What's on your Agenda?

"To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest". Mahatma Gandhi

Motive is your reason for doing something. It's the "why" that motivates the "what".

Everything we do has a motive behind it. People who demonstrate a genuine caring nature inspire the most trust. You're not going to trust someone who could care less about you, are you? Caring people have caring values, they care about purposes,they care about their quality of work, they care about society, etc...

If you genuinely don't care- that's fine. It's best to stay transparent. Pretending you care, when you really don't, will only lead to roadblocks created out of suspicion and distrust. Who wants the reputation of a "phony"? Personally, when someone is being fake to me, I feel as if it's an insult to my intelligence, wouldn't you agree?

Motive stimulates Agenda. It's what you intend to do beause of your motive.

I've found conducting business/relationships with people who have your best interests in mind, as well as their own, lead to win-win situation for all. People with a self-serving agenda don't care about you, they'll do whatever it takes to get ahead. And yes they may get results, but they eventually fall flat on their butts. You don't want that for yourself, now do you? An ideal situation would be to achieve certain results and sustain them.

Your motive and agenda will become clear with your behavior. Your behavior is your actions.

You can say this or that, but your behavior proves your true intentions. Acting in the best interest of others typically comes from a person who has a caring motive and an agenda of mutual benefit.

I've encountered numerous people who claim they care, but inside they have a "I could really care less about you attitude - it's all about me". This behavior is deceitful. This isn't a lasting friendship, realtionship, or business deal. Someone loses and someone wins. Someone's credibility is put on the chopping block, and trust is lost.

Your intentions can't be faked. It's what comes from the heart. But it is something you can definitely work on and improve.

Everyone faces challenges of intentions. We may not be completely transparent at all times. And we pay for it. It's kinda like breaking the agreement with your credit card holder to pay the amount owed by a certain date and time. If you're late you pay penalties. It makes it that much harder to pay the balance off. Your interest rate increases and sometimes it affects your credit score.

This determines what you attract into your life.

This movie is a fine example of the negative outcome of bad intentions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niaeMfvwdUs

If you haven't seen it, watch it, maybe a few of you will change the intent of your heart, or atleast improve it.


"The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate but in what you give away". Dr. Wayne Dyer - The Power of Intention

I volunteered my time this Saturday helping Habitat for Humanity making repairs on homes of less fortunate people. (money wise) If you'd like to help, here's the link to their website. They have many openings throughout the week, as well. They'd love your help.

http://www.habitatbirmingham.org/

Trust Changes Everything

In order to build trust with others, we must first start with ourselves.

Ask yourself:

1. Am I Credible?
2. Am I someone people (including myself) can trust?
3. Do people believe me?

I've learned the hard way that trust is based upon 2 things: Character and Competence.

It takes time to build your character, credibility, and competence after it's lost. I firmly believe it can be rebuilt, if the person has truly changed/reformed.

I will use myself as an example.

I work for my father's company as his office manager. I used to come in late, take days off, roll out of bed and roll into work in my pajamas, slack on doing my work (granted I always did it, but WHEN was the main question), etc... Basically I was unorganized, ungrateful, unappreciative, and disrespectful (not verbally, but my lack of motivation for my job speaks volumes) I'd always make excuses and justify things by telling myself and my dad I could be worse. Why I thought that statement was acceptable is beyond me, now. I continued to let my dad down, his trust and confidence continued to fall. My dad did kept hope in me because I hadn't always been that way. I'd always been independent, dependable, and trustworthy. I'm positive if I hadn't worked for my father, I'd have been standing in the unemployment line.

This was my character. This is how I represented myself. It created problems in all areas of my life. I decided I wanted to "get it together" and do things right. I had better results in life when I did what I was supposed to do.

I started making small changes in my life. I made a conscious effort to be on time for work every morning. I made a decision to dress more appropriately for an office environment, as I would for any other job. I removed myself from internet sites which took my attention away from my work. I made a conscious effort to finish my work the same day it was/is given to me. i.e...I used to only file on Fridays, now I file everyday. I no longer procrastinate.

By improving myself, I improved my work relationship with my father. I've re-established trust. He now counts on me and believes I'm an asset to his company.

Not only has this improved my work habits but it has improved many other areas in my life. I no longer have to drive home in the evenings after work to get ready for a meeting/gathering after work. (Let me state I live an hour north of my office) I'm already dressed. I no longer have to stay late to finish work I procrastinated all day to do. This has helped me keep my commitments and improve my punctuality, tremendously.

Trust starts with you. You have to trust yourself before anyone else can trust you. Self trust is vital to self improvement and to building trust in others.

YOU CAN DO IT, IF YOU TRY!!! It's never too late to start.