Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose. – Lyndon B. Johnson

Today is ours to win or lose.

Let’s do this!

Make it a great day.

Jake

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. – Voltaire

So many of issues, frustrations and heartache in life is self-imposed.

We think thoughts and take actions that keep us where we are and keep our current patterns going.

I wish we could all get just a glimpse of what our life would be like if we let go of these self-imposed limitations.

Too often it takes a catastrophic event to wake us up and lift the veil that keeps us blind to what is possible for us.

Don’t wait for that to happen to you.

Ask a trusted friend of loved one if you have any blind spots that are holding you back. Then really listen. Take them seriously and decide to act on whatever feedback they give you.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – Please let me know about my blind spots!

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. – Mark Twain

In my opinion, we should all cultivate a bias towards action.

To develop the habit of getting started.

Life is full of obstacles and difficulties.

It won’t go the way you want it to.

But if you keep moving forward, it will (probably) end up pretty good.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Quality is everyone’s responsibility. – W. Edwards Deming

Good thought here. As a business, the idea is easy but the application is a little more complicated.

It’s easy to go about our day focused on “my stuff”. Letting your own goals and work become your only focus.

Instead – the ultimate quality of what is delivered is everyone’s job – together.

As a team better results become possible.

As long as everyone takes responsibility.

I believe this also works at home and in our relationships. Quality is everyone’s responsibility.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/4F_RCWVoL4s?si=RQTmabLBG8e8H29r

Got to take the family to a game at Fenway yesterday. One of the traditions is to sing this song together as a group.

It’s so interesting when you get a group of people together and experience the same thing together. Something special happens.

Strangers become friends.

People (not all of them) seem a little nicer.

You can see that glimmer of hope that maybe we aren’t all doomed.

We were built for community and music.

Make it a great day.

Jake

For a glimpse of the experience you can watch this from the 2018 World Series game:
https://youtu.be/DRmL8V5y2TE?si=6gTw5vr-hKqhfXNP

David Goggins challenges people in a unique way.

Basic premise – the number of times you are going to be doing something you would rather not do is going to be greater than the number of times you are doing what you want to do – this is your new normal.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

There are no “off days”, “cheat days” or “me days”. There are only days where you are being disciplined or not.

What does this look like for you today? Forget about getting started on that new goal later – start today. Pick something hard and do that instead of what you would rather do. Get going.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Went to see the place where Thoreau lived on Walden Pond yesterday so I’m resending an old daily attitude about one of his many quotes on keeping our selves focused on the right things.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. – Henry David Thoreau

Challenging quote alert…

It’s so easy to get distracted and focused on all the little trivial things in our lives while ignoring the root cause.

We let selfishness, greed, laziness, and anger win out while we try to keep up with the Joneses.

We argue with others about political differences and complain on Facebox about all the losers.

We shop and spend and adorn ourselves while ignoring a hole in our hearts.

We hack at the branches of the injustices of the world and ignore the root in our own hearts (and of those we care about).

What can you do today to hack at the selfishness in your life?

What can you do today to hack at the consumption obsession?

Let’s get to work on tackling the right end of the problem.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – You’re pretty great. You are one of a kind that was built for doing and becoming the best version of you. You’re probably much further down the path of working on the right end of the problem than me and I’d love to hear how you did it.

Resending this daily attitude email from 4 years ago. Mavidea turned 19 years old this year, but the message is still true.

Today is my brother Bill’s birthday.

He may not know it but he had a part to play in Mavidea getting to 15 years old too.

Part of my plan if things had gone sour was to move in to my brother’s basement (he owed us from when we let him live in our basement for a while after college). Maybe not the most well thought out plan (I had many like this), but it let me be a little more free with the idea of taking on some risk and making some of the hard choices early on.

Many of you on the DAE list were part of those back up plans and hair brained ideas about how to make this thing work whether you knew it or not. Having loved ones, friends, family, etc. around in case things went sideways made things easier and less stressful (and still do). The list of who deserves a thank you here is too long to type up, but if you’re getting this email – you’re on it.

The point here is that we can risk the small stuff (businesses failing, money, jobs, etc.) if we have the big stuff (relationships, love, family, friendships) in place.

The love and support of family and friends helped Mavidea become something it wouldn’t have been otherwise.

Who needs your love and support?

How many lives might be enriched through this support?

Happy Birthday Uncle Bill and thanks for the support!

Make it a great day.

Jake

Happiness is the natural flower of duty. – Phillips Brooks

Viktor Frankl talks about the idea of freedom and liberty only being meaningful when matched with responsibility and accountability.

We are happiest when we are in service to others with love.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/-h5Nh7mggx0?si=1dOetyt9F1kxDt0w

https://youtu.be/i5JAjAR_AjY?si=FNG60oaACTOHmOMZ

Heading to Boston with the family for vacation next week, so these two fun ones seemed appropriate today.

I’m excited to see some of the history that helped shape America while we are out there.

We all have so much to be thankful for.

We all live and work in a better place than our grandparents or great grandparents did because they left things better than they were.

We can pay it forward by doing the same.

Make it a great day.

Jake