http://youtu.be/pWp6kkz-pnQ

Sometimes the simplest messages include the most meaning.

Don’t give up.

How many lives could be changed by embracing this simple mantra?

Let your life be one of them.

Make it a great day.

Jake ​

Studies have been done lately that show habits are contagious.

Have a group of friends that are overweight and you gain a little.

Have a group of friends that are losing weight and you lose some too.

The glaring example of this lately has been our kids.

After I noticed some little kid socks on the floor the other day, I came to a realization. Little kids probably aren’t born with a "leave your socks on the ground" gene and that maybe they had picked up this bad habit from me.

After a little reflection, my feelings of disappointment in myself gave way to a glimmer of optimism.

If bad habits are contagious, I bet good ones are too.

I bet if I could show the kids some good habits, they just might catch one or two of those.

I wonder if I could just create one good habit what kind of ripple effect that might have.

My kids, my wife, Mavidea, strangers….one little good habit might do some real good in this world.

As you look at your life and your habits, it might be helpful to look at them from the lens of "would I want someone else to catch this habit from me?"

Keep it simple to start, just do more of the good contagious stuff and less of the bad contagious stuff.

Make it a great day.

Jake ​

Someone shared the story below with me yesterday and it was on my mind the rest of the day.

First, I thought of my wife and sent her a text of appreciation.

Then I thought of all of you who support me in so many ways.

Lastly, I thought of all the little opportunities in my day to do great work in service to others.

Enjoy the story, say thanks to those who "pack your parachute" and redouble your efforts to "pack the parachute" of others with excellence and care.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane as destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.

“ I packed your parachute,” the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb assured him, “It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said Good morning, how are you?’ or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”

Plumb thought of the man hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, “Who’s packing your parachute?” Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory-he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called

on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.

As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute. ​

When things aren’t adding up in your life, start subtracting.

Life is as much about what you say no to as it is what you say yes to.

They are two sides to the coin. Two parts to the math equation. Addition and subtraction.

We have been given the opportunity to continually add.

Add more stuff.

Add more to dos.

Add more friends on the FaceBox.

Add more square feet to our house.

At some point though things stop adding up.

We stop being happy with that new gadget.

We stop being satisfied with so many "likes" on our hilarious FaceBox post.

We start being irritated by the amount of stuff in all those square feet.

Simplify. Subtract until things start to add up. Remove clutter until you gain clarity.

Make it a point to get rid of something today.

Make it a great day.

Jake ​

As a guy was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures where being held by only a single rope tied to their leg. It was obvious the elephants could break the rope and walk away, but for some reason they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these magnificently strong animals just stood there and made no attempt to break way.

“Well”, the trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use a similar size rope to tie them. At that age it is enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to think they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The guy was amazed. The elephants could break free at any time, but because they thought they could not, they did not try to break the rope. They were stuck right there! This powerful, gigantic creature has limited it’s present abilities by it’s limitations of the past.

Not having trained or owned elephants before, I can’t verify whether or not this story is true, but the truth of the metaphor remains.

We all have limits we have placed on ourselves.

Some were placed on us by those thinking they would protect us.

Some were placed on us by those who didn’t want us to grow beyond them.

Some were placed on us by well or ill intentioned strangers.

The real lesson of the story is not that limits were placed on us at some point, but that we have accepted them and chosen to live within.

We have not questioned things that just aren’t true.

My challenge to you today is this:

Where are you accepting limits that just aren’t there?

Is there an area of your life where you need to break free of assumed limits?

Take some kind of action today to prove to yourself that limit doesn’t exist.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JD – Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. – Baltasar Gracian

EB – You better cut the pizza into 4 pieces, cause I’m not hungry enough to eat 6. – Yogi Berra

JW – Steel and flesh… life and death… war. – Artemesia

MS – If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I would spend 6 sharpening my axe. – Abraham Lincoln

Friendship is a unique and special blessing in our lives.

The quote above hits the nail on the head.

Friendship multiplies those special moments and memories and diffuses the hurt and heartache of the bad times.

Invest in a friendship today.

Make a call. Send a text. Hit somebody up on the FaceBox (or whatever the kids are doing these days).

Make it a great day.

Jake

http://youtu.be/QJO3ROT-A4E

The line from this one that caught was:

If only you saw what I can see

I have found this to be true of most people.

Most people don’t see all the possibilities that lie before them.

Most people don’t see all the potential inside them.

Most people don’t see their own beauty.

Consider today’s email a reminder.

Somewhere out there someone is thinking this about you:

If only you saw what I can see….

Look for the best in yourself. Nurture and grow that part of you that is uniquely and wonderfully you.

Make it a great day.

Jake

For those that aren’t One Direction fans, here is a Jimmy Fallon parody:

http://youtu.be/RuwC3KSGFoo

I know I am a day late and a dollar short here but in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday on Sunday below are the top 30 Dr. Seuss quotes.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Top 30 Dr. Seuss Quotes
1. Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. 2. Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.
3. Why fit in when you were born to stand out?
4. Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.
5. You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.
6. Think and wonder, wonder and think.
7. Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So. get on your way. 8. Unless!
9. THINK! You can think any THINK that you wish.
10. If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun is good.
11. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. 12. You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?
13. Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. 14. It is better to know how to learn than to know.
15. Everything stinks till it’s finished.
16. The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

17. A person’s a person, no matter how small.
18. I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
19. Only you can control your future.
20. Be awesome! Be a book nut!
21. Be who you are and say what you mean. Because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. 22. Oh, the things you can find if you don’t stay behind!
23. It’s opener, out there, in the wide, open air.
24. Teeth are always in style.
25. Today I shall behave, as if this is the day I will be remembered.
26. Will you succeed? Yes you will indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed. 27. From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.
28. Step with care and great tact. And remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.
29. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
30. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.​

Don’t sell out your virtue and your value for something you think you want. Judas got the money, but he threw it all away and hung himself because he was so unhappy with himself. – Jim Rohn

I debated on whether or not to send out this quote as it is a little harsh in its tone.

I decided to send it out because I think the message is that important.

At some point we will all be presented the opportunity to sell out our virtues and values in exchange for something else tempting.

Jim’s reminder is that Judas did get the money. He got what he wanted in the short run. The exchange occurred.

But it wasn’t worth it. He got a bad deal. He exchanged his virtues and values for forty pieces of silver. Those same forty pieces of silver would never buy those virtues and values.

Is there something in your life where you are making a bad exchange?

Something where you are exchanging your values and virtues in exchange for something that seems tempting, but isn’t worth the price you are paying?

If you aren’t already, you will likely be tempted at some point in the future. Now is the time to put your true values and virtues into perspective so those temptations can be properly weighed against their cost.

Write down your personal why or mission statement

Write out your family’s values.

Make it clear what your values are worth. That way forty pieces of silver will seem like what they really are…meaningless compared to your values.

Make it a great day.

Jake ​

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

This question popped into my head recently, I added to my list of ideas for the daily attitude email and it has been haunting me ever since.

At first glance, it didn’t seem like too hard of a question to answer, but after looking at it for a couple of weeks the answers seem harder and harder to find.

Think of those moments in your life when you let fear get in the way.

What would you do if you weren’t afraid of what others might think?

What would you ask for if you weren’t afraid of being rejected?

What would you risk if you weren’t afraid of the blow to your ego?

What goal would you take on if you weren’t afraid to fail?

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Maybe it’s unrealistic to tackle all of these things at once and conquer all your fears by the end of the day.

Maybe just try one. Find one thing where you were letting fear hold you back and push through. Decide to take the plunge.

Make it a great day.

Jake ​