suggestions on my list. I heard Mark Victor Hanson of Chicken Soup Fame suggest for going for over 100 potential starters for his list.

Go with the flow. Some days (or nights) you are going to be inspired. You will have so many ideas and things will just seem to flow. That’s a great time to knock out a couple drafts, or at least start a couple drafts. Keep writing until the muse leaves and then put them in a file for a rainy day, or a vacation…

Have a few interesting friends? Ask Kim “A.K.A. diligently working” from WQMag if she is glad she doesn’t have to write all of the great content you will find on WQ. Consider approaching a friend to contribute periodically to your blog/column/whatever…for a different voice.

Repost: Found some great content that you love? You won’t be recognized as a great writer, but you will be recognized as someone with a discerning eye for value. Just make sure that you make sure all the relevant recognition is given to the source.

Repurpose: Use an idea more than once. So you have a subject that just really speaks to you, and although you have written before on this, it still seems to be right in your face. Who says you can’t continue to write on it? Look at it from different angles and explore different aspects of the topic. You might not be the only one with more than a cursory interest.

Repurpose: Continue to use that idea. Whether we are talking about clothing or fragrances, most people understand the concept of layering. Try layering your content. Use the same idea, but put it out there in a variety of formats: blog, whitepaper, audio download…

Change it up. If you usually write at your desk, try sitting outside. If you usually write at your computer, try longhand or mind mapping.

These are a few tips I use to continue to avoid that place called “stuck”, and if all else fails, happy hour or ice cream work wonders as a distraction.

In 2002 Sarasota County made a commitment to upgrading our education system.

Did we need it? Desperately! At that time we had almost 2000 people a day moving into our state and ranked close to the bottom of the 50 in quality of education. We needed to make some changes, and we have.  Sarasota County’s educational system has moved forward significantly. Our schools come back with well above average grades across the county, and have even received some recognition on a national level…although our state, as a whole still has a long way to go.

There has never been a time as important as now, to continue to move forward with our commitment to increasing the quality of education for our students. Sound, sustainable economic development requires several things, including a commitment to investing in education. Our previous economic model was built primarily on tourism, construction and agriculture. The amount of education and the skill sets necessary to support that model are not the same as those necessary to support the future economic growth of Sarasota County.

In his book Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida states that people used to move to where companies were, and now companies are moving to where people want to live. If we are to capitalize on the natural resources that come with living in this beautiful area, to tap into the intellectual capital available, and to build an economic model that embraces innovative enterprises; investing in an emerging workforce that has the capacity to participate actively in this endeavor is crucial.

The Referendum on March 16^th isn’t about raising taxes. It isn’t even about having all the answers or even getting it all right. It is simply about continuing forward with the commitment that we have already made and voting YES to renew what we have already started.

2009 was a challenging year.  Everyone was presented with change of some sort. Yet the challenges presented, did not produce the same results in each person.  How did you respond? Did you jump up and down and embrace change joyfully? Did you initially resist? Are you still resisting? Did you climb back into bed and pull the covers over your head? Did you shut down? Did you do a combination of those things…before embarking on your course of change?

The journey of the hero is one well documented throughout history. All heroes face difficulties and at times they want to quit. Although there may be many characters in the story called your life, we are all a part of a much bigger story. In your story, you are the main character…the hero.  Mentors and traveling companions join will join you on this journey, as well those who could be considered enemies. The journey won’t be easy, yet through adversity and trying situations the hero will survive. During this journey the hero is transformed, accomplishing what they call character development.

Heroes learn to believe that:

• Life is sooooo much bigger than me.
• Each individual has a responsibility to reach toward their best self.
• Each person has a circle of influence, for some that circle is bigger than others.
• Leadership comes from influence.
• Everyone has the potential to be a person of influence
• Becoming the best “ME” allows others to become the “best” of themselves.
• Each of us can make a difference.
• Making a difference happens with one small decision at a time.
• If not me, if I don’t step forward when presented with opportunity, then who?

 During the journey the hero discovers powerful solutions and answers that if he has the courage to return, when he returns, hold the potential to transform/rescue his world. It was Joseph Campbell who was credited for bringing this attention to the Mythic and Archetypal principles embedded in the structure of stories. According to him:

For a human hero, it means achieving a balance between material and spiritual world. There is freedom to live and freedom from the fear of death. This is sometimes referred to as “living in the moment”.

From biography through fiction the hero’s journey captures our imagination and inspires us to dream. If someone were writing the story of your journey, where would you be? In the midst of adversity? Finding your mentor? Returning with the prize? If you are interested in making some edits to your version…go to www.JoyBeyondFreedom.com where you will find a number of resources for your trip.

The New Year is here and the list of things that you are going to do and accomplish is formidable. I applaud you for thinking big. Yet, one of the most common causes for failure is trying to do it all now!

In goal setting with clients, we create a list of all we want to achieve…to experience…to share in the coming year. Then we take a simple one page overview of the year with only the titles of the months on it and divide the objectives from our yearly “to do list” under the titles. There is a desire to want to place most of the items in January…let’s get them done and get them done NOW! However, most of us have heard the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” and know the answer is “One bite at a time!”

This last year has been challenging to most everyone. Whether business has been good or bad, everyone has had to make some changes of some sort. For many the list of changes to incorporate is long. Instead of focusing on how far and how much still needs to be down…talk about an elephant…what one thing could you do today? What one thing would be a good choice today to make the most difference in your life, in your business? And then tomorrow, choose one thing.

Have you heard anyone say something lately that started like this?

“After the New Year I’ll start…”

For some reason, the later we get in the year the more often this comes up. Although there are a host of other significant dates, vacations and events we organize our lives around; there is just something about December 31 and January 1.  I understand we only have a few days left and low-fat eggnog is just not as good as the full-fledged version. I have a few more pieces of fudge to finish off, and a couple more holiday celebrations to attend. Besides now that Santa has been and gone, no one is watching to see if I am naughty right now…what are a few more days before I start my new life on the other side?

However, there is no magic pixie dust to sprinkle over our heads at the stroke of midnight New Year’s Eve that will make this next year any different. For most people, 2010 is going to be more of the same. Why…simply, because change only happens when it happens. The truth “My life changes when I do” isn’t necessarily a fun one. Change is hard. Change takes effort. Not everyone will be supportive of my change. When I make changes, it rocks the boat. Even if it is for my good, some people will resist.  Most people are comfortable with status quo or are waiting for that date in the future when it is going to be different.

Maybe your new year will off with a bang. Maybe you will make incredible progress toward the goals you have set. Maybe you won’t. Maybe you will finish the rest of the holiday goodies that are in your fridge, before you start eating healthy. Maybe you won’t make those extra business phone calls that first week of January. Maybe you will get so bogged down in everything you didn’t start that you just don’t start.

Several years ago an incredible woman shared with me, “It’s a new moment”…and each moment is a new moment! I don’t have to wait for New Year’s, Monday, payday or any other day for my new life to start. I can, but I don’t have to. Your change, and your new year, your new habit, your new life starts whenever you do!

By Thanksgiving night hosts of homes already had their Christmas lights out. Front windows were already filled with the sparkling lights from the trees inside. Yet, with all the numbers from all the surveys of what’s happening economically, with all the reports of foreclosure…how could this be?

The stock market has taken a dive and Mame Dennis has lost everything. The week before Thanksgiving she sings:

Haul out the holly;
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again.
Fill up the stocking,
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For I’ve grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder,
Need a little Christmas now

It is easy to see what a wonderful time they were having with all those decorations and presents and celebration activities. Yet when everything was gone, despite the Grinch’s best efforts; the Whos could still sing.

And then there is George. In “It’s a Wonderful Life” we have the opportunity to see a broad picture of his life. We see his determination to help the people of his community work together. As countless other businesses failed, his leadership and their choices allowed their town to come through a period of economic devastation. Then we glimpse what the world would look like if he had never been born and the angel remarks, “One man’s life touches so many others, when he’s not there it leaves an awfully big hole.”

Maybe you woke up to find that the Grinch has been there sometime in the night and there isn’t much left. Maybe this last season of your life has been devastating and you have wondered, “What’s the use?” Although this holiday season isn’t really about the lights and the trees, the reminder to celebrate what we do have is important. We have a community that will work together to make it through this economically challenging time. The sun will come up tomorrow, and by the grace of God we will draw another breath.

I think we saw more lights up sooner, because we have all needed a little Christmas.