​​​

http://youtu.be/By86PcLufOU

Hard not to start your day off right when it starts with NKOTB.

There are points in life when we just hang tough.

As long as you don’t quit, you always make it through.

Make it a great day.

Jake​

Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs. – Henry Ford

In our last Town Hall, Erik mentioned that we are likely to feel more competitive pressure over the years to come.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been playing basketball on Wednesday nights.

Last night, I came to a realization.

Competition is fun. It is fun to compete. It is fun to win. It’s hard to lose, but fun to get right back up and try again.

Competition can make us better. Both individually and as collective at Mavidea.

Henry Ford’s example of shaving away at costs is just one example.

Competition will force us to be more creative.

Competition will force us to become more nimble.

Competition will force us to become more efficient.

Competition will force us to remove those rough edges and deliver a better service.

Let’s all embrace competition. Let’s embrace the opportunity to enter into the arena and do our best.

Make it a great day.

Jake

"Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention." — Jim Rohn

I was part of an interesting conversation yesterday where we were discussing how to make customers feel “loved”.

A core element that ran through the conversation was giving them your undivided attention.

As technology, social media and the pace of life push us to move from task to task as quickly as possible, taking the time to give someone your undivided attention stands out more and more.

Think of the last time someone gave you their undivided attention. How did that make you feel?

Today, challenge yourself to make others feel that same way.

Each time that you are in a conversation with someone give them your attention. No phones, computer or other distractions; just your focused attention.

I have a sneaky suspicion that if you do this, you will end the day thinking “wow, that was a great day”.

Make it a great day.

Jake

http://success.com/article/8-traits-of-healthy-relationships

8 traits of a healthy relationship by Jim Rohn.

There are some really great thoughts in hear, so I encourage you to read the whole thing.

For those that don’t want to read the whole thing, here they are:

1. Love

2. Serving heart

3. Honest communication

4. Friendliness

5. Patience

6. Loyalty

7. A common purpose

8. Fun

Make it a great day.

Jake

Thought we could all use a little serenity to start the week.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The Serenity Prayer

The full text of the original "Serenity Prayer" written by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

GOD, grant me the serenity

to accept the things

I cannot change,

Courage to change the

things I can, and the

wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardship as the

pathway to peace.

Taking, as He did, this

sinful world as it is,

not as I would have it.

Trusting that He will make

all things right if I

surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy

in this life, and supremely

happy with Him forever in

the next.

Amen

EB – Control your own destiny or someone else will. – Jack Welch

JW – Either you run the day or the day runs you. – Jim Rohn

MS – Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

JD – Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts. – Nikki Giovanni

The quote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe illustrates what I think is the major struggle that most people have when it comes to time and time management.

We all intuitively know that we should spend our time on what’s most important. And we all intuitively know that we spend too much time on the things that matter least.

But I continue to spend time on things that don’t really matter. Why?

It seems hard.

It seems hard to say no to some things in order to say yes to others.

It seems hard to know what is and isn’t important.

Here are some ideas to maybe make it a little easier:

Spend some time setting priorities and then let others know. Share your top goals and mission/purpose statement with those you care about.

This is also why it is so important to be always learning and growing. Always refining your definition of what is and isn’t important.

Make it a great day doing what matters most to you.

Jake

http://vimeo.com/39484374

This is a great video and song illustrating the five love languages from Gary Chapman. (If you want to find out more or take the quiz, here is the site: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/.)

The tool and this concept speaks to something really important for each of us.

We must know ourselves. We must seek to know those we care about more deeply.

Tools like this can help us understand ourselves and why we do what we do. Not so that we can have an excuse for acting in whatever way we want, but so that we can understand more fully and act more wisely.

Tools like this also help us with those we love. Understanding them allows for better relationships.

I encourage you to take the quiz, share the results with those you love and get them to take so that you can review their results.

But most of all, I encourage you to think of those who are important to you and how you can love them the way they want to be loved.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The Green Zone

“Don’t lose your grip on Love and Loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart.”

Imagine a graph with a brightly colored continuum. On the far left side is a blue side with the word printed truth above it. On the far right side is a yellow zone with the word love written above it. In the middle of the continuum is a green zone where truth and love mingle. Where would you place yourself on that continuum?

Are you the kind of person that prefers to be in the yellow zone? Are you proud of your reputation for always offering a word of encouragement and freely spreading love around? But do you shrink back from speaking words of truth? Do you pursue peacekeeping at the expense of the truth?

Or are you a sharp-edged person who prides yourself on living in the blue zone? Are you fearless when it comes to slapping people with necessary truth? Do you enjoy “fixing people?” But do you generally ignore that bit about kindness, love, and grace? – Bill Hybels, in Making Life Work

Each of us have natural tendencies to one side of the spectrum or another. But to be our best in this world we need both love and truth. It’s the genius of the and. The beauty of balance.

Think of a way today that you can share the whole truth – with a coworker, family member, or customer – with love.

BethAnne Dorn

Don’t Hold Out

“Don’t withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.”

Sometimes in my day-to-day hustle, I forget that I have been given enormous freedom and power. Most often in life I am held back by the imaginary restrictions on what I can do or should do. I don’t help as many people as I could because I lapse into thinking, “No one empowered me to do that.”

Which is rubbish. There’s no “Do Good Fairy” riding around in a convertible that will drive by and say “Today you can do good for that customer. Today you can slip that guy $5.” No, I have that power every day.

At Illinois Wesleyan our former President Minor Meyers Jr. said, “Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.”

Do not withhold good. It is in your power to act. You are able to say a compliment. You are able to help carry in your neighbor’s groceries. A Mavidean recently told me he shoveled his neighbor’s walkway. He has strength in his body, warm clothes on his back, and a shovel. He went and did good.

What is in your power to do? What have you been given that you can use to help others?

Are you strong? Are you smart? Are you funny? Of course you are! Go forth.

BethAnne Dorn

The next couple of days will be written by BethAnne in a series of thoughts she had while reading “Making Life Work” by Bill Hybels.

The Nine-Out-of-Ten-Club

Do you struggle from the nine-out-of-ten excuse? Are you doing most things in life relatively well and using that as leverage to ignore the one area of your life that’s hurting you the most?

Are you like that dad who instead of spending time with his daughter on the weekend says, “Come on, give me a break. I work hard. I travel during the week. I help my friends. I vote. I do jury duty. I follow the rules. I’m an all-around nice guy. But I get tired. I need a day off.”

What’s the list in your life that you’re using to justify not changing for the better?

Are you awesome to people but ignoring that pesky voice reminding you to exercise?

Are you a hard worker and volunteering all the time but failing to respond to the needs of your spouse?

Do you bust your bum to make money but then are too tired to discipline yourself on how you spend it?

BethAnne Dorn