Three Best Things
Date: Jun 30th, 2005 3:15:30 am - Subscribe
Mood: animated
My two sons, Dan and Doug, were five and six years old.
On their fist day of school, we started a new game. At dinner that evening, I asked, "Boys, what was the fun-est thing you did today"?
Watching their response, I could tell what they were thinking. "Oh-Oh; Daddy's on a new kick again". Regardless, Doug and Dan each told of something fun and interesting they did that day. I contributed by relating to them something weird and funny that had happened at my office that day (something weird was happening at my office almost every day, it seems).
We laughed at each other's stories and went on to enjoy a delightful dinner together.
The next evening, I again asked them, "Boys, what was the fun-est thing you did today"? This time, they each had one ready to tell. And I once again told them about something weird and funny that had happened at my office that day. As the first evening, we laughed and had a good time with this.
Each evening at dinner, I asked the same question. By the end of the first week, the boys could see that this was going to be a regular thing. They came to the dinner table already knowing what their evening's story would be.
In the weeks to follow, Doug and Dan each had at least one fun thing to tell and sometimes two or three. They even competed to see who had the fun-est story. Dan would say, "I want to go first. My story is better than Doug's".
After a while, it almost seemed that these boys were making fun things happen during the day, just so they could tell about it at dinner. We laughed a lot and enjoyed each story.
Where was their focus? That's right; on the positive things that were going on with them. During this time of their lives, do you suppose that Dan and Doug had any unpleasant things happening to them or around them? Of course they did! We all have negative events and negative people in our lives.
I just didn't want the negatives to be their primary focus. I wanted my sons to see past the unpleasantness around them and experience the positive.
How many times do you end your day stewing about?
The heavy traffic
The report that didn't get finished
People who haven't returned your calls
Deals that are dragging on
The computer's not working correctly
And on, and on, and on.
I am not suggesting that you ignore the challenges in your life. I AM suggesting that you just not dwell there.
Successful entrepreneurs develop their positive attitudes because they feed on progress.
At the end of each day, instead of recounting all the difficulties and all that remains undone, write your accomplishments. Write the three most positive, interesting things that happened to you this day (the fun-est things). You can literally end each day on a positive note by jotting down the three best things that happened this day.
These may be things that happened to you, people around you, events that just felt good to you, or just a sunny day. Some of the most rewarding things to capture are your own actions. Often, there is no one around to acknowledge your achievements, especially those little ones that happen in the course of the day. By focusing a few minutes on your accomplishments, you give yourself a little pat on the back and recognize progress, even when small.
Having a positive attitude toward your business and toward life in general may be one of the most important characteristics of successful people. In my years of experience as a Business Coach, I have observed many successful entrepreneurs. With very few exceptions, those who are successful and happy have developed and maintained a positive outlook.
A positive attitude is not accidental. Successful entrepreneurs know how to create a positive attitude for themselves. They don't just wait for it to happen.
Start today. Write down or tell someone about the three best things that happened today. This recognition of the positive things in your life will restore your confidence and your sense of well-being. You will likely gain a new perspective, a higher energy level and increased creativity.
Start now. "What was the fun-est thing *you* did today"?
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Leo, About Your Sign!
Date: Jun 30th, 2005 2:57:05 am - Subscribe
Mood: introspective
The Leo type is the most dominant, spontaneously creative and extrovert of all the zodiacal characters. In grandeur of manner, splendor of bearing and magnanimity of personality, they are the monarch's among humans as the lion is king of beasts. They are ambitious, courageous, dominant, strong willed, positive, independent, self-confident there is no such a word as doubt in their vocabularies, and they are self-controlled. Born leaders, either in support of, or in revolt against, the status quo. They are at their most effective when in a position of command, their personal magnetism and innate courtesy of mind bringing out the best of loyalty from subordinates. They are uncomplicated, knowing exactly what they want and using all their energies, creativeness and resolution to get it, as well as being certain that they will get whatever they are after. Their followers know where they are with Leonians. Leonians think and act bigger than others would normally dare; the ambitiousness of their schemes and idealism sometimes daunt their followers, their practical hardheadedness and ability to go straight to the heart of any problem reassures those who depend on them. If Leonians meet with setbacks they thrive on the adversity.
On the whole they are powers for good, for they are strongly idealistic, humane, and beneficent. They have powerful intelligence and are of a broad philosophical, sometimes religious, turn of mind. Those who are devout may become very obstinate in upholding traditional beliefs and will cling tenaciously, but with complete sincerity, to practices and doctrines which liberal thinkers regard as absurdly out-of-date. These will be found as the 'lions' of industries, and in the forefront of the cutting edge of technologies.
Their faults can be as large in scale as their virtues, and an excessively negative Leonian can be one of the most unpleasant human beings imaginable, displaying extreme arrogance, autocratic pride, haughtiness, and excessive hastiness of temper. If jealously suspicious of rivals, they will not hesitate to use cunning, lies and trickery to discredit them. Self-centeredness, greed for flattery, boastfulness, and bombast, pomposity, snobbish superiority, and overbearing, and intolerant disdain of underlings; to whom they will nevertheless delegate the carrying out of minor details in their grandiose schemes, and from whom they are not above borrowing immoderately if an occasion necessitates it. Any of these can be characteristic of Leo. Add to them a passion for luxury, a lust for power, unlimited sexual lust, and emotional indulgence, and a character emerges that no one would want to know either in public life or private. But their pride may go before a fall, as uncontrolled impetuosity is likely to bring them low. Fortunately it is rare that a Leo is so undisciplined as to give way thoroughly to this list of vices, and their tendencies to them are usually balanced by an innate wisdom. Those who are afflicted with them also have the intelligence it takes to consciously and actively overcome them.
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