Caring for others is really something that I can push under the rug if I don’t make it an active priority. Like most of us, I lean toward focusing on my own challenges on a daily basis. Every day I put a reminder in Outlook to help me move away from being self centered to Christ centered.

I make a living getting objective member and customer feedback for my clients. However, when my wife offered constructive feedback on one of my presentations I became defensive. To grow, I need to put aside my ego and emotions and really try to listen to the feedback. I told her I was sorry and will try to improve on my demeanor when given the opportunity to learn and grow.

I read a quote at a restaurant the other day and it really made me chuckle. Orson Wells was asking his doctor what he could do to lose weight. The doctor said, “Quit having intimate dinners for four and start inviting three other people.”

There were many years where my only time spent with God was at church. The only problem is you can’t grow in rows. Real growth comes in circles or small groups. You can share thoughts on the bible and how it can be applied in different circumstances. Not to mention the food is often terrific.

Set up your long term goals and then focus each day on the tasks you need to accomplish. Sometimes looking too far ahead can get overwhelming. Focusing on the present and accomplishing the smaller tasks will need to the bigger things in life.

It is quite windy here in Fredericksburg, VA today. Of course, Chicago is known to be the windy city, but the name is not for the weather. It goes back to the long winded politicians in Chicago.

I think it is wise to ask customers for feedback. However, most don’t have a good feel for the future. In fact, future defining customers are a very small percentage. Henry Ford said, “If I asked people what they wanted in the future, they would have said faster horses.”

Stopped at McDonald’s and received a free coffee. This is part of their love promotion that debuted on a Super Bowl ad. I must say it made me feel good and created an emotional attachment. Need to find ways to do this more for my customers and prospects.

I listened to a talk by Andy Stanley yesterday on giving. He mentioned two categories of giving- intervention and prevention. I have fallen into the intervention category most of the time because it is more emotional and I can see where my money is going. Prevention giving is hard to measure especially when giving to a church. There is no way to measure what bad behaviors the local church has prevented me, my wife and kids from doing. My faith & hope is in Jesus & the local church and I need to do a better job of preventative giving by sharing a % of my income. God has already given me the wealth and I need to invest in the local community.

Working hard each day to encourage my colleagues, family and friends. I fell short last night when reviewing my sons grades. I was pretty hard on him and did not focus enough on what was right before going into improvement mode. Today is a new day and I hit the restart button.