Tag Archives: attitude

Each night, when I go to sleep, I die

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“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die, and the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”

⏤Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India

Image of a man sleeping on the sofa with his bulldog

Image from Flickr by Andrew Roberts

When I first read this quote, I felt pretty down at the thought of dying each evening, with a sense of finality that something⏤in this case, my day⏤was over.

Many of us experience similar feelings when our weekends, vacations, or other happy times come to an end.

Consider that the same is true for bad times, and uncomfortable events we may want to wish away.

To wake up and be reborn each new day excites me with the possibilities of new and wondrous things I can intentionally do, with a fresh perspective and a fresh canvas to draw upon.

EXERCISE:

How can you interpret today’s quote to make the very best of each new day you are fortunate enough to experience?

One Can Change the World

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“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”

—Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani Activist/youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Image of Malala Yousafzai

Image from mirror.com.uk

At some point in life, we all ask ourselves: What is the meaning of life? Why are we here?

Many of us find great satisfaction and meaning realizing that our lives have purpose, that it is to make a difference, and in some way—big or small—to change the world.

What books have you read recently? What letters, emails, or blog posts have you written?
What child’s life have you impacted or touched in some meaningful way?  How have you taught, mentored, or coached others in your life? How have you benefited from those around you sharing their life lessons?

EXERCISE:

How and in what ways do you intend to change your world or the world in 2017?

We never do anything well

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“We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.”

—William Hazlitt, 19th Century British Social Commentator

Meme of today's quoteHow many activities in the following list have you engaged in over the past year?

  • Giving a speech or major presentation
  • Writing a book or significant article for publication
  • Interviewing for a new job or promotion
  • Playing golf, poker, or a game of chess
  • Building a piece of furniture or other handy-person activity

If at least one of these activities occurred this past year, how well did you do? How competent, skilled, or masterful were you? How much effort, struggle, or ease and flow did you experience?

Hazlitt’s quote points to the fact that when we are so focused on doing things correctly we often diminish our own ability to do things well because of our preoccupation with our potential to make mistakes.

EXERCISE:

How and on what activity might a more playful approach, without much thought about doing things perfectly, help you enjoy the process and perhaps do far better than you might have imagined?

Unplug it

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“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

—Anne Lamott, American Novelist and Political Activist

Image of an unplugged plug

Image from Flickr by Daniele Margaroli

How are you at problem solving and troubleshooting? When was the last time you were really grinding on a particular issue with no success?

Today’s quote points to the simple yet often effective technique of taking a break to allow a change of perspective. This gives us opportunity to come at a problem with a fresh set of eyes.

EXERCISE:

How often do you find yourself putting in marathon levels of effort with somewhat diminishing returns?

Where and when would it be appropriate and more helpful to unplug from a particular issue in order to gain greater workability?

How Big You Play

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“It’s not how big you are, it’s how big you play.”

—John Wooden, former UCLA Basketball Coach

Image of basketball players at the net

Image from Flickr by Chad Cooper

What do Keith Jennins, Isaiah Thomas, Earl Boykins and Spud Webb have in common?

Given that today’s quote is from John Wooden, the famous basketball coach, you would be correct in assuming it has something to do with this popular sport.

The athletes I listed are among the shortest professional basketball players of our time.

What made each of them special was how big they played throughout their careers. Spud Webb, at just 5’7” in height, even won the Annual Slam-Dunk Competition in 1986.

EXERCISE:

Regardless of your size, status, or position in your personal or professional communities, how and where can you step up to the line and play a bigger game?

judge the whole

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“By a small sample we may judge the whole piece.”

—Miquel de Cervantes, 16th Century Spanish Novelist

image of a hand holding a bite-sized cupcake

Image from blackboard blog

When was the last time you dined at a smorgasbord, buffet, or pot-luck dinner? What was your strategy to identify and determine the tastiest items available?

If you are like many people, you might take a small sampling of many items, knowing that if one bite was tasty, a bigger helping would be even more delicious.

Sometimes, however, when we only have a small sample of something such as a book, a TV show, or a person we’ve just met, we get an incomplete view. We can jump to premature and false conclusions about the entire experience or person.

EXERCISE:

Where in your personal or professional worlds is it appropriate or inappropriate to judge the whole piece by just a small sample?

How things should be

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“Reality is the other person’s idea of how things should be.”

—John M. Shanahan, author of Hooked on Phonics

image from consciouslifenews.com

image from consciouslifenews.com

As part of my Personal Excellence Training, I teach my clients to coach themselves, with a technique I call The Pivot Point. The first part of this tool is to help my clients assess the “current reality” of the situations in their lives.

The challenge for most, at the beginning, is that they often believe that their perception of reality is shared by everyone around them.

EXERCISE:

How open are you to the possibility that the people in your personal and professional worlds perceive “reality” quite differently than you?

Retirement

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“Should we retire the concept of ‘retirement’?”

—Author Unknown

Sign about retirement

Image from ucsandiegoextension.wordpress.com

Take a look at these definitions and references to the word “retirement”:

  • Removal of something from service or use
  • The act of leaving one’s job, career, or occupation permanently, usually due to age
  • A place of seclusion or privacy

If you are like me, trying on this concept of retirement makes you feel blue, or sad. If, on the other hand, looking forward to withdrawing from an undesirable vocation consumes your current life, you might also be sad.

EXERCISE:

What if there were no such thing as retirement?

What if it was your job, each day from birth to death, to live as fully and richly as possible?

What actions can and will you take today to launch your life to the highest heights, no matter your age?

The mind is like a garden

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“The mind is like a garden. Plant flowers, you get flowers. Plant weeds, you get weeds. Plant nothing, you get weeds.”

—Author Unknown

Image of a greenhouse full of weeds

Image from Unsplash by Sandis Helvigs

The garden metaphor has been overused in describing the fertility of our minds to grow whatever is planted there. Today’s quote provides a special twist in the event we decide to take a “bench-sitter” or laissez-faire approach to life.

Imaging driving through an area in which no lawn service or landscaper has been seen for years. What do you see when you examine the grounds surrounding the buildings in this area?

Although I prefer to see the beauty of all living things, sometimes the winds of change bring unwanted forms of growth, things which we would prefer to live without.

EXERCISE:

How and in what ways can you take an ongoing, proactive approach to planting only the most beautiful thoughts in your head?  What do you think will bloom?

The Darkest Nights

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“The darkest nights produce the brightest stars.”

—Author Unknown

Image of the Milky Way

Milky Way Image from NASA.gov

If you enjoy viewing the night sky, or are an avid stargazer, you’re probably somewhat disappointed these days. The thousands of stars we were once able to see each night are now obscured by the glare of city and industrial lighting and the haze of pollution.

Sometimes life’s difficulties, challenges, and setbacks—our darkest nights—can provide a high degree of illumination on brighter possibilities.

EXERCISE:

In what ways do you block the lessons available to you through your darkest nights? How can you view those moments through a new lens, finding brightly shining lessons to light your path in the future?