Celebrating life and love and and helping you honor your legacy one portrait painting at a time
“Promise yourself today to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.” ~Christian D. Larson
Christian D. Larson penned these inspiring words in 1912. They appeared in his book ‘Your Forces and How to Use Them‘ (now in the public domain) and form part of what has become known as the Optimist Creed, adopted by Optimist clubs worldwide. These words have been inspiring me for years and I hope they do the same for you.
Each day, there are choices set before us: life or death, love or loneliness, abundance or poverty, beauty or unpleasantness, creativity or lassitude, excitement or boredom, fulfillment or frustration, freedom or confinement, health or sickness, happiness or misery, peace or struggles, prosperity or misfortune, blessings or curses, success or failure, .
Today, I choose life. I choose love. I choose abundance. I choose beauty. I choose creativity. I choose excitement. I choose fulfillment. I choose freedom. I choose health. I choose happiness. I choose peace. I choose prosperity. I choose blessings. I choose success. And I hope you will, too!
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” -Siddartha Guatama Buddha
In the hours since the breaking news of Whitney Houston‘s passing, I have seen a range of reactions. There have been expressions of shock and genuine grief from her myriad fans. There have also been reactions of a less supportive nature. Some have expressed confusion and disgust at the outpouring of sorrow.
Art, music and love are some of the inexplicable things that make life beautiful. Our ability to fully appreciate and experience these sublime delights makes us human. How dull life would be without music. When someone as gifted as Whitney reaches super stardom, their talents reach out, touching the lives of millions, on a level that is individual and not fully comprehensible. Through her music, Whitney walked with her fans through the depths of sorrow, heartbreak and betrayal and floated with them to the heights of infatuation, inspiration, and joy. And because of this, there is a felt connection.
I have also shed some tears because of Whitney Houston’s passing. I have cried selfishly; because her music has taken me through the decades. When I listen to her song “One Moment in Time’, vivid memories come flooding back. I relive emotions from the historic 1988 Summer Olympic games held in Seoul, South Korea. Through the technological marvel of all-day cable TV coverage, the profound struggles and triumphs of the world’s athletes were set to music in a way I will never forget. Whitney features prominently in the soundtrack of my life.
I have also cried selflessly, as I reflect on the turbulence of Whitney’s later years. How could someone so gifted, whose talents touched so many have fallen prey to her own demons and thrown so much away? Is it that she didn’t know how much she was loved? Didn’t she know how much she mattered to so many people? Self-destructive tendencies are often inexplicable. And yet, in spite of all of this, her death should still be mourned.
Albert Einstein once said that “he who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed’. So today, I pause in wonder to listen and to appreciate the extraordinarily powerful range of an angelic voice. I stand in awe of the incomparable talent that was Whitney Houston. And I am grateful.
Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive.
I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.
I am going to use all my energies to develop myself,
To expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the
benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others.
I am not going to get angry, or think badly about others.
I am going to benefit others as much as I can
-Dalai Lama
It is February 7th. Had Charles Dickens miraculously lived, today would have been his 200th birthday. His brilliant literary works have brought joy to millions over the generations. Even 140 years after his death, many of his writings have never gone out of print. I recently re-read ‘David Copperfield’ and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of his other well-loved books include. ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, ‘Oliver Twist’, ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Great Expectations’. When you do great work, your legacy lives on long after you are gone.
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” ~Steve Jobs.
Be inspired to leave a legacy. Do great work, and live your best life today.
In January 2012 at the first weekly team meeting, I sat with my management team to outline plans for the new year ahead. Although this date did not coincide with our fiscal year end, the start of the calendar year always naturally brings with it an opportunity for resolutions and for renewal. I asked them to be brutally honest about the ways in which they felt I could improve my leadership skills. The ten-member management team jumped at the opportunity to offer candid, 360-degree feedback. I asked probing questions, took copious notes, and made a valiant effort to keep my pride under complete submission. Most of the team leaders left that meeting feeling refreshed, I left bloodied, bruised and limping.
Receiving an unfiltered critique from those who worked with me daily got me thinking about the difference between being liked and being respected as a leader, and the age old question of which one is more important. In my quest for answers, I came across and read the book,“Love Is the Killer App
Published in 2002, this book could have been subtitled “How to Succeed in Business by Being Smarter and Nicer”. Tim Sanders writes that in the new economy people will be valued for their knowledge and their network and not seniority or pedigree. He argues that the only way to advance in today’s experience economy is by being a “love cat”, and intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles.
The intangibles Tim Sanders asks that we share are our knowledge, our network and our compassion:
First, we have to put in the work necessary to accumulate enough knowledge to share, and add value to others. Books and audiobooks are the best way to get this knowledge. The author encourages using most of our free time for reading – making a commitment to review as many as one or two books per week. Tim advises that we take notes describing the book’s Big Thought, supporting ideas, and on its overall value. We can then share the knowledge by prescribing books to our contacts the way a doctor would prescribe medications to patients.
Tim advises that we become collectors of people – establishing positive and memorable interactions with as many contacts as possible, to be able to later match them with other contacts. The more positive dealings you have had with people, the more likely you are to be a winner in business. You will have the largest networks, the most powerful connections, and the ability to call in their reserves at to help provide solutions for other connections when they really need it.
Let people know that you care. By expressing your compassion, you create an experience that people remember. There is a tremendous opportunity for your compassion to make a difference in how people view you, and how they view themselves, because we continue to develop emotionally and spiritually throughout our entire lives. Compassion combined with knowledge and network is the way we win hearts and influence business today.
1. You build an outstanding brand as a person.When you take the time to build a brand, people will trust you, like you and pursue you. Be distinct or become extinct.
The more you read, the more you know and the more fun, interesting and valuable knowledge you have to pass along. Smart companies today are using their services as props and their services as a stage to deliver a compelling experiences.
Biz-Love helps you give others good return on attention (ROA). It means being able to supply creativity, and help give them a foundation for their business practice.
People tend to presume that a proposal is a bad idea until proven otherwise. Being a love cat arms you with the trust and respect of others, so that they know we have their interests at heart.
Love cats have a huge advantage because relationships don’t end when the business transactions end. Biz love partners know you are genuinely interested in their success.
People no longer feel secure based on their length of time with a company, and find themselves not living up to their own expectations. Love cats enjoy higher levels of security because there is always genuine reciprocity available by building intangibles.
End note: If you are a developing leader who wants to get a jump-start on building a valuable knowledge base and a wide network of contacts, if you want to learn how share compassion in business, then I urge you to read “Love Is the Killer App
Half way through the first month of each new year, many of the well-meaning resolutions we make to eat healthier and lose weight have all but faded away. We all want better lives, but changing ourselves requires changing our bad habits, and developing new good ones.
Stand in front of the mirror. Can you pinch an inch around your waist? Then you, like 1.5 billion people on the planet today, are probably overweight. Carrying around extra pounds can interfere with our self-esteem, drain our energy and cut our personal effectiveness. Getting lean will decrease your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Here are five specific things you can do to discipline yourself into developing a habit that will translate into better health and a slimmer waistline in the future:
If you’re not paying attention to what you’re putting into your body, how will you know if you’re really eating healthily? Nourishing your body should be an experience you take the time to enjoy. When you eat and drink, take the time to do so mindfully. Instead of eating or drinking in a rush, savor each sip and bite. Chew your food properly and savor the flavors. Consider taking the time to mindfully prepare your own meals instead of settling for fast food.
Click on to MyFitnessPal.com and set up an account, or download the smart phone app. Record all your meals, snacks and drinks every day for a week. This will give you an understanding of portion sizes, calorie content and nutritional information of the foods you eat every day. You will be surprised to find out exactly what you’re putting into your body.
When it comes to putting on extra pounds, sugar is our number one enemy. Liquid sugar is the sneakiest culprit. Just drinking one 16 oz bottle of Coke per day can translate into 20 extra pounds of fat in just one year. Start saying no to sweetened beverages. Instead of drinking sodas, juices and sports drinks, fill up a one liter bottle of water every morning and take it with you. Refill it once during the day. Do it for 30 days and see how you feel.
There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. Our bodies do not know the difference between a spoonful of rice and a lollipop –they both get converted into glucose in the bloodstream. Eat less rice, pasta and potatoes; share your dessert, trade your morning cereal for an egg or sardines, give up bread and have tomatoes or cucumbers instead. Eat more healthy protein at meals to end snacking. Cut down on eating unhealthy carbohydrates and stick with it for 30 days. You will feel better and weigh less.
Get a physical done. Find out what your cholesterol and triglyceride levels are. Calculate your body mass index (BMI) using this BMI Calculator. Find out if you’re in the healthy range and how you compare to other men or women of your age. Set a goal for yourself and a time frame you want to do it in. It could be to lose two inches off your waist, to fit into your favorite pair of jeans again, or to get into the healthy BMI range, but write it down and set yourself a deadline.
Willful ignorance keeps many of us from realizing that we are gaining weight and becoming unhealthy. We dread getting on the scale, because deep down, we know that we will not like what we see. Make it a habit to weigh yourself at least once per week, if not every morning. Keep track of your progress by entering your weight on MyFitnessPal.
A Brand New Year
A brand new year stretches before us, an uncertain road not yet traveled. Traditionally a period of festivity and reflection, the close of each year takes us tumbling through a mishmash of memories – twelve months worth of joys and sorrows, lucky breaks and challenges, resolutions and regrets.
We giddily relive the delicious moments of dancing until dawn, the kiss that took our breath away. Reminiscing on the joy weddings and the arrival of new family members brings the comforting warmth of nostalgia. The exhilaration of new projects and challenges – plans for a new home, a promotion, college acceptance – inspires us with a sense of purposeful anticipation, yearning and optimism for the days ahead.
In contrast, many of us find ourselves facing the New Year with trepidation; we feel weighed down by the not so awe-inspiring occurrences of the year just passed. Our eyes cloud with tears as we reflect on the loss of a loved one gone too soon. The insecurity of not having a stable income, or the pain of living with a critical illness may leave our stomachs in knots. We find ourselves plummeting into despair again and again, as we recall the feelings of loneliness, guilt and betrayal caused by broken friendships and relationships. There is inevitably a string of goals not met, bills not paid, pounds not lost, addictions not conquered and exams not passed. A general sense of foreboding hangs as thickly as a dark fog – a never-ending news of war and famine, recession, political turmoil and protests worldwide.
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian holocaust survivor. In his best-selling book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, he details the experiences of daily life in Nazi death camps from the unique perspective of a neurologist and psychiatrist. He lost everything, his possessions, his wife and his family, and yet concluded that even in the circumstances of the worst kind of suffering imaginable, it is possible for life to have meaning. Based on his experience, the differentiating factor between the people who died in the Nazi concentration camps and those who survived, was their attitude. Viktor Frankl’s writings challenge us to adopt an attitude of responsibility, which focuses on the future. He asks us to ask ourselves what we will offer to life, instead of brooding over what life might owe to us.
The most important lesson I plan on taking into the future can be expressed in a single word – gratitude. Gratitude consists of being fully aware of your current circumstances and being able to recognize the good that exists, no matter how small.
““In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As we stand at the threshold of a new year, take a moment to think about how much you have been given. It is mind-boggling to try to fathom the effort that has gone into giving us the lives we enjoy, simply by virtue of having been born in the 20th century. Only a genius can fully understand the intricate science and technology used to develop and manufacture the laptop or smart phone on which you are reading this post. Consider the time and effort that went into making the clothes you are wearing now, the last meal that you ate and the transportation you take each day. Could you reproduce it on your own? Reflect on all the brilliant minds over thousands of years that devoted themselves to inventing and perfecting all the luxuries we enjoy today. Countless men and women cared enough to make their lives count so that we can all enjoy better standards of living today. Life has given us so much more than we can ever return to it.
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie
I challenge you to make this your year of gratitude:
Right now, instead of focusing on the wrong that may have been done to you, focus on all the gifts you have been given. Instead of focusing on what you haven’t done in the past, focus on what you can do in the future. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by negative experiences, think of ways to create positive experiences for yourself and others. Banish apathy and fear. Make a decision to do all that you can do, and be the best that you can be. Take responsibility for the good that you can create in the world.
Below is a link to David Bowden’s performance of his poem titled “Start Something that Matters”, inspired by the eponymous book authored by the founder of the TOMS shoe company. I found it uplifting, and I hope you do too.
Paint all you painters, paint something that captures.
Write all you writers, write something that answers.
Build all you builders, build something that shelters.
Start all you starters, start something that matters.
May this be your BEST year EVER!
Millions of people across the globe have been inspired by the 1994 motion picture ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. The film stars Tim Robbins, as Andy Dufresne, and Morgan Freeman, who also brilliantly narrates the movie. Andy Dufresne is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in Shawshank Prison, for murders he did not commit. The story spans the two decades of his imprisonment and friendship with Morgan Freeman’s character, Ellis “Red” Redding. It is one of my all time favorite films.
The Company I lead is only a few years old. Each line manager has been employed on average for about a year. I have been at the helm for several months. This week, the founder of the company, an intrepid entrepreneur, spent a few minutes giving an informal address to the leadership team.
He took some time to share his story — highlights of his business history and personal background. He related the valuable life lessons he learned as a short guy playing the rough sport of rugby and the importance of pulling your weight on a team. In his typical hoarse tone, he then imparted one of his fundamental business philosophies. “If you’re not growing, you’re on your way out. There is no such thing as an organization being mature and maintaining the status quo.”
This statement is undeniably true, and yet easy to forget. Businesses which are unable over time to get more customers and make more revenues and profits, eventually go into decline. As costs rise and more attractive products and services enter the marketplace, they tend to become less and less profitable, and ultimately fail. Some companies die a slow organic death. Other organizations topple like a Jenga puzzle when the wrong block is removed.
At the moment, my job feels like the most challenging task I have ever undertaken. I am fully aware that a company is most vulnerable during its first few years. Each day I summon the courage to act boldly, even though I’m not sure that success will come. I banish fear and focus on the goals, knowing that results are the only true measure of leadership. I strive each day to keep growing.
This is what every human being is meant to do. Deep within each of us is the strength to lay it all on the line and believe in our own determination to make our dreams come true. Some people display these qualities to a heightened degree — many athletes and entrepreneurs, for example. But, it is perfectly natural. Deep down, we know this.
We love ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ because it tells the story of life, of struggle and vanquish over incredible adversity, of living and helping others, even where there is no freedom. Deep down we believe in hope and friendship and trust and love. We know that working hard pays off. We know that without something to strive for, we never achieve success.
Accomplishing anything worthwhile in business or in life will involve some form of struggle. For Andy, it was 20 years in the slammer, complete with the requisite gang rapes. But all the while he had hope – he lived outside and above the high walls of the prison. Resistance must be overcome in order for growth to occur. This is what life is all about. Twenty years of tunneling, and three pin-up girls later through a “river of sh*t” to come out “clean on the other side”. This is remarkable beauty and power of the human spirit.
Andy Dufresne is a fictional character, but each one of us faces our own personal set of challenges and obstacles, our own Shawshank Prison. Sometimes we allow ourselves to be paralyzed by fear, or we allow ourselves to rationalize that the effort is not worth the reward. We are wrong. Get up and grow. Grow into the person you are meant to become. Live up to your potential. Have as many experiences as you can. Make mistakes and learn from them. Build your character. Try for that promotion or salary increase. Meet those new friends. Travel to that place you’ve dreamed of seeing. Read that book. Sign up for that class. Call your mother. Forgive your father. Get busy living or get busy dying.
If you’ve never watched the movie, I highly recommend that you do. Here’s the trailer:
I am not naturally a morning person. In fact, I am the opposite. I am something of a forcibly reformed night owl. My alarm goes off at 5:30am seven days per week. Seven days per week, I hit the five-minute snooze button at least once, and often several times before reluctantly accepting that another day must now begin. That said, I have to admit that mornings are wonderful. They give us a chance to start each new day afresh.
Every morning, I reserve a few moments—before bounding (or crawling) out of bed—to be quiet. During these quiet moments, I meditate on, read and listen to words which will uplift my spirit and bring perspective as I start another day’s adventure. I reserve a few moments to be grateful. I focus on all the wonderful people in my life, the blessings I enjoy, and the people I admire. I remind myself of my goals and the person I would like to become.
One of my most meaningful morning meditations is Christian D. Larson’s ‘Optimist’s Creed’. Treasured by millions for almost one hundred years, the Optimist’s Creed challenges me to take full responsibility for my day, for my own actions and for the day’s outcomes.
By replacing the words “Promise yourself” with “I promise myself today” in each line, I picture myself living up to these timeless affirmations. I’m sharing the adapted version I recorded for myself with you. I hope that as you listen, these beautiful words will enrich your life as much as they have enriched mine.
July is here. The year 2011 is half over. To an optimist, this marks a unique threshold of opportunity: six more months to do more, see more, learn more, be more.
What have you done with your first six months? Are you happy? Are you satisfied? Do you feel a sense of accomplishment? These were some of the questions running through my mind in the last couple of days. More importantly, I asked myself: what will you do with the next six months?
I was inspired to start a blog after recently finishing Gary Vaynerchuk’s book ‘Crush It!’. One of the central learning points his book left with me is the concept of developing a personal brand.
This really scared me. I’ve believed in good, old fashioned hard work to get me where I am today. I have mostly ‘kept my head down’ and avoided ‘sucking up’ and ‘brown-nosing’. And while I consider myself to be a reasonably open person, there’s a dichotomy in my personality that makes me intensely reserved. I don’t talk much. I’m not quiet or shy, but I believe in keeping ideas not yet fully formed to myself.
The thought of sharing my day-to-day experiences, moments of inspiration, fledgling opinions and embryonic passions with world left me feeling terrified. And yet here I am. I figure if you’re not doing something that scares you, then you’re probably not really growing.
Here’s to personal growth and happiness. Welcome to my world.