It gave me the day to reflect on this post.

You’ve all heard the saying; the glass is half-empty or the glass is half-full. In my opinion, it’s all about the choices you make and the way you choose to perceive the glass.

For me, I always try my best to focus on the glass being half-full. But I wonder if we could do better?

After all, as gifted and as privileged as we are to live in a society and area where most of us have the ability to eat on a daily basis, drink clean water, see a movie when we want, or eat a Big Mac, almost all of us can find problems within our own lives.

We can almost always find something to complain about.

Lots of people spend all their lives focusing on the glass. For many, it’s not even half-full, the glass is nearly empty, if not bone dry.

These people are nearly always the unsuccessful people who feel they were dealt a poor hand.

And maybe they were. I’m not one to say what your glass looks like. It’s a personal choice.

The most successful people I know are the most positive. They always see the glass as half-full. The best part of this type of attitude is they approach the glass knowing that filling it to the top is within reach.

Here’s a guarantee I can make to you.

Become a half-full glass type of person. Focus on not just maintaining your half-full glass, but make the sucker overflow. Today, my glass is flooded.

I guarantee and promise you’ll see positive results.

Overflow the glass.

P.S. It’s a girl.

Those of us who are in business, thinking about starting a new venture, or just looking to increase our success, often hear something referred to as the “fear of failure.”

Every single success and motivational book you’ll read will talk about the “fear of failure” as one of the, if not the top most debilitating fear, when it comes to stepping outside our comfort zones.

When will we start being honest and start calling it what it really is? Let’s call a spade a spade.

It’s really the “fear that our friends, family, and co-workers will talk about us behind our backs about their opinions of us.” We fear what they will think and say.

The good news is that your friends, family, and co-workers already talk behind your back, but you rarely hear about it. And when they do talk about you, they’re doing so because they are really the ones who are afraid.

They’re afraid because you’ve ventured off the path of easy-street.

They’re afraid because you’ve gone astray and started creating your own map.

They’re afraid because you’ve left the comforts of mediocrity.

They’re more fearful than you will ever be, because they’re scared shitless that you might actually succeed.

And even when you FAIL, and you will, they become even more fearful, and even more resentful, because they see you rise up and try again.

The super-successful understand that failure only makes them stronger.

Once you understand this, what is left for you to really be afraid of?

Venture on.

From Hugh MacLeod of GapingVoid.com and his book Ignore Everybody

Merit can be bought. Passion can’t.

The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.

Human beings have this thing I call the “Pissed Off Gene”. It’s that bit of our psyche that makes us utterly dissatisfied with our lot, no matter how kindly fortune smiles upon us.

Your business either lets you go hunt the woolly mammoth or it doesn’t. Of course, like so many white-collar jobs these days, you might very well be offered a ton of money to sit in the corner-office cave and pretend that you’re hunting, even if you’re not, even if you’re just pushing pencils. That is sad. What’s even sadder is that you agreed to take the money.

From Hugh MacLeod of GapingVoid.com and his book Ignore Everybody

P.S. Enjoy the Weekend!



That thing you’ve been putting off for months now. That new business venture you’ve been talking about. That great idea for an iPhone app you thought about. That exercise program you’ve been thinking about starting. The nutrition plan you were going to stick with. The marketing course you were going to take.

The discipline of starting something now, and sticking with it, can be painful. It’s painful because it requires some sacrifice. No success comes without some sort of sacrifice.

Sacrifice might mean having a salad while everyone else has pizza, or you might have to work Friday and Saturday nights go get that restaurant going. You may even need to sacrifice money and buy less, or live a little more frugally.

All this sacrifice can hurt, but that’s just the beginning. You need to build up self discipline and stick with it to get through the dip.

I know, I know… The pain can be unbearable at times.

I’ve got a feeling though, it will hurt a hell of a lot less than regret.

First is the “go get-em” way. This is the Tony Robbins style of motivation. “Stand up and say I!” It’s the same ole think positive, set goals, and grow rich type of inspiration.

The problem with this type of inspiration is that it acts a lot like kindling. You never actually put a log on the fire. It looks like it’s going to burn, the fire almost starts, its smoking, and you quickly add more kindling; but before you can add the log, the flame goes out and then we start all over again.

The second type of inspiration comes in the form of real, concrete, “this is how I did it” type of information. This might be a book about the history of Starbucks, or Donald Trump, or Duncan Bannatyne.

The problem with this type of motivation is, while it’s packed with ideas, processes, and steps to follow, it never inspires you to take the leap (or start step one).

The third and final type of motivation has to come from one single source – you.

This is the hardest part of the inspiration puzzle because it’s the hardest piece to find.

In a way, you need a mix of all three to truly get inspired. Method one acts as the kindling. You build up a pretty solid base of confidence and personal development. Method two is equally important as you improve your perspective and gain an understanding from those who went before you. It’s the same as if you soak the kindling with a little bit of gasoline.

Method three is the match.

Without the match, method one and two will only get you so far.

Bring matches.

You.

My wife likes to tell the story while we were walking on a trail in Newfoundland, and literally bumped into a massive moose, it was I who turned around and bolted in the opposite direction, leaving her to snap a few photos (including this one).

But when an emergency arises, a few things happen. First, the adrenalin goes up and the heart starts beating faster and faster until you can actually feel it pounding against your chest. Secondly, time seems to either stand still or fly by. And finally, fear kicks in and instincts, like self-preservation, will drive us to make fast, quick, reactive decisions.

Of course, fast, quick and reactive decisions usually aren’t the best decisions. Granted, in a bad enough situation (where time is of the essence) you’ll usually want to go with these decisions…Fast!

But let’s say for example that today, around 4:00 pm, you get called into your manager’s office. He lets you know that they’ve decided to let you go. You’re free to pack up your desk and not come back tomorrow.

I have no doubt that your heart will be beating and thumping against your chest as you drive home to tell your spouse the news.

But once you’re out of immediate danger, now’s not the time to make a bad situation worse. Now is the time to use your brain and assess the situation. This is where logic needs to kick in. This is the moment where you begin to carefully assess all options. This is true survivor mode. This is the moment you use the one tool you’ve had in your arsenal all along – your brain. Use it wisely.

Don’t jump at the first opportunity. Don’t start spamming your resume to hundreds of employers. Don’t panic and use up all your resources. Don’t eat anything you’re not sure about. Use this time to carefully analyze the situation and plan for your survival. You might be in it for the long haul. The good news is, this might be a blessing in disguise.

Oh, but if you see a bear, run like hell.

We’re adults now. We know everything we need to know. Why would I need any help? I’ve put in my time.

Coaching? Why would I need a coach?

This of course, brings up the obvious question, why do sports teams need to be coached?

After all, these are guys and girls that have played the sport their entire lives, they’ve reached the pinnacle of success – the pro-leagues, - and yet they are still constantly under the wings of professional coaches and leadership.

Of course teams are different from individuals, right?

But…

Why would Lance Armstrong need a coach to improve his cycling?

Why would the manager need a coach to improve his management skills?

Why would the brain surgeon need coaching on learning new brain surgery techniques?

But us regular folk – we’re beyond that, right? We finished school. We got our degrees. We got drafted into the real world. We’re pros now.

But we’re driven by our egos. We believe it’s easier to look strong, stand up tall, and put on a smiley face, than it is to resort to asking for help.

Seeking help has been typecast in our society as a sign of weakness. We’ve gone and made it almost embarrassing. We’d rather just muster on and try to do it ourselves.

Before Tiger’s “issues,” he was often used as an example by coaches about the importance of continued coaching and training. Tiger is adamant about constantly improving his skills. He was never beyond learning from his coach. He could always learn from his coach, or even other golfers. Tiger was known to practice for hours and literally BEG for his coach to point out an issue with his swing, or his stance, or his grip.

He obviously could have used coaching beyond his sport, but that’s beyond this post

Here’s my take on it.

When you’re willing to accept that there IS a lot more to learn, you can drastically improve your skills. A coach can actually teach you something, or point out your flaws or help you with where to focus your  practice time. That’s when you’ve entered the professional league.

Seeking help, guidance, and new knowledge to become bigger, stronger, faster, is the ultimate sign of strength. The real pros always know there is someone better out there who can teach them a thing or two.

So ask yourself, what league are you in? Pick one.

The Pros or  the Amateurs?

I’m being sarcastic.

Infomercials about money-making opportunities, to me, represent a speeding one-way bullet train.

• The train has limited seating.
• It’s only staying at the station for a short time.
• The price keeps going up the longer you wait.
• There are lots of other great people are already on the train, even celebrities like Chuck Norris!!!
• This train can change your life.
• You’ll reach the final destination earlier, we guarantee it or your money back.

My advice is to skip the train. Let it go on by. Don’t get on.

When an opportunity presents itself that looks like the over-capacity speeding bullet train, and these trains don’t just show up on TV; they show up in the stock market, real estate, and business opportunities, to mention a few. I suggest you save yourself some grief and let it go on by. These trains almost always get derailed just out of the station.

There’s a far more reliable train coming along shortly. It’s just a slower ride.

You’re right at the top.

You’re almost there.

Only a few steps to go.

And then you hit that damn snake, and you’re knocked all the way down to the bottom.

As a kid, it was just a fun game. But when I think about it now, I realize just how close it resembles real life.

Occasionally we hit a ladder, of good luck or fortune, and up we go.

Occasionally, we hit a snake of bad luck or misfortune, and we experience a setback.

The problem now is that each and every day, we hear about more and more people near the finish line and then suddenly, out-of-nowhere, they hit that big mother of a snake. You know the one I’m talking about, the one that knocks you right back almost to the beginning.

You might as well start over, or give up entirely. You can’t catchup.

It seems to me, though, the actual game board has changed. There are more snakes than ever before, especially in that last row. There might be the odd spot here and there with an opening, and if you make the perfect roll of the dice, you might just make it. If you roll anything but a 4, you’re screwed.

It’s pretty risky to place everything on the roll of the dice, don’t ya think?

The new option is to just not play the game anymore. I’m not.