Why so many meetings?

 A colleague once told me she had never seen anyone who disliked meetings more than me. I explained that it wasn't that I disliked meetings. I dislike meetings that have little to no purpose. I dislike having meetings just because a meeting is scheduled. I dislike meetings that includes a lot of discussion and little action. I've seen meetings address the same issue for months before taking any action that was obvious the first time it was discussed. Too often a meeting is called simply to discuss information that could have been distributed through email or over the phone.

Because of the pandemic a lot of organizations have their meetings over ZOOM or another platform. I am hearing that some of these organizations are wondering if so many online meetings are necessary. They are hearing that their people are getting tired of having ZOOM meetings, especially if they have several scheduled the same day. If these meetings are found to be unnecessary perhaps the organization needs to determine if all of their live meetings are necessary as well.

No doubt, some meetings are important to the well-being of the organization. Such meetings should continue, but some guidelines are in order.

• No meeting should occur without a well-thought out agenda that is distributed prior to the meeting.
• Only those persons necessary to the meeting should be invited.
• All meetings should start on time to honor the commitments of those attending.
• Discussion should be limited to items on the agenda except in extenuating circumstances. Inviting people to a meeting to discuss something and then spending that time chasing rabbits is frustrating to those attending and not a good use of an organization's time.
• Everyone should be encouraged to participate in discussions, but no one should be allowed to dominate.
• Meetings should not be called without first deciding if it is necessary for the good of the organization.
• End the meeting when it has accomplished its purpose.

If leaders follow these guidelines they will find their meetings will be much more productive and people will feel better about attending them.

The choices we make, make us

Everyday we make numerous choices about what we will do and how we will act. But, one psychologist believes "that only about 5 percent of what we do in a given day is the outcome of conscious, deliberate choices we make, processed by that snowball on the tip of the iceberg that is human consciousness. The rest of our actions and behaviors are managed below the surface, by all sorts of learned yet now unconscious ways of intending and navigating the world...Aristotle called them 'second nature': because these are ways that we move in the world without thinking about it." This information comes from an excellent book titled You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit by James K. A. Smith.

Earlier in the book Smith quotes another individual who tells us, "Your deepest desire...is the one manifested by your daily life and habits." Smith writes that "This is because our action - our doing - bubbles up from our loves, which, as we've observed, are habits we've acquired through the practices we're immersed in."

Most of the time, when we are confronted with choices to make we will make the ones that bring us the most satisfaction, the most pleasure, the most enjoyment, and we will continue making that choice for the same reasons. Eventually, we no longer have to make a conscious choice about the matter. That choice has become a habit that we now do without giving it much thought. That habit can then begin to control us and shape us into the person we become. This can be either a good thing or a bad thing.

Few, if any, drug addicts woke up one morning and decided to destroy their lives by becoming addicted to drugs. Someone offered them a drug, and they chose to consume it. As they continued to make the decision to use drugs one day they didn't have to make the decision any more. It was made for them the moment they woke up and their body began to cry out for the drug. The same thing occurs any time someone becomes addicted to a substance or a behavior. Perhaps millions of people are as addicted to their electronics and social media as a coke addict is addicted to cocaine.

On the other hand, one can choose to be a person filled with a positive outlook on life. Such a person radiates positive energy towards everyone he or she meets. This person maintains a positive outlook on life. These are choices a person can make, and as this choice is made consistently over time it eventually shapes the person into someone who is generally positive and upbeat about life.

Since our choices can make us into the person we become we need to be very careful about the choices we make. It is equally important to be careful about the people with whom we associate. It's very difficult to consistently make positive choices if we are hanging around with those who are not as careful about the choices they make.

I encourage you to first identify the person you want to be and then determine the choices you need to make to become that person. This will not happen overnight, but eventually the choices you make will make you into the person you will become.

You can make your life better or worse

Zig Ziglar was the greatest motivational speaker I ever heard. My daughter and I attended several motivational conferences where he spoke. He would open his seminar by asking two questions. The first question was “How many of you believe that regardless of how bad your personal, family, and business lives are at this moment there are things you could do to make them worse?” That always got a chuckle from the crowd.

His second question was “How many of you believe that regardless of how good your personal, family, and business lives are there are things you can do to make them better?”

He then made his point. “If you honestly do believe there is something you can do to make your life better or your life worse, you have reached a profound conclusion. Regardless of how good or bad my life is, there is something I can do to change it, and the choice is mine.” He was challenging each of us to take responsibility for our lives.

If you never heard him speak I highly recommend his book Over the Top: Moving from Survival to Stability, from Stability to Success, from Success to Significance. It contains much of the information he shared in his seminars.

We sometimes hear people talk about having a life-changing moment. Sometimes events do occur in our lives that forever changes our lives, but for the majority of us any changes that we experience will come through the choices we make. As I wrote yesterday, every choice carries a consequence, for good or bad, and those choices can eventually change our lives.

We are today what we decided we would be 5 years ago, 10 years ago, and even 20 years ago. In 5 years from now, 10 years from now, and 20 years from now we will be what we decide today that we want to be.

When you get up in the morning and look in the mirror, if you like what you see, congratulations, you’ve made good choices. But, if you don’t like the person looking back at you, if you don’t like where you are in life or who you’ve become, then you need to start making different choices. No one can change your life but yourself.

If it always easy to make those choices? No, but it also not easy living the way some people do. Broken marriages, constant financial worries, dead-end jobs, troubled children are not easy to live with either. If I want to do something difficult it would be to do whatever it took to improve my circumstances, not continue to live in them. Remember. . .the choice is yours.

Embrace your future

Several years ago I used to attend motivational conferences that often featured Zig Ziglar. In my opinion, he was the master motivator. I have several of his books in my library and used to own a series of cassette tapes he had on goal setting. One of my favorite Ziglar quotes is that we have to make peace with our past and make friends with our present so we can prepare for our future. I've shared that message in many sermons and conferences I've led because I know it is so true.

As a pastor I met many people who were held in the grip of their past. In some cases, they had experienced much abuse and pain growing up and even in their early adult years. Their past held them captive as much as if they were in a prison. Some had given up. Any present difficulties in their lives were blamed on their past. They always had a reason why they could not escape their past experiences. It is very hard to help people with that mindset.

Equally challenging are those people who believe their current situation is the best it will ever be. Perhaps they are doing very well and believe it can't get any better. On the flip side are those whose current situation isn't very good but believe the same: it won't get any better.

To the first group who are doing well I would remind them that things can change rapidly. People used to tell us that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." In other words, leave things alone that are working. I would challenge that. I think a better plan is, "If it ain't broke, break it. It will be obsolete soon anyway."

Look at what happened to Sears, J C Penney and many other brick-and-mortar stores. They are failing, or gone out of business, because they refused to recognize a new business model was making their model obsolete. The same thing happened to Kodak when digital cameras took over the market and to the Swiss watch makers when they failed to recognize that quartz watches would take over that market. Today those companies are under even more pressure due to the popularity of Apple watches. In 2019 Apple sold more watches than all the Swiss companies combined.

What is true in the business world is also true in our personal lives. Entire jobs are disappearing and being replaced by new ones. It is likely that people entering the job market today will one day be doing jobs that didn't even exist when they began their careers. Fund managers regularly switch investments for their clients into new ones that will outperform their old investments. Change occurs in every area of our lives. These changes often occur rapidly making it important that we remain flexible.

To the second group, it's important to not believe that where you are today in your life is where you have to stay. As I wrote yesterday, you don't have to remain stuck where you are. The information from reading one book, one phone call, taking one class, one more interview can change your life. It's important that you don't give up and believe you have to accept being stuck. You don't!

Ziglar's words are true for both groups. Make peace with your past no matter if it was good or bad. You can't change the past so accept it for what it was and move on. Make friends with your present. It's where you live right now, but whether its good or bad, don't make it your permanent dwelling. Prepare for the future because that's where you are going. Embrace it and take the steps necessary to make it the best possible life for yourself and those you care about.

Choose carefully who you listen to

There are many voices calling out to us each day. Family members, friends, co-workers, the news media, advertising, clients, authors of the books we read, celebrities, and persons on social media are just some of the people every day trying to influence our thinking and actions. It can become overwhelming at times, and to make it easier we might choose to focus in on just a handful of influencers. The problem then becomes which influencers will we listen to?

One of the skills many have lost is the ability to do critical thinking. Many people today are not deep thinkers. They allow others to do their thinking for them. They watch the news on television and let the talking heads tell then what to think about the issues of the day. It doesn't matter whether your favorite source of news is mainstream media or one of the cable news organizations. They all tell you what they want you to believe the news of the day is and how you should feel about it. As a result, we have been conditioned to think in short time-bites and programmed to believe what we are being told is all we need to know about the issue. Unfortunately, understanding the story takes longer than a 2-3 minute summary of the story, and if you watch different broadcasts you will quickly learn that the same story can be spun in numerous ways. Liberal news outlets will have one spin; conservative outlets will have a completely different spin; the truth may well lie somewhere in the middle, and it's out job to try to discover that.

We've been given the ability to think for ourselves, to form our own opinions. Those opinions will be shaped by the information we take in. That is why it is important that we watch  who we allow to inform us about events of the day. If your broke brother-in-law wants to give you financial advice, don't listen. Don't take relationship advice from someone who's been married four times. When someone in the media talks about a news item, discern his or her agenda before accepting it as true. Most will have an agenda.

Our worldview will be shaped by the voices we listen to. You may not think you have a worldview, but we all do. Once we form our worldview, that worldview will form us. We will adapt to the worldview we have created. Anything we hear that is contrary to that worldview will be initially rejected. Our actions will be shaped by that worldview. It's important that we take time to identify our worldview and see how it impacts our lives.

Our lives are impacted so much by the information that we accept as true. It's important to choose carefully who we listen to.

You get to choose your life

One of the most life-giving lessons I've learned in my seven decades is that I have the opportunity to choose many of the things I experience in life. Obviously, there are some things we do not get to choose. There are persons who are born with handicaps who would never have chosen those handicaps, but they still get to choose how they will respond to those limitations. If you doubt that you need to read What's Your Excuse?: Making the Most of What You Have. It's the story of John Foppe, a man born with no arms who refused to let that handicap limit him. It's a powerful book about how each of us can choose how to respond to the challenges life presents to us.

Foppe could have chosen to be a "perpetual victim." You know those people. They are always blaming others for the bad things that have happened to them. They refuse to take any responsibility for themselves. It's the government's responsibility to provide for them, or the church's, or their family's.

There is no doubt that some people have had rough times. They may not have had the best childhood. They may have suffered abuse or neglect. They may have faced more struggles than most people. I would never discount that, but that is in the past. Maybe there was nothing they could do about their circumstances back then, but now they are adults. They can choose to live in the past and blame their problems on the things that happened back then or they can choose to live in the present and prepare themselves for a better future.

It's time that people begin to take responsibility for their lives. That's called maturity. It's being a grown-up. Instead of demanding that the government increase the minimum wage, do something that will entitle you to earn more. All raising the minimum wage does is cost people jobs. If you want to earn more money, be worth more.

During my senior year of high school I worked at a local supermarket. I was in a class that went to school a half-day and worked the other half. I bagged groceries for .75 cents an hour. I worked about 50 hours a week (You can't do that now while going to school!). In a few weeks I was promoted to a stocker and given responsibility for ordering stock for an entire aisle of products. I requested a raise and received it. A few months later I was given responsibility for a second aisle. Now I was ordering product and responsible for stocking two aisles in that store. I got another raise. Some of the other students in the class complained to the teacher because I was making more than they were. When he challenged me about that I explained if they wanted to make more money all they had to do was to be worth more. After that conversation I asked for another raise and got it, too!

No one can hold you back except you. No one can limit what you can achieve but you. People tell me they can't get a better job because they don't have the education and can't get it.  I earned my bachelor's degree at the age of 46 while working full-time in a factory and pastoring a church. I got my master's degree at 58 while working a full-time job and my doctorate at 62 while working that same job. Don't tell me you can't get the education you need. Besides, you can get a good job without a college education. There are employers who will train people who want to work. Why should anyone worry about a minimum wage job when there are good jobs out there for those willing to pursue them?

Your choices are not limited to jobs or salaries. You get to choose the kind of marriage you will have, the way you raise your children, your financial security, your character, your happiness and a host of other aspects of your life. Quit living in the past and begin making choices that will improve your life now and in the future. The choice is yours.

Dreams without action are useless

Whose name comes to mind when I say "Dreamer?" Chances are you know people who spend much of their time dreaming about things they want to do or things that need to be changed, but they never take any action to do either. I have worked with a number of churches to help them identify a new vision for ministry, but many of them never did anything after they developed their vision statement. It went into a folder on someone's computer and was never heard from again. What a waste of energy and effort!

Visions and dreams are important. They help give an organization or individual focus. It keeps them future-oriented, but only if they actually take action on the dream. Navel-gazers seldom accomplish much. At some point, action has to be taken or the dreaming is just an exercise in futility.

The first step in seeing your dreams become reality is to identify the steps you have to take to achieve them. For instance, let's say your dream is become the top salesperson in your company. What are the steps you have to take to achieve that dream?

First, you need to know how much in sales the current top salesperson does annually. If you are going to be the top salesperson you need to know the figure you have to meet to achieve that.

Second, you need to know the ratio between sales calls and actual sales and the average sales per customer. For instance, if your company averages a sale for every five sales calls and the average sale is $1,000.00 then you know that you need to make five calls to sell $1,000.00 of your product or service. How many of those $1K sales do you need to be the top salesperson? Take that number and multiply it times 5, and that's how many sales calls you need to make.

You also want to consider how you might improve that $1,000.00 average sale. What if you could increase your average to $1,500.00? If so, fewer calls will accomplish your goal, or if you keep the same number of sales calls but increase the average sale, you will really be the top salesperson. What added benefits or upsales will help you increase your average? Identify those and you are well on your way to achieving your dream.

This same format works regardless of what your dream might be. It's a matter of breaking your dream down into bite-size pieces that become more manageable. Doing this doesn't make it seem as scary or impossible to achieve.

But, none of this matters if you are not willing to do the hard work required of achieving those bite-sized pieces. You have to get boots on the ground, work the phones, make the cold calls, study the assignments, sacrifice and be committed to doing just a little bit more than the next person. After all, the next person is average, and you don't want to be average. You want to be the top producer. Achieving your dream may require you to make just one more call before you go home each day. Sometimes just a little extra effort enables you to see your dreams fulfilled.

Like everything else in life, the choice is yours. Do you want to see your dream fulfilled badly enough that you will take the action required to accomplish it?