No Excuses!

New books, new ideas:

I recently found an audiobook, No Excuses; by Brian Tracy, and it spurred me to finish the update, proofreading, editing, and cover artwork for my own book. 

This is pretty much done; I still need to run the whole thing past other eyes to catch glaring and not so glaring errors. 

And add this essay.

First off, and credit where it is due, The above mentioned book by Mr. Tracy reminded me of this basic essential: I need to do the work. I am responsible. So are you.

The whole point of my book, of course is to affirm your ability. But, even more importantly, to get you off the dime and moving. So.

For on example, if you are in the artillery, you get your orders from your commander, and your sighting information from your forward observer. Then you aim, fire, evaluate, adjust your aim, fire again, repeat as necessary until the target is hit & destroyed.

Achieving your own aims is just like that: choose the goal, make the plan, work the plan, focus on the objective or outcome. Correct as needed, evaluate the progress, re-evaluate the goal. Ready, Aim, Fire! Evaluate, Make ready again, Aim, Fire! Repeat as necessary to achieve your goal.

No matter what, you are responsible. No matter if the cause of failure was at someone else’s hands, no matter if it was a (so-called) Act of God, you are responsible. If nothing else, you are responsible for your reaction to the circumstance. No excuses!

That said, I AM a good one for excuses. Even if I have ‘good’ excuses, they only get in my way. Too bad, so sad. I should pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again!

I lost my job some months ago, and ultimately deserved to. Never mind the reason; I was not performing to specifications. Anyone from the old shop who reads this, please understand, I do not blame my former work place. They did their best to keep me on, as the things I was doing right and well, I was doing very well indeed. However, I couldn’t keep my call times short.

I am slowing down, and that contributed to the loss of my former position. Again, not their fault. I was unable to find a strategy that allowed me to complete my call tasks on average in the time limit required of me.

I am responsible for that.

So, when I found Mr. Tracy’s book, and listened to it, it resonated. Maybe I didn’t like to hear the message, but the message was important, and I was open to it.

And here we are. 

I will give you a glimpse of my most recent vision:

In my immediate area we have a food desert. A thrift grocery that had been the source of food for the  area closed, and the building razed (as well as the buildings around it). Now, someone is setting to build a McDonald’s in a corner of the block. Considering the location, it should be a success. However …

What I wanted to do, and still want to do, is create a destination business, something that people not from the immediate area would want to visit. A business that, in and of itself, draws people (and their dollars) to it. Tentative project name: Nate’s Bistro and Dinner Theater.

Nearby, there would be a grocery store that would provide foodstuffs a notch above what the dollar store carries, but not so expensive as to be a hardship for the folks around to purchase. It would be good for it to have a specialty of some sort, like (for instance) a specialty bakery. This would be one more draw to bring people from outside the immediate area to our corner of the world.

And just for the fun of it, a bookstore and newsstand.

The bistro could have open mike ‘sing for your supper’ event, the theater would provide real world opportunities for the school of music and school of theater of the local university. The theater would also provide future sound and light designers opportunities to get real-world experience, and the back-stage scene shop would give makers of all sorts opportunities to make something big, as well as craft ‘show-specific’ mementos as one-of-a-kind keepsakes for whatever show being presented; these items  could be sold at Nate’s or as point-of-sale items at the bookstore.

The theater would become the primary destination, providing traffic to the bistro, and vice versa, giving exposure to the nifty little grocery, as well as an interesting brick-and-mortar bookstore for things you cannot get at the A-to-Z store online.

The nearby motels would benefit from the extra traffic, as would as the other businesses in the immediate area. As visualized, the convenience store would generally keep their clientele for the kinds of things the dollar store does best, the Gas & Go place would be the same. The in-coming Mickey Dee would not see the restaurant cut into the fast-food flow, or perhaps a little, as some would just want to sit down and take a load off their feet and dine comfortably instead of being in a rush.

All in all, making a destination dinner theater/bistro (with associated businesses) would be a good thing.

But, to achieve this, I need to have some financial resources to build on.

Hence, I need to get off the dime and be responsible. No Excuses!

Yes I Can!

So Can You!

"Is It Fun Being You?"

You know that the whole idea of this blog is to encourage you to be better at what you do, to achieve more, stretch more, learn more, be more. And I hope you accomplish all of that.

I hope you clear out the dead wood, winnow the wheat from the chaff, throw the dross on the slagpile and keep the precious metal of your personal art and craft.

But at the end of the day, after you've paid that bill, banked that dollar, put away your tools, and put up your feet to rest, ask yourself the question: "Is it fun being me?"

If you can answer "Yes," or "Yes, most of the time," then you are probably striking that balance that makes sure you aren't getting lost in the shuffle of your life. If it's "No," or "Not often," then do the reevaluation of your life, to see what you want out of life, and where you want to be in the one year, five years and ten years.

In other words, it's time once again to make sure the path you're on will get you where you want to go.

This is a small blip on your radar scope today, today being the day after the presidential election. Some of you are elated, while others are sad at the outcome. Still others of you (amazingly) couldn't care less about the outcome. Whatever camp you fall into, take it in stride, remember that ancient phrase: "This, too, shall pass."

Whatever else happens, I want to be earning enough that I am a net tax payer, instead of a tax receiver.

Whatever you need to do, within the limits of legality and ethics, do it. But, remember your core, the you that you are. Make others around you smile.

Have fun being you.

Yes, you can!

Good Enough is Not Good Enough

This weekend brought many things to my personal inbox of Eyes and Ears. My schedule is such that my sleep rhythms are not what they should be. I often find myself awake at three in the morning. Depending on the next day’s duties I try to get back to sleep, or get up and do something productive.

This particular morning I tried going back to sleep, with the aid of boring early morning television (not infomercials, please, those keep me awake, or, if I do doze off, I’m quoting their nonsense for the rest of the day. Which is what they hope for, of course…).

The show I lucked into was not boring, though, at least not to me, a musician of sorts.

It was about a chamber orchestra, conducted by an amazing woman, and comprised of highly skilled and talented women musicians. I emphasize the fact of their gender because the program emphasized it. That, and the fact that they were from and based in Cuba.

What they are, in fact, are great!

I found myself needing to retrain my ear a bit to keep up with the music I was hearing. It wasn’t just classical string quartet, chamber music, or other such, though it certainly was that. It was Cuban rhythms and themes set to the voices of violin, viola, cello and bass. It was the cry of sorrow, and the song of triumph; the moan of defeat, and the exultation of joy!

In short, that orchestra was good!

How did they get that way?

Those of you who are musicians may recall the old joke of a man running down a New York street carrying an instrument case. He asks a street musician, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” The street musician tells him, “Practice, man, practice!”

These women balance hectic lives as students, workers or mothers (sometimes all of the above) and still find time to practice, pay for lessons, and take direction from a singularly driven conductor. The conductor herself is driven to achieve a result as close to perfection as is humanly possible.

The result could be chaos.

What it is: a thing of beauty.

How do they achieve this result? Two things are required: a goal, and the will to achieve it.

Each of these women chose to follow a hard road. Music lessons cost money that could be put to use paying bills or buying food. The instruments themselves are costly. The time to practice might be better used to work to bring in a little more money, or to spend time with friends and family. Musicians sacrifice much for their goal: perhaps unattainable musical perfection.

They know sorrow.

But they also know joy. Their music comes from their hearts and souls. And long, hard practice.

In my humble opinion, the violin is second only to the human voice in its expressiveness. Some would say that, in the hands of a talented and trained musician, the violin surpasses the human voice, literally singing trills, runs, and duets. These same people tell me that to become that accomplished is a lot of work.

These women are united by a common vision provided by their conductor, and by combined decades of practice, lessons and training in the pursuit of excellence.

In short, a goal, and the force of will to achieve it.

You may not be following the musician’s path, but you can take a lesson away from this essay today. Follow your vision (you may need to find it first). Set your goal. Dedicate the necessary effort to achieve it.

Yes, you CAN!

PS: As it happened, I ended up getting up and doing something productive anyway. The Hot Cross Buns were delicious!

"What's in a Note, you say?"

Folks have asked me (well, one person anyway) what was in the note I would have stuck on the guy's windshield the other day. Well, here it is:

STOP!
Don't throw this away!
The life you save may be your own!

I have to tell you something very important. But for you to see how important it is I have to tell you what I saw a little while ago

I was heading west on the bypass, doing the limit when something zoomed by. At first I thought it was a state patrol car, and wondered how I had missed the flashing lights.

But, no. It was a little red Mitsubishi sports sedan.

The driver zipped over to the left lane, hugging the bumper of the car in front of him, and the absolute moment he could he dashed in front of me to race down the mile or so of free space in the right lane.

I saw his brake lights come on as he came up on the next car.

Then I saw something amazing: he started to signal a left lane change. he squeezed in between two big bruiser-type pick-up trucks that had barely a car length between them. I saw what the driver couldn't: the truck behind hit it's brakes to allow a safety margin for the Mitsubishi to get in.

Then, as we all slowed down for the red light I saw why the Mitsubishi driver sqeezed back into the fast lane: he needed to take the left at the light to (I imagine) take the Johnstown Cutoff to get to Denver. And I pulled up even with the little red sports car in my '72 Olds as we both sat at the light.

For all of his maneuvering, he gained nothing that just staying in the "fast lane" would have gotten him. And he would have risked (in terms of life and limb) NOTHING!

As it was he risked a minimum of a two-car accident, possibly a multi-car pile up (everyone in the fast lane was ignoring proper following distance), just to shave a few seconds off his trip time.

Which didn't work.

By now my story might be sounding a little familiar. It should. You see, I was able to read the license tag as the Mitsubishi zipped into my lane: 000-ZZZ (plate number changed to protect identity). That's your tag.

What I need to tell you:

Don't Kill Yourself (or others) to save a few seconds time. Most of the drivers in our neck of the woods aren't expecting Indy 500 speeds on the highways, and may react badly to the sudden hazard (YOU). Even if you're not directly involved in an accident, you might be an indirect cause of one, Or you may have been already.

Slow down. Follow those "boring" traffic safety rules. Live long enough to enjoy your prosperity.

And, if you really need the speed: Drive the Autobahn, or take up closed-track racing.

But please, in the interest of your life and ours: Be Careful Out There!

If I do get the chance to post the note on his windshield I think I have a better chance of his reading it than if I post a "You Stupid @#$%#$!" type of note. What do you think?

Imagine getting a note like that on your car. Even better, imagine leaving a note like that on someone else's!

Maybe the driver will read this and see himself, and take heed. I DID take down the plate number. Maybe I'll get a chance to leave the note some day.

By the way, to write this note I used priciples I learned from reading two books: Hypnotic Writing; by Joe Vitale, and The Adweek Copywriting Handbook; by Joe Sugarman (see the book list at the left). Hopefully I was able to catch your attention enough so you would finish the note.

Meanwhile, a couple of things for you to take away today: You can get a handle on your emotions. You can learn to write more effectively. You can achieve your goals.

Yes, You Can!