Succeed In The New Normal: Winning Strategies to Succeed in an Unfamiliar World

By Jeff Orr

All of us have a "normal" – a way of living and thinking that is routine and defines our comfort zone. In that zone, we are sure of ourselves, know how to make a living and be successful. But "new normals" seem to come out of left field, beyond our control and radically disrupts our way of living and doing business. If you find yourself waiting for normal to return – whatever that normal is – one question needs to be answered. What if what you are experiencing now is your new normal?

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781618429117

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In Demand Leadership, LLC

www.indemandleadership.com

Copyright © 2011 by Jeff Orr

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 9781618429117

Succeed in the New Normal: Winning Strategies to Succeed in an Unfamiliar World by Jeff Orr, First Edition

Published in the United States by In Demand Leadership, LLC and printed through Snowfall Press and D&L Press.

To order additional copies of this book or to inquire about bulk discounts, email: [e-mail].

Contact Jeff Orr at:

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  602-413-2495

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ISBN: 978-0-615-48759-5 Print Version

Printed in the United States of America.

To all those who yearn to be more than they are...

Contents

Acknowledgements

Forward

Chapter 1: Redefining Normal

Chapter 2: Normal Has Hopped a Plane and Left the Country

Chapter 3: The Rock You Were Standing on Just Crumbled Into Dust

Chapter 4: Your New Foundation: Core Values

Chapter 5: Fully Engage or Fully Fall Behind

Chapter 6: How To Win At Monopoly

Chapter 7: When the Proverbial Waste Product Hits the Fan

Chapter 8: Success and Significance

Chapter 9: You Can Motivate a Donkey to Run Like a Race Horse, but You’ll Never Change His Beliefthat He’s Just An Ass

Chapter 10: Accountability Is Not Just a Fourteen Letter Word

Chapter 11: The Story of Your Life

A Personal Note

Appendix A

Appendix B: Resources

Author’s Bio

Acknowledgements

My wife, Sheri ~ You are my soulmate, closest friend, and partner in life. We have journeyed together for more than 22 years now and I still find you absolutely amazing. You love and support me, challenge and stretch me, and make the most difficult times of life easier to endure. You are a most precious and treasured gift from the God we serve and love. I am truly blessed to walk this life with you.

My daughter, Mikaela ~ You are such an inspiration to me! Your smile, your laugh, your kindness, your thoughtfulness, and your hugs, shine in my life more brilliantly than all the stars in the night sky.

Mark Miller ~ Thank you so much for your thoughts and edits in this work. You have helped to craft my thoughts and concepts in ways that communicate to the business community. Our meeting was, no doubt, a God Intersection. It continues to be a pleasure to learn from you and grow in our friendship.

Amanda Collins ~ Thank you for your edits and work on this book! Your insights, creativity, and technical prowess with the written word has made this book come alive.

My Parents ~ Mom, you taught me how to build authentic relationships. Dad, you taught me one of the most important skills in life—how to think. It is from that background I have been able to explore, question, learn, grow, stretch, and discover new areas of life. Thank you for your consistency, love and support.

All those who were a part of the interviews for the stories ~ Your’s are truly the stories that inspire and challenge us all to grow and reach higher.

God ~ This was Your idea from the start. Thank you for the inspiration, the ability to think, create, and write. Thank you for your amazing grace and love for which I could never repay. Your belief in me has enabled me to continue to grow into the man You have made me to be.

How To Use This Book

This book is intended to be a launching point for further reflection and discovery. At the end of each chapter is a section titled Engage Your Brain with a number of questions designed to stimulate your thinking around the concepts learned in the chapter. I would encourage you to set aside time to process through these questions. Whether it is just for yourself, or your team or staff, you will find many new insights to how you think, what drives you or your business, and how to successfully navigate the new normal you find yourself in.

Forward

This book is a journey. A journey of experiences of myself and others, the lessons learned, and concepts discovered, that have helped to focus my energies and live the life I really want. It started with an ah-ha moment, when the purpose and vision for my business and life came into amazing clarity. The ironic thing was, this purpose and vision was there all along. I just didn’t see it.

Although written primarily for business executives, owners, and leaders, the principles in these pages apply to everyone. Whether you work for someone else, are a student, a temporarily displaced worker (a.k.a., unemployed), involved in non-profit work, or just searching for direction in your life, understanding when your current career or life direction has changed or is no longer available to you is the first step in moving toward a more successful future. In other words, you have to let go of your old normal to fully engage your new normal. While that may sound simple, actually living this out is not. Many people don’t even recognize their normal has changed. They are still waiting for their world to get back to normal so they can enjoy life again.

In my own journey, I found myself stuck in my old normal. I too, didn’t recognize it at first. For a number of years in Rochester, New York, I had an executive leadership role in a non-profit organization empowering staff and volunteers to grow in, and achieve at, what mattered most to them. I also started my own consulting business, focusing on helping non-profit organizations and small businesses with leadership development, vision, and mission development. I assisted them in aligning staff to the vision and objectives, and helped the executive leadership become more effective in their jobs and personal lives. I had an excellent reputation in the community, comfortable with my skills and abilities, and was confident with my business.

For a number of reasons, at the end of 2008, I moved my family back to Phoenix, Arizona, where my wife and I grew up. As we were preparing to move, I began the arduous task of sifting through the details of moving across country, such as, finding temporary housing when we arrived, securing storage space until we could buy a house, and so on. I was able to pre-qualify for a mortgage based on my income from my consulting company before we moved. Everything looked as if it would go fairly smoothly. However, shortly after we arrived, the mortgage rules changed and we no longer qualified for a mortgage. I needed a real job. It was bad enough I was looking for work at the end of the year, but the problem was made much worse because the economy in Phoenix was tanking. On top of that, my normal clientele (many of which were non-profit companies) were not hiring me because their funding was collapsing. My plan was to wait out the economic storm as best I could, find work so I could qualify for a home for my family, and everything would soon get back to normal. But in late 2008 and throughout 2009 the US economy was anything but normal. The stock market, job market, real estate—nothing seemed to behave normally. Consumers’ spending habits changed dramatically. So did their charitable giving. I was faced with a reality that my experience and skills were no longer viable in earning a living—at least not the way I was used to using them.

Throughout 2009, I took two different positions with two different companies (both commission based jobs) in an attempt to gain that real job which was required to get a home for my family. I was moderately successful at them but neither job really grabbed my passion. I was still waiting for the economy to turn around so I could get back to my normal business life. But by the end of 2009, the economy still hadn’t turned around and I was becoming weary of successfully failing, as I saw it, while waiting for my old life to return.

I faced the one question I had been dodging all year long. What if my current circumstance is my new normal? Like everyone else, I was waiting for the economy to return to normal so I could continue on my previous career path. But the reality was my career path was gone. I had to face it. My old normal, the work I was doing and the clients I was serving, was no longer a reality. So what would I do now?

I took myself through an exercise (see chapter 5) that listed out all of my experiences, skills, talents, abilities, and passions. As I looked at this extensive list, I began to see a pattern emerge. A connection in these categories which led me to my new normal. The exercise helped me to see what I was made to do—something I had done as a part of my work in years past but had not identified in this way. With this discovery, I was able to fully let go of the old normal, and fully engage the new normal. It has given me incredible focus, energy, excitement, and passion for what I do and whom I serve.

If you find yourself waiting for normal to return—whatever that normal is—one question needs to be answered. What if what you are experiencing now is your new normal? What then? Okay, that’s two questions, but the reality is, we all experience events in our lives that put us into a new normal. It could be a pink slip, bad medical report, a dying industry we have spent our life developing, a broken relationship, or the loss of a dream. It’s time to stop waiting and move forward in your life. It’s time to reengage and discover a new frontier. It’s time to enter into a process that takes an honest look at where you are at right now and where you are headed. Be prepared though. You may find a new life waiting for you to engage and succeed in. One you had not thought possible before.

~ Jeff Orr

April 2011

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www.succeedinthenewnormal.com

www.indemandleadership.com

1. Redefining Normal

I went to sleep one night confident of who I was and my role in life. Then I woke up the next morning and found my whole world had changed. Now I’m not so sure anymore.

Monday morning, 5:30am. The alarm awakens a man and his wife to a new day and a new week. It’s a crisp, early autumn morning and the freshness in the air signals the excitement of the changing of the seasons. School starts for their young, enthusiastic child this week. School supplies have been purchased for the most part. Just a few more things to get ponders the wife as she considers the week ahead of her. The man mentally thinks through his week ahead with meetings, strategy sessions, and a host of other tasks that come with the responsibility of running a major corporation. Today is full of meetings but he’ll have some time with his wife and son tomorrow morning when they take him in to school. The man muses to himself as he thinks of the report he will give to the board on Wednesday. He’s made some pretty gutsy decisions lately and they have paid off. The piles of money I just made the stockholders should quiet them down for a while, he chuckles to himself. After the normal routine of the morning, the man kisses his wife and son goodbye and heads off to work and the start of another week. Plans are made at home. Plans are made at the office. It’s just a normal start to an otherwise normal week in a normal fall season. It’s September 10, 2001 in New York City.

History often records what people were doing, where they were going, and how they felt during, and right after a tragic event. But seldom does it record what people were doing and thinking just a few hours or a day before the event occurred. Why? Because it was just another normal day or moment in the life of the person. There usually isn’t anything all that noteworthy going on in our normal lives that make its way into the history books. It’s the actions, decisions, and feelings we live out in the aftermath of a tragic event that are of interest to people. Yet all we really have is this present moment—our normal. In it is the thinking and planning for what we will do this day, tomorrow, this week and beyond. It is the only way we can really function. We can only plan for so many contingencies. And we only have so much energy to put into those new plans and directions because we are focused on succeeding in our normal lives.

This is why when tragedy strikes, or events unfold that are