What does IQ really stand for?

I’m sure we are all familiar with the term IQ, it is commonly accepted as the term to identify one’s intelligence, thus,” Intelligence Quotient“, or IQ. However, is there perhaps an even more important value we could measure and designate in a similar way? Maybe we could examine our Real IQ and refer to it as  RIQ… “Real Impact Quotient”. I do not want to get into the discussion of the value of IQ versus the value of  RIQ other than to say this… If I had to choose, I would choose Real Impact over intelligence any day, fortunately I believe we can share both.

What’s this all about?

I was considering the value of time,  time spent, time invested, time wasted, time lived, and most important, time still yet to live. So I did what any logical human being would do, I went to Google. As it turns out, according to the U.S. Census Bureau the projected life expectancy in 2010 was 78.3 years.

That statistic got my attention Big Time because I realized that I had most likely already lived more than 60% of my life. Quite honestly it scared me, I started wondering… what difference have I made, what impact have I had, and how have I changed this world. I began to question the amount of time I still had left, and would the  amount of Time I had left  be the deciding factor in the ultimate impact I would have on my family, my community, my clients, and this world?

I Loved The Answer

The great news is that our RIQ is not limited by time. I have spent a very limited amount of time with some people that have had a major impact on my life, and to the contrary, I have also spent a great deal of time with some people who had practically no positive impact on my life at all. Sometimes just a word or phrase can change a persons life. Zig Ziglar said that his whole life changed when someone simply told him that “he could do it”, and believed in him…hard telling what kind of RIQ Zig Ziglar has had on this world, and it all started with someone caring enough to instill confidence in a struggling salesman.

How Can We Increase Our RIQ?

• Discover your Purpose, your Calling…The best way to have the most Impact is to know what you were born to do. Pay attention to your desires…they were not put in you to taunt you, they are in you to guide you.

• Develop your natural strengths, skills, and abilities…The best way to enhance your Impact, is to leverage the things you are already naturally good at and have interests in.

• Put together a Plan…Allow your Passions, Dreams, and Values to guide your Goals and begin to layout a Plan of Action.

• Take Action…Make deposits of service in peoples lives. Ultimate Impact is a result of unselfish service.

Real Impact Quotient…RIQ Goes On Forever

Your RIQ becomes your Legacy. There is no doubt that we could make a pretty impressive list of famous people who have profoundly impacted this world, but my hunch is that the ones with the most Amazing RIQs, are the ones quietly serving and sharing there gifts among us everyday…Maybe It’s You!

Begin today growing your Impact, enhance your Real IQ and be more Intentional about your Legacy!

Blessings,

Randell

There’s Really Only Two Responses To Your Past:

#1.   Allow your past drag you down, or

#2.   Let your past motivate you to press on to a brighter future

Your History Can Either Control You, Or It Can Empower You!

In his book The Travelers Gift, Andy Andrews says…”Do not let your History control your Destiny”

Is your past holding you hostage like your standing in Quicksand? Are you wearing your bad decisions like a pair if hipboots full of mud?

It’s Time To STOP!

You cannot move forward while looking backward with regret, shame, or embarrassment…the past is the past. The past doesn’t even exist. All we can control is now, and where we go from here. It’s time to stop waisting  prescious energy beating ourselves up over past mistakes, failures, and poor judgement, even though the consequences of the past may still be present.

My friend Kent Julian has a formula that he shares in his presentations all across the country. Kents says: E+R=O. The E stands for Events in our lives, the R stands for our Response to those events, and O stands for Outcome. In others words, our Response to the Events in our lives, determines our Outcome. It’s a simple formula, but if applied intentionally in our lives daily, our future will be one that has massive impact, and a positive influence on our world…the coolest part is, that it’s OUR choice!

I’ve been in Quicksand:

If you’ve spent any time at all reading this blog, then you know that I’ve been hung up in the quicksand of past defeats and failures. For far too long I allowed a few bad decisions hold me captive. I would question my own qualifications to help struggling entrepreneurs because of my own mistakes in business, and life. The real fact of the matter is, that those mistakes have actually been an education for me to help other frustrated entrepreneurs get “their lives back” too. The rugged terrain I’ve traveled as an entrepreneur makes me a better guide to those traveling a similar path.

One Last Thing About The Past:

Each of us must take complete responsibility for our past, we must own our past, but we do not need to wear our past like a scarlet letter into our future. Don’t let your past control your destiny. Your destiny is your destiny regardless of your past.

So…Quicksand Or Trampoline?

Back to the original question…Is your past going to suck you down like quicksand, or spring you onward  like a trampoline into a bright and purposeful future. Your Response to the Events in your past determine the future Outcome of your life, and the impact you’ll have on this world.

Being Intentional about your Response is a great step toward being Intentional about your Legacy!

Blessings,

Randell

Do you ever have a hard time getting motivated?  Even when it’s something your passionate about, and really Love to do, sometimes it’s just tough to get going.

Take 3 minutes and watch this video to use a tip that I use…It seems to work everytime!!!

I would love to know how you get over the hump to stay motivated

Yes, I’ve actually been held at Gunpoint

When I was 18 years old, my first job right out of high school was working in a small plastics factory in a not so good area of town. I worked a night shift where we started at 6 PM and worked until 6 AM, we would work three days on and then we would have the next three days off, at which point we would start another three day cycle.

One night at about 2 AM a man came in the building and was talking to a fellow employee, the rest of us assumed he was a friend bringing lunch or something. There was only three of us working that night so when our fellow employee called us over to his workstation we thought he was going to introduce us to his friend.

When we arrived at his workstation the intruder pulled out a gun, held us at gunpoint and demanded we hand over our wallets. Once he had our wallets in hand, he had all three of us line up against the wall, and then he had us lay on our bellies with our hands straight out in front of us…

My Life Passed Before My Eyes

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that just before you die, your entire life passes before your eyes. Well, I’m here to tell you, that’s the truth, thousands of freeze-frame moments passed before my eyes in a split second, I literally saw my entire life in slow motion in the blink of an eye.

Obviously  the intruder finally left and we were all still alive, yet in that moment we were frozen while our life passed before us. We were “held up”, but we were not in control. Most of the time in life, when we are “held up” its of our own making.

So what’s your Hold-Up?

What’s holding you up while your life passes by? Is it fear? Is a lack of confidence? Lack of knowledge? Are you too young? Or are you too old?… Whatever it is, now is the time to take action.  Start today by taking one step, every journey starts with the first step, stop waiting for everything to be perfect, start where you’re at today, and activate the gifts and talents you already have by taking that first step and change your world.

Stop waiting…It’s Time to Pull the Trigger

An Extraordinary Legacy doesn’t just happen…We must be Intentional, Start today by taking the first step towards an Intentional Legacy!!!

Blessings,

~Randell

Are You At The End Of Your Rope?

If you are at the end of your rope in your work or your business, a longer rope may help for a while but it is definitely not the answer. A longer rope, such as a promotion, a few days off, a special project, or a raise in pay, may rejuvenate you for a while, but ultimately a longer rope would just serve as a diversion, and soon you will find yourself at the end of it once again.

My Finger Prints Are Embedded At The End Of The Rope!

I have dangled at the end of many ropes myself. I have stretched ropes by creating new ideas, going after new emerging markets, and chasing the next big thing, only to find myself in that familiar place once again, at the end of the rope. Stretching the rope buys you a little more time, but each time you stretch the rope it gets a little thinner and harder to hold onto, eventually something is going to give.

I was climbing the wrong rope!

When I finally found the right rope it made all the difference for me. Don’t get me wrong the climb is still hard, it still takes determination, persistence, personal development, and an investment of time, but it is worth it all because of “one thing”…Vision!

What’s at the other end of the rope?

You see, there must be a worthy goal at the other end of the rope, something that means more to you than almost anything else, it’s the one thing that you must see come to realization in your life. It is a goal that you can put your whole heart behind, it is what you go to bed thinking about and what you wake up thinking about, it’s the smile on your face and at the same time it’s a concerned look in your eye. It is in fact your Vision, and until you identify it, you will find yourself at the end of the rope over and over again.

Vision is fuel for successful living!

The Bible says” without vision the people perish” Proverbs 29:18.

Use these three simple exercises to gain clarity on your Vision.

1. Identify Your Values…What do you care about?,  What do you believe in wholeheartedly ?, What moves you to action?
2. What desires has God placed in your heart? …What accomplishments of others cause you to celebrate?  Make a list of things that make you smile. Who do you admire  for their impact on history?
3. Think about the perfect day… What would your perfect day look like?  Where would you be?  Who would be with you? What would you be celebrating?  What would you be most grateful for?

Pondering these thoughts will go a long way towards helping you identify the Vision you have for your Career, Business, and Life. Defining and drawing your Vision is one of the first steps of being Intentional about your Legacy!!!

Blessings,

Randell Mark

Have you ever thought of time as currency? In many ways that is exactly what it is, especially if you are paid by how much time you spend working. If you are trading your time for money then in a very real sense time is currency.  The reality is that you are actually purchasing dollars with your time. The problem with this arrangement is that you only have just so much time, obviously when you run out of time your opportunity to purchase more money then vanishes as well.

Following this logic, is wealth measured in time then or measured in dollars… I would suggest neither is an appropriate measurement of wealth. Wealth can be best measured by the value your time creates for you or someone else. For example:   If I am hired to give a speech for $1100, and I invest 10 hours researching and writing my speech, and one hour actually delivering my speech, you could say I just earned $100 per hour. However the wealth does not stop there, assuming the content of my speech added value to those listening, the potential wealth continues on with each person in attendance. To take this one step further, if I take that same speech and put it on a CD and offer it for sale, the potential income for me and the potential added value for anyone who purchased the CD for all practical purposes is infinite.

At the beginning of each year, at the beginning of each month, at the beginning of each week, and at the beginning of each day, we all start with the same amount of time. Each of us has a choice whether to spend our time purchasing dollars, or invest our time creating value for ourselves and others.

By investing our time in Personal Development and People Development we can change our world and be more Intentional about our Legacy.

~Randell Mark Olson

A couple of weeks ago Ivan Bickett asked if I would offer my “One Thing” suggestion for his website.  Ivan asked if there was only  ”One Thing” I could tell someone just starting out in their own new business, what would that “One Thing” be.  This was my response:

FEED THE FARMER B4 THE ANIMALS

If I could only share “one Thing” with someone just going into business, it would be this…”Feed The Farmer B4 The Animals”. Using the metaphor of you as the farmer, and the animals as your business, you need to be “well” in order to grow a healthy business.

Our Family During The Early Business Years

This has not always been my philosophy, but I wish it would have been.  In 1997 I walked away from a job with great pay, great benefits, and tons of flexibility to pursue the dream of self employment.  My wife and I had four kids, our oldest was 13 at the time, and the youngest was 4, yes we were just entering the most expensive years of raising a family…what was I thinking?

The way I had it figured was, if we don’t feed the business first, then it will not be able to provide for us, which makes perfect sense, and carries an element of truth, but is fundamentally way off. If you travel this path long enough you will probably end up frustrated at home, and blaming your business for it…after all it gets everything first.  I made the same mistake that many business owners make, of always paying themselves last.

The business bills always came first, the electric bill, gas bill, advertising bills, job material bills, while bills at home went unpaid, or paid at the last possible minute, including our mortgage.

After battling this for years, I finally realized that I needed to pay myself first.  Just as the farmer cannot properly care for his animals if he is not strong and healthy, we as business owners cannot give our business the attention it needs if our own core needs are not being met. For instance, how can we possibly have the energy to focus on our business if we are worried that our electricity will be turned off at home, if we can’t afford groceries for our family, or if we’re avoiding phone calls from bill collectors.  These distractions steal our energy, rob us of our creativity, cause pain in our relationships, and shoot huge holes in our confidence.

Our Family All These Years Later

To build a strong and healthy business, we as business owners need to be giving our best self…we need to be “whole”.  Here is a quick example of how to prioritize the finances of your new business:

1. Pay your Taxes First…do not pay anything until you pay your taxes. Despite what you may have read, the IRS is not that friendly.  If you don’t pay your taxes, they will visit you, usually without an appointment, and at the worst possible moment.
2. Take care of your Family’s Core Needs.  Pay yourself enough to cover Food, Shelter, Utilities, and Clothing. Once these basic needs are met, it is a lot easier to focus on growing your business.
3. Pay business bills.
4. At this point it comes down to Values. Invest in family fun, and business growth as you see fit.

If you will practice these principles you can avoid much of the stress and pain of starting and growing a business that will leave a Legacy for years to come.

“Randell Mark” Olson,  The Intentional Legacy Group, LLC

Welcome to the 2nd  episode of “Moments Of Greatness”

I am deviating slightly from the initial format already with episode #2.  My plan has been to capture “Moments of Greatness” throughout the week, and share them with you here.  But I was reminded of this story yesterday, and I felt I really needed to share it, because it illustrates perfectly what this video series is all about.

I would be honored if you would watch it now, and leave your comments as well…Thanks in advance!!!

It is really quite empowering to realize the impact our attitude and great responses have on everyone around us, and all it really takes is choosing a “Moment Of Greatness”. Our single Moment Of Greatness can leave a lasting impression that can change someone’s world.

I hope you’re inspired to make Greater choices, and be Intentional about your Legacy.

Thanks for watching, and please leave us a comment

“Randell Mark” Olson

What’s Changed In The Last 12 Months?

Let me tell you about my last 12 months…I’ll try not to bore you, but this has been an absolute “Turn-Around Year” for me!

12 Months ago I was a frustrated entrepreneur, who was struggling in business, I had lost my passion, and I felt like I was beginning to destroy my Legacy.  I was walking around on edge most of the time, and little things that used to just roll  like water off a duck’s back, would cause me to react rather harshly.

Don’t get me wrong, I was not pacing around in a fit of rage all of the time, just rather testy, and quick to blame people and circumstances for my current situation.  Quite honestly I had a “Stinky attitude”…Zig Ziglar would call it “Stinken Thinken”

Today?…

Today I still have that business that is struggling…But I also have a brand new business and a brand new Attitude, with a Passion and Desire to help other Entrepreneurs who are struggling the way I was.  Today through my coaching, and speaking I share a message of hope and inspiration that there is a brighter tomorrow, regardless of how things look today.  Today I wake up with a feeling of purpose, knowing my creator has a plan for me, and it’s my responsibility to discover and live it out.  I literally have a brand new life…you might say that I’m beginning to “Live My Best Life” and finally being “Intentional about my Legacy”.

So What Really Happened?

As I look back, I can identify 3 distinct reasons for my Turn Around Year”.

1. I Drew A Line: I said this is it, something has to change, and I  made a “Decision” to change my course.  I recognized that I was not living the life I was created to live, I decided it was time to start living a life of real purpose.
2. I Invested In Myself: I went through coaching programs, and seminars.  I invested in  training courses, as well as joining a ToastMasters group.  I connected with people who had already achieved great levels of success in helping others reach their potential.
3. I Took Action: I actually did something.  I stopped just thinking about it, and did it. I launched a brand new company “The Intentional Legacy Group, LLC. I have volunteered to speak this new message of hope.  I have offered assistance to other small business owners who are struggling with the same issues I was.  I am being Intentional about my Legacy.  When it’s all said and done, taking action is what ultimately has impact, and will change the lives of the people you serve.

What A Difference 12 Months Can Make…

Try it for yourself…Draw a line in the sand, and make a decision, choose to change your life, and your world.  Invest in yourself, so you are prepared to help others.  Then take Action.  Step out of your comfort zone, and reach out to serve humanity.

I’ll be the first to tell you that my life is far from perfect, but it is a “Life Of Purpose”. I am on a path towards “Living My Best Life”, and being  Intentional about my Legacy… I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has is store!

So often I find myself thinking about the next big event that is going to help me achieve my Goals.  There is no doubt that conferences, seminars, workshops, and training programs can have significant impact on our progress towards reaching our Goals, but I think often times it’s the little things we can do everyday that ultimately keep us moving steadily in the right direction.

For instance my morning coffee helps keep me motivated…actually it’s not so much the morning coffee, as it is the Coffee Cup I use.

A few months ago my Friend, Coach, and Speaking Mentor, Kent Julian gave me a coffee cup with his Logo on it.  I use that Coffee Cup every morning.  That Coffee Cup is a constant reminder of the things I’ve learned from Kent, and it Inspires me to keep pressing on.

I would encourage you to consistently do something that helps bring your Goals to mind everyday.  It may be a podcast, a book of inspiring quotes, a genre of music, or it may be as simple as a Cup of Coffee, but whatever it is, do it everyday, and you’ll experience the Greatest Changes in your Life, and be more Intentional about your Legacy.

Randell Mark