Kevin W. McCarthy

Are You In The Midst of A Tough Shift™? (part 2)

A Tough Shift™ happens when we're not making a smooth and peaceful transition.  Often these transformations are due to a change in circumstances beyond our control.  Sometimes we choose them in order to improve our situation or life.

A essential element of any tough shift is the ability to have a firm grasp on reality.  Hindrances such a denial, blame, and fear cloud our progress. The management of changes is a core life skill to develop. 

Do you need help making your Tough Shift?  Today is the last day to join me in a new 6-week On-Purpose Leader Experience. The On-Purpose Process is amazingly simple to do, yet the effects will last a lifetime.  Invest 5 minutes to learn more.

For your convenience all webcasts are recorded and available for replay at our private website where you can also post questions and interact with other participants and me. Here is the link for the webcast 1 replay from Feb. 1: http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=26215212

Enroll today for this amazing life transforming experience designed to enhance the personal leadership of your life.  Enrollment is just $147 single or $227 for two.  Register today for The On-Purpose Leader Experience!  Shift into high gear for life!

More On-Purpose Minutes

• Are You In The Midst Of A Tough Shift? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Is Your Career In The Midst of A Tough Shift™? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• How Do You Get The Job Of Your Life? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• How Can I Be A Better Leader? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• How Do I Find Peace In My Life? (kevinwmccarthy.com)

Do You Know Your Gift?

Your contribution to the life of another is directly tied to the gift you possess.  How well you examine and understand your gift directly influences the measure of your difference making.

Within you is something inherently special.  It is a gift that must be unwrapped, examined, and understood to be fully appreciated and enjoyed.  This gift is an expression of your purpose.

You can give this gift by sharing The On-Purpose Person with a
family member or friend.  Place your order today.  Do you want the book(s) to be personalized and signed?  Use the comment section on the order page to give us instructions.  If you want to include a gift card with your name, please let us know and we'll even do that for you.

Do You Feel Like A Failure?

So, how will you choose to see failure?

Unemployment, slow business, foreclosures, and underemployment are just some of the struggles pressing into the hearts and minds of many today.  As the debts pile up and the opportunities apparently diminish, the personal repercussions can cause us to lose hope and begin to see our lives as failing.  This situational depression can weigh on one's spirit to the point of discouragement and negativity as we paint ourselves as failures.

What if your perspective, not your current circumstance, is the problem?  Today's On-Purpose Minute challenges us to stop looking outward and begin looking inward and upward for a fresh approach that holds the key to the present situation and life beyond.

Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, saw "failure" as information.  (See the video clip "I Haven't Failed" by my actor friend, Frank Attwood, who portrays Edison.) 

Gene Kranz, NASA Flight Director, in the movie Apollo 13 is attributed with saying, "Failure is not an option," in the face of saving the crew in space. 

I'm struggling right now with many challenges in life, business, and family.  Perhaps I needed this message more than you do, so forgive me for talking to myself out loud.  Yes, failure is not an option.  Sometimes it simply takes that kind of resolve even as the world crumbles about us.  I needed to hear that!

Related On-Purpose Minutes

• Do You Want More Balance In Your Life? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Are Your Excuses Getting Old? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• How Do You Build Your Confidence? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Is Fear Avoidable? (kevinwmccarthy.com)

Do You Want to Grow Up?

What does it mean to be a grownup, to mature, or to assume adult behavior?  Sadly, far too many older women and men haven't a clue what it means to act, live, and be an adult.  I find that we men, in particular, are slow to grow up into manhood.

Maturity begins with a decision to grow up.  Like anything worthwhile, it takes practice, a mentor or coach, and the desire to keep at it.  Practice pays off.  The rewards of maturity are to live into the life intended for us and to make a greater difference or contribution with our life.

Seek out a mentor, life coach, or counselor with whom you can create a structured relationship for personal leadership growth and development.  This intentional approach and relationship provides the benefits of accountability, fresh perspective, and experience. 

If you want to learn something new, then invest in becoming a more mature and capable person.  Take one step toward being more responsible for yourself.  Then another step, then another.  Soon you'll discover that growing up isn't such a big deal if you take care of the small deals along the way.

Related On-Purpose Minutes

• Are You Owning Your Mistakes? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Do You Really Know Who You Are? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Are You An Explorer? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Is It Lonely At The Top? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• What Is The Meaning of Life? (kevinwmccarthy.com)

How Do I Find Peace In My Life?

 

Finding peace in your life is really a matter of finding peace in your spirit.  When your spirit is calm, then peace of mind follows and the swirl of chaos and confusion is an annoyance, but unable to cut to the core of our being.

Peace is not like an elusive rainbow that can be seen but never visited.  Peace can take residence in your heart when the space is there for it.  Most of us have such cluttered spirits and have gotten ourselves so busy that we don't have the margin to explore the possibilities within us, nor do we have the process to help us get there.

Peace and security are often joined at the hip as being mutually dependent.  We may have a sense of security, but we aren't really secure.  The world is a broken and fallen place so security is an illusion.  

Security is simply protection from outside forces.  Peace is the need for no protection.  Yes, you can have a bit of heaven on earth.  Peace can be owned.  You've experienced it, haven't you?  Now you know when you have it and when you don't.

The On-Purpose Leader Experience is designed to help you find that peace that passes your understanding and then to live into it.  Is it the easiest thing you'll ever do?  Hardly!  I'll challenge you (in a good way) to dig deeper, experience more, and rise to the surface of your life a renewed and refreshed person.

 

 

 

 

 

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How's Your Trust Account?

Have you watched as your savings and retirement dwindle?  Is your job in jeopardy or have you already been laid off?  Are the foundations of your security shaken and showing signs of cracking?  Is it stressing you to the point where you have no peace?

This On-Purpose Minute provides hope and perspective on the trust account anyone can have for free.

Click here to receive an email when I post new On-Purpose Minutes.

 

On-Purpose Business Minutes

• What Is Money to You? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• How's Your Customer Service? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Are You Prepared To Lose To Gain? (kevinwmccarthy.com)

What Is The Meaning of Life?

  

"What is the meaning of life?"  Now there's a tiny topic hardly worth pondering!  The graphic and T-shirt design below by artist Aled Lewis (used with his permission) may provide as good a sense of "clarity" on the topic as one can find.

Kidding aside, the value of asking, "What is the meaning of life?" may be less in the answer to one of life's big questions, but more in the very act of the inquiry.  Asking this question is a positive sign that changes in life, ideally growth and maturity, are budding.  There's an awareness that can lead to a new life with the potential to lead to a life of purpose and meaning. Engagement in a greater reality has begun.

Change is a part of life, but a change for life needs to be self-initiated -- owned, if you will.  Those around may demand or encourage us by saying "Change your life," but at the end of the day it is our responsibility and challenge.

How you go about embracing growth is up to you.  For me, my big shift change happened when I attended a Bible study of the book of Romans back in the spring of 1985.  Like many, I had been searching for meaning in life.  As a true student of self-help literature, I was well read in the classic and contemporary self-help writers.  At some point, however, it all started to sound like the same stuff simply rehashed from a different point of view.

I was not a Christian, but I was curious and willing to give that "old and irrelevant book" and the institution of the Church a chance.  The Bible, I discovered, had a ring of authenticity about it that none of my self-help books had.  There were no lightning strikes or trumpets sounding.  It was mostly an intellectual pursuit to better understand, "Who am I?  Why am I here?  What should I do with my life?  Is life meaningful?"  The Bible was different because here was core wisdom instead of just knowledge.

What is the meaning of life?  It doesn't matter what I say.  You have to find your answer for yourself.  What I will tell you, however, is this: life is meaningful!  Start with this basic assumption and go forward.

More On-Purpose Minutes 

• What does it mean to be on-purpose? by Kevin W. McCarthy
• Do You Really Know Who You Are? by Kevin W. McCarthy
• Are You Happily Distracted? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Do You Want More Balance In Your Life? (kevinwmccarthy.com)

Can A Leader Afford To Be Real?

This On-Purpose^® Business Minute invites you to explore the style and substance of your leadership. Please be sure to watch the video, read the blog, and comment. 

Leaders tend to have catch phrases that guide them. What if these are more style than substance when it comes to truly leading?

"Never let them see you sweat!"  That's the advice given to many a rising leader.  But is it valid or is this just the mythology of being a "strong" leader?  Then again, does a truly strong leader have anything to hide?  Jack Nicholson starred in the movie A Few Good Men as Col. Nathan R. Jessep.  In the movie he utters the famous line, "You can't handle the truth!" in a display of arrogance stemming from a fear of exposure.

"Be an open book," is the advice many would instill in others.  Is there such a thing as too much information?  Do we expect our leaders to exhibit a measure of prudent transparency?  Where is the line of privacy?

Hopefully, this On-Purpose^® Business Minute did inspire you to scratch below the surface of your style to discover the bedrock of your guiding principles.

Related On-Purpose Minutes

• How Do I Become A Leader? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Who Is Keeping You Real? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• Are You Maturing or Just Getting Old? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• What Is Personal Leadership? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• How Solid Is Your Leadership? (kevinwmccarthy.com)
• What Is The Heart of Selfless Service? (kevinwmccarthy.com)

Is A Startup Business A Smart Career Move?

ONPURPOSE@WORK starts this Wednesday.  Learn the valuable and essential thinking skills to be an entrepreneur.  

Are you unemployed, underemployed, or just plain finding that your corporate job is slowly sucking the life out of you?  Are you gasping with this suffocating sense of being stuck with just enough air to breathe, yet barely enough to thrive?  Is some combination of your income, lifestyle, family relationships, and health suffering because of dissatisfaction and frustration with your present work situation? 

Starting a business isn't just for people with business degrees and experience.  Motivation, hard work, and a willingness to learn serves any budding entrepreneur. 

Plan ahead for starting your business off right.  In time, you'll ease into the transition.  Sometimes it is thrust upon us from necessity.  Regardless of whether it is a retirement, layoff, job elimination, or simply what you want to do, starting a business is a smart move. 

Here's my list of ten compelling reasons I see many of my clients have for starting small businesses:

1. Escape the rat race.  Get out of that corporate job and transition to more meaningful and enjoyable work.
2. Personal expression.  A business can be a creative outlet for a hobby or passion.
3. Independence.  Set your own hours, decide who you want to target as your customers, and don't have a boss. 
4. Retiring to work.  Retirement looms in a few years so growing a business represents a smooth transition and new sense of work identity.
5. I need the income.  Your small business may provide extra income to cover the bills for braces, college, and vacations.  As it grows it can replace your current salary and become full time.
6. Tax breaks.  A small business is a vehicle for deducting some existing expenses from your tax return.  Consult your CPA, but when the business picks up a fair share of the bills, it can ease the household budget.
   
7. Ambition: A small business can become a big business!  Put your ambition to work.
8. Change the world.  A business can be the means for you to truly change the world with your business idea, invention, or service.
9. Plan B Security:  A sour economy can be a ripe time to start a business.  In such times it may be the means to provide for one's family and self in the event of a job loss or cutback.  Security matters.
10. I can do better: Many businesses have begun because the founders knew they could do better than their employers or what was offered on the market. I've seen women-owned business blossom simply because the founder wanted equal pay in parity with men and to do better for her family.

    Image by Joi via Flickr

Do you need to be the next Steve Jobs of Apple or Bill Gates of Microsoft?  Not really... but what if you could be?  Are you ready to trust your dream?

It may be one of your smartest moves yet.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

 

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Christian Women in Business: ONPURPOSE@WORK: Join me live on air Oct. 19!

Christian women in business face unique challenges. Whether you're an entrepreneur, president, or CEO or simply dreaming of a small business start-up we'll explore the many opportunities and pitfalls of business ownership. (Men are welcome too!)

Jory Fisher has graciously invited me to be her guest on her radio show October 19 (Scroll below to call in and listen).  We'll address how you can be ONPURPOSE@WORK. I'll be awarding a scholarship to ONPURPOSE@WORK to a deserving entrepreneur so you'll want to tune in to listen so you can learn how to earn by being yourself, prospering, and making a difference. 

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

 

Details about Heart & Soul for Women of Faith

Heart & Soul for Women of Faith airs live Wednesdays at 12 noon Eastern / 9 am Pacific. To listen live online, click on Heart & Soul at BlogTalkRadio.com. To listen by telephone, please call 1.347.326.9296. If you wish to participate in the discussions either by phone or in the chatroom, you must register your name and email address first with BlogTalkRadio by clicking on “register” on the home page of the site.

All shows are archived on my BlogTalk Radio host web page for 24/7 access and for iTunes and MP3 downloads. They are also available on my website: www.womenfindpurpose.com