How To Be A Leader

The truth is there are a million books all telling us how to be a leader and they are all different. The first thing is to do is understand the distinction between Leader and Manager. 

A Manager is a person who manages tasks within a set of given circumstances. 

A Leader is a person who has a vision with no given circumstances and then turns that vision into reality either on their own or by inspiring enough other people to support them in the vision. While there is a cross over at times of Manager and Leader it should be understood that they are not the same and if you are waiting for someone to give you permision  you to Lead, then really you are a Manager and that's okay.

How to be a Leader:

1.  Have a vision that you believe in.
2. Take the intuitive to go for it. No one will give you permission that's what you will do for others.
3.  Enrol and inspire the right people into the vision who will support you. 
4.  Set out a plan of action. Do not get too caught up in the mechanics of the vision, that's what Managers are for. Get some good ones.
5.  Be flexible. Remember, it's better to be successful that right.
6.  Give permission for others to lead so they will not need to be managed, then get out of their way.
7.  Be willing to see it through or your team will give up.
8.  Be passionate.
9.  Believe in your team.
10. When you succeed give credit to all of those who went with you on the journey.

Most of all, have the guts to get up and do it. No one will tell you it's okay. No one will give you permission, in fact there will be plenty of people telling you it can't be done. There are millions of people just waiting for someone to Lead and it might as well be you. Leaders give permission for others to succeed. Leaders are in the 5% everyone else is waiting for you. Leaders celebrate the successes of others and create teams and dreams. So why not find your vision, create your Dream team and

GO FOR IT!

Who Owes You And How You Can Get It!

A basic understanding of ‘Who owes you what, why you deserve it and how you go about getting it’

Okay, so here is the basic principle of what you deserve and who owes it to you.

‘If two people are born at the same time and you are one of them, and, if you have the right to a good job and you deserve a nice house and good schooling for your children so that they can get a good education. And, after you have worked hard all your life and now need taking care of in the style to which you deserve. If you have the right to all these things, if you deserve all of these things, then which person who was born at the same time as you, has the responsibility to give them to you?

Does that same person not have the right to all of these things? And, surely they must also deserve the same things that would make your life fuller and more complete? If so, then who is bound by duty at birth to give them to you?

The truth is that we have the right to nothing at all, because if we did, then by virtue of this quandary some one would have to be bound to give them to us.

Well I have to assume that’s is not what you want to here? The truth is though that we are all in the same boat and the state of the world at present is due in part to the thinking that there will always be some one who will give us the things we deserve. Well in fact there is and it’s you! We all have the right to many things and many of us who work hard, serve our countries and pay our taxes, deserve the things we say we would like to have. But in the end there is only one person who will put you first in the pecking order, and that of course is you.

Go ahead, why not have the life you say that you deserve.

Where is that sexy young girl I married?

A couple of years ago, I was in the process of creating a haven of romance in our house, while Chris and the girls are in the US with family. (Well actually I was Re-doing our bedroom, hoping that it will re-kindle that flame which once burned hot to the touch). Typically we just burn the candle at both ends and get to the end of the day with good intentions. but just pick up a good book instead.

During this process I began to realize what had happened to that ‘Sexy Young Girl’ I married. Turns out that she had got lost in that thing we call ‘Motherhood.’ I was cleaning out her bedside cupboard as the mystery began to unravel. Putting all of her personal items into a box the story began to unfold. First there was the usual make up and lotions, which are generally sold as snake oil, inferring that we can all look ten years younger if applied twice a day. Then there was a collection of toiletries that well meaning friends had bought over the years, but never used.

A stack of Christmas and Birthday cards. Memories of how time has slipped by so quickly. Cards for Paige who only yesterday we brought home from the hospital and who is now 6 ½. Cards for Erin who is 17 and who looks for all the world like the girl in the pictures from 30 years ago. Cards from me on our wedding anniversary, now 25 years. Small items of jewelry that the girls have made or bought, kept safe from harm so precious now to their Mother.

Items locked away in drawers made by little hands at school and given on Mothers Day. An item of clothing so long forgotten by it’s owner but kept as a door to the past when we were slimmer and with less smile lines. (When we went dancing)

This is where the ‘Sexy Young Girl’ I married lives now, in days of promise of the futures and glances back into the past. She lives within her daughters and through the birthday cards and handmade gifts and paintings of dogs and sisters. 

It is so much easier for men, we just look for that next adventure and we take off at a whim. Mothers cannot do that unless everyone goes. They don’t get to look for themselves in mid life. They simple find themselves in cards and hand made gifts from little hands.

I wake up every morning and there she is, that ‘Sexy Young Girl’ I fell in love with, lying right beside me. She is there beside me as we walk hand in hand along life’s road and she is still as sexy and as breath taking as she ever was.  And while the candle still tends to burn at both ends, it is also very hot in the middle sometimes.

Loosing our Innocence.

When I was sixteen I joined the Army. I was given a rifle and told (in not so many words) don't kill anyone unless you mean to.

In that first few months of being in the Army I crossed a line and lost my Innocence. At the time I didn't realise it but life had changed for me and I could never go back. When I came home on leave everything had changed, my friends, me, my position in life. Actually what had happened was I had changed, but everything else had stayed the same and not moved on much from where I had left it. Why should it? We were all only sixteen, we were in fact, still just teenagers. My friends saw life through a much more innocent set of circumstances than I.

I do not regret those choices I made, they have helped create who I am today.

I look at my daughter now, she is seventeen. She is trying so hard to be grown up but the truth is, she is still a teenager, a child. I like that and I understand that soon she will also have to become an adult. I don't want to hold her back or get in the way, in fact I want to do everything I can to prepare her for that day when she leaves home and is ready to take on the world on her own terms. But until that time comes she will be my little girl and that is fine by me.

A childhood is a precious thing and should be cherished, not abandoned and forgotten.

What If?

What could we do if......

Who could we be if.......

How far could we go...

How many could we inspire....

What would be possible?

How many could we feed and cloth and house...

How much love would there be to go around..

What if...?

What kind of world might it be if...?

Flight

I wondered

What it was like

To fly?

So I took a dream

And tied it together

With Desire

I guided it

With belief

And kept it going

With enthusiasm

And when there was a calm

In the wind

I pushed it along

With blind faith and commitment!

My dream grew wings

And I flew

The Best Rocky Road Rice Krispy Treats!

What you need:

A 9 inch baking pan or equivalent, must be at least 2 inches deep.

A pan of water

A glass bowl (Heat proof) to melt the chocolate in.

A Mixing Bowl

Rice Krispy's 

 One each, bar of cooking chocolate 150 Grams each

            White

            Milk

            Dark

Nuts of choice. Coarsely Copped, (I used mixed) one handful.

Large spoonful of Peanut Butter

Large Spoonful of Nutella

Icing sugar to sprinkle on top when finished

What you need to do:

1. Get the mixing bowl, large enough to mix contents in.
2. Break the bar of Milk Chocolate into squares.
3. Fill pan with water, but not so much that the bowl touches the water. (The bowl and pan must be of equivalent size). Make sure that no water gets into the chocolate as it will curdle and not melt.
4. Bring water to boil then reduce heat.
5. Place the squares of Milk Chocolate in the bowl and stir gently until melted. 
6. Add the spoon full of Peanut Butter, Nutella and Chopped Nuts, stir until smooth.
7. Add Rice Krispy's to the mixing bowl a little at a time and pour in the Chocolate mix until you have the texture you require. The chocolate, Peanut Butter, Nutella mix should cover all of the rice Rice Krispy's and bind them together.

Then:

When thoroughly mixed add the Rice Krispy mix to the baking pan and level the mix evenly in the pan. Then place in the refrigerator until firm. Aprx 30 minutes.

Then:

Melt the Dark Chocolate, remove the mix from the refrigerator and pour the Dark Chocolate over the Rice Krispy mix.

Replace back in the refrigerator for aprx 30 minutes.

Then:

Melt the White Chocolate.

You can either use the full bar of enough to drizzle over the Rice Crispie mix.

Put back into refrigerator until ready.

Sprinkle with Icing Sugar. Cut into squares of Rocky Road Rice Krispy Treats!

Bon Appétit