Open a Door

"Hope is the dream of a waking man." -Aristotle

It is interesting to note that when things are going good, we will optimistically look to the future and all of the possibilities that exist. We will consider that building a great life and having success is achievable.

Yet when times are tough, all we tend to do is focus on what is going wrong and how life will never get us to where we want to be.

It is during those tough times when we most need to understand that a door exists through which possibility stands waiting for you. Hope and vision for whatever life has in store for you is through that door.

So even though you might be in a tough place currently, continue to hold onto your dreams. Know that possibility is on the other side of that door. A door that can be opened if only you make the choice to turn the handle and walk through it.

Stay inspired my friends!

What Stays In Vegas Doesn't

"It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong." —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Here we are, home from a week long convention in Las Vegas called EMCWorld 2013. There were nearly 15,000 people in attendance and it really was a great week filled with technical presentations, product demonstrations and some really good people connections.

This completes the third year in a row that this event has been held in Las Vegas. In saying so, I am always amused at the Las Vegas tourism catch-phrase "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." It is meant to convey a free-spirited notion that you can let loose a bit, that anything goes while you are in Las Vegas. You can spend your money (which is really want any tourism board wants), have any and all kinds of fun and that when you leave, no one else will know what you did.

Another way of putting it would be to say "mum's the word" because everyone will keep quiet about what you did. So let loose, do as you want, no consequences. But that really isn't what happens in real life, outside of the commercials you may see on television.

In one respect, I really do hope that everyone in attendance to EMCWorld learned something about our company, our products and what we can do to help your business. I also really do hope you do not leave that learned experience in Las Vegas. We want you to take home that information to your colleagues, so please don't leave that piece of it in Vegas.

But on a broader look, beyond just Las Vegas, we do many things that we would just as soon stay there. The point being that everything we do in life has consequence of one sort or another. You can binge on drinking, gambling, eating and playing in Las Vegas, but you really can't leave those things behind. What we do, how we act, the impressions we leave with other people will last a very long time.

When you have the opportunity to choose between doing something that might not be the correct or proper thing to do, choose the right thing. Make your choice as if your wife, children, boss or grandmother will get a front page story about the choice made.

Stay inspired my friends and please don't leave that behind in Vegas.

Doing More

"Do more more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work." -William A. Ward

Our lives are filled with chances to impact not only ourselves but others around us each and every day. Living one's life is not always easy and the words in a quote may seem trite or unrealistic to some. But the words are meant to encourage and inspire you, me and anyone that chooses to embrace the idea.

Your life can be better and it starts with making a change. Change can be just as difficult and you will ask yourself, "what if I make the wrong choice?" My first response to that is, "to not make any change means you will remain exactly where you are. Forever to worry and be dissatisfied with your place in life."

Change, good or bad teaches and expands our knowledge of life. You learn from a bad decision as much if not more than you do from a good choice. And I certainly do not wish for a series of bad decisions on anyone, but with bad decisions you learn to start making good ones.

Eventually you find yourself making more and more of the right ones. And while you are pushing forward with your life, remember the words, "do more than". Do more than just enough for yourself. Do more for others and you will find your life changed forever.

Stay inspired my friends.

Thine Own Choice

“I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it's only a choice of attitude.” -Judith M. Knowlton

In everything we do, there is choice of some sort that can be made. It could involve not having enough money. Where and how much to spend or even if to spend on a certain item. It could be a need to change your living style to meet your income. Or taking on a second job. Maybe you could even take classes to improve your job skills and get a promotion.

Choices exist, we only need to be willing to make them.

It could be a destructive relationship you are in. There is so much that can be said about relationships, but choices do exist. Or how about the lack of a relationship? The choice might be to turn off the television and go to places where people gather. Maybe you turn off that television and start talking to your spouse and children.

Deciding not to do anything is a choice as well.

Using that "non" choice will not get you where you want to be. You will have turned over your life to chance. Take an example of not making a choice regarding your health. What you decide to do or not do can dramatically impact your life. Diseases and medical conditions are treated by physicians and we have to make choices regarding each.

We have a choice to do nothing about our physical state or get up off the sofa and take a walk; little steps to help improve your health. I'm not here to say you will live longer, although statistics would support me. What I'm talking about is improving the quality of your life.

Will you make a choice to improve the quality of your life?

Choice is there for the taking and you need to make one. We each are given one life and of course, how you live it is your's to decide. But if you want to change the life you live, then stand up, make a choice and than step out boldly.

Live a great life and stay inspired my friends.

Choice Is Everything

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." -Wayne Dyer

There have been points, key junctures in my life which forced me to make a choice. Would I choose to be miserable? Would I choose a path to happiness? Would I choose anything at all?

All of us get put into this position of needing to choose whether we like it or not. It might be a choice regarding our relationships, our jobs, or even with our health. The choices will range from the seemingly mundane to those involving life and death.

Whatever the case may be, the choice still remains your own. Yes, you may not have chosen the circumstance, but you have a choice in how you react to the circumstance. It is your reaction that will send you down a good path or hurtling down a bad path.

In my own world, a divorce could have sent me down a very destructive path. There were choices and options circling in my head that could have turned out really bad for me. If I had chosen that route, I would have fallen into a really bad state of disrepair. In doing so, I would not have been capable of supporting my boys or myself.

But I chose not to take what seemed an easy road. I took the hard path of reconstructing my life. It was not easy but the rewards have been so much greater. I can attest to the fact that making a right choice in your life will create a much greater life for you as well.

• Choose not to be miserable in your life.
• Choose to take the right path in your life.
• Choose to be happy in your life.

You will achieve great things with a great attitude and by making great choices in your life. It may look hard at first, but believe me the alternative or easy path will be much more painful in the long run.

Stay inspired my friends and make the right choices in life.

Do The Right Thing

"Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. " -Viktor E. Frankl

I am finding it hard to understand what I am hearing in the news lately. Now granted it is unlikely that I can know what is in another person's heart. Also know that I'm really working hard not to get judgemental about what I am going to say here.

The story surrounding what happened around and on the grounds of the Penn State football facilities is horrifying enough. A sexual predator destroying the lives of eight or nine young boys that we know of. It will be very hard and a long process for those young men to go through in recovering from his sordid actions.

What bothers me also are the actions, or in-action of people that could have stopped him sooner. As far back as 1998 there were people that could have done something. Recently a head football coach, a man that leads college-aged men onto a playing field, teaching them to do the right things in life, didn't do that. He simply told a higher authority in the college and then washed his hands of it.

These were horrible, despicable and illegal activities; informing legal authorities was the responsible thing to do. Now we have the uncovering of a supposed cover-up and even more grief for the young boys that were molested. The sexual predator has been arrested, the head football coach says he will retire at the end of the season.

The right thing to do happened though, he was fired along with the University President by the University Board of Trustees. No more leading men onto the field of play, no more roles in being responsible for their success due to his failure to be responsible. That has taken away any privilege he may have felt or wanted in retiring on his own terms. He lost that when he failed to do the right thing.

This story is not one that I want to make all about a football coach losing his job. The story is about those boys molested by a man entrusted that did very irresponsible things. The lives harmed could have been limited if others had done the right thing. By choosing wrong, even more lives have been altered and harmed as well.

We don't always get it right, that I get. Each of us have choices to make in life. Sometimes those choices are right and sometimes we make the wrong ones. If we hide things in the dark, they only fester like an open wound, never to experience true healing.

In the end, we must do what is right, what is responsible and what will move life forward.

Temptation

"Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty." -Earl Wilson

I guess it happens to all of us. We could be walking down the street and when we turn the corner, we find temptation standing right there in front of us. It is seductive and does very well at playing to the inner most parts of us.

Recently it happened to me and did so in such a quiet and sneaky way that I am still surprised. You see I am one of those people that like cars but not enough to pay the large sums of money required for a new one. So I tend to buy a car that is a couple of years old and drive it for quite some time.

I took our 2004 Chrysler Concorde in for some new tires, which turned into a stripped lug nut bolt. From there I went to the dealership for a new lug nut and bolt replacement. Of course the brakes were getting a bit thin so I decided to have the front brakes replaced and yes, the front rotors as well. It was all going well until they brought the car around front and the brake pedal sunk to floor and they needed to use the emergency brake to stop the car.

Back in the service bay it went to find that the rear seal of the master cylinder had broken. The ensuing explanation of what and how that could have happened took place. My only reaction was just how much and lets get it fixed. I've gotten to a point in life where I can't change what just happened, I just need to deal with it and move forward.

The dealership offered a free rental car and thus the temptation began ever so quietly. When I had walked in originally for repairs, the service manager and I spoke about the new 2012 Chrysler 300 vehicle. For me, it piqued my interest and we had a nice discussion about them. Now I found myself riding to the car rental facility in a courtesy vehicle, the drive and I also talking again about the 2012 Chrysler 300.

There was paperwork and a bit of a wait and it shouldn't surprise you, they provided me with a 2012 Chrysler 300 of course. I slipped in and grasped the steering wheel, adjusting the seat perfectly to accomodate my frame. The satellite radio kicked out a concert hall sound as I placed the transmission into reverse. The large screen lit up with a view of the ground behind, no need to turn my head as everything behind me was perfectly clear.

Onto the highway I turned and the car's Hemi V-8 engine lifted and pulled me forward down the road with the greatest of ease. As I had expected, this car was all that I had expected. The seduction of a new car was taking hold of me. Temptation had me looking at financing options. The three sirens were clearly tempting my spirit.

Yet I found myself and looked beyond the temptation of a new car. The car payments, the insurance costs, worrying about this and that when it comes to keeping a new car looking new. There are other things higher on my wife's and my priority list. This car was trying to push its way to the top and nearly made it there.

We are all tempted by the slick marketing advertisements and the material want for new things. The yearning for these items usually starts in our emotions, which can be quite powerful. But you also have to step back from teh temptation, examine the reality of it and the longterm consequences of it. For us, buying a new car wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. It would mean placing other things lower on the list, reprioritizing.

When I stepped back though and looked at what was really important in our lives, the car just didn't match up. The temptation almost worked, but understanding that once the emotional excitement drifted away, the temptation ended up holding no power over me. I ruled the day and made the right choice.

Don't let temptation pull you into the rocks like a crashing wave. Settle back and consider beyond the moment of excitement. Take a clear view of what you want in life and avoid the sirens. You will find life a whole lot better without the aggravation of a hangover from choosing a wrong temptation.

Make a Decision

Volition by Michael Micali

Volition is defined as the act of making a choice or decision. Other sources describe it as "the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action."

So what that means is we have the power to choose our own attitude, our own happiness, or even our own path in life. All it takes is making a decision to do just that. All it takes is overcoming our own self-doubt.

It is the making of a decision that we often struggle with. We worry either about the outcomes of a decision or about having enough information. Sometimes it comes down to trusting our own ability to accept the choices we have made. Other times we are simply scared to decide.

Whatever is preventing you from making those decisions, know that the power to decide still lay in your own hands.

Knowing that you have that power is a big part of moving forward. But if you need some added ideas, Kathryn Britton wrote a good article in Positive Psychology News Daily titled "On Making Choices". In summary, she offers six tips on improving your ability to make a decision.

1. Learn how to make good enough choices, rather than aim for best choices.
2. Make a choice and then focus on its benefits instead of peering down the road not taken.
3. Remember that the identifiable attributes of a decision may be negligible compared to the accidentals that one cannot predict.
4. Create personal heuristics for choices that do not warrant great effort, such as selecting items on a menu.
5. Group large numbers of options into categories so that you can rule out several at a time, rather than having to study the pros and cons of each individually.
6. After collecting the pros and cons of the remaining alternatives, give your intuitive mind a chance to work on decisions that involve integrating a large number of complex options.

The choice is yours to make. Start with small ones if you must but the key is to make a choice and move forward. There might be setbacks but you make a choice and you go with it. Of your own volition, you keep moving your life forward.

Binary Choices

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." -William Faulkner

In my profession we deal in the exacting nature of how computers work. This world of laptops, smartphones, digital watches and most everything else is based upon two digits. A one (positive) and a zero (negative) is where it all begins, traverses and ends.

If I add two zeroes, I get a zero. If I add a zero and a one, I get a one. If I add one and one, I get ten. Have I started to make your head spin slightly?

The reason I was thinking about this had to do with a quote I have heard frequently. Without going into details of where the quote has been used, folks have been saying, "two wrongs do not make a right." And in a binary sense they are correct.

Each of us make decisions each day that will result in either good or bad. You might say that those lines are blurred, but only if you let them. We can choose to correct a wrong or compound it with another wrong. We make these choices all day long. We let someone merge into the busy traffic flow, we fudge numbers on our taxes, we hold a door open for someone carrying packages; we make binary decisions.

And this is not a race to see who ends up with the most points. It is about moving your life forward in a positive way. It means creating a better you with each decision you make.

Choose to make the right decision with every opportunity. Choose to make yourself better then whom you were yesterday.