STEVE JOBS: A TRUE EXAMPLE OF AMAZING

From the Apple website today:  

If ever there were an amazing example of a man who has left an absolutely amazing legacy, it is Steve Jobs.  I could not help but feel a profound loss as I read the news this evening.  The world truly is a better place because of Steve.  He wasn't perfect, but to me he was nothing less than amazing.  Thank you, Steve.  You didn't stop until your products and your passion wowed and amazed millions.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Unfinished business...everyone seems to always have a little.  Perhaps it has to do with some unpaid bills, a dirty house, a cluttered desk, or maybe it is a situation with another person or the personal work we need to do inside of ourselves.  Isn't it amazing how, as we get older, our perception of time seems to speed up?  Our days, weeks, and years seem to go by more and more quickly.  The reality is that we still experience the same amount of time every day that we did when we were children.  We have just become accustom to it.  Today, we are bombarded with so many things that we just don't seem to have enough time to do everything we want or need to accomplish.

What most people may not realize is that putting off what needs to be done today makes it even harder to accomplish tomorrow.  If we do succeed in accomplishing it, what else have we had to put off in order to complete the task?  The future has its own unpredictable agenda.  After several days, the little things that should have only taken a few extra minutes to accomplish begin to accumulate.  They pile up and get disorganized; some may even get lost or misplaced in the the "sea of forgetfulness".  Soon, it is no longer a matter of minutes.  It becomes a matter of hours or even days to get it all back in order.

A dirty house, a disorganized junk drawer or closet, a room where everything gets put to go through later, a lack of respect for our own boundaries and limitations...think of all the extra time it is going to take to straighten that up!  My fortune cookie today said, "Idleness is the vacation of the foolish."  There is always time to do the not so important but enjoyable.  There is seldom time to do the no so enjoyable, but necessary.

We need to start now to clean those rooms, drawers, desks, and closets in our life.  It may take a little extra time.  Plans may need to change for a few days.  It is important to take care of it before it clutters up our life, creates disorganization, and leads to despair.  We Must not make excuses , we must not procrastinate...we must not be foolish!  By applying discipline and time management, free time will become just that; free of guilt, worry, stress, laziness, and despair.

We have all made willful and deliberate choices to free ourselves so that we can enjoy our children, our family, our friends, and our lives.  If we stay organized, focused and mindful of our goals, we will be amazed at how much we can accomplish.  Remember, we deserve nothing less than amazing.  We will not only be able to enjoy our freedom, but we will begin to realize how precious each moment is, for once a moment has passed, we can never regain it.

YOUR TICKET TO FREEDOM

Marketing a home based business means getting creative and thinking outside the box.  Try things other people haven't thought of and stand out from the rest.  Be consistent with your look...it is just like branding.  People will start to recognize what you are distributing and they will get a sense that it is legitimate and not just some scam or scheme.  Your "brand" says something about you and about your business.  It evokes moods, feelings, and thoughts.  Use that to your advantage.  Vista Print is a great resource for your marketing materials and for creating consistent themes for your branding.

I picked up a pack of 500 tickets from the local Dollar Store and guess how much they cost???  Of course, $1.00.  I ordered a small stamper from Vista Print for free.  I'm thinking about handing them out at some local craft fairs or events, or even just leaving them with a tip at restaurants...you name it...Yah!  That's the Ticket!

Also from Vista Print...sticky notes to go on gas pumps, in public restrooms, on windows, walls, community boards...I am stuck on Sticky Notes, cause Sticky Notes are stuck on me (Sorry, just feeling a bit silly tonight).

How about some sizzle cards for car doors, random counters (umm, I suppose encounters, also), at drop off day care centers, on bar tables at the local country dance club...(Okay, I will admit that I don't do country music, so for me it might be at a nice little urban bar that serves vintage scotch ;)

Let us not forget post cards.  I just picked up about 250 post card leads and now I have the cards to go with them!  I haven't used snail mail since last century!

So, I'm thinking this guy is on top of the world, having the best time of his life, wearing what he wants, doing what he wants, feeling amazing, energized, happy, radiant, in control of his freedom and his future.  What do you think?

THE UNGUARDED MIND

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "A man is what he thinks about all day long."  As a professional who has been in sales and management for the past twenty years and who now has a home-based business, I can attest to the reality that a person's greatest obstacle to success is his or her own thoughts.  Sometimes it only takes one little thought to destroy what was shaping up to be a record-breaking month.  On the Journey to Amazing, sometimes you run over a skunk and you get what we call in the sales profession "stinking thinking."  When you work from home, there is often no one there to help take away the smell.  In any case, it is important to understand the difference between unhealthy and healthy thought patterns as well as being able to develop mindfulness in order to become successful.

It is estimated that on average each person processes 12,000 thoughts per day.  That equals out to be about one thought every five seconds.  Unfortunately, the majority of these thoughts are known to be unhelpful and unhealthy.  These "unguarded" thoughts are driven by emotions like anxiety, feelings of pain, distress, irritability, and craving.  Having thoughts is a natural process, a part of who we are, but it doesn't mean that we are helpless or held captive to our thoughts.  Our thought patterns are just that...habits that we have allowed to dominate our innermost sanctuary.  Like him or not, Buddha got it right when he said that nothing causes as much pain as an unguarded mind.

One of the most important keys to success, not only in business, but in life, is to develop and practice useful forms of thinking.  In order to understand how we can develop useful forms of thinking, though, we must become mindful of unhealthy patterns.  The first thing we must learn in this process is that we can't always believe everything we think.  Just because we think it doesn't mean that it is true.  We may think that we are unsuccessful, that we aren't able to sell, that we aren't any good talking to people, but those thoughts are part of a cycle that only leads us to unhappiness.

We must next learn how to identify unhealthy or unguarded thoughts.  There are five general patterns, or what we call hindrances that represent the texture of the unguarded mind, all of which make us unhappy.  These five hindrances sum up most of our thinking patterns in our daily life.  These patterns are created by the mind as strategies to help us find solutions to our discontent.  Also, these hindrances are cyclical, for instance: an anxious thought or moment gives rise to certain feelings, which in turn reinforce the anxiety only to perpetuate and deepen the original feeling.  The five hindrances are as follows:

1. Worrying:  We often times worry about things we can not control, that we fear, that might happen in the future, or that we think someone else thinks or feels about us.  Worry leads to stress.
2. Day Dreaming:  We sometimes don't seem present and use our thoughts to escape.  These thoughts may seem random or disconnected.  We may find ourselves not wanting to be in a certain place or situation.  These thoughts lead to a lack of peace and inner rest.
3. Doubting:  We undermine ourselves and question our actions.  We choose not to trust our intuition and we begin to think ourselves incapable of better than we are.  These thoughts lead to depression.
4. Longing:  We use thoughts like "If only I could...then I would be happy."  We constantly look for something outside of ourselves to make us happy.  If I could just get this job, or have this much money, or meet this person, or if I could just stop smoking, or procrastinating...Longing leads us to irritability and unrest.
5. Arguing:  Often we find ourselves arguing in our minds with someone over certain issues or situations.  We become consumed with the argument, often playing it over and over in our minds.  The reality is that the argument we are having isn't with the other person.  They are not present, so what we are really doing is arguing with ourselves.  If we argue with ourselves, who can really win that kind of argument?

Now that we understand the five hindrances of the unguarded mind, we must begin to practice mindfulness.  We must practice becoming aware of our thoughts when we are caught in the cycle, realize which hindrance we are cycling through, and gently bring ourselves to a positive stream of thought.  One might define mindfulness as mental freedom, a place where we can become aware of our thoughts and experience freedom from harmful patterns.  A few of the best ways I have found to accomplish this is through the use of breathing techniques, relaxation techniques, and meditation.  Meditation is a simple process of training the mind to be more attentive.  The reality is that everyone deals with stress.  Negative stress has its roots in unguarded thinking, and one of the best ways to overcome stress is through developing consistent relaxation or meditation practice.

Through mindfulness we will find that over time we are making thousands and thousands of little decisions about which thoughts we are going to allow and which qualities we are going to develop.  We are sculpting ourselves, shaping ourselves, and changing our inner make-up.  We are changing the kind of person that we are becoming.  People often say that to be successful you must first change the way you think.  You must become the success on the inside that you believe you can accomplish on the outside.  Just like everything else in life, it takes work, dedication, and persistence.  It isn't a get-rich-quick mental scheme.  You probably won't become on overnight success, but if you practice it, you will success...and you will succeed.  You deserve nothing less than amazing!

Remember:  A mind without hindrances is a happy place to be!

HIDDEN TALENT

Today my Journey to Amazing took me a little outside my comfort zone.  I've had to attend some meetings for about six hours yesterday and then again today.  While sitting through these meetings yesterday, I couldn't help but notice the guy next to me doodling on the white space of his Venti Starbucks Coffee cup.  It turned out to be more than just "doodling" though.  His designs were amazing!  This guy had talent, so I kind of figured he was an artist, tattoo artist, graphic designer, or something professional.

When I got home last night I started thinking about my day, the meetings I had just attended, and that fact that I hadn't seen my son since I had dropped him off at school.  His grandma picked him up and took him to her place, where he spent the night so that I could get up and go back to the meetings the first thing this morning.  Since my dream that I discussed in my previous post about my corporate job, I have been ending each day playing back the daily events so that I can become more cognizant of amazing moments I would otherwise not consider.  The designs this guy was drawing earlier in the day really caught my attention, and I knew that I needed to say something when I went back Saturday morning.

Saying something just isn't my normal modus operandi.  I'm the kind of guy who would normally just sit quietly, observe, and mind my own business.  The thought of how we are all gifted in different ways that make each of us unique and amazing compelled me to get out of my comfort zone and say something to him.  So, this morning when I got back to the meeting I greeted him, introduced myself, and told him that I had noticed his artistic ability the day before as he drew on his cup.

I suppose the funny thing about this is that this guy really didn't look or come across as an artistic person.  He was wearing hunter green camouflage, a  backward ball cap, and had a big wad of chew in his mouth.  He looked more like a outdoor sportsman with a cocky attitude who wouldn't mind grabbing a rifle and unloading a couple shots just to get off on the recoil.

So here I am, curious as to how this guy looking and acting the way he does has this amazing talent.  When I complimented him on his design ability, he looked at me kind of funny, like maybe he was thinking, "Are you gay and trying to hit on me?"  So, realizing his concern, and relying on my many years of sales experience, I started asking him some questions.  Knowing I wasn't going to hit on him, he relaxed and began to answer my questions.

This guy's name is Mike.  He is a career firefighter in Denver.  He and his wife live here in Fort Collins.  Not too long ago he went on a date with his wife.  They knew they were going to be drinking, so they rode their bikes.  They had a pitcher of margaritas and a couple beers, watched a game and ate dinner.  On their way back home a cop saw them riding and having a little too much fun up on the sidewalk, so he flipped his lights, pulled them over and confronted them.  Mike got a little cocky with the officer because he wasn't going to be intimidated by the situation.  He ended up getting a DUI and the officer took his drivers license away.  Mike got with a lawyer and got his license back, but has ended up having to go through the whole DUI experience.  He and his wife thought they were safe because they were on bikes.

I then asked Mike where he learned his design skills.  He kind of shrugged it off and said it was just a goofy pastime he developed when he was bored.  I asked if he ever thought about taking it further than doodling.  As he spit in his cup he asked, "Why?"  So, this is what I said to him:

"Recently I had an experience and I realized that people are seldom ever complimented on the things they do really well, so they end up trying to do a lot of other things that aren't as meaningful because they are told that's what matters most.  I just wanted to take a moment to tell you that you have an amazing talent and I can tell when you are drawing it isn't just a goofy scribble.  You are able to take a blank space and bring it to life.  If you have never considered it, you should think about creating a website and sharing your talent.  Your designs would make some killer art for tattoos or for graphic artists."

Mike wasn't too comfortable receiving compliments.  He kinda shrugged it off and said that life was too busy for him to do anything like that.  Of course, by the end of the day, his cup was completely full of new and fresh designs.  As for me, I moved out of my quiet, intellectual shell and did something I kind of found amazing.  Instead of letting an opportunity pass me by, I made a willful, deliberate decision to share my Journey to Amazing with someone else, and hopefully, helped someone else catch a glimpse of something amazing about himself.  Of all the people in the meeting, nobody else really said anything to one another.  At the end of it, Mike came up, shook my hand and said, "Hey, good luck!...and thanks for the compliment."

MAY THE TEA NEVER STOP

I love tea, but even more I love the creative process.  Tea has become second nature to me.  You will see me with a cup of loose leaf tea steeped to perfection no matter where I am.  To me, tea is one of the most amazing mysteries.  All of the thousands of flavors that we can create comes from the same tree and the same leaves.  One of the greatest pleasures is to now be able to work from home and enjoy one delicious steep after another.  Having a home based business really does afford one the most simple, but also the most rewarding pleasures of life.  And so now I share with you a rather creative poem about my love for tea...

MAY THE TEA NEVER STOP

I lived in a world of gold and gray
in a moment that lasted more than a day
and in that moment lasting more than a day
I sensed you drifting slowly my way

I felt your presence for a moment in time
and tasted you quietly in my mind
as you softly danced with grace refined
I joined with you our souls entwined

Tied together in visions of gold and gray
I chose to send my heart your way
and as my heart bid me "Good day!"
I lifted my cup without delay

I savored you longingly in my mind
while life slipped by for quite some time
and all that happened seemed so sublime
in that moment lasting more than a rhyme

Finally I reached a place I could not top
as I selfishly inhaled you like a joypop
and I thought as I floated past a quaint little shop,
"May the tea never stop..."
~Harlan Snyder~

BELIEVE

~ If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad. ~  Denis Waitley

Do you believe you can?  One of my son's favorite books is The Little Engine That Could.  Perhaps you remember the story...Something needed to get done, but so many just felt the job wasn't for them.  They steamed right past the opportunity and missed the chance to make a difference in the lives of other people who were in need.   Some may believe they are too good, others too important or too busy, or too strong, or too old, or too this, or too that...you get the picture.  It is not our size, our past, our failures, our previous work experience, or our low self esteem that matters.  It is simply our ability to believe that we can.  We can make a difference in the lives of others who need something we have to offer.  In turn, we find that the biggest difference comes in the growth and enjoyment we receive.  We may have to do some tugging and pulling at first, but once we get going, we will get closer and closer to our goals, and then we will be there before we know it.  Instead of chuffing, "I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can" we will be smiling and saying, "I thought I could.  I thought I could.  I thought I could."