July 6, 2009

Ran just short of 3 miles I think this morning. I ran with a friend on a track, so we did not keep up with how many laps, but it was about the right amount. I am constantly reminded that we have to live like no one else, so we can live like no one else. Dream Big...Do Big.

July 5, 2009

Well, that was an awesome weekend. On Thursday morning I did not run. This was in preparation for Friday. On Friday I had a day off work because of the fourth, so six of us from church went up to a mountain called Old Rag. It is about a 8.5 mile mountain excursion. I would call it a hike, except that there are several parts where we had to jump over crevices and climb up short distances of rock face. We have climbed this mountain a couple of times, but it is still very fun. One of the guys had his Father-In-Law with him, and that was pretty cool. I got a chance to talk to him most of the way up to the mountain and learned a lot about what he does and what he would do if lack of time and money were not a deterrent. I was impressed with how clear his definition of what he would do is. I mean even down to the city and he described the beaches and what he would do everyday. Of course, He did not explain how he was going to make that dream a reality, so I am looking forward to his next trip out here so I can help him with that. Who knows, might even get a chance sooner then that. Also, we had a good friend of ours from France with us. He is a missionary in France that our church supports and he was able to take the day and spend it with us climbing part of God's creation. It was a beautiful day, with just enough cloud cover to keep the sun off our backs. I had more then a few opportunities to talk to him about information I have been digesting lately. At one point I was discussing things I was learning about Capitalism and Socialism in America and he went ahead and actually completed the thought of the speaker I was referencing. You know you have something right when a misisonary from another culture says the same thing you just heard on a CD the week before. On Saturday I got up and was able to get a 3 mile run in. Followed by mowing the lawn and some reading. Julie worked on her herb garden. In the afternoon we went to a church picnic and had a great time with friends. Then around 8:30 we went to my parents house and shot some fireworks. It was a little funny to me, because my dad was really bothered by the fact that the laws say we can't even have sprinklers(of the firework kind, not the water kind) in our own backyard. The firework laws here have been around for a while, but recently got ridiculously tight. My dad was going on about the government should not be able to tell a man what he can and can't do in his backyard. If he makes to much noise and the neighbors complain, there are laws for that. If he burns someones house down or sets their lawn on fire, there are laws for that also. He just seemed frustrated about the way the government was headed. I told him it was going to be OK. I know a group of people that are going to raise up a generation of leaders and set America on a new path of awesomness. So, this morning(sunday) it was raining and I did not get my run in. Blargh. It is ok though, because tomorrow I am going to go running with a friend. I gave him some important information to listen to this morning at church and when I saw him this evening he had already listened to it and was haveing his wife listen to it next. I am pretty sure that when I see him in the morning I will have some more information for him to listen to. I might even have some "snake oil" for him to drink as well. :) As a new week begins I've defaced the mirror in our main living room with dry erase marker. Can't get away from not accomplishing my goals if the whole household can keep my accountable. Dream Big...Do Big.

July 1, 2009

Figured I would just drop both day's runs into one post. The 30th was 3miles. Ran 10min, walk 1min, and so forth to finish it out. This morning, same distance, but I ran 1.5miles and then walked for about 1.5min, then ran out the other 1.5miles. Working my way back to a decent showing. Also still posting some pretty slow times, but those will pick up.
Work has been meh lately. I've been avoiding some of the more difficult customers. I know I'm suppose to be closing out these calls, but I haven't been performing properly. Well, all that ends tomorrow. I tried to close out some of the calls today, but tomorrow is the day I really get my butt in gear. With a three day weekend coming up I need to get these customers off the table and clean up things. Also, we have a VERY big project that we are going to start on in the next 2-3 weeks, so I need to have made some major strides before then.
I got no-showed on my follow thru. Oh well, it happens. I'll try and meet up with him this weekend, but I'm not sure how that will turn out. Between now and then I really need to apply the things I'm ready and hearing and get to steppin. I'm ready to make a big 'ol mess, I just need to get out there and do it. Dream Big...Do Big.

June 29, 2009

Missed out on posting my details from yesterday. So, I will post them this morning. I ended up running 3 miles. It was grueling. It took way longer then it should have and at the end I felt like I was barely going to be able to finish it. But I did. As long as I keep moving forward I always get through the pain and discomfort. The finish line is there. If I start the run it is there, if I sleep in it is there. The finish line is not going anywhere. All I have to do is not quit the run. All I have to do is keep moving forward, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. If I don't get up to take that run, that distance is still there. It does not go away just because I did not start my run. It does not go away because I quit half-way through. My run ends when I reach that goal. Dream Big, Do Big.

June 28, 2009

This morning I ran about 4 miles. Took me 48 minutes. So, that is 12 minute miles. I really have to cut down my time on those and up my distance. I think the big slow down is the walking I'm doing. I'll have to start cutting that out so I can just get straight runs in. I'm pretty sure that will drop my times back down to 10min miles. Then I just have to up my speed training and I'll be set. I didn't talk to any prospects today, but I did get some reading in on the handbook. Wow, I'd read most of it once before, but now that I'm actually going to use the information in there it makes more sense. Hoping I can get some face time with some couple tomorrow night. Julie works so I'll be flying solo again. Hopefully once her part-time kicks in we can start working together on this. Until then...Dream Big, Do Big.

June 27, 2009

Today was a good day. This morning I got up late, but I still put in my run for the day. I'm pretty sure I did more then 4 miles, but less the 4.5 miles. I'm not really sure because I was pretty delusional there at the end and I just remember ending up at home. It is nice living down in The Fan, there is plenty of tree cover so I can run in the shade a good bit and the roads are vacant enough that running in the road is not to dangerous. This evening I met a new friend. I'm pretty sure he has the stuff to become a millionaire, if he wants to. I don't think he understands the goals we have in mind for our future yet, but if he hangs out with us long enough he just might catch on. Its pretty amazing when a person can go from being scared of picking up the phone and thinking no one really likes him to sitting in a McD's and talking about someones future. Tomorrow I plan on running 4 miles in the morning(a new route down some different streets) and following through with a prospect I talked to on Wednesday night. I'm also looking forward to confronting a couple that has been on our "worried to talk to" list. We're going to make this happen and we are going to take as many people along with us to their goals as we can. Dream Big, Do Big.

Ok, here we go... In 2008 I was able to get a couple things done from my Resolution list.

3. Run a Marathon.
8. Change the way I think.
9. Read books that will change the way I look at the world.
10. Learn to remember people's names.

I did not get to go shark fishing, nor did I manage to make some of the bigger goals. That is ok, because now it is time for 2009. The plan this year is to shorten my list and to get it all done. Also, this list is no longer a set of resolutions, this is my 2009 To Do List. On top of that these are going to be in the present tense, as if I'm completing them.

1. I am crossing the finish line of my second marathon. I made it in under 5 hours.
2. I'm playing the guitar for my wife, in a park.
3. My biblical knowledge has grown because I spend time everyday reading my bible.
4. On top of my daily bible reading, I have also improved my knowledge in the area of finances, relatioships and personal growth by reading books that cause me to change the way I think about life.
5. I have become confident in my skills as a buisness owner, and have helped many people achieve their personal goals and dreams.

There, not to many things to get done in 2009. I'll keep these in the forefront on my mind so I can get my To Do List completed in 2009.

So, my trip to the Grand Caymans went alright. And my trip to a private island in the Bahamas went alright. Now, I'm just waiting for my trip to the Virgin Islands. Of course, between now and then I'm running a marathon. On November 15, I'll be running 26.2 miles. I'm definitely intimidated, but I know I'm going to finish. As a matter of fact, that is really my only goal, to make it to the end. I would like for my time to be under 5 hours(considering I ran a halfy in just under 2:05) but ultimately I just have to not stop and I'll make it to the end.

Well, I normally don't post this often, but I just had a very interesting lunch. So, I go down to the hotel bar/restaurant and I order my lunch. I eat my lunch and I'm waiting for my bill. Well, all this time there is a man sitting at the bar talking up the bartender(a woman). He gets up from his seat and walks over to me and says something along the lines of "We know each other." My response is "Do we?" He then responded with, "My name isn't Dewey." At that point I thought he was just playing some bar game with me, you know, like a word game where he drops little clues to get me to say the key phrase that wins the game. Well, I think I was wrong. It appeared to me that he had been drinking for a while and that he was very upset about his job situation. Anyway, what I want to ask is that people say a prayer for my bar friend. I don't know if he knows what he is going to do with the rest of his life. Based on what he said he had just lost a pretty good job opportunity and now doesn't know what to do. So, anyway, thanks.

This is shaping up to be a very active off season for me. Here I am again, uprooted and moved into another country for a week. I'll get an oppertunity to meet new people and discover a culture that is at this point a mystery. Of course, the whole driving the on the left side of the road is really messing with my mind. I'm glad I didn't end up getting a rental car. Pretty sure that would have ended poorly for everyone involved. So, right now I'm reading this book about the cash flow quadrent. The chapters I'm reading through now are detailing different types of investors. So far the book has been eye opening about some of the ways I think and act with my money. Next week, after I get home, we plan on working out a budget. In the past, every time we have tried to write up a budget the ends have not met. Because of these unbalanced budgets we have mostly just winged it every month and somehow things seem to work out. Well, this is not good enough anymore. When I get home we are definitly going to list out all of our debt and all of our spending. We can't know where we are going if we don't know where we are beggining. Also, we plan on growing our wealth, not just our incomes. This will involve becoming educated investors who understand how growth of assets vs. growth of income. It is going to be long road, but we will be able to give and provide for more and more people all the time. I'll admit I have the selfish ambition of not ending up on the 45year plan and instead am looking forward to the 3-5 year plan. I'll also admit that once our debt is paid off we plan on living inexpensivly and supporting missionaries, orphanages, adult education, along with other things that I don't even know are possible yet. It is going to be an exciting adventure and I'm looking forward to it.

Pretty good turn-around this time. Only about a week between posts. So, running update. On Saturday I ran 16 miles in 2hours 56minutes. I've worked it out and if I can 8 miles every 90 minutes I can finish my marathon in just under 5hours. Now, I'm not setting a time goal, just a secondary goal. My primary goal is to finish. Any time will be fine, but if I can break the 5hour mark that will be awsome. Well, this week I'm in Boca Grande, Florida. For work, really. This kicks off my 2 month onsite bonanza. I'm currently reading How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing Withe People. I've read it before, but it is really good. I always need a reminder about these kind of things. The interesting part is that this book from 1956 says very similar things to another book I read recently about having a heart at peace. The book(something about Anatomy of Peace, I think) talks about a heart at peace vs. a heart at war. The difference is seeing people as people. What I'm interested to find is that many other books I have been reading same similiar things in a different fashion. If we recognize that man has a creator and that we are made in His image then we also can come to the realization that other people are the same. This realization puts us all on a playing field. The common needs and desires are in all of us. The great part of all of this is that we can go back even farther then 1956 and see this same teaching. The Golden rule plays this out exactly. Do for others as you would have them do for you. Realizing this provides amazing confidence when dealing with people because I know that they just want the same thing I want. To win. Now, winning means different things to everyone. This is why life is such an adventure. Creating Win-Win situations is such a rewarding experience. I get what I'm looking for and they get what they are looking for. Ultimatly the best outcome. If there is a Win-Lose situation then that can not be sustained for an extended period of time. Eventually even the Winner feels the loss. Hmmm. I didn't mean to come around to this, but since I'm here, this seems to be what we are experienceing with our finances as a country. For a period of time there was a Win-Lose situation. The finance companies win by creating a market and flooding it with ready to expload loans. The average leasee buys in, thinking they are also winning but are actually losing, it just takes a couple of years to realize it. Now the "winner" is losing because everything is falling apart. Win-Win or no deal this needs to be the way buisness, and life, is done but people are selfish. I need to work on getting over my selfishness. That is what this really comes down to. I need to grow with my self-control.

A wakeup call to myself

So, here I am again. Several months with no information posted. No updates, no pictures, nothing. If someone was to stumble across this they might think I had given up on the internet and bought 100 acres of wilderness in the upper northwest. Built a log cabin and setup a self-sustaining community where we grow our own crops and hunt our own meat. Well, if that was your guess then you were not to far off. Well, except that instead of upper northwest we live in Virgina. Oh, and instead of log cabin we live in an apartment. Also, instead of growing and hunting we go to Wal-mart and Target. Besides those three things they would be absolutly correct about my life for the past 5 months.
Last Saturday I ran 16 miles. That's right, if you want you can go back wipe your eyes and read that again. 16 miles. At once. It took me about three and a half hours, but I got it done. The run was not to bad either. Actually, it was a lot of fun. I have been continually amazed over the past 5 months at how much running my body can actually stand. I have been running 4 days a week(Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday) with my longest run being on Saturday. If you must know I'm training for a marathon. On November 15, 2008 I will be running in the Richmond Marathon. When I signed up it asked me for a finish time and I put in 5:30(yes thats hours). I'm hopeing that I can drop my time to under 5:00 but moving out here to has seen my ~10min miles drop to ~12min miles. I have really worked hard the last two weeks to get closer to the 10min mark, but it has been slow work. I'm definitly planning on continuing to run after Nov. 15. Then, my distances will probly get shorter(more like 5-8 mile runs) but I definitly want to keep up the 4 days a week. One of the unforseen benefits has been the weight loss. Well, not really weight loss, as I'm still around 210, but more like fat loss. Every time I run my pants fit less and less. I started having to buy pants with a 38 waist(before the running) but now I have trouble keeping my 36s up with out my belt and that just looks funny.
Well, I'm hopeing to have more to say here. Stuff about books I've read or lectures I've listened to. Probly not so much about politics, but maybe. I am certainly a product of the system when it comes to that. I do not do a lot of investigating and I definitly feel strongly about certain things so some working that out might end up here. Well, until next time(hopefully not 5 months.) Peace.

Been a while again. I think that aiming for a schedule is a little past me for the time being, but I'm still going to try. Tues, Thurs, Sat. Yeah that sounds good. Now you might wonder why those days. Well, for now, those are my running days. Yep, thats right, running. Like in a marathon. Well, not this week, but before the end of 2008 my goal is to run a marathon. Right now I can't make it very far. Me and my little brother have been running 2-4 times a week and we have been putting down about three miles a day when we run. This last week was our first actual race. It was the M.A.D.D. Dash here in Searcy and it was a really good time. Our race time was 30:10 so that made us feel good. Earlier in the week we had been talking about aiming for 35min for our race time, so it is nice to see that cut by 5. The official time, which I will hold to, is not completly accurate. While we were running we came over a hill and there was a woman lying in the grass crying. She had been hit by a car. AHHHHHHH. So, we didn't know what to do, there was a guy helping her up and we stopped for a minute, but she just kept saying that she wanted to finish the race and she did with about 30 seconds on me and my brother. Kinda embarassing, but I figure we stalled for atleast 10-15 seconds while we thought about getting a phone or calling for help before she started running again. Appartenly some car just drove by and hit her arm with the rear view mirror and just kept going, didn't stop. We were so focused on the left, right, left, right, that we hadn't been paying attention to any of the cars that were passing us. Yeah, little asian women are hard core. This week I'm in Florida. Well, ok, I'm at the airport right now, but until Friday I'll be in florida installing, training, having anxioty attacks. You know, the usual. So, I plan on finishing my book on Robert E. Lee and my Dr. Rohm book as well. So, thats my plan and I'm sticking to it.

I'm pretty fired up right now. We just got back from a leadership seminar and the couple that were speaking tonight were phenominal. They really spoke to where I am in life and where I want to be going. Talking about things they have dealt with that I see too commonly around me that I don't want in my life. Wow, amazing. But its late, so I think most people I know who would want to hear about it(and even those who don't) are mostly asleep preparing their minds for church tomorrow morning. Anyway, I had some extra time at work this morning and because there were no customer to work with I got to put in a couple of CDs and I took some notes on what was being said, so I figured I would do some thinking and writing about the notes I took. Oddly enough the CDs I was listening to were predomintly about finances. I just grabbed four of them before I left my house because I had about four hours of work to do. The first thing I have jotted down is pretty funny because until I think about it, most of the time I'm stuck in thinking about things a certain way. I know exactly when my pay day is. I know when they get my check in the main office and when they send it to me. I know what my base pay is and I know what bonuses I got for the month. So, my payday is one day a month. Now, my expense day is every day of the month. When my cc bill would come in I would be suprised every month. Over and Over, everytime it would catch me off guard. Oh crud is it that time of the month again? Good gravey, did we really spend that much on the card this month. Once it is pointed out to me it seems rediculous that I was doing this, but its true. Everyday was my expense day, but I wasn't really paying attention to it. With all of these expenses one has to wonder what the solution is. Well, odviously the answer is make more money. They only problem with that is easily found in my own personal experience. I now make more then double what I started making with this company 4 years ago and yet every month we barely scrape by at the end of the month and I wonder, how is that possible, I made more money this month then ever before and we're still broke. Well, the answer isn't in making more money, it is being more responsible with the money I have. You can actually look at your expenses as potential income. Income from an expense? How can that work? Well, think about it this way, when you get a raise what is the first thing that happens to that money? Taxes. So, for every dollar you make on a raise only $.66 makes it into you pocket. Now, if you were to cut back your expenses then every dollar you save is a dollar in your pocket. Its actually a better return to cut your expenses then to get a raise. Now, I'm sure there are some situations where this isn't the case, but for me it defintly is. So, I have gone back and I'm catagorizing our expenses for the month and I'm going to cut back on unnecisary things, like a $.50 can of DR.Pepper at work in the afternoons or going to Sonic during Happy Hour and getting a gigantic Strawberry Limeade. Building the discipline to cut back those temptations is not going to be easy. But I'm going to do it. As I was listening to the cd go on about saving your way to wealth I decided to call my wife and let her know about my new conviction. I didn't call her to guilt trip her because I can't go out and tell anyone to live their life a certain way if I'm not living that way. It just doens't make sense. So, I'm cutting back on my expenses to create more money at the end of my month for saving. What things are you going to cut out to help you build a legacy?

For the last month my reading habits have basically been focused on four books. The first book I've been working on is The Bible. One of my New Year resolutions is to read the New Testament once every three months, for a grand total of four times. I don't know why, but I figure the first time I read through it I might see some new things and just read through it to get it done. The second time some more new things, but I already have the whole picture in mind so later scripture can influence my understanding of early scripture. Hind site is 20/20. Then the third/fourth times I read it I can really focus on some deep learning that hopefully will stick with me. Then next year I plan on working through the Old Testament. Not sure where things will go from there. Anyway, the second book I've been reading through is called Leading the Consumer Rebellion. It is about building communities of loyal customers who make a majority of their purchases online and how some simple concepts can save them money while still creating profit for everyone involved. Pretty exciting stuff to realize that we are on the verge of a new market place that has the potential to change the way every day business is done in America. I had planned on writing about some of the specifics of what I was reading, but my laziness got me. So, that might be some food for my posts over the next couple of days. The third book I actually ended up reading twice, just because it is the manliest book ever written. I'll even include a shot of the cover for you to prove how manly it is.OK, maybe not so manly, but still an incredible read. Its also pretty short so if you were to dedicate an afternoon to it then I think most people could knock it out. If not in one day easily two afternoons of dedicated reading time. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be writing about that at some point as well. The fourth book I spent the last month reading was called The Centurion Principles. It goes through history picking out military leaders who were above/beyond their time and their position. Some of them are examples of how to work with people or be direct and there are also a couple of how not to act. One of the 'how not to' guys is a general type from the civil war and every time things go wrong he blames it on the weather or not having enough men or the grass was wet or his tea had to much sugar and so on(naturally I exaggerate on this, but you get the idea). So, the example there is how you can be in charge, but you have to take command and use everything to your advantage, even the negative things that are happening around you. So, those are the four I was working on last month. This month, wow, I also have a couple of books I'm working through. One is about Robert E. Lee, another one is about training to run a marathon. Still another one called What to say when you talk to yourself and a fourth one(for if I finish the others) called Good to Great. I've had a book suggested to my by one of my mentors called The millionaire next door(or something like that) that I'm going to pick up in the next couple of week and give that a whirl in the future some time. So, what are you guys reading??????

In our last episode.... Good gravy I wish I could get some consistency in the things I want to accomplish. Its been almost a month since my last post and I know every single person who reads this has been sitting on pins and needles wondering what bizarre and amazing thing I'm going to say next. Well, there is no reason to fear for I'm back. Didn't really go anyway, just let my old thinking sink in, but I went to a meeting last night and I'm pretty fired up. So, on my last post I had a response asking me where I was applying this personal revolution and whom was getting the benefits of my budding leadership skills. Well, that is a question that has a large answer. The easiest changes to see would have to be in my living room. The way I treat my wife. The way I have learned to love her by completing simple tasks that bother her. When she walks into our house she sees all the little things(shoes by the door, coat on a chair, dirty cups in the sink) and those bother her. I walk into the house and I see empty couch, lonely computer, refrigerator of unprepared food. We see different things. I can honestly say that most of the time I walk through the kitchen and I don't even notice the counter or sink or dishwasher or floor or any of that because it doesn't matter to me. But, I have begun to revolutionize the way I treat my wife. I haven't stopped saying nice things or holding her hand or kissing her on the cheek or calling her Princess. I've just added on things, like picking up clothes that are lying around, making sure my dishes make it into the dishwasher or at the least are rinsed off in the sink. Little things that she has been asking me to do all along but I haven't been listening to her. The crazy thing is the more I study about personalities and relationships the easier it is to understand both of our needs and I actually understand how/why she reacts to me the way she does. I'm glad I have started studying now. There are so many people I have meet that say "I wish we had read this book 20 years ago when we were first married." Its exciting to be ahead of the curve for once. Outside of my house the leadership skills I am cultivating are helping me with work. Again, it has been amazing how easy it is to work with people when you stop listening to what they are saying and start listening to what they are saying. What I mean, is that by growing my understanding of personalities it becomes easier to listen to what a customer is saying and understand it from their point of view instead of only seeing things from my nice comfy chair in my office. By putting a priority on by-passing my own intentions I am able to better understand my customer and where they are coming from and work towards the goal they actually have in mind, no matter what they are telling me on the phone. Also, I am trying to slowly teach those around me to do likewise and build up actual re pore with the customer so they trust us to have their best interest in mind. Besides home(my relationship with my wife) and work(my relationship with my customers and co-works) I've definitely begun to push myself at church and with my friends. On Sunday mornings during our service we have a time where they have us all stand up and greet the people we don't know around us. It use to be that I dreaded this time. Stand up, turn around, say hello to people who won't even remember you next week and will keep asking you if your a student, blah blah blah. Wow, did I dislike when we had to do that. Well, now its not so bad. I've started to take the mind set of "If its to be, its up to me." I want a better experience, I'm going to make a better experience. So, I've begun working on being the one to introduce myself first. Its uncomfortable, annoying, even painful for me at times, but I'm enjoying the change in the overall meet-n-greet experience. With some of my friends I've started noticing the negative in the conversations I use to participate in freely. Both language and content seem to have taken a rather interesting turn, but when I think about it, I'm pretty sure things have changed more in my life for the positive instead of the other way around. Also, when I'm hanging out with my friends I have started noticing the way I talk, and it is a lot. I have a tendency to repeat thing multiple times while I'm telling a single story. I tell the story and then give an example or continue to elaborate to get all of the finite details in as quickly as possible. See, right there i did it again. This bothers me and I'm working on not talking about myself so much, because honestly people don't find me as interesting as I do. On this front I have made one major change, I don't keep talking if I'm interrupted. If something disturbs the conversation I am taking part of(most likely a monologue at this point) and the other person doesn't ask me to continue I don't, I just let it go. Most of the time I can see this coming, but so far I can't seem to help myself. But I'm working on it. Always working on some part of myself so that I can be better tomorrow then I am today.

3-6

As I was reading on Saturday I came across a quote I thought got me thinking. Philip Crosby, author of Quality is Free, writes, "There is a theory of human behavior that says people subconsciously retard their own intellectual growth. They come to rely on cliches and habits. Once they reach the age of their own personal comfort with the world, they stop learning and their minds run on idle for the rest of their days. They may progress organizationally, they may be ambitious and eager, and they may even work night and day. But they learn no more. The bigoted, the narrow-minded, the stubborn, and the perpetually optimistic have all stopped learning. " What gets me about this quote is that this describes exactly where I was a year ago. I was at a point in my life where I had created a small form of comfort with the world around me and I had stopped learning and growing. I was in a comfort zone of mediocrity and didn't really care to get outside of it. In April of '07 I meet a group of people who had been in the same place that I was and had decided they could no longer live the rest of their days with their mind running on idle. They stepped out of their comfort zone and by doing so forced themselves into a learning cycle. Once we reach a level of education that we feel comfortable with, most people stop learning. I have been amazed to realize how many people don't read another book after they graduate from college or high school. They just stop with their personal education. I began to realize that I was the same way. The only books I had read since college were related to the fantastical world of Harry Potter. Besides the going-ons of Harry and the gang, I also knew A LOT about shows on television and what was going on in movies. I spent so much time on filling my comfort zone with items that would maintain my level in life instead of stepping out of my comfort zone and raising my level in life. I began to see how by changing the things I was exposing my mind and heart to I could change the way I thought. My changed thoughts could drive changed actions and build new habits. If I worked diligently on my actions and habits I could someday come into a new way of life. But there are things to be careful about. As I step out of my comfort zone I have to be careful that I do not begin to build another one around myself again. I have to continually step out of what I am use to and be driven by a hunger to know more and to grow more. I have to keep myself slightly unsatisfied with what I know and how I live. Looking past my present situation to bigger and better tomorrow. At the end of the quote it describes a couple of types of people who are stuck in their comfort zone. I'm not so sure about that, but I do know that I was relying on cliches and old habits with my brain running on idle for the rest of my days. As I keep reading I am making a pledge to refuse to let my brain run on idle. A pledge to keep my motor running.

3-5

I am beginning to recognize a pattern in my blogging habit. I apparently wait until right before I drift off to sleep and then decide I'm going to write something. I guess I can work on that tomorrow. So, at church this morning the sermon was about the church as the body of Christ. Of all the points that were made one struck out at me. Uniformity is different then Unity. Uniformity is being forced into a mold that you don't fit. It is being told that you have to shape up or ship out. Stop thinking for yourself and listen to only those in command. Unity is about people having far reaching goals and dreams in common. Having a burning desire that pulls a group together despite their differences and creates an environment of safety and well being. Manipulators create groups filled with uniformity. Leaders create groups driven by unity. Unfortunatly, from the outside it is sometimes hard to see the difference. Escpecially when a group is so driven by their unity that those outside can only see uniformity. Groups that strive to create uniformity will grow stale hollow men and women who parrot the same things over and over. Breathing stuffy air from creating so many mouth-breathers living within the box. Groups who are full of unity will grow into a diverse garden of individuals seeking the best solution for the common goal. Sucking in the fresh air of the mountain tops and striving to go even higher.

3-4

A week ago I was introduced to two seemingly benign questions. Over the past week I have been able to ask these questions repeatedly and the answers seem to point to the way things are. The first questions is If you were to describe yourself, would you describe yourself as more outgoing or more reserved? This seems like a simple question, but some people seem to waver on which side of the fence they land on. And to tell the truth, most people have both in them. But, if you were to give an answer right now 51%/49% what would it be. The second questions sits on top of the first. If you were to describe your self, again if its difficult 51%/49% and you can change your answer, would you say you were more task oriented or relationship oriented. Wow, see two very simple questions. Except that when these two questions are used in tangent they actually begin to display a lot more about you then you might at first think. The answers to these questions splits people into four different personality groups. Outgoing-Task, Outgoing-Relationship, Reserved-Task, Reserved-Relationship. Of course, we all have a little of each quadrent in us. Sometimes we are more Reserved-Task to get something done in a very detailed fashion but other times we are more Outgoing-Relationship when at a party. The interesting part about these questions is that for the past week I have asked myself these questions about all the new people I met while I did on-site training for a company in Minneapolis. One of the employees what Outgoing-Relationship and he was boisterous and vibrant and a little crass. The other office employee was Reserved-Task and she definitly had a right way of doing things that was about to be completly turned topsy-turvy. Knowing the anwers to the two questions for these trainees I was able to mirror their attitudes and mode of communication in order to have the most effective training. It was a very real way to experience the different personality types and get a feel for working with two very different types. Oh, and with the Task/Relationship break they view building new relationships very different. The Task people feel that there must be trust before there can be relationship. The Relationship people are the exact opposite and feel that there must be some relationship before trust can be built.

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.