Who Are YOU?

You are what you do… not what you say or think...  

Leaders lead… Winners win… Quitters quit… Teachers teach… 

Learners learn… Dreamers dream… Singers sing… Preachers preach… 

Fighters fight… Writers write… Readers read… Watchers watch... 

Players play… Dancers dance… Lovers love… Haters hate… 

Givers give… Takers take... Doubters doubt... Believers believe...

Who are YOU?

Lessons From The Cube

I carry my Rubik’s Cube around with me when I travel and when I teach. It serves many purposes: It’s a great stress reliever. It exercises my hands. It’s an attention getter. It makes me appear smart. Most importantly, it is a metaphor for countless things in Life.

Every time that I quietly start solving my cube in public, someone always needs to tell me, “I used to be able to do that!” Their story always ends with the same defeated declaration: “...But, I could never learn that now!”

Lessons from The Cube:
• We already have all of the pieces of ‘The Puzzle’… we just need to properly put them together
• Most of us already know how to solve ‘The Puzzle’ (because we’ve done it before or seen it done before)
• Lack of practice has resulted in us forgetting important lessons
• Some people’s first instinct when confronted with ‘The Puzzle’… is to cheat
• Your belief in whether or not you can solve ‘The Puzzle’… is the biggest determining factor of success

30 years after forgetting how to solve The Cube, I challenged myself to learn it again. After dedicated hours of study and practice… I am back to where I was at age 17… I have a ‘newly’ learned skill… and the proof again that I can do anything!  What 'old' skills from the past do you need to re-learn to be successful today?

'Individual' Success

'Individual' Success is a myth!...  Countless people throughout history can be found who have achieved great accomplishments or skills.  Yet, even though only one person might get the credit, not a single example has ever been found when it was done alone.  Despite whatever hard work, drive, dedication or sacrifice a person or organization invested to achieve  a particular goal, unsung individuals and circumstances always existed to make it possible.

By understanding that fact, maybe we can be more humble in our fame... and show more appreciation to those who helped us along the way.  Maybe we will also search for opportunities to fulfill our obligation to Give Back as much as we can.

Who and what should you be thanking for your 'Individual' Success?

The Positivity Challenge

What if you could win $10,000,000 on the condition that (starting right now) you had to be 100% Positive for the next 24 hours?  Could you do it?

Before you automatically answer "Yes!" and start dreaming of how you'd spend that money, here is a clarification of the rules:

• You are held 100% responsible for the positivity of your environment (internal and external... outgoing and incoming)
  
• Every action must be positive
  
• Every conversation must be positive
  
• Every question must be positive
  
• Every song, TV program, website, article, book must be positive
  
• Every person in your surrounding 'world' must be positive
  
• Every thought must be positive
  

Most people say that they want the world to be a better, more positive place...  Don't you?  With all of the negativity we initiate and allow in our lives... what are we doing to make the world a better, more positive place?  

While you nor I will probably be collecting our $10,000,000 any time soon...  let's try anyway and commit to take the Positivity Challenge every day? 

Embrace the Silence!

The power of silence is truly underrated!  

I am as bad as the next person… The first thing that I do when I enter a room… or get into my car… or go anywhere quiet… is automatically turn on some NOISE.  99.9% of our NOISE options come from: televisions, computers, music devices or phones.  (Note: You get bonus points if you are required to listen and watch your NOISE selection.)

It doesn’t matter if we’re not paying attention… It doesn’t matter if the NOISE is neither educational nor entertaining.  It doesn’t even matter if the NOISE is distracting us from doing what we should be doing.  We have conditioned ourselves to prefer almost anything over silence.

If you want more Time, Peace & Enlightenment in your Life, try turning off the NOISE… and 

Embrace the Silence!

"We're More Important Than You!"

Would you patronize a business that posted a sign out front that stated, “We’re More Important Than You!”?  I was confronted with that dilemma when I recently visited a popular restaurant.  The words on the sign were different, but that’s what they meant.  

It was a busy time of day, and the parking lot was almost full… all except for the two closest spots (after the handicapped zone).  To my amazement, the two signs that ‘protected’ these coveted spaces from customers clearly stated, “RESERVED PARKING FOR MANAGEMENT” (yes, all in CAPITAL letters).

My instincts told me to turn around and eat somewhere else… but I was with family, so I patronized the business after all.  Everything else about my dining experience was excellent.  It was a shame that I still left with a ‘bad taste in my mouth’ because of those signs.  

Do you show your customers (with everything that you do) that they are more important than you?

Loyal Customers

I have used the same bank for my primary savings & checking account for over 30 years.  That’s saying something… especially during these turbulent economic times.  If I asked anyone, including the CEO of that bank, whether or not I should be considered a loyal customer, the answer would be “Yes, absolutely!”  But, everyone would be wrong… at least according to my (more optimistic) definition of “Loyal”. 

Yes, I have been a long-time customer… but I have ‘only’ purchased a miniscule portion of the services my bank provides.  I never used my bank to finance even one of the 13 cars that I have purchased… or to help put my daughter thru college… or to purchase my home... 

The #1 reason why my bank LOST tens of thousands of dollars of my business… is simply because nobody asked me!

Therefore, before you spend all of your energy & resources chasing ‘new’ business, take a look at your current customers to see how much of your services they are using today.  How many ‘loyal’ customers do you really have?