Simple Stuff

(Simple Stuff is simply a bunch of inspirational, motivational and other quotes meant to make you think, reflect, smile, even laugh a bit. Hopefully helpful, useful stuff….)

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. -Michael Jordan

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free. -Jim Morrison

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. -Nelson Mandela

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. -Mark Twain

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. -Winston Churchill

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself. -Charlie Chaplin

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How to Overcome Your Fears

HERE IS A GOOD, RELEVANT ARTICLE, FYI….   Nate Kennedy’s Entrepreneurs Report is a digital newsletter dedicated to bringing information that will inform and empower business owners, solo-preneurs, and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Fear is a silent thief.    It is responsible for robbing more dreams than any other culprit.   It has been, and still is, keeping you from creating the life you desire.   For most people, despite knowing they could be more, they will still be stopped by their fears.   Heck, I’m guilty of it,   But constantly pushing myself past my fears has become a major reason for my success.   Many people get involved in real estate investing and stop before ever giving it a real push. They are overcome and consumed by fear.   Fear of failure, fear they are going to get into trouble, go into debt or do something wrong.   But if achieving financial independence is something you are serious about, at some point it will become necessary to learn how to deal with these fears and take action despite them.   I once heard that our dreams lie on the other side of our fears. I believe that and I also believe we are meant for greatness.   And it’s when we begin to take action despite being afraid, that life begins to take on an almost mystical nature.   We see our lives change as we realize that our worst fears, were really nothing to be afraid of at all.   One of the biggest realizations I’ve had, is that fear never really goes away.   T. Harv Eker, bestselling author of the “Secrets of a Millionaire Mind” relates fear to a Cobra. He says we must learn to tame the cobra of fear, and take action regardless of how we feel.   As you begin to take action and gain more experience, fear does decrease, but it never goes away completely.   So stop waiting.   Take action then deal with the consequences and adjust as you go.It’s the only way.   Your worst fears will often never be as bad as you imagine.   And the results you get will prove to change your life.   Have Fun. Give Back.   Nate Kennedy   P.S. There are two types of people in this world. People who can be stopped, and people who can’t be stopped. Which one are you?

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Fear as an Excuse

Did you ever notice that when you’re at a family get together, or some other social event where you’re with friends or people that you know really well, you can sometimes notice others making excuses?

Sometimes we see others making excuses for not doing/trying/being/living, right?

Often times the excuses are based on FEAR.

I have some people in my life that are great people, and I love them a lot, but they are controlled by, and limited by their Fears.

It is easy to sit there and look at those people, almost in a judgmental way, and that’s not good, typically, nor is it what I want to point out or what I want you to do. We can always learn from watching others – but my point is this:

We ALL use Fear as an Excuse!

If you’re looking at your relatives or your friends and you see them making excuses and using Fear to hold them back in some way – If you’re really HONEST with yourself and aware, you can often see yourself in others.

I was at a nice picnic this weekend and a few of the ladies were there and just full of fear for so many things and they were talking about many things in their lives that they just didn’t want to do or “just couldn’t”.

At first I got a little judgmental and thought “Tsk!”, then I stopped myself. I tried to look at them and see what I didn’t like – and what it was in me.

I saw how I use Fear as an excuse. Recently I’ve had various opportunities in my career and with real estate. In the past I had a bad real estate experience, so I chose to pass on this opportunity. Looking back, it wasn’t a great decision to pass like I did – I at least needed to spend more time researching – but my fears about the past clouded my current-day decision.

How are you using Fear to hold you back, consciously or unconsciously?

What can you do to wipe out fear so you can make better decisions?
What can you do to wipe out fear so that you can live your life?

What kinds of questions can you ask yourself to change this habit?

What kinds of things can you do to interrupt the pattern of fear?

Look at all of the times, the opportunities, the ‘stuff of life’ that you may have missed.

Could you be better off if you were less fearful?
Live Life and Drop Fear.

www.onewebstrategy.com

Throw Out Your Business Plan and Create a Business Map

(below is a LinkedIn post by Tony Robbins)

May 31, 2013 – Anthony (Tony) Robbins – Chairman at Anthony Robbins Holdings, Inc.

The pace of change has accelerated to the point where a business plan is no longer enough to plot the future of your business with any certainty. Disruptive technologies or unexpected competitors can come along and displace your business overnight. How do you position your business in this hyper-competitive environment?

Different from a business plan, which will likely be obsolete in five years, a business map helps you close the gap between where you are and where you want to be. This is force #1 of the 7 Forces of Business Mastery: Know Where You Really Are and Create an Effective Business Map.

To create an effective business map, first ask yourself “What business am I in?”

And then drill a little deeper. For instance, what business is Starbucks in? Most people would say the coffee business. But ask Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and he will likely tell you about his trip to Italy, where he saw people eagerly meeting in cafes before and after work. He saw the promise of a transitional meeting place between home and work, and that was the seed that grew into Starbucks. He knew his business was about creating an experience, not just delivering coffee.

The next two questions are: “What business am I really in?” and “How is business?”

How is this useful? Back in the early 1900s, if railroad companies in the U.S. realized that they were really in the transportation business, not the railroad business, they could have prevented the entire industry from going bankrupt as the trucking industry took over.

Having a business map really means framing your business in terms that enable you to see opportunities (and threats) that you might otherwise overlook. Knowing what business you’re really in means having a deep and thorough understanding of your customer and the value they gain from you.

Once you really understand how to consistently offer more value than anyone else in your market, you’re in a better position to identify where you are now, and what it will take to get to where you want to be.

You’ll have more certainty about what your business needs to grow now, and you’ll be better able to steer your organization in accordance with that vision. Most important, you’ll understand what business you need to be in to become the dominant force in your market.

A system of constant strategic innovations is the ultimate advantage.

Apple. Facebook. Tom’s Shoes. What do all of these groundbreaking companies have in common? Learn the secrets behind their effective business maps and the rest of the 7 Forces of Business Mastery.

Simple Stuff

(Simple Stuff is simply a bunch of inspirational, motivational and other quotes meant to make you think, reflect, smile, even laugh a bit. Hopefully helpful, useful stuff….)

 How do you immediately improve your life? By discovering and modeling the habitual questions of people you respect. If you find someone who’s extremely happy, Ican guarantee you there’s one reason: this person focuses relentlessly on whatever makes him or her happy, and continually asks questions about how to become even happier. People who do well financially ask different questions as they look at investments than people who produce meager rewards. Noah St. John

Ask any question, just before you sleep, and it will be answered. Actually, you can ask any question, any time you like, and you’ll be answered, but mornings your “hearing” is often best.  Yes, we can hear you now –     The Universe (www.tut.com)

Whatever you fail to use you lose. An easy way to interrupt a pattern is simply to avoid indulging in it. A nerve pathway unused will gradually atrophy. Beware, however: this works for both the negative and the positive. Courage unused diminishes; commitment unexercised wanes; passion unexpressed dissipates. Tony Robbins

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. –Mahatma Gandhi

                                                         .

 Weather forecast for tonight: dark.  – George Carlin

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Finding Your Passion

Here is a very good, short video from Peter Diamandis.

I also highly recommend his other videos and his book “ABUNDANCE”

Peter’s Abundance Espresso Shot #3: Finding Your Passion

http://youtu.be/btRmGf2IhCM

Feel Important !

When you’re with a group of people, how do you want to feel?
Think about it….whether it is at work or socially…..

….in most cases people want to feel important (among other things)!

When someone in your past has treated you as an important person, or someone listens to you and your thoughts, or you’re a client and they treat you like a VIP – you feel important and that feels good.

Maybe you have a friend, a teacher, a mentor – someone that truly thinks you are important and they treat you that way.

You feel pretty good right?

You feel like you’re special, like you can do things and you have more confidence.

Do you make or let others feel important?

I know a gentleman, I don’t get a chance to see him much anymore, but he always made me feel special. He listened to me and I could tell he valued what I said.

I know that he was much smarter than I was and I probably didn’t have much new to say or much to add to his knowledge on things, but he never acted that way.

I had the chance to see him out in public somewhere – a group of us had to go to the supermarket to buy food for an activity.

It was amazing, he asked a clerk where something was and he made that clerk feel special! The guy left smiling and had a spring in his step!

Later at the cashier, he made her feel special, too! She smiled to herself and looked happy doing her job.

I wish I noticed more what he said – it wasn’t much….it was a few passing words, a smile, a question or two perhaps – but the ‘special’ part was no more than 2 minutes – probably 1 minute.

Some people are born with the gift, like he was, but we all can develop it.

Think of ways that you can make others feel special each day.

At work – your boss, co-workers, your clients, your support team, etc.

At home – your spouse, your children, neighbors

In life – friends, mentors, protégés, community members

It doesn’t matter what your job or career is – whether you’re in sales, teaching, medicine, art – making others feel important will help you and help them – and help you accomplish your mission – whatever that is.

Here’s a set of good Questions of Power:

1. How can I make others feel important each day?
2. What things can I say or to make others feel important?
3. What makes me feel important?
4. Why do I feel important?

Everyone  has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, ‘Make me feel important.’  Never forget this message when working with people. – Mary Kay  Ash
Thanks!
www.onewebstrategy.com

A Quick Thought…

Why the Inside Matters

A great post from Wayne Dyer’s blog

———–

5/15/13 at 9:00 am | 9 Comments   by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer http://www.drwaynedyer.com/blog/latest

I’m in the middle of what has become my annual Canada tour and it’s such a pleasure to feel all the love from my spiritual kinspeople here. I think of myself as “almost Canadian” since my parents were both born in Ontario, my father in Chatham in 1914 and my mother in Hamilton in 1916. I grew up in Detroit and Canada is part of my world. Last month I spoke at the Hay House I Can Do It Conference in Vancouver—wonderful and beautiful as always. And on June 29, I’ll be speaking at the Hay House I Can Do It Conference in Toronto. It’s the weekend before Canada Day on July 1 so maybe we’ll have some early fireworks to enjoy.

I have some great Canada stories, like the time I got lost in Vancouver’s Stanley Park and instead of my usual six miles ended up running a marathon before I found my way out! Lately, I’ve been sharing one of my favorite Toronto experiences with my audiences. It happened several years ago when an unsuspecting young man helped me illustrate an eternal truth we all need to be reminded of:

I was preparing to speak at an I Can Do It conference and I decided to bring an orange on stage with me as a prop for my lecture. I opened a conversation with a bright young fellow of about twelve who was sitting in the front row.

“If I were to squeeze this orange as hard as I could, what would come out?” I asked him.

He looked at me like I was a little crazy and said, “Juice, of course.”

“Do you think apple juice could come out of it?”

“No!” he laughed.

“What about grapefruit juice?”

“No!”

“What would come out of it?”

“Orange juice, of course.”

“Why? Why when you squeeze an orange does orange juice come out?”

He may have been getting a little exasperated with me at this point. “Well, it’s an orange and that’s what’s inside.”

I nodded. “Let’s assume that this orange isn’t an orange, but it’s you. And someone squeezes you, puts pressure on you, says something you don’t like, offends you. And out of you comes anger, hatred, bitterness, fear. Why? The answer, as our young friend has told us, is because that’s what’s inside.”

It’s one of the great lessons of life.  What comes out when life squeezes you?  When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside. It doesn’t matter who does the squeezing—your mother, your brother, your children, your boss, the government. If someone says something about you that you don’t like, what comes out of you is what’s inside. And what’s inside is up to you, it’s your choice.

When someone puts the pressure on you and out of you comes anything other than love, it’s because that’s what you’ve allowed to be inside. Once you take away all those negative things you don’t want in your life and replace them with love, you’ll find yourself living a highly functioning life.

Thanks, my young friend, and here’s an orange for you!

Father’s Day

Father’s Day

First, Happy Father’s Day!

I lost my dad in 2009. He was a great dad.

Growing up, many of my friends liked him because he joked around, remembered their names, and was friendly. I was sometimes embarrassed by my dad then and thought he talked too much. Now that I’m a father, I strive to be like him. I am sometimes a bit silly with my daughters’ friends and I like to play jokes on them. I try to smile a lot like my father did. I’m sure my daughters get embarrassed by me now and then, but that’s OK.

I had the opportunity to work with my dad in a family business. We also traveled together on business trips. Looking back, I really feel fortunate for having done this with him. I gained so much. Years later having worked in many other business environments with many other managers, I know that my dad was giving, gracious, helpful and good boss. In life and in business, my dad gave me some guidance but also gave independence so that I would learn on my own, even if it meant having failures or mistakes come my way. He made his own mistakes and took risk, and he shared many of those lessons with me.

I look back and shake my head at those times I was embarrassed by him, times that I was impatient or angry at him. I used to feel sorry for myself because everyone always asked about my dad and not about me. My ego got in the way. I often felt that his ‘shoes were hard to fill’ and I felt inadequate in his shadow.

Today I just miss having him around.

The other day I saw someone cutting down a tree with a chainsaw. The saw dust, sound and smell triggered a moment when my father and I were cutting down a tree one hot summer day, years ago. The saw dust was sticking to our sweaty arms and we were moving the logs and branches around. I think we polished the evening off with a cold, refreshing iced tea and a nice walk with our dog Greta down the road we lived on, which was lined by large Scotch Pine trees. There was a gentle whisper as the warm summer breeze blew through the pine branches.  I was glad that I was in the moment then. I try to be in the moment now with my own daughters; you never know what or which memory will stick with you.

If your dad is still around, tell him how you really feel and share a good memory with him, then go create a new one with him.

If your dad is gone, give thanks and share a good memory with someone else, and then go create a new one with someone you care about.

Best regards,

Jim

Dad taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, he didn’t teach me everything he knows.
Al Unser

To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.
Euripides

It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
Anne Sexton