Happy New Year! Though maybe a tad premature, I wish you such in advance. In my last post Charting Course IV: Build It, we continued with thoughts around charting your course for 2016 by providing examples of SMASH and MESH™ as a process for articulating a personal or professional mission for the new year.
For the purpose of transparency, for me as a Baha’i, my new year is Naw Ruz on March 21 of the Gregorian Calendar. For Baha’is, our calendar consists of 19 months of 19 days, with some 5-6 (leap year) days in February called Ayyam-i’Ha which is a period of gifting giving and hospitality. I only say this to suggest that each month is typically opened and celebrated with a Baha’i Feast (spiritual more so than food… no gorging here lol). I only say this to suggest that tomorrow we celebrate the Month of Sharaf (Honor), coinciding with New Year’s Eve. All of this is to only say that, today, I wish to honor both you and me with some thoughts for 2016.
First, I offer my now adapted and evolved SMASH and MESH™ statement, crafted for personal meaning and motivation for 2016.
For 2016, I will walk with humble swagger … fully locked and loaded with honor, idealism, love, wholeheartedness and zeal. I will walk these strengths to be stronger and healthier than I have ever been. To achieve this, I will get 8 hours sleep each night, make healthy choices for groceries at home every week, choose water and green tea as my regular beverage, be active daily in some fun way and engage in daily prayer and meditation in the morning and evening. My success will be defined and measured by a daily account of my spirit and achievements and I will celebrate each daily success.
Now in 2016, this means I will be stronger, healthier and happier, to engage those around me with even greater energy and joy… and I will call upon the encouragement of my inner circle in doing so. We will all be better for it as I will be able to bring more to the table at work and life. I will execute this intention with:
- a literal picture of my goal
- daily living of my four actions
- daily accounting of my success
- and daily celebrating each small success
… creating a personal culture of act, measure and celebrate.
This will serve my students, my clients, my colleagues, my suppliers, my community, my friends and family, and myself… by advancing my strength, health, clarity of thought and joy to better serve. And, this plan will honor who I am because I have always been driven by joyful service and I want to be around for a long time in doing so, with sustained energy, vitality and endurance. I will feel more like me in doing so; a deeper cooler joy that is both sustainable and sustaining.
My hope is that you try your own… create it and print it. Maybe even for your team! Remember…
SPIRIT. Define the spirit of what you do… your countenance with which you will roll and role. Identify your Humble Swagger™ by focusing on 5 strengths of character that will define how you roll in all that you do. This is your ultimate brand… how others know you. MISSION. Clearly identify your WHY. Laurie Beth Jones once said that a great mission should be one sentence, easily understood and easily memorized. It must be clear and “tangible” in some powerful way. ACTIONS. Here, you would lay claim to 3-5 core activities or actions that manifest your spirit and mission. This is where the rubber hits the road. This is what you do to make real your spirit and mission. This is the integrity piece; integrating daily action to achieve mission. SUCCESS. Here, you define success… not in terms of outcomes but effort. Some aspect of outcomes is out of our hands. Effort is not. Here, you define what success looks like in clear language, defined by effort. HAPPINESS. Finally, you define how you will make the journey joyful. To achieve long term success, we must find ways to enjoy the ride. Get clear on how you will do that. MEANING. For the classroom, campus, company or community, get clear on what the spirit and mission mean for everyone. Everyone has to understand and buy in to the sense of “being”. Get real and get engaged by exploring the meaning of who you are and what you do. Real language. EXECUTION. Effectively and clearly define how the plan will be executed. This is about articulating the actions and behaviors necessary for achieving both spirit and mission (the BE and the DO). SERVICE. Here, you get clear on who and how this serves… all stakeholders… clients, colleagues and constituencies. This is where you answer what is in it for all. Here, is the ultimate buy in. HONOR. Finally, we define how our efforts will honor who we are… how our efforts and destination celebrate all engaged. The HONOR piece is about how we feel along the journey; how we are valued.
Into 2016, I will be sharing a year long series exploring particular virtues and how they apply to leadership, service and achieving goals. These posts will be concise and content rich and numbering at least two a week, exploring the science and art of character and its role in building successful, strong and united cultures of humble swagger and joyful excellence… with people who know who they are and bring it all to the table.
Let`s make the table in 2016 a FEAST for us all. Let`s make this a year that would bring a smile to Aragorn. Let`s do it, moving forward together, stronger.
Humbly… with honor, idealism, love wholeheartedness and zeal, I dare you.
Peace, passion and prosperity.
Barry Lewis Green, aka The Unity Guy™
Barry Lewis Green is The Unity Guy™. EPIC Engage™ is an extension of The Unity Guy™. The EPIC work is all about forging youthful, engaging and strong cultures of excellence born of character, capacity and creativity… for results; moving forward together, stronger. That fosters powerful synergy and real unity… through joyful excellence. That is what he calls Humble Swagger™; and Barry champions it!