Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gains instead of your losses.

Count your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes.

Count your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears.

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself.

– Anonymous

Thanksgiving week. Time to count up all the good in your life.

Keeping count is one of those habits that can be either good or bad.

If you keep count of all the negative, it will pile up quick.

If you keep count of all the good, it will do the same.

You get to pick which to count.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/RwPS19swwiA

This one came on Pandora and a few of the lyrics in particular jumped out at me.

You’re fooling yourself if you don’t believe it

You’re kidding yourself if you don’t believe it

Get up, get back on your feet

You’re the one they can’t beat and you know it

Come on, let’s see what you’ve got

Just take your best shot and don’t blow it

How often have you fooled yourself into believing that you couldn’t do it?

That you weren’t good enough?

That it wasn’t in the cards for you?

That you won’t make it so why even start?

Or maybe even more directly:

That you will always be fat?

That you will always be poor?

That nobody likes you?

Don’t believe it!

It isn’t true.

Stop fooling yourself.

You were built for greatness. Everything you want and need is there for you.

You’re the one that can’t be beat.

Take your best shot.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. – Melody Beattie

Since today is Thanksgiving lunch at the kid’s school and at Mavidea, I thought I would send out one of my favorite quotes about being thankful.

The idea of gratitude turning a house into a home and a meal into a feast.

We have the choice.

We can look at what we have as not enough. Not as much as our neighbors or friends.

We can see our circumstances as having not gone our way. Bemoaning the fact that others have had it easier.

Or…

We can look at all that we have been blessed with and see it as a bounty.

We can see our circumstances and think of those who haven’t had it so good.

There is always something to be thankful. Gratitude can always transform for the better.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“Also applies to our relationships – not holding onto hard feelings or anger and moving on quickly when it does happen. Cherishing the good times to get you through the challenges with others!” – Garrett Brucker

Garrett sent me the above in response to my email yesterday about letting go of the disappointments and holding on to the positives in our lives.

Garrett’s right. And maybe this is even the next level. The manifestation of our attitude change.

Think about this in the same kinds of terms as yesterday’s email.

If you hold on to negatives and hold a grudge, you are going to be the kind of person who struggles with relationships.

If you let go of the bumps in the road and remember the good times, your relationships will thrive.

We all need to look at our relationships and our attitudes and be honest. Are we the kind of person we want to be? Are we in the kinds of relationships we want to be in?

If not, maybe letting go of the negative and focusing on the positives can make a difference.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JW – Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind to one another.

MS* – All great achievements require time. – Maya Angelou

EB* – If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style. – Quentin Crisp

JD – I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. – Walt Whitman

Something interesting happened as I finished “Shackleton’s Way”. I realized that this amazing story was technically a failure.

Technically, their goal was to cross the entire continent of Antarctica for the first time.

Instead, their shipped got crushed, creating one of the most dramatic and amazing stories of survival recorded.

Shackleton failed. He failed spectacularly.

And he did this in several other instances in his life.

You could say that failure may have been his style.

It was the way he failed and led through these failures that made him stand apart.

Whether we fail or succeed, our character is what will stand out the most.

Maybe the lesson to be learned is to take big chances with stuff like Artic adventures and business risks, but take no chances with your character.

A million dollars might be worth risking. A little white lie might not.

Make it a great day.

Jake

If you have a bad minute, that’s ok. If you have a bad day, it’s because of your attitude. – Jeffrey Gitomer

I was listening to a Jeffrey Gitomer video on attitude yesterday and this little quote stood out.

For some reason we tend to hold on to negative feelings and attitudes for too long.

Many Mavideans have heard me say some version “It’s ok to be angry about this for tonight, but tomorrow we need to shake it off and move forward.”

Maybe my suggestion lasts longer that Mr. Gitomer’s, but the idea is the same.

Feel the emotion. Let yourself be upset when something is upsetting. Let yourself be frustrated when things are frustrating.

But hold on to it too long and you become an upset person. A frustrated person.

Our attitude is the place we bounce back to after something good or bad happens.

Hold on to a bad thing too long, maybe you bounce back a little lower.

Let go of that negative experience real quick and the bouncing back becomes much easier.

As you might have expected, I suspect the opposite is true for the positive side.

Something good happens, hold on to it.

Keep moving forward, but don’t let it go. Add the next one right on top of it. Keep them in your mind, piling them up so that the bad stuff seems small in comparison.

Imagine a giant pile of positives next to a single negative that you pick up and put in the trash.

Seems small and easy to do now. But that also makes it easy not to do.

The choice is yours and it is important. Don’t let yourself be lazy with it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers–so many caring people in this world." – Fred Rogers

I saw someone post this quote on FaceBox in response to the attacks in Paris.

Our world contains evil. There are bad people out there.

But there are more good ones.

There is more love than hate.

There are more friends than enemies.

There are more helpers than killers.

I have always believed that no matter how bad it seems, the world is at least 51% good and that because of this good will win out in the end.

The events in Paris are a stark reminder that the world isn’t 100% good, but the response afterward reminds us 51% is probably shooting a little low.

Create some space for yourself this week as you think about this tragedy to also think about all the good out there in the world.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/VqU9PqIhuIY

The first few lines of this one stuck out in particular:

Slow down, you move too fast

You got to make the morning last

Mornings can get a little hectic and fast paced as we run from here to there and get started on our day.

Slow down a little this morning.

Make it a great day.

Jake

To find what you seek in the road of life, the best proverb of all is that which says: "Leave no stone unturned." – Edward Bulwer Lytton

One of my other favorites about seeking is the Bible verse “Seek and ye shall find.”

But that simple verse leaves out something important.

You might have to look for a really long time and it might be hard.

Sometimes finding what you are looking for requires a whole lot of patience.

Sometimes finding what you are looking for requires you to become a different person.

Leave no stone unturned.

Don’t give up along the way.

Keep turning over stones.

One last thought. Make sure what you are seeking for is worth it.

Wouldn’t want to spend all that time turning over stones only to find out you didn’t really want it in the first place.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JD – Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. – William Arthur Ward

MS – He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. – Proverbs 10:4

JR – Always borrow money from a pessimist, he will not expect it back. – Oscar Wilde

JW – The Lord bless you and keep you. – Numbers 6:24

EB* – The world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable: through the embracing of one of its beings. – Martin Buber

Erik wasn’t here yesterday, so I got to pick his quote for him.

The quote from Martin Buber stood out as it explained something that most of us probably struggle with at times.

We seek to control and understand the world.

Martin suggests that instead we spend our time embracing others.

I’m not sure it is possible (or even desirable) to turn off the part of us that just wants to know, but I wonder if we can turn up the dial on the part of us that is designed to embrace others.

We can turn some of our desire for control and understanding into love and selfless service for others.

Make it a great day.

Jake