Happy Soul Food Friday!

Happy Soul Food Friday!

It is better to give than receive…

Enjoy this link sharing holiday cheer and your SFF for the end of this year

This week:

Humor: UPS Pilots and Maintenance

Obsolescence: Ten Things That Will Eventually Disappear In Our Lifetime

Aspiration: Can we Hold Ourselves to a Higher Standard Than Self-Interest?

Perspective: Putting America’s 16 Trillion Dollar Economy in Global Perspective:

Freedom: Flying with Hawks at Torrey Pines:

Wonder: It’s An Amazing World

Humor: UPS Pilots and Maintenance

After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a  ‘gripe sheet,’
which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft.

The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs
on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the
next flight.
Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of
humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots
(marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit
S: Something tightened in cockpit

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a
midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from the midget.

Obsolescence: Ten Things That Will Eventually Disappear In Our Lifetime

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them.

But, ready or not, here they come…

1. The Post Office
   Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in
   financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email,
   FedEx, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to
   keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.
2. The Check
   Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with check by 2018. It
   costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic
   cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check.
   This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills
   by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely
   go out of business.
3. The Newspaper
   The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly
   don’t subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the
   milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to
   pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all
   the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met
   with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model
   for paid subscription services.
4. The Book
   You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand
   and turn the literal pages I said the same thing about downloading music from
   iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I
   discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home
   to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse
   a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the
   price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once
   you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that
   you are lost in the story, can’t wait to see what happens next, and you forget
   that you’re holding a gadget instead of a book.
5. The Land Line Telephone
   Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don’t need it
   anymore. Most people keep it simply because they’ve always had it. But you
   are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies
   will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against
   your minutes.
6. Music
   This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is
   dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It’s the lack of
   innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would
   like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and
   the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music
   purchased today is “catalogue items,” meaning traditional music that the public
   is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert
   circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the
   book, “Appetite for Self-Destruction” by Steve Knopper, and the video
   documentary, “Before the Music Dies.”
7. Television Revenues
   To the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy.
   People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And
   they’re playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time
   that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down
   to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing
   and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good
   riddance to most of it. It’s time for the cable companies to be put out of
   our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and
   through Netflix.
8. The “Things” That You Own
   Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but
   we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in
   “the cloud.” Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your
   pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD,
   and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing.
   Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest “cloud services.”
   That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into
   the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied
   straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the
   Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you
   may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world,
   you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop
   or handheld device. That’s the good news. But, will you actually own any of
   this “stuff” or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big “Poof?”
   Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes
   you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from
   the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.
9. Joined Handwriting (Cursive Writing) 
   Once called Penmanship. Already gone in some schools who no longer teach
   “joined handwriting” because nearly everything is done now on computers or
   keyboards of some type (pun not intended)
10. Privacy
    If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would
    be privacy. That’s gone. It’s been gone for a long time anyway.. There are
    cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your
    computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, “They” know who
    you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the
    Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion
    profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits.. “They” will try
    to get you to buy something else. Again and again and again.

All we will have left that which can’t be changed… are our “Memories” and even these are selective…

Can we Hold Ourselves to a Higher Standard Than Self-Interest?

By Will Marre

Business is bad. I am not referring to financial performance but rather moral performance. Capitalism is amoral. It has no intrinsic moral agenda. You can start an enterprise that makes boatloads of money selling cigarettes or selling treatments for the lung cancer it causes.  Actually both these business models are currently thriving. And as far as most Wall Street investors are concerned there is no distinction between a business whose product is designed to kill people and a business whose products are designed to save people. How did we get here?According to the patron saint economist of modern capitalism, Milton Friedman, the purpose of business is to make money as efficiently as possible. And that’s it. According to his doctrine the only ethical obligation a business leader has is to his investors. Friedman proclaimed the glories of amoral self-interest in a series of PBS programs that aired in the 1970s.  His ideas transformed our MBA schools and sanctified the dogma that “greed is good.” So how is this working for us? Obviously some people at the top of the capitalism food-chain are doing spectacularly well. Today’s radically materialistic capitalism  also justifies workplaces in which employees have no job security, no earned retirement, and are continually told to do more with less. Business leaders have harnessed tools of modern technology to keep their employees working from dawn to midnight. We are told that our life-balance has become both silly and irrelevant in our highly competitive economy. So get over it…“do whatever it takes.” Yet many of the same companies make so much money that they literally don’t know what to do with it. So activist investors insist leaders use the profits you gave your nights and weekends for to buy back their company’s stock. This is simply a magic trick to try to temporarily increase the stock price so that short-term investors can cash out. How could this happen? I spent over three decades advising CEOs and executives of large publicly traded corporations. So I believe I have an answer to how it happened. It’s called Hard Power. Here’s how it works. Brain research that correlates personality types with neural networks reveal that the mental model of highly competitive people tends to focus on power, status, control and self-interest.   The areas of the brain that evaluate stimulus and drive action of hard-charging, self-focused people light up when opportunities for personal gain are detected. This focus is a significant advantage in hierarchical organizations. Since hierarchies concentrate power in the few people at the top, people who are power-driven tend to succeed. Put simply, most business organizations are rigged to reward self-centered, status seeking, goal-focused individuals. This is not a criticism. It is a description of reality. The advantage of highly competitive people is their mastery of hard power. Hard power concentrates energy on goal setting and accountability. The most motivating goals are tangible…achievements that can be easily measured. And there is nothing easier to measure than money. As long as we cling to the insane idea that the primary purpose of business is to make money hard power leaders will define our future. I am concerned that the myopia of hard power thinking will make the world more dangerous and less sustainable than it needs to be. Technology is the wildcard. Today, technology allows the destructive forces of what used to take thousands of people to do to be concentrated in the hands of very few. I’m not just referring to terrorism but also the fate of our entire international financial system, energy grid, clean air, plentiful water, healthy oceans and all of the rest that underlie our quality of life. It’s simple. We are more interdependent now than ever before in history and the flaws of hard power and an amoral view of business creates unprecedented personal vulnerability. So, what’s the solution? Well it’s not soft power. Soft power is rooted in co-operation for mutual benefit. It relies on empathy, collaboration, inclusiveness, open-mindedness and an active interest in the well-being of others. Personality studies of soft power oriented people show they are most interested in helping others achieve their goals. They also want to relieve suffering and solve problems.  In most organizations soft power people are found in mid-level management. Hard power people make the goals and soft power people help them achieve them. Soft power people remain stuck in middle management because they are lousy at speaking up, advocating for their self-interest and pressing their agenda. Often they feel victimized and overwhelmed. Many soft power people fall into the trap of “learned helplessness,” mal-adapting to an ever-decaying status quo. It shouldn’t surprise you that developmental brain research indicates that most men are primarily wired to use hard power and that women’s brains are designed to rely on soft power. Although we don’t know for sure, it appears that about midway through gestation a typical male baby’s developing brain becomes bathed in testosterone which pre-wires later cognitive development for linear thinking, competitiveness, self-interest and struggles with impulse control. Female baby’s brains are bathed in estrogen which appears to trigger their brains to develop more holistic thinking patterns, long-term thinking, empathy and collaborative intelligence. (Although this is not settled neuro-science it sure explains a lot.) When you look at the design advantages of a typical female brain; holistic, long-term, empathetic and collaborative, you can immediately recognize the inherent leadership advantages these abilities bring to modern business organizations. Unfortunately, I found that much of the time these advantages go unrewarded. That’s because business organizations are defectively designed to reward hard power and exploit soft power. This is not some ivory tower theory. I’ve been successfully helping women advance into the highest levels of business leadership for over two decades. I usually do this through one-on-one leadership development. But it is not enough. I have a front row seat to the advancing descent of un-inspired business leadership and the frustration of aspiring women leaders who were being told that to be successful they must become like men.  Although Sheryl Sandberg has made a great commercial success of her “Lean In” advice to women which is that they should just ‘man up,’ I have yet to speak to an audience of women who believe it is realistic or desirable. So what we have is confusion. It seems that many women aspire to power not to change things but to succeed in the system that is giving us the world we already have. I am concerned that I do not hear often enough the idea that if women ran things, things would be better. There seems to be a wavering confidence in the unique mindset that women bring to setting higher goals, a balanced work-life and accepting the mantle of moral authority. I believe that we are at a major turning point. The purpose of business can be forever elevated as a means to improve the quality of life of everyone–customers, employees, suppliers and communities.  In a sane and sustainable world, profits should be a byproduct of genuine value creation.  I believe that women are naturally designed to be the new voice of business leadership. Not one that mimics the shortcomings of hard power but rather the amplifier of Smart Power.  Smart Power is the synthesis of the strengths of results-focused hard power and human-focused soft power. So no, I am not advocating for all women leadership teams. The best leadership teams I coach have a healthy balance of strong men and women who respect each other’s values and viewpoints in the pursuit of human-centered innovation…value that matters to people. I am not an unrealistic dreamer.  A great team of women clients and I recently led our first Leadership SPA (Smart Power Academy) for 33 women leaders from major organizations.  It was designed to be visionary and career changing as well as practical and realistic. What happened was something far greater than I anticipated.  The combined energy of these leaders created individual strategic aspirations and career roadmaps far more powerful than anything I could’ve anticipated. This same team of women is getting together in a few days to forge a path forward. I don’t exactly know what the future will bring but what I do know is that as a global society we simply cannot keep doing what we have been doing. And I sincerely believe this. To go in a higher direction we need women leaders to bring their vision forward and insist that we hold ourselves to a higher standard than self-interest. There is no better time than right now. Putting America’s 16 Trillion Dollar Economy in Global Perspective: With 4.4% of the world’s population, the U.S. produced 22.3% of world GDP in 2012. For example, California would tie with Italy as the 9th largest economy in the world, and produces the same economic output with 37% fewer people See a map here: http://www.businessinsider.com/countries-vs-us-states-gdp-map-2014-2?utm_content=buffer3b18f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Freedom: Flying with Hawks at Torrey Pines: Astounding photography and what an experience. Wonder: It’s An Amazing World Stay Amazed! Mind Blown Enjoy this Holiday Card from all of us at Mission Fed: Thanks this week go to Jeff B, Popeh Z, Larry H, Will M, Brad W, Jehangir J and the Mission Fed team.   Pay it Forward and Happy Holidays! Love, Neville “My mission: “To respectfully understand, passionately inspire, and authentically transform high performance and high fulfillment growth for like-spirited individuals and organizations” –Neville

“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”— Albert Einstein:

This week:

Your Holiday List: If you are working on the Holiday list, this one should give you some inspiration

 Rady Children’s Holiday of Miracles: Serve our Youth in America’s Finest and Kindest City

 Banks Supporting their Communities-This is Cool

 Wash Me for Cancer:

 Honor Our Elders: Here’s to resilience and a youthful state of mind and the inspiration it brings!

Enjoy this Holiday Card from All of Us at Mission Fed

 Your Holiday List:

If you are working on the Holiday list, this one should give you some inspiration

“The most incredible thing about miracles
is that they happen.”— G.K. Chesterton

Rady Children’s Holiday of Miracles:

Serve our Youth in America’s Finest and Kindest City

In the last week, we were blessed to support the Rady Children’s Holiday of Miracle Campaign for the 5^th year in a row.

I will never forget the day we had to take an ambulance from our pediatrician to Children’s Hospital when our child couldn’t breathe.

In a single breath everything changes…

Every year Rady Children’s provides care to 200,000 kids as the go-to-facility for 88% of the kids in San Diego (and many from Orange and Riverside) county, where more than 50% of the families do not have the wherewithal to pay for their care, yet no one is turned away….

Mission Fed does a matching pledge every year, our staff runs the phone banks, and we get on the air to help create awareness of and support for this important cause which we helped re-imagine and rename 5 years ago.

The day we were in doing the live radio-thon, there were 294 kids in the hospital, 28 for cancer or blood disorders, 66 in the medical/surgical unit, 23 in neonatal intensive care, 33 in critical care to mention just a few, and 270 children had visited the ER in the last 24 hours!

We got to hear Athena’s story about her daughter Eve (pictured below), and as a result of the Mission Fed matching offer a KyXy listener named Geneva made a $1,000 call in pledge, along with so many other generous callers.

Through the collective support of our 5^th Annual Holiday of Miracles Radiothon we raised $284,000, which brings the grand total to more than $1,384,000 in five years!

These funds go to support the highest and greatest needs of the hospital which include patient care, technology, equipment and research.

Thanks to all of you that do great work to help our kids stay safe and well, and to the CBS Radio team that puts energy and passion into amplifying this cause every year.

Examples of partnership like this validate that we are indeed America’s Finest and Kindest City!

If you would like to make a tax deductible contribution, before the campaign ends this week , please visit www.KyXy.com

Ways To Donate: Phone: 1.800.258.0007

www.helpsdkids.org/holidayofmiracles

Banks Supporting their Communities- This is Cool

by Paul Greeley

How do you feel about banks?

I know, not a subject that stirs deep emotion. If you feel anything, it might be irritation every time you have to withdraw your cash and you have to pay that $3 fee when you can’t find your bank’s ATM.

And what about bank advertising? Seen any good bank TV ads lately? Yeah, I know.

But here’s something different from TD Bank. It selected 24 mostly random customers and offered them an average amount of $30,000 each to go out and do something good for their community. Start now and you have 24 hours.

What would you do with the money?

Wash me for Cancer:

(a) WASH ME?  or

(b) Do a  pretty drawing?

THIS is SCOTT WADE. Check out what he does with the

dirty cars by carefully and artfully removing portions of the dirt.

According to his web site, he lives real close to a dirt road in San Marcos , Texas .

Scott Wade Examples

IN  MEMORY . . .

These  are the colors that represent the different cancers. All you are asked  to do is keep this circulating. Even if it’s to one more person. In  memory of anyone you know that has been struck by  cancer.

A Candle Loses Nothing by  Lighting Another Candle
Please Keep This Candle  Going!

Honor Our Elders:

Here’s to resilience a youthful state of mind and the inspiration it brings!

Growing Bolder

Enjoy this Holiday Card from All of Us at Mission Fed

 Thanks this week go to the Mission Fed in Red Crew, the CBS Radio team, the Rady Children’s team, Robin M, Scott D, Larry H, all the youth that keep us young, as well as all our elders that teach us how to live, love, learn and leave a legacy!

Pay it Forward. You Can’t Take it With YOU…

Love,

Neville

“Love your enemies and you won’t have any…”

Happy Soul Food Friday!

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…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-dannemiller/the-one-question-every-parent-should-quit-asking_b_6182248.html

Gift #2 We Wish You a Merry Future

An extraordinary and inspiring vision of the future

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-most-extraordinary-and-inspiring-vision-of-the-futu-1664783812/

Gift #3 The Power of Thank YOU

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

Happy Soul Food Friday!

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…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-dannemiller/the-one-question-every-parent-should-quit-asking_b_6182248.html

Gift #2 We Wish You a Merry Future

An extraordinary and inspiring vision of the future

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-most-extraordinary-and-inspiring-vision-of-the-futu-1664783812/

Gift #3 The Power of Thank YOU

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

Keeping Thanksgiving Going…

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:

1. This Thanksgiving ask yourself… who is one person that has really enriched your life.
2. 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.
3. Write down the positive impact and results you have received that you would not have gained without this person’s effort.
4. Write down what your life would be missing without this person in your life.
5. 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.
6. 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.

NATURE NEVER GIVES UP

Never Give Up

Thanks this week to Sue S, Heidi E, Ed D, Will M, David R, Larry H, and all of you that model character!

Stay Soul-filled and Pay it Forward…

Love,

Neville

“There is all the difference in the world between having something to say and having to say something.” — John Dewey

 

This week:

Giving Thanks and Being Grateful:

Happiness IS Contagious- 3 Degrees of Connection

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!

The Epic Photo Shoot

Hundreds Of Mountaineers Climb The Alps For Epic Photoshoot

MOMENTS in History:

What cool used to be like

Thanks given to all -including this week’s contributors Larry H, Anu T and Jack A.

Stay peaceful and joyful and pay it forward!

Love,

Neville

“Lean out in your own way to make a difference in your community,

so that others are inspired to stand up or go out on a limb for what matters”–Neville

 Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

Another View of Veterans Day

               Armistice Day

Creativity: Life Hacks

               46 Things Every Human Being Needs…

Love ALL of It

               By Jon Gordon

Learning: Spotlight on Education

               December 3^rd 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.

Creativity: Life Hacks

These are brilliant!

Epic Dash

Love All of It– Jon Gordon

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 3^rd 2014 Featuring Karen Cator of Digital Promise

If you are local the Spotlight on Education series is definitely worth your time!

Spotlight Flyer 2014 2015 – Karen Cator (2)

Purpose: Start with WHY

Your Golden Circle- Start with your PURPOSE

Learn to Communicate from the Inside Out.

People don’t buy what you do. People buy why you do it!

 

Pictures to Make You Grin

Furry Friends

Mission Fed Invests One Million Dollars

in Financial Education with JA Finance Park

 

 

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!

“See the Change You Want to Be in the World

Be the Change You Want to See in the World”

Love,

Neville

Happy Soul Food Friday!

“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

Rarely Seen special Moments of US History:
Rarely Seen Photos

Thanks this week go to Peter S, Larry H, Anne L, Anurag T, Tricia L, Dan E and Pitch It Forward.

Pitch it Forward or risk a Run Back!

Love,

Neville

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

Time, Talent and Treasure-

• 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 12^th 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.

See more at: http://sdama.org/events/crafting-compelling-brand-narrative-sharpening-competitive-edge/#sthash.ig2KoV5o.dpuf

 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

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/03/357428287/tom-magliozzi-popular-co-host-of-nprs-car-talk-dies-at-77

Divergent v. Creative Thinkers:

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?

Share your results on our Facebook page.

Read Will’s latest leadership/career blog post:
7 Things I Learned in Tibet or What to Gain, What to Give Up
Connect with Will on LinkedIn to be up to date on his latest leadership knowledge and insight.

Animals at the Vet:

Some of the places the animals “hide” due to white coat hypertension.

While we have all had the feeling, their expressions are priceless!

Dogs at Vet

Thanks this week go to the NPD team, Drew S, Ron M, John C, Helene G, Will M, & Larry H, not to mention givers everywhere!

Stay Creative and Present to Win!

Love,

Neville

“Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself” –Chinese Proverb

Happy Soul Food Friday for Halloween 2014!

This week:

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.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/11/us/progeria-sam-berns-dies/

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.

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 “Repetition is the Mother of Skill”  –Tony Robbins

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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!

Increase your K.A.S.H.=>Increase your Influence!

With Gratitude Always!

JSJ

Panda Pandemonium:

Click here

How Logos Work and Elicit Feelings:

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:

http://www.boredpanda.com/black-and-white-cat-photography/

Halloween Factoids:

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.

 Stay Sweet and Treat Those in Your Life Right!

Love,

Neville