It’s come a long way since we moved in over 10 years ago. There was very little grass and quite a few weeds. In West Texas a good grass to have is Bermuda. It is heat hardy, spreads quickly and doesn’t need deep roots. So…after a few years of consistent watering and a lawn service for fertilizing, we now have grass over the entire yard.

Our West Texas soil is hard and it takes a lot of effort for any type of grass to grow. It takes a lot of water to keep it green — ‘paid for’ water because we don’t get much rain.

Some people give up and pave most of their yard — some xeriscape and plant regional grasses and plants. Honestly, sometimes it just looks like they let the weeds grow. (Only my personal opinion.)

When I was younger, my Dad ‘taught’ me how to pull sticker weeds in the yard — goat heads. Until I learned to recognize them I pulled a lot of milkweeds. (Also something you don’t want in your yard — but not nearly as painful.) A small claim to fame is that I can spot a goathead plant from across the yard — yours or mine!

However, it took me quite awhile to learn the difference between ‘good’ grass and ‘bad’ grass.

Now, while Bermuda grows well, many people here prefer St. Augustine. It has wide blades, is a deep green and if you happen to have trees in the yard it grows well in the shade.

Unfortunately I couldn’t tell the difference between crab grass and St. Augustine until I had a conversation with my father-in-law as he worked in his yard.  I know that some people consider Bermuda grass a bane to their yard, but I’m pretty sure crab grass is a no-no everywhere.

Crab grass is pretty — it greens early — it grows well. The problem? It chokes up the root systems of the other grasses and steals their nutrients. It’s a weed — a parasite — a life stealer. You can’t kill it with weed killer because you end up killing the good grass, too. The good news is that it has a single tap-root so that if the soil is wet you can pull a ton of it out in one fell swoop with very little effort!

It takes diligence, but year by year I’m eradicating the crab grass. thankfully I AM goathead and milkweed free!

Our thoughts are a lot like a yard. Through trial and error we learn which ones serve us and which ones destroy us. We don’t learn all the signs right away and sometimes a ‘weed’ can get out of control.

Some thoughts LOOK like good thoughts. They masquerade as something else until suddenly their true, life-stealing properties are revealed.

Some steps to find out the difference?

1) Does this thought serve me or do I serve it?

2) If I continue to believe this what will my life be like in 1 year? 5 years? Ten?

3) If I refuse to believe this thought what will change for me?

4) Does this thought give me REAL freedom?  A FALSE freedom? Make me a SLAVE?

All of us have weeds lurking in the lawn of our mind. Some take more work than others to eradicate. But all of them with time and diligence can be done away with.

From time to time a milkweed or goathead plant will sneak into my yard. You can imagine they experience a quick end. And now that I’ve learned to recognize it so does the crabgrass!

Same way with most life-stealing thoughts. A quick pull and out they go!

But like some of you, I’m still fighting a good fight against a few areas of crab grass. It still takes a bit of work to get rid some of those thoughts for good. My choice is to stay watchful and diligent against those thoughts that don’t serve me and seek to steal my life away.

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. – Proverbs 4:23

Courage = the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc. without fear; bravery; the source of emotion.

Dis = apart, asunder, away, utterly; or having a negative or reversing force.

DIS-COURAGEMENT then is being apart from, away from, or being reversed from that quality of mind or spirit that makes us able to press through the fear, the disappointment (another word I love — being separated from your appointed placed), or the source of emotion that enables us to go forward.

A lot of things will bring us to the point of being DIS-COURAGED…but for our sake and point of reference, let’s just talk about business things.

• Cancellations — we become afraid that if we have 1 or 2 that means ALL our parties will cancel.
• Low Attendance — well, if 1 or 2 or 3 parties in a row all have only a couple of people, I guess that I’m not ever going to have a high enough attendance to have a good party and get bookings.
• Little Family Support — if my family won’t suppor me in this, why should I expect strangers to help or believe in me.
• Recruits that quit before they’ve even really gotten started — why should I continue to recruit? I must be a bad sponsor because I couldn’t help them do better and be happy about this business.
• Missed Achievements – I can’t believe I missed it AGAIN! I guess I’m just no good at this!

On and on the list goes and it becomes more and more powerful, until we find ourselves saying to ourselves, ‘I just don’t think I want to do this because I can’t seem to make it work.’

 Of course what we tell others around us is that we’re just too busy. But in reality we’ve become DISCOURAGED, and FEAR has taken over.

 Fear of failure

Fear of looking silly

Fear of not making money

Fear that people don’t like you

Feat that you can’t learn the skills needed

Fear

Fear

Fear

 Of course we all know that FEAR is defined as False Evidence Appearing Real.

 Remember the Cowardly Lion of the Wizard of Oz? He thought that if he could get to the Wizard he could get all the Courage he needed. The truth — he’d just lost sight of the fact that the courage was inside of him, he just had to have a big enough reason to bring it forward.

 What is YOUR big reason? What is your APPOINTMENT?

 Discouragement and fear breed like crazy when you separate yourself from those who believe in and support you.

 Even if you don’t believe in yourself right now — I do.

Donna

Accept the fact that you don’t have all the answers.

Believe that you can learn whatever you need to know.

Commit to doing what needs to be done for growth and success.

Determine your goal.

Expect to win.

Face your fears.

Greet your challenges with a smile.

Help someone else reach their goal.

Invest in yourself.

Jump at the chance to get out of your comfort zone.

Keep pressing forward even when it is easier to step back.

Leave people’s lives better than they were before they met you.

Move one step toward your dream every day.

Never let anyone tell you that you can’t succeed – especially yourself.

Open your heart to love. Don’t keep it to yourself. People need you and you need people.

Pay it forward.

Quit giving yourself excuses.

Remember that greatness is inside of you.

Share your victories with everyone; your sorrows with few.

Treat yourself with honor. If you don’t, no one else will either.

Understand that this is a journey. Day by day, little by little you achieve your dreams.

Vacations are critical. Take time away to renew, refresh & re-joy.

Watch for opportunities; they are everywhere.

eXercise your mind, your spirit, your body. Stay strong.

Yesterday has great lessons, but you can’t live there and go forward.

Zealousness is your heart’s way of staying alive. Be passionate about your dream and it will grow; ignore it and it will die.

-Copyright 2010 – Donna K Woolam

WHAT is the vision you have concerning leadership?

HOW is that vision communicated by action?

WHEN do you stand, and when do you bow out?

Leadership is a highly personal ‘personality’ trait.

With training and desire ANYONE can become a leader that other’s follow. It is critical though that you have a vision of who you want to be as a leader and then GO THAT DIRECTION.

People are full of opinions on how you should behave, how you should act and what you should do. HOWEVER, if it doesn’t ring true in your GUT…it probably isn’t for you.

All of us become emotionally attached to ‘our thing’ no matter how hard we try to be objective. Be honest in your assessment of the advice or direction that people are giving you. Are you resistant because it is ‘your pet’ or are you resistant because it just isn’t the fit for you?

Recently, in another realm of my life, I had to make a decision to either try and be a leader for something the way someone else wanted me to be — or bow out. After months of searching, I decided to bow out.

When YOU are the one responsible for results, activity and performance and when YOU are the one who can control the activities — you’ve got to STAND for what you believe.

When OTHERS control the activities, you sometimes have to bow out. Not because you aren’t invested in the group or activity — but because conflict is the only result of 2 heads trying to be the leader. When you can balance, it is a great place to be to learn new techniques and get a new point of view. But when it is obvious that ‘it just isn’t going to fit’, why cause further heartache? There is probably someone else that should be in the position you are not happy being.

Does that mean you should QUIT at the first sign of conflict?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

It simply means that YOU KNOW what is right for you. BE your own MANAGER…be your own LEADER. Give yourself some great advice. Stand or bow out.

Leadership takes GUTS.

One of the chapters deals with ‘managers’ vs ‘leaders’.

We’ve come to think as managers as something less than a leader, but it takes great people skills (management) to be an outstanding leader.

As you are considering your Legacy Leadership goals, remember that communication, listening, praise, correction, training, coaching, one on one time and respect — the things that make you a great leader — are people management skills.

All you MANAGERS out there — be PROUD of WHO YOU ARE! Teach others to do what you do and you have created LEGACY LEADERSHIP.

Thanks John G Miller!

Typical, good leadership stuff, I agree.

Goals are CRITICAL. A plan for where you want to end up December 31, 2010 is VITAL.

But, maybe you’re like me and sometimes you feel like you’ve ‘heard it all.’

Now those who know, say that if you aren’t doing, you really haven’t heard.

Again, I agree.

I think though, we become desensitized to all of the ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail’ messages. At least I know I have most of the time.

I get newsletters that have goal setting headlines and it’s ‘oh yeah, that again.”

It came to me that, perhaps the reason I  have such a hard time coming up with a ‘tagline’ is that life isn’t a series of headings and clichés.

What is right for me isn’t right for you.

Maybe you’ve been choosing to win, been dreaming big and don’t need to begin again.

Maybe you need to do all of those things.

One of the most difficult things to do is to take the time to look at your own business and life and decide a few things:

1. What have I done well in the past year?
2. What have I not done well in the past year?
3. What am I willing to do to have what I say I want in the next year?
4. What am I not willing to do and am I going to be content with the results of not doing it?

Why is this difficult?

Simply because human nature is to just float along instead of making changes.

Goal-setting doesn’t mean a thing if we aren’t willing to do what has to be done.

We will never do anything to change our world and destination as long as the ‘pain’ of staying where we are isn’t too tough to take.

You have to get a little Popeye the Sailor Man in you…”I’ve had all I can stand and I can’t stands no more!”  Until that happens, we can make charts and graphs and talk to all of our life coaches and business partners until we are blue in the face — and we’ll keep the same ol’ – same ol’ life.

The first question is, “do you really want to change?”

The second is, “are your really ready to do something about it?”

Until you can say YES to both, there’s no need to set any goals.

Radical – huh!