So, I don’t know if you watched the Grammys recently? They are important to a lot of people, especially if you are in the world of entertainment. I like watching all the fashion and listening to the speeches (well I am a speaker trainer of course!) Now I don’t know exactly how the voting works, but there is a system of member voting and clearly they are important to those who enter/are nominated.
But it is not just important to the people who win, is it? It is not just getting a gong that matters. It is the sense of camaraderie and being PART of something that seems to matter most. And whoever wins (and everyone secretly hopes it is THEM naturally) it is still a great thing to be part of. The night is a celebration of everything and everyone that is part of that world not just the winners. Everyone’s a winner as they say!
And here’s the thing. By being part of it, by playing full on, they are indeed all winners.
Which is a bit like life in general isn’t it? Look at sport. David Beckham (or whoever) might score the decisive goal and be the ‘man of the match’ but the whole team wins. For most people – being part of something matters. That could be a religion. It could be a family. It could be a business, or it could be a group of fantastic friends. It’s important. The support of people of similar mindset, focused on similar goals, makes everything more powerful.
And that made me think of the recent Find Your Why Awards that we held last weekend. During the awards dinner we announce the winners. But how do we decide who they are? Well, here’s the thing……we don’t!
What happens is this. Every month of the year we choose someone who has been “in action”. We look for some who, that month has stood out from a point of view of being collaborative, or creative or connected with the community – or all of that. In other words, they have been ‘in action’, because the thing is, you can’t achieve much by thought alone, would you agree, you HAVE to take some action.
All through the year there is a monthly woman of the month in our WHYs Women community called The Live Love Laugh Lounge and a man of the month in our Man Cave (yes we keep the support groups separate because generally men & women act differently in mixed groups compared to being around the same sex – generally!). As the awards dinner comes around they call on their community to vote for them. On the day of the awards we add up all the votes and the Man or Women of the Year are presented with their award and so this is a great place for them to celebrate together.
Now the important thing about that is that their contacts decide, not us. And there is something powerful about your community deciding that it should be you.
All of this illustrates our 3 Golden rules which are:-
- Take Action. Only action gets results.
- Associate – with the right peer group. You are the sum of the people you surround yourself with. Make sure they are the people who support your dreams and encourage them, who hold you to a higher standard and challenge you to be the best you that you can be instead of being the crabs that pull you back into the bucket. (If you don’t know that analogy email me and I will explain further).
- “No man or woman is an island.” And as much as we often like to think we don’t need any help, or we shouldn’t ask for help because we will appear weak, it is actually a sign of strength to ask as nothing much gets done in isolation.
Of course you can figure it out the hard way by trial and effort, but why not just ask for help from someone who has already been there and supports you in your efforts?
So here’s my invite to ASK you to take ACTION, and ASSOCIATE with the right people, and perhaps becoming the next WHYs Woman or Man in 2018 by joining the Find Your Why Foundation, where everyone is a winner!