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Daily Attitude Email 03 22 23

Feels like we have our own little pandemic going at Maxlider/Mavidea this week. I found this daily attitude email from back when the whole thing started. (Bonus point to add to the original thoughts – don’t be afraid to ask for help.)

“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.” ― Fred Rogers

Such a great thought for the scary times we’re in.

In the midst of all the uncertainties and fear – there are people helping.

Nurses, doctors, first responders come first to mind.

But there are also the people still working at Wal-Mart, etc. to get groceries out to all of us.

And Mavidea’s on the list too.

We’re helping our customers through a tough time. Helping them still get work done and communicate with their customers.

In every crisis there are positives.

A big one for me during this crisis has been how our team has responded. Everyone has stepped up and offered to help in whatever way they can.

Our clients are receiving help.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 02 21 23

Below is a list of grade school kids answers to the question – “What does love mean?”

I send a lot of these emails with the theme of “love is the answer’ and I think the answers below show how to put that into practice.

The list is both funny and sweet, but the main themes are basic things like kindness, humility and putting the other person first.

Find some way to show love today. Take an idea from the list and make it fit for someone important to you today.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.” Rebecca- age 8

“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.” Billy – age 4

“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.” Karl – age 5

“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” Chrissy – age 6

“Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.” Terri – age 4

“Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.” Danny – age 7

“Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss” Emily – age 8

“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” Bobby – age 7 (Wow!)

“If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,” Nikka – age 6

(we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)

“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.” Noelle – age 7

“Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.” Tommy – age 6

“During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.” Cindy – age 8

“My mommy loves me more than anybody . You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.” Clare – age 6

“Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.” Elaine-age 5

“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.” Chris – age 7

“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.” Mary Ann – age 4

“I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.” Lauren – age 4

“When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.” (what an image) Karen – age 7

“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.” Mark – age 6

“You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.” Jessica – age 8

And the final one — Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry”

Daily Attitude Email 02 20 23

https://youtu.be/2AB9zPfXqQQ

“Sounds like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays.”

It’s funny to me that Monday is the day of the week that is supposed to be the worst day. Seems to me that it should be the best day of the week.

It’s the start of a new week. A clean slate.

Everything is in front of you. Anything is possible.

Think of this week as a trial run. A week to try something new and different. Think of it as a week full of possibilities and new beginnings.

What is the one thing you would like to get done?

Get on it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Friday Morning Toe Tapper

https://youtu.be/_7xMfIp-irg

All you need is love.

What if this were true?

Ok…maybe all is a stretch. Maybe “love is really, really important and something we should make a priority”.

It certainly feels like life is better with more love.

It seems like a lot of problems can be helped by more love.

I feel like my life is better in proportion to how much love I pour out and receive on any given day.

What if it was up to us? What if it was our choice as to whether or not the world became a more loving place? What if it all starts with how we treat our neighbors today? What if love is all we need?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 02 16 23

All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action. – James Russell Lowell

One of my favorite ideas from Andy Stanley (although I’m sure he isn’t the only one to say it) is that love is a verb.

Love requires action.

Sentiments and nice words won’t do it.

We are all born with a desire to love and be loved, but we don’t get either without taking action.

In the Bible it commands us to “love our neighbors”.

Sounds nice, right?

What if instead it said “consistently act in a loving way towards your neighbor”?

Andy Stanley says that “love is a verb”, it requires doing; and then prompts us to ask the question “what does love require of me?”

What loving action could I take today?

Towards my spouse.

Towards my neighbor.

Towards my coworker.

Towards the strangers at Wal-Mart (or Target or wherever you shop…).

Find a way to take action today. Act out of love.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 02 15 23

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. – Saint Augustine

The Bible tells that God has counted the hairs on our heads and has knitted us together in our mother’s womb.

God loves you as if you were the only one.

He was overjoyed with you when you got that A+ on that second grade spelling test.

His heart broke with yours when that friend you thought you could trust did that thing that hurt so bad.

He watched in disappointment when you cheated on that Algebra test in 9th grade.

His eyes filled with tears that time you turned your back on him in college because it wasn’t the “cool” thing to do.

His heart leapt with joy when your first baby was born and you became a mother.

He was there when the doctor gave you the news that changed things forever.

He fills your heart with conviction when you break that promise that “you’d never” for the 10th time in the last year.

He sat with you when you couldn’t believe that you would never see them again.

He is full of hope and pulls closer when you can’t see a way out.

He LOVES YOU with everything He has – every day, all day.

It’s not always fun. It’s heartbreaking one minute and full of joy the next, but he never stops. There is nothing you can do to get Him to stop – nothing.

He wants all of you, all of the time – for you. For your joy, your benefit and your eternal salvation.

How lucky are you? Let love pull you closer to your Creator. To the one who loves you no matter what.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 02 14 23

“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

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt – The Man in the Arena

This quote at the top from CS Lewis is a great reminder of the virtue and vulnerability inherent in loving something outside yourself.

The man in the arena quote is a reminder that it is worth it.

Love requires risk.

We must risk rejection, heartache and betrayal in order to truly love another.

We must push through difficulties. Our faces will be marred with dust and sweat and blood.

It will be worth every excruciating moment, as they will be (most likely, no guarantees) repaid with purpose and meaning beyond which we cannot fathom on our own.

It will be the growth catalyst that propels us into becoming the best version of ourselves.

It will be the anvil upon which we will be sharpened and formed into something amazing.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 02 13 23

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven. – Henry Ward Beecher

I think of this in CS Lewis’s terms as he describes charity as one of the four loves. Charity in his description is love of our fellow mankind.

Every loving act is a stepping stone toward heaven.

We build our way to a better future through loving actions toward those around us.

One smile, kind gesture or kind word at a time leads towards something better for all of us.

What could you do today to act out this in your own life?

What words might you choose?

What actions might you take?

What might you do differently to create an environment where love could rule in your life?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Friday Morning Toe Tapper

https://youtu.be/tmSzRx9RYLk

A baby is born with a need to be loved – and never outgrows it. – Frank A. Clark

Love – the subject of the season.

This quote above is one of my favorites. I think about this quote all the time.

We were designed to love and be loved just like we were designed to breathe in oxygen.

I think of this quote in two distinct ways.

First – that everyone I interact wants to be loved. From the waiter to my coworkers to my kids to my wife. Anything I can do to show them that they are loved is time well spent.

Second – that most of my own blindness to my own idiosyncrasies is due to my own desire to be loved. I need to work on myself to become more loving and lovable.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 02 09 23

I’ve had the good fortune to get to watch Maggie and her team play a lot of basketball over the last couple of months.

It’s made even more appreciative of the teams we have at Mavidea and Maxlider.

We haven’t won every game over the last 15+ years, but we sure have won our fair share.

We’ve made a lot of memories.

We’ve picked each other up when we are down.

We’ve had each other’s backs when it counted.

We’ve had fun.

We’ve treated our duties seriously when required.

And there’s more to come. Some days it feels like we are still just getting started.

Be thankful for the teams you are on today. Send a teammate a note of gratitude. Give somebody a pat on the back.

Life is a team sport – let’s make the most of it.

Make it a great day.

Jake