I awoke this morning to a gentle but steady falling snow here in Franklin, TN. While Joanne and I enjoyed our tea and muffins we listened as the local news reported over 60 accidents in our local area overnight. Then I slipped out the door for my morning commute. I never saw a traffic light, snarled traffic or frustrated drivers. Rather, I saw two squirrels playing in the snow, watched the tree limbs swaying with the crisp white accents, and turned to see my own footprints in the otherwise perfectly unmarred landscape as I walked the short trail to my office. It’s not for everyone but it’s the life I dreamed of several years ago.
Valentine’s Day is this Sunday – a time to be romantic and express love to those around us. Here’s a free eBook titled LoveEveryday – thoughts on loving amidst the chaos of life. 48Days.net members Stu Gray, Dustin Reichmann and others selected a group of relationship bloggers to write about what love looks like in the day-to-day world. It’s 31 pages of beautiful graphics and poignant messages about keeping love alive. I was honored to add one simple story. LoveEveryday
*********************** “I felt as though I was about to fill a space in the world that was meant for me and had long awaited me, a mold, as it were, made for me alone, but discerned by me only this very moment.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
When you get to heaven God is not going to ask you why you weren't more like Mother Teresa, Billy Graham or Bono. He’s likely to ask you why you weren't more like you. Your responsibility and source of real freedom and success is to discover who you are. Lead with your own unique talents and personality. Be authentically you and let God use you.
Remember the classic movie, Forrest Gump. At one part, Jenny asks, “What are you gonna be when you grow up?” and Forrest says, “Why can’t I be me?”
Theologian Frederick Buechner once told a graduating class: “The voice we should listen to most as we choose a vocation is the voice that we might think we should listen to least, and that is the voice of our own gladness. What can we do that makes us the gladdest, what can we do that leaves us with the strongest sense of sailing true north…? Is it making things with our hands out of wood or stone or paint or canvas?” Or is it making something we hope like truth out of words” Or is it making people laugh or weep in a way that cleanses their spirit? I believe that if it is a thing that makes us truly glad, then it is a good thing and it is our thing and it is the calling voice that we were made to answer with our lives.”
Can you trust what makes you “glad?” Could that really be the voice of your “calling?”
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"A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him…. The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him…." – Thomas Merton
This is a popular story that you may have seen before. Even if you have, it’s a great reminder that just doing little common sense things can make us stand out in a crowd. When times are tough we need to take advantage of the many ways we can prosper and thrive – and bring more joy to ourselves and the people we meet.
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Ducks Quack - Eagles Soar
No one can make you serve customers well....that's because great service is a choice. Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.
He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey.
He handed Harvey a laminated card and said: 'I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'
Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said: Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment....
This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!
As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.' Harvey said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.' Wally smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice.' Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet Coke.'
Handing him his drink, Wally said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today..'
As they were pulling away, Wally handed Harvey another laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio.'
And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts...
'Tell me, Wally,' Mr McKay asked the driver, 'have you always served customers like this?'
Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. 'No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.
He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.'
'That hit me right between the eyes,' said Wally. 'Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers.. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'
'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.
'It sure has,' Wally replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'
Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. Harvey says he's probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever he goes to their cities, he gives them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told him all the reasons they couldn't do any of what he was suggesting.
Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.
Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar
Have a nice day, unless you already have other plans.
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The old adage remains true: If you want different results, you must change what you're doing! And making small changes just may release major success for you – perhaps without even changing your job or career.
Rarely do I recommend a video – but here’s my exception. This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. I was blown away –it’s less than two minutes and worth the investment of time.
And here’s an advance tip on what you’re going to see. A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. Words that qualify would include civic, radar, level, rotator, rotor, kayak, reviver, and racecar. Another form is a phrase or sentence like "Was it a rat I saw?" or "Step on no pets."
This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite. This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward.
Coaching with Dan
Many of you ask if I still coach people individually. Yes, I do. Feel like you've taken too much time to get to the success you want? Is fear holding you back? These are common issues with the hundreds of people that contact us each month looking for a new start. Give us some brief information and I'll recommend one of my coaching packages or recommend one of the other coaches in our 48 Days network to launch you into the next successful season of your life: Coaching with Dan
*********************** Dan’s Wednesday Morning Eagles group
I frequently mention the power of my Wednesday morning guys group. And many of you have asked for our guidelines. It’s not very complicated, but here it is Eagles Club Purpose Statement. If you’re interested I would encourage you to start your own. Join with one close friend and both of you invite 4 or 5 others – and you’re ready to go.
*********************** 48 Days Affiliate Program
If you have a website or an email list that reaches a lot of people, you may be interested in being a 48 Days Affiliate. The banners we provide can be put on your website and everyone who clicks through to our site and makes a purchase, will be tagged with your name. At the end of the month, we’ll cut a check to you! Check out the details here: 48 Days Affiliate
*********************** 48 Days Job Coach
This is our brand new software product that will coach you through the proven 48 Days Job Search process. You will receive a unique access code that allows you to build your resume, target prospective employers and practice your interviewing skills. And you can choose to include two sessions with one of our endorsed 48 Days Job Coach coaches. If you’re feeling stuck, this is an affordable solution to get you moving and into the work you love. 48 Days Job Coach
*********************** 48Days.net
At 48Days.net you’ll see over 4700 other excited people who have ideas – and plans to make 2010 their best year ever. If you want your life to be different in 2010, get involved with people who are on the same path. There is no cost – just lots of people who are committed to helping each other succeed.
************************ Are you using your best skills?
Don't put your time in an area that doesn't even "fit" you.
The most popular resource we have continues to be the 48 Days Career Profile. With your unique strengths, what kind of work should you be doing? You can find out here.
"Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.” -- Kahil Gibran, from “The Prophet”
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.” -- James Michener
”If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say: Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Therefore I advise no one to enter any religious order or the priesthood, indeed, I advise everyone against it ---- unless he is forearmed with this knowledge and understands that the works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they may be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone……” Martin Luther, upon noting the practical effect of the elevation of those doing “spiritual work” was that it puffs them up; “it greatly tends to hypocrisy, by reason of its outward show and unusual characters, which engenders conceit and a contempt of the common Christian life.”
“Work should, in fact, be thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of the work itself; and that man, made in God’s image, should make things, as God made them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing….. Work is the natural exercise and function of man --- the creature who is made in the image of his Creator.” -- Dorothy Sayers, in “Why Work.”
“God has always led me of himself – The first idea I can recollect when I was a child was a desire to nurse the sick. My day dreams were all of hospitals and I visited them whenever I could. I never communicated it to any one, it would have been laughed at; but I thought God had called me to serve Him in that way.” -- Florence Nightingale
Don't put your time in an area that doesn't even "fit" you.
