365QOD-Day59

"It is what it is, BUT it will become what you make it"- a sign in  a co-worker's office
A very true statement.  When people are confronted with reality they can chose to react in one of two ways: negative or positive. 

The negative person typically wonders why it is what it is and blames external factors.  The world is against them and the way it used to be was better than the current state.

The positive personal typically wonders why it is what it is and looks internally.  The person then asks what they can do to improve what it is into what they want it to be.

Often times the positive person will overcome the difficulty and move on whereas the negative person will get stuck in that moment.

Today's question is:
"Is your motivation external or internal?"

365QOD-Day58

"We are all the same but yet different"

I have been around many different types of people in my life.  From poor to extremely wealthy.  I never felt uncomfortable around any.  I never saw anyone as being above or below me.  I have treated CEOs as well as I treat the cleaning lady that nicely polishes my desk every Tuesday.  With respect...

Many times I thought about why that is.  I believe that we all come in different packages but that there are only two types of people: good and bad. 

As I mentioned in the last blog, the good will give even when they do not have to give.  Their energy will refill you.  Their spirit will lift you.

The bad will take and take and will never stop.  They are energy drains.  You will feel dirty just by being around them.

Acceptance of good and bad people is the key.  We can barely control ourselves and the things we do.  The line between the two types is often very gray.  Changing other people is a loosing game.  The only thing we can do is model.

Today's question is:
"What do you model?"

365QOD-Day57

"When you can or you can't give"-Anonymous

I watched an episode of the Secret Millionaire with James Malinchak tonight.  It brought tears to my eyes.In the story James plays an undercover millionaire and volunteers in a community to see who is doing good.  The show was based on Gary Indiana.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/224538/secret-millionaire-james-malinchak-gary-in#s-p1-so-i0

I happen to live right next door to Gary.  I lived there from 1979-1983.  It was a great place then but it is a very different place now.  However, people are people. Even in the roughest place you will find kindhearted people deserving of support because they are doing wonderful work.

From the show, the one person who left the biggest mark on James was Coach Tony Branch.  I know Tony.  He has couched my daughter Stefani when he and Coach Curry wanted to see if sixth grade girls could be as talented and teachable as the mostly high school girls that they normally coach.   I believe that the short time they spent coaching her has improved her as a player tremendously.

Coach Branch and Curry are wonderful men and deserve support.  They influence and mold these girls into great basketball players who go on to receive scholarships.  They are givers and not takers.  James gave the group $50,000.

James also gave Tony $25000.  I am not surprised that Coach Branch had a difficult time receiving the $25000 from James.  He is a proud man who is a giver.  Even though he was unemployed at the time, when someone tried to recognize him it was difficult.

To all the givers in the show, my hat is off to you for doing the good work that you do.  To Coach Branch and Curry my eternal THANKS.

Today's question is:
"Are you a giver or a taker?"

365QOD-Day56

"Feelings are our most precious asset"-Alicia Dunams

WOW!  It seems such a simple statement BUT when you examine it is pretty powerful.  Without having a feeling associated with an activity, the activity will not happen.

So how do we get the feeling? I believe that feelings are driven by beliefs.  You must spend some time on paper and identify how you feel about an activity.

For example, if you "feel" that spending time with your family is important.  How do you know?  Well, usually you spend time with them.  But if you say it is important but you do not spend time with them then it is not a must.  It is a should.  And remember with many shoulds one shoulds all over themselves.

However, if you sat down with a piece of paper and identified your goal and identified your beliefs and the steps you will take to get the gap to close you will be closer to getting the feelings to match your beliefs.

Today's question is:
"What appears on your schedule that you don't have any feelings towards?"

365QOD-Day55

"OK, so I want to raise my standards...how?"-question in an audio book

I found a jewel the other day.  I found an audio book in my vast audio library that I have never listened to.  Few years ago my commute was very long and I used to copy books all of the time and lost track of this one.

The book is a live recording of Unleash the Power Within by Tony Robbins.  Yesterday's blog and today are ideas I got from just the first CD.  I really appreciate the amount of material and energy he packs into his books.

In order to raise your standards, Tony claims that one needs to change our "should" into a "must".  The change is not enough because it must not be a temporary blip.  It must be something that we do consistently and eventually become.

So my I should finish the book by the end of the month becomes I must finish the book by the month.  Everyday actions must match the must.  I must everyday do something to progress towards that goal. Even if I do not hit the goal, the daily musts will move me towards finishing it.  If I do not finish it then maybe I am not as demanding from myself as I should be?  Maybe my standards are too low?

Today's question is:
"What should needs to be a must for you?"

365QOD-Day54

"Ever since I was seven, I have demanded more from myself than anyone could ever possibly expect" Dr. J(Julius Erwin)

When I was little I remember watching Dr. J and marveling at his gift to play.  I also remember wondering how Edwin Moses could be so unbeatable.  He had an incredible streak of 122 consecutive wins and setting the world record four time.

Dr. J's quote says it all. If you have a higher standard for yourself than anyone then the only competition is against your self.  Over time you will exceed everyone standard.  This will place you in your own league.  MJ has confirmed this in a statement, "I do not compete against anyone else except myself."  

This is applicable in all aspects of life: work, home, school, relationships, etc.  What a game changer if we started to act this way in all aspects of our life.

Today's question is:
"What do you demand from yourself?"

365QOD-Day53

"2% of people of who want to write a book actually do it"- according to Alicia Dunams presentation on how to become a bestselling author

I am one of those folks that wants to write a book.  Well, I shouldn't say I want to write a book BUT instead say I have many nearly completed books that just need the nudge to get them out.  I even created a slide show with many slides on all of the books that I want to publish an how far along I am. The sideshow is called Dreams have Expiration Dates.

Do you believe that dreams have expiration dates?  How many things that were important to you five years ago are important to you today?  I would venture to say that only a few.

The scary thought is that at the same time God gave you an inspiration to do something he took out an insurance policy against you.  WHAT?  Yes, he did!  The insurance policy is in the form of other people getting the same inspiration.  See God only cares that the book get written.  He knows that someone will do it.  You are in the group that was chosen BUT you might not be the one that completes it.

Today's question is:
"What are you going to complete today?"

365QOD-Day52

"I just gave you a golden gift.  Will you use it?"- MBA class discussion about investments

Last night while in class we discussed investing in ETFs(Exchange Traded Funds).  For the last couple of weeks the students have been buying and selling ETFs using statistical techniques that I shared with them.

Even though the techniques are valid and can be used for mutual funds, stocks, and ETFs, I doubt that any one of the students will ever use the techniques for their own investments.  They are intended for the students to learn how to construct a system.  If they don't like mine then they can create their own.

Will they?  If they do not use the one that I created then I doubt that they will ever create their own.  They will seek the advice of a broker..... which will leave them broke...   A golden gift completely ignored.

Today's question is:
"What golden gifts are you ignoring?"

365QOD-Day51

From the book The Art of Happiness:
"Imagine that God appeared before you this instant and said:
"I promise you that everything that happens to you from this moment forward will be of the greatest benefit to you and will bring you the utmost good fortune."
Suppose God went on to say:
"Even though what happens will sometimes appear unfortunate or  hurtful, in the end your life     will be wonderfully blessed and hugely benefited by whatever happens." "

This was a paragraph that I quoted a few weeks ago in a blog.  Last night I picked up the book, which was resting next to my side of the bed, again and started reading it. 

Everything that happens to me is the best thing that could happen to me and anything else would not benefit me as much.  WOW!

Now that does not mean that I make the best with what happens.  It means a complete acceptance that it is the best and that anything else would have been worse.

It makes one see their troubles in a completely new way... at least it does for me.

Today's question is:
"Can you accept that everything that happens to you is the best thing that could happen to you and anything else would not benefit you as much?"

365QOD-Day50

"How do you eat an elephant?  I asked Pat.  After a brief pause I answered, 'One bite at a time'"

Today is day 50.  Amazing how quickly the days are passing.  The challenge to write a daily blog is mostly one of time.  I have missed a day or so but have tried to religiously post.

I remember when I first started teaching back in Spring of 1993.  My course ran twice a week for 75 minutes.  I figured I needed about 15 pages of notes to keep the students interested and learning.  So every Sunday night I wrote 15 pages.  Monday night I presented them.  On Tuesday night I wrote another 15 pages.  And on Wednesday I presented them... After 16 weeks I had over 400+ pages(some time was lost due to tests).  Amazing!

If someone would have told me that I needed to write 400+ pages of notes I would have quit before I started.  Looking at a big job and staring at it only makes it appear bigger.  It seems that the moral of that story is to just keep plugging away a byte at a time.

(Note that the slides on the left were a modified cover of a Geoff Thompson book cover that I used for a presentation on information overload and yes the word byte is spelled correctly.  Byte is a set of 8 bits)



Today's question is:
"What is the bite that you will take today?"

365QOD-Day49

"Ahhh... I am going to pull my hair out if I don't get this done"-Anonymous

Do we perform our best work under short deadlines?  If we had all the time in the world would we do a better job?

Often times we live on the edge.  We push and push ourselves to get as much done as possible.  We appear to be so busy. Are we or are we just crazy busy? As a person who often takes on more than can be done in a reasonable time I think it is the second.

In the book Crazy Busy the author describes being stuck in a wood cabin with no cell phone reception and only a rotary phone.  He went nuts as he dialed numbers.  He even timed himself how long it took him to dial a number... 11 seconds... that is how crazy busy we have gotten.

Maybe we can do a better job prioritizing and actually doing the things when they are suppose to be done.  Then we might not feel so busy...

Today's question is:
"Are you crazy busy or just busy?"

365QOD-Day48

"Focus on what you want NOT on what you don't want" T Harv Eker

I recently re-listened to the Millionaire Mind CDs.  It is always good to refresh oneself with positive ideas.  The book is a pretty straightforward look at what he believe it takes to think like a millionaire.  He has a new book that I have not had a chance to read.

As with financial investments, most of the book is about psychology.  How we think and act affects our results.

One item that I heard more clearly this time around was that our outer world reflects our inner world.  If we have a positive oriented inner world then the outside should reflect that.  The connection between those two worlds is action(s).


Today's question is:
"What action will you take to make the gap between your inner world and your outer world smaller?"

365QOD-Day47

"Why do people buy McDonald's when there is a better burger joint down the street?"-question I posed to an MBA class

Last fall my wife and I were driving to Ann Arbor Michigan for a recruiting effort.  While on the road she read aloud a book that I recommended.  The name of the book is Crush It by Gary V.  In the book Gary discusses how he grew his liquor store business into a successful online business using social media. In addition he also shares how he created his personal brand.

The world is rapidly changing and the need to distinguish yourself is very important.  You need to think in terms of your own personal brand.  What do people know about you and how they perceive you. 

With the question above I wanted to stir them to realize that McD is a recognizable brand and that their purchase has to do with their past experiences with that brand.  If they happen to be in a new town and the exact scenario presented itself they would most often opt for the McD because they can predict the outcome, their level of satisfaction.  Even though the other burger might be orders of magnitude better they will most often choose the known brand.


Today's question is:
"What are some terms(your brand) that people would use to describe you?"

365QOD-Day 46

"Every master started out as a disaster" T Harv Eker

Most of us marvel when we see someone excel at anything.  They appear to have mastered it.  We somewhat quickly assume that they were gifted in that area and that started of as being great and quickly became a master.

The path to mastery is anything but quick.  However, if you believe the quote above then by giving yourself the permission to start of as a disaster at anything you will give yourself the time to become a master.

In my life, as of this moment, I have instructed 68 different courses.  Am I a master of all of these?  Do I profess to be a master of all of the subjects?  No. Absolutely not.  I profess that I have enough knowledge to attempt to pass on that knowledge to my students.

The first time I teach a class I strive to do it well enough that I would grade myself a C.  What that means to me is that I have managed to cover everything in the book and the students have understood the basic concepts.  Second time I teach the same course then I expect that I would teach it at a level to give myself a B+.  The B+ means that I covered almost everything, students really enjoyed the course, and I am one of the best one teaching the course at that institution.  The third time and after I expect to get an A+.  The subject would be taught so smoothly, the questions and discussions would lead the student to want to apply the course, and very class will leave feeling that their mind stretched.

As you can tell, I start of slowly and give myself a break until I have mastered the course.  By doing this I am not afraid to teach new subjects.

Today's question is:
"What are you a disaster in that if persistent can lead to mastery?

365QOD-Day45

One of my favorite people to read is Roy S. Johnson.  He used to be the Editor in Chief for Men's Health.  One of his last articles is posted below:

Who would you be if you lost everything tomorrow?

by Roy S. Johnson

Most of us treat life as if it's a scavenger hunt. We scurry about
madly trying to gather things. Jobs. Money. Cars. Clothes. Homes. Women. (Or men.) We travel. We hang out. We eat, eat, eat. The more stuff, the more fun, the more more, the better. We're all guilty of it at some juncture—many of us are even Hall of Famers at it.

On the flip side, "hustle" is one of the keys to success. Many of the folks we admire for their accomplishments didn't achieve them by standing at the curb, waiting for success to drive by and offer them a ride. And often the spoils of success are, simply, All of the Above.

Unfortunately, we often define ourselves by the spoils. We become what we wear, what we drive, where we dine. We are where we live or vacation. It happens easily, comfortably. We become more proud of our "stuff" than of what it took for us to obtain it—intelligence, work ethic, integrity, passion, skill, and more. And, yes, sometimes luck.

In so doing, we diminish who we are, we dismiss our values. We ignore our core.

Today, ask yourself: "Who would I be if I had nothing?"

Not what would I be? (The probable answer: screwed!) But who . . .

Who would you be if the stuff you've obtained suddenly disappeared—poof, as if a magician had waved his wand?

Who then would you be? At your core.
Too many Americans are learning the answer these days. With unemployment hovering at around 9%, people are going months without work or income, without that which made them who they were. A catastrophic illness can strip away the stuff, too. A lost love can rip away your heart.
Who are you then?

I hope you never find yourself with nothing, with whatever stuff you've accumulated hauled off and gone.
But we should all act as if it just might happen, and ponder what—and who—we'd have left.
Would you still like you? Would you be proud of you? Would others love and respect you?
If your answers (honest answers) don't exactly thrill you, there's good news: You can work on it. Work on it as you do on your job, your relationship, your body. Work on it every day—push through plateaus and achieve new growth. In time, you'll not only like the answers, but you'll also find that the you you've created is more important than the stuff you've accumulated. Way more.

Ultimately, who we are is what we leave behind. Sure, you might have a will crammed with all kinds of stuff to leave your family and loved ones. But even if your estate is worth millions, it won't be as valuable as you and how you touched those around you, how you taught those around you—by your actions and words.
So make sure you like you when there's nothing else around.

Onward,
Roy S. Johnson




I aspire to write like him.

Today's question is:
"Who are you?"

365QOD-Day44

"What risk? I don't believe in stinking risk."-Anonymous

(Idea from The Leap)
There are four distinctive types of risk that show up when one is making great life decisions:
1.  The passion risk       - Will I love it?
2.  The competency risk- Will I be good at it?
3.  The opportunity risk - Will this succeed?
4.  The life-change risk  - (Once I pass the point of no return) Will I be better off?


When we move from the dream stage to the regret stage we ask ourselves these questions.  Pretty tough questions.  It is no wonder why we are often paralyzed into no action. We fail to believe that pain is inevitable BUT that despair is optional. 

Today's question is:
"Could you stand lots of pain for a lot of gain?"

365QOD-Day43

"I can't decide.  What should I do?"- often asked question

In a famous study kids were given a choice of a single marshmallow now or two marshmallows in fifteen minutes.  A follow up study showed that the kids that delayed gratification were more successful later in life.

A similar study showed that when people were offered $99 today or $100 tomorrow, most often chose to have their $99 today(short term choice).  However, when offered the choice of $99 in 364 days of $100 in 365 days chose to get the $100 in 365(a long term choice).

Why?  From The Leap, "making the same decision requires much more reasoning when the time frame presented is a year, not a day, and thus that decision is made in the section of the brain reserved for more complex cognitive processing"

Today's question is:
"Are you a one marshmallow or two marshmallow person?"

365QOD-Day42

"The seeds of great success are often right in front of us, hidden in the ashes of adversity" Francis Ford Coppola

In the book The Leap I learned about A.K. Pradeep.  He is the founder of NeuroFocus.  Pradeep and his team have identified six distinct stages that occur when an individual's brain evaluates an idea:
1.  Brain gathers information
2.  Brain evaluates the information
3.  Brain decides whether to act or not
4.  Brain looks for support from others
5.  Brain advocates the idea to others
6.  Brain shares the idea and it becomes a part of community's belief

It seems to me that the big dream part are the first two stages. The third and fourth stage are the regret stages where the brain pulls back tries to get support.  If these are overcome then a firm belief is formed and one tries to advocate and share their idea until it becomes an accepted norm.  I believe that the secret is to reverse stage 3 and 4 so that it is not only you against or for your idea.

Today's question is:
"Who can you enlist to help you move stage 4 ahead of stage 3?"

365QOD-Day41

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us."  Marianne Williamson

I just got through reading a wonderful book called The Leap- How 3 Simple Changes can Propel Your Career from Good to Great by Rick Smith. There are a few passages that I would like to share with you in this blog.

Our brains have two facets: a part that is ready to leap towards new opportunity and a second one that is survival driven that pulls us back.

"Encouraged by our huge frontal lobe, we envision big things to come, but when push comes to shove, our older brain fights like mad to defend the current state of our lives.  We court risk in our imagination, then run from it in our daily lives.  We are almost compelled to plot out alternative story lines for our lives and careers and families, but we are compelled even more powerfully to avoid what we imagine.  That's the great irony of humankind: we are at once the animal capable of dreaming and the one that holds itself back from achieving its dreams."

So the conflict in our brain is that we want to dream big BUT we often pull ourselves back to reality.  However, as Nelson Mandela put it,"We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?"

Today's questions are:
"What big dream are you pulling yourself back from? Why not you?"

365QOD-Day40

"I don't have the time"-one of the biggest excuses typically stopping people from learning a new subject

In yesterday's blog I talked about listening to audio books.  Let us examine that a little bit.  Most books that I have listened to are anywhere from 3-7 CD so 240-560 min or 4 to at most  10 hours.

A typical three credit hour university course is 15 weeks of presentation equal to 45 hours. Of course you have outside assignments.  BUT let us ignore those for a moment.  Lets just use the 45 hour number.

If a person spends 60 minutes per day on the road.  After 50 weeks with 5 days each that would give use 250 hours of drive time.    This would be equal to listening to about 5-6 courses.

There is one difference.  You are typically told which courses to take when you are pursuing a degree.  When you chose the audio books you are choosing which one would be helpful and of interest to you.  WOW!

You can tailor your own On The Road University.  You could learn a new language(I love Pimsleur- it is free at your local library!), a new business skill, or a new subject for which you do not have time.

Today's question is:
"What subjects will you learn in your On The Road University?"

P.S.  I would like to THANK my favorite librarian,Julie, at my favorite library, Lake County Library, for ordering some of the best books anyone could wish for.  She is so good that she anticipates what will love to listen to and exposes me to new subject all of the time.  THANKS!!

365QOD-Day39

"Treat every second as holly, infuse it with love and hard work."- Russel Simmons

I just got through listening to the new book by this mogul.  A man who started from
bad influence and has turned his life into an example of a wonderful aspiring being.  Overall the book was OK. I preferred his older Do You! book over the new Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All.  However, I did write down a few quotes and ideas from it.

In the past I used to drive a lot and devoured audio books.  Nowadays my commutes are shorted and it takes me a while to get through books.  As a matter of fact for a year or so the CD player in my car was broken and I was forced to listen to the radio.  The thing that I enjoy most about my car is the new CD player that allows me to listen to audio books again.

In the past my daily drives averaged about 135(at times 200 miles) to get to work and back.  It took a little while to get used to listening to audio books.  But once I got used to it I would hate when someone else would be in the car and I had to listen to the radio instead of my CDs.

Actually I felt like I was getting stupid for the last two years.  I read new books but the time(60-90 minutes per day) was being wasted.  Even though in the past my drive was longer I did not mind it because I was listening to a lot of books I would have read anyway.

The one thing that I found hard to believe was that when I did pick up a book to read, that I had already  listened to, my recall was 90% or better.  Who would figure that we retain that much while driving.

Today's question is:
"What is the last audio book you listened to?"

365QOD-Day38

"Where did the day go?  I looked up and it was 3 o'clock."-Anonymous

Have you ever had one of those days in the recent past?  What were you doing?  Was it pleasurable?

Look at your life in the last month and find an instance where you lost track of time.

I remember sitting on a beach looking at my daily planner for a couple of years and I concluded that I was very effective in what I accomplished BUT there were days when everything got completed and I was not very happy.  It just happen that I was reading the book by Michael Ray called the Highest Goal.  Sitting there brainstorming I realized that the one thing that was missing was creativity.

When I looked at the days where I felt fulfilled I had spent creating something that did not exist before.
Since that day I have tried to purposely add creativity into my day.  This may seem silly to many people reading this but consider that writing this blog is a creative outlet.  I have tried not to miss a day.

Today's question is:

What were you doing in the last month that completely fulfilled you and made you lose track of time?

365QOD-Day37

"Tell me your story"- a better introduction

Earlier in this blog I talked about this phrase.  It opens up the other person to tell you about themselves more than just their occupation. I love it!!!

After watching a couple videos from authorityformula.com I saw the following three questions:
1.  What do I do
2.  What this means to you
3.  What this really means to you

Most people start with the first one and they start talking and talking and talking.  It seems like a sales pitch to the other person.  The example given in the video is

Notice that the third one is the most powerful one and it leads the other person to ask you a follow-up question.

Today's question is:
What are your answers to these three questions?

365QOD-Day36

"An expert has knowledge and information.  A trusted authority has influence and power"- from a video by authorityformula.com

I love this quote.  Most people confuse these.  As the video points out the trusted authority is where one needs to be.  Companies have many experts but usually one single authority on a subject.

So what can one do to become a trusted authority?  Well you must have knowledge and information.  Therefore you are an expert.  However, in my opinion the transition to authority is one that is purely political.

Without support from people above and a lot of schmoozing (insert your own word here) one can not be recognized by other. Thus it takes a plan to over time develop yourself into the authority.

Yes there are examples where this could be done fairly quickly BUT usually it takes a lot of time.

Today's question is:
Do you have a plan on how will you transition to trusted authority from your expert level?

365QOD-Day35

“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future." Fulton Ousler

I remember getting ready to graduate with my Masters in December of 1992.  I remember thinking to myself that my greatest fear was public speaking.  The thought of standing in front of an audience scared the hell out of me.  
I also realized that in the corporate world I needed to be in front of groups in order to present ideas.


I decided to confront my fear by walking into Dr. Ed Pierson's office and asking him to teach an undergraduate course.  It must have been my destiny because he was in a need for someone to teach a combined Electrical and Mechanical Engineering course on Dynamics of Physical Systems. 


He gave me a copy of the textbook and solution manual and told me that there were a lot of students enrolled in the course.  I think my knees started to shake. I don't think I asked how much was the pay.


I remember standing in the hallway with the students for the remaining students from the previous course to leave.  When we entered the room and I identified myself as the professor, I remember trying to pronounce everybody's first and last name that way they would not feel like a number.   


I did well until I mispronounced the last name of a student whose last name was Bonner.  My face turned red, everyone laughed, and my fear was gone.  

After 17 years of teaching, with 70 different courses, I still remember that first night and I am sure I will remember it forever.  I have never failed to laugh about that first night and to marvel that my fear never returned.  What I learned that night was that one has to walk towards their fear.


Today's question is:
How do you plan to confront your biggest fear?

365QOD-Day34

"If you aren't living on the edge, you're taking up too much space."- found on Darrell's Smith's twitter page


Often times we get comfortable.  I read this quote and immediately thought about how little we stretch ourselves.  We are beings of comfort.  


Tony Robbins in one of the many audio programs I have listened to said "If you are afraid you must".  He also mentioned that we must actively pursue stretching in all dimensions.  


This is how real growth occurs.  Staying comfortable means dieing.  Either we are stretching and growing OR being comfortable and dying.

Today's question is:
"What are you stretching yourself in?"

365QOD-Day33

"Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day." - Samuel Goldwyn

Having spent 18 years teaching at university level I can not agree with a statement more.  Through my courses have passed several thousand students.  Out of those there were only about five true geniuses.  They stood out based on their performance and attitude.

Isn't it amazing that there were not more?  What is more amazing is that there were probably at least 5% who very extremely smart that earned an F in my courses.  Why?    They were smart, knew it, and did not want to work to earn their grade.  It was almost as if it was beneath them.  

I often take the syllabus in a course and on the board write out the requirements.  I then tell a story about two student types that I have seen over the years.  First one is Ms. Smart and second is Mr. Average.  

Ms. Smart likes to pick and choose her battles.  She might not show up for class, not turn in homework, miss labs, not participate, and expect to do well on exams(which often does not happen since the material always get tougher).

Mr. Average likes to fight all of his battles.  He will show up for class, turn in every homework, never miss labs, participate, and expect to do OK on exams(which often he does an average or slightly above average on) .


In the end when I use those as rules the points work out that Ms. Smart often times gets an F or is groveling for a D.  Mr. Average usually gets a solid to a high B and at times reaches an A.

There has never been a successful general that picked and chose which battles not to fight.


Today's question is:
Are you fighting all of your battles, or are you picking and choosing them, in order to win your war?

365QOD-Day32

"And let me show you this..."- Matt Larson

Today I sat at the airport  with my son Milan in the baggage claim area waiting for my daughter Stefani's flight to arrive.  Next to us was an interesting gentlemen.  He had two book bags, a laptop on his lap, and a bunch of equipment next to him.   Not recognizing the equipment I asked what the equipment was for.

What came out was pure passion.  He carefully explained to me that these were rugged devices his company, Goalzero.com, produced to provide power for a laptop and other devices that need battery power.  We discussed the product sizing and functionality.  He detailed how the devices are being used in remote area to provide power where there is no power source.

Every minute or so he would reach in his bag and say, "Let me show you this" and we would continue talking about the new product.  The coolest of them all was a portable solar panel that could be used to charge small devices including a battery pack.

At the end he reached in his bag and game me a cool solar powered flashlight.  Amazingly bright.  Wow!  What a memorable meeting!

Today's question is:
"Could you describe what you do with such a passion?"

365QOD-Day31

"AGGGGGGH... my back went out"-  a phrase I repeated for many years

The five monkey story teaches how groups keep their members from thinking outside of the box by retaining history.  BUT what do we do to ourselves?

For about 20 years I suffered from back pain.  It started my junior year in college and lasted for 20+ years.  It would come on suddenly while I was moving around or simply getting dressed.


Four years ago I was in great shape.  I weighed 200 lbs. and had a well defined six pack.  My back was as strong as my core.  But one day my back went out anyway.  I went to lay down in the bedroom and when I needed to get up I could barely budge.  I was laying on my stomach and it felt like a 500 lb sumo wrestler was sitting on my back.

I laid there frustrated.  I knew that there was nothing physically wrong with my back.  It was strong.  My brain knew that my body was in top shape.  There was no reason that my brain could come up with for not being able to get out of bed. 

As I lay there sweating in anger trying to get up I realized that my mind was not my brain or my body.  It was observing my body and my brain and making decisions that were not consistent. My mind was controlling the other two.  But where is the mind?  It is definitively not in the brain.  I do not know the answer BUT I know that it is watching what the body is doing and what the brain is thinking.


Today's question is:
What decision is your mind making for you that are not consistent with your reality?


I later realized that the reason for my back pain was stress of truing to control the outcome of a situation in the near future.   I mentally walked myself though all of the back problem instances from the first to the last and reviewed the situation.   I read the book by John Sarno.  Take a look at this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABeBPHyW9H0

365QOD-Day30

 "We don't do that around here"- often heard statement

The other day while in class I told the story of the five monkeys.  

Once upon a time researchers wanted to study the influence a group has on each member.  They placed five monkeys in a room with food along the walls and hung a batch of bananas from the ceiling.  They also placed a ladder up to the bananas.

As soon as the monkeys were released in the room one of them raced toward the bananas.  Once on the ladder the monkey was drenched with ice cold water.  The water was so cold that the monkey came down.  Other monkeys observing this tried it for themselves.  The result was the same.

What happened next was very interesting.  The researchers replaced one of the monkeys with a new monkey.  As soon as this new monkey saw the bananas he could not believe that the other monkeys did not see them and raced up the ladder.  But this time it was no the water that halted his progress.  It was the other monkeys pulling him down.  Even when all of the original monkeys were replaced the phenomenon continued.  The monkeys were taught that in that room they do not eat those bananas.

Today's question is:

Have you recently heard someone say the words, "we don't do that around here" without being able to tell you why?

365QOD-Day29

"What makes music music is the pauses between the notes" -Unknown

I often emphasize the need to pause after doing anything worthwhile.  If one continues moving from one thing to another there is a lack of learning that occurs.  By adding the pause between the notes one gets to appreciate the notes themselves.

Without that pause our lives become noise.  In school this becomes lack of clarity as a student moves from one subject to another without absorbing the pieces completely.  Often times students graduate and they feel like they still do not know enough.

I can explain it.  If for example a student takes two courses that follow one another.  In the first course the student receives a B(80%) and in the second one they receive 80%.  The student feels good BUT in reality the true level of knowledge for both courses combined is 80% of 80% which is 64%.  So student got the grade they wanted, BUT in reality they only learned a D level amount.

No wonder after all the courses they feel ill repaired.  They never took the pause to make the connections stronger.  Even if an instructor does their best the student will only master a portion of the material.  So the student must take a pause and work on the subject until they become close to 100%.

Today's question is:
What connections do you need to make stronger?

365QOD-Day 28

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”- Attributed to many

Last year while reading The Genius in All of Us I came across an interesting passage.  In the passage, the author wondered if parents were given a choice between having a child genius or a successful adult, which one would they chose?

I believe that most parents would chose a successful adult.  It is very rare that a child prodigy becomes a highly successful adult because the skill sets are very different.  They tend to either burn out or are socially ill equipped.

Today’s question is:

“If you would choose the successful adult, what are you doing to transition your child(or yourself) into that person?

Hint: More academic training is not the answer”

365QOD-Day27

"What retirement? I will be working till I die."-Anonymous

That is the sentiment of many people these days.  They do not believe that retirement the way they envision it will be possible for them.

I am currently reading a book by Charles Farrell.  In it he offers the following table that relates capital to income ratio for someone to retire at 65 with 80% of their last income.

He advises to to use home equity in the calculation and that additional 20% will come from social security.

In the past when I went to an investment seminar the speakers used to hold up one finger and state that it takes one million to retire.  Now days they hold up five fingers.  I think that that number is not realistic for most people.  I like Farrell's thinking because it gives a ratio in terms of your current income.


Today's question is:
Are you where you want to be with respect to your capital/income ratio?

365QOD-Day26

"I am the jack of many things and king of 1,2,3,..."-Gwen Calmese-Wright

Many years ago Gwen worked for me.  She was an Administrative Assistant who wisely used her time.  Any free minute she had she was writing poetry or a play.  Many of lunch hours were spent reading her work and giving my opinions.

In her free time she pulled people into her galaxy and one wanted to be a part of it.  She formed an advisory group on which I served to mentor her in creating a successful acting troop.  Gwen starred in many plays and eventually became the director of her own plays.   

I miss Gwen.  She passed away a few years back and I did not learn of it for a few months. She is one of the passionate spirits that have passed a part of their journey alongside of me and have changed me forever.

Today's question is:
What do you feel passionate about that pulls people into your galaxy?

365QOD-Day25

"Things that are easy to do are also easy not to do"- Jim Rohn

During the last year Jim Rohn passed away.   If you take the time to go to Youtube and listen to some of his wisdom, you will be blown away.  Jim Rohn had a way of placing great wisdom into simple to understand statements.  He served as a great influence to many people in the self-help industry.

I admired Jim because if I ever needed a jolt of common sense I can listen to him speak or read one of his books.  Unfortunately, I never saw him live.

When I look at the people around me I see anyone like Jim Rohn.  There are a few successful folks who are very knowledgeable but Jim also was inspirational.  It would be easy to say that because I am where I am there might be no mentors available.  This would be an easy thing to say.  An alternative would be to pick up a book on a subject on which I need to work on and let the writer be my mentor.  There are infinite mentors in my local library.  And the funny thing is if they do not have it they will order it. 

So the easy thing to do is to say I don't have access to them BUT it is just as easy to go and pick up a book. The reverse side of Jim's quote is things that are not easy to do are also as easy to do.  He also said that, "You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight."

Today's question is:
What is the one thing that is easy that you will not do BUT IF you did will make a difference?

365QOD-Day24

"Question: How do you eat an elephant?
  Answer:  One byte at a time"                - Anonymous

Several years ago I listened to an interview show on C-SPAN. In the show Brian Lamb interviewed a prolific author.  The author wrote history books.

The interviewer asked how he wrote so much. I have never forgotten the response.  The author said that he lived in Alabama.  His house was away from the road.  On his property he kept animals.  His favorite thing to do is to tend to his animals.

So everyday the author woke up and before he can do his favorite thing he would sit down on his porch and write five pages.  Until he had written five pages he could not get up and tend to his animals.

WOW!  If he did this 365 days a year that would amount to 1825 pages per year.  No wonder he was a prolific writer.  He forced himself to do the hardest work first before he began his day.

As Brian Tracy would call it ... He ate his frog.  In this little book he advises that we tackle the most difficult task, our frog, first thing before we do anything.  After all we do have the most energy first thing in the morning.

Today's question is:
What is the frog that you will eat today?

365QOD-Day23

“If you can’t be with the one you want, love the one you are with”-lyrics to a song

A very catchy phrase.  If you can love what you have instead of what you want, will it lead to happiness?   Maybe?

Chip Conley offers a better formula:

                     (Wanting what you have)     Gratitude

Happiness=_____________________=_____________________

                     (Having what you want)       Gratification

Let’s examine the extreme points(on a scale of 1=missing to 100=completely full):

If wanting what you have is 100 but you have very little of what you want (give it a 1)

              Happiness=100/1 = 100% so you are completely satisfied

If having what you want is 100 but you don’t want what you have (give it a 1)

                                              Happiness=1/100 = 1% so you are completely dissatisfied

The math agrees.  I suppose most of us are somewhere between these points.

Today’s question is:

What is your level of happiness and how would you improve it?

365QOD-Day22

“Expect your strategy to be 100% wrong” Fran Johanson

A recent blog talked about taking baby steps. Let consider the idea from another angle.  You have an idea to do something.  The idea seems brilliant.  You expect wild success.  However, it does not happen like you thought and soon enough you feel discouraged and give up on the idea.

Now consider an alternative.  You come up with a brilliant idea.  But after taking a few baby steps you realize that it is a good idea.  Taking the good idea you ask yourself how you can make it a better idea.  Taking a few baby steps in that direction you convince yourself that it is a better idea but it is still not yet a great idea.  Pondering some more, you decide that if you take additional executable steps in a slightly different direction you will get to a great idea.

Note that the final design might not be even close to your initial brilliant idea but a much more refined workable idea in terms of time and resources needed.  Fran illustrates this idea in a 99% conference speech and his book. 

In order to take these small executable steps, baby steps, you must be willing to except the risk that comes with it.  By making these steps small enough it reduces the risk of failing to accomplish it and move towards a better idea.

Today’s question is:

What are the smallest executable steps that could move me from my current level to the next level?

365QOD-Day21

"Every event that befalls me is absolutely the best event that could occur" -Chris Prentiss

From the book The Art of Happiness:
"Imagine that God appeared before you this instant and said:
"I promise you that everything that happens to you from this moment forward will be of the greatest benefit to you and will bring you the utmost good fortune."  
Suppose God went on to say:
"Even though what happens will sometimes appear unfortunate or  hurtful, in the end your life     will be wonderfully blessed and hugely benefited by whatever happens." "

I spend a couple of hours this Sunday reading this wonderful book. This passage appeared on page 7 and I could not get it out of my mind for the rest of the day.  In my opinion it is very powerful.  For me these statements were easy to accept but I believe that for others they could be very difficult.

I sat there and thought through many events in my life and saw the fingerprints of God all over them.  I saw this statement with clarity.  Easily I can chart the valleys and peaks of  my life and see that the low points were used as preparation for the peak to be made possible.  I urge you to get a piece of paper and from your birth(+10 very positive) to a major problem(-10 very negative) list the major events in your life.  Next I urge you to create a graph .

Today's question is:
"Did you see for yourself the fingerprints of God?"

365QOD-Day20

"...in the doing of it once you know how but in coming to know how and then in keeping aware of what you have discovered"- Zen and the Art of Happiness

I started reading this book today and found this statement very powerful.  It was specifically intended on the topic of happiness but after reading it I couldn't stop thinking about how general it is so I dropped the first part of the quote.

In my life I have learned many things BUT only applied a few.  I believe that knowledge is not power.  Application of knowledge is power.   This is how one gets rewarded for learning.  Unfortunately, as kids we are encouraged to continue learning and learning as a way to better ourselves.

Recently I have stopped reading for learning sake.  I have instead started to drive myself to apply what I read.  So, I read the page and the moment the sentence stood out to me I applied it by writing his blog.  A couple of weeks ago I was reading the book KaChing and instead of mindlessly reading it I applied it by creating this blog.  It seems to me that a better cycle would be to learn, to apply, to modify, to apply, to learn, to modify, to... 

Books teach us many lessons.  Unfortunately, after we learn the lesson we store it in our subconscious mind and only remind ourselves that we have already learned it after we had to deal with a situation that required it.  We remind ourselves of it and promise to never forget the lesson in the future.  However, we often repeat and repeat it until it becomes ingrained.  The reason for this is we did not put ourselves in situations where we had to repeat the experience and apply the knowledge until we mastered the lesson.

Today's question is:
"What lesson do you need to apply?"

365QOD-Day19

"As is a tale so is life, it is not how long it is but how good it is"-Seneca


Seneca's wise words urges one to focus on quality instead of quantity.  It is not uncommon to hear of a  young person passing away and being remembered for years.

In order to live the quality life we have to start by managing our energies.  Most people manage time but one quickly learns that all kinds of issues can completely throw one off their "plan".  So how does one find the balance?

The only book I know of that discusses managing one's energy is the book by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.  In it they break life management into managing Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual dimensions of one's life.  To find that balance that everyone is looking for one needs to manage these energies and the time piece will fall into place.  Let me give you an example.

Suppose you have signed up for a class.  The class meets once a week for 4 hours with a 30 min break in the middle.  You put it on your schedule.  You. have been going for a few weeks and enjoy the course.  However, just before class you get in an argument with your significant other.  You come to class all angry.  Mentally you are not ready to learn.  Emotionally you are still dealing with the argument.  Physically you sit there BUT you fidget the whole time.  A few time you think to yourself Oh God this can't be happening to me...

So you made a commitment to be there for four hours.  For the first hour or two you are there but you are not there.  You managed your time because you showed up but your energy was elsewhere.  In reality you were at best only 50% there.

Today's question is:
"How balanced is your life?"

365QOD-Day18

"What are baby steps?"- Stefani's words to me

"Daddy, can you teach me how to shoot a ball?"
These were the words that my daughter spoke to me when she was about three years old. 
"OK, Go get your ball. ", I said. 

While she was doing that, I went to the laundry room and brought back the round laundry basket into the living room. 

"OK honey stand in front of the basket.  Now drop the ball." 
She did and let out a giggle. 
"Now take a baby step back and throw the ball into the basket." 
She did so successfully. 
"Now take another baby step back." 
Success again. 
"And another." 
This time the ball did not go in. 
"OK step forward one step." 
She looked puzzled.  She did and this time hit it. 
"Do it again." 
She did again successfully. 
"Now you are ready to step back."
Pretty soon she was hitting the basket with the ball from across the room. 

Magical! You take a baby step and observe your progress.  If you are successful then take another step in the direction you are successful.  If at any time you do not get a successful result then back up and work on the step you were recently successful to get your confidence back up. 

Interesting idea.  If you can identify the steps required to do a job, and break those down into sub-steps, and break these sub-steps into smaller steps until you get to a level where you can execute the smallest of these steps(baby steps) successfully. 

This is an idea that many top programmers use when writing code.  I used to ask my students to first write their comments first.  Then for each comment break it down into smaller section that could be fulfilled with a few lines of code.  For example, maybe a procedure requires seven steps.  I would ask them to comment the section that describes the next seven steps.  Then provide a sub-comment for each step and then the code in each step.  Why punish them with all that commenting when they needed to write code?  Well, the person most likely to troubleshoot the code years from now is the person who wrote it.  By asking for these baby steps they would be able to understand something that they did many years ago.  If they could explain it to themselves then they can fix it later.  Most often the students/programmers just wanted to start writing code without identifying these baby steps.  It seemed like such a waste to them.  If they were honest with themselves they would recognize it as a method to assure success. 

Today's question is:
"Can you identify the baby steps for something you are working on?"

P.S.  I can not think of a good reference.  If you can, please comment and I will add it.  THANKS

365QOD-Day17

"The quality of your life is the quality of your communication... to others... but mostly to ourselves"-Anthony Robbins

I recently came across a wonderful video on Ted.com by Simon Sinek. 
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

In the video he discussed his idea of a Golden Circle of communication.  He claims that most of us tell people what, some explain the how, and rarely share the why.  His research led him to believe that successful people and companies actually reverse the communication process.  They tell you the why, then the how, and lastly the what.  In the video he provides and examples of how Apple communicates their ideas versus others.

I thought about this blog when I listened to Simon and decided to brainstorm these for myself.  My thoughts are:
- Why:  I believe in improving how people think about the things they are exposed to
- How:  The way I change they way people think is by offering a quote, providing a related discussion, and posing a question to ponder in this blog.
- What: I just happen to share the messages through this blog.  They could be presented as a book, speech, training seminars, etc.

Do you want to subscribe? 

Re-read these in the opposite direction and you will feel a difference.  Then ask yourself if you want to subscribe.

Today's question is:
What are the Why, How, and What for a project you are working on?

365QOD-Day16

“The only constant in life is change”- Anonymous

Recently I have been reflecting on change a lot.  At work there is a restructuring effort and with it there is also a lot of uncertainty.  I have been observing the process and wondering if it being handled properly.  It is being done rather intellectually.

But does change succeed if it is only done at the intelligence level?  To answer that question one only need to find a doctor that smokes, an overweight nurse, etc.

It quickly becomes obvious that it is not all in the brain when one or an organization needs to make a change.  So what else does it involve?

In their second book Switch, Chip and Dan Heath offer a glimse at what they think is needed.  They propose that it takes three pieces:

I. Direct the Rider:
- Find the bright spots
- Script the critical moves
- Point to the destination

II. Motivate the Elephant:
- Find the feeling
- Shrink the Change;
- Grow your people

                                III. Shape the Path:
                                 - Tweak the environment
                                 - Build habits
                                 - Rally the herd

One can quickly see that the rider of an elephant wants to provide direction.  The elephant will most often follow BUT at times will chose to go in a direction that the rider does not choose(i.e. overeating, not exercising, etc.). 

The path is an interesting idea.  In an example they talk about a Subway experiment in which the customers were given two different types of reward cards: one with eight holes to punch before a reward, or one with 10 holes to punch but two of the holes were pre-punched.  Who do you think succeeded more often?  The ones with the two pre-punched holes.

Without all three pieces being in place a change can not occur successfully.

Today’s question is:

In your own life, how do you line up the three pieces to assure success with something you want to change?

365QOD-Day15

"...look at Enron now...it was at $80 and now it is at $60..it is a buy..(a while later) look at Enron now it is at $40, it is 2 for the price of one...BUY BUY BUY... (a while later)look at Enron now..it is a real bargain at $0"-Ananomous TV financial adviser

In last blog we talked about loss aversion.  So, how much of a loss should you stand?  Consider the chart below:

Loss %	% Gain to Recover
1	1.0
2	2.0
3	3.1
4	4.2
5	5.3
6	6.4		using	=100*(1/(100-loss%)*100-1)
7	7.5
8	8.7
9	9.9
10	11.1
15	17.6
20	25.0
30	42.9
40	66.7
50	100.0
60	150.0
70	233.3
80	400.0
90	900.0
99	9900.0

Notice that up to 10% loss it takes a 11% gain to recover to your previous level.  At 20% it takes 25%.  At 50% it takes 100% gain to get back to normal and above that it gets ridiculous.  So where do you draw the line? 

A good rule is 8%.  It is rule that I learned from William O'Neil's book .  At about 8% I look at the investment and conclude that I am wrong.  I need to kill this investment in order to preserve my cash and be able to invest in the future.

How well will this idea have worked out for the investor's at Enron?  Suppose it was at about $80 at its peak, so a 8% loss would have been a drop of about $6.4.  At the value of $73.60, the investors that sold would have looked like a genius to the ones that rode it down all the way to $0.

Today's question is:
What exist strategy(rule) do you follow to get out of a situation?