I was watching TV the other day and came to a realization. Everyone you meet is someone’s son or daughter.

I know, you are thinking that I am real brilliant right about now, but I think there is something to this.

Everyone is special to someone. Everyone has something about them that has caused another to love and care for them deeply.

When dealing with others we must search for this. And if we search, we will find it.

Even your worst enemy has something about them that deserves our respect and admiration.

Looking for this good in others will only serve to help our understanding of those we interact with regularly.

Never forget this truth about yourself. You are special to someone. At the very least, you are special to me.

While writing these emails has been a tremendous benefit for me, I send them to you because you matter to me. I work hard to add value to you with every email I send. Because you are worth it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

All we have in life is life. Things – the cars, the houses, the educations, the jobs, the money – come and go, turn to dust between our fingers, change and disappear…the secret of life….is that it must be developed from the inside out. – Joan Chittiser

I read this quote recently and thought I should share with everyone.

The words and the mental images really struck me. Can’t you just picture all of your “stuff” being blown away as dust?

I have this mental image of the videos where time moves really fast through a bunch of pictures on the screen, each one showing all my “stuff” becoming more and more dilapidated and then eventually just disappearing, showing the unimportance of it all.

And her conclusion. Life must be developed from the inside out.

All that matters is what kind of person you can become.

Did you do your best with what you were given?

Were you a good steward of the time and resources given to you?

Those things are built from the inside out. By becoming a better person, husband, wife, brother, sister, parent or friend.

The “stuff” in our lives only matters in how we use it as a tool to become a better person.

How useful are the tools you have accumulated around your house?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Happy Birthday to my little Annie!

Our youngest daughter turns 3 today, so I thought I would share something I have learned from her.

Laugh. Laugh often. Laugh with enough gusto to light up the entire room.

This is what I have learned from Annie. She has the best laugh in the entire world (I might be a little partial) and lights up the whole room when she does.

Laughter is such a powerful and positive force, make an effort to make someone else laugh today.

I have included a pic of Annie and her sister putting on my tennis shoes that will hopefully at least generate a few giggles.

Make it a great day.

Jake

http://youtu.be/S8xoYHv2BY4

In this video by Tony Robbins, he asks “what kinds of questions are you asking yourself?”

Are you asking yourself questions like:

Why am I so fat?

Why don’t I have any friends?

When am I going to get it together?

Instead, you must learn to ask yourself positive questions. Questions that allow you to take responsibility for your actions and lead to action in a positive direction.

What can I do today to lose weight?

What can I do today to create a new relationship?

What book can I read to learn to get more organized?

We must learn to ask ourselves the right questions if we are to find the answers we are searching for.

Make it a great day, hope everyone had a great Easter.

Jake

As a follow up to yesterday’s email about how service presents the opportunity for happiness, there is one more point I thought to make.

At Mavidea, we are somewhat unique in that our business is based on service.

At our core, we (as individuals) provide service to our clients (as individuals).

This presents us with a unique opportunity to expand our own happiness merely by doing our jobs and doing them well.

As we provide service to our clients we present ourselves with opportunities to become better people and be happier in our own lives.

Part of why it is so much fun to work at Mavidea is this opportunity. We have a great place to work and have great people to work with, but our clients gives us the opportunity to become even better, even happier.

Don’t miss the opportunity to put a smile on a client or coworkers face today, it is good for your soul. It makes you a better and happier person. Don’t let those moments, those calls, those service tickets pass by without taking advantage of the happiness it provides you to make yourself and them happier.

We have a higher purpose here at Mavidea. Service to others.

Make it a great day.

Jake

"Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Found this quote and really liked it.

Everybody can be of great service. What a powerful thought.

Guess what comes with service. Happiness.

By serving others we find our own happiness. We were built to serve each other and when we do we are happy.

Since everybody can serve….everybody can be happy. And yes, that includes you.

What a great message to start your day. You can be happy because you can serve others.

Find someone to serve today and begin the process of adding happiness to your life.

Jake

“Two prisoners looked out from behind their bars, one saw mud and the other saw stars.”

I was listening to Dale Carnegie’s “How to Stop Worrying” and caught the line above and loved it.

What a great reminder that no matter our circumstances, we can choose to look at the beauty and goodness of life or we can choose to look at the mud.

Are there times when you are focusing on the mud instead of the stars?

Next time you are looking at the mud, remember the line above and choose instead to look up at the stars.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Blatant sales pitch: I would highly recommend both “How to Stop Worrying” and “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Both of these are in my top 10 list of books.

I recently heard someone tell the story of how when they were a teenager, their mother told them that their actual birthday was in August instead of in October like they had been told their whole life.

The funny part was that her reaction.  She wondered how it was possible that her astrological sign could be different.  After all, her current sign was so totally her.

After a while, she realized that her new sign was so totally her as well and adjusted quite nicely.

This shows just how powerful the mind is.  Whatever our sign, if we read and believe it to be accurate, we will make our reality match up with our horoscope.

And if what we put into our mind has an effect on how our day turns out, we better be careful on what we put in there.

This got me thinking.  What if you could write your own horoscope?  What would you write for yourself?

Here is mine for today:

Today is going to be a great day.  Everything will seem to be falling into place.  Remember to treat others as you would like to be treated.  And take a minute to smell the roses today, great days like today only come once.

Take a minute and write one for yourself.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I am reading a book about the simple rules for living that John Wesley. He was a pastor and went around starting churches.

He laid down a few simple rules in order to keep those that were converted from becoming “more of a child of the devil” after their conversion than they were beforehand.

He realized that no matter how profound a conversion they had made when becoming a Christian, there was more to make real change in someone’s life than a single moment, no matter how profound.

He realized that change required discipline. So much discipline in fact that his movement became known as Methodism because of how methodical he was in everything he did.

And the same hold true for you and whatever goals you have set for yourself.

Ever felt like you were completely on fire about something and then you didn’t follow through?

Ever sign up for a diet with complete zeal and gusto, only to fall back to your old ways all too quickly?

Ever make great plans for writing that book or even just reading one of the ones on the shelf at the office only to flip on the TV instead?

Most real change in life requires discipline. Real discipline.

Just getting started on the book, let’s hope it inspires me to have enough discipline to at least finish.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I recently listened to a TED talk by Simon Sinek entitled "How Great Leaders Inspire Action".

His central premise is that others don’t care about the what or the how of how you do things until they find out and care about the why.

His examples and stories center around company vision and marketing messages. While I think those lessons are important for Mavidea and would love for everyone to discuss and watch, I will leave that to the Culture Club.

Instead, I wanted to focus on finding your own personal "why" as you set your goals.

I personally struggle the most with the goals that I don’t have a very good "why" for.

Think about the goals in your life that you are struggling with. Are you stuck on finding a big enough why?

If you are, I would suggest talking to someone close and ask them to help you find a why.

Then use this new why to inspire action within yourself.

Here is a link to the video for the TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Make it a great day.

Jake