It’s official, fall is here. Let the pumpkin spice bonanza begin.

Fall is the season of harvest. The season when the hard work of spring and summer comes to fruition.

Similarly in life we will go through seasons, some where we are sowing and some where we are reaping.

The hardest part of the fall part is accepting our results.

It’s hard to be mature enough to not complain if things are bad and to not brag if things are good.

Whether we have done well or poorly, the harvest is what it is. We must accept responsibility for whatever results we have created.

The beauty of the seasons is that they repeat, so we get a chance at doing it again.

Take a look around at the harvests in your life.

What results have you created?

What might you change next time.

Make it a great day.

Jake

It is hard to believe it, but today marks 6 years that daily attitude emails have been sent out.

Each and every one of those days has been a humbling experience.

Trying to enter into your life in a way that helps or serves you in some way reminds me each day of my lack of understanding and ability to do so.

It’s been difficult to (try to) remove my ego each day as I work to write something useful (or at least not terrible).

I realized at some point that it works best when it isn’t about me, it seems to work best when I just write what comes to mind and click send. Let you and God work out the rest.

I share a little of this not because I have it all figured out and you just need to do like I do. I share this because I have come to believe that taking the time to develop a small positive habit to try to help others can help you.

After six years, I can tell you that developing positive habits helps. It doesn’t solve all the problems. But it does make life better.

Disciplined effort to make the lives of others better makes your life better.

This isn’t a pitch for you to begin sending out emails every day, it’s a pitch for you think about some small way to do your own version (although if daily emails is where it is at for you, go for it).

Write a special note to the kids in their lunch boxes.

Send a nice text to a loved one each day.

Send something to our troops regularly.

Post something nice on one of your friends FaceBox page once a week.

I can tell you from experience that a little bit on a consistent basis adds up. It does make a difference. At the very least you become a better person.

Make it a great day.

Jake

PS – For those of you relatively new to the list, most of the old daily attitude emails live here: https://thedailyattitudeemail.com/

https://youtu.be/s16tDww0Cko

This video talks about a shortcut to a quick mindset change while in the midst of our busy days.

“What do I need to learn here?”

If you watch the video, he talks about the psychology behind it, but I’m not sure that you even need that.

Or that this is even the only question that can achieve the same result.

Anything that brings you out of the situation long enough to take a different attitude and perspective.

Some that I have used that may be helpful:

What’s the real goal here?

What would a good result look like?

Or one of my favorites from Andy Stanley – What does love require of me?

If someone were writing a manual on how to be stress free or worry less or peaceful living, they could write it based on this.

Step 1 – Breath

Step 2 – Ask yourself what you need to learn here.

Step 3 – Thanks for buying my book.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all. – Norman Vincent Peale

I thought this quote would be a good reminder on a Monday morning.

Start your week off by taking action on your most important goals.

Get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/pahij2ZMkMw

A few of the daily attitude emails lately have been about love and service.

This song is a reminder to give our best in love and service.

Working to become a better person is a great way to improve the levels of love and service you can then give to those you care about.

One of the best gifts you can give to another is making yourself better.

Make it a great day.

Jake

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. – Olin Miller

Many times in my life I have said to myself “that was easier than I thought it was going to be” when I finally got around to doing that thing I had been putting off.

We procrastinate and put things off and as they get closer to the deadline or more and more past due they become larger than life.

That phone call we should have made last week now seems impossible to make.

That email we are supposed to send seems hard to write.

The yard work looks like it will take all day.

But once we get down to it, the work goes more quickly and easily than we expected and we feel better for having done it.

Is there something on your list that this email reminded you of?

Something that needs to get done today?

Get it done.

Make it a great day.

Jake

You may delay, but time will not. – Benjamin Franklin

We all know this.

Time is on its own relentless march.

This quote is simply another reminder of that fact.

Is there something you are delaying?

Something you should be getting started on, but haven’t yet?

Get started.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

St. Francis of Assisi

Meaghan has this hanging in the office at home where I was working yesterday.

I had the thought, “What if I could really keep this thought in my heart? What if I could actually make this my priority each day?”

It’s easier to spend the day thinking about yourself.

Our own needs and desires are so close and powerful, they are hard to ignore.

This prayer reminds me that true peace, joy, love and happiness happens when I can retrain myself to focus instead on others.

Our opportunities for greatness lie in our ability to serve and love others.

I believe this more and more every day.

I fail at this every day as well, but I’m getting better.

My challenge for you today is to read this prayer out loud to yourself. Then to move on to your day with as much of a focus on others as you can muster. Then try to do better tomorrow.

Make it a great day.

Jake

"Being an obituary writer means I think a lot about loss, but more about love." – Heather Lende, “If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name”

Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of 911.

FaceBox was full of meaningful stories, prayers and moments as we all remembered this horrific event.

One thought about that day that has stuck with over the last few years is the stories about love.

The stories of love lost are tragic and heartbreaking.

I’m not sure we will ever really understand why it happened to them and not us. I don’t we will ever get the answers we all so desperately want about how and why.

But I think we do get the answer to what now.

Now we hold our loved ones closer.

Now we fight to protect as many possible.

Now we do our best with our chance at life to honor those who didn’t get the chance.

Now we love our neighbor as our self.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/6JCLY0Rlx6Q

Shut up and dance with me.

This song reminded me that sometimes you need to tell your brain to shut up.

Sometimes you need to quit overthinking things and just have some fun.

Find some time this weekend to have fun.

Make it a great day.

Jake