“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

― Roald Dahl, The Twits

New year – new you.

Maybe a good place to start is on our thoughts.

To crowd out all the ugly thoughts with good ones.

Thoughts of love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, self-control, faithfulness.

When you think about it – I’m guessing the people in your life that you have fond memories of and experiences with have those kinds of thoughts and it comes through. It was about how they made you feel – not about their looks, what they wore or how fit they were.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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Supposed to get some winter weather today so I thought I would send out this daily attitude email from a few years ago.

In spite of unseasonable wind, snow

and unexpected weather of all sorts –

a gardener still plants.

And tends what they have planted …

believing that Spring will come.

– Mary Anne Radmacher

On a cold, snowy and blowy morning this quote seemed appropriate.

Faith. We all must take certain things with faith.

That spring will come.

That our efforts will pay off.

That if we keep it up it will be worth it.

It’s easy to lose faith in something.

Any time we work towards something bigger for our lives, we must work in faith.

Faith that it will all work out in the end.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself. – Louis XIV

Most of those New Year’s resolutions start and end with the ability to discipline ourselves.

A lot of really smart people have written, recorded their stories and created videos to explain how to build discipline in our lives.

Go find them.

Start with that one. Finding the discipline to learn more about discipline.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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https://youtu.be/LIYNk4ARUR8?si=85Q4PY4V8U41DZVI

More of a slow tapper…

We went to watch the Wonka movie yesterday.

This song stuck out to me.

We can imagine a better future for ourselves.

We can choose to be positive and optimistic about that future.

Sometimes it might seem silly or even a little crazy – like Willy Wonka in the movies – but the central theme of the movies is that our imaginations open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Open yourself up to a better future and for a better year this year. It might just turn out that way.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. – Zig Ziglar

Think more positively, more often.

It’s not about always or all the time. It’s about more.

Crowd out more of the negative with more of the positive.

Tip the scales towards the positive.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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Resending this daily attitude email from last year at this time….

When the New Year comes around, you hear a lot about New Year’s resolutions.

Most of what is written is about how to set the goals better, how to increase your chances, etc.

They all start out with some statistic about how some really high percentage of resolutions are dropped by the end of January (86% of statistics are made up on the spot).

It almost seems like their goal is to either have you do it their way or just skip it.

Not me. Not this year.

Set some New Year’s resolutions.

Set a lot of them if you feel like it.

Don’t focus on the statistics that say 90% won’t make it, focus on the 10% that will.

Think positive.

You got this.

No reason you can’t be in the 10%.

And if you don’t make it, I’m sure you will be better off anyway.

If you need any help – check out what Kid President has to say – https://youtu.be/GQOcEDD5hR8.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been. – Rainer Maria Rilke

This year doesn’t have to be like last year.

In fact – it’s pretty unlikely that things will be the same.

Different in which direction…maybe that you have some influence on…

Choose wisely.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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https://youtu.be/xSzU9Geg6jA?si=RErpYX-wMeYsWUll

This will be our year!

Or maybe it won’t be…all kinds of things can and will happen.

We get to decide how to react to them.

What kind of person we want to be – when things go well and when things don’t go well.

Also – we might as well do everything we can to make it a great year. To move, think and grow in a positive direction. To focus our thoughts, actions and habits on getting better each day. To serve others in love.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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I’m not sure why, but I can’t believe how often I need to be reminded “It’s not about you!”

What if we looked at the New Year this way?

A year of “it’s not about me!”

Time to focus on others and how we can be of service.

A list of goals – not one of which is focused on me.

A “word of the year” that had nothing to do with me and where I wanted to go.

A SMART goal filter than included “is it about you? No seriously…is it?”

Ok, maybe that’s a little extreme. Maybe just one goal focused on others?

Make it a great day.

Jake

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https://www.facebook.com/TED/videos/301143869492725/?mibextid=MC4RXT

I saw this really good video a while back and made a note to send it out at some point.

It felt like something that might help somebody who saw it and just happened to need to hear it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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