El Cerrito Rotary: The Wheel January 8, 2009

Bulletin Editors: Gary Buffon & Michael Doughtery
Week of January 8, 2008

President Jack welcomed us to the friendly El Cerrito Rotary Club. Lance led the flag salute and President Jack provided a thought for the day.

Visitors and Rotarian Guests: Sec John announced Gary Buffon’s guest wife Norma.

Announcements:

• Jack thanked Nobuko for the excellent work she did as the Christmas Party chair. A great time was had by all.
  
• Nobuko announced an $80 contribution for the club from her Christmas candy sales.
  
• Jack reminded the team of GGF work this Sunday and asked when anyone changes shifts with another to let him know so he can maintain his schedule.
  
• Jack announced the Reno Train trip is Jan 25-26 and if you would like to attend please let him know.

Happy dollars: Mark S is happy his wife has returned to work (must be because she wanted to). Lance had a dollar to let Mark know if will not tell Cindi about his happy dollar. Marty is happy he is going to Florida on a business trip. Rod is happy about his new band and again working at the 33 Revolution on San Pablo Ave. John F is happy he going on the Reno train trip.

Jack is happy about the train trip he took with his grandkids to Sacramento. Nobuko had $10 in happy for her daughter doing well with the pregnancy of her twins and being close to them being born. She was also happy to see Marv and Rod at today’s meeting. Carl is happy to be going to Paris for the kickoff of the International Year of Astronomy. Tracy had $10 to thank the Interact members for all the work they did for the Firefighter’s Toy Program. The members contributed 127 hours to this program.

Today’s Program:

Carl introduced Gary B to share his expertise on priority management with his fellow Rotarians. Gary worked twenty five years as a logistician for the military and has been in his consulting business for twenty two years. Now he is successfully working as Rotary Coordinator for the Interact Club and enjoying sharing his knowledge and leadership with the Interact Board members.

Today’s presentation involved the “Wheel of Life” concept that allows a individual to put key life issues into priority order and set goals based on those priorities. Gary began by sharing his person mission. “To positively impact my family, my country and my business by making a valuable contribution to others so they achieve their goals and I achieve mine.”

Then he reminded us about the distribution of networth in the US and how the distribution has not changed significantly since the data has been kept. The distribution: 3% of the population owns and controls most (between 60-80%) of the net worth, 10% own and control most (10-15%) of the rest. 60% of people live payday to payday and 27% of people need some type of assistance. When these groups are studied by sociologists it is revealed that the three main factors that account for the top thirteen percent’s success is: Written goals and plans; overcoming conditioning that limits their success; and positive self discipline.

These attributes are quite simple in context but more difficult to put into practice. As a way to demonstrate this Gary passed out a “Wheel of Life” page on which everyone was asked to arrange in priority sequence the six spokes of the wheel and to set a goal for the two top priority spokes. Then Gary provided a summary of the obstacles that we all encounter when attempting to carry out goals even though they are priorities. Two great aids to achieving our goals is to use visualizations and affirmations. Some goals required some creative actions to get a motivating visualization. When we see a goal clearly we are more motivated to continue taking the steps toward its completion.

This is especially true when a goal is one of becoming. For example, becoming a person that exercises regularly is a simple goal, its implementation may be one of the most difficult things we ever do. We have to created a conditioned response to doing the regular exercise we so much desire. Also, desire is the most important ingredient in any goal. If you do not have burning desire to complete a specific goal you are wasting your time with that goal. Make sure you have the desire to accomplish the goal or you are setting yourself up for failure.

Today’s Lottery Winner: Marty had his ticket pulled for chance at winning the pot and selected a cats-eye marble; he won the bottle of wine. Next Week the pot is worth $120.

Genie Stone winner: Tracy’s ticket was selected and she won the magic stone for the month of December.

Interact Corner by Gary Buffon:
The Interact Club was very busy with community service projects over the holidays. In all they contributed over 160 community service hours to three projects. The main one being the Firefighter’s Toy Program where they work Dec 16 through Dec 20 contributing 127 hours to the success of this program. The third annual Interact leadership conference is being held Feb 28 – Mar 1 and we are hopeful that at least two of our board members will attend.

Thought for Week:
Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitable come to pass.
--Paul J. Meyer