Thankful Thursday 6/4/09

I was at a meeting this week that was a mix of Caucasian and African-American church leaders. During this meeting we made a pledge to come together more often and work together more closely. We pledged to help each other work and participate in each others activities. I am thankful that there are men and women that know we are only different by the color of our skin. We are all the same underneath. I am thankful for people that are willing to take a stand and get involved with each other to renew broken relationships and show this community we can all live together and love one another.

One other thing I think I realized was i still don’t know if it is o.k. to have different churches and segregate us on Sundays.  One thing I know is that we can reach different people.  When asked why so many white people went to his predominantly black church pastor Jeremiah Wright (yes that Jeremiah Wright) said, “because they like it here”. People will go where they feel comfortable.  What is not o.k. is staying apart during other times.  Which is the goal of the group that met this week.  I am so thankful I got to  be a part of it and I believe it will change the lives of all of our churches.

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Laziness Is A Curse

Personal success is a desired outcome for many people whether success is home schooling your children or making millions of dollars.  Ppersonal success is about going out and doing something to get your desired result not complaining about it and hoping reading a blog or book will be the magic bullet to get your to your desired result.  I know two people that want to start their own business and they have gone to over 10 conferences in the last five years on setting goals and designing their lives but they refuse to actually do anything and spend every dime they get to eat out or buy some new thing.

As a coach I talk to people all the time  like this.  This was me for a long time, because it is just easier to complain about my miserable job than it is to just do something.  One day I just jumped.  I told my wife I was never going to get my practice started if I continued to flounder at my job.  We knuckled down for a couple of months and I did it.  That was two years ago this week.  I can’t tell you it has been easy or that every month is easy; but it sure is better waking up every morning looking at my two son’s and knowing that I am affecting them positively everyday than it was getting up looking at a road full of cars and doing something that I had hated for ten years.

Every person has a reason to be on this earth.  It is not the same for every one but you are here for a reason.  You have a certain set of talents that will help you do certain tasks.  Starting a business may not be for you, but there is something out there that you fit like a long lost puzzle piece and you need to find what that is.  It takes effort to find what your are designed to do.  Lazy people won’t take the time or make the effort find their calling.  The reason is that lazy people want to complain so they really are getting the best out of their job for themselves by complaining about it instead of changing it.  If you are like most people then stay at your job.  Stay and be miserable and complain about the boss and your coworkers that you just hate.

The good news is that, laziness is a curse that can be overcome.  Start finding the good in the job you have.  This will improve your view of life right off the bat.  Second start dreaming about what you love to do or what you wanted to do as a kid.  Look at the world differently by looking at the beauty in every day things. Turn off the TV.  Go for a walk whether its is in a park or just down the street.

Stop letting laziness control your life.  I know it is hard to be a contributing member of society but how about giving it a shot.  Take care of the things that need to be taken care of, stop looking for the magic bullet and do something to advance your life.

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Staying Motivated

Recently some unforeseen things have happened in my families life that have brought me to a halt. I felt lazy and depressed, and even considered talking to my doctor to see if there was some prescription he could give me to get me out of the funk. I then remembered my roots and values, and I began to read the right type of books and look at the goals I had set before the beginning of the year. I have found my passion and as you can read I have started writing again all-be-it sporadic. So what were my steps?

1. Realize it is not the end of the world. Even though I want the world to revolve around me it doesn’t, so when I fall I must decide that I am not the only one this affects and my state of mind affects those around me. Being lazy sitting on the couch watching TV does not get anything done, nor does it help with my frame of mind. Once I realized that I would live and life had to go on, I made the decision to get up and do something.

2. Exercise. I do not do strenuous exercise on a regular basis, I walk on a treadmill for 20 – 30 minutes and do some yoga on the Wii Fit that’s it.  But exercise helps me think.  It clears out the cobwebs and gets the creative juices flowing so I can function as a human doing not just a human being.

3. Read good books. I started pouring over books that help me get my focus back.  I read, Good to Great in God’s Eyes, Better Than Good, and Think and Grow Rich.  I read my Bible and listened to good lessons on CD and mp3.  I did everything I could to get good ideas back in my head.

4. Talk to friends. I surounded myself with people that belived in me.  I met with friends that encouraged me, I let people know what was going on so they could pray for me, and I listend to people I trust.  You know who your friends are when you fail miserably.  I now know my friends.

While this is not a exhaustive list it will help anyone begin to see the light.  Whether you just lost a job or have been foreclosed on or are in the middle of filing bankruptcy it is not the end of the world and you need to pick yourself up, stop blaming others and get on with life.

Think Positive

Some friends and I have committed to stop letting negative influence into our lives. We met at a restaurant last night and decided that even though we are leaders in our church and community we are essentially negative, and if we are going to grow more and do more in these settings we had to become more positive people. Don’t get me wrong we are positive in many aspects but we can turn our conversation to negativity very quickly. We believe the world is what we make it and our worlds have been very good. Our talk however does not show that and we want to change.

We have taken different steps but here are a few. Stop watching news and listening to sports talk on the radio. No talk radio, no ESPN, or Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC. We are going to stop letting people be negative around us and try to encourage change in those that are. We will monitor our thoughts and get a grasp on controlling what goes into our brains.

I believe changing the world starts with me. I know it will not be easy but I believe it will be worth the effort to try. I may not ever see everyone I come into contact with become a positive person. But I and my family will be.

Thankful Thursday 5/7/2009

I want to share a little about my mom since Mother’s day is Sunday. Unlike most normal people I did not have a traditional mother after age 11. My mother passed away when I was 11 and my father traveled the country as a heavy machinery mechanic. So I was taken care of by my Sister. My sister is 14 years older than me and she and her husband had two children of their own. But they made accommodations for me to move in. At first I only moved in while my father and step-mother were traveling then moved back home when they returned. But by the ninth grade I had moved in full time because I was tired of moving back and forth.

I am thankful that I had a sister and brother-in-law that cared enough about a smart mouthed teenager that they would take me in so that I did not have to change schools every six months.  Thanks Sis, I Love Ya and thanks for  for feeding me, because I know that could not have been an easy task.  It’s amazing at how far broccoli, rice and cheese will go.

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Don’t Settle for Mediocrity

When I quote the title for Rick Pitino’s book, Success Is a Choice I can get anything from agreement to heated debate.  In our culture today mediocrity is the norm.  We are told every day by the news that we don’t have to strive for anything better because it is not our fault we are in the condition we are in.  It is the democrats, republicans, Christians, gays, big government, stock market, boss, virus, coworker, spouse, police, lawyers, credit card companies, Wall Street, Wal-Mart, guy next door, public schools, home schoolers, psychiatrist… You get my point?  It is OK to blame anyone we choose; except ourselves.  You make a choice to settle for mediocrity.  Yes I understand their are circumstances like complete handicaps, but if you think about it most handicap people strive for success more than non-handicap people.  The Paralympics, and the Special Olympics are a testament to the success of the handicap community.  They refuse to settle for mediocrity.  They could use thier handicap and say, “I can’t because I’m not able”, but they don’t.  Do you?  Do you say, “I Can’t?”  do you make excuses for not giving it your all each and every day?  Stop making excuses and start doing what you were called to do.  If you can hear, use your hands, and read just a little, you can succeed in your own way.

Make new friends.  “But I like my friends.”  Are your friends encourages, do they build you up, do they dream about success with you?  If they don’t then you need to get around people that do.  Find people that are doing what you want to do then start hanging out with them to find out how they do it.  If your current friends are always pessimistic then you need to get around positive people.  If everyone you know are negative then buy some books and cd’s of positive people.  Burn the cd’s into mp3’s and carry them around on a mp3 player.  Listen to positive talk as much as you can.  This will begin to penetrate your thoughts, and soon you will begin to see a difference. three great resources are:The Power Of Positive Thinking, The Magic of Thinking Big, and Think on These Things: Meditations for Leaders. Fill your mind with the positive images in these three resources and you will see a difference in your attitude and how you think about your world.

Take time to think.  “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, your right,” Henry Ford. Think about what you loved to do as a child, think about what you would do if money were no object, think about what you look forward to retirement to do.  These things will give you insight to your calling in life.  I believe every persona was created for a reason.  My wife knew from the time she was eight years old what she wanted to be and spent every waking hour thinking about that and did everything required to accomplish that goal.  Don’t get hung up on money.  You don’t have to be rich to be successful.  What you have to do is what you were designed to do.  When you do this all the money you need will come.

Find out more at: What Were You Thinking

Three Big Blogging Terms

What Is Blogging?

One of the best ways to get the word out about you or your favorite place or product or song is through blogging.  Blogging is the new big thing that everybody is doing.  (Even if it’s not everybody then it’s everybody under thirty) Whether it is through a personal blog free from one of the many free blogging sites to a full blown fully customized hosted blog like this one. It seems that every household now has at least one blog if not multiple.  Business blogs are just as popular.  Businesses have people that are not just paid to blog but people that are paid to comment on other peoples blogs about a product or company.

From Facebook to Twitter people are letting the world know about who they are and what they are doing.  They are giving opinions about things they have eaten and setting up Squidoo accounts to sell the things they love.  Our world is getting online and this site is here to help those who need it and unite those who know how.

What is SEO?

(Search Engine Optimization) is the art of hitting the bullseye with your keywords for your website and the keywords on your page, plus getting those words to lineup with the words your customers are searching for to get you to the top of the google or other search engine rankings.  SEO is not a trick or a lucky guess SEO is deciding what you want your readers to know you for.  What is your niche?  What are you writing about? What is your voice? Those questions will determine what your keywords are going to be.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is where you sign up with a individual or company to write about or mention their product on your blog.  You can write blog posts for a certain product that you have an affiliate account with or you can mention the product in a blog post and add a link to that post or put the link in your blogroll on your side bar.  There are many different venues for becoming an affiliate but the most popular is Clickbank. With a Clickbank id you can just add your id to a given link and become an affiliate for many different vendors. 

Unless you have a product to sell, affiliate marketing is the best way to make money blogging along with google adsense but that will garner another post.  If you can write you can make money with affiliate programs.  In my opinion you need to use the product if you are genuinely going to write about it.  You don’t have to use it to have an add on your page, but people will know you don’t use it if you try to make it sound like you do.  Most affiliate landing pages are professional sales pages written to help the buyer decide if the product is right for them.  If you want to make money blogging then affiliate marketing is the way to go.

These three terms will get you a long way in your blogging experience, but you need to understand that you have to build a following to make any kind of money.  take time to write quality posts that people will use and you will have a following before you know it.  Here is a hint.  Some of the links in this article are affiliate links.  See if you can figure out which ones are and which ones are not. 

Friday Finds 5/1/2009

Friday finds are sites I have come across in my research for the last couple of weeks or sites I have seen on twitter or just fell in to.  I am putting these sites on here because I believe they will add value to those who use them.  I am in no way receiving compensation from these sites.  I just enjoyed the material and wanted to share it with my readers.

The first site I want you to see is a sobering one to a lot of people.  Marko Saric on his Blog How to Make My Blog explores the subject of making tens of thousands of dollars just by blogging.  I need to admit that I fell into this trap about two years ago and became disgruntaled jumping from blog to blog trying to learn to make money.  I actually stopped blogging for a while but have returned and want to help everyone that wants to start blogging do it successfully.  Read Marko’s blog here.

Living the pro-blogger lifestyle by selling you the blogging dream

From twitter viawebupd8 RT @ruhanirabin 18 Seriously Helpful Cheat Sheets for Easier Coding  (RT @monikkinom @phaoloo) If you can add html to their website or change the css coding on their blog.  Cheat sheets are a great way to learn simple coding everyone that has a website needs to know.  They are also essential to have handy when you are coding just to refer back to incase you forget.  Do not blog without cheat sheets.

18 Seriously Helpful Cheat Sheets for Easier Coding

Thankful Thursday 4/30/2009

This has been a week for ending and beginning for our son Jake.  He took his yearly test to see if I taught him enough to pass the year of home schooling.  The test reflects nothing on him because it is my job to teach him.  However, it is over and he is thankful.  So his beginning is third grade.  He wants to be acknowledged a a third grader because he is sure he passed the test.

I am thankful that we have chosen this lifestyle.  I get to teach my sons what Katy and I as parents want them to learn.  We get to spend time nurturing them and cultivating their minds.  I took them fishing the last two days and they got to see what ocean fish look like compared to fresh water fish.  We used our fun time as learning time and that is what life is about.

I am thankful for our two sons. They make my life interesting and fun, because anyone that knows me knows I need fun interjected into my life.  I can’t imagine what life would be like without them.  Time flies, enjoy your kids.

6 Great Places To Start Blogging

I get asked all the time about where I blog, do I upload all my stuff, how does a new blogger get started. Below are the best places in my opinion for you to start blogging without any type of experience with code or programming. You can have your first post written in minutes and on to the joys of blogging.

Wordpress – By far the easiest of the sites mentioned to get up and running. When you come to the page you will see a big yellow banner right in the middle of the top of the page the says, “Sign Up Now!” That will take you to a page where you choose a username and password, and at the bottom it will ask you if you want to create a blog or just get a usersname. Just click on get a blog then pick the name you want for the blog and poof, you got a blog. Play with it. change stuff around change your template change your widgets and play with the blog until you get used to it or get the look you want.

Blogger – I don’t know true numbers of blogs or bloggers per site, but the alexa numbers say that blogger is the most popular of the bunch. It is easy to see that because it is googles baby so that makes it more accessible to the average new blog person. Blogger also has a lot more features than wordpress because you can get google adsense and many more widgets on blogger than you can on wordpress. The adsense allows you to make money but that is not for starters just do the same with this blog and get to know the layaout and widgets. To get started is simple just fill out the info chose a blog name and poof your blogging within minutes.

Typepad – While type pad is not free ($4.95 per month) it is very usable. I blog on Typepad at Jaguars Journal. It has all the customization of a standalone blog without all the uploading and setup. You get thousands of designs and template where the others give you less than 50. You can choose what is on the blog and no advertising will appear unless you want it there. Besides, marketing guru and author Seth Godin blogs on Typepad so it must be a good platform.

Live Journal – Live Journal is a blog/social site/private journal. It is directed at a younger crowd and has themes in which you can post like news or technology. Again it is easy to start but it is not as easy to navigate as the other ones, that may be because I have used blogger and wordpress so long that I am just more accustomed to them. Try it out don’t just take my word.

Thoughts.com -Again it is easy to get started and is a lot like Live Journal in that it is also a social site where you can meet like minded people. While I am not as familiar with this setup it look very straight forward just like the rest.

Twitter – While this does not seem like a place to blog it is nothing more than blogging 140 characters at a time. It is a good start and you can connect with people that think like you do and follow them as they follow you. Once you are on follow me at Pinnacle Balance and I will follow you back

While this is not a definative list this will give you a good start on your blogging journey. So get out there and start blogging.

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