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My Six Goals For 2020 by David Guerra

My 6 Goals For 2020

Happy New Year. Happy New 2020. Depending on how you look at it we are now beginning the third decade of the 21st Century. As is the case with most new year’s, they usually begin with resolutions. The kind of resolutions people tend to ignore the first working day of the new year, then by the 12th day of January they are on the way out. Soon they memory of those resolutions are chuckled away at the next family gathering, which is around Super Bowl weekend.

I have not had any kind of New Year’s resolutions for the past several years. This year, I took a different route. I set goals. Goals the kind that are attainable and can be broken down into bite sized action items. Those bite size actions can be further broken down into nibbles, and so on.

Do you see where I am going with this? Any goal can be broken down to its most rudimentary elements in order for it to be worked on and ultimately achieved.

Unlike, a resolution which is a statement. As an example, the old “I will lose weight this year” standard is a worthless resolution. It is worthless as it does not share with how much or over how long both of which are certainly good things to know especially before you begin any kind of undertaking.

As an Infantryman, I know how important it is to clear and concise actionable information before launching any kind of operation. Thus, a goal such as “I will lose 25 pounds of weight in a healthy, well-planned and well executed manner” gives you everything you need to lose those 25 pounds. Sure it does not give you a specific time lime but you have to figure out what it is going to take to lose that weight in a “healthy, well-planned and well-executed manner.”

This past holiday season, I took some time, after Thanksgiving and before the start of the last two weeks of December, to work on what I want to do in 2020. Thus, I came up with six (6) goals that I want to accomplish before 11:59pm on December 31, 2020.

Goal #1 Finish Writing “WE THE TEAM”, book number three in the Walking Leader trilogy

The second book in the Walking Leader trilogy, Great To Follow, was published in 2015. Since then I have been working on the third book but never got serious about closing this one out. This year the goal is finish writing it.

Goal #2 Lose 25 pounds of weight in a healthy, well-planned well executed manner.

Like many of us, I can stand to lose a few pounds. For far too long I have been carrying a little extra weight, thus losing 25 pounds is a good amount. Good in that once I lose that amount I am on track for losing more. The plan is to lose the weight is in a well-planned and quite deliberate manner. This means it will take time. Hell, I have just under 365 days to do so, but I do not plan to take that long, I am looking at taking about 5 months which means losing five pounds a month. I will keep you posted on this one.

Goal #3 Walk at least 30 minutes a day. It is good for the body, mind, & spirit.

Jogging and Running are one thing but there is something to be said for taking a walk in woods, at the shore, or neighborhood sidewalk. It does not matter where. What matter is you get out there and do it. Walking gives you an opportunity to spend time by yourself. An opportunity to clear your mind. You get my meaning. Besides it is good for the cardiovascular system, especially for those that spend most of their day sitting.

Goal #4. Write one new Historical Fiction book for my Occupied Berlin series.

For those that do not know, the Occupied Berlin series is a ten part series of fictional stories set in West Berlin, Germany from 1945 to 1989. The view is from the front line troops, the INFANTRYMEN assigned to the US Army Berlin Command, US Army Berlin, US Army Berlin Brigade. The last book I wrote in that series is “The Taking of Sergeant Gonzalez” and published last February (2019). This story like all ten in the series have been outlined since the inception of the idea of the series. So, this means the story needs to be written.

Goal #5 Run a 10K in average time for my age. It is somewhere around a 9 minute mile. YIKES

Over the years, I have run many 10Ks. I still remember my very first road race, 10K Gatow Road Race at RAF Gatow in West Berlin, Germany back in 1986. My last one was over five years ago. I am overdue for one more. The training has started, now all I have to do is work on time, speed, and stamina. But, most of all I need to work on my stretching because now is not the time to be sidelined by strained muscles. I will keep you posted on this one, as well.

Goal #6 Continue to improve myself and in turn help to improve the lives of others.

As a lifelong learner, I will continue to work on myself. My motto is “Always be better today than I was yesterday.” To be better today, I have to constantly be at work. Working on improving myself, whether it be by reading, writing, learning something new, trying something new, and of course reflecting on past mistakes and learning from them. Then in turn taking all that I am learning and sharing it with others. All in hopes, that others can learn from my past mistakes as well as the mistakes of others to make new mistakes (not repeating past ones) and then passing on those lessons to future mistake makers. For those that don’t get it; learning from our mistakes and the mistakes of others is good for life and business.

So, there they are. Six goals and the reasons why. Some will agree but most will disagree with my goals and why I am doing them. Some may say that this is strictly self- centered especially when he puts helping others at the end. I say, if I cannot help myself first how am I expected to help others now, later or ever?

Now, if you will please excuse me, I have some work to do.

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Thank you,
David G. Guerra, MBA
email: [email protected]
twitter: @daveguerra
instagram: dave_guerra
facebook: thedavidguerra

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September 2019: Embracing Change by David Guerra

September 2019

When we hear a word September immediately comes to mind trees losing their leaves, cool crisp mornings, football, and pumpkin spice lattes? Seriously, what we’re really doing is thinking about change. Change in the sense that everything around this is changing and so are we. However, we don’t think about ourselves as changing, only the environment changes.

As the song goes, ” seasons change” so must we. But we’re constantly evolving. We as human beings as individuals are constantly in a state of dynamic change. Believe it or not it is called getting older. That’s the dynamic part. As we age, we start to see ourselves in a whole different light. We see ourselves as that kid that was raking the leaves on the front yard and then jumping into the pile. Now we have to rake those leaves, but the last thing we want to do is jump into the pile. Hell, we might break a hip or something.

There’s the change. We get older we got wiser (well I hope we got wiser). Soon those cold Chris mornings will turn into blustery icy days. And sound winter will arrive. Winter comes to signify the end of the year. Winter is the last season and the cycle of plants trees, and just about everything else. Of course, all of that waits until spring when it gets born again. And change comes again.

But it comes to change, as individuals we tend to fight it. When it comes to change, as leaders we are taught and teach others to embrace it. Talk about the duality of man. We fight it and we embrace it and then we fight it again only to embrace it yet again.

And so, we struggled again, much like those gridiron warriors and two every Sunday afternoon. Battling back and forth across 100 yards of artificial turf but at the end of the day there is a winner. However, in our case we hope and pray it is the leader that comes out winning and not the individual. The leader has to win, in the sense that she knows that change while fleeting will come again. The leader must know that this week’s battle is one but we must prepare for the next battle next week or tomorrow morning or later this afternoon or three weeks now but you get my drift.

Enjoy December, after enjoying November, of course after enjoying October, but all that is moot as we still have to get through September. So, my friends I say enjoy the change in the season, enjoyed a change in weather, but most of all, enjoy September. It is only 30 days but these 30 days we’ll set the pace and the standard for the remaining months of this calendar year. These 30 days also said the standard by which the remaining days of this year will play out and eventually take this into the depths winter.

Embrace the change that is coming. Appreciate the change as it signifies time’s humility. Humility in that no matter what he can go fast in tank slowdown it goes at the pace that it has to go whether we like it or not. Time is humble and all I can do is keep us humble. And because time’s humility is not perfect it does grant us the perfect opportunity to live through the change that is coming.

Leaders, this one is for you: lead by example by embracing change and encouraging others to do so as well.

You have your mission

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David G. Guerra, MBA
email: [email protected]
twitter: @daveguerra
instagram: dave_guerra
facebook: thedavidguerra

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Let’s Have A Chat for Friday, March 1, 2019

Let’s Have A Chat For Friday, March 1, 2019

Transcription:
And good evening everyone, it is Friday. Friday March 1st the first day of the third month of 2019. I’m your host David Guerra and welcome to LET’S HAVE A CHAT (the Friday edition). That’s right, the calendar says it’s Friday and that means it’s time for Forbes Friday so again
straight from Forbes.com, Forbes magazine, the website, the email newsletters. Hey, if you haven’t signed up for the newsletters, check them out and do so. I highly recommend it and that’s where this one comes from. It’s a little snippet of something but it’s something I saw yesterday and it kind of got me thinking, of well the shape of things to come. Well actually three things happened in the past 24 hours, my oldest my daughter she’s looking for a job so she’s thinking about applying at J.C. Penney and then I’m going like well if they’re
still around to hire you’re more than welcome to and the next was I drove by a Payless Shoe Store with 40 to 50% off discount right now because they’re going out of business everything must go. Now in the Forbes Daily Dozen I saw that they were talking about Victoria’s Secret since 2015, the stock value slipped 75 percent and Victoria’s Secret still has not come out of that. How do they get themselves
out of it? Folks, they need to recognize that things are happening in the retail industry, the anchor stores are going…the anchor stores are those stores, the big stories at the malls, they’re the big ones like Macy’s, JC Penney, Sears it was once Montgomery Ward remember that and Woolworth’s back in the day. Well, that’s what’s going on is those anchor stores. They are going and slowly all the other ones
that aren’t keeping up are going and why are they disappearing? Why is Payless disappearing? Shoes? Everybody needs shoes, we all need shoes and Payless whoa! Everybody wants to pay less for shoes but again they have good shoes there. Don’t get me wrong I purchased from
there before and as matter of fact I walked in there and purchased a pair of sneakers yesterday at a great price.

So, what’s going on? Well, it’s plain and simple, if you’ve been on this planet long enough you’ve seen the little cardboard boxes with the little smiley face on it. No, no it’s not the it’s not a box from Brazil because it says Amazon and just like that box was not from Italy because it said Fra-Gi-Le. Nope it’s Amazon.

That’s right, Amazon, Amazon.com they’ve got everything, anything you’ve ever wanted. They’ve got it there that you could find it and if
you don’t they can probably wait a bit and somebody will sell it. I know this because I also am an Amazon seller and I sell on Amazon so I sell my stuff there and again full disclosure.

But is it taken away from the local jobs! NO! It’s just taken away from those that don’t want to compete, don’t want to as the kids say
“POST UP”, they are not doing that. They are not stepping up their game and if those local businesses, those brick-and-mortar stores do not want to step up their game then where they’re gonna go? By the way of what was once Hastings Records and Books. Remember that bookstore Hastings records and books? There we go *BOOM* Barnes & Noble came wiped them off the face of the earth and
then remember that Blockbuster Video? Same thing,  they had the opportunity to do what Netflix is doing.

They had the execs that chose not to they said oh that’s never gonna fly! You know who doesn’t fly anymore? That’s right, the CEO cuz he has no place to go. It’s just that simple folks. The times are changing and if you’re not changing with those times you’re gonna get exactly what you deserve. A couple years ago I wouldn’t have thought about sitting up here and standing up here in front of this doing live stream video. I would have thought about that but I resisted for the longest time I resisted joining Facebook but you know what, that’s where it was all going on. You’ve got to see the writing on the wall and you can resist it all you want or it’s like oh no they won’t change for me. You’re too late, you’ve already missed the boat the time is or the times already gone the ship has already sailed, that plane has already
taken off. That’s right so bon voyage, see we can’t even say bon voyage anymore now we have to say “bon voy” because someone’s changing with the times and we need also in business and leaders those that lead people, we have to be changing with the times.

I’m not saying be the next Elon Musk, I’m not saying be the next what’s his name, what’s his name, Zuckerberg! You know or anybody else no what I’m saying is be yourself but be yourself in an involving constantly evolving constantly changing state. You’re gonna find yourself you and your business are gonna find yourselves the way of the dinosaur, the way of Hastings, the way of Tower Records. Remember Tower Records? Yeah they have an online presence but it was nothing like Tower Records that was like the epitome of a record store. You look up
record store in the dictionary you saw Tower Records. That was it that was the place to go but where are they now it’s Amazon and iTunes and Apple. Where are they now? Where will Macy’s be in a little while, where’s JC Penney, where Sears, where’s Payless Shoes and unfortunately
Victoria’s Secret needs to ramp up their game. Sure they can one time a year do that that show or that risque show on on TV once a year but is that enough? No! It’s not enough. It’s not enough to bring in the money, to raise the stock value because again dropping 75% that’s a lot but if you’re delivering constantly and maintaining and working and improvising and innovating then guess what. You might just have a good thing on your hand and it’s worth the wait for it to grow back up. Now you know what four years later on the verge of five years later for Victoria’s Secret then what exactly nothing will happen.  Only the bad stuff will happen, unemployment, layoffs. chapter 13, bankruptcy, courts it’s crazy but it’s true.

On that note, so something to think about continue innovating, continue changing, continue providing, continue to grow, continue to innovate, continue to be better than you were yesterday. If you’re not, someone’s going to have you for lunch and that is probably going to be Amazon.