04/21/13: "Faith"

Recent tragedies have filled this past week. Events such as the Boston Marathon Bombings, the Explosion in West Texas and severe earth quakes overseas. As these events occurred, I could not but help and look back and remind myself of my faith. That same faith that was instilled in me by my parents, grandparents and uncles. Faith is a necessary must to live a life full of joy, love and hope. The hope to one day be reunited with all our loved ones.

Faith was taught to me by my grandparents and parents - primarily by my "Ma & Papa" (maternal grandparents). They were devout Catholics but besides that always had faith in God and were never scared to put their faith, life and love in God. They would always tell me, "Trust God and let Him guide you!"

Those words are still very much alive in my everyday life, but certain things, events such as those mentioned earlier hit hard and really make you think - when is it our time? Am I ready? Have I done all that I need to do?

The answers that came quickly was to put my faith, life and love in God's hands. He will take me and guide me to my future and only he has control. Being able to have this faith has helped me overcome many circumstances in these "older" years of my life. It has made me wiser and more understanding. Although at times I feel as I must have control of everything in my life, I understand that I do not have control of my own life.

God has my life in his hands and I am prepared and ready to carry out his mission.

2 Corinthians 5:7
We live by faith, not by sight.

04/12/13: "Wealth!"

Wealth by definition is: the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions (Wikipedia). So are you wealthy? Is being wealthy having the abundance of material possessions? Is being wealthy having luxurious cars, enormous houses and Rolex watches? By definition, I guess that could be correct, but I guess the correct question to ask yourself is do you feel wealthy? Are you HAPPY with your “wealth?”

In my now 32 years of life I have encountered various scenarios, mixed emotions and valuable lessons. One thing that I can always remember though was my father telling me that money doesn’t make you happy – and I have always been happy. So then, what is correct? Perhaps we need the definition of happiness or perhaps even better the secret to be happily wealthy…does it exist?

Happiness, as also defined by Wikipedia, is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Key word: Positive! In recent years, I’ve had the good fortune to attend several seminars and workshops but one person in particular has made an impact in my way of thinking – thinking POSITIVE – thank you Ernesto Benavides (www.ernestobenavides.com). I believe that thinking positive is the KEY starting point to achieving happiness and as a result PERSONAL wealth. Yes, I purposely wrote personal in caps since wealth can be defined as an “abundance of valuable resources.” To me, this valuable resource is – happiness!

So now that we begin to analyze everything by definition and begin to look for the root causes of each of the different states of being, we can begin to see and layout a path to achieve the goal or answer to our original question. Are you following me? Did I leave you behind somewhere? Let’s recap:

Wealth can be seen, by definition, as the abundance of a valuable resource OR material possession. Key word is “OR.” Which is important to you – the abundance of a valuable resource or the material possessions. In my particular case, the valuable resource that I consider to be wealthy is “HAPPINESS!” Furthermore to achieve happiness I must always be in a POSITIVE state of mind since happiness is defined as being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions…YES it all does make sense! If I am positive, I will be happy and see all happiness life has to offer me. If I am happy then I have achieved my personal wealth since I have an abundance of happiness in my life!

So now ask yourself these questions: (1) Are you wealthy? (2)What is your idea of wealth and why?

Quote to live by:
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”
- Aristotle

04/05/13: Manager Vs Leader - Which Are You?

Two weeks ago I had the good fortune to attend a workshop for high performing leaders out in Chicago, Illinois. The 3 day workshop focused on several aspects of management, leadership and other topics relevant to the above. Not too long before attending the workshop I had taken some time to work on and develop my personal brand. For those of you not familiar, a personal brand is a group of adjectives which can best describe you from peers or yourself. The personal brand that I developed was: "Motivating, Strategic, Manager & Coach." I was pleased with my PB and updated accordingly. Fast forward back to the Chicago workshop and our instructor (Mark Balzar & his team), which by the way were excellent, inspirational and motivating, began to speak about managers Vs leaders. They began to point out significant differences between a manager and a leader. Then I began to analyze and critique my PB - was I a "manager" or "leader?" After not much debate, I quickly came to the realization that I miss worded my personal brand and in fact should read - leader!

So, what are the differences? Well, there are several but the main difference I noticed and perhaps the most important is: a Leader is someone who will motivate and inspire and a Manager is someone who will control.

In my line of work as an Operations Manager, my job is not to control people, but rather to motivate, inspire and engage our associates to our company's vision and goal. As a direct result, we will achieve customer satisfaction and Operational Excellence!

So, yes I have updated my PB and now reflects accurately that I am a leader not a manager, but have you asked yourself the same: Are you a manager or a leader?

Final quote:
"People work for managers; they follow leaders."