Choices and Mondays

How many of you have awaken on a Monday morning and said to yourself "Yippee another work week."? How come Mondays aren't treated with more respect? Think about how your week would be if you woke up on Monday and told yourself you were going to have the greatest week of your life. Think about it, every week would be better than the next. You can make the choice to do so. I am, this is going to be the greatest week of my life! Every action we take is a choice we make at a given time. You can make a conscious effort to live a better stress free life or you can choose to live a negative, stress filled life the choice is yours. Other people don't cause us to act or behave the way we do we make the choice to act and behave the way we do. For example, ever have someone cut you off when you are driving? Did they make you mad or did you choose to be mad? I'll even go to the extreme. Have you ever had a loved one die? Did they make you sad or did you choose to be sad? Better yet, did you choose to celebrate the great life they had and all of the great memories they gave you? What's my point you ask? We make choices every second of every minute of every day, they can be positive choices or they can be negative choices. My challenge to you is to pause before deciding and tell yourself to make the positive choice. What do you think will happen to you? Less arguments, less stress, more laughter, more happiness. People around you will begin to change. Initially the people around you will think you've gone crazy, especially if you've been a fairly negative person most of your life. Someone said to me a long time ago that I'm the only one that can make me happy. I began thinking about all of the choices that I've made throughout my life and how I've been blaming circumstances and others for my misfortunes. It's time to take responsibility, begin making the right choices and stop blaming Monday for bad weeks. Here's to the greatest week of my life!
Have a great day, ask, believe, receive.

Knowledge

Is knowledge power? Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject; (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information; or (iii) be absolutely certain or sure about something. Does the definition of knowledge refer at anytime to having power? We've all heard the statement "knowledge is power." I think we should change this age old statement to "with knowledge comes the ability to manipulate those who are not knowledgeable." Think about the last time you were in a discussion about a subject you didn't know a lot about. How did you feel about the discussion? Powerless or manipulated? Knowledge is manipulation, knowledge is the upper hand in negotiation. If I know something you don't I can use that information to manipulate you into doing what I want you to do. Have you ever made a factual statement (or what you thought was fact) and then been proven wrong? Made you feel like an idiot didn't it? What happen to the conversation after that moment? You start to back pedal, you question your knowledge, and then your ability, the person across from you realizes they have you in a corner and they, depending on the person, continue to make you look foolish (not saying everyone does it).
Yes, I am an educated person and I have worked with people who don't have a formal education but they have an incredible amount of knowledge in regards to their chosen profession. I make this statement for one reason, I've seen many formally educated managers, CEO's, etc. make decisions without having the same knowledge, without asking the knowledgeable people for ideas because they are too arrogant and ignorant to understand their limitations. "I sit in the big office, I have the power therefore I have the knowledge." Aha a discovery... formal education is not necessarily knowledge,  it needs to be mixed with life experiences to become knowledge. After all, if formal education is knowledge and knowledge is power than I would be sitting in a big corner office right now.
My definition of knowledge - The combination of life experiences and education that allows individuals to live the life they choose to live.
One last thought directed to those of you who call yourself managers, the next time you have to make a decision determine who the real expert is and then go ask them for their opinion so you can make a more educated decision. Really, no one will fault you for asking, it may even earn you some more respect.
Have a great day, ask, believe, receive.

Economic Rant

I believe it is time that the big oil companies stepped up and helped give this economy a shot in the arm. I woke up this morning hearing on the radio(yes I still have one) that gas prices went up another thirteen cents a gallon. That's twenty five cents a gallon over the last two days!!! Oil prices are approaching $200 a barrel. I ask, who's economy is getting a boost here? Let me guess... Saudi Arabia's! I feel sorry for Exxon Mobile and the other oil giants when I here they didn't make $1,000,000,000 in profits for the year. Here's an idea... make a vow to limit your profits to half a billion and use the other half to help jump start the U.S. economy. Wait do you hear it.... yep there it is... the argument... but refining costs and restrictions are putting the squeeze on us and we don't make enough money to help out. But amazingly in 2008 exploration revenue increased by over 50%.
Wait a minute, don't try to sneak out of the room Mister U.S. Government! You're not exactly innocent in this matter especially when, in 2008 you imported $53.2 billion dollars worth of crude oil from Saudi Arabia but, what's this I see... you exported $450 million dollars in U.S. Military products and Saudi Arabia is our biggest customer in the middle east. Wow, what a deal! Remind me to negotiate with you Mister U.S. Government. Here's my deal to you - I'll give you forty hours of all but four weeks a year and holidays for say... $1.5 million and in return I'll even give you back $10 grand. Deal? Deal! Let's shake on it. Done.
In my opinion it is time the big corporations did more to give back to the great people of this country. It's time to put greed aside and start realizing a reasonable profit of around 15 to 20 percent and lower prices so those of us can begin to improve our current status.
Have a great day, ask, believe, receive.

Actions

We've all heard the statement "Actions speak louder than words." I ask the question, is this true? Let's put it to the test. When you sit down with your specific other for a romantic dinner that they have made for you you think to yourself "wow this is great and this person was really thinking about me today." The action says "I really care about you." What if the first words out of their mouth when you sit down to eat is something along the lines of "You're nothing but a loser and I despise you." Put yourself in the situation. What speaks louder to you? The action or the words? I would venture to guess the words. Okay, so maybe I've gone to the extreme after all if someone is beating you to a pulp but saying I love you it's obvious that the action is the dominant factor. How about this, if I tell you I'm going to email you a document and then fail to email it. Action or words? Action. If you tell me you are going to pick up a parcel for me and then don't. Action or words? Action. So can we come to the conclusion that the statement is true when you or someone tells you they are going to do something for you and then they don't follow through with the action. That brings me to another issue, do you judge that person on one or two missed actions or multiple missed actions? Missed actions are a matter of trust. After a three or four times of missed actions, I would venture to guess you wouldn't trust the other person with prior missed tasks or do you not trust them completely? To gain trust you must earn it by following through. Do what you say you are going to do(and if you are forgetful like me, start writing it down).
To conclude, do actions speak louder that words?  I would say yes if told that something is going to be done than actions speak louder than words, in extreme scenarios I would say it depends on the action and the words.
Have a great day and think good thoughts. Be positive.

Change

Have you ever noticed how people are opposed to change? It's especially prevalent in my small town in northern Michigan. I always hear the phrase "I like things the way they are" or "That will never go over here, it won't make it". Then I saw a commercial the other day about what things would be like if we excepted the first thing that came along. I can't remember what they were advertising but they where showing things like bicycles(the Huge front wheel), TV's (think back, black and white), record players, cars.... Think about all the great things we have and imagine if we never had change. Are you thinking.. are you laughing. We would all be living in caves or log homes and wearing animal skins (wouldn't be an argument about furs would there or hunting rights). Great things happen when we accept change, not only to communities but to people. Here's my challenge to you... take a look in the mirror and ask yourself "what do I need to change, what can I do that will make me a better person?" I have been told to that I need to make myself more aware of my surroundings so I work on it everyday. I need to become more confident in myself so I work on that and I work on being more positive. Are you up to the challenge or are you afraid of people teasing you? I told myself when I turned forty that if I hadn't tried something I was going to (mainly had to do with different foods) and I have found some wonderful things that I had been missing in my life. Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Don't concern yourself with what your friends or family are going to say they are the ones who are missing out. Don't settle! Explore, discover and enjoy what you have been missing only because you were afraid of change. Who knows maybe it will become contagious and your community will start to accept the changes to make the area a better place (not that it's bad but change is a good thing). Remember, Don't Settle!

Positive Thinking

Lately I have been listening to "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. If you aren't familiar with "The Secret" it is about positive thinking and asking the universe for what you want, believing you are going to get it and then receiving it. Now I know some of you are probably thinking that I've lost my mind but hear me out. For those of you who know me you probably have thought to yourself at some point in time that I've come across as a negative person and I would have agreed with you, but not anymore. I have made a conscious effort to become a positive thinker and have been implementing "The Secret" into my life. Let me give you an example of how this has worked for me. This past Thursday I told myself that when heading down to Royal Oak for the weekend that I would make great time and nobody would pull out in front of me and go 45 MPH as I was heading down US 23 (We've all had it happen). Here is what happened. Friday driving down we had just started heading out of Oscoda, there is nobody behind us and low and behold a guy in a SUV starts pulling out in front of us from the left, but instead of getting in our lane he pulled into the turning lane and waited for us to go by. Here's another example, Saturday while sitting at my sister's house in Royal Oak trying to decide where to go to dinner she commented on how we needed to get going because it was going to be busy regardless where we went. I said to her, we won't have to wait we will be able to walk right in and get a table. We went to Duggan's on Woodward, walked right in got a table and ten minutes later the place was packed. Now, I understand that a majority of you will say "It's just a coincidence that these things happened this way" and that's fine by me you can continue waiting in lines, driving behind slow drivers and most of all not getting what you really want in life as for me... I've decided to ask for what I want in life, believe I'm going to get it and then openly receive it. It is not up to me to concern myself with how I will receive what I want in life I just know it is going to happen.