A relationship is NOT a place you go to GET, it’s a place you go to GIVE.

To those most dear to us we get to GIVE our ENERGY, our pure LOVE, and our open HEART.

LIFE IS PRECIOUS! Let’s not wait to say I love you… to smile, to stay in our heart, to laugh together, to be completely present and connected.

Why not take a moment now to decide how YOU will show-up in your relationships every day.

Who are YOU willing to BECOME for the ones you love?

Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins posted this on the FaceBox the other day and it really stood out to me.

We are all born with a need to be loved and to be in relationship.

One of life’s great mysteries is that the path to that love and those relationships is through giving ourselves in loving service to others.

Relationships are not where we go to be filled up, but the best place to empty ourselves into those we’ve deemed worthy of that level of giving.

Only in this flow of life do we live the lives we were created for.

Tony asks “Who are you willing to become for the ones you love?”

I think he asks this because of this “flow” and “in and out” nature of giving.

The “bigger” we become, the more we can pour in and out. Who you become is like the size of your cup (or bucket or gas tank or ocean), you can only pour the size of that cup out on our loved ones.

It’s the reason the hard work of change and growth is worth it. We grow out of our current capacity in order to pour more out on those who matter most.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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Be truthful, nature only sides with truth. – Adolf Loos

One of Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules is – “Don’t Lie”.

Nature is on the side of the person who sticks with this rule.

I try to think of it like physics – we can’t argue with or ignore gravity or heat or cold. We can only work with them. The more we work with them and their inherent principles, the more likely the preferred outcomes are to occur.

Same with telling the truth.

Maybe we can get away with a little lying, in the short run, but in the long run – it will come around. Just like gravity – airplanes and rockets can temporarily overcome gravity (but they burn a lot of energy).

Be careful to be more truthful this week. Try to pay attention to the opportunities to bend or shape the truth.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out. – Robert Collier

Jim Rohn calls it “a few simple disciplines, repeated every day”.

He talks about the idea of how an apple a day sounds so simple. So simple we ignore it and make excuses.

It’s easy to let the little stuff slide.

Pick something little and get started on heading in a better direction.

Read for a couple of minutes.

Take a walk around the block.

Save a few dollars.

Write a page in your new journal.

Just get started.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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Resending this email from a few years ago as a reminder to not be so hurried/busy – mostly to myself…

One of the greatest attacks of the enemy is to make you busy, to make you hurried, to make you noisy, to make you distracted, to fill the people of God and the Church of God with so much noise and activity that there is no room for prayer. There is no room for being alone with God. There is no room for silence. There is no room for meditation. – Paul Washer

Not sure about you, but the last year or so sure has felt “busy”.

I’ve been actively working on being less hurried (still a lot of work to do).

It’s too easy to confuse productive and busy. We are all the same amount of busy – 24 hours goes by at the same rate for all of us.

We run around trying to win the “busy contest” that everyone seems to be competing in. Cramming in less meaningful activities until we aren’t productive at all.

God, our spouses, our children, our co-workers, family members, exercise, study, etc. get crowded out in exchange for social media, TV, gossip, complaining, junk food, etc.

Fill your time up with the good stuff. 24 hours will be gone again before you know it.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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https://youtu.be/dBN86y30Ufc?si=w68muW85keB5ZIfQ

Packing up the family truckster and heading to Florida today.

“On the road again” is one of my (many) dumb sayings on a road trip (when we get back in the car after a stop).

Road trips are a great time to embrace special treats and family traditions (including the “dad makes dumb jokes”).

It’s also a great time to remember some life lessons.

Don’t focus entirely on the destination – enjoy the journey.

Stop and smell the roses.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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The third in the series of Jim Rohn’s principles to live by in order to leave a lasting legacy:

Maintain integrity at all costs.

I think a lot of us merely think about integrity as the honesty part of the definition.

An interesting second way to define integrity is: the state of being whole and undivided.

Part of having integrity is internal. Did we do what we committed to ourselves to do.

When we don’t meet our own standards, goals or ideals we become divided somehow. It creates a source of stress inside of us.

Integrity also comes as part of our dealings with others.

Do we do the right thing?

Jim Rohn summarizes this by saying "Do what is right all of the time, no matter what the costs."

We must develop this kind of "fanatical integrity" in ourselves in order to build the successful life we want to lead.

Make it a great day.

Bonus quote on integrity:

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office. – Dwight Eisenhower

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Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself. – Thomas a Kempis

Each of us faces the battle within ourselves.

The choice to focus on ourselves and our own desires.

The chance to do something for others.

The choice to focus on the negative and look for the opportunities to complain.

The chance to think positive and be thankful for all the good.

The choice to accept the lies and confusion around us as the way things are.

The chance to stand on the truth.

We all face these choices and every day, with a chance to win in the battle of overcoming ourselves.

It’s worth it. The battle can be won. Over time. With Christ.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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On Sunday, Annie and I got to watch the last few holes of the Player’s Championship on TV.

It was a great finish with several players having putts to tie and make into a playoff.

Each missed their putt and ended up missing their chance.

The most heartbreaking of them all came from Wyndham Clark (great golfer name by the way). His putt literally went halfway down and around the cup only to end up missing.

Golf can be a game of good and bad bounces but to miss that putt on the last hole of an important tournament like this was a real tough one.

I imagine the majority of us would spend the next few hours not in a very good mood. At the very least thinking of all the things we could have done differently, or in my less mature moments maybe blaming it all on everything and everyone else.

Instead, a bunch of social media posts have made the rounds of Wyndham hanging around after the tournament signing autographs.

What a great example for the rest of us.

I imagine that today something will go differently than I wanted it to. I will feel slighted or treated unfairly. Maybe even in a way that is justifiable.

Instead I should do the right thing. Be thankful for those who do love and support me. Be prepared to meet them where they are and show them my appreciation in return. Regardless of what I feel like doing.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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"Boys are beyond the range of anybody’s sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years." – James Thurber

Oliver turns 11 today.

He’s at such an interesting age. Such an imagination and creative mind. He and his friends seem to be able to turn any situation into some kind of extended story that ends in laughs.

He can turn almost any situation into a reason to tell a story or ask a question about something seemingly unrelated.

The innocence and positivity (generally) of it all is something so wholesome it warms your heart (at least the times when I’m patient enough to listen and participate).

It’s a great example of life’s advice to slow down and pay attention to the important stuff.

Make it a great day.

Jake

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https://youtu.be/8WAy-ewByUM?si=spPQQ0niZu9OJc4F

St. Patrick’s Day this weekend!

Time to get together with all your favorite Irish friends and enjoy wearing green and singing some classic Irish tunes (or whatever you usually do on St. Patrick’s Day).

Make it a great day.

Jake

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