SCORRE – A Great Four Days!

May 11, 2012 in The Kitchen Table with 4 Comments

I attended the SCORRE conference last week in Rome, Georgia (near Atlanta). It was a fantastic conference, perhaps the best conference I have attended.

The focus of the conference is to teach people to be better communicators, to “prepare with focus, deliver with clarity and speak with power”.

As I reflect on my four days away, I have three highlights that anyone who attends the SCORRE conference will go home with.

Highlight 1 – The Place

Our conference was held at the WinShape Retreat Center near Berry College. The facilities were amazing! The staff was extremely helpful and courteous! The food was fantastic! If you ever get a chance to visit, do it! The next SCORRE conference will be held in Vail, Colorado. I hear that’s a pretty nice place as well!

Highlight 2 – The Process

The SCORRE method brings structure. The focus of the conference is learning this method to help enhance communication to groups of any size. This method can also be used in writing and in business. I like structure and found that this system really makes sense.

While the SCORRE system focuses on organizing the content of the message, a lot of time was also given to delivery. Gestures, eye contact, body movement, humor, etc… was also discussed. Each evening, we broke into small groups of 8. In these groups, we each gave a 5-minute presentation. Following the presentations, we shared what we felt “worked” and areas we felt could see some improvement.

Highlight 3 – The People

I mentioned the staff of the WinShape Retreat Center. They were exemplary. So was the staff from Ken Davis’ team. So were the coaches who led each small group. So were the people in my small group. So was everyone I came in contact with. Every place you turned, you found a friendly face and someone who legitimately cared about taking some time to get to know you. People really enjoyed hanging out and sharing life together. I know many of these people I will never see again, but I have a list of names of people that I can contact when I need encouragement – especially in continuing to develop my communication skills.

All in all, it was a great four days. It is certainly a conference that I will return to in the years ahead. If you are interested in honing your communication skills, it is a conference I highly recommend.

What has been the best conference you have attended? What made it good?

“Get Motivated!”

May 9, 2012 in Goals with 1 Comment

I attended the “Get Motivated!” seminar in Des Moines yesterday. I want to share some of my favorite quotes from the day:

  • “‘Embrace the Grind’ – Importance of preparation” – Kirk Ferentz
  • “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can” – John Wooden, shared by Kirk Ferentz
  • “Don’t forget to have a sense of humor.” – Dan Rather
  • “99% of all of our DNA is the same. It is in the 1% that is different where your greatness lies.” – Keith Craft
  • “What you want in life will determine what you do in life. Decide what you want.” – Keith Craft
  • “Get up!” and “Do it!” – Bill Cosby
  • “God didn’t create one person in the universe who is better than you.” – James Smith
  • “It is not where you have been, it is where you are going.” – James Smith
  • “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” – Joe Montana
  • “When opportunity presents itself, you must be ready for it.” – Fred Hoiberg
  • “When adversity strikes, make sure you handle it the right way.” – Fred Hoiberg

Use it or lose it

May 8, 2012 in Goals, Health with 2 Comments

I went jogging today for the first time in at least a month – and probably the 4th or 5th time since mid-October. It really sucked. 

 

I used the Jeff Galloway method where you jog/walk in intervals. I jogged 2 minutes and then walked one minute. I did 10 intervals for a total of 30 minutes. It may not sound very difficult, but I really struggled.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised it was hard, it’s not like I am the picture of health and fitness. But it is a little surprising – or more accurately, depressing how fast things can decline. You see, I did a half marathon just six months ago. In October I jogged 13 miles and today I certainly could not even do a mile if I didn’t work in walking. Ugh …

There are a couple lessons here for anyone who desires to be at least a little healthy and have some cardiovascular fitness. In fact these are lessons for anyone who wants to keep a skill or retain some knowledge.

The first lesson is to continue on. It is a lot easier to maintain than it is to regain physical conditioning. I imagine if I had jogged 2-3 times a week, I could have continued to be able to run 3-5 miles. It will take me several weeks to get to that point now. Likewise if you want to retain something you have learned, you need to continue to do something with it, if you learned a language in college and then do nothing with it for years, in all likelihood, you will forget all you have learned.

The second lesson is to look forward. As you look ahead, continue to remind yourself of the impact your retaining that skill or knowledge will have long-term. How can that skill benefit you five years from now? How could better health and fitness make enhance your life looking ahead 10 years?

What skill have you lost through inactivity over the past 10-20 years?

 

The danger of ignoring things

April 28, 2012 in Christian Living, Goals, Health with 0 Comments

The saying goes, “Ignorance is bliss!” Nothing could be further from the truth.

I can tend to have the personality that if I ignore something, it will go away – never to bother me again!

How many of you are like that?

The issues that can be ignored are endless, health, relationships, financial, workplace, church … it could go on and on.

I know of some people who are struggling with their marriage, but they absolutely refuse to address the issues – hoping things will just get better. I know of some others who are struggling in raising their children (these children are of any age) and they do nothing to address the situation. I know of others who have health issues and fail to address their situation hoping that things will “just get better”.

I have fallen into that last area. I have some health issues I have ignored the past several months. I went to the doctor this past week and found out that ignoring things has not helped. In fact, ignoring things NEVER helps!

So, what can a person do to fight this tendency to ignore things?

  • Admit it! First we must admit there is an issue. This is obvious, but necessary.
  • Seek accountability. Find someone to help hold you accountable for movement. I have another appointment with my doctor in four weeks and progress will need to be made by then. Find someone and ask for this!
  • Have daily reminders! In regards to my health, there are daily things I need to do. What can you do to work on your financial situation daily? How can you keep that in the forefront? Perhaps a note on your mirror or at your desk at work.
  • Turn it over to God. When you are at the end of your rope and you don’t know what to do, turn it over to God. “Trying harder” doesn’t work. Rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in Matthew 11, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The doctor warned me in regards to ignoring my health issues. There may come a point of “no return” when things can’t get better. This is the same for any issue you choose to ignore. You may get to that point of “no return”, when it is too late to make changes. Do something before it gets to that point!

What are you ignoring right now? What are your first couple steps you need to take to address that issue?

Why should I plan ahead?

April 25, 2012 in Christian Living, Goals with 0 Comments

My daughter is getting married seven weeks from this coming Saturday.

A lot of time, effort – and money – has gone in to planning this special day. A lot of time has also gone into their planning their future life together.

This has happened in two ways. One, through their sharing their hopes and dreams with each other – what they want, what they expect – both of themselves and of each other. They have addressed items like the size of bed they will have, where they will live, registering for wedding gifts, etc… looking ahead to some of the basics of life. The other thing they have done to prepare help prepare themselves for this “next season” is through having pre-marital counseling.

Why do couples have pre-marital counseling? The goal is to help prepare a couple for marriage – to help them build a strong foundation for their relationship. I think this is a great thing – and is thankfully very widely accepted and practiced. People know that getting married will cause some major changes, so they prepare ahead of time for those changes knowing that their preparation will make things a little easier. That doesn’t mean situations won’t come up that Michael and Bailey will have conflict over and have to work through. It means hopefully they will have some tools in their “relational tool kits” to deal with those issues in a healthy manner.

This has caused me to wonder. Changes in life happen all the time (not just when we get married). Why don’t we do a better job preparing for those changes? The changes I am thinking about include the following: having children, raising children, having children leave your home, empty nest, job changes, retirement (or as one friend says, “redirection”, anticipating the loss of grandparents or parents, health issues, etc…). As a general rule, I don’t think we prepare ourselves very well for our “next season” – physically, spiritually or emotionally.

We are approaching graduation season. Kids will graduate and head off to college or work next fall. This affects parents in many different ways. Some are excited and happy to see them go, while others are deeply despondent and depressed. This transition is not a surprise – and is in fact what we want for our children, so how could parents better prepare for this? What about if this is the last child and the “empty nest” stage will be kicking in?

What about other issues, like handling the emotional, spiritual and physical needs for retirement? How can someone prepare themselves for this?

I think no matter what your “next season” is, we can do some things to get ready for those transitions:

1. Pray about it. Seek God’s counsel. Ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

2. Speak with people who have gone through these stages before you. What has been helpful? What hasn’t? Seek advice.

3. Find resources – books, websites, magazines, blogs, etc… there are lots of things available at your fingertips or at your local library.

4. Start planning well in advance of the event. The time to start planning for the empty nest or for retirement is not the day it happens. In some cases, start planning years ahead of time.

5. Seek help. Find someone to help you process things, someone to help you work through the issues. A coach can certainly help in this regard. I would be more than willing to help you.

What else comes to mind?

What is your “next season”? What’s next?

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