Setting a personal mission development plan. Helping make life-changing decisions.

Readers have taken many triggers from Dan Pena’s newsletters and used them in their own personal mission development. He talks of stories that he receives on the various achievements but regrets there are very few who boldly can talk of their failures.

In a typical personal mission development, it’s all about having faith in one’s self but this can get difficult if not surrounded with the right people to offer constant positive input and honest feedback. Dan’s career of 34 years had many struggles that were life threatening; financially threatening and emotionally threatening.

In all his business endeavours, every single one that didn’t come to fruition was because the initiator or founder gave up too soon, due to their lack of focus and belief in themselves. They gave up too soon and listened to conventional wisdom. Dan goes on to say people always have reasons that can be fabricated and invented and with the influence of family and friends it can make a huge difference.

This newsletter also creates a personal mission development plan through "Vedanta" with many practical illustrations and incidents. Overall, in this newsletter there is positivism and clear indicators that struggles are what one needs in life. In fact to bring about a clearer understanding of a personal mission development, Dan gets spiritual where he claims if God allowed life to go through without any obstacles, it would not cripple people and people can never be strong.

 

30th December 2004

From Dan Peña – Executive Coach and Mentor to the High Performer.

Dear High Performance Person and Visionary,

As the year comes to a close I wish you all a happy holiday season and an extremely prosperous New Year! 2004 has been a remarkable year for change. 2005 will be the same as long as you continue to search for opportunities. You must keep your mind open to change and a few of the things you see will have QLA written on them. But you must keep an open mind and be willing to change! Without change you can’t move on in your life! In fact, I am doing projects now I would have never ever envisaged being involved in before. I needed to get way outside my own comfort zone to get involved! And believe you me, there isn’t very much outside my comfort zone!

I have passed on to my readers many stories over the years. I have been surprised on the mix of success stories tied to great stories of struggle. In fact almost all success comes after great struggle and turmoil. I get success stories attesting to the merits of QLA often. And infrequently, I get stories about people not allowing QLA to work for themselves. Not many write about their failures!

Having faith in your self isn’t always easy. In fact it is very difficult if you haven’t surrounded yourself with the right people. You need people that give you constant positive input and honest feedback. But even with this positive reinforcement and candid feedback, at some point you need to face the "eye of the tiger" by yourself! Only you know when this time occurs. As I have said, "It’s a time to suck up your panty hose!" These are times when the men are separated from the boys and the women are separated from the girls and you either make your Quantum Leap, or you don’t!! (One missed QL doesn’t mean you will never get another chance!) No matter where we are in our lives we have all experienced such occurrences. In fact, many of these times are the things we have regrets about later in life, because you didn’t do what was necessary when you had the opportunity. Just think about your own life. Or what about your parents?

Next month I will have been in the real business world 34 years! As I write this it seems like a very long time, but in truth of fact the years have passed very quickly. During that time I have been involved in many struggles: some life threatening; some financially threatening; and some emotionally threatening. I have been on the "razors edge" of failure (as Ross Perot would say), countless times.

With the various business endeavors I have been involved with, almost every single one that didn’t come to fruition didn’t because the initiator or founder gave up too soon, due to their lack of focus and belief in themselves. They merely gave up on themselves too soon. They listened to conventional wisdom too often. Of course they had "reasons." People always have reasons. Such reasons can very easily be found and in many cases fabricated and invented. Our families and friends conveniently help us initiate and or support these reasons not to continue the struggle. Family and friends have been taught to "be there" for friends and loved ones, etc, at their time of need. We have all been instructed and taught to say the appropriate thing such as, "we understand" and stuff like that. (I have never said, "I understand" when someone is giving up on themselves because things got too tough! In fact I say just the opposite.) We do things like that especially around holidays. For those of you that have worked with me you know, "there is never a good time to make a difficult decision!" Candor and honesty are rare commodities when dealing with emotions.

With one or two exceptions during my times of crisis I have had very little of this kind of support. Not because I didn’t necessarily need it (especially when I was much younger), but I just didn’t get it. For those of you that know me, you also know why. Most people just don’t feel I require such words and, or actions. With the exception of my mom passing one year ago Christmas Eve, I can’t remember ever getting such input. As I have almost always been left to fend for myself and "struggle" through the situation, challenge and problem. (For those that know the difference between a Peña problem and a challenge you can laugh now!) I firmly believe the milieu I have been exposed to have made me the person I am. Ergo, when the devil is at your door, who do you call? Or when do you say, "What would Dan do?"

Now the main reason for this year end news letter:

Whilst searching "Google" for a name for a new venture I will launch next year with attendees from a recent Castle Seminar, I came across the Indian word "Vedanta". Back in the mid-nineties, an Indian couple gave me a book on the subject whilst attending a seminar here at Guthrie. Apparently "Vedanta" was the QLA type of life style and religion of India thousands of years ago. Whilst reading I came across the short story below. I had heard similar tales, but never had seen it written down.

For those of you that have been in business with me, you know I almost never bail a deal, or individual out of a problem, other than helping with positive understanding, encouragement and different ideas. I rarely thought of why. I had merely thought my experience told me no good comes from allowing someone off the hook of dealing with life, unless it’s truly life and death. I knew the action of dealing with the struggles of life was infinitely better than being sheltered from them! (I have struggled with this idea whilst seeing my children grow up!) I have often said, "As long as the hit (bullet) we were going to take was above the water line I would allow it to occur." Where hits below the water line, that could sink us, I would assist to insure we were there to fight another day.

Read and ponder the short story that follows. Whether you’re a parent, a business owner, or a high level exec, think before you move to help someone along the road of life. Whilst you may have the best intentions at heart you may ultimately be crippling the person you are trying to help! The road to hell is paved with best intentions! And I can assure you continuing to assist someone out of challenges and problems will insure that the individual will not reach their full potential!

I wish all of you a great holiday season and an incredibly joyous and prosperous New Year!!! I want all of you to approach 2005 as if you had "no limits to your abilities." You will surprise yourself. Success is infectious! So let us go and get infected with what it feels like to be all you can be!!

To Your Quantum Leap,

Daniel S Peña Sr.

P.S. I am giving two 90 minute QLA talks in Manchester, England, 25 January, for The Quantum Organization, PLC, WWW.QUANTUMORGANIZATION.COM. I was appointed Chairman 1 October this year. It’s a terrific opportunity for those interested in the SME consultancy market in the UK, India, Australia, New Zealand and soon to be the USA. Its founder CEO, David Abingdon is a successful QLA devotee and Mentee. For information on times and place contact steven@guthriecastle.com.

P.P.S. For those of you that have asked, at this time I have no intention of giving another 7 day QLA Castle Seminar in 2005. There are a couple of places still available for 22 -30 April.

"Struggles makes you strong"

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day he saw a small opening in the cocoon. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no further… so, the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But, it had a swollen body, and small shrivelled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly, because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings. It was never able to fly.
What he had done in his well intentioned kindness and haste, he did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been…… and we could never fly……. have a great day, a great life, and struggle a little… remember… God wants you to fly!