Gma & Gpalooza 2016

“Humans, not places, make memories.” ― Ama Ata Aidoo

palooza

Noun; plural paloozas; (neologism) An exaggerated event; Related terms "-a-palooza"
Origin: from Lollapalooza, a music festival, from lallapalooza

But the big one is the annual Grandma and Grandpalooza event.

And away we go!

Stay inspired folks.

Handling Adversity

"The manner in which one endures what must be endured is more important than the thing that must be endured." - Dean Acheson

Each of us will face one or several obstacles in life. That is just the way life can be. Look at your own life and measure the number of times something has occurred which set you back, brought you down or just made you feel bad.

And here you are, still standing.

Did those events strengthen you? Did you learn something from the experience? Did it build your character? With each occurrence, was it a little bit easier to deal with and come through? If you can not answer yes to these questions, then you are allowing external forces to dictate your life.

You dictate your own attitude.

Examine your personality and how your attitude effects your own ability to pull through the bad times. Having a positive attitude will allow you to focus on the issues and solve them more quickly. A poor attitude causes you to wallow in self pity and despair leaving you with no ambition or willingness to confront the problem.

Face your issues with the idea they can be overcome.

A solution can be found so get up and create movement to change the situation. I have seen people follow the thought process of not confronting their approach to an issue and sure enough, nothing changes. The same conditions remain and they wonder why. And its because the same is not working.

Move to make a different kind of change.

Adopt a different thought, a different idea, a different attitude about your condition. There is the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" and based upon your attitude, it will truly be the light of a new and brighter day. Let your attitude shine in the light beyond the end of the tunnel, you will be quite pleased.

Stay inspired my friends!

Learning From Yesterday

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” - Herman Cain

Looking back in order to see where we were in order to push us forward towards success in the future; it is something many of us miss at times. We always want the next new idea, the next great idea that will push us to the top.

Yet our greatest teacher might simply be accomplished by looking back.

It is true we can not reverse the past but we can certainly learn from it. Using the lessons we have learned in life can make a huge difference going forward. Knowing the past can teach us four things. Four things that you can incorporate into your life in order to leverage that knowledge.

1. Make hindsight your mentor

Let it help guide your future actions. Write down ideas from the previous day that you could have done differently. This does not mean to second guess yourself. It only means to learn from the mistakes.

2. Trust your sixth sense

It is that natural instinct in life which comes to each of us. It is learned knowledge and increasing expertise in a particular area of life. It will be a little 'nudge' or 'butterfly in the stomach' trying to tell you something different. So don't ignore it; stop and take a few moments to evaluate and explore it further.

3. Integrate hindsight with foresight

Allow past experience to provide you with helpful advice going forward. Take what you have learned and weave it into your future. Discipline yourself to look at the past and future simultaneously which will help you make significant break through in your life.

4. Let yourself make mistakes

Allow a 'trial and error' method as one means to develop your personal lessons in life. Making these mistakes is a natural part of learning. Understanding that mistakes will happen, embrace the fact and learn from them.

Taking your life from past experience to a new tomorrow involves embracing all which has occurred.

Learn from your past, live a greater tomorrow.

Stay inspired my friends!

Opening Different Doors

"When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us." - Alexander Graham Bell

There are times in life when opportunity slips away, only to be presented with another. What we first expect our path to be turns out not to be what we expected at all.

The following excerpt from my book CHANGED LIVES shows such an example. The story a man who turned his life into a very successful career in the technology field, but not until he made a choice which detoured him through military service.

Change prepares us in ways we can never foresee.

~~~~~~

Jobs didn't look so attractive either; all of my experience was in restaurants. But I finally got some good prospects lined up for a day's travels, both job interviews and places to stay. I went out to start my car and – nothing, it would not start.

I never did find out what was wrong with the car - took it in, they checked it out, found nothing and it never did that again. But it screwed up my appointments all right. And while it was in the shop I wandered over to the Army recruitment office and, as they say, the rest is history.

I signed up, went off to Ft. Benning and became an infantryman. After four years there, the regular world was just going to be too easy.

~~~~~~

Never be discouraged by the closing of one door.

Opportunity awaits you through another door which is opening. All you have to do is be aware and chose to walk in a new direction.

Stay inspired my friends!