To honor life, we must be willing to grow through what we don’t know yet, and outgrow what we know no longer fits us. We must be willing to give in to the process, moment by moment, realizing a new plot may be unfolding. ~Iyanla Vanzant
If Your Build It – Then it will be Built (post by Kirk Weisler)
Stop Making Excuses and Start Creating Your Future – The following 5 min video is perfect for the your team meeting. It illustrates many of the needed/desired behaviors of truly engaged teams. In this 5 min film one can easily see principles of Innovation, Collaboration, Cooperation, Trust, Team Building, Adversity(being overcome), Resourcefulness, Teamwork, Community, Service, Sacrifice, Dedication, Commitment, Leadership, Initiative, Courage, Vision, Momentum, Love, Creativity, …. WOW… and MORE!
Kirk Out
Note to Self…….
Note to self and warnings to others. (The names in this post has been changed to protect their identity. hehehehe) Do not, I repeat, do not consume a lot of caffeine after 4:15pm if you want to sleep at least 6 hours for the night. OMG!! Silly me did that and oh boy, did I pay for that. So usually I tried to go to bed around 9/9:30 because I need to be at the gym and ready to work out by 5am. But because I had a little too much caffeine in the late afternoon, I was still awake so I surfed YouTube and got caught up with music and not the soothing music to end the night with. hehehehe So it’s 10:30pm and I know I need to be in bed. Not sleepy yet but maybe some soothing music will do.
No kind of music could drown out the sound of a Pterodactyl with laryngitis snoring in my ear.
“My baby daddy” almost lost his life because his relationship with this Pterodactyl. Because I was wide I awake, I tried, rubbing his back thinking this would soothe him and he would stop. Usually it works for babies but not my baby daddy. So then I started growling in between his snores thinking this would wake him up but nope!! I scratched his back, pushed him a little, clawed him with my toe nails, called his name, NOTHING!! By now I’m sure it’s around midnight and the snoring continues. I even tried shaking the bed and barking, waaaaaaahhhh I’m still awake. Wait a minute, my baby daddy turned over, awwwww peace and quiet. SIKE!! Now he sounds like the mummy that created a sand face in Mummy 2.
Why Me?!?!?!?! Why Me?!?!?!?! Why Me?!?!?!?! Why Me?!?!?!?! 
Waaaahhhhhhh!!
I eventually fell asleep only to wake up way before my alarm goes off at 4:15am. And my baby daddy had the nerves to ask me if I am getting up to go to the gym. He has no idea what kind of crazy monster he has created in me last night. #wantmyownroomandbed!!
You’ll Be OK (post by Zen Habits)
By Leo Babauta
You’re walking down the street, and you’re worried about being late for meeting someone.
You’re anxious about what they might think of you. You pass some people and worry a bit about what they think of you, without realizing you’re doing it.
You’re worried about some things at work, and all the things you have to do in your personal life (taxes, errands, bills). You have this feeling you should be doing more, doing something else. All the time.
You worry about how you look, about how you’re perceived, about how you’ll do, about whether you’ll fail, about how much you have to do, about what you don’t have, about what you’re missing out on, about how you compare to others.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We all worry about these things.
Here’s the thing: in all of these cases, you’ll be OK. Life will turn out just fine.
We’re always worried about what might go wrong, about the bad things people think about us, and so on. We’re focused on the bad outcomes only.
Those bad outcomes are just a few possibilities out of many, and they’re unlikely to come true.
And even if they do (let’s say someone thinks badly of you), the bad outcomes rarely ever mean anything disastrous for our lives.
Even if the bad things come true, you’ll be OK.
Picture the things you’ve worried about in the last few years: little things mostly. And in all of those cases, you turned out fine. Life didn’t collapse.
If you start to build confidence that you’ll be OK, you can let go of the worries (when you notice them). You can feel good, rather than being consumed by worry and anxiety all the time.
You walk down the street, relaxed, with a smile on your face.
Smile Fairy… Really? The Triple Confirmation! (post by Kirk Weisler)
OK let’s close out this SMILE Week with a little confirmation, information and fun. Yesterday while I was at the optometrist my eyes were opened to the realities and existence of the SMILE FAIRY. Really I saw a book about it. I guess you have to be with Optometrist to see such things. But I captured this picture so I could prove to you that it’s true ! REALLY
How amazing is that… it doesn’t really say that there is a smile fairy. It invites you to BE ONE!! ( Double confirmation that this is all true) When I came home from the optometrist, where I learned that I could be a SMILE Fairy, by helping out the Tooth Fairy… I found my daughter watching “The Rock” playing a Tooth Fairy in the movie “Tooth”
One of the lines from this movie was “The Tooth be Told”… so let’s talk truth/tooth. Here is the 3rd confirmation that it truly was supposed to be SMILE WEEK this week. A T4D reader… Brian just shared this e-mail with me… (enjoy every word but look for the keyword SMILE)
Kirk, “My Dad recently announced his retirement after 38 years with Kodak and Carestream. This is truly a bittersweet time for Dad as the past several years have been both personally and professionally challenging for him. Sometimes facing difficult challenges really puts things in perspective. For him, it was a sign that it was time to slow down and enjoy time with those he cares most about. He was able to share some parting words with his team and I wanted to share some of those with you…
Improve yourself and your work environment each and every day. Take control of your personal and professional development, seek opportunities and continuously learn.
Life is short. Smile more, have a few laughs along the way…truly enjoy and find fulfillment and renewal in everything you do.
Take good care of yourself, and your family
One person can make a difference…and people joined together in a common purpose can do great things. Each of you can make a difference on your journey.
I am not sure I could say it any better myself. Thank you Brian… and be sure to thank you Dad for us.
And finally to close our week with a smile… let me share a few of the remaining happy graphics I had gathered for this week.
The above graphic shows that there are reasons to smile are all around us.
Smiling can help you connect with your inner elf.
And of course smiling can help to keep you young.
Just in case you have lost it… here is where you can find it.
And of course Smiles are one of the most powerful things we can share with others and give to the world.
Choose to be a SMILE FAIRY… by choosing to give, choosing to care, and choosing to SMILE
Kirk Out 🙂
Wait – just one more. Today is my birthday and one of the greatest gifts of my life is my family…and one of the greatest things they can give me is the happiness that comes from knowing that they are happy. Just this morning our newest team member Joseph Kirk Weisler, age 9 weeks, gave me this for my birthday.
Zig Ziglar Motivation (thought by Simple Truths)
After a speech one day, Zig Ziglar was approached by someone in the audience who said: “Zig, it was a great speech, but…motivation doesn’t last.” Zig said, “Bathing doesn’t either. That’s why I recommend it daily!” Like me, Zig loved quotes and believed that the right quote could provide “a-ha” moments and could help to reinforce a positive attitude. Here’s what he said: “Reading has been my fuel for motivation. If the ‘a-ha’ I get when I’m reading is not already reduced into one or two sentences, I’ll take the essence of what I’ve read and chunk it into easily remembered bites of information. That information is what becomes ‘quotable.’ You would not sit still for me to read every book I’ve ever read to you. But if you’re the least bit like me, you’ll jump at the chance to bypass all the churning and scoop the cream right off the top—that is what quotes are…the cream of our learning.” To say I’m honored to publish a book of Zig Ziglar’s is an understatement. Sixty Minutes said, “He’s a legend in the industry. He’s the Bill Gates, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison of enthusiasm.” What I loved about Zig, however, was his heart. His ability to help people realize their potential was unsurpassed and his belief that, “You can have everything you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want,” was the foundation of all he had accomplished. The book we created together, Inspiration 365 Days A Year, is one of the most beautiful we’ve ever published. It’s a 160-page coffee table edition that will be a perpetual source of inspiration for years to come. It’s a collection of 365 quotes (each day of the year) from Zig himself, and many others that have motivated him over the years.
A Boss Without the Facts (post from Kirk Weisler)
If you’ve ever worked for a boss who reacts before getting the facts and thinking things through, you will love this!
Arcelor-Mittal Steel, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers.
On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning against a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He asked the guy, “How much money do you make a week?”
A little surprised, the young man looked at him and said, “I make $400 a week. Why?”
The CEO said, “Wait right here.” He walked back to his office, came back in two minutes, and handed the guy $1,600 in cash and said, “Here’s four weeks’ pay. Now GET OUT and don’t come back.”
Feeling pretty good about himself the CEO looked around the room and asked, “Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did here?”
From across the room a voice said, “Pizza delivery guy from Domino’s.”
Make it a great day… and deliver happiness to your boss, your customers and your co-workers….and deliver it like Dominos!
Kirk Out
Smiling (thought from Paul, The Ripples Guy)
It probably isn’t surprising to you that happier people smile more than unhappy people. But did you know that there is lots of evidence that in addition to reflecting happiness, smiles can literally CREATE happiness? Shut up, it’s true. You can peek at articles from Scientific American, the Wall Street Journal, and Smithsonian about the growing evidence that smiles actually improve the mood of the smiler and those around them.
If you happen to be in a good mood right now, be sure to communicate it to yourself and those you encounter with a warm, broad smile. If you aren’t in a particularly happy mood and you would like to be, dare yourself to try “fake smiling” for a few minutes and see if that can’t improve your mood. It is important to remember that happiness isn’t a requirement of every moment of every day; indeed, it is perfectly normal and quite healthy for bouts of frustration and sadness to visit you. The trick is to remember that when you’re finished feeling blechy, something as simple as a smile can help you elevate your spirit.
If you need a help finding your smile, may I suggest you watch Marcel the Shell, or the sequel which actually ends with the quote we featured in this week’s Pebble.
Peace,
Paul
The Ripples Guy
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