Hope | Bryan Clifton

From the Blog

Mar

Spring Awakening

Posted by Bryan Clifton at 9:04 am

Last spring, world news was dominated by revolts and uprisings in the Arab world. The people were ready to make a change. They saw an opportunity and seized it. No longer would the suffer under the hands of oppressive dictators and military governments. They were ready for a new day.

That was then. This is now. What will happen this spring?

The word spring radiates a sense of action. It is a call to make something of yourself. To act upon your ideas and dreams.

Spring reveals the birth of a new day. Flowers are in bloom. Things are changing. Nature is acting and growing. Can the same be said of you?

Renewal and rejuvenation are the words that best encompass the season of spring. Hope is in the air.

Short terms goals are set and achieved. Spring workouts create beach bodies in preparation for the summer months ahead. Completion of homework assignments and essays allow for a relaxing summer break. With every new days come new opportunities that flood the landscape. The problem is not if you need to change or follow through with an existing commitment, but rather where to focus.

This is a season of personal growth. It is a time to produce fruit from months of hard work.

Spring is a call to action. We are all due for an awakening.

What do you need to do in your life to spring into action?

Jan

The Notebook (Not a Movie, but a Real Notebook)

Posted by Bryan Clifton at 3:57 pm

How much would you pay for a notebook of your great-grandfathers thoughts?

$100? $2,000? First born?

Probably not that extreme, but you never know. Auction prices can be exorbitant.

It contains thoughts, ideas, personal notes, sketches, and more. It is a glimpse into the lives of your ancestors. How much is that worth to you?

Chances are you never knew them personally.

What about someone you knew? Grandmother? Father? Mother?

How much would a notebook of their lives from 50 years ago be worth to you? It offers a glimpse into their lives before you were a baby in their arms. Can you see personality traits that span decades?

If these notebooks existed, I would do whatever I could to get them. They would be priceless. Insights to family members I never knew. Handwritten notes of a great-grandfather I never knew, but through stories told by my dad, I feel like we spent years together.

Priceless is the only word that sums it up.

I doubt a notebook like I described exists for you, but what if it did for your grandkids? Have you thought about writing something for them? How much would it mean to them?

Write down the stories of your life so they can read them to you when your memory does not allow you to remember. Take photos with the people you care about most. They will serve as the visual timeline of your life.

Each day is a new opportunity to add a page to your story.

Jan

Connect the Dots

Posted by Bryan Clifton at 10:00 am

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

- Steve Jobs

Hindsight is always 20/20, but the future is uncertain and possibly frightening.

Are those problems or possibilities? Opportunities or pitfalls? Security or scarcity?

The way you view these decision-making opportunities depends on your goal. What are you trying to achieve?

Until we have a clearly defined point that we are working towards, each decision we make seems isolated and unrelated to the next. This could not be further from the truth.

Each decision you make creates a new set of choices. Some are the same as before, while some are gone forever.

So how do you pick? Each door you go through closes another.

What if I make the wrong choice?

Do not let paralysis by analysis keep you in the status quo forever. Make a decision. If it was the wrong one, use the new options on the table to get you back on track to your long-term goal.

We must see life as a series of inner connected dots and not independent decisions whose consequences do not affect future choices.

Life puts many options in our path. The question is how will you respond and piece them together to help you meet your final goal?

Only connecting a few dots will make a nice, small picture, but what if there is a larger design in store for you? Did you stop at the seventh dot when there are seventy to connect in your life?

Maybe we have a long-range goal to carry out. To get there, we need many short-range dots to connect to give us the option of getting to our ultimate goal.

Dots only appear connected when you look backwards. The trick is learning how to forecast. Just like a chess player always things a few moves ahead, the same should be true of our decision-making. How will my move today set me up for future moves? Are they in line with my long-term goals?

QUESTION:

What is your next dot?

Jan

Simple is Not Easy

Posted by Bryan Clifton at 11:26 am

Simple is the not the same as easy.

When something is “easy”, it requires very little effort to acquire. Picking up McDonald’s instead of cooking a nice meal at home is easy. It is convenient.

Simple, however, is thought provoking. It requires hours of thought so others can engage with your end product in the easiest way possible.

Because time was spent creating something simple, it allows for something to be easy.

But the reverse is not true. Easy does not allow for something to be simple.

Lets go back to the McDonald’s example.

Years of practice and research have allowed McDonald’s to offer a cheap product that is produced in a matter of seconds while you sit in your car. I never said it was healthy, but it is easy. It takes little effort on your part.

Millions of dollars were spent to produce the tools needed to make this happen. Engineers and chefs (Yes, McDonald’s has a team of chefs who create their menu) carefully balanced operational efficiency with food biology to create a product that the consumer would enjoy and still make money for the organization. That was far from simple or easy. It was hard work.

But the hours and millions of dollars spent created an assembly line method to expedite the service and deliver burgers to hungry people around the world.

Because they spent the time necessary on the front end, they are able to enjoy the benefits later.

How can you achieve simplicity in your day-to-day activities? It won’t be easy getting there, but after you have put it in place, it is easy to reap the rewards of a well oiled machine.

QUESTION:

What do you need to simplify in your life to make your day better?

Jan

Goals for 2012

Posted by Bryan Clifton at 2:30 pm

Last year was the first time in my life that I have kept a New Year Resolution.

I successfully read my Bible from cover to cover. The feeling of accomplishment was amazing, and I was able to mark it off my Bucket List!

I want that feeling again on December 31, 2012.

So here it goes.

This is a partial list of the items I will finish this year.

Read the Bible Chronologically
Pass CPA Exam
Read 52 Books
Write 52 Letters
Blog 3x a Week (MWF)
Write a Book

Any of these tasks by themselves would be a daunting task, but when you realize that there are 364 more days in 2012 to complete them, they no longer seem impossible.

Intentions without actions are useless.

This statement has caused me to get more work done than anything else.

It serves as a daily reminder to me that my habits daily determine what I will accomplish in a week, month, or year.

Today is a fresh start. An opportunity to change anything that you want.

QUESTION:

What habits do you need to change to accomplish your goals for 2012?