I love to read Seth Godins’ blog about marketing. He seems to come up with practical ideas that were always there , but he puts his spin on them.
I like the spin.
One thing he said was to question success. That was something I never thought about before . Our tendency is to never question success because if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
But maybe you can do things better so just staying with what has worked in the past might just be a way of being lazy.
So you might say the good is the enemy of the best.
Comfort, success, good times, have to be tempered with striving, losing and terrible times or nobody would ever change.
Your best friend might be business failure or a huge lawsuit or some other pain.
The second you stop crying about it you can start growing and finding a better way.
Success is like beauty, it is fleeting at best.
And you don’t want to gain the whole world and lose your soul.
40
When I was 20 I had an exercise book. One thing that impressed me was the page on 40 years old. It had a drawing of what you would look like at age 40 if you did not gain any extra weight but just did not
exercise every day.
And then it showed the same body at age 40 with working out.
Just the toll of gravity was enough to make you sick.
This was a great example of not only a body but a mind.
We never do nothing. WE are always sliding downhill if we stop pushing back.
Push ups are hard and even harder for women as we do not naturally have great upper body strength. But they are our best friend. They push up more than your falling down body, they push up your mind too. I dread doing them in the middle of strength training. I look at the clock and think oh no only 5 more minutes and we have to do push ups.
But I can do 13 now without stopping . That might not seem like a lot but by goal is 50 and I want to be able to do that by January.
That clock is going by whether I do them or not so I might as well push back and try with everything I have.
At lease I have more than I did when I started 5 months ago.
Your mind follows your body so pushing your body will automatically push everything else too.
It is the engine.
The Three Graces
What are the three graces anyway. The old mythology graces are art, charm and beauty.
Those are nice but of all the things in the world that could be the three graces maybe there is something more important.
You can be charming and beautiful and full of art but at the same time you can be mean and selfish and empty inside.
The big three graces for me are Faith Hope and Charity.
With these three you get the best of all worlds. A reason to do everything else. A good reason.
If you don’t have Faith you will not have Hope and Charity will be forced. Forced charity is like a beautiful woman who is selfish and cruel.
Hope that is not backed by Faith is just wishful thinking. And Faith without action is just insurance.
Wild ideas
What makes an idea “Wild”. Usually people say “That is a wild idea.” when they mean it is a stupid idea that is a waste of time.
That is why people who have these sorts of ideas do not always say them out loud when they get them. Fear of Ridicule.
That is why I love brainstorming. It is a ridicule free zone when you can say”Hey I know this sounds really different but here it is.”
You might be the missing link for someone else who was thinking the same thing put not quite. Not quite is just one step away form just right.
Revolutions were started with a wild idea.
We are not static. We should always grow and that is where wild ideas need to be.
I have words for wild// bold courageous and innovative daring,brilliant important and necessary.
Why not think in those lines the next time you get a “wild idea”
Every idea is worth at least exploring and mining for diamonds.
A leader
A leader is not someone who is the boss. A leader is not someone who is the pushiest person in the room or the loudest.
You cannot make someone into a leader.
A leader is just a person with passion about an idea and they act on that idea,
People want to be part of a great idea and if someone has one everyone will naturally gravitate toward that person.
That idea can be a character quality, or a genius way of doing something that has not been done before.
Two things passion and good idea equals a leader being born.
You have to have passion or it is like a spark that could be a flame but nobody blew on it and made it roar into being.
You have to have passion.
Everyone wants to be passionate about something and if you present a good thing everyone will want to jump on the passion boat and sail away with you.
You can stop being a leader at any time by turning new found passion into a look how great I am thing. People wlll not follow those who think they are better than the idea.
So a sustained leader has good ideas, passion and humility.
Take anyone of those ingredients out and you get a lot of people leaving the room.