Daily Inspiration 11-10-12

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks on the outside, dreams. Who looks on the inside, awakens." -- Carl Jung       I have many mentors that don't know I even exist. They've never met me, know nothing of me, and I have never met them, yet many of them are my mentors. Abraham Lincoln, Wallace Johnson, Colonel Sanders, Ray Kroc, Jim Rohn, James Allen, Andrew Carnegie, are just a few of them. They are all dead and mentor me still. One who is alive that mentors me especially in the attribute of leadership is John C Maxwell. I love to hear him, and watch him, though I've never seen him in person. I am a student of his and have been since I first was handed a copy of Developing The Leader Within You. It was a brilliant and valuable gift. John's newest book was just released last month, The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. I just bought the book this morning, but before I did, I watched a 90 minute webcast with John C Maxwell where he talks about 5 of the laws in the book. His storytelling is somewhat different live than in writing, and I enjoyed it immensely. I'll give you a link at the end just in case anyone would also like the opportunity to watch this. So after this webcast and reading part of the book, I've had lots of views of my past and random thoughts that were stirred. One prominent one came from the quote above, which I find fascinating to consider. I was taken back to 1972 and my first "career-type" position where I became an automobile salesperson. I had just left the Air Force and didn't have any interest in a job. I wanted a career. I liked cars, was previously a mechanic and liked the idea of wearing suits and selling them, though I was not the normal salesman type. It was okay. I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. My dream was to be a teacher, but I wasn't qualified to do that, yet I saw the sales manager role at the dealership more as a teacher and less like a drill instructor. So, I got excited about my vision and set a goal to do just that. My vision became clear to me when I looked into my heart, knew what I wanted to do and decided to find a way to achieve it. I was focused and it only took two years to get there. As a result of that vision, I changed the image of the sales manager to match my own vision and I was smitten with something I've done most of my life in various ways. It affects me yet as a business owner. One last thing to consider about this was also in John's book. I'll leave you with this statement on the previous page from the quote above to consider: "I believe it's very important not only to know what you want to do, but also why you want to do it." On this statement, I agree completely. It continues to make all the difference in my own life. For webcast, go to http://www.15lawsofgrowth.com/index.php and sign up. It's free. Oh, buy the book too. It is going to help a lot--no matter where you are in your travels.

Consider Why You Do What You Do And How It Affects What You Give To It And Get From It.   Spread Some Joy Today--Learning something new or more is joyous for me. It excites my whole day even from just a fresh understanding.