WHAT MAKES YOU, YOU?

We were all born with over 500 talents and abilities in us. It is up to us to discover and develop them. 

Talent is completely overrated. Talent is discovered and developed! There is not such thing as those that are born talented. We are all born with incredible potential. 

It is up to us to discover and develop our potential. Early in life, our parents, teachers, and coaches play a key role in helping us discover our talents and abilities. Then, it is up to us to put the effort in to realize our potential. 

I love the two letters saying “if it is up to be it is up to me.” It is up to each of us to discover what makes each of us unique.

It is in our uniqueness that we find our greatness.

Take the time to discover who you really are. It takes courage to go on that inward journey to find out why you are here on this earth.

Here are some questions for you to answer. The answers will reveal who you are and what makes you unique. Before you do, switch to silence or even solitude mode, so you can hear that quiet inner voice inside you, the voice of greatness.

1.      What is your calling? See yesterday’s blog.

2.      What is your purpose and mission in life? What are you passionate about? What can you be best at? What drives your economic engine?

3.      What is that cause buried deep in your heart? What are the things you care about?

4.      What is your story? What makes you come alive?

5.      What were the turning points in your life? What are the significant landmarks in your life?

6.      What are your unique talents and abilities? What seems natural to you?

7.      What are the roles that only you can perform? What gives you energy and joy?

We only truly find our greatness after losing ourselves by applying and our talents and abilities for the benefit of others. 

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)

The Calling

Have you found your calling yet?

About 75% of the people are working in a job and it is just that, a job, going through the daily motions to and from the grind.

About 23% of the people are working and engaged in building a career.

The remaining 2% of the working souls are deliberately working on their calling and they absolutely love what they do and who they are; so much so they would work for free.

Which category are you in? Are you fulfilling your calling, stuck in the gerbil wheel, or in the middle chasing a career?

How can you tell if you are working in your calling?

What does it feel like doing what you love to do?

Here are 7 things to help you find your calling:

1.      The work you do fulfills your purpose in life, doing what you were born to do and being who you were born to be.

2.      The work you do is part of your mission, playing a role that uniquely fits your talents and abilities. You do things you are uniquely qualified for.

3.      The work you do feels like play to you, energizing instead of draining you.

4.      You are in full control of all that you do and you feel responsible, accountable, and productive.

5.      You feel like you “get to do” what you do instead of “having to do” what you do, allowing you to be who you are.

6.      You are working on your dreams, not someone else’s dream.

7.      You feel you can be your authentic self around the people you love, admire, and respect.

When you do what you love to do, you become a master at it, being who you were born to be, and the world rewards you handsomely.

Was this helpful to you? I would love to hear from you.

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)

COMMON DENOMINATOR

 The common denominator of truly successful people is the hard work they do to deserve their success!

Success is not something that just happens to lucky and talented people.

Successful people develop their talents and leverage them to achieve their purpose in life.

Here is how successful people get lucky:

1.      They work hard. See hard work as necessary for success in any endeavor or adventure.

2.      They work smart. Copy success from people with proven track record of success; people with fruit in their trees.

3.      They don’t take short cuts. There is no shortcut to success or significance. Take time to do it right the first time. You have enough ingenuity in you to figure things out.

4.      They have patience. Long term thinking is the key to produce long term results.

5.      They have fun. Fun helps to keep things in perspective. Enjoy the trips towards your destination.

6.      They get up after every fall. Any worthy dream or goal always brings failures during the journey of any achiever.

7.      They persist all the way to the finish line. Nothing takes place of tenacity and persistence. Have you ever seen a statue for a quitter?

The future belong to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they become obvious. 

Those that take swift action will always leave those that don't breathing the dust.

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)

ARE YOU SMART?

Are your goals SMART? Are you using your SMART to reach your goals?

What is easy to do, it is even easier not to do!

Setting and achieving worthy goals give us energy, motivation, direction, meaning, enjoyment, fulfillment, self-esteem, and significance.

There is no competition for the person with a SMART goal and a clear picture of that bulls eye of the target in sight.

1.      Do you have a SMART goal? Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reachable, and Timed. Goals provide the inner motivation on the road to achievement.

2.      Do you have enough desire to attain your goal? When we want something really bad and become motivated to get it.

3.      Do you have strong enough belief than you can accomplish your goal? Belief in yourself will lead you to success and achieve your goal.

4.      Do you have a crystal clear picture of yourself achieving your goal? Mental creation always precedes physical creation.

5.      Do you have a reward attached to your goal? The reward feeds your motivation.

6.      Do you have an action plan to achieve your goal? Proper planning produces predictable performance.

7.      Are you doing at least one thing every day to move you towards achieving your goal?

Congratulations to you, if you answered YES to the 7 questions above!

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)

Information to Principles

Information comes and goes, principles endure!

The most valuable product in this new economic age, the entrepreneurial community age, is information from the right sources. 

The right information leads to the right principles. 

Here are a few pieces of valuable information.

1.      The future belongs to those who can see and pursue opportunities before they become obvious. Imagine what is like to be able to see and not have vision.

2.      Those that take swift action will always leave those that don’t breathing the dust. Knowing and not doing is not knowing. Knowing how to read and not reading makes a fellow no different than those that don’t know how to read. Action comes from knowledge and it leads to experience.

3.      There is no competition for a man with a dream; none, zippo. Dreams propel us to do what is uncomfortable, the uncommon, and the unfamiliar. Those that take the hard life early on will have an easier and easier life later on. What is your dream and are you willing to chase your dream?

4.      The largest generation of Americans, the 76 million baby boomers, is aging and soon will be out of the workforce. Are we learning by mentoring with them? Are you serving them?

5.      America is entering a new economic age, the entrepreneurial community age. If we ignore this new age wealth will ignore us. A genius in a downtrend will lose to a moron on an uptrend.

6.      Security is no longer in holding a job like it used to be in the industrial age; security now is in the quality of our thinking and the speed of our learning and doing. Security is found in self-education. The wealthy in this new economic age will be those that invest heavily in themselves, in their own continued education.

7.      Getters are always at the mercy of givers. The world will always belongs to the givers.

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)

Emotional Intelligence 101

Emotional intelligence is that golden nugget to healthy relationship! 

Emotional intelligence trumps intelligence every time. 

Smarts is not enough; knowing when and how to use the smarts is the key.  We will never rise by downing others. We can only rise when we uplift others by valuing their feelings and emotions.

Here are a few things to help keep our emotions in check. 

1.      Keep the big picture perspective. Is it worth it to get someone’s blood pressure up? Will it matter long term? Is it worth saying it at this moment?

2.      Ware self-awareness at all times. People are not dumping grounds for our self-pity and garbage. Remember that it is our nature to project onto others our feelings and inadequacies. Nothing good comes out of negativity.

3.      Self-management is of paramount importance. Be on guard in case bullets start flying.

4.      Patience and practice are productive. Listen to the emotions, not with the emotions.

5.      Control those mood swings. Mood swings can trigger the firing of un-recallable missiles.

6.      Mental preparation has profound effect. Know what to expect and expect the un-expectable. Fly within your safe envelope.

7.      Value feelings and feedback.  Fix the fumbles if you want a touchdown. Know how to recover quickly. Making mistakes is human. Give grace to others.

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)

Missing Opportunities

The modern world, full of knowledge and technology, brings us all with wonderful opportunities to live the lifestyle of our dreams. Opportunities do not usually look like opportunities at first and that’s why most people miss them. They seem to always come hidden by some sort of disguise or camouflage. It’s no wonder most people miss them time after time.

The price or pain of chasing any opportunity is worth it so we can life a life without the pain of regret.

1.      Cannot recognize. Most of us miss opportunities because they are dressed in overalls and look like work. It is our nature to want the most by doing the least.

2.      Are not prepared or this is the wrong time. Success comes when opportunity and preparedness meet face to face.

3.      Close mindedness or lack of due diligence. Either we assume we already know or we don’t want to make the effort to look into it.

4.      Are not looking. Why don’t stay open for other options during such fast faced environment? Why is it that people don’t want to give up the good to have the great? Dig your well before getting thirsty.

5.      Lack of a dream and/or a purpose. No dream or dread, no need to change. The lack of vision results in lack of hunger.

6.      Lack of faith and fear of change. The fear of failure keeps most people in the safe zone. Failure is a great thing if we learn from it. Change is as certain as taxes and death. Why be afraid if we know we all need to deal with it.

7.      Looking for security in the wrong places. Security is no longer in a job. Real security comes from within not without. Security comes from the quality of our thinking and the speed or our learning and doing.

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)