Thinks I find along the way
Going viral now… Warning: NSFW!
Manolakos’s version does what covers ought to do; it picks up a song that has sunken into throwback territory, dusts it off, and treats it like a classic.
The New Yorker – Radiohead’s “Creep,” Sung by Prince and Carrie….
How important is the stuff in your life?
Your material possessions—those things you’ve worked so hard for, slaving 40, 50, 60 hours a week to acquire—how much value do they actually add to your life?
We bet it’s less than you realize.
Here’s an exercise for you. Take a moment, write down your 10 most expensive material possessions from the last decade. Things like your car, your house, your jewelry, your furniture, and any other material possessions you own or have owned in the last ten years. The big ticket items.
Next to that list, make another top 10 list: 10 things that add the most value to your life. This list might include experiences like catching a sunset with a loved one, watching your kid play baseball, eating dinner with your parents, etc.
Be honest with yourself when you’re making these lists. It’s likely that both lists share zero things in common.
I get a variation on this email quite often: “I wish there was a job in social media for _____, because I’m really skilled in _____.” What’s fascinating is that the person is waiting for permission, and worse, waiting for someone else to create and open a role for them to fill. My first thought upon receiving this is to ask the person, “Who do you admire in life?” They often cite some famous person. I then ask, “Did someone make that job for them? Or did they choose an adventure that brought them there?” Sometimes, the light bulb goes on right then and there. Other times, well, bless your heart.
Source: Choose Your Own Adventure
Go to the source if you’d like the rest of Chris Brogan’s thoughts on the topic…
Nicholas Bate talks about failure…
We need courage to help us with failure. There: we’ve said it. Failure which is often harder to drop into a conversation than the term explicit sex. But we do need failure. Not failure the result: losing the business, losing the girl, failing the interview. But failure the process: learning, improving, iterating, removing slack, becoming lean, becoming fighting-fit, installing effectiveness, developing wired-in muscle memory, just knowing, getting really really good, broadening, widening, gaining wisdom, picking yourself up and smiling and trying once again. Yeah, that. The whole process requires lots and lots of crappy failure. And we don’t like it: we want approval, we want love, we want accolades. But hang on a minute: no, you don’t. You really want to grow, you really want to discover who the heck you are, you really want to see just what your limits are. You want to start creating your personal greatest works. And you do all of that by failing. Repeatedly. With tears at times. With jeers at others. But stay in the game. The right girl is quietly noting you. The rumours are reaching that elusive agent. Quarter 4 target was a bit of a breeze; just don’t tell HQ in California. The thing is you will fail at whatever you try to be good at, be it juggling (balls will drop) to blogging (posts will bore) to interviews (CVs will fail to impress) to start up pitches (we’ve heard it all before). But from failure you will learn so much more, so much more than success. You really do need courage to stay in the game. It’ll be worth it when you get a real score, a real success. Fail enough and you will get what you want and you will become free. Plus you will get the girl who wants to hang out with a grown-up. Not a kid in a wannabee T-shirt.
Lifecoach Kute Blackson writes…
Real heroes aren’t angels in the sky. They don’t float amidst cotton candy clouds. Real heroes don’t need to climb Mt. Everest, jump from planes, or walk on fire to prove their strength. Real heroes aren’t named Woods, Kobe, or Cruise. They don’t run from life in order to find peace. Real heroes deal. They know how to take responsibility for whatever befalls them—or whatever they’ve caused.
Real heroes are those who dare to enter situations fully, carrying peace with them. Real heroes are those who have the courage to love, laugh, and live full tilt. Despite the hand they’re dealt. Despite who did what to them. Real heroes are those who dare to live larger than what scares them, embracing their brothers and sisters with open hearts.
There is a HERO inside you.
Deep in our hearts we all have a longing to: Play like Mozart did at four. Play like Miles Davis jazzed. Play like Michael Jordan jumped. Play like Martin Luther King peaced. What would happen if you played like that? What would your life look like if you played like Nelson Mandela persevered? Or like Einstein intuited, Buddha meditated, Mother Theresa loved, Picasso painted, Jesus miracled, Janis Joplin crooned, Barishnikov danced, and Pele played? What could you do? Who would you be if you didn’t let your fear, your past, or your limitations stop you?
It’s your time. It’s your life. NOW.
Real heroes know that no one’s coming.
Because they’re already there.
Because you’re already here.
You are the hero you’ve been waiting for.
I dare you.
Source: There is a Hero Inside You [Blog] « Positively Positive
No one is coming. How will YOU respond?
I love despair.com and the way they illustrate a point using absurdity and rich sarcasm. Visit their site — always good for an ‘lol’… :-D
Kute Blackson shares these thoughts today…
There is so much talk these last few years about how important your thoughts are.
It’s like the latest trend to believe…
That your thoughts literally create your reality.
That you must only think positive thoughts.
Sometimes we get so scared about the slightest negative thought, that it freaks us out. We become negative about our negative thoughts.
We have over 65,000 thoughts each day, most of which are happening too fast to even keep a track of.
I have a secret for you!
It’s the SECRET secret: It’s not just what you think about that matters, but how you FEEL about what you think about that makes the real difference. Continue reading “It’s Not Your Thoughts That Matter, But How You Feel About Them!”
My blogging buddy David Kanigan turned me on to another great blog by Nicholas Bate. Here’s a sample…
Is there a simple idea we can use to help us re-focus, re-invent and ‘escape‘ from the distraction?
Yes: the Rules of Life. You know there are rules; you always have done, ever since you were a child. In science there are rules e.g. Newton’s Laws of Motion, thus: ‘to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’ or step out of the rowing boat at the edge of the lake and the boat will ‘fly’ the other way. In relationships there are rules e.g. The Golden Rule, thus: ‘do unto others as you would prefer them to do unto you’ or keep being mean to your assistant and they will leave to work for someone else. In work there are rules, thus: mess up this quarter and you’ll not get a bonus. And in life there are rules. What is a rule? It’s a guideline: it tells you the consequences of your action. It helps you get to where you want to go as efficiently and effectively as you can. The trick is to know the rules and then you can use them because you can’t fight them: they are independent of you. When you are driving a car, for example, it’s best to work within the local laws. If you don’t, you have problems, and those problems might be a fine for speeding or even perhaps an accident. But within those rules there is still plenty of scope for a great journey: you might wish to slow down and enjoy the scenery. You might care to journey a little faster on one stretch of motorway and eat up some miles. It’s exactly the same with the Rules of Life: they don’t limit; they empower.Source: How To Escape? Understand, Really Understand The Rules of Life. Rule 1. – Nicholas Bate
Go to the source if you liked the excerpt and read the rest of Nicholas’ article…
Gretchen Rubin again. This time on the topic of being an a$$…
We all see the world through our own eyes, and it can be hard to recognize how our words and actions appear to other people. One of the challenges of being a difficult person is realizing that you’re a difficult person. I’ve known many difficult people who, I suspect, have no idea that others find them difficult!
In his excellent book The No A****** Rule
(I’m omitting the title not from prudery but from fear of spam-blockers), and also on his blog, Work Matters, Bob Sutton has a quiz to help people recognize if they are a*******.
I was inspired to adapt that material for this quiz. As you answer these questions, be brutally honest with yourself. Don’t make excuses for yourself or other people; just try to answer accurately. These questions apply to family members gathering for a holiday, or to co-workers, or to any group of people who are trying to get along with each other.
Source: The Happiness Project: Quiz: Are YOU the One That Everyone Finds Difficult?
Go to the source if you want to read Gretchen’s quiz. Personally I was disappointed that she offers questions but no recommendations. Fortunately, one of her readers suggested this series of posts from writer Annie Zirkel. Annie says…
We come into contact with prickly people all the time. It might be a scowl, a frosty attitude or a touchy disposition. It might be the choice of words as in ‘What do you want?!’
Sometimes they serve us coffee. Sometimes they sit across from us at work or in committee meetings. Sometimes they live in our neighborhood or even worse! in our own homes.
And sometimes – more often then we’d like to admit – they are staring back at us in the mirror.
Source: How Prickly Are You? Part 1
Me? I often ponder why society secretly venerates a**holes like Steve Jobs, Gregory House of House, MD, and Cal Lightman from ‘Lie to me‘ and why they are a source of entertainment for us. Personally I’m a recovering assaholic [got that word from Steve Jobs’ biography] – deep inside I know I am warm, loving and caring but for reasons I often don’t understand even my best intentions are frequently taken the wrong way. And the results are far from entertaining. Because Gretchen’s quiz got me thinking I’ll be digging into Annie’s series for insight. Join me if you’d like. I’ll report back on what I find…
“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
The biggest realization that came out of 9/11 for me was that nobody was coming to save me (us). I mean this in a gazillion ways. My company’s HR department couldn’t care less about my career development. No one at all would ultimately be responsible for my happiness, but myself. All of this came crashing into reality for me because of 9/11. And since then, I forget the lesson quite often. But just lately, I’ve had reason to think about it again, for my own purposes, and based on two recent conversations.
You Are Your Own Superhero
We’ve already agreed that you know what to do. We realize that part of what we have to do involves getting stronger with our choices. We know that letting the emotions and thoughts of others affect how we see ourselves is a problem and that we have to get untangled. We’ve thought about how important discipline is to our world. We know that we have to say no faster. So what’s left?
The work.
You are your own superhero. No one has to save you. You don’t have to say “if only.” You just have to do the work. Do you need to make more money? Then start working on that. Do you need to lose weight or get healthy? Today’s the day.
Superheroes are part of a very powerful mythology that says this: you’re not strong enough, so some outside force will have to come and help you.
That is, unless YOU are the superhero. Right? Mmmmmm. Isn’t that neato?
Pick Out Your Cape and Tights!
What kind of superhero do you need in your own life right now? You probably need the kind of superhero that knows how to do things right. Competence matters. Learn how to be a better builder. You need a brave hero who can face the waves. You need to be the kind of hero that knows that there really are no enemies. And frankly, you need a practical hero who can help you find time.
Nobody is coming to save me. Nobody is coming to save me. Nobody is coming to save me.
“Every great work, every great accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement comes apparent failure and discouragement”
“The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.”– Florence Scovel Shinn, Shinn was an American artist and book illustrator
“I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.”
Michel de Montaigne
“Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.”
– Nathaniel Branden
What a great quote on the possibilities of social media…
How dare you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?
As you can see, this was long before Will Riker attended Starfleet Academy! More at the source: Lesser known roles of Star Trek’s cast – Holy Kaw!
Bright, shiny objects! 
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