Podcast appearances and mentions of lonnie gienger

Greg is joined this week by entrepreneur, author and podcast host Lonnie Gienger. Lonnie is the author of the book Beyond Business and host of the podcast Systems For Success. Greg and Lonnie's relationship goes back nearly 2 decades. Watch as they share how they met, the impact they've had on each other's lives, and how a Family ID workshop has steered the direction of Lonnie's family and business decisions ever since.

2020 was a crazy year that gave us unique opportunities for profound learnings that can only happen when life is disrupted.  We all learned more about ourselves, our relationships, our purposes and our values.  Join our family as we gather around the table to share some of our highest impact learnings from challenging circumstances, accomplishments and mistakes.   This entry from one of Lachelle’s 2020 reflection may give you some encouragement on your journey:  When the world is chaos, when the boat is being rocked and the waves and the wind are large and wild, I have found my footing. I'm proud of us and proud of me. I love what we've created in our little family, how we see the world, the joy that keeps us going.  We look for beauty. We are able to be flexible.  We grieve and grow, but we don't stay low.  We rest and we go.  We create the experiences and work towards the attitudes we want to keep, that serve our lives.  We are certain of our foundation, the solid rock. He is unshakable and has proven such more than ever this year. We know we will prevail because He prevails. We've established kingdom culture in our home more deeply than ever before. We're confident in His goodness! Episode Highlights: Key learnings from our family that can help you this year and beyond The power of focusing on gratitude How to use “effective blaming” to turn every challenge into a benefit The value of continual learning to take your leadership effectiveness to the next level How to create a 10 year vision for your business or family and the steps to make that vision become reality Keys to building abundant relationships  Finding the one thing you can do that will make everything else unnecessary or irrelevant The power of going towards what you’ve been avoiding and pursuing the unknown Learning to turn inconvenient moments into beautiful, life enriching memories How disruption helps us experience and embrace what matters most Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

This is a rare opportunity to sample the secrets of multigenerational families from the leader of a successful billion dollar a year 120-year-old family business with 341 family member shareholders. What Are the Traits of a Successful Multigenerational Generation Family? They know the family story. They know who they are. They are clear on their values and live them out. They understand trust is important within the family and reinforce that through words and   actions. They are clear on the direction they want to go as a family and move in that direction. Each successive generation is empowered to design their own destiny, building on the strengths and values of the prior generations. They value family unity and affirm each family member, but don’t endorse behavior contrary to family values. They intentionally nurture good relationships amongst all members of the family, regardless of differences. They make sure spouses of family members, and adopted children, feel like family by blood. How to Develop the Traits of a Successful Multigenerational Generation Family? They  know the  family  story. They  know  who  they  are.  Capture  and  tell  the family story through interviewing family members. Provide easy access to videos and written content telling the family story. Ask questions such as, “How did our great grandfather start the business?" Don’t tell only the hero stories. Tell the whole story, warts and all, to communicate that success is possible even with struggles and imperfection. They are clear on their values and live them out. Discover through stories how the family’s values came about. What values drove the family to believe in their ability to create something worthwhile? What anchored them, keeping them from being destroyed when the storms came? Retell the stories over and over and over to reinforce the values. They understand trust is important within the family, and reinforce that through words and actions. Seek to know the expectations  of  family members  and consider how those expectations can be incorporated into how the family lives out their values. Make it clear if it isn’t possible to include certain expectations within how the family interacts and deploys their resources. They are clear on the direction they want to go as a family and move in that direction. They establish a family compass - mission, vision, purpose, values. This provides direction. Then they frequently reassess, how are we doing related to our family compass? Where do we need to make course corrections? Each successive generation is empowered to design their own destiny, building on the strengths and values of the prior generations. They engage in open communication about honoring differing values and priorities amongst immediate family sub-units, while being respectful of the larger family's values. They value family unity and affirm each family member, but don’t endorse behavior contrary to family values. They are clear about family values but recognize not everyone in the family will enthusiastically endorse all of the family values. With love they affirm each family member, while not endorsing behavior that goes against family values. They intentionally nurture good relationships amongst all members of the family, regardless of differences. They look for ways to connect and enjoy being together. If there is not a good relationship with adult children, they look for and act on ways to rebuild the relationship. They are persistent until the relationship is restored, no matter how long it takes. They make sure spouses of family members, and adopted children, feel like family by blood. They embrace family unity and affirm everyone, making sure to include spouses of family members, and those who are adopted, in all gatherings and family discussions.  Other Pivotal Family and Business Principles Discussed: How to make sure company and family values are not just marketing statements but are used as guiding accountability for the family and the business. How to make sure the direction you set on paper show up in the decisions and actions of the family and the business? How to keep the extended family pulling together for the good of everyone over multiple generations. How to handle family shareholders who cause disunity in the business or the family. How to remove family shareholders or terminate family employees and still maintain relationships. How to make sure your family business is headed in the right direction to get to the desired destination over multiple generations. How to educate all family members and shareholders about the family business by telling stories…warts and all… not just the hero stories. Defining responsibilities and communication lines between the owners group, family members the shareholders group and the board. Using a balanced scorecard that measures financial results, shareholder satisfaction, risk tolerance and stewardship of family values. How to build legacy with divorced parents.  Don’t focus on the dirty laundry. Instead focus on the story you want your grand kids to know about.  Start where you are and create a new branch in the family tree.  Take the long view and determine what you can do today that could positively influence your generations 20 years from now.  How to integrate next gen spouses in family business and legacy processes. Empowering each generation to be architects of their own destiny while at the same time building on the values of the prior generation. How to transfer stories, principles and values to next generations. Developing family traditions and routines that make the family and its values attractional to future generations.   Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

This is a golden opportunity to hear the author of, How to Make Your Family Business Last, Mitzi Perdue, distill a combined 280 years of her own family’s culture-building wisdom into one hour. You’ll gain real life lessons and gain practical tools you can use to create and maintain a healthier family culture that could endure for generations. Mitzi combines the experiences of two long-time family businesses: her father Ernest Henderson co-founded the Sheraton Hotel Chain and her late husband Frank Perdue was the second generation in the poultry company that today operates in more than 100 countries. You’ll be captivated by Mitzi’s genuine passion to share practical tips and tools that have helped her two long-running families flourish together for more than seven generations.  “When family members love, support, and encourage each other, there is a flourishing of the human soul that is incomparable.” — Mitzi Perdue Episode Highlights: Developing family traditions and gatherings that keep the family together over many generations  The value and process for truly getting to know and understand family members Creating a system to ensure the family continues to meet and keep in touch on a regular basis over the generations Instilling family activities and awards that build and reinforce family values How to leverage philanthropy to reinforce family culture and build relationships How to leave the legacy of a “recipe for living” Reinforcing generational values and learnings through creative forms of autobiographies  The value of developing an ethical will How to transfer a family value like frugality to the younger generation What does a high-functioning family look like and what is most likely to create this type of family How to educate the next generation of leaders How to generate happiness and build on the strengths of prior generations The importance of intentionality in creating family culture How to deal with family conflict: Perdue’s covenant and Henderson’s “we don’t wash our dirty linens in public” How to be up in down times To find more gems of wisdom from Mitzi, go to www.mitziperdue.com or get her books on Amazon.  Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

The world has forever changed. It’s time to catch the current and make your own wave.  What can you learn from the currency of success patterns from the past that will help you adapt to and succeed in a post-COVID-19 world? Learn how you can accelerate the innovation of a more ideal future—now and beyond the current challenges—by adapting past learnings to current realities.  Gain valuable insights from Kevin McGovern who has founded over 25 companies, six of which have become world/category leaders (such as SoBe Beverages), and has been lead negotiator/principal in over 15 global joint ventures.  Learn from the experience of a super successful, seasoned entrepreneur and how he is applying the lessons he has learned from his past onto the future of his investments, businesses, and well-being of his family! Find out how you can catch the current and make your own wave to make a positive impact on the world! Episode Highlights: Kevin shares his process of applying specific entrepreneurial learnings and life experiences to the new post COVID world that we live in today Breaking down impossible dreams into possible steps to achieve great things Key learnings about what creates entrepreneurial success from years of business acquisitions and ventures capital investments  The importance of having good relationships and why sharing the same passion matters Knowing your purpose and making a difference Adaptation and iteration Kevin’s experience and thoughts on doing business with family members Relationships and communication Real estate investing: What is likely to be the best play in the new economy Thoughts and visions for the new 2.0 economy How Kevin applies his lifetime experience in the current crisis we’re experiencing right now How to engage in something that we don’t like so that we can make better outcomes for society  How Kevin uses his confidence and motivation to positively influence others and make a difference in the word Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

In this episode of the Effective Family Office Podcast, host Angelo Robles speaks with Lonnie Gienger, Bill Lappas, and Moses Gross who share insights and perspectives on real estate challenges and opportunities during and post Covid-19.

Developing and preserving family wealth and strong values takes great effort. What can you do to make sure your next generations are building on what’s important to your family rather than blowing it? Why is the most common pattern “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations”?  Most families within one generation develop tangible and intangible values they are proud of. But all too often that which is valuable to one generation is not effectively transferred to future generations. In this episode, we’ll introduce you to two families that have managed to pass various forms of wealth to six or seven generations, including family businesses that have endured for over 200 years. Pierre DuPont shares a real-life case study of hard-earned lessons from his family which has been one of the wealthiest families in America for many generations. You’ll gain great wisdom from his intention to help other families and business leaders create a more positive, multi-generational legacy. Learn from the experience of world-renowned families how to manage, maintain, and preserve financial and non-financial family wealth in ways that benefit future generations. Find out how you can help your children, grandchildren, and all future descendants sustain principles that can multiply your family‘s success!  Episode Highlights: Pierre talks about his family history, inherited wealth, the businesses developed, and his definition of wealth. We discuss: Forms of financial and non-financial wealth The best paradigm for generational wealth transfer Positive and negative impacts of financial wealth to your future descendants The value of open, honest, inclusive communication about family traditions Common principles and practices about finance in relation to family wealth The importance of training and mentoring family members of what’s important to the family Purpose and goals for wealth And we talk about how to: Keep families together over multiple generations Guide your future descendants on how to preserve and wisely utilize their financial wealth Develop and maintain family bonds and traditions over the generation Engage family members in business and philanthropy Pass the wealth to your descendants with appropriate guidance  Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Never before have so many families struggled with incorporating what happens in business with what happens in the home. The pursuit of work-life integration has become more important now than ever.  But what exactly, does that mean, and how do you do it? Business can be an endlessly fascinating subject that encourages the exchange of ideas and eager discussions about the future. Or the constant demands of business creeping into the home can cause undue stress in the family and disintegrate relationships. How do you deal with the reality that the responsibilities of business can sometimes feel more urgent than the important everyday needs of your family?  How do you bring your work life into your home life in a way that is healthy for you and your family?  Join us in this episode as our family discusses how you can integrate your work into your family in ways that benefit both your business and your marriage. Find out how you can create healthy boundaries, support each other’s goals and use your work as an opportunity to build intimacy in your marriage.   Episode Highlights: How to integrate work into your life and family How spouses can understand and support each other’s work life in ways that build intimacy in the marriage Deciding what to share with your spouse about your business and professional life The benefits of integrating your business and professional life into your family life The challenges of integrating your business and professional life into your family life Creating healthy boundaries  Honoring your spouse’s needs and goals Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Relationships are the greatest treasure in life that we could ever have. In this episode, you’ll learn how you can improve your relationship with your parents or adult children.  The quality of the relationship you have with your family does matter. Having that best friend type of relationship with your adult children or parents is one that you’ll truly enjoy for the rest of your life. Join us as we discuss how to identify and truly value the differences in each family member, how we can appreciate them through a love language that they speak and keep a mindset of grace. Find out how you can overcome challenges between adult-children and parent relationships, as we’ll also tackle topics related to forgiveness, honesty, and love. Episode Highlights: The friendship relationship between parents and their adult children Staying curious with your kids and having the same curiosity towards our parents Understanding and speaking their love language What it means to have a mindset of grace Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Nobody said parenting would be easy! Especially, when your kids are growing into adulthood. They are ever-changing, and everything happens very fast.  Are you being a good parent to your adult child? Are you still treating your 21-year-old the way you treated him back when he was 14? Many parents struggle to navigate their role in their children’s life as they transition into adulthood. Just like how your child evolves and grows, so should your relationship with them. As parents, you must learn to relate to your grown-up child appropriately. You have to learn to listen more and let them talk about their thoughts and feelings. How do you create a strong bond with your adult adult-children? Join us in this episode, as we talk about navigating roles and relationships between parents and adult children. You’ll learn about the common beliefs that surround the parent and adult-child relationship. As well as the 4 phases to intentionally transition our parenting approach throughout the stages of our children’s lives. Know what you should do as a parent and as an adult son or daughter. I hope today’s episode inspires you to see your relationship possibilities in different ways than you have before! Episode Highlights: How to build strong bonds between parents and their adult children Key beliefs and practices that strengthen parent and adult children relationship Key beliefs and practices that prevent strong bonds between a parent and their adult children Navigating the 4 phases of parent child roles and relationships  Establishing a good relationship with your children at a young age How parents can develop friendship with grown-up kids How adults can improve relationships with parents.  Setting boundaries There are 4 phases of parent child relationships that should intentionally change throughout the different stages of maturity.   I encourage parents to intentionally look for ways to build stronger relationships with your adult-children. And adult-children, be sure to make the most of the time you have left with your parents to do anything you can to optimize that relationship.  Why not find ways to foster rich friendship in the majority of these later years of the parent-child relationship? Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

IS business a more effective church model? YES, say CEO and author Lonnie Gienger, author of the book “Beyond Business”. Hear his unique perspective of the marketplace being THE mission field. www.iWork4Him.com

IS business a more effective church model? YES, says CEO and author Lonnie Gienger, author of “Beyond Business." Hear his unique perspective of the marketplace being THE mission field.  www.iWork4Him.com

A chat with Lonnie Gienger about his book, “Beyond Business”, helped us redefine more the idea of our marketplace being a mission field. Lonnie hails from Washington state, and we are excited to involve the whole country in this conversation.

A chat with Lonnie Gienger about his book, “Beyond Business”, helped us redefine more the idea of our marketplace being a mission field. Lonnie hails from Washington state, and we are excited to involve the whole country in this conversation. The post Lonnie Looks Beyond appeared first on iWork4Him Podcast.

How Mothers Shape the World Both our married children recently had their first babies—two beautiful girls! As I’ve watched these new mothers learning to lead our precious granddaughters, it caused me to ponder the power of a mother’s leadership to shape our world. In our society, we don't always think of parents as being equivalent to "leaders." Leaders, we believe, are heads of state, prime ministers, elected officials, CEOs of powerful corporations, media personalities, and others. Those people, we think, are the real movers and shakers of society. Are they? In the organic cocoon of the family and home, character forms. And the character of each individual forms society. The person who makes decisions on war and peace in a political leadership position, the person who makes decisions that build or destroy companies comes from a home which shaped him or her. More specifically, that person came from a mother. One thing all human beings have in common is that we all had mothers. Our mother might have been great; she might have been terrible. She might still be our foremost fan and source of emotional support, or she might have abandoned us at birth. She might have helped or harmed us, or done both, but we simply wouldn’t be here if it were not for mothers. Mothers are, at the very least, a biological necessity for the continuance of humankind. What is more, for good or ill, mothers have tremendous impact and influence over who their children become. While mothers cannot take full credit or full blame for the way their children turn out, they are undoubtedly significant contributors to those outcomes. Hence, they shape society. A mother forms a child's first impressions of the world, even while the child is inside the womb. Some research shows the neurological influence the qualities of a mother's thoughts and emotions have on a child. Common sense tells us that a tense and anxious mother or one exulting with the joys of laughter and song has an impact on the person in her womb, even if only at the level of unhealthy or healthy heart rates. Of course, what a mother ingests also impacts her child, sometimes for life. In that sense, mothers are the first leaders we ever encounter in this life. The way they lead their lives starts settling into the folds of our brains early on to mold us into the people we are. Abraham Lincoln, considered one of our greatest presidents, said, “All that I am, I owe to my angel mother.” Even in eras where women had far less power in the voting booth and the marketplace, there was a saying: "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." Mothers exerted enormous influence over society by raising the children who would become tomorrow's adults. Motherhood is vital for the existence of society in both biological and non-biological ways. Yet motherhood is rarely honored or as highly esteemed in our society as a position of leadership. Our culture gives off endless signals that the commitments made by mothers are not that important compared to what women may do in professional roles outside the home. Motherhood is not recognized as a world-influencing profession, a role of genuinely heroic proportions that propels society forward in innumerable ways. One of the reasons for the devaluation of motherhood is that there is no economic value attached to it. Yet mothers provide services of high economic value. To purchase all the services a mother provides for a family would amount to about $143,102 per year, estimates Salary.com. This estimate is based upon the market value of replacing a mother's services by hiring a cook, a maid, a driver, a bookkeeper, a childcare worker, a laundress, a shopper, and probably a psychological counselor too. That’s just for a 40-hour work week! Mothers often work long into the evening and through the night. They are at work before office hours too. Of course, we all know that mothers contribute things that cannot be measured in dollars, invaluable things that humanity cannot do without. Yet we often hear in our culture, when someone is even willing to admit it: "I'm just a mom." Just a mom? Actually, a society-shaping leader! As a society, we do women a disservice not to support the life-altering leadership role they play as mothers. Raising children is something all of society should be interested in and supportive of, for mothers are helping to create the future. Moms are foundational to healthy and happy families, which are the building blocks of safe and prosperous communities and societies. An important part of motherhood is creating an environment in which the family can thrive--providing healthy food, cleanliness, cultural knowledge, pleasant words, a soothing voice, peace, and support. Creating a haven for her family is valuable opportunity for a mother. Some people remember the comforting and reassuring smells and tastes of their mothers’ cooking long into adulthood. They gaze with fondness over dilapidated decorations their mothers put up to celebrate important traditions. A compliment or a “word to the wise” from Mom can stay with and direct a person’s entire life. A mother can create an atmosphere in a family where the members feel accepted and safe. Creating a welcoming, cozy, and warm home can create refreshment of body and soul after being out in a world that can be very harsh and rejecting at times. It is immeasurably valuable to have that safe haven. A dedicated mother gives each child the individual attention he or she needs to flourish. She is the one who notices the drooping lip, who listens and offers counsel and help. She is the one who notices the hot forehead and gets out the thermometer. A loving mother is the one who points out, “You love to draw. Do you think you could draw a building?” or “Let’s spend some extra time together on your math skills,” or “I notice how much you like to help people. That’s a wonderful quality in you.”  A loving mother is the one who knows you best and always has your best interests at heart. Where can you find someone else like that?   The classic Disney animated film Peter Pan had a homesick Wendy contemplating mothers in song. Part of the lyrics of “Your Mother and Mine” are: “Ask your heart to tell you her worth. Your heart will say, ‘Heaven on earth.’ Another word for divine: your mother and mine.” Moms also give emotional cues to relating to others. She reinforces the family by showing how much she values each member from young to old through her care and appreciation of each. She demonstrates manners and how to form good relationships with others, acting on and instructing children in the power and value of close connections with fellow human beings. These connections are not only vital to human health and fulfillment, but they also help people succeed in the workplace as well, demonstrating emotional intelligence. The power of a mother to help a child learn to attach to other human beings is very real. If it doesn't happen in this relationship, it is vitally important for those deprived to seek neuro-emotional therapy; there is definitely help out there for learning to attach to others in healthy ways. Mothers offer companionship. They can be wide-eyed explorers along with their children, making life together fun and exciting and reinforcing the joys of collaboration. Mothers need to be resourceful; they make the best of what they have. When the children are bored, the creative mother comes up with ways to productively occupy the hours. In the traditional home, the man brought resources in, but it was the woman who made the best out of those resources, no matter how scarce or abundant they were. She made new curtains out of an old table cloth or a delicious stew out of odds and ends. She made a rainy afternoon a joyful discovery of the frontier as she put up a makeshift tent and taught her children about heroic explorers. In modern culture, there is a constant pull for both parents to work full-time to bring in more resources. Yet isn't utilizing existing resources one of the most important parts of any economic system? Every enterprise needs to maximize its resources since resources are, by definition, limited. In all cultures, in all societies, the powerful results of motherhood are being experienced right now, shaping our world. How much does it cost society in health care dollars, rehabilitation, and social welfare programs to make up for the actions of people who grew up without adequate mothering? Billions! Training kids to be benefits to society is an immeasurable contribution to society. What high costs to society if mothers are not able to raise their children well because they feel pressured into the workplace or unsupported in this vital role.  Mothers are the most influential people in history as they shape and empower their children. Mothers, grandmothers, and mother figures have molded society by producing functioning, positive, productive human beings. The following is a sample list of what I would consider good motherly qualities. It is clear that these are the qualities of a good leader: Artful management of a facility (the home) and the people in it (family members) Resourcefulness Ability to multi-task Consistency Steadfastness Empowerment Encouragement Actions taken in the best interests of the whole Toughness Resilience Creativity Wise counsel Listening skills Trustworthiness Wouldn’t you vote for someone who had those qualities? Wouldn’t you endorse a person like that to lead a company or world enterprise?  Children may not grow up to be famous people or heads of companies or countries. Still, they will be influencers and leaders. They will have an impact in their private and professional relationships and through their public personas. If mothers can raise children who add value wherever they go, who are benefits to themselves and society, then mothers lead the way in shaping society to create a better future for all. Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

The Busy Executive’s Magic Elixir Exercise is one of the greatest systems for increasing your effectiveness as a leader in business and/or family. Exercise is so powerfully beneficial in multiple ways that it can be said to be the mother lode, the fountain of youth—the magic elixir. Physical activity helps you in body and mind. It is clinically proven to reduce depression. It brings clarity of thought and reduces stress, energizing you to function at peak performance. It can even improve your sex life! What’s not to like? Apparently, quite a bit, if we judge by the all-time high epidemic of inactivity in our world today. Physical inactivity is now one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The situation is grave. Yet we all know that getting enough exercise is challenging. Most of us sit for hours at a time each day: at a desk, behind the wheel, or on the couch in front of a screen. Even when we are away from work, we spend many waking hours in sedentary screen-facing as we entertain ourselves with Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, TV, and messaging. Fortunately, increased physical activity is available to all of us for the taking. It’s free. It costs nothing. Exercise doesn't need to be complicated or expensive; you don't have to join a gym or buy new workout clothes to become more active. This key to a better life is entirely voluntary and readily available to just about everyone. First, we’ll take a look at the serious toll inactivity is taking on our health. Then we’ll provide some tips on how to build exercise into daily life, how to design a successful exercise plan, and how to incorporate three types of exercise into your busy schedule. The Toll of Inactivity Let's take an unflinching look at the downside of inactivity. The news is increasingly bad. Research has linked sitting for long periods with many health concerns. These concerns range from obesity to increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels. Prolonged sitting also seems to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Some experts say that inactive people have a 147 percent higher risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. World Health Organization studies show that physical inactivity contributes to over three million preventable deaths worldwide each year (that's around six percent of all deaths). Outside of infectious diseases like AIDS, inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death. The Mayo Clinic did an analysis of thirteen studies of sitting time and activity levels. They found that those who sat for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity had a risk of dying similar to the risks posed by obesity and smoking. However, there is no need to despair if you are stuck in a desk job! Mayo’s analysis of data from more than 1 million people found that sixty to seventy-five minutes of moderately intense physical activity a day countered the effects of too much sitting. Exercise is preventive of sedentary lifestyle problems, and it is also curative when a sedentary lifestyle is necessary for significant portions of the day. What’s more, too many people suffer from hip, joint, neck, and lower back pain. These kinds of maladies can be alleviated by getting up and moving around instead of sitting for long periods. Human beings are built to stand upright, stretch, and move. Our heart and cardiovascular systems, as well as all the other systems in our bodies, seem more to function more effectively with that kind of stimulation. The human body is designed to move, to be active, to optimize its functioning through exercise. When we are physically active, our overall energy levels and endurance improve. What is more, our bones and muscles become and stay strong. This is important because both muscles and bones lose density as we age. Exercise sends blood to weakened areas and strengthens cartilage and increases bone density, making physical activity a leading prescription for arthritis and bone mineral loss. Choose to Move! Many people find the idea of a regular, rigorous exercise regimen daunting. Yet there are simple ways to pack more physical activity into daily life. Stand rather than sit whenever you can. Rise from sitting at least every thirty minutes.  Watching TV? Get up in the middle of a movie to do stretches, crunches, or lift weights. Jump up during commercials to do household tasks; don’t flip to another channel. You can walk on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike while watching TV too. Get a desk you can stand at, or build yours up so it is standing level height. Take a walk with someone as a substitute for a sit-down meeting. Position a work surface, including a computer screen and keyboard, above a treadmill to walk throughout the day. Walk or pace while talking on the phone. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk on the moving stairs of the escalator. Park farther away and walk more. This has the added benefit of losing the stress of finding a close parking spot. Do squats while brushing your teeth. Rather than sitting down to read, listen to recorded books while walking, cleaning, or working in the garden. Stand up on public transport or get off one stop early and walk to your destination. An Exercise Regimen: How Much Do We Need? There's no single workout routine or type of exercise that works for everyone. The most important thing is to find an activity that you can do consistently, either because you like it or because you like the results it gives you so much that you’re willing to do it regularly. This could be anything from walking to swimming to taking a dance class. In general, thirty minutes of physical activity, five days per week, will serve a person well. In general, between two and a half to three hours of intentional physical activity a week is good. If you do a lot of sitting, though, you need more. If thirty solid minutes of exercise doesn't appeal to you, know that you can be active for ten minutes three times a day, and you will achieve the same goal. A simple breakdown of this would be a ten-minute walk before work, another ten minutes of activity during the lunch hour, and another ten minutes after dinner. That is very do-able for most people. What is the biggest reason people don’t exercise? “I don’t have time!” Yet there is a way to maximize the effectiveness of exercise so that you save time but still get the benefits. The guidelines say that seventy-five minutes of vigorous activity per week is equivalent to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. A recent study also found that as little as one minute of all-out sprinting, along with nine minutes of light exercise, leads to similar improvements in health and fitness as a fifty-minute workout at a moderate pace when done three times a week for twelve weeks. The Three Types of Exercise Needed Ideally, we would all get three types of exercise: Aerobic, Strength Training, and Balance and Flexibility Training. Aerobic activity is the kind we often think of when we think of exercise—that is, strenuous activity like running or biking, breathing hard and dripping sweat. This kind of exercise is critical to boosting fitness. Yet the two other types of exercise—strength training and balance and flexibility training—are also important. Dr. Edward Laskowski, the co-director of the Mayo Sports Medicine Center, says that aerobic exercise, while necessary, is “not as effective for overall health" on its own without the other two types of exercises. Doing all three types of exercise maximizes fitness and prevents injury. Strength training makes muscles stronger, which in turn helps to support and protect joints— and this could help prevent injury during aerobic exercise. Balance exercises use muscle strength in a coordinated way to stabilize movements and can also reduce the risk of injuries like ankle sprains. Flexibility reduces injuries and improves the range of motion around the joints. All three types of exercises support one another’s benefits, so it is important to find ways to incorporate all three into any workout system. Let’s look at the three types of exercise in more detail. Cardiovascular Aerobic Exercise This is repetitive, rhythmic exercise that increases our heart rate and requires us to breathe harder, using more oxygen. It is often called “cardio” for short. Running, swimming, dancing, brisk walking, playing a sport such as tennis, soccer or basketball, doing chores such as raking leaves or mowing the lawn Activates air and blood efficiency in the body Strengthens the heart so it pumps blood more efficiently Lowers our overall resting heart rate Increases levels of "good" cholesterol and lowers levels of "bad" cholesterol Makes daily activities such as mowing the lawn or climbing stairs easier You never know when you may need the power this kind of exercise gives you! While many of us may not have to run for our lives like Jason Bourne, being fit can come in handy. If your connecting flight is about to take off when you land, you might be able to run the terminal race to your next gate without keeling over! Strength or Resistance Exercise This is the process of building and maintaining muscles in the body by using progressively heavier weights (or resistance). Resistance training, weight lifting, toning, or body-building, including push-ups, sit-ups or even intense gardening like digging or snow shoveling Develops, maintains or prevents loss of muscle mass throughout your lifetime Maintains or lowers body fat percentage Strengthens bones and reduces the risk of osteoporosis Increases lean muscle mass, which is crucial to burning more calories for weight control Makes daily activities easier, like lifting a carry-on bag into the overhead bin of an airplane, carrying groceries from the car, and picking up bags of mulch for the                                    garden Strength exercises should work all of the major muscle groups in the body over time—legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders, and arms with a few sets of at least eight to twelve repetitions of an activity (like lifting a weight). To get the most benefit, each set of repetitions needs to work the same muscle to the point where it's hard to do another repetition. Rest a minute or so between sets and then repeat another set of resistance repetitions working that same muscle. Do this for three or four sets of 8-12 repetitions of the same exercise working the muscle group you are focused on for that day. When you first begin a strength training regimen, start with a light weight then gradually increase weight or resistance over time as muscles gain strength. Don’t exercise the same muscle group two days in a row because muscles need time to recover. They are rebuilt during the recovery time. Flexibility and Balance Exercise Flexibility exercise is exercise that stretches or lengthens our muscles. There are two types: static stretching, where you stretch a muscle without moving, and dynamic stretching, which combines stretching with movements. Many experts advise doing dynamic stretching as part of a warm-up before a workout and static stretching after a workout. For static stretching, we should hold each stretch for ten to thirty seconds. Helps us become more limber, which makes certain activities of daily living easier Helps prevent injuries when you’re performing everyday body movements and especially during exercise Reduces muscle tension, increases circulation, and improves posture Balance exercises improve our ability to control and stabilize our body's position. This type of exercise is particularly important for older adults because otherwise, balance tends to get worse with age. Shifting our weight from side to side Standing on one foot Using a balance board or stability ball Doing tai chi, yoga, or Pilates Ideally, we should include all three of these exercise types in our workouts. Does that mean three separate workouts? No. You can combine some exercises together, like strength and balance training. You could do bicep curls while standing on one leg. Some workouts, like yoga, include strength, flexibility and balance exercises. Your workout might include running or walking briskly for thirty minutes for aerobic exercise, then doing strength and balance exercises combined, with static stretches at the finish. Developing Your Own Exercise Routine Some people find that the momentum of routine and habit help them to maintain a self-designed exercise program. Others find doing the same thing week after week very boring! Some find it helps to get into an exercise routine by exercising with a friend. Choose a buddy who can encourage you or do it with you at regular appointed times. An alternative is to get a personal trainer to hold you accountable. In both cases, you're a lot less likely to miss a workout because you have someone waiting for you. A general rule is to start out low and progress slow. This means starting with a level of activity that's fairly light and gradually increasing the duration and intensity. Experts emphasize that if you're just starting out, low-impact types of exercise are best. Walking, swimming, biking, or using an elliptical machine are good ones to try. Low-impact exercises are best for beginners because they're easy on the joints and muscles. If people go from zero to one hundred, they're not going to stick with the system. It's better to start with small chunks of exercise and add in gradually to the point that it's part of your lifestyle. What system will you start with? Make a plan you think will work for you, and write it down. Revise it as you find what works best for your body and your lifestyle. Making the Time The biggest reason (or excuse) people give for not exercising is that they don’t have time. Exercise is important enough to our lives and well-being that we should make time for it. What’s more, even as little as ten minutes of physical activity can be beneficial. This can be as simple as getting up ten minutes earlier to do something vigorous. Some people are motivated by setting a specific exercise goal, like running a 5K or improving running time or achieving other milestones. If you want to feel better, have more energy, add years to your life, and increase your effectiveness in leading your family and business, just exercise! Create a plan, get a buddy to support you, and start doing something consistently, every day, to increase your physical activity. It will improve your life and be well worth the time you make for it. For the busy executive or family leader, exercise can be the fountain of health, youthfulness, and optimal life and work. We’ve found the magic elixir. Let’s stop making excuses and start moving more! Thank you Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

In this episode, host Angelo Robles speaks with Lonnie Gienger, author of Beyond Business. He discusses how as a family leader, you are positioned to change the family dynamic and shape it into an ideal platform to build a better world.

What did Jesus really mean when he said to Peter, “and upon this rock I will build my church?” Listen as Lonnie Gienger unpacks what the Greek word that Jesus used, commonly translated “church,” actually meant to His disciples.  Here’s a hint:  Jesus didn’t say, “and upon this rock I will build my synagogue.” The implications for your leadership for the kingdom of God in the marketplace will never be the same! Lonnie Gienger's bio. PinnacleForum.com Show Notes: https://pinnacleforum.com/2019/03/ul-podcast-51/

With the start of another new year, many people find themselves making health goals, from fitness to diet, to sleep or earlier mornings. This fascination with health related New Year’s resolutions may be the result of two back to back holidays when most people eat too much, do too little and feel too bad. Or maybe we all have the inherent conviction that the best way to improve our lives is to start by improving our health. And the start of a new year gives us the perfect launching point to begin new health journeys. My wife and I have found ourselves focusing more on our daily health practices over the years as we need increased energy and effectiveness for our busy family and business lives. We’ve found that abundant health doesn’t come from just focusing on one or two areas at a time but by making continual progress in 8 areas that foster wellness, vitality and ultimately effectiveness. Prioritizing Health with a Busy Schedule  With busy families, businesses, jobs, social activities and causes...and through random unforeseen challenges that pop into our lives, it’s easy to just get busy and accept what is as the way it must always be in our health. Making health a priority starts with embracing how healthy practices make a visible and tangible difference to our lives and bodies. I know that when I make health a priority I feel good. I have energy and a clear mind. It takes less time to get more done. I see an increase in effectiveness and fulfillment in my family life and in my business life. We are the architect of our own body’s health. Without our health, we have nothing else. At some point we need to acknowledge that we have significant control over our own health and that our actions can truly make a significant impact. Through acknowledgment of our control, we will find it easier to muster up the discipline to follow through on our system with daily and weekly actions, even when it’s not easy or convenient. While we may not be perfect in practicing what we know is good for us, we can make it one of our top priorities to continue to make progress and to get back on track when life derails us from that next work out or getting to bed on time. Don’t Make Changes, Create Systems that Become Habits.   We often get those urges to change some health practice. Like saying, today I’m not going to eat sugar. But creating the long term results you want in our health happens best when we systematize our health practices using a process we’ve developed that works for our unique body, lifestyle and preferences. Find a set of regular health practices that work for you and that you can follow fairly consistently over time...even when you’re traveling or in crazy busy seasons.    If you were to ask Shelley or me to create the perfect health system for you it probably wouldn’t work. Why? Because what works for me is not likely to work for you. It may not get the results you need because your body and needs are different. Or it may get results but you may not enjoy the system enough to sustain it because it just doesn’t work in your lifestyle or schedule. Think about what you enjoy doing. Do you like walking your dog? Great, walk the dog longer or faster. Do you like making and eating stir-fries? Great, make more of them, put in more vegetables or make them all organic. If someone else lost 30 pounds eating a certain way, that’s great for him/her, but that may not be great for you. If you want to live every day like health is truly your priority, your personalized health practice must be full of actions you enjoy enough to sustain your unique system for health over time. I am only able to maintain my healthy lifestyle because I have created habits that I either enjoy or that produce results that I enjoy. Our 8 Health Systems We have found that it’s helpful to compile all the processes needed to create our own personalized health system into eight categories. We’ve actually seen that every human being needs to pay attention to these 8 areas of life in order to optimize their health and wellbeing. If you determine what unique practices you need to regularly incorporate into your daily lives to progress in these eight areas, it is quite likely that you’ll end up continually improving in health, energy and vitality. Quality Rest Our bodies need rest in order to function. I’ve struggled with getting the appropriate rest and it’s on the cutting edge of my personal learning this year. Rest is the key to restoration in our bodies. Are you getting the right quality and quantity of rest? Do you nod off whenever you're not active, yawn during the day, just run low on energy, need multiple settings on your alarm clock to wake up, or sleep a lot longer on your days off? If so, you are probably not getting enough quality sleep. Physical Activity Our bodies were made to move and these days most of us spend a lot more time sitting than moving. We sit to work, watch, talk, drive, eat, etc. With all that sitting, how can we make our bodies move more? What type of exercise is best for you? How do you create a sustainable system for exercise that works for you over time? What’s the balance between aerobic exercise, strength training and flexibility training that’s best for you? Pure Water Our bodies are made of mostly water and yet most of us aren’t very intentional about giving our bodies good, pure water. Our thirst is like the gas gage on a car. Our body runs on water but when the gas gage hits empty (when we get thirsty), we fill it with all kinds of other stuff besides water. Trying to run your body on soda is like saying I’m going to try to run my car on pop. Even if we drink enough water, it often has other pollutants and chemicals in it...chlorine and fluoride being the biggest offenders. If you put gas that’s mixed with a bunch of water in your vehicle, it might still run if you have a great in line fuel filter to extract the water from the fuel your vehicle is actually designed to run on.  We are fortunate that our body does have a great in line filter to take out the other “stuff” that’s in the liquid we drink besides the water our body runs on. And our body filter is smart enough it actually tries to use whatever it can from what it filters out of the liquid we put in it. However, often the “stuff” that’s in the liquid we drink just clogs our filters or worse yet, has toxins that destroy our body systems. So how much water do you need, how often should you drink, how to you make sure what are drinking is really clean water and how does even the water you bathe in impact you? Fresh Air Fresh air is a key element for optimum health! Do you know the quality of the air you breathe both indoors and outside? How do you improve the quality of air you regularly breath? And how do you make sure you’re getting enough air in your lungs? Many people go through an entire day and never fully fill their lungs with air. This would be like running a car always at idle and never revving up the engine. Optimizing your lung capacity and usage is really vital to optimizing your energy and longevity. Nature and Sunlight There is something very therapeutic about being outside. Our bodies are made to sync with the vibrations of nature. Have you ever gone on a walk in nature on sunny day at the beach or on a beautiful trail in the mountains and you just feel so refreshed? Unlike our ancestors, modern life keeps us indoors the majority of time. But regular time outside in nature is a key system for success in health. Even being exposed to sunlight brings many health benefits when we enjoy it in moderation. Healthy Whole Food and Targeted Nutrition Yes, we are what we eat. So what we eat is always important. Most people eat things because they like them. What's wrong with that? Shouldn't we like the things we eat? Absolutely! The question is what is your system to determine the food and nutrition your unique body needs to function at optimum health, energy, and vitality? What foods are best for your body? Of all the vitamins out there, how do you know what your body needs? Self-Discipline Self-discipline is foundational to maintain the other 7 systems for health success. We can have the best intentions in the world in all the other areas but what good is that if we don’t have the personal discipline to do the right things our body needs for great health and wellness? It also takes self-control to practice moderation in those pleasures that may not be super good for you in excess but that bring you great joy. So what is your system to regularly foster your own self-discipline?   An Attitude of Faith This one impacts every area of our inner life and therefore it impacts every area of our outer life, especially our health. Our state of mind has a major impact on our health. Faith is the ability to see things you want that are not yet there in reality as though they are already there. I also believe if we trust in a power outside ourselves, (what I call trusting in God) it is easier to see a better, brighter future for our life, for our family, for our business and for our health. My attitude is formed by my personal belief that there is a God who has good plans for me and for my health. What would it feel like if you were able to maintain an attitude that believes there is a better future ahead, that anything is possible and that you have access to power outside yourself to help you bring that desired future into the present? Do Something to Improve Your Health System Now I challenge you to do an honest assessment of your practices and outcomes in each of these eight categories. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 in each of these categories.  Make a list of the practices you are currently doing that foster success in each of these areas then pick one category and brainstorm a few practices you could experiment with that would help you experience more of the success you want in that area. Over time, do this in all 8 categories to build your own unique health system for success. Stay tuned for more podcasts and articles on our learnings and practices in each of these eight vital areas for abundant health! THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

An inside look at what inspires us, what we are learning and how we’re planning to support each other's progress in this new year. This round table discussion takes place right after we did our 2019 annual family goal setting retreat.   A Powerful Philosophy of Progress Research shows that 80% of people give up on their New Year's resolutions by about the 2nd week of February!  The reason? What most people call 'resolutions' are really just desires or fun things they wish would happen. The majority of people don't actually "resolve" or declare a new standard of intent that is backed with a specific plan to accomplish it. Why do we make these new resolutions or goals at the beginning of a new year?  Because the date on the calendar makes us feel like it is time for a  fresh start.  And it is a good opportunity to reflect on the last year and set some new intentions for the next year. But what makes us happy is not setting new goals once a year.  What makes us happy is the process of making regular progress on those things that are important to us throughout the year. Accomplishing things and obtaining things, is not what makes us happy. Getting money, promotions or even a new relationship that you want is not what really makes humans happy. It is PROGRESS that makes us happy. The new year is a good opportunity to decided how in this year we want to improve, grow, make progress. Progress is not the same as change. We don't have to work on change. Most things will eventually change no matter what. Change is almost automatic. But progress is not automatic. Progress requires clear intention for a new direction or improvement AND a specific process to head in that direction. A fulfilling life is about making progress you have determined is important to you. But progress doesn't happen just by stating the new results you want to produce in your life.  Progress requires the right process or inputs to create the desired result. In our apple orchard, how much good would it do if I just declared that the trees should produce better fruit?  Not much. Here is a true saying.  "A good tree produces good fruit.  No good tree bears bad fruit." So what does it take to make a good tree? It takes a consistent set of processes working right for that tree to be a healthy tree that produces good fruit.  A bad tree can say I want to have healthy food all it wants, but if it doesn't have the right nutrients or the right temperatures at the right time of year…the right type of pruning, the right type and amount of water and sunshine, the right photosynthesis happening in the tree… then it will not produce good fruit. No matter how much the tree wanted to produce good fruit, it won't produce good fruit if the tree isn't in a process of getting healthy. That process is different for each type of fruit tree in each type of climate. It is not a one process fits all formula for success for trees or for people. This time of year we set intentions for the kind of good person we want to be, the kind of good life we want to have, the kind of good impact we want to make on this world. If those intentions are just resolutions or wishes without a specific set of processes to produce those good outcomes then it's like a tree saying I just want to produce better fruit but not having the right processes in place to make it a good, healthy tree. Because of this, we like to set New Year's intentions or objectives that are supported by specific goals, processes, habits or routines that are likely to create that desired outcome. Sometimes the specific outcome we set out to achieve does not happen. Or it doesn't happen in the time frame we had planned. But the processes we put in place to pursue that outcome will always produce some better outcome…some progress…sometime, somewhere. It may just prepare us for some other type of unanticipated outcome that we didn't even think was possible. Resolutions sound like one-time events. You say it, and it is supposed to be done. Although stating our intention is important, success is more about the process of building a strong life…getting a little bit better each day. Life is about making progress. A famous leadership coach named Jesus said, let me tell you what it looks like when someone listens to the good things I tell them to do and actually does them. It looks like someone who builds a house on a good foundation. And when the storms come, that house stands strong. If you dig down deep and build a foundation, when the storms come you can stand those storms. So don't let your New Year resolutions become mere wish lists. When you truly resolve something you declare this is how it is going to be. You set a new standard. We get our standards.  We get what we believe about who we are and what we deserve.  We don't as often get our wishes.  We get what we believe must happen to align with our beliefs.  We don't get what we think should happen. Burn the bridges on the past and commit to pursue your new standard. Combine this level of commitment to a new standard with a creating and regularly updating your action plan, routines or systems and you will make exhilarating progress toward the new standards you set for your life. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Realizing Dreams: Reality Show Round Table Our family is launching an experiment called Fulcrum, a business that we think will make a difference in our city. We thought we'd share a bit about it with you and most importantly give you an inside scoop into the process as we will be on a learning curve and we hope that this will encourage some of you either as individuals, as families or a group of friends to dream great dreams that you think will make a difference in your world, your community and your city and take action to start pursuing those dreams. Overview of Fulcrum Fulcrum is a movement in the city of Yakima that we hope will bring creative people together to live, to work, to learn, play and build innovative solutions that will benefit our city and our county and ultimately the world. Fulcrum is a movement in the community of Yakima that brings creative people together to live, work, learn and play while they build innovative solutions that will benefit our valley and the world. The Fulcrum building will be an inspiring space where people can dream together, learn together, work together, eat together and do life together. The vision of Fulcrum Yakima is to be the catalyst that helps us unleash our collective creativity as a town. We are launching community and a space where young and old alike come together to dream again and leverage our collective resources and talents to accomplish those dreams. We are excited to be doing this as a family along with many other friends and community leaders. This is not a just a Gienger Family project.  Our family may be pivotal in launching this, but are engaging many others. The Beginning of a Vision This idea came out of a discussion we had about a year ago about a brain drain trend we noticed especially within the younger people of our city who we found were wanting to get out of our city as soon as possible. By the time they turned 18 the first thing they wanted to do was leave because they realized that Yakima didn’t hold much economic opportunity our vision is to change that. Right now there isn’t a lot happening in town because the members of community who could bring the economic growth back are facing outwards, our goal with Fulcrum is to hold hands as a community, young and old alike, face inwards and make our city an economic hub, where people can activate their potential and unleash the collective creativity of the city.  The Fulcrum building will be a physical space to house and cultivate this new innovative mentality and economic success for the city. When we had our first gathering in the Fulcrum building, our goal was to open up the conversation with the community about what we are creating and how we will all have a part in it. We spent the much of the time hearing people’s stories and their passion for our city and the differences they’d like to see. We also had the opportunity to share our vision for Fulcrum. This is a community project and we hope that a lot of people will be getting involved over time engaging the best and brightest minds of people in Yakima who are dreamers to come alongside and help foster great things in our city. As you've been listening to this podcast, you know that we're big on the value of developing businesses and the value that can bring to the world. The last episode talked about the value of the free enterprise system in America and my concern that not everybody is appreciates the value it truly brings to this world in building healthy societies. You can go back and listen to that episode if you'd like. What we're doing in Yakima is a bit of a case study, an illustration of the expression of what a lot of us care about. We'd like to foster some startup businesses that have creative ideas, innovations that we think could make our city and ultimately our world better. So that's what we're setting out to do here. With that background, we thought we'd just have an open round table discussion on what we're developing.  Seeing A Need All great endeavors start with some idea to bring value somewhere and usually that value you want to bring aligns with your passions or skills or personal interests. So think of something that you'd love to do, that you're passionate about and that could add value to your world. Then find a specific related need and dream of how you could potentially fill that need. Creating A Vision and Researching Last year in January Chelann and I started talking about about the concept of a co-working space and business incubator or innovation center and what that could do for our city.  Clearly a trend in this around the world. There was over 14,000 co-working spaces that started in 2018 alone worldwide...a huge trend that is clearly meeting a need. There's a big rise of independent freelancers, and in the number of new entrepreneurs which fosters the value of co-working and co-living spaces. The desire for a place where you can live and walk right down the hall or just right outside your room and have access to co-working space.  The value of a space to live, work, eat, play all in one place. I think it's also meeting a need in the world where social media tends to make us a bit isolated from face to face personal interaction. Places like this create the opportunity to fill the need people have for more personal interaction. Developing Your Idea When you have an idea, you will have to throw it out on the table and watch it develop. Our idea started out as something more like co-working space and a business incubator and it's now morphed into something that's not really about a business incubator or just co-working opportunities. Instead, it's morphed into something much bigger and now something we're all very excited about.  After our first official meeting as a family to brainstorm on this project, we started thinking about the possibility of taking this into multiple cities and we all got pretty excited about the impact something like this could make for small and large communities around the country.  All of us became even so excited about it that we are willing to shift some of our priorities, businesses commitments and schedules to start focusing on this. Find Someone to Support You and Your Vision The next step we took was asking our family and others: “Who wants to be involved? What would you like to contribute?” After that, we had our first meet up within the community and had a turn out of 30 influential community leaders which just solidified our initial excitement for this project. It was energizing to hear from 30 influential community leaders who showed up and matched our excitement, letting us know they were behind us, giving us their cards and offering to help in any way they could. When you are able to engage everyone and delegate different roles to people who see the vision and share your passion it solidifies the emotions that you feel about your own project. I believe that through this process God has really opened the doors in a way that seems he already planned to do something like this and we're just tagging along.  It has been as if all the stars aligned...from searching for a building, finding the ideal space and getting it under an agreement, to being blessed with a seller who is also very passionate about the vision of this project. Creating a Name and Mission Statement We got to the point with our project that we were calling it so many different things that we sat down and said we've got to figure out what to call this so we don't call it something different every time we talk about it. When we started the process of selecting name we got input from several people. We made a list a half dozen of the top names and sent them out to several dozen people in our target audience.  When you have a vision and as soon as you start crystallizing some things, start getting feedback from your target customer as soon as you can about everything you can, as early as you can. We eventually chose the name Fulcrum because that was the most popular and fortunately it's got a great meaning to it because we think this is going to be like a tipping point for our city to change the culture and the economy. The next step we took, which is something you do early in start ups is to start getting clear about the mission, vision and values. What's the purpose behind this thing you want to do, what's the real cause? What will it look like when that cause if being achieved.  And what are the values, the non-negotiable principles that will guide how we do what we do in this enterprise? We all got together just started spitting out different core values that were important to each of us and compiled them all into a google doc. From there it is a process of elimination of what will represent our vision and values best. What will resonate with people and give them a clear image of what we were all about about and what we're creating here?  Creating Organizational Structure  One of the first things we did to create an action plan was just by asking how are we going to organize this project from a big picture perspective. And we ultimately concluded that we're going to have three different sets of entities/companies to make this all happen. One set of companies has to do with the operations of Fulcrum, what happens on a day to day basis to facilitate all of these good things happening in the space and in the community. The second set of companies we'll need to establish will be the entities that won the real estate (the building and land and parking lot). Right now the real estate is under contract to purchase in the next 6-12 months.  By the time we purchase the real estate and start doing the renovations, it will be owned by a single purpose entity (company) that will probably have multiple investors/owners in it. Once we get up and running and see some Yakima grown innovations turning into businesses that need funding, we'll have a third set of companies that venture capital investors can invest in and that will then be invested in some of the start up businesses fostered by Fulcrum.  We plan to facilitate a process that will bring funding to the best ideas and the best businesses that start as a result of this process. There are a lot of venture capital investors who are excited about investing and startup businesses that have the potential to make a strong positive impact on this world.  So we hope to attract investors like that invest in a fund that will invest in some of the businesses that start in Fulcrum.  So, bottom line there will be three different sets of entities (or companies), operations, property ownership, and then venture capital funding. Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities The next thing we did is to get clear on roles and responsibilities. Who's going to lead what in these three different companies?  We started discussing the passions and skills and potential matching roles and responsibilities of each person on the founding team.  We then decided that one of the first roles we needed is an executive director for Fulcrum. Collectively we developed a written job description, and then an advertisement for that position based on that job description. We spent some money posting ads in places like ZipRecruiter. So this went out to many online job boards and we received a bunch of resumes.  Then we went through a process of screening the resumes based on what we had in writing. This is a classic system for success in recruiting. You define a position, write down the job description, develop accurate advertisement for the position, get the word out in multiple ways trying to get as many applicants as you can then screen the resumes down to a small number that you think are qualified based on what you see in writing. And then the next step is to do phone screening interviews with those that look like they might be qualified on paper.  So we offered the opportunity for top candidates to schedule a phone interview.  And then the final step to do in person interviews with your top 2-4 finalist candidates that make it through the phone screening interview process.  So we followed this whole process for the Fulcrum Executive Director position.  We even had a final interview committee that comprised more than our family and included someone with experience in hiring and managing for this type of position in another business innovation center in a different city.  We're excited to announce the Chelann Gienger ended up being the top candidate and was selected for this role.  Establish a Specific Timeline for Your Project The most recent thing we've done is to establish an overall project plan and timeline for turning this dream into reality.  Following is what we know about the timeline right now: When will Fulcrum open? The Fulcrum movement (or experience) starts now. We are in the process of building the most important aspect of Fulcrum as we speak and that’s the CREATIVE COMMUNITY. The physical space that will help foster the Fulcrum experience is targeted to open in late 2020. 2018 Q4 – Free community events start (Monthly Fireside Chats) Build volunteer team. Raise donations for seed funding 2019 Q1 - Architect model finished Q2 – March:  First weekly Coffee and Concepts: Secure capital for project Q3 - Start construction Q4 - Construction, start accepting first members 2020 Q3-4 - Grand Opening How can I get involved?  Join our Facebook group, Fulcrum Yakima, to stay in the loop with future events, volunteer opportunities and all things Fulcrum is up to!   THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

How to Examine and Take Control Your Life   Most people begin their lives reacting to whatever life does to them. This may be okay for an infant. But as adults, it’s important to develop the skills required to examine our lives, cultivate our personal values and make decisions that reflect those values. Many people find themselves reverting back to this reactive state in adult life because they aren’t intentional about making decisions and evaluating the outcomes of those decisions.   I love how Tony Robbins explains life. He uses the metaphor of a raging river to describe life. You can read more from his book, Awaken The Giant Within. And this is what he said:   “Too many of us don’t make the majority of our decisions consciously...in so doing, we pay a major price. In fact, most people live what I call ‘The Niagara Syndrome’. I believe that life is like a river and that most people jump on the river of life without ever really deciding where they want to end up. So, in a short period of time, they get caught up in the current: current events, current fears, current challenges. When they come to forks in the river, they don’t consciously decide where they want to go, or which is the right direction for them. They merely ‘go with the flow’. They become a part of the mass of people who are directed by the environment instead of by their own values. As a result, they feel out of control. They remain in this unconscious state until one day the sound of the raging water awakens them, and they discover that they’re five feet from Niagara Falls in a boat with no oars. At this point, they say, ‘Oh shoot!’. But by then it’s too late. They’re going to take a fall.   Sometimes it’s an emotional fall. Sometimes it’s a physical fall. Sometimes it’s a financial fall.   It’s likely that whatever challenges you have in your life currently could have been avoided by making some better decisions upstream.”   Why don’t we always take the opportunity to take control of the future of our lives through our values?   Once we understand the circumstances and reasons that can throw us off track we can address the issue of living without critical decision making and how affects our personal values. While we are all individuals and can experience different things that can influence us to misstep, the most common factors that cause us to live unconsciously are:   Distractions in the present time Your attention required in other areas of life Lack of intention in the decisions we make today and how they influence our future   As you can see, there is a theme with these three factors, attention and intention. That is why I like the analogy that Tony gives that life is like a raging river because it is. We become caught up in the rapids of doing the things that life seems to demand of us day in and day out.   Goal setting and evaluation are primary tools we can use to keep the raging river of life from sweeping us wherever it wills. Many people set goals. But not many have a disciplined process to evaluate their progress on those goals.   One of the questions I often hear is “what do I do when my family or team sets goals and forgets about them in a short time?” People set goals with the thought of the direction they want to go with their life, but often it doesn't happen because they get caught up in the river of life that just pulls them downstream wherever that river's going. The key to ensuring that we're floating on the right river in the right direction at the right pace is taking time to review the course of our life through regular examination of our progress toward living what we say is important.   Living an Unexamined Life   A quote that many are familiar with was uttered by Socrates right before his trial which ultimately led to him being put to death was “The unexamined life is a life not worth living.”   Do you think is that true? And if so, why is that true? Why is the unexamined life a life not worth living?   Many don't realize the importance of self-awareness and of living with intention. But at some point, we will all arrive at the end and will have the opportunity to look back and reflect on where the time went and what we did with it. If that is the only time you examine your life, you’ll probably be settling for the status quo, falling in with the herd mentality. The quality of our experience is determined by the focus of our attention. If our attention is fragmented, pulled in a million different directions, easily distracted, shallow and fleeting, then that is what our experience of life will be.   If we are not examining our life and revising our focus toward living our values and goals, we will get distracted and sucked downstream on the river life creates for us, caught up in the current of noise, circumstance, and unconscious decision.   If you wouldn’t want to go out on a hike, without a trail, a planned route, and destination, why would you then want to go through life the same way?   A Philosopher’s Lesson   I think staying true to our values, staying on our chosen path happens best through the discipline of intentional evaluation of our lives on a regular basis.  We naturally tend to resist personal examination, because it brings back subconscious negative thoughts of examinations or tests we were given even in grade school days. We wanted to be right, to get the A, but we were often disappointed so why put ourselves through a self-examination.  The possibility of failing makes us resist that opportunity to examine and reflect.   Socrates actually chose death rather than giving up his right to gain wisdom from examination and reflection. “The unexamined life is not worth living”   He felt obligated to live a life where he questioned not only what was going on in his life but also the rights and wrongs that happened. He would rather give up his life than not be able to question what was happening.   He was such a threat to the s0ciety he lived in because he was such an examiner. He valued the love of wisdom more than anything else. He ultimately was given the choice to stop seeking wisdom through examination and live in exile where he could never question anything or influence anything or create wisdom again, or he could choose to die. And that's when he said if I can’t gain wisdom by examining my life it's not worth living. So he chose death.   There’s another saying from a philosopher more ancient than Socrates.  David says, “teach us to number our days aright, so we can gain a heart of wisdom.”  He is saying, examine life based on the brief number of days we have and in that examination of each day, we will gain a heart of wisdom. That’s what makes a life worth living.   Tools to Examining Your Life   So the question I want to ask you how can you number your days intentionally, what tools help you live each day to the fullest? Are there regular activities and personal disciplines that you can engage in daily to help you examine your life?   Here are several tools that have been shared: Daily Journaling: Find a process that works for you. Asking yourself questions like what you want to accomplish today, what will make today great, including your daily affirmation or mantra, and a reflection on what made today great or what could have made today better. Mentorship: Having the opportunity to gain information from mentors who are willing to speak into your life can be a huge eye-opener rather than when you are the sole examiner of your life. Mentors can point out specific things that you may have failed to examine yourself. Evaluate Your Day/Week/Month/Year According to Your Written Values: Formulate a question in line with your values like, “How did today matter in light of my values? How did today’s actions matter in terms of living the life I want to live? Did I create value in the world that God wants me to create?” Having a group of people, friends or family, that you can come together with and reflect on your personal compass, values, and goals. Celebrate how far you have come and how much more you get to grow. Create an activity that allows you to examine yourself: “If each person around the circle it only had 30 days longer to live what would you do differently? What would you want to say to each person or to this group of people? What would you want to do together? How would you spend the next few days? What would you want them to know?”   Sometimes you may think back over my task list for the day and wonder if it was all worth it. What were all those emails about? But when you ask yourself the question, did today really matter in light of my values and goals, chances are you’ll know the answer.Did today matter? If so, great. Do more things like it tomorrow. If you don’t remember anything that made a difference? Do something different tomorrow. Before you start every day, take a few moments in meditation to connect with God (or your spiritual self), focus on what’s really important in life and decide what you’d like to see happen by the end of the day. After doing this, take some time to prioritize your calendar and tasks for the day. What’s most important? What is realistic to achieve?When you take just a little time and intention to examine your life, you’ll know where you are in relation to where you want to be and you’ll have a much better chance at making progress. Ask the Question Steve Jobs Asked Himself Each MorningSteve Jobs, the man who started Apple and brought it to become the first trillion dollar company in the world, was a master of living and working purposefully. Each morning, when Jobs woke up, he asked himself this one question:“‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ If the Answer is ‘no’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”You may think that it is a bit morbid to think about your mortality at the start of the day, but in reality, this is actually very motivating and filled with optimistic to do better in life, every single day.  It helps us “number our days” so we can gain a heart of wisdom, live life to the fullest and create the legacy we’d like to leave in this world.   THANK YOU!   Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We’d also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes.   Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them.   JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger    

Turning personality conflicts into complements that create healthy relationships and positive outcomes is a powerful process that is within the reach of every person in every family and team. It starts with this basic belief system. The people who are in our family are there for a purpose.  They are there to complete or balance us in some way. The people we work with in business are there to make your work and life more effective.  Because of this, it is worth investing time to understand the unique strengths and contributions each person in our family and each person in our business team can best make to create great relationships and outcomes. Three Keys to Better Relationships in Family and in Business Understand your own unique behavioral strengths. This is the key to personal growth and finding roles where you will be most effective. Recognize and respect the behavioral strengths of others. This is the key to effective interdependence in families and in teams. Learn to blend the differences between people in your family and on your work teams in a way that best utilizes the unique strengths of each person in each situation or project. This will result in greater harmony, productivity and effectiveness. Core and Adapted Personality Styles We all have a core behavioral style that comes most naturally to us and that we revert back to especially when under pressure or stress.  This core personality style does not change much from late teen years throughout life unless you experience a life-changing personal event like the death of a spouse or child. We also have the amazing ability to adapt our behavioral style based on what we believe it takes to be successful in our current family or team dynamics.  These adaptations are generally a very healthy part of good human relationships. Be aware however, that significant adaptations in your overall behavioral style, over long periods of time, can cause personal stress and lack of effectiveness because you aren’t operating in your natural sweat spot. Communication Adaptations Another key to success in family and business relationships is for individuals to learn to adapt their natural communication style with others so it is most effective for others.  Without great intentionality, we tend to communicate with others based on the way we like to be communicated with.  However, servant leaders are always looking for ways to serve the people they do life with more effectively and will therefore seek to adapt their communication style to the style of the person they are communicating with.  This means that we must understand our own strengths and weaknesses and understand and value the strengths and weaknesses of others. Ideally, this is a two-way street where both parties are seeking to understand and adapt to what the other person needs.  So consider what you might need to do to express to your family or team members how you want to be communicated with based on your personality strengths.  At the same time, take responsibility to proactively find out how others prefer to be communicated with and then communicate with them in this way.  If you do this, your relationships and your effectiveness will increase over time. The Law of Differences to Build or Destroy Relationships This law is as predictable as the law of gravity.  When I experience someone who has different strengths (or something that based on my strength, appears to be a weakness), I have a choice to make.  I can choose to judge that person and see that difference as a weakness.  This will lead to isolation (physical and/or emotional) which eventually leads to death in the relationship.  You may physically spend less time together, choose not to go over and talk to them at events, no longer comment on Facebook posts where you once did, stop responding the same way to texts, etc.  Judging a difference as a weakness leads to some type of isolation and eventual death in the relationship. But we have another choice we can make when we see or experience a difference in personality styles.  We can choose to value that difference as a strength that I can learn from or that can benefit the situation or relationship. This draws people to us which leads to unity which leads to life in the relationship. The key to the unlock successful outcomes from the law of differences is understanding.  It requires understanding your strengths and their strengths and the way these can be beneficially blended. Think about where you are judging the different personality strengths or weaknesses of your family members or co-workers in a way that is causing you to view them as “weaker” in some way.  My bet is that this is leading to some type of isolation or diminishing of what the relationship has been or could be.  There have been times where I have needed to apologize and say, “I am sorry the judgments I was making about you that was isolating you.” Where are you viewing the differences in others a weaker, lesser, undesirable and it is not leading to greater unity and life in the relationship? Through understanding and humility, you can move from death to life in relationships. The foundation of this process is an individual commitment to stop judging differences and start valuing individual differences.  We want each person to be valued and be fully empowered to play to the strengths they bring to the table.  We don’t want anyone to feel like they need to change their personality in order to belong to this family or this team. And when conflict occurs we will learn to value each other’s opinions and approaches, which will bring us closer and allow us to see things we wouldn’t ordinarily be able to see. Learning to recognize, value and blend personality difference is another key system for success in family and business. EPISODE RESOURCES: Purchase the Leading From Your Strengths assessment.  Enter Promo Code: "Advantage" for a discount price of $19.95. Purchase the Strengths Finder assessment for $49.99. Purchase the Classic DISC Profile for $64.50. Take the free 16 Personalities Assessment based on the Myers Briggs process. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

What if you could have the one ring that rules them all? What if you could leverage the one force that influences everything in this world? Those of us who are leaders in the business world, have an incredible opportunity to make the world a better place…much more so than we typically think about or believe.   Virtually everything we can see that is man-made was made by someone who had a vision to start a business, and that business provided income so that people would have jobs, and those jobs created incredible blessing. When you make money you serve everybody, you bless everybody. Everything that is not in its natural state is there because somebody had a vision they turned into something that would bless somebody, something that would give value to someone. There's nothing like the impact of a business that provides jobs. All the employees then contribute to society. Those jobs create incredible blessing to society. Even a plumber with two can change the world!  The process of making money is a way to make the world better.  It’s a powerful process to serve and bless people. As the late, great Steven Jobs said: “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you; and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”  What Transforms Societies? Some may argue that business isn't the only thing that influences the world. They're right! It's not. As I see it, there are seven primary forces that shape society in any city, nation, and country. They are: Family, Religion, Media, Arts and Entertainment, Education, Government, and Business. Of these seven forces, there is one that has the most pervasive effect on shaping or driving the other six. You guessed it. That one force that influences all the others is business. Business is the primary driver or influencer of all the other six.  Government Government certainly has a significant impact on society. But where does government get tax money so it can operate? From the income created by business. People who make money in a business pay taxes that support the government. Arts and Entertainment There is no question that arts and entertainment shape cultural norms. What drives the growth of arts and entertainment in society? Who have been the primary patrons of the arts? Who is on the board of directors of the arts councils, the cultural centers or museums? Is it a homeless, jobless guy? Generally, it is the wealthy, who have become so through business. It is mostly business leaders who are the influencers of the makers of art. Robust businesses drive the arts and entertainment, which are influencers of society. If there was never any money exchanged or given to the artist or the one who created, what would happen to art and entertainment? If art has changed society or culture over time, it's because somebody was offering it as a business. If someone sets up an art studio or a theater, they do marketing, sell tickets, provide customer service, and maybe have employees, etc. Of course, there's a lot of good art that never results in money or has anything to do with money. But generally, art that transforms culture has a business element attached to it. Sitting in your room and painting or making music just for your own pleasure is good, but it is not going to transform culture. That work has to be marketed, as a business. Family I firmly believe that healthy families are the foundation of any healthy society. Yet the family requires money to function, and that money is generated by some type of business. Even if your family has inherited wealth, someone at some point made that money through business. The Bible indicates that if you don't work and provide for your family you are “worse than an infidel.” Unless you are stealing to provide for your family, you will probably be providing for them as a result of some type of commerce. What has given me the opportunity to focus on raising our family and for my wife to homeschool our kids has been businesses that produced income that allowed my wife to be home to give the best efforts of some of the best years of her life training our children. Religion  Religion has certainly had a significant influence on shaping society throughout the ages. Every dollar that every church has ever used to do the good work it does, though, was created by a business. You can't give offerings if you don't have money to give. Where does that money come from? Business!  Who is on the boards of churches? Who is on the financial committee? Who are the volunteers? None of these important roles are employees of the church. They are all employed by some business. Every volunteer in the church, by definition, is not paid by the church. It is those volunteers who do most of the important work that is done for communities by any church. Media Media doesn't just report on what's happening in the world; it influences what people know and believe about the world. How does business influence media? Every media company is ultimately a business. Furthermore, many types of media are strongly influenced by the businesses that become their customers. When a company says, “Our business will not pay for this million dollar advertisement on your media because we don't agree with your agenda”, they have real influential power over that media. Business influences media by voting for or against any media outlet with their dollars. Education  Education shapes the future of society in many ways, and educational institutions are ultimately run as businesses if they are going to survive. Who is on the boards of universities? Where did money come from to build and run those educational institutions? Even educational systems that are completely free to the student ultimately receive some type of funding (with money created by business) and/or have leaders who volunteer their time on boards who make money to support their lives and their ability to give to causes through business. I'm not saying that business is the entirety of what shapes this world. All seven of these forces shape the world along with some less dominate factors that I have not mentioned. And certainly, there are other integrated or overlapping influences between these seven forces. For example, one could argue that government or religion could influence all the other forces. But you can see that business has an inordinate influence! Business and business leaders don't control the other forces that shape society. They simply have a significant impact, both through the influence of being an economic driver as well as through the systems and processes of business within each of those other six areas. If you took business out of a community, the other six forces would suffer greatly and eventually disappear. Of course, government could try to control all the other six forces. It might have the power to take control of resources and even to eliminate businesses. The Soviet Union tried that and demonstrated that this doesn't create sustainable success in society. Of these seven forces that shape society, business has proven over many generations and in many cultures to have the most profound and consistent impact on all the others. One has to at least ask the question: “Since all the primary forces that shape society are all influenced by and fueled by business, what is the best way to influence the world? What is the highest potential platform to transform society?” My bet is on business!  And if you are a business leader, my bet is that you have more power to change the world than you might think.  There is probably something each one of us can do to better leverage our business as a platform to improve society in some way. I’d like to challenge you to think of at least one way that you could more effectively use what you do in business to make your part of the world a better place.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Discover your love language by taking this free online assessment. Order The Five Languages Book on Amazon. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Finding and keeping a passionate, lasting and fulfilling marriage relationship does not have to be an elusive dream.  It can be your reality if you are willing to make finding and unconditionally loving your spouse the number one most important project. Listen as our daughter, Chelann, interviews Shelley and I about our marriage.  She asks us key questions her generation of entrepreneurs wants to know about how to find and keep a passionate and fulfilling marriage relationship.  We hope these unvarnished stories and learnings from the failures and successes in our marriage will benefit young and old alike. Some of the questions we answer in this episode:  How do you know you’ve found “the one”? What are the core characteristics/traits to look for when choosing your spouse? Why do confident men sometimes become cocky when they’re around a confident woman? How can women start empowering men to be MEN instead de’MAN’ing them? What do we wish we would have known in year 1 of our marriage? We held nothing back in this conversation. Whether you’re single, dating or married, this episode will empower and inspire you. EPISODE RESOURCES: Discover your love language by taking this free online assessment. Order The Five Languages Book on Amazon. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Business leaders build a better world on three levels. The first level is simply building a good business that provides value to people.  Second, they go beyond basic business expectations to do things in and through their business that provide extra benefit for people and communities. On the third level, business leaders intentionally use their businesses as a platform to make a transformational impact on society, to literally rebuild the world. If you are in business, you are already on Level 1. You are already building a better world just by doing good business! Level 1: Building Your Business At the most basic level, when you build a business you play a vital role in meeting people’s needs and thereby building a better world. If you do nothing but build a business that meets needs well and makes a profit doing so, you not only provide a product or service that society needs, you create the resources that put food on tables, roofs over heads, and kids in school. Even better, if you create a healthy culture in and around your business based on enduring values, you can create a little slice of a healthier society. What I have learned is that ministry happens in the margins. Going the extra mile only works if you’ve got gas in your tank at the end of the last mile. If you don't have a business that allows you some margin in your finances, time, and emotional capital, it's hard to use your business to do effective ministry that goes beyond the goodness of simply doing business well. So what’s the pathway to create more margin to be able to do more ministry for the world through business? I have found that the pathway is through implementing the right processes. The secret is in the systems that cause success. Implementing the right systems in your business is one of the most valuable means to be more effective at Level 1 and ultimately to allow you to enjoy more time and energy to function at Levels 2 and 3. To do more on Level 2, you must learn to build a business that accomplishes the mission of your business through implementing effective business operating systems in nine critical areas. If you’re interested in learning more about these nine categories of business operating systems you can check out the additional information in the Appendix at the end of this book. As you continue to implement processes that produce better outcomes and create greater margins of time and money, it will help launch your business into more Level 2 activity and impact. Level 2: Building Beyond Business Once you have a business that is generating some consistent value for others and creating some consistent profit, you have the greater ability to move to the next level where you are building beyond business. At this level you are going the extra mile to intentionally create value for others beyond the fundamental value of doing good business. Even if your business isn’t focused on changing the world, when your business goes the extra mile to create out of the ordinary value for employees, customers or their community, you are applying best practices that some of the greatest companies in this world follow. Such Level 2 initiatives are a good warm up for playing in the “big league” of Level 3 where you intentionally use your business as a platform to shape society and rebuild our world. Level 3:  Rebuilding the World After you have basic success in building your business and some wins at building beyond business, at some point you begin to embrace the paradigm that your business is actually a powerful platform (some might even say an elaborate front) to transform society. You begin to see that the real power of business is more than creating valuable products, services, and environments. It's even more than going the extra mile to benefit humanity. It is actually a powerful tool to transform the world. For those who are followers of Jesus, their business can become a powerful platform to perpetuate the values of Jesus on this earth. For those who are church-going Christians, their business could even become an extension of the ministry of their church to intentionally infuse God's good purposes into the world.  Regardless of your religious affiliation or lack thereof, your business can be a powerful platform to make what's wrong in the world, right!  Your business is your pathway to transform your part of the world! EPISODE RESOURCES: In this episode I refer to the nine categories of business operating systems that every successful business needs to have in place.  Following is some overview information and a few key questions about those nine business operating systems: Overview of the Nine Categories of Systems for Success in Business Building a business that gives you the margin needed to build beyond business and do more to rebuild the world requires the disciplined planning and implementation of nine foundational categories of business systems.  Each of these business operating systems are powerful tools that will help you organize key areas of your business for maximum effectiveness. Together they work to make your entire business run like a perfectly constructed machine giving you the consistent results and margin you need to change the world through your business! I’ll give a brief overview of these nine systems, and also give a little insight into why each one is important to the success of your business. Like the designer of anything great, you cannot build a successful business that gives you the results you want and the margin you need to rebuild the world without first creating a blueprint; a vision of what you want your business to be. That’s why the first and most important system you use is the strategic planning system. Strategic Planning Systems Do you have a clear vision for your company and a step-by-step plan to achieve it? Success doesn’t just happen; you have to plan for it. In fact, the biggest mistake business owners make is failing to come up with a blueprint for their success. When you get caught in a cycle of firefighting, it is difficult to do anything but react to the crisis of the moment. Strategic planning is the way to get proactive about your business.  It starts with a clear understanding or your personal mission, vision, and values so that you can intentionally build a business that is an outgrowth of who you are called to be.  Then you will develop a crystal clear mission, vision, and the core values that set the direction and DNA for everything you do in your business.  Based on this, you will develop specific strategies, objectives, goals, and action plans where you decide in advance exactly what needs to be done, and how you’ll do it.  Your direction, strategies and goals will be in writing so it can be clearly communicated and consistently executed. You and your employees will know the specific tasks needed to accomplish each goal. With each positive change you make, your business will become what you designed it to be. But your designing work doesn’t end with the creation of an overall strategy for your future success; you also need to design each of the individual systems that have to work together to achieve your strategic plan. Here’s one powerful tool you can use to identify which systems you need to implement or improve in your business. It’s called the Performance Gap Analysis. In strategic planning, the performance gap is the difference between where your business is today, and where you want it to be in the future. Once you define what lies between you and your goals, you’ll be able to come up with a strategy to bridge the gap between the two. When you analyze where your business is today in terms of its strengths and weaknesses, you’ll be able to create a specific plan to leverage your strengths, and overcome your weaknesses and take your business where you want it to be. Marketing Strategy Systems Every business needs customers, but where do you find them and how do you get their attention? The purpose of your marketing strategy system is to create and communicate your unique competitive advantage that will attract the most probable and profitable customers to your business. Do you have a written marketing plan that clearly identifies your product, pricing, distribution and promotional strategies, and how they will be implemented? When you understand the characteristics of your target market, the trends in your industry, the strategies of your competition, and your products’ unique benefits, you’re able to make sure you spend your marketing dollars where they will produce the best results. Your marketing strategy takes into consideration everything you do in your business that impacts your customer, like your products’ features and benefits, hours of operation, customer service policies, and credit terms. But it goes deeper than that. Did you know something as simple as changing the color of the clothes you wear can increase or decrease your sales? So can the image your correspondence or invoices present, and the expression on your face or the tone of your voice. You can lose a customer just as easily over a little thing as you can over a big one. Your strategic marketing system will give you the confidence to launch a successful marketing program based on research and planning rather than on a gut feeling. It’s a powerful tool you can use to take the guesswork out of all of your marketing systems. Workflow and Organization Systems More effective marketing systems will attract more customers, but more customers can lead to more chaos. That is, unless you have work flow and organization systems to keep the inner workings of your business running smoothly. Do you have systems in place that ensure time is spent on the most important priorities for your business, and nothing is falling through the cracks? Workflow and organization systems specifically address the issues of time and your efficiency. Where is your time going now? And how can you create more time to do what is most important? For example, when you use a delegation system, you create time for yourself by assigning responsibilities in a way that ensures the task will be done properly, and on time. A project control system helps you save time by giving you instant information about every activity and deadline in your business. That’s so you don’t have to chase people down to see what is getting done. If you have inventory, an Inventory Control System ensures you have the right amount of the right products in stock. It also makes certain your cash isn’t tied up in a lot of slow-moving products. With business operating systems in place, you don’t have to spend time rethinking or explaining each and every task over and over again, hoping it gets done correctly. Organization systems create procedures for everything your business does on a repetitive basis, like opening and closing your business each day, maintaining equipment, handling customer complaints, or any other area of your business where you want consistent, predictable results. There is no such thing as “good enough” when it comes to building a successful business. Your operating systems can’t remain static. Your business environment is constantly changing. What works today may not be sufficient tomorrow. So you need a way to continually improve all of your business operating systems; a system to improve your systems! Here’s how: First, you have to decide which system to improve. Next, identify the specific goals and purpose of that particular system. Third, evaluate your current situation, and do a Performance Gap Analysis to identify your desired outcome. Next, brainstorm new ideas to bridge the gap, to improve the existing system. Then evaluate your ideas and select the one that seems most likely to succeed. That last step is where many business owners go wrong. They may have plenty of new ideas to work with, but most business owners don’t have a system to help them choose and implement the right ideas. Your strategic plan and market strategy help you identify the right ideas. Then you can use a different system to test, measure, and implement each one. This is called your “TMI Formula”. The first portion of the TMI formula is to test your new Ideas. For example, you may want to test a new print add by placing it in a small local paper before committing it to something more elaborate. New ideas can be expensive, especially if they don’t accomplish what you hoped they would. The second portion of the TMI Formula is what really separates the designer from the specialist. The designer doesn’t just try something new; the designer measures the actual results of the change to determine its success. So a designer who creates an online ad campaign will also set up a tracking system to monitor the new business that ad brings in. To measure the new business, you need to know where all of the new business comes from. Did the customer read the new ad? Or did they walk into your business off the street? Or did a friend recommend they come in? One simple way to gather information is to ask, “How did you hear about us?” whenever a person walks into your business or calls. With a good system for measuring results, a designer can tell how many responses the ad generated, how many sales resulted, and how profitable the sales were. Then you can determine with absolute accuracy whether or not the idea was a success. That brings us to the third step of the TMI Formula: Implementation. This is more than saying “Let’s do it”. Implementations is taking what works and turning it into a system. It’s taking the results of testing and measuring your ideas, and using that information to create procedures that will produce the same positive results over and over again. For instance, if you discover greeting a customer with a question like “Have you ever been in our store before?” leads to a higher percentage of sales than greeting them with “May I help you?” you’ll want to implement that greeting into your sales process. The procedure that gets the best results is then documented in writing; every employee is trained to follow it properly, and each person is accountable for using the system you’ve developed for a particular situation. The final result of the TMI Formula isn’t simply the creation of positive changes; it’s the systematic use of the changes to achieve consistent, predictably good results in your business. Personnel Management Systems Your employees are crucial to the success of your business, whether you already have people working for you, or you’re thinking of bringing someone on. Personnel management systems will help you get the most productivity and profit from your employees and create a highly empowering work environment that fully engages the best of each person. This helps you manage the entire personnel process, and it goes far beyond hiring and firing. You know you need to hire someone when an employee quits. But your personnel management systems will also help you forecast your future work force needs and develop a step-by-step process to attract the right people for the right jobs. Your orientation systems will prepare your new employees to become a dedicated part of your business and share your vision of what your company is all about. With effective personnel management systems in place, even disciplinary problems can be dealt with in a way that will reduce stress and miscommunication. How would you feel if everyone in your company loved what they did and consistently went above and beyond the basics of their jobs? When you take the time to develop your personnel management systems, you will reap the benefits of having employees, while you minimize the headaches. The right people, with the right qualifications bring valuable experience, needed skills, and renewed enthusiasm to the business. You will be creating a positive work environment where productivity is higher, communication and cooperation is better, and potential problems like low morale are likely to be avoided. The effect will be felt by everyone; you, your employees, and even your customers. Promotions and Advertising Systems Good advertising is as much as result of good planning as creative talent; whether you are selling a product or a service. Your advertising and promotion systems will help you get the most out of your advertising dollars, no matter what your budget is. Do your advertising and promotional efforts generate the response you would like? While the marketing strategy systems help you to position your product in your market, promotions is the job of presenting your product in a way that makes the consumer want to buy it. Advertising, personal selling, public relations, and online marketing are all considered promotional activities because their ultimate objective is to make sales. Advertising is one of the best ways to promote what you are selling. But unless you know what you are doing, it can be risky for a small business owner with a limited budget. The promotional and advertising systems you implement will help you understand the ad buying and pay per click process, so you can create advertising that gets noticed by the right people. Even if you have someone else create your advertising, it’s important you understand the elements of an effective ad, to give the direction needed to ensure success. Whether creating an ad for a print publication or for online presentation, your promotional systems will help you create an effective message that will reach the right people at the right time, and generate the sales you want. Business Communication Systems As a business owner, you probably spend most of your day writing, speaking or listening to someone. Business communication systems help you master the skills you need to document your other systems, and clearly communicate your ideas to form better relationships with everyone you come in contact with. If a breakdown in communication has ever caused problems with your employees, or your customers, you know resolving these problems will cost you valuable time; sometimes money. Business communication systems will help you get your message across in any situation: one on one, in a group or when you need to resolve conflicts or negotiate agreements. Most importantly, you will hone your listening ability and use it as a tool for better understanding. Without good communication skills, your strategic plan will never get off the ground. Your promotional strategies won’t reach their full potential, and you certainly won’t be able to lead and motivate your employees, or build strong relationships with your customers. Since so much is riding on how you communicate, it is important you develop the systems to help you do it well. Personal Selling Systems While your marketing and promotion systems will attract prospects to your business, you still need effective personal selling systems to turn those prospects into costumers and achieve consistent sales results. Do your sales people have a systematic way to discover what the customer needs and wants? Do your sales depend on the talent of a particular person? Or do you have a sales system that enables all your people to produce consistent results? You can reach a certain level of growth while your sales are still dependent on you or another sales person. But unless you have the right systems in place, you’ll eventually hit a ceiling, where your sales will eventually drop off. Maybe you suffer from the “Peak and Valley” system. You can go out and sell as much as you can; then your business comes to a grinding halt while you switch hats and deal with the orders you just got. You may be waiting for a superstar sales person to show up and solve your problems, but there is no guarantee they will be able to work their magic in your particular business, and if they leave, your sales expertise goes with them. When results depend on your own selling skills, or those of someone else, your bottom line will constantly change, and so will the messages sent to your customers. Personal selling systems will give you predictable control over increasing sells from your existing customers and developing the new business you want. Financial Management Systems Financial management isn’t just about keeping track of historical information or keeping the IRS happy. It’s about systems to plan and create the future of your business. Your financial management systems will give you a complete and accurate picture of what you did in the past, where you are now, and what adjustments you need to meet your future financial goals. Do you have a system in place to project your income and expenses so you can accurately predict your cash flow? Do you know how to use the information on your financial statements to help you anticipate and prevent problems in your business? How your business is doing financially at any given time should never be a mystery to you, or an assumption you make based on appearances. When you have the right financial systems in place, you will always know where you stand. But you will also have the ability to forecast future sales and expenses, so you can prepare for the future. Once you understand the key components of financial management, and the systems you need to run your business properly and predictably, you can begin to solve problems before they get out of hand, and you can take advantage of new opportunities that come your way. Leadership and Motivation Systems This final system for success you need to have in your business may be the most important of all. Your leadership and motivation systems have the power to make all of your other systems exceed your expectations. No matter how good they are, systems by themselves can’t create success; people do. When well led, highly motivated people turn on the systems you design, you will be able to expand your vision for your company to create whatever success you desire. Do you have systems in place to lead, motivate, and inspire your employees to pursue your vision for your business as passionately as you do? Do you have a system to assess the levels of ability and motivation of each employee? And a plan to lead each one to a new level, where they can operate independently and with confidence? You probably know you can’t motivate anyone yourself. You can’t control or reward your employees into consistently effective behavior. To go above and beyond the basic requirements of their job, employees need to be internally motivated. What you can do is put the right systems in place to create an environment that fosters self-motivation. The ultimate level of effectiveness you can reach with your leadership and motivational systems is to have systems in place that not only develop followers, but develop other leaders in your business. When your business grows with followers, you will be limited to growth by addition. You merely begin to develop and add new employees. But when you develop by leaders, you’re able to grow by multiplication. You have other leaders in your company who can add and develop new employees, expanding in leadership effectiveness. Your leadership and motivation systems are the secret to creating a self-running and self-perpetuating business that provides a platform for you to change the world! Imagine what it would be like for your business to take on a life of its own, apart from you, but according to your design. These nine systems are the crucial components of your ideal business. If each one is in place and working together, they become your systems for success. This all starts with the mindset and practice of approaching your business from a designer’s perspective, rather than the perspective of a specialist. The designer perspective helps you recognize and bridge the gap between where your business is today, and where you want it to be. From this basis you will then design and implement the specific systems that work together to get your business to the point where it is achieving consistent and predictable results, giving you the time and money margin you want to do even more to build beyond business and build a better world. You will have a business that works hard for you, rather than you working so hard for your business. The goal of this appendix has been to stimulate your thinking and give you some proven concepts that will help you get even better results from your business.  But just knowing what to do isn’t enough, you also need to know how to go about it. If you want to solve problems that stay solved, if you want to create that special kind of business where customers love doing business with you; if you want a place where you and your staff can’t wait to come to work each day; if you want to a business that gives you the time and money you need to build a better world, don’t just read this. Take action now to develop the systems your business needs to go to the next level! THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Keys to Healthy Accountability Is it possible to hold people accountable in a way that is healthy for relationships?  Why has accountability received such a bad rap?  Why is it such an unpopular subject? Many people have had bad experiences with unhealthy accountability that feels more like control, judgement, manipulation and even punishment. It is not your job to punish a spouse, friend or employee for not doing what they are supposed to do.  It is not your job to force him or her to stop or change the unhealthy behavior.  Accountability is not about trying to make someone else be or do what you want. You are not responsible for your partner’s actions or decisions.  If you have permission or request from your spouse to point out when they get off track from something they want to do, your job is just to point it out, not to control or cajole them. What he or she does with that information is out of your hands. Healthy accountability starts with a servant heart. It starts with, how am I here to serve you?  It is not at all about I am here to make you shape you or break you. More effective words for accountability might be how can I help “support”, “encourage”, or “assist” you in accomplishing what you want? The foundation for beneficial accountability is a strong relationship characterized by unconditional love and complete transparency. Healthy accountability thrives in a safe environment where there is unconditional love and transparency. Healthy accountability requires fostering honest, open communication.  People need to know that sharing the good, the bad and the ugly will all be received with the same love, acceptance and even forgiveness when needed. Healthy accountability thrives in an environment where people know that nothing they do or don’t do will make you love them any more or less.  Honest mistakes do not make me look down on your or punish you, whether in family or in business and regardless of the size or consequences. Radically close relationships require radical transparency.  And transparency is a pre-requisite to healthy accountability.  For example, in our family we give each other full access to each other’s life including passwords for everything. Hiding things or lying is a cardinal offense because it destroys transparency and trust and diminishes the ability to have healthy accountability in that relationship. Whenever accountability moves towards control it becomes cancerous to the relationship. Accountability can easily turn to judgement and control easily whenever the actions desired become more important than the relationship. Accountability requires relationship and permission. You only know how and when to hold someone accountable best when you have a close relationship with someone. In reality we can't truly hold someone accountable, as if we had complete control over someone else's behavior.  We can't force someone else to be accountable.  We can actually only hold ourselves accountable.  Self accountability is taking extreme ownership for our own actions.  What we can do is hold ourselves accountable for supporting someone else in their efforts to hold themselves accountable. The specifics of how accountability is done will look different in each relationship.  However, there are three steps that seem to be fairly common in any healthy accountability relationships. Simple Three Step System for Healthy Accountability Understand what the other person wants and determine best way to help them. Seek first to understand their desires. Ask questions like, “What do you really want in this area of your life (or business) to look like? What would you need to do to make that happen?”  That means the other person has to have a desire to be do or have something different. You can't make that up for them or make them want something that you think is better for them. Sometimes you can serve them well by helping them figure out what they want. This is more often the case in the work environment. Agree on clear expectations and get their permission to help. What are you telling me that you’d like to do differently?  Are you serious about doing that? When do you want to start taking action on that? Would you like me to help, encourage or support you in doing this?  How would you like me to support or encourage you in doing what you’re saying you want to do? Follow up. Care enough to pay attention to what is happening in their life.  Do what they’ve asked you to do or given you permission to do in supporting them.  Make the call. Schedule the meeting. Send the reminder. Ask the question.  Etc. Celebrate the wins and have the difficult conversations when needed.  Look for any possible opportunity to encourage, celebrate and cheer them on for any progress they have made toward their desires.   And be willing to have the tough conversations in love when needed. Always remember, the relationship is more important than the results. Cautions about Accountability Accountability does not mean punishing them for not coming through, by yelling, the silent treatment, ignoring them, complaining... taking something away.  Those things create no value in the relationship or in their life. For example, if we ask someone to do something or show up in a certain way and they don’t, what can we do? It helps to first gain some clarity. If someone does not follow through on something they agreed to, then we need to discuss it with them. We need to listen to what they want to tell us (not what we want to hear, but what they want to say), and then we need to accept it. At that point, we need to honestly state our truth without beating them up. Focus on exactly how you feel now and/or the impact on you or your family or team now, not the other times they let you down by doing something that you or they wanted. When you ask yourself how you feel or what the impact is on you, it takes great self-awareness to separate the current situation and impacts from past situations and impacts. Some people have a deep-seated feeling of low self-esteem or disappointment with your own life and those people sometimes try to hold others accountable because of that perspective of neediness in their own life. They need to show us we’re worthy and when they don’t come through, for many of us it is additional indictment to our level of self-worth.  They have once again proven how unlovable we are reinforcing our failures.   That is obviously never a position from which you can create healthy accountability in relationships. Ask yourself some questions to clarify what is happening inside of you.  Is this a significant incident in the overall treatment we receive in the relationship — is it the standard operating system of this person not respect me?  Or is this an isolated incident?  Or does this incident really have nothing to do with their respect for or honor of me?  Is this about them meeting my needs in an appropriate way?  Am I doing everything I can be doing to meet my own needs? How do I treat myself?  Am I respecting my own boundaries? Am I saying what I mean and backing it with action? If I’m remiss in how I treat myself, it is more likely that others will mistreat me.  We must practice self-care, love and respect. In self-care, we shift the control of ourselves from waiting or wanting someone else to fulfill us, to making sure we are honoring ourselves. We must begin with self-acceptance, which includes where we may judge ourselves harshly too. Often, those who have a huge inner-critic also are tend to judge others harshly. Self-care doesn’t mean we do everything on our own. It just means that we’re willing to do what we need to make sure we’re taken care of and that includes having boundaries for how we want to be treated. It always comes back to us when we’re talking about accountability. If we’re serious about a relationship, we need to be clear on those boundaries and what it means to uphold them. And if we’re not treated appropriately by others and we’re treating ourselves with respect and love, then it is probably time to re-evaluate our expectations of that relationship. Settling when we really love ourselves is not an option. It’s when we don’t really love ourselves that we want to hold everything outside of us accountable for that lack. Speak up with love, look within our thoughts and feelings to get clear follow through with action to back up our words, thoughts and feelings. If you’ve done this and you’re sure that the tough conversation you want to have is not driven by some of your own insecurities or internal deficiencies, then have the courage to have the difficult conversation. Having Crucial Conversations We recommend that you read the book, Crucial Conversation for more specific training on how to have healthy, tough conversations.    Defining moments in life come from having crucial conversations (as these create significant shifts in attitude and behavior). This book focuses on techniques on how to hold such conversations in a positive space when surrounded by highly charged emotions. Their findings are based on 25 years of research with 20,000 people. Their model has essentially 7 steps: 1)  Start with the heart (i.e empathy and positive intent) 2)  Stay in dialogue 3)  Make it safe 4)  Don’t get hooked by emotion (or hook them) 5)  Agree on a mutual purpose 6)  Separate facts from story 7)  Agree on a clear action plan Our success in life is dictated by the quality of relationships we can engender. Some people seem better at negotiating better quality outcomes (for all) than others do – they work with people rather than through people. They are able to hold deeper, more honest conversations that create a new level of bonding and are able to transform people, situations and relationships.  By being prepared to hold these conversations (often early) they ensure clarity over responsibility, define expectations and hence maintain high levels of performance.  When we let these conversations go by, we let standards slip and unwittingly give permission for unwanted behavior to continue. Crucial conversations lie all around us – all the time: from performance appraisals at work, up to discussing problems over sexual intimacy in marriage. The skills we need in the boardroom are the same skills we need in the bedroom. Instead of having these crucial conversations, people tend to fall into one of three behavior camps: Those who get emotionally drawn in and resort to threats/name calling; Those who silently fume; and those who speak openly, honestly and effectively. Upon analysis they found those in the third camp were more likely to stay together. Communities that embraced the issues and discussed things in open honest dialogue were ‘healthier’ than those who either tried to control or ignored them. Crucial conversations, by their very definition are important and can affect a person’s life. There are three factors that tend to define a crucial conversation: 1) Opinions differ 2) The stakes are high and 3) Emotions are high. If handled properly they create breakthroughs. If handled badly they can lead to breakdowns. Whole relationships can hang on how these are dealt with. And the reality is many people do not deal with them well – or at all. They live in either a sub-optimal state or hope the situation will resolve itself.   EPISODE RESOURCES: http://www.crucialconversations.com/sus and sign up for several free resources including a simple questionnaire to help better understand our own style when under stress. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

What if what you are doing in business right now is actually the most powerful platform you could possibly have to make this world a better place? Think about that!  In what other world could you find a better opportunity to impact every element of society?  Let me explain. I’ve spent the past thirty years straddling two very different worlds: the world of building businesses and the world of building churches. I have been involved in starting businesses that serve many people well. I have been involved in starting churches that serve many people well. My prevailing paradigm over the years was that the world of building a business to create happy customers and the world of building a church to create happy followers of Jesus were very separate and distinct. Of course, I tried to take my faith into the work world, and I tried to take some basic business savvy into the church world. In reality, though, it seemed quite normal for church and business to be very different spheres. As I entered the second half of my life and started focusing more on meaning, I began to experience an internal conflict.  When I was in the business world, I felt  that I should be focusing more on the church world to do things that “really counted” for my life mission and legacy. When I was in the church world, though, I had a similar gnawing angst–that I needed to do something in the business world that could effectively change society in ways the church world was not. A few years ago, I felt convicted to write a book on this subject. It was not because I had any ambition to be a published author. It simply felt like I needed the discipline of slowing down to ponder what, if any, connection there was supposed to be between these two worlds that could potentially make me and others more effective at building a better world.  I needed to figure out at a deeper level what is the ideal system for building better world.   You’ve Got to Wonder “Why”? On my journey to understand what, if any, intersection there was supposed to be between the business and church and non profit worlds, and what would be the ideal system to build a better society, I started by questioning a lot of my paradigms and assumptions. Why is it that it seems more noble or spiritual to build a church than it does to build a business? Why is it that more parents (especially religious parents) aren't telling their kids that the one of the best things they can do to build a better world is to build a highly effective business? Why is it that the pursuit of profit is seen by many religious people as somehow being an  “unholy” or second class pursuit compared to being a missionary or working in the ministry of a church? Why is it that business leaders don't often add to their scoreboard of success the value they create for society just by doing business well and providing quality products, services, jobs and thereby helping to build healthy communities? Why is it that churches don't celebrate the transformative effect that the business leaders in their church have on their city through the meaningful value they provide to society through their product, service, and/or culture? Why is it that when pastors are celebrating the food, clothing, shelter or education their church provides to needy people in the community through charity, they don't at the same time celebrate the business leaders who also provide food, clothing, shelter and education to thousands of people in their community through the income they provide employees, taxes paid and the goods and services they produce? Why is it that being Christian has often come to mean being religious people who isolate themselves from the evil influence of the world rather than being world-changing culture creators, as was the founder of Christianity? Why is it that the church is not more effective at accomplishing its original mandate of actually transforming cities and nations? Why is it that the church has become more known for what happens in the programs it holds on the weekend than for the influence it has on society throughout the week? Why is it so rare for the effects of the church to show up in improving economies and providing for people’s tangible needs? Why is it that churches, businesses, and governments have not been able to agree on an ideal system for improving society so they could cooperate more effectively to  build a better world? Why doesn't everyone understand the role businesses have in building a better world and why isn't there a defined model for doing this? Why is it that faith has been either largely ignored by successful business leaders or relegated to a religious notion that is perceived to have little bearing on success?   What Are We Missing? As I though about these questions, I really started to wonder: what am I missing here? Could it be that the way I was defining the role and system of church in this world might fall short of the originally intended paradigm?  Could it be that the way I was defining the role and system of business in this world might fall short of the ideal value proposition? What do you do with the fact that the leaders Jesus chose to start the original church were not religious people but where actually successful business people and strong leaders in the secular community? The four books of the Bible that Christians call  “the Gospels” (Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John) were all written by marketplace leaders, not religious leaders. Matthew had a tax collection business. Mark was the manager of a family business/trust.  Luke had a medical practice, and John owned a commercial fishing company. The key women, highlighted in the Bible as influential in the early church, were business leaders. Dorcas was a clothes designer. One of the most famous women in the early church, Priscilla, was a partner in a commercial tentmaking business. Another influential woman in the early church, Lydia, owned a textile brokerage company. Men and women who built the early church were actually building businesses. The founder of the Christian faith was actually a successful business leader in his community. Jesus wasn’t viewed as anything close to a religious leader for at least thirty of his thirty-three years on this earth. He was known as a regional business leader. He was known as a businessman who ran a profitable business by serving people well as he ran his family construction business. Jesus didn’t go to religious seminaries, temples or synagogues to find the key leaders whom he intentionally chose to launch a world-changing movement. None of the twelve core leaders that Jesus chose were religious leaders, priests or rabbis. Not one of them. They were all leaders in the marketplace. As I began to ponder these basic facts of history, I had to wonder why for much of my life as a business leader, I’d had this nagging feeling that when I was doing business I was not really doing all I could be doing for God–that if I was really devoted to God and His church, I would just be a pastor or a missionary and forget all this business stuff. If I was really spiritual, I would just build the church and not worry so much about building businesses.  At the same time I had to wonder why for much of my life as a church leader, I had this nagging feeling that when I was doing church stuff, I was not really having the depth of impact on building a better society and transforming the world for God that I could be having–that if I was sold out to seeing the church be as strategic and as well led as a highly successful business, that somehow it would transform cities and nations like it was supposed to.  I have believed this som much that I even started a non-profit that trains and coaches pastors on how to lead churches more strategically and for 20 years now we’ve been coaching pastors to lead churches more effectively and have seen many churches become more effective at accomplishing their mission and vision. The Consistent Key to Success in Building Society More and more these days as I do business around the world, I see that building successful businesses is the most consistent system for building successful societies across all nations. Our family was recently in Ireland.   In the period of one day, we toured ruins of a village from 1000 B.C. and a market from 1000 A.D. Then we walked through a modern, vibrant shopping area. Toward the end of the day I asked Sky, “From what you've seen today, what are the top two or three most common elements that build society in all cultures, in all times, in all places?” This led to a very interesting discussion.  You want to know what our conclusion was?  We concluded that all societies, at all times, are built on two fundamental things: family and business.  And that’s one of the reason why when we started this podcast a couple months later, we decided to focus this podcast primarily on systems for success in family and in business.   I believe that when done well, family and business are the two most fundamental pillars of healthy societies. We have a lot of content in these podcasts on systems for success in families and we have some on systems for success in business. Many of the systems for success apply to both realms. Societies throughout all times and in all places have been built on families. As far back as we can go in history we know that people have lived in families. There is no time in history where this was not the case. There has been no society that has succeeded very long by trying to destroy the system of family . . . There have been and continue to be plenty of proposals at changing the family system. And despite many actual experiments over the centuries, actual results have proven that human societies work best when there are healthy family units. Yet families have always been economic units too. Throughout history, they engaged in doing business. What they could not hunt or farm for themselves, they traded for by offering something of value to others. They formed cottage industries and engaged in money-making activities. As I do business in many of countries these days, it has become glaringly clear to me that building better businesses is a vital key to building a better world. The heart of building our world is constructing businesses that make families, communities, societies, and nations flourish. Yet much of society believes that the church or non-profits are the key to building a better world. There is this huge perceived chasm between building businesses and building churches. For some reason, most people don’t see any correlation between pursuing commerce and pursuing cultural change through non-profit ministries. There is this giant perceived gap between going after commerce and going after God. I am now starting to see that this perceived gap continually perpetuates a cultural paradigm that hold the church back from having ask much tangible power as it could have to make the world a better place. It also blinds business leaders into missing the real value in they bring to building a better world and accomplishing God's purposes on this earth. So, as I’ve been journaling my journey on this subject in recent years I started to crystallize new paradigms and processes that are giving me fresh insight and inspiration regarding how my life as a business leader impacts building a better world. God Loves Business! Another one of my initial core conclusions is that God actually loves business and God really loves business leaders! God doesn't hate money, and He doesn't hate people who make a ton of it by serving their fellow man well. In fact, I'm not sure there is anything that makes God smile more than seeing business leaders create so much value and serve people so well that those people are willing to give up this thing called money in exchange. At the risk of this statement being a bit of a spoiler, I will say that I am increasingly convinced that God might have even chosen business as His preferred method to manifest His presence and perpetuate His values in this world. What if what you are doing in business right now is actually the most powerful platform you could possibly have to make this world a better place? What if what you are doing right now as a business leader is really God's ideal strategy for doing His best work to transform society on this earth to be more like His original intention? I have spent my life being very involved in many wonderful churches and other non-profits which are valiantly attempting to meet the desperate needs of society. Churches are full of wonderful people, including wonderful business leaders, who believe that the people and programs of the church are the best way to solve the massive societal problems facing our world. Many churches certainly play a valuable role in attempting to address these problems. Churches mobilize tremendous talent and pour out significant resources to address these needs. Churches have invested two thousand years of hard efforts trying to meet these needs through what we have considered the directly sponsored ministries of the church. The results are mixed, though. In fact, the brutal reality is that churches are not making the progress that they want nor the progress the world needs in overcoming these global challenges of society.. Dare I say that the church is not winning the war on poverty, illiteracy, hunger, etc.? For sure, the church can show that it is making some progress. The church can show many benefits it is providing that help meet the social needs of the world. But its contributions are small in comparison with the scope of what really needs to happen in this world. The reality is that there are very few churches or non-profits that make a truly significant dent in these global problems. Why is that? There are many reasons. Let me just address a couple of systemic reasons which cause obvious limitations: money and manpower. Most churches and non-profit agencies believe they could do more if they had more resources. If they just had more people and time committed to the cause, if they just had more money to pour into the mission, they believe they could make a bigger dent in the problems. This is no doubt true. But the practical reality is that most churches and non-profits operate on a small percentage of the income of their constituencies. Because of this there will never be enough resources to meet a large percentage of the world's needs. Even if everyone donated 10% of their income, there would never be enough money to meet 100% of the world’s needs. There will simply never be enough donor money to deal with the realities of the societal challenges of the world on a large scale. So, one of the practical challenges the church has is a basic resource problem. There’s an old gospel song that says, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  Well If God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, then where are the cattle when it comes to meeting all the needs of the world? They don't all seem to be in the church. Where are the resources to meet the practical and tangible needs of our world?   Only Business Can Create Resources Resources are created in business! In fact, all money is actually created by business. Business creates resources when it meets a need at a profit. Business receives revenue when it serves the needs of people in a way that makes them happy. Business earns profit  when what it costs the business to serve the needs of others is less than the dollars that are received from the customer. That profit is what pays the business owner for the skill, risk, and time he or she invested to serve that need. That revenue produces incomes for employees and results in taxes that fund the building of society and in also results in personal charitable donations that fund the building of the direct ministries of the church and other non-profits. Some Christians and certain other religious groups actually see profit as evil, as if business only makes a profit by taking advantage of or doing harm to people. Yet they profit system is pretty simple.  Profit is simply the difference between the price that is paid for a product or service and the cost to produce that product or service. It is profit that empowers the business to create more value to benefit the world. It is profit that allows a business to invest in meeting whatever need the business finds, and profit that allows it to meet that need in ever-increasing magnitude. It is profit that allows the business to increase the scope of the value it provides to more and more people. For example, if you can make a profit by serving ten people, then you have a pathway to make a profit by serving one hundred people, and then a thousand, and then a million. It becomes a self-perpetuating, ever-increasing vehicle to meet more needs in society. Not everyone sees or uses their business as a platform to make the world a better place.  But my increasing conviction is that is not only the highest and best use of business, it is the use the system God designed to make the world rebuild the world with sustainable values, norms and outcomes. Historically, many pastors believe that the primary value business or business leaders bring to the church is that they will give more donations to the church if they make more money. But after two thousand years, that paradigm has not yet successfully fully resourced the direct ministries of the church or the direct outreach and social service programs of other non-profits. It has not yet enabled non-profit institutions to meet the ever-increasing societal needs of the world. Of course, business should continue providing resources to the valuable programs of churches and other non-profits. And business leaders like me should continue donating to those good causes. However, what I am proposing here is that business not only has the power to create resources for the mission of the church, it also has the power to build great value in the world just by doing business well. My closing challenge for you today is to first change your paradigm about the power you have in business to make this world a better place. And second, think of one or two things you might do differently if you really believed that what you do in business could have an impact way beyond just the doing of business.  What could you do that would make life better for your coworkers, your customers, your clients, your suppliers or the people in your community that your business effects?  What could you do that would in some way influence better values, better relationships, more joy, more fulfillment in the people whose lives that you touch in business every day?  Go beyond just doing business. The time you spend in the business world is your system to build a better world. EPISODE RESOURCES: There are no additional resources on this subject right now.  But watch for the book coming out soon! THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

This week I'm incredibly excited to bring you an episode from Systems for Success. SFS is a podcast led by my dad, Lonnie Gienger, and once a month our entire family gets together for a "family roundtable discussion" episode and we teach on specific topics as a group. This week we discuss financial management and how to control money so it doesn't control you. It's also exciting for me to have the SD community meet my entire family all in this one episode. They are all entrepreneurs, podcasters, teachers, influencers etc...just generally high achievers. We like so say "you may be born into the Gienger family, but you still have to become one". :) RESOURCES/THINGS MENTIONED Systems for Success THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SUCCESSFUL DROPOUT COMMUNITY! Create a free account in the forum and introduce yourself! Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast. Join our private Facebook Group! Follow @successfuldropout on Instagram! Support Successful Dropout on Patreon

Money is not important enough to let it control our life! So why not learn how to control our money so we gain more control of our life?  But money is like water.  It's a valuable resource necessary for life that can easily slip through our fingers.  The key is to not let it slip through our fingers without our permission. In this round table discussion, we share some of the things we have done to build money management paradigms and processes into the fabric of our individual and family finances.  We reference The Gienger Good Stewardship plan that we developed to help debt proof our family and give our kids a solid financial foundation for their adult lives.  Several times in this episode, we reference the following introduction to the plan which we used when we first presented these concepts in our family: The Gienger Good Steward Plan Gienger Family Mission Statement:  To courageously lead generations of people to become devoted friends and sold out followers of Christ. Gienger Family Vision Statement:  To be intimate Friends of God and effective Kingdom Builders. Gienger Good Steward Plan Purposes: To develop our kids into effective manager’s of God’s resources which He provides them so they can be generous on every occasion in ways that result in thankfulness to God. To teach our kids to be channels of God’s material blessings to the world so that people will be lead to become devoted friends and sold out followers of Christ. To help our kids learn to give, save and spend money wisely and avoid consumer debt in order to give them a solid financial future. To gradually turn over to our kids the money required for their care and support as members of our family. To trust them to be good stewards of a portion of the Gienger family resources. To provide a foundation of personal financial management training that will serve them well the rest of their lives. Plan Guidelines Salary and Other Income While on the plan, kids will receive a monthly “salary” that will become theirs to manage. The amount of salary will be determined by the parents.  Salaries will be subject to annual review by parents, or more often as deemed necessary.  Salary will be reviewed and may be increased on the first day of each new school year at parent’s discretion according to the kid’s real needs and demonstrated ability to be an effective and wise financial manager.  Note that additional money may be earned to supplement the base salary from income producing jobs…inside the home for specific pre-agreed extra tasks for extra money beyond normal “privileges” for being a part of this family. Giving and Saving Requirements Kids must give away at least 10 percent of the total salary and other income to things that directly build God’s Kingdom.  They must save or invest at least 10 percent of total salary and other income in a real bank or other parent-approved investment vehicle.    The balance of the monthly salary will be used according to the kid’s plan and in keeping with our family’s values.  Note that kids can give additional money and/or save up more in short term savings for future larger purchases from additional earnings or under spending. Financial Responsibility List Kids will have a list of items and activities the parents will no longer pay for while the kid is receiving a monthly salary.  The list is subject to review and revision at any time by the parents.  Additional items will be added to the list on the first day of each new school year related to the increase in salary. Home Privilege Responsibility List Kids will continue to have a list of tasks they will be responsible to do as a privilege because they are part of the community of this family.  Citations with fines may be required if these tasks aren’t done in the time or manner agreed. Spending Plan and Record Kids are asked to develop a plan for how much money they intend to spend in each category and keep a record of actual expenses by category.   The next month salary will only be given after the record of all spending from the prior month is shown to parents. Once It’s Gone, It’s Gone Kids will not borrow money from anyone including parents, not even for five minutes.  There will be no “advances” on ahead of pay day.  It they run out of money before the next payday, that’s their choice, but there will be no more income until the next pay day. Hands-Off Parents will not criticize or interfere with the kid’s management decisions as long as the child follows these guidelines and demonstrates their ability to live and manage their salary according to the family’s values. Graduation Date Kids will graduate from the Gienger Good Steward Plan within two months after they are no longer full time students or when they move away from home, at which time their salary will cease.   EPISODE RESOURCES: If you'd like to use the cash envelop spending system that we reference, it is helpful to have an envelop for each budget category.  That envelop gets funded at the beginning of each month with the monthly amount of cash budgeted for that category.  All cash spent for items in that budget category comes out of that envelop and you write a something on the front that describes what it was spent for.  We just used standard legal size envelops, ran them through the desktop printer and then punched holes in them so they could be held vertically in a regular three ring binder.  If you want to create your own cash spending envelops, here's a link to our word document which you can customize and print.  Envelop Spending Record At the end of each month you total up what you spent in each category as recorded on each envelop as you spent the money throughout the month.  Then you write the total amount of spending for each category on a summary spreadsheet that shows your budgeted amount for each category and the actual amount that you actually spent that month in each category.  At the beginning of each school year, we created a new list of expense items and monthly budget for those items that each child was responsible to pay for with their "salary" money.  And we also listed which expenses that mom and dad would continue to pay for.   Here's a link to the spreadsheet we used which you could customize for yourself. Spending Plans-Blank   THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

What would it be worth to you and your family if you had a process that you knew could help you leave a harmonious world changing legacy for many generations? Your family legacy includes all that your family holds dear and wants to preserve in future generations. In this episode, you’ll hear the content from a presentation that I have been doing recently at conferences for wealthy families.  I share a strategy and case study illustrations from my own family as I’ve spend the last 16 years trying to figure out how to create my own multi-generational legacy. Sixteen years ago I met a man named Greg Gunn who asked me a question that rocked my world.  He said, “Lonnie, why do you invest so much time developing and implementing clear mission, vision, values and strategy for your business but you don’t take the same intentional approach to leading your family?” I honestly had never thought about it that way.  I didn’t even know where to begin leading my family that strategically.   So what I am sharing with you in this episode is based on many years of coaching and trial and error practice in our own family.  A I believe this is a strategy that can help anyone develop multi-generational harmony and world changing legacy. Great legacies are no accident.  Mere hope is not a likely pathway to a legacy you’ll be proud of.  A great legacy requires a clear strategy and action. This process for creating family legacy results in a more harmonious family with greater sense of shared identity and purpose. Here’s an overview of the two-stage process for creating multi-generational family legacy. The first stage is defining your family compass that will provide consistent direction to your family now and in future generations.  Your family compass has three components: Family values Family mission Family vision. The next stage is planning your strategy for implementation of your family compass using specific Relational pathways Structural pathways I’ll be providing you with the principles that drive each of these components, a process you can use to do this in your family and some practical case study illustrations from our family. Check out the link in these show notes Resources for the PowerPoint presentation that has all the questions and processes  you need to work through in order to begin to implement this in your family.   I’d recommend that listen through the podcast once to get a good overview.  Then, if you want to actually do something to impact your legacy, listen again following along in the PowerPoint presentation and pausing the podcast and answer the questions on your own or with family members.  Yes, if you want this to actually make any difference in your life, you’ll need to actually take action on it. :) RESOURCES: Download the PowerPoint presentation used during my recent presentation on this topic at the IMN Family Office Conference, check out Family Legacy Presentation-IMN Conference, 5-15-17 THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Relationships are the carrier of all success in life and in business. So why not plan and implement specific systems that will develop the relationships that are important to you?  Why not be as intentional about the practices that develop healthy relationship as we are about the practices that develop healthy bodies or healthy businesses? Why do we focus on relational systems?  Because relationships are the primary mechanism to carry your family and business legacy to multiple generations. Children don't rebel against authority, they rebel against lack of relationship.  How is that teenagers will do everything their favorite coach or favorite teacher tells them to do? But they don’t listen to their parents? Why is that?  Because that relationship is important to them.  How is that teenagers will live under authority of their friends or the gang and yet they will live in rebellion to their parents.  Because the teens don't rebel against authority they rebel against lack of relationship.  Those relationships with their coach or teacher or friends are often stronger and more important to them. Where family identity and relationship is strong, peer pressure is weaker. So how do we make sure we are continuing to build relationships within our family so we aren't driving them outside the family to get their identity and vision for life?   We have found that you do that by implementing a consistent strategy of specific relationship systems. Following are some of the relational systems our family has practiced over the last 25 years which we mention in this round-table discussion: Family goal setting retreats Family compass review vacations Family council meetings Family nights One-on-one dates Family connection time Monthly “Shield Meeting” with Spouse to review relationship values and standards (Kylon & Te) Intentionally working together The “Listening Game” (An intentional process to listen well) Intentional variety to keep relationships vibrant ANNUAL GOAL SETTING RETREATS We do this all together as a family at the Beginning of each new Take 4 hours of solitude and silence where each family member journals on their successes in the last year and writes down goals for the new year After everyone takes time alone to work on their individual goals, Then everyone comes together to share so we celebrate each other’s successes and plan to support each other’s goals If you’d like more information on this check out the Systems for Success Podcast Episode 2 where we do a round table discussion right after doing our annual goal setting retreat. FAMILY COMPASS REVIEW VACATIONS We do a fun annual vacation that the whole family enjoys in the middle of the year every summer. Our family loves backpacking in the mountains so that’s usually what we do. During these annual vacations we Plan intentional time and specific activities to review our family mission, vision and values We Celebrate successes that we see individually and as a family in living out our mission, vision and values. We take time to discuss how to better live it out And most importantly, we make creative memories related to our family vision, mission and values. We’ve done plays and skits about our family mission vision or values.  We’ve built things that represent our mission or vision.  We’ve made up songs and chants about them.  One time we wrote our visions statement with 15-20 foot tall letters on beach that you could see for miles away. FAMILY COUNCIL MEETINGS This is the official guidance group of the family especially as our kids have all become adults and most are out of the home. Comprised of family members who are actively engaged in guiding family activities in a way that is informed by and responsive to the family compass and goals. Meets every two to three months in a formal meeting with clear agenda, leadership and minutes. First generation families can start with this as its only regular family assembly. As the family grows larger and to multiple generations, the family council may be an elected subset of the entire family assembly that includes all family members. In this case, compose the family council so that it looks like the family, with representation from all generations, both genders, in-laws, active and passive owners, etc. In larger, multigenerational families, the family council is a representative group of the entire family for more efficient planning, creating policies, and strengthening business-family communication and bonds. Following are some good questions to ask during Family Council Meetings: What is something you are really proud of that our family or a business or individual in our family has accomplished since our last meeting? What have we done as a family or individually since our last meeting that demonstrates the living out of our family values, mission or vision? What could we do to continue to improve our relationships or communication? Does anyone have a problem they’d like help solving? What can we do? How can we help? How are everyone’s business and entrepreneurial pursuits going? How can we help, support, collaborate or synergize with each other more? Do you have personal needs or challenges that any of us can support you with or at least pray for you about? What do we have planned between now and our next meeting that might benefit from coordination or communication about family schedules or resources? Following are the responsibilities of our Family Council: Celebrate family and individual successes. Steward of family mission, vision values and constitution. Oversee family Investment Committee and monitor performance of family investments. Managing and drafting legal documents concerning the family estate planning. Managing the family’s philanthropic efforts. Overseeing family property and asset management. Resolving family conflicts if haven’t been resolved informally. Managing the strategic and tactical goals of the family enterprise. Organizing activities that strengthen family bonds. Formulating policies for family members working in family businesses. Define the responsibilities of a family office. Forum where family members can share personal objectives, concerns and ideas with reference to matters affecting family values, family unity and business success. Strategic planning for family businesses, family non-profits/foundations and the family council. Formulating policies including inclusion or exclusion of spouses in council or other family entities. FAMILY NIGHTS It’s best if this is the same night every week and we all make it a high priority so nothing else gets in the way of this important night. The primary purpose is to build relationship Do something fun and interactive that builds relationship. Don’t just watch movies or play video games And sometimes take some time to share stories and/or discuss questions or concepts related to your family mission, vision or values ONE ON ONE DATES First priority is weekly date with spouse (if you’re married) And have typically done a date with each child at least once a month When you’re having this valuable one on one time, Look for opportunities to celebrate ways they are living family mission, vision or values and look for opportunities to celebrate progress on their personal goals Primary purpose of these dates is to build relationship. Have fun and make good memories. DAILY CONNECTION TIME Find a daily time to connect with your wife and kids who are living at home.   It’s amazing how easy it is to get so busy that we don’t even share meals together.  We’ve found it important to prioritize Finding at least 30-60 minutes a day to turn off all media and just communicate and build relationship This could be during a meal, first thing in the morning or right before bed. Take this opportunity to ask some meaningful questions like: What did you learn today? What was the high and low experience of your day? What are you looking forward to tomorrow? You’ll be amazed at what these simple relational systems do to build strong relationships in your family! RESOURCES: For more information on the concepts behind "The Listening Game" referenced in this podcast, check out Building Reflective Listening Skills. THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them.   JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Our latest learnings about how to accomplish big dreams and goals by setting a plan of action, and following it. In this family round table discussion, you’ll learn what we’ve discovered about how reaching goals takes a systematic approach to planning & action. QUESTIONS DISCUSSED --Think of some big dream or goal you’ve had that felt so massive that you didn’t know if it was possible, but you ended up finding a way to accomplish it? What was the dream or goal? Why did it seem overwhelming when you first set your sights on it? What did you end up doing to break it down into actionable steps and discipline yourself to make progress? What did you learn from that process? --What do you think keeps people from setting or effectively pursuing big, important goals? --What has helped you personally move past your hesitations to accomplish big goals? --What is the most effective system you’ve currently found to break down your big dreams or goals into action plans that help insure regular progress? What are some real-time learnings or best practices about how you are doing this now? A SIMPLE GOAL SETTING SYSTEM Chelann referenced the goal setting system that she uses that is described in her book. Following is an excerpt from Dear Millennial, If you want to order the entire book, you can find it on Amazon or Audible. GOALS TURN YOUR MISSION AND VALUES INTO REALITY The point of an audacious goal is to reach for something that appears to be bigger than life, and most definitely bigger than what seems realistic. That’s why it’s a goal—it seems just out of reach, and that is the exciting part. The challenge is that we get excited in the moment, and once that excitement wears off, we tend to become daunted by the dream. This leads to feeling like it’s too big to accomplish. That’s why action steps to your goals are going to be your best friend. They take a giant objective and break it down into small and realistic action steps. When we are goal setting we constantly apply the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Although, on a side note, I’m not sure who ever wanted to eat an elephant in the first place. But it works for the analogy. As I mentioned above, too many people stop at creating their mission and values. They may read over them a couple times here and there, but because they aren’t taking action on them, they get discouraged and stop all together. A car without wheels is of no use to anyone. Your mission and values are your car (the foundation and engine to your dream) and your goals are your wheels. Goal setting is your map to success. And with a plan, your dream will seem more than realistic to accomplish. You’ll feel fully equipped to chase it instead of stressed about the unknown. WHAT MY GOALS HAVE DONE FOR ME If a 15 year-old can create a compass for herself without having any idea of what she’s doing, you can, too, no matter what your age. I’m going to help you break your dream down into actionable steps with your mission and values as a foundation. When it comes to my compass, I break life down into spheres. A sphere is each major component of your life. You can create your spheres in whatever fashion you would like. I have a sphere for myself spiritually, mentally and emotionally, financially, physically, and for me as a business woman, which contains sub-spheres each of my business endeavors below it. Underneath each sphere is a description of my overall object for that sphere that year. This helps me categorize different areas and roles in a more organized fashion. Here’s an example of what one of your spheres could look like. This is a sub-sphere underneath the overarching sphere of business; it’s essentially what I used to break down the giant objective of writing this book plus or minus a few details. Sphere: My first book Overall objective of that sphere: I will have my first book published the week of September 26, 2017. Through the book, resources, and processes that come from it, I am establishing authority as a young entrepreneur and inspiring and empowering the younger generation to live in extreme freedom and complete life balance through the platform of being an entrepreneur and Christ follower. Yearly Goals: - Book published by September 26, 2017. - Have 5 cold lead documents for exercises throughout book - Over 10,000 copies of book sold within a year of publishing - Have book reach Amazon best seller status in two categories - Get over 100 positive reviews on Amazon within first year - To be generating $$$ a month from book sales - Grow email list to 5,000 - Have a process/program people can purchase through book (convert readers into customers) Monthly Goals: - Finish writing rough draft of book - Hire an editor - Research how to create an audio book - Research how to create pdf book - Create two of the cold lead documents Weekly Goals: - Write three chapters for rough draft - Publish an ad for editors on Upwork - Ask 3 people who’ve created an audio book how they did it - Research pros and cons of pdf book vs print - Create one cold lead document After reading through that goal sphere, do you see how all of a sudden my giant goal of writing my first book before the age of 21 not only has a step-by-step plan but also feels realistic to make happen? This is one of my favorite topics to talk about because no matter how big the goal, there is always something you can do today to get a step closer to accomplishing it! As you can see, I started with my overall objective. This is basically a phrase that summarizes your overall goal in a sentence or two. I like this sentence to be formatted in the present tense, like it’s already happening. That way, when you read it, it affirms your ability and desire to achieve it. SMART GOALS Next, make your yearly goals. Take your overall objective and break that down into bullet points of specific SMART goals that need to happen for that overall objective to be accomplished. It’s very important that these goals are SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed. Meaning, I’m not just going to put “sell a lot of books” as one of my goals because, when do I reach that goal? When I sell a hundred books or when I sell 10,000 books? Instead, I put a specific and realistic number of books to sell by a set time. As a result, I know without a doubt exactly when I will reach that goal and can celebrate that victory. Your yearly goals are the big overarching goals that you need to have done in order to accomplish that big main objective. Next come your monthly goals. These goals are your yearly goals broken down into what you need to accomplish month by month. I usually go through each of my yearly goals, picking them apart and placing them into my monthly goals in a way that results in them being completed within a year’s time. Now we get to the fun part—your weekly goals. Go through each of your monthly goals and break them down into your week. Break them down into specific action steps that need to be done each week. This part isn’t on my compass because that would be one long document, but the next obvious step is breaking your weekly goals into daily goals. Every evening, I sit down and look at the weekly goals I need to accomplish in each sphere. From there, I write down what I need to accomplish for the next day. One of my most effective hacks for having a productive day is planning out the day the night before! Waking up with a plan is one of the best feelings. It leaves no room for wasted time or purpose. TIME BLOCKING If you’re super list oriented like me, you’ll take those daily goals and organize them into a time-blocked timeline for that day. Time-blocking is a simple system I use each day to insure that I stay on track with what I need to accomplish for that day. I’m sure you’ve heard the concept of a task expanding to the time you allot to it. Well, I’ve tested that out multiple times and it’s true. If I allot one hour to finish a chapter in this book, it’s going to take one hour. I time-block by starting from the end of my day moving backwards. If I want to be in bed by 10:00 p.m., then I’m going to start time blocking from that point backwards. Here’s an example of what my time-block schedule could look like for any given day: 10:00 p.m.- bedtime 9:30 p.m. – get ready for bed 9:00 p.m. – time-block tomorrow 8:30 p.m. – get home from family dinner 6:00 p.m. – family dinner 5:30 p.m. – get ready for dinner 4:45 p.m. – edit and finalize one Entrepreneur Before 25 Podcast episode 3:45 p.m. – respond to all messages (emails and texts) 1:45 p.m. – edit 3 chapters of rough draft of book 12:00 p.m. – workout 6:45 a.m. – work at NUYU Juice Bar 6:15 a.m. – get ready for the day 5:00 a.m. – morning routine You get the picture. Notice how I have set and given myself a realistic amount of time for each task. I like to add this buffer to make sure I set myself up for success. I know that it might not take me an hour to respond to all my messages, but I’m going to allot myself that much time anyways just in case I’ve fallen off schedule somewhere else in the day and need some catch-up time. Now, time-blocking might not be for you, but I would encourage you to at least give it a try. Time-blocking allows me to get everything done that I need to throughout the day, and with my personality, that level of organization takes my stress levels down from where they would normally be. Through this break-down process, we took a giant objective and broke it all the way down into what you need to accomplish today in order to make your big, audacious dream a reality. How exciting is that? Don’t be overwhelmed by this process. It’s a process that can take place in many different forms. You just need to find the one that works best for you. But no matter what, goal setting usually has this same type of foundation. If you have a dream that scares you, and you feel like is bigger than life itself, you can and you will accomplish it using this process. TAKE ACTION Now it’s time for you to take action to create another system for your success. Download the systems for developing your personal mission. Then take some time answering the key questions that will help you begin to define your personal life mission.  Go ahead.  Take this foundational step to designing the life of your dreams...a life full of fulfillment and purpose!   RESOURCES: To access the Tello app which was referenced in this podcast as a tool to help you organize your goals and tasks, go to https://trello.com/ or you can search for it on your mobile phone app store. For a template on creating the goal portion of your compass, go to this link: https://www.chelanngienger.com/compass-template THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. JOIN THE SYSTEMS FOR SUCCESS COMMUNITY! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Today I have a VERY special guest on the podcast! You get to hear from my dad, Lonnie Gienger! You're definitely in for a treat. My dad is one of the greatest leaders I know. So to get him on the show to talk about his favorite topic (which also happens to be leadership) was incredible and such an honor. Even though I get to talk to my dad all the time, I was taking notes during this interview because he shared so much wisdom: A brief bio of Lonnie: Lonnie has been actively involved in building numerous entrepreneurial ventures and has owned and managed several successful businesses over the last 30 years. His passion is using business as a platform to build a better world. And his purpose is to develop and implement self-perpetuating leadership development systems that draw millions of people around the world to experience systems for extraordinary life success.   Resources: Connect with Lonnie further:  Facebook |  LinkedIn | Instagram  Listen to the Systems For Success Podcast! THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. Also, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I definitely read each and every one of them. Become part of the 25 Tribe! Subscribe to the Entrepreneur Before 25 Podcast. Enter your email for regular emails from Chelann Gienger on how to live a life of freedom and balance while being a young entrepreneur. Follow @chelanngienger on Instagram!

Your personal mission statement is about the contribution you want your life to make in this world.  Values define who you want to be.  Mission declares what you want to accomplish with your life. If you have listened to the last episode on values and taken action on it...you’ve taken some time to think about and hopefully write down your personal values… In that episode I recommended that you take some time to think about how you want to be remembered by the most important people in your life in terms of the guiding principles that affect how you interact with people — how you live your life. Who you want to be. Your personal mission statement takes that a step further now. You’re values answer the question of how you want to be remembered in terms of character. Now think of the same relationships categories in your life and ask yourself what you would want the key people in your life to say about what you did in your life — your contributions, achievements, and experiences. ROLES What would you want your spouse to say what you accomplished with your life? What would you want your friends or business associates to say about what you contributed to this world? What would you want your kids to say about the experience you left behind on this planet when you’re dead and gone? I think the first time I did something significant about this was after I went to a Stephen Covey seminar in the mid 90’s.  Covey talked about looking at my life through the lens of the different roles and relationships I have.  He suggested that the place to start understanding life purpose is to get clear on my purpose for each key role in my life. Here’s what I wrote down back then. My spouse - My spouse is the most important person in my life. I will treat my spouse with love and respect at all times. My children - My children inherit the future. I will provide them with every opportunity within my means to develop them to their fullest potential. My friends - My friends are my devoted support structure. I will not neglect my friends but will always be there for them, as they are for me. My business associates - My business associates look to me for leadership and guidance. I will set the example of honesty and integrity in all my business relationships. My God - My God is the highest priority in my life. I will strive to live my life in a way that is honoring to Him. My community - My community is where my family lives, works and plays. I will be involved in making my community a better and safer place for all who reside here. Some people find that defining a purpose statement for each of the key areas of their life like this is the easiest way to start on the journey to living life with a clear mission behind everything you do.  If you haven’t done this yet, you might try that approach. Think about each of the important people in your life and imagine how each would want to describe their thoughts and feelings about what you have accomplished in your life. Think about the key roles you play in your life. A student, friend, sibling, son/daughter, partner, employee, and so on. What impact do you want to have on others in each of those roles? What impression to you want to make? When you are at the end of your life looking back what would you feel really good about accomplishing in each of these key roles of your life? You may start with a written purpose statement for each of the roles you fulfill.  If you just stay there for a long while that could serve you very well. Eventually, you might want to develop one single statement of purpose for your life as a whole.   And in fact, some people find its best to start there with one statement rather than statements for each role in your life.  Some do both.  There’s no one size fits all to this.  It’s a very personal thing.  What counts is that you find the system that works for you to have great clarity on the purpose that drives what you do in your life.  The mission that will make your life matter. If you want to move from purpose statements for each role in your life to one life mission statement look at all the purposes phrases you list for each role of your life and look for themes that may inform you of the overarching purpose for your life. HEROES In my journey of seeking clarity on my life mission over the years another helpful system I’ve discovered is to think about my heroes. Who has impacted you in the most significant, positive way? Was it a friend? A teacher? A relative? A peer?  Make a list of your personal heroes.  Then list the qualities, accomplishments and values you most admire in them. I don’t remember all the heroes I listed when I first did this exercise years ago.  Some heroes stay the same and some change over time as we learn and grow and meet new people. Some heroes are alive, some are historic figures.  Some are people I actually know and others are people I have just read about.  As I reflect back on my heroes over the years, they all have certain qualities and accomplishments in common.  All my heroes are courageous leaders who did and said things to positively influence millions of people around the world.  They all left some type of multigenerational positive impact.  They all left a pattern of success that they taught or that others could learn form and follow to become more successful, more fulfilled, more effective. And that’s one of the reason why our family mission statement starts with to courageously lead generations of people.  And that’s one of the reasons why my personal mission statement is to develop and implement self-perpetuating leadership development systems that draw millions of people around the world to understand, live by and promote God’s universal systems for success. Hopefully as you identify your heroes and write down the characteristics and accomplishments that you most admire in them, you will get valuable clues to help you develop your own powerful statement of life purpose. THE PERFECT DAY Another way to get at understanding your life purpose is to envision and build the specifics for your perfect day, your perfect week, month and ultimately life. This is an exercise that starts to initiate you dreaming again. Moving you from your current situation to where you want to be, fully activated in your life purpose. The goal is to become passionate and committed, knowing you are in the process of living out your ideal life purpose. Here’s how The Perfect Day Exercise works: Spend twenty minutes just imagining what a 24 hour day would look like where you were fully living out the ideal purpose for your life. Write down hour by hour what your perfect day would look like.  We’ll include on the Perfect Day Worksheet in show notes. Be as specific as you can about your feelings, what your environment looks like, smells like, and people that you are around. What time you wake up, travel, eat, meet, every aspect is to be as detailed as possible. Write down how you would feel inside as you go through your day. After you’ve gone through this initial brainstorming process outlined there, you’ll take all the information and write as a narrative story called “A Day in My Perfect Passionate Life” authored by you. If you want to go the extra-mile, write a narrative for your Perfect Week! Take the Perfect day and write out a perfect week by repeating the Perfect Day process for seven consecutive days. Watch out this could become motivating ! LIFE MISSION DISCOVERY QUESTIONS So this last system is a set of questions that will help you begin to think deeply about the passions, abilities, values and dreams that are deep within your heart and will provide clues to discovering your life purpose. Find a time and place where you will not be interrupted. This is something that would be a great guide for an hour or two or even a half day of solitude and silence. Write down your answers to each question. Write the first thing that pops into your head. Write without editing. It’s important to write out your answers rather than just thinking about them. What meaningful activities make you lose track of time? What do you care deeply about? What makes your heart sing? What lights you up? What energizes you? What’s wrong with the world that drives you crazy? What makes you weep or angry at the wrongness of it? What are you naturally good at? What do you usually get great results from doing? What do people typically ask you for help with? If you had to teach something, what would you teach? Imagine you are now 90 years old, sitting on a rocking chair outside your porch; you are blissful and happy, and are pleased with the wonderful life you’ve been blessed with. Looking back at your life and all that you’ve accomplished and all the relationships you’ve had; what matters to you most? List them out. Who inspires you most? (Someone you know or have learned about…family, friends or authors, artists, leaders, etc.) Which qualities inspire you, in each of those people? What do you value most in life? What character qualities do you want to be known for at the end of your life? If you could get a message across to a large group of people, who would those people be? What would your message be? What would you regret not fully doing, being or having in your life? If you had all the time and money you need to accomplish anything, what would you be doing with your life? After you have taken some good time alone to write down your answers to these questions, review all your answers and then start writing some statements or phrases that capture the themes you see in your answers. The act of even starting to write your personal mission statement is transformational because it causes you to declare your life priorities and you’ll be amazed at how your behaviors start changing to support what you say is important. WORDSMITHING YOUR MISSION STATEMENT A personal mission statement can take many forms, from bullet points to a paragraph to a sentence.  But I’ll give a bit of guidance here on what I’ve found after helping thousands of individuals, families and companies develop mission statements as what I’ve seen is the most effective structure an ideal mission statement. Don’t get hung up on the form or even getting the exact right words as you are starting to do this.  Just start writing statements that capture the essence of the answers you’ve given to these key questions.  I’ve seen people end up in their first drafts with several bullet points that they are really excited about.  I’ve seen some early drafts that are a long paragraph or even a few paragraphs.  Ultimately, I’ve found it’s ideal if you can boil it down to one simple sentence that is compelling and easy to remember. Ideally, a personal mission has 3 parts: WHAT do I want to do?  List key action words or phrases that indicate what you want to do. WHO do I want to help? List everything and everyone that you really want to help. What is the RESULT? Identify the key outcome you see for your life…the value you will leave in this world.  How will the WHO from the second part benefit from WHAT you do? What difference, what result do you want your life to make? PROCESS SUMMARY Review your answers to the 12 Life Mission Discovery Questions and/or the 8 Purpose Factors that we discussed in the previous family round table episode on this topic. Review your answers from the Heroes exercise or the Perfect Day process.  Look at all your answers and categorize key words and phrases regarding WHAT you want to do. Then the key words or phrases that reference WHO you want to help.  Then list the words or phrases that describe the RESULTS or value for society that you want to leave behind at the end of your life.   SAMPLE CONCISE MISSION STATEMENTS MICROSOFT MISSION To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. WHAT: To empower WHO: Every person and every organization on the planet RESULT: To achieve more LEVI-STRAUSS MISSION To market the most appealing and widely worn casual clothing in the world. We will clothe the world. WHAT: To market the most appealing and widely worn casual clothing WHO: The world RESULT: Clothe the world. LONNIE’S PERSONAL MISSION (first drafted in 1996) To develop and implement self-perpetuating leadership development systems that draw millions of people around the world to fully experience God and His enduring systems for success. WHAT: To develop and implement self-perpetuating leadership development systems WHO: That draw millions of people around the world RESULT: To fully experience God’s systems for success. LONNIE AND SHELLEY GIENGER FAMILY MISSION To courageously lead generations of people to become devoted friends and sold-out followers of Jesus! WHAT: To courageously lead WHO: Generations of people RESULT: To become devoted friends and sold-out followers of Jesus! KYLON AND TELIAH GIENGER FAMILY MISSION To lead generations of people to take extreme ownership, achieve their full potential, live gratefully and love unconditionally. WHAT: To lead WHO: Generations of people RESULT: To take extreme ownership, achieve their full potential, live gratefully and love unconditionally.   TAKE ACTION Now it’s time for you to take action to create another system for your success. Download the systems for developing your personal mission. Then take some time answering the key questions that will help you begin to define your personal life mission.  Go ahead.  Take this foundational step to designing the life of your dreams...a life full of fulfillment and purpose! Resources: Download the Roles and Relationships Purpose Exercise if you want to start this journey of living a mission driven life by first identifying the purpose for each of the important roles and relationships you have in your life. Download Your Heroes Exercise to help you think about the qualities and accomplishments that would be most important for your life. Download  The Perfect Day Imagination Exercise and take some time to expand your dreams for what might be possible in your life. Download this Mission Statement Made Simple System and thoughtfully answer these 12 questions that will pull from your deepest core what is really important to you in your life.  Then create a draft mission statement using the guidance on the last page.  Once you have done this, you are now in the good company of the smallest percentage of people who make the biggest positive impact on this world! Thank You! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. Join the Systems for Success Community! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Clarity on your personal life mission is one of the most powerful things we can do to insure a life of real meaning and significance. Once you have defined your personal values you need to determine how your LIFE MISSION will represent those values. Your personal mission statement defines the impact you want your life to have on this world — the overall purpose for your life. It describes who you want to be and what you want to do in your life. There are a lot of people who go to work day-in and day-out, putting in long hours of hard work, who never feel any personal connection with their work, much less any personal reward. They feel dissatisfied, directionless, without purpose. They don’t have all of the elements of their lives working together toward a common purpose. If you have ever experienced absolute joy and satisfaction in the midst of circumstances, a project, or other opportunity, prompting you to say, at least in your heart, “I was made for this,” then you understand what it’s like to discover your purpose or what some might call your calling. When you live your life with a clear purpose, you have the direction you need to make wise choices, judge important issues in your life and live life with overflowing joy and passion.   The goal is for you to know the answer to a couple critical questions like: Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life on this earth? The most effective thing anyone or anything can engage in is the ultimate purpose for which it is created.  Doing what something was meant to do results in great outcomes.  And if you are the one who is the designer or creator of something, it brings you a lot of joy when that thing you created is used for its intended purpose. I personally believe that there is a God who created me and the good things I see around me. And I think that my Creator takes great joy in seeing the work of his hands skillfully performing the functions for which He made them. Some of the most renowned scientists in the world who may not believe in a personal God, still point to the reality that there is clear evidence of intelligence design.  That there is some master designer behind everything we see in the natural world.  That things were created for a purpose and things generally work best when the fulfill the purpose for which they are created.  If that is true of everything from the tiniest atom that predictably performs the purpose it was designed to perform.  And it is true of the huge stars and planets in our solar system that consistently perform the purpose for which they were designed. Why wouldn’t it be true that we as human beings might each find our way to a powerful purpose for which we are ideally designed to accomplish? Unlike atoms and stars or even animals, we as humans have freedom of choice and many motivations and distractions that can sidetrack us from finding or living out a unique design for our life. I believe that there is placed within each and every person unique gifts, passions and talents that are clues to specific purposes for which we are well designed.  And I personally believe that God is a good God and therefore he surely wouldn’t make us for a great purpose and then not reveal that purpose to us. What is a Personal Mission Statement? A personal mission statement simply captures an overriding theme or direction that is probably already present in your life. It puts down in words the real work that you are here to do: the cause you will pursue, the wound in individuals or society you want to heal, the problem you will devote your life to fixing. It states the highest, purest, most others-oriented aim of your life. A personal mission statement is like a constitution by which you make all decisions for your life. The more you check in with it, the smoother things run. But, hopefully we at least check in with our personal mission statement when we are making decisions about new directions for our life. Ideally you want to write a mission statement that you will remember easily, check often, and speaks to YOU as an individual. Trying different things can be a valuable part of the process of beginning to understand the specific purposes for your life.  But keep in mind that your life mission is broader than your vocation.  Your purpose is broader than any position you may have at any point in time.  Your purpose is what will fill your position with meaning and fulfillment.  Your position is just the platform by which you will live your purpose.   Your career is just the vehicle by which you can express your calling.  In fact, as you discover your life purpose you may be surprised to find that whatever business or career you are in now (even if currently mundane or even downright boring) could take on completely new meaning as you find ways to live your purpose even in your current vocation. In doing this with people over the years I have found that some people with a clarity on personal mission find that this breathes whole new purpose and meaning into their existing business or career.  Or you may find that clarity of your life purpose will lead you over time to choose a different vocation or business that more effectively allows you fuller expression of your life purpose.  But the reality is that most people can find ways to live out their life purpose in any occupation.  In fact, I have seen people live out the same purpose in several different jobs over time...from truck driver, preacher to plumber. You can call it a credo, a philosophy, you may call it a purpose statement, or a personal mission statement. it's not as important as to what you call it.  What’s important is that you end up with some written statement that describes your current best understanding of what you see as the ideal ultimate outcome for your life...the legacy you want to leave...the contribution for good that you want to make on this world. Benefits of a Personal Mission Statement - Clarifies what is important to YOU - Provides focus - Helps you design YOUR life, instead of having it designed for you - Guides your day-to-day decisions - Helps you understand, clarify, and put into action your values - Gives you a greater sense of meaning and purpose Most have heard of the importance of beginning with the end in mind.  In our lives, the most effective way to begin with the end in mind is to develop a mission statement that focuses what you want to be in terms of character and what you want to contribute to this world by the end of your life.  When you live your life with a clear purpose, you have the direction you need to make wise choices, and judge important issues in your life. What Keeps People From Defining and Living a Magnificent Mission?  Other voices-  By the age of 18 today, young adults have taken in more than 10 million discreet marketing messages from highly sophisticated marketing companies seeking to convince you that you need a product or service.  In this noisy culture, it's hard to remain clear about who you are.  Other voices come from within.  Maybe you hear the voice of a parent bouncing around in your head saying you don’t measure up or you can’t do anything right. Or maybe an important voice is missing from your past.  Or the voice of a coach or teach who in a moment of frustration say you wouldn’t amount to anything.  Those voices, those messages that play in your brain can prevent you from hearing the good voice about a good future and a powerful purpose for your life. What voice are you listening to now?  It is critical to learn to distinguish the good voice in your mind that speaks of a good future for you...from all those of other voices. Fear - The number one passion killer. Whether it is fear of the unknown  or from the past.  Maybe you hear the voice of a parent or failing, we often stop before we every start considering what we could become passionate about. Focus - If you can’t find passion in all your activity it may be that it is buried in being busy! Being busy doing a ton of good work can be the greatest enemy of benefiting the world with the greatest work you could do. So take the time to think beyond where you are now and what you are doing now.  Drop the fear of failure.  Take the time to think deeply about what your life could be like if you were living life to its full potential with maximum purpose and fulfillment. Once you become clear about and committed to your personal purpose that becomes more powerful more significant, more influential, than the baggage of the past, or the noise of your present circumstances. Process to Develop Your Personal Mission Let me start with some basic guidelines:  First, understand that creating a mission statement is not something you do in an hour. It takes deep introspection, careful analysis, thoughtful expression, and often many rewrites to produce it in final form. One of the best ways to get started is to take a half day to a day of solitude and silence to just really make space to reflect and listen. Most of us don’t need more information, we just need to make space and time for reflection.  And if you believe in God, I would say...time and space to let God to speak to us. Do this in a large block of time to get started and then in your daily meditation and journaling you will get more direction over time. Even then, it may take you several weeks or even months before you feel really comfortable with your mission statement, before you feel it is complete and concise expression of your innermost values and directions. Even then, you will want to review it regularly and make minor changes as the years bring additional insights or changing circumstances.   The Purpose Factors Exercise A personal mission statement is impacted by and takes into consideration eight areas that I call purpose factors. The eight factors in determining your life purpose are your core values, your personal strengths, your special gifts or natural talents, your life experience, your passions, your dreams, the current needs of culture and your skills. Core Values: What kind of person do you want to become? What character traits do you want to possess?  What values do you want to be known.  What you want to become and what you want to accomplish should be based on the core values you have identified?  Make sure your values are the foundation of your personal mission statement. Values are the non-negotiable principle that will guide the way you go about living your life purpose. Personal Strengths: Understanding your unique “wiring” that shapes how you process information, communicate, deal with risk and contribute to others.  Personality profiles (like DISC or Leading from your Strengths or Strengthsfinder) can give you insight into personal strengths you could leverage to help you be most effective at living out your purpose.  Find ways to live your purpose that are a match with your personality and core behavioral strengths. What is your personality like? What are your core behavioral strengths?  How do these personal strengths play into forming or fulfilling your personal mission?  What assessments have you taken? Personal strengths help you know what behavior style will be most effective and fulfilling and sustainable in how you live out your life purpose. Special Gifts and Talents: What are the exceptional talents that you have that just seem to come natural to you?  Some people call these spiritual gifts because they often seem to be strengths that you were almost born with in a supernatural kind of way.  Or they are like natural talents that just come out of you in almost a spiritual kind of way because it seems easy to you.  Other people look at you doing that thing and say, “Wow, that’s amazing how you do that!”, and to you it just seems natural and normal. When you understand the special giftings you have then you get an insight into the unique ways that you can contribute to others.  These are skill or action based strengths like the natural ability to be great at teaching, giving, leading, showing mercy, administration, faith, etc.  If you haven’t taken a special gifts inventory, go online and take one of the many free spiritual gifts assessments. What are the exceptional talents that you have that just seem to come natural to you? How do these play into guiding or helping you accomplish your personal mission? Spiritual Gifts define the supernatural empowering methods you will use to live out your purpose. Life Experiences: What are some of the experiences that have shaped your life? To understand your unique life purpose you must be clear about who you are, both in terms of your inborn behavioral strengths as well as the how the experiences of life have shaped you and prepared you for some purpose. Learn to understand the “parable of your life”.   Become aware of your personal journey including situations that have caused pain and loss as well as those that have caused great joy and abundance. I had a purpose coach one time that told me to do a timeline of your life and make note of key milestones, important people, times of great joy and times of great pain and times you heard some clarity about what was really important in your life. Was amazing to reflect back on these things and then think about How might all of these life experiences be used to prepare you or focus you in a powerful purpose for your life? What are some of the experiences that have shaped your life? How might all of these life experiences be used to prepare you or focus you in a powerful purpose for your life? Life experiences prepare you and focus you on a unique purpose for your life. For example, maybe you experienced abuse as a child and because of this you have deep compassion for abused children.  Or maybe you had an amazing teacher as a child that changed and redirected your life for the better gave you a deep appreciation for the power of mentoring children.    Passions: What do you care deeply about?  What would I love to do on a daily basis that gives me energy? What would I be doing if money were not a factor?  What makes your heart sing and what makes it weep?  What lights you up and what energizes you?  What makes you get of your chair so you can’t sit still anymore? What is wrong with the world that drives you crazy? Passionate discontent can lead you to your place of divine calling. That extreme joy you feel at certain times can lead you to your place of powerful purpose. Your passions help you know where to live out your calling and provide motivation or energy to excel at it.  Passion moves us to action where we bring what we have to offer…our strengths, gifts, experiences, skills etc.   For example, if I am passionate about children and have the gift of mercy it might indicate that my life purpose has something to do with showing mercy to children.  Working with children, (my passion) will give me the motivation and energy to excel at showing them mercy.  But if my primary gift is leadership and my passion is children, then it might indicate that I need to find a way to lead an organization that does something valuable for children. Understanding your personal strengths and skills can lead you into an understanding of where you will excel as you look for your ideal life purpose. But it is not the fuel that keeps you moving forward. You need to discover your passion. Many people are skilled at what they do but would rather be doing something else that they are more passionate about so never really reach their full potential. If you are not fulfilled and passionate about what you do, you will not perform at your maximum capacity. Dreams: What do you want to accomplish in your life? What dreams do you want to fulfill? Your dreams of what you would love to accomplish inform you of the outcomes that God may want to see fulfilled in your life purpose. Following the example above, do you dream of children being free from hunger or free from sex slavery or free from poverty?  Or do you dream of providing and safe, comfortable home for every child? Current Culture and Needs:   What is the current culture surrounding you? What are the needs surrounding you? Your life mission will take place in the culture, the generation and even the community in which you were born.  So interpreting the situations and events taking place around us is just as important as understanding what goes on inside us.  When your life purpose intersects with the deep needs in people around you, powerful results take place.  Frederick Buechner says, “The place God calls you is where your deep gladness and the world’s hunger meet.”   Take some time to open your eyes and your heart to the reality that your life has a powerful purpose in this time and in this place in history.  YOU are a key part of the plan to make this world a better place at this point in earth’s history! What are the needs you see and care about in the current culture surrounding you? How does the current culture and needs influence your personal mission? Current culture and needs is the context in which you are placed that provides clues to the powerful world changing purposes that you could fulfill at this point in time in history and in this place. For example, if you are deeply connected in a major city or community where child sex slavery is rampant, then this might give you an indication of your life purpose. Skills: What are you really good at?  What do you do that regularly produces good outcomes? What are some skills that you recognize that you are really good at and what might that say about your life mission? Your skills give you ideas for how you can be most effective in getting something done that is of importance to your purpose. For example, if you are really good at marketing and advertising then maybe the way you go about solving sex slavery will leverage this skill to reduce problem by huge public awareness that gets a whole city involved in your cause. Write down your answers to the questions in these eight purpose factors. Then analyze your answers for common themes and synergies that will give you valuable insight into the highest and best use of your life.   Resources: Download this Purpose Factors Exercise and take some time to thoughtfully answer the questions. Thank You! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. Join the Systems for Success Community! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Identifying and living by your core values has more to do with creating sustainable success in life than what most people realize.   Here’s why: True and lasting success is based on who we are way more than on the goals we set or even the goals we accomplish. Sustainable success in all areas of business and life is based on who we are. Character is the creator of who we are. Therefore character is the creator of all true and sustainable success. The foundation of character is knowing what you stand for and standing for what you know.  Therefore, the basis of character is knowing and standing for your personal values. What are Personal Values? Our personal values are your standards of ethics and behavior.  They set the boundaries by which you live your life.  They are the overarching system for how you define success in your life. Our values affect every area of our life:  physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual, financial and certainly our business life. Values are not practices.  They are guiding principles that effect everything.  Our guiding principles are fundamental, enduring truths that have universal application. Those principles give meaning to our life and a reason for being. Concepts like integrity, honesty, quality, service, excellence, and fairness are principles that guide human conduct. What Are the Non-Negotiable Principles that Guide Your Life?   If you haven’t taken time to define your personal values, now is the time.  If you’ve read many books or gone to many seminars on business success you’ll know that defining core values for your business is foundational to creating a culture of success in your business.  Just like every successful company has clear values that guide decisions and actions, so every successful person has clear individual values that guide their decisions and actions. What Does It Mean for You to be a Good Person? When you ask some people what they want out of life, their number one answer is often something like, “I want to be happy.” Or “I want to make more money.” I think our whole world would be in much better shape if the number one answer was “I want to be a good person.” We’re going to encourage you to take time to write down a list of the values that guide your life…those things that define what it is for you to be a truly good person. For example, do you value, always doing the right thing, or authentic friendships, or a healthy lifestyle, or continual personal or spiritual growth, or strong family relationships? Personal values refer to the standards of ethics and behavior that are important to you. They set the boundaries by which you live your life. They help set priorities in your life and draw lines of what you will and will not do to reach your goals. They influence every decision you make. Values are the guiding principles that affect every part of your life: physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual, financial, and business. How to Begin Discovering What’s Really Important to You One way to help you identify your personal values is to think of how you would like to be remembered if you died today. What would you want to be written on your tombstone? Personal values like honesty, hard work, fatherhood, and love for family. These principles give meaning to your life and a reason for being. When your business is aligned with your personal values your work gains purpose.  When your family values are aligned with your personal values then your family takes on whole new direction and meaning. If you did die today, what would people say about you and your character — how you lived your life? More importantly — what would you WANT them to say? What would your spouse say? Your children and family? Your friends? Your business associates? Your God? Your community? How you want to be remembered by each of these relationships can help you understand what’s really important — to you. Not What You Think You SHOULD Value Identify the values that are important to you. Don’t confuse them with values you feel you should have. Your core values are not what others think you should believe in or what you think others think you should believe in. Trying to live up to values that are not your own will only lead to resentment. Basis for Family Unity and Success Your personal core values will lay the foundation for the core values that you establish and live by in your family.  Every decision, action or reaction in your home will be guided by these values.  Your future generations will be guided by these values that are an overflow of what you value.  Your core values, more than any other factor, will impact the quality and impact of the legacy that you leave behind on this earth. Basis for Business Meaning and Success How does getting clear on your personal values relate to your business or work life? Life is more than just a paycheck. Your work is a part of you.  You invest a significant portion of the best days and best years of your life in making a living.  So, make sure that the way you go about making a living is in alignment with your core values and allows you to live out your non-negotiable principles of behavior. Integrating your core values into your vocation is one of the rewarding aspects of owning a business. If you are a business owner, you have the privilege of creating a business that has core values that reflect your personal core values. When you align your business values with your personal values, it’s a powerful motivating force. Your work gains purpose. It will instill passion and energy in you. And, if done in a participative manner, it will also instill passion and energy for your business in your employees, customers, vendors, and anyone else you work with. How to Discover Your Personal Core Values Start by brainstorming a list of potential core values that you want to define your life.  To help you get your started brainstorming your potential values, we are providing a list of sample values that might spark some ideas in your mind. There’s a list of simple one word values and another list of values that are expressed as an action phrase.  Either way of expressing your values is fine…however, there is often a little extra power in turning your values statements into action phrases so we are going to encourage you to do that by the end of this process. The list we post or the values we share are by no means an exhaustive list of personal values someone could have. And again, we are not necessarily recommending any of these specific values for you.  These are just samples.  So please only check those that are important to you and write in others that come to your mind that are important to you but not on this list. This is for YOU to define what it means for YOU to have been a really great person who succeeds in all aspects of life. Prioritize Your Values After you brainstorm a list of potential values that could be important to you.  Then see if you can prioritize and write down your top five or ten personal values.  Ideally, you’ll end up paring the list down to number of values that you can keep in mind, keep in front of you and keep using to guide all your decisions and actions.  Ideally, you’re going to post our core values somewhere where you will be reminded to live your life based on these values.  Ideally over time you will evaluate how well you actually live each of your values and what you would need to start, change or stop to live each value more fully. If you’re like me, there were quite a few things that are important to me.  I mean, who wouldn’t say that “honesty” is good, right?  But even though you may be an honest person, you may not be as passionate about the value of honesty as you are about the value of compassion or maybe the value of excellence. So, your next step is to prioritize you’re your initial list of all the things that are important to you down to your top values.  Read back through all the values you initially wrote and rank them in order of priority then select the top 5-10 that are most important to you. Make sure there is an enduring basis of truth behind each of your core values.   That there is a universal truth behind your core values.  If you say you value having 1000 followers on social media, that’s not necessarily an enduring truth that could guide actions and decisions for the rest of your life let alone for generations to come.  Your core values should be principals that will stand the test of time as being enduring non-negotiable principles. Now it’s time for you to take action to create another system for your success. When you finish listening to this episode, click on the resource links below and work through the system that will help you identify your personal core values. EXAMPLES: Kylon Gienger's Personal Core Values (Stated as Active Affirmations) 1. I have a positive attitude and I think positive thoughts at all times. 2. I do unto others as I would have them do unto me. 3. I am a leader, I lead by positive example in all situations. 4. I defend those who cannot defend themselves. 5. I am a man of integrity, I always tell the truth, my word is my bond. 6. I am humble, I do not seek recognition for my actions. 7. I have self control, I control my emotions and my actions regardless of the circumstance. Even keeled, steady, constant 8. I never quit, I am resilient, I persevere and thrive on adversity. 9. I am a trendsetter, an influencer, I am creative and innovative. I am an outside-of-the-box thinker. 10. I am healthy and strong, physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. 11. I am a wise manager of my time, money, and resources. 12. I am hungry, self confident, and ambitious. I can do or have anything in life through DESIRE, FAITH, and HARD WORK. 13. I take extreme ownership in all situations 14. I am formidable 15. I am abundant in all things Lonnie and Shelley Gienger Personal/ Family Core Values (with Business Value Corollaries) Continually growing toward more intimate friendship with God Seeking God’s Kingdom and his purposes and interest above everything else. Business Value Corollary: Building beyond business Basing all our thoughts and actions on the model of Jesus Developing positive, authentic friendships Business Value Corollary: Creating quality relationships. Investing our lives in helping people experience God Enjoying vibrant physical, mental and emotional health and energy Seeing value and finding something to appreciate in everything Demonstrating a positive attitude at all times Continual life-long learning and adventure…enjoying life with passion and fun Beginning with the end in mind (setting worthwhile goals we act on) Wise management/stewardship of time, money and resources Excellence, thoroughness, persistence and self-discipline Business Value Corollary: Continually pursuing excellence Always doing the loving thing and considering the preciousness of others. Leaving everything and every person better (building people in every interaction) Business Value Corollary: Building People Seeking first to understand before trying to be understood Leading through serving (influencing and inspiring through a servant’s heart) Business Value Corollary: Leading through serving Creating and experiencing quality music and art to honor God and inspire people Creating value and building a better world through entrepreneurial ventures Lonnie’s Business Values: Doing the Right Thing Acting in the Best Interest of Our Partners Defining Wealth by Who We Are Building People Leading through Serving Continually Pursuing Excellence Building Beyond Business Creating Quality Relationships Enjoying Life with Passion Resources: Do your life a big favor and take some time to actually write down your personal core values. http://systemsforsuccess.com/4-the-secret-to-sustainable-success-in-life/  Scroll down to the show notes and follow this simple five step System for Identifying Your Personal Core Values To help you start brainstorming your own personal values, check out these lists of Values Examples for Episode 4 including some from our own family. Thank You! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. Join the Systems for Success Community! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

Stories about a backpacking adventure and what it takes to stay course toward accomplishing our dreams despite the inevitable and unknown obstacles and challenges that get in the way. The key in backpacking?  Following a map!  The key in life?  Following a strategic plan. What’s that? Simply put, it’s a map to turn your dreams for your life into reality.  It’s a way to turn your dreams for your business into reality, your dreams for your family into reality, your dreams for your health into reality, your dreams for your finances into reality. In a sense, it’s a like creating a recipe for success.  Big picture, strategic planning is the process you’ll use to actually get what you want from life. You’ll use strategic planning systems to build your ideal life, your ideal family, or your ideal business. How Does It Work? First you define what critical focus AREAS are most important to your life, your family, or your business at this point in time.  So, if you are in business you would decide what areas are important to focus on in your business this year.  Or if you want to develop a strategic plan for your health, you would decide what areas are important for you to focus on in your health this year.  Then you focus the necessary ATTENTION and RESOURCES on those issues. As the result of this process like this, a strategic PLAN is created that charts the path to your success. As you go through the planning process, you’ll begin to put write down the results of each planning stage. You will first write down your vision, your ideal for some area of your business or life. Then you will write down a few critical focus areas you can focus on to make progress toward that vision. Then for each critical focus area you will write down at least one objective. Then for each objective you will write down a few specific, measurable goals that will help you accomplish that objective. Then you will write on your calendar specific action plans that will help you accomplish each goal. Make Your Map Strategic planning bridges the GAP, between where you are TODAY and where you WANT to be.  It creates a bridge from where you are to where you want to be in some area of your life.   You create specific plans and action steps that form the road over that bridge from your current reality to your desired future. You create a strategic plan for the same reason you take a map along when you don’t know how to get to where you’re going.  You need direction. Think of your plan as a map you’ll follow to reach your destination…to the other side of your gap between how things are in some area of your life now to how you want things to be. Most people start journeys with some destination in mind.  Most people start new ventures with some vision in mind. Everyone starts their marriage with some vision I mind.  If you’ve had kids, everyone starts having kids with some vision in mind for the kind of family they’d like to have…the kind of relationship they’d like to have with their kids.  If you’re in business, when you started your business you had some destination in mind. But here’s the kicker.  Even though most people have some idea of where they want to end up, they rarely take the time to create a map for exactly HOW they are going to get there. So they still start on the journey toward where they want to end up but inevitably they hit some bumps in the road…some circumstances that threaten to take them off track or sideline them from achieving their dream.  Without a clear plan, you may make some progress toward your dream but you won’t know what to do when you hit that first bump in the road? Without clearly defined goals and a well-thought-out plan for how to get there, every time you hit a bump in the road, you’re likely to stop your vehicle, get out and analyze — the bump.  Or worse yet, decide to take a new direction. Or just throw in the towel. You may have tried a lot of things to make some area of your life successful. Any one of the things you try might have worked for a certain period of time and in a certain direction.  But too often all those good efforts fail to accomplish the desired outcome because they weren’t part of a well-thought-out plan.  A plan that would move you toward your goals for that area of your life. You need a strategic plan so all your resources— time, energy, people, and money — are headed in the same direction to make the progress you want in that area of your life or business. Keep on Planning, Keep on Refining, Keep on Correcting  Although a planning system like this does result in a written strategic plan with a clear vision and specific objectives and goals, it doesn’t stop at that point.  You’ve probably already learned that in life, changes occur all the time.  For a business or for any area of life to remain successful— you need to reassess and revise your strategic plan when necessary. Planning your future requires — commitment to a process. Sometimes that can be a battle. I’m not a big boxing fan.  But I am sometimes inspired by the “never give up” attitude I sometimes see in fighters.  One of my favorite quotes on persistence to overcome obstacles is from James Corbett, an American boxing champion during the end of the last century.  This guy understood commitment to keep going even when the going gets tough! “Fight one more round. When your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round.  When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round.  When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round — remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped.” To plan effectively you need to be innovative and creative not only at the beginning but as you begin executing on your plan and hit obstacles. Where to Start The first step of the strategic planning process for your life or for your business is to define your personal aspirations.  Once you understand what it is you want out of life, you can build a family, a business or career that gives it to you.  One you understand what you want your life to stand for, you can build a family that stands for that too.  You can create a business or career that fulfills your personal aspirations.  You can create a family that lives your personal values. In future podcasts, we will break down a system for defining your personal values, mission and vision.  These things will be the basis for specific plans you create for your life, your family or your business. For now, begin by being honest with yourself about areas of your life, your health, your family, your finances or your business where you have given up on your ideal for something because it just seems unreachable.  Or maybe some area that you have made resolutions or plans to improve but things haven’t seemed to get better…so maybe you’ve given up on plans to improve in that area.  The first step in creating a better future is often to frankly admit that the way things are now is not okay and MUST change.  If you could make any area of your life, your health, your family, your finances or your business better and know for sure that you could create plans that could get you to that ideal, what would you change? Resources: Watch for a video link of Lonnie talking to business owners about creating a roadmap to overcome fractured thinking in your life and business! Thank You! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them. Join the Systems for Success Community! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS. Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on www.systemsforsuccess.com for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

An inside look at a powerful system for success that our family has been following now for about 15 years.  It has helped us expand our vision and achieve dreams that are bigger than we ever thought we could.   It’s a system for success that I’m pretty sure you won’t hear much about in many other places. But this has been a critical process for us individually and as a family. Like many good things in my life, I learned about this process from a mentor who had focused on success in this specific area of life more than I had. I will be forever grateful to my family coach and good friend, Greg Gunn for opening my eyes to this life changing system for success.   In this episode all eight of us gathered around the table for a fun discussion right after we finished our 15th Annual Gienger Family Goal Setting Retreat.  What is that?  Here’s how it works. We all get together as a family at the beginning of each new year to celebrate our successes in the last year and set goals for the new year. We start with a a focusing talk by dad.  Then we spend 3-4 hours in solitude and silence where each family member journals on their successes in the last year and writes down goals for the new year.  After everyone takes time alone to document their successes and work on their individual goals, we come back together to share what we have written down.  This gives us a rich space in time to celebrate each other’s successes and become aware of how we can support each other’s goals. After we finished our time of sharing this January, we all sat around the table, clicked record and reflected on the experience.  As you listen to us discuss the following questions, we hope you will gain insights that could help you create a system like this, in your own way, in your own life.   What are some of your earliest memories of doing our Annual Gienger Family Goal Setting Retreats?   Can you describe what it has been like for you to do this when you were young kids?   How would you describe the actual process we have used in our annual goals setting retreats?   To the spouses who married in to the family (Teliah and Auren): Do you remember when was your first time joining us in an Annual Family Goal Setting Retreat?  What was it like for you to participate in this process? What do you think have been the benefits of doing this for you and for our family?  What’s the value of this from your perspective? What are some of the highlights or most meaningful elements of what we experienced or what you heard or shared in this year’s Annual Family Goal Setting Retreat? How do you see this carrying on into the next generation? Resources: Check out the Family ID podcast by Greg Gunn who was Lonnie's initial coach on this topic.  Kylon and Te referenced their excellent Successful Dropout podcast for young people looking for an alternative to the traditional institutional university education route.  After listening to the podcast, some have asked for a copy of the questions that we have used over the years to guide us through our celebration and goal setting process.  If you're interested, you can check out our Gienger Goal Setting Annual Retreat Questions. As with all systems, we hope you can learn something from our process...but please be sure to customize this system in a way that works best for you.  Thank You! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.   We'd also really appreciate any feedback or questions that might guide what we talk about in future episodes.    Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and we read each and every one of them.  Join the Systems for Success Community! Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on IOS or Apple Itunes. Subscribe to the Systems for Success Podcast on Android or Windows OS.  Enter your email in one of the email opt-ins on this site for regular emails from Lonnie Gienger or the Gienger Family on additional Systems for Success. Follow Systems for Success on Instagram @systemsforsuccess Follow Lonnie Gienger on Instagram @lonniegienger

How to Turn Your Grandest Visions for Your Life into Realities Why is it that some people just seem to get everything they want in life?  Great relationships, plenty of money, great health and time to enjoy it all?   And why is that other people who seem to work equally as hard or seem to be equally deserving constantly struggle with a life that is always far short of their ideals? This podcast grows out of a deep conviction the grand design for life is that everyone should have an equal shot at achieving the success they want in all areas of life.  This podcast is based on the proposition that anyone who really wants to, can actually learn and apply some next steps that they can take to move toward their dreams for success in any area of their life. This podcast grows out of a deep belief that our grandest visions for any area of our life are most likely to become reality when we understand and implement certain universal principles and processes that create success in any particular area of life….when people understand and live by what we call, universal systems for success.   I don't know many people who don't want to be more successful in at least some area of their life...however they uniquely define success. But I don't know of many people who take the time to understand, develop and implement the specific processes, steps, or systems it takes to create that next level of success.   What the Secret? I'm not here to tell you that I have all the secret systems.  I am here to tell you that systems, is the secret.  And if we don't know the systems needed to produce success in any area of our life, I'm here to tell you that you can find someone who knows those systems and you can learn from how they implemented those systems and apply the principles you learn from them to create the success you want in your own life.   The secret to success is only a secret if you don't know where to find the secret.  And the secret to success in any area of life is found is in the systems that cause the success.  And the great news is that anyone who is hungry enough can seek out, understand and implement the systems they need to cause success. Not Just Another “How-To” With today's globalized information availability, we can find information and how-tos on just about anything.   So, it is not just another how-to that is needed.  If the possession of checklists of systems to follow were the key to success, every capable Googler in the world would be enormously successful!   The key to success is not just learning about some systems.  It’s not just hearing more how-to’s.  It is gaining a deep real-life understanding of the right systems you need at the right time AND creating a doable pathway to actually implement those systems in the unique situations of your life.   Real-Life Learning for Real-Life Successes Our passion in this podcast is to unpack the specific systems we are learning that bring success in various areas of life…and to do that in the context of real-life learning.  In the context of the real trial and error rodeo of implementation.  We'd like to take you on a journey with us.  To open our lives (past and present) to let you share in our learnings as we have been seeking to implement our own systems for success in life.   The goal here is not to come across as people who know it all…because we certainly don't. If anything, I've made more mistakes than the average guy. The goal here is to simply be transparent about what we have learned and what are learning about the systems…the specific processes that produce success in key areas of life.  And our hope is not that you just take any of these things we share and implement them verbatim in your life.  But rather that you take the principles and processes you learn from the stories from our lives, our businesses and our families and apply them to creating your own unique systems for success. Only Listen If You’re Serious About Turning Your Dreams into Reality! This podcast is for people who want to do more than just talk about the success they want.  It's for people who are willing to do the hard work of learning how to develop and implement the systems that will create the success they want.   It is for that uncommon person who is willing to think deeply about cause and effect and honestly change how they do what they do in every-day life to create new causes that produce new effects in their life.  This podcast is for people who are serious about turning vision into reality.  People who are serious enough about turning their vision for any area of their life into reality that they are willing to change paradigms and change practices to create new systems that bring the success they want in life. Serious Questions for Serious Seekers of Success Sometimes it’s helpful to just take a serious inventory of where you’re at in some area of life compared with where you really want to be.  Ask yourself questions like these: Do you ever feel like your life is running you, instead of you running your life?  Does it seem like you’re always putting out fires in one or more areas of your life? Does it seem like more often you’re a day late and a dollar short to capture the full opportunity you’d dreamed about? How about your relationships?  Are you short on the love and fulfillment you once dreamed about in your relationships with friend, with your spouse or significant other, with your family? How often do you feel like you have the time to do what you really like to do?   Do you have chronic health challenges?  Or maybe you just never seem to reach that ideal weight or strength or energy?    How are your personal finances? How is your cash flow? Does cash seem to flow in, and then right back out again, without giving you the chance to catch your fair share along the way? Have you had a lot of great hopes and ideals for your life, for your business, for your relationships or your health…and you just never seem to have those visions become reality as much as you'd like? Fortunately, things don’t have to stay the way they are. The good news is that change is possible, whether you’ve been facing that issue for 20 days or 20 years.   The good news is that the systems for success in any area of your life that you want to improve are knowable and doable for you. Unlock the Secrets of Success Here's the deal.  There is no silver bullet to success.  There is no magic formula for consistent prosperity in any area of life.   There is no secret to success in any area of life.  With today's wealth of information availability, there really is no secret to success in finances, there is no secret to success in creating strong relationships.  There is no secret to success in growing business. There is no secret to success in being as healthy as you want to be.  Oh, it may be a secret to you right now, but it is a knowable secret.  And the key to unlocking that secret is to do the hard work of developing and implementing the specific systems that will create success for you in that area of your life. Here’s the Key The key to getting the full benefit of the systems approach is to design and implement the right systems for you.  That takes listening to and learning from others who have implemented systems that are related to the need or vision you want to address in your life.  And even when you find someone who is using a system to accomplish exactly what you want...here's what I've learned about systems over the years…very few systems are completely 100% plug and play duplicatable from one business to another or from one life to another.  But there are two things that are duplicatable. First, the principles and the processes that one business or one person used to create a system that worked for them…those principles and processes can be duplicated to create or customize a system that works for you.  Second, the modeling and motivation that you can gain from seeing how someone else has implemented their system and continue to use and improve their system can have immeasurable benefit to provide you with success in implementation of your systems. Models and Motivation To Make Your Own Success We hope that as we share our experiences developing and implementing systems for success in various areas of life and business that you hope people will use those principles and process to create or customize a system that works for them.  And as you hear about our trials and successes at implementing various systems, I hope you will receive a model...a picture...and plan that could help you implement you own systems...and maybe also get some motivation from just knowing that someone else is, or has been, on the same type of journey.   Our passion in this podcast is to unpack the principles and processes that create systems for success in these key areas of life.  And to give you real life implementation examples from our successes and failures and from those of others that will give you some models and some motivation on your own journey as you learn to design and implement your own systems that turn your visions into realities.   I invite you to join the Systems for Success journey with us now! Lonnie Gienger