Category Archives: Uncategorized

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What’s Your Price?

I just finished reading John Grisham’s The Appeal.  He is an entertaining author and the book was a fun read. As you finish the novel, you cannot help but think about all of the people that face hardships and tragedy.  Without spoiling any of the story, the book, in my reading, focuses on one main issue, ethics.

Ethics, a set of moral principles governing proper conduct for a group or individual.

In the book, three central characters, a small law firm, a large corporation, and a politician, must confront their inner ethics as well as those set by society.  One stands by her ethics and loses much to help the less fortunate. Another purposefully manipulates the set of rules governing his profession for personal gain, and in return harms many.  The third closes his eyes to the violations and wrongdoing, pretending that if he really does not know the details, then it really isn’t wrong.

Each of us has professional ethics that we must abide by and uphold.  What are our personal ethics?  What is the code by which we live? And possibly more importantly, at what price, if any, would we be willing to turn a blind eye to an ethical violation.

I would love to believe that we would all uphold our moral standards regardless of what hardship might follow, however, being an observer of mankind I know better.  Popular television shows like The Apprentice, Survivor, and others seemingly encourage deceit, manipulation, an a lowering of our ethics.  Those who are able to find ethical loopholes on these shows are rewarded.  This bothers me.

Please give some thought to the questions I raised.  As many of you know I always encourage the use of a journal.  Write in it.  Ask yourself if you can be bought? Do you have a price?  More importantly write down your creed.  What are the moral standards you believe in, support, teach, and live by?  Reflect on these often. Add to them. Discover which ones you follow well, and the ones that perhaps need some reinforcing. If you find yourself justifying some poor decisions or rationalizing why you did something that you know you should not have, simply realign yourself.  Say aloud if needed, “I shouldn’t have done that.  That was wrong.”  Better yet, actively fix it.  I have always greatly admired those who are able to admit their mistakes and attempt to repair the damage.  Now that is character!

As Alexander Hamilton put it, “Those who stand for nothing, will fall for anything.”

Good luck.

—Kelly

(Kelly Croy is an inspirational speaker, author, and performing artist.  Visit our website to invite Kelly to perform at your next event.)

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What tools will I need?

Growing up I always heard the phrase, “You must have the right tools for the job.” It was good advice. If you have ever tried to put something together without the right tools you know what I am talking about.  Plain and simple, having the right tools makes the job easier to do, takes less time, and certainly improves the quality of the work.
The other day I took a good look in my toolbox and realized it was full of a lot of tools that I really don’t use that often.  In fact, having those tools, that I seldom use, in the toolbox often slows me down from finding the right tool.  Time after time, job after job, I dig through the tools looking for the right one.

I took a look around my garage.  It was amazing to see all of my tools and equipment from this new perspective.  I really have a lot of tools that I only use once in awhile, and a few, sadly, that I have never used. I paid a lot of money for some of those tools.  When I purchased them it seemed I couldn’t live without them.
Is the same true in my life?  Have I cluttered the useful with the less important? Have I filled my day with activities that occupy my time, and put-off the really important activities for another day? Do I hurry to check my email, but seldom pick up a book? Too often, I fear this is true.

There is a commercial for a Capital One Credit Card with the phrase, “What’s in your wallet?” Well, I’m not one to encourage the use of credit cards, perhaps that will be a later chapter, but I do love that phrase, “What’s in your wallet?”.  It is a metaphor for our life.  We need to stop and ask, “What’s in our life? Our year? Our Month? Our day? And, our hour? What will we fill it with?

Beware of the messages from our culture. The ‘message of the day’ is to fill our lives with as many activities and gadgets as we can.  Multi-task. Faster-is-better. Results without effort. You have to have this particular thing right now, so go rush off and buy it.

Too often I watch near-collisions as drivers  navigate the highways with a cell phone pinched between their neck and shoulder, one hand on the radio, and a Wendy’s Hamburger in the other. The dashboard has a Garmin GPS Naviagtion System attached to it along with a radar detector.  Two children fend for themselves in the back seat while being babysat by a DVD player. Two tons of steel moving at seventy miles an hour with three precious lives on board.

We must simplify our lives.

Cell phones are wonderful.  Text messaging is really cool.  Email and my iPod are two of my favorite things. But they are just things. The technology of our world is amazing and growing at an alarming rate.  Each of these techno-wonders must be used as tools, not distractions, but I am afraid that is exactly what is happening. Either we learn to master the tools we use, or we become enslaved to them.

We must stop and take an inventory of our lives. A wise man once told me, “Things were meant to be used, and people were meant to be loved. Too often we get it mixed up. We tend to love our things, and use people.”
How many times a day do we need to check our email? Does that text need to be sent while driving? Do I really need a new phone. Is what I’m doing right now the best use of my time? Do I really need more? Do I need to upgrade? How many hours of television or in front of the computer are enough? Could someone else benefit from my time? Is there someone I should call?
We have all we need.

What an awkward statement in this day and age.  We are constantly being bombarded with the message of more, faster, smaller, upgrade, buy this, buy that, more, more, more!  But it’s true, we have all we really need, and most of us had better start taking better care of what we have been given.  You can have all the gadgets in the world, but if you are sick what good are they?  You can have the latest and the greatest, but if you have no one to share them with, what is it worth?

Ask yourself this question:
“To live a good life, what do I really need?”

Live with that attitude of gratitude.

(Kelly Croy is an inspirational speaker, author, and performing artist.  Visit Kelly’s website to invite him to perform at your next event.)

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Building Your Team: Who Brings Out the Best in You?

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.   –Andrew Carnegie

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nothing great was ever done without enthusiasm.”  I would like to add that it was also never done alone either.  To achieve success in life we need to build a team. The team must share a common vision.

I once read that when Sir Edmund Hillary became the first man to summit Mt. Everest he was supported by a climbing team of well over six hundred individuals.  In every interview he ever gave Hillary always gave the credit to his team.

The same is true today in adventures, sports, business, and families.  Those that are successful assemble a team, create a common dream, goals, deadlines, and a strategy.  Each member uses his or her strength to take the team closer to the goal.  Each member is valued.  All share in the achievement of the goal. At different times different individuals lead.  When the finish fine is crossed or a deal closed it may appear by one individual, but that ‘one’ represents the team.

Who’s on your team? You need to share your dream with some individuals that can help you achieve it.  They may not be able to finance an expedition. They may not know the right people.  But they may in fact give you a word of encouragement, or send you in the right direction, or share with you a newspaper clipping, that lands you on the next step toward your success.

Build a team! Surround yourself with individuals that bring out the best in you and genuinely encourage you to become your best.

How do you find these members? You’ll know.  They are the individuals in your life that ask you about your dreams. They are the ones who congratulate you on your success.  They are the ones you can’t wait to see and share your ideas.  Other team members may have found earlier success in the direction you are heading.  Some may have a skill or knowledge that you need to make the next best decision.

Start building your team today.  Your team members may not even know you put them on your ‘list’. Determine the skills and qualities you will need to rely on to make it to the next level.

I wish you the best.  Keep me posted on your success. I want to be on your team!

(Kelly Croy is an inspirational speaker, author, and performing artist.  Visit our website to invite Kelly to perform at your next event.)

www.KellyCroy.com

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Climb Your Mountain!

“Champions know there are no shortcuts to the top. They climb the mountain one step at a time.” — Judi Adler 

“Your evenings should be filled dreaming about your next adventure, and your days full of taking steps toward that dream. That way you will always have something incredible to look forward to, and many proud moments to reflect back on.”   — Kelly Croy

I look for challenges. 

A challenge excites me. Challenges bring out the best in me. When faced with a challenge, a fire is lit inside of me, the gears in my head start turning and formulating a plan, and a smile fills my face. I know not how I will conquer the challenge, nor when, but I do know that I will be triumphant as long as I keep pushing forward one step at a time. My confidence gives each step strength, distance, and speed. I push away negative thoughts for they make my steps sluggish, heavy, and clumsy.

Our lives are filled with many challenges. Some are thrust upon us unexpectedly, like an illness or a financial difficulty, others we choose, like marathons, and mountains to climb. 

In those rare moments of life when our burdens are light and there are few or no obstacles, do not rejoice; quickly seek out a new challenge. The challenges we conquer separate one man’s life from another, they measure the passion by which he lived, and serve as building blocks of character and virtue. 

When our thoughts and stories lean more on our past accomplishments rather than future adventures we must recognize that it is time to shake off our satisfaction, roll up our sleeves, and seek out a new goal, a new challenge, a new mountain.  It’s steepness, height, and level of difficulty are of little importance. Our only interest is that it challenges us and brings out the best in us.  When we rest upon it’s summit, we realize it is not the mountain we conquered but ourselves.

Put a mountain in front of you.  Allow the challenge to shape your character and hone your determination.  

 

(Kelly Croy is an inspirational speaker, author, and performing artist.  Visit our website to invite Kelly to perform at your next event.)

www.KellyCroy.com