Daily Attitude Email 08 11 20

"I said not long before that work and weakness are comforters. But sweat is the kindest creature of the three – far better than philosophy, as a cure for ill thoughts." – CS Lewis, Til We Have Faces

This line really stuck with me as I am reading through this book.

If you ever find yourself down, get sweaty.

Just find something to do that gets you sweaty.

Walk around the block.

Do a million pushups.

Lift weights.

Get your mind off of what is troubling you and onto to something else.

Often our worries and troubles overtake us because we allow them to dominate our thoughts. But it’s hard to let them dominate your thoughts when you are busy doing something challenging.

Plus, exercise is like good for you or something.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 08 10 20

"You should never be proud of doing what’s right. You should just do what’s right." – Dean Smith, former University of North Carolina basketball coach

A long time ago I read a biography of Dean Smith. What has stuck with me from that book was that he had a few simple rules and stuck with them.

It seems to me that part of his success was built by having unwavering discipline on certain things but flexibility in others.

Think about your own life and what is most important.

Maybe you make a rule limiting the amount of work hours each week so you can spend more time with your family.

Maybe you make a rule around physical activity or diet.

Maybe you make a rule to never let a month go by without doing a budget.

Whatever your rules, stick with them. Pick just a few, but don’t let them slide.

If you are having a really hard time with discipline, pick just one. Make just one simple rule and stick to it. Just for a day to start. Then for two, then for a week. Just get started.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Friday Morning Toe Tapper

https://youtu.be/tF9ESdfwV5o

I think the point of this one is to wonder where the dreams have gone once you wake up in the morning.

Most of us have experienced that. Wondering where our dreams have gone.

Wondering if we should stop dreaming of big things, fun things.

Wondering if we should just give up, move on or accept things as they are.

Of course not. We should get up and get started on making them real.

We should listen to a happy upbeat song and go to work on building our dreams.

What dream have you given up on?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 08 06 20

Found this email from the past. Seemed particularly appropriate this year.

Let’s not let our hearts be hardened by the events of this year.

“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

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

Daily Attitude Email 08 05 20

“The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”

― Laura Ingalls Wilder

2020 hasn’t gone how many of us expected.

Many of us are scare and confused. Like this might last forever.

The real things haven’t changed.

Faith, family and friends are still more important than money, stuff and entertainment.

The kind of person we are and aspire to be still matters more than the circumstances we’re experiencing.

We are experiencing unprecedented times.

A solid foundation still exists.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 08 03 20

If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be. – Spurgeon

Sobering reminder for a Monday morning, I know.

When I read or listen to something that reminds me of just how imperfect I am, it is a bit disheartening at first.

It’s a clear reminder of the imperative of humility over pride.

It’s also a clear reminder that nobody’s perfect, but we all have value.

We can wallow in our imperfection or lean into that inherent value, always trying to add more.

Let’s humbly work towards a better version of ourselves as we start this week.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Friday Morning Toe Tapper

https://youtu.be/79DijItQXMM

This song is catchy and kind of fun and it illustrates the main characters downfall – pride.

CS Lewis identified pride as the major obstacle in becoming our best self.

Here’s a quote:

What but to thank God for the “excellent absurdity” which enables us, if it so happen, to play great parts without pride and little ones without dejection, rejecting nothing through that false modesty which is only another form of pride, and never, when we occupy for a moment the centre of the stage, forgetting that the play would have gone off just as well without us . . . This is the spirit which ought to govern even the smallest and most temporary assumptions of the higher place . . .

Every time I read his thoughts on pride I am reminded that I still have work to do.

Challenge yourself – take a hard line on pride.

Work to remove its effects completely in your life.

Maybe start by reading some CS Lewis….

Make it a great day.

Jake

Daily Attitude Email 07 30 20

Below is Rudyard Kipling’s “If”.

Quite a long and difficult list.

But quite the payoff in the end as well.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Rudyard Kipling – “If”

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Daily Attitude Email 07 29 20

Ultimately love is everything. – M. Scott Peck

When I see quotes like this I am reminded of the old definition of charity.

St. Augustine described it as “charity is a virtue which when our affections are perfectly ordered, unites us to God, for by it we love Him.”

In the Christian faith, God is love. Love is a core and unwavering part of God’s being.

We all have the choice to approach others with this feeling of charity/love. The option to look at others as their creator does.

It is tempting to think of love only in the vein of our significant other (or our search for the special person), but it should be part of every interaction with every other person we interact with daily.

We can choose to think the best of them, to treat them well, to show kindness, to put their needs before our own, and to work towards making their lives better.

When we choose to pour ourselves out in service with love towards those around us, we find true joy. We find peace. We find the kinds of relationships we were made for.

Love is ultimately, everything. And it’s a choice we can make it every day.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Jake tip on how to do this more: imagine others as someone’s wife/daughter/husband/son/grandparent. Treat them how you would want someone to treat your own wife/daughter/husband/son/grandparent.