Thoughts about...the question I ask myself the most.

Be Better Tomorrow

When you become more valuable, you will become more successful.

“If you have too little confidence, you will think you can’t learn. If you have too much, you will think you don’t have to learn.” ~ Eric Hoffer

I’m writing this to help those who want to develop positive influence with their team and their leaders because they aren’t content continuing to do the same things the same way for the rest of their career.

I assume you want to be more, do more, earn more, and have more.

If this is the case, your goal shouldn’t be to simply go to work and do your very best to play it safe. Your goal should be to go to work and make the biggest, most positive impact with and for your team. Not some days, everyday.

Think about it. If you were the coach, which player would be more valuable? The one who performs well by themselves? Or, the one who performs well and helps others perform well?

Remember when you were a kid playing some type of team sport with friends, and it was time to pick teams? Who got to pick? The two kids with the most influence. Who did they pick first? The kids they believed could and would help their team win.

Life is no different. The best team players, in the eyes of those doing the picking, get picked first. There’s nothing more important to your future than doing something every day to be better tomorrow than you are today.

This simple principle is why I started reading about process improvement (Lean Manufacturing) in 2005. Then, I began reading leadership books daily in 2008 and plan never to stop. It’s the one thing I know I can do today to be sure I’m better tomorrow. As a result, I’m now doing things I could never have imagined when I started.

Focus on becoming more valuable, not more successful.

The only person you need to be better than tomorrow is the one you are today. It’s that simple.

Your family and your company need you to play at the next level and beyond. Before you can do that effectively, you must master the level you’re at now. Too many people want to be somewhere else which is great, but they haven’t demonstrated and shown mastery at their current level yet. Their focus is on going fast, so they go slow. You need to go slow, to go fast.

“Take the time it takes, so it takes less time.” ~ Pat Parelli

There’s a question you need to start asking yourself today. It’s a question I will be asking myself regularly for the rest of my life. It’s about beginning with the end in mind.

Since I first heard the question, I have never stopped asking it, answering it, acting on it, or sharing it with others. It’s the guiding force behind my personal growth. This question has allowed me to move from wondering and wishing, to being and doing. It has shaped, and continues to shape, my life.

Every one of us is someplace. However, most of us want to be in a different place. Most of us are uncertain about what to do to move from where we are to where we want to be.

The question I’m going to share assumes you know where you’re going. If you don’t know, you need to nail down the answers to the following two sets of questions first.

This first set of questions will establish your starting point: Who am I? And, where am I?

The second set of questions will establish your destination: Who do I want to become? And, where do I want to be?

They also reveal a gap. I call this the “Success Gap.” The gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Here’s the question you need to learn to ask yourself in order to close the gap:

Will what I’m about to do move me in the right direction?

This question is packed full of potential just like me and you!

The question is important.

The answer is more important.

But, your actions are most important.

It’s a simple concept actually. If the answer is yes, you do it. If the answer is no, you don’t do it. It says easy, but it does hard.

When you ask the question, the answer is yes, and you follow through, you close the gap. When the answer is no, but you do it anyway, you widen the gap.

Will what I’m about to do move me in the right direction?

I use this question for big, life changing events and small, everyday decisions. I used this question when I decided to write this. I want to help people who want to help themselves. Writing and sharing motivational, inspirational, and thought-provoking content serves my purpose.

As you grow and change, your values are also defined and refined. As a result, what would have been a “yes” in the past may become a “no” in the future. Or, what was a solid “no” in the past may become a burning “yes” in the future. Things you once valued may simply fall away without much sacrifice as you make more focused decisions and reap the rewards of doing the right things at the right time for the right reasons.

The most important person you will ever talk to is yourself. So, be careful what you say. Likewise, always be intentional about what you ask yourself because you’ll be the one responsible for answering the question.

“It is the capacity to develop and improve themselves that distinguishes leaders from followers.” ~ Bennis and Nanus

If you’re willing to invest in your Blue-Collar workforce, I am too.

Are you a blue-collar leader with 200 team members, who is willing to invest LESS THAN A PENNY PER HOUR (annualized) per person to help them become better people and better team members? Here’s the deal!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Don't miss my recent article that was featured on ATD: 3 Ways High-Impact Leaders Unleash the Potential of Blue Collar Teams and be sure to sign up for our upcoming Blue-Collar Leadership webcaston 10/30/17.

Listen to a recent podcast where I talked about 3-Successful Blue Collar Leadership Principles that will springboard your industrial career to the next level.

Visit BlueCollarLeadership.com for free videos, podcasts, and to download the first 5 chapters of two of my blue-collar books, including Blue-Collar Leadership & Supervision: Unleash Your Team's Potential. There's also an online store where you can purchase all of our 19 leadership development and personal growth books and other resources.

Click here now for a FREE download of the entire leadership principle-packed Chapter 11, "Get Out of the Way and Lead" from the first book in my Defining Influence: Increasing Your Influence Increases Your Options. In this nearly 20 page chapter, I share about:

·      Managing vs Leading

·      Scarcity vs Abundance

·      Formal Authority vs Moral Authority

·      The 5 Types of Leaders

·      Compare/Contrast 17 Manager vs Leader Perspectives

Click here to visit and subscribe to my YouTube channel which has nearly 130 short videos based on leadership lessons similar to the one at the start of this article.

Click here to subscribe to Ria Story's YouTube channel where she shares videos on leadership, leadership for women, resilience, courage, adversity, etc.

Note: I encourage you to be a river, not a reservoir. Please share my blogs with others if you find value in them. I believe in abundance and write them to help others become more effective, successful, and significant.

Make an impact!

Mack Story

I help leaders engage the front line to improve the bottom line.