Scouting Out Of Uniform: June 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

Three Myths About Success

“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”

– Albert Einstein

(1879-1955) Physicist

I once had someone ask me what, if I am writing about the principles of Scouting in this blog, why do I talk about success. They said, "Scouting is about building character, courage, adventure and living a good life." To this I respond: Isn't that success?

I believe over the years that people get the whole idea of success confused and misrepresented. We see what have been labeled as successful people and think that they define the word. When I see people like John Belushi, Kurt Cobain, Bernie Madoff and countless others who have fame and fortunes I do not think of successful people. These are people who were able to make money (anyone can do that), become famous (anyone can do that) but have failed when it comes to living a good life and adding something to the world they live in.

Success is the ability to have a dream, pursue your dream and achieve your dream. That dream is different for each of us and does not always include wealth, popularity or power. If a person can live their life knowing they have done what they were created to do; knowing they have added something good to this world and have peace with themselves and their God, then they have succeeded.

There are three myths that people often connect to success:

1) Success means wealth

Wealth can be a reward for success but it is never the goal itself. Many have become very successful through an idea they had or a talent or skill. They have done something they love to do and they have become wealthy doing it. That is a reward, their desire at first was not the wealth but the idea.

2) People become successful overnight

Among successful people there is no greater joke than the idea of an "overnight success". Successful people know that it takes ages of hard work and dedication to achieve success. Some may move quickly once they come to a point in their journey to achievement, but they did not get to that point overnight. Success takes time and hard work, that is it. There is no easy way or any short cuts. If you want to be successful you have got to be willing to do the work.

3) Success is never fair

Success is really the only really fair thing we face each day. Anyone - yes I said anyone - can be a success in life. You have the opportunity and the resources all there for you. However, if you are waiting for someone to give it to you, make it easy for you, share it with you or do it for you, you my friend, will never see success. Nor should you. If you are going to be a success you have got to do it yourself. That is fair. That is right. That is the way it is.

You matter! You matter to the world and to yourself. Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

John Patrick Hickey is an author, speaker, Life Coach and proud Scouter. To read more from John Patrick Hickey or to get his books, training and book him to speak to your church, business or group, visit our website at http://www.growthcenter.net or www.johnpatrickhickey.com. © 2014 John Patrick Hickey

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Facing the Bully

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's

definition of your life; define yourself.”

– Harvey Feinstein

Actor

A topic covered in Cub Scouts many times is that of bullying. We want the boys to know how to deal with bullies and not to allow them to keep them down. As we get older we think that the bullies in life go away. I am sorry to say they do not, they just change form and tactics.

Success-minded people are all to failure with the bullies of our age. They are the ones who try and stop you from achieving of your goals. They can be in our family, workplace, church or among our friends. Adult bullies often hide behind a mask of concern, caring and a desire to "help". However they disguise themselves the end result is still the same, the discourage us from the achievement of our dreams.

Let's look at a few of the ways that these people can get into our lives, bully us and how we can effectively stand up to them.

They fill us with negativity

These are the bullies that are always telling us what will not work and how things will never work out for us. Some say they are just looking out for us, however, they are never encouraging or believing in what we do; just filling us with their negative thoughts.

The best way to deal with this bully is to remain positive and fill your mind and heart with positive things. In fact, when these bullies come around you should be extremely positive and tell them how great life can be when you have a dream you believe in. Positivity repels these bullies like garlic to a vampire. They will walk away because they cannot stand being positive for too long.

They discourage you from taking chances

Anyone who has had a dream and stepped out to achieve it know the person who is just waiting to tell you that it is too risky and you need to be careful. They try to fill you with fear of all the things that could go wrong. They always have a story of someone they know who ventured out and was destroyed but the desire for a dream.

You greatest weapon is the dream you have. Build on it and allow it to burn into a fire of passion. Remember that taking risks is the only way that success is ever achieved. Let the bullies know that you may indeed fail, however, if you do you will get up and go for it again. As American scientist, Grace Hopper said, "A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."

They work harder for our failure than their own success

Success-bullies have this strange drive to see us fail. In fact, they do more and work harder at seeing us fail or quite than they will at achieving their own dreams. This is the saddest part of these bullies. They have no ability to encourage, see the best in others. The world is clouded by their own sense of failure.

Help these bullies see that they too can be a success. Encourage then to believe in their dream and let them know you believe in them. Encouragement, kindness and a truthful, "I believe in you" has changes many a bully into a successful person. It never hurts to try.

You matter! You matter to the world and to yourself. Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Monday, June 23, 2014

How to Make Today Count

“The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today's work extremely well.”

– Unknown

Be prepared! That is the Boy Scout motto and should be the motto of all success-minded people. Why? Because only the prepared can be ready to make the most of each day as the travel on their journey to achievement. If you are not prepared for what may happen in the course of your day - good or bad - you will not be able to make the most of it.

Preparing for your tomorrows is always based on how you handle your today. You must do well today if you hope to have a successful tomorrow. Too many people think they can put things off, relax and let down their guard or only give a little today and make up for it tomorrow, but that is not how it works. The great coach, John Wooden use to tell his players that they could only give 100%. If you only gave 80% today, you could not give 120% tomorrow. The best anyone can do is 100% and if you do not give that you lose the rest.

Let's look at today and what you can do to make it count and be at your best tomorrow.

Start Strong

Set yourself up for a good day right from the start. Get a good night's sleep so you are well rested. Get up at a reasonable time and get ready for the day. Do not sit around half the day before you do anything to move yourself forward. Get up, clean up, dress up and go for it!

Starting strong is having a plan on what you need to do today. The best time for this is the night before. Look at your schedule and know what needs to be done and the degree of importance things have. If possible, tackle the hardest things first so you can do them well. The hardest tasks we have often take the most time; if you put off starting you may not be able to finish.

Start the day with a positive attitude and a can do mind set. See the day as a gift and you have the ability to make it a great one. It is always up to you.

End Strong

Starting strong means ending strong. You can look back over your day and know that you achieved all you needed to for that one day. There is nothing undone for tomorrow. This does not mean you have nothing to do tomorrow, each day has its own stuff. You can see that you made today count.

As you end the day take time to plan for your tomorrow. Make your list of tasks that need to be done and their order of importance. Now you know that when tomorrow becomes today you are prepared and will greet it with enthusiasm and energy. Get to bed at a reasonable time and get the rest you need to face the exciting adventure which will be ahead.

You matter! You matter to the world and to yourself. Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

How to Keep Your Ideas Alive

“A good idea is like a wheelbarrow; it will go nowhere unless you push it.”

– Unknown

One of the things I love about taking to boys at Scouts is that they are full of ideas. Walking along on a hike or enjoying some down time, you hear so many ideas of what they hope to be and what they plan to do in life. I do not take these lightly like simple boy dreams. Oh no, I see them as planning the future of the world I still intend to live in, so this is serious business.

Ideas are powerful things. It only takes one good idea to make a million dollars. An idea can and does change the world as we know it. The great industrialist and founder of Firestone Tires, Harvey Firestone once said, "What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn't any limit to what you can do with your business and your life."

So what do you do when you have an idea. Most of us think that our ideas are great and important, and they are, but we end up not doing anything at all with them. So what happens - they die. I have four things you can do to keep them alive and who knows, they may be worth millions.

Write then down:

Always, I mean ALWAYS, have a pen and paper with you. When you have an idea, write it down. Do not think you will remember later because you will not. How many of us have said, "I will remember this later", only to say "What was that I wanted to remember?" Write an idea down in as much detail as you can so when you look at it all will come back to you and you can use it as the foundation for a complete vision.

Take action:

After you have written down the idea, do something - anything - to begin the action process. No matter how small or large, taking some kind of action will anchor the idea in your mind and the process to see it come to reality is underway. Make sure that every idea you have and feel is worth going for, no matter how far out or impossible it seems has action behind it. That action is the key to making this a reality.

Build passion:

Passion is the fire that drives us to our dreams. It is seeing the vision as we want it to be. This builds an excitement and enthusiasm that will keep you moving toward the achievement you desire. Every day review the idea you have written down. Feel the excitement and allow the fire of passion to build in you. Now use all that energy to drive you to action and action will always bring success.

Be persistent:

No goal is ever achieved without hard work and persistence. Success does not come over night. We have heard of overnight successes, but the reality is that is not true. As you study the lives of successful people you will find that it took hard work and a deep determination to achieve the success that others think came overnight.

Never dismiss your ideas as crazy or worthless. Grab them as million dollar tickets and work them with all that is in you. You may just have the one great idea the whole world has been waiting for. Someone has to come up with it, why not you?

You matter! You matter to the world and to yourself. Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Monday, June 16, 2014

How to Make a Gentleman

“Chivalry never dies. The gentleman in most men did. Being male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of age. But, being a gentleman is a matter of choice.”

– Knights of the Free Company

Amateur Sporting team

The fifth point of the Boy Scout Law is: A Scout is Courteous. To be courteous is more than just being able to say please and thank you at the right times. To be courteous is knowing how to treat others with respect and kindness. It is to be able to show caring for others and a willingness to go out of your way to be helpful. In short, it is to be a gentleman.

Some may think that the concept of being a gentleman is out dated and no longer applies to our present day society. That is misguided thinking. The need for real gentleman is more critical now than ever before. The shortage of gentleman is not a matter of culture or social norms, it is that we do not teach this principle to our boys any more. They have few examples to follow and many times are taught that you must first look out for yourself - which is the opposite of being a real gentleman.

So how do we restore this quality in our young people and return to a more civil and caring society? (I do believe it is possible to change society by changing the people in it. We did not get to where we are by accident, it was a deliberate choice. It will take a deliberate choice to change things for the better.)

Teach the Importance of Caring

The key to good manners, acts of kindness and right behavior is nothing more than simple caring for and about other people. When we care about how others feel and how we can help them to succeed, we cannot help but show good manners. It is the Golden Rule put into action: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." If we care we will do what is right.

Teach the Importance of Courage

There are few men braver than a gentleman. It takes courage to do what is right. It is a brave man who will show respect and caring for others. When you always show good manners and do what is right, some may criticize you and make fun of you. However, the real gentleman is willing to stand for what is right, help others and ignore the heat.

Teach the Importance of Pride

We tend to think that pride is an ego thing and something that must be avoided. That is not the case. To take pride in yourself is to understand that who is are and how you behave matters. If you are proud of who you are and what you stand for you will have confidence and be willing to do far more than what is expected of you. A gentleman is proud to be a servant to others, proud to be an American, proud to be a Scout.

You matter! You matter to the world and to yourself. Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

3 Don'ts That Will Make You Excel

“Don't let what you don't know scare you, because it can become your greatest asset. And if you do things without knowing how they have always been done, you're guaranteed to do them differently.”

– Sara Blakely

(1971- ) Businesswoman

One of the things I have learned in my time in Scouting is that the young do not understand the concept of impossible. I hear the dreams of young men to do and be things that would be impossible to others. I think of the words of the English historian, G.M. Trevelyan who said, "Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing."

Success-minded people need to be willing to believe not only that the impossible can be done, but it can be done by them. You could well be the very person God has been waiting for to achieve things that others never even try to accomplish. I believe there are three things that the person who will do the impossible must not do.

1) Do Not Do What is Safe

It is always disturbing to me that we tell young people they can be anything they want to be and then when they are old enough to achieve it, we say they have to be practical. I know that many will discourage people from following their dreams because they do not want them to be hurt. What they do not see is that by not launching out and taking the risk, they will achieve nothing in life.

Scientist, Grace Hopper said, "A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for." The same is true for you. You were built for greatness and to achieve the impossible. You were never made to be safe and not to take risks. If you venture out to achieve your dreams could you fail? Yes. If you take the risk could you get hurt? Yes. But you could also achieve the impossible and become the person of excellence you were created to be. It is a worst fate to come to the end of life not knowing what you could have done than it is to try and fail.

2) Do Not Do What is Common

If you do what others have done you will get what others have gotten. However, if you do what has not been done, if you take a chance and try what others fail to try, you will get different results than others got before.

When I worked at the Henry Ford Museum we use to tell people that there were three great myths that people believed. We let them know that despite what popular thinking was, the Wright brothers did not invent the airplane, Edison did not invent the light bulb and Ford did not invent the car. They all just made them work. They looked beyond what had been done and did something new.

The great scientist, George Washington Carver put it this way, "When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

3) Do Not Do What is not Yours

Never, never, never allow someone else to define or create your dream. You were created for a purpose and that purpose is inside you. You can and must discover that for yourself. People will try to tell you what you should do in life or what your "talents" are. They may mean well but they do not know. Only you know.

When you discover what your purpose is and identify your own dream, you will find an excitement and power you never realized was possible. I love the way Denis Waitley put it, "Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire - you can smell it, taste it and see it from a mile away."

You matter! You matter to the world and to yourself. Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Monday, June 9, 2014

The Power of Books

“If the crowns of the world were laid at my feet in exchange for my love of reading,

I would spurn them all.”

– Francois Fenelon

(1651-1715) French Clergyman

Success-minded people are always looking for tools to add to their success tool kit. They go to seminars, take classes, listen to audio programs, network and spend time on social media. All this is good and can be extremely helpful, however there is one resource that is more powerful and useful than all the others combined. That is the power of books and the exercise of reading on a daily bases.

Any study of successful people will show you that they are readers. I am amazed that so many people say they do not read because they do not have the time in their day. Do you have the time to eat? Do you have the time to sleep? Do you have the time to clean up and get dressed? Reading is just as important to the successful person. It is necessary, not an option.

Reading is often treated as if you can do it or not, it is really all up to you. Reading is seen as optional and a matter of personal opinion. This is where so many fail to learn and grow as they should and end up never achieving their dreams in life. Reading, developing a love for books, is not a matter of opinion, but a solid reality to success and life in general.

I am very passionate about reading and for people to see its importance to their life. What saddens me is that so many people have all the excuses for not reading down but fail to see the value in taking the time to better themselves. Science-fiction author, Ray Bradbury had it right when he said, "There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

Make reading a part of your daily routine. Even if you start with just 15 or 20 minutes a day. I say start because you will find once you develop the habit your reading time will increase. Find a book that is in your line of interest and that you can learn from. It can be new and hot off the presses or an old classic that has gathered dust on the shelf. Whatever you choose, take a bit of time each day and read what you can.

To develop a love for books is the best habit any human can develop. You can go anywhere, do anything and be any one you wish. There is a magic in books that is beyond our understanding. There is a joy in reading and knowing that you have the power to learn and grow. No other creature on the planet has this ability. Do not allow it to pass you by.

You matter! You matter to the world and to yourself. Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

The Strength of the Gentle

“The is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.”

– Han Suyin

(1917-2012) Author

There are times when it seems like the whole world is hard and unkind. The people you pass on the street frown and look like they will bit your head off if you so much as whisper a "Good Morning". The news is full of stories of all the mean and nasty things people do to each other. No one has a kind word about anything or anyone. Is there no hope left in the world?

Now comes the Super Hero. The one who smiles at everyone with that nuclear smile that melts the hardest heart. This hero has the super power to say and do the kindest things with the ease of the preverbal hot knife in butter. While the people around them are mumbling, they - our Super Hero - are humming a happy tune and ready to win the day for goodness.

Okay. I admit I have gone a bit extreme here. However, there are times in this sad world that the person who is positive, kind and happy seems like a long awaited super hero. Here is the best part. Ready for this? Are you sitting down? You, my friend, are that hero! Yes you.

A positive mind set and a happy heart are nothing more than a choice we make every day. They are not gifts from on high or things we must study for and earn our "Heroes" degree. You just choose to be positive and to be kind to others. In fact, when you act kind and happy toward others it really builds on itself and you become stronger and stronger with each passing person.

The world needs as many heroes as it can get. It seems like things and going down the toilet but the truth is there are many, many people who are happy, kind and do wonderful things for humanity. Be that hero and make a difference in the lives of every person you come in contact with. As the 19th century English critic, William Hazlitt said, "A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles." Be one who accomplishes miracles.

You matter! You matter to the world and to yourself. Remember to be your best, love God, have good manners, achieve the unknown and change your world.