By the end of the 3-day event, the expansive visions put forth had generated many supporters, and not surprisingly, a few skeptics. When one intern commented that none of this seemed possible until the current staff could get out from under their massive workload, BK author Roberto Vargas stood up to “respectfully disagree.” With considerable passion, he responded, “You don’t know how much energy I have, and you don’t know my community.”

He was not alone in his sentiments. At other tables more authors and other stakeholders had expressed a willingness to contribute their creative energies and resources to help realize the future we had envisioned together.

How often do we limit our vision to what we think we can accomplish with our current capabilities, not realizing that there are countless others out there willing to jump onboard? It’s an easy trap to fall into, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed by the effort it takes to keep everything going on a daily basis. I know I’ve often overlooked the helping hands that are right there, just waiting to be asked. Roberto’s words can serve as a kind of mantra for those moments, reminding me not to discount the energy, capability, and willingness of people who believe in me and what I’m trying to accomplish. Gracias, Dr. Vargas.

Berrett-Koehler is the publisher of The Laws of Lifetime Growth, and many other quality books dedicated to helping people improve their own lives and the world around them.

We're very happy to see the laws getting around.

I finished my third novel two years ago -- a quirky, alternative, magical realist tale about Scotland. I was pleased with what I'd done: I told the kind of story I like to read. But writing was the easy part. Now came the hard part: submission.

For two years, I sent the manuscript around to various publishers. One editor loved it -- but then the company sacked him and shut down their fiction imprint. Several others were bought out or underwent significant changes after receiving the book; I never knew who I was dealing with. Most presses simply weren't interested in unknown work or this kind of story.

While visiting Catherine last summer, I saw she had a bookbinding guide on her shelf. Fascinated, I flipped through it. Later that day, she and I had a long talk about The Laws of Lifetime Growth. I looked back over this period of rejection letters and frustration and saw that I didn't have a future bigger than my past. In fact, I had no future at all, because I was refusing to look forward: I didn't want more of the same.

During my stay in Toronto, I went to a paper store and bought all sorts of colored papers, glue, thread, and a manual on bookbinding. When I got back to Edinburgh, I started teaching myself to make books by hand, and wound up making all my Christmas presents that year -- journals, photo albums, and other books.

At New Year's, I sat down with a pen and a book I'd made and I plotted out the year ahead. "I'm going to have a future," I figured, "so why not invent one full of activities I enjoy? Then, no matter how it turns out, at least I'll have had fun."

In the time since, I've managed to expand my bookbinding efforts to the point that I'm now running a "micropress" from home, publishing my own work, start to finish.

When I was in Toronto this summer, I had a book launch for my third novel. I got to read sections from the book for a packed room full of friends and strangers, and to share all these characters, events, and images from my imagination with them. I even sold enough books to give me pocket money for the rest of my trip. The biggest payoff, though, was knowing that the story was out there, not wasting away as a Word file on my computer or in some editor's in-tray.

That was one of the best nights of my life, and it happened because I'd determined that this year I would make progress by having fun -- always making my enjoyment greater than my effort.

~

Hamish MacDonald is the author of three novels: doubleZero, The Willies, and Idea in Stone. You can buy his hand-bound books or download free e-books of his novels from hamishmacdonald.com

Hamish lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

We recently published an article on this subject as it relates to entrepreneurs on The Strategic Coach website. Here are a few key thoughts that apply to anyone, entrepreneur or not:

• To understand what a lack of integrity looks like, it helps to start with a definition of what integrity is. "Integrity" means "wholeness" or "coherence." Things that have integrity gain strength from being consistent and unified in their make-up.
• At the deepest level, maintaining personal integrity involves aligning our thoughts, habits, and unconscious beliefs with our core values. This provides a strong foundation on which a bigger future can securely be built.
• Loss of personal integrity often happens a bit at a time, while we're not paying attention.
• Broken commitments, postponed or abandoned dreams, and uncomfortable trade-offs are all signs that our lives are out of alignment with our own deeply-held values.
• It takes a lot of effort to keep moving ahead when you're not doing what's meaningful or important to you, even if everything looks okay on the surface. You may be the only one who knows that something is wrong and think you have to hold it all together for the sake of others. It takes a lot of energy and personal resources to maintain a facade like this.
• People whose lives lack integrity in this very basic sense are nagged by the deep realization that real growth may only be possible once it all falls apart and they start over again. They fear the disruption to their lives that seems to be the only way out.
• Many very successful, morally upstanding people find themselves in this situation at some point in life.
• Often it happens because we accept a growth path that is provided for us by a company, community, family, tradition, or some other external influence, rather than determining our own path.
• The Laws of Lifetime Growth help people identify where their actions are out of alignment with their values. For instance, you may believe in principle that your future should always be bigger than your past, but not always act as if this were true. We all do this at times. However, by being more aware in the moment, we can change our behavior as it happens. Over time, these many small course corrections add up to big change in our habits, the results we create, and how we view life.
• The choice of how you apply the laws goes straight to the core of your values. Your bigger future is different from anyone else's, as are the way you will choose to contribute, what you will choose to learn about, and the questions you'll choose to ask. You get the idea.
• If you find yourself in a situation where you're starting again in some area of life, paying attention to the laws and to your core values as you grow can help you maintain integrity through the process so you can stay on the same growth path for a lifetime.

He says, "It isn't easy easy to expand to broader marketing bases while keeping your creativity and the admiration of the loyal, but it is possible." This point is driven home with a couple of interesting examples, including Marlboro, which responded to restrictive regulations by creating a unique community around its brand. We've seen the most innovative financial advisors we work with respond in similarly creative ways to regulations that crippled their ability to market and grow their revenues through conventional channels.

Dan Taylor is a dynamic Industry Transformer who has created an innovative and much needed process that helps aging parents discuss their future economic, medical, psychological, emotional, and lifestyle requirements with their adult children.

The interview tells how Dan came to create this process out of the challenging and deeply emotional experience he had with his own father, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease – making his learning greater than his experience. We've posted it to provide you with a real example of several of the laws in action in a business context.

You'll see how Dan created opportunity by facilitating greater cooperation where it was sorely needed. You'll also see how he made his questions bigger than his answers and how that led to innovation. By packaging the wisdom embodied in a particular kind of conversation into a product, he has managed to create an Industry Bypass, which is beginning to evolve into an emerging industry that provides significant growth opportunities for himself and many others.

Click here to download this interview in PDF format.

You may also want to see the profile posted here on the global wine industry.

If you've purchased The Laws of Lifetime Growth and are a business owner, but haven't yet received The Laws of Lifetime Growth for Business, click here to find out how you can request your free copy.

If you've purchased The Laws of Lifetime Growth and are a business owner, but haven't yet received The Laws of Lifetime Growth for Business, click here to find out how you can request your free copy.

If you've purchased The Laws of Lifetime Growth and are a business owner, but haven't yet received The Laws of Lifetime Growth for Business, click here to find out how you can request your free copy.

How to get your free supplement:
If you order through an online bookseller, you can e-mail your order confirmation to us at lifetimegrowth@strategiccoach.com.

Or if you buy through a bricks-and-mortar store, simply fax your receipt and your e-mail address so we can send you the supplement to the attention of AnaLaura Chiaperro at 416-531-1135. Rest assured, we will not share your information with anyone else.

Your purchases, along with purchases made in response to the publisher's
promotions, had enormous effect, driving The Laws of Lifetime Growth to #2
for all books in the U.S. on Amazon.com and #1 for all books in Canada on
Amazon.ca!

We are completely overwhelmed by the wonderful show of support from everyone in The Strategic Coach community. This was demonstrated not just by the many orders, but also by the flood of e-mail and calls with wishes of encouragement as we pursued this goal.

With over 4,000 books sold yesterday, together with other sales that happen throughout the rest of the week at outlets across the country, our publisher feels we may be able to make The New York Times Bestseller List for this week. WOW!

We'll keep you posted here on the actual numbers and results as they come in.

Buy The Laws of Lifetime Growth on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca on March 7, 2006, and we'll send you a free gift: a substantial supplement to the book that shows you how to specifically apply the ten laws to keep your business growing.

Just forward your order confirmation from Amazon to lifetimegrowth@strategiccoach.com and we'll send you your copy of this valuable extra material for entrepreneurs.

In the process, you'll be helping us with our big goal to launch this book into the top 10 on Amazon's bestseller list this week. Thanks! We really appreciate it!

In the Summer 2003 edition of our Strategic Seasonings newsletter, we profiled Strategic Coach client Brian U’Ren. At that time, Brian was trying to organize the largest ever delivery of medical supplies to victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Belarus. Brian succeeded in that goal and has since multiplied his efforts to help orphans and other victims improve their prospects through better housing, education, food, and household and medical supplies through an organization called Canadian Aid for Chernobyl (CAC). Recently, Strategic Coach team member Gaynor Rigby took a closer look at what Brian and CAC are doing, and made a contribution of her own, with help from The Strategic Coach’s “Silver Bullet” program.

Gaynor Rigby with Denis Vorobiev, the Belarusian
orphan who has a bigger future thanks to her sponsorship.

In 1998, co-founders and owners, Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith, created a program that offered Strategic Coach team members the opportunity to collectively distribute money among charities of their choice. Inspired by a Strategic Coach client who had created a similar program with his staff, Babs and Dan liked the idea of their team giving back to the community through charity and volunteerism. From this, the “Silver Bullet” program was born. Today, it has evolved into a $150,000 out-of-pocket, annual fund donated by Babs and Dan for use by the Strategic Coach team.

Not wanting the contribution to be solely financial, Dan and Babs took the idea one step further by encouraging team members to also donate their time. Every Strategic Coach team member gets three “Silver Bullet” days per year, above their regular six weeks of vacation time, to volunteer with an organization of their choosing.

Gaynor had been looking for a charity to put her time and money behind when she discovered Canadian Aid for Chernobyl. CAC is an organization dedicated to providing medical and humanitarian relief to families, children, and orphans in southern Belarus, an area severely affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

CAC’s mission resonated with Gaynor and she decided to get involved. “You just want to take everyone under your wing and fix it all for them,” Gaynor explains. “I can start with one person and make a difference in their life, and hopefully that one person then has a ripple effect on other people.”

In short: If you're not an entrepreneur, that is, you don't own your own business or practice or work in high-commission sales, you'll want to sign up for the general stream (on the left). If you are an entrepreneur, the version for entrepreneurs will be more applicable to you.

If you haven't read the book yet, a lot of what's in this blog might not make much sense to you. But for those who are familiar with the ten laws in The Laws of Lifetime Growth, our aim is to make this a place where the discussion can continue and encompass everything from current events, to readers' stories, to how to apply the laws to your business or your career.

People have told us that they can see themselves going back to the book for a boost when they're feeling stuck or in need of inspiration. We hope this blog will be another source of renewed insight, energy, and creativity to help keep you growing in all areas of life.