Tremendous Tracey
Experience, Application, and the Tremendous Call to Grow
During my doctoral research, I asked participants to rate their need to be developed on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. It was discouraging to see so many leaders rank themselves at the lower end of the scale. Their reasons? “I’m a certain age and don’t need further certifications,” “I’m close to retirement,” or “I’m comfortable where I am.”
Unleashing the Tremendous Power of Teaching
Over the years, I realized that experience alone has its limits. Responding to the world around us is powerful, but it only gets us so far. That realization propelled me into a doctoral program, where I learned, unlearned, and relearned for four intense years. I wanted to complement my practical experience with a foundation in theory. It was there that I truly understood that, sometimes, we have to be taught and not just caught.
Cognitive Compound Interest
Compound interest isn’t just a principle about money; it's a tremendous growth activator for your mind! Like the financial growth described above, personal growth isn't linear; it's exponential. Just as interest makes interest, knowledge makes knowledge! So let’s get into the habit of monetizing our minds and building bucks with our brains.
You can't fix stupid, but you can cure ignorance.
We live in a world full of stupidity. Stupid acts done by stupid people with stupid motives. Forrest Gump said it best, “Stupid is as stupid does.” People get very upset about this reality, but there's nothing we can do about it. What makes them stupid? Their willingness to be wise in their own eyes.
Couldn’t We All Use Some Therapy
Everyone should be in therapy. It’s good for the body, mind, and soul. It helps unpack baggage and enables us to deconstruct the mysteries that vex us in life. In The Three Therapies of Life, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones shares practical and applicable ways to heal yourself so you can continue to impact others and change lives. I uncovered this material from a DVD I found. It was recorded back in the ’90s when my father was in his heyday (which was technically every day). In this message, he spoke to an audience of fellow speakers and presenters at the National Speakers Association (NSA). His words rang truer to my ears and heart than they ever had before. I guess I needed some “Tremendous” therapy. Read more...
Make a Decision; Make It Yours; Die By It
A tremendous life is built on tremendous decisions. These life decisions have an integrative effect; the choices we make open or close the doors to other opportunities and future possibilities. So we need to make these cornerstone decisions well to build as solid a foundation as possible. We need to make these critical decisions the right way. My father said, “Decision making is a fact of life, just like breathing. That’s what decision making really is.” The key to making the right decisions in life is to make a decision, make it yours, and die by it. Getting these decisions right doesn't necessarily make life more manageable, but it does make it more real, and that's what it's all about. Read more...
The Anointed Call of Leadership
We are thrilled to release our 32nd Life-Changing Classic - the first one to feature a female leader! A peasant girl, an agent of God, a heroine of France, and a canonized saint, Joan of Arc possessed seven virtues that enabled her to make history. She was a humble citizen turned military leader who took no title other than the Maid, rising up at a time of great social and political upheaval. This foundation was poured by the God-given anointing of leadership and cemented through history and circumstances. Read more...
It's Not Rude to Be Shrewd
My father, the late, great, book evangelist Charlie "Tremendous" Jones declared the more books he gave away, the richer he became. It seems like quite the paradox in today's cutthroat world of take or be taken. Was my father a sucker? Absolutely not. He was embodied by a great word we tend to look upon with disdain; he was shrewd... read more
The I Don't Care Bear
There seems to be an emergence of another one of the clan, the I Don’t Care Bear. I have often said that in order for change to happen there needs to be two essentials present: the belief in the value of what you are trying to do and a reasonable expectation of success. In order for these two precursors to line up so you can catapult toward change...
Excited or Entrenched
The landscape of our lives is constantly changing which wreaks a great deal of havoc on humans who would often rather die than change. We lose relationships and our health, we miss once in a lifetime and repeated opportunities, yet we continue to blame everyone but ourselves.
Producing a Tremendous Harvest
Here comes my favorite season of the year—fall. I can see the day’s becoming slightly shorter; I watch for a leaf or two to begin transitioning to flames of gold and red; I hear and see the birds starting their migration to their new home. In South Central PA, the harvest is a sight to behold. This year's rain and sun ratio were magnificent. I have never seen fields of corn as high and green as the ones that fill our landscape. Autumn is the time of year when we look to the harvest and reap the products of our labor.
Entremanureship
Ah, entrepreneurship—the opportunity to be your own boss, to come to work when you want, to not ever have to deal with office politics, to make millions and never even had to change out of your jammies. Over ten years ago I transitioned out of the soul-sucking, life stifling world of bureaucracies to run through the liberating fields of entrepreneurship.
Driven to Win or Guided by Grace?
When we allow life to unfold before us —versus trying to wrestle it into a constructed box— our lives take a more relaxed and joyful form. There’s a difference between kicking down doors and allowing them to swing wide open when the time is right.
When the Information Superhighway Leads to Nowhere
The information superhighway can lead you to a more evolved mind if you avoid lazy thinking, research your sources, and search out divergent opinions so you can fully understand the issue at hand. A closed mind is a dying mind and, in this day and age, there is no reason why we should not be getting bigger brains and traveling the super highway together on a tremendous road trip every single day.
Lead Like a Tree
As leaders, we wear many hats. We are optimists, encouragers, ethicists, decision-makers, saviors, and sense-makers. So just like the mighty forests, we must do the same for ourselves and our organization. We need to be intentional about who we allow in our forest. After all, you cannot get it right without the right people. We need to stay nourished as well because leading others, although incredibly uplifting, can also be unbelievably draining. We must deal with bureaucracies, laws, budgets, attitudes, and global issues. To stay above the fray, we need to make sure our roots go deep; so deep that when the winds of change or fires of crisis come into our forest, we can not only survive, but thrive.
