Am I having a good life?

How do you know if you are having a good life? Ask friends? Nope. Decide for yourself. Why not empower yourself by deciding that you have a good life? Why would you declare your life to be unsatisfying? It makes no sense. Yet many of us do that. I look at my life and choose to see all the wonderful things about it, and conclude that I am living a charmed life. What kind of declaration about your life are you making?

What is your intention?

When I have an intention for the day, or an intention for a meeting or a conversation, it dramatically increases the chances of success. You have to know what you want in order to get it. And committing to what you want makes you more likely to get it. What is your intention for today? What is your intention (or desired outcome) for the next conversation that you are going to have?

Awesome or depressing? (It's all relative)

Today it snowed in Rochester. Most people were really sad/upset. I thought it was beautiful. Everything is so relative. When it looks like it did this morning and it is November, everyone is wild with excitement about the first snow. But now that it is Spring and we are sick of winter, that same snow storm causes us to be depressed. What are you looking at in a negative light that could be shifted just by what you are comparing it to?

Pain or Joy?

Given negative circumstances, I can choose to find opportunity/joy, or I can choose to consider it torture, and suffer as much as possible. In life there will always be pain. I have the opportunity to focus on what doesn’t hurt and what results are occurring. Or I can focus on the pain. My choice. Where are you choosing to focus on the pain when you could be focusing on the opportunity of the situation?

Paddling with or against the strong current?

My life is headed in a certain direction. Often I fight that direction by resisting what needs to be done, or actively doing the opposite of what is needed. Like paddling upstream in a swift-running river, it slows down the achievement of my goal and exhausts me. I can see ways that I have been doing that lately. In what area of your life are you resisting the obvious direction your life is headed?

Making stuff happen

1% of the people have 99% of the influence/power. I need to figure out who the 1%ers are, connect with them and get their support. Which 1%er can you identify and get support from?

Getting what you want

If you do not ask for what you want, you have zero chance of getting it.

Debunking the myth of "You hurt me"

If someone says something hurtful to me, I am in charge of whether or not I allow it to hurt. If I allow it to hurt me, then I have handed over my power to that person. We humans do this automatically in many cases, and it usually generates negative thoughts and feelings. It is so important for me to stay in charge of my thoughts, feelings and actions, by avoiding handing control of them over to other people.

Serendipity causes most success

Life is full of accidental connections that end up being watershed events. Last Fall I emailed a very talented engineer that was recommended to me. He did not answer. 2 weeks ago I accidentally came across his name and emailed him again. As a result we got the key engineer we have needed for 6 months. So you never... know what action is going to achieve your goal. So be nice to everyone and take lots of action!

Opportunity

When things look bleakest is when there is the most opportunity.