“It’s not where you start that matters, it’s where you finish that makes all the difference.” – Tony D’Onofrio
Maybe I have been luckier than most. Every day I am inspired by the potential possibilities to change the world. Every night, reminders swirl through my mind on how much I love my life.
In a recent internal company video I was asked how I keep my passions alive, what gets me up every day and keeps me going.
People are my passion. This means regularly engaging with individuals and teams to build mutually successful futures; discovering possibilities in leveraging diverse skills to construct growth opportunities for yourself and for everyone around you.
My second passion is endless curiosity which I mirror to mean an active continuous embrace of change. Incessant learning is the lens through which small ideas erupt into self-actualized personal and professional peak experiences.
In 2015, I recounted some of my personal life’s journey to date in a post titled 'Five Lifetime Thanksgiving Leadership Lessons for Success'. In that post I wrote that waiting for the future to magically reveal success has never been an option in my life. The clear dreams of what I wanted to achieve evolved into personal and professional goals with a deadline.
Time has now become my friend. Each moment reinforces that endless possibilities are still ahead. Every day I am constantly reminded of the key attributes for building a life with no regrets.
Be Curious
"Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness." - Bryant H. McGill
Take a moment, look up from your smartphone and reflect on the exceptional epoch we are living in today.
On one level, we are suffering from information overload. A 2011 study pointed out that everyone is bombarded by the equivalent of 174 newspapers of data a day. "Every day the average person produces six newspapers worth of information compared with just two and a half pages 24 years ago – nearly a 200-fold increase."
Yet, ready access to that data through the internet is the new goldmine to success. Make it a priority to learn something novel every day, meet a new individual, or explore the connectivity between ideas that enter into your mind.
The goldmine to success is identifying the patterns between ideas and leverage the emerging convergence trends to dramatically increase your personal and professional value. Be endlessly curious to design the future that you imagined. If you dreamed it, with hard work, you will achieve it.
Be Positive
"Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose." - Lyndon B. Johnson
Research studies have shown that positive people are happier, live longer, and are more successful in life. Your glass should always be half full.
Challenges and roadblocks will appear along the way. Think of these moments as testing grounds for new approaches or ideas to move to the next level.
As reflected in the 2015 post, my early life was filled with substantial uncertainty by cultural immersion changes in multiple foreign countries. Reflecting back, it was that adversity that led to greater focus on positive strategies.
Changing my mental attitude led to more aggressive embrace of opportunities around me. Did not know it at the time, but those adversities were the positive foundation for future success.
Be positive even in difficult moments for they will pass. Yesterday is gone. Today is a new positive day to change the world.
Be Thankful
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” - Marcus Tullius Cicero
Each of us is dealt different hands in the game of life. We all experience moments of euphoria and pain. The parts in between is the normal everyday daily grind we experience in generational sequences from youth to old age.
A lesson that I learned very early in my life is to be continuously thankful for any kindness, positive feedback, and personal or professional milestones reached. This can be as simple as a "Thank You" email which to this day I still sent very many.
Shakespeare once wrote in his play The Tempest that 'the past is prologue'. Unlike its colloquial meaning today, he meant that the characters' lives at that point in time (their past) was merely an introduction to the great adventure they will soon embark on. Shakespeare meant that "everything that came before doesn't matter because a new and glorious future is stretching out before you."
For me personally, being cumulative appreciative over multiple years has led a vast global network now amplified by social media. Through my website, the evolutionary personal brand tag line remains 'connecting people and ideas for profitable growth'.
Every day bring new opportunities to be thankful, for the moments that build a life. As an example, this past week my direct family was very grateful in being able to experience the spectacular blend of new and old traditions at our first multi-day Indian wedding in Seattle. The celebrations brought all of us closer together.
Time is indeed your friend. Shakespeare was spot-on that the past is the prologue on which to build a glorious future.
It's not where you start that matters; it's where you finish that makes all the difference. Every day be curious, positive, and thankful as they are the foundational attributes for building a life with no regrets.
