Roger Franesky, CEO of The Apogee Group
We deeply believe that the invitation of life is to live a remarkable life. Never settle for second best. You must be committed each day to the sense of the prose and poetry of your life.
Lessons—they are called lessons because they are less every year
Everyone in my life is my teacher. Everyone is in my life because I choose them to be in my life. Everything happens for a reason. There are no accidents. No what age you are, no matter what you are doing, you are supposed to be here. You are here to unfold to other people.
Most of us think we change. We do not. We modify.
Real change occurs deliberately and with intention. It happens because you are living in that dynamic tension between attention and intention.
The question of life is not what you are doing, the question if life is what are you becoming. Are you becoming that by default or by design? If becoming by default the universe steps in and surprises you and you may not get to the destination you want. Wouldn’t it be better to step in and try to design the future you want?
We are leaping into the future without a parachute. The core energy of the world is not order it is chaos. Everywhere we see order it is an illusion.
We are in the process of every day of leaping into the unknown. If you are able to do that and survive you will prevail. If you stay in the plane and tighter the parachute you will end up in a place not of your own choosing. Someone else will choose.
Change begins with endings, not beginning. You must surrender your beliefs, you must grieve about it, and you must let it go before you can step into a new beginning.
You never change without going through this unfathomable process of sitting and surrendering to the neutral zone.
It is like sitting in a fog-draped lake rowing from one rowing from one pier to another. You are leaving the place you knew and understood and you are rowing through the fog to something that is unknown. Mid-lake you have a choice. You trust at some level but you can’t see it. Do you have the courage to keep going or turn back? Most of us turn back. Most of us are terrified at what is at the other end. Change occurs when you stay in the rowboat. The mist clears rather quickly.
All change occurs with one thing—starts with what you believe. Most people have encoded their beliefs at the age of nine. They are stuck in nine. Part of how they experience life and their fears is not as a rational 40-year-old but as a scared nine-year-old.
Nobody can impose change on you. It comes from within you. We stop learning. We stop seeking. We fail to develop emotionally. We fail to make creative decisions. We fail to positively listen to ourselves and others. We believe our own BS.
We need to know about ourselves: beliefs, values, the prose and the poetry.
We need more self-knowledge.
We must commit to a ruthless self-inventory
We commit to a guilt-free action plan.
We find the tools, the mentors, the partners to succeed.
We surrender bias, old data, empty baggage, smelly socks.
STRATEGY
Give up the illusion that you can predict the future. It is a very liberating moment.
All you can do is to give yourself the capacity to respond to the only certainty in life—which is uncertainty.
The creation of that capacity is the purpose of strategy.
THE TRANSITION PROCESS
Ending
Letting go and surrendering.
Neutral zone: non-man’s land between the old reality and the new
New Beginnings
Re-invention and renewal.
Principals of change
Each individual chooses to change. Change is about choice.
Change is a process that can be enabled, not managed.
Check your current beliefs . . . are they out of date
Celebrate what you do well, and own your own centers of excellence
Acknowledge the gaps and gaffs
What are your gifts?
Sort for the real values and the sources of value creation.
Each day we have reminders of how important it is to align our intentions and where we focus our attention, our efforts, our hard work. And when we do, discovering rewards in surprising corners.
"Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny."
