doug smith training

Doesn't it seem a little hazy sometimes? The future is fuzzy. Uncertainty rules. It can knock us sideways with a dizziness that dazzles us without rest. Breathe. You are up to this. You are made for this. You can center yourself, focus yourself, clarify your own goals, and push. Relentlessly push positively in the direction you choose. If it's the wrong direction, you'll discover that and shift. High performance leaders are constantly shifting. From the old, to the new. From the uncertain, to the clear. Shift. Centered leaders live with ambiguity while pushing for clarity. Keep pushing. -- doug smith

What have you learned today? That's the question I ask the most. I ask other people, and I ask myself: what have you learned today? We get energy from learning. We get experience and we learn some more. We work toward wisdom and we always learn more. Learn constantly, it's the best way to improve. It's our responsibility to get smarter everyday. And how do we do that? Keep learning! -- doug smith Call to Action: Play nice, work hard, be smart. Whatever that means to you today, please do more of that. The world needs your best!

It's easy to get discouraged. Work, people, even life throws more challenges than we expect or ever ask for. Keep going. Obstacles will slow you down and pull on your momentum until it screeches like the bad brakes on an old Chevy. Keep going. Tasks will blur together in a fog of business that makes that vision ever harder to see and follow. Keep going. Keep going. Your work is important, and it's just beginning. -- doug smith

Have you ever known someone who clearly hates their job? Their distaste reflects in everything that do, in the way that they treat their team members, and especially in the way that they treat their customers. Hopefully, that doesn't describe you. We all have tough times on the job, and most of us have started jobs that were not what we wanted to do. That doesn't prevent us from enjoying the work. How you look at your work matters. How you find value in the tasks that they do -- no matter how simple, difficult, or low-paying. I've had all of those conditions in jobs that I didn't like at first but gradually grew to love. How? By constantly improving. By treating people around me with respect. By having fun. There is dignity in work. There is value in getting things done. There is happiness to be found in serving others. Joy in the work is not just possible, it's natural.  Why run and hide from what is right in front of you: a better day created by doing better work.

Our character is defined by the values we live. -- doug smith

What if it's all unfolding? What if you, by making small steady changes, can change fate? I've never been a big believer in fate. I don't like the notion that things are already decided, that a certain destiny is, well, certain. I need more control than that. YOU need more control than that. Sure, there are things out of our control, but there is a lot more within our control and our influence available. We just need to work. We just need to persevere. We just need relentless effort. Destiny makes room for dedication and discipline.  Make room for THAT in your work, and you'll improve your "destiny." What do you think? -- doug smith

Anytime you speak for me, please remember this: you do not speak for me. -- doug smith  

Peace, conflict or not, peace. We may disagree. We may possess powerfully different agendas. We can talk about it, shout about it, analyze it inside and out. While we do all that, please...peace. We can always choose peace. Peace, conflict or not, peace. -- doug smith

  What if your first goal is happiness? At first, that sounds a bit selfish. "But what about others?" some voice inside me says. That could exactly be the point. But what about others?  What if the source of our true happiness comes from helping others? What if by serving, we serve ourselves? By helping bring about more happiness we enjoy the overflow. Maybe your first goal IS happiness -- and that happiness comes from helping. -- doug smith

Are you happy while you are working? I know, that's too much to ask for some people. We've all had jobs that were more chore than joy, and many people are still doing those types of jobs. It isn't that the job isn't important, though -- it's more like it's not appreciated.  Are any of your goals like that? Unappreciated? Do you look forward to the goal because the result is going to make you happy? Are you bringing your own happiness to the work? Achieve your goals with happiness, rather than expecting goals to GIVE you happiness, and the joy will last long after the goals are forgotten. What's your happiest work right now? -- doug smith

Who has taught you the best lessons? What have you learned that has become part of the value of your life and who was it who taught you? Some people in your life had lots of opportunity to teach you. They had time. They had proximity. Maybe they even had authority. They were people involved with you closely: your parents, your grand parents, siblings, elementary school teachers, high school teachers, college professors, best friends, lovers, adversaries, organizational leaders, pastors, priests, gurus, yoga teachers, improv coaches, music conductors, choir leaders, policy officers, military officers, coaches, cooks, fraternity and sorority members, doctors, therapists, nurses, dental hygienists, dentists, chiropractors, delivery staff, food service workers, co-workers, bosses, mentors...if you dive deep enough for long enough the list is extensive. For all of us. Ponder that list. Ponder those lessons. Know it. Do it. Teach it. What did you learn? What have you learned so completely, s

  When was the last time that your integrity was tested? As leaders, we are often tempted to cut corners, to shave edges. A little compromise here or there, often in the interest of the bigger mission, seems justified. Who'll notice? What's the harm? Rounding out the numbers on a late night report for example. Or fudging that expense report just a little so that your best performer can get that invoice approved faster. Or, not confronting a clear case of harassment because the harasser is one of your friends. These are just small, inconsequential things, right? Wrong. Ethics may be open to both interpretation and circumstances, but one of our biggest problems these days is that the boundaries have blurred so far as to be indistinguishable. It feels like anything goes. That's no way to lead. That's no way to improve the world. Ethics, and integrity, matter as much as ever.  That means we have to pay attention. We as leaders must be careful, oh so very careful, of any com