CREATING THE FUTURE BY FOLLOWING YOUR PASSION

When one begins the 7th decade of life, it seems natural to look back and consider the curves and hills in the road traveled. When I look back, I feel so very fortunate. In so many of my life's key decisions, I gave so very little or virtually no thought. I was blessed by the grace of God at those crucial times.

I have been blessed in so many ways and enjoyed a number of careers. As the years have gone by, the later one's were more carefully chosen while the early experiences seemed to "just happen." All were "station's" along the way of a life leading to something better. I am thankful for each and every experience and each and every person that was a part of the experiences. Through most of my life, God has blessed me with opportunities to develop a vision for my life and to follow my passion.

As a child I learned to work hard -- digging ditches, doing janitorial work, selling all kinds of things. At 13 I spent a summer following the wheat harvest from central Texas to Nebraska, driving tractors and wheat trucks, sleeping outside and eating in a makeshift kitchen made from an old school bus. As a young man, I was a "roughneck" on drilling rigs, both cable-tool and the more modern rotating bit. I worked in gas stations, drove big gasoline trucks, and, at 17, I began at the lowest Navy rating, Seaman Recruit.

As an adult, the Navy gave me the experience of heavy responsibilities at a young age, including 26 months in Vietnam. The Navy also sent me to Michigan State University where I earned a Masters of Business Administration. Then, I was in the Washington, D. C. area for most of the last 10 years of my career. I had opportunities to lead, to learn and to work with some of the most senior military and civilian officers in the Department of Defense and all four military services and retired with 26 years of service as a Supply Corps Commander on December 31, 1976. I have been a professional writer, a owner-operator of a cooling business in hot Abilene, Texas. I even got involved in politics as Campaign Manager for a wonderful friend who ran for the U. S. House seat in Abilene, Texas. Unfortunately, we lost in the run-off's. This district covered 33 big Texas counties.

I have been President of an oil field machine shop in far western Oklahoma, and Vice-President of an oil and gas exploration and drilling company. I have taught college courses on various campuses from the freshman to graduate level. At age 52, I went back to school at the University of Central Oklahoma, where I earned the M. Ed. Degree in Counseling Psychology and later went into private practice in Edmond, Oklahoma, as a National Certified Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I have created and delivered numerous recovery and self-help courses and workshops and have gone through at at least 2,000 divorces with hurting people, although I have never been through my own divorce, thank God!

In 1998, I began training to become Certified Personal and Professional Coach and Certified Life Coach. I gradually phased out of counseling and now devote my time to coaching, mentoring and equipping executives, church leaders and and couples. I have been Certified as a Consultant to Families in Business as well as a qualified administrator in numerous psychometric and measuring instruments for groups and individuals. In addition, I am Certified by the Character Training Institute, www.characterfirst.org, as an Character Consultant and Associate Trainer. (By the way, if you order something on-line, please mention Joe Michael Hale as your Representative. Thank you!)

We read in the Bible that "God will do immeasurably more than you can think or imagine. . " Through the years, I have learned by experience how true this can be. I have lived with the notion that one should have a keen imagination of how to best live his or her life, how to give and get the most out of our limited time and energy. As the picture gains clarity and focus, and the passion grows, somehow, the promise is, and my experience tells me, that God truly has done immeasurably more than than I could every think or imagine.

My ideal client is the CEO of a high-performance organization who desires an organizational culture of high ethics and character, trust and teamwork. A culture where each individual can catch the vision, as cast by the CEO. And, where the CEO encourages his or her managers to share their own vision for their job and their lives and the management group works with a 'shared vision' as a smoothly-functioning team. In this culture, each manager will learn the hopes and dreams of his or her people, will support their families and will assume the best -- most people really do want to do a good job and want to help their organization to succeed. Each manager will also have a smooth-functioning team. Such is the possibility through coaching, mentoring and equipping.