In order to move forward and reach the next level, one must find their own path towards growth and development. Darren CdeBaca shares three simple words to serve as a guide in this journey: designate, dedicate, and elevate. He talks about appreciating your power and realizing where you currently are, serving as the foundation in determining how you can perform at your best. Darren then explains how finally elevating yourself must not only be about what you can gain but also what you can offer to other people.
---
Listen to the podcast here
Designate, Dedicate, Elevate
Thank you for reading our series. I will make sure that I’ll leave you some memorable thoughts so it’ll occur to you to come back. We want you to utilize these words in the best way you can and in meaningful thoughts, put them back into your day and your vision as you see fit. It’s your choice. It’s our opportunity. There’s no real challenge. The challenge is to grow. We want to make sure that we give you the incentive here at DCB Strategies to grow. Our brains, bodies, attitudes are so much different when we’re growing. I feel as though this is going to allow you to embrace a set of three words that whenever you’re setting yourself up to grow, these three words will give you a self-portrait of where you are.
This episode is called Designate, Dedicate and Elevate. At DCB Strategies, I try to utilize the power all the time of simple words that enable your visions and desires to become and become is that result set that is successful, fulfilling and it gets contagious. That’s exactly what we’re trying to ignite at DCB Strategies. Therefore, this mantra of a journey of designate, dedicated, elevate stands clearly by itself. We’re going to get into and explain a little bit for you so you can apply it in any part of your life.
Before I start, let me share with you the statement that defines our work at DCB Strategies. Those of you who have visited in the past may know what it is already, and if you haven’t yet, it is this. The best and average have nothing in common. How does that resonate to you when you say it to yourself? It automatically makes you click on one side of the brain or the other saying, “Am I a part of the best or the average?” Asking these kinds of powerful, simple questions to ourselves is very important for us as we create a thirst for progress.
That defines our work at DCB Strategies. This is why we come up with simple phrases or words that can get you on the path or the journey of your success, thus become. The meaning of the best and average have nothing in common. As you can imagine, it captures the results of achieving bold goals with accountability and purpose. Whether you’re a professional, in your personal endeavor or in the athletic world, you know there’s a differentiation between the best and average.
To set this up, over the years, I’ve had the privilege of being in the professional world and prior to that in college and surrounded myself with wonderful people that mentored me along the way in many different facets, I recognize that many individuals and/or teams work diligently to get where they are, which is the first level and it should be congratulated on and not looked at lightly. The first level is they got themselves to a designation, “I’m a student. I’m a professional. I’m a lawyer. I’m a financial advisor. I’m a professional wholesaler that represents asset management. I am a team leader. I’m a business developer.”
Designate
With that being recognized, let’s get on the same page about our starting point before I initiate the clarity of utilizing this three-word journey of becoming your best, what you do and/or desire to do in the near term. We’re going to use the simple, official definitions of these words. Designate, let’s start with the first one. We’re all designated where a husband, father, grandfather, golfer or whatever intrigues your designation. We’re there. We’re a holder of an official position. If you don’t look at yourself officially, start because you have the right to. You’ve earned the opportunity to have your position. Take a stake in it. You’re designated at that position.
You can decide whether or not you want to dedicate yourself to that position and thus, elevate yourself. What does dedicate mean? Designate means holder of an official position. Dedicate means committed to a task or purpose. We don’t use the word commit lightly at DCB Strategies. That’s part of the Decide Commit Become. Commit at DCB Strategies is three layers. It’s strategy, actions and persistence. Dedicate embosses and enables you to encapture a lot of this work of strategy, actions and persistence. Elevate is to raise to a more important or impressive level. You think about the athletes that we witness in this world about those who have elevated themselves without saying the obvious names, and then the professionals in the corporate world, service world, schoolroom, faith world or nonprofit world, etc. The elite have elevated themselves because there’s a path.
Let me give you a little bit by starting your engines on this about designate, dedicate and elevate. Let’s start by asking you, the readers. Currently, do you have a trigger phrase that immediately holds you accountable towards your potential? If not, then I assure you you’re ready to adopt designate, dedicate and elevate. I’m sure you may be intrigued. That’s one reason you saw the title of the show and these three words intrigued you. There was a natural, what I call the linear path. You say, “What’s that about?” If you take a look and you shout those words out to yourself, it intuitively reminds you to self-examine your current progress or your intended path.
On the other hand, many people are fine with what they’re doing, which we call satisfactory. They’re still at the designation space. They’ve designated themselves as a worker, a wife or a husband, a churchgoer, a nonprofit participant. Not everybody has to dedicate, but there’s designated. You’re at the starting point, which is fine. This allows you to know that everybody has a chance to dedicate and to elevate because everyone has a starting point. It’s important that we know that there’s an opportunity to express an experience of progress. When we have progressed from designation to the dedication of our efforts and seeing the results of that dedication manifests itself effortlessly which creates a tremendous amount of opportunity for us to attach ourselves to the creativity of elevation.
Go back to one of your recent experiences of progress. When did you last experience a sequence of progress personally going on whether it’s personal, professional or etc? Wasn’t it empowering? It’s like you’re on top of the world. “I want to do it again.” You either definitely took advantage of that or you sat still for a while and life’s distractions got in the way, and you’re here back trying to refuel that potentially.
As we mentioned earlier, not to beat this over too much, but I want to make sure that everybody is entitled and earned a designation. They have a starting point, their official position of their path or starting position. You’ve earned that and whether you’re a designated financial advisor, wholesaler, lead business development officer, lawyer, a designated doctor or an accountant. You’re a designated runner, swimmer, basketball player, musician, writer, wife, husband, cook but you get the rhythm of the starting point.
What’s next? There’s always something next. The objective is to know that we are designated and what’s next is we have a choice to be dedicated. That sets us up to be elevated. Herein lies the opportunity to move into the dedicate mode because we’re already designated. That’s okay. It’s good to be reminded we’re ready. When you’re in the dedicated mode or phase, we want to exhaust if you’re ready for it. It’s going to comfortably set you up to confidently embrace the elevate mode. This requires your strategy and/or action steps to be directed in being the best you can on all fronts in your position.
I mentioned some starting positions, whether it’s professional or personal in the most recent comments. To give you an example of what dedication means in those is try to apply what I’m going to share with you into those starting positions to get involved in the dedication side. You spend time, what we call intellectual uplifts, in your space. You’re learning so much more about what you’re doing, your craft, personal situation, professional opportunities, industry. If you’re eager for those in your space, then you are dedicating yourself to that space. I congratulate you. Not a lot of people will do that.
Dedicate
Dedication means you study and you adopt best practices of those in elite spaces or lead areas of your space. By your studying and adopting some of these best practices that the elite have demonstrated in that space or in your area, you become very closely acquainted of why designation and dedication go hand in hand to get to elevation. When you dedicate yourself, you’re adopting new actions, a new habit set. This is where the work comes in. When you dedicate time, it’s going to display your renewed effort.
As I shared with you in some episodes, it’s not rocket science. It is effort. Dedication is going to require time and effort on your part to get a new habit set in place of what you’re bringing into your new space. What dedication also means is that you are identifying and building out the attributes of your desired reputation in your space. Think about that. What is your reputation now? I’m not going to give you too many examples because this is a broad reach of many. You can go professional or personal on this. Identify and build out the desired attributes of your reputation. Where are you now? Put on a piece of paper your desire and build-out of the 3 or 4 most important things to activate your reputation as you would like to see in this space.
Also, dedication requires a relentless creation of your brand or what your audience has faith in you about because brands mean what do you have faith in. What is this? Create it. What does your audience have faith in you about. Try to identify that and what you’re known for. Take some time to study that. Let me remind you. Dedication is about intellectual uplifts, studying and adoption of best practices, adoption of new actions as effort and new habit sets, identifying and building the attributes of your desired reputation, a relentless creation of your brand and what people have faith in you about, maybe increase their faith about it, and what you’re known for. Those are few of the examples. I’m sure all of you can think about spinning in your mind now of what it means to be dedicated in your spot or your space.
You may notice that the examples of these actions. Do require some effort and their individual building blocks. Activating these by yourself during the day, week, month or quarter is an exercise of yours only. This is not a team event. This is not where someone applauds for your effort on this. What happens when the dedication occurs. This is extra when nobody’s looking. You’re going to have to carve out time before or after work, the team practices, kids or the spouse goes to bed. This is going to be time and effort when no one else is looking.
This is counterintuitive to humans because humans like to be recognized about their work. This is a point in time where you’re going to have to hold off that desire to be recognized until you can extrapolate the benefits of your dedication in your elevate mode. I warn you, in a good way, that the effort is there when nobody’s looking, put in the extra time and hours. The people in our society, sports professional and others that I mentioned, who have put time in by themselves when no one else is looking.
Do not mind working and growing their chances when everyone else is not. That’s the key and the lever point or the trigger sentence that keeps people in a persistent mode of working hard behind the scenes. We decided to share with you the fact that everyone is designated. Not everyone’s dedicated but there are few requirements that you can exhaust and build out in your own space of types of examples of dedication.
Elevate
Once you’re in your mind fully dedicated from your designation, now it’s game time to elevate. You get the feeling. You know things are moving smoothly. Things are feeling more fluid. You feel more in control of your space. You’re starting to get small successes that are starting to be fulfilling to you. It’s getting contagious. You want it now? It’s game time to elevate. This can be easily witnessed in the elite of many sports around the world at any level, high school, college, pros of sports, in the professional world, CEOs, leaders of companies, business specialists, etc. They are elevated in terms of their space. People know that’s the person the best at doing that.
For example, if you’re a financial advisor and you become designated as a financial advisor, then all of a sudden you become dedicated to your craft or business. You elevate to be known as the private wealth specialist in your city for pro and Hollywood personnel. Just an example. If you’re an asset management representative, you become the go-to representative for the elite private wealth teams in your territory that want to talk to you about the Global Capital Markets. Because they know that your designation, dedication and the way you elevated, they can trust you to work with them at the highest levels. It’s just an example.
Where your extra time has chosen dedication, action shows their stuff, this is where you create a memorable difference, raise eyebrows, and where you specialize. Then you’re ready to turn up the volume and share with all in your space or audience. That’s elevation. You’re not ready to do it when you’re dedicating. You’re not going to do it when you’re designated. When you’re elevating, you want to make sure you turn up the volume and let everybody know where you are in the precision that you’ve built in your niche or your space.
Let me give you an example of a few things that represent elevation. In whatever part of this professional world, you create a niche or precision reputation what you’re known to be best at. You create what I call your own new lane of profession. Forget the traffic around you. Create your own new lane and you can even drive a little faster or in a personal way, you’re set up to be the healthiest you’ve been ever. You were designated as a human being, as a person who needs to eat well, take care of themselves. You dedicate your activities to a better mind, health, mindfulness, physical health, the way you feed yourself. Now, the healthiest you’ve ever been ever. Now you’re ready to elevate and not share it with everybody, but to be a different person. Everybody will notice how healthy you are, your mind and your body because of the work you put up, the dedication you put there.
Also, if your elevation, your mindset is ready for new ways to look at opportunities because you change the way you’re looking at them. Now you’re better equipped in the way you look at things because you dedicated so much time in that space and through the intellectual uplifts and all the things we talked about to look at things differently now. What used to be obstacles are now optical illusions. You’re going right through them and you are creating huge progress.
I wanted to wrap this up and I thank you for your time. Hopefully, your brain has read designation, dedication and elevation a few times and you’ve asked yourself where do you stand on that progressive journey. Not everyone has to do this, but it’s a choice. At DCB Strategies, being the best and average have nothing in common doesn’t mean everyone has to be the best. Everyone can be the best of their own work. This is one way to do that. The best in their category, fine. The best at what they would like to do in life, absolutely. It takes a recognition of where you are, designation, what’s required to be dedicated, to become the best at that space in that activity, and then you’re ready to elevate. Elevation will create so many more opportunities because you will learn to look at things differently than you did prior to the dedication phase starting.
In summary, designate, dedicate and elevate the visual and self-accountable journey to your most immediate desires. Thank you for your time. If you have any questions, please contact at Podcast@DCBStrategies.com or go to the website, DCBStrategies.com. I am ready to know your comments, thoughts, connect as you see fit. I would encourage you to re-read this to get some of those points we talked about. As I always say to everybody that I have the pressure of working with or greeting on the streets, stay healthy, stay passionate. By the way, that’s the only two things that we can control and they’re for free. Make it a great day. Thanks.
Comments