OPTIMISM

Here is a great example of optimism from Thomas Edison who was 67 at the time a fire broke out in the film room of his laboratory. As his assets were all going up in flames he shouted to his son, go get your mom and tell all of your friends, they’ll never see a fire like this again. When asked about it he said “You can always make capital out of disaster. We’ve just cleared out a bunch of old rubbish; we’ll build bigger and better on the ruins.”
Thomas Edison could not control the circumstances. Rather than being heartbroken to see his life’s work go up in flames, he chose to welcome the opportunity to start over. Edison, known for his overwhelming optimism, is an inspiration for us today.

What about you, where is your optimism? If you lost money in the stock market or in real estate do you see it as disaster or opportunity?

Our lives are about choices and now is time to make the choice of where are you going from here.

Thomas Edison will not only be remembered for his great inventions but also for his philosophy of life. He was the quintessential optimist, again I ask what about you?

LIFE CHOICES

“If you are going to reach your goals and create the life you desire, you will have to make new choices that will lead you to new actions. And, in order to make these new choices, there are ten simple questions…. that will give you the power and inspiration to consciously create a life you feel good about, one choice at a time. They will help you to become aware of the important choices and their consequences. They will guide you and support you in making the right choices. And there you will find the most direct route to your dreams.

The answers to these questions will immediately clarify your thinking and support you in making the choices that are in your highest and best interest. They are deceptively simple but incredibly powerful and can be used in any situation or at any crossroads.”

• Will this choice propel me toward an inspiring future or will it keep me stuck in the past?
• Will this choice bring me long-term fulfillment or will it bring me short-term gratification?
• Am I standing in my power or am I trying to please another?
• Am I looking for what’s right or am I looking for what’s wrong?
• Will this choice add to my life force or will it rob me of my energy?
• Will I use this situation as a catalyst to grow and evolve or will I use it to beat myself up?
• Does this choice empower me or does it dis-empower me?
• Is this an act of self-love or is it an act of self-sabotage?
• Is this an act of faith or is it an act of fear?

As Tony Robbins once said, “Quality questions create a quality life.” And to make quality decisions, we need to see clearly. Asking these questions provides us opportunities to clarify the results that we may expect from our actions. You immediately see whether the choice that you are about to make is an expression of your light or your darkness…does it come from your vision and dreams or from your fears and doubts. Please use these questions throughout Sam Camp to empower yourself to continue moving forward toward your goals.

FRIENDS

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING THROUGH THE DESERT.
DURING SOME POINT OF THE JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN
ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE
IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT
SAYING ANYTHING, WROTE IN THE SAND:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

THEY KEPT ON WALKING, UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS,
WHERE THEY DECIDED TO TAKE A BATH
THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE MIRE ! AND STARTED DROWNING,
BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM. AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM THE NEAR DROWNING, HE WROTE ON A STONE:
'TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE '
THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND ASKED HIM, 'AFTER I HURT YOU,
YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW, YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?'

THE FRIEND REPLIED 'WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US
WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN IN SAND, WHERE WINDS OF FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY.

BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR US,
WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE WHERE NO WIND
CAN EVER ERASE IT.'

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO
CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

THEY SAY IT TAKES A MINUTE TO FIND A SPECIAL
PERSON, AN HOUR TO APPRECIATE THEM, A DAY
TO LOVE THEM, BUT THEN AN ENTIRE LIFE
TO FORGET THEM.

DO NOT VALUE THE THINGS YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE, BUT VALUE WHO YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE !

'Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.'

Author Unknown

Time - How Do You Manage It?

Thanks to one of our leaders Michelle Daugherty for sharing with me.

If you had a bank account that credited your account each day with $86,400.00, that carried over no balance from day to day, allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out EVERY cent, of course!

Well you have such a bank and its name is “Time”. Every morning your account is credited with 86,400 seconds and every night it rules off, as lost, whatever of this amount you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances. It allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the record of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits the loss is YOURS! There is not going back. There is no drawing against “tomorrow”. You must live in the present, on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in HEALTH, HAPPINESS and SUCCESS!!

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Stay tuned for a future article about the real issue about managing your time.....because its not really time management that matters but PRIOIRITY MANAGEMENT! What's important to you?

The Online World - Enlightening or the Dark Side

Well, this is my first venture into the online world. I am determined to keep my online time to a minimum because I totally love being with people. As I have ventured further into the connections that can be made online…the number one benefit that I see are the connections that would have never been made otherwise. As we live in one geographic area (especially with Atlanta traffic & the cost of gas) we tend to limit growing our networks to those we naturally come in contact with…very limiting. For example, our business has no territorial limits, but I don’t really know a lot of people in Maine. With out reaching out and dialing for dollars from a list or yellow pages….my daily life would not put me in touch with a lot of people from Maine. I could just forget about it, or look into how new technologies/oppotunities that might enhance that possibility.

A lot of that is just networking with people you already know….how? Well somehow you have to connect with them so that you can share your interests and needs. You know the great quote that says, “no body cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. Facebook is one way today that you can connect and stay in touch with a lot of folks that have common interests, relationships, events, etc. But that is just the beginning.

The biggest thing that I have been leery of is the people that totally hide behind their computers and never come up for air. I would feel stagnant and caged. There are many who have mastered (and not become mastered by) the online/new media world to eastablish new relationships, new bridges, and friends that become face to face life & business relationships. Its really cool, and at the least intriguing to me at this point.

This is my game plan as I begin my journey:

• learn as much as I can from those that are already doing it (for example Mari Smith @ http://marismith.com) and are not 100% behind the screen kinda people
• prioritize how much time I want to invest in this based on the reward and the sacrifices made to pursue it (its a lot of fun to me so I’ll have to be careful)
• stay focused on business goals of reaching new markets not yet reached (it would be very easy to become busier with activity and no further towards my goal if not careful)
• focus on what I am passionate about (Family, Ministry, Business, Relationships, Health/Fitness, etc)

Enough for now

Curt

The Online World - Staying High Touch

Venturing into the online world, new media, and social networking (now for business too). I am determined to keep my online time to a minimum because I totally love being with people. As I have ventured further into the connections that can be made online…the number one benefit that I see are the connections that would have never been made otherwise. As we live in one geographic area (especially with Atlanta traffic & the cost of gas) we tend to limit growing our networks to those we naturally come in contact with…very limiting. For example, our business has no territorial limits, but I don’t really know a lot of people in Maine. With out reaching out and dialing for dollars from a list or yellow pages….my daily life would not put me in touch with a lot of people from Maine. I could just forget about it, or look into how new technologies/oppotunities that might enhance that possibility.
(a great book about this topic...)
A lot of that is just networking with people you already know….how? Well somehow you have to connect with them so that you can share your interests and needs. You know the great quote that says, “no body cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. Facebook is one way today that you can connect and stay in touch with a lot of folks that have common interests, relationships, events, etc. But that is just the beginning.

The biggest thing that I have been leery of is the people that totally hide behind their computers and never come up for air. I would feel stagnant and caged. There are many who have mastered (and not become mastered by) the online/new media world to eastablish new relationships, new bridges, and friends that become face to face life & business relationships. Its really cool, and at the least intriguing to me at this point.

This is my game plan as I begin my journey:

* learn as much as I can from those that are already doing it (for example Mari Smith @ http://marismith.com) and are not 100% behind the screen kinda people
* prioritize how much time I want to invest in this based on the reward and the sacrifices made to pursue it (its a lot of fun to me so I’ll have to be careful)
* stay focused on business goals of reaching new markets not yet reached (it would be very easy to become busier with activity and no further towards my goal if not careful)
* focus on what I am passionate about (Family, Ministry, Business, Relationships, Health/Fitness, etc)

Enough for now

Early Mornings.....

Early mornings are my favorite time of day. I mean real early. My wife and kids don't know that time of day, and I regularly tell them they are missing the best part of the day. They just think I am crazy and continue with their "beauty rest". At some point, I just began to make it a habit to get up early. Actually, it was when I began to pursue my life purpose.

Growing up without my father at home after my parents divorced in my childhood left a void as it does with every broken family. God knew that and was extremely kind to me. He was faithful to provide men in my life to play various roles I needed from male leadership. Gary was one of the ones who impacted my life in a special way. He brought to me the value of mornings, but even more. He told me I really needed to know my purpose, and I would discover it best by letting God show it to me. This was long before Rick Warren's great book "The Purpose Driven Life".
So my journey of good times in the morning begun

One of the things you need to know is that discovering my purpose was not an event, but it is a process still going on today. Yes, I did learn and write a purpose statement, but it is ever evolving and being modified as life brings new environments, people and changes to my life (i.e. marriage, children, moves, etc.). Those early mornings always gave me the opportunity to reflect and be still and listen. It is amazing what you hear when there is silence.

Right now for example, I am in the woods at our hunting camp. Both boys and a friend are asleep in our cabin and I am in the cabin we built as our "living room" for the camp. Here we got electricity this past year (after 10+ years without), but we still don't have any pluming. Still dark outside, I can hear the crickets and an occasional other animal moving about, but for the most part it is silence. Boy, that is something that is so hard to get in our world today. The fact that I have an Internet connection out here in the woods with my broadband card from my wireless carrier is pretty amazing. Yesterday, when I told my son to go online with my Mac Book and check the dimensions of a twin mattress for the bunk beds we were building...even he said "you mean you can get on the Internet out here in the boonies?" Yes, today's info overload doesn't' even escape me in the woods if I allow it.

Enough for this morning to wet your appetite for the value of my early mornings.....

Just stay tuned as I continue to share what the silence in the mornings brings to my life. Maybe there will be some nuggets of gold for you to, and maybe, you will even decide to join me in what I believe is the most precious time of the day!

More later.....

Curt