Last night we were watching the debate and I started looking the FaceBox on my cellular phone and came across this video:

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2016/09/26/203513026/dee-gordon-paid-tribute-to-jose-fernandez-with-a-hr

Dee Gordon was paying tribute to a lost teammate and hit his first home run of the year. Watch the whole video and you will see how overcome with emotions he and his team are.

It’s easy to get lost in the debate over who to blame for all the wrong in the world.

But it’s also not that hard to focus on the good.

To focus on love.

To focus on your team.

To focus on honoring those that couldn’t be here today.

Find something good to focus on today.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill

Another week is upon us.

Whether last week was a rousing success or a dismal failure, we choose what this week will hold.

Take 5 minutes this morning and write down what a successful week would look like.

Then make it happen.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/_hN1SKVx31s

It’s like that….and that’s the way it is.

Just a quick reminder this morning.

Focus on what you can change and not on what you can’t.

Focus on your own attitude and self-improvement.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JD – It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. – Charles Spurgeon

EB – Often imitated, but never duplicated. – Captain Lou Albano

MS* – Who in their infinite wisdom decreed that Little League uniforms be white? Certainly not a mother. Erma Bombeck

JW* – He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest. – Dylan Thomas

JR* – Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.- Ernest Hemingway (FYI, this shows up when you do a search for “fantasy football quotes”)

Meaghan read the book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and Charles Spurgeon quote above reminded me of my favorite idea from the book.

Get rid of everything that doesn’t give you joy.

At first, it is easy to dismiss this idea.

Why would I have bought it if it didn’t give me joy?

What about the garbage bags? Not much joy there either.

I’m not going to try to answer the details for how it applies to you.

I will, however, try to encourage you think more along those lines.

How much of your current stuff do you enjoy?

How much of your current schedule do you enjoy?

How many of your current relationships do you enjoy?

There is some hard work underneath all of those questions, to be sure. But they seem like they might be worth investigating.

Make it a great day.

Jake

It’s official, fall is here. Let the pumpkin spice bonanza begin.

Fall is the season of harvest. The season when the hard work of spring and summer comes to fruition.

Similarly in life we will go through seasons, some where we are sowing and some where we are reaping.

The hardest part of the fall part is accepting our results.

It’s hard to be mature enough to not complain if things are bad and to not brag if things are good.

Whether we have done well or poorly, the harvest is what it is. We must accept responsibility for whatever results we have created.

The beauty of the seasons is that they repeat, so we get a chance at doing it again.

Take a look around at the harvests in your life.

What results have you created?

What might you change next time.

Make it a great day.

Jake

It is hard to believe it, but today marks 6 years that daily attitude emails have been sent out.

Each and every one of those days has been a humbling experience.

Trying to enter into your life in a way that helps or serves you in some way reminds me each day of my lack of understanding and ability to do so.

It’s been difficult to (try to) remove my ego each day as I work to write something useful (or at least not terrible).

I realized at some point that it works best when it isn’t about me, it seems to work best when I just write what comes to mind and click send. Let you and God work out the rest.

I share a little of this not because I have it all figured out and you just need to do like I do. I share this because I have come to believe that taking the time to develop a small positive habit to try to help others can help you.

After six years, I can tell you that developing positive habits helps. It doesn’t solve all the problems. But it does make life better.

Disciplined effort to make the lives of others better makes your life better.

This isn’t a pitch for you to begin sending out emails every day, it’s a pitch for you think about some small way to do your own version (although if daily emails is where it is at for you, go for it).

Write a special note to the kids in their lunch boxes.

Send a nice text to a loved one each day.

Send something to our troops regularly.

Post something nice on one of your friends FaceBox page once a week.

I can tell you from experience that a little bit on a consistent basis adds up. It does make a difference. At the very least you become a better person.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – For those of you relatively new to the list, most of the old daily attitude emails live here: https://thedailyattitudeemail.com/

https://youtu.be/s16tDww0Cko

This video talks about a shortcut to a quick mindset change while in the midst of our busy days.

“What do I need to learn here?”

If you watch the video, he talks about the psychology behind it, but I’m not sure that you even need that.

Or that this is even the only question that can achieve the same result.

Anything that brings you out of the situation long enough to take a different attitude and perspective.

Some that I have used that may be helpful:

What’s the real goal here?

What would a good result look like?

Or one of my favorites from Andy Stanley – What does love require of me?

If someone were writing a manual on how to be stress free or worry less or peaceful living, they could write it based on this.

Step 1 – Breath

Step 2 – Ask yourself what you need to learn here.

Step 3 – Thanks for buying my book.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all. – Norman Vincent Peale

I thought this quote would be a good reminder on a Monday morning.

Start your week off by taking action on your most important goals.

Get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/pahij2ZMkMw

A few of the daily attitude emails lately have been about love and service.

This song is a reminder to give our best in love and service.

Working to become a better person is a great way to improve the levels of love and service you can then give to those you care about.

One of the best gifts you can give to another is making yourself better.

Make it a great day.

Jake

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. – Olin Miller

Many times in my life I have said to myself “that was easier than I thought it was going to be” when I finally got around to doing that thing I had been putting off.

We procrastinate and put things off and as they get closer to the deadline or more and more past due they become larger than life.

That phone call we should have made last week now seems impossible to make.

That email we are supposed to send seems hard to write.

The yard work looks like it will take all day.

But once we get down to it, the work goes more quickly and easily than we expected and we feel better for having done it.

Is there something on your list that this email reminded you of?

Something that needs to get done today?

Get it done.

Make it a great day.

Jake