Eliminating Debt

Life Leadership has taken on the challenge to helping people live a debt free life to anyone who wants to.  Check out the great website at FinancialFitnessinfo.com that tracks how much debt the Financial Fitness Program has eliminated already from people throughout the world!

When you read about the amazing stories of people who have become debt free, you will become a believer that we can live in a country free of debt.  It will take some work, but it’s worth it.  We want our politicians to balance the budget of our country.  What better way to show them how it is done than leading by example.

Enjoy, Steve

“Setting People Free”

 

Disciplined Vs Undisciplined

Every man has 24 hours in his day. So what makes one squeeze every ounce of productivity in the 1,440 minutes while one man can not seem to get enough done?  I recently read a book by Shawn Achor called Happiness Advantage where he lays out a principle called the 20 second rule that I believe answers this question.

This is not some theory about how long your food can lay on the ground before you can safely eat it. Shawn talks about how people who are successful systematically set up their lives to make success come easier. It’s not about will power because our will power can last only so long before we crack and go back to the easier path of resistance. He states if we make small adjustments we can “reroute” ourselves to doing the habits we know we should do to achieve greatness.

Hogwash you say! Let me tell you a real life example of how I applied this. I listen to at least three audio recordings a day from successful people to enhance my success in life. Recently my wife and I moved and I could not figure out why I was only getting in about 1 to 2 cd’s per day. What I found was that my habit of success was altered in my new setting thus taking me longer than 20 seconds to do what I new I should do for success but I wouldn’t because it was no longer just habit. I had to look at my new surroundings at set up this habit so every morning it took little thought and less than 20 seconds to start this principle of success. I set up a new pattern for myself and am now achieving back to and beyond the level I was previously doing.

Let’s take a more difficult example. We all now we should exercise, but how many of us do it? Why? Because when we wake up in the morning an hour early, the covers are much more appealing than sweating. When we wake up and start thinking about getting our clothes on and finding our shoes, if it takes longer than twenty seconds we have already lost and guilt will be with us the rest of the day.

The solution? Take the path of least resistance. If you truly want to make this a habit. Wear your exercise clothes to bed and put your shoes next to you on the floor. When the alarm goes off and you barely have to put thought into what you are doing your halfway out the door! Do this for 21 days and you have created a new success habit.

Try it! Try a small change that you have been hoping to make and see how it works. Nothing breeds success like success and you will be on to tackling bigger areas of your life. Steve Leurquin

 

 

Training Your Life For Success

All great leaders overcome. Many have to overcome financial hardship either being born into poverty or the financial risk it takes to get ahead. Others have to overcome circumstances of overcoming physical limitations or being born into cultures that do not naturally nurture the gifts they were born with. Warren Bennis explains in his book On Becoming A Leader, all will have to overcome obstacles but the toughest obstacle to overcome is oneself.

Bennis stresses the importance of knowing oneself to overcome any obstacle. The bad news is that we all struggle with self-imposed limitations that stem from our thinking. The good news is all of those limitations can be defeated by reframing our thinking in a constant search of knowing ourself.

“All of the leaders I talked with agreed that no one can teach you how to become yourself, to take charge, to express yourself, except you.” 

I have read many books about great leaders, past and present, with a common theme, all of them struggled throughout their journey with their own negative thinking. I recently read books about a national championship coach and a super bowl winning quarterback and do you know what both of them struggled with? Their own bad thinking. Now if leaders at that level with that much success struggle with themselves how do you think your friend is doing? How about yourself?

Author Bennis explains there are four ways to develop your self-knowledge in-turn destroying your self doubt.

1. Know that you are your best teacher – Learning is intimately connected to self and the only way to learn is to get out there and do thus learning the lesson through self-evaluation.

2. Accept responsibility – Blame no one.

3. You can learn anything you want to learn.

4. True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience – Having a conversation with yourself at asking good questions at the appropriate time to come to truth about you and your life.

Leadership is a tough game only because the four things above are so easy to do, but they are even easier not to do. When one begins to do the easy over the easier their leadership journey has begun.

Steve Leurquin

Orrin Woodward Launches LIFE

One of the founders of LIFE Dan Hawkins posts a video on his blog showing the enormous crowd in Columbus as LIFE gets launched. He provides some words as commentary then enjoy the sights and sounds as thousands upon thousands show their excitement for an idea who’s time has come.

Enjoy, Steve

 

Columbus LIFE launch with Orrin Woodward!

Hey everybody here is a quick video of the Saturday night opening speaker Claude Hamilton taking the stage. Thousands are in attendance to be part of Orrin Woodward launch of LIFE! We are so blessed to be partnered with so many great people as we move forward to impact the lives of others. All of the people here have already learned so much about how to improve their lives and help others. We will continue to go out and encourage others to chase their dreams and become the best they can be in LIFE! Picture yourself getting recognized in front of this crowd for what ever level you decide to pursue. God bless, Dan Hawkins

Leading Reading

“That is one of the great secrets of becoming a great leader – never stop learning.”  – Jeff O’ Leary (Author of Centurion Principles).

Best selling author and co-founder of Team, Orrin Woodward has created a culture of people who never stop learning.  In his book, Launching a Leadership Revolution, Woodward describes the first level of influence as a leader is to never stop learning.

Harry S. Truman said, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”  Since my journey of leadership began I think back to all the books I have read that have made such an improvement to my life in the 8 F’s.  Looking at my bookshelf reminiscing of the great principles I have learned that have much improved my life, I asked myself the difficult question, what is the best leadership book I have ever read?

Very difficult to choose just one but I ask you the same question.  Which one book has made the biggest impact on you in your leadership journey and why?

As Orrin Woodward states in his best selling LLR book, “Leaders can grow from anyone.”  As the Team is about to launch LIFE, enjoy learning from other leaders’ thoughts on books they have read that have made an impact in their leadership journey.

Steve Leurquin

What’s Fun Got to Do With It?

“Everybody have Fun tonight”; “Fun, Fun, Fun”; “Girls just want to have fun”; there are an abundance of songs that tickle our senses of the never ending pursuit of fun.  You can probably reply with numerous songs that have the word fun it them.  As I listen to songs like these I can’t help but think, what is fun?

As a child everything was fun.  No matter where we were and what we were doing our innocent imaginations could take us to a place where we lived life with smiles on our faces.  We couldn’t help but be happy.  As a child and for the few lucky ones into adolescence, we lived in a place where dreams really do come true.

Then, that fateful day hits.  The day when your silliness and fun for life gets looked at by society as being uncool.  “Grow up” “get real” the committee called they says.  At what age does the teenager turn in their adventure for playing night games for drinking games?  When do we stop striving for our own fun adventures of mountains to climb, victories to achieve, and bad guys to slay for comfort of the sofa watching other’s victories in movies, video games, or sports arenas?

Webster defines fun as, “What provides amusement or enjoyment.”  So one man’s fun might be another man’s nails on the chalkboard.  Even with this definition, I can’t help but think about our need for true fun in our country today.  With depression, suicide, and loss of purpose at an all-time high today, now more than ever people are looking for a true sense of fun and adventure.

There is a great void being filled by LIFE and Team founder Orrin Woodward.  Several years ago as I was introduced to this leadership development organization and it was the breath of fresh air I was long looking for in my life.  An adventurous, fun loving person by nature my life was turning into working for the weekend only to be disappointed by lack of substance it brought me.  I was amazed at how much fun I could have with such a great group of creative, curagious people without preparing myself with “liquid courage.”  Not since my childhood have I had so much true fun laughing until my sides hurt while running after goals and dreams.

In The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall he writes, “Laughter (fun) is good medicine for the soul. Our world is desperately in need of more medicine.”  LIFE will be launched on 11-1-11.  Let the medicine (fun) begin.

God Bless, Steve

Let me here about the most fun you’ve had in a positive environment!

I’ll start:  One of the best times I had building communities of leaders was when we had blind canoe racing.  LIFE founder Dan Hawkins was in the middle of the canoe and was the eyes and voice of the trio.  Fellow teammate Corey Clark and I were in the front and back of the canoe and we were both blindfolded.  The trick is, the blinded folded guys were the ones with the paddles.  At go we raced another trio with the same restrictions.  We and people on the shore were in a gut rolling laughter as we were in the cattails.  The canoe we were racing had the “sight” leader get so frustrated at her “blind” teammates that she jumped out of the canoe to pull it to victory.

Good times!  Let me here yours.