Avoiding the Funk

Welcome to Tappe Talk, a Purposed Connection podcast by The Tappe Group. The holidays represent a significant paradox. Holidays represent happiness for some and frustration for others. This week Allen suggests several ways to make the most of the season.

• Begin with the end from the beginning...Remember the energy you began with and make it live.
• Block and Discipline... Enjoy the celebrations but commit time to getting the important things done.
• Bring Joy to the Moment...it is a joyful season. Choose to bring that joy to each moment of this last month. Remember and rejoice.
• Be Aware...You cannot afford to waste almost two months. There is a lot of waste during this time of the year. Don't be part of robbing yourself of what you want to achieve. Stay aware.
• Believe Again...It is easy to become cynical in life. People can do that to you. At the same time , people are our lives. They are our love. We cannot live without them even when we don't think we can live with them.

Powered by Podbean.com

To have this weekly podcast automatically upload to your mp3 player visit the iTunes Store and Power Search "tappe talk" and then subscribe

To comment on this blog, click on the COMMENTS link located directly below. I would love to hear your thoughts!

The Stance of Faith

I am finishing a wonderful weekend of spiritual renewal with a community of people I love. We have spent three days of almost non-stop praise, prayer, and contemplation. We have also enjoyed a guest speaker who gave us alot to think about. He challenged us to adopt a "stance of faith". He asked us to commit to "groaning", not "whining". He asked us to commit to "playing", not "watching". And finally, he asked us to "hope" and not "despair".

He suggested that to groan about the reality of suffering and pain in this world is altogether appropriate. In fact, the injustice and inhumanity we witness in this world should cause us to shed tears. To groan for the world around us is a healthy expression. To whine for things we don't like or don't agree with is really another thing. Whining is not attractive or helpful. It is more than annoying.

He said to get into the game is where we belong. Playing not watching needs to be our posture. To spectate and criticize is passive and without constructive value. Active commitment creates the kind of creative energy we represent.

And then, he challenged us to accept the hope we have been given. We have a message of hope. Despair is really inconsistent with what we believe. No matter what things look like, we believe. So, hope is our anchor. It is our culture.

I love the stance and I thought about what a difference it would make in my world if it was an experience we all shared together. Imagine it. No more whining! What would it mean to your workplace or your family life if the noise polution of whining disappeared. At the same time, what if it was replaced be genuine concern and a practical love response? What if we really felt the desire to make it easier for those around us?

What if we really had players around us? If everyone in our world was truly engaged and active, what kind of difference would it make? Spectators and critics go away. What if people who regularly play the victim were to disappear in life and work?

And, imagine, living in a culture where hope was the predominant spirit. What if fear did not linger in the air? How different would things be if the negative were replaced by the positive?

Well, I can dream can't I? I believe the stance of faith is to love, serve, and believe. I believe it is the culture we were meant to live. I also believe it takes the power of an ever present God and the faith response of committed people to create it. It is my hope for us all. Do well, my friends!

The Spirit of Thanksgiving

Welcome to Tappe Talk a Purposed Connection podcast by The Tappe Group. This week is our season of Thanksgiving. Clearly we have a lot to be thankful for. Allen suggests a few things to think about this week:

• Who do you depend upon for the life you live?
• What do you do and say to encourage them everyday?
• How much time do you spend criticizing the very people you need?
• How do you recognize and reward them for what they do for you?
• How much do you take them for granted?
• How do you celebrate them?
• Who do you love? And, do they know it? Really?

Powered by Podbean.com

To have this weekly podcast automatically upload to your mp3 player visit the iTunes Store and Power Search "tappe talk" and then subscribe

To comment on this blog, click on the COMMENTS link located directly below. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Caveat Emptor

Disclosure is a big thing in our business culture these days so I decided I needed to put a "caveat" on my blog. "Caveat Emptor" is a well worn Latin expression that simply means
"buyer beware". In this case, I am not actually selling you anything tangible. What I am selling you, however, is new thought. I am challenging you to think. I am selling you the vision of personal power and the freedom to choose. I am clearly challenging you to continue to learn and grow as a human being. So, I think it is important that you are given a "caveat" as you read this or any blog I have or ever will write.

If you choose to accept this mission, you will encounter challenges to your success. To borrow a word from Steven Pressfield, you will face "resistance" in your journey toward the creation of anything within you that resembles growth, development, or health. He wrote a little book of philosophy years ago entitled The War of Art if you are interested in exploring his thoughts a little more deeply. Simply put, if you are creating anything new in you or around you, look out!

Recently, I have been reminded of how important this warning is because if you are expecting to have smooth sailing in the creative process it simply is not going to happen. You will face discouragement from within and from without. It will come in forms and from places where you least expect it. It will target your weakest link and it will try to exploit it to its fullest. Don't be surprised by the resistance. It is part of your process.

So, if you are going to get hammered, why even start down that road? It really is a good question. The answer is the alternative is far worse. Choosing to learn and grow and create new and fresh life and thought is choosing to live. Choosing to embrace your status quo and vegetate on thoughts as you have always thought them is choosing to die a slow death before you ever die. Choosing life is better than choosing death except in the most extreme and exceptional circumstances and even that would be a creation all of its own. Thank you, heroes! Thank you, Jesus!

Living life on purpose every day is a choice. It is a choice that will create immediate attention in your world and you should not be surprised by the challenges you will face. Choosing to create something new in life is risky. You might fail. Or, you might succeed and it could change everything. So, the caveat is yours. My encouragement is for you to take the challenge. And, continuing in the spirit of my friend Nick, do well my friends!

Keep the Bar High!

Welcome to Tappe Talk, a Purposed Connection podcast by The Tappe Group. Expectations, even of yourself, are often times unmet. This week Allen shares with us a few suggestions on keeping the bar high.

1. Think something new every day!
2. Expect to live a miracle every day!
3. Get accountable every day, really!
4. Choose to stay out of ruts.
5. Give something away.
6. Treat yourself well.
7. Encourage your team.
8. Listen and learn.
9. Begin again.
10. Choose to lead.

Powered by Podbean.com

To have this weekly podcast automatically upload to your mp3 player visit the iTunes Store and Power Search "tappe talk" and then subscribe

To comment on this blog, click on the COMMENTS link located directly below. I would love to hear your thoughts!

"It Is What It Is"

I had some pictures taken this week. I needed some high resolution shots because of marketing material being produced. After we had worked through several different poses and a few wardrobe changes, we moved to a computer and looked at the results. The photographer was a master at his work and he helped me select a few poses he thought were the most striking as if that is an appropriate description of any picture where I am the subject. After we had agreed on what we both considered to be the best, he said he could do some editing work. It is amazing what can be fixed on a computer. The "airbrush" is fully capable of fixing all of your blemishes. The problem is that the result will be something other than you. In fact, you probably could be convicted of false advertising. As we discussed lines and wrinkles and spots and bumps, I finally said "It is what it is. Let's just go with it."

Accepting reality is an ever present challenge. I am not talking about things we are fully capable of changing. I am referring to things we do not have the power to change. How do you manage things you cannot change? Managing things you have no power to change may be one of the most significant challenges we face in life. Aging is one of those changes. I was facing that challenge with my photographs. You can airbrush, stretch, tuck, and hide. In the end, you are getting older and your body is leading the way. Accepting you for who you are is essential to confidently engaging this life. Doing it with grace and style must become your goal.

Accepting the reality that you have no ability to control the choices others make is another of those challenges. Living life in the midst of choices made by others, being impacted yet not being able to change them, requires disciplined response. What we can't change we have to learn to effectively and positively manage if we are going to experience the blessing and the positive affect of community.

Coming to grips with the limitations of your humanity is another of those "necessary" interferences in life. Failure, mistakes, miscues, confusion, and weakness are all realities we have to face. To the degree we do not have a healthy relationship with our reality as human beings, guilt, disappointment, and denial become our unnecessary companions.

There really is nothing pessimistic about being a realist. I do believe, however, it is important to stay positive as a realist. Life is what it is today. Don't run from it. Embrace and engage it. It works better that way. Do well, my friends.

The Mystery of Substance

Welcome to Tappe Talk, a Purposed Connection podcast by The Tappe Group. What things do you represent to the world as having value? How valid is your presentation? Hernando De Soto suggests that the basis of our present economic crisis lies in a "capital" presentation that had no value. What other value presentations can be made without substance. Here are a few areas where Allen believes we can focus on establishing and assuring "substance" as a basis for what we present as a value to the world in which we live:

1. Friendship-- What really makes friendship a reality?
   
2. Communication-- What conncetion have you really made and how?
3. Serving-- What service do our customer's really experience?
   
4. Learning-- What have you learned lately and how?
   
5. Love-- Who have you loved and what does it mean?
   
6. Faith-- Who and what do you believe in and why?
   

Powered by Podbean.com

To have this weekly podcast automatically upload to your mp3 player visit the iTunes Store and Power Search "tappe talk" and then subscribe

To comment on this blog, click on the COMMENTS link located directly below. I would love to hear your thoughts!

"Almost, But Not Quite"

What happens when you almost make something happen but not quite? How do you get over and through not making it across the finish line when you are right there and you can see it but you run out of time and resources before you can get it done? Having just gone through the closing of a business in which I was a partner, I have it clearly in the forefront of my mind. We had a great game plan. We had great support and acceptance in the marketplace. I had a great working partner. We had good people working for us. We were recognized and celebrated for our achievements. It was all right there but we ran out of money and time. Now what?

Maybe you experience it in your job as a manager or even in something you are trying to get accomplished on a more personal level. Wherever and whenever the disappointment of apparent failure comes, what do you do? To begin with, you don't accept the finality of thought that the word failure suggests. You continue to stay in process. Maybe a business venture cannot continue, or maybe you have to readjust your expectations on a production level, or maybe you have to reshape plans you have for yourself personally. The key is to stay in the game. Don't quit. The game is not over while you are still above ground.

Further, be sure to maximize your investment of time and money in whatever your situation is by taking the time to learn as much as you possibly can from your disappointment. We have learned that this is not the economy or time to be under capitalized and/or undermanned. At the same time, we have been validated on so many levels about what went well. It seems important to me, even vital, to gain as much insight as you can from wherever you have been in order to be better prepared for wherever you are going.

It is also important for you to reconfirm and possibly reframe your team. We all work with and mutually depend upon others for our success. Who is still standing with you? Who still believes in who you are and in what you represent? Unfortunately, there may be those who won't choose to stay with you. Let them choose. Accept and respect their choices. They have their own lives to live and their own dreams to pursue. But, recognize and celebrate those who stand with you. Refining and redefining is a big part of the process of achievement and success.

Staying humble is a constant in learning and growing. If you don't learn it here, you will be forced to learn it there. When something doesn't work the way you have planned then accept the fact that maybe your plan was flawed. I don't mean give up on what you know to be true. I simply mean to stay open to the reality that being human carries the baggage of fallibility. You might not have it right or maybe what you know to be right needs a different context, time or environment.

There is so much more to be said and, over time, I will take the time to say it either through this vehicle or others. But, for now, don't give up. Don't ever, ever, ever, give up! It was powerful when it was first said and it remains powerful today. Keep your head up. Keep moving forward. Listen and learn. Stay humble. Do well, my friends.

Bouncing Back!

Welcome to Tappe Talk, a Purposed Connection podcast by The Tappe Group. After five years of working at creating and building an organization, this past week Allen has worked at closing it down. It is easy to quit when things go south on you. It is easy to get down and depressed. This week Allen discusses bouncing forward and not back to where we were.

Powered by Podbean.com

1. Stay thankful! (positive)
2. Seek counsel! (learn)
3. Stay active! (energy)
4. Guard your mind! (think)
5. Lighten up! (play)
6. Stay in the Present! (breathe)
7. Believe in yourself (center)
8. Create and celebrate wins! (momentum)

To have this weekly podcast automatically upload to your mp3 player visit the iTunes Store and Power Search "tappe talk" and then subscribe

To comment on this blog, click on the COMMENTS link located directly below. I would love to hear your thoughts!