Borrowing Experience

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

                                                                                                                                    Proverbs 1:7

In my last 40 years of existence, I have come to understand this fairly well. There are many means and method to shorten the learning curve or acquisition of knowledge and wisdom. One of this method is about having a Mentor. Before all of that,  we need to be grateful for the freewill and intellect that was given to us. All of these are the gifts from our Creator and we are considered as stewards of them. Need to ensure we make best of use of them as in the Parable of the Talents and improving on them for the glory of God. Enjoy! 

The Best Teacher?

We’ve all heard, “Experience is the best teacher,” but it’s simply not true. Experience is not the best teacher; it never has been and never will be.  Maturity doesn’t always come with time; sometimes age brings nothing more than wrinkles and gray hair.

Experience is not the best teacher; evaluated experience is the best teacher.  Reflective thinking is needed to turn experience into insight. We draw lessons from the past only when we study it. I have a habit of spending time each evening in reflective thinking. When I get ready for bed, I take ten minutes to look back on my day—conversations I’ve had, people I’ve met, things I’ve done, statements I’ve said—and I make note of significant lessons.

Now, the younger you are, the less experience you have to evaluate. Since you have limited firsthand experience yourself, look to borrow it from a mentor. Listen, learn, and ask questions from somebody successful who has gone before you. A wise leader never stops seeking to glean from the experiences of others.

Take Action: Looking for a Mentor

There’s no specific formula when it comes to finding a mentor, but these steps can aid your search.

1. Conduct an Honest Self-Assessment

Write down responses to the following questions: Where am I in my career? Where do I hope to be in the future? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What obstacles are keeping me from growing to my potential?

2. Clarify Your Purpose

Go into a mentoring relationship with a goal. Ask yourself: What do I hope to gain from the relationship? You may be interested in learning a specific skill, obtaining advice on an important decision, or gaining insight into a problem. Whatever the case, spend time on the front end to get clear about your purpose for pursuing the mentoring relationship. Put your purpose on paper. It will help narrow your search for the right mentor as well as keeping you focused on your main goals.

3. Consider Possible Mentors

After assessing where you are professionally and clarifying why you want to be mentored, the next step is to identify prospective mentors. Obviously, you want to find someone with experience and expertise in the areas where you hope to grow. Additionally, the more they share your values, the better.

You probably already have someone in your network with the combination of skills and experience that you’re looking for in a mentor. If not, ask for referrals from trusted coworkers and friends. Don’t feel like you have to find a mentor who can help you in every facet of life; just make sure they have something to offer in at least one area in which you hope to grow.

Make a list of everyone who comes to mind as a possible mentor, and then rank your top two choices. Research their interests, background, and involvements, looking for points of connection.

4. Come up with a Game Plan

Before approaching a prospective mentor, come up with a tentative framework for your mentoring relationship. How often would you meet? How would meetings be structured? What would be the duration of the mentoring relationship? Certainly, you’ll want to be accommodating of your mentor’s preferences, but having a plan in place will facilitate discussion about the nature of the relationship. Also, having a game plan in hand demonstrates to your mentor the forethought you’ve put in to the relationship.

5. Make the Connection

The last step is asking to be mentored. When approaching potential mentors, express what you respect about them and share why you are attracted by the idea of having them as a mentor. Then, concisely share your goal for the mentoring relationship. Articulate your expectations and be attentive to their goals and expectations as well.

Be mindful that you’re asking for a big favor. If they agree to mentor you, make the logistics (schedule, location, etc.) as easy as possible for them. Finally, both upfront and throughout the relationship, show appreciation for your mentor’s willingness to invest in you.

 To Your Success!

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The Time of Your Life

In below post are some suggestions for making best use of our time. We are on this earth for a limited time only or as a traveler. I do hope everybody realize the temporal nature of our lives... our true home is with Our Lord in Heaven. Hope we all spent eternity there instead in hell. Now, while we are here let us make best use of our limited time ...Enjoy the Journey =)


He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 

                                                                                                            Acts 1:7

             Which significant event or season would you describe as “the time of your life”? Perhaps your wedding day and honeymoon, an adventurous vacation, or the birth of a child. These memorable moments stick in our minds and remembering them brings back feelings of joy. Yet while our lives may be marked by notable occasions, they’re not defined as much by any single event as by the unremarkable days which shape our character and values. The hours, minutes, and seconds in a day literally are the time of our lives. How we use them shapes who we are. To make the most of the precious resource of time, consider the following three steps.

1) Gain Clarity

Clarity is the most important concept in personal productivity. Leaders cannot make the best use of time until they have a clear-cut notion of their purpose in life. Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University, after more than fifty years of research, concluded that “long-term perspective” is the most accurate single predictor of upward social and economic mobility in America. Long-term perspective turns out to be more important than family background, education, race, intelligence, connections, or virtually any other single factor in determining your success in life and at work.

Successful people have a clear future orientation. They think five, ten, and twenty years out into the future. Take a moment to ponder your purpose. What do you hope to accomplish in life? Where would you like to be in 10 years?

More concretely, ask yourself, “Why am I on the payroll?” Pose this question to yourself over and over again throughout your career. In truth, most people are not sure exactly why they are on the payroll. Yet, if you are not crystal clear about the results you have been hired to accomplish, it is very hard to perform at your best, raise your value as an employee, and earn promotions.

2) Generate Priorities

Leaders look ahead to where they hope to be in the future, and they set priorities in the present to make sure they end up at their desired destination. Their future intent influences their present action. Prioritization means giving focus and energy to those things that give the highest return.

The 80/20 Rule is a helpful concept to hone in on your high-return tasks. This principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results, 20 percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, and 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits. This means that if you have a list of ten items you do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together. Which priorities on your to-do list are most likely to account for the bulk of your productivity?

3) Get on a Schedule

Scheduling is telling your time where to go instead of wondering where it went. Sticking to a predetermined schedule guards your time and puts you in control of your agenda. Alternatively, unscheduled time flows to trivial tasks, falls under the sway of the assertive personalities around us, and surrenders to every emergency that arises.

Thoughts on scheduling:

1. Schedule in advance

Work a couple of months ahead. Put top priorities on the calendar first, making sure keep your family at the top of the list.

2. Resist the urge to overschedule

You’re not Superman or Superwoman, so don’t try to cram 14 hours of work into an 8-hour day. Also, build in ample time for rest and exercise. In addition, give yourself margin. Leave some free time to deal with unexpected events or to fit in an unforeseen appointment. Finally, just say no. Filter out meetings or involvements that eat away time and offer little in return.

3. Create large chunks of time

Most of the truly important work you do requires large chunks of unbroken time to complete. Your ability to carve out and use these blocks of peak-value, highly productive time is central to your ability to make a significant contribution to your work and to your life. Study your natural rhythm and carve out space on your calendar to perform your most important work during the time of day when you function best.

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DEVELOPING DISCIPLINE by Dr. John C. Maxwell

by Dr. John C. Maxwell

He opens also their ear to discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.

                                                                                                                Job 36:10

H.P. Liddon said, "What we do on some great occasions will probably depend upon what we already are, and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline." I believe that with all of my heart.

Discipline is doing what you really do not want to do, so you can do what you really want to do. What makes it hard is that in our own human nature, we do not want to do certain things, and so therefore, what happens is we have a tendency to be undisciplined in the areas that we do not care to do.

Three areas to develop discipline:

1. Disciplined Thinking.

George Bernard Shaw said, "Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week."

While writing my newest book, the focus of the whole book was based on the idea that people who understand how to get to the top and stay there are people who think their way to the top.

One of the major differences in this discipline of thinking is that people who think their way to the top have the ability to do what I call "sustained thinking." They have the ability to think on an issue for a long period of time, until that issue becomes clear on the decision that should be made.

People who do not think their way to the top have the unwillingness of discipline to master sustained thinking. They will think about something for a while, and then they will get off it and go on to something else.

They have never learned how to discipline their thoughts by writing them down. I always keep a pad with me of things that I am thinking. I write thoughts down so that I can stay concentrated and disciplined in that area.

2. Disciplined Emotions.

We have choices when it comes to our emotions:
 1. We can master them, or
 2. They can master us.

I was playing golf the other day at East Lake Country Club, a great golf course here in Atlanta. It is known for being the links where Bobby Jones played. As you may or may not know, he is a legendary golfer who won a major tournament at twenty-one. By age twenty-eight, he had already won the grand slam and retired.

Jones had an uncle who said that by the time he was fourteen, Bobby was probably already the best golfer in the world. He certainly was popular. However, Jones was also known for his temper because he would throw his clubs when he got irritated. Jones' uncle sat down with him and said, "Bobby, your problem is you've mastered the game of golf, but you haven't mastered your emotions; and until you master your emotions, you'll never be a champion in golf."

3. Disciplined Actions.

I call the two actions of initiating and closing the "bookends of success" because I really think they are.

I know some who can initiate but they can never close; I know some people who can close but they can never get it cranked up. You have to kick-start them every time. When you can do both, initiate and close, you have the bookends to success.

Allow me to leave you with this closing thought about developing discipline: You cannot give what you do not have, and self-improvement precedes team improvement.

The only way that I can keep leading is to keep growing. The day I stop growing, somebody else takes the leadership baton. That is the way it always is.

To Your Success!  

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