I was having a conversation the other day with an acquaintance and he blew me away with a seemingly random comment:
"Our futures are really only determined by our imagination and our integrity."
As I sat with it I realized what a beautifully simple truth he'd just shared.
Imagine your future just like you'd like it ... and then simply become the person of integrity who is their Word.
I love the way this guy put it. My kids get it.
Dream it and do it.
Become a person who is known by your Word. If you say you're gonna do it, then the world knows you through its listening of you as the person who will do it.
Then go do it.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
The Sasquatch Award
some days you just gotta lighten up ...
go to www.messinwithsasquatch.com to see some of the funniest TV commercials around ... scroll over, past Sasquatch, to the camera hanging on the tree and watch the four commercials for beef jerky ...
now, consider this: someone was given the task of creating an ad campaign for beef jerky.
beef jerky.
how do you sell beef jerky?
flavor? texture? packaging?
nope. BIGFOOT.
yep. somebody somewhere actually had the conversation, OUT LOUD, that went something like this:
Bob: "Hey, let's use Bigfoot to sell beef jerky!"
Everyone Else: "Not just any Bigfoot, let's have a couple of folks pester Bigfoot like a couple of pre-teen girls at a slumber party!"
evidently bigfoot sells a LOT of beef jerky. i can't prove that as i'm not a beef jerky afficionado but it's apparent that at least their commercials have quite the cult following. which creates buzz. which eventually sells beef jerky.
so what's my point?
have fun.
don't you think the guys and gals who thought up the "Messin' With Sasquatch" ad campaign had a BLAST doing it? can't you see them sitting around someone's coffee table laughing till they cried?
make it fun. be you. get creative.
BE THE BIGFOOT!
who knows, maybe we'll have a weekly "Sasquatch" award for the best "out of the box" suggestion of the week!
go to www.messinwithsasquatch.com to see some of the funniest TV commercials around ... scroll over, past Sasquatch, to the camera hanging on the tree and watch the four commercials for beef jerky ...
now, consider this: someone was given the task of creating an ad campaign for beef jerky.
beef jerky.
how do you sell beef jerky?
flavor? texture? packaging?
nope. BIGFOOT.
yep. somebody somewhere actually had the conversation, OUT LOUD, that went something like this:
Bob: "Hey, let's use Bigfoot to sell beef jerky!"
Everyone Else: "Not just any Bigfoot, let's have a couple of folks pester Bigfoot like a couple of pre-teen girls at a slumber party!"
evidently bigfoot sells a LOT of beef jerky. i can't prove that as i'm not a beef jerky afficionado but it's apparent that at least their commercials have quite the cult following. which creates buzz. which eventually sells beef jerky.
so what's my point?
have fun.
don't you think the guys and gals who thought up the "Messin' With Sasquatch" ad campaign had a BLAST doing it? can't you see them sitting around someone's coffee table laughing till they cried?
make it fun. be you. get creative.
BE THE BIGFOOT!
who knows, maybe we'll have a weekly "Sasquatch" award for the best "out of the box" suggestion of the week!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Saturday's Quote of the Day
"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. ACTION always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action."
- Frank Tibolt
- Frank Tibolt
Friday, August 11, 2006
Quote of the Day
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Scenes From The Mall
I went clothes shopping with my 10 year old daughter yesterday. She received a nice gift of cash from her grandmother and she campaigned hard to buy some of her own school clothes without my "input". We negotiated a bit. If she paid I agreed to only veto when an article of clothing fell into the "inappropriate" category. And any of my rulings of "inappropriate" would go unchallenged.
So off we went. Frankly, as she's moving from "children's" sizes to "juniors" sizes I was anticipating encountering too tight, too short, too high, too low ... but what we encountered was much more disheartening.
Her very first selections were from a niftily-displayed shelf of t-shirts with pictures of bunnies and unicorns and rainbows displaying verbiage such as:
"I did it but I'm blaming you"
"It's all about me"
"If you buy me stuff I'll be nicer"
"Cute but Mean"
Veto.
Veto.
Veto.
Veto.
Yuck. You see, our culture is not organized to support the extraordinary. Ordinary is easy. It's comfortable. It sells t-shirts. This is what I saw. Victim. Victim. Victim. Victim. And being a victim, which is apparently not only accepted but celebrated on t-shirts marketed and sold to our pre-teens, must be one of the lowest forms of living. It requires to thought. No intent. All it requires is breathing, sitting back, letting life happen, and complaining about it.
And I'm not going to stand for it. Not in my world. My stand for my children, my community, my business, my world, is that extraordinary is possible. And I believe one of the keys to living an extraordinary life rests in the quality of our conversations. Our language.
Cute bunny t-shirt. Terrible language.
Not happening in my house.
But that stack of t-shirts created a fantastic opening for my daughter and I to have a conversation about the power of our language.
Helen Keller said in her autobiography (paraphrased) that before she learned language at the age of 10 her experience of life was that of an "unconcious clod of earth". Every memory was tactile as she had no language in which to process her experience. Without language she could not even grasp the concepts of love and friendship, laughter or happiness.
But look what she accomplished after the age of 10.
There's power in your words. Use it wisely.
"I am a possibility"
"I am extraordinary"
"Living with intent"
"How can I serve you?"
So off we went. Frankly, as she's moving from "children's" sizes to "juniors" sizes I was anticipating encountering too tight, too short, too high, too low ... but what we encountered was much more disheartening.
Her very first selections were from a niftily-displayed shelf of t-shirts with pictures of bunnies and unicorns and rainbows displaying verbiage such as:
"I did it but I'm blaming you"
"It's all about me"
"If you buy me stuff I'll be nicer"
"Cute but Mean"
Veto.
Veto.
Veto.
Veto.
Yuck. You see, our culture is not organized to support the extraordinary. Ordinary is easy. It's comfortable. It sells t-shirts. This is what I saw. Victim. Victim. Victim. Victim. And being a victim, which is apparently not only accepted but celebrated on t-shirts marketed and sold to our pre-teens, must be one of the lowest forms of living. It requires to thought. No intent. All it requires is breathing, sitting back, letting life happen, and complaining about it.
And I'm not going to stand for it. Not in my world. My stand for my children, my community, my business, my world, is that extraordinary is possible. And I believe one of the keys to living an extraordinary life rests in the quality of our conversations. Our language.
Cute bunny t-shirt. Terrible language.
Not happening in my house.
But that stack of t-shirts created a fantastic opening for my daughter and I to have a conversation about the power of our language.
Helen Keller said in her autobiography (paraphrased) that before she learned language at the age of 10 her experience of life was that of an "unconcious clod of earth". Every memory was tactile as she had no language in which to process her experience. Without language she could not even grasp the concepts of love and friendship, laughter or happiness.
But look what she accomplished after the age of 10.
There's power in your words. Use it wisely.
"I am a possibility"
"I am extraordinary"
"Living with intent"
"How can I serve you?"
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Remember the Karate Kid?
Remember the movie "The Karate Kid"? Teenager picks up and moves with his mom to a new town and immediately is the brunt of the bullies' attention. Enter Mr. Miyagi who offers to teach this downtrodden teenager karate. Teenager shows up at Mr. Miyagi's house early one morning expecting to be taught karate and instead winds up washing and waxing cars (wax on with right hand/wax off with left hand), painting fences (it's all in the wrist ... tall boards right hand, short boards left hand) and painting the house (side to side). A couple of days into these strangely executed "chores", with not even a mention of karate, the teenager finally gets mad. This isn't what he expected. This isn't what he signed up for. Where's the blackbelt?
And then there's movie magic. Mr. Miyagi starts throwing punches and kicks and the teenager instinctively defends himself with the same arm movements as wax on/wax off - wrist up and down - paint side to side.
Ahhh ... Mr. Miyahi HAD been teaching him karate. Just not in the way the teenager had expected.
I realized, listening to last night's Blackbelt Call, that many of us (myself included) are like the teenager in "The Karate Kid". We've come here to "get" something we've never had before.
Freedom in our financial circumstances. In our time. In our ability to choose our life and our lifestyle.
We've come here with an agreement to be coachable and trainable, to engage fully in the training and support in order to get the results we've come here to get.
And then our old programming takes over.
In my experience this is the way this happnes: the "little voice" in my head starts chattering away, telling me that I am free to pick and choose what's taught on the training calls. That somehow 100% of THAT doesn't apply to me.
I've been here over two years. I've heard John Lavenia talk about visualizing with details. I've done it. A little. Mostly I haven't cultivated the mental muscle to stick with that visualization before I'm planning my grocery shopping list or noticing that my toenails need to be repainted.
You may be tripped up by something else. Maybe you haven't cracked open Beyond Freedom yet. Maybe you're not tied in to this community via the daily Wakeup calls. Maybe you're in the "getting ready to get ready" trap and haven't yet picked up the phone and called your prospects back.
Whatever "it" is, if you're not doing these five things every day you're the karate kid. You want that "thing", but the old programming is still fighting to keep you in your comfort zone. And guess what, extraordinary lives don't emerge from the realm of reasonableness.
Extraordinary lives that impact the world emerge from ordinary individuals willing to take unreasonable action.
So here it is, again. The five things LEADERS do EVERY day, especially when it's not reasonable or comfortable:
1. Daily Visualization and Meditation - discussed in detail on last night's Blackbelt Call.
2. Personal Development - hmmm, that's pretty simple considering you're holding in your hands "Beyond Freedom".
3. Income Producing Activities - simply put:
5. Cultivate the Expectation of Leadership - this is my take on leadership ... it's not about orders or directions or delegation ... true leadership is inspiring others to, in turn, inspire others. If your dream and mission in life moves from your head to your conversation it becomes real for you and it becomes real for the person you're in conversation with. Leaving them inspired to inspire others. That's leadership. If you're not inspired by yourself, trust me, you're not inspiring anybody else.
I talked to Wendy Stevens yesterday. She's turned in 7 Beyond Freedom orders since Friday. She had two sales yesterday and only put three people on the calls because she's committed to recreating with her children these last two weeks of summer. She's in the flow. And she's in the flow, serious flow, because she's got an amazing muscle for this business. She's waxed on and waxed off, just like she was told to do. Even when she didn't "feel" like it. Even when she didn't see how it was making a difference in her life and in her business. She was a good student. She's done the five things daily and consistently.
And because she's inspired by the fact that she can build her life around her children - because she's CHOSEN to build her life around her children, two of the three people she spoke with yesterday were inspired by Wendy before they EVER listened to the business presentation.
And they got started. And now they have an amazing community to connect with, an amazing product that will allow them to open up a world of possibilities for themselves. They have a future, now, that is separate and distinct from their past.
How cool is that?
So who are you being? If you've also been the Karate Kid, stop it. Right now. Do the Five Things every day. Starting today.
Inspire yourself and you will inspire others.
And then there's movie magic. Mr. Miyagi starts throwing punches and kicks and the teenager instinctively defends himself with the same arm movements as wax on/wax off - wrist up and down - paint side to side.
Ahhh ... Mr. Miyahi HAD been teaching him karate. Just not in the way the teenager had expected.
I realized, listening to last night's Blackbelt Call, that many of us (myself included) are like the teenager in "The Karate Kid". We've come here to "get" something we've never had before.
Freedom in our financial circumstances. In our time. In our ability to choose our life and our lifestyle.
We've come here with an agreement to be coachable and trainable, to engage fully in the training and support in order to get the results we've come here to get.
And then our old programming takes over.
In my experience this is the way this happnes: the "little voice" in my head starts chattering away, telling me that I am free to pick and choose what's taught on the training calls. That somehow 100% of THAT doesn't apply to me.
I've been here over two years. I've heard John Lavenia talk about visualizing with details. I've done it. A little. Mostly I haven't cultivated the mental muscle to stick with that visualization before I'm planning my grocery shopping list or noticing that my toenails need to be repainted.
You may be tripped up by something else. Maybe you haven't cracked open Beyond Freedom yet. Maybe you're not tied in to this community via the daily Wakeup calls. Maybe you're in the "getting ready to get ready" trap and haven't yet picked up the phone and called your prospects back.
Whatever "it" is, if you're not doing these five things every day you're the karate kid. You want that "thing", but the old programming is still fighting to keep you in your comfort zone. And guess what, extraordinary lives don't emerge from the realm of reasonableness.
Extraordinary lives that impact the world emerge from ordinary individuals willing to take unreasonable action.
So here it is, again. The five things LEADERS do EVERY day, especially when it's not reasonable or comfortable:
1. Daily Visualization and Meditation - discussed in detail on last night's Blackbelt Call.
2. Personal Development - hmmm, that's pretty simple considering you're holding in your hands "Beyond Freedom".
3. Income Producing Activities - simply put:
- Generate leads (CFF, Quicklister, Liberty League sites all have great training and resources!)
- Call your prospects back (Liberty League has a script, we've provided "our" script, prospecting training calls are held three times a week!)
- Put your prospect in front of the information via the business presentation call
- Follow up with them and get their questions answered via a three way (follow up training is posted on the Liberty League site)
5. Cultivate the Expectation of Leadership - this is my take on leadership ... it's not about orders or directions or delegation ... true leadership is inspiring others to, in turn, inspire others. If your dream and mission in life moves from your head to your conversation it becomes real for you and it becomes real for the person you're in conversation with. Leaving them inspired to inspire others. That's leadership. If you're not inspired by yourself, trust me, you're not inspiring anybody else.
I talked to Wendy Stevens yesterday. She's turned in 7 Beyond Freedom orders since Friday. She had two sales yesterday and only put three people on the calls because she's committed to recreating with her children these last two weeks of summer. She's in the flow. And she's in the flow, serious flow, because she's got an amazing muscle for this business. She's waxed on and waxed off, just like she was told to do. Even when she didn't "feel" like it. Even when she didn't see how it was making a difference in her life and in her business. She was a good student. She's done the five things daily and consistently.
And because she's inspired by the fact that she can build her life around her children - because she's CHOSEN to build her life around her children, two of the three people she spoke with yesterday were inspired by Wendy before they EVER listened to the business presentation.
And they got started. And now they have an amazing community to connect with, an amazing product that will allow them to open up a world of possibilities for themselves. They have a future, now, that is separate and distinct from their past.
How cool is that?
So who are you being? If you've also been the Karate Kid, stop it. Right now. Do the Five Things every day. Starting today.
Inspire yourself and you will inspire others.
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