https://youtu.be/DL7-CKirWZE

You get what you give.

In each relationship in our life, we can choose to give.

We can choose to serve and to put the other person first.

And we do, magic happens.

Choose giving.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasure, and you can create for the world a destiny more sublime that ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer. – Sir Walter Scott

I am convinced that one of the secrets to success is to actually like doing things other people don’t like doing.

Think about how differently you might approach life if you actually had fun doing the things you were supposed to do.

What if exercise was your new favorite thing to do?

What if fruits and veggies became your favorite foods?

What if saving money was more fun than spending it?

What if self-denial became a way of life?

Maybe this seems a little farfetched or maybe not possible for you. When something seems out of the norm, I always ask myself a couple of questions.

First, has some else done it? In this case, that means that you can choose to have a different attitude about self-denial – because someone else has done it.

Second, it is worth it in my case? This question is always harder to answer. And only you can answer it.

Challenge your attitudes. Challenge your perspective on what’s hard and what is right for you.

Make it a great day.

Jake

The most creative people have this childlike facility to play. – John Cleese

In our sales meeting we were sharing the best thing that happened to us over the weekend and more than once someone said “holidays are so much more fun with kids around”.

One of life’s great balancing acts is the process of becoming an adult and leaving behind childish ways and tendencies without losing the good things about being a child.

Spending time with kids will remind you of this quickly.

They can be exceptionally creative and sweet one minute and selfish and whiney the next.

As parents we get to do our best to encourage the creativity and sweetness and help squash the selfishness and whining as much as possible.

Today’s email is a reminder to embrace the good parts of your inner child.

Have fun.

Be goofy.

Be selfless in the same way that only an innocent child can be.

Have a simple faith that it will all be great.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

― Elie Wiesel

One of the many things that our kids will be tired of me saying over the years is “Don’t say you don’t care.”

Indifference is an attitude to work hard to eliminate completely if you can.

Reading the quote above, think about it the other way. What is the opposite of indifference?

Love. Art. Faith. Life.

We all have lots to care about, so think twice before you say “I don’t care”.

Make it a great day.

Jake

https://youtu.be/wTSLRbm8L9E

The 4th of July is a great reminder of all the great things about this great country we live in.

We have been given much and in exchange much is expected of us.

Embrace these expectations.

Embrace all of the possibilities that come with your freedom.

Embrace the opportunity to do and be your best.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Today is the end of the first half of the year.

Time for a quick check in with yourself.

How are things going?

Are you on pace or behind the pace?

Anything need an adjustment?

Do you need to change course?

Treat it like a “half New Years”. Set some goals. Make a resolution. Make the changes you want to see in your life.

Make it a great day.

Jake

JD – Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ~Thomas Paine

JW* – Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

MS* – This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith. ~Lyndon B. Johnson

EB* – Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better. ~Albert Camus

In honor of the 4th coming up this weekend, all the quotes are independence themed.

My favorite though was the last one.

Being part of this great nation doesn’t guarantee us anything but a chance.

A chance to be better.

Everything else is on us.

Make the most of your chance to be better.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow. – Helen Keller

We have a choice. We can choose to spend most of our time facing the sunshine.

One of my favorite ideas from Jim Rohn is that we “go the direction we are faced”.

We move towards what we are looking at and for.

So, if we choose to face the sunshine, we will head towards it.

As long as you don’t take this all the way and try to fly into the sun (that will end badly), we will end up better off.

As you begin your day today, which way are you facing?

Make it a great day.

Jake

Positive anything is better than negative nothing. – Elbert Hubbard

Simple reminder for today.

Be positive.

Find at least one thing to be positive about today.

And tell somebody.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. – Henry Ford

We had our 9 year anniversary party on Saturday.

It was a great reminder that we have something special going on.

Each person involved is special in their own right and capable of great things.

But when we work together and put service to others above our own desires, something better is created. Something we couldn’t or wouldn’t have been able to experience without the collective group working together.

Thank you to all of you for the part you have played in our success story. We’re still writing it and the beginning sure was interesting, who knows what will happen next.

Make it a great day.

Jake