“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.

Next in the list of Jim Rohn’s principles to live by in order to leave a lasting legacy is: life is best lived in service to others.

Martin Luther King, Jr. day is a great day to be reminded of this truth.

He spent much of his life in service to others and in the end was of great service to our nation and his cause.

The quote above embodies a truth inherent in the civil rights struggle.

Everybody can be great. Regardless of skin color, religious affiliation, or any other potentially separating characteristic. Because within us all is the capacity to serve.

Make it a great day of service.

Jake

The third in series of Jim Rohn’s principles to live by in order to leave a lasting legacy:

Maintain integrity at all costs.

I think a lot of us merely think about integrity as the honesty part of the definition.

An interesting second way to define integrity is: the state of being whole and undivided.

Part of having integrity is internal. Did we do what we committed to ourselves to do.

When we don’t meet our own standards, goals or ideals we become divided somehow. It creates a source of stress inside of us.

Integrity also comes as part of our dealings with others.

Do we do the right thing?

Jim Rohn summarizes this by saying "Do what is right all of the time, no matter what the costs."

We must develop this kind of "fanatical integrity" in ourselves in order to build the successful life we want to lead.

Make it a great day.

Bonus quote on integrity:

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office. – Dwight Eisenhower

Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him. – CS Lewis

The second principle in the list of principles to live by included in the Jim Rohn program is "love your neighbor, even if you don’t like him."

My favorite thing about this principle from Jim is similar to the quote from CS Lewis above. Both say that love is a form of action.

Jim says that liking someone is an emotional response, but love is formed out of action.

These actions born from love will produce that positive emotional response within us.

If we begin from a place of love for our neighbors it is so much easier to see through the differences to work together to build a better planet.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Bonus CS Lewis quote on love. This is one my favorite quotes.

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

I have been slowly but surely working through the Jim Rohn one year to success program and last week included Jim’s take on 9 “Principles to Live By” in order to leave the legacy you would like to.

I am going to send out each one over the next 9 DAE emails.

Consider others’ interests as important as your own.

Turning your thoughts and actions from selfish to selfless is such a powerful driver for positive change.

Even at 34, this lesson still hits me all the time as I go about my day.

Realizing that the other driver has somewhere to be as well.

Realizing that the person in the grocery store line is in the same hurry as I am.

Realizing that the customer or coworker who just asked for help is just as busy as I am.

Spend a minute today thinking about what situations you might improve upon in this area of your life.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Life is not accountable to us. We are accountable to life. – Dennis Waitley

Another season of Biggest Loser has started.

Every season I notice some little tidbit that I hadn’t before.

This time it was accountability.

They showed the “update” for the person who had gotten sent home on week 1 at the end of the episode and he had already lost a ton of weight at home.

Here was a guy who was over 30 and had been overweight for many, many years.

He had some strong motivation to lose weight as he had a strong, emotionally charged situation happen with his son.

He had watched the show for 5 years, so he knew it was possible.

He had access to the internet so there was no lack of knowledge.

But he didn’t lose weight until after he was sent home from the show.

I thought that maybe a portion of that motivation came from accountability.

By being on the show he had gained a new accountability partner, everyone who watches the show.

He knew that he would be on TV in front of millions of people weighing in to see how well he did.

As you look at your goals for this year, look for someone to hold you accountable as well.

Share your goals with them.

Give them updates on your progress.

Lean on them for a pick me up when you want to quit.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Life is not accountable to us. We are accountable to life. – Dennis Waitley

Another season of Biggest Loser has started.

Every season I notice some little tidbit that I hadn’t before.

This time it was accountability.

They showed the “update” for the person who had gotten sent home on week 1 at the end of the episode and he had already lost a ton of weight at home.

Here was a guy who was over 30 and had been overweight for many, many years.

He had some strong motivation to lose weight as he had a strong, emotionally charged situation happen with his son.

He had watched the show for 5 years, so he knew it was possible.

He had access to the internet so there was no lack of knowledge.

But he didn’t lose weight until after he was sent home from the show.

I thought that maybe a portion of that motivation came from accountability.

By being on the show he had gained a new accountability partner, everyone who watches the show.

He knew that he would be on TV in front of millions of people weighing in to see how well he did.

As you look at your goals for this year, look for someone to hold you accountable as well.

Share your goals with them.

Give them updates on your progress.

Lean on them for a pick me up when you want to quit.

Make it a great day.

Jake

http://youtu.be/III3G1egUcU

Still not sure whether that video is funny, weird, horrible, inappropriate or all of the above.

The song does contain an important little nugget of wisdom.

"Whatever you do, do it good".

Maybe not the best grammar but an important lesson.

Know yourself and do what you are best at.

When you combine what you do best with serving others things get even better.

Let’s make it a great day.

Jake

Books can be a bridge between one person and another.

At Mavidea this quarter we are all reading “Great by Choice”.

And while I think it is a great book, I am more excited about the bridges we can build between each other. The new lines of communication we can form by talking about the book together.

I look forward to hearing and seeing the difference this makes as we all work together to become a better version of Mavidea.

Anytime you read a book you are at the very least building a bridge between yourself and the author.

Getting to know their feelings, philosophy and thoughts.

Reading books allows us to let those feelings, thoughts and philosophy touch and shape our own. And through this we are hopefully able to grown and learn. We become wiser and stronger.

For those of you at Mavidea who aren’t readers, I hope you embrace this opportunity to read a good book and let it impact your life.

For those of you non-Mavideans who aren’t readers, I hope you pick up a book and let it make a difference for you.

For those you who love books and are already on this caper, keep it up.

Make it a great day.

Jake

You can everything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar

This was posted by the Zig Ziglar family on New Year’s Eve as a quote to live by in 2013.

I have shared this quote before but thought about it a little bit differently as I thought about tackling a new year full of opportunity.

What if we looked at all of our goals and resolutions from this perspective?

What if instead of thinking of how much weight we wanted to lose we found a workout partner and focused on their weight loss?

What if instead of focusing on our own finances we found a charity we believed in and did our best to give more?

What if all our goals revolved around what we were going to do for others?

Think about the person you could become when you make it your goal to give your best to others.

Make it a great year.

Jake

PS – Thanks to all the daily attitude fill in writers. One of my favorite parts of being on vacation for a few days is seeing what others come up to inspire us along life’s path.