Find Your Defining Moments

Give Your Lights Meaning

There are a lot of lights that turn on inside our minds.  Some lights glow about business, some glow about hobbies and some glow about family stuff.  Some business leaders have dim lights moving about the channels in their mind.  Other business leaders have really bright lights moving around in their minds.  Whatever the case, lights go on and off inside our minds.

We can get up out of the chair in the evening and head for the kitchen to grab a snack.  That means a small light went on in the mind.  Once we reach the kitchen, we can forget why we wanted to go there.  That means that light went off.  While we are standing there in the kitchen trying to remember what it is we wanted, we start turning on each light to discover which light led us to the kitchen.  We manage the kind of lights that are working in our minds.  Our thoughts work just like little lights in the mind.  Some go on, some turn off.  Sometimes our lights are not burning very bright.  Sometimes they are so dim we barely recognize what they are.  Sometimes the lights we turn on in the mind are so bright they can be seen by the people who are close to us.  Those are the lights of leadership.  Those are the lights that drive where we truly want to go.  They are the brightest ones that shine all the way through our minds out onto the streets of life.  It is difficult to turn those kinds of lights off.  The people around us can see which light we are working on.

A business leader lives by those kinds of lights.  Business leaders follow the lights that are burning brightly.  The brightest lights glow the most and guide the way a leader should go.  Those are the lights that come from the experiences we host that produce our defining moments.  Our defining moments guide our spirit and our energy to the places where we ought to go.  Those lights, those moments help to define the kind of business leader we eventually become.  When we find our defining moments, we found ourselves.  Those defining moments are the ones that help us to build the best business models.  Great leaders begin to do the right work, at the right time when the most defining moments come to the surface of the mind.  The right lights are all burning brightly when that happens.  Our view is as clear as it has ever been.  Our mission, our purpose is so well defined when those moments come to the surface.  Our single chief aim is moved to the top of the path.  We are clear in what we need to do.  Great leaders search for those kinds of lights.  Great leaders recognize how to respect their most defining moments.  Find your defining moments.  Find the brightest lights glowing in your mind.

One of the most effective ways to find defining moments is to push through some very trying stuff.  I know this sounds a bit backwards, but most of the true defining moments in life come right out of the work you do to survive a tragic experience.  Some of the best opportunities come wrapped up neatly inside some of the worst situations.  Some of my most defining moments in business success did not come to life because I thought them up.  They came to life as a result of the changes I was forced to make due to some kind of personal tragedy that occurred.  I was forced to make some unwanted changes.  It was during those changes that some new lights went on.  Those new lights burned brighter than expected and became my most effective defining moments.  The most valuable personal discoveries were found wrapped up inside the defining moments that kicked out of those tragic events.  In truth, some of the best defining opportunities came to light when they were least expected.  Napoleon Hill once coined the phrase, "Every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit."  It is amazing how true this is.  Keep in mind, he did not suggest that we receive a tree, only a seed.  We must grow the tree.

Hill was trying to describe how each business leader needed to find his defining moments.  This is what he was trying to describe.  The most powerful defining moments usually come from the most horrific tragedies we must endure.  If stuff is not going well in your leadership life right now...good thing.  However, while all is falling out...look hard for the right kind of lights to go on and respect how those changes are occurring in your life.  They may at first look like a small tragedy.  However, inside that tragic wrap may be the most defining moments your business life will ever witness.  Something very good is just about to happen.  Trust those difficult but defining moments.  Find your defining moments.  Get busy looking for the kind of lights that burn more brightly when they are turned on.  When all else is falling apart, speed up the way you start turning on the light switches in your mind.  Start looking for the new seed of opportunity.  Get very busy with the search for your defining moments.

Learn How To Turn Your Lights On

When my sister became very ill with spinal meningitis she suddenly passed away.  She was one of my business partners.  That event changed my life.  As tragic as it was, it became a defining moment for me to make some life changes.  I decided to change how I walked my business life.  I made some very sizable business moves during the recovery of that event.  Those changes were not lights burning in my mind before she passed away.  They turned on and become brighter after her tragic event.  That piece of adversity brought with it the seed of a greater life benefit.  It caused me to think about my business life more clearly.  It helped me to redefine how I practiced my business ways.  I built a brand new business model because of those changes.  I doubt very seriously that those kinds of changes would have ever occurred without the kind of motivation that came from that tragic event.  That piece of adversity brought definition to my business life.  It became the seed to help me develop one of my most effective defining moments of my business career.

Years later, my father was struggling through his last days when cancer took his life.  Another defining moment occurred when he and I had a man to man discussion about my future business life.  He asked me to agree to make a serious business change to the family business after he passed.  I agreed.  That was another very defining moment in my business walk.  These are the times when our lights burn the brightest.  These are the times when we see the most clarity to the paths we need to take.  They are also the times when we host the most unknowns.  All we know when those defining moments arrive is that we do not know what they will turn out to be.  Those defining moments arrive first as only a seed.  They bring out the ideas that turn on the lights that help us to define what we need to do.  We may not know how it will turn out but we are positive our lights are leading us where we need to go.  We begin the work to define those moments.

The lights in our minds that shine on our defining moments guide our steps, not our future outcomes.  The outcomes are up to us.  The turns are made when those defining moments appear.  We feel the need to move in a new direction when those defining moments arrive.  That is where the new stuff begins.  That is where we get the seriousness of our paths turned into the right direction.  That is when we become more focused on what needs to be done.  Our defining moments release us away from the normal protective shields we use to keep our working patterns away from deeper risks and trials.  Tragedy has a funny way of releasing our most limiting ways.  Tragedy forces us to become the people we would not normally become.  It forces our hands.  It forces our minds.  It forces our changes.  It forces how we witness the lighting in our minds for those defining moments that changes our lives.

If you own a business model, or you lead one...try to find some way to force yourself into a new and exciting set of defining moments.  You do not need to have a major tragedy to perform this act.  However, you will need to develop a bigger dream.  You will not completely respect any defining moment without a much larger dream.  Something really big has to move you.  That is why tragedies work so well.  They are really big deals.  They have the power to supply you with huge change.  You will remain content to do what you have always done if you do not develop a larger dream.  If you fail to make something really big happen to your life, you will not be able to turn on new and brighter lights.  Your mind will not be able to produce any worthwhile defining moments to guide your path.

You will also need to respect where that dream will take you and your family.  Without that understanding, your dream will not survive what it will need to face.  In order to respect that big dream you will need to develop a monster cause.  Without a huge cause, your dream will run into some resistance that will wither it away, piece by piece.  You will not ever reach your defining moments without the deepest respect for the need to protect that big dream with a much larger cause...and one that includes your family, which is one of the most serious causes alive.  Let me explain with an example.  I will hand you $60,000 to stop your automobile near a roadside accident.  Another car is burning fiercely with flames from the accident.  The flames are engulfing the vehicle.  They are now rolling hard inside the cabin of the vehicle.   You think you see a person inside.  There is a large amount of fuel leaking near the rear tires.  It will all blow up in a few seconds.  I will give you $60,000 to walk over to that roaring fire and check inside to see if you are truly seeing someone inside the cab of that car.  Most would pass up the sixty grand.  It is not worth the death.  However, if you came upon that same auto fire and you recognized that car as your daughters car, burning out of control, and you think you see someone inside...trust me...you will not need sixty grand to go check it out.  You did not even take time to close your car door when you ran to hers.  You need a big cause.  That comes directly from your family...your loved ones.  This is where you find the fuel to serve your huge dreams.  This is how you support major defining moments.

It is hard work to discover the way to find those defining moments in your business life.  They do not become bright lights in the minds of where you travel.  You must find the switches inside those mental halls that can engage the hidden bulbs that are waiting to be turned on.  It is not easy stuff.  It requires some seriousness in effort.  It requires a much larger plan and a much larger dream.  Go find your defining moments.  Go press the buttons that push your limits.  Go test your skills.  Go reach for higher heights.  Look around you.  Where is your most serious cause?  Get serious about this kind of business practice.  It is part of the way you become more successful.

Your defining moments are waiting for you to engage.  They will not be easy to attack.  You must know and respect where they hide.  If you plan to excel in the business world you manage, you will need to figure out how to find where your defining moments are hidden.  Just do not burn your house down to find them.  You do not need to make the adversity first.  Use a big dream instead.  Go support your cause, build a big dream and get to work.

Until next time...