The Challenge!

I have accepted the challenge of running in the St. Jude’s marathon on December 7th of this year; that’s right, a FULL marathon.  I decided to challenge myself to see if my body is as strong as my mind in accomplishing this journey.  I have run 2- half marathons but I have never pushed my body to the limit of running a full marathon, 26.2 miles!  I am asking YOU to join my journey by becoming a “Marathon Hero”.  Your support, cheering me on, will ensure the completion of this goal.  All I need you to do is click on this link,

http://Marathonlandingpage.pepperpage.net

provide your name and email address, then once a week I will send you an update on my progress towards the goal of completing the marathon!  On December 7th, I will forward you a video message after I cross the finish line.  Please become a “Marathon Hero” and share this blog and link with your friends and family so they can join the journey!  Will you help me reach my goal of having 1,000 Heroes cheering me on?

The training program I am completing is an 18 week program with 5 days of training every week.  I have broken down those 18 weeks into the 90 days of training and have planned out my daily activity for each workout.  I track my miles, time and the weather to see how my progress is going during the training program.  Each week I will send you a summary of my activity, sometimes this will be as a blog and other times I will send a video of the message.  One of the things about creating the “Marathon Heroes” I have now announced this intention to the world, so the pressure is on me to complete my goal of running the marathon!  Thanks again for signing up as a “Marathon Hero”.  If you haven’t clicked the link here it is again,

http://Marathonlandingpage.pepperpage.net

Remember please forward to your friends and family so I can reach my goal of having 1,000 Marathon Heroes on this journey with me! 

Thanks again for being part of this exciting time in my life!  I came up with this quote as my inspiration for the marathon:

“You can’t reach your destination, without first determining your journey”

 

                                                       ~ Gary Wilbers 8/13

 

Make it a GREAT day!

 

Gary Wilbers

Action

Let’s discuss the third Daily Action to Live By: 

“I am a person of Action.  I choose to seize the moment and I choose now!”

In the SAGE Leadership model we know that Action is what produces results in our life.  Action will be the key to reaching your dreams and goals.  That first step is the most challenging because we are visualizing what we want to accomplish and committing to ourselves to take Action.  Challenge yourself to take that first Action, whatever it might be.   Your action will create your habits and disciplines to make your dreams and goals possible.  Without action you will always say, “One day, I want to accomplish this or that!”

How can we use the 4 areas of the SAGE Leader to become the person of Action?

 

As you take Action and move forward toward your goal you will generate Energy.  When you set a goal and develop the discipline necessary it gives you the Energy to move forward.  The challenge you encounter will be making the discipline a habit.  For example, as you start to exercise you feel better about yourself, but you have to be aware of the negative influences around you.  You must develop the mindset of, I will achieve my goals.  Use the positive energy and dispose of the negative.

 

As you take action, create Connections that will help you achieve your goal.  Who can help you be accountable to the disciplines you have set in place?  When you have a trusted friend or associate holding you accountable you tend to stay on course.  I have a running partner and we hold each other accountable by running our long runs together as we train for a ½ marathon we are running.  Connecting with an accountability partner is the link to help you create action on your goals.  Who could be your Connecting link?

 

Have you ever noticed that a person’s circle of Influence grows when they take action on a project or goal? Your Influence grows as a leader when you are known by your peers as a person who gets things accomplished.  As we take action with our family and friends our Influence in those relationships grows because we impact their lives.

 

The best part is a leader who takes action gets Great Results in their lives.  As we learn how action affects our lives we create better results for ourselves and the others we impact along the way.  Results seem to be great because we are always moving forward in our life.

 

What action are you going to take today to move forward in your life?

 

Gary

Responsibility

As we look at the second of the Ten Daily Actions to Live By, it states:

“I take responsibility for who I am.  I am responsible for my past and my future.”

Let’s put this Daily Action into the context of a SAGE Leader, a profoundly wise person.  To be a SAGE Leader, you must be willing to take responsibility for your Daily Actions in every aspect of your life.  You MUST take charge of your life.  The daily desciplines you develop and your execution of those desciplines will determine if you are truly taking responsibility for becoming the person you want to be.  Leave the blame game in the past.  Phrases like, I would have….I could have….If only….are the beginning of negative thoughts and actions.  Imagine your life as a Bus, visualize who the driver is?  Did YOUR image come to mind or someone elses?  You want to be the driver of your life, a true SAGE Leader understands that!   Far to many people become a passenger only to regret that action later in life.

If you were not the driver, you are probably wondering  how to switch course from being a passenger to the driver.  Simple, the SAGE Leadership model,  it will walk you through the necessary components, allowing you to take responsibility for who you are!  To be your own driver you must develop daily disciplines to reinforce the following:

Energy is the first principle you must develop and learn to produce in your life.  When you create daily disciplines you create energy.  Each discipline feeds off the one before, allowing you to gain momentum or Energy with each discipline mastered.  Energy is necessary to accomplish your goals and help you take responsibility for the past.  Once you recognize the areas of your life that need disipline you can take responsibility and in turn harness the Energy necessary to succeed.

The second principle is to create the Connections necessary helping you achieve what you want to accomplish, your message.  Daily interaction with those you love and care about will strengthen your connection to them.  As you strengthen these relationships, you will be offered new opportunities to make additional connections, helping you along your journey.

Influence, the third principle, is often misunderstood.  Influence is not power or strength, but rather a sharing of knowledge or wisdom . . . influence through leadership.  By helping others achieve what they want in their life they in turn will help you achieve what you want in yours.  A true SAGE Leader knows that the more they help others, the more abundance they will receive in their life.

As we look at the final principle, Great Results, it reminds me of the phrase:

 

“You Reap what you Sow”

God seems to always share abundance with those who help others.  The greatest reward is to reach the top of the mountain and share the magnificent view with those important to your life!

Gary

Ten Daily Actions to Live By

If we begin dissecting my list of "Ten Daily Actions to Live By", it is easy to see how our SAGE Leadership model follows each Daily Action.  Let’s take a look at the first action:

“My life is a message, I will make it what I want it to be.”

As we look at our life we need to dream about what it will look like?  Who do you want to be?  What do you want to achieve?  When they write your obituary what do you want family and friends to say about you?  Another way to do this exercise is to think about your 80^th birthday, celebrating your life.   Imagine the setting, visualize who is in attendance. Do you see every person that is important and plays a key role in your life?  If they were each asked to stand up and say a few words about you and what you have meant to them, what would they say? Are you nervous or confident?

Some people live their life by the clock and not the compass.   The correlation is simple, the clock is to time as the compass is to direction.  So, which do you live by, time or direction?  Are you so busy completing tasks or watching the clock, that you have forgotten where you’re going?   If you live by direction, what guides you?  Do you listen for God’s voice to direct your message?  As a child we dream BIG dreams but as we become adults we supress our dreams.  Open your mind, BELIEVE that you can still achieve your dreams no matter how old you are or what has happened in the past.  The SAGE Leadership model can be your roadmap to establishing a message, YOUR message!  Determine where you want to go from here, and WHY!

SAGE, a profoundly wise person.  As we begin the journey of our life and strive to become a SAGE Leader we develop an understanding and appreciation for the different components. The first component, Energy; is the food for our mind, body and relationships.  The vibrancy of our life is directly related to the compass or direction we are headed, the message we want our life to be about.  Connections are key relationships, those that are most important to us.  Our connections are tools that help us stay the course, to achieve.  Let the "Ten Daily Actions To Live By", guide your compass, be a practical tool that will help you work through daily challenges.  Our influence will be with those individuals that are most important in our life.  We impact others not just by words but even more so by our daily actions. 

Great Results will be the development of strong relationships such as those with our family, friends, associates and God.  Great Results are not just achieved by reaching your goals, but in the journey itself.   To reach the top of a mountain, or goal, by yourself is very lonely.  The true measurement of a SAGE Leader is not how many goals you accomplish but how many others reach the top with you.

Now, view your life from the lens of the future.  It’s your 80^th birthday, imagine the setting, visualize who is in attendance at the party to celebrate your life, what will they say about you?  Did you live your message?

Gary

Attitude

 

When we look at the SAGE model and break it down into the components that comprise a SAGE Leader, I feel attitude plays a key role and affects each component.

 

How is it best to define attitude?  “Attitude” is the emotion we share with others either positively or negatively.  As we look at our own life think of one person right now that has a positive attitude and one that displays a negative attitude?  Which one are you more like?

 

Attitude effects everything around us, so lets look at how it relates to the SAGE Leadership model.  Energy is the first component toward becoming a true Sage Leader.  Does our attitude affect our energy?  YES!  Who has more energy, an optimist or pessimist? The energy level we have in life will be directly impacted by our daily attitude.  Are you a sunny or a cloudy person, cheery or dreary?  Charles Swindoll, while reflecting on attitude states “ Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” How do you react?  Does your energy reflect a positive outlook, or a negative one?

 

The second component of a SAGE Leader is Connections, it is in this area that we really see how our attitude impacts those around us.  A positive attitude helps nuture, grow and develop these connections.  Where a negative attitude will kill a relationship.  When we allow our attitude to guide our connections our relationships will be either growing or dying. 

 

A SAGE Leader uses Influence to enhance relationships.  What kind of Influence would  you have if a negative attitude was what you were projecting to others?  That’s right, very little.  A negative attitude will drive relationships away, it is only through a positive attitude that we are able to truly enhance our connections. 

Attitude is vital to achieve Great Results in the SAGE Leadership model.  The question to ask yourself is:

Is your attitude worth catching?

Remember a true SAGE leader is a profoundly wise person.  Your positive attitude is a key piece toward helping you become who you were meant to be.

Gary

Extraordinary Results!

By following The SAGE model and combining your Energy plus your Connections, plus Influence, you will produce the Great Results wanted in your life. 

The challenge is balancing your personal and professional life.  We tend to focus on only one aspect of our lives but it is equally important to have well defined goals in both areas at the same time.  To achieve great results you must focus not just on professional but also personal goals.  We often hear that someone has become a great success only to have lost their family, friends and spouse in the process.  The SAGE model is about developing the wisdom to realize it is not about the destination but rather the journey.  Be present each day with those who are most important to you.  Life moves fast and you don’t want to look back and wonder; how did I miss that?  Two of my Daily Actions will help you live in the moment and enjoy the ride as you find the life you want to live. 

“My best preparation to live a good tomorrow is to live a Great today.”

 

Take each day and make it the best.  We don’t know how many days we have, so live life to the fullest.  Often we hear older people say; “If I only had known, I would have done . . . .” Live your life looking ahead NOT looking back.  As we grow daily in our faith we realize that God should be the center of our lives.  Our Faith will center us and provide clarity on the journey.

 

“I am a person of great faith.  I believe all my talents and gifts come from God.”

 

When we recognize that our gifts and talents are God-given we can overcome the challenges, obstacles and roadblocks we face daily.  The strongest leaders realize they need help to become their best.  Achieving great results in your life is the opportunity to become the person God is calling you to be.

 

Gary

How do we create influence in our lives?

As we transition through the SAGE Leadership model our next field of study is Influence.  Influence is an action!  Influence is created by the daily actions we show and do in our everyday life.  Let’s talk about ways in which we can create an influence on others.  

 

Have you ever noticed how easily people with a positive attitude can influence you?  Very quickly you realize the people who are optimistic or pessimistic, whether their cup is half full or half empty.  Influence is not power, it is more a sharing of wisdom or knowledge.  The SAGE Leadership model is about recognizing the wisdom within ourselves.  As we grow to be a leader it is by our actions and not necessarily by our words that we develop Influence.  It is not having power over others but rather having discipline over our thoughts, words and actions. 

 

Three of my “Ten Daily Actions to Live By” are directly associated with Influence, the first is:

 

“I choose to have a great attitude.  I am a happy person

and I will have a positive attitude toward others.”

 

I designed this Action to create a discipline of self; enabling you to influence others and share yourself within the community of people you impact daily.  My second Action states: 

 

“I know where I want my life to go. 

I have chosen my path to follow daily.”

 

True leaders lead themselves first before they ever try to influence others.  Do you have a plan for your life?  Have you created goals? Have you created a discipline to follow the path you have chosen?  I authored this quote and it has helped me;

 

“Goals are like having your headlights on,

because you know where you are going”

 

My last Daily Action impacted by Influence is choice; how we choose to live our life with others: 

 

“I will greet every day with a forgiving spirit. 

I will forgive myself and others.”

 

As we are able to forgive ourselves and others our influence grows and the people we impact daily expands.  Why is it so hard to forgive?  The main reason is pride, it gets in our way.  Whether we recognize our pride or not, others see it and it lessens our influence.  When we forgive openly we begin to create a deeper relationship with our self and others.

 

As we grow stronger in our faith we influence our self, enabling us to be stronger in all of our relationships.  Why?  Because, when God is our center, we develop greater clarity or understanding of self.  He then helps us visualize ways in which we need to grow in our relationships with others.

 

The first action we must take is to Influence our own life and then our impact will multiply, infinitely influencing others.

 

Gary

The SAGE Leadership Model

As we work our way through the SAGE Model we transition from Energy to Connections.  Looking at the connections in our life we begin the process of examining ourselves, evaluating our identity so to speak and the roles we play. 

First we must examine our personal identity; asking the question, Who am I? By examining ourselves emotionally and physically, we begin to understand our true identity. Self-examination allows us to recognize our strengths, weaknesses and unique passions for life.  Take an inventory of the roles you play in your life; like husband, father, boss, leader, son, faith leader, friend and business associate.  This process allows us to recognize the connections we have to others.

Two of my Daily Actions directly deal with connections.  The first is,

My life is about loving and helping people.  I have a caring and decided heart.

 

As we develop this action in our life, it allows us to impact everyone we come into contact with.  Just think if your mindset for everyone you come in contact with was to love and help?  The key is we must have the caring and decided heart to make this happen. 

 

The second action is,

 

I make people and things flourish by the amount of time and care I give them.

 

Analyze the inventory you took of your roles.  These should be the people you connect with on a regular basis.  Do you give them your time and care daily to help them flourish?  If not, look at ways you can increase your time and care with those who are important. 

 

Story:  When our children were young my wife and I established a nightly bedtime routine.  We would read to our children and then put them each into their bed.  We then spent some one-on-one time with each giving them a back rub.  I never understood why my wife felt this routine was so crucial, but she explained that this routine gave her peace and she wanted to convey that peace to each of them as they went to sleep.  One weekend after attending a Cursillo weekend (a short course in Christianity) she heard of a person that also blessed her children before bed.  So, we added that practice to our nightly routine.  Still today our children want us to tuck them in bed, give them a back rub and bless them.  Over the last 6 months I have added a practice I read about at a conference, I say: 

 

I feel and sense the magnificence in you.

 

These rituals create a connection between mother, father, son and daughter.  Remember your connections are passed on and are a reflection of how others view you.

 

So, how do your connections view you? Positively or negatively?  Remember your emotions are also conveyed by your actions, are you mad, sad, happy excited etc…?  Your connections are directly linked to who you are.

 

Gary

SAGE Energy

In the Sage Leadership model we say SAGE is a very wise person.  How does a person become wise?  It starts with the mindset for a willingness to learn and grow, to be a Leader. 

The first area you as a SAGE leader, must consider is Energy.  Energy is the fuel required for us to become the Leader we want to be.  What are the sources we consider when we want energy?  Determining our passions creates energy. 

As we determine our purpose in life, energy begins to build.  Health and exercise allows our body to create physical energy.  The friendships we share in our lives and our faith will produce mental energy.  As we create disciplines and habits we produce the energy necessary for our life.  This energy allows us to grow our knowledge and learn new things which in-turn increases our energy. 

The second Daily Action is:

“I take responsibility for who I am. 

I am responsible for my past and future.”

As we accept responsibility and own our lives, it gives us the energy to make changes and live the life we truly want.  Take ownership today of what you want to achieve for your life.

The third Daily Action is:

“I am a person of action. 

I choose to seize the moment and I choose now!”

This discipline of choosing or choices will be the future energy in our life.  As we choose our direction, goals and faith; our energy will follow that path.  The discipline we create in our life through deliberate, focused choices, will determine the results.  As we create disciplines they become habits, as they become habits they become daily routines that allow us to grow to become the person we choose to become.  If you want to create more energy in your life, look at one way today you can choose to create a habit that will change something in your life in a positive manner.

Gary

What is SAGE?

You thought I was referencing a spice, didn’t you?  Well I wasn’t, Sage is also defined as a profoundly wise person.  So, my question is:

“How do we become a wise person?”

I believe wisdom comes from within, molded by our experiences, learning and growing daily in our lives.  We grow in our daily lives by increasing our knowledge in areas like education, leadership, faith and health.  As we want our life to grow, we must also grow the time spent within these areas.

A colleague and I have been working on a new Leadership model that I feel will walk you through the necessary steps toward becoming a true SAGE Leader.  The SAGE Leadership Model develops the wisdom from within ourselves allowing us to pursue our passions.  To develop and learn the skills we need in our life, guiding us in becoming the person we want to be. 

Wisdom is the first action we must seek to truly find our passions, giving us the energy, connections and influence necessary to get greater results daily.  As we become aware of this Wisdom, it allows us the freedom to seek different ways in which we can attain knowledge.  A true Leader does not always have the knowledge but they are always willing to learn and grow in the search.  This process follows the first of my Ten Daily Actions:

“My Life is a message.  I will make it what I want it to be.”

 

The person who discovers their message is well on their way to becoming a SAGE Leader because they have established what they want their life to be.  Over the next several weeks we will talk more about how you can incorporate the Sage Leadership model into your daily life.

 

Gary

PS.  My contact information is:

Gary Wilbers

Executive Coach

573-644-7300

gwilbers@ascendbusinessstrategies.com

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2013! As with any New Year it is a great time to make an investment in your life where you will spend your most time. This year it is different for me because we have sold Mid-America Wireless and now I am making plans on my new life without something that has been a part of me since 1990. As I look back I have a lot of fond memories of being in the wireless business. But, as I close one chapter in my life, it is an opportunity to look forward and move toward the direction I have a passion to pursue during my next journey.

Many of you know that I have been an entrepreneur all my life. One of the passions I have found along the way is coaching, training and sharing with others; enabling them to find their true gifts, to water and fertilize them along the way helping them grow in their own lives. I am a firm believer that if you are not learning in life you are going backwards. If we put energy into the things that we enjoy we find true happiness in our life. What one thing could you learn in 2013 that would give you energy every day this year? Answer that question and you will find that 2013 will be a great year. The one thing I want to learn is to be a Coach, helping small business entrepreneurs find their energy to create a successful business optimizing fulfillment in their work life plus finding a balance in their personal life. Everyone talks about work/life balance but to truly make it a reality takes work and accountability.

As I start this journey in 2013 my goal will be helping other business owners find their energy. As you find your energy for 2013, make a list of the things you will do to make your goals a reality. I guarantee if you put a CHARGE (Create Habits Around youR Goals Everyday) into learning about the area you are interested, you will grow in 2013! Remember no one can make it happen but YOU!

Remember the acronym CHARGE in 2013!

Make it a GREAT Year!

Gary