Monday, January 28, 2008

Friends who've known me a while know that I've always been a big fan of mentoring programs and owe most of the success I've been blessed with to the kindness and wisdom of others. My dad had a library of Earl Nightingale tapes, so I started listening to those young, setting goals and trying to develop a positive mental attitude. Several years ago, I joined TEC, The Executive Committee, which later renamed themselves to Vistage. After three or four years in the program though, I found that EO (formerly YEO), met my needs for around 1/4th the annual fee. I'm still a member of EO, and recommend it highly for anyone who qualifies (basically, own a company with $1 million in annual revenue or greater). Most recently though, I joined another program called The 1 Percent Club. One of my forum members, Mike Ivey, owner of Capital City Mortgage, gave everyone in the forum a copy of The 4:8 Principle, the most recent best-selling book by Tommy Newberry, the principal and founder of the 1 Percent Club. Reading that book lead me to join the group. It is a really good and refreshing read. I highly recommend it. The 1 Percent Club group is a little more spiritually based than the others, and frequently refers to Bible quotes in the literature, although it's not overtly a Christian-only sort of thing, and it's certainly not a Bible study. I am really enjoying the 1 Percent Club program because it is much more oriented on structured goals and accountability. But the most unexpected and beneficial surprise was the delightful and product Couples Planning retreat I attended with my wife at Blackberry Farm. While the award-winning hotel was great, and we had a beautiful 1500 square foot room (that was all that was left), the best thing about it was the way my wife really enjoyed and applied herself to the goal setting principles. We are much better organized and united in our marriage and family than we ever have been. As Tommy put it, "Most people put more energy and effort into planning their wedding day than they do into planning for goals in their marriage." I highly , highly recommend this retreat. The hotel is small and the retreat is limited to under 50 couples, so it sells out quick.

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posted by Sterling @ Monday, January 28, 2008 0 comments links to this post