I recently heard a speaker say “an acorn can only grow up to be an oak tree”.

Maybe I am just easily impressed but the idea that an acorn becomes an oak tree is nothing short of miraculous to me.

Think about a big, giant oak tree that is decades old. And then think about the comparatively tiny, little acorns it drops every year.

Inside each acorn is the potential for the grand old trees that we see.

And inside each of us is the potential for greatness. Our own unique version of greatness.

Just as an acorn can’t become a pine tree, you also can’t become something you weren’t meant to be.

One of the most difficult parts of our life journey is to find our direction. To set our sail. To find our true north.

Have you found yours?

Do you know what kind of acorn you are?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Action is the antidote to despair. Joan Baez

Taking a step forward is sometimes all it takes to get out of a slump.

Taking a positive step will change your attitude and give you the momentum needed to take that second step.

Despair can’t survive positive action.

And you don’t have pull off some long sequence of perfectly timed and executed action steps. You can start with one small step. One kind word. One positive book.

And before you know it, you will be off.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I have been reading Norman Vincent Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking” recently and he has an interesting habit that I thought was worth sharing.

He had the habit of finding strangers as he went through his day and saying a little prayer for them as he went by.

The mom with kids waiting at the bus stop would get a prayer for a healthy family.

The worried looking businessman would get a prayer for peace.

The service worker would get a prayer for the energy to put a smile on his/her face.

Whatever he thought in that instant that someone might need he would mentally go through a little prayer for each one of them.

And while you might not believe that all those little prayers made a bit of difference in those strangers’ lives, it is easy to see that they definitely made the difference in one life. His own.

Just thinking about and sending out those positive little prayers made him a better person for it. He was constantly looking for something good to bestow on these strangers.

Let’s all make it a goal to slow down for an instant today and wish one stranger one happy little prayer.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The two most contagious things in the world….enthusiasm and a lack of enthusiasm.

My personal example of this one came when I went to two country music concerts in two weeks.

I am not a country fan, but you couldn’t help but get swept up in the enthusiasm of the crowd at both events. Especially at Soldier Field with tens of thousands of people there, it was almost electric.

In our everyday world it is sometimes easy to lose that enthusiasm and just go through the motions. But it can be found.

It can be found by starting your day with thankfulness, we all have a lot to be thankful for.

It can be found by just getting some momentum going. Start smiling and acting enthusiastic (even if you don’t feel it) and before you know it, you will be enthusiastically going about your day.

It can be found by spending time with enthusiastic people (if enthusiasm is contagious, might as well catch the good kind).

Today let’s all make an effort to greet every situation and every person with enthusiasm, it might just catch on.

Make it a great day! (Added the exclamation mark at the end to add some enthusiasm).

Jake

To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence … When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. -C.S. Lewis

One of the hardest elements of becoming successful is that it requires a certain amount of maturity.

It requires maturity to place service to others above self interest.

It requires maturity to want to learn more than to want to be entertained.

It requires maturity to balance the long term and the short term (should I eat the ice cream or the vegetables).

It requires maturity to choose to continue the positive disciplines instead of giving in to the poor habits of the past.

And these are just a few that I thought of just now. I am sure the list is longer than this.

My favorite part of this quote was “the desire to be very grown up”.

We have to find the desire to become grown up.

We have to want it. More than we want the childish and immature impulses of the past.

Make the choice today to become more mature. It might not be easy, but it is worth it. It is worth your desire.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Below is an article Meaghan read and shared on her blog that I really liked and wanted to share.

What a challenge. The words we use have so much power, let’s learn to use them wisely.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I love words…what writer doesn’t? My father was an English teacher, so honestly, I don’t know that I had much choice!

The Bible says a lot about our speech and the power of our words. Here are just a few things that God tells us:

• "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." (Ephesians 4:29).

• "Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking…" (Ephesians 5:4)

• "For out of the overflow of our heart, the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34)

• "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure…[and] shine like stars in the universe." (Philippians 2:14-15)

• "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." (Proverbs 12:18)

And then there’s the 10 Commandments: don’t lie, don’t use the Lord’s name in vain, and honor your mother and your father—which is often done by measuring our words. Wow…three out of ten commandments deal with our words! They must be a pretty big deal!

Proverbs 18:21 tells us, "The tongue has the power of life and death." With that in mind, I’ve come to understand that there are four types of powerful words our family needs to hear from us.

Powerful Affirming Words: These words give a pat on the back when someone has been successful at something. They encourage…or "inspire courage," when we affirm the God-given talents or character traits someone has. Our husbands and children need to hear more affirming words from us than correcting words or critical words.

Powerful Accepting Words: Accepting words communicate that someone else’s ideas, thoughts, or opinions are valuable. Accepting words and phrases draw people out rather than shutting them down. They include phrases like "That’s a good idea." "Tell me more." Or "I think you’re on to something!"

Powerful Appreciating Words: These words express sincere gratitude for something someone’s done or who someone is. If we’re grateful in our heart, but the words never exit our mouth, the other person doesn’t have the opportunity to hear these life-giving words.

Powerful Apologizing Words: We need to say, "I’m sorry, will you please forgive me?" when we blow it. For some of us those seem to be the hardest words to say. Maybe because we consider such words weak. Or maybe because we never saw apologizing words modeled. Regardless of why those words are sometimes hard, we have to redefine apologizing words as POWERFUL. These words soothe the hurts we cause. They begin a healing process in the heart and they bring life to the relationships closest to our hearts.

Since God’s word tells us that words are so important, I’m working on being careful with my words. I’m also working on watching the tone of my words.

Care to join me?

Joining you in the journey,

Jill Savage

If you want to have something different than you have ever had before, you have to become someone different than you have been before. – Les Brown

The results of our lives are a reflection of our inner selves. We can’t get better results on the outside than the person we are on the inside.

If you want something different and better then you need to become someone different and better.

How about that for a challenging statement?

Sometimes we need to have the maturity to face the fact that when we are disappointed in the results achieved in our lives we are the ones that need to change.

If there is an area of your life you are struggling I encourage you to look in the mirror. Face it with courage and make the decision to change for the better.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Today is Rebecca Barber’s (RB) fifth anniversary of her start date at Mavidea. She was one of our very first Mavideans and is the first person to make it to their fifth anniversary.

And while I could write today’s email about all the awesome things about RB, I am going to operate under the assumption that that might be slightly embarrassing for her (but she is awesome).

Instead, I wanted to share some of the other things that come to mind on her anniversary.

First, thankfulness. That someone would invest 5 years of their life into helping Mavidea succeed is something that I am very thankful for. I am thankful for each and every member of our staff and every day that dedicate to our cause.

My next thought was how humbling it is that someone of RB’s caliber has decided to work with us. All of our staff humble me with their quality of work, dedication and general awesomeness.

Then I thought about how far we have come. RB and Mavidea have grown a lot over the last 5 years. Growth is such an amazing process to watch and participate in.

My last thought was about the next 5 years. RB has seen a lot of change and progress over this first 5 years. But the next 5 years are going to be even better.

I am looking forward to writing the daily attitude email for her 10th anniversary.

Thanks for all you do for Mavidea, RB. We wouldn’t be where we are without you.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you. -John DePaola

I have also heard success or happiness described as a butterfly. You can run around all day long trying to catch the butterfly, but only when you slow down and stay still will it come to you and rest on you.

This is another of life’s great mysteries. You must continually move forward in the direction of your dreams but at the same time be calm, peaceful and slow down in order to attract the results you want.

Think about some of your life goals, maybe there are one or two that require you to slow down a little.

Maybe you need to slow down a little and enjoy some slow moments with your small child before they aren’t so small anymore.

Maybe a coworker needs you to just slow down and listen for a little while.

Maybe you need to slow down and spend time with your spouse or a close friend just talking about nothing in particular.

Maybe you need some quite reading and reflection time to get through a tough time or problem.

Maybe you need to lighten your schedule a little so you can make those wise food or money decisions needed to meet your goals.

I am sure we all have something that if we would just slow down it would come right around and catch us.

Make it a great day.

Jake

To teach is to learn twice. – Joseph Joubert

Teaching someone else something is such a positive experience in our lives.

We get to learn twice and they get something new out of the experience.

There are so many teachable moments in our lives when we have the opportunity to teach someone else, we just need to look for them.

This concept can also be used purposefully in your own skill development.

Have a skill that you want to become an expert in? Sign up to teach a class or set up a time to show a friend.

By creating a situation where you have to teach someone you will have created the opportunity for yourself to learn twice.

We all have lots of learning left to do, but maybe some of it should come in the form of teaching.

Make it a great day.

Jake