In the morning, do you wake up to "pursue shareholder value or

In the morning, do you wake up to "pursue shareholder value or exceed customer expectations..."? And is that (or something similar) your reasons for getting up?

If you say Yes, then something might not be right. I don't know of anyone that has that kind of attitude or purpose. Those that do might just be kidding themselves. Anne Deering puts it best when she wrote, and as well as mentioned in the book Be-Know-Do, "Our personal identity and purpose cannot reside in this type of objective...We need to dig deeper to find what truly drives us--our calling in life--and then translate this calling back to into our work context."

So what does all this mean? It means that if you have priorities that are about the job and not inclusive of yourself or your family then there is fundamentally something wrong. Now I am not pointing fingers nor am I passing judgment but what I am doing is stating a fact. A fact that declares that in order to be good to anyone or anything else you have to be good to yourself.

Let me clarify, many years ago I along with a few other people were asked to make a list of those people and things that were important to me. Each of the other people, at the top of their list, placed their Family and their God or vice-versa. Then it was my turn to announce my list. I started off with, that while I do agree that family and faith should be at the top of any list, I have someone different in my top spot: Me.

I got the most puzzling looks, but as I continued with my reasoning their looks of puzzlement turned to looks of understanding. I said that in order to provide my family with the best that I can and also to be a good [[enter religion here]] I have to make sure that I take care of myself otherwise if I fail to provide for myself first then I will fail to provide for anyone. So as conceded as it may sound I must take care of myself first. This is where Self-Discipline comes into play.

After all it is Self-Discipline that set people apart from one another. Self-discipline is "the training that one gives one's self to accomplish a certain task or to adopt a particular pattern of behaviour, even though one would really rather be doing something else."

Going back to my military days, self-discipline was what kept us going when we were cold, wet, and tired. While others would have given up because it was too cold or too wet or too late in the evening, we dug deep inside ourselves and pressed on, not because we were the only ones who could do the job. It was because we took the initiative and had the self-discipline to continue when all others would have quit.

So what is your reason for getting up in the morning?

Something for you: Check out this vid on Discipline/Self-Discipline. Though the video has plenty of Football references, it's brief enough to define the need for discipline and even though it has Coach Bill Parcells and Irving Fryar, don't let that distract you from the message. As for the Cat's In The Cradle song reference at the end, well there is nothing I can do about that ;)


tags: Dave Guerra, Anne Deering, self discipline, Be Know Do, Leadership