Lolly Daskal

Are You Teachable?

Leaders face the danger of contentment with the status quo.

After all, if a leader already possesses influence and has achieved a level of respect, why should he/she keep growing? The answer is simple:

• Your growth determines who you are

• Who you are determines who you attract

• Who you attract determines the success of your life.

If  you want to grow in your life, business, and relationships you have to remain teachable.

Does your life and business seem to be getting better day after day, month after month, year after year?

Or are you constantly fighting just to hold your ground?

If you are not where you hoped you would be by this time in your life, your problem may be lack of being teachable. 

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

When was the last time you made yourself vulnerable by diving into something for which you were not an expert?

Lead From Within: If you are not attracting the leaders you desire, spend more time developing yourself.

The Clock Is Running

Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day.

What would you do?
Draw out every cent, of course!
Well, everyone has such a bank. It’s name is time.
Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.
It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the records of the day.
If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.
There is no going back. There is no drawing against the tomorrow.
You must live in the present on today’s deposits.
Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!
The clock is running. Make the most of today.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR,  ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH,  ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK,  ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR,  ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE,  ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND,  ask a person who just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND,  ask the person who won a Silver Medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have!  And remember that time waits for no one.

Lead From Within: The clock  is running. Make the most of today, every minute of every hour of every second.

And remember, time waits for no one.
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.

Anon

Contentment Is An Inside Job

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln

In our culture, too many people believe that contentment comes from attaining material possessions or assuming positions of power.  However, they are not the keys to contentment.

if you are tempted to believe that you are going to be happy with more possessions or more power, then you might find yourself deeply disappointed.

True contentment comes from having a positive attitude. This means:

Remain upbeat- Even when you get beat down. Stay optimistic.

See solutions-Even when it looks like it will never work. There is always a solution.

Believe in yourself- Even when no one else believes in you. Stay positive. Your time will come.

Expect the best - Even when others do not see the best and they choose to see the worst.  Keep the faith.

Have hope- Even when others say it’s hopeless. For you there is hope.

No matter what happens to you, a positive attitude comes from within. Your circumstances and your contentment are unrelated.

Lead From Within: Maintain a positive attitude today, and you will get through your difficult circumstances tomorrow.

One Secret Of Success

Many of us have bought into the fantasy that becoming successful in our business will happen overnight.

Many times we say we want it to happen and we want it to happen NOW.

Sometimes, our head is bursting with ideas, yet our business or career track isn’t keeping pace with our perception of our talents.

Other times, we may feel that we are past the initial entry, and are extremely frustrated with ourselves, yet deep inside we know we still have lots to learn and we know we can do better.

One of the secrets of success is to…..slow down.

Give yourself time to learn everything you can in this time frame.

Realize that this is a golden opportunity to fine tune your talents and learn your trade.

For hundred of years, apprenticeships have been time-honored tradition.

Pubilius Syrus, an Assyrian slave in Italy in the first century BC, served an
apprenticeship of sorts with a master who educated him and became his mentor.

Pubilius wit and talent were so remarkable that his master freed him and he became a writer of maxims.

Maybe some days you feel like a slave to your business and you find yourself groaning. “This small business, soloentrepneruship is taking too long!”

When you start thinking like that, I encourage you to change your focus.

Look at the larger picture and realize where you are now is not where you are going to be forever.

This path, these moments now are going to take you to where you want to be in the future.

Acknowledge that you are not likely going to become successful and top of your field overnight. (just saying)

It takes work.

It takes hard work and long hours.

It takes a devotion and passion and giving 100 percent of everything you’ve got to achieving your goals.

It means being willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes. No excuses, no its, no buts, no maybes.

Know that you are committing to your success.

………excellence only comes with time.

So sit back and enjoy the ride.

Lead From Within: It takes time, a long time, to bring excellence to maturity- Pubilius Syrus

Where are you in your business? How do you feel when you commit yourself to future of being successful.

Do you feel a sense of freedom? Or do you feel a tinge of fear?

I invite you to share your thoughts.

Trust Me On This

If you boil relationships down to the most important element, it is always going to be trust-not leadership, values, partnerships, or anything else.

Trust is the foundation, of any secure and successful relationship. It must be earned and maintained. If you don’t trust, your relationships are in trouble.

In his book, On Becoming A Leader, Warren Bennis says, Integrity is the basis of trust, which is not so much an ingredient of leadership, as it is a product. It is the one quality that cannot be acquired but must be earned.

Developing trust is like constructing a building. It takes time, and it must be done one piece at a time. As in construction, it’s much quicker and easier to tear something down than  it is to build it up. But if the foundation is strong, there is a good chance that what is built upon it will stand.

Trust is not something that simply exists from the beginning, something we can assume or take for granted. Instead, know that trust is an emotional skill, an active and dynamic part of our lives that we build and sustain with promises and commitments, our emotions and integrity.

Lead From Within: Say what you mean and mean what you say as you interact with others today and everyday.

The Tipping Point

This week I was part of a marvelous conversation between brilliant innovators in their field. The experience was powerful because ultimately, it was an intimate sharing among friends.

And it got me thinking….we are influenced by our surroundings and we are influenced by the people we associate.

And it reminded me of this wonderful marketing story. When it came time to Market the new game, Wii, Nintendo decided to spurn traditional marketing technique of commercials and print advertising.

Instead, they gave the new game to a select influential mothers, or what Malcolm Gladwell calls “connectors” in his book, The Tipping Point, These trend setting moms made the Wii the “gotta have it”item.

Give Where You Go

All of us want to succeed, that goes without saying. But what is success? According to some, success means a busy and lucrative career, good relationship, and family life, a great house, exciting vacations, lots of friends and last but not least, plenty of money.

If asked to give another quick answer to the question of which attributes contributes to success in our modern business world, some most people might say, hard work, ambition, and planning.

But are those definitions of success the final statements on the subject?

There is other values you have to acknowledge in your definition of success.

You may be leaving out a critical dimension of what makes us human: our spiritual side.

Attaining success cannot be all about you.

You cannot succeed without other people, and being aware of others and how you interact with them is crucial to success.

This is why it is so important to understand what “giving” means.

Giving to others-not in a monetary sense, but in the sense of giving of yourself, and even listening-will signal that you feel others are valuable and worth your time. And this means giving to everyone you come across in your daily life, not just in your business.

When you can give without expecting anything in return, you have mastered the art of success.

Is it any wonder that the most successful people in the world are masters of giving? The most successful people are the ones that provide the most value to others.

Deepak Chopra, a pioneer in mind body medicine who has written extensively about spirituality, says that you have to “make a decision to give” Make that decision and stick to it, and you will get a huge return on it. When we help others we build paths for our own success.

Lead From Within: Make a decision to give, wherever you go, to whomever you see.

Who’s life are you currently supporting or helping to grow without gain to you except personal gratification?

Admit Weakness

We live as an imperfect people in an imperfect world, yet often we are hesitant to admit we have weakness. Because it is painful and it makes us vulnerable.

Intellectually, we know that weakness hold us back from achieving our fullest potential.

So we hide them, minimize them, pretend that they don’t exist, or act ignorant when they are discovered.

In order to grow strong, we have to admit our weaknesses. This paradox may seem odd, but as a person, evaluating our weakness is not only necessary, it is imperative.

Most people spend their lives trying to avoid weakness in every area of life, and when they feel most vulnerable, they try to act powerful.

Contrary to some thinking, admitting to our mistakes is a sound practice to strengthen our presence.

Marcus Buckingham states that focusing on your strengths and putting your weakness “in a box” will alienate and impact your day to day life.

There is bound to be parts of your job, your life, your career, that requires you to do things that do not play up to your strengths. Look at your weakness and make an effort to change the habit.

You may find strength and growth in admitting and owning your weaknesses. In understanding this, you will discover that weakness will make you stronger.

Lead From Within: What are some of your weakness in your life today?

Mentorship

To succeed in business, you need to stay motivated and focused.

But that is easier said than done, at some point everyone is going to hit a wall.

That is where a mentor can step in and help out. But, finding a mentor takes more thought and effort then most people realize.

A good place to start is to find someone whom you admire who shows
an avid interest in you. Don’t prematurely choose your mentor. Get to know
a variety of people who can potentially mentor you, which will minimize the
the chance of choosing someone for the wrong reasons.

A magnetic personality is captivating, but too often, you an end up
becoming a groupie, basking in the glow of your mentor’s superstar stature.
It is better to pick someone whose thought process and personality mesh
with yours.

A mentor wants you to learn and adapt her philosophies to become your
own.

A mentor should be available for advice and feedback, but not babysitting
your insecurities.

If you pick the right mentor, it is usually the foundation of a lifelong friendship.

Lead From Within: Mentorship is a communication to people about their worth
and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.

http://www.lollydaskal.com/mentorship

Greek Tragedy

Aeschylus, a revered Greek playwright, often referred to as the founder of tragedy, wrote about the Persian invasion of Greece.
He wrote about the dark days of war and turbulence and the shadows of pain and suffering that accompanied these wars.

Aeschylus knew pain and suffering was not what life was about. He knew to juxtapose them with life- affirming light behind these shadows. He offered a brilliant lesson to those who came to see his plays: Life is not always exactly what you saw.

When you find yourself enmeshed in a modern day Greek tragedy-conflict provided by the cast of characters that is in your office team or someone in middle management who won’t listen to either the bad or good news that you must pass along- or your relationships are not working out the way you want- go past the shadows, weed out the conflict, and find where the light beams through.

Lead From Within: Shadows represent the dark side-they are metaphors for negatives. Yet on the other side of a shadow is light. Shadows could not exist without the light. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

What are you shadows? How can you cast light on your tragedies?

Join my NEW program: Lolly’s Mentorship Be part of  Elite entrepreneurs who want to experience an enormous boost to their business.