Be, Do, Have

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach us what we need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that we may not have learned or are not currently learning in church, school, home or at work. Let’s apply what we learn here and share these nuggets with others. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

7 things that will allow you to be more, so you can do more, in order to have more in life:

1. Read. We become what we read. Why not read the best books? The habit of reading is powerful and can take you anywhere you want to go. Learn from the experiences of others.
2. Pray. We become what we pray. Why not pray the best prayers? The habit of prayer is powerful. Develop your personal prayer. Tap into the divine power to live a peaceful and prosperous life.
3. Love. We must give love first if we want to be loved. Expecting others to love yourself without loving others is plain insanity. Learn to love yourself and those around you. Love is a powerful force that can conquer whatever you desire.
4. Associate. We become the average of those we associate with. Why not associate with people that can help you be better in all the fundamental areas of life? Tap into the power of association.
5. Reflect. Take a few minutes each day to reflect on you successes and your setbacks. Learn from your victories and your defeats. Find a victory in every defeat to stay hungry and a defeat in every victory to stay humble.
6. Friend. It takes being a friend before we can have friends. Friendships make life worth living. A true friend helps his friends to get better. Choose your friends wisely.
7. Relate. Learn to relate with people like you and people different than you. Accept, approve, and appreciate people. Stop criticizing, complaining, and condemning people. Be interested in others. Everyone has something to teach us, no exception.

Become someone of value. Do things that add value to people. Then, and only then, you can have a happy and prosperous life. 

What we do and have is a reflection of who we are. Unhappy where you are in life? Change. Learn and grow. Be, do, have!

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Mind your breath

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach us what we need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that we may not have learned or are not currently learning in church, school, home or at work. Let’s apply what we learn here and share these nuggets with others. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

The simple little things make all the difference!!!

First impressions are lasting impressions.

1. Dress. Dress for the occasion. Matching, clean, and fit.

2. Breath. Brushed teeth. Mints work magic!

3. Handshake. Firm. No hand crusher or dead fish handshake.
Make eye contact with a real smile :)

4. Greeting. Words carry power with them. Know what, when, and how to say them.

5. Smile. Real not fake. Smile saying "I love you is the best."

6. Professional. Friendly, excited, passionate, with servant attitude.

7. Impression. First impressions are like our first love, we never forget them.

Pay attention and practice all the above and you will see your life getting better after every encounter you make.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Passages of Life

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach us what we need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that we may not have learned or are not currently learning in church, school, home or at work. Let’s apply what we learn here and share these nuggets with others. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

All os us have to go through many passages during our life. Each passage brings its fears and different degrees of stress.

1) Birth. The first passage is the one into this world via birth.

2) Education. To different degrees all of us are educated and/or trained to obtains initial skills on how to relate with others and the world around us.

3) Puberty. This phase we go through enormous changes, physical, emotional, and mental.

4) Adulthood. This is where we take responsibility to be producers through our work.

5) Parenthood. The responsibility to bring others into the world and raise them.

6) Maturity. This is the passage to wisdom. Passin onto others what we accumulated.

7) Death. The final passage is the transition into eternity. The last passage is the one that scares us the most. Those that have passed well each one of the previous passages ought to have no fear of passing from this world into the next one.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

A winning culture

Leadership Lessons

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach us what we need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that we may not have learned or are not currently learning in church, school, home or at work. Let’s apply what we learn here and share these nuggets with others. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

What kind of culture are you part of? A poisoning culture or a positive leadership culture?

A leadership culture is a winning culture. 

A leadership culture comes from a followership culture.

The following is a quick self-assessment on leadership lessons. Take a few minutes to evaluate yourself and your team culture on these 10 lessons. Take time to discuss it. 

Self and Team Assessment of the Lessons for Leaders

	Lessons	Lesson Description	Self	Team
1	Leaders start as followers	Follower and leader with developed traits acquired and forged in the field of action
2	Leaders put their followers first	Servant leadership – servant to the team
3	Great leaders do not try to motivate their followers	Inspire followers by being the example for them to emulate
4	Leaders take a turn in the dirty work	Perform the most difficult job no matter the level or how difficult or dirty
5	Great leaders train followers to be great followers, capable of taking over the leadership	Serve as role model for followers by training, educating, and coaching
6	Diversity in people and their capabilities is critical to success	Promote an inclusive culture where different thinking is valued
7	Individual ideas and actions make an impact	Recognize, examine and reward ideas and actions based on the potential consequences
8	Use a decision making model	Use a sound decision making model that is understood by everyone in the organization
9	Recognize followers’ achievements in public	Affirm, approve, appreciate, and recognize followers for specific achievements on a timely basis
10	Leadership will be lonely	Use the lonely moments for reflection to learn lessons and to develop a foundation of love and trust

If you are too big to follow you are too small to lead.

Great leaders are precious, great followers priceless.

Want to learn more about how to develop a great culture? 

Get Follow to Lead http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61777-468-3  for you and your team. A small investment with a big return.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Follower, leader, or both?

How good a follower are you?

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach us what we need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that we may not have learned or are not currently learning in church, school, home or at work. Let’s apply what we learn here and share these nuggets with others. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

If you are too big to follow you are too small to lead.

Followership is the only road to leadership.

Great leaders are precious, great followers priceless.

A followership culture is a loyal and winning culture.

Todays 7 nuggets come in a self-assessment format. Here is a quick self-assessment on followership principles. Take a minute to evaluate yourself and your team culture on these 7 principles.

Self and Team Assessment of the 7 Followership Principles

	Principle	Principle Description	Self	Team
1	Instant Response	Initiate action immediately
2	Initiative	Just do it!
3	Imagination	Have ideas and dreams and share with others
4	Integrity	Tell the truth without compromise
5	Inquire	Asking who, what, when, where and why questions
6	Inform	Tell like it is; no secrets allowed
7	Involve	Join, participate and contribute to team effort

What did you learn from the results?

What are you going to change as a result of this exercise?

Knowing and not doing is not knowing.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

Crazy, Insane or Just Plain Dumb?

Crazy, Insane or Just Plain Dumb?

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach us what we need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that we may not have learned or are not currently learning in church, school, home or at work. Let’s apply what we learn here and share these nuggets with others. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

We certainly live during interesting times in our history. There are some many things that make no sense for us to see, think about, and reflect upon.

1.    Houses. We build bigger houses with bigger kitchens but have smaller families and eat out more.

2.    Space. We are fascinated with outer space but have fears to conquering our inner space.

  

3.    Travel. We travel to faraway lands to meet new people yet don’t know our neighbors.

4.    Values. We place more value in possessions than in ourselves.

5.    Education. We have more degrees and diplomas than ever before but are less educated with less common sense.

6.    Health. We have more medicines than ever before yet have less wellness.

7.    Money. We increased our “money” supply with fiat currency but have less real money. We have higher incomes but lower morals and values.

Are you wondering which way we are going?

Let’s keep discovering without forgetting who we are.

History shows we are heading towards another Roman empire, imploding on itself.

What part are you playing to reverse the decline in our nation?

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)

MENTORING MATTERS

MENTORING MATTERS

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach us what we need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that we may not have learned or are not currently learning in church, school, home or at work. Let’s apply what we learn here and share these nuggets with others. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

        

Orrin Woodward has shown his genius again as he shares his secrets on how to become an amazing mentor by first being a great follower, never making excuses, and never giving up on your dreams. His new book MENTORING MATTERS is a must read for those wanting to develop leaders who develop leaders who develop leaders. 

Orrin’s many books, including the best sellers Launching a Leadership Revolution and LeaderShift, are practical, easy to read, and loaded with nuggets of wisdom from his experiences in developing leader after leader. Other great books by Orrin Woodward include Resolved, and Leadership and Liberty. Orrin is a freedom fighter, a beacon shinning light upon the leadership journey of thousands of leaders around the world.

 

Today’s nuggets are inspired from Orrin Woodward's latest book, MENTORING MATTERS, from the LIFE Leadership Essentials Series. There is no end when it comes to the influence a mentor can have in your life. 

What can a mentor do for you?

1.    Questions. A great mentor asks you great questions. A great mentor inspires you to ask the right question for yourself and those around you.

2.    Books. A great mentor recommends great books for you to read. A great mentor inspires you to read his own books so you can write your own book based on your leadership journey.

  

3.    Wisdom. A great mentor shares his wisdom with you. A great mentor inspires you to acquire and apply knowledge to become wise.

4.    Vision. A great mentor has a vision. A great mentor inspires you to develop your own vision by thinking BIG.

  

5.    Example. A great mentor serves as the example for you to emulate. A great mentor inspires you to be the example for others to follow.

6.    Genius. A great mentor helps you to find and use your genius. A great mentor inspires you to find the genius in others and help them to help others do the same.

  

7.    Focus. A great mentor helps you to focus in the areas of your life that matter, where better results are needed. A great mentor inspires you to focus on achieving your goals and dreams.

Be a leader and leave a legacy. Our nation needs more great leaders.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)