User:Duke

From HMCwiki

You share what you know, but you impart who you are.

One of my favorite things to do is to learn what few know, then share it with the rest of the world. I began developing tools ten years ago as an external consultant. I stunk at consulting, but I was great at converting knowledge into tools.

Over the years, I have sat under some the best mentors. I have worked at the neatest hosptials. Personally, I began learning all over again. The result? I have generated around 1200 tools, I have spawned three tools sites (with around 200 tools each on separate prefessional sites): HIMSS ^[1] SHS ^[2] ACA ^[3] And now this wiki format came up.

It may sound foolish, but sharing tool is my way of eliminating waste in healthcare. I figure if I populate the world with free and useful tools, managers and staff will be empowered to make postive change and consultants will have to make greater tools to showcase their distinction. If we don't attempt the impossible, we'll be stuck with only the possible.

Here's a cheat sheet on Duke

Contents 1 Leverage Thyself 2 Impart who you are 3 A cheat sheet on Duke 4 Thinking 5 Differenting 6 Servicing 7 A servant's heart 8 Being 9 Listening 10 Learning 11 Appreciating 12 Hoping 13 Joying 14 Smiling 14.1 A smile is... 15 Mission statement 16 Seizing 17 Sharing 18 Befriending 19 Giving 20 Marriage 21 Hero 22 Commitment 23 Revealing 24 Positive spirit 25 References and resources

Leverage Thyself

…a plea from me to you.

So how do YOU leverage yourself to your clients and customers? How can one person make such a positive impact that it is felt in his department, conceivably in his hospital or company, inconceivably in all of healthcare. I believe its starts in the heart then grows in the mind. We all want to make a difference, why not a BIG difference. Extraordinary people are just ordinary people who do extraordinary thinking. Here are a few my thoughts to launch you on your way.

Make yourself so valuable in terms of knowledge and help that your organization would grieve if you left. Become the source of how to speed change along. Be great: not at just delivering what is asked for, but providing what is sorely needed. Be generative in capturing new knowledge not related to your field and bending it to revolutionize your organization. Be different than your peers in many ways. Consider new mental models. Network within, between and outside organizations in healthcare. Tie your heart to the value you provide the folks who ultimately serve your ultimate customer.

Become a servant leader to those that may admire your ways. Remember that you stand on the shoulders of those you learned from, so the credit is never solely yours. Grow yourself by listening to life as it unfolds new challenges that only you can learn from. Become an eternal learner that always wants something just beyond its grasp. Be so optimistic that there is a treasure under every rock; even in stumbling there is growth in getting up. Have a hope that is beyond human accomplishment and see how it surprises you. Be the wake of joy to those you pass each day. Even the memory of you brings a smile.

Seek out and sit under great mentors and grasp even what they don’t yet know; then share it with the world. Explore the world of ‘different’ so that you don’t have to remain the same. Turn everything into an expedition, which transforms problems into challenges, goals into summits, work into adventure. Dare to climb the highest peaks: the ones within. Know what you share, share what you know. Pretend you are the only one that can rid this world of waste and the expedience with which you transfer this know-how to others adds to the bottomline of serving their customers. Know that there are only a few things that are important, so get to know them well.

This is just a starter list for how to leverage yourself. Your list is the most important.

Impart who you are

You share what you know, but you impart who you are...Lester Brown

When others listen to us, they get two aspects of our message. They get the words and diction that describe what and how we think. This is the realm of logic, interpretation and translation. It passes along what we know in a one-dimensional manner. It could be as light as a weather report or as deep as a theory in life. It reflects our interests and thinking process on an intellectual level. It takes the abundance of what we have learned and condenses it to the application at hand. It is sharing what we know and this is updated by the hour.

We also send a message of how impassioned we are concerning the subject. This aspect punctuates how we feel on the matter. It is like the DNA of our character which is embedded in how the knowledge is delivered. It is the side of the message which animates our soul on the matter: deep or shallow, for or against, excited or ambivalent, serious or playful. It imparts a piece of us to those who care to receive it. It hollers ‘this is me’ on the inside of the information. It expresses our values, our zeal or our zone of indifference. It is the very container that holds what we know and actually speaks more than the words themselves.

A cheat sheet on Duke

Wouldn't it be nice if we all had little cheat sheets we could pass along that would help speed along the 'knowing' of ourselves to others. The piece would be like a resume of personal interests and desires. Something that cuts through the surface and shares what might only be picked up through a year of close friendship. If everyone had only one page, they would have to sort through all what could be shared and extract just what is core to what is important. Here goes mine:

I love learning on many levels. In the past 10 years I have had a blast growing in the Lord. This side of a tragedy which wrecked my family, I called out for help and He delivered and continues to deliver so many dimensions. I place this new relationship above all in significance. I love to learn what few others know. To bring a thought, a smile, a tool, a concept from another company, another field, another era, and apply it at the hospital I work. If it works, then share it with the world. I just enjoy sharing.

I believe knowledge that is only received is a waste. I have learned the concept of "knowledge management" or a collective learning in an organization and do my best to get others to join in. My professional organization gets a "dare to share" tool or piece once a week; my hospital subscribers get a 'weekly reader' of the same; there are numerous websites that post my learnings; there are some 'thinking', that love to stay on the fun side of creativity that I reciprocate leanings with; and all my past employments are channels to receive and share knowledge with.

One of the most gratifying parts of my life is giving. I get to minister to those who are believing God for the healing of their marriage though daily devotionals sent over e-mail. I participate with a group in the rehabilitation of a fellow left a quadra-amputee from meningitis. I'm invested in a couple who minister to ladies coming out of prison. Professionally, I work as motor oil for cultural and process change at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. My role is to make positive change happen in an accelerated, smoother fashion. Harnessing what I've learned and splicing it in to help a culture whose goal is to eliminate cancer. Make it history. And if something works, I try to share it with as many hospitals as possible.

Family-wise I have one wife (by covenant) and three children whom I dearly love. We home-schooled our children. All three went to Texas A&M. Just thinking of my family makes my heart warm. Some of my neatest learnings come from and through my children.

If my life were an open book, I believe these would be the cliff notes. Want to see something revealing? Write yours down.

Thinking

What an immense power seldom used. Thinking takes what we don’t know, compares it to what we do know and creates a brand new batch of new know. It takes an idea and leans on it, exploits it, looks at it from every angle without scaffolding and then supplies awesome understanding. Thinking is its own reward. Thinking is the gateway to the heart… as a man thinks, so is he.

Thinking can be deliberate, random, playful, soulful. It reaches down into the fabric of the soul and creates something that wasn’t there before. Thinking can pick you up or tear you down. Extraordinary people are just ordinary people who do extraordinary thinking.

Thinking reminds us there is still life. Thinking is the most involuntary of the body reflexes. If you don’t thinks so, try to stop thinking. It is the only part of our body that gets tired if it’s not working. Thinking causes us to understand not just the surface of ‘how’ but see the face of ‘why’. Thinking can go on an all expense paid vacation anytime it wants. Thinking can take a rock and turn it into a pet. And make money at it.

Thinking can be stinking, but the person who dwells there is the loser. Why waste a mind on things that don’t build up or are unimportant when there is so much more to life. Thinking is the one thing that is uniquely us. We don’t like other people to tell us what we are thinking; even if they are right. Start more sentences with ‘I think’ and fewer offenses will be taken.

Thinking digs deeper to find the solution few dive for. Thinking is unshackled by words and so it moves at warp speeds. Thinking is self-developing, for those who know themselves think about their thinking. They think about the drivers of their behavior, their fears, their fantasies. Thinking has a big brother named faith. When these two get together, impossible things happen.

Thinking can always go deeper. Think about it.

Differenting

I know it’s not a proper word, but if it were in Webster’s, it wouldn’t be different. If I were to coin the meaning of differenting, it might be “The act of doing or becoming different from the point where you are.” Being different adds dimension. It is seeing both ends of a spectrum and appreciating you are swinging somewhere in between. We all want to be different, just at different rates. We can only learn through difference. Being different causes us to be more alert, more prepared for change. How would you know the height of joy unless you experienced the depth of grief? Living a flat-line existence is really death in a changing world. Life is too dynamic to allow it to remain the same. Why do you think opposites attract? Why do you pledge in marriage to love for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health? Life is lived between these differences. Different is poetry in the Hebrew language. We rhyme in rhythm, they rhythm in contrast. Check out the book of Proverbs. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” Prov 27:6 Want to see how differences can add dimension to things around you? Next time you are driving and you view the scenery in front of you, begin alternating your focus on objects close, then objects far. All of a sudden a two-dimensional panorama turns into three-dimensional display. It’s much richer. View your life the same manner. Learn to enjoy its variation. It adds flavor to it. Different stretches your character. It adds flexibility that will be needed later. Human life is strengthened when it has been tempered with different. Different doesn’t have to be a homerun; just a base hit. In fact, incremental doses of different readies us for those giant steps that disrupts our lives. Different keeps us off balance. Just think, you can’t change without a difference. Different may be uncomfortable at first, but its reward is often well worth it. We will never know what we are missing unless we can see difference. So, go ahead, choose to be or do something different. Enjoy a new path (even a longer route) to work. Take your life off autopilot and do the deliberate instead of the rote. Listen to different music. Watch a different kind of movie. Learn the value behind the different. In a world made for change, growing from different is much easier than trying to keep things the same.

Just Do It, Different

Servicing

We don’t think of this as a character trait, but it tells a lot about us. It takes the eye off of me and places it on another’s need. Servicing can take place at work, in the home or on the street. It proclaims ‘you are special’. It demonstrates its privilege to be a part of a customer experience.

Servicing is like a fire: and you cannot just see the fire, you have to be the fire. It runs to help. It lives to give. It shares a part of itself. Servicing always looks for an opportunity to aid, for an opportunity lost may never return. Every time this opportunity arises, a choice is made to either please or sneeze on the customer. To lift them up or put them down.

Servicing waves a banner inside before it is seen on the outside. To the pharmacist of a cancer hospital, it displays, ‘I don’t just dispense drugs, I serve hope’. To the blood collector in the same hospital, it shares, ‘I’ll ease your anxiousness so you won’t feel a thing’. Servicing attempts to relate to another’s need and offers its best to create a positive feeling.

Servicing is delivering on a promise, keeping a trust, and providing assurance that they are being taken care of. Servicing gives ample information so the customer knows what to expect. Servicing cannot be complete without a smile, a cheerful spirit and a sincere desire to make its customer successful. Servicing starts in the heart, is retained by the brain, then comes out of the mouth.

Servicing predicts a negative situation, amply apologizes, then offers options that may give its customer a choice. Servicing is taking a back seat to personal need and placing the customer’s interest first.

Servicing continually grows or it molds. It must seek new ways to give and help or it will cease to appear sincere. Servicing leaves its recipient with a smile on the inside. A special feeling that they can’t quite put their finger on. Servicing is also a gift you give yourself. In servicing others you serve yourself. For every smile you put on another’s face accumulates a gift on the inside of you.

Great service rises to meet great needs. Corporate servicing can only collectively come when all its individuals see that same need. Servicing happens one encounter at a time…every time.

If we all took servicing seriously, we would find more purpose in life and more life in our purpose. Servicing ultimately expresses…I care.

A servant's heart

A servant’s heart subjects itself to its master. It is obedient to its authority. It is comfortable in the role it has chosen. It yields to the need of another. It rests in the master’s command. A servant’s heart finds power in meekness. It takes a step back to honor with time and works. A servant’s heart desires the success of another. It is whole-hearted in its execution. A servant’s heart surrenders self to serve a greater cause. A servant’s heart just can’t wait to wait on its master. It has learned that the first will be last and the last first.

A servant’s heart is one that finds joy in serving. It finds fun in giving. A servant’s heart gains from giving while it grows in living. A servant’s heart seeks to please its master. A servant’s heart loves authenticity. It treats others the way it wants to be treated. A servant’s heart willingly surrenders what is dear to aid in the growth of another. A servant’s heart starts the day that selfishness ends. A servant’s heart is developed…not inherited. It endures difficulty to complete its course.

A servant’s heart affects the hearts around it. It is joyful when it pleases so it hunts opportunities. It calculates ways to serve. A servant’s heart is attentive to its master’s nod. It is porous to new input and understands the value of authority. It forever learns how to serve better. A servant’s heart is beautiful and a mystery to those unwilling to go its way. For it is counter to human instinct. A servant’s heart never runs dry or it is serving for the wrong reasons. It never stops or it was only situational. A servant’s heart is 24-7.

Being

This is a most important character trait. Being is taking who you are and being okay with it. It is the essence of staying true to self. Being doesn’t try to impress or suppress, for these claim you are smaller than who you really are. Being takes a stand with who I am and says this is 100% me. It is content with how you were made. It is not concerned with what others might think. Being just accepts the nature of who you are and attempts to be genuine with it.

Being can’t truly be itself unless it’s tempered from above. For it takes more than man to understand man. Being is having the inside match the outside. People are like tomatoes; they are soft underneath. But they don’t want to show it for fear someone might not like what they see. Being is comfortable in its own skin. It lays down pride in order to pick up peace. Pulls off its mask in order to gain its face.

Being is the natural course of character. Some think if they hide it, it’s not there. Then they spend a lifetime trying to reconcile why life doesn’t make sense. Being someone else is no fun, for you can never see yourself in the mirror. Being is freeing. It allows you to be you and even change if you want to.

Being laughs at its self. It is open to correct itself. It even says I’m proud of you. Being is slowing pace down so you can capture the moment. It’s treasuring what you have, changing what you want and appreciating life as it is. Being need not mimic another’s lifestyle, for in doing so it gives up its own.

Being is abundantly self and no other substitute will do. Being is the only way you can have choice. Anything else is just what you think is a choice. Being does not hide from itself for full acceptance loses fear. Being attracts friends, for so many long to have that same sense of rest in themselves. Anything more or less than being would be a lie. Duke

Be Something

The very last presentation at our professional conference will be a ‘Dare to Share’ panel of natural networkers dialoguing about the tips, the tricks, the lessons in leveraging your ability to your organization, community, even your profession. The following might be teasers, but you will have to attend to find out. Like on the billboard sign, ‘This ain’t advertizin! It’s just directions to Hickory Hollow Bar B Q’.

Be an explorer: This is an ever learning, ever growing passion discover the unknown. All available time migrates to finding what’s new or interesting. Even a common phenomenon is a discovery if few know why or how it works. In knowledge, pondering why and how can be a trip across the unknown or undiscovered. Explorers gain more satisfaction that they are the first or the most knowledgeable than being well known among their peers.

Be distinctive: Take a skill others have yet to delve into or find useful and become the best at it. Understand it, research it, practice it, apply it, help others discover it. Being distinctive is more of having a deep understanding around what others have heard about. Instead of a shallow knowledge of many, get a full knowledge of a few. In the knowledge business, people tend to outsource and rely on those that have distinctive experience.

Be useful: Tim Porter O’Grady said, “Where the organization touches the customer is where it has meaning. Everything else should know its relatedness to that point”. That was an ‘aha’ statement for me. At the time, I realized that my salary was twice that of a nurse and that if I didn’t provide the equivalent value of two nurses, the hospital ought to let me go (Can you imagine: they did!). This has been an internal conscience to vector every ounce of knowledge and inch of time toward the benefit of the ultimate customer.

Be known: Ability unknown tends to be unused. Market your services to those who need it. Nothing is more gratifying than to serve one who truly needs and appreciates your skills. This happens two ways. Being friendly with the ranks, socializing the leadership. And be relentless in showcasing the types of services and benefits you can provide.

Be humble: Humility doesn’t see itself as great; only as doing its part. Greatness is defined by others not by you. If you do great work, it applauds you. In fact, if you can shed the spotlight on the ones you served, you give them honor and you’re guilty by association.

Be friendly: If you smile at everyone wholeheartedly, you will eventually become friendly. Taking time to get to know folks actually gets you out of the way of you. Warning: If you are conditionally friendly or friendly for a purpose, then it is all about you. psst…and everyone can smell a salesman.

Be understanding: Before you act or speak, understand what you can about the one you are trying to relate to. What are their pressures, the past, their passions. When they know that you know where they are coming from, THEN you have permission to try to relate. It’s valuing them as important enough to understand before pushing your great ideas.

Be open: Every mind should be permeable to new input, new possibilities. Often, new input is like a foreign matter to the acceptance immune system. Suspend judgment long enough to consider the value (even in part) of the input THEN decide what to do with it. Consider it for possible application. Some insights are like seeds; they take time before they sprout.

Be bold: It takes a pioneer mind to believe that what you have to share has benefit to those seasoned in the trail. But there are continually new folks entering the trail and they need your knowledge to be successful or keep from being unsuccessful. Even seasoned travelers haven’t traveled your path. If your insight was helpful for you, it will probably be helpful to others. Share it.

Be weird: Go out of your way to learn something perpendicular to what the mainstream is learning. Be willing to ‘look’ weird as you apply unconventional thought and make it…psst weird and normal is relative anyway. Learn what’s under everyone’s nose, but nobody knows it. Unless you do what you’ve never done, you won’t have what you’ve never had.

Be diligent: Many touch the fringes of new knowledge, yet few stay with it long enough to excavate its benefit. To really get it. Make it a challenge to stay with it until you’ve understood the clockwork behind its success. Some may take a decade to unlock or master. Diligence deliberately keeps seeking until the gold is found.

Be real: There is something magnetic about a person who is authentic. It’s refreshing to be around them. They have no pretense. It disarms the notion of trying to be anything more or less. You can be who you are and sharing then becomes enjoyable.

Be strategic: What is the key to success? Understand it. Begin working toward it. You don’t have to have all the resources nor know the exact path to start a climb. You can have the view of the summit and begin putting what you know in place to move that direction. You start the trek and keep marching toward the top. And you are changed along the way.

Listening

Listening is one of the best compliments we can pay each other. Listening requires a heart ready to receive and respond. Listening makes a profound statement that the one speaking has so much importance, their words take precedence over your time. Listening is showing respect and honor for the one speaking. To truly listen, opinions and points to be made must be set a side. Allowing new thought, new possibilities to evolve. Listening is stopping your internal talk, and leaving room for the possibility of change: for new input, for new considerations. Listening looks well behind the spoken words in order to pick up what the heart is meaning. It is making a secure statement that I am centered enough in my own beliefs, that you can speak without fear of my reprisal or withdrawal or interruption. Listening is allowing thought to be made manifest, excavating those deep feelings so they can be known and shared and worked with. Listening can be a gift of patience extended to the speaker, for some may need to speak in order to work through a difficult thing. Listening often leads to a word aptly spoken to comfort, to encourage or to show compassion. Listening is void of personal agenda. Listening is hearing the other person through the filter of their own manner, their own style. Listening is not fixing. Listening had better be used for good. Listening is such a pleasure when each truly care for each other, when the motives are to exchange, or care or grow. Listening is important to the Lord. He listens to you, and He so wants you to listen to Him. He desires that close personal two-way conversation -- just you and Him.

Just think, if we listened more, others wouldn’t have to talk so much.

Learning

Learning is that gift which takes a concept which is foreign to your own thinking and makes it personally yours. It filters through the quarry of your character and your past and brings forth a life that is unique and was never there before. Learning is an openness to new thought. Being vulnerable and allowing new seed to take root, yet taking care to filter out what is not truth and not helpful. It is excavating an area of knowledge you enjoy, and digging deeper than most go. It’s becoming the authority on a matter simply because you now understand that which is still a mystery to most. Learning is an adventure of the mind which opens new possibilities in areas which formerly were believed unchangeable. The worst risk of learning is looking like a fool, which in itself is a gain if you learn from it. It’s believing you can develop in a knowledge that others only desire to attain. It once was said extraordinary people are simply ordinary people who do extraordinary thinking. Guess we all are candidates.

Appreciating

What a key to contentment. Mankind works for it, longs for it, even steals for it; yet it’s available to you all the time. Appreciating is valuing what is considered commonplace. It is enjoying what you already have, who or where you already are. Appreciating grows the value of things simply by being thankful. It sees gems where others see rocks. It looks for something to be grateful about. Appreciating tells a friend the value you see in them; before they see it in themselves. “I sure appreciate you” is one of the best compliments that can be paid. Appreciating chooses to be glad for what is, instead of grumble about what isn’t. Life is sugar and molasses if you appreciate it, salt and black pepper if you don’t. Appreciating looks for the positive everywhere it goes. Even hard, negative experiences can be appreciated when there was something learned. Appreciating seeks hope. It looks for the good and extinguishes the bad. It is thankful for the little and even more grateful for the big. Appreciating has two mortal enemies. Entitlement and self-pity. These try to find happiness in themselves and only come up empty. Appreciating is a choice behind every situation, every thought. A bird song can be your melody in the morning. Your next breath can be a gift. Having both arms and legs is a dream for someone I know. Appreciating is the high road of an outlook. It takes for granted nothing. It makes life an adventurous journey through the unknown; tailor-made for its growth. Appreciating sees what pessimism is blind to. It smiles at life’s quirks. It grows what it knows. Appreciating can see what’s right and wrong with it, while grumbling is limited to what wrong with it. Appreciating is taking what life has dealt you and playing each card to honor yourself, your God, and those around you. To get more out of life, appreciate more of it.

Hoping

Hoping is hope in motion. It takes a righteous thing, holds it before the Father and says I will treasure this as much as You do. It takes what the world says is impossible and proves God is as good as His Word. It takes the incomplete and uses faith to add the finishing touches. Hoping has absolute trust in its Source. It is not influenced by circumstances nor by what others may think. It is not minimized through disappointments; in fact, it grows in value because of them.

Hoping stores up righteousness along the way. You can look at the path behind hoping and see, though crooked, it steadily heads toward the throne of God. It grows in knowledge as it matures. It reveals God’s heart on the matter.

Hoping is not wishing for a chance; it is believing in an Assurance. It forsakes all that is in the way of its goal. Hoping is a truth that is not yet in its season. As it grows, it adds life and encouragement to its believer. It helps others along the way to its perfection.

Hoping is contentment with a seed of unrest. Contentment with the portion of the moment yet a seed that is unsettled until its fruit comes forth. Hoping excavates the much-needed change that could not be performed any other way. It settles for nothing less than what is promised. And the pain of time is unworthy to be compared with the joy to be released.

To hope is to choose life.

Joying

There ought to be an action-verb for being in joy. It is so much a choice and so much an action. Joying starts with a open communion with the creator of the universe. Just sitting in the presence and being thankful that you are a part of it. Joying is appreciating the littlest of things and taking nothing for granted. Joying looks under every rock and expects something good to pop out. Joying pumps goodness into the lives of others by its acts of love and concern. Joying paints a smile on the face and puts a pep in the step and looks forward for things to match it. In times of testing, joying reaches to the promise and refuses to lose its peace until the promise comes to pass. Joying tends to be playful and child-like. It likes to skip through life, discovering new things to enjoy. Joying gets its energy from praising; producing strength which prevails over all obstacles. Joying is being grateful; treasuring each moment, for it could all be gone in an instant. Joying desires others to experience its same comfort. To help others rise to a higher state. To stay up close to the heavens, even in the darkest of times. Joying refuses to murmur or grumble and throw away true peace. Joying reflects a smile from above and blesses everyone in eye or ear shot of it. Joying is never exhausting, for its every action gives life to the heart. It steps on fear, dances on depression and stomps on lies. Joying is the resolve to believe that every good and perfect gift comes from the above until it does. Joying is beyond happiness or things dependent on happenings. Feeling good is its reward not its goal. Joying can not be sought like silver. It is the reward of staying close to the real joy giver. Joying is the very act of enjoying one who enjoys us, forever.

Smiling

Why we don’t do more of this? It’s easy to do and it has so many benefits. Smiling turns a day sunnyside up. It takes the glow from inside and offers it to someone else. Smiling is something you exchange. For one can’t help but smile back. Smiling is the reflection of inner peace and a positive spirit. Smiling is fool enough to believe something fun is about to happen. Smiling rides the waves of troubled times. It tends to place life back into its proper perspective. Smiling is perpetual, for the smile you passed along can domino to four more people. Smiling reveals what’s inside to the outside world. Smiling can be circumstantial, or constant when sourced by joy. Smiling is the resting place for the face with an optimistic outlook. Smiling doesn’t need a reason, just a state of being. Smiling starts with the heart and ends with a friend. Smiling adds years to life, depth to spirit, health to heart. Smiling is a visual handshake to the passer by. It invites something good to happen. Smiling was so natural when we were young, who told us to stop ! True service-oriented people are paid by the smile, not by the hour. Smiling reminds us life can be fun, full of adventure, experience and unknown excitement. It’s the measure others use to gauge our contentment. Smiling is a choice. To surrender discouragement and despair for a fresh breath of air. To turn a frown upside down. Smiling hopes for BIG things, for good is just around the next corner. Smiling is a wave you can begin in your organization. It welcomes participation. Smiling shares a piece of what’s inside. When the face smiles, the heart has to match it. It arrests turmoil, resets emotions, reverses anger. Smiling begins with you and ends with how you see the world. It’s the best gift you can give you and those in visual range of you. So try it; smile for awhile.

A smile is...

• A smile is priceless.
• A smile can help you forget your current worry.
• A smile is a hug without arms.
• A smile a mile is not a bad rate.
• A smile is healing to the soul.
• A smile is its own reward.
• A smile reflects the inside out.
• A smile reaches out to another
• A smile is infectious.
• A smile on a crocodile is not friendly.
• A smile is involuntary to something funny.
• A smile lights up the face.
• I’m paid by the smile, not by the hour… is a good service ethic.
• A smile compliments the face.
• A smile can be a lie.
• A smile can enjoy something pleasant.
• A smile’s truth is in the eyes.
• A smile adds energy or increases life.
• A smile upside down is a frown.
• A smile is something you exchange.
• A smile drives away the doldrums.
• A smile can frame a conversation.
• A smile disarms aggression.
• A smile assaults sadness.
• When you can smile at yourself, you’ve grown.
• A smile for a while is good exercise.
• If your face rests in a smile, just think of the benefit.
• You can learn how to smile.
• A smile can make a heart happy and visa versa

Mission statement

Duke’s Top 10 "Me Inc." Mission statements

We ought to all have a set of these, then reflect back on it to see how we are doing. As Lester Brown put it, “You can’t do what you’ve never done until you be what you’ve never become." Here are a few of mine.

1. I want to excavate knowledge and transfer it to a hungry world.
2. I want to practice what I preach.
3. I want to add life and hope to those around me.
4. I want to make my leadership successful.
5. I want to place a seed of unrest in those around me about the waste, the service and the output of our health delivery machine.
6. I want to quickly identify with the heart of a matter.
7. I want to absorb all of life - its highs, lows, its joys, pains, its excitement, endurance and turn it into my own personal lesson for growth.
8. I want to continually grow as a clean, lean learning machine.
9. I want to do what I have promised. To come up higher to a closer communion with the Lord, taking on the responsibility given to climb to a higher level.
10. I want my family to be together as God intended: loving, supporting, growing.

Seizing

Seizing is a spring-loaded resolve ready for growth. It leverages time to capture its hope. Seizing starts in the heart, then manifests in the mind. It grows in power as it studies its opponent. It takes by force what resists change.

Seizing is life-giving when it’s wholehearted and full of good. Seizing doesn’t settle for evolution. But uses revolution to arrive at its better state. Seizing is always on sentry for the very next opportunity. It doesn’t wait for the opportunity of a lifetime; it acts within the lifetime of the opportunity. Seizing can be thinking on purpose, for a mind will run its own path unless taken by force. Seizing only dies when the hope of its victory fades.

Seizing is immediate obedience, if it is commanded of the Lord. It is overcoming avoidance if it comes from the heart. It is fully understanding from ten views if it comes from the mind. Seizing is willing to let go of a past in order to grab a new future. It throws its soul into its goal. Its diligence is relentless. Seizing is pleasing to the Father when it is done in righteousness. Anything less is called harming.

Most seizing in life happens in the confines of the mind. For internal seizing is greater than the external. Strong is he who captures a city, but mighty is he who captures himself.

Seizing never stops, for growth has no ceiling. Why would it go this far to stop? To discover more of life, seize more of its meaning for you.

Sharing

Sharing comes in many forms. It might be in an encouraging word. A helpful hand. Or relishing a common moment. Sharing can be bearing another’s burden. To cast away self interest to support someone in need. Sharing is daring to care for the success of another.

Sharing is trusting. That another will not misuse or misconstrue a confidence. Sharing requires two and that too can be risky. It chances vulnerability for the possibility that something collectively better may grow.

Sharing is extending help. This requires a tuned ear to needs. It seeks out ways to make life easier. It could be a listening ear, a financial help or just a time of presence. It lives as it gives, for what you sow in kind you reap in kind.

Sharing often requires sacrifice. It requires me to hop off my way to serve you in your way. It may pay the price of convenience. It may cost me my comfort zone. But it is my way of sharing me with you.

Sharing that requires no return is called loving. For its sole purpose is to share and not receive. This sharing liberates the heart, alters life and makes forever friends. It makes us more than we are. It completes the purpose we were placed here on this earth.

Befriending

Befriending is an invitation to trust. It can be as easy as a smile. Or a simple interest in another’s good. It begins by being friendly. It starts with hospitality toward a newfound neighbor; or an admiration between professional acquaintances. It grows what couldn’t be experienced alone.

Befriending is an expression of optimism. It proclaims that you are worth my trust. It’s a type of promise between two that can grow closer than a brother. Befriending is genuine when it’s unconditional. When there is no way of reciprocation. Befriending allows for differences. It is comfortable in its own skin. It need not change another in order to be okay with itself.

True friendship is not fickle. It sees the best in another even when they don’t see it in them self. It lends what it has to help out a need that has not. Befriending deposits a smile in the heart. It elects to trivialize a weakness in order to gain mutual strength. It shares importance in confidence. It asks for help in time of need. Befriending grows strong when both walk away stronger. It cultivates an abundance that neither could have generated alone.

Befriending’s enemy is defending. Defending presumes an attack. Befriending would rather trust then be disappointed, than suspect and be surprised. It treasures relationship over being right. Befriending receives correction at humbling speeds. It seeks what’s best for another, even if there is personal cost to provide it.

Befriending is the pattern Jesus used to reconcile the world to the Father. It extended love long before it was deserved, and it lasted as long as it was needed. Be a friend to yourself by befriending another.

Giving

Giving is one of the best rewards you can give yourself. It is the prerequisite for experiencing the fullness of living. We are creatures designed for giving. Giving is a personal template from God. “For God so loved the world He gave...” It is taking what you have and offering it to another so that they may gain. Giving grows in its value depending on the price paid to give it. It adds life to another. It is the wellspring that blesses both the giver and the receiver. It has untold worth that ripples through the lives of those touched by it. It is infectious. It sparks the desire to do good for others. Giving has no strings attached; anything else is called extortion. Giving does not try to gain acceptance from others -- for that is taking in disguise. Giving is whole-hearted. Giving has immense power when it is done in the dark. God prizes the stealth gifts, for they are displayed on His big screen TV in heaven. Giving says I love you regardless, whatever, whenever. It spans time, circumstances, even wrong strong wills. It sends a positive spin to all who are touched by it and sets in motion a domino-effect throughout the generations. Giving has many forms. Even the smallest gift of a prayer can add mountains of hope in due season. Giving is a mystery to the world, for the world flexes its taking muscle and wonders why the end of it is emptiness. Giving keeps you busy from doing the wrong things. It is the antidote for personal loss. Giving in the right spirit, with the right motive, has no loss, for God wastes nothing. Giving blesses the giver before it even gets to the receiver. Giving is only giving what has been given you. For the greatest gift is being for- given. Duke

Marriage

You either have a limitless love or a loveless limit.

Limitless love This is the building material that loves regardless of what another does. It just keeps loving, accepting, forgiving, because that is what it made a covenant to do. It is the proclamation that there is nothing you can do to make me love you less. It takes on the character of Heaven real-time and proves His love for another through you. It taps into God’s heart to love the unlovely. It remains faithful in the face of faithlessness. It nails itself promoting will to the Cross until God says, “you are ready to come down now”. It is the reality demonstration of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. It is God’s way of making a commitment.

Loveless Limit This is that point where you say “enough is enough” and you withdraw your love here. It says there is line, that if you cross it, I cannot forgive, I cannot respect and I will love you less. It is conditional. It qualifies, “You must love me this much for me to love you”. It says I will love “until I can take it no longer”. It is the world’s way of making a commitment.

The question remains, which path are you on? When we enter into marriage, engage in life, relate to other people…we are taking one of these two routes. One calls on God for what man cannot do. The other tries man’s best and hopes it will do. One leads to life, the other to something less. Choose well. Duke

Hero

How would you describe a hero? Someone who has faced odds of impossible measure, yet has pushed through in order to save life. Someone who refused to give up even though their mountains would challenge the bravest of hearts. Someone who would never let their spirits be dashed, even in the face of mounting discouragement.

Let me tell you about my hero who continually inspires me. His name is Mark Fearing. While over in New Zealand, this young man contracted a deadly strain of meningitis and was in a coma for over 50 days. In order to keep him alive, all four limbs had to be amputated. He eventually came out of his coma and with the love and help of a remarkable fiancee, started on life’s road to recovery. The coma had taken his limbs, had damaged his brain, his sight and his hearing. What it didn’t take was his spirit to make the most of life and a courage to do the most with what he did have.

Today, Mark has arm prosthetics and moving toward getting leg prosthetics. He uses a voice-recognition computer and is working on a project to abstract and present uses of “Knowledge Management” in organizations. His spirit grows ever youthful as he appreciates what he’s got and anticipates the day he can walk again. Because his need for rehabilitation is so extensive, a group of family, friends, acquaintances, those learning of his fight, have pulled together to do what they can to help this brave one recover. The estimated cost to physically “get him on his feet” is an impossible $500,000. The group started a life of its own, trying to move Mark toward this goal. No one individually had the resources nor the know-how to help, but each adopted Mark’s spirit to press on given what they had. By the way, if you want to add health and meaning to your life, learn the value of helping the helpless. To date, through media attention, concert benefits, Harley poker runs, golf tournaments, the group has raised $100,000. It’s a far cry from what is needed, but with God’s help and the heart of an honorable purpose, it is the beginning of what’s needed. Now that’s a fighting spirit we’ve all learned from him. Duke

Commitment

"Commitment" is quite a little word with quite a meaning. Commitment starts with word and is fulfilled by the heart. Commitment runs toward a purpose. And doesn’t stop until it is attained. Commitment stands fast on its proclamation, even willing to allow harm to self to see it through. Commitment wasn’t committed if it was committed. Commitment’s power is in its spirit to fulfill. It is subject to its promise. Commitment is personal and cannot be delegated. It elevates honor over convenience. Commitment is Christ on the Cross. Love in the face of loss. Commitment is essential for integrity. It makes you one with its goal. Commitment dies when it lies. It is a forgery when surrendered. Commitment steps over the turbulence of choices and the unknown to arrive at its destination. It matters not what another does or doesn’t do; it just pays what it promises. You can’t make a covenant without making a commitment. Commitment is the firstborn of inheritance. It is rested when it is invested. It is refined over time. Commitment cannot be alloy with any rationalization of self-interest. Commitment is glued to its promise and crucified to its diversion. Commitment crumbles when convenience is allowed. Commitment is a compliment to character. Commitment is not just ‘I do’ but ‘til death do us part’. It is obedient to its course. Commitment conditions the heart, not the other way around. Commitment is either on or off, black or white. Commitment is more about direction and less about perfection. Commitment reflects the heart of its owner.

Revealing

People are like tomatoes: they’re all soft on the inside.

No matter how tough they appear on the outside, they are all soft on the inside. The outside is skinned in how they developed and managed life. It is skinned with how vulnerable they were willing to be in what seems an unkind and uncertain world. But on the inside: when all the props are gone, when the emotional life support is removed; they are as little, needy children.

I believe people who appear emotionless, uncaring and distant are not that way on purpose. They are just calloused by how they have kept the world from hurting them. They yearn to express what is tender on the inside, but they can’t pass on what they didn’t receive themselves. The very thing that would bring them and the ones they love joy, is trapped on the inside. To have a love and not be able to express it is just as painful as not having been loved. They are not what you see on the outside, but what you believe is there on the inside.

Over the years, I have learned to appreciate love and care in any form it can be served up. It might seem little, it might not be in the form that fits my need, it might not even be evident. But I believe people generally do the best they can with what they have. That softness on the inside longs to come out. And I’ll receive it in any form, any amount or believe it into being in any way that it comes out.

Authentic love is never depleted when it is shared. My heart-desire is to demonstrate that same loving care and admiration as my mom showed me but do it on a continual basis. If I ever fall short, know that it is not because the love is not there.

Positive spirit

If there was one gift I would leave with others, it would be a positive spirit. It cost nothing to have this mindset, yet it has great value in lifting the hearts of those around us. Like a pebble tossed into a smooth pond, something in our attitude resonates with the hearts of those around us and the rippling effects extend all the way to the shoreline.

We think we are private people, but our mindsets expose so much of where we are. It is as if the DNA of our hearts infiltrates every fiber of our being and broadcasts our hidden message to the world. Shyness, inadequacy, anger, hurt, sadness, fear, all can be detected by others simply observing how we approach life. Do we take our circumstances and make them unscalable mountains which hinder us from achieving what we want or do we use them as stepping stones to determine what works and what doesn’t work in life? Do we treat life like a rear guard action that will hurt us if we are not careful or do we see it as an adventure that is too magnificent to be contained by a predetermined set of rules? Do we sit on the shores with a woe-is-me attitude or color our lives with new experiences that have a deepening effect to our character? It’s a choice.

What is in us often gets transported to others. They may adopt our outlook and color how they see life with what radiates from us. We can infect others’ attitudes. We can be either be the bringer of joy and peace or the manure spreader of doom and gloom. Again it’s a choice.

References and resources

1. ^ South Central Texas Healthcare Information Management Systems Society
2. ^ Society for Healthcare Systems
3. ^ American Creativity Association