Thomas Narofsky's Blog, page 4
August 3, 2014
June 18, 2014
Character Authenticity: The greatest unstoppable effect in your life.
Character is the single most important factor in living an Unstoppable Life. Your character is a set of values and beliefs that you live by and define who you are to others. It defines your unstoppable life and profoundly shapes how you engage with the world, how you form your opinions, what you support, what actions you choose to take, and what choices you make.
Nothing is more personal or important than your character. What this means simply is that, if you want to have an Unstoppable Life, you must continually strive to build your character. Your character is your greatest unstoppable effect in your life.
In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Polonius is providing advice to Laertes, “And this above all, to thine own self be true. Then, it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” You must be your true self and live a genuine and congruent life. To fulfill this statement your inner integrity must shine inside you in order for your integrity to radiate on the outside.
You cannot live two lives if you want to be unstoppable. Living one life is hard enough. When you put on different masks in order to please other people, you separate yourself from your true self, your values, beliefs, and worldview. You start living a lie. Your true life becomes distant and inauthentic. To thine own self be true.
Character authenticity is living on purpose, keeping true to your values and beliefs, and not compromising them at the altar of society. Your character is tested in the crucible of life and is forged through adversity. Your character is important for many reasons.
First, without a solid character foundation, the critical link of trust between leaders and followers will not exist. As an authentic leader, your personal integrity should be at the very center of your core.
The second value of integrity is your outward expression. You must be trustworthy for people to believe in you. Integrity is the trust factor in life. Integrity refines and defines your character each day. Authentic integrity allows your character to stand the test of time and challenges.
Character is the outward expression of your purpose, values, and beliefs. Your character is comprised of your beliefs, motives, values, desires, behaviors, and principles that drive and shape your actions as a leader.
Examine the areas of your life that are not congruent with your purpose. Look for evidence in your life that supports or contradicts your initial thoughts, assumptions, opinions, and beliefs of your life. Adjust your opinions as you reflect on your thoughts and when new information changes your opinion.
Don’t settle for good enough, achieve your very best, achieve your greatest life.
Refuse to compromise your character
Refuse to compromise your values
Refuse to compromise your beliefs
Refuse to wear a mask to be accepted
Live your life with integrity
Live congruent to your values and beliefs
Live your life honestly and truthfully
Live your life with courage and trustworthiness
June 14, 2014
You are Unstoppable Genesis
The genesis of my book, You are Unstoppable: Unleash You Inspired Life, comes from my wounded warrior visits to Brooks Army Medical Center (BAMC) in 2006 prior to my yearlong deployment to the Middle East. While visiting the prosthetics lab I took the opportunity to talk to several Soldiers and Airmen to see how they were coping with their lives. What one young Soldier said during my visit made a lasting impact on me and gave me insight about resilience, perseverance, and passion for life.
During the visit, I had the chance to visit with a young Soldier who had lost a leg, an arm, and had burns to over 30% of his body during an IED explosion that killed two fellow Soldiers. When I first entered the lab, he was sitting at a table learning how to adjust and repair his leg in the same fashion he learned to field strip his rifle. This was part of his amputee rehabilitation and reintegration development. As he worked, we talked about how his life had changed and how he was coping with the changes. He said:
Chief, I used to work out every day in the gym in order to keep myself fit and ready for the Army and life in general. I thought I was strong enough to handle whatever life could throw at me. I was wrong. The loss of my limbs crushed me and I immediately felt lost and depressed. I was very angry and mad at life. To be honest I did not want to go on.
It was not until I arrived at Brooks that I started looking at life differently. After several counseling sessions, rehabilitation therapy, and being around other wounded warriors I realized how much life I still had in me. I learned how to fight for my life again. Today, I am stronger than I first thought I was. It is not my physical strength I rely on now to get me through, it is my faith, my inner strength, and my belief in myself that makes go on each day.
I am stronger because I believe in myself and know I can do anything I want to do despite losing my arm and leg. I plan to live my life to its fullest each day.
His statement that he was stronger now than before he went to Iraq is poignant even today. In my opinion, he is unstoppable because he believes he can do anything through his faith and his faith in himself. Through his faith, he found hope again. When he found hope, he loved his life again. When he loved his life again he believed in himself and his life.
He is living an unstoppable life because he refuses to give up on himself, his dreams, and his aspirations. Life pushed in on him and he pushed back even harder and now is stronger. He is unstoppable.
His story of perseverance, positive outlook, and determined resiliency inspired me then and continues to inspire me. Despite his life changing injuries, he changed his life and his outlook on life. He chose to live each day to its fullest.
You have a choice each day. You can choose to believe in who you are and live life to its fullest, or you can chose to run and hide from who you are and live unfulfilled.
You can choose to believe in your talents, gifts, capabilities, and abilities and accomplish great things, or you cannot believe in your ability and live a life of regret. You can choose to believe in your dreams and aspirations and make them become your reality, or you can choose to let you dreams remain a dream. Whatever you believe in, you must put action to that belief. Just like the young Solider, you have to believe then apply the actions you need to make the belief your reality. You have to believe you can lead an unstoppable life and then apply the actions you need to realize an unstoppable life.
L.I.F.E. Books
I developed the L.I.F.E. book series to encapsulate my passion for developing people and helping them to live their lives to their utmost. The acronym L.I.F.E. stands for Leadership, Inspiration, Faith, and Empowerment. The philosophy behind L.I.F.E. books is detailed on the following pages:
Leadership
I am passionate about developing emerging, enduring, and experienced leaders and teaching them how to develop themselves using a disciplined and deliberate approach. All leadership begins from inside a person and must be developed and grown as they grow into emerging and enduring leaders.
Leadership starts with a condition of your heart – it is the desire and the passion to make a difference before it moves to your brain to implement an action plan to make a difference. Before you can make an impact on the world, you must first make an impact on yourself by discovering your purpose, your values, and by knowing who you are. This is the key to leading yourself.
You have to know who you are before you know where you can go. Your life’s purpose begins with the self-knowledge of why you are here and what you are living to fulfill.
Leadership is an inside-out process and is shaped by your values, character, choices, opportunities, experiences, and your worldview. Leading with your purpose and your core values ensures your life and leadership are congruent. As an authentic leader you inspire yourself and others to greatness.
Inspiration
Inspiration is the ability to breathe life into your life and others. Inspiration is a positive influence and a positive reinforcement of life. It ignites desire, ignites creativity, and ignites innovation in inspired people. Your life’s purpose is your daily inspiration for living abundantly. Your purpose excites you, energizes you, and fills you with a great sense of drive and determination. Inspiration empowers and unleashes your life’s creativity, innovation, and collaboration. People are looking for leaders who inspire them. They are looking for meaning and purpose, not trophies and awards. When authentic leaders inspire people, they reach new levels of innovation, achievement, and commitment.
Living on purpose and serving a higher purpose breathes life into you every day and gives you the desire to reach your goals. You need to live each day congruently by living within your beliefs and values. Unleashing your inspired life starts with living your life’s purpose.
Faith
Your faith provides you focus and vision for your life. It is your true north compass and GPS of self-awareness and self-management. Your faith is your lens to focus on how your talents, skills, gifts, and abilities will allow you to live on purpose. By focusing each day you can remove the noise and clutter of life to achieve your life’s purpose. Living your faith daily matters immeasurably in everything you do. The better you pay attention to your life and faith, the greater your life outcomes. Your faith helps you to focus on your life choices, life opportunities, and life possibilities.
Using your faith as your measuring standard, you can create your life’s vision to achieve your dreams and goals. You must also have faith in yourself and believe you are unstoppable. Life is an adventure of self-discovery and discovering life. Faith in yourself and faith in God provides you the strength you need each day to put your foot on the path and begin each new day in awe and wonder.
Empowerment
It is your life…OWN IT! Your life purpose empowers you and enables you to live life abundantly. Empowerment begins by taking responsibility for your life and being accountable for your actions. Empowerment is the courage to live passionately and purposefully each day.
Anything is possible when you choose to believe in yourself, your life’s purpose, and your talents, skills, and abilities. Your life purpose unleashes you to live your life and allows you to be unstoppable. Your greatest power in life is the liberty to choose. It is the liberty to choose what you want to do with your life, where you want to go, and what you want to become. No one can take this power away from you; it is yours alone.
You can do what you want to do; you can be who you want to be. You can live an empowered life through your decisions and choices each day. Your choices determine your attitude and your altitude. When you follow a strong and empowering purpose, you will live, think, and act on purpose and within your purpose.
Life is a choice. Your choices each day determine what outcomes happen in your life. It is by choice, not by chance, that will determine your life. An Unstoppable Life begins by taking responsibility for your choices.
Choose to believe in yourself
Choose to live on purpose
Choose to live your values
Choose to live your faith
Choose to live with courage and confidence
Choose to live with integrity
Choose to create your outcomes
You are Unstoppable Now
In You are Unstoppable, Thomas Narofsky, author of F(X) Leadership Unleashed: The Art and Science of Leadership, and leadership speaker, will show you how to develop the essential qualities needed to live an Unstoppable Life. Through this book you will discover a disciplined approach using the 6Ps, the Triad of Transformational Growth, and the FORGE Process, as outlined below:
discover your true self
define your life purpose
live your values and beliefs
envision your unstoppable life
achieve your unstoppable goals
If you aspire to live an unstoppable life and change your life, You are Unstoppable, gives you an indispensable road map to transforming your life!
May 22, 2014
May 20, 2014
The 6P Focus
When I arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base as the new 14th Air Force “Flying Tigers” Command Chief, I took several months to get know the people of the Command and learn about my new organization and its organizational culture.
As I traveled throughout the command, I had the opportunity to talk Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines that supported the space mission of the Joint Space Operations Center. A key part of my talks with the young enlisted was about continuously growing, developing, and reinventing themselves. I stressed that they needed to be proactive about their education, training and personal growth, and development so they could achieve their goals.
I asked each of them to think about how to grow and develop themselves in the three growth and development areas of our professional development program–Personal, Professional, or Leadership Competency. I urged them to invest and reinvest in your life so that they were ready for life’s challenges. Furthermore, I asked each person to seek out opportunities, challenges, and resources to help them stretch and get out of their comfort zone.
It was during my visits that I found myself using the well-known colloquialism “6Ps” phrase—“Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance” quite frequently. I began to realize how negative and reactive that phrase really was, especially coming from someone talking about being proactive. The phrase, although technically correct, is a negative and reactive saying and does nothing to help the person who is dealing with the situation.
On my return trip home on the airplane, I started to reshape my use of the 6Ps. I needed a proactive and positive set of 6Ps. I sought out words that described how to proactively shape, live, and forge your life. After several weeks of thought and talking with peers about the words I selected, my new 6Ps became: Planning, Preparation, Performance, Passion, Persistence, and Perseverance.
Planning – To shape your unstoppable life you must know what you want to accomplish to make your dreams your reality. Therefore, the very first step in designing your unstoppable life is to plan it. You need a map and guide to your growth and development and planning helps you chart the course of your life. You must be consciously committed to a disciplined approach to mastering yourself.
Preparation – Ben Franklin said: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” You must prepare yourself for the journey and prepare yourself for opportunities and challenges. You need to prepare yourself for opportunities and possibilities in life by preparing yourself before they show up in your life. Through training, education, development, and experiences, you prepare yourself for whatever life throws at you.
Performance – You need to take action and perform to your utmost each day to live unstoppable. Your success in life is not by accident but by design. You must strive each day to live your life and achieve your goals and dreams. Goals achieve nothing unless you take action. It must be an “all-in” approach to your life–100% of your heart, mind, body, and soul. Nothing else will do in order to achieve your unstoppable life. It is your life…Own it!
Passion – This is the core power that you have in your life. You must have passion or “fire in your belly” to live unstoppable. Passion is the spark that ignites you each day to live your life to its fullest and on purpose. It is the lynchpin of an inspired and unstoppable life.
Persistence – You must constantly press forward in life no matter the struggle. You stand in the face of adversity and choose to weather the storm. Persistence is your willingness to keep your eye on the prize and keep moving forward on your journey. Persistence is critical in forging your unstoppable life
Perseverance – You must never quit on yourself or your dreams. You must never give in on achieving your dreams. You must never give up on creating the life you want to live. Perseverance is the lodestar of an unstoppable life.
Each of the words became a part of my overall FORGE Model and eventually a part of an unstoppable life. Each of these words help you to create your unstoppable life. The 6P Focus is your daily reminder to grow and develop your life.
The 6Ps are part of the F(X) disciplined approach to growing and developing your life. The 6Ps focus you on creating your unstoppable life through six key shaping and molding processes. They help you focus on what you need to do each day to continuously grow, continuously develop, and continuously reinvent your unstoppable life.
May 14, 2014
Inspire or Retire!!
This is one of the topics of discussion on #TCHAT next Wednesday.
Originally posted on F(X) Leadership Unleashed:
Inspire or Retire
Inspirational Leadership + Motivated People = a great team with outstanding accomplishments.
Over the next two weeks, Eliza was in and out of the office for in processing and more organizational training to help her acclimate to the new environment. During those two weeks, she thought about what she learned on her first day and her concept of what a leader is and does began to change.
Also during those two weeks, she kept hearing the phrase “Inspire or Retire” which made her more curious of the true meaning. After her in processing and training was finished, she stopped in to see Ty again.
“That was a long two weeks of training. It was very useful and I feel like I am ready just focus on my work.” Eliza said as she walked into Ty’s office.
“Glad to have you back. Did you learn anything new?” Ty…
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