Newsletter for March 2010: The Top 10 Reasons for Personal Retreats
The Top 10 Reasons for Personal Retreats
Strictly Business: The Reverse of “All Hat and No Cattle”
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There are a thousand reasons to attend a great conference or personal retreat, and only two excuses not to, “I don’t have time or desire.” Don’t let that happen to you! There are hundreds of opportunities to mix with brilliant people, learn the skills and create the life your truly want. Seize the opportunity!
The Top 10 Reasons for Personal Retreats
So many wonderful things that can happen at a retreat or conference, it’s hard to know where to start. I’m going to use the “Top 10” format for some clarity about why I’m so excited about the value of personal retreats.
It’s a time where you can come together with other people to laugh and celebrate, eat together, to discuss important topics about your work, life, your future hopes and dreams. People can take long solitary walks, spend time with their journals or on the phone with loved ones, and get together in groups to talk about life’s most important challenges. Mostly, it’s a time for you to gather together with other bright, talented people who also have great lives—to explore how to make things even better! You can have fun, and in the months and years to come, the dividends will keep on rolling! But let me get to the Top 10 Reasons for Personal Retreats:
1. What We Focus On Expands. It’s so easy to focus on the trivial in our daily lives. We go to work, run errands, follow our routine until we forget to focus on the Big Picture. Where you are going in life? What’s important? What do you want? What needs to change? Focus on these things.
2. Personal Retreats Give Perspective. If we look at anything too closely, it becomes overly complex and we begin to micro-manage it. Time and distance allow us to regain our balance and notice where we’ve gone off-course.
3. Personal Retreats are Healthy. Our bodies need time to re-charge and renew. Obviously, vacations do this, along with “Mental Health Days,” but there is something special about a personal retreat. They lower the blood pressure and elevate the spirit. They ease tension and energize our lives.
4. Personal Retreats Stimulate the Mind. Vacations can dull the mind and body, but retreats fire the imagination. Mixing with bright, talented people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives allows us to “think the unthinkable and imagine the impossible.” Anything seems do-able. Bigger really is better!
5. Personal Retreats Create Magic. Conferences and retreats throw us together with people of like-mind and diverse backgrounds. When we share our joys and solutions with talented, eager people, magic happens.
6. Personal Retreats Create Sacred Space. Conferences allow time and space to transform our lives. Whether it’s a quiet room in a business hotel, visiting a museum, or walking the 1000 acres of GreenLake, retreats invite us to take notes, ponder over a cup of tea, and enrich our lives in amazing ways.
7. Personal Retreats Help Us Know Ourselves. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” That may be extreme, but sometimes we do forget who we are, what we value, or what we want in life. Retreats let us look in the mirror, make discoveries and take notes on our own lives.
8. Personal Retreats Challenge Us. Remember the old slogan, “Be All You Can Be?” Retreats make us bigger people. We get more air in our lungs and fresh ideas in our heads. Retreats help us grow taller, stronger and more confident. This is good!
9. Sometimes We Learn New Stuff. Personally, I often consider the “expert” at the front of the room the least important reason to attend a Conference, but once in a while, a new perspective or a vital idea does make everything better. To make life better, get where things are better. Put yourself where success and ideas and skills are likely to hit you!
10. Networking is Good. Sometimes it’s not personal, it’s business. Retreats connect us with people we might never meet otherwise, and when creative, talented, goal-oriented people get together, deals happen. New ideas flow, synergies are discovered and people make money!
There are a thousand reasons to attend a great conference or personal retreat, and only two excuses not to, “I don’t have time or desire.” Don’t let that happen to you! There are hundreds of opportunities to mix with brilliant people, learn the skills and create the life your truly want. Seize the opportunity!
Quotes of the Month
"Follow your bliss." -- Joseph Campbell
"The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be one's own self." -- Montaigne
"Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values." -- Ayn Rand
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -- Goethe
Strictly Business: The Purpose of Business
I hear lots of discussion about purpose and mission statements for business. Some tell me the purpose of any business is to make a profit. Others focus on the quality of the product or on teamwork and morale. Obviously, all of that is wonderful and to some extent necessary. But it misses the point.
The purpose of every business is to serve a satisfied customer. Period.
In the end, satisfied customers create the profits. Satisfied customers create repeat business, which is vastly more profitable than finding a new customer for every transaction. Satisfied customers allow for pride, satisfaction and the constant improvement of our goods and services. Only satisfied customers will ultimately keep the doors open and allow the business to “work.”
Sure, a great marketing plan is desirable. Of course, making a profit is necessary over time.
But in the end, only satisfied customers make everything else possible.
So, what are your customers really looking for? What benefit or convenience, what quality or experience is most vital to them? Ask them! Let your customers tell you what makes your business special. Let them tell you how and why you stand out from your competition. Let them tell you why they buy from you and keep coming back.
Too often, business leaders spend too much time examining details when a simple lunch or phone call to your best customers could tell you precisely how to grow the business. In the end, systems and business plans, tools and equipment are good, but only to the degree that your customers are smiling. Everything else is detail.
Humor: Wedding Bell Wisdom
Collections of kids’ wisdom about love and marriage have been around for a long time. I thought they were too cute to pass up. I share them again in the hope they'll give you a nice chuckle.
HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
-- Alan, age 10
No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you find out later who you're stuck with.
-- Kristen, age 10
WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
-- Camille, age 10
HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
-- Derrick, age 8
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids.
-- Lori, age 8
WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
-- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure)
On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
-- Martin, age 10
WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
When they're rich.
-- Pam, age 7
The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
-- Curt, age 7
The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
-- Howard, age 8
IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
I don't know which is better, but I'll tell you one thing. I'm never going to have sex with my wife. I don't want to be all grossed out.
-- Theodore, age 8
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
-- Anita, age 9 (bless you child)
And the #1 Favorite is........
HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
-- Ricky, age 10
Rodger Blaker works with executives, small business owners and professionals who want to grow in their business and create an extraordinary life!
For info on resources for your success, visit: http://www.rodgerblaker.com or call me at 214-485-2238.