Moving Forward With Change

“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.” - H. L. Hunt

Every day we make a decision. We decide to get up, the clothes we will wear or the breakfast food we'll eat. More decisions are made as the day progresses on before us.

Simple things we barely even think about.

We make many decisions on a daily basis, sometimes not quite as often, which impact us in many different ways. As the prairie homesteader Flora Whittemore said, “the doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”

Everything we do affects our day, week, month and future.

The little things can have as much of an impact as the big decisions we make. You may even try to avoid the outcomes by trying to avoid making a choice. Yet to avoid making a decision is a decision itself.

So once a decision is made, act upon it.

You can not constantly make choices, turn and run from them. The only way to keep moving forward is to adjust your course if the decision was not correct. Turning back will keep you in a state of decline.

Make a choice, move forward and adjust as needed.

Amelia Earhart said, “the most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”

Just keep yourself moving, adjusting and deciding to make choices necessary in your life. Move your life forward, not backwards.

Stay inspired my friends!

Forward We Go Together

"I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they are bad - to change. Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses." ― Catherine Ryan Hyde

Paying it forward is not a new idea and has been written about before. There was a very nice movie some years back with the same name that did marginally well in the box office. The concept itself of "paying it forward" also does marginally well and that is what I'm here to talk about.

It is simple enough to say that our lives are truly impacted by the acts of others. The impact of others and our response or attitude towards them are of our own doing. But the impact remains, small, large or even doing nothing. 

The principle of paying it forward is not a self serving mentality. You perform these acts without expectation of anything in return. The idea is to do one good thing for three other people. All you ask of these people is that they each do the same for three people. 

Think of it as "network marketing" for the good of others.

What you are building up are the lives of more and more other people. You are that pebble dropped in the water, rippling outward to impact other people. Your simple act of kindness being paid forward is spreading for others to enjoy.

So try to do something good for at least one other person today. Don't ask for anything in return but do ask that person to do something good for another. So on and so forth life goes, making it a little better for each one of us.

Stay inspired my friends!

Keep Moving Forward

"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." - Florence Scovel Shinn

Living without a vision for what you want to accomplish is similar to walking on a treadmill. You are constantly walking and running in one place. Even if you run faster, you remain in the same place.

The view of a wall in front of you remains the same.

With a vision for tomorrow and a positive attitude to accompany it, you can break loose from that same view. You can move out into a new world towards your goal. Your vision becomes more clear.

Create and hang on to your vision for something great in your life.

Walk forward on a path to achievement and leave the treadmill behind.

Stay inspired my friends.

Paying Forward

"I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they are bad - to change. Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses." - Trevor McKinney, Pay It Forward

My notes from the road today are about serving others.

Paying it forward is not a new idea and has been written about before. There was a very nice movie with the same name which did quite well. The idea of "paying it forward" also does quite well in our lives and that is what I am here to talk about.

Our lives are truly impacted by the acts of others. You will notice I did not say our life is determined by others. We are impacted by others and our response or attitude towards them are of our own doing. 

The principle of paying it forward is not a self serving way of life. You don't perform these acts expecting anything in return. The idea is to do one good thing for three other people. All you ask of these people is that they each do the same for three more people each. 

Think of it as "network marketing" but only with goodness intended. Instead of three people recruiting three people to build you up. What you are building up is so more in that you are building up people and they in turn are doing the same. You are that pebble dropped in the water, rippling outward to impact other people. 

It is easy to do and all I ask is for you to try and do something good for at least one other person today. Don't ask for anything in return but do ask that person to do something good for another. So on and so forth life goes, making it a little better for each one of us.

Stay inspired my friends.

Endless Ceiling

"Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you." - George Whitefield

Each of us have an ability to move beyond pain, grief or disappointment. We can move beyond the circumstance we find ourselves in. So much is possible if we just press forward and speak the future out loud to ourselves. We can find a way to see beyond what blocks our view.

We can get beyond what is holding us back.

There is an old story about a bedouin within his tent wondering how he would ever achieve all that he wanted. A friend told him to look up at the ceiling of his tent.

"What do you see" he asked the bedouin?

"All I see is the ceiling of my tent" responded the bedouin.

"Come out of the tent and see my ceiling" said the bedouin's friend. "What do you see?"

"I see no ceiling but a sky full of countless stars" replied the bedouin.

Exactly as the bedouin saw, your life has no ceiling above it.

The possibilities are as endless as the stars in the night sky. The paths you can choose are as vast as the eye can see. All it takes is moving beyond the present.

Do not let the past hold you firm in its grip. Break free to reach for a star or even the seemingly impossible.

Step out and look to the night sky. Find a star and begin your journey.

And stay inspired my friends.

Just One Decision

“Every moment is a moment of decision, and every moment turns us inexorably in the direction of the rest of our lives.” ― Mary Balogh

One decision can change the outcome.

Just one decision can alter one or many lives.

With that one decision, how will you respond?

The Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League were one yard away from scoring in final minutes of the championship game. Very likely the trophy was on the other side of the goal line. Only three feet to go as the decision came in from the sidelines.

The New England Patriots were defending their stake to claim the trophy. It was a four point game and a touchdown by Seattle would have nearly sealed the game. All seemed potentially lost and then one decision changed the entire course.

A decision to throw a pass when running the ball was clearly the high percentage call.

The decision resulted in the opposing team intercepting the football and winning the game.

This time the victory for New England was not a clear victory but a gift handed to them. And this time Seattle clearly outsmarted themselves from victory. But that is what one decision can do in life. That one decision we wish we could change.

All of that is football, a sport, a game played for our entertainment purposes.

Real life decisions are played out everyday. Not only with game deciding decisions but also in the decisions we make regarding family, love, and life. These singular decisions have varied consequence on our lives and of those around us.

One decision can change the outcome.

Just one decision can alter ours or many others lives.

With that one decision, how you respond determines how things move forward.

Good decisions are never fully explored because we move on, happy, content, nothing to cause concern. But a bad decision becomes the central focus of all we do. We go through regret, pain, anger and a host of other emotions. Our lives begin to stall.

There are some people that never recover from the pain or consequence of a bad decision. They have no capacity or will to move beyond and turn the decision back into something positive in their life. They are forever stuck in the mud unable to bring themselves out of it.

When a decision is made, good or bad, where you find yourself is not an endpoint but a new starting point towards your goals. It is a launch pad where you stand, with new knowledge that will bring you closer to your target.

One decision can change things but one decision can also be the greatest thing in your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Forward to the New Year

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” ― Peter F. Drucker

The last day of a calendar year is upon us. You have accomplished a lot in 2014, failed at a few things and wanted to do more. But the year is over and all we can do is move forward into 2015.

So what are you going to do?

Keep moving forward.



Stay inspired my friends!

Faith Through the Rain

"Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. It is not enough that a thing be possible for it to be believed." ~ Voltaire

You are driving down the road on a late summer afternoon. The days have been filled with hot and humid conditions. This day you hope that those clouds gathering create a cool rain to break the heat.

A jagged lightning bolt and loud thunder shudders the peaceful day.

A few droplets of rain and then it happens, a seemingly impenetrable wall of rain. You drive into it, the wipers swooshing like mad. But you drive on knowing and with faith that the road continues. You believe in the road being there and your ability to maneuver even in this heavy down pour.

Your journey in life is like this at times.

You encounter a wall of rain that obscures your view of the path ahead. But you keep moving forward, trusting your instincts; trusting your knowledge that you can get through to the other side.

When you trust and have faith in your ability, nothing is impossible.

I didn't say easy, but all things are possible with a firm faith in self. Keep moving forward, keep looking through the rain that gets in the way. The rain will end, the clouds will part and a blue sky will appear. Just keep moving, step by step, faith by faith.

Stay inspired my friends.

EMC World 2014 - Forward Motion

"If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears." - Cesare Pavese

The product I support for our company is called VNX. It is a storage system that I have seen evolve from the early days of 1987 when old traditional storage was simply "too old" for what the industry needed. During those days, we developed a SCSI disk array that managed to take several disks and basically band them together to present one pool of storage to host computers.

Relative to the time, those disk arrays were pretty FAST given the technology. But then technology moves on and over the years faster and more intelligent disk arrays become even faster and more intelligent storage systems. The only way we can move forward is by taking the good and smart things we have learned, discarding what went wrong and moving the technology forward. One example is the our company partnered with the Lotus F1 team to change and accelerate their success.

This is how we advance our products and our lives.

The same can be said for our lives. We start out with what we know and generally do pretty well. As we move forward, we take what we've learned and apply it to better our lives. Yet sometimes we hold onto the past. We hold onto grudges, hurt, pain and pride which slows us from making our lives better.

If we are to truly have a great life, what some call your best life, is to lay down those things that are slowing you down. Pain of broken promises, or the hurt experienced by some event will only keep you planted in the past. If you are holding a grudge due to a real or perceived incident, let it go. Forgive yourself by forgiving the other person if only within yourself.

Move yourself forward to a better life and a better way of living.

As each of you in attendance at EMC World 2014 are learning about some very cool and FAST ways of deploying, managing and growing with your storage needs. Take some time to learn, to REDEFINE your own life. Grow out of the old way of doing things and accelerate your life to a great life.

And stay inspired my friends!

Forward in Life

"Positive anything is better than negative nothing." -Elbert Hubbard

When I travel, it can be difficult to find the time to write these articles. but I want each of you to know that my thoughts are on you. I haven't forgotten why I write this blog. It is because each day one person is able to find one thing in my words.

One thing that helps them rediscover the strength inside that will allow them to gain a better life. One word jumps out that will help them move forward to succeed at whatever it is in life they want to accomplish.

By keeping a positive attitude about where you are currently in life means accepting your current condition. Doing so will free up your energy and resources to make a change if that is what you want. You do not have to resign your self to the life that you live. There is an ability inside of you for so much more.

Remember that the life you have is just that, your life. But if you want more from it, do not waste your time worrying and complaining about where and what you have. Take it for what it is, a current place and time in your life. It will free your mind to work out those dreams and visions circling within you.

Use forward thinking and send yourself forward in life with a positive attitude. It certainly beats wallowing in self-doubt and self-despair. Create change in your life by knowing you have the power to change your circumstance.

And above all, stay inspired my friends.

Pay It Forward

"Don't try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough." -Arthur Freed

There was a movie released in the year 2000 that many of you will remember. It was called "Pay It Forward." In this tale, a young boy develops a simple plan to make the world better when a teacher gives an assignment to come up with a project for school. It was a great movie and if you have not seen it, you can get a copy of the movie
(Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment) at Amazon.

The idea of "paying it forward" didn't start with this movie of course. The concept has been around a very long time. If you are not familiar with it, the concept is to simply ask that a good deed be repaid by having it done (something good) to others instead. Even an insurance company began using the concept as a theme for their commercials back in 2006.

"Pay it forward" dates back to 317 BC in Athens, Greece. It was used as a primary part of a play called Dyskolos (translated as "The Grouch"). The play disappeared or was lost either in the archives of history or obscurity. It was rediscovered and described by Benjamin Franklin, in a letter dated April 25, 1784:

"I do not pretend to give such a Sum; I only lend it to you. When you [...] meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the Debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go thro' many hands, before it meets with a Knave that will stop its Progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money."

The famed Ohio State University football coach, Woody Hayes even spoke of the concept in nearly every speech he made. In the 1986 OSU Commencement speech, he speaks vividly about what it takes to "pay it forward" in life.

In whatever manner you want to view this, I see it as "feeding one" similar to that which Mother Theresa is quoted as saying. If you can not feed a hundred people, feed one and that person will do the same. It doesn't start with the huge and grandiose idea of saving the world in one fell swoop. It starts by saving the world, one-by-one.

Pay it forward in your life whenever a good deed is done for you. Pass it along to others and know that the goodness will come back around to you.

Stay inspired my friends.

Fast Forward

“Wouldn't it be nice if our lives were like VCRS, and we could "fast forward' through the crummy times?" ~Charles M. Schulz

There was a wonderful movie a few years back called Click that was described by IMDb as "a workaholic architect finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices."

The reviews were a bit harsh about the film, but the underlying lesson was actually pretty good. I won't spoil the film for you but the idea of having a remote control with a fast forward (FF) button is probably intriguing to you. It is likely that each of us probably wish we could FF through various parts of our lives.

There were times for me when going through divorce, the deaths of a sister, mother and brother that I might have wanted to FF through at the time. Its a selfish thought for sure and in retrospect, I am glad that I couldn't push that button on my life.

For you it might be the same things or even events of lesser degree. Maybe an upcoming test at school, job interview or tax season. There are so many things we would probably grab the remote control and press FF if it were possible. But then look at what you would miss out on.

Through death and the events surrounding it, we learn about our faith and strength. In sitting with my mother before she died I spent seven wonderful days with family and hearing her stories. When my brother passed away, I had the opportunity to see what a fantastic life he had built for himself. Even in divorce I learned more about myself then I had ever known previously.

I wouldn't be so bold as to say the experiences were or are easy. Yet life isn't always easy. Things happen, circumstance occurs, life just gets in the way of those smooth sailing plans we make. Every experience is something to cherish and hold onto. Yes, even the heartbreaking ones.

A FF button for your life may seem like the quick and simple solution. But look at all you will have missed. Life flows much too quickly as it is. A quick paced river flowing from its beginnings in Gougane Barra to where it empties into the Cork Harbor is your life. The vast eternity of the Atlantic Ocean awaits its end. Yet we need to enjoy every part of the river's journey.

Put down the remote control and leave that FF button unused. Enjoy the ups and downs and even boring parts of your life. The journey is your life. Live each and every part of it.

Keep The Wheel In Motion

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." ~Walt Disney

Can you believe it, January is half over and the ringing of the new year bells are fading. The hangover has likely subsided and work or school returned to fill your days.

Resolutions made for the new year on December 31 are still fresh in your mind. You are probably still loyal to the promises made to yourself. Heading each morning or evening to the gym, working off those ten pounds. Maybe you are reading a new book and watching less television. One less beer or bowl of ice cream each day is still doable.

But will you keep moving forward with those resolutions as the year goes? Will you be true to yourself and make those changes promised?

It is easy at this point. Only half a month has transpired, barely a few breaths of the new year. Life hasn't come in quite yet and tried to interfere with your plans. But you know life will try to get in your way, life will try to throw you off course.

What I encourage you to do though is keep the wheel of your life moving. Keep pushing forward with your plans. You have started building momentum and the hills will approach. Momentum will get you over those times and with each success it gets easier.

You have an amazing year ahead of you, full of change, full of new adventure, full of greatness. Keep moving forward, keep the curiosity of your success pulling you to the next level. Pretty soon it will be December 31 and you'll be fondly thinking of a great year gone by. But you will also be jumping with excitement for what's to come next.

Keep Moving Forward

“To me, if life boils down to one thing, it's movement. To live is to keep moving.” -Jerry Seinfeld

As you start on your path to greater things; as the pressure builds and the nay-sayers get in the way, keep moving forward. One step in front of the other, keep moving.

The first step is difficult but each one can be met with resistance. Keep your focus on what you can achieve, the goal or dream you have for yourself.