Belief Equals Possibility

Book: Crucial Conversations

By Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, Switzler

There are many great concepts and practical tools you can use to improve the company you work for along with your personal relationships that are talked about in the book called Crucial Conversations. I highly recommend this book because it has been so useful to me and I know it will be helpful to you too.

As a nicety, the book is easy to read and very interesting. So you’ll enjoy every moment, at least I did. This is a book that you’ll want to study and reread in order to get more value out of it. I made some notes pertaining to the most important points taught in the book (see below).

However, I still recommend [continue reading…]

My latest book recommendation is from VitalSmarts authors Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler called Crucial Conversations.  I just completed my second time reading it and a few overall comments dawned on me during my first time through and are as follows:

• The most thought-provoking and awakening book
• The most valuable and useful information I’ve probably ever read in creating positive relationships and communicating effectively with others
• I equate this book to part 2 of “How to win friends and influence people,” a book by Dale Carnegie of which I suspect most of you have read, probably more than once

I am so glad to have run across this book. It’s taught me [continue reading…]

We all live in the miracle of life, and we all have the choice to make decisions that will determine the life we will live. The most amazing part of life is that we have the opportunity to do, have, and become anything we choose. It’s true.

It was interesting and didn’t dawn on me until later, that while attending my child’s high school assembly a lesson was at hand. A volunteer was sought from each class, freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior to participate in a competition of the minds by answering questions. Out of hundreds of students, the program leader had to ask several times for a volunteer in order to get the four she needed. Here was an opportunity to live life by participating, and it took several minutes to find these brave folks who stepped forward and make themselves known.

Why is this? [continue reading…]

I just finished reading a great book that I recommend everyone gets. Here is a story when David had an opportunity to talk to Magic Johnson that I’d like to share with you to show you how great a book it is …

One of the first things I wanted to know (when talking to Magic Johnson) was what it was like for him growing up. I mean, he was one of the best athletes in the entire NBA. I could only imagine what it was like when he was playing in high school.

Well,” he said, “when I first started playing as a kid, we’d win by these huge margins, like 80 to 20. And I’d score like 65 of those points. The problem was, even though we were winning, no one was happy. The other kids weren’t happy, their parents weren’t happy, and as a result, I wasn’t happy either.

“All of the sudden, I realized that the best way to  [continue reading…]

It seemed very strange to me to declare I was an inventor the first time I did it, but that was the truth. Now it’s a part of me as I speak it comfortably. That’s because I’ve been living it for a while now.

If you’re like me, I’m sure you’ve probably thought about things that would solve problems or something that was needed that maybe you weren’t aware existed or not. I’ve done that and even gone a step further to come up with a solution to the problem.

Then the really difficult part comes [continue reading…]

I heard it said that we experience a crisis in our lives about once every 3 to 4 months. Well, I did recently and let me tell you it can get you down. We all know that life has its ups and downs. Just when I thought my down cycle was over, another down situation occurred. At this point, you hope all your down situations are over. Somehow I was able to put myself in a state of being very thankful for my blessings, and you can too. It’s not easy to do, but doing so can become a habit if practiced often enough.

I heard that it’s not being down that makes you a winner or loser, a success or a failure. It’s how fast you bounce back and I can’t think of a better way to do just that than to be grateful for what you have. My gratefulness began a few days before my job payday. I realized I could and would pay my monthly mortgage payment soon.

Now you may not think of this as anything significant or super exceptional and maybe it’s not, but try being on the other side where you can’t make that payment because I have been there too. Fortunately, not very often and not lately and even though it’s been years since that occurred, I still remember what it was like. I know there are people out there who are experiencing just that kind of down turn in their lives because you can always find someone in nearly every kind of situation.

In reality, being able to make your mortgage payment is a blessing and something big to be thankful for. The alternative is not making your payment and that would cause more problems and difficulties in your life than most other problems. This is because we have to satisfy our basic needs first, of which shelter is one of them. Once our basic needs are satisfied, we can help others or work at higher levels within our life.

Keep in mind when you [continue reading…]

I love to read, so I’m always reading something. These days, I read multiple books at once, which wasn’t always the case. I used to struggle to read anything and so I didn’t. Then I got the message that for my life to change, I would have to read the kind of books that would help me change myself for the better. At that point, I would have bungee jumped, of which I’m extremely scared to do, off a cliff to improve my life. I was looking for something that would put my life on the right track, and found it to be reading. That was 23 years ago.

Yesterday, I picked up what I consider to have been the [continue reading…]

I used to concern myself with making a lot of money and doing it quickly. Now I concern myself with enjoying the journey, and that’s really not a concern at all, but instead more of a philosophy. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that some things take time, and I mean a lot of time. But the reality is that the concept of “time,” whether it be long or short is “relative.” In other words, wealth building and financial success like anything, has to be compared to something else in order to determine whether the duration of achieving it is truly long or short.

Take for example, Napoleon Hill studied smart minds of his time for 20 years before he penned his famous book “Think and Grow Rich.” Now some might feel that’s a long time and I say okay, so what if he had done it in five years? I guess we might say that the book was written in a very short amount of time, at least in comparison to the real amount of time it took for him to complete it.

But let’s make this a little more personal. What if it took you five years to accomplish a significant goal in your life? Would it be worth it? I’d say yes. In fact, I’ve accepted that if it took every day of my life to obtain a wonderful goal, whether it be making a lot of money or not, again keeping in mind the concept of relative, I’d gladly do it. Achieving a goal isn’t what is most significant; achieving a goal is a result of what you do, but what you do or the journey, is what is important and brings you happiness. So, if it took a lifetime, it would still be SUPER. And so far I’m right on track!

If we shift the discussion a little, we can focus on the fact that “Making a lot of Money” isn’t really a goal anyway, nor does it have much meaning, when used as a goal. Why? Because there are two elements in a goal. First, there must be a specific measurable objective. Secondly, a goal has a timeline specified to acquiring it even though we don’t really know what that might be, we set it with the expectation of achieving it in that time period. If the goal is missed, then we reset the completion date as long as the goal is something we are still passionate about. But “Making a lot of Money” does sound good :^)

Now that I’ve released myself from the need to make a lot of money in short order, I can begin to focus on what’s really important and that’s helping and serving others. Once we do that “we will meet with success unexpected in common hours,” as Henry David Thoreau said. That’s all we have to know and believe in, serving others. When we do, the world becomes our oyster.

Until next time,

Kevin

Believe Yourself To Success Because Belief Equals Possibility

Learning Things School Never Taught Us On How To Live A Better Life

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When I think about how giving is truly receiving, a few concepts come to mind. The first is the idea I’ve had for a very long time that takes the posture of if you give, you will receive. That idea can be taken even further by considering that if you give, you will receive 10 times more than what you gave, but usually from some other source than that of which you gave to. Now, is this philosophy great or what? Yes it is!

The concept discussed above can be related to the second more recently discovered philosophy pertaining to how we feel about giving or when we give. That seems to be one of the biggest reasons people give, which is to experience the feeling you get when you give to others. Perhaps some people feel even better, when they give to those who are less fortunate than themselves. But I never thought about the importance and driving force that [continue reading…]