The Gauntlet is Thrown

photo by DieselDemon

I walked away from my job. The day after Labor Day, I gave two weeks notice, and yesterday was my last official day on payroll. You can read more details on how it all came about at today's Speak & Deliver post.

In a nutshell - I was in a job I didn't believe in, and I was out of town more often than not, with my kids growing up without me. There were financial implications involved as well, but in the end, it was a decision driven by the fact that I was not creating a life I wanted, but a life that was 'more acceptable' in the world's eyes than working for myself (and occasionally struggling, financially). 

How can I inspire others as The Champion of Choice if I am not true to my ultimate goal of helping people seek their Self-Defined Success? 

I will say that my time with People to People yielded some good results:

A. I moved to Denver, albeit on my own dime.

B. I spent two weeks in Europe

C. I got a tremendous amount of experience speaking on a nightly basis

D. I was part of an interesting form of sales/seminar speaking

E. I was able to test my own limitations, physically and emotionally

I learned a tremendous amount about myself, and what is really important in life. Last post, I discussed our Personal Choice Foundation. For me, family is number one - and nothing that gets in the way of family beyond reason will get in the way again.

------

So now what? Back to speaking, coaching, consulting, writing - and I'll trying my hand at affiliate marketing as well. I am more determined than ever to build the life I want - working for myself, being near my family, and inspiring, educating, and encouraging others in every way possible to take responsibility for their lives, become for effective communicators, and create their Self-Defined Success.

I have some very achievable goals over the next year to track as part of my personal challenge:

A - Monthly Income - from 0 to 3000/mo. by end of year, 5K/mo by next June, and 10K/month by end of next year. These may be high, they may be low, but they are benchmarks for me to go after - and the more people I help, the faster I will achieve them.

B - Speaking - putting together three keynotes over the next three months and delivering them to as many audiences as possible. 

C - Writing - finishing Kristi's book within the next 6 weeks, my own book by end of year. 

D - Building set-it-and-forget-it affiliate marketing sites that will generate a large portion of my income.

E - Coach business professionals to be better communicators both in-person and online

F - build a PR presence that puts me top of mind to my market segments as a speaker, coach and marketer (all different segments, to some degree)

G - Deliver on my promises, past, present and future - there are a few of you out there that know exactly what I'm talking about.

H - Change my physical condition by losing another 55 lbs to get to 165 lbs, upgrade my Super Deluxe Robot Leg, and start running.

I - and, of course, keep my Family number one - spending time and setting great examples for each one of my six-pack.

Once again, I'll be chronicling my adventures here, drawing back the curtain. I may be selling things more than I have in the past, but I'll endeavor to do it in a helpful, meaningful way. In the end, I want to help as many people as possible through my own talents and insights, and those I've garnered from others over the years.

-------

Do you have any choices that have been difficult to make lately? Do you have some choices you're afraid to make? Do you have goals you'd like to make public? Do it here, either in the comments, or by writing a guest blog post. Think I'm nuts? Again, feel free to comment, or write a guest blog post. 

I challenge you to keep going after your true successes - even when it seems the most illogical thing in the world to everyone around you. You are the one who has to live with your decisions - and you have the ability to affect your results more powerfully than those in the outside world. 

Consider the gauntlet thrown. You don't have to quit your job - but you do need to vigorously pursue the life you want now, before life passes you by. Become a Champion of Choice!

What is Your Personal Choice Foundation?

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Jesus Christ speaking from the NIV translation of the Holy Bible  (©1984) )


Are your Choices built upon the rock or the sand? How sound is your Choice Foundation? Do you know what your Personal Choice Foundation is?

Choices are made based on a myriad of different factors, including urgency, cost, emotion, logic, attitude, and physical state. The balancing act is imperfect, and leads to many choices we regret fairly soon after making it. We give one factor too much weight, or forget to factor in something else until its too late.

Say, when you got that big tax refund, walked into Best Buy, and bought that $3,000 55", flatscreen, high-definition television, and the sound system, PS3, and blueray player to go with it. The money may have created an urgency in you to spend it before you nickel and dimed it away on silly things like bills - a seemingly logical argument your emotions and physical state (which are anxious for the joy, satisfaction, and even physical rush which comes from large purchases) use to get you bypass cost altogether, much less other emotions about your family, your otherwise logical approach to family finances, and instead plays on your attitude of self-deservedness and entitlement.

None of these factors really went through your mind though, consciously. If they had, you wouldn't be regretting it right now as you look at the family budget, and realize Sally has dance lessons coming up and Bobby wants to join Scouts, and all you can do is tell them to stay home and play Lego Star Wars instead.

How do you control your choices? By creating a Personal Choice Foundation. By building a conscious list of values in your mind that guide your decisions. A list so strong you think about it BEFORE you choose, not afterwards.

I can't tell you what your foundation should be - that is YOUR Choice, fellow Champion. What your foundation will be should be based on your needs, your situation, your hopes and dreams - not anyone else's.

How you build that foundation, however, will also largely determine the overall results of your choices, and how your feel about them after the fact. Perhaps buying the TV, speakers, and gaming system fits your foundation perfectly and you have no regrets. Perhaps your PCF (Personal Choice Foundation) determines that you must go value shopping - finding that TV, speaker system, and game console at a pawn shop instead. (disclosure: I have purchased a $1200 flatscreen, HD TV for less than $400 at a pawn shop, and I still probably overpaid - this satisfied family, emotion, cost, logic, and physical state, while giving me adequate, if not spectacular, results).

The critical aspect is not necessarily how your foundation is built, but that it is built at all, and that you are consciously and intentionally building responsibly. The coolest thing about the PCF is that it isn't buried underground - based on the quality of your results, you can shift your foundations materials at any moment in time. While they don't need to be permanently flexible, malleable beyond recognition, you do want to be able to easily patch any cracks, and feel confident in shoring up your materials.

My own looks like this: family, cost, emotion, logic, physical cost or satisfaction, urgency, attitude, results. Even as I write that, I can see adjustments I might want to make.

Choose to take a moment now and list for yourself the factors in your Personal Choice Foundation - then actively and intentionally apply them to all all your choices in the next 48 hours. You'll quickly start noticing how your choices become more interesting and focused - whether you're buying a TV, ordering lunch, or even participating in a discussion with your spouse.

If you want to publicly declare, describe, and even defend your PCF, and share your 48 hour results - please do, in the comments below. AND - if you have additional factors you use in decision-making, please share with the rest of us.

How Do You Stand?

Picture credit - Greg Tarlin 

We live in a world of individual thoughts that are often warped, twisted, directed, and otherwise constrained to think one way vs. another. In fact, that very statement is written with the intent to get you to believe exactly what it says - but you may not! You may vehemently disagree!

Perhaps you'll comment below. Maybe drop me an email. Or just mutter under your breath 'that Hopkins guy is at it again'.

Whether its my relatively innocuous sentence above (again, emotional, opinion-charged terminology), or issues such as politics, morals, religion, sports, speaking, entertainment, whatever - I challenge you to actively have an opinion about those parts of life you care about, and be willing to communicate them.

We choose our opinions, and we can choose how we share them - but if no one know what our opinions are, how will anyone know? We can show them by writing, by talking, by contributing money, by simply walking the walk of someone with an opinion.

Many of us are great at sharing our opinions, especially the speakers among us. But its also easy NOT to share. To avoid being disagreed with or being proven wrong (which is also an avoidance of learning something NEW).

Our opinion is just that - but our perspective on the world, especially in today's world of social media, can carry as much weight as President Obama, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, et al, depending on who we're talking to, how we say it, and how we market it.

Taking a stand, making an outward declaration as a Champion of Choice - someone who knows what and why they are doing something, will separate you from the crowd, and allow you to be heard. Even if you agree with the majority, just by making the declaration, you will be steps above your competition.

Whether you're a contrarian or a mainstream thinker, choose to take a stand - and HOW to take a stand - within your self-defined life - and watch as your family, your friends, and eventually the world raises their head to hear what you have to say.