Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

Blog

Are You An Explorer?

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Age doesn’t matter when it comes to developing the attitude of being an explorer. Adventure is most often associated with youth. Let’s not, however, confuse inexperience with adventure. To be an explorer of life is to see life as an adventure versus a chore or time served on the planet. I know adventurers who are 9 and those who are in their 90s. The choice is yours.

My friend Mel Kaufman is 93 and he’s a remarkable explorer with the wit to match. Mel writes short stories that are long on wisdom and insight. Many of you downloaded The Kaufman Christmas Collection for free … and it’s still for free. (Hint!)

After my On-Purpose Minute, How Do You Manage Disappointment, Mel wrote me the following: “Disappointments are like failure; they are of no value unless we learn from them. Henny Youngman said, ‘I went to a psychiatrist and finally found my self. I was very disappointed.’” Now there’s a lesson and a laugh. It doesn’t get much better!

Cultivating a spirit of curiosity about the world is a noble endeavor, but don’t forget yourself. The better you know who you are the richer that journey beyond you will be and become. The ultimate exploration is to know oneself because in the process of that journey you’ll face some very challenging ordeals (Hey, it’s an adventure!) that will clarify your thinking and provoke your beliefs. To understand your design, you’ll look into the mind and heart of the Designer. Wow!

Some Quotes on Exploring

“We must develop a compelling vision of later life: one that does not assume a trajectory of decline after fifty, but one that recognizes it as a time of change, growth, and new learning, a time when our courage gives us hope.”

            Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
            Author: The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure

 
“We are here to be excited from youth to old age, to have an insatiable curiosity about the world. Aldous Huxley once said that to carry the spirit of the child into old age is the secret of genius. And I buy that. 

“We are also here to genuinely, humbly, and sincerely help others by practicing a friendly attitude. And every person is born for a purpose. Everyone has a God-given potential, in essence, built into them. And if we are to realize life to its fullest, we must realize that potential.”

                Norman Vincent Peale
                Protestant pastor
                Author, The Power of Positive Thinking

Crazy_grandpa

The photo to the right is not Norman Vincent Peale. It is Mr. Six of Six Flags. I want to meet him! Dig the shoes! Watch him in action! (He’s actually an actor not a real old guy but you get the point about the attitude.)

The aging process is inevitable. How we age, however, is significantly within our control. Just because you might be part of an “aging population,” such as the Baby Boomers, it doesn’t mean that you are over the hill, washed up, and done for. Heck, you’re finally better equipped than ever.

Keith Lawrence is the co-author of Your Retirement Quest. Keith has been researching and advising those approaching and in retirement. Here is a fascinating chart Keith and his co-author Alan Spector developed about various types of Retirement Quests. Why wait to get started until you are retired or in assisted living to begin your Retirement Quest? Discover your Retirement Quest today regardless of what decade of life you are in.

I regularly visit my Mom who is 87. This affords me the honor to meet her friends, many of whom are well into their 90s, even a couple in their 100s. One learns a lot from being with this Greatest Generation in this independent living facility. They’re an interested lot who read, discuss, debate, and embrace life. One observation I’ve had about this vital group—they aren’t the grumpy old people so often portrayed. They’re vibrant, interested, and interesting. As Peale recommends, they’ve carried a youthful curiosity into their advanced years.

Another observation I’ve had about the 80+ crowd is that they’re generally thin and at a healthy weight. The general U.S. population has 2 out of 3 of us being obese or overweight. My guesstimate of this group is they’re just the opposite — only 1 in 3 are overweight or obese. Chances are the consequences of the excess weight in their peers brought about an early demise.

Begin by discovering who you really are. Retirement age is not mandated by an employer or the government; it comes when we decide to stop discovering who we really are and what we are capable of achieving even to our death bed. Those who never tire of learning, never retire.

The On-Purpose President

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Christian Chamber presentation.003November 10, 2016, two days after the historic election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States, I was the scheduled keynote speaker at the Central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce. I also serve as the Board Chair for the Chamber.

Based on the nasty political rhetoric in the campaign waged between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the President of the Chamber and I anticipated the need to refocus Chamber members on the creator of the universe.

I took the opportunity to remind the Chamber members of three simple points of how to be:

  • Standing in Victory
  • Presiding in Victory
  • Clarifying Who You Are to Be In Victory

Below (click on the graphic) is a 27-minute keynote speech with both the audio and my slides used. Some minor editing of the audio has taken place, but otherwise the content is as it was presented that day.

On-Purpose Peace: Articulate Your Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values

If you are a Chamber Member and want to take advantage of the special On-Purpose Peace online learning experience discussed at the end of the video, then please go to www.ChristianCoach.me to be taken to The On-Purpose Shop where you can learn more and enroll.

Non-members of the Chamber are welcome to participate at our regular price of $195 per person. Click here to enroll.

Is Money Mastering Your Life?

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What is the relationship of purpose and money? Here’s the crux of many a modern-day challenge of money mastering our lives and dominating our thoughts. Is it practical and affordable to be on-purpose? How do we bridge the gap between what our heart wants and paying our bills? Keep reading!

The text and the video of this On-Purpose Minute provide important insights and strategic direction to create a healthy co-existing relationship with purpose and money. 

The Material World of Money

The chorus in Madonna’s 1985 hit single Material Girl is:Cover of "Material Girl"

Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl 

If your worldview is one of a material world, then money is its highest status symbol. Money becomes “what makes the world go around” because it occupies the center of one’s life, attention, and efforts.

Does money define purpose? Purpose is a currency all its own so it doesn’t need money to define it. It would be like thinking that only the rich are on-purpose. Money is a unit of measure, but not a measure of how on-purpose a person is or isn’t.

Purpose lives in your heart; whereas money jealously aspires to rule the house of your heart. Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We have a choice which to treasure: money or purpose. Even of the best intended of us, far too few have taken a break from the material world and invested our time to discover our purpose in life. Our heart therefore remains relatively empty and undefended from within. We’ve shoved our purpose into a hall closet expecting to pull it out someday when we have more time and money to pay attention to it. 

Money, therefore, has an easy job of filling the vacuum of our spirit. Dropping our guard and inviting money to preoccupy our hearts places us at risk of never having the rightful resident abide within us.

Purpose and money are, however, related because if our heart or purpose remains ill-defined, money and purpose are competitors vying for the same space. Purpose politely awaits for our invitation to enter, whereas money will break and enter. Living life divided tears us apart with busyness and distraction as we jump from one pursuit to another in constant, yet ineffective attempts to calm our guilt as we deny and violate our true selves yet again.

Who wins the battle of the material and the spiritual? The answer is simple: the one we most give provision and comfort to within our being. Settling the matter is deciding once and for all which treasure lives in our heart.

I’m, of course, advocating for establishing your purpose as the sole resident of your soul. Money is a harsh and ill-prepared master of the home. It is intended to be a highly obedient servant of the master.

But how does one reclaim one’s heart? Taming money’s lust for control means gaining greater mastery of your life by answering essential questions:

  • Do I know what truly matters?
  • Do I know my 2-word personal purpose statement?
  • Am I willing to do the work to create the life I want?
  • Am I prepared to put money in its place?

Here’s a simple and fun exercise. How would you live your life differently if you had unimagined wealth? In this On-Purpose Minute, we’ve explored money’s unhealthy and overly aggressive elbowing of its “claim” on your heart, mind, actions, and decisions. Turn the tables by taking money off the table for a moment and imagining your life lived abundantly.

For what you may not realize is that you’ve already won the lottery! Imagine the price tag Apple would place on selling an iYou! The computing power, the eyesight, the touch pads of your fingertips and body, plus the mobility are priceless. Now add a heart and spirit! $30 million doesn’t come close to estimating your value and worth.

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Right Business Strategy

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Strategy& (Formerly Booz & Company and part of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers)) does for large businesses what On-Purpose Partners does for small and mid-market companies. As you watch the video above listen as they describe in their words the pillars of The On-Purpose Business Person:

  • Do More of What You Do Best More Profitably
  • Strategy is about the business being (purpose) with aligned execution (missions)
  • Answer important questions at the core of the business and culture
  • The Service Model to execute the strategy

Learn how to instill purpose into your business strategy (being on-purpose) by watching this 9-minute video called The On-Purpose Business Plan. 

Here are some of the highlights of this Strategy& video that hit me:

  • 80% of value destruction has come from bad strategic decisions
  • Competitors are coming from all corners so differentiation is important
  • Companies go chasing growth by letting a thousand flowers bloom only to have fields of weeds to clean up later
  • 60% of C-suite executives have no confidence in their strategy
  • Fundamental questions are not being answered — being best and better than anyone else
  • Double down on differentiated capabilities and competencies
  • Who are we going to be? — the most important question (purpose, vision, mission, and values)
  • Strategy provides the advantage to win

Here you can watch a series of these brief video commentaries on business strategy and leadership.

 

Employee Engagement: How Are Your Three E’s?

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Peter Drucker, the famous management guru, spoke of doing business with effectiveness and efficiency. Let’s add another “E” to the equation: Engagement, as in “employee” engagement. Learn to assess your career and business using these 3 E’s and you’ll be amazed what might be revealed about your career, team, or business. 

Engagement has more recently come to the forefront of employee discussions by The Gallup Organization. I admit to being a huge fan of their work on Employee Engagement. Twenty years ago, I had the pleasure of partnering with a Gallup leader on a client assignment, and I was roundly impressed. Several years back, I reconnected with their work again through a client’s company. Their books and StrengthsFinder survey are first rate as well.

Jim Harter, Ph.D., author of New York Times bestseller 12: The Elements of Great Managing, talks about the power of Gallup’s 12 questions at this Gallup site.

Team Engagement is one of the primary measures for a Chief Leadership Officer™. If you’re leading a business, then you need to get your head into this topic. Leadership of people is the future — engage with it! Be a CLO

Efficiency. Effectiveness. Engagement

Chapter 7 of Chief Leadership Officer will positively rock your take on employee engagement. Basically, the very use of the term “employee” dooms the engagement effort to failure. An employer-employee relationship is transactional. Whereas, engagement is relational.

Chief Leadership Officer – order your book today!

The Job of Your Life … Finding A Job You Love?

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Finding a job you love is challenging, but it can be easy as 1, 2, 3. It takes a plan and a process along with patience. How do you go about creating or finding the job that is fulfilling and on-purpose? That’s the job of your life.

This video was originally aired on November 17, 2011, when the unemployment rate was over 10%. In the years since, the published unemployment rate is lower. In many circles today the underemployment rate and out-of-the-job-market rate remains very high. 

Every day I run into people who are underemployed or unemployed. This breaks my heart on many levels. Aside from their loss of income and financial struggles, what I often observe in their situation is a point of view that is detrimental to their current and long-term state of well-being. They’ll never get the job of their life. It is like the movie Dead Poets Society, where the one young man decides that a life of just pleasing others is worse than death.Kissing Cobras

Many people think a job equals security and identity. This erroneous, yet prevalent, worldview on work creates a cycle of being in and out of dissatisfying jobs or workplaces. Or, if the pay is sufficient, staying in a job one really doesn’t like all that much. The pain of change appears worse than the suffering on the job.

For a few dollars more, we’ll trade our precious life. What a waste! Yet, I fully understand and deeply appreciate the dilemma. Money is important to function in society, to eat, to be housed, etc. 

Don’t blame your job for your state of well-being. Instead, take responsibility for bringing meaning to the job! That sounds easier to do than it really is. But how?

First, don’t quit your day job just yet because I struck a nerve with you!

Second, let my 1-2-3 approach (see this On-Purpose Minute) settle in your spirit. Even if you think it is impractical, do you find yourself wishing you could actually do this? Do you imagine what’s really possible if you pursued your passion? 

Third, do your heart work! On-Purpose Peace and My On-Purpose Folder are remarkable workbooks for personal or small group study.

Fourth, if you’re thinking of starting your own business then connect with me. We have coaching and programs that can help you accelerate your planning process and success ratio. We even have healthy lifestyle coaching with On-Purpose Partners for a select few people.

The job of your life is to live your life on-purpose. To be as fully you as God intended and designed you to be.

What Are Your Answers To Life’s Great Questions?

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Dare You Risk Leading Your Life Better?

Here they are: The 7 Great Questions about life that haunt us until we answer them, deny them, or simply overwhelm them in a soulless chase for gain and/or pleasure. 

  1. Who am I?
  2. Why am I here?
  3. Where am I going?
  4. How will I get there?
  5. What is important?
  6. Is life meaningful?
  7. Does God exist?

You may think, With all I have to get done, I realistically don’t have time to mess with these questions. Here’s a tip for life: until you begin answering these questions, they will mess with your life. The sooner you start, the better off you’ll be.

Don’t put your life on hold until you have definitive answers. Simply explore your possibilities. Make it a joyous adventure of daily discovery as the layers of your life unfold before you with a sense of wonder and excitement.

Think it’s impractical with all you’ve got going on? Hardly! Stop wasting your life in trivial pursuits.

Answers to these questions fill in the soul gaps—those places within us that we know are there, but aren’t quite sure we want to or know how to get there. It can be a scary place to visit, like a closet of dashed hopes, painful memories, unrealized dreams, disappointments, and pain. On the other hand, it is also a journey of hope and healing to the heart of who you authentically are. Here’s the only place on the planet where you can discover your true identity and begin the process of reorienting your life on the strength, function, and contribution you have to give. Transformation begins in the spirit. Knowing and bringing expression to your purpose will raise the spiritual and practical trajectory of your life forever.

On-Purpose Leadership Experiences: Helping you process your answers to Life’s Great Questions

One-on-One Coaching with The On-Purpose Person and either My On-Purpose Folder or On-Purpose Peace as the coaching agenda. This is typically 8 coaching sessions in 8 weeks with a trained coach. Your investment is $1,500 to $5,000 depending upon your coach, circumstances, and needs.

Do-It-Yourself. Buy The On-Purpose Person and On-Purpose Peace. Work through the content on your own or with a small group. Your investment is $35 per person.

 

 

 

Who Cares About Leading The Business?

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Leading the business carries responsibilities. Being aPurpose of Organization business advisor and strategic management consultant for more than a couple of decades, I can tell you the single, simplest, most overlooked root of more problems in organizations is the failure to articulate, communicate, and execute based on the purpose of the organization (Po). Its absence is massively expensive; its presence nourishes the corporate culture for productive and efficient growth in people and profits.

Someone in charge, however, has to care. Is that you who is leading the business?

This lack of deep strategic clarity muddles every aspect of the organization. People, process, performance, profits, customer service, and operations are just a few of the functional areas informed by a potent, simple, 2-word purpose statement. 

Yet, purpose statements are amazingly misunderstood, unappreciated, and under-engaged. In businesses, I’ve seen the benefit of the leadership team knowing and executing on their purpose produce a 25% or more increase in sales and even greater percentage increases in profits. 

Are you finally ready to set a strategic cornerstone and write your purpose statement? Remember, it is just a beginning but an essential start. I recommend that all business clients first write their personal purpose statement before they do the business statement.