Photo courtesy of Laurie.
Make someone smile today. Go out into the world and make at least one person smile everyday.
If work with customers on a regular basis I want to plus the challenge. Make one person smile in your outside work interactions. Make one person smile that is a coworker. And, lastly, try to make every customer you come in contact with smile.
Let us all light up the world today with smiles!
Photo Courtesy of Ruocaled.
I wanted to take a moment this week to be thankful to those of you who come here to read my blogs week after week. I am truly thankful and appreciate each of you.
I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow and remember – be thankful for one thing no matter what you are going through in life. One thing can make the difference and help you see the sunshine in a gloomy time.
Photo Courtesy of NASA.
One small step. We all know those words. From science class in school to soundbites on TV, most of us have heard those three words dozens of times. Although we have heard them I do not think enough people live them.
Each step you take to your ultimate dream should be celebrated. It is a victory that puts you just a little closer to where you want to be. Even something most people would deem as a failure should be celebrated if it made you go in another direction. Why? It gave you a directional change which helps lead you to your goals. You cannot reach your goal if you are going down the wrong path and “failures” are what tell us something isn’t right.
Take some time at the end of every day and celebrate every victory you had that day. Doesn’t matter how small you think they are – they all count.
One small step to change your life. One small step to live your dreams. One small step is all it takes to begin. One small step.
Photo Courtesy of Jennifer
It is a time for thanks and with that in mind we are coming up on the season of kindness. A time when people generally are more giving of their money, resources, and time. However, we often forget about the numerous acts if kindness around us daily.
How often do we take for granted something as simple as another driver letting us in front of them when we are trying to get into a street? This, in its truest form, is an act if kindness. They didn’t have to let you through but they took a moment to do so anyway.
Think about these everyday acts of kindness. Get a small notebook from the dollar store and carry it with you for just seven days. Each time you witness something nice being done whether for you or another person write it in your notebook. At the end if the week tally up your number. I think you will be presently surprised by just how high the number is.
Challenge: Whatever number you ended up with I want to challenge you to do the same number of random acts of kindness over the next 30 days. These can be simple gestures of saying hi to a stranger or buying someone’s meal in line behind you. Change the world one kind act at a time.
Photo Courtesy of Josef Grunig.
Catch the reference in the title? Yep, you rock!
Anyway, I wanted to write a quick blog about something I recently found. It is called EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques, or, more currently, tapping. It is a concept that has been around for about 20 years and has recently gained some popularity.
In tapping, you tap on your meridian points to help alleviate pain and stress. I will tell you up front it feels a little strange to even try this at first. However, the more research I have done the more I find people who have benefited from the technique.
I have included a video below that shows you how to do it. Watch the video, research, and determine if this is something for you. You need to determine for yourself if you will benefit. I wanted to put it out there for my tribe because of the benefit I have found people getting from it.
If you give it a shot let me know in the comments below what you think. I will add it to my ongoing research.
Photo Courtesy of Alexandre Dulaunoy
Carry a notebook always.
I hope that was plain enough. Why you ask? In order to capture your thoughts and memories in a moment. How many times have you been sitting somewhere and an incredibly awesome idea hits you? You promise yourself that you are going to remember it. Two days later you have this nagging feeling like there was something important that you should have remembered and you just can’t figure out what it is.
I have either small blank cards, my pocket notebook, or my phone with me. Even at night there are a few notebooks and a pen sitting on the table beside me. There is always something around me that allows me to capture what I am thinking when an idea strikes. Many of the blogs that I write come from these moments. I’ll be driving down the road and a title will hit me. As soon as I stop I hit the record button on my Evernote app and do a voice recording. It syncs and when I sit down to do my writing I can listen to the recording easily.
If I am writing in my notebook I do a regular checks of it to see what I need to take care of. I use a hard covered Moleskine pocket notebook. They are very durable and don’t bend easily.
Regardless of the method you use make sure you have something on you where you can capture your thoughts at the moment. When inspiration strikes you will be ready. Maybe it is that million dollar idea or that book you want to write that all comes in that moment when you are not expecting it. Always expect it.
It may seem early to you that I am already talking about resolutions. However, right now is the time you should be setting your goals for at least the first three months of 2014 and have a pretty good idea of what your major goals are for the year.
That being said I think it is time a lot of people give up a big habit. It isn’t smoking or dieting. I believe it is time to give up the resolutions and move on to creating breakthroughs and goals. You have heard but it’s time to really start setting goals and letting the resolutions fall by the wayside.
Studies show that 88% of people drop their resolutions by the end of January. These big plans we have for ourselves and they only survive for four weeks? I think there is something going on here. That something is no real plan or target.
In order to succeed at something you have to have a specific measurable goal to shoot for. Zig Ziglar said it best when he talked about the best archer in the world can’t hit the target blind folded. In order to accomplish anything you have to know exactly what you are trying to accomplish. Once you get this anything is truly possible!
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If you haven’t heard yet you can check out my new program called New Year New Me! It is to help out with turning your resolutions into goals and doing it with liked minded people through teleseminars, one on one coaching, and group mastermind calls. For more information you can visit http://www.newyearnew.me
Photo Courtesy of wetwebwork.
A few weeks ago I wrote about casting your own life and auditioning people for it. After I published it I received a message from my magician friend Basil. He mentioned that we are always trying to be cast ourselves in our dream role and that we never know which small part we are given by someone else might take us to our next level.
I loved his thinking here. Not only are we auditioning other people they are auditioning us. We want to play a role in their life because we want them to play one in ours.
Next time you run into a stranger treat them with dignity and respect. Whether it is a customer in your business or someone you are running into randomly during the day, you never know what that person may hold for you or how much power and help you can give to them.
Several years ago I was selling a camera to a gentleman. I took time with him and answered his questions. I made sure he had all the information he needed to make a good decision. Immediately after finishing the man hands me his business card and tells me if I was ever looking for a job to give him a call. While I never took him up on that offer what if that card would have opened to doors to one of my dreams?
Photo Courtesy of Marcin Wichary.
There are very few things that you have to do in life. You have to eat, drink, and take care of yourself in order to survive but other than that there really isn’t anything that you have to do.
With that, why do you go to work? Is it because you enjoy it or because you need a pay check? If the answer is because you need a check I think you might need to look a little deeper as to the reason you go.
I am an advocate of doing work that you love. There really needs to be more of a reason to go to work than just to trade your time for money. You should enjoy what you do and find deeper meaning in going to work. If you don’t then it may be time to look for another line of work.
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” Martin Luther King Jr.
You have the choice to go to a job you hate tomorrow or to look for another job. If you do not enjoy your current employment then come up with an exit plan over the next 60 days. Put in applications, make phone calls and once you secure a job doing something you find meaning put in your notice and go do good work that matters to you.
Question: What is something that gives your current job meaning?
Mystery by Candlelight by Glen Bledsoe.
Everyone needs some mystery in life. Human Needs Psychology says that people need both certainty and uncertainty. You want to know you are going to have a birthday party but you don’t want to know what you are going to get until you open the box.
People get their uncertainty from different places. A haunted attraction at Halloween is full of them. I am personally drawn to magic and professional wrestling because there is a mystery on the “inner workings” of these performances. I love to know just enough to keep it interesting while wondering how that magician knew what card I chose!
Allow some mystery in your life. Think of some ways that you can provide some mystery for the people in your world.