Staying Happy This Holiday

“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.” ― Fred Rogers

Depending upon how you count, there are only twenty-five days left before Christmas is upon us. Yes, only twenty-five days left to find the perfect gift. Only twenty-five days left to plan the holiday meal. Only twenty-five days left to stress over all of it.

90% of people stress over something during the holidays

What exactly do we stress over then? According to a Consumer Reports survey, these are the top things we dread this time of year.

68% - Crowds and long lines
37% - Gaining weight
37% - Getting into debt
28% - Gift shopping
25% - Traveling
24% - Seeing certain relatives
23% - Seasonal music
19% - Disappointing gifts
16% - Having to attend holiday parties or events
15% - Having to be nice
12% - Holiday tipping

I actually find the "having to be nice" kind of amusing given the fact it should just come naturally. Sad to say, there are folks who simply find it hard to be nice. Beyond being nice, there are many things which induce stress in a lot of people.

How do we stay positive and enjoy the holiday?

To keep yourself happy and stress-free as possible, consider the following five ideas. Take a few moments before we really get into the deep end of the holiday rush and consider how you can have a happier holiday season.

1. Be realistic and avoid trying to be perfect - there are 365 days in a year and it is practically impossible to make one day perfect when we know the other 364 days are imperfect. There is beauty and fun in the imperfections of life. Embrace the idea that no one person and no one day is perfect. When you do this the pressure of being perfect yourself will be lifted and make you much happier.

2. Be healthy in your food, drink and exercise - a work Christmas party, a holiday get-together with friends and many other fun activities will fill your belly with great food, lighten your head at times from drinking alcohol and keep you less active in other parts of your daily routine. There will be less sleep, less exercise, less of the normal. Simply do all of this in moderation and your health will keep you happier.

3. Be grateful for what is going right - shopping for a gift that is out of stock, the dessert pie which didn't turn out quite right and so many other things that could wrong. What are we to do? We can be thankful for what we do have. If you think about it, there are a lot of good things going on in your life and I am sure you can find them. When you are grateful for what you have, life will be a lot happier to you.

4. Be mindful of being around positive things - maybe this one time of the year you avoid reading or responding to all of the negativity circulating on social media. Do not forget that bad news, bad comments and bad things sell. Good things are boring but search for the good news in life. Spread good news and avoid spreading the negative. When you generate a positive attitude, you will be happier about yourself.

5. Be the nice person you really are - being nice is inside all of us in varying degrees. Do you really need a parking spot up close? Let them have it, park further out and get a bit of exercise. Someone cut you off in traffic? Maybe they have a sick relative so show a little grace. All kinds of frustrations are not worth the impact they could have on your happiness. Spread a little niceness and happiness will come to you.

There you have it, staying happy this holiday season.

Sounds easy, should be easy but we all know it really is not. It takes works on our part and hey, do not sweat it if you cannot do all five things. Pick one, pick two but simply try. Being stress free and happy is not something for just this time of year.

Try to be happier for most of the year.

Stress consumes our happiness and being positive is not just a cliche. Being positive is a way of life, a happier life! And life should be that way, correct?

Stay inspired my friends!

Field Of Flowers - Not Weeds

"Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power." - Shirley MacLaine

All of us have asked in conversation how someone is doing. The answer you get in return many times becomes a litany of all the troubles that particular person is experiencing. You listen intently and offer words of advice or consolation. Eventually you begin to feel a bit down yourself.

Negativity in conversation can pull you into a depressing mood.

The feeling of a great day you were having begins to fade away.

It can be eye opening to know how powerful negative thoughts have upon you and the people it surrounds. It feeds upon itself and grows stronger the more you embrace the negative. And strangely, people will believe more in the strength of negativity then in the power of being positive. Being negative is a much easier road to take.

Being positive is like watching a slow developing flower.

Life gains strength the more you nurture a positive attitude.

Negative attitudes are like quick growing weeds, taking over a field in rapid advancement. Great attitudes have to be tended to and the weeds of negativity pulled away. Eventually, you find great things in your life which outweigh any of the bad. Walking through a field of flowers and not weeds is a better life to live.

Stay inspired my friends.

It Is So Simple

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” ― Desmond Tutu

There is goodness in speaking kindly of others. There is goodness in simply being kind to others. The older I get, the more important this simple fact becomes. Yet be kind and good to others can be difficult for many.

To do so, one must let go of negative thoughts about a person.
To do so, one must consider the good things about a person.

If we measure the goodness of a person's life - large or small - significant or not - it means that person matters. It means there are things about a person which contribute in a positive way to life around them. It means we are willing to accept whatever little or large amount of goodness they possess.

Each of us have both good and bad aspects to the life we live.
Each of us have many positives to the life we live.

As you go through life, focus on the good things and the negatives will slowly fade away. I have seen many people leave this life. I have known many of them well and many others not so well. But it is the good things I choose to remember.

Yes, there are truly horrible people in this world.
Yes, there are also many good and kind people in this world.

We have to come to terms with the negative in our daily lives. Just do not use up your energy on the negative. Use your energy to build upon the positive ones in your life. Be the one that others will proclaim and a good, kind and decent person who makes life better.

You will one day eventually be measured by your own goodness.
You will one day leave a trail of good memories to be remembered by all.

Stay inspired my friends.

Live As Though Alive

"Thoughts are like an open ocean, they can either move you forward within its waves, or sink you under deep into its abyss." ― Anthony Liccione

I found and read this story written by Francie Baltazar-Schwartz titled "ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING" some time ago. The story provides a perspective regarding the idea of taking only a positive view of life. There is a possibility you will learn a lesson from it and change your view on life as well.

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers.

While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Begin thinking of your life as if you are alive, not dead.

Choose the laughter and live your life to its greatest potential. After all, attitude is everything.

Stay inspired my friends.

Life of a Virus Part Two

Rhinovirus (common cold) particle

“I had no shoes and complained until I met a man who had no feet.” ― Proverb

Where did we leave off yesterday?

Ah yes, Life of a Virus Part One; negative thoughts and ideas can permeate into and through you to others.

As a short review, a viral life cycle varies in its precise details depending upon the species of virus. But all virus share a general pattern:

- Attachment to a host cell.
- Release of viral genes and possibly enzymes into the host cell.
- Replication of viral components using host-cell machinery.
- Assembly of viral components into complete viral particles.
- Release of viral particles to infect new host cells.

In other words, "invade, destroy and duplicate."

There are vaccines which can be given to prevent infections, but once a virus has made its way in, antivirals have to be used to treat those who have already been infected by the virus.

Similar to a virus, negative thoughts and ideas can invade your mind, body and thought process. These thoughts begin to have a bad effect upon your life, drawing you into thinking you can never achieve or accomplish anything. The thoughts or negative thinking will pull you into areas of self-doubt, isolation and failure. All of a sudden you find yourself alone and in a deep dark hole of bewilderment.

An antiviral to negative seeds of thought are positive seeds of thought.

Small bits of encouragement, small bits of uplifting ideas, small bits of just believing in one self. Over time, good things begin to push out the bad ones. The virus of negative thoughts become replaced with the positive ones. Positive thoughts invading, destroying negativity and duplicating themselves.

Just where does all of this come from? It can from within at the point you decide to make change in your life. When you finally decide to get out from underneath the heavy darkness of negative thoughts. It also comes from other people providing encouragement. It comes from those that lift instead of pushing you down. The type of people who will provide you with a more positive atmosphere. This means you might need to evaluate what kind of people you surround yourself with.

Hang with negative people, your life will be surrounded by a negative atmosphere.

Hang with positive, successful, uplifting people, the atmosphere will bring light into your life.

Fight the negative virus which seeks to invade your life. Use the antiviral resources you have to make life better for yourself. Once the cold is gone, you know how much better you will feel. The same goes with removing the negativity in your life; you will feel much better.

Stay inspired my friends!

Enthusiasm for Your Life

"Enthusiasm is the energy and force that builds literal momentum of the human soul and mind." ~ Bryant H. McGill

When building a great life, we have to approach it with enthusiasm.

We need to have a pure joy for the process of living life.

We have to love living.

If we hate our job, if we hate our circumstance in life, if we just hate being; then our life will remain stuck with no chance of improvement. There has to be a change in those circumstances. You have to alter your view of life and how you feel about it. Always complaining and bickering about your lot in life will only yield an unlikeable life.

Try changing all of that around.

Try being a better person your self.

Try having a little more enthusiasm.

Try to enjoy the life you have a little more.

If we start by being slightly amused, maybe we can begin to get past the negativity in life. It is up to each of us to change our thoughts and behaviors. If we remain negative about all that is around us, a negative life is what we will get. If we choose to enjoy life and rid ourselves of the negativity, a greater life can be ours.

It sounds easy but the reality requires a lot of work on our part and many people are not willing to put in the work required. But the point is, it takes work to be negative and the result of that work will be a negative life.

Why not direct that enthusiasm; that energy; towards doing something greater for your life? Start laughing a bit more, start being less critical and start by just having more enthusiasm for your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Yield to a Positive Attitude

“Although our inattention can contribute to our lack of total well-being, we also have the power to choose positive behaviors and responses. In that choice we change our every experience of life!” -Greg Anderson

yield; [synonyms: yield, relent, bow, defer, submit, capitulate, succumb]. All of these verbs mean to give in to what one can no longer oppose or resist. They are variations of the word yield and on the surface would seem to mean defeat. You might even think it means to show signs of weakness.

In another definition, yielding can be a term of strength.

If you allow yourself to be the upstanding person and let the small transgressions in life go by without seeking retribution is a hard quality to live by. I am not suggesting we allow ourselves to be tread upon. There is a time to stand up for what is right and correct that which is wrong. What I am suggesting is that we can be the better person.

Yielding means allowing yourself to submit to the power of being positive.

All of us know and have heard that 'evil' (for lack of a better term) is a powerful influence. That we all seem to be drawn to the negative. And do you know why? Because being negative is easy, it doesn't take a whole lot of effort. So the negative draws attention, bad news stories will draw more viewers then a news program filled with stories of bake sales at the local elementary.

People can become lazy to the impact of being positive when you surround yourself with all of the negative news, negative water cooler talk and other forms or downtrodden on life. So many people misunderstand the power in overcoming negativity.

The power of being positive will improve your life.

Yield to the power of positive thinking; the power of having a positive attitude. Will it make you rich? Maybe it will, maybe it won't. What it will do is enrichen your life no matter what your circumstance. It will draw you into a more positive and successful crowd of people. This in turn improves your opportunity to improve your life. You will learn and gain from being in an environment of great people.

Stay with the complainers and you will become one.

Yield to the power that a positive attitude can have on your life. You will be drawn into greatness with others. See the world, see your life from a new perspective. And stay inspired my friends!

On Top

“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.”
-Oprah Winfrey

You just never know how far you will go until you get there. And the only way to get there is by placing yourself around others that will help lift you. That sounds like a no-brainer, but many times we surround ourselves with negative people.

It is those type of people that will only hold us down.

Negativity can be very infectious when it starts to invade your world. Their restricting vines will entwine you until one day you find yourself stuck. There is darkness that surrounds negativity. It restricts your view of what could be a greater life. It simply makes life very difficult to live within the bounds of negativity.

By placing yourself around people that lift and encourage can also be infectious.

Those that live a more upbeat and inspired life want to share that with you. The belief that dreams and visions can be achieved will be nurtured by these type of people. Your life will have a clearer vision of all the possibilities that exist and give you a path towards achieving those possibilities.

You may not end up performing acrobatic moves atop the Empire State Building, but then again you might. You see that's what is great about life, anything is possible.

Stay inspired my friends.

Just One Reason

"There are a million reasons you can find to tear someone down. Work to find that 'one' reason to build them up." -Dean Sweetman

When you consider your own life, you have probably found that you do much better in a 'positive' environment. Whether the environment is home, church, school or work; if everyone is always negative, there will likely be little success.

If those areas of our life are going to be great, then we have to have great people around us. You do this by building up others. Think of the people around you that provide encouragement. Remember how good you feel when you are around them. The same can be said when you are near those that would tear you down, and you know how that makes you feel.

You can be someone that encourages others; it not only builds up the other person, but it strengthens your relationship with them. This article is not about shallow flattery or "sucking-up." It means to look for and recognize positive traits and actions in others. The "sucking-up" is as bad as lying to people, they will see through it very quickly.

So what are the benefits of encouraging others?

- Your relationship develops.
People sense your interest in them and are willing to give more of themselves to you.

- Your influence grows.
Who is going to have more influence in the lives of others, the one who tears down or the one who builds up?

- You build stronger loyalty.
When the individual knows they are appreciated, they become loyal, because they know that you care about them.

- You create happy, fulfilled people.
This is not an exercise in “return on investment.” It is right to build up others, without expecting anything in return. Someone out there is looking to tear them down; you be the person committed to building them up.

So work at improving your life and attitude about others. Then take your effort and build up those around you. It will have a great impact on your life.

Stay inspired my friends!

How Many Birthdays Do I Get

"Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life." -Robert Louis Stevenson

An Op-Ed article appeared in the Des Moines Sunday Register, back on February 2, 2003. I happened upon it while writing an article to celebrate my wife's birthday. It tells the story of a young boy having lost his parents in the civil war within Sierra Leone.

Gibrila (jeh bril’ a) was orphaned at age 2 and adopted by a man and his wife from Des Moines, Iowa. It is a touching story that brings to mind the goodness of people but also the wide expanse that exists between what we have versus what others do not. The story explains the catch phrase in the title of this article, but it makes me wonder, "how many birthdays do I get to have" in life?

As we live our lives from day-to-day here in the United States and many developed countries around the world, we forget how good we actually have things. I will certainly agree that there are large disparities in income levels and many people here in the U.S.A. do not have things so great. But for the most part, things are pretty decent here. The availability of a roof over our heads, something to eat once or twice a day and clothing to cover our backs is plentiful.

We have nice streets, running water, gas stations filled with thousands of items to purchase abound on nearly every street corner. Huge malls are filled to the brim with items of every kind that you might want to purchase. Fast food and other dining establishments serving large plates of food abound. Multiple choices of colors, textures, tastes, brands and sizes can be almost mind-boggling.

Now go to a developing or under-developed country. Travel where choice is limited, where availability of things we take for granted are nearly non-existent. Find clean drinking water, a place to purchase new shoes or a safe place to lay your head down at night. You will quickly find how much we have to choose from right here where we live. You will quickly find that we have it pretty good right here where we live.

When a young boy from Sierra Leone asks "how many birthdays do I get", maybe it is time we ask that of ourselves. Maybe we should be more thankful for what we have. Maybe, just maybe, we should simply be thankful.

Stay inspired my friends and be thankful.

Embracing the Good

"Bad things do happen in the world, like war, natural disasters, disease. But out of those situations always arise stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things." -Daryn Kagan

The recent destruction of a town in Oklahoma, loss of life and devastation due to a massive EF5 tornado can be very hard to comprehend.

There were nearly 13,000 homes destroyed or damaged, affecting close to 33,000 people. Damages to structures alone will likely top the $1 billion mark, which doesn't include the damage to the psyche of people. It has been reported that over 350 people were injured and sadly 24 people, including 10 children, were confirmed killed.

All of us know how horrible this storm was due to the many news stories. We also know it doesn't take an EF5 tornado to completely overturn your life. It could be a house fire, terrible car accident, divorce, job loss, sickness or a terminal illness. Bad things happen to people nearly every minute of every day. Pretty depressing if you think about it from that perspective.

But good things also happen to people nearly every minute of every day. A new home is moved into, a car trip to Grandma's home, a marriage is embraced, job promotion, healing occurs and a baby is born. The human spirit is reaffirmed in the aftermath of destruction; we out shine the darkness that happens in our lives.

Do not let the news make you believe life is simply one horrible event after another. Those things do happen and we will always rise from them. Embrace the goodness that happens. Believe in the power of all the good things that do happen every day, every minute and every breath of our life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Find the Flower

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” -Henri Matisse

If you look at a situation or person, there will normally be some level of goodness to be gained from the experience. Not every bad situation or bad encounter with another person is wasted. There is possibility for learning something positive.

There will be times when you have to look hard to see the goodness and there are times when you fail to find any level of goodness at all. The point to be made is that you should first look. Find something positive to take from every encounter in life.

Stay inspired my friends.

The Economics of Anxiety

Photo Illustration: Getty Images, Getty Images/Hulton Archive

"Among those evils which befall us, there are many which have been more painful to us in the prospect than by their actual pressure." - Joseph Addison

Economic uncertainty, job losses mounting and most anything else you read about in the newspaper; all of these are reasons for anyone to develop high anxiety. This anxiety created by worry can be accompanied by physical effects such as heart palpitations, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, stomach aches, or headaches.

Physically, the body prepares to deal with a threat. Blood pressure and heart rate are increased, sweating is increased, blood flow to the major muscle groups is increased, and immune and digestive system functions are inhibited (the fight or flight response).

"We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal." - Ingmar Bergman

According to a Gallup Poll conducted in March of 2008, the percentage of Americans saying they worry "a great deal" about the economy surged by more than 20 points over the past year, moving the issue from 6th on the list of 12 national issues measured in 2007 to tied for first today with health care.

We only know so well that economic conditions have worsened considerably since that time. It would stand to reason that worry about how one will survive these economic times has increased.

WebMD offers some advice when fear rears its ugly head:

• Take time to pull back from the situation and delay immediate action; unless there's an open artery involved.
• Breathe! If you don't know how to do relaxation breathing.
• Try to be around people who are calm; it's infectious in a good way.
• Sit down and ask yourself to look for the positive side in this or the solution that is currently not being seen. Reach out to others.
• Let Scarlet O'Hara be your guide for a moment and remember that "tomorrow's another day." Even Annie knew that "the sun will come out tomorrow."
• Understand that FDR was right when he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Don't let it crush you in its grip.

"Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Do all you can to turn your concern and worry into something productive. Read something to learn how the economic conditions will effect you; of different ways to save money; of different ways improve your condition. Knowledge is a powerful thing and the more you learn, the better prepared you are to get through this.

Stay inspired my friends.

A short video from Dr. Phil McGraw talking about anxiety.

Positive Leadership

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” -Viktor Frankl

There are times in your life when your attitude will be tested. It may be a family issue, problems at work and sometimes it occurs in your church life. How you respond to these tests of life will dictate many times the outcome of each. It will dictate the direction of your life. The point being is that your attitude can have a huge impact upon your life.

A few years back, a friend went through a couple of job changes. They were not of his doing and he simply was caught in the circumstances of the times. He and his wife also had various challenges with children, health and the death of relatives.

They were experiencing many of the things all of us go through. Yet to compound all of that with job loss seemed too much for anyone to carry on their shoulders. It seemed that they were carrying an unfair share of life's problems. Certainly they had every right to complain. But he kept an attitude of positive thought under the pressure.

My friend lost his first job due to company layoffs, but he had positioned himself to gain another job rather quickly. In this second job, it was a good one but after a short amount of time, a returning soldier was given his job back. The employer had promised to keep both but circumstances had changed and only one could be kept. There being no room, my friend was let go. The returning soldier deserved his old job back and so my friend left with a cheerful heart.

What happend to my friend? He kept looking, kept his attitude positive and landed a job to manage another, larger company. It was a bigger position with more responsibility and leadership. It was the job that was waiting to meet up with him at the right intersection and time in life. This man will know who he is and I'm proud to know him. He is a man of great character, great attitude and a leader among those he comes in contact with.

It is those qualities by which great leaders operate. Leaders who have learned and continue to learn how to 'rule' their attitudes. These people know how they want to feel and then chose to feel that way. Their mood and choices help create the end result. You too can be that kind of person, with the right kind of attitude.

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.

Expect It

"Quit now, you'll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you'll be halfway there." ~David Zucker

Give it up people, you'll never be a success. There is no way that all of your hard work and effort will pay off. Face it, you're just not talented enough. Quit now and accept your life as it is.

More than likely you have heard one of those phrases at some point in your life. The words of discouragement that people try to speak into your life. The words that work to keep you down and feeling unworthy of success.

It is very likely that you have spoken these words into your own life. I have heard Dr. Wayne Dyer say, "if you would like to accomplish something, you must first expect if from yourself." If you speak into your life disappointment and discouragement, it is a pretty good bet that this is what life will be for you.

Expect great things in your life, expect that you will accomplish your goals. Expect you and than others will expect that you will.

Disregard the naysayers, disregard the negative talk and believe in yourself.

Your Wake Up Call

"A man is what he thinks about all day long." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every day that you wake from sleep, you have a choice to make regarding your attitude. If you choose to think in a negative fashion, it will be a negative day you will have. If you choose to believe nothing will come to fruition in your life, than nothing will. What you believe in yourself will dictate what will happen.

Why not choose to believe in better things for your life. Why not believe that the day can be good. Why not believe in those around you. Why not believe in yourself.

Choose today that things will be good.

Fire Drill Practice

"A fire drill does not demand a fire" -Nancy Cartwright

Do you remember your days in school when you practiced evacuting a building in case of a fire. Those fire drills were always fun to have as it got us out of school work. We lined up and walked quickly without running to our designated safety area.

We performed these drills 'just in case' a fire eventually broke out and our lives truly depended upon getting out safely. Even back in the 1950s, the threat of nuclear war was pervasive. People practiced 'duck and cover' in order to save themselves from the nuclear fallout.



We practice constantly in the event that something bad will happen in our lives. Those things may never happen, but we are prepared because we take the time to prepare.

What if we took time to prepare for the good things that could happen in our life. Maybe we should practice how to handle the large amount of money we will earn. Maybe we should practice what it will be like having great relationships, great children and a great job.

What I am saying is that maybe we should practice being positive about life.

Negative Flu Bug

"Just because you're miserable doesn't mean you can't enjoy your life." ~Annette Goodheart

For the second time in a month I have come down with a flu bug. The first one occurred while visiting our new grand daughter in Los Angeles. That one was tough as it kept me from holding the little one until the final day or so. This current bug reappeared this week just before a scheduled business trip to the northwest.

My belief is that the second occurrence is just a re-emergence of the same bug. I guess in the medical sense I never fully got rid of the flu bug to begin with. It waited and festered inside until a new opportunity to emerge appeared.

So fighting the flu bug while sitting at home, it gave me reason to think about how similar it is to a bad attitude. Negative thoughts and feelings are very much like a flu bug. They weaken and destroy you little by little until you reach a point of desperation.

Then someone gives you a book, provides an encouraging word and you watch an inspiring movie. The negativity lifts and you feel better. But you know in some fashion that you have not rid your life of those feelings completely.

Those negative thoughts hide just beneath the surface, waiting, waiting. It could be a few days or a few weeks, but then you let your guard down. Maybe a small complaint, maybe a negative thought, and the negativity makes its way back to the surface. Before you realize it, the bad attitude and bad thoughts are consuming your life again.

Again you battle the thoughts and attitudes, looking for something to change their course. Its a difficult cycle to be in swinging from sickness to feeling good. It gets old in time and harder to combat as the negative attitude takes its toll on you.

So like a flu bug, we need to fight it off and destroy them to the best of our ability. We then need to see the symptoms and learn to fight them off sooner before they encompass our life.

A bad attitude can have a debilitating effect upon your life. Take a flu shot of positive affirmation just like you get the flu shot. You'll have a better journey and a greater life along the way.

Is The Sky Blue

“There must be a positive and negative in everything in the universe in order to complete a circuit or circle, without which there would be no activity, no motion.” -John McDonald

So maybe I should let that sink in a little bit or let people wonder just what a quote like that is doing on a blog like this.

This blog is a positive, motivational, self improvement website that people can get a little bit of inspiration from. It is a way of helping you find some goodness to help you get through whatever it is you might be going through.

Yet I fully understand the reality of life, that you can not always live in the happy Neverland. There will be periods of the "not-so-happy". Even I have been called (in a nice way) a cynical b@$tard. Although I much prefer the term "centered contrarian".

My view is much more positive then not, but I find that I have to keep my life centered. So when I start approaching the starry, "pie-in-the-sky"; my instinct is to ensure I step back and view the other side.

The reason why?

I can not speak to those going through bad times with out understanding what they are facing. The 'positive' means nothing to them if it isn't relevant. So my cynicism for things can peek through from time to time. But again, that cynicism can come off sounding like I don't believe in having a great attitude.

Having a great attitude and leaning to the positive is what dreams are made of. Without it, we would never move forward. We would never try anything new or even want to for that matter. My contrarian ways are in some ways left over attributes but in no way do they diminish my belief in living life in a positive fashion.

You have to choose the way you want to live your life. That is the great thing about it. We get to choose it, we get to also change it. We can pull ourselves out of misery and choose happiness. No one else, no artificial thing, no magic potion can make that change...only you.

And if you say the sky is blue and I happen to say its not; then its just the cynic in me dreaming of a great sunrise.