plan

Do You Feel Like a Failure?

November 27, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Do you feel like a failure? How are you choosing to frame “failure”?

Unemployment, slow business, foreclosures, and underemployment are just some of the struggles pressing into the hearts and minds of many today. As debt stares you in the face and the opportunities apparently diminish, the personal repercussions can cause us to lose hope and begin to see our lives as failing.

This situational depression can weigh on one’s spirit to the point of discouragement and negativity if we paint ourselves as failures.

What if your perspective, not your current circumstance, is the problem?

Today’s On-Purpose Minute invites us to stop looking outward and begin looking inward and upward for a fresh approach that holds the key to grasping the present situation and life beyond.

Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, saw “failure” as information. (See the video clip “I Haven’t Failed” by my actor friend, Frank Attwood, who portrays Edison.) How many times have you tried and “failed” only to discover you were one step closer to success?

Gene Kranz, NASA Flight Director, in the movie Apollo 13 is attributed with saying “Failure is not an option,” in the face of saving the crew in space. When failure isn’t an option, then what are the options?

Learning
Growth
Preparation
Creativity
Exploration
Work-arounds

Fresh and exciting options must open up!

When we play scared, we play not to win.

The best we can do is hold steady or lose ground. A shaky self-defeating cycle is set up that once it is in motion can gain momentum and overwhelm us.

Learning to play with reasoned abandon may sound like an oxymoron, but it isn’t. It means that we’re disconnected specifically to the end result, but we’re highly focused on the matters at hand. This frees us to play for the sheer joy and moment, yet aware that what we’re doing in the moment matters. Athletes call it being in “the zone.” It is preparation and hard work intersecting with opportunity.

Truthfully, you’re apt “to choke” the first few encounters, but in time you’ll grow through the experience and be on the way to success. That’s how failures become successes.

How Are Your Marketing Strategy and Plans?

October 11, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Tactical terror is on the face of many a business person these days thanks to the fundamental shift in marketing due to the internet, especially as it relates to social media. Despite all the change, the core of marketing remains much the same as it has for the past 50 years.

In today’s On-Purpose^® Business Minute, may I introduce you to the importance of purpose in your marketing strategy and plans?

Purpose brings the power, spirit, or juice to the business model and marketing plan that engages employees, customers, and shareholders alike, yet each differently.

Before you design that new website or write that new brochure or ad, please give the fundamentals of great marketing the investment of your time and energy on the front end. It will save you a ton of time and money on the back end.

Having the fundamentals of marketing in place provides a higher probability that your goals will be met or exceeded.

Regardless of your company size, do you feel overwhelmed, confused, or frustrated with your present marketing strategy and plans?
Are you facing the tactical terror of chasing your tail and not getting the results you want?

Please place On-Purpose Partners CMO Services on your mind to help you order, focus, build, and expand your business so it can go to the next level of performance. If you need help, please drop me an email at kwmccarthy@on-purpose.com.

As promised, here is a link to the Marketing Mix concept by Jerome McCarthy, the author of Basic Marketing (and who is not related to me).

How Much Planning Is Enough?

April 26, 2018 By kwmccarthy

“How much planning is enough?” is a question I’m often asked by business clients. It poses an interesting query because some of us are planners and others of us are more action-oriented.

There is a fine line between “gettin’ ready” and “gettin’ going.”

None of us are immune from the dilemma of how much is enough.

I see this in my business and life, and, even, authoring books and articles or producing On-Purpose Business Minutes.

Here’s one of my On-Purpose Proverbs on the topic. Perhaps it will give you a rough rule of thumb:

People who don’t have time to plan, need to plan more. People who have time to plan, need to execute more.

Figure out which one “people” you are and adjust accordingly!

Here’s a bit of a litmus test for you to see if you’ve got it right.

If your business is making sufficient revenue AND you have a high degree of personal and professional satisfaction PLUS you’re optimistic about the future, then chances are you’ve struck the right chord. If, however, the previous sentence doesn’t describe your current reality, then use The On-Purpose Proverb above to make a quick assessment of where you need to adjust your attention to find improvement.

Planning is typically considered to be in the wheelhouse of strengths for executive officers.

The reality is we all need to be planners to some degree. The difference in planning from the boardroom compared to the mail room is the scope and authority of the influence. The greater the authority and number of people following the plan, the more important the role of planning becomes to the organization.

Oh! One last thing. When doing planning, please make sure you execute on at least one thing: create a written plan, even if your plan is as simple as a “to do list” with names and dates. The “I Got It Right Here Between My Ears Plan” is really a dream without a deadline, details, and typically, satisfying results. You’re too at-risk of being distracted by shining new objects that cross your path.

“The executive of the future will be rated by his ability to anticipate his problems rather than to meet them as they come.” — Howard Coonley

Admit it! You’re prone to unproductive distractions, but chances are if you’re a person who invests time to watch the On-Purpose Business Minutes, then you’re committed to working on you, to becoming a better person and leader. What tips or suggestions can you offer us? Please use the comment section below to share your wisdom and school of hard knocks lessons learned.

What Is In Your September Plan?

August 17, 2017 By kwmccarthy

(This video mentions the year 2010. No matter the year, having a September plan is good for your business.)

Summer is almost over.

Many of us are just returning from vacation and others are just getting ready to close out the summer by heading on vacation. We’re executing on our family and personal plans put in place some months ago. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

Image via Wikipedia

September in the Northern Hemisphere provides a restart of sorts.

It isn’t like New Year’s Day, but in a sense it can function much like it because it gives us the opportunity to finish the year strong. September is a time to reboot the business.

From now until New Year’s Eve is a great stretch to really make strides in your career or business.

But you need a plan. So let’s talk about a September Plan.

With just a couple of weeks left in August, let’s get our heads ahead of the game and start making plans today for September through the remainder of the year.

What do you want to accomplish?
Who do you need to see?
What decision do you need to make?

Plan now and you’ll hit September in full stride and have the momentum to carry you through the fall and into the first days of winter.

Are You A Leader?

August 13, 2013 By kwmccarthy

I mentor a number of people. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of this work is to see people's leadership blinders. There are many ways of "acquiring" these blinders that needlessly bury and blind their leadership potential.

I've been gifted with eyes to see into the hearts of people and to have an inherent sense of their leadership potential. Frankly, this gift has a heartbreaking downside as I see people who cower from knowing who they really are and settle for less in this one lifetime.

I understand that it takes courage to find one's voice in the world. May I help you?

What Happened To Us? Was it a mentor or parent who failed to recognize your potential and polish the genius of your spirit? Perhaps it was abuse at the hands of a tyrant who pushed you down in order to build up himself or herself? Or is it simply the fear of being known and choosing to play life too safely? The reasons are many, yet the results are the same—being off-purpose and suffering the costs of being less than who we were intended to be and become.

Are you ready to reject mediocrity and begin majoring in your life? May I be your mentor for six weeks through The On-Purpose Leader Experience? Join other on-purpose persons as we go deep into the heart of being a leader to the spirit of who you are. This breakthrough Experience is hard to grasp on the front end, yet, I promise, you will not regret participating in it.

Each week of six, we delve into the On-Purpose Process in a fun, yet meaningful and respectful manner to help you get to the essence of who you are and how you can become a more confident, strong, and faithful leader of your life.

Click here for more information about The On-Purpose Leader Experience.

What are your BIG PLANS for 2010?

November 12, 2009 By kwmccarthy

A new year brings a fresh start. But why wait until late December to make your plans?

In today's On-Purpose^® Business Minute, you'll have an opportunity to prime the pump to be on-purpose in 2010. Learn the three simple steps you can do today to make your tomorrows more abundant and prosperous.

Please use the comment space below this posting / video to share your BIG PLAN for 2010. Someone who can help you may very well read your post and provide you exactly what you need to live more fully and fruitfully into your BIG PLAN.

Click here to receive an email notice when I post new On-Purpose^® Minutes.

My BIG PLAN: Ever since The On-Purpose Person was written I knew a network of on-purpose persons helping others to be on-purpose was essential. I've pondered this for years but the timing just never seemed right. Now it does! Thanks to advances in technology and the worldwide economic slowdown. When the comfort of cash in the pockets is no more, then the possibilities within one's purpose become more real and readily relevant.

Please tell me your thoughts about my BIG PLAN for the On-Purpose Advisor Network.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

Purpose Redeems the Past, Part 2

July 20, 2008 By kwmccarthy

Thelma was working with a woman named Shirley about a purpose and plan for her life using On-Purpose^® tools and methods. In the course of the coaching, Thelma asked her client to write down her career aspirations. Shirley refused to allow herself that luxury because her dreams were gone based on some choices she had made in years passed. This inner city single mom of two children under ten years of age worked two jobs to just barely make ends meet. She worked a clerical job during the day, went home to fix dinner for her kids in the evening, and then went to work as an orderly at a mental hospital at night. This exhausting routine was her life. There was no emotional margin for dreaming.

Thelma is a strong woman who as a single mom herself raised a son and a daughter. She refused to take no for an answer from Shirley. Finally Shirley relented under Thelma’s unwavering insistence. Turns out that this woman was musically gifted. She could read music, play any instrument, and dreamed of creating an inner city symphony orchestra for at-risk kids. She would teach them to play instruments and what it meant to be a part of a musical ensemble. This would be a way to a better life for those kids.