Yesterday’s date struck me for a number of reasons as I wrote it.

  1. I’m still getting used to 2011 and the New Year. I’m probably not alone on this one.
  2. I like the number 11, I wore it in sports. OK, now I’m getting a little more out there.
  3. It reminds me of a string of exclamation points that I use to emphasize my point.

The third reason probably isolates me the most, but even if you don’t see it the same, at least hear me out. I’m thinking about exclamation points because of a conversation I had yesterday that impacted me. The conversation was with another entrepreneur about our businesses and he spoke of the importance of believing that what you do matters. We both agreed that once that belief is in place then you can truly speak with passion, conviction and confidence  about what it is you are doing and ultimately why it is important. If there is any lingering doubt, then it is going to be hard to enroll others in it and maintain the passion for why you do it when it is not easy.

With this belief of mine firmly and freshly reconfirmed in relationship with someone who was right in front of me rather than reading it in Simon Sinek’s book, I was inspired to write about my why. It has been helpful for me to put thoughts to paper, even if it is mostly to screen today instead of paper, in order to make them more concrete. I was also always told that there is research out there that suggests writing your goals down makes you more likely to accomplish them. I found out in Sid Savara’s post that this is at least partially true, which helps to reinforce my belief in the power of writing things down, scientifically proven or not.

Add in the timing of yesterday’s date and my connection to the all the 1’s being like exclamation points,  the fact it is my first blog post of the New Year and it all culminates in this proclamation. The work I’m doing on 1/11/11 matters!!!!! Here are just a few reasons why it is so true for me today.

  1. Over the holidays in our household we had quite an incident between our twins. They are 3 ½ years old and definitely have their issues at times with one another. The short story is that we found our daughter’s dolls, which she got for Christmas, head down in two separate toilets. Needless to say she was pretty upset. Turns out that her twin brother had done it because she wouldn’t play with him. He was frustrated with her and didn’t know how to use words to express it.
  2. The recent shootings in Arizona and all the talk of how political rhetoric in this country is broken and has gone too far. In other words, people can’t disagree without it potentially escalating to acts of violence.
  3. The conversations I have had the honor of having recently with clients exploring their self-awareness as it relates to their emotional intelligence and how it subsequently impacts their level of effectiveness in their professional and personal lives.
  4. The decisions I have been a part of when there was no conflict, no discourse and no process to help derive a quality decision that avoids all the usual social and thinking traps most individuals and organizations are unconscious of.
  5.  The bad rap sales gets because too many people have had a horrible sales experience at some point. Everyone has a story to tell about the nightmare salesperson that was pushing a product on them that they didn’t want. The reality is that salesperson may or may not have believed in the product and I guarantee never took the time to actually listen to the customer.

These five examples that are happening in my world compel me to say again with even more passion, conviction and confidence that my work with individuals and organizations to develop emotional intelligence, decision making and sales skills matters more than ever. The time is now, at least for me today, to own and proclaim my why in writing. So I invite you to speak your truth and declare to yourself and others, if you dare, why what you do matters. If you can’t or if you won’t then give it some thought to explore what holds you back from putting a lot of exclamations on it regardless of the date.