Archive
Family Comes First
Sleep At The Family Reunion!!!!
This has been an interesting year so far. I made some new year’s commitments and set some goals for the first quarter and the rest of the year. Well, my father had some health challenges that took precedent over all other things. His medical challenges were more important than any business goals, any training I planned to host, and anything else. One thing I have learned over the last two years is family comes first. My mom and dad, brothers, sister, aunties, cousins and nieces and nephews are very important to me. How about you?
Can you truly say that you put your family first all of the time? If you don’t, there is no need to feel guilty. Many people unintentionally let other things get in the way when they shouldn’t. All that it takes to start putting your family first is a shift in your priorities.
A great example of this is when you start to work crazy hours. While your objective may be to provide those “extras” for your family, it results in you neglecting them. So you may come home with gifts and new toys, but is that what your family really wants? They would probably prefer to spend more time with you instead. Over the last 6 six years or so I have purposefully traveled with my parents on their bowling tournament trips, especially with my dad. When I travel with them, they go out of their way to make sure that I am having a good time.
One way to put your family first is by being there for them. When your son or daughter has a sports event, or is in the school play, make of point of attending. If a family member gets sick, help them out as much as possible. My God-mother, my mom’s sister, lives in New Orleans, Louisiana about 98 miles from where we live. Every chance I get I go to spend a couple of days with her in her home. She loves it! When I tell her that I am coming, she counts on it.
Creating stability within your family is a good way of putting your family first. Everyone loves to know that they have someone who they can count on. You can easily do this by creating family routines such as:
- Regular dinner times
- Chores for each family member
- Set bed times
- Movie night
Though, these things may sound trivial they are very important. By creating a structured routine you are also setting expectations for your family. They know that they are expected for dinner at 6pm each day. Or that every Saturday they have to spend an hour or two helping out with chores.
When you put your family first, each family member will start to follow suit. In turn this creates a caring family that will always be around for each other.
Family is important so don’t neglect yours. Yes, work and being social is important, but they shouldn’t always take precedence over your family.
Oh yeah! My next trip with my dad for one of his bowling tournaments is this May. We are going to Detroit, Michigan. We are driving (ha, ha, ha). He is doing much better, we are working on getting is blood numbers up again.
Your Inner Circle Can Make Or Break You
Inner Circle Challenge Day 4
Anyone who has ever attempted to reach a goal knows that the road to the end goal is often filled with challenges and changes. While this is necessary, it’s usually not easy, but the reward is becoming a better, stronger, more able person – whether your goal is business, or personal.
What makes the challenges and changes so much easier is to make sure your inner circle – those you spend the most time with – are aligned with your own values and goals. Why create dysfunction in your own life by surrounding yourself with those friends who don’t “get” what it is you’re working towards? It is better to envelop yourself with friends for whom working to attain new and exciting goals is a given.
There will be lots of negativity just waiting to break down your walls. This negativity can take the form of outside forces such as the people who are around you that don’t understand you. They will tell you that you can’t do what it is you desire. They’ll make sure you know all the reasons why it won’t work. What they really are is jealous – jealous that you’ve made the decision to grow and become something that right now, you are not.
Negativity could come from within you. You may want to reach your goals, but internally you don’t believe you can. Maybe the tasks seem daunting and you get overwhelmed.
And, negativity can come from things you have no control over, as well.
Who do you want surrounding you when you need support? Of course, you want people aligned to your purpose – people who will hold you up when things get rough, and when you believe you can’t do it, they’ll tell you that you can.
The one thing you don’t want to do is assume that your own willpower will suffice. This may be true, but why take the chance? What you need is to use your inner circle to help you build up your positive habits, celebrate your successes, and if failures happen, they’ll give you a shoulder to cry on, but then they’ll encourage you to get back to work!
This is one thing that all successful people have figured out for themselves… that by surrounding themselves with positive, uplifting, and supportive people who themselves are always reaching for growth, they will reach their own growth that much easier.
So, your inner circle can indeed make or break you. Make sure you choose wisely!
Challenge Assignment:
Do you have negative people around you? Who are they? What can you do right now to start eliminating the negative in your life?
Finding Your Inner Circle of People
An inner circle of friends is an awesome way to create and maintain a harmonious and balanced life. But who makes up your valued inner circle may surprise you! You want those people in your inner circle to be the ones who challenge you, make you think in new and different ways, and above all, are honest with you all the time.
It’s great to have friends who think you’re wonderful because you are, but it’s valuable to have friends who can also point out (nicely, of course, and with love) where you might need some work. And luckily, if your inner circle is made up of the right types of people, they’ll help you do the work that needs to be done to create a happier, healthier you!
Your inner circle is a circle of close friends that surrounds you that you trust implicitly. They are the people who you naturally turn to for advice and reasoning. They know how to listen, and give you their opinions without bias. It goes without saying that choosing the people who are in your inner circle is a decision that should not be taken lightly.
Your inner circle will grow organically – you can’t simply go out and pick and choose who is involved. You meet and learn about people, and get together with them, and you’ll notice that some will naturally gravitate to the top of your “favorites” list. Ask yourself why.
Be aware of what it is about them you enjoy and value. It’s easy to choose inner circle members who think you’re wonderful, but much more difficult to choose those who will challenge you instead. This takes an honest assessment of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, and helps you choose your inner circle according to what is best for you – not necessarily what feels best at the time, or all of the time.
Overall, the people you want closest to you should be supportive, empathetic, honest, energetic, trustworthy, intelligent, kind, loving, and enthusiastic. Above all, each member must be positive-minded, and optimistic! You should admire each of the members and look up to them.
Surrounding yourself with challenging people who you feel are “above” you in certain areas of your life will help you rise to their level, and you’ll see successes in areas you may never have dreamed of! This is the true beauty of an inner circle that challenges you.
Challenge Assignment:
Review the list of names that make up your inner circle. Should you remove any of them?
What Is An Inner Circle?
Hear the teaching and see the presentation here: https://stme.in/KyEoGmrUS.
An inner circle is a group of very close friends that you look to for support. They come from all walks of life, and each has a specific skill set or set of talents that they bring to the table within your friendship. You, too, have this specific set of strengths that others admire. Within your inner circle of friends, you want to have a wide variety of personalities that will not accept mediocrity but will challenge you to be more than you are today. This is truly what an inner circle is all about.
You naturally gravitate towards those people you admire. It could be that someone has accomplished something you’d like to accomplish. Maybe you admire the level of success they’ve achieved within their personal, social, or business life. You may feel as if they are “higher up” than you, so you look up to them.
These are the people you want to make up your inner circle. Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So you want those five people (five being a somewhat arbitrary number) to be people who are in a position in life that you’d like to be in as well.
People who have achieved a measure of success in life have learned myriad lessons from their experiences along the way. They have earned wisdom through those experiences. These lessons and wisdom are passed on in inner circles to those who are up-and-coming and need the support, direction, and guidance of someone who has already traveled the road.
If personal growth, ministry or business success is something you desire, surround yourself with people in your inner circle who are emotionally and spiritually at a level that you’d like to achieve. This may mean learning new and different spiritual teachings, or finally dealing with emotional baggage that’s been holding you back. While uncomfortable to deal with, imagine life without that baggage!
If business growth is your goal, search out mentors in the business world who are enjoying a level of success that you think is impossible for you to find. Then let the lessons from these people stretch your limits and help you grow to achieve your own business success. Keep an open mind, and tell your ego to take a vacation while you’re working to learn new lessons and open your mind to new possibilities.
Challenge Assignment:
How do you define Inner Circle? Why?
Inner Circle Challenge
It’s Time for the “Inner Circle” Challenge – The Power of Surrounding Yourself With The Right People.
If you are like me, you have been believing for the right people to connect with to advance to the next level, to support you in life, ministry or business, or just to be there as a genuine friend. So, to encourage myself, I put together a challenge on the Inner Circle – The Power of Surrounding Yourself With The Right People.
I’m tired of making connections with people, that don’t last. My desire is for the real connections that are life-long.
This challenge will teach you the importance of having a strong and like-minded support system. There will be three main areas the challenge will focus on which include, Inner Circle Pitfalls, Inner Circle Power, and Building Your Circle. Some of the topics addressed during this challenge will be:
*What is an Inner Circle?
•Why You Should Keep Your Inner Circle Small
•Your Inner Circle Can Make or Break You
•Your Inner Circle Environment
•Your Inner Circle Hierarchy
•7 Personality Types to Beware within Your Inner Circle
•8 Traits to Seek in Inner Circle Members
•Finding Your Inner Circle People
•How an Inner Circle Can Help You Reach Your Goals
•Removing Someone from Your Inner Circle
This challenge will include Blog Posts, Facebook Group Posts, Radio Shows, Telecalls, and Webinars.
Let’s Get Started.
Day 1 Challenge Assignment:
Make a list of the names of the people who have immediate access to you or who surround your life on a daily basis.
Thanks For Your Patience
I know it has been a while since I have posted a blog. Over the past few months a lot has been going on. My father experienced some medical challenges and we had a big family reunion, which I was spear heading. I wasn’t able to post on a regular basis or do any challenges.
I want to thank those of you who prayed for me and my family. Also, I want to thank all for your patience in following my blog. We are more than half way through the year. I am ready now to get started once again with some blog posts on spiritual and personal… growth challenges, as well as, personal, business, and ministry development training.
Please continue to pray for me. I will be humbled and would greatly appreciate it.
The next challenge will be the “Inner Circle” Challenge starting in a week. If you are like me, you are believing God to place or send into your people who are genuine and authentic when it comes to respecting, praying and believing God for your life and success.
Until then, stay encouraged and strong.
