Archive for August, 2008
In these uncertain times, people love to work with people they know and trust. Companies are made up of people and those people use people they know.
So whatever your focus, whether it’s work, home, or hobbies, take a moment and list all the people you know in your area of focus. We did this the other day…we made a list of all the people we know who can influence decisions. We came up with lots of people, and as a result we are putting together some projects which will be fun, interesting and profitable.
The best thing of all is that it’s great to work with people you know, like and trust. It’s a win-win situation all around. Then the next step is widening your scope. Ask the people you now, who they know… invite them for dinner, or to a meeting and ask them to bring along their friends.
For example, we are having some people over for dinner who are very influential in a certain area…what can be better than discussing a subject over dinner? There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. So go for it today…think of your focus, your goal, your vision. Who do you know that can be helpful to you getting where you want to go? Invite them to lunch or for a cup of coffee. In a neutral environment you can ‘pick their brains’ get support, get information, get help. Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 28th, 2008
Just look anywhere around you and your eyes will come to rest on something that somebody created. A cup, a candle, a light buib, a piece of food, a building, a wall, a door, a bed…. Whatever it is someone thought of a need and created a solution just so that you and I could enjoy it. So you don’t have to go to the stream and cup your hands to have a drink. I know, you maybe thinking that’s an extreme example…but our ancestors had to do just that….and some people in some parts of the world are still doing that. They don’t even have the luxery of clean water–never mind clean hot water coming out of a hole in the wall. We call it a shower! Other people will call it a miracle.
It’s as if we live in paradise but don’t see it. Like the trees, the plants, the smiles of strangers–we get so caught up in our funky moods and taking things personally that we put blinkers on our eyes and see just the nasty things of life.
I’m not saying this is you of course, you may have woken up today feeling great and always feel great every morning, but for those of us who have to give ourselves a motivating pep talk sometimes….this is for you.
Think of one thing that you are grateful for. Think of one friend that you are thankful to have in your life. Think of one thing that you own that you really love. Think of one accomplishment in your life that you are really proud of.
Getting out of the funk is about taking small steps. One small step at a time–one good thought followed by another and you will soon have reached a balance. Another good thought and you will be tipped over the edge into having a positive sense of well-being.
So just for today, make the choice to be an amazing human being. Find solutions, create positive things for yourself and others. Be a leader, someone who embraces change and the ideas of others. Be the one who says, “yes!” to life. Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 26th, 2008
Have you noticed how easy it is to be wonderful with the people you meet at church, temple or mosque? You want to be great with those people with whom you share the same beliefs–because usually those beliefs are about being kind, gentle and loving, abd you want to be seen as a kind, loving and gentle person. And then the people you come into contact with every day–it’s not always so easy to be great. The ones that you wash the dishes with, or make the bed with, or share a project with….those people are not always so easy to rub along with.
And yet, those are the very ones we should be great with. Because those people are actually in our lives on a more regular basis. I guess it’s the old saying, ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’ We often do better with strangers than with our own family, friends and co-workers. So here’s what to do if you want to change things around and be great with everyone.
1. Write an email to someone who is close to you and tell them how great they are.
2. Go to someone that you work with and tell them how much you appreciate what they do.
3. Do something thoughtful for someone–like get your co-worker a cup of coffee or a glass of water (assuming thats their beverage of choice) and just pop it on their desk.
4. Plan a surprise meal for someone special.
5. Start a gratitude journal and write down all the things you are grateful for.
Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 25th, 2008
I’ve been watching the Olympics and it’s amazing how small the difference is between a winner and a loser. It’s so small it’s incredible. Fractions of a second and someone gets a gold while someone else goes home with nothing. A splash and a diver loses points and doesn’t go through to the finals. Imagine that! They have trained for thousands of hours, days, weeks, and years–they have visualized themselves winning at the Olympics and then they don’t win! What do they do?
How does a loser still feel like a winner? Well there’s lots of suggestions written in magazines and books that talk about loving yourself from within, and taking action, and having good thoughts. I’ve written books myself–in the Winners Attitude, I talk about replacing bad thoughts with good ones. But how do you do that when you’ve just lost a dream of winning GOLD? Or you’ve just had an argument with your boss or co-worker?
I saw a few Olympians do it–and what they did was smile. They accepted the loss and smiled and it really touched my heart. It was as if they were saying, ‘Okay, I didn’t win gold and I did my very best and I still think I’m amazing.’ And I kinda got it that those people will go on to lead amazing lives. They will influence others to be brilliant athletes and they will teach them that losing isn’t everything, just like winning isn’t everything.
I am certain there will be some people who have won a gold medal at the Olympics who will not be feeling great for some reason. And there will will be others who did not win a gold medal and will be feeling great. So it’s up to you and I my friend. Pick one thing today that you are really great at. I was told once when I was a little kid that I had a great smile. I know it’s a winning smile. So that’s what I do a lot. I smile at people.
What is your winning feature? What is your winning action? What is it that you do that when you do it, you always feel like a winner? Do that thing today. Feel grateful that you have a computer and the skill to read this blog. Many don’t have the opportunity–so already you are a winner! Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 22nd, 2008
Today we had a meeting about setting our vision statement. It was great. We brainstormed, created a vision, set goals and decided our outcome.
The future is determined by our actions right now. it doesn’t really matter what happened in the past, it’s what you decide to do today that will make the difference.
In our meeting we made a list of pros and cons. What we were good at, and what we were not so good at. Fortunately, the pros list was much longer than the cons. Then we made a list of our individual strengths and saw what we needed to add to the list to make us really strong both in ourselves and in our business.
Then we developed a list of board of directors. People we want on our board, people with experience, knowledge and expertise.
Then we set our vision. What direction do we want our company to go in.
There are many ways of making a vision statement. What I love about our way, was that we built on our strengths and we saw where we needed to bolster up our weaknesses.
So today, set your own vision statement. What are your strengths? What do you need to build on? Where do you want to go? And then….this is a big one. Because someone in our group said, “we need to work harder.” Then someone else said, “We need to work smarter.” And I said, “We need to work at what we love to do.” Of course, we can all work harder and smarter. But the most important thing is to love what you do.
So today, decide what it is that you are good at. What you love to do and then set your goals towards those ends. Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 21st, 2008
I was invited to a friends house last night for dinner, and it reminded me that friendship is a big part of life. I hadn’t had the greatest day yesterday and so I was moaning a bit, when Tina said with a laugh, ’get over it girlfriend.’ How great is that?
We can give training on feedback and listening, and saying the right thing, but a friend can cut right to the chase and say what’s on everyone’s mind. Get over yourself!
Of course it’s done with humor because friends know that we are all the same, we all get on the moaning trip, and it’s fine for a couple of minutes, but who wants to spend an evening listening to someone’s sob story? No one does, right?
We have this one life, and when we’re with friends I for one, want to laugh and have a great time.
So last night, we did just that. And we remembered good times, and old friends and told each other what we loved about each other, and it was wonderful. One girl had brought a pot of white flowers for each of us — we were four in total — and she said, “White flowers means prayers answered.” So we all said which prayers we wanted answered.
I want to see my books in the bookstore at the airport, and also to have one made into a movie. I think that would be so much fun, to walk into the store and see people buying my books, and then to sit in the movie theater and see it on the wide screen. So think about what prayers you want answered today. I’m envisioning sending you a bunch of white flowers–prayers answered! Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 20th, 2008
Jeff has just gone to a couple of appointments and I realized at 1.30 pm that I had not written the blog today. I’ve been feeling a bit down, which is hilarious since I write books about how not to feel down. Then I realized that I am human, I’m allowed to feel down every so often. I guess it’s just a case of how often and how long.
I also realized that I really affect the people around me when I’m down. It’s just like that bad apple in the barrel….every apple gets touched and if it isn’t removed, it will get to become bad too.
So what’s the answer? To get out of it. How? Whatever way works for you. I actually just received this email from friend–it’s about how to feel good. So I’m going to pass it along. Here it is:
Confront…Command…Clear…
To clear negative thinking and feeling do the following:
1. Sigh and look up…open your heart chakra and expand 40 feet out and 4 feet up…(keep on going all the way up and out into the universe…
2. Confront your ego with the truth…what ever it’s making you feel, the opposite is true.
3. Command your ego to do the following: I choose happiness, clarity, ease of being and divine wisdom now! Ego expand me now!
4. Clear your thoughts and feelings by doing the following: Imagine your soul radiant like the sun in your being. Go to the heart of your soul and align it to your heart chakra and directly to your physical heart. (Feel the immediate expansion and well being.) Feel your negative emotions in your solar plexus. Breathe them up into your heart centers to be cleared and dissipated. Repeat this several times until all is clear.
Rock N Roll Jeff & Val
August 19th, 2008
Went to Imax last night and saw the 10:00 pm show of The Dark Knight. Jeff didn’t come, I went with my daughter Sarah. Living in Chicago as we do, it was amazing to see all the city shots. Batman flying in and out of buildings that are so familiar. Then the Joker! What a character. He loves chaos and hates rules. And I got to thinking, ‘I wonder if it will make people think differently about chaos and why we follow so many rules?
So I got up this morning and thought about the rules in my life. Writing this blog for example, it’s a rule I’ve given myself–a task–to write a blog every morning. Then there’s the rule of having breakfast. I understand that if I skip breakfast, it will create a slower metabolism for my body. And so the day continues, following rule after rule. Some rules I make up for myself, others are societies rules, like crossing when the white person flashes, and then work rules….like do your work and get paid.
So the chaos theory, which basically states that nothing is random and everything is determined by the initial condition–also follows a set of rules. It seems we can’t get away from some form of rule. And today I want to follow the rule of being happy no matter what. Filling myself with joy no matter what. Finding the good in things no matter what. The no matter what are the kinds of things that happen seemingly out of the blue, but in reality have happened because of some iniitial condition that we set in force.
I’m trying to look at life as if everything that happens is a result of something that I am doing. And everything begins with an attitude and a decision of how I want to be. The joker has an attitude of just wanting to create mayhem, destruction and chaos. Batman wants to be the hero, but in real life, that’s impossible….to be perfect I mean.
So today, just for today I am going to accept myself, love myself and be happy. I am going to remember that if I want to accept others, I have to accept myself first. If I want respect I have to give respect and that comes from within me. And I have a job to do. Taking action, doing things is great. It’s the best thing. Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 15th, 2008
Our 17-year old nephew Kristian, returns to the UK today. It’s been a blast having him around. It’s great to see how other people do things. So we were walking around downtown Chicago yesterday and he’s taking pictures of everything and having to have a Quiznos sandwich, because there’s only one franchise in Newcastle Upon Tyne where he’s from, and he says to me, “You should turn off your computers in the office when you’re not using them.”
Of course I had to defend myself. Tell him that I need the one in my office kept on because I connect with it from home etc., etc. And he said, “but you don’t need everything turned on.” Then he got all UK’ish on me. Which is okay because I’m originally from England.
“At home in England,” he said, “we’re really good at conserving energy. We put the lights on only when it begins to get dark. We turn everything off when we don’t use it…” Then he turned to me and said, “In America you don’t have switches on your outlets do you?”
“No,” I said, “We just plug the thing into the socket.” In the UK the actual outlets have switches on them so you don’t have to unplug it, you just switch it off.
Then he started getting personal, “Our recycling bins are bigger too.”
“Oh no! I said, “They can’t be as big as the ones we have in Chicago. The big blue ones, they’re massive!” Which they are. In fact they’re creating all kinds of parking problems in our alley….but what a great problem to have–am I right, or am I right?
I think it’s wonderful. To have a conversation with a 17-year old lad from England about recycling and energy conservation. It’s better than eating chocolate.Well almost. So his last bit of advice to me was, “Find out which computers and equipment you can turn off in the office. Then turn it off when you leave.”
So that’s what I’m going to do folks. I don’t want America to lag behind in the energy conservation stakes. All the very best for a great day today. Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 14th, 2008
I’ve just been watching the Olympics and it’s amazing to see all these athletes competing. For some of them, it will be their last chance for a medal, and others like Mark Phelps are going for an all-time record of 8 gold medals, but what really caught my eye was the womens gymnast team.
One of the team members fell during a routine and it messed up the chances for the whole team to win a gold. And as she was being interviewed I could see that she was holding back the tears, and she was being really brave. Then later, when the whole team was being interviewed on of her team mates said, ‘we’re a team, we stand together, we all make mistakes.’
And this echoed a conversation I had earlier in the day with a friend. Those of us with children, are so willing to forgive them, to accept them, and to love them no matter what they do. Why can’t we do that with the rest of the world? We’re all on this planet together. If I throw garbage in the street, someone else has to pick it up, and if I put my garbage in the trash can, someone else has to deal with it. I should be walking around being grateful in every moment. I should feel appreciative every day–people, strangers are cleaning up the streets, making the parks look pretty, keeping the roads safe, designing new buildings, creating a better world.
And yet, a lot of the time we moan, and groan about what we don’t have and then feel bad. These Olympians are amazing role models. They mess up, they get on with it. They fall, and hurt themselves, they put on a bandage and get on with it. If a team member screws up, they forgive and keep on training.
So just for today, let’s act like an Olympian. Have courage. Be brave. Forgive people. Love people. Feel grateful. Act like a winner. Be a warrior. And if you fall down, get up, shake yourself down and start all over again. Rock N Roll Val & Jeff
August 13th, 2008
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