Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way. Baltasar Gracian

Get going!

Make it a great day.

Jake

The grass is greener where you water it. – Neil Barringham

We cannot avoid the work.

Usually our strongest desires are on the other side of some disciplined effort.

It’s true in relationships and its true with your money.

It’s true with your weight and it’s true with your paycheck.

If you want something to change for the better, start working with what you have and where you are to make the change you want to see.

The only place you can start is where you are.

The distance to a new trajectory isn’t far.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/QGJuMBdaqIw

This feels like a summer song with a good message.

Be yourself.

Shine in your own special way.

Lean into all that is unique about you.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://www.facebook.com/ImpactTheoryShow/videos/2069661469952428/

“You are what you repeat obsessively in your head.”

This line from the interview really stood out to me.

It’s another way of saying that we become what we think about most of the time.

Examine your thoughts today.

What do you think about most of the time?

What do you think about yourself most of the time?

What do you think about your future?

You are going to attract whatever it is that you are thinking about….might as well make it something good.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

I love quotes like this.

I have always been drawn to the idea that our work has meaning. This quote reminded me that whatever work you do has meaning if you put meaning into it.

If you give it your all and do your best you immediately create meaning for whatever you are doing.

We each have the opportunity to see this meaning as we go about our day.

What do others see in your work?

Do they see someone just making it through another day?

Do they see someone going through the motions?

Or do they say there goes someone who did his job well?

We choose what they see. We choose our attitude and how we go about our work.

What will you choose today?

Make it a great day.

Jake

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even 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. To love is to be vulnerable.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

I’ve listened to most of Brene Brown’s books over the course of the last year or so. She spends a lot of her effort explaining the truth that CS Lewis talks about in the quote above.

In particular lately, I’ve been thinking about how this quote applies to our work.

At Mavidea and Maxlider, we are in the service business. We work for our customers.

And they break our hearts all the time.

By not taking the good advice.

By cancelling and switching to another provider.

The same with our coworkers and teammates.

But these relationships are what make our work so worthwhile.

Only when we make ourselves vulnerable and open to the relationships around us do we get to experience the joy of our work.

At the risk of being a little sappy and corny, I’m going to ask you all to do something.

Open your hearts. Step into the scary situations and be yourself.

Lean in to the special place reserved for you in this world.

With our customers, with your teammates, with your loved ones.

Make it a great day.

Jake

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now. Ralph Waldo Emerson

We only have today.

Make the most of it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/nYh-n7EOtMA

A fun, vibrant life doesn’t require an abundance of money.

There’s plenty of memories to be created for little to no money.

Make it a point to have some cheap fun.

Make it a great day.

Jake

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. Vernon Howard

Contentment is such a difficult issue to wrestle to the ground.

When are ambition, growth and challenging ourselves healthy reactions to a life filled with opportunities and when are they fueled by desires for stuff we don’t need to impress people we don’t know?

I liked this perspective from Vernon Howard.

It’s about doing our best to line up what we really want with what we really need.

We do need growth and challenge.

We were built for greatness.

We weren’t built for consumerism, comfort seeking and sloth.

What does a quick self check tell you about how you are doing on this one?

Anything out of adjustment?

Make it a great day.

Jake

"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful." – Joshua Marine

Often a change in perspective can make a huge difference.

The way we view challenges is a great example.

We can choose to become the victim.

We can choose to complain.

We can feel like life is unfair.

Or we can find them interesting and the path to meaning in our lives.

We choose.

Make it a great day.

Jake