by Tim Hooper | Dec 5, 2018 | Igniting Energy
I’m grateful you and I are connected. Think about it. Being connected with another human! Connection is a gift. Especially in a hyper-active, tech-crazy world. Life can quickly become preoccupied building a business, chasing a goal, or finding meaning in life. In this pursuit, often the answers we need, the meaning we long for, and the whole reason for business is right in front of us … people.
Gratitude amplifies connection …
But, are we really connecting (deeply) with the people in our lives? See, no one has entered our lives by accident. From this belief exudes a powerful sense of gratitude and amplifies every interaction with your people! Our spouses, kids, friends, business colleagues, and every relationship thrives when they FEEL your heart beat, “WOW! I get to do life with you!”
What about our social presence and following? It’s the new community where most young people are searching for REAL connection. Do we interact with our followers, or are they simply countless avatars and profiles? They’re humans, too, and they follow us for a reason. Let them know this week that you’re grateful for them!
Gratitude is a powerful force!
Tim Hooper leads Time4Energy, LLC, a professional development firm, helping new CEOs and front line managers bridge the gaps between their vision and team energy. Tim worked 10 years for one corporation where his heart broke for the drag-in that happens on Monday morning. His book, Got Energy? is unconventionally restoring emotional connection between teams and their work.
by Tim Hooper | Dec 5, 2018 | Igniting Energy
If we are to inspire the best in our team members, the first attitude of heart is caring. Caring enough to know what’s truly going on inside and helping our employees overcome, grow and succeed. Often, we throw the words, “I believe in you” around casually, and in some cases, these words are used to get people to accomplish company objectives.
Annette Simmons stated, “Genuine influence goes deeper than getting people to do what you want them to do. It means people pick up right where you left off because they believe.” Ask yourself this question,
Does my life – who I am, what I do and the manner in which I do it – inspire belief. Would my team pick up right where I left off because they KNOW I believe in them?”
Our stated belief only enters the neocortex of the brain. However, when we care enough to deeply know our people, this belief is felt! The beauty of deeply believing in people is our brains literally give emotions the upper hand. They are designed to do this. If we bark off commands, our commands never grace the emotional power of the limbic brain – the part in the back just above the spinal cord that feels. When we breathe belief, however, and give someone hope, we allow them to feel it in their soul. Truly believing in people sends a shock wave of emotional resonance within.
When we truly believe, we emotionally and powerfully inspire!
Today, more than ever, people need someone to believe in them, and this belief is backed by care – caring enough to get to know them. In a technologically advanced world, the temptation is away from REAL connection. Mark this down.
Genuine care takes real connection.
Everyone has a story, a background or some past hurt. This is life. Truly believing in them means embracing as beauty what we may see as brokenness. Some have overcome; others haven’t … yet. Our belief could be the very thing that changes their paradigm. Too often, in our motivational circles, we’re writing people off as either too negative, C-players or someone who won’t change.
Four of the most transformational words are, “I believe in you!” So, why do these words often float around lifelessly? No care to back them up. Stating these words in a genuine way means first having the heart attitude of caring enough to get to know your people professionally – and personally. Your genuine belief, especially in a young generation of employees, could be the defining moment of change in someone’s life!
Several have impacted my life in such a way. When I was a 12-year-old, my mom wrote me a note I’ve never forgotten. The red ink, white paper and shape of characters are banked in my memory. Her message of belief in me is etched on the walls of my soul. My piano teacher, Christa; first employer, Jeff; accountabuddy, Kevin; and many more come to mind.
Yet, have you ever been around the person that scrutinizes everybody? How’d they make you feel? Perhaps their own insecurities were being cast on you. These people compare, tear down and don’t make the time to empathize with others. On the other hand, there are those who believe the best in people. They make the time to get to know the good, bad and ugly and CHOOSE to believe the best in you, even when you yourself haven’t … yet.
Energizers master the art of finding the good side of everyone and building on that. McGinnis writes, “The people who like people and who believe that those they lead have the best of intentions will get the best from them.” Are you looking for strengths in people perhaps others have overlooked? Are you able to find the beauty in people? Can you help people articulate their gifts and inspire them to channel that creative energy into usefulness?
When we truly believe in and care enough to know our people, even when others or they themselves don’t, we are performing the art of the Energizer!
Energizers care. When analyzing the profound loyalty Col. Douglas MacArthur received from his men during World War I, William Manchester wrote in his book, American Ceaser, “ … he shared their discomforts and their danger and they adored him in return.” He showed his men that he truly and deeply cared for them!
When your team KNOWS they’re deeply believed in and you care enough to know and love them, they will engage their hearts and emotions into your vision and truly pick up right where you leave off.
Purpose today to live your life being a change agent for people by truly caring for them! As long as there is breath in our lungs, we can speak redemption and empowerment to those around us. Accept people for who they are and believe the best in them. See the best even when people themselves can’t see it, and back it up by caring enough to tell them what you see – you’ll change someone’s life.
Tim Hooper leads Time4Energy, LLC, a professional development firm, helping new CEOs and front line managers bridge the gaps between their vision and team energy. Tim worked 10 years for one corporation where his heart broke for the drag-in that happens on Monday morning. His book, Got Energy? is unconventionally restoring emotional connection between teams and their work.
by Tim Hooper | Jun 12, 2018 | Igniting Energy
Remember, work is life and life is work. Avoid looking to the mirage of balance between the two. Instead, be balanced by investing wholly while at work! Be whole and show up with fullness when it’s time. Then, go home, and be home, when it’s time. The question is wholeness and showing up fully and abundantly at the right time. Are we whole?
Too many seek to find their validation or acceptance in work because doing is the quickest way to fill a void in our being. Often, someone from our past left a great big hole, or we’ve allowed someone or our own internal dialogue to devalue the priceless person we are. Let’s be honest with ourselves and ask why we’re doing what we’re doing. If we’re burning ourselves out in our occupation, stepping on people as we climb the corporate ladder, and finding more fulfillment in our work than in the relationships of our lives, we can be sure there are past skeletons in our closets. Wounds we must face.
We must stop putting a pretty bow on the lie – called an excuse – that sacrificing ourselves, our health, our happiness and our family are just part of the business owner’s M.O. It’s not, nor does it have to be! What’s really driving us? The call to find healing – deep healing – is compelling us!
For without healing, we won’t show up whole – able to abound and make greater impact in the time we choose to contribute and charge toward our vision.
Carnegie shares the story of John D. Rockefeller Sr., who at the age of 43 had built up the largest monopoly the world had ever seen – the great Standard Oil Company. Yet at only 53, when most men are at their prime, his shoulders drooped, and he could barely walk. Carnegie states, “the ceaseless work, the endless worry, the streams of abuse, the sleepless nights and the lack of exercise and rest had exacted their toll … they’d brought him to his knees … he was now the richest man in the world yet had to live on a diet that a poor man would have scorned.” Rockefeller’s income at the time was a million dollars a week, and two dollars a week paid for all the food he could eat. “Nothing but medical care, the best money could buy, kept him from dying at the age of 53,” Carnegie concludes.
From this wounded personality exudes an unrealistic ambition. Covey shares that those exemplifying wholeness “don’t become workaholics, religious zealots, political fanatics, crash dieters, food bingers, pleasure addicts or fasting martyrs.” When you work, be all in, so that when you’re home, you’re all in. Seek to find healing so you can become whole and operate abundantly! Let being all in at work – whole and abundant – amplify your energy! Focus on wholeness!
Igniting energy … Tim Hooper
ENERGY COACH to EXECUTIVES & HIGH-ACHIEVING TEAMS | AUTHOR of GOT ENERGY? | SPEAKER @ ENERGY4LIFE Workshops
by Tim Hooper | Jun 12, 2018 | Igniting Energy
What’s the difference? Energy’s not motivation although they’re related. Motivation can getus going, but energy (our internal driver) will keep us going.
Motivation’s external; energy’s internal.
Motivation’s someone else’s fire; energy’s our fire – it’s internal. Energy is inner fullness and personal power moving us in a focused direction. It’s “one’s capacity” to accomplish great things. Energy allows us to operate at peak performance every day from a place of abundance.
We can’t “put on” fullness. We’re either entering someone else’s life (spouse, child, team member, client, and so on) from a place of abundance or a place of emptiness. And when our energy’s lacking or empty, the experience will also be lacking.
We cannot give what we do not have.
Motivation can be equated to seeds planted in our minds that, if internalized, can ignite our very own energy. We all want to do better and give our best, but there are obstacles of unbelief, lack of internal passion, and ceaseless inner voices that hold us back. The seeds of motivation can enter our minds and help us to overcome the obstacles by adding faith, quieting the inner voices of fear and igniting our flame!
Motivation can get us going and show us what more effectual living looks like, but we must not rely on motivation. Why live catching motivational fires that blow by externally without igniting our own, down deep in our souls? Let’s ignite OUR energy, firing on all cylinders and becoming a daily powerhouse.
Life happens though, and when some trial or tough situation knocks the wind out of us, wisdom taps into encouraging sources of motivation and inspiration. There’s strength in numbers. Surrounding ourselves with people keeps us centered, connected and hopeful. Being knocked down is often the time we reevaluate our life’s purpose and determine what’s really important to us. So then, every time we’re feeling down-and-out, unmotivated, or stagnant, let’s consider:
What could YOU do every day that would literally add wood to YOUR internal fire? What beliefs could you overhaul that, when improved, would fuel your V8, twin-turbo engine? Motivation can help us imagine a better way, but let’s discover and develop our gifts, eliminate our fears, and map out a powerful vision for our life. Then, let us courageously go after OUR vision every single day!
This is your life; it’s your energy. Is your energy (your internal driver) ignited? Are you charging into your organization giddy about the contribution you get to make? Are you passionately engaging everything with everything you have? Are you building and bolstering your energy every day?
Let this article be the fuel of motivation that ignites YOUR mighty, internal engine of energy!
Igniting Energy … Tim
by Tim Hooper | Jun 12, 2018 | Igniting Energy
Give your energy demands and those of your team a cleanup. Free up some random access memory (aka RAM). Start engaging everything with all of your might, but to do this, we’ll have to eliminate the complexity that comes with uncertainty and procrastination. We have super creative minds – they’re amazing and beautiful. Often, though, we overcomplicate simple “yes” and “no” answers. Ask yourself. “Can I get my heart completely on board with this?” If not, ask, “Why not?” If that why not is true and proves misalignment with your goals, then it’s an easy “no.”
In our workplaces, most would appreciate an employee or staff member who just carries out and obeys commands, right? However, one of the best questions anyone can ask a manager, employer or leader is, “Why are we doing this?” Too often, a WHY question is seen as a threat and a retort is given without really answering and instilling the same belief and insight from the leaders’ heart into those following.
Great leaders, encourage WHY questions. This is quickest and surest way to inspire enthusiasm in your team and garner their conviction!
This will free your teams’ RAM by enabling them to put their all into what it is you’re asking of them. Of course, this demands a thorough understanding and belief of the WHY ourselves. When we don’t make time to distill and instill the reason – our WHY – we miss the truest nugget of gold any leader really possesses. Clear utterance of our WHY demands the hard work of thought and clarity.
Leaders who adopt the Energy Equation and put all their might into their work of instilling the WHY, will in turn enable their followers to throw all their heart and might into achieving the goal! Free up RAM by dumping what you’re half-heartedly believing in; invest all your energies into those things in which you believe whole-heartedly in.
igniting energy … Tim
have you pre ordered your copy of Got Energy? yet
P.S. Regarding stray thoughts and ideas, have a standard operating procedure for getting them off your mind so you can stay focused. I have this practice of texting myself great ideas and going back through at the end of the week to see if anything stuck, resonates or is something I should apply or follow-up on. Text, email, write, chicken-scratch, Evernote, or voice-record it so that you can data-dump and keep RAM freed up. Then, have a routine time to reflect and journal. Your mind will understand, and will begin loving your habit and ease up on you. When your mind knows you will make the time to listen to it, it will settle down a little bit for you. Have this routine so that you’re less stressed and can attack what you’re working on with everything you’ve got!
