Your Sentence

Posted on by Carl Weber

In his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink (one of my favorite authors) challenges us to focus our lives in a simple way.  He tells a story about a woman who challenges President Kennedy that great people are defined by one sentence and she feared his legacy would be more like a muddled paragraph.  Take a look at this short video.

http://www.danpink.com/archives/2010/01/2questionsvideo

Dan challenges us to find our sentence.  The one statement that defines who we are, and acts like a filter for our choices each day.  I took this seriously and thought about my own sentence.  What would I want to define who I am, and what would I want to leave behind? Here is my sentence.

Was known for helping others on their journey.

That’s it.  Pretty simple right?  But think about how a simple sentence will resonate through everything we do.  For this sentence to be true, then how I lead, manage, communicate, parent, or relate to others needs to be consistent.  Did my actions help someone on their journey?  Today?

Dan goes one step further and wants us to ask ourselves one more question.  A way of putting action behind your sentence.

“Was I better today than yesterday?”

So over the next few days…take Dan’s advice.  Find your sentence, then put it into practice daily.  I look forward to hearing about the results.

Published by Carl Weber

Carl Weber, is the owner and founder of Carl Weber Consulting, a consulting group that helps businesses, non-profits, and individuals understand themselves, hire and manage well, and become great leaders. Carl worked in local government for more than ten years, as the Town Administrator of a few towns in NH. Once upon a time he was a search and rescue swimmer for the US Navy. Carl holds Bachelors’ Degrees in Political Science & Community Development and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy. Carl is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Motivators Analyst (CPMA). Carl regularly teaches on human factors and the relationship of behavior and leadership styles, as well as motivation, coaching, leadership challenges, and failing as a leader. His passion is to help leaders in their lifelong journey to finish well, to combat and work with their inner voice, and to live a meaningful story worth reading. Carl lives in Southern New Hampshire with his wife Amanda and together they are raising a small tribe of four young (somewhat crazy) women with the goal of unleashing them on the world to change it for the better.

6 thoughts on “Your Sentence”

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