Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

Nearly every time I sit down with someone for the first time, I am asked – What is the secret to your leadership success?  I have answered this numerous times to individuals, but I have decided to answer on our Leadership Blog for everyone to read.  Instead of giving a general response, I will give my specific daily disciplines to produce results.  I encourage everyone to develop their own Daily Disciplines and build a successful life.  It has been said that you determine your habits and your habits determine your results.  I strongly believe this and I am constantly evaluating my habits to ensure they are leading me towards my long term goals and dreams.  When Laurie and I mentor a couple, the first thing we are listening for are the habits that have been formed.  What habits do you do on a daily basis?  Did you think through these habits to build a successful life or are you aimlessly developing habits with no thought towards the results produced from these habits?   Your answer to this will make all the difference.  Here are my Daily Disciplines to Success:

1. Prayer – When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I want to do is turn my mind to my Lord and Savior.  I am a Christian before anything else and I desire to start the day remembering Jesus Christ and what He has done for me personally.  This keeps everything in perspective for me and no problem is ever bigger than Him.  Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit and let Him lead your life.  Determine each day to do right and live a life that can be written in the clouds.  Without character and principles who will follow you?  Start and end each day with Prayer.

2. Bible Reading – Start each day with some quiet time to read from the Bible.  I personally like to read the New King James, but there are other great translations and many love the original King James.  I read a couple of chapters from the Bible and follow up with Matthew Henry’s Abridged Bible Commentary.  Matthew Henry was a puritan who live in the 1600’s, but his commentary is so needed in today’s compromising age.  I cannot express enough how much this commentary has helped me in developing my world-view.  I also read a couple of daily devotionals to focus me on all of my blessings.  This habit ensures I keep an outlook of thankfulness and keeps bitterness at bay.

3. Review schedule/Plan schedule – I like to make a morning cup of coffee and review the agenda for the day.  During this time, I like to verify I am accomplishing the task in an effective and efficient manner.   I know that relationships always come before task so I think through my key relationships.  I want to ensure we are moving in the right direction together.  I ask myself—Are the things I am doing today taking me towards or away from my long term goals and dreams?  If I cannot answer yes, then why am I scheduling this?   I also keep another notebook handy to jot down any ideas I had while sleeping.  Some of my best ideas come to me while I am waking up.  This is my thinking time.

4. Drink a couple of ounces of MonaVie Acai Blend – Health is very important to me and getting the proper mixture of nutrients/vitamins and anti-oxidants should be high on the list of proper habits to form.  I want to treat the body God gave me with care and focus my energy on being healthy so I can serve others.  MonaVie to me is a common sense approach to healthy habits and preventative maintenance.  I signed up for auto ship yesterday and will receive a couple of cases per month to our home.  I ordered a couple more cases to share with my friends.  I have already had several neighbors and my landscaper come to me and ask if they could be in MonaVie with me.  This has never happened before!

5. Praise & Encourage – My goal on every phone call is to address the subject matter for the phone call, but also to praise and encourage.  We live in a world filled with discouragements and disappointments.  Do not pile on your criticisms and discouragements on to people backs.  You will attract more bees with honey than vinegar.  Do I address issues?  Absolutely, but I sandwich any issues between genuine praise, encouragement, and thankfulness for their friendship and partnership.  Make every phone call, personal contact, or email/text a chance to praise and encourage.  Think about this from your personal experiences.  Who do you enjoy spending time with?  All of us are attracted to encouragers and people who believe in us.  If we are all attracted to this—why not develop the habits to become an encourager and believer in others?  This has always puzzled me that the thing we like the most in others is rarely developed in ourselves.  EVERY great leader I know is a master of genuine praise and encouragement.

6.  Take thirty minutes for exercise – I don’t care if it is a brisk walk, working with weights, running, etc.  Find something that will increase your heart rate that you will develop into a daily discipline.  No matter how busy I am, I will at a minimum do push ups and sit ups before jumping in the shower.  Develop a plan and have the discipline to follow through until it is a habit.

7. Listen to Leadership CD’s – I believe strongly in the University on Wheels.  How many hours do you spend behind the steering wheel?  Listen to CD’s and give yourself an education on leadership, attitude, and people skills.  If I am in the car driving alone, I shut off my phone and turn on the CD.  This is my time to develop myself so I can serve others better.  In my opinion, this is the number one separator between the achievers and non-achievers.  Make this a daily discipline!

8. Read from a good book – The subjects of leadership, history, economics, theology, philosophy, politics, etc. will make you a better conversationalist and build wisdom.  You cannot live long enough to have the personal experiences necessary to win.  Draw upon other successful people’s lives and decide now to home school yourself for life.  Education is never ending and you are the teacher and the student.  What grade would you give yourself as a student?  My good friend Charlie “Tremendous” Jones states, “You will accomplish results in life based upon the books you read and the people you associate with.”   Develop the daily disciplines to ensure all of your relationships are healthy and moving you toward your long term goals and dreams.  Reading books is a way of associating with the greatest minds of the ages and learning how they think.  I am who I am based upon the books I have read and the people I have associated with.

These are the basics that will propel anyone reading this to success.  I will expand on some of these habits over the next couple of months and will begin the write up on the benchmarking study.  Please be patient as I feel like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest! 🙂  These are great times and I am so excited by the early reports of people receiving bonuses in a week from MonaVie that match the best check they ever received in a month from previous MLM experiences.  Progress is important and these Daily Disciplines of Success will propel your towards your goals and dreams.  I have a dream to build a million people team and I know that MonaVie is playing a huge part in making that dream a reality.

I would like to personally thank Dallin Larsen for being a man of character and standing for what is right.  Character is not what you say—it is what you do.  I have enjoyed listening to Dallin’s words, but have been inspired to see his actions live up to his words.  Character is my number one criteria to evaluate before I agree to be in business with anyone.  Jim Collins stated, “Get the right people on the bus, then the right people will build the right business.”  Dallin and his leadership team are the right people and I am very thankful to be on the bus with them!  Dallin Larsen passed the character test with straight A’s.   Are you passing the character test?  The Daily Disciplines will help immensely.  I encourage you to develop your own Daily Disciplines of Success and make a difference in this world!  God Bless, Orrin Woodward