Are you throwing a way your opportunities and you dont even know it?

I just read an article titled  The Baby & the Bath Water by Orrin Woodward.  The following is the beginning excerpt I am referring to:

"Have you ever heard the quote, “Don’t throw the baby out with the dirty bath water?” I certainly have used this principle repeatedly over the years. Sadly, too many times, people do throw the baby and the bath water out because they do not understand fully the concept described in Chapter 5 of the new RESOLVED book – Plan, Do, Check, and Adjust (PDCA). Remember, anytime you throw out the baby, you also throw out your opportunity. It’s been my experience that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you can do it great. The key is to have emotional intelligence to persist while improving."

I remember when I had just attended a business meeting about ten years ago in the industry of relational marketing.  I was so clueless then.  I thought it was an internet marketing business and I would be able to run a successful business with out having to deal with people. You know, blast out emails, find someone else to do it, put flyers on cars ect.  I think that is what we want naturally. We want something easy where ywe don't have to expose ourselves to the inconsistent behavior of people.

Coming from a pretty dysfunctional family, being a Foster child at age 15 and mainly on my own since 15, my people skills and self-esteem were of the worst you could ever find.  So when I learned that I was really not involved in a product business but a people business, I was so tempted to "throw the baby out with the bathwater."  I remember reading in one of the top five books that "low self esteem means friction and trouble.  I sure did relate to that.

I almost made the mistake of thinking since I wasn't a people person, I could not succeed in a people business.  But what happened was I began reading and listen to CDs from TEAM and The Life Business and they helped me think of not my problem but a solution.  For some reason an untrained brain naturally lead us to think of excuses instead of solutions. Excuses are easier and let us off the hook.  They keep the pressure off. They justify (to ourselves but not others) why we don't have to try or change.

Don't ever for get that the value of something is proportional to the price paid to achieve it.  If you don't ever pay a price to achieve something you will feel less valuable, I assure you.  God made you great and he is the author of self satisfaction (the emotional reward you get when your maximize the gifts God gave you). Funny thing is that if you don't pay the price of achievement then you will pay the price of stagnation and again you will feel less valuable.

Excuses destroy and solutions create.  Just because you are not good at something now, has no bearing upon your ability to become good or great at something.

For example, Instead you saying "I don't have any money" think  instead:  "How do I develop a plan to get money" or "what are others in my situation doing to get money?"

Instead of saying my marriage is bad, ask yourself: "what can I do to take personal responsibility to make my marriage better and where can I find some good information to help me" and "Can I find other people who have good marriages and learn from them?"

Instead of saying I don't have any people skills, ten years ago I said: "What materials does the TEAM and LIFE Business have that I can learn to develop great people skills?"  I tell you that line of thinking has made all the difference in our lives.  Have a "can do" or "can learn to do" mentality because , with God all things are possible, for those who believe.(mark 9:23) Your willingness to learn an act upon a can do mentality is the only real proof you have any faith in your creator. "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (James 2:26)

Here is the brutal FACT. An excuse is simply ones admission that they are unwilling to seek out a solution. And usually that solution has been identified by someone else already.  People are overconfident in their thinking but under confident in their ability to learn and implement new ideas and strategies. I thank God for The Team and The Life Business. Ten years ago, I was an excuse maker. It is by a thin thread that I resisted the temptation to make excuses for my lack of people skillsand quit the industry I knew so little about.   We kept the Baby and Filtered the Bath water every day and will continue to do so.  I hope you do also, for you are to be the light and salt of the world (Matthew 5:13).

God Bless

Mark Has