The past can be a great portal into our future. No, I'm not talking time travel. At least not literally. But our past and our internal vault of memories and experiences can be a great source of inspiration if we let it. I love the metaphor of dusting used in this fortune. Because dusting implies discovery. Removing a fine layer of dust, sometimes caked-on filth, that has built up over time and is obscuring or covering up something beautiful underneath.
All dreams are beautiful. Dreams, and all aspirations, goals, and hopes, are wonderful gifts given to us to buoy us up and progress us forward. Not all dreams need or must be acted upon. Some dreams are fine as they are just being dreams. It is a human compulsion, especially in the United States, to feel the need to capitalize or commercialize our dreams. But it is okay to keep some dreams exactly where they are—in our heads.
Some dreams can and should be acted upon. They are clues to who we are and what we truly want to have, be, and accomplish. The materialization of our dreams is our gift to the world. It is a way of being of service to something bigger and beyond ourselves.
Perhaps your dream of opening a gluten-free bakery feels silly to you. Or frivolous. Or a waste of time. And maybe it is. And maybe, just maybe, your hopes and dreams are subconsciously nudging you towards filling some void in the universe. Like natures way of filling a hole that needs filling.
As adults it is easy to get mired in the day-to-day minutia of careers and bills and raising a family. It is easy to become distracted and even lost. The next thing we know, we wake up and wonder where the last decade of our life went. And we question whether or not we have anything of consequence to show for it.
This is where dreams are useful. Dreams are a gateway to our childhood. That time in our life when we loved without hesitation and forgave quickly and didn't hold long grudges. That time when we dreamed of flying to the moon or sailing around the ocean or, like me, drawing comic books and superheroes for a living.
Our childhood was a time of possibilities. Not limitations.
Sure, some of you will argue about the realities of life. Of providing shelter and food and such. That dreams are a luxury. Trust me, I'm not naive to the very real logistics of life.
But it doesn't have to be an either-or situation.
It is possible to pursue your passions, even if for just a little bit each week, and still pay the rent. It is possible to do both. For the past two months I have been meeting with a friend one evening a week after work. Just a few hours at a time. We're writing an adventure novel together. Just for fun. Because we want to. And let me just say, it has been a blast so far. It is not drawing comics, but creatively it feels exactly the same to me—which is a dream come true.
Time to dust off a few old dreams—you might be pleasantly surprised at what is lying beneath the surface.
To your good fortune!
Friday, January 31, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
How Great Is Your Service?
Everyone business claims to offer great customer service. Many go to tremendous lengths to try and convince us of how great their service is. They use testimonials, star burst graphics with exclamation points, 800 numbers in bold text, and dozens more. They claim how happy they are to answer our calls and questions. But if your experience is anything like mine, their actions rarely live up to their hype. Mostly it is just talk. Very few of them actually show us. Show.
Some do, however. Several noteworthy companies have and do base their success — sometimes massive — entirely on their level of customer service. These companies are smart. Companies like Zappos, Bluehost, and Infusionsoft. They are world-renowned for their over-the-top customer service. They understand that in an age of equal technology and resources, competing on features and price alone just doesn't cut it anymore. They understand the importance of the human touch. They've figured out that what people really want in a cold, digital, automated, voice-mail, text-alert world is to be treated like, well, a person.
Not a number. Not a statistic. Not an account number.
No, like a person. A living, breathing person. With cares and concerns and dreams.
That's how I want to be treated. Don't you? Guess what...so does your customer.
At the beginning I asked how great is your customer service. Not how good. Not how sufficient. Adequate just won't cover it these days. The competition is too tight. To really be great, we have to learn how to serve on a fantastical level. Above and beyond.
Like Christian Pankhurst says, "There is no traffic beyond the extra mile."
Go the extra mile, or two or three, and you just might find yourself alone without any competition.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Fortune Friday: "You will be unusually successful in business."
In business, and in life, people are constantly searching for the sure thing. The guarantee. Everyone wants the guarantee. Because the sure thing protects us from failure. Or so we'd like to believe. But in reality it anchors us to mediocrity.
The safe route, the tried and tested method, the well-worn path, all share something in common. They all lead to the same place. They generate the same boring, stale results. Over and over and over. There is an old saying that goes, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got."
Garbage in, garbage out so they say in computer programming lingo.
The real chance to shine and be exceptional is to follow the unbeaten path. To forge a new way. To watch where everyone is going, and then go the opposite direction. Because that is where opportunity lies. It lies in the land of uncertainty. It awaits in the unknown.
Change the input, change the outcome.
To achieve the kind of success you desire, you're going to have to walk a different path. Your path. Yours and yours alone. A path as unique and individual and wonderful and amazing as you are.
Don't follow the usual. Be unusual. Be you.
Because there is only one of you in the whole world.
To your good fortune!
The safe route, the tried and tested method, the well-worn path, all share something in common. They all lead to the same place. They generate the same boring, stale results. Over and over and over. There is an old saying that goes, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got."
Garbage in, garbage out so they say in computer programming lingo.
The real chance to shine and be exceptional is to follow the unbeaten path. To forge a new way. To watch where everyone is going, and then go the opposite direction. Because that is where opportunity lies. It lies in the land of uncertainty. It awaits in the unknown.
Change the input, change the outcome.
To achieve the kind of success you desire, you're going to have to walk a different path. Your path. Yours and yours alone. A path as unique and individual and wonderful and amazing as you are.
Don't follow the usual. Be unusual. Be you.
Because there is only one of you in the whole world.
To your good fortune!
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Don't Buy Time, Spend Your Life
I heard two people discussing whether the correct phrase was "biding time" or "buying time". Turns out they're both correct. Biding time is more akin to waiting patiently. Buying time is when you are actively trying to extend the outcome of something. As a race, we tend to do a lot of both. Either we are patiently waiting around hoping things—our relationships, our careers, our finances, our health—will get better, or we are doing whatever we can, sometimes frantically, to delay or postpone the inevitable. Either way we're wasting a lot of time. And usually not achieving the outcome we desire.
Most people put a lot of effort into trying to save time. We have entire industries built around time management and life hacks and efficiencies. We desperately try to accrue a big enough balance of time so that we can then spend it doing what we want. Like going to the beach or Disneyland or golfing.
The other option is to spend our time. Literally. Gretchen Rubin, the powerhouse behind The Happiness Project, lives her life by her set of Twelve Personal Commandments. Number 7 on the list is Spend Out. It means to use things up, to not hoard or stockpile things for "some day". Our time is no different.
Just like money, we can spend our time. Use it up. Put it into circulation. Exchange it. Trade it for things we want. If you want to be fit, spend your time at the gym. Spend it. If you want to learn to cook, spend your time in the kitchen. Spend it. You get the idea.
An old Hawaiian Huna saying says you can have whatever you want in life but you must pay...attention. Your focus. Your time. This is the currency of dreams. Spend it.
Waiting around for the perfect moment or trying to force the opportune situation seldom works.
Stop trying to buy your time. Stop hoarding your minutes. Spend your life.
Most people put a lot of effort into trying to save time. We have entire industries built around time management and life hacks and efficiencies. We desperately try to accrue a big enough balance of time so that we can then spend it doing what we want. Like going to the beach or Disneyland or golfing.
The other option is to spend our time. Literally. Gretchen Rubin, the powerhouse behind The Happiness Project, lives her life by her set of Twelve Personal Commandments. Number 7 on the list is Spend Out. It means to use things up, to not hoard or stockpile things for "some day". Our time is no different.
Just like money, we can spend our time. Use it up. Put it into circulation. Exchange it. Trade it for things we want. If you want to be fit, spend your time at the gym. Spend it. If you want to learn to cook, spend your time in the kitchen. Spend it. You get the idea.
An old Hawaiian Huna saying says you can have whatever you want in life but you must pay...attention. Your focus. Your time. This is the currency of dreams. Spend it.
Waiting around for the perfect moment or trying to force the opportune situation seldom works.
Stop trying to buy your time. Stop hoarding your minutes. Spend your life.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Fortune Friday: "Tomorrow your creative side will shine forth with exceptional ideas."
Everyone has good ideas. Even great ideas. Oftentimes we discount our ideas because to us they seem normal or average—that's just the way I think. But what is ordinary to you is often extraordinary to someone else.
You have great ideas inside you. I have great ideas inside me. As living beings, creation and the desire to build and make and create is innate. We're born with that drive inside us. Think back to when you were a kid. If you were anything like me, you could play for hours and hours on end, always coming up with new plans and games and ideas. The world was one giant playground, your personal laboratory of fun.
And then you grew up. Or someone told you that you needed to grow up. And to stop being a child and to be responsible.
So you got a job or a career and slowly, day by day, slipped into a comfortable, neutral glide. Not awful, but not great. That's what I did. Maybe you did too.
And then your idea muscle, as James Altucher likes to call it, began to whither and fade. After a while you just figured you didn't have any good ideas anymore.
Don't believe it. It is a lie.
You are a freaking genius. You always have been. You've just forgotten how to play.
Tomorrow, and every tomorrow after that, you have the chance to remember.
To your good fortune!
You have great ideas inside you. I have great ideas inside me. As living beings, creation and the desire to build and make and create is innate. We're born with that drive inside us. Think back to when you were a kid. If you were anything like me, you could play for hours and hours on end, always coming up with new plans and games and ideas. The world was one giant playground, your personal laboratory of fun.
And then you grew up. Or someone told you that you needed to grow up. And to stop being a child and to be responsible.
So you got a job or a career and slowly, day by day, slipped into a comfortable, neutral glide. Not awful, but not great. That's what I did. Maybe you did too.
And then your idea muscle, as James Altucher likes to call it, began to whither and fade. After a while you just figured you didn't have any good ideas anymore.
Don't believe it. It is a lie.
You are a freaking genius. You always have been. You've just forgotten how to play.
Tomorrow, and every tomorrow after that, you have the chance to remember.
To your good fortune!
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Hunter or Gatherer?
Are you a hunter or a gatherer? Is one better or worse than the other? And how does this apply to modern life? After all, we're not cavemen anymore, right? Let's start with a brief overview of each.
HUNTER
A hunter hunts. She pursues, she stalks. A hunter follows the prey—they go where the food goes. The herd is constantly on the go. And so is the hunter.
A hunter eats what he kills. He only eats when he kills. No kill, no eat.
A hunter must continually hunt. The meat spoils over time. She can't store it away.
GATHERER
A gatherer gathers. He picks, he plants. A gatherer tills the ground—they stay where the food grows. The crops takes time and care. And so does the gatherer.
A gatherer eats what she harvests. She only eats what she harvests. No harvest, no eat.
A gatherer must continually cultivate. Crops require attention. Some crops can be stored away.
***
For the better part of my life and career I have been a gatherer. In the job world, the employee is the gatherer and the employer is the crop. Usually this means living near suitable employment. This can be a good thing. Get up, go to work, go home. Every two weeks collect a paycheck. Year in, year out. Season after season. Some years are bountiful, some years there's famine.
But always at the mercy of the field. And nature. In other words, circumstance or world events or self-interested leadership or the economy. Heck, even Mother Nature herself mixes things up now and again.
But the gatherer is always at the mercy of the field. There are always elements outside of his or her control. That's nature.
And so it has been with me. I gathered. I chose to stay where I thought the food would grow. I staked my claim and planted roots. I worked the local soil as best I could with the tools that I had. Some years have been plentiful and others not so much. But always I have been tied to the ground—always at the mercy of whatever the land would yield.
But never the big kill. Never the mammoth feast.
When I was growing up, my father was a hunter. He was always willing to go where the food was. We moved a lot. I went to 3 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 2 high schools in 3 different states. This was exciting because I had many great experiences. It also left me feeling disconnected because I had no roots.
As my dad's hunting skills improved, the kills got bigger and better. Life was on an upward trajectory.
Then he got older. The constant hunting and moving got tiring. He gave up hunting and shifted into gathering. Then the economy tanked and his life unraveled. He was, and is still, at the mercy of the field.
So which is the better path? Honestly I can't say. I have been the beneficiary of both methodologies. I have been the fall guy of both systems as well. Am I advocating physically moving to follow the herd? Not necessarily. Only you can decide what is best for you. But these days with the internet, email, video conferencing, self-publishing, etc., it is possible to hunt and still plant roots.
Happy hunting.
HUNTER
A hunter hunts. She pursues, she stalks. A hunter follows the prey—they go where the food goes. The herd is constantly on the go. And so is the hunter.
A hunter eats what he kills. He only eats when he kills. No kill, no eat.
A hunter must continually hunt. The meat spoils over time. She can't store it away.
GATHERER
A gatherer gathers. He picks, he plants. A gatherer tills the ground—they stay where the food grows. The crops takes time and care. And so does the gatherer.
A gatherer eats what she harvests. She only eats what she harvests. No harvest, no eat.
A gatherer must continually cultivate. Crops require attention. Some crops can be stored away.
***
For the better part of my life and career I have been a gatherer. In the job world, the employee is the gatherer and the employer is the crop. Usually this means living near suitable employment. This can be a good thing. Get up, go to work, go home. Every two weeks collect a paycheck. Year in, year out. Season after season. Some years are bountiful, some years there's famine.
But always at the mercy of the field. And nature. In other words, circumstance or world events or self-interested leadership or the economy. Heck, even Mother Nature herself mixes things up now and again.
But the gatherer is always at the mercy of the field. There are always elements outside of his or her control. That's nature.
And so it has been with me. I gathered. I chose to stay where I thought the food would grow. I staked my claim and planted roots. I worked the local soil as best I could with the tools that I had. Some years have been plentiful and others not so much. But always I have been tied to the ground—always at the mercy of whatever the land would yield.
But never the big kill. Never the mammoth feast.
When I was growing up, my father was a hunter. He was always willing to go where the food was. We moved a lot. I went to 3 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 2 high schools in 3 different states. This was exciting because I had many great experiences. It also left me feeling disconnected because I had no roots.
As my dad's hunting skills improved, the kills got bigger and better. Life was on an upward trajectory.
Then he got older. The constant hunting and moving got tiring. He gave up hunting and shifted into gathering. Then the economy tanked and his life unraveled. He was, and is still, at the mercy of the field.
So which is the better path? Honestly I can't say. I have been the beneficiary of both methodologies. I have been the fall guy of both systems as well. Am I advocating physically moving to follow the herd? Not necessarily. Only you can decide what is best for you. But these days with the internet, email, video conferencing, self-publishing, etc., it is possible to hunt and still plant roots.
Happy hunting.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Fortune Friday: My 100th Post!
Today marks a milestone on this blog. Yes, I've written my 100th post today. Hooray for me! Instead of a regular fortune interpretation today, I am going to do a little celebratory reflection.
A year ago I decided to start this blog. I had wanted to write a blog for years but I never felt strongly enough about any given topic. I wanted to be able to dive deep and write about something really important and meaningful to me and, hopefully, others too.
But I knew I didn't want to do another design blog or art blog. Honestly, I didn't think I could add anything profound that hasn't already been said, done, or shown before. I also knew I didn't want to do a personal blog. Don't get me wrong, I love personal blogs. I love my wife's blog. It is great to go back and review our lives on pictures.
But that just isn't my thing. So what is?
Personal development. Coaching. Self-improvement. Transformation. A new way of being and seeing and becoming the kind of man, husband, father, brother, and artist that I want to become. This is important to me. Important enough that I started this blog.
And kept it to myself. Just for me.
Actually that's not entirely true. I did share it with a few people along the way. But not a lot. I got a couple comments here and there but not much more. And I was okay with that. I wasn't looking to become some mega-blogger with millions of followers.
When I started out, this blog was intended for me and me alone. It was a way for me to catalog my thoughts, develop my writing style, and challenge my inner critic. Too many times in the past I had set goals and not followed through. I made promises to myself. I broke promises to myself. I beat myself up about it. A lot.
So I set a new goal and vowed to keep it: Two posts per week for one year.
That's it. What I wrote was irrelevant. Didn't matter if it was long, short, good, bad. I just had to write. Two posts a week. Every Tuesday and Friday. Rain or shine, come hell or high water.
And I did it.
And damn does it feel good.
I also learned some shocking news today. Believe it or not, I never, and I mean NEVER, looked at my blog stats until today. Seriously never. Not once. Remember, I was writing solely for me, not the public at large. And honestly, I didn't think half the stuff I wrote was worth reading anyway. See what I mean about my inner critic?
I was amazed at the stats. As of today, I have had 3,100 page views on this blog. And last month alone there were almost 350 views. That is amazing. I am stunned. I've had visitors from all around the world too. From Germany, China, India, Ukraine, and more. Sure, probably a decent number of those are from random Google searches or surfers who fell down the rabbit hole.
But who cares! Seriously, for all of you out there who have read any of my blog and got (hopefully) any kind of value from my words, I just want to say:
Thank you. T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It means more to me than you know. Cheers and God bless. Here's to the next 100.
To your good fortune!
A year ago I decided to start this blog. I had wanted to write a blog for years but I never felt strongly enough about any given topic. I wanted to be able to dive deep and write about something really important and meaningful to me and, hopefully, others too.
But I knew I didn't want to do another design blog or art blog. Honestly, I didn't think I could add anything profound that hasn't already been said, done, or shown before. I also knew I didn't want to do a personal blog. Don't get me wrong, I love personal blogs. I love my wife's blog. It is great to go back and review our lives on pictures.
But that just isn't my thing. So what is?
Personal development. Coaching. Self-improvement. Transformation. A new way of being and seeing and becoming the kind of man, husband, father, brother, and artist that I want to become. This is important to me. Important enough that I started this blog.
And kept it to myself. Just for me.
Actually that's not entirely true. I did share it with a few people along the way. But not a lot. I got a couple comments here and there but not much more. And I was okay with that. I wasn't looking to become some mega-blogger with millions of followers.
When I started out, this blog was intended for me and me alone. It was a way for me to catalog my thoughts, develop my writing style, and challenge my inner critic. Too many times in the past I had set goals and not followed through. I made promises to myself. I broke promises to myself. I beat myself up about it. A lot.
So I set a new goal and vowed to keep it: Two posts per week for one year.
That's it. What I wrote was irrelevant. Didn't matter if it was long, short, good, bad. I just had to write. Two posts a week. Every Tuesday and Friday. Rain or shine, come hell or high water.
And I did it.
And damn does it feel good.
I also learned some shocking news today. Believe it or not, I never, and I mean NEVER, looked at my blog stats until today. Seriously never. Not once. Remember, I was writing solely for me, not the public at large. And honestly, I didn't think half the stuff I wrote was worth reading anyway. See what I mean about my inner critic?
I was amazed at the stats. As of today, I have had 3,100 page views on this blog. And last month alone there were almost 350 views. That is amazing. I am stunned. I've had visitors from all around the world too. From Germany, China, India, Ukraine, and more. Sure, probably a decent number of those are from random Google searches or surfers who fell down the rabbit hole.
But who cares! Seriously, for all of you out there who have read any of my blog and got (hopefully) any kind of value from my words, I just want to say:
Thank you. T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It means more to me than you know. Cheers and God bless. Here's to the next 100.
To your good fortune!
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Success Through Epic Failure
Epic failure, or harnessing the power of The Epic Fail, as my friend Marc terms it, might just be your surest and quickest path to success. So what exactly is The Epic Fail? In a nutshell it is failing at failure.
Say what?
You see, years ago my friend Marc had a goal of being accepted into some prestigious, juried photography competitions. At that point he didn't want to win. He just wanted to get in. That's all. Just getting accepted was enough at that stage in his career.
He entered several competitions. He was rejected. And then he entered some more. He was rejected again. And some more. Rejected once again.
At this point he started to get frustrated. Really frustrated. "Why am I failing so miserably when I am trying my best to succeed?" he thought. Then in the darkness he had a revelation: The Epic Fail.
"Maybe I'm not failing enough."
"What if I chose to fail huge and completely and at an absurd frequency?"
"Odds are eventually I will fail at failing!"
"And then I'll succeed."
So that is what he did. He started entering as many contests and competitions as he could find and could afford. He entered dozens and dozens of times. And he was rejected dozens and dozens of times.
He failed on an epic level. So much so it was borderline ridiculous. And then one day a miracle. He was accepted. He got in. He succeeded.
Author-speaker-sales trainer Steve Chandler says, "Yes lives in the land of No." From a sales standpoint, it means collect as many No's as you can, as quickly as you can. Each No is one step closer to a Yes.
Not succeeding? Maybe you need to fail more often. Maybe you need an Epic Fail.
Say what?
You see, years ago my friend Marc had a goal of being accepted into some prestigious, juried photography competitions. At that point he didn't want to win. He just wanted to get in. That's all. Just getting accepted was enough at that stage in his career.
He entered several competitions. He was rejected. And then he entered some more. He was rejected again. And some more. Rejected once again.
At this point he started to get frustrated. Really frustrated. "Why am I failing so miserably when I am trying my best to succeed?" he thought. Then in the darkness he had a revelation: The Epic Fail.
"Maybe I'm not failing enough."
"What if I chose to fail huge and completely and at an absurd frequency?"
"Odds are eventually I will fail at failing!"
"And then I'll succeed."
So that is what he did. He started entering as many contests and competitions as he could find and could afford. He entered dozens and dozens of times. And he was rejected dozens and dozens of times.
He failed on an epic level. So much so it was borderline ridiculous. And then one day a miracle. He was accepted. He got in. He succeeded.
Author-speaker-sales trainer Steve Chandler says, "Yes lives in the land of No." From a sales standpoint, it means collect as many No's as you can, as quickly as you can. Each No is one step closer to a Yes.
Not succeeding? Maybe you need to fail more often. Maybe you need an Epic Fail.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Fortune Friday: "Happiness is a direction, not a destination."
We've all heard the phrase 'Life is a journey, not a destination.' And what is the primary life goal of every person but to be happy? In fact, if you ask most people what they truly want out of life the answer usually involves some variation on happiness, peace, or contentment. Essentially all the same thing.
Everyone wants to feel good. And not just physical pleasure, although sometimes that is nice too. No, most people want deep, satisfying fulfillment—true happiness.
The problem is that we typically go about trying to find that happiness in material possessions, relationships, status, professional achievements, etc. Basically all the things we know deep down don't bring real happiness but that we desperately wish they did because outward symbols are more easily measurable.
But real happiness comes from inside. It is an inner knowing. It is a direction like the needle of a compass. It is something we move towards—or away from.
Which direction are you headed?
To your good fortune!
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