Move a Nation

"Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic." ~ Unknown

I try to write my blogs from various devices from time to time. It becomes sort of an experiment doing so with devices such as an iPad or iPhone. My admission here is that I am a Windows PC kind of guy and it is my comfort zone.

Yet I'm not here to review the iPad or my lack of skill in figuring out how to do a lot of cool things with it. I am sure there are hidden features and applications to soon be discovered. What I am interested in talking about is the unknown.

An exciting part of life is stretching out into the new and unknown.

When you look down a new path and trust your own ability, doing so is what makes life great. You do n0t have to be the best trained or the smartest one out there. Heck, look at me! I'm not a professional writer nor a professional motivator, or even a professional speaker.

I step out and stretch myself because they have an impact on people's lives and my own. I am careful not to over step into areas where "real" professional help is needed. But I do reach into the unknown and try to create a new path.

You have the ability try the unknown, the new, in your life.

There is nothing and no one stopping you except yourself. You can take on a new way of looking at your attitude about life. You can find a different kind of book to read or maybe a new set of friends. And maybe it doesn't have to start that extreme.

Just believing in yourself is the start of something greater.

Knowing that regardless of which path you go down, you will overcome anything that comes your way. And it is not the professionals I am talking to here. They perform great work throughout their lives with hard work, dedication and belief.

The people I am speaking to are the ones who can build an ark, move a nation or inspire a generation. And that just happens to be each one of you.

Stay inspired my friends!

Today Is Not A Rehearsal

The Rehearsal by Edgar Degas

"Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed."
~ Wayne Dyer

I read an article recently which spoke about the act of moving forward. An act in which we keep moving forward despite the obstacles we each face every day. In the article, Sandip Dutta wrote of a warrior bearing his burden and keeping his eye on the goal.

"The warrior moves on; he moves on despite a dead horse and a broken sword. The warrior moves on! With no one to fight for him, no one to fall back on, he moves on with an unshakeable faith and an unwavering determination. With a damaged armor and an empty arsenal he moves on.... he moves on!

He has already lost a thousand battles but he still moves on despite the hundred bleeding scars on his moonlit face. The warrior moves on for another battle; may be he will lose it too but he moves on with his dead horse and a broken sword because the battlefield is calling. He knows he might lose another hundred battles but he has his eyes fixed on the war and he cannot be whipped if he fights another battle, and then another battle, and another. So he moves on despite a dead horse and a broken sword."

The battles we encounter each day are large and fearsome within our individual world. Those battles will tempt us to yearn for the past and try forcing us to give up. Those battles may seem insurmountable as we look for a way out.

Time moves forward because no one has yet found a way to live in the past.

We may even look beyond today towards the future. Tomorrow is out there waiting for us and we may wish to skip today. But still the battle must be fought today. It is not a rehearsal for life. Today is a real thing that must be achieved so tomorrow can wait to be fought and won.

You can win the war for your future, while not guaranteed do not give up your future without a fight. Yesterday is just that, a past that can not be relived. Tomorrow is only a glimpse into what can be.

Today is the bridge between the two and it must be lived.

Live today in anticipation of success that will be achieved. Live today like success is here and now. And stay inspired my friends.

Landing Our Connections

"I think people are isolated because of the nature of human consciousness, and they like it when they feel the connection between themselves and someone else.." ~ James Taylor

Many Monday mornings can be a blur for me. These days tend to be very busy days. I am either heading out on the road or catching up from the previous weeks travel. Many a Monday leaves me little time to even consider writing anything motivational.

Monday is a day of shift for me and for many of you.

Mondays are also a day when we to adjust our focus on clarity. It is a day we transition that focus from weekend relaxation to the work required to make the weekends much better. It is also a chance to bring life into focus by connecting with others and then doing something with our newfound clarity.

Connections are made by drawing closer, not further away.

When traveling by plane, the engines begin their deafening roar as the plane presses at increasing speed upon takeoff. The laws of gravity and air resistance seem in contradiction to lifting a fully loaded Boeing 737 airplane weighing roughly 75 tons.

Traveling down the runway at 170 mph, we lift off and the details of everything disappear as the plane rises higher and higher. When reaching a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, you can see huge expanses of the earth.

The earth spreads out before you in a wondrous view.

One also notices the buildings, the people, the cars and the small details are also gone. From such a high altitude, there is no ability to focus on the small details. The people, the cars and buildings are impossible to see.

It reminds me that if we back ourselves away from connection with people, we lose the same ability to focus on things. We lose our relationships to others around us. We might as well be 35,000 feet in the air.

When we draw closer, relationships reappear and come into focus.

A plane descends near the end of a flight and little things reappear again. The shapes of buildings become clear. One can see vehicles racing up and down various roads. The landscape up close becomes much more recognizable, more familiar to the eye.

We begin to more clearly focus on all of the details as we drew closer to them. The closer a plane comes to landing, the closer we draw towards others, the tighter our connection becomes with everything around us.

Connection can only take place when we draw closer to others.

When we draw ourselves into relationship with other people, our focus on life achieves much greater clarity. With newfound clarity, your ability to impact the lives of others becomes much greater. The ability of others to impact your life becomes greater.

Your best life becomes even more achievable with connection.

Do not isolate yourself at 35,000 feet. It may feel like you can see so much further, but in reality you only see a possible landscape of your life. To live that possibility you need to draw close to it. And you draw close by connecting with people.

Achieve focus through connections and gain a better life.

Stay inspired my friends.

A Nickel For Every Mistake

#FlashbackFriday

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." ~ Albert Einstein

If I had a nickel for every mistake I have made in life, my riches would be boundless. And without those mistakes, I would not be nearly the person I am today.

We all make mistakes at one point or another in our life. some of us make a lot of them while others seem to have a perfect track record. The amount of mistakes is not what is important though. It is how you handle those mistakes which is important.

To never learn or grow from a mistake, the mistake controls your life.

But with each misstep or failure, if something new is learned then it only improves your life. It puts you closer to a greater life. Certainly it can feel like one step forward and two steps back. But in reality a mistake is just the opposite.

One step back and two steps forward should become your way of thinking. Learn from those mistakes and try to never repeat them. You will of course repeat mistakes from time to time. Again its all about using those mistakes to move your life forward.

Maybe now is the time to put a nickel in a jar for all the mistakes you make. Allow those mistakes to add up in your favor. A jar full of nickels is not a jar full of mistakes, but a jar full of life.

Stay inspired my friends.