Category Archives: Relationships

Andrew Noone, OTM Plan For Personal Success, personal leadership, Relationships, Success, Values

A Little Perspective – Act On What Really Matters

Yesterday a good friend and colleague of mine passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was in his mid 40s and leaves behind his wife and four young children, the eldest of whom is just 13 years old. Andy had successfully created several multi million dollar businesses. At the start of 2010 he quit all the work he was doing and drove his family around Australia for six months. This was before he knew he was sick. 

Andy would often tell me that he believed that life should be lived to the fullest because you never knew what could happen. He also believed that everyone should do their best to develop the talents that they have and that success always included your close relationships.

This July I have already paid for a trip for my entire family of seven to visit with my twin brother and his family who live in the USA. Irrespective of the state of the economy these trips are never cheap. But I want to spend time with my brother and his family; time that honestly can’t have a dollar value placed on it. Just like Andy’s trip around Australia with his family can’t have a dollar value placed on what that was worth to him.

What are you potentially postponing when it comes to creating shared experiences with the people dearest to you in your life. If you would do things differently if you found out that you only had a certain time to live well, guess what, you do only have a certain time to live, you just don’t know how long it is. So don’t postpone those things that really matter because life might not wait for the ‘right time’ to come along.

Rest in Peace Andy.
 

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
2010 Grand Final, AFL, Collingwood, High Performance, Leadership, One Percenters, Relationships

In elite sport, as in life, one percenters matter!

For me a defining moment in the Australian Football Leagues (AFL) 2010 Grand Final Replay was the desperate lunge by Collingwood defender Heath Shaw to knock the ball from the hands of St Kilda Captain Nick Riewoldt as he was about to kick the Saints first goal.

Coming from ten metres behind Riewoldt as he marked the ball, Shaw said, “I think little things like that maybe spur the team on. I was just happy to contribute to it.”

While very few of us get to reach to glory of becoming an elite sport champion crowned with being a member of the best team in the nation (or world, depending on the sport), we all have the capacity to done ‘one percenters’ whether at work, at home or in our relationships.

So, what do such ‘one percenters’ look like?

At work they can be as simple and saying a genuine, “Thank you” or “Please”, or remembering a colleagues birthday or partner’s and/or children’s names. They can be as simple as suggesting a team member leave early one day because of the extra effort they have been putting in over time. They could even involve cleaning up a meeting room and returning it to its pre-meeting state once your meeting is over.

At home they can be as simple as acknowledging and thanking whoever did the cooking, and then taking the time yourself to clean up. With friends it can be a quick phone call, text message or Facebook ‘Like’ or comment.

‘One percenters’ by nature aren’t hard. They simply take a level of awareness to recognise that they ‘can’ be done and all they take is a little effort.

On their own ‘one percenters’ don’t make much difference. But added up over time, just like all the ‘one percenters’ in an AFL Grand Final, they can make all the difference to your performance and the quality of your relationships.

How present are ‘one percenters’ in your life and what examples do you have of putting them into action?

PS For those who need to know, I am a member of the Western Bulldogs in the AFL

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com