— Napoleon Hill
Remember that greatness lies within you, unconditionally. The world needs you to live up to your greatness.
Today.
Right now.
Can we count on you?
Sometimes just looking at nothing a little differently turns the nothing into something.
I was standing on a Cape Cod beach just after sunset. Something I have done quite often, usually at this particular beach. What was different this time was that it was low tide. The same beach I had visited many times before now looked dramatically different. All that was earlier in the day covered with sea water now lay innocently exposed.
Tides are fascinating. A slight tilt of the Earth changes the view completely, revealing all that is there just under the surface. Rocks, sand bars, an entire ecosystem…all revealed to me because of a subtle tilting of the Earth. Amazing what exists just under the surface.
Standing there on the sand, I wondered what would I see if I was able to look just under the surface of my own life. What would I see if I could somehow experience a low tide view of me?
Continue reading “Paradigm Shift: Taking A Low Tide View of Your Life”
— Dale Carnegie
From the classic book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Published in 1936…still relevant today.
This post was inspired by lunch.
As a consumer, I am inundated with requests to complete surveys rating my shopping or dining experience. These requests are usually found at the bottom of the sales receipt or dinner check, usually highlighted in bright yellow or aggressively circled a dozen times as to be sure I knew exactly what I needed to do. With my marketing background I can greatly appreciate a company’s interest in real-world feedback from their lifeblood — the customer. But even with the opportunity to win $5,000 or some other great prize designed to motivate me to rush home and complete the survey on-line, I usually never do.
Almost never.
Even with the bright yellow highlighting.
Continue reading “Cold Soup and a Dirty Spoon…with a Smile!”
–Thomas Edison
I never understood Greek mythology when I was in school. I never quite got it. But I always enjoyed the story of Icarus.
Perhaps you recall the story of Icarus. Icarus and his Dad, Daedalus, were imprisoned on the island of Crete by King Minos. The only way to escape from their captivity was by air. Daedalus was a gifted inventor and created two pairs of wings that he and Icarus would use to fly to freedom. The father’s instructions to the son were simple; do not fly too close to the sun, as the wings were crafted of feathers and wax. Flying too close to the sun would melt the wax and destroy the wings. Unfortunately, that was exactly what Icarus did, which cost Icarus his life on his flight to freedom.
“Feel free to move about the cabin…the captain has turned off the seat belt sign…”
Cruising altitude. That point in the flight where you’ve risen above the turbulence and the clouds. Time to sit back and enjoy the ride. Ease the seat back and grab a $4 beer. Or two. No worries, mate. It’s all good.
It wasn’t that long ago that life sort of worked that way. You’d get to a certain point in life where you could finally just sit back and enjoy the ride. Career stable, home life stable. Blue skies ahead. There was a calming and reassuring predictability to life.
Cruising altitude.
Continue reading “Cruising Altitude…and the White Knuckle Ride”
“Forever trust in who we are, and nothing else matters…”
In the world of inspirational and positive affirmation quotations, we are used to the words of Wayne Dyer, Anthony Robbins, Norman Vincent Peale, and others. One of my favorite inspirational quotes, however, comes from the duo of James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Hetfield and Ulrich are better known by their day jobs as lead vocalist and drummer, respectively, of the band Metallica. The above quote is from their 1991 song “Nothing Else Matters”.
Trust is a funny thing. As kids we learn to trust our parents. We learn to trust our siblings. We learn to trust our friends. But at what point do we learn to trust ourselves?
The road to trusting ourselves is sometimes treacherous. Especially if a troll named Insecurity jumps out from behind a tree. Insecurity is the arch enemy of self trust.
It was going along just great until Johannes Gutenberg changed everything.
It was 1439, the year that Gutenberg is widely believed to have invented something called moveable type. Moveable type was the foundation of the modern printing press. Gutenberg crafted individual letters and then could assemble words, then sentences, then paragraphs, then pages of information that for the first time could be mass produced. Prior to Gutenberg, calligraphers ruled the world of printed information. The only problem with calligraphers was their work could not be mass produced, thus greatly limited the distribution of information. The printing press changed the world.
Being a calligrapher in the age of the printing press was not a good thing. Suddenly your skill set is no longer as useful to the world as it used to be. I’m sure calligraphers of the day fought this technological change; after all it was a direct threat to their trade and their ability to provide for their families. Fight as they may, technology won, and changed the world.
Technology always wins.
Peter Mis LivingHalfFull.com 