The Star Spangled Banner Story

The Fourth of July has come and gone again.  I for one am proud of my country and our founding fathers who penned the words that made today possible for all of us, and the millions who have protected the ideas, rights and freedom we all have today.  I am a proud American and proud of our flag.

This video moved me.  I think it will do the same for you.  It’s 11 minutes so when you have some time, please check it out.

https://youtu.be/YaxGNQE5ZLA

Are you reacting to life or responding to it?

Would you say you are reacting to life or responding to it?

Feeling out of control is a major part of being unhappy.

Feeling in control is a major part of being happy.

Are you reacting to what happens or making things that you want happen?

Are you accountable?

If you aren’t accountable for much, you won’t get many rewards.

People that are accountable for more, will do better.

You have no competition!

No one can compete with you on being you.

You can’t be a better version of someone else than they can either.

Be authentic, learn get better every day, and be the best version of YOU that you can.

You’re an awesome you – and getting better!

Compound Interest in Relationships

Some people burn a lot of relationships and don’t build many new ones.  Years later when they need help or support, it’s not there.

Build relationships by being a good person, loyal, a giver, reliable, authentic, a good friend, and having integrity.  Life gets a lot easier when you have lots of friends.

Read – GOOD stuff!

Read, yes.  But reading junk won’t help.  

Read quality books and listen to quality podcasts that teach you something of value written by voices of value who know what they are talking about. Read and listen to what will take you toward your long term goal and make you an expert with better judgement and skill.

Learn each day.

“The tools for learning are abundant.  It’s the desire to learn that is scarce.” – Naval Ravikant

I’m on a plane, sequestered for hours.  What am I doing?  Reading.  Listening to a great audiobook and taking abundant notes in my journal.  One audiobook called Berkshire Hathaway University has some of the richest men in the world saying they read a lot and have a goal to go to bed each day smarter than when they woke up.

I look around.  What are other people doing?  Sleeping.  Watching the TV.  Nothing.  Playing a game on their phones.

If we looked into 100 homes in America in the evening, what would we see people doing?

It’s not the haves and the have-nots, it’s the wills and the will-nots.

Will you?

Use smart phones smartly

Use your phone as a tool for you to achieve YOUR goals faster;

not as a portal for millions of people to get to you and achieve theirs.

Multi-Tasking is a Myth

You can’t do two things at once.  If you try, it’s not multi-tasking, it’s multi-switching.

You think about one thing for 15 seconds, switch to a different thought, wasting time and focus in the switch, and think about the next thing for a bit, before switching back or to a third thing.

You can’t do good work this way.  You will drop balls and make mistakse.

To do the best work and the most work, do one thing at a time until it’s done.

We all will experience tragedy.

Many people say “this tragedy happened to me” when explaining their situation.

But is tragedy such a surprise?  Did you expect to get through this without a tragedy or two or six?

Learning is full of “tragedy”, especially if we are learning something great.  We’re going to fall down.  We are going to have “bad luck”.

We all die.  Some earlier and some later.  We love a lot of people and we will outlive some of them.  Don’t cry forever because they are gone, smile because they were here.

Light is not possible without the dark. 

It’s ok.