Change – Gary Montgomery

It looks like this!

Posted On: 09-06-2013

One of the challenges with delegating is to be sure that everyone understands the directions and the desired results. One of the ways to clarify is to use the ‘it looks like this’ phrase when identifying the results or expected outcomes and the steps along the path. Another way is to use questions in opening the minds of those to whom you assign the tasks. Questions such as – What will your first step be? What resources will you need? Who do you go to for assistance when you are stuck?

Questions are great and identifying the outcome help others see the goal…and both processes are motivational. Most know the values of questions. I have addressed them in the past and will go deeper in a future article. Right now let’s focus on seeing the goal before it becomes reality, and how it motivates us. I call that vision. It’s part of the ‘I CAN PLAY’ attitude we need for success.

About ten years ago I had a knee replacement. The surgery was simple compared to what was next … physical therapy. One part of the process to get my knee back to normal movement was the stationary bike. Sounds simple for someone with good knees. My left knee was not good. It was swollen and sore from the surgery and I had difficulty moving it. Back to the bike. I could not make my left knee bend so that I could make the rotation on the bike. The goal was to go all the way around but I couldn’t bend my knee to make the complete circle. Too much pain!

On my fourth visit to the physical therapist Shawn greeted me with “We’re going all the way around today on the bike!” I looked at him like he was crazy. I can’t get my knee to bend enough to go all the way around. Too much pain. “No way,” I said. Shawn looked me in the eye. “We can do it, we’re going all the way around …today!”

I got on the bike but did not have the same expectation that Shawn expressed. Too much pain! Shawn noticed that I was doing what I had been doing in previous visits; go to the point of pain on the bike, then reverse direction. He yelled across the room, “Gary, we’re going all the way around…today!”

Shawn was good… like a teacher or coach good. He had gained my respect, built a relationship during previous visits, and now he was setting the bar higher. Here’s the goal … all the way around. It was like he was saying …”IT LOOKS LIKE THIS! All the way around.”

Shawn’s motivation, inspiration, and direction worked. After a series of reversals, I started trying a little harder, absorbing a little more pain, visualizing what success looks like and …. I DID IT. I went all the way around! Once I completed the circle I let go with a loud scream! Everybody stopped their therapy and stared. “What’s that all about,?” is what I interpreted their staring to be asking … so I explained the reason for the yelling. “I went all the way around,” was my simple explanation.

It happened because Shawn got me to see success. Without saying the exact words he got me to understand “It looks like this” and then the vision became reality.

I Can Play

Posted On: 06-23-2012

It’s simple, it really is! Believe in yourself, in your success, and in your ability to get there. Sure it helps you but it can also influence others. The individuals you target along with everyone else you encounter!

OK, you’ve heard it before. But have you started working on it, the self-belief part? Let me give you a formula for this self-belief.

1) Vision. See it of course, but go beyond seeing your success to feeling it. Goal setting is necessary in this development. Writing out goals is a challenging process for many. So challenging that few do it. Have you done it? Put on paper what you want to achieve. Be specific about what it is you want. Be exact about what day you want it to happen and most importantly create the feeling you will have as you live your goals. Some call it dreaming… but do it while you are awake. Decide what it will feel like, decide how you will act, decide what you will say. It will help you in your visioning, your goal-setting. Become what you want to be. Act the way you want to act. Think the way you will think when you become what you want to be. See it happening! You are transforming yourself into what you want to be. And here’s a key word for the journey — FOCUS! Focus on the goal (that’s visioning) and the picture will trigger the goal reaching process inside you, and what is inside causes you to take the actions necessary for you to become what you want to be. It starts when you make your dreams real in your mind so you can call on them at any time. You can feel it –Focus! That’s Vision!

2) Positive Atmosphere. Positive people see success, negative people see obstacles. Do you believe dthat? Individuals in my audiences say they do. In fact I’ve never had an argument about it. Now I do know negative individuals who have success but they fight it more because they focus on the “I Can’t” before deciding on the “I Can.” Why not focus on the positive? The path to achievement, to success, is quicker. Will you have to overcome obstacles? Probably. But if you travel with a positive atmosphere you create a positive environment. It’s what you bring to the issues, to the meeting, to the committee, to the challenge; you bring a positive approach to the issue and make it easier to see and create success. What do you see when you view your success? Do you see why you can’t achieve or do you see the prize. Do you focus on your talents and what you can do or the obstacles and the difficultly in thinking differently? It’s up to you, no one else. Do you focus on creating a positive atmosphere — and then living in it — and sharing it? It’s a choice. Get positive about how you think, how you act, and how you talk to yourself. Start now to live in a positive atmosphere. It’s your choice!

3) Risk. The truth is we must take risk as we travel to success. If we stay where we are, do not risk, then we stay where we are. It’s safe but there’s no development or growth. It’s easy to pick out the individuals who have failed to risk in their lives. They are all around you. Doing what they have always done and remaining where they have always been. Sometimes they might tell you what they could have been or what they could have done. Ask they why they didn’t reach what they could have done. In some way they will get to the fact that they didn’t go after it. Perhaps they had a challenge, or a tragedy, or perhaps they were just comfortable. The reason is not important but the fact is they didn’t risk something new, something different. To go somewhere you’ve never been you have to do something you’ve never done. We need to attempt new feats to reach new heights! And the exciting part of being a risk taker is that we learn and climb as we discover new processes and ideas. Risk-taking becomes a way of life and moves us forward, we become comfortable taking risk. When we become risk takers we grow. Focus on growing, getting better- become a risk taker.

When we combine Vision, with Positive Atmosphere and Risk taking we start to trust ourselves and we start to believe in our talents, possibilities, opportunities, goals, and actions. We believe in our selves and what we can accomplish. We become comfortable reaching out and trying new things. Failure does not scare us. We understand we will stumble at times but we believe enough in ourselves not to worry about a temporary setback. That’s living life with an I CAN PLAY attitude. When you get there your Focus will change. You will stay focused on success. It’s a way of life.

Once you get this I CAN PLAY attitude, you will give it to others. You can’t help it. Your actions will influence others — the ones you target and the individuals you will never know that you’ve helped. You can change the way people think about themselves and success!

Questions shared with Precious Blood

Posted On: 03-15-2012

Just returned from a Mission with Precious Blood Parish in Owensboro, KY. I met and prayed with some wonderful people who are letting their Light shine in the Parish and beyond!

We discussed a couple of communication processes using questions … asking others, but more importantly asking ourselves. Here are some of the questions and ideas we explored during the three day Mission.

Who am I? This digs to our very core. Who am I? What a question! But instead of just ignoring the question start writing down answers. Explore yourself, the deeper you explore the more you will understand. And if you don’t like some of the answers…adjust!

What do I believe? If you were required to stand on a roof top and shout out what you believe , for everyone to hear–What would you say? Similar to what does your sign say or what is your message. What do you believe?

What are my values? This one is similar to what do I believe but with a twist. What values to you adhere to. Truth, is that important? Honesty, commitment, service to others… what values drive you to be who you are. Write them down so you know who you are and what you are committed to.

What are my talents? This a little easier but still difficult to address. The best way to discover talents is to use your talents. List your talents — it helps define who you are.

What am I doing with my talents? Do I give my talents away, that is, do I use them. The only way they come alive is to put them to action. If you are an artist but haven’t put a brush on a canvas, you aren’t using your talents. If you are a great communicator but don’t greet people, or look them in the eye when you speak, you aren’t doing much with your talent. Use you talents, all of them, use them often, and you will discover there’s more in there. Keep looking!

What holds me back? Let’s face it you are a unique individual, unique talents, skills but sometimes things hold you back from being the best you can be. Explore what holds you back. Name it, tame it and move forward … get past the obstacle. You first have to identify what holds you back.

Questions are wonderful tools to use for growth. Grow yourself, grow your family, your church, and your workplace.

Here is the Gary Montgomery process when using questions with others … Q-L-C.

Of course the Q stand for quetions. Open conversation with others with questions about them.

The L stands for Listen and for Learn. And learning about others is most important. Listening is the process we use to Learn about others. Pay close attention about them because the more we learn about others, the deeper we can go in building a relationship.

The C stands for Contribute. Once we learn what individuals like and dis-like we can Contribute to them and help them grow by feeling better about themselves. When they feel better about who they are, because they were around and with us, well that’s leadership. They will want to be around you, listen to you and be influenced by you more and more because you help them feel better about who they are. That’s the process … how to use questions to help others grow.

At the three-day Mission we focused on using the questions in our life to grow, to discover the Light, to become the Light, and then to give the Light of Christ away.

Be specific and go deep when questioning yourself. You can take it because you want to be the best you can be.

Be gentle when using the question technique with others. They don’t yet know how good they can be. They need you to guide them.

The friendly people at Precious Blood were an inspiration for me to continue questioning and working to grow and share the Light! Thanks for the kindness and hospitality!

Word list

Posted On: 07-21-2010

For the next few weeks I am going to list words that move me. Perhaps they move you also. “Move me?” you might say!

I mean move you mentally. Cause you to take steps. Make you do something different, improve yourself.

My favorite word is ADJUST. “Now how can that move you?” is the question. Adjust is a synonym for the word change. I don’t like change, or at least the word. Change sounds harsh, abrupt. I would rather adjust. Let the world change … I’ll just adjust. It sound so much simpler.

Adjust is the way we learn and the way we deal with life. We adjust our thinking about something and we learn more. We open our minds (adjust) and we put in more knowledge. When we try one way, and it doesn’t work, we adjust, try a new path. It really is that simple. But we must be able, capable and eager to adjust. That’s the hard part. Looking for and being ready to adjust.

Somebody (I have looked it up but have not found who) said something like this. If you want to go somewhere you’ve never been … you have to do something you’ve never done.

That’s the long way of saying ….”ADJUST.”