Category Archives: Leadership

Posted on

LYH35: Four Steps to a Grateful Thanksgiving [PODCAST]

by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Show Agenda

  • Featured Presentation: Four Ways to a Grateful Thanksgiving
  • Branding Expert: Dick Bruso, Heard Above the Noise
  • Lesson Principle: “Your Gratitude Determines Your Altitude”

Featured Presentation

You can find the full blog post on this topic at haroldarnold.com/thanksgiving2014

No matter your condition, thankfulness is a choice.

I would like you to consider four steps to choose thankfulness this Thanksgiving.

Step 1: As specifically as you can write down the ten things that you are most grateful for this year. 

Here’s my top-10 to guide your own list generation.

The Top 10 Things for Which I’m Most Grateful in 2014

  1. My wife’s personal commitment to being more grateful and its impact on our home
  2. My sister’s (Letitia) pregnancy and impending delivery–due date December 2nd. This is the first child (Kennedy) that one of my sister’s will have.
  3. Successfully completed a 12-month vegetarian fast (with my spouse) in which I consecrated myself to the pursuit of my purpose
  4. My children’s (Quilan and Kyrsten’s) academic success in grad school and high school respectively
  5. Launching a new website with 35 consecutive weeks of new blog posts and podcasts
  6. Spending two days with a branding expert (Dick Bruso) to develop the PERFECT brand for me (stay tuned for more information about that)
  7. Spending seven days in Trinidad with one of my best friends (Paula) and her husband (Philip Thompson)
  8. Spending two days in Atlanta with a couple (Pastors Wesley and Rose Marie Greene) who I think of as spiritual mentors
  9. Launching a MasterMind group with an amazing group of achievers
  10. Finishing my first 10-mile Broad Street run in Philadelphia (along with 35,000 others)

Step 2: Identify the Thankfulness Themes  that are evident from your Top 10 list.

Step 3: Express your thankfulness to the people that you mentioned on your list

Step 4: Thank God from whom all blessings flow

Leave a comment and let me know for what you are thankful. Can’t wait to hear it.

I wish you the happiest of Thanksgiving holidays.

Please do me a huge favor and click HERE to go to iTunes and leave me a rating and review. It will only take 2 minutes of your time. And, it means so much to me. And, just for you, I’ll give you a shout out on the next show.

Posted on

Four Steps to a Grateful Thanksgiving

by

Happy Thanksgiving week!  Next to Christmas, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s about family, food, and festivity. But, most importantly, it is a time to be intentional in reminiscing about how blessed I am. Too often we focus on the disappointments and the failures without being truly thankful. In a real way, thankfulness is the key to happiness and success in all your endeavors. How thankful are you? Today, I would like you and me to deeply consider our gratitude.

Even as I write this, I am extremely disappointed with some news I received today. I invested a lot of emotional, financial, and spiritual resources in this endeavor. And, right now it feels like it was for naught. I am still in a somewhat disoriented state from the news.

This then is the absolute perfect time to deeply consider all for which I am grateful. I choose not to focus on the reality of my disappointment. Rather, I will prioritize my gratefulness.

I choose to remember the people that touched me this year (including my awesome wife and children). I choose to focus on the breakthroughs that I gained.  I choose to deliberate on the amazing future that I expect to have.

No matter your condition, thankfulness is a choice.

I would like you to consider four steps to choose thankfulness this Thanksgiving.

Step 1: As specifically as you can write down the ten things that you are most grateful for this year.

Be specific. In other words, don’t just write that you are thankful for your spouse. Record specifically what your spouse did this year that makes you particularly thankful.

Here’s my top-10 to guide your own list generation.

Posted on

LYH34: How to Fail Your Way to Success [PODCAST]

by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Show Agenda

  • Featured Presentation: How to Fail Your Way to Success
  • Relationship Educator: Dr. Johnny and Lezlyn Parker
  • Life Coach: Rev Niki Brown
  • Lesson Principle: “If you’re too afraid to fail then you’re too comfortable to succeed.”

Featured Presentation

You can find the full blog post on this topic at haroldarnold.com/failtosuccess

Successful thinkers understand that as achievers they must fail their way to success. In this week’s podcast I discuss the ten steps to fail your way to success.

Posted on

How to Fail Your Way to Success

by

In his first inaugural address, March 4, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression President Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the famous quote “…the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Powerful words at a time of national crisis—reminding us that fear is often our worst enemy in our efforts to reach our goals. One of the most prevalent fears is a fear of failure. While everyone has some trepidation about something. But, according to Psychology Today this fear of failure is so great that is overwhelms their motivation to succeed—often sabotaging their own chances of success and passionate pursuits. But, I would like to propose a paradigm shift—one in which failure is welcome—maybe even celebrated as the surest path to success.

We all fail. That is a fact of life.

  • Hall of fame baseball player, Ted Williams, is regarded as on of the greatest hitters in baseball history. But, he failed to get a hit nearly two-thirds of the time.
  • In 1995, author J. K Rowling completed her first Harry Potter novel only to have it rejected by all 12 publishing houses to which is was sent.
  • American inventor, Thomas Edison, is renown for the litany of failures that he experienced on his journey to discovering the optimal filament for the light bulb.

Yes. Failure is real. But, success can be on the other side of failure—if you keep going and apply learning along the way.

In fact, I would like to propose ten steps that can shift your mindset about failure—allowing you to experience that paragon of success in your own life.

Success is not about being the smartest, the prettiest, or the luckiest.

Rather, success is a commitment to consistency and persistency. And, you must be successful in your thinking before you can be successful in your doing.

Posted on

LYH31: Unleashing the Power of Your Relational Brand [Podcast]

by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Show Agenda

  • Featured Presentation: Unleashing the Power of Your Relational Brand
  • My Branding Specialist: Dick Bruso, Heard Above the Noise

Featured Presentation

You can find the full blog post on this topic at haroldarnold.com/relationalbrand

When people think of me, Dr. Harold, what comes to their mind? That is my brand.

My desire is that my relational brand conveys  authentic engagement, genuine concern, and spirited hopefulness. But, given my nature, this will probably always be couched in the context of faith and pragmatism.

Ultimately, it isn’t very important that I have a lot of degrees. Though I’m proud of them, the awards that I’ve accumulated are just pieces of paper. The accolades that are so graciously directed my way make me feel good. But, if my relational branding is not conveying authentic engagement, genuine concern, and spirited hopefulness then I’ve failed.

God placed me on this earth to “Be the Brand” that he designed from the foundation of the world. Yes, I am a designer brand—not faux or generic. So are you!

It is important that I “Be the Brand” because others’ future depends on me walking in my design.

In my experience there five ways for each of us to be the original brand that we were designed to be.

Five Ways to Promote Your Relational Brand

  1. Mature Your Voice
  2. Share Your Heart
  3. Be Present
  4. Expand Your Circle of Influence
  5. Stay Consistent

It will not be degrees and positions that they remember about you when you are gone. It is not how much money you had in your bank account. What they will remember  is your relational branding. That will be your legacy. So, go “Be the Brand” that you were designed to be. Others are counting on you.

In the comments below, describe what you perceive your relational brand to be. How happy are you with it?

Please do me a huge favor and click HERE to go to iTunes and leave me a rating and review. It will only take 2 minutes of your time. And, it means so much to me.