JD – Every problem is an opportunity.

EB – In this bright future you can’t forget your past. – Bob Marley

JW- If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done. — Thomas Jefferson

JM – Invention my dear friends is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple. – Willy Wonka

I really like the quote JW shared from Thomas Jefferson.

What a great reminder of such a common sense approach.

Are you missing the mark in an area of your life? Take a look to see if you just haven’t been willing (yet) to do something you’ve never done.

Overweight and never been willing to commit to an exercise plan?

Out of money and never been willing to stick to a budget?

Bad relationship and haven’t been willing to face your fear and have a difficult conversation?

The point at which you are willing to do something different is the point at which that positive change begins to come to fruition for you.

Begin that process today with something that has been lingering for a while.

Make it a great weekend.

Jake

http://youtu.be/010KyIQjkTk

This one goes out to my wife, Meaghan. One of the Kriss’s passed away this week so we have been walking down memory lane this week.

Amazing how a song can take you back to a time and place.

Make it a great day.

Jake

http://youtu.be/MkX6xQM_QE8

Saw this commercial during the Masters and it has stuck with me since.

Swing your swing. Your own imperfect swing. The one that only you are capable of bringing greatness out of.

I have been asked to speak to groups or individual students over the years about career choices.

One thing I mention to them every time. Know yourself. Know what kind of job you will or won’t like. Know what kind of environment you will or won’t succeed in.

Now, after seeing this commercial, I can add one more thing. Swing your swing.

Do you know your swing?

Are you swinging your swing or someone else’s?

One too many metaphorical references to your swing?

Make it a great day.

Jake

"Leaders must not be naive. I used to say, ‘Liars shouldn’t lie.’ What a sad waste of words that is! I found out liars are supposed to lie. That’s why we call them liars — they lie! What else would you expect them to do?" — Jim Rohn

When I first heard this one from Jim Rohn I just laughed a little.

After I thought about it a little more, I realized what a freeing thought it is.

Instead of spending our energies talking about what others should or shouldn’t do, we can just be aware of what those things are and move on.

Then we can focus on how (or maybe if) we are going to interact with them in order to get the best results.

Make it a great day.

Jake

What is now proved was once only imagined. – William Blake

This quote reminds me of a fundamental truth. Our thoughts and imagination are the beginning of the expression of the greatness within us.

All of the great things in our lives were once just thoughts and dreams in someone’s mind.

We live in a time of amazing technology and opportunity and it all started as a thought in someone’s mind.

Dreams and thoughts that seemed impossible to others came to fruition and benefited the lives of many.

What dreams or thoughts seem impossible to you?

Is it losing weight?

Financial independence?

A job you love to go to in the morning?

All of this and more is possible for you if you cultivate the right frame of mind.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I recently listened to a podcast from a woman with a powerful story.

At a relatively young age (and with young children at home) she developed a rare disease and went blind within a couple of months.

A year or two later her husband developed cancer and passed away.

She said someone asked her if she had asked “Why me?”. She explained that instead she had asked herself “Why not me?” She said that she wasn’t any better or worse than anyone else and that what happened had happened.

Wow.

I don’t know about you, but I would have a hard time being that mature in her situation. Her speech really challenged me to be thankful for what I have and to be more mature about what happened in my life.

But after thinking about it a little, I came up with a positive spin on it.

“Why not me?” works both ways.

When you look at all the good that is possible in life, think “Why not me?”.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JW – Energy and persistence conquer all things. – Benjamin Franklin

JD – We are all the same amount of busy. The 24 hours in a day goes by the same whether you are the President of the United States or some guy sitting on his couch.

EB – Here we come…..walking down the street…..

JM – If we knew what we were doing, it would be called firing bullets, would it? Adapted from Albert Einstein

It is very tempting to use a lack of time or being too busy as an excuse for not meeting our goals.

In the end, the clock ticks at the same rate for all of us.

Our productivity is not determined by the number of hours in a day, but in our ability to use them effectively.

I heard someone say “Achievers spend their time on goal achieving activities while everyone else spends their time on tension relieving activities.”

How are you spending your time? Are you moving closer to your goals or taking the easy way out?

Make it a great day.

Jake

http://youtu.be/bOqyygAQSX0

Thank you for being a friend.

What a great thought to start the day.

I recently came across this CS Lewis passage about friendship:

“Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend. The rest of us know that though we can have erotic love and friendship for the same person yet in some ways nothing is less like a Friendship than a love-affair. Lovers are always talking to one another about their love; Friends hardly ever about their Friendship. Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest. Above all, Eros (while it lasts) is necessarily between two only. But two, far from being the necessary number for Friendship, is not even the best. And the reason for this is important.

… In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets… Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend. They can then say, as the blessed souls say in Dante, "Here comes one who will augment our loves." For in this love "to divide is not to take away.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

What a great mental picture. Friends, side by side absorbed in some common interest.

Make it a great day of being a friend today.

Jake

I am loved.

I was listening to audiobook about using your thoughts to fulfill your wishes in life and he was talking about the power of saying “I am” and an example he gave was “I am loved.”

It has stuck with me ever since.

What a powerful and positive thought. Someone loves me.

Someone else thinks enough of you to love you.

We all have things go wrong during our day. We all have happenings in our lives that threaten to bring us down.

But they can’t and they won’t if we remember what is most important. Someone loves us.

All the negatives can melt away if we focus on the positives and it doesn’t get much more positive than the love of a loved one.

When the negatives of life pop up, just remember. You are loved.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Yesterday was officially the last in the series of the 12 important questions from philosophy to answer for yourself.

As a wrap up, I wanted to share a couple of final thoughts.

First, our philosophy shapes our thoughts and views on the world and how it works. How we think determines our results.

Our philosophy is the set of the sail as we sail through life. It determines where we end up.

As such, all of these questions deserve serious consideration and thought.

Hopefully I have inspired you to seek or more clearly answer these questions for yourself.

Second, we only get to pick our philosophy, not the philosophy of others.

Taking that one step further, we don’t get to judge other’s philosophies either.

This has been a very freeing realization for me. This is an area where I am only in charge of myself. Whew….that is a load off. It would be a lot of work if I had the job of judging everyone else’s choices and philosophies. Not sure I would have enough time in the day.

Choosing your own philosophy is enough work on its own.

Make it a great day.

Jake