Motivaitonal Monday - February 13th

Welcome to yet another installment of Motivational Mondays.  I apologize for not providing your Wednesday installation of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits, last Wednesday was more than a little crazy...actually, when you come to think about it, all of last week was absolutely nuts.  Well, before we get too distracted and I wander off into a discourse of how crazy a week can get, lets work on our Motivational Monday topic.

Last week we talked about reviewing your past successes, learning from those successes but not reliving those same successes.  Today we are going to talk about dreaming.  Dreaming can be good for you and it can be bad.  We are going to cover both aspects of dreaming tonight...

Remember when we were much younger (only a few days ago for me...) and we had all these big dreams about what we wanted to do and what we wanted to be when we grew up?  Well, hopefully you all have not yet grown up.  You should continue to dream and to dream big.  If you dream about relatively simple achievements, you will never get motivated to go out and achieve those dreams.  If you dream big, you stand a much better chance of becoming motivated to start working toward that dream.

There is a practical aspect to dreaming big though.  Dreaming big is one thing, but you can't dream of becoming a runway model if you are 5' 1" and more than a little overweight.  There has to be a bit of a practicality to your dreams.  You know what dreams you have that you can achieve with a lot of work.  Some people may just talk about their dreams, but never put any effort into working toward them.

If your dreams are real enough to you, there is no reason in the world why you wouldn't be motivated to start working towards them.  Start a "dream board" where you begin putting pictures of what you want up on a cork-board or wall.  As you collect these pictures of your dreams, you should start becoming more motivated to obtain those same dreams.  Then, on the days, weeks or sometimes months where you feel you are lacking the motivation to do anything, you can look to that wall and remind yourself of why you are working so hard.

No doubt you have also dealt with those who are "dreamers".  These people may talk about all the great dreams they have, but they never, ever, seem to get anything done.  They only dream about what they could do or have, but they never make the effort to work towards that dream.  That type of behavior can be very de-motivational (is that really a word?).  Those are the types of people that you want to avoid because they could suck you into their dream, and keep you from doing what needs to get done to achieve your dreams. 

Your dreams should be your source of inspiration, something that drives you to get up every morning, and the same something that keeps you up late into the night.  They should get you excited about the future, they should drive you to plan and work to achieve those goals.  Powerful dreams can move you to heights you may never even believed you could achieve.  These dreams are what create greatness in man.

So, focus on your big dreams, develop your own "dream board" and start working on moving closer to achieving that huge dream you have always had.  Even creating a dream board is a lot of fun.  You may find that the more you build your dream board or wall, the more you want to continue to build it.  That board can become an awesome inspiration to you and your family to keep working towards your dreams.

Until Wednesday (really...I mean it...THIS Wednesday...)...

Motivational Monday - February 6

Happy Monday one and all!!!  Welcome to our second February installment of Motivational Monday.  Hopefully your Monday wasn't as bad as you may have imagined it would be over the weekend.  For those of you who watched the Superbowl yesterday, it was a fun game...  No matter who you may have rooted for, both teams played hard and well.  I don't have any fingernails left after the game yesterday, but I am happy I got to watch it. 

Watching these two awesome football teams battle it out for that ultimate prize, you have to wonder how they stayed motivated.   Both teams had huge motivation to win, yet we all know there was to be only one winner. (In my book, both teams were winners, they both played to the absolute best of their abilities).   I read in the news today that Tom Brady was utterly dejected after the loss to the Giants.  It has to hurt, to be so close to winning the Superbowl for the fourth time in his career.  Heck, the Patriots were leading until the last 4 minutes.

From this loss, you have to wonder, how does the team get motivated to play again?  The most obvious is that you know they have to look at their past successes.  They know they can win, they know they have the talent to win.  Now, to stay motivated, they will have to remember the successes, but they must also look at what they did wrong and learn from those mistakes or missed opportunities. 

What the New England Patriots are going through after yesterday's Superbowl is nothing different than what we all go through on a daily basis.  The only real difference is that a lot more people saw them fail, whereas we may only have a handful of people watching us fail.  In this economy, many people are looking for work and having one heck of a time landing a job.  They may be interviewing like mad, but never getting that job offer they hoped for.  It is difficult to continue day after day to remain motivated, when you feel like you are continuously failing and not landing that job.

You need to stay motivated, remember that you did land jobs in the past.  Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses, remember why you were so good at your job.   Focus on your successes to help keep you motivated.  As we discussed last Monday, you do not want to dwell on those successes, but if you feel that your resolve may be slipping, remember your prior success and strive to remember how good you felt when you did get that job, or win that big contract. 

Use your successes to motivate you to move forward.  Even though Tom Brady was very depressed and despondent yesterday, you know that in a day or so, he will start focusing on what they need to do to win the next Superbowl...  He brought his team 3 prior wins, he will build on that and motivate not only himself, but his team to focus on winning so they can take the Superbowl podium next year.

Until Wednesday....

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits for February 2012

Welcome one and all to Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits for February 2012.  Since today is the first day of the second month of the year 2012, I thought it would be fun to review trivial facts about the month of February.  February 2012 is special, not only is it the shortest month of the year, but for this year in particular, it is a leap year.  So, I feel sorry for anyone born on February 29th, they only celebrate their birthdays once every four years.

Did you know that February starts on the same day of the week as March and November (in non-leap years) and starts on the same day of the week as August this year (leap year).  In leap years, it is the only month that ends on the same weekday that it begins.

February was named after the Latin term februurm, which means purification (based on the purification ritual [Februa] held on February 15th in the old lunar Roman calendar).

The Anglo-Saxon's called February Solmonath, meaning mud month.

The Finnish people called February helmikuu, meaning month of the pearl (from the snow dripping off the trees).

February is the only month of the year that can occur without having a full moon (not this year, the full moon is scheduled for February 7th, 2012.

The second day of February is often referred to as Ground Hog's Day.  The superstition that surrounds Ground Hog's Day is that the ground hog comes out of it's burrow on February 2nd to look around.  If there is sunshine and he sees his shadow, then he goes back to sleep and there will be an additional 6 weeks of winter.  If there is cloud cover and the ground hog does not see his shadow, spring is right around the bend.

 The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania where there is a celebration to see if Punxsutawney Phil (the ground hog) will see his shadow.

The Roman Catholic Church does not celebrate Ground Hog's day, but celebrates February 2nd as Candlemas Day (the festival of lights).  The candles used in the church during the rest of the year are blessed on this day.

The whole month of February is a celebration of Black History month in the USA and Canada.

Did you know that February is also National Condom Month???

Shrove (also known as Fat Tuesday) Tuesday is in February and it begins the 40 days before Easter (for this year, that would be February 21st).

Some not so well known dates in February:
February 4th is Independence Day in Sri Lanka,
February 6th is Waitangi Day in New Zealand,
February 12th is Paul Bunyan Day,
February 15th is Flag Day in Canada,
February 24th is Flag Day in Mexico, and
February 28th is National Tooth Fairy Day in the USA...

Now that you know too much about the month of February, have a wonderful rest of your week.

We will chat with you later this week, (I have some thoughts that I will post in a few days...)

Until then....

Motivational Monday - January 30

Happy Monday one and all!  Welcome to another edition of Motivational Monday.  I am willing to bet that not all of you are feeling too "chipper" today.  No surprise, today is Monday, and traditionally, Mondays are not all that much fun.  Granted, some of you do enjoy Mondays, but for the person who has a great weekend, going back to work on Monday is not always enjoyable.  Today we are going to review some more points on how to get through Mondays and how to not just survive the work-week.

One tip to remaining motivated is to let go of your past.  Before you all get angry, please let me explain.  There are a few ways you can let go of the past, but I am not suggesting that you let go and FORGET the past.  The key here is to not DWELL on the past.

History (the "past") provides many great lessons for us, but if continued to dwell on what happened in the past, you will never be able to more forward.  It is very important that we learn from both our past mistakes and our past failures.  How many people have you encountered that seem to live in the past?  They tell you how great things USED to be, and how much better their life was.  Or they may tell you about the time they made that mistake and nothing has ever gone right for them since?  It is that kind of thought processes that you need to get rid of.

If you continue to re-live the past, you will never find the motivation to make changes and improve your present.  I learned one very important piece of advice many, many years ago that has stuck with me...you cannot change the past, you can only change YOUR ATTITUDE towards the past.  This is extremely important if you want to keep your motivation for the future.

You need to acknowledge that the past occurred.  If you made mistakes, you need to accept that you made those mistakes and learn from what you did wrong.  By making mistakes, you are forcing yourself to learn.  If you didn't make any mistakes, you probably would not be where you are now.  Heck, the sticky note (that little yellow post-it note that 3M makes?) was actually a mistake by one of 3M's developers. They were trying to make a type of glue, only to make a glue that didn't stick very well.  You all now probably know how successful the 'sticky note' is for many of us, especially those of us in an office.

Making mistakes opens up new avenues for us to try new things.  Now that you know this doesn't work, you can try a different path.  But, if you constantly lived that same mistake, you will never have the desire or motivation to try anything new.

How many people have you talked to that constantly relived their greatest successes?  This is almost as bad, if not worse than reliving your mistakes.  Constantly reliving your success could prevent you from going out and becoming even more successful.  Like the mistakes of the past, if you learn from your successes, then you can become even more successful in the future.  Also, realistically, how many of you want to hear for the 100th time how Joe made that one awesome sale and brought home a six-digit paycheck the next month?   Wouldn't you rather hear about how Joe made that sale, and then has continued to make better sales up through today?  Then, you can learn from Joe's successes and possibly apply his techniques to your business.

So, in a nutshell, if you want to build a successful future and maintain your motivation, let go of the past, both the pain and the successes.  Use the past as a building block and a tool to motivate you to do even better in the future.

Have a wonderful Motivational Monday.  Until this Wednesday...

Finding your Passion in Business

Last week we discussed reviewing where we were in business and setting goals for where we want to be by the end of this year.  While we were discussing goal-setting, I mentioned that it was not only important to set obtainable goals, but to set goals that you were passionate about. 

This week we are going to explore a some possible ways that you can find your passion in business.  Let's first define Passion:  "Passion is a term that is often applied to a very strong feeling about a person or a thing.  It is an intense emotion, compelling feeling, enthusiasm or a desire for something." - Wikipedia definition

If you are in a home-based business, or are managing a small business. it is highly likely that you were extremely passionate about the business you got involved in.  The problem is that running a business, especially a home-based business, can be very time consuming and tiring.  After a while, you may start to wonder why you ever thought you wanted to be in business for yourself in the first place. 

If you are still working your business, you may need to rediscover the passion in your business.  It could be helpful to sit down and write down all the reasons WHY you got involved in that business originally.  Sometimes, when you go back to the beginning, you can rediscover the passion that inspired you to start your own business.  As you rediscover your passion, write down the points that you feel very strongly about.  You want to remember those aspects of your business when times start getting difficult again.  Do not focus on the negative aspect of your business, everyone has tough times, and focusing on the negative will not allow you to capture the passion (positive passion) that you were hoping to discover. 

Once you are able to rekindle the passion you had at the outset, now would be the time to start setting goals for the future.  If you had focused on the negatives of your business, odds are that your goals would not be all that they should be and you could very well start a downward spiral of your business.  As you start defining your goals, always be sure to verify that you are passionate about the goals you are setting.  You should be very passionate about all of your big, long-term goals because if you are not, there is a very high likelihood that you will not achieve those goals. 

Make sure your goals are realistic, but that they are also designed to push you and your business to greater heights.  If you can set long-term goals that you feel very strongly about, then it will be so much easier to remain motivated and passionate  as you work towards those goals.  After your "big" goals are set, then you can start designing those smaller, stepping-stone goals, that will help you to attain your "big" goal.  Again, if you are passionate about the end result, you will find a much stronger motivation to continue working towards that goal, despite any road-blocks that will appear.

Sometimes you may discover that you cannot recapture the passion you once had.  If you feel you are in that position, before you do anything rash, talk to some other small business owners.  Ask them how they managed to work through their challenges.  As we discussed last week, talk to successful people.  Do not waste your precious time and energy talking to people who feel your passion is misplaced or misguided. 

Continue to strive to be passionate in your business, and strive to provide the best services to your customers.  By providing the best for everyone, in the long run, your business will prosper.    One critical key to success in business is finding your passion in business. 

If you are looking for some business opportunity to get involved with, perhaps we can be of assistance.  If you do not see anything that triggers your passion, perhaps you can use some of the ideas from the website to discover what you are truly passionate about.  As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Until next week...keep the passion...

Motivational Monday - January 23rd

Welcome to the first Motivational Monday of 2012.  It has been quite some time since we had a Motivational Monday, so let's get started.

Since this is still the first month of the new year, I'd like to let you in on my New Year's resolution.  I don't usually believe in resolutions, but this one is not really a "normal" resolution.  No, I am not going to resolve to lose weight (I should and am working on losing weight, it is a promise, not a resolution), nor am I going to resolve to quit smoking (because I have NEVER smoked in my life).  My resolution this year is to NOT be MOTIVATED by negative people or negative situations.

Granted, that may sound a tad odd, but if you really think about it, the concept makes sense.  If you want to lose motivation fast, start hanging around people who believe nothing good can ever come of anything.  If you start feeling sick, you don't hang around sick people, right?  This is the same concept.  I am making a resolution to only associate with positive, up-beat people. 

Sometimes you may be motivated by negativity, more along the lines of "I won't be THAT way", but if you are exposed to negative situations continuously, then you stand a very strong likelihood of also displaying that same type of behavior. 

Keep in mind, positive, up-beat people are not always happy, but they do not bring you down or tell you how horrible the world is on a regular basis.  Positive people will also have bad days, depressed days, but on the whole, they look at any set-backs in their progress as not insurmountable situations, but as a learning lesson.  They will look at the positives of a negative issue and then work to overcome the current setback. 

These are the type of people who are successful.  They are the ones that many may envy because it seems that no matter what happens, they always end up on top.  The reason they end up on top is because they maintain a positive attitude and most likely surround themselves with other positive people.  

If you want to stay depressed, hang around with people who are always complaining.  Even if you started the day in a good mood, how many times do you wonder where your good mood vanished if you constantly hear people complaining about everything from how horrible the weather is, to how bad their kids are?   Sometimes you may discover that negative people surround you because they are trying to capture your positive attitude.  These people are like sponges, sucking your good attitude out of your body.  The key is to not let this happen to you.  If someone is in need of positive reinforcement, definitely provide it, but do not continue to support someone who refuses to stand on their own and work on their own positive attitude.

Life is tough.  There is no denying it.  The important thing to remember though is that you may not be able to change the circumstances, but you are able to change your attitude about the circumstances.  You cannot change your past, but you can change your attitude about what happened in the past and turn it into a learning experience.  Learn from your mistakes, use the problems as a spring-board to a better future. 

We would not have the light bulb if Thomas Edison quit after the first few attempts.  Many of your self-made millionaires did hit rock bottom more than once in their careers.  The failures just motivated them to do better and work harder for the next effort. 

I will leave you with this thought for tonight from Anne Morrow Lindbergh, "It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded."

Until Wednesday...

If you are looking for second income opportunities, check out www.hawgwash.net.  There may be something there that could work for you.  If you don't see anything, but would like to discuss ideas, please feel free to contact us at hawgwash1@yahoo.com.

Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits - 2012

Welcome to the first installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits for 2012.  It has been quite a while since this mid-week entertainment has been posted, so without further adeu, let's get started.  Since we have begun a new year, perhaps it would be good to see what happened to us 100 years ago: 

For you runners out there, did you know that January 1st, 1912 was the first running of San Francisco's "Bay to Breakers" race?

On January 6th, 1912 New Mexico became the 47th state admitted to the United States.
On February 14th, 1912 Arizona became the 48th state to join the United States.
May 11, 1912 Alaska is organized as a US Territory.  By August 24th the Territory of Alaska organizes

 It looks like our US Marines were very busy in 1912:
On January 9th, 1912 the US Marines invaded Honduras
May 30, 1912 the US Marines are sent to Nicaragua, on August 14th of this year 2,500 more Marines were added and they stayed until 1925.
June 5, 1912 the US Marines invade Cuba

In January 18th, British Naval Captain and explorer Robert F. Scott and his expedition arrive at the South Pole only to discover hat the Norwegian explorer Roland Amundsen had preceded them by just over a month.  By March 30th while storm-bound in a tent near the South Pole, he makes the last entry in his diary, "the end cannot be far".  Captain Robert F. Scott and 4 others in his expedition died in Antartica.  Captian Scott's body and diary are finally located by November 12th of this year. 

April 2nd, 1912 the Titanic undergoes sea trial under it's own power.  After successful trials, the Titanic leaves Queesntown, Irland with final passengers and mail, headed for New York.  On April 14th, on route from Southampton to New York, "Unsinkable" Titanic strikes an iceberg 453 miles southeast of Newfoundland.  Six of the 15 watertight compartments are breached by a 300-foot gash.  Just after midnight on April 15th Captain Smith of the Titanic orders lifeboats to be uncovered and for passengers to be assembled in preparation to abandon the ship.  By approximately 2:30 AM the RMS Titanic sinks into the North Atlantic, an estimated 1,522 people of the 2,200 passengers and crew aboard perish.

On a lighter note, on August 27th, 1912 Edgar Rice Burrough's publishes the book, "Tarzan of the Apes".

March 1, 1912 Captain Albert Berry made the first successful parachute jump from an aeroplane over Saint Louis, MO.

Mrs. William Howard Taft plants the first cherry tree in Washington, D.C. on March 16th, 1912

On March 23rd, the Dixie Cup was invented.

In 1912, Casimir Funk, a Polish biochemist, then 28, published his discovery of substances in the body which he classified as "vitamines" (vitamins).  He proved that some diseases are caused by vitamin deficiency.

Did you know that 1912 was a leap year and a U.S election, as 2012 is also a leap year and election year?
November 5th, 1912 Woodrow Wilson (D) defeated Theodore (Teddy) Roosewvelt (Prog) and President Taft (R).  Who will win in the 2012 election...?  Only time will tell...

Hopefully you enjoyed the initial 2012 mid-week installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits.

Until Monday...

Being in Balance, or am I?

As much as I would like to "cheat" and provide you a blog on Motivational Monday, or Trivial Tips and Tidbits, I believe I owe you all some version of an explanation for why I disappeared for a few months.  As you know, I had been working on my Motivational Monday blogs along with my Trivial Tips and Tidbits blog on Wednesdays...and then...poof, I stopped posting.  Well, just because I thought I had everything balanced... I didn't.

How many times have you thought that you had your life under control only to discover that you have been juggling one too many balls?  Once you drop one of those balls, all the others just come tumbling down.  I write these blogs in part to keep everyone looking at the positive side of life.  My mother always taught me that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.  That is in part why I stopped writing.  You all don't need to hear any more of the woes of the world, nor do you need to hear someone else jabber on about how tough life is. 

My life got just a tad out of balance and I had a very difficult time getting that balance back.  The way I chose to maintain balance, was to take a break from writing.  I felt very guilty about not updating you all, but on the other hand, I discovered that I cannot juggle a dozen balls at the same time.  I discovered that I had bitten off more tasks than I could chew and was getting so buried in all the things that "needed" to be done, I started burning out. 

Along with work, weekend shows, I decided it would be good to get involved and become a foster parent in dog rescues.  I had absolutely no idea how much of an emotional toll that took.  For those of you who may not really know me, I am always open to helping hurt and abandoned animals.  It doesn't really matter which ones, but I always end up getting involved in some kind of animal rescue, be it a baby bird that couldn't fly, a duck that got hurt, a dog that was found wandering along the side of a road, a cat that got hurt.  I have always been there to help when I can.   So, fostering dogs until they got adopted out seemed a great way for me to help. 

Theoretically, the idea was great.  In actuality, fostering took a major bite out of my spare time and made a huge dent in my emotional resources.  I will go into my adventures with fostering on a future blog, but suffice it to say, that by the time I finished working, doing chores and then taking care of frightened dogs (yes, plural...heaven forbid if I do ANYTHING in small amounts..) and cleaning up after dogs that don't understand the term "housebroken".  Well, let's just say that my life got more than a little out of balance.

Things have somewhat calmed down now, and with luck, I will be back in the blogosphere keeping you entertained, perhaps educated, or just curious.  I still plan on blogging Mondays and Wednesdays with additional blogs when I have extra stuff to offer you.

Take care and we shall be talking once again, shortly.

Until Wednesday (i.e. tomorrow...)