We don’t promise you a rose garden on Tuesday either…

Monday has come and gone. What was your response as you looked yourself in the mirror before you hit the rack? Only you can answer that one.  In case it wasn't exactly like you wanted there are ways to help yourself get to where you want to be.

 First, get organized. It’s not a ground shaking idea, actually very easy. I tend to a binder kind of guy. If I have a bunch of info I need to track pertaining to a larger topic, get some dividers and organize them in a way that help you quickly reference them when needed.  In the book “American Soldier” by Retired General Tommy Franks, he would utilize index cards to get organized.

He would write 5 challenges that he thought he would face on one side of the card and on the other side of the card he would write 5 opportunities that may arise the next day. By doing this it made him successfully prepare for approaching challenges and have solutions/opportunities loaded.

 Second, have a plan and then develop a plan “B” when you plan goes to hell.  Murphy’s law is always present and has a size 12 foot that will step all in your business. If it can go wrong, it probably will. If you can identify friction points and violently attack them your one step closer to success.

Third, don’t ask anyone to do anything for you that you either haven’t already done for yourself or know how to do. By being an enlisted Marine before an officer this paid in full as there were many times young Marines wouldn’t know exactly why we were doing things until a little later, and then it would click in their head.

Fourth, surround yourself with people that have the “can do “attitude.  A short and easy reading book  called "a message to Garcia” is a point blank book that describes a short story of the “can do” I will not fail, I will succeed attitude.

“In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain & the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba- no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.

What to do!

Some one said to the President, "There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can."

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, & in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.

The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land.

It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- "Carry a message to Garcia!"

You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.

Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio".

Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task?

On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:

Who was he?

Which encyclopedia?

Where is the encyclopedia?

Was I hired for that?

Don’t you mean Bismarck?

What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?

Is he dead?

Is there any hurry?

Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?

What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not. (http://www.birdsnest.com/garcia.htm)

 Fifth, your youngest (Marine) employee, assist, etc is the most important person of your organization. Take care of them like they are family and focus your efforts with them in front. They will take care of you. You have to care and this kind of care only comes from the heart. You can’t fake it, they will see right through you. (I would tell my Marines, there are no frauds in combat operations….you get to see the person your with in true fashion as they really are. Good & bad.) If you have to fake your legit care for them, you should look in the mirror and figure out why you have to fake it. I saw a manager outside the military make his strolls through his organization and conduct conversation with his fellow employees. The kind of conversation that showed he gave a shit. Not just the” I’m going to ask how your family is” B.S. but genuine conversation that came from the heart. Although the general manager perhaps didn’t realize what he was doing but he instantly made a force multiplier towards both of their common goal. If your youngest coworker is suffering working over time or on a tough project and they see you with your sleeves rolled up next to them, they know they aren’t at it alone and you just showed them a leader.

Not all of us are in jobs that we like. Hell, I use to wake up Sunday morning and be a bear because I knew I had to go into work on Monday and I really didn’t like what I was doing at the time….so I volunteered to deploy again and was very happy (but that’s another story).  Point is, if you don’t like what you’re doing, change it and do what you like. As a Marine, I love my job and although would prefer doing other things besides working, I love my job.  Hopefully the above helps. Take a minute, read them, hell, read it again tomorrow and then again in a week. You will do great things!

Nickelback - If Today Was Your Last Day from Nickelback on Vimeo.

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