Welcome back brew nation! It’s the “Friday Coffee Guy” coming to you with The Champion’s Brew, a weekly assembly of material I am reading, listening to, watching, or thinking about that is designed to equip and call you to uncommon leadership. I often add my own little spin based on my takeaways and would love your input as well. Any of the points especially impact you? Drop me a note at [email protected], or comment on the blog to keep the conversation going! I believe you will discover that the format is not only useful, but also that you can consume it within the time it takes you to enjoy your daily ‘brew’! Become a member of the Champions Brew Nation by subscribing here!!
Here is your weekly sip of what I have been reading, listening to or watching to equip me to:
- Eat Healthy – Have you heard the saying that with weight loss, a calorie is a calorie, and you will lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit, regardless of where the calories come from? I read a blog post from Travis Merritt recently where he answered the question with an absolutely affirmative, “Yes, BUT….” Uh-oh. He agreed that it is true and that all calories are created equal, but the body doesn’t respond to all calories equally. His advice:
I have seen many people eat very few calories and see very little results on the scale. One of these reasons is their body has a negative reaction to the kind of calories they are eating. Some weight loss can be masked by inflammation, bloating, and water retention from consuming calories/foods that the body does not like. Pay attention to what you eat, pay attention to how it makes you feel, and pay attention to how your body responds. Ditch the calories your body does not like, ditch the calories that make you feel like crap, and once you do, you’ll notice a difference.
Makes a whole lot of sense to me. I know that my body feels much better when I do a few things with my diet:
1. Maintain a balance of macro nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats)
2. Consume my calories in an 8-hour window each day
3. Drink 100 oz of water each day
I am not perfect at it and my body lets me know! So, follow Travis’ simple advice: Pay attention to how what you eat makes you feel and Ditch the stuff that makes you feel bad. It really is that simple… and that difficult!
- Apply Learning – The goal of the Champions Brew is to equip and inspire you to become more Uncommon in your leadership. Each week, I share two or three topics that Have done that for me and I try to add my own voice to those topics. Also, I have a personal goal to read at least 12 books per year and am on track to complete that task in 2022. But, if I don’t APPLY that learning, or experiment with that learning, it really isn’ that useful. Application of learning turns knowledge into wisdom. I listened to a podcast this week that challenged me with three questions that I want to challenge you with to apply your learning, whether it is learning from the Champions Brew, or some other way you consume your personal development material. They really are simple questions:
1. WHERE can I use this information?
2. WHEN can I use this information?
3. WHO needs to hear this information?
- Read More – I have committed to reviewing one law per week from John Maxwell’s 25th anniversary edition of the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In a recent post, I discussed how the Law of Process was my ‘favorite’ law. Well, I believe this next law is the ‘most important’ law. This week is Law #6:
The Law Of Solid Ground
Trust is the Foundation of Leadership
Let’s start with this leaders: No leader can break trust with his or her people and expect to keep influencing them. So, if Leadership is influence, nothing more nothing less, THEN a lack of trust means you have no leadership! It’s a simple logic equation!!
No trust = no influence = NO LEADERSHIP!
Trust is a lot like a bank account. Each time you make a good leadership decision through competence and good values, you make a deposit in your trust account. Each time you make a poor values or competence decision, you make a withdrawal. Now, when leaders don’t have good values, they can’t be trusted. Thus, if your mistake is a values or character mistake, the withdrawal is LARGER than a competence mistake. People can accept mistakes based on competence more than they can accept mistakes based on character.
When you start a new leadership position, you have a certain ‘balance’ in your trust account. If you continuously make bad decisions over and over, you eventually run the trust account dry and you need to declare leadership influence ‘bankruptcy! I think you probably knows what happens next…. No MONEY in your bank account then NO LEADERSHIP. No Leadership = No job or relationship or friendship. Make sense?
Character and good values make Trust possible. Trust makes leadership possible. That is the Law of Solid Ground.
Quote – “The only thing that walks back from the tomb with the mourners and refuses to be buries is the character of a person. This is true. What a person is survives him or her. It can never be buried.” – J.R. Miller
What You Need to Do:
Call to Action: So, are you making more withdrawals then you are making deposits into your trust account? If you have broken trust with someone in your past, it is important to try to make things right. Ask for forgiveness (deposit), make restoration if possible (deposit), do the right thing going forward (deposit). The greater the size of the broken trust, the longer it will take, but is is possible if you commit to good character.
Also, what have you learned this week? WHERE can you use some of the information you learned? WHO needs to hear it? Make it a habit to apply your learning. I hope that the Champions Brew gives you material that you can apply in your daily life!!
I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of Champions Brew. If you did, I would appreciate it if you would share it with someone who might enjoy it as well and ask them to subscribe! I will make sure they automatically get this email every week.
Until next time eat healthy, apply your learning, read more and Grow Champions!
P.S. – Are you a podcast fan? Maybe the Uncommon Leader podcast is for you. Are you interested in being a guest on the Uncommon Leader Podcast? Do you have a story to tell? Email me [email protected] and let’s have a chat and set something up!!
