Launch

1. Launch Week of 12/13-17/2010 Circle Up!

2. Circle Up! 12/13/10 ANYTHING WE DO CAN BE MADE IMPORTANT Most moments in life become special only if we treat them that way. The average day is average only because we don’t make I something more. The most excellent way to elevate an experience is to give it our best. That makes it special. An average conversation becomes something better when you listen with great interest. A common relationship transforms when you give it uncommon effort. An unremarkable event becomes something special when you spice it up with creativity. You can make anything more important by giving your best to it. COMMIT TO GIVE THIS DAY YOUR VERY BEST. • Excerpt from the book, The Maxwell Daily Reader, by John C. Maxwell pg. 370

3. 12/14/10 Circle Up! LEARN A NEW DEFINITION OF FAILURE Thomas Edison believed, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” If you can change the way you see failure, you gain the strength to keep running the race. Get a new definition of failure. Regard it as the price you pay for progress. If you can do that, you will put yourself in a much better position to fail forward. How can you help yourself learn a new definition of failure and develop a different perspective concerning failure and success? By making mistakes. Chuck Braun of Idea Connection Systems encourages trainees to think differently through the use of a mistake quota. He gives each student a quota of thirty mistakes to make for each training sessions. And if a student uses up all thirty? He receives another thirty. As a result, the students relax, think of mistakes in a whole new light, and begin learning. Remember, mistakes don’t define failure. They are merely the prices of achievement on the success journey. HOW CLOSE TO SUCCESS MIGHT YOU (YOUR TEAM) BE? ARE YOU WILLING TO KEEP FIGHTING TO MAKE A BREAKTHROUGH? Excerpt from the book, The Maxwell Daily Reader, by John C. Maxwell, pg. 384

4. 12/15/10 Circle Up! INTEGRITY It’s crucial to maintain integrity by taking care of the little things. Many people misunderstand that. They think they can do whatever they want when it comes to the small things because they believe that as long as they don’t have any major lapses, they’re doing well. But that’s not the way it works. Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary describes integrity as “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.” Ethical principles are not flexible. A little white lie is still a lie. Theft is still theft – whether it’s $1, $1,000, or $1 million. Integrity commits itself to character over personal gain, to people over things, to service over power, to principle over convenience, to the long view over the immediate. Nineteenth-century clergyman Phillips Brooks maintained, “Character is made in the small moments of our lives.” Anytime you break a moral principle, you create a small crack in the foundation of your integrity. And when times get tough, it becomes harder to act with integrity, not easier. Character isn’t created in a crisis; it only comes to light. Everything you have done in the past – and the things you have neglected to do – come to a head when you’re under pressure. Developing and maintain integrity require constant attention. Josh Weston, chairman and CEO of Automatic Date Processing, Inc., says, “I’ve always tried to live with the following simple rule: ‘Don’t do what you wouldn’t feel comfortable reading about in the newspaper the next day.’” That’s a good standard all of us should keep. WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE SMALL MOMENTS OF YOUR LIFE? Excerpt from the book, The Maxwell Daily Reader, by John C. Maxwell, pg. 385

5. 12/16/10 Circle Up! CULTIVATE DETERMINATION Author Napoleon Hill noted, “Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refused to quit.” To develop persistence over the long haul, you have to cultivate inward determination on a continual basis. And if you do, someday your story may be similar to one of these: * Admiral Peary attempted to reach the North Pole seven times before he made it on try number eight. * Oscar Hammerstein had five flop shows that lasted less than a combined total of six weeks before Oklahoma, which ran for 269 weeks and grossed $7 million. * John Creasey received 743 rejection slips from publishers before one word was ever published – he eventually published 560 books, which have sold more than 60 million copies. * Eddy Arcaro lost 250 consecutive races before he won his first. * Albert Einstein, Edgar Allan Poe, and John Shelley were all expelled from school for being mentally slow. Learn to become a determined individual. And remember, the only difference between a little shot and a big shot is that the big shot kept shooting. HOW DETERMINED ARE YOU TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS AND LEAD YOUR TEAM TO SUCCESS? Excerpt from the book, The Maxwell Daily Reader, by John C. Maxwell, pg. 376