Don't confuse politeness with kindness.

Being polite is withholding criticism today. 

Being kind is being candid about how people can get better.

Being polite is not telling me I have spinach in my teeth.  Being kind is telling me.

Being polite is saying my talk was great.  Being kind is telling me where I can get better.

If you think that being honest is disloyal, you don’t understand that being honest is the highest form of loyalty.

If you are worried about hurting the relationship, just be kind and thoughtful while you are being direct and honest.

Ask for honest feedback so you can get better yourself – and listen.

We know how this is going to end.

You are going to die.

We don’t know how and we don’t know when.  But that is what is going to happen.

But take a deep breath – it hasn’t happened yet.

This is not a dress rehearsal.

This is your chance.

Nobody rises to low expectations

Nobody rises to low expectations.

Not your employees, not your friends, not your teammates, not your kids – 

and not you.

Who expects more from you?

Should you expect more and better from the people around you and from yourself?

The Wealth Gap

They talk about the wealth (or income) gap widening.  When you compare the top to the bottom, it should be widening!

That’s because the bottom is zero wealth or close to it.  The people at the bottom are doing things that are bad for their wealth, or not doing anything that is good for it – and they keep doing those things.

The top people keep doing the things that are good for their income/wealth and since the world economy is expanding, they are the ones to make it happen.

The good news is there is nothing stopping the people from the bottom from moving up.

The question is will you, or won’t you?

That of course is entirely up to you.

Listen

Imagine if you went to school and they put you in front of the class and said “Ok, go ahead and talk – that’s how you learn”.  

When you talk you can only say what you (think you) know.

When you listen you have the opportunity to learn more than you know now.

Tune into voices of value that can teach you what you need to know to accomplish your main goals.

Then listen.

A lot.

Performance starts with WANTING to perform

If you say “I don’t want to (do that)”, then there is no chance for you to ever do it well.

You can’t fix a broken “want to”.

With most things, if you don’t do it, or don’t do it well, it’s your own fault – you didn’t want to.

Want to. 

Try it. 

Be willing to be bad at it and keep going. 

That’s how you get to be good  – or even great.

Who will you be in 10 years?

In ten years, most people will be the same person, just ten years older.  And that may be fine with them.

But some people will learn to be better. 

They won’t have the same patterns of thinking, the same habits, they won’t struggle with the same things, and their skills will get a major upgrade from all the learning and practice they do.  They will be able to get results that their former selves could not get, and in far less time.

Because of their advancing approach to living full out and doing what is best for themselves and others, they will live a life like their former selves could not.

Who will you be in 10 years?

Take stock of your blessings

Being ambitious and going for more has a built-in problem.  We can start to feel dissatisfied with where we are when what we want doesn’t come fast enough.

Jim Rohn famously said “Learn to be happy with all you have, while you pursue all you want.”

Being grateful is a productive virtue.  When you take a minute to be grateful, it’s good for your happiness and well-being and helps to settle feelings of dissatisfaction, despair, and unfairness.

For each of us, it could be a LOT worse. Even good things going on around you are blessings for you.

What is going right in your life?

What blessings do you have?

A product of your habits

You made your habits.

Then they made you.

If you want to change (to improve is to change), then we have to change something we are doing each day.

Your habits are made for a life you no longer want.

Think on it.  Associate your habit as something that is not good for you. 

Stop doing it.  Start doing something better in its place – something that will get you the result you want.

Repeat each day until you don’t have to think about it anymore – you just do it.

Hard work sucks when you don't have a purpose

On January 14, a Sunday, we got back home from a little trip.  It was 39 degrees and the wind was blowing hard.

“I’m going outside to cut some trees up,” I told my wife.  “Really?  It’s cold out and so windy.”  “I know” I said.

I get my chainsaw, gas can, bar oil, scrench, helmet and gloves and go.  I spy the sickly trees I want to cut down and cut up.  Some dead.  Some were being choked out by giant vines that had their way.  I can see these trees from my house and barn.

Soon chips are flying into that wind.  Sweating, I took my Carhart coat off.  The vine choked trees I cut are not cooperative.  The vines connect to neighboring trees and hold it up.  They don’t fall, and when you do get them to fall, they certainly don’t fall the way you want.

Once dropped, there’s a tangle of vines like giant tumbleweeds to cut.  It’s very hard work.  The overcast sky gets darker as nightfall approaches.  I’m winning.  I love it.

How could I love THIS?

A have a purpose.  A couple actually.

I am 59.  I plan on living to be 100.  I know that hard physical exercise is good for me.  During the week in the winter I hit the gym 2 -3 times.  On the weekends I am outside getting it.  

I want to live.  I want to feel good.  I want to be useful.  I know am choosing the pain of discipline, so I don’t have the pain of regret.

I also love the way the woods look when I am done.  It’s forestry management.  But that is secondary to hanging onto life.

I get a huge secondary benefit too.  A normal day seems easy.

Hard work sucks when you don’t have a purpose.

Your purpose could be to be the best at what you do.  To do work that you are good at and makes you feel great about yourself.  To serve others.  To find out who you are and how good you can get.  To get a result.

Whatever it is, find a purpose in hard work – the hard work that you find a purpose in.  And once you find a purpose in that hard work, it’s not so hard anymore.

If you avoid it, you will be average.