Experience in sport can help you off the field, when you are finding the pace difficult to keep up with, and to stay on track.

As time has been my teacher, my learning continues, too. I have gained valuable insights into areas of interest, as a participant in Social Media. Similar to an athlete, one can control the energy that is put put into ones posts, however your audience may not always keep up with you. Keeping your audience on track requires their participation and your guidance, to where you want to meet up.

One sport that is beneficial in learning to get the right balance is horse riding. Where some people prefer western riding as the saddle is more comfortable and gives a deeper seat, my sisters and I were taught to horse ride using the English method. This method uses different saddles depending upon the given discipline , and the requirement to post (rise up and down to the trot) on the horses diagonal. You do not learn to post to the trot before you can balance at the walk. You advance to walk once you have got seated at the halt. You get your balance through your seat, from your horse. To do this you must have your horses attention.

When asking to change pace or direction, you prepare yourself to give a clear instruction to the horse. A well schooled horse is trained to listen to your aids. Between the two of you, you perform together to get the desired result. This way your audience and judges can keep up with your performance. You don't expect to get a good result if you cannot communicate your aids to your horse. Similarly if your horse is not listening to your aids, the results can be misinterpreted by your audience and, if you are being judged you may be marked poorly.

Horse riding taught me that by keeping your balance when posting, the journey is more comfortable for you and your audience, and you can advance to compete at higher levels, should this be your aim

When shaing space on the various blogging platforms available, we must give credit to having a good seat to keep one instep with their audience. Give praise to your audience as without them, one cannot post.

Andrea

TempDirect

People are at their most vulnerable when they allow their weaknesses to show. This may not be true in all instances however, for the greater part there is some truth to this statement.

A weakness does not need to be defined as one whole. There is physical, mental and emotional weakness. A weakness may come about due to a lack of knowledge, experience, or faith. With knowledge there is an advantage of equality. With experience there is the possibility of success. With faith there is the ability to overcome a challenge. Knowledge is a tool that when used, can enlighten a person who may have failed to understand your view. Experience is a personal key that you can give to another who may have failed their first attempt at trying. Faith is a keepsake that when you share it, it never fails in giving strength. It is easy to believe that one may have failed at a given task, when another steps in where they believe we have left off.

Sometimes an accomplishment does not happen in one step. There may be several steps necessary to achieve a gain. This may be where it seems you have failed to complete your mission, and another will step in to take control. Don't take this intrusion as an acknowledgment of a failing. Instead, lead by staying back so the intruder eventually sees what appeared to be a failing is in fact, the act of allowing a gain.

Give credit due to failure where it seeks to gain.

Andrea

TempDirect

It can be difficult when working within the constraints of a singular business's Mission to discover your own life's purpose. When working within a square, it maybe good to remind ourselves that individual pixels create the larger picture.

Many great Mission Statements are formed by people who had to make their own journey to lead others to support theirs. Take for example an early childhood experience you may remember fondly. It may have been through watching a parent reach out to someone in need and seeing how this one action caused one or more positive outcomes. Similarly, you may have witnessed an act of cruelty that repulsed you, where the person who carried out the cruel action caused two or more negative outcomes. Both experiences however, should not lead one to avoid the action which they witnessed and believed to be wrong. Remember the act that repulsed you and look at ways to influence others so that it may not be repeated. People may have a tendency to admire what is deemed socially popular or acceptable. This does not mean that the popular choice is right for you, or that the wrong choice correct for them.

Decisions can be based upon these tendencies to follow example. Through the process of aging comes a knowledge of one’s own experiences. Some of this knowledge is limited through experience, due to a number of factors. These limitations to experience is where one looks outside of their environment to form knowledge through another’s lessons. We thank the likes of Social Media where Influencers can regularly post of their positive actions to motivate others to stay focused on their missions. When we start to follow another’s knowledge based on their experiences, it is interesting there may be a link to our shared Mission after all. You may not be creating your own aircraft; however, you may be supplying the fuel to fly it. Similarly, you may not see how you are contributing to world peace, but you didn't enlist in the army.

No matter which experiences helped shape you today, you can change your journey by learning through another's experiences and insights.

Keep updated with the popular Influencers but do not let that inhibit you from becoming one.

Have the faith in your own strengths so that you too will have others follow your journey.

Acquire Knowledge. Influence through Action. Lead through Lessons.

Andrea

TempDirect

How often do we read articles as adults that tell us when we have reached our goal, we will be rewarded for our efforts. Whatever the reward may be, these articles tell us that after reaching our goals, we should lay down our tools and bask in the riches of success, and repeat the same steps to ensure ongoing success should we start another venture. However goal setting and success can be defined by understanding what it is that distinguishes our life's purpose from our fleeting desire to have financial gain or momentary pleasure. With planning, our life's purpose can be a successfully merged with our business, and that through perseverance comes our personal growth and financial reward, to yourself and the community around you.

The greatest revolution in our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds can change the outer aspects of their lives. William James

Setting goals is essential to achieving your dreams. These goals may be likened to steps in a staircase. The following poem by the African-American poet Langston Hughes, speaks about the value of goal setting and persistence.

Mother to Son

Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor - Bare, but all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, and reachin' landin's, and turnin' corners, and sometimes going in the dark where there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps 'cause you finds it's kinder hard, don't you fall now - for I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', and life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

As with life, our goals may change with time. With each success should be a unique attitude that brought it about. Your unique vision. Regardless of how many successful businesses like yours are out there, go the extra distance to see that your end result mirrors the greater good.

Andrea 

TempDirect