Thursday, February 28, 2008
3-3
I'm tired. Worn out even. Its late and I want to go to sleep. It seems like it would be a good idea to get into bed and close my eyes, but I think I'm going to put a little bit of thinking in before I pass out. The thing with thinking is that our imaginiations run away a lot of the time. I have that problem. I naturally go toward negative thinking. Most of the time I'm worying about things that don't even come to pass. As a matter of fact I have to say that all of the time I'm thinking about how things can go wrong. Even the most mundane things snowball into utter catastraphes in my mind. This drives a cycle in my life. Negative thoughts lead to negative actions which lead to negative results which fold back into proof for my negative thoughts. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I am successful or how many times I prove my negative thoughts wrong they are always there. I think this is what drives me to quit so many things in my life. I get excited about things and then I quit. I just let them go by the wayside and get dusty and then theres another thing I couldn't stick with. So, I'm working on positive self talk. Actually, the only reason I'm even writing this tonight is because I talked myself into it. There are so many things outside myself that are trying to get in my way of success, so why should I try to stop myself. Why should I believe the lies I tell myself. Starting a positive cycle of Thoughts/Action/Results is the best way to defeat myself. Getting bigger then the obsticles I have in my way. I can the just step over them and run into bigger obstacles. So, upperward and onward, and sleepward.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
3-2
So, after my first day at the marina here things are going really well. We were able to get everything installed on all of their machines so tomorrow should be smooth sailing. I also like their merchant services. For the first time every it seems like this marina has a credit card processor who actually cares about them as a customer. I'm amazed. Normally it is worse then pulling teeth to get the cc stuff taken care of but it was so simple today. Then I had chinese food for dinner. Beef Lo-mein or something like that. Best egg roles I have had in a while.
Soooo, do you remember those vin-diagrams from when you were in school as a child. There were two things(ex. Wearing Pants and Being Happy) . Then the teacher would draw them up as circles and they would overlap(except in the example I just gave they don't really overlap). Anyway, This pas weekend I saw a vin-diagram that is part of a paradigm shift for me. In the first circle was Preperation and in the second circle was Opportunity. The part of the diagram where the two circles allign was shaded in and labled Success. The speaker went on to talk about how if the Preperation circle is too small then it doesn't matter how big the Opportunity circle is, they won't overlap to give you success. A revolution is what happens when a group of people are frustrated with the current situation. They are determined to thrash against the status quo to create ripples and tears in the rules others have setup to step out and create something new. It must be know that a revolution is going to be uncomfortable, sometimes down right painful, so get your whinning out first because when the firefight starts there is no time for complaining. You have started to rip free from standard that has been placed on you like a thick blanket. A revolution is not an overnight success. It takes time. It takes failure. It takes getting back up again. I'm reminded of Rocky Balboa. In the movies he failed round after round after round. Getting knocked down and bloodied up. People from the crowd yelled at him and told him to quit. If it was the previous champion, Mr. T, the russian or any other challenger, no one ever seemed to believe Rocky could win in the ring. But Rocky believed. He more then believed, he knew it was his destiny to walk out of that ring a champion, time and time again. He failed so many times during each round, getting knocked to the ground and beat to a pulp, but with all the technical mistakes he made he kept doing one thing right. He kept getting up. Any type of revolution, be personal, political, or economical, will take time to reach victory. The only way for a revolution to fail is for those fighting it to quit. I plan on finishing a marathon sometime this year and from what I hear there is a thing called a runners high. A point where the runners body kicks in and the endorphins take over. The runner begins to enjoy the pain and find it comforting because the body will release massive amounts of pain killers. The same is true of a revolution. As you get the hang of the changes being made you begin to enjoy the journey instead of worry about left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. You being to crave being outside your comfort zone. Those endorphines kick in and you are flying high. As you begin a revolution it is important to know that there will be critics telling you not to rock the boat. Telling you that you can't make the changes, that you can't make the difference. Be prepared for them to say things that cut deep, to your very heart even. Be prepared for critics to show up in the forms of firends and family. Be prepared to see a critic in the mirror looking back at you some mornings. It is not easy to fight a revolution. If the thought of critics turns you off then do nothing. Live the status quo life and don't break lose and soar high. Even though critics are trying to pull you down, don't worry you can still find the positive in them. If the things they are saying are true then check them out and fix what you need to and move on with your revolution. Don't stop running. The only way to lose is to quit. The only way to lose is to quit. The only way to lose is to quit. If the critics are spewing lies then ignore them. Let them fall to the wayside and strive forward toward the crown. As your revolution grabs hold in your everday life continue to learn. Growing your horizons so that your next level will never be enough. Learn to learn because that hunger will drive you to break through. Feel the hunger and grow your knowledge so that you are prepared for the oportunities that are going to show themself to you. You don't know what you don't know. So open your eyes and see the world in a whole new light as you step out and start the good fight.
Soooo, do you remember those vin-diagrams from when you were in school as a child. There were two things(ex. Wearing Pants and Being Happy) . Then the teacher would draw them up as circles and they would overlap(except in the example I just gave they don't really overlap). Anyway, This pas weekend I saw a vin-diagram that is part of a paradigm shift for me. In the first circle was Preperation and in the second circle was Opportunity. The part of the diagram where the two circles allign was shaded in and labled Success. The speaker went on to talk about how if the Preperation circle is too small then it doesn't matter how big the Opportunity circle is, they won't overlap to give you success. A revolution is what happens when a group of people are frustrated with the current situation. They are determined to thrash against the status quo to create ripples and tears in the rules others have setup to step out and create something new. It must be know that a revolution is going to be uncomfortable, sometimes down right painful, so get your whinning out first because when the firefight starts there is no time for complaining. You have started to rip free from standard that has been placed on you like a thick blanket. A revolution is not an overnight success. It takes time. It takes failure. It takes getting back up again. I'm reminded of Rocky Balboa. In the movies he failed round after round after round. Getting knocked down and bloodied up. People from the crowd yelled at him and told him to quit. If it was the previous champion, Mr. T, the russian or any other challenger, no one ever seemed to believe Rocky could win in the ring. But Rocky believed. He more then believed, he knew it was his destiny to walk out of that ring a champion, time and time again. He failed so many times during each round, getting knocked to the ground and beat to a pulp, but with all the technical mistakes he made he kept doing one thing right. He kept getting up. Any type of revolution, be personal, political, or economical, will take time to reach victory. The only way for a revolution to fail is for those fighting it to quit. I plan on finishing a marathon sometime this year and from what I hear there is a thing called a runners high. A point where the runners body kicks in and the endorphins take over. The runner begins to enjoy the pain and find it comforting because the body will release massive amounts of pain killers. The same is true of a revolution. As you get the hang of the changes being made you begin to enjoy the journey instead of worry about left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. You being to crave being outside your comfort zone. Those endorphines kick in and you are flying high. As you begin a revolution it is important to know that there will be critics telling you not to rock the boat. Telling you that you can't make the changes, that you can't make the difference. Be prepared for them to say things that cut deep, to your very heart even. Be prepared for critics to show up in the forms of firends and family. Be prepared to see a critic in the mirror looking back at you some mornings. It is not easy to fight a revolution. If the thought of critics turns you off then do nothing. Live the status quo life and don't break lose and soar high. Even though critics are trying to pull you down, don't worry you can still find the positive in them. If the things they are saying are true then check them out and fix what you need to and move on with your revolution. Don't stop running. The only way to lose is to quit. The only way to lose is to quit. The only way to lose is to quit. If the critics are spewing lies then ignore them. Let them fall to the wayside and strive forward toward the crown. As your revolution grabs hold in your everday life continue to learn. Growing your horizons so that your next level will never be enough. Learn to learn because that hunger will drive you to break through. Feel the hunger and grow your knowledge so that you are prepared for the oportunities that are going to show themself to you. You don't know what you don't know. So open your eyes and see the world in a whole new light as you step out and start the good fight.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
3-1
This last weekend I went with my wife to St. Louis for three days. I know there are more the a couple people I know living there and I'm sorry that I didn't get an opportunity to see ya'll, but we spent the entire time at the Edward Jones Dome. So, if any of you were downtown this weekend and were suddenly swarmed by a lot of people wearing suits and red ties. Sorry about that. I ended up taking about half a legal pad worth of notes, which is less then usual, but I still think I got a lot of good information that I need to review.
I'm deciding to become a ferocious learner and this is the place where I'm going to try and work out the stuff I'm learning. For instance, this week I'm reading a book called Launching a Leadership Revolution. It sits pretty high on a couple of best seller lists and I have met the guys who wrote it. I read part of it once, but got distracted by other things in my life. So, this week on my business trip to Minneapolis I am going to read it all the way through. I'm also going to try and write about the stuff I'm reading so I can work it out on paper. A lot of the time my mind works things out that don't make sense but once I say them or write them out I realize how wrong the thoughts were.
P.S. The guys who wrote that book Chris Brady & Orrin Woodward have blogs at http://chrisbrady.typepad.com/ and http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/ They have some really amazing stuff about leadership stuff and update their pages almost everyday.
I'm deciding to become a ferocious learner and this is the place where I'm going to try and work out the stuff I'm learning. For instance, this week I'm reading a book called Launching a Leadership Revolution. It sits pretty high on a couple of best seller lists and I have met the guys who wrote it. I read part of it once, but got distracted by other things in my life. So, this week on my business trip to Minneapolis I am going to read it all the way through. I'm also going to try and write about the stuff I'm reading so I can work it out on paper. A lot of the time my mind works things out that don't make sense but once I say them or write them out I realize how wrong the thoughts were.
P.S. The guys who wrote that book Chris Brady & Orrin Woodward have blogs at http://chrisbrady.typepad.com/ and http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/ They have some really amazing stuff about leadership stuff and update their pages almost everyday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
