Healthcare in California

     Healthcare for everyone living in the United States, has been, and will be a topic for discussion lasting the next 10 years. Will it happen, will it succeed and are we as a nation better off for having access to doctors and hospitals?

     The ethical, ‘feel good’ answer is everyone should be able to get quality care regardless of income level. However, the cost for this future addition to the Standard of Living could take other things away from the general population. The money has to come from somewhere and contrary to government thinking, money cannot just be printed in abundance. So is the money taken from the schools? From Social Security? Unemployment Fund? Military and Defense? Will gas and oil be taxed at a higher rate so we pay more at the pump?

     Taxing the rich to pay for the poor is not the answer. Taxes are seen as punishments and if you punish someone for doing well they are less likely to continue the behavior; at least continue the behavior in a lawful way. Something has to change and with the National Debt growing to unfathomable levels the chance of paying it off while incurring another major expense is slim to none.

    Pray for the strength and wisdom for our government leaders. Pray they are able to make the right decisions for our country as a whole. However, regardless of their decisions, make sure you make your voice heard. Do not stand by and let things happen to you and your country you do not approve. Get out and get educated and then vote! Information is available but make sure you are talking to an expert to get all the facts.

 

One Expert for Covered California is Laura Roeder. She can be reached at 951-602-5819 or financial@rilynn.biz

Call or email for an appointment.

Brian Walker Plan & Do

Expectations of the Chamber of Commerce and getting out of your chair.

The Menifee Valley Chamber of Commerce has been around for over 36 years and could not be stronger. Of those 36 years, I have had the privlidge of serving as a Board of Director for the past 7. In 2008-2009 I served as the Chairman of the Board and learned more about business and more importantly myself than anyone could have imagined.
     When Joan Ring came to my office 9 years ago and asked me to join the Chamber I was sharing an office with another insurance agent. He and I split the cost and figured out a way to share all the phone calls waiting to pour into our office. We thought if we were Chamber members, it would be a windfall of opportunity and all we had to do was wait...
     The phone didn't ring, no one came in and we would have thought the Chamber of Commerce was a total joke if I didn't venture out to start actually meeting people. I went to the mixers, the lunches, the ribbon cuttings and all the events I could to meet people. Next thing I know, my phone still doesn't ring but I have a box full of business cards I start calling for meetings. I'm setting up appointments, and coffee times and then the business starts actually coming in. My office partner never left his chair, and his business never took off either.
     If done right, a person can make a career off the contacts they make through the Chamber of Commerce networks. Notice I said contacts and not clients from the Chamber. The difference is the amount of Care put into the relationship with the people you work along side with in this crazy thing called community. Remember the saying, no one cares what you know until they know how much you care.
     Looking back, it was a hard 7 years but they flew by as I matured and my business grew. Thank you to all who voted for me as Business of the Year (4 times) and to those keeping me on the Board. My business and my family thank you for the many memories and the bright future of this Valley.

Missed Goals and Attaining Status

Three years ago I made a plan and set my sights on something BIG, something to set me apart from the others and solidify my name as an elite.. After a year of hard work, planning and late nights, I failed…miserably. Even though the numbers were close, not obtaining my highlighted goal threw everything I knew into the trash. Or so I thought…


They say you grow from losing and not winning, they say it is better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all. But when your friends and business partners call to ask if you made your goals you want to crawl under a rock and have it fall on you. Then you realize you just can’t quit. Walking away is not an option so you have to inch your way forward and continue the push towards the next goal, you WON’T accomplish.

Many people use monetary status as a way to measure their self worth and abilities. Many want the recognition of plaques, trophies and admiration from peers over anything else in the world. I’m part of the latter group because I know if I have the fame then the money will come into the bank. There are plenty of famous stupid people making tons of money they probably do not deserve in the world. I’m thinking of a few but they aren’t worth mentioning…

“If you do shoot for the moon and miss, you’ll land among the stars.” That saying really isn’t true because depending on your trajectory you probably will either burn up in the sun or freeze way before you land next to another star. (Just Saying) But the point is you need to continue to shoot for something, something important to you that may make you feel uncomfortable. The giant goal making you take action while you would rather watch TV or pet your goldfish.

It’s time for you to start planning, it’s time for you to walk over to the Window of Opportunity and instead of knocking, throw a brick through it and dive over the sill. Make this day count so when you do look back in three years you’ll be able to say you did something. Even if you don’t succeed at first, try, try again… you’ll get there.

Scoreboard: Friend or Foe...depends what you expect.

SCOREBOARD:

5/16/13

“You either hate losing bad enough to change or you hate changing bad enough to lose,” Resolved book pg 131.

A powerful statement can really hit home. In the past, we spoke about Plan and Do, so it is only fitting that we move on to the next steps, Check and Adjust in the PDCA model. After you have your plan figured out and you start to do or move on your path towards your goals, at some point you have to slow down and check if the steps you are taking are moving you closer to your goal.

Like many people I started a weight loss journey and signed up at the local gym. I was great at going everyday and found myself really enjoying the classes. I never really bothered to weigh myself; I just figured that since I was exercising I would start losing weight. After a few months of no change in the way my clothes fit, I decided the scoreboard was not looking so good and I had to check what I was doing and adjust to move closer to my goal. I found a trainer and after doing some workouts and talking nutrition I learned two important things: you cannot out train a bad diet and you need to understand muscle groups to get results. I was eating worse than before I started working out and I was working muscle groups that I did not want to change.

Think back to 5 years ago, were things different? Did you have an idea of what you wanted your life to look like? What were your goals? Are you where you thought you would be? Think back 5 months, the beginning of 2013, did you set a goal for yourself? Take a moment to reflect on January 1st and what did you want for yourself and then check the scoreboard, are you there? Is the path you are walking leading you to that goal or have we taken a side road?

Without checking and adjusting it is common to look at the past 5 years and realize that we took so many side roads along the way to our goals that we cannot even see our goals any longer?

I started to think of this in simple terms, my family loves my baked potato soup. I use the same recipe eveytime, the same ingredients and so forth, but I also check the soup as I go through the steps. Sometimes the soup cooks faster or the potatoes take longer. I have different brands of ingredients and I do not need to add salt. Without checking and adjusting the ingredients I might be much skinnier.
If we understand and practice the Check and Adjust in the simple everyday task of our lives, why is it so hard to do with the bigger parts? “Simply put, a person’s defense mechanisms, which are designed to protect his fragile ego from the painful revelation of his current performance kick in.” pg 132 Resolved book. We live in a society of IT WAS NOT MY FAULT, our generation is awesome at pointing the finger at everything in site to protect our egos from admitting that we might not have done what we needed to do to succeed.

It is difficult to check the scoreboard because it gives us an accurate picture of our work and accomplishments. If we get in the habit of checking our progress along the way we can adjust for desired results. This requires honesty on our part and stepping out of our comfort zone. The Scoreboard will become a proud accomplishment, not a fearful reminder of what could have happened in our life.
Plan, Do, Check and Adjust the Scoreboard for greater success!

By Jennifer Walker

The Value of Vacation (recharge to reenergize)

     "I can't leave now, I have too much work to do!" In some cases this may be correct but sometimes you have to make it a point to tear yourself away from work and recharge the batteries in your emotional machine. Burnout is always present if you continue to do the same thing over and over without any progressive results. Just because you are working hard doesn't mean you are producing the results you are actually working for and you may need to regroup your actions.
     While taking a break, look at the entire picture of what you are trying to accomplish. Why did you start doing what you are doing in the first place? Are you taking the steps to make yourself successful or bogged down behind a pile of papers with a looming deadline. Are your actions set to make you money or waste your time and stretch your wallet.  At the end of the day, do you know you accomplished something or are you wondering what happened to the time? 
     It's not too late to take a break, find a quiet spot and close your eyes. When I do this I have a million things run through my mind and I have trouble focusing but it is OK for this to happen and it will pass. If you are not physically located where you are dreaming of being, look at a photo and picture yourself there, possibly by yourself as cool, calm as collected as possible totally enjoying the moment. Do you prefer the beach, forest or desert sand as your backdrop for success?
     Scheduling and time management are important parts of planning for a vacation. Everything will never get done because there is always something to do and knowing this is part of business. Implementing a forward thinking calender can be the difference between positive successful thinking and burnout failure. Plan to recharge the batteries and reenergize your thinking and you will be preparing yourself to make the jump from being self employed to a business owner, work on the business and not inside the business.
     Step away from the paperwork and find the Value of vacation! 

Speech notes from Jennifer Walker about Character. Used April 2nd, 2013

LIFE: Living Intentionally For Excellence.
Meetings are Tuesday nights at 6pm at the Rilynn Proffessional Building.
Contact Jennifer Walker for more information: 951-309-1032


Resolved: To Choose Character over Reputation Any Time They Conflict


“We can often do more for other men by trying to correct our own faults than by trying to correct theirs.” Francois Fenelon. Francois Fenelon lived from 1651 – 1715; he was a French Roman Catholic archbishop and today remembered mostly as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus, an attack on the French monarchy. I googled quotes on character to get inspiration for this speech and came across this quote, immediately it spoke directly to me. I thought so many times I point out the flaws in others rather than looking at myself. As I researched the man behind the quote I found it humbling and sad that a man who lived 300 years ago spoke such truth about humans then and it still applies to us today. We as people like to think that we have come so far, maybe in our technology this is true, however when it comes to our thoughts and behaviors it seems the opposite. As I read the quote I instantly thought of my kids, I am blessed to be able to be involved in my kids’ life. However, this can be challenging as well, there have been plenty of times I sit down with one of my kids to talk about a situation and realize the character issue is one they picked up from me. You can learn so much about your self watching your children. My daughter and I are very close, she has been by my side since we was born. One day we were driving in the car and her brother was doing something to agitate her, I cannot even remember what was going on, but I do remember hearing her scold him in the loudest meanest voice. I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. I think she was 4 years old, so it was cute to hear her tiny voice use such language, but it was not that cute when I realized that she was modeling my behavior. I sat there for a minute and thought to myself, is this how my children see me? Do I really handle conflict by raising my voice and scolding? I tried to explain to her that her brother just wanted her attention and made a note in my heart to remember, next time slow down and evaluate, do the kids want my attention or are they misbehaving. As I read more books and listen to more audios I am learning that the best thing I can do for my children I lead by example. If I want my children to have integrity I must first show them how to live a life of integrity. John Wooden’s Three Principles of Integrity are 1. Never lie. 2. Never cheat. 3. Never steal. At first glance it would seem that living by these principles would be simple, they are simple principles that most people would say they do live by. However, when we dig a little deeper, how many of us have told our children to lie about their age to get a discount? In this situation we are not hurting anyone, just trying to save a little money, but the outcome is that we just showed our children that it is ok to lie to someone and cheat them out of money to save a few dollars. The other day I was grocery shopping with my daughter and her friend, we picked out some grapes to bring home and continued shopping, and a few minutes into our trip the girls asked if they could have a few grapes. I could have easily said yes, it would not have hurt anyone. Instead, I told them no and explained that grapes are charged by the weight, if we eat grapes before paying for them, we would be stealing the grapes as they would not be able weigh them properly. Everyday we are given opportunities to live these principles or not, it is our choice and our consequence based on the small decisions that me make. Resolved: 13 Resolutions for life says, “Integrity is a crucial attribute, but a person can have unimpeachable integrity and still not have character.” Page 54. The book points out that integrity is not doing what wrong and character is doing what is right. Integrity tells us that when two people are gossiping about another person to us, that we do not join in. While character tells us that not only do we not join in, we also stop the wrong from being done. It can be easy to listen to others gossip and just not join in to feel as though we did nothing wrong, however, by not stopping the wrong our character has been tarnished. Doing the right thing is more difficult as it requires us to step out of the shadows and into the light to stand often by ourselves.

Jennifer Walker