Take Permission

The Right Tools & Mindset For Success

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Love The One You've Got

When you live in South Dakota, you experience stretches of several weeks when it doesn’t get above freezing. You get conditioned to it.

South Dakota Porch Snow

You have a normal but so do North Koreans. That’s proof that anyone can become conditioned.

Normal and conditioned have nothing to do with what’s right or best.

New = Better?

We are convinced and conditioned to believe that newer is better. That’s why we buy more things, upgrade them, and sometimes give up on relationships.

New is better.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that. It’s not always true.

If you’re struggling in a relationship and you’re considering quitting, remember that new isn’t always better.

Love the one you’ve got.

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It Matters What You Measure

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It’s easier to count the number of employees, your account balances, or the number of clients and feel like you’re winning at the game of life. Life isn’t a game though.

More means that we are winning, right?

What if we’re accumulating the wrong things?

Generosity, joy, peace, self-control, connection, vulnerability, humility; those are things we can’t have too much of.

To get the life you want you must measure what matters and then work to grow those things.

What You Can Measure

How many times you compliment your spouse.
How many times an employee says thank you for their job.
How many times you help around the house.
How many times you tell your child you love them.
How many days you come home on time from work.
How many hours of sleep you get.
How many times you make a stranger smile.
How often you pray for your enemies.
How many friends you can call to say simply, “I appreciate you.”

If You’re In a Slump

Slumps can happen when we’re measuring the wrong things. What we measure is what matters to us.

If you’re in a slump then it’s nice to see you, I’m in one too. It happens to the best of us.

Measure the right things. It’s the key to a worthwhile life.

What are you going to measure?

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How I'm Confronting My Weaknesses by Going Through The Living Forward Process

Books are generous things. A team of people put hundreds of hours and often decades of experience into one book. We click a button and get it delivered in two days or sometimes instantly.

Accept it or Reject it?

Then we make a decision. Will we accept it or will we reject it? Every time we open a book, we get the chance to open ourselves to its message.

Living ForwardI’m opening myself up to Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. I’ve paid for my copies so don’t take this endorsement as a friend promoting his friends. This is someone believing and investing in a proven path.

I Need Direction

I am a man in need of direction. That may sound weak to you but it’s not. I have weaknesses, we all do. There is wisdom in knowing you need direction. There is strength in knowing your weaknesses. This book is going to help me take the steps to seek the direction I need. It will not tell me where to go; it’s not that kind of book. This is a choose your own adventure book.

The keywords are YOUR and ADVENTURE. This looks like another business self-help book but what I think and hope it is, is a tool I can use to stop being a wandering generality and start being a man who lives with purpose and joy.

All that for $13. That’s a generous exchange.

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I encourage you to get this book and then follow the steps it provides. It’s an easy read and a worthwhile process to walk through. If you follow Mike and Daniel’s advice you’ll end up with a map you can live by and revisit to tweak if necessary.

I’m 38, and I’m tired of drifting.

Average Isn’t A Worthy Goal

There are many things I do well. I provide tremendous value for my customers and I’m a good husband and father. The struggle is that good is average and average isn’t what we’re created to be.

I have a wonderful life, but God has more for me than I am experiencing and it’s not God’s fault I’m not experiencing everything He has for me. It’s time for me to stop drifting. My family deserves better. My friends deserve better. This world needs me at my best. I need to live a life I’m proud of.

Taking One Day

Monday I’m taking the entire day to go through the life planning process. One day that could help direct the rest of my days. That’s worth investing in for me and for you.

Click here to get Mike and Daniel’s book Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want

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Your intentions don't matter

Tonight I called home from my trip to Nashville and talked with my wife about her day. At 10:08 I looked at my phone and said, “I need to let you go. I’m getting up early tomorrow.”

My wife replied, “Ok, but you say that you’re getting up early every day and you don’t.”

She’s right. I set my alarm for 5:30 or 6am every night but rarely answer its call when it rings. I have been living as if my intentions mattered as much as my actions. Decisions aren’t actions, they intentions that we still haven’t delivered on.

Here’s my alarm for tomorrow.
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