As we enter the holiday season with the consumptive madness of Cyber Mondays, Black Fridays, Super Saturdays, obligatory gifts to others, measuring economic impact by how much we spent in the local malls and Amazon walls, here are some alternative gifts for you.
There was no cost to procuring them, no lines to stand in, no calculus of “should I spend more or less” -as if the amount we spend per person on our list determines their value in our system- just the time investment and care energy of curating and then presenting them to you.
If they resonate, pay them forward.
If they don’t, return to sender…
Love,
Neville
Jerry Seinfeld Puts It In Perspective So Well & So Darn Honestly…
Here are those gifts:
Gift #1: A Perspective on Parenting for the Hardest Job Out There
One of the most ‘real’ article on parenting I have read in a long time…
WHAT IF…a simple thank you goes a long way?
RESEARCH SAYS: When bosses say “thank you,” employees work 50% harder. It’s true. Thank you also results in reciprocal generosity, where the thanked person is more likely to help the ‘thanker’ and also stimulates pro-social behavior in general. In other words, saying “thanks” increases the likelihood your employee will not only help you, but also help someone else. Harvard Business Review tells of a national law firm that instilled the routine of Partners earnestly and specifically saying, “Thank you,” to staff and associates and even each other. That one change resulted in a significant drop in associate complaints, and most associates became more productive while reports of burnout all but disappeared.
TRY THIS: Give someone you work with a sincere thank you. Be sure to thank them for something specific, acknowledge their effort or personal sacrifice, and let them know what it meant personally to you.
Gift #4 Restore Your Faith in Humanity
Goodwill towards All in Human-Kind
Thanks this week go to the Daily Good, Steve F, Anne S, Glenda O, Will M, Larry H & Helene G!
“Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.”– King Solomon
As we enter the holiday season with the consumptive madness of Cyber Mondays, Black Fridays, Super Saturdays, obligatory gifts to others, measuring economic impact by how much we spent in the local malls and Amazon walls, here are some alternative gifts for you.
There was no cost to procuring them, no lines to stand in, no calculus of “should I spend more or less” -as if the amount we spend per person on our list determines their value in our system- just the time investment and care energy of curating and then presenting them to you.
If they resonate, pay them forward.
If they don’t, return to sender…
May the gifts you give and get this holiday season, open your heart like this!
Love,
Neville
Jerry Seinfeld Puts It In Perspective So Well & So Darn Honestly…
Here are those gifts:
Gift #1: A Perspective on Parenting for the Hardest Job Out There
One of the most ‘real’ article on parenting I have read in a long time…
WHAT IF…a simple thank you goes a long way?
RESEARCH SAYS: When bosses say “thank you,” employees work 50% harder. It’s true. Thank you also results in reciprocal generosity, where the thanked person is more likely to help the ‘thanker’ and also stimulates pro-social behavior in general. In other words, saying “thanks” increases the likelihood your employee will not only help you, but also help someone else. Harvard Business Review tells of a national law firm that instilled the routine of Partners earnestly and specifically saying, “Thank you,” to staff and associates and even each other. That one change resulted in a significant drop in associate complaints, and most associates became more productive while reports of burnout all but disappeared.
TRY THIS: Give someone you work with a sincere thank you. Be sure to thank them for something specific, acknowledge their effort or personal sacrifice, and let them know what it meant personally to you.
Gift #4 Restore Your Faith in Humanity
Goodwill towards All in Human-Kind
Thanks this week go to the Daily Good, Steve F, Anne S, Glenda O, Will M, Larry H & Helene G!
“Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.”– King Solomon
This week, I got a handwritten note from Dr. Edward DeRoche, at the University of San Diego’s School of Education, where he previously served as dean in 1979 and returned to the faculty as professor and director of the Center for Character Development Center in 1998. We met some years ago through our shared passion for cultivating character not just competence in education…
Ed wrote, “I wanted to sent you this note of thanks during Thanksgiving Week for “Soul Food Friday”. It is a valuable, informative resource that I have shared with my students, colleagues, family and friends. For this I thank you.”
Here Ed is esteeming me, but I should be esteeming HIM for modeling character and investing his personal time and energy in a small gesture that is a hallmark of his way of being.
Thanks for showing us how it is done Ed!
A Simple Act of Kindness Creates An Endless Ripple:
This will touch your heart…
Why Positive Emotions Fade and How to Make Them Last:
What if you put your sincere thanks into this Thanksgiving? It’s not as easy as it sounds. By now we should all know that gratitude is a major driver of personal happiness and feelings of well-being. But the way our brains are designed tends to minimize the benefits of thankfulness. That’s because we constantly turn our positive emotions into concepts. And concepts do not make us feel happy.
Let me explain…
When we first experience positive emotions our brain stimulates the production of smile–and–be happy chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. However, novelty is a huge driver of positive stimulation so as soon as we are used to something we were initially grateful for we quit feeling the emotion of gratitude. Without emotion-stimulating neurotransmitters our feelings of gratitude decay into concepts. We know we should feel happy or should feel love but we just don’t really feel those feelings. For instance if I ask someone I’m advising “What are you most grateful for?” Their automatic response is almost always “my family.” But when I ask them if seeing their family on a daily basis puts them in a positive mood I get a questioning look. Of course, families who have been separated for long periods of time, for instance military families, often experience elevated positive emotions when they’re reunited. But when life normalizes and we return to our routines those things we take for granted no longer give us a happy high. That’s because unmet needs are powerfully motivating and very emotional. As soon as those needs are consistently satisfied our motivations and emotions tend to wither. Fortunately for us, positive psychologists have done a great deal of research about how we can rekindle the emotion of gratitude so that we can feel our feelings rather than just think about them.
Here’s an experiment I’d like you to try:
This Thanksgiving ask yourself… who is one person that has really enriched your life.
Next take a few minutes and write down the specific ways you have benefited from the love, kindness, actions or knowledge this person has provided.
Write down the positive impact and results you have received that you would not have gained without this person’s effort.
Write down what your life would be missing without this person in your life.
Now, listen to some calm instrumental music for about three minutes, put a smile on your face and silently (in your own mind) thank this individual. This focused reflection should ignite deep feelings of gratitude.
Finally, tell the individual how thankful you are for the love and support they have shown you. Tell them some things that you were specifically grateful for and the impact it had on your life. You can do this in person or by phone. Actually, leaving a voice message is sometimes best because it will cause your loved one to really listen to your message of gratitude.
Research on gratitude confirms that people who express gratefulness create more internal feelings of well-being than people receiving the acknowledgment. In short, if you want to feel happy, share your gratitude for others with them in vivid detail.
This has become an annual ritual for me and it has made the holiday much more significant than a few awesome football games, great food and time to relax.
It’s pretty simple… Thanksgiving should be the happiest day of the year… and it can be if we make it so.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Will
A Different Perspective on Thanks Giving:
Milton Friedman at Plymouth Rock: When the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock in 1620, they tried what they called “farming in common.” As a community, they farmed the land together and shared the food equally. This might sound good in theory, but it was a complete failure. Those people who worked hard resented those who didn’t. There was a lot of anger over this, and after three winters of under-production, more than half the original 101 pilgrims were dead, mostly as a result of malnutrition.
After three years of near-starvation and the loss of half the colony, a new experiment was tried.
The governor of the colony, William Bradford, had come to suspect that the problem was the absence of private property. In his now-famous passage on property rights in Of Plymouth Plantation(see page 120), Bradford wrote of how he “… assigned to every family a parcel of land, for (their) present use. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, and much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means.”
Bradford wrote that those who believed in communal property were deluding themselves into thinking they were “wiser than God.” (Doesn’t that sound like Hayek’s concept of the “fatal conceit?”) He drew up a map and gave each family a plot of land to call its own. Production increased by a factor of five the first year. As Bradford wrote, “Each family, attempting to better its standing in the community, increased the hours worked on each plot.”
How perfect that the very foundation of America was a free market economy! And this was, amazingly, 150 years before Adam Smith wrote about how markets work.
We publish the following pretty much every year for Thanksgiving. We got it from somewhere long forgotten, and over the years we’ve added bits and pieces:
“How’s your health? Not so good? Give thanks you’ve lived this long. Are you hurting? Millions are hurting more. Visit a veterans’ hospital or a hospital for children to appreciate what you have. When you woke up this morning, were you able to hear the birds sing, use your voice, walk to the breakfast table, read the paper? There are a lot of people today who are deaf, blind, paralyzed, or unable to speak.
How are your finances? Not good? Most people on this planet have no welfare. No food stamps. No pensions. No health insurance or Social Security. In fact, one third of the people in the world go to bed hungry every night.
Are you lonely? The way to have a friend is to be a friend. If nobody calls, call someone. Get out and do something nice for someone. Are you unhappy? Go out of your way to smile at people you bump into during the day. Be kind to everyone, for everyone you meet might be fighting a hard, lonely battle of some kind. Are you unhappy with our government? Don’t despair. Our system has been saved over and over again by people who worried about our nation. And worry not. You can still worship at the place of your choice, cast a ballot in secret, and criticize your government. Hundreds of millions of people live where this is not the case, where criticizing the government leads to a midnight knock on the door. Are you worried about over-regulation? Be thankful that with hard work and persistence, it’s still possible to get ahead in America. And let us also be thankful for our troublemakers and agitators, people like Patrick Henry, Tom Paine, John Brown, Susan B. Anthony, and Martin Luther King. Without them, we’d be a lesser country.
We should be thankful for the food before us and we remember those who go without food. We should be thankful for the friends we have and remember those who are friendless. We should be thankful for our health and remember those with poor health. We should be thankful for our families, imperfect though they might be, and remember those without families.
Let us be thankful for what we have, and not be unhappy with what we don’t have. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Focus on the Green Lights in Life and Be Creative about the Red lights
Humor:
Don’t Mess with Seniors
Creativity:
Join the Counter Culture Right Now:
The EPIC Photo Shoot
MOMENTS in History
Giving Thanks and Being Grateful
It is well documented that it is hard to be hateful and grateful at the same time.
I hope as you read this, you can find something to be grateful for- however trite or profound- and then maintain an Attitude of Gratitude all year long!
Attitudes are contagious. Is mine worth catching?
Happiness is Contagious:
6 Reasons to Smile Right Now
Jennifer Margulis
So much more than a pair of upturned lips, the smile is the most scientifically studied human facial expression. In her new book, Lip Service, Yale psychology professor Marianne LaFrance, PhD, draws on the latest research—in fields from biology to anthropology to computer science—in an effort to shed some light on the happy face. Here, six facts that may make you, well, you know.
People with big grins live longer. In a study published last year, researchers pored over an old issue of the Baseball Register, analyzing photos of 230 players. They found that on average, the guys with bright, bigmouthed beams lived 4.9 years longer than the players with partial smiles, and 7 years longer than the players who showed no grin at all. We can’t credit wide smiles for long life spans, of course, but smiles reveal positive feelings, and positive feelings are linked to well-being.
Smiles exert subliminal powers. When study subjects are shown an image of a smiling face for just four milliseconds—a flash so quick, the viewers don’t consciously register the image—they experience a mini emotional high. Compared with control groups, the smile-viewers perceive the world in a better light: To them, boring material is more interesting, neutral images look more positive, even bland drinks seem tastier.
There are three degrees of happiness… An article in the British Medical Journal reported that it is indeed possible to spread the love: Within social networks, when one person is happy, the feeling migrates to two people beyond her. So if you smile, a friend of a friend is more likely to smile, too
. …and two types of smiles. Genuine smiles and fake smiles are governed by two separate neural pathways. We know this is true because people with damage to a certain part of the brain can still break into a spontaneous grin even though they’re unable to smile at will. Scientists speculate that our ancestors evolved the neural circuitry to force smiles because it was evolutionarily advantageous to mask their fear and fury.
To spot a faker, check the eyes. When someone smiles out of genuine delight, a facial muscle called the orbicularis oculi involuntarily contracts, crinkling the skin around the eyes. Most of us are incapable of deliberately moving this muscle, which means that when a person fakes a smile, her orbicularis oculi likely won’t budge.
Smiles have accents. When reading facial expressions, different cultures home in on different parts of the face. In the United States, we focus on mouths; the Japanese, by contrast, search for feeling in the eyes. These emoticons say it all:
How Happiness Is Contagious
By Tim Jarvis
“Six degrees of separation” isn’t just a good plot line. Science shows the theory has dramatic implications for spreading cheer from one person to the next.
The theory that everyone on the planet is only a half dozen people away from knowing everyone else was popularized by John Guare’s 1993 movie Six Degrees of Separation. Now research by a pair of social scientists might have Hollywood thinking of a sequel: Three Degrees of Connection.
Using statistical analyses of thousands of subjects, a study in The British Medical Journal has shown that happiness actually spreads from person to person, up to three connections away. “So if your friend’s friend’s friend becomes happier, it ripples through the network and affects you, even if you don’t know that person,” says author Nicholas Christakis, MD, a medical sociology professor at Harvard Medical School. Proximity plays a part: A happy sibling who is a mile away can increase your probability of happiness by up to 14 percent; a nearby friend, by 25 percent; and a next-door neighbor, by 34 percent. Interestingly, the effect also applies to smoking and obesity, Christakis has shown. “If people around you gain weight, it changes your expectations about what an acceptable body size is,” he explains. “Our work strongly suggests that when one person quits smoking, loses weight, or becomes happy, others around her follow suit. I am reluctant to suggest you pick your friends solely on this basis, but one could say that helping a friend do better is a roundabout way of helping yourself.”
Focus on the Green Lights in Life and Be Creative about the Red lights:
While we often miss them due to attentional blindness, it is useful to focus on the Green Lights in our life.
If we are in a hurry, we sure remember all the red lights we hit, but blitz through the green lights with nary a thought…
Here are some smart traffic lights that make something out of red, while you have to do your own part to make something out of green…
We all hate waiting. That is why many pedestrians don’t have the patience to wait at the traffic light, preferring to cross whenever they deem fit. To increase pedestrian safety, an idea was born: What if we make the red pedestrian traffic light so entertaining, people would be happy waiting? Here is what happened with that idea.
Don’t Mess with Seniors:
A 65-year-old man walked into a crowded waiting room and approached the desk.
The Receptionist said, ‘Yes sir, what are you seeing the Doctor for today?’
‘There’s something wrong with my penis, he replied.
The receptionist became irritated and said,
‘You shouldn’t come into a crowded waiting room and say things like that. ‘
‘Why not, you asked me what was wrong and I told you,’ he said.
The Receptionist replied; ‘Now you’ve caused some embarrassment in this room full of people. You should have said there is something wrong with your ear or something and discussed the problem further with the Doctor in private.’
The man replied, ‘You shouldn’t ask people questions in a roomful of strangers, if the answer could embarrass anyone. The man walked out, waited several minutes, and then re-entered.
The Receptionist smiled smugly and asked, ‘Yes?’
‘There’s something wrong with my ear,’ he stated.
The Receptionist nodded approvingly and smiled, knowing he had taken her advice.. ‘And what is wrong with your ear, Sir?’
‘I can’t pee out of it,’ he replied.
The waiting room erupted in laughter… Don’t Mess With Seniors!
YOU KNOW YOU’RE LAUGHING!
Join the Counter Culture Right Now:
My buddy Jack Abbott is launching a new product on Kickstarter, and he has asked me for our help. He’s working on a project to help change the way we feed ourselves sustainably on this planet, and an easy first step is CounterCrop, which helps anyone grow great fresh veggies on their kitchen counter.
Here is a link to a short, fun video that explains how it works. CounterCrop launches on Kickstarter on December 4th, and it will be heavily discounted for the first contributors. You can get an email alert to remind you signing up here: www.CounterCrop.com.
Help me help Jack, help the planet & launch CounterCrop by sharing this with your networks, and logging onto Kickstarter when you get the email notice to make your contribution, or buy one for yourself. Any and all contributions will make a big difference. Here’s to counter culture and sustainable food for all!
December 3rd 2014 Featuring Karen Cator of Digital Promise
Purpose: Start with WHY
Your Golden Circle Starts with your PURPOSE
Pictures to Make You Grin
Levity is the Soul of Wit
Mission Fed Invests One Million Dollars
in Financial Education with JA Finance Park
Another View of Veterans Day The following excerpt is from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Breakfast of Champions:
I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.
What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance. And all music is.
I sat for a while staring at the computer screen. I couldn’t write. Not even a sentence. It had been a week since I started to write a new book but I had nothing. Each December I write a new book and it usually flows well, but not this time. This time I was filled with fear.
Fear that I would disappoint the people who enjoyed my other books. Fear that I couldn’t live up to the success of The Energy Bus. Fear that people would say my best writing was behind me. Fear that I would write a piece of junk.
I knew I had to conquer this fear and in that moment I was filled with thoughts that would not only help me overcome my fears but also become a significant lesson in the book I was writing, The Carpenter.
I realized the antidote to fear is love. So instead of the fear of failing I decided to focus on my love of writing, my love for the reader, and my desire to make a difference. From that moment on the book flowed, I wrote it in 2 1/2 weeks and discovered that if you focus on love, you will cast out fear.
Today I want to encourage you to do the same and build your life, work, business, school, project and team with love instead of fear. Remind yourself that if you aren’t building it with love it won’t become all that it can be. Only through love will you create something special, magnificent and compelling. Only through love will you build a masterpiece.
So if you are trying to build a business focus on the love you have of building it rather than the fear of losing it. If you work at a school focus on loving your students instead of fearing all the new testing standards. If you are a young athlete, dancer, musician or artist, focus on your love of playing and performing instead of your fear of failing. Worrying about the outcome and what people think will steal your joy and sabotage your success but loving and appreciating the moment will energize you and enhance your performance.
And if you are a coach or manager building a team, remember that that whatever you try to build with fear will eventually crumble. But that which is built with love will endure. If you build your team with love they will become more and do more than you ever thought possible. Most of all, as you build with love, know that you will face many challenges and negative forces that can shift your focus back to fear if you let it. When this happens decide to LOVE ALL OF IT. When you love all of it you will fear none of it.
Love the struggle because it makes you appreciate your accomplishments.
Love challenges because they make you stronger.
Love competition because it makes you better
Love negative people because they make you more positive.
Love those who have hurt you because they teach you forgiveness.
Love fear because it makes you courageous.
The secret to life and the greatest success strategy of all is to love all of it and fear none of it.
Learning: Spotlight on Education
December 3rd 2014 Featuring Karen Cator of Digital Promise
If you are local the Spotlight on Education series is definitely worth your time!
Thanks this week go to Larry H, Ginger T, the teams at Mission Fed, The Education Synergy Alliance, USD’s ELDA, UCSD’s EDS, & Real World Scholars doing Wicked Good Work!
“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.”
“OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
A VETERAN DIED TODAY.”
He was getting old and paunchy
And his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion,
Telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he once fought in
And the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies;
They were heroes, every one.
And ‘tho sometimes to his neighbors
His tales became a joke,
All his buddies listened quietly
For they knew where of he spoke.
But we’ll hear his tales no longer,
For ol’ Joe has passed away,
And the world’s a little poorer
For a Veteran died today.
He won’t be mourned by many,
Just his children and his wife.
For he lived an ordinary,
Very quiet sort of life.
He held a job and raised a family,
Going quietly on his way;
And the world won’t note his passing,
‘Tho a Veteran died today.
When politicians leave this earth,
Their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing,
And proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell of their life stories
From the time that they were young,
But the passing of a Veteran
Goes unnoticed, and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution
To the welfare of our land,
Some one who breaks his promise
And cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow
Who in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his country
And offers up his life?
The politician’s stipend
And the style in which he lives,
Are often disproportionate,
To the service that he gives.
While the ordinary Veteran,
Who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal
And perhaps a pension, small.
It is not the politicians
With their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom
That our country now enjoys.
Should you find yourself in danger,
With your enemies at hand,
Would you really want some handy cop-out,
With his ever-waffling stand?
Or would you want a Veteran
His home, his country, his kin,
Just a common Veteran,
Who would fight until the end.
He was just a common Veteran,
And his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us
We may need his likes again.
For when countries are in conflict,
We find the Veteran’s part,
Is to clean up all the troubles
That the politicians start.
If we cannot do him honor
While he’s here to hear the praise,
Then at least let’s give him homage
At the ending of his days.
Perhaps just a simple headline
In the paper that might say:
“OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
A VETERAN DIED TODAY.”
This Week: Humor: Best of the Best with Steven Wright Think Differently
Universality: He For She
A New UN project on Gender Equality“
What you tolerate you teach.” Teaching: Student Athletes Competence AND Character
Pitch It Forward or Risk a Run Back for “What you tolerate you teach.”
Music: Peter and the Wolf
A Classic for Kids
Photos: Rarely Seen Moments in US History
Best of the Best with Steven Wright
If you’re not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he’s the famous erudite (comic) scientist who once said:
“I woke up one morning, and all of my stuff had been stolen and replaced by exact duplicates.”
… He sees things differently than most of us.
Here are some of his gems:
1 – I’d kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
2 – Borrow money from pessimists – they don’t expect it back.
3 – Half the people you know are below average.
4 – 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
6 – A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
7 – A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
8 – If you want the rainbow, you have got to put up with the rain.
9 – All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.
10 – The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
11 – I almost had a psychic girlfriend … But she left me before we met.
12 – OK, so what’s the speed of dark?
13 – How do you tell when you’re out of invisible ink?
14 – If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
15 – Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
16 – When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
17 – Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
18 -Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now.
19 – I intend to live forever… So far, so good.
21 – Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
22 – What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
23 – My mechanic told me, “I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.”
24 – Why do psychics have to ask you for your name.
25 – If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
26 – A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
27 – Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
28 – The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
29 – To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
30 – The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard
31 – The sooner you fall behind, the more time you’ll have to catch up.
32 – The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
33 – Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don’t have film.
34 – If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
And the all-time favorite
35 – If your car could travel at the speed of light would your headlights work?
He For She
HeForShe videos are part of a new UN project on gender equality:
Teaching Student Athletes Competence AND Character
I am privileged to serve on the Advisory Board of Pitch It Forward. Here was a great Motivational Monday post from this week with two compelling lessons for all of us…
As many of you begin CIF playoffs this week, I want to share with you a link to something that occurred in the Oregon-Utah football game on Saturday. What you will observe is Kaelin Clay, a Utah player, prematurely celebrating a touchdown he had not yet scored, dropping the ball a yard outside the end-zone, from which point the University of Oregon Ducks returned Clay’s fumble 99 yards for at least a 12-point scoring swing. Leaders recognize that every play counts and every play demands your full effort. Leadership has no room for celebrating before the game is over. Continue to work hard, play hard, demand the most of yourselves and your teammates, and listen to and respect your coaches. You will all be leaders if you follow that approach.
On an entirely different note, the UT San Diego published the attached very powerful editorial in Sunday’s paper entitled “The sad rise of casual partisan hatred.” While politically oriented, this editorial is applicable to virtually any situation you encounter today. It references a study conducted by Stanford University and Princeton University professors and states that “Americans increasingly dislike people and groups on the other side of the political divide and face no social repercussions for the open expression of these attitudes.” Where this article applies to you is in the second to last paragraph where the editorial board states “And too many people who should know better don’t push back and accept this casual hatred as the new behavioral norm.” I place everyone in Pitch it Forward in the category of those who know better. Let’s not let casual hatred into our lives. Remember the lesson from session one: “What you tolerate you teach.” The sad rise of casual partisan hatred _ UTSanDiego
Peter and the Wolf
If you are local, do enjoy this classic with your family Thanksgiving
Crafting A Compelling Brand Narrative: Sharpening Your Competitive Edge:
Differentiate your organizational and personal brand to build reputation, grow influence, and garner positive exposure and support for your enterprise or your clients at lunch November 12th 2014
National, Local and Community Philanthropy
Investing Time, Talent & Treasure featured on the U-T “Community Spotlight” Radio show:
Seizing Life-
On Seizing Life While We Still Have it:
The public face of the right-to-die movement ended her own life on Saturday
The Laugh, Epiphany and Spirit of Tom Magliozzi of NPR’s Car Talk
Creativity-
Divergent v. Creative Thinkers:
Humor-
Wheels of Impressions with Kevin Spacey
A post Halloween treat
Happiness-
Volunteer Your Way to Happiness:
Animals at the Vet:
Crafting A Compelling Brand Narrative: Sharpening Your Competitive Edge:
Do you want to differentiate your organizational and personal brand to build reputation, grow influence, and garner positive exposure and support for your enterprise or your clients?
I will be leading this month’s AMA thought-shop where you will learn the importance of creating and incorporating a compelling brand narrative and increase the impact of your organization, and create strategic partnerships using best practices & principles.
National, Local and Community Philanthropy- Investing Time, Talent & Treasure featured on the U-T “Community Spotlight” Radio show:
Last week, San Diego celebrated National Philanthropy Day honoring so many exceptional people and organizations focused on bettering our community, & working to make us America’s Finest and Kindest City. Mission Fed was proud to be honored last year, privileged to sponsor the event this year, and I was personally humbled to serve on this year’s NPD honorary committee to help select this year’s most deserving nominees. A hearty congrats to all!
Together we can make a difference of consequence.
Here is an interview on the U-T Community Spotlight Radio Show with yours truly: http://wsradio.com/102414/
On Seizing Life While We Still Have it:
Our time is precious especially when we realize how little time we have to live…
The Laugh, Epiphany and Spirit of Tom Magliozzi of NPR’s Car Talk
The Beginner’s mind is full of unlimited possibilities. The Expert’s mind knows only one right answer…
Don’t grow out of your creative spirit! Creativity is the genetic code of education.
On a lighter note: Wheels of Impressions with Kevin Spacey
A little post Halloween treat!
WHAT IF…the most important factor to your happiness is not what you might think?
RESEARCH SAYS: A recent study reveals that the happiest people (10 on a 10 point scale) did not report the highest levels of income and education. That’s right. 10s earned significantly less money and had lower educational achievements than their moderately happy counterparts (8 or 9 on the 10-point scale). What set the happiest individuals apart from the rest was they engaged more often in volunteer activities and maintained more stable relationships.
Service and love. That’s what really matters.
TRY THIS: Volunteer for a cause that you are passionate about for at least 3 hours this week. Better yet, do it with someone you love. How did it make you feel?
What is the Most Important Thing People Should Know About You:
How to Live Happy Life- Life According to Sam
Increase your K.A.S.H.
=>Increase your Influence!
Panda Pandemonium:
This is cute…
How Logos Work
and Elicit Feelings:
The Mysterious Lives of Cats
Captured in Black and White Photography:
Halloween Factoids:
It is now estimated that more than twice as much chocolate is sold for Halloween as for Valentine’s Day, with 90 million pounds of chocolate sold during this week…
What is the Most Important Thing People Should Know About You:
How to Live Happy Life- Life According to Sam
Sam Berns a Junior at Foxboro High School in Foxboro, Massachusetts, achieved highest honors and was a percussion section leader in the high school marching band. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. Sam was diagnosed with Progeria, a rare, rapid aging disease, at the age of 2. He is featured in the documentary Life According to Sam.
Sadly, Sam passed away earlier this year but his positive spirit lives on…
Increase your K.A.S.H.=>Increase your Influence:
As an elite leader in life, you are in a great position to influence others in a very positive manner. The more you are able to increase and improve your knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits…the more influence you will have and the bigger impact you will make.
K.A.S.H.=>Knowledge/Attitude/Skills/Habits.
Knowledge is Potential Power…especially when it is applied and you are in a leadership role.
The more you know, the more you can help people grow. Great leaders are great learners and students first and foremost. They are constantly seeking to increase their knowledge base and improve themselves. You might say they are on a…
Quest To Be Their Best!
Knowledge of yourself first and foremost is key to your success. In fact, one of my favorite quotes is by an ancient Chinese philosopher by the name of Lao-Tzu and goes…
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.”
If you want to increase your personal power, you also need to work on attitude. We all do.
Attitudes are always caught before they can ever be taught. Any parent knows this firsthand, you rarely teach a child to have a good attitude. Good or bad, kids tend to model what they see and hear. We have all been programmed over time and our attitudes are the sum total of this programming.
Great leaders know that they must be always be a model of excellence for anyone that follows their lead. You must always demonstrate the attitude you hope to spread. Great leaders also know that before they can ever lead anyone else they must first lead themselves.
A leader knows that developing a great attitude requires daily effort and commitment. Just as you bath your body each and every day (I hope!), you need to bath your attitude.
A leaders impact and influence is always greater when they are consistent with their own attitudes, emotions and behavior patterns. This is why great leaders are congruent, consistent, and compelling. They truly walk their talk.
It’s been said that most of us are only one or two skills away from doubling our effectiveness and the results we are capable of achieving. I have talked before about the “Winning Edge Concept” that Brain Tracy espouses and or the power of 212 degrees. That is at 211 degrees water is hot but at 212 it boils and boiling water creates steam which creates energy, power, and ultimately great leverage.
What skills could make you a better leader? A better parent? A better teacher? A better boss or team leader? A better spouse or friend?
Once you identify what skills you need to develop, you can start to make the necessary changes to that lead to explosive and aggressive progress… You must also become determined and driven to develop those skills. One of the best ways to develop any skill is to study someone that already has that skill or what is called “modeling” in the peak performance industry.
If you want to learn any skill, find a qualified and capable instructor who not only knows how to do the skill but importantly how to teach it. Unfortunately the two don’t always go hand in hand. If they did, every person who had ever read a self-help book would be operating at a higher level. My best advice is to find a mentor or life coach that has already been there…done that.
Where there is a will…there is always a way. If you want something badly enough and you think about how to get it, you’ll find the answer and you’ll begin to attract the people and resources that will help you develop the skills you need to succeed. There is more great news! Once you learn, grow, and share your newly acquired skills, you can give more. It gets even better as you can’t out give the universe! If you don’t believe me try it!
Habits we train…are habits we train. Experts agree that 95% of what we do every day is based on habits. We are all creatures of habit.
The good news is we can consciously decide to develop new and better habits. That’s not to say that it is going to be easy, but it is simple.
Habits are developed just like any skill…through repetition. Do it over and over again and soon enough it will stick. This is one of the reasons that I repeat myselfJ.
It takes 21 days to a new habit. Maybe you want to develop the habit of a half hour of daily reading of inspirational materials. The key to making it become a habit is to set a time every day for reading and then just do it as the Nike slogan goes. However, if you want to reach mastery level, it will take on average 10,000 focused hours of practice and then some.
Simple isn’t it? Yes, but not always easy to do.
Like anything we learn about developing habits of successful achievement, we need to be very consistent and do it over and over again, with enthusiasm, until it becomes habit. Remember, have the energy and enthusiasm and be eager and excited to excel. What could be better than the journey of self-discovery, self-improvement, and heightened awareness as you become the person you were designed to be.
Set the tone…be the Model of Excellence every day in every way!
Have you ever wondered how a logo really works in people’s minds? How they serve not only as a shortcut for recognition but can also elicit feelings associated with that particular brand?
Here’s a fascinating infographic detailing the step-by-step for how our brains process logos.
The Mysterious Lives of Cats Captured in Black and White Photography:
With Halloween upon us, I thought I would share some interesting facts about America’s favorite spooky holiday. 🙂
In 1584, after French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence region of North America, he reported finding “gros melons.” The name was translated into English as “pompions,” which has since evolved into the modern “pumpkin.”
The British and Americans really love their pumpkins – 18,952 tons of the stuff are sold in the UK and US during Halloween season. That’s enough pumpkins to make 41 million pumpkin pies.
The largest pumpkin pie ever baked was in 2005 and weighed 2,020 pounds.
Pumpkins have been grown in North America for five thousand years. They are indigenous to the western hemisphere.
Pumpkin seeds should be planted between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow and are picked in October when they are bright orange in color. Their seeds can be saved to grow new pumpkins the next year.
On October 31st this year it is estimated that some 41 million ghosts, ghouls, superheroes, witches, princesses, and presidents will be going from door to door in the US looking for enough candy to make it through until Christmas (or at least Thanksgiving). In fact consumers are projected to spend $75.03 per person, with an average of $27.85 on costumes and $22.37 on candy according to the National Retail Federation.
According to the National Confectioners Association candy sales are expected to reach $2.5 billion in sales across the US. The study shows that chocolate is the favorite Halloween candy, followed closely by candy corn (more than 35 million pounds are produced each year). It is now estimated that more than twice as much chocolate is sold for Halloween as for Valentine’s Day, with 90 million pounds of chocolate sold during the week running up to Halloween.
86 percent of Americans buy candy during the Halloween season.
Most people know orange and black are traditional Halloween colors, but might not know why: Orange represents the fall harvest and black represents the darkness associated with death of summer.
Hope everyone gets more treats than tricks, and has a happy and safe Halloween!
Thanks this week go to Peter Barron S, Steph. L, Isabelle A, JSJ, Robin M, Margaret M, & Larry H.
The Most Brilliant Life Hacks to Your Make Life Easier
Some of World’s Greatest Job Perks from the Daily Good
Fly High in The Isle of Skye
Delightful Family Portraits
Thrive with A.L.O.H.A. with Dr. Paul Pearsall:
There’s a woman I met many years ago who’s a perfect example of someone who has discovered the secret of invincibility. In Hawaii, we call her Tutu Mama. She was a 100-year-old Hawaiian lady who just passed away.
I will never forget her, because she taught me much about the thriving character. This is a woman who knew terrible poverty; hid under the bed during Pearl Harbor here in Hawaii while the bombs destroyed everything around her. People she loved, killed. She saw it all and had every reason to be angry, resentful, and broken, but she was not. I never saw her without a smile.
And I thought I’d share with you something that I’ve almost memorized in my heart, because she sat with me a while ago. She was the lady who gave me my Hawaiian name, Ka’ikena. It means person charged with sharing the vision. I remember when she gave me the name, because I asked her, “Tutu, you suffered so. How can you be so happy, so giving, so loving? How can you laugh so easily? How can you be so strong when so many bad things have happened?”
She looked at me, smiled, took a hold of my ear and tugged on it playfully and laughed. “Poor Ka’ikena,” she said. “You have so much to learn. Let me teach you a simple formula for what you call thriving in your own science research, for we have known for centuries what thriving is. I’ll tell you how I do it.
It’s the words of Aloha, A-L-O-H-A.
‘A’ stands for the word Ahonui. That’s persistent patience. Wait; be patient. That brings happiness. Don’t be in such a hurry. The world is such a fast-paced place. I find my joy in just sitting, waiting, and listening.” Ahonui, patience expressed with perseverance. Are you a patient person?
…Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from email. Patience! You’re not that important. I am so tired of hearing these answering machines. “Hi, I’m not here, but your call is very important to me.” Sure it’s important to you. Then why the hell aren’t you there if it’s so important!
My answering machine says this. “Hello.” (I then include a phrase in Hawaiian). And then they usually hang up. Or, the next question. “This is not an answering machine; this is a questioning machine. It asks, What do you want? Which is a very important existential question. So reflect carefully before responding.” What I hear, usually hear, is, that’s it, click, it’s gone. That gets rid of a lot of unwanted calls.
I’m so sick of cell phones going off and buzzers going off and beepers in people’s pockets, buzzing, buzzz… That’s crazy. Very crazy. I was in the airport the other day and a guy next to me was saying, “When I get home I am going to make love to you.” I thought he was talking to me. He was talking to his wife on the phone. What’s the matter with this man?
So please, people, pick on these people. Don’t be a hyper-croniac. Are you a re-button-izer? How many people here push elevator buttons that are already lit? That’s stupid! I saw you guys the other night. You walk up to the elevator, they’re both lit, 10 people are standing there, you go in front and go pghgh, There, I am the top producer. Ha ha! I will push this elevator… Man. Have you seen the elevator button that says, close door? I spoke to the Otis Elevator company. That is a placebo. That button doesn’t work. It’s there to quiet you down so you can… push it. Crazy. Now the cynics are going to go out in the elevator, let me just test what he said, cause I don’t believe it, okay.
Are you a lane counter? How many people here count the number of items in a person’s grocery cart in the express lane to be sure it belongs there? That’s sick! Very sick. Are you a lane leaper? Do you see several lines and you tell people, “I’m in all of these. I’m in any one of these.” Very sick. Or you go to work and you’ve been at that traffic light every day of your life, and you think it’s broken so you keep going, come on. phghghg. Try to move it. Or do you get in buffet lines, and are you a pelvic pusher? Do you do this? “Come on, lady. Come on.” Or escalator hopper, hopping down escalators, they’re not fast enough for me. I’ve got to get down here faster than this. I see people on airplanes, the plane’s coming in and they’re already standing up bent over like this waiting to get off. What is that about? Why don’t you set your okole down and count quarters or something. Now you’re all going to be more patient, right?
So never forget the first “A” in Aloha, Ahonui, persistent patience. That will help you thrive.
She said, “You also ask how I stay so happy and smile so often. It’s because of the second letter, ‘L,’ the second word: Lo Kahi. Lo Kahi means harmonious connection.” It means staying connected not only with your family, but with your ancestors, the land, and a higher power, and being aware of that connection every day.
“Then there’s the ‘O,’ Ka’ikena, Olu’olu. That means pleasantly agreeable.” We have to stop fighting. We have to stop the arguing, the cynical negativity. What’s happened to us? Please remember; it’s very important to choose peace over always trying to be right.
“Then comes the ‘H’ in Aloha, A-L-O-H, Ha’aha’a. That means humbly modest. I think you modern people are too concerned with your self-esteem.” What about other regards? What about realizing that it’s important sometimes just to shut up and learn from others, not to always be assertive, not always try to get your way, not to be so demanding? Have a good sense of humor; laugh. Never forget laughter.
Now you know the “A,” the “L,” the “O”, and the “H.”
“Now, Ka’ikena,” she said to me, “Never forget Akahai; that means gentle, tender kindness. When you walk, when you talk, when you listen, when you look at a child, when you look at an older person, do you look with kindness? Do you feel kindness? Therein I find my strength. I find it in Aloha.
The Most Brilliant Life Hacks to Make Your Life Easier
IN CASE YOU DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW THIS LITTLE TIDBIT OF TRIVIA…………..
ON JULY 20, 1969, AS COMMANDER OF THE APOLLO 11 LUNAR MODULE, NEIL ARMSTRONG WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO SET FOOT ON THE MOON.
HIS FIRST WORDS AFTER STEPPING ON THE MOON, “THAT’S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND,” WERE TELEVISED TO EARTH AND HEARD BY MILLIONS.
BUT, JUST BEFORE HE RE-ENTERED THE LANDER, HE MADE THE ENIGMATIC REMARK
“GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY.”
MANY PEOPLE AT NASA THOUGHT IT WAS A CASUAL REMARK CONCERNING SOME RIVAL SOVIET COSMONAUT. HOWEVER, UPON CHECKING, THERE WAS NO GORSKY IN EITHER THE RUSSIAN OR AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAMS .
OVER THE YEARS, MANY PEOPLE QUESTIONED ARMSTRONG AS TO WHAT THE ‘GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY’ STATEMENT MEANT, BUT ARMSTRONG ALWAYS JUST SMILED.
ON JULY 5, 1995, IN TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA , WHILE ANSWERING QUESTIONS FOLLOWING A SPEECH, A REPORTER BROUGHT UP THE 26-YEAR-OLD QUESTION ABOUT Mr. Gorsky TO ARMSTRONG.
THIS TIME HE FINALLY RESPONDED BECAUSE HIS MR. GORSKY HAD JUST DIED, SO NEIL ARMSTRONG FELT HE COULD NOW ANSWER THE QUESTION.
HERE IS THE ANSWER TO “WHO WAS MR. GORSKY”:
IN 1938, WHEN HE WAS A KID IN A SMALL MID-WESTERN TOWN, HE WAS PLAYING BASEBALL WITH A FRIEND IN THE BACKYARD.
HIS FRIEND HIT THE BALL, WHICH LANDED IN HIS NEIGHBOR’S YARD BY THEIR BEDROOM WINDOW.
HIS NEIGHBORS WERE MR. AND MRS. GORSKY.
AS HE LEANED DOWN TO PICK UP THE BALL, YOUNG ARMSTRONG HEARD
MRS. GORSKY SHOUTING AT MR. GORSKY,
“SEX! YOU WANT SEX?!
YOU’LL GET SEX WHEN THE KID NEXT DOOR WALKS ON THE MOON!”
It broke the place up.
NEIL ARMSTRONG’S FAMILY CONFIRMED THAT THIS IS A TRUE STORY.
Happy Soul Food Friday! 