Situational Awareness

 

"Awareness is the greatest agent for change!" 

I love the saying, NOTHING CHANGES IF NOTHING CHANGES! 

Its simplicity is lost in the art that we often fall somewhere in the grey area of that mantra! 

We expect great change, yet we often don't create a successful, consistent environment around us that supports change. 

We read a book, watch a Ted Talk, race a 5K, find a mentor or just wake up! 

All of these things are great in themselves and are often agents of change that I exhibit in my daily processes. 

Where most fall short however is the transition from completion to execution. 

We read a book and expect change to happen, but the book won't do it for you! 

We watch a motivational video and get all fired up, yet our poor diet lacks the energy needed for the next step. 

We race a 5K and feel like we conquered the world, but the next day fail to show up again because we feel we have arrived already. 

We have a great mentor but expect them to create our success! 

Finally, our eyes pop open in the morning and we feel like life should just work for us! 

Don't worry as I have fallen into this trap more than once and probably will again in the future. 

What I try and bring to my conscious mind though is...SITUATIONAL AWARENESS! 

Situational Awareness is the perceptions of your environment and events with respect to time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status. 

For me situational awareness is BEING WHERE MY FEET ARE and being the biggest TIME HOARDER of all time! 

The second I take my existence for granted is the exact time when I need to raise my awareness level. 

Stop waiting for the right moment!

Stop waiting for the weather to be perfect! 

Stop waiting for next week to create memories! 

Stop waiting...

Instead start implementing! 

The only competitor in life that is undefeated is...TIME! 

Did you know that roughly 50 million people in this world (probably more but we foolishly just call it old age) have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's! 

Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases don't care how fast you can run a mile, how much weight you can lift, how much money you make, your shoe collection, your profession or whether you eat keto/carnivore/vegan! 

Sure, exercise and diet are incredible at setting the stage for success but in the end, we truly can't stop one of these terrible diseases from happening! 

So, this is where your situational awareness comes in strong...

My awareness while running for hours on end is where am I right now? 

Not yesterday and certainly not tomorrow but how am i being present as a dad, doctor, husband, brother, uncle, son, friend and neighbor. 

I am not perfect, but my situational awareness reminds me to keep going and create a difference in this crazy world by BEING WHERE MY FEET ARE and NOT EXPECTING CHANGE WITHOUT BEING PRESENT TO CHANGE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Make It Count! 

Why Humble?

"True humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking about yourself less." - C.S. Lewis

There is such a variety of definitions of what it means to be humble. Some use words like ego, strength, weakness, caring, optimistic, growth, honesty and authentic.

The Make It Count definition is very easy, repeatable and one you will never forget.

                                          HUMBLE = YOU

That's right! Why make the definition difficult when success lies in simplicity.

Every successful person I have interviewed or had meaningful conversations with have one specific, consistent trait and that is they care more about you than they do themselves. They all contribute to what I like to call "The Power Of You!" Their vocabulary is scattered with more you than me. Their questions are as follows:

               "How are you doing?"   "How can I help you?"  "What's new with you?"

               "What are you struggling with?"  "What are some of your recent successes?"

They are not concerned with sharing the ME. When the conversation turns to the ME then are you really having a conversation or are you just talking to talk and hear yourself? That is a question that I always ask myself? Consistent self evaluation allows me to consistently know if I am truly engage or just reciting my resume.

All of this works though if and only if you have no agenda. Having no agenda means you just AUTHENTICLY care! Anyone who has followed an authentic leader knows that they have no secret agenda. Their number one goal is always to get the most out of everyone in their company. They live the Zig Ziglar quote "You can have everything you want in live, if you will just help other people get what they want." Their personal success is because of others. They understand that we can't do this alone and investing in others is the greatest investment you can make.

In the end watch the words and conversation you have. There is nothing wrong with being confident but that confidence can take an ugly spin when ego takes the wheel!

Make It Count!

Is it sunny or cloudy

Life is about the experiences! Life is about the experiences! Life is about the experiences! Life is about experiences! Life is about experiences! Life is about experiences!

Did you notice that not once did I say that the experience has to be negative or positive? Experiences come in success or failure, positive or negative and growth or growth (ha, ha...there is only one direction and that is up via growth!). 

One of the fastest ways to get the most out of your day and your experiences is the consistent evaluation of your day. 

When you live in accordance with a Make It Count Lifestyle you thrive in the nightly conversations of Sunny or Cloudy!

Sunny - What happened today that was incredible, awesome and went well.

Cloudy - What didn't go well, a failure, sadness and something that bothers your mindset more than it should. 

Take a second right now and think about yesterday! What immediately comes to mind as far as what went well and what didn't. Our minds more often than not gravitate to the negative, bad or unfortunate events. This then typically has the repercussion of stress, why me and a carry over to todays journey. 

The Cloudy in our day eventually does exactly what clouds do...they cover us from the sun or the blessings that are right in front of us. 

Great example is lets say on Tuesday you loose a big sale. The stress overwhelms you, the desire to quit becomes larger and you can't get over what happened. Wednesday starts and instead of waking with an attitude of accomplishment you are still holding on to Tuesday's loss. What could have been done different to increase your production on Wednesday? An evaluation of your Sunny and Cloudy on Tuesday before bed would have set you up for future success. That evaluation allows you to figure out what happened and realize was it within your control or not. This release frees you of carry over stress. This release gives you the chance to start fresh consistently.

Stress, failure, loss, grief or cloudy days/events will happen as its part of the human process. It is however up to us to process and see what we can do to cope, grow, accept and move on. Sitting down with yourself, family or friends and working through your day can help us see what we need to do in order to wake up the next day and crush it!

In the sales example. A simple evaluation could have identified that you did not take care of the client every day. You expected an easy sale and did not cater to the clients needs so they moved on. 

Everything starts with an experience just being an event and from there we decide if its a sunny and cloudy.  

The key to recognizing our definition of sunny and cloudy is in a pure evaluation of where our mindset lies. If you are judging more events as cloudy than you may be in a fixed mindset versus if the sunny opportunities are lining up out the door then you may be in a stage of growth mindset. 

At the end of the day the key is personal evaluation of your internal representation of your day. 

Sunny or cloudy the end goal is to always have a present time focus on what is progressing in your life!

Now get off the computer and go Make It Count!

What type of value do you add?

One of the simplest questions you can ask yourself when you wake up in the morning is, "What type of value can I add today?"

We have two choices when we wake up in the morning.

Is today gonna be a great day? Is today gonna be a struggle?

Both questions are realistic options that we come across each day. Some days there is even the possibility of engaging in both dynamics as life is not perfect and through the human condition we sometimes fight to stay positive all the time.

When we live in a Make It Count lifestyle we are consistently engaging in a life of adding value. The question is are you making deposits or making withdrawals.

Deposits - encouraging others, saying thank you, opening doors, reaching out, being supportive, teamwork, and being authentic.

Withdrawals - self-centered, focusing on the me, ignorance, life is out to get me, fixed mindset, anger, pointing out others weakness's and negative self-talk.

Both options come with value as you adding value or taking value away.

I recently did a personal reflection project on how my patients were doing in accordance to how I was feeling mentally. While I would never take any of my personal issues into any patient interactions I wanted to see if I raised my awareness and energy 10x how my patients response to care would improve.

I brought more energy, authenticity and value to my patients with authentic intention.

Guess what the outcome was?

That's right! Patients got better faster, patients had a better experience, patients left more fulfilled and patients told more people of their incredible care experience. Did I do anything different with the physical component of how I treat patients? NOT AT ALL! All I did was invest more value or deposits into my patients experience. I merely brought a clearer, cleaner, optimal mindset to their care and the end result was simple improvement.

My favorite quote ever from Zig Ziglar states, " You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want." I know if I go all in and bring 100% value to my kids, wife, teammates, patients, friends and community that their life will level up which in turns creates an upswing in the legacy that is my life.

The simple ingredient that started the value was just being authentic and knowing that upon waking in the morning that choosing to have a great day via adding value will allow us to always Make It Count!

Thank for the continued support of the book! Make It Count: Toolkit for maximizing your life! can be found on Amazon. Please let me know if you would like more information of coaching, speaking engagements and ways to maximize your life as currently booking up through the fall!

What kind of juice do you like?

Do you prefer juice already squeezed for you, filled with artificial ingredients geared at inhibiting your success or do you prefer freshly squeezed juice filled with nutritional greatness geared at optimizing your potential?

Of course you are gonna say the second one as why would anyone want to inhibit their success? However that is exactly what we do every single day.

Every single situation or journey in life comes with three integral stages.

1. The Thought
2. The Action
3. The Reward

We see those of success on social media, at work, in our community or on TV and we get googly eyed over their success or their reward. Our minds eye skips the steps in between and we either glamourize what they have or beat ourselves up for not having what they have.

Some may even take it a step further and start formulating plans, thoughts or ideas for how they can incorporate more success into their path. I know personally I come up with at least a half dozen ideas each day on what I can do better as a dad, doctor, husband and friend. The shortfall comes when it just stays on reserve as a thought.

Out of the three integral stages for success, the thought is the longest and most frequented stage. We build up an idea in our head but then once stage two starts we freeze, hesitate or turn back on our actions. We struggle with the idea that it will be too hard, too difficult, I am not smart enough, I am not ready, what will people say and numerous other excuses.

The first principle in the Make It Count lifestyle is what we call "The Juice Is Worth The Squeeze." The idea is that we all are envious of success and what others have but struggle with getting our own success off the ground. We have ideas but calling action to our thoughts becomes debilitating. We worry that it will be too difficult. In truth, you are probably right! Success is not easy. It takes consistent, determined hard work. However it's that hard work that makes everything worth it.

Lets jump back to that first paragraph though and how good do you think the freshly squeezed juice tastes? How rewarding to do you think its to drink the fresh juice versus the processed juice? How good do you think you would feel the next day between drinking the two juices? How well do you think you could repeat the actions of squeezing when you know the outcome is worth it?

My answer to all of these is "The Juice Is Worth The Squeeze." The fresh juice tastes better, makes you feel better, easy to repeat because the reward is amazing. The long, tedious work tastes great in the end.

All of this falls similar into the second stage. The action is always tough because it makes you work. The outcome of the work is success or failure but aren't they both the same. With both we reach an outcome that makes us better off. When we succeed in our day we know what to do in order to reach consistent, repeatable results. When we fail in our day we also learn what didn't work thus we are able to course correct and consistently make the outcome better or desirable.

Hard work is tough, hard work makes you dig deep, hard work makes you sweat, hard work will make you cry, hard work digs deep into emotions, hard work is hard work and hard work is worth the squeeze!

To read more on this principle and more principles in the Make It Count lifestyle find the book Make It Count: Tools to Maximize Your Life on Amazon.

Have a great day and Make It Count!

Dr. Jake

Transactional or Transformational

Whether you know it or not you either pursue relationships as a transaction or as a transformation.

Without reading any further which type of relationship do you think you typically pursue?

Transactional Relationship or Transformational Relationship

Unfortunately most people start their day with the mindset of me, me, me. We go through our motions with the mindset of what can I get out of my relationships today.

Transactional Relationships are based on selfish actions. If nothing is in it for me then its not for me. We use others gifts for our benefit.

Transactional Relationships are focused on the one way street mentality of if you can't help me then its not meant to be.

There is an argument that a business based in transactions is successful because of those transactions. I would argue that while meeting the bottom line is important its the transformational relationship with the customer that keeps them returning for more. Its treating that customer, patient or client as more than a number. Its treating them as the most important individual you have ever come in contact with. This deeper connection transforms their belief in your company and both individuals live in mutual success.

 Transaction vs. transformation also crosses over into your personal life in how you interact with friends, family and your significant other. My wife and I are just a few weeks away from 16 years of marriage and I would like to believe that its because our relationship is based in transformation.

We wake up in the morning with the mission of raising three, strong, driven, accomplish girls but we ALWAYS make time to lift each other up. There are definitely times that selfish needs or wants insert their ugly heads but we are always consciously present to what needs to be done in order to reframe our mindsets. When we are on the same page with transformational interactions then it spreads over into our marriage, health, business, families, kids and everything we come into contact with.

If you are struggling with how to reframe your mindset from one of transactional to one of transformational then here are a few tips:

1. Ownership - There is nothing more powerful in any type of growth than ownership. When we take ownership of our thougths and actions then we take on the mindset of growth. Ownership involves getting to know everything you can about your customer or spouse. When you fully understand what it is that they need then you are able to better serve them. If something goes wrong then owning up to the problem and searching for solutions helps build strong bonds.

2. Listen - One of the most common faults of any successful relationships is the lack of TRUE listening. How many times do you fully listen without trying to formulate a response before the person is done talking? Take a deep breath, slow down and invest in the person you are dealing with. You may surprise yourself with how much you will learn from someone else when you are fully present in the conversation.

3. Communication - On the opposite side of listening is the art of talking. Sounds confusing right!?! I have seen many relationships or business fail because a lack of effective communication. My parents got divorced for a few reasons but one of them was my dads inability to deliever his emotions which then he internalized which turned into bigger problems. Companies fail when they are inefficient in delivering the proper message to their employees or customers. Have you ever heard the saying, "employees don't leave companies they leave managers." The main reason for this is along the line there was a break in effective communication and in exchange the relationship turned transactional.

4. Trust, trust, trust, trust..... - That word goes hand in hand with all successful relationships and is no different in this scenerio. Trust comes from within believing that you have what it takes to offer everyone around you value. Trust also comes from your actions. If you are late to meetings, gossip behind others backs, say you will do something and then you don't and make others feel uneasy with your actions then its almost impossible to build trust. I know my marriage with my wife is based on trust and I know that each patient I come in contact with must know first hand that I have their best interest in mind and this helps them trust me with their health.

I thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that you gathered some golden nuggets to add to your lifestyle but what I know for sure is that if you don't practice, practice, practice and keep practicing in relationships then we always fall back into a transactional relationship. Success in any buiness relationship or personal relationshp takes consistent, deep work but the exciting piece is that with that hard work life feels pretty good.

Make It Count!!!!!!

Thanks

Dear Dad -

Its been almost 48 hours since your passing and while I thought I would be stronger by now well I am not. I keep running through my head just wanting to chat one more time on what's going on in life. Da Bears are making moves and I truly believe that this could be the year for them to go all the way which would be a great tribute for them to you!

I had plenty of time yesterday to not only ponder our relationship in life but to ponder just life in general. I always come to the same conclusion that we as humans always take life so for granted. We get into our routines and think our days are guaranteed. I am guilty of it constantly in the sense of one day truly Making It Count and then the next letting others opinions dictate the structure of my day.

There are two gifts that you gave me during your young 65 years. The first is that being a DAD is the most important job there is. Professional jobs will come and go. One might get caught up in the drama of their profession but in the big picture of life your profession shouldn't define you. What should define you is the family you surround yourself with. They are the ones that will love you to no end that the ones who you spend so much quality time with. I have truly grasped being a dad with all my heart and it literally is the best job I could ever ask for. So for that I thank you.

The other gift is the magic of believing in another person. I don't think you once in my life told me I couldn't do something which I will forever be grateful for. Any and all ideas I came at you with you never told me NO or that it COULDN'T be done. You always challenged me to find a way. To never give up but dig down and implement a plan for success. I carry this on to my girls also in that I always challenge them to never think they can't do something and definitely don't think they can't because they are a girl.

Some of the greatest memories I have are of the simplest of times. The fishing trips, camping out in the backyard, canoeing down the river to go catch turtles, taking Jimbo and I to Cubs games and shooting basketball for hours at the cabin in Wisconsin. The moments were not forced but happened naturally.

I have come to hate the word addiction over the years mainly because I couldn't grasp why one thing could over power someone's thoughts and actions. My heart will forever hurt that you had to deal with addiction on a daily basis. I know I tried for many years to help and part of me believes that I could have done more which has brought on many tears the past couple days. My goal in life has always been to help as many people as I can and to some degree I feel like one of the most important people I could have helped I failed. This will forever hurt but what I do know is I can take that hurt and use it for good.

Loosing anyone in life is tough but a son loosing his dad is definitely a difficult one especially when I didn't get to say goodbye. Time took you away from us faster than we had planned and for that I vow to never waste another minute of time not Making It Count! I also regret that I wasn't able to get my book in front of you in time for you to see the project I am so proud of so for that I pledge to you that I will do the follow:

#Crush being a dad to your grandchildren
#Take care of your daughters
#Never give up on Da Bears
#Help as many people as I can through Make It Count
#Don't take peoples opinions or advice seriously until I have had time to evaluate importance
#Teach my girls the ART of fishing
#Find a way to battle against the power of addiction
#Never forget how important time is and how the little things matter
#Show up to everything I do 100%
#Consistently be the leader people need to chase their dreams and goals
#Don't waste another second

Thanks for everything you gave me in life! There were lots of good times and lots of rough times but for all the times they gave value to the man I am today and for that I am grateful. I truly hope you are in a place of healing now and know that you will be forever missed. The love will never disappear but will forever grow in your honor. Thanks for everything and all the principles you have directly and indirectly taught me in life. Its now time to go share those with the world and make the most out of everything as nothing about the future is guaranteed.

Love you dad,

Jake