Daily Inspiration 5-28-13

"You block your dream when you allow

your fear to grow bigger than your faith."

 

-- Mary Manin Morrissey

Fear may be an indication that we are on a path that is not in our best interests; however, our ego loves fear and loves to feed fear and fear can easily grow from a concern to a ten-foot-thick brick wall.

Here's a good question: How much energy are we giving this fearful thinking? Where are we letting it take us? Are we really fantasizing the future in a negative way?

Faith will abide if we let it. Faith will help us survive the trauma of fear if we let it. I think the best thing is to at first acknowledge that there is this fear thought, take a quick look at its character, and I am confident that as we move our attention and all of our focus to the successful accomplishment regardless of how far away it may seem, that the fear will take its proper place in the rear.


The Best Alternative Word For Faith Is TRUST.

Spread Some Joy Today--Trust in yourself. Trust in your ability. Trust in your worthiness. Trust in your actions.

Daily Inspiration 5-27-13

"Too many people overvalue

what they are not

and undervalue

what they are."

-- Malcolm Forbes

I loved this quote, and I think a better way of saying it might be that many people overvalue what they do not have, while undervaluing that which they already have.


Thoughts To Consider, Yes?

Spread Some Joy Today--Focus on what you already have and rejoice while you joyfully anticipate more.

Daily Inspiration 5-26-13

"The beginning is always today."

 

-- Mary Wollstonecraft

I used to begin things on the first of the month, the first day of the week, the middle of the month like the 1st, 15th, or even the 20th. It was always in the future somewhere though often not very far in the future. I guess you could say that it was always tomorrow. A clean break. A change. A fresh start.

The trouble with this is that tomorrow became today and then my plans were extended to another tomorrow, another week, another month, another year. Yet I always knew inside that tomorrow never really comes.

There is only today and only this very minute. If I am to get anything going, it must be right now this very minute.

If I am going to get my marketing plan in order, that will have to be done today. Leave the cell phone, go to a neutral location, and get it down on paper and get it started. Call the people who need to be called and get on with it.

Whatever it is that needs to be done, begs to be done, needs the priority of right now this minute and a commitment to the action of beginning it.


I Only Know This From My Vast Experience As A Practicing Planner.

Spread Some Joy Today--Create a perfect day!

Daily Inspiration 5-25-13

"Beauty without expression is boring."

 

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beauty is. Beauty is not. It only exists in the mind of the beholder through the eyes of the receiver. In fact, two people can look upon the same thing and one would call it beautiful and the other would call it something else--maybe even ugly.

Eyes can learn, the mind can learn to see and think differently. What once may have been seen as ugly, plain, uninteresting, bad, can become beautiful, elaborate, fascinating, and delightful by looking with clearer eyes and thinking with a more open mind. It is expressed as it is observed.


Awareness Is Everything. Literally.

Spread Some Joy Today--Seek beauty around you.

Daily Inspiration 5-24-13

"It's deja vu all over again."

 

-- Yogi Berra

Did you ever go to a house that used to be yours and it hasn't been for some time and now you see it again? Maybe even go inside? It's weird. It's deja vu all over again as Yogi Berra said.

In late 1986 and through 1987, I and two partners owned a recording studio in an old bank building in Suisun City CA built in the 1920s that was and is owned by a local businessman that I knew. I worked at the Chevy dealership in town as a day job and the music when I could.

In the building, it still had the old counter and inside the counter area where desks would have been for the bank manager and other services, we built a rectangular building which became the sound room. You could crank up a guitar amp in there and barely hear anything outside the room.

There were two big bank vaults with huge thick doors and inside one of them, we made a drum booth with wires going up through the ceiling into the recording console area upstairs. The drummers I'm sure felt strange when we closed the door to do a recording session.

We left there in late 1987 and moved to a different location, and we turned the building back the way it was when we left. It later became a dance studio and probably other things.

Fast forward to 2011. I'm following a hair stylist from one place she worked to another and she told me she was in a new place a couple blocks away. I couldn't believe it when I saw that old bank building again transformed very nicely into a hair salon called the Knotty Hair Salon. Now inside the vaults is where you get your hair washed, and the whole place has been redone very nicely. It was deja vu all over again to see the place, have my hair cut there, my hair washed in the vault and more. It was almost hard to believe.

Within a few months the owner became a client and we built their website (www.knottyhairsalon.net), their blog, manage their social media and more and they've been a client since then and I still go there every two weeks. I can't help but have memories pop up here and there as I'm in that building. Some things come and never go away. They just change appearance.


All The More Reason To Never Burn Bridges. You Never Know When You'll Be Going Back Over It.

Spread Some Joy Today--Enjoy your journey wherever it takes you.

Daily Inspiration 5-23-13

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

-- All too common job interview question

Sometimes I just think of strange things. Today I was thinking about job interviews. Since I've been a sales manager since 1975, I've hired a lot of people, and I've employed a lot of different tactics and questions in the interview process. Some were just total experimentation, others testing expert theories.

Then I began thinking of the job seeker and how so often they don't know what they are getting into and many times the odds are against them in various ways. I know this from personal experience of working for employers, and by observation watching others go in and out of a position more quickly than would have been imagined at the beginning. I'm talking about well qualified people who know how to perform, are skilled in what they do and still they are in and out all too quickly.

That idea took me back to the questions at the interview and the fact that the job seeker asks such lame questions because they don't want to jeopardize getting the position, and they want to put their best image forward. This caused me to think that this idea is not such a great strategy. Indeed, it may be a recipe for failure.

So, I took it upon myself to create a list of appropriate questions to ask potential employers--especially those with whom you are excited to potentially work with. Feel free to add more of your own. Here they are:

1. How will my performance be measured specifically?
2. Will I have control over each measured parameter?
3. If so, what kind of control?
4. How will the company support and encourage my successful performance?
5. In what ways is company growth analyzed and measured?
6. In what ways will my growth within the company be analyzed and measured?
7. When I have any problems or issues (within the company), how can I expect them to be addressed?

I didn't want to make it too long, but I think that these questions are extremely important. Some times I have been expected to perform and be measured by that performance without any control to speak of over how to achieve that. There have been many times where question 7 would have helped a great deal to know up front. I've been under the bus plenty and I know others have as well.

Some companies measure everything surrounding growth in number of sales and/or dollars of income as if the reality of life would always and forever have that on an upward trend. In down times, and they do come as we all know, how can we grow in other ways and have it accepted as growth?

Regardless of my experiences, these questions may be of benefit as long as there is not a desperate need for the job. Better to have one with serious potential for success than one that was not questioned.


How Old Are You? Oh, Sorry, I Can't Ask That Can I?

Spread Some Joy Today--Turn the tables. Now, you're in charge!

Daily Inspiration 5-22-13

"It makes no sense to worry

about things you have no control over

because there's nothing you can do about them,

and why worry about things you do control?

The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized."

 

-- Wayne Dyer

Worry is taught in school, at home, at the office, on the television, radio, and the Internet. It is everywhere. We are thoroughly trained in worry even without classes called Worry 1 or Worry 2.0. Worry is so pervasive that it is impossible to avoid hearing it, reading it, even thinking it. Yet, we all should know by now that all of that is just a lie.

Here's some sentiments about worry to consider:

"Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere." -- Glenn Turner

"Worry is the only insupportable misfortune of life." -- Henry Saint John

"Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith." -- Henry Ward Beecher

"I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened." -- Mark Twain

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength." -- Corrie Ten Boom

"Drag your thoughts away from your troubles. . . by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it." -- Mark Twain

Worry is sinister and is like a wolf in sheep's clothing. The solution is always simple, yet not always easy. There are two parts to the solution.

The first is being aware that you are worrying. It is like being outside yourself observing yourself being worried. Look at how uptight you are, how immobilized you are, how you have an extended length movie going on in your head about all the different scenarios that "could be." It's just like watching CNN all day long. So often, we don't pay attention to ourselves and especially from that perspective.

The second part is incredibly simple: think a more pleasing thought. Then keep doing that. It matters little what the thought is or on what subject. One thing is certain, you have to get it off your troubles. Sometimes, I think of being on the beach in Maui in a beach chair close to the sand with my hand and forearm in the sand and I'm filling my hand and emptying it. I have a Mai Tai ice cold. The breeze is so pleasant. The water is lapping on the beach near me. I can hear music playing a little way down the beach. I'm looking at Lanai and Molokai, feeling the warmth of the sun and drinking all of these things in. My troubles have vanished. I have no troubles. I am on the beach in paradise. . .


Try It. You'll Like It.

Spread Some Joy Today--Worry will make your life blurry. Don't worry. Be happy!

Daily Inspiration 5-21-13

"If we are to find

some kind of peace and solace

we are going to have to hearken

to the voice of an inner guide

rather than the dictate of the masses.

More peace is yours for the taking. . .and giving."

 

-- Alan Cohen

We pray, Lord, give me peace, give me patience. We see the lack of it and want it and not finding it nearby, we pray to God or seek from some other outside source. In my experience, it is in none of these places, nor controlled anywhere outside of yourself.

The truth that I have found is that it comes from within only and there are only two simple requirements to have it flowing. First is awareness. This should be easy. You may already see that it is lacking. Become aware that peace or patience (the same thing to me) is desired or needed. Second is to practice it. Practice being patient. Practice having peace. Practice having kindness. Practice. Practice. Practice.

I'll never forget a very funny movie that I own and have enjoyed many times called, Evan Almighty. Morgan Freeman, playing the part of God, said this and I immediately took it to heart:

"Let me ask you something.

If someone prays for patience,

you think God gives them patience?

Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?

If he prayed for courage,

does God give him courage,

or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?

If someone prayed for the family to be closer,

do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings,

or does he give them opportunities to love each other?"

In the last year or so, I've really honed in on this practicing of attributes like patience. It seems so natural to react and in reaction, we have no patience. So once I am aware of the need or desire for patience, I begin to purposely practice it. Now, granted, sometimes there are opportunities that require more effort than others, but I've always been a believer in the old phrase, practice makes perfect. I have also found this to be true. Although, I am not where I would call perfect. I do have reactions. I do blurt things I later would rather not have blurted; however, I am improving so much that I am thrilled with the whole idea of practicing patience and other virtues.

It seems that we have always either waited for them or hoped someone would give them to us, and the reality is that they were here all along waiting to be recognized and utilized. With practice, my base of patience and peace grows and grows. I can even see somewhere down the path of practice that I will no longer even think about it, but just act immediately.


I Have Plenty Of Opportunities To Practice, And I Accept The Opportunities As They Come. 

Spread Some Joy Today--Your own practice will spread plenty of joy..

Daily Inspiration 5-20-13

"Some people do not want help,

they want sympathy.

Be careful of this."

 

-- Terry Minion

I was thinking of something for the CTS Daily Inspirations and I thought of something in my first book written 23 years ago in 1990. As I looked through the digital copy, I found something else to share instead. The quote above is part of a chapter in the book about dealing with customers. The book is titled, Accepting the Sales Challenge. (Just in case you might want the punishment, it is available here free: http://www.comtrk.com/trainingresources.html

The quote above was the end of a paragraph. The beginning was this: "Empathize, but don't sympathize. There is a great difference between the two. . . When you sympathize, you are crippled. . . When you empathize, you understand how they feel and are not crippled and thereby can be of service to them."

I went on about dealing with unhappy customers. "I've had a few irate customers--just a handful. With a couple of them, I listened to their problem and the way they were stating it and each time I tried to solve their solvable problem, I had to listen again to their complaining. When this would happen, I would forcefully tell them that if they truly wanted their problem solved, I would be more than happy to assist them in any way that was possible, but if all they wanted to do was complain about it, I had other things to do. This shocked them. At this point they either had to admit that they wanted it solved, or that they wanted to complain. I made it clear that either way was okay for them, but that I would only participate in one of them: the possible solution."

I added this: "It seems silly to even mention this kind of thing, but it is true that there are people who just like to complain. Just don't let yourself get sucked into joining with them and sympathizing with their complaining. Sometimes it is best to walk away. Remember to be courteous, sincere, and interested in helping them. . ."

This applied at the car dealerships I worked at, every other business I worked at and in my own businesses today. I am not into hearing the problem repeated as if it were important enough to be on CNN. Let's find a solution and get on with it, otherwise, you're on your own.

Of course, this also applies, and perhaps even more so to personal relationships. . .


Value Your Self, Your Time And Your Spirit. You Always Have Control Unless You Give It Away.

Spread Some Joy Today--There is joy in problem solving!

Daily Inspiration 5-19-13

"In my walks, every man I meet

is my superior in some way,

and in that I learn from him."

 

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have a dear friend named Joe. We don't see each other very often since we live about 750 miles apart. In late February we had an opportunity to have lunch in Sacramento and he told me of a little quiz he wanted us to share with one another. It is a commitment because it is done each evening and it was called Evening Questions.

At the end of this week, it will have been three months since we began. With just a very few exceptions, we have completed the questions daily. Sometimes we forget in the evening, but get them done in the morning.

In the process of doing this, we have learned more about one another, shared each others joys and challenges, and generally have become even closer friends. That's a pretty awesome accomplishment, don't you think?

Just in case anyone else may benefit from this process, here are the questions that we answer to each other each day:

1. What went well today?
2. What could be better?
3. Intentions for tomorrow?
4. Spiritual principles to practice?
5. Prayer?

So, I retype the questions each time and he doesn't, but whatever you do, I think you will find some interesting things. One is that the first question is first for good reason. Focus on what is working. Question two, I found, is hard to answer after question one. Of course things can be better. If you're in gratitude, it is more challenging to get out of it, but it is a worthy question to see where and what we want now. Number three is all about doing something. Make your list of intentions for tomorrow. It is helpful to do this and realize there is always something you can do.

Number four is often repetitive for me. I almost always need to practice patience and kindness. They go hand in hand. And, number five. Give it up to God for the things that you don't know how to do. Like my sign on my wall says, "What is MY job. How is GODS job." The prayer is acknowledging God in however you see that and acknowledging that you don't know how and will lay down the rope to allow help to come in.

I have very much enjoyed this process and I have no idea how long we will do it, but it might become a group thing. It is interesting, enlightening and if we are honest with each other, it can also be intimate.


Intimacy Is Love By Sharing Love.

Spread Some Joy Today--Share your joys and challenges with a loving friend.

Daily Inspiration 5-18-13

"Desire doesn't require need.

In fact, need is often counterproductive.

Need is such a relative term."

 

-- Albert K Strong

We often may say that we need something, when in fact, we do not need it. A better and more effective way to look at getting it is to simply desire it. Have fun with it. When we go down the path of need, we are often distracted by that reckless baggage handler called the ego.

Need is serious. Need is demanding. Need is whiny. Need is relative. We need? Relative to what? Are we sure it is a need? On a scale of one to ten, how bad is the need? Indeed, we may use the word bad as I just did. That doesn't sound too good. Pun intended.

No. I think desire is so much more effective. It is better to be lighthearted instead of the needy heavyheartedness. It is better to have fun than to be dead serious. It is better to want for any reason whatsoever than to need for any reason. It is far more likely that we will get what we want and thereby take care of any need by focusing on desire and allowing ourselves to want.

It is okay to want more. It is okay to want things--even those who some may judge that we have no business wanting them. Tell them to go to their room and shut up! They have no business telling us what we should or should not want.

Dreams are desires. Dreams are fun. It's okay to fantasize about our lives being different, better, more fun, more prosperous, more alive. I recommend it as often as possible. In fact, that will be the way it comes anyway, so dream on.


"What Could You Need When You Already Have It All?" -- Alan Cohen.

Spread Some Joy Today--Words to live by!

Daily Inspiration 5-17-13

"To be what we were born to be,

and to become what we are capable of becoming,

is the only end in life."

 

-- Baruch Spinoza

This is bunk as far as I'm concerned. This quote embodies the problem that continues to ever be the problem except for those rare individuals who find that needle in a haystack called "what I was meant to be." This is the kind of thing that is taught in many areas and it is such a waste of time and energy, and it is so ineffective in general results. In fact, it easily creates more stress and unhappiness in a lot of people who just can't seem to "find their way."

So here's a what if to consider. What if, rather than having our emotions drive us, we paid more attention to our emotions as our inner guide? What if, when we feel good, that is telling us we are on the right track, and when we feel bad, that it is telling us that this is something that is not in our best interests? What if we learned to get excited about our emotions rather than giving in to them? And, this is a big what if: What if this was taught us from day one instead of all that other junk?

What if, instead of accomplishment, the size and value of our things, the amount of money we make, the brand and model car we drive, and where we are on the scale of the pursuit of happiness we are, we found just one worthy goal that will lead us to everything that we want?

I think that goal is simply joy. Fortunately, joy comes in a zillion flavors and nuances, and yet each and every layer is joy. Not only that, where ever we travel there is always joy available in all the quantity that we could possible desire. And, best of all, it is purely and simply a choice that we make in any given moment in time, in any place on the planet we are. There is no mystery to it, no secrets to be found, nor can anyone else in any capacity help us have it. It is not given. It is not found. It is simply created within.


Doesn't That Seem To Work So Much Better?

Spread Some Joy Today--by being joyful. Only you can spread it from you to others.

Daily Inspiration 5-16-13

"Most of us need to be pushed

to the wall to make decisions."

 

-- Jim Rohn

How many times have I come to a point of decision--especially a life-changing decision--and paced back and forth, forth and back, gave it a lot of conflicting thought via my emotions, and then stayed the course I was on. I'm sure it doesn't happen to you. I'm sure I'm the only one who has a hard time changing direction, giving up what and where I'm at for the potential of something better. The key word there is, of course, potential.

I'm at that fork in the road again. One more time. It's a health decision I need to make and today I have made it. I've been pacing back and forth for a long time and reluctant to give up what I think brings me pleasure, when it is in reality only my ego feeding me chocolate covered lies one more time.

So, I was re-reading a short piece from one of my all time favorite teachers, mentors and guides: Jim Rohn. The piece is called The Four Emotions That Can Lead to Life Change. I've made this a clickable link in case you want to read it.

I like how he says, "Whatever you do, don't camp at the fork in the road. Decide. It's far better to make a wrong decision than to not make one at all." Great advice. I haven't just camped here. I built a house here. Time to let go and leave all that behind.

I am sure, as I have noted in the past, that once I get some momentum going down this new road, I will find that I won't miss anything about the part I left behind. In fact, it is true, and I think you'll all agree, that it is the forward focus on the desire that changes our lives more than being concerned about what was left behind that we often mistakenly call loss.


I've Already Made Some Calls And I'm On My Way Keeping My Eyes On The Goal.

Spread Some Joy Today--There is nothing so joyful as making a decision on something you've been putting off. The past doesn't matter. It is the decision and activity now that directs everything. Rock ON!

Daily Inspiration 5-15-13

"One must be an inventor to read well.

There is then creative reading

as well as creative writing."

 

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Emerson said it a different way: "What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves? Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find."

As a practicing writer, I've often thought of that phrase, creative writing. However, I have never thought of creative reading. Yet, Ralph Waldo Emerson opens the whole idea to me that it matters so much less what we write or how well we write it. What matters more is how actively, and interestingly the reader reads that which was written.

How many times have you been so excited about a book and shared it with one or more friends only to find out that they either couldn't get into it, or they found it less than satisfying? Interesting, don't you think?

What we bring to the book, is at minimum, at least as important as what the book brings to us.


We Are Leading Even When We Are Following. . .

Spread Some Joy Today--The day is over. I'm late today. But, a smile is always welcome.